WCDMA/UMTS Network

Advanced Mobile
Communication Course

UMTS Evolution

DL: 384
kbps
UL: 384

DL: 14
Mbps
UL: 0.4

DL: 14
Mbps
UL: 5.7
Mbps

DL: 28
Mbps
UL: 11
Mbps
16QAM UL
64QAM DL

DL: 42
Mbps
UL: 11
Mbps
MIMO
Dual
Carrier

UMTS Network Architecture

Allocated Bands
Main Band (in Europe and most of Asian Countries)

1920 - 1980MHz / 2110 - 2170MHz

Other allocations for 3G

1850 - 1910MHz / 1930 MHz - 1990MHz (USA)

1710 - 1785MHz / 1805 1880MHz (Japan)
890 - 915MHz / 935 - 960MHz (Australia)

UTRA Absolute Frequency Channel Number (UARFCN) Central Frequency 5

UL frequency channel number 9612-9888

DL frequency channel number : 10562-10838

DS CDMA Multiple Access and Duplexing

Spreading and De-spreading

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DS-CDMA) i.e.

bandwidth of user data increased after being multiplied by
the spreading sequence.

Spreading sequence bit rate = 3.84 Mchips/sec. 5 MHz

carrier.

Spreading and De-spreading

Basic Aspects of DS-CDMA

After the signal is spread and modulated, all the users occupy the whole
5 MHz band and thus contribute to the overall noise at the receiver.

A scenario can arise that may cause a UE with low pathloss jamming the
overall cell. This is known as near far effect. The solutions to this
problem are Fast Power Control and Soft/Softer Handover.

Coverage and Capacity are related.

= Chip Rate/Bit
Rate

Wideband CDMA Advantages

Increased multiple MS capability.

Good wideband interference resistance.

Good narrowband interference resistance.

Cell breathing

In Downlink, all connections share the same power amplifier. In a lightly loaded
system, a UE relatively far from BTS may be able to connect. However in a heavily
loaded system, the UE at the cell fringe may not be able to connect due to
unavailability of DL power.

In the uplink, more the users, more will the noise floor will be raised, thus limiting the
uplink coverage.

Therefore the cell is planned for certain system loading.

Power Control

In order to avoid scenarios such as Near-Far effect and optimizing the capacity,
received power at the BS from all the UEs should ideally be equal.

In uplink, UEs power is controlled by the BTS. BTS continuously estimates the
received Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR) and compares it to the target SIR to
increase/decrease the UE output power. Fast power control (with power control
commands 1500 times per sec) is implemented in WCDMA.

In downlink, there is no near-far problem. However power control is required in

downlink to;
Conserve DL Tx power.
More power required for low speed mobiles as coding does not work effectively.

Power Control Outer Loop

Due to varying radio conditions at the UE side the SIR Target needs to be adjusted, so
as to keep the interference level at the BTS under desired limits. This requires further
optimization of the UE Tx power.

Outer loop PC adjusts the target SIR at the BTS for an individual radio link aiming at
constant quality (defined in terms of BER and BLER).

BTS reports the results of frame decoding to the RNC, which based on these
measurements adjusts the target SIR at the BTS.

Soft Handover

Without Soft HO there would be near far scenarios of a UE penetrating from one cell
deeply into the other, without being power controlled.

Very fast and frequent handovers could largely avoid this problem. But there will be
delays incurred causing the near-far problem could be developed.

Soft Handover

Soft Handover along with Power Control are powerful interference mitigating tools.

Uplink Power Control in Soft Handover state

Downlink Power Control in Soft Handover state

Multipath and RAKE receiver

Arrival of signal energy at distinct points of time due to multipath components.

Energy is smeared into multipath profile.

Fast fading due to destructive interference of multipath components.

RAKE receiver

To counter the effects of multipath, RAKE

receiver is employed.
o Delay Dispersive Energy is combined
using multiple fingers of the RAKE.
o Fast power control and the diversity
reception are used to mitigate fast
fading problem.
o Strong coding helps signal recovery in
deep fades.

Assign individual RAKE finger to a multipath

component with significant energy.

Within each finger, track the fast-changing

phase and amplitude values originating from
fast fading.

Combine the demodulated and phaseadjusted symbols across all fingers.

Spreading and De-spreading Orthogonal Codes

Spreading and De-spreading Orthogonal Codes

Spreading and De-spreading Orthogonal Codes

Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) Codes

OVSF Code Tree

OVSF Code Tree Usage

Channelization code is used to
distinguish different physical channels
of one transmitter

For downlink, channelization

code ( OVSF code ) is used to
separate different physical
channels of one cell.

For uplink, channelization code

( OVSF code ) is used to
separate different physical
channels of one UE.

Psuedo-Random Scrambling Codes

Similar OVSF code tree is used by base stations and UEs for channelization
in the respective transmitters. This makes them unsuitable for multiple
access (i.e. for identification of transmitting entities).

Additional step known as scrambling is added in overall spreading process.

Every 10msec, radio frame containing 15 x 2560 = 38,400 chips are XORed
with scrambling code of length 38,400. Thus, scrambling does not alter the
signal bandwidth.

Scrambling Codes
Scrambling code is used to distinguish different
transmitters;

For downlink, scrambling code is used to

separate different cells. Out of available 8192
scrambling codes, 512 are used in practical
implementations.

For uplink, scrambling code is used to separate

different UEs.
A total of 224 scrambling codes are available in
the uplink.
Scrambling code in the uplink are assigned by
RNC.

Scrambling codes are required to have low

autocorrelation as well as low cross correlation.

Downlink Transmission in a Cell

Uplink Transmission on a Cell