Design, Deployment and Performance of 4G-LTE Networks: A Practical Approach

This book provides an insight into the key practical aspects and best practice of 4G-LTE network design, performance, and deployment

Design, Deployment and Performance of 4G-LTE Networks addresses the key practical aspects and best practice of 4G networks design, performance, and deployment. In addition, the book focuses on the end-to-end aspects of the LTE network architecture and different deployment scenarios of commercial LTE networks. It describes the air interface of LTE focusing on the access stratum protocol layers: PDCP, RLC, MAC, and Physical Layer. The air interface described in this book covers the concepts of LTE frame structure, downlink and uplink scheduling, and detailed illustrations of the data flow across the protocol layers. It describes the details of the optimization process including performance measurements and troubleshooting mechanisms in addition to demonstrating common issues and case studies based on actual field results. The book provides detailed performance analysis of key features/enhancements such as C-DRX for Smartphones battery saving, CSFB solution to support voice calls with LTE, and MIMO techniques.

The book presents analysis of LTE coverage and link budgets alongside a detailed comparative analysis with HSPA+. Practical link budget examples are provided for data and VoLTE scenarios. Furthermore, the reader is provided with a detailed explanation of capacity dimensioning of the LTE systems. The LTE capacity analysis in this book is presented in a comparative manner with reference to the HSPA+ network to benchmark the LTE network capacity. The book describes the voice options for LTE including VoIP protocol stack, IMS Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC). In addition, key VoLTE features are presented: Semi-persistent scheduling (SPS), TTI bundling, Quality of Service (QoS), VoIP with C-DRX, Robust Header Compression (RoHC), and VoLTE Vocoders and De-Jitter buffer. The book describes several LTE and LTE-A advanced features in the evolution from Release 8 to 10 including SON, eICIC, CA, CoMP, HetNet, Enhanced MIMO, Relays, and LBS.

This book can be used as a reference for best practices in LTE networks design and deployment, performance analysis, and evolution strategy.

• Conveys the theoretical background of 4G-LTE networks
• Presents key aspects and best practice of 4G-LTE networks design and deployment
• Includes a realistic roadmap for evolution of deployed 3G/4G networks
• Addresses the practical aspects for designing and deploying commercial LTE networks.
• Analyzes LTE coverage and link budgets, including a detailed comparative analysis with HSPA+.
• References the best practices in LTE networks design and deployment, performance analysis, and evolution strategy
• Covers infrastructure-sharing scenarios for CAPEX and OPEX saving.
• Provides key practical aspects for supporting voice services over LTE,

Written for all 4G engineers/designers working in networks design for operators, network deployment engineers, R&D engineers, telecom consulting firms, measurement/performance tools firms, deployment subcontractors, senior undergraduate students and graduate students interested in understanding the practical aspects of 4G-LTE networks as part of their classes, research, or projects.

About the Authors

Ayman Elnashar was born in Egypt in 1972. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt, in 1995 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical communications engineering from Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt, in 1999 and 2005, respectively. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees while working fulltime. He has more than 17 years of experience in telecoms industry including GSM, GPRS/EDGE, UMTS/HSPA+/LTE, WiMax, WiFi, and transport/backhauling technologies. He was part of three major start-up telecom operators in MENA region (Mobinil/Egypt, Mobily/KSA, and du/UAE) and held key leadership positions. Currently, he is Sr. Director of Wireless Broadband, Terminals, and Performance with the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co. "du", UAE. He is in charge of mobile and fixed wireless broadband networks. He is responsible for strategy and innovation, design and planning, performance and optimization, and rollout/implementation of mobile and wireless broadband networks. He is the founder of the Terminals department and also the terminals lab for end-to-end testing, validation, and benchmarking of mobile terminals. He managed and directed the evolution, evaluation, and introduction of du mobile broadband HSPA+/LTE networks. Prior to this, he was with Mobily, Saudi Arabia, from June 2005 to Jan 2008 and with Mobinil (orange), Egypt, from March 2000 to June 2005. He played key role in contributing to the success of the mobile broadband network of Mobily/KSA.

He managed several large-scale networks, and mega projects with more than 1.5 billion USD budgets including start-ups (LTE 1800 MHz, UMTS, HSPA+, and WiMAX16e), networks expansions (GSM, UMTS/HSPA+, WiFi, and transport/backhauling) and swap projects (GSM, UMTS, MW, and transport network) from major infrastructure vendors. He obtained his PhD degree in multiuser interference cancellation and smart antennas for cellular systems. He published 20+ papers in wireless communications arena in highly ranked journals such as IEEE Transactions on Antenna and Propagation, IEEE Transactions Vehicular technology, and IEEE Transactions Circuits and Systems I, IEEE Vehicular technology Magazine, IET Signal Processing, and international conferences. His research interests include practical performance analysis of cellular systems (CDMA-based & OFDM-based), 3G/4G mobile networks planning, design, and Optimization, digital signal processing for wireless communications, multiuser detection, smart antennas, MIMO, and robust adaptive detection and beamforming. He is currently working on LTE-Advanced and beyond including eICIC, HetNet, UL/DL CoMP, 3D Beamforming, Combined LTE/HSPA+, Combined LTE/WiFi: simultaneous reception, etc…

Mohamed A. El-saidny is a technical expert with 10+ years of international technical and leadership experience in wireless communication systems for mobile phones, modem chipsets, and networks operators. He received the B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA in 2002 and 2004, respectively. From 2004 to 2008, he worked in Qualcomm CDMA Technology, Inc. (QCT), San Diego, California, USA. He was responsible for performance evaluation and analysis of the Qualcomm UMTS system and software solutions used in user equipment. As part of his assignments, he developed and implemented system studies to optimize the performance of various UMTS algorithms. The enhancements utilize Cell re-selection, Handover, Cell Search and Paging. He worked on several IOT and field trials to evaluate and improve the performance of 3G systems. Since 2008, he has been working in Qualcomm Corporate Engineering Services division in Dubai, UAE. He has been working on expanding the 3G/4G technologies footprints with operators, with an additional focus on user equipment and network performance as well as technical roadmaps related to the industry. Mohamed is currently supporting operators in Middle East and North Africa in addition to worldwide network operators and groups in LTE commercial efforts. His responsibilities are to ensure the device and network performance are within expectations. He led a key role in different first time features evaluations such as CSFB, C-DRX, IRAT, and load balance techniques in LTE. As part of this role, he is focused on aligning network operators to the device and chipset roadmaps and products in both 3G and 4G. Mohamed is the author of several international IEEE journal papers and contributions to 3GPP, and an inventor of numerous patents.

Mahmoud R. Sherif is a leading technical expert with more than 18 years of international experience in the design, development and implementation of fourth generation mobile broadband technologies and networks. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the City University of New York, USA in February 2000. His Ph.D. degree was preceded by the B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ain Shams in Cairo, Egypt in 1992, and 1996, respectively. From 1997 to 2008, he was working in the Wireless Business Unit at Lucent Technologies (which became Alcatel-Lucent in 2007), in Whippany, New Jersey, USA. He led the Voice and Data Quality and Performance Analysis team responsible for the end-to-end performance analysis of the different wireless/mobile technologies. In November 2008, he moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to join the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co. "du" where he is now the Head of the Mobile Access Planning within du (Senior Director Mobile Access Planning) managing the Radio Planning, Site Acquisition and Capacity and Feature Management Departments. He is responsible for managing the planning of the mobile access network nationwide, Mobile Sites' Acquisition, Strategic Planning on Mobile Access Network Capacity Management, all Feature testing and rollout across 2G, 3G and LTE, defining and managing the financial resources efficiently and with alignment with company's financial targets (CAPEX & OPEX). He is also responsible for the mobile access network technology strategy in coordination with the commercial and marketing teams. He is considered a company expert resource in the various mobile broadband technologies, including HSPA+, LTE, VoLTE and LTE-A. He has published several related papers in various technical journals as well as multiple international conferences. He has multiple contributions to the 3GPP and other telecommunications standards. He also has multiple granted patents in the USA.