Friday, March 26, 2010

Measurements in LTE E-UTRAN

In LTE E-UTRAN, measurements to be performed by a UE for mobility are classified as below CFFEE77MB3M8
  • Intra-frequency E-UTRAN measurements
  • Inter-frequency E-UTRAN measurements
  • Inter-RAT measurements for UTRAN and GERAN
  • Inter-RAT measurements of CDMA2000 HRPD or 1xRTT frequencies
For each measurement type a measurement identity is used by E-UTRAN when configuring measurements as well as by the UE when reporting results of the measurements. Measurement quantities and reporting events are considered separately for each measurement type.

Measurement commands are used by E-UTRAN to order the UE to start measurements, modify measurements or stop measurements. Three reporting criteria are used: event triggered reporting, periodic reporting and event triggered periodic reporting.

For measurements within E-UTRAN at least two basic UE measurement quantities shall be supported:
  • Reference symbol received power (RSRP)
  • E-UTRA carrier received signal strength indicator (RSSI)
In LTE E-UTRAN measurements performed by a UE for intra/inter-frequency mobility can be controlled by eNB, using broadcast or dedicated control. In RRC_IDLE state, a UE follows the measurement parameters defined for cell reselection specified by the E-UTRAN broadcast. In RRC_CONNECTED state, a UE follows the measurement configurations specified by RRC directed from the eNB (e.g. as in UTRAN MEASUREMENT_CONTROL).

Intra-frequency neighbour (cell) measurements are performed by the UE when the current and target cell operates on the same carrier frequency. The UE should be able to carry out such measurements without measurement gaps. See below some intra frequency scenarios without measurement gaps


Inter-frequency neighbour (cell) measurements are performed by the UE are when the neighbour cell operates on a different carrier frequency, compared to the current cell. The UE should not be assumed to be able to carry out such measurements without measurement gaps. UE may need to perform neighbour cell measurements during DL/UL idle periods that are provided by DRX or packet scheduling (i.e. gap assisted measurements). See below some inter frequency scenarios with measurement gaps


The UE determines whether a particular cell measurement needs to be performed in a transmission/reception gap and the scheduler needs to know whether gaps are needed. Measurement gaps patterns are configured and activated by RRC.

For Intra-frequency neighbouring cells, there is no need to indicate neighbouring cell in the serving cell system information to enable the UE to search and measure a cell i.e. E-UTRAN relies on the UE to detect the neighbouring cells. Where as for the search and measurement of inter-frequency neighbouring cells, only the carrier frequencies need to be indicated.

For a UE to search and measure neighbouring GERAN cells, the ARFCNs of the BCCH carriers need to be indicated in the serving cell system information . For a UE to search and measure neighbouring UTRAN cells, the serving cell indicates a list of carrier frequencies and scrambling codes.

Source : 3GPP TS 36.300

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

3GPP and Broadband Forum Collaborate on Fixed Mobile Convergence Standards

3GPP and the Broadband Forum worked together for their first joint workshop on Fixed/Mobile Convergence (FMC). Workshop was held on February 18-19 in San Francisco. The two-day workshop was attended by 120 industry experts, who reviewed over 40 contributions focused primarily on use cases and joint requirements.

Primarily 3GPP and Broadband Forum members attended this workshop. It also included representatives from ETSI TISPAN, ATIS and other standards bodies. The diverse group came together with a shared goal; to start the process of aligning new FMC work in each organization to best address both fixed and wireless management requirements. The two days spent together allowed the group to identify the key issues at hand and the work that needs to be done. With words of appreciation and encouragement from workshop co-chairs, Stephen Hayes of 3GPP and Dave Allan of the Broadband Forum, each organization took away work items that address both near term and long term next steps for both 3GPP and the Broadband Forum.

Through liaison communications and technical contributions into each organization, joint requirements will be shared, and another workshop is envisioned for the future after a scope and gap analysis is performed by the organizations.

Workshop documents and presentations are at available at following links

§ Beyond FMC Interworking UDC for FMC

§ Proposed Use Case and Requirement based on Policy Control in FMC

§ Proposed Architecture for Policy Control in FMC

§ Seamless WLAN offload

§ 3GPP EPC Overview

§ Broadband Forum Status (Revised version)

§ 3GPP-BBF Interworking - Mobility-Roaming-Nomadism (See Workshop docs for various revisions of this document – Last version)

§ 3GPP-BBF Interworking - Authentication/Authorization/Accounting

§ 3GPP-BBF Interworking Policy & QoS

§ High level analysis of Interworking between fixed NW access and 3GPP domain

§ ATIS’ Organizational Efforts on FMC

§ ATIS Exploratory Group on Convergence (EGC) Report & Recommendations

§ 3GPP-BBF Interworking - Use Cases for Public and Enterprise Wireline Interworking

§ 3GPP-BBF Interworking - S9 Interface: Requirements and Protocol Selection Criteria

§ 3GPP-BBF Interworking - Proposal for PCRF Based BPCF

§ Media and Codec policies architecture with converged Next Generation Networks

§ Focus on working procedures for the policy control aspect of FMC

§ PCRF-BPCF Functional Split and Information Exchange

§ View on FMC – Policy Control

§ ETSI TISPANPolicy Management Overview

§ 3GPP Work Item Description - Support for BBF Accesses Interworking

§ WT-203 - Interworking between next Generation Fixed and 3gpp wireless access

§ Fixed Mobile Interworking - QoS Control via S9

§ Policy Interworking – How to setup QoS for a 3GPP UE in a BBF domain

§ Fixed Mobile Interworking - Establishing the s9 Session

§ Connectivity and Mobility Considerations

§ Authenticaton Conundrum

§ TISPAN Policy Management Overview

§ 3GPP-BBF Architecture - Mobility aspects

§ Change Request to 3GPP Technical Specification 22.278 - Addition of operational Requirements for Fixed Mobile Convergence

§ Key Workshop findings

    Saturday, March 6, 2010

    The contribution of 4G in automotive

    An interesting video about 4G possibilities from Alcatel-Lucent.

    Clip presentation of future inflows mobile network 4G in several sectors, including automotive.




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