LTE

INTEN
MINUTES

25Most
FrequentlyAsked
 BasicLTE
InterviewQuestions

AZARTAUFIQUE
“A blank page is
no empty space.
It is brimming
with potential...
It is a
masterpiece in
waiting

-- yours.”
LTE in 10 Minutes:
When it comes to technology, there is way too much noise out there and less
actual content which solves the problems of professionals. The reason I call this
cheat sheet as LTE in 10 minutes is: Because when it comes to learning
technical stuff, you can spend your whole career in understanding a particular
technology and still the next project or assignment you worked on may not
require the insights you learned in the past.

This is where this book comes in handy. You can use it whenever and wherever
you want to brush up your LTE knowledge to know the basics.

The questions I have added in here, are an aggregate of typical questions

asked by the interviewees. These questions have been collected from various
industries which are using LTE technology in one or the other.

The book will help you to focus so that you can :

Ace up your
interviews
Impress your co-workers by
showing your knowledge
Get answers to all your
technical questions in no
time.
Finish up
your
projects
on time.
Impress
your
teachers
 and professors
Get more raises,
promotions and
bonuses at work
Because you have only so much
time in the day while your
freedom and life awaits!!!
Question 1

What are the Bandwidths used for LTE

deployment?
Answer: The definitions of the channel bandwidth and transmission
configuration are the same as for the Base Station. For the UE, however,
it is not the same case. I will discuss about it some other. The bandwidths
used for LTE deployment are 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz
and 20 MHz

Question 2

How Many subcarriers/RBs are there in

5/10/20 MHz channel ?
Answer:
•5 MHz
There are 25 Resource Blocks and 300 subcarriers

•1 0MHz
There are 50 Resource Blocks and 600 subcarriers

•2 0 MHz
There are 100 Resource Blocks and 1200 subcarriers

Question 3

What is Subcarrier Bandwidth in LTE?

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 Answer: One Subcarrier Bandwidth is 15 Khz
in LTE as specified in 3 GPP standard.
Question 4

What Maximum LTE

throughput can be achieved
in the field?
Answer: In theory, the maximum throughput, for 20 MHZ bandwidth.
LTE can achieve up to 100.3 Mbps, without MIMO.
In field, for 20 MHz bandwidth, the maximum achievable throughput is 75
Mbps without MIMO.

Question 5

How many states a UE can have?

Answer: In LTE, UE can be in 2 states. Idle and Connected.
Please note that UE Idle/Connected and RRC Idle/Connected means the same
Question 6

What is difference between Idle &

Connected Mode?
Answer:

IDLE MODE: UE is not actively running any end user specific session. UE will
receive only paging and broadcast related information. From end user
perspective, it is the state when you are not using your phone i.e., requesting
any service, such as browsing, making a phone call, download etc.

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 CONNECTED MODE: From end user perspective, it is the mode when
you are busy using your smart phone, making phone calls, downloading data,

receiving active services requests etc.

Question 7

What is difference between HO,

Redirection, Cell Selection / Re-Selection?
Answer:

i.H O:

When the user moves out of coverage of one cell to another cell. For smooth
operation and to avoid call drop, a handover needs to take place. HO happens
only in case of connected user.

ii.R edirection:

When a particular service and coverage is not available to one cell, the UE is
redirected by the eNodeB to other cells for better coverage and /or respective
service requested. This phenomenon is termed as Redirection.

iii. Cell Selection:

In Idle mode, when UE is not RRC connected to any particular cell, but it camps
on a cell instead. In idle mode, the procedure / process of camping on a cell is
called cell selection.

iv.C ell Re-selection:

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In idle mode, when your smart phone (UE) moves out of coverage of
one cell to another cell. UE has to camp from one camp to another cell. This
process of reselecting a new cell, while UE is already camping on an existing
selected cell is called Cell Re-Selection.

Question 8

What is Difference between MIB and SIB?

Answer: System information is transmitted via Broadcast channel. System
information comes in two parts

1. Static 2. Dynamic

1.S tatic System information is called Master Information Block (MIB). MIB
carries information like number of antennas, bandwidth etc. It is fixed, therefore
called as Static and is sent every 40 msec.

2.D ynamic information comes as System Information Blocks (SIBs). There are a
number of SIBs for different purposes.

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 Question 9

Handover types in LTE?

Answer: In LTE, there are two mainly two types of handovers. Intra LTE and
Inter LTE.
These two types can be further classified into the following:

Question 10

What is difference between X2 and S1

HO?
Answer:

1) X2 Handover: In this handover, the signaling associated with preparation

phase of handover is done via X2 interface.

2) S1 Handover: In this handover, the signaling associated with preparation

phase of handover is done via S1 interface.

Question 11

Explain Events measurements in

LTE?
Answer: UE can perform measurements either by reading RSRP or RSRQ. The
preference either UE should do measurement on RSRP or RSRQ can be
configured accordingly.

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In LTE, UE is expected to do measurement on all 504 PCI neighboring
cells. UE is not given a specific neighbor cell list for intra frequency LTE cells.
However, for Inter frequency LTE or inter technology cells, UE can be provided
a list, to identify which neighbors UE has to perform measurements on.

After measurements when a certain event criterion is fulfilled ONLY then the UE
will send measurement for that specific cell measured to the serving cell.
Otherwise no measurements are sent.

Question 12

What is the purpose of ContentionFree

Random Access Procedure?
Answer: For cases where the network knows, in advance, that a particular UE
will perform a Random Access Procedure to acquire uplink synchronization, a
dedicated preamble is reserved and assigned to the UE under consideration.
Dedicated Preamble assignment for HO is handled by RRC whereas preamble
assignment for DL data arrival is handled by MAC. When the UE transmits the
dedicated preamble in Phase 1, the network knows to which UE this preamble
was assigned and can already at the time of detection of this determine the
identity of the UE. Thus no contention resolution is needed and the delay before
data transmission can be resumed is reduced.

Question 13

What is ANR?
Answer: It stands for Automatic Neighbor Relationship. It is a Self-Organizing
Network Function (SON )function. Due to ANR, LTE can form neighbor
relationships with other cells, when required. It can also remove relationships
which are no longer needed anymore.

Question 14

What is QCI?
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 Answer: QCI stands for Quality of Service (QoS) Class identifier. To
provide various types of QoS for the subscribers, in LTE we have 256 QCI values.
Among these 256 QCI values, 9 QCI values have been standardized by 3GPP.
Remaining QCI values are configuration dependent.

Question 15

What is purpose of SIB19?

Answer: SIB19 is used to prioritize LTE over 3G in Idle mode. If UE is camping
on 3G in idle mode. During cell reselection phase, in idle mode SIB19 is used to
give priority to LTE over 3G, so that UE can come back to LTE with high priority
than 3G.

Question 16

Which channel carries CQI information to

enodB?
Answer: CQI information can be carried on PUSCH or PUCCH channel. If there
is no data to transmit in the Uplink, then CQI information will be send on
PUCCH.

However, if there is data to be transmitted in the Uplink, and CQI transmission

is scheduled at the same time then PUSCH channel is used for CQI transmission
to the eNodeB. If detailed CQI information is needed, then also PUSCH channel
is used to send CQI report in the Uplink.

Question 17

What other info PUCCH carries?

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 Answer: Uplink Control signaling is sent on PUCCH, for example
such as scheduling request, ACK/ NACK, CQI reports etc

Question 18

What is UE disconnection Timer?

Answer: The amount of time, after which RRC connection for the UE is released
and UE is moved from connected (active) mode into idle mode.

Question 19

What is the Location of PUCCH in the UL

Spectrum?

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 Answer: PUCCH location is usually at the edges of the Uplink
Spectrum.

Question 20

What is the difference between FDD and

TDD mode in LTE?
Answer: The LTE standard specifies two different duplex modes; FDD and TDD.

1) In Frequency Division Multiplex (FDD) mode the uplink and downlink are
using separate frequencies.
2) In Time Division Multiplex (TDD) mode the uplink and downlink use

Question 21

How is the FDD/TDD flexibility is

employed in paired /unpaired spectrum
deployment?

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 Answer: One important part of the LTE requirements in terms of
spectrum flexibility is the possibility to deploy LTE-based radio-access in both
paired and unpaired spectrum, i.e., LTE should support both FDD and TDD
based duplex arrangements. Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), implies that
downlink and uplink transmission take place in different, sufficiently
separated, frequency bands. Time Division Duplex (TDD), implies that downlink
and uplink transmission take place in different, non-overlapping time slots.
Thus, TDD can operate in unpaired spectrum, whereas FDD requires paired
spectrum.

Question 22

How is downlink power control used in

LTE?
Answer: Downlink power control, or power boosting, can be used on both the
data channel(PDSCH) and control channels (PBCH, PDCCH, PCFICH, and PHICH).

As a default solution, the data channel power is distributed uniformly over the
scheduled resource blocks (i.e. no power control is used). More sophisticated
strategies include e.g.

(i) Allocating relatively high power, but few resource blocks to power limited
users and vice versa for bandwidth-limited users, and

(ii) Allocating more power to resource blocks with Good channel quality.

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 Question 23

What is the meaning of the Random

Access Back-Off Procedure?
Answer: For the event of Random Access overload, a Random Access Back-Off
procedure is supported. This procedure prevents immediate new Random Access
attempts.

Question 24

How is link adaptation used in LTE?

Answer: For unicast traffic, link adaptation is used and is controlled by the
eNodeB. A common modulation and channel code is used in the frequency
domain per UE and codeword. The modulation and coding scheme (MCS) is
selected based on CQI feedback and buffer content. Rapid interference
variations make it difficult to predict the link quality accurately, and select MCS
based on such knowledge. Instead, preliminary, MCS selection is based on
averaged link quality.

Question 25

What reference signals are defined for

LTE uplink transmission?
Answer: There are two types of uplink reference signals in LTE, reference
\signals for channel estimation to support coherent uplink transmission and so-
called sounding reference signals.

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 1G 2G 3G 4G
TACS GSM/GPRS/EDGE WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ LTE

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