LTE Phyiscal Layer

Physical layer of the radio interface is typically the most important argument when different cellular systems have been compared against each other. The physical layer structures naturally relate directly to the achievable performance issues when observing a single link between a terminal station and a base station. For the overall system performance the protocols in the other layers, such as handover protocols, also have a great deal of impact. Naturally it is essential to have low Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) requirements for sufficient link performance with various coding and diversity solutions in the physical layer, since the physical layer defines the fundamental capacity limits. In this chapter, a detailed description of LTE physical layer while focusing on OFDAM technology is given.