The Beauty of LTE AMBER....

Part 1 (AMBR defined)

6 Dec 2012 5:22 PM
Amber...that pretty glowing golden gemstone used for decoration and jewelry and also in some cases
has medicinal uses. It also has the magical capabilities of preserving 30 million year-old dinosaur DNA
in the innards of a 30 million year-old mosquito so we can enjoy live dinosaurs in movies like Jurassic
Park. (I wonder what happened to those dinosaurs after they finished making that movie?)
What does this have to do with LTE? Well, amber isnt really a gemstone, it is a fossilized tree resin.
That means it takes a long time (like 10s of millions of years in time) for it to become amber. That
amount of time sounds like Long Term Evolution to me!
Back to LTE AMBER...this AMBER doesnt take as long to explain and define so no evolution required.
So we can remove the e (for evolution), and it is just AMBR or more commonly known as Aggregate
Maximum Bit Rate.
As LTE becomes more popular and the number of LTE users increase, there has to be some way to
control the bandwidth allowed to individual users. Thats where AMBR comes in. The majority of LTE
services right now are still best effort, a lot faster best effort than 3G but still best effort. AMBR defines
the maximum possible bit rate allowed for a particular LTE user for all of their best effort (or nonguaranteed bit rate) services so they cant hog all the available bandwidth from the other LTE users.
AMBR values are not used for any services that are guaranteed bit rate services.
There are 3 AMBR values used in LTE:
Subscribed UE-AMBR
This is the maximum possible bit rate configured by the LTE operator for a particular LTE user for all of
their best effort services. The key word here is possible. This is the maximum possible if bandwidth is
available and also dependent on what and how many services the user is using. It is a configured value
by the LTE operator and does not change. (unless the user changes their services or stops paying their
wireless bill!)
Subscribed APN-AMBR
This is the maximum possible bit rate configured by the LTE operator for a particular LTE user for all of
their best effort services on one particular Packet Data Network (as defined by the APN). Again, the key
word here is possible. This is the maximum possible if bandwidth is available. This value should never
be larger than Subscribed UE-AMBR value. An LTE user will have one Subscribed APN-AMBR value for
each APN that they subscribe to for services.
And the third AMBR of interest is Used UE-AMBR.
Used UE-AMBR is the calculated UE-AMBR value that will be used to define the current working value
for UE-AMBR for the active LTE user. In other words, this is the actual UE-AMBR value in effect for an
active LTE user based on how many PDN connections (or APNs) they are actually using. It is calculated
by summing together the Subscribed APN-AMBR values for all of the active PDN connections of the
LTE user. The total value cannot exceed the Subscribed UE-AMBR value. This value is recalculated
each time the LTE user starts another service (connects to another APN) or disconnects from a service

(the UE actually disconnects from the PDN; the LTE user closing an internet web browser window does
not disconnect a connection to an APN).
All of the AMBR values each have separate uplink and downlink values that can be different to reflect
the different bandwidth needs in both directions.
Lets look at an example:
Chris is lucky enough to have his LTE service provided by RTWI*. Chris has a Subscribed UE-AMBR
value of 44 Mbps. He subscribes to Internet service (APN NETRAYSM with Subscribed APN-AMBR =
18 Mbps), Streaming Video service (APN STREAMRAYSM with APN-AMBR=30 Mbps) and Weather
reporting service (APN STORMRAYSM with Subscribed APN-AMBR = 1 Mbps). All of these services
are non-guaranteed bit rate services.
Early in the morning, Chris logs in to his NETRAYSM Internet service to check on his favorite blog site
LTEUniversity.com. His smartphone makes a connection to the NETRAYSM packet data network. His
smartphone is connected to only one APN.
Chris Used UE-AMBR = 18 Mbps (Subscribed APN-AMBR for APN NETRAYSM)
Chris looks outside and sees storm clouds and wants to check the weather. He logs in to his
STORMRAYSM service to check the weather, so his smartphone makes a connection to the
STORMRAYSM packet data network. Now that Chris has connected to a second APN, his Used UEAMBR value will be recalculated.
Chris new calculated Used UE-AMBR = 19 Mbps.
18 Mbps (Subscribed APN-AMBR for APN NETRAYSM) + 1 Mbps (Subscribed APN-AMBR for APN
STORMRAYSM).
Chris lives in Texas. The weather reporting service indicates that a tornado is imminent. He is scared to
drive in to work. So he stays home to watch a video. He logs in to his STREAMRAYSM video service to
watch videos all day long at home. In this case, his smartphone makes a connection to the
STREAMRAYSM APN.
His smartphone now has 3 APN connections. His new calculated Used UE-AMBR value is now the sum
of the Subscribed APN-AMBR values for all of the 3 APN connections.
18 Mbps (Subscribed APN-AMBR for APN NETRAYSM) + 1 Mbps (Subscribed APN-AMBR for APN
STORMRAYSM) + 30 Mbps (Subscribed APN-AMBR for APN STREAMRAYSM) = 49 Mbps. But the Used
UE-AMBR cannot be greater than his Subscribed UE-AMBR. So Chris new calculated Used UEAMBR value is 44 Mbps (equal to his Subscribed UE-AMBR value) when connected to all 3 APNs that
Chris is subscribed to.
Since Chris is taking a break, well take a break also and return in a later blog with the conclusion of this
discussion when we will explain where these values are used in the LTE network.
Ray
*RayTel Wireless Inc.

For information on all of RayTels service plans and state-of-the-art smartphones, send cash (preferably
large bills) and Ill respond with information about RayTels possible high speed data services.

The Beauty of LTE AMBER....Part 2 (Where it is used)

10 Dec 2012 3:49 PM
Last time we talked about the 3 AMBR values: Subscribed UE-AMBR, Subscribed APN-AMBR and
Used UE-AMBR.
Where and how are they used?
The two subscribed values are stored in the LTE users subscriber profile in the Home Subscriber
Server (HSS). The LTE user has one Subscribed UE-AMBR value and has one Subscribed APN-AMBR
for each APN that they can connect to. Each of the AMBR values has a separate value for uplink and
downlink. For simplicity of the discussion here, we wont distinguish between uplink and downlink since
the concepts are the same.
These values will be provided to the Mobility Management Entity (MME) when the LTE smartphone
attaches to the LTE network. The MME will use these values when it creates the traffic bearers to carry
the LTE users IP data packets.
When a LTE user connects to an APN, the APN-AMBR value will be provided to both the LTE users
smartphone and the P-GW. The calculated Used UE-AMBR value will be generated at the MME
whenever the LTE user connects to a new APN or disconnects from an APN. The Used UE-AMBR value
will be provided to the eNB that the UE is currently connected to.
Here is a picture illustrating the Subscribed AMBR values for Chris and two of the APNs that he is
subscribed to. All of the subscribed AMBR values are in Chris subscription profile stored at the HSS. All
of Chris services are non-guaranteed bit rate services. In this case, Chris is sleeping and his
smartphone is powered off.

Figure 1. Chris smartphone not attached to the LTE network

After Chris wakes up, he powers on his smartphone, it attaches to the LTE network and all of the
subscribed AMBR values are provided to the MME. (See figure below) The smartphone also connects
automatically to the NETRAYSM APN so Chris can surf the Internet. When this connection occurs, the
MME sends the NETRAYSM Subscribed APN-AMBR value to both the P-GW and the smartphone. It also
calculates the Used UE-AMBR value and provides that to the eNB.

Figure 2. Chris smartphone attaches to LTE network and connects to Internet service

The eNB will use the Used UE-AMBR value to limit the maximum data rate in both the UL and DL
directions for all of Chris non-guaranteed bit rate services on the airlink. In this case, his Internet service
is a non-guaranteed bit rate service.
The P-GW will use the NETRAYSM Subscribed APN-AMBR value to limit the IP data traffic to a maximum
rate of 18 Mbps in and out of the LTE network for Chris connection to the NETRAYSM PDN. The
smartphone will use the APN-AMBR value to allocate UL airlink resources at the appropriate amount to
each APN connection. In this case, Chris has only one APN connection so all UL data traffic resources
will be assigned to the NETRAYSM APN traffic path.
Chris decides to stay home and watch a video using his LTE service. (See figure below) He selects
Video service on his smartphone and the smartphone will initiate a connection to the STREAMRAYSM
APN to access video services. The MME will send the STREAMRAYSM Subscribed APN-AMBR value to
both the P-GW and the smartphone, and send an updated Used UE-AMBR value to the eNB.

Figure 3. Chris smartphone connects to Video service and still has Internet service connection
The eNB will use the updated Used UE-AMBR value to limit the maximum data rate in both the UL and
DL directions for all of Chris non-guaranteed bit rate services on the airlink. In this case, the maximum
combined data rate for both the Internet and Video connections will be limited to a maximum rate of 44
Mbps in both directions.
The P-GW will use the STREAMRAYSM Subscribed APN-AMBR value to limit the video IP data packets
to a maximum rate of 30 Mbps in and out of the LTE network for Chris connection to the
STREAMRAYSM PDN. The smartphone will use both the STREAMRAYSM Subscribed APN-AMBR value
and the NETRAYSM Subscribed APN-AMBR value to allocate UL airlink resources (allocated by the eNB)
at the appropriate amount to each APN connection. Other QoS parameters (not discussed in this blog
article) are also used to make this allocation using a standards-defined algorithm.
Thus ends our story about LTE AMBRs and Chris day off at home watching videos.

Ray