Performance Analysis ofLTE-A with 256-QAM

Tarek Nasr Halawa

Electronics and Communications
Engineering
Ain Shams University
Cairo, Egypt
tarek.n.halawa@ieee.org

Ramy Ahmed Fathy

Senior, IEEE
Cairo, Egypt
ramy.ahmed@ieee.org

Abstract-Long Term Evolution (LTE) developed by

Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), is the
access part of the Evolved Packet System (EPS). LTE
physical layer is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access (OFDMA) with Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation (QAM). Although there has been lots of
enhancements in the LTE physical layer, yet higher order
modulation schemes were not introduced in the
specification until Release 12. This paper investigates the
performance of L TE with 256-QAM which was introduced
in the 3GPP standard in release 12.3 aiming to enhance the
spectral efficiency of the system and increase the peak data
rates. Bit Error Rate (BER) values were populated for the
probable Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) operating ranges.
The results are based on a MATLAB system model
simulation. The results demonstrate that LTE-A can adopt
the 256-QAM higher order modulation especially for
nomadic users.
Keywords-Long Term Evolution (LTE); Long Term Evolution
Advanced (LTE-A); Modulation; Throughput; BER

I.

INTRODUCTION

3GPP has always considered the importance of the high

spectral efficiency along with the high peak data rates for
mobile networks, where each developed technology aimed for
better performance than the previous one. Lots of features and
enhancements such as Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output
(MIMO), Carrier Aggregation, Relay Nodes & Coordinated
Multi Point operation (CoMP), were added with each newer
technology release. The continuous improvement of the
network performance is essential in order to cope with the
highly demanding data customers need and growing traffic.
The first LTE standard, release 8, was frozen in 2008, and
with the added benefit of enhancements that are being
introduced in new 3GPP releases, L TE has proven its stability
and growing footprint [1]. Subsequent releases supported the
main motivation for L TE, ensuring the continuity of
competitiveness through higher data rates and better quality of
service, in addition to reduced cost and system complexity.
LTE is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple
Access (OFDMA), and achieves high data rates by combining
large bandwidths, higher order modulation and spatial

ISBN: 978-1-4673-7504-7 2016 IEEE

Abdelhalim Zekry
Electronics and Communications
Engineering
Ain Shams University
Cairo, Egypt
aaazekry@asunet.shams.edu.eg

multiplexing. L TE release 12.3 introduced a higher order

modulation scheme to enhance the spectral efficiency and the
system throughput. This was achieved by introducing the 256QAM and consequently modifying other system requirements
such as, the Transport Block Size (TBS).
In order to gain the maximal benefit of the various available
coding options and modulation schemes, and due to the
vulnerable nature and dynamic behavior of the mobile network
channel, the Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) feature
was implemented in LTE. AMC basically selects an optimal
combination of modulation and coding scheme that would be
suitable for transmission based on the channel quality and radio
conditions in order to provide the user with optimum data rates.
Thus, with good radio conditions, high data rates are provided;
while low data rates are transmitted when the channel is
experiencing bad radio conditions. This feature provides
maximal channel utilization while guaranteeing transmission
reliability.
In this paper, the main focus is to assess the performance of
the LTE-A system under various radio conditions, represented
by different channel models and quality scenarios, while using
higher order modulation schemes. The different scenarios are
investigated through MA TLAB simulations of the LTE-A
upgraded physical layer. The performance was measured by
calculating the BER and radio conditions were represented by
the varying levels of interference plus noise under various
channel models. This study will also help in the
implementation of the air interface packet schedulers and AMC
algorithm.
The paper is organized as follows: In section ll, related
studies are summarized. Section TIT introduces the AMC
technique. Section IV outlines the system model. Section V
presents the simulation results for all investigated channel
models. Finally, section VI concludes the results and analysis.
IT.

RELATED STUDIES

Higher order modulation was generically studied, and

implemented in some systems, such as Digital Video
Broadcasting - Second Generation Terrestrial (DVB-T2) [2].
When considering mobile networks, previous work has been
done to analyze the performance of L TE system and physical
layer under different radio conditions and with various channel
models.

141

In [3] the performance assessment of the L TE-A physical

layer was analyzed, considering QAM modulation orders up to
64-QAM as implemented in release 10. The results have
shown that, L TE-A can achieve 10-3 BER when using 64QAM, 0.75 code rate and 4x4 MIMO, reaching 74 Mbps of
downlink data throughput for Physical Downlink Shared
Channel (PDSCH). No higher order modulation scheme was
assessed in this study.
In [4], the key differentiator between indoor and outdoor
scenarios is represented in the mobility. The paper showed that
small cells can make use of the stationary nature of the users to
implement the 256-QAM. In [5], 256-QAM was expected to be
adopted by 30PP specifically for small cells. The paper
provided performance analysis for small cell environments as a
suitable condition for gaining benefit from this higher order
modulation. Results have shown 256-QAM has a potential and
feasible upgrade.
Authors in [6] addressed the link level performance
evaluation of 256-QAM. Their results demonstrated 33%
throughput increase in an A WON channel compared to 64QAM, while the throughput decreased to 23.1 % in a more
realistic channel i.e. "EPA-10HZ".

It is apparent that there is still a gap in studying the

performance of L TE physical layer with the 256-QAM
modulation scheme under various scenarios which represent
realistic radio channel conditions. Accordingly, a performance
assessment of employing higher order modulation in L TE-A by
means of a sound and rigorous reproducible simulation model
is presented in this paper in order to analyze the potential usage
of higher order modulation schemes in future 30PP Releases.
Ill. ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND CODING (AMC) IN LTE-A
AMC is a technique that is used to maintain a predefined
target value for the user BER, and thereby overcoming the time
varying radio conditions which negatively affect the UE.
Deteriorating conditions of the radio channel might hence lead
to unstable BER values at the receiver. The stabilization of the
BER value is achieved by means of moditying the transmitted
signal waveforms, in terms of Modulation and Coding
Schemes (MCS), to resist possible deteriorating instantaneous
channel conditions experienced by each user at their assigned
frequencies and scheduled time intervals.
L TE-A supports various combinations of MCS which are
represented in the Channel Quality Indicator (CQI). CQI is
reported by the UE, and is further adjusted by the network in
order to support the channel aware scheduling process. In
addition, the CQI is also used in assigning Resource Blocks
(RB) and in mapping modulation orders and coding rates in the
MCS selection process.
The UE will report the highest CQI index between I and 15
shown in Table I which satisfies the condition of receiving the
PDSCH with a combination of modulation scheme and
transport block size corresponding to the CQI index, or CQI
index 0 if CQI index I does not satisty the condition [7].
The use of the spectrum is more efficient whenever the
higher CQI index is used, where more bits are represented by
the transmitted symbols with the higher modulation technique,
while introducing less overhead for data protection, represented
in the coding rate [8].

ISBN: 978-1-4673-7504-7 2016 IEEE

TABLE I. 4-B1T

CQI index
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

CQI DEFINED IN TS 36.213 TABLE 7.2.3-2 [7]

modulation
QPSK
QPSK
QPSK
16QAM
16QAM
16QAM
64QAM
64QAM
64QAM
64QAM
64QAM
256QAM
256QAM
256QAM
256QAM

code rate x 1024

out of range
78
193
449
378
490
616
466
567
666
772
873
711
797
885
948

efficiency
0.1523
0.3770
0.8770
1.4766
1.9141
2.4063
2.7305
3.3223
3.9023
4.5234
5.1152
5.5547
6.2266
6.9141
7.4063

IV. SYSTEM MODEL

MA TLAB-based link level simulation environments of

UMTS and L TE systems were implemented in various
literatures and by different research groups. The Vienna LTE
Simulator provides a standard compliant simulation
environment that was selected as the L TE link level simulator
to be used in this work [9]. In order to test the 256-QAM
modulation, new blocks were added to the Vienna L TE
Simulator code along with some modifications and upgrades to
the existing modules of the Simulator.
The Vienna LTE Simulator consists of three building
blocks: namely, the Transmitter, the Channel Model and the
Receiver. Figure 1 demonstrates these Simulator building
blocks. The 'Channel' block in Figure 1 models the link
between the Transmitter and the Receiver, while the signaling
is assumed to be error-free.
Bit Error

Fig. I. LTE Link Level Simulator Structure [9]

The layout of the Transmitter is shown in Figure 2. The

transmitter generates new user data Transport Block (TB) in
case the previous TB has been acknowledged. If the previous
TB was not acknowledged, it is retransmitted as part of the
Hybrid repeat request (HARQ) scheme. The transmitter then
calculates and appends the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to
each user TB. Each TB is encoded using a turbo encoder, and
then each block of the encoded bits is then interleaved and is
rate matched. In the actual implementation in real systems, this
process depends on the CQI that is fed back by the user and
which acts as an indicator to select the needed coding rate.
However, in this work, CQI values were applied in the
Transmitter to force a certain MCS in accordance to TS 36.213.

142

The enforced MCS means that the scheduler will assign a static
value for the amount of random data bits to be generated,
which is not the case in practical LTE system implementation
as discussed in the AMC section.
The transmitter then continues its processing by the data
modulation, which maps the encoded TB to the modulation
symbols, which was updated in this research to support the 256
QAM. Depending on the enforced CQI, the modulation scheme
is selected for the Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH). Now
the simulator supports the 4-QAM, 16-QAM, 64-QAM and
finally the 256-QAM.

Figure 3 shows the Receiver layout where the detected soft

bits are decoded to obtain the data bits and several figures, such
as coded/un-coded BER, BLER and throughput.
The receiver performs the physical layer processing
considering all functions done by the transmitter, where the
signaling information are assumed to be transmitted error-free,
while data bits are decoded after estimating the channel effect
through the reference signals in the resource grid.

II

Received Signal

...

The modulated symbols are then mapped to the transmit

antennas based on the Rank Indicator (RI) feedback to select
one of four modes: Single Antenna, Transmit Diversity (TxD),
Open Loop Spatial Multiplexing (OLSM), and Closed Loop
Spatial Multiplexing (CLSM).
The symbols to be transmitted on each antenna are then
mapped individually to the resource elements. Reference
symbols and synchronization symbols that are needed for the
channel estimation and synchronization process at the receiver
are inserted into the time-frequency grid.

CP Removal

FFT

Time- Freq. resource block grid

...

...
t

Resource block
disassembling

~ -------t,

...

...

,,

Channel
estimation

HARQ Control

r------1,

OFDM detection

"

Signaling

~--------~t----------~

,..-Jr------- j

"- - __- ' c:J "- - __- '

L;-_ _ _C_h_an_ne,ld_e_cO_di_ng_ _ _

+,
Scheduler

+,

Pre-assigned CQI
\alues, one layer,
single user
transmission

Fig. 3. LTE downlink receiver structure

+,

'---------'

+-

OFDM symbol assembly

'

IFFT

,,
,

CP Insertion

"

Signaling

TX Signal

Fig. 2. L TE downlink transmitter

The Channel Model supports different transmission conditions:

Power Delay Profile-based channel models, e.g.

International Telecommunication Union (lTU)
Pedestrian B (PedB), or Vehicular A (VehA)

The 256-QAM has been integrated into the code, in

addition to the required modifications to support the higher
modulation order and data throughput. This required
modification in the symbol mapper and TBS tables as shown in
figure 4 where the blocks that needed modification are
highlighted in grey color. In addition, updated CQI tables were
included and integrated into the system to support the
modulation and coding schemes defmed in the updated release
of the standard.
HARQ Control

,,

"

~-~

Data bits channel coding

Scheduler

Additive White Gaussian Noise (A WGN)

Flat Rayleigh fading

PedB and VehA are empirical channel models specified in

the
lTU
Radio
communication
Sector (lTU-R)
recommendation M.l225, modeling different terrestrial test
environments necessary to elaborate the performance figures of
candidate terrestrial and satellite Radio Transmission
Technologies (RTTs). These are channel impulse response
models which are based on a tapped-delay line model as
described in lTU-R M.1225 [10-11].

Symbol mapping
(Pre-assigned CQT
\alues, one la\'er,
single use~
transmission)

+_
I

L -_ _ _-----'

-+:

OFDM symbol assembly

IFFT

CP Insertion

"

Signaling

Fig. 4. LTE downlink Modified Transmitter

ISBN: 978-1-4673-7504-7 2016 IEEE

143

The scale of the presented output is limited to the case of a

single downlink connection covering the link between one
eNodeB and one UE. This is the Single-Downlink Simulation
mode of Vienna simulator. Although multi-user and multi-cell
scenarios are supported by the Simulator, the adopted model in
this research focuses on the channel tracking and estimation
and neglects the scheduling impact.

Cell Coded BER PedB Channel

10

--....
10 1

'"""*= b..

c::
w
aJ

\\

10-2

V.

--e-- CQ112
- e - CQ113
----Ar- CQI 14
CQJ15
_

RESULTS

"-

The performance of the upgraded physical layer was tested

under different radio conditions. In order to do so, different
noise levels represented in SNR were considered in addition to
the performance comparison for the case of Nomadic and
Mobile users. Various plots are presented showing the BER
performance versus SNR for different channel models, namely
A WGN, PedB and VehA, which are lTU standardized channel
models [11].
Relevant system parameters are shown in Table 11. The
reported CQI parameters in Table IT are mapped to CQI entries
of Table 1. The carrier frequency and channel bandwidth are
selected to be 20HZ and 10 MHZ respectively. These CQI
values correspond to 256 QAM.

10-3

20

10

"\

"

30

SN R [dB]

40

60

Fig. 6. Performance of256 QAM, PedB

Figures 7 shows the effect of the VehA channel models

which demonstrate a degradation of the performance.
Accordingly, in principle, and as expected better channel
conditions are required to realize the targeted BER. However,
the reported figures are considered practically acceptable as
compared to targeted SNR values for commercially available
L TE system, under lower MCS at severe radio conditions [12].
Cell Coded BER VehA Channel
--e-- CQ112
--e- CQI1 3
-.!!r- CQI 1 4
CQ11 5
_

TABLE II. SIMULA nON PARAMETERS

10

Carrier Frequency: 20HZ

Channel bandwidth: 10 MHZ
FFT Size: 128
OFDM symbols per frame: 14
Subcarrier spacing: 15kHz
Duplex Mode: FDD
CQI: 12,13,14,15
Channel type: AWGN, PedB, VehA

50

~ b.

0::

....

(lJ

10- 3

",- "

\'\ .:1\ "'"

10-2

10

20

\ \

30
SN R[dB]

r\.

40

50

60

Fig. 7. Performance of256 QAM, VehA

The following MA TLAB based simulation graphs represent

the performance of the 256-QAM modulation for different
channel models. The graph maps BER as a function of SNR.
Figure 5 shows the performance of the 256-QAM
modulation under less severe channel conditions modeled by
A WON. This channel model provides a proof of concept of the
256-QAM modulation order feasibility within L TE-A systems.
Cell Coded BER AWGN Channel

10 0

i'<>ot.
10- 1
0::

--e-- CQ I1 2
- e - CQ 11 3
----Ar- CQ I 14
------- CQI 1 5

""

III

10-2

VI.

VIT.
10-

10

20

30

40

50

60

SNR [dB]

[1]
[2]

Fig. 5. Performance of256 QAM, AWGN

Figures 6 demonstrates the effect of a PedB channel model

on the performance of the system. PedB channels represent
Nomadic user experience whose BER values were achieved at
lower SNR values when more protection is favored over higher
data rates by means of employing higher coding rates.

ISBN: 978-1-4673-7504-7 2016 IEEE

CONCLUSION

This paper studied the performance of L TE-A after

integrating the 256-QAM into the system by adopting the latest
30PP standard. It has focused mainly on the behavior of the
L TE-A link under lTV standardized channel models. Different
channel models have been simulated taking into account the
varying channel deterioration conditions. Specifically, varying
SNR values under AWGN, PedB, and VehA channel models
have been tested, where different levels of SNR take into
account varying levels of channel deterioration. A MA TLAB
system model based on an upgraded Vienna L TE Simulator
model was used as the modeling environment of this work. The
results demonstrate that L TE-A can adopt the 256-QAM higher
order modulation especially for nomadic users.

[3]

[4]

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