LTE Channels and Carrier Aggregation

Carrier channels are transmitted by the user equipment (UE) when the measurement is performed. You can configure single or multiple LTE (E-UTRA) carrier channels.

Single Carrier

LTE channel bandwidth is the RF bandwidth supporting a single E-UTRA RF carrier with the transmission bandwidth configured in the uplink. The channel bandwidth is used as a reference for transmitter and receiver RF requirements. This bandwidth includes the guard band.

LTE measurement bandwidth is the highest transmission bandwidth allowed for uplink in a given channel bandwidth, which is measured in megahertz (MHz). Measurement bandwidths for all LTE channel bandwidths are specified in the following table.

Channel Bandwidth (MHz) LTE Measurement Bandwidth (MHz)
1.4 1.08
3.0 2.7
5 4.5
10 9
15 13.5
20 18

Carrier Aggregation

Carrier aggregation is one of the main feature in LTE-Advanced as defined by the 3GPP specification. Carrier aggregation enables multiple carriers to be combined to support wider transmission bandwidths, thereby increasing the data rate.

For more information about carrier aggregation, refer to section 5.4.1A and 5.4.2A of the 3GPP TS 36.521-1 specification.

You can configure multiple carrier channels by specifying the carrier offsets. You can configure contiguous and noncontiguous carrier aggregation by configuring LTE carrier spacing.

Carrier Bandwidths

To maintain backward compatibility, carrier aggregation is performed with release 8 carrier bandwidths, for example, 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, and 20 MHz. Each aggregated carrier is referred to as a component carrier (CC).

Types of Carrier Aggregation

  • Intra-band Contiguous—Component carriers are placed side-by-side within the same operating frequency band. This type is supported in RFmx LTE.
  • Intra-band Noncontiguous—Component carriers are placed with some gap within the same operating frequency band. This type is supported in RFmx LTE.
  • Inter-band Noncontiguous—One or more component carriers are placed in different operating frequency bands. This type is not supported in RFmx LTE.