The LTE standard specifies these physical channels:
• Physical broadcast channel (PBCH)
o The coded BCH transport block is mapped to four subframes within a 40 ms interval
o 40 ms timing is blindly detected, i.e. there is no explicit signaling indicating 40 ms timing
o Each subframe is assumed to be self-decodable, i.e. the BCH can be decoded from a single reception, assuming sufficiently good channel conditions
• Physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH)
o Informs the UE about the number of OFDM symbols used for the PDCCHs
o Transmitted in every subframe
• Physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)
o Informs the UE about the resource allocation of PCH and DL-SCH, and Hybrid ARQ information related to DL-SCH
o Carries the uplink scheduling grant
• Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH): Carries Hybrid ARQ ACK/NAKs in response to uplink transmissions.
• Physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH): Carries the DL-SCH and PCH
• Physical multicast channel (PMCH): Carries the MCH
• Physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)
o Carries Hybrid ARQ ACK/NAKs in response to downlink transmission
o Carries Scheduling Request (SR)
o Carries CQI reports
• Physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH): Carries the UL-SCH
• Physical random access channel (PRACH): Carries the random access preamble
