A quick note to myself today that might be helpful for you as well on LTE System Information Messages. SI's have existed since the days of GSM (and probably before) and inform mobile devices about all important parameters of how to access the network and how to find neighboring cells. Here's an overview of those that have been defined for LTE so far. For details see 3GPP TS 36.331 Chapter 6.3. Compared to GSM and UMTS, the amount of parameters inside seems quite a bit less bloated:
- Master Information Block: Most essential parameters
- SIB 1: Cell access related parameters and scheduling
- SIB 2: Common and shared channel configuration
- SIB 3: Parameters required for intra-frequency cell reselections
- SIB 4: Information on intra-frequency neighboring cells
- SIB 5: Information inter-frequency neighboring cells
- SIB 6: Information for reselection to UMTS (UTRAN) cells if no suitable LTE cell is available
- SIB 7: Information for reselection to GSM (GERAN) cells if no suitable LTE or UMTS cell is available
- SIB 8: Information for reselection to CDMA2000 systems (mostly for North America)
- SIB 9: Home eNodeB name – for future LTE femtocell applications
- SIB 10 + 11: ETWS (Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System) information
- SIB 12: Commercial Mobile Alerting System (CMAS) information. Never heard about this before!?