Wireless Cellular and LTE 4G Broadband-17EC81

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OVERVIEW AND CHANNEL STRUCTURE OF LTE AND DOWNLINK
TRANSPORT CHANNEL PROCESSING
Overview and Channel Structure of LTE
3.1 Introduction to LTE
3.2 Channel Structure of LTE
3.3 Downlink OFDMA Radio Resource
3.4 Uplink SC-FDMA Radio Resource
Downlink Transport Channel Processing
3.5 Overview
3.6 Downlink shared channels
3.7 Downlink Control Channels
3.8 Broadcast channels
3.9 Multicast channels
3.10 Downlink physical channels

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3.11 H-ARQ on Downlink

3.1 INTRODUCTION TO LTE

As mentioned previously, LTE is the next step in the evolution of mobile cellular systems and
was standardized as part of the 3GPP Release & specifications. Unlike 2G and 3G cellular
systems that were designed mainly with voice services in mind, LTE was designed primarily for
high-speed data services, which is why LTE is a packet-switched network from end to end and
has no support for circuit-switched services. However, the low latency of LTE and its
sophisticated quality of service (QoS) architecture allow a network to emulate a circuit-switched
connection on top of the packet-switched framework of LTE.
3.1.1 Design Principles
The LTE standard was designed 15 a completely new standard, with new numbering and new
documentation, and it is not built on the previous versions of 3GPP standards. Earlier elements
were brought in only if there was 1 compelling reason for them to exist in the new standard. The

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basic design principles that were agreed upon and followed in 3GPP while designing the LTE
specifications include:
➢ Network Architecture: Unlike 3G networks, LTE was designed to support packet-
switched traffic with support for various QoS classes of services. Previous generations of
networks such as UMTS/HSPA and IxRIT/Evo also support packet-switched traffic but this
was achieved by subsequent add-ons to the initial version of the standards. For example,
HSPA, which is a packet-switched protocol (packet-switched over the air), was built on top
of the Release 90 UMTS network and as a result carried some of the unnecessary burdens
of a circuit-switched network. LTE is different in the sense that it is a clean slate design and
supports packet switching for high data rate services from the start. The LTE radio access
network, E-UTRAN, was designed to have the minimum. number of interfaces (i.e., the
minimum. number of network elements) while still being able to provide efficient packet-
switched transport for traffic belonging to all the Qos classes such as conversational,
streaming, real-time, fob-real-time, and background classes.
➢ Data Rate and Latency: The design target for downlink and uplink peak data rates for
LTE are 100 Mbps und 50 Mbps, respectively, when operating at the 20MHz frequency
division duplex (FDD) channel size. The user-plane latency is defined in terms of the time

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 Wireless Cellular and LTE 4G Broadband-17EC81

it takes to transmit a small IP packet from the UE to the edge rode of the radio access
network or vice versa measured on the IP layer. The target for one-way latency in the user
plane is 5 Ms in an unloaded network, that is, if only a single UE is present in the cell. For
the control-plane latency, the transition time from a camped state to an active state is less
than 100 Ms, while the transition time between a dormant state and an active state should
be less than 50 MS.
➢ Performance Requirements: The target performance requirements for LTE are specified in
terms of spectrum efficiency, mobility, and coverage, and they are in general expressed relative
to the 3GPP Release 6 HSPA.
➢ Spectrum Efficiency: The average downlink user data rate und spectrum efficiency target
is three to four times that of the baseline HSDPA network. Similarly, in uplink the average
ser data rate and spectrum efficiency. Mobility The mobility requirement for LTE is to be
able to support hand off/ mobility at different terminal speeds. Maximum performance is
expected for the loves terminal speeds of 0 to 15 km/hr, with minor degradation in

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performance at higher mobile speeds up to 120 km/hr. LTE is also expected to be able to
sustain a connection for terminal speeds up to 350 km/hr but with significant degradation
in the system performance. Coverage for the cell coverage, the above performance targets
should be met up to 5 km.
➢ Radio Resource Management: The radio resource management requirements over various
spots such as enhanced support for end-to-end Qos, efficient support for transmission of
higher layers, and support for load sharing/balancing and policy management enforcement
across different radio access technologies.
➢ Flexibility of Spectrum and Deployment: In order to become a truly global standard, LTE is
designed to be operable under a wide variety of spectrum SCC Maurois, including its ability to
coexist and share spectrum with existing 3G technologies. Service providers in different
geographical regions often have different spectrums in terms of the carrier frequency and total
available bandwidth, which is why LTE Wis designed to have a scalable bandwidth from 1.4MHz
to 20MHz. In order to accommodate flexible duplexing options, LTE is designed to operate in
both frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) modes.
➢ Interoperability with 3G and 2G Networks: Multimode LTE terminals, which support
UTRAN and/or GERAN operation, should be able to support measurement of, and

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handover from end to, both 3GPP UTRAN und 3GPP GERAN systems with acceptable
terminal complexity and network performance.

3.1.2 Network Architecture

Figure 3.1 shows the end-to-end network architecture of LTE and the various components of
the network. The entire network is composed of the radio access network (E-UTRAN) und the
core network (EPC), both of which have been defined is new components of the end-to-end
network in Release of the 3GPP specifications. In this sense, LTE is different from UMTS since
UMTS defined a new radio access network but used the same core network as the previous-
generation Enhanced GPRS (EDGE) network. This obviously has some implications for the
service providers who are upgrading from a UMTS network to LTE. The main components of
the E-UTRAN and EPC are
➢ UE: The mobile terminal.
➢ eNode-B: The eNode-B (also called the base station) terminates the air inter face protocol and is

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the first point of contact for the UE. the eNode-3 is the only logical node in the E-UTRAN, so it
includes some functions previously defined in the RNC of the UTRAN, such as radio bearer
management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet
scheduling, and mobility management.

Figure 3.1: LTE end to end network architecture

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➢ Mobility Management Entity (MME): MME is similar in function to the control plane of
legacy Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN). It manages mobility aspects in 3GPP access
such as gateway selection and tracking area list management.
➢ Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN GW): The PDN GW terminates the SGi interface
toward the Packet Data Network (PDN). It routes data pickets between the EPC and the
external PDN, and is the key node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. It
also provides the anchor point for mobility with non-3GPP access. The external PDN can
be any kind of IP network as well as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) domain. The PDN
GW and the Serving GW may be implemented in one physical mode or separated physical
nodes.
➢ Si Interface: The SI interface is the interface that separates the E-UTRAN and the EPC. It
is split into two parts: the SI-U, which carries traffic data between the eNode-B and the
Serving GW, and the SI-MIME, which is a signalling-only interface between the eNode-B
and the NME.

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➢ X2 Interface: The X2 interface is the interface between eNode-Es, consisting of two parts:
the X2-C is the control plane interface between eNode-Es, while the X2-U is the user plane
interface between eNode-Es. It is assumed that there always exists an X2 interface between
Node-Bs that need to communicate with each other, for example, for support of handover.
3.1.3 Radio Interface Protocols
As in other communication standards, the LTE radio interface is designed based on a layered
protocol stack, which can be divided into control plane and user plane protocol stacks und is
shown in Figure 6.3. The packet flow in the user plane is shown in Figure 6.4. The LTE radio
interface protocol is composed of the following layers
➢ Radio Resource Control (RRC): The RRC layer performs the control plane functions
including paging, maintenance and release of an RRC connection-security handling-
nobility management, and QoS management.

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Figure 3.2: The LTE radio interface protocol stack

➢ Radio Link Control (RLC): The main functions of the RLC sublayer are segmentation and

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concatenation of data units, error correction through the Automatic Repeat request (ARQ)
protocol, and in-sequence delivery of packets to the higher layers. It operates in three
modes:
❖ The Transparent Mode (TM): The TM mode is the simplest one, without RIC
header addition, data segmentation, or concatenation, and it is used for specific
purposes such as random Access.
❖ The Unacknowledged Mode (UM): The UM mode allows the detection of
packet loss and provides packet reordering and reassembly, but does not require
retransmission of the missing protocol data units (PDUS)
❖ The Acknowledged Mode (AM): The AM mode is the most complex one, and
it is configured to request retransmission of the missing PDUs in addition to the
features supported by the UM mode.
➢ There is only one RLC entity at the eNode-13 and the UE per bearer.
➢ Medium Access Control (MAC): The main functions of the MAC sublayer include
error correction through the Hybrid-ARQ (H-ARQ) mechanism, mapping between
logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing/'demultiplexing of RLG PDUs
on to transport blocks, priority handling between logical channels of only UE, and

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priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling. The MAC sublayer is
also responsible for transport format selection of scheduled UES, which includes
selection of modulation format, code rate, MIMO Mink, and power level. There is only
one MAC entity at the eNode-B and one MAC entity at the UE.
➢ Physical Layer (PHY): The main function of PHY is the actual transmission and
reception of data in forms of t1118port blocks. The PHY is also responsible for various
control mechanisms such as signalling of H-ARQ feedback, signalling of scheduled
allocations, and channel measurements.

3.2 CHANNEL STRUCTURE OF LTE

To efficiently support various QoS classes of services, LTE adopts a hierarchical channel
structure. There are three different channel types defined in LTE - logical channels, transport
channels, and physical channels, each associated with a service access point (SAP) between
different layers. These channels are used by the lower layers of the protocol stack to provide

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services to the higher layers. The radio interface protocol architecture and the SAPs between
different layers are shown in Figure 3.3. Logical channels provide services at the SAP between
MAC and RLC layers, while transport channels provide services at the SAP between MAC and
PHY layers. Physical channels are the actual implementation of transport channels over the
radio interface.
The channels defined in LTE follow a similar hierarchical structure to UTRA/HSPA. However,
in the case of LTE, the transport and logical channel structures are much more simplified and
fewer in number compared to UTRA/HSPA. Unlike UTRA, HSPA, LTE is based entirely oll
shared and broadcast channels and contains to dedicated channels carrying data to specific UEs.
This improves the efficiency of the radio interface and can support dynamic resource allocation
between different UEs depending on their traffic/QoS requirements and their respective
channel conditions. In this section, we describe in detail the various logical transport, and
physical channels that are defined in LTE.

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Figure 3.3: The radio interface protocol architecture and the SAPs b/w different layers

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3.2.1 Logical Channels
Logical channels are used by the MAC to provide services to the RLC. Each logical channel is
defined based on the type of information it carries. In LTE, there are two categories of logical
channels depending on the service they provide: logical control channels and logical traffic
channels.
➢ Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH): A downlink common channel used to broadcast
system control information to the mobile terminals in the cell, including downlink
system bandwidth, antenna configuration, and reference signal power. Due to the large
amount of information carried on the BCCH, it is mapped to two different transport
channels: the Broadcast Channel (BCH) and the Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH).
➢ Multicast Control Channel (MCCH): A point-to-multipoint downlink channel used for
transmitting control information to UEs in the cell. It is only used by UES that receive
multicast/'broadcast services.
➢ Paging Control Channel (PCCH): A downlink channel that transfers paging information
to registered UEs in the cell, for example, in case of a mobile-terminated
communication session.

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➢ Common Control Channel (CCCH): A bi-directional channel for transmitting control

information between the network and UEs when no RRC connection is available,
implying the UE is not attached to the network such is in the idle state. Most commonly
the COCH is used during the random-access procedure.
➢ Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH): A point-to-point, bi-directional channel that
transmitted dedicated control information between a UE and the network. This channel
is used when the RRC connection is available, that is, the UE is attached to the network.
➢ The logical traffic channels, which are to transfer user plane information, include:
➢ Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH): A point-to-point, bi-directional channel used
between a given UE and the network. It can exist in both uplink and downlink.
➢ Multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH): A unidirectional point-to-multipoint data channel
that transmits traffic data from the network to UEs. It is associated with the
multicast/broadcast service.
3.2.2 Downlink Transport Channels

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Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH): Used for transmitting the downlink data, including both
control and traffic data, and thus it is associated with both logical control and logical traffic
channels. It supports H-ARQ, dynamic link adaption, dynamic and semi-persistent resource
allocation, UE discontinuous reception, and multicast/broadcast transmission. The concept of
shared channel transmission originates from HSDPA, which uses the High-Speed Downlink
Shared Channel (HS-DSCH) to multiplex traffic and control information among different UE..
By sharing the radio resource among different UEs the DL-SCH is able to maximize the
throughput by allocating the resources to the optimum UEs.
➢ Broadcast Channel (BCH): A downlink channel scouted with the BCCH logical channel
and is used to broadest system information over the entire coverage area of the cell. It
has a fixed transport format defined by the specifications.
➢ Multicast Channel (MCH): Associated with MCCH and MTCH logical channels for the
multicast/broadcast service. It supports Multicast/Broadcast Single Frequency Network
(MBSFN transmission, which transmits the same information on the same radio
resource from multiple synchronized base stations to multiple UES.
➢ Paging Channel (PCH): Associated with the PCCH logical channel. It is mapped to
dynamically allocated physical resources, and is required for broadcast over the entire

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cell coverage area. It is transmitted on the Physical Downlink Shared Channel

(PDSCH), 2nd supports UE discontinuous reception.
3.2.3 Uplink Transport Channels
➢ Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH): The uplink counterpart of the DL-SCH. It can be
associated to CCCH, DOCH, and DTCH logical channels. It supports H-ARQ. dynamic
link adaption, and dynamic and semi-persistent resource allocation.
➢ Random Access Channel (RACH): A specific transport channel that is not mapped to any
logical channel. It transmits relatively small amounts of data for initial loss or, in the case
of RRC, state changes.
3.2.4 Downlink Control Information (DCI)
It carries information related to downlink ‘uplink scheduling assignment, modulation and
coding scheme, 2nd Transmit Power Control (TPC) command, and is sent over the Physical
Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).
➢ Control Format Indicator (CFI): It indicates how many symbols the DCI spans in that

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sub frame. It takes values CFI = 1, 2, or 3, and is sent over the Physical Control Format
Indicator Channel (PCFICH).
➢ H-ARO Indicator (HI): It carries H-ARQ acknowledgment in response to up link
transmissions, and is sent over the Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Chanel (PHICH). HI
= 1 for a positive acknowledgement (ACK) and HI = 0 for a negative acknowledgment
(NAK).
➢ Channel Mapping: The description of different channel types, we see that there exists a
good correlation based in the purpose and the content between channels in different layers.
This requires a mapping between the logical channels and transport channels at the MAC
SAP and a mapping between transport channels and physical channels at the PHY SAP.
Such channel mapping is not arbitrary, and the allowed mapping between different
channel types is shown in Figure.3.4., while the mapping between control information
and physical channels is shown in Figure.3.5. It is possible for multiple channels mapped
to a single channel, for example, different logical control channels and logical traffic
channels are mapped to the DL-SCH transport channel.

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Figure 3.4: Mapping between different channel types

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Figure 3.5: Mapping of control information to physical channels

3.3 DOWNLINK OFDMA RADIO RESOURCE

In LTE, the downlink and uplink use different transmission schemes due to different
considerations. In this and the next section, we describe downlink and uplink radio transmission
schemes, respectively. In the downlink, a scalable OFDM transmission/multi-access technique
is used that allows for high spectrum efficiency by utilizing multiuser diversity in a frequency
selective channel. On the other hand, SC-FDMA transmission, multi-access technique is used
in the uplink since this reduces the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmitted
signal.
The transceiver structure of OFDM with FFT/IFFT enables scalable bandwidth operation with
a low complexity, which is one of the major objectives of LTE.

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As each subcarrier becomes a flat fading channel, compared to single-carrier trans TILISSION
OFDM makes it much easier to support multi-antenna transmission, which. is a key technique
to enhance the spectrum efficiency.
➢ OFDM enables multicast/broadest services on a synchronized single frequency
network, that is, MBSFN, is it treats signals from different base stations is propagating
through a multipath channel and can efficiently combine them.
The multiple access in the downlink is based on OFDMA. In each TTI, a scheduling decision
is made where each scheduled UE is signed a certain amount of radio resources in the time and
frequency domain. The radio resources allocated to different UEs are orthogonal to each other,
which means there is no intra-cell interference. In the remaining part of this section, we
describe the frame structure and the radio resource block structure in the downlink, as well as
the basic principles of resource allocation and the supported MIMO modes.

3.4 UPLINK SC-FDMA RADIO RESOURCE

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For the LTE uplink MSMİNİON, SC-FDMA with i CP is adopted. SC-FDMA possess most
of the merits of OFDM while enjoying a lower PAPR. A lower PAPR is highly desirable in the
uplink as less expensive power amplifiers are needed at UEs and the coverage is improved. In
LTE, the SC-FDMA signal is generated by the DFT-spread-OFDM. Compared to conventional
OFDM, the SC-FDMA receiver has higher complexity, which, however, is not considered to
be an issue in the uplink given the powerful computational capability at the base station.

3.4.1 Resource Allocation

Similar to the downlink, shared-channel transmission and channel-dependent scheduling are
supported in the uplink. Resource allocation in the uplink is also performed at the eNode-B.
Based on the channel quality measured on the uplink sounding reference signals and the
scheduling requests sent from UES, the eNode-B signs a unique time frequency resource to a
scheduled UE, which achieves orthogonal intra-cell transmission. Such intra-cell orthogonality
in the uplink is preserved between UEs by using timing advance such that the transport blocks
of different UEs are received synchronously at the eNode-3. This provides significant coverage
and capacity gain in the uplink over UMTS, which employ's non-orthogonal transmission in
the uplink and the performance is limited by inter-channel interference. In general, SC-FDMA

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is able to support both localized and distributed resource allocation. In the current specification,
only localized resource allocation is supported in the uplink, which preserves the single-carrier
property and can better exploit the multiuser diversity gain in the frequency domain. Compared
to distributed resource allocation, localized resource allocation is less sensitive to frequency
offset und also requires fewer reference symbols.
3.4.2 Supported MIMO Modes
For the MIMO modes supported in the uplink, the terminal complexity and cost are among the
major concerns. MU-MIMO is supported, which allocates the same time and frequency
resource to two UEs with each transmitting on 1 single antenna. This is also called Spatial
Division Multiple A (SDMA). The advantage is that only one transmit antenna per UE is
required. To separate streams for different UEs, channel state information is required at the
eNode-B, which is obtained through uplink reference signals that are orthogonal between UES.
Uplink MU-MIMO also requires power control, 15 the near-fur problem a rises when multiple
UEs are multiplexed on the same radio resource.

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DOWNLINK TRANSPORT CHANNEL PROCESSING

3.5 OVERVIEW
In this section describes generic channel coding procedures that are used for various data and
control transport channels. These common aspects of channel coding are applicable to both
downlink and uplink transmissions. Channel coding for the downlink is a combination of error
detection, EITOT correction, mate matching, interleaving, and trans port channel control
information mapping onto physical channels.

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Figure 3.6: Channel encoding processing

channels such as the shared channel, the error-control mechanism is coupled with the re
transmission mechanism using what is called the Hybrid-ARO (H-ARO) protocol. This
combined error-control and retransmission mechanism improves the link reliability

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significantly in fading channels, as opposed to performing these two steps separately.

3.6 DOWNLINK SHARED CHANNELS

We describe the physical layer processing for specific transport channels including the
downlink shared channel, the downlink control channel, the broadcast channel, and the
multicast channel.
Although most of the transport channels implement the various aspects of transport channel
processing such as channel coding, rate matching symbol mapping, MIMO processing, and
OFDM modulation, the specifics of each step vary from one transport channel to the other
The DL-SCH is carried on the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH).
Data transmission in the PDSCH is based on the concept of shared-channel transmission, where
the PHY layer resources, that is, resource blocks available for PDSCH, is treated as a Common
resource that can be dynamically shared among different UEs.

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Figure 3.7: OFDMA signal generation with N users

The dynamic multiplexing of UEs on the PDSCH is done by the schedules on a 1-Insec interval.
This way, a large portion of the radio resource can be allocated to a specific UE, which is
suitable for packet-data applications.

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3.6.1 Channel Encoding and Modulation
Rate matching is used in order to achieve 111 effective channel coding rate that matches the
payload capacity determined by the number of resource blocks allocated to the trans port block
of the given UE and the modulation scheme. The redundancy version used for repetition or
puncturing depends on the H-ARO transmission number and is indicated explicitly by the
eNode-B. The modulation scheme allowed for DL-SCH includes OPSK, 1GQAM, and GQAM
and is chosen based on the Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) provided by the UE and various
other parameters such as the size of the transport block. The transport block size, the
redundancy version, and the modulation order are

Figure 3.8: Channel mapping around the downlink shared channel

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The resource mapping of the PDSCH physical channel depends on whether UE Specific
reference signals are transmitted. In resource blocks without UE-specific reference signals, the
PDSCH shall be transmitted on the same set of antenna ports as the PBCH, which is one of [0),
(0,1), or (0,1,2,3): if UE-specific reference signals are transmitted, the PDSCH shall be
transmitted on antenna port , that is, transforming is applied. The complex-valued symbols are
mapped to resource elements in the physical resource blocks corresponding to the virtual
resource blocks assigned for transmission and not used for transmission of PCFICH, PHICH.
PDCCH, PECH, synchronization signals, on reference signals.
3.6.2 Multiantenna Transmission
As the main channel for downlink traffic data transmission, the PDSCH supports all the MIMO
modes specified in LTE, which makes this subsection an appropriate place to describe the
transmission of the various MIMO modes. There are seven different transmission modes
defined for data transmission on the PDSCH channel:
➢ Single-antenna port (port 0): One transport block is transmitted from a single physical

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antenna corresponding to internal port O.
➢ Transmit diversity: One transport block is transmitted from more than one physical
antenna, that is, ports 0 and 1 if two physical antennas are used and ports 0, 1, 2, and 3
if four physical antennas are used.
➢ Open-loop (OL) spatial multiplexing: One or two transport blocks are trans mitted from
two or four physical antennas. In this case, predefined precoder matrices are used based
on the Rank Indicator (RI) feedback. The preceding matrix is fixed and not adapted.
➢ Closed-loop (CL) spatial multiplexing: One or two transport blocks are trans mitted
from two or four physical antennas. The precoding in this case is adapted based on the
Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI) feedback from the UE.
➢ Multiuser MIMO: Two UEs are multiplexed onto two or four physical antennas with
one transport block to each UE. The rank-1 PMI feedback from each UE is used to
create the overall precoding matrix.
➢ Closed-loop rank-1 precoding: It is in special case of the CL spatial multiplexing with
single-layer transmission, that is, a Px 1 precoder is applied.
➢ Single-antenna port (port 5): A single transport block is transmitted from two or more
physical antennas. The eNode-B performs beam forming to a single UE using all

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physical antennas. Unlike other modes, in this use the reference signal is also
transmitted using the same beam forming vector that is used for the data symbols. Thus
for this mode, the beam forming technique used at the eNode-3 is transparent to the UE,
and the UE is able to decode the transport block with the help of this UE-specific
reference signal. Beam forming can be used to improve the received signal power
and/or reduce the interference signal power, which is Especially important for cell edge
users.

3.7 DOWNLINK CONTROL CHANNELS

Downlink control channels are carried over the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)
and they contain control information from the MAC layer, including downlink control
information (DCI), Control Format Indicator (CFI), and H-ARQ Indicator (HI). Channel
mapping between control information and physical channels in the downlink is shown in Figure
3.9. There is a specific physical channel for each type of control information. On the physical

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laver the PDOCH and the PDSCH are time multiplexed, such that the PDCCH is carried over
the first few OFDM symbols of each sub frame and the PDSCH is carried over the rest of the
OFDM symbols. The number of OFDM symbols allocated for PDOCH Cali Yarty forkful one
to four and is conveyed by the CFI. The CFI is carried on yet another control channel known
as the Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), which is always cried in a
predetermined format over the first OFDM symbol of each sub frame. This predetermined
format of PCFICH allows each UE to decode the CFI without umbiguity and thus determine
the number of OFDM symbols in the beginning of each sub frame that are used as the control
region.

Figure 3.9: Channel mapping for control information in the downlink

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3.8 BROADCAST CHANNELS

Broadcast channels carry system information such as downlink system bandwidth, antenna
configuration, and reference signal power. The UEs can get the necessary system information
after the cell search (or synchronization) procedure. Due to the large size of the system
information field, it is divided into two portions-Master Information Block (MIB) transmitted
on the PBCH and System Information Blocks (SIB) transmitted on the PDSCH. The PBCH
contains basic system parameters necessity to demodulate the PDSCH, which contains the
remaining SIB. The transmission of the PBCH is characterized by a fixed pre-determined
transport format and resource allocation, that is, there is no higher-layer control.
Error detection is provided through a 16-bit CRC, and then the CRC parity bits are scrambled
according to the eNode-B transmit antenna configuration with the scram sigling sequence
specified in Table 7.16. This implicitly tells the UE about the eNode-B Internal configuration.
The tail-biting convolution coding with rate 1/3 is used, and the coded bits are rate matched to
1920 bits for the normal CP and to 1728 bits for the extended CP.

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The modulation scheme is QPSK, No H-ARQ is supported. For MIMO modes, PBCH supports
single- mission and OL transmit diversity. Dynamic adaptation modulation and coding is not
possible, due to the lack of channel quality feedback. The complex-valued modulation symbols
are mapped onto the 72 subcarriers cantered the DC subcarrier in slot 1 in subframe O during
four consecutive frames, that is, the Transmission Time Interval (TTI) for the PBCH IS 40 Ms.
The PBCH occupies the narrowest bandwidth supported by LTE (1.4MHz) and is located in
the subframe guaranteed to be used in the downlink. Therefore, the resource mapping of the
PBCH is independent of the system bandwidth and the duplex mode. This allows the UE to
detect and decode the PBCH without any prior knowledge of the system bandwidth and the
duplex mode. Once the PBCH is detected and the MIB is decoded, the UE can then extract the
system bandwidth and the duplex mode.

3.9 MULTICAST CHANNELS

Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS), introduced in 3GPP Release G for the
UTRA 2, supports multicast/broadcast services in 1 cellular system. It sends the sine content
information to all the UE: (broadcast) or to 1 given set of UEs (multicast). and is envisaged for
delivering services such as mobile TV. In principle, the MBMS trans mission din originate

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 Wireless Cellular and LTE 4G Broadband-17EC81

from a single base station or multiple base stations, but multicell transmission is preferred as
large gains can be achieved through soft combining of trans missions from multiple base
stations. For MBMS in the UTRA, to receive the same data information from multiple cells,
the complexity at the receiver is high and there will be interference between signals from
different base stations. One major design requirement for LTE is to provide enhanced support
for the MBMS transmission, which is called Enhanced MSVS (E-MBMS) and is achieved
through the so-called Single-Frequency Network (SFN) operation.
With the OFDM-based transmission in the downlink, over-the-air combining of multicast,
broadcast transmissions from multiple base stations is possible in LTE with an extended CP.
The extended CP is used as the propagation delay from multiple cells and will typically be
larger than the delay spread in a single cell. A longer CP can ensure that signals from different
bike stations still fall within the CP at the receiver, which avoids inter-symbol interference at
the cost of a slight reduction in path data rate. Essentially, it makes synchronous multicell
multicast/broadcast transmissions appear as a single trans mission over a multipath channel,

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and since OFDM is efficient in combating multipath channels, there is no resulting interference.
In such Multicast/Broadcast Single Frequency Networks (MBSFNS), the same information is
broadcast on the same radio resources from multiple synchronized neighbouring base stations
to multiple UE. The SFN operation has already been used in the terrestrial Digital Video
Broadcasting system (DVB-T).
The E-MBMS transmission in LTE occurs on the MCH transport channel, along with the
7.5kHz subcarrier spacing and the extended CP. There are two types of E-MBMS
transmissions:
➢ Single-cell transmission (non-MBSFN operation): The MBMS service (MTCH and
MCCH) is transmitted on the MCH, und combining of MBMS trans mission from
multiple cells is not supported.
➢ Multicell transmission (MBSFN operation): The MBMS service (MTCH and MCCH)
is transmitted synchronously on the MCH, and combining is supported with the SFN
operation.
The MBSFN and DL-SCH transmission can be multiplexed in a time-division multiplexing
(TDM) manner on 1 subcarrier basis, but cannot be transmitted within the same subframe.

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 Wireless Cellular and LTE 4G Broadband-17EC81

In the subframes where PMCH is transmitted on a carrier supporting a mix of PDSCH und
PNCH transmissions, up to two of the first OFDM symbols of a subframe can be reserved for
non-MBSFN transmission and shall not be used for PMCH transmission.
In all cell with four cell-specific antenna ports, the first OFDM symbols of a subframe are
reserved for non-MBSFN transmission in the subframes in which the PNCH is transmitted.
The non-MBSFN symbols shall use the same CP as used for subframe 0. - PMCH shall not
be transmitted in subframes 0 und 5 of a carrier supporting 1 Mix
of PDSCH and PMCH transmissions.

3.10 DOWNLINK PHYSICAL CHANNELS

Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS), introduced in 3GPP Release G for the
UTRA 2, supports multicast/broadcast services in 1 cellular system. It sends the sine content
information to all the UE: (broadcast) or to 1 given set of UEs (multicast). and is envisaged for
delivering services such as mobile TV. In principle, the MBMS trans mission din originate

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from a single base station or multiple base stations, but multicell transmission is preferred as
large gains can be achieved through soft combining of trans missions from multiple base
stations. For MBMS in the UTRA, to receive the same data information from multiple cells,
the complexity at the receiver is high and there will be interference between signals from
different base stations. One major design requirement for LTE is to provide enhanced support
for the MBMS transmission, which is called Enhanced MSVS (E-MBMS) and is achieved
through the so-called Single-Frequency Network (SFN) operation.
With the OFDM-based transmission in the downlink, over-the-air combining of multicast,
broadcast transmissions from multiple base stations is possible in LTE with an extended CP.
The extended CP is used as the propagation delay from multiple cells and will typically be
larger than the delay spread in a single cell. A longer CP can ensure that signals from different
bike stations still fall within the CP at the receiver, which avoids inter-symbol interference at
the cost of a slight reduction in path data rate. Essentially, it makes synchronous multicell
multicast/broadcast transmissions appear as a single trans mission over a multipath channel,
and since OFDM is efficient in combating multipath channels, there is no resulting interference.
In such Multicast/Broadcast Single Frequency Networks (MBSFNS), the same information is
broadcast on the same radio resources from multiple synchronized neighbouring base stations

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 Wireless Cellular and LTE 4G Broadband-17EC81

to multiple UE.. The SFN operation has already been used in the terrestrial Digital Video
Broadcasting system (DVB-T).
The E-MBMS transmission in LTE occurs on the MCH transport channel, along with the
7.5kHz subcarrier spacing and the extended CP. There are two types of E-MBMS
transmissions:
➢ Single-cell transmission (non-MBSFN operation): The MBMS service (MTCH and
MCCH) is transmitted on the MCH, und combining of MBMS trans mission from
multiple cells is not supported.
➢ Multicell transmission (MBSFN operation): The MBMS service (MTCH and MCCH)
is transmitted synchronously on the MCH, and combining is supported with the SFN
operation.
The MBSFN and DL-SCH transmission can be multiplexed in a time-division multiplexing
(TDM) manner on 1 subcarrier basis, but cannot be transmitted within the same subframe.
In the subframes where PMCH is transmitted on a carrier supporting a mix of PDSCH und

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PNCH transmissions, up to two of the first OFDM symbols of a subframe can be reserved for
non-MBSFN transmission and shall not be used for PMCH transmission.
In all cell with four cell-specific antenna ports, the first OFDM symbols of a subframe are
reserved for non-MBSFN transmission in the subframes in which the PNCH is transmitted
The non-MBSFN symbols shall use the same CP as used for subframe 0. - PMCH shall not
be transmitted in subframes 0 und 5 of a carrier supporting 1 Mix
of PDSCH and PMCH transmissions.

3.11 H-ARQ ON DOWNLINK

In wireless network, due to the effects of channel fading and interference from neighbouring
cells, it is nearly impossible to guarantee error-free transmission no matter how robust the
channel coding is. Moreover, is the coding rate decreases, the transmission becomes more
robust but at the same time power efficiency is lost, that is, a significant amount of power is
used to transmit a few bits of information. An elegant approach to solve this problem is to use
the H-ARQ protocol, which combines FEC and retransmission within a single framework, as
described in Section 2.6.4. Similar to the HSPA system, in the case of LTE both Type I Chase
Combining (CC) H-ARO 2nd Type II Incremental Redundaricy (IR) H-ARQ schemes have

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 Wireless Cellular and LTE 4G Broadband-17EC81

been defined. The H-ARQ operation is part of the MAC laver, while the PHY laver handles
soft combining.
At the receiver turbo decoding is first applied on the received code block. If this is a
retransmission, which is indicated in the DCI, the code block will be combined with the
previously received versions for decoding. If there is no EITOI detected in the output of the
decoder, 111 ACK signal is fed back to the transmitter through the PUOCH physical channel
and the decoded block is passed to the upper layer; otherwise, 10 NAK signal is fed back and
the received code block is stored in the buffer for subsequent combining. The coding and
modulation for H-ARO-ACK information carried in the uplink for the downlink H-ARO
process.
At the transmitter for each (TC) transmission, the same turbo-encoded data is transmitted with
different puncturing, so each of these (re)transmissions has 1. different redundancy version and
each is self-decodable. Puncturing is performed during the rate matching process.

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