Huawei Technologies

2005.10

Leading Edge
Evolution options from CDMA to LTE

Evolution options from CDMA to LTE

CDMA operators face a lot of pressure in the global evolution trend of wireless networks towards LTE. They are not only challenged in cost reduction, spectrum utilization and tremendous bandwidth demand presented by soaring data services, but also pressured due to a weakened industry chain, competition from GSM/UMTS networks and a surge in international roaming. In this situation, CDMA operators are keen on speeding up evolution from CDMA to LTE.
By Sheng Songtao
s LT E i s i m m i n e n t a n d network construction planning becomes imperative, CDMA operators face a series of questions that they have to answer: How to reasonably allocate spectrum resources? How to provide converged voice services through CDMA/LTE? How to guarantee the throughput and coverage of data services? How to select the most appropriate base station evolution strategy?

Spectrum allocation
CDMA will follow an evolutionary path to LTE rather than a revolutionary one for several reasons, including user stickiness, coverage assurance, and the lack of mature LTE voice solutions. Inevitably, LTE will supplement CDMA rather than be its replacement. Spectr um planning is a key issue

facing CDMA operators. LTE could reasonably occupy 5M-plus bandwidth, while 1x and DO networks would also use substantial bandwidth resources to support CDMA services. Low-bandwidth LTE applications are not appropriate for CDMA operators as CDMA EV-DO can provide data services using low bandwidth. Higher bandwidth for LTE means there are more RBs that could be dispatched by the LTE system, which results in higher performance gains. The industry is still exploring ways o f e n a b l i n g vo i c e s e r v i c e s t h ro u g h LTE, which is not mature as current technologies voice solutions, with the two current options comprising Circuit Switched Fall Back (CSFB) and VoIP. For most operators, 1x network is an essential supplement to both CSFB and VoIP. Even LTE VoIP cannot surpass 1x technology in terms of voice services, especially after the future inception of 1x advance. In the

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case of VoIP, if subscribers geographically roam from LTE+CDMA to CDMA, voice calls must be switched from a VoIP to a 1x network using Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) technology. And CSFB is more dependent on 1x networks to initiate and receive voice calls. Given 1xs voice service advantages and LTEs dependence on 1x networks, 1x must consume significant bandwidth to ensure service continuity during the network upgrade process. Similarly, DO guarantees network coverage and smooth service upgrades for regular users, which in turn justifies its inclusion under the LTE umbrella. If a CDMA operator has between 5 and 8 CDMA frequency spots, 4 consecutive frequency spots with 5M bandwidth can carry LTE services, while the remaining 1 to 4 bear CDMA services. An operator with 10M-plus bandwidth can leverage 10M bandwidth for LTE services and allocate the remaining bandwidth to CDMA. Bandwidth allocation also affects CDMA/LTE network topography, especially the choice of base stations. The technologies specified in LTE advanced standards, such as multi-carrier aggregation, will enable operators to more flexibly utilize spectrum resources. Carrier convergence can schedule nonconsecutive carriers through a unified scheduling algorithm to boost spectrum resource utilization. The bandwidth of upload and download are not necessary to be symmetrical any more. An operator can then optimize spectrum efficiency based on the upload/download throughput ratio.

As LTE is imminent and network construction planning becomes imperative, CDMA operators face a series of questions that they have to answer: How to reasonably allocate spectrum resources? How to provide converged voice services through CDMA/ LTE? How to guarantee the throughput and coverage of data services?
is how to process paging from the other network while camping on one network or in active mode (calling or using the data service of one network). The Interworking Solution (IWS) node allows the CSFB to address this issue by encapsulating a paging message from the CDMA network into the LTE network message. The LTE network then can deliver this encapsulated CDMA paging message to the terminals who is on LTE network. Dual-standby mobile phones have the advantages of requiring less network changes to facilitate interworking between two networks. Nevertheless, such handsets necessitate complex terminal customization and quickly drain battery power. Pe r f o r m a n c e a n d s u p p o r t i n g o f PS handover during CSFB have been optimized in the 3GPP R9/R10 for CSFB solution. In R9, the LTE network transparently transmits certain CDMA signaling for CDMA voice calls. The operations for establishing calls are performed in advance, which yields substantial performance gains by slashing the theoretical completion time to just over 1 second for the CSFB caller and 2 seconds for the recipient, which is considerably less than the 4 and 4.5 seconds respectively required in R8. Unlike in R8, CSFB in R10 hands or

Voice enabling
There are two options to enable voice services during the evolution process. Initially, operators may use the CSFB solution to solely provide data services across LTE networks, while carrying voice services across their CDMA networks. CSFB is a 3GPP-defined standard solution that requires terminals to provide either dual-mode single-standby or dualmode dual-standby capabilities. For singlestandby mobile phones to simultaneously use dual-network services, the question

switches ongoing LTE data services over to the CDMA network to ensure data service continuity when subscribers use voice services. In R8, LTE data services are suspended until the CDMA voice service ends, and after that, the terminal is reconnected to the LTE network and data services resumed. Another option to enable voice is LTE VoIP+SRVCC. Several integrated operators simultaneously provide fixed and mobile services. They use IMS-based VoIP in fixed networks, and will continue to do so for LTE. As LTE technology matures and becomes commercialized, all mobile services will migrate to LTE and VoIP technology will become prevalent. 3GPP has specified a QoS Class Identifier (QCI) for VoIP services to ensure that LTE VoIP raises the quality of end user experience (QoE). Various technologies such as robust header compression (RoHC), semi-persistent scheduling, and transmission time interval (TTI) bundling, have been introduced. However, an ongoing problem in actual applications is that LTE often fails to provide the same coverage as a 2G/3G network, and thus voice service continuity is not guaranteed when a VoIP user leaves the LTE coverage area. SRVCC is a solution defined in 3GPP standards that solves this problem by realizing handover between different wireless modes. Operator can then provide a converged VoIP solution between LTE and the legacy wireless networks (like CDMA/GSM/UMTS/Wi-Fi). Particularly suitable for CDMA operators planning to build an IMS network and provide LTE VoIP, SRVCC allows a terminal to utilize LTEs high throughput data transmission capacity to provide VoIP in an LTE coverage area and then use the IWS node to handover to the CDMA network to ensure service continuity when out of LTE coverage. The IMS network that stores voice service link information guides the CDMA network to establish a link to replace the original VoIP channel. Though the SRVCC solution is more complex than CSFB and requires IMS support, it neatly dovetails with VoIP development trends and is more popular with operators as a result. At the end of
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Evolution options from CDMA to LTE 2009, various operators and equipment vendors issued the One Voice specification to simplify IMS protocols and enable the industry to focus on enhancing LTE VoIP voice service development. In terms of the pattern of applying CSFB and LTE VoIP+SRVCC, CSFB will be extensively used as a transitional solution during initial LTE construction, despite its less satisfactory performance, as it requires little network changes. As VoIP technology matures, LTE VoIP+SRVCC will begin to dominate. lengthy interruption to service provision. Optimized handover boasts substantial performance advantages, but is much more complicated with the introduction of S101 and S103 interfaces. The S101 interface enables LTE network to transparently transmit CDMA call signals between CDMA network and terminals before the handover, which lowers the time to establish the service after terminals tune to the CDMA network and improves service continuity. Packet loss is reduced by forwarding data through the S103 interface during handover. I n t e r - R a d i o A c c e s s Te c h n o l o g y Automatic Neighbor Relation (IRAT ANR) and load balancing technology in SON increases the effectiveness and ease of LTE and CDMA interworking. IRAT ANR reduces Neighbor List allocation tasks during network constr uction. Additionally, load balancing technology can handover a proportion of terminals in either idle or active state to another network if the CDMA or LTE network load becomes too heavy. As LTE initially provides just basic data services, non-optimized handover is suitable during the early network construction stage as it can be rapidly deployed, despite its relatively poor performance. In turn, optimized handover is appropriate for mature LTE networks. Other technologies such as load balancing, in mature stage of the deployment of LTE networks, can enhance network performance and ensure that LTE/CDMA networks are able to provide data services at high throughput rates with broad coverage. no CAPEX and OPEX advantages due to the high deployment costs and the independent set of O&M requirements for each network. However, most CDMA operators are hoping to cut costs by reusing the same hardware platform to provide CDMA and LTE services, in which case SDR technology can come into play. If the CDMA and LTE networks use different frequency bands, such as 800MHz or 1900MHz for CDMA and 700MHz or 2.6GHz for LTE, there are no currently available mature RF modules that can simultaneously support two mutually remote frequency bands. However, the two networks can use the same baseband unit (BBU). This approach has two advantages: (1) A shared BBU reuses transmission equipment; (2) Different RF units and antenna feeder systems allow the CDMA and LTE networks to be independently optimized, especially the antenna and downtilt angles. For refarming in which CDMA and LTE networks use the same frequency band like 800MHz or 1900MHz, the two networks can use the same RF module as the spectrum for both CDMA and LTE is usually narrow. Industry is now trying to utilize CDMA, LTE, GSM, UMTS and WiMAX solutions based on the same hardware platform. However, the lack of MIMO applications in traditional CDMA standards hinders the development of LTE on a CDMA-based platform. As a result, LTE on a CDMA-based platform supports only single transmission, which is likely to promote resource reuse since some operators that intend to cover only hotspot areas in the initial stages mostly consider reusing the distributed antenna system (DAS) in the hotspot areas of the existing network. The existing networks DAS usually supports only single transmission, which is compatible with the single transmission RF module. An operator with a strong need for LTE dual transmission can select a dual-transmission RF module based on the LTE platform, or select the CDMA platform to realize LTE with extra benefit of high transmission power by 2 CDMA RF modules.
Editor: Liu Zhonglin liuzhonglin@huawei.com

Data services enabling

LTE networks offer better data service capabilities than CDMA networks, but their limited current LTE coverage means that CDMA must be used to supplement data service provision. The nature of data service interoperability between the two types of networks depends on the service launch mode of operators. Interoperability between CDMA and LTE networks or dual-mode terminals is not required if terminals are limited to LTE-covered areas when numbers are assigned, and the two networks can operate independently. If nomadic subscribers wish to enjoy data services in different areas, which calls for the complementarity of CDMA networks in terms of coverage, then dual-mode terminals are required, while network interoperability is not. When an operator plans to provide data services not only in LTE hotspot areas, but also outside of LTE coverage areas by utilizing wide-coverage CDMA network, handover from LTE to CDMA is required to ensure data service continuity, using one of two protocols: non-optimized handover and optimized handover. Non-optimized handover needs few network changes other than upgrading: (1) The software of NEs network-wide, like BTS/BSC and (2) PDSN to High Rate Packet Data (HRPD) Serving GateWay or HSGW to support the connecting between the S2a interface and the LTE PDN gateway. However, a terminal must first access the CDMA network before establishing a call, which takes an enormous amount of time and creates a 51 MAR 2010 . ISSUE 55

Base station options

Base stations are another key consideration for CDMA operators in that selection depends on existing network resources, reuse strategy, and network performance. As leading operators with complete CDMA networks are generally unwilling to make any network changes, they can instead construct an independent LTE network to complement the CDMA network. However, this approach has