PRACH Planning in LTE

PRACH Planning Principle

•In LTE it is necessary the radio planner to selects the preamble format for each cell based on maximum
estimated cell range. Typical preamble format will be ‘Preamble Format 0’, allowing for cell sizes up to 15km.
Other preamble formats allow for larger cell ranges.
•PRACH parameters should be planned. PRACH transmission can be separated by:

– Time (prachConfIndex) specifies in which subframes the RA can occur

PRACH Configuration Index cannot be the same for different cells at the eNB

– Frequency (prachFreqOff) avoid overlapping with PUCCH and PUSCH or splitting the PUSCH
area.PRACH area is next to PUCCH area either at upper or lower border of frequency band,
For simplicity use same configuration for all cells

– Sequence (PRACH CS and RootSeqIndex) the cyclic shift ensures sufficient separation between the
preambles
Use different sequences for all neighbour cells
 SIB2
value BCCH-DL-SCH-Message ::=
message c1 : systemInformation :
criticalExtensions systemInformation-r8 :
sib-TypeAndInfo
sib2 :
radioResourceConfigCommon
rach-ConfigCommon
preambleInfo
numberOfRA-Preambles n40,
preamblesGroupAConfig
Lo normal es que sean 64
sizeOfRA-PreamblesGroupA n32,
messageSizeGroupA b144,
messagePowerOffsetGroupB dB10
Distrintos grupos distinta cantidad de info
prach-Config
rootSequenceIndex 30,
prach-ConfigInfo
prach-ConfigIndex 4,
highSpeedFlag FALSE,
zeroCorrelationZoneConfig 8,
prach-FreqOffset 3,
 PRACH Configuration Index (1)
– The PRACH Configuration

• Chosen after selecting the

Preamble format
• The PRACH capacity is
determined by the SFN and
subframe figures

• In the case of FDD, the PRACH

cannot be multiplexed in the
frequency domain, i.e. only 1
PRACH resource per
subframe

Recommendation:
Configure different
PRACHconfiguration
Indexes at cells belonging
to the same site. E.g.: 3/4/5
if RACH density=1 or 6/7/8
if RACH density=2
(Preamble Format 0)
 PRACH Configuration Index

Preamble Cyclic Prefix Sequence Guard Time Total Guard Typical Max.
Format Length Length Length Time Cell Range
Equiv.
Dist.
0 0.10 ms 0.8 ms 0.10 ms 1 ms 30 km 15 km
1 0.68 ms 0.8 ms 0.52 ms 2 ms 156 km 78 km
2 0.20 ms 1.6 ms 0.20 ms 2 ms 60 km 30 km
3 0.68 ms 1.6 ms 0.72 ms 3 ms 216 km 108 km
 Frequency Offset (1)

– Defines the position of the PRACH preamble PUCCH

within the channel bandwidth
– PRACH should be positioned adjacent to the
PUCCH

PUCCH
2 ms
PRACH
Resource Block
signalled in SIB2
 PRACH Frequency Offset (2)

• Indicates the first PRB available for PRACH in the UL frequency band
– PRACH area (6 PRBs) should be next to PUCCH area either at upper or lower border of
frequency band in order to maximize the PUSCH area but not overlap with PUCCH area
– Parameter is configured based on the PUCCH region i.e. its value depends on how many
PUCCH resources are available.
– If PRACH area is placed at the lower border of UL frequency band then:

PRACH-Frequency Offset= roundup [PUCCH

resources/2]

• If PRACH area is placed at the upper border of the UL frequency band then:

PRACH-Frequency Offset= NRB -6- roundup [PUCCH

resources/2]

NRB: Number of Resource Blocks

 Root Sequence Index
– The allocated ‘root sequence’ index
broadcast in SIB2 is a logical index. The
actual physical index is obtained using a
look-up table defined within 3GPP TS 36.211
– Each logical rootSeqIndex is associated with
a single physical root sequence number.
– The reuse distance of ‘root sequences’
should be maximised
– The eNB could be configured with all cells
using the same root sequences, provided
the cells use different preamble
configuration indexes.
 PRACH Cyclic Shift for FDD preambles

– Cyclic shift is used to assure sufficient separation between the preambles

– The propagation delay and the cyclic separation are directly related to the cell range
Recommendation: assume all cells have same size=> same PrachCS

zeroCorrelationZoneConfig

The table highlights how the intra-cell interference is optimized with respect to cell size: the smaller the cell size, the
larger the number of orthogonal signatures and the better the detection performance.
 Zero Correlation Zone (1)
– Selecting High Speed Flag High Speed Flag
= FALSE = TRUE
• Zero Correlation Zone
• High Speed Flag
are prerequisites to planning the ‘Root Sequence Index’ >250 km/h

– The Zero Correlation Zone determines the size of the cyclic shift used to generate the PRACH
sequence from the ‘root sequence’

– Large cyclic shift (large Zero Correlation

Zone) required to support larger cell
ranges
– Large cyclic shift means that fewer
PRACH sequences can be generated
from each ‘root sequence’
– PRACH sequences generated from
different ‘root sequences’ are not
orthogonal
 Zero Correlation Zone (2)

– There are 838 ‘root sequences’ from which to generate the PRACH sequences(64)
– Each ‘root sequence’ has a length of 839
– Each cell requires no more than 64 PRACH sequences
– The number of PRACH sequences which can be generated from each ‘root sequence’ is given by:

PRACH Sequences per Root Sequence = ROUNDDOWN(839 / Number of Cyclic Shifts (NCS))

– The number of root sequences

required per cell is then given by:
ROUNDUP(64 / PRACH
Sequences per Root Sequence)

– This determines the size of

the reuse pattern when
planning ‘root sequences’

zeroCorrelationZoneConfig
Zero Correlation Zone (3)
 PRACH Planning
Wrap Up
• Steps:
• - Define the prachConfIndex
• Depends on preamble format (cell range)
• Depends on the amount of RACH attempts
• It should be different for each cell of a site
• - Define the prachFreqOff
• Depends on the PUCCH region
• It can be assumed to be the same for all cells of a network (simplification)
• - Define the zeroCorrelationZoneConfig
• Depends on the cell range
• If for simplicity same cell range is assumed for all network then zeroCorrelationZoneConfig
is the same for all cells
• - Define the rootSeqIndex
• It points to the first root sequence
• It needs to be different for neighbour cells
• rootSeqIndex separation between cells depends on how many are necessary per cell
(depends on zeroCorrelationZoneConfig)
 PRACH Planning example
• Assumptions:
• - prachConfIndex=3 for all cells
• preamble format =0
• One PRACH opportunity per 10ms
• - prachFreqOff=6 for all cells
• PRACH starts at sixth PRB in frequency domain
• - Define the zeroCorrelationZoneConfig=8 for all cells
• Max cell range = 5.5km
• Each cell consumes 4 root sequences

{13,14,15,16}

eNB #2 {37,38,39,40}

{21,22,23,24} {17,18,19,20} eNB #4

{1,2,3,4}

{45,46,47,48} {41,42,43,44}
eNB #1

{25,26,27,28} {49,50,51,52}

{9,10,11,12} {5,6,7,8}

eNB #3 eNB #5

root sequence indices

used in the cell {53,54,55,56}
{33,34,35,36} {29,30,31,32} {57,58,59,60}