Overview of the Current Status of 3GPP LTE

Adrian Scrase ETSI Vice President International Partnership Projects

Mobile World Congress 11-14 February 2008 Barcelona

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What is LTE?
The next step in the evolution of 3GPP radio interfaces to deliver Global Mobile Broadband A plan first conceived in 2004 Standardization based on clearly defined performance targets Standardization based on clearly defined economic targets Standardization based on improved use of the radio spectrum Standardization based on simplified system design
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LTE: Performance Targets

Significantly increased data throughput
Downlink target 3-4 times greater than HSDPA Release 6 Uplink target 2-3 times greater than HSUPA Release 6

Increased cell edge bit rates

Downlink: 70% of the values at 5% of the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) Uplink: same values at 5% of the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF)

Significantly reduced latency

Significant reduction in transition times from idle/dormant states to active state (control plane) Radio access network latency less than 5 ms in unloaded conditions for small IP packet (user plane)

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LTE: Mobility and Cell Range Targets

High mobility
Optimised for mobile speeds 0 to 15 km/h Support with high performance between 15 and 120 km/h Mobility maintained at speeds between 120 and 350 km/h Support for voice and real-time services over entire speed range with quality at least as good as UTRAN

Cell ranges up to 5 km
With best throughput, spectrum efficiency and mobility

Cell ranges up to 30 km
Mobility as defined above; some degradation in throughput and spectrum efficiency permitted

Cell ranges up to 100 km

Supported; degradations accepted
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LTE: Economic Targets

Reduced CAPEX and OPEX
Avoidance of complicated architectures and unnecessary interfaces Maximum reuse of existing sites Optimized terminal complexity and power consumption Efficient OAM&P Optimization of backhaul protocols Multi vendor environment

.resulting in overall reduced cost/bit

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LTE: System Design

Downlink based on OFDMA
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) offers improved spectral efficiency, capacity etc QPSK, 16QAM and 64QAM modulation schemes supported

Uplink based on SC-FDMA

Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) is technically similar to OFDMA but is better suited for uplink from hand-held devices (battery power considerations) BPSK, QPSK, 8PSK and 16QAM modulation schemes supported

Designed for both Paired and Unpaired Spectrum use Macro-diversity (soft handover) no longer required Circuit-switched connectivity no longer be supported

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LTE: Simplified Architecture

UMTS

LTE
Most of the RNC functionalities moved to the eNode B UMTS RNC removed eNodeB connected directly to the evolved packet core
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LTE: Simplified Mobility Management

MME/UPE MME/UPE Evolved Packet Core

S1

Evolved UTRAN X2
eNB eNB

X2
eNB

X2

(From TR 25.912). MME: Mobility Management entity (identities, mobility states). UPE: User Plane Entity (paging initiation, IP bearer parameters) 8

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LTE: Simplified Mobile States

Cell_DCH URA_PCH

Mobile States in UMTS

Idle Mode
Cell_PCH

Cell_FACH

Connected mode

Mobile States in LTE

Reduced to 3 states only: Idle Active Detached

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LTE: Use of Radio Spectrum

Spectrum flexibility
LTE to operate in 1.4, 1.6, 3, 3.2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz bandwidths

Clear convergence between paired spectrum and unpaired spectrum solutions:

Initial access, handover procedures, measurements, frame and slot structures

Co-existence
With GERAN/3G on adjacent channels With other operators on adjacent channels With overlapping or adjacent spectrum at country borders Handover with UTRAN and GERAN

Use of more than one transmit/receive antenna (MIMO)

Which raises by a factor of 10 the number of users/cell compared to UMTS
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LTE: Spectrum Efficiency

Significantly improved spectrum efficiency and cell edge bitrate
whilst maintaining same site locations

Downlink target (bits/sec/Hz/site):

3-4 times that of Release 6 HSDPA

Uplink target (bits/sec/Hz/site):

2-3 times that of Release 6 Enhanced Uplink

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What about SAE?

The core network upgrade (System Architecture Evolution or SAE) will focus on:
Enhancement of Packet Switched technology to cope with rapid growth in IP traffic, (i.e., higher data rates, lower latency and packet optimised system Through fully IP network with simplified network architecture and distributed control

Packet-Switched (PS) only domain (voice services will use this domain) Incorporating IMS Supporting multiple 3GPP radio access technologies (GERAN, UTRAN) Also incorporating non-3GPP access (e.g., WiMAX, WLAN)
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LTE: Relationship with SAE

A high performance air interface demands a high performance core network Deploying LTE without SAE may be theoretically possible, but it would make no sense to do so! Therefore, the timeline for delivering SAE specifications has been synchronized to the timeline for delivering LTE specifications Hence, the combination of LTE and SAE form the very essence of 3GPP Release 8

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LTE: Current Status of Specifications

LTE and SAE form the basis of 3GPP Release 8, scheduled to be functionally frozen in December 2008 LTE Terrestrial Radio Access Network technology specifications have already been approved by 3GPP, and are now under change control

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LTE: Availability of Specifications

All 3GPP specifications can be freely downloaded from http://www.3gpp.org They can also be freely downloaded from http://www.etsi.org They are available for free from the ETSI Stand (Hall 2, E47) conveniently presented on a DVD

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LTE: Industrial Commitment

The following give a clear indication of the industrial interest in LTE:
The population in 3GPP specification groups is now at an unprecedented level The volume of contributions with those groups is very high The intellectual input to the development of LTE is enormous

Recent press announcements from prominent players indicate strong operator and vendor commitment to LTE Feedback from field trials is highly promising
Results announced by LTSI (LTE/SAE Trial Initiative) Results announced by vendor trials
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LTE: Further Work

Maturity of Specifications
Remainder of 2008 devoted to ensuring LTE maturity Work aided by feedback from LTE trials Functional freezing of Release 8 on target for December 2008

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LTE: 3G or 4G?
LTE specifications have already been submitted to the ITU
They are already incorporated in the draft update of the IMT 2000 family (to be approved by ITU later in 2008) They will formally become part of the 3G family (though some might say LTE is really 3,9G)

The ITU will soon start the IMT Advanced process

An ITU Circular Letter is expected to be received soon inviting proposals for inclusion within the IMT Advanced (aka 4G) family A submission based on LTE is highly likely to be made (for example LTE advanced)

But who cares?

Users have no interest in whether they have a 2G, 3G or 4G device They only care about what the device can do, and how much it will cost (not necessarily in that order!)
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Conclusions
LTE promises to deliver the true Global Mobile Broadband experience LTE specification development is meticulously planned and executed Industrial input to the process is of an unprecedented level Operator and vendor commitment already in place Robust specifications will ensure successful deployment

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For more information

Please contact adrian.scrase@etsi.org
or

3GPPContact@etsi.org

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