CDMA Overview

ACCESS SCHEMES

For radio systems there are two resources, frequency and time. Division by frequency, so that
each pair of communicators is allocated part of the spectrum for all of the time, results in
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA). Division by time, so that each pair of
communicators is allocated all (or at least a large part) of the spectrum for part of the time results
in Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). In Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), every
communicator will be allocated the entire spectrum all of the time. CDMA uses codes to identify
connections.

Multiple Access Schemes

CODING

CDMA uses unique spreading codes to spread the baseband data before transmission. The signal
is transmitted in a channel, which is below noise level. The receiver then uses a correlator to
despread the wanted signal, which is passed through a narrow bandpass filter. Unwanted signals
will not be despread and will not pass through the filter. Codes take the form of a carefully
designed one/zero sequence produced at a much higher rate than that of the baseband data. The
rate of a spreading code is referred to as chip rate rather than bit rate.
See coding process page for more details.
 CDMA spreading

CODES

CDMA codes are not required to provide call security, but create a uniqueness to enable call
identification. Codes should not correlate to other codes or time shifted version of itself.
Spreading codes are noise like pseudo-random codes, channel codes are designed for maximum
separation from each other and cell identification codes are balanced not to correlate to other
codes of itself.
See codes page for more details.
 Example OVSF codes, used in channel coding

THE SPREADING PROCESS

WCDMA uses Direct Sequence spreading, where spreading process is done by directly
combining the baseband information to high chip rate binary code. The Spreading Factor is the
ratio of the chips (UMTS = 3.84Mchips/s) to baseband information rate. Spreading factors vary
from 4 to 512 in FDD UMTS. Spreading process gain can in expressed in dBs (Spreading factor
128 = 21dB gain).
See spreading page for more details.

CDMA spreading

POWER CONTROL

CDMA is interference limited multiple access system. Because all users transmit on
the same frequency, internal interference generated by the system is the most
significant factor in determining system capacity and call quality. The transmit power
for each user must be reduced to limit interference, however, the power should be
enough to maintain the required Eb/No (signal to noise ratio) for a satisfactory call
quality. Maximum capacity is achieved when Eb/No of every user is at the minimum
level needed for the acceptable channel performance. As the MS moves around, the
RF environment continuously changes due to fast and slow fading, external
interference, shadowing , and other factors. The aim of the dynamic power control is
to limit transmitted power on both the links while maintaining link quality under all
conditions. Additional advantages are longer mobile battery life and longer life span
of BTS power amplifiers
See UMTS power control page for more details.

HANDOVER

Handover occurs when a call has to be passed from one cell to another as the user
moves between cells. In a traditional "hard" handover, the connection to the current
cell is broken, and then the connection to the new cell is made. This is known as a
"break-before-make" handover. Since all cells in CDMA use the same frequency, it is
possible to make the connection to the new cell before leaving the current cell. This is
known as a "make-before-break" or "soft" handover. Soft handovers require less
power, which reduces interference and increases capacity. Mobile can be connected to
more that two BTS the handover. "Softer" handover is a special case of soft handover
where the radio links that are added and removed belong to the same Node B.
See Handover page for more details.
 CDMA soft handover

MULTIPATH AND RAKE RECEIVERS

One of the main advantages of CDMA systems is the capability of using signals that
arrive in the receivers with different time delays. This phenomenon is called
multipath. FDMA and TDMA, which are narrow band systems, cannot discriminate
between the multipath arrivals, and resort to equalization to mitigate the negative
effects of multipath. Due to its wide bandwidth and rake receivers, CDMA uses the
multipath signals and combines them to make an even stronger signal at the receivers.
CDMA subscriber units use rake receivers. This is essentially a set of several
receivers. One of the receivers (fingers) constantly searches for different multipaths
and feeds the information to the other three fingers. Each finger then demodulates the
signal corresponding to a strong multipath. The results are then combined together to
make the signal stronger.

Main UMTS Codes

Here us a summary of the main UMTS FDD codes:

Synchronisation Channelisation Scrambling Scrambling

Codes Codes Codes, UL Codes, DL
Type Gold Codes Orthogonal Variable Complex-Valued Complex-Valued
Spreading Factor Gold Code Gold Code
 Segments (long) or
Primary Synchronization (OVSF) codes Complex-Valued Segments
Codes (PSC) and Secondary S(2) Codes (short)
Synchronization Codes sometimes called Pseudo Noise (PN)
(SSC) Walsh Codes Pseudo Noise (PN) codes
codes
38400 chips /
Length 256 chips 4-512 chips 38400 chips
256 chips
1.04 µs -
Duration 66.67 µs 10 ms / 66.67 µs 10 ms
133.34 µs
512 primary / 15
= spreading factor
Number of 1 primary code / 16 secondary for
4 ... 256 UL, 16,777,216
codes secondary codes each primary
4 ... 512 DL
code
No, does not
No, does not change Yes, increases No, does not change
Spreading change
bandwidth bandwidth bandwidth
bandwidth
UL: to separate
physical data and
To enable terminals to control data from
locate and synchronise same terminal Separation of Separation of
Usage
to the cells' main DL: to separate terminal sectors
control channels connection to
different terminals in
a same cell

WCDMA Spreading

TDD WCDMA uses spreading factors 4 - 512 to spread the base band data over
~5MHz band. Spreading factor in dBs indicates the process gain. Spreading factor 128
= 21 dB process gain). Interference margin is calculated from that:

Interference Margin = Process Gain - (Required SNR + System Losses)

 Required Signal to Noise Ration is typically about 5 dB

 System losses are defined as losses in receiver path. System losses are typically 4 -
6 dBs
 Overview of Spreading Process
UMTS Power Control

Open loop power control is the ability of the UE transmitter to sets 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. The open loop power control tolerance is
± 9 dB (normal conditions) or ± 12 dB (extreme conditions)

Inner loop power control (also called fast closed loop power control) in
the uplink is 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-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) at a given SIR
target. The UE transmitter is capable of changing the output power with a step size of
1, 2 and 3 dB, in the slot immediately after the TPC_cmd can be derived. Inner loop
power control frequency is 1500Hz.

The serving cells estimate SIR of the received uplink DPCH, generate TPC
commands (TPC_cmd) and transmit the commands once per slot according to the
following rule: if SIRest > SIRtarget then the TPC command to transmit is "0", while if
SIRest < SIRtarget then the TPC command to transmit is "1". Upon reception of one or
more TPC commands in a slot, the UE derives a single TPC command for each slot,
combining multiple TPC commands if more than one is received in a slot. Two
algorithms are supported by the UE for deriving a TPC_cmd. Which of these two
algorithms is used, is determined by a UE-specific higher-layer parameter,
"PowerControlAlgorithm".

Algorithm 1:
 The power control step is the change in the UE transmitter output power in
response to a single TPC command

Algorithm 2:
 If all five estimated TPC command are "down" the transmit power is reduced by 1
dB
 If all five estimated TPC command are "up" the transmit power is increased by 1
dB
 Otherwise the transmit power is not changed

Transmitter power control range

The transmit power of the downlink channels is determined by the network. The
power control step size can take four values: 0.5, 1, 1.5 or 2 dB. It is mandatory for
UTRAN to support step size of 1 dB, while support of other step sizes is optional. The
UE generates TPC commands to control the network transmit power and send them in
the TPC field of the uplink DPCCH. Upon receiving the TPC commands UTRAN
adjusts its downlink DPCCH/DPDCH power accordingly.

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. This target SIR is
updated for each UE according to the estimated uplink quality (BLock Error Ration,
Bit Error Ratio) for each Radio Resource Control connection. The downlink outer
loop power control is the ability of the UE receiver to converge to required link
quality (BLER) set by the network (RNC) in downlink.
Power control of the downlink common channels are determined by the network. In
general the ratio of the transmit power between different downlink channels is not
specified in 3GPP specifications and may change with time, even dynamically.

Additional special situations of power control are Power control in compressed

mode andDownlink power during handover.

UMTS Handover

There are following categories of handover (also referred to as handoff):

 Hard Handover

Hard handover means that all the old radio links in the UE are removed before the
new radio links are established. Hard handover can be seamless or non-seamless.
Seamless hard handover means that the handover is not perceptible to the user. In
practice a handover that requires a change of the carrier frequency (inter-frequency
handover) is always performed as hard handover.
 Soft Handover

Soft handover means that the radio links are added and removed in a way that the UE
always keeps at least one radio link to the UTRAN. Soft handover is performed by
means of macro diversity, which refers to the condition that several radio links are
active at the same time. Normally soft handover can be used when cells operated on
the same frequency are changed.
 Softer handover

Softer handover is a special case of soft handover where the radio links that are added
and removed belong to the same Node B (i.e. the site of co-located base stations from
which several sector-cells are served. In softer handover, macro diversity with
maximum ratio combining can be performed in the Node B, whereas generally in soft
handover on the downlink, macro diversity with selection combining is applied.

Generally we can distinguish between intra-cell handover and inter-cell handover. For
UMTS the following types of handover are specified:

 Handover 3G -3G (i.e. between UMTS and other 3G systems)

 FDD soft/softer handover
 FDD inter-frequency hard handover
 FDD/TDD handover (change of cell)
 TDD/FDD handover (change of cell)
 TDD/TDD handover
 Handover 3G - 2G (e.g. handover to GSM)
 Handover 2G - 3G (e.g. handover from GSM)

The most obvious cause for performing a handover is that due to its movement a user
can be served in another cell more efficiently (like less power emission, less
interference). It may however also be performed for other reasons such as system load
control.

 Active Set is defined as the set of Node-Bs the UE is simultaneously connected to

(i.e., the UTRA cells currently assigning a downlink DPCH to the UE constitute the
active set).
 Cells, which are not included in the active set, but are included in the
CELL_INFO_LIST belong to the Monitored Set.
 Cells detected by the UE, which are neither in the CELL_INFO_LIST nor in the
active set belong to the Detected Set. Reporting of measurements of the detected set
is only applicable to intra-frequency measurements made by UEs in CELL_DCH
state.

The different types of air interface measurements are:

 Intra-frequency measurements: measurements on downlink physical channels at
the same frequency as the active set. A measurement object corresponds to one cell.
 Inter-frequency measurements: measurements on downlink physical channels at
frequencies that differ from the frequency of the active set. A measurement object
corresponds to one cell.
 Inter-RAT measurements: measurements on downlink physical channels
belonging to another radio access technology than UTRAN, e.g. GSM. A
measurement object corresponds to one cell.
 Traffic volume measurements: measurements on uplink traffic volume. A
measurement object corresponds to one cell.
 Quality measurements: Measurements of downlink quality parameters, e.g.
downlink transport block error rate. A measurement object corresponds to one
transport channel in case of BLER. A measurement object corresponds to one timeslot
in case of SIR (TDD only).
 UE-internal measurements: Measurements of UE transmission power and UE
received signal level.
 UE positioning measurements: Measurements of UE position.
The UE supports a number of measurements running in parallel. The UE also supports
that each measurement is controlled and reported independently of every other
measurement.