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- overview, information, tutorial about the basics of LTE Advanced, the 4G technology being called IMT Advanced being developed under 3GPP.
With the standards definitions now available for LTE, the Long Term Evolution of the 3G services, eyes are now turning towards the next development, that of the truly 4G technology named IMT Advanced. The new technology being developed under the auspices of 3GPP to meet these requirements is often termed LTE Advanced. In order that the cellular telecommunications technology is able to keep pace with technologies that may compete, it is necessary to ensure that new cellular technologies are being formulated and developed. This is the reasoning behind starting the development of the new LTE Advanced systems, proving the technology and developing the LTE Advanced standards. In order that the correct solution is adopted for the 4G system, the ITU-R (International Telecommunications Union - Radiocommunications sector) has started its evaluation process to develop the recommendations for the terrestrial components of the IMT Advanced radio interface. One of the main competitors for this is the LTE Advanced solution. One of the key milestones is October 2010 when the ITU-R decides the framework and key characteristics for the IMT Advanced standard. Before this, the ITU-R will undertake the evaluation of the various proposed radio interface technologies of which LTE Advanced is a major contender.
Milestone Issue invitation to propose Radio Interface Technologies. ITU date for cut-off for submission of proposed Radio Interface Technologies. Cutoff date for evaluation report to ITU. Decision on framework of key characteristics of IMT Advanced Radio Interface Technologies. Completion of development of radio interface specification recommendations.
Date March 2008 October 2009 June 2010 October 2010 February 2011
WCDMA (UMTS) Max downlink speed bps Max uplink speed bps Latency round trip time approx 3GPP releases Approx years of initial roll out Access methodology
HSPA HSDPA / HSUPA 14 M 5.7 M 100 ms Rel 5 / 6 2005 / 6 HSDPA 2007 / 8 HSUPA CDMA
HSPA+
LTE
CDMA
CDMA
LTE Advanced is not the only candidate technology. WiMAX is also there, offering very high data rates and high levels of mobility. However it now seems less likely that WiMAX will be adopted as the 4G technology, with LTE Advanced appearing to be better positioned.
These are many of the development aims for LTE Advanced. Their actual figures and the actual implementation of them will need to be worked out during the specification stage of the system.
Note on OFDM:
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) is a form of transmission that uses a large number of close spaced carriers that are modulated with low rate data. Normally these signals would be expected to interfere with each other, but by making the signals orthogonal to each another there is no mutual interference. This is achieved by having the carrier spacing equal
to the reciprocal of the symbol period. This means that when the signals are demodulated they will have a whole number of cycles in the symbol period and their contribution will sum to zero - in other words there is no interference contribution. The data to be transmitted is split across all the carriers and this means that by using error correction techniques, if some of the carriers are lost due to multi-path effects, then the data can be reconstructed. Additionally having data carried at a low rate across all the carriers means that the effects of reflections and inter-symbol interference can be overcome. It also means that single frequency networks, where all transmitters can transmit on the same channel can be implemented. Click on the link for an OFDM tutorial
One of the other key enablers for LTE Advanced that is common to LTE is MIMO. This scheme is also used by many other technologies including WiMAX and Wi-Fi - 802.11n. MIMO - Multiple Input Multiple Output enables the data rates achieved to be increased beyond what the basic radio bearer would normally allow.
Note on MIMO:
Two major limitations in communications channels can be multipath interference, and the data throughput limitations as a result of Shannon's Law. MIMO provides a way of utilising the multiple signal paths that exist between a transmitter and receiver to significantly improve the data throughput available on a given channel with its defined bandwidth. By using multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver along with some complex digital signal processing, MIMO technology enables the system to set up multiple data streams on the same channel, thereby increasing the data capacity of a channel. Click on the link for a MIMO tutorial
For LTE Advanced, the use of MIMO is likely to involve further and more advanced techniques with additional antennas in the matrix to enable additional paths to be sued, although as the number of antennas increases, the overhead increases and the return per additional path is less. In additional to the numbers of antennas increasing, it is likely that techniques such as beamforming may be used to enable the antenna coverage to be focused where it is needed. With data rates rising well above what was previously available, it will be necessary to ensure that the core network is updated to meet the increasing requirements. It is therefore necessary to further improve the system architecture. These and other technologies will be used with LTE Advanced to provide the very high data rates that are being sought along with the other performance characteristics that are needed.
Intra-band: This form of carrier aggregation uses a single band. There are two main formats for this type of carrier aggregation:
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Contiguous: The Intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation is the easiest form of LTE carrier aggregation to implement. Here the carriers are adjacent to each other.
The aggregated channel can be considered by the terminal as a single enlarged channel from the RF viewpoint. In this instance, only one transceiver is required within the terminal or UE, whereas more are required where the channels are not adjacent. However as the RF bandwidth increases it is necessary to ensure that the UE in particular is able to operate over such a wide bandwidth without a reduction in performance. Although the performance requirements are the same for the base station, the space, power consumption, and cost requirements are considerably less stringent, allowing greater flexibility in the design. Additionally for the base station, multi-carrier
operation, even if non-aggregated, is already a requirement in many instances, requiring little or no change to the RF elements of the design. Software upgrades would naturally be required to cater for the additional capability. Non-contiguous: Non-contiguous intra-band carrier aggregation is somewhat more complicated than the instance where adjacent carriers are used. No longer can the multi-carrier signal be treated as a single signal and therefore two transceivers are required. This adds significant complexity, particularly to the UE where space, power and cost are prime considerations. Inter-band non-contiguous: This form of carrier aggregation uses different bands. It will be of particular use because of the fragmentation of bands - some of which are only 10 MHz wide. For the UE it requires the use of multiple transceivers within the single item, with the usual impact on cost, performance and power. In addition to this there are also additional complexities resulting from the requirements to reduce intermodulation and cross modulation from the two transceivers
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The current standards allow for up to five 20 MHz carriers to be aggregated, although in practice two or three is likely to be the practical limit. These aggregated carriers can be transmitted in parallel to or from the same terminal, thereby enabling a much higher throughput to be obtained.
Primary component carrier: This is the main carrier in any group. There will be a primary downlink carrier and an associated uplink primary component carrier. Secondary component carrier: There may be one or more secondary component carriers.
There is no definition of which carrier should be used as a primary component carrier different terminals may use different carriers. The configuration of the primary component carrier is terminal specific and will be determined according to the loading on the various carriers as well as other relevant parameters. In addition to this the association between the downlink primary carrier and the corresponding uplink primary component carrier is cell specific. Again there are no definitions of how this must be organised. The information is signalled to the terminal of user equipment as part of the overall signalling between the terminal and the base station.
Enabling of the cross carrier scheduling is achieved individually via the RRC signalling on a per component carrier basis or a per terminal basis. When no cross carrier scheduling is arranged, the downlink scheduling assignments achieved on a per carrier basis, i.e. they are valid for the component carrier on which they were transmitted. For the uplink, an association is created between one downlink component carrier and an uplink component carrier. In this way when uplink grants are sent the terminal or UE will know to which uplink component carrier they apply. Where cross carrier scheduling is active, the PDSCH on the downlink or the PUSCH on the uplink is transmitted on an associate component carrier other than the PDCCH, the carrier indicator in the PDCCH provides the information about the component carrier used for the PDSCH or PUSCH. It is necessary to be able to indicate to which component carrier in any aggregation scheme a grant relates. To facilitate this, component carriers are numbered. The primary component carrier is numbered zero, for all instances, and the different secondary component carriers are assigned a unique number through the UE specific RRC signalling. This means that even if the terminal or user equipment and the base station, eNodeB may have different understandings of the component carrier numbering during reconfiguration, transmissions on the primary component carrier can be scheduled.
Makes better utilisation of network: By providing connections to several base stations at once, using CoMP, data can be passed through least loaded base stations for better resource utilisation. Provides enhanced reception performance: Using several cell sites for each connection means that overall reception will be improved and the number of dropped calls should be reduced. Multiple site reception increases received power: The joint reception from multiple base stations or sites using LTE Coordinated Multipoint techniques enables the overall received power at the handset to be increased. Interference reduction: By using specialised combining techniques it is possible to utilise the interference constructively rather than destructively, thereby reducing interference levels.
One of the key parameters for LTE as a whole, and in particular 4G LTE Advanced is the high data rates that are achievable. These data rates are relatively easy to maintain close to the base station, but as distances increase they become more difficult to maintain. Obviously the cell edges are the most challenging. Not only is the signal lower in strength because of the distance from the base station (eNB), but also interference levels from neighbouring eNBs are likely to be higher as the UE will be closer to them. 4G LTE CoMP, Coordinated Multipoint requires close coordination between a number of geographically separated eNBs. They dynamically coordinate to provide joint scheduling and transmissions as well as proving joint processing of the received signals. In this way a UE at the edge of a cell is able to be served by two or more eNBs to improve signals reception / transmission and increase throughput particularly under cell edge conditions.
Concept of LTE Advanced CoMP - Coordinated Multipoint In essence, 4G LTE CoMP, Coordinated Multipoint falls into two major categories:
Joint processing: Joint processing occurs where there is coordination between multiple entities - base stations - that are simultaneously transmitting or receiving to or from UEs. Coordinated scheduling or beamforming: This often referred to as CS/CB (coordinated scheduling / coordinated beamforming) is a form of coordination where a UE is transmitting with a single transmission or reception point - base station. However the communication is made with an exchange of control among several coordinated entities.
To achieve either of these modes, highly detailed feedback is required on the channel properties in a fast manner so that the changes can be made. The other requirement is for very close coordination between the eNBs to facilitate the combination of data or fast switching of the cells. The techniques used for coordinated multipoint, CoMP are very different for the uplink and downlink. This results from the fact that the eNBs are in a network, connected to other eNBs, whereas the handsets or UEs are individual elements.
Joint processing schemes for transmitting in the downlink : Using this element of LTE CoMP, data is transmitted to the UE simultaneously from a number of different eNBs. The aim is to improve the received signal quality and strength. It may also have the aim of actively cancelling interference from transmissions that are intended for other UEs. This form of coordinated multipoint places a high demand onto the backhaul network because the data to be transmitted to the UE needs to be sent to each eNB that will be transmitting it to the UE. This may easily double or triple the amount of data in the network dependent upon how many eNBs will be sending the data. In addition to this, joint processing data needs to be sent between all eNBs involved in the CoMP area. Coordinated scheduling and or beamforming: Using this concept, data to a single UE is transmitted from one eNB. The scheduling decisions as well as any beams are coordinated to control the interference that may be generated. The advantage of this approach is that the requirements for coordination across the backhaul network are considerably reduced for two reasons:
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UE data does not need to be transmitted from multiple eNBs, and therefore only needs to be directed to one eNB. Only scheduling decisions and details of beams needs to be coordinated between multiple eNBs.
Joint reception and processing: The basic concept behind this format is to utilise antennas at different sites. By coordinating between the different eNBs it is possible to form a virtual antenna array. The signals received by the eNBs are then combined and processed to produce the final output signal. This technique allows for signals that are very low in strength, or masked by interference in some areas to be receiving with few errors. The main disadvantage with this technique is that large amounts of data need to be transferred between the eNBs for it to operate. Coordinated scheduling: This scheme operates by coordinating the scheduling decisions amongst the ENBs to minimise interference. As in the case of the downlink, this format provides a much reduced load in the backhaul network because only the scheduling data needs to be transferred between the different eNBs that are coordinating with each other.
then re-transmitting a new signal. In this way, the signal quality is enhanced with an LTE relay, rather than suffering degradation from a reduced signal to noise ratio when using a repeater. For an LTE relay, the UEs communicate with the relay node, which in turn communicates with a donor eNB. Relay nodes can optionally support higher layer functionality, for example decode user data from the donor eNB and re-encode the data before transmission to the UE. The LTE relay is a fixed relay - infrastructure without a wired backhaul connection, that relays messages between the base station (BS) and mobile stations (MSs) through multihop communication. There are a number of scenarios where LTE relay will be advantageous.
Increase network density: LTE relay nodes can be deployed very easily in situations where the aim is to increase network capacity by increasing the number of eNBs to ensure good signal levels are received by all users. LTE relays are easy to install as they require no separate backhaul and they are small enabling them to be installed in many convenient areas, e.g. on street lamps, on walls, etc.
Network coverage extension : LTE relays can be used as a convenient method of filling small holes in coverage. With no need to install a complete base station, the relay can be quickly installed so that it fills in the coverage blackspot.
Additionally LTE relay nodes may be sued to increase the coverage outside main area. With suitable high gain antennas and also if antenna for the link to the donor eNB is placed in a suitable location it will be able to maintain good communications and provide the required coverage extension.
It can be noted that relay nodes may be cascaded to provide considerable extensions of the coverage.
Rapid network roll-out: Without the need to install backhaul, or possibly install large masts, LTE relays can provide a very easy method of extending coverage during the early roll-out of a network. More traditional eNBs may be installed later as the traffic volumes increase.
Half-Duplex: A half-duplex system provides communication in both directions, but not simultaneously - the transmissions must be time multiplexed. For LTE relay, this requires careful scheduling. It requires that the RN coordinates its resource allocation with the UEs in the uplink and the assigned donor eNB in the downlink. This can be achieved using static pre-assigned solutions, or more dynamic ones requiring more intelligence and communication for greater flexibility and optimisation. Full Duplex: For full duplex, the systems are able to transmit and receive at the same time. For LTE relay nodes this is often on the same frequency. The relay nodes will receive the signal, process it and then transmit it on the same frequency with a small delay, although this will be small when compared to the frame duration. To achieve full duplex, there must be good isolation between the transmit and receive antennas.
When considering full or half duplex systems for LTE relay nodes, there is a trade-off between performance and the relay node cost. The receiver performance is critical, and also the antenna isolation must be reasonably high to allow the simultaneous transmission and reception when only one channel is used.
Inband: An LTE relay node is said to be "Inband" if the link between the base station and the relay node are on the same carrier frequency as the link between the LTE relay node and the user equipment, UE, i.e. the BS-RN link and the BS-UE link are on the same carrier frequency. Outband: For Outband LTE relay nodes, RNs, the BS-RN link operates of a different carrier frequency to that of the RN-UE link.
For the LTE relay nodes themselves there are two basic types that are being proposed, although there are subdivisions within these basic types:
Type 1 LTE relay nodes: These LTE relays control their cells with their own identity including the transmission of their own synchronisation channels and reference symbols. Type 1 relays appear as if they are a Release 8 eNB to Release 8 UEs. This ensures backwards compatibility. The basic Type 1 LTE relay provides half duplex with Inband transmissions. There are two further sub-types within this category:
Type 1.a: These LTE relay nodes are outband RNs which have the same properties as the basic Type 1 relay nodes, but they can transmit and receive at the same time, i.e. full duplex. o Type 1.b: This form of LTE relay node is an inband form. They have a sufficient isolation between the antennas used for the BS-RN and the RN-UE links. This isolation can be achieved by antenna spacing and directivity as well as specialised digital signal processing techniques, although there are cost impacts of doing this. The performance of these RNs is anticipated to be similar to that of femtocells. Type 2 LTE relay nodes: These LTE relaying nodes do not have their own cell identity and look just like the main cell. Any UE in range is not able to distinguish a relay from the main eNB within the cell. Control information can be transmitted from the eNB and user data from the LTE relay.
LTE Relay Class Cell ID Duplex Format Type 1 Yes Inband half duplex Type 1.a Yes Outband full duplex Type 1.b Yes Inband full duplex Type 2 No Inband full duplex Summary of Relay Classifications & Features in 3GPP Rel.10 There is still much work to be undertaken on LTE relaying. The exact manner of LTE relays is to be included in Release 10 of the 3GPP standards and specifications.
There are a number of benefits that arise from developing the LTE device to device standards. It could bring benefits to users and operators alike. The provision of high data rate local services is likely to emerge as the use of rich multimedia services becomes more commonplace as the use of mobile computers such as tablets, netbooks, and latest generation smartphones increases. The LTE platform would have the advantage over others such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that operate device to device protocols is that they use licence exempt spectrum, and the performance is likely to be poor, especially where large numbers of users are present. The possibility with LTE device to device communications is that using the LTE spectrum a controlled interference environment could be used. This would provide a much more effective environment for the high data rate communications which could include downloads of video, music, etc. Another possibility is that the licence free spectrum could be used alongside the licensed spectrum, one being used as the other becomes exhausted.
LTE device to device, D2D concept There are several advantages to using LTE device to device communications
The network can advertise the presence of the LTE device to device connection possibility. Devices do not need to scan for available WLANs - this reduces power consumption. The LTE network can distribute the security keys in a safe fashion.