TTI Bundling in FDD and TD-LTE - Sekhar - Expert Opinion - LTE U...

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Expert Opinion
Short LTE articles and opinions by our team of Subject
Matter Experts (SMEs)

TTI Bundling in FDD and TD-LTE

Sekhar 13 Aug 2012 9:02 PM

Abstract
TTI Bundling has been introduced in FDD and TD-LTE to improve Uplink coverage. In this blog, we shall present the
salient features of TTI Bundling with respect to FDD and TD-LTE. We will first explore the motivation for TTI Bundling
and then compare it with other techniques. Finally, we shall address the implementation of TTI bundling in FDD and
TD-LTE .
Introduction
TTI bundling is a technique used to send a transport block multiple times in consecutive subframes without waiting for
HARQ ACK/NACK messages. Normally, a transport block is converted to multiple redundancy versions after coding
and the first redundancy version is sent in a subframe. Subsequent transmissions of the transport block are
dependent on the HARQ ACK/NACK which is sent 4 subframe durations later or more after the first transmission. In
TTI bundling, the different redundancy versions can all be sent in consecutive subframes without waiting for the
HARQ ACK/NACK feedback and a combined ACK/NACK can be sent after processing all the transmissions of a
transport block.
The motivation for TTI bundling which is illustrated in Figure 1 is the low transmission power of some handsets, short
TTI length, and the long RTT of the HARQ transmissions. TTI bundling is expected to improve the UL coverage of
applications like VOIP over LTE wherein low power handsets are likely to be involved. This feature has more
relevance for TDD over FDD as coverage issues are likely to be more challenging in TD-LTE. Simulation results
reported in publications indicate a 4 dB gain due to TTI bundling on the UL.

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Alternative Approach
The alternative to TTI bundling is RLC segmentation wherein a VOIP payload is split into smaller size RLC PDUs as
shown in Figure 2. The smaller RLC PDUs will result in smaller transport blocks which can be decoded with better
accuracy. One drawback of this method is the potential overhead increase due to RLC segmentation due to multiple
RLC headers needed. For a typical VOIP payload, it has been shown that as we increase the segmentation factor
from 1 to 8, the overhead increases from 14% to 55%. Each RLC PDU which is mapped into a transport block will
need a separate PDCCH assignment message which will contribute to control signal overhead for such a scheme.
There might be retransmissions of each of those transport blocks which will also potentially increase the control
signaling overhead. In addition, since we are transmitting many small transport blocks, the chances of interpreting a
NACK as a ACK also increases proportionately with the increase in the RLC segmentation size. Hence, RLC
segmentation has many disadvantages when we consider the transmission of a VOIP like payload from a power
limited terminal.

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Overview of TTI Bundling

TTI bundling is used to achieve successful transmissions from power limited terminals. The process as shown in
Figure 3 is typically triggered by UE informing the eNB about its power limitations at the present state. This could for
example happen at the edge of a cell when the terminal has to send high power but is limited by the power capability
of the terminal. This triggers the eNB to transmit the various redundancy versions of the same transport block in
consecutive subframes or TTIs giving rise to the name TTI bundling. A single PDCCH allocation is sufficient for the
multiple transmissions thus saving control overhead as compared to the RLC segmentation approach. A single
HARQ ACK/NACK for the combined transmissions is generated after processing the TTI bundle which can reduce the
error rate of the transport block as compared with processing a single redundancy version. This approach can also
reduce the delay in the HARQ process compared to transmissions of the redundancy versions separated in time
using the normal approach.

TTI Bundling Operation

As shown in Figure 4, TTI bundling enables up to 4 redundancy versions of the same transport block to be sent in 4
consecutive subframes. In TD-LTE systems, the TDD configurations standardized allow only a maximum of 3
consecutive UL subframes. A single RLC PDU is transmitted as multiple redundancy versions in consecutive
subframes using a single common allocation. The channel coding used in LTE enables easy generation of the

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multiple redundancy versions from which the transmissions in the TTI bundle are generated. A common RLC header
is shared across the TTI bundle and the same HARQ process identity is used for multiple transmissions in the TTI
bundle. Combined processing of the redundant transmissions over multiple subframes leads to a better probability of
detection of the transport block. Thus, with limited power, the UE has a better chance of a successful transmission
with lesser latency using the TTI bundling method.

Summary: TTI bundling is a useful technique for improving coverage of VOIP handsets in LTE systems. It is
applicable to both FDD and TD-LTE deployments and can improve the link budget by up to 4 dB. Differences in
implementation exist between FDD and TD-LTE systems. TTI bundling helps achieve good latency performance for
VOIP even at the edges of cells.

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