LTE System Level Simulation with Matlab

Ying Li1, Fei Yu1,

1. Zhengzhou Information Science and Technology Institute Zhengzhou, China hawk.hawk@163.com
AbstractWith the rapid development of 3GPP and its related techniques, evaluation of system level performance is in great need. However, LTE system level simulator is secured as commercial secrets in most 3GPP members. In this paper, we introduce our Matlab-based LTE system level simulator according to 3GPP specifications and related proposals. We mainly focus on channel model and physical abstract of transmission. Brief introduction of every part is given and physical concept and analysis are given. Keywords-LTE; System Level; Simulation; Matlab

Shu-lei Zheng2, Chun-lei Yang1

Zhengzhou Surveying and Mapping Institute Zhengzhou, China

and system to link level mapping (SL to LL) is performed for every scheduled user to finish the process.

BS Init MS Init AMC Channel Init HARQ TTI Cycle BS Cycle Scheduling SL to LL Save & Output
Figure 1 Block Diagram of 3GPP LTE System Level Simulation

I.

INTRODUCTION

The 3GPP LTE and LTE-Advanced are the most popular standards [1] in future wireless networks with most sponsors and members. In order to study key structure and new methods in 3GPP LTE standards, the LTE system level simulation is in great need. The LTE system level simulation is a statistical-based simulation tool used to evaluate total system performance and new algorithms. 3GPP has established a set of simulation parameters and evaluation methods so that its members can build the platform themselves. Studies on LTE system level simulation shows that the complete platform is secured as commercial secret for most 3GPP members. For academic study and evaluation of 3GPP LTE standards and related algorithms, we build our own Matlab-based platform. This paper is organized as follows. Part gives a brief introduction of 3GPP LTE system level simulator. In part , channel model is specified. In part , transmission function is introduced and conclusion is given in part . II. OVERVIEW OF THE PLATFORM

The pseudo-code of our matlab-based simulator is shown below, the bold indicates the function of the process. Initialize (channel, users, BSs) for each frame Move UEs for each timeslot (TTI) for each BS do scheduling, HARQ for each user in BS do 1. 2. 3. 4. III. Calc SINR AMC SL to LL mapping Send feedback CHANNEL MODEL

The LTE system level simulator is designed and implemented by different 3GPP members themselves, so the process and system details may have some difference. In figure 1, we give the block diagram of the platform. In figure 1, we consider the green part physical set part, the blue part link transmission part. The physical set part is the fundamental of the platform. In this part, parameter initialize and simulation control are presented. Similar in link transmission part, this part will help finish transmission process of each user in given cycle. Of course, in this part, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), HARQ, Scheduling
This work is supported by New-generation Mobile Wireless Communication Network of Nationa National Sci-Tech Major Special Item. (No. 2009ZX03007-003)

The channel model for mobile wireless communication is regarded as a time, frequency and spatial correlated channel

978-1-4244-7255-0/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

model. The commonly used channel model by 3GPP and its members is called spatial channel model (SCM) [2] and SCM-Enhanced (SCME) [3]. Channel model is very important for system level simulation. Different from link level simulation, the system level simulation concentrates the complete and total system performance and evaluation. The basic element of system level simulation is called a drop in which a snapshot will be taken for every element in the simulation environment. In this paper, we take SCM as an example. The SCM model presents an accurate way to express time, frequency and spatial influenced channel gain factor that can reflect real fading transmission environment. The link between the u th receive and s th transmit antenna in given time sample t can be described as follows, where n denotes the n th path of overall 6 multi-path, M is the total number of subpath, Pn is the power of the nth path,

3-Sector Scenario

Figure 3 Antenna Pattern of 3-Sector Cell

Figure 3 shows a 3-sector antenna pattern of the simulator. The left picture shows the broadside of the given sector and the right picture shows the physical antenna gain pattern. The 3-sector scenario with three 120-degree directional antennas is a commonly used scenario in 3GPP LTE system level simulation. At user side, an omnidirectional antenna is used to receive signal. In equation (1), both BS gain and MS gain are getting from interpolation using angle of arrival (AOA) [4]. B. Pathloss and Shadowing Both pathloss and shadowing are the large scale influence of a given channel model. Different from the small scale influence such as Doppler Effect, large scale parameters represents the influence of a relatively long time, e.g. 1 second. In the area of wireless communications, pathloss is a function of distance. Same in 3GPP, there are 3scenarios using different pathloss model shown in figure 4[5]. Detailed description is given in reference [6].
Pathloss In Different Scenario 150

SF is

the lognormal shadow fading ,

n ,m , AoD is

the AoD

for the m th subpath of the nth path,

n ,m , AoA is the AoA for

the m th subpath of the nth path, GBS ( n ,m, AoD ) is the BS antenna gain of each array element, GMS ( n,m , AoA ) is the MS antenna gain of each array element. Figure 2 shows the principle of SCM channel model. This figure is cited from [2]. It is clear that physical transmission environment is represented using this proper model.
Cluster n Subpath m BS array
n ,m ,AoD

N n ,m,AoA MS n ,m , AoA n ,AoA v v

N BS

n, AoD
n ,m , AoD
BS

MS MS array broadside MS array

140 130 Pathloss/dB

MS direction of travel

BS array broadside

Figure 2 Principle of SCM

120 110 100 90 80 0 Urban Macro Urban Micro Suburban Micro

hu , s ,n (t ) =

G BS ( n ,m , AoD ) exp ( j [kd s sin ( n ,m , AoD ) + n ,m ]) 1 M G ( 1 MS n ,m , AoA ) exp ( jkd u sin ( n ,m , AoA )) m= exp ( jk v cos ( t n , m , AoA v ) )
A. Antenna Pattern As is shown in equation (1), the gain of both basestation and mobile station is calculated using interpolation of antenna pattern. The antenna pattern describes the antenna gain in different directions shown in figure 2.

Pn SF M

(8)

200

400 meter

600

800

1000

The shadow fading is the parameter that reflects shadowing in transmission environment. It is a lognormal distribution and in 3GPP specifications, we will not change any of them.

Figure 4 Pathloss in Different Scenario

IV.

TRANSMISSION FUNCTION

The transmission function is a physical abstract of real transmission process. There are four parts of this function: adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), HARQ, Scheduling and SL to LL mapping. A. AMC In this sub function, different combination of modulation and coding scheme is performed in every given resource block using SL to LL mapping method [7] [8]. The RBI to BLER [9] is independent with modulation. If the symbol number of the chunk is fixed, the RBI (received bit information) of the chunk is still related to the modulation. Therefore, we generate the throughput map and code rate threshold for each permitted modulation, which only considered the case that BLER, is no larger than Target BLER. These mapping information are given as system parameters. In the AMC module, we first get the RBI for each permitted modulation. Then, we get the modulation and throughput by interpolation in RBI and maximization in modulation. The code rate is obtained by comparison with the RBIR.

AWGN channel, we can see the step of the working module in which will prove the accuracy of this module.
AMC throughput in AWGN channel 6 throughput/10000 modulation code rate

0 -10

-5

10 snr(dB)

15

20

25

30

Figure 6 Verification of AMC

B. HARQ and Scheduling HARQ and scheduling are function of resource allocation. In each given timeslot, basestation has some resource blocks to assign. In current LTE systems, error-correction mechanism of physical layer is implemented using CC or IR. Figure 7 gives the brief introduction of HARQ. Once the simulation cycle reaches the scheduler, the scheduler will make a scheduling of all RBs pending to be arranged. HARQ packet is a highpriority process. That means if a packet is a re-transmission packet, it is firstly scheduled. If the re-transmission block is empty, data packet is to be transmitted.

Figure 5 Block Diagram of AMC

The function of AMC is to decide better modulation and coding scheme to perform the transmission, so functional tests in AWGN channel is necessary. Figure 6 shows the simulation result of AMC in AWGN channel. We can easily infer that with the increase of SNR, AMC module is deciding the proper modulation and coding scheme to perform transmission under the instructions we set. The red line indicates different modulation scheme and the green line is the code rate. The blue one correspond the throughput in

The scheduling module is the very close to HARQ. For HARQ packet is send before all data packet. The commonly used scheduler is proportional fairness scheduler. In every given TTI, consider M is the scheduling coefficient. The definition of M is:

Figure 7 Block Diagram of HARQ

M i (t ) =

Tcurrent (t ) T average (t )

(2)

average (t ) =

1 1 Tcurrent (t ) + (1 ) TAverage (t 1) N N
(3)

V.

CONCLUSION

Where N is the timing window of simulation which reflect the tolerance of latency of users, and alpha is the fairness factor that denotes the fairness of algorithms.

In this paper, we give a brief introduction of 3GPP LTE system level simulation and present the details of our Matlab-based simulator. It is a significant platform for evaluation and study of key technique of LTE and LTE-A which will break the monopoly of 3GPP members.

C. SL to LL Mapping In LL simulation, people focus on a point-to-point link and its detailed algorithms. Different in SL simulation, people focus on the whole links in the simulation system and evaluate system features such as capacity, throughput, etc., which will cause large amount of calculations if full link activity is performed. In order to solve the problem, LTE standardization proposed an effective mapping method between SL and LL. In given wireless multipath fading channels, the key point of the mapping method is to figure out the effective signal to noise-and-interference ratio (SINR) value SINReff from subcarrier SINRs, and then search the basic LL SINR-BLER (Block Error Rate) table to find the estimate SINR value. The link level SINR-BLER table is got from the link level simulation result under Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel and this mapping is unique [10]. The mapping method can be described as follows:

REFERENCES
3GPP TSG-RAN-1 Meeting #37,OFDM-HSDPA System level simulator calibration (R1-040500) [2] 3GPP TR 25.996 v8.0.0 (2008-12), Spatial Channel Model for MIMO simulations [3] 3GPP, TS36.211 (V8.5.0), Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation [4] Josep Colom Ikuno, Martin Wrulich, Markus Rupp: System level simulation of LTE networks, IEEE VTC 2010 [5] D. S. Baum, J. Salo, G. Del Galdo, M. Milojevic, P. Kysti, and J. Hansen, An interim channel model for beyond-3G systems, in Proc. IEEE VTC05, Stockholm, Sweden, May 2005. [6] R1-030999, RAN WG1 #34, Considerations on system performance evaluation of HSDP using OFDM modulations [S]. [7] Mumtaz S, Gamerio A, Rodriguez J, et al. EESM for IEEE 802.16e: WiMaX[C]. Portland: 7th IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Computer and Information Science, 2008: 361-366. [8] IEEE c802.16e 141r3, CINR measurement using EESM method [C], IEEE 802.16e contribution, 2005 [9] YuanGao,HongYi Yu, An Enhanced System Level to Link Level Mapping Method for 3GPP LTE System Level Simulation,CSIE2011 [10] 3GPP2-C30-20030429-010,Effective-SNR Mapping for Modeling Frame Error Rates in Multiple-state channels [1]

BLER ( SINRk ) = BLERAWGN ( SINReff )

(4)

The left side of the equation1 means the real BLER in channel model (e.g. SCME), and the right side is the simulated BLER value in AWGN channel. The effective SINR value is defined in equation (3).

SINReff = I

1 N

I ( SINR ))
n n =1

(5)

Where I ( x ) is the subcarrier SINR combining function, and n denotes the n th subcarrier. Figure 1shows the mapping process between SL to LL. The SL to LL part then finish the mapping and return the block error rate to system to accomplish the simulation of given timeslot.

Figure 8 SL to LL Mapping Scheme