TTI Bundling

Why Bundling?

TTI Bundling optimizes the uplink (cell edge) coverage for services like VoLTE. For
services such as VoIP, the packet size is small and the inter-arrival time of VoIP
packets is constant (i.e., AMR codec provides one packet every 20ms during active
period and one silence indicator (SID) at 160ms). In a cell edge scenario, the
probability of decoding PUSCH as error is more so instead of waiting for HARQ
feedback from eNB, the UE performs initial transmission and re-transmissions in 4
consecutive Transmit Time Intervals (TTIs)

Once TTI Bundling is enabled/activated the UE send the same packet but with
different error detection and correction bits in 4 consecutive TTIs

TTI Bundling reduces a lot of signalling overhead as the eNB doesn’t need to send
Ack/Nack for every (re-) transmission instead it sends Ack/Nack for the entire
bundle

Latency is also reduced as no waiting time (for HARQ feedback) is required

between the re-transmissions

The simulation results indicated that TTI bundling provides a cell edge gain of
more than 4 dB in terms of the sustainable path loss

TTI Bundling Configuration

 Configuration of TTI Bundling is dedicated i.e., per UE basis. TTI Bundling
might be configured by eNB in situation like UE is operating at its maximum output
Tx Power
 TTI Bundling IE is under RadioResourceConfigDedicated => mac-MainConfig
=> ul-SCH-Config
 TRUE indicates that TTI bundling is enabled while FALSE indicates that TTI
bundling is disabled.
 TTI bundling can be enabled for FDD and for TDD only for UL/DL
configurations 0, 1 and 6
 For TDD, E-UTRAN does not simultaneously enable TTI bundling and Semi-
Persistent Scheduling (at least until rel-10)
 E-UTRAN does not simultaneously configure TTI bundling and SCells with
configured uplink (uplink Carrier Aggregation)
 Default configuration of TTI Bundling is ‘release’
 The UE indicates the support of TTI Bundling with FGI 28

TTI Bundling Operation

Initial Bundle Transmission

For DCI0 detected in subframe n-4, the UE shall transmit the first PUSCH in
subframe nand non-adaptive retransmissions in n+1, n+2, and n+3 with
corresponding Redundancy Versions set as 0, 2, 3, and 1
UE shall expect Ack/Nack in subframe n+7

Bundle re-Transmission
For DCI0 and/or Nack detected in subframe n-9, the UE shall adjust the first PUSCH
transmission in n and non-adaptive retransmissions in n+1, n+2, and n+3 with
corresponding Redundancy Versions set as 0, 2, 3, and 1
UE shall expect Ack/Nack in subframe n+7

 Number of TTIs in a bundle is always equal to 4

 Each transmission/re-transmission of a bundle uses same HARQ Process
 Within a bundle HARQ re-transmissions are non-adaptive and triggered
without waiting for feedback for previous transmissions
 The HARQ feedback of a bundle is only received for the last TTI of the
bundle regardless of whether a transmission in that TTI takes place or not (e.g.
when a measurement gap occurs). Say for example, in above figure, measurement
gap starts in subframe#1 (the measurement GAP is until subframe#6) ⇨ The UE
should still expect HARQ feedback in subframe#7 even though (re-) transmissions in
subframes #1, #2, and #3 didn’t actually occur
 A retransmission of a TTI bundle is also a TTI bundle. As shown in the figure
above, after receiving NACK at subframe#7, the UE performs retransmission as a
bundle starting from subframe #16
 For FDD, when the TTI bundling is enabled, there shall be 4 uplink HARQ
Processes. For TDD, there are 3 HARQ processes for UL/DL Configuration 0 and 6
whereas 2 HARQ processes used in case of UL/DL Configuration 1
 For transmission of PUSCH that corresponds to Msg3 TTI bundling does not
apply

Reactions:
Posted by Kumar Swamy Pasupuleti at 4:29 PM
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Labels: Bundling, PHY Procedures, TTI Bundling
8 comments:

1.

rakeshSeptember 1, 2014 at 6:44 PM

 Hi Kumar, can you explain the concept of waiting 9 subframes, before sending
retransmission. What is the bottleneck to send it earlier?
Reply
Replies

1.

Kumar Swamy PasupuletiSeptember 1, 2014 at 8:03 PM

The bottleneck is the number of HARQ processes. If the retransmission
occurs earlier, it would collide with transmission/retransmission of
another HARQ process
Reply
2.

AnonymousApril 28, 2015 at 12:38 PM

Why HARQ ACK/NACK happens in 4ms and re-transmission happens in 8ms ???
What happens during that 4ms of ACK/NACK ???
What happens during that 8ms of re-transmission ???
Reply
Replies

1.

UnknownJanuary 17, 2018 at 12:55 PM

1.After data transmission in a subframe receiver take 3ms for process

the data, thats why receiver send ack/nack in 4th ms.
similarly transmitter also take 3ms for process the ack/nack data and re-
transmitter the data at 8th ms.
Reply

3.

SivaAugust 2, 2015 at 8:14 AM

Uplink is synchronus transmission either FDD or TDD.

Same HARQ peocess will be repeated at 8ms second only because of this re-
transmission happen at 8ms
Reply

4.

Lalatendu PothalFebruary 10, 2016 at 12:07 PM

Does this TTI bundling happen only in UL or both UL/DL ?

Reply
Replies

1.

Kumar Swamy PasupuletiFebruary 11, 2016 at 9:51 AM

Only in the Uplink...
 Reply

5.

UnknownSeptember 20, 2018 at 12:44 AM

How many max ulharq transmissions can we have during ttib?. I thuth above process
represents ulharq process during ttib.

Reply