System Architecture Evolution

(SAE) in 3GPP
Targets for System Architecture Evolution:
Optimization for PS services, No longer CS
Core network
Support for higher throughput (more
capacity, higher data rates)
Decrease the response time for activation
and bearer set-up (Control plane latency)
Decrease packet delivery delay (User plane
latency)
Architecture simplification when comparing
with existing cellular networks
Inter-working with 3GPP access networks
Inter-working with other wireless access
networks

LTE/SAE Requirements Summary

1.- Simplify the RAN:
- Reduce the number of different types of RAN nodes, and their
complexity.
- Minimize the number of RAN interface types.
2.- Increase throughput: Peak data rates of uplink/downlink 50/100 Mbps
3.- Reduce latency (which is a prerequisite for CS replacement).
4.- Improve spectrum efficiency. Capacity 2-4 times higher than with
Release 6 HSPA
5.- Frequency flexibility and bandwidth scalability: Frequency Refarming
6.- Migrate to a PS only domain in the core network.
7.- Provide efficient support for a variety of different services. Traditional
CS services will be supported via VoIP, etc.
8.- Minimise the presence of single points of failure in the network
above the evolved Node Bs (eNBs):S1-Flex interface
9.- Support for inter-working with existing 3G system and non-3GPP
specified systems
10.- Operation in FDD and TDD modes
11.- Improved terminal power efficiency
A more detailed list of the requirements and objectives for LTE can be
found in TR25.913 from 3GPP.

Evolved Packet System (EPS)

Architecture - Subsystems
LTE or EUTRAN

SAE or EPC

LTE/EPS Interworking with 2G/3G Networks

Gn

Gb

GERAN

PDN

S6d: diameter Based

Gr: MAP Based
S4

UTRAN

S3
HSS

S6a
S12
MME

Evolved
Node B
(eNB)
LTE-UE

Gi

SGSN

Iu-PS

Direct Tunnels
from Serving GW
to RNC (User
Plane)

GGSN

cell

LTE-Uu

Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN)

Gx

S1-MME

PCRF

Rx+

S11
S5/S8

S1-U
Serving
Gateway

SGi
PDN
Gateway

Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

PDN

Evolved
Node B (eNB)
LTE-UE
LTE-Uu
cell

Evolved
Node B
(eNB)

eNB Functions
Radio Resource Management (RRM)
Radio Bearer Control: setup, modifications and
release of Radio Resources
Connection Mgt. Control: UE State Mgmt. MME-UE
Connection

It is the only network element

defined as part of EUTRAN.

It replaces the old Node B / RNC
combination from 3G.
It terminates the complete radio
interface including physical layer.
It provides all radio management
functions
An eNB can handle several cells.
To enable efficient inter-cell radio
management for cells not attached to
the same eNB, there is a inter-eNB
interface X2 specified. It will allow to
coordinate inter-eNB handovers
without direct involvement of EPC
during this process.

Radio Admission Control

eNode B Measurements
Collection and evaluation
Dynamic Resource
Allocation (Scheduler)
IP Header Compression/ de-compression
Access Layer Security: ciphering and integrity
protection on the radio interface
MME Selection at Attach of the UE
User Data Routing to the SAE GW.
Transmission of Paging Message coming from MME
Transmission of Broadcast Info (System info, MBMS)

Mobility Management Entity

(MME)
HSS
Evolved
Node B
(eNB)

S1-MME

MME

S6a
S11

S1-U

Serving
Gateway

MME Functions
Control plane NE in EPC
Non-Access-Stratum (NAS)
Signalling
Idle State Mobility Handling

It is a pure signaling entity inside the EPC.

Tracking Area updates

SAE uses tracking areas to track the position of

Subscriber attach/detach

idle UEs. The basic principle is identical to 2G/3G

LA or RA.
MME handles attaches and detaches to the SAE
system, as well as tracking area updates.
Therefore it possesses an interface towards the
HSS (home subscriber server) which stores the
subscription relevant information and the
currently assigned MME in its permanent data
base.
A second functionality of the MME is the
signaling coordination to setup transport bearers
(SAE bearers) through the EPC for a UE.
MMEs can be interconnected via the S10
interface.
It generates and allocates temporary ids for UEs.

Signalling coordination for

SAE Bearer Setup/Release & HO
Security (Authentication,
Ciphering, Integrity protection)
Trigger and distribution of
Paging Messages to eNB
Roaming Control (S6a interface
to HSS)
Inter-CN Node Signaling
(S10 interface), allows efficient
inter-MME tracking area updates
and handovers

LTE FDD and TDD Modes

t

Bandwidth

Bandwidth

up to 20MHz

up to 20MHz

Bandwidth
up to 20MHz
Uplink

Uplink

Downlink
Guard
Period

f
Duplex Frequency

Downlink
f

LTE Air Interface Key

Features
TX

Fast Link Adaptation

due to channel
behaviour

scalable

64QAM
Modulation

Tx

RX

MIMO
Channel

Rx

Advanced
Scheduling
Time & Freq.

Short TTI = 1
ms
Transmission
time interval
ARQ Automatic
Repeat Request

DL: OFDMA
UL: SC-FDMA

OFDM is the state-of-the-art and most efficient and

robust air interface and could be used for both FDD
and TDD modes

Radio Protocols
Architecture
Control Plane
User Plane
L
3

RRC
Radio Bearer
PDCP

L
2

RLC
Logical Channel
MAC
Transport Channels

L
1

Physical Layer
Physical Channels

NAS
NAS Protocol(s)
Protocol(s)

Application
Application Layer
Layer

(Attach/TA
(Attach/TA Update/)
Update/)

IP
IP // TCP
TCP || UDP
UDP ||

(E-)RRC
(E-)RRC

(Radio
(Radio Resource
Resource Control)
Control)

Radio Bearer
PDCP
PDCP

PDCP
PDCP

(Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data
Convergence
Convergence
Convergence Convergence
Protocol)
Protocol)
Protocol)
Protocol)

RLC
RLC

(Radio
(Radio Link
Link
Control)
Control)

RLC
RLC

(Radio
(Radio Link
Link
Control)
Control)

PDCP
PDCP

(Packet
(Packet Data
Data
Convergence
Convergence
Protocol)
Protocol)

RLC
RLC

(Radio
(Radio Link
Link
Control)
Control)

PDCP
PDCP

PDCP
PDCP

(Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data
Convergence
Convergence Convergence
Convergence
Protocol)
Protocol)
Protocol)
Protocol)

RLC
RLC

(Radio
(Radio Link
Link
Control)
Control)

Logical Channel

Medium
Medium Access
Access Control
Control (MAC)
(MAC)

RLC
RLC

(Radio
(Radio Link
Link
Control)
Control)

ROHC (RFC 3095)

Security

Segment./Reassembly
ARQ

Scheduling /
Priority Handling
De/Multiplexing
HARQ

Transport Channels
FDD
FDD || TDD
TDD -- Layer
Layer 11
(( DL:
DL: OFDMA,
OFDMA, UL:
UL: SC-FDMA
SC-FDMA ))

CRC
Coding/Rate Matching
Interleaving

Physical Channels

Modulation
Resource Mapping/MIMO

Challenges for the Air Interface

Design
The usage of the pulse leads
to other challenges to be
solved:
1. ISI = Intersymbol Interference
Due to multipath propagation solution: use cyclic prefix
2. ACI = Adjacent Carrier Interference
Due to the fact that FDM = frequency division
multiplexing will be used
solution: orthogonal subcarriers
3. ICI = Intercarrier Interference
Losing orthogonality between subcarriers because of
effects like e.g. Doppler
solution: use reference signals will be explained in
chapter 7

Resource Block and Resource

ysicalElement
Resource Block or Resource Block (PRB or RB)

180
KHz

12 subcarriers in frequency domain x 1 slot period

Capacity allocation is based
in0 time
domain.
Subcarrie 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 on Resource Blocks
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
r1
Resource Element ( RE):
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 subcarrier x 1 symbol
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Subcarrier
12

0 1 2

3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 1 2

3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 1 2

3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 1 2

3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 1 2

3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 1 2

3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 1 2

3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 1 2

3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

B
R

1
slot
1 ms

1
slot

subframe

period
Theoretical minimum
capacity allocation unit.
1 RE is the equivalent of 1
modulation symbol on a
subcarrier, i.e. 2 bits for
QPSK, 4 bits for 16QAM and
6 bits for 64QAM.
Resource
Element

OFDM Key Parameters for FDD and

Bandwidth
1.4 MH 3 MHz
5 MHz
10 MHz 15 MHz
20 MHz
(N f)
TDD Modes
C

Subcarrier
MBMS)
Spacing (f)

Fixed to 15 kHz (7.5kHz defined for

Symbol
duration

T symbol = 1/f = 1/15kHz = 66.67s

Sampling rate,
fS (MHz)

1.92

3.84

7.68

15.36

23.04

30.72

Data
Subcarriers (NC)

72

180

300

600

900

1200

NIFFT
(IFFT Length)

128

320

512

1024

1536

2048

Number of
Resource Blocks

15

25

50

75

100

Symbols/slot
CP length

Normal CP=7; extended CP=6

Normal CP=4.69/5.12sec., Extended CP= 16.67sec

Data Rate Calculation

1. Maximum channel data rate

The maximum channel data rate is calculated taking into account

the total number of the available resource blocks in 1 TTI = 1ms
Max Data Rate = Number of Resource Blocks x 12 subcarriers x
(14 symbols/ 1ms)
= Number of Resouce Blocks x (168 symbols/1ms)
pact of the Channel Bandwith: 5, 10, 20 MHz
For BW = 5MHz -> there are 25 Resource Blocks
-> Max Data Rate = 25 x (168 symbols/1ms) = 4,2 * Msymbols/s
BW = 10MHz -> 50 Resource Blocks -> Max Data Rate = 8,4 Msymbols/s
BW = 20MHz -> 100 Resource Blocks -> Max Data Rate =16,8 Msymbols/s

mpact of the Modulation: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM

For QPSK 2bits/symbol; 16QAM 4bits/symbol; 64QAM 6 bits/symbol
QPSK: Max Data Rate = 16,4 Msymbols/s * 2bits/symbol = 32,8 Mbits/s
(bandwith of 20 MHz)
16QAM: Max Data Rate = 16,4 Msymbols/s * 4 bits/symbols = 65,6
Mbits/s
64QAM: Max Data Rate = 16,4 Msymbols/s * 6 bits/symbols = 98,4

Data
Rate
Calculation
mpact of the Channel Coding

Channel Coding will be discussed in chapter 6. In LTE Turbo coding of

rate 1/3 will be used. The effective coding rate is dependent on the
Modulation and Coding Scheme selected by the scheduler in the
eNodeB. In practice several coding rates can be obtained. Here it is
considered 1/2 and 3/4
1/2 coding rate: Max Data rate = 98,4 Mbits/s * 0,5 = 49,2 Mbits/s
3/4 coding rate: Max Data rate = 98,4 Mbits/s * 0,75 = 73,8 Mbits/s
mpact of MIMO = Multiple Input Multiple Output

MIMO is discussed in chapter 9. If spatial diversity it is used (2x2

MIMO) then the data rate will be doubled since the data is sent in
parallel in 2 different streams using 2 different antennas
2x2 MIMO: Max Data Rate = 73,8 Mbit/s * 2 = 147,6 Mbits/s
act of physical layer overhead and higher layers overhead
The real data rate of the user will be further reduced if the physical
layer overhead is considered. Also the higher layers may introduce
overhead as shown in chapter number 2. For example IP , PDCP , RLC
and MAC are introducing their own headers.
This type of overheads are not discussed here

CRC Coding and

Segmentation
Transport Blocks
(variable sizes)
TB
TB
ACK | NACK

MAC scheduler
scheduler
MAC

HARQ

Redundancy
Version

HARQ Info
CRC
CRC
Coding
Coding + Rate
Matching

Modulation
Scheme

Coding
Data Modulation

Resource/
Power
Assignment
Antenna
Assignment

Coding
Resource
Mapping

QPSK,
16QAM,
64QAM

...

Antenna Mapping
...

3GPP TS 36.302 v8.1.0

Modulation Schemes
3GPP standard defines the following options: QPSK,
16QAM, 64QAM in both directions ( UL and DL)
- UL 64QAM not supported in RL10
Not every physical channel is allowed to use any
modulation scheme:
Scheduler decides which form to use depending on
carrier quality feedback information from the UE

Physical
channel

Modulation

PDSCH

QPSK,
16QAM,
64QAM

PMCH

QPSK,
16QAM,
64QAM

6 bits/symbol

PBCH

QPSK

64QAM

PDCCH
(PCFICH,
PHICH)

QPSK

PUSCH

QPSK,
16QAM,
64QAM

PUCCH

BPSK
and/or
QPSK

64QAM:
QPSK:

16QAM:

2 bits/symbol

4 bits/symbol

QPSK

16QAM

b0 b1

b0 b1b2b3

01

00

Im

Im

11

10Re

1111

Re
0000

Presentation / Author /
Date

b0 b1b2b3 b4 b5
Im

Re

LTE Physical Layer Structure

Frame Structure (TDD)
TDD has a single frame structure: same as FDD but with some
specific fields to enable also TD-SCDMA co-existence
(China):
Common frame structure and slot duration allows to parameterize
the LTE TDD mode of operation so that the site can have
compatible UL and DL split (static parameter)

DwPTS
DwPTS
GP
GP
UpPTS
UpPTS

DwPTS
DwPTS
GP
GP
UpPTS
pPTS
U

Each half frame carries six subframes and three specialized

fields ( inherited from TD-SCDMA): DwPTS, GP, UpPTS
Subframe 0 and DwPTS
are reserved
radio frame
10 ms for downlink; subframe1
f
and UpPTS are reserved for UL. Remaining fields are
SF
SF
SF
SF
SF
SF
SF
SF
SF . . . SF
SF
. . . between
dynamically
assigned
UL and DL.SF
UL/DL
#0
#1
#5
#0
#1
#5
#0
#1
#5
#0
#1
#5
carrier Also
called Frame Type 2. TDD may change between UL and
subframe
subframe
0
subframe 0
Subframe 5
subframe 1
DL either
with 5 1or 10
ms period
subframe
5
half frame

Downlink Subframe
Uplink Subframe

DwPTS: Downlink Pilot time Slot

UpPSS: Uplink Pilot Time Slot
GP: Guard Period to separate

time

TDD frame structure (1/2)

There are 7 frame configurations, according to different

DL/UL partition
DL Downlink subframe
UL Uplink subframe
SS Special Switching
subframe

1 frame =
10ms

1 subframe =
1ms
SS
UL
DL

UL

UL

DL

SS

UL

UL

UL

DL

SS

UL

UL

DL

DL

SS

UL

UL

DL

DL

SS

UL

DL

DL

DL

SS

UL

DL

DL

DL

SS

UL

UL

UL

DL

DL

DL

DL

DL

DL

SS

UL

UL

DL

DL

DL

DL

DL

DL

DL

SS

UL

DL

DL

DL

DL

DL

DL

DL

DL

SS

UL

UL

UL

DL

SS

UL

UL

DL

Special subframe
UE always needs a guard period in order to switch from
receiver to transmitter.
The guard period includes RTD (Round Trip Delay).
Start of UL
eNodeB
PT = Propagation
subframe
ends
Time
G
reaches at
transmitti
SP = Switching
P
eNodeB
ng
S
P
P
Period
P
T
T
RTD = Round Trip
eNod
Uplink
Delay
Downli
eB GP = Guard Period
nk
Downli
nk
End of DL
subframe has
reached at
the UE

Uplink

UE has switched
to transmission
and has begun
UL subframe

UE

RTD = 2 x
PT
GP = RTD +
SP

Spatial Multiplexing or MultiStream

2x2
MIMO

MIMO stands for Multiple Inputs - Multiple Outputs

The LTE initially supports 2x2 (and later 4x4)

Only in the downlink.
Two kinds of MIMO techniques:

Multistream transmission (also known as spatial multiplexing)

MIMO

Diversity (or space-time coding)

MIMO.
Laptop
with two
Multi-Stream or Spatial
Spatial multiplexing 2x2 MIMO
antenna
Multiplexing MIMO case:
s
Data stream
1

eNodeB

Data stream
2

Increases peak data

rate
High SNIR required

1.- Each transmit antenna

transmits a different data
stream.
2.- This technique
significantly increases the
peak data rate over the
radio link. (For instance, 4x4
MIMO effectively increases
the peak data rate by a
factor of four.)
3.- It requires high signal-tonoise-plus-interference ratio
(SNIR) radio conditions in
order to be effective.

Transmission Modes in 3GPP

(1/2)
3GPP MODE 1
Single antenna port; port 0
1 TX antenna transmitting
always on port 0

3GPP MODE 2
Transmit diversity
Multiple antennas transmit
same signal
Improves SINR

3GPP Mode 3
Open loop spatial multiplexing
Multiple antennas transmitting
different signals
No feedback from the UE used
Improves user data rate

3GPP Mode 4
Closed Loop spatial multiplexing
Multiple antennas transmitting
different signals
Feedback from the UE used
Improves user data rate

Tracking Area

Tracking areas are used for EPS (Evolved Packet

System) Mobility Management (EMM)
Paging messages are broadcasted across the
tracking areas within which the UE is registered
UE can be registered within more than a single
tracking area
Each eNode B can contain cells belonging to
different tracking areas
Each cell can only belong to a single tracking
area
A tracking area can be shared by multiple MME
Tracking Area Identity (TAI):
TAI = MCC + MNC + TAC ( Tracking Area
Code)
The TAC, MCC and MNC are broadcast within SIB
1

Tracking areas
are the
equivalent of
Location Areas
and Routing
Areas for LTE

TAI1

eNB

TAI1
TAI1
TAI1
TAI2

TAI1
TAI2

Tracking Area

Tracking Area Planning

Tracking areas should be planned to be relatively large (100 eNode
Guidelines
B) rather than relatively small
Their size should be reduced subsequently if the paging load
becomes high
Existing 2G and 3G location area and routing area boundaries should
be used as a basis for defining LTE tracking area boundaries
Tracking areas should not run close to and parallel to major roads
nor railways. Likewise, boundaries should not traverse dense
subscriber areas
Cells which are located at a tracking area boundary and which
experience large numbers of updates should be monitored to
evaluate the impact of the update procedures