PDCCH Processing

NCHU CSE LTE - 1

PDCCH Processing
A CRC is attached to each DCI message payload.
The identity of the terminal (or terminals) addressed
the Radio-Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) is
included in the CRC calculation.

After CRC attachment, the bits are coded with a rate-

1/3 tail-biting convolutional code and rate matched to
fit the amount of resources used for PDCCH
transmission.
Tail-biting convolutional coding is similar to conventional
convolutional coding with the exception that no tail bits are
used.

NCHU CSE LTE - 2

PDCCH Processing
The sequence of bits corresponding to all the PDCCH
resource elements to be transmitted in the subframe
including the unused resource elements, is scrambled by a
cell- and subframe-specific scrambling sequence to
randomize inter-cell interference, followed by QPSK
modulation and mapping to resource elements.
This structure is based on Control-Channel
Elements (CCEs), which in essence is a convenient
name for a set of 36 useful resource elements (nine
resource-element groups).
The number of CCEs, one, two, four, or eight,
required depends on the payload size of the control
information (DCI payload) and the channel-coding
rate.

NCHU CSE LTE - 3

PDCCH Processing
The number of CCEs depends on
the size of the control region
the cell bandwidth
the number of downlink antenna ports
the amount of resources occupied by PHICH
The size of the control region can vary dynamically from
subframe to subframe as indicated by the PCFICH.
A specific PDCCH can be identified by the numbers of the
corresponding CCEs in the control region.

NCHU CSE LTE - 4

PDCCH Processing
As the number of CCEs may vary and is not signaled, the
terminal has to blindly determine the number of CCEs used for
the PDCCH it is addressed upon.
The sequence of CCEs should match the amount of resources
available in a given subframe - the number of CCEs varies
according to the value transmitted on the PCFICH

NCHU CSE LTE - 5

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
Each PDCCH supports multiple formats and the
format used is a priori unknown to the terminal.
The terminal needs to blindly detect the format of the
PDCCHs.
In each subframe, the terminals will attempt to
decode all the PDCCHs that can be formed from the
CCEs in each of its search spaces.

NCHU CSE LTE - 6

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
It is required to have mechanisms to limit the CCE
aggregations that the terminal is supposed to
monitor.

From a scheduling point of view: these restrictions in

the allowed CCE aggregations are undesirable as
they may influence the scheduling flexibility and
require additional processing at the transmitter side.

From a terminal-complexity point of view: the terminal

to monitor all possible CCE aggregations, also for the
larger cell bandwidths, is not attractive.

NCHU CSE LTE - 7

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
To impose as few restrictions as possible on the
scheduler while at the same time limit the maximum
number of blind decoding attempts in the terminal.
LTE defines search spaces, which describe the set
of CCEs the terminal is supposed to monitor for
scheduling assignments/ grants relating to a certain
component carrier.
A search space is a set of candidate control channels
formed by CCEs on a given aggregation level, which
the terminal is supposed to attempt to decode.
For multiple aggregation levels, corresponding to one, two,
four, and eight CCEs, a terminal has multiple search spaces.

NCHU CSE LTE - 8

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
The terminals will attempt to decode all the PDCCHs
that can be formed from the CCEs in each of its
search spaces.

NCHU CSE LTE - 9

Example
1. Terminal A in cannot be addressed on a PDCCH
starting at CCE number 20, whereas terminal B can.
2. If terminal A is using CCEs 1623, terminal B
cannot be addressed on aggregation level 4 as all
CCEs in its level-4 search space are blocked by the
use for the other terminals.
each terminal in the system has a terminal-specific search
space at each aggregation level.
3. The terminal-specific search spaces partially overlap
between the two terminals in this subframe (CCEs
2431 on aggregation level 8) but, as the terminal-
specific search space varies between subframes,
the overlap in the next subframe is most likely
different.

NCHU CSE LTE - 10

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
LTE has also defined common search spaces.
all terminals in the cell monitor the CCEs for control
information.

It is primarily transmission of various system

messages, it can be used to schedule individual
terminals as well.

Also, it can be used to resolve situations where

scheduling of one terminal is blocked due to lack of
available resources in the terminal-specific search
space.

NCHU CSE LTE - 11

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
The common search spaces are only defined for
aggregation levels of four and eight CCEs and only
for the smallest DCI formats, 0/1A/3/3A and 1C.
(Table 10-4)
Without support for DCI formats with spatial multiplexing in
the common search space.

As the main function of the common search space is

to handle scheduling of system information intended
for multiple terminals, and such information must be
receivable by all terminals in the cell.
scheduling is used the common search space.

NCHU CSE LTE - 12

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
The downlink DCI formats to decode in the terminal-
specific search space depend on the transmission
mode configured for the terminal.
The DCI monitoring is described for the case of a
single component carrier.

NCHU CSE LTE - 13

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
For multiple component carriers, the above
procedures are applied in principle to each of the
activated downlink component carriers. (Ch 12)

There is one UE-specific search space per

aggregation level and per (activated) component
carrier upon which PDSCH can be received (or
PUSCH transmitted), although there are some
carrier-aggregation-specific modifications.

UE-specific search space per aggregation level and

component carrier used for the PDSCH/PUSCH.

NCHU CSE LTE - 14

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
Where PDSCH/PUSCH transmissions on component
carrier 1 are scheduled using PDCCHs transmitted
on component carrier 1.
For component carrier 2, a carrier indicator is
assumed in the UE-specific search space as
component carrier 2 is cross-carrier scheduled from
PDCCHs transmitted on component carrier 1.

NCHU CSE LTE - 15

Blind Decoding of PDCCHs
For component carriers 3 and 4, the terminal will
handle the two search spaces independently,
assuming (in this example) a carrier indicator for
component carrier 4 but not for component carrier 3.

If the UE-specific and common search spaces

relating to different component carriers happen to
overlap for some aggregation level when cross-
carrier scheduling is configured, the terminal only
needs to monitor the common search space.

NCHU CSE LTE - 16

Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH)
The PHICH is used to transmit the hybrid-ARQ
acknowledgements in response to UL-SCH
transmission.

The hybrid-ARQ acknowledgement (one single bit of

information per transport block) is repeated three
times, followed by BPSK modulation on either the I or
the Q branch and spreading with a length-four
orthogonal sequence.

NCHU CSE LTE - 17

PHICH
Multiple PHICHs mapped to the same set of
resource elements constitute a PHICH group,
where PHICHs within the same PHICH group are
separated through different orthogonal sequences.
Sequence index Orthogonal sequence
seq
nPHICH Normal cyclic prefix Extended cyclic prefix
PHICH
N SF =4 PHICH
N SF =2
0 [+ 1 + 1 + 1 + 1] [+ 1 + 1]
1 [+ 1 1 + 1 1] [+ 1 1]
2 [+ 1 + 1 1 1] [+ j + j]
3 [+ 1 1 1 + 1] [+ j j]
4 [+ j + j + j + j] -

5 [+ j j + j j] -

6 [+ j + j j j] -

7 [+ j j j + j] -

NCHU CSE LTE - 18

 PHICH
PHICH duration in MBSFN and non-MBSFN
subframes

Non-MBSFN subframes MBSFN subframes

PHICH duration Subframes 1 and 6 in case of All other cases On a carrier supporting
frame structure type 2 both PDSCH and PMCH
Normal 1 1 1

Extended 2 3 2

NCHU CSE LTE - 19

PHICH
After forming the composite signal representing the PHICHs in a
group, cell-specific scrambling is applied and the 12 scrambled
symbols are mapped to three resource-element groups.
separated by approximately one-third of the downlink cell
bandwidth.
In the first OFDM symbol in the control region, resources are first
allocated to the PCFICH, the PHICHs are mapped to resource
elements not used by the PCFICH

NCHU CSE LTE - 20

PHICH
In LTE, each downlink subframe is normally divided
into a control region, and a data region, consisting of
the remaining part of the subframe.
control region consisting of the first few OFDM symbols,
The control region carries L1/L2 signaling necessary
to control uplink and downlink data transmissions.

NCHU CSE LTE - 21

PCFICH
The PCFICH indicates the size of the control region
in terms of the number of OFDM symbols that is,
indirectly where in the subframe the data region
starts.
If PCFICH is incorrectly decoded,
neither know how to process the control channels nor where
the data region starts for the corresponding subframe.
Two bits of information (32-bit codeword),
corresponds to the three control-region sizes of one,
two, or three OFDM symbols.

NCHU CSE LTE - 22

PCFICH
The coded bits are scrambled with a cell- and
subframe-specific scrambling code to randomize
inter-cell interference, QPSK modulated, and mapped
to 16 resource elements.

NCHU CSE LTE - 23

PCFICH
The mapping of resource elements in the first OFDM
symbol in the subframe is done in groups of four
resource elements (resource-element groups) and
separated in different frequencies.
a symbol quadruplet consisting of four (QPSK) symbols is mapped.

Transmit diversity for four antenna ports is specified

in terms of groups of four symbols (resource
elements).

To avoid collisions in neighboring cells, the location of

the four groups in the frequency domain depends on
the physical-layer cell identity.

NCHU CSE LTE - 24

PCFICH
In first OFDM symbol; there are two resource
element groups per resource block, as every third
resource element is reserved for reference signals (or
non-used resource elements corresponding to
reference symbols on the other antenna port).

NCHU CSE LTE - 25

PCFICH
In second OFDM symbol; (if part of the control
region) there are two or three resource-element
groups depending on the number of antenna ports
configured.
In third OFDM symbol (if part of the control region)
there are always three resource-element groups per
resource block.

NCHU CSE LTE - 26

PCFICH
The four resource-element groups are separated by
one-fourth of the downlink cell bandwidth in the
frequency domain, with the starting position given by
physical-layer cell identity.
16 QPSK symbols are used for the transmission of four
resource-element groups

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Common Control Physical Channel (CCPCH)

CCPCH carries cell-wide control information.

Like the PDCCH, robustness rather than maximum
data rate is the chief consideration.
QPSK is therefore the only available modulation
format.
CCPCH is transmitted as close to the center
frequency as possible. CCPCH is transmitted
exclusively on the 72 active subcarriers (=6 PRBs)
centered on the DC subcarrier.
Control information is mapped to resource elements
(k, l) where k refers to the OFDM symbol (0..5/6)
within the slot and l refers to the subcarrier.

NCHU CSE LTE - 28

Downlink L1/L2 Control Signaling
Downlink control signaling supports the transmission
of downlink and uplink transport channels.
the corresponding information partly originates from the
physical layer (Layer 1) and partly from Layer 2 MAC.
Downlink L1/L2 control signaling consists of downlink
scheduling assignments, including
information required for the terminal to be able to properly
receive,
demodulate,
decode the DL-SCH on a component carrier, uplink
scheduling grants informing the terminal about the resources
transport format to use for uplink (UL-SCH) transmission
hybrid-ARQ acknowledgements in response to UL-SCH
transmissions.

NCHU CSE LTE - 29

Downlink L1/L2 Control Signaling
The downlink L1/L2 control signaling is transmitted
within the first part of each subframe.

Each subframe can be divided into a control region

followed by a data region, where the control region
corresponds to the part of the subframe in which the
L1/L2control signaling is transmitted.

NCHU CSE LTE - 30

Downlink L1/L2 Control Signaling
The control signaling can be dynamically adjusted
radio resources to match the instantaneous traffic
situation.
For example, a small number of users being scheduled in a
subframe, the required amount of control signaling is small
and a larger part of the subframe can be used for data
transmission.
The downlink L1/L2 control signaling consists of four
different physical-channel types:
PCFICH, informing the terminal about the size of the
control region (one, two, or three OFDM symbols).
There is one and only one PCFICH on each component
carrier or, equivalently, in each cell.

NCHU CSE LTE - 31

Downlink L1/L2 Control Signaling
PDCCH carries signal downlink scheduling
assignments and uplink scheduling grants.
Each PDCCH carries signaling for a single terminal, but can
also be used to address a group of terminals.
Multiple PDCCHs can exist in each cell.
PHICH, used to signal hybrid-ARQ
acknowledgements in response to uplink UL-SCH
transmissions.
Multiple PHICHs can exist in each cell.
R-PDCCH (Relay Physical Downlink Control Channel), used
for relaying.
the R-PDCCH is not transmitted in the control region.

NCHU CSE LTE - 32

Downlink Scheduling Assignment
Downlink scheduling assignments are valid for the same
subframe in which they are transmitted.
The scheduling assignments use one of the DCI formats 1, 1A,
1B, 1C, 1D, 2, 2A, 2B, or 2C and the DCI formats used depend
on the transmission mode configured

NCHU CSE LTE - 33

Uplink
The principle advantage of SC-FDMA over
conventional OFDM is a lower PAPR (by
approximately 2 dB) than would otherwise be
possible using OFDM.
Data is mapped onto a signal constellation that can
be QPSK, 16QAM, or 64QAM depending on channel
quality.

NCHU CSE LTE - 34

Uplink Physical Channels
Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)
Resources for the PUSCH are allocated on a sub-frame basis by
the UL scheduler.
Subcarriers are allocated in multiples of 12 (PRBs) and may be
hopped from sub-frame to sub-frame.
The PUSCH may employ QPSK, 16QAM or 64QAM modulation.
CRC insertion: 24 bit CRC
Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH)
It is never transmitted simultaneously with PUSCH data.
For frame structure type 2, the PUCCH is not transmitted in the
UpPTS field.
PUCCH conveys control information including channel quality
indication (CQI), ACK/NACK, HARQ and uplink scheduling requests
(SR).
The PUCCH transmission is frequency hopped at the slot
boundary

NCHU CSE LTE - 35

PUSCH
The baseband signal representing the physical uplink
shared channel is defined in terms of the following
steps:
scrambling
modulation of scrambled bits to generate complex-valued
symbols
transform precoding to generate complex-valued symbols
mapping of complex-valued symbols to resource elements
generation of complex-valued time-domain SC-FDMA signal
for each antenna port

Modulation Transform Resource SC-FDMA

Scrambling element mapper
mapper precoder signal gen.

NCHU CSE LTE - 37

PUCCH
The physical uplink control channel supports multiple
formats.
Formats 2a and 2b are supported for normal cyclic
prefix only.
PUCCH Modulation Number of bits per
format scheme subframe, M bit

1 N/A N/A

1a BPSK 1

1b QPSK 2

2 QPSK 20

2a QPSK+BPSK 21

2b QPSK+QPSK 22

NCHU CSE LTE - 38

Uplink Physical Signals

Uplink physical signals are used within the PHY and

do not convey information from higher layers.
Two types of UL physical signals are defined:
Demodulation reference signal, associated with
transmission of PUSCH or PUCCH
Sounding reference signal, not associated with
transmission of PUSCH or PUCCH

NCHU CSE LTE - 39

Uplink Reference Signals

The demodulation signal facilitates coherent

demodulation.
It is transmitted in the fourth SC-FDMA symbol of
the slot and is the same size as the assigned
resource.
There is also a sounding reference signal used to
facilitate frequency dependent scheduling.
Both variants of the UL reference signal are based on
Zadhoff-Chu sequences.

NCHU CSE LTE - 40

Downlink Channel Coding

Different coding algorithms are employed for the DL

physical channels.
The PDSCH uses up to 64-QAM modulation. Rate
1/3 turbo coding has been selected for the PDSCH.

For the common control channel (CCPCH),

modulation is restricted to QPSK.
For control channels, coverage is the paramount
requirement.
Convolutional coding has been selected for use with
the CCPCH, though a final determination regarding
code rate has not yet been made.

NCHU CSE LTE - 43

Channel Coding and Interleaving

Channel coding scheme for transport blocks

Turbo Coding with a coding rate of R=1/3,
Two 8-state constituent encoders and
A contention-free quadratic permutation
polynomial (QPP) turbo code internal interleaver.
Maximum information block size of 6144 bits
Error detection is supported by the use of 24-
bit CRC

NCHU CSE LTE - 44

 Channel Coding
Usage of channel coding scheme and coding rate for TrCHs
TrCH Coding scheme Coding rate

UL-SCH

DL-SCH
Turbo coding 1/3
PCH

MCH

Tail biting
BCH convolutional 1/3
coding

Usage of channel coding scheme and coding rate for control information
Control Information Coding scheme Coding rate

Tail biting
DCI convolutional 1/3
coding

CFI Block code 1/16

HI Repetition code 1/3

Block code variable

Tail biting
UCI
convolutional 1/3
coding
NCHU CSE LTE - 45
 Channel Coding
Channel coding for DL-SCH (as well as for PCH and
MCH) is based on Turbo coding.
The encoding consists of two rate-1/2, eight-state
constituent encoders, implying an overall code rate of
1/3, in combination with QPP-based interleaving.

QPP : Quadrature Permutation Polynomial. NCHU CSE LTE - 46

Channel Coding
The QPP interleaver provides a mapping from the input (non-
interleaved) bits to the output (interleaved) bits according to the
function:

i is the index of the bit at the output of the interleaver,

c(i) is the index of the same bit at the input of the interleaver,
K is the code-block/interleaver size.
The values of the parameters f1 and f2 depend on the code-block
size K.
The range of code-block sizes is from a minimum of 40 bits to a
maximum of 6144 bits, together with the associated values for
the parameters f1 and f2.

NCHU CSE LTE - 47

Downlink Physical-Layer Processing (10)
LTE downlink, there are four different types of
transport channels defined,
the Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH),
the Multicast Channel (MCH),
the Paging Channel (PCH),
the Broadcast Channel (BCH).
DL-SCH is mapping to the resource elements of the
OFDM timefrequency grid.
DL-SCH is used for transmission user data and
dedicated control information, as well as part of the
downlink system information.
The DL-SCH physical-layer processing is to a large
extent applicable also to MCH and PCH transport
channels, although with some additional constraints.
NCHU CSE LTE - 48
Processing Steps
Within each Transmission Time Interval (TTI), corresponding to
one subframe of length 1 ms, up to two transport blocks of
dynamic size are delivered to the physical layer and transmitted
over the radio interface for each component carrier.

NCHU CSE LTE - 49

Processing Steps
In the case of no spatial multiplexing there is at most
a single transport block in a TTI.
In the case of spatial multiplexing, with transmission
on multiple layers in parallel to the same terminal,
there are two transport blocks within a TTI.
CRC Insertion Per Transport Block
a 24-bit CRC is calculated for and appended to each
transport block.

NCHU CSE LTE - 50

Code-Block Segmentation and Per-Code-
Block CRC Insertion
The LTE Turbo-coder internal interleaver is only
defined a maximum block size of 6144 bits.
If the transport block, including the transport-block CRC,
exceeds this maximum code-block size, code-block
segmentation, is applied before the Turbo coding.

Code-block segmentation implies that the transport

block is segmented into smaller code blocks.
matching the set of code-block sizes supported by the Turbo
coder.
the specification includes the possibility to insert dummy
filler bits at the head of the first code block.

NCHU CSE LTE - 51

Code-Block Segmentation and Per-Code-
Block CRC Insertion
Transport block implies that an CRC is calculated for
and appended to rear.
CRC is small for the transport block.
The code block also adds additional error-detection
capabilities (using CRC) and thus further reduces the
risk for undetected errors in the code block.

NCHU CSE LTE - 52

Localized and Distributed Resource Mapping
In some cases downlink channel-dependent
scheduling is not suitable to use or is not practically
possible:
For low-rate services such as voice and the feedback
signaling may lead to extensive relative overhead.
At high, it may be difficult to track the instantaneous channel
conditions to the accuracy required for channel-dependent
scheduling to be efficient.

LTE allows for such distributed resource-block

allocation by resource allocation types 0 and 1

NCHU CSE LTE - 53

Distributed Resource-Block Allocation
Drawbacks:
For types 0 and 1, the minimum size of the allocated
resource can be as large as four resource-block pairs and
may thus not be suitable when resource allocations of
smaller sizes are needed.
Both these resource-allocation methods are associated with
a relatively large PDCCH payload.
Resource-allocation type 2 always allows for the
allocation of a single resource-block pair and is also
associated with a relatively small PDCCH payload
size.
Only allows for the allocation of resource blocks that are
contiguous in the frequency domain.

NCHU CSE LTE - 54

Virtual Resource Block (VRB)
A Virtual Resource Block (VRB) has used in
distributed resource-block allocation
In resource-allocation type 2 and in a single resource block
pair.
The key to distributed transmission then lies in the
mapping from VRB pairs to Physical Resource
Block (PRB) pairs that is, to the actual physical
resource used for transmission.
Two types of VRBs:
1. Localized VRBs : there is a direct mapping from VRB pairs to
PRB pairs

NCHU CSE LTE - 55

Distributed VRBs
2. Distributed VRBs :
Consecutive VRBs are not mapped to PRBs that are
consecutive in the frequency domain;
This provides frequency diversity between consecutive VRB
pairs.
Even a single VRB pair is distributed in the frequency domain.
A. The spreading in the frequency domain is done by
means of a block-based interleaver operating on
resource-block pairs.

NCHU CSE LTE - 56

Distributed VRBs
B. A split of each resource-block pair such that the two
resource blocks of the resource-block pair are
transmitted with a certain frequency gap in between.
This also provides frequency diversity for a single VRB
pair. This step can be seen as the introduction of frequency
hopping on a slot basis.
Whether the VRBs are localized or distributed is
indicated on the associated PDCCH in type 2
resource allocation.
dynamically switch between distributed and localized
transmission and also mix distributed and localized
transmission for different terminals within the same
subframe.

NCHU CSE LTE - 57

Distributed VRBs
The exact size of the frequency gap depends on the
overall downlink cell bandwidth according to Table
10.1.
Based on two criteria:
1. The gap should be of the order of half the downlink
cell bandwidth in order to provide good frequency
diversity also in a single VRB pair.
2. The gap should be a multiple of P2, where P is the
size of a resource-block group and used for resource
allocation types 0 and 1.
1.This constraint is to ensure a smooth coexistence in the
same subframe between distributed transmission as
described above and transmissions based on downlink
allocation types 0 and 1.

NCHU CSE LTE - 58

Distributed VRBs

NCHU CSE LTE - 59