Long Term Evolution
In the wake of competing technologies, such as
WiMAX, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has been developing a
mobile communications system more capable than the existing technologies,
such as GSM/EDGE, W-CDMA, and HSPA, to maintain the competitiveness of 3G.
Aricent is actively developing and supporting products for the roll-out of
Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE describes the evolution of mobile technology
that delivers higher data rates and supports bandwidth-heavy applications
such as file sharing, video on demand, and broadband Internet. As the demand
for mobile broadband will grow, LTE will get further momentum. It is
expected that two thirds of mobile broadband subscribers will be served by
HSPA and LTE.
Key features of the LTE evolution include a
significant enhancement in data rates, a reduced latency for an enhanced
end-user-experience, and an improved coverage and spectral efficiency with
an optimized network architecture providing carriers with a cost-effective
solution.
The set of high level requirements identified for
3G LTE are:
- A reduced per bit cost
- An increased service provisioning - more
services at a lower cost with an enhanced end user experience
- Flexibility of using the existing as well as
new frequency bands
- A simplified architecture and open
interfaces
- A reduced terminal power consumption
LTE network field deployments are expected in
2010; this puts pressure on equipment vendors, hardware manufacturers, and
software vendors to quickly develop and test products, test for
interoperability, reduce risks, and control costs.
As a member of the 3GPP, Aricent is committed to
investing in developing and supporting solutions for Long Term Evolution
(LTE). With proven expertise in developing solutions for UMTS network nodes,
Aricent helps equipment manufacturers, device manufacturers, and service
providers address the key challenges, including speeding development,
optimizing R&D resources, reducing risks and costs and adapt quickly with
the evolving specifications. With proven expertise in pre-LTE
technologies and standards, Aricent is uniquely and competitively poised to
deliver solutions for LTE eNodeB, EPC (Evolved Packet Core) and other
network components.
The table below shows an overview of Aricent’s
technical capabilities in LTE technology. Exclusive focus on communications
technology and wide range of experience in GSM/GPRS, UMTS, WiMAX, Femtocell
and RNC technologies help us speed development and reduce costs and risks.
Aricent capabilities support every phase of the
LTE product lifecycle, from technical consulting to product development and
testing, and on through product sustenance. Working with Aricent provides
several strategic advantages:
Time to
Market – On-demand access to Aricent’s consulting, proven
expertise in developing 2G, 2.5G, 3G, HSPA/HSPA+, and UMTS network nodes, OS
and hardware-agnostic products, ready-to-use frameworks, and strong
partnerships with silicon vendors shorten product development cycles. This
proven approach speeds time to market and reduces risks and costs.
Optimized
R&D Resources – Aricent has proven expertise in developing
control plane and signaling stacks for UMTS 3G networks. We can take
complete ownership of developing scalable LTE network nodes’ software
components meeting real-time performance requirements. This allows our
customers to optimize R&D resources for core LTE products and focus on
developing new products and entering new markets.
Flexibility and Expertise with Scale – Aricent has the
expertise to move across the technology value chain in both the eNodeB
(different layers and LTE protocol stacks) and Evolved Packet Core (EPC)
technology domains and quickly adapt to evolving requirements. With
exclusive focus on the communications industry, coupled with more than 8000
consultants and engineers globally, Aricent has the expertise and scale to
support every phase of LTE product development.
Aricent has proven capabilities in product
evolution strategy for content service management gateway, node definition
practices, enodeB and Evolved Packet Core (EPC). Aricent provides solutions
and services to equipment manufacturers, hardware and software vendors, and
system integrators.
We also provide consulting to OEMs to help them
migrate seamlessly to LTE-based network solutions from their existing
Release 5- or Release 6-compliant WCDMA-based solutions. We help them take
the right path to design, develop and test LTE based network solutions.
With its extensive domain knowledge, Aricent has
an established capability in LTE products design and development. Aricent
has proven expertise in developing and testing eNodeB modules including
control plane software, middleware, supervisory software, and test tools.
Aricent provides a reference solution for
porting, optimization and integration of layer1 (PHY) and layer (MAC, RLC,
PDCP) LTE protocol stacks for eNodeB processors and chipsets.
Our LTE Baseband/LTE PHY Library is hardware and
OS independent. It conforms to the latest 3GPP LTE standards and supports
all mandatory and optional features. You can easily customize, port,
optimize and integrate the LTE PHY library on any platform, which
substantially reduces costs and shortens time to market. Being an active
member of the 3GPP forum enables us develop solutions that comply with the
evolving 3GPP standards.
Aricent is developing MATLAB simulation and Fixed
point C reference libraries for LTE PHY for eNodeB supporting FDD mode. The
PHY components are compliant with 3GPP TS 36.211, 36.212 and 36.141.
Aricent is developing:
- Transmitter functionality (CCM Tx +
Modulator) for the downlink channels
- Receiver functionality (CCM Rx +
Demodulator) for the uplink channels.
- Proprietary receiver components like channel
estimation/equalization, Timing & Frequency synchronization, Multiple
Antenna Receiver Diversity and MU-MIMO.
In addition, Aricent is testing uplink receiver
chain for performance as per Chapter 8 3GPP TS 36.141 for various reference
channels under various propagation conditions.
- CRC
- Code Block Segmentation/ De-segmentation
- Channel coding (Turbo, Viterbi, Reed Muller)
- Rate matching and De-matching
- Code Block Concatenation/De-concatenation
- Channel Interleaver/De-interleaver
- Scrambler / Descrambler
- Transform Precoding/Decoding
- Mapping to/Demapping from physical resources
- Demodulation Reference signal generation
- Modulation (QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM).
- Soft Demapper
- SC-FDMA Baseband Signal Generation
- Channel estimation & Equalization
- Timing & Frequency Synchronization
- MIMO/diversity
- Plug-n-play functional library
- MATLAB simulation chain available
- Hardware independent software
- RTOS agnostic software
- Improved performance
- Minimal resource utilization
- Convertible to HDL for FPGA, SoC
- Comply to the latest available drafts of
specifications
- Message based configuration and runtime
control
- Layered API software approach
- Debugging features including runtime trace
enabling/disabling
eNobeB Baseband High Level Architecture
LTE Layer 2 – LTE MAC
Library
Our LTE MAC Library is hardware and OS
independent conforming to the latest 3GPP LTE standards and it supports all
mandatory and optional features. Our customers can easily customize, port,
optimize and integrate the LTE PHY library on any platform, which
substantially reduces costs and shortens time to market. Being an active
member of the 3GPP forum enables us to develop solutions that comply with
the evolving 3GPP standards.
The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol layer of
E-NodeB provides the coupling between the logical link level layer (RLC) and
the physical layer. MAC layer has the control interface with the RRC layer.
The LTE MAC layer supports multithreading
architecture to effectively utilize Multi-Core and virtual multithread
enabled chip. This is highly scalable and you can port it onto any hardware
platform.
MAC stack entity supports the following
functionality as specified by the 3GPP E-UTRAN specification:
- Mapping between logical channels and
transport channels
- Multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or
different logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be delivered to
the physical layer on transport channels
- De-multiplexing of MAC SDUs for one or
different logical channels from uplink transport blocks delivered from
physical layer on that transport channel
- Error correction through HARQ
- Priority handling between UEs through
dynamic scheduling
- Priority handling between logical channels
of one UE
- Transport format selection
- Support for BCH, PCH, and Downlink SCH,
Uplink SCH transport channel
- MAC scheduler design is generic in nature
considering the factors that are important for providing long-term
fairness between the UEs. The factors will be UE Priority, Logical
Channel Priority and other parameters like GBR, MBR, Queue Load,
Modulation Scheme, Relative time delay and CQI
- MAC layer provides a well-defined interface
for interfacing with RLC, Physical Layer and RRC layer
- MAC layer is scalable to support large
number of user in the system.
With vast experience in developing software for
UMTS nodes and demonstrated capabilities in solutions such SGSN and GGSN,
Aricent can deliver MME server framework -high performance source code that
implements 3GPP LTE MME functionality.
The MME server is the heart of all control plane
and session management functions of LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC). It
manages complex features such as resource allocation and bearer control for
multiple nodes and gateways in the EPC. MME also takes care of features such
as Inter eNodeB handover, which are more complex in terms of testing and
deployment.
Aricent is currently formulating a Base
architecture definition for evolved Packet Core Server. It has expertise and
experience in LTE/SAE protocols and architecture as well as in SGSN Content
Service Management Gateways. It has matured and evolved 3G protocol
offerings and frameworks, which are Release 5 and Release 6 compliant.
This allows us to develop additional IETF
protocols for Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
- Diameter/Radius
- Mobile IP
- S2-C Control
- End-to-end data path management
- InterAccess handovers
- L2TP
- IPIP or GRE
Note: It is expected that some extensions
specific to LTE may have to be defined for the above-mentioned IETF
protocols.
Aricent currently has the following protocols as
part of its 3G portfolio available. The figure below shows the 3G IPR
evolution for Serving Gateway and PDN Gateway.
Aricent uses various 3rd party test vendors and
tools to ensure compliance and performance benchmarking for LTE standards
and specifications. In addition, Aricent has a proven testing methodology
and infrastructure to tests equipment against various parameters including
interoperability with other network nodes.