Radio Channel Quality Feedback

CQI (channel quality indicator)

CQI is an indication of the downlink mobile radio channel quality as experienced by this UE. Essentially, the UE is proposing to the eNodeB an optimum modulation scheme and coding rate to use for a given radio link quality, so that the resulting transport block error rate would not exceed 10%. 16 combinations of modulation scheme and coding rate are specified as possible CQI values. The UE may report different types of CQI. A so-called “wideband CQI” refers to the complete system bandwidth. Alternatively, the UE may evaluate a “sub-band CQI” value per sub-band of a certain number of resource blocks which is configured by higher layers. The full set of sub-bands would cover the entire system bandwidth. In case of spatial multiplexing, a CQI per code word needs to be reported.

The time and frequency resources used by the UE to report CQI are under the control of the eNB. CQI reporting can be either periodic or aperiodic. A UE can be configured to have both periodic and aperiodic reporting at the same time. In case both periodic and aperiodic reporting occurs in the same subframe, only the aperiodic report is transmitted in that subframe.

For efficient support of localized, distributed and MIMO transmissions, E-UTRA supports three types of CQI reporting:

- Wideband type: providing channel quality information of entire system bandwidth of the cell;

- Multi-band type: providing channel quality information of some subset(s) of system bandwidth of the cell;

- MIMO type: open loop or closed loop operation (with or without PMI feedback).

Periodic CQI reporting is defined by the following characteristics:

- When the UE is allocated PUSCH resources in a subframe where a periodic CQI report is configured to be sent, the periodic CQI report is transmitted together with uplink data on the PUSCH. Otherwise, the periodic CQI reports are sent on the PUCCH.

Aperiodic CQI reporting is defined by the following characteristics:

- The report is scheduled by the eNB via the PDCCH;

- Transmitted together with uplink data on PUSCH.

When a CQI report is transmitted together with uplink data on PUSCH, it is multiplexed with the transport block by L1 (i.e. the CQI report is not part of the uplink the transport block).The eNB configures a set of sizes and formats of the reports. Size and format of the report depends on whether it is transmitted over PUCCH or PUSCH and whether it is a periodic or aperiodic CQI report.

PMI (precoding matrix indicator)

PMI is an indication of the optimum precoding matrix to be used in the base station for a given radio condition. The PMI value refers to the codebook table. The network configures the number of resource blocks that are represented by a PMI report. Thus to cover the full bandwidth, multiple PMI reports may be needed. PMI reports are needed for closed loop spatial multiplexing, multi-user MIMO and closed-loop rank 1 precoding MIMO modes.

RI (rank indication)

RI is the number of useful transmission layers when spatial multiplexing is used. In case of transmit diversity, rank is equal to 1.

RRM functions

Radio Bearer Control (RBC)

The establishment, maintenance and release of Radio Bearers involve the configuration of radio resources associated with them. When setting up a radio bearer for a service, radio bearer control (RBC) takes into account the overall resource situation in E-UTRAN, the QoS requirements of in-progress sessions and the QoS requirement for the new service. RBC is also concerned with the maintenance of radio bearers of in-progress sessions at the change of the radio resource situation due to mobility or other reasons. RBC is involved in the release of radio resources associated with radio bearers at session termination, handover or at other occasions. RBC is located in the eNB.

Radio Admission Control (RAC)

The task of radio admission control (RAC) is to admit or reject the establishment requests for new radio bearers. In order to do this, RAC takes into account the overall resource situation in E-UTRAN, the QoS requirements, the priority levels and the provided QoS of in-progress sessions and the QoS requirement of the new radio bearer request. The goal of RAC is to ensure high radio resource utilization (by accepting radio bearer requests as long as radio resources available) and at the same time to ensure proper QoS for in-progress sessions (by rejecting radio bearer requests when they cannot be accommodated). RAC is located in the eNB.

Connection Mobility Control (CMC)

Connection mobility control (CMC) is concerned with the management of radio resources in connection with idle or connected mode mobility. In idle mode, the cell reselection algorithms are controlled by setting of parameters (thresholds and hysteresis values) that define the best cell and/or determine when the UE should select a new cell.

Also, E-UTRAN broadcasts parameters that configure the UE measurement and reporting procedures. In connected mode, the mobility of radio connections has to be supported. Handover decisions may be based on UE and eNB measurements. In addition, handover decisions may take other inputs, such as neighbour cell load, traffic distribution, transport and hardware resources and Operator defined policies into account. CMC is located in the eNB.

Dynamic Resource Allocation (DRA) - Packet Scheduling (PS)

The task of dynamic resource allocation (DRA) or packet scheduling (PS) is to allocate and de-allocate resources (including buffer and processing resources and resource blocks (i.e. chunks)) to user and control plane packets. DRA involves several sub-tasks, including the selection of radio bearers whose packets are to be scheduled and managing the necessary resources (e.g. the power levels or the specific resource blocks used). PS typically takes into account the QoS requirements associated with the radio bearers, the channel quality information for UEs, buffer status, interference situation, etc. DRA may also take into account restrictions or preferences on some of the available resource blocks or resource block sets due to inter-cell interference coordination considerations. DRA is located in the eNB.

Inter-cell Interference Coordination (ICIC)

Inter-cell interference coordination has the task to manage radio resources such that inter-cell interference is kept under control. ICIC mechanism includes a frequency domain component and time domain component. ICIC is inherently a multi-cell RRM function that needs to take into account information (e.g. the resource usage status and traffic load situation) from multiple cells. The preferred ICIC method may be different in the uplink and downlink. The frequency domain ICIC manages radio resource, notably the radio resource blocks.

For the time domain ICIC, Almost Blank Subframes (ABSs) are used to protect resources receiving strong inter-cell interference. MBSFN subframes can be used for time domain ICIC when they are also included in ABS patterns. The eNB cannot configure MBSFN subframes [4] as ABSs when these MBSFN subframes are used for other usages (e.g., MBMS, LCS). ICIC is located in the eNB.

PDCCH and PUCCH

Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)

The downlink control signalling (PDCCH) is located in the first n OFDM symbols where n ≤ 4 and consists of:

- Transport format and resource allocation related to DL-SCH and PCH, and hybrid ARQ information related to DL-SCH;

- Transport format, resource allocation, and hybrid-ARQ information related to UL-SCH;

Transmission of control signalling from these groups is mutually independent. Multiple physical downlink control channels are supported and a UE monitors a set of control channels. Control channels are formed by aggregation of control channel elements, each control channel element consisting of a set of resource elements. Different code rates for the control channels are realized by aggregating different numbers of control channel elements.

QPSK modulation is used for all control channels. Each separate control channel has its own set of x-RNTI. There is an implicit relation between the uplink resources used for dynamically scheduled data transmission, or the DL control channel used for assignment, and the downlink ACK/NAK resource used for feedback

Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH)

The PUCCH shall be mapped to a control channel resource in the uplink. A control channel resource is defined by a code and two resource blocks, consecutive in time, with hopping at the slot boundary. 

Depending on presence or absence of uplink timing synchronization, the uplink physical control signalling can differ. In the case of time synchronization being present, the outband control signalling consists of:

- CQI;

- ACK/NAK;

- Scheduling Request (SR).

The CQI informs the scheduler about the current channel conditions as seen by the UE. If MIMO transmission is used, the CQI includes necessary MIMO-related feedback.

The HARQ feedback in response to downlink data transmission consists of a single ACK/NAK bit per HARQ process. PUCCH resources for SR and CQI reporting are assigned and can be revoked through RRC signalling. An SR is not necessarily assigned to UEs acquiring synchronization through the RACH (i.e. synchronised UEs may or may not have a dedicated SR channel). PUCCH resources for SR and CQI are lost when the UE is no longer synchronized.

Ref. 36.300