UMTS Key Technologies

ZTE University

Content

RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Multi-path characteristics of radio channel

Electromagnetic propagation:

Signal attenuation:

direct radiation reflection diffraction and scattering

Path loss Loss of electromagnetic waves in large scope of the
spread reflects the trend of the received signal in the spreading
Slow fading Loss because of being blocked by the building and
hill in the propagation path
Fast fading Electromagnetic signals rapidly decline in a few
dozens wavelength ranges

Description of Fast fading distribution

Rayleigh distribution non line-of sight(NLOS) transmission

Rician distribution line-of sight(LOS) transmission

Multi-Path Effects

sending signal

strength

receiving signal
0

time

Characteristics of Radio Propagation

Interference

dithering
0

delay

Sending signal

Accepting signal

fading
0dB

2 3

Sending signal

Accepting signal

Sending signal

-25dB

Accepting signal

Sending signal

Accepting signal

Frequency
Frequencyoff-set
off-setcaused
causedby
bythe
themovement
movementof
ofmobile
mobile

that
thatis
isDoppler
Dopplereffect
effect

RAKE Receiver

The multi-path signals contain some useful energy ,

therefore the UMTS receiver can combine these energy of
multi-path signals to improve the received signal to noise
ratio.
RAKE receiver adopts several correlation detectors to
receive the multi-path signals, and then combines the
received signal energy.

RAKE
RAKE Receiver
Receiver can
can effectively
effectively overcome
overcome the
the multi-path
multi-path
interference,
interference, consequently
consequently improve
improve the
the receiving
receiving performance.
performance.

RAKE Receiving

d1

d2
d3

transmitting

Receiving

Rake
combination

noise
t

Multi-finger receiver

Traditional receiver

Multi-path signals are treated as interference.

The receiving performance will decline because of the
Multi-address Interference (MAI).

Precondition of Multi-finger receiver

Multi-finger receiver utilizes the Multi-path Effect.

Multi-finger signals can be combined through relative
process
Multi-finger time delay is larger than 1 chip interval,
which is 0.26us=>78m.

Multi-finger receiver
Direct signal

coding

transmitter

decoding

Reflected signal

receiver

Dispersive time < 1 chip interval

Multi-finger receiver cant supply multi-finger diversity

Direct signal

decoding

coding

transmitter

Reflected signal

receiver

Dispersive time > 1 chip interval

Multi-finger receiver can supply multi-finger diversity, signal gain is improved

RAKE Receiving
Single
receiving
Single
receiving

receiver

combining

signal

Single
receiving

searcher
s(t)

calculate

s(t)

RAKE Receiving overcomes multi-finger interference, improves

receiving performance

Combination of Multi-fingers

Maximal ratio combining (MRC)

at each time delay

Finger 1

Finger 2

Finger 3

phase shifting

by adding

Content

RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Whats

When UE is moving from the coverage area of

one site to another, or the quality of service is
declined by external interference during a service,
the service must be handed over to an idle
channel for sustaining the service.
Handover is used to guarantee the continuity of
service.
Handover is a key technology for mobile
networking.

Category of Handover
Soft handover (SHO)

UMTS system support

multiple handover technology

Intra-RNC, inter-Node B

Inter-RNC

Softer handover

Same Node B, Inter-sector

Hard handover (HHO)

Intra-frequency

Inter-frequency

Inter-system (UMTS&GSM)

Inter-mode (FDD&TDD)

Handover Demonstration

Hard
Handover

Soft
Handover

Soft Handover/Softer Handover

Soft Handover
C
A

C
A

Soft-Softer Handover
C
A

C
A

Softer Handover
C
A

C
A

Hard Handover

During the hard handover procedure,

all the old radio links with the UE are
abandoned before new ones are
established, so there must be
service interruption during the HHO.
Hard handover may occur in the
following main cases

When the UE is handed over to another

UTRAN carrier, or another technology
mode.
When soft handover is not permitted (if
O&M constraint)

Hard Handover
CN

SRNC

Node B

RNC or
BSC

Node B or
BTS

Soft/Softer Handover

The soft/softer handover allows to migrate from one cell to

another without service interruption or without deleting all
old radio links.
UE can connecte to more than one cell simultaneously and
take benefit from the macro-diversity.
Soft
Handover
Soft
SoftHandover
Handover

The two Node

Bs Node
may Bs
The two
may Same
belong RNC
to the
belong to the

CN
CN
CN

Softer
Handover
Softer
Handover
Softer
Handover

CN
CN

same RNC

SRNC
Iur

Node B

DRNC

SRNC

Node B

UMTS General Handover Trilogy

Measurement Control

Handover decision

UTRAN demands the UE to start measurement through

issuing a measurement control message.
UTRAN makes the decision based on the measurement
reports from UE. The implementation of handover
decision is various for different vendors. It impacts on
the system performance critically.

Handover execution

UTRAN and UE execute different handover procedure

according to the handover command.

Handover Flows
(A) RNC sends measurement
control message to UE
(Measurement Control)

(B) UE starts measurement task

with the parameters included in
the message, and reports
measurement
results Measurement
Report
(C) RNC stores the
measurement results according
to frequencies and cells

(D) RNC Estimates the quality

of each carrier (including intrafrequency and inter-frequency)

Current
carrier has
good quality

Other
system has
good
quality

(E) Quality
Decision
Other carrier has good
quality

(F) maintain the

active set and
monitored set

(G) Allocate resource

in target cell, prepare
to execute handover

(H) Allocate
resource in target
cell, prepare to
execute handover

I If handover is required, RNC sends

handover command with target cell to UE

General Procedure of Handover Control (I)

Measuring
The measurement objects are decided by RNC. Usually,
either Ec/Io or RSCP (Received Signal Code Power) of PCPICH channel is used for handover decision.
ZTE RNC adopts Ec/Io measurement, because Ec/Io
embodies both the received signal strength and the
interference. The relation of Ec/Io and RSCP is shown as
follows:

Ec/Io RSCP/RSSI

In the above equation RSSI Received Signal Strength

Indicator is measured within the bandwidth of
associated channels

General Procedure of Handover Control (II)

Filtering
The measurement results should be filtered before being
reported. Measurement filtering can be regarded as a low pass
filtering procedure. The following equation is applied for filtering.
Fn=(1-a)Fn-1 a*Mn

Variants definition

Fn filtered measurement result

Fn-1 last filtered measurement result
Mn latest Ec/Io or RSCP measurement result received from
physical layer;
a = 1/2(k/2), k means the Filter coefficient, which is included in the
Measurement Control message. It is decided by the UTRAN.
F0 is initialized by the first measurement result M1.

General Procedure of Handover Control (III)

Reporting
Period report triggered handover

Base on the filtered measurement result

Event report triggered handover

Base on the event

Soft
Handover
Hard
Handover

Period

Measurement result filtered in

UE
Event decided in RNC
Handover decided in RNC

Event

Measurement result filtered in UE

Event decided in UE
Handover decided in RNC

General Procedure of Handover Control (IV)

Handover algorithm

All the handover algorithms including soft handover,

hard handover and so on are implemented on the event
decision made according to the measurement reports.

Events defined in 3GPP specifications

Intra-frequency events 1A~1F

Inter-frequency events 2A~2F
Inter-RAT events 3A~3D

Note: RAT is short for Radio Access Technology, e.g.

UMTS&GSM

Concepts Related to Handover

Active Set:

Monitored Set:

A set of cells that have established radio links with a

certain mobile station.
User information is sent from all these cells.
A set of cells that are not in the active set but are
monitored according to the list of adjacent cells
assigned by the UTRAN.

Detected Set:

A set of cells that are neither in the active set nor in the
monitor set.

Soft handover event

Event

Description

1A

Quality of target cell improves, entering a

report range of relatively activating set quality

1B

Quality of target cell decreases, depart from a

report range of relatively activating set quality

1C

The quality of a non-activated set cell is better

than that of a certain activated set cell

1D

Best cell generates change

1E

Quality of target cell improves, better than an

absolute threshold

1F

Quality of target cell decreases, worse than

an absolute threshold

An Example of SHO Procedure

Pilot
Ec/Io

Pilot Ec/Io of cell 1

Pilot Ec/Io of cell 2

Pilot Ec/Io of cell 3

Connect to cell1

time
Event 1A
Event 1C
Event 1B
add cell2 replace cell1 with cell 3 remove cell3

RNS Relocation
Core Network

Core Network

Iu
Serving
RNS

Iu
Target
RNS

Iur

Target
RNS

Serviing
RNS

RNS
Radio Network Sub-system

RNS relocation can :

Reduce the Iur traffic significantly

Enhance the system adaptability

Hard Handover

Hard handover measurement is much more complex for

UE than soft handover measurement.
Inter-frequency hard handover requires UE to measure the
signal of other frequencies.
UMTS employs compressed mode technology to support
inter-frequency measurement.

Content

RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Purpose of Compressed Mode

In order to support inter-frequency and inter-RAT

handover, UE is required to perform inter-frequency
and Inter-RAT measurement periodically.
The UE with one transceiver does not have the
opportunity to perform inter-frequency measurement
during the service period (especially the voice call) ,
because the transceiver is busy in transmitting and
receiving the signals all the time.
Compressed mode can provide idle slot based
transmission time window, which can be used for
inter-frequency measurement, for the UEs in
connected state, e.g. CELL_DCH.

Compressed Mode

10ms

1 frame10ms

Transmit gapsMaximum 7 slots = 4.7ms

Compressed Mode Transmission Diagram

Generation of Compressed Mode Frame

Puncturing

SF halving

Lower the symbol rate of physical channel when

processing the rate matching procedure
Employ half SF, e.g. employ SF64 to replace
SF128

High layer scheduling

Decrease the bit rate from up layer

Content

RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Admission Control

The admission control is employed to admit the access of

incoming call. Its general principal is based on the
availability and utilization of the system resources.
If the system has enough resources such as load margin,
code, and channel element etc. the admission control will
accept the call and allocate resources to it.

Purpose of Admission Control

When user initiates a call , the admission control should

implement admission or rejection for this service according
to the resource situation.
The admission control will sustain the system stability
firstly and try the best to satisfy the new calling services
QoS request, such as service rate, quality (SIR or BER),
and delay etc. basing on the radio measurement.
Admission control is the only access entry for the incoming
services, its strategy will directly effect the cell capacity
and stability, e.g. call loss rate, call drop rate.

Admission Control in Uplink

Itotal_old+I >Ithreshold
Access
Threshold

Interference capacity
Service priority
Reserved capacity for
handover

The forecasted interference including the delta

interference brought by the incoming service is
calculated by the admission algorithm, and its
result depends on the QoS and transmission
propagation environment

Iown-cell
The current RTWP (Received
Total Wide Power) value of cell,
which is reported by Node B

Iother-cell
~
N0

Admission Control in Uplink

Different ultimate user numbers

Different interference threshold under different ultimate
user number conditions
Different ultimate throughputs

Ultimate Situation for different service rate

Admission Control in Downlink

Ptotal_old+P>=Pthreshold
Access
Threshold

Max TCP of cell

Service priority
Reserved capacity for
handover

The forecasted TCP value including delta

power required for the incoming service is
calculated by the admission algorithm, and its
result depends on the QoS and transmission
propagation environment.
The current TCP value of cell, which is reported by Node
B Transmitted Carrier Power*Pmax

Admission Control in Downlink

Red low speed service
Blue high speed service

The
The above
above figure
figure illustrates
illustratesthe
the relation
relationbetween
betweenultimate
ultimate user
user number
number
corresponds
correspondsto
to different
different service
service rate
rate and
and distance
distance under
under equidistant
equidistant
distribution
distribution condition
condition

Admission Control Analysis

The service can be either one-direction or bi-direction

type. For bi-direction service, it is admitted only after
both uplink and downlink are admitted.
Admission control is the only access entry for the
incoming services, its strategy will directly effect the
cell capacity and stability, e.g. call loss rate, call drop
rate.

Content

RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Purpose of Load Control

The speed and position
changing of UE may
worsen the wireless
environment.

Increased transmitted
power will increase the
system load.

The purpose of load control is to keep the

system load under a pre-planned threshold
through several means of decreasing it, so as to
improve the system stability.

Load control

Overload control

Overload control

Load Control Flows

Start

Light loaded

Decision

Over loaded

Normal loaded

1. Handover in and access

are allowed
2. Transmitted code power
(TCP) increase is allowed
3. RAB service rate
upgrade is allowed

1. Handover in
and access are
allowed
2. TCP increase
is allowed

1.Handover in and
access are forbidden
2. TCP increase is
forbidden
3. RAB service rate
degrade
4. Handover out
5. Release call (call drop)

Load Control in Uplink

Triggers

Methods for decreasing load

RTWP (Received Total Wide-band Power) value from measurement

report exceeds the uplink overload threshold;
Admission control is triggered when rejecting the access of services
with lower priority due to insufficient load capacity in uplink.
Decrease the target Eb/No of service in uplink;
Decrease the rate of none real time data service;
Handover to GSM system;
Decrease the rate of real time service, e.g. voice call;
Release calls.

Methods for increasing load

Increase the service rate.

Load Control in Downlink

Triggers

Methods for decreasing load

TCP (Transmitted Carrier Power) value from measurement report

exceeds the downlink overload threshold;
Admission control is triggered when rejecting the access of services
with lower priority due to insufficient load capacity in downlink.
Decrease the downlink target Eb/No of service in downlink;
Decrease the rate of none real time data service;
Handover to coverage-shared light loaded carrier;
Handover to GSM system;
Decrease the rate of real time service, e.g. voice call;
Release calls.

Methods for increasing load

Increase the service rate.

Cell Breathing Effect

Cell breathing is
one of the means
for load control

The
The purpose
purpose of
of cell
cell breathing
breathing is
is to
to share
share the
the load
load of
of hothotspot
spot cell
cell with
with the
the light
light loaded
loaded neighbor
neighbor cells,
cells, therefore
therefore to
to
improve
improve the
the utilization
utilization of
of system
system capacity.
capacity.

Example for load control

Cell Breathing Effect

With the increase of activated

terminals and the increase of high
speed services, interference will
increase.
The cell coverage area will shrink.
Coverage blind spot occurs
Drop of call will happen at the edge
of cell

Coverage and
capacity are
interrelated

Content

RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

UMTS Code Resource

Channelized Code (OVSF code)

Uplink Channelized Code

Downlink Channelized Code

Scrambling Code

Uplink Scrambling Code

Downlink Scrambling Code

Function of OVSF Code

Downlink: distinguish different radio channels from the same NodeB.
OC3, OC4
OC1, OC2
OC5, OC6, OC7

Uplink: distinguish different radio channels from the same UE.

OC1, OC2
OC1 , OC2, OC3
OC1, OC2, OC3, OC4

Function of Scrambling code

Downlink: distinguish different Cells

Uplink: distinguish different UEs
Cell Site 1 transmits using PN code 1

PN1

PN1

PN3

PN4

Cell Site 2 transmits using PN code 2

PN2

PN5

PN2

PN6

Why Code Resource Planning?

The OVSF (Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor) code

tree is a scarce resource and only one code tree can be
used in each cell. In order to make full use of the capacity,
and support as many connections as possible, it is
important to plan and control the usage of channel code
resource.
Downlink scrambling code allocation should be planned to
avoid the interference between neighboring cells.
The uplink scrambling codes are sufficient, but RNC
should plan the codes to use for avoiding allocating same
code to different users in inter-RNC handover scenario.

Code Resource Planning

The uplink and downlink scrambling code can be planned

easily by computer.
The uplink channelized code does not need planning, for
every UE can use the whole code tree alone.
Therefore, only the downlink channelized code is planned
with certain algorithm in RNC.
Each cell has one primary scrambling code, which
correlates with a channel code tree. All the users under this
cell share this single code tree, so the OVSF code
resource is very limited.
The downlink channelized code tree is a typical binary tree
with each layer corresponds to a certain SF ranging from
SF4 to SF512.

Generation of Channelized Code

Cch,4,0 =(1,1,1,1)
Cch,2,0 = (1,1)
Cch,4,1 = (1,1,-1,-1)
Cch,1,0 = (1)
Cch,4,2 = (1,-1,1,-1)
Cch,2,1 = (1,-1)
Cch,4,3 = (1,-1,-1,1)
SF = 1

SF = 2

SF = 4

OVSF Code Tree

Channelized Code Characters

Code allocation restriction

The code to be allocated must fulfill the condition that its

ancestor nodes including from father node to root node
and offspring nodes in the sub tree are not allocated;

Code allocation side effect

The allocated node will block its ancestor nodes and

offspring nodes, thus the blocked nodes will not be
available for allocation until being unblocked .
SF=8
SF=16

SF=32

Strategy of Channelized Code Allocation

Full utilization

Low Complexity

Short code first.

Allocate codes for common channels and physical

shared channels prior to dedicated channels.

The fewer the blocked codes, the higher code tree

utilization rate.

Guarantee the code allocation for common physical

channels.

Apply certain optimized strategy to allocate codes

for downlink dedicated physical channels.

An Example of Code Allocation

SF = 4
SF = 8
SF = 16
SF = 32
0

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

10

11

12

13

14

15

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

SF = 4

Choose one
code from
three
candidates

SF = 8
SF = 16
SF = 32

Red spots represent the codes that have been allocated

Green spots represent the codes that are blocked by the allocated offspring codes
Blue spots represent the codes that are blocked by the allocated ancestor codes;
Black spots represent the codes that to be allocated;

Planning of downlink scrambling code

PN2

PN4

PN6

PN2

PN3

PN7

PN4

PN6
PN5

PN4

PN2

PN4

PN6
PN5

PN4
PN5

PN3

PN7

PN1

PN1
PN6

PN5
PN3

PN7

PN1

PN3

PN7

PN1
PN6

PN5

PN2

PN3

PN7

PN1

PN2

PN2

PN3

PN7

PN1
PN4

PN6
PN5

Content

RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Capacity of UMTS

UL c
a

paci
ty is
inter restrain
feren
ed b
y
ce

DL c
ap
by th acity is r
e
e po
wer strained
of N
odeB

Power Rising

Power rising occurs because of the Multiple Access

Interference (MAI) resulting from the non-orthogonal
code channels.

UMTS network

Code channel transmit

Channel power
Promised channel quality
Channel power rise
Power climb
Collapse over the range

Meeting Room
talk with dialects
voice tone
listen clearly
voice tone rise
voice climb
can not hear each other

Power Rising

Capacity of UMTS System

Under the circumstance of single services:

=
=
=

Capacity of UMTS System

Under the circumstance of mixed

services
...

+Y

+Z

UMTS Capacity Features

UMTS capacity feature

UMTS capacity is Soft Capacity.

The Concept of Soft Capacity

The system capacity and communication quality are

interconvertible.
Different services have different capacity.
Different proportion of services have different capacity
for mixed services.
The capacity is also restricted to the allocation of code
resource.

Concept of Soft Capacity

Different
service has
different
capacity

Different combination
of service has
different capacity

System
System capacity
capacity and
and QoS
QoS can
can be
be interconverted
interconverted

Crucial Factors for UMTS Network (CQC)

ty
ali
Qu

Co
ve
r ag
e

Capacity

All
All the
the key
key technologies
technologies adopted
adopted are
are used
used to
to try
try to
to
achieve
achieve the
the optimal
optimal balance
balance of
of the
the three
three factors
factors

Coverage and Capacity

UMTS performance is determined by such factors

as

Number of users
Transmission rate
Moving speed
Wireless environment

The radius of cell depends on such factors as:

indoors
Outdoors

Local radio conditions (local interference)

Traffic in neighbouring cells (remote interference)

Cell Radius decrease according to the Increase of

user number

Coverage/capacity VS Data Rate

Higher data rate needs higher power

High data rate transmission is only available nearby the
station
Coverage decrease

>384 kbps
>144 kbps
>64 kbps

Subscriber
num
increase

>12.2 kbps

Optimization methods

To overcome Cell Breathing Effect caused by increased

traffic and meet different requirements for capacity and
coverage in different environment, following solutions can
be applied:
DL
transmission

diversity (Tx Div)

high power amplifier

UL
Tower Mounted Amplifier (TMA)
4 Rx Div
OTSR

DL/UL:
Add carrier
six sectors

Add
Addbasestation
basestation
last
lastchoice
choice

Factors affects UMTS Capacity

Factors

Impact on UMTS capacity

RAKE
Receiver

The advanced receiving and baseband processing

technology is introduced to overcome the fast fading

Power Control

Reducing interference, saving power and Increasing capacity

Handover
Control

Impacting the capacity through applying different proportion

and algorithm of soft handover

Admission
Control

Admitting a connection base on the load and the admission

threshold of planned capacity

Load Control

Monitoring system load and adjusting the ongoing services to

avoid overload

OVSF Code

The Allocation of codes impacts the maximum number of

simultaneous connections.

Wireless
Environment

Wireless environment such as interferences, UE position and

mobility etc. can influent the cell capacity