LTE UE Initial Attach Process

Prepared By: Satwik Sansare

Ankush Sharma
Vikram Thakur
 Initial Cell Acquisition
Once the UE is power on for the very first time and we have inserted a
new SIM also. Before coming to RRC connected state this UE will have to
perform multiple steps. These steps are listed below:

1) Frequency scanning
2) Frequency selection
3) Synchronization
4) PSS Reading
5) SSS Reading
6) PCI Calculation
7) Reference Signal decoding
8) MIB decoding
9) CFI and PDCCH decoding
10) SIB 1 decoding
11) PLMN selection
12) TAC reading and Cell barred and unbarred status reading.
13) Cell Selection.
14) SIB 2 decoding.
15) RACH Procedure.
16) RRC Establishment Procedure.
17) Attach Procedure
1) Frequency Scanning: Firstly UE will start scanning all the available EARFCN or
central frequencies(DC) present in its SIM. There are total 65,535 EARFCN
distributed in 44 operating bands.

2) Frequency Selection: Based on the highest energy/RSSI it will select the

frequency. As per the picture shown above it will tune to a central frequency
having EARFCN 1450.
3) Synchronization: Synchronization is the process by which UE does synchronization with
the DL frequency and this can be achieved by PSS and SSS Reading.

4)PSS(Primary Synchronization Signaling Reading): PSS located in LTE FDD as

below:
Frequency domain: Central 6 PRB’s i.e. central 72 subcarriers
Sub frame : 0th and 5th
Slot : 0th
Symbol : 7th Symbol in normal CP.
In PSS reading UE will come to know the sub frame number of a running SFN and
also it will choose one cell ID index out of total three cell indexes i.e 0,1,2 which will
give partial value of PCI.
5)SSS(Secondary Synchronization Signaling Reading): SSS located in LTE FDD as below:
Frequency domain: Central 6 PRB’s i.e. central 72 subcarriers
Sub frame : 0th and 5th
Slot : 0th
Symbol : 6th Symbol in normal CP.
In SSS reading UE will come to know the CP type, Duplex mode type and also select one cell
ID group out of total 168 group. i.e 0-167
PSS SSS

FDD DL Resource Grid for 1.4 MHz

PSS SSS
6) PCI Calculation: PCI is a value varies from 0-503 that will decide position of the
physical resources over the selected frequency.

PCI Calculation Formula: {3*SSS + PSS}

For e.g. PSS=1, SSS=167 therefore PCI= (3*167)+1=501+1=502

7) Reference Signal Decoding: RS position in the frequency domain works on PCI

Mod 6, which means RS position for PCI 0,6 and 12 will be same. Once UE will
decode RS it will come to know the channel estimation quality, which will help to
select a cell.

8) Master Information Block(MIB) Decoding: MIB is carried over PBCH and its
position is as below.
Frequency domain: Central 6 PRB’s i.e. central 72 subcarriers
Sub frame : 0th
Slot : 1st
Symbols : 1st four symbols of slot 1.

MIB Periodicity is 40ms

After MIB decoding over PBCH UE will get following information.
1) DL Bandwidth
2) No. of Transmitting Antenna
3) PHICH Configuration
4) System Frame Number.

Distribution of 24 bits belonging to the MIB

9)PCFICH and PDCCH decoding: PCFICH is Physical control format indicator channel, it is having
indexes 1, 2 and 3 which will decide the number of PDCCH symbols in every sub frame w.r.t
available bandwidth. Only 1.4 MHz PDCCH symbols will vary from the rest of LTE band with. .i.e.
CFI = 3 , for 1.4 MHz PDCCH symbols will be ‘4’ and for 3,5,10,15 and 20 MHz bandwidth PDCCH
symbols will be ‘3’.
PDCCH( Physical Downlink control channel): PDCCH will carry different DCIs(Downlink control
Indicator) which will be mapped to different RNTI’s(Radio network Temporary identity. During
PDCCH decoding by UE it will run CRC algorithm to distinguish particular user with different
RNTIs.

Types of DCIs

DCI carries the following information :

i) UL resource allocation (persistent and non-persistent)
ii) Descriptions about DL data transmitted to the UE.

L1 signaling is done by DCI and Up to 8 DCIs can be configured in the PDCCH. These DCIs can
have 6 formats : 1 format for UL scheduling, 2 formats for Non-MIMO DL scheduling, 1 format
for MIMO DL Scheduling and 2 formats for UL power control.
DCI has various formats for the information sent to define resource allocations. The DCI
formats defined in LTE are as follows.
HARQ Process

A little bit different mode of HARQ process is used depending on whether it is for FDD or TDD
and whether it is for Uplink and Downlink. But I will talk only about FDD case.

In FDD, we are using 8 HARQ process.

i) For Downlink : Asynchronous Process

a) it can use the 8 HARQ processes in any order (Asynchronous Process).

b) UE does not know anything about HARQ process information for DL data before it gets it. So
Network send these information (Process ID, RV) in PDCCH.

ii) For Uplink : Synchronous Process

a)it have to use the specific process in a specific sub frame (Synchronous Process). UE has to
use the same HARQ process number every 8 sub frames.
b) Since UE have to use specific HARQ process ID at specific sub frame, the receiver (eNode B)
knows exactly which HARQ process comes when. And eNodeB can also knows about RV
because UL Grant (DCI 0) from eNodeB can specify RV using MCS field.
c)it has two mode of operation : Adaptive and Non-Adaptive HARQ
Adaptive UL HARQ Process

Following is an example of Adaptive UL HARQ Process (Key idea is that Each UL retransmission
uses different RV and the RV is determined by DCI 0).
Non-Adaptive UL HARQ Process

Following is an example of Non Adaptive UL HARQ Process (Key idea is that Each UL
retransmission uses different RV and the RV is determined by predefined sequence specified in
TS36.321 "5.4.2.2 HARQ process").
The last but very important question would be "How UE knows if it is supposed to do Adaptive
retransmission and Non-Adaptive retransmission ?“

UE do "Adaptive retransmission" if it detect DCI 0 with NDI not toggled. (In this case, UE
does not care about "HARQ feedback (PHICH)", it retransmit based on DCI 0 information).

UE do "Non-Adaptive retransmission" if it got "HARQ feedback (PHICH=NACK)" but does

not get DCI 0. In this case, UE retransmit the PUSCH in predefined RV and MCS without the
information from DCI 0.
DCI Format 1 :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is based on 3GPP 36.212 - 5.3.3.1.2 Format 1.

10) System Information Block 1 (SIB1) Decoding: After decoding SIB1 over PDSCH UE will get
the following information.
1) PLMN Selection Detail
2) Cell barred and unbarred status
3) Tracking Area Code(TAC)
4) Cell Selection
5) SIB 3 and SIB 4 information for inter RAT and Intra RAT handover.
6) Scheduling information for other SIBs
7) Periodicity for SIB1 is 80ms.
System information, RRC signaling messages and application data flow from DL-SCH
Rate matching starts with an interleaving function. Interleaving is used to help avoid bursts
of contiguous bit errors at the input of the Turbo decoder at the receiver. The performance
of the decoder is improved when bit errors are distributed at random rather than in
contiguous groups. Propagation channel fading tends to generate bursts of contiguous
errors but de-interleaving at the receiver randomizes the position of those bit errors.
Rate matching then adjusts the total number of bits to match the capacity of the allocated
PDSCH Resource Blocks. The total number of bits can be increased using repetition or
decreased using puncturing.
The Redundancy Version (RV) applied to the DL-SCH is signaled within the DCI when
transferring signaling messages or application data. In the case of transferring system
information, the RV may not be signaled within the DCI, i.e. when using DCI format 1C. In
that case the RV is calculated from the SFN when transferring SIB1 and from the sub frame
number when transferring other SIB
1) PLMN Selection: Once UE will read SIB1 it will find different PLMN lists of different
operators. It will forward these detail to UE NAS layer over RRC, UE NAS layer will check its
PLMN .i.e stored in USIM and does selection of one PLMN. Here it will does network selection
based on priority and priority will be set by the operator. For example out of 4G, 3G and 2G
network its priority will be 4G.
Cell Selection: Cell selection will be done RSRP and RSRQ channel quality will be good also
Srx>0
UL Channel Mapping
The Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) is used to transfer the random access
preambles used to initiate the random access procedure. The PRACH does not transfer any
RRC messages nor any application data. This differs from UMTS where the PRACH is used to
transfer both RRC messages, e.g. the RRC Connection Request and Cell Update messages,
and application data.

A cyclic prefix is usually required to account for the maximum delay spread, i.e. the
maximum delay spread should not exceed the duration of the cyclic prefix. In the case of
the PRACH, the cyclic prefix has to account for both the maximum delay spread and the
maximum cell range. This additional requirement is caused by the UE transmitting the
PRACH before any Timing Advance instructions have been provided, i.e. the PRACH is
transmitted using a Timing Advance of 0.
< TS36.211 - Table 5.7.1-2 : PRACH Configuration Index>
Formats 0 to 3 can be used by either FDD or TDD, and are based upon relatively long
preamble sequences.
Format 4 can only be used by TDD when using special subframe configurations with
UpPTS lengths of 4384 Ts (2 symbols with normal cyclic prefix) and 5120 Ts (2 symbols
with extended cyclic prefix). This format has a short preamble sequence.

Preamble formats 0 to 3 use a subcarrier spacing of 1.25 kHz rather than the usual uplink
subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz. These preamble formats use 839 subcarriers so occupy 1.05
MHz in the frequency domain. There is a 15kHz guard band either side of the random
access preamble so a total of 1.08 MHz is used (6 Resource Blocks)

Preamble format 4 uses 139 subcarriers with a spacing of7.5 kHz, so occupies 1.04 MHz in
the frequency domain. Similar to preamble formats 0 to 3, a total of 6 Resource Blocks
are reserved for the PRACH so there is a small guard band either side of the PRACH
subcarriers
In the case of FDD, there is a maximum of 1 PRACH position within a single sub frame. The
position of this PRACH is defined by the 'PRACH Frequency Offset' parameter broadcast in
SIB2. This parameter has a range from 0 to 94, and specifies the first Resource Block within
which the PRACH is located. The maximum value of 94 is applicable to the 20 MHz channel
bandwidth. Smaller channel bandwidths will use smaller maximum values

In the case of TDD, there can be up to 6 PRACH positions within a single sub frame. This
compensates for the reduced number of uplink sub frames available for TDD, and helps to
maintain the PRACH capacity. The position of each PRACH is defined using a combination of
the 'PRACH Frequency Offset' parameter broadcast in SIB2.
Defining groups A and B provides the eNode B with information regarding the quantity of data
to be transferred and the coverage conditions experienced by the UE. This information can be
used by the eNode B when allocating resources.

The UE selects a group B sequence if both of the following conditions are satisfied:

Message Size > Group A Message Size Threshold AND

Path Loss< PMAX- Target Rx Power- Preamble to Msg Delta- Group B Offset

where, 'Group A Message Size Threshold', 'Target Rx Power', 'Preamble to Msg Delta' and
'Group B Offset' are broadcast in SIB2

Once the UE has selected either Group A or Group B, a preamble is selected at random from
within that group. The length of the preamble sequence is equal to the number of subcarriers
used by the preamble format:

o cells configured to use preamble formats 0 to 3 have sequences with a length of 839
o cells configured to use preamble format 4 have sequences with a length of 139

* The processing used to generate the PRACH signal from the preamble sequence is illustrated
in Figure 168. This processing follows the same pattern as the processing used to generate the
SC-FDMA symbols for the PUSCH
The sequence is precoded using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) function. This generates a set
of outputs which are mapped onto the set of subcarriers reserved for the PRACH
transmission. The frequency of these subcarriers depends upon the position of the PRACH
allocation within the channel bandwidth.

• An Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) function is then used to generate a time domain
signal from the set of subcarriers. The duration of the time domain signal is equal to the
period of the frequency used to define the subcarrier spacing:
o preamble formats 0 to 3 use a subcarrier spacing of 1.25 kHz so the period of the output
signal is 1 I 1250 = 800 ~-tsec
o preamble format 4 uses a subcarrier spacing of7.5 kHz so the period of the output signal is
1 I 7500 = 133 ~-tsec
• Table 170 indicates that the signal duration for PRACH formats 2 and 3 is 1600 ~-tsec .
This duration is generated by duplicating and concatenating the 800 ~-tsec output from
the IFFT function

o preamble formats 0 to 3 use a subcarrier spacing of 1.25 kHz and 839 subcarriers so
generate a bandwidth of 1.05 MHz
o preamble format 4 uses a subcarrier spacing of7.5 kHz and 139 subcarriers so generates a
bandwidth of 1.04 MHz

* The cyclic prefix is generated by copying the end of the time domain signal and attaching it
to the beginning
Contention Based RACH Non-Contention Based RACH
PRACH Preamble Transmit Power= min {PcMAX, PL + PreambleRxTargetPower)}

PcMAX is the UE maximum transmit power according to the UE power class, e.g. 23 dBm for
power class 3

PL is the downlink path loss calculated by the UE using a combination of RSRP measurements
and knowledge of the Reference

Signal transmit power, i.e. PL =Reference Signal transmit power- RSRP measurement

PreambleRxTargetPower = InitialRxTargetPower + DeltaPreamble + (PreambleCounter- 1) x

RampingStep

InitialRxTargetPower is broadcast within SIB2, or sent to the UE within an RRC Connection

Reconfiguration message. Its value can range from -120 dBm to -90 dBm

DeltaPreamble defines a power offset which is dependent upon the random access preamble
format. The preamble format is identified by the PRACH configuration index presented in
Table 348 (FDD) and Table 349 (TDD). Preamble formats 0 and 1 use a 0 dB power offset,
whereas preamble formats 2 and 3 use a -3 dB power offset.
PreambleCounter is a counter maintained by the UE. Its value is initialised to 1 at the start of
the random access procedure. It is incremented by 1 if no response is received after
transmitting a PRACH preamble. It is used as a multiplying factor to increase the preamble
transmit power after receiving no response. It is also used to determine when the maximum
allowed number of preamble transmissions has been reached.

RampingStep is broadcast within SIB2, or sent to the UE within an RRC Connection

Reconfiguration message. It determines the rate at which the preamble transmit power is
increased after receiving no response. The step size can be configured with a value of 0, 2, 4
or 6 dB.

After transmitting the PRACH preamble, the UE searches for a response during the time
domain window defined by the Random Access (RA) response window. The RA response
window starts during the third sub frame after the preamble, and has a length defined
by the response window size which is broadcast in SIB2, or can be signaled to the UE within
an RRC Connection Reconfiguration message. The response window size can be configured
as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 10 sub frames. An example response window is shown in Figure 203.