3G HSDPA evolution:
MIMO and 64QAM Performance in Macrocellular
Deployments
Santiago Tenorio, Yannick Le Pezennec and Manuel Sierra
3G Radio Product
Vodafone Group Networks
Madrid, Spain
santiago.tenorio@vodafone.com, yannick.lepezennec@vodafone.com, manuel.sierra@vodafone.com
Abstract— This paper provides an overview of the methodology
used in the performance assessment of the 64QAM and MIMO
HSDPA features in a macro-cellular environment. The paper
describes how the geometry experienced by end users could be
measured in a live HSPA network, and how this could be used
together with link level simulations to perform a first assessment
of performance expectation of both MIMO and 64QAM.
Keywords-component;HSPA+; MIMO; 64QAM;Geometry;
Abbreviations:
- CPICH: Common Pilot Channel (UMTS)
- Ec/No: Chip energy to Noise ratio
- RSCP: Received Signal Code Power.
- HSPA: High-Speed Packet Access.
- HSDPA: High-Speed Downlink Packet Access.
- MIMO: Multiple Input Multiple Output
- QAM: Quadrature Amplitude Modulation.
- Nt: Thermal noise
- OMC: Operation and Maintenance Centre.
- UE: User Equipment
- RNC: Radio Network Controller
- UTRAN: UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network.
- G Factor: Geometry Factor
- îor: average received carrier power from the best serving
cell, measured in the UE antenna.
- îoc: average received carrier power from all cells different
than the best serving cel, measured in the UE antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
The evolution of HSDPA in 3G Networks consists of
several different features permitting higher data rates than at
present. This package of features is very often referred to as
“HSPA+”. Two such features are 64QAM (higher order
modulation) and MIMO which strive to bring the possibility of
increased peak data rates up to 16.2 Mbps and 21.6 Mbps
respectively on the downlink.
In order to understand the overall achievable radio
performance for any downlink feature in a given network, it is
necessary to determine the typical user experience/environment
in a live radio network.
At any point in time in mobile networks a large proportion
of data users are located indoors, an environment in which the
radio conditions are known to be dramatically different from
the typical outdoor radio conditions. Whilst a valid user
scenario, drive testing is not considered as typical as the indoor
case. Determining accurately radio conditions as experienced
by the UEs is the only way of gauging the customer experience
for any service and in particular 64QAM and MIMO..
A useful measurement to characterise the quality of the
radio conditions within the coverage area in a live network –
regardless of the type of terminal and irrespective of receiver
performance - is the geometry (“G Factor”) corresponding to
the ratio of own to other cell interference at the user terminal
antenna reference point. This metric is commonly used in the
industry not only in simulations but also in UE compliance
testing [1,2].
A good approximation of G Factor can be calculated by
using measurements from the network sent by the users’ UEs
and such calculations in conjunction with simulations of
MIMO and 64 QAM performance will permit an appreciation
of what improvements these two features may provide.
II. GEOMETRY MEASUREMENTS
A. Difficulties in measuring the geometry
Given the maturity of the HSDPA+ features in question,
geometry calculations can only be performed either by
simulations in controlled environments i.e. lab environment. In
addition, there is no existing agreed or defined method to
measure geometry as perceived by the end user in a live - interference from other systems (including the
network. In a live network, it is not possible to measure the thermal noise generated within the equipment (Nt).
interference (Ioc) from other cells as perceived by the end user
because such a measurement is not supported by the UE (this is Note:
not included within the set of measurements defined in 3GPP). The latter is not a measurement that can be reported to
Therefore, given that Ioc cannot be measured one must proceed the network, hence it is necessary to take into account
in determining geometry as experienced by a user via already a typical value for Nt. Laboratory measurements of
standardised and available measurements in the UE. many end user equipment show that an empirical
value of 7 dB can be taken for the noise factor (Nt
=KTBF, where F=7 dB). However it is reasonable to
neglect Nt as this quantity is for a majority of
B. Calculating the Geometry Factor scenarios negligible with respect to Îo and Ioc. In any
case the above empirical value is sufficient to refine
Geometry is calculated based upon CPICH RSCP and the calculation for the scenarios where the geometry is
CPICH Ec/No as measured by the UE and on the transmitted very low (e.g. cell edge).
carrier power Ior as measured by the serving base station(s) in
the network. The calculation of the geometry is made as a
function of the aforementioned measurements in addition to the Hence Ioc can be expressed as follows
CPICH power setting in the network and the thermal noise
generated within the user equipment itself..
Using a network-centric approach with respect to CPICH RSCP ˆ
Ioc = − Ior − Nt
measurements also permits the measurement of geometry by CPICH Ec / No (3)
remotely collecting the required measurements for the different
users at the OMC thus no in the field measurements are
required to be performed. îor can be expressed as follows
The theoretical description of the method used to measure
the geometry is explained next.
Ior
What we seek to measure is Iˆor =
coupling loss (4)
Iˆor
Geometry (G ) =
Ioc (1)
And the coupling loss experienced by the user in its present
As mentioned previously, Ioc is not measurable by an end location through the CPICH RSCP measurement based on the
UE hence a method of deriving the Ioc from standard knowledge of the CPICH Tx power in the network (available at
measurements already available in any UE such as CPICH the OMC), hence
Ec/No and CPICH RSCP measurements in UMTS should be
considered.
CPICH Ec/No is defined in [3], and here it can be CPICH Tx power
coupling loss =
expressed as follows: CPICH RSCP (5)

CPICH RSCP CPICH RSCP (2)

CPICH Ec / No = = Which leads to
UTRA RSSI Iˆor + Ioc + Nt

Ior . CPICH RSCP

Iˆor =
The UTRA RSSI corresponds to : CPICH Tx power (6)
- to Îor, the total power of the signal received in the
operating band (5 MHz for UMTS) which can be
expressed as the sum of power coming from the The geometry can then be derived as follows:
serving cell itself
plus
Ior
- the power Ioc coming from neighbour cells (i.e. other G=
CPICH Tx power Nt .CPICH Tx power
than the serving one) − Ior −
CPICH Ec / No CPICH RSCP (7)
plus
 a sufficient number of cells, typically in the region of
Where Ior is the average transmitted carrier power of a
at least 5 cells),
cell serving said user equipment as measured by the serving
base station and Nt is the thermal noise generated within the - the target number of users traced per cell,
user equipment.
- the target number of samples taken per user.
This expression permits the calculation of geometry based
on known parameters and available measurements to the end
user. Variations of the same sampling/tracing over the cluster
should be repeated plus/minus one cell to ensure that results
The calculation of one individual geometry sample for one
obtained for the geometry distribution are representative and
given user in the live network requires therefore a sample of
not skewed due to the local environment in one cell i.e. the
each of the above measurements (referred hereafter as a
results obtained show negligible differences e.g. median value
geometry measurement sample). In order to ensure an
affected by less than 1%.
acceptable margin of error in the determination of the geometry
it is important to ensure that CPICH RSCP, CPICH Ec/No and
Ior measurements are synchronised to a sufficient level, i.e.
1 2 3
these measurements should happen at the same time, where
typically the measurement period should be synchronised to
Select target Select target
within at least +/- 500 ms. cell or cluster Configure traces
user(s)
of cells (identify IMSI´s to be traced)

UTRAN
Trace set-up over UTRAN
(including IMSI’s, cell ID’s, Geometry statistics
experienced by users in 5a
measurement setup) Post-processing
a given cell or cluster of
cell of traces to derive Activate traces
5b geometry G via OMC
RNC Tracing system Geometry statistics of a
given user
of user(s)

5 4
cell trace

Tx carrier
power (Ior)
measurements
Fig 2.
IMSI trace

Node B

Figure 2 describes an example of the overall process that a

UE
Fig 1.
In order to derive the distribution of geometry in a live
network, the OMC will collect the geometry measurement
samples over a defined cluster of cells such that the way that
the derived geometry distribution is meaningful. The OMC –
specifically the tracing function(ality)– should permit the
tracing of user sessions on a per RNC basis thereby ensuring a
large sample of traced cells and users. Figure 1 provides an
overview of the collection of the geometry measurement
samples via the tracing system.
The RNC reports the transmission Tx carrier power
measurements Ior coming from the base station, and the CPICH
Ec/No and CPICH RSCP coming from the user equipment(s)
to the tracing system.
The accuracy of the derived geometry distribution depends
upon:
- the size of the target cluster of cells (it is likely to be
more useful that any cluster of neighbour sites contain
mobile operator would have to follow for performing such a
measurement of the geometry in a live network.
The process has been split into five different phases.
The whole process can be done remotely from a computer. For
example within Vodafone, a Vodafone employee (with the
required rights for security purposes) can access from his own
computer the OMC (via the IP network).
The tracing system typically resides within the OMC
and allows to perform traces of specific cells and specific user
equipment through their IMSI.
The mobile operator sets the target cell or cluster of
cells (phase 1) and the target end users –each user is identified
by its IMSI– (phase 2). It also configures the measurement
settings in the tracing system (phase 3). The traces are activated
via the OMC for all selected IMSI’s (phase 4), and the
measurements are collected and stored into files which can
then be post-processed to obtain geometry statistics (phase 5).
C. .Results: Geometry distribution
The aforementioned scenario has been carried out in
Madrid, and all measurements (traces) came from HSDPA
users.
 The results of the calculation based on these measurements related features, in particular the throughput using MIMO
are shown in Figure 3. and/or 64QAM depending on the geometry. Taking into
account this simulations and the Geometry Factor distribution
measured in real network with the method described before,, it
Macrocell geometry distribution (cdf)
is possible to calculate the throughput gain corresponding to
different percentages of users. The figure 4 below shows the
120 throughput improvements of MIMO and 64QAM with respect
to the Rel’6 HSDPA “baseline” in a real network.
100

80
cdf (%)

60

40

20

0
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Geometry (dB)

Fig .3

The conclusion from Figure 3 is that approximately 30% of

the current 3G users have better Geometry than 10 dB. Fig 4.

III. MIMO AND 64QAM PERFORMANCE

The expected performances of these features very much
depend on the given radio conditions i.e. the Geometry Factor.
Taking into account the results obtained from the
measurements in a real network, it is possible to
extrapolate/calculate the percentage of users that will benefit
appreciably from introducing the features, and also the gain in
terms of throughput.
Many different 3G product suppliers have simulated the
performance of MIMO and 64QAM for different values of
Geometry – and all revealed results are broadly similar. The
difference between 16QAM and 64QAM becomes noticeable
when the G factor is greater than 10 dB. It is this “break” point
where 64QAM becomes beneficial.
MIMO is more promising from a practical point of view
given that its two modes - Single Stream and Dual Stream –
permit it to be able to handle a wider range of radio conditions,
particularly Single Stream mode. Whilst for the full benefit of
Dual Stream better radio conditions are required in comparison
to Single Stream, a break point G Factor at 8 dB means an
improvement over 64 QAM.
A. Results: Throughput improvement compared to Rel’6
HSDPA performance
3GPP Release 6, besides many other improvements, allows
HSDPA connections to reach 10.7 Mbps due to the
introduction of 16QAM modulation and 15 Codes.
Some link level simulations performed by different vendors
show the performance expectations of 3GPP release 7 HSPA
These results show significant improvements of for MIMO
over 64QAM and the Rel’6 baseline in a macrocellular
environment for improving throughput. MIMO should be
viewed as a set of two techniques: single stream MIMO (10.8
Mbps peak rate) and dual stream MIMO (21.6 Mbps peak rate).
These two techniques are complementary: dual stream
improving significantly the user throughput in good radio
conditions whilst single stream improves substantially user
throughput in a range of radio conditions experienced by
subscribers when compared to a Rel´6 system (the latter is
more robust in bad radio conditions). The network switches
between the two techniques according to the conditions of the
user. Based on Vodafone’s estimations today, MIMO could
deliver up to 9 Mbps throughput to 50% of the users in a urban
macrocellular network (up to 17 Mbps throughput could be
achieved in 10% of the network).
Note that the evolution of HSPA should not be restricted to
only these two sole features as other features have been
introduced and agreed at 3GPP which are expected to support
the improvement of the mobile broadband user experience.
Features such as HSPA+ bring key improvements through the
support of Continuous Connectivity for packet users (CPC) as
do improved Layer 2 functionalities (not elaborated upon in
this document).
Also, Interference Cancellation techniques limit
interference generated from high rate users thereby improving
the overall system capacity. All these enhancements make
HSPA+ an indisputable contender in the pursuit of mobile
broadband provision.
Note also that in parallel to user experience improvement
via these and all the 3GPP agreed HSPA+ techniques,
advanced terminals are required that can sustain high [2] 3GPP; TS 34.121, “User Equipment (UE) conformance
throughput without draining batteries. specification – Radio transmission and reception (FDD))”
[3] 3GPP; TS 25.215, “Physical Layer – Measurements (FDD)
(Release 7)”
REFERENCES
[1] 3GPP; TS 25.101, “User Equipment (UE) radio
transmission and reception (FDD)”.