All about Buffer Status Reporting (BSR)

Buffer Status Reporting (BSR) :

- The Buffer Status reporting procedure is used to provide the serving eNB with information about the amount of data available for transmission in the UL buffers of the UE.

Type Of BSR:

- UL data, for a logical channel which belongs to a LCG, becomes available for transmission in the RLC entity or in the PDCP entity and either the data belongs to a logical channel with higher priority than the priorities of the logical channels which belong to any LCG and for which data is already available for transmission, or there is no data available for transmission for any of the logical channels which belong to a LCG, in which case the BSR is referred below to as "Regular BSR".

- UL resources are allocated and number of padding bits is equal to or larger than the size of the Buffer Status Report MAC control element plus its subheader, in which case the BSR is referred below to as "Padding BSR".

- retxBSR-Timer expires and the UE has data available for transmission for any of the logical channels which belong to a LCG, in which case the BSR is referred below to as "Regular BSR"

- periodicBSR-Timer expires, in which case the BSR is referred below to as "Periodic BSR".

When UE will Report Which Type:

- periodicBSR-Timer expires, "Periodic BSR".

For Regular and Periodic BSR:

 If (More than one LCG has data available for transmission in the TTI where the BSR is transmitted)

      Report Long BSR.

 else,

      Report Short BSR.

For Padding BSR:

If (Number of padding bits => size of the Short BSR plus its subheader) && If (Number of padding bits < size of the Long BSR plus its subheader)

Then Short BSR or Truncated BSR Can be transmitted instead of Padding.

If (More than one LCG has data available for transmission in the TTI where the BSR is transmitted): 
Then : 

     Report Truncated BSR of the LCG with the highest priority logical channel with data available for transmission;
Else

     Report Short BSR.

Elseif (Number of padding bits => Size of the Long BSR plus its subheader)         

     Report Long BSR.

All About HARQ

HARQ :

- It is a re-transmission technique used by LTE for re-transmitting of UL & DL Data.
- HARQ (Hybrid ARQ) = ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request) +  FEC (Forward Error Correction).

- The HARQ makes use of ARQ along with an Error Correction technique called 'Soft Combining', which no longer discards the received corrupted data.

- Using 'Soft Combining' data packets that are not decoded are not discarded anymore. The received signal is stored in a 'buffer', and combined with next re transmission.

- Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) leads to higher efficiency in transmission and error correction.
- There is one HARQ entity per UE with 8/16 stop-and-wait processes for each HARQ entity.
- It means Sender will not send new data or re-transmitted data until he will not get ACK or NACK from receiver respectively.
- As Sender is waiting for ACK/NACK from receiver, hence it decreases the through put. To overcome this issue, LTE uses multiple parallel HARQ Process with different process ID.
- FDD-LTE uses 8 HARQ Parallel Process having unique process ID 0, 1, 2...7 (3 bits reserve for HARQ Process ID in DCI Messages).
- In TD-LTE, it uses 16 HARQ Parallel Process ID having unique process ID 0, 1…15(4 bits reserve for HARQ Process ID in DCI Messages).
- Both Incremental redundancy(IR) and Chase combining(CC) are supported.
- The number of HARQ re transmissions targeted by the HARQ protocol depends on the network provided configuration.

FEC (Forward Error Correction) :

FEC or Channel Coding is a technique used for controlling and correcting error in LTE Data transmission.

Channel coding supported for LTE Data Transmission

HARQ with Soft Combining :

In practice, incorrectly received coded data blocks are often stored at the receiver rather than discarded, and when the re-transmitted block is received, the two blocks are combined. This is called Hybrid ARQ with soft combining

Soft Combining Techniques

- IR requires larger receiver buffer than CC but can achieve better performance than CC.
- CC is simple HARQ and requires small receiver buffer.

Chase Combining :

- Every re-transmission = The same information (data and parity bits).
- Receiver uses maximum-ratio combining to combine the received bits with the same bits 
from previous transmissions.
- All transmissions are identical So Chase combining seen as additional repetition coding.
- This scheme achieves gain with small buffer size in a receiver. 
- The buffer size becomes the number of coded symbols of one coded packet

Incremental Redundancy :

- To transmit additional redundant information in each re-transmission and receiver decode on each re-transmission. 
- Every retransmission contains different information than the previous one.
- IR requires larger size of buffer in a receiver than Chase Combining. The buffer size becomes the number of coded bits of total transmitted coded packets.

Redundancy Versions (RV) :

- Different combinations of systematic data bits + FEC bits.
- LTE HARQ has 4 RVs typically of a packet (0,1,2,3).

Difference between LTE HARQ used in UL and DL:

• UL: A synchronous HARQ mode is used.
• DL: An adaptive, asynchronous HARQ.

All About Cell Search In LTE

Cell Search In LTE : 
- eNodeB broadcasts Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) to help UE with the Cell Search Process and Cell Id detection.
- There is total 504 Cell Ids (0 - 503) defined in LTE.
- These 504 Cell IDs are grouped in 168 Physical Layer Cell Identity Group.
- Each Physical Layer Cell Identity Group Consists of 3 Physical Layer Cell Identity.
- PSS and SSS is transmitted using central 62 sub carriers around the DC. The 5 REs above and below the Synchronization Signals are not used for transmission, i.e. they represents DTX periods.

Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS):
- PSS is allocated to Central 62 subcarriers.
- Belonging to the "Last Symbol" of slot 0 and slot 10 of every radio frame.
- So PSS is transmitted twice every 10 ms.
- Both Transmissions are Identical.
- PSS is used for :
          - Achieve SYMBOL, SLOT, and SUBFRAME synchronization.
          - Determine the Physical Layer Cell Identity (PCI) within the Physical Layer Cell Identity Group.
- There are 3 Physical Layer Cell Identity in each Group So PSS is generated using 1 of 3 different Sequences.

Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS):
- SSS is allocated to Central 62 subcarriers.
- Belonging to the "Second Last Symbol" of slot 0 and slot 10 of every radio frame.
- So SSS is also transmitted twice every 10 ms.
- The 2 SSS transmissions within each radio frame use Different Sequences.
- This is to allow UE to differentiate between the 1st and 2nd transmission.
- This helps UE to determine the starting of each radio frame, i.e. to achive the Frame Synchronization.
- SSS is used for :
          - Achieve FRAME synchronization.
          - Determine the Physical Layer Cell Identity Group.
- There are 168 Physical Layer Cell Identity Group So SSS is generated using 1 of 168 different pairs of Sequences.

Cell Id Identification:
- Once UE read the PSS and SSS, UE will be able to get the Cell ID from the  Physical Layer Cell Identity and Physical Layer Cell Identity Group.
- Cell ID = 3 * Physical Layer Cell Identity Group + Physical Layer Cell Identity.

All About Resource Block (RB)

Resource Blocks (RB):
- Basic unit of resource for the LTE air-interface.
- eNodeB scheduler allocates RBs to UE to allow data transfer.
- Defined in both time and frequency domains.

In Time Domain:
- Occupies 0.5 ms slot in time domain.
- Consists of 7 OFDMA symbols when using Normal Cyclic Prefix.
- Consists of 6 OFDMA symbols when using Extended Cyclic Prefix.

In Frequency Domain: 
- Consists of 12 subcarriers.
- Each subcarrier is of 15 KHZ.
- Each RB occupy 12*15 = 180 KHZ in frequency domain.

- The GRID generated by One Sub-Carrier in the Frequency Domain and One Symbol in the Time Domain defines a RESOURCE ELEMENT (RE).
- RB consists of 84 (12*7) REs when using Normal Cyclic Prefix.
- RB consists of 72 (12*6) REs when using Extended Cyclic Prefix.
- A single RE can carry a Single Modulation Symbol (2 bits when using QPSK, 4 bits when using 16QAM, and 6 bits when using 64QAM).

All About LTE Radio Frame (FDD and TDD)

LTE Radio Frame: 
- Two Radio Frame Structures Supported.
- Type 1, applicable to FDD
- Type 2, applicable to TDD

Frame structure type 1:
- Applicable to both full duplex and half duplex FDD.
- Each radio frame is Tf = 307200 * Ts = 10ms long.
- Consists of 20 slots of lengthTslot = 15360*Ts = 0.5ms
- Numbered from 0 to 19
- A subframe is defined as two consecutive slots.
- Subframe i consists of slots 2i and 2i + 1.

Frame structure type 2:
- Each radio frame of length Tf  = 307200*Ts = 10ms long.
- Consists of two half-frames of length 153600*Ts = 5ms each
- Each half-frame consists of five subframes.

- The supported uplink-downlink configurations are listed below:

- Each subframe in a radio frame, “D” denotes the subframe is reserved for Downlink Transmissions.
- Each subframe in a radio frame, “U” denotes the subframe is reserved for Uplink Transmissions.
- Each subframe in a radio frame, “S” denotes the subframe is reserved for Special Subframe.
- Special Subframe consists of three fields DwPTS, GP and UpPTS.
- Both 5 ms and 10 ms downlink-to-uplink switch-point periodicity are supported.
- In case of 5 ms downlink-to-uplink switch-point periodicity, the special subframe exists in both half-frames.
- In case of 10 ms downlink-to-uplink switch-point periodicity, the special subframe exists in the first half-frame only.
- Subframes 0 and 5 and DwPTS are always reserved for downlink transmission.
- UpPTS and the subframe immediately following the special subframe are always reserved for uplink transmission.