NSN White paper

Long term HSPA evolution

March 2013

Long term HSPA Evolution

2013 Nokia Solutions and Networks. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS
Executive summary

A real need for higher performing HSPA

3GPP HSPA Release 11 meets 4G requirements

The further evolution of HSPA

Abbreviations

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Executive summary
Despite the rapid development and growing deployment of LTE, HSPA continues to evolve to
bring improved performance. Release 11 contains a number of features that fulfill the IMT-A
requirements for HSPA. 4x4 MIMO, Multiflow, and 8 carrier HSDPA improve the downlink peak
data rate, average and cell edge spectral efficiency, while UL Beamforming, UL MIMO and
64QAM improve the uplink peak data rate, average and cell edge spectral efficiency. Further
enhancements to CELL_FACH give increased device battery savings, better mobility to and from
LTE and increased user data rates in CELL_FACH mode.
Yet, HSPA evolution will not stop there and will continue to improve in several areas yet to be
standardized in Release 12. These improvements will help HSPA tackle the large amount of data
that needs to be served before offloading to LTE.

A real need for higher performing HSPA

HSPA currently serves more mobile broadband users worldwide than any other radio access
technology. Despite LTE gradually gaining ground, HSPA systems are still expected to see
steady and substantial increases in traffic load over the next few years. In fact, global throughput
over HSPA networks is expected to peak around 2016 20181 before LTE traffic volume
eventually surpasses that of HSPA.
This raises some questions about the evolution of HSPA. On the one hand, it is a wellestablished technology with a successor in the wings, meaning that network operators will be
reluctant to buy in to radical technology changes for HSPA. Conversely, the huge appetite for
mobile broadband expected in the coming years demands a much higher HSPA spectral and
network efficiency. This means that any evolution in HSPA must be reasonable, based on
incremental advances in radio technology. This way, we can make the best possible use of a long
system history, while adding enough extra performance to meet the challenging demands.

3GPP HSPA Release 11 meets 4G requirements

The latest standardization of HSPA is 3GPP Release 11 advances the performance of the HSPA
system significantly. It achieves this by implementing several key features, described in the next
sections and which are shown in the figure below. With these features, HSPA can meet the ITU
IMT-Advanced 4G requirements, which among others include specifications for peak data rate,
average spectral efficiency and cell edge spectral efficiency2.

DellOro, Mobility Report, 4Q11, Market Summary & Vendor Information

1 ITU-R Report M.2134, Requirements related to technical performance for IMT-Advanced radio interface(s)

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Figure 1: HSPA Release 11 new feature overview

8- Carrier HSDPA
Dual Carrier (DC) HSDPA is a 3GPP Release 8 feature commercially deployed in many markets.
However, a major drawback is that it is limited to aggregating two adjacent 5 MHz radio carriers
within the same band. Release 9 extends DC-HSDPA operation to two 5 MHz carriers, each on a
separate frequency band. Release 10 extends multicarrier functionality to aggregate four carriers,
while Release 11 extends this still further to eight carriers. The end result is a peak data rate of
336 Mbps with 2x2 MIMO and a rate of 672 Mbps when combined with 4x4 MIMO. With Release
11 non-adjacent carriers can also be aggregated on the same frequency band.
Downlink 4x4 MIMO for HSDPA
A multi-antenna solution with 2x2 MIMO has already been deployed in the downlink in
commercial HSDPA networks. The next step, which is included in Release 11, is to push multiantenna transmission to 4x4 MIMO. As well as doubling the peak data rate, this can also improve
the typical cell capacity and user data rates.
When coupled with 64QAM, 4x4 MIMO also exceeds the minimum ITU IMT-Advanced
requirements, achieving 17.2 bits/s/Hz peak spectral efficiency, compared to the minimum
requirement of 15 bits/s/Hz.
Uplink Beamforming, dual stream MIMO and 64QAM for HSUPA
Beamforming uses a technique in which a pre-coded signal is transmitted from several antennas.
The signals are combined over the channel, giving better data rate coverage and lower
interference between cells. In favorable radio conditions, this can achieve more than 2 dB in the
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link budget, giving up to 30% higher average uplink data rates throughout the cell and up to 40%
higher data rates at the cell edge.
In very good channel conditions and when a high received signal-to-noise ratio is possible, the
user equipment may also use dual stream MIMO transmission with two orthogonal beam
patterns. This effectively doubles the raw bit rate on the physical layer, which can be tripled by
also moving from 16QAM to 64QAM.
Uplink beamforming helps achieve the average performance and cell edge performance
requirements of the ITU IMT-Advanced requirements. The uplink 2x2 MIMO together with 64QAM
modulation, achieves 6.9 bits/s/Hz peak spectral efficiency, exceeding the IMT-A minimum
requirement of 6.75 bits/s/Hz.

2 TX
antennas

2 or 4 RX
antennas

1 stream: Beamf orming

2 streams: MIMO
Figure 2: Dual Tx antenna uplink enabling beamforming transmit diversity and MIMO
HSPA+ Multiflow
Another feature that improves the use of resources in cellular systems is HSPA+ Multiflow.
Designed to improve cell edge data rates, Multiflow enables the transmission of data from
multiple cells to a user device at the common cell edge, instead of transmitting the data via a
single cell as in HSDPA today. This is illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 for dual cell Multiflow
operation.
Each of the data flows in Multiflow can be scheduled independently, making it easy to implement
on several sites and removing the need for tight network synchronization. Using two HSDPA
flows from two cells doubles the power of the signal at the device, allowing a higher overall user
throughput. For 3GPP Release 11, Multiflow is considered for up to four different flows over two
different frequencies, enabling the radio network to send data from two different base stations
and up to four different cells to a user device.
HSPA+ Multiflow helps achieve the required performance at the cell edge specified by the ITU
IMT-Advanced requirements.

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interference

signal

data
stream 1

signal

data
stream 2

signal

data
stream 1

Figure 3: Conventional single-cell HSDPA versus HSPA+ Multiflow

Further Enhancements for CELL_FACH
This is the umbrella name for a number of sub-features designed to improve the CELL_FACH
RRC state:
Stand-alone HS-DPCCH: allowing uplink feedback (CQI, ACK/NACK) when there is no uplink
data. This enhances the downlink performance.
Fallback to R99 PRACH: when the E-DCH is congested, this allows fall back to rel99 RACH.
2ms/10ms TTI concurrent deployment: allows a device to be configured with either 2 or 10
ms TTI length.
TTI alignment / Per-HARQ process grants: enables a device to be configured to use only a
subset of HARQ processes, as in CELL_DCH.
Common RGCH based interference control: A device can be told to listen to three neighbor
cell RGCH channels, which can tell the device to lower its power.
Initial PRACH access delay reduction: Delays caused by PRACH access slot selection have
been reduced on the device side.
Second DRX: Introduction of a secondary DRX cycle, allowing further battery savings.
A number of measurement reporting and cell priority features have been introduced, making
mobility between UTRAN CELL_FACH and LTE easier.
These features give increased device battery savings, better mobility to and from LTE and
increased user data rates in the CELL_FACH mode.

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The further evolution of HSPA

What further HSPA enhancements can we expect following Release 11? There is no doubt that
its evolution will continue, as there is still a pressing need for innovation in a number of fields. In
3GPP, work on Rel 12 has started and the following topics are on the agenda. Nokia Siemens
Networks regards these as the key areas and is active in ensuring that these innovations become
part of the standard.
HSPA improvements for HetNet: Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) consisting of large and
small cells will clearly dominate the cellular network landscape in the future, as they allow
increased capacity particular in those areas where demand is highest. However, HetNets raise
particular interference and mobility management challenges which call for efficient solutions in
Release 12.
Uplink enhancements: While Release 11 has brought several uplink improvements, there is
still a big gap between typical uplink and downlink throughput, with the uplink often becoming a
bottleneck.
Improved voice: Voice over HSPA is better than transporting voice over DCH. 3GPP is looking
at improving DCH for voice, further improvements are also possible in voice over HSPA.
Smartphone and MTC related enhancements: While HSPA has been designed primarily to
carry voice, video, streaming or Web traffic, it is less able when it comes to the short but
frequent data packets generated by todays smartphone applications. As well as causing
problems for network capacity, fairly high power consumption is created in the device. The issue
will become even more important with the advent of machine-type communication (MTC),
flagging up a need for further improvements in Release 12.
Scalable UMTS: 3GPP has opened a Study Item on a smaller bandwidth version of UMTS,
enabling simpler refarming.

More information can be found in the following papers:

Nokia Siemens Networks, Long Term HSPA Evolution, Mobile broadband evolution beyond
3GPP release 10
Nokia Siemens Networks, Efficient resource utilization improves the customer experience
Nokia Siemens Networks, Long Term HSPA Evolution, meets ITU IMT-Advanced
requirements
http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/portfolio/products/mobile-broadband/wcdmahspa
.

2013 Nokia Solutions and Networks. All rights reserved.

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Abbreviations
ACK

Acknowledgement

CQI

Channel Quality Indicator

DC

Dual Carrier

DRX

Discontinuous Reception

EDCH

Enhanced Dedicated Channel

HSPA

High Speed Packet Access

HS-DPCCH

High Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel

IMT

International Mobile Telecommunications

ITU

International telecommunications Union

LTE

Long Term Evolution

MIMO

Multiple Input Multiple Output

MTC

Machine Type Communications

NACK

Negative Acknowledgement

PRACH

Physical Random Access Channel

RACH

Random Access Channel

RGCH

Relative Grant Channel

RRC

Radio Resource Control

TTI

Transmission Time Interval

2013 Nokia Solutions and Networks. All rights reserved.

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