WCDMA Key Technologies

ZTE University
Objectives

 At the end of this course, you will be able to:

 Master key technologies of WCDMA
 Master characteristic of WCDMA system capacity
Content

 WCDMA Key Technologies

 Power Control
 Handover Control
 Admission Control
 Load Control
 Code Resource Allocation
 RAKE Receiver
 WCDMA Capacity Features
Power Control

 CDMA is not a new technology

 Power control is a key technology of CDMA
system
 Power control is the key path for launching the
large scale CDMA commercial network

CDMA is a typical self-interference system, thus the chief

principle is that any potential surplus transmitted power for
service must be controlled.
Why Power Control?

 All CDMA users occupy the same

frequency spectrum at the same time!
Frequency and time are not used as
discriminators.
 CDMA operates by using codes to
discriminate between users.
 CDMA interference comes mainly from
nearby users
 Each user is a small voice in a roaring
crowd -- but with a uniquely recoverable
code.

To achieve acceptable service quality, the transmit power of all users must be
tightly controlled so that their signals reach the base station with the same
signal strength and the absolute minimum power level demanded to avoid
the Near-Far Effect.
Near-Far Effect

Block the whole cell

Overpowered by strong signals

Power

f
Power control

Power
Power

f f

Each terminal is an interference Power control will reduce the

source to the others. The Near-far cross interference significantly
effect will impact the capacity and improve the total capacity
tremendously
Purpose of Power Control

Downlink Power Control Uplink Power Control

Cell transmitted power UE transmitted signal

Power control command (TPC) Power control command (TPC)

• Overcome near-far effect and compensate signal fading

• Reduce multi-access interference and guarantee cell capacity
• Extend battery life
Category of Power control

Open loop power control（no feedback）

RNC

UE Node B

Close loop power control（feedback）

RNC
Inner-loop
Outer-loop

UE Node B
Category of Power Control
Open Loop
Measure the channel interference condition and adjust the initial transmitted
power

Close Loop－Inner Loop

Measure the SIR (Signaling to Interference Ratio), compare with the target
SIR value, and then send power control instruction to UE.
The frequency of WCDMA inner loop power control is 1500Hz.
If measured SIR>target SIR, decrease the UE transmitted power.
If measured SIR <target SIR, increase the UE transmitted power.

Close Loop－Outer Loop

Measure the BLER (Block Error Rate), and adjust the target SIR.
The frequency of WCDMA outer loop power control is 10~100Hz.
 If measured BLER>target BLER, decrease the target SIR value.
 If measured BLER<target BLER, increase the target SIR value.
Open Loop Power Control

 General principals of open loop power control

 Open loop power control is applied to estimate the initial
transmitted power for a new radio link.
 P-CPICH signal is used in Downlink Open Loop Power
Control, which is measured by UE to estimate the initial
transmitted power.
 The following factors will also be considered, such as
service QoS and data rate, Eb/No requirements of
establishing service, current downlink total Transmitted
Power and interference from neighbor cell etc.
Close Loop – Inner Loop Power Control

Measure receiving SIR and

compare to target SIR 1500Hz

Inner loop

TPC instruction
Set SIRtar
NodeB UE

Try to get the equal receiving Each radio link has

Eb (Energy per bit) of each its own control
UE at Node B circle
Close Loop – Inner Loop Power Control
 General principals of inner loop power control
 The receiver compares the SIR value of received signal with target SIR,
and then sends back TPC instruction. According to the instruction, the
sender will decide to increase/decrease the transmitted power.
 The adjusted rang=TPC_cmd×TPC_STEP_SIZE
 Inner loop power control is required for the following channels：
 DPCH, PDSCH, PCPCH
 Inner loop power control is not required for the following channels ：
 P-CPICH(S-CPICH), P-CCPCH(S-CCPCH), PRACH etc.
Close Loop – Inner Loop Power Control

Measure BLER
of TRCH

Measure receiving Measure receiving SIR

Get data flow BLER and compare to and
target BLER compare to target SIR
with stable BLER

Outer Loop Inner loop

Set BLERtar
Set SIRtar TPC instruction

10-100Hz
RNC NodeB UE
Close Loop – Outer Loop Power Control
 Outer Loop Power Control algorithm
 Employ the inner loop power control to keep SIR close to target
SIR.
 Measure the quality of service, including target BLER, CRC
indicator and SIR Error, then set the value of SIR_Target.
 Tune the target SIR with pre-defined step as the adjustment
parameter for inner loop power control to keep the service in good
quality in time-varying wireless propagation environment.
 The uplink open loop power control algorithm is executed in the
RNC while the downlink one is executed in UE.
The Effect of Power Control

 The purpose of DL power control:

 Saving power resource of NodeB.
 Reducing interference to other NodeB.
 The purpose of UL power control:
 Overcoming Near-Far effect. Extending UE battery life.

WCDMA system capacity depends on the effect of power control

Content

 WCDMA Key Technologies

 Power Control
 Handover Control
 Admission Control
 Load Control
 Code Resource Allocation
 RAKE Receiver
 WCDMA Capacity Features
 What’s ？
 When UE is moving from the coverage area of one site to another,
or the quality of service is declined by external interference during a
service, the service must be handed over to an idle channel for
sustaining the service.
 Handover is used to guarantee the continuity of service

 Handover is a key technology for mobile networking

 Category of Handover

Soft handover (SHO)

WCDMA system support
multiple handover technology
 Intra-RNC, inter-Node B
 Inter-RNC
Softer handover
 Same Node B, Inter-sector

Hard handover (HHO)

 Intra-frequency
 Inter-frequency
 Inter-system (3G&2G)
 Inter-mode (FDD&TDD)
Handover Demonstration

Soft
Handover

Hard Handover
Soft Handover/Softer Handover

Soft Handover
C C

A A

B B
Soft-Softer Handover
C C

A A

B B

Softer Handover
C C

A A

B B
Hard Handover
 During the hard handover procedure, Hard Handover
all the old radio links with the UE are
abandoned before new ones are CN
established, so there must be
service interruption during the HHO. RNC or
SRNC BSC
 Hard handover may occur in the
following main cases Node B or
Node B
 When the UE is handed over to another BTS

UTRAN carrier, or another technology

mode.
 When soft handover is not permitted (if
O&M constraint)
Soft/Softer Handover
 The soft/softer handover allows to migrate from one cell
to another without service interruption or without deleting
all old radio links.
 UE can connecte to more than one cell simultaneously
and take benefit from the macro-diversity.

Soft
SoftHandover
Soft Handover
Handover Softer
Softer
Softer Handover
Handover
Handover
The two Node Bs Node
The two may Bs CN CN
CN
CN CN
belong to the
may Same
belong RNC
to the
same RNC
SRNC DRNC SRNC
Iur
Node B Node B
WCDMA General Handover Procedures
---- “Handover Trilogy”
 Measurement Control
 UTRAN demands the UE to start measurement through
issuing a measurement control message.
 Handover decision
 UTRAN makes the decision based on the measurement
reports from UE. The implementation of handover
decision is various for different vendors. It impacts on
the system performance critically.
 Handover execution
 UTRAN and UE execute different handover procedure
according to the handover command .
General Procedure of Handover Control (I)

 Measuring

The measurement objects are decided by RNC. Usually, either Ec/N0 or

RSCP (Received Signal Code Power) of P-CPICH channel is used for
handover decision.
ZTE RNC adopts Ec/N0 measurement, because Ec/N0 embodies both
the received signal strength and the interference. The relation of Ec/N0
and RSCP is shown as follows:
Ec/N0 ＝RSCP/RSSI
In the above equation，RSSI（Received Signal Strength Indicator）is
measured within the bandwidth of associated channels
General Procedure of Handover Control (II)
 Reporting
 Period report triggered handover
 Base on the filtered measurement result
 Event report triggered handover
 Base on the event

Measurement result filtered in UE

Soft Period Event decided in RNC
Handover Handover decided in RNC

Hard Measurement result filtered in UE

Handover Event decided in UE
Event
Handover decided in RNC
General Procedure of Handover Control (III)

 Handover algorithm
 All the handover algorithms including soft handover,
hard handover and so on are implemented on the event
decision made according to the measurement reports.
 Events defined in 3GPP specifications
 Intra-frequency events：1A~1F
 Inter-frequency events：2A~2F
 Inter-RAT events：3A~3D
 Note: RAT is short for “Radio Access Technology”, e.g.
WCDMA&GSM
Concepts Related to Handover

 Active Set:
 A set of cells that have established radio links with a
certain mobile station.
 User information is sent from all these cells.
 Monitored Set:
 A set of cells that are not in the active set but are
monitored according to the list of adjacent cells
assigned by the UTRAN.
 Detected Set:
 A set of cells that are neither in the active set nor in the
monitor set.
Soft handover process
 Measurement
 RNC sends a measurement control message to UE.
 UE should perform measurement as required and report the measurement
result.
 Generally, the measured parameter is the common pilot’s Ec/No.
 Decision
 RNC stores data of different cells according to the measurement results.
 RNC makes preliminary decision according to the event decision method.
 e.g.
 When the event is reported and the target cell is acceptable, send an active set
update command to add/delete the cell into/from the active set.
 Execution
 The RNC sends an active set update command to UE and UE starts
handover.
Soft handover events

Event Description
Quality of target cell improves, entering a report
1A range of relatively activating set quality

Quality of target cell decreases, depart from a

1B report range of relatively activating set quality

The quality of a non-activated set cell is better

1C than that of a certain activated set cell

1D Best cell generates change

Quality of target cell improves, better than an

1E absolute threshold

Quality of target cell decreases, worse than an

1F absolute threshold
An Example of SHO Procedure
Pilot
⊿t ⊿t ⊿t
Ec/Io

Pilot Ec/Io of cell 1

Pilot Ec/Io of cell 2

Pilot Ec/Io of cell 3 time

Connect to cell1 Event 1A Event 1C Event 1B

（add cell2）（replace cell1 with cell 3）（remove cell3）
Example of soft handover
UE Target Node B Source Node B RNC

RRC: Measurement Report(Event 1a) (From Source Node B to RNC)

Executing handover
judgement and
adding a radio link
in Target Node B

NBAP: Radio Link Setup Request

NBAP: Radio Link Setup Response

Start to receive

Distributing transmission resources on Iub interface

Start to send

RRC: Active Set Update(E1a) (From Source Node B to UE)

RRC: Active Set Update Complete (From Source & Target Node B to RNC
simutaneously)

UE connects to Source Node B and Target Node B simutaneously

RNS Relocation

Core Network Core Network

Iu Iu
Serving Iur Target Serviing Target
RNS RNS RNS RNS

RNS
Radio Network Sub-system

 RNS relocation can :

 Reduce the Iur traffic significantly
 Enhance the system adaptability
Hard Handover

 Hard handover measurement is much more

complex for UE than soft handover measurement.
 Inter-frequency hard handover requires UE to
measure the signal of other frequencies.
 WCDMA employs compressed mode technology
to support inter-frequency measurement.
Content

 WCDMA Key Technologies

 Power Control
 Handover Control
 Admission Control
 Load Control
 Code Resource Allocation
 RAKE Receiver
 WCDMA Capacity Features
Admission Control

 The admission control is employed to admit the

access of incoming call. Its general principal is
based on the availability and utilization of the
system resources.
 If the system has enough resources such as load
margin, code, and channel element etc. the
admission control will accept the call and allocate
resources to it.
Purpose of Admission Control
 When user initiates a call , the admission control should
implement admission or rejection for this service
according to the resource situation.
 The admission control will sustain the system stability
firstly and try the best to satisfy the new calling service’s
QoS request, such as service rate, quality (SIR or BER),
and delay etc. basing on the radio measurement.
 Admission control is the only access entry for the
incoming services, its strategy will directly effect the cell
capacity and stability, e.g. call loss rate, call drop rate.
Admission Control in Uplink

Itotal_old+ΔI >Ithreshold Interference capacity

Access Service priority
Threshold Reserved capacity for
handover

The forecasted interference including the delta

interference brought by the incoming service is
calculated by the admission algorithm, and its
result depends on the QoS and transmission
propagation environment
Iown-
cell
The current RTWP (Received
Total Wide Power) value of cell, Iother-
which is reported by Node B cell
~
N0
Admission Control in Downlink

Ptotal_old+△P>=Pthreshold Max TCP of cell

Access Service priority
Threshold Reserved capacity for
handover

The forecasted TCP value including delta

power required for the incoming service is
calculated by the admission algorithm, and its
result depends on the QoS and transmission
propagation environment.

The current TCP value of cell, which

is reported by Node B
（Transmitted Carrier Power*Pmax）
Content

 WCDMA Key Technologies

 Power Control
 Handover Control
 Admission Control
 Load Control
 Code Resource Allocation
 RAKE Receiver
 WCDMA Capacity Features
Purpose of Load Control

The speed and position

Increased transmitted
changing of UE may
power will increase the
worsen the wireless
system load.
environment.

The purpose of load control is to keep the

system load under a pre-planned threshold
through several means of decreasing it, so as to
improve the system stability. Load control
Load Control Flows

Start

Light loaded Over loaded

Decision

Normal loaded

1. Handover in and access 1. Handover in 1.Handover in and

are allowed
2. Transmitted code power
(TCP) increase is allowed
3. RAB service rate
upgrade is allowed
and access are access are forbidden
allowed 2. TCP increase is
2. TCP increase forbidden
is allowed 3. RAB service rate
degrade
4. Handover out
5. Release call (call drop)
Load Control in Uplink
 Triggers
 RTWP (Received Total Wide-band Power) value from
measurement report exceeds the uplink overload threshold;
 Admission control is triggered when rejecting the access of
services with lower priority due to insufficient load capacity in uplink.
 Methods for decreasing load
 Decrease the target Eb/No of service in uplink;
 Decrease the rate of none real time data service;
 Handover to GSM system;
 Decrease the rate of real time service, e.g. voice call;
 Release calls.
 Methods for increasing load
 Increase the service rate.
Load Control in Downlink
 Triggers
 TCP (Transmitted Carrier Power) value from measurement report
exceeds the downlink overload threshold;
 Admission control is triggered when rejecting the access of
services with lower priority due to insufficient load capacity in
downlink.
 Methods for decreasing load
 Decrease the downlink target Eb/No of service in downlink;
 Decrease the rate of none real time data service;
 Handover to coverage-shared light loaded carrier;
 Handover to GSM system;
 Decrease the rate of real time service, e.g. voice call;
 Release calls.
 Methods for increasing load
 Increase the service rate.
Cell Breathing Effect

Cell breathing is
one of the means
for load control

The purpose of cell breathing is to share the load of hot-

spot cell with the light loaded neighbor cells, therefore to
improve the utilization of system capacity.
Example for load control

Cell Breathing Effect

With the increase of activated
terminals and the increase of high
speed services, interference will
increase.
The cell coverage area will shrink.
Coverage blind spot occurs
Coverage and
Drop of call will happen at the edge capacity are
of cell interrelated
Content

 WCDMA Key Technologies

 Power Control
 Handover Control
 Admission Control
 Load Control
 Code Resource Allocation
 RAKE Receiver
 WCDMA Capacity Features
WCDMA Code Resource

 WCDMA code resource including

 Channelized Code (OVSF code)
 Uplink Channelized Code
 Downlink Channelized Code
 Scrambling Code (PN code)
 Uplink Scrambling Code
 Downlink Scrambling Code
Function of OVSF Code

Downlink: distinguish different radio channels from the same NodeB.

OC3, OC4
OC1, OC2

OC5, OC6, OC7

Uplink: distinguish different radio channels from the same UE.

OC1, OC2
OC1 , OC2, OC3

OC1, OC2, OC3, OC4

Function of PN code

 Downlink: distinguish different Cells

 Uplink: distinguish different UEs
Cell Site “1” transmits using PN code 1

PN1 PN1

PN3 PN4

Cell Site “2” transmits using PN code 2

PN2 PN2

PN5 PN6
Why Code Resource Planning?
 The OVSF (Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor)
code tree is a scarce resource and only one code
tree can be used in each cell. In order to make full
use of the capacity, and support as many
connections as possible, it is important to plan and
control the usage of channel code resource.
 Downlink PN code allocation should be planned to
avoid the interference between neighboring cells.
 The uplink PN codes are sufficient, but RNC
should plan the codes to use for avoiding
allocating same code to different users in inter-
RNC handover scenario.
Code Resource Planning
 The uplink and downlink scrambling code can be
planned easily by computer.
 The uplink channelized code does not need planning, for
every UE can use the whole code tree alone.
 Therefore, only the downlink channelized code is
planned with certain algorithm in RNC.
 Each cell has one primary scrambling code, which
correlates with a channel code tree. All the users under
this cell share this single code tree, so the OVSF code
resource is very limited.
 The downlink channelized code tree is a typical binary
tree with each layer corresponds to a certain SF ranging
from SF4 to SF512.
Generation of Channelized Code

Cch,4,0 =(1,1,1,1)
Cch,2,0 = (1,1)
Cch,4,1 = (1,1,-1,-1)
Cch,1,0 = (1)
Cch,4,2 = (1,-1,1,-1)
Cch,2,1 = (1,-1)
Cch,4,3 = (1,-1,-1,1)

SF = 1 SF = 2 SF = 4
OVSF Code Tree
Channelized Code Characters
 Code allocation restriction ：
 The code to be allocated must fulfill the condition that its
ancestor nodes including from father node to root node and
offspring nodes in the sub tree are not allocated;
 Code allocation side effect：
 The allocated node will block its ancestor nodes and offspring
nodes, thus the blocked nodes will not be available for allocation
until being unblocked .

SF=8

SF=16

SF=32
Strategy of Channelized Code Allocation
 Full utilization
 The fewer the blocked codes, the higher code tree utilization rate.
 Low Complexity
 Short code first.
 Allocate codes for common channels and physical shared channels
prior to dedicated channels.
 Guarantee the code allocation for common physical channels.
 Apply certain optimized strategy to allocate codes for downlink
dedicated physical channels.
An Example of Code Allocation
SF = 4

SF = 8

SF = 16

SF = 32
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Choose one
code from
three
SF = 4
candidates
SF = 8

SF = 16
SF = 32
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Red spots represent the codes that have been allocated；

Green spots represent the codes that are blocked by the allocated offspring codes；
Blue spots represent the codes that are blocked by the allocated ancestor codes;
Black spots represent the codes that to be allocated;
Planning of downlink PN code

PN2

PN7 PN3 PN2

PN7 PN3 PN2

PN1

PN6 PN4 PN1 PN7 PN3

PN2 PN5 PN6 PN4 PN1

PN7 PN3 PN2 PN5 PN6 PN4

PN7 PN3 PN2 PN5

PN1

PN6 PN4 PN1 PN7 PN3

PN5 PN6 PN4 PN1

PN5 PN6 PN4

PN5
Content

 WCDMA Key Technologies

 Power Control
 Handover Control
 Admission Control
 Load Control
 Code Resource Allocation
 RAKE Receiver
 WCDMA Capacity Features
RAKE Receiver

 The multi-path signals contain some useful

energy , therefore the CDMA receiver can
combine these energy of multi-path signals to
improve the received signal to noise ratio.
 RAKE receiver adopts several correlation
detectors to receive the multi-path signals, and
then combines the received signal energy.

RAKE Receiver can effectively overcome the multi-path

interference, consequently improve the receiving performance.
RAKE Receiving

d1
d2

d3

transmitting Receiving
Rake
combination
noise

t t t
Multi-finger receiver

 Traditional receiver
 Multi-path signals are treated as interference.
 The receiving performance will decline because of the
Multi-address Interference (MAI).
 Precondition of Multi-finger receiver
 Multi-finger receiver utilizes the Multi-path Effect.
 Multi-finger signals can be combined through relative
process
 Multi-finger time delay is larger than 1 chip interval,
which is 0.26us=>78m.
Multi-finger receiver
Direct signal
coding decoding

transmitter Reflected signal receiver

Dispersive time < 1 chip interval
Multi-finger receiver can’t supply multi-finger diversity

Direct signal
coding decoding

transmitter Reflected signal receiver

Dispersive time > 1 chip interval
Multi-finger receiver can supply multi-finger diversity, signal gain is improved
RAKE Receiving
Single
receiving

Single
receiving combining signal
receiver
Single
receiving

searcher calculate

s(t) s(t)

t t

RAKE Receiving overcomes multi-finger interference, improves

receiving performance
Combination of Multi-fingers

 Maximal ratio combining (MRC)

at each time delay phase shifting by adding

Finger 1

Finger 2

Finger 3
Content

 WCDMA Key Technologies

 Power Control
 Handover Control
 Admission Control
 Load Control
 Code Resource Allocation
 RAKE Receiver
 WCDMA Capacity Features
Capacity of WCDMA
Power Rising
 Power rising occurs because of the Multiple Access
Interference (MAI) resulting from the non-orthogonal
code channels.

 WCDMA network Meeting Room

 Code channel transmit talk with dialects
 Channel power voice tone
 Promised channel quality listen clearly
 Channel power rise voice tone rise
 Power climb voice climb
 Collapse over the range can not hear each other
Power Rising
Quantity of Subscriber-- The Total Bandwidth Received by Node B

The Total Bandwidth Power Received by Node B (dBm)

Quantity of Subscriber
Capacity of WCDMA System

 Under the circumstance of single services:

=
Capacity of WCDMA System

Under the circumstance of mixed services：

…...

X + Y +Z
WCDMA Capacity Features

 WCDMA capacity feature

 WCDMA capacity is Soft Capacity.
 The Concept of Soft Capacity
 The system capacity and communication quality are
interconvertible.
 Different services have different capacity.
 Different proportion of services have different capacity
for mixed services.
 The capacity is also restricted to the allocation of code
resource.
Concept of Soft Capacity

Different combination
of service has
different capacity

System capacity and QoS can be interconverted

Crucial Factors for WCDMA Network (CQC)

Capacity

All the key technologies adopted are used to try to

achieve the optimal balance of the three factors
Coverage and Capacity
 WCDMA performance is determined by such factors as：
 Number of users
 Transmission rate
 Moving speed
 Wireless environment
 indoors
 Outdoors
 The radius of cell depends on such factors as:
 Local radio conditions (local interference)
 Traffic in neighbouring cells (remote interference)
 Cell Radius decrease according to the Increase of user
number
Coverage/capacity VS Data Rate

 Higher data rate needs higher power

 High data rate transmission is only available
nearby the station
Coverage decrease >384 kbps

>144 kbps
>64 kbps

Subscriber
num >12.2 kbps
increase
Optimization methods

 To overcome Cell Breathing Effect caused by

increased traffic and meet different requirements
for capacity and coverage in different environment,
following solutions can be applied:

DL  DL/UL:
 transmission diversity (Tx Div)  Add carrier
 high power amplifier  six sectors

UL
 Tower Mounted Amplifier (TMA) Add basestation
 4 Rx Div “last choice”
 OTSR
Factors affects WCDMA Capacity
Factors Impact on WCDMA capacity
Reducing interference, saving power and Increasing
Power Control
capacity
Handover Impacting the capacity through applying different proportion
Control and algorithm of soft handover
Admission Admitting a connection base on the load and the admission
Control threshold of planned capacity
Monitoring system load and adjusting the ongoing services
Load Control
to avoid overload
The Allocation of codes impacts the maximum number of
OVSF Code
simultaneous connections.

The advanced receiving and baseband processing

RAKE Receiver
technology is introduced to overcome the fast fading

Wireless Wireless environment such as interferences, UE position

Environment and mobility etc. can influent the cell capacity
Exercise
 what is the near-far effect
 what is the purpose of Power Control .
 Power control is classify into ( ) ( )
and ( )
 pls describe WCDMA Handover technology
category.
 Handover procedure includes ( ) ( ) and
( )
 What is the Cell Breathing Effect.
 What’s the relation between Capacity, Quality and
Coverage?