1

Introduction

AL
Harry Holma and Antti Toskala

RI
TE
1.1 Mobile Voice Subscriber Growth
The number of mobile subscribers increased tremendously from 2000 to 2010. The first
MA
billion landmark was passed in 2002, the second billion in 2005, the third billion 2007,
the fourth billion by the end of 2008 and the fifth billion in the middle of 2010. More
than a million new subscribers per day have been added globally – that is more than ten
subscribers on average every second. This growth is illustrated in Figure 1.1. Worldwide
D

mobile phone penetration is 75%1 . Voice communication has become mobile in a massive
TE

way and the mobile is the preferred method of voice communication, with mobile networks
covering over 90% of the world’s population. This growth has been fueled by low-cost
mobile phones and efficient network coverage and capacity, which is enabled by standard-
GH

ized solutions, and by an open ecosystem leading to economies of scale. Mobile voice is
not the privilege of the rich; it has become affordable for users with a very low income.
RI

1.2 Mobile Data Usage Growth

PY

Second-generation mobile networks – like the Global System for Mobile Communications
(GSM) – were originally designed to carry voice traffic; data capability was added later.
Data use has increased but the traffic volume in second-generation networks is clearly
CO

dominated by voice traffic. The introduction of third-generation networks with High Speed
Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) boosted data use considerably.
Data traffic volume has in many cases already exceeded voice traffic volume when
voice traffic is converted into terabytes by assuming a voice data rate of 12 kbps. As an
example, a European country with three operators (Finland) is illustrated in Figure 1.2.
The HSDPA service was launched during 2007; data volume exceeded voice volume
during 2008 and the data volume was already ten times that of voice by 2009. More
than 90% of the bits in the radio network are caused by HSDPA connections and less
than 10% by voice calls. High Speed Downlink Packet Access data growth is driven by
1The actual user penetration can be different since some users have multiple subscriptions and some subscriptions
are shared by multiple users.

LTE for UMTS: Evolution to LTE-Advanced, Second Edition. Edited by Harri Holma and Antti Toskala.
© 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
2 LTE for UMTS: Evolution to LTE-Advanced

8000 100 %
World population
7000 90 %
Mobile subscribers
Penetration 80 %
6000
70 %
5000

Penetration
60 %
Million

4000 50 %

3000 40 %
30 %
2000
20 %
1000 10 %
0 0%
98

99

00

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10
19

19

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20
Figure 1.1 Growth of mobile subscribers

Data volume (relative to voice)

18
16 Voice
14 Data
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1H/2007 2H/2007 1H/2008 2H/2008 1H/2009 2H/2009 1H/2010

Figure 1.2 HSDPA data volume exceeds voice volume (voice traffic 2007 is scaled to one)

high-speed radio capability, flat-rate pricing schemes and simple device installation. In
short, the introduction of HSDPA has turned mobile networks from voice-dominated to
packet-data-dominated networks.
Data use is driven by a number of bandwidth-hungry laptop applications, including
internet and intranet access, file sharing, streaming services to distribute video content and
mobile TV, and interactive gaming. Service bundles of video, data and voice – known also
as triple play – are also entering the mobile market, causing traditional fixed-line voice and
broadband data services to be replaced by mobile services, both at home and in the office.
A typical voice subscriber uses 300 minutes per month, which is equal to approximately
30 megabytes of data with the voice data rate of 12.2 kbps. A broadband data user can
easily consume more than 1000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of data. The heavy broadband
data use takes between ten and 100 times more capacity than voice usage, which sets
high requirements for the capacity and efficiency of data networks.
Introduction 3

It is expected that by 2015, five billion people will be connected to the internet. Broad-
band internet connections will be available practically anywhere in the world. Already,
existing wireline installations can reach approximately one billion households and mobile
networks connect more than three billion subscribers. These installations need to evolve
into broadband internet access. Further extensive use of wireless access, as well as new
wireline installations with enhanced capabilities, is required to offer true broadband con-
nectivity to the five billion customers.

1.3 Evolution of Wireline Technologies

Wide-area wireless networks have experienced rapid evolution in terms of data rates but
wireline networks are still able to provide the highest data rates. Figure 1.3 illustrates
the evolution of peak user data rates in wireless and wireline networks. Interestingly,
the shape of the evolution curve is similar in both domains with a relative difference of
approximately 30 times. Moore’s law predicts that the data rates should double every
18 months. Currently, copper-based wireline solutions with Very-High-Data-Rate Digital
Subscriber Line (VDSL2) can offer bit rates of tens of Mbps and the passive optical-
fiber-based solution provides rates in excess of 100 Mbps. Both copper and fiber based
solutions will continue to evolve in the near future, increasing the data rate offerings to
the Gbps range.
Wireless networks must push data rates higher to match the user experience that wire-
line networks provide. Customers are used to wireline performance and they expect the
wireless networks to offer comparable performance. Applications designed for wireline
networks drive the evolution of the wireless data rates. Wireless solutions also have an
important role in providing the transport connections for the wireless base stations.
Wireless technologies, on the other hand, have the huge advantage of being able to
offer personal broadband access independent of the user’s location – in other words, they
provide mobility in nomadic or full mobile use cases. The wireless solution can also

1.000
Optics
Wireline VDSL 2 100 Mbps
100 25–50 Mbps LTE
User data rate (Mbps)

ADSL2+
ADSL 16–20 Mbps
10 HSPA+
6–8 Mbps
ADSL
1–3 Mbps HSDPA
1 3.6–7.2 Mbps
HSDPA
1.8 Mbps
WCDMA Wireless
0.1
EDGE 0.384 Mbps
0.236 Mbps
0.01
2000 2005 2010
Year of availability

Figure 1.3 Evolution of wireless and wireline user data rates GPON = Gigabit Passive Opti-
cal Network. VDSL = Very High Data Rate Subscriber Line. ADSL = Asymmetric Digital
Subscriber Line
4 LTE for UMTS: Evolution to LTE-Advanced

provide low-cost broadband coverage compared to new wireline installations if there is

no existing wireline infrastructure. Wireless broadband access is therefore an attractive
option, especially in new growth markets in urban areas as well as in rural areas in other
markets.

1.4 Motivation and Targets for LTE

Work towards 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) started in 2004 with the definition
of the targets. Even though High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) was not yet
deployed, it was evident that work for the next radio system should be started. It takes more
than five years from system target settings to commercial deployment using interoperable
standards, so system standardization must start early enough to be ready in time. Several
factors can be identified driving LTE development: wireline capability evolution, need
for more wireless capacity, need for lower cost wireless data delivery and competition
from other wireless technologies. As wireline technology improves, similar evolution is
required in the wireless domain to ensure that applications work fluently in that domain.
There are also other wireless technologies – including IEEE 802.16 – which promised
high data capabilities. 3GPP technologies must match and exceed the competition. More
capacity is needed to benefit maximally from the available spectrum and base station
sites. The driving forces for LTE development are summarized in Figure 1.4.
LTE must be able to deliver performance superior to that of existing 3GPP networks
based on HSPA technology. The performance targets in 3GPP are defined relative to
HSPA in Release 6. The peak user throughput should be a minimum of 100 Mbps in
the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink, which is ten times more than HSPA Release 6.
Latency must also be reduced to improve performance for the end user. Terminal power
consumption must be minimized to enable more use of multimedia applications without
recharging the battery. The main performance targets are listed below and are shown in
Figure 1.5:

• spectral efficiency two to four times more than with HSPA Release 6;
• enables a round
peak rates exceed 100 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink;
• packet switched trip time of <10 ms;
• high level of mobility
optimized;
• optimized terminal powerand security;
• frequency flexibility with allocations
efficiency;
• from below 1.5 MHz up to 20 MHz.

Wireline Wireless data Other

Flat rate pricing technologies
evolution pushes usage requires push wireless
pushes efficiency
data rates more capacity capabilities

LTE targets

Figure 1.4 Driving forces for LTE development

Introduction 5

Peak user Spectral

Latency efficiency
throughput

Fa
cto

2-4
r
10

of

of
of

r
cto
-3
r
cto

Fa
Fa

HSPA R6 LTE HSPA R6 LTE HSPA R6 LTE

Figure 1.5 Main LTE performance targets compared to HSPA Release 6

1.5 Overview of LTE

The multiple-access scheme in the LTE downlink uses Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access (OFDMA). The uplink uses Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple
Access (SC-FDMA). Those multiple-access solutions provide orthogonality between the
users, reducing interference and improving network capacity. Resource allocation in the
frequency domain takes place with the resolution of 180 kHz resource blocks both in
uplink and in downlink. The frequency dimension in the packet scheduling is one reason
for the high LTE capacity. The uplink user specific allocation is continuous to enable
single-carrier transmission, whereas the downlink can use resource blocks freely from
different parts of the spectrum. The uplink single-carrier solution is also designed to
allow efficient terminal power amplifier design, which is relevant for terminal battery
life. The LTE solution enables spectrum flexibility. The transmission bandwidth can be
selected between 1.4 MHz and 20 MHz depending on the available spectrum. The 20 MHz
bandwidth can provide up to 150 Mbps downlink user data rate with 2 × 2 MIMO and
300 Mbps with 4 × 4 MIMO. The uplink peak data rate is 75 Mbps. The multiple access
schemes are illustrated in Figure 1.6.
High network capacity requires efficient network architecture in addition to advanced
radio features. The aim of 3GPP Release 8 is to improve network scalability for increased
traffic and to minimize end-to-end latency by reducing the number of network elements. All
radio protocols, mobility management, header compression and packet retransmissions are
located in the base stations called eNodeB. These stations include all those algorithms that

Up to 20 MHz

Uplink … SC-FDMA

User 1 User 2 User 3

Downlink … OFDMA

Frequency

Figure 1.6 LTE multiple access schemes

6 LTE for UMTS: Evolution to LTE-Advanced

Release 6 Release 8 LTE

GGSN S-GW
Core network functionality split
SGSN MME • MME for control plane
• User plane by-pass MME

RNC
eNodeB functionalities
• All radio protocols
NodeB eNodeB • Mobility management
• All retransmissions
• Header compression

= Control plane
= User plane

Figure 1.7 LTE network architecture

are located in Radio Network Controller (RNC) in 3GPP Release 6 architecture. The core
network is streamlined by separating the user and the control planes. The Mobility Man-
agement Entity (MME) is just a control plane element and the user plane bypasses MME
directly to Serving Gateway (S-GW). The architecture evolution is illustrated in Figure 1.7.

1.6 3GPP Family of Technologies

3GPP technologies – GSM/EDGE and WCDMA/HSPA – are currently serving 90% of
global mobile subscribers. The market share development of 3GPP technologies is illus-
trated in Figure 1.8. A number of major CDMA operators have already turned to, or

Global subscribers until end 2010

100 %
89.0 % 89.6 % 89.8 %
90 % 83.8 % 86.8 %
80.2 %
80 % 75.6 %
71.7 %
66.3 % 69.1 %
70 %
60 % 3GPP GSM+WCDMA
50 % 3GPP2 CDMA+EVDO
40 %
30 %
20 % 11.9 % 12.7 % 13.4 % 13.7 % 13.1 % 12.6 % 11.4 % 10.0 % 9.7 % 9.4 %
10 %
0%
01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10
20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

Figure 1.8 Global market share of 3GPP and 3GPP2 technologies

Introduction 7

3GPP schedule
LTE
WCDMA HSDPA HSUPA HSPA+ LTE-A

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Commercial EDGE HSDPA HSUPA HSPA+ LTE

deployment
WCDMA

Figure 1.9 Schedule of 3GPP standard and their commercial deployments

will soon be turning to, GSM/WCDMA for voice evolution and to HSPA/LTE for data
evolution to access the benefits of the large and open 3GPP ecosystem and for economies
of scale for low-cost mobile devices. The number of subscribers using 3GPP-based tech-
nologies is currently more than 4.5 billion. The 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) will
be built on this large base of 3GPP technologies.
The time schedules of 3GPP specifications and the commercial deployments are illus-
trated in Figure 1.9. The 3GPP dates refer to the approval of the specifications. WCDMA
Release 99 specification work was completed at the end of 1999 and was followed by
the first commercial deployments during 2002. The HSDPA and HSUPA standards were
completed in March 2002 and December 2004 and the commercial deployments followed
in 2005 and 2007. The first phase of HSPA evolution, also known as HSPA+, was com-
pleted in June 2007 and the deployments started during 2009. The LTE standard was
approved at the end of 2007, backwards compatibility started in March 2009 and the first
commercial networks started during 2010. The next step is LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and
the specification was approved in December 2010.
The new generations of technologies push the data rates higher. The evolution of the
peak user data rates is illustrated in Figure 1.10. The first WCDMA deployments 2002
offered 384 kbps, first HSDPA networks 3.6–14 Mbps, HSPA evolution 21–168 Mbps,
LTE 150–300 Mbps and LTE-Advanced 1 Gbps, which is a more than 2000 times higher
data rate over a period of ten years.

LTE-Advanced
LTE
1 Gbps
HSPA+
150 –300 Mbps
HSPA
21–168 Mbps
WCDMA
14 Mbps
EDGE
2 Mbps
a rate
472 kbps
l peak dat
retica
Theo

Figure 1.10 Peak data rate evolution of 3GPP technologies

8 LTE for UMTS: Evolution to LTE-Advanced

The 3GPP technologies are designed for smooth interworking and coexistence. The
LTE will support bi-directional handovers between LTE and GSM and between LTE
and UMTS. GSM, UMTS and LTE can share a number of network elements including
core network elements. It is also expected that some of the 3G network elements can
be upgraded to support LTE and there will be single network platforms supporting both
HSPA and LTE. The subscriber management and SIM (Subscriber Identity Module)-based
authentication will be used also in LTE.

1.7 Wireless Spectrum

The LTE frequency bands in 3GPP specifications are shown in Figure 1.11 for paired bands
and in Figure 1.12 for unpaired bands. Currently 22 paired bands and nine unpaired bands
have been defined and more bands will be added during the standardization process. Some
of the bands are currently used by other technologies and LTE can coexist with the legacy
technologies. In the best case in Europe there is over 600 MHz of spectrum available for
the mobile operators when including the 800, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz Frequency
Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) bands. In the USA the LTE

Operating Total Uplink Downlink

3GPP name spectrum (MHz) (MHz)
band
Band 1 2100 2 × 60 MHz 1920–1980 2110–2170
Band 2 1900 2 × 60 MHz 1850–1910 1930–1990
Band 3 1800 2 × 75 MHz 1710–1785 1805–1880
Band 4 1700/2100 2 × 45 MHz 1710–1755 2110–2155
Band 5 850 2 × 25 MHz 824–849 869–894
Band 6 800 2 × 10 MHz 830–840 875–885
Band 7 2600 2 × 70 MHz 2500–2570 2620–2690
Band 8 900 2 × 35 MHz 880–915 925–960
Band 9 1700 2 × 35 MHz 1750–1785 1845–1880
Band 10 1700/2100 2 × 60 MHz 1710–1770 2110–2170
Band 11 1500 2 × 25 MHz 1427.9–1452.9 1475.9–1500.9
Band 12 US700 2 × 18 MHz 698–716 728–746
Band 13 US700 2 × 10 MHz 777–787 746–756
Band 14 US700 2 × 10 MHz 788–798 758–768
Band 17 US700 2 × 12 MHz 704–716 734–746
Band 18 Japan800 2 × 15 MHz 815–830 860–875
Band 19 Japan800 2 × 15 MHz 830–845 875–890
Band 20 EU800 2 × 30 MHz 832–862 791–821
Band 21 1500 2 × 15 MHz 1447.9–1462.9 1495.9–1510.9
Band 22 3500 2 × 90 MHz 3410–3500 3510–3600
Band 23 S-band 2 × 20 MHz 2000–2020 2180–2200
Band 24 L-band 2 × 34 MHz 1626.5–1660.5 1525–1559

Figure 1.11 Frequency bands for paired bands in 3GPP specifications

Introduction 9

Operating Total Uplink and

3GPP name spectrum downlink (MHz)
band
Band 33 UMTS TDD1 1 × 20 MHz 1900–1920
Band 34 UMTS TDD2 1 × 15 MHz 2010–2025
Band 35 US1900 UL 1 × 60 MHz 1850–1910
Band 36 US1900 DL 1 × 60 MHz 1930–1990
Band 37 US1900 1 × 20 MHz 1910–1930
Band 38 2600 1 × 50 MHz 2570–2620
Band 39 UMTS TDD 1 × 40 MHz 1880–1920
Band 40 2300 1 × 100 MHz 2300–2400
Band 41 2600 US 1 × 194 MHz 2496–2690

Figure 1.12 Frequency bands for unpaired bands in 3GPP specifications

networks will initially be built on 700 and 1700/2100 MHz frequencies. In Japan the LTE
deployments start using the 2100 band followed later by 800, 1500 and 1700 bands.
Flexible bandwidth is desirable to take advantage of the diverse spectrum assets:
refarming typically requires a narrowband option below 5 MHz while the new spectrum
allocations could take advantage of a wideband option of data rates of 20 MHz and higher.
It is also evident that both FDD and TDD modes are required to take full advantage of
the available paired and unpaired spectrum. These requirements are taken into account in
the LTE system specification.

1.8 New Spectrum Identified by WRC-07

The ITU-R World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07) worked in October and
November 2007 to identify the new spectrum for IMT. The objective was to identify low
bands for coverage and high bands for capacity.
The following bands were identified for IMT and are illustrated in Figure 1.13. The
main LTE band will be in the 470–806/862 MHz UHF frequencies, which are currently

450 – 470 790–862

698–806
Coverage bands
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

2300–2400

2100 2200 2300 2400 2500 2600 2700 2800 2900 3000
Capacity bands
3400–3800

3100 3200 3300 3400 3500 3600 3700 3800 3900 4000

Figure 1.13 Main new frequencies identified for IMT in WRC-07

10 LTE for UMTS: Evolution to LTE-Advanced

used for terrestrial TV broadcasting. The 790–862 MHz sub-band was identified in Europe
and Asia-Pacific. The availability of the band depends on the national time schedules of
the analogue to digital TV switchover. The first auction for that band was conducted in
Germany in May 2010 and the corresponding frequency variant is Band 20. The band
allows three operators, each running 10 MHz LTE FDD.
The 698–806 MHz sub-band was identified for IMT in Americas. In the US part of the
band has already been auctioned. In Asia, the band plan for 698–806 MHz is expected
to cover 2 × 45 MHz FDD operation.
The main capacity band will be 3.4–4.2 GHz (C-band). A total of 200 MHz was iden-
tified in the 3.4–3.8 GHz sub-band for IMT in Europe and in Asia-Pacific. This spectrum
can facilitate the deployment of larger bandwidth of IMT-Advanced to provide the highest
bit rates and capacity.
The 2.3–2.4 GHz band was also identified for IMT but this band is not expected to
be available in Europe or in the Americas. This band was identified for IMT-2000 in
China at the WRC-2000. The 450–470 MHz sub-band was identified for IMT globally,
but it is not expected to be widely available in Europe. This spectrum will be narrow
with maximum 2 × 5 MHz deployment. Further spectrums for IMT systems are expected
to be allocated in the WRC-2016 meeting.

1.9 LTE-Advanced
International Mobile Telecommunications – Advanced (IMT-Advanced) is a concept
for mobile systems with capabilities beyond IMT-2000. IMT-Advanced was previously
known as ‘Systems beyond IMT-2000’. The candidate proposals for IMT-Advanced
were submitted to ITU in 2009. Only two candidates were submitted: LTE-Advanced
from 3GPP and IEEE 802.16m.
It is envisaged that the new capabilities of these IMT-Advanced systems will support
a wide range of data rates in multi-user environments with target peak data rates of up to
approximately 100 Mbps for high mobility requirements and up to 1 Gbps for low mobility
requirements such as nomadic/local wireless access. IMT-Advanced work within 3GPP
is called LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and it is part of Release 10. 3GPP submitted an LTE-
Advanced proposal to ITU in October 2009 and more detailed work was done during 2010.
The content was frozen in December 2010 and the backwards compatibility is expected

Mobility
High

IMT
-2000 IMT
-2000 IMT-
evolution Advanced
LTE-
Low WCDMA HSPA LTE Advanced
1 10 100 1000 Peak data
rate (Mbps)

Figure 1.14 Bit rate and mobility evolution to IMT-Advanced

Introduction 11

40 –100 MHz
More bandwidth

8x MIMO 4x
More antennas

Relays

Heterogeneous
networks

Figure 1.15 LTE-Advanced includes a toolbox of features

in June 2011. The high-level evolution of 3GPP technologies to meet IMT requirements
is shown in Figure 1.14.
The main technology components in Release 10 LTE-Advanced include:

• carrier aggregation up to 40 MHz total band, and later potentially up to 100 MHz;
evolution up to 8 × 8 in downlink and 4 × 4 in uplink;
• relay nodes
MIMO
• heterogeneousfor networks
providing simple transmission solution;
• macro, micro, pico and femto
for optimized interworking between cell layers including
cells.

LTE-Advanced features are designed in a backwards-compatible way where LTE

Release 8 terminals can be used on the same carrier where new LTE-Advanced
Release 10 features are activated. LTE-Advanced can be considered as a toolbox of
features that can be flexibly implemented on top of LTE Release 8. The main features of
LTE-Advanced are summarized in Figure 1.15.