WIDEBAND CODE DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS

Gian Chand

Outline
Evolution path. Introduction to Wcdma. Wcdma network architecture Wcdma channels Power Control Handoff Conclusion

Evolution Paths

1G: analog 2G : 1st digital mobile telephony 2.5G: transition from 2G to 3G 3G standard: IMT 2000

UMTS-FDD / WCDMA (Universal Mobile Telecommunication StandardFrequency Division Duplex)

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

AMPS FDMA 30 KHz

GSM subdivides 200 KHz carriers into 8 time slots

GSM TDMA 200 KHz

FREQUENCY
WCDMA 5.0 MHz

TIME
Multiple users in WCDMA share simultaneously the same 5.0 MHz carrier. All narrowband conversations are spreads across the entire wideband CDMA carrier. WCDMA has a frequency reuse of 1, soft handoff, power control and variable rate codecs.

POWER

Orthogonal codes allow for user separation. Direct Sequence spreading with pseudorandom noise codes allow for source identification.

UMTS-FDD / WCDMA
Wideband Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access

Does not assign a specific frequency to each user. Instead every channel uses the full available spectrum. Individual conversations are encoded with a pseudo-random digital sequence

Duplex Scheme: FDD

The UTRA protocol can be implemented according to two different duplex schemes, Frequency Division Duplex and Time Division Duplex. Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) involves simultaneous Uplink and Downlink
transmissions on different frequencies. Uplink frequency is lower due to higher propagation loss at higher frequencies, and the lower transmit power of mobile stations. Each 5 MHz carrier is thus composed of two 5 MHz frequency allocations in separate bands. This is the transmission for adopted for the WCDMA protocol.

Uplink

Downlink

FDD Duplex f Scheme

Spreading Operation
Spreading means increasing the signal bandwidth Strictly speaking, spreading includes two operations: (1) Channelisation (increases signal bandwidth) - using orthogonal codes (2) Scrambling (does not affect the signal bandwidth) - using pseudo noise codes Canalization codes are used for: UL: Separation of physical data and control channels from same UE. DL: Separation of different users within one cell.

Scrambling codes are used UL: Separation of terminals DL: Separation of cells/sectors

Wcdma Parameters
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)
CDMA-based multiple access scheme Chip Rate = 3.84 Mcps Bandwidth = 5.00 MHz Operation specified in bands between 1850 and 2170 MHz
Support for High Data Rates Variable data speeds (Orth. Variable Spreading Factor codes) Peak connection speed = 2.3 Mbps Wide-area connection speed = 384 kbps Support for High Service Flexibility Packet- and Circuit-switched oriented services Multiple services supported on one connection Improved Capacity and Coverage Compared to GSM Dual-mode and Coexistence with GSM Dual-mode terminal implementation User Equipment (UE) handoff between UMTS and GSM networks

Wcdma Parameters
Channel B.W Forward RF Channel Structure Chip Rate Frame Length No. of slots/frame No. of chips/slot Power Control 5 MHz Direct Spread 3.84 Mcps 10 ms (38400 chips) 15 2560chips (Max. 2560 bits) Open and fast close loop (1.6 KHz)

Uplink SF Downlink SF

4 to 256 4 to 512

WCDMA NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

WCDMA CHANNELS

The Channels of UMTS

In UMTS, information and traffic flow through three types of channels: Logical Channels Logical channels are functional, conceptual groupings of information and/or traffic Transport Channels Transport channels are the intermediate, individual flows of information which carry subcomponents of the logical channels and which are represented by bits on the physical channels Physical Channels These are the real over-the-air channels made up of bits At this level, the channels are just patterns of bits - multiframes, frames, timeslots, and the various fields of bits which are defined to occupy them

Channels and the Protocol Stack

The mapping between Logical and Transport channels is performed by the MAC layer. The mapping between Transport and Physical channels is performed by the Physical layer

Physical Channel Details (1)

DPCH: Dedicated Physical Channel A downlink or uplink dedicated physical channel used to carry user or control information to User Equipment (UE) over an entire or cell or part of the cell that uses beamforming antennas PRACH: Physical Random Access Channel A common uplink physical channel used to carry control information or short user packets from the UE PCPCH: Physical Common Packet Channel A common uplink physical channel used to carry short and medium-sized user packets. Its always associated with a downlink channel for power control CPICH: Common Pilot Channel A fixed-rate downlink physical channel that carries a predefined bit/symbol sequence

Physical Channel Details (2)

P-CCPCH: Primary Common Control Physical Channel A fixed-rate downlink channel used to broadcast system and cell-specific information S-CCPCH: Secondary Common Control Physical Channel A downlink physical channel used to carry the FACH and PCH transport channel SCH: Synchronization Channel A downlink signal used for cell search. The SCH consists of two subchannels, the primary and secondary SCH, which are transmitted during the P-CCPCH idle period PDSCH: Physical downlink Shared channel A downlink channel used to carry the DSCH transport channel

Physical Channel Details (3)

AICH: Acquisition Indicator Channel A fixed-rate downlink physical channel used to carry access preamble acquisition indicators for the random access procedure AP-AICH: Access Preamble Acquisition Indicator Channel A fixed-rate downlink physical channel used to carry access preamble acquisition indicators of CPCH PICH: Paging Indicator Channel A fixed-rate downlink physical channel used to carry the paging indicators which disclose the presence of a page message on the PCH CSICH: CPCH Status Indicator Channel A fixed-rate downlink channel used to carry CPCH status information. A CSICH is always associated with a physical channel used for transmission of CPCH APAICH, and uses the same channelization and scrambling codes

Physical Channel Details (4)

CD/CA-ICH: Collision-detection/Channel-Assignment Indicator Channel A fixed-rate common downlink physical channel used to carry CD indicator only if the CA is not active, or a CD/CA indicator at the same time if the CA is active CDM: Continuous Code Division Multiplex Pilot Channel Similar to the cdma2000 pilot. Two types of pilot channels are defined: P-CPICH: Primary CPICH Transmitted over the entire cell Used as phase reference for SCH, P-CCPCH, AICH, PICH, and default reference for all other downlink physical channels S-CPICH: Secondary CPICH Can be transmitted over part of the cell, not entire cell. May be used as reference for the S-CCPCH and downlink DPCH, or in beam forming antenna schemes

WCDMA POWER CONTROL

Power Control in WCDMA

Near-Far Problem : In the uplink direction, all signals should arrive at the base stations receiver with
the same signal power. The mobile stations cannot transmit using fixed power levels, because the cells would be dominated by users closest to the base station and faraway users couldnt get their signals heard in the base station. The phenomenon is called the near-far effect.

The downlink signals transmitted by one base station are orthogonal. Signal reflections cause nonorthogonal interference even if only one base station is considered. Moreover, signals sent from other base stations are, of course, nonorthogonal and thus they increase the interference level. We must also remember that in a CDMA system the neighbor cells use the same downlink frequency carrier.

Therefore, power control is also needed in the downlink. Note that a mobile station close to the base station would not suffer if the signals it receives have been sent using too much power. But other users, especially those in other cells, could receive this signal as nonorthogonal noise, and therefore unnecessary high power levels should be avoided.

Metrics for signal quality are the frame error rate (FER) and Eb/Nt value.

Near-Far Problem

Types Of Power Control

Power Control

Open Loop
Based on Estimation

Closed Loop
Based on Feedback

Fast/Inner Loop Power Control

Slow/Outer Loop Power Control

Power Control: Open Loop

Increase/decrease transmit power by 1 dB Measure received power from BTS Compute initial transmit power Transmit RACH Preamble Access not acknowledged

Read BTS transmit power from Broadcast Channel

MS measures the power loss on the downlink channel and accordingly adjusts its transmitting power. Basically it measures the SNR of the received signal and combines this reading with power control information sent by the base station.

Power Control: Closed Loop Inner Loop

The UTRAN makes sure that the UE only transmits so much power that it can be received, avoiding extra interference.
Decrease transmit power by 1 dB

DL Feedback: SNR above target

Upper SNR threshold

MS Transmit Signal

Received Signal
DL Feedback: SNR below target

Lower SNR threshold

Increase transmit power by 1 dB

Uplink Closed Loop

 The BS measures the Signal level received from the MS. Compares the SNR with the threshold SNR available at the BTS. If the SNR is Lower than the threshold, BTS instruct the MS to increase the transmitting power. And if the SNR is Higher than the threshold, BTS instruct the MS to decrease the transmitting power.  This method gives much better results than the open loop method.

POWER CONTROL: OUTER LOOP

Reverse Link Closed Loop Power Control (Outer Loop)
The reverse outer-loop power control (ROLPC) adjusts the target Eb/Nt setpoint for a traffic channel in order to maintain a target FER at the base station. It decreases the target Eb/No setpoint on good frames and increases the target Eb/No setpoint on bad frames. The outer loop adjusts the base stations target Eb/Nt setpoint to maintain a desired reverse frame error rate (RFER), while the inner loop keeps the mobile as close to its target Eb/Nt setpoint as possible.

SUMMARY REVRSE LINK POWER CONTROL The uplinks directed power control system consists of two parts, commonly called the inner loop and outer loop. The outer loop is responsible for calculating a target Eb /NT for the mobile to achieve the desired voice quality, while the inner loop is responsible for keeping the mobile as close to the setpoint as possible.

WCDMA HANDOFF

Types of WCDMA Handoffs

Three main categories of handoff are defined for WCDMA: intra-mode, inter-mode and inter-system handoffs: Inter-/intra-frequency, intra-mode handoffs occur when the source and target systems are both either WCDMA FDD or TD-CDMA TDD systems. Soft handoffs allow for smooth transitions from sector to sector, and allow transmit power to be reduced at cell edges. Inter-/intra-frequency, inter-mode handoff occurs when the device moves to a TD-CDMA target system from a WCDMA FDD network, or vice versa. Inter-system handoffs occur when devices handoff to a target network that is not UMTS (neither WCDMA nor TD-CDMA), Such as GSM.

Soft Handoffs: Inter-BTS (Soft) Intra-BTS, Inter-Sector (Softer) Inter-BTS, Inter-Sector (Soft-Softer) Hard Handoffs: Inter-Frequency Inter-System (WCDMA <-> GSM 900/1800 MHz) Inter-Mode (WCDMA FDD <-> TD-CDMA TDD) Idle handoffs Access handoffs In Traffic State

In Idle State

Handoffs Pilot Sets

Active Set Candidate Set Neighbor Set

Remaining Set

Handoffs Pilot Sets

The cells to be measured are divided into three sets: active, monitored, and detected. If the signal strength of the neighboring BS exceeds the add threshold, then the BS pilot is added to the active set. Another threshold parameter set by the network, the drop threshold, prevents the premature removal of base stations from the active set. When the signal strength value drops below the set threshold value, a drop timer is started in the network. If the value stays below the drop threshold until the timer expires, the base station in question is finally removed from the active set. This timer must be long enough to prevent a Ping-Pong effect, that is, the same base station is repeatedly added and removed from the active set. However, the drop timer must be short enough so that unusable base stations are not used for communication unnecessarily. The monitored set includes cells that have been identified as possible candidates for HO but have not yet been added to the active set. These are indicated to the UE by the UTRAN in the neighbor cell list. The UE has to monitor these cells according to given rules. The detected set contains all the other cells that the UE has found while monitoring the radio environment and that are not included in the neighbor cell list.

Soft and Softer Handoff

Soft handoff occurs when traffic channels are assigned to the the same mobile from two or more sectors of separate BTS. The number of channel elements (CE) per connection equals the number of BTS involved in the handoff. Softer handoff occurs when traffic channels are assigned to the the same UE from two or more sectors of the same BTS. Only one channel element (CE) is required.

CE

Soft handoff CE

Softer handoff

When the UE detects a pilot of sufficient strength that is not associated with assigned Forward Traffic Channels, it sends a request to the BTS. If the RNC admission controls permit, the BTS can assign a Traffic Channel associated with that pilot to the UE and direct the UE to perform a handoff. The UTRAN can perform soft and softer handoff simultaneously. The objective is optimum fast closed power control, as the UE is always linked with the strongest cells available.

Soft and Softer Handoff

Soft and Softer Handoff

Serving radio network subsystem (SRNS) relocation is a procedure in which the routing of a UE connection in the UTRAN changes. If a UE is in an SHO and all participating Node Bs belong to the same radio network controller (RNC), then the signals will be combined in this RNC and sent further to the serving mobile services switching center (MSC). If the SHO exists between sectors of the same Node B (softer handover), then the combining will be performed in Node B. If the UE moves to a position where it is in SHO with Node Bs belonging to different RNCs, then the signals will be relayed to the anchor RNC

Soft and Softer Handoff

Soft and Softer Handoff

RNC1 combines the signals and sends them to the MSC. RNC1 is called the serving RNC (SRNC). The SRNC is in charge of the RRC connection between the UE and the UTRAN. The relaying RNC (RNC2) is called the drift RNC (DRNC). It provides its radio resources for the SRNC when the connection between the UTRAN and the UE needs to use cells controlled by the DRNC. In this example the combining of signals from cells 3 and 4 will be done in the DRNC by default, although the SRNC can override this and request all signals to be relayed to it without combining. Note that the combining process in the DRNC saves transport capacity in the Iur interface.

Relocation is a process in which the SRNC status is moved from RNC1 to RNC2

Intersystem Handoff
Intersystem HOs are HOs between two different radio access technologies (RATs). A prerequisite for this procedure is that we have a dual-system 3G-GSM mobile phone capable of communicating with both systems. The first problem deals with measurements. Before a UE can start any HO, it must measure the quality of the new cell/carrier. Since it is busy communicating with the old channel, doing any measurements in another system is problematic. First the UE must know the frequency (and in case of an HO to the UTRAN, the spreading code as well) in which the new cell in the other system is transmitting. Second, the UE must be able to measure the signal strength of the new carrier, or some other parameter on which the HO algorithm is based. This operation must be accomplished simultaneously with the operations of the old channel. In the case of a UTRAN-to-GSM HO this is difficult because typically a UTRANs UE is receiving all the time and there are no idle slots in which to take measurements on the other frequency.

Intersystem Handoff
There are two alternatives to solving this problem: 1. Dual receiver; 2. Compressed mode. This mode creates transmission gaps through which the UE can measure other systems. The length of one gap in the case of GSM measurements or decoding can be 3, 4, 7, 10, or 14 time slots An additional problem with the UTRAN-to-GSM HO is the different maximum data rates of these systems. This procedure must cope with a situation in which the UTRAN connection was using close to 2-Mbps data rates and after the HO the new connection can only get a small part of this rate. In the GSM-to-UTRAN direction the HO procedure is probably technically easier, as GSM provides idle time slots in which it is possible to measure other frequencies, and also GSMs maximum data rates are lower than 3G maximum data rates.

CONCLUSION

Conclusion
3G wireless services are rapidly spreading the global market place with CDMA as the preferred technology solution The following are the key 3G Technologies that have emerged to be the key commercial players: CDMA2000 1X CDMA2000 1xEV-DO UMTS/WCDMA WCDMA is one of them, which provides: Larger Bandwidth Higher Data rate Lower cost Greater subscriber capacity Hand Over, Power Control problems are addressed Improved digital voice communications Fast packet-based data services like e-mail, short message service (SMS), and Internet access at broadband speeds.

Thank You!