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4G Air Interface
Key Terminologies

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Spectrum

Bandwidth
(MHz)
10 30 35 75 60 60 70 100 300
Freq. (MHz) 700 800 900 1800 1900 2100 2600 2300 3500
Band 13 20 8 3 2 1 7 40 42
Duplex FDD TDD

Frequency
Band Duplex mode Uplink (MHz) Downlink (MHz) Total Bandwidth (MHz) Channel bandwidths (MHz)
(MHz)
1 FDD 2100 1920 – 1980 2110 – 2170 60 5, 10, 15, 20
2 FDD 1900 1850 – 1910 1930 – 1990 60 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20
3 FDD 1800 1710 – 1785 1805 – 1880 75 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20
4 FDD 1700 1710 – 1755 2110 – 2155 45 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20
5 FDD 850 824 – 849 869 – 894 25 1.4, 3, 5, 10
7 FDD 2600 2500 – 2570 2620 – 2690 70 5, 10, 15, 20
8 FDD 900 880 – 915 925 – 960 35 1.4, 3, 5, 10
13 FDD 700 777 – 787 746 – 756 10 5, 10
20 FDD 800 832 – 862 791 – 821 30 5, 10, 15, 20
25 FDD 1900 1850 – 1915 1930 – 1995 65 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20
26 FDD 850 814 – 849 859 – 894 35 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15
40 TDD 2300 2300 – 2400 100 5, 10, 15, 20
42 TDD 3500 3400 – 3600 300 5, 10, 15, 20

Note :- Above are widely used bands, there are a few other bands also (which are not listed above)
Frame Structure Resource block
One radio frame – 10ms

Guard

180 KHz 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
180 KHz 2
subframe – 1ms
180 KHz 3
180 KHz 4
180 KHz 5
180 KHz 6
180 KHz 7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
180 KHz 8 slot – 0.5 ms
180 KHz 9
180 KHz 10
180 KHz 11
4.5MHz

12
5MHz

180 KHz OFDM

180 KHz 13 symbols DwPTS GP UpPTS
180 KHz 14 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1
180 KHz 15
2
180 KHz 16 3
180 KHz 17 4

Frequency
180 KHz 18 5

180 KHz 19
6 Resource Element
7
180 KHz 20 8
180 KHz 21 9
180 KHz 22 10
11
180 KHz 23
12
180 KHz 24
180 KHz 25 Time
Guard
RESOURCE BLOCK
Duplex Scheme
• TDD — uplink and downlink transmissions use the same carrier frequency and are separated in time only

• FDD — uplink and downlink transmissions use different frequencies but can occur simultaneously

• Half-duplex FDD — uplink and downlink transmissions are separated in frequency and time, suitable for simpler
devices operating in paired spectra. beneficial in the case of multi-band terminals which otherwise would need
multiple sets of duplex filters.
 Frame Structure for different Duplex scheme
FDD (Frame structure 1) TDD (Frame structure 2)
Special Subframe is introduced & consists of :-
Subframe allocated separately for :- DwPTS – Downlink Pilot time slot
DL – Downlink UpPTS – Uplink Pilot time slot
UL – Uplink GP – Guard period

urban cells &

for high data
rate app

7 symbols

6 symbols
rural cells &
for low data
rate app

Note- TTI (Transmission time interval): length of independent decoded transmission on air interface
Cyclic prefix reduces the capacity of the physical layer by 7.5%
Normal and Extended Cyclic Prefix

Due to delay in transmission over air, chances of inter-symbol interference arises

This issue can be resolved by adding prefix to the symbols (time domain)
Symbols in a slot can be grouped in two ways : -

Removes inter-symbol interference with a Removes inter-symbol interference with a

delay spread of 4.7 µs, corresponding to a delay spread of 16.7 µs, corresponding to a
path difference of 1.4 km path difference of 5 km
Initial Access – Channels & Signals
10 ms Frame
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

PSS (Primary Sync. Signal)

Cell search DL synchronization

Frequency domain
SSS (Primary Sync. Signal)
Cell search DL synchronization

Master Info block - PBCH

System frame DL Bandwidth PHICH config
no.

System Info block

Time domain
PLMN Cell access info Cell RS – Reference Signal
Identity selection/Barring PBCH – Physical Broadcast Channel
PCFICH – Physical Control Format Indicator Channel
PHICH – Physical HARQ Indicator Channel
PDCCH – Physical Downlink Control Channel
PDSCH – Physical Downlink Shared Channel

Note :- 1.4MHz carrier bandwidth with FDD duplex mode and 1 ms subframe considered above for illustration purpose
 Initial Access - Frame Structure & DL Channels

10 ms Frame
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Primary and Secondary

Physical Broadcast
Synchronization Signals
Channel (PBCH)–
(PSS/SSS)- Used for cell-search
carries system procedures and cell identification.

information (MIB) FDD – PSS/SSS Spans across 62 subcarriers

Frequency domain
ODFM symbol 6 in subframe 0 and 5 in a
required by the UE to frame & SSS is one symbol prior
access the network TDD – PSS/SSS Spans across 62 subcarriers
ODFM symbol 3 in subframe 1 and 6 in a
frame & SSS is three symbol prior

spanning across 4 OFDM symbols and 72

subcarriers (6 PRBs) in subframe 0 of PCI (Physical Cell Identity)
each frame
PSS SSS

Sends one of
Time domain Sends one of 167
three orthogonal
binary sequence
sequence

PCI = PSS + 3* SSS = 2 + 3* (167) = 503

Note :- 5MHz carrier bandwidth with FDD duplex mode and 10 ms frame considered above
Timing Advance Uplink timing advance

Uplink

Mobile's transmissions take time (typically a few microseconds) to reach the base 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
station (even though it is travelling with speed of light) - delay
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Signals from different UEs have to reach the base station roughly at the same time
Downlink

But as UEs are spreading at different distance from eNB, it is imperative to have a
mechanism through which far located UE transmits subframes earlier than UE 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

located closer to eNB.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Using Timing Advance, a mobile starts transmitting its uplink frames at a time TA
before the arrival of the corresponding frames on the downlink
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

In TDD, GP is inserted & its duration depends on the signal propagation round-trip 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

time from the eNB to the UE, as well as on the time the UE requires to switch
from receiving to transmitting states.
Uplink timing advance increases with distance
Modulation
Baseband signals are transmitted using a high frequency periodic signal (carrier signals).
A modulator encodes a sequence of bits onto the carrier signal by adjusting the amplitude (a) or initial
phase (φ ) or frequency (f). It helps in –

a. Reducing size of antenna Wavelength = speed

of light / frequency
b. Reducing interference
c. Allow multiplexing of the signals

10
OFDMA
OFDM (Orthogonal frequency division multiplex) - Multicarrier transmission with overlapping and orthogonal
narrowband subchannels.
(c). OFDM Subcarriers

No guard band
between
subcarriers are
needed

OFDMA is the “access” version of OFDM, where

the access to resources is shared between users
in both time and frequency domain
Error Management
Noise and interference lead to errors in a wireless communication receiver

Techniques used to reduce such errors in a wireless communication are : -

FEC (forward error correction) ARQ (automatic repeat req.) HARQ (hybrid auto. repeat req.)

Multiple HARQ process with stop & wait retransmission

Additional bits added – to confirm at
Parity bits added (redundant) – defines receiver that same bits are received or not
CODING RATE – allow to recover data ACK/NACK

Good SINR – High Coding rate If block of data fails CRC, it is discarded
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RAN Engineering – 4G & 5G