USER DESCRIPTION,

DTX

Contents

1 Introduction ..................................................................... 3

2 Background...................................................................... 3

3 What can be achieved...................................................... 3

4 Short technical description ............................................. 4

4.1 General ........................................................................................... 4

4.2 Influenced features ........................................................................... 5

4.3 Main differences from CME 20 R5 ..................................................... 5

4.4 Additions in CME 20 R6.1 ................................................................. 5

5 Engineering guidelines.................................................... 6
5.1 Function........................................................................................... 6

5.2 Recommendations............................................................................ 6

5.3 Conclusions...................................................................................... 7

6 Parameters ....................................................................... 7
6.1 Main controlling parameters .............................................................. 7

6.2 Parameters for special adjustments ................................................... 7

6.3 Value ranges and default values ........................................................ 7

7 References........................................................................ 7

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 USER DESCRIPTION, DTX

1 Introduction
During a normal conversation, the participants alternate so that each is silent
for about 50% of the time. If nothing is said into the microphone, there is no
point sending anything at all in the air. Discontinuous transmission, DTX, is
transmitting only when speech is detected over the connection. This decreases
the power consumption in the mobile and in the BTS and reduces the amount of
radio power emitted into the air as well.

The feature DTX is implemented in the BSC.

2 Background
During a conversation, each participant is silent for about 50% of the time, as
mentioned above. If the transmitter is silent while there is nothing to be sent,
the power consumption in the mobile is decreased as well as the amount of
emitted radio power. Less radio power generates less interference. Since the
power level used when transmitting is unaffected, the C/I ratio will be raised
for all connections when using DTX.

The purposes of the DTX feature are to decrease MS and BTS power
consumption and to reduce the overall interference in the system. DTX only
affects transmission of TCH frames.

3 What can be achieved

Discontinuous transmission is a mechanism that allows the radio transmitter to
be switched off during speech pauses. In a normal conversation this will lead to
a decrease in transmission time of about 50%.

DTX is available for speech as well as for non transparent data transmission. It
is not used on a BCCH carrier. DTX is available on a per cell basis.

The primary functions of DTX in the uplink and downlink are:

uplink
to save battery in the mobile station,
to reduce the interference in the system,

downlink
to reduce the interference in the system,
to decrease BTS power consumption, especially during periods when
the BTS is battery operated due to malfunction in the power supply,
to reduce the intermodulation products.

When downlink DTX is used in conjunction with uplink DTX, there will be an
improvement in the C/I ratio in the system. This improvement can be utilised
for a tighter cell planning, especially when frequency hopping is used, which
means that a higher capacity can be achieved.

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When something is sent, it is sent at the proper power level. Consequently, the
received signal strength will not be affected. This is the reason for the
improvement in the C/I ratio in the system when using DTX.

Measurements of the signal strength and the signal quality on the established
connection are performed by the mobile and by the base station. When using
DTX, these measurements cannot be performed as often as normally. This
disadvantage results in less accurate measurement reports to other radio
network features, e.g. Locating, Dynamic MS power control and Dynamic BTS
power control. See also section 4.2.

Another disadvantage is that the quality of plosives (sounds like p, t and

k) may be a bit poor, because of the slowness in the Voice Activity Detector
(VAD).

4 Short technical description

4.1 General
The VAD in the transmitter BTS or MS detects whether a traffic frame
consists of speech, non transparent data or of background noise. If a frame
consists of only noise, the transmitter sends one SID (Silence Descriptor)
frame, and then the transmission is stopped. After that, one new SID frame is
sent each SACCH period, until speech or non transparent data is detected
again. The measurement reports are sent as usual on the SACCH. A SID frame
contains information about the background noise of the established connection.

In the receiver MS or BTS a SID frame detector checks all incoming

frames. The detector is able to separate SID frames from speech or non
transparent data frames. When a SID frame is detected, the comfort noise
characteristics will be updated and comfort noise will be generated. The noise
generation is stopped when a speech frame is detected.

SID frames are sent for two reasons: to update the comfort noise characteristics
on the receiving side and to enable signal strength and signal quality
measurements.

The VAD must be operating at all times to assess whether the input signal
contains speech/non transparent data or not.

The mobile station and/or the BTS send information in the measurement
report/result, every 480 ms, telling whether it has used DTX some time during
that interval or not.

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4.2 Influenced features

When DTX is used the measurements of signal strength, signal quality and time
alignment will be less accurate. Therefore, features using these measurements
will be affected, e.g. Dynamic MS and BTS power control and Locating.
Features that are an integrated part of the locating function are affected as well.
These features are: Load sharing, Assignment to another cell, Hierarchical cell
structures, Intra cell handover, Overlaid/underlaid subcells and Call
disconnect.

The measurement report consists of two different sets of measurements. One

set is based on all 104 TDMA frames, the full set of measurements. The other
one is based on the subset of TDMA frames where the SID and SACCH
frames are sent (12 TDMA frames, see also ref. 1). Which set that will be
selected depends on the parameter setting:
uplink
The information from the mobile that DTX is used is checked. If the
mobile has been using DTX some time during the measurement period,
the subset of measurements will be selected,
downlink
The subset of measurements is selected unless the base station confirms
that it is not using DTX.

After a handover to a new base station the subset of measurements is used

until a number of measurement reports, set by a parameter called DTXFUL
(ref. 2) have arrived. After DTXFUL number of measurement reports the
normal criteria described above are used to choose between the full set and
subset of measurements.

If DTX is used in combination with cyclic frequency hopping, ref. 3, hopping

where (N) mod 13 = 0 should be avoided, where N is the number of hopping
frequencies. This is because all SACCH frames would then be sent on the
same frequency.

4.3 Main differences from CME 20 R5

No changes from CME 20 R5.

4.4 Additions in CME 20 R6.1

No additions.

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5 Engineering guidelines

5.1 Function
Used in conjunction with frequency hopping, DTX can give an improvement of
approximately 3 dB in the C/I ratio for the TCH channels. The gain in C/I can
be used to implement a tighter reuse on the TCHs. When DTX is used in
combination with frequency hopping the interference level will change between
each burst and be averaged by the coding/interleaving which generates an even
speech quality.

In a non-hopping environment this is true only as a long-term average. The

improvement potential cannot be used to implement a tighter reuse. When DTX
is used, typically for intervals of a few seconds, C/I is changing at a rate too
slow to be averaged by the speech coding/interleaving. See also ref. 3.

The same considerations as for C/I apply to the influence of BTS

intermodulation products when DTX is used with and without frequency
hopping. The impact in terms of possible improvements in voice quality is
doubtful, because it is very seldom that intermodulation is a factor of
importance. Using DTX in an attempt to solve an intermodulation problem is
not advised. More conventional methods such as changing frequencies, moving
antennas and using MS power control should be attempted first.

The disadvantages associated with the use of DTX which are valid for both the
uplink and the downlink are as follows:
measurements on signal strength and signal quality become less accurate,
regarding the serving connection, voice quality may slightly degrade.

5.2 Recommendations
Use DTX primarily for the MSs (uplink DTX). For hand-held MSs in frequent
usage, DTX provides a worthwhile increase in battery operating time.

Downlink DTX should not be used in a non frequency hopping system. The
reduction of power consumption for the BTS when using DTX is of little
practical significance.

The influence of DTX on speech quality will be the same whether used by the
MS or the BTS. To make it possible to have a tighter frequency reuse on the
TCH channels the combination of DTX and frequency hopping is
recommended.

It is recommended to test DTX downlink in a small area before introducing it in

the whole network.

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5.3 Conclusions
DTX is a feature that is best used for the following:
increasing operating time of hand-held MSs,
improving C/I when used in conjunction with frequency hopping to make it
possible to have a tighter reuse on the TCH channels.

6 Parameters

6.1 Main controlling parameters

DTXU is the uplink parameter and states whether the mobiles located in that
cell may (DTXU=0), shall (=1) or shall not (=2) use discontinuous
transmission. It is defined per cell.

DTXD is the downlink parameter and states whether discontinuous

transmission is enabled or not in the cell. This applies for all TCHs allocated
on the non BCCH carriers in that cell, for both speech and non transparent data.
It is defined per cell.

6.2 Parameters for special adjustments

DTXFUL defines the number of mesurement reports required to choose the
full set of measurements.

6.3 Value ranges and default values

Parameter Default Recommen- Value Unit

name value ded value range

DTXU 2 1 0, 1, 2

DTXD OFF OFF ON, OFF

7 References
1. User Description, Locating, 3/1551-FCU 101 201 Uen
2. User Description, MS power control, 5/1551-FCU 101 201 Uen
3. User Description, Frequency hopping, 8/1551-FCU 101 201 Uen

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