SINR and CQI mapping table in LTE

SINR [dB] CQI code Modulation Code Rate Spectral efficiency

-6.7 1 QPSK 0.076 0.15
-4.7 2 QPSK 0.12 0.23
-2.3 3 QPSK 0.19 0.38
0.2 4 QPSK 0.3 0.60
2.4 5 QPSK 0.44 0.88
4.3 6 QPSK 0.59 1.18
5.9 7 16QAM 0.37 1.48
8.1 8 16QAM 0.48 1.91
10.3 9 16QAM 0.6 2.41
11.7 10 64QAM 0.45 2.73
14.1 11 64QAM 0.55 3.32
16.3 12 64QAM 0.65 3.90
18.7 13 64QAM 0.75 4.52
21.0 14 64QAM 0.85 5.12
22.7 15 64QAM 0.93 5.55

Signal to interference plus noise ratio

SINR is the ratio of the received signal level and the sum of interference and noise. The
3GPP specification does not include the SINR parameter. UE (user equipment) does not
send the results back to the network. SINR is measured and used only in UE. It is used to
better express the ralitionship between radio conditions and throughput. For example it
can be used for calculating CQI value. Specific implementations may vary and it is up to
the manufacturer to decide, how to implement this measurement. This is making
difficult to compare results of different devices. SINR is also measured in UMTS and 5G
NR
CQI (Channel Quality Indication) - Instead of expressing the CQI as a received signal
quality, the CQI expressed as a data rate that terminal (UE) can support under the actual
radio conditions. SINR is used for calculating CQI. In LTE, CQI has only 15 codes. MCS
parameter is assigned based on the CQI value. CQI can be increased if the BLER value is
under 10%.
SNR and RSRP Relation
SNIR is a measure of Signal Quantity and Interference and Noise Quantity and it is very
important measurement in terms of RF and sometime it is also called as SNR in
absence of interference. It indicate how much desired signal is stronger compare to
Noise and interference. Its unit is dB.Mathematical it can be express as

To understand it better lets take an example. Let’s one say SNR of 30 dB, it means the
desired signal power is 30 dB better than noise power. If we convert 30dB in to linear
scale it means the desired signal power is 1000 time better than the noise power.

In LTE , we can find many SNR like Reference Signal SNR (RS SNR), PDSCH SNR ,
PUSCH SNR and PUCCH SNR and each have its own significance.

RSRP is measured on a LTE single sub-carrier i.e. 15KHz and similary SNR can also
be measured per sub-carrier (Narrow Band SNR) or over a certain number of sub-
carriers (Wide band SNR).

So to find SNR we first need to calculate noise Power. As per physics we know each Hz
bandwidth has a noise power of -174dBm/Hz, so we can calculate it for 15KHz using
following formula

Noise Power (dBm)= -174 +10*log(Bandwidth in Hz)

= -174 + 10*log(15*1000) =-132.23 dBm

UE normally has a noise figure of 7 dB then then Rx sensitivity for one sub-carrier will
be -125.23 dBm (-132.23 +7). It means if UE is experience SNR of 0 dB then it should
be able to decode a 15Khz signal when the received power is equal to or better than -
125.23 dBm, so we can assume RSRP -125dBm is equal to 0dB SNR consider single
antenna case, while with 2 antenna case the SNR will be double means 3dB. To make it
clear this relation is valid only with one signal source and no interference. so using this
assumption we can get a plot as shown in figure.

RSRSP in dB SNR in dB 1 Antenna SNR in dB 2 Antenna

– 70 dBm 48.2 dB 51.2 dB
– 75 dBm 43.2 dB 48.2 dB
– 80 dBm 38.2 dB 43.2 dB
– 85 dBm 33.2 dB 38.2 dB
– 90dBm 28.2 dB 33.2 dB
– 95 dBm 23.2 dB 28.2 dB
– 100 dBm 18.2 dB 23.2 dB
– 105 dBm 13.2 dB 18.2 dB
– 110 dBm 8.2 dB 13.2 dB
– 115 dBm 3.2 dB 8.2 dB
– 120dBm – 1.8 dB 3.2 dB
– 125 dBm – 6.8 dB -1.8 dB
– 130 dBm -11.8 dB -6.8 dB

 Pa & Pb: Another thing that can be done in case of smaller inter-site distance
is to use a more balanced RS power (Reference Signal). There are two
parameters in LTE Pa and Pb which define the power of the Reference
Signals against the other symbols e.g. PDSCH Symbols. I will just explain
with an example. If the Pa is -3 and Pb is 1, then that means that the
Reference Signals will be having 3 dB higher power than the PDSCH
symbols. When the inter-site distance is low, then high reference signal
power can result in higher interference. If the inter-site distance is large
 then this configuration can be helpful as a 3dB Reference Signal boost will
improve coverage as LTE coverage is controlled with RSRP and RSRP is the
direct outcome of RS power. However, in case of small inter-site distance, Pb
and Pa values of 0 might provide a more optimized solution as in this case,
the RS power will not be boosted compared to the PDSCH symbols.
Moreover, the PDCCH/PDSCH symbols in which Reference Signals are
present will have a slightly higher power for 2 and 4 antenna port systems.
This happens because previously with 0,-3 configuration, the RS were taking
the extra available power but now with the 0,0 configuration, the extra
power is used by the other channels instead of RS. So, that improves the
credibility of PDSCH and can result in better throughput results. This is a big
topic so I am just touching it here and will cover this in more details in the
future articles.

Load & Utilization

Second factor is the load in the area or cluster. Higher the load, higher the
interference to the neighbouring cells. As the load increases, the power per Resource
Element increases which will result in higher aggregate power in the area increasing
the RSSI. For neighbouring cell, such a power is considered interference. So, if the
load increases above a threshold, it is better to add another carrier or if another
carrier already exists, then it will be better to offload the congested carrier and shift
the load to the uncongested carrier. This can be done using Load Balancing features
or by tuning the cell reselection or mobility parameters.

Sometimes, the actual traffic volume is not that high but the utilization of the cell is
still very high. This is usually caused due to low signal quality as the users with bad
SINR will take a lot RBs at a lower modulation. In case, the traffic is not high but
utilization is still high, it is a good idea to see the TA and CQI for the cell. If TA is
pretty high and CQI is below 8 (value depends on the frequency layer) then it might
be a better idea to physically optimize the area or cell. Introducing PDCCH
optimization also helps in such cases as it can add to the PDSCH capacity relieving
congestion to an extent.

PCI Planning

As described in my PCI planning article, if the adjacent cells with overlapping

coverages have same PCI modulo 3, then there is a probability of RS interference
between them. Such an interference will reduce the overall RS SINR and
demodulation capability resulting in throughput degradation. So, it should be tried to
avoid PCI modulo3 conflicts wherever possible. In FDD networks, it is better to
ensure that time synchronization is not enabled as that adds a randomness to the
system and PCI mod3 impact is reduced significantly.

– CQI & MCS Mapping:

The next step is the CQI (Channel Quality Indicator). Once the UE measures it’s SINR,
it will convert it to a CQI value so it can report to the eNB. The eNB will take this CQI
and map it to a MCS (Modulation & Coding Scheme) value. A higher SINR will result in
a higher CQI value and consequently, a higher MCS index. As MCS increases, the
throughput usually increases so we need to ensure that we have the most optimum
CQI and MCS indexes for each SINR value. In LTE, there are 16 CQI indexes and 32
MCS indexes. Usually, the CQI value of below 7 is considered bad and CQI value of
around 10 is considered fair.

CQI Adjustment Algorithms

The eNB adjusts the raw CQI value shared by the UE to find an optimum CQI and this
provides a higher spectral efficiency. There are basically two scenarios where this
comes into play

Consider a UE-1 that measures its SINR value to be around 10 dB and based on that
it calculates a CQI of 9 and sends it to the eNB. Another UE, let’s call it UE-2,
measures its SINR value to be around 8 dB but based on that it sends CQI of 9 as the
UEs have different chipsets from different vendors and can have a different CQI
value for same SINR indexes. The eNB will have two UEs with same CQI value and if
the eNB provides both of them with the same MCS (for example MCS20) then it is
possible that the UE-1 might be able to work with MCS20 but the UE-2 will not be
able to decode MCS20 properly at 8 dB SINR. So, to address this issue, the eNB
maintains another index which is like the outer loop of BLER (Block Error Rate). Most
of the vendors maintain a BLER target of 10%. Now consider the same scenario, both
UEs get MCS20 and UE-1 works with a BLER value of 10% but the UE-2 had lower
SINR so it will have a relatively higher BLER. Let’s say, the eNB calculates the BLER to
be around 13% so the eNB will lower the MCS for the UE-2 and make it 19. If the
BLER still remains above 10%, the eNB will reduce it further to ensure that the BLER
target is maintained.

Similarly, if the UE sends a CQI value of 8 and eNB initiates downlink data with a MCS
of 16 and it finds out that the BLER value is below 10%, it will increase MCS to 17 or
18 until the BLER target is achieved. This scenario will increase the spectral efficiency
and the throughput.
So, we need to ensure that CQI adjustment or dynamic CQI assignment algorithms or
outer loop control based on BLER is activated to achieve maximum gains from the
channel.

CQI Convergence

Another important thing is that some vendors use low CQI values initially. For
example, if the UE has just accessed the cell and it shares a CQI value of 9, the eNB
will treat it as a CQI of 7 and a corresponding MCS will be allocated to it. Then after
subsequent transmissions, the eNB will keep monitoring BLER and once the
credibility of the UE’s CQI is ensured, the eNB will converge to the effective CQI.
Some vendors keep this as a hard-coded algorithm while others provide parameters
to tune this and then these parameters can be tuned to limit this behaviour resulting
in faster convergence and higher throughputs especially for small packet data
transfers. For instance, a UE which has a small amount of data accesses the cell and
gets its data within two to three TTIs (subframes), then the eNB will not have enough
CQI samples to converge quickly. The same UE will try again next time and the eNB
will keep using a conservative CQI and MCS for such a UE. So, if the delta for initial
CQI value is reduced, such UEs will get a less conservative CQI and MCS resulting in
better data rates.

CQI Periodicity

Another thing that helps is the CQI periodicity or the frequency of CQI reporting from
the UE. If the UE reports CQI after a large interval, then the eNB might not have the
most accurate CQI to begin with and it will take longer time to converge to the
optimum MCS. Usually CQI reports are shared every 40 or 80 ms but if the UE is
moving or if the channel is fluctuating then 40 or 80 ms can be considered a large
interval. If we shift the CQI period to a smaller value like 20ms or 10ms, then the CQI
will be more accurate and that should improve the spectral efficiency. However, the
lower the interval, higher the number of CQI reports and higher the PUCCH
utilization. Periodic CQI reports are sent over PUCCH in uplink so if we reduce the
CQI reporting interval, that will increase the load on PUCCH. This can lead to
interference on PUCCH and it can also result in RRC rejections due to PUCCH
congestion. eNB needs PUCCH for CQI, HARQ & SRIs so if the PUCCH is congested,
then it will have to reject new incoming access requests. This can be solved by using
the following two approaches

 Adaptive or Dynamic PUCCH : This is introduced by vendors to resolve the RRC

Rejections due to PUCCH overload. This allows the PUCCH to expand and it
can consume more Resource Blocks if required. The down side is that the
PUCCH takes the Resource Blocks from the PUSCH which can then limit the
uplink throughput. However, usually the networks require higher downlink
capacity so uplink can be compromised to an extent.
 Adaptive CQI Period : This is another enhancement that some vendors have.
This makes the CQI reporting interval dynamic and the eNB can adjust it
based on the user’s characteristics. This way, if the eNB finds a UE that has
no channel fluctuation (mostly stationary), it can use longer CQI reporting
interval like 80ms and eNB can reduce the interval to 10ms for a UE that has
high fluctuation. This provides an optimum performance gain in CQI
accuracy without impacting the PUCCH load to that extent.
There is another type of CQI reports known as Aperiodic CQIs but we will discuss that
in the next episode of the throughput optimization.

Adaptive BLER Targets

Firstly, lets understand the concept of BLER. It can be divided into two categories:

 Initial BLER: When the eNB sends data to the UE and UE is unable to decode
it, then it will send a HARQ NACK to the eNB. A NACK means that the eNB
will have to retransmit the data and this NACK is considered IBLER or Initial
Block Error.
 Residual BLER: If the UE is unable to decode the data even after
retransmission, the UE will send another NACK and the eNB will have to
retransmit again. However, there is a limit to these retransmissions and
usually they are configurable. Commonly, these retransmissions are set to 4
and after 4 retransmissions, the eNB will not retransmit at HARQ level and
consider this as a Residual Block Error.

The BLER target is maintained by the IBLER so this means that the eNB tries to
maintain an IBLER of 10% for each UE. RBLER is usually very low and it is supposed to
be less than 0.5%. The question may arise that why don’t we reduce the IBLER
further and make it low as that should reduce retransmissions. The problem here is
that lowering IBLER means that we need to lower the MCS. Even a very low MCS will
not ensure a linear decrease in IBLER but it will degrade throughput excessively. So,
various simulations and field trials were done to come up with an optimum target of
10% for IBLER which is followed by most of the vendors.

However, recently it has been found that BLER target of 10% works fine in fair
conditions but when the radio conditions are bad or good, other BLER targets
provide higher gains. For instance, if the radio conditions are bad, a BLER target of
10% keeps the MCS very conservative and increasing the BELR target, increases the
MCS and it provides higher throughput gains. So, such parameters can be tuned if
available to get better results.

– Mobility Strategy:

One thing that can really help in increasing the throughput is the optimum mobility
strategy.

Transition to Higher CQI layer

Consider two LTE layers, for instance L800 and L1800 with same bandwidth. In this
case, L800 will have a higher coverage as it is a lower frequency. So, the user count
on L800 will be higher compared to L1800. However, the lower frequency layer also
has higher interference since it has a bigger coverage radius. So, that will result in a
lower CQI and a bad throughput. L1800 throughput will usually be better even with
same bandwidth because it will have better CQI. So, the most important thing is to
ensure that the layer with the better CQI gets most of the traffic. This can be done in
many ways and I have jotted down a few of those.

The easiest way is to give a higher priority to L1800 and that will shift most of the
UEs in L1800 coverage away from L800. This will ensure better CQI for users and
thus a better throughput. Another way would be to keep them on same priority and
provide a frequency offset to move the users to L1800. This is more reasonable if
L1800 is also getting overloaded then the amount of load to be shifted can be tuned
by varying the offsets.

I prefer load shifting by cell reselection instead of handovers. If the handover

thresholds are changed or frequency priority based handovers are used, then it
initiates gap periods. For UE, to move from one frequency to another frequency in
connected mode, it needs to measure the target frequency. In order to measure the
target frequency, the UE goes into a gap mode of 6 ms. This gap mode repeats itself
after every 40 or 80ms. So, if it repeats every 40ms then that means that the UE
cannot be scheduled for 6ms in every 40ms. Moreover, when the UE gets data, it
needs to send a HARQ ACK/NACK after 4ms. So, it means that since the eNB knows
that the UE will be in gap mode so the eNB will not schedule any data for the UE 4ms
before the gap mode. That makes it 10ms in each 40ms that the UE cannot be
scheduled which is around 25% of the time. So, inter-frequency handovers should be
minimized as it can cause a 25% degradation in throughput. Cell reselection works in
idle mode so it is a much better way to move users between the layers.

Load Balancing

Another way is to enable load balancing between the layers and ensuring that the
higher CQI layer gets more load. Load balancing usually also comes in two modes

 Connected Mode: In this case, the eNB calculates the PRBs or user count and
tries to maintain target load values by performing load based handovers
between the layers.
 Idle Mode: In this case, the eNB sends the frequency in the RRC Release
command to the UE. eNB increases the priority of the target frequency for
that UE temporarily and the UE tries to reselect to that frequency in idle
mode.

Once again, I prefer idle mode based load balancing as it does not introduce the
inter-frequency handovers and also gets the work done. But idle mode based load
balancing will not have significant impact in case the layers have different priorities
since one layer already has higher priority and idle mode based load balancing also
moves users by increasing the priority. So, if the UEs are not moving to higher
priority layer than that means that the layer has coverage constraints and then the
idle mode based load balancing will also be unable to shift the load.

Vertical Beam-Width
Another important factor is that many times, the low band like L800 has a bigger
vertical beamwidth than the corresponding higher band. This effectively means that
at the same tilt value, the L800 will have a much bigger coverage foot print than the
L1800. So, before making any mobility strategy, it is important to verify the antenna
patterns especially the vertical beam-width for all the layers. If the beam-width of
one layer is significantly wider than the other, then ensure to put a tilt offset
between the two to keep an optimum and balanced coverage.

– Scheduler Fairness:

Another important factor is the scheduler type. A scheduler can work in multiple
modes

Round Robin: In this mode, the scheduler provides equal resources to all users. This
is not an optimum algorithm as different users have different data requirements.

Max C/I: This mode provides significantly higher resources to users in good coverage
conditions. This mode can starve the cell edge users and they will not get enough
data resulting in degradation in user experience.

Proportion Fair: This scheme maintains a fairness between all users maintaining a
healthy resource sharing between all user types. The basic concept of this mode is to
strike a balance between users and it does that by prioritizing based on CQI and data
rates. So, if the CQI is high, it will give resource to that user first but since it needs to
maintain a fair data rate for all users, the cell edge users will also be scheduled. This
scheme is essentially a combination of both round robin and Max C/I as it provides
more resources to users with higher CQI as compared to round robin but it also
provides more resources to cell edge users when compared to Max C/I. Hence, it gets
the name Proportional fair.

The user throughput KPI improves with Max C/I scheduler as it provides more
resources to good users resulting in higher user throughput but the cell throughput
is improved with Proportional Fair algorithm as it strikes a balance between all users.
So, if the user throughput KPI is to be improved then the scheduler can be tilted
towards Max C/I while Proportional Fair can be used if cell throughput gain is
required. The optimization at this level really needs deep understanding of the
scheduler’s algorithm and it also depends if the specific vendor provides the options
to play with the scheduling weights.

These are the basics to improve the spectral efficiency for a network. In the next
part, I will explain the features that can be used to improve throughput along with
the scenarios where they will be applicable.
MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme)