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Nokia CA-A PDF
Nokia CA-A PDF
Nokia Networks
LTE-Advanced
The advanced LTE toolbox for more efficient delivery
of better user experience
White Paper
1. Overview 3
1.1 LTE-Advanced, the evolution of LTE 3
1.2 Status of LTE-A (as of October 2013) 3
2. Drivers 4
3. The LTE-A toolbox 5
3.1 Overview 5
3.2 Carrier Aggregation 5
3.3 Advanced MIMO schemes 8
3.4Coordinated multipoint transmission 11
and reception
3.5 Relay Nodes 13
3.6 Heterogeneous Networks 14
3.7Self Organizing Network and network 16
architecture evolution with LTE-A
3.8 Outlook 16
4. Summary 19
Page 2 networks.nokia.com
1. Overview
1.1 LTE-Advanced, the evolution of LTE
The introduction of LTE was driven by the industrys quest for a
more efficient technology that could help deliver ever faster mobile
broadband services. In comparison with basic HSPA networks, LTE
delivered this enhancement by offering the state of the art combination
of new air interface base technology (OFDMA/SC-FDMA), greater
flexibility for utilizing spectrum like for example support of 20MHz bands
and TD-LTE for using unpaired spectrum, as well as a toolbox to support
further enhancements like MIMO and Higher Order Modulation. In fact,
a similar toolbox has been applied to HSPA for facilitating a seamless
evolution to HSPA+.
At the same time, we continue to witness exponential growth in mobile
broadband traffic; thereby necessitating further enhancement in the
overall efficiency, with a view to deliver faster mobile broadband services
to a constantly increasing user base. LTE-Advanced abbreviated
as LTE-A has primarily been conceptualized to address both the
aforementioned demands.
LTE-A marks the evolution of LTE; it continues to deploy the air interface
base technology of LTE which provides highest efficiency and a smooth
evolution in the deployment of the existing LTE ecosystem towards
LTE-A. It allows operators to deploy larger bands than 20MHz in
particular by carrier aggregation, while also enabling an advanced toolbox
with advanced MIMO schemes and totally new features like Relaying.
Moreover, it is fully backwards compatible with the earlier LTE releases,
implying that legacy devices can operate in LTE-A networks but may not
necessarily benefit from all the new features of LTE-A. Thanks to these
advanced features, LTE makes its transition to a true 4G technology, in
accordance with the requirements of ITU for IMT-Advanced.
This paper introduces the advanced toolbox of LTE-A, including
information on new technologies, features and enhancements to
existing technologies, as well as discusses the benefits that LTE-A
provides to operators and end-users.
Page 3 networks.nokia.com
One of the main drivers of the technical enhancements and timetable
for LTE-A development has been IMT-Advanced. ITU initiated the IMT-
Advanced process to define the requirements for the next generation of
Radio Interface Technologies (RIT) that were released in a circular letter in
early 2008. Meeting the IMT-Advanced requirements has been the goal
that 3GPP has to achieve and standardization in 3GPP has progressed
well. The first LTE-Advanced specifications have been frozen in the
first half of 2011 while evaluations conducted by 3GPP contributors
and external parties have demonstrated that LTE-A meets all the IMT-
Advanced requirements. As a consequence, ITU-R has already approved
LTE-Advanced as IMT-Advanced RIT or true 4G system in November
2010. The first commercial LTE-A networks have been launched by SK
Telecom, LG U+ and KT in Korea during summer 2013. All three operators
use carrier aggregation with Nokia Networks as a supplier.
In summer 2012, the major requirements for the evolution of LTE-A
with 3GPP Rel.12 were collected in a 3GPP workshop. As of October
2013, the release content of 3GPP Rel.12 has been refined, but not yet
formally frozen.
The evolution of LTE-A with Rel.12 and beyond is subject of another
Nokia Networks whitepaper.
2. Drivers
Looking ahead, the exponential growth in data traffic is expected to
continue on the same lines owing to certain key drivers:
Increased adoption of mobile broadband Mobility
VEHECILE
LTE-A
phones, pads, booklets, netbooks...) LTE
users
FIXED
UMTS
manner which goes beyond the conventional approach of applying Figure 1: Evolution of data
one standard remedy to the capacity squeeze. Also, the laws of speeds for stationary and mobile
physics imply that conventional mobile broadband networks are use cases
approaching the theoretically achievable spectral efficiency, which in
turn implies the costs per bit/Hz. Consequently the need for higher
bandwidths and higher efficiency can only be answered by combining
several tools optimized for specific network scenarios.
This is the prime reason for using the term toolbox in this paper.
LTE-A defines a large set of tools focused on enhancing the mobile
broadband user experience, as well as reducing the costs per bit.
Page 4 networks.nokia.com
3. The LTE-A toolbox
3.1 Overview
LTE (as specified in 3GPP Releases 8 and 9) has been optimized for
conventional wide area deployment, based on macro base stations
and for dual receiver and single transmit antenna single band
terminals. Talking specifically about this basic use case, LTE-A does
not really provide significant performance improvements since no new
technologies have been found to make this feasible. Instead, the focus
has shifted to developing new features and technologies to extend
the capabilities of LTE, as well as supporting new ways of deploying
and operating networks ensuring optimal distribution of services. New
technologies of LTE-A include enhancements in uplink and downlink
multi-antenna (MIMO) technologies, coordinated multi-cell transmission
and reception (CoMP), bandwidth extension with carrier aggregation
(CA), relay nodes (RN) and heterogeneous network deployments
(Hetnet). The new technology components of LTE-A spell a host of
benefits for the CSP community: enabling performance improvements
in peak data rates, average spectrum efficiency, cell edge performance,
coverage, new ways of cost reduction in the process of deploying and
operating networks with small base stations, and with cells without fixed
transport connections.
Page 5 networks.nokia.com
even better since flexible frequency reuse can be arranged between local
area nodes to provide better inter-cell interference coordination.
LTE-Advanced
Enhance macro network performance
Heterogeneous
networks Enables focused capacity
Capacity and cell enhancement with small cells
edge performance by interference coordination
enhancements by Relaying
active interference cancelation
Figure 2: LTE-A support both: enhancing the LTE macro network and enabling the efficient
introduction of small cells
Uplink
Average UE throughput [Mbps]
30
3GPP macro #1
with 2x20MHz
20
2x2 SU-MIMO
10 for DL,
1x2 for UL
0 Dynamic trac
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 with Poisson
Oered Load [Mbps] arrival and
nite buer
Downlink Rel-8 UE case
200
Average UE throughput [Mbps]
(one CC per
UE) and LTE-A
150 UE case
(2-CCs per UE) Figure 3: Carrier Aggregation
100 1 dB power improves average cell throughput
back-o
50 assumed for UL
both in uplink and downlink due
with Tx to more efficient utilization of
on two CCs
0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
radio resources, i.e. by statistical
Oered Load [Mbps] multiplexing
Page 6 networks.nokia.com
powerful technology for effective utilization of radio resources. Carrier
Aggregations capability to improve single user throughput depends
on the number of users in a cell. The number of users is directly
proportional to the overall statistical multiplexing gain even on a single
carrier, so scheduling high number of users over multiple carriers
provides only marginal gain. However, if the number of users is low,
scheduling over multiple carriers provides significant throughput gain
since all radio resources can be allocated to the user(s) with the most
favorable radio conditions. Gain in uplink is lower than in downlink, since
the UE can not always utilize multi-carrier transmission due to limited
transmit power.
If carriers are at different frequency bands they have different
propagation losses and different interfering systems which affect
achievable data rates, transmit power and usage of resources, e.g.
far-off UE could be better served with a low frequency carrier and
near cell center UE with a high frequency carrier. Inter-band Carrier
Aggregation provides more flexibility to utilize fragmented spectrum
allocations but one must take UE capabilities into account. There must
be enough (but not all) inter-band capable UE before the feature can
improve network performance.
Studies have been conducted on the benefits of extension carriers,
e.g. without common control channels, to have lower control channel
overhead and better efficiency, but the improvements seem quite
marginal for the scenarios evaluated in LTE Release 10. Future releases
might include extension carrier for specific use cases, e.g. energy
efficient machine-to-machine communication.
Page 7 networks.nokia.com
80 30
70
25
Marginal Avg. TP Coverage gain in
Average UE throughput [Mbps]
Coverage [Mbps]
50 center UEs on 800MHz carrier
2.1GHz carrier
40 15
30
10
20
5
10
0 0
10 20 30 40 50 10 20 30 40 50
Oered Load [Mbps] Oered Load [Mbps]
Carrier Aggregation of 800 and 2100MHz: Rel-8: case3, RR Rel-8: 3km ISD, RR
Rel-8: case3, Smart Rel-8: 3km ISD, Smart
Rel-10: case3 Rel-10: 3km ISD
555
4
610
304
2
305
161
1
152 Figure 5: Carrier Aggregation and MIMO provide
# of eNB
antennas high peak data rates bounded by allocated
1 2 4 8
bandwidth and the number of transmit and
- 2x20 MHz Carrier Aggregation and 64QAM with 9/10 code rate receiver antennas
Page 8 networks.nokia.com
share the same frequency resources. If the multiple transmissions are
for a single user, then the technology is called Single-User MIMO
(SU-MIMO), for multiple users Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO).
The better the system can utilize these communication channels for
multiple transmissions, the higher is the capacity that the system can
provide. MIMO performance is subject to a large number of parameters:
the number of transmitter and receiver antennas, reference signals and
algorithms for channel estimation, feedback of channel estimation data
from the receiver to the transmitter and spatial encoding methods.
Consequently a comprehensive design is crucial to provide optimum
system performance.
Transmission peak date rates depend on the number of antennas on the
transmitter and the receiver, the used bandwidth and the configuration
of radio parameters like the resource allocation for control channels. The
maximum peak data rates vs. the number of transmitter and receiver
antennas can be seen in Fig. 5 for 40 MHz band allocation for both, the
downlink and the uplink.
LTE Releases 8 and 9 support multi-antenna (MIMO) technology with
up to four transmit and receiver antennas in downlink, but only single
antenna transmission in uplink. Release 10 extends the MIMO support for
eight transmit and receiver antennas in downlink and introduces uplink
MIMO by supporting up to four transmit and eight receiver antennas.
Capacity - Correlated
Ideal MMSE/SIC Realistic MMSE/SIC
4.00
Average SE [bps/Hz/cell]
3.00 2.75
2.44
2.30
2.02
2.17 2.09 136%
2.00 1.77 121%
1.57 108% 147%
100% 133%
113%
100%
1.00
0.00
1x4 no MIMO 1x4 MU-MIMO Rel-8 1x4 MU-MIMO Rel-10 2x4 MU dual
0.125
0.100 0.088
0.080 0.084
0.075
0.075 0.060 117%
112% 0.060
100% 0.049
107% 0.055
0.050
113% 123% 122%
100%
0.025
Figure 6: an example how uplink
0.000
1x4 no MIMO 1x4 MU-MIMO Rel-8 1x4 MU-MIMO Rel-10 2x4 MU dual
MU-MIMO improves system
Ideal: Perfect knowledge of interference assumed at the receiver
performance with different TX/RX
Realistic: Only have estimate of interference power available at the receiver. antenna configurations
Page 9 networks.nokia.com
Release 10 has enhanced the reference signal design with user specific
reference symbols for signal demodulation and common reference
symbols for feedback purposes in downlink and more orthogonal
reference signal structure in uplink. The enhanced design enables better
performance when the number of antenna branches is high.
Uplink MIMO provides significantly higher peak rates and improved
spectrum efficiency in uplink direction. SU-MIMO provides mainly
increased data rates in lightly loaded networks for high-end multi-
transmitter UE, whereas MU-MIMO can offer significant improvement
of spectrum efficiency even with single transmitter UE. This can boost
network capacity at low costs and is depicted in Fig. 6 and 7. The LTE-A
system can operate in both SU and MU-MIMO modes at the same time
using dynamic user specific MIMO transmission configuration.
Capacity - Correlated
3.00
2.47
2.25
2.02 2.06
1.84 198%
2.00 1.57 180%
1.45 1.35 162% 194%
1.25 173%
1.06
116% 127% 148%
1.00
100%
100%
0.00
1x2 no MIMO 2x2 SU-MIMO 1x4 no MIMO 2x4 SU-MIMO 4x4 SU-MIMO
Capacity - Correlated
Ideal MMSE/SIC Realistic MMSE/SIC
Cell-edge user SE [bps/Hz/user]
0.100
0.088
0.081
0.075
0.075 199%
183% 0.064
0.055 169% 0.052
0.049
0.050 0.044 0.045 190%
0.034 123% 155%
146%
100% 133%
0.025 100%
Figure 7: an example how uplink
0.000
1x2 no MIMO 2x2 SU-MIMO 1x4 no MIMO 2x4 SU-MIMO 4x4 SU-MIMO SU-MIMO improves system
Ideal: Perfect knowledge of interference assumed at the receiver
performance with different TX/RX
Realistic: Only have estimate of interference power available at the receiver. antenna configurations
Downlink MIMO has already been included in LTE Release 8. The LTE
Release 8 codebook and reference symbol design was found to be
quite optimum for two and four transmit antennas (2x2, 2x4 and 4x4
antenna configurations), but the channel state information feedback
from UE to eNB could have been more accurate. This limitation is
overcome by the new reference symbol design of Release 10, which is
also more effective when the number of transmit antennas is higher.
Based on the studies and numerous contributions in 3GPP, it can be
safely concluded that the higher the number of antennas, the higher is
Page 10 networks.nokia.com
the gain that Release 10 MIMO provides in downlink. With two eNB and
two UE antennas, Release 10 downlink MIMO provides no improvements
over Release 8 in SU-MIMO mode but small performance improvements
have been gained in MU-MIMO mode. In most cases it is best to operate
two TX antenna eNBs in Release 8 SU-MIMO mode. When eNB has four
transmit antennas, Release 10 downlink MIMO gain is more than 20%
over Release 8 and with eight transmit antennas a bit higher. Reference
symbol overhead effects on system performance are significant with
four and eight transmit antennas. Therefore the selection of MIMO
operating modes and system parameters for both Release 8 and 10 UE
is a critical network optimization task.
An important point worth remembering is that the network should also
support Release 8 and 9 UE which does not benefit from the Release
10 enhancements. The capacity gain from Release 10 downlink MIMO
enhancements could even be negative since new reference symbols
create overhead for all UE. However, these overheads can be decreased
by decreasing the Release 8 and 9 specific reference symbols, but
this would prevent non-LTE-A UE to operate in MIMO mode and thus
lower their data rates. Additionally, there would be negative effects
on common control channel performance. Consequently, the timing
of the introduction of the new features and the configuration of the
system parameters are essential for an optimum performance of the LTE
network.
Page 11 networks.nokia.com
Downlink Uplink
System simulations
Downlink with ideal CSI feedback, realistic CQI feedback, realistic reference symbol overhead (10%) and ideal inter-cell
communication
Uplink with ideal feedback, ideal inter-cell communication, ideal cell selection, realistic MMSE/SIC receiver and realistic closed loop
power control
2 RX and 2 TX antennas in eNB
2 RX and 1 TX antennas in UE
Gain over Release 8 Single User MIMO
Typical Urban Micro, max. 500 m inter-cell distance, 10 users per cell
Figure 8: JP/JT CoMP system performance gain in an urban environment with ideal CSI
feedback and realistic system and receiver implementation
Downlink Uplink
System simulations
Downlink with ideal CSI feedback, realistic CQI feedback,
realistic reference symbol overhead (10%), ideal inter-cell communication and MRC receiver
Uplink with ideal feedback, ideal inter-cell communications,
ideal cell selection, realistic MMSE/SIC receiver and realistic closed loop power control
4 RX and 4 TX antennas in eNB with /2 antenna spacing
2 RX and 1 TX antennas in UE
Gain over Release 8 Beamforming (1 CRS, 1 DRS, single stream)
3GPP Case 1 3D, 500 m inter-cell distance, 10 users per cell
Figure 9: CS/CB CoMP system performance gain in an urban environment with ideal CSI
feedback and realistic system and receiver implementation
Page 12 networks.nokia.com
3.5 Relay Nodes
Relay nodes enable the deployment of small cells at locations where
conventional fixed line or microwave backhaul is not possible or
commercially viable. Relay nodes use the LTE-A air-interface for self-
backhaul to a so-called Donor eNB. The gain from relay nodes is most
pronounced in coverage limited scenarios, e.g. large donor cells, which
serve multiple relay nodes. They in turn provide an expansion of the
coverage, where needed, into buildings or other areas receiving poor
signal from the macro cell directly.
5%-tile Throughput gain
600%
500%
1 relay
400%
4 relays
300%
10 relays
200%
100%
0%
-100%
ISD 500m ISD 1732m ISD 500m ISD 1732m
downlink uplink
120%
Cell Throughput gain
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
Figure 10: System performance
0%
ISD 500m ISD 1732m ISD 500m ISD 1732m gain of Relay Node deployment of
one, four and ten Relay Nodes per
downlink uplink a macro-cell
LTE Release 8 supports simple amplify and forward relays (also called
repeaters) that can be used for coverage extension. However, those
do not use the radio resources efficiently. The enhanced relaying
technology in LTE-A is based on self-backhauling base stations sharing
features with (pico) base stations. For the user equipment the relay
node is just a cell of the Donor eNB. The management of the network
is straightforward. LTE Release 10 specifies a new interface Un between
Donor eNB and Relay Node (RN), see Fig. 11. The new interface uses
MBSFN (Multicast-Broadcast Single Frequency Network) subframes
which were introduced in Release 8 already to hide the Un interface
from UE operating on the same carrier and thus make it fully backward
compatible: UE interprets Un transmission as MBSFN transmission for
which they are not subscribed and simply ignore them. The so called
Page 13 networks.nokia.com
Proxy S1/X2 concept forwards both S1 and X2 messages towards the RN
transparently for the Core Network which sees a Relay Node as a sector
of the Donor eNB as well. Thus relaying is also backwards compatible for
both the MME and Serving Gateway which serve the UE.
App.
TCP/UDP
IP IP
IP IP IP IP
Page 14 networks.nokia.com
Wide Area sites Majority of cell sites today
> 300 m
> 5 W output power
WLAN
Local area base stations and access points are deployed and in many
cases operated by end users directly without network planning by an
operator. These local area nodes create interference with each other
and wide area base stations may also translate into degraded system
performance like lower throughput and an increase of call drops. As such,
automated management methods are required to remove the need for
manual maintenance of a large number of local area base stations, as
well as to prevent excessive inter-cell interference that could degrade the
performance of the wide area base stations and other local area nodes.
The evaluation cases for heterogeneous network deployments have
been included in LTE Release 10. There are multiple technologies that
can be used for the interference coordination based on LTE Release
8 specification, e.g. HeNB power control and escape carrier or using
Carrier Aggregation of LTE Release 10. LTE Release 10 includes one new
interference coordination technology based on coordinated muting of
the Transmission of overlapping cells. This technology is called TDM
eICIC (Time Domain enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination) and
its basic principle is described in Fig. 13. Part of the transmitted signal is
muted by sending Almost Blank Sub-frames, that allows other eNBs to
transmit with lower inter-cell interference.
TDM eICIC needs time synchronization between the macro and femto
layers, a pre-condition that could be difficult to guarantee with respect
to HeNBs deployed by the users. Simpler frequency domain methods
are then more likely to be used in case the operators frequency and
deployment plans allow.
Later releases are likely to introduce new cost efficient small cell
interference coordination and rejection technologies, since cost effective
small cell deployment offers the most promising way to increase the
capacity of mobile broadband networks in a focused way.
Page 15 networks.nokia.com
3.7 Self Organizing Network and network
architecture evolution with LTE-A
LTE development is not only focusing on air interface performance
enhancements. Cost of deployment and operation can be decreased
with self organizing and optimization (SON) technologies. Automatic
Neighbour Relation (ANR) and Minimization Drive Test (MDT)
technologies have been developed to enable automatic configuration,
optimization of handovers, as well as other radio resource management
parameters. Moreover, other SON technologies are also in the process
of being developed, e.g. for automated fault recovery and energy saving
for complex deployments.
Figure 13: Inter-cell interference reduction with Almost blank sub-frames of TDM eICIC
3.8 Outlook
Development of LTE-Advanced will continue in future 3GPP releases.
Multi-hop and moving relays could increase efficiency in providing
broadband services in high-speed trains and interference cancellation
receivers will improve air interface capacity. Decreasing power
consumption of the network and the user equipment enables the usage
of battery powered devices for machine-to-machine applications wide
bandwidth demand. LTE-A already has means for flexible spectrum
management, self-configuration and multilayer deployments. Once the
spectrum regulation defines the framework for usage of cognitive radio
resource management methods, adoption of these methods can be
easily adopted in LTE-A.
Page 16 networks.nokia.com
In real-world network deployments, the described LTE-A system features
are closely related to network element implementation for the complete
base station sites, including transport. Without a compact multi-
antenna site solution, multiple antenna system technologies cannot
be cost effective. Multi-site CoMP technologies need fast connectivity
between base stations and remote radio heads which can be provided
by modern optical transport solutions and open interface specifications.
Carrier aggregation provides higher system bandwidths which need
wide bandwidth high efficiency power amplifiers in base stations and
terminals. There are various multi-system multi-band combinations
which need tight control of spurious emissions and good receiver
blocking performance.
The new features of LTE-A increase spectrum efficiency and cell edge
performance, thus the bits per Hz ratio increases. This means that the
probability of multi-stream transmission, higher order modulation and
lower coding rates increases, with the consequence that the modulation
accuracy of the transmitters also needs to improve in order to have
sufficiently low inter-symbol interference. Power amplifiers, duplex
filters, transmitters analogue and digital parts etc. have to be in a good
balance and tightly integrated. One example of these dependencies is
the case where the power amplifier of the eNB gets into saturation with
the consequence that the quality of signal deteriorates to an extent that
higher order modulation can not be supported anymore. In that case
the introduction of LTE-A features would not provide the expected
system performance gain. Such balancing considerations are most
relevant in the hot zones of the network, where additional bandwidth
will be needed first.
Many of the new technologies introduced by LTE-A are based on
complex algorithms, so more baseband processing capacity is needed in
both the base stations and the terminals. Fig. 14 summarizes relations
between the evolution of implementation technologies and LTE-A
system technologies.
In fact, suppliers of LTE-A networks need to develop a core competency
in terms of integrating a variety of products to support multiple modes
to deploy the network. Network operation should be reliable and cost
efficient, while maintaining optimum levels of customer satisfaction. In
a majority of cases, there are other wireless and cellular technologies
to inter-work and co-exist with. Therefore the supplier needs to have
a good understanding of LTE-A, its preceding technologies, devices,
services, along with end-user behaviour and expectations.
Page 17 networks.nokia.com
More spectrum Baseband
Carrier aggregation processing
capability
MIMO
Multiband UE and enhancements Multiple power
BTS capability ampliers in UE
CoMP
4-8 antennas in UE Multi-antenna
Heterogeneous BTS site
networks
LTE-A
Figure 14: LTE-A new system technologies vs. implementation
technologies
Page 18 networks.nokia.com
Spectrum Savings in
eciency deployment
Multi-Layer
Multi-Layer Multi-RAT
Relays
UL MIMO
LIPA/SIPTO
SON
DL MIMO CA
SON DL MIMO
Relays UL MIMO
CA
4. Summary
LTE-A enables a smooth and backward compatible evolution of LTE
and TD-LTE towards true 4G performance
LTE-A comprises of various tools to enhance mobile broadband user
experience and network efficiency
There are serious interdependencies between network
implementation and the various tools of LTE-A, which require an
experienced partner when planning and implementing LTE-A
Nokia Networks has always been at the forefront of LTE-A research
and development, with a strong focus on real operator opportunities
in terms of efficiency and user experience
Carrier aggregation ++ + ++ +
MIMO enhancements* ++ ++ ++
(o) (+) (+) o
Heterogeneous networks o ++ ++ +
Relays*** o +
o (+) (++) ++
Page 19 networks.nokia.com
Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their
respective owners.
Nokia
Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
P.O. Box 1
FI-02022
Finland
Visiting address:
Karaportti 3,
ESPOO,
Finland
Switchboard +358 71 400 4000
networks.nokia.com