1.

Explain Ec/Io and RSCP; on what channel are they

measured on?
Ec/Io = energy of carrier over all noise. RSCP = Receive Signal Code Power. In FDD
mode (what we normally deal with) they are measured on the CPICH (pilot). Bonus
if they know that Io is the sum of all interference: thermal/background noise +
interferers + own cell and is wideband. Bonus if they understand that RSCP is
actually measured AFTER de-spreading (i.e. narrowband)

2. What does channelization codes do and function?

Channelization codes are used for spreading and de-spreading of the signals, they
also create the "channels" making it possible to distinguish between
users/connections/channels. Bonus if they know that they have an associated
Spreading Factor and are allocated depending on the bandwidth required by the
service.

3. What does the scrambling code do and function?

Scrambling Code makes it possible for the UE to distinguish the transmissions from
different cells/NodeBs. Bonus if he knows there are 512 primary scrambling codes
and that are broken up to 64 groups of 8 codes each.

4. Explain the concept of Cell Breathing. How is the

accounted for in the link Budget?
Io or No (the interference part of Ec/Io and Eb/No) increase as the traffic on the
network increases since everyone is using the same frequency. Therefore as Io or
No increases the UE or BTS needs to use more power to maintain the same Eb/No or
Ec/Io. When the power required is more than the maximum power allowed, the
connection cannot be made. Users at the cell edge are usually the first to lose
service; hence the service area of a cell shrinks. As traffic decreases, the reverse
happens and the service area increases. They should say that it is accounted for in
the Noise Rise Margin found in the Link Budget.

5. Explain the different Handover types in UMTS

Soft(er) Handover: connected to more than one cell on the same frequency, softer
occurs when 2 cells in the active set belong to same Node-B; Intra-frequency
Hard Handover: Occurs when Ue moves from one cell in one RNC to a cell in
another RNC and the RNCs do not have an Iur link between each other; Inter-
Frequency Hard Handover: when UE changes from one frequency to another
frequency (usually due to traffic layer management or Quality reasons);Inter-
technology (iRAT) Hard Handover: Handover from UMTS to GSM (v.v.) usually at
the edge of UMTS service area but also due to quality reasons.

6. What is an active set, monitor set and detected set?

Active Set: the set of cells with which the UE is currently connected/communicating
with; Drive test usually show them as SC or Pilots but they are actually
cells; Monitored Set: Cells that the UE has detected and is monitoring and are
known to the network, they either don't meet the criteria or the active set is
 full; Detected Set - Cells that the UE has detected but are not known to the
network as yet (missing neighbor likely).

7. What is the major difference in link budgets between

UMTS and GSM/TDMA?
In UMTS you generally have a link budget for each service (voice, data, video etc),
in GSM you usually only use 1 for voice. Each service has a different Eb/No target.
In UMTS you have to consider the target traffic load you will have and add a noise-
rise margin, in GSM you may have a slight interference margin but not normally
related to traffic. In UMTS some services (like voice) will show up as uplink limited
but other services (like HSDPA, 384kbps service) will show as downlink limited. In
UMTS you usually have to consider that all users use the same power from the BTS
therefore the more number of users the lower the maximum power available per
user (maximum power per connection) which is a starting point in the link budget.

8. In the Link Budget, what is a Shadow Fade Margin for

and what factors does it depend on?
The shadow fade margin is dependent on the target percentage area coverage, the
propagation model, and the standard deviation of the lognormal shadowing (usually
the same as the model's standard deviation if the fast fading effects are removed).
The Shadow Fade Margin is a added margin placed in the link budget such that a
guaranteed level of service can be offered "in the worst case".

9. What is the typical maximum active set size and what

needs to be considered when setting this?
3 to 4 cells, the larger the active set size the more likely it is that Iub link efficiency
is reduced (more than one resource for a single connection due to SHO)

10. What are typically the requirements (criteria)

for a cell to be added/removed/replaced to/from/in the
active set?
For addition (Event 1a), candidate cell needs to have an Ec/Io value that is within a
T_ADD threshold of the primary/reference (usually the best) cell for a specify time
hysteresis. For removal (event 1b), cell needs to have Ec/Io lower than T_DROP
margin for a specific time hysteresis. For replacement (event 1c), cell needs to
have an Ec/Io better than the worst cell in the active set by the T_REPLACE and for
a specific time hysteresis.

11. What would you define as a pilot polluter?

Many definitions: A cell that has high signal strength at a location but is not part of
the active set. A cell that, meets the criteria for addition into the Active Set but
cannot enter because the active set is full.
12. How would you find such cells from a planning
tool and from a drive test tool?
Ignoring low signal conditions, if the best cell RSCP is greater than say -85dBm and
there are cells not in the active set but are strong enough to be in the active set
then they are candidate for pilot polluters. Looking at cells that have a high noise
rise, high amount of traffic compared to surrounding cells, may also indicate a pilot
polluter, Any location where, high Signal strength for the (Active Set Size + 1) best
pilot (like the 4th best pilot if AS size is 3). In DTT, areas with poor Ec/Io but good
RSCP, in the monitored set contain a cell with a good Ec/Io but cannot enter the AS
because it is full, Areas where scanner shows a strong signal for a far away cell.

13. What would the call flow be for a Mobile

Originated Call (major RRC messages)?
RRC Connect Request -> RRC Connection Setup -> RRC Setup Complete -> (SETUP,
authentication encryption, TMSI reallocation etc) -> CALL PROCEEDING-> Radio
Bearer Setup -> Radio Bearer Setup Complete -> ALERT -> CONNECT -> CONNECT
ACK ->DISCONNECT -> RELEASE.

14. What are the general triggers for an iRAT

handover?
Ec/Io of best cell below a certain threshold (usually around -16 to -18 dB) or RSCP
of best cell below a certain threshold (usually around -100 dBm).

15. What is compressed mode, what is its function,

and what impact does it have on the network?
Compressed mode is when the mobile goes into a slotted transmit mode whereby it
opens up an idle period (transmission gap) where it can monitor another carrier or
technology (GSM). The impact is that to maintain the same bitrates, it halves the
SF, and therefore increases power level causing higher interference to the
network, If, the SF cannot be halved then the bit rate of the bearer decreases. If
they seem knowledgably, ask them if they know what messages and events trigger
and configure compressed mode on/off. 2D event for on, 2F for off. Messages would
for configuration would be RADIO BEARER RECONFIGURATION, TRANSPORT
CHANNEL RECONFIGFURATION or PHYSICAL CHANNEL RECONFIGURATION.

16. Name the 4 RRC Connected Modes (states) and

describe the characteristics of each.
Cell-DCH: UE has been allocated a dedicated physical channel in uplink and
downlink.
Cell-FACH: UE listens to RACH channel (DL) and is allocated a FACH channel (UL).
Small amounts of UL/DL data can be transfers in this state. The RNC tracks the UE
down to the cell level and cell reselections are possible with the CELL UPDATE
message.
Cell-PCH: UE monitors (using discontinuous reception) a PCH channel (PCH)
indicated by the PICH channel. The RNC tracks the UE down to the cell level and cell
reselections are possible with the CELL UPDATE message. No data can be
transferred in the UL in this state.
 URA-PCH: UE monitors (using discontinuous reception) a PCH channel (PCH)
indicated by the PICH channel. The RNC tracks the UE down to the URA level.

17. If a UE is on a data call (CELL-DCH state) and

there is in no activity for awhile what would you expect
to see occur?
UE should go from CELL-DCH to CELL-FACH then if still no activity to either CELL-
PCH or URA-PCH (via CELL-FACH). If they talk about inactivity timers and mention
that the state goes from CELL-DCH straight to CELL-PCH or URA-PCH that is also
possible. Bonus they say they would see RADIO BEARER RECONFIGURATION
messages when the states are changing.

18. In Release '99, how does the network manage

the throughput on the Radio Interface for a
user/connection?
This question is a little harder to ask, so you may need to work it differently a few
times. Perhaps leading questions could be: What parameter/configuration does the
network change on the air interface What you are trying to hear from the candidate
is that the network assigns a radio bearer with a channelization code with a
spreading factor that matches the requested service maximum bit rate.

19. What is the typical/most common bit rate that

a voice call uses?
They should say 12.2kbps but may be different if they start talking about AMR and
the different rates then the know more. Prod them to see if they know the Spreading
Factor (SF) used for the radio bearer, should be 128.

20. Depending on the RF conditions, what can the

network do to manage call quality?
AMR - for good conditions use codec will low redundancy/overhead; for poor
conditions use codec with lower bit rate requirement but higher overhead, stronger
coding and more redundancy.

21. In HSDPA, how does the network manage the

throughput on the Radio Interface for a user/
connection?
Modulation (16QAM, QPSK etc), Coding (convolution coding, fire codes etc), number
of codes allocated and scheduling (it's a shared resource)

22. Explain Inner and Outer loop power control and

who controls them.
If they start talking about Open and Closed Loop PC, tell them you want Inner/Outer
Closed Loop PC. Inner loop power control is performed by the NodeB to set the
 transmit power of the UE and BTS to compensate for signal variations due to fading
or path loss to maintain the set SIR (occurs up to 1500 times per sec). Outer loop
power control is performed by the RNC to set the target SIR based on the required
BER/BLER for the requested services (occurs up to 100 times per sec).

23. In what cases is Open Loop Power Control

used?
1) Idle to Cell-DCH state, when a connection is setup. When UE goes into soft
handover, ACTIVE SET UPDATE where the new Radio Link initial power settings use
open loop PC.

24. Explain the concept of a Monte Carlo Simulation

for UMTS Design
This is a simulator that randomly distributes terminals/users geographically onto the
network and then checks the link budget for each terminal/connection to see if they
can successfully connect or not. The simulator modifies parameters such has UE Tx
Power, BTS Tx Power, requested bearer (in the case that multiple bearers could
support the same service) when checking if a connection can be made. In every
snapshot the simulator runs through the list of terminals/connections and attempts
to make them all connect successfully, it starts a new snapshot when the number of
successful connections converges. The process then starts on a new snapshot.

25. In pre-launch optimization, how are missing

neighbors usually detected?
Usually you use a scanner and compare the best pilots in Ec/Io from the scanner
against that of the active set and monitored set from an active UE. If there is a
stronger pilot from a nearby cell that appears on the scanner but not on the UE,
there is a possible missing neighbor. One would then verify that the neighbor
appears in defined neighbor list from the OSS.

26. What is the CQI in HSDPA?

CQI is the channel Quality Indicator, Which is calculated on the Basis of RF
informant, and the code allocation is done on the basis of CQI.

27. What is the HARQ?

This is the Hybrid Automatic repeat request Technique for the retransmission of the
lost frame which is used by the HSDPA. That helps to recover the lost frame by two
partially lost frames.

28. What is MIMO Antenna System?

This is the multiple inputs multiple output antenna technique system which improves
the n/w throughput over the air interface.

29. What are the different RABs in R99?

 cs-12.2 for speech,cs-64 for video calls ,ps-16 ps-64 ps 128 ps-384 for data
services.

30. What is TTI in WCDMA how it impact?

It is the transmission time interval for sending one frame for WCDMA it is 10ms.

31. How many PSC in WCDMA?

0-511, Total 512

32. What is the Processing Gain?

Ratio of chip rate to bit rate, lower bit rate services will offer higher processing gain

33. What is the Power Control?

Power control is the mechanism of maintaining minimal power level with acceptable
QOS for each service

34. What should be the idle CPICH power?

10% of the Total Power

35. What is rake receiver?

A rake receiver is a radio receiver designed to counter the effects of multipath
fading. It does this by using several "sub-receivers" called fingers, that is, several
correlators each assigned to a different multipath component. Each finger
independently decodes a single multipath component; at a later stage the
contribution of all fingers are combined in order to make the most use of the
different transmission characteristics of each transmission path.

36. What kinds of services are available with

WCDMA?
Conversational, Background, Streaming, Interactive.

37. Which modulation schemes are used in

WCDMA?
QPSK. HPSK, BPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM

38. What is interleaving?

Interleaving is the technique used to distribute the data so as to make the error
correction accurate at the receiver end.
39. What is threshold for adding and deleting a cell
from Active Set?
For addition 3 dB and for deletion 6dB

40. What are the types of location & routing is

registration update?
1. IMSI attach / detach. 2. Normal LA & RA updating. 3. Periodic LA & RA updating

41. Which timer is involved for periodic LA & RA

update?
Timer t3212 is involved and is contained in SIB1.

42. What is the Difference between Ec/No and

Ec/Io?
Ec/No- Interference caused by combination of the Non-orthogonality of Codes,
thermal noise & all other noises present in the Channel. Ec/Io- Interference caused
by only due to non-orthogonality of codes in the channel.

43. What are the no. of scrambling codes used in UL

and DL?
Scrambling codes in uplink- 2^24-1. Scrambling codes in Downlink- 2^18-1= 8192.

44. What are the types of compressed mode

techniques used in 3G?
Three Types- 1. Puncturing. 2. SF/2. 3.Higher Layer Scheduling.

45. What are MM Procedures?

MM common procedures: 1. TMSI reallocation procedure. 2. authentication
procedure. 3. Identification procedure. 4. MM Information Procedure. 5. Abort
Procedure. 6. Normal Location Update. 7. Periodic Location update. 8. Imsi attaches.

46. What is URA and URA_PCH state?

URA or UTRAN Registration Area is a collection of cells that are used for fast moving
UE's in connected mode when they are not transferring any data. In this case the UE
is in CELL_PCH state. Every time a fast moving UE in CELL_PCH state changes the
cell, a CELL UPDATE needs to be performed to let the UTRAN know of the new
position of the UE. This is done because in the connected mode (CELL_PCH), UE is
known at cell level rather than UTRAN level as in IDLE state. If too many CELL
UPDATES are performed, it defeats the purpose of UE being in CELL_PCH. Hence in
this case the UE is put in URA_PCH state. Now the UE will perform CELL UPDATE
 only when the URA is changed for a UE. The drawback is that when UE needs to be
paged the paging area is now extended to many cells belonging to the URA.
Also Note that the CELL_PCH state is actually a subset of the URA_PCH state. It is
possible to define overlapping URAs to be used in the URA_PCH state. Thus, the
UTRAN operator could define that each cell is a separate URA in addition to other
larger URAs. Then the operator could assign small one-cell URAs for slow-moving
mobiles, and larger URAs for mobiles with greater mobility. The small URAs could
nicely perform the task of the CELL_PCH state. However, it has been decided to
keep these states separate.
The URAs can be overlapping or even hierarchical. The same cell may belong to
several different URAs, and the UEs in that cell may have been registered to
different URAs. SIB 2 contains a list of URA identities indicating which URAs this cell
belongs to. This arrangement is done to further reduce the amount of location
update signaling because now the UEs moving back and forth in the boundary area
of two URAs do not have to update their URA location information if the boundary
cells do belong to both URAs.

47. Which channel contains Layer 1 information?

DPCCH, Layer-1 contains information regarding Power control, Spreading-De-
spreading, Multiplexing-De-multiplexing, Scrambling.

48. Which Channel Contains Layer 3 Information?

DPDCH

49. What are the main KPI's?

Accessibility, Retainability, Intra Frequency HOSR, Intra Frequency HOSR, IRAT
HOSR

50. Which parameter decides the preference

between IFHO & IRAT HO
Handover type

51. UE goes to compress mode after which events?

Compress mode starts at events 2d (RSCP or EC/No base) & 6d (Tx power base)

52. What are the idle mode tasks of UE?

1. PLMN selection & reselection,
2. Cell selection & reselection,
3. LA & RA registration,
4. Paging procedure,
5. Reading System information
53. Explain the cell selection criteria?
Squal = Qqualmeas - qQualMin > 0,
Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas - qRxLevMin - Pcompensation > 0,

where ,Pcompensation = max (maxTXpowerUL - P ;0 ), qQualMin - Minimum

required quality value and is sent in SIB3 for serving cell and SIB 11 for adjacent
cell, qRxLevMin - Minimum required signal strength and is sent in SIB3 for
serving cell and SIB 11 for adjacent cell, maxTXpowerUL - Maximum transmission
power during random access on the RACH and is sent in SIB3, P - UE maximum
output power according to its class

Question -1:What is the Return loss and VSWR?

How are they related, pls. explain?
Answer -1: Both return loss and VSWR is used as
a measure of reflection of E-M waves over coaxial
cable or RF cable or microstrip line. It gives how
much power is reflected and how much power is
absorbed at various points specially at terminating
and source points and at places of impedance
discontinuities. Return Loss in a coaxial cable
having Z0 as characteristic impedance and ZL as
terminating or load impedance can be expressed
as follows:
Return Loss (dB) = 20*Log10((ZL-Z0)/(ZL+Z0))
Where Z0= (L/C)0.5
Both Return loss and VSWR are related as
mentioned in the following expression.
Return loss = 20 log ((VSWR+1) / (VSWR-1))
VSWR ranges from 1 to infinity.
Read more
Question -2: What is 1dB compression point and
3rd order intercept point? What is the relation
between both?
Answer -2: Both 1dB compression and 3rd order
intercept points are used as performance measure
of RF amplifier, RF mixer etc. It provides the limit
of linear region and point from where device will
move to saturation or nonlinear region.
Power output of RF device should vary according
to the input power linearly. The point from when
power output does not vary linearly with the input
device that point is referred as saturation or
compression point. At this place 2 dB changes in
the input power results in only 1dB change in the
output power.
Let us understand 3rd order intercept point with
example of two frequency signals f1 and f2 fed as
input to the RF amplifier within the bandwidth limit
of amplifier. Normally it should produce amplified
f1 and f2 signals but due to distortion in an
amplifier it produces harmonics at other
frequencies. The second order products include
f1-f2 and f1+f2. The third order products include
2f1 +/- f2 and 2f2 +/- f1. The most troublesome
components are 2f1-f2 and 2f2-f1, which falls
within the amplifier bandwidth and level of which is
referred as 3rd order intercept point.
3rd order intercept point (TOI) is usually 10dB
higher than the 1dB compression point.
Refer P1dB versus TOI to know more about the
difference between both.
Question -3: Why is the isolator placed at the
output of the amplifier?
Answer -3: RF Isolator allows signal to flow only in
one direction and hence prevent any reflection
going into the amplifier from output port. Hence it
prevents damage to the amplifier device, read
more.
Question -4:What is carrier to interference
ratio(C/I) and how it is related to SNR?
Answer -4: C/I refer to ratio of carrier power to the
interference power. SNR refer to ratio of signal
power to the noise power. C/I apply to modulated
waveform while SNR applies to the unmodulated
waveform,read more.

Question -5: What is G/T of the antenna?

Answer -5: G/T is referred as figure of merit of the
RF antenna. G stands for Antenna gain and T
stands for Antenna noise temperature.
Refer satellite terminology page to know more
about figure of merit of antenna. This is most often
asked in the interview for satellite group position.
Question -6: Explain difference between RF
circulator and isolator.
Answer -6: RF circulator is a 3 port device and
isolator is a 2 port device. Both allow signal to flow
in any one direction and prevents signal going into
the other direction as per design. RF circulator
being having 3 ports, there are two main types
clockwise and anticlockwise. If ports are say P1,
P2 and P3 then isolator can pass signal from P1 to
P2, P2 to P3 and from P3 to P1 and not in other
direction if designed so otherwise it will pass signal
from P3 to P2 and P2 to P1 and from P1 to P3.
Refer RF isolator vs RF circulator page.
Question -7: Explain the transmission mode for
EM waves in microstrip line. Also explain types of
microstrip line.
Answer -7: Quasi TEM mode is used in a
microstrip line. In a normal TEM mode, E-field and
H-field are perpendicular to each other and also
perpendicular to the direction of propagation.
Refer difference between TEM and Quasi TEM
wave. This interview question is very important to
judge microstrip line fundamental of interviewee.
Question -8: What is the difference between
harmonics and spurious? When these signals are
generated in RF circuit?
Answer -8: Harmonic and spurious frequencies are
generated when RF mixer and amplifier devices
are operating in nonlinear region due to distortion.
Integer multiple of input frequency is referred as
spurious. Non integer multiple of input frequency is
referred as spurious. Refer spurious versus
harmonics page.
Question -9: What is image frequency rejection in
RF transceiver? What is the difference between
homodyne and heterodyne architecture in RF
Receiver?
Answer -9: The pair of frequencies which produce
the same output at the output of the RF receiver
are referred as images of each other. For example
in C-band satellite receiver, 3700MHz and 5785
MHz produce the same 70MHz as output. Hence
here 5785MHz is the image frequency for
3700MHz and vice versa, Refer RF
measurementstutorial to know more about this and
other RF measurements. Homodyne and
heterodyne are the two main architectures used in
RF receiver. Refer heterodyne receiver vs
homodyne receiver to find the difference between
them.
Question -10: What is the relation between dBm,
dBW and Watt?
Answer -10: All these are units of power
measurement , dBm refers to decibel related to 1
milliwatt, dBW refers to decibel related to 1 watt,
Refer difference between dBm and dBW.