Yes and no.

The location of the reference signals in the frequency domain is

based on the PCI, so two cells may have their reference signals in the same
subcarriers. However, LTE cells are generally not time synchronized, so (from the
UE's perspective), the reference signals show up at different (albeit unknown)
times. In addition, the reference signal sequences themselves are based on the
PCI, so the UE, once it's achieved downlink synch, can distinguish reference
signals from two different cells. Note that none of this causes interference
directly, but just makes it harder for the UE to get an accurate measurement.
Generally speaking, the UE can keep everything straight, as long as the
overlapping cells don't use the same PCI value.

ust want to add one thing, LTE frames are synchronized in TD-LTE so same PSS
will cause RS to over-lap in case of TD-LTE but in case of FD-LTE, most of the
time, the frames would not be synchronized in time domain and the probability
of overlapping RS is much less.

Don't Forget PCFICH While Doing Physical Cell Identity (PCI) Planning
Abstract:
Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defines Long Term Evolution (LTE)
standards towards fulfilling the objectives of IMT Advanced 4G standards. The
primary goals of LTE is to achieve over 300Mbps and about 75Mbps on the downlink
(DL) and uplink (UL). Also LTE is designed to serve a large number of users in every
cell leading to higher capacity as compared to 3G. Achieving these two objectives
along with the requirement of deploying LTE networks with frequency reuse of 1 (i.e.,
every cell should use the same set of frequency resources) will pose many
challenges to the RF planning engineers. One such challenge is the Physical Cell ID
(PCI) planning. Traditionally, while doing PCI planning, Primary Synchronization
Signal (PSS) and Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) are considered as input.
But one needs to also take into account the PCFICH location on the first OFDMA
(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) symbol as it plays a very crucial
role in ensuring a good throughput at the cell edges. Thus, optimizing the overall
throughput is achieved by proper PCFICH planning.
Introduction:
3GPP LTE technology defines a data shared channel (PDSCH - Physical Downlink
Shared Channel) to carry both users' data traffic and control signaling/messages that
provides life line to User Equipments (UEs) for the day to day operations. The
mantra (or telltale) here is to ensure optimum resource utilization for data traffic to
increase cell throughputs. Better efficiency of scheduling with shared channel and
conservation of vital (UE's) battery power is enabled with the use of PDCCH
(Physical Downlink Control Channel).

In LTE, all UEs that expect any data (system information, random access response,
paging, common control messaging and user specific data or control messages) on
the DL has to monitor the PDCCH first. The PDCCH informs the UEs about the DL
resource allocation information. The allocation information includes the number of
Resource Blocks (RBs), Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS), Multiple Input
Multiple Output (MIMO) schemes and UL power control command with an indication
for Channel Quality Index (CQI) report.
Since both the PDDCH and PDSCH share the available resources in every subframe
(Transmit Time Interval -TTI of 1ms duration), the number of simultaneous users (a
measure of capacity) who can be served in a cell will be limited by the availability of
PDCCH resources. Looking the other way, PDSCH throughput is inversely
proportional to the PDDCH size (or resources). That is, the smaller the resources
reserved for PDCCH the larger the resources available for PDSCH which means
higher throughput is achieved in the TTI. Another scenario is the case where PDCCH
occupies larger resources due to the requirement of higher number of users to be
served which means large capacity. Now, PDSCH is left with lesser resources to
carry data leading to lower throughput. From the above discussion we see that LTE
provides us with a handle to leverage either capacity or throughput every TTI as the
scenario may warrant. The key to this kind of leverage is through the use of the
PCFICH (Physical Control Format Indicator Channel). The PCFICH provides the
information about the PDCCH resources (number of OFDMA - Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiple Access symbols) in the present TTI or subframe. Figure
1 provides a pictorial representation of the resource utilization in a generic subframe
by PDSCH, PDCCH and PCFICH in LTE.

Figure 1: A generic subframe in LTE

Till now our discussions were limited to only time domain. When we shift our focus to
frequency domain (i.e., subcarriers) yet another PDCCH constraint will be seen. That
is the PDCCH resources are made up of OFDM symbols on the time domain and
subcarriers in the frequency domain. The number of subcarriers available for
communication is dependent on the available (deployed) bandwidth. LTE supports
scalable bandwidth deployments of 1.4MHz, 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz and
20MHz with 6, 15, 25, 50, 75 and 100 RBs, respectively. To achieve the same
capacity in two (2) different deployment bandwidths (say 5MHz and 10MHz), the
PDCCH may have to span further OFDM symbols in lower bandwidth leading to
more degradation in cell throughput. This leads to yet another dimension to the
design of a radio network. LTE supports a variable number of OFDMA symbols
(maximum 3 in case of higher bandwidth and 4 OFDMA symbols in case of less
bandwidths like 1.4MHz deployment) to take care of all the scenarios discussed so
far. Physically, PCFICH carries this information (number of OFDMA symbols that
constitutes the PDCCH channel for the present subframe) to all users monitoring the

DL. In summary, LTE UE needs to first decode the PCFICH to decode PDCCH and
then listen to PDCCH for PDSCH resources and then decode the data on PDSCH.
PCFICH Details - What, where and how
PCFICH carries CFI (Control Format Indicator) that informs 4 values 1, 2, 3, or 4
suggesting that PDCCH occupies 1, 2, 3 or 4 OFDM symbols in the present
subframe. Figure 2.below provides more information about PCFICH and what CFI
carries.
PCFICH is mapped to 4 REGs (labeled p, q, r and s in Figure 2) which are
equidistant and spread across the bandwidth in frequency domain. These four REG
locations are a function of PCI and the deployed bandwidth. In time domain, it is
mapped to the first OFDMA symbol of the subframe (see Figure 1). LTE defines a
REG (Resource Element Group) as 4 useful REs (Resource elements) or modulation
symbols grouped together. But with 2 MIMO Reference signals associated, 6 REs
are grouped into a REG in the first OFDMA symbol of the subframe (Figure 2 shows
sample position of Reference signals marked as x).

Fig 2: PCFICH - Where and What

The Math of PCFICH has

4REGs = 4 time 4 useful REs or 16 modulation symbols
With QPSK modulation PCFICH always carry 32 bit of information which are mapped
to CFI values 1 to 4 as shown in Figure 2.

PCI Planning
In PCI planning we usually consider the Primary Sync Signal (PSS) and Secondary
Sync Signal (SSS) where every cell has a unique PCI. A PCI is a combination of one
of the three unique (orthogonal) PSS sequences and one of 168 cell group identity
(or SSS) sequences that make a range of 0 to 503 unique identities. To minimize
interference, the thumb rule is to ensure that neighboring cells shall not transmit the
same PSS. This ensures that sync signal and reference signals do not interfere with
each other.
PCFICH issues with PCI planning
Now let's focus on PCFICH issues while planning the PCIs. A careful observation of
LTE standards shows that PCFICH location is a function of two variables the PCI
and the bandwidth deployed. In popular deployments of 10Mz, we see that first
OFDM symbol of every subframe has 100 REGs (@ of 2REGs per RB). Likewise we
can have 12, 30, 50, 150 and 200 REGs for bandwidths 1.4MHz, 3MHz, 5MHz,
15MHz and 20MHz respectively. Also PCFICH spans four (4) locations across the
bandwidth and are equidistant. But PCIs are 504 (five hundred and four), so cells
with different PCI are bound to have overlapping PCFICH locations. Hence we see
two scenarios arising, first a set of PCIs for a given bandwidth will have exactly same
PCFICH positions and secondly a group of cells that have one or more overlapping
PCFICH locations. If the PCIs within a set happens to be assigned for neighbor cells,
the UEs at cell edges will experience interference while decoding PCFICH. Any
problems in reading PCFICH leads to a situation where UE is not reading either or
both PDCCH and PDSCH thereby reducing the cell edge throughputs.
First let us see the scenario of neighboring cells with PCIs from a set that has the
same PCFICH positions are very same. Figure 3 shows one such case where three
10MHz neighbor cells with PCIs 0, 25 and 50 (from the same set) deployed. PCI
planning with synchronization and reference signals point of view looks perfect. i.e.,
PCIs 0, 25 and 50 have Primary Synchronization signals 0, 1 and 2 respectively.
Also the DL cell specific reference signal positions do not overlap, minimizing the
interference. Hence we see that interference is better managed. But there's an
element of surprise when you analyze interference due to PCFICH.
With 100 REGs in a 10MHz deployment, only 25 (=100/4) unique PCFICH locations
(with four equidistant REGs) are possible. Here we see cells with PCIs separated by
a distance of 25 has the same PCFICH positions (REGs 0, 25, 50 and 75). This will
drastically reduce the cell edge throughputs.

Figure 3: Scenario showing neighbor cells have same PCFICH location.

Now let us look the other scenario where neighbor cell have one or more PCFICH
location in common as seen in figure 4. Here we consider three 5MHz cells having
few PCFICH positions overlapping being deployed. Like in the previous case with
5MHz deployed, a total of 25 * 2 = 50 REG location are possible within the
bandwidth. With 4 equidistant locations we can have only 12 unique PCFICH
positions. Figure 4 shows three neighbor cells having PCIs 0, 12 and 25. When we
consider the cell with PCI 0 and 12 or 12 and 25, we see that two REG positions 72
and 222 are overlapping that decreases the probability of decoding PCFICH, while
PCIs 0 and 25 have all the four positions in common making it even worse to decode
PCFICH. When the PCIs have a difference of 13, we see other two REG positions 0
and 150 overlapping. Hence it is not advisable to have PCIs with multiples of 12/13
or 25 in neighborhood.
A summary of above discussion can be seen in Table 1 below. Extra care must be
taken while deploying neighbor cells with PCI distances such that those mentioned in
the table are not used leading to better cell edge throughputs. Figure 5 below shows
an example scenario that abides by PCFICH plan to ensure a better cell throughput.

Figure 4: Scenario showing neighbor cells with few (1 or more) overlapping PCFICH
locations

Table 1: PCFICH Separation distance for various LTE deployments

Figure 5: Scenario of PCI plan with PCFICH check

Conclusion
Maximum throughputs can be achieved by careful cell planning considering the
PCFICH locations additionally. The cell planning should see that neighboring cells in
the cluster or across clusters do not have a distances mentioned in Table 1. PCFICH
positions have a randomized interference due to individual REGs of cells overlapping
with other cell individual REGs.
The location of the reference signals in the frequency domain is based on the
PCI, so two cells may have their reference signals in the same subcarriers.
However, LTE cells are generally not time synchronized, so (from the UE's
perspective), the reference signals show up at different (albeit unknown) times.
In addition, the reference signal sequences themselves are based on the PCI, so
the UE, once it's achieved downlink synch, can distinguish reference signals from
two different cells. Note that none of this causes interference directly, but just
makes it harder for the UE to get an accurate measurement. Generally speaking,
the UE can keep everything straight, as long as the overlapping cells don't use
the same PCI value.
FD-LTE, most of the time, the frames would not be synchronized in time domain
and the probability of overlapping RS is much less.
Having said that, even if the same PSS serve the same area, the PCI should be
different. This makes sure that the RS sequences are different even though they
over-lap and secondly, the CFI position would be different as well.

It is generally emphasised to avoid PSS inference in addition to PCI interference, because the
first step UE performs during network entry is it decodes PSS to achieve downlink
synchronization, and then SSS & PCI are decoded respectively. So if there is PSS

interference, UE can take a longer time to achieve synchronization, or more precisely in

decoding P-SCH ID and performing slot synchronization.
It is true that in practical scenarios PSS interference cannot be totally prevented, but it should
be tried to prevent is as much as it can be, else it may degrade network entry radio KPIs.