F-PDCH Feature

Description, Implementation, and Signaling

F-PDCH Feature Description

Functional description
Fractional DPCH (F-DPCH) shares the DL dedicated code channel carrying L1 TPC bits of HSDPA users. DL L1 signaling of up to 10 HSDPA users are time
multiplexed on the same SF256 DL code channel. By sharing the SF256 channel, the number of HS-PDSCH or Rel99 codes can be increased. In addition to
the increased spreading code efficiency, the F-DPCH reduces the downlink L1 control overhead. This will increase the average HSDPA cell throughput.
With F-DPCH configured, the signaling radio bearers (SRBs) are always mapped to HSPA. Faster signaling on HSPA will reduce RRC signaling latency allowing
roughly 1s HSPA call setup times.

To ensure a good reliability in the serving cell change situations with SRBs on HSPA, special measures on physical layer and in handover control are
introduced. SRBs are strictly prioritized to make sure that they are handled without unnecessary latency. Moreover, it is ensured that the HSDPA transmit
power for SRB transmission cannot fall below a specified level. The handover thresholds are modified for better reliability of serving cell change.
F-DPCH can be used for an UE when all its services are mapped to HSPA (for example AMR call on DCH prevents the usage of F-DPCH). Thus
reconfigurations between F-DPCH and traditional DL DPCCH are supported, aiming to maximize F-DPCH usage.
This feature is based on 3GPP Enhanced F-DPCH in Rel7, which provides clearly better performance compared to F-DPCH of 3GPP Rel6.

Implementation in RAN
With Fractional DPCH, immediate setup of SRBs on HSPA is supported. The maximum radio bearer configuration with F-DPCH may
consist of SRBs, one conversational RAB, one streaming RAB and three interactive or background RABs, all on HSPA. Streaming on 2ms
TTI can be supported only if F-DPCH is activated. The Max set of E-DPDCHs is restricted to 2 x SF4 (1.4Mbps) when SRB is mapped on
HSUPA and using 10ms E-DCH. For maintaining the CFN in the SRNC even in the absence of DCH, the RNC and NodeB support Node
Synchronization on HS-DSCH over Iub and Iur.
Mapping of SRBs to HSDPA bears some risk in it, because there is no diversity on HSDPA. Especially there is a risk of HSDPA Serving
Cell Change (SCC) failure, if the SCC signaling procedure is delayed so much that the SCC order itself cannot reach the UE. For RU20,
the following measures are taken:

Combined Active Set Update and Serving Cell Change for inter-NodeB is introduced.

On L3/RRM level the legacy events, measurements and triggers are used, but with an own parameter set to make the SCC more reliable.

On the L2/L1 layer:

the SRBs are given the highest priority

MAC-hs sends the SRB traffic before any other traffic without any scheduling calculations

in any situation sufficient power for SRB transmission on HSDPA is ensured by the modification of Power Control algorithm in the BTS.

The SRB traffic can be differentiated from the user plane HSPA traffic in the transport layer. In case of the ATM transport the
differentiation is done either in ATM or AAL2 level depending on the enabled features and the BTS type used. In IP, transport the
differentiation is based on DSCPs.
It may happen that the UE enters a fading hole during a transmission gap. In order to allow the UE to make a reliable estimate and
get a good recovery, the power control applies a significantly higher F-DPCH power after the gap than before. It does not burden the
DL power budget significantly as on F-DPCH only two TPC bits are transferred in one slot.
When selecting between two HSPA layers, the one which supports Fractional DPCH is selected for the F-DPCH capable UE.
Enhanced Power control in SHO regions:

In SHO regions, the RNC commands a higher F-DPCH Tx power level compared to the non-SHO regions with high geometry factors.

In SHO regions, modified power offset is signaled to NodeB also for HSUPA DL physical control channels.

Signaling Flow 1/2

Signaling Flow 2/2