Huawei Confidential

LTE Fundamentals Air Interface

Ali Khalid
00273272
LTE Basics : OFDMA

OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)

is the latest addition to cellular systems. It provides a
multiple access technique based on OFDM. It can be
seen that
the bandwidth is broken down to smaller units known as
subcarriers. These are grouped together and
allocated as a resource to a user. It can also be seen
that a user can be
allocated different resources in both the time and
frequency domain.

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 OFDMA : Orthogonality

The orthogonality comes from the fact that at the given instant where one sub-carrier has its
maxima, all other sub-carriers will have zero amplitude. In reality, FFT is used for
implementation.
A CP (Cyclic Prefix) is utilized in most OFDM systems to combat multipath delays. It
effectively provides a guard period for each OFDM symbol. The Cyclic Prefix is effectively a
copy taken from the back of the original symbol which is then placed in front of the symbol to
make the OFDM symbol (Ts).

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 SC-FDMA

SC-FDMA : Single Carrier-Frequency

Division Multiple Access is used by LTE in
the Uplink. The basic motivation of using
the SC-FDMA is its lower PAPR (peak to
average power ration or PAPR) when
compared to OFDMA.
In SC-FDMA, each symbol is spread on all
the n allocated carriers (n=4 in the
figure below) but the time of the symbol
transmission becomes 1/n as it has to
transmit all the n symbols in one
symbol time.

Note: The example above is just for the sake of understanding SC-FDMA while the
allocation is done on basis of resource blocks (12 sub-carriers x 7 symbols so the sub-
symbol will be 1/12th the time of an original symbol duration) in LTE (180 kHz).

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 LTE Frame Structure

LTE Frame : A typical LTE frame is 10 ms

(milliseconds) long. Each LTE frame has 10 sub-frames
(1 ms each) while each sub-frame is further divided
into 2 slots (0.5 ms each).
LTE Slot : The slots are divided into symbols each
slot has either 6 or 7 symbols. The number of symbols
per slot depends on the size of the cyclic prefix. The
LTE uses 2 CP sizes Normal CP (4.67 s) and
Extended CP (16.67 s).
LTE Symbol : The symbol time (Ts) for each LTE
symbol is 66.67 s. Adding Cyclic Prefix to Ts makes it
around 71.34 us. The CP of the first symbol of the slot
(Normal CP) is not 4.67 s but 5.21 s so the first
symbol of the slot is 71.88 s.
Sub-carrier : The spacing between two carriers is
constant and is equal to 15 kHz.
Each symbol on a carrier is called a Resource
Element.
Resource Block : A group of 7 resource elements in
time axis and 12 resource elements in frequency axis
make up a Resource Block (RB) and each RB spans
over 180 kHz.

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 LTE Downlink Channels

PCFICH :This is the Physical Control Format

Indicator Channel and describes the format
of the PDCCH
PHICH : This is the Physical HARQ Indicator
Channel which carries the HARQ ACKs and
NACKs for the UEs Uplink data traffic
PDCCH : This is the Physical Downlink
Control Channel and typically contains
allocations & TPC.
PBCH : This is the Physical Broadcast
Channel and contains the MIB for the LTE
network
PSS & SSS : These signals are used by the UE
for synchronization reasons. The
synchronization signals are transmitted once
every 5 ms.
PDSCH : This is the Physical Downlink Shared
Channel which contains the Downlink traffic
or data for the UEs.

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 Downlink Channels - PDCCH
Structure : PDCCH lies in the first three symbols of the sub-
frame & it consists of CCEs. The modulation is QPSK.
CCE : Each CCE consists of 9 REGs or 36 REs.
Aggregation Layer : There are 4 aggregation layers for the
PDCCH and each aggregation layer consists of different
numbers of CCEs.

The PDCCH
overhead can be
reduced by keeping
it adaptive. This
ensures that
optimum symbol
numbers are used
by PDCCH and
remaining are
allocated to PDSCH.

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 Downlink Channels - PHICH
Position : PHICH is placed in the first OFDM symbol of the
sub-frame. Each PHICH consists of 3 REGs (12 REs) and
multiple PHICHs can use the same set of REGs known as
PHICH groups.
Dimensioning : Consider that the PHICH group multiplier group


N g N RB
DL

8 for normal cyclic prefix

(Ng) is set to 1 which is equivalent to 7 PHICH groups (10 N PHICH
2 N g N RB 8

DL
MHz 50 RBs) . The total number of REs would be 7 PHICH for extended cyclic prefix
groups x 3 REGs per PHICH group x 4 REs per REG = 84 REs.

Note : REG is RE Group and is equal to 4 REs

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 Downlink Reference Signals

Purpose : Reference signals

or symbols are used for
channel estimation.
Position : The location of the
reference symbols is fixed
along the time axis as they
exist on the 1st and 5th
symbol of every slot. The
position of the RS in the
frequency domain varies on
the basis of the PCI.
Multi-Antenna Pattern : The
RS sent by one antenna
would be DTX for the other
antenna (Discontinuous
Transmission) which means
there would be no
transmission on that symbol
for the other antenna

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Downlink Physical Channels

Primary Sync Signal Sync at symbol & frame level

Syncs at slot boundary Provides CP length
PSS SSS
Gives Center Frequency TDD or FDD Information
Non-Coherent Detection Scrambled with PSS

Consists of 4 REGs (16 REs) Carries the MIB

Located in 1st symbol PCFICH PBCH Consists of 6 RBs
Describers PDCCH format Provides Ng & BW
Present in 1st sub-frame

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 LTE Uplink Channels

PUSCH : This is the Physical Uplink Shared

Channel and just like PDSCH, it carries user
data and traffic. The UEs are given
allocations in the PDCCH for the uplink and
the UE will transmit in the allocated PUSCH
resource blocks.
PRACH : This is the Physical Random Access
Channel and it is used for ranging purposes
during the initial network entry and to
achieve uplink synchronization. PRACH has 4
formats
PUCCH : This is the Physical Uplink Control
Channel and carries the UEs CQI, HARQ
ACKs/NACKs and scheduling requests (uplink
resource allocation request).
DMRS : The Uplink Demodulation Reference
Signals are present in the center (4th symbol)
of the uplink slot.

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 Uplink Channels - PRACH

PRACH Formats : RACH Structure

PRACH Format 0 : Preamble is 0.8 ms and Cell Radius of 14.5 km
PRACH Format 1 : Preamble is 0.8 ms and Cell Radius of 77.34 km
PRACH Format 2 : Preamble is 1.6 ms and Cell Radius of 30 km
PRACH Format 3: Preamble is 1.6 ms and Cell Radius of 107 km

Relation with Cell Radius : The maximum cell radius

depends on the GP.
Cell Radius = (300 x GP (us))/2

RACH Formats - Details

RACH Preamble

RACH Response

RRC Conn Req

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 Uplink Channels - PUCCH
PUCCH : Physical Uplink Control Channel and
carries the UEs CQI, HARQ ACKs/NACKs and PUCCH Structure
scheduling requests (uplink resource allocation
request).
Position : PUCCH for UE-1 is placed on the lower
boundary (last RB) in 1st slot while it is placed at
the upper boundary (first RB) in the 2nd slot and
this creates a virtual frequency hopping for the
control channel.
Formats : PUCCH has formats for each type of
control signal for instance format 1a and 1b are
used for Scheduling Requests (SR) and ACK/NACKs
while format 2a and 2b are used for CQI and
ACK/NACKs.

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 PDSCH & PUSCH

PUSCH also contains reference signals which occupy the middle RE for every slot. The number of RS in uplink is
much higher than downlink for better channel estimation. In general, the aperiodic CQI is sent over the PUSCH
while periodic CQI is sent over PUCCH. since the allocation has to be contiguous, so the UE cannot transmit in
PUSCH and PUCCH in the same sub-frame.
PDSCH carries data for downlink and the amount of resources available for PDSCH are directly proportional to
downlink capacity and throughput.

The allocation to a user can

be discontinuous in
In uplink, the allocation should frequency and time
be continuous in frequency
domain for one user

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PHICH
group


N g N RB
DL

8 for normal cyclic prefix

N PHICH
2 N g N RB 8

DL
for extended cyclic prefix

PCFICH