UniversityofTwente

FacultyofElectricalEngineering,
MathematicsandComputerScience(EEMCS)
WCDMAEnhancedUplinkperformance
evaluation
CamiloOrejuelaMesa
MasterofScienceinTelematics
Thesis
(carriedoutatTwenteInstituteforWirelessandMobileCommunicationsB.V.)

ProjectSupervisors:
NeillWhillans(M.eng.),TIWMC
ir.FrankBrouwer,TIWMC
Dr.ir.SoniaM.HeemstradeGroot,UniversityofTwente
Dr.ir.GeertHeijenk,UniversityofTwente

May2006
Enschede,TheNetherland

Table of Contents
1Introduction........................................................................................................................................8
2UMTSOverview................................................................................................................................9
2.1WCDMA....................................................................................................................................9
2.1.1ChannelizationCodes.........................................................................................................9
2.1.2ScramblingCodes.............................................................................................................10
2.1.3TransmissionandReception.............................................................................................11
2.2UMTSArchitecture.................................................................................................................12
2.3TransportChannels...................................................................................................................13
2.4PhysicalChannels.....................................................................................................................14
2.5PowerControl...........................................................................................................................15
2.6AdmissionandCongestionControl..........................................................................................16
2.7PacketScheduling.....................................................................................................................16
3HighSpeedPacketAccess..............................................................................................................18
3.1HSDPA.....................................................................................................................................18
3.2HSUPA.....................................................................................................................................18
3.2.1EnhancedDedicateChannel(EDCH)ProtocolArchitecture..........................................19
3.2.2MACes/MACe...............................................................................................................20
3.2.3EnhancedUplinkPhysicalChannels................................................................................23
3.2.4FastHybridAutomaticRetransmissionRequest(HARQ)...............................................24
3.2.5FastPacketScheduling.....................................................................................................26
3.2.5.1UplinkSchedulinginformation................................................................................28
3.2.5.2DownlinkSchedulinginformation...........................................................................29
3.2.6PerformanceofHSUPA....................................................................................................30
4ModelingofHSUPA.......................................................................................................................31
4.1ActualValueInterface(AVI)...................................................................................................31
4.2ModelingofHARQ..................................................................................................................35
4.3ModelingofNodeBPacketSchedulingSignaling...................................................................36
4.4Mobility....................................................................................................................................37
4.5PathLoss...................................................................................................................................38
4.6EDCHinEURANE.................................................................................................................39
4.6.1LinkImplementationDetails.............................................................................................39
4.6.2TraceSupport....................................................................................................................42
5NodeBpacketScheduling................................................................................................................43
5.1SchedulingAlgorithmBasicFunctionality...............................................................................43
5.2Code/RateScheduling...............................................................................................................47
5.3RoundRobinScheduling..........................................................................................................47
5.4UCQIbasedScheduling............................................................................................................48
5.5RateEstimationScheduler........................................................................................................48
6SimulationsandResults...................................................................................................................50
2

6.1Scenario1................................................................................................................................50
6.1.1RateScheduling................................................................................................................51
6.1.2RoundRobin.....................................................................................................................52
6.1.3SchedulerbasedonUCQI:................................................................................................54
6.1.4SchedulerwithRateEstimation:.......................................................................................56
6.1.5TimeDelay:.......................................................................................................................58
6.1.6TotalTransmittedPower:..................................................................................................61
6.1.7Throughput:.......................................................................................................................63
6.2Scenario2.................................................................................................................................66
6.3Scenario3.................................................................................................................................67
6.4Scenario4.................................................................................................................................68
6.5PriorityScheduler:....................................................................................................................70
6.6EDCHandDCHcomparison..................................................................................................74
7Conclusions......................................................................................................................................75

Abstract

Thisthesis focusesontheperformanceoftheEnhancedUplinkforUTRAN,alsocalled High

SpeedUplinkPacketAccess(HSUPA),withspecialemphasisonthefastpacketschedulingbased
attheNodeB,andhowdifferentschedulingmechanismsaffecttheperformanceofthesystem.
An extension totheNetworkSimulator(ns2) environmenthasbeendevelopedtosupport the
functionalityoftheEnhancedUplink,includingtheHARQandtheFastPacketScheduling.Several
schedulingmechanismswereimplemented:aRateSchedulinginwhichmanyusersarescheduled
atthesametimewithlowrates;aRoundRobinSchedulerwhichschedulesfewuserswithhigh
rates; a UCQI Scheduler that gives priority to the users with best channel conditions; a Rate
EstimationSchedulerthatestimatesthemaximumsupportedratebyauserdependingonitspath
loss,andaPrioritySchedulerwhichgivesprioritytotheuserdependingonthetypeofdatatheyare
transmitting. All these schedulers were used in different simulation scenarios to analyze and
comparetheirimpactintheperformanceofthesystem,andconclusionsmade.

Acknowledgements
Iwanttoexpressmygratitudetoallthepeoplewhocontributedtothecompletionofthiswork.
FirstofallIamverygratefultomysupervisorNeillWhillansforhisguidanceandsupport.Alsoto
IrenedeBruinwhowasalwayswillingtohelpwheneverIneedit.Iamalsoverygratefulforthe
collaborationandvaluableadvicesfromFrankBrouwer,GeertHeijenkandSoniaHeemstrade
Grootswhocontributedwiththeirknowledgeandexperience.
IwillalsoliketoexpressmygratitudetoallthepeopleofWCM.Itwasverynicetomeetyouall
andwhichyouthebestinyourprofessionalandpersonallife.
Finally,Igivespecialthankstomyfamilywhomadethisgreatopportunitybecomepossible.

Abbreviations

3G

3rdgenerationmobilecommunications

3GPP

3rdgenerationpartnershipproject

AMC

AdaptiveModulationandCoding

ARQ

Automaticrepeatrequest

AVI

Actualvalueinterface

BLER

Blockerrorrate

CDMA

Codedivisionmultipleaccess

CN

Corenetwork

CQI

Channelqualityindicator

DCH

Dedicatedchannel

DPCCH

Dedicatedphysicalcontrolchannel

DPDCH

Dedicatedphysicaldatachannel

Eb/No

Databitenergytointerferenceratio

EDCH

Enhanceddedicatedchannel

FDD

Frequencydivisionduplex

FTP

Filetransferprotocol

GGSN

GatewayGPRSsupportnode

GPRS

Generalpacketradioservice

GSM

Globalsystemformobilecommunications

HARQ

Hybridautomaticrepeatrequest

HSDPA

Highspeeddownlinkpacketaccess

HSUPA

Highspeeduplinkpacketaccess

MAC

Mediumaccesscontrol

NR

NoiseRise

PDF

Probabilitydensityfunction

PDU

Packetdataunit

PHY

Physicallayer

PS

Packetscheduler

QoS

Qualityofservice

RLC

Radiolinkcontrol

RNC

Radionetworkcontroller

RTT

Roundtriptime

TBS

TransportBlockSize

TCP

Transmissioncontrolprotocol

TDD

Timedivisionduplex

TFC

Transportformatcombination

TTI

Transmissiontimeinterval

UCQI

Uplinkchannelqualityindicator

UE

UserEquipment

UMTS

Universalmobiletelecommunicationssystem

UTRAN

UMTSterrestrialradioaccessnetwork

WCDMA

Widebandcodedivisionmultipleaccess

1 Introduction
Theevolutionofwirelessmobilecommunicationshadbeenencouragedbythenewapplications
highbitratesandlowdelaydemands. Videostreaming,onlinegaming,Videoconference,Voice
overIP(VoIP),positioningapplications,webbrowsingandFTParesomeexamplesofthesekind
ofapplicationsthatdemandhigherbitratesandlowdelay.Secondgenerationsystems,likeGSM
(GlobalSystemofMobilecommunications),areconcentratedinvoiceserviceswhichmakethem
nottheappropriatesystemtohandlethesetypeofapplications;evenwithGPRS(GeneralPacket
RadioService),an enhancement thatsupportspacketdatatransfer, databitratesarelimitedto
115kbs. Universal Mobile TelephoneSystem(UMTS), atechnologybasedonwideband code
divisionmultipleaccess(WCDMA)asairinterface,hasbeendevelopedtofulfillthesehighdata
ratesandlowdelaydemandsandovercomethelimiteddatahandlingofsecondgenerationsystems.
MostoftheapplicationsconsideredforUMTSrequireaservicewhereitstrafficflowgoesmainly
in the downlink directions, thats why most of the work in this area is being focused on the
optimizationofthispartofthesystem.Asaresultofthatworkanenhancementforthedownlink
called High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) use several techniques to improve the
efficiencyofWCDMAandcanprovidepeakdataratesupto10Mbpsandconsiderablylowertime
delays.However,theuplinktrafficdirectionofUMTShasnotbeen forgotten andrecentlythe
3GPP publish the specifications for an enhancement called High Speed Uplink Packet Access
(HSUPA)orsimplyEnhancedUplink.
ThisworkwillbefocusedintheenhanceduplinktechniquesusedinHSUPA,mainlytheNodeB
packetscheduling.Thesetechniqueswillbestudiedandmodeledforusingtheminasystemlevel
simulator inordertoobtainperformancemetricsfor analysis,comparisonandevaluationofthe
enhancement. In order to see the impact of different scheduling mechanisms in the uplink
performanceseveralalgorithmswereimplementedinthesimulatorandtheirperformance,interms
ofdelay,throughputandtransmitedpower,wastestedindifferentscenarios.
Chapter2presentsanoverviewofUMTSdescribingitsairinterface,itssystemarchitectureand
functionalityasgiveninthe3GPPUMTSRelease99.Chapter3presentsthenewfeaturesof
Release 6 describing the new techniques for the Enhanced Uplink. In Chapter 4 and 5an
explanationofhowthesetechniquesweremodeledforimplementationinns2.Chapter6presents
the simulations and results obtained using the implemented model of the Enhanced Uplink in
differentscenarios.Finallytheconclusionsofthisworkarepresented.

2 UMTS Overview
UMTSisa3rdGenerationmobilecommunicationsystemwhichprovideshighdataratesandspeech
qualityandisabletoservepacketandcircuitswitchedservices.Ithasbeenchoseninalmostall
EuropeandothercountriesasJapanandAustraliaasnextgenerationofmobilecommunications
systems,intendedtoreplaceGSM.

2.1 WCDMA
WCDMA(WidebandCodeDivisionMultipleAccess)isthetechnologybehindUMTSusedasits
airinterface.Itisacompletesetofspecificationsinwhichadetailedprotocoldefineshowamobile
phonecommunicateswiththebasestationorNodeB.
WCDMA canbedividedintotwomodes,theTimeDivisionDuplexmodeandtheFrequency
DivisionDuplexmode.InTDDtheuplinkandthedowlinktransmissionsaretimemultiplexedinto
the same carrier while in FDD the uplink and the dowlink transmissions occur in different
frequencybands(around1900Mhzrangefortheuplinkand2100Mhzrangeforthedowlink)with
a5MHzbandwidthforeachband.TheFDDmodehasbeenchosenasthemodeofoperationin
Europe. In the rest of this document FDD will be the operation mode when it is referred to
WCDMA.
InWCDMAairinterfaceallusersbelongingtoacellareseparatedbycodes,thisallowstheusers
totransmitinthesamefrequencyandatthesametime.TwokindsofcodesareusedinWCDMA
operation, thechannelizationor spreadingcodes and the scrambling codes.The channelization
codesseparatechannelsfromasingletransmitterwhilethescramblingcodesareusedtoseparate
transmitters.Channelizationcodesarealsousedtospreadthebandwidthofthesignal(thatswhy
theyarealsocalledspreadingcodes).

2.1.1 Channelization Codes

Channelizationcodes(orspreadingcodes)areusetoseparatetransmissionsfromasinglesource.
ThiscodesarebasedontheOrthogonalVariableSpreadingFactor(OVFS)techniquewhichgive
themacrosscorrelationpropertyandaautocorrelationproperty,thatmeansthattheinnerproduct
ofthecodewithcodesofotherusersorwithashiftedversionofitselfisverysmall.Whenafull
orthogonality is achieved (its an ideal state because orthogonality is affected by multipath
propagation)thereisnointerferencebetweencodes.
WCDMAusesafixedtransmissionchiprateof3.84Mcpsinordertoapproximatelyusethe5MHz
9

frequency bandwidth of the channel. WCDMA can use the channelization codes to transmit
informationatdifferentbitrates,transmittingeverybitofinformationasacodeat3.84Mcps,the
bitratewilldependonthelengthofthecode.Theshorterthecodethehighertheinformationbit
rate.Ifeverybitofinformationismultipliedbythespreadingcodewithachiprateof3.84Mcps,it
meansthatthebandwidthoftheinformationsignalisspreadalongthebandwidthusedbythechip
rate(approximately5MHz).

Figure2.1:SpreadingandDespreading[20].

2.1.2 Scrambling Codes

Scrambling codes are used to separate transmissions from different sources. In the uplink
scramblingcodesseparatedifferentmobilesandinthedownlinkseparatedifferentNodeBcellsor
sectors.Thiscodesdoesnotaffectthetransmissionbandwidthandtheyarejustusetoseparate
transmitters.Therearetwofamiliesofscramblingcodes(shortandlongcodes).Intheuplinkshort
andlongcodesareuseddependingonNodeBreceiver(longcodesforRake receiver andshort
codes for multiuser detectors). Eachfamilyof codes contains millions of scrambling codes so
planningisnotneeded(intheuplink).Inthedownlinkthenumberofcodesisrestrictedto512to
preventthatthecellsearchproceduretakestoomuchtime.Sincethenumberofcodesislimited
networkplanningisneededtoassignascramblingcodetoacellorsector,but512scrambling
codesisalargenumberofcodesandtheplanningistrivial.

10

2.1.3 Transmission and Reception

AWCDMAtransmitteruseaspreadingcodeandscramblingcodetospreadandseparatethesignal
bymultiplyingtheinformationsignalwiththesecodes.Thespectrumofthetransmittedsignalis
spreadinthe5MHzbandwidthofthechannelsotheinformationispropagatedbelowthethermal
noiselevel.Thismakesmakesthedetectionofthesignalverydifficultwithoutknowledgeofthe
spreadingsequencewhichintroducecertainsecuritytothetransmittedinformation.
Atthereceiversidethesamecodesareusedtobeabletorecovertheinformationandseparateit
formsignalsreceivedatsametime(interference)andfromthethermalnoiseinthechannel.Figure
2.2describesthetransmissionandreceptionprocessusingthespreadingandscramblingcodes.

Figure2.2:SimplifiedTransmissionandReceptionProcess[16].

For being able torecover the informationsignal atthereceiver, the power of the signal after
despreadingmustbeafewdecibelsabovetheinterferenceandnoisepower.TheEb/Noisdefined
astheenergy,orpowerdensity,perbit(Eb)overtheinterferenceandnoisepowerdensity(No).
ThehighertheEb/Notheeasierwillbeforthereceivertorecovertheinformation.Theeffectof
raising the signal over the interference and noise power is called processing gain. Using
correlationdetectionthesignalisraisedbythespreadingfactorformtheinterferencepresentinthe
system.

11

Gp=

TotalSpreadBandwidth
InformationBitRate

Eb / No=

W
R

I P R

(1)

(2)

whereGpistheprocessinggain,PisthereceivedpoweroftheinformationsignalandIisthetotal
interference(thetotalreceivedpowersplusthethermalnoise).

2.2 UMTS Architecture

UMPSuseWCDMAasairinterfaceandanevolutionoftheGSMcorenetwork.Its architecture
can be divided in three parts: the User Equipment (UE), the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
Network(UTRAN)andtheCoreNetwork.

Figure2.3:UMTSarchitecture[15].

TheUEiscomposedbytheMobileEquipment(ME)andtheUMTSSubscriberIdentityModule
(USIM).TheMEistheradioterminalusedforradiocommunicationwiththeUTRAN andthe
USIMisasmartcardthatholdsthesubscriberidentity.

12

TheUTRANiscomposedbyoneormoreRadio Network Subsystems(RNS)andeachofthem

consists of one Radio Network Controller (RNC) and one or several NodeBs. The main
functionalityoftheNodeBistoprovidetheradiolinkbetweentheUEandtheUMTSnetwork.It
alsoperformsRadioResourceManagementoperationsastheinnerlooppowercontrol.TheRNC
controls the radioresources of theNodeBsconnectedtoit. Itisresponsiblefortheloadand
congestion control of the cell under its control, it also executes admission control and code
allocationfornewradiolinkstobeestablishedinthosecells.Figure2.3illustratestheUMTS
generalarchitecture.
ThemaincomponentsoftheCoreNetworkare:

HLR(HomeLocationRegister)isadatabaselocatedintheuser'shomesystemthatstores
theuser'sserviceprofile.
MSC(MobileServiceSwitchingCenter)istheinterfacethatservestheUEtoaccesscircuit
switcheddata.
VLR(VisitorLocationRegister)isthedatabasethatstorestheuser'sserviceprofilesand
UElocationwithinthesystem.
GMSC (Gateway MSC) is the gateway between the UMTS and other external circuit
switchednetworkslikePSTN,ISDN,etc.
SGSN(ServingGPRS(GeneralPacketRadioService)SupportNode)issimilartotheMSC
butforpacketswitchedservices.
GGSN(GatewayGPRSsupportNode)isthegatewaythatconnectsUMTStootherpacket
switchednetworks.

AlltheinterfacesbetweenthecomponentsoftheUMTSnetworkhadbeenstandardized:

CuistheelectricalinterfacebetweentheUSIMandtheME.
UuistheWCDMAinterfacethroughwhichUEsaccessthefixedpartofthesystem.
IuinterfaceconnectstheUTRANtotheCN.
IurinterfacebetweenRNCswhichallowssofthandover.
IubconnectstheNodeBwiththeRNC.

2.3 Transport Channels

IntheUTRAthedatageneratedathigherlayeriscarriedovertheairwithtransportchannels.There
aretwotypesoftransportchannels,dedicatedchannelsandcommonchannels.Acommonchannel
isasharedresourcebetweenallthegroupofusersinacellandadedicatedchannelisonlyusedby
asingleuseridentifyingitbyacertaincode.
13

DCH:istheDedicatedtransportChannelusedtocarryallinformationformagivenusercoming
fromthehigherlayers.
BCH:istheBroadcastChannel,isacommonchannelusedtotransmitinformationneededwithin
thecell(e.gavailablerandomaccesscodes,accessslots).ItisdecodedbytheUEtobeableto
registertothecell.
FACH:ForwardAccessChannel,isacommonchannelthatcarriescontrolinformationtotheUEs
inthecell.
PCH: Paging Channel, is a common channel that carries data forpagingprocedure (when the
networkwantstoinitiatecommunicationwiththeUE).
RACH:RandomAccessChannel,isanuplinkcommonchannelthatcarriescontrolinformation
formtheUElikearequesttosetupaconnection
DSCH:DownlinkSharedChannel,isacommontransportchannelthatcarriesdedicateduserdata
orcontrolinformation.ThechannelcanbedecodedbyallUEsbuttheinformationisintendedfora
specificUE.

2.4 Physical Channels

Transport channel are mapped into physical channels. A Physical channel can carry several
transportchannelsoritcancarryjustinformationrelevanttothephysicallayer.
Transport
Channels

Physical
Channels

DCH

DedicatedPhysicalDataChannel(DPDCH)
DedicatedPhysicalControlChannel(DPCCH)
FractionalDedicatedPhysicalDataChannel(FDPCH)

RACH

PhysicalRandomAccessChannel(PRACH)
CommonPilotChannel(CPICH)

BCH

PrimaryCommonControlPhysicalChannel(PCCPCH)

FACH

SecondaryCommonControlPhysicalChannel(SCCPCH)

PCH
SinchronisationChannel(SCH)
AcquisitionIndicatorChannel(AICH)
14
PagingIndicatorChannel(PICH)
MBMSNotificationIndicatorChannel(MICH)

Figure2.3Transportchanneltophysicalchannelmapping[4].

ADCHismappedontotwophysicalchannels.TheDedicatedPhysicalDataChannel(DPDCH),
whichcarriestheuserdata,andtheDedicatedPhysicalControlChannel(DPCCH)whichcarries
thenecessaryphysicallayercontrolinformation.SincetheDPDCHuseavariablebitrate,the
DPCCHcarriesthetransportformatcombinationsneededbythereceivertobeabletodecodethe
DPDCHineveryframe.

Figure2.4:DPCCHframestructure[20].

EveryTransmissionTimeInterval(TTI)thereceiverwilldecodetheTFCIinformationfromthe
DPCCHframetoobtainthebitrateatwhichdata(inthesameTTIframe)wassentintheDPDCH.
WiththisinformationthereceivercandecodethedataintheDPDCH.

2.5 Power Control

SinceUEsthatarelocatedfarawayformtheNodeBexperiencegreaterattenuationthantheones
thatareneartheNodeB(thenearfareffect)thereistheneedtocontrolthetransmissionpowerof
theUEssotheydontinterferewitheachother.IfUEstransmitatthesamepowerthereceived
powerattheNodeBforthenearUEswillbemuchbiggerthatthepoweroftheUEsthatarefar
away,theinterferencecausebythenearUEscanmakethereceptionoftheothersnotpossible.
Themainpurposeofpowercontrolistokeeptheinterferencelevelataminimumlevelandtryto
keepthesamereceivedpowerlevelsformalluser.InthiswaytheUEsthatarefarawayfromthe
15

NodeBwilltransmitatahigherpowerthantheonesthatareneartheNodeB.Inthesamewaythe
NodeBwilltransmitwithlesspowertoUEslocatedclosetoitandwithmorepowertoUEslocated
faraway.

OpenLooppowercontrol: itmakesanestimateofthepathlossbymeansofadowlink
beaconsignaltosetuptheUEinitialtransmissionpowerlevel.Itisinaccuratebecauseof
thelargefrequencyseparationinthedownlinkanduplinkbandsofWCDMAFDDmode.It
ismainlyusetoprovidetheinitialpowersettingoftheUEatthebeginningofaconnection.

CloseLooppowercontrol: theNodeB measures thesignaltointerferenceratioin the

uplinkandcommandstheUEtoincreaseordecreasethetransmissionpower.WCDMA
updatesthetransmissionpowerlevelat1.5KHz(1500timespersecond)andthatswhyitis
calledfastpowercontrol.

OuterLooppowercontrol:theNodeBtellstheRNCthatthequalityindicatorofthesignal
(in the uplinkandinthedownlink) isdecreasingsotheRNCwilltakeadecision and
commandstheNodeBtochange(increase)thesignaltointerferenceratiolevel.

2.6 Admission and Congestion Control

Admissionandcongestioncontrolarepartoftheradioresourcemanagement performed bythe
RNC.TheadmissioncontrolwillmakethedecisionofacceptingtheadmissionofanewUEinthe
cellifitsadmissiondoesnt exceed acertainlimitinthecellload.Congestioncontrolwilltake
actionswhenthecellisbecomingoverloaded(mainlycausebymovementofUEsfromonecellto
another).TheRNCwillmakeadecisionwhenthecellisoverloadedandwilltrytobringbackthe
systemtoanormalconditionreducingthenonrealtimeapplicationsbitratesormoredrastically
droppinglowprioritycalls.

2.7 Packet Scheduling

Sincenonrealtimetrafficdoesntrequireanystrictlyguaranteeddatarateanddelaytheyarenot
restrictedintermsoftheamountofminimumresourcesneededtomeetaspecificQoS.Thistraffic
can be controlledor scheduled according totheavailableresourcesofthesystem.ThePacket
Scheduler(PS)performsthistasktakingintoaccounttheavailableresources,theamountofdatain
theRLCbufferandUEpowercapabilities.
16

Inthe3GPPrelease99theschedulingoperatesatthenetworklayermeaningthatthescheduleris
basedontheRNC.TheUEsendsreportsofitstrafficvolumemeasurements(TVM)tothePSin
theRNCeverytimethebufferintheUEreachacertainthreshold(1).Theschedulingprocessin
theRNCreceivesthisreportsandcalculatesthemaximumTransportFormatCombination(TFC)
thataUEisallowedtouseinthefollowingschedulingperiod(2).TheTFCallocatedcorrespondto
anindexpointingtothemaximumdatarateallowedanditssentthroughIubtotheNodeBwho
forwardsittotheUE(3).TheUEcanselectanyTFCbellowthemaximumestablishedbythePS
(4). The maximum TFC allocated by the PS to a UE could require more power than the UE
capabilities,inthatcasetheUEwillselectaTFCbellowtheallocatedTFCwhichissuitableforits
powercapabilitiesforitsdatatransmission(5).[15].

Figure2.5PacketAccesswithPSbasedintheRNC[15].

17

3 High Speed Packet Access

3.1 HSDPA
HighSpeedDownlinkPacketAccess(HSDPA)introducenewtechniquesinordertooptimizeand
improve the packet transmission over UTRAN. HSDPA introduce a new downlink common
channel called HSDSCH (High Speed DSCH) which support new features as high order
modulation, fast link adaptation, fast channel dependent scheduling and fast hybrid automatic
retransmissionrequest(HARQ).
HSDPAcanselectamodulationmethodfromQPSKto16QAMinordertoprovidehigherdata
rates.Thelink adaptation isbasedonAMC(AdaptiveModulationandCoding)wherethemost
appropriate modulation scheme and coding rate are selected based on on fast channel quality
feedbackreceivedfromtheUE.Thisensuresthatthehighestpossibledatarateisachievedforusers
withgoodsignalqualityandforusersattheedgeofthecell.Functionslikethevariablespreading
factor(VSF)andfastpowercontrolaredeactivatedinHSDPAandtheirfunctionalityisreplacedby
thenewfeatureslikeAMC.
ThepacketschedulingismovedfromtheRNCtotheNodeBreducingthedelayandallowingthe
schedulingalgorithmtouseparametersasthechannelquality,terminalcapabilitiesandQoSclass.
ThefastHARQenablestheUEtorapidlyrequestphysicallayerretransmissionofadatapacket.
ThisretransmissionisdoneformtheNodeBandnotfromtheRNCasdonebeforewhichmakethe
retransmissionfaster.Besidesthefastretransmission,incorrectlyreceivedpacketsarenotdiscarded
butstoredandsoftcombinedwiththelaterretransmissionsofthesamepackettominimizetheneed
forfurtherrepeatrequestswhenmultipleerrorsoccurintransmittedsignals.

3.2 HSUPA
Asinthedonwlink,theneedtoimprovetheuplinkairinterfaceleadtotheintroductionofHSUPA
anditsspecificationbythe3GPPintheRelease6.
TheapproachforahighspeeduplinktooksomeofthetechniquesusedforHSDPAliketheHARQ
andfastscheduling.ThetechniqueofadaptivemodulationandcodingusedinHSDPAwillnotbe
usefulinHSUPA.Oneofthereasonsisthatthepowerresourcecapabilitiesofeachindividualuser
are limited. That means that a user may not have enough power capabilities for a high rate
transmission(higherordermodulation).Besides,higherordermodulationhasbeenfoundtocause
lossinlinkperformancecomparedtomulticode transmission withBPSK[6],sojustBPSKand
18

QPSKwillbeusedfortheEnhancedUplink,removingtheadvantageofhighratesachievedwith
16QAMinHSDPA.AnotherreasonthatdoesntallowAMCtobeusedintheuplinkisthatthe
receivedsignalattheNodeBofUEsthattransmitatthesametimeisnotorthogonalandevenifjust
oneUEisscheduledatatimeothercellinterferencewillnotallowagoodqualityestimationofthe
channel.TheperformanceoftheAMCdependsonthequalityestimationofthechannelandsinceit
willhavetodealwithintacellandintercellinterferencethechannelqualitywillchangetoomuch
fromthetimethemeasurementorestimationwasmadetothetimeofthetransmission.Allthis
reasonlead toexcludeAMCfromthenewfeaturesofHSUPAandusefastcloselooppower
controlmechanismasthelinkadaptationmechanismtobeabletoavoidthenearfarproblem.
Forallthisreasonswecanexpectthattheresultsintheenhancementsintheuplinkwillnotbeas
goodasinthedownlink.
ThebasicimprovementsforHSUPAarethefastpacketscheduling andfast Hybrid Automatic
RetransmissionRequest(HARQ). Thecontrolofthesetwotechniqueswill reside intheNodeB
allowingfasterresponsetimesandlessroundtripdelaythanresidingintheRNC.Thischangesalso
allowtheschedulingtoreactrapidlytochangesinthetrafficloadgivingortakingout resources
fromusersdependingontheload.
AnotherbasicdifferencewithHSDPAistheuseofanenhanceddedicatechannels(EDCH)for
eachuserintheuplinkandnotofasharedchannelcommontoallusersasinthedownlink.

3.2.1 Enhanced Dedicate Channel (E-DCH) Protocol Architecture.

MACd
MACes/
MACe
PHY
UE

Iub

Uu

MACe EDCHFP
PHY

TNL

NodeB

MACd
MACes
EDCHFP

TNL
RNC

Figure3.1:EDCHprotocolarchitecture

Basically,tosupporttheEDCHanewMACentity(MACe/MACes)intheUE,NodeBandRNC
isintroduced.TheMACeisaddedtotheUEandNodeBinordertohandleHARQretransmission,
19

scheduling,multiplexing(attheUE)anddemultiplexing(attheNodeB).Thisentitywillhandlethe
primary enhancements of the high speed uplink which are the HARQ and the NodeB Packet
Scheduling.
AreorderingentityisintroduceasaseparateMACsublayercalledMACesentityanditisadded
intheUEandintheRNCinordertoprovides insequence delivery.This entity isplacedinthe
RNCbecausedatapacketscouldbetransmittedthroughdifferentNodeBsincaseofsofthandover
soallthesequenceofdatapacketswilljustbeavailableintheRNCfortheirinsequencedelivery.
ThereorderingisbasedonTransmissionSequenceNumbers(TSN)includeintheMACesatthe
UEside.

3.2.2 MAC-es/MAC-e
InHSUPAtheoverallMACarchitectureincludesthenewMACes/MACeentity,thisentitywill
beincontrolsoftheEDCH.

Figure3.2:UEsideMACarchitecture[12].

IntheUEtheMACdentitywillreceivefromtheRLCthededicatedlogicalchannels,theMACd
isresponsibleformappingthesededicatedlogicalchannelsfortheuplinkontodedicatedtransport
channels.Itcanalsomultiplexseveraldedicatedlogicalchannelsontoonetransportchannel.The
20

MACesentitywillreceiveMACdPDUsandwillattachtothemaTSN(6bitssequencenumber)
toprovidereorderingatthereceiver.MACewillmultiplexthetransportchannels(MACesPDUs)
intoMACePDUswithaDDI(6bitsDataDescriptionIndicator)thatidentifieseachtransport
channel.Aftermultiplexing,theMACemustschedulethepackettransmissionaccordingtothe
selectionofaTFCfromtheservingset(takingintoaccountitspowercapabilities)andtransmitjust
forthetimeintervalspecifiedwiththeAbsoluteGrant.
MACePDUstransmittedwillbestoredintheHARQhandlerforretransmissionifanegative
acknowledgmentisreceived.Afixednumberofretransmissionswillbeestablished.
TheMACePDUsaremappedintothephysicalchannel(EDDCH).

RLC

DCCH

RLC PDU:

DTCH

DTCH

MAC-d

Header

DATA

DATA

MAC-d PDU:

MAC-d Flows

Numbering

MAC-es/e

Numbering

Numbering

Multiplexing

MAC-es PDU:

TSN

DATA

DATA

MAC-e PDU:
DDI

DDI

MAC-e header

DDI

DATA

DATA

Padding
(Opt)

MAC-es PDU

HARQ
processes

L1

DATA

Mapping info signaled over RRC

PDU size, logical channel id, MAC-d flow
id => DDI

Figure3.3:MACinterworkinginUE[11].

ForeachUEthatusesEDCH,oneMACeentityperNodeBandoneMACesentityintheSRNC
areconfigured.TheframereceivedintheEDDCHisdecodedintheMACeentity.TheHARQ
handlerwillsendanacknowledgment(throughtheEHICH)ifthepacketwasreceivedsuccessfully
or a negative acknowledge if not. The MACe will demultiplex the frame into the respective
transportchannelsbasedontheDDIintheframeheader.IntheRNC,theMACeswillreceiveeach
transportchannelpacketandwillreorderthepacketsbasedontheTSNattachedtothem.The
MACdwillseparatethedifferentlogicchannelscominginthesametransportchannel.

21

Figure3.4:UTRANsideMACarchitecture[12].
DCCH

DTCH

DTCH

RLC

RLC PDU:

DATA

Header

MAC-d
MAC-d PDU:

Disassembly

Disassembly

Disassembly

Reordering

Reordering

Reordering

Reordering queue
distribution
MAC-es

DATA

Mac-es PDU:

TSN

DATA

DATA

Reordering queue
distribution

MAC-d Flows

DDI

Iub FP:

Demultiplexing
MAC-e PDU: DDI

DDI

DDI

DATA

MAC-e header

MAC-e
HARQ

DATA

Transport block:

L1

Mapping info signaled to Node B

DDI => MAC-d PDU size, MAC-d flow ID

Figure3.5:MACinterworkinginUTRAN[11].

22

DATA

Padding
(Opt)

3.2.3 Enhanced Uplink Physical Channels

To support the new enhanced features of HSUPA new physical channels were introduced.
Basically,theEDCHismappedintotheEDPDCHandtheEDPCCH.Otherphysicaldownlink
channelsaredefinedtocarrythenecessaryphysicallayersignalingbetweentheNodeBandtheUE.
Uplink:
EDPCCH:dedicatedchannelforuplinkcontrolsignaling(justoneperUE).
EDPDCH:dedicatedchannelforuplinktransportchannel,itcarriestheuserdataandcanhave
variablebitrates.TheEDPDCHisdividedin5subframesof2ms.

Figure3.6EDDCHframestructure[13].

Downlink:
FractionalDPCH(FDPCH):dedicatedchannelforlayer1controlinformation(e.gTPC).
EnhancedRelativeGrantChannel(ERGCH):isafixedrate(SF=128)downlinkphysicaldedicated
channelcarryingtheuplinkEDCHRelativeGrants.
EDCHHybridARQIndicatorChannel(EHICH): isafixedrate(SF=128)downlinkphysical
channelcarryingtheuplinkEDCHHybridARQAcknowledgment(HARQACK)indicator.
EnhancedAbsoluteGrantChannel(EAGCH):isafixedrate(30kbps,SF=256)downlinkcommon
physicalchannelcarryingtheuplinkEDCHAbsoluteGrant.
Figure 3.7 shows the mapping of the transportChannel to Pysicalchannel introduced for the
EnhanceduplinkandfortheHighSpeedDownlink.

23

TransportChannels
EDCH

HSDSCH

PhysicalChannels
EDCHDedicatedPhysicalDataChannel(EDPDCH)
EDCHDedicatedPhysicalControlChannel(EDPCCH)
EDCHAbsoluteGrantChannel(EAGCH)
EDCHRelativeGrantChannel(ERGCH)
EDCHHybridARQIndicatorChannel(EHICH)

HighSpeedPhysicalDownlinkSharedChannel(HSPDSCH)
HSDSCHrelatedSharedControlChannel(HSSCCH)
DedicatedPhysicalControlChannel(uplink)forHSDSCH(HSDPCCH)

Figure3.7:TransportChanneltoPysicalchannelmapping[4]

3.2.4 Fast Hybrid Automatic Retransmission Request (HARQ)

Intherelease1999ofWCDMtheretransmissionsaremadeintheRadioLinkControllevelsothe
retransmissionproceduresforapacketislocatedintheRNC.Intheuplink,apacketmustarriveto
theRNCandanegativeacknowledgmenthastocomebackinordertoperformaretransmission.
WithfastHARQaretransmissioncanbecontrolleddirectlybytheNodeBreducingthedelayso
theretransmissionsareperformedfaster.

Figure3.8:HARQ[27].
24

Figure3.8showsthedifferencebetweentheretransmissionmechanismusedfortheuplinkDCH
andtheHARQusedintheEDCH.
Fast HARQ is based on a stopandwait protocol which means that the transmission does not
continueuntilapositiveornegative acknowledgment isreceived.AlimitednumberofHARQ
processesisallowedtobeactiveatthesametime,thatmeanstheUEcankeepsendingpackets
continuously whilewaitingfortheacknowledgmentsofeachsentpacketuntilitreachesalimit
number.Thenumberofprocessesdependsonthetransmissiontimeinterval(TTI)andhavebeen
specified8for2msTTIand4for10msTTIfortheEnhancedUplink[12].Alsoalimitednumber
ofretransmissionattemptsissetsoifthisnumberisreachedthepacketisdropped.
HARQenablesrapidlyrequestofphysicallayerretransmissionofadatapacket.Theretransmission
requestismadeintheNodeBdecreasingthetimethanifitismadefromtheRNC.
Besidesthefastretransmission,incorrectlyreceivedpacketsarenotdiscardedbutstoredandsoft
combinedwiththelaterretransmissionsofthesamepackettominimizetheneedforfurtherrepeat
requestswhenmultipleerrorsoccurintransmittedsignals.
Softcombining:withthisschemeifanerroneouspacketisreceived,thepacketisstoredinthe
receivers memory. Retransmissions are exact copies of the first transmission and if again are
receivederroneouslytheyarecombinedwiththefirsttransmissiontoimprovethelikelihoodthat
thepacketiscorrectlyreceived.
IncrementalRedundancy(notselfdecodable):inthisschemethefirsttransmissiondataissent,and
in the following transmissions only redundancy bits are sent. This means that the data in the
retransmissioncanonlybeusedtogetherwiththeoriginalpacket.
Incremental Redundancy (selfdecodable): Inthisschemeeachretransmissionisselfdecodable,
meaningthataretransmittedpacketcanbedecodeeveniftheoriginalpacketwaslost.
ItcouldbethecasethattheUEisinasofthandoversituationandtwoNodeBreceiveapacketand
twoacknowledgmentsaresenttotheUE,ifatleastonepositiveacknowledgmentisreceivebythe
UEthepacketisconsideredascorrectlyreceived.Inasimilarcasearetransmissionofapacket
receivedbyasecondNodeBwhodidntreceivethefirsttransmissioncouldonlydecodethepacket
ifsoftcombiningorselfdecodableincrementalredundancyareused.

25

3.2.5 Fast Packet Scheduling

TheRNCbasedPacketSchedulingbringslongdelaysbecauseoftheneededsignalingbetweenthe
UEandtheRNC.RNCbasedPacketSchedulingofnonrealtimetraffic,whicharecharacterized
byaburstytrafficprofile,isnotefficientbecauseittakestoomuchtimetoallocateandrelease
resources;whenauserisallocatedwithlargeamountofresourcesforaburstytransmissionthis
resourcestakealongtimetobereleased.Tobeabletorapidlyallocateandreleaseresourcestothe
UEsdependingontheirloadthePacketSchedulingismovedtotheNodeBreducingthedelayand
allowingittoreactfasterthanresidingintheRNC.NodeBschedulingenablesabettercontrolover
theuplinkinterferencewhichleadstoincreasethecapacityandimprovethecoverageofthecell.
Figure3.9illustratesthestepsofpackettransmissionusingNodeBPS.FirsttheUEswillrequest
thePSlocatedinNodeBforresourcesusinganuplinksignaling(1)andthePSwilldeterminethe
TFCSwhichtheyareallowedtouse(2).ThePSwillgranteachUEwithasetofallowedTFC(3),
formthisallowedsettheUEwillselectaTFCwhichissuitableaccordingtoitspowercapabilities
(4)fortransmissionofthepacket(5).[27].

Figure3.9:Uplinkpacketaccessscenario[27].

InHSDPAthePSwasalsomovedtotheNodeBbutthedifferencesbetweenthedownlinkandthe
uplink transmission make the PS algorithm more complicated for the Enhanced uplink. In the
downlinkthetransmissionismadefromacommonentity,theNodeB,soitcancontrolitsown
power.Intheuplink,thetransmissionitisdistributedamongalltheusersinthecellwhichmakes
morecomplicatedtocontrolthereceivedpowerformalltheusers.
ThePacketschedulerneedstosharetheavailableairinterfacecapacitybetweentheusersandthere
26

aretwotypesofschedulingschemesthatcouldbeusedforthispurpose,RateScheduling(orCode
Scheduling)andTimeScheduling.
RateSchedulingisatypeofschedulinginwhichuserscanperformuplinktransmissioninparallel
withalowratesothatthenoiseriselevelattheNodeBdonot exceed theestablishedthreshold
givenbytheRNC.ThistypeofschedulingmakesarestrictionintherateusedbytheUEbutdoes
notirestrictthetimetheUEusedtotransmit.Sinceseveralusercantransmitatthesametimetheir
ratesmustbe kept lowwhenthecellis highly loadedsotheydontcausetomuchinterference
betweeneachother.
IntheTimeSchedulingschemeonlyoneorasetofUEsareallowedtotransmitatagiventimeso
thatthenoiseriselevelattheNodeBdonotexceedtheestablishedthresholdgivenbytheRNC.
Withthisschemeitispossibletoallocateveryhighdataratesduringshortperiods.

Figure3.10CodeDivisionAndTimeDivisionScheduling[20].

Moving the PS to the NodeB also implies that some information that could be used in the
schedulingalgorithmwillnotbeavailableanymore.Thisisthecasefortheinformationusedfor
theRNCscheduling(theTVMs),theTVMisanetworklayersignalingwhichwillnotbeavailable
attheNodeB.Thisfactimpliesthenewphysicallayersignalingmustbeintroduceintheuplinkand
inthedownlinkdirection.

27

3.2.5.1 Uplink Scheduling information

TheschedulingsignalingsentintheuplinkdirectionisusedascontrolinformationbytheUEsto
indicatetheNodeBtheamountofresourcestheyrequirer.Thistypeofsignalingcanbeseenasa
requestforresourcesfromtheUEtotheNodeB.3GPPrelease6specifiesthesignalingusedbythe
UE to make a request. A single bit field is included in the EDPCCH for every EDCH
transmission.Thisbitcalledhappybittakestwovalues,nothappyandhappyindicating
respectivelywhethertheUEcouldusemoreresourcesornot.Otherneededinformationforthe
schedulingissentintheuplinkdirectionaspartoftheMACheader(specifically intheMACe
header)andwillbeusetoprovidetheNodeBwithabetterviewoftheamountofsystemresources
neededbytheUEandtheamountofresourcesitcanactuallymakeuseof.Theinformationsentto
theNodeBwillincludethetotalEDCHbufferstatus(5bits),thehighestprioritylogicalchannel
ID(4bits)withitsbufferstatus(4bits)andtheUEpowerheadroom(5bits)whichistheratio
betweenthemaximumallowedUETxpowerandtheDPCCH.
Thetransmission ofthisuplinkschedulinginformationcanbeconfiguredbytheRadioResource
Controllertobeperiodic(settingatimer)ortriggeredbyanevent(whenthebufferstatusislarger
thanzeroandthereisnoavailablegrant).
Someschedulerswillusethechannelconditionexperiencedbytheuserstomakeascheduling
decision.TheUplinkChannelQualityIndicator(UCQI)isaparameterwhichindicatethequalityof
thechannel.Basicallythisparameterisanindicatorofthepathlossexperiencedbyeachuserand
fortheNodeBtocalculatedthisparameteritwillneedthevaluesofthereceivedpowerandthe
transmittedpoweroftheUEs.
ToobtaintheUEtransmittedpowertheUTRANmustasktheUEforameasurementreport.The
UE will executethis measurement anditwillsignal theobtainedvaluetotheUTRAN in the
DedicatedControlChannel.Thisisanetworklayersignalingwhichwillnotbeavailableatthe
NodeBsotheRNCwillhavetoprovidetheNodeBwiththisinformation.Thismeansthatthe
measurementoftheUEtransmittedpowerwillnotbeavailableinaTTIresolutionintheNodeBto
executetheschedulingprocessandanestimationofthisvaluewithalessfrequentreportwillhave
tobemade.RelayingonthismethodtogetthevalueoftheUEtransmittedpowerwillimplythatall
thegainobtainwithachanneldependentschedulerwillbedependingontheestimationofthis
value.
ThesignalingofthismeasurementreportsfortheUEtransmittedpowerisnotconsideredinthe
simulatoranditisassumedthattheNodeBwillhavethisinformationavailableeveryTTIforthe
schedulingprocesswithahighaccuracy.Evendoethisassumptionisusedinthesimulator,in
realityitispossibletothinkonadifferentwayfortheNodeBtomeasuretheUEtransmittedpower
ataTTIresolution.
IftheNodeBisabletoobtainavalueforthemaximumUEtransmissionpoweratthebeginningof
theconnectionitispossibletocalculatetheUEtransmittedpowereveryTTIusingtheheadroom
signalingincludedintheMACeheaderandcomputingthepathloss.
Theheadroomisdefinedastheratiobetweenthemaximumtransmissionpower(MaxPow)andthe
28

poweroftheDPCCH(TxDPCCH).

Headroom=

MaxPow
TxDPCCH

(3)

AttheNodeBusingtheknownvalueoftheUEmaximumtransmissionpower(MaxPow)andthe
received power of the DPCCH (RxDPCCH) it is possible to calculate the path loss (PL)
experiencedbythatuser.

MaxPow
RxDPCCHPL

(4)

MaxPow
RxDPCCHHeadroom

(5)

Headroom=

PL=

TherearedifferenttypesofUEwithdifferentpowercapabilitiessotheNodeBmustbeabletoget
informationaboutthemaximumtransmissionpowerofeachUE.Sincethisparameterwillnot
changeitcanbesignaledjustonceatthebeginningoftheconnection.

3.2.5.2 Downlink Scheduling information

DowlinksignalingsentfromtheNodeBtotheUEsisneededinordertocontroltheuseoftheE
DCHsystemresources.ThistypeofsignalingiscalledaGrantbecausetheNodeBgrantstheUEs
withacertainamountofresources.TwotypesofGrantsarespecifiedRelativeGrantsandAbsolute
Grants.
RelativeGrantsaretransmittedontheERGCHandtheycanonlytakeoneofthreevalues,up,
downorhold,indicatingtheUEtostepup,stepdownorholdtheindexofitsallowedTFC.
Neighboring NodeBsareallowedtouseanonservingRelativeGrantthatjusttakesthevalues
downandholdtoindicateUEthatarenotundertheircontroltoadjusttheirtransmittedrate.
AbsoluteGrantsmessagesaresentontheEAGCHfromtheservingcellandallowstheNodeB
schedulertodirectlyadjusttheresourcesofUEsunderitscontrolinonesinglecommand.With
absolutegrantsthereisnorampuporrampdownwhengivingortakingawaylargeamountor
resources.TheAGcontainsanAbsoluteGrantValuewhichindicatesthemaximumEDCHtraffic

29

topilotratio(EDPDCH/DPCCH)thattheUEisallowedtouseinthenexttransmission.
AtthebeginningofaconnectionaUEisconfiguredwithaETFCItable(EnhancedTransport
FormatCombinationIndicatortable).Differenttablesarespecifiedbythe3GPPin[12]for2ms
TTIand10msTTI.TheTFCindexesaremappedinthistabletotheircorrespondingtransportblock
size(TBS).Specifyingthenumberofbits(theTBS)thatcanbetransmittedperTTI(2msor10ms)
aTFCindexwilldetermineinstantaneousbitrateatwhichaUEisallowedtotransmit.

3.2.6 Performance of HSUPA

TheperformanceoftheHARQandtheFastPacketschedulingintroducedforHSUPAhasbeen
evaluatedintermsofthroughputinasystemlevelsimulatorin[15].Theresultsofthisworkshow
thatusingHARQatthephysicallayerandapacketschedulerattheNodeBcanprovideagainof
31%comparedtoaRNCpacketschedulerwithHARQatthenetworklayer.AProportionalFair
ThroughputSchedulerisintroducedwhichallocateresourcesfairlytoalltheUEskeepingtrackof
their individual channel conditions and scheduling them when they experience good channel
conditionsrelativetotheirownaverage.Theschedulerusedin[15]showsanimprovementinthe
averagethroughputwithagainof45.6%comparedtotheRNCpacketscheduler.
Thereareseveralcharacteristicsofthefastpacketschedulerthatcontributetothethroughputgain
shownin[15].Inthisworkseveralschedulerswillbeimplementedinordertofocusonspecific
characteristicsthatcontributetothebetterperformanceofthesystem.Analyzingresultsintermsof
totaltransmittedpower,averagedelayandindividualuserthroughputanddelaymeasurementswill
provideuswithagoodviewofthecontributiongivenbytheschedulerenhancementsandpolicies.

30

4 Modeling of HSUPA
TobeabletoimplementthedifferenttechniquesusedinHSUPAasanextensiontotheNetwork
Simulator (ns2) a model that simulates as close as possible to reality the behavior of this
techniquesmustbespecified.
Tobeabletomodelthisbehavioritisnecessarytoincludeinourmodeltheperformanceofthe
physical layer which measurements must be taken with a very high resolution capturing the
behaviorofeverybittransmitted.Atthesametimeweneedtocapturethebehaviorofeventsthat
occurredinmuchlongerperiodsoftime(likenetworklayerprotocolmechanisms)whichneedthe
simulationofthesystemtogatherinformationthroughseveralminutes.
Combiningthistworequirementswillleadtoverylargecomputersimulationtimes.Forthisreason
simulationsaredividendintoLinklevelsimulations,thatoperateatveryhighresolution(bitorchip
levelresolution),andSystemlevelsimulations,thatoperateatasmallerresolutions(likeslotsor
TTIs).
Using a techniquecalledActualValueInterfacethemodelforthesystemlevelsimulator will
incorporatethelinklayerperformanceresultsmadeinprevioussimulations.

4.1 Actual Value Interface (AVI)

Insystemlevelsimulationswherethesimulationsoperateattheresolutionofthemostfrequent
event,mostofthetimesperslotorTTIforWCDMA,itistoocomplextoincludetheresolution
neededtoevaluatetheperformanceinthelinklevelwhereachipleveltimeresolutionisneeded
(3.84Mcps for WCDMA). That is why simulations are divided in Link level simulations and
Systemlevelsimulationstoobtainfeasiblecomputersimulationtimeswiththerequiredaccuracy.
Nevertheless,thereistheneedtoincorporatetheaccuracyoflinklevelsimulationsintothesystem
levelsimulationanditisdoneusingActualValueInterface(AVI)tables.
Thelinklevelsimulationoutputisprovidedasinputtothesystemlevelsimulatorintheformof
curvesofEb/NovsBLER. TheAVItablescontaintheinformationofthiscurvesprovidinga
BLERasaresultofaspecificEb/No.
ToobtaintherequiredAVItablesfortheWCDMAuplinktransmissionamethoddescribedin[15]
togenerateuplinkAVI tablesfordifferentmodulationsandcodingsschemes(MCS)wasused.
ThismethoddescribeshowtogetuplinkestimatedresultsfordifferentMCSusingonebasecurve
withanspecificMCSintheuplinkandapreviouslinklevelstudyforthedownlink.Thebasic
assumptionofthismethodisthatthedifference(indB)betweentheAVItablesfordifferentMCS
inthedowlinkisthesameasintheuplink.
Estimatedlinklevelresultswereusedbecauserealresultsareverydifficulttofindwhilestudiesfor
thedownlinkareeasilyfoundsincealotofinvestigationhasbeendoneinthisarea.
31

Thefirstthingtobeconsideredisthatthedowlinkcurvesaregiveninenergypersymbolover
noiseratio(Es/No)whichisameasurementtakenbeforechanneldecoding.FortheuplinkAVI
tables the energy per bit over noise ration (Eb/No) after channel decoding is the needed
measurement.Tocalculateoneusingtheotherthisformulaisused:

Eb/ No = Es/ No

Rs

(6)

R Rcoding

whereRsisthesymbolrate,RtheinformationrateandRcodingisthecodingrate.
TheuplinkreferencecurveusedasbaseisobtainfromaBPSKmodulationandcodingrate1/3.
Withthisreferenceandthepreviousformulaaformulatoobtaintheoffsetbetweenthereference
curveandtherequiredcurveisdeduced:

Eb/ No =

Eb/ No req
Eb/ Noref

Es/ Noreq
=

Rs

R Rcoding
1

Es/ Noref

= Es/ No

N
3 Rcoding

(7)

1/3

Thisequationsexpressestheoffsetbetween(Eb/No)oftherequiredcurveandthe(Eb/No)ofthe
referencecurveintermsoftheoffsetofthe(Es/No)ofthosecurves,whereNisthenumberofbits
persymbolofthemodulationusedandRcodingisthecodingrate.
Thenextstepistoconsidertheuseofauplinkcontrolchannel,theDPCCH.Dependingontherate
ofthedatachannel(DPDCH)aratiobetweenthecontrolchannelanddatachannelisspecifiedand
itmustbeconsideredintheacquisitionofthe(Eb/No)offset.

Es/ No
Eb/ No =

N
3 Rcoding

1 p

32

(8)

Inthisequationpistheratiobetweenthecontrolandthedatachannelfortheagivenrate.
Given the obtained offset consideringthe previous formula, the offset is added(indB) to the
referenceuplinkAVItabletoobtaintherequiredcurve.
Figure4.1showsanschemeoftherequiredinformationneededtoobtaintheuplinkestimatedAVI
tablesfordifferentMCS.

Channel Decoding

Despreading

Es/No

Es/No

Eb/No

Link level studies for

One base curv e wit h specif ic

the downlink

MCS in t he Uplink

Uplink estimated results

for different MCS

Figure:4.1.EstimatinglinklevelresultsfordifferentMCSintheuplink.

Figure:4.2.EstimatinglinklevelresultsfordifferentMCSintheuplink.

33

Figure4.2showsanoverviewofthemethodtoobtainuplinkAVItablesfromusingtheAVItables
ofapreviousdownlinkstudy.TheoffsetinthedownlinkAVItables(d)isusedtoobtainthe
offsetintheuplinkAVItables(u)andcalculatetherequiredcurve(k)fromthereferencecurve
(m).
TheAVItablesgeneratedforthisworkareforthedataratesforwhichtheconfigurationoftheir
radioaccessbearersisgivenasexampleformeasurementchannelsin[2].Table4.1showthe
calculateduplinkoffset (Eb/No)foragivenrateusingthegivenparametersandmodulation
(BPSK or QPSK). The reference uplink AVI curve is for a 60 Kbps DPDCH bit rate, with
DPCCH/DPDCHpowerratioof5.46andcodingrate1/3usingBPSK.

DPDCH
(Kbps)

Rate DPCCH/DPDCHpowerratio CodingRate

(dB)

Offset

Modulation

(dB)

60

5.46

1/ 3

BPSK

240

9.54

1/ 3

0.63

BPSK

480

11.48

1/ 3

0.79

BPSK

960

11.48

1/ 3

0.79

BPSK

2*960

11.48

1/ 3

0.79

QPSK

Table4.1.Physicallayerparameterfordifferentdatarates
TheAVItablesarecalculatedusingtheobtainedoffsetsofTable4.1.andtheresultareshownin
Table4.2.

BLER
60Kbps
1.000
0.900
0.800
0.300
0.100
0.025
0.010
0.002
0.001

240Kbps
1
1.7
2
2.5
2.6
3
3
3
3

480Kbps
0.37
1.07
1.37
1.87
1.97
2.37
2.37
2.37
2.37

960Kbps
0.21
0.91
1.21
1.71
1.81
2.21
2.21
2.21
2.21

1920Kbps
0.21
0.91
1.21
1.71
1.81
2.21
2.21
2.21
2.21

0.21
0.91
1.21
1.71
1.81
2.21
2.21
2.21
2.21

Table4.2.AVItablesBLERvsEb/No(dB)fordifferentdataratesconsideringaDPCCH.

34

AVI
3
2.75
2.5
2.25

Eb/No

2
1.75
1.5
1.25
1
0.75
0.5
0.25
0
0.900

0.800

0.300

0.100

0.025

0.010

0.002

0.001

BLER

Figure4.3.AVItables(BLERvsEb/No)fordifferentdataratesconsideringaDPCCH.

4.2 Modeling of HARQ

WithHARQdifferenttransmissionofthesamedataframereceivedattheNodeBarecombinedto
increase the probability of correctly decoding the packet. The modeling of HARQ and soft
combiningisdonebyamethoddescribedin[17]inwhichthereceivedEb/Noiscumulatedfromall
thereceivedtransmissionofthesamepacket.ThiscumulateEb/NoisusedasaninputoftheAVI
tables to obtain the probability of error after combining. The accumulated Eb/No is just the
summation of all the Eb/No received, the Eb/No of thefirst packet plus the Eb/No of all the
retransmissions.ThemethodalsoincludealossthatisaddedtothecumulatedEb/No,thisindicates
that aperfect gainisnotarchivedandacertainlossisproducedependingonthecombining
technique(chasecombiningorincrementalredundancy).Sinceitwasshownin[17]thatcombining
withincrementalredundancyprovidesasmallthroughputgaincomparedtochasecombiningthere
will be no differentiation between the two techniques in the modeling of HARQ and the loss
obtainedbythecombiningtechniquewillbekeptconstant.Thevaluesforthatlossaregivenin[17]
foraQPSKmodulationat3Km/HPedestrianAandVehicularAprofileswithdifferentcoding
rates.Thevalue0.93(0.32dB)waschosenforchasecombiningwithnoincrementalredundancy
gain,codingrate1/3andPedestrianAprofilewhichistheworstcasethatgivesthehigherloss.
35

ForthisworktheHARQwasmodeledbyaddingtheEb/Nooftheretransmissionsofthesame
packetconsideringthecombiningloss.ThecumulatedEb/Noisthenusedtoobtaintheprobability
oferrorformtheAVItables.

BLER

1st

1st +2nd -L

Eb/No

Figure4.4.ModelingHARQ
Infigure4.4isshownthattheBLER willgetlowerwhenaretransmissionisreceivedandthe
Eb/NoofthefirsttransmissionisaddedtotheEb/Nooftheretransmission.Theidealgaingainis
notreachsincethecombininglossandthelossproducebythecontrolchannelareconsidered.

4.3 Modeling of NodeB Packet Scheduling Signaling

Packet Scheduler based in the NodeB must use certain signaling with the UE. In the uplink
direction the needed information is included as part of the MAC header and in the downlink
directionseparatechannelareusedtotransmitthegrantsandtheHARQacknowledgments.Inthis
modeltheuplinksignalingoverheadoftheinformationincludedintheMACheaderistakeninto
accountbuttheoverheadofofthesignaltransmitedinaseparatedowlinkchannelisnottakeninto
account.Thedelayofthesesignalingissimulatedconsideringthetransmissiontimeandprocessing
timesintheNodeBandUEMAClayer.
Theprocessingtimeswereobtainedfrom[23]whichsuggest8slotsprocessingtimeintheNodeB
fromreceptionofEDPCCH/EDPCCHtothetransmissionofEAGCH/EHICH/ERGCH. The
UE processing time is of 4 slots form the reception of a EAGCH/EHICH/ERGCH to the
transmissiontheEDPCCH/EDPDCH.
ThedelayofsignalingformtheUEtotheNodeBincludesatransmissiondelayofoneTTI(3slots
for2msTTI)plustheNodeBprocessingtimeof8slots.ThedelayofthesignalingformtheNodeB
totheUEincludesatransmissiondelayofoneTTI(3slotsfor2msTTI)plustheUEprocessing
timeof4slots.NotethattransmissionaremadeeveryTTIsoforexampleagrantreceptionatthe
UEwillbedecodedin4slotsbutthestartofthetransmissionwillhavetowaituntilthebeginning
ofthenextTTI(after6slotsfor2msTTI).InthesamewayareceptionofEDPCCH/EDPDCHat
36

theNodeBwillbedecodedafter8slotsandthedatacanbesenduptotheupperlayersbutthe
transmissionofanacknowledgmentand/oragrantwillhavetiwaituntilthebeginningofthenext
TTI (after 9 slots for 2ms TTI). Figure 4.5 shows a diagram of the signaling delay including
transmissiondelayandprocessingtimes.
Txdelay

Prc.time

UE
EDPCCH/EDPDCH

Prc.time

EDPCCH/EDPDCH
EAGCH/EHICH

NodeB

TTI=2ms

slot

Figure4.5SignalingdelaybetweenUEandNodeB.

Thebufferstatusinformation,asspecifiedin[12],istransmittedaspartoftheMACeheadersoit
willbetransmitedintheEDPDCH,thehappybitisincludedintheEDPCCH,theabsolutegrants
aretransmitedintheEAGCHandtheHARQacknowledgmentsaretransmitedintheEHICH.
Baseonthetransmissionandprocessingtimes,thetotalsignalingdelayforeachsignalingmessage
iscalculated.
HavingthenecessaryinformationformtheUEstheNodeBschedulestheUEsfortransmission
accordingtothepoliciesoftheschedulingalgorithm.

4.4 Mobility
MobilityisincludedtobeabletochangethedistancelossoftheUEsfromthebasestationduring
thesimulationtime.Anareaofcoverageisestablishedwithinaradiusof3KminwhichtheUEare
trappedandtheycannotgetoutofit.AtthebeginningofsimulationtheUEsareassignedwitha
randompositionswithinthecell.EveryTTItheUEscalculatetheirnewpositionanditwilldepend
ontheirspeed,whichcanbedeterminedasaparameterofthesimulation(allUEswillmoveatthe
samespecifiedspeed3,50or120Km/H).UEsthatreachthelimitsofthecellwillbouncewiththe
bordergoingbackandmovingintheoppositedirectionstayingalwayswithinthelimitsofthecell.
Thebasestationhasafixedposition.
37

ThenumberofmeterstraveledinoneTTIarecalculatedformtheUEspeedandtheangleofthe
movementdirectionisinitializedwitharandomnumberatthebeginningofthesimulationandit
onlychangeswhentheUEreachestheborderofthecell.

4.5 Path Loss

Themodelingofthepathlossincludesthedistanceattenuation,shadowingandfading.Thedistance
attenuationordistanceloss(dl)iscalculatedusingtheOkumuraHatapropagationmodelfora
suburbanmacrocellwithbasestationantennaheightof30m,mobileantennaheightof1.5mand
carrierfrequencyof1950MHz[20]:

dl=129.435.2 log10d

(9)

wheredisthedistanceformtheNodeBinKilometers.
Theshadowingmodelingofthepathlossisbasedinthestudyandsimulationdonein[21].Itis
calculatedtakingintoaccountthatitsvalueisnotindependentformonelocationtoanotherand
thereisacorrelationwithrespecttothelocation.

S x x =aS x bN

(10)

a=exp x/ D

(11)

b 2 =1a 2

(12)

HerexisthedistancetotheNodeBand xisthedifferencebetweentheactualdistanceandthe
distancemeasuredatthepreviewscalculationoftheshadowing.Theshadowinginthenewposition
S(x+x) dependsontheshadowingofthepreviousposition S(x). Intheformula(11), Disthe
correlationdistancewhichisequalto40m.In(10) isthestandarddeviationinsuburbanareas
which its typical value is 8dB and N is a random variable that satisfies the standard normal
distribution.
MultipathfadingisprecalculatedinalinklevelsimulationfordifferentenvironmentsandUE
speeds.Themultipathfadingmodelofthislinklevelsimulationisdescribedin[29]andassumes
theusageofanidealRakereceiver. Thissimulationsprovidethevaluesofthemultipathfading
contributiontothelossexperiencedbyaUEforaperiodof2000seconds.Theresultsofthese
38

calculationsareusedasaninputfileforthesystemlevelsimulator.EveryTTIalltheUEswilluse
thesamefiletoextractitscorrespondingfadingvaluebutduringinitializationtheybeginreading
thefileatdifferentrandompoints.TheimplementationofthemodelallowsthateachUEcanbe
specified to useadifferentfile,thiscanbeusefulforsimulations whereeachUEmovesata
differentspeed.

4.6 E-DCH in EURANE

Enhanced UMTS Radio Access Network Extensions for ns2 (EURANE) comprises the main
functionalityoftheRelease99versionofUMTS.ThenewHSUPAwascreatedasanewMAC
layerwhichsupportsthenewfeaturesoftheEnhancedUplink.ThisnewMAClayerwasinclude
in the existing functional nodes of the simulator (the User Equipment and the Base Station)
allowing them to support a new Enhanced uplink transport channel, the Enhanced Dedicated
Channel(EDCH).

4.6.1 Link Implementation Details

ThenewEDCHisadedicateduplinkchannelanditsarchitectureinEURANEisequivalenttothe
oneofanormalDCHdescribedin[26].TheonlydifferencesbetweenthemreliesintheirMAC
entity.AnewMACentitywascreatedinordertosupportallthefunctionalitiesoftheEDCH.
AsforaDCH,beforeaEDCHiscreated,the nodeconfig utilityshouldbeusedtospecifyits
uplinkparametersanditsRLCtransmissionmode.TheEDCHwasspecifiedtoworkwithTTI
valuesof2msand10ms.Alsonewparameterliketheschedulingmechanismsandthemaximum
noiseraiselevelorNoiseoverThermal(RoT)mustbespecified.Thisisanexamplecommandto
createaEDCHusingaanAcknowledgeMode(AM)intheRLCwithauplinkbandwithof384kbs
andTTIof2ms,theSchedulingissetuptoRateScheduling(seesection6.3.1),the value31is
givenastherandompositioningseed(RP_Seed)andthemaximumnoiselevelis6dB:

$nsnodeconfigllTypeUMTS/RLC/AM\
dowlinkBW384kbs\
uplinkBW384kbs\
downlinkTTI2ms\
39

uplinkTTI2ms\
Eul_Scheduling1\
RP_Seed31\
MaxRoT6
setedch0[$nscreateedch$ue1$agent1]

ThiscommandcreatestheEDCHin$ue1andattach$agent1toit.
Aftercreatingthechannelthefilewhichincludesthefadingvaluesforthesimulationmustbe
specified.ThisfilemustcontainthefadingvaluesobtainedforaspecificenvironmentandUE
speed.
$ue1setErrorTraceEUL1Ped_A3kmh0m2000sUenr1
ThiscommandsetsthefilePed_A3kmh0m2000sUenr1forbeingusedbytheUEue1,this
commandmustberepeatedforalltheUEsinthesimulation,evenifallthemusethesamefile.
Figure4.6showsanexampleTCLconstructionofasingleUEconnectedtoaNodeB.TheFACH
andRACHchannelarecreatedautomaticallyandanagentisattachestoaEDCH.Areturnchannel
inthedownlinkdirectioniscreatedautomaticallyusinganormalDCH.

40

Agent1

AM

AM
RACH

FACH

EULMAC

MAC

MAC

MAC

PHY_TX

PHY_RX

PHY_TX

PHY_RX

EDCH

DCH

PRACH

PHY_RX

PHY_TX

PHY_RX

EULMAC

MAC

MAC
RACH

AM

SCCPCH

PHY_TX
MAC
FACH

SGSN

Figure4.6TCLconstructionofasingleUEconnectedtoaNodeB.

41

4.6.2 Trace Support

AnewpackettypeswherecreatedinordertosimulatetheEnhanceduplinkinns2.TheMacE
packettypeencapsulatesalltheAMdatapacketsintoabigframewhichistransmitedintheE
DPDCH.AretransmissionofthispacketisdefinedasMacE_HARQpackettype.Thesepacket
typescanbevisualizeintheoutputtracefileofthesimulation.
Tobeabletovisualizethesimulationresultsinthetraceoutputfilesomeextracommandsmustbe
executed.Tovisualizealltheincomingevents(receptionofpackets)bytheUEandtheNodeBthe
commandtraceinlinkEulwilladdthiseventsinthetraceoutputfile.Similarlythecommand
traceoutlinkEulwilladdtothetraceoutputfilethearrivalofpacketsintotheMACbuffersand
thetransmissionofthepackets.
TheRLCsequencenumberofshownintheoutputtracefileofaMacEpackettypespecifiesthe
smallestRLCsequencenumberofthepacketsencapsulatedinthatframe.
ThenextexamplewilladdtothetracefileofthesimulationallthearrivalsofpacketstotheMAC
buffers,thedepartureofthepacketsofthebuffers(transmissionofthepackets)andthereceptionof
thosepacketsinalltheUEsandNodeB.

#Createtracefor{seti0}{$i<$numUsers}{incri}{$ue_($i)traceinlinkEul$f2$ue_($i)trace
outlinkEul$f2$bstraceinlinkEul$f[expr$i+2]$bstraceoutlinkEul$f[expr$i+2]
}

NodeB

UE
AM
Oulink
Trace

Inlinktrace

Inlinktrace

Oulinktrace

EULMAC

MAC

EULMAC

MAC

PHY_TX

PHY_RX

PHY_RX

PHY_TX

Figure4.7Tracesupport.

42

5 NodeB packet Scheduling

Thepacketschedulingmainfunctionistosharetheavailableairinterfaceresourcesbetweenthe
users. To improve the performance of the uplink dedicated transport channel, the scheduling
functionalitywasmovedtotheNodeBandtheschedulingalgorithmsusethetimedivisionandcode
divisionapproach(seesection4.3)toallocatebitrateseveryTTItotheactiveusers.TheNodeB
schedulingalgorithmsarebasedontheuplinkschedulinginformationwhichisarequestscoming
from the UEs giving the scheduler information about their current buffer status and power
capabilities.
ThemainpurposeoftheschedulingistoallocateresourcestotheUEsinthemostoptimalway.In
theuplinkapuretimedivisionschedulingwhereasingleusertransmitsatatimewillnotbeavery
efficientwaybecauseUEsarepowerlimitedandasingleUEwillnotbeabletotakeadvantageof
thefulluplinkcapacity.Becauseofthisreasontheuplinkschedulingcombinesthetimedivision
schedulingwithacodedivisionschedulingsothatmorethanoneUEcantransmitatthesametime
inordertomaximizetheutilizationoftheuplinkchannel.
Dependingontheschedulingalgorithmsusedtheallocationofresourcescanmaximizethesystem
throughputatapriceofbeingunfairorcanallocateresourcesfairlytoalltheUEsatthecostof
decreasing the overall system throughput. In order to maximize the system throughput the
schedulingalgorithmmusttakeintoaccountthechannelconditionsexperiencedbytheUEswhich
arerequestingforresources.Usingthisinformationtheschedulingalgorithmcanmakeadecision
oftheUEsthatmustbescheduledfirstandcanalsopredicttheamountofresourcesthattheUEis
abletosupportsothatnoextraresourcesareallocatedtoUEsthatarenotabletotakeadvantageof
them.
Inordertoseetheimpactofdifferentschedulingmechanismsintheuplinkperformanceseveral
mechanismswereimplementedinthesimulator.Allthealgorithmsperformabasicfunctionality
fortheresourceallocationprocessbutdependingontheprimemechanismoftheschedulingsome
ofthebasicfunctionalitiesareperformedinadifferentway.

5.1 Scheduling Algorithm Basic Functionality

ThepacketschedulingisexecutedeveryTTI.Itsfirstfunctionistoreceivealltheraterequestsin
theuplinkschedulinginformationreceivedfromeachuser.Dependingontheschedulingalgorithm
abitratewillbeassignedtoeachUEthatrequestsresourcesforthatTTIandthathaspackets
waitinginitsbuffer.AlltheUEsareorderedinalistthatgivesprioritytotherequestofthefirst
UEinthelist,thesortingofthislistdependsontheschedulingalgorithmsused.Theschedulerwill
trytogranttheassignedbitratesofallUEsdependingontheamountofinterferenceandtheblock
errorraterequiredforeachtransmission.Ifthoserequirementsarenotachivedareductionofthebit
43

rateforthelastUEinthelistwilltakeplace.IftheminimumbitrateforaUEisreachedthatUEis
eliminatedfromthatschedulingperiodanditwillnotbeallowedtotransmitduringthatTTI,anew
requestforthatUEisautomaticallygeneratedattheNodeBtobetakenintoaccountinthenext
TTI.
UponthereceptionofarequestforresourcesformtheUEstheschedulerassignseachUEwithabit
rate.TheassignationofbitratestoeachUEcanbedoneusinganestimationofthemaximumbit
ratethatcanbesupportedbyeachUEorcanbejustanassignationofthemaximumallowedbit
rate,thisassignationwilldependontheschedulingmechanismused.
TohaveameasureoftheamountofallocatedresourcestoeachusertheloadfactorofeachUEis
calculated:

=
1

(13)

Eb/ No R

whereWisthechiprate,RistheassignedbitrateandEb/Noistherequiredenergyperbitover
noiseratioforaspecificblockerrorrate(thisvalueistakenfromtheAVItables).
ThetotaluplinkloadfactortheniscalculatedasthesumoftheloadfactorsoftheactiveUEs:

UL=1i

1
1

(14)

Eb/ No R

The interference from other cells is included with the parameter i which is the othertoown
interferenceration.Sincethesimulatoruseasinglecellmodel,thisparametersiskeptconstant
duringthesimulation.
Usingthetotaluplinkloadfactorthetotalreceivedwidebandinterferencepoweriscalculated:

Itotal=

PN
1 UL

44

(15)

wherePNisthethermalnoise.
Usingthethetotaluplinkinterferencepower(Itotal)andtheloadfactorofeachUEthepowerthat
eachUEneedstotransmitattheassignedbitrateiscalculated:

Pj=ItotalUL

(16)

After the bit rate assignation the UEs are sorted in a list where its order will depend on the
schedulingmechanismpolicies.SincenotalltheUEscanbescheduledtotransmitatthesameTTI,
theorderofthelistwilldeterminethepriorityofeachUEtobescheduledforthatparticularTTI.
Two conditions must be satisfied during the allocation of resources by the scheduler. First,
consideringtheestimationoftheinterferencethatwillbegeneratedbyalltheUEstransmittingat
theassignedbitrates,theschedulerwillcalculateiftheEb/Norequirementswillbefulfilledbyall
theUEs.
TheschedulercanverifythateachusermeettherequiredEb/Nousingitspower(Pj)andthetotal
interference(Itotal):

Eb / No=

Pj

R ItotalPj

(17)

IfoneoftheUEsdoesnotmeetthisrequirementtheprocessofdecreasingthebitrateoftheUEat
theendoftheschedulinglistwilltakeplace.ThisprocesswillcontinueandiftheUEattheendof
thelistiseliminatedtheprocesswillcontinuewiththenextUEonthelist.IfatleastoneUE
doesntmeettheEb/Norequirementsthisconditionwillfail.
ThesecondconditionistokeepthenoiseratiobelowtheestablishedlimitsetupbytheRNC.The
noiseratioisdefinedastheamountofinterferencegeneratedoverthethermalnoise.

NR=

Itotal
PN

45

(18)


TheNR(noiseratio)issetasafixedvalueof6dB.IfthecalculatedNRisbiggerthanthespecified
valuetheprocessofdecreasingthebitratesofthelastUEonthelistwillcontinue.

IfthetwoconditionsaresatisfiedalltheUEsinthesortedlistwillbegrantedwiththeassignedbit
rates.IfoneoftheseconditionsfailstheschedulerwillstarttheprocessofratedecreasingandUE
elimination.
TheprocessofratedecreasingandUEeliminationwillbeexecutedovertheUEatthebottomof
thesortedlist.Thisprocesswillstartdecreasingthebitrateofthisusertryingtogettothepoint
wherethetwopreviousconditionsareattained.WhenaUEreachestheminimumallowedbitrate
assignationthisUEwillbeeliminatedandwillnotbegrantedwithresourcesfortransmission
duringthatTTIanditsrequestwillbepostponedforbeingconsideredinthenextTTI.Depending
on the scheduling mechanism policies an eliminated UE could get a higher priority for being
scheduledinthenextTTI.

NR=6dB

Receive Requests
Assign bit rates
NR=6dB
Sort

1
fail

Send Grants

fail

Decrease bit
rates
(1) Check Eb/No
requirements for all UEs.

Eliminate
UEs

NR=6dB

(2) Check Noise Rise

limit (6dB).
Figure5.1:SchedulingAlgorithmBasicFunctionality.
46

5.2 Code/Rate Scheduling

Thebasicprincipalofthecodeorrateschedulingistoserveallusersatthesametime.Asthe
amountofusersincreaseeachuserwillbegrantedwithalowerratetobeabletosharethetotal
amountofresourcesbetweenalltheusers.
Thebasicschedulingfunctionalityisperformedwithsomechangesintheprocedureofdecreasing
ofbitratesanduserelimination. Alltheusersthatrequestforresourcesareassignedwiththe
maximumalloweddatabitrate.IftherequiredEb/Noofallthethathavetobescheduledisnot
satisfiedorifthenoiseratioexceedstheestablishedlimitthebitrateoftheuseratthebottomofthe
schedulinglistwillbedecreased.Immediatelytheunfortunateuserwillbepositionedatthetopof
thelistsoifthetwoschedulingconditionsarestillnotsatisfiedanotheruserwillbetheselectedfor
bitratereduction.WhenmanyusersrequestfortransmissionforthesameTTIitispossiblethatall
ofthemreachtheminimumallowedbitrateandstilltheschedulingconditionsarenotsatisfied;in
thatcaseeliminationofuserswilltakeplaceinthesameorderasthebitratereductionwasbeing
executed.

5.3 Round Robin Scheduling

ThebasicprincipaloftheRoundRobinschedulingistogiveprioritytoadifferentuserinaround
robinfashioneveryTTI.Apuretimedivisionschedulinggivingalltheresourcestoasingleuser
willbeinefficientsinceUEsarenotabletotakeadvantageofthefullchannelcapacitysomorethan
oneuserwillbescheduledeveryTTIbutoneofthemwillhavetheprioritytotransmitatthe
maximumallowedbitrate.
Alltheusersthatrequestfortransmissionwillbeassignedwiththemaximumallowedbitrateatthe
beginningoftheschedulingprocess.Iftheschedulingconditionsarenotsatisfiedtheprocessof
ratereductionwillbeexecutedovertheuserattheendoftheschedulinglist,thepriorityofthis
userwillnotchangeduringthatTTIandiftheschedulingconditionsarenotyetsatisfiedthebit
reductionwillcontinueaffectingthisuseruntilitreachestheminimumallowedbitrateandits
eliminatedfortransmissionduringthatTTI.Auseraffectedbythebitreductionorelimination
processwillhavepriorityforthenextTTIandwillbepositionedatthetopoftheschedulinglist.
WiththismechanismeveryTTIadifferentuserwillbegrantedtotransmitatthemaximumallowed
bitrate.

47

5.4 UCQI based Scheduling

Thebasicprincipalofthisschedulingmechanismistogiveprioritytotheuserswithbestchannel
conditions.TheUplinkChannelQualityIndicator(UCQI)willberelativetotheamountofbitsthat
ausercantransmitduringthatTTIandthepoweritwillusefortransmittingthem.Thehighest
UCQIwilldeterminetheuserwhichcantransmithighestamountbitswiththelowestpower.The
amountofbitstobetransmittedinoneTTIisdeterminebythehighestallowedTransportFormat
Combination(TFC)whichspecifiesthemaximumtransportblocksizeandwhichisassigntoallthe
usersthatrequestfortransmission.ThepowerusebyeachUEwillbedeterminemainlybyitspath
loss,thecalculationofthisparametercanbedoneattheNodeBusingthereceivedpoweranda
measurementofthetransmittedpowerofeachUE(measurementavailableattheNodeBeveryTTI
[8]).
UsingtheUCQIasasortingparametertheusersareorganizedintheschedulinglistwherethetop
ofthelistisoccupiedbytheuserwithbestchannelconditionsandthebottomofthelistwillbe
occupiedbyuserswithworstchannelconditions.
Iftheschedulingconditionsarenotsatisfiedtheprocessofratereductionwillbeexecutedoverthe
userattheendoftheschedulinglistandwillcontinueaffectingituntilitreachestheminimum
allowed bit rate and eliminated for transmission during that TTI. A user affected by the bit
reductionoreliminationprocesswillnothavepriorityforthenextTTIandtheschedulinglistwill
besortedagaindependingonthenewvaluesoftheUCQI.WiththismechanismeveryTTItheuser
with best channelconditionswillhavetheprioritytousethehighestallowedbitrateand the
channelwithworstchannelconditionswillbethemostlikelytobeeliminatedandnotallowedto
transmit.Thisisanunfairschedulingmechanismandauserinabadchannelconditionswillbe
affectedandwilljustbeallowedtotransmitwhentheuserswithgoodchannelconditionsdont
requestforresources.

5.5 Rate Estimation Scheduler

ThebasicprincipalofthisschedulingmechanismistopredictthemaximumbitratethatUEsare
allowedtosupportandkeepthefairnessusingaroundrobinfashion.Whenschedulinguserswith
badchannelconditionstheassignationofthemaximumallowedbitratecanbeawasteofresources
sincethoseUEswillneedhigherpowerthatcouldbeoutoftheircapabilities.
InthismodelalltheUEswhereassumetohavethesamepowercapabilities.Thepredictionofthe
maximumsupportedbitrateisbaseonsimulationsmadewithonesingleUEexperiencingdifferent
pathlossthroughthecellarea.TheresultsofthesesimulationsareusedtoclassifyeachUEina
rangeaccordingtothepathlossthatisexperiencingandassignitwiththecorrespondingbitrate.

48

Rate(Kbps)

MaxPathloss(dB)

1600

118

1200

120

680

122

480

124

300

126

160

128

Table5.1:Maximumpathlossforbitratesupport.
Inthisschedulingmechanismauserthathasthehighestpriorityaccordingtotheroundrobin
fashioncanbeallocatedwithalowerbitratethanotheruserswithlowerprioritybecausethebit
rate assignation will depend on the experienced path loss of each user. The reduction and
eliminationprocesswillbehaveasintheimplementationoftheRoundRobinscheduling.

49

6 Simulations and Results

Usingthe modelimplementedinthesimulatorseveralsimulationswereexecutedtostudyand
analyzethebehaviorandtheimpactoftheNodeBpacketschedulingmechanismsontheenhanced
uplinkperformance.
Thesimulationtimewasestablishedto400secondsandeachsimulationwasrepeatedsixtimes
withdifferentseedstoinitializetherandompositioninthecellandthetrafficgeneration.Allthe
meanvaluesareobtainedusingthedatagatheredinthesixsimulationsandthe95%confidence
interval(95%CI)isgivenforthemeanmeasurements.

BLER

10%

NoiseRiseTarget

6dB

TTIduration

2ms

MaxUEtransmissionpower

26dBm(4dB)

UEspeed

3Kmph

Cellradius

1.5Km

OthertoownInterferenceratio

0.6
Table6.1:SimulationParameters.

6.1 Scenario 1
Duringthesimulationsusingthisscenario24UEsareinitializedinarandompositionwithinthe
cellarea.EachusertransmitsdataaccordingtotheParetotrafficmodelat250kbpsduringburst
periods.ThemeanbursttimeandmeanidletimeofeachUEaresetto5seconds.
The Pareto On/Off Traffic Generator is a traffic generator application that generates traffic
accordingtoaParetoOn/Offdistribution.Packetsaresentatafixedrateduringonperiods,andno
packetsaresentduringoffperiods.Itusesaconstantpacketsize,andtheonandoffperiodsare
takenfromaParetodistributionwithmeanvaluesenteredasparametersformeanbursttimeand
meanidletime.
Under the specified characteristics of this scenario different simulations were made using the
differentimplementedschedulingalgorithms.
50

6.1.1 Rate Scheduling

InthesesimulationstherateschedulingalgorithmwasusedforpacketschedulingintheNodeB.
ThisalgorithmstrytoschedulealltheUEstotransmitatthesametimeusingsmallrates.Since
thereisalargenumberofusersinthecelltheNodeBreceiveseveryTTIseveralrequestsfor
resourcesfromdifferentUEs.Therateschedulingalgorithmallocatessmallbitratestoalltheusers
thatrequestforresourcesothatallofthemareabletotransmitasmallamountofinformation
duringthesameTTI.
Thiswayofallocatingresourcesresultinverylowrateswhenthereisahighloadofusers.Inthe
simulationthisbehaviorcanbeseenshowingtheutilizationTransportBlockSize(TBS)usedby
theUEs.TheTBSisthenumberofbytesthataUEtransmitsduringoneTTI.Asexpectedforthe
rateschedulingalgorithmtheminimumTBSof40bytesisusedallthetimeforalltheUEs.Inthis
case UEswithalotofdataintheirbuffers andgoodchannelconditionsarerestrictedby the
schedulertojusttransmit40bytesduringoneTTIsincetheresourcesweresharedbetweenallthe
UEsthatrequestedfortransmissionduringthatTTI.Figure6.1.1intheappendixAshowsthe
simulationresultsfortheTBSutilizationusingtherateschedulingalgorithm.
Figure6.1.2showstwoinstancesduringthesimulationperiodwhereineveryTTIitisshownthe
UEsthatwerescheduledfortransmission.Withtwodifferentinstancesofthesimulationitcanbe
shownthattheapparentdeterministicbehaviorofallocationofresourcesperTTIisjustforsmall
periodsoftimebuttherandomnessoftheParetotrafficgeneratorwillmakethattheUEsrequest
theNodeBforresourcesatrandomtimes.
TheNodeBpacketschedulerwilltrytokeepthenoiseriselevelascloseaspossibletothetargetof
6dBspecifiedforthesimulationandinthiscase,usingtherateschedulingalgorithm,onaverage
nine UEs arescheduledfortransmissionduringthesameTTI.Thereis nopreferenceforany
particularUEregardlessofitschannelconditionorprioritylevelandallusesreceiveonaveragethe
sameamountofresources.

Figure6.1.1:TBSutilizationusingtherateschedulingalgorithm.
51

Figure6.1.2:UEsallocatedperTTIwithRateScheduling

6.1.2 Round Robin

InthesesimulationstheRoundRobinschedulingalgorithmwasusedforpacketschedulinginthe
NodeB.ThisalgorithmgivesprioritytoaUEallowingittotransmitatmaximumrateinoneTTI.
TheschedulerwillchoosetheUEwithhighestpriorityeveryTTIinaroundrobinfashion.As
explainedinthelastchapterastricttimedivisionmultiplexingwhichschedulesoneUEtotransmit
atatimeisnotagoodoptionsinceonesingleUEwillnotbeabletotakeadvantageofallthe
capacityofthechannel.BecauseofthisreasonmorethanoneUEwillbeabletotransmitinthe
sameTTIandafterallocatingthemaximumratetotheUEwithhighestpriority(accordingtothe
roundrobinfashion)theremainingresourceswillbeusedtoschedulemoreUEs.
Figure6.2showsaninstantduringthesimulationwhereitisshownforeveryTTItheUEsthat
werescheduledfortransmission.ItiseasytoseetheRoundRobingmechanismsbehaviorwhereon
averagetwoUEsarescheduledtotransmiteveryTTI.Sinceonaveragetwouserswillsharethe
wholechannelcapacityduringoneTTIeachUEisallocatedwithhighdatarates,itwillonly
dependontheUEpowerlimitationsifitisabletousetheallocatedresourcesornot.

52

Figure6.2:UEsallocatedperTTIwithRoundRobinScheduling.

IngeneralhighdatarateswillbeallocatetoeachUE.Figure6.3showstheutilizationofTBS
duringthesimulationandasexpectedthemaximumallowedTBSof400bytesisthemosthighly
used.TheTBSof280byteshasalsoahighutilizationbecauseitistheTBSthattheUEsallocated
withtheremainingresourceswilluse.ThisTBSvalueof280bytesdependsnotonlyinthetarget
noiseriselevelbutalsointheintercellinterferenceandinthepacketsizeoftheRLCpackets
arrivingtotheEnhancedMAC(forthesesimulationstheRLCpacketsizewassetupto40bytes).
TheminimumTBSwassetuptoallowthetransmissionofatleastoneRLCpacketof40bytesplus
itscorrespondingheader.TBSof40bytesisalsohighlyusedduringthesimulationbecauseUEs
thatfallintobadchannelconditionscausedbyfadingarenotabletotransmitathighratesanymore
andtheyarejustabletotransmitasingleRLCpacket.

53

Figure6.3:TBSutilizationusingtheRoundRobinschedulingalgorithm.

6.1.3 Scheduler based on UCQI:

InthesesimulationstheaschedulerbasedonauplinkChannelQualityIndicatorwasusedfor
packetschedulingintheNodeB.ThisalgorithmgivesprioritytotheUEswiththebestchannel
conditionduringthatTTI.
Thisisanunfairschedulingmechanismsincetheuserswithbadchannelconditionswillnotgetthe
sameamountofresourcesthanuserswithgoodchannelconditions.Abadchannelconditionuser
willonlybescheduledfortransmissioninaTTIwherenouserwithbetterchannelconditions
requestforresources.Thisparticularbehaviorwilltriggerarepeatingrequestmechanisminthebad
channelconditionsUEs.WhenaUEsendsarequestforresourcestheinformationaboutitsbuffer
status,headroomandUCQIareattachedintotheEnhancedMACheader.Ifafteraperiodoftime
theUEhasnotreceiveanygrantfromtheNodeBtheUEwillrepeatitsrequestforresources
sendingapacketwithoutpayloadandjustattachingthenecessaryinformationtotheheader.This
repetitionofrequestisnotlikelytohappenwhenusingfairschedulerssincethegrantforarequest
willusuallyarrivetotheUEbeforethetimerexpires,butusingunfairschedulerliketheonebase
onUCQIabadchannelconditionuserwillhavetowaituntiltherearenomoreUEsaskingfor
resourcesoruntilitschannelconditionsimprove.Withanoiseriselevelof6dBthistypeof
schedulerwillfulfillalltheavailableresourceswithjusttwousersatmaximumratebutfigure6.4
showsthatinsomecasesthreeorfourUEsarescheduledfortransmissionduringoneTTI.The

54

reasonofthisbehavioristhatinthiscasewhatweareseeinginfigure6.4istherepetitionof
requestsmechanismofthebadusers.OnaveragetwousersarebeingscheduledwithTBSof400
bytesandTBSof280bytesfillingtheavailableresourcesbutalsothetimerofthebadusersexpires
sincetheyarenotreceivinganygrantsandtheytransmitanemptypacket.Thisemptypacket,
withoutpayload,isassumedtohavenosignificantimpactinterferingothertransmissionsbutitis
stillprintedintheoutputtracefileofthesimulationsasatransmissionofzerobytes.

Figure6.4:UEsallocatedperTTIwithUCQIbasedscheduling.

MostofthescheduledUEsinthissimulationhavegoodchannelconditionswhentheyreceivea
grantandmostofthetimestheyareabletousealltheresourcestheywereallocated.Figure6.5
showthatthebigTBSarethemosthighlyusedwhichmeansthatmostofthetimeslargeamountof
bytes are being transmitted in one TTI. The smallest TBS are used when no good channel
conditionsusersareactiveandbadchannelconditionsusersarescheduled.Itisalsopossiblethat
thechannelconditionsofauserchangedrasticallyinashortperiodoftime,shorterthanaround
triptime(8msfor2msTTI),sowhentheinformationaboutthechannelconditionswassentfrom
theUEtotheNodeBitreportsgoodchannelconditionsbutatthetimeofreceptionofthegrantthis
conditionshavechanged.Inthesimulatortheonlyfactorthatchangessignificantlyinaroundtrip
periodisthefadingbutinrealityothersourcesofinterferencemustbetakenintoaccountbasically
theinterferencecausedbyUEsinanothercells.ThisisoneofthemainfactorswhyAdaptive
ModulationandCoding(AMD)wasnotconsideredforbeingimplementedintheuplinksincethe
constantvariationofthechannelconditionsdoesntallowagoodchannelconditionestimationand
55

ruintheperformanceofAMD.

Figure6.5:TBSutilizationusingtheUCQIbasedschedulingalgorithm.

6.1.4 Scheduler with Rate Estimation:

In these simulations the a scheduler use a rate estimation mechanism using the path loss
experiencedbyeachusertocalculateorestimatethemaximumratethatitwillbeabletosupport.
ThisalgorithmdoesntgiveprioritiestotheUEsandtheyarescheduledinaRoundRobinfashion
buttheirallocatedrateswilldependontheestimationofitsmaximumsupportedrate.Withthis
algorithmUEswillnotbeassignwithmoreresourcesthanwhattheyareabletosupportinanideal
conditionwithnointerferenceofotherusersandnointercellinterference.
InFigure6.6theRoundRobinfashioncanbenoted.Thedifferencebetweenfigure6.6andfigure
6.2,whichshowasimpleRoundRobinschedulingwithnorateestimation,isthatmorethantwo
UEsarescheduledfortransmissionduringthesameTTI.Inthiscasetheusersarenotsendingan
empty packetrepeatingarequestforresources,allusersarebeingscheduledwithatleast the
minimumTBSbutusersthatexperienceahigherpathlossareallocatedwithsmallerrates.The
allocationofsmallerratesforsomeusersallowstheschedulertoallocatetheremainingresourcesto
otherusers.
56

Figure6.6:UEsallocatedperTTIwithRateEstimationscheduling.

ThemoreaccurateallocationofresourcesestimatingthemaximumratethataUEisabletosupport
leadtoabetterutilizationofthechannelwastinglessresourcesallocatedtoUEsthatarenotableto
usethem.Infigure6.7theTBSutilizationshowsanincrementofthemaximumTBSof400bytes
andareductionoftheminimumTBSof40bytes.AlsoanincrementintheutilizationofTBSof80
bytesand160bytesisshown.TheseTBSwerenotlikelytobeusedwiththeotherschedulers
becausetheallocationofhighratestotheuserswithmoreprioritywillnotleaveresourcesto
allocatesmallratestootherUEs.TheseTBSwereonlyusedwhenbadchannelconditionsusers
werescheduledwithhighratesbuttheirpowerlimitationsmakethemreducetherate.Withtherate
estimationalgorithmuserswithbadchannelconditionorhighpathlossareallocatedwithsmall
ratesbythescheduler.

57

Figure6.7:TBSutilizationusingtheRateEstimationschedulingalgorithm.

6.1.5 Time Delay:

Dependingonthetypeoftrafficitisveryimportanttoconsiderthedelayexperiencedduringthe
datatransmission.Insomeapplicationsthedestinationisnotexpectingthedatawithinacertain
timeandbasicallythedelayisnotsoimportant.Otherapplicationaresensitivetothedelayand
theyimposealimitofacceptabledelaytoachieveacceptablequality.
Thebehaviorofthedifferentschedulingmechanismaffectthetimedelayexperiencedbytheusers.
ThedelaymeasurementsaretakenfromthetimeatwhichapacketarrivesfromtheRLCtothe
MACoftheUEuntilthatpacketisdeliveredtotheRLCbytheMACattheNodeBside.
Table6.2givesthemeanandstandarddeviationforalltheimplementedschedulersduringthe
simulationtime.Figure6.8showthedelayexperiencedbyallthereceivedRLCPDUsduringthe
whole simulation for the different schedulers. The highest average delay is given by the Rate
SchedulingwhichallocatingsmallratestoalltheusersdoesntgiveenoughresourcestotheUEsto
transmitlargeamountsofdata.Thedataintheirbuffersistransmittedinsmallchunkseverytime
theyreceiveagrantfromtheNodeBhavingtowaituntilthenextgranttotransmitagain.Thedata
thatarrivestoMACfromtheRLCalsocomesinburstsofpackets,thefirstpacketsinthisburstare
transmittedveryquickly,usingthefirstlowrategrantgivenbytheNodeB,butthelastpacketsof
58

theburstwillhavetowaitalongtimeinthebufferbeforetheyaretransmittedincreasingthe
averagedelaymeasurementandthestandarddeviation.
The UCQI based scheduler shows the smallest average delay but with the highest standard
deviation.Theaveragedelayissmallbecausemostofthetimesgoodchannelconditionsusersare
scheduledwithhighrateswhichtheyusetotransmitlargeamountofthedataintheirbuffers
reducingthetimetheyhavetowaittobetransmitted.Thefactthatthebadchannelconditionsusers
arejustscheduledwhenthegoodchannelconditionusersareinactivemakesthatthesebadusers
experiencelargedelays.Infigure6.8largedelaymeasurementsareshownfortheUCQIscheduler
whenthebadusersfinallyhadthechancetotransmittheirdata.
OntheRoundRobinandtheRateEstimationschedulerstheUEswillhavetowaituntiltheyget
theirturntotransmitintheroundrobinfashionbutwhentheygetagranttheywillbeableto
transmitlargeamountsofdatafromtheirbuffers,thatiswhytheaveragedelayoftheseschedulers
in higher than for the UCQI based scheduler but lower than for the Rate Scheduler. The
improvementinthemoreaccurateallocationofresourcesoftheRateEstimationschedulerisshown
asasmalleraveragedelayandstandarddeviationcomparedtotheRoundRobinscheduler.

Rate scheduling
RoudRobin
Rate Estim Sch
UCQI

Mean
0.356
0.222
0.207
0.157

Std
0.22
0.16
0.14
1.72

Mean 95% CI
0.354 to 0.357
0.218 to 0.225
0.201 to 0.214
0.153 to 0.160

Table6.2.delaymeasurementsofdifferentschedulingschemes.

59

Figure6.8:delaymeasurementofdifferentschedulingschemes.XaxisindicatesthereceivedRLC
PDUs(x10^6).

60

6.1.6 Total Transmitted Power:

Theschedulingpoliciesthatrulethebehaviorofthedifferentschedulerwillhaveabigimpactin
theperformanceregardingpowerconsumptionandinterferencegeneratedtoothercells.Measuring
thetransmittedpoweroftheUEsitispossibletogetanoverviewoftheimpactofthedifferent
schedulersinthepowerconsumptionandintercellinterference.
EveryTTIthepowerusedbytheUEstotransmittheirdataismeasured.Thetotalpower(the
additionofthepowersofalltheUEstransmittinginthesameTTI)isshowninfigure6.9.Table
6.3showtheaveragetotalpowerandstandarddeviationforthedifferentschedulers.
Themeasurementsareexpressedindecibelssothemostnegativevalueimpliesalowerpower
usage. As expected the UCQI based scheduler uses the lowest amount of power during the
simulationtimesincetheuserswithbestchannelconditionswillrequirelesspowertotransmit
lageramountsofdata.Theotherschedulersdonttakethechannelconditionintoaccountsobad
channelconditionUEswillusemorepowertotransmittheirdata.TheRateschedulingusethemost
powersincemanyuserstransmittheirdataatthesametimecausingmoreinterferencebetween
eachotherwhichmeansthattheywillneedtotransmitathigherpowertoreachtheirtargetEb/No.
Also,thelowerbitratesallocatedintheRateschedulerrequireahigherEb/Noandthereforea
higherpower.
TheRoundRobinschedulerandtheRateestimationschedulerperformverysimilarlybecausein
bothcasesalltheUEswilltransmitintheircorrespondingturnintheroundrobinfashionregardless
iftheyrequireahighoralowpowerfortheirtransmission.SincetheRateestimationscheduler
allocatesresourcestomorethantwousersperTTI,dependingiftheirrateestimationgivessmall
ratessothattheremainingresourcescanbeusedbyotherusers,thepowerusedisalittlehigher
thantheRoundRobinscheduler.Nevertheless,theRateEstimationschedulerhaveagaininterms
ofthrougputanddelaycomparedtotheRoundRobinschedulersincetheRateEstimationscheduler
willnotwasteresourceinUEsthatcannotusethem.
IntermsofpowerconsumptiontheUEswillgetbenefitoutoftheUCQIscheduler.Basically,the
UEsthat fallintobadconditionbecauseofthefading willnotbescheduledfortransmission
conservingtheirpowerduringthebadconditionsperiodandbeing scheduledfortransmission
when theirconditionsgetbetter.Alsointheoppositeway,whenthefadingcontributesto the
correct reception of the data, the UCQI scheduler will schedule these UEs to transmit taking
advantageofthepositivefadingpeak.
The low power usage of the UCQI scheduler also implies that on average the amount of
interferencegeneratedtoothercellwillbemuchlowerthanwiththeotherschedulers.Thewhole
systemwillhaveabiggaininthisaspectbecausereceivinglowerintercellinterferencewillmake
theUEsreachtheirEb/Norequirementswithlesspowerallowingthemtotransmitathigherrates
orsavepower.

61

Rate scheduling
RoudRobin
UCQI
Rate Estim Sch

Mean
-3.59
-5.46
-9.58
-5.36

Std
2.5
3.05
7.1
3.04

Mean 95% CI
-3.65 to -3.52
-5.536 to -5.378
-9.810 to -9.350
-5.472 to -5.255

Table6.3:Totaltransmittedpower(dB)measurementsofdifferentschedulingschemes.

62

Figure6.9:Totalpowermeasurementofdifferentschedulingschemes.Xaxisx10^6.

63

6.1.7 Throughput:
Theaveragecellthroughputmeasuredforthedifferentschedulersisshowninfigure6.10.
SchedulingmanyUEswithlowratesasitisdonebytheRateschedulershowstohavetheworst
performanceintermsofcellthroughput.Themainreasonofthisbehavioristhatasmoreusersare
scheduledfortransmissionduringthesameTTItheywillgeneratemoreinterferencebetweeneach
other,thatmeansthateveryuserwillexperiencemoreinterferencefromtheotherusersinitsown
cellandtheywillneedtousemorepowertoreachtheirEb/Norequirement.Thecontributionto
thenoisegivenbyeachUEwillbehigherandtheschedulerwillreachthetargetnoiserise(6dB)
sooner.
The other schedulers allocate users with high instantaneous bit rates giving all the available
resourcestojustafewusers.Theseschedulersallowtheuserstoexperiencelessinterferenceso
theycanusetheirpowertotransmitathighrates.Alsothefactthathigherbitratesrequirelower
Eb/Noallowstheuserstouselesspowertoreachthesameperformance.Thesefactsmakethatthe
amount of bits transmitted per TTI becomes larger when scheduling a few users with high
instantaneousbitratesthanmanyuserswithlowinstantaneousbitrates.
TheUCQIbasedschedulergivesprioritytotheusersthathavethebestchannelconditionsand
userswithbadchannelconditionshavetowaituntiltheconditionsimproveoruntiltheotherusers
becomeinactive.Thiswayofschedulingpresentsagainintheaveragecellthroughputcomparedto
asimpleRoundRobinschedulerwheretheconditionsofthechannelarenottakenintoaccount.
WiththemodelimplementedinthesimulatoritispossibletoseethegaingivenbytheUCQI
schedulercausedbythebetterutilizationofthechannelresourcessincegoodchannelconditions
usersareschedueledmoreoftenandwithhighinstantaneousbitrates.TheRoundRobinscheduler
willallocatehighinstantaneousbitratestoalltheusersinaroundrobinfashionwhereitispossible
thatthisallocationisgiventoauserwithabadchannelcondition.Thisbadchannelconditionuser
willnotbeabletotransmitatsuchahighinstantaneousbitrateandtheresourceswillbewasted.
TheadvantageoftheUCQIschedulerintermsoftotaltransmittedpowercannotbetranslatedinto
thecellthroughputgainwiththesinglecellmodelofthesimulator.Asshownbefore,theUCQI
schedulerwillproducelowerintercellinterferencecomparetotheRoundRobinschedulerbutthe
simulatoruseasinglecellmodelwheretheintercellinterferencedoesntdependonthescheduler
behaviorsincetherearenoothercellsmodeledandtheintercellinterferenceiskeptconstant.Ifall
theneighboringcellusethesametypeofschedulertheintercellinterferenceusingUCQIscheduler
willbelower(resultsgivenin[Rosa]showanaverageof0.2othertoowninterferenceratiofora
schedulerwiththesameprincipleinamultiplecellsimulator)thantheoneassumedforthisstudy
(0.6othertoowninterferenceratio)andwecouldexpectasignificantincreaseoftheaveragecell
throughput.
ThesmalldifferencebetweentheUCQIschedulerandtheRateEstimationschedulershownin
figure 6.10 is cause by the better utilization of the channel resources when the good channel
conditionusersarenotactive.InthosecasestheUCQIwillallocatebadchanneluserswithhigh
64

instantaneousbitrateswhichtheywillnotbeabletouse.OntheotherhandtheRateEstimation
schedulerwillpredictthemaximumratethatthebadusersareabletosupportallocatingthemwith
smallerratesleavingresourcestosharewithotherbadusers.Thelackofmultiplecellsandinter
cellinterferencemodelgiveusthisresultbutwecanexpectwhenneighboringcellusethesame
schedulertheUCQIschedulerwillhavebetteraveragecellthroughputthantheRateEstimation
scheduler.

2250
2000

Througput (Kbps)

1750
Rate scheduling

1500

RoudRobin
Rate Pedict Sch
UCQI

1250
1000
750
500
250
0

Figure6.10:Averagecellthroughputfordifferentschedulers.

Rate scheduling
RoudRobin
Rate Estim Sch
UCQI

Mean
1291
1914
2069
2102

Mean 95% CI
1281 to 1301
1894 to 1934
2086 to 2119
2055 to 2084

Table6.4:Meancellthroughputand95%CI
ToanalyzeindividualUEthroughputmeasurementstheresultsareobtainedfromsimulationwere
theseedforrandompositioninginthecelliskeptconstantsothatitispossibletodistinguishgood
andbadchannelconditionusers.Theirconditionwillchangegraduallywhiletheymovearoundthe
cellorwhiletheyexperiencethedifferentfadingandshadowingcontributionsbut theywillnot
jumpformverybadtoverygoodconditions(whichcouldhappenwhenchangingthepositioning
seedandusersarepositionedclosetotheNodeBinsteadofattheborderofthecell).Table6.5
showthethroughputmeasurementsforalltheuserswiththedifferentschedulers.
65

Thethroughputofalltheusersareaffectedbytheirchannelconditionsbutalsobythescheduler
beingused.Letstakeuser14asanexampleofabadchannelconditionuseranduser2asagood
channelconditionuser.Intherateschedulinguser14anduser2donthaveasignificantdifference
comparedtothedifferenceintheUCQIbasedscheduler.Regardlessoftheirchannelconditionsthe
usersinaRateschedulinggetsimilarsmallthroughputsduringthesimulation.Ontheotherhand,
users in a UCQI based scheduler get very high throughput measurements if they are in good
channelconditionsbutverylowthroughputmeasurementsiftheyhaveabadchannelcondition.
IntheRoundRobinschedulerbadusersarealsoaffectedbythefactthattheyhavetowaitfortheir
turnintheroundrobinfashiontotransmitagainwhileintheRateschedulertheytransmitmore
oftensincetheydoitatthesametimewithmanyotherusers.Butgoodusersgotbenefitinthe
RoundRobinschedulerbecausewhentheyreceiveagranttotransmittheycandoitataveryhigh
instantaneousbitrate.
TheRateestimationschedulebehavesinthesamewayastheRoundRobinwithasmallgaingiven
bythebetterutilizationoftheresourcescausedbythepredictionofthemaximumratethateach
userisabletosupport.
User ID
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

Rate scheduling RoudRobin Rate Estim Sch

59041
53763
56760
61479
116008
131381
45341
37268
42125
66036
105354
111937
37937
26774
29101
52814
92495
101220
51008
103479
114312
45683
73064
85043
62768
88203
78116
43417
56549
63866
51219
106645
127605
43621
41730
44512
53019
105155
124884
35861
28414
29578
59288
91330
104012
55140
113120
112811
59106
71265
87108
54487
115016
129827
46248
55299
65285
59488
116109
123896
55436
41435
46920
59838
114594
126198
35647
29665
32388
83882
104559
111750

UCQI
43275
165902
8088
94192
9813
151386
124003
87104
60558
47043
123923
8269
129968
5423
155480
129546
106639
110705
55336
116523
24679
119668
9697
155242

Table6.5.ThroughputmeasurementsperUEinbitspersecond.

66

6.2 Scenario 2
Duringthesimulationsusingthisscenario12UEsareinitializedinarandompositionwithinthe
cellarea.EachusertransmitsdataaccordingtotheParetotrafficmodelat760kbpsduringburst
periods.ThebursttimeandidletimeofeachUEissetupto5seconds.
Under the specified characteristics of this scenario different simulations were made using the
differentimplementedschedulingalgorithms.
Thesimulationresultsusingthisscenarioshowconcordancewiththeresultswithscenario1.The
simulationresultswithloweramountofusersbutwithahighertrafficloadhelpustoensurethe
analysisof averagecellthroughputmadeforscenario1.Figure6.11showstheresultsfor the
averagecellthroughputforthedifferentschedulers.Asimilarbehaviorcomparedtoscenario1is
perceptible but with a small difference regarding the Rate estimation scheduler and the UCQI
scheduler.Asexplainedforscenario1thedifferencebetweenthesetwoschedulersriseswhenthe
goodchannelconditionusersarenotactiveandtheturncomestothebadchannelconditionstobe
scheduled.Inscenario2thehightrafficimpliesthatgoodchannelconditionsuserswillnothaveso
much idle periods during the simulation as in scenario 1 and the gain of the Rate estimation
schedulerwilldisappearinthiscase.

1800
1600

Througput (Kbps)

1400
1200

Rate scheduling
RoudRobin

1000

Rate Estim Sch

UCQI

800
600
400
200
0

Figure6.11:Averagecellthroughputfordifferentschedulers.Scenario2.

Rate scheduling
RoudRobin
Rate Estim Sch
UCQI

Mean
914
1803
2010
2066

Mean 95% CI
890 to 938
1734 to 1871
1971 to 2049
2034 to 2099

Table6.6:Meancellthroughputand95%CI
67

6.3 Scenario 3
Duringthesimulationsusingthisscenario24UEsareinitializedinarandompositionwithinthe
cellarea.Eachusertransmitsdatainaconstantbitrateat64kbps.Withapacketsizeof2080bytes
theMAClayerwillreceiveburstsof40bytesevery26msecformtheRLClayer.
Theresultsofthesesimulationsaregovernedbytheparticularandnotveryrealisticparametersof
thisscenario.
UsingthisscenariowithlowtrafficratesperUEthesimulationresultsshowadisadvantageof
usingtheUCQIscheduler.Oneofthereasonforthisbehaviorhastobewiththefactthatinthecell
areaabadconditionusercanstilltransmitasinglepacketof40bytesduringoneTTI.Whenthe
trafficrateisverylowthereisnotmuchdifference,intermsoftheamountoftransmittedbits,
whenschedulingagoodorabaduser.Whenthegoodchannelconditionuserisscheduledwith
highinstantaneousbitrateitwillnotusetheresourcessinceitjusthaveasmallamountofdatain
itsbuffer.Thebadchannelconditionuserwillnotbeabletotransmitatahighratebecauseofits
powerlimitationsbuttransmittingatalowrateitwillbeenoughtotransmitthesmallamountof
datainitsbuffer.BecauseofthisreasontheUCQIandRoundRobinschedulerwilltendtoperform
inasimilarway.
Nevertheless, the results still show a small gain in the cell throughput of the Round Robin
compared to theUCQIscheduler.Thatbehaviorcanalsobeattributedtotheparticulartraffic
source.GoodchannelconditionusersintheRoundRobinschedulergetsomebenefitbecauseofthe
peculiarityofthetrafficsourcebecausewhiletheywaitfortheirschedulingturnmoredataarrives
totheirbufferandtheycanmakeasingletransmissionatahighinstantaneousbitrateratherthan
manysmalltransmission.TheUCQIschedulerwillkeepschedulinggoodchannelconditionusers
beforetheirbuffergetsbiggerandtheywillonlyusetheresourcestotransmitsmallamountofdata
whilethebaduseraccumulatedataintheirbuffersbutwillstillneedmanytransmissionsincethey
donthaveenoughpowercapabilitiestotransmitlageramountsofdata.

Mean
Rate scheduling
RoudRobin
Rate Estim Sch
UCQI

-3.41
-5.8
-6.58
-7.89

Table6.7.Totaltransmittedpower(dB)measurementsfordifferentschedulingschemes.

ThegainoftheUCQIregardingtotaltransmittedpowerisstillconsiderableinthisscenarioas
shownTable6.7.Thislowertransmittedpowerimplieslowerinterferencegeneratedtoothercell.
Withthemodelofthesimulatorisnotpossibletoseethatgainintermsofaveragecellthroughput
butweshouldkeepinmindthatiftheneighboringcellusealsoaUCQIschedulertheaveragecell
throughputoftheUCQIschedulerwillhaveasignificantgain.Eveniftheneighboringcellsuse
68

anotherschedulermechanism,thefactthattheywillreceivelowerintercellinterferencewillallow
themtouselesspowerwhichwillalsogeneratelowerinterferencetoothercells.

1600

Througput (Kbps)

1500
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000

Rate scheduling
RoudRobin
Rate Estim Sch

900
800
700

UCQI

600
500
400
300
200
100
0

Figure6.12:Averagecellthroughputfordifferentschedulers.Scenario3.

Mean
Rate scheduling 1311
RoudRobin
1553
Rate Estim Sch 1551
UCQI
1477

Mean 95% CI
1300 to 1321
1537 to 1568
1537 to 1563
1474 to 1478

Table6.8:Meancellthroughputand95%CI

69

6.4 Scenario 4
Duringthesimulationsusingthisscenario24UEswereinitializedinarandompositionwithinthe
cellarea.DifferenttrafficmodelsareusedandattachedtotheUEs.EightUEsusetheFTPtraffic
model,eightUEsusetheHTTPtrafficmodelandeightUEsuseavideotrafficmodel.
Table6.9andfigure6.13showsomeoftheresults.WecanseethattheRateschedulinguseshigher
powertotransmitloweramountofdataduringthesimulationtime.Ontheotherhand,theUCQI
useslowerpowertotransmitmoredataduringthesimulation.Withouttakingintoaccountthe
decreaseofintercellinterference,theUCQIschedulershowsanaveragecellthroughputsimilarto
theRoundRobinschedulerbutusinglesspower.
Inthisscenariothevideotrafficsourcepumpsburstsofdataatregularintervalsinasimilarway
thattheCBRtrafficmodel.SinceeightoftheUEsusethevideotrafficsourcetheresultsofthe
differentschedulersaredeterminedmainlybythistypeoftraffic.Theaveragecellthroughput
resultsinfigure6.13areverysimilartotheonesobtaininscenario3usingtheCBRtrafficmodel.

Rate scheduling
RoudRobin
Rate Estim Sch
UCQI
Priority

Mean
-7.2
-10.49
-10.6
-12.24
-11.05

95% CI
-7.98 to -6.42
-10.98 to -10
-11.44 to -9.77
-12.82 to -11.66
-11.94 to -10.16

Table6.9.Totaltransmittedpower(dB)fordifferentschedulingschemes.

1500
1400
1300

Througput (Kbps)

1200
1100
Rate scheduling
RoudRobin

1000
900
800

Rate Estim Sch

UCQI

700

Priority

600
500
400
300
200
100
0

Figure6.13:Averagecellthroughputfordifferentschedulers.Scenario4.
70

Rate scheduling
RoudRobin
Rate Estim Sch
UCQI
Priority

Mean
784
1378
1366
1294
1253

95% CI
707 to 861
1378 to 1499
1366 to 1545
1294 to 1434
1253 to 1355

Table6.10:Meancellthroughputand95%CI

6.5 Priority Scheduler:

Havingthiscombinationofdifferentflowsisamorerealisticscenario.Itshouldbetakeninto
accountthatthedifferenttypesofflowshavedifferentrequirements.TheFTP,forexample,isnota
delaysensitiveapplicationsodatabeingtransmittedcanwaitlongerstoredinthebuffersbeforeits
transmission.Morestrictrequirementshavetobeachievedwhiletransmittingothertypesofflows
likevideoapplicationsthataredelaysensitiveandthereceiverisexpectingthearrivalofdata
withinadetermineperiodoftime.TheschedulerusedintheNodeBcanaffecttherequirementsof
thosetypeofflows.ForexampletheUCQIbasedschedulerwillnotallocateresourcestoaUE
usingavideoapplicationandwillgivetheresourcestoaFTPuserwhichhasabetterchannel
condition.Becauseofthisreasonitshouldbeimportanttoconsidergivingprioritiestothedifferent
flows.
Evendoeitisnotsupportedbythestandards,anextrafieldwasincludedintheheaderofthe
EnhancedMACinthesimulator.Thisfieldcarriesinformationaboutthepriorityoftheflowbeing
transmitted.Withthisinformationtheschedulercanmakeabetterdecisiontoallocateresourcesto
the users with higher priority flows. A new scheduler was implemented modifying the UCQI
schedulerinawaythatthesortingoftheusersdependsonthenewvalueforthepriorityincludedin
theheaderandnotintheUCQIvalue.
Videoapplicationflowswererankedwiththehighestpriority,theHTTPflowswererankedwitha
lowerpriorityandthelowestprioritywasgiventotheFTPflows.Withthisassignationofpriorities
andthenewscheduler,thevideouserswillhavetheprioritytobescheduledfirstandwiththe
highestallowed bitratewhileFTPuserswillnotbescheduledunlesstherearenohighpriority
usersactive.
Since this priority scheduler doesnt consider the channel conditions, users with bad channel
conditionsbutwithhighprioritywillhavetheprioritytobeselectedfortransmission.Thosebad
usersarenotabletotransmitatahighrateandwilluseahighpowertotransmitsmallamountsof
data.Thisfactdecreasetheperformanceintermsofaveragecellthroughput(seefigure6.13)and
totaltransmittedpower(seetable6.9)butitwilltrytokeepthequalityoftheserviceofthehigh
71

priorityusersregardlessoftheirchannelconditions.
Theaveragedelayperuserforthesimulationsdonewithoutchangingthepositioningseedare
givenintable6.11.Theresultsshowhowthescheduleraffectsthedelayexperiencedbyeachuser.
Asanexampleletsanalyzeusernumber7whichonaverageexperiencegoodchannelconditions
andasaresultitsuffersadelayof0.08secwhenusingtheUCQIscheduler.Thetrafficflowofthis
UEisofaFTPapplicationwhichisnotdelaysensibleandtheresourcesusedaccomplishingsucha
low delay could be used on more sensible traffic flows. User number 21 which on average
experiencebadchannelconditionssuffersahighdelaywhichwillmakethequalityofitsvideo
applicationunacceptable.IfwecomparetheresultsofthesetwousersintheUCQIschedulerandin
thePriorityschedulerwecanseethattheFTP,besidehavinggoodchannelconditions,experiencea
higherdelaysincetheFTPprioritywasestablishedasthelowestpriorityanditsUEwillreceive
loweramountofresources.Thevideoapplicationuser,besideshavingabadchannelcondition,
experiencealowerdelayinthePriorityschedulerthanintheUCQIsincethevideoflowwas
establishedasthehighestpriority.Figure6.14showsthecomparisonbetweenthistwousersusing
theUCQIandPriorityscheduler.WecanseetheimprovementinthePDFwhenavideoflowwith
badchannelconditionusethepriorityschedulerinsteadoftheUCQIschedulerandthethedecline
ofthePDFwhenaFTPflowwithgoodchannelconditionsusetheseschedulers.

F
T
P

H
T
T
P

V
I
D
E
O

UE Rate scheduling RoudRobin Rate Pedict Sch UCQI Mean

Priorty
ID
Mean Delay
Mean Delay
Mean Delay
Delay
Mean Delay
1
3.12
0.46
0.16
0.42
0.54
2
2.59
0.2
0.18
0.17
0.3
3
3.17
0.9
0.47
1
1.9
4
0.85
0.13
0.12
0.1
0.23
5
3.03
0.14
0.27
0.1
0.48
6
0.99
0.15
0.21
0.32
0.13
7
0.83
0.17
0.09
0.08
0.38
8
3.19
0.17
0.23
0.38
0.34
9
1.57
0.12
0.1
0.11
0.46
10
0.97
0.25
0.16
0.22
0.2
11
2.43
0.14
0.08
0.11
0.16
12
1.87
0.2
0.51
0.27
0.57
13
2.75
0.15
0.1
0.1
0.45
14
1.37
0.08
0.08
0.05
0.09
15
1.8
0.09
0.09
0.1
0.19
16
1.5
0.22
0.08
0.06
0.12
17
2.9
0.46
0.13
0.52
0.15
18
2.6
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
19
3
0.73
0.21
0.84
0.26
20
3.1
0.12
0.08
0.08
0.07
21
3.8
0.78
0.32
1.25
0.37
22
2.6
0.1
0.1
0.13
0.08
23
3.01
0.1
0.1
0.05
0.06
24
2.9
0.09
0.09
0.15
0.08

Table6.11:Averagedelay(sec)experiencedperuserwithdifferentschedulers.

72

Figure6.14:PDFfordifferentflowtypesexperiencingdifferentchannelconditions

73

6.6 E-DCH and DCH comparison

DuringthissimulationstudytheconditionsofScenario1wererepeated.24UEswereinitializedin
arandompositionwithinthecellarea.EachusertransmittingdataaccordingtotheParetotraffic
modelat250kbpsduringburstperiods.ThemeanbursttimeandmeanidletimeofeachUEwere
setto5seconds.
Theaimofthissimulationstudyistocompareandquantifythegaingivenbytheenhancements
introducebyHSUPA.TobeabletodirectlycomparethetwochannelstheTTIof2msoftheE
DCHwasmodifiedto10mssincetheDCH,asspecifiedinRelease99,doesn'tsupport2msTTI.
Also,thesameschedulermechanisms(RateScheduler)wasusedintheRNCfortheDCHandin
theNodeBfortheEDCH.Thisschedulerdoesn'ttakechannelconditionsintoaccountsothegain
archivedbytheEDCHinthissimulationwillbejustgivenbythereductionintheschedulingdelay
andbytherapidphysicallayerretransmissionobtainedwiththeHARQtechnique.
TheaveragecellthroughputoftheEDCHandtheDCHareshowninfigure6.15wherewecansee
asignificantgainof17%.Asshowninthesimulationresultsusingdifferenttypesofschedulersat
the NodeB, extra gain can be obtained when including channel conditions into account in the
scheduling mechanism and when using this information to estimate the amount of resources
(maximumrate)thataUEisabletosupport.

DCH
E-DCH

Mean
682
798

95% CI
646 to 717
791 to 805

Througput (Kbps)

Table6.12:Meancellthroughput(Kbps)and95%CI

800
750
700
650
600
550
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

DCH
E-DCH

Figure6.15:DCHandEDCHaveragecellthroughput.
74

7 Conclusions
TheHARQandFastPacketSchedulingtechniquesintroducedfortheEnhancedUplinkshowto
providesignificantimprovementsinperformance.AsmentioninChapter3.2.5studiesmadeina
multiplecellssimulatorgavea37%gaincomparedtonormalDedicatedchannelwithRNCpacket
scheduler.Alsousingoursinglecellmodeltheresultsobtainedshow17%gainwhenusingano
channelconditiondependentschedulersintheRNCandtheNodeB.
Thesimulationsandresultsobtainedusingdifferentschedulingmechanismsintheenhanceduplink
showhowthepoliciesthatruletheschedulingaffecttheperformanceofthesystem.Theresults
also show that thescheduling mechanisms couldaffect the required QoS neededfor a certain
application.
Ingeneraltheresultsshowusthatschedulingmanyusersatthesametimewithsmallbitrates,like
itis done in theRatescheduler,isnotanefficientmethod.Theperformancemetricsobtained
duringthesimulationperiodshowthatthistypeofschedulerusesthehighestpowertotransmitthe
smallestamountofdataduringthesimulationcomparedtotheotherschedulers.Therearetwo
mainreasonforthiswickedperformanceoftheRatescheduler.Thefirstoneisthatforsmallerbit
ratestherequiredEb/Notendstobehigherwhichmeansthatmorepowerisneedtoachievethe
sameperformance.Thesecondreasonisthatasmoreuserstransmitatthesametimetheywill
createmoreinterferencebetweeneachotherandalsoincreasingtherequiredEb/Nothattheymust
achieve.
Schedulingafewnumberofuserstotransmitatthesametimeatahighbitrateisshowntobea
betteroptioninthesimulationresults.Theschedulersthatfollowthisprincipal(theRoundRobin,
Rate EstimationandUCQI schedulers) show abiggaininperformancecomparedtothe Rate
scheduler,around50%gainwhentherearelargeamountofusersinthecell.
Thedifferencebetweentheschedulersthatgrantafewuserstotransmitatthesametimeathighbit
ratesisgivenbythemethodstheyusetoselecttheuserwithhighestpriorityfortransmission.
While in the Round Robin scheduler there is no preference for any user and all of them are
scheduledinroundrobinfashion,theUCQIscheduleralwaysgivesprioritytotheuserwhohasthe
bestchannelconditionsatthemomentoftherequest.
Oneofthemostrelevantmetricsmeasuredduringthesimulationswasthetotaltransmittedpower.
AsshownintheresultstheUCQIschedulergaveagaincomparedtotheRateSchedulingand
RoundRobinschedulingtransmittingwithlesspower(6dBlessthantheRateSchedulerand4dB
lessthantheRoundRobinscheduler).SincetheUCQIschedulergivespriorityfortransmissionto
theUEsthatexperiencebestchannelconditions,theseuserscantransmittheirdataatalowpower.
SincetheschedulerisbasedontheNodeBitcanreactveryfasttothechangesinchannelvariations
of the user, inthatwaythevariationscausedbyfadingcanbetakingintoaccountpreventing
transmissions during fading drops and taking advantage of fading gains. The benefits of this
behaviorarenotjustregardingpowerconsumptionintheUEbutbenefitsthewholesystemsince
75

loweramountofinterferenceisgeneratedtoothercells.
TheRateEstimationschedulerfocusourattentioninanotheraspectoftheschedulermechanisms.
Thisschedulerisnotconcerningivinganyprioritiestotheuserssoitalsograntsalltheusersina
round robin fashion but this time the assignation of bit rates is done considering the channel
conditionsofeachuser.Eachuserisassignedwithacorrespondingbitraterelatedtoitschannel
conditionsothattheresourcesarenotwastedinusersthatarenotabletousethem.Thebetter
utilizationofthechanneloftheRateEstimationschedulerisreflectedinthesimulationresults
achievinghigheraveragecellthroughput,usinglesspower,achievinghigherthroughputperuser
andlowerdelays.Regardlessofthepoliciesusetoselectwhichusersshouldhavethepriorityto
transmit,therateestimationshouldbeimplementedsonoresourcesarewastedinallocationsto
usersthatarenotabletosupportthem.
Theresultsalsoshowthatthedifferentschedulingmechanismscanaffectthequalityoftheservice
experiencedbyapplications.Thisleadtoincludepriorityassignationtothedifferenttypesofflows
sothattheschedulercouldtakethisinformationintoconsiderationwhenallocatingresources.Even
doethetransmissionofthistypeofpriorityinformationfromtheUEtotheNodeBisnotsupported
bythestandardsitwasincludedinthesimulationforthepurposeofthestudy.Theresultsofthe
simulationsshowthatincludingprioritytothedifferenttypesofflowscanimprovetheservice
providedtohighpriorityflowsevenwhentheyexperienceabadchannelcondition.Lowpriority
flows(whichareassigntoapplicationswhichdoesnthavestrictrequirements)areaffectedbythe
scheduler mechanism but the quality will not be drastically affected since these types of
applicationscanaffordadecreaseintheirrateoranincreaseoftheirtransmissiondelaywithout
majorimpactinthequalityexperiencedbytheuser.Addingsignalingforprioritydifferentiationof
theflowsgivetheschedulermorecontrolformanagingthequalityandthroughputbalance.

76

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