PHICH

Sunday, February 26, 2017

4:45 PM
 I explained the gains of optimizing the PDCCH (control part) of the LTE subframe in
my previous article. Let’s have a look at the data part (PDSCH) and find out various ways to
improve it’s efficiency. The spectral efficiency is simply the number of bits transmitted over a
frequency bandwidth in a specific time and is measured in bits/s/Hz. It is proportional to
throughput as the throughput is also bits per time transmitted in a certain bandwidth. From
LTE’s perspective, if the number of bits transmitted in a subframe (time) over a specific
number of Resource Blocks (frequency bandwidth) is high, then it will correspond to higher
throughput and higher spectral efficiency. Let’s understand the various factors impacting the
spectral efficiency and ways to perform LTE throughput optimization.

– Signal To Noise & Interference Ratio:

The most basic and common factor that controls the spectral efficiency and throughput is the
SINR (Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio). If the SINR of a network is bad, then that puts a
 limit on the throughput gain that it can achieve. So, the first thing to verify is the average SINR
of the network. Let’s check some of the factors that impact SINR

Inter-site distance

This one is a basic thing. If sites are too close to each other, they will have a higher tendency
to interfere with each other and will require aggressive down-tilts to limit overshooting. The
distance is something that is usually fixed as LTE sites mostly use the previously deployed
network. So, there is not much to do at this level other than downtilts to improve SINR and
reduce overshooting.

 Electrical Tilt Ports: It is better to use antennas which assign a different RET port (electrical
tilt) to LTE. That provides flexibility for optimization. If the network uses the same RET port for
LTE and other RATs (3G or 2G) then any change on LTE tilt will impact the other RAT and it
takes away the flexibility. So, it is a good idea to keep this in mind in the design or expansion
phase.

 Pa & Pb: Another thing that can be done in case of smaller inter-site distance is to use a more
balanced RS power (Reference Signal). There are two parameters in LTE Pa and Pb which
define the power of the Reference Signals against the other symbols e.g. PDSCH Symbols. I
will just explain with an example. If the Pa is -3 and Pb is 1, then that means that the
Reference Signals will be having 3 dB higher power than the PDSCH symbols. When the inter-
site distance is low, then high reference signal power can result in higher interference. If the
inter-site distance is large then this configuration can be helpful as a 3dB Reference Signal
boost will improve coverage as LTE coverage is controlled with RSRP and RSRP is the direct
outcome of RS power. However, in case of small inter-site distance, Pb and Pa values of 0
might provide a more optimized solution as in this case, the RS power will not be boosted
compared to the PDSCH symbols. Moreover, the PDCCH/PDSCH symbols in which Reference
Signals are present will have a slightly higher power for 2 and 4 antenna port systems. This
happens because previously with 0,-3 configuration, the RS were taking the extra available
power but now with the 0,0 configuration, the extra power is used by the other channels
instead of RS. So, that improves the credibility of PDSCH and can result in better throughput
results. This is a big topic so I am just touching it here and will cover this in more details in the
future articles.

For Example Live values of Pa & Pb

 Cell Name RS Power (dBm) Pb Pa

G_15_2-0 21.2 1 -3

G_15_2-1 21.2 1 -3

G_15_2-2 18.2 0 0

Islamabad_Homes-0 21.2 1 -3

Islamabad_Homes-1 18.2 0 0

Islamabad_Homes-2 21.2 1 -3

Motorway_Chowk-0 18.2 0 0

Motorway_Chowk-1 18.2 0 0

Motorway_Chowk-2 18.2 0 0

Load & Utilization

Second factor is the load in the area or cluster. Higher the load, higher the interference to the
neighbouring cells. As the load increases, the power per Resource Element increases which
will result in higher aggregate power in the area increasing the RSSI. For neighbouring cell,
such a power is considered interference. So, if the load increases above a threshold, it is
better to add another carrier or if another carrier already exists, then it will be better to
offload the congested carrier and shift the load to the uncongested carrier. This can be done
using Load Balancing features or by tuning the cell reselection or mobility parameters.

Sometimes, the actual traffic volume is not that high but the utilization of the cell is still very
high. This is usually caused due to low signal quality as the users with bad SINR will take a lot
RBs at a lower modulation. In case, the traffic is not high but utilization is still high, it is a good
idea to see the TA and CQI for the cell. If TA is pretty high and CQI is below 8 (value depends
on the frequency layer) then it might be a better idea to physically optimize the area or cell.
Introducing PDCCH optimization also helps in such cases as it can add to the PDSCH capacity
relieving congestion to an extent.

PCI Planning

As described in my PCI planning article, if the adjacent cells with overlapping coverages have
same PCI modulo 3, then there is a probability of RS interference between them. Such an
interference will reduce the overall RS SINR and demodulation capability resulting in
throughput degradation. So, it should be tried to avoid PCI modulo3 conflicts wherever
possible. In FDD networks, it is better to ensure that time synchronization is not enabled as
that adds a randomness to the system and PCI mod3 impact is reduced significantly.

– CQI & MCS Mapping:

The next step is the CQI (Channel Quality Indicator). Once the UE measures it’s SINR, it will
convert it to a CQI value so it can report to the eNB. The eNB will take this CQI and map it to a
MCS (Modulation & Coding Scheme) value. A higher SINR will result in a higher CQI value and
consequently, a higher MCS index. As MCS increases, the throughput usually increases so we
need to ensure that we have the most optimum CQI and MCS indexes for each SINR value. In
LTE, there are 16 CQI indexes and 32 MCS indexes. Usually, the CQI value of below 7 is
considered bad and CQI value of around 10 is considered fair.

CQI Adjustment Algorithms

The eNB adjusts the raw CQI value shared by the UE to find an optimum CQI and this provides
a higher spectral efficiency. There are basically two scenarios where this comes into play

Consider a UE-1 that measures its SINR value to be around 10 dB and based on that it
calculates a CQI of 9 and sends it to the eNB. Another UE, let’s call it UE-2, measures its SINR
value to be around 8 dB but based on that it sends CQI of 9 as the UEs have different chipsets
from different vendors and can have a different CQI value for same SINR indexes. The eNB will
have two UEs with same CQI value and if the eNB provides both of them with the same MCS
(for example MCS20) then it is possible that the UE-1 might be able to work with MCS20 but
the UE-2 will not be able to decode MCS20 properly at 8 dB SINR. So, to address this issue, the
eNB maintains another index which is like the outer loop of BLER (Block Error Rate). Most of
the vendors maintain a BLER target of 10%. Now consider the same scenario, both UEs get
MCS20 and UE-1 works with a BLER value of 10% but the UE-2 had lower SINR so it will have a
relatively higher BLER. Let’s say, the eNB calculates the BLER to be around 13% so the eNB will
lower the MCS for the UE-2 and make it 19. If the BLER still remains above 10%, the eNB will
reduce it further to ensure that the BLER target is maintained.

Similarly, if the UE sends a CQI value of 8 and eNB initiates downlink data with a MCS of 16
and it finds out that the BLER value is below 10%, it will increase MCS to 17 or 18 until the
BLER target is achieved. This scenario will increase the spectral efficiency and the throughput.

So, we need to ensure that CQI adjustment or dynamic CQI assignment algorithms or outer
loop control based on BLER is activated to achieve maximum gains from the channel.
CQI Convergence

Another important thing is that some vendors use low CQI values initially. For example, if the
UE has just accessed the cell and it shares a CQI value of 9, the eNB will treat it as a CQI of 7
and a corresponding MCS will be allocated to it. Then after subsequent transmissions, the eNB
will keep monitoring BLER and once the credibility of the UE’s CQI is ensured, the eNB will
converge to the effective CQI. Some vendors keep this as a hard-coded algorithm while others
provide parameters to tune this and then these parameters can be tuned to limit this
behaviour resulting in faster convergence and higher throughputs especially for small packet
data transfers. For instance, a UE which has a small amount of data accesses the cell and gets
its data within two to three TTIs (subframes), then the eNB will not have enough CQI samples
to converge quickly. The same UE will try again next time and the eNB will keep using a
conservative CQI and MCS for such a UE. So, if the delta for initial CQI value is reduced, such
UEs will get a less conservative CQI and MCS resulting in better data rates.

CQI Periodicity

Another thing that helps is the CQI periodicity or the frequency of CQI reporting from the UE.
If the UE reports CQI after a large interval, then the eNB might not have the most accurate
CQI to begin with and it will take longer time to converge to the optimum MCS. Usually CQI
reports are shared every 40 or 80 ms but if the UE is moving or if the channel is fluctuating
then 40 or 80 ms can be considered a large interval. If we shift the CQI period to a smaller
value like 20ms or 10ms, then the CQI will be more accurate and that should improve the
spectral efficiency. However, the lower the interval, higher the number of CQI reports and
higher the PUCCH utilization. Periodic CQI reports are sent over PUCCH in uplink so if we
reduce the CQI reporting interval, that will increase the load on PUCCH. This can lead to
 interference on PUCCH and it can also result in RRC rejections due to PUCCH congestion. eNB
needs PUCCH for CQI, HARQ & SRIs so if the PUCCH is congested, then it will have to reject
new incoming access requests. This can be solved by using the following two approaches

 Adaptive or Dynamic PUCCH : This is introduced by vendors to resolve the RRC Rejections due
to PUCCH overload. This allows the PUCCH to expand and it can consume more Resource
Blocks if required. The down side is that the PUCCH takes the Resource Blocks from the
PUSCH which can then limit the uplink throughput. However, usually the networks require
higher downlink capacity so uplink can be compromised to an extent.
 Adaptive CQI Period : This is another enhancement that some vendors have. This makes the
CQI reporting interval dynamic and the eNB can adjust it based on the user’s characteristics.
This way, if the eNB finds a UE that has no channel fluctuation (mostly stationary), it can use
longer CQI reporting interval like 80ms and eNB can reduce the interval to 10ms for a UE that
has high fluctuation. This provides an optimum performance gain in CQI accuracy without
impacting the PUCCH load to that extent.

There is another type of CQI reports known as Aperiodic CQIs but we will discuss that in the
next episode of the throughput optimization.

Adaptive BLER Targets

Firstly, lets understand the concept of BLER. It can be divided into two categories:
 Initial BLER: When the eNB sends data to the UE and UE is unable to decode it, then it will
send a HARQ NACK to the eNB. A NACK means that the eNB will have to retransmit the data
and this NACK is considered IBLER or Initial Block Error.
 Residual BLER: If the UE is unable to decode the data even after retransmission, the UE will
send another NACK and the eNB will have to retransmit again. However, there is a limit to
these retransmissions and usually they are configurable. Commonly, these retransmissions
are set to 4 and after 4 retransmissions, the eNB will not retransmit at HARQ level and
consider this as a Residual Block Error.
The BLER target is maintained by the IBLER so this means that the eNB tries to maintain an
IBLER of 10% for each UE. RBLER is usually very low and it is supposed to be less than 0.5%.
The question may arise that why don’t we reduce the IBLER further and make it low as that
should reduce retransmissions. The problem here is that lowering IBLER means that we need
to lower the MCS. Even a very low MCS will not ensure a linear decrease in IBLER but it will
degrade throughput excessively. So, various simulations and field trials were done to come up
with an optimum target of 10% for IBLER which is followed by most of the vendors.

However, recently it has been found that BLER target of 10% works fine in fair conditions but
when the radio conditions are bad or good, other BLER targets provide higher gains. For
instance, if the radio conditions are bad, a BLER target of 10% keeps the MCS very
conservative and increasing the BELR target, increases the MCS and it provides higher
throughput gains. So, such parameters can be tuned if available to get better results.

– Mobility Strategy:

One thing that can really help in increasing the throughput is the optimum mobility strategy.

Transition to Higher CQI layer

Consider two LTE layers, for instance L800 and L1800 with same bandwidth. In this case, L800
will have a higher coverage as it is a lower frequency. So, the user count on L800 will be higher
compared to L1800. However, the lower frequency layer also has higher interference since it
has a bigger coverage radius. So, that will result in a lower CQI and a bad throughput. L1800
throughput will usually be better even with same bandwidth because it will have better CQI.
So, the most important thing is to ensure that the layer with the better CQI gets most of the
traffic. This can be done in many ways and I have jotted down a few of those.
The easiest way is to give a higher priority to L1800 and that will shift most of the UEs in
L1800 coverage away from L800. This will ensure better CQI for users and thus a better
throughput. Another way would be to keep them on same priority and provide a frequency
offset to move the users to L1800. This is more reasonable if L1800 is also getting overloaded
then the amount of load to be shifted can be tuned by varying the offsets.

I prefer load shifting by cell reselection instead of handovers. If the handover thresholds are
changed or frequency priority based handovers are used, then it initiates gap periods. For UE,
to move from one frequency to another frequency in connected mode, it needs to measure
the target frequency. In order to measure the target frequency, the UE goes into a gap mode
of 6 ms. This gap mode repeats itself after every 40 or 80ms. So, if it repeats every 40ms then
that means that the UE cannot be scheduled for 6ms in every 40ms. Moreover, when the UE
gets data, it needs to send a HARQ ACK/NACK after 4ms. So, it means that since the eNB
knows that the UE will be in gap mode so the eNB will not schedule any data for the UE 4ms
before the gap mode. That makes it 10ms in each 40ms that the UE cannot be scheduled
which is around 25% of the time. So, inter-frequency handovers should be minimized as it can
 cause a 25% degradation in throughput. Cell reselection works in idle mode so it is a much
better way to move users between the layers.

Load Balancing

Another way is to enable load balancing between the layers and ensuring that the higher CQI
layer gets more load. Load balancing usually also comes in two modes

 Connected Mode: In this case, the eNB calculates the PRBs or user count and tries to maintain
target load values by performing load based handovers between the layers.
 Idle Mode: In this case, the eNB sends the frequency in the RRC Release command to the UE.
eNB increases the priority of the target frequency for that UE temporarily and the UE tries to
reselect to that frequency in idle mode.
Once again, I prefer idle mode based load balancing as it does not introduce the inter-
frequency handovers and also gets the work done. But idle mode based load balancing will
not have significant impact in case the layers have different priorities since one layer already
has higher priority and idle mode based load balancing also moves users by increasing the
priority. So, if the UEs are not moving to higher priority layer than that means that the layer
has coverage constraints and then the idle mode based load balancing will also be unable to
shift the load.

Vertical Beam-Width

Another important factor is that many times, the low band like L800 has a bigger vertical
beamwidth than the corresponding higher band. This effectively means that at the same tilt
value, the L800 will have a much bigger coverage foot print than the L1800. So, before making
any mobility strategy, it is important to verify the antenna patterns especially the vertical
beam-width for all the layers. If the beam-width of one layer is significantly wider than the
other, then ensure to put a tilt offset between the two to keep an optimum and balanced
coverage.

– Scheduler Fairness:

Another important factor is the scheduler type. A scheduler can work in multiple modes

Round Robin: In this mode, the scheduler provides equal resources to all users. This is not an
optimum algorithm as different users have different data requirements.

Max C/I: This mode provides significantly higher resources to users in good coverage
conditions. This mode can starve the cell edge users and they will not get enough data
resulting in degradation in user experience.

Proportion Fair: This scheme maintains a fairness between all users maintaining a healthy
resource sharing between all user types. The basic concept of this mode is to strike a balance
between users and it does that by prioritizing based on CQI and data rates. So, if the CQI is
high, it will give resource to that user first but since it needs to maintain a fair data rate for all
users, the cell edge users will also be scheduled. This scheme is essentially a combination of
both round robin and Max C/I as it provides more resources to users with higher CQI as
 compared to round robin but it also provides more resources to cell edge users when
compared to Max C/I. Hence, it gets the name Proportional fair.

The user throughput KPI improves with Max C/I scheduler as it provides more resources to
good users resulting in higher user throughput but the cell throughput is improved with
Proportional Fair algorithm as it strikes a balance between all users. So, if the user throughput
KPI is to be improved then the scheduler can be tilted towards Max C/I while Proportional Fair
can be used if cell throughput gain is required. The optimization at this level really needs deep
understanding of the scheduler’s algorithm and it also depends if the specific vendor provides
the options to play with the scheduling weights.

These are the basics to improve the spectral efficiency for a network. In the next part, I will
explain the features that can be used to improve throughput along with the scenarios where
they will be applicable

From <https://ourtechplanet.com/lte-throughput-optimization-part-2-spectral-efficiency/>

1. Throughput Optimization
Signal To Noise & Interference Ratio - (Physical Redesign for getting best SINR values)
Electrical Tilt Ports - (Different technologies have different E-tilt antenna ports)
Pa & Pb value - (for city/dense area use Pa Pb 0,0 (same power of PDSCH and RS 18.2 dBm
power) for rural use Pa Pb -3,1 (increased RS power 21.2 dBm than PDSCH
Load & Utilization - (If utilization is high
PCI Planning - (if MOD 3 overlap then RS interference will increase and resultingly decrease in
RS SINR and demodulation capability.
CQI Adjustment Algorithms - (UE measure RS SINR and send CQI value according to that MCS
will be decided it is vendor specific )
CQI Periodicity - (Use dynamic CQI for varying and static conditions (For static CQI update with
delay for moving CQI update )

S1 interface fault (Zero Traffic after occurring this

From <https://ourtechplanet.com/lte-throughput-optimization-part-2-spectral-efficiency/>

MIB(Master Information Block)

MIB is special signal that carries the following information. As you see, you can get the
System Bandwidth and SFN by decoding MIB.

i) DL Bandwidth, Number of Transmit Antenna

ii) System Frame Number (SFN)
iii) PHICH Configuration
iv) Transmit every 40 ms , repeat every 10 ms

MasterInformationBlock ::= SEQUENCE {

dl-Bandwidth ENUMERATED { n6, n15, n25, n50, n75, n100},
systemFrameNumber BIT STRING (SIZE (8)),
phich-Config PHICH-Config,
spare BIT STRING (SIZE (10))
}

Following is the cycles in which MIB and SIB is transmitted.

From <http://www.sharetechnote.com/html/Handbook_LTE_MIB.html>
MIB Carries physical layer information of LTE cell which in turn help
receive further SIs, i.e. system bandwidth
SIB1 Contains information regarding whether or not UE is allowed to
access the LTE cell. It also defines the scheduling of the other
SIBs. carries cell ID, MCC, MNC, TAC, SIB mapping.
SIB2 Carries common channel as well as shared channel information. It
also carries RRC, uplink power control , preamble power
ramping, uplink Cyclic Prefix Length, sub-frame
hopping, uplink EARFCN
SIB3 carries cell re-selection information as well as Intra frequency cell
re-selection information RESELECTION
SIB4 carries Intra Frequency Neighbors(on same frequency); carries
serving cell and neighbor cell frequencies required for cell
reselection as well handover between same RAT base
stations(GSM BTS1 to GSM BTS2) and different RAT base
stations(GSM to WCDMA or GSM to LTE or between WCDMA to
LTE etc.) . Covers E-UTRA and other RATs as mentioned INTRA
FREQ
SIB5 Carries Inter Frequency Neighbors(on different frequency); carries
E-UTRA LTE frequencies, other neighbor cell frequencies from
other RATs. The purpose is cell reselection and handover. 4G HO
SIB6 carries WCDMA neighbors information i.e. carries serving UTRA
and neighbor cell frequencies useful for cell re-selection . 3G HO
SIB7 carries GSM neighbours information i.e. Carries GERAN
frequencies as well as GERAN neighbor cell frequencies. It is used
for cell re-selection as well as handover purpose. 2G HO
SIB8 carries CDMA-2000 EVDO frequencies, CDMA-2000 neighbor cell
frequencies.
SIB9 carries HNBID (Home eNodeB Identifier)
SIB10 carries ETWS prim. notification
SIB11 carries ETWS sec. notification

From <http://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/LTE-MIB-SIB-system-information-blocks.html>

System information block 2 (SIB2) in LTE

 After initial cell synchronization process is completed, UE will read master information
block which contains important information regarding downlink cell bandwidth, PHICH
configuration and System frame number. Then UE can read System information block 1 and
System information block 2 to obtain useful information related to cell access, SIB scheduling
and radio resource configuration

System information block 2 carries radio resource configuration information which is common
for all UEs.

SIB2 information can be divided in following sub categories

 Random access channel (RACH) related parameters
 Idle mode paging configurations
 Uplink physical control channel (PUCCH) and shared channel (PUSCH) configurations
 Uplink power control and Sounding reference signal configurations
 Uplink carrier frequency / Bandwidth
 Cell barring information
SIB2 Example
Example SIB2 info is shown below (Taken from UE logs). This SIB2 does not represent any
real network
value BCCH-DL-SCH-Message ::=
message c1 : systemInformation :
criticalExtensions systemInformation-r8 :
sib-TypeAndInfo
sib2 :
radioResourceConfigCommon
rach-ConfigCommon
preambleInfo
numberOfRA-Preambles n40,
preamblesGroupAConfig
sizeOfRA-PreamblesGroupA n32,
messageSizeGroupA b144,
messagePowerOffsetGroupB dB10
,
powerRampingParameters
powerRampingStep dB2,
preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower dBm-104
,
ra-SupervisionInfo
preambleTransMax n10,
ra-ResponseWindowSize sf5,
mac-ContentionResolutionTimer sf32
,
maxHARQ-Msg3Tx 3
,
bcch-Config
modificationPeriodCoeff n8
,
pcch-Config
defaultPagingCycle rf64,
nB oneT
,
prach-Config
rootSequenceIndex 30,
 prach-ConfigInfo
prach-ConfigIndex 4,
highSpeedFlag FALSE,
zeroCorrelationZoneConfig 8,
prach-FreqOffset 3
,
pdsch-ConfigCommon
referenceSignalPower 11,
p-b 1
,
pusch-ConfigCommon
pusch-ConfigBasic
n-SB 1,
hoppingMode interSubFrame,
pusch-HoppingOffset 6,
enable64QAM FALSE
,
ul-ReferenceSignalsPUSCH
groupHoppingEnabled FALSE,
groupAssignmentPUSCH 0,
sequenceHoppingEnabled FALSE,
cyclicShift 0
,
pucch-ConfigCommon
deltaPUCCH-Shift ds2,
nRB-CQI 1,
nCS-AN 0,
n1PUCCH-AN 36
,
soundingRS-UL-ConfigCommon release : NULL,
uplinkPowerControlCommon
p0-NominalPUSCH -100,
alpha al1,
p0-NominalPUCCH -100,
deltaFList-PUCCH
deltaF-PUCCH-Format1 deltaF0,
deltaF-PUCCH-Format1b deltaF1,
deltaF-PUCCH-Format2 deltaF0,
deltaF-PUCCH-Format2a deltaF0,
deltaF-PUCCH-Format2b deltaF0
,
deltaPreambleMsg3 1
,
ul-CyclicPrefixLength len1
,
ue-TimersAndConstants
t300 ms200,
t301 ms200,
t310 ms500,
n310 n10,
t311 ms3000,
n311 n1
,
freqInfo
 ul-CarrierFreq 20600,
ul-Bandwidth n50,
additionalSpectrumEmission 12
,
timeAlignmentTimerCommon sf10240

Definition of important Parameters

Rach Configurations
numberOfRA-Preambles: Total number of random access preambles available for contention
based random access. Since there are maximum 64 preambles sequences available, others
could be reserved by eNB for Non-Contention based random access. Range of this parameter
is 4 to 64
sizeOfRA-PreamblesGroupA: Total number of random access preambles sequences
available within Group A. Preambles are divided into Group A and Group B. Group A
preambles are intended for sending small packets and Group B preambles are intended for
sending large packets. Range of this parameter is 4 to 60
messageSizeGroupA: Message size threshold for selecting preamble Group A in term of bits
(56, 144, 208 or 256 bits)
messagePowerOffsetGroupB: Power offset for selecting preamble Group B (0, 5, 8, 10, 12,
15 or 18 dB)
powerRampingStep: power ramping step size with possible values of 0, 2, 4 or 6 dB
preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower: Preamble initial received target power with values
from -120 dBm to -90 dBm with step size of 2 dBm
preambleTransMax: Maximum number of preambles transmissions. Possible values are 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 10 ,20, 50, 100, 200.
ra-ResponseWindowSize: Duration of RA response window. RA response window size is in
unit of subframes (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 10 subframes)
mac-ContentionResolutionTimer: Mac contention resolution timer in unit of subframes (8,
16, 24, 32, 40, 58, 56 or 64 subframes)
maxHARQ-Msg3Tx: Maximum number of HARQ retransmissions for message 3 of RACH
process (contention-based Random access) with possible values from 1 to 8 in step of 1
BCCH Configurations
modificationPeriodCoeff: The value (2,4,6,8) of this parameter is multiplied with default DRX
cycle (e.g. 320ms, 640ms) to generate the BCCH modification period. It is the period in which
the change in SI is repeated to UEs so that the change in SI is acquired by UE.
BCCH modification period = modificationPeriodCoeff x idle mode DRX cycle

PCCH Configurations
defaultPagingCycle: The default DRX cycle in idle mode in unit of radio frames (rf64 means
640ms )
nB: This parameter value is used in finding the actual paging frames and paging occasions in
RRC idle mode with the following formula
SFN modT = (T/N) x (UE_ID mod N)
Where
T = Drx cycle
N = Min (T, nB) (nB is broadcasted in SIB2)
UE_ID = IMSI mod 1024
PRACH Configurations
rootSequenceIndex: RA preambles are generated from Zadoff Chu sequence which consists
of series of root sequences. Each root sequence can be cyclic shifted to obtain preamble
sequence. Range of rootSequenceIndex is 0 to 837.
prach-ConfigIndex: This parameter defines exactly when UE should send RACH in
frequency/time grids (Details TS36.211 Table 5.7.1-2)
highSpeedFlag: For high speed UEs , as this can impact the correlation between cycles
zeroCorrelationZoneConfig: The zero correlation zone is used to guarantee orthogonality of
generated sequences. The value depends on particular condition in the cell
prach-FreqOffset: With this information cell informs UE and other neighbor cells know about
which PRB is available for RACH access
PDSCH Configurations
referenceSignalPower: This defines the energy per resource element for the reference signal
using a range from -60 to 50 dBm.
p-b: It is used to calculate the power difference between PDSCH and Reference Signal. Value
is from 0 to 3
PUSCH Configurations
n-SB: Number of subbands (range 1 to 4)
hoppingMode: Hopping mode can be inter-subframe, intra or inter-subframe
pusch-HoppingOffset: Offset values range from 1 to 98
enable64QAM: if 64QAM capable UE should use it (True or False)

groupHoppingEnabled: True or False

groupAssignmentPUSCH: Gives sequence shift pattern for group hopping (0 to 29)
sequenceHoppingEnabled: True or False
cyclicShift: Frequency shift for demodulation (0 to 7)

PUCCH Config
deltaPUCCH-Shift: 1,2 or 3
nRB-CQI: Number of PRBs per slot for PUCCH2 (0 to 98)
nCS-AN: Cyclic shift used for PUCCH1 (0 to 7)
n1PUCCH-AN: PUCCH to be used for HARQ (0 TO 2047)
Sounding Reference Signaling Configurations:
The uplink Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) is configured in terms of bandwidth and
subframes
Uplink Power Control
p0-NominalPUSCH: It impacts the calculation of PUSCH transmit power and applicable to
non-persistent scheduling only (-126 to 24 dBm)
alpha: It also impacts the calculation of PUSCH transmit power and also scales the
contribution of path loss. Possible values are 0, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9 and 1
p0-NominalPUCCH: This parameter impacts the calculation of PUCCH transmit power (-127
to -96 dBm)
deltaFList-PUCCH: These parameters impacts the calculation of PUCCH transmit power

deltaPreambleMsg3: It impacts the transmit power of PUSCH when responding to random

access response grant (-1 to 6dB)

ul-CyclicPrefixLength: To differentitate between normal (len1) OR extended (len2) cyclic

prefix for uplink transmission
 UE Timers and Constants
T300: Time during which UE waits for RRC connection request message response (100, 200,
300, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 ms)
T301: Started after RRC Connection Reestablishment request message. On expiration UE will
go to RRC idle (100, 200, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 ms)
T310: Started after receiving N310 out of sync indications (0, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000
ms)
T311: Started after initiating connection re-establishment procedure. On expiration UE goes to
RRC idle mode if it is unable to locate suitable cell (1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 seconds)
N310: Consecutive out of sync indications (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 20)
N311: Consecutive in-sync indications (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 20)
Frequency Information
ul-CarrierFreq: Defined in terms of EARFCN
ul-Bandwidth: Defined in terms of resource blocks
additionalSpectrumEmission: This allows spectrum emission limits to be configured
according to local requirements (1 to 32)
timeAlignmentTimerCommon: it tells UE how long it should consider itself to be time aligned
in uplink in unit of subframes. (500, 750, 1280, 1920, 2560, 5120, 10240 or infinity subframes)

Resource Allocation :- In control information or more specifically inside DCI ,

eNodeB has sent the details regarding resources on which UE can decode its
downlink data or UE can send their uplink data.

As control information data is made up of CCE's , similarly actual data information

is composed of RB's. We have already discussed about RB ( Resource Block ) in
basic LTE section.

In 20 Mhz we have 100 RB's . Suppose eNodeB wants to allocate 20 RB's to a UE .

To send this information inside DCI such that UE can figure out which 20 RB's out
of 100 are allocated to that UE , eNodeB needs to send 100 bits each bit
representing 1 RB. But this procedure will increase too much data on control
information .

To reduce the size of control information , LTE introduces different resource

allocation strategies:-
1. Resource Allocation Type 0
2. Resource Allocation Type 1
3. Resource Allocation Type 2
1. Localized
2. Distributed
According to spec 36213 section 7.1.6 , There is a fixed mapping exist between
DCI format used in downlink and the RAT policy used for allocation in downlink.

How UE comes to know about the RAT policy used by eNodeB :

In PDCCH (or In DCI ) There is a field present called Resource allocation field
which includes two parts
1. Resource Allocation Header Field :- It is 1 bit information in which value 0 is
indicated for RAT0 and RAT1 is indicated otherwise. This field is not present for
RAT2
2. Actual resource block assignment :- It contains the actual resource
information.
For Example:-

The example clearly illustrates the presence of Header field and the actual
allocation in blue color for DCI format 1. How the actual resource block assignment
is decoded will be explained below in each resource allocation policy.

From <http://nitintayal-lte-tutorials.blogspot.com/2013/06/resource-allocation-rat-policies.html>

Device ON
Power ON
Synch PSS, SSS
BCH MIB (DL RB, PHICH, SFN, HARQ)
SIB
The first thing UE needs to do is to search for Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS). The
location of PSS is in the 1st and 6th subframe of LTE and within the subframe it exists on the
last symbol of the slot. So, once the UE has decoded the PSS, it gets the following information.

 PSS gives the slot boundary timing independant of the CP length, so syncs at slot level.
 It provides the center frequency as it is around the DC carrier.
After this, the UE starts looking for the Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) which is just
one symbol before the PSS. The PSS is on the 7th symbol of the 1st slot of 1st & 6th subframe
while SSS lies on the 6th symbol. After decoding SSS, the UE gets the following information.

 UE gets to know the CP length as it has the duration of two consecutive symbols (SSS and PSS)
so it can derive whether the eNB is using normal CP or extended CP.
 Since the location of SSS and PSS differs in TDD and FDD so the UE can also find out the frame
type.
 Next thing to find out is the start of the frame. As SSS & PSS exist in both Subframe 1 and 6, so
the UE needs to know which of the frame is the 1st subframe. That is why the SSS is different
in both subframes and therefore, after decoding the SSS, the UE can understand which is the
1st subframe. So, this ensures that the UE is synchronized at both frame and symbol level.
The PCI (Physical Cell Identity) is made up of a combination of PSS & SSS with the following
equation

PCI = 3(SSS) + PSS

Once, the UE has decoded both the PSS and SSS, it can derive the PCI which tells the location
of the RS and the PCFICH. This lets the UE get the RSRP and verify that the cell is above the
cell selection threshold. Then it goes for PBCH which is after the PSS of the first subframe.
PBCH tells about the system BW, System frame number, PHICH config and number of Tx. Now
that the UE knows PHICH, PCFICH and RS location, all the other REs belong to PDCCH.

The UE looks for the DCI for SIB-1 by decoding the DCI masked with CRC of SI-RNTI. The SIB-1
is sent after every 20 ms but the TTI is 80 ms (like PBCH – comes every 10 ms but the TTI
is 40 ms). The copies of SIB-1 after 20 ms are different redundacny versions of the
same SIB-1. The SIB-1 tells about the other SIBs (SI periodicity and SI Window
length), including SIB-2 which tells about the RACH information required for uplink
synchronization.

The location of RACH is determined by the following parameters in SIB-2

PRACH CONFIGURATION INDEX ==> Tells the SFN (even/odd) and subframe number – thus
the location in time domain

PRACH FREQUENCY OFFSET ==> Tells the PRB offset and thus the location in frequency
domain
NCS VALUE ==> Tells the NCS value and the number of root sequences per cell needed to
generate 64 preambles

ROOT SEQUENCE INDEX ==> Tells the starting root sequence index for the cell

Based on these values, the UE generates a random preamble and sends a RACH request. After
the RACH request, the UE needs to start reading PDCCH for its RA-RNTI after 3 subframes (3
SF after the prach preamble transmission is finished). The RA RSP WINDOW SIZE tells the
maximum number of subframes within which the eNB needs to send the RAR. Usually, it is set
to 10 SF and therefore the eNB needs to respond to a PRACH request within 12 SF. The RAR
contains RA-RNTI or temporary C-RNTI and RAPID (which contains the preamble ID that UE
sent).

Once RAR is received, the UE sends msg3 which is RRC Conn Req message that contains UE ID
(TMSI or random value). eNB responds with a MCE Contention resolution message before RRC
Conn Setup and that contention resolution message contains the same UE ID that is sent by
UE in RRC Conn Req message. So, if there are two UEs using the same preamble, then at this
step the contention will be resolved. As the UE with the same ID will send the HARQ ACK to
Contention resolution message but the other UE will consider RACH failure and re-initiate
RACH. In response to RRC Connection Request, eNB sends a RRC Connection Setup which
carries SRB1 (Signalling Radio Bearer) addition parameters. Before this, the UE uses SRB0 to
send the RRC message.

Once the UE gets RRC Connection Setup message, the UE responds with the RRC Setup
Complete message. It is this message that carries NAS messages. At this moment, the RRC
setup is completed and SRB1 is also setup.

Based on this, the eNB initiates S1 Initial UE message to the MME and MME can respond to
this message in different ways but the most common response is S1 Initial Context Setup
Request. This message is considered as the ERAB Setup Request and it usually contains the
ERAB-ID and QCI that has to be setup for the UE along with MBR configuration of the
bearer.Consequently, the eNB reconfigures UE using RRC Connection Reconfiguration
message which contains the addition for SRB2 and DRB (data radio bearer) based on the QCI
requirement. eNB also sends Security Mode Command to UE to configure the security context
at this stage. Once this is done, the eNB responds to MME with S1 Initial Setup Response and
at this point the ERAB Setup is considered successful.

Primary Synchronization Signal (P-SS)

Sequences
• Three PSS sequences are used in LTE, corresponding to the three
physical layer identities within each group of cells.
• The PSS is constructed from a frequency-domain ZC sequence of length
63.

• Transmitted on 6th symbol of slot 0 and slot10 of each radio frame on 72

subcarriers centered around DC.

Secondary Synchronization Signal (S-SS) Sequences

• SSC1 and SSC2 are two codes are two different cyclic shifts of a single
length-31 M sequence.

• Each SSS sequence is constructed by interleaving, in the frequency-

domain, two length-31 BPSK-modulated secondary synchronization codes

• Two codes are alternated between the first and second SSS
transmissions in each radio frame

• This enables the UE to determine the 10 ms radio frame timing from a

single observation of a SSS

• Transmitted on 5th symbol of slot 0 and slot10 of each radio frame on 72

subcarriers centered around DC.

PSS carries physical layer identity (NID)(2)

SSS carries physical layer cell identity group (NID)(1)

Cell identity is computed using (NID)cell = 3*NID(1) + NID (2) ,

Where (NID)(1) = 0,1,.....,167 and (NID)(2) = 0,1,2

Signal Full Direction Position Modulation/ Function

Form Coding
scheme
P-SS Primary Downlink 6th symbol of Zadoff Chu UE first finds the
Synchro- slot 0 and sequence of primary
nization slot 10(time length 63 synchronization
Signal exis) signal (PSS)
mapped on 72 which is located
subcarriers in the
centered last OFDM
around symbol of first
DC(frequency time slot of the
axis) first and
5th sub-frames
This enables UE
to be
synchronized on
sub-frame level
Primary
Synchronization
Signal
helps for Slot
Timing
Detection and
Physical Layer ID
(0,1,2) detection
S-SS Secondary Downlink 5th symbol of BPSK From SSS, UE is
Synchro- slot 0 and modulated able to obtain
nization slot 10(time length-31 M physical layer
Signal exis) sequence cell
mapped on 72 identity group
subcarriers number (0 to
centered 167)
around It helps for
DC(frequency Radio Frame
axis) Timing detection,
 find Physical
Layer Cell ID,
cyclic prefix
length detection,
FDD or TDD
detection

From <http://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/LTE-PSS-vs-SSS.html>

Trial 3 # Background Application Scenarios:

Receiving diversity is a technique to monitor multiple frequencies from the same signal source
or multiple radios and antennas monitoring the same frequency, in order to combat signal
fading and interference. Receive diversity is a way to enhance the reception of uplink channels,
including the PUSCH, physical uplink control channel(PUCCH), physical random access channel
(PRACH) , and sounding reference signal(SRS).
Benefit
This feature can improve the uplink coverage and throughput.
Dependency
RX diversity requires the eNodeB to provide enough RF channels and demodulation resources
that can match the number of diversity antennas. This feature has no special requirements on
UEs.
This feature is only applicable to Macro eNodeB.

Summary
Significant improvement in Uplink User and Cell Throughput
Significant increase in LTE Volume (MB)
Increase in DL Cell throughput is observed
Significant improvement in UL HARQ & UL RLC retransmissions
Improvement in PDCCH CCE usage rate
Increase in PDCCH aggregation level 1 and decrease in level 8
Significant increase in UL 16QAM share and decrease in UL QPSK share
Significant increase in PDSCH and PUSCH MCS

Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR) in LTE

Manually adding neighbor cells in network is indeed a very hectic process and prone to errors
as well. While networks are becoming more and more complex, it is required to find an
automatic and a more optimized way of adding neighbor cells.
 ANR comes under the umbrella of Self Organizing Networks ( SON) features. ANR relies on
UE to detect unknown cells and report them to eNB. There are two major types:

i) UE based ANR
ii) ANR with OAM Support

UE based ANR
 No OAM support is required.
 UE detects PCI of unknown cell when it needs to do measurement (as configured by network)
 In case of inter-frequency or inter-RAT measurements, eNB needs to configure measurement
gaps/or DRX so UE can detect PCI to different frequencies as well.
 UE reports the unknown PCI to eNB via RRC-Reconfiguration message.
 eNB request UE to report Eutran Cell Global ID (ECGI).
 UE reports ECGI by reading BCCH channel.
 eNB retrieves the IP address from MME to further setup the x2 interface.

ANR with OAM Support

 OAM support is required
 Every new eNB registers to OAM and download the table with information of PCI/ECGI/IP
related to neighbors
 Neighbors also update their own table with new eNB information
 Now like "UE based ANR", UE will detect unknown PCI and report it to the eNB
 eNB doesn't request for ECGI and does not need support from MME
 eNB setups x2 interface with the help of mapping table created in second step above

From <http://www.simpletechpost.com/2012/05/automatic-neighbor-relation-anr-in-lte.html>

All About Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR)

Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR):
- Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR) function is to relieve the operator from the burden of
manually managing Neighbor Relations (NRs).
- The ANR function resides in the eNB and manages the conceptual Neighbor Relation Table (NRT).
- The Neighbor Detection Function finds new neighbors and adds them to the NRT.
- ANR also contains the Neighbor Removal Function which removes outdated NRs.
- An existing Neighbour Relation from a source cell to a target cell means that eNB controlling the
source cell:
 Knows the ECGI/CGI and PCI of the target cell.
 Has an entry in the Neighbour Relation Table for the source cell identifying the target cell.
 Has the attributes in this Neighbour Relation Table entry defined, either by O&M or set to default
values.
- NRT contains :
 Target Cell Identifier (TCI)
 Identifies the target cell.
 For E-UTRAN, the TCI corresponds to the E-UTAN Cell Global Identifier (ECGI) and Physical Cell
Identifier (PCI) of the target cell.
Each NR has three attributes:
 NoRemove : eNB shall not remove the Neighbor cell Relation from the NRT.
 NoHO : Neighbor cell Relation shall not be used by the eNB for handover reasons.
 NoX2 attribute : Neighbor Relation shall not use an X2 interface in order to initiate procedures
towards the eNB parenting the target cell.
 NR Table

- Part of Self-Configuring Networks in SON.

- Manual Addition of cells in the neighbor list is a tough task. It is becomes very difficult when there
are exiting networks like 2G,3G.
- For LTE there can be Intra LTE, Inter LTE and Inter RAT neighbors.
- There can be:
 Intra-Freq Automatic Neighbor Relations.
 Inter-Freq/Inter System Automatic Neighbor Relations.
Intra-Freq Automatic Neighbor Relations:
- Intra-Frequency neighbors can be added automatically as part of Intra-Freq handover procedure.
- As a process for Intra Frequency HO procedure the serving eNodeB instructs each UE to perform
Intra-Frequency Measurement on neighboring cell by sending RRC Connection Reconfiguration
message with measurement control information.

Automatic Neighbour Relation Function

- Consider as in the above picture, Serving Cell is CellA(UE is in RRC Connected State) and Cell B is
the Target Cell:
1.
 The UE sends a measurement report regarding cell B.
 This report contains Cell B’s PCI, but not its ECGI.
 eNodeB checks if the reported PCI is already included in the Neighbor Database, then the HO
proceeds in the normal way.
 If reported PCI is not included in the Neighbor Database then eNB proceeds to add the PCI to its
NRT.
2.
 Once eNB receives a UE measurement report containing the PCI, the eNB instructs the UE with
another RRC Connection Reconfiguration Message, using the newly discovered PCI as parameter.
 Instruct UE to read the ECGI, the TAC and all available PLMN ID(s) of the related neighbor cell.
 To do so, the eNB may need to schedule appropriate idle periods to allow the UE to read the ECGI
from the SIB1 of the detected neighbor cell.
 The UE reads the requested information from SIB1 on PDSCH. UE needs to read MIB on PBCH,
then DCI with SI-RNTI on PDCCH to read SIB1 on PDSCH.
3.
 When the UE has found out the new cell’s ECGI, the UE reports the detected ECGI to the serving
cell eNB.
 In addition the UE reports the tracking area code and all PLMN IDs that have been detected.
 If the detected cell is a CSG or hybrid cell, the UE also reports the CSG ID to the serving cell eNB.

4.
The eNB decides to add this neighbor relation, and can use PCI and ECGI to:
 Look up a transport layer address to the new eNB.
 Update the Neighbor Relation List.
 If needed, setup a new X2 interface towards this eNB.
Inter-Freq/System Automatic Neighbor Relations:
- Can be done as a part of the normal inter-frequency and inter-system handover procedure.
- Inter-frequency and Inter-RAT measurement requires compressed mode to be configured.
- The eNodeB instructs UE to start inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurement using RRC
Connection Reconfiguration message.
- The UE searches for the neighbor cells, identifies and reports them to eNodeB.
- The format of PCI depends upon the RAT of the Cell being measured.

Measurement Info Reported By UE

- Neighbor cell addition procedure:

Automatic Neighbour Relation Function in case of Inter Frequency/System Neighbor

- Once UE receives the Measurement Report for the Inter Frequency/RAT cell,
 eNodeB checks if the reported PCI is already included in the Neighbor Database, then the HO
proceeds in the normal way.
 If reported PCI is not included in the Neighbor Database then eNB proceeds to add the PCI to its
NRT
 - eNodeB instruct UE using another RRC Connection Reconfiguration message to decode the Global
Cell Identity (CGI) from the system information.
- The UE may be required to report additional information depending on the system being
measured.
- The eNB updates its inter-RAT/inter-frequency Neighbour Relation Table.
- In the inter-frequency case and if needed, the eNB can use the PCI and ECGI for a new X2
interface setup towards the new eNB.

From <http://allabtlte.blogspot.com/2014/06/all-about-automatic-neighbor-relation.html>

LTE CARRIER AGGREGATION BANDWIDTH CLASSES

CARRIER AGGREGATION AGGREGATED TRANSMISSION NUMBER OF COMPONENT

BANDWIDTH CLASS BW CONFIGURATION ATBC CARRIERS
CC

A ≤100 1

B ≤100 2

C 100 - 200 2

From <https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/connectivity/4g-lte-long-term-evolution/4g-lte-carrier-aggregation-ca.php

To enable 256 QAM CellAlgoSwitch MML command will be used

UE Category 11 to 14 used for 256 QAM

An eNodeB supports fixed or adaptive CQI table configuration depending on the setting of the
CellDlschAlgo.Dl256QamCqiTblCfgStrategy parameter.
If this parameter is set to ADAPTIVE_CONFIG(ADAPTIVE_CONFIG), the eNodeB
determines whether to use the CQI table with 256QAM or the CQI table without 256QAM
for 256QAM-capable UEs based on channel quality during DL scheduling. Since the
eNodeB must use RRC signaling to notify UEs which CQI table was used, this setting
increases RRC signaling overhead.
For 256QAM-capable UEs, the eNodeB uses the CQI table without 256QAM instead of the
CQI table with 256QAM when channel quality deteriorates. The change does not affect the
DL rate of QPSK services on the UEs. Therefore, the value
ADAPTIVE_CONFIG(ADAPTIVE_CONFIG) is recommended.
If this parameter is set to FIX_CONFIG(FIX_CONFIG), the eNodeB always uses the CQI
table with 256QAM for 256QAM-capable UEs during DL scheduling.
The CQI table with 256QAM references fewer low-order TBSs (TBSs with indexes 1, 3, 5,
7, and 9 are not supported) than the CQI table without 256QAM. Therefore, using the CQI
table with 256QAM may result in a decrease in the DL rate of QPSK services on 256QAM-
capable UEs.
MCS table
Section 7.1.7.1 "Modulation order determination" in 3GPP TS 36.213 V12.5.0 provides an MCS
table with 256QAM (Table 7.1.7.1-1A. Modulation and TBS index table 2 for PDSCH). This
table is referred to as the MCS table with 256QAM in this document. The MCSs with indexes 21
to 27 are used for initial transmission to 256QAM-capable UEs. The MCS with index 31 is used
for retransmission to these UEs. Table 7.1.7.1-1: Modulation and TBS index table for PDSCH
in the same section is an earlier version of MCS table, which is referred to as the MCS table
without 256QAM in this document.

The implementation of DL 256QAM requires that UEs be of categories 11 to 14, comply with 3GPP
Release 12 or later, and support DL 256QAM.

>
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aggregation-ca.php