From 2G to 4G

UE Measurements from GSM to LTE

David Hall
RF Product Manager
Agenda: Testing 2G to 4G Devices
• The progression of standards
• GSM/EDGE measurements
• WCDMA measurements
• LTE Measurements
– LTE theory of operation
– PHY layer measurements
– LTE Advanced
 NI Software-defined RF Test

GSM/EDGE WCDMA
LTE WiMAX
& HSPA+

ZigBee RFID WLAN GPS

Early Access Early Access

AM/FM Bluetooth CDMA2000 EV-DO

 Overview of 3GPP Standards
WCDMA / HSPA /
GSM/EDGE 3GPP LTE
HSPA+
1991 (GSM) 2001 (WCDMA)
Deployment Date 2003 (EDGE) 2008 (HSPA)
2010 (Trial)

QPSK, 16-QAM, 64- QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-

Modulation GMSK , 8-PSK,
QAM QAM
Variable from
Channel BW 200 kHz 5 MHz
1.5 to 20 MHz
Single-Carrier OFDMA (DL)
Carrier Structure Modulation
WCDMA
TD-SCDMA (UL)

Peak Downlink Up to 473.6 kbps Up to 42.2 Mbps (DL- Up to 300 Mbps

Data Rate (DL-EDGE) HSPA+) (4x4 MIMO)

Duplexing FDD (TDMA) FDD (CDMA) FDD & TDD

Next Evolution Evolved EDGE HSPA+ LTE Advanced

 TDD vs. FDD
Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) Time Division Duplexing (TDD)

Frequency Frequency

UL MS1 MS2
Band
Single Uplink Downlink
Band Sub-frame Sub-frame
DL
MS1 MS2 MS3
Band

Time Time
 CDMA vs. FDMA
Frequency Division Code Division Multiple
Multiple Access (FDMA) Access (CDMA)
Frequency Frequency

MS4

DL MS2 Radio Radio

DL
Band Frame N Frame N+1
Band
MS1 MS5 each MS with each MS with
unique code unique code

MS3 MS6

Time Time
Introduction to GSM/EDGE
Measurements
 GSM/EDGE Measurement Suite
• Standard Support
– GSM, EDGE
– UE and BS testing
• Software support
– API for LabVIEW and C/C++
– Interactive soft front panels
– Teststand example sequences
• Measurement performance
– Modulation ORFS (GSM): -68
dBc
– RMS EVM (EDGE): < 0.5%
 Overview of GSM/EDGE
• GSM
– Uses Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK)
– No transitions through center of constellation
– Peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) < 1 dB
– Can be used with non-linear PA
• EDGE
– Uses offset 3π/8 8-PSK
• 3π/8 8-PSK uses 16 symbol locations (shifted 3π/8)
– No transitions through center of constellation
– PAPR ≈ 3 dB
– Requires linear PA
 GSM/EDGE Overview – Frame
Structure
– 8 timeslots/frame
– 573 μs/timeslot
– Training sequence in middle of data burst for
synchronization

slot slot slot slot slot slot slot slot midamble

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8
 GSM/EDGE Tx Measurements
• GSM Measurements
– Transmit Power (TxP)
– Power versus Time (PvT)
– Phase and Frequency Error (PFER)
– Output RF Spectrum (ORFS)
• EDGE Measurements
– Transmit Power (TxP)
– Power versus Time (PvT)
– Error Vector Magnitude (EVM)
– Output RF Spectrum (ORFS)
 Power Versus Time (PVT)
• Measures burst power and average power
• Measures compliance versus PVT mask
• Provides traces to determine relative margin
Phase and Frequency Error (PFER)
• Metric of GSM modulation quality
• Reports symbol with peak phase
• Why not a constellation trace?
 EDGE – Error Vector Magnitude
(EVM)
• Metric of modulation quality
• Encapsulates a wide range of signal errors
– Compression, SNR, and Quadrature impairments
 Output RF Spectrum (ORFS)
• Measures spectral power at various offset
frequencies
• Use “Auto Level” or set appropriate reference
level
Measurement is SNR
limited by VSA noise
floor Measurement
captures DUT non-
linearity
GSM/EDGE Demo
WCDMA/HSPA+ Measurement Suite
• Standard Support
– WCDMA, HSPA, and HSPA+
– UE and BS testing
• Software support
– API for LabVIEW and C/C++
– Interactive soft front panels
– Teststand example
sequences
• Measurement performance
– ACLR (Uplink): -63 dBc
– RMS EVM (Uplink): < 0.5%
Intro to WCDMA Measurements
• UE Conformance Spec: 3GPP TS 34.121-1, Sec 5
• Power
– Channel Power
– Code Domain Power (CDP)
• Frequency Domain
– Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR)
– Spectral Emissions Mask (SEM)
– Occupied Bandwidth (OBW)
• Modulation Quality
– Constellation EVM
– Modulation Accuracy (ModAcc)
 Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio
• Best metric of UE transmitter output linearity
• Defined by 3GPP TS 34.121-1, Sec 5.10

WCDMA
Channel
Power - 33 dBc
3.84 MHz - 43 dBc
BW

Negative Positive
Negative Adjacent Adjacent Positive
Alternate (+ 5 MHz) (+ 5 MHz) Alternate
(- 10 MHz) (+ 10 MHz)
Frequency
 Constellation EVM vs. Mod
Accuracy
• Constellation EVM
– Measure EVM un-spread chips
– Takes less time
• Configure + Measure Time = 47 ms on PXIe-8106
• Modulation Accuracy (ModAcc)
– De-spreads all chips and recovers symbols for each
channel
– Takes longer
• Configure + Measure Time = 600 ms on PXIe-8106
• Standard allows 17.5% (3GPP TS 34.121-1, Sec
5.13.1)
WCDMA Demo
Introduction to LTE
Measurements
 OFDMA Basics
• Each 12 sub-carriers grouped into resource blocks
• Each UE is allocated specific RB’s and timeslots
• Transmission BW can be limited to active RB’s
Unused RBs Active RBs Transmission BW

5 MHz LTE Channel BW (25 RB)

3GPP TS 36.521-1, Sec 5.4.2
 LTE PHY Layer Overview
Channel
1.4 MHz 3 MHz 5 MHz 10 MHz 15 MHz 20 MHz
bandwidth
Subcarriers Used 72 180 300 600 900 1200

# Resource Blocks 6 15 25 50 75 100

Downlink: QPSK, 16-QAM, and 64-QAM

Modulation
Uplink: QPSK, 16-QAM, and 64-QAM
Downlink: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA)
Multiple Access
Uplink: Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access
(SC-FDMA)
Downlink: 300 Mbps (4x4 MIMO, 20 MHz)
Peak Data Rate
Uplink: 75 Mbps (20 MHz)
 LTE Frame Structure
One Radio Frame = 10
One Sub-Frame = 1 ms ms
#0 #1 …………..…….. #18 #19
One Slot = 0.5 ms
7 symbols per slot , 6 if long cyclic prefix

…………..……..
Frequency

…………..……..
12 sub-carriers
per resource
block

…………..……..
Time
 LTE PHY Layer: Uplink
• Uses Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)
– Similar to OFDM & OFDMA
• DFT pre-coding helps preduce PAPR
– Enables better RF front end efficiency
Deserializer

Subcarrie

Serializer
Cyclic
N-point M-point
DFT
r Prefix
IDFT Insertion
Mapping

Denotes unique to SC-FDMA (not OFDM)

 LTE Measurement Suite
• Based on 3GPP, release 9
• Interactive Soft Front Panels
• TestStand Support
• API for LV 8.6.1 and above
• API for C, C++, and .NET API
 Intro to LTE Measurements
• UE Conformance Test Specification
– 3GPP TS 36.521-1
• Power Measurements
– Transmit power
– CCDF
• Modulation Quality
– EVM (per trace, symbol, etc.)
• Spectral Measurements
– Spectrum flatness
– Spectral emissions mask
– Adjacent channel power
 UE Maximum Output Power
• UE maximum power limited to +23 dBM (sec
6.2.2.3)
• Peak power is much higher because of OFDM
PAPR
• PAPR Characterized by CCDF Trace
CCDF illustrates
PAPR ≈ 7 dB

Higher PAPR evident

in PVT trace
 Error Vector Magnitude (EVM)
• Measures modulation quality
• Influenced by the broadest range of impairments
– Quadrature (IQ gain imbalance, skew)
– Signal to Noise Ratio
– Non-linearity
• 3GPP TS 36.521-1 defines EVM in percent (%)
EVM dB = −20 log(100 × EVM % )

Modulation Spec Limit (%) Spec Limit (dB)

BPSK or QPSK 17.5% -14.4 dB
16QAM 12.5% -18.1 dB 3GPP TS 36.521-1, Sec. 6.5.2.1
Modulation Quality - Constellation
 EVM Versus Symbol
Peak RMS EVM < -47 dB at 4th symbol
EVM Versus Sub-Carrier
Peak RMS EVM < -45.2 dB
 LTE ACP Measurements
• E-UTRA defines power of adjacent LTE carrier
– Measured with a square measurement filter
– UE spec limit is 30 dBc
• UTRA defines power of adjacent WCDMA carrier
– Measured with a RRC filter (alpha = 0.22)
– UE spec limit is 33 dBc
E-UTRAACLR1 (channel BW)

UTRAACLR1 UTRAACLR1 Active RBs

(3.84 MHz) (3.84 MHz)

3GPP TS 36.521-1, Sec. 6.6.2.3

 Tradeoff Between EVM and ACLR
Window Length: 64 Samples
RMS EVM: -40 dB
ACP: -55 dBc (UTRA)

Caused by discontinuities
between cyclic prefix and next
symbol
Window Length: 0
Symbols
RMS EVM: -49 dB
ACP: -45 dBc (UTRA)
Spectral Emissions Mask
 Spectrum Flatness

Spectrum flatness < ±0.15 dB

LTE Demo
Looking Forward to LTE Advanced
• Carrier aggregation
– Allows for up to five 20 MHz carriers (100 MHz total BW)
– Enables downlink data rates of up to 1 Gbps
• Enhanced MIMO support
– Up to 8 downlink transmission antennas (currently 4)
– Up to 4 uplink transmission antennas (currently 1)
20 MHz Channels

100 MHz Total BW

 Summary
• Cellular measurement can be classified by
– Power measurements
– Spectral measurements
– Modulation quality measurements
• Data rate drive wider BW and better spectrum
utilization
• LTE PHY layer contains several optimizations
– Better spectral efficiency using OFDMA
– SC-FDMA mitigates classing OFDM PAPR issues
• LTE Advanced adds MIMO measurement challenges