HSDPA Measurements and Key Parameters with

Nemo Tools

03.08.15

Perfecting Wireless Communications

HSDPA Technical Highlights

HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access)

Next evolution step of UMTS, 3.5G
Defined in 3GPP Rel5 specs
Offers peak data rates up to 14 Mbit/s (2 Mbit/s with
R99 UMTS) and 50-100% increase in system
capacity
HSDPA is a set of new features in base station and
terminal:
AMC (Adaptive Modulation and Coding)
HARQ retransmissions
Fast scheduling
Fast power control and variable SF are replaced
with AMC, multicode transmission, and HARQ
No SHO
HSDPA features are applied to new HS-DSCH
(High Speed Downlink Shared Channel) transport
channel
Rel99 channels can co-exist with HS-DSCH

HSDPA terminal categories

HSDPA offers up to 5.4 Mbps throughput

with QPSK coding, and up to 14.4 Mbps
throughput with 16QAM coding

Category 7/8 currently available

Called Multi coding

HSDPA in Nemo Tools

Nemo Outdoor supports HSDPA measurements

Nemo Handy for Nokia N95 supports HSDPA measurements
Nemo Analyze supports post-processing of HSDPA
measurements
Supported terminals:
Qualcomm TM6280 and MSM7200TM based terminals,
data cards and USB modems
Nokia N85, N95 &N96
Nokia 6120/ 6121
Motorola V3XX& V9(EMEA& NA versions)
Samsung G800 (7.2Mbps)
Huawei E169

Recorded HSDPA parameters include:

Cellular system
Carrier number
HSDPA UE category
Power offset between pilot power
and HSDPA MAX downlink power
Number of monitored signalling
channels
Packet data technology
Packet state

- Serving HSDPA cell (SC)

- Transport Block Size distribution
- Effective coding rate
- Modulation
- Number of codes
- MAC layer throughput and transm
- TTI
- CQI distribution
-Requested Physical Throughpu
-HS-DSCH Activity rate
-HS-SCCH Usage

HSDPA Performance Analysis

Question: What is the end-user

performance
Answer: Throughput and delay (RTT)
Question: If the performance is not good,
why so?
Answer: There is following potential reasons
for low performance:
Terminal capability. Terminal does not
support high throughputs
Bad radio conditions (parameters:
Ec/N0, RSCP, G-factor), link adaptation
Other HSDPA users in the cell.
(Indicators: HS-DSCH activity rate
(High Speed Downlink Shared
channel), HS-SCCH usage rate (HighSpeed Shared Control channel )).
Bottleneck elsewhere than in radio
interface. E.g. Iub transmission,
Application). (Indicators: HS-DSCH
activity rate, HS-SCCH usage rate).

HSDPA parameters in Nemo tools 1/5

All release 99 parameters available earlier with

Qualcomm are supported
E.g. Application throughput, PPP throughput,
CPICH Ec/No etc..

Blue colored parameters are supported only with

Nemo Analyze

Rest of the parameters are supported both with

Nemo Outdoor and Nemo Analyze

List of parameters:

CQI percentage histogram

Channel quality indicator (CQI), reported by
terminal to the NW
Reported in every 2ms by the terminal,
histogram event written to measurement file in
every 200ms

CQI mode
The most common CQI value among in
histogram

HSDPA parameters in Nemo tools 2/5

Link adaptation parameters (percentage

histogram)
Modulation
Effective coding
Transport block size
First channelisation code used
Number of codes

Modulation (mode)
Effective coding (mode)
Number of codes (mode)

HSDPA parameters in Nemo tools 3/5

HS-DSCH 1st retransmission rate

Percentage of blocks retransmitted once
HS-DSCH 2nd retransmission rate
Percentage of blocks retransmitted twice
HS-DSCH 3rd retransmission rate
Percentage of blocks retransmitted 3 times
MAC block rate downlink
Number of radio blocks received in
measurement period (200ms with Qualcomm)
# Number of ACK/NACKs
Total number of ACK/NACK status messages
sent to uplink
MAC-HS (L1) BLER
Number of NACK messages from total in
percentage (that is, percentage of erroneous
blocks before HARQ)
HSDPA HS-SCCH usage (high-speed shared
control channel )
Percentage of time over the measurement
period (200ms) when HS-SCCH has indicated
incoming data to the terminal
Physical layer requested throughput
Computational throughput based on CQI
value. The throughput that would have
been achieved, if network would have sent
with the link adaptation parameters
defined by the CQI

HSDPA parameters in Nemo tools 4/5

Packet technology
HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS
HSDPA UE category
HS-DSCH scrambling code
Serving HS-DSCH cell scrambling code
# HS-SCCHs
Number of HS-SCCH channels listened by the phone
Power offset
Power offset in dB between HS-DSCH and CPICH
MAC-HS(L1) throughput downlink
Throughput provided by the L1/MAC-HS to the upper layers
HS-DSCH activity rate
Percentage of time when HS-DSCH channel has been allocated to the measured user
(max 100% with inter-TTI interval 1)
G-factor estimate
Best active set RSCP / (Other cell1 RSCP + other cell2 RSCP + + Thermal noise)

HSDPA parameters in Nemo tools 5/5

HS- PDSCH throughput (High Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channel throughput)

CQI repetition factor

Controls how often the UE repeats CQI information on the uplink (see 3GPP TS
25.214 s6A.1.2).

Ack/Nack repetition factor

Controls how often the UE repeats each ACK or NACK (see 3GPP TS 25.214
s6A.1.1).

HSDPA HARQ process information

HARQ uses incremental redundancy, where user data is transmitted multiple
times using different codings. When a corrupted packet is received, the user
device saves it and later combines it with the retransmissions, to recover
the error-free packet as efficiently as possible. Even if the retransmitted
packets are corrupted, their combination can yield an error-free packet.

CQI feedback cycle

Controls how often the UE transmits new CQI information on the uplink (see
3GPP TS 25.214 s6A.1.2).

HSDPA key parameters examples

03.08.15

Perfecting Wireless Communications

Verification of Link Adaptation

Variations in channel conditions

(CPICH Ec/No) affect link adaptation
parameters

Key parameters:
L1 throughput
Effective coding rate
Modulation
Number of multicodes
HARQ retransmission rate
Physical Channel Quality
Indicator (CQI)
HS-DSCH power offset
CPICH Ec/No

Verification of Link Adaptation

HARQ Retransmissions

Key parameters:
1st, 2nd, and 3rd MACHS retransmission rate

1st retransmission rate should

be in reasonable level
Low rate can indicate too
conservative link
adaptation

2nd and 3rd retransmission

rates should be near to 0

Verification of Link Adaptation

MAC- HS Throughput vs. Radio Channel Conditions

The effect of all link adaptation parameters is

seen in throughput

MAC- HS throughput vs. radio conditions gives

the best overall picture of link adaptation
Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) indicates the
channel quality seen by the terminal

HS-DSCH radio condition measurements other

than CQI are not available

CPICH Ec/No together with HS-DSCH power

offset indicates the channel quality of HSDSCH

Throughput may also vary due to other than

radio reasons:
Core/transmission network bottlenecks
Application protocol effects, etc.

HS-DSCH power offset

to CPICH: 4.5dB

HS-DSCH power
offset to CPICH: 3dB

HS-DSCH power
offset to CPICH: 0dB

Throughput

Transmission/Core NW Limitation or Other HSDPA users in the Cell

Physical layer requested

throughput is 5.34MB
(computational throughput
based on CQI)

Actual MAC-HS
throughput is ~235kB

Radio conditions would

allow ~5MB higher
throughput

HS-SCCH usage is 12%

88% of the time the
HSDPA channel has been
idle or allocated to another
user

Packet Scheduling Verification

Trade-off between system capacity and

service coverage with packet
scheduling
Performance and scalability of HSDPA
depends strongly on the vendor-specific
packet scheduling algorithm
Testing needed!
Multiple test terminals in the same cell
downloading bulk data
Different channel conditions and/or QoS
profiles
Key parameters:
HS-DSCH activity rate
End-user/cell throughput
HSDPA DTX percentage

Switching from HS-DSCH to DCH

Running out of HSDPA capacity, or

defined coverage, or some other
RRM reason

Switching is an RRC procedure,

where at least transport channel is
reconfigured

Channel switching causes a break

in the data flow

MAC-HS buffer in Node B is

flushed, and the data is
retransmitted in RLC layer

From application perspective the

switch is seamless

HS-DSCH Cell Change

HS-DSCH is not in SHO

HS-DSCH channel changed

to other active set cell with
RRC signaling

Channel switching causes a

break in the data flow

RNC stops sending DL data

before channel
reconfiguration
Data is not lost

From application
perspective the switch is
seamless

HS-DSCH is transmitted
from one of the active set
cells

R99 vs. HSDPA Example

R99 terminal and HSDPA terminal, both downloading data in the same cell
Stationary test

Example: Increased Interference Due to HSDPA

R99 384kbps bearer

(SF8), lowers CPICH
Ec/No about 1dB

HSDPA transfer
decreases CPICH
Ec/No about 4dB

HSDPA typically takes

up a large share of
the power resources

Interference

HS-DSCH power
offset to CPICH: 4.5dB

HSDPA Field Tests

Expected HSDPA Performance Based on R99 Measurements

G-factor or Ior/Ioc together with HS-DSCH

Tx power are the variables in most of the
HSDPA performance simulations

G-factor or Ior/Ioc can be estimated based

on CPICH measurements from serving and
neighboring cells
Equally loaded cells are assumed

Estimation of:
HSDPA performance in existing R99
network
HSDPA performance in loaded network

Microcell environment
(antennas on the walls)

Macrocell environment
(antennas on masts and rooftops

HSDPA Field Tests

Challenge in Radio Network Planning

Serving cell dominance has a relatively big effect on throughput compared to R99
HSDPA makes the deployment scenario (micro/macro, etc.), and the radio network
planning visible to the end-user

HSDPA Field Tests

Geographical Visualization

Results can be visualized on a

map

For example, MAC-HS DL

throughput

Problem areas can be pinpointed

geographically

Best active set cell Ec/No below

-15dB
Number of HS-DSCH multicodes
less than 3

HSDPA Field Tests

Statistics Per Cell

Throughput statistics per cell

Modulation statistics per cell
Problem/worst cells can be pinpointed

Conclusions

Radio conditions

Link adaptation

CPICH Ec/No
HS-DSCH power offset
CQI

Coding rate
Modulation
Number of multi codes
MAC BLER
HS-DSCH activity rate

Performance
MAC-HS throughput
RLC/PPP/App. throughput
RTT (Ping)

THANK YOU!

Questions, comments?