Scribd
Upload
34 views3 pages

User Equipment (UE)

The document discusses the architecture of LTE networks. There are three main components: the User Equipment (UE), the Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (e-UTRAN), and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The e-UTRAN handles radio communication between the EPC and UE using the Evolved Node B (eNB). The EPC includes the Serving Gateway (S-GW), Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW), Mobility Management Entity (MME), and Policy Charging and Rules Function (PCRF). The P-GW connects the network to external packet data networks, while the S-GW and MME route data and control signaling within the EPC.

Uploaded by

maheshvkrishnan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
34 views3 pages

User Equipment (UE)

The document discusses the architecture of LTE networks. There are three main components: the User Equipment (UE), the Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (e-UTRAN), and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The e-UTRAN handles radio communication between the EPC and UE using the Evolved Node B (eNB). The EPC includes the Serving Gateway (S-GW), Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW), Mobility Management Entity (MME), and Policy Charging and Rules Function (PCRF). The P-GW connects the network to external packet data networks, while the S-GW and MME route data and control signaling within the EPC.

Uploaded by

maheshvkrishnan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Introduction

In 2004 3GPP began a study into the long term evolution of UMTS to support
high data rates and low latencies that future users would require. 3GPP devised an evolution of system
architecture from GSM and UMTS. In the new architecture the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) is a direct
replacement of packet switched domain of GSM and UMTS. It provides all types of information to the
user, voice as well as data, using packet switching technologies that have traditionally been used for
data alone. There is no equivalence to the circuit switched domain and voice calls are transported using
Voice over IP (VoIP). The EPC is a simplified flat all-IP architecture that supports mobility between
multiple heterogeneous access systems like 2G/3G, LTE, non 3GPP access systems (WiFi, WiMax etc) and
3GPP2 technologies (CDMA-2000 1X, CDMA2000 EVDO-1X etc). The evolved UMTS terrestrial radio
access network (e-UTRAN) handles the EPCs radio communication with the mobile and hence is a
direct replacement of UTRAN. The new architecture comprises of System Architecture Evolution (SAE)
which covers the core network and Long Term Evolution (LTE) which covers the radio access network,
air interface and the end user device. SAE and LTE together is known as Evolved Packet System (EPS).
Even though LTE refers to the evolution of the air interface only , it colloquially denotes the whole
system.

Architecture of LTE

There are three main components in the high level architecture of the EPS. They
are the User Equipment (UE), the Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (e-UTRAN) and the
Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The EPC communicates with packet data networks in the outside world like
internet, corporate networks, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) etc. The interface between UE and e-
UTRAN is Uu, the interface between e-UTRAN and EPC is S1, while that between EPC and outside is
SGi.

User Equipment (UE):


LTE supports mobiles that are using a USIMs from R99 or later. It will not support
SIMs used by mobiles prior to R99. LTE supports mobiles that are using IPv4, IPv6 or dual stack (IPv4
and IPv6). The UEs are categorized primarily based on their ability to handle maximum data rates.

e-UTRAN:

The e-UTRAN handles the radio communication between EPC and the mobile and has
only one component namely the Evolved Node B (eNB or eNodeB). The eNB combines the node B and
RNC functionalities of earlier UMTS network, and thus reduces the network latency when the mobile
exchanges messages with them. Each eNB is connected to the EPC via S1 interface and each one is
connected to the near by eNBs through X2 interface. X2 interface is optional since S1 interface handles
those messages even though more slowly. S1 and X2 interfaces are not direct physical connections,
rather they are connected via an underlying IP based transport network.

EPC :

The main components of EPC are Serving Gateway (SGW), Packet Data Network
Gateway (PGW), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Policy Charging and Rules Function (PCRF) and
HSS. HSS is one of the few components that has been carried forward from UMTS.

P-GW :

PDN Gateway is the EPCs point of contact with the outside packet data networks like
internet, Corporate networks, IMS etc. The interface between PGW and outside is denoted by SGi.
Each packet data network is identified by an access point name (APN). Each mobile is assigned to a
default PGW when it is switched on so as to make it always online to a default packet data network like
internet. Later on, the mobile can be assigned to one or more additional PDN gateways if it wishes to
connect to other packet data networks like private networks. The functions of the PDN gateway include
filtering based on user, lawful monitoring ,IP address assignment, UL/DL transport layer data labeling,
non-GBR DL rate control based on AMBR(Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate), GBR DL rate control based on
MBR, DHCPv4 and DHCPv6, DL/UL bearer binding etc. It also plays an important role in roaming
scenarios. A roaming interface is used to connect to a GSM/UMTS or LTE network of a visited network
with whom a roaming partnership exits. This interface is called the S8 interface and is used to create a
GTP user tunnel between the S-GW of the visited network and the PDN-Gateway of the subscribers
home network.

S-GW:

The serving Gateway acts as a router that forwards data between mobile and P-GW. One or
more S-GWs will be deployed in the network that handles mobiles based on geographical area. Each
mobile is assigned to a single S-GW that will be changed if the mobile moves far away. The basic
function of S-GW is to manage the user IP tunnels between eNB and PDN Gateway. S-GW is
connected to eNB through S1-U interface and to PDN Gateway through S5-U interface. If the S-GW is
connected to a P-GW which does not belong to the home network , the interface is known as S8-U.

MME:

The Mobility Management Entity controls the high level operations of the mobile like
security, management of data streams unrelated to radio communication etc. Like S-GW , the network
may contain one or more MMEs each of which serves a particular geographical area. Each mobile is
attached to a single MME known as the serving MME which will be changed when the mobile moves far
away. MME also controls the other elements of the network through signaling messages internal to the
EPC. The interface between MME and eNB is called S1-MME and that between MME and S-GW is
called S11. The interface between MMEs is called S10.

PCRF:

Comparison with GSM and UMTS shows that the PDN Gateway has the same role as GGSN
, while MME and S-GW handle the data routing and signaling functions of the SGSN. Splitting the SGSN
into two helps to scale the network to meet increased load. Increasing the number of S-GWs handles
increased user plane traffic and increasing the number of MMEs increases the number of mobiles that
can be handled by the network. This split is realized by S1-U interface which carries the traffic for the S-
GW and S1-MME interface which carries the signaling messages for the MME. Other elements like
HSS, EIR etc are inherited from the GSM and UMTS networks. The interface between HSS and MME is
denoted by S6a.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy