ECE 5221 Personal Communication Systems

Prepared by:
Dr. Ivica Kostanic
Lecture 24 Basics of 3G UMTS (4)

Spring 2011

PHY layer procedures

Initial system acquisition (cell search)

RACH procedure
Paging
Transmit diversity
Open loop power control
Fast closed loop power control
Handover measurements
MS and UTRAN measurements

Cell search procedure

WCDMA asynchronous system

Goal of search process

Synchronize to the system

Demodulate PCCPCH (Primary Common
Control PHY Channel)

Procedure initiated every time the

phone is turned on
Subdivided into four steps

Acquisition of slot synchronization

Acquisition of frame synchronization
Determination of the PrSC
Resolution of the PCCPCH TTI ambiguity
(TTI = 20ms)

If the acquired system is the home

system end of the procedure
If the acquired system in not the
home system procedure may be
restarted

Note 1. To demodulate PCCPCH the UE

Needs to determine proper PrSC and
proper code offset
Note 2. There are 512 codes and 38400
possible offsets size of search space is
~ 20 million possibilities
Note 3. Four step process allows for quick
pruning of the search space

Step 1 TS synchronization

Accomplished through the search for P-SCH (Primary

Synchronization Channel)
P-SCH uses 256 bit long code at the beginning of each time slot
Each TS is 0.67ms (15 TS make 10ms frame)
All cells (Node Bs) in the network use the same P-SCH code

UE may receive P-SCH

from multiple cells
It will key on the
strongest one

P-SCH radio frame

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Step 2 Frame synchronization

Accomplished through acquisition of S-SCH

S-SCH: 64 codes that consists of 15 code words that
remains unique under cyclic shits
UE reads decodes 15 time slots and based on the
received code, it determines beginning of the frame
Decoded S-SCH points to one of 64 groups for PrSC

Example: Word that is

unique under cyclic
shift:

Horse
Orseh
Rseho
Sehor
Ehors
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Step 3: PrSC identification

There are 512 PrSC arranged in 64 groups with 8 codes in each group
S-SCH points to one of 64 groups reducing the search to 8 PrSC candidates
PrSC is 38400 long and it is aligned with the beginning of the radio frame
By convolving single radio frame with 8 possible candidates, the mobile
determines PrSC of the cell

PrSC establishes the cell

identity. Once mobile
determines the PrSC it can
decode the information
associated with a given cell

Step 4: Decoding of PCCPCH

Broadcast channel (BCH) is sent over PCCPCH in 20 ms TTI

BCH aligned with beginning of every other frame
Mobile determines the beginning if PCCPCH through simple CRC checks

Once PCCPCH is decoded, the mobile has acquired the system and it may register
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Note: BCH is the only transport channel mapped to PCCPCH

Random Access Procedure

Uses PRACH (PHY Random Access Channel)

Steps in RACH procedure

Decode BCH to learn the available RACH sub channels and their scrambling codes and
signatures (SIB Type 5)
Select randomly the sub channel and scrambling code signature combination
Set initial transmit power on the basis of open loop power control
Send 1 ms preamble with selected signature
Wait for the response on AICH
If there is no response, increase power and send preamble again
If the response is negative PHY informs MAC and stops the procedure
If the response if positive, send RACH message (may be 10ms or 20 ms long)

Note 1: Mobile should send

several preambles before it is
heard by the system
Note 2: In case of negative AIC
response, UE randomizes time
and starts again

PRACH (power and timing)

Power
Initial power determined using open loop power control
Power step and maximum number of power steps: signaled on the BCH

Timing (signaled on BCH)

Time between preambles
Time between preamble and AI
Time between preamble and message

Note: Setting the access

power is balancing
between setup success
rate and interference

AS = Access Slot
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RACH priority management

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The UE accesses the system through sub-channels

There are 12 sub-channels mapped on 15 access slots (per 20ms)
Depending on the UE priority class, it can be assigned one or more sub-channels
High priority users may use more than one sub-channel

Mapping between access slots and access sub-channels

Paging procedure

Registered terminal is assigned a paging group (144, 72, 36 or 18 groups)

Each paging group has a PI assigned on the PICH
Terminal monitors the assigned PI, and in the mean time it sleeps
If there is a page for any terminal within the paging group associate PI is set
Once terminal decodes a set PI, it decodes PCH on the SCCPCH
SCCPH is 3 timeslots after PICH

Note: location of the PICH

(and SCCPCH) changes from
frame to frame randomizes
paging location of the mobiles

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Transmit diversity

Used to improve robustness of DL towards fading

Main idea: multiple copies of the signal have small probability of
simultaneous fading
Requires two transmit antennas on the base station
Net gain DL transmit power reduced and capacity increases
There are three approaches specified in WCDMA

x Site selection transmit diversity (SSTD)

x Closed loop transmit diversity
Open loop transmit diversity

Closed loop transmit diversity not implemented and it will be

removed from the specs
SSTD proved difficult to implement will be removed from the specs

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Open loop diversity

Use of the Space Time Block Codes (STBC)

Open loop no feedback required
Data sent through two antennas
Encoding applied using 4 bits at the time
Uses Alamounti Space Time Block Codes
Used on downlink DPDCH

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Note: STBC do not increase symbol rate. They use special encoding
scheme to provide diversity reception using a single antenna

Power control

Very important in CDMA

Minimizes interference
increases capacity
Power control classification

Open loop power control

UL open loop
DL open loop

Closed loop power control

Open loop no feedback

Closed loop close to real time
feedback

UL inner loop
UL outer loop
DL inner loop
DL outer loop

Power control more critical

for performance of UL
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PHY channel

Open
loop

Closed loop
Inner

Closed loop
outer

No power
control

DPDCH

Yes

Yes

Yes

DPCCH

Yes

Yes

Yes

PCCPCH

Yes

SCCPCH
(BCH and FACH)

Yes

AICH

Yes

PICH

Yes

PRACH

Yes

CPICH

Yes

PSCH

Yes

SSCH

yes

Power control fir different PHY channels

Power assignment for PHY

channels without PC

Overhead channels that need to be heard over entire cell

Overhead channels no power control
Power allocation depends on the cell coverage requirements

Typical power assignments for overhead channels

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Overhead channel

Power range

Typical power settings

Comment

CPICH

-10 to 50 dBm

33 dBm

About 10% of the available

PA power

PSCC/SSCH

-35 to 15 dB relative to
CPICH

-5 dB relative to CPICH

PCCPCH (BCH)

-35 to 15 dB relative to
CPICH

-2 dB relative to CPICH

SCCPCH (PCH)

-35 to 15 dB relative to
CPICH

-2 dB relative to CPICH

SCCPCH (FACH)

-35 to 15 dB relative to
CPICH

1 dB relative to CPICH

AICH

-22 to 5 dB relative to CPICH

-6 dB relative to CPICH

PICH

-10 to 5 dB relative to CPICH

-7dB relative to CPICH

UL Open loop power control

Necessary to prevent UL interference

due to mobiles that are not in closed
loop Power control
Open loop on the UL is implemented on

PRACH during access

UL DPDCH and UL DPCCH before closed
loop control starts

Based on the mobile estimates of what

it should transmit
Not very accurate nominal accuracy
is +/- 9 dB

Estimate of the initial mobile TX power on PRACH or UL DPCCH. UL

DPDCH is adjusted depending on transport format
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Ppream ble PTX-CPICH RSCP CPICH UL interference Const

DL open loop power control

Initial Dl transmission before closed

loop power control
Initial power depends on requested
data rate, mobile reported CPICH
quality and target Eb/No

Estimate of the initial Node B TX

power on a DPDCH

PDL-DPCH 10 log Rb / W E b /No

PTXCPICH Ec / N o
Note: There is a direct dependence
between TX rate and power
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UL closed loop power control

UL power control is
implemented in two loops
Inner loop:
Fast loop
Instantaneous SIR of the
mobile on the uplink
Executed by Node B

Outer loop:
Slower loop
Manages the target SIR for
the mobile on the uplink
Executed by RNC

Mobile receives one TPC

(Transmit Power Control)
command per every time slot

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UL closed loop power control

UL closed loop power control in

handover

Two types of handover

Soft (two different Node Bs)

Softer (two cells of the same Node
B)

Each cell issues TPC to the

mobile
TPC bits from the same Node
B are combined one
command per Node B
TPC commands from different
Node Bs or of the downs

In the case of conflicting

commands the mobile powers
down

UL power control for mobile in handover

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DL closed loop power control

On the DL both inner and outer loops are at the UE

UE sends one TPC command received by all Node Bs in the active set
All node Bs adjust their power in the same direction
Additional algorithms need to be implemented at RNC to make sure Node B
powers do no drift due to erroneous UP frames

DL closed loop power

control
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