LTE UE Category & Class Definitions

LTE UE categories are used to inform the NB of the UE capabilities: Cat 9, Cat 6, Cat 4, Cat 0, Cat M, etc. are commonly used categories.

4G LTE includes:
What is LTE LTE OFDMA / SCFDMA MIMO LTE Duplex LTE frame & subframe LTE data channels LTE frequency bands LTE EARFCN UE categories / classes LTE-M (Machine to Machine) LTE-LAA / LTE-U VoLTE SRVCC

LTE Advanced topics: LTE Advanced introduction Carrier aggregation Coordinated multipoint LTE relay Device to device, D2D

LTE categories are important because they provide information to the base station, eNB from the user equipment, UE about the capability of the UE.

The UE lets the eNB about its performance by letting it know its category. In this way the eNB is able to provide data at the required level.

In some cases the category might inform the eNB that it requires very low data rates as in the case of Cat 0 or Cat M where the level of performance is directed ore towards remote devices, whereas some may be able to provide very high levels of performance like Cat 6, Cat 7, or even Cat 9.

LTE UE category definitions

There are 9 different LTE UE categories that are defined. As can be seen in the table below, the different LTE categories have a wide range in the supported parameters and performance. LTE category 1, for example does not support MIMO, but LTE UE category five supports 4x4 MIMO.

It is also worth noting that UE class 1 does not offer the performance offered by that of the highest performance HSPA category. Additionally all LTE UE categories are capable of receiving transmissions from up to four antenna ports.

A summary of the different LTE UE category parameters is given in the tables below.

Headline data rates for LTE Categories
	LTE UE Category
Link	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Downlink	10	50	100	150	300	300	300	1200
Uplink	5	25	50	50	75	50	150	600

It can be seen that the headline data rates for category 8 exceed the requiremetns for IMT-Advanced by a considerable margin.

While the headline rates for the different LTE UE categories or UE classes show the maximum data rates achievable, it is worth looking in further detail at the underlying performance characteristics.

UL and DL parameters for LTE UE Categories 1 - 5
	LTE Category
Parameter	LTE Cat 1	LTE Cat 2	LTE Cat 3	LTE Cat 4	LTE Cat 5
Max number of DL-SCH transport block bits received in a TTI	10 296	51 024	102 048	150 752	302 752
Max number of bits of a DL-SCH block received in a TTI	10 296	51 024	75 376	75 376	151 376
Total number of soft channel bits	250 368	1 237 248	1 237 248	1 827 072	3 667 200
Maximum number of supported layers for spatial multiplexing in DL	1	2	2	2	4
Max number of bits of an UL-SCH transport block received in a TTI	5 160	25 456	51 024	51 024	75 376
Support for 64-QAM in UL	No	No	No	No	Yes

UL and DL parameters for LTE UE Categories 6, 7, 8
	LTE Category
Parameter	LTE Cat 6	LTE Cat 7	LTE Cat 8
Max number of DL-SCH transport block bits received in a TTI	299 552	299 552	1 200 000
Max number of bits of a DL-SCH block received in a TTI	TBD	TBD	TBD
Total number of soft channel bits	3 667 200	TBD	TBD
Maximum number of supported layers for spatial multiplexing in DL
Max number of bits of an UL-SCH transport block received in a TTI	TBD	TBD	TBD
Support for 64-QAM in UL	No	Yes, up to RAN 4	Yes

From this it can be seen that the peak downlink data rate for a Category 5 UE using 4x4 MIMO is approximately 300 Mbps, and 150 Mbps for a Category 4 UE using 2x2 MIMO. Also in the Uplink, LTE UE category 5 provides a peak data rate of 75 Mbps using 64-QAM.

Note:
DL-SCH = Downlink shared channel
UL-SCH = Uplink shared channel
TTI = Transmission Time Interval

LTE Category 0

With the considerable level of development being undertaken into the Internet of Things, IoT and general machine to machine, M2M communications, there has been a growing need to develop an LTE category focussed on these applications. Here, much lower data rates are needed, often only in short bursts and an accompanying requirement is for the remote device or machine to be able to draw only low levels of current.

To enable the requirements of these devices to be met using LTE, and new LTE category was developed. Referred to as LTE Category 0, or simply LTE Cat 0, this new category has a reduced performance requirement that meets the needs of many machines while significantly reducing complexity and current consumption. Whilst Category 0 offered a reduced specification, it still complied with the LTE system requirements.

LTE Category 0 Performance Summary
Parameter	LTE Cat 0 Performance
Peak downlink rate	1 Mbps
Peak uplink rate	1 Mbps
Max number of downlink spatial layers	1
Number of UE RF chains	1
Duplex mode	Half duplex
UE receive bandwidth	20 MHz
Maximum UE transmit power	23 dBm

The new LTE Cat 0 was introduced in Rel 12 of the 3GPP standards. And it is being advanced in further releases.

One major advantage of LTE Category 0 is that the modem complexity is considerably reduced when compared to other LTE Categories. It is expected that the modem complexity for a Cat 0 modem will be around 50% that of a Category 1 modem.

LTE UE category summary

In the same way that category information is used for virtually all cellular systems from GPRS onwards, so the LTE UE category information is of great importance. While users may not be particularly aware of the category of their UE, it will match the performance an allow the eNB to communicate effectively with all the UEs that are connected to it.