LTE-FDD vs. LTE-TDD (a.k.

a LTE-TD)
In the previous blog a brief description of the motivations for LTE-TDD (Time Division
Duplexing) were presented. In this occasion, a brief comparison of LTE-FDD and LTETDD is presented. Which one do we choose?
The fields compared are:
a) Duplexing: The most significant difference, of course, is the duplexing approach that
these systems utilize. In general, FDD spectrum is symmetric by nature due to the way
regulations are created. In other words, the government agencies usually have
symmetric bandwidth for uplink and downlink for FDD such as 10 MHz in the DL and 10
MHz in the UL.
b) Asymmetry: LTE supports asymmetric bandwidth in the UL and DL. LTE-TDD can be
configured to favor one link over the other. Due to the existence of an additional guard
time in LTE-TDD, LTE-TDD is slightly less efficient than LTE-FDD, however, it offers
more flexibility to serve asymmetric traffic (i.e.: http, ftp, etc.)
c) Hardware Design: Since only transmission or reception is done at a given instant, the
designs of the UE and the eNB are much simpler.
d) Channel Estimation: Since TD-LTE uses the same frequency bandwidth for the DL
and the UL, the eNB can potentially observe the UL channel conditions to infer the DL
channel conditions due to channel reciprocity. Hence, in theory, frequency and the
amount of UE feedback about the DL channel conditions could be lower in TD-LTE.
Another fundamental difference is the so-called S-Subframe to make way for switching
between DL mode to UL mode. This enables both the UE and the eNB to adjust to
either transmitting or receiving data.

The Special Subframe is denoted as an S subframe. TD-LTE supports two types of

switching periodicity
a) The 5-ms periodicity: This is used to accommodate delay-sensitive (and symmetric)
applications like voice. Also, a 5-ms periodicity makes it feasible for the UE to have
compatible operations with WiMAX and TD-SCDMA/UTRA TDD, which also have a
frame structure of 5 ms. The downside of using 5-ms periodicity is the additional
signaling overhead and the wasting of resources for preparation to switching between
the DL and UL.
b) The 10-ms periodicity: This method overcomes the limitations of higher signaling and
provides good spectral efficiency. But it can only support asymmetric delay-insensitive
applications. Voice applications will be difficult to implement with this kind of frame
structure.
The S- subframe is 1 ms in duration and consists of three fields the DL Pilot Time Slot
(DwPTS), the Guard Period (GP) and the UL Pilot Time Slot (UpPTS).

FDD LTE and TDD LTE are two different standards of LTE 4G technology. LTE is a highspeed wireless technology from the 3GPP standard. 3G growth reached its end at
HSPA+, and mobile operators have already started deploying 4G networks to provide
much more bandwidth for mobile users. 4G speed will provide a virtual LAN reality to
mobile handsets by offering very high speed access to the Internet to experience real
triple play services such as data, voice and video from a mobile network.
LTE is defined to support both the paired spectrum for Frequency Division Duplex
(FDD) and unpaired spectrum for Time Division Duplex (TDD). LTE FDD uses a paired
spectrum that comes from a migration path of the 3G network, whereas TDD LTE uses
an unpaired spectrum that evolved from TD-SCDMA.
TD-LTE does not require a paired spectrum since transmission and reception occurs in
the same channel. In FD-LTE, it requires a paired spectrum with different frequencies
with a guard band.
TD-LTE is cheaper than FD-LTE since in TD-LTE there is no need for a diplexer to
isolate transmission and receptions.
In TD-LTE, its possible to change the uplink and downlink capacity ratio dynamically
according to the needs. In FD-LTE, capacity is determined by frequency allocation by
regulatory authorities, making it difficult to make a dynamic change.
In TD-LTE, a larger guard period is necessary to maintain the uplink and downlink
separation that will affect the capacity. In FD-LTE, the same concept is referred to as a
guard band for isolation of uplink and downlink, which will not affect capacity.
Cross slot interference exists in TD-LTE, which is not applicable to FD-LTE.