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Power Control in UMTS

UMTS, unlike GSM, has a greater need to combat the near-far problem. A UE
close to the Node-B transmitting at the same power as another at the cell
edge will potentially block out the latter. To maintain reliable links to all UEs,
the received power at the Node-B should be about the same. This means that
propagation path loss between the UE and the Node-B should be taken into
account. In an ideal environment, this alone is sufficient. But real
environments are rarely ideal. Channel conditions vary, in the short term and
in the long term. Recognizing all these, we can relate easily to the three main
power control mechanism in UMTS:

1. Open loop power control: this relates directly to the path loss. As
the name suggests, this control has no feedback. It simply sets the
initial power at which the UE should transmit. This initial setting
happens via RRC signaling. This control is in the UE and the RNC.

2. Outer loop power control: this relates to long term variations of the
channel. A target SIR is specified. If the received SIR is less than this
target, transmit power needs to be increased. Otherwise, it needs to
be decreased. In practice, DL target quality is in terms of transport
channel block error ratio (BLER). The BLER can be related to a target
SIR. If the received SIR is less than the target, BLER is likely to be not
met. Alternatively, if the BLER is more than the target, transmit power
has to be increased. This control is in the UE and the RNC. This is also
known as slow closed loop power control. It happens at the rate of 10-
100 Hz.

3. Inner loop power control: this is also known as fast closed loop
power control. It happens at a rate of 1500 Hz to combat fast fading.
This control is with the UE and the Node-B. While outer loop control is
set at RRC level and executed at Layer 1, fast power control happens
at Layer 1 in order to meet the BLER target set by outer loop control.
The effect of this control is that even in a fading channel, the received
power is maintained constant so as to achieve the BLER target. This is
represented in Figure 1 [2].

Figure 1: UMTS Fast Power Control Combating Fast Fading

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Fast power control is important in keeping interference to a minimum and
improving capacity. Without it, transmit power would have higher to meet
quality targets. The gain from this control is as much as 5.8 dB at the receiver
for pedestrian speeds for 8kbps speech with 10ms interleaving and antenna
diversity. The gain is less at the transmitter and for higher speeds [2].

The problems with fast power control are the spikes in power when deep
fades are encountered. This may be necessary for the connection but it also
introduces interference to neighboring cells where the UEs may not
necessarily be experiencing adverse channel conditions. Recognizing this fact,
the rate of fast power control can be adjusted to suit the need. For example,
for non-real time services, a higher BLER can be tolerated. As a result, it is
permissible to be in a fade and lose packets, leaving it to RLC to retransmit.
So although 1500 Hz is the maximum rate, both UL and DL allow for lower
rates by which it is meant that TPC bits do not change from slot to slot. For
DL power control, DPC_MODE controls this behavior enabling the use of same
TPC for 3 slots. For UL power control, ‘Power Control Algorithm’ tells the UE
how TPC bits are processed. For the slower rate, the UE considers TPC bits
from 5 slots before changing its power [TS 25.214].

Anyone familiar with the operations of transport channels and their

multiplexing on a CCTrCH will realize the difficulty of meeting BLER target.
The reason is each transport channel can have its own quality target based
on the Q0S of the service it carries. How can we then meet diverse BLER
targets of transport channels mapped to the same physical channel? I am not
aware of any solutions to this problem but my belief is that in practice only
one BLER target is used. In other words, the target is used as an indication of
the RL quality and not the QoS of the Radio Access Bearer. Service QoS is
implemented differently in terms of bandwidth, level of error protection
(CRC), channel coding (convolutional vs. turbo) and spreading gain

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 (spreading factor).

It must be mentioned at this point that BLER target cannot sometimes be

met. For example, if the Node-B is already transmitting at its highest possible
power, there is no way it can respond positively to a TPC “UP” command.
Decisions have to be made by Admission Control in the SRNC. Possibly, some
calls have to be dropped. Possibly, data rates have to be reduced to meet the
target BLER. It has been shown that dynamic bearer switching in bad channel
conditions improves BLER performance [4]. For example, in bad channels
when meeting BLER is proving to be difficult, the service is switched from 384
kbps (10 ms TTI, SF 8, 12 TBs) to 128 kbps (20 ms, SF 16, 4 TBs). This is far
better than dropping the call.

Differentiation of power control happens at a finer level too. In the UL,

DPCCH and DPDCH operate at different power levels and these can vary with
the TFC. Every TFC has its own gain factors, βc and βd that adjust the
transmit power. These gain factors are set independent of fast power control.
For PRACH, the preamble and the message parts can operate at different
power levels. If E-DCH is used, the power levels of E-DPCCH and E-DPDCH
can be different and are in relation to DPCCH and DPDCH powers. In the DL,
DPCCH and DPDCH are time multiplexed and each can operate at a different
power. In addition, different fields of DL DPCCH can operate at different
power levels. Different DL channels can operate at different power levels. If
compressed mode is enabled, further dynamics are involved. The step sizes
(in dB) for power adjustment can also be varied at the same rate as outer
loop power control. Specific rules apply for F-DPCH. Power control in HSDPA
is done very differently from R99 channels. HSDPA and E-DCH power control
will be a separate post. Likewise, power control during SHO will be a separate
post.

In conclusion, power control is extremely important in UMTS. The design

contains a lot of flexibility to allow power control at different levels.

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 Power Control in HSPA

Let us begin with HSDPA for which power control is significantly different from
R99 channels. HSDPA does not have fast power control as in R99 DL DPCH.
However, power control is just as important for HSDPA. Inner loop power
control happens implicitly in HSDPA based on Adaptive Modulation and Coding
(AMC). This can be understood by acknowledging that WCDMA is an
interference limited system. Although reducing power, results in reduced
interference this does not have significant impact for users close to the Node-
B. Such users do not benefit much by decreasing power nor does system
capacity increase. It is known that power control dynamics is only 20 dB in DL
and 70 dB in UL [1]. Beyond the 20 dB limit, new techniques such as AMC are
more beneficial.

Thus, when users close to the Node-B experience excellent channel

conditions, modulation could be changed from QPSK to 16 QAM with an
additional increase in coding rate (less redundancy). This increases bandwidth
for a given user. Within the cell/sector, fast scheduling (another new feature
in HSDPA) enables quick decisions so that one user may be given/denied
more resources for relatively short time periods to make the best use of
channel conditions at that moment in time. This increases overall system
capacity towards what is optimal. Such benefits were not possible with only
R99 fast power control.

We can infer that power control is done implicitly because when modulation
and coding are changed based on CQI feedback received from the UE on UL
HS-DPCCH, Node-B will also adjust its transmission power. Every CQI is
associated with a reference power offset that is used by the UE when it
calculates the CQI to send to the Node-B [TS 25.214, 6A]. This calculation is
also dependent on the UE category.

Of course, open loop power control exists. The Node-B is commanded by the
CRNC with specific power offsets. There is a power offset for HS-SCCH that’s
relative to DL DPCCH power. For HS-PDSCH, where multiple codes are used,
all codes will be transmitted with the same power [TS 25.214, 5.2.11]. The
transmission that the Node-B can use for HS-PDSCH is indicated as a
percentage of the total power available to the Node-B. This is indicated for
every priority class with weights for every UE. Thus, differentiation in terms of
priority and UE is partly implemented with these power weights [TS 25.433,
9.2.1.31lc]. It is then left to the Node-B to manage these power profiles
efficiently. This is an implementation issue and has been the subject of many
patents.

HSDPA has an associated channel in the UL (HS-DPCCH) that carries channel

quality feedback and acknowledgments. CQI, ACK and NACK – all have their
power offsets which are relative to UL DPCCH [TS 25.213, 4.2.1.2]. These
offsets are signaled using NBAP to the Node-B.

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 Coming to HSUPA, the scenario is a little closer to the power control
R99 UL channels. In DL DPCCH, there are always non-zero bits of TPC
(Transmit Power Control) which are used for inner loop power control of the
UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH. Power control of UL DPDCH is closely tied to UL
DPCCH. There is defined offset between these two channels in terms of gain
factors. These are either signaled at RRC or computed at Layer 1. Every TFC
(Transport Format Combination) has a defined pair of gain factors. When
computed, rate matching attribute, number of transport channel bits after
radio frame segmentation and number of DPDCH are taken in account [TS
25.214, 5.1.2.5.3].

In HSUPA, the channels in question are E-DPCCH and E-DPDCH. Power

control of HSUPA UL channels are tied to DPCCH. In fact, there is a
requirement that E-DPCCH can be transmitted only if DPCCH is also
transmitted in the same slot [TS 25.211, 5.2.1.3].

Complexity of HSUPA power control comes from the fact that inner loop and
open loop controls are intimately tied to each other. For example, E-DPCCH
power is signaled by RRC and it is relative to DPCCH power offset [TS 25.213,
4.2.1.3]. This offset does not change often because it is fixed by RRC at
SRNC. However, inner loop controls the power of DPCCH which in turn affects
the power of E-DPCCH.

RRC also signals the power offsets for each E-DPDCH. These offsets or gain
factors are associated with E-TFC. This design gives flexibility to use higher
power when data rate is higher. Actual gain factors for each E-TFC are
calculated by the UE. Calculations take into account the HARQ power profile
which is signaled at RRC [TS 25.213, 4.2.1.3]. This is similar to the weights
given for priority classes for HSDPA. The computed gain factors are quantized
to reference gain factors signaled at RRC.

The idea of using these reference gain factors is that every MAC-d flow is
associated with a certain Q0S. The HARQ power profile allows this QoS to be
met. If a MAC-e PDU carries only one MAC-d flow the power profile can be
easily met. More commonly, data from different flows may need to be
multiplexed in the same PDU to make the best of available bandwidth. For
this reason, RRC signals a sets of compatible MAC-d flows that could be
multiplexed in the same MAC-e PDU.

Of course, the UE ought to choose an E-TFC according to the amount of data

it has to send. This is the case with R99 when UE chooses a TFC. The
additional control for E-TFC is that amount of power the UE is allowed to use.
This affects the UE MAC in its choice of E-TFC for the next transmission.
These grants which are basically expressed in relation to power are sent on E-
AGCH and/or E-RGCH channels. Thus, these two DL channels introduced for
HSUPA play an important part in HSUPA power control by not just changing
the power but also affecting the amount of data the UE is allowed to send.

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 This can be seen as an enhancement or constraint to R99 inner loop
power control.

An additional comment is that whatever happens, total transmission power

from either the Node-B or the UE is fixed to a certain level. This level should
never be exceeded. So if UL DPCCH is transmitted at a certain power, offsets
and grants can be applied bearing in mind the upper limit. At the Node-B,
there is an optional parameter that specifies the maximum power of HS-
PDSCH, HS-SCCH, E-AGCH, E-RGCH and E-HICH taken together.

We now know that HSUPA inner loop power control is partly done using TPC
bits of DL DPCCH. What happens if only HSDPA is required in the DL and DL
DPDCH is redundant? This problem has been solved with the introduction of a
new DL channel called Fractional DPCH (F-DPCH). This is a light-weight
channel that functions just like DL DPCCH. The reason for introducing a new
channel is to have minimum impact on previous releases of the standard. It
was difficult to modify the slot formats of DL DPCH in a backward compatible
manner since DL DPCCH and DL DPDCH are time multiplexed.

References

1. Fredrik Gunnarsson and Fredrik Gustafsson, Control theory aspects of

power control in UMTS, Control Engineering Practice, Volume 11, Issue
10, Pages 1113-1125, October 2003.

2. Jaana Laiho, Introduction to RRM/PC, (Powerpoint presentation),

Nokia1999.

3. Bo Bernhardsson, Power Control in WCDMA–Background, Dept. of

Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology.

4. Wolfgang Karner, Philipp Svoboda, Markus Rupp, A UMTS DL DCH

Error Model Based on Measurements in Live Networks, Institut f¨ur
Nachrichtentechnik und Hochfrequenztechnik, Technische Universit¨at
Wien, Austria.

5. Harri Holma and Antti Toskala, WCDMA for UMTS, Second Edition,
John Wiley & Sons, 2002.

6. http://mobilewireless.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/power-control-in-
hspa/

7. TS 25.214

8. TS 25.214, 6A

9. TS 25.214, 5.1.2.5.3

10. TS 25.214, 5.2.11

11. TS 25.213, 4.2.1.2

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 Please Contact

Jassi
(Jasminder Sahni)
Business Head
Wireless Exhibit Consulting Inc.
151 Checkerberry Cres.
Brampton, L6R 2S6, Canada
jsahni@wirexhibit.com
647 407 7705

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