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Understanding Downlink Power Allocation in LTE

Tue, 02/15/2011 - 10:56am 4 Comments
by Andreas Roessler, Rohde & Schwarz

Deeper Insights

LTE-Advanced: Carrier Aggregation

UMTS Long Term Evolution, short LTE, is the technology of choice for the majority of network operators
worldwide, providing mobile broadband data and high-speed internet access to their subscriber base. Due to
the high commitment LTE is understood as the innovation platform for the wireless industry for the next
decade. Thats the reason why I link the abbreviation LTE more to the term LONG TERM
EMPLOYMENT. The technology itself is high complex, utilizing advanced procedures on top of what we
know from existing standards such as WCDMA or HSPA. This blog picks interesting aspects of LTE and
takes a closer look while providing some explanations around it. A basic understanding of the concepts used
for LTE and standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is assumed while reading.

You may ask why power allocation in the downlink is an aspect? It actually is ? and therefore I thought it is
interesting to shed some light on it. Well, downlink power allocation can vary from cell to cell and
furthermore it can be device specific. These settings beside many others will have an impact on the
performance of an LTE-capable device. And data throughput is, of course, a performance criteria that not
only network operators are judging, but also affect the user experience. But lets start with the fundamentals
first.

Challenges of LTE Basestation and H

click to enlarge

Figure 1. Downlink power allocation in LTE.

As you know, cell-specific reference signals (RS) are embedded into the overall signal bandwidth at certain
resource elements (RE). In the frequency domain every 6th subcarrier (= RE) carries a RS. The RS pattern is
a pseudo-random sequence, whose generation depends on the cells identity and used cyclic prefix. Further a
frequency shift is applied that is based on a modulo-6 operation. The mapping of the pattern is therefore
cell-specific, but the scattering is always six subcarriers.

In the time domain every 4th OFDM symbol carries reference symbols. Due to their importance, reference
signals are the highest powered components within the downlink signal. The power level for the reference
signals is signaled within system information to the device, is cell-specific, and is in the range of -60 to +50
dBm per 15 kHz. It is a requirement that the LTE base station transmits all reference signals with constant
power over the entire bandwidth. The power of all other signal components (synchronization signals, PBCH,
PCFICH, PDCCH, PDSCH and PHICH) is set relative to this value. As mentioned above, there are OFDM
symbols that do contain RE carrying reference symbols and there are OFDM symbols that do not. The
relative PDSCH power for these symbols is given by two different parameters: p A and p B (see Figure 1).
 Challenges of LTE Basestation and Handset Testing
click to enlarge

SROMES drive test software.

For the majority of cases p A corresponds to the parameter PA, that is signaled via higher layers. Only for
some special cases, like transmit diversity with four antennas or Multi-user MIMO, p A is computed
differently. PA is device specific, comes as part of the RRCConnectionSetup message, and can take one out
of eight different values Figure 1 assumes PA to be -4.77 dB.

PB is related to the cell-specific RS power and can not be changed dynamically. It can take one out of four
integer values. Depending on the number of used transmit antennas (1, 2 or 4) each value corresponds to a
certain ratio and thus power offset. The LTE networks that are currently deployed worldwide are supporting
2x2 MIMO. Lets assume PB = 3. In that case the RE carrying data in that OFDM symbol where RS are
present, are transmitted with an additional offset of 3 dB compared to symbols without RS [Ref.3]. For only
one transmit antenna (SISO) PB = 3 translates to -3.98 dB. This is shown in Figure 1.

Now the question is, why all this is necessary?

The overall goal is to have a constant power for all OFDM symbols to avoid power variations at the receiver
(UE). With less PDSCH power given by PB the boost of reference signals is compensated, compared to
OFDM symbols that do not contain reference signals. The PDSCH power depends always on the allocation,
i.e. the number of allocated Resource Blocks (RB). Allocation can change from subframe to subframe, thus
PA can also change on a 1 millisecond basis. While incorporating PA and PB it is ensured that the overall
OFDM symbol power remains constant, even when the PDSCH allocation is changed.

What are values for PA and PB in a real LTE network?

The later can be easily derived with Rohde&Schwarz drive test solution based on the TSMW network
scanner and ROMES drive test software as it is a common network parameter. The integrated BCH
demodulator decodes all system information, so PB and reference signal power can be easily found while
decoding SIB Type 2 (see Figure 2).

Now what is the impact of PB, PA on device performance in terms of high data rates?

Challenges of LTE Basestation and H

 click to enlarge

Figure 3. Throughput Configuration Tool for LTE (TCT4LTE).

These types of investigation can be carried out with the R&SCMW500 Wideband Radio Communication
Tester. With the software Throughput Configuration Tool for LTE (TCT4LTE), that comes at no costs, the
instrument can be easily configured for example for maximum throughput testing. Beside PA, PB and other
essential cell parameters, ciphering and authentication modes, resource allocation for downlink and uplink
with modulation and coding schemes can be changed on the fly (see Figure 3).

This type of testing helps design engineers to develop a good understanding on how the device performs at
different network settings in terms of downlink power allocation to optimize the protocol stack, algorithms
and hardware to deliver best results. Rohde & Schwarz helps to achieve these goals with its test solutions
and tools.

References

[1] 3GPP TS 36.211 V8.9.0 Physical channels and modulation (Release 8), 2009-12

[2] 3GPP TS 36.212 V8.8.0 Multiplexing and channel coding (Release 8), 2009-12

[3] 3GPP TS 36.213 V8.8.0 Physical layer procedures (Release 8), 2009-09

Reference Signal Power Boosting in

LTE
Published on February 19, 2016
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Each cell in an LTE radio network sends a cell-specific reference signal (RS) from its
transmit antennas. The transmit power of a resource element (RE) carrying such reference
signal can be set to be the same as, greater than, or less than the transmit power of an RE
carrying Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). Lets take a quick look at the
reference signal power boosting, where the RS RE uses more power than the PDSCH RE.
The RS power boosting may or may not be desirable from the perspective of the RF
performance.

The relative transmit power levels of the RS and the PDSCH have implications on the
downlink channel estimation, the amount of downlink interference, and the interpretation
and the use of the Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) by the eNodeB. For example, if the RS
power is increased, the UE could potentially make the RS measurements (e.g., RSRP and
RSRQ) more easily and potentially quantify the downlink channel conditions more
reliably. However, the overall interference on the RS RE for a given cell would increase
due to multiple neighboring cells transmitting more power on their own RS REs. If the
signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) estimated for the PDSCH degrades by a
significant amount, the CQI being reported by the UE would be lower. If the reported CQIs
are relatively lower, the eNodeB would aim for a lower target throughput by taking actions
such as the increased amount of Turbo coding in the PDSCH transmissions. The user-
experienced throughput could thus be somewhat lower when RS power is boosted.
However, if the enhanced channel estimation and increased reliability of the PDSCH
reception lead to fewer HARQ retransmissions, throughput could actually increase in case
of the RS power boosting. In summary, the theoretical impact of the RS power boosting on
the RF performance is not definitive. Field testing with varying levels of RS power
boosting and varying levels of traffic loading is recommended to determine the suitability
of the RS power boosting.

The eNodeB broadcasts the transmit power levels of the RS and the PDSCH in SIB 2 using
the parameters referenceSignalPower, PA, and PB. The transmit power of an RE carrying
the RS (in dBm) is specified as referenceSignalPower. PA influences a parameter called
A, which is the ratio of the transmit power of the PDSCH RE and the transmit power of
the RS RE. A is applicable to the OFDM symbols that do not carry RS. PB establishes the
relationship between A and B, where B is the ratio of the transmit power of the PDSCH
RE and the transmit power of the RS RE in the OFDM symbols that carry RS. PA ranges
from 0 to 7 and corresponds to the range from -6 dB to +3 dB for A. PB ranges from 0 to
3 and corresponds to the range from 5/4 to 1/2 for (B /A)[1].The number of antennas and
the chosen antenna techniques influence the exact power levels of RS and PDSCH. In the
examples here, we are assuming that eNodeB has two transmit antennas and the UE has
two receive antennas and that the eNodeB will use 2-antenna transmit diversity or (2x2)
single-user multiple input multiple output (SU-MIMO) techniques. See 36.213 for more
details.

Lets take two numerical examples. Assume that a 30 W power amplifier is used for a
transmit antenna of an eNodeB and that 10 MHz downlink bandwidth is deployed in a cell.
The nominal transmit power per subcarrier is (30 W/600)= 50 mW. During an OFDM
symbol where no RS is present, each subcarrier of the PDSCH is allocated 50 mW.

Example 1: PA =2 and PB =1 (with 3 dB power boosting for RS)

PA =2 implies A = 0.5 or -3 dB. Hence, (Power on PDSCH RE/power on RS RE)= 0.5.

Since the transmit power allocated to PDSCH RE is the nominal power level of 50 mW,
the transmit power allocated to RS RE is (Power on PDSCH RE/0.5)= (50 mW/0.5)= 100
mW. During an OFDM symbol carrying the RS, the number of REs carrying the RS from
one transmit antenna is (50 Physical Resource Blocks * 2 REs/Physical Resource Block)=
100 REs. Furthermore, a given antenna does not transmit any power on a set of 100 REs,
because such set is used by a different transmit antenna. Hence, out of 600 REs in an
OFDM symbol carrying the RS, 100 REs are subject to RS power boosting, 100 REs have
no transmit power, and remaining 400 REs have nominal power levels. The total transmit
power during the RS-carrying OFDM symbol would be (100 subcarriers * 100 mW per
subcarrier for power-boosted RS REs) + (100 subcarriers* 0 mW for null REs) + (400
subcarriers * 50 mW per subcarrier for non-RS REs)= 30 W. Hence, when PA =2 and PB
=1, each RS RE is allocated 100 mW, while a non-RS RE (in any OFDM symbol) is
allocated 0 mW or 50 mW. referenceSignalPower is set to 10*log10(100 mW)= 20 dBm.

Example 2: PA =4 and PB =1 (with NO power boosting for RS)

PA =4 implies A = 1 or 0 dB. Hence, (Power on PDSCH RE/power on RS RE)= 1. Since

the transmit power allocated to PDSCH RE is the nominal power level of 50 mW, the
transmit power allocated to RS RE is (Power on PDSCH RE/1)= (50 mW/1)= 50 mW.
Hence, out of 600 REs in an OFDM symbol carrying the RS, 100 REs are subject to RS
power level, 100 REs have no transmit power, and remaining 400 REs have nominal power
levels. The total transmit power during the RS-carrying OFDM symbol would be (100
subcarriers * 50 mW per subcarrier for non-power-boosted RS REs) + (100 subcarriers* 0
mW for null REs) + (400 subcarriers * 50 mW per subcarrier for non-RS REs)= 25 W.
Hence, when PA =4 and PB =1, each RS RE is allocated 50 mW, while a non-RS RE (in
any OFDM symbol) is allocated 0 mW or 50 mW. referenceSignalPower will be set to
10*log10(50 mW)= 17 dBm.

LTE Radio Network Planning And

Design
Published on November 29, 2016
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Description

LTE have lot of improvements by comparing to the previous mobile wireless

communication systems in terms of data speed, quality and capacity,by the use of
technologies such as OFDMA and Multiple Antenna Techniques.This course guides the
students through the theory and practice planning of RF(Radio Frequency)and design for
LET (RAN)Radio Access Networks.Students can get knowledge on LTE Air Interface and
the students have apply these theory to related concepts to calculate the Link Budgets.By
learning this course students get complete knowledge on how to apply a consistent process
to radio network planning and design.

Duration:40 hours

Fee:30k

Course Overview

This course deals with the following,

1. Overview of LTE Radio Network Design

Radio Network planning and Design

2. LTE Air Interface

Introduction to LTE

LTE Frame Structure

LTE Channels

Measurements of Reference Signals

3. Market and Engineering Requirements

Coverage, Capacity and QoS Requirements

Engineering Requirements

4. LTE Link Budget

Link Budget Basis

UL Link Budget
DL Link Budget

Coverage Improvement TMA

5. RF Design and Site Selection

RF Design: An Overview

RF Design: Detailed Steps

Design Evaluation

6. Antenna in LTE Networks

Multiple-Antenna Techniques in LTE

A Closer Look at DL Transmission

Antenna Selection Considerations

7. LTE Capacity Planning

Planning Overview

Backhaul Considerations

VoIP Capacity

Capacity Evolution

8. RF Configuration Parameters planning

Frequency Reuse

Neighbor List Planning

Physical Layer Cell Identity Planning

UL Reference Signal and PHY Cell ID

Random Access Preamble Planning

9. RF Operational parameters

Cell Selection and Reselection

Handover

Power Control

Click here..http://www.apekshatelecom.com/lte-radio-network-planning-and-design/

LTE RF and RAN Optimization and

Troubleshooting Part-1
Published on November 29, 2016
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Description

LTE RF AND RAN OPTIMIZATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING course provides us

the LTE RF Optimization to solve us the field performance issues in LTE Radio Networks
using UE logs.in this RF measurements related to coverage and interference are discussed
to examine the coverage holes and overlapping regions.LTE RF optimization areas such as
RRC connection setup, bearer drops, coverage issues.By learning this course students get
knowledge on how to define LTE RF KPIs and map them to RAN counters,Identify
various signalling events,Identify the RF measurements that are related to coverage and
examine them through post processing analysis.

Duration:40 hours

Fee:30k

Course Overview

This course deals with

1. LTE RAN KPIs

Accessibility

Retainability

Integrity

Mobility

Availability

2. Coverage Analysis

LTE Coverage Definition

Coverage Analysis

LTE Coverage Plots

3. Accessibility KPI Analysis

System Acquisition

Random Access
Call Setup and Signaling

4. Intra-Frequency Handover Analysis

Handover Measurements

Handover Preparation

Handover Execution

5. Inter-RAT Handover and CSFB Analysis

Idle-Mode Mobility

IRAT Handover (Connected Mode)

Circuit-Switched Fallback

Click here...http://www.apekshatelecom.com/lte-rf-and-ran-optimization-and-
troubleshooting-part-1/

LTE-EPC Networks and Signaling

Published on November 29, 2016
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Description:

The LTE Evolved Packet System (EPS) is an evolution of the 3GPP system architecture
with the vision of an all-IP network finally realized. EPS consists of the Evolved UTRAN
(E-UTRAN) and Evolved Packet Core (EPC). EPC supports mobility with the existing
3GPP and non-3GPP wireless networks to facilitate smooth migration, interworking, and
service continuity across these networks. The EPC and E-UTRAN will be optimized for the
delivery of IP-based services. EPS will use IMS as the services network and manage QoS
across the system, enabling a dynamic mix of voice, video, and data services. This course
provides a detailed look at the architecture of the EPC and the signaling among the UE, E-
UTRAN and EPC network components.

Course Overview

1. LTE-EPC Network Architecture

Key Requirements

Network Architecture

EPC Network Nodes

Roaming Architecture

Interworking Framework in EPC

2. LTE-EPC Protocols

LTE Signaling Protocols

X2-AP Protocol (eNB eNB)

S1-AP Protocol (eNB MME)

Non-Access Stratum (NAS) (UE MME)

Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)

GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP)

Diameter (MME HSS), (PCRF PCEF)

3. LTE-EPC Signaling Fundamentals

UE and EPC Identifiers

PDN Connections and Access Point Names(APNs)

EPS Bearer

Signaling Bearer

4. Security in LTE-EPC

Security Features in LTE-EPC

UE Network Security

EPS-AKA

5. Network Access on LTE-EPC

Overview of Initial Attach

Initial Attach

PDN Connectivity

Default EPS Bearer Setup

IP Address Allocation

6. QoS and PCC Framework in LTE-EPC

LTE QoS Model

PCC Architecture
Traffic Flow and Classification

7. Session Establishment and PDN Connectivity

Dedicated Bearer Establishment

Multiple PDN Connectivity

Idle Mode and EMM States

Paging and Service Request

Dedicated Bearer Deactivation

Dedicated Bearer Modulation

8. Intra-LTE Mobility

Intra-LTE Handover Scenarios

X2-based Mobility

S1-based Mobility (Inter-MME Handover)

Tracking Area Updates

9. IMS and Support for Voice

Seamless Mobility

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)

Circuit-Switched Fallback (CSFB)

Voice Call Continuity (VCC)

Single-Radio Voice Call Continuity (SR-VCC)

10. Deployment Considerations

Deployment Considerations

Interworking with 3GPP

Interworking with Release 8 3GPP

Interworking with Pre-Release 8 3gpp

11. End-to-End Flow

Data Call Scenario

Click here to know more...http://www.apekshatelecom.com/lte-epc-networks-signaling/

LTE Quick Reference Go Back To Index Home : www.sharetechnote.com

Downlink Power Allocation

If you look into the downlink signal, you would notice that it is made up of many different components. For example,
Reference Signal, PDCCH, PDSCH etc.
Then you would have a question saying "How do we allocate power to each of the those channels ?". The simplest
way for our understanding would be to allocate the same power to all of the these channels, but this would be only
for the sake of our understanding.
For decoding any downlink data, the first step is to detect/decode reference signal. If the power of this reference
signal is same as all other channel power, it would not be easy (though not impossible) to detect it. So more practical
implementation is to make Reference Signal outstanding comparing to other channels as shown in the red bar in the
following plot (you see a certain degree of offset, P_A between Reference Signal and other channel power).
However there is a complication with this method and it is because the reference channels occurs only in specific
symbols, not in every symbols. It means that there are some symbols with reference signal in it and there are some
other symbols without reference signal in it. It implies, if you measure the power of each symbol, some symbol
(symbol with reference signal) has higher power than the other symbols (symbol without reference signal). This
would cause some complication on the implementation of reciever equalizer.
To solve this problem of power difference between two groups of symbols, we can put lesser power to the non-
reference signal channels at the symbol carrying reference signal. Due to this, you see another type of offset P_B in
the plot shown below.
Combining all of these factors, we have pretty complicate peak-and-valley type of power terrain rather than the flat
plain terrain in downlink power allocation.
Power offset between PDSCH channel in the symbols with reference signal and PDSCH channel in the symbols without
reference signal (P_B) is specified in SIB2 as follows.

+-sib-TypeAndInfo ::= SEQUENCE OF SIZE(1..maxSIB[32]) [1]

| +- ::= CHOICE [sib2]
| +-sib2 ::= SEQUENCE [00]
| +-ac-BarringInfo ::= SEQUENCE OPTIONAL:Omit
| +-radioResourceConfigCommon ::= SEQUENCE
| | +-rach-Config ::= SEQUENCE
| | +-bcch-Config ::= SEQUENCE
| | +-pcch-Config ::= SEQUENCE
| | +-prach-Config ::= SEQUENCE
| | +-pdsch-Config ::= SEQUENCE
| | | +-referenceSignalPower ::= INTEGER (-60..50) [18]
| | | +-p-b ::= INTEGER (0..3) [0]

Power offset between the Reference Signal and PDSCH channel in the symbols without reference signal (P_A) is
specified in RRC Connection Setup as follows. P_A is UE specific power offset. This is why this is specified by RRC
Connection Setup message.

+-c1 ::= CHOICE [rrcConnectionSetup-r8]

+-rrcConnectionSetup-r8 ::= SEQUENCE [0]
+-radioResourceConfigDedicated ::= SEQUENCE [100101]
| +-srb-ToAddModList ::= SEQUENCE OF SIZE(1..2) [1] OPTIONAL:Exist
| +-drb-ToAddModList ::= SEQUENCE OF OPTIONAL:Omit
| +-drb-ToReleaseList ::= SEQUENCE OF OPTIONAL:Omit
| +-mac-MainConfig ::= CHOICE [explicitValue] OPTIONAL:Exist
| +-sps-Config ::= SEQUENCE OPTIONAL:Omit
| +-physicalConfigDedicated ::= SEQUENCE [1111001011] OPTIONAL:Exist
| +-pdsch-ConfigDedicated ::= SEQUENCE OPTIONAL:Exist
| | +-p-a ::= ENUMERATED [dB-3]
| +-pucch-ConfigDedicated ::= SEQUENCE [0] OPTIONAL:Exist
 | +-pusch-ConfigDedicated ::= SEQUENCE OPTIONAL:Exist
| +-uplinkPowerControlDedicated ::= SEQUENCE [1] OPTIONAL:Exist
| +-tpc-PDCCH-ConfigPUCCH ::= CHOICE OPTIONAL:Omit
| +-tpc-PDCCH-ConfigPUSCH ::= CHOICE OPTIONAL:Omit
| +-cqi-ReportConfig ::= SEQUENCE [10] OPTIONAL:Exist
| +-soundingRS-UL-ConfigDedicated ::= CHOICE OPTIONAL:Omit
| +-antennaInfo ::= CHOICE [defaultValue] OPTIONAL:Exist
| +-schedulingRequestConfig ::= CHOICE [setup] OPTIONAL:Exist
+-nonCriticalExtension ::= SEQUENCE OPTIONAL:Omit

In Physical Layer performance test, we set Rho A, Rho B as a test condition and the relationship between Rho A/Rho
B and P_a/P-b is as follows (from 3GPP 36.213).

Normally P_B is specified first by SIB2 and P_A is determined by following table and specified in RRC message (e.g,
RRC Connection Setup, RRC Connection Reconfiguration) according to following table from 3GPP 36.213.

Examples :

Following is a couple of typical p-a, p-b configuration that we normally see.

Transmission Mode p-a p-b Example of Channel Power(dBm/15Khz)

TM1 dB0 0 RS = -55, PCFICH=-55, PHICH=-55, PDSCH =-55
TM3 dB-3 1 RS = -55, PCFICH=-58, PHICH=-58, PDSCH =-58

For further details, refer to 36.213 5.2 Downlink power allocation

Power Control Home : www.sharetechnote.com

When we study a new technology.. one of way to efficiently learn/understand about it would be to assume that you
are the designer/developer of the technology and ask yourself "Now I have this and this problem in such and such
situation. How can I resolve the issue ?". If you keep asking the same questions to yourself, you would have some
form of answer even though it may not be technically in detail and it may not be the solution that is really being used
in the field. But don't be discouraged.. there is no absolute solutions for most of those problems.. probably your
answer would be better than the one that is really being used.

Followings are the topics to be covered in this page. As you read through
the page, you will notice that none of them is as simple as you might
have thought. At first, read through 'Overview' section and get a big
picture and then come back to details every time when you have specific
issue while you are developing or testing.
Overview
Power Control in LTE
Open Loop and Closed Loop Power Control
PUSCH Power Control
PUCCH Power Control
PH (Power Headroom)
PRACH Power Control

Overview

Now I will talk about the power control issues in LTE.

Before we go into the LTE specific power control, let's try with our own thought process for this power control issue.
In wired communication, the amount of energy (power) being sent from the transmitter reachs the reciever without
much degradation. Just think about connecting two PC with a long ethernet cable (e.g, around 10 m) and connecting
a device to your PC with a simple RS 232 cables (usually less than 2 m). If you measure the voltage at the two ends
of the cables while communicating, you will not see much voltage drops between the source and the destination. (Of
course there is a certain amount of voltage drops. but the drop is not so big that it cannot be recognized by the
reciever). However, what if the transmitter and reciever is connected wirelessly ?

You can intuitively know that the energy drop will be tremandous. Anybody who tried to measure something
wirelessly (e.g, test a mobile phone with antenna, not with cable connection with Network simulator or spectrum
analyzer) would have experienced these energy drop every time they do the test.

Then how do solve the problem ? This is the time that you assume you become a designer and have to come up with
an idea to solve this issue.How do you handle this situation ?

The simplest way would be to use a very high gain amplifier on transmitter and blast huge powered signal to
reciever.This method would be good when the reciever and the transmitter is in a reasonable distance. But what if the
distance between reciever and transmitter is too close ? In this case, the strong signal from the transmitter may
saturate the reciever.
Then how do you handle this situation ? You may try to tune down the transmitter amplifier power so that the
receiver does not get saturated. If the distance between transmitter and reciever does not change and the channel
condition (Humidity, precipitation, buildings) does not change, this kind of manual tuning would work. But can we do
the same thing with mobile communication where the distance between reciever and transmitter changes very often
and channel condition changes as well.

Now you have think up a solution to cope with this kind of varying distance and changing channel condition.

The way the people in this area came out is as follows :

i) Transmit send a signal to reciever
ii) Reciever measure the power of the signal from the transmitter
iii) if the measured power is too low, the reciever send a special command saying "increase the power". And if the
measured power is too strong, it would send another command saying "decrease the power".
By this mechanism, the transmitter can change it's output power dynamically. This kind of power control mechanism
is often called "Closed Loop Power Control" and the special command being used for power control is called TPC
(Transmit Power Control) command. In short, Transmit send something and the reciever send a feedback to the
transmitter and the reciever retunes itself by the feedback. This whole process forms a cyclic loop and this kind of
control loop is called "Closed Loop" in control system theory.This kind of power control is used in almost all the mobile
communication technology (e.g, CDMA, WCDMA, LTE and even in Bluetooth etc). This kind of power control process
happens much more frequently than you may think. For example, in WCDMA case it would happen around 1500 times
maximum within a second ideally. and in LTE case it can happen maximum 1000 times within a second.

If you are a person who is really interested in the power control mechanism and thought in very details about various
communication environment, you may notice that there is a situation where we cannot use this kind of "command
based power control" method. The 'command based power control'mechansm is based on a asumption that the
transmitter and reciever has already established a call setup so thta they can exchange these command.
What if the transmitter and reciever is not in such a communication state ? For example, you just turned on your
mobile phone and the mobile phone (transmitter in this case) has to send some signal to the base station (the
reciever in this case).

How strong power the mobile phone has to transmit it's first signal ?This is very important.. if the mobile phone
transmit the signal in too low power, the base station would not detect it.. and if it transmit it in too high power, it
can interfere with the communication between other mobile phone and the base station. So it has to determine the
proper transmit power level which would be strong enough to be properly decoded by the base station and weak
enough not to interfere the communication between other mobile phone and the base station.

How do you handle this situation ? What kind of method the UE should use to determin the proper transmission power
?
It would not be easy to think out a solution intuitively...

Overall logic that is commonly used in mobile phone communication system is as follows :
i) Network (Base Station) is tranmitting a certain reference signal with a fixed power value
ii) Network transmit the information (e.g, Power) about the reference signal it is transmitting
iii) Network also transmit the maximum allowable power that UE can transmit.
iv) UE decode the reference signal comming from the base station and measured the power.
v) UE can figure out the path loss between the UE and base station by comparing the result of step iv) and step ii).
vi) Also from the information at step ii), UE knows how much power is allowed for it.
vii) From the result at step v) and step vi), UE can figure out how much power it can really transmit.

This kind of process is also called a power control process. But since this power determination process is not based on
a feedback loop as in Closed Loop Power Control, it is called "Open Loop Power Control".

Open Loop and Closed Loop Power Control

There are roughly two different way of power control mechanism. One is called Open Loop Power control and the
other one is called Closed Loop Power Control.

Don't be confused by the term 'Loop'. When we say 'Open Loop', it does not mean 'Loop' control. It is just one
directional control process, there is no feedback as illustrated below. (Actually 'a control path that does not have any
feedback input' is the definition of Open Loop in control theory.. but it often cause a lot of confusion to many people).
In Open Loop Control, UE determines its Transmission Power by its own Power Setting Algorithm. This Power Setting
Algorithm takes in many inputs, but all of these inputs are from UE internal setting or measurement data by the UE.
There is no feedback input from eNB.

< Overall Flow for Open Loop Power Control >

One of the most common example of Open Loop Power Control is the initial PRACH power. This PRACH power is
determined as illustrated below.
 < Overall Flow for Open Loop Power Control : PRACH>

Once initial PRACH is detected, the UE power is controlled dynamically by TPC (Transmission Power Control)
command (MAC CE or TPC field in DCI 0). It means UE Transmission Power is controled by some feedback input from
eNB. In this way, overall power control process form a loop (closed loop). That's why it is called Closed Loop Control.

< Overall Flow for Closed Loop Power Control >

Power Control in LTE

For details of LTE specific power control, you have to refer to

"TS 36.213 - 5. Power Control" and if you want to have some hands-on experience of these, I would recommand you
to try some test items on 36.521.
For PRACH Power, refer to "TS 36.213 - 6.1 Physical non-synchronized random access procedure".
Power Control in LTE can be summerized by the following equations. The main purpose for this section is to
understand the every details of these equations. This is the summary of the Power Setting Algorithm in the block
diagram in previous section.

Since it is not easy to embed the mathematical symbols in this blog, I would express these symbols in text form as
shown below.

Let's have some overview of formula structure of the list I put above. 4 out of 5 formula has the following structure.

P_Channel(i) = min{P_CMAX, Formula}

P_Channel(i) means "Power of the Channel for each subframe", implying that these channel power is calculated and
set for every subframe.
min{P_CMAX, Formula} means "Take the minimum value (smaller value) between P_CMAX, "Formula"".
It means..
i) if the formula give the value smaller than P_CMAX, the P_Channel(i) became the value given by the formula.
ii) if the formula give the value greater than P_CMAX, the P_Channel(i) became P_CMAX value.
Combining these two, it means that P_Channel(i) cannot be greater than P_CMAX.

But there is one power that does not take this format. it is PH(i) which has following format
PH(i) = P_CMAX - Formula.
In this case, what would be the maximum possible value that PH(i) can have ? It is also P_CMAX because the
equation says "P_CMAX substracted by Formula". Assuming the "Formula" give you only positive value, the maximum
possible value for PH(i) as well become P_CMAX.

Considering all of these, one thing I can know for sure is that in any case any of Uplink power for any specific channel
cannot be greater than P_CMAX.

What is P_CMAX ? It is the maximum UE transmitter power specified in 3GPP 36.101. UE manufacturer has to make it
sure that UE does not transmit any power greater than this power.
The P_CMAX in various case is derived from various formula and tables, so I would recommend to refer to "6.2.5
Configured transmitted Power" of 36.101. But practically you can take this value as a UE class power defined as in the
following table of 36.101.
PUSCH Power Control

Refer to 36.213, 5.1 Uplink Power Control if you want to know in very detail.

Now let's look into P_PUSCH(i) first. I will write the equation in my text format for easy typewriting.
P_PUSCH(i) = min{P_CMAX, 10 log(M_PUSCH(i)) + P_O_PUSCH(j) + alpha(j) PL + Delta_TF(i) + f(i)
i : Subframe Number
j : This can be 0 or 1
M_PUSCH(i) : Number of Resource Blocks allocated for the UE
P_O_PUSCH(j) : P_O_NOMINAL_PUSCH(j) + P_O_UE_PUSCH(j),
where P_O_NOMINAL_PUSCH(j) and P_O_UE_PUSCH(j) for j = 0, 1 come from higher layer.
P_O_NOMINAL_PUSCH(j) come from p0-NominalPUSCH in SIB2
P_O_UE_PUSCH(j) come from p0-UE-PUSCH (e.g, SIB2,RRC Connection Setup,
RRC Connection Reconfig)

Following is an example you may see in SIB2 from live network or test equipment.
sib2
radioResourceConfigCommon
...
uplinkPowerControlCommon
p0-NominalPUSCH: -85dBm
alpha: al08 (5)
p0-NominalPUCCH: -117dBm
deltaFList-PUCCH
deltaF-PUCCH-Format1: deltaF0 (1)
deltaF-PUCCH-Format1b: deltaF3 (1)
deltaF-PUCCH-Format2: deltaF0 (1)
deltaF-PUCCH-Format2a: deltaF0 (1)
deltaF-PUCCH-Format2b: deltaF0 (1)
Following is an example you may see in RRC Connection Setup message from live network or test equipment.
rrcConnectionSetup-r8
radioResourceConfigDedicated
....
uplinkPowerControlDedicated
p0-UE-PUSCH: 0dB
deltaMCS-Enabled: en0 (0)
..1. .... accumulationEnabled: True
p0-UE-PUCCH: 0dB
pSRS-Offset: 0
filterCoefficient: fc4 (4)

alpha(j) : For j = 0, 1, alpah(j) can be any one of {0, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1}. The specified value come from
higher layer (e.g, SIB2).
Following is an example you may see in SIB2 from live network or test equipment.
sib2
radioResourceConfigCommon
...
uplinkPowerControlCommon
p0-NominalPUSCH: -85dBm
alpha: al08 (5)
p0-NominalPUCCH: -117dBm
deltaFList-PUCCH
PL : Downlink Pathloss. This is calculated by referenceSignalPower higher layer filtered RSRP
"Reference Signal Power" is defined by the following Information Element (SIB2, Refer to 36.331).

Following is an example you may see in SIB2 in real network or test equipment
sib2
radioResourceConfigCommon
....
pdsch-ConfigCommon
referenceSignalPower: 18dBm
p-b: 0

"higher layer filtered RSRP" is configured by the combination of following information elements(RRC Connection Setup
and RRC Connection Reconfiguration, Refer to 36.331)
Delta_TF(i) = 10 log((2^(MPR * Ks) - 1) beta_PUSCH_offset) when Ks = 1.25
Delta_TF(i) = 0 when Ks = 0, where Ks comes from Higher Layer
f(i) = f(i 1) +delta_PUSCH (i K_PUSCH ),
where delta_PUSCH is TPC command carried by DCI format 0 or DCI format 3/3a. Following table from 36.213
shows the mapping between TPC value and Power Up/Down.

Many people think Power Control would be pretty simple and only in RF related issue. But as you saw in this process,
it is pretty complicated process and you have to check a lot of parameters when you do some troubleshooting about
the power related issues. You would do a lot of these troubleshooting when you do 56.121 RF conformance testing.

PUCCH Power Control

Now let's look into PUCCH. As above, I would rewrite the formula in my text format for easy type writing.
P_PUCCH(i) = min{P_CMAX, P_0_PUCCH + PL + h(n_CQI, n_HARQ) + Delta_F_PUCCH(F) + g(i)}
i : Subframe Number
j : This can be 0 or 1
P_O_PUCCH: P_O_NOMINAL_PUCCH + P_O_UE_PUCCH, where P_O_NOMINAL_PUCCH and P_O_UE_PUCCH came
from higher layer(SIB2 or RRC Connection Setup or RRC Connection Reconfiguration).

Delta_F_PUCCH(F) : Provided by Higher Layer(SIB2).

 Each of PUCCH format is defined in Table 5.4.1 of 36.211

h(n_CQI, n_HARQ) : A specific number determined by PUCCH format, Number CQI bits, Number of HARQ value
(Refer to 5.1.2.1 UE behaviour of 36.213)
g(i) : is defined by following equation.
g(i) = g(i-1) + delta_PUCCH(i-4), This shows that the current g(i) is determined by the previous subframe g()
and g() of 4 subframe earlier.

delta_PUCCH is determined by the value carried by DCI format 1A/1B/1D/1/2A/2/3 and the following table of
36.213.

PH (Power Headroom)

Now let's look into PH. As above, I would rewrite the formula in my text format for easy type writing.
PH(i) = P_CMAX - 10 log(M_PUSCH(i)) + P_O_PUSCH(j) + alpha(j) PL + Delta_TF(i) + f(i)
If you see the underlined part, you would notice this is the formula that is used for PUSCH power. So PH(i) means the
power difference between P_CMAX and PUSCH power at that subframe. PH is send from UE MAC layer to eNB
periodically as configured by Higher layer message. (Refer to Power Headroom page for the details of PH report(

PRACH Power Control

Now let's look into PRACH. As above, I would rewrite the formula in my text format for easy type writing.
P_PRACH = min{P_CMAX, PREAMBLE_RECEIVED_TARGET_POWER + PL}
PREAMBLE_RECEIVED_TARGET_POWER : According to 5.1.3 Random Access Preamble transmission of 36.321, this
value is set by following logic.

The random-access procedure shall be performed as follows:

- set PREAMBLE_RECEIVED_TARGET_POWER to preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower + DELTA_PREAMBLE +
(PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER 1) * powerRampingStep;
- instruct the physical layer to transmit a preamble using the selected PRACH, corresponding RA-RNTI, preamble
index and PREAMBLE_RECEIVED_TARGET_POWER

preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower comes from higher layer(SIB2) as shown below.

Now you see a new value called "DELTA_PREAMBLE" here. It is defined in 7.6 DELTA_PREAMBLE values of 36.321 as
shown below.

For the preamble format 0,1 which would be the most common and initial PRACH power (the power that is sent by
the UE for the first time) the PRACH power will be as follows.
P_PRACH_Initial = min{P_CMAX, preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower + PL}

Cyclic Prefix (CP)

In order to understand Cyclic Prefix (CP) it is crucial to start with sub-carriers.
The transmitter principle in any OFDMA system is to use narrow, mutually orthogonal sub-carriers.
In LTE the sub-carrier spacing is 15 kHZ regardless of the total transmission bandwidth.
Different sub-carriers are orthogonal to each other, since the sampling instant of a single sub-carrier the other sub-carriers
have a zero value.
The transmitter of an OFDMA system uses IFFT block to create the signal. Each input for the IFFT block corresponds to the
input representing a particular sub-carrier and can be modulated independently of other sub-carriers. The IFFT block is
followed by adding the cyclic extension(cyclic prefix, CP). The motivation for adding the cyclic extension is to avoid inter-
symbol interference (ISI). When the transmitter adds a cyclic extension longer than the channel impulse response, the effect of
the previous symbol can be avoided by removing the cyclic extension at the receiver.

The cyclic prefix is added by copying part of the symbol at the end and attaching it to the beginning of the symbol, used to
"signal" a break in the transmission or as guard interval and the OFDM symbol seems to be periodic. This guard interval is
designed as such that it exceeds the delay spread in the environment caused by multi-path effect. Therefore the aim is to
preserve sub-carrier orthogonality by ensuring the time dispersion is shorter than the cyclic prefix length.

In uplink, the cyclic prefix has two possible values:

Short cyclic prefix - the 0.5 ms slot can accommodate 6 symbols, typically used in small cells
Extended cyclic prefix - the 0.5 ms slot can accommodate 7 symbols , thus data payload is reduced, typically used in area
with extreme time dispersion
Therefore, a deployment of extended cyclic prefix should note the following:
only a fraction of the received signal power is actually utilized by the OFDM demodulator, implying a corresponding loss during
demodulation
there is also a loss in terms of bandwidth as the OFDM symbol rate is reduced without a corresponding reduction in the overall
signal bandwidth - one way to compensate this is by reducing the sub-carrier spacing, with a corresponding increase in the
symbol time as a consequence, which comes at the expense of higher sensitivity of OFDM transmission to fast channel
variations or high Doppler spread and different type of frequency errors.
In practical sense, the advantages in having 7 symbols far exceeds the possible degradation from inter-symbol interference
caused when the channel delay spread is longer than the cyclic prefix. Bear in mind there are limit where after a certain point
or range or size in the cell, the signal corruption due to the residual time dispersion cannot be covered by the cyclic prefix
anymore, and also this will not justify the corresponding additional power loss.

If you want a clearer explanation of how Cyclic Prefix works, I found this page from DSP Log helpful.
Posted 13th March 2012 by kalmness
Labels: Cyclic Prefix ISI OFDM Technical

Frame Structure - Downlink Home : www.sharetechnote.com

One good way to study this kind of thing and get some practical understanding would be to start from the view from th
highest level and get deeper into it step by step.

Overvall Frame Structure

o Overview-FDD : Frame Structure Type 1
o Overview-TDD : Frame Structure Type 2
o Overview-LAA : Frame Structure Type 3
Physical Channels and Signals in Radio Frame
Physical Channels
PBCH(Physical Broadcast Channel)
The first L(1 or 2 or 3) Symbols
PCFICH(Physical Control Format Indicator Channel)
PDCCH(Physical Downlink Control Channel)
PHICH
PDSCH(Physical Downlink Shared Channel)
PRACH
Synchronization Signal
P-SS(Primary Synchronization Signal)
S-SS(Secondary Synchronization Signaling)
Reference Signal
RS (Reference Signal) - Cell Specific (Antenna port 0,1,2,3)
RS (Reference Signal ) - MBSFN (Antenna Port 4)
RS (Reference Signal ) - UE Specific (Antenna Port
5,7,8,9,10)
RS (Reference Signal ) - Positioning (Antenna Port 6)
RS (Reference Signal ) - CSI (Antenna Port
15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22)
o Whole Frame Snapshot
o Physical Channels in Communication
o Gallery

Overview - FDD : Frame Structure Type 1

The highest level view from 36.211 for FDD LTE is as follows. It only shows the structure of one frame in time domain.
does not show any structure in frequency domain.
Some of high level description you can get from this figure would be
i) Time duration for one frame (One radio frame, One system frame) is 10 ms. This means that we have 100 radio fram
second.
ii) the number of samples in one frame (10 ms) is 307200 (307.200 K) samples. This means that the number of sampl
second is 307200 x 100 = 30.72 M samples.
iii) Number of subframe in one frame is 10.
iv) Number of slots in one subframe is 2. This means that we have 20 slots within one frame.

< 36.211 Figure 4.1-1 : Frame Structure type 1 >

So one slot is the smallest structure in time domain ? No, if you magnify this frame structure one step further, you wou
the following figure.
Now you see that one slot is made up of 7 small blocks called 'symbol'. (One symbol is a certain time span of signal tha
carry one spot in the I/Q constellation.).
And you see even smaller structures within a symbol. At the beginning of symbol you see a very small span called 'Cyc
Prefix' and the remaining part is the real symbol data.
There are two different type of Cyclic Prefix. One is normal Cyclic Prefix and the other is 'Extended Cyclic Prefix' which
longer than the Normal Cyclic Prefix. (Since the length of one slot is fixed and cannot be changed, if we use 'Extended
Prefix', the number of symbols that can be accomodated within a slot should be decreased. So we can have only 6 sym
we use 'Extended Cyclic Prefix').

If you magnify a subframe to show the exact timing and samples, it can be illustrated as below. The length shown in th
illustration does not vary with the Sampling Rate, but the number of samples in each symbol and CP varies with the
sampling rate. The number of samples shown in this illustration is based on the case of 30.72 Mhz sampling rate.
A couple of things to be noticed about the subframe structure illustrated above is
the first OFDM symbol within a slot is a little bit longer than the other OFDM symbols
the number of samples shown in this illustration is based on the assumption that the sampling rate is 30.72 M
samples/sec and 2048 bins/IFFT(N_ifft). Real sampling rate and N_ifft may vary depending on system BW, you
to scale this number according to a specific BW. (or you may implement the hardware sampling at the same rat
regardless of bandwidth (e.g, 30.72 Mhz sampling) and decimate the samples to the rate corresponding to each
bandwidth after decoding MIBs. Actually this is more practical since you don't know the system bandwidth until
decode MIB.)
Typical N_ifft for each system BW is as follows
System BW Number of RBs N IFFT (bins/IFFT)
1.4 6 128
3.0 15 256
5.0 25 512
10.0 50 1024
15.0 75 2048
20.0 100 2048

Following shows the overal subframe structure from "LTE Resource Grid" (I realized that this site is not available any m
Fortunately, recently another expert put great effort to create another resource grid application and allowed me to shar
everybody. Here goes Sandesh Dhagle's Resource Grid)
Following is an example of Downlink Frame Structure and RE (Resource Element) mapping for 4 Antenna case. Actually
is an ideal case of showing all 4 Antenna's signal super-imposed (overlapped). In reality, the signal from each antenna
little different symbol data and reference signal position. The constellation shown on top and at the bottom of the RE
mapping is the measurement result from LTE signal Analyzer measuring the LTE signal coming out of the LTE network
simulator. This was captured at Antenna port 0 while LTE network is transmitting MIB/SIBs and UE is not connected. If
do the similar thing with different channel power (e.g, PCFICH power, PDCCH Power, CRS Power etc) you may see a lit
different constellation.
Now let's magnify the structure even further, but this time expand in frequency domain, not in time domain. You will g
following full detail diagram.
The first thing you have to be very familiar with as an engineer working on LTE is the following channel map shown abo

We can represent an LTE signal in a two dimensional map as shown above. The horizontal axis is time domain and the
vertical axis is frequency domain. The minimum unit on vertical axis is a sub carrier and the minimum unit on horizonta
is symbol. For both time domain and frequency domain, there are multiple hiarachies of the units, meaning a multiple
combination of a smaller unit become a larger units.

Let's look at the frequency domain structure first.

LTE (any OFDM/OFDMA) band is made up of multiple small spaced channels and we call each of these small channels a
Carrier".
Space between the chhanel and the next channel is always same regardless of the system bandwidth of the LTE band.
So if the system bandwidth of LTE channel changes, number of the channels (sub carriers) changes but the space betw
channels does not change.

Q> What is the space between a subcarrier and the next sub carrier ? A> 15 Khz
Q> What is the number of channels(sub carriers) for 20 Mhz LTE band ? A> 1200 sub carriers.
Q> What is the number of channels(sub carriers) for 10 Mhz LTE band ? A> 600 sub carriers.
Q> What is the number of channels(sub carriers) for 5 Mhz LTE band ? A> 300 sub carriers.

Got any feelings about sub carriers and it's relation to system bandwidth ?

Now let's look at the basic units of horizontal axis which is time domain. The minimum unit of the time domain is a Sym
which amounts to 66.7 us. Regardless of bandwidth, the symbol length does not changes.In case of time domain, we h
couple of other structures as well. The largest unit in time domain is a frame, each of which is 10 ms in length. Each of
frame consists of 10 sub frames, each of which is 1 ms in length. Each of sub frame consists of 2 slots, each of which is
ms in length.Each of slots consists of 7 symbols, each of which is 66.7 us.

With this in mind, let's think about the scale in reverse direction.

Q> How many symbols are there in a slot ? A> 7 symbols.

Q> How many symbols in a sub frame ? A> 14 symbols.
Q> How many slots are there in a frame ? A> 20 slots.

Now let's look at the units which is made up of both time domain (horizontal axis) and frequency domain (vertical axis)
call this type of unit a two-dimensional unit.

The minimum two dimensional unit is resource element which is made up of one symbol in time domain and one sub ca
in frequency domain. Another two dimensional unit is resource block(RB) which is made up of one slot in time domain a
sub-carrier in frequency domain. Resource Block(RB) is the most important units in LTE both for protocol side and RF
measurement side.
Now here goes questions.

Q> How many symbols in a resource block ? A> 7 symbols.

Q> How many sub-carriers in a resource block ? A> 12 sub-carriers.
Q> How many resource elements in a resource block ? A> 84 resource elements.

Now it's time to combine all the units we covered. The following questions are very important to read any of the LTE
specification.

Q> How many resource blocks in a 20 Mhz band ? A> 100 resource blocks.
Q> How many resource blocks in a 10 Mhz band ? A> 50 resource blocks.
Q> How many resource blocks in a 5 Mhz band ? A> 25 resource blocks.

I have seen this type of mapping so many times from so many different sources, but do I really understand all the deta
the map ? No not yet. It will take several years to understand every aspects of the map.

Probably what I do as the first step is to describe each part of the map in a verbal form

Overview-TDD : Frame Structure Type 2

Overview-LAA : Frame Structure Type 3

From 3GPP Rel 13, a new frame structure (Frame Structure Type 3) and major application of this type is LAA. I don't fi
much details on this as of 36.211 V13.1.0. Following description is all for now. I think the green part is same as the exi
frame type (Type 1 / Type 2) and the blue part is unique to Type 3.

Frame structure type 3 is applicable to LAA secondary cell operation with normal cyclic prefix only. Each radio frame is
307200Ts =10ms long and consists of 20 slots of lengthTslot = 15360 Ts = 0.5 ms , numbered from 0 to 19. A subfram
defined as two consecutive slots where subframe i consists of slots 2i and 2i +1 .

The 10 subframes within a radio frame are available for downlink transmissions. Downlink transmissions occupy one or
consecutive subframes, starting anywhere within a subframe and ending with the last subframe either fully occupied or
following one of the DwPTS durations in Table 4.2-1.

Another differences in Rel 13 is in following table. As you see here, in Rel 13 the length of UpPTS became parameterize
(become a variable). If you set X = 0, the table is indentical to Frame type 2 case. I think X would get different values
Frame Type 3, but I haven't found any details about the value range of this parameter X yet (I will update as I find mo
information).
 < 36.211 Table 4.2-1: Configuration of special subframe (lengths of DwPTS/GP/UpPTS) >

Physical Channels and Signals in Radio Frame

Now I will talk about the details of various type of physical channels that will be embedded into the frame structure sho
above. The description on this page is just an overview of each physical channels. It is too much to put all the details o
physical channels in single page. I recommed you to use this as a summary (cheat sheet) for each channels and refer t
other pages linked under each descriptions if you want to get further details.

PBCH(Physical Broadcast Channel)

o It carries only the MIB.
o It is using QPSK.
o Mapped to 6 Resource Blocks (72 subcarriers), centered around DC subcarrier in sub frame 0.
o Mapped to Resource Elements which is not reserved for transmission of reference signals, PDCCH or PCH
o Refer to Physical Layer : PBCH and Matlab Toolbox : PBCH page for the details.

The first L(1 or 2 or 3) Symbols

This is one of the most confusing area of the map because multiple channels are located in this area. On the first symb
PCFICH but PCFICH takes only part of the resource blocks on the first symbol not all. PHICH is carried by this area as w
And the remaining space not occupied by PCFICH and PHICH is allocated for PDCCH.

PCFICH(Physical Control Format Indicator Channel)

It carries the number of symbols that can be used for control channels (PDCCH and PHICH).
Mapped to the first OFDM symbol in each of the downlink sub-frame. This contains the information on number o
OFDM symbols carrying the control channels (PDCCH and PHICH). UE decode this channel to figure out how man
OFDM symbols are assigned for the control channels(PDCCH and PHICH)
It is 16 data subcarriers of the first OFDM symbol of the subframe.
PCFICH data is carried by 4 REGs and these four REGs are evenly distributed across the whole band regardless o
bandwidth.
The exact position of PCFICH is determined by cell ID and bandwidth.
For further details, refer to Physical Layer : PCFICH and Matlab Toolbox : PCFICH page.

PDCCH(Physical Downlink Control Channel)

Mapped to the first L OFDM symbols in each of the downlink sub-frame.
Number of the symbols (L) for PDCCH can be 1,2, or 3.
 Number of the symbols for PDCCH is specified by PCFICH
PDCCH carries DCIs and the DCI carries Transport format, resource allocation, H-ARQ information related to DL-
UL-SCH and PCH and other additional information depending on DCI format.
PDCCH also carries DCI 0 which is for UL Scheduling assignment (e.g, UL Grants).
Multiple PDCCH can be assigned in single subframe and a UE do blind decoding of all the PDCCHs.
Modulation Scheme is QPSK.
PDCCH is like HS-SCCH for HSDPA and PDCCH for R99, E-AGCH/E-RGCH for HSUPA
Even though PDCCH has a lot of functions, not all of them are used at the same time so PDCCH configuration sh
be done flexibly.
If you are interested in the detailed information mapping in this channel, refer to 6.8.1 of 36.211. Following is th
initial descrition on this section.
The physical downlink control channel carries scheduling assignments and other control information. A physical
controlchannel is transmitted on an aggregation of one or several consecutive control channel elements (CCEs),
where a control channel element corresponds to 9 resource element groups. The number of resource-element g
notassigned to PCFICH or PHICH is REG N . The CCEs available in the system are numbered from 0 and N_CCE-
where N_CCE = floor(N_REG/9) . The PDCCH supports multiple formats as listed in Table 6.8.1-1. A PDCCH con
of nconsecutive CCEs may only start on a CCE fulfilling imod n = 0 , where i is the CCE number.
Refer to Physical Layer : PDCCH and Matlab Toolbox : PDCCH for the details

PHICH
Carries H-ARQ Feedback for the received PUSCH
After UE trasmitted the data in UL, it is waiting for PHICH for the ACK.
It is like E-HICH in HSPA
Sometimes several PHICH constitutes a PHICH group using the same resource elements.
Refer to Physical Layer : PHICH and Matlab Toolbox : PHICH for the details

PDSCH(Physical Downlink Shared Channel)

Carries user specific data (DL Payload).
Carries Random Access Response Message.
It is using AMC with QPSK, 16 QAM, 64 QAM, 256 QAM modulation scheme (This modulation scheme is determin
MCS that is carried by DCI)
Refer to Physical Layer : PDSCH and Matlab Toolbox : PDSCH for the details.

PRACH
It carries the random access preamble
It is occupying 72 subcarriers (6 RB) of bandwidth in the frequency domain.
Within this channel is Random Access Preamble. This Random Access Preamble is generated with Zadoff-Chu
sequence.
Refer to RACH page and Matlab Toolbox : PRACH page for the details.

P-SS(Primary Synchronization Signal)

Mapped to 72 active sub carriers(6 resource blocks), centered around the DC subcarrier in slot
0 (Subframe 0) and slot 10 (Subframe 5).
Made up of 62 Zadoff Chu Sequence Values
Used for Downlink Frame Synchronization
One of the critical factors determining Physical Cell ID
Refer to Physical Layer : PSS and Matlab Toolbox : PSS for the details.
May Not be a big issues for most of the case since it would be working fine for most of the device that
you have for test. Otherwise it would have not been given to you for test.
However, if you are a developer working at early stage of LTE chipset, this would be one of the first
signal you have to implement.
How can you find the exact location of the PSS from the sequence of IQ data captured at baseband
? This is one of the most import part of Timing Synchronization. This is one of the very tricky part of
understanding LTE protocol and it would take a long time for study.

S-SS(Secondary Synchronization Signal)

SSS is a specific physical layer signal that is used for radio frame synchronization. It has
characterstics as listed below.
Mapped to 72 active sub carriers(6 resource blocks), centered around the DC subcarrier in slot
0 (Subframe 0) and slot 10 (Subframe 5) in FDD.
The sequence of SSS in subframe 0 and the one in subframe 5 are different from each other
Made up of 62 Scrambling Sequence (based on m-sequence)
The value in odd indexed resource element and the one in even indexed resource elements is
generated by different equation
Used for Downlink Frame Synchronization
One of the critical factors determining Physical Cell ID
Refer to Physical Layer : SSS and Matlab Toolbox : SSS for the details
May Not be a big issues for most of the case since it would be working fine for most of the device that
you have for test. Otherwise it would have not been given to you for test.
However, If you are a developer working at early stage of LTE chipset (especially at baseband area),
this would be one of the first signal you have to implement.

RS (Reference Signal ) - Cell Specific

Most of the channels (e.g, DPSCH, DPCCH, PBCH etc) is for carrying a special information (a sequence of bits) and they
some higher layer channel connected to them, but Reference Signal is a special signal that exists only at PHY layer. Thi
not for delivering any specific information. The purpose of this Reference Signal is to deliver the reference point for the
downlink power.

When UE try to figure out DL power (i.e, the power of the signal from a eNode B), it measure the power of this referenc
signal and take it as downlink cell power.

These reference signal are carried by multiples of specific Resource Elements in each slots and the location of the resou
elements are specifically determined by antenna configuration.

In the figures below, Red/Blue/Green/Yellow is the part where the reference signal are carried and the resource elemen
marked in gray are the ones reserved for reference signal, but are not carrying Reference Signal for that specific anten
(Follwing illustration is based on 36.211 Figure 6.10.1.2-1. Mapping of downlink reference signals (normal cyclic prefix)
Following is an example of physical channel configuration and RE (Resource Element) mapping for 4 Antenna case. The
measurement result is from LTE signal Analyzer measuring the LTE signal coming out of the LTE network simulator. It s
only one RB (RB0) of 20 Mhz System Bandwidth (i.e, 100 RBs in total) and was captured at Antenna port 0, 1, 2, 3
respectively while LTE network is transmitting MIB/SIBs and UE is not connected. You would notice that location of Refe
Signal is different for each antenna. Due to this reference signal location difference, the REG grouping may vary slightly
resuting in a little bit different location of PCFICH.
There are two different types of reference signal : Cell Specific Reference Signa and UE specific Reference Signal
Cell Specific Reference Signal : This reference signal is being transmitted at every subframe and it spans all acro
the operating bandwidht. It is being transmitted by Antenna port 0,1,2,3.
UE Specific Reference Signal : This reference signal is being transmitted within the resource blocks allocated onl
specific UE and is being transmitted by Antenna port 5.

Is the Resource element for the cell specific reference signal fixed ?

No, the location changes according to Physical Cell ID as described below.

The time domain index (l) for the reference signal = fixed. ( l = [0,4] )
The frequency domain index k for the reference signal = changes according to physical cell ID as specified in 36
6.10.1.2 Mapping to resource element.
o main rule is : k = 6 m + (v + v_shift) mod 6, where v_shift = Physical Cell ID mod 6. For further details,
to 36.211 6.10.1.2
What kind of value is carried by the downlink reference signal ?

The value is a pseudo random sequence generated by the algorithm defined in 36.211 6.10.1.1 Sequence Generation a
described in Physical Layer : Cell Specific Reference Signal page.(Note : The uplink reference signal - DMRS (i.e, PUSCH
DMRS and PUCCH DMRS) - is Zadoff Chu sequence)

One of the determining value of this sequence is Physical Cell ID, meaning that the physical cell ID influences the value
the reference signal as well.

RS (Reference Signal ) - MBSFN

Following is based on 36.211 Figure 6.10.2.2-1: Mapping of MBSFN reference signals (extended cyclic prefix, f = 15 k
RS (Reference Signal ) - UE Specific

Following is based on 36.211 Figure 6.10.3.2-1: Mapping of UE-specific reference signals, antenna port 5 (normal cyclic
prefix)
RS (Reference Signal ) - Positioning

Following is based on 36.211 Figure 6.10.4.2-1: Mapping of positioning reference signals (normal cyclic prefix)

RS (Reference Signal ) - CSI

Following is based on 36.211 Figure 6.10.5.2-1: Mapping of CSI reference signals (CSI configuration 0, normal cyclic pr
Whole Frame Snapshot

Following is a snapshot showing the whole channels described above. Of course this is not to give you the detailed
information. It is to give you a overall picture of a whole frame. Would you be able to identify the locations of each cha
described above ? Just try it, it will be a good practice.

Each components in this grid has it's own role and used in various different context. If you are interested in how each o
these channels are used in real communication process, refer to following sections in Quick Reference page.
Cell ID Detection and System Information Detection
Uplink Data Transmission Scheduling - Persistent Scheduling
Uplink Data Transmission Scheduling - Non Persistent Scheduling
Downlink Data transmission Process
Channel Coding Processing for DL SCH/PCH/MCH
Physical Channel Processing
Physical Channels in Communication

Following diagram shows overall sequence of Uplink/Downlink data transmission. You would be able to associate the da
transmission sequence diagram and the specific location of each channels in DL/UL frame structure.
Following is an example of channel map that is happening during real communication between UE and Amarisoft LTE N
Simulator. It has an excellent log analysis tool that shows physicall channel mapping for every subframe as shown belo
you roll over mouse pointer onto each channel, it will give you the detailed physical parameter. It would be very helpfu
troubleshooting and for study. This example is a snapshot while I was watching YouTube over the phone.
Now let's look at another example, which might look more complicated and confusing but hopefully look more interestin
This shows an example of what's happening during the initial process (RACH process) after you turn on your mobile ph
Again, the log and background RB map is from Amarisoft LTE Network simulator. All the labels were put manually (If yo
over the mouse pointer onto each channel it shows some detailed information, but it would not show information on th
exact contents. This is understandable.. because Physical channel by itself does not have any detailed knowledge on th
contents).
How can I figure out all the details printed on each labels shown above ? It came from the text based log as shown belo
It took me almost an hour to pul all the lables shown above based on the log below. However, this can be a good pract
you are at learning phase of LTE protocol.. or you HAVE TO go through this tedious process when you are in troublesho
situation.
Gallery

I would not put much of the comments for the following captures. These captures are for your practice to associate wha
read in previous sections to the real life signal pattern.