MOBILE WIMAX & 3GPP-LTE

Adamson University
Electronics Engineering Department
900 San Marcelino St., Ermita, Manila, Philippines
honeygrace_8@yahoo.com

Abstract- The WiMAX technology, based on the IEEE 802.16-2004 Air Interface Standard is rapidly
proving itself as a technology that will play a key role in fixed broadband wireless metropolitan area
networks. The first certification lab, established at Cetecom Labs in Malaga, Spain is fully operational and
more than 150 WiMAX trials are underway in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America.
Unquestionably, Fixed WiMAX, based on the IEEE 802.16-2004 Air Interface Standard, has proven to be a
cost effective fixed wireless alternative to cable and DSL services. In December, 2005 the IEEE ratified the
802.16e amendment to the 802.16 standard. This amendment adds the features and attributes to the
standard necessary to support mobility. The WiMAX Forum is now defining system performance and
certification profiles based on the IEEE 802.16e Mobile Amendment and, going beyond the air interface,
the WiMAX Forum is defining the network architecture necessary for implementing an end-to-end Mobile
WiMAX2 network. Release-1 system profiles will be completed in early 2006.

I. INTRODUCTION

Mobile WiMAX is a broadband wireless solution that enables convergence of mobile and fixed
broadband networks through a common wide area broadband radio access technology and flexible network
architecture. The Mobile WiMAX Air Interface adopts Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA) for improved multi-path performance in non-line-of-sight environments. Scalable OFDMA
(SOFDMA) is introduced in the IEEE 802.16e Amendment to support scalable channel bandwidths from
1.25 to 20 MHz. The Mobile Technical Group (MTG) in the WiMAX Forum is developing the Mobile
WiMAX system profiles that will define the mandatory and optional features of the IEEE standard that are
necessary to build a Mobile WiMAXcompliant

air interface that can be certified by the WiMAX Forum. The Mobile WiMAX
System Profile enables mobile systems to be configured based on a common base feature set thus ensuring
baseline functionality for terminals and base stations that are fully interoperable. Some elements of the base
station profiles are specified as optional to provide additional flexibility for deployment based on specific
deployment scenarios that may require different configurations that are either The WiMAX Forum
Network Working Group (NWG) is developing the higher-level networking specifications [4] for Mobile
WiMAX systems beyond what is defined in the IEEE 802.16 standard that simply addresses the air
interface specifications. The combined effort of IEEE 802.16 and the WiMAX Forum help define the end-
to-end system solution for a Mobile WiMAX network. Mobile WiMAX systems offer scalability in both
radio access. technology and network architecture, thus providing a great deal of flexibility in network
deployment options and service offerings. Some of the salient features supported by Mobile WiMAX are:

High Data Rates: The inclusion of MIMO antenna techniques along with flexiblesub-channelization
schemes, Advanced Coding and Modulation all enable theMobile WiMAX technology to support peak DL
data rates up to 63 Mbps per sectorand peak UL data rates up to 28 Mbps per sector in a 10 MHz channel.

Quality of Service (QoS): The fundamental premise of the IEEE 802.16 MAC architecture is QoS. It
defines Service Flows which can map to DiffServ code points or MPLS flow labels that enable end-to-end
IP based QoS. Additionally, subchannelization
and MAP-based signaling schemes provide a flexible mechanism for optimal scheduling of space,
frequency and time resources over the air interface on aframe-by-frame basis.
Scalability: Despite an increasingly globalized economy, spectrum resources for wireless broadband
worldwide are still quite disparate in its allocations. Mobile WiMAX technology therefore, is designed to
be able to scale to work in different channelizations from 1.25 to 20 MHz to comply with varied worldwide
requirements as efforts proceed to achieve spectrum harmonization in the longer term. This also allows
diverse economies to realize the multi-faceted benefits of the Mobile WiMAX technology for their specific
geographic needs such as providing affordable internet access in rural settings versus enhancing the
capacity of mobile broadband access in metro and suburban areas.

Security: The features provided for Mobile WiMAX security aspects are best in class with EAP-based
authentication, AES-CCM-based authenticated encryption, and CMAC and HMAC based control message
protection schemes. Support for a diverse set of user credentials exists including; SIM/USIM cards, Smart
Cards, Digital Certificates, and Username/Password schemes based on the relevant EAP methods for the
credential type.

Mobility: Mobile WiMAX supports optimized handover schemes with latencies less than 50 milliseconds
to ensure real-time applications such as VoIP perform without
service degradation. Flexible key management schemes assure that security is maintained during handover.

While the Mobile WiMAX standards activity has been progressing, equipment suppliers have been
aggressively developing equipment that will be WiMAX/802.16e-2005 compliant. With commercial
availability of Mobile WiMAX-compliant equipment anticipated in the very near future and the launch of
WiBro services this year in Korea, it begs the question as to how the Mobile WiMAX technology relates to
and impacts concurrent advances in 3G cellular technology. To address this question it is necessary to gain
an understanding of the underlying technology for Mobile WiMAX as well as the planned 3G
enhancements.

II. PHYSICAL LAYER DESCRIPTION

A. OFDMA Basics
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM) is a multiplexing technique that subdivides
the bandwidth into multiple frequency sub-carriers as
shown in Figure 2. In an OFDM system, the input
data stream is divided into several parallel sub-
streams of reduced data rate (thus increased symbol
duration) and each sub-stream is modulated and
transmitted on a separate orthogonal sub-carrier. The
increased symbol duration improves the robustness of
OFDM to delay spread. Furthermore, the introduction of the cyclic prefix (CP) can completely eliminate
Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) as long as the CP duration is longer than the channel delay spread. The CP
is typically a repetition of the last samples of data portion of the block that is appended to the beginning of
the data payload as shown in Figure 3. The CP prevents inter-block interference and makes the channel
appear circular and permits low-complexity frequency domain equalization. A perceived drawback of CP is
that it introduces overhead, which effectively reduces
bandwidth efficiency. While the CP does reduce bandwidth efficiency somewhat, the impact of the CP is
similar to the “roll-off factor” in raised-cosine filtered single-carrier systems. Since OFDM has a very
sharp, almost “brick-wall” spectrum, a large fraction of the allocated channel bandwidth can be utilized for
data transmission, which helps to moderate the loss in efficiency due to the cyclic prefix.
 OFDM exploits the frequency diversity of the multipath channel by coding and interleaving the
information across the sub-carriers prior to transmissions. OFDM modulation can be realized with efficient
Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT), which enables a large number of sub-carriers (up to 2048) with low
complexity. In an OFDM system, resources are available in the time domain by means of OFDM symbols
and in the frequency domain by means of sub-carriers. The time and frequency resources can be organized
into sub-channels for allocation to individual users. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA) is a multiple-access/multiplexing scheme that provides multiplexing operation of data streams
from multiple users onto the downlink sub-channels and uplink multiple access by means of uplink sub-
channels.

B. OFDMA Symbol Structure and Sub-Channelization

The OFDMA symbol structure consists of three

types of
sub-
carriers
as
shown
in
Figure
4:

Active (data and pilot) sub-carriers are grouped

into subsets of sub-carriers called subchannels.
The WiMAX OFDMA PHY supports sub-
channelization in both DL and UL. The minimum
frequency-time resource unit of sub-channelization
is one slot, which
is equal to 48 data tones (sub-carriers).
There are two types of sub-carrier permutations for
sub-channelization; diversity and contiguous. The diversity permutation draws sub-carriers pseudo-
randomly to form a sub-channel. It provides frequency diversity and inter-cell interference averaging. The
diversity permutations include DL FUSC (Fully Used Sub-Carrier), DL PUSC (Partially
Used Sub-Carrier) and UL PUSC and additional optional permutations. With DL PUSC, for each pair of
OFDM symbols, the available or usable sub-carriers are grouped into clusters containing 14 contiguous
sub-carriers per symbol period, with pilot and data
allocations in each cluster in the even and odd symbols as shown in Figure 5.
A re-arranging scheme is used to form groups of clusters such that each group is made up of
clusters that are distributed throughout the sub-carrier space. A sub-channel in a group contains two (2)
clusters and is made up of 48 data sub-carriers and eight (8) pilot subcarriers.

The data sub-carriers in each group are further permutated to generate subchannels within the
group. Therefore, only the pilot positions in the cluster are shown in Figure 5. The data sub-carriers in the
cluster are distributed to multiple sub-channels. Analogous to the cluster structure for DL, a tile structure is
defined for the UL PUSC.
The available sub-carrier space is split into tiles and six (6) tiles, chosen from across the entire spectrum by
means of a re-arranging/permutation scheme, are grouped together to form a slot.
The contiguous permutation groups a block of contiguous sub-carriers to form a subchannel. The
contiguous permutations include DL AMC and UL AMC, and have the same structure. A bin consists of 9
contiguous sub-carriers in a symbol, with 8 assigned for data and one assigned for a pilot. A slot in AMC is
defined as a collection of bins of
the type (N x M = 6), where N is the number of contiguous bins and M is the number of contiguous
symbols. Thus the allowed combinations are AMC permutation enables multi-user diversity by choosing
the sub-channel with the best frequency response. In general, diversity sub-carrier permutations perform
well in mobile applications while contiguous sub-carrier permutations are well suited for fixed, portable, or
low mobility environments. These options enable the system designer to trade-off mobility for
throughput.

III. MAC Layer Description

The 802.16 standard was developed from the outset for the delivery of broadband services including
voice, data, and video. The MAC layer is based on the time-proven. DOCSIS standard and cansupport
bursty data traffic with high peak rate demand while simultaneously supporting streaming video and
latency-sensitive voice traffic over the same channel.
The resource allocated to one terminal by the MACscheduler can varyfrom a single time slot to
the entire frame, thus providing a very large dynamic range of throughput to a specific user terminal at any
given time. Furthermore, since the resource allocation information is conveyed in the MAP messages at the
beginning of each frame, the scheduler can effectively change the resource allocation on a frame-by-frame
basis to adapt to the bursty nature of the traffic.

A. MAC Scheduling Service

The Mobile WiMAX MAC scheduling service is designed to efficiently deliver broadband data
services including voice, data, and video over time varying broadbandwireless channel. The MAC
scheduling service has the following properties that enablethe broadband data service:
Fast Data Scheduler: The MAC scheduler must efficiently allocate available
resources in response to bursty data traffic and time-varying channel conditions. The
scheduler is located at each base station to enable rapid response to traffic requirements
and channel conditions.
Scheduling for both DL and UL: The scheduling service is provided for both DL
and UL traffic. In order for the MAC scheduler to make an efficient resource allocation
and provide the desired QoS in the UL, the UL must feedback accurate and timely
information as to the traffic conditions and QoS requirements.
Dynamic Resource Allocation: The MAC supports frequency-time resource
allocation in both DL and UL on a per-frame basis. The resource allocation is
delivered in MAP messages at the beginning of each frame. Therefore, the resource
allocation can be changed frame-by-frame in response to traffic and channel conditions.
IV. Advanced Features of Mobile WiMAX
A. Smart Antenna Technologies
Smart antenna technologies typically involve complex vector or matrix operations on signals due
to multiple antennas. OFDMA allows smart antenna operations to be performed on vector-flat sub-carriers.
Complex equalizers are not required to compensate for frequency selective fading. OFDMA therefore, is
very well-suited to support smart antenna technologies.
Beamforming: With beamforming , the system uses multiple-antennas to
transmit weighted signals to improve coverage and capacity of the system and reduce outage probability.
Space-Time Code (STC): Transmit diversity such as Alamouti code is supported to provide spatial
diversity and reduce fade margin.
Spatial Multiplexing (SM): Spatial multiplexing is supported to take
advantage of higher peak rates and increased throughput. With spatial multiplexing, multiple streams are
transmitted over multiple antennas. If the receiver also has multiple antennas, it can separate the different
streams to achieve higher throughput compared to single antenna systems.
 B. Mobile WiMAX System Performance Evaluation

Mobile WiMAX System Parameters Since Mobile WiMAX is based on scalable OFDMA, it can
be flexibly configured to operate on different bandwidths by adjusting system parameters. We consider a
Mobile WiMAX system with the following characteristics as a case study for a quantitative evaluation of

Mobile WiMAX system performance.

In the following tables, Table 7 provides the system parameters,

V. Mobile WiMAX Applications

The WiMAX Forum has identified several
applications for 802.16e-based systems and is
developing traffic and usage models for them.
These applications can be broken down into five
major classes. These application classes are
summarized in the following table together with
guidelines for latency and jitter to assure a quality
user experience.
 VI. CONCLUSION
The attributes and performance capability of Mobile WiMAX makes it a compelling solution for
high performance, low cost broadband wireless services. Mobile WiMAX is
on a path to address a global market through a common wide area broadband radio access technology and
flexible network architecture. This technology is based on open standard interfaces developed with close to
400 companies contributing to and harmonizing on the system specifications thus laying a foundation for
worldwide adoption and mass market
appeal.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
My gratitude to Adamson University Library for their free online access to different research premiers;
To Mouse Click Internet Café for their patience and bear when I experienced overtime;
To my parents for their unconditional support, love and inspiration;
To my special friend who supported me along the process of doing this research;
And last of all, to our Almighty God who gave me the wisdom, knowledge and boost my spirit to finish
this research.

REFERENCES

1 “Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems,” IEEE STD 802.16 – 2004, October, 2004.
2 “Air Interface for Fixed and Mobile Broadband Wireless Access Systems,” IEEE P802.16e/D12,
February, 2005.
3 Hassan Yagoobi, “Scalable OFDMA Physical Layer in IEEE 802.16 WirelessMAN”, Intel Technology
Journal, Vol 08, August 2004.
4 “WiMAX End-to-End Network Systems Architecture - Stage 2: Architecture Tenets, Reference Model
and Reference Points,” WiMAX Forum, December, 2005.
5 “Mobile WiMAX – Part II: A Comparative Analysis”, WiMAX Forum, 2006

6 L.J.Cimini, “Analysis and Simulation of a Digital Mobile Channel Using Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing,” IEEE Trans. Comm., vol. COM-33, no. 7, pp 665-675, June 1985.
7 Richard Van Nee and Ramjee Prasad, “OFDM for Wireless Multimedia Communications,” Artech House,
2000.
8 W. Xiao and R. Ratasuk, “Analysis of Hybrid ARQ with Link Adaptation”, Proceedings of the Annual
Allerton Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing, pp. 1618-1619, Oct 2002.
9 G. Nair, J. Chou, T. Madejski, K. Perycz, P. Putzolu and J. Sydir “IEEE 802.16 Medium Access Control
and Service Provisioning”, Intel Technology Journal, vol 08, August 2004.
10 F. Wang, A. Ghosh, R. Love, K. Stewart et.al., “IEEE 802.16e System Performance-Analysis and
Simulation Results”, Proc. of PIMRC, Berlin, Germany, Sept. 2005.

3GPP-LTE
Abstract- 3rd Generation Partnership UMTS terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) and
Project (3GPP) has recently completed evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network
(E-UTRAN), but are more commonly referred to
the specification of the Long Term by the project name LTE.
Evolution (LTE) standard. Majority of
the world's operators and vendors are
already committed to LTE deployments
and developments, making LTE the
market leader in the upcoming evolution
to 4G wireless communication systems.
Multiple input multiple output (MIMO)
technologies introduced in LTE such as
spatial multiplexing, transmit diversity,
and beamforming are key components
for providing higher peak rate at a better
system efficiency, which are essential
for supporting future broadband data
service over wireless links. Further II. Discussion
extension of LTE MIMO technologies is
being studied under the 3GPP study item
“LTE-Advanced” to meet the
requirement of IMT-Advanced set by Wireless Evolution
International Telecommunication Union
Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). In
Evolution of Mobile Handset Standards (iSuppli
this paper, we introduce various MIMO Corp. | December 2008)
technologies employed in LTE and All the 3.9G systems (LTE, WiMax are shown in
provide a brief overview on the MIMO Figure 1, others not shown include HSPA+,
technologies currently discussed in the Edge Evolution and UMB) share similar goals in
LTE-Advanced forum. terms of spectral efficiency, with the wider
systems providing the highest single user data
rates. The spectral
I. Introduction efficiency is primarily achieved through use of
less robust higher order modulation schemes and
multi-antenna technology ranging from basic Tx
and Rx diversity through to full MIMO (multiple
Third-generation Universal Mobile input multiple output).
Telecommunication System (UMTS), based on LTE and WiMAX are new OFDM (orthogonal
wideband code-division multiple access (W- frequency division multiplexing) systems with
CDMA), has been deployed all over the world. no technical precedent other than the earlier
To insure that this system remains competitive in implementation of WiBRO which is now a
the future, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project WiMAX profile.
(3GPP) began a project in November 2004 to
determine the long-term evolution of UMTS So why is this OFDM being used now? It was
cellular technology. The specifications related to under consideration by the European
this effort are formally known as the evolved
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
for GSM in the late 1980s, however, the
processing power required to perform the many
fast Fourier transform (FFT) operations at the
heart of OFDM was at that time too expensive
and demanding for mobile application. In 1998,
3GPP seriously considered OFDM for UMTS,
but chose an alternative technology based on
code division multiple access (CDMA). Today
the cost of digital signal processing has been
greatly reduced and OFDM is now considered a
commercially viable method of wireless
transmission for the handset.
Some of the advantages of OFDM over the
CDMA:
•Can easily be scaled up to wide channels that
are more resistant to fading
•Channel equalizers are much simpler to
implement as the OFDM signal is represented in
the frequency domain rather then the time
domain.
•Can be made completely resistant to multi-path
delay spread
•Better suited to MIMO (multiple receivers or
inputs and multiple transmitters or outputs)
Some of the disadvantages of OFDM:
•Sensitive to frequency errors, phase noise and
Doppler Shift as the subcarriers are closely
spaced.
•High peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR),
which is discussed further in section 5.
•More difficult to operate at the edge of cells
(CDMA uses scrambling codes to provide
protection from inter-cell interference at the cell
edges whereas OFDM has no such feature).
Why LTE?
LTE defines improvements to UMTS to provide
enhanced system performance, including lower
latency, improved spectrum efficiency, and
higher data rates. The estimated peak
data rates deemed feasible for the LTE
system in ideal conditions range from
100 to 326.4 Mbps on the downlink and
50 to 86.4 Mbps on the uplink depending
on the antenna configuration and
modulation depth. Other key features of
LTE include a scalable bandwidth from
1.4Mhz to 20Mhz, switchable
modulation types (QPSK, 16QAM,
64QAM) which allow lower order
modulation to be implemented as
conditions become less ideal (at the
expense of less data, but then the
bandwidth could also be increased for
this user), FDD (Frequency Division
Duplex) and TDD (Time Division
Duplex) operating modes (although
market preferences dictate that the
majority of deployed systems will be
FDD), and MIMO (Multiple Input
Multiple Output) capability (up to a 4 x
4 MIMO). FDD is where transmit and
receive happen in parallel but on
different frequencies, TDD is where
receive and transmit are on the same
frequency, but separated in time. MIMO
utilizes 2 or more transmitters and 2 or
more receivers thereby increasing the
data rate at the expense of utilizing more
channels (as each transmitter/receiver
will be on a different channel so it can
transmit data and receive over both
channels in parallel).
LTE employs a new network
architecture (E-UTRAN as shown in
Figure 4) made up of multiple Evolved
Packet Cores (EPCs) that communicate
with each other and with evolved
universal terrestrial radio access network
base stations (eNBs). Each EPC contains
a Mobile Management Entity (MME)
and a System Architecture Evolution
Gateway (SAE). The eNB stations
communicate with the EPCs (through
the S1 interface shown in Figure 4), with
each other (through the X2 interface in
the Figure 4), and user equipment (UE)
that is within the eNB cell range. When
the UE moves from one eNBs cell to
another, the handoff can then be made
directly by the eNBs over the X2
interface.

E-UTRAN (TS 36.300 V8.4.0 Figure 4)
The LTE air interface also supports the
multimedia broadcast and multicast service
(MBMS), a relatively new technology for
broadcasting content such as digital TV to the
user (UE) using point-to-multi-point
connections.
OFDMA compared to OFDM
OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division
multiple access) is a version of OFDM
(orthogonal frequency division multiplexing)
modulation that is optimized for multiple users.
Basically OFDM splits the information into
multiple narrowband subcarriers, allowing each
of them to carry a portion of the information at a
lower bit rate. LTE using OFDMA can assign
some of the subcarriers to user 1 for the
bandwidth user 1 needs, and can then assign
other subcarriers to other users based upon the
bandwidth they need. In this way, LTE can more
fully utilize its entire bandwidth. LTE specifies
that a minimum of 12 subcarriers (over 7 OFDM
symbols) can be defined for one user, and this is
called a Resource Block or RB. Figure 3 shows
how 3 users might be allocated using OFDM and
then with OFDMA. With standard OFDM, very
narrow UE-specific transmissions can suffer
from narrowband fading and interference. That is
why for the downlink 3GPP chose OFDMA,
which incorporates elements of time division
multiple access (TDMA). OFDMA allows
subsets of the subcarriers to be allocated
dynamically among the different users on the
channel.
Figure 3. OFDM and OFDMA subcarrier
allocation
(Agilent 3GPP Long Term Evolution, Figure 7)
LTE Downlink: OFDMA
For LTE, the subcarriers are spaced 15Khz apart
and will use 1200 of these subcarriers (or 100
resource blocks as 1 resource block will contain
12 subcarriers) when utilizing the full 20Mhz
bandwidth (actually will be
1201*15Khz=18.015Mhz). This means that 1200
data symbols can be sent in one OFDM symbol
period (as all 1200 are sent in parallel). As the
subcarriers are spaced 15Khz apart, one OFDM
symbol period must be 1/15Khz, or 66.67uS.
When this is demodulated, a FFT will need to be
done to convert the time domain to the frequency
domain to obtain the amplitude and phase of
each subcarrier. This means that the number of
samples over this 66.67uS period of time must
be 2048 in order to see all 1200 subcarriers (1
subcarrier per FFT bin). This then determines
our sample rate which needs to be 15Khz x 2048
or 30.72Mhz. The user equipment (UE) which is
receiving this signal from the base station
(eNB), will down convert and split it
into the I/Q channels which are then
sampled at this 30.72Mhz. The user will
need to sync up so that it knows which
sample point is the start point of the
OFDM symbol, and will then perform
the complex FFT on 2048 samples of
I/Q to retrieve each subcarrier amplitude
and phase which then determines the
data symbol. LTE has a scalable
bandwidth (defined by the number of
subcarriers used), as the bandwidth is
reduced, then the number of samples and
sample clock can be reduced as well.
The allowable bandwidths or number of
subcarriers used by LTE are defined in
the 3GPP 8.2.0 specification as shown in
the following table:
In between the OFDM symbols, a guard
interval is inserted to prevent inter-
symbol interference at the receiver
caused by multi-path delay spread in the
radio channel.
Figure 4 illustrates the OFDM symbols, showing
the subcarriers in the frequency domain being
sent out which will occupy 66.67uS of time,
followed by the guard interval and the next
OFDM symbol is sent out etc. The guard interval
is called the cyclic prefix (CP) which is a copy of
the end portion of the next OFDM symbol placed
in front of it.
Figure 4. OFDM signal represented in frequency
and time
(TS 25.892 V6.0.0 Figure 1)
Figure 5 is another illustration of going from the
time domain to frequency domain and showing
the need for the user equipment (UE) to be
synchronized to the signal as it needs to do a
DFT on the correct 2048 samples.
In the transmit section, this is reversed, in that
there, we need to go from the frequency domain
to the time domain, by using a inverse fast
Fourier transform (IFFT). In this case the arrows
would just be reversed and the DFT block
replaced with the IFFT block. The cyclic prefix
(CP) is then a copy of the end portion of the time
domain placed in front of it (explained in more
detail in section 9).
Figure 5. Illustration of retrieving the OFDM
symbol from the time domain
LTE Uplink: SC-FDMA
The high peak to average power ratio (PAPR)
associated with OFDM led 3GPP to look for
different transmission scheme for the LTE
uplink. The reason for needing a lower PAPR is
that this would allow longer battery life in the
mobile handset. SC-FDMA (single carrier
frequency division multi access) was chosen
because it combines the low PAPR techniques of
single-carrier transmission systems, such as
GSM and CDMA, with the multi-path resistance
and flexible frequency allocation of OFDMA.
A brief description is as follows: data symbols in
the time domain are converted to the frequency
domain using a discrete Fourier transform
(DFT); then in the frequency domain they are
mapped to the desired location in the overall
channel bandwidth before being converted back
to the time domain using a inverse fast Fourier
transform (IFFT), and finally the CP is inserted.
OFDMA and SC-FDMA Compared
A graphical comparison of OFDMA and SC-
FDMA as shown in Figure 6 is helpful in
understanding the difference between these two
modulation schemes. For clarity this example
uses only four subcarriers (M) over two OFDM
symbol periods with the payload data
represented by QPSK modulation.
Figure 6. Comparison of OFDMA and SC-
FDMA transmitting a series of QPSK data
symbol (Agilent 3GPP Long Term Evolution,
Figure 8)
On the left side of Figure 6, the first OFDM
symbol sends out the first 4 QPSK data symbol,
each on their own 15Khz subcarrier. As this is
QPSK modulation, only the phase is modulated
and the amplitude of the 4 subcarriers are equal Figure 7. Simplified model of SC-FDMA and
to each other. After the one OFDM symbol OFDMA signal generation and reception
period has elapsed, the CP is inserted and the (Agilent 3GPP Long Term Evolution, Figure 11)
next four data symbols are transmitted in
parallel.
On the right side we have the SC-FDMA. Here Frame Structure
we are still using four subcarriers, but here the
first 4 data symbols are sampled in the time There are two radio frame structures for LTE:
domain at a rate of the OFDM symbol period frame structure type 1 (FS1) for full duplex and
divided by M (in this case M=4), then a DFT is half duplex FDD, and frame structure type 2
performed to bring it into the frequency domain (FS2) for TDD. These frames are shown in
and this is simply shifted to the desired Figures 8 and 9.
subcarriers (or mapped to allocated subcarriers)
in the frequency domain before being
transmitted. The CP is then inserted and the next
four data symbols are serially sampled, DFT
performed and then mapped to the allocated
subcarriers and so forth.
Visually, the OFDM signal is clearly a multi-
carrier with one data symbol per subcarrier, but
the SC-FDMA signal appears to be more like a
Figure 8. LTE frame structure type 1 (TS 36.211
single-carrier with each symbol being
V8.2.0 Figure 4.1-1)
represented by one wide signal. The high PAPR
in OFDMA is caused by the parallel
FS1 is optimized to co-exist with 3.84 Mbps
transmission of multiple subcarriers as random
UMTS systems. FS1 is the same in the uplink
phases that at times will add up. In SC-FDMA, it
and downlink in terms of frame, sub-frame, and
contains M “sub-symbols” that represent the
slot duration.
modulating data. As these are transmitted in
serial, regardless of M, the PAPR remains the
same as that used for the original data symbols.

To transmit the signal (both OFDM and SC-

FDMA), a N-point-IFFT is performed to go from
the frequency domain to time domain, then this
is up-converted and sent out. On the receive side,
it needs to do a DFT to convert from the time
domain back to frequency domain. This is shown
in Figure 7 below. This figure also illustrates the
extra steps necessary to perform the SC-FDMA
as compared to the OFDMA.
Figure 9. LTE frame structure type 2 (TS 36.211
V8.2.0 Figure 4.2-1)
This example of FS2 is for 5 ms switch-point
periodicity and consists of two 5 ms half-
frames for a total duration of 10 ms. Sub-
frames consists of either an uplink or
downlink transmission or a special sub-frame
containing the downlink and uplink
timeslots (DwPTS and UpPTS) separated by a
guard period (GP). For the purposes of this
paper, we will only examine FS1.
9.0 Physical Resources and Mapping
9.1 Downlink
Figure 10 gives a more detailed view of the
frame for the OFDMA downlink. The frame
structure is referenced to Ts which is the shortest
interval of the system. Ts is defined by the
maximum bandwidth (which used 1200
subcarriers) and it needed 2048 points over the
period of 1/15Khz or 66.67uS (see section 5).
The top line would then represent samples in the
time domain. After performing a DFT on each
2048 samples which come directly after the CP,
we can view the Frame which is the frequency
domain representation shown in the bottom
section of Figure 10.
Figure 10. LTE Downlink for frame structure
type 1 with normal CP
(Agilent 3GPP Long Term Evolution, Figure 23)
The control channels P-SCH, S-SCH and PBCH
are contained within the central 1.08 Mhz of the
signal so that system operation can be
independent of the channel bandwidth. The
length of 72 for P-SCH and S-SCH gives high
correlation when an allocation of 6 RB (72
subcarriers) is used, whereas the length of 62 for
PBCH means that it can be detected using an
FFT of length 64, which helps minimize the
complexity for the UE.
P-SCH (primary synchronization) occurs on
symbol 6 of slots 0 and 10 of each frame. It
occupies
62
subcarriers centered around the DC subcarrier.
Its modulation scheme is one of three Zadoff-
Chu sequences.
S-SCH (secondary synchronization) is
transmitted on symbol 5 of slots 0 and 10 of each
radio frame and occupies 62 subcarriers centered
around the DC subcarrier. Its modulation is Two
31-bit BPSK M-sequence.
P-SCH and S-SCH both are used for cell search
and identification by the user equipment (UE)
and carries the cell ID.
PBCH (physical broadcast channel) is
transmitted on symbol 0 to 3 of slot 1 and
occupies 72 subcarriers centered around the DC
subcarrier. Its modulation type is QPSK, and it
carries cell-specific information.
RS (reference signal) are located on every 6th
subcarrier in OFDM Symbol 0 and 4 of every
slot. These reference signals are used to perform
the equalization (in case of frequency roll-off
due to filters etc.). As shown in Figure 11, RS
starts on the first subcarrier, and on symbol 4 it
starts on the fourth subcarrier, which is the case
for single antenna. The position of RS varies
with the antenna port number and CP length. Its
modulation is Complex I+jQ pseudo random
sequence (length-31 Gold sequence) derived
from cell ID.
PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) is
transmitted on symbol 0,1 and 2 of all even
numbered slots. Its modulation type is QPSK.
This signal is used for scheduling ACK/NACK.
A more detailed view of the downlink is shown
in Figure 11, this can be thought of looking
down from the top of a FFT result. This is
showing +/-40 subcarriers and can see that
control channels are all contained within these
subcarriers. Note that the DC subcarrier
(subcarrier 0) is not used as well as subcarriers
33 to 36 and -32 to -36 of on edge of the P-SS
and S-SS signals. The green elements are the
actual payload data which can be assigned to any
user on a resource block by resource block basis.
Just to review, a resource block or RB is defined
as12 subcarriers in frequency by 1 slot or 7
OFDM symbols if using the normal cyclic
prefix.
Figure 11. Detail View of LTE downlink frame
Downlink Data Rate:
Downlink Data Rate: On the maximum LTE
bandwidth of 20Mhz, which uses 1200
subcarriers, one frame has 20 slots with 7 OFDM
symbols per slot, this represents 1200*20*7 =
168,000 data symbols. Using 64QAM
modulation, each one of these data symbols
could represent 6 bits, which would represent a
data rate of 100.8 Mbps. Not all of these can be
payload bits, as the downlink needs to carry all
the control signals for synchronization,
equalization, how the uplink channel will also be
configured etc.
9.2 Uplink
Figure 12 gives a more detailed view of the
frame for the SC-FDMA uplink. Here the
demodulation reference signal (DMRS) is
transmitted in the fourth SC-FDMA symbol of
all slots and all subcarriers of allocated resource
blocks. These are used for uplink channel
estimation to enable the eNB to demodulate the
signal. The DMRS modulation scheme is
Zadoff-Chu.
Figure 12. LTE Uplink for frame structure type
1with normal
(Agilent 3GPP Long Term Evolution, Figure 25)
A Closer Look at the Cyclic Prefix
As mentioned, the cycle prefix (CP) is a copy of
the last portion of the OFDM symbol. Looking
in terms of the time domain, the 2048 samples
taken at a 30.72Mhz rate will occur across the
OFDM symbol period. As we can see from the
frame structure with normal CP, slot 0 CP is 160
points, and other slots are 144 points. Now to
represent this a little simpler, let all the points in
the time domain OFDM symbol be represented
in the array OFDM_symbol[i], where i=0 to
2047 to cover all 2048 points or samples. The CP
length differs, so let CP_length represent the
length of CP, which will be 160 for slot 0, and
144 for other slots. Let us refer to the points in
the CP as CP[i] where index will be 0 to
CP_length – 1. Now we can define every point in
the CP as follows:
for(i=0; i<CP_Length; i++) CP[i]=
OFDM_Symbol[2048-CP_length+i];
Now in the receiver, if we were to start our DFT
at the correct sample, then we would get the
correct results in the frequency domain. If our
sample was off by -X samples, this would mean
the DFT would be done on some samples from
the cyclic prefix as well as the first portion of the
‘real’ 2048 samples. As the cyclic prefix is a
copy of the end of the waveform, and 15Khz is
coherent, there will be no discontinuity between
where the cyclic prefix ends and the ‘real’
starting point sample begins, so the DFT results
for amplitude would be correct, the phase would
be off, but is a known constant from reference
signals and easily compensated for in the
frequency domain.
Conclusion

LTE is well positioned to meet the requirements

of next-generation mobile networks. It will
enable operators to offer high performance,
mass-market mobile broadband services through
a combination of high bit-rates, system
throughput (in both the uplink and downlink)
and with low latency. The LTE infrastructure is
designed to be as simple as possible to deploy
and operate. The LTE-SAE architecture reduces
the number of nodes, supports flexible network
configurations and provides a high level of
service availability. LTE-SAE will interoperate
with GSM, WCDMA/HSPA, TD-SCDMA and
CDMA. Broadband subscriptions are expected to
reach 1.8 billion by 2012. Around two-thirds of
these consumers will use mobile broadband.
Mobile data traffic is expected to overtake voice
traffic in 2010, which will place high
requirements on mobile networks today and in
the future. LTE has not been deployed yet, but is
gaining momentum and commitments from
many cellular providers as this is the logical way
to advance mobile broadband services.
This report is meant to give the reader a quick
overview of LTE and its physical layer, and
focuses on just FDD frame structure 1 using the
normal cyclic prefix. Not discussed are the
technical challenges involved in production test
of such devices.

REFERENCES

[1] 3GPP TS 25.892 V6.0.0 (06/2004)

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-
info/25892.htm
[2] 3GPP TS 36.101 V8.1.0 (03/2008)
http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-
info/36101.htm
[3] 3GPP TS 36.211 V8.2.0 (03/2008)
http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-
info/36211.htm
[4] 3GPP TS 36.300 V8.4.0 (03/2008)
http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-
info/36300.htm
[5] 3GPP Long term Evolution Application Note
(Agilent, May 2008)

[6] Overview of the 3GPP Long Term