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Nokia Networks
LTE-Advanced
The advanced LTE toolbox for more efficient delivery
of better user experience
White Paper
Contents
1. Overview
2. Drivers
3.1 Overview
11
13
14
16
3.8 Outlook
16
4. Summary
19
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1. Overview
1.1 LTE-Advanced, the evolution of LTE
The introduction of LTE was driven by the industrys quest for a
more efficient technology that could help deliver ever faster mobile
broadband services. In comparison with basic HSPA networks, LTE
delivered this enhancement by offering the state of the art combination
of new air interface base technology (OFDMA/SC-FDMA), greater
flexibility for utilizing spectrum like for example support of 20MHz bands
and TD-LTE for using unpaired spectrum, as well as a toolbox to support
further enhancements like MIMO and Higher Order Modulation. In fact,
a similar toolbox has been applied to HSPA for facilitating a seamless
evolution to HSPA+.
At the same time, we continue to witness exponential growth in mobile
broadband traffic; thereby necessitating further enhancement in the
overall efficiency, with a view to deliver faster mobile broadband services
to a constantly increasing user base. LTE-Advanced abbreviated
as LTE-A has primarily been conceptualized to address both the
aforementioned demands.
LTE-A marks the evolution of LTE; it continues to deploy the air interface
base technology of LTE which provides highest efficiency and a smooth
evolution in the deployment of the existing LTE ecosystem towards
LTE-A. It allows operators to deploy larger bands than 20MHz in
particular by carrier aggregation, while also enabling an advanced toolbox
with advanced MIMO schemes and totally new features like Relaying.
Moreover, it is fully backwards compatible with the earlier LTE releases,
implying that legacy devices can operate in LTE-A networks but may not
necessarily benefit from all the new features of LTE-A. Thanks to these
advanced features, LTE makes its transition to a true 4G technology, in
accordance with the requirements of ITU for IMT-Advanced.
This paper introduces the advanced toolbox of LTE-A, including
information on new technologies, features and enhancements to
existing technologies, as well as discusses the benefits that LTE-A
provides to operators and end-users.
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IMT-A
LTE-A
WALKED
Mobility
LTE
HSPA
FIXED
VEHECILE
2. Drivers
UMTS
1
Mbps
10
Mbps
100
Mbps
1
Gbps
This is the prime reason for using the term toolbox in this paper.
LTE-A defines a large set of tools focused on enhancing the mobile
broadband user experience, as well as reducing the costs per bit.
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even better since flexible frequency reuse can be arranged between local
area nodes to provide better inter-cell interference coordination.
LTE-Advanced
Enhance macro network performance
Heterogeneous
networks
Relaying
Coordinated Multipoint
8x
MIMO
4x
Carrier Aggregation
up to 100 MHz
Carrier1
Carrier2
Carrier3
Carrier4
Figure 2: LTE-A support both: enhancing the LTE macro network and enabling the efficient
introduction of small cells
Uplink
40
200
LTE Rel-8
30
3GPP macro #1
with 2x20MHz
20
2x2 SU-MIMO
for DL,
1x2 for UL
10
0
LTE Rel-10
10
15
20
Oered Load [Mbps]
25
30
Downlink
with Poisson
arrival and
nite buer
Rel-8 UE case
(one CC per
UE) and LTE-A
UE case
(2-CCs per UE)
150
100
1 dB power
50
0
10
Dynamic trac
20
30
40
50
Oered Load [Mbps]
60
70
back-o
assumed for UL
with Tx
on two CCs
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80
30
25
Marginal Avg. TP
loss in Rel8 by
assigning cell
center UEs on
2.1GHz carrier
60
50
Coverage [Mbps]
70
40
30
Coverage gain in
Rel8 by assigning
cell edge UEs on
800MHz carrier
20
15
10
20
5
10
0
10
20
30
40
50
10
20
30
40
50
Rel-8: case3, RR
Rel-8: case3, Smart
Rel-10: case3
Downlink [Mbps]
1102
555
610
304
2
1
Uplink [Mbps]
161
305
152
1
# of eNB
antennas
- 2x20 MHz Carrier Aggregation and 64QAM with 9/10 code rate
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Average SE [bps/Hz/cell]
4.00
3.00
2.75
2.44
2.00
2.17
2.02
100%
1.57
108%
121%
113%
100%
1.00
1.77
Realistic MMSE/SIC
2.09
136%
2.30
147%
133%
0.00
1x4 no MIMO
Coverage - Correlated
Ideal MMSE/SIC
2x4 MU dual
Realistic MMSE/SIC
0.125
0.100
0.075
0.050
0.025
100%
0.049
100%
107%
0.088
0.084
0.080
0.075
0.055
113%
112%
0.060
123%
117%
0.060
122%
0.000
1x4 no MIMO
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2x4 MU dual
Release 10 has enhanced the reference signal design with user specific
reference symbols for signal demodulation and common reference
symbols for feedback purposes in downlink and more orthogonal
reference signal structure in uplink. The enhanced design enables better
performance when the number of antenna branches is high.
Uplink MIMO provides significantly higher peak rates and improved
spectrum efficiency in uplink direction. SU-MIMO provides mainly
increased data rates in lightly loaded networks for high-end multitransmitter UE, whereas MU-MIMO can offer significant improvement
of spectrum efficiency even with single transmitter UE. This can boost
network capacity at low costs and is depicted in Fig. 6 and 7. The LTE-A
system can operate in both SU and MU-MIMO modes at the same time
using dynamic user specific MIMO transmission configuration.
Average SE [bps/Hz/cell]
Capacity - Correlated
Ideal MMSE/SIC
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.25
1.00
100%
1.45
1.06
100%
1.35
162%
2.47
2.25
2.02
1.57
116% 127%
148%
2x2 SU-MIMO
1x4 no MIMO
180%
Realistic MMSE/SIC
1.84
173%
2.06
198%
194%
0.00
1x2 no MIMO
Capacity - Correlated
2x4 SU-MIMO
Ideal MMSE/SIC
0.100
0.075
169%
0.055
0.050
0.025
0.044
100%
0.034
123%
0.045
133%
183%
Realistic MMSE/SIC
0.088
0.081
0.075
4x4 SU-MIMO
199%
0.049
0.052
146%
155%
0.064
190%
100%
0.000
1x2 no MIMO
2x2 SU-MIMO
1x4 no MIMO
2x4 SU-MIMO
4x4 SU-MIMO
Downlink MIMO has already been included in LTE Release 8. The LTE
Release 8 codebook and reference symbol design was found to be
quite optimum for two and four transmit antennas (2x2, 2x4 and 4x4
antenna configurations), but the channel state information feedback
from UE to eNB could have been more accurate. This limitation is
overcome by the new reference symbol design of Release 10, which is
also more effective when the number of transmit antennas is higher.
Based on the studies and numerous contributions in 3GPP, it can be
safely concluded that the higher the number of antennas, the higher is
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the gain that Release 10 MIMO provides in downlink. With two eNB and
two UE antennas, Release 10 downlink MIMO provides no improvements
over Release 8 in SU-MIMO mode but small performance improvements
have been gained in MU-MIMO mode. In most cases it is best to operate
two TX antenna eNBs in Release 8 SU-MIMO mode. When eNB has four
transmit antennas, Release 10 downlink MIMO gain is more than 20%
over Release 8 and with eight transmit antennas a bit higher. Reference
symbol overhead effects on system performance are significant with
four and eight transmit antennas. Therefore the selection of MIMO
operating modes and system parameters for both Release 8 and 10 UE
is a critical network optimization task.
An important point worth remembering is that the network should also
support Release 8 and 9 UE which does not benefit from the Release
10 enhancements. The capacity gain from Release 10 downlink MIMO
enhancements could even be negative since new reference symbols
create overhead for all UE. However, these overheads can be decreased
by decreasing the Release 8 and 9 specific reference symbols, but
this would prevent non-LTE-A UE to operate in MIMO mode and thus
lower their data rates. Additionally, there would be negative effects
on common control channel performance. Consequently, the timing
of the introduction of the new features and the configuration of the
system parameters are essential for an optimum performance of the LTE
network.
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Downlink
Uplink
CoMP
Category
Intra-site
2TX (4TX)
Intra &
Inter-site
Intra-site joint
reception
Inter-site
macro diversity
Inter-site joint
reception
Cell Avg.
5% (10%)
20%
5%
6%
15%
Cell Edge
12% (20%)
21%
5%
8%
25%
System simulations
Downlink with ideal CSI feedback, realistic CQI feedback, realistic reference symbol overhead (10%) and ideal inter-cell
communication
Uplink with ideal feedback, ideal inter-cell communication, ideal cell selection, realistic MMSE/SIC receiver and realistic closed loop
power control
2 RX and 2 TX antennas in eNB
2 RX and 1 TX antennas in UE
Gain over Release 8 Single User MIMO
Typical Urban Micro, max. 500 m inter-cell distance, 10 users per cell
Figure 8: JP/JT CoMP system performance gain in an urban environment with ideal CSI
feedback and realistic system and receiver implementation
The system performance gains of realistic CoMP deployments with an
ideal channel state information (CSI) feedback is presented in Fig. 8 and
9. The critical system deployment issue is the communication between
the cells. Intra-site CoMP deployment, in which the communication is
between the sectors of a single eNB, is likely the most feasible system
solution. CoMP studies in 3GPP continue in a Release 11 study item
kicked off in December 2010 and will focus on finding practical concepts
with real performance benefits, taking into account implementation and
interoperability issues of UE, eNBs and transport technologies.
Downlink
Uplink
CoMP Category
Intra-site CS/CB
Inter-site CS/CB
Inter-site CS
Cell Avg.
13%
14%
Cell Edge
13%
13%
15%
System simulations
Downlink with ideal CSI feedback, realistic CQI feedback,
realistic reference symbol overhead (10%), ideal inter-cell communication and MRC receiver
Uplink with ideal feedback, ideal inter-cell communications,
ideal cell selection, realistic MMSE/SIC receiver and realistic closed loop power control
4 RX and 4 TX antennas in eNB with /2 antenna spacing
2 RX and 1 TX antennas in UE
Gain over Release 8 Beamforming (1 CRS, 1 DRS, single stream)
3GPP Case 1 3D, 500 m inter-cell distance, 10 users per cell
Figure 9: CS/CB CoMP system performance gain in an urban environment with ideal CSI
feedback and realistic system and receiver implementation
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600%
500%
1 relay
400%
4 relays
300%
10 relays
200%
100%
0%
-100%
ISD 500m
ISD 1732m
downlink
ISD 500m
ISD 1732m
uplink
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
ISD 500m
ISD 1732m
downlink
ISD 500m
ISD 1732m
uplink
LTE Release 8 supports simple amplify and forward relays (also called
repeaters) that can be used for coverage extension. However, those
do not use the radio resources efficiently. The enhanced relaying
technology in LTE-A is based on self-backhauling base stations sharing
features with (pico) base stations. For the user equipment the relay
node is just a cell of the Donor eNB. The management of the network
is straightforward. LTE Release 10 specifies a new interface Un between
Donor eNB and Relay Node (RN), see Fig. 11. The new interface uses
MBSFN (Multicast-Broadcast Single Frequency Network) subframes
which were introduced in Release 8 already to hide the Un interface
from UE operating on the same carrier and thus make it fully backward
compatible: UE interprets Un transmission as MBSFN transmission for
which they are not subscribed and simply ignore them. The so called
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IP
GTP-u
GTP-u
GTP-u
GTP-u
UDP
UDP
UDP
UDP
IP
IP
IP
IP
L2
PDCP
RLC
MAC
PDCP
RLC
MAC
PDCP
RLC
MAC
PDCP
RLC
MAC
L2
PHY
PHY
PHY
PHY
L1
User Equipment
Relay
Donor eNB
L1
S-GW/P-GW
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Medium area
sites
Local
area
WLAN
Local
area
Medium area
sites
Local
area
Local
area
Local
area
WLAN
WLAN
10-100 m
< 100 mW
WLAN
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Macro-layer
HeNB-layer
Sub-frames with
normal transmission
Almost blank
sub-frame (ABS) only CRS is transmitted
Figure 13: Inter-cell interference reduction with Almost blank sub-frames of TDM eICIC
Some deployment concepts and network architectures are common
for HSPA and LTE: Home base stations are a way to provide reliable and
secure mobile broadband services in home and office environments.
Local Break Out solutions (LIPA and SIPTO) decrease cost of transport
and enable lower end-to-end latency for distributed services. Given the
fact that a majority of mobile broadband networks fall under the domain
of multi-radio networks, common solutions for HSPA+ and LTE-Advanced
translate into lower cost for operators and seamless service experience
for end users.
3.8 Outlook
Development of LTE-Advanced will continue in future 3GPP releases.
Multi-hop and moving relays could increase efficiency in providing
broadband services in high-speed trains and interference cancellation
receivers will improve air interface capacity. Decreasing power
consumption of the network and the user equipment enables the usage
of battery powered devices for machine-to-machine applications wide
bandwidth demand. LTE-A already has means for flexible spectrum
management, self-configuration and multilayer deployments. Once the
spectrum regulation defines the framework for usage of cognitive radio
resource management methods, adoption of these methods can be
easily adopted in LTE-A.
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More spectrum
Multiband UE and
BTS capability
4-8 antennas in UE
Carrier aggregation
MIMO
enhancements
Multiple power
ampliers in UE
CoMP
Heterogeneous
networks
Optical transport
availability
Baseband
processing
capability
Relays
Multi-antenna
BTS site
Low cost small
BTS
LTE-A
Figure 14: LTE-A new system technologies vs. implementation
technologies
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Savings in
deployment
Spectrum
eciency
Multi-Layer
Multi-RAT
Multi-Layer
Relays
UL MIMO
LIPA/SIPTO
DL MIMO
SON
CA
SON
DL MIMO
Relays
UL MIMO
CA
Spectrum utilization
Savings in operation
4. Summary
LTE-A enables a smooth and backward compatible evolution of LTE
and TD-LTE towards true 4G performance
LTE-A comprises of various tools to enhance mobile broadband user
experience and network efficiency
There are serious interdependencies between network
implementation and the various tools of LTE-A, which require an
experienced partner when planning and implementing LTE-A
Nokia Networks has always been at the forefront of LTE-A research
and development, with a strong focus on real operator opportunities
in terms of efficiency and user experience
Peak rate
Average rate
(capacity)
Coverage
(noise limited)
Carrier aggregation
++
++
MIMO enhancements*
++
(o)
++
(+)
++
(+)
CoMP**
(+)
(+)
++
Heterogeneous networks
++
++
Relays***
o
(+)
+
(++)
++
= clear gain
= moderate gain
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Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their
respective owners.
Nokia
Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
P.O. Box 1
FI-02022
Finland
Visiting address:
Karaportti 3,
ESPOO,
Finland
Switchboard +358 71 400 4000
Product code C401-01061-WP-201409-1-EN
Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014
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