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CDMA / UMTS RF Interview Questions ‫اﻷرﺷﯿﻒ‬

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CDMA / UMTS RF INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
(7 ) 1 1

1.what is t he link budget ? (1 4 ) 1 0

A link budget is the accounting of all of the gains and losses from the transm itter, through the
m edium (free space, cable, wav eguide, fiber, etc.) to the receiv er in a telecom m unication sy stem . It

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 accounts for the attenuation of the transm itted signal due to propagation, as well as the antenna .Blog g er ‫ﺗﺪﻋﻤﻪ‬
gains, feedline and m iscellaneous losses. Random ly v ary ing channel gains such as fading are taken
into account by adding som e m argin depending on the anticipated sev erity of its effects. The
am ount of m argin required can be reduced by the use of m itigating techniques such as antenna
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div ersity or frequency hopping..
A sim ple link budget equation looks like this:
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Receiv ed Power (dBm ) = Transm itted Power (dBm ) + Gains (dB) − Losses (dB)

2. What is UE maximum t ransmit power in y our link budget ?

2 1 dBm . ‫أﻗﺴﺎم اﻟﻤﺪوﻧﺔ‬

CDMA /UMT S
3. What is a t y pical ant enna gain?
Dr iv e t est en g in eer in g
The antenna gain depends on antenna m odel; in link budget we use around 1 7 dBi.
GSM
sit es com pon en t s
4. What is a t y pical maximum pat h loss?
The m axim um path loss is dependent on the serv ice and v endor recom m endations; ty pically it
is in between 1 3 5 to 1 4 0dB for urban areas and between 1 50 to 1 6 0dB for rural areas.

5. What is difference bet ween dBi and dBd?

dBi is the gain in dB from isotropic source; dBd is the gain from a dipole source.
HEADER
dBd + 2 .1 5 = dBi.

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 6. What is t he difference bet ween dB and dBm?
dBm is a unit of power lev el, m easured in m illi-watts in logarithm scale, that is,
dBm = 1 0 * log(W*1 000)
where W is the power in Watts
dB is not a unit, it is the difference in dBm .

7 . What is 0dBm?
0dBm = 1 m illi-watt.

8. How does TMA work?

A TMA reduces sy stem noise, im prov es uplink sensitiv ity and leads to longer UE battery life.
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 Sensitiv ity is the m inim um input power needed to get a suitable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at
the output of the receiv er. It is determ ined by receiv er noise figure, therm o noise power and
required SNR. Therm o noise power is determ ined by bandwidth and tem perature, SNR is
determ ined by m odulation technique, therefore the only v ariable is noise figure.
The cascading noise figure can be calculated by Friis equation (Herald Friis):
NFt = NF1 + (NF2 -1 )/G1 + (NF3 -1 )/(G1 *G2 ) + ... + (NFi-1 )/(G1 *G2 *...*Gi)
As the equation shows, the first block im poses the m inim um and the m ost prom inent noise
figure on the sy stem , and the following blocks im poses less and less im pact to the sy stem
prov ided the gains are positiv e. Linear passiv e dev ices hav e noise figure equal to their loss.
A TMA ty pically has a gain of 1 2 dB.
There are ty pically top jum per, m ain feeder and a bottom jum per between antenna and BTS.
A TMA placed near antenna with a short jum per from antenna prov ides the best noise figure
im prov em ent – the noise figure will be restricted to the top jum per loss (NF1 ) and TMA
((NF2 -1 )/G1 ), and the rem aining blocks (m ain feeder and bottom jum per) hav e little effect.
To sum m arize, a TMA has a gain that’s close to feeder loss.

9. What are t he (advant ages and disadvant ages) of TMA?

On the upside, a TMA reduces sy stem noise, im prov es uplink sensitiv ity and leads to longer
UE battery life. On the downside, TMA im poses an additional insertion loss (ty pically
0.5dB) on the downlink and increases site installation and m aintenance com plexity .

10. What is t y pical TMA gain?

TMA ty pically has a 1 2 dB gain; howev er, the effectiv e gain com es from noise figure
reduction and the gain is close or equiv alent to the feeder loss.

11. Why TMA are inst alled at t he t op near t he ant enna and not t he bot t om near t he
NodeB?
Based on Friis Equation, hav ing a TMA near the BTS will hav e the top jum per and m ain
feeder losses (noise figures) cascaded in and a TMA will not be able to help suppress the
losses.
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 12. What is UMTS chip rat e?
3 .84 MHz.

13. What is processing gain?

Processing gain is the ratio of chip rate ov er data bit rate, usually represented in decibel (dB)
scale. For exam ple, with 3 .84 MHz chip rate and 1 2 .2 k data rate, the processing gain is:
PG1 2 .2 k = 1 0 * log (3 ,84 0,000 / 1 2 ,2 00) = 2 5dB

14. What are t he processing gains for CS and PS services?

CS1 2 .2 : 2 5dB
PS-6 4 : 1 8dB
PS-1 2 8: 1 5dB
PS-3 84 : 1 0dB
HSDPA: 2 dB

15. How t o calculat e maximum number of users on a cell?

To calculate the m axim um num ber of users (M) on a cell, we need to know:
W: chip rate (for UMTS 3 ,84 0,000 chips per second)
EbNo: Eb/No requirem ent (assum ing 3 dB for CS-1 2 .2 k)
i: other-cell to in-cell interference ratio (assum ing 6 0%)
R: user data rate (assum ing 1 2 ,2 00 kbps for CS-1 2 .2 k)
η: loading factor (assum ing 50%)
Take 1 2 .2 kbps as exam ple:
M = W / (EnNo * (1 + i) * R) * η = 3 ,84 0,000 (3 * (1 + 0.6 ) * 1 2 ,2 00) * 0.5 = 3 2 .8
The num ber of users could also be hard-lim ited by OVSF code space. Take CS1 2 .2 k for
exam ple:
· A CS-1 2 .2 k bearer needs 1 SF1 2 8 code.
· Total av ailable codes for CS-1 2 .2 k = 1 2 8 – 2 (1 SF6 4 ) – 2 (4 SF2 56 ) = 1 2 4 .
· Consider soft-handov er factor of 1 .8 and loading factor of 50%: 1 2 4 / 1 .8 *.05 = 3 4
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 · Consider soft-handov er factor of 1 .8 and loading factor of 50%: 1 2 4 / 1 .8 *.05 = 3 4
uers/cell.

16. What is Eb/No?

By definition Eb/No is energy bit ov er noise density , i.e. is the ratio of the energy per
inform ation bit to the power spectral density (of interference and noise) after dispreading.
Eb/No = Processing Gain + SIR
For exam ple, if Eb/No is 5dB and processing gain is 2 5dB then the SIR should be -2 0dB or
better.

17 . What are t he Eb/No t arget s in y our design?

The Eb/No targets are dependent on the serv ice:
· On the uplink, ty pically CS is 5 to 6 dB and PS is 3 to 4 dB – PS is about 2 dB lower.
· On the downlink, ty pically CS has 6 to 7 dB and PS is 5 to 6 dB – PS is about 1 dB lower.

18. Why is Eb/No requirement lower for PS t han for CS?

PS has a better error correction capability and can utilize retransm ission, therefore it can
afford to a lower Eb/No. CS is real-tim e and cannot tolerate delay so it needs a higher Eb/No
to m aintain a stronger RF link.

19. What is Ec/Io?

Ec/Io is the ratio of the energy per chip in CPICH to the total receiv ed power density
(including CPICH itself).

20. Somet imes we say Ec/Io and somet imes we say Ec/No, are t hey different ?
Io = own cell interference + surrounding cell interference + noise density
No = surrounding cell interference + noise density
That is, Io is the total receiv ed power density including CPICH of its own cell, No is the total
receiv ed power density excluding CPICH of its own cell. Technically Ec/Io should be the

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 correct m easurem ent but, due to equipm ent capability , Ec/No is actually m easured. In
UMTS, Ec/No and Ec/Io are often used interchangeably .

21. What is RSCP?

RSCP stands for Receiv ed Signal Code Power – the energy per chip in CPICH av eraged ov er
51 2 chips.

22. What is SIR?

SIR is the Signal-to-Interference Ratio – the ratio of the energy in dedicated phy sical control
channel bits to the power density of interference and noise after dispreading.

23. What is t he loading fact or in y our design?

The designed loading ty pically is 50%; howev er, som etim es a carrier m ay want to design up
to 7 5% load.

24. Give a simple definit ion of pole capacit y ?

The uplink noise increases with the loading exponentially . When the uplink noise approaches
infinity then no m ore users can be added to a cell – and the cell loading is close to 1 00% and
has reached its “pole capacity ”.
Mathem atically , to calculate the uplink pole capacity we need to know:
W: chip rate (for UMTS 3 ,84 0,000 chips per second)
R: user data rate (assum ing 1 2 ,2 00 kbps for CS-1 2 .2 k)
f: other-cell to in-cell interference ratio (assum ing 6 5%)
EbNo: Eb/No requirem ent (assum ing 5dB)
AF: Activ ity factor (assum ing 50%)
Pole Capacity = (W/R) / ((1 + f) * AF * 1 0^(EbNo/1 0)) = 1 2 0.6
To calculate the downlink pole capacity we also need to know:
α: downlink channels orthogonality factor (assum ing 55%)
Pole Capacity = (W/R) / ((1 - α + f) * 1 0^(EbNo/1 0)) = 6 4 .06

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 25. What is t y pical pole capacit y for CS-12.2, PS-64, PS-128 and PS-384?
With sam e assum ptions as abov e:
· CS-1 2 .2 k: 1 2 0.6 (UL), 6 4 .1 (DL).
· PS-6 4 k: 3 4 .8 (UL), 1 2 .8(DL).
· PS-1 2 8k: 1 6 .2 (UL), 8.4 (DL).
· PS-3 84 k: 1 6 .2 (UL), 2 .8 (DL).
PS-3 84 k has only 1 2 8k on the uplink, therefore the uplink capacity is the sam e for both.

SEE TOO
CDMA/UMTS RF Interview questions
CDMA / UMTS RF Interview Questions 2
CDMA / UMTS RF Interview Questions 3
CDMA/UMTS RF Interview questions 4
CDMA/UMTS RF Interview questions 5

CDMA/UMTS:‫اﻟﺘﺴﻤﯿﺎت‬
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