LTE Radio Network Design and Deployment Strategy

According to Evolution to LTE report issued by GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) on August 26, 2010, there are 101 confirmed LTE network deployments in progress or planned in 41 countries. This figure includes three LTE systems which have launched commercial service. GSA also anticipated up to 22 LTE networks would be in commercial service by end 2010. Another 31 operators are engaged in various LTE pilot trials and technology tests (these are referred to as precommitment trials). Taken together, it means that 132 operators are now investing in LTE in 56 countries. Obviously the world pace towards LTE has quickened. On the one hand, people set up high expectations for LTE. On the other hand, LTE is such a new technology that the whole industry needs time to mature terminals and optimize its network. Compared with 2G/3G, LTE shows many differences in architecture, key technologies, network design and planning, and so on. Main factors of LTE FDD (abbreviated as LTE in this text) radio network design and deployment strategy and their differences from 2G/3G are introduced and discussed preliminarily in this text, including continuous networking or not, frequency and bandwidth, intra-frequency networking or not, antenna and MIMO, co-site or not, cell edge user data rate, cell capacity, network planning, and network deployment strategy. Continuous Networking vs. Discontinuous Networking Traditional wireless data services dont chase continuous coverage. However mobile communication networks are commonly designed based on continuous coverage. LTE is a mobile broadband technology and regarded as the common evolution for 2G/3G including WCDMA/HSPA and CDMA/HRPD. HSPA or HRPD can be designed with either continuous coverage or discontinuous coverage, since their fundamental networks (WCDMA or CDMA networks) are continuous. From the first phase, most LTE radio network designs prefer obeying the continuous networking principle. Continuous networking can improve cell edge user experience, reduce inter-RAT handover requirement, and facilitate future evolution from 2G/3G to LTE. LTE continuous networking needs considering continuous coverage of RSRP, RSRQ, best service cells, traffic channel for both uplink and downlink (PUSCH channel and PDSCH channel), etc. Please refer to Figure 1 about an example of best service cells for one continuous coverage area.

Figure 1 Example of best service cells for coverage area Special scenarios (e.g. discrete hotspots scenario) may need LTE discontinuous coverage. Discontinuous coverage may dig out the advantage of high order modulation and coding in good radio environment, thus improve cell throughput and cell center user experience. Frequency and Bandwidth LTE has various frequency bands. Frequency bands such as 2.6GHz, 1.8GHz, AWS (Uplink 1.7GHz and downlink 2.1GHz), 700MHz, DD (800MHz), 2.1GHz, etc. can be used to deploy LTE network in different countries. This brings LTE both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, no other systems have such rich frequency bands as LTE. On the other hand, so many different frequency bands bring challenges to LTE production and networking and difficulty to international roaming. LTE also supports very flexible bandwidth. LTE can support 6 kinds of bandwidth: 20MHz, 15MHz, 10MHz, 5MHz, 3MHz, and 1.4MHz. In most scenarios LTE FDD will support symmetrical uplink and downlink bandwidths. Special scenarios (e.g. frequency bandwidth limited scenario, interference limited scenario, etc.) may need asymmetrical uplink and downlink bandwidths. Please refer to Figure 2 about an example of symmetrical bandwidths (Downlink bandwidth 10MHz is the same as uplink bandwidth 10MHz) and asymmetrical bandwidths (Downlink bandwidth is 10MHz while uplink bandwidth is 5MHz).

Figure 2 Example of symmetrical bandwidths and asymmetrical bandwidths Intra-frequency Networking vs. Inter-frequency Networking LTE main interference is inter-cell intra-frequency interference. This interference is remarkable in intra-frequency networking (i.e. frequency reuse 1, shown as 1st sketch in Figure 3). To mitigate this kind of interference, the simplest way is inter-frequency networking (e.g. frequency reuse 3 for topology of 3-sector per site, shown as 2nd sketch in Figure 3). However inter-frequency networking will depress the total spectrum efficiency. Then ICIC (Inter Cell Interference Coordination) may be used in LTE networking (shown as 3rd sketch in Figure 3).

Figure 3 Networking based on different frequency reuses There are several solutions to realize ICIC. ICIC can be classified as static ICIC, semi-static ICIC and dynamic ICIC according to resource coordination period. ICIC can also be classified as Fractional Frequency Reuse, Soft Frequency Reuse, and Full Frequency Reuse according to resource coordination type. No matter which ICIC solution is used, frequency allocation for cell edge users needs to be specially considered and planned. In real networking, cell edge frequency reuse can be 3 while cell center frequency reuse is 1 (illustrated with different colors in Figure 4).

Figure 4 Cell edge frequency reuse 3 while cell center frequency reuse 1

Antenna and MIMO Different from 2G/3G, LTE networking will introduce MIMO from the first phase. Antenna selection needs considering not only frequency band and HPBW (Half Power Beam Width), bust also antenna element number, polarization type, etc. 2-antenna per sector is the basic configuration for initial LTE networking. Some scenarios sensitive with coverage or capacity may adopt 4-antenna per sector configuration at the first phase. ZTE products can support both 4-antenna per sector and 2-antenna per sector (shown in Figure 5).

Figure 5 4-antenna or 2-antenna per sector Co-site vs. New Site Co-site with 2G/3G means LTE can reuse 2G/3G site, and possible equipments such as transport, power supply, 19 rack, air-conditioning, etc. And more, ZTE Uni-RAN solution can integrate 2G, 3G and LTE into a unified multi-mode product and facilitate co-site design, implementation, operation and maintenance. Please refer to Figure 6 for an example of ZTE Uni-RAN.

Figure 6 ZTE Uni-RAN example Due to different frequency bands and networking requirements, LTE may need new sites besides the co-sites with 2G/3G. In this condition, co-sites are usually used as more as possible, while new sites are used as complements. Figure 7 is one example of co-sites and new sites.

Figure 7 Example of co-sites and new sites For LTE operators not having legacy mobile networks, new sites are designed to deploy a green field network. Cell Edge User Data Rate Uplink is different from downlink in cell edge user data rate design. For downlink, there is usually no maximum transmit power limit in eNodeB side. However for uplink, UE maximum transmit power is limited as 23dBm. Limited by maximum transmit power, even if more RBs (Resource Blocks) are allocated to one user, cell edge user data rate of this user may not improve. Cell edge user data rate is associated directly with RB number allocated and MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) selected by scheduler. ZTE proposal for uplink cell edge user data rate design is shown in Table 1. 64kbps 128kbps 256kbps 384kbps 512kbps 1024kbps RB Number 2 4 7 8 10 17 MCS 2 1 2 3 3 4 Table 1 Uplink cell edge user data rate design proposal Cell Capacity LTE cell capacity considers not only peak throughput, but also spectral efficiency. Peak throughput is only achieved under ideal conditions while spectral efficiency is based on the real network conditions.

Cell peak throughputs for different bandwidths and other conditions can be calculated based on 3GPP specification and the values are shown in Table 2. 1.4MHz 4.392 Mbps 8.784 Mbps 17.52 Mbps 3MHz 11.064 Mbps 22.128 Mbps 44.304 Mbps 7.48 Mbps 5MHz 18.336 Mbps 36.672 Mbps 73.392 Mbps 10MHz 15MHz 20MHz

DL(SISO) DL(MIMO2*2) DL(MIMO4*4) UL(SIMO MCS=23) Category 4 (16QAM) UL(SIMO) Category 5 (64QAM)

36.696 Mbps 55.056 Mbps 75.376 Mbps 110.112 73.392 Mbps Mbps 150.752 Mbps 150.752 220.272 Mbps Mbps 299.552 Mbps 25.456 Mbps 37.888 Mbps 51.024 Mbps

2.984 Mbps

12.576 Mbps 36.696 Mbps 55.056 Mbps 75.376 Mbps

4.392 Mbps

11.064 Mbps

18.336 Mbps

Table 2 Cell peak throughputs Cell spectral efficiency varies in different radio environments and traffic models, and can be estimated by system simulation and network measurement. ZTE simulation results based on 3GPP Case1-3D scenario are shown in Table 3. MIMO configurations 2x2 SU-MIMO 4x2 SU-MIMO 4x4 SU-MIMO 1x2 SU SIMO 1x4 SU SIMO FDD Results 2.26 2.68 3.46 1.39 2.25

DL Cell Spectral Efficiency (bps/Hz/cell) UL Cell Spectral Efficiency (bps/Hz/cell)

Table 3 Cell spectral efficiencies for 3GPP Case1-3D scenario Radio Network Planning For continuous networking, LTE is similar to 2G/3G in radio network planning procedure though the detailed contents and parameters are different. Please refer to Figure 8 and Figure 9 for LTE network dimensioning procedure and LTE network planning procedure respectively. Inputs for network dimensioning include Frequency and bandwidth, Areas to be covered and QoS requirement, Targeted services at cell edge, Number of subscribers, Traffic profile per subscriber, indoor penetration level, etc. Outputs for network dimensioning include MAPL (Maximum Allowed Path Loss), Cell range, Number of sites and sectors, eNodeB configuration, etc.

Compared with network dimensioning, Digital map is additionally necessary input for detailed network planning, and additional outputs for detailed network planning include Uplink and downlink coverage simulation results of LTE signals and qualities, Uplink and downlink achievable bit rate maps, Antenna azimuth and tilt, Cell ID and neighbor cell related parameters, etc.

Figure 8 Network dimensioning procedure Figure 9 Network planning procedure ZTE has its own tools for LTE design, planning and optimization. LTE versions of network planning tools such as Atoll, Aircom, etc. have also been released and are under continuous updating. Network Deployment Strategy LTE offers mobile data service with QoS guarantee. Its not difficult to imagine that LTE services will expand from dense urban and urban areas to suburban and rural areas. ZTE proposes that national LTE network deployment can be divided into four steps (Partly shown in Figure 10): 1) Cover Dense Urban and Urban areas in capital and metropolis; 2) Cover Dense Urban and Urban areas in common cities;

3) Cover Suburban and Rural areas in capital and metropolis; 4) Cover other areas.

Figure 10 Network deployment Conclusion LTE is a totally new technology for mobile broadband communication system. This text only introduces the main factors about LTE radio network design and deployment preliminarily. There are more topics (e.g. heterogeneous networks), contents and details that need further research and verification. ZTE has gained rich experience in 2G/3G networks. And till the beginning of July 2010, ZTE has concluded 7 LTE commercial contracts and built nearly 50 LTE trial networks for the leading telecom operators. ZTE is full of confidence in LTE network design, planning and deployment and looks forward to cooperating with operators to make the best LTE networks.