INTRODUCTION

WCDMA(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) is a type of 3G cellular network. WCDMA is the technology behind the 3G UMTS standard and is allied with the 2G GSM standard with the International Telecommunication Union - ITU. More technically, WCDMA is a wideband spread-spectrum 3G mobile telecommunication air interface that utilizes code division multiple access (or CDMA the general multiplexing scheme, not to be confused with CDMA the US standard). The WCDMA air interface, referred also as UMTS terrestrial radio access (UTRA), developed by the third-generation partnership project (3GPP). 3GPPhas the goal to harmonize and standardize in detail the similar proposals from ETSI, ARIB, TTC, TTA, and T1. WCDMA has two modes characterized by the duplex method: FDD (frequency division duplex) and TDD (time division duplex), for operating with paired and unpaired bands, respectively. The chip rate of the system is 3.84 Mcps. The frame length is 10 ms and each frame is divided into 15 slots (2560 chip/slot at the chip rate 3.84 Mcps). Spreading factors range from 256 to 4 in the uplink and from 512 to 4 in the downlink. Thus, the respective modulation symbol rates vary from 960 k symbols/s to 15 k symbols/s (7.5 k symbols/s) for FDD uplink. For separating channels from the same source, orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) channelization codes are used. In the downlink, Gold codes with a 10-ms period (38400 chips at 3.84 Mcps) are used to separate different cells, with the actual code itself length 218-1 chips. In the uplink, Gold codes with a 10-ms period, or alternatively short codes with a 256-chip period, are used to separate the different users. For the channel coding three options are supported: convolutional coding, turbo coding, or no channel coding. Channel coding selection is indicated by upper layers. Bit interleaving is used to randomize transmission errors. The modulation scheme is QPSK and BPSK. The carrier spacing has a raster of 200 kHz and can vary from 4.2 to 5.4 MHz. The different carrier spacings can be used to obtain suitable adjacent channel protections depending on the interference scenario. Larger carrier spacing can be applied between operators than within one operators band in order to avoid interoperator interference. Interfrequency measurements and handovers are supported by WCDMA to utilize several cell layers and carriers.

HISTORY
W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a candidate for the international 3G standard known as IMT-2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards. Later, W-CDMA was selected as the air interface for UMTS, the 3G data part of GSM. Attempts were made to unify W-CDMA (3GPP) and CDMA-1X (3GPP2) standards in order to provide a single worldwide standard, however, divergent requirements resulted in the two incompatible standards being retained. While GSM took its first steps towards global success, programs to develop 3G systems began in Europe. 3G referred to a system not only optimized for speech, but also with a high service flexibility and high throughput and capacity for high-speed data. It was anticipated that such a system would be needed at the turn of the millennium. Several potential multiple access concepts for 3G, including Advanced TDMA (ATDMA, based on TDMA) and Code Division Test bed (CoDiT, based on DSCDMA), were studied in the RACE II project as part of the third EU frame program for pan-European research collaboration which began in 1992. Ericsson was heavily involved in CoDiT, which aimed to define a wideband (around 5MHz per carrier) DSCDMA- based radio access for 3G and to create a test bed to demonstrate its characteristics [9, 10]. The CoDiT test bed work, which included field demonstrations, concluded successfully in 1994 and led to the creation of the first feasible wideband CDMA concept for cellular. W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) is a type of 3G cellular network. W-CDMA is the technology behind UMTS (a.k.a. 3GSM) and is allied with the 2G GSM standard. More technically, W-CDMA is a wideband spread-spectrum 3G mobile telecommunication air interface that utilizes code division multiple access (or CDMA the general multiplexing scheme, not to be confused with CDMA the standard). W-CDMA was developed by ETSI NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G network FOMA. Later NTT Docomo submitted the specification to ITU as a candidate for the international 3G standard known as IMT-2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards. Later, W-CDMA was selected as the air interface for UMTS, the 3G successor to GSM.

SPECIFICATIONS OF WCDMA
The air interface description in the following is based on the 3GPP wideband CDMA specifications as listed in Table 6.2. The physical layer is specified in TS25 series of 3GPP specifications. Channel bandwidth Duplex mode Downlink RF channel structure Chip rate Frame length Spreading modulation 5 MHz FDD and TDD Direct spread 3.84 Mbps 10 ms Balanced QPSK (downlink) Dual-channel QPSK(uplink) Complex spreading circuit QPSK (downlink) BPSK (uplink) Convolutional and turbo codes User dedicated time multiplexed pilot (downlink and uplink), common pilot in the downlink Data and control channels time multiplexed Control and pilot channel time multiplexed I&Q multiplexing for data and control channel Variable spreading and multicode 4256 (uplink), 4512 (uplink) Open and fast closed loop (1.6 kHz) OVSF sequences for channel separation Gold sequences 218-1 for cell and user separation (truncated cycle 10 ms) OVSF sequences, Gold sequence 241 for user separation (different time shifts in I and Q channel, truncated cycle 10 ms) Soft handover Interfrequency handover

Data modulation Channel coding Coherent detection Channel multiplexing in downlink Channel multiplexing in uplink Multirate Spreading factors Power control Spreading (downlink)

Spreading (uplink)

Handover

FREQUENCY UTILIZATION IN WCDMA

(Frequency utilization in WCDMA)

WCDMA PROTOCOL ARCHITECTURE

MORE DETAILED VIEW OF ARCHITECTURE

Above figure shows the air interface protocol architecture. The protocol architecture is similar to the current ITU-R protocol architecture, ITU-R M.1035. The air interface is layered into three protocol layers: The logical channel The physical channel The transport channel The physical layer interfaces the medium access control (MAC) sublayer of layer 2 and the radio resource control (RRC) layer of layer 3. The physical layer offers different transport channels to MAC. A transport channel is characterized by how the information is transferred over the radio interface.

 Transport channels are channel coded and then mapped to the physical channels specified in the physical layer. MAC offers different logical channels to the radio link control (RLC) sublayer of layer 2. A logical channel is characterized by the type of information transferred.Layer 2 is split into following sublayers: MAC, RLC, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) and broadcast/multicast control (BMC). Layer 3 and RLC are divided into control and user planes. PDCP and BMC exist in the user plane only. In the control Three separate channels concepts in the UTRA: logical, transport, and physical channels. Logical channels define what type of data istransferred. Transport channels define how and with whichtype of characteristics the data is transferred by the physical channel Physical data define the exact physical characteristics of the radio channel.

LOGICAL CHANNEL
The MAC layer provides data transfer services on logical channels. A set of logical channel types is defined for different kinds of data transfer services as offered by MAC. Each logical channel type is defined by the type of information that is transferred. Logical channel types are depicted in Figure 6.3. Logical channels are classified into two groups: Control channels for the transfer of control plane information . Traffic channels for the transfer of user plane information .

TRANSPORT CHANNEL
A transport channel is defined by how and with what characteristics data is transferred over the air interface. There exist two types of transport channels: Dedicated channels Common channels There is one dedicated transport channel, the dedicated channel (DCH), which is a downlink or uplink transport channel. The DCH is transmitted over the entire cell or over only a part of the cell using beam-forming antennas. The DCH is characterized by

the possibility of fast rate change (every 10 ms), fast power control, and inherent addressing of mobile stations. In the mapping between logical and transport channels, The following connections exist: BCCH is connected to BCH and may also be connected to FACH. PCCH is connected to PCH. CCCH is connected to RACH and FACH. SHCCH is connected to RACH and USCH/FACH and DSCH. DTCH can be connected to either RACH and FACH, to RACH and DSCH,to DCH and DSCH, to a DCH, a CPCH (FDD only). CTCH is connected to FACH. DCCH can be connected to either RACH and FACH, to RACH and DSCH, to DCH and DSCH, to a DCH, a CPCH to FAUSCH, CPCH.

PHYSICAL CHANNELS
The transport channels are channel coded and matched to the data rate offered by physical channels. Thereafter, the transport channels are mapped on the physical channels. Physical channels consist of radio frames and time slots. The length of a radio frame is 10 ms and one frame consists of 15 time slots. A time slot is a unit, which consists of fields containing bits. The number of bits per time slot depends on the physical channel. Depending on the symbol rate of the physical channel, the configuration of radio frames or time slots varies. The basic physical resource is the code/frequency plane. In addition, on the uplink, different information streams may be transmitted on the I and Q branch. Consequently, a physical channel corresponds to a specific carrier frequency, code, and, on the uplink, relative phase (0 or p/2).

i) Uplink Physical Channels

There are two uplink dedicated physical and two common physical channels: The uplink dedicated physical data channel (uplink DPDCH) and the uplink dedicated physical control channel (uplink DPCCH); The physical random access channel (PRACH) and physical common packet channel (PCPCH).The uplink DPDCH is used to carry dedicated data generated at layer 2 and above (i.e., the dedicated transport channel (DCH)). There may be zero, one, or several uplink DPDCHs on each layer 1 connection. The uplink DPCCH is used to carry control information generated at layer 1. Control information consists of known pilot bits to support channel estimation for coherent detection, transmit power-control (TPC) commands, feedback information (FBI), and an optional transport-format combination indicator (TFCI). The transport-format combination indicator informs the receiver about the instantaneous parameters of the different transport channels multiplexed on the layer 1 connection there is only one uplink DPCCH. Each frame of length 10 ms is split into 15 slots, each of length Tslot = 2560 chips, corresponding to one power-control period. The parameter k determines the number of bits per uplink DPDCH/DPCCH slot. It is related to the spreading factor (SF) of the physical channel as SF = 256/2k. The DPDCH spreading factor may thus range from 256 down to 4. An uplink DPDCH and uplink DPCCH on the same layer 1 connection generally are of different rates and thus have different spreading factors.

( Figure structure for uplink physical channel)

ii) Downlink Physical Channels

There is one downlink dedicated physical channel, one shared and five common control channels: Downlink dedicated physical channel (DPCH); Physical downlink shared channel (DSCH); Primary and secondary common pilot channels (CPICH); Primary and secondary common control physical channels (CCPCH); Synchronization channel (SCH). On the DPCH, the dedicated transport channel is transmitted time multiplexed with control information generated at layer 1 (known pilot bits, power-control commands, and an optional transport-format combination indicator). DPCH can contain several simultaneous services when TFCI is transmitted or a fixed rate service when TFCI is not transmitted. The network determines if a TFCI should be transmitted. When the total bit rate to be transmitted exceeds the maximum bit rate for a downlink physical channel, multicode transmission is employed (i.e., several parallel downlink DPCHs are transmitted using the same spreading factor). In this case, the layer 1 control information is put on only the first downlink DPCH.

MAIN FUNCTIONS OF PHYSICAL CHANNEL

1. Error Detection 2. Multiplexing Demultiplexing 3. Modulation Demodulation 4. Spreading Despreading 5. Synchronization 6. Measurement of Bit Error Rate, Tx Power, Signal to Interference ratio 7. Handover

Two types layers are present in the protocol architecture of WCDMA 1. RLC LAYER 2. RRC LAYER
RLC LAYER The Radio Link Control (RLC) protocol (Layer operates in one of three modes: transparent, unacknowledged or acknowledged mode It performs segmentation/re-assembly functions and, in acknow-ledged mode, provides an assured mode delivery ser-vice by use of retransmission RLC provides a service both for the RRC signaling (the Signaling Radio Bearer) and for the user data transfer (the Radio Access Bearer).

RRC LAYER

The Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol (Layer 3) provides control of the handset from the RNC It includes functions to control radio bearers, physical channels, mapping of the different channel types, handover, measurement and other mobility procedures. Because of the flexibility of the WCDMA radio interface, this is a fairly complex protocol

WCDMA RAN ARCHITECTURE

The main purpose of the WCDMA Radio Access Network is to provide a connection between the hand-set and the core network and to isolate all the radio issues from the core network. The advantage is one core network supporting multiple access technologies. The WCDMA Radio Access Network consists of two types of nodes: 1. Radio Base Station (Node B) The Radio Base Station handles the radio transmission and reception to/from the handset over the radio interface (Uu). It is controlled from the Radio Network Controller via the Iub interface. One Radio Base Station can handle one or more cells. 2. Radio Network Controller (RNC) The Radio Network Controller is the node that controls all WCDMA Radio Access Network functions. It connects the WCDMA Radio Access Network to the core network via the Iu interface.

OPERATING MODES IN WCDMA

In WCDMA, there are two different modes of operation possible:

TDD: In this duplex method, uplink and downlink transmissions are carried over the same frequency band by using synchronized time intervals. Thus time slots in a physical channel are divided into transmission and reception part. FDD: The uplink and downlink transmissions employ two separated frequency bands for this duplex method. A pair of frequency bands with specified separation is assigned for a connection. Since different regions have different frequency allocation schemes, the capability to operate in either FDD or TDD mode allows for efficient utilization of the available spectrum

MODULATION SCHEMES OF WCDMA

There are two modulation schemes used in WCDMA. The complex-valued chip sequence generated by the spreading process is QPSK modulated. The figure below illustrates the modulation principle used in the uplink and downlink. The pulse shaping is root-raised cosine with roll-off factor 0.22 and is the same for the mobile and base stations. 1. BPSK-:used for uplink 2. QPSK-:used for downlink

(Modulation principle)

CODING
1) 2) Physical channel operations: channelization: every bit is transformed into SF number of chips scrambling: scrambling code is applied to the spread signal In channelization operation, Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes are used to preserve the orthogonality between the physical channels of connections operating at different rates. Options are Convolutional or Turbo coding. The SF depends on the bit rate; high bit rate requires low SF and vice versa Each user has its own scrambling code in the uplink

 Scrambling code is related to a user Spreading code is related to the type of service at a given bit rate Downlink scrambling code planning: 1) max number of scrambling codes: 218-1, divided into 512 primary scrambling codes with 15 secondary scrambling codes. 2) each cell has been allocated only one primary scrambling code. 3) Downlink spreading code: 4) max number of OVSF downlink spreading codes is 512 5) all users in a cell share the available channelizationcodes in the OVSF code tree

SPREADING AND DESPREADING

 In WCDMA Spread Spectrum technology the information contents are spread by unique, digital codes (spreading sequences). The basic unit of a code sequence is one chip. The rate of spreading code is denominated as chip rate Rc(chip/s or cp/s). The ratio between the chip rate Rc(cp/s) and the information rate Rb(symb/s) is denominated as Spreading Factor SF = Rc/Rb. The bandwidth after spreading, B (modulation bandwidth), is in rough terms SF times the bandwidth before spreading W: B ~ SF * W. The bandwidth increases with spreading but spectral power density necessary for transmission decreases. WCDMA needs only very small power densities, often below the level of natural background noise. WCDMA applies a two-layered code structure consisting of a orthogonal spreading codes and pseudorandom scrambling codes. Spreading is performed using channelization codes, which transforms every data symbol into a number of chips, thus increasing the bandwidth of the signal. Orthogonality between

the different spreading factors can be achieved by the tree-structured orthogonal codes .Scrambling is used for cell separation in the downlink and user separation in the uplink.

i)

Uplink Spreading

In the uplink, either short or long spreading (scrambling) codes are used. The short codes are used to ease the implementation of advanced multiuser receiver techniques; otherwise, long spreading codes can be used. Short codes are S(2) codes of length 256 and long codes are Gold sequences of length 241, but the latter are truncated to form a cycle of a 10-ms frame. IQ/code multiplexing used in the uplink leads to parallel transmission of two channels, and therefore, attention must be paid to modulated signal constellation and related peak-to-average power ratio (crest factor). By using the complex spreading circuit shown the transmitter power amplifier efficiency remains the same as for QPSK transmission in general.

(IQ/ code multiplexing with complex uplink spreading circuit) Moreover, the efficiency remains constant irrespective of the power difference G between DPDCH and DPCCH. Thus, signal envelope variations are very similar to the QPSK transmission for all values of G. The IQ/code multiplexing solution with complex scrambling results in power amplifier output backoff requirements that remain constant as a function of power difference. Furthermore, the achieved output backoff is the same as for one QPSK signal.

ii)

Downlink Spreading

In the downlink, the same orthogonal channelization codes are used as in the uplink. For scrambling, Gold codes of length 218 are used, but they are truncated to form a cycle of a 10-ms frame (i.e., 384,000 chips). To form a complex-valued code, the same truncated code is used with different time shifts in I and Q channels. It is possible to generate 218-1 scrambling codes, but only 8191 of them are used. Each cell is allocated one primary scrambling code. In order to reduce the cell search time, the primary scrambling codes are divided into 512 sets. Thus, the mobile station needs to search at maximum 512 10-ms-long codes. In addition to primary scrambling codes, there are 15 secondary scrambling code sets. Secondary scrambling codes are used when one set of orthogonal channelization codes is not enough. This can be the case when adaptive antennas are used in the downlink. It should be noted that use of the secondary scrambling code destroys the orthogonality between code channels. This is counterweighted, however, by the spatial isolation offered by adaptive antennas. The primary CCPCH and primary CPICH are always transmitted using the primary scrambling code. The other downlink physical channels can be transmitted with either the primary scrambling code or a secondary scrambling code from the set associated with the primary scrambling code of the cell. The non spread physical channel consists of a sequence of real-valued symbols. For all channels except AICH, the symbols can take the three values +1, -1, and 0, where 0 indicates DTX. For AICH, the symbol values depend on the exact combination of acquisition indicators to be transmitted. Each pair of two consecutive symbols is first serial-to-parallel converted and mapped to an I and Q branch. The mapping is such that even and odd numbered symbols are mapped to the I and Q branch, respectively. For all channels except AICH, symbol number zero is defined as the first symbol in each frame. For AICH, symbol number zero is defined as the first symbol in each access slot. The I and Q branches are then spread to the chip rate by the same real-valued channelization code Cch ,SF, m. The sequences of real-valued chips on the I and Q branch are then treated as a single complex-valued sequence of chips. This sequence of chips is scrambled by a complex valued scrambling code Sdl,n. In case of PCCPCH, the scrambling code is aligned with the P-CCPCH frame boundary (i.e., the first complex chip of the spread P-CCPCH frame is multiplied with chip number zero of the scrambling code). In case of other downlink channels, the scrambling code is aligned with the scrambling code applied to the P-CCPCH. In this case, the scrambling code is thus not necessarily aligned with the frame boundary of the physical channel to be scrambled.

(Downlink spreading for physical channel)

(Code multiplexing with downlink spreading circuit)

ACCESS SCHEME
The access scheme used in WCDMA is DS-CDMA.

The performance of a DS-CDMA system is limited by Multiple Access Interference (MAI) and the Near Far Problem. MAI gives rise to irreducible error even in absence of thermal noise, while near far problem arises since high power users destroy the communication of low power users. Use of orthogonal codes is not considered to be a good solution to this problem since multipath fading and delay destroys the orthogonality of the signature waveforms. Moreover, the theoretical limit on the number of orthogonal codes for a fixed spreading gain restricts the number of users in the system. The conventional decoder treats the signals of all the other users as noise and tries to suppress it. Thus, conventional decoding requires that the interference from other users should be minimal. This places the entire burden of performance on the cross correlation property of the spreading codes of the users. However, the interference suppression capability of such system deteriorates as the number of users grows in the system.

 A better detection strategy is to jointly detect multiple users, where the additional structureof the MAI is exploited rather than considered as noise. Multiuser Detection deals with the demodulation of the digitally modulated signals in the presence of MAI. The optimal maximum likelihood (ML) receiver for multi-user detection (MUD) was found. It showed an improvement over conventional decoder by orders of magnitude. However, the practical implementation of such scheme is limited by the decoding complexity which grows exponentially with the number of users. A class of linear receives and suboptimal receiver are described as a tradeoff between complexity and performance. The main idea is to use some appropriate linear transformations on the outputs of a matched filter bank. The above scheme makes too many assumptions about what is known at receivers (signature and timing information of desired user and interferer, received amplitudes etc). This is can be implemented in uplink channels but it is not practical in downlink channels. The downlink receiver is generally limited in terms of power, complexity and memory and since a downlink receiver needs to detect the bits of only a particular user, joint detection is not energy efficient. Blind implementation of some linear MUD schemes is possible which require knowledge no more than that required by a conventional detector (only desired users waveform and its timing). With this motivation, we study the theory of Multiuser detection (MUD), existing algorithms and current implementation issues. The papers that we study are the key foundations of Multiuser Detection. We also suggest a low complexity MUD scheme and compare its performance with the existing schemes.

BLOCK DIAGRAM OF DS-CDMA

ADVANTAGES OF WCDMA

1) Support of high data rate transmission: 384 Kbps with wide area coverage, 2 Mbps with local coverage. 2) High service flexibility: support of multiple parallel variable rate services on each connection. 3) Both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD). 4) Built in support for future capacity and coverage enhancing technologies like adaptive antennas, advanced receiver structures and transmitter diversity. 5) Support of inter frequency hand over and hand over to other systems, including hand over to GSM. Efficient packet access.

CONCLUSION