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Huawei DualCell HSPA Technology

White Paper

Issue V1.0
Date 2011-05-30

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2008. All rights reserved.
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without
prior written consent of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Trademarks and Permissions

and other Huawei trademarks are trademarks of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All other
trademarks and trade names mentioned in this document are the property of their respective
holders.

Notice
The information in this document is subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made in
the preparation of this document to ensure accuracy of the contents, but all statements, information,
and recommendations in this document do not constitute the warranty of any kind, express or
implied.
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Contents

1 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 4

2 DC-HSDPA Introduction .................................................................................................. 5
3 DC-HSDPA Working Principle ....................................................................................... 8
3.2 Network Enhancements for DC-HSDPA ............................................................................................. 9
3.3 DC-HSDPA Channel Mapping ........................................................................................................... 10
3.4 Affect on CPC operations in DC-HSDPA .......................................................................................... 11
3.5 DC-HSDPA deployment with MIMO ................................................................................................ 11

4 DC-HSDPA Key Benefits ................................................................................................ 13

4.1 Improve User Expereience & Network Performance ......................................................................... 13
4.2 Easy Deployment and Low Cost ........................................................................................................ 14

5 Huawei DC-HSDPA Solution Highlights ................................................................... 16

5.1 Software upgraded Network Elements ............................................................................................... 16
5.2 Multi Carrier Transceivers ................................................................................................................. 17
5.3 Advance RRM and Schedulling Methods .......................................................................................... 17

6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 19
7 Acronyms and Abbreviations ......................................................................................... 20

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1 Executive Summary

In similarity with Long Term Evolution (LTE), the HSPA technology is also
influenced by the carrier aggregations. The performance and throughputs of
HSPA can also be improved by using multi-carrier bandwidth operations with or
without the adoption of multi transmission techniques. The end users’ throughputs
thus can be double or more as compared to single carrier HSPA. In addition, the
adoption of multi carriers in HSPA can bring similar peak throughput
performances as are achieved by MIMO techniques without changing the
hardware infrastructure of the network.
The first phase of multi-carrier HSPA based on 3GPP R8 standards uses two
consecutive carriers in the downlink to transmit data for one subscriber and
named as Dual Cell HSDPA (DC-HSDPA). The 3GPP R9 and beyond standards
specify the usage of more than two carriers for a single subscriber without the
restrictions of same frequency bands usage.
In 3GPPR8-based HSPA+, it is an optional choice for the operators to select
DC-HSDPA or MIMO. However, in later 3GPP standards the DC and MIMO
could be deployed together. In this paper, we will only focus on the DC-HSDPA
technology, its performance, deployment strategy and comparison with MIMO
according to the 3GPP R8 standards.
DC-HSDPA improves the end users’ throughput in the whole cell area even in the
cell edges and provides the quality of service for all users. Beside the bandwidth
cost, the evolution from the legacy HSPA to HSPA+ is easy and economical with
DC-HSDPA as compared to the network up-gradation by MIMO only. If
transceiver elements support multi carrier technology then no additional
hardware will be required for network up-gradation to DC-HSDPA.

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2 DC-HSDPA Introduction

The use of multi carrier technology is defined by 3GPP Release 8 and further
improved in the later releases. The standard roadmap of multi carrier HSPA
technology is given in Figure 2-1. .

Figure 2-1 – 3GPP Standard Releases for DC-HSDPA

As a first step of multi carrier HSPA technology, Dual Cell HSDPA (DC-HSDPA)
is allowed for downlink only with some restrictions on carrier selection and
frequency band, or example:
1) The dual cell transmission will only apply to HSDPA physical channels
2) The two cells must belong to the same Node-B and are on adjacent carriers
3) The two cells shall not use MIMO to serve a single UE but two cells can be configured
as MIMO along with DC
4) The two cells must operate in the same frequency band
5) The UE will only communicate with one cell in the uplink

DC-HSDPA sector and carrier configuration topology is given Figure 2-2.

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Figure 2-2 DC-HSDPA cell structure and working principle

Through dual cell transmission and having double radio resource, DC-HSDPA is
able to provide higher data throughput to the end users and better results can be
obtained in the cell edges.
One of the two cells is treated as anchor (primary) cell and the other one as
supplementary (secondary) cell and both of them can be deployed with equivalent
and non-equivalent channel configuration.

Figure 2-3 – Equivalent and non- equivalent deployment of Primary and Secondary cells

In equivalent deployment, both the cells can work as anchor and supplementary
cells for the dedicated subscribers in the same coverage area. Few of the
subscribers will treat one cell as their anchor cell and rest of them will treat
second as their anchor cell. The selection of the anchor carrier is based on cell
load and operators Radio Barer (RB) strategy. The anchor carrier always
initializes the handover process of an end user and supplementary carrier is not
involved in handover process. In additions, both the cells will work as an
independent single cell source for the non-DC-HSDPA subscribers or legacy
HSDPA subscribers. In non-equivalent deployment, the supplementary cell is
configured with one HS-DSCH and a P-CPICH; in this case, the supplementary
cell cannot serve traditional HSDPA, HSUPA and R99 users in standalone
operations. In both equivalent and non-equivalent deployment, the legacy HSDPA

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service will not be interrupted after the introduction of DC-HSDPA in the

network.
_________________________________________________________________
Note:
 Huawei strongly recommend Equivalent Deployment configuration and all the details in this
document are based on equivalent deployment configuration.

_________________________________________________________________
The implementations of DC-HSDPA along with 64QAM provide 42Mbps
theoretical DL peak throughput similar to 64QAM+MIMO based on 3GPP R8,
which is many times higher as compared to single cell HSDPA. Figure 2-4 shows
the peak data throughput comparison between single carrier and dual carrier for
16QAM and 64QAM modulated signals.

Figure 2-4 – Throughput comparison between single cell and dual cell HSDPA

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3 DC-HSDPA Working Principle

The DC-HSDPA adopts carrier aggregation phenomena and use two 5 MHz carriers for a
single user’s data in the downlink. The Timing of the two cells remains the same and in
uplink, DC UE only connects to the anchor carrier. The ACK/NACK/CQI for second carriers
is Joint-encoded and reported by HS-DPCCH in anchor carrier. DC-HSDPA+MIMO is not
implemented within 3GPP R8 standards, but the sector can support DC and MIMO
simultaneously. The air interface architecture along with common requirements for
DC-HSDPA is given in Figure 3-1.

Figure 3-1 – Overview of DC-HSDPA working phenomena

Both the network and user equipment require up-gradation for the implementation of
DC-HSDPA. The network need to support joint scheduling and the UE need to support two
transport channels and HARQ entities.

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3.2 Network Enhancements for DC-HSDPA

The implementation of DC-HSDPA is achieved by upgrading network at RLC and MAC
layer. Joint scheduling is implemented in the NodeB for the anchor and supplementary cell
that brings the scheduling gain and improves the data throughput for the end user. In NodeB,
MAC-d PDU is segmented in small frames for the implementation of joint scheduling and
data from RLC layer can be sent to more than one cell’s scheduler.

Figure 3-2 –DC-HSDPA downlink data flow process

The main benefit of segmenting MAC-d PDU in NodeB is to enable the network to send user
data to more than one MAC-ehs PDU of different cells.
The DC-HSDPA requires MAC-ehs entity and one MAC-ehs support HS-DSCH transmission
in more than one cell served by the same NodeB. The scheduler decides the data transmission
on each HS-DSCH channel. Each of the HS-DSCH is served by the separate HARQ entities.
The detail description of NodeB logical architecture for DC-HSDPA is given in Figure 3-3.

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Figure 3-3 – Logical Architecture and data flow of DC-HSDPA in NodeB

MAC-d flows/
MAC-c flows
MAC-ehs Scheduling/Priority handling
Priority Queue
distribution

Priority Priority Priority

Queue Queue Queue
MAC – Control

Segment Segment Segment

ation ation ation

Priority Queue MUX

HARQ entity
HARQ entity

TFRC selection TFRC selection

Associated HS-DSCH Associated Associated HS-DSCH Associated

Uplink Downlink Uplink Downlink
Signalling Signalling Signalling Signalling

After the joint scheduling of two cells, the single user data is sent on separate HS-DSCH
through separate HARQ, which improves the users’ throughput and increase user experience.
The DC-HSDPA UE has to support two HS-DSCH transport channel, each HS-DSCH will
served by one HARQ entity.

3.3 DC-HSDPA Channel Mapping

In downlink, DC-HSDPA UE receives two HS-DSCH transport channels from two cells of
the same NodeB. Each transport channel maps one HSCCH and a HS-PDSCH physical
channel. All dedicated physical control channels DPCCH, DPCH/F-DPCH in Uplink and
downlink are carried on anchor carrier.

Figure 3-4 – DC-HSDPA Channel Mapping

As the uplink, DC is not a part of in 3GPP R8 dual cell solution, so the uplink DCH/E-DCH
channels of DC-HSDPA are only carried on anchor carrier. Single cell UE monitors

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maximum 4 HS-SCCH on one frequency cell but DC-HSDPA UE monitors maximum 6

HS-SCCH on dual cell.
The UE feedbacks two CQI and HARQ ACK/NACK messages by HS-DPCCH channel to
the anchor carrier.

Figure 3-5 – HS-DPCCH Slot format for HSDPA-R5 and DC-HSDPA

HS-DPCCH uses a new frame format that enables it to carry CQI and HARQ ACK/NACK
information of two frequency cells in single TTI. In case, if the secondary frequency is not
activated for a user, the uplink feedback channel frame format and the information on
HS-DPCCH will be the same as in Release 5 HSDPA.

3.4 Affect on CPC operations in DC-HSDPA

Continuous Packet Connectivity (CPC) function can be enabled in the dual cell HSDPA but
with the following limitations:
 CPC DTX is only applied on primary cell because there will be no uplink control
channel for the DC UE on secondary cell
 CPC HS-SCCH Less Operation is limited on primary carrier.
Where as the UE will have the CPC DRX state on two carriers similar to the single cell
operation

3.5 DC-HSDPA deployment with MIMO

DC-HSDPA cells can also be configured as MIMO enabled functions and both the features
can run at the same time but only one service can be available for each user. Two types of cell
configuration can be used for DC-MIMO combined deployment:
1. MIMO on Independent Carrier
In this scheme, MIMO is given a separate carrier and DC-HSDPA will not be affected
by MIMO. The handover procedure is adopted for MIMO users to use third carrier for
MIMO only. Figure 3-6 shows configuration of configuration of DC-MIMO scheme 1.

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Figure 3-6 – Scheme 1 for DC-MIMO combined cell Configuration

2. DC-MIMO on same Carrier

MIMO based carrier is combined with another carrier to service as DC-HSDPA in this
scheme. R99 is configured on a dedicated carrier because of more requirements and
more demands of voice users. Figure 3-7 shows the configuration of configuration of
DC-MIMO scheme 2

Figure 3-7 – Scheme 2 for DC-MIMO combined cell configuration

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4 DC-HSDPA Key Benefits

DC-HSDPA is an alternative of MIMO to improve the data throughput and users’ experience
in HSPA+ based on 3GPP R8 standard. The carrier aggregation process enables the increase
in capacity and user throughput.
Regardless of double frequency requirements, a number of benefits from DC-HSDPA
attracting the mobile operators to chose it as a key feature. The key benefits are improved
user experience, easy deployment and low network cost.

4.1 Improve User Expereience & Network Performance

DC-HSDPA provide higher throughput to the end-users even they are far from the transceiver.
The data rate at the end of the cell can be maintained balance to support QOS service. The
coverage performance of a DC user is higher than every other HSPA user.

Figure 4-1 DC-HSDPA service coverage comparison with other HSPA users

DC-HSDPA is has best performance for the burst services like http, gaming or small size
download files. The burst services consume a small amount of resource and users’
transmission time is small, therefore; DC-HSDPA cells can easily share their resources to all

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the subscribers. Multi-user response time is improved by 50% as compared to single carrier
for as long as the air interface is not congested.

Figure 4-2 – Response Gain Time of DC-HSDPA vs SC-HSDPA for Burst Services

However, on the other side, for the full buffer services like ftp files or heavy files where the
required data transmission is continuous and download time is long, the gain of DC-HSDPA
is impacted by the number of users. The gain in this condition will only improved from 10 to
20% of the single carrier if the number of subscribers reaches to 16 or more in a cell.

Figure 4-3 – DC-HSDPA Cell Gain for Full Buffer services

4.2 Easy Deployment and Low Cost

For a deployed network, it is easy to upgrade it for the DC-HSDPA, no new antenna
configuration and no new transceivers required for DC-HSDPA. The cells only need software
configuration for DC-HSDPA if the network is already operating on the multi frequency

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configurations in a same coverage area. For the areas where the cell is covered by one carrier
frequency only, there will be new requirement for another carrier and it will cost some extra
amount.
In overall, the cost of extra antenna system, new transceivers and deployment cost is saved
by upgrading the network to DC-HSDPA.

Figure 4-4 – Up-gradation from SC-HSDPA to DC-HSDPA

The up-gradation process is very smooth and the performance of non-DC users will not be
degraded after the up-gradation of cell to the DC-HSDPA. All the legacy UEs will provide
the similar throughput as before in the single cell and there will be no service degradation
effect.

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5 Huawei DC-HSDPA Solution Highlights

Huawei is one of the key contributors in DC-HSDPA standard development and technology
maturity. Huawei has actively contributed in 3GGP standardization for Radio Resource
Control (RRC) Protocol specification, Base Station (BS) radio transmission and reception,
User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception, Medium Access Control (MAC)
protocol specification, channels assignment and mapping, scheduling enhancement and so
on.
In addition to the standardization, Huawei has great contribution for the development of
network elements for the support and deployment of DC-HSDPA technology. The first
edition of Huawei dual cell technology is considered in RAN12 series release.

5.1 Software upgraded Network Elements

The network elements developed by Huawei are hardware ready for the DC-HSDPA
operations and only software up-gradation required. The 4th generation NodeBs and
6810/6900 series RNC types are capable to support DC-HSDPA functionality through
software up-gradation. The joint scheduling, channel mapping and radio resource
management are handled only by the software change in the legacy elements.

Figure 5-1 – Huawei NodeB up-gradation for DC-HSDPA

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5.2 Multi Carrier Transceivers

Huawei was the first vendor to provide multi carrier transceivers to the industry. Most of the
deployed UMTS networks by Huawei are configured with multi carrier transceivers, so it is
easy for those operators to upgrade their network for DC-HSDPA and future MC-HSDPA.

Figure 5-2 – Huawei Multi Carrier Benefits for DC-HSDPA Operations

5.3 Advance RRM and Schedulling Methods

Huawei use advance radio resource management and scheduling methods to improve the
performance and capability of DC-HSDPA. In the anchor cell-selection procedure, Huawei
has enabled advance algorithm based on load, service and capacity. The radio resource
admission check based on the power level is estimated for dual carrier users. The DC users
are assigned radio resources based on satisfying following power conditions:
 Max Available HSDPA Power Admission of current carrier
 Max Transmit Power Admission of current carrier
 Max Available HSDPA Power Admission of DC Group
 Max Transmit Power Admission of DC Group

For the scheduling process, the criteria for the scheduling assignment are dependent on the
following two factors:
 The power utilization of Carriers
 SC HSDPA user number of Carriers
The user is assigned one of the scheduler of two cells in such a way that it would not impact
the performance and capacity of entire cell and other users. Following main advantages are
realized from the above algorithm settings:
 Enhance the QoE, Reduce waiting time for the Delay-Sensitive Services and Guarantee
the BE users’ throughput

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 Ensures the full use of resources for DC-Group

 Realization of user-differentiation among DC and SC users
Figure 5-3 shows the scheduling priority and selection procedure for a DC-HSDPA user.

Figure 5-3 – Details of DC-HSDPA users scheduling Process

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6 Conclusion

DC-HSDPA improves the user’s experience by adopting multi carrier technology.

The user’s peak throughput similar to that of MIMO technology is achieved by the
DC-HSDPA. The impact of signal channel quality on DC-HSDPA user’s throughput
is less than that of MIMO and users at the far end of the cell receive higher data
throughputs as compared to all other features of HSPA+.
DC-HSDPA users enjoy high data transmission rate in all the cell coverage area
even in the cell edges. The deployment and configuration for DC-HSDPA is easy
and low cost and have no negative impacts on the legacy HSDPA users and
terminals.
The performance of DC-HSDPA is best for burst data services like http, gaming
and low download files. The joint scheduling procedures in the NodeB insure the
transmission of single user’s data through two cells and hence increase the
transmission data rate.
DC-HSDPA is one of the key features of Huawei RAN 12 series based on 3GPP R8
standard. The entire network elements developed by Huawei fully supports
DC-HSDPA technology with only software up-gradation. The multi carrier
technology, advance radio resource management and improved scheduling
techniques in Huawei network elements insure the quality of DC-HSDPA solution.

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7 Acronyms and Abbreviations

Table 7-1 Acronyms and Abbreviations

Acronym and Abbreviation Expansion

3G The Third Generation
AMR Adaptive Multi-Rate
ARQ Automatic Repeat Request
AQM Active Queue Management
BBU Baseband Unit
BITS Building Integrated Timing Supply System
BTS Base Station
CCCH Common Control Channel
CPC Continuous Packet Connectivity
CPICH Common Pilot Channel
CQI Channel Quality Indicator
DL Downlink
DPCCH Dedicated Physical Control Channel
DPDCH Dedicated Physical Data Channel
DRX Discontinuous Reception
DTCH Dedicated Traffic Channel
DTX Discontinuous Transmission
DTxAA Double Transmit Antenna Array
EDCH Enhanced Dedicated Channel
FACH Forward Access Channel
HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access

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Acronym and Abbreviation Expansion

HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access
HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request
HS-PDSCH High Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channel
HS-SCCH High Speed Shared Control Channel
MIMO Multi-Input Multi-Output
MAC Medium Access Control
PA Power Amplifier
PARC Platform Advanced Radio Control
PDU Protocol Data Unit
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
RAN Radio Access Network
RET Remote Electrical Antenna
RNC Radio Network Controller
RLC Radio Link Control
RRM Radio Resource Management
SAE System Architecture Evolution
TPC Transmit Power Control
TrCH Transport Channel
UL Uplink
VoCS Voice over Circuit Switch
VoIP Voice over IP
WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

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