Aspects of OFDM-Based 3G LTE Terminal Implementation

3GPP standardized an evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) within the release 8 Long Term Evolution (LTE) project. Targets include higher spectral efficiency, lower latency, and higher peak data rate in comparison with previous 3GPP air interfaces. The E-UTRAN air interface is based on OFDMA and MIMO in downlink and on SCFDMA in uplink. Main challenges for a terminal implementation include an efficient realization of fast and precise synchronization, MIMO channel estimation and equalization, and a turbo decoder for data rates of up to 75 Mbps per spatial MIMO stream. In this study, the authors outline the current 3GPP LTE standard and highlight some implementation details of an LTE terminal. Efficient sample algorithms are presented for key components in the baseband signal processing including synchronization, cell search, channel estimation and equalization, and turbo channel decoder. Their performances, computational and memory requirements, and relevant implementation challenges are discussed.