E User Description, DTX

User Description, DTX

©Ericsson Radio Systems AB

7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 1 (13)

1999-02-10
User Description, DTX

2 (13) ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C

1999-02-10
 User Description, DTX

Contents
1 Feature overview........................................................................................... 5

1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 5

1.2 Background.............................................................................................. 5
1.3 What can be achieved............................................................................. 5

2 Technical description................................................................................... 7

2.1 General .................................................................................................... 7

2.2 Influenced features .................................................................................. 7

3 Engineering guidelines................................................................................. 9

3.1 Function ................................................................................................... 9

3.2 Recommendations................................................................................... 9

3.3 Conclusions ............................................................................................. 9

4 Parameters.....................................................................................................11

4.1 Main controlling parameters .................................................................... 11

4.2 Value ranges and default values.............................................................11

5 References.....................................................................................................13

7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 3 (13)

1999-02-10
User Description, DTX

This page is intentionally left blank

4 (13) ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C

1999-02-10
 Feature overview

1 Feature overview
1.1 Introduction
If nothing is said into the microphone, there is no point sending
anything at all in the air. When the Discontinuous Transmission (DTX)
feature is used, the system only transmits when speech is detected over
the connection. This decreases the power consumption in the mobile
station (MS) and in the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and reduces the
amount of energy emitted into the air.
DTX is controlled by a feature implemented in the Base Station
Controller (BSC).

1.2 Background
During a normal conversation, the participants alternate so that each is
silent for about 50% of the time. If the transmitter is silent while there
is nothing to be sent, the power consumption in the mobile station 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 Carrier-to-Interference ratio (C/I) will be
raised for all connections when using DTX.
The purpose of the DTX feature is to decrease MS and BTS power
consumption and to reduce the overall interference in the system. DTX
only affects transmission of Traffic Channel (TCH) frames.

1.3 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 can be applied for speech and in the uplink also for non
transparent data connections. It is not used on a Broadcast Control
Channel (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 transmitter intermodulation products.
When DTX uplink and downlink is used, there is an improvement in
the C/I ratio in the system. This improvement can be utilised for a

7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 5 (13)

1999-02-10
Feature overview

tighter cell planning, especially when frequency hopping is used, which

means that a higher capacity can be achieved.
Measurements of the signal strength and the signal quality on the
established connection are performed by the mobile station and by the
base station. When using DTX, these measurements cannot be
performed as often as normal. This disadvantage results in less accurate
measurement reports to other radio network features (see also Section
2.2 on page 7 ).
Another disadvantage with DTX, especially for MS to MS calls when
DTX is used both on the uplink and downlink, is that the quality of
plosives (sounds like "p", "t" and "k") may be a bit poorer. This is due
to slow response of the Voice Activity Detector (VAD).

6 (13) ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C

1999-02-10
 Technical description

2 Technical description
2.1 General
In a speech connection, the VAD in the transmitter BTS or MS detects
whether a traffic frame consists of speech or of background noise. If a
frame consists of only noise, the transmitter sends one Silence
Descriptor (SID) frame, and then the transmission is stopped. After
that, one new SID frame is sent each SACCH period, until speech 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
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 allow more signal strength
and signal quality measurements to be made.
The VAD must be operating at all times to assess whether the input
signal contains speech or not.
The MS can use DTX in the uplink for non transparent data
connections. In analogy with SID frames for speech connections, non
transparent data connections use L2 fill frames. DTX is not applied on
the downlink for data connections. When DTX is not used and nothing
needs to be sent on non transparent data connections, acknowledgement
or unacknowledgement messages are transmitted continuously.
The MS and/or the BTS sends information in the Measurement Report/
Result, every 480 ms, telling whether it has used DTX some time
during the previous interval or not. .

2.2 Influenced features

When DTX is used the measurements of signal strength, signal quality
and time alignment will be based on fewer samples and hence be less
accurate. Therefore, features using these measurements will be affected,
e.g. Locating, see ref. 1, Dynamic MS Power Control, see ref. 2 and
Dynamic BTS Power Control, see ref. 3. However, the effect is
considered negligible.
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 is selected depends on:
• uplink
DTX information provided by the MS is checked. If the mobile
has been using DTX some time during the previous measurement
period, the subset of measurements will be selected.
• downlink

7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 7 (13)

1999-02-10
Technical description

The full set of measurements is used if the base station confirms

that it is not using DTX.

8 (13) ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C

1999-02-10
 Engineering guidelines

3 Engineering guidelines
3.1 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.
In a non-hopping environment this is true only as a long-term average.
Therefore DTX can not 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. 4.
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.
The same considerations as for C/I apply to the influence of BTS
intermodulation products when DTX is used with and without frequency
hopping. Using DTX in an attempt to solve an intermodulation problem
is not advised. Instead it is recommended to change frequencies or use
the Support for Special Cell Configuration feature.

3.2 Recommendations
Use DTX 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.
Downlink DTX should be enabled in high capacity networks already
using frequency hopping and BTS Power Control (see ref. 3) when
more interference reduction is needed than given by BTS Power Control
alone. There is no use implementing DTX downlink in a low
interference system and there is no gain unless it is used in a large area.
It is recommended to test downlink DTX in a small area before
introducing it in the whole network. This is to ensure that the BTS
hardware and software can handle downlink DTX . Some early MS
models cannot handle downlink DTX together with frequency hopping
properly. Downlink DTX is used successfully in a number of high
capacity networks.
The influence of DTX on speech quality will be the same whether used
by the MS or the BTS.

3.3 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.

7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 9 (13)

1999-02-10
Engineering guidelines

This page is intentionally left blank

10 (13) ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C

1999-02-10
 Parameters

4 Parameters
4.1 Main controlling parameters
DTXU is the uplink parameter and states whether the mobile stations
located in that cell shall (DTXU=1) or shall not (=2) use DTX. With
DTXU=0 the MS may use DTX which means that MSs in battery
saving mode (option on some MS models) shall use DTX. DTXU 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. It is defined per cell.

4.2 Value ranges and default values

Table 1

Parameter Default Recommended

Value range Unit
name value value
DTXU 2 1 0, 1, 2
DTXD OFF OFF ON, OFF

7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 11 (13)

1999-02-10
Parameters

This page is intentionally left blank

12 (13) ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C

1999-02-10
 References

5 References
1 User Description, Locating.
2 User Description, Dynamic MS Power Control.
3 User Description, Dynamic BTS Power Control.
4 User Description, Frequency Hopping.

7/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen Rev C ©Ericsson Radio Systems AB 13 (13)

1999-02-10