Overview

LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and it was started as a project in 2004 by
telecommunication body known as the Third Generation Partnership Project
(3GPP).
The main goal of LTE is to provide a high data rate, low latency and packet
optimized radio access technology supporting flexible bandwidth deployments.
Same time its network architecture has been designed with the goal to support
packet-switched traffic with seamless mobility and great quality of service.
 LTE is the successor technology not only of UMTS but also of CDMA 2000.
 LTE is important because it will bring up to 50 times performance
improvement and much better spectral efficiency to cellular networks.
 LTE introduced to get higher data rates, so it’s an ideal technology to support
high date rates for the services such as voice over IP (VOIP), streaming
multimedia, videoconferencing or even a high-speed cellular modem.
 LTE uses both Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex
(FDD) mode.
 LTE supports flexible carrier bandwidths, from 1.4 MHz up to 20 MHz as well
as both FDD and TDD.
 LTE systems support (MIMO) Multiple Input Multiple Output transmissions,
which allow the base station to transmit several data streams over the same
carrier simultaneously.
 All interfaces between network nodes in LTE are now IP based.
 Quality of Service (QoS) mechanism have been standardized on all interfaces
to ensure that the requirement can still be met when capacity limits are
reached.
 Works with GSM/EDGE/UMTS systems utilizing existing 2G and 3G spectrum
and new spectrum. Supports hand-over and roaming to existing mobile
networks.
LTE Network structure
1. LTE Air Interface EUTRAN (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network).
2. LTE Evolved Packet core EPC.

Network Interfaces
1. Uu (between the UE and the eNodeB) [Data-Signaling].
2. X2 (between 2 eNodeBs) [Data-Signaling].
3. S1 (eNB and MME) [Signaling].
4. S1u (eNB and SGW) [Data].
5. S10 (Between2 MMEs) [Signaling].
6. S6a (MME and HSS) [Signaling].
7. S11 (MME and SGW) [Signaling].
8. S4 (SGW and SGSN) [Data].
9. S5/S8 (SGW and PGW) [Data-Signaling].
10. S3 (MME and SGSN) [Signaling].
11. Gx (PGW and PCRF) [Signaling].
12. SGi (PGW and IP Networks) [Data].
First LTE EUTRAN
It is a radio access network standard meant to be a replacement of the UMTS, HSDPA and HSUPA.
Unlike HSPA, LTE's E-UTRA is an entirely new air interface system. It provides higher data rates,
lower latency and is optimized for packet data. EUTRAN (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio)
consists of eNB (Base station). EUTRAN is responsible for complete radio management in LTE.
The Air interface between LTE network and UE supports high data rate owing to OFDM and
multiple antenna techniques employed (MIMO). Where OFDMA is used from network to UE air
interface (downlink) and SC-FDMA is used from UE to network air interface (uplink).
The only Entity of the LTE EUTRAN is its Radio Base Station RBS (The ENodeB).
 ENodeB
eNB embeds its own control functionality, rather than using an RNC (Radio Network
Controller) as does a Node B.
When UE powered is on, eNB is responsible for Radio Resource Management, i.e. it shall do
1- The radio bearer control.
2- Radio admission control.
3- Allocation of uplink and downlink to UE etc.
When a packet from UE arrives to eNB, eNB shall
1- Compress the IP header.
2- Encrypt the data stream.
3- Adding a GTP-U header to the payload.
4- Sending it to the SGW. Before the data is actually transmitted the control plane has to be
established.
5- ENB is responsible for choosing a MME using MME selection function.
6- The QoS is taken care by eNB as the eNB is only entity on radio.
7- Other functionalities include scheduling and transmission of paging messages, broadcast
messages, and bearer level rate enforcements also done by eNB.

Second LTE EPC

Consists of MME, SGW, PGW, HSS and PCRF.
 Mobility Management Entity MME
The MME is a control entity. It is responsible for all the control plane operations. All the
NAS signaling originates at UE and terminates in MME. MME is also responsible for
tracking area list management, selection of PGW/SGW and also selection of other MME
during handovers. MME is also responsible for SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node)
selection during LTE to 2G/3G handovers. The UE is also authenticated by MME.
MME is also responsible for bearer management functions including establishment of
dedicated bearers for all signaling traffic flow.
  Serving Gateway SGW
Serving gateway terminates the interface towards EUTRAN. For each UE there is a single
Serving GW associated with EPS at a given point of time. SGW acts as a local mobility entity
for inter eNB handovers. It also acts a mobility anchor for inter 3GPP mobility. SGW is
responsible for packet routing and forwarding, buffering the downlink packets. As eNB is
responsible for uplink packet marking, SGW is responsible for downlink packet marking.

 PDN Gateway PGW

PGW terminates SGi interface towards the PDN. PGW is responsible for all the IP packet
based operations such as deep packet inspection, UE IP address allocation, Transport level
packet marking in uplink and downlink, accounting etc. PGW contacts PCRF to determine
the QoS for bearers. It is also responsible for UL and DL rate enforcement.

 Home Subscriber Server HSS

The HSS is a central database that contains user-related and subscription-related
information. The functions of the HSS include functionalities such as mobility management,
call and session establishment support, user authentication and access authorization. It also
holds information about the PDNs to which the user can connect. In addition the HSS holds
dynamic information such as the identity of the MME to which the user is currently attached
or registered. The HSS may also integrate the authentication center (AUC), which generates
the vectors for authentication and security keys.

 Policy Control and Charging Rules Function PCRF

The PCRF is responsible for policy control decision-making as well as for controlling the flow-
based charging functionalities in the Policy Control Enforcement Function (PCEF), which
resides in the P-GW. The PCRF provides the QoS authorization (QoS class identifier [QCI] and
bit rates) that decides how a certain data flow will be treated in the PCEF and ensures that
this is in accordance with the user's subscription profile.

Procedure
The EUTRAN which contains the Evolved Node B (eNodeB) provides connectivity between the
User Equipment (UE) and EPC over the LTE UTRAN UE interface (LTE Uu) and S1-U interface for
user data and S1-MME for signaling. The X2 interface is used to carry signaling between eNodeBs
and optionally user when the ‘Data forwarding at intra LTE handover’ feature is used.
The Serving Gateway (SGW) and Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) in the EPC provide
connectivity for user plane data from the eNodeB to the external IP Networks over the S5/S8
interface between the SGW and PGW and SGi interface between the PGW and the external IP
Networks. The Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) which handles policy control decisions
and flow-based charging control communicates with the PGW over the Gx interface. The SGW
uses the S11 interface to communicate with the MME and S4 to communicate with the Serving
GPRS Support Node (SGSN) in the GPRS Network.
The Mobility Management Entity (MME) is the control node in the EPS and uses the S11 interface
to signal to the SGW, the S1-MME to signal to the eNodeB and the S6a to signal to the Home
Subscriber Server (HSS). Communication between MMEs is supported by the S10 interface as
illustrated in the Figure above.

LTE APNs
 The name of a gateway between a 4G mobile network and another computer network, frequently
the public Internet.
 A mobile device making a data connection must be configured with an APN to present to the carrier.
The carrier will then examine this identifier to determine what type of network connection should
be created.
 More specifically, the APN identifies the packet data network (PDN) that a mobile data user wants
to communicate with. In addition to identifying a PDN, an APN may also be used to define the type
of service that is provided by the PDN.
 APN is used in3GPP data access networks, e.g. General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), evolved packet
core (EPC).

LTE Terminologies
  Type of LTE Cells
 SC: Serving Cell
 MN: Monitoring Neighbor
The MN is a possible Candidate to be a SC by a Handover Procedure at any time.

 EARFCN
A number reflects the center frequency of an LTE carrier. But it’s not the exact
frequency.
 CI (Cell Identity)
Identifies a cell within a particular network.
 RSRP(Reference Symbol Received Power)
Represents the mean measured power per reference symbol.
 RSRQ(Reference Symbol Received Quality)
Provides an indication of the reference signal quality
 These two types of measurements are used in the handover evaluation process, the intra LTE
handover can be set to trigger on the RSRP value or the RSRQ value.

LTE Identifiers

term Stands for Meaning

IMSI International Mobile Subscriber  Unique identification of mobile (LTE) subscriber
Identity • Network (MME) gets the PLMN of the subscriber
PLMN ID Public Land Mobile Network  Unique identification of PLMN
Identifier
MCC Mobile Country Code  assigned by ITU
MNC Mobile Network Code • assigned by National Authority
MSIN Mobile Subscriber Identification  assigned by operator
Number
GUTI Globally Unique Temporary UE  To identify a UE between the UE and the MME
Identity on behalf of IMSI for security reason
S-TMSI SAE Temporary Mobile Subscriber  To locally identify a UE in short within a MME
Identity group (Unique within a MME Pool)
 S-TMSI = MMEC + M-TMSI
M-TMSI MME Mobile Subscriber Identity  Unique within a MME
GUMMEI Globally Unique MME Identity • To identify a MME uniquely in global
• GUTI contains GUMMEI
MMEI MME Identifier • To identify a MME uniquely within a PLMN
• Operator commissions at eNB
MMEGI MME Group Identifier • Unique within a PLMN
MMEC MME Code • To identify a MME uniquely within a MME Group.
• S-TMSI contains MMEC
IMEI International Mobile Equipment • To identify a ME (Mobile Equipment) uniquely
Identity
ECGI E-UTRAN Cell Global Identifier • To identify a Cell in global (Globally Unique)
• EPC can know UE location based of ECGI
 = PLMN I D+ ECI
ECI E-UTRAN Cell Identifier  To identify a Cell within a PLMN
 =eNB ID + Cell ID
Global eNB ID Global eNodeB Identifier  To identify an eNB in global (Globally Unique)
 = PLMN ID + eNB ID
eNB ID eNodeB Identifier  To identify an eNB within a PLMN
TAI Tracking Area Identity • To identify Tracking Area
• Globally unique
 =PLMN ID + TAC
TAC Tracking Area Code  To indicate eNB to which Tracking Area the eNB
belongs (per Cell)
 Unique within a PLMN
PCI Physical Cell Identifier  EUTRAN Cell Identity in the Network
Physical Layer -  eNB Identity within the Network
Cell Id Group
Physical Layer -  Cell Identity in the eNB
SubCell Id
RSN Root Sequence Index  Each cell must have a different RSN to avoid the
reception of false preambles in adjacent eNodeBs
 The RACH planning is linked to the PCI planning.
Example
 The site Data as it appears from Cellfile

 The site Data as it appears from the TEMS LTE Serving Cell window

LTE Throughput

Orthogonal Multiple Access Schemes

 Downlink: OFDMA
 Uplink: SC-FDMA

The Main channels used for carrying downlink and uplink user Data traffic are

 PDSCH: Physical Downlink Shared Channel

The main downlink data-bearing channel in LTE, used for all user data, broadcast
information and also used for paging messages.
Available to carry user data from the eNB to the User Equipment UE.
  PUSCH: Physical Uplink Shared Channel
The PUSCH carries in addition to user data any control information necessary to decode
the information such as transport format indicators and MIMO parameters.
Available to carry user from the UE to the eNB.

LTE handover
There are three types of mobility procedures for intra LTE handover:
 Intra RBS Handover
Used when both the source and target cells reside in the same RBS.
 X2 Based Handover
Used when an X2 relation exists between source and target cell. Usually this occurs when both
cells are served by the same MME.
 S1 Based Handover
Used when no X2 relation exists between source and target cell.

Circuit-switched fallback (CSFB)

In this approach, LTE just provides data services, and when a voice call is to be initiated
or received, it will fall back to the circuit-switched domain. When using this solution,
operators just need to upgrade the MSC instead of deploying the IMS, and therefore, can
provide services quickly. However, the disadvantage is longer call setup delay.