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Operator E LTE CA (Carrier Aggregation) Feature Test Guide

1 Feature Introduction

3GPP requires that LTE-Advanced networks provide a downlink peak data rate of 1 Gbit/s.
However, due to the limited bandwidth of a single carrier, the 1 Gbit/s data rate requirement is
hard to meet. To deal with this situation, 3GPP Release 10 introduced carrier aggregation (CA) for
LTE-Advanced networks. CA allows aggregation of contiguous or non-contiguous component
carriers (CCs) to expand bandwidth to up to 100 MHz.

Related Concept:
PCell
A primary serving cell (PCell) is a cell on which a CA UE camps. In the PCell, the CA UE works
in the same way as it does in a 3GPP Release 8 or Release 9 cell. The physical uplink control
channel (PUCCH) of the UE exists only in the PCell.
SCell
A secondary serving cell (SCell) is a cell that an eNodeB configures for a CA UE through an RRC
Connection Reconfiguration message. This cell works at a different frequency than the PCell and
provides the CA UE with more radio resources. In an SCell, there can be only downlink
transmission or both downlink and uplink transmission.
CC
Component carriers (CCs) are the carriers that are aggregated for a CA UE.
PCC
The primary component carrier (PCC) is the carrier of the PCell.
SCC
A secondary component carrier (SCC) is the carrier of an SCell.

3GPP defined CA Band combination (refer to 3GPP TR 36.101 section 5.5).

2 Operator E Test Situation

Three carriers are ready for test.

Band Bandwidth DL EARFCN
Band 1 20MHz 300
Band 3 20MHz 1600
Band 3 20MHz 1800

License requirement
Feature ID Feature Name Model License Control Item
LAOFD- LTE-A Introduction LT1SA020CA00 LTE-A Introduction(FDD)

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001001
LAOFD- Carrier Aggregation LT1SA040CA00 Carrier Aggregation for
001002 for Downlink 2CC in Downlink 2CC in
40MHz 40MHz(FDD)
LAOFD- Carrier Aggregation LT1SCAD60M00 Carrier Aggregation for
080208 for Downlink 3CC in Downlink 3CC in
60MHz 60MHz(FDD)
LAOFD- Flexible CA from LT1SCAD2MC00 Flexible CA from Multiple
070201 Multiple Carriers Carriers(FDD)

3 Test Preparation

3.1 CN Configuration

For CA test, the maximum bit rate that the UE subscribes to in the EPC must be more than below

Number of Carriers 2x2 MIMO + 64QAM

2 300Mbps
3 450Mbps
Check UE-AMBR, we found it was set to 160000000, not enough to test CA, changed it to
1010000000 finally.

3.2 eRAN Configuration

3.2.1 Contiguous Carriers and Non-contiguous Carriers

Intra-band CA include contiguous carriers and non-contiguous carriers.

3GPP(TR 36.101 section 5.7.1A) requires that the nominal channel spacing between the center

frequencies of two intra-band contiguous CCs be an integer multiple of 300 kHz.

For Operator E, there are two carriers in band 3. If DL EARFCN is set to 1600 and 1800, channel

space is 20MHz, it is non-contiguous carriers; if DL EARFCN is set to 1600 and 1798, channel

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space is 19.8MHz, it is contiguous carriers.

3.2.2 eRAN parameters and command

Huawei eNodeB support two configuration modes: CA-group-based and adaptive CA. We choose
adaptive CA for Operator E.

1. Setting the options of the CA algorithm switch:

MOD ENODEBALGOSWITCH:CAALGOSWITCH=FreqCfgSwitch-

1&HoWithSccCfgSwitch-1&SccModA6Switch-1&AdpCaSwitch-

1&EnhancedPccAnchorSwitch-1;

2. Adding candidate PCCs and setting their attributes, choose one carrier of them or all

carriers of them as PCC:

ADD

PCCFREQCFG:PCCDLEARFCN=***,PREFERREDPCCPRIORITY=***,PCCA4RSRPT

HD=***,PCCA4RSRQTHD=***;

3. Adding a candidate SCC for each candidate PCC and setting SCC attributes, set all others

carriers as SCC:

ADD

SCCFREQCFG:PCCDLEARFCN=***,SCCDLEARFCN=***,SCCPRIORITY=***,SCC

A2OFFSET=***,SCCA4OFFSET=***;

4. Setting blind-configurable candidate SCells (ensure that the two cells have been configured

as inter-frequency neighboring cells of each other):

ADD

CAGROUPSCELLCFG:LOCALCELLID=***,SCELLENODEBID=***,SCELLLOCALC

ELLID=***,SCELLBLINDCFGFLAG=TRUE;

5. Set inter-frequency neighbor cell between PCC cell and SCC cell.

6. 2CC total bandwidth is more than 20MHz, CaDl2CCExtSwitch should switch on; 3CC

total bandwidth is more than 40MHz, CaDl3CCExtSwitch should switch on

MOD CAMGTCFG:LOCALCELLID=***,

CELLCAALGOSWITCH=CaDl2CCExtSwitch-1&CaDl3CCSwitch-1;

7. If more than one SCC cells is set to PCC cell, MultiCarrierFlexCaSwitch should be
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switched on, otherwise eNodeB only select a limited number of frequencies based on the

SCC priorities:

MOD CAMGTCFG:LocalCellId=***,CellCaAlgoSwitch=MultiCarrierFlexCaSwitch-1;

3.2.3 CA UE capability

Check message “RRC_UE_CAP_INFO” from Signaling Trace or connect UE to Probe, we can

find what band combination that UE support. (below message shows the UE support Band3a,

means non-contiguous carriers in Band3)

Or output CA UE Capability directly with FMA.

It shows the UE support both Band3a and Band3c in below table, Band3c means contiguous

carriers in Band3.

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Base on test UE capability to set channel frequency.

4 Test Result

4.1 Feature Activation Observation

4.1.1 Counter

Observe the counters for PCell and SCell statistics. If the L.ChMeas.PRB.DL.PCell.Used.Avg,

L.ChMeas.PRB.DL.SCell.Used.Avg, L.Traffic.User.SCell.DL.Avg,

L.ChMeas.PRB.DL.SCell.Used.Avg counters produce non-zero values, the CA feature has been

activated successfully.

4.1.2 Signaling Trace

Check the tracing results for the message “RRC_CONN_RECFG”. The eNodeB configures or

removes an SCell for the CA UE that contains the IE sCellToAddModList or

sCellToReleaseList,

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4.1.3 Throughput Monitoring

Choose Trace Type > LTE > User Performance Monitoring > Throughput Monitoring on U2000

client, there will be CA PCell and CA SCell throughput result.

You should get MMEc and mTMSI in advance, Get it from message

“S1AP_INITIAL_UE_MSG” of signaling trace.

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Or run command “DSP ALLUEBASICINFO” on U2000 or LMT.

4.2 Test Result

UE Model CA Band Combination Bnadwidth Speedtest

Throughput
Mate 30 Band3a+Band3a 20M+20M 250Mbps
Mate 30 Band3a+Band3a 20M+15M 230Mbps
Mate 20 Band3a+Band3a 20M+20M 258Mbps
Mate 20 Band3a+Band3a 20M+15M 231Mbps
Mate 8 Band3c 20M+20M 232Mbps
iphone 11 Pro Band3a+Band3a 20M+20M 265Mbps
iphone 11 Pro Band3c 20M+20M 267Mbps
All test UEs don’t support band3+band1 CA or 3CC.

4.3 CA UE Proportion in Operator E Network

Collect MR with UE_CAPABILITY_INFORMATION, analyze it with SmartCAPEX in

WINSCloud or other tools, we can get MR proportion of CA UE capability.

CA Band Combination MR Proportion

2CC-Band 3c 8.1%
2CC-Band 3a+Band 3a 5.7%
2CC-Band 1a+Band 3a 1.2%
3CC-Band 1a+Band 3c 0.05%
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