LTE Takes Shape: Fine-Grained and Self-Organized

Technical White Paper

October 2008

picoChip Riverside Buildings 108 Walcot Street Bath BA1 5BG UK +44 1225 469744 www.picochip.com
picoChip 2008

Page 1 of 12

LTE Takes Shape

Contents
1 2 3 4 Introduction What Is LTE All About? 2.1 History and Development 2.2 LTE In-Brief Why Are Traditional Network Architectures Inadequate for LTE? 3.1 The Great Indoors 3.2 The Usage Model The Role of The Femtocell/Home eNodeB 4.1 Shannon Meets Cooper 4.2 Superior Overall Network Capacity 4.3 Improving the RF Environment for All Users What Will It Take? 5.1 Standardization 5.2 Equipment Cost 5.3 Intelligence at the Node Conclusion 4 5 5 5 6 6 7 8 8 9 10 10 10 11 12 12

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

Executive Summary
UMTS Long Term Evolution (LTE) has emerged as the favored next step on the road for both 3GPP-based networks and for operators using a variety of cellular standards around the world. Among its many attractions are the prospect of improved capacity, reduced latency, easier integration with packet-based networks that use internet protocol (IP), and lower cost-per-bit. With headline data rates in excess of 300Mbit/s, and the ability to co-exist gracefully with existing cellular systems, LTE represents an attractive revenue generating opportunity for operators. It can be used to target premium services at users who need and can afford them, and to relieve capacity problems in areas where existing networks are congested. It is also intended to achieve a dramatic reduction in cost-per-bit of transmission to the operator translating revenue into profit. Whatever the advantages, realizing LTE networks looks set to present significant challenges. In seeking to move ever closer to the theoretical information-bearing limits of the wireless spectrum, LTE uses wider channel bandwidths, advanced coding and OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access) modulation methods that require unprecedented signal processing power. Also built-in from the outset is the use of techniques such as multiple input-multiple output (MIMO), that combine signals from several antennas to enable more effective communication. The nature of LTE also points to a fundamental shift in the architecture of the network itself, with smaller cells, closer to the user, being a key element in the mix. Several factors mean that this trend is likely to go further, faster than has previously been expected. First, the physics of radio communication makes it difficult to attain higher and higher performance from a system that places large basestations at a significant distance from the handset or user equipment (UE). The most fundamental laws of communications, established sixty years ago by Claude Shannon and Ralph Hartley, mean that the full benefits of LTE can only be gained by using cells of a much smaller size than current macrocells. Moreover, usage patterns and user expectations are also evolving. More and more cellular communication takes place indoors. In this situation, using a macrocell network for high-speed data transmission has been compared to trying to fill a cup from a fire hose spraying through an open window. These drivers mean that architectures based on small cells serving few users (femtocells, or in 3GPP terminology Home eNodeBs) will be much more than a convenient revenue-generating add-on for LTE operators: they will be the foundation of the network. But such a deployment model also emphasizes the fact that a femtocell is much more than just a scaled-down macrocell. It requires a high degree of intelligence, so that it can be used out of the box and deliver low installation and operating costs. Additionally, the lower unit cost will benefit CapEx especially for high-volume consumer deployments. We conclude that LTE needs femtocells from the outset.

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

1 Introduction
Less than a decade after the first deployments of WCDMA-based 3G systems, the cellular communications industry has moved on to the next set of new developments. Hot on the heels of the original UMTS specification have come HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access), HSUPA (high speed uplink packet access) and more recently HSPA+. LTE is the next in line. This paper argues that realizing the undoubted potential of LTE requires the use of innovative, fine-grained network architectures based on small cells (femtocells). The femtocell concept has a broad reach, addressing enterprise requirements, and enabling metropolitan femtocells or hot zones in a traditional network infrastructure context. An even more radical change is the idea of a home basestation. This is the origin of the 3GPP Home eNodeB terminology to describe a femtocell although the term is slightly misleading, since it implies that femtocells are for home use only. Further, we argue that it is possible that such femtocell implementations will precede or even replace the roll-out of macrocell-based systems. In section two we look at the drivers behind the development of LTE, and analyze some of the benefits expected in its deployment, for both operators and end users. Offering a brief summary of the technology itself, we explain why MIMO and OFDMA technologies are so important to reaching the stated goals of LTE development. The document then moves on to look at the most pressing challenges in LTE implementation, and examines why traditional macrocell-based architectures cannot deliver the technologys promise. Section four explains how small-cell architectures can be used to solve these problems. In section five, we look at some of the key technologies and developments recently put in place to enable the cost-effective deployment of femtocelltype networks.

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

2 What Is LTE All About?

2.1 History and Development
The idea of a long term evolution (LTE) for the UMTS standard was initiated in 2004. The stated intention was to develop a universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) which would provide a framework for the evolution of the 3GPP radio-access technology towards a high-data-rate, low-latency and packet-optimized radio-access technology. In short, cellular operators wanted to be able to offer a broadband internet experience that would rival that on offer from fixed-line providers. An LTE feasibility study initiated in March 2005 was concluded in September 2006 with the selection of OFDMA modulation for the downlink direction and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) for the uplink. The standard also called for the use of multiple antenna systems, with the intention of increasing capacity and providing spatial diversity. In the meantime, of course, 3GPP has continued its evolutionary work on WCDMA with Releases 5, 6 and 7 of the standard. Probably the most significant development along the way has been the introduction of HSPA/HSPA+, and the inclusion of higher order modulation (HOM) techniques such as 16QAM and 64QAM. Specifications for LTE are encapsulated in 3GPP Release 8: 3GPP recently announced peak theoretical downlink date rates for LTE of up to 326Mbit/s over two 20MHz channels with four-by-four MIMO. As noted earlier, while in other technologies femtocells are an addition to the standards. LTE considers femtocell architectures from the beginning, in Release 8. Indeed, demonstrations have already taken place at the 2008 Mobile World Congress of an LTE femtocell basestation solution.

2.2 LTE In-Brief

The standards designers wished to provide amongst other things high data rates (both aggregate and as seen by the individual user) and high spectral efficiency. As a consequence they chose a combination of OFDMA, MIMO and higher-order modulation for its implementation. n addition to its high spectral efficiency, the standard has been planned to facilitate deployment in many different frequency bands with very little change to the radio interface. It is resistant to interference between cells, and spreads transmission efficiently over the available spectrum. Just as importantly, it co-exists well with other existing types of modulation, meaning that it can be deployed in the same location as existing services such as GSM or UMTS. Increasing modulation density is another key to providing the higher data rates promised by LTE. Depending on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a given channel it is possible to increase the number of bits-per-symbol that can be transmitted by a given system. While QPSK was used in pre-Release 5 WCDMA, successive versions have added 16QAM (HSDPA) and even 64QAM (HSPA+ in downlink). LTE continues this trend.

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

3 Why Are Traditional Network Architectures Inadequate for LTE?

LTE has been carefully designed from the ground up to provide many benefits. So why will traditional macrocells, that cover kilometers and cost tens of thousands of dollars, be unable to deliver its promise? The answer to this question takes in a complex combination of factors, from the operators motivations for deploying, to users requirements and the economics of service delivery. But by far the most critical factor is the limitation imposed by the fundamentals of wireless communication.

3.1 The Great Indoors

One of mobile operators biggest challenges today is to improve mobile coverage in an environment that is simultaneously demanding and potentially lucrative inside buildings. Statistics show that up to 57% of mobile minutes are now clocked-up either at home or at work (Northstream 2007). This figure looks set to rise, with some estimates predicting figures of up to 75% by 2011. Statistics also show that one of the major sources of churn for operators is poor indoor coverage. For mainly voice-based services, in the past the answer to this problem was to deploy large macrocell basestations with sufficient transmit power to overcome losses through walls. However, this approach became inadequate at the higher data rates and frequencies used in 3G networks, as a combination of sheer distance and losses through physical structures (walls) combined to prevent the service behaving as promised. The physical problem becomes worse as frequency increases, and is intensified by the use of more advanced modulation and coding schemes to enhance data rates. The additional attenuation reduces throughput for those users indoors, but there is another effect too: if the traditional macrocell allocates more power to reach the indoor user, this increases the interference for other users and/or cells. Such realities inevitably have a quantifiable, negative impact on cell capacity, making it impossible to deliver the 10x performance improvement compared to 3G that are a fundamental requirement of the NGMN vision which LTE is intended to fulfil. It is these phenomena that have caused the quest to improve indoor coverage by deploying ever-more macrocells with ever-higher transmission power to be compared to trying to fill a cup in the living room by aiming a fire hose on the street through the front window. It is a brute force approach that is doomed to failure. The Femto Forum has attempted to quantify the problem, in a presentation by Prof Simon Saunders. He concluded that, for a small network of 5,000 initial sites and 225,000 net present value per site, achieving a meter of extra coverage depth in-building (which is hardly dramatic) would come at a cost of 290 million.

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

Figure 1: improving indoor coverage via macrocell deployment is both difficult and costly: the graph shows the percentage increase in number of cell sites required to attain additional coverage depth

(Source: Femto Forum. Assumes a 2dB/m internal penetration loss, 5,000 sites and 225k NPV per site)

For LTE, therefore, this problem is critical particularly so in the majority of places where the standard is likely to be deployed. This is because the inbuilding attenuation makes achieving 64QAM even less likely and 16QAM is already borderline. Moreover, attenuation at 2.5GHz is even worse than at 1.8GHz.

3.2 The Usage Model

A further problem for the technologists working on LTE is inherent in the usage model. LTE is designed to co-exist with other cellular technologies because that is the kind of next-generation service that operators say they need. The transition from 2G to 3G saw a change in the nature of cellular services, from voice-only to converged voice-and-data. LTE offers more data, at faster rates-per-user and lower cost-per-bit; but it does not offer the same kind of shift in the user paradigm. As a consequence, LTEs power will be in offering improved coverage and capacity in a highly targeted fashion either to help operators surmount capacity problems, or to allow them to offer premium services to small groups of end-users. Again, this level of granularity cannot be attained using a macrocell-type network.

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

4 The Role of The Femtocell/Home eNodeB

If the traditional macrocell-based architecture is unable to offer the benefits of LTE, what kinds of networks will be deployed instead? With its complex modulation, error correction and antenna diversity schemes, LTE is, after all, a demanding standard to implement. Future handsets will be dual-mode or more, offering GSM, HSPA and LTE: most operators will have existing HSPA networks in place when they come to roll out LTE. The question therefore arises: why deploy at all, if you can only match the performance of an already-existing network? The answer lies in the deployment of femtocells, or Home eNodeBs, as they are called in 3GPP terminology. These small basestations, similar in lookand-feel to a WiFi home access point, are already being deployed to enhance 3G capacity and coverage. Critically, femtocells are self-configuring and can thus be installed very quickly and easily to deliver coverage precisely where it is required. Most of the discussion has focused on residential deployment for consumer use, but the concept applies for enterprises or crucially for LTE as part of a carrier deployment for metro areas or for public access in buildings. The difference between LTE and 3G is that femtocells will be in place from day one of the standards deployment, providing the very type of fine-grained, targeted services for which LTE was designed.

4.1 Shannon Meets Cooper

Although they seem a new concept, in fact the precedent behind the use of femtocells is already set. The key lies in one of the most fundamental laws of communications theory Shannons Law and a newer observation, made by Dr Martin Cooper, and sometimes called Coopers Law. Shannons Law establishes an upper limit on the coverage and/or capacity of a communications link: two parameters that are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. In the case of coverage, Shannon establishes a minimum ratio between the energy per bit of a signal and the noise spectral density in the channel being used. Mathematically, the relationship is expressed as: Eb/N0 >-1.6dB If the ratio of energy per bit to noise dips below -1.6dB, communication cannot be guaranteed, no matter what advanced coding or modulation regime is put in place. Modern systems such as HSPA and LTE come close to the -1.6dB fundamental limit. The energy per bit at the receiver depends on the transmitter power, the path loss (dependent upon frequency, physical separation, obstructions and terrain), and the size of the antennas at each end. The noise spectral density depends on physical fundamentals, the receiver performance, and the amount of interference in the channel. As a result, an increase in transmission frequency or bit rate in a system at, or near, the theoretical limit can only be attained by boosting transmitter power, reducing cell size, or using MIMO (effectively creating additional, parallel, channels to give potentially up to N times Shannon capacity between the two points).

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

The same kind of argument establishes the maximum data rate attainable from a given channel: that is, it establishes the capacity limit. In particular, the maximum capacity in bits per second (C) is given by C = B log2(1+S/N) Where B is the bandwidth in hertz, and S and N are signal and noise power respectively. Obviously a more powerful signal increases the informationcarrying capacity of the channel: but in a cellular system, one handsets signal is anothers noise, and a point comes where the increase in the communal noise figure produced by turning the volume up outweighs the positive effects on a single handsets signal strength. Eliminating this conflict is a big component in efficiency gains from femtocell see Section 4.3). The second part of the puzzle is encapsulated in Coopers Law, that observes that the number of radio frequency conversations which can be concurrently conducted in a given physical area has doubled every 30 months since Marconis earliest radio transmissions. Just as important as the bare assertion, however, is the analysis of the driving forces behind the progression. This 30-month doubling has yielded a one-million-fold overall increase in capacity in the last 45 years alone. Of this, it is estimated that 25x is due to using more spectrum; 5x is due to better modulation techniques; and 5x is down to frequency division. But by far the biggest factor, some 1600x, is due to spectrum re-use: the effects of confining the area needed for individual interchanges within smaller and smaller cells. Seen from this point of view, the femtocell becomes nothing more nor less than the logical next step in harnessing the most potent driver of increased capacity over the last century: and the only way of defeating the absolute limits imposed by Shannons Law.

4.2 Superior Overall Network Capacity

Femtocell architectures deliver more than improved coverage and capacity across an individual channel. A typical macrocell might provide an aggregate bandwidth of 30Mbit/s, designed to be shared between 100 users; typical smaller cells provide only slightly less total bandwidth perhaps 10-20Mbit/s but share this between 20 users at most. The impact on individual users is substantial. But the analysis of Coopers Law shows that the benefits, in terms of increased overall capacity, are to be seen across the network. In Coopers Law, it is the overall capacity of the network that is enhanced. This is instinctively obvious when comparing the aggregate bandwidth of a macrocell network, which might include thousands of 30Mbit/s basestations, with a femtocell network. The latter could conceivably encompass hundreds of thousands of basestations: perhaps even millions, for a service that reached substantial residential penetration in a large developed nation.

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

4.3 Improving the RF Environment for All Users

A traditional objection to the concept of femtocells is the feeling that it must be difficult to manage RF issues in an environment of very many small cells. In fact, femtocells inherently ease many of the interference issues that create problems in todays networks. One of the biggest challenges in RF management is surmounting the nearfar problem. Terminals further from the basestation need to turn up their transmission power. Their transmissions represent potential interference to all of the other terminals within the cell, which may respond in turn by turning up their own power. The bigger the cell size, the more terminals are likely to be operating far from the basestation, and the worse the problem. Femtocells directly cure this difficulty, because their presence means that most terminals are operating very near the basestation, and therefore transmit less powerfully. This reduces interference for all users in the network, as everyone benefits from less noise. Additionally, and perhaps surprisingly, because power can be reduced, it also has a positive effect on terminal battery life. Moreover, the self-same structural attenuation that limits the in-building coverage and capacity of macrocell networks is a positive benefit for femtocells. The walls of a building provide an effective isolation barrier, reducing interference, not just between terminals, but also between cells. It is obvious that femtocells deliver increased capacity for the users connected to that femtocell: what is less obvious but very significant is that, by reducing interference, they increase efficiency for all users of the network, even those on the macrocell. Even better for a diversity-based technology such as LTE, an indoor environment represents a rich source of multi-path signals allowing the benefits of MIMO to be maximized. As a result, in an indoor environment LTE can work at its highest modulation rates and greatest spectral efficiency.

5 What Will It Take?

A common misconception is that femtocells are little more than strippeddown macrocells. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Developers have already identified and begun to implement the key capabilities required to successfully integrate femtocells into LTE networks.

5.1 Standardization
Radio standards and planning are the first issues that spring to the minds of many when they think of femtocell deployments. But just as important is the task of integrating large numbers of femtocells into the core network. For reasons of both cost and convenience, the femtocell must be plug-andplay in the same way that consumers can install and use a WiFi access point. This means backhauling via an existing network connection where possible: most likely the public internet. Existing cellular radio access networks, in contrast, comprise hundreds of basestations connected to a single radio network or basestation controller (RNC or BSC). The interface between the NodeB and RNC/BSC is via the 3GPP Iub standard (TS 25.434), running the ATM protocol over dedicated leased lines. Fitting femtocells into such an architecture presents two major challenges: existing Iub interfaces often include proprietary elements; and current RNCs are not designed to handle many thousands of NodeBs.

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

Deploying femtocells also requires standardization, allowing the vital element of self-provisioning: 3GPP has now adopted an approach, effectively as a reference architecture, that overcomes all of these concerns. It defines a new concentrator-type network element, the Home NodeB Gateway (HNB-GW) that can aggregate traffic from thousands of NodeBs into the core network. Communication between femtocell and HNB-GW is via a new standard interface, Iuh, that implements security functions, control signaling and a new application protocol (HNBAP) designed to ease HNB deployment. This approach fits seamlessly into current mobile network operators radio access networks (RANs) by supplementing or replacing their current RNCs with the concentrator element. The Home NodeB itself must handle the radio resource management functions formerly residing in the RNC.

5.2 Equipment Cost

With its complex modulation, coding and diversity specifications, implementing LTE represents an extremely demanding set of signal processing tasks. Providing the necessary processing power, with low energy consumption, at a price point suitable for consumer markets, requires a new generation of semiconductor devices. Vendors such as picoChip are already coming to market with solutions to this challenge. In concert with its partners mimoOn and Wintegra, the company has demonstrated an LTE design that supports both TDD and FDD modes, includes OFDMA downlink and SC-FDMA uplink, and offers 2 x 2 MIMO and adaptive antenna systems (AAS). The picoChip platform runs on the same PC203 programmable multi-core signal processing device as the companys industry standard WiMAX basestation reference designs. The use of a programmable multi-core device has several advantages: it is a proven, system-level solution that ensures fast time-to-market; at the same time, its programmability allows OEMs and ODMs to customize and add value quickly and easily; it delivers the required processing power, with significantly lower energy consumption than an equivalent FPGA; and it suffers none of the long lead times and non-recurring engineering costs of a full ASIC implementation. Future generations of silicon are likely to move to a more ASSP-oriented (application-specific standard product) approach. For instance, picoChips recently announced PC3xx family will substantially reduce manufacturers bill-of-materials costs, allowing the production of femtocells at consumer price points. As well as providing the processing headroom needed to implement highly differentiated feature sets, it will enable the same seamless upgrade approach already enjoyed by customers employing picoChips reference designs. Such developments point semiconductor makers not just to consumer price points, but also to a system-level proposition that allows customers and infrastructure makers to focus on their own value-add as is the case in many consumer markets today.

picoChip

LTE Takes Shape

5.3 Intelligence at the Node

As we have seen, femtocell LTE architectures will necessarily need to push intelligence out towards the node. Because they will be installed by end users, they will need to be (in the words of the Femto Forum) self-planning, self-configuring, self-optimizing, self-tuning and self-testing. In short, they will be the first genuinely self-organizing networks (SONs). All of this is not as much of a logical leap as it may seem. As long as the femtocell can be equipped with some way of knowing about its surroundings, it can be provided with sufficient intelligence to configure itself. Indeed, the adaptive nature of OFDMA itself means that the network can make adjustments on an on-going basis. Such technology is already in use in 3G femtocells, which are equipped with a UE sniffer (or network listen) mode to determine the nature of the radio environment in which they are operating. In this case, the device configures itself into UE mode, and synchronizes to the surrounding network. It can thus determine which scrambling codes will minimize interference, and how much transmitter power it needs to deploy to size the cell. By knowing about adjacent macrocells, it can also ensure that hand-off can be implemented effectively. The same principles will apply with LTE femtocells. As well as other femtocells and the macrocellular LTE network (if any) they will also need to be able to see adjacent HSPA macrocells, and even the surrounding 2G network, to ensure hand-off if no higher-generation network coverage is available.

6 Conclusion
LTE excels when providing extra coverage and capacity in targeted metropolitan hotspots and, in particular, indoors. Networks based on macrocells cannot deliver sufficient benefits to warrant deployment for such purposes: they are too expensive, and in many cases are hamstrung by fundamental limitations of physics and communications systems. Femtocells provide many of the answers, a fact that is recognized by organizations such as the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance, which has stated: The NGMN RAN shall be designed in a way that it allows a large scale deployment of cost-optimized plug-and-play NGMNonly indoor radio equipment at a price level of commercial quality WLAN components. Now it is up to infrastructure makers and their suppliers to take up the challenge of developing and implementing the technology needed to make LTE a success. Consumer market economies of scale are required to bear down on CapEx costs; intelligence at the node and SON technology is needed to achieve the necessary OpEx: and standardization efforts must be accelerated to ensure the interoperability that will make it all possible. With these elements in place, it will be possible to write the next chapter in the story of the incredible shrinking cell.

picoChip