RSRP and RSRQ Measurement in LTE

In cellular networks, when a mobile moves from cell to cell and performs cell selection/reselection
and handover, it has to measure the signal strength/quality of the neighbour cells. 
In LTE network, a UE measures two parameters on reference signal: RSRP (Reference Signal
Received Power) and RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality).

In LTE network, a UE measures two parameters on reference signal:

RSSI - Received Signal Strength Indicator: The carrier RSSI (Receive Strength Signal Indicator)
measures the average total received power observed only in OFDM symbols containing reference
symbols for antenna port 0 (i.e., OFDM symbol 0 & 4 in a slot) in the measurement bandwidth over
N resource blocks.

The total received power of the carrier RSSI includes the power from co-channel serving & non-
serving cells, adjacent channel interference, thermal noise, etc. Total measured over 12-subcarriers
including RS from Serving Cell, Traffic in the Serving Cell

RSRP - Reference Signal Received Power: RSRP is a RSSI type of measurement, as follows

there are some definition of it and some details as well.
It is the power of the LTE Reference Signals spread over the full bandwidth and narrowband.
A minimum of -20 dB SINR (of the S-Synch channel) is needed to detect RSRP/RSRQ

RSRQ - Reference Signal Received Quality: Quality considering also RSSI and the number of
used Resource Blocks (N) RSRQ = (N * RSRP) / RSSI measured over the same bandwidth.  RSRQ
is a C/I type of measurement and it indicates the quality of the received reference signal.  The RSRQ
measurement provides additional information when RSRP is not sufficient to make a reliable
handover or cell reselection decision. 

In the procedure of handover, the LTE specification provides the flexibility of using RSRP, RSRQ, or
both. 

It must to be measured over the same bandwidth:

o Narrowband N = 62 Sub Carriers (6 Resource Blocks)

o Wideband N = full bandwidth (up to 100 Resource Blocks / 20 MHz)
Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), is defined as the linear average over
the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements that carry cell-specific
reference signals within the considered measurement frequency bandwidth.
For RSRP determination the cell-specific reference signals R0 according TS 36.211 [3]
shall be used. If the UE can reliably detect that R1 is available it may use R1 in
addition to R0 to determine RSRP.
The reference point for the RSRP shall be the antenna connector of the UE.

Or, even better, Reference Signal Received Quality is defined as the ratio
N×RSRP/ (E-UTRA carrier RSSI), where N is the number of RB’s of the E-UTRA
carrier RSSI measurement bandwidth. The measurements in the numerator
and denominator shall be made over the same set of resource blocks.

If receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported value shall not be lower than
the corresponding RSRP of any of the individual diversity branches.

Applicable for: RRC_IDLE intra-frequency, RRC_IDLE inter-

frequency, RRC_CONNECTED intra-frequency, RRC_CONNECTED inter-frequency

Note1: The number of resource elements within the considered measurement

frequency bandwidth and within the measurement period that are used by the UE
to determine RSRP is left up to the UE implementation with the limitation that
corresponding measurement accuracy requirements have to be fulfilled.

Note 2: The power per resource element is determined from the energy received
during the useful part of the symbol, excluding the CP.

RSRP
In other words RSRP (Reference Signal Receive Power) is the average power of Resource
Elements (RE) that carry cell specific Reference Signals (RS) over the entire bandwidth, so RSRP is
only measured in the symbols carrying RS. 

o RSRP is the average received power of a single RS resource element.

o UE measures the power of multiple resource elements used to transfer the reference signal
but then takes an average of them rather than summing them.
o Reporting range -44…-140 dBm
RSRP does a better job of measuring signal power from a specific sector while potentially excluding
noise and interference from other sectors.

RSRP levels for usable signal typically range from about -75 dBm close in to an LTE cell site to -120
dBm at the edge of LTE coverage.

RSRP mapping 3GPP TS 36.133 V8.9.0 (2010-03)

The reporting range of RSRP is defined from -140 dBm to - 44 dBm with 1 dB resolution.
The mapping of measured quantity is defined in the table.

RSRQ 3GPP Definition
Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) is defined as the ratio N×RSRP/(E-UTRA
carrier RSSI), where N is the number of RB’s of the E-UTRA carrier RSSI
measurement bandwidth. The measurements in the numerator and denominator shall
be made over the same set of resource blocks.

E-UTRA Carrier Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), comprises the linear
average of the total received power (in [W]) observed only in OFDM symbols
containing reference symbols for antenna port 0, in the measurement bandwidth, over
N number of resource blocks by the UE from all sources, including co-channel serving
and non-serving cells, adjacent channel interference, thermal noise etc. 

The reference point for the RSRQ shall be the antenna connector of the UE. If receiver
diversity is in use by the UE, the reported value shall not be lower than
the corresponding RSRQ of any of the individual diversity branches.

Applicable for: RRC_CONNECTED intra-frequency, RRC_CONNECTED inter-

frequency

RSRQ
In formula:

RSRQ = N x RSRP / RSSI

o N is the number of Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) over which the RSSI is measured,
typically equal to system bandwidth
 o RSSI is pure wide band power measurement, including intracell power, interference and
noise
o The reporting range of RSRQ is defined from -3…-19.5dB

Reference Signals recap: OFDMA Channel Estimation

In simple terms the Reference Signal (RS) is mapped to Resource Elements (RE). This mapping
follows a specific pattern (see to below).

So at any point in time the UE will measure all the REs that carry the RS and average the
measurements to obtain an RSRP reading.

o
o
o Channel estimation in LTE is based on reference signals (like CPICH functionality in WCDMA)
o Reference signals position in time domain is fixed (0 and 4 for Type 1 Frame) whereas in
frequency domain it depends on the Cell ID
o In case more than one antenna is used (e.g. MIMO) the Resource elements allocated to
reference signals on one antenna are DTX on the other antennas
o Reference signals are modulated to identify the cell to which they belong.
RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) is a parameter which provides information about total
received wide-band power (measure in all symbols) including all interference and thermal noise.

RSSI is not reported to eNodeB by UE. It can simply be computed from RSRQ and RSRP that are,
instead, reported by UE.

RSSI = wideband power = noise + serving cell power +

interference power
So, without noise and interference, we have that 100% DL PRB activity: RSSI=12*N*RSRP

Where:

o RSRP is the received power of 1 RE (3GPP definition) average of power levels received

across all Reference Signal symbols within the considered measurement frequency bandwidth
o RSSI is measured over the entire bandwidth
o N: number of RBs across the RSSI is measured and depends on the BW
Based on the above, under full load and high:

SNR: RSRP (dBm) = RSSI (dBm) -10*log (12*N)

So we have: RSRQ = RSRP / (RSSI/N)

o N = Number of PRBs (Physical Resource Blocks)

o RSSI = noise + serving cell power + interference power during RS symbol
o So we have that RSRQ depends on serving cell power and the number of Tx antennas

Impact of serving cell power to RSRQ:

Example for noise limited case (no interference): If all resource elements are active and are
transmitted with equal power, then

RSRQ = N / 12N = -10.8 dB for 1Tx

RSRQ = N / 20N = -13 dB for 2Tx taking DTX into account

(because RSRP is measured over 1 resource element and RSSI per resource block is
measured over 12 resource elements).

Remember that RSSI is only measured at those symbol times during which RS REs are
transmitted - We do not have to take into the count DTx!!!
 So, when there is no traffic, and assuming only the reference symbols are transmitted (there are 2 of
them within the same symbol of a resource block) from a single Tx antenna then the RSSI is
generated by only the 2 reference symbols so the result becomes

RSRQ = N / 2N = -3 dB for 1Tx

RSRQ = -6dB for 2Tx

 SINR Definition
SINR is the reference value used in the system simulation and can be defined:

1. Wide band SINR

2. SINR for a specific subcarriers (or for a specific resource elements)

SINR = S/(I+N), all measured over the same bandwidth

SNR vs. RSRP

RSRP is measured for a single subcarrier, noisepower for 15KHz= -125.2dBm

1. Noise figure = 7 dB
2. Temperature = 290 K
Assumption: RSRP doesn’t contain noise power
RSRQ to SINR
It is common sense that the performance of any wireless system has a direct relationship with the RF

conditions at the time.

To aid with performance analysis then, it is tipical to define some ranges of RF measurements that correspond
to some typical RF conditions one might find themselves in.

The table on the rigth represents a good classification of RF conditions Vs LTE KPIs.

The source of this table is a EUTRAN vendor and has been complied during the RF tuning process for a major
US operator. Of course there are no rules as to how various RF conditions are classified, so different tables will
exist but to a great extent you can expect them to align.
In this particular example, three measurement quantities are used

o RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power)

o RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality)
o SINR (Signal to Interference & Noise Ratio)
You can find more info about RSRP & RSRQ in our HOT article: RSRP and RSRQ Measurement in LTEIn
this article we would like to highlight some of question about SINR & RSRQ relations.

SINR is defined as:

 
o S: indicates the power of measured usable
signals. Reference signals (RS) and
physical downlink shared channels
(PDSCHs) are mainly involved

o I: indicates the average interference power

- the power of measured signals or channel
interference signals from other cells in the
current system

  o
o  N: indicates background noise, which is
related to measurement bandwidths and
receiver noise coefficients
All quantities are measured over the same bandwidth and normalized to one subcarrier
bandwidth.

SINR is a measure of signal quality as well but it is not defined in the 3GPP specs but defined by the UE
vendor.

It is not reported to the network. SINR is used a lot by operators, and the LTE industry in general, as it better
quantifies the relationship between RF conditions and Throughput. UEs typically use SINR to calculate the
CQI (Channel Quality Indicator) they report to the network.
It is a common practice to use Signal-toInterference Ratio (SINR) as an indicator for network quality. It should
be however noted that 3GPP specifications do not define SINR and  therefore UE does not report SINR to the
network. SINR is still internally measured by most UEs and recorded by drive test tools.

Unfortunately UE chipset and RF scanner manufacturers have implemented SINR measurement in various
different ways which in the authors’ field experience are not always easily comparable. While at first it may
seem that defining SINR should be unambiguous, in case of LTE downlink this is not the case. This is because
different REs within a radio frame carry different physical signals and channels each of which, in turn, see
different interference power depending on inter-cell radio frame synchronization.

For example, in a frame-synchronized network, SINR estimation based on synchronization signals

(PSS/SSS) results in different SINR than SINR estimation based on Reference Signals, since in the latter case
the frequency shift of the RS depends on the PCI plan.

RSRQ is defined as

In what follows we show one way of converting RSRQ to SINR. 

In OFDM own cell interference is often assumed to be negligible and consequently I is due to other cell
interference only.

RSSI is defined as:

where the subscript ’tot’ indicates that the power is measured over the 12NRE subcarriers of
the measurement bandwidth.

The total serving cell received power depends on the number of transmitted subcarriers in the OFDM symbol
carrying R0, and on the number of transmit antennas. 

We can model this impact using the per-antenna subcarrier activity factor x and set

The value of x = 1 indicates full load such that all subcarriers of one transmit antenna are transmitted for the
OFDM symbol carrying R0
If only RS is transmitted (i.e., unloaded cell) the resulting subcarrier activity factors would be x = 1/6 and x =
1/3 for one and two transmit antennas, respectively.

When calculating x for two transmit antennas, one should take into account that REs overlapping with adjacent
antenna RS transmission are muted, and therefore, for example, in a fully loaded 2Tx cell the scaling factor is
x = 5/3 , instead of two.

It is assumed that all subcarriers have the same power, i.e., there is no power boosting for any channel. 

Since subcarrier interference plus noise power is

by combining the above equations we have the following relation of average subcarrier SINR and RSRQ
(Click on Formula To Enlarge):

and finally: 
This formula are illustrated beside

An uncomfortable property of the RSRQ to SINR mapping is that it depends on the instantaneous serving cell
subcarrier activity factor x, which is typically not known in live network measurements...

The value of x = 1 indicates full load such that all subcarriers of one transmit antenna are transmitted for the
OFDM symbol carrying R0.

If only RS is transmitted (i.e., unloaded cell) the resulting subcarrier activity factors would be x = 1/6 and x =
1/3 for one and two transmit antennas, respectively

When calculating x for two transmit antennas, one should take into account that REs
overlapping with adjacent antenna RS transmission are muted, and therefore, for
example, in a fully loaded 2Tx cell the scaling factor is x = 5/3 , instead of two

Another problem is the sensitivity of the mapping on RSRQ values; a small change in RSRQ can result in a
very large change in SINR which makes such mapping difficult to use in fading radio conditions.

Indeed, plotting a RSRQ versus SINR scatter graph from a drive test measurement one rarely obtains such a
nice looking curve as shown in the Figure above.

Currently available measurement UEs and scanners report SINR directly.