PRACH Planning

Principle
PRACH configuration: two cells must be different within the PRACH re-use distance to increase the
RACH decoding success rate
PRACH transmission can be separated by:
Time (prachConfIndex)
PRACH-PUSCH interference: If PRACH resources are separated in time within eNB
PRACH-PRACH interference: If same PRACH resources are used for the cells of an eNodeB.
PRACH-PRACH interference is preferred to PRACH-PUSCH interference so prachConfIndex of the
cells on one site should be the same

Frequency (prachFreqOff)
Allocation of PRACH area should be next to PUCCH area either at upper or lower border of
frequency band, however should not overlap with PUCCH area
Avoid separation of PUSCH in two areas by PRACH (The scheduler can only handle one PUSCH
area)
For simplicity use same configuration for all cells

Sequence (PRACH CS and RootSeqIndex)

Use different sequences for all neighbour cells

PUSCH Rx power (SINR) can be very high compared to PRACH SINR in the neighbour cell and hence effectively swamp the
PRACH preambles and/or resulting in misdetections (ghost RACH).

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Preamble Formats
3GPP (TS36.211) specifies 4 random access formats for FDD

Difference in formats is based in the different durations for the cyclic prefix,
sequence and guard time which have an effect on the maximum cell radius
Formats 0 and 1 are supported in RL30
Recommendation:
Select Format0 for cell
ranges <14.53 km
Select Format1 for cell
ranges <77.34 km
Note: An additional format to these four is specified for TDD
Preamble format 2 supported in RL40
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PRACH Configuration Index Extract of the random access
preamble configurations table (only for
prachConfIndex supported preamble formats 0 and 1)

The parameter defines the Allowed System

Frame for random access attempts, the
Sub-frame numbers for random access
attempts and the Preamble format
Supported values:
For Preamble Format 0: 3 to 8
For Preamble Format 1: 19 to 24

RACH Density indicates how many RACH

resources are per 10ms frame.
Only RACH density values of 1 and 2 are
supported .E.g.
RACH density=1 Only one random
access attempt per frame
RACH density=2 Two random access
attempts per frame
prachConfIndex
LNCEL; 3..24;1; 3 (Range; Step; Default)
Range is restricted to two different ranges:
3-8 and 19-24 (internal)
Recommendation:
Configure the same PRACH configuration Indexes at cells belonging
to the same site. E.g.:
3 or 4 or 5 if RACH density=1 and 6 or 7or 8 if RACH
density=2 (Preamble Format 0)
1 Random access attempt = 1 RACH resource = 6 PRBs
Note: By configuring the PRACH Configuration Indexes at cells belonging to the same site we use the
same subframes for PRACH transmission
Neighbouring eNodeBs are not synchronised so even if the same PRACH configuration indices, there
is no guarantee that the PRACH will clash in the time domain. It is possible to set different frequency
offsets so PRACH doesnt clash in frequency domain.

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PRACH Frequency Offset
prachFreqOff

Indicates the first PRB available for PRACH in the UL frequency band
PRACH area (6 PRBs) should be next to PUCCH area either at upper or lower border of frequency band
to maximize the PUSCH area but not overlap with PUCCH area
Parameter is configured based on the PUCCH region (see PUCCH dimensioning) i.e. its value depends
on how many PUCCH resources are available.
If PRACH area is placed at the lower border of UL frequency band then:

PRACH-Frequency Offset= roundup [PUCCH resources/2]

If PRACH area is placed at the upper border of the UL frequency band then:

PRACH-Frequency Offset= NRB -6- roundup [PUCCH resources/2]

prachFreqOff
First PRB available for PRACH in UL
NRB: Number of Resource Blocks LNCEL; 0...94;1; -
Max. value is ulChBw(in PRB) - 6

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PRACH Cyclic Shift
PrachCS

PrachCS defines the configuration used for the preamble generation. i.e. how many cyclic shifts are
needed to generate the preamble
PrachCS depends on the cell size
Different cell ranges correspond to different PrachCS
Simplification: To assume all cells have same size (limited by the prachConfIndex)

Recommendation:
Select PrachCS based on the cell range E.g. if
estimated cell range is 15km then PrachCS: 12
If all cells in the network are assumed to have
same cell range then PrachCS is the same
network wise

prachCS
Preamble cyclic shift (Ncs configuration)
LNCEL;015;1; 12

PrachCS also depends on the high speed flag but it is not supported in
RL10
Currently the common practice is to assume the same cell ranges for all
cells: If all cells are considered to have the same size, the utilization of
root sequences will not be optimal as we will end up using more root
sequences per cell than the needed for certain cell range.

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Preamble Generation Root Zadoff-Chu sequence order for
preamble formats 0 3.:

First: take all available cyclic shifts of one root

Zadoff-Chu sequence:
If not enough: take next logical index and so on

prachCS
Preamble cyclic shift (Ncs configuration)
LNCEL;015;1; 0
Restricted set (high speed) in RL40

prachHSFlag
Unrestricted or restricted (high speed) set selection
LNCEL; true, false; false
Only unrestricted set could be selected in RL30

Cyclic shift given by

vNCS v 0,1,..., N ZC N CS 1, N CS 0 for unrestricted sets

Cv 0 N CS 0 for unrestricted sets
v nshift (v mod nshift

d start
RA RA
) N CS v 0,1,..., nshift ngroup nshift
RA RA RA
1 for restricted sets

*3GPP TS 36.211 Table 5.7.2-2

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PrachCS and rootSeqIndex

PrachCS defines the number of cyclic shifts (in

terms of number of samples) used to generate
multiple preamble sequences from a single root
sequence
Example based on PrachCS=12 -> number of
cyclic shifts: 119
Root sequence length is 839 so a cyclic shift
of 119 samples allows ROUNDDOWN
(839/119)= 7 cyclic shifts before making a
complete rotation (signatures per root
sequence)
64 preambles are transmitted in the PRACH
frame. If one root is not enough to generate all 64
preambles then more root sequences are
necessary
To ensure having 64 preamble sequences
within the cell it is necessary to have
ROUNDUP (64/7)= 10 root sequences per
cell

rootSeqIndex
LNCEL;0837;1; 0

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PRACH Cyclic Shift Extract from 3GPP TS 36.211 Table 5.7.2.-4 (
rootSeqIndex Preamble Formats 0-3). Mapping between logical
and physical root sequences.

RootSeqIndex points to the first root Logical root

sequence
Physical root sequence index (in increasing order of the
corresponding logical sequence number)
sequence to be used when generating the number
set of 64 preamble sequences.
Each logical rootSeqIndex is associated 023 129, 710, 140, 699, 120, 719, 210, 629, 168, 671, 84, 755, 105, 734,
with a single physical root sequence 93, 746, 70, 769, 60, 779
number. 2, 837, 1, 838

In case more than one root sequence is 2429 56, 783, 112, 727, 148, 691
necessary the consecutive number is
selected until the full set is generated 3035 80, 759, 42, 797, 40, 799

3641 35, 804, 73, 766, 146, 693

Recommendation: 4251 31, 808, 28, 811, 30, 809, 27, 812, 29, 810

Use different rootSeqIndex across neighbouring 5263 24, 815, 48, 791, 68, 771, 74, 765, 178, 661, 136, 703
cells means to ensure neighbour cells will use
different preamble sequences . ..

6475 86, 753, 78, 761, 43, 796, 39, 800, 20, 819, 21, 818
rootSeqIndex
810815 309, 530, 265, 574, 233, 606
LNCEL;0837;1; 0
816819 367, 472, 296, 543
Recommendation: Plan different logical root sequence 820837 336, 503, 305, 534, 373, 466, 280, 559, 279, 560, 419, 420, 240, 599,
numbers to generate different physical root sequence 258, 581, 229, 610
numbers.

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Support of high speed users

If prachHsFlag = true the following rootSeqIndex values can be selected

depending on prachCS (restricted set)
Cell range Required amount of prachCS Possible range for rootSeqIndex
root sequences
< 1.0 km 4 0 24...816
< 1.4 km 6 1 30810
< 2.0 km 6 2 36804
< 2.6 km 8 3 42796
< 3.4 km 9 4 52787
< 4.3 km 11 5 64779
< 5.4 km 14 6 76764
< 6.7 km 17 7 90749
< 8.6 km 20 8 116732
< 10.6 km 26 9 136704
< 13.2 km 32 11 168676
< 17.2 km 44 11 204526
< 21.5 km 64 12 264566
< 27.7 km 64 13 328498
< 32.8 km 64 14 384450

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Preamble generation High Speed Case

high-
speed set With
preamble
no delay spread delay spread = 5,2 s guard
NCs sign. per
Configuration NCS root seq. #root seq. s km s km Guard NCS s km s km
0 15 18 4 14.3 2.15 9.1 1.37 2.25 12.75 12.2 1.82 7.0 1.04
1 18 15 6 17.2 2.57 12.0 1.79 2.25 15.75 15.0 2.25 9.8 1.47
2 22 12 6 21.0 3.15 15.8 2.37 2.25 19.75 18.8 2.82 13.6 2.04
3 26 10 8 24.8 3.72 19.6 2.94 2.25 23.75 22.6 3.40 17.4 2.62
4 32 8 9 30.5 4.58 25.3 3.80 2.25 29.75 28.4 4.26 23.2 3.48
5 38 7 11 36.2 5.44 31.0 4.66 2.25 35.75 34.1 5.11 28.9 4.33
6 46 6 14 43.9 6.58 38.7 5.80 2.25 43.75 41.7 6.26 36.5 5.48
7 55 4 17 52.4 7.87 47.2 7.09 2.25 52.75 50.3 7.54 45.1 6.76
8 68 4 20 64.8 9.73 59.6 8.95 2.25 65.75 62.7 9.40 57.5 8.62
9 82 3 26 78.2 11.73 73.0 10.95 2.25 79.75 76.0 11.41 70.8 10.63
10 100 2 32 95.4 14.30 90.2 13.52 2.25 97.75 93.2 13.98 88.0 13.20
11 128 2 44 122.1 18.31 116.9 17.53 2.25 125.75 119.9 17.99 114.7 17.21
12 158 1 64 150.7 22.60 145.5 21.82 2.25 155.75 148.5 22.28 143.3 21.50
13 202 1 64 192.6 28.89 187.4 28.11 2.25 199.75 190.5 28.57 185.3 27.79
14 237 1 64 226.0 33.90 220.8 33.12 2.25 234.75 223.8 33.58 218.6 32.80

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PRACH Planning
Wrap Up

Steps:
1. Define the prachConfIndex
Depends on preamble format (cell range)
It should be the same for each cell of a site
2. Define the prachFreqOff
Depends on the PUCCH region
It can be assumed to be the same for all cells of a network (simplification)
3. Define the PrachCS
Depends on the cell range
If for simplicity same cell range is assumed for all network then prachCS is the same for
all cells
4. Define the rootSeqIndex
It points to the first root sequence
It needs to be different for neighbour cells
rootSeqIndex separation between cells depends on how many are necessary per cell
(depends on PrachCS)

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Exercise

Plan the PRACH Parameters for the sites

below:

Assumptions:
PUCCH resources =6
Cell range = 12km (all cells have same
range)
BW:10MHz
Sites Cell Azimuth PrachConfIndex PrachFreqOff PrachCs rootSeqIndex
1 0
A 2 120
3 240
1 0
B 2 120
3 240
1 0
C 2 120
3 240
1 0
D 2 120
3 240
1 0
E 2 120
3 240

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Solution (1/3)

Steps:
1. Define the prachConfIndex
Cell Range is 12 Km therefore Format 0 is
planned
For start RACH density 1 is selected
Therefore:
prachConfIndex = 3, for example the same in
all the cells

2. Define the prachFreqOff

We assume that PRACH area is placed at the upper border of the UL frequency band then:

PRACH-Frequency Offset= NRB -6- roundup [PUCCH resources/2]

(NRB = 50 for 10 MHz (1...50) & PUCCH resources = 6)
prachFreqOff = 50 6 roundup[6/2] = 41

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Solution (2/3)

Steps:
3. Define the prachCs
Cell range is 12 Km therefore the prachCS = 11
In this case there are 93 cyclic shifts to generate the
preambles and 9 signatures per root sequence

4. Define the rootSeqIndex

There are in total 838 root sequences
There are 8 root signatures required per cell
The planning could be done to allocate the
rootSeqIndex per cluster
We assume that the planned cells in the example are belonging to one cluster
In this way the first cell is taking the rootSeqIndex= 0..7, the second cell 8..15, the third cell
16..23 and so on

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Solution (3/3)

The final planning below:

Assumptions:
PUCCH resources =6
Cell range = 12km (all cells have same
range)
BW:10MHz
Sites Cell Azimuth PrachConfIndex PrachFreqOff PrachCs rootSeqIndex
1 0 3 41 11 0
A 2 120 3 41 11 8
3 240 3 41 11 16
1 0 3 41 11 24
B 2 120 3 41 11 32
3 240 3 41 11 40
1 0 3 41 11 48
C 2 120 3 41 11 56
3 240 3 41 11 64
1 0 3 41 11 72
D 2 120 3 41 11 80
3 240 3 41 11 88
1 0 3 41 11 96
E 2 120 3 41 11 104
3 240 3 41 11 112

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