Comparison of SIR Estimation Techniques for Closed-Loop Power Control in the W-CDMA System

S. Gunaratne, T.G. Jeans, R. Tafazolli, B.G. Evans

Centre for Communication Systems Research University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK Tel.: +44-(0)1483-683036, Fax: +44-(0)1483-686011, E-mail: S.Gunaratne@surrey.ac.uk
ABSTRACT : The objective of this work is to compare SIR (Signal to Interference-plus-noise Ratio) estimation techniques that can be used to optimize the closed-loop power control (CLPC) scheme in the W-CDMA system. The motivation for this work stems from the fact that researchers apply such estimation techniques before or after RAKE combining of the signal. In particular, we focus on the application of these estimation techniques to the CLPC scheme in the UMTS-FDD uplink and compare their performance. Two SIR estimation algorithms, one in which the processing is done before RAKE combining, and the other where it is done after RAKE combining are compared; the overestimation problem that occurs with the former scheme is highlighted and the pros and cons of the two algorithms are discussed. The performance metric used for the comparison is the uncoded BER. (I) INTRODUCTION Tight power control (PC) is an important aspect in CDMA systems, which have a capacity that is interference-limited. Both CLPC and open-loop power control are used in the W-CDMA UMTS-FDD uplink, the latter scheme being used mainly for the coarse adjustments of the UE (User Equipment) power at initial connection [1], while the former is used within the duration of a connection, to minimize interference caused to the network as well as to maintain the QoS of the user concerned. Many factors influence the performance of the CLPC scheme, which amongst others include the round trip delay (RTD), level of diversity available at the receiver, return-link PC command errors, dynamic range of the handset and the effect of the errors caused by the baseband algorithms at the base station (BS), such as channel estimation (CHEST) and SIR Estimation [2]. We focus on the SIR estimation aspect for the scheme, where an incorrect PC command can be generated at the BS due to inaccuracies in the SIR estimate, resulting in a power maladjustment at the UE; consequently, a power up or a power down by the UE can result in an increase in the interference in the network or a reduction in the link quality, respectively. (II) SIMULATION MODELS CLPC Model Fig. 1 shows the relevant CLPC functions in the context of UMTS-FDD Mode. The user data and control information present on channels DPDCH and DPCCH respectively are spread to the chip rate using channelization codes. There are Nd data symbols on DPDCH and Np pilot symbols on DPCCH per slot. The spread signal is then scrambled using a complex scrambling code of length 1 radio frame [2]. The reverse operations are performed at the receiver to distinguish the desired user and the channels. Perfect delay estimation and perfect phase estimation of the multipath components has been assumed for the data recovery as well as one of the two SIR estimation algorithms; the two SIR estimation algorithms are discussed in Section (IV). CHEST is performed on each resolved path that is used for RAKE combining. The paths are then maximal-ratio combined (MRC) and tentative decisions of the RAKE output data are obtained. The estimated SIR is compared with a target SIR that varies with the service and the user environment. These functions come under the PC Command Generation block in Fig. 1. The PC commands are transmitted uncoded, on the downlink. The received PC commands at the UE are interpreted as a step-up or step-down in power on both DPDCH and DPCCH, by a fixed amount. Channel Models The channel models used are described here. The path loss PL (dB) is calculated as:

PL = 128.1 + 37.6 log10 ( R)

(1)

where R(km) is the BS-UE distance; (1) assumes a carrier frequency of 2GHz and a BS antenna height of 15m [3]. Correlated log-normal shadowing is modelled as a first-order IIR filter:

S (n ) = S ( n 1) + W (n)

(2)

where S(n) is the nth shadowing sample (dB), and W(n) is a zero mean Gaussian process. and are related to the speed, correlation distance and the standard deviation of shadowing, which are described in [4]. Rayleigh fading is modelled using Rices sum of sinusoids method [5]. The wideband channel is modelled using a tapped delay line (TDL) model with uncorrelated Rayleigh processes where each process is modelled as discussed above.

UE Transmit Side

AWGN

BS Receiver Side

DPDCH

DPCCH

Modulation, Spreading & Complex Scrambling

Power Amplifier

Reverse-Link Propagation Channel

Bank of Correlators

CHEST
Delay

. . .

. . .
RAKE Receiver

Pre-RAKE Scheme Post-RAKE Scheme

N
Forward-Link Propagation Channel

PC Command Generation

SIR Estimation

Fig. 1 UE and BS Functions for uplink CLPC (III) POWER CONTROL ALGORITHM (PCA) The PCA employed here for the evaluation work is the conventional closed-loop PC scheme, where the UE power is updated according to PC commands received from the BS; the command rate is fixed at 1500Hz (i.e. once in every slot of a UMTS radio frame) and the UE uses a fixed step size to update its power. The algorithm is described in [6] as PCA1. (IV) SIR ESTMATION ALGORITHMS Here, two techniques are proposed, both based on an algorithm that was proposed in [7]. One computes the Eb N0 before RAKE combining of the multi-path (from now on called the Pre-RAKE Scheme) while the other performs the computations after (Post-RAKE Scheme from now on). In both schemes, the dedicated data channel (DPDCH) of the UMTS-FDD uplink is used for this purpose. i) Pre-RAKE Scheme The Eb/No estimate at the output of the CDMA correlator for a BPSK modulated system is given by:

1 ns

ns

i =1

xi

(4)

I (k ) is the long-term interference+noise measurement

for the kth iteration. The instantaneous measurement that is used to estimate I (k ) is given by equation (5) and follows from the definition of variance; it represents the instantaneous interference+noise power measurement in the kth iteration:

2 (k )

2 (k ) =

1 ns 2 xi 2 ns i =1
2

(5)

To estimate I (k ) from ( k ) , we use a moving average filter of window length L, given by:

I (k ) =

2 ( k ) + 2 ( k 1) + ... + 2 ( k L + 1) (6) L

Eb 2 = (3) N 0 I (k ) where is the mean of the ns despread symbols and

given by eqn. (4) below ( xi is the ith despread symbol):

Figure 2 shows the performance of the algorithm in a stationary (Gaussian) channel. The results are presented for the performance with and without the smoothing filter, as well as for two values of Eb N 0 . In addition to the advantage of the smoothing filter, it can be seen in Fig. 2(a) that the estimation error increases for low Eb N 0 , i.e. overestimates the true Eb N 0 value; this bias problem has been touched upon by the authors in

Mean of the Error [dB]

1.5

Eb/No=4dB, no filtering Eb/No=4dB, with filtering Eb/No=10dB, no filtering Eb/No=10dB, with filtering

instantaneous signal power is measured on all paths that are used for RAKE combining, and are then summed. To minimise the bias error in the estimate, we use a weighting scheme, which uses further information from the radio network as well as the base station. Its concept is as follows - if the actual Eb N 0 we are trying to measure is known ( Eb N 0 ) True , then on average, we can reduce the estimation error in the Pre-RAKE estimate by multiplying it with a weighting factor that corrects the estimation error the correction factor will be obtained by knowing the performance of the algorithm in a Gaussian channel, as in fig. 2. If the weighted estimate and the estimate before weighting, for the lth path are given by ( Eb N 0 ) Pr e RAKE,l and ( Eb N 0 ) Est,l respectively, and the estimate in a stationary channel, of the actual Eb N 0 that we are trying to measure, i.e.

0.5

0 (a)

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

6
Variance of the Error [dB]

5 4 3 2 1 0 0 (b) 10 20 30

Eb/No=4dB, no filtering Eb/No=4dB, with filtering Eb/No=10dB, no filtering Eb/No=10dB, with filtering

40 50 60 Number of Symbols

70

80

90

100

Fig. 2(a) Mean and (b) Variance of the Estimation Error [7] as well as by Kurniwan et. al. [8] for the estimation algorithm proposed by Steele and Lee [9]. In the light of this information, it can be anticipated that the Eb N 0 estimation errors expected in the Pre-RAKE scheme will be higher than those in a Post-RAKE scheme; this is based on the simple reasoning that the RAKEcombined signal will have a higher Eb N 0 value over the Eb N 0 values of the individual paths that are used for the combining. Several works that use similar PreRAKE schemes exist [9,10], but neither of them highlight the aforementioned bias problem that exists for low Eb N 0 estimation. Now we discuss how the algorithm described by equations (3)-(6) is employed for the Pre-RAKE scheme. Figure 3 shows the operation of the algorithm; perfect delay estimation of the paths is assumed, however the Eb N 0 estimates of the individual paths are obtained before CHEST. The advantage here is that errors due to channel estimation will not influence the final Eb N 0 estimate that will be the summation of the individual estimates (which is equivalent to perfect MRC). To a good approximation, the average interference on each path will be the same [9] and therefore the instantaneous noise+interference is measured as the average of the strongest paths of each antenna A at the receiver, as in figure 3. The measurement in (5) is calculated for D Antennas as:

( Eb N 0 ) True , is approximation,

( Eb N 0 ) Est,True , then to a good

( Eb N 0 ) Pr e RAKE,l = ( E b / N 0 ) Est ,l *

( Eb / N 0 ) True ( Eb / N 0 ) Est ,True

(8)

will have a lower error in the estimate on average, than the original estimate ( Eb N 0 ) Est,l for that path. However, ( Eb N 0 ) True in (6) is unknown so far; if ( Eb N 0 ) True is known, ( Eb N 0 ) Est,True can be found by the use of a look-up table, consequently ( Eb N 0 ) Pr e RAKE,l can be computed. To work out a suitable value for ( Eb N 0 ) True for every path l, we use the following information (a) the target Eb N 0 , set by the radio network controller, ( Eb N 0 ) T arg et , (b) the average power delay profile (PDP) of the multi-path channel (which will be tracked by the matched filter) and, (c) the no. of paths used for RAKE combining, P. Knowing the average PDP and considering that the interference seen by each of the taps is equal, it can be assumed that the ratio of the average Eb N 0 values per path are set in the ratio of the average PDP, i.e.

Eb E E : ... : b : ... : b = 1 : ... : l : ... P N N N 0 1 0 l 0 P

(9)

here is the average power for path l. The power

I inst ( k ) =

1 1 1, A 2 D A=

(7)

I inst (k ) is then used as the input to the smoothing filter

in (6). The strongest paths have been used for the noise+interference power measurement so that the estimation errors are minimal. However the

control error (PCE) is well approximated by a zeromean log-normal distribution [2] and therefore the received Eb N 0 at the BS (after PC), ( Eb N 0 ) RX would also be log-normally distributed, with mean value (Eb N0 )T arget in dB; hence on a logarithmic scale: PCE [dB]= ( Eb N 0 ) T arg et - ( Eb N 0 ) RX [dB] (10)

( Eb N 0 ) RX = (Eb N 0 )T arget - PCE

Strongest Path (Antenna 2)

1, 2 2 1,1 2

Strongest Path Correlator 1

1 D 1, A2 D A=1
Smoothing Filter (gives Average Noise+Interference)

Weakest Path

. . .
Correlator N

12
. . . . . .

Final Eb/No Estimate

N2
Target Eb/No No. of RAKE Fingers Assigned Average PDP

.. .
Eb/No Weights

Fig. 3 The Pre-RAKE Scheme Under these circumstances, the average value of (10) will be (Eb N 0 )T arget ; hence for a system with antenna diversity D at the receiver, we can write: (V) SIMULATION PARAMETERS The parameters for the Vehicular-A TDL are given in Table 1. The UTRA physical layer parameters including those of CLPC are given in Table 2. The speed considered is 30 km/h at 2GHz carrier frequency, chosen so that the PC is effective in tackling the fading; furthermore, each result has been obtained after considering 500 wavelengths of the Rayleigh. Slow Fading: Path loss is calculated using eqn. (1) and the UE is at a (constant) distance of 1km. The standard deviation and correlation distance of shadowing are taken to be 10dB and 20m respectively. Interference: Interference is modelled as a complex Gaussian noise process [7]. This is a good approximation on the uplink when there are many users in the system; specifically, we set the total MAI power to be 10 times the receiver noise, which corresponds to a reverse-link cell loading factor of 90% [2]. Environment Tap Average Power (dB) Relative Delay (ns) Relative Delay in Chips 0 1 3 4 7 10

(E
l =1

DP

/ N 0 ) l = ( E b / N 0 ) T arg et

(11)

Using (9) and (11), ( Eb N 0 ) l can be found for each path; this average value is used as ( Eb N 0 ) True in (8). Equations (3)-(8) are calculated for every slot of a UMTS radio frame (0.667ms) with window length L=10, while (9) and (11) need updating when the average PDP and/or (Eb N 0 )T arg et changes. It should be noted that the Pre-RAKE algorithm has been designed in such a way that the effects of bias errors are reduced. ii) Post-RAKE Scheme The Post-RAKE scheme is relatively simple; here no weighting is used since the measured Eb N 0 value is high; the smoothing filter used in (6) is also omitted since the noise+interference measurement after RAKE combining is not normally distributed and hence averaging did not optimise the estimate; this can be explained by noting that, since MRC is an interference suppression technique itself, the noise+interference statistics of the RAKE-combined signal differ from the statistics of the Pre-RAKE estimates; hence in the PostRAKE scheme, equations (3)-(6) are computed every 0.667ms with L=1.

Vehicular A

1 0.0 0.0 2 -1.0 310 3 -9.0 710 4 -10.0 1090 5 -15.0 1730 6 -20.0 2510 TABLE 1 - TDL Parameters for the UMTS Vehicular-A Environment [3]

Parameter Channel Bandwidth Chip Rate/Data Rate DPDCH DPCCH DPCCH/DPDCH Power Channelization Codes

Value

10

5MHz 3.84Mcps/ 8kbps (Voice) Nd=20, SF=128 Np=6, SF=256 -3dB DPDCH OVSF(128,32) DPCCH OVSF(256,0) Scrambling Code 38400 chip Long Code Frame Length 10ms (15 slots) PC Command Rate 1500Hz PC Step Size 1dB RTD 1 slot Dynamic Range of handset 80dB CHEST Pilot Averaging per Slot BS Receiver Diversity MRC-RAKE with Dual Antenna Diversity (D=2) Paths used for RAKE, P 4 (4 strongest out of 6) Receiver Noise Density -169 dBm/Hz Max. Transmit Power +33dBm BS Antenna Gain +13dBi UE Antenna Gain 0dBi SIR Estimation Parameters ns=20; L=10 (Pre-RAKE) ns=20; L=1 (Post-RAKE) TABLE 2 - Physical Layer and CLPC Parameters (VI) RESULTS & CONCLUSION The uncoded BER for CLPC employing the two SIR estimation schemes have been shown in fig. 4, BER vs. the target Eb N 0 . The results indicate that the PostRAKE scheme outperforms the Pre-RAKE SIR Estimation scheme for all values of target Eb N 0 considered. The result could be explained by noting the overestimation that occurs in the Pre-RAKE scheme, resulting in unnecessary power down commands being generated at the BS; consequently the UE keeps lowering its power even when the actual Eb N 0 received is low, resulting in a higher BER. In this work we have investigated the performance of two SIR estimation schemes that are used by researchers; estimation algorithms for both schemes were proposed. The advantage of the Pre-RAKE scheme is that it is not affected by the channel estimation errors since it assumes perfect MRC; however, this is marred by the overestimation in the SIR of the individual paths, resulting in a degradation of the PC and hence the link quality of the user concerned; the Post-RAKE scheme on the contrary is simpler to implement, and allows better estimation of the SIR, despite the channel estimation errors being included in the estimate. Hence the authors conclude that SIR estimation schemes after RAKE combining are better suited for CLPC in UMTS over schemes that perform the estimation prior to the combining. REFERENCES [1] H. Holma and A. Toskala, WCDMA for UMTS, John Wiley & Sons. Ltd., 2000

PreRAKE Scheme PostRAKE Scheme AWGN Channel 10

2

10

10

10

10

6 Target Eb/No

10

Fig. 4 BER (uncoded) Comparison of the two schemes after PC

[2] S. Gunaratne, T. Jeans and R. Tafazolli, Performance of SIR-Based Power Control for UMTS, Second Int. Conf. on 3G Mobile Communication Technologies, March 2001, London, UK, pp. 16-20 [3] Selection Procedures for the choice of Radio Transmission Technologies of the UMTS, V3.2.0 (1998-04), ETSI Publication [4] S.R. Saunders, Antennas and Propagation for Wireless Communication Systems, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 1999 [5] M. Patzold, U. Killat, F. Laue and Y. Li, On the Statistical Properties of Deterministic Simulation Models for Mobile Fading Channels, IEEE Trans., 1998, VT-47, (1), pp. 254-269 [6] TS 25.214 V3.3.0, Physical Layer Procedures (FDD), 3GPP Document [7] S. Gunaratne, P. Taaghol and R. Tafazolli, Signal Quality Estimation Algorithm, IEE Electronics Letters, Oct. 2000, Vol. 36, (22), pp. 1882-1884 [8] A. Kurniawan, S. Perreau, J. Choi and K. Lever, SIR-Based Power Control in Third Generation CDMA Systems, The 5th CDMA Int. Conference & Exhibition, Nov. 2000, Seoul, Korea, pp. 90-94 [9] C.C. Lee, R. Steele, Closed-Loop Power Control in CDMA Systems, IEE Proc. Commun., August 1996, Vol. 143, (4), pp. 231-239 [10] K. Higuchi, H. Andoh, K. Okawa, M. Sawahashi, F. Adachi, Experimental Evaluation of Combined Effect of Coherent RAKE Combining and SIR-Based Fast Transmit Power Control for Reverse Link of DSCDMA Mobile Radio, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun., 2000, SAC-18, (8), pp. 1526-1535