WRAN OPERATIONS

DAY 2
WCDMA TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

AKASH SHIVHARE

Functional Types of RNC

Controlling RNC (CRNC)
The CRNC controls a Node B. Its functions include code allocation, admission control,
scheduling of system information, cell configuration, and radio link management.
Serving RNC (SRNC)
The SRNC terminates the Iu interface (data and signaling) for a specific mobile. The
signaling between the UE and the UTRAN is Radio Resource Control (RRC), which is
terminated at the SRNC. SRNC functions also include Radio Resource Management
(RRM), outer loop power control, and handovers. The UE can only be connected to one
SRNC at one time.
Drift RNC (DRNC)
It is possible that the UE is using a cell belonging to an RNC other that the SRNC, for
example in a soft handover situation. This RNC is called a Drift RNC (DRNC). The Drift
RNC means an RNC involving radio link addition/deletion/reconfiguring procedure but
not having the bearer radio link mapping control

Contd..

Scrambling & Spreading Codes

Scrambling codes = multiplication of frequency with PN codes, does not affect
bandwidth, Primary 256 chip kasami code, Secondary- segment of long gold code
The primary scrambling codes are divided into 64 code groups, each consisting of
8 codes so a total number of codes will be 512.
Each primary scrambling code has a set of 16 secondary scrambling codes.
Channelization code/ OVSF ( Orthogonal variable spreading factor ) codes/
Spreading codes: Direct sequence spread spectrum codes ( DSSS, QAM ) are
spreader orthogonally with a pulse of +1,-1. Downlink = 4 to 512 SF, Uplink= 4 to
256 SF, increases signal bandwidth.

Contd..
The codes are fully orthogonal, i.e., they do not interfere with each other, only if
the codes are time synchronized.
In downlink OVSF codes are used to distinguish users with in cell/sector &
scrambling codes are used to reduce inter-base-station interference which may be
caused due to the use of same OVSF codes in two adjacent cell/sectors.
In uplink OVSF codes are used to separate the physical channels/services of one
user ( that is why we can use data and speech at a time) and scrambling codes
are used to distinguish between users.

OVSF Code
OVSF-Orthogonal variable spreading factor.
SF=Chip rate/Symbol rate Chip rate is constant in WCDMA=3.84 Mcps
A physical channel may use a certain code in the tree if no other physical channel
uses a code from an underlying branch.
Therefore shorter the Spreading code greater is the bit rate over air interface.

Contd

Channels, Channels and Channels

WCDMA system uses a 3- layer channel structure to carry control information and
user data between layer 2 and layer 1. These three types of channels are:
Logical Channel- provide data transfer service from the MAC layer.
Transport Channel- responsible for mapping L2 information to L1 ( Error detection
& correction).
Physical Channel- Specified by the carrier frequency, codes ( Channelization &
Scrambling codes)

Mapping of Channels

Logical Channels
Logical channels are of two types

1. Control Channels:
BCCH- Broadcast control channel: A downlink channel for broadcasting
system control information, such as the spreading code values of a cell and
neighboring cells, the allowed transmitted power, and other system parameters.
PCCH- Paging control channel: A downlink channel used for transferring
paging information, It is utilized when the network wants to communicate with UE
but does not know its exact location.
CCCH- Common control channel: Bi -directional channel for transmitting
control information between the network and UEs.
DCCH- Dedicated control channel: A point to point bi-directional channel that
transmits dedicated control information between a single UE and the network.

Contd..

2. Traffic channels
DTCH- Dedicated traffic channel: A point to point channel that dedicated to
one UE service for the user information transfer.
CTCH- Common traffic channel- A point to multipoint downlink channel to
transmit dedicated user information for all for a group of specified UEs

Tx Channels

1. Dedicated transport channel

DCH Dedicated Channel: This is the only type of dedicated
transport channel.
The DCH is transmitted over the entire cell and carries all the
information intended for the given user from the higher layers, which
includes data and control information ( UR measurement, handover,
command, etc.)

2. Common Transport channels:

BCH- Broadcast channel: A downlink channel that carries system and cell specific
information, and is transmitted over the entire cell.
FACH- Forward access channel: A downlink channel carries control information to UEs
PCH- Paging channel: A downlink transport channel that is always transmitted over the
entire cell. The PCH carries the information relevant to the paging procedure.
RACH- Random access channel: An uplink channel that carries control information form the
terminal, such as RRC connection setup request.
CPCH- Common packet channel: An uplink packet based transport channel . CPCH is
associated with a dedicated channel on the downlink that provides power control.
DSCH -Downlink Shared channel: A downlink channel shared by several UEs . The DSCH
carries dedicated user data and / or control information and is associated with one or several
downlink DCHs

Physical Channel
1 .Common physical channel
P-CCPCH, S-CCPCH, PRACH, PCPCH,SCH
2. Dedicated physical channel
DPDCH, DPCCH, PDSCH
3. Indication physical channel
AICH,PICH,CD/CA-ICH,CSICH
4. Common Pilot Channels
P-CCPICH,S-CCPICH

Common Physical channel

P- CCPCH- Primary common control physical channel: used to carry the BCH
transport channel. It carries all system information, neighbor list & network
information. D/L channel
S-CCPCH- Secondary common control physical channel: used to carry the
FACH and PCH. It is used for call set up & handoff. D/L channel
SCH Synchronization channel: used for cell search. Consists of system
information, Scrambling code group. D/L channel

Contd..
PRACH-Physical random access channel:
carries the RACH information from the transport channel.
U/L channel
PCPCH-Physical Common Packet Channel:
carries the transport channel CPCH information. CPCH,
transmission is based on the Digital sense multiple accesscollision Detection(DSMA-CD) approach. U/L channel

DPCh
DPDCH- Dedicated Physical Data Channel- carries the user data and higher
layer signaling from the DCH transport channel, and its bit rate can be changed
frame-to-frame ( 10 ms). The spreading factor for the DPDCH ranges from 4 to
256. (Bi directional)
DPCCH- Dedicated Physical Control Channel: carries control information such
as the pilot bits, feedback information (FBI),Transmit power control (TPC).The
spreading factor for the DPCCH is always 256.(Bidirectional)
PDSCH- Physical downlink shared channel: used to carry the DSCH transport
channel. (D/L only)

Pilot Channel dl only

P-CPICH- Primary common pilot channel: Used to carry
scrambling codes and also used in cell selection &
reselections. It is broadcasted over the complete cell. It is
scrambled with primary scrambling codes.
S-CPICH- Secondary common pilot channel: It also
carries similar information that of P-CPICH, but the
information is broadcasted only over a part of cell. It is
scrambled either primary or a secondary scrambling code.

Indication channel ul only

PICH- Page indication channel: a fixed rate (SF=256) physical channel
used to carry the paging indicators. The PICH is always associated with an
S-CCPCH to which a PCH transport channel is mapped.
AICH- Acquisition indication channel: carries the acquisition
indicators (AI), which are used to acknowledge the correctly received
preambles from a PRACH
CSICH- CPCH Status indicator channel: provides the status of CPCH.
The UE will only monitor this channel prior to packet transmission.
CD-CAICH-Collision detection and channel assignment channel :
used to carry CD indicator & CA indicator.

QOS in WCDMA

Power Control
In WCDMA , traffic is controlled by power control Mechanism, as all UEs share
same frequency.
Power Control is of two types:
Open Loop Power Control (Used in Access Mode)
Close Loop Power Control (Used in Dedicated Mode)
Close Loop Control is further of two types:
Inner Loop Power Control (Fast)
Outer Loop Power Control(Slow)

Contd..

Open loop
Open loop power control is the ability of the UE transmitter
to set its output power to a specific value.
It is used for setting initial uplink and downlink
transmission powers when a UE is accessing the network.
In this process, the UE estimates the transmission signal
strength by measuring the received power level of the signal
from the Node B in the downlink and adjust its transmission
power level.

Closed Loop
In the closed loop power control technique, the quality
measurements are done in Node B and the result are then
sent back to mobile transmitter so that it can adjust its
transmitted power.
Close Loop Power Control is of two types:
Inner Loop Power Control
Outer Loop Power Control

Inner Loop
Inner Power control is the ability if the ability of the
UE transmitter to adjust its output power in
accordance with one or more Transmit Power
Control (TPC) commands received in the downlink,
in order to keep the received uplink Signal-toInterference Ratio (SIR) at a given SIR target
Frequency of Inner loop power control is 1500Hz &
the step size is 1,2&3 dB.

Outer Loop
Outer loop power control is used to maintain the
quality of communication at the level of bearer
service quality requirement, while using as low
power as possible.
The uplink outer loop power control is responsible for
setting a target SIR in the Node B for each individual
uplink inner loop power control.
The downlink outer power control is the ability of the
UE received to converge to required link quality
(BER) set by the network (RNC) in downlink.

Handover
The downlink signals, received by the UE, are combined by the UE,
are combined in the RAKE receiver, that allows for multipath
reception and thereby gives protection against fading.
Handover are mainly of two types in WCDMA.
Soft/Softer Handover: When handover occurs between same
carrier frequency, eg- WCDMA handover between same carrier
frequency.
Hard Handover: When handover occurs between different
carrier frequencies or different RAT eg: IRAT handover.

Soft/ Softer Handover

In soft handover, the UE connection consists of at
least two radio links established with cells belonging
to different RBS.
In softer handover the UE connection consists of at
least two radio links established with cells belonging
to the same RBS.

Hard handover
Inter-Frequency Handover: Inter- Frequency
handover allows service continuation on dedicated
channels when the UE is moving our of coverage on
another WCDMA RAN frequency exists.
IRAT Handover: IRAT handover allows service
continuation on dedicated channels for circuitswitched services when the UE is moving out from
WCDMA RAN coverage to an area where only GSM
network coverage exists.
UE need to be in compressed mode to
initiate IF or IRAT handover

IRAT Handover procedure

Compressed Mode
Compressed mode control mechanism whereby
certain idle periods are created in radio frames
during which the UE can perform measurements on
other frequencies. The UE can carry out
measurements in the neighboring cell, such are GSM
Cell and FDD cell on another frequency.

Thank You..