LTE-Advanced Technology and Today PDF

Keysight Technologies
LTE-Advanced:
Technology and Test Challenges
3GPP Releases 10, 11, 12 and Beyond
Application Note
Introduction
LTE-Advanced is the evolved version of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard developed by 3GPP to meet or
exceed the requirements of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for a true fourth generation (4G)
radio communication standard known as IMT-Advanced. LTE-Advanced is defined in 3GPP Release 10 and in
subsequent 3GPP releases.
The LTE-Advanced specifications are focused mainly on achieving higher capacity with increased peak data rates,
higher spectral efficiency, ability to handle a greater number of simultaneously active subscribers, and improved
performance at cell edges.
This application note gives an overview of the following topics:
–– LTE and LTE-Advanced, including summaries of LTE Release 8/9 features, ITU requirements for 4G, and 3GPP
requirements for LTE evolution
–– Release 10 and LTE-Advanced
–– Release 11 LTE-Advanced enhancements
–– Release 12 radio evolution
–– Release 13 update
–– LTE-Advanced product design and testing challenges
The focus here is on the LTE-Advanced air interface, although the 3GPP specifications also cover the core network
standards and services.
This application note assumes that the reader is familiar with LTE basic concepts and features. You can read a de-
tailed explanation of LTE technology in the book LTE and the Evolution to 4G Wireless: Design and Measurement
Challenges, Second Edition (ISBN 978-1-119-96257-1); information is found at www.keysight.com/find/ltebook.
You can also download a Keysight Technologies, Inc. application note, 3GPP Long Term Evolution: System Overview,
Product Development, and Test Challenges (literature number 5991-2556EN), at www.keysight.com/find/LTE.
Click on the link for “Long Term Evolution—LTE Resources.” This document covers 3GPP LTE in Releases 8 and 9.
03 | Keysight | LTE Advanced: Technology and Test Challenges – Application Note
Contents
1 Overview of LTE and LTE-Advanced 5
1.1 Evolution of wireless communication standards 5
1.2 Summary of Release 8 LTE features 7
1.3 Release 9 enhancements with implications for LTE-Advanced 9
1.4 Requirements for 4G and LTE-Advanced 13
2 Release 10 LTE-Advanced 17
2.1 Release 10 LTE enhancements 17
Carrier aggregation for wider bandwidths 17
Uplink transmission scheme 18
Downlink transmission scheme 22
Relaying 23
2.2 Other Release 10 enhancements 25
Enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) 25
Minimization of drive test 27
Machine-type communications (MTC) 27
New frequency bands 28
New UE categories 29
3 Release 11 LTE-Advanced enhancements 30

3.1 New frequency bands 30
3.2 Release 11 features for LTE and UTRA 30
Further self-optimizing network (SON) enhancements 30
Enhancement of minimization of drive test (MDT) for E-UTRAN and UTRAN 31
Network energy saving for E-UTRAN 31
RF requirements for multi-band and multi-standard radio 31
Further enhancements to H(e)NB mobility 32
3.3 Release 11 features for LTE 32
Network-based positioning support in LTE 32
Service continuity improvements for MBMS for LTE 33
Further enhanced non CA-based ICIC for LTE 33
LTE RAN enhancements for diverse data applications 34
Relays for LTE 34
Signaling and procedure for interference avoidance for in-device coexistence 34
Coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP) 35
Enhanced downlink control channels for LTE-Advanced 39
Public safety broadband high power UE for Band 14, Region 2 40
Improved minimum performance requirements for E-UTRA: interference rejection 41
Additional special subframe configuration for LTE TDD 41
Release 11 carrier aggregation 42
4 Release 12 radio evolution 45
4.1 New frequency bands 46

4.2 Carrier aggregation scenarios 48
4.3 Release 12 work items 48
Dual connectivity for LTE 48
Further enhancements for H(e)NB Mobility—Part 3 50
RF and EMC requirements for active antenna systems (AAS) 50
Machine-type communications (MTC) 51
WLAN/3GPP radio interworking 52
LTE TDD-FDD joint operation including carrier aggregation 53
Further MBMS operations support for E-UTRAN 53
E-UTRA small cell enhancements—physical layer aspects 54
Inter-eNB CoMP for LTE 54
LTE device-to-device proximity services 55
Network-assisted interference cancellation and suppression for LTE 56
Verification of radiated multi-antenna reception performance of UEs in LTE/UMTS 57
Performance requirements of 8 Rx antennas for LTE uplink 57
4.4 Release 12 study items 57
Study on mobile relay for E-UTRA 57
Study on 3D-channel model for elevation beamforming/FD-MIMO studies for LTE 59
Study on group communication for LTE 60
Verification of radiated multi-antenna reception performance of UEs: MIMO OTA 61
5 Release 13 and beyond 62

5.1 Selected topics 63
New frequency bands 63
Study on multi-RAT joint coordination 63
Summary of WLAN aspects 63
Evolution of carrier aggregation 64
Progression of cellular/WiFi integration 65
LTE operation in unlicensed bands (LTE-U) 65
5.2 New focus on end users 65
6 Challenges for LTE-Advanced product developers 66

6.1 Carrier aggregation 67
6.2 Interference mitigation 72
6.3 Power efficiency and battery life 74
6.4 Product development strategy 76
7 Design and test tools for LTE-Advanced developers 79
8 References 87
9 Acronyms 88
1 Overview of LTE and LTE-Advanced

Fourth generation wireless technology has been long and eagerly awaited. To better un-
derstand the evolutionary changes that are occurring with the implementation of 4G and
LTE-Advanced, it is helpful to summarize what came before.
1.1 Evolution of wireless communication standards

Wireless communications have evolved from the so-called second generation (2G)
systems of the early 1990s, which first introduced digital cellular technology, through
third generation (3G) systems with higher speed data networks, to the much-anticipated
fourth generation (4G) technology being developed and deployed today. This evolution
is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows that fewer standards were proposed for 4G than in
previous generations, with only two 4G candidates having been actively developed: 3GPP
LTE-Advanced and IEEE 802.16m, which is the evolution of the WiMAX™ standard known
as Wireless MAN-Advanced.
Figure 1.Evolution of wireless communication standards from 1990 to the present
Early 3G systems, of which there were five, did not immediately meet the ITU’s peak data
rate target of 2 Mbps in practical deployment, although the systems did so in theory.
However, improvements to the standards later brought deployed systems closer to and
well beyond the original 3G targets.
Figure 2 shows the evolution of 3GPP’s Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

(UMTS), the original wideband code division multiple access (CDMA) technology, starting
from its initial release in 1999/2000. There have been a number of different releases of
UMTS, and the addition of high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) in Release 5 ushered
in the informally named 3.5G. The subsequent addition of the enhanced dedicated channel
(E-DCH), better known as high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), completed 3.5G.
LTE arrived with the publication of the Release 8 specification in 2008, and LTE-Advanced
was introduced in Release 10. The LTE-Advanced radio access network (RAN) was func-
tionally frozen in December 2010 (excluding the ASN.1 definitions) and the core specifi-
cations were completed in March 2011. Enhancements to LTE-Advanced were added in
Release 11, whose core specifications were completed in September 2012, and in Release
12, on which work began in December 2012. As of March 2014, considerable activity
continues on Release 12, including 219 work items (which will result in written specifica-
tions) and 34 study items (areas of further investigation that could be incorporated into
the specs).The completion date for Release 12 is September 2014, and work has begun on
Release 13.
It’s important to note that 3GPP continues to develop the HSDPA and HSUPA standards
along with LTE/LTE-Advanced in these releases, although discussion of the high speed
packet access technologies is beyond the scope of this application note.
Figure 2. Evolution of UMTS specifications

1.2 Summary of Release 8 LTE features

The Long Term Evolution project was initiated in 2004. The motivation for LTE included the
desire to reduce the network operator’s cost per bit, to add lower cost services with better
user experience, to use both new and existing frequency bands in flexible ways, to simplify
and lower the cost of the network via open interfaces, and to reduce terminal complexity
with an allowance for reasonable power consumption.
The baseline LTE radio access network (RAN) and the evolved packet core (EPC) network
defined in 3GPP Release 8 and evolved in subsequent releases has provided the world
with a comprehensive and highly capable new cellular communication standard. Ac-
cording to a June 2014 Global Suppliers Association (www.gsacom.com) report, LTE has
been launched successfully in 300 commercial networks in 107 countries, with more than
350 LTE commercial networks forecast to be operating by the end of 2014. As of June
2014,1563 LTE user devices had already been announced. With these impressive statistics,
LTE has become the fastest growing cellular technology ever.
The main attributes that differentiate LTE from previous generations are:
–– Single-channel peak data rates of up to 300 Mbps in the downlink and 75 Mbps in the
uplink
–– Improved spectral efficiency over legacy systems, particularly for the uplink
–– Full integration of frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD)
access modes
–– Packet-based EPC network to eliminate cost and complexity associated with legacy
circuit-switched networks.
Some key technologies introduced in Release 8 that enabled the new capabilities are:
–– Adoption of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and single carrier
frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) for the downlink and uplink air interfaces
to enable narrowband scheduling and efficient support of spatial multiplexing
–– Support for six channel bandwidths from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz to enable high data rates
and also efficient spectrum re-farming for narrowband legacy systems
–– Baseline support for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) spatial multiplexing of up to
four layers on the downlink
–– Faster physical layer control mechanisms leading to lower latency.
Speed is probably the feature most associated with LTE. Examples of downlink and uplink
peak data rates for a 20 MHz channel bandwidth are shown in Table 1. Downlink figures
are shown for single input single output (SISO) and MIMO antenna configurations at a
fixed 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) depth, while the uplink figures are for
SISO but at different modulation depths.
These figures represent the physical limitation of the LTE FDD radio access mode in ideal
radio conditions with allowance for signaling overheads. Lower rates are specified for
specific user equipment (UE) categories, and performance requirements under non-ideal
radio conditions have also been developed. Figures for LTE’s TDD radio access mode are
comparable, scaled by the variable uplink and downlink ratios.
Table 1. Peak data rates for LTE
Downlink peak data rates (64 QAM)

Antenna configuration SISO 2x2 4x4 MIMO
MIMO
Peak data rate Mbps 100 172.8 326.4
Uplink peak data rates (single antenna)
Modulation QPSK 16 QAM 64 QAM
Peak data rate Mbps 50 57.6 86.4
Unlike previous systems, LTE was designed from the beginning to use MIMO technology,
resulting in a more integrated approach to this advanced antenna technology than the
addition of MIMO to legacy 3G systems.
In terms of mobility, LTE is aimed primarily at low mobility applications in the 0 k/m/h
to 15 km/h range, where the highest performance can be seen. However, the system
is capable of working at higher speeds and is supported with high performance from 15
km/h to 120 km/h and functional support from 120 to 350 km/h.
Despite the substantial capabilities of LTE in Release 8, the 3GPP standard has continued
to evolve. Release 9 completed and enhanced basic LTE, while Release 10, Release 11,
and now Release 12 have defined and enhanced the specifications for LTE-Advanced.
1.3 Release 9 enhancements with implications for LTE-Advanced

Release 9 is considered a “short” release between the major effort required to finish
Release 8 and the definition of LTE-Advanced in Release 10. Some items in Release 9 are
carryovers from Release 8 that were not yet complete; others are new items not in the
original Release 8 definition. At a formal level, Release 9 includes more than 80 identifiable
features. Several of the key items that pertain to the radio aspects are briefly described
here. These features are further developed in Release 10 LTE-Advanced.
New frequency bands

Each release of the 3GPP specification adds new frequency bands. Release 9 introduced
four new FDD bands shown in Table 2. Bands 18 and 19 are referred to as the extended
LTE 800 bands and were specified for use in Japan. Band 20 was added for the so-called
“digital dividend” spectrum in Europe that was made available through the switchover to
digital television. Note that the uplink and downlink frequencies in this band are reversed
from the usual arrangement. The final band added in Release 9 is the extended LTE 1500
band in Japan.
Table 2. Frequency bands added during Release 9
Band Uplink Downlink Duplex Duplex

Bandwidth Gap
number Low High Low High spacing mode
18 815 830 860 875 15 45 30 FDD

19 830 845 875 890 15 45 30 FDD
20 832 862 791 821 30 -41 11 FDD
21 1447.9 1462.9 1495.9 151.9 15 48 33 FDD
Femtocells and the home base station

Work on femtocell inclusion in UMTS was ongoing during Release 8 and continued in
Release 9 for the home base station (home BS), also known as the home evolved node B
(HeNB) or femtocell. The femtocell concept is not unique to LTE or LTE-Advanced, but
there was an opportunity for LTE to incorporate the technology from the start rather than
retrospectively designing it into legacy systems such as UMTS and GSM.
From a radio perspective the femtocell operates over a small area within a larger cell. The
radio channel can be the same as that of the larger cell (known as co-channel deploy-
ment) or a dedicated channel. The femtocell concept is fundamentally different from
relaying since the femtocell connects back into the core network via a local, existing DSL
internet connection rather than back to the macrocell using over the air transmission.
Most femtocell deployments will be indoors, which helps provide isolation between the
femtocell and the macrocell. A femtocell can be located outside the macrocell’s coverage
area; for example, as a way to provide local cellular coverage in rural areas where digital
subscriber line (DSL) exists but there is no cellular coverage provided by an operator. This
is shown in Figure 3. Femtocells may be operated for the benefit of a closed subscriber
group (CSG) or for open public access.
Figure 3. Home base stations (femtocells)
Studies have shown that increased average data rates and 100 times greater capacity are
possible with femtocells than can be achieved from the macro network alone. However,
femtocells do not provide the mobility of a macrocellular or even microcellular system, and
differences exist in their use models as shown in Table 3. For these reasons, femtocellular
deployments should be considered as complementary rather than competitive with the
macrocellular and microcellular systems.
Table 3. Comparison of macro- and microcellular with femtocellular use models
Macro-/microcellular Femtocellular
Ubiquitous mobile data and voice Opportunistic nomadic data
Mobility and continuous coverage Hotspot coverage
Ability to control QoS Limited QoS for lower value data
Limited capacity and data rates Distributed cost (not low cost)
High costs, acceptable for high value traffic Free or charged
User is often outdoors and moving User is sitting down indoors
Work regarding the femtocell-based home BS in Release 9 had two objectives: first, to
complete the RF specifications for the introduction of the home BS class, and second,
to introduce features in the home BS and network that enable control of the home BS
output power, in order to mitigate interference to the macro network or to other home BS.
A number of relaxations to the RF specifications were introduced, not least in importance
the maximum output power, which is limited to 20 dBm and lower in some scenarios. The
expected low UE speeds in home BS deployments enabled a five times looser requirement
for frequency error and there are various other relaxations for spurious emissions. How-
ever, to enable effective interference mitigation, the home BS must be able to measure the
signal strength of other base stations in the neighborhood. Downlink measurement is not
an issue for TDD, but for FDD a downlink measurement function is required in the home
BS although some measurements may also be gathered from the connected UEs.
The need for interference mitigation is most important when the home BS is deployed
in a co-channel closed subscriber group. In this mode the home BS is deployed on the
same frequency as the macro network. When close to this home BS, UEs that are part of
the CSG would hand over to the home BS. However, UEs that are not part of the closed
subscriber group would likely experience a loss of coverage. For this reason it is impor-
tant to limit the potential for the home BS to interfere with the macro network when the
home BS is operated in a co-channel CSG mode. The general term applied to this form of
interference mitigation is inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC). Interference mitigation
work continued in Release 10 with enhanced ICIC (eICIC) and in Release 11 with further
enhanced ICIC (FeICIC), covered later in this application note.
Multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS)

The MBMS television service was specified at the physical layer in Release 8 but was not
functionally complete until Release 9. The features in Release 9 provide a basic MBMS
service carried over an MBMS single frequency network (MBSFN).
In Release 9 only the guaranteed bit rate (GBR) bearers were specified, which means that
the maximum bit rate (MBR) is always equal to the GBR. This is not good for variable bit
rate services which, by exploiting statistical multiplexing, would otherwise allow the MBR
to exceed the GBR. The Release 9 definition also lacks a feedback mechanism from the
UEs to the network to determine whether sufficient UEs are present in the target area to
justify turning on the MBSFN locally.
Further MBMS enhancements were added in Release 11 for service continuity including
support on multiple frequencies, reception during RRC idle and RRC connected states,
and support to take UE positioning into account for further optimization of the received
services.
Positioning support
Positioning support work in Release 9 included specifications for support of the Assisted
Global Navigation Satellite System (AGNSS), which incorporates the following satellite
positioning systems:
–– Galileo
–– Global Positioning System (GPS) and modernized GPS
–– GLObal’naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS)
–– Quazi-Zenith Satellite System
–– Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS).
The LTE physical layer was augmented to support the observed time difference of arrival
(OTDOA) positioning scheme with the introduction of the positioning reference signal
(PRS). Network-based positioning for LTE was added in Release 11 with a further study
item in Release 12 on positioning based on RF pattern matching.
Multi-standard radio (MSR)

Release 9 introduced the concept of MSR in recognition of evolved base station technol-
ogy that allows more than one carrier from the same or different radio access technologies
(RATs) to be operated from a single BS using a wideband receiver. Although MSR did not
add new radio requirements for LTE, it changed the way in which existing radio require-
ments are interpreted for conformance testing. Thus a new MSR conformance test speci-
fication was created. In Release 11 the MSR concept was extended for non-contiguous
(inter-band) cases; that is, cases in which different RATs are located in different bands.
New base station classes for medium-range and local area MSR were also added.
RF requirements for local base stations

The local area BS (picocell) is another important introduction to the LTE specifications in
Release 9 along with the home BS (femtocell). The local area BS enables the deployment
of a heterogeneous network comprising macrocells (wide area), picocells, and femto-
cells. The RF requirements for local area base stations are based on a reduced UE-to-BS
coupling loss of 45 dB compared to the 70 dB used for macrocells. This allows for a lower
maximum output power requirement of 24 dBm and other relaxations such as those for
frequency error and unwanted emissions consistent with small cell deployment.
Enhanced dual-layer transmission

Release 8 specified seven downlink transmission modes (TMs). Transmission mode 7 (TM7)
introduced the concept of UE-specific reference symbols (RS) that enable non-codebook
precoding of the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for single layer transmission.
Release 9 extended the UE-specific RS to support two spatial layers with the addition of
TM 8.
Self-organizing networks (SON)

Today’s cellular systems are very much centrally planned and the addition of new nodes to
the network involves expensive and time-consuming work, including site visits for optimi-
zation. A number of use cases were identified by 3GPP in which SON could be applied to
reduce the burden:
–– Automation of neighbor relation lists in the E-UTRAN and UTRAN and between different
3GPP radio access technologies
–– Self-establishment of a new eNB in the network
–– Self-configuration and self-healing of the BS
–– Automated coverage and capacity optimization
–– Optimization of parameters affected by troubleshooting
–– Continuous optimization to accommodate dynamic changes in the network
–– Automated handover optimization
–– Optimization of quality-of-service (QoS) related radio parameters.
Release 8 introduced a basic version of SON that included automatic neighbor relations
(ANR) list management and self-establishment of new base stations. In Release 9 SON
was extended to include new operation and maintenance features for load balancing and
handover parameter optimization.
The SON work was continued in Release 10 with specification of the management aspects
for interference control, capacity and coverage optimization, and random access chan-
nel (RACH) optimization. The concept of self-healing was also developed in Release 10.
This feature involves the detection and, analysis of network faults and identification of
the corrective action required of the network to respond to disruptive events with minimal
manual intervention. Additional enhancements were added in Release 11 to address inter-
RAT mobility issues and HetNet deployments.
1.4 Requirements for 4G and LTE-Advanced

The most significant changes to the 3GPP standard occur in Release 10 for the support
of LTE-Advanced, 3GPP’s submission to the ITU Radio-communication sector (ITU-R)
IMT-Advanced program. The IMT-Advanced program is often referred to as “4G” although
the term is not formally defined by the ITU or any other official body. Because of the ITU
involvement in setting the requirements for Release 10, the specification process was more
complicated than any previous or subsequent release to date:
–– ITU-R defined the requirements for IMT-Advanced
–– 3GPP defined the requirements for LTE-Advanced
–– 3GPP undertook a feasibility study that proposes LTE-Advanced as an IMT-Advanced
candidate technology
–– 3GPP created work items to develop the many-detailed specification in Release 10 to
define LTE-Advanced.
In the feasibility study for LTE-Advanced, 3GPP determined that the existing Release 8 LTE
could meet most of the IMT-Advanced requirements apart from uplink spectral efficiency
and the peak data rates. These higher requirements could be addressed with the addition
of the following LTE-Advanced features in Release 10:
–– Wider bandwidths, enabled by carrier aggregation
–– Higher efficiency, enabled by enhanced uplink multiple access and enhanced multiple
antenna transmission (advanced MIMO techniques).
Other performance enhancements that were being considered for LTE-Advanced in

Release 10 and beyond—for example, coordinated multipoint transmission and reception
(CoMP), support for heterogeneous networks, SON enhancements, and home enhanced
node B (HeNB) mobility enhancements—were not critical to meeting the ITU’s IMT-
Advanced requirements.
In October 2009, 3GPP formally submitted LTE-Advanced as a candidate for IMT-

Advanced. Another candidate submitted in this timeframe was an enhanced version of the
IEEE 802.16e standard known as Wireless Mobile Area Network Advanced (Wireless MAN-
Advanced). After considering the merits of both technologies, the ITU in January 2012
formally approved both as meeting the requirements of their program. It is worth pointing
out that both technologies approved for IMT-Advanced are based heavily on pre-existing
standards and the modifications that were required of these technologies to meet IMT-
Advanced requirements are not considered major.
Figure 4 shows the initial timeline of the ITU-R for IMT-Advanced along with the
parallel 3GPP activities for LTE-Advanced.
Figure 4.Historical timeline for IMT-Advanced and LTE-Advanced

The high level requirements for IMT-Advanced defined by the ITU-R are the following:
–– A high degree of common functionality worldwide while retaining the flexibility to
support a wide range of local services and applications in a cost-efficient manner
–– Compatibility of services within IMT and with fixed networks
–– Capability for interworking with other radio systems
–– High quality mobile services
–– User equipment suitable for worldwide useser-friendly applications, services, and
equipment
–– Worldwide roaming capability
–– Enhanced peak data rates to support advanced mobile services and applications
(100 Mbps for high mobility and 1 Gbps for low mobility were established as targets for
research).
The first seven of the eight requirements are rather general goals already being pursued by
the industry. The eighth requirement, for 100 Mbps high mobility and 1 Gbps low mobil-
ity, is somewhat different and has fundamental repercussions on system design. The 1
Gbps peak target for IMT-Advanced is similar to the 2 Mbps target for its predecessor,
IMT-2000, set some ten years earlier. Like its predecessor, the 1 Gbps peak figure is not
without qualification since it applies only for low mobility in excellent radio conditions and
could require up to 100 MHz of spectrum.
The work by 3GPP to define a 4G candidate radio interface technology started in Release 9
with the study phase for LTE-Advanced. The requirements for LTE-Advanced were cap-
tured in 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 36.913, Requirements for Further Advancements for
E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced) [1]. These requirements were defined based on the ITU-R require-
ments for IMT-Advanced and on 3GPP operators’ own requirements for advancing LTE:
–– Continual improvement to the LTE radio technology and architecture
–– Scenarios and performance requirements for interworking with legacy radio access
technologies
–– Backward compatibility of LTE-Advanced with LTE (an LTE terminal should be able to
work in an LTE-Advanced network and vice versa; any exceptions will be considered by
3GPP)
–– Account taken of recent World Radio-communication Conference (WRC-07) decisions
regarding new IMT spectrum as well as existing frequency bands to ensure that LTE-
Advanced geographically accommodates available spectrum for channel allocations
above 20 MHz.
Also, requirements must recognize those parts of the world in which wideband channels
are not available.
System performance requirements

When the ITU-R defined IMT-2000, the only requirements were for peak data rates. No
targets were proposed for latency or, more importantly, for the average or cell-edge
performance that defines the typical user experience. Fortunately, this requirement gap is
eliminated with IMT-Advanced, which specifies a much broader range of performance. The
IMT-Advanced performance requirements along with operator requirements were used by
3GPP to develop TR 36.913, which defines LTE-Advanced performance requirements in the
following areas:
–– Peak data rates: 1 Gbps downlink, 500 Mbps uplink
–– Latency
– Control plane: idle to connected < 50 ms, un-sync to in-sync < 10 ms (see Figure 5)
– User plane: Improvements over Release 8 for with and without scheduling assignment
–– Spectral efficiency
– Peak spectral efficiency—see Table 4
–– Average spectral efficiency—see Table 4
– Cell-edge user data throughput—see Table 4
– VoIP capacity
–– Mobility
– Support for up to 350 km/h and for some frequency bands 500 km/h
–– Enhanced performance for 0–10 km/h over Release 8 with no degradation and preferred
enhancement for higher speeds
–– Further enhancements to MBMS: Improved requirements for spectrum efficiency over
Release 8.
Figure 5. Requirements for state transitions (TR 36.913 [1] Figure 7.1)
Table 4 compares selected performance targets for LTE, LTE-Advanced, and IMT-
Advanced. The cell and cell-edge spectral efficiency figures are given for an inter-site
distance (ISD) of 500 m. Note that the peak efficiency targets for LTE-Advanced are
substantially higher than the requirements for IMT-Advanced—thus the desire to drive up
peak performance is maintained despite the average targets and requirements being very
similar. However, TR 36.913 [1] states: “The target for average spectrum efficiency and the
cell edge user throughput efficiency should be given a higher priority than the target for
peak spectrum efficiency and VoIP capacity.” Note also that with the exception of uplink
spectral efficiency, LTE Release 8 meets the requirements for IMT-Advanced.
Table 4 compares selected performance targets for LTE, LTE-Advanced, and IMT-Advanced.
The cell and cell-edge spectral efficiency figures are given for an inter-site distance (ISD)
of 500 m. Note that the peak efficiency targets for LTE-Advanced are substantially higher
than the requirements for IMT-Advanced—thus the desire to drive up peak performance
is maintained despite the average targets and requirements being very similar. However,
TR 36.913 [1] states: “The target for average spectrum efficiency and the cell edge user
throughput efficiency should be given a higher priority than the target for peak spectrum
efficiency and VoIP capacity.” Note also that with the exception of uplink spectral efficiency,
LTE Release 8 meets the requirements for IMT-Advanced.
Table 4.Spectral efficiency performance targets for LTE, Advanced-LTE, and IMT-Advanced
IMT-Advanced
Item Sub-category LTE (Release 8) target LTE-Advanced target
requirement
Peak spectral efficiency Downlink 16.3 (4x4 MIMO) 30 (8x8 MIMO or less) 15 (4x4 MIMO)
(b/s/Hz) Uplink 4.32 (64QAM SISO) 15 (4x4 MIMO or less) 6.75 (2x4 MIMO)
Downlink cell spectral (2x2 MIMO) 1.69 2.4
efficiency b/s/Hz/user
(4x2 MIMO) 1.87 2.6 2.6
Microcellular 3 km/h,
500 m ISD (4x4 MIMO) 2.67 3.7
Uplink cell spectral (1x2 MIMO) 1.2
efficiency b/s/Hz/user
1.8
Microcellular 3 km/h,
500 m ISD (2x4 MIMO) 2.0
(2x2 MIMO) 0.05 0.07

Downlink cell-edge user
spectral efficiency (b/s/
(4x2 MIMO) 0.06 0.09 0.075
Hz/user), (5 percentile,
10 users), 500m ISD
(4x4 MIMO) 0.08 0.12
Uplink cell-edge user

(1x2 MIMO) 0.04
spectral efficiency (b/s/
Hz/user), 0.05
(5 percentile, 10 users),
(2x4 MIMO) 0.07
500m ISD
*Note: ISD = Inter-site distance

2 Release 10 LTE-Advanced
The submission to ITU-R in TR 36.912, Feasibility study for Further Advancements for
E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced) [2], outlines the features identified for development in Release 10
relevant for the IMT-Advanced requirements. This subset of Release 10 was the original
meaning of the term LTE-Advanced but now LTE-Advanced is used to refer to all develop-
ments from Release 10 onwards. The following sections outline the key LTE-Advanced
proposals, which cover the following areas:
–– Support of wider bandwidths
–– Uplink transmission scheme
–– Downlink transmission scheme
–– Coordinated multi point transmission and reception (CoMP)
–– Relaying
Not all the above were essential to meet the IMT-Advanced requirements and not all
aspects were subsequently developed in Release 10 (for example, CoMP, which is a work
item in Release 11 and is covered later in this application note). There were other areas
for development also identified in TR 36.912 for which details were not elaborated. These
included mobility enhancements, radio resource management enhancements, MBMS
enhancements, and further work on SON. The study concludes with a self-evaluation that
reports how LTE-Advanced meets or exceeds the ITU-R IMT-Advanced requirements. The
following sections outline the main functional areas that were developed in Release 10
specifically for LTE-Advanced. These sections are followed by other work items in Release
10 that were not part of the ITU-R submission.
2.1 Release 10 LTE enhancements

Carrier aggregation for support of wider bandwidths
Support of wider bandwidths is primarily aimed at addressing the IMT-Advanced require-
ments for peak single user data rates up to 1 Gbps, although there are additional system-
level benefits in terms of deployment flexibility and associated trunking gains that come
from the availability of a wider instantaneous transmission bandwidth. Today’s spectrum
allocations (frequency bands) offer almost no opportunity for finding 100 MHz of contigu-
ous spectrum needed for 1 Gbps peak data rates. Some new IMT spectrum was identified
at the World Radio Conference in 2007 (WRC-07), but there are still only a few places
where continuous blocks of 100 MHz might be found (for example, at 2.6 GHz or 3.5 GHz).
One possible way of increasing available bandwidths would be to encourage network sharing,
which reduces fragmentation caused by splitting one band between several operators.
However, sharing the spectrum, as opposed to just the sites and towers, is a considerable
step up in difficulty. The ITU-R recognized the challenge that wide-bandwidth channels
present and so expected that the required 100 MHz would be created by the aggregation
of non-contiguous channels from different bands in a multi-transceiver mobile device.
The beginnings of such aggregation techniques have already shown up in established

technologies—first with EDGE Evolution, for which standards have been written to aggre-
gate two non-adjacent 200 kHz channels, potentially to double the single-user data rates
that are possible with standard EDGE. Along similar lines, there are 3GPP specifications
for dual-carrier HSDPA that try to close the bandwidth gap between 5 MHz UMTS and 20
MHz LTE. Contiguous multi-carrier cdma2000 (3xRTT) has also been defined, which avoids
the need for multiple transceivers.
Carrier aggregation is clearly not a new idea; however, the proposal to extend aggregation
up to 100 MHz in multiple bands presents numerous design challenges, particularly for the
UE in terms of additional cost and complexity. At each of the layers in the radio protocol,
from the physical layer up through radio resource control (RRC), changes are required for
carrier aggregation. An overview of these can be found in 36.912 [2] Section 5.
Carrier aggregation in Release 10

Carrier aggregation for LTE-Advanced is first defined in 3GPP Release 10 although it
continues to evolve in subsequent releases. To preserve LTE backward compatibility,
carrier aggregation is based on the component carriers first defined in Release 8. This
definition allows existing LTE devices to continue operating properly but enables new
devices to support the higher data throughput that carrier aggregation makes possible.
LTE-Advanced networks can support carrier aggregation in just the downlink or in both
the downlink and the uplink. Initial deployments are implementing the technology in the
downlink only as this configuration is a good match to typical internet packet-data traffic.
The Release 8 component carriers (CCs) can use any of the 3GPP-defined LTE bandwidths—
1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, or 20 MHz. The Release 10 standard allows
aggregation of up to five component carriers; thus, combining five 20 MHz CCs would
yield a theoretical maximum of 100 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth. If each 20 MHz
CC could achieve the downlink maximum throughput of 150 Mbps, the result would be a
throughput potential of 750 Mbps. This scenario is unlikely, however, since most operators
lack the spectrum to support 20 MHz wide channels and will primarily use 5 or 10 MHz
modulation bandwidths for carrier aggregation.
In LTE FDD-based systems, the number of CCs aggregated in the downlink can differ from
the number in the uplink, but the number of uplink CCs must be always be less than or
equal to the number of downlink CCs. Also, the bandwidths of the component carriers can
vary—for example, a 5 MHz carrier can be combined with a 10 MHz carrier—as this is a
common scenario to be fielded by operators.
For LTE TDD-based systems, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC must be
the same for the downlink and the uplink, since both the downlink and the uplink share
the same channel. This definition changes in Release 11 of the 3GPP standard (discussed
later), which introduces TDD to support for different uplink and downlink configurations in
each frequency band.
Two types of component carriers have been defined. There is a single primary component
carrier, which is the carrier signal to which the UE is connected. This carrier handles the
RRC and non-access stratum (NAS) procedures, including authentication and security;
measurement reporting; and mobility procedures. All of the physical channels are manda-
tory in this primary cell, including the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). Secondary
component carriers are optional LTE carriers used opportunistically to increase the number
of radio resources that are available in order to increase the data rates. Secondary CCs are
configured using RRC signaling procedures. Not all of the physical channels are manda-
tory in this case; for example, the PUSCH is optional and thus allows asymmetric carrier
aggregation.
Types of carrier aggregation

As defined in the Release 10 standard, aggregated CCs may occupy channels within a
single LTE frequency band, called intra-band carrier aggregation. These channels may be
contiguous (adjacent), non-contiguous, or both if more than three CCs are used (Figure 6).
Figure 6. Downlink intra-band carrier aggregation
Intra-band carrier aggregation can be implemented in UEs with a single receiver and
transmitter, which helps to minimize the cost and complexity of adding this new feature.
A UE designer can fairly easily create a receiver that has a bandwidth wide enough to
capture the component carriers in the receiver’s intermediate frequency (IF). The baseband
chipset can then demodulate the CCs individually and assemble the multiple data streams
into a single packet data stream. Likewise, the UE transmitter can be given sufficient
bandwidth to modulate the combined bandwidths of the CCs. For those operators who
have sufficient spectrum to operate multiple LTE carriers within a single band, intra-band
carrier aggregation is an attractive method for increasing throughput while maintaining
backward compatibility with existing LTE user equipment that does not support CA.
The Release 10 standard also defines inter-band carrier aggregation, which allows the
combining of CCs located in different frequency bands (Figure 7). Operators with blocks
of spectrum in different bands can use this approach to achieve the performance and
throughput of 20 MHz or wider LTE systems.
Figure 7. Downlink inter-band carrier aggregation
For example, many operators in North America hold spectrum in the 700 MHz band and
the 1900 MHz band. Existing 3G networks heavily occupy the 800 MHz cellular bands and
cannot accommodate LTE. In the 700 MHz band, operators may have sufficient spectrum
for one or two 5 MHz LTE channels. At this bandwidth, LTE offers no real improvement over
3G systems. However, more spectrum is available at 1900 MHz and many operators have
one 10 MHz LTE channel in this band. The solution to offering the performance gains
of 20 MHz LTE for these operators is to combine their 700 MHz spectrum and 1900 MHz
spectrum using LTE advanced inter-band carrier aggregation. If the operator has two
5 MHz LTE channels in the 700 MHz band and one 10 MHz LTE channel in the 1900 MHz
band, using inter-band carrier aggregation results in an LTE Advanced system that match-
es the performance of a 20 MHz LTE channel. Further, by operating in the inter-band
carrier aggregation mode, additional frequency diversity as well as cell loading diversity is
gained to further enhance system performance.
One limitation of inter-band carrier aggregation is that the UE must have at least two
receivers and possibly two transceivers if the operator intends to support inter-band ag-
gregation in the uplink. This clearly increases UE cost. Moreover, inter-band carrier aggre-
gation is considerably more complicated than intra-band. An enormous number of carrier
aggregation scenarios are possible, and each combination of bands must be studied in
order to identify the combination of requirements necessary to ensure commercially viable
deployment.
Frequency band combinations

The Release 10 standard defined the first three carrier aggregation frequency band
combinations. These limited the aggregation to two component carriers with a maximum
aggregated bandwidth of 40 MHz.
–– For FDD intra-band carrier aggregation, the Release 8 band 1 (IMT-2000 band) is
defined as carrier aggregation band CA_1
–– For TDD intra-band carrier aggregation, Band 40 (2300 MHz TDD band) is defined as
carrier aggregation band CA_40
–– For inter-band non-contiguous carrier aggregation, Release 8 bands 1 (IMT-2000 band)
and 5 (US cellular 800 MHz band) are defined by a single carrier aggregation band
CA_1-5.
In practice, operators will likely want to perform carrier aggregation with any spectrum
that they hold, so many more combinations are being defined. At the time of this writing,
a total of 132 combinations have been defined through the beginning work on Release 13,
and that number will rise as Release 13 is further developed. Fortunately the standard is
self-limiting, covering only those scenarios considered relevant to specific geographical
areas or potential deployments. Unfortunately, every combination has the potential to
require a new UE design to handle filter and power amplifier requirements.
Release 12 introduced aggregation of three carriers and aggregation of four carriers is

likely in release 13. Inter-site carrier aggregation is being specified in Release 13 as “dual
connectivity for LTE.” However, currently the practical considerations of UE power dis-
sipation, weight, battery life, and transceiver cost limit the number of bands that can be
supported to two or three. Of the first generation UEs supporting CA, most support two-
carrier downlink carrier aggregation only.
Uplink transmission scheme

Several enhancements were introduced to the uplink for LTE-Advanced:
–– Spatial multiplexing of up to four layers
–– Transmit diversity
–– Clustered SC-FDMA
–– Simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH.
Spatial multiplexing and transmit diversity

The introduction of spatial multiplexing and transmit diversity to the uplink makes a sig-
nificant departure from the UE architecture of Release 8 since both enhancements require
the support of more than one uplink transmitter. This has implications for cost, space,
power handling, and many new spurious emission scenarios that need to be studied and
will require new designs. The benefits of spatial multiplexing provide the improvements
in spectral efficiency over Release 8 that are needed in LTE-Advanced to meet the IMT-
Advanced requirements.
Clustered SC-FDMA
The Release 8 LTE uplink is based on single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-
FDMA), a powerful technology that combines many of the flexible aspects of orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with the low peak to average power ratio (PAPR)
of a single carrier system. However, SC-FDMA requires carrier allocation across a contigu-
ous block of spectrum and this prevents some of the scheduling flexibility inherent in pure
OFDM.
Release 10 enhances the uplink multiple access scheme by adopting clustered SC-FDMA,
also known as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM). This scheme
is similar to SC-FDMA but has the advantage that it allows non-contiguous (clustered)
groups of subcarriers to be allocated for transmission by a single UE, thus enabling uplink
frequency-selective scheduling and better link performance. Clustered SC-FDMA was
chosen in preference to pure OFDM to avoid a significant increase in PAPR. SC-FDMA
will help satisfy the requirement for increased uplink spectral efficiency while maintaining
backward-compatibility with LTE.
For Release 10 the number of clustered groups is restricted to two. Table 5 shows the
impact this has on the PAPR as calculated by the cubic metric.
Table 5. Comparing SC-FDMA and two-cluster SC-FDMA
Cubic metric
Modulation depth
SC-FDMA Two-cluster SC-FDMA
QPSK 1.2 2
16QAM 2.2 2.6
64QAM 2.4 2.76
It can be seen that two-cluster SC-FDMA adds just over 1 dB to the PAPR of single-cluster
SC-FDMA. If the number of clusters goes beyond six, the PAPR begins to look like that of
OFDMA. The cost in terms of implementation is that slightly more power amplifier back-off
is required and there are further issues with in-channel intermodulation products cause by
the presence of two discrete carriers within the channel.
Simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission

In Release 8 the user data carried on the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and the
control data carried on the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) are time-multiplexed.
It is also possible to multiplex control data with user data on the PUSCH. LTE-Advanced
introduces a new mechanism for simultaneous transmission of control and data by allowing
the PUSCH and the PUCCH to be transmitted simultaneously. This mechanism has some
latency and scheduling advantages over time-multiplexed approaches although it does
generate a multi-carrier signal within one component carrier of the uplink.
Simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission should not be confused with carrier ag-

gregation, which involves more than one component carrier. Simultaneous PUCCH/
PUSCH transmission is known to increase PAPR, which makes it more likely that the power
amplifier will create unwanted intermodulation products. This effect is similar to the one
described for clustered SC-FDMA.
Some examples of complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) power mea-

surements for a 10 MHz LTE-Advanced uplink signal are given in Figure 8. The modulation
formats of the PUSCH are QPSK and each PUSCH cluster consists of three RBs. There are
five curves in the measurement graph on the left. From left to right they are (1) non-
clustered PUSCH with SC-FDMA precoding, which is the baseline Release 8 format; (2)
multi-clustered PUSCH with SC-FDMA precoding; (3) simultaneously transmitted PUCCH
and non-clustered PUSCH; (4) simultaneously transmitted PUCCH and multi-clustered
PUSCH; and finally (5) the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) reference curve.
Figure 8. CCDF and spectrum measurements of various LTE-Advanced uplink signals.
Downlink transmission scheme

3GPP included improvements in Release 10 for higher order MIMO techniques. The
enhancements to the downlink include the following:
–– Extension of spatial multiplexing from four to eight layers
–– Enhancements to downlink reference signals.
Eight-layer spatial multiplexing

A number of enhancements were introduced in Release 10 to accommodate spatial mul-
tiplexing up to eight layers on the downlink. This increase may appear to be a symbolic
extension to the standard, since performance requirements through Release 11 exist only
for two-layer transmission to a single UE, even though four-layer transmission has been
defined since Release 8. The main drawback to the implementation of eight-layer single
user spatial multiplexing (SU-MIMO) is not so much at the base station end, where eight-
antenna systems already exist, but at the UE receiver, which would require implementation
of eight receive antennas per carrier. This proposition is not practical today due mainly to
space constraints.
The potential for eight spatial layers does open up, however, new possibilities for multi-
user spatial multiplexing (MU-MIMO), offering new combinations for the simultaneous
support of more than one user sharing the eight layers. Release 10 enhancements include
a new transmission mode, TM 9, which adds UE-specific reference signals (RS) for eight
layers. TM 9 is flexible, supporting different combinations of SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO up
to the eight-layer maximum.
Additionally, the potential for eight transmitters at the base station opens up the potential
for enhanced transmission using beamforming; for example, in an 8x2 configuration.
Downlink reference signals

Release 10 includes a number of elaborations to the reference signal structure, one of
which is a new channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS). This reference signal
performs the same basic function as a cell reference signal (CRS); that is, it provides a
known amplitude and phase reference to the UE. However, the CSI-RS has two distinct
differences from the CRS. First, the CSI-RS can be scheduled as required rather than be-
ing present in every frame. Second, the CSI-RS is used only for reporting of channel state
information by the UE on the uplink and (unlike the CRS) is not used for demodulation.
The use of the CSI-RS is limited to channel state information reporting of the channel
quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), and rank indication (RI). The
CSI-RS is not used in support of PDSCH demodulation, which is the task of the precoded
UE-specific RS and the non-precoded CRS.
Relaying
The concept of relaying is not new but the level of sophistication continues to grow. The
most basic relay method is the use of a repeater, which receives, amplifies, and then
retransmits the downlink and uplink signals to overcome areas of poor coverage. The
repeater could be located at the cell edge or in some other area of poor coverage. Repeaters
are relatively simple devices operating purely at the RF level. Typically they receive and
retransmit an entire frequency band; therefore, care is needed when repeaters are sited. In
general repeaters can improve coverage but do not substantially increase capacity.
More advanced relays can in principle decode transmissions before retransmitting them.
This gives the ability to selectively forward traffic to and from the UE local to the relay
station thus minimizing interference. Depending on the level at which the protocol stack
is terminated in the relay node (RN), such types of relay may require the development of
relay-specific standards. This can be largely avoided by extending the protocol stack of
the RN up to Layer 3 to create a wireless router that operates in the same way as a normal
eNB, using standard air interface protocols and performing its own resource allocation and
scheduling. The distinguishing feature of such relays compared to normal eNBs is that the
backhaul connecting the relays to the other eNBs operates as an in-band LTE radio link to
the donor eNB (DeNB). This link, called the Un interface, can be on the same frequency as
the RN-to-UE link (in-band) or on a different frequency (out-of-band).
The concept of the relay station can also be applied in low density deployments where a
lack of suitable backhaul would otherwise preclude use of a cellular network. The use of
in-band or in-channel backhaul can be optimized using narrow point-to-point connections
to avoid creating unnecessary interference in the rest of the network. Multi-hop relaying is
also possible as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9.Multi-hop relaying

Since the RN cannot simultaneously receive from the donor eNB and transmit to a local
UE at the same time and frequency, downlink transmission gaps during which the eNB
communicates with the RN can be created by configuring MBSFN subframes at the RN.
This principle is shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10. Relay-to-UE communication using normal subframes (left) and eNB-to-relay communication us-
ing MBSFN subframes (right). (TR 36.912 [2] Figure 9.1)
The essential functionality to enable relaying is specified in Release 10, but the radio re-
quirements for the RN transmitter and receiver performance are specified in Release 11.
A study item in Release 12 is investigating mobile relaying as a solution for improving
performance on high speed trains. Currently, the handover success rate from high speed
trains is problematic due to the large number of UEs attempting to handover at the same
time. By using a mobile relay, possibly equipped with a group handover mechanism, the
signaling load on the macro network could be substantially reduced.
The physical layer aspects of relaying are captured in a technical specification, TS 36.216 [3].
The overall network architecture of relaying is captured in Figure 11 from TS 36.300 [4].
Figure 11. Network architecture for relaying (TS 36.300 [4] Figure 4.-1)
Not all of the core work was completed in Release 10, in particular security aspects, and
the remaining work was moved to Release 11 along with the radio performance aspects
that led to a new conformance test specification, TS 36.117 [5]. This specification is a hy-
brid of eNB tests for the access link and UE tests for the backhaul radio link to the DeNB.
2.2 Other Release 10 enhancements

The following sections describe further Release 10 work items that were not originally
identified to meet the ITU-R requirements for IMT-Advanced in 36.912 [2].
Enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC)

Basic support for inter-cell interference coordination started in Release 8 and is enhanced
in Release 10 with the eICIC work item. Before discussing eICIC it is worth reviewing the
attributes of the CDMA and OFDM air interfaces to see how they behave with regard to
inter-cell interference and the techniques that can be applied to mitigate it.
In the CDMA systems that dominate 3G, cell-edge interference is now a well-understood
phenomenon and techniques for dealing with it continue to advance. This was not always
the case and early CDMA systems were dogged with unexpected issues such as “cell
breathing” in which the cell boundary moves as a result of power-control problems and
excessive soft handover activity. Cell breathing can now be used with care as a tool for
inter-cell load balancing. UMTS Release 7 introduced the HSDPA Type 3i receiver, which
incorporated diversity reception, an equalizer, and dual-input interference cancellation
capability. Due to the use of cell-specific scrambling codes and the presence of patterns
within the signal caused by frequency selective fading, a cell-edge interferer in a CDMA
system has considerably more structure than AWGN. This structure can be used by an
interference-cancelling receiver to remove significant portions of the co-channel interference.
The introduction of OFDMA to cellular systems—starting with 802.16e and continuing with
LTE—has significantly changed the nature of cell-edge interference. In CDMA systems
all the transmissions occupy the entire channel and are summed to create a signal with
relatively stable dynamics. In OFDMA the potential for frequency-selective scheduling
within the channel opens up new possibilities for optimizing intra-cell performance but
also creates dynamic conditions in which inter-cell co-channel interference may occur.
Work continues in 3GPP to better understand the effect of this interference on operational
performance. In particular it has been noted that the narrowband and statistical (temporal)
nature of the downlink interference can influence the behavior of sub-band CQI and PMI
reporting. While the presence of interference in CDMA systems is largely consistent across
the channel bandwidth, the presence of interference in OFDMA systems using frequency-
selective scheduling can change rapidly from the time of CQI reporting to its impact on
the next scheduled transmission. However, the use of a scheduled uplink for LTE is an
advantage compared to the approach used in CDMA whose capacity was limited by noise
rise at the base station.
The downlink interference protection between CDMA cells offered by the use of scrambling
codes is not available in narrowband OFDMA transmissions, which leaves the narrowband
signals vulnerable to narrowband interference. However, the ability of cells to coordinate
their narrowband scheduling offers some potential for interference avoidance. Support for
coordination of resource block (RB) allocation between cells in the downlink was intro-
duced in Release 8 with the inclusion of the relative narrowband transmit power (RNTP)
indicator. This support feature is a bitmap that can be shared between base stations over
the X2 interface. It represents those RBs for which the base station intends to limit its
output power to a configurable upper limit for some period of agreed-upon time. This
feature allows schedulers to agree on how cell-edge RB will be used so that, for instance,
cell-edge users who cause the most interference can be restricted to certain parts of the
channel. This coordination could be implemented using a semi-static agreement for partial
frequency reuse at the cell edge or might involve more dynamic scheduling based on real-
time network loading.
Two interference coordination mechanisms based on RB bitmaps are available for the
uplink. The first is a bitmap called the overload indicator (OI), which can be provided by
a base station to neighbor base stations indicating the level of uplink power plus noise
as being “low,” “medium,” or “high.” The second is more proactive and is the high interfer-
ence indicator (HII). This is communicated to neighbor base stations prior to the UE being
scheduled, giving other base stations the chance to avoid the identified RB rather than
allowing interference to occur and then having to deal with the consequences. These basic
frequency domain approaches to ICIC are elaborated in Release 10 with the additional
ability to coordinate inter-cell scheduling in the time domain.

Heterogeneous networks
The original cellular deployment scenario in Release 8 was the traditional cellular pattern
of adjacent cells sharing the same frequency. By Release 10 a variety of new base station
types have been introduced including the local area BS (picocell), home BS (femtocell),
and relay node. The inter-cell coexistence techniques that might be employed in a Release
8 network comprising wide area base stations are well understood; however, the introduc-
tion of the new base station types creates new coexistence scenarios. The issue is not
that a network incorporating only one base station type might be deployed—in which case
existing techniques might suffice—but that the network might include a mixture of different
base station types, all occupying the same frequency. This scenario has been termed the
heterogeneous network or HetNet for short. In the HetNet environment new co-channel
interference scenarios arise that require new inter-cell interference coordination solutions.
There are two forms of co-channel heterogeneous deployment, each requiring a different
approach to interference avoidance. The first is the open subscriber group (OSG), a type of
deployment that might be used by an operator with a macro network providing broad cov-
erage overlaid with local area base stations in areas where coverage issues exist or where
higher capacity is needed—for example, in a shopping mall. In this scenario a user is free
to roam between the macro network and any local area BS deployed by the operator on
the same frequency. For OSG deployment, the local area BS is located in the center of the
area in the network where the increased capacity is required. At the perimeter of this area
the strengths of the wide area and local area base stations are similar and performance
may be significantly degraded. Closer to the local area BS the interference becomes less
problematic. It is also possible to have an OSG scenario with a home BS, provided that the
home BS is configured to be open to all users of that operator.
The second form of co-channel deployment is the closed subscriber group (CSG). This
type of deployment is essentially limited to a home BS scenario in which access to the
home BS is limited to a fixed group of subscribers; for example, the occupants of a dwell-
ing or employees of an enterprise. The deployment provides good service for the closed
subscriber group but creates a much more difficult interference situation for all other users
since the problem area is no longer limited to a ring around the local area BS or home BS
but extends to the entire coverage area of the home BS. Such a situation could be accept-
able in low density rural areas but is likely to cause severe difficulties for macro network
coverage in more densely populated areas. The obvious solution to home BS CSG is to
assign different channels to the home BS and the macro network, thus restricting the
interference to that which exists between adjacent home BS. Unfortunately this approach
is not available to operators with only a single channel. Some form of partial frequency
reuse is also possible although this does not solve interference in the control channels,
which always occupy the central 1.08 MHz of the channel. Given the difficulty of CSG, the
initial work on eICIC in heterogeneous networks has been focused on the OSG case.
Almost blank subframes

The frequency domain ICIC techniques available in Release 8 and Release 9 are effective
in managing the interference caused by data traffic, but these techniques are not suited
to minimizing interference between the control channels, which always occupy the same
central 1.08 MHz of the channel regardless of channel bandwidth. To deal better with con-
trol channel interference issues, Release 10 introduces the almost blank subframe (ABS)
as the primary mechanism for eICIC. In this time-domain approach, the macro network
chooses to minimize scheduled transmissions on certain subframes so that they can be
used by the local area BS with minimal degradation of performance. These subframes are
considered “almost blank” since minimal control traffic on the PDCCH may still be present
in order to schedule macro uplink traffic and maintain HARQ ACK/NACK feedback to the
macro UE. Backward compatibility to Release 8 and Release 9 UEs must also be main-
tained, which requires that the base station downlink still be measurable by legacy UEs.
To do this, the downlink subframe must contain the cell RS, synchronization signals, and
the paging channel. If the downlink subframe is designated as an MBSFN subframe, then
fewer signals will be required.
As with the RNTP indicator introduced for frequency-domain ICIC, the use of ABS by the
macro BS is indicated by an ABS pattern bitmap, but in this case we are not dealing with
frequency domain RBs but with the time-domain subframe. There is also a secondary
indicator known as the measurement subset, which indicates to the victim BS those sub-
frames that the UE connected to the victim BS should use to assess the interference from
the macro network when ABS is not configured. There is a great deal of flexibility in how
ABS can be used and as such the standards specify the mechanisms for use in proprietary
implementations but does not mandate specific solutions.
Further enhanced ICIC

Some of the work on eICIC was not completed in Release 10 and so the further enhanced
ICIC (FeICIC) work item was created for Release 11. This includes specification of system
performance requirements for scenarios involving a dominant downlink interferer.
Carrier-based HetNet ICIC

The ICIC requirements developed through Release 10 are all based on co-channel (intra-
frequency) scenarios. It was originally planned to develop ICIC further in Release 11 to
take advantage of network-based carrier selection and this work was carried over to
Release 12 but subsequently terminated early due to overlap with other work on small cell
enhancements.
Minimization of drive test

Drive testing has long been used to facilitate the planning and operational optimization of
networks. While drive testing is a powerful technique, it is time-consuming and expensive
to carry out. To alleviate some of the cost associated with drive testing, a new set of UE
measurement capabilities are introduced in Release 10 under the minimization of drive test
(MDT) work item. The Release 10 work was focused on coverage and Release 11 added
QoS verification. The MDT technical report is in TR 37.320 [6].
Machine-type communications (MTC)

For most of the history of cellular communications the goal has been to provide services
between people. However, since the advent of data services there has been an increasing
desire to support cellular communication between machines. These could be vend-
ing machines communicating with a corporate server to indicate sales activity and the
need for restocking, or perhaps machines providing remote meter reading. The types and
frequency of traffic in such scenarios are quite different from those for which LTE was origi-
nally developed. Machine-type communications often involve small amounts of data sent
infrequently, preferably using very low cost infrastructure.
These attributes are well-served by legacy systems such as GSM but are not well-suited to
the footprint provided by LTE Release 8, whose lowest UE category mandates support for
at least 10 Mbps in the downlink with two receivers and 5 Mbps in the uplink. The purpose
of the MTC work item is therefore to develop additional UE categories more suited to the
lower requirements of MTC.
The work on MTC started in Release 10 continued in Releases 11 and 12. The scope has
been clarified to indicate a target improvement in coverage over legacy systems of some
20 dB (later reduced to 15 dB) for very small data packets on the order of 100 bytes per
message in the uplink and 20 bytes per message in the downlink. This may be achieved
through drastically reduced latency of up to 10 seconds in the downlink and one hour in
the uplink. High overall system efficiency can then be delivered through scheduling during
quiet times. The MTC technical report is in TR 36.888 [7]. For a summary of the further
enhancements, see page 50.
New frequency bands

New frequency bands were added in Release 10 as shown in Table 6. The number has con-
tinued to grow with each release of the 3GPP specification. To help maintain some degree
of simplicity in the specification, LTE-Advanced frequency bands are therefore “release
independent,” which means that a band defined in a later release can be applied to an
earlier release. A list of all frequency bands specified to date is found on page 47.

Bandwidth Gap
22 3410 3490 3510 3590 80 100 20 FDD

23 2000 2020 2180 2200 20 180 160 FDD
24 1626.5 1660.5 1525 1559 34 -101.5 67.5 FDD
25 1850 1915 1930 1995 65 80 15 FDD
···
41 2496 2690 2496 2690 194 0 0 TDD
42 3400 3600 3400 3600 200 0 0 TDD
43 3600 3800 3600 3800 200 0 0 TDD
New UE categories
LTE-Advanced introduces technology to support higher data rates and higher order MIMO
capabilities. For practical reasons, performance levels below the maximum theoretically
possible are necessary to enable a range of implementation choices for system devel-
opment. These are handled through the different UE categories specified for LTE and
LTE-Advanced. Release 8/9 LTE supports five categories, with the maximum category able
to reach approximately 300 Mbps in the downlink and 75 Mbps in the uplink. Release 10
adds three new categories to support LTE-Advanced features, as shown in Table 7. More
categories were added in Releases 11 and 12.
Table 7. Peak data rates and layers supported by UE categories specified in Release 10
Date rate Downlink Uplink

UE
DL/UL
category Max number of Max number of Support
(Mbps)
layers layers for 64QAM
1 10/5 1 1 No
2 50/25 2 1 No
Introduced in
Release 8/9 LTE 3 100/50 2 1 No
4 150/50 2 1 No
5 300/75 4 1 Yes
Introduced in 6 300/50 2 or 4 1 or 2 No
Release 10 7 300/100 2 or 4 1 or 2 No
LTE-Advanced 8 3000/1500 8 4 Yes
Comparing categories 5 and 6 shows that both can reach 300 Mbps in the downlink. The
main difference is in the MIMO capabilities that the UE must support to reach the maxi-
mum. In a category 5 device, MIMO 4x4 is required to reach 300 Mbps. However, a cat-
egory 6 device can reach that maximum using just 2x2 MIMO. The reason is that category
6 supports carrier aggregation, and with this feature the transmission bandwidth can be
increased thus increasing the IP data rates available without requiring the very complex
higher order MIMO techniques.
The highest category supported by LTE-Advanced is category 8, which represents the

maximum theoretical values provided by this technology: 3 Gbps in the downlink and 1.5
Gbps in the uplink. As Table 8 shows, there is a large gap between what can be supported
by a category 7 and a category 8 device. Currently 3GPP is evaluating the creation of new
UE categories to reduce this performance gap.
3 Release 11 LTE-Advanced Enhancements

Release 11 continues the work of Release 10 with enhancements to LTE-Advanced along
with new frequency bands and new band combinations for carrier aggregation. Work
continued on a number of items started in earlier releases, including carrier aggregation,
home base stations (HeNB), SON, minimization of drive test, machine-type communica-
tion, and MBMS service enhancements.
New features were also introduced in Release 11, including coordinated multi-point
(CoMP) operation for LTE, further enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (FeICIC)
for devices with interference cancellation, and an enhanced physical downlink control channel
(EPDCCH) for LTE-Advanced. A complete list of all Release 11 features is found in the
Overview of 3GPP Release 11 [8]. Work on Release 11 for RAN started in December 2010
and the core work was completed in September 2012 with test aspects following on later.
3.1 New frequency bands

The new frequency bands added in Release 11 are shown in Table 8.

Bandwidth Gap
26 814 849 859 894 35 45 10 FDD

27 807 824 852 869 17 45 28 FDD
28 703 748 758 803 45 55 10 FDD
29* — — 717 728 11 — — FDD
···
44 703 803 703 803 100 0 0 TDD
*Band 29 is a “supplemental downlink only” band intended for use in carrier aggregation scenarios.
3.2 Release 11 features for UTRA and LTE

The following enhancements in Release 11 apply to the high speed packet access (HSPA)
UTRA as well as the LTE/LTE-Advanced E-UTRA.
Further self-optimizing network (SON) enhancements

Mobility robustness optimization (MRO) enhancements were completed in Release 10 with
appropriate support for LTE. However, although the need for an inter-RAT solution was
identified, there was no time to complete the work at that time and the inter-RAT MRO
enhancement topic was postponed. Release 11 enhancements for inter-RAT MRO provide
mechanisms for detecting and enabling correction of connection failures due to inter-RAT
mobility and inter-RAT ping pong. Solutions may involve handover optimization tech-
niques, analysis of statistics collected by the responsible node, and coverage verification.
To that end, support has been added for retrieving information for problem analysis from
both the eNB and the network.
Several inter-RAT ping-pong scenarios were identified to be brought to the specification

stage: (1) inter-RAT failure issues related to deployment of LTE over broader 2G/3G coverage;
(2) connection failure resolution support for HetNet deployments in case of certain hand-
over problems occurring between macro and pico cells; and (3) inter-RAT ping pong event
resolution. See [8] [4].
Enhancement of MDT for E-UTRAN and UTRAN

E-UTRAN measurement and reporting solutions are enhanced for immediate MDT—
that is, measurement results are reported immediately to the eNB when the UE is in the
connected state (RRC_CONNECTED). The eNB can request detailed location information
from the UE, and it is desired that the UE provide fresh location information with each
immediate MDT measurement report. However, the means by which this is achieved is up
to the specific UE implementation.
The MDT data reported from UEs and the RAN may be used to verify QoS, assess user
experience from the RAN perspective, and assist network capacity extension. Release 11
adds the first quality of service (QoS) use cases, which address traffic location in a cell and
for user QoS experience. It also adds new coverage use cases for cell boundary mapping
and coverage mapping. See [6].
Network energy saving for E-UTRAN

With the growth in network capacity there is an increasing need to consider the energy
costs of operating the network. In particular, opportunities exist to dynamically dimension
the network based on traffic loading. The stage 2 definition of network energy saving is
defined in TS 36.300 [4] Section 22.4.4. The basic mechanism is that an eNB containing
one or more capacity booster cells in addition to the basic coverage cells may choose to
deactivate the booster cells based on a drop in the network load. This deactivation may
require communication with peer eNBs over the X2 interface to indicate that the booster
cell is going to be deactivated. Also, it may be necessary to offload users from the booster
cell to the coverage cells by means of handover.
A study item in Release 11 evaluated three energy saving use cases and the feasibility of
solutions and enhancements. Solutions for intra-eNB energy savings use cases are imple-
mentation-based and are already supported in the specification. However, for inter-eNB
and inter-RAT use cases further specification work is needed. For inter-eNB energy savings
when the cells are overlapping, it may be necessary to add enhancements on top of the
Release 9 solution. For inter-RAT energy savings, an OAM or signaling-based solution is
feasible. The results of the study are found in TR 36.927 [9]. See also [8] [4].
RF requirements for multi-band and multi-standard radio

Prior to Release 11, the RF requirements for multi-band, multi-standard radio (MB-MSR)
base stations had not yet been defined. Existing MSR RF requirements based on the
single-band scenario could not necessarily be reused directly for an MB-MSR base sta-
tion. Therefore, both core and test requirements needed to be updated based on identified
multi-band application scenarios.
A work item was created in Release 11 to define the RF requirements for macro-cell de-
ployment scenarios (scenarios based on micro- or pico-cell deployments will be developed
in a later stage).Both FDD and TDD deployment scenarios and band combinations were
identified for development, and the MB-MSR BS is based on a common transmitter or re-
ceiver RF chain for the multiple bands. The specification work included creation of the core
RF requirements (transmitter and receiver characteristics) and the test configuration and
test requirements derived from the RF requirements. A complete description of the work
item is found in TR 37.812 [10].
Further enhancements to H(e)NB mobility

A number of mobility-related enhancements for UMTS HNBs and LTE HeNBs were evalu-
ated and the results are captured in TR 37.803. For LTE, Release 11 defines the require-
ments to support and update specifications for enhanced mobility between the macro to
open HeNB, macro to hybrid HeNB, open HeNB to hybrid HeNB, hybrid HeNB to hybrid
HeNB (inter-closed subscriber group (CSG)), CSG HeNB to macro CSG, and HeNB to hy-
brid HeNB. Closed subscriber group membership verification is performed using a method
defined in TR 37.803 for mobility towards hybrid-mode HeNBs. Release 11 also introduces
an optional X2 gateway in support of HeNB to HeNB mobility. See [8].
3.3 Release 11 features for LTE

A number of LTE-only enhancements were added in Release 11 to support LTE-Advanced.
In addition to new frequency bands and carrier aggregation combinations, the following
features were defined.
Network-based positioning support in LTE

As noted earlier, positioning support was added to LTE in Release 9 based on methods
such as AGNSS and downlink observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA). Network-based
positioning support is added in Release 11; specifically, uplink time difference of arrival
(UTDOA) positioning is specified based on the sounding reference signals (SRS) being
used for uplink measurements. The UTDOA method is widely deployed and proven in the
US and it was determined that this method could support emergency service calls requir-
ing a high degree of accuracy. Further, UTDOA can be used in areas with insufficient satel-
lite coverage to support AGNSS or where downlink OTDOA is not supported.
The core specifications for network-based positioning support of LTE include the following:
–– Stage 2 specification of UE positioning architecture, protocol, interface, and procedures
for UTDOA.
–– Specification of SRS measurement definition, SRS measurement requirements (mea
surement period and accuracy requirements) and RF requirements based on SRS only.
Specification of the interface and signaling support between UTDOA measurement units
and between UTDOA measurement units and the evolved serving mobile location center
(E-SMLC).The location measurement units (LMUs) that support UTDOA measurements
are located at the eNB. A new interface called the SLm is specified at the boundary
between the LMUs and the E-SMLC. It is described in new TS 36.456 [11].
–– Specification of procedures for UTDOA measurement triggering, measurement configuration,
assistance data transfer, and measurement report transfer.
Completion of the performance specifications—which include the RF measurement

definitions, reports, and measurement time and accuracy requirements based on SRS—
was moved from Release 11 to Release 12. The performance specifications are detailed in
TS 36.111 [12] and the conformance test specifications are in TS 36.112 [13].
Service continuity improvements for MBMS for LTE

Release 11 evolved MBMS for LTE to make the feature set more competitive. As defined in
Release 9, MBMS services are broadcast over an entire multi-broadcast single frequency
network (MBSFN) area, even though some services may be relevant only to certain parts
of the area. A UE could potentially minimize battery consumption if it can determine which
MBMS services are relevant to its current location and, based on that information, decide
which services to receive and decode.
Further, mobility procedures do not account for MBMS reception in Release 9 and Release
10. Making the network aware of the services that the UE is receiving or is interested in
receiving via MBMS could facilitate proper action by the network, such as handover to a
target cell or reconfiguration of secondary cells to facilitate the continuity of unicast ser-
vices and desired MBMS services.
The Release 11 MBMS enhancements specify the mechanisms for enabling the network to
provide continuity of the services provided by an MBSFN in deployment scenarios involv-
ing one or more frequencies. These mechanisms include cell selection and reselection that
allow the UE to receive the desired MBMS services in RRC Idle mode, and the signaling
mechanisms for providing continuity of the desired MBMS services in RRC Connected
mode. The related multi-cell/multicast coordination entity (MCE) functionality for these
mechanisms is also specified.
Mobility procedures are enhanced for MBMS reception, allowing the UE to start or con-
tinue receiving MBMS services via MBSFN when changing cells. The E-UTRAN procedures
provide support for service continuity with respect to mobility within the same MBSFN
area. Within the same geographic area, MBMS services can be provided on more than
one frequency, and the frequencies used to provide MBMS services may change from one
geographic area to another within a public land mobile network (PLMN). See [4] [8].
Further enhanced non CA-based ICIC for LTE

Efforts to reduce interference in co-channel deployments of heterogeneous networks were
begun in Release 10 with the specification of eICIC. Release 11 continues this work, defining
further enhancements to ICIC (FeICIC) which do not rely on carrier aggregation. Updates
to UE performance requirements and signaling are specified (1) to improve detection of
physical cell identifier (PCI) and critical system information in the presence of dominant
interferers and different network configurations, and (2) to improve downlink control and
data detection and UE measurement and reporting in the presence of dominant interferers
including colliding and non-colliding reference signals as well as almost blank subframe
(ABS) configurations. These enhancements are all dependent on the UE receiver configu-
ration. See [8].
Without a receiver capable of interference cancellation, a heterogeneous network’s eICIC

can work effectively only for non-colliding cell-specific reference signal (CRS) cases.
Release 11 enables the network to signal assistance information to the UE for CRS inter-
ference cancellation that involves signaling of neighbor macrocell information. To better
detect system information, the network uses dedicated signaling of the broadcast system
information block type 1 (SIB-1) [14].
LTE RAN enhancements for diverse data applications

The diverse range of mobile data applications available to consumers is now very extensive
and includes short message service (SMS), instant messaging, web browsing, social
networking, and a variety of push services. Modern devices such as tablets and smart-
phones will often activate some or all of these services in parallel, putting considerable
strain on the radio network—not just due to the volume of data but also the substantial
signaling overhead created by the “chatty” nature of many applications. In addition,
the user expectation of an always-on mobile broadband experience puts great demands
on battery consumption since the device may be prevented from reaching the idle state.
Moreover, most modern applications were not developed with the unique characteristics of
cellular networks in mind and so the use of network resources is often inefficient. How to
balance the demands of user experience with battery consumption and network efficiency
will depend on the characteristics of individual applications that may vary over time.
The outcome of the RAN enhancement work item is captured in TR 36.822 [15]. It has
resulted in the specification of a power preference feature that allows the UE to signal the
network its preference for a configuration that reduces power consumption. The details of
how the UE sets the preference indicator mechanism are left to UE implementation.
Relays for LTE

Support for relays was specified in Release 10, and Release 11 defines the RF core
requirements needed for full relay specification support. Specifically, these are transmitter
and receiver requirements for access and backhaul, and they are captured in a technical
specification, TS 36.116 [16].
Transmitter characteristics are defined for output power and output power dynamics,
transmitted signal quality, unwanted emissions, and intermodulation. Receiver character-
istics are defined for reference sensitivity, dynamic range, in-channel selectivity, adjacent
channel selectivity and blocking requirements, receiver spurious emissions, and receiver
intermodulation.
Another new technical specification, TS 36.117 [5] defines the RF test methods and
conformance test requirements for E-UTRA relay derived from the specifications defined
in TS 36.116.
Signaling and procedure for interference avoidance for in-device

coexistence
So that users can access various networks and services wherever they are, an increasing
number of UEs are equipped with multiple radio transceivers for LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,
GNSS, etc. As a result, UEs are challenged to avoid coexistence interference between
those co-located radio transceivers. The studies done for the work item that led to this
feature showed that existing radio resource management (RRM) mechanisms in some
cases were not effective enough to handle the coexistence issues, and some enhanced
signaling and other procedures would be necessary to avoid or mitigate the coexistence
interference in the identified usage scenarios.
As a result of this work a new in-device coexistence (IDC) indication message was defined
in TS 36.331 [17]. This message enables the UE to alert the network of an interference
issue and provide information regarding the direction and nature of the interference, which
may be identified in either the time or frequency domain. Upon receipt of the IDC
message, the network will take appropriate steps to alleviate the problem by reallocating
radio resources.
Coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP)

Coordinated multi-point (CoMP)—sometimes called cooperative MIMO or network MIMO—
has long been under consideration for LTE and in Release 11 is at last defined. The goal of
CoMP is to improve the coverage of high data rates and cell-edge throughput, and also to
increase system throughput. Figure 12 compares standard MIMO with CoMP.
The primary difference between standard MIMO and CoMP is that for the latter, the
transmitters are not physically co-located. In the case of downlink CoMP, however, there
is the possibility of linking the transmitters at baseband (shown as the link between the
transmitters on the right half of Figure 8 to enable sharing of payload data for the pur-
poses of coordinated precoding. This sharing is not physically possible for the uplink,
which limits the options for uplink CoMP. For the standard network topology in which the
eNBs are physically distributed, provision of a high capacity, low latency baseband link is
challenging and would probably require augmentation of the X2 inter-eNB interface using
fiber. However, a cost-effective solution for inter-eNB connectivity is offered by the move
towards a network architecture in which the baseband and RF transceivers are located at
a central site with distribution of the RF to the remote radio heads via fiber. The physical
layer framework for CoMP is described in the Release 11 feasibility study in 36.819 [18].
Figure 12. Standard MIMO versus coordinated multi-point
CoMP deployment scenarios

Four downlink scenarios were defined for the feasibility study: Scenario 1 (Figure 13) is a
homogeneous network (all cells have the same coverage area) with intra-site CoMP. This is
the least complex form of CoMP and is limited to eNBs sharing the same site.
Figure 13. Scenario 1—Homogeneous network with intra-site CoMP (36.819 [18], Figure A.1-1)
Scenario 2 (Figure 14) is also a homogeneous network but with high Tx-power remote
radio heads (RRHs). This is an extension of scenario 1 in which the six sites adjacent to the
central site are connected via fiber optic links to enable baseband cooperation across a
wider area than is possible with scenario 1.
Figure 14. Scenario 2—Homogeneous network with high Tx power RRHs [(36.819 [18], Figure A.1-2)]
Figure 15. Reference CoMP coordination cell layout for Scenario 2 [(36.819 [18], Figure A.1-3)]
Scenarios 3 and 4 (Figure 16) are heterogeneous networks in which low power RRHs
with limited coverage are located within the macrocell coverage area. In scenario 3 the
transmission/reception points created by the RRHs have different cell identifications than
does the macro cell and for scenario 4 the cell identifications are the same as that of the
macro cell.
Figure 16. Scenario 3/4 - Network with low power RRHs within the macrocell coverage area [(36.819 [18],
Figure A.1-4)]
CoMP categories
The introduction of CoMP enables several new categories of network operation.
Downlink CoMP categories are defined as follows.

–– Joint processing (JP): Data for a UE is available at more than one point in the CoMP
cooperating set for the same time-frequency resource.
– Joint transmission (JT): This is a form of spatial multiplexing that takes advantage of
de-correlated transmission from more than one point within the cooperating set. Data
to a UE is simultaneously transmitted from multiple points; e.g., to coherently or non-
coherently improve the received signal quality or data throughput.
– Dynamic point selection (DPS)/muting: The UE data is available at all points in the
cooperating set but is only transmitted from one point based on dynamic selection in
time and frequency. The DPS includes dynamic cell selection (DCS). DPS may be
combined with JT, in which case multiple points can be selected for data transmission
in the time-frequency resource.
–– Coordinated scheduling and beamforming (CS/CB): Data for a UE is only available at
and transmitted from one point in the CoMP cooperating set but user scheduling and
beamforming decisions are made across all points in the cooperating set.
–– Semi-static point selection (SSPS) is used to make the transmission decisions.
Dynamic or semi-static muting may be applied to both JP and CS/CB.
–– Hybrid JP and CS/CB: Data for a UE may be available in a subset of points in the CoMP
cooperating set for a time frequency resource but user scheduling and beamforming
decisions are made with coordination among points corresponding to the CoMP cooper-
ating set. For example, some points in the cooperating set may transmit data to the
target UE according to JP while other points in the cooperating set may perform CS/CB.
New categories in the uplink are the following.

–– Joint reception (JR): The PUSCH transmitted by the UE is simultaneously (jointly)
received at some or all of the points in the cooperating set. This simultaneous reception
can be used with inter-point processing to improve the received signal quality.
–– Coordinated scheduling and beamforming (CS/CB): User scheduling and precoding
selection decisions are made with coordination among points corresponding to the
cooperating set. Data is intended for one point only.
CoMP sets
Various sets of eNBs are identified for downlink CoMP purposes.
–– CoMP cooperating set: The set of eNB points within a geographic area that are directly
or indirectly participating in data transmission to a UE. The UE may or may not know
about this set. The direct participation points are those actually transmitting data and
the indirect points are those involved in cooperative decision making for user scheduling
and beamforming in the time and frequency domains.
–– CoMP transmission point(s): The point or set of points transmitting data to a UE. CoMP
transmission points are a subset of the CoMP cooperating set.
For JT, CoMP transmission points may include multiple points in the CoMP cooperating set
at each subframe for a certain frequency resource.
For CS/CB, DPS, and SSPS, a single point in the CoMP cooperating set is the CoMP trans-
mission point at each subframe for a given frequency resource.
For SSPS, the CoMP transmission point can change semi-statically within the CoMP coop-
erating set.
–– CoMP measurement set: The set of points about which channel state and statistical
information related to the UE radio link is measured and reported.
–– RRM measurement set: The set of cells for which Release 8 radio resource management
(RRM) measurements are performed. Additional RRM measurement methods may be
developed; e.g., in order to separate different points belonging to the same logical cell
entity or in order to select the CoMP measurement set.
For the uplink, the following sets are identified.

–– CoMP reception point(s): The point or set of points that is a subset of the cooperating
set receiving data from a UE.
– For JR, CoMP reception points may include multiple points in the CoMP cooperating
set at each subframe for a certain frequency resource.
– For CS/CB, a single point in the CoMP cooperating set is the CoMP reception point at
each subframe for a certain frequency resource.
Radio interface aspects

To enable CoMP operation, changes to the radio interface will likely be needed in the areas
of channel state information (CSI) feedback from the UE, preprocessing schemes for coor-
dination of joint transmission, and possibly new reference signal designs and new control
signaling mechanisms. Reuse of existing Release 8 CSI measurements extended for CoMP,
called explicit feedback, is expected. Channel parameters (per point) include the channel
matrix H, the transmit covariance matrix R, and possibly inter-point properties such as the
inter-point phase relationship required for JT. Noise and interference parameters are also
required.
To take full advantage of CoMP, more advanced implicit feedback will be required based on
UE hypotheses about different CoMP transmission and reception processing. The potential
for CoMP becomes greater for TDD operation since UE transmission of the sounding refer-
ence signal (SRS) can be used by the eNB to precisely determine the downlink channel
conditions on the assumption of TDD channel reciprocity.
Simulation results
Extensive simulation of CoMP performance has been performed by multiple companies
for the four deployment scenarios identified for uplink and downlink FDD and TDD. Both
3GPP and ITU channel models were used, and the impact of cell loading and inter-cell
communication latency and bandwidth was also studied. Although the simulation criteria
were specified, the results showed variations in performance that may be due to different
assumptions being made for the channel estimation error modeling, channel reciprocity
modeling, feedback and SRS mechanisms, the scheduler, and the receiver. The impact of
CoMP on legacy UEs is not considered.
The results of the simulations show that CoMP gains vary widely depending on the specific
scenario and whether the focus is on average cell performance, mean user performance,
or improving the performance of the worst 5% of users in the cell. Some scenarios provide
no gain at all and others, particularly TDD with its channel reciprocity advantage, show
gains of up to 80%. Typical gains fall in the range of 10% to 30%. As a result, a work item
to progress CoMP was defined in Release 11 with the intention of developing the following
aspects:
–– Joint transmission
–– Dynamic point selection, including dynamic point blanking
–– Coordinated scheduling and beamforming, including dynamic point blanking.
In support of downlink CoMP, a new PDSCH transmission scheme, TM 10, was introduced
in Release 11. This includes a new feedback mechanism that supports CS/CB and DPS.
Work on CoMP is ongoing.
Enhanced downlink control channels for LTE-Advanced

In LTE-Advanced, the continued introduction of features such as carrier aggregation,
CoMP, and enhanced downlink MIMO has resulted in the need to enhance the capabilities of
the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). As defined in the Release 11 core speci-
fication, the enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) will be compatible with legacy carriers, provide
more signaling capacity, support frequency domain ICIC, improve the spatial reuse of the
control channel, support beamforming and diversity schemes, and operate in MBSFN
subframes. (The ability to also operate in non-MBSFN subframes is assumed.)
Frequency-selective scheduling for the EPDCCH is also desirable as is mitigation of inter-

cell interference. The common search space for enhanced downlink control channels is not
included in this definition.
Public safety broadband high power UE for Band 14, Region 2

The US Federal Communications Commission Public Safety and Homeland Security
Bureau has selected LTE as the technology for public safety services in the 700 MHz public
safety band (3GPP Band 14; see page 46 table). Due to the coverage and uplink perfor-
mance requirements for public safety broadband (PSBB) systems, the existing 23 dBm UE
power class (class 3) is not considered sufficient.
Public safety “first responders” will rely on handheld UEs as well as vehicular mobile
applications that have fewer constraints on size, weight, and power consumption than
handheld UEs. A vehicular mobile application also has the possibility of incorporating
very efficient vehicle-mounted antennas. Unlike commercial cellular systems, which often
generally have a 95 % population coverage target, PSBB systems target 99% cover-
age. Although this change may seem insignificant, to reach the additional 4% of the US
population requires a 60% increase in the coverage area. Providing such coverage using
base stations alone would be very expensive, so a higher power UE (HPUE) power class 1
has been specified in band 14 for a vehicular mobile form factor with vehicular-mounted
antennas. The provisional requirements are captured in TS 36.837 [19] and the RF specifi-
cations in TS 36.101 [20].
In order to optimize reuse of the existing LTE UE ecosystem, the new requirements mini-
mize change that might impact the design of the baseband and lower-power RF com-
ponents of the UE. The bulk of the design changes are in the RF front end containing the
power amplifier (PA), filtering, and signal-combining components. The headline parameter
driving the HPUE specification is the 8 dB increase of maximum output power to 31 dBm.
Although few other transmitter and receiver requirements will be changed from those
defined for the existing power class 3 UE (23 dBm), this increased maximum power has
considerable design implications for both the transmitter and the receiver. For instance,
the dynamic range of the transmitter increases 8 dB and all fixed-level unwanted emis-
sions become 8 dB harder to meet. For the receiver to maintain the existing RF sensitivity
the duplex filter has to provide 8 dB more isolation from the transmitter.
The tighter filtering requirements represent probably the biggest design change for the
HPUE because existing miniature surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters measuring perhaps
5 mm3 cannot handle the higher output power or provide the necessary filtering perfor-
mance. Alternative technologies will be required—for example, ceramic or cavity filters,
which are substantially larger at around 8000 mm3. Fortunately, the form factor of the
vehicular mobile has more relaxed constraints on size and power than does the standard
handheld UE.
Studies have shown that to maintain the existing co-existence performance of power class
3 UE, the HPUE will need to have better ACLR and so one of the few performance require-
ments to change for the HPUE was the ACLR requirement which has been tightened from
30 dB to 37 dB.
In summary, the increase in maximum output power along with the potential for vehicular-
mounted antennas means that the power class 1 HPUE will offer substantially better
performance in areas of poor reception than was possible with the power class 3 UE. It’s
expected that the increased cost of the HPUE will be offset by substantial savings in the
number of base stations needed to achieve 99% population coverage.
Improved minimum performance requirements for E-UTRA: in-

terference rejection
Existing LTE UE demodulation requirements are based on the assumption of a linear
minimum mean squared error (LMMSE) dual receiver. This is a powerful receiver architec-
ture capable of suppressing both inter-cell and intra-cell interference. However, existing
demodulation requirements are based on additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), which is
de-correlated between the antennas. This simplified method of modeling interference has
been widely used for many years and is suitable for measuring the performance of receiv-
ers without interference cancellation capabilities. However, to exploit the full potential
an LMMSE receiver with interference rejection combining (IRC) capabilities and achieve
a performance gain over standard receivers, it is necessary to more accurately model the
interference. Studies carried out in Release 10 showed that enhanced receivers capable of
RS-based interference covariance estimation to mitigate spatial domain interference could
provide significant throughput gains in the high interference conditions of a heavily loaded
network.
The scope of the Release 11 work included a variety of deployment scenarios that take
into account the number of interfering sources, their structure (including transmission rank
and precoding), and their power ratio relative to the total interference from other cells. This
ratio is known as the dominant interferer proportion (DIP) ratio. Both synchronized and
asynchronous cases were considered since they can have a major impact on interference
susceptibility. Also within the scope of Release 11 were definitions of cell RS and UE-
specific RS in anticipation of future network deployment scenarios.
In TS 36.101 [20], enhanced performance requirements are specified for interference-

aware receivers based on LMMSE IRC. Two aspects were considered: demodulation
performance and receiver type verification, with the goal of ensuring that the LMMSE-IRC
receiver structure is used for both demodulation and channel state information reporting.
Corresponding updates to UE conformance test specifications along with a new technical
report on the derivation of test tolerances for UE radio reception conformance tests,
TR 36.904 [21], are expected in September 2014.
Additional special subframe configuration for LTE TDD

The operation of TDD networks requires careful coordination between systems deployed
on adjacent channels. Co-existence of LTE TDD with legacy UMTS TD-SCDMA systems is
required and for this case, special subframe configuration number 5 is chosen for the nor-
mal cyclic prefix case and configuration number 4 for the extended cyclic prefix case. The
special subframe lasts for one ms and always comes between the transition from downlink
transmission to uplink transmission, although it is not required from the uplink back to
the downlink. The special subframe comprises the downlink pilot timeslot (DwPTS), a gap
period (GP), and an uplink pilot timeslot (UpPTS). The ratio between the DwPTS, GP, and
UpPTS is configurable, and for TD-SCDMA co-existence, configuration 5 uses a ratio of
3:9:2 and configuration 4 uses 3:7:2. Although these configurations provide the neces-
sary protection when LTE TDD and TD-SCDMA systems are in adjacent channels, the use
of a relatively large GP in these configurations is seen as inefficient since no data can be
transmitted during the gap period.
To address this shortcoming, two new special subframe configurations have been specified
in Release 11. For the extended cyclic prefix case, a new option for special configuration
number 7 has been defined for a ratio of 5:5:2, which provides an additional two symbols
for data communication per special subframe. For the normal cyclic prefix case a new
special subframe configuration number 9 provides a ratio of 6:6:2, which is three extra
useful symbols per special subframe. The signaling and procedure to support the use of
the special subframe configurations are also specified.
Release 11 carrier aggregation

One of the most significant air interface enhancements to the LTE specifications was the
introduction of carrier aggregation in Release 10.Through Release 11, the specification
of minimum air interface performance requirements is limited to dual-carrier CA, and the
maximum aggregated bandwidth is still 40 MHz. Each carrier scenario needs to be studied
in order to identify the combination of requirements necessary to ensure commercially vi-
able deployment. Most of the carrier aggregation tradeoffs are made on the UE side since
the UE has limited power and space to implement a multi-carrier transceiver.
Release 11 introduces new carrier aggregation capabilities such as the ability to support
multiple timing advances. Some uplink CA scenarios require the ability to define different
timing advances for each carrier; for instance, in an inter-band case that uses repeaters
for one band but not the other. To deal with the situation, the UE is allowed to adjust the
timing advance of the two carriers independently such that the time orthogonality of the
uplink in the cell is preserved.
Another new CA feature introduced in Release 11 is the ability for TDD to support different
uplink and downlink configurations for each band. This provides more flexibility than was
possible in Release 10, which required that the format of each carrier be the same.
As part of the Release 11 work on LTE carrier aggregation, TR 36.823 [22] was created
to summarize the radio requirements for the base station and UE radio transmission and
reception. This report contains information related to the general framework for carrier
aggregation enhancements covering the UE and base station aspects and intra-band non-
contiguous spectrum. It specifies the support for use of multiple timing advances in case
of LTE uplink carrier aggregation as well as the base station and UE characteristics for
intra-band non-contiguous CA.
TR 36.823 also acts as a skeleton report to other Release 11 TRs that cover new CA-
specific intra-band combinations, including contiguous scenarios for bands 7, 38, and 41
and non-contiguous scenarios for bands 3 and 25. The non-contiguous scenarios are more
complicated in terms of their impact on device architecture and requirements.
The inter-band carrier aggregation scenarios in Release 11 are studied in TR 36.850 [23].
Inter-band CA is considerably more complicated than intra-band CA, so for the purposes of
characterizing the different combinations, five inter-band CA classes have been identified.
–– Class A1, low-high band combination without harmonic relation between bands
–– Class A2, low-high band combination with harmonic relation between bands
–– Class A3, low-low or high-high band combination without intermodulation problem
(low order IM)
–– Class A4, low-low or high-high band combination with intermodulation problem (low
order IM)
–– Class A5, combination except for A1 to A4 (similar to mid band combinations).
The classes A2 and A4 require special study and may require alternative UE architectures.
A consequence of carrier aggregation in terms of the RF requirements is that many

single-band requirements have to be modified to take into account what is practical to
implement. There are also some new definitions and measurements required. For the base
station, CA can be seen as a special case of multi-standard radio, and for that purpose
additions have been made to TS 36.104 [24] in support of non-contiguous intra-band CA:
–– Introduction of definition of sub-block bandwidth for intra-band non-contiguous spectrum
–– Clarification on requirements for contiguous and non-contiguous spectrum
–– Introduction of time-alignment error requirement for intra-band non-contiguous operation
–– Clarification of occupied bandwidth and adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) re-
quirements for non-contiguous spectrum
–– Introduction of cumulative ACLR (CACLR) requirement for intra-band non-contiguous
operation
–– Clarification of operating band unwanted emissions and transmitter intermodulation
requirements for noncontiguous spectrum
–– Clarification of adjacent channel selectivity (ACS), narrowband blocking, blocking, and
receiver intermodulation requirements for non-contiguous spectrum.
For the UE, the introduction of CA has implications on most of the transmitter and receiver
requirements in TS 36.101 [20] Sections 6 and 7, including maximum output power and
output power dynamics, transmit signal quality, spectrum emission mask (SEM), ACLR,
spurious emissions, reference sensitivity, and many of the other receiver requirements.
In general for the transmitter the existing requirements still apply per carrier although
there are some exceptions. For example, the in-band emission requirements for transmit
signal quality are specified for the intra-band contiguous CA case to take into account the
different ways in which the UE is designed. The UE can implement intra-band CA either
by aggregating two separate transmitters or by using a single wideband transmitter. The
interaction between the carriers and the resulting spurious products are different in each
case. The in-band emission requirements have been written with this in mind and are
specified for both carriers active but only one carrier allocated. There are also differences
in the number of exceptions for the IQ image and carrier leakage requirements.
Additionally there are special cases in which network signaling requirements interact with
carrier aggregation. An example for CA class 1C contiguous allocation is given in Table 9.
Table 9. Contiguous allocation A-MPR for CA_NS_01 (TS 36.101 [20] Table 6.2.4A.1-1
A-MPR for QPSK

CA_1C RBStart LCRB [RBs] RBStart + LCRB [RBs]
and QAM [dB]
0–30 and 170–199 >0 N/A [≤10]
100 RB/100 RB 31–105 >80 N/A [≤5]
105–169 N/A >70 [≤3]
0–13 and 137–149 >0 N/A [≤10]
75 RB/75 RB 13–79 >55 N/A [≤6]
80–136 N/A >137 [≤2]
Some of the specification relaxations are quite substantial (up to 10 dB) indicating the
considerable strain that certain combinations of carrier aggregation put on the UE design.
Operating the UE under such conditions is therefore limited to small cell deployments in
which maximum power handling is not critical.
There are also implications from CA for many of the base station radio requirements in-
cluding the new concept of CACLR, which defines the ACLR requirements as the addition
of emissions from multi-carrier signals on either side of a gap between the carriers.
In anticipation of the specification of three-carrier aggregation in Release 12, two new UE

categories have been introduced in TS 36.306 [25] Release 11.
–– Category 9. Downlink is 450 Mbps paired with the uplink processing requirement as
defined for uplink Category 6.
–– Category 10. Downlink is 450 Mbps paired with the uplink processing requirement as
defined for uplink Category 7.
See Table 10.
Table 10. Downlink physical layer parameter values set by the field UE category (TS 36.306 [25] Table 4.1–1)
Maximum number Maximum number Maximum number of

of DL-SCH transport of bits of a DL-SCH Total number of soft supported layers for
UE category
block bits received transport block channel bits spatial multiplexing in
within a TTI (see Note) received within a TTI downlink
Category 1 10296 10296 250368 1
Category 2 51024 51024 1237248 2
Category 3 102048 75376 1237248 2
Category 4 150752 75376 182072 2
Category 5 299552 149776 3667200 4
149776 (4 layers)
Category 6 301504 3654144 2 or 4
75376 (2 layers)
149776 (4 layers)
Category 7 301504 3654144 2 or 4
75376 (2 layers)
Category 8 2998560 299856 35982720 8
Category 9 452256 149776 (4 layers) 5481216 2 or 4
149776 (4 layers)
Category 10 452256 548216 2 or 4
75376 (2 layers)
NOTE: In carrier aggregation operation, the DL-SCH processing capability can be shared by the UE with that
of MCH received from a serving cell. If the total eNB scheduling for DL-SCH and an MCH in one serving cell
at a given TTI is larger than the defined processing capability, the prioritization between DL-SCH and MCH
is left up to UE implementation.
4 Release 12 Radio Evolution

Release 12 of the 3GPP specifications is a major upgrade that comes at a time when the
amount of network traffic is exploding and shows no signs of slowing down. Although
Release 12 is much anticipated, work is still in progress at the time of this writing. The
completion of the stage 3 core specifications, originally scheduled for June 2014, is now
expected in September 2014.
Work on Release 12 began shortly after a June 2012 workshop to consider proposals. At
that time the broad areas identified for future radio evolution were energy saving, cost
efficiency, support for diverse application and traffic types, and backhaul enhancements.
Although 3GPP focused largely on spectrum issues in earlier versions of the LTE/LTE-
Advanced standard, with Release 12 there is a new emphasis on support for small cell
and heterogeneous networks. Other areas that are prominent in the new Release concern
advanced multiple antenna techniques (MIMO and beamforming) as well as procedures for
supporting diverse traffic types. Important studies evaluate solutions for integration with
wireless LAN, device-to-device communication, machine-type communication, and mobile
relays.
Table 11 lists 26 non-spectrum core work items for LTE in Release12, 15 of which have
corresponding performance work items. Three core work items were deleted before their
completion: New BS specification structure, Carrier-based HetNet ICIC for LTE, and New
carrier type for LTE, the last of which is complemented by the work on E-UTRA small cell
enhancements. Table 12 lists the two LTE RAN Release 12 performance work items based
on core requirements defined in earlier releases and table 13 lists a few of the 27 study
items in Release 12 that are likely to affect work in Release 13. The items in Tables 11, 12,
and 13 marked with an asterisk will be further described.
Table 11. Release12 LTE RAN core work items, non-spectrum
Core work items

Rel-12 LTE carrier aggregation*
Further enhancements for H(e)NB mobility-part 3*
RAN aspects for SIPTO at the local network
Support for BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) for LTE
LTE UE TRP and TRS and UTRA Hand Phantom related UE TRP and TRS requirements
Base station RF requirements for Active Antenna System (AAS)*
RAN enhancements for machine-type and other mobile data applications communications*
WLAN/3GPP radio interworking*
Increasing the minimum number of carriers for UE monitoring in UTRA and E-UTRA
Further downlink MIMO enhancement for LTE-Advanced
Further enhancements to LTE TDD for DL-UL interference management and traffic adaptation*
HetNet mobility enhancements for LTE
Further enhancements for HeNB mobility-X2-GW
Public Warning System - Reset/Failure/Restart in warning message delivery in LTE
LTE coverage enhancements
Low cost and enhanced coverage MTC UE for LTE*
LTE TDD-FDD joint operation including carrier aggregation*
LTE-HRPD (high rate packet data in 3GPP2) inter-RAT SON
Further MBMS operations support for E-UTRAN*
E-UTRA small cell enhancements - Physical layer aspects*
Dual connectivity for LTE*
Inter-eNB CoMP for LTE*
LTE device to device proximity services*
Network-assisted interference cancellation and suppression for LTE*
Smart congestion mitigation in E-UTRAN
Positioning enhancements for RF pattern matching in E-UTRA
Table 12. Release 12 LTE RAN performance work items deriving from core requirements in earlier releases
Performance work items

Verification of radiated multi-antenna reception performance of UEs in LTE/UMTS*
Performance requirements of 8 Rx antennas for LTE UL*
Table 13. Subset of Release 12 study items
Study items
Study on mobile relay for E-UTRA*
Study on 3D-channel model of elevation beamforming and FD-MIMO studies for LTE*
Study on group communication for LTE*
4.1 New frequency bands

Release 12 added three new frequency bands (30, 31, and 32) for the LTE E-UTRA,
shown in Table 14. As in prior releases, these frequency bands are considered “release-
independent,” meaning that any band defined in a later release can be applied to an earlier
release, considerably simplifying the specifications.
Table 14. Release 12 new frequency bands
E-UTRA operating band Uplink Downlink Duplex mode

30 2305 MHz–2315 MHz 2350 MHz–2360 MHz FDD
31 452.5 MHz–457.5 MHz 462.5 MHz–467.5 MHz FDD
32 N/A 1452 MHz–1496 MHz FDD*
*Restricted to E-UTRA operation when carrier aggregation is configured. The downlink operating band is
paired with the uplink operating band (external) of the carrier aggregation configuration that is supporting
the configured Pcell.
Table 15 shows all E-UTRA operating bands as of September 2014. It’s worth noting that
there is overlap between bands in some cases to accommodate regional differences. The
duplex space varies from 30 MHz to 799 MHz and the gap between downlink and up-
link varies from 5 MHz to 680 MHz. The narrow duplex spacing and gaps make it hard to
design filters to prevent the transmitter spectral regrowth leaking into the receiver (known
as self-blocking).
Also notice that bands 13, 14, 20, and 24 have reversed uplink downlink frequencies and
Bands 15 and 16 are specified by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute
(ETSI) only for use in Europe. Bands 29 and 32 are defined as “supplemental downlink
only” for use with carrier aggregation and as such have no uplink frequencies assigned.
Table 15. E-UTRA operating bands through Release 12 [3GPP TS 36.101 V12.4.0 (2014-06)]
E-UTRA Uplink (UL) operating band Downlink (DL) operating band Duplex
operating BS receive BS transmit mode
band UE transmit UE receive
FUL_low–FUL_high FDL_low–FDL_high

5 824 MHz–849 MHz 869 MHz–894MHz FDD
6 1
830 MHz–840 MHz 875 MHz–885 MHz FDD
15 Reserved Reserved FDD
16 Reserved Reserved FDD
24 1626.5 MHz–1660.5 MHz 1525 MHz–1559 MHz FDD
29 N/A 717 MHz–728 MHz FDD2
32 N/A 1452 MHz–1496 MHz FDD2
33 1900 MHz–1920 MHz 1900 MHz–1920 MHz TDD
NOTE 1: Band 6 is not applicable
NOTE 2: Restricted to E-UTRA operation when carrier aggregation is configured. The downlink operating
band is paired with the uplink operating band (external) of the carrier aggregation configuration that is
supporting the configured Pcell.
4.2 Carrier aggregation scenarios

There are now 143 carrier aggregation combinations defined for LTE-Advanced in the
E-UTRA operating bands. Each new release of the 3GPP specification adds to the number,
which indicates the fragmented nature of operator frequency allocations. And with Release
12, several carrier aggregation combinations for 3 carriers have been introduced.
–– Rel-10, 3 new CA combinations
–– Rel-11, 25 new CA combinations
–– Rel-12, 87 new CA combinations, including aggregation of 3 downlink frequencies
–– Rel-13, 28 new CA combinations so far.
For equipment designers, this growing number poses a challenge, as every combination
has the potential to require a new UE design to handle the filtering and power amplifier
requirements.
In Release 12 and beyond, carrier aggregation will evolve to include inter-site aggregation
(dual connectivity for LTE; see next entry) and macrocell-assisted small cells. The goal is to
enable the UE to remain connected at all times to the macro network on one carrier, which
is likely to be at a lower (< 1 GHz) frequency for coverage reasons, while opportunistically
connecting to the macro network on a second carrier provided by a small cell (probably
not co-located) to provide higher capacity. The advantage of doing this using carrier
aggregation rather than handover is that CA should provide much faster adaptation to the
network conditions than handover-based approaches.
Also under investigation are opportunities to exploit inter-site carrier aggregation with
other radio systems such as UMTS and Wi-Fi to optimize overall performance.
4.3 Release 12 features and studies

The following subset of Release 12 radio-related features and studies introduce new con-
cepts to LTE or add important enhancements to existing capability.
Dual connectivity for LTE

As part of the Release 12 Study on Small Cell Enhancements from higher layer aspects,
TR 36.842 [26], it was concluded there was value in enabling a UE to be simultaneously
connected to at least two different network points, the master eNB (MeNB) and secondary
eNB (SeNB), with non-ideal backhaul.
This inter-node radio resource aggregation is also known as dual connectivity. Dual con-
nectivity can be across different locations and different frequencies, and potentially even
different radio access technologies (for example, wireless LAN) at some time in the future.
Many architectural options were considered by 3GPP and the work item takes forward
scenarios 1A and 3C from the technical report. See Figures 17 and 18.
Dual connectivity scenario 1A

Benefits:
–– No need for MeNB to buffer or process packets for an evolved packet system (EPS)
bearer transmitted by SeNB
–– Little or no impact to PDCP/RLC and GTP-U/UDP/IP
–– No need to route all traffic to MeNB; low requirements on the backhaul link between
MeNB and SeNB and no flow control needed between the two
–– Support of local break-out and content caching at SeNB is easy for dual-connectivity UEs.
Drawbacks:
–– SeNB mobility visible to CN
–– Offloading needs to be performed by the mobility management entity (MME) and cannot
be very dynamic
–– Security impacts due to ciphering being required in both MeNB and SeNB
–– Use of radio resources across MeNB and SeNB for the same bearer is not possible
–– For the bearers handled by SeNB, handover-like interruptions at SeNB change with
forwarding between SeNBs
–– In the uplink, logical channel prioritization impacts the transmission of uplink data (radio
resource allocation is restricted to the eNB where the radio bearer terminates).
Figure 17. Alternative 1A from TR 36.842 [26], Figure 8.1.1.1-1
Dual connectivity scenario 3C

Benefits:
–– SeNB mobility hidden to CN
–– No security impacts with ciphering being required in MeNB only
–– No data forwarding between SeNBs required at SeNB change
–– Offloads RLC processing of SeNB traffic from MeNB to SeNB
–– Little or no impacts to RLC
–– Use of radio resources across MeNB and SeNB for the same bearer possible
–– Relaxed requirements for SeNB mobility (MeNB can be used in the meantime).
Drawbacks:
–– Need to route, process and buffer all dual connectivity traffic in MeNB
–– PDCP to become responsible for routing PDCP PDUs towards eNBs for transmission and
reordering them for reception
–– Flow control required between MeNB and SeNB
–– In the uplink, logical channel prioritization impacts for handling RLC retransmissions and
RLC Status PDUs (restricted to the eNB where the corresponding RLC entity resides)
–– No support of local break-out and content caching at SeNB for dual connectivity UEs.
Figure 18. Alternative 3C from TR 36.842 [26], Figure 8.1.1.8-1

Further enhancements for H(e)NB mobility—part 3

Following a Release 11 study item, this work item was introduced in Release 12 to further
enhance the mobility between home (e)NBs, and from the home (e)NB to a wide-area
eNB. Both UMTS and LTE are considered. The aspects relevant to LTE focus on RAN shar-
ing supported on the macro network, specifically for the following scenario: First, the UE
reports the subset of the broadcast PLMN identities that can be accessed and can pass a
closed subscriber group membership check. The home eNB then verifies the access check,
selecting just one PLMN identity if more than one pass the check. Finally the MME/SGSN
verifies the CSG membership check for the PLMN selected by the home eNB.
RF and EMC requirements for active antenna system (AAS)

The multiple antenna base station techniques that have been deployed to date are largely
proprietary in nature and have no formal specifications or performance requirements. With
the increasing sophistication of multiple antenna techniques it has become apparent that
the largely omni-directional assumptions about base station RF and EMC performance are
becoming less representative of actual system performance. The current reference point
for base station requirements is the antenna connector and excludes the antenna behavior
and any multi-antenna array affects such as beamforming. This work item will define the
conducted and radiated performance requirements for AAS, independent of implementa-
tion, that will better represent the true spatial performance of the base station. The work
item output is being captured in TR 37.842 [27].
In order to progress the work the concept of an AAS has been defined as a base station
system that combines an antenna array with an active transceiver unit array. An AAS may
also include a radio distribution network (RDN), which is a passive network that physically
separates the active transceiver unit array form the antenna array. Figure 19 shows the
general AAS architecture.
The Release 12 work will be limited to arrays of up to eight elements, with higher order
arrays, possibly incorporating massive MIMO, being handled in later releases.
Figure19 . General AAS radio architecture (TR 37.842 [27] Figure 4.3-1)
Machine type communications

Providing machine-type communications (MTC) via the cellular network has become a
significant opportunity for mobile operators to generate new revenue. Because most MTC-
related traffic is tolerant of delays and low throughput, MTC devices today operate mainly
on GSM/GPRS networks, allowing the devices to be developed at a low cost knowing
there is already broad coverage in legacy networks. Given that the market for MTC is
growing, this situation perpetuates reliance on 2G networks at the cost of LTE.
The study item Study on provision of low-cost Machine-Type Communications (MTC)

User Equipment (UEs) based on LTE (Release 12) published in TR 36.888 [7] looked at the
feasibility of specifying and building cost-competitive LTE MTC devices, thus facilitating
the migration of MTC traffic from 2G to LTE networks. The study also evaluated whether
LTE coverage can be improved for MTC devices, with a target coverage improvement of up
to 20 dB that would address existing use cases in which MTC devices are deployed deep
inside buildings.
The study concluded that it is possible to specify an LTE MTC device with a material cost
comparable to that of an EGPRS modem by combining various cost reduction techniques.
The solutions considered in the study are applicable to both FDD and TDD. The study also
concluded that a coverage improvement of 20 dB in comparison to the normal LTE foot-
print is achievable for both FDD and TDD. However, TR 36.888 recommended a coverage
improvement target of 15 dB for FDD in consideration of the additional UE power con-
sumption, spectrum efficiency, specification impact, and standardization effort required.
This coverage improvement may be further reduced in the downlink depending on which
cost-reduction techniques are adopted in the design of the device.
An additional study item, Study on Enhancements to Machine-Type Communications

(MTC) and other Mobile Data Applications; Radio Access Network (RAN) aspects (Release
12), [29)], evaluates the impact on the RAN of the proposed solutions for implementing
MTC and other mobile data communications. The study identifies and assesses possible
mechanisms for enhancing the ability of the RAN to handle traffic profiles comprising
small data transfers generated by both machine-type and non-machine-type devices and
applications. The results of this study are captured in TR 37.869 [28)].
Based on the study reports in 36.888 and 37.869, a work item RAN enhancements for
Machine-Type and other mobile data applications Communications was started in Release
12 to enhance the RAN for MTC. There are two objectives:
–– Optimize UE power consumption by introducing a new “power saving state” in the UE
controlled by the non-access stratum. In the power saving state the UE remains at
tached; however, all access stratum functions are stopped.
–– Reduce signaling overhead by introducing assistance information about the UE and its
traffic type or pattern, with the goal of helping the RAN nodes to configure the RRC
connection accordingly.
In addition to changes in the RAN, a work item Low cost and enhanced coverage MTC UE
for LTE was started to define a new UE category 0 that will have lower requirements than
UE category 1 defined in Release 8. The main changes are deletion of the requirements
for receive diversity and MIMO, thus enabling a simpler single receiver design. There are
also limitations at baseband for data channels to 1.4 MHz (with maximum transport block
size limited to 1000 bits) but the RF channels remain as in Release 8. A half-duplex mode
that enables use of a single oscillator is also being defined. The work to define the core
requirements for these changes will conclude in September 2014 with the UE performance
requirements to follow in March 2015.
WLAN/3GPP radio interworking

User equipment operating on WLANs owned by cellular operators often make sub-optimal
decisions regarding offload to and from the WLAN, resulting in a poor end-user experience
and inefficient use of the operator’s network resources. As part of a study in Release 12
on WLAN and 3GPP radio interworking, 3GPP identified a set of requirements, assump-
tions, scenarios, and use cases that need to be addressed. Three solutions were identified
to improve access network selection and traffic steering to and from the WLAN. These
solutions are intended to support deployments both with and without the access network
discovery and selection function (ANDSF) to satisfy different operator needs.
Following the study item, a work item WLAN/3GPP Radio Interworking was created in
Release 12 to specify mechanisms for WLAN/3GPP access network selection and traffic
steering. For the access network selection part, selected RAN assistance parameters will
be transferred via system broadcast or dedicated signaling, in which case specified RAN
rules will apply when enhanced ANDSF is not deployed in the network or not supported by
the UE. In such cases, RAN assistance information may be enhanced with WLAN identi-
fiers. When enhanced ANDSF is deployed in the network and supported by the UE, ANDSF
policies will prevail.
For traffic routing, selected RAN assistance parameters will be transferred via system
broadcast or dedicated signaling in a similar manner. RAN assistance information may be
enhanced with traffic routing information (e.g., offload granularity) when ANDSF is not
deployed or not supported by the UE.
The following RAN assistance parameters will be signaled by radio resource control (RRC):
–– LTE RSRP/UMTS CPICH RSCP threshold (for FDD)/UMTS PCCPCH RSCP threshold (for
TDD)
–– LTE RSRQ/UMTS CPICH Ec/No threshold (for FDD)
–– WLAN channel utilization in the BSS load IE (MaximumBSSLoadValue defined in
TS 24.312 [38]) threshold
–– Available WLAN DL and UL backhaul data rate (MinBackhaulThreshold defined in
TS 24.312 [38])
–– Offload preference indicator (OPI)
–– List of WLAN identifiers (SSIDs, BSSIDs, or HESSIDs).
Parameters may be signaled using broadcast or dedicated RRC signaling. WLAN identifi-
ers (SSID, BSSID, or HESSIDs) may be broadcast in a new system information block (SIB).
Additionally, in the RAN sharing environment, the RAN should support the signaling of
different values of assistance parameters (e.g., WLAN identifiers) for different PLMNs. Also,
it has been determined that the RAN solution without ANDSF supports only APN level
offload granularity, therefore two signaling alternatives—RRC vs. NAS—are being analyzed.
LTE TDD-FDD joint operation including carrier aggregation

The E-UTRA supports both FDD and TDD duplex modes. Prior to Release 12, the inter-
working mechanisms between E-UTRA FDD and TDD had been specified; however, the
behavior of terminals simultaneously connected to the network on two or more bands with
different duplex modes had not. For operators with both FDD and TDD spectrum, it has
become crucial to identify efficient mechanisms so that both spectrum resources can be
fully utilized to improve system performance and user experience. Moreover, in future LTE
FDD–TDD carrier aggregation deployment scenarios, it is possible that either a TDD or
FDD cell could be specified as the PCell. In such cases, support for generic LTE FDD–TDD
CA would be needed.
Work in Release 12 is ongoing to define a joint LTE TDD–FDD operation with an LTE
TDD–FDD carrier aggregation feature. Other TDD–FDD joint operation solutions may be
identified based on the outcome of the initial phase of the work item, which is evaluating
deployment scenarios and network/UE support requirements. 3GPP is using 8+40, 3+40,
1+41, and 1+42 as the example band combinations in the Release 12 TDD–FDD joint
operation including carrier aggregation work item.
Further MBMS operations support for E-UTRAN

The LTE multicast broadcast multimedia services (MBMS) feature uses multicast-broad-
cast single frequency network (MBSFN) transmission in which signals from several anten-
nas originating from one or more base stations are combined in the UE. This combining
makes MBSFN transmission different from unicast transmissions, and so it is difficult to
use unicast transmission to verify the MBSFN transmission performance.
Because MBSFN transmissions are unacknowledged and the RAN thus lacks a feedback
mechanism (such as a HARQ or RLC acknowledgement), the RAN does not know whether
transmissions have been received successfully or not. Hence, it is difficult for an operator
to understand the MBMS quality of service being delivered. The only way for operators to
verify and optimize MBSFN radio transmission has been with manual drive tests.
Unfortunately, using manual drive tests to optimize a network is costly and limits measure-
ment to locations along a drive route. These generally are not the places where customers
consume MBMS. It is therefore desirable to have automated solutions that allow operators
to gather information such as the radio measurements associated with customer UEs and
use this information to assist network operation and optimization.
Release 12 builds on work in earlier releases to define solutions for minimization of drive
test (MDT) aimed at reducing the need for manual drive tests for MBMS. The Release 12
MBMS work item introduces a collection of MBSFN UE measurements with UE geographi-
cal location, with the purpose of supporting the verification of MBSFN signal reception
and the planning and reconfiguration of MBSFN areas and MBMS operation parameter
selections.
The specifications for this feature include new MBMS physical layer measurements;
Layer 2 and 3 protocol aspects using the MDT functionality; definition of the backhaul
signaling and configuration for new UE enhanced MBMS (eMBMS) measurements in the
existing MDT framework (e.g., extension to the trace activation over S1); and definition
of the parameter range and quantization and the performance requirements for the UE
eMBMS measurements.
E-UTRA small cell enhancements—physical layer aspects

Various features in support of small cells have been incorporated into the LTE specifica-
tions since Release 8, including the definition of the home area base station class and the
ongoing work on such topics as ICIC and mobility in heterogeneous networks. Further
enhancements for indoor and outdoor scenarios using low-power nodes were identified
by 3GPP as one of the most important topics for Release 12 and onward. Accordingly,
scenarios and requirements for small cell enhancements were studied and captured in
TR 36.932 [29]. Taking into account these scenarios and requirements, potential tech-
nologies for the physical-layer aspects of small cell enhancements were studied and
captured in TR 36.872 [30].
To enhance small cell spectrum efficiency, multiple improvement mechanisms have been
thoroughly evaluated, including downlink higher-order modulation, overhead reduc-
tion, and enhanced control signaling. Different benefits were observed for each of these
mechanisms in some scenarios, and ultimately downlink 256QAM was given top priority
for spectrum efficiency improvement. It was found that downlink higher order modulation
(256QAM) was beneficial in evaluated indoor sparse small cell scenarios with low mobility,
and this higher order modulation has become the recommended solution.
To enhance small cell operational efficiency, small cell on/off with discovery enhancement
and radio-interface based synchronization have been investigated. A benefit was observed
in reducing the small cell on/off transition time depending on the detailed scheme, and
an increase in the gain was observed with the decreasing transition time. To support an
enhanced transition time reduction requires a discovery procedure and signals. A new
discovery mechanism defined for small cell on/off could be used for other purposes with-
out further optimization.
Although cells with reduced small cell on/off times will most likely not be able to serve
legacy UEs without performance loss, there is no problem in mixing legacy UEs and small
cell on/off in the same carrier. In addition, the cells with legacy UEs not operating with
reduced time scale of small cell on/off may obtain performance gain by cells with reduced
time scale of small cell on/off.
Support for radio interface based inter-cell synchronization was found to benefit cases in
which other methods such as GNSS or synchronization over backhaul were not available.
Network listening solutions also have been considered and evaluated. For the deployment
among the cells of different TDD operators deployed in the same band and same region,
mechanisms to facilitate inter-operator synchronization should be considered.
Taking into account the findings documented in the technical reports, the work in Release 12
is specifying the mechanisms for small cell enhancements in the physical layer to improve
the spectrum efficiency for UEs experiencing high geometry or low frequency-selective
and time-selective fading channel, and to ensure the efficient operation of networks with
small cell layers composed of small cell clusters.
As recommended for small cell spectrum efficiency enhancement, higher order modulation
of 256QAM is being introduced in the downlink transmission while keeping the existing
size of CQI feedback field and MCS indication. Work is also progressing to specify efficient
operation with reduced transition time of small cell on/off in single-carrier or multi-carrier
operation with enhanced discovery of small cells. It’s worth noting that as a result of the
small cell on/off work, 3GPP cancelled the new carrier type (NCT) feature, which had
targeted a similar use case. Finally, efficient radio-interface-based inter-cell synchroniza-
tion (network listening) for single-carrier and multi-carrier operation is being defined for
small cells, as are the corresponding UE and eNB core requirements for all of the Release
12 small cell enhancement mechanisms and features. Although the focus on small cells is
now well-established in the specification, the work of defining these enhancements is very
detailed and much remains to be done.
Inter-eNB CoMP for LTE

Coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission and reception was introduced in Release 11
to improve the coverage of high data rates and the cell-edge throughput, and to increase
the overall system throughput. However, Release 11 CoMP did not specify a network
interface for CoMP involving multiple eNBs with non-ideal backhaul. As a result of this
limitation, affected operators may not be able to take advantage of performance benefits
from inter-eNB CoMP operation.
The study item Study on CoMP for LTE with Non-Ideal Backhaul has identified cases for
which CoMP can provide performance enhancements and for which enhancements to the
network interface and signaling messages should be specified to allow implementation
of both centralized and distributed coordination focused on macro-to-pico heteroge-
neous networks but also considering macro-to-macro homogeneous networks. Potential
throughput gains were evaluated while taking into account estimation errors, downlink
overhead, complexity, feedback overhead, backwards compatibility, and practicality of UE
implementation. It was noted that allowing implementation of centralized coordination
does not necessarily call for the introduction of a new node.
LTE device-to-device proximity services

Proximity-based applications and services are part of an emerging trend in social-networking
and direct-communication technology. Introducing a Proximity Services (ProSe) feature
in LTE taps into this developing market while at the same time addressing the needs of
various public safety communities for location-based services. A 3GPP study in Release
12, LTE Device to Device Proximity Services, published in TR 36.843 [31], concluded
that adding device-to-device (D2D) discovery and broadcast communication techniques is
compatible with LTE given the current status of work on the standard.
Proceeding from the TR 36.843 findings, the work item LTE Device to Device Proximity Services
was begun in Release 12 to enable D2D discovery and communication in intra-cell and
inter-cell network coverage, in partial network coverage, and in coverage outside the
network. The communication part of this work is targeted for application to public safety
use only, as are the partial network coverage and out-of-network coverage scenarios.
Specifically, the ProSe feature defines the following:

–– Physical signals and channels and related UE behaviors for D2D discovery and broad-
cast communication
–– Resource allocation mechanisms for D2D discovery and broadcast communication
–– Resource allocation mechanisms for synchronization signals and, if supported, synchro-
nization channels for D2D discovery and broadcast communication
–– Synchronization procedures for inter-cell, in partial network coverage, and outside
network coverage
–– Higher layer (access stratum) protocols for D2D discovery and communication
–– Physical layer and higher layer techniques to enable the LTE network to manage, and
continuously control D2D discovery and communication
–– Solutions related to lawful interception for D2D discovery and communication defined
by SA3-LI, if they impact the RAN specification
–– Co-existence between D2D enabled LTE-network and victim network operating in
adjacent carrier frequencies
–– Tx and Rx RF requirements for the UE
–– RRM core requirements.
In accordance with the recommendations of D2D proximity services study, the impact of
the feature on cellular traffic, spectrum, and the quality of other services from the same
operator is being studied and minimized.
Network-assisted interference cancellation and suppression for LTE

With the goal of achieving higher network capacity under co-channel interference, 3GPP
approved the study item Network Assisted Interference Cancellation and Suppres-
sion (NAICS). The study looks at advanced interference cancellation (IC) and interference
suppression (IS) receivers with and without network assistance, evaluating each for the
tradeoffs between performance and complexity, and studying potential system level gain
and impact on the specification.
Several candidate NAICS receivers were assessed as being able to achieve noticeable
performance gains over the Release 11 LMMSE-IRC receiver in most scenarios, depending
on the interference profile. Additionally, the study concluded that when some network
assistance or coordination is provided, it can reduce receiver complexity compared to
requiring the UE to blindly detect all the interference parameters. Nevertheless, blind
detection of some parameters was found acceptable in certain cases (e.g., under certain
interference conditions), and further study of this issue is needed. For Release 12, the
scope of the study was limited to a total of up to three layers (serving + interfering) and
cancellation of one interferer.
The study also found that higher-layer signaling of parameters related to interference
PDSCH could help reduce the blind detection complexity or performance degradation.
Candidate parameters for higher-layer signaling were identified for further study, as were
parameters desirable to reduce scheduling restriction and signaling overhead in blind
detection. The study also concluded that further investigation of CSI enhancement is
needed to help ensure that NAICS receivers can achieve a user throughput gain.
Based on the study conclusions, work began on the NAICS feature to enable receiver gains
in commercial deployments as quickly as possible. The goal of the first phase was to de-
cide on the signaling parameters from among the candidates identified and then to specify
the necessary signaling. Specification of the appropriate receiver performance will follow,
with a target date of June 2015.
The parameters initially identified as desirable for blind detection are as follows:
–– Presence or absence of interference
–– Transmission modes (TM)
–– For DMRS-based TMs: DMRS ports, modulation order, Virtual cell ID, nSCID, Cell ID,
CRS ports, and MBSFN pattern
– – For CRS-based TMs: PMI, RI, modulation order, Cell ID, CRS ports, and MBSFN
pattern, ρA
–– Control format indicator (CFI), if not coordinated and required by receiver implementation.
Work is ongoing to specify the final higher-layer signaling parameters, including any sub-
set restrictions. Investigation also continues to determine what, if any, CSI enhancements
for NAICS receivers will be required. Based on the core definitions of the interference
signaling parameters and any further agreements on blind detection, the demodulation
and CSI feedback performance requirements will be specified. 3GPP intends to target a
unified performance requirement for the NAICS receivers, including requirements covering
both DMRS and CRS. The specification must ensure that no performance is lost compared
to LMMSE-IRC receivers in all interference PDSCH scenarios in a wide range of typical
network deployment conditions (including 4Tx) for both CRS-based and DMRS-based
transmission modes.
Performance requirements of 8 Rx antennas for LTE uplink

The performance bottleneck for LTE has historically been the uplink, due to the limitations
on the uplink transmitter power and the overall cost of user equipment. When uplink
traffic is low, this problem is not so severe. However, with widespread use of intelligent
terminals and new applications such as social networking, the gap between downlink and
uplink traffic loads is shrinking. Therefore, the need to improve uplink performance has
become very important to operators deploying LTE.
Deployment of eight Rx antennas at the eNB is an efficient way to improve the LTE up-
link performance in terms of capacity, coverage, and reduced transmitter power needs.
Optimization techniques such as the use of cross-polarized antennas and higher carrier
frequencies could lead to the development of more compact antennas, which could help
ease the challenges of deploying eight uplink receiver antennas. However, demodulation
performance requirements for eight Rx antennas at the eNB are still lacking; therefore,
3GPP has specified demodulation performance requirements for eight Rx antennas at the
LTE uplink.
Work on the performance requirements was concluded with specification of the following
in TS 36.104 [24] and TS 36.141 [33]:
–– Channel model for eight uplink Rx antennas
–– Demodulation performance requirements of eight Rx antennas for uplink channels
–– Conformance tests of eight Rx antennas for uplink channels.
4.4 Release 12 study items

Study on mobile relay for E-UTRA
Mobile users want to receive their services even while they are traveling on high speed
vehicles. Providing LTE in a high speed environment is challenging for a number of reasons.
In a high speed environment, handovers occur much more frequently. When many UEs
attempt to handover at the same time—for example, on a high speed public train—
the handover success rate is reduced, in part because the signaling overhead required
is excessive and the tracking area update (TAU) is provided in a very short time period.
Moreover, UE measurements in high speed environments are typically less accurate than
in low speed environments.
A second problem is degraded throughput due to high Doppler effects. Impairments

caused by high Doppler include frequency estimation errors and channel estimation errors,
and they can significantly limit the achievable throughput. Specific eNB and UE implemen-
tations to combat these impairments are possible but add to the equipment cost.
Dedicated network planning may help alleviate these problems, but the quality of service
for UEs on high speed vehicles remains to be improved. One solution approach is the use
of mobile relays—that is, relays mounted on a vehicle that connect wirelessly to the macro
cells. In essence, the mobile relay becomes a base station mounted in a moving vehicle to
which the onboard UEs can connect.
The mobile relay must provide at a minimum the following key functions:
–– Wireless connectivity service to end users inside the vehicle
–– Wireless backhaul connection to a landline network
–– Capability to perform group mobility
–– Capability to allow different air interface technologies on the backhaul and the access link.
Handover success rate can be improved with mobile relays. For example, excessive
handover signaling can be avoided by performing a group mobility procedure instead of
individual procedures for each UE. Mobile relays can also improve spectrum efficiency by
exploiting more advanced antenna arrays and signal processing algorithms than are avail-
able to standard UEs. In addition, separate antennas for communication on backhaul and
access links can be used to effectively eliminate the penetration loss through the vehicle.
When a UE connects to a nearby mobile relay node, the transmit power required of the UE
is much less, saving a significant amount of UE power and increasing UE battery life. By
effectively addressing all of these problems with the use of mobile relays, operators can
make better use of their radio resources. And with mobile relays, only one radio access
system is required on the backhaul link, which may reduce the number of radio access
systems required at macro NBs along the vehicle path.
Using an L1 repeater mounted on a vehicle is an alternative technique in fast-moving

environments. L1 repeaters amplify and forward signals of a certain frequency band. Since
repeaters do not regenerate the received signal, they are useful when deployed at posi-
tions with advantageous SINR. Repeaters with an indoor and an outdoor antenna will have
good channel conditions towards the UEs for improved uplink transmissions and towards
the network for improved downlink transmissions. In addition the repeaters overcome the
wall or window penetration loss. Being connected through an L1 repeater, UEs can reduce
their transmit power, which increases UE battery life. L1 repeaters are transparent and do
not have an impact on radio interface standards.
Since Release 10 of the 3GPP standard specified only stationary relay nodes, a study item
on mobile relay was started in Release 11 but its completion was moved to Release 12.
The object of the study was to investigate the backhaul design of mobile relays, first by
identifying the target deployment scenarios, and then by evaluating suitable mobile sys-
tem relay architectures and procedures, considering both the PHY and higher layer effects.
The L1 work begun in Release 11 is taken into account. Although the benefits of mobile
relay are evident, the work has not been treated with high priority and has been put on
hold for nearly two years, with plans to continue in September 2014.
Study on 3D channel model for elevation beamforming and full

dimension MIMO studies for LTE
Release 8 MIMO and subsequent MIMO enhancements in Release 10 and Release 11 were
designed to support antenna configurations at the eNB that are capable of adaptation in
azimuth only. Recently there has been a significant interest in enhancing system perfor-
mance through the use of antenna systems with a two-dimensional array structure that
provides adaptive control over both the elevation dimension and the azimuth dimension.
This additional control enables a variety of strategies such as sector-specific elevation
beamforming (e.g., adaptive control over the vertical pattern beam width and down-tilt),
advanced sectorization in the vertical domain, and user-specific elevation beamforming.
Vertical sectorization can improve average system performance through the higher gain
of the vertical sector patterns, but the technique generally does not need additional
standardization support. UE-specific elevation beamforming promises to increase the
SINR statistics seen by the UEs by pointing the vertical antenna pattern in the direction of
the UE while spraying less interference to adjacent sectors by virtue of being able to steer
the transmitted energy in elevation.
To specify further methods of enhancing performance using 3D-beamforming or full-

dimension MIMO (FD-MIMO), a new channel model is needed that will enable modeling in
both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the environment as well as at user loca-
tions in the network. To accelerate the process of defining this channel, work done outside
3GPP—specifically, WINNERII/WINNER+ (channel modeling documentation available in
public domain)—is being leveraged.
The Release 12 study is focused on identifying typical usage scenarios for UE-specific
elevation beamforming and FD-MIMO, and then to identify the modifications to 3GPP
evaluation methodology needed to support proper modeling and performance evalua-
tion of these scenarios. This work includes modeling a 2D array structure at the eNB with
possible modifications to the antenna patterns and modeling a 3D channel with multipath
characteristics in both elevation and azimuth. The study assesses the need to define a new
way of modeling the location of outdoor and indoor UEs within a sector in both the hori-
zontal and vertical domains, and the need to define a new way of modeling the mobility of
UEs outdoors in both the horizontal and vertical domains.
The results of the study are published in TR 36.873, Study on 3D channel model for LTE
(Release 12) [34], which presents the scenarios for UE-specific elevation beamforming and
FD-MIMO, the 3GPP evaluation methodology needed for elevation beamforming and FD-
MIMO evaluation, and the simulation results.
Study on group communication for LTE

Group communication is a key functionality of land mobile radio (LMR), private mobile
radio, and public safety systems. It is most familiar today as the “push to talk” functional-
ity in existing LMR platforms. To position LTE as technology for critical communications
such as public safety, a group communication service is needed. An LTE-based service is
intended to allow flexible modes of operation supporting voice, video, and general data
communications. It should also allow users to communicate with several groups in parallel;
for example, using voice with one group while sending streams of video or data to other
groups.
Group Communication System Enablers for LTE, TS 22.468 [35], defines the Stage 1
requirements to develop “enablers”; that is, modular functions and open interfaces that
can be used to design group communication services. Such enablers will allow the service
to accommodate the different operational requirements expected for different user groups
and different regions or countries.
The specification covers the high level functional requirements, performance, service
continuity, resource efficiency, scalability, and security of group communications. It also
defines group handling and group communication service requirements, as well as how the
service will interact with other related services and functions such as e911 emergency and
ProSe functions.
With completion of the GCSE Stage 1 requirements, work shifted to defining the archi-
tecture for this functionality, and the description of a system level solution is captured in
Study on architecture enhancements to support Group Communication System Enablers
for LTE (GCSE_LTE), TR 23.768 [36]. It was important that this solution meet agreed-upon
public safety requirements, and consideration was given to a number of important aspects
of group communication including the impact of user mobility on group communica-
tions; the need for high availability of the radio connection for public safety related group
communications; the scalability of the solution; support for various media beyond voice;
performance aspects such as end-to-end setup time, service joining and acquisition time,
and end-to-end delay time for media transport.
The study concluded that the group communication requirements can be fulfilled using
unicast and MBMS bearers with certain assumptions on network configuration and with
the following exceptions:
–– Even though there are UE implementation options which could be used for service conti-
nuity while leaving MBSFN area, there is no currently specified UE behavior in place.
–– When using MBMS for media delivery the required end-to-end delay for media transport
may exceed the requirement of 150ms by 10ms.
A separate Study on group communication for E-UTRA, TR 36.868 [37], evaluates exist-
ing E-UTRA procedures to support group communication based on the requirements put
forth in TS 22.468. The study provides further detailed analysis of the use of the unicast
and MBMS bearers. It also suggests areas within the E-UTRA specifications that could be
further enhanced to better support group communications in parallel.
Verification of radiated multi-antenna reception performance of

UEs: MIMO OTA
Work has been ongoing on MIMO over-the-air (OTA) performance verification methods
since March 2009. The initial work concluded in December 2012. Four test methods were
approved in TR 37.977 [32]:
–– Multi-probe anechoic
–– Reverberation
–– Reverberation plus channel emulator
–– Two stage.
Table 16 compares these methodologies.
Table 16. Test methods for verifying MIMO OTA
Methods Pros Cons

Multi-probe anechoic – Can handle dynamic antenna patterns – Highest cost $2M – $5M (but falling)
– 3D extension very expensive
– Cheaper option has limitations on device
size (tablet or bigger)
Reverberation – Low cost – Can’t create realistic spatial channels or
– Inherently 3D interference
– Can’t test polarized devices (e.g., laptops)
– Not applicable to active antennas
Two-stage – Low cost (can reuse SISO chamber) – UE test mode required
– Arbitrary 3D channels and interferers – Not currently applicable to active antennas
at no extra cost
– No limits on device size
Although MIMO OTA was a Release 12 work item, the output is limited to the technical
report, TR 37.977 [32], and no radiated UE performance requirements were specified. The
work to complete UE performance requirements has been moved to Release 13 and will
start again in September 2014. During this next phase of work the accuracy of the test
methods approved in TR 37.977 will be further defined along with the detailed testing
conditions to be used for specifying UE performance requirements.
5 Release 13 and beyond

The work to date for Release 13 prior to the September 2014 RAN plenary meeting was
mainly limited to spectrum aspects. At this time only a few Release 13 study and work
items have been approved (Table 17) in order that Release 12 can be completed. It is ex-
pected that many more Release 13 work items will be started in September 2014.
Table 17. Study items and work items currently approved for Release 13
Items Not Related to Carrier Aggregation

RP-121397 Core part: LTE in the 1670-1675 MHz Band for US
RP-141032 Core part: Enhanced Signaling for Inter-eNB Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP)
RP-141009 Core part: 2GHz FDD LTE in Region 1 (1980-2010MHz and 2170-2200MHz Bands)
RP-140520 Performance part: Performance requirements of interference cancellation and suppression receiver for
SU-MIMO
RP-132086 Study on Multi-RAT joint coordination
RP-141037 Study on Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) - Extension band for LTE
RP-140985 Study on MIMO OTA antenna test function for LTE
RP-141003 Study on Indoor Positioning Enhancements for UTRA and LTE
Items Related to Carrier Aggregation

RP-132029 Core part: LTE Advanced intra-band contiguous Carrier Aggregation in Band 42
RP-140453 Core part: LTE Advanced intra-band contiguous Carrier Aggregation in Band 40 for 3DL
RP-140094 Core part: LTE Advanced inter-band Carrier Aggregation of Band 7 and Band 22
RP-140169 Core part: LTE Advanced inter-band Carrier Aggregation of Band 5 and Band 13
RP-140449 Core part: Additional bandwidth combination set for LTE Advanced inter-band Carrier Aggregation of Band 4
and Band 12
RP-140116 Core part: LTE Advanced 3 Band Carrier Aggregation (3DL/1UL) of Band 4, Band 4, and Band 12
RP-140117 Core part: LTE Advanced 3 Band Carrier Aggregation (3DL/1UL) of Band 2, Band 4, and Band 4
RP-140165 Core part: LTE Advanced 3 Band Carrier Aggregation (3DL/1UL) of Band 2, Band 2 and Band 5
RP-140194Core part: LTE Advanced 3 Band Carrier Aggregation (3DL/1UL) of Band 1, Band 3 and Band 26
RP-140642 New WID: Additional bandwidth combination set for LTE Advanced inter-band Carrier Aggregation of Band 2
and Band 5
RP-140963 New WI: LTE Advanced 3 Band Carrier Aggregation (3DL/1UL) of Band 1, Band 41 and Band 41
RP-140647 New WI: LTE Advanced 3 Band Carrier Aggregation (3DL/1UL) for Band 2, Band 2 and Band 12
RP-140692 New WID: LTE Advanced 3 Band Carrier Aggregation (3DL/1UL) of Band 3, Band 3 and Band 8
RP-140708 New WID Proposal: LTE Advanced 3 Band Carrier Aggregation (3DL/1UL) of Band 39, Band 41 and Band 41
RP-140974 New WID: LTE Advanced 3 Band Carrier Aggregation (3DL/1UL) for Band 41, Band 42 and Band 42
RP-140950 New WI proposal: Additional bandwidth combination set for LTE Advanced intra-band contiguous Carrier
Aggregation in Band 40 for 3DL
RP-140975 New WID proposal: E-UTRA UE flexible CA performance requirements
5.1 Selected topics

New frequency bands
There are currently 43 frequency bands defined by 3GPP for LTE with three more work
items approved so far in Release 13, as shown in Table 18.
Table 18. Frequency bands as of June 2014
3GPP specification FDD TDD

Release 8 1–17 (excl. 15, 16*) 32–40
Release 9 18–21
Release 10 22–25 41–43
Release 11 26–29 44
Release 12 30–32
1980-2010MHz & 2170-2200MHz Region 1,
Release 13 1670-1675MHz Band for US, AWS (Band 4)
extension (study)
* Bands 15 and 16 are specified by ETSI only for use in Europe
Study on multi-RAT joint coordination

This study item looks at multi-RAT coordination from the RAN perspective of the following:
–– Service-aware UE steering between different RATs to provide consistent user experience
and user satisfaction; e.g., by connecting to multi-RATs (e.g. WiFi and LTE)
–– Traffic steering between WAN and WLAN (e.g., LTE and WiFi)
–– Multi RAT joint radio resource coordination for an operator, especially between LTE and
GSM, to provide an operator a smooth transition from GSM to LTE while still keeping
basic GSM coverage for services such as voice or GSM M2M. Similar migration and
spectrum sharing scenarios may also exist for UMTS/CDMA and LTE
–– Reducing core network impact caused by addition of a new RAT due to inter-RAT
communication.
Summary of WLAN aspects

The integration of WLAN into 3GPP specifications has been ongoing since Release 8. The
ETSI Mobile Competence Centre (MCC) created Document RP-140050 to summarize all
work items on WLAN interworking with a 3GPP system (I-WLAN) across 3GPP Releases
and TSGs. The most recent addition is the Release 13 Study on Multi-RAT joint coordina-
tion found in RP-132086. This new overview document provides a concise summary of
everything that has been going on since Release 7 and in aggregate indicates how crucial
interworking with WLAN will be in the future.
Evolution of carrier aggregation

Work is expected to focus on the evolution of carrier aggregation from co-located chan-
nels to inter-site CA.
The original goal of CA was to increase the spectrum and hence the peak data rate avail-
able from one cell site. However, when the second carrier is at a very different frequency
from the primary carrier, the benefit of CA is limited to the center of the cell, which is not
ideal. See Figure 20.
Figure 20. Limitations of co-located carrier aggregation
By allowing CA between sites it is possible to provide continuous CA coverage using a low

frequency macro (umbrella) cell and local capacity using a higher frequency small cell. The
separation of the sites means that enhancements are required at the physical layer includ-
ing multiple timing advances. See Figure 21.
Figure 21. Continuous CA coverage with a macro (umbrella) cell
The ultimate flexibility is then achieved if CA is performed across radio access technologies
(RATs) and in particular with today’s dominant small cell technology: Wi-Fi. This level of
integration will require solutions for authentication and billing issues that limit the poten-
tial of Wi-Fi today. See Figure 22.
Figure 22. Carrier aggregation across different radio access technologies

Progression of cellular/WiFi integration

Carrier aggregation was intended to create wider cellular channels, but cellular spectrum
is limited as discussed previously. Inter-site CA has the potential to make possible effective
use of higher frequency cellular spectrum. However, the ultimate benefit of inter-site inter-
RAT CA is the potential for cellular to become fully integrated with:
–– 80 MHz of ISM spectrum at 2.4 GHz
–– 160 MHz of ISM spectrum at 5.8 GHz
–– 8.4 GHz of ISM spectrum at 60 GHZ–4.2 GHz available worldwide.
Compared to the cost, design, and roaming issues inherent in dealing with today’s 44
bands of LTE spectrum, full cellular integration with evolving Wi-Fi appears very attractive.
LTE operation in unlicensed bands (LTE-U)

There has been considerable recent interest at 3GPP in the operation of LTE in unlicensed
bands—in particular the 5 GHz ISM band used for WLAN—although LTE-U is not yet
formally part of Release 12 or 13. This feature could enable operators to offload traffic to
LTE femtocells without having to implement WLAN. Proposals are controversial, however,
since standard LTE interferes with WLAN. And although LTE has been shown to be more
efficient, WLAN was first to operate in this spectrum. To make co-existence of LTE with
WLAN more tolerable, modifications to the LTE air interface such as Listen Before Talk
(LBT) are being proposed. LTE-U is likely to become the single biggest increase of cellular
spectrum (up to 680 MHz in the 5 GHz band) since the allocations made by the World
Radio Conference in 2007.
5.2 New focus on end users

The evolution of LTE since Release 8 shows no sign of slowing, as evidenced by the rapid
acceptance of LTE-Advanced. Many of the most important innovations are based on the
recognition of the importance of changing network topology as a means of improving
end-user performance, rather than the traditional focus on spectral efficiency and peak
channel bandwidth.
Several areas of cellular evolution will continue to make a difference to end users over the
long term:
–– Heterogeneous networks (integration of macro and small cells)
–– Dual connectivity to extend carrier aggregation for inter-site
–– Extension of dual connectivity to include Wi-Fi, especially as the industry shows a
renewed interest in network operator-grade Wi-Fi provision as a cost-effective solution
to the capacity crunch
–– Radiated performance testing that includes the quality of device and base station
antennas, especially for MIMO.
6 Challenges for LTE-Advanced Product Developers

As an evolution of LTE, LTE-Advanced poses many challenges to engineers. The LTE stan-
dard itself is still relatively new and quite complex, with multiple channel bandwidths, dif-
ferent transmission schemes for the downlink and uplink, both frequency and time domain
duplexing (FDD and TDD) transmission modes, and use of MIMO antenna techniques. LTE
and LTE-Advanced have to co-exist with older cellular systems for some time, so inter-
working necessities and potential interference remain important issues. In typically difficult
radio environments, LTE sets the bar for performance targets very high, and LTE-Advanced
raises it even higher.
Despite these challenges, many cellular operators now view the speed and capacity
improvements of LTE-Advanced as necessary for delivering a reliable, consistent end-user
experience as traffic loads continue to grow. The first implementations involve carrier ag-
gregation (CA), which allows operators to make use of their available spectrum to achieve
significantly higher data rates. Other LTE-Advanced features on the horizon include tech-
niques for managing interference among large and small cells in heterogeneous networks
(HetNets), and incorporation of higher order MIMO antenna systems for higher data rates
and better connections.
As shown throughout this application note, the complexity of the wireless environment
means that developers of RF components and systems are dealing continuously with new
or enhanced architectures for carrier aggregation, 8x8 MIMO, and the other LTE-Advanced
options. The technology has to work on multiple frequency bands and alongside other
communication formats, delivering more capability and higher data throughput while
maintaining or even improving the power efficiency of the previous generation of equip-
ment. The remainder of this application note considers several challenging areas of design
and test confronting developers of LTE-Advanced products, and introduces the newest
measurement solutions to help make this development work a success.
Figure 23. LTE-Advanced adds more complexity to an already-challenging cellular environment

6.1 Carrier aggregation

Carrier aggregation poses some difficulties for the UE, which must handle multiple simul-
taneous transceivers. The addition of simultaneous non-contiguous trans¬mitters creates
a highly challenging radio environment in terms of spur management and self-blocking.
Simultaneous transmit or receive with mandatory MIMO support will add significantly to
the challenge of antenna design.
Creating carrier aggregation signals

To illustrate the concepts of carrier aggregation some examples are provided here using
Keysight’s SystemVue design software. Various options exist for implementing CA in the
transmitter architecture depending primarily upon the frequency separation, which heavily
influences where the component carriers are combined:
–– At digital baseband
–– In analog waveforms before the RF mixer
–– After the RF mixer but before the power amplifier (PA)
–– After the PA.
Figure 24 shows some of these possible transmitter architectures for the UE.
Figure 24. Possible UE transmitter architectures for various carrier aggregation scenarios (TR 36.912 [2]
Fig. 11.3.2.1-1)
All of the transmitter architectures illustrated in Figure 24 can be implemented easily in

Keysight SystemVue software. Figure 25 shows a quick implementation of LTE Advanced
sources with carrier aggregation.
Figure 25. Example of intra-band carrier aggregation in Keysight SystemVue
Figure 25 is an example of intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation. The structure as-

sumes that each component carrier is processed by an independent signal chain. This
structure could also be applied to non-contiguous carrier aggregation for both intra-band
and inter-band.
Figure 26 shows the spectrum of two 20 MHz component carriers chosen from Band 7
(2600 MHz), which are aggregated with the center frequency spacing set to 20.1 MHz
(a multiple of the required 300 kHz).
Figure 26. Carrier aggregation spectrum of two adjacent component carriers

Figure 27 shows the constellation of the physical channels and physical signals in the first
component carrier (2630 MHz).
Figure 27. Constellation of the first component carrier
In Figure 28, four adjacent 20 MHz component carriers chosen from 3.5 GHz are aggre-
gated with the adjacent center frequency spacing set to 20.1 MHz.
Figure 28. Carrier aggregation spectrum of four component carriers

Impact of carrier aggregation on the UE design

As Figure 29 suggests, carrier aggregation involves mainly the physical and MAC layers
and is essentially transparent for layers RLP, PDCP, and above. However, there are some
changes that need to occur at these higher layers. Since carrier aggregation enables
higher data rates, the user plane must be enhanced to support this feature. As a result,
higher processing power will be required in the chip as well as larger buffers to support the
higher data rates.
Figure 29. Impact of carrier aggregation on UE design
The biggest challenges come at the physical layer and the MAC. In the case of the physi-
cal layer, each component carrier will have its own PHY, which provides the mechanisms
for channel coding, modulation, resource mapping, etc. Changes are required at this layer
in the control information to support scheduling of multiple carriers and multiple HARQ
acknowledgements coming from different cells.
The data aggregation occurs at the MAC layer, which acts as a multiplexer collecting data
coming from all the cells and delivering the data as a single stream to the upper layers.
This can be supported in the traditional LTE manner whereby the radio resource is sched-
uled in the same cell in which the grant has been sent, or the cross-carrier scheduling may
be used. In the latter case the secondary cell does not have a PDCCH configured and the
grant for scheduling resources is done via the primary component carrier.
It is important to stress again that the addition of carrier aggregation to the UE leads to
very complex transceiver designs. This is especially true in the case of non-contiguous ag-
gregation, whether inter-band or intra-band. Non-contiguous aggregation always requires
multiple receiver chains working simultaneously, which creates a highly challenging radio
environment in terms of spurs and self-blocking, as previously noted. There are numerous
multi-band combinations already defined in the specifications and more are on the way, so
the UE front ends must be designed to support as many of these frequency band com-
binations as possible. Moreover, if MIMO capabilities are added to this multi-transceiver
chain, the antenna design will also be more challenging. In such cases the test setups can
become quite complex. A typical scenario might require a couple of base station emulators
to generate the signal for transmission.
A realistic scenario calls for RF impairments such as fading and noise, which requires
channel emulators. Finally, cables, combiners, RF connectors, etc., are needed to con-
nect to the UE. The number of boxes, interconnections, and calibration routines to do all
this can become quite complicated. An integrated one-box test set such as the Keysight
UXM can combine all these elements internally to greatly simplify this setup, as shown in
Figure 30. For more on the UXM, see page 80.
Figure 30. Keysight UXM simplifies complex carrier aggregation test setups
6.2 Interference mitigation

Advanced radio access techniques such as MIMO require nearly ideal signal environments
with high signal-to-noise ratio and power. These conditions are usually found close to the
base station; however, as mobile devices get farther away and approach the cell edge,
performance goes down. Adding more traditional base stations (macrocells) to improve
coverage is expensive for many reasons: the difficulty of finding suitable locations, initial
cost of the hardware, power requirements, and the installation and maintenance costs. For
these same reasons adding macrocells is not a good solution to increase capacity in an
overloaded network. Therefore, as noted earlier, LTE-Advanced supports the use of relay
nodes and small cells, which are much less expensive to acquire and operate and relatively
easy to deploy.
Small cells in HetNets are full-fledged local base stations with their own backhaul.
Although the term includes microcells, picocells, and femtocells, it is femtocells that are
most often associated with the home base station defined in the LTE and LTE-Advanced
specifications. These small cells can be applied effectively in many situations from per-
sonal hotspots to the metrocells that enhance coverage in dense urban areas and indoor
campuses. Elements of a HET-NET may encompass many radio access technologies from
cellular to WiFi. The network also may include remote radio heads (RRH) and distributed
antenna systems (DAS), as shown in Figure 31.
Figure 31. A heterogeneous network supports the deployment of small cells and relay nodes, each optimized
for different user demands.
As HetNets are deployed, one of the most significant challenges will be handling the in-
terference generated by the interactions of multiple layers of cells and other RF-emitting
devices that occupy the same frequency. Contributing to the interference will be the multi-
ple new transceivers that are required for LTE-Advanced enhancements such as MIMO and
dual-layer beamforming. A significant amount of work in the specifications has focused on
advanced interference mitigation solutions such as eICIC and FeICIC. (See pages 25 and
32.)
Additionally, as discussed earlier, there are different types of co-channel heterogeneous

deployment and each requires its own approach to interference avoidance. The open sub-
scriber group (OSG) allows users to roam between the macro network and any local area
BS deployed by the operator on the same frequency. In the area of the network where the
strengths of the wide area and local area base stations are similar—typically a ring around
the local area BS—interference is greatest and performance may be significantly degraded.
Closer to the local area BS the interference becomes less problematic.
The closed subscriber group (CSG) limits local base station access to a fixed group of
subscribers such as the occupants of a dwelling or employees of an enterprise. In the local
BS coverage area, service for the CSG is good but all other users experience significant
interference. This situation could be a major problem for macro network coverage in
densely populated areas. The obvious solution is to assign different channels to the local
BS and the macrocell. However, the solution is not available to operators with only a single
channel. Some form of partial frequency reuse is also possible although there will still be
interference in the control channels.
Given the difficulty of CSG, it is the focus of the initial LTE-Advanced standards work on
enhanced interference mitigation in heterogeneous networks. Meticulous design of net-
work devices and rigorous interference testing from design through deployment will be key
to keeping this problem under control.
6.3 Power efficiency and battery life

Battery life is critical in a high end mobile device, yet product developers do not have the
option of making batteries larger to power the extra transceivers required by higher order
MIMO and other LTE-Advanced features. Also, base stations and small cells need to oper-
ate as efficiently as possible, for both economical and ecological reasons. Therefore new
techniques are necessary to optimize power efficiency in RF, baseband, and system-level
designs.
Power amplifiers (PAs) account for a significant portion of both the energy consumed and
heat generated by the RF front end. PAs are an essential component affecting the overall
performance and throughput of wireless systems and are inherently non-linear. Techniques
to enable PAs to operate near saturation, where they are most efficient but also more non-
linear, are becoming more widely adopted.
Crest factor reduction (CFR) and digital pre-distortion (DPD) are two techniques that,
particularly when used together, improve the linearity of a PA so that it may be operated
at its high power-added efficiency (PAE) region, near saturation, without significant signal
distortion. CFR pre-conditions a signal, reducing its high peak-to-average power ratio
(PAPR) without causing significant additional distortion. DPD is a method of determining
a PA’s distortion characteristics, then applying the opposite effect to the baseband signal
via a pre-distortion algorithm to improve linearity at the PA output. Both CFR and DPD are
techniques used by product developers today.
Average power tracking (APT) and envelope tracking (ET) are newer techniques to improve
PA performance and efficiency. Both involve the control of the PA supply voltage as a func-
tion of the signal amplitude, and these techniques can now be used with modern PAs that
offer switched high- and low-power operation. Thus, for example, envelope tracking can
dynamically adjust the PA’s supply voltage to track the magnitude of the envelope of the
RF input signal. When the input signal envelope is low, the supply voltage can be reduced
so the amplifier operates closer to its optimal efficiency point. See Figure 32.
Figure 32. Envelope tracking is a technique that improves power amplifier performance by dynamically
adjusting the supply voltage to track the magnitude of the RF input signal envelope.
In LTE and LTE-Advanced devices, power is required not just for the primary radio but also
for multiband multi-RAT support, receive diversity, MIMO, interference cancellation, high
data rates, and a host of user features including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, FM radio, MP3/4,
GPS, larger and higher definition displays, and many more. Indeed, it was primarily con-
cern with battery performance that led 3GPP to define SC-FDMA for the LTE uplink rather
than the more power-hungry OFDMA used for the downlink. Even so, these features are a
constant drain on the battery as any mobile device user well knows.
Since battery life must be increased but not battery size, product developers are increas-
ingly focused on designing, measuring, optimizing, and verifying UE current consumption
in an ever wider set of use cases. Fortunately advanced battery-current drain measure-
ment solutions are available for analyzing current drain and validating and optimizing UE
run times. Advanced tools such as Keysight DC source/measurement units are designed
specifically for wireless device current drain testing. These sources can be used as battery
emulators or in a special zero voltage configuration to measure the performance of the
mobile device battery, commonly called battery run down testing. A typical setup is shown
in Figure 33. The DC sources are used in conjunction with the Keysight battery drain
analysis software, enabling developers to carry out advanced current drain analysis either
manually or with full automation at all stages of the product design lifecycle.
Figure 33. Typical UE (device under test) battery drain measurement setup
6.4 Product development strategy

The schedule for LTE-Advanced deployment is aggressive, yet the standards are still being
defined and are open to change and interpretation. New techniques are adding substan-
tial complexity—the use of carrier aggregation and multiple antenna configurations, for
example, with up to 8x8 MIMO currently supported in LTE-Advanced. The “real-world”
behavior of these new enhancements is only now becoming understood and products
optimized accordingly.
Multiple channel bandwidths, while increasing the flexibility and capability of the cellular
system, add to the overall complexity. Since LTE-Advanced products must handle LTE and
UMTS operating modes along with other wireless formats, the ability to interwork seam-
lessly with other technologies is critical. Certain aspects of LTE-Advanced such as MIMO
over-the-air (OTA) performance require entirely new test approaches, which are still being
defined in the 3GPP specifications. With the integration of TD-SCDMA into the 3GPP
specifications, TD-LTE is emerging as a popular option. New components in the network
architecture such as small cells/femtocells further complicate the picture.
Along with development challenges specific to LTE and LTE-Advanced are those gener-
ally associated with designing products for emerging wireless systems. Product designs
tend to be mixed-signal in nature, consisting of baseband and RF sections. Overall system
performance depends on the performance of the whole, yet each component type is as-
sociated with particular impairments—for example, non-linearity and effective noise figure
in an RF up-converter or down-converter; phase and amplitude distortion from a power
amplifier; channel impairments such as multi-path and fading; and impairments associ-
ated with the fixed bit-width of baseband hardware.
With performance targets for LTE-Advanced set exceptionally high, developers have
to allocate resources to cover each critical part of the transmit and receive chain. As-
tute decisions regarding system performance budgets are key to meeting system-level
specifications as well as time-to-market goals. Managing the effort required in the design
and verification process is a major challenge for developers at every step of the product
development lifecycle.
Keysight is actively involved in developing design and measurement tools to efficiently turn
LTE-Advanced concepts into deployed and operational systems. Although the process of
developing the radio equipment for a new standard is complex and no one model captures
everything, Figure 34 is an attempt to define the product development lifecycle.
Figure 34. Development lifecycle example

Design simulation tools can address LTE-Advanced development challenges and verify
their interpretations of the standard. Models simulated at various levels of abstraction can
support the progression from product concept through detailed design. Performance of
both baseband and RF sections can be evaluated individually and together to minimize
the problems and surprises encountered during system integration and other phases of
the development cycle. Then, during the transition to hardware testing, a means of moving
smoothly back and forth between design simulation and testing will ensure that engineers
are not forced to redesign the product on the bench to get it to work.
Integration of design and test provides even greater power and flexibility for hardware test-
ing. For example, using signal creation and analysis software in simulation along with logic
analyzers, digital oscilloscopes, and RF signal analyzers provides a common test meth-
odology with a consistent user interface to help diagnose issues along the mixed-signal,
RF transmitter and receiver chain (baseband, analog IQ, IF, and RF). See Figure 35. This
powerful capability can be used to identify potential issues earlier in the cycle, when they
are easiest and least costly to fix.

Figure 35. Combining simulation and test facilitates measurement and troubleshooting at various stages
along the RF and mixed signal transmitter and receiver chain of a product design.
The core specifications are required to design a cellular product, while conformance tests
provide the methods of measuring that product’s compliance to the core specs. The 3GPP
conformance tests cover RF, radio resource management (RRM), and signaling (protocol)
conformance. They are used by test labs in the process of certifying devices for the market,
under the auspices of the GCF (Global Certification Forum) representing GSM and UMTS
operators and the PTCRB (PCS Type Certification Review Board) in North America.
In the case of LTE-Advanced, the core specifications are being published at a rapid pace
while the conformance tests definitions have tended to lag behind. This is in part due to
the fact that the large number of specified frequency bands, along with the option for FDD
or TDD systems and the use of multiple subcarriers and multiple bandwidths, creates a
seemingly endless number of possible test configurations.
The specifications thus far are limited in the number of test scenarios available and of
those, the certification groups have chosen a limited set of tests. Thus developers may find
that the tests for a desired configuration do not yet exist or that the tests change during
the course of product development as new test scenarios are defined. Test equipment
vendors who provide standards-compliant test platforms can be of help ahead of validated
conformance testing by providing knowledge of the most important types of test and
acceptable test procedures.

7 Design and Test Tools for LTE-Advanced Developers

Keysight’s design and verification test products address the areas of greatest concern to
LTE-Advanced product developers.
Baseband design and verification

Keysight’s SystemVue design and modeling system facilitates system-level architecture
design, baseband algorithm and hardware implementation, and RF/baseband co-verifica-
tion with test equipment.
RF design and verification

Keysight’s 3GPP LTE wireless library provides signal processing models and preconfigured
simulation setups for Keysight’s Advanced Design System (ADS) EDA software. The LTE
wireless library enables you to create spectrally correct test waveforms that comply with
3GPP requirements, saving valuable design and verification time.
Design and measurement challenges of LTE transmitters

The simpler RF measurements can be made with general purpose analog signal analysis
techniques, while a variety of measurements based on digital demodulation are necessary
to fully analyze the highly complex and flexible signals that make up the LTE air interface.
With the introduction of digital interfaces, transmitter development now involves mixed
signal analysis with a digital interface on the input to the transmitter module and an RF
interface on the output.
Figure 36. Keysight’s Signal Studio signal generation software showing a 5 component carrier configuration
Design and measurement challenges of LTE receivers

The basic RF characteristics of the receiver include blocking, selectivity, spurious emis-
sions, and reference sensitivity. Receiver performance testing, which is performed under
faded RF channel conditions, includes the most complex of receiver performance verifica-
tion challenges. For example, closed-loop analysis of a MIMO receiver in a faded channel
requires real time feedback of the channel conditions to enable adaptive modulation con-
trol and frequency-selective scheduling, in addition to the use of incremental redundancy
for damaged packets and retransmission for lost packets. Methods for analyzing receiver
performance at the application layer include throughput testing as well as channel state
information (CSI) testing for the channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator
(PMI), and rank indication (RI).
Gain clarity at crucial handoffs

The Keysight E7515A UXM wireless test set is a highly integrated “one-box” signaling test set cre-
ated for functional and RF design validation in the 4G era and beyond. The UXM tests the newest
designs, delivering LTE-Advanced category 6 now and handling increasingly complex require-
ments in the future. Its extensible architecture can evolve as technology changes: the UXM has
upgradable processors, multiple expansion slots, and high-speed interconnects. Two independent
100 MHz RF transceivers allow testing of multiple cells, carrier aggregation, 4×2 MIMO, and
integrated fading. The UXM also has built-in servers for extensive functional test applications. The
ability to build on these features makes the UXM a future-ready platform that will handle multiple
formats and the next advances in antenna techniques, component carriers, and data rates.
Figure 37. Validating true category 4/6/7 performance with the Keysight UXM’s stable, bidirectional data
throughput
With the UXM’s integrated capabilities, engineers can emulate a wide range of complex operations
and dive ever more deeply into functional testing. For example, a single UXM with two independent
cells built in can check LTE handover behavior. The UXM also supports two active cells at the same
time for testing LTE-to-LTE intra- and inter-frequency handovers. Connecting UXM to a Keysight
8960 wireless test set allows verification of inter-radio access technology (IRAT) handover scenarios
such as those between LTE/LTE-Advanced and 2G or 3G. The inclusion of Wireshark-based logging
software enables thorough analysis of protocol messaging.
The UXM also ensures greater confidence in RF performance with flexible automated testing and
industry-proven Keysight X-Series measurement science. The UXM’s integrated capabilities and
flexible automation software combined with Keysight’s Wireless Test Manager (WTM) make it easy
to step through the full range of 3GPP channel configurations for a device-under-test.
To support the development process from early design to finished product, the UXM offers signaling
and non-signaling (i.e., test mode) operation. This lets engineers focus on characterization of RF
performance: the UXM pushes aside the protocol barriers and enables the engineer to “just connect”
to the device under test.
Open and closed-loop behaviors of the physical layer

For this lower level testing, the demodulation capabilities of the Keysight 89600 VSA soft-
ware provide essential insight into whether the UE is correctly responding to the dynamic
radio environment, which might otherwise be missed by higher level tests such as end-to-
end throughput.
Figure 38. Keysight 89600 VSA software enables in-depth analysis of LTE-Advanced signals
Improving power amplifier efficiency

Modern mobile communication devices use wider bandwidths, multi-input multi-output
technology, and higher order orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modula-
tion, which place added demands on power consumption in wireless components. One
of the most power-hungry and nonlinear components in a mobile terminal is the power
amplifier. Technologies such as crest factor reduction (CFR), envelope tracking (ET), and
digital pre-distortion (DPD) are often used to minimize PA power consumption and reduce
nonlinearity.
Figure 39. Keysight Signal Studio for Power Amplifier Test software is an all-in-one, general-purpose test
suite for improving PA efficiency using CFR, ET, and DPD technologies
RF challenges of multi-antenna systems including MIMO

The theoretical gains possible from such systems are well documented; however, the
practical gains that will be seen in realistic conditions are influenced by many factors that
involve new methods for analyzing antenna design, the channel propagation conditions,
and the received signals.
Figure 40. Keysight 89600 VSA software fully characterizes LTE-Advanced 8x8 MIMO signals and measures
EVM, frequency response, amplitude, phase, time offset between each layer, more
MIMO beamforming from the perspective of the eNB

Beamforming is a very powerful technique, but for it to work effectively requires precise
knowledge of the transmit phase of each of the eNB antenna ports. Keysight offers a test
solution for verifying the beamforming performance of up to an eight-antenna system.
Figure 41. Verify and visualize TD-LTE beamforming signals with the Keysight N7109A Multi-Channel Signal
Analyzer and 89600 VSA software
RF power measurement
New requirements for multi-channel RF power measurement have been defined in the
ETSI EN 300 328 v1.8.1 test standard that enable characterization of devices using MIMO
and beamforming. The power measurement must be fully time-synchronized and in com-
pliance with the standard for up to four channels and have up to 4 million data samples of
detection power of the burst signal. The power measurement rate must be greater than
1 MSa/s and, for non-frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) devices, must support
at least a 1 s measurement time. The Keysight U2020X-Series USB peak power sensor and
U2531A 2 MSa/s USB modular data acquisition unit can be used during the design and
development stages to verify that products meet the new certification requirements.
Signaling protocol development and testing

Integrated systems can facilitate the different phases from early development through
conformance testing to interoperability and acceptance testing.
UE functional testing
Achieving a user-centric view of UE functionality requires the network elements and
servers necessary to test the UE in an environment as close as possible to a real, opera-
tional network. Tests include voice functionality and inter-RAT handover performance as
well as end-to-end throughput testing at the application layer.
New test solutions are making these challenges easier. For example, the UXM test ap-
plication (TA) and lab application (LA) software customize the UXM wireless test set to
meet specific testing needs. The test application software provides the network emulation,
receiver, and transmitter test functionality required to validate the latest RF designs. The
lab application software also includes capabilities to validate UE and chipset functional
performance, such as data throughput, complex handover scenarios, and protocol logging.
Figure 42. Go deeper in functional testing by emulating a wide range of complex network operations
Battery drain testing

With the ever-increasing demands being put on high-end mobile devices, power
consumption is often a limiting factor. The right tools can help developers measure and
optimize battery current drain.
Figure 43. Keysight 66300 mobile communications power supplies provide DC sourcing, current sinking, and
measurement capabilities to address the unique challenges of simulating batteries and battery packs
and measuring the current drawn by LTE-Advanced devices.
Conformance testing for RF and signaling

Numerous test cases have been developed for LTE-Advanced and a continuous stream of
new cases is flowing into the pipeline. Keysight’s automated test systems support all the
3GPP conformance test specifications for LTE RF, RRM, and protocol testing, along with
carrier acceptance test plans. The test platform can also be used for RF parametric and
design verification, and has been validated by the Global Certification Forum (GCF) and
PCS Type Certification Review Board (PTCRB)
Figure 44. Keysight T4010S automated test systems include LTE and LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation RF
solutions for design verification and conformance testing of LTE UEs.
Manufacturing problems solved

Historically UE manufacturing tests were a subset of the conformance tests executed
using signaling with a base station emulator. However, the demands for high speed test-
ing have caused the use of signaling to be dropped in favor of non-signaling approaches.
Such approaches offer significant time savings but present new challenges in the area of
DUT control, which is now based on proprietary mechanisms closely associated with the
chipset chosen for the UE design.
Finding efficient and effective manufacturing test methods is difficult given today’s
competitive environment and multi-format, multi-band devices. The Keysight E6640A
EXM wireless test set builds on the non-signaling and sequencing capabilities of previous
generations and offers a new architecture with expanded parallel testing and scalability
to match changing production needs. The EXM provides the fastest testing of the new-
est chipsets—it delivers the speed, accuracy, and port density needed to ramp up and
optimize full-volume manufacturing of multi-format devices that use LTE-Advanced carrier
aggregation, MIMO, and more.
At the new product introduction (NPI) stage, the EXM provides chipset compatibility and
validated test capabilities that directly control chipset functionality. This includes the fast-
est, most reliable calibration and verification functions offered in each vendor’s chipset.
The EXM’s broad multi-format, multi-port flexibility handles the complex chipsets while
allowing easy upgradability for tomorrow’s features.
For greater scalability, the EXM can be configured with up to four independent trans-
mit/receive channels, each of which is a complete vector signal generator, vector signal
analyzer, and RF I/O section. To further extend port density, the EXM can be customized
to connect up to 32 DUTs through multi-port adapter (MPA) technology.Additionally, the
EXM helps maximize throughput and yield with fast and accurate parallel testing of multiple
devices. This comes from ultra-fast data processing and transfers, advanced sequencing,
and single-acquisition/multi-measurement (SAMM) capability built into the EXM.
As production needs change, each unit can be expanded with up to four TRX modules,
and these can be upgraded with higher frequency coverage and wider analysis bandwidth.
For maximum reliability and uptime, the EXM has been tested to survive the rigors of the
factory floor. When calibration or repair service is needed, Keysight’s global presence en-
sures fast turnaround times. The EXM is designed, built, and supported to ensure success
in manufacturing.
Figure 45. Keysight E6640A EXM parallel-tests multi-format wireless devices, as shown here testing 2G, 3G,
and 4G devices and wireless connectivity
The right solution for any LTE-Advanced measurement challenge

Keysight offers a full range of LTE-Advanced design and test products that includes pow-
erful simulation and design verification software, baseband emulators, signal analyzers,
sources, base station emulators, power meters and sensors, logic analyzers, scopes, signal
creation software, integrated one-box test sets, RF and protocol compliance test systems,
and much more.
For more information, visit

www.keysight.com/find/LTE-Advanced.
References
[1] 3GPP TR 36.913 V11.0.0 (2012–09)
[2] 3GPP TR 36.912 V11.0.0 (2012–09)
[3] 3GPP TS 36.216 V11.0.0 (2012–09)
[4] 3GPP TS 36.300 V12.2.0 (2014-07)
[5] 3GPP TS 36.117 V11.1.0 (2013–09)
[6] 3GPP TR 37.320 V12.1.0 (2014–07)
[7] 3GPP TR 36.888 V12.0.0 (2013–06)
[8] Overview of 3GPP Release 11, V0.1.8 (2014–03)
[9] 3GPP TR 36.927 V11.0.0 (2013–09)
[10] 3GPP TR 37.812 V11.3.0 (20014-03)
[11] 3GPP TS 36.456 V11.0.0 (2012–12)
[12] 3GPP TS 36.111 V11.3.0 (2014–06)
[13] 3GPP TS 36.112 V11.0.0 (2014–06)
[14] 4G Americas, 4G Mobile Broadband Evolution: Release 11, Release 12 and Beyond,
February 2014, www.4gamericas.org
[15] 3GPP TR 36.822 V11.0.0 (2012–09)
[16] 3GPP TS 36.216 V11.3.0 (2013–07)
[17] 3GPP TS 36.331 V12.2.0 (2014–06)
[18] 3GPP TR 36.819 V11.2.0 (2013–09)
[19] 3GPP TS 36.837 V11.0.0 (2012–12)
[20] 3GPP TS 36.101 V12.4.0 (2014–06)
[21] 3GPP TR 36.904 V11.0.0 (2014–06)
[22] 3GPP TR 36.823 V11.0.1 (2013–09)
[23] 3GPP TR 36.850 V11.1.0 (2013–07)
[24] 3GPP TS 36.104 V11.9.0 (2014–06)
[25] 3GPP TS 36.306 V11.7.0 (2014–06
[26] 3GPP TR 36.842 V12.0.0 (2013–12)
[27] 3GPP TR 37.842 (3gpp.org/ftp/specs/archive/37_series/37.842)
[28] 3GPP TR 37.869 V12.0.0 (2013–09)
[29] 3GPP TR 36.932 V12.1.0 (2013-03)
[30] 3GPP TR 36.872 V12.1.0 (2013–12)
[31] 3GPP TR 36.843 V12.0.1 (2014-03)
[32] 3GPP TR 37.977 V12.1.0 (2014–03)
[33] 3GPP TS 36.141 V12.4.0 (2014–06)
[34] 3GPP TR 36.873 V12.0.0 (2014–03)
[35] 3GPP TS 22.468 V12.0.0 (2013–06)
[36] 3GPP TR 23.768 V12.0.0 (2014–02)
[37] 3GPP TR 36.868 V12.0.0 (2014–03)
[38] 3GPP TS 24.312 V12.5.0 (2014–06)
All 3GPP technical reports and specifications can be found at www.3gpp.org.
Acronyms
2G 2nd Generation
3G 3rd Generation
3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
4G 4th Generation
AAS Active Antenna System
ABS Almost Blank Subframe
ACK Acknowledgement
ACK/NACK Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement
ACLR Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio
ACS Adjacent Channel Selectivity
AGNSS Assisted Global Navigation Satellite System
ANDSF Access Network Discovery and Selection Function
APT Average Power Tracking
AWGN Additive White Gaussian Nose
BS Base Station
CA Carrier Aggregation
CACLR Cumulative Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio
CC Component Carrier
CCDF Complementary Cumulative Distribution Function
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CFI Control Format Indicator
CFR Crest Factor Reduction
CoMP Coordinated Multi-Point
CPICH Common Pilot Channel
CQI Channel Quality Indicator
CRS Cell Reference Symbol
CS/CB Coordinated Scheduling and Cooperative Beamforming
CSG Closed Subscriber Group
CSI Channel State Information
CSI-RS Channel State Information–Reference Signal
D2D Device-to-Device
DeNB Donor Evolved Node B
DFT Discrete Fourier Transform
DFT-S-OFDM Discrete Fourier Transform Spread OFDM
DIP Dominant Interferer Proportion
DL-MIMO Downlink Multiple Input Multiple Output
DL-SCH Downlink Shared Channel
DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal
DPS Dynamic Point Selection
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
DwPTS Downlink Pilot Time Slot
E-DCH Enhanced Dedicated Channel
EDGE Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution
EDPCCH Enhanced Downlink Physical Control Channel
eICIC Enhanced Inter-cell Interference Coordination
eMBMS Enhanced Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service
eNB Evolved Node B
EPC Evolved Packet Core
EPS Evolved Packet System
E-SMLC Evolved Serving Mobile Location Center
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
E-UTRA Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
E-UTRAN Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
FDD Frequency Division Duplex
FD-MIMO Full Dimension Multiple Input Multiple Output
FeICIC Further Enhanced Inter-cell Interference Coordination

FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
GBR Guaranteed Bit Rate
GCF Global Certification Forum
GPRS General Packet Radio System
GPS Global Positioning System
GSM Global System for Mobile Communication
GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol
GTP-U GTP User
HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request
HeNB Home eNB
HII High Interference Indicator
HPUE Higher Power User Equipment
HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access
HSPA High Speed Packet Access
HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access
ICIC Inter-Cell Interference Coordination
IDC In-Device Coexistence
IF Intermediate Frequency
IMT International Mobile Telecommunications
IMT-Advanced International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (4G)
IMT-2000 International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 project (3G)
IP Internet Protocol
ISD Inter-Site Distance
ITU International Telecommunications Union
ITU-R International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunication Sector
JP Joint Processing
JR Joint Reception
JT Joint Transmission
LAN Local Area Network
LCR-TDD Low Chip Rate Time Division Duplex
LMMSE Linear Minimum Mean Square Error
LTE Long Term Evolution
LTE-A LTE-Advanced
MAC Medium Access Control
MB-MSR Multi-Band Multi-Service Radio
MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service
MBR Maximum Bit Rate
MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast Single Frequency Network
MDT Minimization of Drive Test
MeNB Master eNB
MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
MME Mobility Management Entity
MRO Mobility Robustness Optimization
MSR Multi-Standard Radio
MTC Machine-Type Communication
MU-MIMO Multi-User MIMO
NAICS Network Assisted Interference Cancellation and Suppression
NAS Non-Access Stratum
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
OI Overload Indicator
OSG Open Subscriber Group
OTA Over The Air
OTDOA Observed Time Difference of Arrival
PA Power Amplifier
PAG Performance Agreement Group
PAPR Peak-to-Average Power Ratio

PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel
PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel
PCI Physical Cell Identity
PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
PDCP Packet Data Control Plane
PDS Packet Data System
PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel
PHICH Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel
PHY Physical Layer
PMI Precoding Matrix Indicator
ProSe Proxy Server
PSBB Public Security BroadBand
PTCRB PCS Type Certification Review Board
PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel
PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QoS Quality of Service
QPSK Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying
RACH Random Access Channel
RAN Radio Access Network
RAT Radio Access Technology
RB Resource Block
RDN Radio Distribution Network
RF Radio Frequency
RI Rank Indication
RLC Radio Link Control
RLP Radio Link Protocol
RN Relay Node
RNTP Relative Narrowband Transfer Power
RRC Radio Resource Control
RRH Remote Radio Head
RRM Radio Resource Management
RS Reference Signal
RSRP Reference Signal Received Power
RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality
RX Receiver
SAE System Architecture Evolution
SBAS Space Based Augmentation System
SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access
SeNB Secondary eNB
SEM Spectrum Emission Mask
SISO Single Input Single Output
SMS Short Message Service
SON Self Optimizing Network
SSPS Semi Static Point Selection
SU-MIMO Single User MIMO
TAU Tracking Area Update
TB Transport Block
TDD Time Division Duplex
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
TD-SCDMA Time Domain Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access
TM Transmission Mode
TR Technical Report
TS Technical Specification
TTI Transmission Time Interval
TX Transmitter
UCI Uplink Control Information

UDP User Datagram Protocol
UE User Equipment
UL Uplink (subscriber to base station transmission)
UL-MIMO Uplink Multiple Input Multiple Output
UL-SCH Uplink Shared Channel
UM Unacknowledged Mode
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
UpPTS Uplink Pilot Time Slot
UTDOA Uplink Time Difference of Arrival
UTRA Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol
VSA Vector Signal Analyzer
VSG Vector Signal Generator
W-CDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
WI Work Item
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WRC World Radio Conference
92 | Keysight | LTE-Advanced: Technology and Test Challenges – Application Note
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Keysight Technologies

3GPP Releases 10, 11, 12 and Beyond

This application note gives an overview of the following topics:

1.1 Evolution of wireless communication standards 5

1.2 Summary of Release 8 LTE features 7

1.3 Release 9 enhancements with implications for LTE-Advanced 9

1.4 Requirements for 4G and LTE-Advanced 13

2.1 Release 10 LTE enhancements 17

Carrier aggregation for wider bandwidths 17

Uplink transmission scheme 18

Downlink transmission scheme 22

2.2 Other Release 10 enhancements 25

Enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) 25

Minimization of drive test 27

Machine-type communications (MTC) 27

New frequency bands 28

3 Release 11 LTE-Advanced enhancements 30

4 Release 12 radio evolution 45

4.1 New frequency bands 46

5 Release 13 and beyond 62

6 Challenges for LTE-Advanced product developers 66

7 Design and test tools for LTE-Advanced developers 79

1 Overview of LTE and LTE-Advanced

1.1 Evolution of wireless communication standards

Figure 1.Evolution of wireless communication standards from 1990 to the present

Figure 2 shows the evolution of 3GPP’s Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

Figure 2. Evolution of UMTS specifications

1.2 Summary of Release 8 LTE features

Table 1. Peak data rates for LTE

Downlink peak data rates (64 QAM)

1.3 Release 9 enhancements with implications for LTE-Advanced

New frequency bands

Table 2. Frequency bands added during Release 9

Band Uplink Downlink Duplex Duplex

18 815 830 860 875 15 45 30 FDD

Femtocells and the home base station

Figure 3. Home base stations (femtocells)

Table 3. Comparison of macro- and microcellular with femtocellular use models

Multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS)

Multi-standard radio (MSR)

RF requirements for local base stations

Enhanced dual-layer transmission

Self-organizing networks (SON)

1.4 Requirements for 4G and LTE-Advanced

Other performance enhancements that were being considered for LTE-Advanced in

In October 2009, 3GPP formally submitted LTE-Advanced as a candidate for IMT-

Figure 4.Historical timeline for IMT-Advanced and LTE-Advanced

System performance requirements

(2x2 MIMO) 0.05 0.07

Uplink cell-edge user

*Note: ISD = Inter-site distance

2.1 Release 10 LTE enhancements

The beginnings of such aggregation techniques have already shown up in established

Carrier aggregation in Release 10

Types of carrier aggregation

Figure 6. Downlink intra-band carrier aggregation

Figure 7. Downlink inter-band carrier aggregation

Frequency band combinations

Release 12 introduced aggregation of three carriers and aggregation of four carriers is

Uplink transmission scheme

Spatial multiplexing and transmit diversity

Table 5. Comparing SC-FDMA and two-cluster SC-FDMA

Simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission