LTE Radio Air Interface

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Fig. 14

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

3GPP LTE Targets

Fig. 1

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Generalised Radio System

Fig.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Key Concepts for the Radio Interface

Bandwidth & Data Capacity

Modulation
Coding
Duplexing
Multiple Access
Scheduling
Antennas

Fig.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Bandwidth & Capacity

In LTE
High Bandwidth
Flexible Allocation

Fig.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Bandwidth and Capacity

Information Theory tells us that

Signal Bw = Symbol
1Hz = 1 Symbol
5MHz = 5M Symbols

1 Symbol =

X Bits (depending on Modulation)

QPSK = 2 Bits/Symbol
16QAM = 4 Bits/Symbol
64QAM = 6 Bits/Symbol

e.g. 16QAM
5MHz = 5M Symbols = 20Mbps
10MHz = 10M Symbols = 40Mbps
20MHz = 20M Symbols = 80Mbps

Fig.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Modulation and Capacity

Channel Bandwidth

Number of Bits
QPSK

16QAM

64QAM

Number of Symbols

Fig.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Coding

Coding provides protection against transmission errors

Example data sequence with errors

A B C D E F A H S J K E
Errors are easy to detect because of the familiar pattern
Digital data may have no discernable pattern

I O I O O O I I O I O I O
Which means errors can be hard to detect

Fig.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Forward Error Correction

FEC introduces a mathematical pattern in to the data

FEC increases the total amount of data, i.e. Overhead
The amount of overhead will determine the power of the
FEC

1000 Bits

1/2
FEC
Coder

2000 bits

The RATE of the codec determines the power of the error

correction and the amount of overhead

Fig.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

LTE Bandwidth & Data Rates

Downlink

5
5

Uplink

Fig. 6

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Adaptive Modulation

10

Fig. 11

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Duplexing FDD and TDD

FDD

11

Fig. 11

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Duplexing FDD and TDD

TDD

12

Fig. 18

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

LTE Spectrum and Bandwidth

13

Fig. 7

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Multiple Access

Multiple access mechanism manages user access to limited

system resources

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Fig. 8

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Multiple Access Schemes

15

Fig. 9

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

(OFDM)

16

Fig. 10

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Time

Frequency
Resource Block

OFDMA

Differs from OFDM

Supports both time domain and
frequency domain multiple
access
Flexible resource allocation
based on the Resource Block

Time

Similar to OFDM
Uses sub-carriers (tones)
Robust in multipath conditions

OFDM

OFDMA Operation

Frequency
17

Fig. 20

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)

18

Fig. 24

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

LTE Scheduling

19

10

Fig. 12

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Diversity and MIMO

SISO

SIMO
MISO
MIMO

Receive
Diversity

Transmit
Diversity

Spatial
Multiplexing

20

Fig.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

LTE - MIMO

eNB

UE
Downlink only
2 or 4 Transmit antennas at
the base station
2 or 4 Receive antennas at
the UE

21

Spatial Multiplexing increases

data rate
Up to 4x increase in Capacity*
Requires an Urban
Environment
Wont work every where

11

Fig. 13

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Beam-Forming Antennas

eNB

Increases overall system capacity by reducing interference

SINR improvements can lead to higher throughputs
Works best in more rural areas

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Fig. 21

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

LTE Air Interface Physical Layer

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12

Fig.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

LTE Radio Interface Summary

Bandwidth & Data Capacity

Duplexing

OFDMA (TDMA & FDMA) Downlink

SC-FDMA Uplink
15KHz Sub Carrier Spacing

Scheduling

QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM

Multiple Access

FDD and TDD options

Modulation

Flexible (1.4MHz, 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, 20MHz)

Data Capacity Depends on Bandwidth, Modulation and Scheduling

Complex, Quality of Service and Radio Channel Quality based, with

Interference Coordination

Antennas

MIMO 2x2 and 4x4 available in the downlink

Uplink & Downlink diversity

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