LTE FDD Air Interface overhead

Module Objectives
After completing this module, the participant should be able to:

Calculate the FDD Physical Layer overhead

Sync Signals and Frame Type 1 - FDD

Subframe 0

S
l
o
t
1
0

S
l
o
t
0

f1 (DL)

Slot 0

Slot 10

Symbol 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Occupied
Subcarriers

P-SS

DC

S P
- S S
S S

DC

S-SS

S P
- S S
S S

62
Subcarriers

Synchronization Signals Overhead

Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS)
- occupies 144 Resource Elements per frame (20 timeslots); i.e. (62 subcarriers + 10
empty Resource Elements) x 2 times/frame
Example: Normal CP, 10 MHz bandwidth; PSS overhead = 144 / (84 20 50) = 0.17 %

Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS)

Identical calculation to PSS; same overhead as for PSS
10ms Radio frame
2

1ms Subframe

3
2

4
3

5
4

PSS & SSS frame + slot

structure in time domain
(FDD case)

6
5

10

SSS
PSS

0.5ms = 1 slot
1

Normal CP

Extended CP
checking for SSS
at 2 possible positions
CP length

Single Antenna Port and DL Reference Signals

DL RS, Normal TCP

DL RS, Extended TCP

f=1
Reference
Signal

f=2
f=3

Resource
Element

f=11
f=12
S=0

S=6

S=0

S=5

2 Port DL Reference Signals, Normal TCP

DL RS, Normal TCP
R0

Port 0

Port 0
Reference
Signal

R0

R0

Not used on
this port

R0

Port 1
Reference
Signal

R1

eNodeB

R1

Port 1
R1

Not used on
this port
R1

Antenna Port Layering

0
1

eNodeB

Antenna Port Layering

eNodeB

DL Reference Signal Overhead

Reference Signal (RS)
- If 1 Tx antenna*: 4 RSs per PRB
- If 2 Tx antenna*: there are 8 RSs per PRB
- If 4 Tx antenna*: there are 12 RSs per PRB
Example below: Normal CP (84 RE) & 2 Tx antenna*, DL RS overhead = 8 / 84 = 9.52 %

* with 1/2/4 Antenna Ports

PRB: Physical Resource Block

OTDOA Overhead
Positioning Reference Signal (PRS)

Transmission of PRS reduces the available resource elements for DL

traffic
Additional overhead due to PRS
Between less than 0.1% up to 2% depending on configuration
With default configuration
Additional overhead for FDD app. 0.6%
Additional overhead for TDD app. 1.6% (UL-DL frame configuration 1)

FDD - (PRS BW / SysBW)* #of DL frames/ repetition * PRS TTI repetition

Eg for FDD 20 MHz

100/100 * 1 * 1/160 = 0.625 %

PDCCH, PHICH, and PCFICH overhead

Occupied
Subcarriers

Subframe
0

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

S
l
o
t

1
0

1
1

1
2

1
3

1
4

1
5

1
6

1
7

1
8

1
9

Even Slot

Odd Slot

R0

R0

DL
Resource
Blocks

Reference
Signal
PDCCH, PHICH, PCFICH

R0

R0

PDSCH
R0

R0

R0

R0

Not used on
this port

System Overhead Downlink

PDCCH, PCFICH and PHICH
-The combination of PDCCH, PCFICH and PHICH is able to occupy the first 1, 2 or 3 time
domain symbols per TTI

-As of RL30, the PDCCH Area defined in the PCFICH becomes dynamic
-Worst case scenario PDCCH Area is 3 Symbols wide
- The number of RE occupied per 1 ms TTI is given by (12 y x), where:
y depends upon the number of occupied time domain symbols per TTI (1, 2 or 3)
x depends upon the number of RE already occupied by the Reference Signal
x = 2 for 1 transmit antenna
x = 4 for 2 transmit antenna
x = 4 for 4 transmit antenna
when y = 1
x = 8 for 4 transmit antenna
when y = 2 or 3

20 MHz = 100 RB
4 Antenna 8 DRS in PDCCH Area
PCFICH = 3 Symbols
Dual Stream
16.67% Overhead

PBCH Overhead
Occupies (288* x) Resource Elements (REs) per 20 timeslots per transmit antenna
The value of x depends upon the number of REs already occupied by the Reference Signal:
x = 12 for 1 Tx antenna, x = 24 for 2 Tx antennas & x = 48 for 4 Tx antenna
- Example: normal CP, 2 Tx antennas, 10 MHz bandwidth;
PBCH Overhead = (288 24) / (84 20 50) = 0.31%

72 subcarriers

one radio frame = 10 ms

Repetition Pattern of PBCH = 40 ms

PBCH

* PBCH uses central 72 Subcarrier over 4 OFDM symbols in Slot 1

UL Demodulation Reference Signal Overhead (1/2)

Demodulation Reference
Signal (DRS)
The DRS is sent on the 4th
OFDM symbol of each RB
occupied by the PUSCH.

PUCCH

PUSCH
PUCCH

UL DRS Overhead (2/2)

Example:
For 1.4 MHz Channel Bandwidth, the PUCCH occupies 1 RB per Slot.
The number of RE per RB is 84 when using the normal CP.
This means the DRS overhead* is: ((6-1) 12)/(6 84) = 11.9 %

Channel BW
1.4 MHz
3 MHz
5 MHz
10 MHz
15 MHz
20 MHz

PUCCH RB/slot
1
2
2
4
6
8

* for normal CP

DRS Overhead*
((6-1) 12) / (6 84) = 11.9 %
((15-2) 12) / (15 84) = 12.38 %
((25-2) 12) / (25 84) = 13.14 %
((50-4) 12) / (50 84) = 13.14 %
((75-6) 12) / (75 84) = 13.14 %
((100-8) 12) / (100 84) = 13.14 %

PRACH Overhead
PRACH
PRACH uses 6 Resource Blocks in the frequency domain.
The location of those resource blocks is dynamic. Two parameters from RRC layer define it:
PRACH Configuration Index: for Timing, selecting between 1 of 4 PRACH durations
and defining if PRACH preambles can be send in any radio frame or only in even
numbered ones
PRACH Frequency offset: Defines the location in frequency domain
PRACH Overhead calculation: 6 RBs * RACH Density / (#RB per TTI) x 10 TTIs per frame
RACH density: how often are RACH resources reserved per 10 ms frame i.e. for RACH
density: 1 (RACH resource reserved once per frame)

Channel BW
1.4 MHz
3 MHz
5 MHz
10 MHz
15 MHz
20 MHz

PRACH Overhead
(6 1) / (6 10) = 10 %
(6 1) / (15 10) = 4 %
(6 1) / (25 10) = 2.40 %
(6 1) / (50 10) = 1.20 %
(6 1) / (75 10) = 0.8 %
(6 1) / (100 10) = 0.6 %

Multiple PUCCH in One Subframe

1

Occupied
Subcarriers

Subframe
0

Odd Slot

Demodulation RS

PUCCH 1

PUCCH 0

PUSCH

PUCCH 3

PUCCH 2

PUCCH

PUCCH 2

PUCCH 3

PUCCH 0

PUCCH 1

UL Resource
Blocks

Even Slot

PUCCH Overhead
PUCCH
Ratio between the number of RBs used for PUCCH and the total number of RBs in frequency
domain per TTI

Channel BW
1.4 MHz
3 MHz
5 MHz
10 MHz
15 MHz
20 MHz

PUCCH RB/slot
1
2
2
4
6
8

PUCCH Overhead
1 / 6 = 16.67 %
2 / 15 = 13.33 %
2 / 25 = 8 %
4 / 50 = 8 %
6 / 75 = 8 %
8 / 100 = 8%

Physical Layer Overhead Example

Example of overhead:
DL 2Tx 2RX
UL 1TX - 2RX
PRACH in every frame
3 OFDM symbols for
PDCCH
No OTDOA