Differences Between WCDMA

and GSM

Farid Lalzad
Ericsson Global Services
 Differences Between WCDMA and GSM
Objectives

– To highlight the key differences for radio network

design between a WCDMA and GSM network

– High level RF comparison

Agenda

– Coverage and Capacity

– Power control and Handover
– RF performance

©
© Ericsson
Ericsson AB
AB 2005
2005 22 VFE
VFE Practical
Practical WCDMA
WCDMA Radio
Radio Network
Network Planning
Planning Workshop
Workshop 2005-09-13
2005-09-13
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GSM & WCDMA
CELL PLANNING
 In GSM:
– Network planning was mainly focused on coverage design.
– Performance depended on C/I.
– Capacity depended on available frequency channels.
 In WCDMA:
– Coverage and capacity must be considered simultaneously.
Coverage decreases when the load of the network increases.
– Performance depended on Ec/No or interference level in the
cell.
– Capacity depends on available power.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GSM & WCDMA
CELL PLANNING
 Different rate => different coverage ?
Uplink – Coverage -RTWP

384 kbps 128 kbps 64 kbps

•Downlink – The Number of users depends on the Rate –DL

Power
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GSM & WCDMA
CELL PLANNING
 Cell breathing (load dependent)
- More subscribers => Higher interference in the uplink increases the noise
rise, which shrinks the coverage

=> Smaller fraction of the total power available to each

user in the downlink.

Cell breathing
High load Low load
 Soft and softer handovers
Softer-Soft HO

Soft-Soft HO

Softer HO

Soft HO
Power of MS is
controlled by the
commands from
the RBS

©
© Ericsson
Ericsson AB
AB 2005
2005 66 VFE
VFE Practical
Practical WCDMA
WCDMA Radio
Radio Network
Network Planning
Planning Workshop
Workshop 2005-09-13
2005-09-13
 Power Control - Key to the WCDMA capacity
 The power of separate users is controlled in such a way that
received power from all users are equal and the total power in the
system is minimal

 What if the power control is not performed properly?

 There will be severe problems, refer to the so called near-far-

problem (see figure below).
Normally the uplink power control range is 70-90 dB
RBS
S

Ue1
Ue2

If the power of Ue1 is not properly controlled

it will jam the weaker signal of Ue2

©
© Ericsson
Ericsson AB
AB 2005
2005 77 VFE
VFE Practical
Practical WCDMA
WCDMA Radio
Radio Network
Network Planning
Planning Workshop
Workshop 2005-09-13
2005-09-13
WCDMA’s link budget and differences to
GSM 1800 link budget  WCDMA link budget differences to GSM
Illustrative link budget difference: WCDMA vs GSM1800
1800:
– WCDMA has better “BTS” sensitivity (different
“BTS” noise figure)
– WCDMA has uplink log normal fading (LNF)
margin lower by ~ 1dB
– WCDMA has 1.3 dB worse propagation
1.3 dB higher path loss – WCDMA has by 2 dB higher Building Penetration
(outdoor)
Loss (BPL)

2 dB higher BPL

 WCDMA link budget depends mainly on:

– Requested services (speech; CS64; PS64; PS128; PS
384)
WCDMA GSM1800 link budget comparison – Eb/No value (different for environments (dense urban,
urban, suburban) and different channel models (speeds)
148 – UL load ~ # of connected customers (UL interferences)
146 – Use of TMA/ASC (it is strongly recommended to use
ASC)
Path loss [dB]

144
– Handset transmitted output power
142 GSM 1800 - speech
140 WCDMA - SPEECH
138 WCDMA - CS64
136 WCDMA - PS64
134
WCDMA PS128
132
WCDMA - PS 384
130
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
UL load [%]

PE5
Sample WCDMA link budget-UL
Area type TU 3 - INDOOR (Dense Urban)
Band GSM 1800 W CDMA W CDMA W CDMA W CDMA W CDMA
Service type Speech Speech CS 64 PS 64/64 PS 64/128 PS 64/384
UL path improvement no TMA TMA TMA TMA TMA
Thermal noise pow er density -174.0 -174.0 -174.0 -174.0 -174.0 -174.0
Noise figure 2.5 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.3
Eb/No {C/I} 9.0 4.8 2.9 2.7 2.7 2.7
Bandw idth {User rate} 180000 15600 67400 67400 67400 67400
RBS Sensitivity -110 -124.97 -120.51 -120.71 -120.71 -120.71
UL Loading - 20% 20% 20% 20% 20%
Interference margin + Rayleigh Fading Margin [dB] 5.00 0.97 0.97 0.97 0.97 0.97
Mobile station output pow er 30.0 21.0 21.0 21.0 21.0 21.0
Mobile station antenna gain 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Soft handover gain uplink 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Pow er control margin 0.0 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7
Body loss 3.0 3.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Building penetration loss 25.0 27.0 27.0 27.0 27.0 27.0
Car penetration loss 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
BS Antenna gain 18.0 18.0 18.0 18.0 18.0 18.0
Feeder loss 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Jumper and connector loss 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Duplexer loss 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Diplexer loss 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Uplink polarization loss (Slant) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
LNF margin [UL] 9.9 9 9 9 9 9
Maximum pathloss [dB] 112.0 123.3 121.8 122.0 122.0 122.0
Pathloss difference [dB] 0.0 11.3 9.8 10.0 10.0 10.0
BS antenna height 27 27 27 27 27 27
MS antenna height 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5
Okumura - Hata: A parameter 162.0 163.3 163.3 163.3 163.3 163.3
Maximum range 0.14 0.27 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25
Site coverage area 0.04 0.14 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.12
Site-to-site distance 0.21 0.405 0.37 0.37 0.37 0.37
Summary

 Capacity and coverage planning in a WCDMA system are more

complex than GSM.
 WCDMA offers flexibility between coverage, capacity and quality
 WCDMA is Multi-service Platform - optimised for packet data services
but it also offers a high capacity for speech
 WCDMA offers good QoS due to soft handover and power control
 WCDMA is well designed to handle asymmetric traffic, where the
majority of the traffic is in the downlink
 It is possible to re-use GSM1800 site locations and achieve coverage
for many services
 WCDMA requires power planning, handover planning and code
planning. To achieve this, a planning tool is needed
©
© Ericsson
Ericsson AB
AB 2005
2005 11
11 VFE
VFE Practical
Practical WCDMA
WCDMA Radio
Radio Network
Network Planning
Planning Workshop
Workshop 2005-09-13
2005-09-13