RACH planning for NR

Guideline for planning of RACH root sequences for

low-band, mid-band and high-band, and for
preamble formats B4, 0 and A3

Maria Thiessen NSV PAC Radio NW Methods 2019-10-02

Maria Thiessen | 27/1550-10/FCP 131 9969 Uen | B | 2019-10-02 | Ericsson Internal | Page 1
 Revision Date Description
A 2019-09-12 First revision
B 2019-10-02 Corrected sequence lengths in slide 11
Corrected cell range tables for RACH planning

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Scope and limitations

—Planning of RACH root sequences

—Contention-Based Random Access (CBRA, initial access)
—Low-band, mid-band and high-band
—Similarities and differences compared to LTE
—Only unrestricted set, no restricted set (high speed)

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Outline

— Technical background
— Preamble formats according to 3GPP
— Preamble formats in current product
— Pros and cons
— Format B4 Mid-band and Low-band
— Maximum cell range
— Reuse of RACH root sequences for different cell ranges
— Format 0 Mid-band and Low-band
— Maximum cell range
— Reuse of RACH root sequences for different cell ranges
— Format A3 High-band
— Reuse of RACH root sequences
— MOM parameters
— Comparison with RACH root sequence planning for LTE
— Recommendations for planning
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Random Access
–Technical background

— Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) is used for Random Access (RA)
— It allows the gNodeB to estimate the delay between the gNodeB and UE
— The first step in the RA procedure is the transmission of a RA preamble
— The preamble consists a Cyclic Prefix (CP) of length NRACP and a sequence part of repeated PRACH OFDM
symbols of total length Nu

— Available preambles per SS/PBCH block in a cell:

— 16 for low-band and mid-band
— 8 per RACH occasion for high-band

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Preamble formats (1)
— Length of ZC sequence LRA = 839 and fRA  {1.25, 5} kHz:
Support for
Format LRA fRA [kHz]* Nu NRACP
restricted sets
0 839 1.25 24576  3168  Yes
1 839 1.25 224576  21024  Yes
2 839 1.25 424576  4688  Yes
3 839 5 46144  3168  Yes

— Length of ZC sequence LRA = 139 and fRA = 152 kHz where   {0, 1, 2, 3}:
Support for
Format LRA fRA [kHz]* Nu NRACP
restricted sets
A1 139 152 22048 2- 288 2- No
A2 139 152 42048 2- 576 2- No
A3 139 152 62048 2- 864 2- No
B1 139 152 22048 2- 216 2- No
B2 139 152 42048 2- 360 2- No
B3 139 152 62048 2- 504 2- No
B4 139 152 122048 2- 936 2- No
C0 139 152 2048 2- 1240 2- No
C2 139 152 42048 2- 2048 2- No

* PRACH numerology may differ from PUSCH numerology

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Preamble formats (2)

— Supported combinations of PRACH and PUSCH numerologies:

LRA fRA for PRACH [kHz] f for PUSCH [kHz]
839 1.25 15
839 1.25 30
839 1.25 60
839 5 15
839 5 30
839 5 60
139 15 15
139 15 30
139 15 60
139 30 15
139 30 30
139 30 60
139 60 60
139 60 120
139 120 60
139 120 120

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Preamble formats (3)

— 𝑇 = 1⁄ 𝑓 𝑁 basic time unit for NR

— 𝑓 = 480 ⋅ 10 Hz
— 𝑁 = 4096
— 𝜅 = 𝑇 ⁄𝑇 = 64 where 𝑇 = 1⁄ 𝑓 𝑁, basic time unit for LTE
— 𝑓 = 15 ⋅ 10 Hz
— 𝑁, = 2048
— Cyclic prefix length: 𝑇 = 𝑁 𝑇
— Preamble length: 𝑇 = 𝑁 𝑇

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Preamble formats in current product

— For mid-band and low-band:

— Format B4
— First release
— Benefit: fits all TDD patterns
— Format 0
— Current release
— Benefits compared to Format B4:
— Same format as in LTE
— Longer cell range
— Larger number of root sequences

— For high-band:
— Format A3
— Benefits:
— Compact format
— Fits all TDD patterns
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Format B4

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Format B4
–Maximum cell range

Support for
Format LRA fRA [kHz]* Nu NRACP
restricted sets
B4 139 152 122048 2- 936 2- No

— Length of ZC sequence LRA = 139 and fRA = 152 kHz where  = 0 for low-band,  = 1 for mid-band

CP Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Time [symbols]

— Supported cell range with Format B4 is limited by the PRACH sequence length, TSEQ
— Mid-band: TSEQ = 0.033333 ms  maximum cell range = 4940 m (NCS = 0, see Appendix 1 and 2)
— Low-band: TSEQ = 0.066667 ms  maximum cell range = 9910 m (NCS = 0, see Appendix 1 and 2)
— The cell range cannot be larger than that the signal is delayed more than one PRACH sequence length

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Preamble generation
–Length of cyclic shift duration

— NCS is defined as the length of the cyclic shift duration (see Appendix 2)
— NCS values for short sequence (LRA = 139)
NCS value
zeroCorrelationZoneConfig
Unrestricted set
0 0
1 2
2 4
3 6
4 8
5 10
6 12
7 13
8 15
9 17
10 19
11 23
12 27
13 34
14 46
15 69

No support for restricted sets

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Mid-band Format B4
–Number of RACH root sequences

— Format B4:
— NZC = 139, fRA = 30 kHz ( = 1)
— 𝑇 = 0.03333 ms = 1⁄ 𝑓

zeroCorrelationZo Round trip time [s] Number of preambles Number of root sequences
NCS Cell range [m]
neConfig TRTT * Npreamble * Nrootsequences *
0 0 4940 3.30E-05 1 16
1 2 20 1.33E-07 69 1
2 4 90 6.19E-07 34 1
3 6 160 1.10E-06 23 1
4 8 230 1.58E-06 17 1
5 10 300 2.06E-06 13 2
6 12 380 2.54E-06 11 2
7 13 410 2.78E-06 10 2
8 15 480 3.26E-06 9 2
9 17 560 3.74E-06 8 2
10 19 630 4.22E-06 7 3
11 23 770 5.18E-06 6 3
12 27 920 6.14E-06 5 4
13 34 1170 7.81E-06 4 4
14 46 1600 1.07E-05 3 6
15 69 2430 1.62E-05 2 8

— The highest number of available preambles per SS/PBCH block is 16

— For cell ranges below 230 m, one single RACH root sequence can be used for generating all 16 preambles
— For cell ranges between 230 m and 560 m, two RACH root sequences are needed
*See Appendix 1 for formulas
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Mid-band cell range Format B4
–As function of number of RACH root sequences

Cell range [m] Number of RACH root Reuse

sequences
<230 1 =138*/1 = 138
230 – 560 2 =138/2 = 69
560 – 770 3 =138/3 = 46
770 – 1170 4 =138/4  35
1170 – 1600 6 =138/6 = 23
1600 – 2430 8 =138/8  17
2430 – 4940 16 =138/16  9

— Maximum cell range is 4940 m for Format B4

— For example, if cellRange parameter is set between 1170 and 1600 m
 number of needed RACH root sequences is 6 and reuse of sequences done in every 23rd cell
— In this example, setting a value of rachRootSequence to X means that sequences X+1, X+2, …, X+5 can be
used in that cell and values of rachRootSequence in adjacent cells should be set so that it differs by at least 6
*138 preambles available in total, for a length of ZC sequence that is 139

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Low-band Format B4
–Number of RACH root sequences

— Format B4:
— NZC = 139, fRA = 15 kHz ( = 0)
— 𝑇 = 0.06667 ms = 1⁄ 𝑓

zeroCorrelationZo Round trip time [s] Number of preambles Number of root sequences
NCS Cell range [m]
neConfig TRTT * Npreamble * Nrootsequences *
0 0 9910 6.61E-05 1 16
1 2 50 3.33E-07 69 1
2 4 200 1.34E-06 34 1
3 6 340 2.30E-06 23 1
4 8 480 3.26E-06 17 1
5 10 630 4.22E-06 13 2
6 12 770 5.18E-06 11 2
7 13 840 5.66E-06 10 2
8 15 990 6.61E-06 9 2
9 17 1130 7.57E-06 8 2
10 19 1270 8.53E-06 7 3
11 23 1560 1.05E-05 6 3
12 27 1850 1.24E-05 5 4
13 34 2350 1.57E-05 4 4
14 46 3220 2.15E-05 3 6
15 69 4870 3.25E-05 2 8

— The highest number of available preambles per SS/PBCH block is 16

— For cell ranges below 480 m, one single RACH root sequence can be used for generating all 16 preambles
— For cell ranges between 480 m and 1130 m, two RACH root sequences are needed
*See Appendix 1 for formulas
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Low-band cell range Format B4
–As function of number of RACH root sequences

Cell range [m] Number of RACH Root sequence reuse pattern

root sequences
<480 1 =138*/1 = 138  Reuse in every 138th cell
480 – 1130 2 =138/2 = 69  Reuse in every 69th cell
1130 – 1560 3 =138/3 = 46  Reuse in every 46th cell
1560 – 2350 4 =138/4  35  Reuse in every 35th cell
2350 – 3220 6 =138/6 = 23  Reuse in every 23rd cell
3220 – 4870 8 =138/8  17  Reuse in every 17th cell
4870 – 9910 16 =138/16  9  Reuse in every 9th cell

— Maximum cell range is 9910 m for Format B4

— For example, if cellRange parameter is set between 2350 and 3220 m
 number of needed RACH root sequences is 6 and reuse of root sequence index in every 23rd cell
— In this example, setting a value of rachRootSequence to X means that sequences X+1, X+2, …, X+5 can be
used in that cell and values of rachRootSequence in adjacent cells should in be set so that it differs by at least 6
*138 preambles available in total, for a length of ZC sequence that is 139

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Format 0

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Format 0
–Scheduling
Support for
Format LRA fRA [kHz]* Nu NRACP
restricted sets
0 839 1.25 24576  3168  Yes

— Length of ZC sequence LRA = 839 and fRA = 1.25 kHz

CP Sequence GP

0 0.5 1 Time [ms]

— Same format as used in LTE
— Fixed CP and sequence lengths, not depending on numerology
— For mid-band 30 kHz subcarrier spacing: the preamble fits into 2 slots
— For low-band 15 kHz subcarrier spacing: the preamble fits into 1 slot
—  For mid-band TDD, deployment of TDD pattern with two consecutive uplink slots is necessary;
— Patterns DDDSUUDDDD and DDDSUDDSUU fulfill this requirement
— For low-band FDD, this is not an issue;
— Only one slot is required
— Uplink and downlink are separated in different frequencies
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Format 0
–Maximum cell range

CP Sequence GP

0 0.5 1 Time [ms]

— Supported cell range with Format 0 is limited by the guard period TGP
— Format 0:
— Cyclic prefix length: 𝑇 = 3168 𝑇
— Sequence length: 𝑇 = 24576 𝑇
— For mid-band 30 kHz subcarrier spacing: the preamble fits into 28 symbols (2 slots)
 𝑇 = 28 𝑇 , − 𝑇 − 𝑇 = 2976 𝑇
— For low-band 15 kHz subcarrier spacing: the preamble fits into 14 symbols (1 slot)
 𝑇 = 14 𝑇 , − 𝑇 − 𝑇 = 2976 𝑇

— Corresponding cell range = 𝑐 𝑇 ⁄2 where c is speed of light = 3 10 m/s

 Maximum cell range = 14530 m for Format 0
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Preamble generation
–Length of cyclic shift duration

— NCS is defined as the length of the cyclic shift duration (see Appendix 2)
— NCS values for long sequence (LRA = 839)
NCS value
zeroCorrelationZoneConfig
Unrestricted set
0 0
1 13
2 15
3 18
4 22
5 26
6 32
7 38
8 46
9 59
10 76
11 93
12 119
13 167
14 279
15 419

Support for restricted sets (not treated here)

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Format 0
–Number of RACH root sequences

— Format 0:
— NZC = 839, fRA = 1.25 kHz
— 𝑇 = 0.8 ms

zeroCorrelationZo Round trip time [s] Number of preambles Number of root sequences
NCS Cell range [m]
neConfig TRTT * Npreamble * Nrootsequences *
0 0 119840 7.99E-04 1 16
1 13 1700 1.13E-05 64 1
2 15 1980 1.32E-05 55 1
3 18 2410 1.61E-05 46 1
4 22 2980 1.99E-05 38 1
5 26 3560 2.37E-05 32 1
6 32 4410 2.95E-05 26 1
7 38 5270 3.52E-05 22 1
8 46 6420 4.28E-05 18 1
9 59 8280 5.52E-05 14 2
10 76 10710 7.14E-05 11 2
11 93 13140 8.76E-05 9 2
12 119 16860 1.12E-04 7 3
13 167 23720 1.58E-04 5 4
14 279 39740 2.65E-04 3 6
15 419 59770 3.98E-04 2 8

— The highest number of available preambles per SS/PBCH block is 16

— For cell ranges below 6420 m, one single RACH root sequence can be used for generating all 16 preambles
— For cell ranges between 6420 m and 13140 m, two RACH root sequences are needed
*See Appendix 1 for formulas
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Cell range Format 0
–As function of number of RACH root sequences

Cell range [m] Number of RACH Root sequence reuse pattern

root sequences
<6420 1 =838*/1 = 838  Reuse in every 838th cell
6420 – 13140 2 =838/2 = 419  Reuse in every 419th cell
13140 – 15000 3 =838/3  279 Reuse in every 279th cell

— From a guard period perspective, maximum cell range is 14530 m for Format 0
— For example, if cellRange parameter is set between 6420 and 13140 m
 number of needed RACH root sequences is 2 and reuse of root sequence index in every 419th cell
— In this example, setting a value of rachRootSequence to X means that as well sequence X+1 can be used in
that cell and values of rachRootSequence in adjacent cells should in be set so that it differs by at least 2
*838 preambles available in total, for a length of ZC sequence that is 839

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MOM parameters
–Low-band/mid-band

Parameter name Description Default value

cellRange Maximum distance from base station where connection to 1667 { 1..15000 } [m]
UE can be set up and maintained
rachPreambleFormat RACH preamble format RACH_PREAMBLE_FORMAT_01
rachRootSequence First root sequence number for RACH preamble generation 1 { 0..137 }

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High-band Random Access

Support for
Format LRA fRA [kHz]* Nu NRACP
restricted sets
A3 139 152 62048 2- 864 2- No

CP Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq. Seq.

0 1 2 3 4 5 Time [symbols]

— Format A3 deployed
— fRA = 120 kHz ( = 3)
— zeroCorrelationZoneConfig = NCS = 0, which means no cyclic shift due to timing (cell size)
— 8 possible preambles per RACH occasion, SSB and cell, regardless of cell size
— 138 preambles available in total, for a length of ZC sequence that is 139
— 138/8 17  Reuse of root sequence index in every 17th cell, regardless of cell size

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MOM parameters
High-band

Parameter name Description Default value

rachRootSequence First root sequence number for RACH preamble generation 1 { 0..137 }

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Random Access
–Comparison with LTE

— Follows the same procedure as for LTE [2]:

— Preamble generation
— Cyclic shifts (for mid-band and low-band)
— Unrestricted / restricted sets*
— Differences:
— Long and short sequence lengths
— Preamble formats
— Several numerologies
— Number of available preambles in a cell
— No cyclic shifts for high-band

*Only unrestricted set treated here

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Recommendations for planning

— The main point is that the parameter rachRootSequence should be set to different values in
adjacent cells to avoid preamble detections from UEs in neighboring cells
— For mid-band and low-band:
— Parameter cellRange should be set to an appropriate value  minimum length of cyclic shift duration, NCS,
is given
— From NCS, number of needed RACH root sequences to generate all 16 preambles is identified
— Root sequence reuse pattern is determined
— Parameter rachRootSequence is set according to number of needed root sequences and reuse pattern
— For high-band:
— Reuse of root sequence index in every 17th cell regardless of cell size
— Parameter rachRootSequence is set according to given reuse pattern
— In case of several neighbor relations, a solution may be to introduce ranking for neighbor relations
— First ranking is cells within same site
— Lower ranking levels can be determined via distance and/or cell overlap
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 References

1. 3GPP TS 38.211
2. Planning RACH Root Sequences in a Radio Network, 42/1550-10/FCP 103 9669 Uen
3. Personal communication with Fredrik Ovesjö, Oskar Mauritz, Yang Zhang Z, Pär Ankel et al.

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 Appendix 1: Formulas, low-band and mid-band

— Round trip time (c is speed of light):

2 ⋅ Cell range
𝑇RTT =
𝑐
— Minimum length of cyclic shift duration:
𝑇RTT + 𝑇delay spread + 𝑇error
𝑁CS = 𝑁ZC
𝑇
For NCS = 0, NCS should be replaced by NZC in formula above
— Maximum number of preambles that could potentially be constructed from a single root sequence:
𝑁ZC
𝑁preamble =
𝑁CS
— Number of RACH root sequences:
16
𝑁rootsequences =
𝑁preamble
— Length of ZC sequence:
NZC = 139 (short format)
NZC = 839 (long format)

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 Appendix 2: Cyclic shift duration, low-band and
mid-band

𝑇RTT + 𝑇delay spread + 𝑇error

𝑁CS = 𝑁ZC
𝑇

— Tdelay spread = 100 ns for NR channels

—𝑇 =

—  For format B4 𝑇 = 0.48 µs for low-band, 0.24 µs for low-band (short sequence with NZC = 139)

—  For Format 0 𝑇 = 0.95 µs (long sequence with NZC = 839)

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 Appendix 3: Abbreviations

— CBRA Contention-Based Random Access

— CP Cyclic Prefix
— CS Cyclic Shift
— PRACH Physical Random Access Channel
— RA Random Access
— RACH Random Access Channel
— ZC Zadoff-Chu

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