Carrier Aggregation Fundamentals and Deployments [PDF]

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Carrier Aggregation: Fundamentals and Deployments Presented by: Manuel Blanco



Agilent Technologies



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Agenda LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation



Design and test challenges



2



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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



Spectral efficiency (b/s/Hz)



Downlink



Data rate (Mbps)



4



IMT-Adv



LTE



15



16.3



(4x4 MIMO)



(4x4 MIMO)



6.75



4.32



(2x4 MIMO)



(64QAM)



Downlink



1000



300



Uplink



100



75



Uplink



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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/Km2)



5



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



LTE-Advanced New UE Categories UE Category



LTE LTE-A



6



Data Rate DL/UL



Downlink



Uplink



(Mbps)



Max number of layers



Max number of layers



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



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Agenda LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation



Design and test challenges



7



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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 Higher peak data rates o Facilitate efficient use of fragmented spectrum



o Enable 150 Mbps (Category 4) in typical deployments where 20MHz contiguous spectrum is not an option



8



10MHz DL Carrier 1



10MHz DL Carrier 2



Aggregated Data Pipe



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Carrier Aggregation – Fundamentals  PCC (Primary Component Carrier) o Handle the RRC/NAS procedures o Measurement reports and mobility o UEs using the same set of CCs, can have different PCC o Role only changed with handover o PUSCH is mandatory



Downlink PCC



SCC



SCC



Uplink



 SCC (Secondary Component Carrier)



PCC



SCC



o UE handles up to 4 SCC o Configured using RRC signaling procedures o Can be dynamically activated/de-activated using a MAC control element o Activated only when in CONNECTED mode o PUSCH is optional - asymmetric CA 9



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Carrier Aggregation – Fundamentals Band 17 -10 MHz



MME



SCC



Band 4 - 10 MHz



PCC



UE



RRC Connection



Attach Request Release 8 PS Attach



Authentication and NAS Security AS Security



UE capabilities



Attach Accept + Default EPS



Data Link (single carrier)



10



73 Mbps



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Carrier Aggregation – Fundamentals Band 17 -10 MHz



MME



SCC



Band 4 - 10 MHz



PCC



UE



RRC Connection



Attach Request Release 8 PS Attach



Authentication and NAS Security AS Security



UE capabilities



Attach Accept + Default EPS Release 10 SCC Addition & Activation



RRC Reconfiguration + Add SCC



Data Link (single carrier)



11



73 Mbps



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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



12



Source: 3GPP TS 36.331



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Carrier Aggregation – Fundamentals Band 17 -10 MHz



MME



SCC



Band 4 - 10 MHz



PCC



UE



RRC Connection



Attach Request Release 8 PS Attach



Authentication and NAS Security AS Security UE capabilities



Attach Accept + Default EPS Release 10 SCC Addition & Activation



RRC Reconfiguration + Add SCC MAC control element



Link (single carrier) Data Link Data (2 CC aggregated)



13



73 Mbps 147 Mbps



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Modes and Deployments Resource block



f



Intra -band contiguous



f



Intra-band non-contiguous



f



Inter-band non-contiguous



Band A Resource block



Band A Resource block



Band A



14



≈ Band B



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Modes and Deployments



3



CA Band Combinations



Rel.10



Release 10: o o o o o



1



2



Inter-band



Intra-band cont



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 E-UTRA CA Band



E-UTRA operating Band



CA_40



40



CA_1



1



Uplink (UL) band UE transmit / BS receive Channel FUL_low (MHz) – FUL_high BW MHz (MHz) 1) 2300 – 2400 [40 ] 1920



–



1980



40



Downlink (DL) band UE receive / BS transmit Channel FDL_low (MHz) – FDL_high BW MHz (MHz) 1) 2300 – 2400 [40 ] 2110



–



2170



40



Duplex mode TDD FDD



[1) For the first phase of LTE TDD CA for UE side, with eventual goal for 50MHz]



Inter - band Non -Contiguous CA Uplink (UL) band Downlink (DL) band UE transmit / BS receive Channel UE receive / BS transmit Channel BW MHz FUL_low (MHz) – FUL_high FDL_low (MHz) – FDL_high BW MHz (MHz) (MHz) 1) – – 1 1920 1980 10 2110 2170 10 CA_1-5 1) – – 5 824 849 10 869 894 10 1) Only one uplink component carrier is used in any of the two frequency bands at any time. E-UTRA CA Band



15



E-UTRA operating Band



Duplex mode



FDD



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Modes and Deployments



24



CA Band Combinations



Rel.11



3



CA Band Combinations



Rel.10



Release 11:



1



2



Inter-band



Intra-band cont



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 inter-band Carrier Aggregation



Rapporteur



Carrier Aggregation of Band 3 and Band 7



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



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



19 Inter-band



5



1



Intra-band cont Intra non-cont



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



16



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Modes and Deployments



24



CA Band Combinations



Rel.11



3



CA Band Combinations



Rel.10



Release 12:



1



2



Inter-band



Intra-band cont



19 Inter-band



95



CA Band Combinations



Rel.12



48



5



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



1



Intra-band cont Intra non-cont



12



10



Inter-band Intra-band cont Intra non-cont



17



25 Inter 3 CC © 2014 Agilent Technologies



Agenda LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation



Design and test challenges



18



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Impact on UE design MME



PCC



SCC



UE



Carrier Aggregation impact



NAS



- None



RRC



RRC



- Addition and removal SCC



PDCP



PDCP



RLC



RLC



NAS



MAC



MAC



PHY



PHY



- None - Larger buffer



 Impact on higher layers: o Enhanced user plane to support higher data rates o Modifications and new additions on existing RRC procedures:



19







Reconfiguration message to support Addition/Release of SCC







Report of new UE categories and capabilities



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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:



20







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



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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



Channel Emulator



+



UE



+ SCC



21



Channel Emulator



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



Description



A1



Low-high band combination without harmonic relation between bands or intermodulation problem



A2



Low-high band combination with harmonic relation between bands



A3



Low-low or high-high band combination without intermodulation problem (low order IM)



A4



Low-low, low-high or high-high band combination with intermodulation problem (low order IM)



A5



Combination except for A1 – A4



22



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



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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



23



740 MHz Downlink



2130 MHz Downlink



Band 17



Band 4



PCC



SCC



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. Class A2 example: Band 4-17



3rd harmonic



710 MHz Uplink



24



740 MHz Downlink



2130 MHz Downlink



Band 17



Band 4



PCC



SCC



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. A/D



Band A



Switch



H3 Trap



A/D



D/A



Ref. Sensitivity (dBm) Release 8



Ref. Sensitivity (dBm) Carrier Aggregation



Band 4



-96.3



-89.5



Band 17



-93.3



-92.8



Band 1



-96.3



-96.3



Band 5



-94.3



-94.3



D/A



Antenna tuner



Switch



Band 17 Band B



A/D



A/D



D/A



D/A



Band 4 A/D



Band A



Band B



A/D



A/D



A/D



Source: 36.851 and 36.521-1



25



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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



A/D



Band A



Switch



H3 Trap



A/D



D/A



Ref. Sensitivity (dBm) Release 8



Ref. Sensitivity (dBm) Carrier Aggregation



Band 4



-96.3



-89.5



Band 17



-93.3



-92.8



Band 1



-96.3



-96.3



D/A



Antenna tuner



Switch



Band 17 Band B



A/D



A/D



D/A



D/A



Band 5 uplink



Band 4 A/D



Band A



Band B



Note: This is an exception allowed when the -94.3 in the lower frequency -94.3 active operating



band.



A/D



A/D



A/D



Source: 36.851 and 36.521-1



26



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE. A/D



Band A



Switch



H3 Trap



A/D



D/A



Ref. Sensitivity (dBm) Release 8



Ref. Sensitivity (dBm) Carrier Aggregation



Band 4



-96.3



-89.5



Band 17



-93.3



-92.8



Band 1



-96.3



Band 5



-94.3



D/A



Antenna tuner



Switch



Band 17 Band B



A/D



A/D



D/A



D/A



Band 4



0.5 dB due to H3 trap filter -96.3 insertion loss -94.3



A/D



Band A



Band B



A/D



A/D



A/D



Source: 36.851 and 36.521-1



27



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



Design and Test Challenges Challenge #2 : Simultaneous transceiver chains lead to intermodulation and cross-modulation within the UE.



Ref. Sensitivity (dBm) Release 8



Ref. Sensitivity (dBm) Carrier Aggregation



Band 4



-96.3



-89.5



Band 17



-92.8



-92.8



Band 1



-96.3



Band 5



-94.3



0.5 dB due to H3 trap filter -96.3 insertion loss -94.3



Source: 36.851 and 36.521-1



28



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



LTE T4000S Test Systems



ALL BASED ON THE SAME HARDWARE PLATFORM T4110S LTE Protocol Tester



T4010S LTE RF Tester



29



T2010A LTE Wireless Communications Test Set T4020S LTE RRM Tester



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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



© 2014 Agilent Technologies



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



LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation



DL: 300Mbps



UL: 50 Mbps



CAT 6 Device



• Unique receiver test Flexible channel allocation and closed-loop testing • Trusted transmitter test X-Series measurement science Join “Overcome LTE-A UE Design Test Challenges with Agilent’s New UXM” webcast here 32



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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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