Cell Radius in LTE (Part 1 of 3) - Lauro - Expert Opinion - LTE University

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Expert Opinion
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Cell Radius in LTE (Part 1 of 3)

Lauro 8 Aug 2011 10:40 AM

The cell radius in LTE is affected and/or determined by three factors: a) The Preamble Format b) The Cyclic Shift the corresponds to the ZeroCorrelationZoneConfig parameter and, c) The Cell Radius Parameter

A) Preamble Format

LTE FDD supports four preamble formats (as of today, not all of them currently supported by the equipment manufacturers). The preamble consists of a cyclic prefix (to handle multipath interference) followed by an 800 s sequence. In preamble formats 2 and 3, the sequence is repeated. The total length of the cyclic prefix and the sequence(s) determines how long it takes to transmit the preamble. Since the actual physical transmission occurs in units of sub-frames (1 ms), the remaining time determines how far away the UE can be without overlapping another UE's access attempt (the guard time). For further details, refer 3GPP TS 36.211 Physical Channels and Modulation. The operator typically must pick a preamble format to determine the coverage area desired. In the event of remote sites deployment, the length of the fiber to the remote cells must be considered as part of the cell radius (this includes Distributed Antenna Systems -DAS- ). Since the speed of electromagnetic waves over

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Cell Radius in LTE (Part 1 of 3) - Lauro - Expert Opinion - LTE University

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fiber is only two thirds of the speeds in free space, the total cell radius reduces to the values shown in the table below.

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Cell Radius in LTE (Part 2 of 3) - Lauro - Expert Opinion - LTE University

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Expert Opinion
Short LTE articles and opinions by our team of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

Cell Radius in LTE (Part 2 of 3)

Lauro 23 Aug 2011 8:52 AM

In the previous part (1 out of 3) we discussed the relationship between the preamble format and the cell radius. In this delivery, we will discuss how the ZeroCorrelationZoneConfig parameter affects the cell radius. The parameters ZeroCorrelationZoneConfig and RootSequenceIndex are used to generate 64 random access signatures in each cell (all these access signatures should be different in each cell). Both, the ZeroCorrelationZoneConfig and the RootsequenceIndex paramaters are broadcast in SIB2. The random access sequences are built via the selection of a Zadoff-Chu sequence (one out of 839) given by RootSequenceSequence and a cyclic shift (used 64 times to generate the 64 random access signatures from the Zadoff-Chu sequence selected). The cyclic shift is indirectly given to the UE by the parameter ZeroCorrelationZoneConfig, as shown in the table below (see columns two and three and note that the cyclic shift has limited values). The available cyclic shifts are listed in 3GPP TS 36.211 table 5.7.2.-2.

The cyclic shift is also related to the cell size. The relationship between the cyclic shift and the cell size is given by equation (1): (NCS - 1) * (800 s/839) RTD + Delay Spread In the equation, RTD stands for Round Trip Delay (twice the cell radius). Hence: RTD = 2 R/c (2) (1)

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Cell Radius in LTE (Part 2 of 3) - Lauro - Expert Opinion - LTE University

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Then, the cell radius is given by: R [c/2]*[(NCS - 1)*(800 s/839)-Delay spread] For instance, if we assume that ZeroCorrelationZoneConfig is 12, then from the table above, Ncs = 119. Furthermore, if the delay spread = 6sec, then the cell size will be approximately 15.97km. Note that the smaller the cyclic shift, the smaller cell size. The delay spread in the equation above should be calculated by the RF engineer after a drive test is carried out in the areas of interest. The value of the delay spread is typically different for rural, suburban, urban and dense urban environments. (3)

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Cell Radius in LTE (Part 3 of 3) - Lauro - Expert Opinion - LTE University

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Expert Opinion
Short LTE articles and opinions by our team of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

Cell Radius in LTE (Part 3 of 3)

Lauro 3 Oct 2011 2:03 PM

The third factor that affects the cell radius in LTE is the parameter cell radius. Equipment manufacturers typical offer a parameter called cellradius, that allows the modification of the cell radius. The units of this parameter are typically Kilometers. EXAMPLE: Let's assume that the preamble format picked (or the only one currently available) is type 0 (which offers a maximum cell radius of approximately 14 km). The possible values of the parameters PrachconfigurationIndex are, therefore, 0 to 15. A network operator may decide to classify their cells into rural, suburban, urban and dense urban cells. Furthermore, the operator may allocate a cell radius to different morphologies, say: Rural = 14 km, Suburban = 8 km, urban = 5 km and dense urban = 2 km. In this case, the values of the parameters associated with the cell radius could be: PrachConfigurationIndex = Any number between 0 and 15 (Preamble Format 0). Cellradius = 14 (rural), 8 (suburban), 5 (urban), 2 (Dense urban), ZeroCorrelationZoneConfig = 12 (rural), 9 (suburban), 8 (urban) and 4 (dense urban). Notes: a) The value of PrachconfigurationIndex affects the RACH capacity (addressed in a future blog). b) The value of ZeroCorrelationZoneConfig affects the cell radius as explained in a previous blog (See table below).

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Cell Radius in LTE (Part 3 of 3) - Lauro - Expert Opinion - LTE University

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