1. What is compressed mode?

Answer - Compressed mode is a physical layer function that allows the UE to temporarily tune to another frequency, and measure the RF environment of another UMTS frequency (e.g. IFHO) or another technology (e.g. IRAT), while maintaining an existing dedicated channel 2. What is Pilot Pollution? Answer - Simply speaking, when the number of strong cells exceeds the active set size, there is pilot pollution in the area. Typically the active set size is 3, so if there are more than 3 strong cells then there is pilot pollution. Definition of strong cell: pilots within the handover window size from the strongest cell. Typical handover window size is between 4 to 6dB. For example, if there are more than 2 cells (besides the strongest cell) within 4dB of the strongest cell then there is pilot pollution. 3. What is cell breathing and why? Answer - The cell coverage shrinks as the loading increases, this is called cell Breathing. 4. How does UE camp (synchronize) to a NodeB? 1. UE uses the primary synchronization channel (P-SCH) for slot alignment (TS synchronization). 2. After aligning to NodeB time slot, UE then uses secondary synchronization channel (SSCH) to obtain frame synchronization and scrambling code group identification. 3. UE then uses scrambling code ID to obtain CPICH, thus camping to a NodeB. 5. What are the major differences between GSM and UMTS handover decision? Answer GSM: Time-based mobile measures of RxLev and RxQual mobile sends measurement report every SACH period (480ms). BSC instructs mobile to handover based on these reports. UMTS: Event-triggered reporting UE sends a measurement report only on certainevent triggers. UE plays more part in the handover decision. 6. What kind of Handover takes place in Load Sharing? Answer Its a blind handover to the co-located cell. IFHO 7. What can we try to improve when access failure is high? Answer When access failure is high we can try the following to improve RACH performance: Increase maximum UE transmit power allowed: Max_allowed_UL_TX_Power. Increase power quickly: power_Offset_P0. Increase number of preambles sent in a given preamble cycle: preamble_Retrans_Max. Increase the number of preamble cycles: max_Preamble_Cycle. Increase number of RRC Connection Request retries: N300. 8. What is Eb/No requirement for HSDPA? Answer The Eb/No requirement for HSDPA varies with user bit rate (data rate), typically 2 for 768kbps and 5 for 2Mbps. 9. What HS Channels are introduced in HSDPA in L1? Answer HS-PDSCH High Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channel HS-SCCH High Speed Shared Control Channel 10. How Power Control is implemented in HSDPA? Answer - Initial Power is set in the same way as open Loop Power control of DCH & there is no further power control on HSDPA Shared Channel HS-DSCH. The Channel Rate is controlled by adaptive modulation & coding formats. The principles and functionality of the power control for the HSDPA associated dedicated channels are the same as for the DPCH power control. HS-DPCCH power is an offset relative to DPCCH depending upon whether the UE is in soft handoff or not. The Power for HS-SCCH is fixed.

11. What do you understand by CQI Measurements? Answer Channel Quality Estimation (CQI) for HSDPA sessions only. the UE sends a channel quality indicator (CQI) report on the up-link. The CQI report estimates the number of bits that can be transmitted to the UE using a certain assumed HS-PDSCH power with a block error rate of 10% 12. What type of Channel Coding is used for Voice and Data services? Answer Voice Convolution Coding Data Turbo coding 13. What effect is there on signal by spreading and dispreading? Answer - Spreading will increase the bandwidth of a as signal. A signal of 10 Kb/s will become 40Kb/s after spreading and will become 10 Kb/s after de-spreading. The processing gain term expresses the gain achieved by spreading a narrow band signal over a wideband spectrum. This gain is the ratio between the spreading chip rate and the actual service bit rate measured at the RLC level 14. What effect is there on signal by spreading and dispreading? Answer - Spreading will increase the bandwidth of a as signal. A signal of 10 Kb/swill become 40 Kb/s after spreading and will become 10 Kb/s after despreading. 15. Define Processing Gain. Answer - Processing Gain is ratio between rate of spreaded signal and rate of non spreaded signal. PG= 10 log (Chip rate /Bit rate) 16. What is a chip rate of WCDMA System? How much is the bandwidth required for WCDMA? Answer: - 3840 Kc/s. FDD 5 MHZ of paired band. TDD 5 MHz only. 17. What is the relationship of SF and data rate? Answer; - They are inversely proportional. Lower the SF higher the data rate. 18. What is the relationship between SF and power required? Answer - The lower the SF, the more power required. 19.What is the relationship with SF and coverage area of different services? Answer: - They are directly proportional. Lower SF will have less coverage area. 20. What is a typical CPICH power? Answer - CPICH power typically takes about 8~10% of the total NodeB power. For a 20W (43dBm) NodeB, CPICH is around 2W (35.1 ~ 33dBm). In urban areas where in-building coverage is taken care of by in-building installations, the CPICH may sometimes go as low as 5% because: 1) The coverage area is small since users are close to the site, and 2) More power can be allocated to traffic channels 21. Give a simple definition of pole capacity? Answer - The pole capacity is the theoretical maximum capacity of the system. In WCDMA, this capacity is only theoretical since, once reached, the system goes in an instable state that leads to its collapse. However it is still a reference for expressing the load. The uplink noise increases with the loading exponentially. When the uplink noise approaches infinity then no more users can be added to a cell and the cell loading is close to 100% and has reached its pole capacity. 22. What is the maximum number of Channelization Codes that can be allocated for HS, as per 3GPP standard? Ans:15 codes of SF 16. 23. What are the typical values for reportingrange1a and reportingrange1b? Ans: 3 dB and 5 dB respectively. 24. Explain Inner and Outer loop power control and who controls them?

Ans: Inner loop power control is performed by the Node B to set the transmit power of the UE and BTS to compensate for signal variations due to fading or path loss to maintain the set SIR (occurs up to 1500 times per sec). Outer loop power control is performed by the RNC to set the target SIR based on the required BER/BLER for the requested services (occurs up to 100 times per sec). 25. Name the 4 RRC Connected Modes (states) and describe the characteristics of each . Cell-DCH: UE has been allocated a dedicated physical channel in uplink and downlink. Cell-FACH: UE listens to RACH channel (DL) and is allocated a FACH channel (UL). Small amounts of UL/DL data can be transfers in this state. The RNC tracks the UE down to the cell level and cell reselections are possible with the CELL UPDATE message. Cell-PCH: UE monitors (using discontinuous reception) a PCH channel (PCH) indicated by the PICH channel. The RNC tracks the UE down to the cell level and cell reselections are possible with the CELL UPDATE message. No data can be transferred in the UL in this state. URA-PCH: UE monitors (using discontinuous reception) a PCH channel (PCH) indicated by the PICH channel. The RNC tracks the UE down to the URA level. 26. What would the call flow be for a Mobile Originated Call (major RRC messages)? RRC Connect Request -> RRC Connection Setup -> RRC Setup Complete -> (SETUP, authentication encyrption, TMSI reallocation etc) -> CALL PROCEEDING-> Radio Bearer Setup -> Radio Bearer Setup Complete -> ALERT -> CONNECT -> CONNECT ACK ->DISCONNECT -> RELEASE. 27. How does TMA work? A TMA reduces system noise, improves uplink sensitivity and leads to longer UE battery life. Sensitivity is the minimum input power needed to get a suitable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output of the receiver. It is determined by receiver noise figure, thermo noise power and required SNR. Thermo noise power is determined by bandwidth and temperature, SNR is determined by modulation technique, therefore the only variable is noise figure 28. What are the pros and cons (advantages and disadvantages) of TMA? On the upside, a TMA reduces system noise, improves uplink sensitivity and leads to longer UE battery life. On the downside, TMA imposes an additional insertion loss (typically 0.5dB) on the downlink and increases site installation and maintenance complexity. 29. What is typical TMA gain? TMA typically has a 12 dB gain; however, the effective gain comes from noise figure reduction and the gain is close or equivalent to the feeder loss. 30. Why TMA are installed at the top near the antenna and not the bottom near the NodeB? having a TMA near the BTS will have the top jumper and main feeder losses (noise figures) cascaded in and a TMA will not be able to help suppress the losses. 31. Power Control?

Two types of power control are also used in WCDMA, they are Open-loop and Close loop. Open-loop power control is used to provide an initial power setting at the beginning of a connection, that is when the UE/base station transmits on common channels (RACH/FACH) and during the initial transmission on a dedicated channel until the inner-loop is established. This is necessary since a UE transmitting a strong signal close to a base station could produce enough interference to cause dropped calls. The UE estimates the minimum transmit power required by calculating the path loss from the received signal strength and the information about the base stations output power, which is part of the system information read from the broadcast channel. If the UE receives no response from the base station at the estimated power it will retry at a slightly higher power until an acknowledgement is received. CLOSE LOOP POWER CONTROL: two type Inner loop and Outer loop.

In the uplink the base station measures the received Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) and compares this to a target SIR. If the measured SIR is below the target then the base station requests the mobile to increase its power (and vice versa). This type of power control is known as the Inner-loop power control and is capable of adjusting the transmit power in steps of, for example 1 dB at a rate of 1500 times per second. Inner-loop power control is only applicable for connections on dedicated channels.

Outer-loop power control is used to adjust the target SIR in reaction to changes in the block error ratio (BLER) after decoding. If the BLER increases, then the target SIR is increased in an attempt to reduce the BLER. This process continuously changes the target SIR to maintain a minimum acceptable BLER. Outer-loop power control is only applicable for connections on dedicated channels.
32. COMPRESSED MODE ADMISSION POLICY

In Compressed Mode (CPM), certain idle periods are created in radio frames so that the UE can perform measurements on other frequencies and Radio Access Technologies (RAT). During the idle periods the UE can temporarily tune to other frequencies, such as a GSM Cell or second WCDMA frequency, and perform measurements on those frequencies. Compressed mode is triggered by other functions such as Inter-RAT and Inter-Frequency handover. The amount of radio links in compressed mode is monitored and the Radio Network Admission Control Compressed Mode Admission policy blocks requests to set up new compressed mode radio links when the current number exceeds the setting of the The Compressed Mode Admission Policy ensures that the extra air interface load caused is kept to a minimum. 33. The WCDMA RAN Load Sharing features are briefly explained below: Inter-Frequency Load Sharing (IFLS) - The feature enables the system to actively take the load situation into account at connection establishment, and if relevant, guide the UE to a less congested frequency. Directed Retry to GSM - The feature enables speech users in WCDMA to be re-directed to GSM at call set up, in case the load in the WCDMA cell is above an operator configurable threshold. Load Based Handover to GSM (LBHO_GSM) -With this feature when the cell load is at admission level or above and a new service request is received then one or more speech only user(s) will be selected to be moved to GSM. The target GSM cell will be selected using UE measurements. Load Based Inter-Frequency Handover (LBHO_IF) -This feature can be used as an alternative to LBHO to offloadspeech users to another frequency when the cell load is at admission level or above. Service Based Handover to GSM (SBHO) -This feature enables operators to restrict or promote intersystem handovers and cell change. The WCDMA RAN is able to read and act on the Service Indicator (SI) as set by the Core Network. The SI is supported for voice only. 34. HSDPA INTRODUCTION The High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) service achieves data rates that exceed the R99 PS RAB limit of 384 Kbps using a combination of the principles listed below:

 Adaptive Coding Adaptive Modulation Multiple Input Multiple Output HSDPA Multi Code Transmission Hybrid ARQ with Soft Combining HSDPA Scheduling HSDPA Multi Carrier The HSDPA channel uses a combination of these basic principles to offer physical data rates up to 42 Mbps. 35.CALL SETUP PROCEDURE The call setup procedure can be divided into the 4 steps-

Before any messages are sent to the RNC the UE must establish contact with the RBS through the Random Access procedure. This procedure involves the UE sending a number of RACH preambles to the RBS. Once contact has been established with the RBS the UE sends the RRC Connection Request message to the RNC. The RNC will check that resources are available for this connection and if so setup the necessary transport and physical channels and respond to the UE with the RRC Connection Setup message. The RRC connection setup procedure completes with successful reception of the RRC Connection Complete message in the RNC. Once the RRC connection has been established the RNC initiates the Signalling Connection Establishment procedure by sending the SCCP Connection Request message to the Core Network (CN). The signalling connection is said to be established on reception of the SCCP Connection Confirm message at the RNC and the authentication and ciphering procedure can be performed.

The RAB Establishment procedure begins when the CN sends the RAB Assignment Request message to the RNC. If resources are available the RNC will reconfigure the Radio Link (RL) by sending the RL Reconfiguration Request message to the RBS. When the reconfiguration has been Performed the RBS will respond with the RL Reconfiguration Response message. The RNC will then setup the Radio Bearer by sending the Radio Bearer Setup message to the UE. When the UE Responds with the Radio Bearer Setup Complete message the RNC informs the CN that the RAB has been setup with the RAB Assignment Response message. Blocking of the call setup procedure may occur due to Admission Control or Iub congestion. During the analysis of worst performing cells, it is also possible to encounter cases when the KPIs are degraded due to software or hardware problems. This could be caused by the antenna systems, mis-configuration issues, RBS, transport equipment, core Network or even the UE. Poor Accessibility performance can be experienced due to problems in the Random Procedure which is not measured by the KPI formulas.