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How Big is VoLTE Voice Call?

Global Challenges
The third generation mobile telecommunication technologies and the
increasing popularity of Smartphone have greatly driven user demand for
mobile broadband services. Explosi ve growth of data traffic and the challenge
of increasing network capacity force mobile carriers to upgrade their networks
and i ncrease the network transmission rate. The LTE technology is the best
option for all the operators across the globe.

In the LTE era, the time has come for mobile operators to move to voice over
LTE (VoLTE). Globally, voice is still the major revenue source for the
telecommunications industry, and will probably still be when LTE goes
mainstream. However, basic voice may not be enough to remain relevant in an
LTE environment, because subscriber communication is shifting from plai n
voice to rich & quality voice.
So, What is VoLTE? and how does the VoLTE will impact operators network
when it comes to us, here we will have a deep dive into the VoLTE voice calls
and to discover the possibilities of the VoLTE, both to benefits Huawei &
Operators.
VoLTE Architectures
Before we starts, lets have a look into the complete network architectures
proposed by 3GPP on this VoLTE, which is to replace the CSFB currently,
thats experienci ng delay, long latency, and also no significant voice quality
improvements compare to legacy 2G/3G CS calls.
Below is the complete network architecture of VoLTE interworking between
EUTRAN, EPC, CS Domain, PS Domain & IMS network.




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Huawei VoLTE network consists of the operation support layer, service layer,
core layer, access layer, and termi nal layer. In the LTE or 2G/3G networks,
subscribers can use CSFB, Single Radio, and Dual Radio terminals to access
the VoLTE network.

Huawei VoLTE solution builds IMS and LTE on a li ve CS domain to provide
E2E quality of service (QoS) guarantee, high-quality voice and video calls, and
rich data services. With this solution, carriers can evolve their 2G/3G networks
to LTE networks to extend their business from offeri ng voice-only to
multimedia-rich voice. Subscribers can use various LTE terminals such as
CSFB, Single Radio, and Dual Radio termi nals to access an LTE network or
2G/3G network. When subscribers move out of LTE coverage, the LTE
network smoothly hands over calls to a 2G/3G network. Centrali zed service
provisioni ng, network management, and chargi ng are available i n the VoLTE
architecture.




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VoLTE (Voice over LTE) wi ll be a reality soon, as operators around the world
are completing their field tests and prepare to roll out voice and other
IMS-based services to the eagerly awaiting public and to gain the leading
position in their respective countries in order to win the market shares.
Actually, in real life, the public probably doesnt care about VoLTE. All they
want is good quality, high defi nition HD voice calls to complement their
high-speed wireless data services. VoLTE is positioned to deli ver the goods,
but how does it compare with other wireless voice solutions such as 2G/3G CS
calls? We can answer that question in a few manners, but lets start with
somethi ng easy, which is [how many VoLTE calls can an LTE cell support?]
VoLTE Packet Size
As it turns out, that question doesnt have a simple answer. It depends on a lot
of variables, including the voice coder choices, the RF conditions in the cell,
the Huawei eNBs scheduler algorithm, the 3GPP protocol releases options,
and so on. To keep this discussion at manageable levels, lets concentrate on
one particular aspect of VoLTE capacity: how many Physical Resource Blocks
(PRBs) are needed to deliver the traffic for one VoLTE call over a typical LTE
Uu air i nterface?
Lets assume for the moment that the operator has deployed channel
bandwidth of 10 MHz LTE radio channels(Which is most operators are
deployi ng their LTE services at phase 1 stage). This is fairly typical to provides
50 PRBs per millisecond on the downlink (somehow it will be lesser than 50
PRBs resources on the upli nk, due to the PUCCH configuration & limitations).
Lets further presume that VoLTE is configured to use the Adapti ve Multi -Rate
Wideband (AMR-WB) 12.65 coder, and that Robust Header Compression
(RoHC) is enabled over the air interface which to reduce the overhead
consumption over the LTE air interface.
Huawei VoLTE scheduli ng are based on 20ms per Time-Transmission-Interval,
TTI( Huawei Proprietary), and the AMR-WB 12.65 coder generates 253 bits of
coded speech every 20 ms (a net data rate of 12.65 kbps). In order to deliver
each voice services to the UE, additional protocol headers are needed, such
as an RTP header (typically 12 bytes), a UDP header (8 bytes), and an IPv6
header (40 bytes). This bri ngs the total packet length up to some 733 bits
every 20 ms.




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RoHC (Robust Overhead Compression), however, will replace with RTP, UDP
and IP headers with a much smaller RoHC header before the packet is actually
transmitted over the air. The length of the RoHC header will vary depending on
the particular circumstances, but it will average around 3 bytes, or 24 bits. The
RLC and MAC layers will add their own overhead, so the end result is that the
air interface will have to transport roughly 300 bits of data for every VoLTE
packet scheduled to one User.
VoLTE vs. PRBs
Now we need to relate the above data si ze back i nto our LTE Air Interface
resources. A single PRB has 12 subcarriers and 14 symbols over the course of
1 ms, or 12 x 14 = 168 resource elements (REs).









Some of those REs are occupied by the PDCCH (Assumi ng max 3 symbols
are used for PDCCH) and the downli nk reference signals RS, leaving about
120 REs per PRB to carry data on the downlink.








N
RB
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x
R
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Each RE carries 2, 4 or 6 coded bits, depending on the modulation scheme in
effect (QPSK, 16QAM or 64QAM, respecti vely), but some of those bits will be
data bits, and some will be error protection bits. So how many data bits will fit
in a si ngle PRB? That depends on the specific RF conditions i n the cell which
will be feedback by the User on the uplink, that will be Channel Quality
Indicator, CQI table below.


















Lets see what happens under good (CQI = 15), average (CQI = 7) and poor
(CQI = 1) situations.
CQI 15 transmissions use 64QAM modulation and a 948/1024 = 0.926
effecti ve coding rate, which means that each RE holds 6 x 0.926 = 5.55
data bits on average. A si ngle PRB can then carry 120 x 5.55 = 666
data bits, or the equi valent of two VoLTE voice samples. LTE cant
CQI Index Modulation Code Rate x 1024 Efficiency
0 out of range
1 QPSK 78 0.1523
2 QPSK 120 0.2344
3 QPSK 193 0.3770
4 QPSK 308 0.6016
5 QPSK 449 0.8770
6 QPSK 602 1.1758
7 16QAM 378 1.4766
8 16QAM 490 1.9141
9 16QAM 616 2.4063
10 64QAM 466 2.7305
11 64QAM 567 3.3223
12 64QAM 666 3.9023
13 64QAM 772 4.5234
14 64QAM 873 5.1152
15 64QAM 948 5.5547





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allocate less than one PRB per user, though, so well count this as one
PRB per VoLTE call.
CQI 7 transmissions use 16QAM modulation and a 378/1024 = 0.369
coding rate, resulti ng i n 4 x 0.369 x 120 = 177 data bits. In other words,
two PRBs are needed to carry a si ngle VoLTE voice sample.
CQI 1 transmissions use QPSK modulation and a 78/1024 = 0.076
coding rate, supporti ng 2 x 0.076 x 120 = 18 data bits per PRB. This
means that a single VoLTE packet requires about 16 PRBs.
VoLTE by the Numbers
So how many VoLTE calls can we squeeze i nto a 10 MHz LTE channel? Voice
samples are generated every 20 ms, so if everythi ng li nes up exactly right (and
no retransmissions are needed), then twenty VoLTE calls can share the same
set of PRBs, one after the other. The maximum number of VoLTE calls that
can be carried is then determi ned by:
((Number of Available PRBs) / (Number of PRBs per VoLTE Call)) x 20
Here are the results, per CQI:

Thus, how realistic are these numbers? There are many presumptions built i n
to this calculation, most of which wouldnt hold true out in the real world:
All users in a cell would not report exactly the same CQI value, and a
cell where every UE reports CQI value 1 is basically unusable.
VoLTE packet arrivals would not be perfectly distributed across the 20
ms coding i ntervals.
Most packets would require at least one HARQ retransmission,
especially at lower CQI values, which consumes additional PRBs.
Some capacity needs to be reserved for non-VoLTE (data) subscribers.
The upli nk has a lower capacity than the downlink, i n terms of the
number of PRBs available and the efficiency of the transmissions.







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VoLTE Conclusions
Nevertheless, this document provides some hints i nto what the operators can
expect to see when VoLTE is turned on in the field. Under good RF conditions,
LTE can deli ver VoLTE packets quickly and efficiently, with enough capacity
left over for other users. Under poor conditions, LTE will struggle to support
even a handful of users.
The reality is that, in general, VoLTE is expected to have a call capacity
comparable to other wireless voice solutions, like UMTS and CDMA2000 1x,
on the order of 200 to 300 users per cell under 10MHz bandwidth. The
challenge for the operators is to manage the end-to-end voice quality, and to
juggle the conflicting demands of voice and data users.

Happy reading Folks


CQI
Index
Modulation Code
Rate x
1024
Efficiency
0 out of range
1 QPSK 78 0.1523
2 QPSK 120 0.2344
3 QPSK 193 0.3770
4 QPSK 308 0.6016
5 QPSK 449 0.8770
6 QPSK 602 1.1758
7 16QAM 378 1.4766
8 16QAM 490 1.9141
9 16QAM 616 2.4063
10 64QAM 466 2.7305
11 64QAM 567 3.3223
12 64QAM 666 3.9023
13 64QAM 772 4.5234
14 64QAM 873 5.1152
15 64QAM 948 5.5547