8

HSPA Voice over IP

In the previous chapters we described how voice over long term evolution (VoLTE) works
and we believe VoLTE is a driver for mobile voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and a
technology where mobile VoIP will take off rst. However, we also believe that voice
over high speed packet access (VoHSPA) could be used to speed up VoIP deployment
by having a nationwide IP network with a combination of two technologies in a fast and
cost-effective way (no need to have LTE everywhere to provide unied VoIP experience).
When VoIP is deployed in HSPA as well, then a packet (see Section 5.6.1) handover
can be used from LTE to HSPA instead of single radio voice call continuity (SR-VCC)
to minimise impact to legacy circuit switched (CS) networks. Also VoHSPA boosts the
(wideband code division multiple access) WCDMA/HSPA networks voice capacity (see
Section 7.2) compared to the current CS voice deployments and it further gives the
possibility to start re-farming voice from CS [mainly from global system for mobile
communications (GSM)] to IP (LTE/HSPA) and makes it possible for operators to release
some GSM frequencies to LTE.
The very same IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) functionality which is required for
VoLTE (as described in Chapter 5) can be used to provide VoHSPA. The efcient deployment of VoHSPA requires the following essential radio and packet core capabilities:
Support of the Robust header compression (RoHC). Since the IP header itself without
compression is large compared to the voice payload itself, one needs to use RoHC in
order not to degrade the system voice capacity. With Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4)
already the uncompressed IP header would drop the voice capacity to half, with an
even larger header size in IPv6.
Use of high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) and high speed uplink packet
access (HSUPA). The VoIP can also be an operator on top of Release 99 WCDMA, but
the capacity and power consumption benets need the use of HSDPA and HSUPA. In
order to obtain the full potential one should run both the VoIP as well as the necessary
signalling trafc over HSDPA/HSUPA to reach a good capacity. Running all the trafc
on HSDPA (and HSUPA) minimises the overhead because a continuous dedicated trafc
channel (DCH) does not need to be maintained between voice packets.

Voice over LTE: VoLTE, First Edition. Miikka Poikselka, Harri Holma, Jukka Hongisto, Juha Kallio and Antti Toskala.
2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

230

Voice over LTE

Release 7 onwards from HSPA evolution had added features to the HSPA specications, especially continuous packet connectivity (CPC), which also allows the user
equipment (UE) in Cell_DCH state to have discontinuous reception and transmission.
This is benecial for a voice service where packets arrive at regular 20 ms intervals.
This enables a great improvement on the talk time over the Release 99-based voice
implementation which requires continuous reception and transmission. The CPC principle is illustrated in Figure 8.1. Another dimension of the development is the equaliser
receiver for HSDPA channels, which allows an improvement in the downlink performance when compared to the Release 99 DCH. With VoIP the use of HS-SCCH-less
operation reduces the HSDPA signalling overhead, benetting from the constant packet
inter-arrival time.
The network features which can further improve the VoHSPA capacity include packet
bundling and VoIP optimised scheduler. The latter is enabled by ensuring that VoHSPA
packets are not handled as background data but rather with the proper quality of service
(QoS) class as well as from core network but also from the radio access network (RAN)
point of view as well. The VoHSPA with signalling needs to be mapped on such PS radio
access bearers (RABs) that ensure proper handling at the scheduler (PS conversational
RAB, PS Interactive RABs).
The use of VoHSPA allows not only higher capacity over Release 99-based CS, as
shown in Figure 8.2, but also there are big benets from the terminal talk time point of
view. As presented in Figure 8.2, there is an estimated 80% improvement in the talk
time, taking the 2011 technology components as the analysis basis when comparing the
power consumption of voice service on Release 99 DCH and running voice on HSPA
with power saving features (mainly CPC) enabled. Such benets could be achieved also
with CS voice by using the mapping as specied in Release 8 which enables mapping
the CS voice also on HSPA, as explained in (Holma, H. and Toskala, A. WCDMA
for UMTS, 5th edition, 2010).

DPCCH transmitted even if

no voice packet

WCDMA CS voice on DCH

DPDCH
DPCCH

...

20 ms

VoHSPA with CPC

No transmission, less
power consumption and less
interference

Figure 8.1 HSPA continuous packet connectivity (CPC) principle (DPDCH = dedicated physical
data channel; DPCCH = dedicated physical control channel).

HSPA Voice over IP

231

User per 5 MHz per sector

300
250
200
150
100
150
0
WCDMA CS voice
Release 99

HSPA voice
Release 7

HSPA voice Release

7 with IC

Figure 8.2 Capacity benet from VoHSPA when compared to CS voice on WCDMA DCH
(IC = interference cancellation).

LTE

HSPA

QCI

Traffic class

Traffic handling
priority

Signalling
indicator

Source statistics
descriptor

Conversational

Speech

Conversational

Conversational

Streaming

Interactive

Yes

Interactive

No

Interactive

No

Interactive

No

Background

Figure 8.3

Voice

IMS

Mapping of LTE and HSPA QoS parameters for VoIP service.

The interface between the core network and radio HSPA architecture is based on the
Iu interface compared to the S1 in LTE. While the radio parameterisation was visible to
the core network, the correct QoS parameters were important. In LTE the approach was
based on the quality class identier (QCI) use while with the HSPA network there are
specic QoS parameters in use, as shown in Figure 8.3.
The serving GPRS support node (SGSN) provides over the Iu interface to the RNC
information on the bearer level including QoS information, as presented in Figure 8.3.
In the case of VoHSPA the trafc class to be used is interactive with THP = 1 for the

232

Voice over LTE

UE

RNC

Core

Interactive SPI

Interactive THP = 1 Signalling

SIP signalling

Conversational DT

Conversational SSD = Speech

Voice traffic

SPI = Scheduling priority information

DT = Discard timer
THP = Traffic handling priority
SSD = Source statistics descriptor

Figure 8.4

QoS parameters from packet core to HSPA RAN.

IMS signalling with maximum bit rate, and conversational for the voice media with a
guaranteed bit rate. The RNC then converts these towards the NodeB over the Iub
interface (unless the RNC functionality is co-located with NodeB in at HSPA
architecture) to the scheduling priority indicator, discard time to be used as well as
guaranteed bit information. The HSPA scheduler then takes these parameters into account
to ensure appropriate scheduler behaviour to the voice trafc on HSPA. The parameter
mapping is illustrated in Figure 8.4.
As a summary from VoHSPA the benet from also running VoHSPA is both on the
capacity side while also at the same time reducing the complexity and time needed for
inter-system handover when one can stay within a PS domain when moving between
HSPA and LTE networks with an active voice connection. The recent developments on
HSPA also enable one to move to a new level in voice power consumption with the
use of HSPA power saving features to run VoHSPA while at the same time boosting
the capacity with a reduced control signal overhead and other improvements in HSPA
technology.