LTE: SYSTEM ACQUISITION

CELL SELECTION PROCEDURE

Glossary
Frame Subframe Slot Resource Block = 10 x Subframes = 2 x Slots = 7 OFDM symbols = 10ms = 1ms = 0.5ms

= 12 subcarriers x 7 OFDM = 180KHz x 0.5ms 1.4 73 128 6 3 181 256 15 5 301 512 25 10 601 1024 50 15 901 1536 75 20 1201 2048 100

Channel Bandwidth [MHz] No of Occupied Subcarriers including DC FFT Size (N) N. of Resource Blocks (NRB) PSCH Primary Synchronization Channel SSCH Secondary Synchronization Channel PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel PDSCH - Physical Downlink Shared Channel PHICH - Physical HARQ Indicator Channel RSRP Reference Signal Received Power RSRQ - Reference Signal Received Quality

SYNCHRONIZATION PROCEDURES
Cell search is the procedure by which a UE acquires time and frequency synchronization with a cell and detects the cell ID of that cell. The eNodeB provides all the necessary signals and mechanisms through which the UE synchronizes E-UTRA cell search supports a scalable overall transmission bandwidth corresponding to 6 resource blocks (i.e., 72 subcarriers). E-UTRA cell search is based on various signals transmitted in the downlink such as primary and secondary synchronization signals, and downlink reference signals. The primary and secondary synchronization signals are transmitted over the center 72 sub-carriers in the first and sixth subframe of each frame. Neighbor-cell search is based on the same downlink signals as the initial cell search.

SLOT AND FRAME SYNCHRONIZATION

The UE attempts to acquire the central 1.4MHz bandwidth in order to decode the Primary sync signal (PSCH), Secondary sync signal (SSCH), and the system information block (SIB).
The eNodeB transmits this information on the subcarriers within the 1.4MHz bandwidth consisting of 72 subcarriers, or 6 radio blocks. In order to perform slot synchronization, the UE attempts to acquire the Primary sync signal which is generated from Zadoff-Chu sequences. There are three possible 62-bit sequences helping the UE to identify the start and the finish of slot transmissions. Next, the UE attempts to perform frame synchronization so as to identify the start and the finish of frame transmission. In order to achieve this, Primary sync signals are used to acquire Secondary sync signals. The Secondary sync signal (a 62-bit sequence) is an interleaved concatenation of two length-31 binary sequences scrambled with the Primary synchronization signal. Once PSCH and SSCH are known, the physical layer cell identity is obtained. There are 504 unique physical layer cell identities.

PSCH AND SSCH

Created from Zadoff-Chu sequence (Zero Autocorrelation codes)

The primary synchronization signal is transmitted on 72 active subcarriers, centered around the DC subcarrier.
Assists subframe timing determination Provides a unique Cell ID index (0, 1, or 2) within a Cell ID group

Secondary synchronization signal is transmitted in and only in slots where the primary synchronization signal is transmitted.
Provides a unique Cell ID group number among 168 possible Cell ID groups

REFERENCE SIGNALS
Downlink reference signals are predefined signals occupying specific resource elements within the downlink timefrequency grid. In every sixth subcarrier in the frequency domain a reference symbol from the generated reference signal pattern is transmitted. In the time domain, every fourth OFDM symbol transmits a reference symbol There are 504 different reference-signal sequences defined for LTE, where each sequence corresponds to one of 504 different physical-layer cell identities The downlink reference signals help the terminal distinguish between the different transmission antennas. Where one antenna is transmitting the reference pattern the other antennas are transmitting nothing. These physical signals are also used to estimate the quality of the radio channel. RSSI RSRP is the average of the power of all resource elements which carry cell-specific reference signals over the entire bandwidth. RSRQ is the ratio between the RSRP and the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI),

BROADCAST CHANNEL
PHYSICAL BROADCAST CHANNEL
Carries the primary Broadcast Transport Channel Carries the Master Information Block (MIB), which includes:
Overall DL transmission bandwidth PHICH configuration in the cell System Frame Number Number of transmit antennas (implicit)

Transmitted in
Time: subframe 0 in every frame 4 OFDM symbols in the second slot of corresponding subframe Frequency: middle 1.08 MHz (6 RBs)

TTI = 40 ms

Transmitted in 4 bursts at a very low data rate Same information is repeated in 4 subframes Every 10 ms burst is self-decodable CRC check uniquely determines the 40 ms PBCH TTI boundary
Last 2 bits of SFN is not transmitted

SYSTEM INFORMATION
The MIB (scrambled with Cell-ID) reception provides the UE with LTE downlink bandwidth (DL BW), number of transmit antennas, System Frame Number (SFN), PHICH duration, and its gap. After reading the MIB, the UE needs to get system information blocks (SIBs) to know the other systemrelated information broadcasted by the eNodeB.

SIBs are carried in the PDSCH, whose information is obtained from the PDCCH indicated by the Control Format Indicator (CFI) field.
In order to get CFI information, the UE attempts to read the PCFICH which are broadcasted on the first OFDM symbol of the subframe.

Once bandwidth selection is successful, the UE attempts to decode the DCI (DL control information) to acquaint with SIB Type 1 and 2 to get PLMN id, cell barring status, and various Rx thresholds required in cell selection.

SYSTEM INFORMATION

RANDOM ACCESS PROCEDURE (RACH)

RAP is required for uplink synchronization, the two types of RACH procedure are: 1. Contention-Based Random Access Procedure:
I. II. III. The transmission of a random-access preamble, allowing the eNodeB to estimate the transmission timing of the terminal. The network transmits a timing advance command to adjust the terminal transmit timing, based on the timing estimate obtained in the first The transmission of the mobile-terminal identity to the network using the UL-SCH similar to normal The transmission of a contention-resolution message from the network to the terminal on the DLSCH.

IV. scheduled data. V.

PRACH resources found in SIB-2

RANDOM ACCESS PROCEDURE (RACH)

2. Non-Contention-Based Random Access Procedure: The network initiates this procedure, when the UE is already in communication with the eNodeB, by transmitting an allocated preamble to the UE. There are no collisions with other UEs because the eNodeB controls the procedure and hence has the necessary information to support a non-contention-based RAP Contention-free random access can only be used for re-establishing uplink synchronization upon downlink data arrival, handover, and positioning. Only the first two steps of the previous procedure are used.

RANDOM ACCESS PROCEDURE (RACH)

The preamble format determines the length of the Cyclic Prefix and Sequence.
FDD has 4 preamble formats (for different cell sizes), 16 PRACH configurations are possible. Each configuration defines slot positions within a frame (for different bandwidths). Each random access preamble occupies a bandwidth corresponding to 6 consecutive RBs.

CELL SELECTION
S is the criterion defined to decide if the cell is still suitable . This criterion is fulfilled When the cell selection receive level is Srxlev > 0. Srxlev is computed based on Equation
Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas (Qrelevmin + Qrxlevminoffset) Pcompensation [dB] where Pcompensation = max(PEMAX PUMAX,0) [dB] Qrxlevmeas is the measured receive level value for this cell. This measured value is the linear average over the power of the resource elements that carry the cell-specific reference signals over the considered measurement bandwidth. Consequently, it depends on the configured signal bandwidth. Qrxlevmin is the minimum required receive level in this cell, given in dBm. This value is signaled as Q-RxLevMin by higher layers as part of the System Information Block Type 1 (SIB Type 1). Qrxlevmin is calculated based on the value provided within the information element (-70 and -22) multiplied with factor 2 in dBm. Qrxlevminoffset, is an offset to Qrxlevmin that is only taken into account as a result of a periodic search for a higher priority PLMN while camped normally in a Visitor PLMN (VPLMN). This offset is based on the information element provided within the SIB Type 1, taking integer by a factor of 2 in dB. The offset is defined to avoid ping-pong different PLMNs. If it is not available then Qrxlevminoffset is assumed to
be 0 dB.

CELL SELECTION
PCompensation is a maximum function. Whatever parameter is higher, PEMAX-PUMAX or 0, is the value used for PCompensation.
PEMAX [dBm] is the maximum power a UE is allowed to use in this cell, whereas PUMAX [dBm] is the maximum transmit power of an UE according to the power class the UE belongs too.

At the moment only one power class is defined for LTE, which corresponds to Power Class 3 in WCDMA that specifies +23 dBm. PEMAX is defined by higher layers, PEMAX can take values between -30 to +33 dBm. Only when PEMAX > +23 dBm PCompensation is it considered when calculating Srxlev.

SYSTEM ACQUISITION SUMMARY

UE acquired most essential system information. UE can read PDCCH/PDSCH and register in the system.

PBCH is time aligned with the PBCH is time aligned with the Sync channels Sync channels UE can read PBCH channel now UE can read PBCH channel now

UE attempts to detect (SSS) Tries to match 1 out of 168 possible secondary Sync signals (Cell ID Groups)

UE determined: -Exact carrier frequency -Cell ID index within a Cell ID group Subframe timing -Cyclic Prefix Length (by trial and error method)

UE knows: -Frame timing -Cell ID group (1 out 168)

UE is switched on

UE looks for the (PSS) UE looks for the (PSS) Attempts to match one out of three Attempts to match one out of three possible primary Sync signals (Cell ID possible primary Sync signals (Cell ID index within aaCell ID Group) index within Cell ID Group)

UE searches for a strong cell in the DL band

UE performed a rough frequency synchronization (UE has found a good carrier candidate with strong 72 (6x12) subcarriers which might carry the Sync signals and PBCH)

SYSTEM ACQUISITION SUMMARY

DL Sync and Bandwidth Detection Acquire another cell SIB Type 1 Acquisition

No

PLMN ID Match Yes Cell Barred No PLMN ID Acquired

Yes

No

Rx-Levmin Threshold Yes SIB Type 2 Acquisition

Initial Access Procedure

TEST CRITERIA
Primary Synchronization (Slot Timing, PHY Layer ID)
Secondary Synchronization (Radio Frame Timing, Cell ID FDD\TDD detection) Reference Signal Detection (Calculation of RSRP, RSRQ) SISO, MIMO PBCH Detection (MIB and SIB reading) Cell Selection Random Access Procedure Open Loop Power Control

REFERENCES
1. LTE E-UTRAN and its Access Side Protocols (By: Suyash Tripathi, Vinay Kulkarni and Alok Kuma)
2. 3GPP TS 36.213 V8.8.0 (2009-09) 3. 3GPP TS 36.211 V8.9.0 (2009-12)

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