Cell Size Configuration in Random Access Procedure (I) - Preamble

Format
When we talk about the cell size, we usually think of RF coverage first. The cell radius is also related to the
parameter configuration for the random access procedure, such as the preamble format and cyclic shift.
Let's look at the preamble format here.
In LTE, the random access procedure is non-synchronized, which means the UE which initiates the random
access procedure is not uplink synchronized yet (It is, however, already downlink synchronized). So the
random access procedure of this UE should not interfere the uplink transmission of other already uplink
synchronized UEs.
Figure 1 shows the mapping of the PRACH (Physical Random Access Channel) to physical resources. The
PRACH occupies 6 PRBs in the frequency domain and spans 1 or 2 or 3 subframes in the time domain,
depending on the specific preamble format. In the frequency domain, several subcarriers at both ends of the
6 PRBs are not used to avoid interference with the adjacent PUCCH/PUSCH. In the time domain, the cyclic
prefix (CP) and guard time (GT) are used to avoid interference with the previous and next subframes. As it
turns out, the GT determines the maximum cell radius.

Figure 1: Resource Mapping of PRACH (Physical Random Access Channel)

How is the GT related to cell radius? Assume there are 3 UEs in the cell, located near the center of the cell,
in the middle of the cell, and at the cell edge, respectively. Assume that all of these 3 UEs are not yet UL
synchronized and are about to perform a random access. The RACH configuration information is transmitted
in the DL. All UEs listen to it and send RACH preambles in the same subframe. For UE3 at the cell edge, its
RA preamble arrives at the eNB later than UE1's preamble. The maximum delay between UE3 and UE1 is
the round trip delay (RTD) between the eNB and the cell edge, which is determined by the guard time in the
expected preamble receive window at the eNB. We can calculate the cell radius based on the GT.

Figure 2: Guard Time (GT) vs. Cell Size

The Preamble format is defined in LTE (3GPP TS 36.211, section 5.7).

Figure 5.7.1-1: Random access preamble format.

Table 5.7.1-1: Random access preamble parameters.

Where Ts is the basic time unit in LTE, Ts = 1/(15000*2048) s = 3.25521 X 10^(-5) ms.

First, we get the guard time from the number of subframes occupied by the PRACH, the time to transmit
cyclic shift, and the time to transmit preamble sequence. In figure 3, it is obvious that the preamble format 0
and preamble format 1 have different guard times, which means they support different maximum cell sizes.

Figure 3: Calculation of Guard Time

We can derive the cell radius from the guard time.

Figure 4: Calculation of Cell Radius based on Guard Time

We have calculated the cell radius for preamble format 0 and preamble format 1 in the spreadsheet below,
where the equation (1) in Figure 3 is used to calculate guard time and the equation (2) in Figure 4 is used to
calculate cell radius. Please calculate the cell radius for Format 2 and 3. Have fun!

Table 1: Cell Radius vs. Preamble Format

Answers: (Format 2: ~30 km, Format 3: ~107 km)

Cell Size Configuration in RACH (II) Cyclic Shift

We have discussed the preamble format configuration vs. the maximum cell radius during the random
access procedure. For example, Preamble Format 0 supports a maximum cell radius of 14.5 km. Another
random access parameter that affects the cell size is the cyclic shift. Let's look at it now.
The random access preamble is generated using Zadoff-Chu sequences; there are multiple root Z-C
sequences used in LTE. From each root sequence, multiple preambles can be obtained by applying different
cyclic shifts. This cyclic shift also determines the maximum radius of the cell.
The cyclic shift, Ncs, is defined in 3GPP TS 36.211, section 5.7. (Note that the unrestricted set is for normal
speed cells, and the restricted set is for high mobility cells.)

Table 5.7.2-2:

for preamble generation (preamble formats 0-3).

How is the cyclic shift related to cell radius? As shown in Figure 1, assume that there are 2 UEs, UE1 at the
cell edge and UE2 close to the eNB. The cyclic shift used by UE1 is 0 and the cyclic shift used by UE2 is
Ncs. At the eNB, the observed cyclic shift of UE1 will not be 0 but some value x because of the transmission
delay. As long as x is less than Ncs, the auto-correlation between the shifted x and shifted Ncs (as
perceived by the eNB) will be zero, and the eNB will be able to distinguish between the accesses from UE1
and UE2 (This is one of the nice properties of Z-C sequences). So, the maximum cell radius is limited by
the cyclic shift.

Figure 1: Cyclic shift vs. Cell Radius

Now, let's calculate the maximum supported cell radius by a cyclic shift, Ncs. Based on 3GPP, the preamble
sequence length is 839 and spans 800 milliseconds.

[Exercise time: Please fill the blanks.]

Getting back to the basics, why is a cyclic shift needed? The cyclic shift can be used to expand the
preamble capacity. There are a total of 838 Zadoff-Chu sequences defined in LTE, and the default setting for
the number of preambles in each sector is 64. For areas covered with a large number of small cells, if the
preamble capacity is limited, preamble interference may cause more collisions and longer random access
delay. A small Ncs value generates more preambles, which extend the preamble reuse distance and mitigate
the interference. However, the cyclic shift cannot be configured smaller than expected cell radius, since that
will block random accesses from the cell edge and may cause drops during handovers.

[Answers: Ncs = 13: 0.96, Ncs = 46: 5.68]