Cell Search Techniques in LTE Paper
Cell Search Techniques in LTE Paper
Cell Search Techniques in LTE Paper
Abstract
LTE is a part of evolved UMTS beyond HSPA and the air interface differs from WCDMA in three major areas the downlink waveform is based on OFDM, the system supports a variable system bandwidth ranging from 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz and finally, there is maximum commonality between FDD and TDD designs of LTE.. The LTE cell search approach has been carefully designed keeping the overall search space in consideration, while minimizing the complexity of the terminal. This paper presents an overview of cell search techniques which have been standardized in LTE. The topics include the baseline cell search procedure, synchronization signal design and interference management across synchronization signals in different cells. Further, the paper highlights the design options for two-step cell search procedure and provides the performance comparison between two-step cell search procedure and threestep cell search procedure which has been standardized in WCDMA systems.
Index TermsCell search, OFDM, LTE, E-UTRA, WCDMA, UMB, SFN
1. Introduction
Cell search techniques for LTE have been standardized over the past one year and contain the following aspects: Cell Identity (ID) identification procedure including symbol timing and radio frame boundary timing identification Synchronization signal design Synchronization interference management across different cells. The cell search procedure in WCDMA systems is divided in three steps [17]: Symbol timing detection using Primary synchronization signal (PSC) Radio frame boundary and cell ID group detection using Secondary synchronization signal (SSC) Cell identity (ID) identification using primary common pilot channel (P-CPICH). The key difference between LTE and WCDMA is that in the former, the cell ID identification finishes in two steps as shown in Figure 1: PSC and SSC uniquely provide the cell ID identification [1][2][4][5] [6]. In Figure 1, PBCH is the physical broadcast channel and RS is the reference signal in LTE while P-CCPCH is the primary common control physical channel in WCDMA.
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Figure 1: Cell search procedure comparison: LTE vs WCDMA In this paper, we provide an overview of cell search techniques in LTE applicable to both initial acquisition and neighboring cell search. Considering the significance of adopting a two-step cell search procedure in LTE, we highlight several design options and compare the performance of two-step cell search procedure and three-step cell search procedure.
5-MHz bandwidth
2.5-MHz bandwidth
1.25-MHz bandwidth
81 82 Figure 2: PSC/SSC placement in frequency 83 domain 84 85 2.1.2 Radio frame structure in LTE and PSC/SSC 86 placement in time domain 87 Downlink and uplink transmissions in LTE are 88 organized in radio frames of 10ms duration. Two 89 frame structures are supported by LTE:
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