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LTE Mobile positioning and tracking simulator

using Kalman Filter
Conference Paper October 2016

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LTE Mobile positioning and tracking simulator using Kalman Filter

I. EL MOURABIT, A. BADRI, A. SAHEL, A. BAGHDAD
EEA&TI laboratory Faculty of Science and Techniques (FSTM), Hassan II University of Casablanca, BP 146,
Mohammedia, Morocco
elmourabit.ilham@gmail.com, abdelmajid_badri@yahoo.fr, sahel_ai@yahoo.fr , nasser_baghdad@yahoo.fr
Abstract In the past few years the mobile networks
telecommunication field has known a huge progress in
term of developing new standards to enhance the quality
of service (LTE, LTE-A, 5G ). Positioning techniques
in LTE (Long Term Evolution) network are gaining more
interest since the majority of mobile communication
operators are deploying their 4G Solution all over the
world. In this paper, we investigate the optimal mobile
position tracking mean: the Kalman filter when
integrated in the localization process. We present, also, a
tool based on Matlab/Simulink, for simulating the LTE
positioning reference signal (PRS) generation,
transmission and reception in a realistic propagation
environment. The received signal at mobile station will be
proceeded to obtain the time difference of arrival
estimates which are used to calculate the handset position
and tracking the Mobile User (MU) in a noisy
environment. The main purpose of this paper is to design
and build a free realistic simulator for LTE positioning
dedicated to academic researches.
KeywordsKalman filter, tracking, positioning, OTDOA,
MATLAB, accuracy, emergency calls, LTE, PRS.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Long Term Evolution or LTE network steps

towards the fourth generation of mobile
communications. Set by the 3GPP, the majority of its
standards come from those of the previous generation:
UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication
System). New features were introduced by the LTE as:
the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA), Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)
data transmission and the main one related to the
positioning domain is the Positioning Reference Signal
(PRS) [1].
The main purpose of cellular positioning
techniques is to find the position of a mobile user (MU)
in a noisy environment without external assistance. In
this context, the positions of the base stations (eNodeB)
are fixed and known while those of the MUs are
unknown and need to be determined [6]. A variety of
positioning techniques were developed using the
cellular networks signals, among them we find:
Assisted-GNSS, enhanced Cell-ID (e-CID) and
Observed Time difference Of Arrival (OTDOA). We
are interested in OTDOA method since the LTE

978-1-5090-3837-4/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE

standard introduced the PRS as a dedicated downlink

positioning reference signal to perform the time
measurements needed to estimate the MU position.
This work is a part of an ongoing study that aims to
design a free realistic simulator of the LTE mobile
network communication dedicated to the positioning
applications and researches. The radio modeling part
was introduced in a previously published paper [13], in
this paper we investigate the response of our first
version while adding the tracking function on an
arbitrary path.
II.

NETWORK MODEL AND LINK SIMULATOR

We aim in this part to take a look on the radio

model that we have designed in [13]. The radio
network model identifies the basic elements of the
positioning simulator. In this section, we describe the
cellular structure or topology and the radio propagation
models used in our simulation.
A. Network topology
The cellular network is designed as a regular
hexagonal pattern. The base stations are placed each in
the center of a hexagon with a distance of 500 meters.
Because the 7-cell topology can underestimate the total
interference in the system, in this work, the network
model is chosen to be a 19-cell structure which is
considered as a suitable number of cells according to
[2].
B. Radio Propagation Model
The mobile radio systems are expected to operate
in almost all the possible radio environments [4], in the
literature there is a variety of these environments and
all of them could be characterized with multiple
propagation models. The most used and known of
these models are: The path loss that models how the
received signal strength decreases as the distance
between the MU and the eNodeB increases, and the
multipath fading also known as Rayleigh fading
which is due to multipath reflections of the transmitted
signal by obstacles.

1) Path Loss
The COST-HATA model, Known also as the
COST-231-Hata propagation Model, is used in our
simulator to model The Path loss. It is based on the
Okumura model to cover a more elaborated range of
frequencies [5]. This model is applicable to urban
areas. It works for a range of Frequencies up to 1500
2000 MHz and an MU antenna height about 110 m
[6]. The eNodeB antenna height is about 30200 m [6].
The modeling equation for urban areas is given by
( )=46.3+33.9log( )13.02log( ) ( )+[44.9
6.55log( )]log +
Where,
f: the frequency in MHz,
d: the distance between the transmitter & Receiver,
& : Correction factors for base station height
and receiver height respectively,
c: 3 for urban and 0 for suburban & rural areas and
a( ): Mobile station antenna height correction
factor, for urban areas it is given by
a( ) =3.2(log (11.75 )) 4.97
And for rural area it is given by
a( ) = (1.1 log ( ) 0.7 (1.58 0.8))
2) Fading channel
This model emulate the fact that the transmitted
signal may reach the receiver over multiple paths. Each
version of the received signal, by different paths,
present a different attenuations and delays [7]. In LTE
the multipath fading channel model specifies the
following three delay profiles.
Extended Pedestrian A model (EPA)
Extended Vehicular A model (EVA)
Extended Typical Urban model (ETU)
These three delay profiles represent a low, medium,
and high delay spread environment, respectively. In
this work we are interested in the pedestrian model [8].
To model the correlation between MU and eNodeB
antennas in the case of MIMO environments, a set of
correlation matrices is introduced by [8].
C. LTE link simulator
Based on the system-level radio network model
presented previously, the communication link between
the MU and the eNodeB is modeled. The timing
measurements obtained via this link will be used to find
the MU position. The link-level simulator model
includes an eNodeB transmitter, a communication and
propagation channel and a MU receiver.

1) eNB Transmitter Model

As shown in figure 1, the transmitter model of our
simulator is composed of two blocks: the transport
channel processing block and the physical channel
processing block according to the given standards by
the 3GPP [9].
Transport channel processing
In this block the data coming from the eNodeB are
coded into codewords that will be transmitted to the
physical channel processing block. This process
includes data generation, Cyclic Redundancy Code
(CRC) generation and attachement, turbo coding and
rate matching.
Turbo coding belongs to high performance class of
Forward Error Correction (FEC) codes which is
considered as one of the spesific features of LTE.
Turbo codes are used in 3G-4G mobile communication
and satellite communication as well as other
applications. This coding allows us to achieve a
maximum channel capacity. It is based on two parallel
convolutional coding and an iterative decoding
scheme.

Physical channel processing

We introduce here the physical channel processing

block where the encoded data is coded and transmitted
to the MU. The main functions of this block are:
a) Scrambling of coded bits
b) Modulation of scrambled bits to generate
complex-valued modulation sumbols (here a
16QAM is used)
c) Layer mapping: mapping of the complexvalued modulation symbols onto one or
several transmission layers (in our case
spatial multiplexing with 2 antenna ports and
2 layers)
d) Pre-coding of the symbols on each layer for
transmission on the antenna ports
e) Mapping of complex-valued modulation
symbols for each antenna port to resource
elements
f) Generation of Cell Specific Referene Signal
(CSR) and the Positioning Reference Signal
(PRS)
g) Generation of complex-valued OFDM signal
for each antenna port

The PRS has been introduced in LTE to allow proper

timing measurements of an MU from eNodeB signals
in order to improve positioning performance [10].
2) LTE receiver Model
At the reception this block perform the inverse
procedures of these already done by the transmitter
before sending it as shown in figure 2.
3) Channel Model
As shown in figure 3, The transmitted signal Tx
from the transmitter block is served as an input to the
propagation channel. The MIMO (Multiple Inputs
Multiple Outputs) fading and the Additive White
Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel models emulates the
effects of the multipath propagation of a fading process
discussed before. The antennas configuration between
the eNB and the UE is a 2x2 scheme.
III.

Geometrically, each TDOA determines a

hyperbola, and the desired MU position is the
inersection of these hyperbolas. At least three TDOA
measurements are required to solve a two dimensions
coordinates of the MU. Since the time measurements
has a certain uncertainty, in reality the intersection will
be an area instead of a single point [11].
The time of arrival measurements performed by the
user equipement are related to the geometric distance
sparating the MU and the eNodeB. We denote (xi , yi)
the known coordinates of the ith eNB (the reference
eNB is denoted as the 1st) and (x , y) the unknown
coordinates of the UE.

) +(
(

) +(

+(

)
+(
) is the time offset between the two
Where (
eNBs reffered to as RTDs (Real Time Differences), ni
et n1 represent the UE TOA measurement errors and c
is the speed of ligth.
IV.

KALMAN FILTER

In order to track a mobile user served by the

previousely modeled network, a discrete Kalman filter
is applied for each position measurements. Its an
optimal recursive data processing algorithm which
gives an accurate estimation of the actual state based
on previous noisy measurements [12].
The transition equation can be written as:

OTDOA BASED POSITIONING

Observerd Time Difference Of Arrival is a

downlink positioning approach in the LTE Rel-9. It is
a multilateration method in which the UE measures the
time of arrival (TOA) of signals received from multiple
eNodeBs. One of the base stations is selected to be the
reference of measurements, most of the times its the
one serving the MU.

Where:
= [ ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )] , x and y are the 2D
positions, ( )
( ) are the velocities (eastest &
northest).
= [0 0 ( ) ( )] is the acceleration.
1 0
0

0
1
0

=
, is the sampling period
0 0 1 0

0 0 0 1
The measurement model is given by:
= +
Where,

is the noise vector, and the

1 0 0 0
measurements matrix =

, to only take
0 1 0 0
the position measurements.
Figure 4 illustrates the 2 steps process : prediction
and correction.

Fig. 1. LTE Transmitter block diagram.

Fig. 2. LTE User Esuipement Receiver.

Fig. 3. MIMO fading channel + AWGN

Fig. 4. Two Steps Kalman filter processing

V.

SIMULATION AND RESULTS

In order to simulate the mobilty aspect of the LTE

equipement we choosed to put our user on a random
trajectory with a max velocity of 50 m/s with a doppler
value of 70 Hz according to the Extended Vehicular A
model (EVA) in matlab [3]. The generated path is given
by figure 5. We assume that the initial position of the UE
is at (5482,1572) and a velocity of 10m/s.
The generated signals from at least three eNodeB are
received by the same mobile user to be used in the crosscorrelation process in order to extract the time difference
of arrival and then the UE current position. The figure 6
shows the diagram block of general localization process
with integration of kalman filter in order to determine the
estimated KF position.

The OTDOA measurements are done using the

generated PRS signals following the previousely
designed LTE network model to obtain the measured
position of the UE. After that we apply the Kalman filter
to search the estimated position. The original tragectory
(same as figure 5) is shown in figure 7 with the measured
position and the KF estimated position.
Figure 8 represents the real and estimated velocities.
It is clear that the kalman filter shows reliable
performance by tracking the mobile user original
trajectory. So this type of estimator allow us to estimate
the position of an UE when no measured position is
available (tunnels and other zones non covered by
cellular networks).

Fig. 5. Randomly generated mobility path.

OTDOA positioning
process

Measured
position

Kalman Filter

Fig. 6. Block diagram of position estimation using KF.

Estimated
position with KF

Fig. 7. Real, measured OTDOA and estimated KF positions.

Fig. 8. Real velocity Vs Estimated velocity.

VI.

REFERENCES

CONCLUSION

This paper is a part of an ongoing study which aims

to design a free realistic simulator of the LTE mobile
network communication dedicated to the positioning
applications and researches. In this work we
investigate the response of our first version while
adding the tracking function on an arbitrary path.
The models and methods used to develop the LTE
mobile positioning simulator integrating the Kalman
filter to estimate the position in a worst senario cases
were oresented. This simulator, developped according
to the 3GPP standards for OTDOA positioning, has
shown a good response in term of tracking the position
and velocity of the MU. It will be further improved to
support vehicule location applications, indoor
enviroments and hybridation with Assisted GPS to
develop a robust solution for location estimation.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]
[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

AKNOWLEDGEMNT
This work falls within the scope of
telecommunication projects. Our sincere thanks to the
Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Hassan II
University, Mohammedia, Morocco, for providing us
an opportunity to carry out our work in a well equipped
laboratory (EEA&TI).

[9]

[10]

[11]
[12]
[13]

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