Understanding LTE and SAE™

Training Format: ILT
Course Code: LTEUMTS

For a Class Schedule Contact TRA a 800.872.4736

Description

With the current dominance of UMTS in 3G worldwide deployments, it is likely that the evolution of UMTS to LTE (Long-Term Evolution … of the radio access network) and its accompanying SAE (System Architecture Evolution … of the core network infrastructure) will be the dominant worldwide broadband mobile wireless network of the future. In addition, many CDMA2000 Service Providers are also planning to evolve their radio access networks to LTE and interwork their existing CDMA2000 network infrastructure with the new LTE/SAE network infrastructure. This represents a major convergence of the two global 3G radio and network standards: UMTS and CDMA2000. This course is designed to help students understand the LTE Radio Access Network and the SAE Core Network evolutions and to provide students with the maximum insight in the minimum time.

Understanding these technologies will be essential for anyone planning for the next generation of mobile broadband networks. This course has been designed to provide a solid understanding of both the new SAE architecture, network elements, protocols, and message flows for important operational scenarios as well as the new LTE radio technologies. Mobility and Interworking of LTE/SAE with other major radio access technologies such as CDMA2000 and Mobile WiMAX is also explained. The coverage of the LTE radio concepts has been designed to provide an intuitive understanding of how the OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) and SC-FDMA (Single Carrier- Frequency Division Multiple Access) technologies work and how the capabilities of these technologies will enable significantly higher performance than 3G.

Prerequisites

Suggested prerequisite TRA courses:

Understanding UMTS™Understanding GSM™Understanding CDMA™Understanding the Basics of Wireless Communications™Understanding Emerging Wireless Technologies™Understanding the Basics of Data Communications™

Designed for

This course is designed for students interested in understanding the new LTE/SAE architecture and operation and the new radio technologies used in LTE.

Expected Outcome

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

Sketch the architecture of LTE/SAE, identifying the major new infrastructure components and their functions
Trace the message flow between the LTE radio access network and the SAE Evolved Packet Core for a cellular handset power-on, service origination, and active handover
Describe the architecture and message flow for an optimized (seamless) handover from LTE to CDMA2000
Explain how GPRS, MIPv4 (Mobile IPv4), PMIPv6 (Proxy Mobile IPv6), and DSMIPv6 (Dual Stack Mobile IPv6) are used in various mobility scenarios between LTE and other radio access technologies
Discuss the major strengths of LTE for mobile broadband
Understand intuitively the use of OFDMA and SC-FDMA in LTE
List the major characteristics of OFDMA as used in the LTE downlink
Justify the choice of SC-FDMA for the LTE uplink
List the major characteristics of SC-FDMA as used in the LTE uplink

Course Outline

LTE/SAE Introduction

LTE (Long Term Evolution): UMTS Evolution to Next Generation Radio Technology with Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN)

Evolved Node B (eNodeB)
Key Requirements for LTE

SAE (System Architecture Evolution): UMTS Evolution to 4G Core Network

Evolved Packet Core (EPC)
Key Requirements for SAE
Major New Functional Entities in SAE

Major Interfaces and Protocols

S1, X2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S8, S11, S12

Overview of a Handover Scenario Using GPRS Tunnel Re-routing
Status of UMTS LTE/SAE Standards Development and Deployment Plans

LTE/SAE Fundamental Operational Scenarios

Message Flow for User powering up, attaching, and registering
Message Flow for User activating a packet data service
Message Flow for Active Handover from one eNodeB to another eNodeB

Handover Scenario to 3G UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network)

Optimized/Seamless Handover concept
Direct or Indirect Data Forwarding for Lossless Handover
Optional Direct Tunnel (S12 Interface)
Preparation Phase

Message Flow with signaling between the Source LTE eNodeB and Target 3G UMTS Radio Network Controller

Execution Phase

Message Flow with switching of the data path to the 3G UTRAN

Handover to CDMA2000 or Mobile WiMAX

General Concepts for Seamless Handover to CDMA2000 or Mobile WiMAX
Example: Message Flow for Handover to CDMA2000 1xEV-DO

Mobility and Interworking with Other Radio Access Technologies

LTE/SAE Roaming Architectures
Trusted vs. Un-trusted non-3GPP Access Networks
S2a Interface with Trusted non-3GPP Accesses
S2b Interface with Un-trusted non-3GPP Accesses
S2c Interface with Trusted or Un-trusted non-3GPP Accesses
Four Protocols for IP Mobility: GPRS, MIPv4, PMIPv6, and DSMIPv6
High-level scenarios for the use of GPRS, MIPv4, PMIPv6, and DSMIPv6 in LTE/SAE Mobility and Interworking

OFDM/OFDMA Fundamentals

What is "Orthogonal" Frequency Division Multiplexing?
How OFDM Handles Multipath and ISI (Inter-Symbol Interference)
How OFDM/OFDMA Handles Mobility and Doppler Frequency Shift
Why there is an Optimum Subcarrier Bandwidth and Symbol Duration
Scalable OFDM/OFDMA

OFDM/OFDMA As Used in LTE Downlink

LTE Frame and Sub-Frame Structure
Downlink Physical Channels
Support for Advanced Antenna Systems, e.g. Beamforming and MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output Antenna Systems)

SC-FDMA/DFTS-OFDM Fundamentals

Why SC-FDMA/DFTS-OFDM for the Uplink instead of OFDMA?
Understanding DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) Spreading
Understanding How DFT Spreading combined with OFDMA produces a Single Carrier Uplink Signal

SC-FDMA/DFTS-OFDM As Used in LTE Uplink

Uplink Physical Channels
How the Random Access Channel works

Summary

Appendix: MIPv4 and MIPv6 Fundamentals