)

What happens when a LTE UE is powered on? From PHY Layer Point of view & NAS Point of
view?
2) Explain attach procedure in LTE?
3) Why there is two types of security in LTE?
AS(Access Startum security)between eNB and UE and NAS security between UE and MME
So there is no BSC or RNC thats why two type of security
4) What are the measurement events in LTE?
Ans:
Intra/Inter Frequency Events:
Event A1 (Serving becomes better than threshold)
Event A2 (Serving becomes worse than threshold)
Event A3 (Neighbour becomes offset better than PCell)
Event A4 (Neighbour becomes better than threshold)
Event A5 (PCell becomes worse than threshold1 and neighbour becomes better than threshold2)
Event A6 (Neighbour becomes offset better than SCell)
Inter RAT Events:
Event B1 (Inter RAT neighbour becomes better than threshold)
Event B2 (PCell becomes worse than threshold1 and inter RAT neighbour becomes better than
threshold2)
5) What is DCI?
The PDCCH carries Downlink Control Information or DCI to indicate the resource assignment in UL
or DL for one RNTI.
6) What are the contents of DCI?
7) What are the main difference between DCI0 and DCI1a?
8) What is contention resolution?
9) When Radio Link Failure is detected?
Ans:
Radio link failure to be detected:
1) upon T310 expiry
2) upon random access problem indication from MAC while neither T300, T301, T304 nor
T311 is running
3) upon indication from RLC that the maximum number of re-transmissions has been reached
10) What is SRS used for?
Ans: UL reference signal used to measure the channel quality over a section of the bandwidth.
Node B use this information for frequency selective scheduling and link adaptation decisions.
11) What is DMRS/DRS?

Ans: DMRS/DRS is uplink reference signal.

Used for : 1)Channel Estimation and synchronization in UL
2)EnodeB can use DMRS for calculating TA command for each UE.
Two Types: 1) PUSCH DMRS.
2) PUCCH DMRS.
PUSCH DMRS:
1) Included in every resource block allocated to UE for PUSCH transmission.
2) Distributed only in Frequency domain to preserve the PAPR characteristic of SCFDMA.
3) 12 Resource element per resource block allocated to PUSCH DMRS.
PUCCH DMRS:
1) Included in every resource block allocated to UE for PUCCH transmission(if
transmitted).PUCCH occupies 2 resource block per 1 ms subframe when transmitted.
2) No of REs used for PUCCH DMRS depends on a) PUCCH format to be transmitted
and whether b) normal or extended cyclic prefix used.
3) PUCCH DRMS used more no of bits in case of format 1,1a,1b and less no of bits in
caseof format 2, 2a, 2b.
12) What is SPS? Explain SPS?

There are 3 types of LTE scheduling used like Persistent, Semi- Persistent and
Dynamic. Every scheduling has its own important based on type of data transmission. I
mean sometimes data bur sty in nature or less bur sty.
Depend on your application these scheduling algorithms are used. Normally Dynamic
scheduling is used, In which when UE need to send data it send SR(Scheduling
request) to Enodeb and then ENodeb allocates resources to UE and inform through
DCI(Downlink Control information) over PDCCH channel. If I talk about VoLTE, voice
packet size if less but comes at regular interval. so to avoid every time Scheduling
Request towards EnodeB, which is a overhead since packets come at regular interval,
EnodeB while setting up bearer with qci 1 (which is used for Voice) also perform SPS
config towards UE. So In this way Enodeb reduces signalling overhead.
In case of semi persistent scheduling, eNB can assign predefined chunk of radio
resources for VoIP users with interval of 20ms. Therefore, UE is not required to request
resources each TTI, saving control plan overhead. This scheduling is semi-persistent in
the sense that eNB can change the resource allocation type or location if required for
link adaptation or other factors.
The difference between persistant and semipersistant is in 1st one resources are allocated
for voice permanently while in semi persistant there may be NACK so for retransmission
the resource are allocated accordingly

13) What is DRX?

14) Explain Connected mode DRX and Idle mode DRX?

Ans: In LTE, without Discontinuous Reception (DRX), the UE has to be awake all the
time in order to decode downlink data, as the data in the downlink may arrive at any
time. This means that UE has to be monitoring PDCCH in every subframe in order to
check if there is downlink data available. This consumes a lot of the user equipments
power
DRX in LTE is introduced to improve UE battery lifetime. In DRX, UE discontinuously
receives PDCCH. This post discusses LTE Connected mode DRX.
The eNodeB configures DRX with a set of DRX parameters. These DRX parameters are
selected based on the application type such that power and resource savings are
maximized.
When DRX is enabled, there may be an extended delay in receiving data as, the UE
may be in DRX Sleep state at the time of data arrival at the eNodeB, and the eNodeB
would have to wait until the UE becomes ON. So the DRX parameters have to be
carefully selected such that the packet delay is minimized and power saving is
maximized.
During DRX mode, the UE powers down most of its circuitry when there are no packets
to be received. During this time UE listens to the downlink (DL) occasionally which is
called DRX Active state whereas the time during which UE doesnt listen PDCCH is
called DRX Sleep state
DRX is also beneficial to the eNodeB. Without DRX, the UE would be transmitting
periodic CSI or SRS very frequently (based on the configuration). With DRX, during OFF
periods, the UE is not allowed to transmit Periodic CSI or SRS, so the eNodeB can
assign these resources to the other UEs to maximize resource utilization.
15) Why PHICH configuration is mentioned in MIB?

Ans: PHICH Info consist of phich-Duration & phich-Resource which comes in MIB.
1.

This is the down link physical channel which is used to send the ACK/NACK for
the uplink data coming from UE..
2.
When UE sends any data then ENODEB uses this PHICH resource to send
acknowledgement for the uplink data.
3.
As MIB is most frequently transferred so it is part of this as far as i guess.
16) In what are the scenario RACH is triggered

It is decided on the basis of parameters received in SIB2 PRACH configurations.

UE can use 6 Resource blocks for sending the RACH Request.
17) What is RACH Procedure
RA Preamble is a sequence not a message with fields (Check the Figure 5.7.1-1 of the 36.211) , consists of a cyclic
prefix of length and a sequence part of length. The sequence length is 839 (139 for format 4).
The MAC layer sends to PHY the premable index, PRACH and target power. Based on that, PHY transmits the
preamble sequence.

Step 1: Msg1

UE selects one of the 64 available RACH preambles

Now UE also needs to give its own identity to the network so that network can address it in
next step. The identity which UE will use is called RA-RNTI (Random access radio
network temporary identity). Basically its not some value sent by UE but interestingly RA RNTI is
determined from the time slot number in which the preamble is sent

If UE does not receive any response from the network, it increases its power in fixed step
and sends RACH preamble again

Step 2: Msg2
eNodeB sends "Random Access Response" to UE on DL-SCH (Downlink shared channel)
addressed to RA-RNTI calculated from the timeslot in which preamable was sent, as explained in
step 1 (about RA-RNTI calculation)
The message carries following information

Temporary C-RNTI: Now eNB gives another identity to UE which is called temporary
C-RNTI (cell radio network temporary identity) for further communication

Timing Advance Value: eNodeB also informs UE to change its timing so it can
compensate for the round trip delay caused by UE distance from the eNodeB

Uplink Grant Resource: Network (eNodeB) will assign initial resource to UE so that it
can use UL-SCH (Uplink shared channel)

Step 3: Msg3

Using UL-SCH, UE sends "RRC connection request message" to eNodeB

UE is identified by temporary C-RNTI (assigned in the previous step by eNodeB)

The message contains following

UE identity (TMSI or Random Value )

TMSI is used if UE has previously connected to the same network. With

TMSI value, UE is identified in the core network

Random value is used if UE is connecting for the very first time to network.
Why we need random value or TMSI? Because there is possibility that Temp-CRNTI has been
assigned to more than one UEs in previous step, due to multiple requests coming at same time
(Collision scenario explained later)

Connection establishment cause: The shows the reason why UE needs to connect to
network

Step 4: Msg4

eNodeB responds with contention resolution message to UE whose message was

successfully received in step 3. This message is address towards TMSI value or Random number
(from previous steps) but contains the new C RNTI which will be used for the further communication

18) How UE come to know which RACH Preamble to USE?

1. Preamble Index :- There are total of 64 preambles available which are divided into two
groups Group A and Group B. UE decides the preamble index from a group on the basis
of parameters received in SIB2:numberofRaPreambles :- eNodeB sends this value in SIB2 which denotes the total
number of preambles available for UE to send a Rach Request.
sizeOfRaPreamblesGroupA :- It represents the number of preambles available within
Group A.
So number of preamble in Group B
= numberofRaPreambles - sizeOfRaPreamblesGroupA

MessageSizeGroupA :- It is used for selecting a preamble from a group. Its value is in

bits.
Now UE needs to decide the group from which it needs the preamble. Group is decided
on the basis of size of MSG3( RRC connection request ).
If Msg3 size > messageSizeGroupA , preamble will be selected from GroupB
else preamble will be selected from Group A
The actual formula for selecting a preamble is given in spec 36321 sec 5.1.2. That
contain factors other than MSG3 size as well. But mainly this is how UE decides the
Group. From the selected group, randomly UE selects a preamble index.

19) Why there is no SOFT HO in LTE?

Because OFDMA technique is used less interference as compared to WCDMA and the soft
handover (Make Before Break) was core feature of WCDMA but not included in lte. Lte has flat
architecture no BSC/RNC thats why soft handover droped.
20) What PLMN Selection Order UE follows during Automatic PLMN selection and Manual
PLMN Selection?
21) What is Timing Advance? What happens if Timing Advance Timer Expires?
Ans: The timing of UL radio frame is relative to DL radio frame. EnB provides timing advance
command to each UE such that all UL transmissions arrive at the eNodeB in synchronous
manner.
If TA timer expires UE goes of reestablishment procedure or move to idle.
22) What is SR? What is the use of SR?
SR (Scheduling Request) is a request of scheduling radio resource for uplink transmission by the
UE to the eNB. UE send SR on PUCCH when regular BSR (Buffer status report) is triggered
and UE does not have radio resource to transmit this BSR to eNB.
23) What is MAC CE?

When we say 'communication between UE and Network', we normally think

about only signaling message (RRC or NAS message). When I say
'communication' in this case, it means 'control command exchange' between
UE and network, not the data traffic.
In UMTS case, it is true that only RRC and NAS message functions as
communication between UE and Network, but in LTE case there are several
communication path at MAC layer. It implies that there are special MAC
structure that carries special control information. These special MAC

structure carrying the control information is called 'MAC CE', which means
'MAC Control Element'.
This special MAC structure is implemented as a special bit string in LCID field
of MAC Header (Refer to LTE MAC page for the details of MAC header).

24) What is BackOff Indicator? What is the use of Backoff indicator?

Ans
When the access preamble are overloaded the backoff procedure stop immidate reach
preamble this is called backoff procedure
Backoff Indicator is a special MAC subheader that carries the parameter indicating the time delay
between a PRACH and the next PRACH.
if the Random Access Response contains a Backoff Indicator subheader
set the backoff parameter value in the UE as indicated by the BI field of the Backoff Indicator
subheader
else,
set the backoff parameter value in the UE to 0 ms.

25) What is BSR?

Ans: The Buffer Status reporting procedure is used to provide the serving eNB with
information about the amount of data available for transmission in the UL buffers of the UE.
26) At what scenario UE triggers BSR?

Ans:

UL data, for a logical channel which belongs to a LCG, becomes available for
transmission in the RLC entity or in the PDCP entity and either the data belongs to a logical
channel with higher priority than the priorities of the logical channels which belong to any LCG
and for which data is already available for transmission, or there is no data available for
transmission for any of the logical channels which belong to a LCG, in which case the BSR is
referred below to as "Regular BSR";
UL resources are allocated and number of padding bits is equal to or larger than the size
of the Buffer Status Report MAC control element plus its subheader, in which case the BSR is
referred below to as "Padding BSR"
retxBSR-Timer expires and the UE has data available for transmission for any of the
logical channels which belong to a LCG, in which case the BSR is referred below to as "Regular
BSR"
periodicBSR-Timer expires, in which case the BSR is referred below to as "Periodic
BSR".

27) When different types of BSR are Triggered?

Ans:
For Regular and Periodic BSR:
if more than one LCG has data available for transmission in the TTI where the BSR is
transmitted
report Long BSR
else,
report Short BSR.
For Padding BSR:
if the number of padding bits is equal to or larger than the size of the Short BSR plus its
subheader but smaller than the size of the Long BSR plus its subheader:
if more than one LCG has data available for transmission in the TTI where the BSR is
transmitted: report Truncated BSR of the LCG with the highest priority logical channel with
data available for transmission;
else
report Short BSR.
else if the number of padding bits is equal to or larger than the size of the Long BSR plus its
subheader,
report Long BSR.
28) What is the use of system info modification period?
29) What is the content of RAR?
Ans: Random access response
A MAC RAR consists of the four fields

R
Timing Advance Command
UL Grant
Temporary C-RNTI

30) What is the USE of UE specific Reference signal?

1. Cell specific reference signals are always transmitted even there is no data in the TTI to support measurement
2. UE specific reference signals are used only when there are data to send and TM should be 7,8,9,10

Release 8 of LTE had cell specific reference signals.These reference signals are used
for both demodulation and channel estimation. the location of the cell specific signals is
known and is constant to all the UEs in that cell and hence can be used for
demodulation of PDSCH. The location of the C-RS depends on the Physical Cell ID, the
number of antennas. Also the C-RS is used for channel estimation based on PDSCH
power control. The reference power is specified in the system information and it is used
for Channel estimation.
However in Release 10, they changed the design slightly. They have separate signals
for Demodulation and Channel Estimation. Note that these signals are used by the
Release 10 UEs ALONGWITH the C-RS. DM-RS is configured using DMRS-Config-r11.

For the location of the DM-RS Config depends on which port on which the DM-RS is
being transmitted (=which in turn depends on what is the transmission mode of the UE).
See here for the examples of the location of DM-RS :

31) What is Cell Specific Reference Signal?

Cell specific reference signals are available for all UEs in a cell. Cell specific signals enable the UE to determine the
phase reference for demodulating the downlink control channels and downlink data. Cell-specific reference signals
shall be transmitted in all downlink subframes in a cell supporting non-MBSFN transmission.
UE specific reference signals which may be embedded in the data for specific UEs.
UE shall receive UE specific reference signals in addition to cell specific reference signals if it is configured by higher
layers. The UE-specific RSs are embedded only in the RBs to which the PDSCH is mapped for those UEs. If UE
specific reference signals are transmitted, the UE is expected to use them to derive the channel estimate for
demodulating the data in the corresponding PDSCH RBs.A typical usage of the UE-specific RSs is to enable
beamforming of the data transmissions to specific UEs.
One of the motivations for the UE specific reference signals is the use of precoding wherein the UE specific reference
signals are also precoded in the same manner as the data.

32) In what are the scenario UE Triggers RRC Connection Reestablishment?

Ans:
UE Triggers RRC Connection Reestablishment procedure on following condition:

Upon detecting Radio Link Failure

Handover Failure

Mobility From E-UTRA Failure

Integrity Failure Indication Received From Lower Layers

RRC Connection Reconfiguration Failure

33) What is GUTI?
34) What is the significance of S-TMSI?
S-TMSI is used as paging because of less number of bits required also because of temporary in nature
(provides security).
When different UE needs to be paged by ENB, does it derives P-RNTI and assign to each UE and send the Paging
Message ?
Where the S-TMSI is used ?
When MME needs to be paged for particular MME , does it send S-TMSI to ENB so that ENB encapsulates this
messages and number it as P-RNTI and send it to UE ?

35) What is the content of Paging Message?

Message Type
UE Identity Index value
UE Paging Identity
Paging DRX
CN Domain
List of TAIs
CSG Id List
Paging Priority

The most likely reason for paging failures are as follow--* UE is defective and went out of order without being able to detach from the network.
* UE while in idle mode performed a new cell-(re)selection and is camping now on 3G or 2G cell without
informing the network properly about the new location that is geographically the same as before, but
covered by different RAT.
1. Insufficient coverage
4. wrong settings for broadcast reselection parameters.

36) When UE activates integrity and ciphering?

Ans:
The SECURITY MODE COMMAND message is used to command the UE for the
activation of AS security. E-UTRAN always initiates this procedure prior to the establishment
of Signalling Radio Bearer2 (SRB2) and Data Radio Bearers (DRBs).
AS security comprises of the integrity protection of RRC signalling (SRBs) as well as the
ciphering of RRC signalling (SRBs) and user plane data (DRBs). The integrity protection
algorithm is common for signalling radio bearers SRB1 and SRB2. The ciphering algorithm is
common for all radio bearers (i.e. SRB1, SRB2 andDRBs). Neither integrity protection nor
ciphering applies for SRB0.
The eNodeB sends integrity protected SECURITY MODE COMMAND message to the
UE. The UE shall derive KeNB and KRRCint which is associated with integrity protection algorithm
indicated in the SECURITY MODE COMMAND. Then, UE verifies the Integrity of the

received SECURITY MODE COMMAND by checking the Message Authentication Code (MAC)
in the SECURITY MODE COMMAND message. If the SECURITY MODE COMMANDmessage
fails the integrity protection check, then the UE sends SECURITY MODE FAILURE to
the eNodeB.
If the SECURITY MODE COMMAND passes the integrity protection check, then the UE
shall derive the encryption keys KRRCenc key and the KUPenc keys associated with the ciphering
algorithm indicated in theSECURITY MODE COMMAND.
The UE shall apply integrity protection using the indicated algorithm (EIA) and the
integrity key, KRRCintimmediately, i.e. integrity protection shall be applied to all subsequent
messages received and sent by the UE, including the SECURITY MODE COMPLETE message.
The UE shall apply ciphering using the indicated algorithm (EEA), KRRCenc key and
the KUPenc key after completing the procedure, i.e. ciphering shall be applied to all subsequent
messages received and sent by the UE, except for the SECURITY MODE COMPLETE message
which is sent un-ciphered.
36) How many default and dedicated bearer possible in lte?
Total 11 bearers 8 dedicated and 3 default bearers
37) Can there be multiple default bearer to same PDN?
One PDN can have more than one bearers, but it has more to do with QOS and TFT than with IP
addresses. You can assign both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses on one PDN in default bearer. Then you can
just create a bearer with different QOS and associate it with the same PDN. It will use same IPv4 and
IPv6 addresses as of default bearer.

38) How the position of each SIB is calculated in LTE?

39) How measurement GAP calculation happens in LTE?
In short, measurement gaps are typically needed by the UE (having a single RF) to monitor cells on other frequencies
than the serving cell, i.e. LTE inter-frequency aswell as inter-RAT (e.g. GSM and 3G) cells.
Measurement gaps relate to inter-freq and inter-RAT measurements in LTE RRC_CONNECTED state. Serving cell
SIB's can naturally be received without any measurement gaps (note though that there is no need for the UE to
receive SIB3, SIB4, SIB5 in RRC_CONNECTED state, whereas reception of SIB1, SIB2 and some other SIB's e.g.
from ETWS,CMAS, MBMS etc. is needed also in RRC_CONNECTED state, but like said measurement gaps are not
needed for this).

40) Why no soft handover in LTE

Because OFDMA technique is used less interference as compared to WCDMA and the soft
handover (Make Before Break) was core feature of WCDMA but not included in lte. Lte has flat
architecture no BSC/RNC thats why soft handover droped.
41) Open loop Mimo and Closed Loop Mimo
ANS: Open Loop MIMO
Open-loop systems do not require knowledge of the channel at the transmitter. As a result, open loop operations
occur when the access network does not have information or feedback from the UE to do coding adjustment or signal
is not good enough.
Closed Loop MIMO
Closed-loop systems require channel knowledge at the transmitter, thus necessitating either channel reciprocity
same uplink and downlink channel, possible in TDDor more commonly a feedback channel from the receiver to the

transmitter. Hence, unlike open loop, closed loop operations occur when the access network execute dynamic
adjustment based on feedback from the UE.

42)How does an UE estimate initial power to transmit Random Access Preamble ?

After receiving SIB-2, UE comes to know about RACH related parameters.

UE applies "preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower" to send RACH request to eNB and if
eNB doesnot respond back with RAR then UE will add "powerRampingStep" to
"preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower" and again it wil transmit RACH. For example, In
SIB-2, UE receives values like below.
preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower = -96 dBm
powerRampingStep = -4 dBm
Then First RACH request will be sent by applying -96 dBm and if eNB is not replying
then UE will apply
( -96 - (-4)) dBm i.e., -92 dBm.

43)How much resource is granted by eNodeB to transmit msg3

ANS:
When an UE needs to send either one of the RRC messages (like RRC Connection
Request or RRC Connection Reestablishment Request or RRC Connection
Reconfiguration Complete(in case of handover)), it initiates Random access procedure.
As part of random access procedure, eNodeB allocates resources on PUSCH channel
for msg3 transmission.
I checked 3GPP 36.321 specfication, UL- Grant field has 20 bits long space in RAR
pdu.
It my personal thinking since eNodeB already knows what type of messages can be
send from UE. So it allocates the resource which is large enough to carry msg3. Most
probably Union of {RRC Connection Request, RRC Connection Reestablishment
Request, RRC Connection Reconfiguration complete }.
44)Contention and Non Contention Procedure
Signature: When a User (UE) transmits a Preamble, it has to follow a specific pattern and This specific pattern is
called Signature.

Contention Based Rach Procedure:

Now it is clear that all multiple UE's can send the PRACH preamble with identical
signatures.It means the same PRACH preamble from multipe UE reaches the NW at
the same time.. this kind of PRACH collision is called "Contention" and the RACH
process that allows this type of "Contention" is called "Contention based" RACH
Process.
b. Contention Free Rach Procedure:
There are some cases that these kind of contention is not acceptable due to some
reason (e.g, timing restriction) and these contention can be prevented. Usually in this
case, the Network informs each of the UE of exactly when and which preamble

signature it has to use. Of course, in this case Network will allocate these preamble
signature so that it would not collide. This kind of RACH process is called "Contention
Free" RACH procedure.
45) Why can we have only 8 simultaneously harq process in the uplink? [CLOSED
Why can we have only 8 simultaneously harq process in the uplink.
Is it applicable to downlink as well.

46) Autonomous Gap

The main reason for adding this parameter in release 9 was to avoid/neglect the signalling of the serving cell.
I mean to say, before it was a headache of serving cell to configure the time periods in which a UE can decode
the CGI or system information of the target cell.
Autonomous gaps: These are GAP periods where UE will stop the Tx/Rx of the serving cell for a moment to perform
measurements or to read MIB/SIB of the target cell.
if UE supports this autonomous gaps and network is also aware of that so it has to just set it to true or false.. siRequestForHO is set to FALSE/true otherwise UE will use IDLE periods.
Please note that the maximum length of autonomous gap is:

0.15 seconds for an E-UTRA CSG cell

2 seconds for an UTRAN FDD CSG cell