Second International Workshop on the Performance Enhancements in MIMO-OFDM Systems

LTE-A an Overview and Future Research Areas

Shihab Jimaa Kok Keong Chai, Yue Chen, Yasir Alfadhl

College of Engineering, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science
Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research Queen Mary University London
U.A.E U.K.
saj@kustar.ac.ae {Michael.Chai, Yue.Chen, Yasir.Alfadhl}
@eecs.qmul.ac.uk

Abstract—This paper gives an overview of the Long Term definition to include regular LTE, WiMAX and HSPA+ as
Evolution (LTE) of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication bona fide 4G technologies since they are considerably faster
System (UMTS), which is being developed by the 3rd Generation than existing 3G networks. LTE uses the Evolved UMTS
Partnership Project (3GPP). LTE constitutes the latest step Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) air interface, which is
towards the 4th generation (4G) of radio technologies designed to based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
increase the capacity and speed of mobile communications. (OFDMA) and is a departure from the TDMA used in GSM
Particular attention is given to the requirements and targets of and the CDMA used in GSM/UMTS and CDMA2000. In
LTE, its use of multiple antenna techniques, and to the Single addition, LTE is based entirely on IP packets, and voice travels
Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA)
over IP (VoIP). The IP part of LTE is called "Evolved Packet
modulation scheme used in the LTE uplink. Furthermore new
future research areas are proposed here.
System" (EPS), which was previously called "System
Architecture Evolution" (SAE). Although the LTE is often
Keywords- LTE; MIMO; OFDM; SC-FDMA; CRAN; Multihop marketed as 4G, first-release LTE does not fully comply with
wireless network; CR; SDR; MPLS the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) Advanced
4G requirements. The pre-4G standard is a step toward LTE
I. INTRODUCTION (HEADING 1) Advanced, a 4G [5] standard of radio technologies designed to
Long Term Evolution is the next-generation 4G technology increase the capacity and speed of mobile telephone networks.
for both Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) and LTE Advanced is backwards compatible with LTE and uses the
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular carriers. same frequency bands, while LTE is not backwards compatible
Approved in 2008 with download speeds of up to 173 Mb/sec, with 3G systems.
LTE was defined by the 3G Partnership Project in the 3GPP II. REQUIREMENTS OF LTE
Release 8 specification. LTE uses a different air interface and
packet structure than the previous 3G systems, including Tables I & II show the requirements of LTE’s downlink
GSM's UMTS: Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) and High and uplink, respectively. The fulfillment of peak bit rate in both
Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and CDMA's Evolution-Data downlink and uplink is fulfilled while the spectral efficiency
Optimized (EV-DO). However, it is envisioned that all GSM and cell edge user throughput is 2.5 times of High Speed
and CDMA2000 carriers will eventually migrate to LTE to Packet downlink Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Packet
provide an interoperable cellular system worldwide. LTE is a uplink Access (HSUPA).
set of enhancements to the UMTS which was introduced in
3GPP Release 8. Much of 3GPP Release 8 focuses on adopting TABLE I. DOWNLINK
4G mobile communication technologies, including an all- Release-6
LTE LTE target
Internet Protocol (IP) flat networking architecture. On August HSDPA
18, 2009, the European Commission announced that it will Peak bit rate
14.4 144 100
(Mbps)
invest a total of €18 million into researching the deployment of 3-4 times of
Spectral efficiency
LTE and the certified 4G system LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) [1]. (b/s/Hz)
0.75 1.84
HSDPA
While it is commonly seen as a cell-phone or common carrier Cell edge user 2-3 times of
0.006 0.0184
development, LTE is also endorsed by public safety agencies in throughput (b/s/Hz) HSDPA
the United States [2] as the preferred technology for the new
700 MHz public-safety radio band. Agencies in some regions
have filed for waivers [3] hoping to use the 700 MHz [4]
spectrum with other technologies in advance of the adoption of
a nationwide standard. LTE is considerably faster than GSM's
HSPA and CDMA's EV-DO but was considered a 3G
technology by the ITU until late 2010. Along with the
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)
2, the ITU previously designated LTE-A (LTE-Advanced) as
the true 4G evolution. In late 2010, the ITU widened its

978-1-4577-2014-7/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 395

 TABLE II. UPLINK • Co-existence: Co-existence in the same geographical
area and co-location with GERAN/UTRAN shall be
Release-6 ensured.
LTE LTE target
HSUPA
Peak bit rate
5.7 57 50 • Quality of Service (QoS): End-to-end QoS shall be
(Mbps)
supported.
Spectral efficiency 2-3 times of
0.26 0.67
(b/s/Hz) HSUPA • Network synchronization: Time synchronization of
Cell edge user 2-3 times of different network sites shall not be mandated.
0.006 0.015
throughput (b/s/Hz) HSUPA
III. TIME LINE FOR LTE DEVELOPMENT
The target of 3GPP LTE-A is to reach and surpass the ITU Current view for commercial launch around 2012 is shown
requirements. LTE-A should be compatible with first release in Fig, 1 where marketing and economic requirements drive
LTE equipment, and should share frequency bands with first commercial launch.
release LTE. In the feasibility study for LTE-A, 3GPP
It seems that for some time several generations will co-exist
determined that LTE-A would meet the ITU-R requirements
and also the older technologies will eventually make room for
for 4G. The results of the study are published in 3GPP
superior ones to take over. The data traffic and data revenue is
Technical Report (TR) 36.912 [6].
mainly generated in hotspots and in-building. LTE could start
One of the important LTE-A benefits is the ability to take in hotspots, high traffic zones and enterprise / residential Femto
advantage of advanced topology networks; optimized followed by nationwide coverage at later stage.
heterogeneous networks with a mix of macros with low power
nodes such as picocells, femtocells and new relay nodes. The
next significant performance leap in wireless networks will
come from making the most of topology, and brings the
network closer to the user by adding many of these low power
nodes — LTE-A further improves the capacity and coverage,
and ensures user fairness. LTE-A also introduces multicarrier
to be able to use ultra wide bandwidth, up to 100MHz of
spectrum supporting very high data rates.
Further to the above, other LTE requirements and targets
are listed below:
• Bandwidth: Scalable bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 15,
and 20 MHz shall be supported.
• Interworking: Interworking with existing UTRAN/
GSM Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution Radio
Access Network (GERAN) systems and non-3GPP Figure 1. Marketing and economic requirements [7]
system shall be ensured. Interruption time for handover
between Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access IV. MULTIPLE ACCESS TECHNOLOGY IN LTE
Network (E-UTRAN) and UTRAN/GERAN shall be Downlink and uplink transmission in LTE are based on the
less than 300ms for RT services, and less than 500ms use of multiple access technologies: specifically, orthogonal
for NRT services. frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) for the
downlink, and single-carrier frequency division multiple access
• Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS): (SC-FDMA) for the uplink. The downlink is considered first.
MBMS shall be further enhanced and is then referred
to as Evolved-MBMS (e-MBMS). A. Downlink
• Cost: Reduced Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and OFDMA is a variant of orthogonal frequency division
Operational Expenditure (OPEX) including backhaul multiplexing (OFDM), a digital multi-carrier modulation
shall be achieved. Cost effective migration from scheme that is widely used in wireless systems but relatively
release 6 UTRA radio interface and architecture shall new to cellular. Rather than transmitting a high-rate stream of
be possible. All the interfaces specified shall be open data with a single carrier, OFDM makes use of a large number
for multi-vendor equipment interoperability. of closely spaced orthogonal subcarriers that are transmitted in
parallel. Each subcarrier is modulated with a conventional
• Mobility: Optimized for low mobile speed (0~15km/h). modulation scheme (such as Quadrature phase-shift keying
Higher mobile speeds shall be supported (including (QPSK), 16-Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), or 64-
high speed train) QAM) at a low symbol rate. The combination of hundreds or
thousands of subcarriers enables data rates similar to
• Spectrum allocation: Operation in paired Frequency
conventional single-carrier modulation schemes in the same
Division Duplexing (FDD) and unpaired spectrum
bandwidth. Although OFDM has been used for many years in
Time Division Duplexing (TDD) is possible.
communication systems, its use in mobile devices is more

396
recent. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute V. MULTIPLE INPUT MULTIPLE OUTPUT
(ETSI) first looked at OFDM for GSM back in the late 1980s; Central to LTE is the concept of multiple antenna
however, the processing power required to perform the many techniques—often loosely referred to as MIMO—which take
fast Fourier transform (FFT) operations at the heart of OFDM advantage of spatial diversity in the radio channel. Multiple
was at that time too expensive and demanding for a mobile antenna techniques are of three main types: diversity, MIMO,
application. In 1998, 3GPP seriously considered OFDM for and beam forming. These techniques are used to improve
UMTS, but again chose an alternative technology based on signal robustness and to increase system capacity and single-
CDMA. Today the cost of digital signal processing has been user data rates. Each technique has its own performance
greatly reduced and OFDM is now considered a commercially benefits and costs. MIMO requires two or more transmitters
viable method of wireless transmission for the handset. and two or more receivers. For a system to be described as
When compared to the CDMA technology upon which MIMO, it must have at least as many receivers as there are
UMTS is based, OFDM offers a number of distinct advantages: transmit-streams. The number of transmit streams should not
be confused with the number of transmit antennas. The
• OFDM can easily be scaled up to wide channels that theoretical gains from MIMO are function of the number of
are more resistant to fading. transmit and receive antennas, the radio propagation
• OFDM channel equalizers are much simpler to conditions, the ability of the transmitter to adapt to the
implement than are CDMA equalizers, as the OFDM changing conditions, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The
signal is represented in the frequency domain rather ideal case is one in which the paths in the radio channel are
than the time domain. completely uncorrelated, almost as if separate, physically
cabled connections with no crosstalk existed between the
• OFDM can be made completely resistant to multi-path transmitters and receivers. Such conditions are almost
delay spread. This is possible because the long symbols impossible to achieve in free space, and with the potential for
used for OFDM can be separated by a guard interval so many variables, it is neither helpful nor possible to quote
known as the cyclic prefix (CP). The CP is a copy of MIMO gains without stating the conditions. The upper limit of
the end of a symbol inserted at the beginning. By MIMO gain in ideal conditions is more easily defined, and for a
sampling the received signal at the optimum time, the 2x2 system with two simultaneous data streams a doubling of
receiver can remove the time domain interference capacity and data rate is possible.
between adjacent symbols caused by multi-path delay
spread in the radio channel. VI. FUTURE RESEARCH AREAS
• OFDM is better suited to MIMO. The frequency In this section we identify few examples of future research
domain representation of the signal enables easy pre- areas: Cloud Radio Access Network, Multihop Wireless
coding to match the signal to the frequency and phase Networks, and Resilience and reliability of LTE with MPLS.
characteristics of the multi-path radio channel. A. Cloud Radio Access Network
However, OFDM does have some disadvantages. The From a service provider’s point of view, LTE can be
subcarriers are closely spaced making OFDM sensitive to deployed within a wide selection of spectrum ranges, which
frequency errors and phase noise. For the same reason, OFDM makes it attractive in a way that it reduces the need to buy new
is also sensitive to Doppler shift, which causes interference spectrum bands for coping additional data traffic. In this
between the subcarriers. Pure OFDM also creates high peak-to- context, if it is possible for additional data to be carried without
average signals, and that is why a modification of the increasing the spectrum licensing fees, this approach is
technology called SC-FDMA is used in the uplink. efficient in terms of utilizing the ether and also provides
financial savings. Sophisticated modulation (e.g. 128-QAM)
B. Uplink and Turbo coding can be used to achieve this, where service
The high peak-to-average ratio (PAR) associated with providers only need to upgrade the software infrastructure of
OFDM led 3GPP to look for a different transmission scheme the software defined radio (SDR) for LTE. This process makes
for the LTE uplink. SC-FDMA was chosen because it it more spectrally efficient than the other technologies.
combines the low PAR techniques of single-carrier
transmission systems, such as GSM and CDMA, with the From the network architecture point of view, recent years
multi-path resistance and flexible frequency allocation of have shown increasing research interest in Cloud Radio Access
OFDMA. A brief description of SC-FDMA is as follows: data Network (CRAN) [8-10]. Such approach changes the
symbols in the time domain are converted to the frequency traditional cellular access network’s architecture by taking
domain using a discrete Fourier transform (DFT); then in the advantage of cloud computing, SDR and advance antenna
frequency domain they are mapped to the desired location in techniques. Some base station functionalities could be
the overall channel bandwidth before being converted back to virtualized and pulled back to the ‘cloud’ where resources can
the time domain using an inverse FFT (IFFT). Finally, the CP be shared as a pool. Remote radio units which are decoupled
is inserted. Because SC-FDMA uses this technique, it is from the base station can be distributed geographically to
sometimes called discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM or provide the required coverage.
(DFT-SOFDM). CRAN is envisaged to have capability to reduce the RAN
upgrading cost for network operators which leads to reduction
on CAPEX and OPEX. It can also enhance the performance of

397
MIMO and Cooperative Multipoint (CoMP) by improved BS technologies to provide higher bandwidth utilization with
cooperation via centralized processing. The centralized and improved QoS and flexible use of frequency bands. However,
virtualized resource pool supports multi standards and allows the QoS requirements of mobile services are likely to increase
radio resource being shared by different radio access in time, and the need for resilient and reliable services is hence
technologies (RATs) to improve the overall spectrum becoming eminent.
efficiency and flexibility [10-12]. CRAN is also regarded as
one of the key technologies supporting energy efficiency In LTE, there are currently few active research areas where
strategies. Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is applied at the IP
level to improve the performance of the shared transport
The challenges of the CRAN architecture lie in several channels and to reduce the operating costs and the resource
areas, such as high computational requirements for the base availability [16-17].
station virtualization, I/O throughput and the timing and
synchronization etc. In order to maximize the benefits of Recent studies have tackled the network capacity and
CRAN, these challenges will need to be addressed. optimization of data-transfer speed by applying protocols such
as MPLS on the IP levels and on the backhaul part of networks
B. Multihop Wireless Networks to enhance the network performance [18-19]. More studies are
The conventional infrastructure cellular networks (e.g. LTE needed to look further into issues related to the LTE network
or LTE-A) are expected to their capacity limits especially when resilient and reliability of infrastructure especially during
all mobile services including voice will be migrated to packet increased demand, catastrophic network failures, or during
based. The concept of decentralization multihop networks can natural disasters.
be deployed to reduce the dependence on fixed infrastructures VII. CONCLUSION
and increase the overall spectral efficiency and capacity. The
aim of this decentralized multihop approach is to move some In this paper an overview of the LTE and LTE-A is
services of the handsets’ or nodes’ communications towards a provided. The overview focused on the LTE requirements and
distributed peer-to-peer [12-14]. targets, time line for the LTE deployment, multiple access
technology in LTE, MIMO, and the proposed research areas.
The heterogeneous wireless multihop network is envisaged The paper also discusses few potential new research areas
to have handsets as intelligent intermediate nodes that capable covering cloud radio access network, Multihop wireless
to self-organize and cognitive radio (CR). The CR is used in networks, and Resilience and reliability of LTE with MPLS.
conjunction with SDR with intelligent environment-aware
algorithms to improve the spectrum utilization, communication REFERENCES
efficiency and system capacity. It can also perform wiser [1] H. Ekström, A. Furuskär, J. Karlsson, M. Meyer, S. Parkvall, J. Torsner,
autonomous decision making for radio resource allocation and M. Wahlqvist, “Technical Solutions for the 3G Long-Term
[12,14]. This means there are possibilities to cooperate between Evolution,” IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 44, no. 3, March 2006, pp. 38–45
different intelligent relays with other wireless frequency and [2] 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP); Technical Specification
reuse the relay slots from different wireless technologies, i.e. Group Radio Access Network; Physical Layer Aspects for Evolved
UTRA, http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-info/25814.htm
nodes can transmit to different mobiles at the same time using
different frequency relay slots. Reusing other relay slots would [3] M. Danish Nisar, Hans Nottensteiner, and Thomas Hindelang, “On
Performance Limits of DFT-Spread OFDM Systems”, in Sixteenth IST
significantly increase the overall system throughput. Mobile Summit, July 2007 in Budapest, Hungary.
The MIMO multihop communication technique has also [4] B.E. Priyanto, H. Codina, S. Rene, T.B. Sorensen, P. Mogensen, “Initial
become vast interest for decentralized heterogeneous wireless Performance Evaluation of DFT-Spread OFDM Based SC-FDMA for
UTRA LTE Uplink”, IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC)
network in the recent years, in the case of single antennas then 2007 Spring, Dublin, Ireland, Apr. 2007
cooperative MIMO is used. The cooperative MIMO is [5] Hyung G. Myung, Junsung Lim, and David J. Goodman, “Single Carrier
particularly suitable for the mobile nodes with single antenna in FDMA for Uplink Wireless Transmission”, IEEE Vehicular Technology
the distributed clustered system where the nearby mobiles can Magazine, vol. 1, no. 3, Sep. 2006, pp. 30–38
cooperate and form virtual antenna arrays [14,15]. By combing [6] Parkvall, Erik Dahlman, Anders Furuskär et al; Ericsson, Robert Syputa,
the CR and clustering concepts, the MIMO multihop Maravedis;“ITU global standard for IMT-Advanced; LTE Advanced –
communication can certainly improve the reliability, Evolving LTE” Vehicular Technology Conference, 2008. VTC 2008-
Fall. IEEE 68th 21-24 Sept. 2008 Page(s):1 - 5.
throughput and coverage; however it is difficult to retrieve
[7] Arief Gunawan, “LTE Technology, Challenge, and Business”,
accurate information about neighboring nodes and also difficult Technical Seminar, Sharjah, 18 January, 2010
to identify the most suitable nodes to communicate with
[8] Huawei, “Cloud RAN – A Key Enabling Technology for NG-RAN”,
particular nodes or cluster heads. China Mobile Lab, April 2010
The decentralization multihop approaches opens new [9] H Harada, “Wireless Cloud Computing and Cognitive Wireless Cloud”,
The 3rd EU-Japan Symposium on the "Future Internet”, Oct. 2010
challenges in several areas, including seamless cooperation
between heterogeneous nodes and base stations, CR based [10] Y Lin, L Shao, Z Zhu, Q Wang, R K Sabhikhi, “Wireless network cloud:
Architecture and system requirements”, IBM Journal of Research and
routing strategies, localization, clustering, interference Development, January-February 2010
management, synchronization and self-organizing in MIMO. [11] H Harada, “Cognitive Wireless Cloud: A Network Concept to Handle
Heterogeneous and Spectrum Sharing Type Radio Access Networks”
C. Resilience and reliability of LTE with MPLS IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio
The core of LTE networks will integrate with different Communications, Sept 2010
wireless access technologies and consolidate different radio

398
[12] S Liu, J Wu, “The Way Forward to the Next Generation Radio Access
Network beyond IMT-Advanced: Potential Technologies and Overall
Framework”, IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and
Mobile Radio Communications, Sept 2010
[13] M Peng, W Wang, “Investigation of Cooperative Relay Node Selection
in Heterogeneous Wireless Communication Systems”, IEEE
International Conference on Communications Workshops, May 2008
[14] B Zafar, D Schulz, S Gherekhloo, M Haardt, “Ad Hoc Networking
Solutions: Cooperative MIMO Multihop Networks”, IEEE Vehicular
Technology Magazine, March 2011
[15] D Gündüz, M Khojastepour, A Goldsmith, and H V Poor, “Multi-Hop
MIMO Relay Networks: Diversity-Multiplexing Trade-off Analysis”,
IEEE Transaction on Wireless Communications, May 2010
[16] White paper: "MMBI White Paper on Use of MPLS in LTE", Broadband
Forum Marketing Report MR-238, Issue 1. February 2010.
[17] A Ronai, "LTE Ready Mobile Backhaul", Cargon Networks report,
2009.
[18] White paper: "Use of MPLS in mobile backhaul networks", Broadband
Forum report, 2010.
[19] NEC, "Mobile Backhaul Evolution and Convergence", E-Seminar White
Paper, 2010

399