UMTS Radio Channel

ZTE University

Content
Classification of channels
Structure and Function of channels
Physical layer procedure

Architecture of UMTS
CN
Iu

Iu

RNS

RNS
Iur

RNC

RNC

Iub

Iub

NodeB

NodeB

Iub
NodeB

UE

Iub
NodeB

Channel Type

Physical channel
Transport channel
Logical channel

UE
Node B

Logical channel
Transport channel
Physical channel

RNC

Concept of channel

RLC layer
Logical channel

L2
MAC layer

Transport channel
PHY layer
Physical channel

L1

Channel Type

Logical channels:

Transport channels:

Describe what is transported (i.e., the information to be

transmitted)
Describe how the logical channels are to be transmitted.

Physical channels:

Represent the transmission media providing the

platform through which the information is actually
transferred.

Protocol stack of the Uu interface

GC

Nt

DC

D u p lic a tio n a v o id a n c e
GC

Nt

DC
U u S b o u n d ary
U - p la n e in f o r m a tio n

C - p la n e s ig n a llin g

L3

c o n tr o l

R a d io
B e arers

control

control

control

control

RRC

PDCP

PDCP

L 2 /P D C P
BMC

RLC

RLC
RLC

L 2 /B M C

L 2 /R L C

RLC

RLC
RLC

RLC

RLC
L o g ic a l
C h a n n e ls

M AC

L 2 /M A C
T ra n sp o rt
C h a n n e ls

PHY

L1

Logical Channels

Control Channel (CCH)

Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH)

Paging Control Channel (PCCH)
Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH)
Common Control Channel (CCCH)

Traffic Channel (TCH)

Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH)

Common Traffic Channel (CTCH)

Transport Channel
Common Transport Channels

Broadcast Channel (BCH)

Paging Channel (PCH)
Random Access Channel (RACH)
Forward Access Channel (FACH)
Common Packet Channel (CPCH)
Downlink Shared Channel (DSCH)

Dedicated Transport Channels

Dedicated Channel (DCH)

Physical Channel
Uplink Physical Channels

Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH)

Physical Common Packet Channel (PCPCH)
Dedicated Physical Channel (DPCH)

Downlink Physical Channels

Common Pilot Channel (CPICH)

Primary Common Control Physical Channel (P-CCPCH)
Secondary Common Control Physical Channel (S-CCPCH)
Synchronization Channel (SCH)
Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)
Acquisition Indication Channel (AICH)
Page Indication Channel (PICH)
Dedicated Physical Channel (DPCH)

Mapping relationship
Uplink
Logic
Channel

Transport
Channel

CCCH

DCCH
DTCH

RACH CPCH DCH

Downlink
PCCH BCCH CCCH CTCH

PCH

BCH

FACH

DSCH

DCCH
DTCH

DCH

Mapping relationship
Transport Channels
DCH

Physical Channels
Dedicated Physical Data Channel (DPDCH)
Dedicated Physical Control Channel (DPCCH)

RACH

Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH)

CPCH

Physical Common Packet Channel (PCPCH)

Common Pilot Channel (CPICH)

BCH

Primary Common Control Physical Channel (P-CCPCH)

FACH

Secondary Common Control Physical Channel (S-CCPCH)

PCH
Synchronization Channel (SCH)
DSCH

Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)

Acquisition Indication Channel (AICH)
Page Indication Channel (PICH)

Content
Classification of channels
Structure and Function of channels
Physical layer procedure

UMTS frame structure

Physical Channels(1)

The physical channel is in a 3-layer structure by

the time:

Superframe

radio frame

One superframe lasts 720ms, and consists of 72 radio frames.

One radio frame has a period of 10ms, and comprises 15
timeslots with the same length. Corresponding to 38400 chips,
it is a basic unit of the physical layer.

Timeslot

A timeslot is a unit composed of a bit domain, corresponding to

2560 chips. The bit number and structure of a timeslot depends
on the specific type of the physical channel.

Physical Channels(2)

The frame structure of the physical channels is shown:

Ttimeslot= 2560 chip

Tslot #1 Tslot #2

Tslot #I

Tslot #15

Tframe=10 ms

Frame #0

Frame #1

Frame #I

Tsuperframe=720 ms

Frame #71

Physical Channel

Uplink physical channel

Two UL Dedicated physical channel (DPDCH and DPCCH)

Two UL Common physical channel (PRACH and PCPCH)

Dedicated physical
Control channel DPCCH
Dedicated physical DPDCH
data channel
Physical random PRACH
Access channel
Physical common PCPCH
Packet channel

UL Dedicated physical
channel

UL Common physical
channel

Uplink Dedicated physical channel

PRACH

Physical Random Access Channel

PRACH consists preamble part and message part

Random access transmit 1or more 4096 chips length
preambles and 10ms or 20ms length message part.

Preamble

Preamble

Preamble

4096 chips

Preamble

Message part

10 ms (one radio frame)

Preamble

Preamble

4096 chips

Message part

20 ms (two radio frames)

PRACH transmitted structure

PRACH

Physical Random Access Channel

10ms message part is split into 15 timeslots, each timeslot

consists of 2560chips.
Each timeslot includes data part and control part. They are
transmitted in parallel .
Data part :SF=32~256 , control part: SF=256.
Data
Ndata bits

Data
Pilot
Npilot bits

Control

TFCI
NTFCI bits

Tslot = 2560 chips, 10*2k bits (k=0..3)

Slot #0

Slot #1

Slot #i
Message part radio frameRACH
T = 10 ms

Slot #14

PRACH Access Slot

radio frame: 10 ms

radio frame: 10 ms

5120 chips
#0
Access slot #0
Access slot #1

Access slot #7
Access slot #8

Access slot #14

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

Random Access Transmission

Random Access Transmission

Random Access Transmission

Random Access Transmission

#14

Downlink physical channel

DL physical channel include Dedicated physical channel

one Shared physical channel and five Common control
channels.
SCH
CPICH
PICH
DL common physical
channel

AICH
CCPCH
PDSCH

DPCH

Downlink dedicated physical channel

Tasks of Uplink receiver

DPCCH is received and dispreaded decoded in a slot by slot

manner while the DPDCH is first buffered and then decoded
together with other frames that were jointly coded with it
(interleaved)
For every slot

A channel estimate (amplitude and phase) and SIR estimate are made
based on the received pilot bits.
Based on SIR determine downlink power control command and send it
Decode the TPC bit and adjust downlink transmission power
accordingly

For every second or fourth slot

Decode FBI bits over two or four slots and adjust antenna phase and/or
amplitude accordingly depending on tranmission diversity mode

Tasks of Uplink receiver

For every 10 ms frame

Decode TFCI and obtain the bit rate and channel

decoding parameters for DPDCH

For Transmission Time Interval (TTI), i.e. how

often data must be delivered to higher layer
protocol (10-80 ms), decode DPDCH

Tasks of Downlink receiver

The same as in uplink except

In downlink, the dedicated channel bit rate is

constant (except the bit rate of Downlink Shared
Channel DSCH which can vary)
FBI bits are not used
There is a Common Pilot Channel (CPICH)
available which can be used to increase the
accuracy of channel and SIR estimates
If transmission diversity option is used receiver
must estimate the channel state for the two
different pilot patterns provided by the antennas

CPICH

CPICH

There is two types of CPICH:P-CPICH and S-PICH

P-CPICH:

P-CPICH of different cell uses the same Cch,256,0 OVSF code to

spread ,the bit rate of P-CPICH is also fixed.
The P-CPICH is scrambled by the primary scrambling code.
There is one and only P-CPICH per cell.
The P-CPICH is broadcast over the entire cell. it is used to search cell
primary
scrambling code during cell selection procedure. And it is also used for
measurement and estimation during handover, cell selection and cell reselection.

S-CPICH:

A arbitrary channelization code of SF=256 is used for the S-CPICH.

A S-CPICH is scrambled by either the primary or a secondary scrambling
code.
There may be 0,1 or several S-CPICH per cell.
A S-CPICH may be transmitted over the entire cell or part of the cell. It is
may be a phase reference for a dl DPCH, but it is decided by high layer
signalling.

P-CCPCH

SCH (1)

The Synchronization Channel (SCH) is a downlink signal used for cell search.
The SCH consists of two sub channels, the Primary and Secondary SCH.
The 10 ms radio frames of the Primary and Secondary SCH are divided into 15
slots, each of length 2560 chips.

Structure of synchronization channel

SCH (2)

P-SCH

The Primary SCH consists of a modulated code of length

256 chips. The modulated code need not spreading and
scrambling.
The primary synchronization code (PSC) is transmitted once
every slot
The PSC is the same for every cell in the system.

S-SCH

The Secondary SCH consists of repeatedly transmitting a

length 15 sequence of modulated codes of length 256 chips.
the Secondary Synchronization Codes (SSC), transmitted in
parallel with the Primary SCH.
Each SSC is chosen from a set of 16 different codes of
length 256.
This sequence on the Secondary SCH indicates which of the
code groups the cell's downlink scrambling code belongs to.

S-CCPCH

PICH

PICH carries PIPage IndicationSF=256radio

frame=10msconsists 300bits288 bits for paging
indication12 bits Tx Off
PICH relates to S-CCPCH which mapping to PCH

288 bits for paging indication

b0 b1

12 bits (transmission
off)
b287 b288

One radio frame (10 ms)

PICH frame structure

b299

Content
Classification of channels
Structure and Function of channels
Physical layer procedure

Cell Search

UE has to get the system information before it

registers with the network and access to services.
The system information is beared in the BCH
channel, and its data is mapped into the Primary
CCPCH.
So the cell search procedure is mainly to decode
the data of P-CCPCH.

Cell search procedure (1)

The cell search is typically carried out in three

steps:
Step1: Slot synchronization

During the first step of the cell search procedure the UE

uses the SCH channel's primary synchronization code
to acquire slot synchronization to a cell.
This is typically done with a single matched filter (or any
similar device) matched to the primary synchronization
code which is common to all cells. The slot timing of the
cell can be obtained by detecting peaks in the matched
filter output.

Sketch of Slot Synchronization

Cell search procedure (2)

Step2: Frame synchronization and code-group

identification

During the second step of the cell search procedure, the

UE uses the SCH channel's secondary synchronization
code to find frame synchronization and identify the code
group of the cell found in the first step.
This is done by correlating the received signal with all
possible secondary synchronization code sequences,
and identifying the maximum correlation value. Since
the cyclic shifts of the sequences are unique the code
group as well as the frame synchronization is
determined.

Downlink Scrambling Code Grouping

No.63 Primary Scrambling Code Group

No. 511 Scrambling Code Group

No.0 Primary Scrambling Code Group

8176 8176PSC
No. 7 Scrambling
Code Group
8177 No.
8177SSC
510 Scrambling
Code Group

112 8176PSC
8160
8160
113 8177
8191SSC
8191 8161
No. 1Code
Scrambling
No.8161
504 Scrambling
Group Code Group

8064

16 16PSC
8064
127 8191 No. 0 Scrambling Code Group
8175
81758065
17 17SSC
8065

0 0PSC
31 31SSC 1 1SSC
8079 8079

15

15SSC

Mapping of the Secondary Synchronization Code

Cell search procedure (3)

Step3: Scrambling-code identification

During the third and last step of the cell search

procedure, the UE determines the exact primary
scrambling code used by the cell.
The primary scrambling code is typically identified
through symbol-by-symbol correlation over the CPICH
with all codes within the code group identified in the
second step.

After the primary scrambling code has been

identified, the Primary CCPCH can be detected so
that the cell specific BCH information can be read.

Cell search procedure

Summary of the process

Channel
Primary
SCH

Synchronization
acquired

Note

Chip, Slot, Symbol

Synchronization

Synchronization 256 chips

The same in all cells

Secondary
SCH

Frame Synchronization,
Code Group
(one of 64)

15-code sequence of secondary

synchronization codes. There are 16
secondary synchronization codes. There
are 64 S-SCH sequences corresponding to
the 64 scrambling code groups 256 chips,
different for different cells and slot intervals

Common
Pilot CH

Scrambling code (one

of 8)

To find the primary scrambling code from

common pilot CH

PCCPCH

Synchronization,
BCCH info

Fixed 30 kbps channel spreading factor 256

RACH procedure

UE decodes BCH to find out the available RACH sub-channels and

their scrambling codes and signatures
It selects randomly one of the available sub-channels and signatures
The downlink power is measured and the initial RACH power level is
set with a proper margin due to open loop inaccuracy
UE transmits 1ms long preamble with the selected signature
Node B replies by repeating the preamble using Acquisition Indication
Channel (AICH)
UE decodes AICH message to see whether the NodeB has detected
the preamble
If AICH is not detected, the preamble is resend with 1 dB higher
transmit power
If AICH is detected, a 10 or 20 ms long message part is transmitted
with the same power as the last preamble

RACH procedure

Paging

Paging