Carrier Aggregation: Fundamentals and Deployments

Carrier Aggregation: Fundamentals and Deployments Presented by: Manuel Blanco Agilent Technologies

Agenda LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation Design and test challenges 2

Industry background 263 LTE networks in more than 95 countries (+500 operators investing) o Approximately 10% are TDD o Less than 10% are using 20 MHz 157.7 million LTE subscribers (112 million added in the past 12 months) o More than half in North America (79 million) Over 1,200 LTE capable devices available o 40% can operate in Band 3 and Band 7 LTE is the fastest developing mobile technology ever www.gsacom.com 3

Why LTE-Advanced? IMT-Advanced Requirements Based on an all-ip packet switch network Scalable channel bandwidths between 5 and 20 MHz Interoperability with existing wireless standards Item Subcategory IMT-Adv LTE Spectral efficiency (b/s/hz) Data rate (Mbps) Downlink Uplink 15 (4x4 MIMO) 6.75 (2x4 MIMO) 16.3 (4x4 MIMO) 4.32 (64QAM) Downlink 1000 300 Uplink 100 75 4

LTE-Advanced New features Carrier Aggregation Enhanced MIMO Higher data rates (bps) Het-Nets Higher spectral effiency (bps/hz) Higher spectral effiency per coverage area (bps/hz/km 2 ) 5

LTE-Advanced New UE Categories LTE LTE-A UE Category Data Rate DL/UL (Mbps) Downlink Max number of layers Max number of layers Uplink Support for 64QAM 1 10 / 5 1 1 No 2 50 / 25 2 1 No 3 100 / 50 2 1 No 4 150 / 50 2 1 No 5 300 / 75 4 1 Yes 6 300 / 50 2 or 4 1 or 2 No 7 300 / 100 2 or 4 1 or 2 No 8 3000 / 1500 8 4 Yes 6

Agenda LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation Design and test challenges 7

Carrier Aggregation Fundamentals Carrier Aggregation is the first step of LTE Advanced Bandwidth extension by aggregating LTE component carriers (CC) o Up to 5 CC can be allocated in both DL and UL 100 MHz aggregated o Components carriers are backwards compatible with Release 8 terminals o Symmetric or asymmetric DL/UL CA configurations Motivation o o o Higher peak data rates Facilitate efficient use of fragmented spectrum Enable 150 Mbps (Category 4) in typical deployments where 20MHz contiguous spectrum is not an option 10MHz DL Carrier 1 10MHz DL Carrier 2 Aggregated Data Pipe 8

Carrier Aggregation Fundamentals PCC (Primary Component Carrier) ohandle the RRC/NAS procedures omeasurement reports and mobility oues using the same set of CCs, can have different PCC orole only changed with handover opusch is mandatory SCC (Secondary Component Carrier) oue handles up to 4 SCC oconfigured using RRC signaling procedures ocan be dynamically activated/de-activated using a MAC control element oactivated only when in CONNECTED mode opusch is optional - asymmetric CA Downlink PCC SCC Uplink PCC SCC SCC 9

Carrier Aggregation Fundamentals Band 17-10 MHz Band 4-10 MHz MME SCC PCC UE RRC Connection Release 8 PS Attach Attach Request Authentication and NAS Security Attach Accept + Default EPS AS Security UE capabilities Data Link (single carrier) 73 Mbps 10

Carrier Aggregation Fundamentals Band 17-10 MHz Band 4-10 MHz MME SCC PCC UE RRC Connection Release 8 PS Attach Attach Request Authentication and NAS Security Attach Accept + Default EPS AS Security UE capabilities Release 10 SCC Addition & Activation RRC Reconfiguration + Add SCC Data Link (single carrier) 73 Mbps 11

Carrier Aggregation Fundamentals SCC Configuration at RRC level Screen capture of the Agilent Trace log and debug application (Trace Spy II) Physical cell ID and DL frequency channel Common configuration: DL and UL channel BW, uplink EARFCN, antenna config, physical channels config, power control config Dedicated configuration: Transmission mode, physical channels config, cross-carrier scheduling, CSI-RS config Source: 3GPP TS 36.331 12

Carrier Aggregation Fundamentals Band 17-10 MHz Band 4-10 MHz MME SCC PCC UE RRC Connection Release 8 PS Attach Attach Request Authentication and NAS Security AS Security Attach Accept + Default EPS UE capabilities Release 10 SCC Addition & Activation RRC Reconfiguration + Add SCC MAC control element Data Link Data (2 CC aggregated) Link (single carrier) 147 73 Mbps 13

Modes and Deployments Resource block Band A f Intra -band contiguous Resource block f Intra-band non-contiguous Band A Resource block f Inter-band non-contiguous Band A Band B 14

Modes and Deployments Rel.10 3 CA Band Combinations 1 2 Inter-band Intra-band cont Release 10: o o o o o Signaling to support up to 5 CC Scenarios limited to 2 CCs Maximum aggregated bandwidth is 40MHz Prioritized support intra band contiguous and inter band Rest of scenarios were postponed to later Releases Intra - band Contiguous CA Uplink (UL) band Downlink (DL) band E-UTRA E-UTRA UE transmit / BS receive UE receive / BS transmit Duplex CA operating Channel Channel mode Band Band F UL_low (MHz) F UL_high BW MHz F DL_low (MHz) F DL_high BW MHz (MHz) (MHz) CA_40 40 2300 2400 [40 1) ] 2300 2400 [40 1) ] TDD CA_1 1 1920 1980 40 2110 2170 40 FDD [1) For the first phase of LTE TDD CA for UE side, with eventual goal for 50MHz] Inter - band Non -Contiguous CA E-UTRA CA Band E-UTRA operating Band Uplink (UL) band UE transmit / BS receive F UL_low (MHz) F UL_high (MHz) Channel BW MHz Downlink (DL) band UE receive / BS transmit F DL_low (MHz) F DL_high (MHz) Channel BW MHz 1 1920 1980 10 1) 2110 2170 10 CA_1-5 5 824 849 10 1) 869 894 10 1) Only one uplink component carrier is used in any of the two frequency bands at any time. Duplex mode FDD 15

Modes and Deployments Rel.10 3 CA Band Combinations 1 2 Inter-band Intra-band cont Release 11: o o o o Maximum aggregated bandwidth is 40MHz Support multiple timing advances (required for UL CA) Core requirements for intra-band non-cont Performance requirements for new inter-band and intra-band combinations Rel.11 24 CA Band Combinations 19 Inter-band 5 Intra-band cont 1 Intra non-cont Rel-11 inter-band Carrier Aggregation Carrier Aggregation of Band 3 and Band 7 Carrier Aggregation of Band 4 and Band 17 Carrier Aggregation of Band 4 and Band 13 Carrier Aggregation of Band 4 and Band 12 Carrier Aggregation of Band 5 and Band 12 Carrier Aggregation of Band 7 and Band 20 Carrier Aggregation of Band 2 and Band 17 Carrier Aggregation of Band 4 and Band 5 Carrier Aggregation of Band 5 and Band 17 Carrier Aggregation of Band 3 and Band 20 Carrier Aggregation of Band 8 and Band 20 Carrier Aggregation of Band 3 and Band 5 Carrier Aggregation of Band 4 and Band 7 Carrier Aggregation of Band 11 and Band 18 Carrier Aggregation of Band 1 and Band 18 Carrier Aggregation of Band 1 and Band 19 Carrier Aggregation of Band 1 and Band 21 Carrier Aggregation of Band 3 and Band 8 Rapporteur TeliaSonera AT&T Ericsson (Verizon) Leap Wireless US Cellular Huawei AT&T AT&T AT&T Vodafone Vodafone SK Telecom Rogers Wireless KDDI KDDI NTT DoCoMo NTT DoCoMo KT 16

Modes and Deployments Rel.10 3 CA Band Combinations 1 2 Inter-band Intra-band cont Release 12: o o o o Core requirements uplink CA in inter-band Performance requirements for intra-band non-contiguous Core analysis for 3 component carriers in inter-band Maximum aggregated bandwidth is 50MHz Rel.11 24 CA Band Combinations 19 Inter-band 5 Intra-band cont 1 Intra non-cont Rel.12 95 CA Band Combinations 48 12 10 25 Inter-band Intra-band cont Intra non-cont Inter 3 CC 17

Agenda LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation Design and test challenges 18

Impact on UE design MME SCC PCC UE Carrier Aggregation impact NAS NAS - None RRC RRC - Addition and removal SCC PDCP PDCP - None RLC RLC - Larger buffer MAC PHY MAC PHY Impact on higher layers: o Enhanced user plane to support higher data rates o Modifications and new additions on existing RRC procedures: Reconfiguration message to support Addition/Release of SCC Report of new UE categories and capabilities 19

Impact on UE design PHY, MAC and RF are the most challenging o Multiple PHY and aggregated MAC: One PHY layer per CC Data aggregation happens at MAC layer MAC must handle scheduling on multiple CC Support of cross-carrier scheduling o Complex transceivers design: Highly challenging radio environment in terms of spur and self-blocking Front-end needs to be designed to support multiple frequency band combinations MIMO + multi chain makes antenna design even more challenging 20

Design and Test Challenges Challenge #1 : When Inter-Band aggregation and MIMO spatial multiplexing is combined, test set-ups may become quite complex. T2010A LTE Wireless Communications Test Set RF RX Performance Test Scenario 2CC aggregation MIMO 4x2 Closed loop spatial multiplexing RF impairments T2010A PCC SCC Channel Emulator Channel Emulator + + UE 21

Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. TR 36.850 and 36.851 Inter-band carrier aggregation Scope: To gather relevant background and studies to address Inter-band carrier aggregation requirements (Release 11) Class A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 Description Low-high band combination without harmonic relation between bands or intermodulation problem Low-high band combination with harmonic relation between bands Low-low or high-high band combination without intermodulation problem (low order IM) Low-low, low-high or high-high band combination with intermodulation problem (low order IM) Combination except for A1 A4 Harmonics may cause degradation in the performance of the high band receiver The use of diplexers to split and combine RF chains are very challenging 22

Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. Class A2 example: Band 4-17 710 MHz Uplink 740 MHz 2130 MHz Downlink Downlink Band 17 Band 4 PCC SCC 23

Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. Class A2 example: Band 4-17 3 rd harmonic 710 MHz 740 MHz 2130 MHz Uplink Downlink Downlink Band 17 Band 4 PCC SCC 24

Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. Antenna tuner Band A Band B H3 Trap Switch Switch Band 17 D/A D/A Ref. Sensitivity (dbm) Release 8 Band 4-96.3-89.5 Ref. Sensitivity (dbm) Carrier Aggregation Band 17-93.3-92.8 D/A Band 1-96.3-96.3 D/A Band 4 Band 5-94.3-94.3 Band A Band B Source: 36.851 and 36.521-1 25

Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. 6.8dB due to noise floor increase caused by harmonic Antenna tuner Band A Band B Switch Switch H3 Trap Band 17 D/A D/A Ref. Sensitivity (dbm) Release 8 Band 4-96.3-89.5 Ref. Sensitivity (dbm) Carrier Aggregation Band 17-93.3-92.8 Band 4 D/A D/A Band 1-96.3-96.3 Note: This is an exception allowed when the Band uplink 5 active -94.3 in the lower frequency -94.3 operating band. Band A Band B Source: 36.851 and 36.521-1 26

Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. H3 Trap Antenna tuner Band A Band B Switch Switch Band 17 D/A D/A Ref. Sensitivity (dbm) Release 8 Band 4-96.3-89.5 Ref. Sensitivity (dbm) Carrier Aggregation Band 17-93.3-92.8 Band 4 D/A D/A 0.5 db due to H3 trap filter insertion loss Band 1-96.3-96.3 Band 5-94.3-94.3 Band A Band B Source: 36.851 and 36.521-1 27

Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. Ref. Sensitivity (dbm) Release 8 Band 4-96.3-89.5 Band 17-92.8-92.8 Band 1-96.3-96.3 Band 5-94.3-94.3 Ref. Sensitivity (dbm) Carrier Aggregation 0.5 db due to H3 trap filter insertion loss Source: 36.851 and 36.521-1 28

LTE T4000S Test Systems ALL BASED ON THE SAME HARDWARE PLATFORM T4110S LTE Protocol Tester T4010S LTE RF Tester T2010A LTE Wireless Communications Test Set T4020S LTE RRM Tester 29

3GPP Conformance Status New test cases for inter-band without UL CA and intra-band contiguous with and without UL CA 63 New RF test cases 16 New RRM test cases 36 New Protocol test cases Ongoing! CA test cases in a new WI which covers intra-band non-contiguous 13 New RF test cases 18 New Protocol test cases Outlook! New CA test cases expected in Rel-12 (inter-band with 2 uplinks) 30

SUMMARY Carrier aggregation is the first step of LTE Advanced enabling: o Higher IP data rates o Facilitate efficient use of fragmented spectrum Inter-Band with 2 component carriers aggregated in the downlink is one of the most demanded combinations today Carrier aggregation is a huge topic in Conformance with a lot of new test cases defined and more in the pipeline 31

E7515A UXM Wireless Test Set Make a clear call Ensure realistic category 4 / 6 performance Sustained bidirectional 300 Mbps / 50 Mbps E2E IP data Most highly integrated solution: multiple cells, carrier aggregation, 4x2 DL MIMO, integrated fading and built-in application server Achieve design confidence Unique receiver test Flexible channel allocation and closed-loop testing Trusted transmitter test X-Series measurement science LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation DL: 300Mbps UL: 50 Mbps CAT 6 Device Join Overcome LTE-A UE Design Test Challenges with Agilent s New UXM webcast here 32

For more information Agilent Resources LTE-Advanced application and product info: www.agilent.com/find/lteadvanced T4000S LTE/LTE-A Conformance and DV Systems: www.agilent.com/find/t4000s E7515A UXM Wireless Test Set: www.agilent.com/find/e7515a 89600 VSA product information: www.agilent.com/find/vsa X-Series signal analyzer product information: www.agilent.com/find/xseries Signal Studio product information: www.agilent.com/find/signalstudio LTE-Advanced Documents Application Note: http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5990-6706en.pdf Requirements TR 36.913: http://www.3gpp.org/dynareport/36913.htm Study Technical Report TR 36.912: http://www.3gpp.org/dynareport/36912.htm 33

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