WCDMA Power Control Principle

ISSUE 1.0

Huawei Confidential. All Rights Reserved

Chapter 1 Power Overview

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

Internal Use

Purpose of power control

Purpose of power control

Uplink channel:
channel To overcome the near-far effect.

Downlink channel : Overcome fast fading and the interferences of adjacent cells.

Power control must be used in CDMA system to ensure every user transmits
at minimum power, thus maximizing network capacity

Internal Use

Power control classification

Power control classification

Open loop Power control

Closed loop Power control

Uplink inner power control

Downlink inner-power control
Uplink outer power control
Downlink outer power control

The purpose of inner loop power control in WCDMA system is to maintain a certain
signal-to-interference ratio of transmission signal power when the signals reach the
receiving end.

However, for different multi-path environments, even if the mean signal-tointerference ratio is kept above a certain threshold, the communication quality
requirement (BER) can not always be satisfied .
Internal Use

The Relationship between Transmitted Power and

Received Power after Power Control Methods Introduced

20

Channel
Transmitted power

15

Relative power (dB)

Received power
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20

200

400

600

800

Time (ms)
Internal Use

Benefit of Power Control

Benefit of power control

Overcome uplink near-far problem

Ensure good communication quality in uplink and downlink by adjust

transmission power

Overcome the influences of unfavorable factors such as fast fading, slow fading
on radio channels

Decrease network interference, increase the capacity and quality of network

In other word, the purpose of power control is to ensure the QoS with minimum
power in the CDMA system.

Internal Use

Power control methods adopted for various physical channels

Power control methods adopted for various physical channels

"X" can be applied, "" not applied

Physical
channel

Open loop
power
control

Inner loop
power
control

Outer loop
power
Control

No power control process,

power is specified by upper
layers.

DPDCH

DPCCH

PCCPCH

SCCPCH

PRACH

AICH

PICH

Internal Use

Chapter 1 Power Overview

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

Internal Use

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

1.Open loop power control
2.Inner-loop power control
3.Outer loop power control

Internal Use

Open Loop Power Control Overview

Purpose

UE estimates the power loss of signals on the propagation path by

measuring the downlink channel signals, then calculate the transmission
power of the uplink channel.

Mainly used for initial connection setup.

Under the FDD mode, fast fading of the uplink channel is unrelated to fast
fading of the downlink channel.

Internal Use

Open Loop Power Control Overview

Disadvantage of open loop power control

This power control method is rather vague

Application scenarios of open loop power control

In the range of a cell, signal fading caused by fast fading is usually more
serious than that caused by propagation loss. Therefore, open loop
power control is applied only at the beginning of connection setup,
generally in setting the initial power value.

Internal Use

Open Loop Power Control of PRACH

One access slot
Acq.
Ind.

AICH access
slots RX at UE

PRACH access
slots TX at UE

Preamble

p-a

Preamble

p-p

Message part

p-m

Random access procedure of PRACH :

-

UE transmit a preamble using the selected uplink access slot, signature, and preamble

transmission power.
- Then ,UTARN response by sending AI if the preamble is received.
- Next, UE transmit the message part if the AI is received.
- But, if UE does not receive the AI from UTRAN in p-p period, a next preamble will be
transmitted.

Internal Use

Open Loop Power Control of PRACH

The initial value of PRACH power is set through open loop power control
Preamble_Initial_Power = PCPICH DL TX power CPICH_RSCP + UL
Interference + Constant Value

Parameters

PCPICH DL TX power, UL interference and Constant are given in system information.

The value of CPICH_RSCP is measured by UE

PCPICH DL TX power is very closed to the downlink coverage ability,

which is already given in cell setup.

UL interference can be measured by NodeB, then it will be reported to RNC.

Constant Value is the threshold of preamble message. This value has to be

analysed very carefully.

Internal Use

Open loop power control of PRACH

Pp-m
Power Ramp Step

Preable_Initial_
power
10ms/20ms

NO.

Parameter

Parameter meaning

Power Offset Pp-m

The power offset of the last access preamble and message control part. This
value plus the access preamble power is the power of the control part

Constant Value

This parameter is the correction constant used for the UE to estimate the
initial transmission power of PRACH according to the open loop power

PRACH Power Ramp Step

This parameter is the ramp step of the preamble power when the UE has not
received the capture indication from NodeB

Preamble Retrans Max

This parameter is the permitted maximum preamble repeat times of the UE

within a preamble ramp cycle

Internal Use

Open loop power control of PRACH

Different Constant Values for different stage of WCDMA network

lifecycle. Take the beginning stage for example:

Constant Value can be greater (-16dB or -15dB) so that the preamble

message can be received easier by UTRAN

The power ramp step could be greater so that the possibility which the
preamble message can be received correctly will be higher

With the development of network, the number of users increased

very fast. On this stage, the Constant value could be less 1dB.

Internal Use

Open loop power control of PRACH

Application scenarios
Node B
Serving RNS

UE

Serving
RNC

1. CCCH : RRC Connection Request

RRC

RRC
Allocate RNTI
Select L1 and L2
parameters

Open loop power

control of PRACH

NBAP

2. Radio Link Setup Request

NBAP

Start RX
description
3. Radio Link Setup Response
NBAP

NBAP

4. ALCAP Iub Data Transport Bearer Setup

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

5. Downlink Synchronisation
6. Uplink Synchronisation

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

Start TX
description
RRC

7. CCCH : RRC Connection Set up

RRC

8. Radio Link Restore Indication

NBAP
RRC

9. DCCH : RRC Connection Setup Complete

NBAP

RRC

Internal Use

Open loop power control of DL DPCCH

The DL DPCCH open loop power control can be calculated by the

following formula:
P = Ec/Io)Req - CPICH_Ec/Io + PCPICH

Parameters

(Ec/Io)req is the required Ec/Io, which should be satisfied for UE to be able to

received the message from dedicated channel correctly

CPICH_Ec/Io is measured by UE, then it is given to UTRAN by RACH

PCPICH is the transmission power of CPICH

Comments

Similar to UL, the (Ec/Io)Req value should be considered very carefully

Because there is no power ramp in the initial DL DPCCH, the initial power should
be satisfied with the requirements. Therefore, this value can be greater than the
one from simulation to ensure the success ratio
Internal Use

Open loop power control of DL DPCCH

Application scenarios
Node B
Serving RNS

UE

Serving
RNC

1. CCCH : RRC Connection Request

RRC

RRC
Allocate RNTI
Select L1 and L2
parameters
NBAP

2. Radio Link Setup Request

NBAP

Start RX
description
3. Radio Link Setup Response
NBAP

NBAP

Open loop power

control of DPCCH

4. ALCAP Iub Data Transport Bearer Setup

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

5. Downlink Synchronisation
6. Uplink Synchronisation

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

Start TX
description
RRC

7. CCCH : RRC Connection Set up

RRC

8. Radio Link Restore Indication

NBAP
RRC

9. DCCH : RRC Connection Setup Complete

NBAP

RRC

Internal Use

Open loop power control of UL DPCCH

The UL DPCCH open loop power control can be calculated by the

following formula:
DPCCH_Initial_power PCPICH DL TX power - CPICH_RSCP
+ UL interference + DPCCH_SIRtarget

Parameter
PCPICH DL TX power is the transmission power of CPICH
CPICH_RSCP can be measured by UE
UL interference can be measured by NodeB

Comments

The DPCCH_SIRtarget value should be considered very carefully.

It reflects the lowest requirement for decoding the DPCCH in a
certain multiple path environment

Internal Use

Open loop power control of UL DPCCH

Application scenarios
Node B
Serving RNS

UE

Serving
RNC

1. CCCH : RRC Connection Request

RRC

RRC
Allocate RNTI
Select L1 and L2
parameters
NBAP

2. Radio Link Setup Request

NBAP

Start RX
description
3. Radio Link Setup Response
NBAP

NBAP

4. ALCAP Iub Data Transport Bearer Setup

Open loop power

control of DPCCH

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

5. Downlink Synchronisation
6. Uplink Synchronisation

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

Start TX
description
RRC

7. CCCH : RRC Connection Set up

RRC

8. Radio Link Restore Indication

NBAP
RRC

9. DCCH : RRC Connection Setup Complete

NBAP

RRC

Internal Use

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

1.Open loop power control
2.Inner-loop power control
3.Outer loop power control

Internal Use

Close loop power control

Why the close loop power control is needed

Weakness of open loop power control

Open loop power control can decided the initial power, but it is not accurate

For WCDMA-FDD system, the uplink fading is not related to the downlink
one because of the big frequency interval of them

Therefore, the path loss and interference estimated by downlink can not reflect
the one in uplink completely. But, the close loop power control can solve this
problem

The advantages of close loop power control

Can control the transmission power of uplink and downlink very fast, and
decrease interference in system.

Maintains a higher quality of service

Internal Use

Inner-loop power control

The principle for Inner-loop power control

The receivers calculate the SIR by estimating the power strength

and the current interference. Then, compare this one to SIRtarget

If SIRmeasured < SIRtarget,

SIRtarget send TPC = 1 to inform receivers increase
its transmission power

If SIRmeasured > SIRtarget,

SIRtarget send TPC = 0 to inform receivers decrease
transmission power

The receiver that receives the TPC will adjust the transmission power by
algorithms. The inner loop power control can convergence the
estimated SIR to SIR target

Internal Use

Inner-loop power control

Inner-loop power control Algorithm

In 3GPP protocol, two algorithms are adopted in the inner-loop

power control of uplink DPCCH

PCA1 : uplink power control step is tpc=1dB or 2dB

PCA2 : uplink power control step is tpc=1dB

The power control adjustment range in DPCCH is

DPCCH=tpcTPC_cmd

TPC_cmd is achieved by different algorithm

The power offset shows the difference of transmission power of UL

DPCCH and UL DPDCH

The adjustment range of DPDCH is the same as the DPCCH.

The power offset is decided by the signaling from higher layer

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

NodeB compares SIRmeasured with the preset target signal-to-interference ratio

(SIRtarget).

1500Hz

Inner-loop

Transmit TPC
set SIRtar

UE

NodeB
Each UE has own loop

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

DPDCH/DPCCH structure

Data

DPDCH

N data bits
T

= 2560 chips, N
= 10*2 k bits (k=0..6)
slot
data

Pilot
N pilot bits

DPCCH

TFCI
N TFCI bits
T

Slot #0

Slot #1

FBI

N FBI bits

TPC
N TPC bits

= 2560 chips, 10 bits

slot

Slot #i

Slot #14

1 radio frame: T = 10 ms
f

The power ratio of DPCCH to DPDCH is

c2
d2
Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

TPC
The uplink DPCCH SIR should be estimated by different serving cells.
In each time slot, the TPC can be generated by the following rules:

No soft handover

If SIR estimation > SIR target,

then TPC = 0 to decrease the transmission power

If SIR estimation < SIR target,

then TPC = 1 to increase the transmission power

Soft handover

In one time slot, UE received several TPC, then combine then.

Comments

In the last situation, the PCA decides how TPC_cmd are combined.

The PCA has two methods. UTRAN decides which one is used.
Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

UE can adjust the UL DPCCH transmission power with tpc step

according to the received TPC_cmd

The step tpc can be 1dB or 2dB, which is decided by UTRAN

If the TPC_cmd = 1 the UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH transmission

power should be increased tpc

If the TPC_cmd = -1 the UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH transmission

power should be decreased tpc

If the TPC_cmd = 0 the UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH transmission

power should be decreased tpc

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA1
UE in Non - Soft handover case
UE receives only one TPC
If TPC = 0, TPC_cmd = -1
If TPC = 1, TPC_cmd = 1

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA1
UE in Soft handover
UE receives several TPCs in one time slot and combine them to get one TPC_cmd
by the following two steps:

First, combine the TPCs from one RLS

Then, combine the TPCs from different RLS

Comments

The TPC from RLSi is Wi

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA1

Wi can be achieved by the following rules

If the TPC = 0, Wi=0

If the TPC = 1, Wi 1

Assume UE has N RLSs N TPC can be obtained after

combination, W1 W2WN. The combination method for these
N TPCs from N RLSes can be described as following formula
TPC_cmd = (W1, W2, WN)

function should satisfied:

If one Wi = 0, TPC_cmd = -1

If all Wi are 1 TPC_cmd = 1

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA2
UE in non-soft handover mode

Only one TPC is received in one time slot. The power control can be done once by
each 5 time slots. Each frame is divided 3 groups of 5 time slots. In the first 4 time
slots, the TPC_cmds are 0, which means the power does not change. In the 5th
time slot, the TPC_cmd can be achieved by the following rules:

If all TPC are 0, the TPC_cmd is -1 and the transmission will decrease 1dB;
If all TPC are 1, the TPC_cmd is 1 and the transmission will increase 1dB;
Otherwise, TPC_cmd=0.
TPC RX

TPC_cmd

0000 0

0000 -1

1111 1

0000 1

else

0000 0

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA2
UE in soft handover
TPC_cmd can be achieved by the following two steps

First, combine the TPC from the same RLS

N TPCi (i = 1,2......N) obtained from N RLSs in each time slot

The N TPC_cmds from different RLS can be achieved by the above mentioned rules.
Assume each final TPC_cmd from N RLS are TPC_tempi i = 1,2......N

TPC_cmd in the fifth time slot can be obtain by the following rules
TPC_cmd (5th slot) = (TPC_temp1, TPC_temp2, , TPC_tempN)
where is defined as follows:
N
1
TPC _ tempi 0.5, TPC _ cmd 1
N i 1

or

1
TPC _ tempi 0.5, TPC _ cmd 1
N i 1

otherwise, TPC_cmd = 0.
Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

Comparison between PCA1 and PCA2

The control frequency

PCA1, the power control frequency is 1500Hz

PCA2, the power control frequency is 300Hz

Application scenarios

When UE is moving with high speed (80Km/h), the fast inner-loop

power control can not catch up with the fast fading, but will produce
negative gain. In this situation, PCA2 is preferred.

Internal Use

Downlink Inner-loop power control

Transmit TPC

Inner-loop
Measure SIR and compare

NodeB

1500Hz

Internal Use

Downlink inner-loop power control

Timeslot structure of Downlink DPCH :
PO3 defines the power offset of the TFCI bit in the downlink DPCCH to DPDCH.
PO2 defines the power offset of the TPC bit in the downlink DPCCH to DPDCH.
PO1 defines the power offset of the Pilot bit in the downlink DPCCH to DPDCH.
The values of PO1 PO2 and PO3 are defined by RNC.

Inner-loop power control of downlink DPCCH include two types:

- Inner-loop power control in compressed mode,
- Inner-loop power control in non-compressed mode.

Internal Use

Downlink inner-loop power control

First, UE should estimate the downlink DPDCH/DPCCH power and the

current SIR

Then, UE can generate TPC by comparing SIRestimated to SIRtarget

If SIRestimated > SIRtarget ; TPC = 0 (decrease power)

If SIRestimated < SIRtarget ; TPC = 1 (increase power)

The step of DL inner-loop power control could be 0.5, 1, 1.5 or 2dB

Internal Use

Downlink inner-loop power control

Power control in different state

When UE is not in soft handover

TPC generated by UE is transmitted in TPC domain of UL channel

When UE in soft handover, two power control modes can be used, which is
decided by DPC_mode:

DPC_MODE 0 UE will transmit TPC in every slot

DPC_MODE 1 UE will transmit the same TPC in every three time slot

When the downlink channel is out of synchronization, UE will transmit

TPC=1 because UE can not measure the downlink SIR

Upon reception of TPC, UTRAN will adjust the downlink power of

DPCCH/DPDCH. But the transmission power can not higher than
Maximum_DL_Power and not less than Minimum_DL_Power neither.

Internal Use

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

1.Open loop power control
2.Inner-loop power control
3.Outer loop power control

Internal Use

Outer-loop power control

The limitation of inner loop power control

The purpose of inner loop power control of the WCDMA system is to

maintain a certain signal-to-interference ratio of transmission signal
power when the signals reach the receiving end.

The character of outer-loop power control

The Qos which NAS provide to CN is BLER, not SIR

The relationship between inner-loop power control and outer-loop

power control

SIR target should be satisfied to be able to decoding receive signal correctly.

But different radio path radio environment has different requirement on SIR

Therefore, the outer-loop power control can adjust the SIR to get a stable
BLER in the changeable radio environment

Internal Use

Uplink outer loop power control

get the good quality

service data

Measure received
data and
compare BLER

Set BLERtarget

Measure and compare SIR

Out loop

Inner-loop

Set SIRtarget

Transmit TPC

10-100Hz

RNC

NodeB

UE

Internal Use

Downlink outer loop power control

Measure and compare BLER

L3

1500Hz

10-100Hz
Outer loop

set SIRtar

Transmit TPC
Inner loop

NodeB

L1

Measure and compare SIR

Internal Use

Outer loop power control

SIR target
adjustment step

BLERmeas BLERt arg et

SIRtar SIRAdjustcoefficient * SIRAdjustStep *

BLERt arg et

Internal Use

Internal Use