TDD and FDD are two topologies by which critical resources time and frequency are shared among

mobile subscribers or terminals. LTE uses both of these flavors to provide facility for the mobile
subscribers or UEs to utilize the scarse resource efficiently based on the need. To know more about
TDD vs FDD refer our article on Difference between TDD and FDD topologies. Let us understand
LTE FDD and TDD LTE versions with figures and band example below. LTE has radio frame of
duration 10ms consisting of 10 subframes. Each subframe has two slots. The slot is of 0.5ms
duration.Hence there are total 20 slots in a radio frame.

LTE FDD

In LTE base station is referred as eNodeB and mobile subscriber is referred as UE. The figure-1
describes LTE FDD scenario. As shown in the figure f1 and f2 are one pair of frequencies allocated
separately for both the uplink and downlink direction. Figure mentions LTE band-13 with uplink
frequency of range 777 to 787MHz and downlink frequency of range 746 to 756 MHz. Hence f1 is
allocated from uplink band and f2 is allocated from downlink frequency band. The entire radio frame
of 10ms is used simultaneously over downlink and uplink directions. Pls. note that downlink always
refers to transmission from LTE eNodeB to UEs and uplink refers to transmission from UEs to
eNodeB. Both uplink and downlink will have 10MHz bandwidth each on which entire frame will be
used.

TDD LTE

The figure-2 describes TDD LTE scenario.As shown in the figure both uplink and downlink has been
allocated same frequency f1 and but both uses different time slots for mapping their information
data. Figure mentions LTE band-33 which is from frequency 1900 to 1920MHz. Entire bandwidth of
20MHz is used for both eNodeB and UEs. Figure mentions configuration of radio frame time slots 0
to 9 for UL/DL configuration of zero and 5ms DL/UL switch point periodicity. It is
D,S,U,U,U,D,S,U,U,U. Here D stands for downlink and U stands for uplink.Hence the subframes of
the entire radio frame is divided and used for both the uplink and downlink direction.
Leading chipset manufacturers such as Ericsson,Altair semiconductor,Qualcomm support both TDD
and FDD versions of LTE on a single chip.
Following table summarizes LTE FDD and TDD versions.It compares both with respect to
application,frame structure, Guard period,frequency band,interference,data rate and interoperability
with other RATs.
Feature

LTE FDD
TDD LTE
FDD version is used where both
TDD version is used where both uplink and
Application
uplink and downlink data rates are
downlink data rates are asymmetrical.
symmetrical.
Frame structure Uses FDD frame structure
Uses TDD frame structure, READ MORE
Provided in the center of special subframes
Not provided,every downlink
and used for the advance of the uplink
Guard periods
subframe can be associated with an
transmission timing. The no. of downlink and
uplink subframe.
uplink subframes is different
REFER LTE Frequency Bands for REFER LTE Frequency Bands for TDD
Frequency bands
FDD frequency ranges
frequency ranges
Interference between neighbouring
Interference between neighboring base
base stations less as transmission
Interference
stations more, as transmission and reception
and reception is done on seperate
is done on the same frequency.
frequencies.
Peak Downlink
Minimum: 1.728 Mbps with 1.4MHz BW,6 RBs, QPSK modulation,
data rate for
Maximum: 345.6 Mbps with 20MHz,100 RBs, 64QAM,4X4 MIMO
FDD/TDD LTE
Peak Uplink data
Minimum: 1.8 Mbps with 1.4MHz BW, 6 RBs, QPSK modulation,
rate for TDD/LTE
Maximum: 86.4 Mbps with 20MHz BW, 100 RBs, 64QAM modulation
FDD
Working with
Interference will be higher than TD TDD LTE works well with minimum

other RAT

version

interference along with TD-SCDMA RAT

Both LTE FDD and TDD versions have their own applications and the same can be exploited by
telecom operators based on traffic and other requirements.