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Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

Enrico Jugl, Michael Link, Jens Mueckenheim*
*Hochschule Merseburg, Germany

Outline
Motivation
Flexible RLC PDU Size Feature
Packet Data Performance
- Single

User Performance
- Multi-User Performance
VoIP Performance
- Transmission

Technique
- Performance Criteria
- Simulation Results
Conclusions

Slide 2

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

Motivation (1)
3GPP introduced an enhanced layer 2 (i.e. flexible RLC PDU size) for the downlink in
Release 7 allowing for a more efficient transmission of higher data rates
- Required

for evolution of HSDPA, e.g. 64 QAM, MIMO and dual-cell HSDPA

In Release 8 a similar layer 2 enhancement was added for the uplink by introduction of
a MAC-i/is entity handling flexible RLC PDU sizes
- Allows

for higher data rates given by advanced E-DCH features like 16 QAM and
dual-cell HSUPA

Maximum achievable RLC throughput:

RRLC max =

RWIN ( N RLC PDU N RLC header )

- RWIN:

RTT + TSP

RLC window size in number of RLC PDUs

- NRLC PDU: size of the RLC PDU (e.g. 336 bits, 656 bits)
- NRLC header: size of the AM RLC PDU header (16 bits)
- RTT: round trip time
- TSP: timer status prohibit
Slide 3

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

Motivation (2)
With RWIN = 2047, RTT = 70 ms, TSP = 50 ms
- RRLC max

= 5.4 Mbps for 336 bits PDU size

- RRLC max =10.8 Mbps for 656 bits PDU size
By increasing RLC PDU size the maximum RLC data rate can be increased
- Problematic

at cell edge if the UE is in power limitation, where a large PDU cannot

be transmitted at all or with insufficient power only

Enhanced layer 2 can alleviate this tradeoff

- Large

PDUs can be used if allowed by radio conditions

- Small PDUs can be used in power limited situations
If large PDUs are used
- RLC

overhead is reduced, as well as the padding in the MAC-i PDUs

- Transmission of less PDUs in a TTI allows for reduction of processing load in the
terminals and the network equipment

Slide 4

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

Flexible RLC PDU Size Feature

Example for a single logical channel:
TCP/IP
header

TCP/IP Payload
MTU: 576 or 1500

RLC provides segmentation/concatenation of

variable sized RLC SDUs (IP packets) into
RLC/MAC-d PDUs
E.g. a RLC SDU contains an IP packet of
1500 bytes (MTU=1500)

RLC SDU
The maximum RLC PDU size is 1505 octets
(configurable)
RLC PDU

Max RLC PDU

Flexible size

MAC-i
H
header

RLC PDU

RLC PDU

Pad.

RLC PDU

MAC-is PDU
H: MAC-is header

Cf. 25.322 Rel-8

Slide 5

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

The length of the data field is a multiple of 8

bits
RLC PDU size can vary according to the
amount of data requested by current E-TFCI
selection

Simulation Scenario

Slide 6

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

Parameter

Value

# of NodeB
(sites)/ sectors

Single user: 1 sector

Multi-user: 12 sites/ 3 sectors
each (wrapped around)

Pathloss model

COST 231 Okumura Hata

urban

Cell radius

1000 m

Shadow fading

Single cell: no
Multi-cell: 7dB standard dev,
50 m correlation length

UL receive
diversity

2 way

Channel Model

Single user: AWGN

Multi-user: Mixture

Mobility

Single user: no
Multi-user: random
movement with soft/softer
handover

UL Target Load

85% (
8dB noise rise)

Service 1

2 MByte FTP upload

Service 2

VoIP: 12.2 k AMR speech,

50% activity

Packet Data Performance Single User (1)

Isolated radio cell with
good radio conditions
(AWGN) and a HARQ
retransmission rate of 1%
For UE categories 5 & 6
about 5% throughput
improvement compared to
fixed RLC PDU size of 336
bits due to the reduced
RLC overhead
UE category 7: throughput
significantly drops down to
6.5 Mbps due to RLC
window size limitation
Maximum RLC PDU size: 12016 bits
Slide 7

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

Packet Data Performance Single User (2)

RLC buffer occupancy

limited to available RLC
window size
Fixed RLC PDU size (336/
656 bits): drops of
available RLC PDUs in the
RLC window to zero
disrupting the continuous
data flow
Flexible RLC PDU size:
there are always PDUs
available for transmission

Slide 8

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

Packet Data Performance Multi-User

Flexible RLC PDU size
provides cell throughput
increase of ~8%
- Reduced

RLC overhead
- Finer granularity of the
RLC PDU size, allowing
for a better exploitation
of the uplink resources
- Reduced probability of
residual MAC-e block
errors after HARQ
(reduced TCP impact)
Only slight impact of the
maximum RLC PDU size
on throughput (should be
chosen > 5000 bits)

Slide 9

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

VoIP Transmission Technique/ Performance Criteria

MAC-d PDU size of 296 bits for the voice packet
and 96 bits for the SID packet

RLC RoHC
UM header RTP AMR frame
8
4 12
244bit
bit bytes bit

Transmission over E-DCH using non-scheduled

transmission mode with 2ms TTI
Non-scheduled grant of 318 bits (transport block
size table 0)

Hdr./ Pad.

Maximum number of HARQ transmissions is 4,

target average value 2.05
Minimum set E-TFCI: 318 for fixed and120 for
flexible PDU size
Performance criteria:
- Packet

delay <= 90 ms
- 95%tile of the VoIP frame loss rate <= 2%
- Probability of exceeding 80% uplink cell load <= 2%
Slide 10

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

MAC-d PDU

296 bit
MAC-e transport block: 318 bits

VoIP Performance Simulation Results

The VoIP packet delay increases with
higher path loss caused by
Higher number of HARQ transmissions in
case of fixed RLC PDU size
- Allocation of several HARQ processes for
transmission of the whole MAC-d PDU in
case of flexible RLC PDU size
-

A delay higher than 90 ms is considered

to be a packet loss
About 2 dB coverage gain for flexible RLC
PDU size
In multi-UE scenario, the VoIP capacity is
slightly improved by 6% for flexible RLC
PDU size compared to fixed PDU size
-

Slide 11

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

SID frames can now be transmitted with a smaller

RLC PDU size
In case of power limitation the RLC PDU can be
segmented by MAC-is at the UE

Conclusions
Flexible RLC PDU size feature in uplink was investigated by dynamic system simulations for
packet data services in single- and multi-user scenarios, and for VoIP over E-DCH
For UE categories 5 and 6 the single user throughput improves by about 5% compared to fixed
RLC PDU size of 336 bits due to the reduced RLC overhead
In case of multi-users, a maximum gain of about 8% was detected for UE category 6
Reduced RLC overhead
- Finer granularity of the RLC PDU size allowing for better exploitation of the available uplink load
- Reduction of call drops caused by TCP timeouts by improvements of the behavior at cell edge
-

No significant impact of the maximum RLC PDU size on the performance, as long as this
parameter is chosen larger than 5000 bits
RLC window size limitations are resolved enabling for about 11.3 Mbps RLC throughput with UE
category 7 (16 QAM) compared to 6.5 Mbps for fixed RLC PDU size of 336 bits
Performance in power limitation at cell edge for VoIP over E-DCH users can be improved too
Using smaller packet sizes in power limitation packet loss can be prevented at cost of an
increased transmission delay Improved coverage, about 2 dB gain
- Capacity gain of about 6% in multi-user scenarios
-

Slide 12

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

Thank you!

Nash Technologies GmbH

Thurn-und-Taxis-Str. 10
D-90411 Nuremberg
www.nashtech.com
Enrico.Jugl@nashtech.com

Backup

RLC Rate Limit WS Optimum for Peak Rate

Tx window
state variable
VT(...)

Parameters:
RLC RTT
TimerStatusProhibit TSP > RTT
Available MAC-is peak rate r
RLC window size WS is optimum for
RTT, TSP and r
Result: Mean RLC rate R:
R = WS / (TSP + RTT) = r

One SR arrives per TSP.

SR acknowledges PDUs up
to the situation one RTT
earlier. RLC window jumps
by a fraction of WS.

Note:
TSP > RTT step size > WS/2
TSP = RTT step size = WS/2
TSP < RTT step size < WS/2

Exactly when Tx
window is full, the
next SR arrives.

SR status report

RTT
MS (upper edge)
RTT
S (actually submitted)
A (lower edge)

Slide 15

18-May-2011

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

WS
TSP

With TSP > RTT:

R < WS / (2 * RTT)

Time

UTRAN Architecture
Evolution from Rel-7

SRNC

Enhanced layer 2 which is

already available for
HSPDA is also supported
for E-DCH

RRC
RLC
DCCH
DTCH

Logical Channels

MAC-es/
MAC-is

E-DCH in Rel-8

New MAC-is entity with

link to MAC-d and MAC-c
New MAC-i entity located
in the Node B

MAC-c

18-May-2011

DCH

Upper phy

MAC-c/sh

NodeB
MAC-e/
MAC-i
Transport Channels

EDCH

MAC-i entities from

multiple NodeB may serve
one UE (soft HO)
Slide 16

MAC-d
flows

w/o MAC-c/sh
c/sh

RLC now supports flexible

PDU size (UM & AM)

w/o MAC-c/sh
c/sh

CRNC

BCCH

MAC-d

MAC-d
flows

Additions in RRC to
choose between MACe/es and MAC-i/is

PDCP

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

MAC-hs/
MAC-ehs
HS-DSCH

MAC-b
DSCH
FACH

BCH

Data Flow through Layer 2 UTRAN Side

DCCH

DTCH

DTCH

RLC

RLC PDU:

TSN: Transmission Sequence

Number (6 bits)

DATA

Header

MAC-d

Disassembly &
Reassembly

Reordering

Disassembly &
Reassembly

Disassembly &
Reassembly

Reordering

SS: Segmentation Status (2

bits)

DATA

MAC-d PDU:

LCH-ID: Logical Channel

Identifier (4 bits)

Mac-is SDU

Mac-is PDU:

Reordering

TSN SS

DATA

DATA

Reordering queue
distribution
MAC-is

Reordering queue
distribution

L: Length of MAC-is SDU in

octets (11 bits)

MAC-d Flows

Demultiplexing
Read UE id
(FDD only)

MAC-i
PDU:

LCH-ID

DATA

DATA

Padding
(Opt)

MAC-i header

MAC-i
HARQ

Transport block:

L1

DATA

Mapping info signaled to Node B

Cf. 25.319 Rel-8

LCH-ID => MAC-d flow ID

Slide 17

18-May-2011

Maps to MAC-d flow ID

Impact of Flexible RLC PDU Size on HSUPA Performance

F: Flag indicating if more fields

are present in MAC-i header or
not (1 bit)
-

0: Flag is followed by additional

set of LCH-ID, L, F field

1: Flag is followed by MAC-is

PDU