HSDPA Overview

High
S peed
Downlink
P acket
Access

HSDPA General Principles

HSDPA was
HSDPA is

introduced in 3GPP Release 5

an optional feature in WCDMA RAN

HSDPA includes

the following key function:

Fast link adaptation

Fast hybrid ARQ with soft combining
Fast channel-dependent scheduling

HSDPA General Principles (cont)

3GPP Release 5 extends the specification of WCDMA with a new
downlink transport channel for packet data:

H igh
S peed
D ownlink
S hared
C hannel
H

5
m
H
z
C
H
A
N
N
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UNUSED
HSDPA

VOICE
TRAFFIC

OVERHEAD

Key Functions

Fast link adaptation

Fast adjustment of data rate every TTI(2ms)
Transmission power remains constant during a TTI
To further increase capacity and data rates 16quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) may be
used

Fast hybrid ARQ with soft combining

The UE can rapidly request retransmission of
erroneously received data
Prior to decoding the UE combines information
from the original transmission with that of later
retransmissions (soft combining)

Fast channel-dependent scheduling

The scheduler determines the UE to which the
shared channel transmission is directed at any
given moment
Channel-dependent scheduling means that the
scheduler may consider instantaneous radio
channel conditions

To enable fast link adaptation, fast hybrid

ARQ, and fast scheduling, a new mediumaccess control sublayer (MAC-hs) has
been placed in the RBS.
The MAC-d and RLC layers in the RNC are
retained

Channel Structure

The channels introduced with HSDPA

share the same carrier as other channels.
No additional spectrum needs to be
allocated to introduce HSDPA services.
The transport channel HS-DSCH is
mapped on one or several High-Speed
Physical Downlink Shared Channels (HSPDSCHs) which are simultaneously
received by the UE.

3GPP standard allows up to 15 HS-PDSCs

per cell with the spreading factor fixed at
16.
In the initial release of UEs and WCDMA
RAN, each cell has up to 5 HS-PDSCHs.
Channelization codes from the shared
code resource are dynamically allocated
by the RBS every 2 ms.

Time multiplexing is the primary means of

sharing common code resources among
users.
Code multiplexing is useful for providing
small payloads or supporting UEs that
cannot despread the full set of codes when
the number of codes is high (>5).

The downlink High-Speed Shared Control

Channel (HS-SCCH) carries control
information from the MAC-hs in the RBS to
the scheduled UE.
In WCDMA RAN, the HS-DSCH is shared
in the time domain.
Since only the currently scheduled UE
needs to receive the HS-SCCH, there is
only one such channel configured in each
cell.

An uplink channel, the High Speed

Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HSDPCH) must be set up for each UE that
uses high-speed services.
Channel quality reported by means of CQI
is used by the scheduling and link
adaptation functions explained further in
HSDPA User Plane.

UEs that use high-speed services must

always have a set of dedicated uplink and
downlink channels.
These dedicated channels use soft
handover while HS-PDSCH and HS-SCCH
do not.

Physical Channel Structure

D
PC
H

DP
CC
DP
H,
CH
DP
DC
HS
H
-P
HS
D
-S
SC
CC
H
H
HS
-D
PC
CH

PC
D

UE

H
C

PD
D
,

H
C

Iub Flow Control

There is flow control between the RNC and
the RBS, explained further in HSDPA User
Plane.
Iub flow control handles the trade-off
between having enough data in the MAChs buffers to fully utilize the available air
interface resources and keeping the MAChs buffers short to decrease the memory
space.

Scheduling
The scheduler is part of the MAC-hs in the
RBS, explained further in HSDPA User
Plane.
An increase in capacity can be obtained if
the scheduler employs channel-dependent
scheduling (proportional fair scheduling)
instead of resources sequentially (roundrobin scheduling).

Scheduling
As the load of a cell increases, the number
of UEs queued for scheduling increases.
This in turn raises the probability of
scheduling UEs with good channel quality.
There are two kinds of variations in
channel quality, short-term and long-term.

For many packet data applications,

relatively large short-term variation in
service quality are acceptable, while longterm variations must be restricted.
A practical scheduling strategy utilizes the
short-term variations and maintains some
degree of long-term fairness between the
users.

Scheduling comparison from

Parsippany Trial

Link Adaptation and

Higher Order Modulation
Link adaptation and higher order
modulation can be combined to maximize
the instantaneous use of the fading
channel
The HS-DSCH adjusts the data rate to
match the instantaneous radio conditions
and the available transmission power in
the RBS.

Link Adaptation and

Higher Order Modulation
The system adjusts the data rate by
varying the effective code rate, changing
the modulation scheme, and changing the
number of codes (TFRC selection, see
HSDPA User Plane)
Besides QPSK, the HSDSCH can use
16QAM to provide higher data rates.

Hybrid ARQ with

Soft Combining
The hybrid ARQ mechanism allows the UE
to rapidly request retransmissions of
erroneously received transport blocks (see
HSDPA user plane.)
The UE attempts to decode each transport
block reporting to the RBS its success or
failure 5 ms after the reception of the
transport blocks.

Hybrid ARQ with

Soft Combining
During retransmission, the UW employs
soft combining.

1st Decoding in UE

2nd Decoding in UE

Final Picture

Hybrid ARQ with

Soft Combining
The retransmission may be sent by Chase
combining or by incremental redundancy.

Chase combining is used in WCDMA RAN

Hybrid ARQ with

Soft Combining
The round-trip time for the MAC-hs
protocol is about 12 ms, which is longer
than TTI (2 ms).
To avoid having to wait for ACK/NACK
indicator from the UE before the next PDU
is transmitted, the RBS supports multiple
hybrid ARQ processes, see HSDPA User
plane.

User Equipment
Compared with a 3GPP R99 UE, an HSDSCH-enabled UE must contain
processing capacity for the hybrid ARQ
operation, multi-code processing, HSSCCH reception, and HS-DPCCH
signaling.

Maximum Theoretical Data Rates

HD-DSCH
category

Max #
of
Codes

Min TTI
Interval

Max
Transport
Block
Size

Total # of
soft
channel bits

Max
Modulatio
n Scheme

Max
Frames per
second

Max data
rate (Mbps)

Category 1

7298

19200

16QAM

167

1.2

Category 2

7298

28800

16QAM

167

1.2

Category 3

7298

28800

16QAM

250

1.8

Category 4

7298

38400

16QAM

250

1.8

Category 5

7298

57600

16QAM

500

3.6

Category 6

7298

67200

16QAM

500

3.6

Category 7

10

14411

115200

16QAM

500

7.2

Category 8

10

14411

134400

16QAM

500

7.2

Category 9

15

20251

172800

16QAM

500

10.1

Category 10

15

27952

172800

16QAM

500

14.0

Category 11

3630

14400

QPSK

250

0.9

Category 12

3630

28800

QPSK

500

1.8

Connection Handling and

Mobility
In the network it is possible to have cells
where the HS-DSCH is enabled and other
cells where it is disabled. Furthermore,
there are UEs with and without HSDPA
capability.
At RAB establishment, the UE makes a
HS-DSCH cell selection, (see Connection
Handling)

Connection Handling and

Mobility
If the HS-DSCH is disabled in the best cell
but enabled in a cell that has a coverage
relation to the best cell and if the UE is
close enough to the RBS, the connection
is set up in the latter cell.
If this feature is not supported or if the HSDSCH is disabled in the best cell, the
connection is established on an interactive
DCH.

Connection Handling and

Mobility
When a new cell in the active set becomes
the best cell, or when the current serving
HS-DSCH cell is to be removed from the
active set for some reason, the UE makes
a serving HS-DSCH cell change, (see
Handover)

Connection Handling and

Mobility
The bit rate of the downlink user data
depends on the HS-DSCH UE category,
the number of HS=PDSCH codes, and
whether 16QAM is used.
Theoretically, the max bit rate is 2.08
Mbps using QPSK and 4.32 Mbps using
16QAM for the initial release of UEs and
WCDMA RAN, (see HSDPA User Plane)

Connection Handling and

Mobility
There are two interactive RABs, with
different uplink rates, that support HSDSCH.
An uplink rate of 64 kbps or 384 kbps is
selected when the RAB is established,
(see Connection Handling)

Connection Handling and

Mobility
There is no channel switching between the
uplink rates.
In case of inactivity in the user data
transmission uplink and downlink, the
connection is released, (see Channel
Switching)

Connection Handling and

Mobility
The power of the HS-DSCH is give as an
offset relative the DPCCH; there are
different values depending on whether or
not the UE is in soft handover.
Repetition factors indicate how many
times the CQI and ACK/NACK indicators
are transmitted on the HS-DPCCH, (see
Power Control)

Connection Handling and

Mobility
The power of the HS-SCCH is
configurable and given as an offset
relative the P-CPICH.
The ordinary power control of the
dedicated channels is not affected by the
introduction of the HS-DSCH.

Capacity Management
The admission control and congestion
control functions control the load in the
WCDMA cell with support from other radio
network functions, (see Capacity
Management)
It is possible to set the load thresholds for
when the non-HS-DSCH traffic should be
rejected.

Capacity Management
If the total load of the cell becomes too
high, the congestion control is able to
release radio links in a predetermined
priority order, to decrease load.

Load Sharing
The inter-frequency load sharing function
distributes the call accesses between
cells, to even out the traffic load between
cells on different frequencies coverage the
same area, (see Load Sharing)

Questions and discussion

References
[1]

UE Radio Access Capabilities, 3GPP TS 25.306

[2]

HSDPA Overview WCDMA RAN User Description, Ericsson 91/1553-HSD 101 02/4 Uen A

[3]

Mastering HSDPA, Award Solutions, Inc.

Thank you for your participation!