3GPP LTE Downlink System Performance
Amir Farajidana, Wanshi Chen, Aleksandar Damnjanovic, Taesang Yoo, Durga Malladi, and Chris
Lott
Abstract— In this paper we quantify 3rd Generation
Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release
8 downlink system performance for a macro cell hexagonal grid
scenario. The system performance is analyzed for a closed loop
Single User Multi-Input Multi Output (SU-MIMO) mode and
compared with Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) and Multi-
User (MU) MIMO modes, for a full buffer scenario and static
users.
In addition to the full buffer scenario, traffic models are
considered for SIMO mode to evaluate impact of partial loading
and handover. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system
performance is quantified for static users. Mobility simulations
are performed for Video Telephony (VT) users and compared to
the static case.
Index Terms—3GPP LTE, MIMO, VoIP.
I. INTRODUCTION
T
rd
HE 3 Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) completed
standardization of Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release 8
air interface in March of 2009 (See [1][2][3]). LTE is
considered leading standard for worldwide deployment in
future 4th generation mobile cellular networks. On downlink,
LTE air interface utilizes Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access (OFDMA) waveform. High spectral
efficiency, high data rates with a peak of just over 300 Mbps
for 20 MHz bandwidth, and low latency makes LTE suitable
for best effort data application and multi-media traffic.
In this paper, we evaluate LTE downlink system
performance under three different scenarios. In the first
scenario we investigate maximum downlink spectral
efficiency and consider closed loop Single User Multi Input
Multi Output (SU-MIMO) mode, as defined in LTE. We
compare it to Single Input Multi Output (SIMO) and Multi
User (MU) MIMO mode, as defined in LTE. In this simulation
scenario all users are static and full buffers are assumed
because the focus is to establish maximum spectral efficiency
LTE.
The remaining two scenarios consider the impact of traffic
models, and simulation study is conducted for SIMO mode
only. The second simulation scenario establishes LTE
downlink performance for Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP). In case of VoIP, regular dynamic scheduling cannot
be effectively utilized. That is due to high control channel
overhead because VoIP packets are relatively small in size.
Manuscript received March 31 2009. The authors are with QUALCOMM
Incorporated, 5775 Morehouse Drive, San Diego, CA 92121.
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Dynamic scheduling of VoIP packets creates a scenario where
system performance is bounded by the number of grants the
control channel region can support. In this paper, we consider
semi-persistent scheduling for VoIP traffic that significantly
reduces the required number of grant messages and mitigates
the control channel overhead issue. The third scenario
evaluates the impact of partial loading and handover. Partial
loading creates channel mismatch between Reference Symbols
(RS) data tones. Since channel estimation is conducted on the
RS tones and data traffic is sent over the data tones, channel
estimation mismatch results in performance loss. In this paper,
we estimate the loss due to channel estimation, and propose
methods how to cope with partial loading in order to
maximize downlink system performance. Mobility simulations
in this paper consider regular backward handover, where
serving cell prepares a target ahead of handover based on the
received measurement reports.
The paper is organized as follows. In Section II, we
describe system modeling, including system simulation
assumptions and scheduler algorithm. Section III presents the
simulation results for the system simulation with static users,
while in Section IV we describe how mobility is modeled and
present results. Conclusions are given in Section V.
II. SYSTEM MODELLING
A. Link to System Interface
Link curves are utilized to generate packet errors in the
system simulation. Additive While Gaussian Noise (AWGN)
link curves are used along with the corresponding payload
adjustment. In order to account for varying channel
conditions, the constrained capacity Effective Signal to Noise
ratio (ESNR) method to calculate supportable data rate and
Packet Error rate (PER).
B. Channel and Interference Estimation Loss
Channel estimation is performed on a common RS, defined
for up to 4 antenna ports in LTE [1]. CRS in used for
measurements as well as demodulation purposes. RS from
different cells can be colliding or non-colliding depending on
the cell specific RS offset. Depending on the offset values of
RS for neighbor cells, it is possible that the Carrier to
Interference (C/I) seen on RS tones is different from data
tones. This is particularly true for partially loaded scenarios,
bursty traffic sources, or power controlled traffic, e.g. VoIP.
Therefore, the channel estimation losses depends on the RS
tones C/I and the data C/I. There is also a mismatch in the
interference estimate obtained from RS and the interference
observed by data.
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 In the system level, these losses and mismatches are The orthogonal resource and power used by the uplink grants
modeled by applying a backoff values to the combined with the orthogonal resources used by PHICH are subtracted
effective Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR) in dB from the available control region resources. The grants for
domain. These backoff values are obtained from link-level downlink scheduling need to fit into the remaining orthogonal
simulations with different operating points for RS tone C/I, and power resources after the fixed overhead, PHICH, and
Traffic to Pilot ratio (T/P), and packet format. The T/P ratio dynamic uplink grants are accounted for.
essentially shows the difference between RS C/I and data C/I.
D. Channel Feedback Modeling
The back-off value is the performance difference between the
In these simulations, the CQI/PMI/RI feedback is subband
ideal and non-ideal case that is obtained for each operating
based. The CQI reporting period is 5ms, with 2ms processing
point (RS C/I, T/P, packet format).
delay. The CQI report is quantized and map to 16 values
At the beginning of the system simulations, RS offset
according to [3]. Errors or erasures on feedback channel are
values are assigned to different cells randomly. Based on RS
not modeled.
offset values, cells with colliding pilot patterns are identified.
At time of decoding based on the combined ESINR of data E. Scheduler Description
tone, the RS C/I and chosen packet format the back-off value The scheduler used for the full buffer simulations is based
is read from the table. Based on the link-level simulations it is on the proportional fair metric. Subband scheduling is
observed that back-off value for a given RS C/I and T/P value assumed. The scheduler considers PDCCH limitations and
is similar for different packet formats that are relevant for the uses the channel quality per subband for computing the
operating data C/I. priority metrics. A multi-flow scheduler is employed for other
Also the feedback computation for Channel Quality sources that takes into account the delay and buffer status of
Indicator (CQI)/ Precoding Matrix Index (PMI)/ Rank different flows in the system along with channel quality
Indicator (RI) is done based on sampled RS tones that (possibly per subband) for scheduling different flows.
correspond with the chosen RS offset value. Therefore, if the
two cells have the same RS offset value their sampled tones
F. Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) Selection and Rate
for feedback computation are the same and exhibit
Prediction
interference from RS tones and not data tones of the other cell.
The initial rate prediction thresholds correspond to 10%
C. Control and Overhead Modeling PER points given by AWGN curves for each packet format.
Bandwidth and power overhead of control channels and An outer loop per UE is maintained by the scheduler to ensure
signals in the simulation are modeled for both the traffic that all the transmitted codewords (in case MIMO two
region and control region. The overhead in the traffic region is codewords are transmitted in one subframe) are decoded
considered to be fixed during the simulation. This overhead within the first transmission with more than 90% probability.
accounts for RS tones, primary and secondary synchronization
signals, control symbols and Physical Broadcast Channel
(PBCH). The total overhead depends on the number of control G. System Setup
The simulation assumptions are in line with the evaluation
symbols and number of transmit antennas. For instance the
methodology given in [4]. TABLE I summarizes main
orthogonal resource overhead for 3 control symbols and 2
simulation assumptions.
transmit antennas is 29.9%. These overheads are accounted for TABLE I
in the reported results.
The fixed overhead in the control region is related to the SIMULATION PARAMETERS
Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) and
Physical Hybrid automatic repeat request Indicator Channel Parameter Explanation/Assumption
(PHICH). The control channel performance is dynamically Cellular layout 19 eNode-B, 3-cell sites wraparound
modeled in the simulator. The power and bandwidth Inter-site distance 500, 1732 (meters)
requirements for sending grant to each User Equipment (UE)
is taken into account and each Physical Downlink Control Speed 3km/h
Carrier Frequency 2GHz
Channel (PDCCH) grant is power-controlled. There is also an
Penetration Loss 20 dB
error model for the grants, where the decoding probability of
the grant depends on the decoding C/I, and it is read from the Number of UEs/cell 10 UE / cell site
link curves. In these simulations, the power control targets 1% Antenna horizontal pattern 70 deg (-3 dB) with 20 dB front-to-
probability of error for PDCCH. Since the PDCCH region is back ratio for Macro
Antenna Gain 14 dB
shared between the uplink and downlink, we reserve power
BS total Tx power 46 dBm
and bandwidth resources for uplink grants in the following Bandwidth 10 MHz
way: Sampling frequency 15.36 MHz
Statistics of uplink grant usage are compiled during uplink Number of RBs 50
simulation runs. Distribution of the number of uplink grants Number of control symbols 2, 3
used in each subframe is created. At each scheduling instance Number of subbands 5
Antennas Configurations 1x2, 1x4: SIMO
on downlink, a value for the number of uplink grants is chosen 2x2, 4x2, 4x4: SU-MIMO
from this distribution. A set of UEs is randomly chosen from 4x2, 4x4 : MU-MIMO
among UEs in the cell are assumed to require uplink grants.

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 Antenna Spacing 0.5λ at UE
Single User setup: 10λ at cell-site 1
Multi User setup: 0.5λ at cell-site
0.9
Specific fast fading model Urban Macro SCM specified
modeling [5] 0.8

0.7

III. RESULTS 0.6

This section provides simulation results for the considered CDF
0.5
scenarios. We first show SU-MIMO performance for full
buffer scenario and compare it to SIMO and MU-MIMO 0.4

schemes. Then we consider traffic models and show VoIP 0.3

1x2
results for the static UEs and consider VT to illustrate the 2x2
0.2
impact of mobility and handover. 4x2
0.1 1x4
4x4
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
A. SU-MIMO Performance UE Throughput [kbps]
TABLE II and TABLE III show the system performance for
D1 and D3 scenarios (see [4]), with the assumption that 2 Fig. 2. UE Throughput CDF, D3, n=2.
OFDM symbols are used for the control region. UE
throughput cumulative distribution functions (CDF) for D1,
D3 scenarios are shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, respectively. B. N = 3 Control Symbols
TABLE IV and TABLE V show the system performance for
TABLE II
D1 and D3 scenarios, assuming 3 OFDM symbols are used for
PERFORMANCE FOR D1 SCENARIO, 2 CONTROL SYMBOLS the control region assumptions. UE throughput distributions
across the system for D1, D3 scenarios are shown in Fig. 3
Configuration 1x2 2x2 4x2 1x4 4x4 and Fig. 4, respectively. Similar to the case with 2 control
symbols, we observe small gains for SU-MIMO operation.
Cell Tput[b/s/Hz] 1.50 1.51 1.63 2.04 2.37 Note that part of the gain vanishes because of the higher
5% Tput[b/s/Hz] 0.0329 0.0502 0.0481 0.0790 0.0709 overhead associated to larger number of transmit antennas
deployed at the eNodeB e.g., the common reference signal
(CRS) overhead is doubled going to 2 transmit antenna
TABLE III scenario.Also comparing the case with 2 and 3 control
symbols, we can observe loss in the cell edge performance due
PERFORMANCE FOR D3 SCENARIO, 2 CONTROL SYMBOLS to smaller number of scheduling grants available with 2
control symbols. Also looking at the plots of Fig. 2 - Fig. 4 we
Configuration 1x2 2x2 4x2 1x4 4x4 observe the performance in 1x4 configuration is saturated at
Cell Tput[b/s/Hz] 1.41 1.45 1.52 1.84 2.20 high end because of packet format limitations.
5% Tput[b/s/Hz] 0.0134 0.0329 0.0381 0.0616 0.0575
TABLE IV

PERFORMANCE FOR D1 SCENARIO, 3 CONTROL SYMBOLS

1

0.9 Configuration 1x2 2x2 4x2 1x4 4x4

0.8 Cell Tput[b/s/Hz] 1.36 1.41 1.49 1.80 2.14

0.7 5% Tput[b/s/Hz] 0.0475 0.0485 0.0451 0.0708 0.0644

0.6
CDF
0.5 TABLE V

0.4 PERFORMANCE FOR D3 SCENARIO, 3 CONTROL SYMBOLS

0.3
1x2 Configuration 1x2 2x2 4x2 1x4 4x4
0.2
2x2
4x4 Cell Tput[b/s/Hz] 1.27 1.39 1.40 1.68 1.98
0.1
4x2
0
5% Tput[b/s/Hz] 0.0356 0.0393 0.0375 0.0567 0.0518
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
UE Throughput [Kbps]

Fig. 1. UE Throughput CDF, D1, n=2.

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 scheduling in these simulations. The scheduler at eNodeB
1
multiplexes UEs, whose reported precoding vectors are
0.9 orthogonal to each other.
TABLE VI shows the cell edge and the average cell
0.8
throughput comparison between a 1x2, 1x4 SIMO and 2x2,
0.7 4x2, and 4x4 MU-MIMO with 0.5λ antenna spacing at the cell
0.6
site. N=3 control symbols are assumed in these simulations. At
CDF
we can see compared to the SIMO case, MU-MIMO can
0.5 provide significant benefits in cell edge and average cell
0.4
throughput for closely spaced antenna systems at transmitter.

0.3
1x2
TABLE VI
0.2 2x2
4x2 D1 SCENARIO, 0.5Λ ANTENNA SPACING AT CELL SITE, N=3
0.1 1x4
4x4 SIMO MU-MIMO
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
UE Throughput [Kbps] Configuration 1x2 1x4 2x2 4x2 4x4

Fig. 3. UE Throughput CDF, D1, n =3. cell Tput[b/s/Hz] 1.36 1.86 1.38 1.78 2.55

1 5% Tput[b/s/Hz] 0.0474 0.0707 0.0589 0.0610 0.0992

0.9

0.8

0.7 D. Bursty Traffic Performance

In this section we study system performance for bursty
0.6
CDF traffic sources. Two types of traffic sources are considered
0.5 here: VoIP and VT. UE is defined to be in outage if 98th
0.4
percentile of the tail latency of the packets of the source type
is greater than the maximum latency considered for the source.
0.3 1x4 The system performance for the particular traffic source is
0.2
1x2 defined as maximum number of UEs with that traffic source in
2x2
4x2
the system (or per cell) such that at most 5% are in outage.
0.1
4x4 The simulation assumptions for this part are summarized in
0 TABLE VII.
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
UE Throughput[kbps]
TABLE VII
Fig. 4. UE Throughput CDF, D3, n=3.
SIMULATION ASSUMPTIONS FOR BURSTY TRAFFIC
C. MU-MIMO Performance Parameter Explanation/Assumption
So far we examined the performance benefit of SU-MIMO
Cellular layout 7 eNode-B, 3-cell sites
systems. LTE supports MU-MIMO, as well. However, there wraparound
are not enough supporting mechanisms in the standard for Inter-site distance 500 (meters)
MU-MIMO operation. The CQI mechanisms are not
optimized for MU-MIMO and the control signaling to help the Speed 3km/h, 30km/h
BS total Tx power 43 dBm
UE to cancel the interference of other multiplexed UEs is not Bandwidth 5 MHz
provided. Also the precoding operation is codebook based and Number of control symbols 3
the codebook is optimized for SU-MIMO operation. The Antennas Configuration 1x2
designed codebook does not provide the low cross-correlation Standard
8 dB
and interference leakage desired for MU-MIMO operation. Shadowing deviation
Given all this, the MU-MIMO operatio is beneficial only Parameters
correlation 0.5 inter-site, 1 intra-site
for the cases with small antenna spacing at the eNodeB, so
that healthy beams can be formed for each UE.
In this section, we provide performance for MU-MIMO 1) VoIP Simulations
with 0.5λ antenna spacing at the eNB site. The CQI VoIP simulations utilize Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR)
mechanism is the same as rank 1 SU-MIMO report. Each UE vocoder with 12.2 kbps average rate. Details of the source
report a precoding index corresponding to the preffered model can be found in TABLE VIII. The delay target
precoing matrix and the corresponding CQI value to the considered for VoIP simulations is 50ms.
eNodeB. Subband scheduling is used along with MU-MIMO

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 eNode B employs a delay sensitive scheduling algorithm. The performance of VT source is also considered with
Because of the control channel region limitations, semi- mobility modeling and handover. The handover modeling is
persistent allocation of resources is utilized at the beginning of inline with backward handover of Release 8 LTE, where
UE’s talkspurt. Resources for the first transmission of every serving cell prepares a target ahead of handover based on the
packet are pre-allocated and have a periodicity of 20ms. Re- received measurement reports. The mobility model is a line
transmissions are dynamically scheduled. model with random direction, where a UE chose a random
eNodeB employs power control for transmission of VoIP direction and move along that direction with the given speed.
packets. The power control is based on wideband CQI. The A time-varying shadowing with correlation distance of 50m is
CQI transmission periodicity is assumed to be 20ms, also modeled. Other details on the parameters related to
accounting for reasonable overhead on uplink. mobility and handover is given in TABLE IX. The backward-
handover flow modeled in the simulations is shown in Fig. 6.
TABLE VIII
TABLE IX
VOIP SOURCE ASSUMPTIONS
HANDOVER AND MOBILITY RELATED PARAMETERS
Codec AMR12.2
Activity factor 50% Parameter Explanation/Assumption
Measurements Narrow band Reference Signal
Frame length 20ms Received Power (RSRP) based
VoIP payload size 320 bits on antenna port 0
Measurement period 10ms
SID payload size 120 bits
Modulation QPSK Measurement report Once every 7ms
Measurement filter Finite Impulse Response (FIR)
Allocation size for VoIP packet 2RB filter of window length 200ms
Hysteresis 2dB
Report Time to Trigger 20ms
Fig. 5 shows the percentage of UEs in outage for different Back-haul delay Truncated-exponential with
load. mean 20ms, (min, max) of
(10,100)ms
10 Random Access Channel (RACH) 18ms
Talk-Spurt Scheduling delay
9 Radio Link Failure (RLF) delay 60ms
Cell acquisition threshold -9dB
Percentage of UEs in Outage

8 Lognormal Time varying shadowing as

Shadowing defined in [6]
7
Shadowing correlation distance 50m
6

2
220 230 240 250 260 270
Number of Loaded VoIP users
Fig. 5. Percentage of VoIP UEs in outage vs. Load for D1, 3km/h, 5MHz
scenario.

E. VT Simulations
The VT source that we consider in this paper is non-rate
adaptive and is comprised of the voice source that is modeled
as AMR 12.2kbps source outlined in previous section, and a
video source with average rate of 48kbps. The video source is
the trace of a real video source and is provided as an input file
to the simulator. The delay targets for voice and video portion
of the VT source are considered to be 60ms and 130ms in
these simulations. In this system, the voice packets
The scheduler used for the VT source is based on a multi-
flow scheduler that performs dynamic scheduling of the VT
UEs in the system and tries to achieve the delay requirements.
Fig. 6. Backward Handover Flow.

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 Fig. 7 shows the performance of a VT source for D1
scenario under different number of VT users per cell. The 1

simulations are static in these cases. The figures show the 98% 0.9
tail delay for both voice and video source.
0.8
Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 show the tail delay CDF with mobility and
handover modeled for video and voice traffic respectively. 0.7

TABLE X summarizes VT results for different scenarios. 0.6

CDF
TABLE X 0.5

0.4
VT PERFORMANCE FOR D1 SCENARIO, 5MHZ
0.3 30UE 30kmh voice
3 km/h 30 km/h 20UE 30kmh voice
Mobility Static Mob. Static Mob. 0.2 40UE Static voice
45UE Static voice
Max # UEs for 5% 45 40 45 30 0.1 40UE 3kmh voice
outage 45UE 3kmh voice
0
0 50 100 150
1
Delay [ms]

0.9 Fig. 9. CDF of 98% voice tail delay, D1 Case, mobility.

0.8

0.7
IV. SUMMARY
In this paper we have evaluated system performance of LTE
0.6
CDF Release 8 system. In the static system simulation setting that
0.5
we consider, spectral efficiency of 4x4 MIMO in LTE Release
0.4 8 is 17 % and 60% higher than 1x4 SIMO and 1x2 SIMO
0.3 45UE voice configurations, respectively. Mobility simulations conducted
0.2
50UE voice
40UE voice
for VT source indicate that system performance degrades only
50UE video
45UE video
marginally for 3 km/h, while degradation is about 30% for the
0.1
40UE video 30 km/h case.
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Delay [ms]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Fig. 7. CDF of 98% tail delay, D1 Case, no mobility.
The authors would like to thank Yongbin Wei and Xiaoxia
Zhang for thorough review and valuable comments.
1
REFERENCES
0.9
[1] 36.211 3GPP E-UTRA Physical Channels and Modulation, Release 8
0.8 (2009-03).

0.7
[2] 36.212 3GPP E-UTRA Multiplexing and channel coding, Release 8
(2009-03).
0.6
[3] 36.213 3GPP E-UTRA Physical layer procedures Release 8, (2009-03).
CDF
0.5 [4] 25.814 3GPP Physical layer aspect for evolved Universal Terrestrial
Radio Access (UTRA), Release 7.
0.4
30UE 30 kmh video [5] 25.996 3GPP Spatial channel model for Multiple Input Multiple Output
0.3 45UE 3 kmh video (MIMO) simulations
40UE 3 kmh video
0.2
45UE Static video
[6] Gudmundson, “Correlation Model for Shadow Fading in Mobile Radio
40UE Static video Systems” Electronics. Letters, Vol. 27, 23, 2145-2146, November, 1991.
0.1
20UE 30 kmh video
0
0 50 100 150 200
Delay [ms]

Fig. 8. CDF of 98% video tail delay, D1 Case, mobility.

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