LTE UE category principle

The LTE categories or UE classes are needed to ensure that the base station, or eNodeB, eNB can
communicate correctly with the user equipment.
As the LTE category defines the overall performance and the capabilities of the UE, it is possible for
the eNB to communicate using capabilities that it knows the UE possesses. Accordingly the eNB will
not communicate beyond the performance of the UE.

There are 9 different LTE UE categories. LTE category 1, for example does not support MIMO, but
LTE UE category five supports 4x4 MIMO.
It is also worth noting that UE class 1 does not offer the performance offered by that of the highest
performance HSPA category. Additionally all LTE UE categories are capable of receiving
transmissions from up to four antenna ports.

HEADLINE DATA RATES FOR LTE CATEGORIES

LTE UE CATEGORY
LINK

Downlink

10

50

100

150

300

300

300

1200

Uplink

25

50

50

75

50

150

Underlying performance characteristics

UL AND DL PARAMETERS FOR LTE UE CATEGORIES 1 - 5
LTE CATEGORY
PARAMETER

LTE CAT 1

LTE CAT 2

LTE CAT 3

LTE CAT 4

LTE CAT 5

Max number of DL-SCH

transport block bits received
in a TTI

10 296

51 024

102 048

150 752

302 752

Max number of bits of a DLSCH block received in a TTI

10 296

51 024

75 376

75 376

151 376

Total number of soft channel

bits

250 368

1 237 248

1 237 248

1 827 072

3 667 200

Maximum number of
supported layers for spatial
multiplexing in DL

5 160

25 456

51 024

51 024

75 376

No

No

No

No

Yes

Max number of bits of an ULSCH transport block

received in a TTI
Support for 64-QAM in UL

UL AND DL PARAMETERS FOR LTE UE CATEGORIES 6, 7, 8

LTE CATEGORY
PARAMETER

LTE CAT 6

LTE CAT 7

LTE CAT 8

299 552

299 552

1 200 000

Max number of bits of a DLSCH block received in a TTI

TBD

TBD

TBD

Total number of soft channel

bits

3 667 200

TBD

TBD

TBD

TBD

TBD

No

Yes, up to
RAN 4

Yes

Max number of DL-SCH

transport block bits received in
a TTI

Maximum number of supported

layers for spatial multiplexing
in DL
Max number of bits of an ULSCH transport block received in
a TTI
Support for 64-QAM in UL

Peak downlink data rate for a Category 5 UE using 4x4 MIMO is approximately 300 Mbps, and 150
Mbps for a Category 4 UE using 2x2 MIMO. LTE UE category 5 provides a peak data rate of 75
Mbps using 64-QAM.

considerable level of development being undertaken into the Internet of Things, IoT and general
machine to machine, M2M communications, there has been a growing need to develop an LTE
category focussed on these applications. Here, much lower data rates are needed, often only in
short bursts and an accompanying requirement is for the remote device or machine to be able to
draw only low levels of current.
To enable the requirements of these devices to be met using LTE, and new LTE category was
developed. Referred to as LTE Category 0, or simply LTE Cat 0, this new category has a reduced
performance requirement that meets the needs of many machines while significantly reducing
complexity and current consumption. Whilst Category 0 offered a reduced specification, it still
complied with the LTE system requirements.
LTE CATEGORY 0 PERFORMANCE SUMMARY
PARAMETER

LTE CAT 0
PERFORMANCE

Peak downlink rate

1 Mbps

Peak uplink rate

1 Mbps

Max number of downlink spatial layers

Number of UE RF chains
Duplex mode
UE receive bandwidth

1
1
Half duplex
20 MHz

LTE CATEGORY 0 PERFORMANCE SUMMARY

PARAMETER
Maximum UE transmit power

LTE CAT 0
PERFORMANCE
23 dBm

New LTE Cat 0 was introduced in Rel 12 of the 3GPP standards. One major advantage of LTE
Category 0 is that the modem complexity is considerably reduced when compared to other LTE
Categories. It is expected that the modem complexity for a Cat 0 modem will be around 50% that of
a Category 1 modem.