Scalable UMTS (S-UMTS)

Solution for Fragmented GSM Spectrum Refarming

February 2013

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

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Scalable UMTS (S-UMTS)

1 Introduction

UMTS supports a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode of operation which employs a nominal 5 MHz carrier spacing. A contiguous block of at least 5 MHz spectrum is needed to deploy a UMTS/HSPA+ carrier. There are, however, many scenarios where an operator cannot accommodate a complete 5 MHz carrier. For example, refarming of spectrum from legacy wireless systems may result in fragmented spectrum, and local regulators might have allocated small blocks of spectrum to the operators. The inability of existing UMTS/HSPA+ to make use of fragmented spectrum results in suboptimal resource utilization. The goal of Scalable UMTS (S-UMTS) is to enable the support of UMTS/HSPA+ in half or a quarter of full UMTS/HSPA+ carrier bandwidth, while maintaining coverage and spectral efficiency. S-UMTS has a number of key use cases, including phased refarming of GSM spectrums and maximized utilization of UMTS/HSPA+ spectrum. This paper discusses S-UMTS and its use cases.

2 GSM Refarming Challenges

One of the key challenges to GSM refarming is the fragmented 2G spectrum allocation. For example, GSM has a carrier bandwidth of 200 kHz, it is not necessary to allocate a large contiguous block of spectrum for the operators to deploy a GSM network. Figure 1 illustrates representative examples of 900 MHz spectrum allocation in several countries: In Czech Republic, the operators are allocated multiple blocks of spectrum in the 900 MHz band, each with less than 5 MHz bandwidth. Some operators have more than 5 MHz of total spectrum in the band, but it is not contiguous spectrum. In China, the bandwidth of the allocated 900 MHz spectrum is not a multiple of 5 MHz. For example, China Unicom has 6 MHz of GSM spectrum in the 900 MHz band. In Brazil, there exist spectrum blocks with bandwidth less than 5 MHz. For example 2.5 and 1.5 MHz carriers in the 900 MHz band. In India, there exist many types of fragmented spectrum in different regions. For example, 4.1 and 2 MHz in the 900 MHz band.

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Figure 1: Representative Examples of 900 MHz Spectrum Allocation Existing UMTS/HSPA+ does not support spectrum with less than 5 MHz bandwidth, making it challenging to deploy UMTS/HSPA+ using fragmented spectrum from GSM refarming. Even if more than 5 MHz of contiguous spectrum is available, it cannot be fully utilized if the available bandwidth is not a multiple of 5 MHz. Another challenge of GSM refarming is the difficulty in clearing 25 contiguous GSM carriers to deploy UMTS/HSPA+ due to existing GSM capacity requirements. In some cases, operators have obligations to maintain GSM networks to support services such as machine-to-machine communications. They must provide certain level of GSM capacity for the long term and cannot make available the entire GSM spectrum for UMTS/HSPA+. A solution that enables phased migration from GSM to UMTS/HSPA+, starting with less than 5 MHz of refarmed spectrum, is therefore desirable.

3 Scalable UMTS

S-UMTS enables the support of UMTS/HSPA+ in less than 5 MHz spectrum. Specifically it makes possible for UMTS/HSPA+ to operate in and of the full UMTS/HSPA+ carrier bandwidth. Figure 2 illustrates this capability of S-UMTS. The full UMTS/HSPA+ carrier is allocated a nominal 5 MHz of spectrum including the guard bands, while most of the carriers energy typically occupies 4.2 MHz bandwidth. The and bandwidth S-UMTS carriers occupy 2.1 MHz and 1.05 MHz bandwidth, respectively, excluding any required guard bands.

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Figure 2: Scalable UMTS

S-UMTS achieves bandwidth reduction by a technique referred to as time dilation, which scales the chip rate of the S-UMTS carrier relative to that of the full UMTS/HSPA+ carrier. Figure 3 shows time dilation with a scaling ratio N=2, where the chip duration is doubled, and the occupied bandwidth is reduced to half, compared to a full UMTS carrier. Figure 3 also shows that the energy per chip is maintained and the total transmit power of S-UMTS is 1/N of full UMTS.

Figure 3: Time Dilation

Table 1 illustrates that a full UMTS/HSPA+ carrier with 3.84 Mcps chip rate typically occupies 4.2 MHz bandwidth excluding guard bands. A bandwidth carrier with 1.92 Mcps chip rate and 2.1 MHz occupied bandwidth can be generated by using a scaling ratio N=2. Similarly, a bandwidth carrier that
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has a 1.05 MHz occupied bandwidth can be generated by using a scaling ratio N=4. Note that as the chip rate and therefore bandwidth is scaled down, the Transmission Time Interval (TTI) is increased. The HSDPA TTI for the full, and carriers are 2ms, 4ms, and 8ms, respectively. Table 1: Scalable UMTS Waveforms S-UMTS Carrier Type Full carrier carrier carrier
*Excluding guard bands

Scaling Ratio (N)

Chip Rate (Mcps)

Bandwidth* (MHz)

HSDPA TTI (ms) 2 4 8

1 2 4

3.84 1.92 0.96

4.2 2.1 1.05

S-UMTS makes the deployment of UMTS/HSPA+ possible in fragmented spectrum with less than 5 MHz bandwidth. In addition, it provides a number of advantages: Offers similar spectral efficiency as UMTS/HSPA+ Maintains the same link budget as full bandwidth UMTS/HSPA+ and preserves network plans Maintains similar overhead ratio as full bandwidth UMTS/HSPA+ Supports both WCDMA voice and HSPA+ data services Maintains voice quality as full bandwidth UMTS Simple system design leverages existing system assets Applicable to all 3GPP bands

4 S-UMTS Enables Refarming of All GSM Spectrum

As discussed in Section 2 , operators working on refarming GSM spectrum for UMTS/HSPA+ face two major problems:

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1. The mismatch between the bandwidth of spectrum available from GSM refarming and the minimum UMTS/HSPA+ bandwidth requirement. Spectrum blocks smaller than 5 MHz cannot be utilized by UMTS/HSPA+, which results in under utilization of valuable resource. 2. The lack of a phased approach to migrate from GSM to UMTS/HSPA+. An entire 5 MHz block of GSM carriers must be cleared to deploy one UMTS/HSPA+ carrier, which limits the available GSM capacity after refarming. Furthermore, the inability to match GSM spectrum to capacity requirements means that operators need to maintain more GSM capacity than necessary, thus resulting inefficient spectrum utilization. S-UMTS addresses the above two problems by enabling operators to refarm all of the required GSM spectrum in a phased manner. Figure 4 illustrates the ability of S-UMTS to support UMTS/HSPA+ in less than 5 MHz spectrum. Figure 4(a) shows that S-UMTS can make use of isolated fragments of spectrum from GSM refarming to deploy standalone UMTS/HSPA+ carriers. Figure 4(b) shows that these spectrum fragments can further be aggregated with a full UMTS carrier through HSPA+ multi-carrier aggregation. The aggregated carrier has higher combined data rate compared to the single full carrier, thus achieving higher trunking efficiency and better user experience.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4: GSM Refarming Using S-UMTS

Figure 5 illustrates that S-UMTS enables phased UMTS/HSPA+ migration. An operator that has 5 MHz GSM spectrum can start refarming with a or bandwidth S-UMTS carrier. In this way, the operator can introduce UMTS/HSPA+ service gradually while continuing to support GSM traffic. Eventually, when GSM service is not needed, it can be completely phased out to support a full UMTS carrier.

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Figure 5: S-UMTS Enables Phased GSM to UMTS/HSPA+ Migration

5 S-UMTS Maximizes UMTS/HSPA+ Spectrum Utilization

UMTS/HSPA+ generally allocates 5 MHz of spectrum per carrier. In reality, for co-located carriers, a carrier separation of less then 5 MHz is sufficient to maintain low inter-carrier interference. For operators with 10 or 15 MHz of contiguous spectrum, there is an opportunity to introduce an additional S-UMTS carrier in the available spectrum. This can potentially maximize the utilization of available spectrum. Figure 6 illustrates that additional S-UMTS carriers can be added to 10 MHz and 15 MHz blocks of contiguous UMTS/HSPA+ spectrum. A 10 MHz spectrum block can be used to support two UMTS/HSPA+ carriers, which typically occupy 4.2 MHz each, and one bandwidth S-UMTS carrier. Similarly, a 15 MHz spectrum block can be used to support three UMTS/HSPA+ carriers and one bandwidth S-UMTS carrier.

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Figure 6: S-UMTS Enables the Support of Additional Carriers in UMTS/HSAP+ Spectrum

6 Conclusions

S-UMTS supports the deployment of UMTS/HSPA+ in and of the full UMTS/HSPA+ carrier bandwidth. It enables UMTS/HSPA+ to effectively make use of fragmented and leftover spectrum, and resolves two key problems associated with GSM refarming: 1. Insufficient spectrum to deploy UMTS/HSPA+, and 2. Inability to free up 25 contiguous GSM carriers due to existing GSM capacity requirements

In addition, S-UMTS enables the deployment of additional carriers in existing UMTS/HSPA+ spectrum. Thus maximizing resource utilization and improving network capacity. Another key advantage of S-UMTS is its limited impact to UMTS/HSPA+ system design. S-UMTS aims at maintaining the link budget as 5 MHz UMTS/HSPA+ and delivering similar spectral efficiency in all 3GPP bands. It maintains service capabilities of existing UMTS/HSPA+, including circuit-switched voice, SMS, and packet data . S-UMTS is currently a 3GPP Release 12 candidate feature.

2013 Qualcomm Technologies, Inc