By

Dr.Srividya.L
Module-4:
LTE and 5G, Introduction to 6G: Need for
LTE, From UMTS to LTE, from LTE to LTE advanced,
3GPP specifications for LTE, LTE system overview,
5G – specifications, features, Introduction to 6G –
features,comparison.
UMTS to LTE
Architectural Overview Of UMTS and
GSM
Communicati
on Flow and
Integration
Architecture of Core Network
UMTS and GSM
Supporting
Functions
and Traffic
Flow
Need for LTE
 Growth of Mobile Data & Network Capacity
 Mobile data usage grew slowly at first but surged significantly
before 2010.
 Global mobile networks handle approximately 3000
petabytes (3 million TB) of data monthly.
 This surge has driven a demand for increased network
capacity.
 Techniques to Increase Network Capacity

 Smaller Cells
 Divide large cells into smaller ones by adding more base
Increasing stations.
 Each cell uses its own channel capacity, multiplying overall
the capacity.

System  Increased Bandwidth

 More spectrum = more data capacity.
Capacity  Regulated by ITU and regional/national bodies.
 Limited due to spectrum demand by other sectors (e.g.,
military, astronomy).
 Advanced Communication Technology
 Helps approach theoretical channel capacity.
 Utilizes improved SINR and bandwidth.
 Drives development (e.g., transition to LTE).
 The three main issues with UMTS and
GSM

Issues that  Firstly, a 2G or 3G operator has to maintain two core

led to networks: the circuit switched domain for voice, and
the packet switched domain for data.
creation of  3G networks introduce delays of the order of 100ms
LTE for data applications, in transferring data packets
between network elements and across the air
interface.
 Thirdly, the specifications for UMTS and GSM have
become increasingly complex over the years.
High level
architecture
of
LTE
 NOTE: Officially, the whole system is known as the evolved packet system
(EPS), while the acronym LTE refers only to the evolution of the air interface.
Despite this official usage, LTE has become a colloquial name for the whole
system, and is regularly used in this way by 3GPP.

Evolved
Packet Core
[EPC]
  The EPC is also required to support inter-system handovers
between LTE and earlier 2G and 3G technologies. These
cover not only UMTS and GSM, but also non-3GPP systems
such as cdma2000 and WiMAX.
 There is no explicit requirement on the maximum time
required for data to travel across the EPC, but the relevant
Miscellaneo specification suggests a user plane latency of 10ms for a
non-roaming mobile, increasing to 50ms in a typical
us roaming scenario.
 The EPC provides users with always-on connectivity to the
Information outside world, by setting up a basic IP connection for a
device when it switches on and maintaining that connection
until it switches off. This is different from the behaviour of
UMTS and GSM, in which the network only sets up an IP
connection on request and tears that connection down
when it is no longer required.
 Voice applications do not form an integral part of LTE.
However, an LTE mobile can still make a voice call
using two main techniques. The first is circuit switched
LTE Voice fallback, in which the network transfers the mobile to a
legacy 2G or 3G cell so that the mobile can contact the
Calls 2G/3G circuit switched domain. The second is by using
the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), an external
network that includes the signaling functions needed to
set up, manage and tear down a voice over IP call.
 Feature UMTS LTE
Technology Used UMTS uses the LTE Uses OFDMA –
WCDMA- Wideband Orthogonal Frequency
Code Division Multiple Division Multiple
Access Access
Generation UMTS is the standard LTE is the standard
for 3G or third for the 4G or fourth
Difference generation
communications
generation standard

Between Data Rate UMTS employed With the advent of

UMTS and wideband wireless

network that
LTE greater support
for interactive
increased the call multimedia, audio
LTE quality. With the and the video is
advent of UMTS achieved. We can see
architecture we are that with high speed
able to send large there is also, high
email messages and capacity and the
other required marginal cost when
capabilities over the compared to legacy
network quite easily standards are also
much lower.
Handoff Soft handover Hard handover
Base Station NodeB uses WCDMD eNodeB or Evolved
as the air interface Node B or E-UTRAN
 UMTS LTE

• Higher Data Rate • Nearly 10 times higher data

compared to 2G rates compared to 3G. Thus
providing true broadband
• Better call quality and speeds
call will be maintained
even if the UE is in • Lower latency
Advantages movement
• Higher spectrum efficiency
• More bandwidth due to with better handling of
addition of the new loads
radio spectrum
• Improved cost efficiency
since based on IP network
mode

• Enhanced security and

quality of voice compared
to legacy systems
 High Level Architecture of LTE
In 2004, 3GPP began a study into the long term evolution of UMTS. The aim was to keep 3GPP’s mobile
communication systems competitive over time scales of 10 years and beyond, by delivering the high
data rates and low latencies.

Evolution of the system architecture from GSM and UMTS to LTE.

 LTE continued..
• In the new architecture, the evolved packet core (EPC) is a direct replacement for the packet switched domain of
UMTS and GSM. It distributes all types of information to the user, voice as well as data, using the packet switching
technologies that have traditionally been used for data alone. There is no equivalent to the circuit switched domain:
instead, voice calls are transported using voice over IP.

• The evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) handles the EPC’s radio communications with the
mobile, so is a direct replacement for the UTRAN. The mobile is still known as the user equipment, though its internal
operation is very different from before.

• The new architecture was designed as part of two 3GPP work items, namely system architecture evolution (SAE),
which covered the core network, and long term evolution (LTE), which covered the radio access network, air interface
and mobile. Officially, the whole system is known as the evolved packet system (EPS), while the acronym LTE refers
only to the evolution of the air interface

• Despite this official usage, LTE has become a common name for the whole system, and is regularly used in this way by
3GPP
 LTE Specifications
• LTE was required to deliver a peak data rate of 100 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink. This
requirement was exceeded in the eventual system, which delivers peak data rates of 300 Mbps and 75 Mbps
respectively. For comparison, the peak data rate of WCDMA, in Release 6 of the 3GPP specifications, is 14 Mbps
in the downlink and 5.7 Mbps in the uplink.

• Latency is another important issue, particularly for time-critical applications such as voice and interactive games.
There are two aspects to this. Firstly, the requirements state that the time taken for data to travel between the
mobile phone and the fixed network should be less than five milliseconds, provided that the air interface is
uncongested. The second requirement state that a phone should switch from standby to the active state, after an
intervention from the user, in less than 100 milliseconds

• There are also requirements on coverage and mobility. LTE is optimized for cell sizes up to 5 km, works with
degraded performance up to 30 km and supports cell sizes of up to 100 km. It is also optimized for mobile speeds
up to 15 km/hr, works with high performance up to 120 km/hr and supports speeds of up to 350 km/ hr.

• Finally, LTE is designed to work with a variety of different bandwidths, which range from 1.4MHz up to a maximum
of 20 MHz.
Key features of the air interfaces of WCDMA
and LTE
 System Architecture Evolution(LTE)
Requirements /specification for the fixed network
• The evolved packet core(EPC) routes packets using the Internet Protocol (IP) and supports devices
that are using IP version 4, IP version 6, or dual stack IP version 4/version 6
• EPC provides users with always-on connectivity to the outside world, by setting up a basic IP
connection for a device when it switches on and maintaining that connection until it switches off
• The EPC is designed as a data pipe that simply transports information to and from the user: it is not
concerned with the information content or with the application. The EPC simply transports the voice
packets in the same way as any other data stream.
• Unlike the internet, the EPC contains mechanisms to specify and control the data rate, error rate
and delay that a data stream will receive.
• There is no explicit requirement on the maximum time required for data to travel across the EPC,
but the relevant specification suggests a user plane latency of 10 milliseconds for a non roaming
mobile, increasing to 50 milliseconds in a typical roaming scenario.
The EPC is also required to support inter-system handovers between LTE and earlier 2G and
3G technologies. These cover not only UMTS and GSM, but also non 3GPP systems such as
cdma2000 and WiMAX.
Comparison of RAN and CN of UMTS and LTE
 From LTE to LTE-Advanced
• International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) established in 2000 published a
set of requirements for a fourth generation (4G) communication system under
the name IMT-Advanced

• According to these requirements, the peak data rate of a compatible system

should be at least 600 Mbps on the downlink and 270 Mbps on the uplink, in a
bandwidth of 40 MHz.

• We can see right away that these figures exceed the capabilities of LTE.

• Driven by the ITU’s requirements for IMT-Advanced, 3GPP started to study

how to enhance the capabilities of LTE. The main output from the study was a
specification for a system known as LTE-Advanced
 Main requirements of LTE advanced
• Peak data rate of 1000 Mbps in the downlink, and 500 Mbps in the uplink. In practice, the system has
been designed so that it can eventually deliver peak data rates of 3000 and 1500 Mbps respectively,
using a total bandwidth of 100MHz that is made from five separate components of 20MHz each.
Note, as before, that these figures are unachievable in any realistic scenario.
• A spectral efficiency 4.5 to 7 times greater than that of Release 6 WCDMA on the downlink, and 3.5 to
6 times greater on the uplink.
• LTE-Advanced is designed to be backwards compatible with LTE, in the sense that an LTE mobile can
communicate with a base station that is operating LTE-advanced and vice-versa.
4G Communication Systems
ITU announced in October 2010 that two systems met the requirements of IMT-Advanced
1. LTE-Advanced
2. enhanced version of WiMAX under IEEE specification 802.16m - mobile WiMAX 2.0.
Working groups and work
 3GPP releases

Release 17: Focused on 5G enhancements like satellite access and reduced capability devices.​
Release 18: Initiated the 5G-Advanced phase, emphasizing AI/ML integration, edge computing, and improved positioning.​
Release 19: Continues the 5G-Advanced evolution, with ongoing developments.​
Release 20: Currently under development, with discussions ongoing as of early 2025.
 3GPP specifications series
The specifications are also organized into several series, each of which covers a particular
component of the system
 Specification format
When written out in full, an example specification number is TS 23.401 v
8.13.0.
• TS stands for technical specification,
• 23 is the series number and
• 401 is the number of the specification within that series.
• 8 is the release number,
• 13 is the technical version number within that release and
• the final 0 is an editorial version number that is occasionally incremented for
non-technical changes.
3GPP also produces technical reports, denoted TR, which are purely
informative and have three-digit specification numbers beginning with an 8 or
9.
 Stages in specification
Each specification belongs to one of three stages.
• Stage 1 specifications define the service from the user’s point of view and lie exclusively in the 22
series.
• Stage 2 specifications define the system’s high-level architecture and operation, and lie mainly (but
not exclusively) in the 23 series.
• Finally, stage 3 specifications define all the functional details.
The stage 2 specifications are especially useful for achieving a high-level understanding of the
system. The most useful ones for LTE are TS 23.401 and TS 36.300 , which respectively cover the
evolved packet core and the air interface.
• There is, however, an important note of caution: these specifications are superseded later on and
cannot be relied upon for complete accuracy. Instead, the details should be checked if necessary in
the relevant stage 3 specifications.
• The individual specifications can be downloaded from 3GPP’s specification numbering web page or
from their FTP server. The 3GPP website also has summaries of the features that are covered by
each individual release .
 Architecture of LTE
• Figure reviews the high-level architecture of the evolved packet system (EPS). There are three main
components, namely the user equipment (UE), the evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network (E-
UTRAN) and the evolved packet core (EPC). Internal architecture of the UE is shown below.

Internal architecture of the UE

 User Equipment-UE

• The architecture is identical to the one used by UMTS and GSM. The actual communication device is known as the mobile
equipment (ME). In the case of a voice mobile or a smart phone, this is just a single device.
However, the mobile equipment can also be divided into two components,
• the mobile termination (MT),which handles all the communication functions,
• the terminal equipment (TE), which terminates the data streams. The mobile termination might be a plug-in LTE
card for a laptop, for example, in which case the terminal equipment would be the laptop itself.
• The universal integrated circuit card (UICC) is a smart card, colloquially known as the SIM card. It runs an application known
as the universal subscriber identity module (USIM, which stores user-specific data such as the user’s phone number and
home network identity. The USIM also carries out various security-related calculations, using secure keys that the smart card
stores. LTE supports mobiles that are using a USIM from Release 99 or later, but it does not support the subscriber identity
module (SIM) that was used by earlier releases of GSM.
• In addition, LTE supports mobiles that are using IP version 4 (IPv4), IP version 6 (IPv6),or dual stack IP version 4/version 6.
Radio capabilities
• Maximum data rate that they can handle,
• the different types of radio access technology that they support and
• the carrier frequencies on which they can transmit and receive.
Mobiles pass these capabilities to the radio access network by means of signaling messages, so that the E-UTRAN knows
how to control them correctly.
The most important capabilities are grouped together into the UE category. The UE category mainly covers the maximum data
rate with which the mobile can transmit and receive.
 Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
Network (E-UTRAN)
• The E-UTRAN handles the radio communications between the mobile and the evolved packet core and just has one
component, the evolved Node B (eNB).
• Each eNB is a base station that controls the mobiles in one or more cells. A mobile communicates with just one base
station and one cell at a time, so there is no equivalent of the soft handover state from UMTS. The base station that
is communicating with a mobile is known as its serving eNB.
The eNB has two main functions.
• Firstly, the eNB sends radio transmissions to all its mobiles on the downlink and receives transmissions from them
on the uplink, using the analogue and digital signal processing functions of the LTE air interface.
• Secondly, the eNB controls the low-level operation of all its mobiles, by sending them signaling messages such as
handover commands that relate to those radio transmissions.
Continued..
• Each base station is connected to the EPC by means of S1 interfaces.

• It can also be connected to nearby base stations by the X2 interface, which is mainly used for signaling and packet
forwarding during handover.

• The X2 interface is optional, in that the S1 interface can also handle all the functions of X2, i.e indirectly and more
slowly.

• A home eNB (HeNB) is a base station that has been purchased by a user to provide femto cell coverage within the
home . A home eNB belongs to a closed subscriber group (CSG) and can only be accessed by mobiles with a USIM
that also belongs to the closed subscriber group. From an architectural point of view, a home eNB can be connected
directly to the evolved packet core in the same way as any other base station, or can be connected by way of an
intermediate device known as a home eNB gateway that collects the information from several home eNBs. Home
eNBs only control one cell, and do not support the X2 interface.
 Functions of E-UTRAN
The E-UTRAN is responsible for all radio-related functions, which can be summarized briefly as:

• Radio Resource Management. This covers all functions related to the radio bearers, such as radio bearer
control, radio admission control, radio mobility control, scheduling and dynamic allocation of resources to
UEs in both uplink and downlink.

• Header Compression. This helps to ensure efficient use of the radio interface by compressing the IP packet
headers which could otherwise represent a significant overhead, especially for small packets such as VoIP

• Security. All data sent over the radio interface is encrypted

• Positioning. The E-UTRAN provides the necessary measurements and other data to the E-SMLC and
assists the E-SMLC in finding the UE position.

• Connectivity to the EPC. This consists of the signaling towards the MME and the bearer path towards the S-
GW.
 Evolved Packet Core

Fig shows the main components of the evolved packet core . We have
1. The home subscriber server (HSS), which is a central database that contains information about all the network
operator’s subscribers. This is one of the few components of LTE that has been carried forward from UMTS and
GSM.
2. The packet data network (PDN) gateway (P-GW) is the EPC’s point of contact with the outside world. Through
the SGi interface, each PDN gateway exchanges data with one or more external devices or packet data networks,
such as the network operator’s servers, the internet or the IP multimedia subsystem. Each packet data network is
identified by an access point name (APN) . A network operator typically uses a handful of different APNs, for
example one for its own servers and one for the internet.
 continued,..
3. PDN: Each mobile is assigned to a default PDN gateway when it first switches on, to give it always-on connectivity to a
default packet data network such as the internet. Later on, a mobile may be assigned to one or more additional PDN
gateways, if it wishes to connect to additional packet data networks such as private corporate networks. Each PDN
gateway stays the same throughout the lifetime of the data connection.
4. The serving gateway (S-GW) acts as a router, and forwards data between the base station and the PDN gateway. A
typical network might contain a handful of serving gateways, each of which looks after the mobiles in a certain
geographical region. Each mobile is assigned to a single serving gateway, but the serving gateway can be changed if the
mobile moves sufficiently far.
5. The mobility management entity (MME) controls the high-level operation of the mobile, by sending it signaling
messages about issues such as security and the management of data streams that are unrelated to radio
communications. As with the serving gateway, a typical network might contain a handful of MMEs, each of which looks
after a certain geographical region. Each mobile is assigned to a single MME, which is known as its serving MME, but
that can be changed if the mobile moves sufficiently far. The MME also controls the other elements of the network, by
means of signaling messages that are internal to the EPC.
The EPC has some other components that were not shown in Figure.
• Firstly, the cell broadcast centre (CBC) was previously used by UMTS for the rarely implemented cell broadcast service
(CBS). In LTE, the equipment is re-used for a service known as the earthquake and tsunami warning system (ETWS).
• Secondly, the equipment identity register (EIR) was also inherited from UMTS, and lists the details of lost or stolen
mobiles.
 EPC
EPC in SAE is responsible for the overall control of the UE and the establishment of the bearers.
The main logical nodes of the EPC are:
• PDN Gateway (P-GW);
• Serving GateWay (S-GW);
• Mobility Management Entity (MME) ;
• the Home Subscriber Server (HSS)
• Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centre (E-SMLC).
 In addition to these nodes, the EPC also includes other logical nodes and functions such as the
Gateway Mobile Location Centre (GMLC),
 the Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF).
Since the EPS only provides a bearer path of a certain QoS, control of multimedia applications
such as VoIP is provided by the IMS which is considered to be outside the EPS itself. When a user
is roaming outside his home country network, the user’s P-GW, GMLC and IMS domain may be
located in either the home network or the visited network.
 Continued..
PCRF: The PCRF is responsible for policy control decision-making, as well as for controlling the flow-based charging
functionalities in the Policy Control Enforcement Function (PCEF) which resides in the P-GW. The PCRF provides the
QoS authorization (QoS class identifier and bit rates) that decides how a certain data flow will be treated in the PCEF
and ensures that this is in accordance with the user’s subscription profile.
GMLC: The GMLC contains functionalities required to support LoCation Services (LCS). After performing authorization, it
sends positioning requests to the MME and receives the final location estimates.
Home Subscriber Server (HSS): The HSS contains users’ SAE subscription data such as the EPS-subscribed QoS
profile and any access restrictions for roaming. It also holds information about the PDNs to which the user can
connect. This could be in the form of an Access Point Name (APN) (which is a label according to DNS2 naming
conventions describing the access point to the PDN), or a PDN Address (indicating subscribed IP address(es)). In
addition, the HSS holds dynamic information such as the identity of the MME to which the user is currently attached or
registered. The HSS may also integrate the Authentication Centre (AuC) which generates the vectors for
authentication and security keys.
P-GW:The P-GW is responsible for IP address allocation for the UE, as well as QoS enforcement and flow-based
charging according to rules from the PCRF. The P-GW is responsible for the filtering of downlink user IP packets into
the different QoS-based bearers. This is performed based on Traffic Flow Templates (TFTs). The P-GW performs QoS
enforcement for Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) bearers. It also serves as the mobility anchor for inter-working with non-
3GPP technologies such as CDMA2000 and WiMAX networks
 Continued..
S-GW: All user IP packets are transferred through the S-GW, which serves as the local mobility anchor for the data
bearers when the UE moves between eNode Bs. It also retains the information about the bearers when the UE is in idle
state (known as EPS Connection Management IDLE (ECM-IDLE),) and temporarily buffers downlink data while the
MME initiates paging of the UE to re-establish the bearers. In addition, the S-GW performs some administrative
functions in the visited network, such as collecting information for charging (e.g. the volume of data sent to or received
from the user) and legal interception. It also serves as the mobility anchor for inter-working with other 3GPP
technologies such as GPRS3 and UMTS4•
MME: The MME is the control node which processes the signaling between the UE and the CN. The protocols running
between the UE and the CN are known as the Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocols. The main functions supported by
the MME are classified as:
Functions related to bearer management. This includes the establishment, maintenance and release of the bearers, and is
handled by the session management layer in the NAS protocol.
Functions related to connection management. This includes the establishment of the connection and security between the
network and UE, and is handled by the connection or mobility management layer in the NAS protocol layer.
Functions related to inter-working with other networks. This includes handing over of voice calls to legacy networks
E-SMLC. The E-SMLC manages the overall coordination and scheduling of resources required to find the location of a UE
that is attached to E-UTRAN. It also calculates the final location based on the estimates it receives, and it estimates the
UE speed and the achieved accuracy.
 Roaming Architecture
• Roaming allows users to move outside their network operators’ coverage area by using the resources
from two different networks. It relies on the existence of a roaming agreement, which defines how the
operators will share the resulting revenue. There are two possible architectures which are shown in
Figure
 Continued..
• If a user is roaming, then the home subscriber server is always in the home network,
while the mobile, E-UTRAN, MME and serving gateway are always in the visited
network. The PDN gateway, however, can be in two places. In the usual situation of
home routed traffic, the PDN gateway lies in the home network, through which all the
user’s traffic is all routed. This architecture allows the home network operator to see all
the traffic and to charge the user for it directly, but can be inefficient if the user is
travelling overseas, particularly during a voice call with another user nearby.
• To deal with this situation, the specifications also support local breakout, in which the
PDN gateway is located in the visited network. The HSS indicates whether or not the
home network will permit local breakout, for each combination of user and APN.
Interfaces:
The interface between the serving and PDN gateways is known as S5/S8. This has
two slightly different implementations, namely S5 if the two devices are in the same
network, and S8 if they are in different networks. For mobiles that are not roaming, the
serving and PDN gateways can be integrated into a single device, so that the S5/S8
interface vanishes altogether. This can be useful because of the associated reduction in
latency.
 Network Areas
The EPC is divided into three different types of geographical area
• An MME pool area is an area through which the mobile can move without a change of serving
MME. Every pool area is controlled by one or more MMEs, while every base station is connected
to all the MMEs in a pool area by means of the S1-MME interface. Pool areas can also overlap.
Typically, a network operator might configure a pool area to cover a large region of the network
such as a major city and might add MMEs to the pool as the signaling load in that city increases.
• S-GW service area is an area served by one or more serving gateways, through which the mobile
can move without a change of serving gateway. Every base station is connected to all the serving
gateways in a service area by means of the S1-U interface. S-GW service areas do not necessarily
correspond to MME pool areas.
MME pool areas and S-GW service areas are both made from smaller, non-overlapping units
known as tracking areas (TAs). These are used to track the locations of mobiles that are on
standby and are similar to the location and routing areas from UMTS and GSM.