UMTS from the beginning

RNDPO 3G Design Team

 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history
• UMTS basics
– CDMA
– Power control, and noise-rise
– Handover
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
• UMTS channel structure
– Logical, transport and physical
channels
– Channel mapping
• UMTS spread spectrum processes
– Channelisation,
– Scrambling and spreading codes
– Processing gain
– Downlink and uplink frame
structure
• UMTS cellular engineering
– Network access
– Cell search
– Power control
– RAKE receiver
– Hard, soft, softer handover
• UMTS design engineering
– Radio link budgets
– Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
• UMTS performance engineering
– BER, FER
• UMTS traffic engineering
– Noise rise and F-factor
– Load factor
– Pole capacity
 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history
• UMTS basics
– CDMA
– Power control, and noise-rise
– Handover
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
• UMTS channel structure
– Logical, transport and physical
channels
– Channel mapping
• UMTS spread spectrum processes
– Channelisation
– Scrambling and spreading codes
– Processing gain
– Downlink and uplink frame
structure
• UMTS cellular engineering
– Network access
– Cell search
– Power control
– RAKE receiver
– Hard, soft, softer handover
• UMTS design engineering
– Radio link budgets
– Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
• UMTS performance engineering
– BER, FER
• UMTS traffic engineering
– Noise rise and F-factor
– Load factor
– Pole capacity
 UMTS in Vodafone Radio History
• 1G (TACS – Total Access Communications)
– Analogue FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access) Systems in commercial
operation since the mid-1980’s. Every user had a 25kHz channel in FDD
(Frequency Division Duplex), i.e. separate up-link and down-link frequency bands.
TACS supported speech and data (via modem)
• 2G (GSM – Global System for Mobile Communications)
– Digital FTDMA (Frequency/Time Division Multiple Access) Systems introduced in
the early 1990’s. Every user has one of 8 timeslots on a 200kHz channel (also
operating in FDD mode). Speech, data (via modem) and supplementary services
• 3G (UMTS – Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems)
– Digital CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) Systems to be trial-led in 2001.
Use of WCDMA in 5MHz band FDD mode to support voice and data
communications of up to 2Mbps
UK 3G Spectrum Licences
BT3G ONE2ONE
£4,030,100,000 £4,003,600,000

TIW VODAFONE ORANGE

£4,384,700,00 £5,964,000,000 £4,095,000,000
 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history
• UMTS basics
– FDMA, TDMA & CDMA
– Power control
– Handover
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
• UMTS channel structure
– Logical, transport and physical
channels
– Channel mapping
– Downlink and uplink frame
structure
• UMTS spread spectrum processes
– Channelisation codes
– Scrambling and spreading codes
– Processing gain
• UMTS cellular engineering
– Power control
– RAKE receiver
– Hard, soft, softer handover
• UMTS design engineering
– Radio link budgets
– Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
• UMTS performance engineering
– BER, FER
• UMTS traffic engineering
– noise rise and F-factor
– Load factor
– Pole capacity
 FDMA, TDMA & CDMA (1)
• 1st Generation – FDMA, e.g. AMPS, NMT and TACS
• 2nd Generation – TDMA / FTDMA, e.g. GSM, DAMPS
• 3rd Generation – CDMA, e.g. IS-95, WCDMA

p p p

t t t

f f f
FDMA TDMA CDMA
 FDMA, TDMA & CDMA (2)
1 Chip
3.84Mbps 1 Symbol

Data

Spreading code

Spread signal

Spreading code

De-spread signal

Spread noise signal

De-spread noise signal

Spreading factor 8:1

 FDMA, TDMA & CDMA (3)
Channelisation Scrambling
A
Code code
OVSF Gold
B A/Gp
DATA GpB
Rb

Spreading (Gp = Rb/CR)

De-spreading

B
DATA Channelisation Descrambling
code code
 Power Control
• Power control is vital to the operation of Eb’
“Near-far”
any CDMA system Problem
• Because all mobiles share the same
spectrum (separated by PN codes) each
“sees” the other as background noise,
accordingly all mobiles must use the
minimum practicable power level
• Mobiles are mobile, hence power
control is a continuous activity
• Open loop – fast estimate
• Closed loop – counters fading losses
Handover

• Hard handover – the mobile performs a

simple handover between 2 cells
• Soft handover – the mobile is transient
between the coverage regions of 2 or 3
cells
• Softer handover – the mobile is
transient between 2 sectors
 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history • UMTS cellular engineering
• UMTS basics – Power control
– CDMA – RAKE receiver
– Power control – Hard, soft, softer handover
– Handover
• UMTS design engineering
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
– Radio link budgets
• UMTS channel structure – Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
– Control, logical and physical
channels • UMTS performance engineering
– Channel mapping – BER, FER
– Downlink and uplink frame • UMTS traffic engineering
structure – Noise rise and F-factor
• UMTS spread spectrum processes – Load factor
– Channelisation, scrambling and
– Pole capacity
spreading codes
– Processing gain
 Architecture
IuCS RNS
Node B
GMSC MSC/VLR RNC USIM

Node B
Cu
HLR Iub
Iur
Node B
GSGN SGSN RNC ME

IuPS Node B
CN UTRAN UE
UU
 Hardware Architecture
MTX
MSC
Iu

BT E
NTL D
C&W P I Iur/Iu
etc B F RNC
N A
C
Iub
E
Iub/Iur/Iu Node B
STM1
155Mbps
RNC
 SRNC and DRNC
Iur
DRNC

SRNC

DRNC
Iur
 UMTS Iu interface
• Iu connects the UTRAN to the CN
– Iu supports RANAP (RAN Application Part)
– IuCS is circuit switched, IuPS is packet switched
• Iur is the logical interface between two RNCs
– Iur supports RNSAP (RNS Application Part)
– Iur interface allows soft handover between RNCs built by different
manufacturers. Vodafone experience of a multi-vendor environment
indicated a more complicated situation
• Iub interface connects a Node B and an RNC
– Iub supports NBAP (Node B Application Part)
– UMTS is the first telephony system to standardise a fully open interface at
this point in the network architecture
 Air interface protocol stack

OSI Layers Core Network Non-access stratum UE

L7 Application L7
voice data fax
L6 Presentation
ftp
L5 Session
internet irc
L3
L4 Transport Access
L3
L3 Network stratum 0010110
011101
L2 Link 101011
L1 01 1101
L1 Physical

Iu UTRAN Uu
 Access Stratum (UTRAN)
Control plane signalling User Plane Signalling

Radio Resource
L3
Control RRC

Radio Link Logical link control manages

data transfers
Control RLC
L2 Logical Channels
Random access, error correction,
Medium Access
ciphering, link control functions,
Control MAC multiplexing of logical channels
Transport Channels
Physical channels spread
L1 Physical Layer over large bandwidth

Physical Channels
 Lower layer messaging (channels)

Logical Logical

OSI layer 3
segments

Transport Transport Radio Link Radio Link

OSI layer 2
frames

OSI layer 1 Physical Physical

bits ATM
 RANAP
• Relocation (SRNS relocation, Inter RNS hard handover)
• Radio Access Bearer management
• Iu release
• Reporting unsuccessfully transmitted data
• Paging
• Tracing management
• Transparent CN-UE signalling
• Security mode control
• Management of overload
• Location reporting
 RNSAP
• Iur supports RANAP in four distinct ways
– Support basic inter-RNC mobility
• SRNC relocation
• Supports inter-RNC cell area updates, inter-RNC packet paging
• Reporting of protocol errors
– Support of dedicated channel traffic
• Establishment, modification and release of DCH in DRNC
• Transfer of DCH transport blocks between DRNC and SRNC
– Support of common channel traffic
• Setup and release of transport connections for CCH
• Split the MAC layer between SRNC and DRNC
– Support of global resource management
• Transfer of cell measurements between two RNCs
• Transfer of Node B timing information between two RNCs
 NBAP
• Common NBAP
– Set-up of RL for one UE, selection of traffic termination point
– Cell configuration
– Handling of RACH/FACH and PCH
– Initialisation and reporting of cell or Node B specific measurements
– Fault management
• Dedicated NBAP
– Addition, release and reconfiguration of RL for one UE
– Handling of dedicated and shared channels
– Handling of soft/softer HO combining
– Initialisation and reporting of RL specific measurements
– RL fault management
 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history
• UMTS basics
– CDMA
– Power control, and noise-rise
– Handover
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
• UMTS channel structure
– Logical, transport and physical
channels
– Channel mapping
– Downlink and uplink frame
structure
• UMTS spread spectrum processes
– Channelisation, scrambling and
spreading codes
– Processing gain
• UMTS design engineering
– Radio link budgets
– Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
• UMTS cellular engineering
– Power control
– RAKE receiver
– Hard, soft, softer handover
• UMTS performance engineering
– BER, FER
• UMTS traffic engineering
– Noise rise and F-factor
– Load factor
– Pole capacity
 UTRAN Access Stratum
Radio Resource
L3
Control RRC

Radio Link
Control RLC Logical Channels
L2
Medium Access
Control MAC Transport Channels

L1 Physical Layer Physical Channels

 Logical channels
• The MAC layer provides transfer access via a set of logical channels

• A logical channel is defined for each different transfer requirement.

Each logical channel related to particular kinds of information that
needs to be transferred

• Some are related to signalling information and some to traffic

information, accordingly, logical channels are split

– control channels BCCH PCCH CCCH DCCH

– traffic channels DTCH CTCH

Mapping logical and transport channels

CTCH CCCH BCCH DCCH DTCH PCCH

FACH BCH RACH DCH CPCH DSCH PCH

 Transport channels
L2

MAC
Logical channels

Transport channels Identified by a

Requires information about the certain code and
UE, since common channel is common dedicated is thus UE
divided on a cell wide basis specific
RACH CPC
DCH
FACH DSCH
FAUSCH
DSCH CONTROL
BCH PCH

L1 Physical channels
Mapping transport and physical channels

BCH PCCPCH
SCCPCH
FACH
PRACH
PCH DPDCH
FAUSCH/RACH DPCCH
DCH PDSCH
PCPCH
DSCH SCH
CPCH CPICH
AICH
PICH
CSICH
CD/CA-ICH
 Common PILOT Channel (CPICH)
• CPICH is un-modulated but scrambled under the cell-specific primary
scrambling code (spreading factor 256)

• CPICH aids channel estimation for the DCH and provides channel
estimation for the common channels (when not associated to the DCH
or during involvement with adaptive antennas)

• Two types of CPICH:

– Primary – under a fixed cell-wide channelisation code. P-CPICH
involved in measurements for handover and cell selection/reselection.
Altering the CPICH power causes handover between cells
– Secondary – may have any 256-bit channelisation code (and may have
secondary scrambling codes also). Generally used in situations requiring
narrow antenna beams at “hot spots”, or areas of very high traffic density
 Synchronisation Channel (SCH)
• SCH also has primary and secondary channels, these are used for cell
search

• Primary SCH uses an identical 256 chip spreading sequence,

secondary SCH uses different sequences representing different code
groups

• Once the terminal has identified secondary SCH, frame and slot
synchronisation is obtained, as is information about the group the cell
belongs to
 Uplink Channel
2560 chips (about 666.7ms)

DPDCH DATA

DPCCH PILOT TFCI FBI TPC

0 1 2 3 14

10ms
 Uplink channel multiplexing
Channelization
code, cD

I Complex
DPDCH
scrambling
(data)
code
I+jQ

DPCCH Q
*j
(control)

G is the relative powers

Channelization Sqrt(G) of the DPCCH and the
code, cC DPDCH
 Uplink Channel (2)
• Control information (physical layer) carried by the DPCCH with a
fixed spreading factor of 256.
• Higher layer information (including user data) is carried on the
DPDCHs with variable spreading factors from 256 to 4
• DPDCH rate can vary frame-by-frame, rate information is carried with
the TFCI (which is on the continually transmitting DPCCH)
 Uplink Channel (3)
When the Node B receives the signal on the uplink it de-spreads the
DPCCH to the max bit rate (smallest spreading factor) and then:
– For every slot: decode the pilot for channel and SIR estimates;
update the UE power according to the TPC (transmission power
control) bits
– For every 2nd or 4th slot: decode the FBI (FeedBack Information)
bits and make any necessary antenna diversity adjustments (phase
or amplitude)
– For every 10ms frame: decode the TFCI information to get the bit
rate and channel coding of the DPDCH
– For every interleaving period (10,20,40 or 80ms): decode the
DPDCH
 Down-link Channel
2560 chips

DPCCH DPDCH DPCCH DPDCH DPCCH

Slot TFCI DATA TPC DATA PILOT

Downlink 0 1 2 3 14
DPCH

10ms
 Down-link Channel (2)
• Downlink Dedicated Physical Control Channel (DPCH) time
multiplexes control information and user data transmission

• As with the up-link the DPDCH spreading factor is normally carried

on the TFCI:
– If the TFCI is not present, the DPDCH bit positions are fixed, lower data
rates are implemented using DTX by gating the transmissions on/off
– If TFCI is present, flexible transport slot positions for the DPDCH may
also be used
 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history
• UMTS basics
– CDMA
– Power control, and noise-rise
– Handover
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
• UMTS channel structure
– Control, logical and physical
channels
– Channel mapping
– Downlink and uplink frame
structure
• UMTS spread spectrum processes
– Channelisation, scrambling and
spreading codes
– Processing gain
• UMTS design engineering
– Radio link budgets
– Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
• UMTS cellular engineering
– Power control
– RAKE receiver
– Hard, soft, softer handover
• UMTS performance engineering
– BER, FER
• UMTS traffic engineering
– Noise rise and F-factor
– Pole capacity
– Erlang capacity
 Spreading Codes
1 Chip
3.84Mbps 1 Symbol

Data

Spreading code

Spread signal

Spreading code

De-spread signal

Spread noise signal

De-spread noise signal

Spreading factor 8:1

 OVSF
(Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor)
Reported by Adachi et al.
(Electronics Letters, Vol33, C41=(1,1,1,1)
No1, pp27-28, 1997) By C21=(1,1)
choosing codes from the
branch with the smallest
C42=(1,1,-1,-1)
spreading factor different
C11=(1)
length codes can be used,
and orthogonality
maintained. C43=(1,-1,1,-1)

Very similar to the Walsh C22=(1,-1)

Codes generated using C44=(1,-1,-1,1)
recursive Hadamard
matrices
Spreading factor 1 2 4 … 256
 Channelisation Codes
• Transmissions on the downlink within one sector (i.e. from a single
source) are separated by channelisation codes
• WCDMA channelisation codes are generated using OSVF which
allows spreading factor to be changed and code orthogonality to be
maintained (managed at RNC)
• Uplink : separates DPDCH & DPCCH
• Downlink : separation of connections to different users within one cell
 Scrambling Codes
• Scrambling is used on top of channelisation to separate terminals or
Node-B’s from each other (scrambling does not affect the signal
bandwidth)
• WCDMA scrambling codes are Gold codes with a frame length of
10ms
• Down-link scrambling limited to 512 possible codes, several million
possible codes may be used on the up-link
• If advanced Node-B receivers are used extended S(2) codes (much
shorter) can be used instead on the up-link
 Channelisation & Scrambling
Channelisation Scrambling
Use Uplink: separation of Uplink: separation of
DPDCH & DPCCH terminal
Downlink: separation of Downlink: separation of
UE in same sector sectors
Length Uplink: 4-256 chips Uplink: (1) 10ms (2) 66.7ms
Downlink: 512 chips Downlink: 10ms
Number of codes Determined by Uplink: several millions
spreading factor Downlink: 512
Code family OSVF Long 10ms code: Gold
Short 66.7ms code: Extended
S2 code
 Processing Gain
• When spreading data the
bandwidth of the coded signal A
DATA
“expands” by the spreading Rb
factor, and hence rises above B
interference. Processing Gain
(Gp) gives CDMA it’s
robustness A/Gp
• Gp=10log10CR/Rb(dB) GpB
• 25dB=10log103.84e6/12.2e3
(12.2kHz to support speech
service) DATA A
Rb
B
 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history
• UMTS basics
– CDMA
– Power control, and noise-rise
– Handover
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
• UMTS channel structure
– Control, logical and physical
channels
– Channel mapping
– Downlink and uplink frame
structure
• UMTS spread spectrum processes
– Channelisation, scrambling and
spreading codes
– Processing gain
• UMTS design engineering
– Radio link budgets
– Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
• UMTS cellular engineering
– Power control
– RAKE receiver
– Hard, soft, softer handover
• UMTS performance engineering
– BER, FER
• UMTS traffic engineering
– Noise rise and F-factor
– Load factor
– Pole capacity
 CDMA Cell Design
In order to achieve links with good
SNR across the cell 4 particular
parameters must be considered:
• Radio link budgets
• Down-link Ec/Io (pilot channel)
• Down-link Eb/No (traffic channel)
• Up-link Eb/No (traffic channel)
 Radio Link Budgets
Chip Rate cps 3.84E+06
Bit Rate bps 1.22E+04

• These are service specific, that Base NF dB 5

kT dB/Hz -203.9772
is, they describe the maximum kTW dB -138.1339
permitted path loss of a link NthW dB -133.1339

whilst retaining efficacy Base Ant. Gain

Mobile Ant. Gain
dBi
dBi
17
2
Building/Vehicle Penetration Loss dB 5
Ba se Ca b le Loss dB 2
Total Effective G_antennas dB 12
• Fast fading assumptions are Users mapping
Interference Margin
No. users
dB
5.07
1
built into the speed of travel Eb/Nt (=Avg Eb/No+0.5dB)
Avg Eb/Nt (3% FER, 30kph)
dB
dB
6
5.5
suggested by the budget Proc e ssing G a in
Effective SNR
dB
dB
24.97971
-18.47971
loading 0.195
BTS Rx sensitivity dBm -122.1136
Mean Noise rise dB 0.59
• The required Eb/No for the Soft Handoff Gain dB 3.5
Max Power (200mW) dBW -9
service is defined at this point Sha d ow Fa de Ma rg in (single c e ll) dB 10
(93%-ile a re a re a lia bility fo r std e v=8.9d B,n =3.4)
Max Isotrop ic Pathloss dB 148.1136
S-Suburba n, R-Rural R
Max Ra ng e km 1.614134
 Pilot channel Ec/Io
• Ec/Io is the chip energy per interference density measured on the
PILOT channel

• Continuously monitored, results are reported to Node B to determine

power should be altered (and consequently whether or not handover
should occur)

• Ec/Io therefore largely determines the coverage area of a cell

Ec/Io Single Cell Single Mobile
Ec a 0 P0 L0G

I0 Ih  In  N

• P0 – Node B ERP
• a0 – fraction of Node B ERP allocated to pilot
• L0 – path loss from Node B to mobile
• G – receiving mobile antenna gain
• Ih – power received at mobile from Node B
• In – non-CDMA interference power
• N – thermal noise power
Ec/Io Many Cells Single Mobile
Ec a 0 P0 L0G

I0 Ih  In  Io  N

• The mobile in question is now also

receiving powers from other surrounding
Node Bs. These are treated as an
additional interference term
• Io – power received at mobile from
surrounding Node Bs (sum of received powers
passed through mobile antenna gain)
Ec/Io Single Cell Many Mobiles
Ec a 0 P0 L0G

I0 Ih  In  Im  N

• The Node B in question is now also

serving a number of “extra” mobiles (no
other Node Bs around)
• The downlink powers to these mobiles act
as interference to the mobile in question,
hence Im as an interference term
• Im is the total “extra” traffic power
received at the mobile (measuring Ec/Io),
but is not deterministic because these
power levels are constantly changing
Ec/Io Many Cells Many Mobiles
Ec a 0 P0 L0G

I0 Ih  In  Io  Im  It  N

In the case that many mobiles are being

served across many cells, Ec/Io calculations
combine the methods described previously.
An additional term, It, is included in the
denominator
• It is the total traffic power received at the
mobile in question from all other Node Bs
(i.e. excluding home Node B)
 SCH, Common Pilot, Ec/Io

SCH transmitted every 1/10 th of a slot and is non-orthogonal to all

other downlink channels, note this comparable to downlink pilot in
IS-95

Common pilot is orthogonal to downlink channels and is used for

coherent demodulation at the receiver

Ec/Io is the energy per chip over interference required for

successful detection of SCH or common pilot (-14 to -18dB). This
is the measure for adequate downlink coverage
 Pilot Pollution
Pilot pollution occurs when several pilots serve an area at similar
level, hence giving rise to excessive interference, hence inadequate
Ec/Io for SCH

 P GT
SCH BS

SCH Ec / Io

( P   P )GT   P G T
BS SCH BS BSi i i

: Proportion of power allocated to the channel under consideration

PBS: Power of BS
a: Non-orthogonality factor
G: Path gain due to antenna/feeder loss etc
T: Transmission loss
Pilot Pollution - WCDMA Example
Assuming similar pathloss for interferers, the following simple
equation may be derived

Ec
  (1   )
N  Io
"Pilots"
Ec
Io
Example, UMTS SCH, Ec/Io=-18dB, and 10% allocated

0.1  0.0158(1  0.1)

N "Pilots"
 5
0.0158
Example, UMTS SCH, Ec/Io=-14dB, and 10% allocated, ~2 pilots!
 Traffic Channel Eb/No
• Eb/No, or, the energy per traffic bit over the total wideband noise,
effectively is the signal-to-noise ratio on the traffic channels
• Eb/No can be directly translated to a BER (bit error rate) probability
(the exact method for calculating which is determined by the
modulation scheme used)
• Different data services have different Eb/No requirements, e.g. 12.2kHz
speech service typically requires 5dB Eb/No
Eb/No Single Cell Single Mobile
Eb  CR 

Pj

N o  v j R j I I N
 h n

• Pj – power received at jth UE

• CR – chip rate
• vj – activity factor
• Rj – user data rate
• Ih – interference power at the mobile in
question emitted by the home Node B
• In – interference received from non-CDMA
sources
• N – thermal noise power
Eb/No Many Cells Single Mobile
Eb  CR 

Pj

N o  v j R j I I I N
 h n o

• The mobile in question is now also

receiving powers from other surrounding
Node Bs. These are treated as an
additional interference term
• Io – power received at mobile from
surrounding Node Bs (sum of received powers
passed through mobile antenna gain)
Eb/No Single Cell Many Mobiles
Eb  CR 

Pj

N o  v j R j I I I N
 h n m
• The Node B in question is now also
serving a number of “extra” mobiles (no
other Node Bs around)
• The downlink powers to these mobiles act
as interference to the mobile in question,
hence Im as an interference term
• Im is the total “extra” traffic power
received at the mobile (measuring Eb/No),
but is not deterministic because the
orthogonality factor is constantly changing
Eb/No Many Cells Many Mobiles
Eb  CR 

Pj

N o  v j R j I I I I N
 h n m t
In the case that many mobiles are being
served across many cells, Eb/No calculations
combine the methods described previously.
An additional term, It, is included in the
denominator
• It is the total traffic power received at the
mobile in question from all other Node Bs
(i.e. excluding home Node B)
Eb/No requirements for services
Required energy per bit of signal / energy of system
(wideband) noise (Eb/No) differs for different service
types (determined in the Radio Link Budget for the
service in question)

For speech Eb/No

is in the order 4.3dB
For data
Eb/No is in
the order 3.4dB

144kbps real-time data Eb/No required = 1.5dB

384kbps non-real time data Eb/No required = 1.0dB
Required SNR, Eb/No and Gp
Processing gain (Gp) is the ratio of CR/Rb, so
speech data at 12.2kbps has a Gp of 25dB
(10 log10 3.84×106/12.2×103)

Required SNR = Eb/No - Gp

For speech required

For data at
SNR is 4.3-25 = -20.7dB
2Mbps Gp is
2.83dB

For data required

SNR is 3.4-2.83 = 0.57dB
Uplink Eb/No Single Cell Single Mobile

In the single cell single mobile case the

calculation is similar to that expressed
for the downlink

Eb  CR  Pj


N o  v j R j  I  N
 n
All “primed” variables, e.g. P’, refer to
The uplink
Uplink Eb/No Single Cell Many
Mobiles
Clearly an additional interference term needs to
be added:
Eb  CR  Pj

N o  v j R j  I m ' I n ' N

Im’ is the total interference from uplink traffic

channel transmissions. Since these powers
appear random (due to power control) Im’ is
typically modelled as a random variable
Uplink Eb/No Many Cells Many
Mobiles
In this case there are other mobiles being
served on other cells that are interfering
with the uplink traffic of the mobile in
question, Eb/No calculation is modified:

Eb  CR 

Pj

N o  v j R j  I  I  I  N
 m t n
Effectively It’ is the total “outer” cell
interference
 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history
• UMTS basics
– CDMA
– Power control, and noise-rise
– Handover
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
• UMTS channel structure
– Control, logical and physical
channels
– Channel mapping
– Downlink and uplink channel
structure
• UMTS spread spectrum processes
– Channelisation, scrambling and
spreading codes
– Processing gain
• UMTS design engineering
– Radio link budgets
– Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
• UMTS cellular engineering
– Power control
– RAKE receiver
– Hard, soft, softer handover
• UMTS performance engineering
– BER, FER
• UMTS traffic engineering
– Noise rise and F-factor
– Load factor
– Pole capacity
 Power Control
• Power control is vital to the operation of Eb’
“Near-far”
any CDMA system Problem
• Because all mobiles share the same
spectrum (separated by codes) the Node
B “sees” the others as background
noise, accordingly all mobiles must use
the minimum practicable power level
• Mobiles are mobile, hence power
control is a continuous activity
 Power Control (2)
• Open-loop
– Open-loop power control
estimates the channel and
adjusts power but does not
obtain feedback information to
determine effectiveness
– Channel estimation is done by
measuring the received pilot
power and setting transmit
power to be inversely
proportional
– Fast but not accurate (assumes
forward and reverse link paths
are closely correlated)
• Closed-loop
– Closed-loop control bases its
decision on an actual
performance metric: RSSI,
SNR, BER, FER etc.
– The node B receives the metric
estimation and compares with
the chosen metric, a power
control command is then
issued to the UE
– If the control decision is made
at the Node B additional
information regarding the load
of the cell can also be used
 Downlink power control
• Why do we need downlink power control?
– Mobiles near the edge of the cell suffer from inter-cell interference hence
spoiling the “ideal” situation
– Log-normal shadowing
• Dynamic range of the downlink power control is smaller than uplink
and updates at a much slower rate
– The mobile monitors the FER from the Node B and periodically reports
this back (some modes only report an FER which exceeds a set value)
– The Node B receives the FER reports and slightly adjusts transmitting
power – the aim is to equalize performance of the downlink signals in the
cell or sector
• Downlink power control will alter the cell/sector shape and size
 Uplink power control
• Performance of the uplink is most Metric estimation
affected by the “near-far” effect
– Fast closed loop power control Compare with
bases decisions on some reference
performance metric, e.g. received metric
power level, C-I, BER or FER (or
some combination). Performed Relate to
1500 times a second other users
– If power control is performed at
the Node B additional knowledge Issue power
about the performance of a group control
of mobiles may be used (more command
accurate but more complex in
design) Receive power control command

In/Decrement transmitted power

 Gain of fast power contol
Required Eb/No with and without power control

No power Fast 1.5kHz Gain from fast

control power control power control

Pedestrian at 11.3dB 5.5dB 5.8dB

3kmh

Vehicle at 3kmh 8.5dB 6.7dB 1.8dB

Vehicle at 6.8dB 7.3dB -0.5dB

50kmh
 Outer loop power control
Power control algorithms are designed SIR
to alter power to satisfy a given SIR target
target (required Eb/No). Outer loop
power control means setting the SIRtarget
Mobile stands still
on each iteration of the downlink power
control inner loop time

Frame reliability info

RNC – if
quality < SIRtarget
target, adjustments
increase BS – if SIR <
SIRtarget SIRtarget send
“power up”
command
 Network access: uplink power
Mobile
control
transmit
power
2nd access
probe
• Access probes are used to
1st access correction determine the initial power
probe setting at the mobile
correction
• Initiate with very low power
levels which are then increased
by access probe corrections
• These are separated by some
Initial
transmit random time to allow for
power acknowledgement by the Node
B (and will not continue if the
Node B acknowledges
Random Interval
 The RAKE receiver
• Other multi-path signals can be regarded as interference
• The RAKE is used to provide path diversity in multi-path channels
• Each multi-path component demodulator is called a “finger” on the
rake
• The number of fingers on the rake sets the hardware complexity,
however there exists a “law of diminishing returns” whereby the
increase in numbers of fingers initially provides large improvements
but gains are soon not so substantial (the higher number of fingers also
drains battery power faster)
• Chip rate of 3.84Mbps theoretically enables coherent resolution of
multipath components that are 0.26ms apart
 The multi-path effect

The timing delays introduced by multi-path signals will lead to a loss

of orthogonality between signals. Due to the variation of the channel
in a given environment, the non-orthogonality factors are actually a
distribution. However in many capacity estimates we simply
associate single figures with different environments
 RAKE receiver block
Multipath channel RAKE
c(t-t1)
t1 a1 a1’
MUX DEMUX c(t-t2)
t2 a2 a 2’
c(t-t3)
t3 a3 a3’
Code
Gen Electronically representing The elements of the RAKE
the signal bouncing around come out from a single bar
buildings, trees, aeroplanes with a physical appearance
etc. similar to a garden rake,
hence the name
 The RAKE receiver (2)
Performs four main operations:
• It extracts the signal energy of each distinct path (by correlation to time
delayed version of signal with locally generated code)
• It removes phase difference between paths (by multiplying the signal
by its complex conjugate of the channel response)
• It weights each path according to their received signal energy (again by
the multiplication process with the complex conjugate of the channel
response)
• It sums the path energies before making a decision on the transmitted
data bit (maximal ratio combing)
 RAKE summary
• On a downlink a mobile receives the complete CDMA signal from a
single source, i.e. the Node B, with the same relative power. The ideal
link
• Orthogonal codes are used to separate channels/users on the downlink
• Overlaying PN codes are used to separate the Node Bs
• Multi-path can be utilised by the RAKE at the UE, but too many strong
peaks in the channel response can lead to loss of orthogonality on the
downlink
Handover
• When mobiles travel between cells they
“handover” to the neighbouring
cell/sector
• UMTS exhibits three types of handover
– Intra-mode
• Soft (between cells)
• Softer (between sectors of a cell)
• Hard (between cells)
– Inter-mode
• Handover to TDD mode
– Inter-system
• Handover to GSM
 Active/Neighbour Sets
• Ec/Io measurements are signalled to the RNC (using Layer 3 signals),
these then are used to determine whether hand-over should occur

• The following lists of cells are maintained

– Active set – those cells which currently communicate with the UE

– Neighbourhood/monitored set – the list of cells continuously monitored by

the UE but whose Ec/Io is not strong enough to be added to the Active set

– IS-95 also maintains a Candidate Set but this is not used in WCDMA
 Hard Handover
• In FDMA and TDMA systems handover occurs when signal strength
of a neighbouring BS exceeds the signal strength of the serving BS by
a given threshold (typically 2-4dB). This is a “break before make”
approach also called “Hard Handover”
• Not suitable for CDMA systems as F reuse = 1 and this type of handoff
will cause too much interference – i.e. near-far effect causes problems.
Hence the UE starts talking to the neighbouring BS at the same time as
it is talking to its serving BS. This is a “make-before-break” approach,
known as “Soft Handover”
• Hard Handover is used for CDMA systems when handing between
channels (Licence A has 14.8MHz, nearly 3 channels), inter-system (to
non-CDMA systems) is obviously also HHO
 Soft Handover
Mobile is located in overlapping coverage
areas of two or three cells (served by
separate Node Bs) communicates with
more than one sector of the same cell:
• Multiple separate (i.e. using different
cell scrambling codes) communications
• These are combined in the mobile on the
downlink
• These are combined in the RNC on the
uplink
– to ensure best possible frame reliability
– to alleviate outer loop power control
issues
 Soft handover Functions
• Three main functions are required to perform SHO
– Radio link addition
– Radio link deletion
– Radio link replacement (combined addition and deletion)

• These functions are used to add, delete or delete_and_add to the active

set (each has a specified hysteresis event condition that must be met)

• These are placed in the SHO algorithm

– UMTS algorithm differs slightly from the IS-95 algorithm (i.e. candidate
set maintenance)
 WCDMA soft handover algorithm
PilotEcIo

ActiveSetFull?

PilotEcIo > BestPilotEcIo – (ReportingRange + HysteresisEventA)

No

AddCellToActiveSet

PilotEcIo < BestPilotEcIo – (ReportingRange – HysteresisEventB)

No

RemoveCellFromActiveList

BestCandidatePilotEcIo > (WorstOldPilotEcIo + HysteresisEventC)

Yes

Replace WeakestInActiveSet with BestCandidatePilot

 Ec/Io
WCDMA hand-over
CPICH 1

Reporting range –
HysteresisEvent1A Reporting range +
HysteresisEvent1B

HysteresisEvent1C
CPICH 2

CPICH 3

a 1 a 1,2 a 2,3 a 2
n 2,3 n 3 n 1 n 1,3

Assume that triggering time is instantaneous, and that maximum active set size is 2
 Execution of SHO
• The new Node B needs to know the following RNC information
– which service is being used
– what connection parameters are being used
– UE ID and up-link scrambling code
– relative timing information of the new cell with respect to existing UE
connections

• The UE needs to know via existing connections

– the channelisation codes used for transmission
– relative timing information
 Timing in SHO
Serving Node B CPICH Target Node B CPICH

Timing
difference
measurement

DCH timing
adjustment
 Softer Handover

Mobile is located in overlapping coverage areas of two

sectors of the same cell. Mobile communicates with
both sectors:
• Multiple separate (i.e. using different cell
scrambling codes) communications
• These are combined in the mobile on the downlink
• These are combined in the node B on the uplink
Otherwise all is similar to soft handover
 Power control during handover
Both Node Bs
detect downlink
power control
command
Risk of power drift,
controlled via RNC

Uplink
power-control
reliability check

Downlink combining reduces the required

transmit power, thus reducing interference.
The downlink performance is also improved
in most environments
 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history
• UMTS basics
– CDMA
– Power control, and noise-rise
– Handover
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
• UMTS channel structure
– Control, logical and physical
channels
– Channel mapping
– Downlink and uplink frame
structure
• UMTS spread spectrum processes
– Channelisation, scrambling and
spreading codes
– Processing gain
• UMTS design engineering
– Radio link budgets
– Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
• UMTS cellular engineering
– Power control
– RAKE receiver
– Hard, soft, softer handover
• UMTS performance engineering
– BER, FER
• UMTS traffic engineering
– Noise rise and F-factor
– Pole capacity
– Erlang capacity
 FER
• Frame Error Rate (FER) translates directly to perceived
voice quality, therefore FER should be optimised on both
uplink and downlink
• Eb/No is a quantifiable measure that quickly approximates
FER (an accurate FER figure can be determined but
requires time)
• There are a number of common causes of high FER
– Poor down-link coverage (Low Eb/No due to high path loss)
– Down-link interference (reception of high interfering powers)
– Poor up-link coverage (path loss overwhelms power control)
– Up-link interference (from traffic channels from other mobiles and
noise from non-CDMA origin)
 UMTS from the beginning
• UMTS in Vodafone radio history
• UMTS basics
– CDMA
– Power control, and noise-rise
– Handover
• UMTS architecture and interfaces
• UMTS channel structure
– Control, logical and physical
channels
– Channel mapping
– Downlink and uplink frame
structure
• UMTS spread spectrum processes
– Channelisation, scrambling and
spreading codes
– Processing gain
• UMTS design engineering
– Radio link budgets
– Ec/Io, PILOT pollution, Eb/No
• UMTS cellular engineering
– Power control
– RAKE receiver
– Hard, soft, softer handover
• UMTS performance engineering
– BER, FER
• UMTS traffic engineering
– Noise rise and F-factor
– Load factor
– Pole capacity
 Noise rise & F factor
I m  I t  I n  N
Noise rise, R, rise of interference above thermal noise R
N

Max load
Outer-cell interference (Ioc) I hc
F
Home-cell interference (Ihc) I hc  I oc

F factor is the proportion of noise

rise attributed to interference
from home cell (F=1, means
100% home interference)
 Uplink load factor
Assuming perfect power control:

C W Pj Pj 1
   ( N  )
)  Pj N
( Nj I1Total
I vPj R
Where Pr is the received signal power at the Node B and N is the total number of users.
As N grows large the C-I ratio is effectively the reciprocal of the number of users

Pj  L j I Total Rearranging for Pj and expanding Lj The UPLINK LOAD

FACTOR is the sum
The received power 1
at j is a proportion of Pj  I Total of the individual
factors
W
1
 I   R v
the total power. This N
ul   L j
proportion is the C
j j
LOAD FACTOR for r
j 1
the connection to j
 Uplink load factor (2)
The uplink load factor calculation can be simplified to:
C I
ul   N  v  (1  i )
CR R
Definition Typical value
N Number of users
vj Voice activity of user j at 0.67 for speech
physical layer 1.0 for data
C/I Eb/No to meet a predefined Service dependant
QoS
CR WCDMA chip rate 3.84Mbps
Rj Bit rate of user j Service dependent

i Proportion of effective Design dependant

outer cell interference
 Downlink
CIj

 1  a j   i j 
N
dl   v j 
j 1
CR
Rj

• The key difference to up-link load-factor is orthogonality. Orthogonal

codes separate users on the down-link, but if the delay spread is too
great then the UE might some of the Node B signal as multi-cell
interference
• In the down-link the ratio of own-cell to other cell interference is
different for each user
• Soft handover affects interference calculations by assuming additional
connections within the cell – at the same time Eb/No gains from
macro-diversity reduce the Eb/No requirement for each user
 Down-link load factor
Definition Recommended value

N Number of connections power

cell
vj Activity factor of user j 0.67 for speech, 1.0 for data

C-I Eb/No required to meet QoS Dependent on service, data rate, mobile speed etc
for a given service
CR Chip rate 3.84Mbps

Rj Bit rate of user j Dependent on service

aj Orthogonality factor of user j Dependent on multi-path propagation

ij Ratio of other cell to own cell Each user sees a different ij, depending on location in
interference cell and log normal fading
a’ Average orthogonality factor ITU vehicular A channel = 60%
in cell ITU pedestrian A channel = 90%
I’ Average other cell to own cell Macro-cell with omni-directional antenna = 55%
received by all users
 References
• WCDMA for UMTS, Holma & • Presentations
Toskala Eds. Wiley, 2000 – UMTS Capacity and Planning,
Dave Lister
• CDMA RF System Engineering, – Shirin Dehghan
Yang, Artech House, 1998
– Radio Resource Management
• 3GPP documentation Strategies for WCDMA Amer El-
• Course Notes Saigh
– Wray Castle – Peter Cosimini
– Philips – Andy De La Torre
– Lucent
• Personal communications
– Graham Price, Julie Canning,
Stuart Davis, Andy De La Torre