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    Rev. A 08/12

    VoLTE DEPLOYMENT AND

    THE RADIO ACCESS NETWORK

    The LTE User Equipment PerspectiveAugust 2012

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    SPIRENT

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    2012 Spirent. All Rights Reserved.

    All of the company names and/or brand names and/or product names referred to in thisdocument, in particular, the name Spirent and its logo device, are either registeredtrademarks or trademarks of Spirent plc and its subsidiaries, pending registration inaccordance with relevant national laws. All other registered trademarks or trademarks are the

    property of their respective owners.

    The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice and does notrepresent a commitment on the part of Spirent. The information in this document is believedto be accurate and reliable; however, Spirent assumes no responsibility or l iability for anyerrors or inaccuracies that may appear in the document.

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    SPIRENT WHITE PAPER i

    CONTENTS

    I n t r o d u c t i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

    Dedicated Bearers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

    Semi-Persistent Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

    Robust Header Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

    Discontinuous Reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

    Transmission Time Interval Bundling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

    LTE Voice and Legacy Voice Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

    Considerations for LTE UE Developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    INTRODUCTION

    One promise of Long Term Evolution (LTE)

    is the availability of a relatively flat, all-IP

    access technology that provides a bandwidth-

    efficient method of delivering multiple types

    of user traffic simultaneously. Indeed, the

    ability to deploy Voice over IP (VoIP) services

    such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE), while also

    allowing high-rate data transfers, is one of the

    principal drivers for the evolution to LTE.

    In the context of deploying VoLTE, a lot of

    emphasis has been placed on the realization

    of an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and itsassociated Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) in

    a wireless environment. Undeniably, IMS and

    SIP are key to deploying VoIP services such as

    VoLTE in LTE networks.

    It is IMS that provides the interconnect and gateway functionalities that allow VoIP

    devices to communicate with non-VoIP devices or even non-wireless devices. SIP

    defines the signaling necessary for call establishment, tear-down, authentication,

    registration and presence maintenance, as well as providing for supplementary services

    like three-way calling and call waiting.

    Without SIP signaling, or at least a proprietary equivalent, it would not be possible to

    provide VoIP telephony services. Without IMS or its equivalent, VoIP services would be

    limited to establishing calls between two VoIP users on the same network, and would

    not allow calls to users on parallel or legacy technologies. Therefore, it is no wonder

    that recent User Equipment (UE) testing and measurement has focused on two areas:

    The UEs ability to establish and maintain connectivity with an IMS network,

    including all of the registration, authentication, security and mobility associated

    with this connectivity

    The UEs conformance to SIP signaling protocol and SIP procedures/call flows,including any number of extensions that may be used in different deployment

    scenarios

    CORRESPONDING LITERATURE

    WHITE PAPER

    IMS Architecture:The LTE User

    Equipment Perspective

    REFERENCE GUIDE

    IMS Procedures and Protocols:The LTE User

    Equipment Perspective

    POSTERSLTE and the Mobile Internet

    IMS/VoLTE Reference Guide

    http://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/LTE_User_Equipment_Perspectivehttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/LTE_User_Equipment_Perspectivehttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/LTE_User_Equipment_Perspectivehttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/~/~/~/link.aspx?_id=7642C427E76C4541A607CB5603D24806&_z=zhttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/~/~/~/link.aspx?_id=7642C427E76C4541A607CB5603D24806&_z=zhttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/~/~/~/link.aspx?_id=7642C427E76C4541A607CB5603D24806&_z=zhttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/~/~/~/~/link.aspx?_id=4F6A81287BDF4C4FB00382CA97485D7F&_z=zhttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/~/~/~/~/link.aspx?_id=5DCCB9B719D741B4AB0C8B947672FEAD&_z=zhttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/~/~/~/~/link.aspx?_id=5DCCB9B719D741B4AB0C8B947672FEAD&_z=zhttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/~/~/~/~/link.aspx?_id=4F6A81287BDF4C4FB00382CA97485D7F&_z=zhttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/~/~/~/link.aspx?_id=7642C427E76C4541A607CB5603D24806&_z=zhttp://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Mobile/LTE_User_Equipment_Perspective
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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    Voice over LTE

    Objective: To deliver carrier-grade (or telco-grade) voice

    services that are perceived by subscribers to be as

    good as, if not better than, legacy circuit-switched

    voice services.

    However, to focus development and testing only on these two areas would overlook

    the most significant goal of VoLTE: to delivery carrier-grade (or telco-grade) voice

    services that are perceived by subscribers to be as good as, if not better than, legacy

    circuit-switched voice services. This concept fundamentally differentiates VoLTE from

    other VoIP services. Deploying IMS and SIP will provide VoIP service in an LTE network,

    but VoLTE raises the bar to provide the carrier-grade voice service that is the vital

    objective of LTE networks and operators.

    Ensuring carrier-grade voice requires the marriage of IMS and SIP with a number of

    LTE Radio Access Network (RAN) features. It is this combination of IMS, SIP and RAN

    features that ultimately provides the carrier-grade VoLTE experience. The remainder

    of this white paper will identify this set of RAN features and how each of these features

    improves the quality of VoLTE service.

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    DEDICATED BEARERS

    One might ask why any of the many existing VoIP clients could not be installed on an

    LTE UE and used to provide carrier-grade voice services. The answer is competition for

    resources. As we all know, over-the-air bandwidth is a finite and precious commodity,

    even with the increased spectral efficiency offered by LTE. We also know that the

    number of applications using IP data and the total amount of data bandwidth these

    applications consume continues to grow at an exponential rate. Each of these

    applications and their associated data must compete for that finite bandwidth.

    From a networks perspective, the encoded voice packets generated by an off-the-shelf

    VoIP client are notionally indistinguishable from the data traffic associated with an

    email download, viewing a YouTube video, web browsing, or any number of a host of

    other applications. The network will attempt to multiplex all of this generic packet

    data traffic, not only from a single user but from all users, onto a single shared channel.In LTE, these channels are the Physical Downlink and Physical Uplink Shared Channels

    (PDSCH/PUSCH). Residing in these physical channels will be at least one Evolved

    Packet System (EPS) bearer. The EPS bearer provides a logical connection between the

    UE and a Public Data Network (PDN) Gateway (PDN-GW). Typically, a Default EPS Bearer

    will be established to provide a logical connection between the UE and an Internet

    PDN-GW for the purpose of delivering this generic data traffic between the UE and one

    or more application servers (e.g. web server).

    One downside of the Default EPS Bearer is that there is no control over quality of

    service. A best effor t strategy is used to deliver all of the generic traff ic between theUE and the Internet PDN. When the finite resources of the network are overwhelmed,

    data traffic queuing takes place, leading to unforeseeable latency or dropped packets.

    This is obviously undesirable, or even unacceptable, for real-time applications such as a

    voice call.

    Dedicated Bearers

    Benefit: Dedicated Bearers allow VoLTE audio traffic to be

    separated from all other traffic and delivered with a

    higher QoS level

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    To overcome the best effort delivery of all indistinguishable traffic over a single EPS

    Default Bearer, LTE introduces the concept of an EPS Dedicated Bearer. A Dedicated

    Bearer allows certain types of data traffic to be isolated from all other traffic (for

    example, VoIP traffic from FTP file download). Each Dedicated Bearer (there can be

    multiple Dedicated Bearers establishing virtual connections to one or more PDN-GWs)

    is associated with a Traffic Flow Template (TFT ). A TFT defines which traffic, based

    on source/destination IP addresses and TCP/UDP ports, should be delivered on a

    particular Dedicated Bearer. Typically for VoLTE, after SIP signaling is used to establish

    a voice session and negotiate the session parameters (e.g. which audio codec, bit rate,

    transport protocols and ports will be used for audio), an EPS Dedicated Bearer between

    the UE and an IMS PDN-GW is established for the express purpose of transporting

    encoded voice packets. Refer to Figure 1 for an example of the traff ic usage of a Default

    Bearer vs. a Dedicated Bearer.

    Further, each Dedicated Bearer can have different service quality attributes specified.

    In LTE, a combination of Resource Type (Guaranteed Bit Rate vs. Non-Guaranteed Bit

    Rate), Packet Delay Budget (the maximum acceptable end-to-end delay between the

    UE and the PDN-GW), Priority (which can be dropped when network resources become

    scarce) and Packet Error Loss Rate (the maximum acceptable rate of IP packets that are

    not successfully received by the PDCP layer) are used to define a set of QoS (Quality of

    Service) Class Identifier (QCI) levels, refer to Table 1.

    Figure 1: EPS Bearer: Default vs. Dedicated

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    Table 2 provides a definition of standardized QCI values. A Dedicated Bearer

    established to carry VoLTE traffic may typically be assigned a QCI value of 1, indicating

    a guaranteed bit rate (largely consistent with the fairly predictable output of a vocoder),

    a maximum end-to-end latency of 100ms and a maximum tolerance 10-2for IP packet

    loss. Traffic on a Dedicated Bearer with QCI=1 would be prioritized over all best

    effort traffic on the Default Bearer.

    As other applications are deployed in the future, multiple dedicated bearers may be

    used, each with a different QCI value. For example, a video telephony implementation

    may choose to transport audio using a Dedicated Bearer with QCI=1 and place video on

    a different Dedicated Bearer with QCI=2. This would indicate that both audio and video

    should be prioritized over best effort traffic. It also indicates that audio traffic is more

    important to deliver with lower latency (100ms packet delay budget vs. 150ms) while

    video traffic is more sensitive to packet errors (10-3packet error loss rate vs. 10-2).

    QCIResource

    Type PriorityPacket DelayBudget (ms)

    Packet ErrorLoss Rate Example Services

    1 GBR 2 100 10-2 Conversational Voice

    2 GBR 4 150 10-3 Conversational Video (live streaming)

    3 GBR 5 300 10-6 Non-conversational video (buffered streaming)

    4 GBR 3 50 10-3 Real-time gaming

    5 Non-GBR 1 100 10-6 IMS Signalling

    6 Non-GBR 7 100 10-3 Voice, Video (live streaming), interactive gaming

    7 Non-GBR 6 300 10-6 Video (buffered streaming)

    8 Non-GBR 8 300 10-6 TCP-based (WWW, email, FTP)

    9 Non-GBR 9 300 10-6

    Table 2 Standardized QCI Values

    Attributes for QoS Class Identifier (QCI)

    Attribute Description

    Resource Type Guaranteed Bit Rate vs. Non-Guaranteed Bit Rate

    Packet Delay Budget Maximum acceptable end-to-end delay between the UE and the PDN-GW

    Packet Error Loss RateMaximum acceptable rate of IP packets that are not successfully received bythe PDCP layer

    Allocation Retention PriorityValue assigned for scheduling when capacity is reached, with 1 beinghighest level

    Table 1: QoS Class Identifier for LTE

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    SEMI-PERSISTENT SCHEDULING

    As mentioned above, shared channels (PDSCH/PUSCH) are used at the physical

    layer to transport the data carried by the logical bearers. Since these channels are

    shared amongst all of the users on an eNodeB, there must be a way to allocate these

    channels to avoid multiple users trying to simultaneously use the same resource. In

    the frequency domain an LTE carrier is divided into a number of subcarriers (currently

    anywhere from six to one hundred depending on the bandwidth of the LTE carrier). In

    the time domain each subcarrier is grouped into 0.5ms time slots during which either

    six or seven of OFDM symbols can be delivered, depending on whether the system is

    using normal or extended cyclic prefixes (inter-symbol guard periods). See the 3GPPs

    TS 36.211 document for details. This results in a time-frequency grid of subcarriers and

    time slots (refer to Figure 2). A grouping of twelve subcarriers in one time slot duration

    is known as a Resource Block (RB). An RB is

    the minimum allocation of the LTE physical

    layer resource that can be granted to a UE.

    A pair of physical control channels is used to

    grant RBs to UEs operating on the network.

    The UE uses the Physical Uplink Control

    Channel (PUCCH) to request allocation of the

    PUSCH, and the UE is granted both uplink and

    downlink allocations via the Physical Downlink

    Control Channel (PDCCH). The PDCCH

    identifies which subframes (a subframe is

    two slots) a UE should decode on the PDSCH,

    and which UEs are allowed to transmit in each

    uplink subframe on the PUSCH.

    Since every RB on the downlink and uplink

    must be granted, VoLTE introduces a

    challenge: granting control channel overhead

    becomes too great for the necessary persistent

    and near continuous allocation of RBs to

    deliver the relatively small packets typical of a

    VoIP-based conversation.Figure 2: LTE Physical Layer Resource Block

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    Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) was introduced to minimize granting overhead

    for applications such as VoLTE. SPS takes advantage of the fairly consistent and

    predictable transmission pattern of VoLTE packets (e.g., a VoLTE implementation might

    typically be sending an encoded voice packet every 20ms) to make a persistent grant

    of uplink and downlink RBs rather than scheduling each uplink and download RB

    individually. A persistent grant removes the need to make a separate grant for each

    20ms of encoded audio. A Radio Resource Control (RRC) message is used to establish

    the periodicity of the recurring RB grant. The green boxes in Figure 3 illustrate the SPS-

    scheduled RBs for a VoLTE call. As shown by the orange box in Figure 3, additional RBs

    can be dynamically scheduled for data traffic while SPS is enacted (e.g. enable a web

    page download while on a VoLTE call).

    One potential downside of SPS could occur in situations where there is silence during a

    VoLTE conversation. If the SPS grant is maintained during silent periods, physical layer

    resources are wasted. That is why SPS is semi-persistent; when it makes sense, an

    SPS grant can be cancelled. If the UE does not transmit audio packets over a number of

    network-defined transmission opportunities, the uplink grant will implicitly expire. On

    the downlink, the network has the option of using an RRC message to cancel the grant.

    Thus the right balance can be struck between reducing control channel overhead and

    maximizing efficiency in the use of shared data channels.

    Figure 3: Semi-Persistent Scheduling

    Semi-Persistent Scheduling

    Benefit: SPS greatly reduces the overhead associated with

    scheduling small and periodic VoLTE audio packets,

    thus reducing processing overhead and providing

    more bandwidth to accommodate additional users

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    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    It should be noted that there are actually multiple usage profiles defined for RoHC:

    Profile 0: Uncompressed Packets that cannot be compressed with the

    following profiles

    Profile 1: RTP Compress packets using IP/UDP/RTP protocol headers Profile 2: UDP Compress packets using IP/UDP protocol headers

    Profile 3: ESP Compress packets using IP/ESP protocol headers

    Profile 4: IP Compress packets using IP protocol headers

    Profile 7: RTP/UDP-Lite/IP Compress packets using RTP/UDP-Lite/IP protocol

    headers

    Profile 8: UDP-Lite/IP Compress packets using UDP-Lite/IP protocol headers

    The above example of VoLTE transmission compression ratios assumed the use of RoHC

    Profile 1.

    Robust Header Compression

    Benefit: RoHC can achieve a nearly 50% reduction in the

    size of VoLTE audio transmissions, thus decreasing

    bandwidth needed for any single call and increasing

    the overall number of users on an eNodeB site

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

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    DISCONTINUOUS RECEPTION

    Packet-based voice services such as VoLTE encode periods of audio conversation

    (VoLTE is typically 20ms periods) and then rapidly burst-transmit the encoded period of

    audio to the receiver for decoding and playback over the 20ms period. When viewing

    over-the-air transmissions, it is apparent that each encoded audio packet transmission

    is followed by a period of no transmission.

    Discontinuous Reception (DRX) takes advantage of these silent periods to turn off the

    RF receiver of the UE, as well as other entities such as A/D converters and digital signal

    processors associated with downlink demodulation. This reduces the drain on the

    devices battery and increases talk and standby usage time. RRC messaging is used to

    enable DRX and establish the UE receivers on/off pattern.

    Given that the network established the DRX pattern, it will know when the UE is

    monitoring the PDCCH and know when to schedule downlink data to the UE. Selection

    of the DRX pattern must carefully be determined based on the latency requirements of

    the application and the need to receive any possible retransmissions. Having too long

    of a sleep period may lead to latency greater than the desired performance based on

    the QCI value in use. Refer to Figure 5 for an illustration of a DRX pattern.

    Figure 5: DRX Pattern

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    DRX can also operate in one of two different modes: Long DRX and Short DRX. Long

    DRX has the UE receiver disabled for a longer period of time, and could be applicable

    during periods of silence in the conversation when audio packets are sent less

    frequently. However, when audio is consistently present, Short DRX can be used and a

    cycle can be mapped to the periodic arrival of audio packets. Switching between Long

    DRX and Short DRX is controlled by the eNodeBs MAC Layer and/or an activity timer at

    the UE. Refer to Figure 6 for an illustration of Long and Short DRX.

    Figure 6: Long and Short DRX

    Discontinuous Reception

    Benefit: DRX helps save the UEs battery life during a VoLTE

    call by allowing the UE to turn off its receiver in

    between reception of audio packets

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    TRANSMISSION TIME INTERVAL BUNDLING

    LTE introduces a shorter Transmission Time Interval (TTI) than was offered in previous

    cellular technologies. Specifically, a 1ms subframe is defined as the TTI. Since

    resource scheduling is done for each TTI, a smaller TTI facilitates low over-the-air

    latency for real-time applications. VoLTE is an example of an application that benefits

    from this short 1ms TTI.

    However, the short TTI does lead to uplink issues in select scenarios, most notably at

    the edges of eNodeB coverage. When an eNodeB detects that a UE is at a cell edge

    where reception is deteriorating and the UE cannot increase its transmit power, the

    eNodeB can initiate TTI bundling via RRC messaging. In essence, this means the UE

    will increase the error detection and correction associated with each data transmission

    by transmitting over multiple TTIs (for example, bundling four consecutive TTIs). With

    this enhanced error detection and correction, overall latency is less than when using asingle TTI.

    Figure 7 shows how TTI bundling helps deliver lower-latency VoLTE data at cell edges,

    where data errors are expected. Rather than wait for the HARQ process (normal HARQ

    interlace period is 8ms) to ask for a retransmission of data with new error detection/

    correction bits, TTI bundling assumes that data will need to be retransmitted. In

    TTI bundling a number of data packets are pre-emptively packed into a single HARQ

    interlace period. Each packet contains the same source data coded with 4 different sets

    of error detection/correction bits. Also, HARQ retransmission adds HARQ ACK/NACK

    overhead that TTI bundling does not.

    Transmission Time Interval Bundling

    Benefit: TTI Bundling increases the uplink efficiency at cell

    edges by using multiple bundled TTIs to transmit

    increased error detection and correction data

    Figure 7: Effect of TTI bundling on latency

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    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    LTE VOICE AND LEGACY VOICE SERVICES

    While IMS-based VoLTE, deployed with the RAN features mentioned above, will provide

    a high-quality voice experience when a user is in LTE coverage, consideration must also

    be given to these same users when not in LTE coverage or when leaving LTE coverage.

    This is especially important given that most initial LTE deployments will not be as

    ubiquitous as the underlying 3G coverage. This will certainly lead to situations in

    which a UE on an active VoLTE call will need to transition that call to a legacy network

    as the UE roams out of LTE coverage.

    In early deployments of LTE, there are two general approaches to handling scenarios

    when the UE moves out of LTE coverage: single radio solutions such as Circuit-Switched

    FallBack (CSFB) and dual radio solutions such as Simultaneous Voice-and-LTE (SVLTE).

    With either interim approach, voice traffic is being handled by the legacy circuit-

    switched networks and they are not, at the root, LTE solutions.

    A second phase in LTE voice evolution introduces VoLTE and utilizes a single radio

    solution that seamlessly maintains voice service as the UE moves in and out of areas

    with LTE coverage. This involves completing a seamless handover from VoLTE to

    legacy circuit-switched voice technology. Often referred to as Single Radio Voice Call

    Continuity (SRVCC), this allows a UE, at the proper time and with the proper direction

    from the network, to handover and retune from LTE to a legacy GSM or UMTS network

    (or even a 1X network in the case of legacy 3GPP2) and simultaneously transition

    the audio stream from VoLTE packet-switched delivery to GSM/UMTS (or 1X) circuit-

    switched delivery. This provides for a cost-effective UE (a single radio design is used)that can perform voice services in the most efficient manner (VoLTE when in LTE

    coverage; circuit-switched otherwise) and deliver a positive user experience (calls are

    maintained even when the UE moves out of LTE coverage). Refer to Figure 8 for an

    illustration of a network topology supporting SRVCC.

    Single Radio Voice Call Continuity

    Benefit: SRVCC provides for a quality user experience

    by maintaining voice calls when VoLTE becomes

    unavailable due to loss of LTE coverage

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

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    This is not without complications, however. Implementation of SRVCC must take into

    account that the network and the UE are trying to accomplish at least three non-trivial

    tasks in near simultaneous fashion while minimizing any disruption to the real-time

    voice call that is in progress:

    The UE must retune to a new frequency (and most likely retune to a new band)

    as it switches from LTE to the legacy network

    The UE must acquire and begin transmitting on the legacy network

    Both the network and the UE must transition from delivering audio packets via a

    packet-switched solution to a circuit-switched delivery

    As a result of this complexity, commercial deployment of SRVCC is not expected until

    2013 at the earliest.

    CONSIDERATIONS FOR LTE UE DEVELOPERS

    Every one of the RAN and mobility features mentioned above is not only needed to

    make carrier-grade VoLTE deployments a reality, it also requires implementation

    within the UE to complete deployment, presenting a new level of complexity in UE

    development and testing. UE engineers will need virtually unlimited configurability

    of IMS procedures and SIP signaling to verify the incorporation of RAN features in the

    UE and the management of mobility scenarios and handovers that will occur between

    LTE and 3G technologies. For each of the RAN features described in this paper, some

    considerations for UE developers are listed below. Although not exhaustive, this list is

    meant to provide a broad view of the complexity involved in UE development in pursuit

    of carrier-grade VoLTE.

    Figure 8: SRVCC in an LTE + UMTS deployment

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    VoLTE Deployment and the Radio Access Network

    The LTE User Equipment Perspective

    SUMMARY

    IMS and SIP are necessary technologies for deployment of VoIP in an LTE environment,

    but it is ultimately the introduction of LTE RAN features that creates the differentiation

    between VoLTE and VoIP. Specifically;

    Dedicated Bearers allow for the prioritization of VoLTE audio packets over all

    other best-effort traffic

    Semi-Persistent Scheduling reduces the complexity and overhead of the

    continuous allocation of downlink and uplink physical layer resource blocks to

    transport the audio traffic

    Robust Header Compression reduces the bandwidth associated with the

    headers used to transport relatively small encoded audio packets

    Discontinuous Reception helps conserve battery life of the UE during a VoLTE

    call

    Transmission Time Interval Bundling overcomes the limitation of using short

    (1ms) TTIs at cell boundaries

    SRVCC provides the mechanism to maintain an active voice call as a UE moves

    from LTE coverage to legacy networks

    While much focus has been placed in testing a UEs IMS connectivity and SIP signaling

    conformance, ultimate success of carrier-grade VoLTE deployments will depend on fully

    integrated testing of a UEs signaling along with the negotiation, establishment and

    usage of the associated RAN features mentioned above.

    As discussed in this paper, carrier-grade VoLTE presents unique technical challenges

    and considerations for the UE engineer. Spirent is a global leader in LTE device testing

    and is well positioned to assist in addressing the challenges and test requirements

    early on in the development cycle. Spirents CS8 Device Tester provides all of the

    components necessary to support development and testing of a UEs VoLTE capability

    during the research and development phases of the UE lifecycle.

    This white paper is the third in a series of tools aimed to educate and support UE

    developers as they contribute to the deployment of IMS/VoLTE. Please see Spirent

    website (www.spirent.com) for other free white papers, recorded seminars, posters and

    other resources that may be helpful to the UE developer.

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