EPS Network Architecture

• In the evolution of core network, packet domain of core network also evolves forward
to SAE(System Architecture Evolution, also usually called EPC(Evolved Packet Core).
• EPC is based on Packet Domain, and does not support Circuit Domain any longer.

EPS
GERAN/ CS CN
E-UTRAN EPC
UTRAN PS CN
“LTE” “SAE”

PCRF
S6a
S1-C User Plane
HSS
Rx Control Plane
Uu
X2 MME
S11 Gx
S1-C
S1-U
S5 SGi Operator’s
S1-U IP Service

UE E-UTRAN EPC SGW PDN-GW

Introduction of LTE Radio Protocol Stack
Two Planes in LTE Radio Protocol: Main Functions of Control-plane:
 User-plane: For user data transfer
 RLC and MAC layers perform the same functions as
for the user plane
 Control-plane: For system signaling transfer  PDCP layer performs ciphering and integrity
protection
 RRC layer performs broadcast, paging, connection
• Main Functions of User-plane: management, RB control, mobility functions, UE
• Header Compression measurement reporting and control
• Ciphering  NAS layer performs EPS bearer management,
• Scheduling
authentication, security control
• ARQ/HARQ

User-plane protocol stack Control-plane protocol stack

LTE Frame Structure Type1-FDD
• Time duration for one frame (One radio frame, One system frame) is 10 ms. This means that
we have 100 radio frame per second.
• Number of subframe in one frame is 10.
• Number of slots in one subframe is 2. This means that we have 20 slots within one frame.
• The number of samples in one radio frame (10 ms) is 307200 (307.200 K) samples. This means
that the number of samples per second is 307200 x 100 = 30.72 M samples.

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LTE Resource
RE (Resource Element)
Block Conception
 Minimum unit in physical resource
 Two dimensional domain: Time Domain: 1 Symbol; Frequency Domain: 1
Subcarrier
RB （ Resource Block ）
 Minimum unit for resource allocation used for data transmission in physical
lay
 Two dimensional domain: Time Domain: 1 Slot; Frequency Domain: 12
Subcarriers
TTI (Transmission Time Interval)
 Basic unit in time domain when scheduling data in physical lay
 1 TTI = 1 subframe = 2 slots
 1 TTI = 14 OFDM symbols(Normal CP)
 1 TTI = 12 OFDM symbols (Extended CP)

Channel bandwidth BWChannel [MHz] 1.4 3 5 10 15 20

Sub-carriers Number 72 180 300 600 900 1200
RB Number 6 15 25 50 75 100
Brief Introduction of Physical Channels
Downlink Channels ：
 Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH): Carries system information for cell search, such as cell ID.
 Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) : Carriers information of the OFDM symbols number used for the PDCCH.
 Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) : Carries Hybrid ARQ ACK/NACK in response to uplink transmissions.
 Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) :
Carries the resource allocation of PCH and DL-
SCH, and Hybrid ARQ information.
 Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) :
Carries the downlink user data.
 Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH) : Carries the
multicast information.

Uplink Channels ：
 Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) :
Carries the random access preamble.
 Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) : Carries
the uplink user data.
 Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) : Carries
the HARQ ACK/NACK, Scheduling Request (SR)
and Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), etc. Physical channel

LTE Resource: http://dhagle.in/LTE

Physical Signals Classification

Physical
Signals

Synchronization Reference
Signals Signals

PSS SSS DL RS UL RS
Synchronization Signal
Synchronization Signal:
 synchronization signals are used for time-frequency synchronization between UE and E-UTRAN during cell
search.
 synchronization signal comprise two parts:
 Primary Synchronization Signal, used for symbol timing, frequency synchronization and part of the cell ID
detection.
 Secondary Synchronization Signal, used for detection of radio frame timing, CP length and cell group ID.
Characteristics:
 The bandwidth of the synchronization
signal is 62 subcarrier, locating in the
central part of system bandwidth,
regardless of system bandwidth size.
 Synchronization signals are transmitted
only in the 1st and 11rd slots of every
10ms frame.
 The primary synchronization signal is
located in the last symbol of the transmit
slot. The secondary synchronization
signal is located in the 2nd last symbol of
Synchronization Signals Structure (FDD)
the transmit slot.
Reference Signals
• Reference signal is a special data sequence which is located at specific location (resource
elements) in DL/UL frame which is supposed to be decoded by UE/eNodeB and taken as a
signal for RSRP, RSRQ.

• Cell Specific Reference Signals (non-MBSFN) CRS

DLR
• MBSFN Reference Signals(only for MBSFN)
S

• UE Specific Reference Signals (It is typically used for beamforming)

• Demodulation Reference Signal

Used for channel estimation to help the demodulation of the control and DMRS
UL data channels in the eNB.
RS • Sounding Reference Signal
Provides the eNB with uplink channel quality information(CQI) which canSRS
be used for scheduling.

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 DL RS — CRS
Downlink RS (Reference Signal):
One Antenna Port  Similar with Pilot signal of CDMA. Used for downlink physical channel
demodulation and channel quality measurement (CQI)
Cell-Specific RS  Three types of RS in protocol. Cell-Specific Reference Signal is essential
Mapping in Time- and the other two types RS (MBSFN Specific RS & UE-Specific RS) are
Frequency Domain optional.
Characteristics:
 Cell-Specific Reference Signals are generated from cell-specific
RE RS sequence and frequency shift mapping. RS is the pseudo-
Two Antenna Ports

random sequence transmits in the time-frequency domain.

Not used for RS
transmission on this
 The frequency interval of RS is 6 subcarriers.
antenna port  RS distributes discretely in the time-frequency domain,
RS symbols on this sampling the channel situation which is the reference of DL
antenna port
demodulation.
 Serried RS distribution leads to accurate channel estimation,
also high overhead that impacting the system capacity.
Four Antenna Ports

R1: RS transmitted in 1st ant port

R2: RS transmitted in 2nd ant port
R3: RS transmitted in 3rd ant port
R4: RS transmitted in 4th ant port

MBSFN: Multicast/Broadcast over a

Single Frequency Network

Antenna Port 0 Antenna Port 1 Antenna Port 2 Antenna Port 3

Cell Search Procedure
• Slot synchronization
PSS
decoding

• Frame synchronization
SSS • Obtain PCI
decoding

RS • RSRP/RSRQ
measurem
ent

• MIB&SIB reception
BCCH
decoding

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