02-NB-IoT Air Interface ISSUE

NB-IoT Air Interface P-1
Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission



The C-SGN (CIoT Serving Gateway Node) is a combined node EPC

•
implementation option that minimizes the number of physical entities

by allocating EPC entities in the control and user planes paths (e.g.
MME, S-GW, P-GW), which may be preferred in CIoT deployments.
Please refer to TS 23.401
•

 CIoT: Cellular IoT

 NB-IoT supports control plane CIoT EPS optimization(CP) process and user plane CIoT EPS
optimization(UP) process. The CP solution is a mandatory solution while UP solution is
optional.
 The S1 control plane interface is called S1-Lite interfaces, is a simplified version of S1-C
interface. It only need to support the necessary S1-AP message and CIoT related process of
Ies message.

 NB-IoT supports neither handovers nor measurement reports.

 RRC description included in TS36.300, TS36.331, TS304 protocols.

 SRB0 - this is for RRC messages using a CCCH logical channel, e.g. RRC Connection
Request, Setup and Re-establishment.
 SRB1bis：Used in access layer before security activation to carry RRC message and NAS
message in DCCH, only used in NB-IoT system.
 SRB1：Used in access layer after security activation to carry RRC message and NAS
message in DCCH channel.

• RRC_IDLE
 PLMN selection
 System information broadcast
 Paging
 Cell selection and reselection
 RRC context not stored on the eNodeB
• RRC_CONNECTED
 The UE has an RRC connection with the E-UTRAN.
 UE context stored on the E-UTRAN
 The E-UTRAN receives messages from and transmits messages to the UE.
• RRC_SUSPENDED
 UE context stored on the E-UTRAN
 UE context stored on the eNodeB
 RRC_SUSPENDED mode is a mode similar to the RRC_IDLE mode, except that UE
context is stored.
• EPS Connection Management (ECM)

 The access flow of NB-IoT UP solution is quite complicated. If the signaling overhead is too
high for the NB-IoT services, will not meet the requirements of the low-power terminal.
 To simplify the access procedures of UP solution, NB-IoT introduced the UE suspend and
resume flow.
1. eNodeB sends a UE Context Suspend Req to MME (may carry Information on
Recommended Cells and eNodeBs for Paging, Cell Identifier and Coverage Enhancement
Level). MME will decode and save these two IE related information and will be used for
coverage level paging
2. MME sends a Release Access Bearer Req message to the SGW to release all UP bearers.
After the process is end MME will still retain the eNodeB user plane information, enters
IDLE state, and recorded as Suspend. Send eNodeB a S1AP UE context Suspend Response.


 eNodeB instructs UE enter suspended mode through RRC Connection Release

message with release cause: rrc-suspend and resumeidentity.

 If UE in IDLE, suspended mode wants to resume transferring data, will initiate

Connection Resume procedures.
 There are two main scenarios for Connection Resume procedure: calling party
triggered resume procedure and called party triggered resume procedure.
1. UE initiates Random Access procedure, eNodeB will send UE Context
Resume Request to MME
2. If according to message’s MME UE S1AP ID, eNodeB UE S1AP ID user
positioning fail, replied Context Resume Failure with Unknown or
inconsistent pair of UE S1AP ID in the message.
3. If the user is in connected mode when receiving UE Context Resume
Request, MME will trigger Detach, carry ReAttached Request.
4. MME sends a “UE Context Active ACK” to eNodeB and MME will enter
CONNECT mode from SUSPEND mode.
5. MME sends a “Modify Bearer Request” to the SGW, resume UP bearer.




 Similar to RRC reestablishment without UE context.



 Layer 2 consists of the following sub-layers: Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio
Link Control (RLC), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
 Asynchronous hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) is applied in the uplink and
downlink.
 ROHC (Robust Header Compression): ROHC is a kind of algorithm to compress the
header of various IP packets.
20

 No PDCP layer in CP mode, the encryption function is implemented by the NAS layer,
not support RoHC.
 The maximum PDCP SDU supported by LTE is 8188 bytes while NB-IOT supports
1600 bytes.
21

 The default LTE value of PollByte is 25kbyte and PollPDU is 32 PDU

 The default EnodeBStatusProhibitTimer is 40ms。

23

 HARQ timing：
• The start of DL A/N transmission is >=3ms later than the end of the corresponding NPUSCH transmission.
• The start of UL A/N transmission is >=12ms later than the end of the corresponding NPDSCH transmission.
 Uplink is an asynchronous adaptive single HARQ process.

25


 Huawei NB-IoT eNodeBs support control plane and user plane CIoT EPS optimization.
Whether to use only the control plane CIoT EPS optimization function, both of them, or
neither of them needs to be configured based on the MME's capability of supporting EPS
optimized transmission for NB-IoT, which is specified by the
MmeCapInfo.NbCiotEpsOptCap parameter.


 A list of E-RABs which failed to be established, if any, shall be included in the E-RAB Failed
to Setup List IE.

 3GPP Release 13 does not support the exchange of NB-IoT cell information over the X2
interface.
30

 NB-IoT has a narrower bandwidth than LTE, and therefore has a different filtering mode.


• Uplink
• Two transmission modes
 Single-tone (One UE uses one carrier for low-
speed transmission)
 Multi-tone (One UE occupies multiple carriers for
high-speed transmission. Only the 15-kHz
subcarrier spacing is supported.)
• Downlink OFDMA
 Occupies a bandwidth of 200 kHz. (A 10 kHz guard
band is reserved on each side, and therefore the actual
bandwidth is 180 kHz. Occupies a bandwidth of 180
kHz in LTE in-band deployment, that is, occupies an RB)

 Uplink physical channel resources in the time domain are measured in timeslots. Each
timeslot lasts 2 ms for 3.75 kHz subcarrier spacing and lasts 0.5 ms for 15 kHz subcarrier
spacing. Uplink physical channel resources are scheduled in units of resource units (RUs),
whose duration varies with the scenarios, as described in


 There are three types of downlink physical channels for NB-IoT:

 Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel (NPBCH): Responsible for transmitting
master information blocks (MIBs)
 NPDCCH: Responsible for carrying the downlink control information (DCI)
 NPDSCH: Responsible for carrying downlink data.
 There are two types of uplink physical channels for NB-IoT:
 NPUSCH: Responsible for carrying uplink data
 NPRACH: Responsible for carrying random access messages

 NB PUSCH Format1 bears uplink service transmission, Format 2 bears downlink NB PDSCH
ACK/NACK feedback message.

 Setting RSRP and the coverage level mapping through MOD RACHCFG


NB-IoT Air Interface & Signaling Analysis P-40


 For example, if three coverage levels, CL0, CL1, and CL2 are configured, the
CellRachCECfg.PrachRepetitionCount parameter for these three coverage levels
is set to REP_2(REP_2), REP_4(REP_4), and REP_32(REP_32), respectively, and
the RACHCfg.NbCyclicPrefixLength parameter is set to 66DOT7(66DOT7), the
PRACH occupation duration for CL0, CL1, and CL2 is 5.6 x 2 ms, 5.6 x 4 ms, and
5.6 x 32 ms, respectively. The offset for CL0 is 8 ms. Accordingly:
 The offset for CL1 must be greater than 48 ms (the sum of the offset for
CL0 (8 ms) and MAX {40 ms, 5.6 x 2 ms}). The smallest value in the value
range that meets this condition is 64 ms, which is then used as the offset for
CL1.
 The offset for CL2 must be greater than 104 ms (the sum of the offset for
CL1 (64 ms) and MAX {40 ms, 5.6 x 4 ms}). The smallest value in the value
range that meets this condition is 128 ms, which is then used as the offset
for CL2.
 The PRACH transmission interval must be greater than the sum of the
PRACH occupation duration and offset for the highest coverage level. The
PRACH occupation duration is 5.6 x 32 ms, and the offset is 128 ms, so the
PRACH transmission interval must be at least 307.2 ms.

 PRACH add a 40ms gap for every transmission when the number of
repetition is greater than 64.

The default PUSCH repetition times：

 CoverageLevel is set as 0：REP_1(Repeat 1 time)；
 CoverageLevel is set as 1：REP_2(Repeat 2 times)；
 CoverageLevelis set as 2：REP_32(Repeat 32 times)

 QPSK is a quadrature phase shift keying, using four phases 0, PI/4, PI and 3/4 PI



 In normal CP, reference signal for antenna port 0 and 1 will be transmit in each slot, 5 th
and 6th symbol
 Other than antenna port and location in time domain, the location in frequency domain
also affected by cell physical ID to avoid interference among neighboring cell
 Reference signal is added in every 6 subcarriers in the frequency domain.
 Figure shows the pilot signal distribution for in-band scenario.

 narrowband primary synchronization signal (NPSS)

 narrowband secondary synchronization signal (NSSS)
 Resource conflicts with the LTE PDCCH should be avoided.

 The NPSS and NSSS are punctured by the LTE CRS.
1. The PSCH is used for synchronization between the eNodeB and UE. The signals on the
PSCH can be categorized into two types: NPSS and NSSS. The NPSS is used for cell
detection, subframe and symbol alignment, and frequency synchronization in carriers and
sampling frequencies. The NSSS is used for time synchronization at the frame level and
also indicates the physical cell identifier (PCI).
2. The NPSS occupies subframe 5 of each radio frame, and therefore is transmitted every 10
ms. The NSSS occupies subframe 9 of each even-numbered frame, and therefore is
transmitted every 20 ms.
UEs need to demodulate NPSS and NSSS to achieve synchronization with the network.
Therefore, the minimum average interval for UEs to receive data is 40 ms.

The NB-PBCH mainly carries the MIB. The scheduling period for the
MIB is fixed at 640 ms. The MIB is transmitted eight times in a scheduling period. Each
MIB is scheduled in every subframe 0 of eight consecutive radio frames. The MIBs
transmitted in each consecutive 80 scheduling periods have the same contents but use
different MCSs.
 The MIB does not exceed 34 bits in length. Together

with 16 cyclic redundancy check (CRC), the actual
length of the MIB is less than 50 bits.
 It takes at least 80 ms for UEs to receive the MIB.
 Resource conflicts with the LTE PDCCH should be avoided.

 The NB-PBCH is punctured by the LTE CRS and NB-RS.

 Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel (NPBCH): Responsible for transmitting master

information blocks (MIBs)
 To fulfill the requirement, the NPBCH resource is start mapped at subframe

0 of a radio frame, skipping the NRS resource and the subframe 0’s content is repeated in
the every subframe 0 of the following 7 radio frame.

 The PDSCH transmits SIB1 messages.
 NB-IoT SIB1 resources are always mapped onto subframe 4. The specific frame
number can be determined based on the period, number of repetitions, and PCID.
 Resources occupied by LTE PDCCH should not be used by NB-IoT.

 The PDSCH transmits SIB1 messages.
 NB-IoT SIB1 resources are always mapped onto subframe 4. The specific frame
number can be determined based on the period, number of repetitions, and PCID.
 Resources occupied by LTE PDCCH should not be used by NB-IoT.


 NB-PDCCH occupied 12 sub-carrier in one subframe. Not REG is used to carry DCI
message but CCE. The CCE here is different from LTE definition. The size of the CCE
is half a PRB pair. 6 frequency domain (subcarrier) with higher number will as one
CCE while another 6 lower number frequency domain (subcarrier) will as another
CCE. Support 2 CCE aggregation level, AL=1CCE and AL=2CCE.
 The two CCE that grouping AL=2 will located at the same subframe and the re-
transmission only support AL=2.
 NB-IoT basically is using re-transmission technology to enhance its coverage,
therefore mostly use CCE aggregation level AL2.
 For the CSS, the aggregation level is 2;
 For USS, initial aggregation level for coverage level 0 is AL=1; Initial aggregation
level for coverage level 1 or 2 is AL=2


 UE will determine the position of the NB-PDCCH resources according to the NB-PDCCH’s
scheduling information and at the same combine the candidate set to perform blind
decoding to obtain the required PDCCH information.
 UE will not search from 2 search space (CSS1 ，CSS2 and USS) at the same time.


 Period factor G ：{1.5,2,4,8,16,32,48,64}； Maximum repetition Rmax : (1, 2, 4,

8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024,2048)
 The Rmax and G of the PDCCH at each coverage class are configured separately, to
get period of each coverage level (Period0, Period01, Period02), which is used to
control the PDCCH resources of each coverage level.

 Period factor G ：{1.5,2,4,8,16,32,48,64}； Maximum repetition count, Rmax : (1, 2, 4,

8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024,2048)
 The Rmax and G of the PDCCH of each coverage class are configured separately, to get
period of each coverage level (Period0, Period01, Period02), which is used to control the
PDCCH resources of each coverage level.

 TBS: Transport Block Size


 DC1 Format N1(2)：NPDCCH order, trigger random access for uplink synchronization

 For Direct Indication, currently only use 2 bits corresponding to

systemInfoModification and systemInfoModification-eDRX


 Gap will not triggered in 2 conditions:

 NPDCCH setting, Rmax < GapThreshold
 NPDSCH send BCCH data.
 Gap: If the downlink resources are allocated to NDPCCH and NPDSCH of an enhanced
coverage type terminal, the downlink of the other terminal devices (non-enhanced
coverage type) will be congested and will caused the uplink congested too. It will be a
waste of uplink resources.

 11 SIBs are defined in 3GPP Release 8 and 13 SIBs in 3GPP Release 9.

 Mandatory SIB: SIB1 and SIB2.
 System information reception process what content

 master information block (MIB)

 system information blocks (SIBs)
 System information scheduling
 The scheduling periodic for the MIB is fixed at 640 ms. The MIB is transmitted over the BCCH,
which has a predefined transport format. Therefore, the UE receives the MIB on the BCCH
without obtaining other information on the network
 The scheduling periodic for the SIB1 is 2560 ms. The SIB1 is transmitted over the DL-SCH.
 SIBs 2 to 5, SIB14, and SIB16 are transmitted through SI messages, and the scheduling
periodic can be separately set. The SIBs with the same scheduling periodic can be transmitted
through the same SI message. SIB1 carries the scheduling periodic of all SIBs and mapping
information from SIBs to SI messages.
 The scheduling periodic for SIB2 to SIB5, SIB14, and SIB16 are specified by the
CellSiMap.NbSib2Period, CellSiMap.NbSib3Period, CellSiMap.NbSib4Period,
CellSiMap.NbSib5Period, CellSiMap.NbSib14Period, and CellSiMap.NbSib16Period
parameters. All these parameter values are carried in SIB1. SIB2 to SIB5, SIB14, and SIB16
are mapped onto SI messages.
 SI message does not need to use PDCCH for scheduling. SIB1 scheduling information is
indicated in MIB and other SI scheduling information carried in SIB1
 In normal LTE, the biggest SIB information block is 1736bits (DCI 1C) or 2216 bits (DCI 1A)
but NB-IOT only support maximum 680bits




 Validity for LTE system information is 3 hours. After 3 hours, need to receive the new
system information.
 Modify MIB’ SFN, SIB1’s HSFN, SIB14, SIB16 parameters will not affect
systemInfoValueTag.
 “systemInfoValueTagSI” in SIB1 is to indicate which SI had changed to avoid UE receives all
the SIB message

NB-IoT Air Interface & Signaling Analysis P-73
 MIS consists of deployment mode, scheduling periodic of SIB, access barring switch, H-
SFN, SFN, and SystemInfoValueTag.
 LSB: Least Significant Bit

 MSB: Most Significant Bit

 Modify SIB1 cell barred status by running the command：MOD CELLACCESS:

CellBarred=CELL_BARRED

 SIB1 contains cell access \ selection information（PLMN\TAC\Cell ID），and SI scheduling

information.

 CSS2（CSS for Paging），need to configure G value separately (period is same as

maximum period of each coverage level’s CSS1)，where G=max(Period0, Period1,
Period2)/Rmax_CSS2), regardless of Coverage Level.




 MIB,SIB1 and SIB2 must be configured, and the other does not need to be configured.

 MIB,SIB1 and SIB2 must be configured, and the other does not need to be configured.



 After selecting a PLMN, the UE selects a cell in the PLMN to camp on. After camping on a
cell, the UE monitors system information, performs measurements on the serving cell and
neighboring cells, and selects a better cell to camp on based on measurement rules and
cell reselection criteria. Before the UE selects a cell to camp on, it performs a cell search
procedure. After the UE finds a cell, it performs cell selection or reselection based on the
selection or reselection related parameters in the system information or in the RRC
Connection Release message
 Cell selection:
 When a UE switches from RRC_CONNECTED mode to RRC_IDLE mode or after it
selects a PLMN, the UE must select a cell to camp on.
 When the UE switches from RRC_CONNECTED mode to RRC_IDLE mode, it first
attempts to select the last cell that it camped on in RRC_CONNECTED mode or it
selects a suitable cell on the frequency that is allocated through the RRC
Connection Release message. If such a cell is not available, the UE attempts to find
a suitable cell by performing a Stored Information Cell Selection procedure. If the
UE fails to find a suitable cell, the UE performs an Initial Cell Selection procedure.







02-NB-IoT Air Interface ISSUE

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

02-NB-IoT Air Interface ISSUE

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

02-NB-IoT Air Interface ISSUE

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

NB-IoT Air Interface P-1

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

The C-SGN (CIoT Serving Gateway Node) is a combined node EPC

implementation option that minimizes the number of physical entities

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

 CIoT: Cellular IoT

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

 NB-IoT supports neither handovers nor measurement reports.

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

 eNodeB instructs UE enter suspended mode through RRC Connection Release

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

 If UE in IDLE, suspended mode wants to resume transferring data, will initiate

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

 Similar to RRC reestablishment without UE context.

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

 The default LTE value of PollByte is 25kbyte and PollPDU is 32 PDU

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

 Uplink is an asynchronous adaptive single HARQ process.

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

 There are three types of downlink physical channels for NB-IoT:

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

The default PUSCH repetition times：

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission