LTE System Information System Information provides information to the UEs about

various parameters of both the Access Stratum and Non Access Stratum.These are t
he parameters that are common for all the UEs in the same cell and are tradition
ally broadcasted in all the wireless technologies. UEs use this information for
mutliple purposes, m ainly system access and other idle mode procedures like cel
l selection,reselecti on etc. In LTE, main system information consists of the fo
llowing: 1.Master Information Block (MIB) : MIB gives information about the most
importan t parameters like SFN,system bandwidth and HICH configuration. It is t
ransmitted every 40 ms and the scheduling information is standardised. 2. System
Information Block1: SIB1 is scheduled every 80 ms. SIB1 broadcasts cel l access
related parameters -cell identifier (plmn id,cell id), qrxlevmin,cell s pecific
timers and the scheduling information for all other SIBs. 3.System Information
Block2: SIB2 provides information about common and shared channels-rach,prach,bc
ch,dlsch,ulsch etc. 4.System Information Block 3 to 8 provides information requi
red for cell resele ction. SI3 provides information on intrafrequency cell resel
ection except neighbour cel l information.SIB4 provides info on neighbour cell i
nformations. SIB5 is for int erfrequency cell reselection,SIB6 is for UTRAN,SIB7
for GERAN and SIB8 for CDMA related cell reselection. UE reads the system infor
mation during the initial attach process and whenever it is camped to a new cell
, it reads the relevent sysinfos.If some System Infor mation value is changed, t
he network pages the UE telling the UEs that system in formation is changed and
UEs will read the system info during the next modificat ion cycle.Modification c
ycle is a cell specific parameter that is signalled in the sib2.Whenever the UE
receives a paging indicating sib modification, it will invalidate all the sysinf
os and retrieve all the sysinfos again. LTE INITIAL NETWORK CAMPING Initial Netw
ork Camping: ==================== What will happen when a mobile is switched on?
The first thing the mobile has to do is to find a suitable network and camp to
it. For LTE mobiles, camping happens through following steps: 1.Mobile scans the
available frequency band for finding a suitable cell.First t hing, mobile shoul
d know is the presence of LTE cell. It is done using some pre defined sequence k
nown as Primary Synchronisation Signal (PSS). PSS is transmit ted at a specific
time during specific frequencies and at specific position (T o be mroe technical
, PSS is transmitted at the last OFDM symbol in first and 11t h slots for FDD LT
E and third symbol of 3rd and 13th slots for TDD). PSS is a Za doff-Chu sequence
, There are three such sequences defined and the sequence trans mitted correspos
nds to cells Physial cell ID group. 2. Once the mobile has got the PSS, next lev
el is SSS-Secondary Synchronisation Signal. SSS is transmitted in the same slots
as PSS. For FDD, it is transmitted one symbol before PSS. For TDD it is transmi
tted 3 symbols before. 168 values fo r SSS are defined each corresponding to a P
hysical Cell ID.Once the mobile deco des SSS, it comes to know ===>Physical Cell
ID (From the pattern transmitted) ===>Frame boundaries (Different patterns for
slot 0/slot11, hence can kno w the slot in which it is transmitted,from the slot
boundaries already known by PSS, Frame boundaries can be detected) ===>FDD/TDD
-Since the slots in which PSS/SSS is transmitted is different , once we know the
slot boundary, Duplex tech can be known

===> CP length (By blind decoding, if SSS is in symbol 5 or 6 is underst ood. If

it is in 5, extended CP. If it is in 6 normal CP. If you want a very much deep
understanding on synchronisation sequences ,please refer the below link http://w
ww.steepestascent.com/content/mediaassets/html/LTE/Help/SynchSignals.htm l 3.Dec
oding of PBCH : PBCH corresponds to MIB; It gives the most important parame ters
like SFN,Bandwidth and CFICH format. MIB is transmitted every 40 ms,fixed s che
duling 4.Decoding SIBs: SIBs contain all the required information for initial ac
cess to the cell. It gives information about the cells capabilities, common and
shared channels,access restrictions etc. Once the SIBs are decoded, mobile can a
ccess t he network using common channels like RACH. 5.Reference Signals: Once th
e UE has identified the synchronisation signals-PSS and SSS, it will use the ref
erence signals for RSRP/RSRQ measurements and report ing. Further Reading 1. 3gp
p spec 36.101 2.LTE, the UMTS Long term evolution:From theory to Practice http:/
/www.amazon.com/LTE-UMTS-Long-Term-Evolution/dp/0470697164 RRC CONNECTION ESTABL
ISHMENT IN LTE 1. LTE rrc connection establishment is used to make transition fr
om rrc idle to rrc connected state 2. Always initiated by UE, ( though can be tr
iggered by nw by DL paging).Trigge red by the NAS layers on attach,TAU,detach,pa
ging,service request,extended servi ce request. 3.UE sends RRC connection reques
t after the random access procedure in SRB0/CCCH /UL-SCH/PUSCH. Message contents
are ue identity (stmsi or a randomn identity) an d the establishment cause (eme
rgency,mo signalling, mo data, mt access, high pri ority access).UE starts the t
imer T300. 4.Network sends RRC Connection Response back to the UE in SRB0/CCCH/D
L-SCH/PDSCH . Arrival is informed to the UE in PDCCH..This message contains the
configuratio n information for SRB1 a. RLC configuration for UL & DL -Poll PDU,P
oll Byte,Poll retransmission time r, Max retransmission threshhold in UL, Re-ord
ering timer & status prohibit tim er for DL b.Logical Channel Configuration : Pr
iority,PBR,;CG c.Configuration Information for Physical channels (PDSCH,PUCCH,PU
SCH) d.Uplink Power Control(p0 & delta values) e.CQI reporting ( resource to sen
d, pmi/ri etc) f. Sounding Reference Signal (bw,subframe,hbw) g.Scheduling Reque
st (resource index, config index) h. Antenna Configuration (no. of antenna ports
, no. of antennas) 5. UE sends rrc connection setup complete with transation ide
tnifier,selected pl mn id, registered mme (if available) and nas information Fai
lure Cases ============== 1.T300 expiry or cell reselection before completion of
the procedure 2.RRC connection Reject ,no cause only a wait timer T302.Till the
timer expires cant send another rrc connection request Higher layers need to in
itiate new connection establishment procedure, No N300 c

oncept What is the need for LTE technology /What are the major features of LTE?
Higher bandwidth ( 300 Mbps DownLink, 75 Mbps UL) What are the states RRC-IDLE,R
RC-CONNECTED? EMM-REGISTERED/DEREGISTERED? ECM-CON NECTED/IDLE? In RRC Connected
state, UE is known at cell level and there is a context availab le in eNB. UE c
an directly reached by the network. It will always check for sche duling assignm
ent in the control channel. In ECM connected state, there is a signalling connec
tion between EPC and the UE. It happens after the UE is in RRC Connected state a
nd UE activated a PDN Connec tion.There is an S1 connection present. When UE goe
s to ECM IDLE,EPS bearer contexts are still available(may be out of s ync). ie c
ontexts are still maintained in P-GW. When rrc connection is terminate d, UE mov
es to ECM IDLE as well. EMM Registered state:UE goes to EMM registered when the
UE attaches to the netwo rk. UE is known to MME in registered state and is not k
nown in emm deregistered state. Describe the LTE protocol stack: L1-L1 is based
on OFDMA in downlink and SC-FDMA in Uplink. Layer1 is concerned with actual tran
smission of the broadband signal. MAC:- MAC layer is mainly concerned with the t
ransmission of pdus, scheduling an d dynamic resource allocation. RLC:- RLC is r
esponsible for ensuring the QOS, by flow control, error detection and retransmis
sions. PDCP:Packet Data Convergence protocol is responsible for header compressi
on, sec urity (ciphering and integrity) and storing and forwarding of the packet
s during handover. RRC:-RRC is used for assigning/modifying/releasing the bearer
s,configuring and r eporting of measurements, handovers,security,configuring the
lower layers,direct transfer of NAS messages,paging etc. NAS LAYERS: eMM: eMM i
s concerned with the mobility procedures- ie attach, detach and tracki ng area u
pdate procedures. eSM:-eSM is concerned with the EPS bearers and PDN connectivit
y. Main procedure s supported are the activation of default and dedicated (EPS)b
earers,bearer reso urce modification,pdn connectivity/dsiconnect. What is the di
fference between PDN Connection and EPS Bearer? A PDN Connection is the connecti
on between a UE & PDN GW. An EPS bearer is a PD N connection + a defined QOS (QC
I)+Aggregate Guaranteed and Maximum Bit rate (op tional) + TFT There can be mult
iple EPS Bearers associated with a PDN connection. What is a TFT? Traffic Flow T
emplate is the set of all packet filter associated with an EPS bea rer.A packet
filter may be associated with a protocol or an ip address or port a ddress.