RSSI, SINR, RSRP and RSRQ in LTE

RSSI, SINR, RSRSP and RSRQ: These are the basic measurement quantities used in LTE.
RSSI - Received Signal Strength Indicator

SINR - Signal to Interference & Noise Ratio

(Range 50dB to -20dB but practical range is 30 to -10)

Above 20dB its upper portion of 64QAM

10 <= SINR < 20 (Lower portion of 64QAM and Upper portion of 16QAM)

5 <= SINR < 10 (Lower portion of 16QAM and Upper portion of QPSK)

SINR < 5 (Lower portion of QPSK)

RSRP - Reference Signal Received Power

Range between -44 to -140 dBm

-75 < RSRP (Best)

-95 < RSRP < -75 (Acceptable)

RSRP < -95 (Bad)

RSRP between -102 to -108 throughput falls to zero

RSRP is a measure of signal strength. It is of most importance as it used by the UE for the cell
selection and reselection process and is reported to the network to aid in the handover
procedure. For those used to working in UMTS WCDMA it is equivalent to CPICH RSCP.

The 3GPP spec description is "The RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power) is determined for a
considered cell as the linear average over the power contributions (Watts) of the resource
elements that carry cell specific Reference Signals within the considered measurement
frequency bandwidth."

In simple terms the Reference Signal (RS) is mapped to Resource Elements (RE). This mapping
follows a specific pattern (see below). So at any point in time the UE will measure all the REs
that carry the RS and average the measurements to obtain an RSRP reading.
RSRQ - Reference Signal Received Quality

Range -3 to -19.5 dB

-9< RSRQ < -3 (Best)

-12< RSRQ < -9 (Acceptable)

RSRQ < -13 (Bad)

RSRQ is a measure of signal quality. It is measured by the UE and reported back to the network
to aid in the handover procedure. For those used to working in UMTS WCDMA is it equivalent
to CPICH Ec/N0. Unlike UTMS WCDMA though it is not used for the process of cell selection and
reselection (at least in the Rel08 version of the specs).

The 3GPP spec description is "RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality) is defined as the ratio:
N×RSRP/(E -UTRA carrier RSSI) where N is the number of Resource Blocks of the E-UTRA carrier
RSSI measurement bandwidth."

The new term that appears here is RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator). RSSI is effectively a
measurement of all of the power contained in the applicable spectrum (1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or
20MHz). This could be signals, control channels, data channels, adjacent cell power, background
noise, everything. As RSSI applies to the whole spectrum we need to multiple the RSRP
measurement by N (the number of resource blocks) which effectively applies the RSRP
measurement across the whole spectrum and allows us to compare the two.

Finally SINR is a measure of signal quality as well. Unlike RSRQ, it is not defined in the 3GPP
specs but defined by the UE vendor. It is not reported to the network. SINR is used a lot by
operators, and the LTE industry in general, as it better quantifies the relationship between RF
conditions and throughput. UEs typically use SINR to calculate the CQI (Channel Quality
Indicator) they report to the network.

The components of the SINR calculation can be defined as:

S: indicates the power of measured usable signals. Reference signals (RS) and physical downlink
shared channels (PDSCHs) are mainly involved

I: indicates the power of measured signals or channel interference signals from other cells in
the current system

N: indicates background noise, which is related to measurement bandwidths and receiver noise
coefficients

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RSSI & RSRP in LTE

Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)

RSSI is the more traditional metric that has long been used to display signal strength for GSM,
CDMA1X, etc., and it integrates all of the RF power within the channel passband. In other
words, for LTE, RSSI measurement bandwidth is all active subcarriers.

RSRP, on the other hand, is an LTE specific metric that averages the RF power in all of the
reference signals in the passband. Remember those aforementioned and depicted 100
subcarriers that contain reference signals? To calculate RSRP, the power in each one of those
subcarriers is averaged. As such, RSRP measurement bandwidth is the equivalent of only a
single subcarrier.

In other words:

RSRP (Reference Signal Receive Power) is the average power of Resource Elements (RE) that
carry cell specific Reference Signals (RS) over the entire bandwidth, so RSRP is only measured in
the symbols carrying RS. While RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) is a parameter which
provides information about total received wide-band power (measure in all symbols) including
all interference and thermal noise.

So it would be safe to write that, in LTE, RSRP provides information about signal strength and
RSSI helps in determining interference and noise information. This is the reason, RSRQ
(Reference Signal Receive Quality) measurement and calculation is based on both RSRP and
RSSI.

Since the logarithmic ratio of 100 subcarriers to one subcarrier is 20 dB (e.g. 10 × log 100 = 20),
RSSI tends to measure about 20 dB higher than does RSRP. Or, to put it another way, RSRP
measures about 20 dB lower than what we are accustomed to observing for a given signal level.
Thus, that superficially weak -102 dBm RSRP signal level would actually be roughly -82 dBm if it
were converted to RSSI.

To conclude, here are a few takeaways about RSSI and RSRP as signal strength measurement
techniques for LTE:
 RSSI varies with LTE downlink bandwidth. For example, even if all other factors were
equal, VZW 10 MHz LTE bandwidth RSSI would measure 3 dB greater than would Sprint 5
MHz LTE bandwidth RSSI. But that does not actually translate to stronger signal to the
end user.
 RSSI varies with LTE subcarrier activity -- the greater the data transfer activity, the higher
the RSSI. But, again, that does not actually translate to stronger signal to the end user.
 RSRP does a better job of measuring signal power from a specific sector while potentially
excluding noise and interference from other sectors.
 RSRP levels for usable signal typically range from about -75 dBm close in to an LTE cell
site to -120 dBm at the edge of LTE coverage.