Power control techniques in 3G

Power control techniques to be used in

3G (WCDMA )

The signals should be transmitted with the lowest possible power level,
which maintains the required signal quality.

Near-far effect: - The mobile stations far away from the base station
should transmit with considerably higher power than mobiles close
to the base station.

There are two basic types of power control:

Open loop power control

Closed loop power control

Open loop power control

The open-loop power control technique requires that the transmitting
entity measures the channel interference and adjusts its
transmission power accordingly.

The problem is that the interference estimation is done on the received

signal, and the transmitted signal probably uses a different
frequency.

In TDD mode both the uplink and downlink use the same frequency and
thus their fading processes are strongly correlated.
Closed loop power control
The quality measurements are done on the other end of the connection
in the base station, and the results are then sent back to the
mobile’s transmitter so that it can adjust its transmission power.

This method gives much better results than the open loop method, but
it cannot react to quick changes in channel conditions.

In this method the received signal-to interference ratio (SIR) is

measured over a 667-microsecond period (i.e., one time slot), and
based on that value, a decision is made about whether to increase
or decrease the transmission power in the other end of the
connection.

The transmit power control (TPC) bits are sent in every time slot within
the uplink and the downlink

Closed loop power control is of two type

Inner loop power control (or fast closed-loop power control).

outer loop power control

Inner loop power control

It works on the basis of SIRtarget set by the RNC. If the power is not as per
SIRtarget then by using TPC (Transmitted power control) bit NodeB/UE
increase its transmission power

Outer loop power control

Even when SIRtarget are meet and even there are much retransmission
due to packet loss then SIRtarget is increased or decreased by RNC on the
calculation based on BER (Bit error rate ) and BLER ( Block Error rate )

UMTS Power Control

Open loop power control is the ability of the UE transmitter to sets its output power
to a specific value. It is used for setting initial uplink and downlink transmission
powers when a UE is accessing the network. The open loop power control tolerance is
± 9 dB (normal conditions) or ± 12 dB (extreme conditions)

Inner loop power control (also called fast closed loop power control) in the uplink
is the ability of the UE transmitter to adjust its output power in accordance with one
or more Transmit Power Control (TPC) commands received in the downlink, in order
to keep the received uplink Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) at a given SIR target.
The UE transmitter is capable of changing the output power with a step size of 1, 2
and 3 dB, in the slot immediately after the TPC_cmd can be derived. Inner loop
power control frequency is 1500Hz.

The serving cells estimate SIR of the received uplink DPCH, generate TPC
commands (TPC_cmd) and transmit the commands once per slot according to the
following rule: if SIRest > SIRtarget then the TPC command to transmit is "0", while if
SIRest < SIRtarget then the TPC command to transmit is "1". Upon reception of one or
more TPC commands in a slot, the UE derives a single TPC command for each slot,
combining multiple TPC commands if more than one is received in a slot. Two
algorithms are supported by the UE for deriving a TPC_cmd. Which of these two
algorithms is used, is determined by a UE-specific higher-layer parameter,
"PowerControlAlgorithm".

Algorithm 1:
 The power control step is the change in the UE transmitter output power in
response to a single TPC command

Algorithm 2:
 If all five estimated TPC command are "down" the transmit power is reduced by 1
dB
 If all five estimated TPC command are "up" the transmit power is increased by 1
dB
 Otherwise the transmit power is not changed

Transmitter power control range

The transmit power of the downlink channels is determined by the network. The
power control step size can take four values: 0.5, 1, 1.5 or 2 dB. It is mandatory for
UTRAN to support step size of 1 dB, while support of other step sizes is optional. The
UE generates TPC commands to control the network transmit power and send them in
the TPC field of the uplink DPCCH. Upon receiving the TPC commands UTRAN
adjusts its downlink DPCCH/DPDCH power accordingly.

Outer loop power control is used to maintain the quality of communication at the
level of bearer service quality requirement, while using as low power as possible. The
uplink outer loop power control is responsible for setting a target SIR in the Node B
for each individual uplink inner loop power control. This target SIR is updated for
each UE according to the estimated uplink quality (BLock Error Ration, Bit Error
Ratio) for each Radio Resource Control connection. The downlink outer loop power
control is the ability of the UE receiver to converge to required link quality (BLER)
set by the network (RNC) in downlink.
Power control of the downlink common channels are determined by the network.
In general the ratio of the transmit power between different downlink channels is not
specified in 3GPP specifications and may change with time, even dynamically.

Additional special situations of power control are Power control in compressed

mode and Downlink power during handover.

Further reading: 3GPP TS 25.101, 25.133, 25.214, 25.215, 25.331, 25.433, 25.435,
25.841, 25.849