Department of Electronics And Telecommunication

Pillai College of Engineering

New Panvel – 410 206

Case Study

On

LTE

Prepared By

Mr. Venkatraman.S

Class: BE EXTC ‘B’

Roll no: 56
 1. Introduction

 LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and it was started as a project in 2004 by
telecommunication body known as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
SAE (System Architecture Evolution) is the corresponding evolution of the GPRS/3G
packet core network evolution. The term LTE is typically used to represent both LTE
and SAE.

 Long Term Evolution is the next step forward in cellular 3G services. LTE enhanced
the Universal Mobile Telecommunication Services (UMTS) in asset of points on
account of the future generation cellular technology needs and growing mobile
communication services requirements.

 LTE evolved from an earlier 3GPP system known as the Universal Mobile
Telecommunication System (UMTS) which is turn evolved from the Global System
of Mobile Communication. Even related specifications were formerly known as the
evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) and evolved UMTAS terrestrial
radio access network (E-UTRAN). First version of LTE was documented in Release 8
of the 3GPP specifications.

 A rapid increase of mobile data usage and emergence of new applications such as
MMOG (Multimedia Online Gaming), mobile TV, Web 2.0, streaming contents have
motivated the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to work on LTE on the way
towards 4th Generation mobile.

 LTE offers a reduced latency delay, which is achieved with a simplified flat radio
infrastructure in which some of the functions have been moved from the Radio
Network Controller (RNC) to the evolved NodeB (eNB)

 Another design goal is to increase spectrum efficiency and as such as a better cost per
bit ratio and better service provisioning.

 Increased data rates will be realized the including the support of multi antenna
techniques and in combination with techniques such as Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing (OFDM). It will offer the flexibility in spectrum deployment
and provide higher robustness against frequency selective fading for the system.

 The main goal of LTE is to provide a high data rate, low latency and packet optimized
radio access technology supporting flexible bandwidth deployments.


1.2. Facts/Objective/details of LTE

 LTE is the successor technology not only of UMTS but also of CDMA 2000.

 LTE is important because it will bring up to 50 times performance improvement and

much better spectral efficiency to cellular networks.

 LTE introduced to get higher data rates, 300Mbps, peak downlink and 75Mbps peak
uplink. In a 20Mhz carrier data rates beyond 300Mbps can be achieved under very
good signal conditions.

 LTE is an ideal technology to support high data rates for the services such as VoIP.
Streaming multimedia, video conferencing or even high speed cellular modem.

 LTE uses both Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (TDD)
mode. In FDD uplink and downlink transmission used different frequency, while in
TDD both uplink and downlink use the same carrier and same separated in time.

 LTE supports flexible carrier bandwidths, from 1.4Mhz up to 20Mhz as well as both
FDD and TDD. LTE designed with a scalable carrier bandwidth from 1.4Mhz up to
20Mhz which bandwidth is used depends on the frequency band and the amount of
spectrum available with a network operator.

 All LTE devices have to support (MIMO) Multiple Input and Multiple Output
transmissions, which allow the base station to transmit several data streams over the
same carrier simultaneously.

 All interfaces between network nodes in LTE are now IP based, including the
backhaul connection to the radio base stations. This is great simplification compared
to earlier technologies that were initially based on E1/T1, ATM and frame relays
links, with most of them being narrowed and expensive.

 Quality of Service(QoS) mechanism have been standardized on all interfaces to

ensure that the requirement of voice calls for a constant delay and bandwidth can still
met when capacity limits are reached.

 Works with GSM/EDGE/UMTS systems existing 2G and 3G spectrum and new

spectrum. Supports hand-over and roaming to existing mobchile networks.
 2. Architecture of LTE

The high-level network architecture of LTE is comprised of following three main

components:

 The User Equipment (UE).

 The Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN).
 The Evolved Packet Core (EPC).

The evolved packet core communicates with packet data networks in the outside world such
as the internet, private corporate networks or the IP multimedia subsystem. The interfaces
between the different parts of the system are denoted Uu, S1 and SGi as shown below:

The User Equipment (UE)

The internal architecture of the user equipment for LTE is identical to the one used by UMTS
and GSM which is actually a Mobile Equipment (ME). The mobile equipment comprised of
the following important modules:

 Mobile Termination (MT) : This handles all the communication functions.

 Terminal Equipment (TE) : This terminates the data streams.
 Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) : This is also known as the SIM card for
LTE equipment’s. It runs an application known as the Universal Subscriber Identity
Module (USIM).

The E-UTRAN (The access network)

The architecture of evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) has been
illustrated below:
The E-UTRAN handles the radio communications between the mobile and the evolved
packet core and just has one component, the evolved base stations, called eNodeB or eNB.
Each eNB is a base station that controls the mobiles in one or more cells. The base station
that is communicating with a mobile is known as its serving eNB.
LTE Mobile communicates with just one base station and one cell at a time and there are
following two main functions supported by eNB:

 The eBN sends and receives radio transmissions to all the mobiles using the analogue
and digital signal processing functions of the LTE air interface.
 The eNB controls the low-level operation of all its mobiles, by sending them signaling
messages such as handover commands.

Each eBN connects with the EPC by means of the S1 interface and it can also be connected to
nearby base stations by the X2 interface, which is mainly used for signaling and packet
forwarding during handover. A home eNB belongs to a closed subscriber group (CSG) and
can only be accessed by mobiles with a USIM that also belongs to the closed subscriber
group.
The Evolved Packet Core (EPC) (The core network)
The architecture of Evolved Packet Core (EPC) has been illustrated below:

A brief description of each of the components shown in the above architecture:

 The Home Subscriber Server (HSS) component has been carried forward from UMTS
and GSM and is a central database that contains information about all the network
operator's subscribers.
  The Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) communicates with the outside
world that is packet data networks PDN, using SGi interface. Each packet data
network is identified by an access point name (APN). The PDN gateway has the same
role as the GPRS support node (GGSN) and the serving GPRS support node (SGSN)
with UMTS and GSM.
 The serving gateway (S-GW) acts as a router, and forwards data between the base
station and the PDN gateway.
 The mobility management entity (MME) controls the high-level operation of the
mobile by means of signalling messages and Home Subscriber Server (HSS).

The interface between the serving and PDN gateways is known as S5/S8. This has two
slightly different implementations, namely S5 if the two devices are in the same network, and
S8 if they are in different networks.
LTE thus aims to provide a peak data rate of 100 Mbps in downlink and 50 Mbps in Uplink
respectively

2.1 ADVANTAGES OF LTE

 High throughput: High data rates can be achieved in both downlink as well as uplink.
This causes high throughput.
 Low latency: Time required to connect to the network is in range of a new hundred
milliseconds and power saving states can now be entered and excited very quickly.
 FDD and TDD in the same platform: FDD and TDD ca be used on the same
platforms.
 Superior end-user experience: Optimized signalling for connection establishment and
other air interface and mobility management procedures have further improved the
user experience.
 Seamless Connection: LTE will also support seamless connection to existing
networks such as GSM, CDMA and WCDMA.
 Plug and Play: The user does not have to manually install drivers for the device.
Instead system automatically recognized the device, loads new drivers for the
hardware if needed, and begins to work with the newly connected device.
 Simple architecture: Because of simple architecture low operating expenditure
(OPEX)
 3 . Algorithms for LTE

QoS refers to the ability (or probability) of the network to provide a desired level of service
for selected traffic on the network.

 Service levels are specified in terms of throughput, latency (delay), jitter (delay
variation) and packet errors or loss.
 Different service levels are specified for different types or streams of traffic.
 To provide QoS, the network identifies or “classifies” different types or streams of
traffic and processes these traffic classes differently to achieve (or attempt to achieve)
the desired service level for each traffic class.
 The effectiveness of any QoS scheme can be measured based on its ability to achieve
the desired service levels for a typical combination of traffic classes (“traffic profile”)

The QOS/queuing algorithms for LTE

The QoS level of granularity in the LTE evolved packet system (EPS) is bearer, which is a
packet flow established between the packet data network gateway (PDN-GW) and the user
terminal (UE or MS). The traffic running between a particular client application and a service
can be differentiated into separate service data flows (SDFs).

SDFs mapped to the same bearer receive a common QoS treatment (e.g., scheduling policy,
queue management policy, rate shaping policy, radio link control (RLC) configuration). A
bearer is assigned a scalar value referred to as a QoS class identifier (QCI), which specifies
the class to which the bearer belongs. QCI refers to a set of packet forwarding treatments
(e.g., scheduling weights, admission thresholds, queue management thresholds, and link layer
protocol configuration) preconfigured by the operator for each network element. The class-
based method improves the scalability of the LTE QoS framework. The bearer management
and control in LTE follows the network-initiated QoS control paradigm, and the network
initiated establishment, modification, and deletion of the bearers.
LTE Bearers

1. Guaranteed Bit rate (GBR): Dedicated network resources related to a GBR value
associated with the bearer are permanently allocated when a bearer becomes
established or modified.

2. Non-guaranteed Bit rate(non-GBR) A service utilizing a non-GBR bearer may

experience A non-GBR bearer is referred to as the default bearer, which is also used
to establish IP connectivity, similar to the initial Service Flow in WiMAX. Any
additional bearer(s) is referred to as a dedicated bearer and can be GBR or non-GBR.

The following are QoS attributes associated with the LTE bearer:
 4 . Types of Channels in LTE

The information flows between the different protocols are known as channels and signals.
LTE uses several different types of logical, transport and physical channel, which are
distinguished by the kind of information they carry and by the way in which the information
is processed.

 Logical Channels : Define whattype of information is transmitted over the air, e.g. traffic
channels, control channels, system broadcast, etc. Data and signalling messages are carried on
logical channels between the RLC and MAC protocols.

 Transport Channels : Define howis something transmitted over the air, e.g. what are encoding,
interleaving options used to transmit data. Data and signalling messages are carried on transport
channels between the MAC and the physical layer.

 Physical Channels : Define whereis something transmitted over the air, e.g. first N symbols in
the DL frame. Data and signalling messages are carried on physical channels between the
different levels of the physical layer.

Logical Channels
Logical channels define what type of data is transferred. These channels define the data-
transfer services offered by the MAC layer. Data and signalling messages are carried on
logical channels between the RLC and MAC protocols.

Logical channels can be divided into control channels and traffic channels. Control Channel
can be either common channel or dedicated channel. A common channel means common to
all users in a cell (Point to multipoint) while dedicated channels means channels can be used
only by one user (Point to Point).

Logical channels are distinguished by the information they carry and can be classified in two
ways. Firstly, logical traffic channels carry data in the user plane, while logical control
channels carry signalling messages in the control plane. Following table lists the logical
channels that are used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Control channel Traffic channel

Broadcast Control Channel BCCH X

Paging Control Channel PCCH X

Common Control Channel CCCH X

Dedicated Control Channel DCCH X

Multicast Control Channel MCCH X

Dedicated Traffic Channel DTCH X

Multicast Traffic Channel MTCH X

Transport Channels
Transport channels define how and with what type of characteristics the data is transferred
by the physical layer. Data and signalling messages are carried on transport channels
between the MAC and the physical layer.

Transport Channels are distinguished by the ways in which the transport channel processor
manipulates them. Following table lists the transport channels that are used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Broadcast Channel BCH X

Downlink Shared Channel DL-SCH X

Paging Channel PCH X

Multicast Channel MCH X

Uplink Shared Channel UL-SCH X

Random Access Channel RACH X

Physical Channels
Data and signalling messages are carried on physical channels between the different levels
of the physical layer and accordingly they are divided into two parts:
  Physical Data Channels

 Physical Control Channels

Physical data channels

Physical data channels are distinguished by the ways in which the physical channel
processor manipulates them, and by the ways in which they are mapped onto the symbols
and sub-carriers used by Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDMA). Following
table lists the physical data channels that are used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Physical downlink shared channel PDSCH X

Physical broadcast channel PBCH X

Physical multicast channel PMCH X

Physical uplink shared channel PUSCH X

Physical random access channel PRACH X

The transport channel processor composes several types of control information, to support
the low-level operation of the physical layer. These are listed in the below table:

Field Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Downlink control information DCI X

Control format indicator CFI X

Hybrid ARQ indicator HI X

Uplink control information UCI X

Physical Control Channels

The transport channel processor also creates control information that supports the low-level
operation of the physical layer and sends this information to the physical channel processor
in the form of physical control channels.

The information travels as far as the transport channel processor in the receiver, but is
completely invisible to higher layers. Similarly, the physical channel processor creates
physical signals, which support the lowest-level aspects of the system.

Physical Control Channels are listed in the below table:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Physical control format indicator PCFICH X

channel

Physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel PHICH X

Physical downlink control channel PDCCH X

Relay physical downlink control R-PDCCH X

channel

Physical uplink control channel PUCCH X

The base station also transmits two other physical signals, which help the mobile acquire the
base station after it first switches on. These are known as the primary synchronization signal
(PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS).

4.1. E-UTRAN Protocol

Let's have a close look at all the layers available in E-UTRAN Protocol Stack. Below is a
more ellaborated diagram of E-UTRAN Protocol Stack:
Physical Layer (Layer 1)
Physical Layer carries all information from the MAC transport channels over the air
interface. Takes care of the link adaptation (AMC), power control, cell search (for initial
synchronization and handover purposes) and other measurements (inside the LTE system
and between systems) for the RRC layer.

Medium Access Layer (MAC)

MAC layer is responsible for Mapping between logical channels and transport channels,
Multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or different logical channels onto transport blocks
(TB) to be delivered to the physical layer on transport channels, de multiplexing of MAC
SDUs from one or different logical channels from transport blocks (TB) delivered from the
physical layer on transport channels, Scheduling information reporting, Error correction
through HARQ, Priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling, Priority
handling between logical channels of one UE, Logical Channel prioritization.

Radio Link Control (RLC)

RLC operates in 3 modes of operation: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode
(UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM).
RLC Layer is responsible for transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ
(Only for AM data transfer), Concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs
(Only for UM and AM data transfer).

RLC is also responsible for re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs (Only for AM data transfer),
reordering of RLC data PDUs (Only for UM and AM data transfer), duplicate detection
(Only for UM and AM data transfer), RLC SDU discard (Only for UM and AM data
transfer), RLC re-establishment, and protocol error detection (Only for AM data transfer).

Radio Resource Control (RRC)

The main services and functions of the RRC sublayer include broadcast of System
Information related to the non-access stratum (NAS), broadcast of System Information
related to the access stratum (AS), Paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an
RRC connection between the UE and E-UTRAN, Security functions including key
management, establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point to point Radio
Bearers.

Packet Data Convergence Control (PDCP)

PDCP Layer is responsible for Header compression and decompression of IP data, Transfer
of data (user plane or control plane), Maintenance of PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), In-
sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, Duplicate
elimination of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers
mapped on RLC AM, Ciphering and deciphering of user plane data and control plane data,
Integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, Timer based discard,
duplicate discarding, PDCP is used for SRBs and DRBs mapped on DCCH and DTCH type
of logical channels.

Non Access Stratum (NAS) Protocols

The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols form the highest stratum of the control plane
between the user equipment (UE) and MME.

NAS protocols support the mobility of the UE and the session management procedures to
establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE and a PDN GW.
 5.CONCLUSION

The 4G LTE technology is nothing less then ground breaking. The advancements that have
been made from 3G to 4G LTE alone are mind blowing. With the data processing speed
being increased to at least 100 Mbit/sec the possibilities are limitless in the wireless
communication world. Everything with this new technology has been brought to a new
standard. The security, with the complete IP-based solutions allows the user to use the full
capability of the phone as well as feel completely secure at the same time, this is one of the
most vital aspects that has been upgraded from the previous wireless communication
technologies. Even though the hardware and coverage areas aren’t up to par yet though, isn’t
that big of a set back. The technology is still considered brand new and will only be improved
in the coming years.
 REFERENCES

BOOKS

1) MOBILE COMMUNICATION 2/ED 2nd Edition by Jochen Schiller

2) MOBILE COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING, SECOND 2nd Edition by

William C. Y. Lee

WEBSITES
1) www.3gpp.org
2) www.ipv6.com
3) www.ericsson.com