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Originator(s)
UMTS RADIO NETWORK PLANNING GUIDELINE
O. Aydin, U. Birkel, A.
Gaertner, RM. Goerner, M.
Hahn, L. Sanchez-Perez
ABSTRACT
This guideline is giving an introduction into RNP relevant aspects of UMTS. It is shown how to
dimension, how to plan and how to perform measurements in an UMTS network based on Wide
Band CDMA.
KEYWORDS
UMTS, RNP, Guideline, Planning, Dimensioning, Traffic
App.
Name ?
App.
HISTORY
Edition Date Reason of change
01 19.01.2001 Creation of document
01 23.01.2001 Draft 01
01 07.02.2001 Proposal 01
02 05.04.2001 Excluding confidential information from chapters 4 and 5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REFERENCED DOCUMENTS..................................................................................................................... 6
RELATED DOCUMENTS ............................................................................................................................. 6
PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................................ 6
SCOPE.............................................................................................................................................................. 6
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 6
1 RNP PROCESS DESCRIPTION........................................................................................................................ 8
2 WCDMA FUNDAMENTALS AND UMTS AIR INTERFACE ........................................................................... 9
2.1 UMTS NETWORK ARCHITECTURE ............................................................................................................... 9
2.1.1 UE ( User Equipment) .............................................................................................................................. 9
2.1.2 UTRAN (UMTS Radio Access Network) .............................................................................................. 10
2.1.3 CN (Core network) ................................................................................................................................. 10
2.1.4 External networks ................................................................................................................................... 10
2.1.5 Interfaces ................................................................................................................................................ 11
2.1.6 Logical roles of the RNC........................................................................................................................ 11
2.1.6.1 CRNC .................................................................................................................................................. 11
2.1.6.2 SRNC & DRNC................................................................................................................................... 11
2.1.7 Mapping between GSM and UMTS ....................................................................................................... 12
2.2 STANDARDS AND USED FREQUENCY SPECTRUM........................................................................................ 12
2.3 MOBILE CLASSES ....................................................................................................................................... 14
2.4 BROADBAND PROPAGATION CHANNEL AND WCDMA BASIC CONCEPT ................................................... 14
2.4.1 Multiple Access Techniques................................................................................................................... 14
2.4.2 Broadband signal and Coherence bandwidth.......................................................................................... 15
2.4.3 Multipath propagation and RAKE receiver ............................................................................................ 16
2.5 SPREADING, SCRAMBLING AND MODULATION .......................................................................................... 16
2.5.1 Spreading ................................................................................................................................................ 16
2.5.2 Despreading ............................................................................................................................................ 17
2.5.3 Codes used.............................................................................................................................................. 18
2.5.3.1 Channelization codes ........................................................................................................................... 18
2.5.3.2 Scrambling codes................................................................................................................................. 19
2.5.4 Example for scrambling code allocation: Cell Search Process............................................................... 21
2.5.5 Spreading, scrambling and modulation .................................................................................................. 21
2.5.5.1 Uplink part ........................................................................................................................................... 21
2.5.5.2 Downlink part ...................................................................................................................................... 22
2.6 USER DETECTION MECHANISMS (QUICK OVERVIEW)................................................................................. 23
2.7 POWER CONTROL IN UMTS FDD.............................................................................................................. 23
2.7.1 General Power Control in UMTS ........................................................................................................... 23
2.7.1.1 Outer Loop Power Control .................................................................................................................. 24
RELATED DOCUMENTS
[WCDMA] WCDMA for UMTS, Harri Holma & Antti Toskala, John Wiley & Sons, LTD
Published January 2000, ISBN 0471720518
[INTRO] Memorandum “Introduction to UMTS” Ref.: MCD/TD/BDC/JVPA/UMTS/2000/01
PREFACE
This document gives information required by radio network planning engineers to understand and
plan a UMTS network.
SCOPE
This guideline is giving an introduction to the radio network planning related topics of the UMTS
system. It is shown what input parameters are required to dimension and plan a UMTS radio
network, how the dimensioning and planning is done and what kind of measurements are of
interest.
INTRODUCTION
UMTS is the 3G mobile communication system specified by 3GPP. It is part of the IMT-2000
standard provided by the ITU and consists of a WCDMA system based on FDD. A future TDD part is
not yet specified by 3GPP, thus not included in this document.
The guideline is intended to provide all necessary information required for planning a UMTS
network in FDD mode. It is assumed that the reader has already experience in planning other
mobile communication systems, e.g. GSM.
Each chapter of this document contains its own introduction explaining the aim of the chapter. Find
hereafter a short summary of contents of all chapters of the guideline:
The RNP process description gives answers on the question – what is radio network planning (RNP).
The main tasks included in RNP are bundled in packets. The inputs, contents, outputs and interfaces
of each packet are given and explained. In addition the relation of each packet to the existing AIO
modules are shown.
As this process is the same for UMTS and GSM, a separated document has been created for the
RNP process. This document can be found either in the PCS intranet or on DIAMS.
Document reference: RNP Process Description – 3DF 00902 UA00 DEZZA
Intranet: http://aww.rcd.alcatel.com/PCS
Referenced Documents
[UTRA] UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access 3DF 009955 0004 UAZZA
[25.213] Spreading and modulation (FDD) (Release 1999) 3GPP 25.213 V3.3.0
[25.214] Physical layer procedures (FDD) (Release 1999) 3GPP 25.214 V3.4.0
[25.101] UE Radio Transmission and Reception (FDD) (Release 1999)
3GPP 25.101 V3.4.1
[25.331] RRC Protocol Specification (Release 1999) 3GPP 25.331 V3.4.1
[26.103] Speech CODEC List for GSM and UMTS 3GPP 26.103 V3.0.0
[WFI] 3 Day UMTS training held for ALCATEL in August 2000
[INTRO] Memorandum “Introduction to UMTS”
Ref.: MCD/TD/BDC/JVPA/UMTS/2000/01
[WCDMA] WCDMA for UMTS, Holma & Toskala, John Wiley & Sons 2000,
ISBN 0 471 72051 8
[OPNET] Study of soft handover with OPNET system simulations,
Ref: MCD/TD/SYT/PBL/200816
[SysDesign] UTRAN System Design Document Ed.7, 3BK 10240 0005 DSZZA
The UMTS network includes not only the air interface of an UMTS network, but also the fixed
network part with its connection to the core networks (packet and circuit switched). All main elements
of an UMTS network and the connection to the external networks are shown in Figure 1.
Uu Iu
Node B Iu-CS
PLMN, PSTN,
RNC MSC/VLR GMSC
ISDN, ...
USIM Node B RNS
Cu Iub Iur HLR
Node B
ME
RNC SGSN GGSN Internet
Node B Iu-PS
RNS
UE UTRAN CN External Networks
The UTRAN consists of one or several Radio Network Subsystems (RNS) each containing one RNC
and one or several Node B:
§ Node B
The Node B is the correspondent element to the BTS in GSM. Within Alcatel this part of
the network is called the Multi-standard Base Station (MBS), as it is possible to integrate
GSM modules as well (not in the early versions!)
§ RNC
The Radio Network Controller (RNC) owns and controls the radio resources of the
connected Node Bs. The RNC can have three different logical roles: CRNC, SRNC,
DRNC. See more details in chapter 2.1.6.
§ HLR
The Home Location Register is a database located in the user’s home system that stores
the master copy of the user’s service profile.
§ MSC/VLR
The Mobile Services Switching Center and Visitor Location Register are the switch (MSC)
and database (VLR) serving the UE in its current location for circuit switched services.
§ GMSC
The Gateway MSC (GMSC) is the MSC at the point where the UMTS PLMN is connected
to external circuit switched networks.
§ SGSN
The Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) is the counterpart of the MSC/VLR for the packet
switched part of the network.
§ GGSN
The Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) is the counterpart of the GMSC in the packet
switched domain.
It is important to know, that all external UMTS interfaces are open interfaces. This means that
theoretically equipment of different vendors can be mixed if it fulfills the standards.
§ Cu interface
The Cu interface is a standard interface for smartcards. In the UE it is the connection
between the USIM and the UE.
§ Uu interface
The Uu interface is the WCDMA radio interface within UMTS. It is the interface through
which the UE accesses the fixed part of the network. This interface is the most important
one to understand for RNP issues.
§ Iu interface
The Iu interface connects the UTRAN to the core network and is split in two parts. The Iu-
CS is the interface between the RNC and the circuit switched part of the core network.
The Iu-PS is the interface between the RNC and the packet switched part of the core
network.
§ Iur interface
This RNC-RNC interface was initially designed in order to provide inter RNC soft HO, but
more features were added during the development. Four distinct functions are
provided now:
1. Basic inter-RNC mobility
2. Dedicated channel traffic
3. Common channel traffic
4. Global resource management
§ Iub interface
The Iub interface connects the Node B and the RNC. Contrarily to GSM, this interface is
fully open in UMTS and thus more competition is expected.
2.1.6.1 CRNC
For each Node B the RNC to which the Node B is connected is the Controlling RNC (CRNC).
The Serving RNC (SRNC) for a certain connection is the RNC providing the Iu connection to the core
network. When the UE is in inter-RNC soft HO, more than one Iub and at least one Iur connection is
established. Only one of the RNCs (the SRNC) is providing the Iu interface to the core network, all
other ones are just routing information between Iub and Iur interface. These RNCs are called Drift
RNC (DRNC). Figure 2 illustrates the logical role of SRNC and DRNC.
For easy understanding of the new notations within a UMTS network, the correspondent parts of the
GSM network are given in the table below.
Table 1: Mapping of notations between GSM and UMTS
GSM/GPRS UMTS
MS Mobile Station ME Mobile Equipment
SIM Subscriber Identity Module USIM UMTS SIM
- - UE User Equipment (USIM+ME)
Um Air interface Uu
BTS Base Station Node B Node B
Abis Iub
BSC Base Station Controller RNC Radio Network Controller
BSS Base Station Subsystem RNS Radio Network Subsystem
- Iur
A Iu-CS
Gb Iu-PS
MSC Mobile Switching Center MSC Mobile Switching Center
SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node
OMC Operation & Maintenance OMC dito
Center
In this chapter, the air interface (Uu) part and its terminating devices UE and Node B are
investigated in more detail.
The ITU-R has produced high-level documents covering the performance, service type, and inter-
working requirements for IMT-2000. Various international standards bodies such as the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) are responsible for the detailed technical
specifications of the equipment required to provide an IMT-2000 compatible service. A number of
In this document we are focusing on the FDD-WCDMA part of the IMT2000 system, the so called
FDD-UMTS. For this part, the following band is reserved:
UL: 1920 – 1980 MHz
DL: 2110 – 2170 MHz
As the UMTS carrier spacing is 5 MHz, the available bandwidth for the FDD part provides 12
different channels. Depending on the country these 12 available licenses are given to different
operators. An operator gets typically 2 or 3 licenses for paired (UL and DL) frequency bands. This
small amount of frequencies is due to the frequency reuse of 1 applied within a UMTS system.
The nominal channel spacing is 5 MHz, but this can be adjusted to optimize performance in a
particular deployment scenario. The channel raster is 200 kHz, which means that the center
frequency must be an integer multiple of 200 kHz. The carrier frequency is designated by the UTRA
Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (UARFCN). The value of the UARFCN in the IMT2000
band is defined as follows [25.101]:
For the terrestrial UTRAN system, the following mobile power classes are defined. They define the
maximum output power of the UE [25.101].
Table 3: UE Power Classes
Power Class Maximum output power Tolerance
1 +33 dBm +1/-3 dB
2 +27 dBm +1/-3 dB
3 +24 dBm +1/-3 dB
4 +21 dBm ± 2 dB
Note: Up to now, only mobile class 4 has been entirely aproved by 3GPP
In a mobile radio system, the radio channel has to be accessed by a great number of users. A
multiple access method has to be used in order to avoid interference in the receiver. The current
principles are
§ TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)
§ FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access)
§ CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
The data signals are modulated with user specific carrier signals. The orthogonality1 of the multiple
access carrier signals represents the prerequisite for correctly detecting the data of all users.
§ FDMA uses bandpass carrier signals which are non-overlapping in the frequency domain and
therefore orthogonal at any time.
§ TDMA impulse carrier signals are non-overlapping in the time domain and orthogonal at
sampling time.
§ CDMA signature waveforms are generated from orthogonal code sequences (e.g. Walsh
sequences) or from quasi-orthogonal pseudo-noise (PN) sequences (e.g. Gold Sequences). By
modulating the data with the user specific CDMA carrier signals, the original signal is spread
over the whole available frequency band.
1 Orthogonality of two functions g(t) and s(t) is given in the case, that their cross-correlation function
is equal to zero
channel bandwidth
t0 t1 t
Figure 5: Delay spreads of broad band (upper) and narrow band (lower) channels
One big advantage of the UMTS system is its capability to benefit from a multipath environment. In
the upper part of Figure 4 we can see the delay spread of a broadband channel as used in UMTS.
The received energy from the different multipaths of one signal overlaps much less than in the
narrow band case. Thus, the different multipaths can be combined by a special receiver technique,
called RAKE receiver, to one improved signal. A RAKE receiver has several input paths (called RAKE
fingers), where the signal can be delayed by an adjustable time. Selecting the delay time on each
finger in that way, that the different multipaths entering the receiver at the same time, the signals
can be combined and thus an improved summary signal can be generated.
The delay time on each RAKE finger is determined automatically. The number of RAKE fingers is not
fix and depends on the considered product.
Conclusion:
The UTRA system can take advantage from a multipath environment, e.g. dense urban areas.
2.5.1 Spreading
The UTRA system uses direct sequence (DS) spreading for both FDD and TDD mode. The principle
consists of multiplying the bipolar data signal bi(t) with a bipolar, broad band carrier signal si(t). This
signal is user specific and therefor called signature waveform of the user i. The multiplication in the
time domain corresponds to a convolution in the frequency domain, so that the transmitted signal is
also broadband. The spreading factor SP describes the widening of its spectrum. The equivalent low-
pass of the transmitted signals consists of chips, i.e. bipolar impulses of the duration Tc. One data
bit of the duration Tb=SP x Tc corresponds to SF chips during transmission.
Before the data signal bi can be spread, it has to be generated out of the user bits ui and the
channel coding bits. The channel coding bits are added to the data bit rate bi. Knowing the data bit
rate bi, e.g. 960 kbit/s for the 384kbit/s data channel, the spreading factor is calculated. In this
example the spreading factor would be (3840kbit/s bandwidth)/(960kbit/s data rate) = 4.
Due to this spreading the signal can be recovered out of the noise and interference at the receiver
by de-spreading (auto-correlation). The received signal energy increase compared to the noise and
interference in dB is called the processing gain: PG [dB] = 10 x log SF.
Thus the processing gain can vary between 6 (SF = 4) and 24 (SF = 256).
2.5.2 Despreading
What is the sense of spreading the data signal onto the whole available channel bandwidth? Two
reasons we have seen in chapter 2.4.3 „Multipath propagation and RAKE receiver“:
1. Less fading sensible channel
2. Takes advantage from multipath environment
The main reason for spreading the data signal over the whole bandwidth is the ability to extract at
the receiver the wanted signal out of the total received power (interference, noise and useful signal)
by doing correlation with the known user specific code. This is the main principle of Direct Sequence
CDMA (DS-CDMA).
Principle:
time time
code code
Autocorrelation with
known code of channel 1
channel 1
The spreading of the data signal onto physical channels is done in two steps:
1. Channelization
Channelization codes transform every data bit into a number of chips. The number of chips per
data bit is the so called spreading factor SF.
2. Scrambling
During the scrambling operation a complex scrambling code (real part for the I branch and
imaginary part for the Q branch) is applied to the spread signal.
The scrambling code is used to identify in UL the mobile and in DL the cell.
As this scrambling codes change very often between –1 and 1, they are responsible for increasing
the bandwidth. The channelization codes spread the signal to the chip rate of 3.84 Mbit/s, but do
not really increase the required bandwidth of the signal to 3.84 MHz. A chiprate of 3.84 Mbit/s is
only leading to an required bandwidth of 3.84 MHz in case of altering the sign on a chip by chip
basis.
Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes are used as channelization codes, which
ensure that a number of mobiles can share the same RF channel (frequency) without causing
unacceptable interference. These codes allow Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) to the shared
RF channel (frequency).
These spreading codes are of variable length and therefore offer spreading factors between 4 and
256. In that way, different user bit rates can be realized. The codes are mutually orthogonal even
though of different length, if they are synchronized. As synchronization is not possible between
different mobiles, the orthogonal OVSF codes are not leading to orthogonal signals in UL. In DL
they are fully orthogonal assuming a ideal propagation channel, but due to multipaths in real
environments, the signals using the codes are not fully orthogonal.
Figure 8 shows the OVSF code tree, which is generated by applying at each branch split the rule:
Cnew,upper_branch = +Cold+Cold and Cnew, lower_branch = +Cold-Cold
SF = 1 SF = 2 SF = 4
The code tree defines the code length used to provide the specified spreading factor. The higher
user data rate services use shorter codes and hence lower spreading factors (and associated de-
spreading gain). A given mobile cannot use all channel codes simultaneously. A channel code can
only be used by a mobile if no other code on the path from the specific code to the root of the code
tree, or in the sub-tree below the specific code, is used by any mobile. Thus the number of available
channel codes is not fixed, but depends on the data rate and associated spreading factor of each
physical channel used.
For each call, the mobile is allocated at least one uplink channel code, for an uplink DPCCH (see
explanation on channel types in chapter 3). Usually, at least one further uplink channel code is
allocated for an uplink DPDCH. Additional uplink channel codes may be allocated if the mobile
needs more DPDCHs. All channel codes used for the DPDCH must be orthogonal to the channel
code used for the DPCCH.
As each mobile using the same RF channel uses a unique uplink scrambling code, no co-ordination
of the allocation of uplink channel codes to mobiles is needed. They are allocated in a predefined
order that exploits the design of the scrambling codes used by the mobile transmitter.
The mobile and the network may negotiate the number and length (spreading factor) of the channel
codes needed for the call, and the network allocates the necessary codes.
For the scrambling, there is the choice between short scrambling codes and long scrambling codes.
The first option is used if there is multi user detection in the base station in order to simplify the
correlation matrix computations. In case of single user detection, the second option is applied, for
improving the cross correlation properties and to assure a uniform distribution of the interference.
The short scrambling code is a complex code c’scramb = cI+jcQ, where cI and cQ are two different
codes from the extended Very Large Kasami set of length 256. The long scrambling codes constitute
of segments of 10ms (=38400 chips) of a set of Gold sequences with period 241-1. What long
scrambling code to use is directly given by the short scrambling code.
Currently only single user detection is done within the Node Bs, thus long scrambling codes are
used. Multi user detection is just an option for the future.
Node B UE
1 2
Spreading Scrambling
OVSF PN Despreading
Descrambling
(User identifier) (Cell identifier) DL
4 3
Scrambling Spreading
PN OVSF
Despreading Descrambling (User identifier) (User identifier)
UL
1
As the codes are sync. within the Node B, Orthogonal Codes are used to provide
small crosscorellation
2
To provide a small crosscorellation to unsyncronized codes (from other Node Bs or
from UEs), PN codes are used for scrambling in DL. One code for one cell !!!
3 As the UL isn’t syncronized, the OVSF codes aren’t used for spreading because of
their orthogonality, but because of their easy generation for different req. lengths!
4
To provide a small crosscorellation to unsyncronized codes (from other UEs or
Node Bs), PN codes are used for scrambling
Figure 9: Overview on spreading and scrambling code usage
During the cell search, the UE searches for a cell and determines the downlink scrambling code and
frame synchronization of that cell. The cell search is typically carried out in three steps:
· Step 1: Slot synchronization
During the first step of the cell search procedure the UE uses the SCH’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.
· Step 2: Frame synchronization and code-group identification
During the second step of the cell search procedure, the UE uses the SCH’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.
· Step 3: 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 found 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. And the system- and cell specific BCH information can be read.
If the UE has received information about which scrambling codes to search for, steps 2 and 3 above
can be simplified.
As demodulation is the reciprocal of modulation, only the modulation is explained in more detail
here.
The UTRA system uses QPSK modulation. This means, that one transmitted symbol consists of two
bits, one is transmitted with 0° phase shift (I branch, or real part) and the other one with 90° phase
shift (Q branch or imaginary part).
Concerning the uplink physical channels, one can distinguish between the two dedicated physical
channels (Dedicated Physical Control Channel, DPCCH and Dedicated Physical Data Channel,
DPDCH) and the Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) which carries the random access burst.
For the QPSK modulation, the DPDCH bits are mapped to the in-phase (I) branch while the DPCCH
bits belong to the quadrature (Q) branch. The spreading is done separately for each branch by two
different spreading codes cD and cC, which are called channelization codes. Both are then scrambled
by the same mobile specific complex scrambling code cscramb which is therefore the signature of the
mobile in uplink direction. The in-phase part I and quadrature part Q are then separated again and
modulated with the signals cos(wt) and sin(wt) respectively (see Figure 10). The modulation
frequency is of course the center frequency of the used 5MHz band.
I Real p(t)
DPDCH cscramb
I+jQ
cC wt)
sin(w
Q Imag p(t)
DPCCH *j
Whereas in UL only one branch is used for traffic data and the other one for signaling, in DL both
branches are used for signaling and data traffic. This is the reason, why in DL 1920 kbit/s data rate
is possible and in UL only 960 kbit/s.
To be able to use both branches in DL, the data stream is subdivided and the two bit sequences are
mapped to the I and Q branch, respectively ("Serial-to-parallel mapping"). The I and Q branches
are then spread to the chip rate with the same channelization code cch (real spreading) and
subsequently scrambled by the same cell specific scrambling code cscramb (real scrambling).
The channelization codes are also OVSF codes. In the downlink application, they preserve the
orthogonality between downlink channels of different rates and spreading factors.
cos(Mt)
I p(t)
Q p(t)
In Figure 12 the proposed multi user detection ,mechanisms for the UTRA system are shown. Today
only the single user detection (SUD) is implemented in the Node Bs. This is due to the huge
calculation capacity required for performing multi user detection. More information about user
detection mechanisms can be found in [UTRA].
CDMA Receiver
Figure 12: Possible multi user detection mechanisms in the UTRA system
Find detailed information on power control in [25.214]. Summary in [WFI] or [INTRO]. This chapter
is in accordance with [SysDesign]. This chapter is divided into 3 parts:
§ General Power Control
§ Uplink PC
§ Downlink PC
Evaluation of measurement reports and sending of power control commands is done by the serving
radio network controller SRNC.
Unlike in GSM, the power control mechanism in UMTS is not based on selecting appropriate power
levels to be used in the transmitter. Instead, the power control mechanism is based on a quality level
(the Signal to Interference Ratio) that has to be achieved by transmitting with an appropriate power
level.
CDMA is very sensitive for what concerns power control: for the proper functioning of UMTS, it is of
vital importance to have a good power control mechanism: the signal to interference ratio (SIR) has
to be kept at a certain level. If the SIR is too low, the signal of a UE can not be de-spreaded and
reconstructed any more. Since all users are transmitting simultaneously, the noise level depends
(among others) on the number of users.
-> The more interference, the more a cell is congested
This means that interference (transmit power of other links) determines the usage and thus
availability of free radio resources. A good power control algorithm will optimize the usage of radio
resources and thus increase the availability of radio resources.
The parameter used by layer 1 for making inner loop power control decisions are determined by the
outer loop power control algorithm. The outer loop control function manages the inner loop process
by setting the SIR target parameter and the power up/down step sizes.
In general, the algorithm for generating the TPC bits can be described with the following rules:
The inner part of closed loop power control is also called fast power control (1500 Hz) since it is
intended to respond to fast variations in propagation characteristics of the radio link (e.g. fast fading
at slow or medium speeds) as well as rapidly changing interference conditions. The power control
loop is closed because the receiver of the radio signal communicates commands back to the sender
to adjust its transmitted power. Fast power control is considered to be part of the physical layer of
the UTRA and is performed in the Node B and the UE.
The structure of the air interface enables power control commands called Transmit Power Control
(TPC) command bits to be sent once per slot. TPC bits can tell the remote end of the loop to either
power up by a step or to power down by a step. The decision to power up or down is based on an
estimate of the signal to interference ratio (SIR) of the channel. Since SIR is related to the quality of
the radio link, the principle of managing the quality of the link is achieved.
As closed loop power control is slightly different for UL and DL, more details are given in chapters
2.7.1.2.1 for uplink and 2.7.1.2.2 for downlink.
Uplink power control in a CDMA system is very important because of the necessity of suppressing
the near-far effect. Assuming all mobiles transmitting with the same power, a mobile close the
Open loop
Inner loop
Node B
In Downlink both the inner and outer loop of the closed loop power control are performed in the
UE. The UE generates TPC commands to control the network transmit power and send them in the
TPC field of the uplink DPCCH. The UE checks the downlink power control mode (DPC_MODE)
before generating the TPC command:
DPC_MODE = 0: The UE sends a unique TPC command in each slot and the TPC command
generated is transmitted in the first available TPC field in the uplink DPCCH
DPC_MODE = 1: The UE repeats the same TPC command over 3 slots and the new TPC
command is transmitted such that there is a new command at the beginning of
the frame. This mode is also called Slow Power control. Its advantage is a
higher precision of the TPC command.
Note: DPC_MODE=1 shall not be used in 3GR1.1 because 3GPP specs are not finalized.
The DPC_MODE parameter is a UE specific parameter controlled by the UTRAN.
The power control step size DTPC can take four values: 0.5, 1, 1.5 or 2 dB. It is mandatory for
UTRAN to support DTPC of 1 dB, while support of other step sizes is optional.
In case of congestion (commanded power not available), UTRAN may disregard the TPC commands
from the UE.
The open loop power control is relevant for physical channels that support common transport
channels. In the definition of TS 25.214 V3.3.0 this is the UL PRACH. This physical channel is used
by the UE for establishing a connection to the network or sending small amounts of data. The Open
Loop Power control consists in setting the transmit power by measuring the path loss of the direct
link and adding the interference level of the node B and a constant value.
Method:
On the BCCH, the node-B will indicate the transmit power of the PCCPCH (and also the required
SIR). By measuring the received power-level, the UE can find the downlink pathloss including fading.
From this path loss estimation and the knowledge of the uplink interference level and the required
SIR, the transmit power needed on the PRACH channel can be determined.
Site selection diversity transmit power control (SSDT) is another macro diversity method in soft
handover mode. This method is optional in UTRAN.
Operation is summarized as follows. The UE selects one of the cells from its active set to be
‘primary’, all other cells are classed as ‘non primary’. The main objective is to transmit on the
downlink from the primary cell, thus reducing the interference caused by multiple transmissions in a
soft handover mode. A second objective is to achieve fast site selection without network intervention,
thus maintaining the advantage of the soft handover. In order to select a primary cell, each cell is
assigned a temporary identification (ID) and UE periodically informs a primary cell ID to the
connecting cells. The non-primary cells selected by UE switch off the transmission power. The
primary cell ID is delivered by UE to the active cells via uplink FBI field. SSDT activation, SSDT
termination and ID assignment are all carried out by higher layer signaling
Definition: The list of cells involved in the soft/softer HO is called “Active Set”. The maximum size of
the active set can be defined.
The hard handover (HO) is comparable to the HO procedure of GSM. The mobile is always
connected to only one base station (Node B). When performing the HO to another Node B, the
connection to the former Node B is released.
All connections using a FACH channel (Fast Allocation CHannel, without power control and only for
short packages) or a DSCH (Downlink Shared CHannel, best channel for packet switched services)
must use the hard HO. They can not benefit from soft HO gains.
Other hard HO:
Packet switched communications using a DCH channel and all circuit switched communications are
able to perform a soft HO. Soft HO means, that the mobile receives the same signal from more
than one Node B and its transmitted signal is processed by more than one Node B. The number of
Node Bs to which the UE is connected is called the “Active Set”. This is increasing the number of
received multipaths in UL and DL and thus is leading to diversity gain (see chapter 2.8.4). If a Node
B is put into the active set of a mobile is depending on the pilot Ec/I0. The general scheme of SHO
can be seen in Figure 14.
For the description of the exemplary Soft Handover algorithm presented in this section the following
parameters are used (AS means Active Set):
§ AS_Th
Threshold for macro diversity (max difference for best signal in AS and candidate signal)
§ AS_Th_Hyst
Hysteresis for the above threshold AS_Th
§ AS_Rep_Hyst
Replacement Hysteresis
§ ,T
Time to Trigger
§ AS_Max_Size
Maximum size of Active Set
The following figure describes this Soft Handover Algorithm.
As_Th + As_Th_Hyst
AS_Th – AS_Th_Hyst
As_Rep_Hyst
CPICH 2
CPICH 3
Time
Yes
No
A softer HO is a soft HO between cells of the same Node B, thus sectors of the same site. As this is
not improving the multipath conditions as much as soft HO does, the diversity gain is smaller.
In SHO, the UE has established more than one radio link. This requires special power control
functionality to identify the correct power control command.
This is leading to the reception of more than one Power Control command in downlink (one from
each Node B in the active set). If at least one of the Node Bs in the active set is sending a power
down command, the UE will reduce its output power. It is enough, if one of the Node Bs is received
correctly.
In uplink, the UE is transmitting only one power control command for all connected Node Bs,
leading to the same power up/down steps of all connected Node Bs. If at least one link has good
quality (the SIR target is met), the UE sends a power down command.
Due to UL transmission errors it is possible, that not all Node Bs in the active set receive the same
power control command. This is leading to “power drifting”: some Node Bs perform a power up,
some a power down. This is degrading the performance of the SHO and should be avoided. Main
reason is that the Node Bs detect the PC commands independently and no MRC or selection
combining can be done (would cause to much delay). Thus the error rate for PC commands can be
higher than for transmitted user data.
To find out the best cell or cells within UMTS, the UE measures the CPICH of all received neighbor
cells. The UE is told by UTRAN witch reporting events shall force the mobile to generate a
measurement report and sent it to the SRNC. This is different from GSM, where a measurement
report was generated at fixed time intervals (480 ms). So by using less reporting events within the
handover algorithms is leading to less measurement reports sent over the air interface.
In this chapter all HO events defined in 3GPP for intra-frequency measurements are listed. The HO
algorithms using this events are not standardized, but have to use reporting events out of the pool
given by 3GPP [25.331].
- Periodically reporting possible if cell is not added to active set due to any reason (cell addition
failure)
- Periodic reporting possible if weakest cell is not removed from active set (cell replacement failure)
According to [OPNET] and [25.331] the EC/N0 measurements taken by the UE every timeslot (15
times per 10ms) on the CPICH of a neighbor cell are filtered by the following formula:
Equation 1: Filtering the measurements
Ec/Io filtered (n) = F * Ec/Io averaged (n) + ( 1 – F ) * Ec/Io filtered (n -1)
K F Averaging period
0 1 0.01 s
1 0.7071 0.014 s
9 0.0442 0.226 s
11 0.0221 0.452 s
13 0.0110 0.905 s
15 0.0055 1.810 s
17 0.0028 3.620 s
Simulations done in [OPNET] are leading to the conclusion that a averaging period of approximately
0.5s (k=11) is optimal for SHO performance.
In downlink the Node B is able to use space transmit diversity to compensate the missing space
diversity of the UE receive path. So transmit diversity exists only in downlink, contrary to receive
diversity which is possible in both directions. Find hereafter more information about he different
diversity schemes.
If for one sector at the Node B two antennas are installed, both received signals can be combined by
using Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC). This is the so called “antenna diversity” already known
from GSM.
As Softer HO is the HO between two sectors of the same Node B, the Node B can use MRC to
combine the received signals of the same communication of the two sectors. As the antennas of the
sectors in the regular case are located close to each other (similar to the distance the antennas of
one sector have to each other) the benefit of this additional diversity is quite small. The difference in
the received multipaths between the two sectors will not be big enough to benefit from the additional
MRC.
In case of Soft HO (HO between two cells not belonging to the same site/Node B) the difference in
the received multipath profiles is much bigger than in case of Softer HO. One can think, that this is
leading to a high diversity gain, but unfortunately the combining of the two signals has to be done
at the RNC. To be able to do MRC at the RNC, high bit rates on the Iub interface are required (e.g.
1.152 Mbit/s for a 144 Mbit/s LDD service because of 8 bit quantization instead of 1 bit
quantization per symbol). Up to now the require info for doing MRC at the RNC is not transmitted,
thus the RNC can only select the better signal out of the received ones (on a frame per frame basis),
it can not use the different received signals to improve the received ones. This kind of diversity is
called “selection diversity”.
In downlink the UE is the receiver. As the UE has only one antenna for signal reception, no antenna
diversity takes place. Due to the implemented RAKE receiver the UE is able to benefit strongly from a
multipath environment by applying MRC. As the probability to have several multipaths is higher for
big distances between the transmit antennas, most benefit is expected from diversity during Soft HO.
For Softer HO the diversity gain due to multipath propagation is expected to be less.
The aim of transmit diversity is to increase the capacity of the downlink transmission. Indeed, two Rx
antennas are usually used in the Node B receiver for RX diversity. It would be also possible to use
several antennas in the UE, but this is not expected to be the case, since the extra complexity of
having several antennas in the UE would increase significantly the UE cost, weight and decrease the
autonomy that is not desirable. Moreover, antennas spatially separated are not possible for small
handsets, only polarization diversity would be possible. Transmit diversity aims to replace the
missing antenna diversity in the UE receiver by a kind of antenna diversity in the Node B transmitter,
thus enabling to improve the downlink performance and to avoid that the downlink limits the cell
range.
We can group transmit diversity techniques in two categories:
§ The Open Loop transmit diversity consists in using two techniques:
· The STTD (Space Time Transmit Diversity) is a coding in time and space to
permit the receiver to demodulate the data without additional complexity compared
to the non-diversity case.
· The TSTD (Time Switch Transmit Diversity) consists in transmitting the
signal alternatively on each antenna every slot.
§ The Closed Loop transmit diversity (feedback mode) consists in weighting the signals transmitted
by the two antennas. Contrary to the open loop TX diversity, the UE sends periodically weighting
information to the Node B. These weights inform the Node B the how to adjust the amplitudes
and the phases of the two transmission antennas. Two modes are possible: feedback modes 1
and 2.
Table 5 summarizes which TX diversity type is allowed on which physical channel type.
Table 5: Application of TX diversity modes on downlink physical channel types
Physical channel type Open loop mode Closed loop
TSTD STTD Mode
PCCPCH – X –
SCH X – –
SCCPCH – X –
DPCH – X X
PICH – X –
PDSCH – X X
AICH – X –
CSICH – X –
Note 1: Simultaneous use of STTD and closed loop modes on the same physical channel is not
allowed.
Note 2: If TX diversity is applied on any of the downlink physical channels it shall also be applied
on PCCPCH and SCH.
Note 3: The transmit diversity mode used for a PDSCH frame shall be the same as the
transmit diversity mode used for the DPCH associated with this PDSCH frame. During
the duration of the PDSCH frame, and within the slot prior to the PDSCH frame, the
transmit diversity mode (open loop or closed loop) on the associated DPCH may not
change. However, changing from closed loop mode 1 to mode 2 or vice versa, is
allowed.
2.9.2.1.1 Space time block codin g based transmit antenna diversity (STTD)
STTD is optional for the UTRAN, but its implementation is mandatory at the UE (and is of course
deactivated if UTRAN does not support STTD transmit diversity). The main advantages of STTD
include the use of the same orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) code as non-diversity
scheme for both antennas. Thus complexity at the UE to despread the signals coming from the two
antennas with two channelization codes is not increased. The STTD can be applied on DPDCH, P-
CCPCH, S-CCPCH, AICH, and PICH channels.
The STTD encoding is applied on TPC, TFCI and Data symbols of the DPCH. Then, the DPCCH pilot
patterns defined by the standard are encoded and time multiplexed. The same spreading and
scrambling codes are used for both antennas. These spread and scrambled signals are transmitted
on antennas one and two after shaping by the FIR (emission Filter Impulse Response) and translating
in high frequency by the RF part (see Figure 16)
Ant.1 Ant .1
Pilots FIR RF
Ant.2
M
Spread /
TPC U Scrambling
M Ant.1
TFCI STTD X Ant .2
U Encoder Ant.2 FIR RF
Data ENC INT X
Figure 16: Schematic Representation of STTD
The “diversity gain” provided by STTD is manifested by a reduction of the required received
downlink Eb/N0.
Figure 17 illustrates the structure of the SCH transmitted by the TSTD scheme. In even numbered
slots signals are transmitted on antenna 1, and in odd numbered slots signals are transmitted on
antenna 2.
Slot #0 Slot #1 Slot #2 Slot #14
(Tx OFF)
acp acp acp
Antenna 1
acsi,0 (Tx OFF)
acsi,2 acsi,14
(Tx OFF)
(Tx OFF) (Tx OFF)
acp
Antenna 2
(Tx OFF)
(Tx OFF)
acsi,1 (Tx OFF)
The aim of transmit diversity is to maximize the received power at the UE. This is done by
transmitting the same signal with different amplitudes and phase shifts from two different antennas
(of the same site). The optimal weighting factors are determined by the UE and sent back to the
Node B by via the FBI field of the UL DPCCH.
The general transmitter structure to support closed loop mode transmit diversity for DPCH
transmission is shown in Figure 18. Channel coding, interleaving and spreading are done as in
non-diversity mode. The spread complex valued signal is fed to both TX antenna branches, and
weighted with antenna specific weight factors w1 and w2. The weight factors are complex valued
signals (i.e., wi = ai + jbi ) in general, modifying amplitude and phase of the signal.
CPICH1 Ant1
w1
Tx
Spread/scramble
å
DPCCH
DPCH Ant2
DPDCH
Tx
å
w2 CPICH2
Rx
w1 w2
Weight Generation Rx
Figure 18: DL transmitter structure for closed loop mode transmit diversity
The GSM and UMTS standards define currently six different CODEC Types [26.103]:
Table 6: CODECS supported by the UTRAN
For all three fixed rate CODECS, DTX may be enabled in uplink and in downlink independently of
each other. DTX on or off is defined by the network on a cell basis and can not be negotiated at call
setup or during the call.
· GSM Full Rate
The GSM Full Rate CODEC Type supports one fixed CODEC Mode with 13.0 kBit/s.
· GSM Half Rate
The GSM Half Rate CODEC Type supports one fixed CODEC Mode with 5.60 kBit/s.
· GSM Enhanced Full Rate
The GSM Enhanced Full Rate CODEC Type supports one fixed mode with 12.2 kBit/s.
Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) is a new CODEC defined by ETSI. This technology relies on a set of pre-
defined "CODEC modes", each one providing optimum performance under specific radio
conditions. AMR is therefore a technology allowing for the real-time optimisation of the speech
coding scheme with respect to current radio propagation conditions. With CODECs such as FR and
EFR, the share of throughput given to speech coding and channel coding (speech protection) are
fixed trade-offs.
AMR is able to adapt the sharing speech information / speech protection (CODEC mode
adaptation) to current radio conditions, which can vary in a large scale, depending on location,
speed, interference,… :
§ When radio conditions are very good, speech protection is reduced and the speech information
share is increased in order to improve speech quality,
§ When radio conditions are bad, speech protection share is increased to always keep the best
possible quality.
The CODEC mode adaptation is made up to each speech frame. This adaptation is illustrated in
Figure 19:
Referenced documents
The UTRA radio interface is layered into three protocol layers [Proc]:
§ Physical layer (L1)
§ Data link layer (L2)
§ Network layer (L3)
Layer 2 is split into following sub-layers: Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC),
Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) and Broadcast/Multicast Control (BMC).
Layer 3 is partitioned into sub-layers where the lowest sub-layer, denoted as Radio Resource Control
(RRC), interfaces with layer 2 and terminates in the UTRAN. The next sub-layer provides 'Duplication
avoidance' functionality.
The higher layer signaling such as Mobility Management (MM) and Call Control (CC) follows a
protocol architecture, which is similar to the current ITU-R protocol architecture, ITU-R M.1035.
Figure 20 shows a simple overview of the radio interface protocol architecture.
MM
Layer 3
Duplication Avoidance
RRC
Logical
Channels
PDCP BMC
RLC
Layer 2
MAC
Transport
Channels
Layer 1 PHY
In UMTS three different channel types for data transmission and signaling are defined:
§ Physical channels (Layer 1)
§ Transport channels (Interface between layer 1 and 2)
§ Logical channels (Interface between layer 2 and 3)
Each of these channel types and the mapping between them will be described in more detail
hereafter.
Physical channels are channels really transmitted over the air. They are carrying transport channels
within their frames and time slots. Find all physical channels in FDD mode in Table 7. Closer
investigation of the physical channels is done in chapter 3.2 on page 43.
Table 7: Physical channels
Physical channel
AICH Acquisition Indication Channel
CPICH Common Pilot Channel
CSICH CPCH Status Indication Channel
Transport channels are used as interface between Layer 1 and Layer 2 of the radio network
architecture. They are divided into
§ Common transport channels (all except DCH)
§ Dedicated transport channels (only DCH)
§ Coded Composite Traffic Channels (CCTrCH)
What common or dedicated transport channels are defined is summarized in Table 8. There is also
a short description of each channel given.
The CCTrCH is used to multiplex several transport channels into one new transport channel. This
CCTrCH is than mapped to one or several physical channels depending on the required bit rate. A
CCTrCH must fulfil the following criteria:
The reason for using CCTrCHs is to provide a more efficient usage of resources. Due to multiplexing
of several channels into one channel and splitting of this new channel into pieces with the right size
for fitting into a physical channel, the physical channel are used more efficient.
Transport channels
RACH Random Access Channel
The Random Access Channel (RACH) is an uplink transport channel. The RACH is always
received from the entire cell. The RACH is characterized by a collision risk and by being
transmitted using open loop power control.
The RACH is intended to be used to carry control information from the terminal, such as
requests to set up a connection. It can also be used to sent small amounts of packet data from
the terminal to the network.
The broadcast channel carries information like random access codes and access slots in the
cell, or types of used transmit diversity. As it is mandatory to receive the BCH transport
channel to register to the corresponding cell, the BCH must be transmitted with relatively high
power.
The contents of the DCH transport channel are not visible to the physical layer, thus the DCH
can carry user data and control information as well. The UTRAN will set the physical layer
parameters depending on DCH carrying control or user data. The DCH supports
§ Soft HO
Logical channels are used as interface between Layer 2 and Layer 3 of the radio network
architecture.
Table 9: Logical control channels
UPLINK DOWNLINK
TRANSPORT
RACH CPCH DCH PCH BCH FACH DSCH DCH
CHANNELS
In this chapter the physical channels will be explained. They are separated into UL and DL channels,
chapter 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 respectively.
Physical Channels in UL
PRACH Physical Random Access Channel
The PRACH is used to carry the RACH transport channel.
There are two types of uplink DPCH, the uplink DPDCH and the uplink DPCCH. The DPDCH and
the DPCCH are I/Q code multiplexed within each radio frame. This is different from the downlink,
where DPDCH and DPCCH are time multiplexed on the same branch.
1 radio frame: Tf = 10 ms
3.2.1.2 PRACH
The Random Access Channel (RACH) is an uplink transport channel that is used to carry control
information and user packets from the User Equipment (UE) to the Serving RNC (SRNC). When the
UE wishes to send information on the RACH, it listens to the logical Broadcast Control Channel
(BCCH) of the serving cell to learn the access parameters (and specifically the information
controlling the random access channel utilization). Using this access information, the UE initiates
sending the RACH preamble. After the UE has completed its preamble transmission on the RACH, it
listens to the Acquisition Indication Channel (AICH) to determine if the Node B received the RACH
preamble without error. Assuming that the Node B has indicated successful reception, the UE then
transmits the message part of the RACH. The UE sets the power level based on parameters received
on the BCCH. If the UE does not get a successful indication, it will retransmit the preamble after
5120 chips
The structure of the random-access transmission is shown in Figure 24. The random-access
transmission consists of one or several preambles of length 4096 chips and a message of length 10
ms.
4096 chips 10 ms
Figure 25 shows the structure of the random-access message part. The 10 ms message is split into
15 slots, each of length Tslot = 2560 chips. Each slot consists of two parts, a data part that carries
Layer 2 information and a control part that carries Layer 1 control information. The data and control
parts are transmitted in parallel.
The data part consists of 10*2k bits, where k=0,1,2,3. This corresponds to a spreading factor of
256, 128, 64, and 32 respectively for the message data part.
The control part consists of 8 known pilot bits to support channel estimation for coherent detection
and 2 TFCI bits. This corresponds to a spreading factor of 256 for the message control part. The
TFCI value corresponds to a certain transport format of the current random-access message.
Pilot TFCI
Control Npilot bits NTFCI bits
Random-access messageTRACH = 10 ms
This structure implies a (small) risk for collisions on the RACH. However, because of the used
preamble codes and random scrambling codes used on random access channels, it is possible to
have up to 80 random-access attempts within a 10 ms frame.
3.2.1.3 PCPCH
4096 chips
0 or 8 slots N*10 msec
The frame structure and possible slot formats of the PCPCH can be found in [25.211].
Once a PI message has been detected on the PICH, the UE decodes the next PCH frame
transmitted on the SCCPCH whether there is a paging message intended for it.
The main difference of DL DPCCH compared to UL DPCH is, that the DPDCH and DPCCH are time
multiplexed and both are transmitted on I and Q branch of the transmitter (QPSK modulation).
Having the same symbol rate in UL and DL, the QPSK is leading to nearly (minus multiplexed
control bit rate) doubled possible bit rate for user data in DL.
Closed loop power control is used and two kinds of transmit diversity are possible: Closed loop and
STTD open loop.
Figure 9 shows the frame structure of the downlink DPCH. Each frame of length 10 ms is split into
15 slots, each of length Tslot = 2560 chips, corresponding to one power-control period.
DPDCH DPCCH DPDCH DPCCH
Data1 TPC TFCI Data2 Pilot
Ndata1 bits NTPC bits NTFCI bits Ndata2 bits Npilot bits
Tslot = 2560 chips, 10*2k bits (k=0..7)
The parameter k in Figure 27 determines the total number of bits per downlink DPCH slot. It is
related to the spreading factor SF of the physical channel as SF = 512/2k. The spreading factor may
thus range from 512 down to 4.
The exact number of bits of the different downlink DPCH fields (Npilot, NTPC, NTFCI, Ndata1 and Ndata2) is
given in [25.211]. What slot format to use is configured by higher layers and can also be
reconfigured by higher layers.
There are basically two types of downlink Dedicated Physical Channels; those that include TFCI (e.g.
for several simultaneous services) and those that do not include TFCI (e.g. for fixed-rate services). It
is the UTRAN that determines if a TFCI should be transmitted.
The common pilot channel is an unmodulated code channel, which is scrambled by the cell specific
scrambling code. The CPICH is for aiding the channel estimation for dedicated channels and for
providing the channel estimation reference for common channels. Two types of CPICH are defined,
the primary and the secondary common pilot channel (P-CPICH & S-CPICH).
The P-CPICH is used for performing measurements for handover and cell selection/reselection.
The Primary Common Pilot Channel (P-CPICH) has the following characteristics:
§ The same channelization code is always used for the P-CPICH
§ The P-CPICH is scrambled by the primary scrambling code of the cell
§ There is one and only one P-CPICH per cell
§ The P-CPICH is broadcast over the entire cell
The Primary CPICH is the phase reference for the following downlink channels: SCH, Primary
CCPCH, AICH, PICH. The Primary CPICH is also the default phase reference for all other downlink
physical channels.
§ A S-CPICH may be transmitted over the entire cell or only over a part of the cell (e.g. beam forming antennas)
§ A Secondary CPICH may be the reference for the Secondary CCPCH and the downlink DPCH. If this is the
case, the UE is informed about this by higher-layer signalling.
The Primary CCPCH is a fixed rate (30 kbit/s, SF=256) downlink physical channels used to carry the
BCH transport channel.
Figure 15 shows the frame structure of the Primary CCPCH. The frame structure differs from the
downlink DPCH in that no TPC commands, no TFCI and no pilot bits are transmitted. The Primary
CCPCH is not transmitted during the first 256 chips of each slot. Instead, Primary SCH and
Secondary SCH are transmitted during this period
1 radio frame: Tf = 10 ms
The Secondary CCPCH is used to carry the FACH and PCH. There are two types of SCCPCH: those
that include TFCI and those that do not include TFCI. It is the UTRAN that determines if a TFCI
should be transmitted, hence making it mandatory for all UEs to support the use of TFCI. The set of
possible rates for the Secondary CCPCH is the same as for the downlink DPCH. The frame structure
of the Secondary CCPCH is shown in Figure 29.
TFCI Data Pilot
NTFCI bits Ndata bits Npilot bits
1 radio frame: Tf = 10 ms
The parameter k in Figure 29 determines the total number of bits per SCCPCH slot. It is related to
the spreading factor SF of the physical channel as SF = 256/2k. The spreading factor range is from
256 down to 4. The values for the number of bits per field are given in [25.211].
The FACH and PCH can be mapped to the same or to separate Secondary CCPCHs. If FACH and
PCH are mapped to the same Secondary CCPCH, they can be mapped to the same frame. The
main difference between a CCPCH and a downlink dedicated physical channel is that a CCPCH is
not inner-loop power controlled. The main difference between the Primary and Secondary CCPCH is
that the transport channel mapped to the Primary CCPCH (BCH) can only have a fixed predefined
transport format combination, while the Secondary CCPCH support multiple transport format
combinations using TFCI. Furthermore, a Primary CCPCH is transmitted over the entire cell while a
Secondary CCPCH may be transmitted in a narrow lobe in the same way as a dedicated physical
channel (only valid for a Secondary CCPCH carrying the FACH).
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.
Figure 30 illustrates the structure of the SCH radio frame.
S lo t # 0 S lo t # 1 S lo t # 1 4
P rim a ry
SCH acp acp acp
2 5 6 c h ip s
2 5 6 0 c h ip s
O n e 1 0 m s S C H ra d io fra m e
The Primary SCH consists of a modulated code of length 256 chips, the Primary Synchronization
Code (PSC) denoted cp in
Figure 30, transmitted once every slot. The PSC is the same for every cell in the system.
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. The SSC is denoted csi,k in
Figure 30, where I = 0, 1, …, 63 is the number of the scrambling code group, and k = 0, 1, …, 14
is the slot number. 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.
The primary and secondary synchronization codes are modulated by the symbol as shown in figure
18, which indicates the presence/ absence of STTD encoding on the P-CCPCH and is given by the
following table:
P-CCPCH STTD encoded a = +1
P-CCPCH not STTD encoded a = -1
A PDSCH is allocated on a radio frame basis to a single UE. Within one radio frame, UTRAN may
allocate different PDSCHs under the same PDSCH root channelization code to different UEs based
on code multiplexing. Within the same radio frame, multiple parallel PDSCHs, with the same
spreading factor, may be allocated to a single UE. This is a special case of multicode transmission.
All the PDSCHs under the same PDSCH root channelization code are operated with radio frame
synchronization.
PDSCHs allocated to the same UE on different radio frames may have different spreading factors.
The frame and slot structure of the PDSCH are shown on Figure 31.
S lo t # 0 S lo t # 1 S lo t # i S lo t # 1 4
1 ra d io fra m e: T f = 1 0 m s
For each radio frame, each PDSCH is associated with one downlink DPCH. The PDSCH and
associated DPCH do not necessarily have the same spreading factors and are not necessarily frame
aligned.
All relevant Layer 1 control information is transmitted on the DPCCH part of the associated DPCH,
i.e. the PDSCH does not carry Layer 1 information. To indicate for UE that there is data to decode
on the PDSCH, two signaling methods are possible, either using the TFCI field of the associated
DPCH, or higher layer signaling carried on the associated DPCH.
In case of TFCI based signaling, the TFCI informs the UE of the instantaneous transport format
parameters related to the PDSCH as well as the channelization code of the PDSCH. In the other
case, the information is given by higher layer signaling. The channel bit rates and symbol rates for
PDSCH are given in Table 12.
Table 12: Slot formats of DPSCH with possible spreading factors
Slot format #i Channel Bit Channel SF Bits/ Bits/ Slot Ndata
Rate (kbps) Symbol Rate Frame
(ksps)
0 30 15 256 300 20 20
1 60 30 128 600 40 40
2 120 60 64 1200 80 80
3 240 120 32 2400 160 160
4 480 240 16 4800 320 320
5 960 480 8 9600 640 640
6 1920 960 4 19200 1280 1280
Radio resource management (RRM) is responsible for the utilization of the air interface resources.
RRM is needed to guarantee quality of service (QoS), to maintain the planned coverage area and to
offer high capacity. Radio Resource Management is split in the following functions:
· Power control
aims at maintaining the right level of power to and from each mobile. This is further split in
closed loop and open loop power control - explained in chapter 2.
· Radio admission control (RAC)
is a CRNC function, checking whether new calls can be accepted with the service characteristics
required by the users, and maintaining the quality of already established calls in the cells of that
CRNC. It is explained in section 0 of this chapter. RAC itself is part of the Connection admission
CRNC
SRNC
UE
Function
CRNC
SRNC
UE
Function
CH scheduling X
CH scheduling X
AC on DCH X
transmission X X
k) RACH management
CI detection X
In this version of the document besides Power Control in chapter 2, only the Radio Admission
Control function RAC is explained in more detail.
In the CDMA system, since the uplink and downlink are asymmetric, the RAC algorithm is different
for uplink and downlink. When the both RAC algorithm admit, the connection can be established.
The RAC part is in accordance with [SysDesign].
This algorithm is based on the noise rise calculation. The Node B always measures the noise rise.
When the establishment of the new connection is requested, the RAC function makes a judgement
whether to grant the request by comparing the average actual noise rise in a certain period,
assumed increment of noise rise caused by adding the new connection and the threshold noise rise
value predetermined.
This algorithm is highly reliable because it is based on the actual measurement value. However, it is
not easy to precisely analyze the increment of noise rise when the new connection is added because
This algorithm is based on the number of active users. The RAC function makes a judgement
whether to grant the request by comparing the number of active users assumed after the new
connection is established and the maximum number of active users calculated logically. Since there
are several services and its capacity is different respectively, the calculation of total number of active
uses is complicated. One method is to decide a certain service as the standard, convert the number
of active user of the other services to that corresponding to the standard service.
This algorithm is the one based on the theory and the result of simulation, and used to complement
the noise rise based algorithm which is based on the actual measurement value
To develop this algorithm, the following parameters will be needed.
· The number of active users of each service in presence
· The weight to convert the number of active users of a certain service to that of the standard
service*
· The maximum number of active user of the standard service*
The parameters marked with asterisk should be able to change by software.
This algorithm is based on the number of BB channels. The RAC function makes a judgement
whether to grant the request by comparing the number of BB channels used and the number of BB
channels available. It is necessary to consider that some BB channels should be reserved for the
handover users in the adjacent Node B according to the handover ratio.
To develop this algorithm, the following parameters will be needed.
· The number of BB channels to be used
· The number of BB channels reserved for handover user*
· The total number of BB channels that the Node B has
The parameters marked with asterisk should be able to change by software.
Admission Control for Downlink shall have the three following parts:
· Transmit power based admission control
· Active user based admission control
This algorithm is based on the transmit power available. The RAC function makes a judgement
whether to grant the request by comparing the transmit power available, which equals to the
difference between the maximum transmit power and the average transmit power used, and the
required transmit power for the new connection.
To develop this algorithm, the following parameters will be needed.
· The transmit power used
· The time of period to be used for averaging*
· The maximum transmit power
· The transmit power required for the new connection*
The parameters marked with asterisk should be able to change by software.
Same as uplink.
Same as uplink.
This chapter is dedicated to the traffic modeling in the network dimensioning approach.
REFERENCED DOCUMENTS
[Agin_LL] Summary of UTRA/FDD Link Lever Performance Results, P. Agin,
Ref: TD/SYT/pag/740.99
[SysDesign] UTRAN System Design Document Ed.7, 3BK 10240 0005 DSZZA
RELATED DOCUMENTS
[Asp] Theory of Traffic Modelling, Version 1.5, X. Asperge, MND internal document
[ETSI] ETSI document TR101 112 v3.2.0. (1998-04), formerly UMTS 30.03 version 3.2.0.
[MND1] UMTS Radio Interface Dimensioning, S. Joga, MND internal document
[MND4] UMTS Radio Dimensioning Overview, Y. Dupuch and A. Gärtner, MND internal
document
[POM] A page-oriented WWW traffic model for wireless system simulations, A. Reyes-Lecuona,
E. Gonzalez-Parada, E. Casilari, J.C. Casasola and A. Diaz-Estrella in 16th
International Telegraphic Congress, Vol 2, pp 1271-1280, Edinburgh, June 1999
[Prob] "Probabilités", Jacques Neveu, Script of Ecole Polytechnique, Edition 1997
The chapter describes the UMTS multiservice concepts including the different service definitions and
traffic models.
In contrary to second generation mobile radio systems, where one single type of quality criteria
designed for speech determines the radio design process, for UMTS a multitude of different bearer
services with different quality requirements have to be taken into account. Each service needs a
different “portion” of the available resource, the air interface, dependent on parameters like the bit-
rate, the maximum delay and the tolerable maximum bit error rate. Additionally, the user activity for
different services shows different statistical behaviour which has to be described by according
stochastical traffic models in order to judge the expected traffic created by the service mix.
Since in a CDMA system the cell range is traffic dependent, reliable traffic models play an important
role in the UTRA/FDD radio design.
In a CDMA system, a user is only taking resources (capacity) from the network if he is causing
interference for the other users, meaning that he is emitting (contribution to uplink interference) or
receiving (contribution to the downlink interference). Therefore, even for circuit switched services,
where the user is assigned a circuit switched channel for the whole time of the connection, he does
not block resources2 when he is not emitting (resp. receiving). That’s why the notion of “service
activity” has been introduced, described by the activity factor.
An additional aspect of the UMTS system consists in the multiservice. Due to the fact that users of
different services are dynamically using resources from the same “pool”, there is a certain trunking
efficiency compared to a scenario where a given capacity is divided a priori between different
The notion of “service” is used within the UMTS world with a variety of different meanings. At a first
glance, one would associate the word “service” with the user application, like web-browsing or e-
mail. The following list represents an exemplary choice of such service applications:
Personal Communications
Voice
Voice over IP protocol
Voice mail
E-mail (without attachment)
Text / SMS messaging
Multimedia messages:
Still images, video, text, sound
Conversion of media
Video telephony / conference
Mobile office
Internet access, browsing
Intranet access, browsing
Corporate database access
E-mail with possible attachments
Rapid File/Data transfer
Collaborative working (tele-presence) (tele-work)
Agenda synchronisation with PDA
Expert on line
Remote diagnostics / maintenance (e.g. network administrator)
Location based services
Navigation services (position)
Traffic information (depending on where the car is and goes)
Tourist information / virtual tourist guide
Maps, images download (e.g. of neighbouring sites)
Time table / schedule information (train schedules)
Locator services
However, in order to predict the impact of such a service application on coverage and capacity,
other attributes have to be examined. In this context, a service is defined by the following
characteristics, which will be explained in detail in the next chapters:
· the connection type (circuit switched or packet switched)
· the user bit rate(s)
· the required QoS and the related radio quality in terms of Eb/N0 for uplink and downlink
· the required GoS for this service
· the statistical behaviour described by the according traffic model and its parameters
It has to be mentioned that the notion of traffic model is used for two different aspect of traffic:
· On a first level, “traffic model” refers to modelling the statistical behaviour of one user using one
given service: It gives probability density functions to reflect the user traffic generation. For better
distinction, this could be called “microscopic traffic model”.
· On a second level, “traffic model” refers to the statistical modelling of the behaviour of a
multitude of users using a limited resource in order to define the necessary resource allocation.
Since in the UMTS system, users of different services with different microscopic traffic models are
sharing the same resource, an overall traffic model approach is necessary. This overall model is
called “macroscopic traffic model”.
In case of analytical predictions, we have to assure that the common “pool” of resources is sufficient
to satisfy the traffic with the required GoS for each service by a macroscopic traffic model, taking
into account the behaviour of all subscribers using the different services.
The according example for a “macroscopic” traffic model in GSM is the good old Erlang B law for
voice, which produces for a given traffic intensity and number of available voice channels the
according blocking probability, resp. gives the number of needed channels to treat the given traffic
intensity with a required blocking probability. However, the example is not really applicable since it
is dealing with monoservice.
The following table gives an overview on the input parameters defining a circuit switched service.
User bit rate for the circuit connection
Bit rate
QoS and Radio BER and associated Eb/N0 [dB] per multipath environment for uplink
quality
BER and associated Eb/N0 [dB] per multipath environment for downlink
GoS Maximum acceptable Blocking Percentage
Traffic Modelling Microscopic Activity Factor for uplink
Parameter
Activity Factor for downlink
Session inter-arrival time in sec
Session length in sec
Macroscopic Traffic intensity in Erlang within the cell
respectively:
Number of subscribers N within the given cell and traffic
intensity r‘ per subscriber (in mErlang)
A circuit switched connection implies a constantly available traffic channel of a given channel
bandwidth in both uplink and downlink direction. Therefore, for characterisation of a circuit switched
contains only one user bit rate3, which is the effective bit rate (information bit rate) of this circuit
channel.
The bit rates 64, 144 and 384 kbit/s for circuit switched data and 8kbit/s for speech have been
defined by 3GPP as reference bit rates in order to be able to compare simulation results of different
3GPP members. Within a real UMTS system, there is a high granularity of possible user bit rates, so
that any other user bit rate together with any other BER requirement could occur. However, it is quite
clear that a prediction gets very complicated if one allows this granularity in service, so that in
general, service applications are mapped on the above bit rates for prediction purpose.
For the product release 3G R1.1 (see [SYSDESIGN]), the following bit rates are intended to be
implemented:
Speech will be implemented with the conversational AMR (adaptive multirate)
Speech Bit rate (Uplink / Downlink) kbit/s
Type “Conversational AMR” 4.75 – 12.2 / 4.75 – 12.2
The 9 AMR modes specified in TS26.071 are supported, and the AMR mode to be used can be
configured by O&M.
3 The notion of user bit rate referes to the effective bit rate at RLC level, meaning without error
correction or channel codin bits. It is not to be confused with the channel bit rate
This type of service is intended to support ISDN services from CS domain, and a residual BER of 10-6
is thus allowed.
The required radio quality is given by a Eb/N0 target value for uplink and one for downlink. Eb
represents the energy per information bit and N0 represents the overall noise (thermal noise, intra-
cell and extra-cell interference) after the Rake receiver. The Eb/N0 is measured in the receiver after
the data demodulation. The Eb/N0 target value is required to achieve a certain BER (Bit error rate).
The mapping of BER and Eb/N0 is dependent on the particular multipath and propagation
conditions, which also depend on the mobile speed, and on the used equipment. This means as
those conditions vary the Eb/N0 quality parameter also varies.
Alcatel has performed link level simulations which give for speech4 (8 and 12.2 kbit/s) and circuit
switched data (64, 144 and 384 kbit/s) for the 3GPP defined propagation environments Pedestrian
A and Vehicular A in combination with the mobile velocities 3, 50 and 120km/h the required radio
qualities for uplink and downlink [Agin_LL]. The performance is expressed as the average received
Eb/N0 required to reach the required quality which was assumed to be a BER of 10-3 for speech
service and a BER of 10-6 for circuit switched services. Please refer to Annex A and B for the
according result tables.
In 3GPP notation, the above mentioned circuit switched data services along with the BER
requirement are often referred to as “LCD” (Long Constrained Delay) data services.
The GoS for a circuit switched service is generally given in terms of maximal allowed blocking
probability in [%].
The traffic model applied to circuit switched services is a traditional birth-death process, also known
as Erlang-B-model. It is described by the following parameters:
Ø Session inter-arrival time 1/l (in seconds)
time between the beginning of two consecutive sessions, it is an exponentially distributed random
variable.
Ø Session length 1/m (in seconds):
duration of the session, it is also an exponentially distributed random variable.
S e s s io n le n g th :
e x p o n e n tia l, p a r a m e te r 1 /m a v e r a g e le n g th
Please note that the traffic intensity per user r’ which is an input of the macroscopic model, can be
derived out of these parameters:
l
r¢ =
m
Note that the parameters are identical on both uplink and downlink for circuit services, which is not
true for packet services.
For the circuit switched connections, where a constant traffic channel is elaborated, an activity factor
a can be given. For example for speech which is a circuit switched service, the voice activity factor is
around 0.5, which means, that the channel is used only half of the time, because a user talking via
the downlink means a listening user in the uplink and vice versa. A listening and therefore not
transmitting user doesn't cause interference, which has to be taken into account for capacity
calculations. The application of the activity factor is also treated by the traffic model.
Ø Activity factor:
ratio between emitting periods within the session ant the total session duration, therefore probability
to emit
It has to be noted that uplink and downlink must be studied separately because asymmetry may
induces strong variations on the parameters between uplink and downlink.
Uplink:
QoS and Radio BLER and associated Eb/N0 [dB] per multipath environment
quality
Downlink BLER and associated Eb/N0 [dB] per multipath environment for
downlink
Packet switched services are normally variable bit rate services and can therefore be described by
the mean bit rate and the peak bit rate. Sometimes, the minimum bit rate is given as well. Peak bit
rate and minimum bit rate are instantaneous bit rates. The mean bit rate is referring to the average
over the transmitting time, meaning that times where the user isn’t sending anything are not taken
for the average.
Additionally, it has to be noted that the uplink bit rate can be completely different from the downlink
bit rate of the according service.
Alcatel has performed simulations on packet switched services where the bit rate is modeled as
being constant in the simulations, but with a lower rate than the peak bit rate (peak bit rates of 64,
144 and 384 kbps are modeled as a constant bit rate of 30.4, 60.8 and 243.2 kbps). This constant
bit rate is equivalent to the mean bit rate.
Please note that this effective bit rate does not yet include the retransmission rate for erroneous
packets. Since BLER of 0.1 (see 4.3.2.2) has been acceptable value in the simulations, a
retransmission of 10% of the blocks has to be taken into account additionally when looking at the
effective rate for the user.
Alcatel has performed link level simulations which give for packet switched services with the peak bit
rates of 64, 144 and 384 kbps the 3GPP defined propagation environments Pedestrian A and
Vehicular A in combination with the mobile velocities 3, 50 and 120km/h the required radio
qualities for uplink and downlink [Agin_LL].
The performance is expressed as the average received Eb/N0 required to reach the quality of service
(QoS). The required QoS was assumed to be a BLER (Block Error Rate) of 0.1 for packet switched
services. Thanks to the retransmission of corrupted blocks, this BLER is acceptable. The user receives
only non-erroneous packets. Please note that the retransmission rate of the packets is not yet
included in the above user bit rate.
The GoS is given in terms of delay. However, we are not talking about a maximum acceptable
delay, since in a packet system, the delay could reach infinity in very rare cases (this would be equal
to a blocking of the packet), but we are referring to a percentile delay dx% , which induces that in x%
of the cases, the delay has to be lower than or equal to dx%.
The acceptable delay may be different for uplink and downlink.
There are a multitude of traffic models for the traffic generated by a packet user, mainly depending
on the service application. It is intuitive that the statistical behaviour of a web user who asks from
time to time for a page is different than from an e-mail user, who is sending e-mails with or without
attachment by one click. However, as said already before, the number of different applied traffic
models raises the complexity of prediction. In the following, the so called page oriented model
(POM) for web-like service is explained shortly. For other models as the ETSI model or the page
oriented model for e-mail traffic, please refer to [Asp].
A three-level structure was created, considering session, page and packet levels based on behaviour
of WWW users. The scheme is the following:
In the simulation, a page must be entirely downloaded before reading: the sum of the sizes of the
packets of one page equals the size of the page (all sizes expressed in the same unit, for instance
bytes).
N u m b er o f p a g es:
lo g -n orm a l
P a ck e t le v el t
On the whole, nine parameters (mean inter-arrival time, mean number of pages per session,
standard deviation of the number of pages per session, mean reading time, standard deviation of
reading time, minimum page size, mean page size, mean inter packet time, packet multimodal
distribution) are required to define completely a service. It has to be noted that those parameter are
not easily being obtained to fit to a given service application.
The page oriented model is suitable as a basis to achieve simulation results, however it’s far to
complex to be applied on a analytical macroscopic model.
4.4.1 Assumptions
Ideally the model would be based on the whole protocols stack, and on the admission control and
resource management procedures. But it is impossible to fit the reality with a simple analytical
model.
A resource C (bandwidth for example) is shared between the different users of the different services.
A user of a CS service requiring a given amount of resource is only accepted if there is enough
remaining resource. A user of a PS service is served if the amount of resource required is lower than
the remaining resource, or joins the queue.
no
User CS C
User PS
no
queued
Figure 32: Users sharing a resource C. (no priority; blocking
for CS users, queuing for PS users)
The only difference between PS and CS services in the model is that the first are queued and the
second are blocked when there is not enough resource. This is a simplification because packet
handling in an IP network is very different. When there is not enough bandwidth, the packet is not
necessarily queued, but transmitted with a lower bit rate. With the described model, a packet can
only be sent at maximum bit rate. If the bandwidth is not sufficient, the packet waits.
4.4.2 Concept
For the traffic treatment , we are using the property of a CDMA network, that a user is only using
network capacity if he is generating interference for the others:
In a first step, we determine how many connections of one service we accept at maximum within a
given cell, so that in any possible case, the blocking (for circuit switched) and delay requirements (for
packet switched) are maintained. This corresponds to the classical reservation of channels for traffic
dimensioning. However, the term “reservation” is deliberately avoided, since a channel is only
existing if a user is really transmitting (resp. receiving).
One could interpret this calculation as a kind of admission control (for CS) resp. radio resource
control (for PS), since already at this stage, we are determining a certain number of calls (according
to GoS requirements) are blocked resp. delayed. We are referring to this step as the “acceptance
step” of the macroscopic model.
In a second step, we will take into account the fact that not necessarily all of these accepted
channels will be on air by treating the number of emitting channels for each service as a random
variable. This makes the uplink load as well as the downlink transmit power (which are both
dependent on the interference in the cell and therefore on the number of emitting channels per
service) also random variables. By setting an according probability threshold, the UMTS service
coverage predictions can be executed to cover most of the GoS without taking an unrealistic worst
case. This step is further on called the “outage step”.
Acceptance Outage
CS 1 Step: step:
CS 2 Number of
statistics
GoS: communications
PS 1 blocking (CS) per service, Ø of cell load
(UL) x (99%)
delay (PS) occupation rate
PS 2 Ø of power
(DL)
PS 3
The traffic model is applied within each iteration of the link budget process (see chapter 5), meaning
for a fixed cell radius.
The inputs given to the traffic model for each circuit service k by the planner are:
5 Please note that the outage step increases the non-served and therefore blocked calls, so that the
probability should be lower than the one given by the operator. An estimation for the
“combined outage probability” is given in [MND1]
It has to be noted that for one service, the traffic parameters have to be given separately for uplink
and downlink, since no closed “circuit” is given. (We may need more channels of the same service in
the downlink than in the uplink). So all calculations have to be executed twice, once for uplink and
once for downlink.
All parameters have to be given for each service k and one determined link. For convenience, it has
been renounced to use the indices k, UL and DL for each parameter.
The packet switched input we will get for the traffic model from the for each packet switched service
k operator are
· Number of subscriber per sqkm, from which we can derive within the iteration of the link budget
process6 (see chapter 5)
Number of subscriber N
· For the Uplink
· Uplink data volume per busy hour VULk (in kbit/busy hour) per subscriber
· acceptable maximum delay time dkUL and quantile xkUL % (in xkUL % of the cases, the delay has
to be lower than or equal to dkUL.)
· For the Downlink
· Downlink data volume per busy hour VDLk (in kbit/busy hour) per subscriber
· acceptable maximum delay time dkDL and quantile xkDL % (in xkDL % of the cases, the delay has
to be lower than or equal to dkDL.)
4.4.4.1 Uplink
If we know the number of emitting users per service in the uplink, we can derive the cell load and,
after a few calculation steps, the minimum required received level of one mobile station of a service
k at the Node B, which is the input for the cell range prediction (see [MND1] and chapter 5)
The number of emitting users being a random variable, the cell load gets also a random variable.
The cell load comprises contributions of all services. A statistical treatment of the cell load therefore
allows to treat the trunking efficiency coming from a multiservice environment and the service
activity. However, in order to perform the dimensioning, an according threshold has to be defined
within the cumulative distribution function of this random variable, in order to derive the
dimensioning cell load value.
We have to compute the probability density function (pdf) and cumulative distribution function (cdf)
of the random variable cell load ~
x UL .
6 within one iteration of the link budget process, the cell range is fixed
100%
Cumulative density function
99%
of the traffic mix
0
Cell Load X
Dimensioning point
Figure 34 Finding the dimensioning point at p=H in the cdf of the cell load (outage step)
The result of the traffic model (applied within the one iteration of the dimensioning process,
meaning for a given cell radius) is therefore for the uplink
Ø a determined value xUL for the uplink cell load respecting all GoS requirements
4.4.4.2 Downlink
As the uplink cell load, the downlink transmission power PTotDL is calculated in a statistical way. The
downlink power does not only depend on the number and type of communications, but also on the
location of the according users and the fact if they are in soft handover or not. The probabilistic
impact of the user’s location and the shadowing (which determines the soft handover state) is
eleminated by an averaging and weighting procedure (see [MND1]) so that the transmission power
then can be given as a random variable which only depends on the traffic inputs.
DL ~
The probability density function (pdf) and therefore the cumulative distribution function (cdf) of PTot
can be derived and then treated analogously to the uplink cell load.
The result of the traffic model (applied within the one iteration of the dimensioning process,
meaning for a given cell radius) is therefore for the downlink
Ø a determined value Ptot respecting all GoS requirements
Note: Simulation results are constantly subject to change due to equipment and parameters
modifications. In order to use the most recent results, please refer to MCD/TD/SYT result documents
(see [Agin_LL])
Note: Simulation results are constantly subject to change due to equipment and parameters
modifications. In order to use the most recent results, please refer to MCD/TD/SYT result documents
(see [Agin_LL])
The mention ‘NA’ indicates that the result is not available yet. The symbol ‘--’ indicates that the
target BER cannot be reached for reasonable values of Eb/N0.
4.6.1 CS 64 kbit/s
7 For these simulations, the channel estimation was performed with the DPCCH instead of CPICH
(otherwise, the target BER could not be reached).
8 These simulations were performed with 6 fingers for the rake receiver instead of 4 (otherwise the
target BER could not be reached). In other situations, the performance gain with 6 fingers
instead of 4 is expected to be low (~0.2 dB).
Note: Simulation results are constantly subject to change due to equipment and parameters
modifications. In order to use the most recent results, please refer to MCD/TD/SYT result documents
(see [Agin_LL])
4.7.1 PS 64 kbit/s
Referenced Documents
[MND1] UMTS Radio Interface Dimensioning, S. Joga, MND internal document
Related Documents
[MND2] Radio Network Dimensioning, Y. Dupuch, MND internal document
[MND3] UMTS Radio Network Dimensioning, A. Gärtner and E. Salomon, MND internal document
[MND4] UMTS Radio Dimensioning Overview, Y. Dupuch and A. Gärtner, MND internal document
[A955V6] A955 V6 Specification: Calculations for Link Budget Based Planning Module for UMTS, A.
Gärtner, PCS internal draft
[TD1] UTRAN Link budget parameters, N. Billy, Evolium Document, Draft version,
ref. MCD/TD/SYT/NBI/200xxx
The chapter gives an overview on the iterative UMTS link budget process. It is not in the scope of this
description to deliver the entire set of equations, which are described in [MND1].
We know from GSM planning that a planner has to elaborate a link budget to estimate the expected
cell radius in a given environment before starting a detailed radio network planning procedure. In
GSM, this link budget elaboration constitutes a relatively simple operation and can be performed
manually, since it is dealing purely with propagation parameters.
In UMTS, the situation gets much more complex and an iterative tool is needed to perform the cell
range analysis. This is due to the fact that in CDMA, the cell radius depends on the traffic. Taking
the uplink as an example, as the number of users or offered traffic load increases, the total noise at
the Base Station increases. Interference from other users in CDMA can be thought of as noise to a
reference user. If the reference user is already using the maximum allowed power on the uplink, too
many users at the cell will cause the reference user’s signal to be received with an insufficient margin
above the noise level at the Base Station. This phenomenon leads to the reference user no longer
being covered by the Base Station, or in essence, a reduction in the coverage area of a cell. This
dependence of the cell coverage radius on the loading can lead to an iterative procedure to balance
the coverage radius with the offered traffic.
The link budget is a key element in the dimensioning process. It is used to derive the maximum
allowable path loss and therefore the cell radius. This section introduces the concept implemented in
the tool AIRMUST [MND1] that allows to analyze and to bring a solution for the Uplink and
Downlink. Both uplink and downlink analysis will result in a cell range value. The final cell range of
the overall process is the smaller of the two. If this is the uplink range, the system is uplink limited, if
it’s the downlink range, the system is downlink limited.
For the dimensioning, a completely homogenous network with a hexagonal cell structure, a
homogenous morphostructure, flat topographical environment and homogenous user distribution
are assumed. Therefore, one cell is representative for the whole network, meaning that all
parameters are valid for all cells. However, impact from other cells (interference, soft handover) is
taken into account.
In the following, both the uplink iteration process and the downlink iteration process are described
A link budget is conventionally performed for one mobile located at the edge of the cell and
therefore transmitting at maximal power. Since in a multiservice environment, there are different
types of mobiles with different service characteristics, the link budget has to be elaborated for one
mobile of each service type.
The main target of the uplink is to figure out the increase of the interference level due to the traffic
available in the cell. The curve below shows the relation between the traffic load (in per cent) and
the interference level (noise rise in dB). The point where the interference goes to infinity is called the
“pole capacity”. The cell load is giving a percentage of air interface loading relational to that pole
capacity.
Noise
Interference curve
rise
(dB)
25.00
20.00
15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00
0.00 20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.00
Load
The interference in a cell depends on the thermal noise, on narrow band and wide band
interference from another system, other users in the same cell and users from all the others cells.
The intra-cell interference perceived by a mobile in the uplink is independent of the location of the
other mobiles thanks to an effective power control, so that for the uplink link budget elaboration the
mobile distribution is not relevant.
Once the level of interference has been calculated, the next step is to calculate the maximum
allowable path loss (MAPL) in order to derive the cell radius.
For a given cell load, the uplink maximal allowable pathloss for a service i depends on its Eb/N0
requirements, its user bit rate and the maximal mobile transmitting power for this service. This
means that in general, one will obtain different uplink coverage ranges for the different service
types.
By adjusting the mobile transmitting power, different coverage scenarios can be achieved. Service
specific gains, losses and margins have to be integrated if not all mobiles are suffering from the
same losses and taking advantage of the same gains, and/or if different margins are applied to
different services. This can be the case e.g. for soft handover gains as well as body losses and even
penetration margins, see section 5.2.1.1 for exemplary values.
The strategy adopted in the dimensioning of the uplink is to provide one common cell boundary.
Hence depending on the type of service proposed and the volume of traffic associated, the idea is to
find the limiting service (i.e. the service which reach its maximum power capabilities) and then match
all the other UE power to this service limiting cell range
The iteration is started by assuming an interference noise rise value within the cell of i0dB=3dB to be
generated by the total traffic within the cell. For this fixed value, a link budget for each service can
be calculated, assuming a reference user i of the according service transmitting with maximum UE
power (which places him virtually at the edge of the cell).
This is done by calculating according to Equation 2 the minimum required level for this service at the
Node B and by applying all relevant gains, margins and losses on the maximum mobile transmit
power in order to deduce the maximum allowable path loss (MAPL), shown in Equation 3.
The sensitivity has to be calculated for a reference user i of each service k:
where PkUL is the mobile power valid for service k (in dBm) and Losses, Margins and Gains are given
in dB.
The smallest MAPL of all services is then chosen as the limiting one. (Taking this MAPL as the
dimensioning one implies that the other services won’t emit at maximum power)
Applying a propagation model (e. g. the well known Hata formula), one can derive the according
cell range.
Now, for each service, the traffic (number of subscribers for each service) per cell can be deduced,
since the number of subscriber per sqkm is known. Applying the traffic model described in detail in
chapter 4 for circuit switched and packet switched services, one can derive in the “acceptance step”
the number of “reserved channels” per service as well as their occupancy probability.
In the “outage step” of the traffic model, the uplink cell load xUL is calculated in a statistical way. The
cell load is treated as a random variable:
k
~
x UL = 1 + f UL × å Bk ×
No k Rc
1+ .
Eb *UL RUL
k
k =1 No k Rc
Where: fUL other cell to same cell interference ratio for Uplink
Bk Random variable: number of emitting channels of
service k
æE
çç b
ö
÷÷
è No ø k
: service k required Eb/N0
Following the traffic model, the probability density function (pdf) and the cumulative distribution
function (cdf) of the cell load can be derived. The dimensioning point (e.g. 99%) is chosen, and the
cell load xUL is derived at this point out of the cdf. Please refer to chapter 4 for more details on this
process.
Once the cell load is determined, the according interference noise rise can be derived.
1
i oi =
(1- xUL).(1+ .
Eb
No k
RkUL
Rc )
Please note that the perceived interference is different for users of different services. Therefore, the
limiting service has to be detected in each iteration.
In case we have n carriers, the cell load is assumed to be divided equally between the carriers, so
that each of them treats a cell load of xUL/n. Since we are looking at one carrier by the equations, we
have to replace xUL by xUL/n in Equation 4.
We are now at the end of one iteration step and have to compare the interference value with the
previous value. If the difference between the values is not small enough to be in a defined
convergence interval , we have to redo the above calculations with a new interference value. In case
of convergence, the radius calculated in the last iteration step is our uplink determined cell radius,
which remains to be compared with the downlink determined radius, in order to find the limiting
one. Figure 35 visualizes the uplink iteration process.
Calculate UL cell
range with Max UE
power for all services
Application of
macroscopic traffic and
cell load calculation XUL
(e.g.@99%)
Interference
calculation
Ic=f(XUL)
NO Comparison with
previous
Adapt Ic
interference value.
Convergence?
YES
One of the main target of the downlink analysis consists in finding the maximum number of mobile
that can be connected to the base station with a good quality of service. However, contrary to the
uplink analysis, for the downlink the position of the users has to be known, since the distance from
the base station impacts the power share allocated to the mobile and hence both intracell and
extracell interference.
Intuitively, one would assume a uniform distribution of users. In the dimensioning approach, this
uniform distribution is approximated by a distribution of the users on concentric rings around the
base station.
In the following, the outline of the procedure is given:
with
ì C I j
a
ï j ( r ) = G + f (r )
ï 1 + G × C I j
í
ï b (r ) = I j N × F × W × Attenuation
C
g , l & m (r )
ï j
î 1 + G × C
I j
0
where
f(r)
other cell to same cell interference ratio at location r for downlink
required C/I for service j
(C/I)j
C/I depends on Eb/N0 in the following way, depending on SHO status (in
non-logarithmic figures:
C I =
j
Eb
DL R DL
No j . j
Rc for mobiles not in SHO
C I =
j
Eb
DL R DL
No j . j
Rc ×
1
SHO _ gain
for mobiles in SHO
100 %
cdf of DL
power
0 Power in dBm
40dB (<43dB!)
Figure 37 Example for power cdf: 100% value is reached for a value lower than the max. DL power
100 %
75%<<99%
cdf of DL
power
0
Power in dBm
43dBm
Figure 38 Example for power cdf: max. DL power corresponds to a value lower than 100%
In other words: we are checking if the power value at 99% is equal to our 43dBm. If not, we have to
adapt the radius accordingly and redo the iteration process until this is the case.
In the case that we have more than one carrier, we have to increase the available power
accordingly. E.g. for two carriers, we are assuming within the calculations to have an equivalent
power of 46dBm. However, the calculations change since the power for the common channels is
needed in each of the carriers, so that it has to be counted n times for n carriers.
Figure 39 shows the downlink process schematically.
If we have found the uplink radius being the limiting one, we can derive for the downlink by the
same process the actual transmit power for this radius at the 99% point (this has been done in the
exemplary link budget of chapter 5.2.5. in which you will find a total DL transmit power of 41.3
dBm, which is lower than the maximum available power of 43 dBm)
Please keep in mind that, although this procedure does not seem to be too complicate, the
equations and calculations behind are very complex. Additionally, we need as an input previous
simulative results for the soft handover probabilities and the extracell interference factor at each
examined location.
Calculation of P to t at
99% according to
the traffic model
NO P to t @ 99% equal
Adapt cell
range to maximum
allowed power?
YES
The parameters characterizing a circuit switched service have been defined in detail in chapter 4.
Table 22 recalls those parameters needed as an input for the link budget process for each circuit
switched service.
User bit rate for the circuit connection
Bit rate
QoS and Radio Eb/N0 [dB] for uplink
quality
Eb/N0 [dB] for downlink
Note that we have to chose one multipath environment for the link
budget
GoS Maximum acceptable Blocking Percentage
Traffic Modelling Microscopic Activity Factor for uplink
Parameter
Activity Factor for downlink
In addition, we have to provide the information, if soft handover is used (this wouldn’t be the case if
DSCH9 channels are used, which is theoretically possible, even if it does not make a lot of sense for
circuit switched services). For the SHO case, we have to give the according soft handover gain.
For each service, a penetration margin and a body loss have to be defined. It is considered, that
there is no body loss with a mobile being held away from the body, which is true for most data
applications. Therefore a margin of 3 dB is taken only for speech application and 0 dB for all the
other services.
Table 23 gives a list of the required input parameters along with exemplary values for two services
(speech 12.2 kbit/s and circuit switched data 64 kbit/s)
9 DCH (Dedicated channel) means one code per connection, DSCH (Downlink Shared Channel)
means sharing of code between different connections
Table 23 Input Parameter to be given for each circuit service with exemplary values for speech 12.2
kbit/s and CS64kbit/s
The parameters characterizing a packet switched service have been defined in detail in chapter 4.
recalls those parameters needed as an input for the link budget process for each packet switched
service.
Uplink: Peak User bit rate
Bit rate
Downlink: Peak User bit rate
Uplink:
QoS and Eb/N0 [dB] for uplink
Radio quality
(note: only one multipath environment is treated in the
prediction)
Downlink Eb/N0 [dB] for downlink
(note: only one multipath environment is treated in the
prediction)
Uplink:
GoS acceptable maximum delay time dULx% and quantile x%
(in x% of the cases, the delay has to be lower than or equal
to dx%.)
Downlink
acceptable maximum delay time dDLx% and quantile x%
(in x% of the cases, the delay has to be lower than or equal
to dx%.)
mean packet size
Traffic Microscopic
mean number of packets per page
Modelling
Parameter Note that in the link budget approach, these parameters are
assumed to be equal for all packet switched services.
Macroscopic Data Volume per busy hour V (in kbit/busy hour) per
subscriber
Number of subscriber N per sqkm
Service 2 Service 3
PS 144 kb/sPS 144
TRUE PS 384 kb/sPS 384
TRUE
UL DL UL DL
User traffic parameters
Bearer throughput (kb/s) 144 384
Volume (kbits @ BH) 5000 15000 1340 4000
Delay (sec) 1 0.5
Quantile for delay 90% 90%
Subscribers
Number of subs per km2 200 40
Transmission parameters
Eb/N0 (dB) 2.2 4.8 1.7 4.7
Soft handover use (DCH or DSCH mode) - TRUE - TRUE
DL SHO Eb/N0 gain - 2.5 - 2.5
Penetration margin (dB) 20 20
Body loss (dB) 0 0
Activity factor (%) 100% 100%
Maximum mobile Tx power (dBm) 24 - 24 -
Table 24 Input Parameter to be given for each packet switched service with exemplary values for
PS144kbit/s and 384 kbit/s
Table 25 Packet switched traffic model parameters (valid for all packet switched services) with typical
values
As described in chapter 4, as an additional input, the global outage probability has to be given. In
this implementation, it is the same for uplink and downlink.
Admission control and outage QoS Unit Value
Global Outage probability % 1.00%
Table 26 shows the radio input parameters along with typical values. Please note that the
shadowing resp. fading margin for the downlink is lower than the margin for the uplink. This is due
to the fact that the DL margin is referring to the total transmit power distributed among all mobiles.
The variance of this power around the mean value is much lower than for one specific connection,
which is quite intuitive to understand: when one mobile is in a deep fade and therefore needs more
power, there a good chances that another mobile happens to have at the same moment excellent
propagation condition and needs less power, so that the total power is not affected. Alcatel has
Table 28 shows the node B specific and antenna system related parameters. Please note that the use
of an MHA (Mast Head Amplifier) reduces the global noise figure of the reception chain. Please refer
to chapter 7 for detailed explanation on the MHA use.
Figure 41 presents an exemplary result of the multiservice link budget process including the services
speech (12.2 kbit/s), CS 64 kbit/s, PS 144kbit/s and PS 384 kbit/s, in urban area, using tri-
sectorized sites. The link budget is uplink limited (i.e. DL power is reduced to fit the MAPL). The lines
containing parameters which are not described in the input parameter section are explained
hereafter.
This line gives the mean downlink transmit power required in average for one user of the according
service. It is the result of the weighting over the power values of all user locations and all handover
states.
The downlink transmit power dedicated to the common channels SCH and CPICH. In the current
implementation, it is calculated as a percentage (15%) of the total transmitted downlink power in W,
then transferred into dBm
For the uplink, this entry gives for each service the total transmit power (in dBm) of a mobile of this
service which is located at the edge of the cell. One can detect the limiting service out of this link
budget entry, which is the one transmitting at maximum mobile power.
For the downlink, this entry gives the total base station power (in dBm) dedicated to traffic channels.
This is a pure downlink entry. It gives the total transmitted base station power in dBm including
traffic and common channels.
This line gives the total TX EIRP (meaning TX power minus cable losses plus antenna gain) for uplink
(per service for a user located at the edge of the cell) and downlink in dBm.
This line gives the result for the minimum required received level per connection per service
(sensitivity), for uplink and downlink in dBm. Please note that this is the reference sensitivity valid for
an non-interfered case.
These lines give the minimum required received level for the common channels in downlink in dBm.
This downlink entry gives for each service the percentage of users that are in soft handover with the
examined nodeB, but where this node B does not provide the best of all SHO links.
This uplink entry gives the convergence result for the noise rise caused by interference.
This entry gives the uplink cell load xUL and the downlink cell load xDL (for definition of DL cell load,
please refer to [MND1]
.
Eb
No k
*UL RUL
k
Rc
The uplink individual load per service is given by and is used to calculate the
1+ . Eb *UL RUL
k
No k Rc
This line gives the resulting traffic intensity r for each service within each sector of the cell. (If the
surface of the sector is known, the intensity can be derived out of the number of subscribers per
sqkm and the service inputs). The traffic intensity is either referring to the Erlang B law (for circuit
switched services) or to the Erlang C law on page level (for packet switched services). This parameter
is directly related to the macroscopic traffic modelling approach, to understand it better, please refer
to chapter 4.
This line gives the resulting GoS. For packet switched services, is gives the resulting percentile delay
in seconds, whereas for circuit switched services, it gives the resulting total blocking probability per
service.
This line gives the number of carriers required to achieve the shown result.
This is the resulting site area, including the area of all sectors of the site (calculated with the
standard hexagonal area relations).
References
[SFRAS2] Alcatel SFRAS Documentation, Part 2, Version 1.4, “Overview of telecom functions”
3BK 11203 0067 DSZZA, chapter 2.10.6.3
[ILBT4RNP] Linkbudget tool of MND department modified by PCS for planning purposes. The tool
(EXCEL macro) can be obtained by contacting PCS department.
6.1 Introduction
At the time this guideline is written, no 3G planning tool is selected by Alcatel. A workaround using
a combined linkbudget/A955 RNP approach is used until a 3G tool is selected. This workaround is
presented in this chapter.
Further more the UTRA(N) parameters (CMA parameters) which have to be delivered by RNEs to the
OMC people for configuring the UMTS network are not specified for the moment. It is clear, that
code planning will substitute frequency planning in a CDMA network, thus it is explained in more
detail in this chapter.
The workaround presented here was already used to verify the a given UMTS network design for two
different projects: The UMTS study for tele.ring (Austria) in Vienna and the UMTS study for the
Paegas (Poland) network in Ostrava.
Both studies are based on a given GSM network design. The goal of the study is to verify if the
coverage provided by pre-defined sites and a given traffic mix is sufficient. In case of a greenfield
operator the same method can be applied by defining new sites instead of reusing given GSM sites.
In this report the process of validating a given UMTS network design for the Paegas network in
Ostrava is shown. It is proofed, that the cells are able to handle the expected traffic.
The scope of the UMTS Radio network planning task for Paegas in Ostrava was to verify a given
network structure. Usual radio network planning consists in defining sites, where base stations have
to be installed for getting a radio network fulfilling the given radio requirements.
In this case, existing GSM network sites have to be reused for building up the new UMTS network.
Therefore the planning task consists no longer in searching new sites, but in verifying a given
network for its ability to meet given quality of service requirements.
6.3.2.1 Databases
For the radio network planning part using A955 the morpho structure and the DEM (topo) database
are required. They are used to get a reliable received power prediction.
As existing GSM sites had to be reused, the site, sector and antenna files currently used in Ostrava
have been used to be sure to have no inconsistencies between the UMTS and the GSM site locations.
Some of the GSM sites have been selected to be reused for the UMTS network according to market
requirements and site restrictions. To verify if it is possible to handle the expected UMTS traffic with
the selected cells was exactly the aim of this planning task.
The selected GSM sites are displayed on the topography map in Picture 1.
6.3.2.2 Traffic
The following traffic mix in table 2 is given for business users and consumer users.
For Circuit switched services the duration of the call and activity factors are important, for Packet
switched services the transmitted kbit per main busy hour (mbh) are of interest.
The given traffic mix is only valid for the start up phase of the UMTS network!
The subscriber density in subs/km² is given per service with the assumption of equality in all regions
within Ostrava.
The A955 radio network planning tool is in this planning context used for calculating the strongest
server areas. For each cell the size of the area is calculated where the cell has the strongest received
power and thus is quite probable the serving cell. One possible output of the tool is shown in the
picture below:
The strongest server calculation is based on the fieldstrength prediction of each cell.
After calculating the cell size with A955 independent from the given traffic, it has to be checked if
these cells can handle the traffic generated in their cell area. Therefore the tool [ILBT4RNP] is used,
which allows to calculate the maximum allowed cell range (and thus cell area) assuming a certain
traffic mix and subscriber densities.
The propagation model used inside ILBT4RNP is of course adapted to the one used in A955. As the
ILBT4RNP does not take into account different morpho classes within one calculation run, a default
morpho class (lower urban) is selected. If the cell size calculated by ILBT4RNP is to small, the
average morpho class of this cell is investigated more deeply and corrected if necessary. Afterwards,
the cell range is recalculated and the cell size comparison is done again.
For information, the path loss prediction algorithm used by ILBT4RNP (simplified Hata Okumura) is
given hereafter:
L= A + B*log(d/km)
With:
A = 46.3 + 33.9*log(f/MHz) – 13.82*log(hBS) - KClutter
B = 44.9 – 6.55*log(hBS)
d distance in km
f frequency in MHz
hBS hight of BTS antenna
With the assumptions of hBS = 30m and f=2000MHz we get:
A [dB] = 137.79 – KClutter
B [dB] = 35.22
The morpho correction factor KClutter is selected according to the average morpho class within the cell
if necessary (in the first run, the default morpho class “lower urban” is used).
A summary of all input parameters selected for the Paegas project is given in Picture 3.
The selected Eb/N0 targets are derived from simulations of the Technical Department.
ILBT4RNP is generating numerous output values, but in this context only the following ones have
been used (see also ):
§ Maximum allowed cell range
§ UL cell load
§ DL Transmit Power of the Node B (total for all connections)
After calculating the cell sizes with A955 and ILBT4RNP, the more limiting cell range has to be
taken. Three scenarios have been distinguished:
1. A955 cell size < ILBT4RNP cell size
2. A955 cell size = ILBT4RNP cell size
3. A955 cell size > ILBT4RNP cell size
More explanations for each case are given below:
1. In the first case, nothing has to be done, as the traffic generated within the cell can be handled
according to ILBT4RNP.
2. There is a tolerance factor of 10% applied for comparing the two calculated cell areas. If the
difference is below this tolerance, no action is performed to adapt them, because they are
“equal” taking the accuracy of the results into account.
3. If the cell size calculated by A955 is bigger than the one calculated by ILBT4RNP, the users at the
cell border will not be able to be connected to the network because of the weak UL transmit
power. Therefore the size of these cells is adapted according the max. allowed cell range
calculated by ILBT4RNP.
After performing the necessary changes within the network, the new cell sizes are recalculated
(because changing the size of one cell has of course influence on the surrounding cells also). The
new cell sizes are again compared to the allowed ones and again modified if necessary.
In the Ostrava UMTS network project only two iterations have been necessary to achieve cells sizes
below the allowed threshold given by ILBT4RNP. 8 cells still are bigger than allowed by the traffic
mix (e.g. Nakladni 3 -> see Table 30). This does not mean, that there will be coverage holes after
installing the UMTS network, but during main busy hour not all services (according the given traffic
mix) are available at the same time.
An extract of the used comparison table is shown in Table 30:
….
In Table 30 it can be seen, that in most cases the allowed cell range is 0.91 km. This is due to the
fact, that we use the default morpho class “lower urban” if there is no need for modification. For
modified morpho values other cell ranges appear. E.g. Nakladni 3 has an average morpho
correction factor of 13 (instead of 5), thus the cell range is 1.53 km (instead of 0.91 km).
Sites which are not part of the city area itself (rural sites) have been excluded from the investigation
by setting a “rural site” flag. Of course sites located at the border of the network have a much
bigger strongest server area than sites in the middle of the network. Assuming a constant traffic mix
over the whole area is then leading to an overload of this “rural sites”. The coverage area (strongest
server area) of these cells has been modified by restricting the maximum allowed cell range to the
one given by ILBT4RNP. Thus, the cell areas shown in the strongest server plot (Picture 2), are
reflecting the real service areas which can be expected after installing the network.
The proposed network design for the Paegas UMTS network is in most cases able to handle the
expected traffic. In total nine cells will not be able to handle all the traffic during main busy hour.
This gap can be filled by optimization/densification works.
In GSM the different communications are separated by time and frequency. This is no longer the
case for a CDMA based system like UMTS. Each communication is using the same frequency
REFERENCED DOCUMENTS
[AntRules] Antenna Engineering Rules, U.Birkel
3DF 00995 0000 PGZZA
[SiteShare] Site Sharing GSM/UMTS – RF Aspects, F. Falke, A. Gärtner and K. Daniel;
3DC 21019 0005 TQZZA
[CoLoc] Co-Location of GSM1800 and UMTS/FDD Sites, A. Gärtner
Deliverable for Bouygues UMTS Project, Co-location workgroup
[Perf_TD] UTRA/FDD PERFORMANCE FOR SPEECH SERVICE WITH TRANSMIT DIVERSITY,
P. Agin, TD/SYT draft document
[Perf_SP] UTRA/FDD PERFORMANCE FOR SPEECH SERVICE
P. Agin, TD/SYT/pag/640.99
[ANXU] 3G UMTS ANTENNA NETWORK WITH INTEGRATED DIPLEXER – ANXU, R. Krukenberg
3BK11240 0002 DSZZA
7.1 Introduction
Since UMTS is an interference limited system, a reduction of the interference brings directly benefits
concerning coverage and capacity. In order to reduce the downlink intercell interference, the
application of antenna downtilts constitutes a good solution. In [AntRules], the concept is described
in detail.
7.3.1 RX Diversity
As described in [AntRules], one can achieve a RX diversity gain through two uncorrelated reception
branches.
In a UMTS system, this gain is manifested by a reduction of the required received uplink Eb/No. This
is shown exemplarily in Table 31 by simulation results for an 8 kb/s voice channel. The simulation
assumption was that the two RX signals were completely uncorrelated.
0.01
BER
0.001
0.0001
1e-005
1e-006
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10
Rx Eb/N0
Figure 42: Receive antenna gain for Speech 8 kbps service in Pedestrian A, 3 km/h
An introduction to the UMTS transmit diversity techniques can be found in chapter 2. As TSTD is only
applied for the SCH channel and closed loop diversity is not included in the MBS V1, in this chapter
only the expected gain due to STTD is given.
The diversity gain provided by STTD is manifested by a reduction of the required received downlink
Eb/N0. The following table shows the effect exemplarily for a 8kb/s voice channel and the ETSI
Table 32: Received Eb/N0 required for a BER of 10-3 in speech 8 kbps
Please note that using TX diversity has an additional advantage: Instead of using one TX branch with
maximal power of 25W (43dBm), we can now use two TX branches with 25W (43dBm) each, which
means that we have a gain of 3dB in the power budget. However, this is not a diversity gain since
we are merely doubling the TX power.
Now, what does the TX diversity technique mean for antenna engineering? In order to benefit from
the transmit diversity gain, we need two TX antennas per carrier which can be looked at as being
uncorrelated. This is given by two vertical polarised antennas which are separated by a certain
distance (“space diversity”). The according separation rules can be found in chapter 7.3.1 and in
[AntRules]. Also the signals coming from the two branches of a cross polarised antenna can be
looked at as being decorrelated (“polarisation diversity”). Therefore for operation with duplexer, we
can use each RX diversity antenna also for transmission with TX diversity.
The antenna network for UMTS (ANXU) will be integrated in the UMTS node B. It connects up to 2
transmitters to 2 antennas and distributes received signals to the receivers. The ANXU is splitted in
two identical parts A and B.
Antenna A Antenna B
Filterblock A Filterblock B
Diplexer
Diplexer
LNA A
LNA B
3 way RX Splitter
3 way RX Splitter
A
B
If the downlink diversity is activated, two TX branches are needed for one carrier11. Therefore, we
need one ANXU per carrier. Figure 44 shows schematically the according configuration. All 6 RX
output ports provide RX diversity information for carrier f1, which are combined in the RAKE receiver.
11 Keep in mind that we have at maximum 3 carriers for a UMTS/FDD sector (2 for some operators,
e.g. in Germany)
f1 STTD
Encoder ANXU
In the case that no downlink diversity is desired, one can use the ANXU for 2 carriers (f1 and f2).
Figure 45 shows the according configuration.
ANTA ANTB
2x25W
f1
ANXU
f2
Low-noise antenna pre-amplifiers installed near the antennas are sometimes used in cellular
systems. They are referred to as "Tower Mounted Amplifiers" (TMA) or "Mast Head Amplifier" (MHA).
A masthead amplifier can be used at a UMTS base station (node B) to improve the effective receiver
system noise figure when a long length of feeder cable is used, which will be explained in detail
below. The reduction in the receiver system noise figure is translated into an improvement in the
uplink power budget. This can be interpreted as compensating the losses of the feeder and
connectors between the antenna and the input of the base station.
Duplexer
MHA
Tx Rx
Duplexer
Feeder
Tx / Rx
BTS /
Node B
For RX or RX/TX antenna diversity operation, the configuration has to be doubled (two MHAs, i.e.
one for each antenna)
Within the MHA, the shown diplexers separate and recombine the signals on the Rx and Tx paths.
They also provide sufficient out-of-band filtering and isolation between the two paths. Only the Rx
signals get amplified, thus, improving the quality of the uplink branch. In contrast, the MHA causes
an additional attenuation of ca. 1 dB on the Tx path.
In case MHAs are present in the system, they have to be considered for the design of the antenna
system. For the downlink, the additional loss of 1dB has to be taken into account. For the uplink,
unfortunately, the impact cannot be treated by adding a simple MHA gain within the power budget.
Since the MHA reduces the total noise figure of the reception chain, one has to apply the total noise
figure of the reception chain in the calculations. The reception chain contains as elements the MHA,
node B, cables and connectors, and perhaps diplexers or filters. The calculations can be done by the
Friess Formula:
ncable - 1 n DX - 1 n BS - 1
ntot = n MHA + + +
g MHA g MHA × g cable g MHA × g cable × g DX
Equation 6: Friess Formula with MHA
NFelement Gelement
with nelement = 10 10
and g element = 10 10
where NFelement is the noise figures in dB and Gelement is the gain in dB of the corresponding element
(note that a loss is a negative gain!). The index “element” can be MHA, cable (denotes cables and
connectors), DX (denotes diplexer or filter) or BS (denotes node B). If there are no diplexers or filters
in the chain, nDX and gDX are set to 1.
In case we have no MHA, the Friess Formula becomes:
Example:
Element Noise Figure (NF) Gain
MHA 2dB
12dB
Cable 25m
2dB -2dB
Node B (incl. ANXU)
4dB
No diplexers or filters are used in the example.
Applying the Friess Formula, we get:
Noise Figure of MHA & cable & nodeB Noise Figure of cable & node B
2.5dB 6dB
Providers operating already a GSM system cannot afford to simply add new sites for the UMTS
system. The existing GSM sites have to be re-used. Even new operators might be confronted with
sites already equipped with base stations of another operator. However, using the same site for both
systems is far from being trivial from the RF point of view. The most challenging aspect of UMTS
Antenna Engineering is therefore to find antenna system solutions to make the co-location of UMTS
Node B’s with existing GSM BTS’s possible, for both GSM 900 and GSM 1800.
7.6.1 RF Requirements
For the co-located systems, an antenna decoupling resp. diplexer decoupling of at least 30dB can
be assumed, no matter if the decoupling is provided by single band antennas, dual band antennas
or diplexers. According to measurements [CoLoc], even side-by-side installations of single band
antennas provide this value. Therefore, only decoupling requirements exceeding 30dB are judged as
critical in the following and require adapted solutions. In the decoupling tables below, the value of
30dB is therefore indicated even if a lower decoupling value would already be sufficient. All
decoupling values are referring to an isolation between the antenna connectors. For calculation of
the required decoupling, different cases are distinguished which look at the Alcatel equipment
performance (EVOLIUM™ GSM and EVOLIUM™ UMTS) and the equipment performance according
to GSM 05.05 and 3G TS 25.104 recommendation.
Antenna system
Antenna
connectors
ANC ANC
TX/ RX TX/ RX
TRE TRE
Feeder
Antenna system
TRE-level:
TX spurious emissions: Transceiver-level
< -27 dBm
Feeder
Figure 48: Conditions for noise / spurious emission GSM 1800 Ü UMTS
Table 33: Decoupling calculation for GSM1800 transmitter noise/ spurious emissions within UMTS
receive band.
The calculation shows that a standard antenna decoupling of 30 dB is not sufficient for co-located
GSM 1800 and UMTS systems. Additional measures have to be performed, presented later in this
document.
The spurious emissions of the UMTS node B within the GSM1800 are not critical. Therefore, a
decoupling of 30dB from the UMTS antenna connector towards the GSM1800 antenna connector is
sufficient.
The resulting decoupling requirements are shown in Table 34.
Required decoupling GSM 1800 GSM 1800 UMTS (TS UMTS (Alcatel)
from ... to Ü (05.05) (Alcatel) 25.104)
GSM 1800 (05.05) Ü 85dB 85dB
GSM 1800 47dB 47dB
(Alcatel) Ü
UMTS (TS 25.104) Ü 30dB 30dB
UMTS (Alcatel) Ü 30dB 30dB
Table 34 Decoupling requirements due to spurious emissions for GSM1800 – UMTS co-location
12 Rule of thumb:
Note: The ANC of the EVOLIUM™ GSM 900 BTS provides with 65 dB attenuation in the 2 GHz band sufficient
decoupling for co-located UMTS sites. It can be assumed, that also other standard ETSI equipment with their
integrated antenna network complies with the decoupling demand, but this has to be checked.
For this interference mechanism, the receiver out-of-band blocking characteristic measured at the
antenna connector of the BTS/ Node B is very important. The minimum system decoupling
requirements are indicated in the next table:
Antenna Antenna
TX power
Decoupling
RX blocking TX power
BTS BTS
or or
Node B Node B
The significant improvement of the Alcatel EVOLIUM™ equipment results from the integrated
antenna network filters.
Link budget examples in the following sub-chapters give an overview about the relation between
antenna decoupling and the blocking level.
Table 37: Link budget for blocking evaluation, GSM 1800 blocks receiver of UMTS
2 Value is based on ETSI blocking limits in addition with the integrated antenna network filters of the
EVOLIUM™ equipment.
Table 38: Link budget for blocking evaluation, UMTS blocks receiver of GSM1800
Table 39: Link budget for blocking evaluation, GSM 900 blocks receiver of UMTS
Table 40: Link budget for blocking evaluation, UMTS blocks receiver of GSM900
Receiver blocking is no problem for co-located Alcatel equipment assuming an antenna decoupling
of 30 dB (and even less). Co-location with equipment from other suppliers needs to be checked
case-by-case.
7.6.1.4 Intermodulation
Intermodulation, also called non-linear distortion, is generated in non-linear devices. The transfer
characteristic of such devices, e.g. the V-I characteristic of a semiconductor diode or the output
versus input power characteristic of an amplifier, is non-linear. At high power levels, even
connectors exhibit non-linear effects.
Figure 50 shows an amplifier’s transfer curve as an example. At low input levels, the output signal is
almost a linear function of the input signal. With increasing input level, the output level will be less
than expected and eventually be limited to the saturated output power of the amplifier e.g. due to
power supply constraints.
45
Output power in dBm
40
35
30
25
-20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
Input power in dBm
The output signal of a non-linear device will not have the same shape as the input signal. Its
frequency spectrum will have more components than the input signal. The new frequency
components are either harmonics of the input frequencies or a combination of the input components
(mixing). These new frequencies are called intermodulation products. If the input signal is made up
of two sinewave signals with frequencies f1 and f2, the output signal will contain frequency
components at
fIM = m · f1 + n · f2 with m, n = 0, +1, +2, +3, ...
The sum of (the unsigned) n and m is called the order of the intermodulation product, e.g.
fIM = 2 · f1 - 1 · f2 is called a third-order intermodulation product (IM3). Third-order intermodulation
products arise from the third degree and higher odd degree power series term of the transfer curve.
Figure 51 shows a output spectrum with intermodulation products up to third order. The frequencies
f1 and f2 are the two tone excitations at the input of the device.
The level of a specific intermodulation component depends on the coefficients of the power series
contributing to this component, and the input power level applied to the non-linear device. Typically,
high-order intermodulation products have lower levels than low-order intermodulation products.
Because of the higher order power series terms from which the intermodulation products will be
generated, the levels of the intermodulation products will rise more than linear with the input signal
level, e.g. third-order terms will rise by 3 dB if the input signal is raised by 1 dB. This is the reason
why intermodulation products are not a problem at low input power levels for a given device, but at
high input levels they might. The ratio of wanted signal to intermodulation product decreases with
increasing input signal level.
A typical scenario for co-located base stations is shown in Figure 52 below:
Air decoupling
Diplexer
Feeder
Feeder
Diplexer
Diplexer
TX/ RX TX/ RX TX/ RX TX/ RX
Figure 52: Air decoupling (left side) and diplexer decoupling (right side) for co-located sites
Either air decoupling or diplexer decoupling is used to fulfil the decoupling requirements at the BTS
resp. Node B connectors. In any case, the antennas are used for reception as well as for
transmission, the TX/RX duplexer function is integrated within the antenna network combiner (ANC)
module.
It is assumed, that each system itself (not co-located) fulfils the requirements on intermodulation
performance in order not to degrade it´s own receivers. Only intermodulation mechanisms due to
the interaction of both systems are considered.
The reference point for intermodulation products inside a used receive channel is the BTS antenna
connector. As long as the interfering signal level is well below the system´s noise floor, almost no
receiver degradation will occur. As a rule of thumb the following degradation of the reference
sensitivity will occur:
· 0.1 dB degradation, if intermodulation level is 16 dB below noise floor
· 0.2 dB degradation, if intermodulation level is 13 dB below noise floor
· 0.4 dB degradation, if intermodulation level is 10 dB below noise floor
· 1.0 dB degradation, if intermodulation level is 6 dB below noise floor
7.6.1.4.2 Lowest order intermod ulation products which might fall inside a used
receive channel
Only co-located systems of different types are taken into account in this chapter.
In the table below, the lowest order intermodulation products, which might fall inside a used RX
channel, are listed. Intermodulation between the own system´s transmit frequencies and the co-
located system´s transmit frequencies as well as intermodulation between the co-located system´s
transmit frequencies which could impact the own system have been taken into account.
The intermodulation interference is particularly important for co-located GSM 1800 and UMTS
systems. Especially the third-order intermodulation products (IM3) of GSM 1800 transmitters may
cause interference within the UMTS receive band. This means that IM3 products may occur within
the UMTS receive band up to the frequency of 1955 MHz. This is the worst case valid for a GSM
1800/ UMTS co-located site, where the lowest (f1 = 1805 MHz) and highest (f2 = 1880 MHz) GSM
1800 frequency are used (fIM = -1 · f1 + 2 · f2) on the same site. Therefore, it is recommended for
GSM 1800 operators to choose UMTS frequencies above fIM, where in any case no IM3 products of
the own GSM 1800 frequencies occur.
The probability, that a third order intermodulation product falls into the UMTS receiver band (lower
than 1955 MHz) is very low. This is illustrated by the following equations:
fIM = -1 · f1 + 2 · f2 < 1920 MHz
f1 < f2
-1 · f1 + f2 = D; On site used GSM 1800 frequency band
fIM = D + f2 < 1920 MHz
D < 1920 MHz - f2
f2 max = 1880 MHz
D < 40 MHZ
If the GSM 1800 frequency band used within the same site is smaller than 40 MHz (which
corresponds to 200 GSM carrier frequencies), no IM3 products fall in the UMTS receive band. This is
also valid for a larger used GSM 1800 frequency band, when the highest GSM 1800 frequency is
lower than 1880 MHz (f2 max <1880 MHz).
Thus, intermodulation interference is in most cases not relevant, because a distance between lowest
and highest carrier frequency of 40 MHz will hardly be used within the same site.
In cases intermodulation products are falling in a used receive band, decoupling requirements have
to be derived accordingly. The following example should show how this can be done in a defined
case:
EXAMPLE:
GSM 1800 TX:
f1 = 1879.8 MHz and f2 = 1820 MHz, P = 46 dBm each at antenna connector
UMTS RX:
f = 1939.6 MHz
The third-order intermodulation product of the GSM 1800 transmitters falls into the UMTS receive
band (2 * 1879.8 MHz – 1820 MHz = 1936.6 MHz). The UMTS receiver´s noise floor is assumed
to be –104 dBm. Allowing 0.4 dB UMTS receiver degradation the acceptable intermodulation level
at the UMTS antenna connector is approximately –114 dBm within the 3.84 MHz channel
bandwidth.
13 dBc referes to a value “below carrier”, meaning that the useful power of the carrier is the
reference power, the dBc values indicate the difference in dB compared with this carrier power
14 This acceptable interference power is derived analogously to the calculation in chapter 7.6.1.2.1
In order to prevent performance degradation for co-located mobile systems, Alcatel proposes due to
the three interference mechanisms the following decoupling requirements:
· It is assumed, that the decoupling provided by the antenna/diplexer system is at least 30 dB. In fact, using
Alcatel EVOLIUM™ equipment requires for certain combinations even less isolation than those 30dB
· Intermodulation (if applicable) has to be treated case by case
air decoupling
Feeder Feeder
The antennas are separated either by a vertical distance dv or by a horizontal distance dh (see Figure
54).
GSM 1800
dh
dv
UMTS
In case of Alcatel EVOLIUM™ GSM 1800 equipment is used, the decoupling between GSM 1800
transmit port and UMTS receive port has to be 47 dB. Taking into account a feeder cable loss of
2 dB for each feeder cable, the pure air decoupling has to provide 43 dB of isolation.
20
-10 50
Coupling Distance (cm) 100
-20 150
200
-30
-40
Coupling (dB)
-50
-60
-70
-80
-90
-100
1.7 1.7625 1.825 1.8875 1.95 2.0125 2.075 2.1375 2.2
Frequency (GHz)
Figure 55: Decoupling between -45° plane of GSM 1800 antenna and +45° plane of UMTS antenna
over frequency for different horizontal distances
One can see that the two antennas side by side already offer a decoupling of 40 dB, a result which
can be expected for the GSM 1800/ UMTS dual band antenna as well. Currently, the antenna
suppliers specify their dual-band antennas with 30 dB decoupling only.
-50
Coupling (dB)
-60
-70
-80
-90
-100
1.7 1.7625 1.825 1.8875 1.95 2.0125 2.075 2.1375 2.2
Frequency (GHz)
Figure 56: Decoupling between -45° plane of GSM 1800 antenna and +45° plane of UMTS antenna
over frequency for different vertical distances
To achieve a decoupling of more than 43 dB within the UMTS frequencies, the coupling distance has
to be wider than 1.5 m (dv = 0.2 m). With respect to a certain security/error margin, a minimum
coupling distance of 2.0 m (dv = 0.7 m) for vertical separation is recommended16.
15 Please note that these values only apply for sector antennas with the same main beam direction.
16 Please note that these values only apply for sector antennas with the same main beam direction.
Broadband antenna
Feeder
Diplexer
Figure 57: Schematic representation of the configuration with diplexer and broadband antenna
Dualband antenna
Feeder Feeder
Filter
Figure 58: Schematic representation of configuration with an external filter, two feeder cables and a
GSM1800/ UMTS dual-band antenna
The filter has to reduce the spurious emissions of the GSM 1800 BTS within the UMTS receive band
to achieve the required isolation, while relaxing the antenna decoupling value to 30 dB. Feeder
cable losses of 2 dB per feeder cable are taken into account.
The filter (with fc = 1900 MHz) lets pass the whole GSM 1800 receive and transmit frequencies, but
provides sufficient attenuation within the UMTS band.
The stopband (=out-of-band) attenuation a which has to be guaranteed is dependent on the
performance of the filter integrated within the GSM 1800 BTS, and therefore on the spurious output
power Pspur. The power received from GSM 1800 spurious emissions within the UMTS band at the
UMTS receive port shall not be higher than –114 dBm. Cable Loss Lcable is assumed to be 2 dB per
cable.
According to the ETSI requirements of GSM 05.05, the spurious emission Pspur within the bandwidth
of one UMTS carrier is below –29 dBm. For Alcatel GSM 1800 EVOLIUM™ equipment –67 dBm can
be assumed, please refer to Table 33: Decoupling calculation for GSM1800 transmitter noise/
spurious emissions.
In order to be on the safe side for the filter specification, an additional margin of 5 dB should be
considered resulting in an attenuation of 56 dB for the ETSI case, 18 dB for the Alcatel equipment
respectively.
As a side effect, such a filter reduces the decoupling requirement for blocking of the GSM 1800 RX
by the UMTS TX.
It has to be noted that such a filter may also be used to reduce the decoupling requirements and
therefore the required decoupling distance for the single band antenna solution described in chapter
7.6.2.1.1.1
Diplexer
Feeder
Diplexer
Figure 59: Schematic representation of configuration with two diplexers and a GSM 1800/ UMTS
dual-band antenna
The BTS-side diplexer has to provide 47 dB of decoupling from GSM 1800 transmit port to UMTS
receive port (in case of Alcatel EVOLIUM™ GSM 1800 equipment). For the antenna side diplexer, a
decoupling value of 30 dB is largely sufficient.
The advantages of the configuration are that gain and electrical tilt can be chosen differently for
GSM 1800 and UMTS. The disadvantage is the necessity of implementing two diplexers.
Dual-band systems are realized either with separated single-band antennas or dual-band antennas.
For the combination of GSM1800 and UMTS, the third option consists in a broadband antenna.
However, if the antenna system supports diversity (note that RX diversity is mandatory for UMTS) at
least two antenna branches per BTS sector and mobile system are necessary. This results in four
antenna branches for a dual-band BTS sector (except the solution with broadband antennas for
GSM 1800 and UMTS, not further described in this document). Thus, without feeder sharing, four
feeder cables are necessary. By using additional diplexers, two shared feeder cables are sufficient.
The following example with a cross-polarized dual-band antenna describes the feeder sharing.
Dual-band antennas are characterized by being suitable for both frequency ranges with separate
input connectors. This leads to a double number of antenna connectors, compared to a
corresponding single-band antenna; four connectors for dual-polarized dual-band antenna.
Dual-band Dual-band
antenna antenna
With
+45° -45°
integrated
diplexers
Diplexer Diplexer
Without
diplexers
Feeder Feeder
Diplexer Diplexer
Diplexers
at BTS
location
Dual-band Dual-band
By upgrading the dual-band antennas with additional diplexers (often integrated in the antenna
radome), the number of antenna connectors will be reduced by a factor of two. The required feeder
system will be the same as for a single-band antenna system. This kind of application requires
further base station diplexers with a corresponding resplit function.
The additional costs for the diplexers will be justified, if the reduced expenditure of the feeder system
is predominant. Especially for the case of migrating a single-band to a dual-band system, the
existing feeder system can be used ensuring a fast installation during retrofit. It has to be checked,
however, whether the feeder cable fulfils the demands for both systems in terms of losses (the feeder
attenuation increases with higher frequencies).
Note that for the broadband antenna solution, feeder sharing is the only thinkable solution since
there is only one diplexer which is logically installed at the BTS side.
With respect to the visual impact, triple-band antenna systems will be preferably realized either with
single-band and dual-band antennas or with triple-band antennas. Nevertheless, configurations
with mono-band antennas are also feasible. The conditions concerning the decoupling requirements
can be taken from the dual-band co-located sites.
In cases dual-band antennas are used the following variants are possible:
· GSM 900 single-band antenna, GSM 1800 / UMTS dual-band antenna
· GSM 900 / GSM 1800 dual-band antenna, UMTS single-band antenna
· GSM 900 / UMTS dual-band antenna, GSM 1800 single-band antenna
The preferred configuration is dependent on the existing antenna system and the evolution steps to a
triple-band site. The network planning aspects pose a further requirement on the antenna
arrangement.
Triple-band antennas are necessary for those existing antenna sites using only one antenna per
sector and where additional panels are not allowed due to the visual impact.
An isolation of 30 dB is not enough for the decoupling between GSM 1800 and UMTS. Therefore
additional components must be implemented in order to fulfil the decoupling requirements (use of
diplexer), or to decrease the decoupling requirements (use of GSM 1800 TX filter).
The connection possibilities are the same as already presented for the dual-band sites GSM 1800
and UMTS. Figure 62 reminds the diplexer and filter solution:
Connection matrix
Diplexer
Diplexer Filter
A separated triple-band antenna system with diversity support needs at least six feeders per sector.
With feeder sharing, this amount can be reduced. The minimum number per sector is two.
In order to fulfil the need to have only two feeder cables per sector for all three bands, the use of
triplexers are necessary. The following picture illustrates the triplexer application consisting of two
diplexers in combination with a triple-band antenna.
Antenna system
Diplexer
Diplexer
Triplexer
Feeder system
Triplexer
Diplexer
Diplexer
GSM 900
Triple-band
antenna
GSM 1800 UMTS
Antenna system
Diplexer
Feeder system
Diplexer
The feeder sharing influence on feeder´s system performance is clarified with the following example
(Figure 65)
· Task: An existing GSM 900 antenna system shall be extended to a triple-band GSM 900/
GSM 1800/ UMTS system.
· Condition: Because of space constraints, the existing feeder cables have to be shared for
all frequency bands.
· Solution: Use of diplexers (triplexers) for feeder sharing.
Diplexer
Diplexer
Triplexer
Feeder system
Triplexer
Diplexer
Diplexer
Note: Remark: GSM1800/ UMTS signals have 50 % more signal attenuation compared with GSM 900
signals over the same feeder cable.
Apart from the higher loss experienced in the 2GHz band compared with the 900 and 1800MHz
GSM bands, UTRAN networks impose no additional restrictions on the choice of antenna feeder
cable compared to those applicable to GSM networks.
When upgrading an existing 1800MHz antenna system (or dual 900/1800MHz band) for
simultaneous operation at 2GHz, the additional frequency dependent feeder loss is unlikely to be
significant. It is normally possible to use the existing 1800MHz feeder for both services, provided
that the additional loss associated with the dual (GSM/UMTS) band diplexers (cross-band couplers)
is acceptable.
Using an existing 900 MHz band feeder for UMTS services may introduce unacceptable loss except
where the feeder length is relatively short. The combination of longitudinal loss in the feeder
together with insertion losses in the two dual (GSM/UMTS) band diplexers (one at each end of the
feeder) may become unacceptable.
Factors to be taken into account when considering a common antenna feeder system for a
UMTS/GSM network are the same as for a dual band GSM 900/1800MHz network. The following
table compares attenuation of common types of antenna feeder at 900MHz, 1800MHz, and
2000MHz:
½” 0.72dB for 10m length 1.03dB for 10m length 1.13dB for 10m length
1.80dB for 25m length 2.57dB for 25m length 2.82dB for 25m length
3.61dB for 50m length 5.15dB for 50m length 5.65dB for 50m length
7.22dB for 100m length 10.3dB for 100m length 11.3dB for 100m length
7/8 ‘’ 0.40dB for 10m length 0.59dB for 10m length 0.65dB for 10m length
1.01dB for 25m length 1.47dB for 25m length 1.61dB for 25m length
2.01dB for 50m length 2.93dB for 50m length 3.23dB for 50m length
4.03dB for 100m length 5.87dB for 100m length 6.46dB for 100m length
1 ¼’’ 0.30dB for 10m length 0.42dB for 10m length 0.48dB for 10m length
0.74dB for 25m length 1.05dB for 25m length 1.19dB for 25m length
1.49dB for 50m length 2.10dB for 50m length 2.38dB for 50m length
2.98dB for 100m length 4.21dB for 100m length 4.77dB for 100m length
Table 46 Comparison of antenna feeder loss
A MHA "transforms" the BTS input to the antenna connector of the MHA, compensating for the
feeder losses. The calculation of the respective required decoupling is similar to the process
described in the document so far. The differences:
· For the noise / spurious response calculation, the feeder loss can no longer be taken into
consideration for reducing the interference signal.
· The signal delivered by the MHA to the BTS receiver can be higher, resulting in blocking.
· The low noise amplifier in the MHA has its own blocking limit to be considered.
In the following, two GSM/UMTS co-location configurations with MHA are shown.
Since in GSM, we are for most power budgets not uplink limited thanks to the high sensitivity of the
EVOLIUMTM BTS, a configuration where only the UMTS part (which benefits from a RX loss reduction)
is equipped with a mast head amplifier does make sense.
Duplexer
RF RF + DC DC Feed
UMTS
RF
LNA MHA
ANXU
Duplexer
GSM UMTS
BTS BTS RF + DC
Diplexer
Feeder Cable
Figure 66 Configuration with one feeder cable and UMTS mast head unit
7.6.2.3.7 Two feeder cables with GSM and UMTS Mast Head Unit
Feeder
Cables
Duplexer Duplexer
RF + DC RF + DC
GSM LNA UMTS
MHA MHA
LNA
Bias T
DC Feeds Duplexer Duplexer
ANCG/ ANXU
RF + DC RF + DC
GSM
UMTS
BTS GSM Feeder Cable UMTS Feeder Cable
BTS
Figure 67: Configuration with two feeder cables and mast head unit for GSM and UMTS
Since the ANCG does not incorporate a DC Feed for a Mast Head Unit, a Bias T has to be introduced to
assure the DC feed by the feeder cable.
The beam-forming concept consists in covering each sector by narrow beams with larger antenna
gain than conventional antenna diversity where each antenna covers the whole sector. This
technique relies on a linear antennas array (also known as smart antennas) in which the antennas
spacing is of the order of half the wavelength (about 7.5 cm in UMTS).
4 beams
4 beams
Figure 68: Adaptive beam-forming (on the left) vs. fixed beam-forming (on the right)
References
[MIG02] Migration Strategies towards 3G & Products Draft 02
[UMTSRM] UMTS Roadmap: Status November 2000
[RNCV1] Evolium UMTS Radio Network Controller
pd_RNC_LCEd1.doc
[MBSV1 MBS V1 Features List (internal)
[FL0] Technical Feature List (R1,R2,R3) FL0.7U_EC Technical.xls
Status: November 2000
[UMTSLB] Typical link budgets for UMTS FDD macrocells
UMTS-link-budget-Eb2.doc)
[GPRSRNP] GPRS/E-GPRS RNP aspectsRef. Nr.: 3DF 0095 0005 UAZZA
[OMCV1] Evolium UMTS OMC-R Product description
Ref. Nr: 3DC 2176 0005 TQZZA
[MMSN] Migration to multiservice Networks ( K.Daniel)
Migation_to_GERAN.ppt
[SysDesign] UTRAN system Design Document Ed.7, 3BK 10240 0005 DSZZA
[RadPerf] UTRAN Radio Performance Requirement, 3BK112400014DSZZA
Both the technical feature list and the roadmap are from November 2000, they might vary
in a short/long term
8.1 Introduction
This document describes the radio access network migration from the second generation of mobile
communications (GSM, GPRS) towards the third one (UMTS, E-GPRS) as proposed by Alcatel. While
GSM is based on a circuit switched concept, GPRS has been introduced to provide end-to-end
packet-switched data transmission. With E-GPRS the next step of the GPRS evolution is introduced,
by enhancing data rates with the Edge feature [GPRS-RNP].
The Radio Access Network (RAN) evolution, which is divided in several releases is described, as well
as the related Alcatel products for each RAN release. The key features provided in each RAN release
are also pointed out in this document. In the last section migration strategies for incumbent
operators and Greenfield operators are given.
The Alcatel/Fujitsu view on the evolution of the RAN towards 3G (UMTS/E-GPRS) consists of three
releases, called 3GR1 or R1, 3GR2 or R2 and 3GR3 or R3. With each release new products and
features are provided, the roadmap is shown in figure 1. Each of these releases will be described in
the following sections.
The table given in Annex A summarizes further RNP relevant features planned for the three UMTS
releases [FL0].
V1
Node B
V2
PRODUCTS
V1
RNC
V2
V1
OMC
V2
The first release called 3GR1 is based on the 3GPP Release of March and June 2000 specifications.
At this stage, an UMTS layer, able to operate UTRA-FDD only, will be deployed as overlay and
independent of the existing GSM/GPRS network.
This network release will be developed in three phases, which are called R1.1, R1.2 and R1.3,
introducing new hardware elements and new features.
The Node Bs are called the MBS V1 (i.e. Version 1 of the “Multistandard Base Station”), although it
is only UMTS capable, as well as the RNCs and OMC-Rs.
In the last phase of the 3GR1 release (R1.3) the V2 Multi-standard Base station will be available. It
will be able to allow GSM and UMTS TRXs in the same cabinet.
In the 2G layer, GPRS functionality can be achieved with the HW releases G1 and G2 (basic GPRS
capabilities) and G3 to G5 of Evolium HW equipment and the B6.2 SW release. The MFS, SGSN
and GGSN are also part of the GPRS network. For more information on the 2G layer refer to
[GPRSRNP].
Site sharing, and therefore transmission resources sharing, between Node B and BTS, is also
possible and recommended in order to save costs. For more information about site sharing see
chapter 7 of this guideline.
Note that handover between UMTS and GSM or UMTS and GPRS are only possible in one direction
with Release R1.2.
Figure 2 shows the RAN architecture of the 3GR1.1 release implemented as an overlay network in
case of GSM/GPRS/UMTS coexistence.
Iu-CS
Iu-PS
Iub
Node B
GGSN
MSC/VLR IP network
Iub UMTS RNC (Internet)
Gb Circuit core
Node B X.25 network
A (PSTN)
IRouter
Abis
BSC/MFS
Abis X.25
GSM OMC-R
BTS
BTS
With release 2 a first integration between both networks takes place, with the introduction of the real
multi-standard equipment. The operation and maintenance functions can be carried out by one
OMC-R (V2) . Further with the introduction of the multi-standard RNC V2 and MBS V2 the same
platform can be used for GSM and UMTS as shown in figure 3. The network layer protocol can be
ATM with IP. The main features introduced with this release are summarized in table 2.
Node B
(MBS V1)
RNC/BSC SGSN
GSM/UMTS GPRS
(RNC V2)
Gn
backbone
Node B/BTS Gb
(MBS V2)
GGSN
MSC/VLR IP network
(Internet)
BSC/MFS
Circuit Core
Network
(PSTN)
BTS GSM OMC-R
BTS
Feature Release
Queuing (Radio resource management) R2.0
Priority(Radio resource management) R2.0
Inter-cell – Intra RNC hard HO R2.0
GSM circuit- UMTS HO R2.0
Support of micro-cellular and hierarchical cell structure R2.0
GPRS packet – UMTS HO R2.0
SSDT (Site Selection Diversity Transmission) R2.0
Node B overload detection R2.0
RNC overload detection R2.0
Table 48: Release 3GR2 mean features. Ref [FL0]
This radio access network release architecture is based on the release 5 of the September 2000
status of the 3GPP specifications.
This RAN architecture is common for UMTS and GSM/GPRS systems. Both UTRA-TDD and UTRA-
FDD modes can be supported.
GERAN (GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network) will be also supported by this network release being
connected to the UMTS and to the GSM core network.
UMTS/GSM
OMC-R V2 Iu-CS
Iu-PS/Gb
SGSN
GPRS
Node B Gn backbone
(MBS V1)
RNC/BSC
GSM/UMTS
GGSN
MSC/VLR IP network
Node B/BTS (Internet)
(MBS V2) Circuit Core
network
(PSTN)
BTS
Other features planned for this network release are : Microcells and associated Micro Node B,
interference cancellation, Multi User Detection as well as the usage of Adaptive Array Antennas.
¨ GERAN (GSM-EDGE Radio Access Network): GERAN is a terrestrial RAN, that will be connected
to an UMTS and a GSM core network, to offer multimedia services using GSM/EDGE radio
technology.
¨ GERAN is recommended for:
GSM operators that will not get an UMTS license
GSM-UMTS operators to provide UMTS-like features at a lower cost
¨ GERAN standardization:
- GERAN standards formerly handled by ETSI as GSM standards
- GERAN now part of 3GPP and therefore follows 3GPP release schedule
R4 target: March 2001
R5 target: December 2001
- Technical Specification Group GERAN deals with both: GSM, GPRS, EDGE specifications
(pre-R’99) and, pure GERAN specifications (R4 and beyond)
BSC
GSM/UMTS
GERAN Core Network
In the 3GPP specifications, the UMTS radio access network (UTRAN) interfaces (Iub, Iur, Iu) are fully
specified, therefore no compatibility problems should appear when combining equipment from
different suppliers in the same network.
However, there are not any compatibility tests results available, which demonstrate that UMTS
equipment from different suppliers can be used within the same network without problems.
8.3 PRODUCTS
Along the migration process from GSM into UMTS new network elements are planned to be
introduced for a certain network release. However the RNC V2, OMC-R V2 and the Micro Node B
are neither fully specified nor developed and should be mentioned in this document only for an
outlook.
The Evolium Node B is officially called MBS V1 (“Multi-standard Base Station Version 1”) for
marketing reasons, although it can support only UMTS FDD mode. The main features are described
hereafter, for more information see Annex B.
§ Developed by Fujitsu
§ UMTS capable
§ Evolium single Rack
§ Indoor and outdoor configurations available
§ Up to 6 TRX, 6 sectors
§ Base band (BB) board capacity limited (4 boards needed, for a minimal 3*1, 16 AMR Channels)
§ DSCH function not supported
§ Multi-standard not possible
Table 49: Available MBS1 configurations within one cabinet for 3GR1.1.
Configuration Tx power per.. Required no of modules
Carriers Tx sector carrier
Sectors TRX TPA ANXU
/sector diversity [W] [W]
1 1 no 20 20 1 1 1
yes 20 20 1 2 1
2 no 14 7 2 1 1
yes 14 7 2 2 1
3 yes 12.6 4.2 3 2 1
2 1 no 20 20 2 2 2
yes 20 20 2 4 2
2 no 14 7 4 2 2
yes 14 7 4 4 2
3 yes 12.6 4.2 6 4 2
3 1 no 20 20 3 3 3
yes 20 20 3 6 3
2 no 14 7 6 3 3
yes 14 7 6 6 3
4 1 no 20 20 4 4 4
6 1 no 20 20 6 6 6
Note:TPA = Transmit Power Amplifier / ANXU = Integrated Antenna Network for UMTS
The Node B can have a maximum of 9 BB modules in 3GR1.1, desirable to have 18 modules in the
future.
The BB module has two modes, “Dedicated channel mode” and “Common channel mode”, and it
can be changed by the software. The processing capacity of one BB module in each mode is as
follows (see Table 50)
Table 50: Baseband board capabilities
Mode Processing capacity
Dedicated One of the following set of DCH can be processed by one module,
channel mode - 16 DCHs for AMR voice or
- 4 DCHs for 64kbps service or
- 2 DCHs for 128kbps service or
- 1 DCH for 384kbps service
The mixed traffic of the three services from the top in the above list also can be processed by
one module. In this case, if the following formula is satisfied, the one BB module shall be
able to process it.
A*(1/16) + B*(1/4) + C*(1/2) <= 1
where, A = No of AMR, B = No of 64k, C = No of 128k.
In case the enhanced BB (capacity increased version) module is released, the Node B can operate
different type of BB modules simultaneously.
Baseband modules can be added/removed during normal operation of the Node B.
Radio performance data of the MBSV1 in release 3GR1.1 are given hereafter.
Radio feature Performance
Supported UL frequency band 1920 – 1980 MHz
Supported DL frequency band 2110 – 2170 MHz
The TX amplifier is able to amplify a 20 MHz bandwidth
without software modification.
FDD TX/RX separation 190 MHz
Charrier spacing 5MHz, possibility to fine tune in 200kHz steps
Output power of Node B ± 2 dB for normal conditions, ±2.5 for extreme cond.
PC step size for inner loop 0.5 dB / 1 dB
Max. power of dedicated channel P_DedChannel_max = P_NodeB_max - 3 dB
Min. power of dedicated channel P_DedChannel_min = P_NodeB_max – 28 dB
Max. power of NodeB P_NodeB_max
Min. power of NodeB P_NodeB_min = P_NodeB_max – 18 dB
CPICH power accuracy Within ±2.1 dB compared to what is included in signaling
message
Occupied bandwidth >99% of the transmitted spectrum are within 5MHz
Spectrum emission mask Is given in [RadPerf]
Adjacent channel emissions 5 MHz: ACLR > 45 dB
10 MHz: ACLR > 50 dB
ACLR = Adjacent channel leakage power ratio
Spurious emission Overall < -13 dBm
1850-1910 MHz < -96 dBm at TX antenna connector
1920-1980 MHz < -96 dBm at TX antenna connector
921 – 960 MHz < -68 dBm to protect GSM 900 MS RX
876 – 915 MHz < -98 dBm to protect GSM 900 BS RX
1805 – 1880 MHz < -77 dBm to protect GSM 1800 MS RX
1710 – 1785 MHz > -100 dBm to protect GSM 1800 BTS RX
For spurious emissions to adjacent channels of UMTS FDD see
[RadPerf]
Sensitivities Guaranteed at antenna connector:
–121.5 dBm with BER<0.001 / no RX diversity
–124 dBm with BER<0.001 / with RX diversity
Typical is 1 dB better.
C/I requirements for a 12.2 Kbit/s Co-channel: C=-91 dBm , I=-73dBm -> C/I=-18dBm
channel: Adj.-Channel: C=-115 dBm , I=-52dBm -> C/I=-63dBm
The Evolium Multi-standard Base Station Version 2 will be available for the release R1.3. UMTS
modules will be plugged into the EVOLIUM GSM BTS. That way , the former Evolium BTS becomes
the Evolium MBS V2, that is, GSM BTS and UMTS Node B capabilities within the same cabinet. The
main features of this product are listed below:
§ Developed by Alcatel
§ Multistandard (UMTS/GSM capable): 3 * 2 GSM + 3 * 1 UMTS in one rack, additional UMTS
equipment in second rack
§ Up to 12 TRXs per Node B
§ Up to 6 sector per Node B
§ Up to 3 TRXs per sector
§ BB (Base Band processing) board capacity increased (64 AMR channels per board).
§ IP addressing possible
§ Not compatible with MBS V1(BB boards incompatible): Control /BB different and PA/ TRX
different.
In Annex C a complete feature list of the MBS V2 is provided.
8.3.3 RNC V1
The first version of the Evolium Radio Network controller will be only UMTS capable, and delivered
for the first RAN release. The main features and listed below:
§ Developed by Alcatel/ Fujitsu
In the Roadmap shown in section 8.2, one can observe, that a RNC V2 is planned to be available
for the RAN release 3GR2. The features of RNC V2 are still under development, and it is not yet
much known about them. Anyway it will be a Multistandard RNC, that means, the same RNC will be
used for GSM/GPRS and UMTS.
On the other hand, the UMTS RNC V1 can be upgraded in order to increase its capacity.
8.3.5 OMC
The definitive features that will belong to the V2 OMC, are not yet consolidated, that is why not
much information is provided about this element.
8.3.5.1 OMC V1
§ Developed by Alcatel-Fujitsu
§ Delivered with release 3GR1
§ UMTS compatible
§ Made of 2 subsystems:
- Element Manager (EM) , on Fujitsu platform: carries out fault management and
equipment management.
- RNO: Carries out QoS follow up and radio configuration management. It is the UMTS
adaptation of the GSM application today delivered by Alcatel in GSM networks.
- PM_DB: Performance Measurements handling. This database relies on METRICA
software.
PM Database
EM
Fault and Equipment
Management
RNC NodeB
Figure 74 OMC V1 structure
§ Configurations:
An UMTS OMC-R configuration is always made of one RNO-U server , one PM-DB server and
one or several EM servers
U s e r T e r m in a ls
R N O -U
P M -D B
IP
N e tw o rk
LAN
EM EM
§ Dimensioning
UMTS OMC-R Number of Maximum number of RNC/NodeB/cells/carriers
configuration EM servers
Large 1 EM 1 4 RNC/ 500 NodeB / 1500 cells / 1500 carriers
Large 2 EM 2 8 RNC/ 1000 NodeB / 3000 cells / 3000 carriers
Large 3 EM 3 12 RNC/ 1500 NodeB / 4500 cells / 4500 carriers
Large 4 EM 4 16 RNC/ 2000 NodeB / 6000 cells / 6000 carriers
Large 5 EM 5 20 RNC/ 2500 NodeB / 7500 cells / 7500 carriers
8.3.5.2 OMC V2
These operators already own a GSM network, either supplied by Alcatel or by another vendor. In
this section we are only going to consider that the existing GSM equipment has been supplied by
Alcatel.
The migration process proposed for these operators involves three steps:
Table 52 GPRS 900 cell ranges in [km] coverage driven (no interference considered) [GPRSRNP]
1800, No FH, TU 50
Table 53 GPRS 1800 cell ranges in [km] coverage driven (no interference considered) [GPRSRNP]
G4 step 2 BTS
Table 54: Typical cell ranges for E-GPRS 900, coverage driven (no interference considered)
[GPRSRNP]
G4 step 2 BTS
Max. Bit Rate 8.8 11.2 14.8 17.6 22.4 29.6 44.8 54.4 59.2
(kbit/s)
urban, flat 1.98 1.76 1.37 0.84 0.94 0.79 0.43 0.39 n.a
urban, hilly 1.00 0.90 0.69 0.43 0.47 0.40 0.22 0.20 n.a
suburban, flat 3.22 2.86 2.23 1.37 1.52 1.29 0.69 0.63 n.a
suburban, hilly 1.81 1.62 1.25 0.77 0.86 0.73 0.39 0.35 n.a
forest, flat 4.18 3.72 2.89 1.78 1.97 1.67 0.90 0.81 n.a
forest, hilly 2.86 2.57 1.98 1.22 1.36 1.15 0.62 0.56 n.a
open area, flat 11.15 9.92 7.70 4.75 5.25 4.45 2.39 2.17 n.a
open area, 7.61 6.84 5.27 3.25 3.61 3.07 1.65 1.50 n.a
hilly
Table 55: Typical cell ranges for E-GPRS 1800, coverage driven (no interference considered)
[GPRSRNP]
In case of UMTS the achievable cell ranges are dependant on the cell loading. Exemplary cell
ranges and achievable bitrates are given in Table 56.
With increasing data traffic densification strategies like cell sectorisation, microcells carriers or cells
addition must be carried out, similar as it is done for voice in the case of GSM. For more
information about this topic please refer to chapter 9 of this guideline.
Greenfield operators which only have a 3G license will be interested in a rapid deployment of their
UMTS network, in order to get as many subscribers as possible. In this case it does not make sense
to deploy E-GPRS first. The network deployment will take place in two steps:
Step 1: UMTS deployment in urban areas:
They will start deploying UMTS only in urban areas, where the demand for multimedia services is
much higher. In order to be able to offer full coverage to their subscribers, they will probably need
to use incumbent operators networks for the not yet covered zones. Therefore they can make
roaming agreements for E-GPRS or GPRS services with other operators, which do not have an UMTS
license and which can benefit from the opportunity to offer multimedia services to their customers.
Step 2: Overall UMTS coverage
The initially deployed UMTS network will be extended to suburban and rural areas. Further network
densification strategies as described in chapter 9 might become necessary in the dense urban areas
to handle increasing traffic.
Exemplary (macro) cell ranges, the site area and the number of subscribers (UE) per carrier of the
Node Bs are summarized below in Table 56.
Dense urban Urban Sub-urban Rural
Range Area UE per Range Area UE per Range Area UE per Range Area UE per
carrier carrier carrier carrier
km Km² km Km² Km Km² km Km²
Lightly 0.43 0.37 334 0.64 0.80 334 1.89 6.95 248 5.08 50.24 130
loaded
Typically 0.41 0.32 493 0.60 0.70 493 1.76 6.00 360 4.77 44.38 174
loaded
Fully 0.38 0.29 630 0.57 0.63 630 1.71 5.71 426 4.67 42.47 234
loaded
Table 56: Approximate cell ranges and UE density per carrier for UMTS [UMTSLB]
GSM/GPRS
E-GPRS
UMTS
8.5 Annex A
In this annex , features regarding transmission interfaces (Iub, Iu, Iur), physical and transport
channels, channel coding, radio resource management, traffic management, Tele-services, bearer
services and security are listed. Ref [FL0].
TRANSMISSION interfaces Release Comment
Iub Transmission
Iub open for equipment from other providers 2.0
Iub star 1.1
Iub cascade (VP cross connection by Node B) 2.0 For V1 and V2 Node B
Iub cascade (AAL2 switching by Node B) NP
Iub redundancy (duplicated VP on duplicated physical interface) 2.0
GSM in AAL1 circuit emulation 1.2
Iu Transmission
Iu open 1.2
Iu CS SS7 1.1
Iu PS SS7 1.1
Iu PS SCTP/IP NP
Iu CS up to 64 kbps bearer 1.1
Iu PS up to 384 kbps bearer 1.1
Iu CS and Iu PS multiplexed on the same physical interface 1.1
Iu CS and Iu PS multiplexed on different physical interfaces 1.2
O&M flow multiplexed with Iu on the same physical interface NP
Iur Transmission
Iur open 1.2
Iur SS7 1.1
Iur SCTP/IP NP
Up to 16 Iur interfaces towards 16 RNC 1.1
Iur and Iu multiplexed on the same physical interface 1.1
Iur and Iu multiplexed on different physical interfaces NP
PHYSICAL CHANNELS NP
8.6 Annex B
In this annex , the features of the Multistandard Base Station first version (MBS V1) are listed. Ref
[FL0].
Features of MBS V1 Release Comments
Multicarrier TPA with 20 W TX power 1.1
Support of improved HW 2.1
RX noise figure < 4 dB 1.1
RX sensitivity of -121 dBm (for 12.2 kbps channel, BER < 0.001) 1.1
Support of up to 6 TPA per Node B 1.1
Support of up to 6 TRX per Node B 1.1
Support of up to 9 TRX per Node B 2.1 Only reasonable together
with V2 BB board and
change of BB / COM
8.7 Annex C
In this annex , the features of the Multistandard Base Station second version (MBS V2) are listed. Ref
[FL0].
Features of MBS V2 Release Comments
Multicarrier TPA with 30 W TX power 1.3 Maximum possible
output power per
cabinet?
RX noise figure < 4 dB 1.3
RX sensitivity of -121 dBm (for 12.2 kbps channel, BER < 1.3
0.011)
Support of up to 6 TPA per Cabinet 1.3
Support of up to 12 TRX per Node B 1.3
Support of up to 3 TRX per sector 1.3
Support of up 6 sectors per Node B 1.3
Multi Standard UMTS/GSM configuration 1.3
Evolium MEDI indoor cabinet for indoor configurations 1.3
Evolium MEDI outdoor cabinet for outdoor configurations 1.3
Multi Rack configuration 1.3
RX diversity 1.3
TX diversity 1.3
BB part redundancy 1.3
RF part redundancy 1.3 Using TX diversity
TRX part redundancy 1.3
Plug & play - HW ready 1.3
Plug & play – SW 2.0
Support of BB modules V2 1.3 64 AMR channels +
DSCH
E1 physical interface 1.3
IMA nXE1 1.3
E3 physical interface 1.3
STM1 physical interface (optical) 1.3
STM1 physical interface (electrical) 1.3
Ethernet 101/10 BaseT physical interface for traffic 1.3 Only in IP option of
R'00
VC4/STM1 1.3
VC3/STM1 NP Only if Orange
AAL1 circuit emulation 1.3
In this annex , the features of the Radio Network Controller first version (RNC V1) are listed. Ref
[FL0].
Features of RNC V1 Release Comments
500 Erlangs + 6 Mbps 1.1
1000 Erlangs + 12 Mbps 1.1
2000 Erlangs + 24 Mbps 2.0
3000 Erlangs + 36 Mbps 2.0
SPU module increased capacity NP
DHT module increased capacity NP
Support of 96 Node B 1.1
Support of 256 Node B 1.2
Support of 512 Node B NP
Clock extraction from STM1 1.1
Stratum 3 clock accuracy level 1.1
Clock extraction from E1 NP
Clock extraction from 2Mhz reference NP
Defense mechanism for Control Unit 2.0 COM 2N, MMUX 6+1
APS mechanism - STM1 redundancy in transmission 1.2 APS 1+1
network
Plug & play - HW ready 1.1
Plug & Play – SW NP
E1 physical interface – Iub 1.2
E3 physical interface – Iub 1.2 Only if Orange
VC4/STM1 Iub interface 1.2
VC3/STM1 Iub interface NP Only if Orange
VC4/STM1 optical interface Iub, Iu and Iur 1.1
VC4/STM1 electrical interface Iub, Iu and Iur 2.0
ATM Mux/Demux of O&M VC from/to Node B 1.1
References
[WFU] WCDMA for UMTS. Radio Access for third Generation Mobile Communications. H.
Holma, A. Toskala. Ed. J.Wiley & Sons. Edition 2000.
[ASMC] Activation Strategy for Microcellular Networks
Doc. Ref:3DF 00 995 0000 UFZZA. Nov.98
[CapImp] Alcatel Offer to CG SAT. Capacity Improvement. Doc. Ref.: MAR 80595. Nov.98
9.1 Introduction
A satisfactory UMTS network performance can turn by time into a non-satisfactory one, if after the
initial network deployment, the traffic increases considerably.
In this chapter, a description of the different strategies that improve network’s architecture
performance is carried out. It mainly focuses on the downlink capacity due to the following reasons:
- In UMTS, the downlink capacity is assumed to be more important that the uplink capacity
because of asymmetric downloading type of traffic.
Empty cells are rather uplink limited (i.e. MS are running out of power in case of large cell ranges),
but when the traffic increases, the cell sizes are shrinking and the downlink becomes limiting
because the Node B needs an extraordinary amount of power to serve all mobiles (i.e. the Node Bs
are power limited).
- Figure 78 shows this effect quantitative for a macrocell. The maximum pathloss decreases as the
cell load and the traffic increases.
165
163
161
Maximum path loss [dB]
159
Coverage is
157 uplink
limited downlink
155
uplink
153
151
Capacity is
149 downlink
limited
147
145
0
0
00
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
10
Figure 78: Example of coverage vs. capacity relation in downlink and uplink in macrocells
A B A B
Traffic
increase
D
C D
C
Consequences of traffic
Initial status increase: cell breathing
Þ Insufficient coverage
Figure 79 Coverage reduction due to traffic increase in a UMTS network
When the demand for UMTS services increases, the capacity of the networks will have to be adapted
to the new market requirements.
If the operator’s frequency allocation allows, the operator can take another carrier into use. W-
CDMA supports efficient inter-frequency handovers (see Chapter 2 of these guidelines for more info)
and several carriers can be utilized to balance the loading and to enhance the capacity per site.
¨ Advantages
It is a very cost efficient method, if the new carrier is available.
It is possible to share one power amplifier between several carriers. This provides a more efficient
use of the power amplifier, since the loading can be divided between two carriers and the total
required transmission power per user is reduced, increasing the capacity.
¨ Disadvantages
The license for a further carrier must be available.
9.2.2 Sectorization
Sectorization consists on dividing cells into two (formerly used for specific coverage scenarios), three
(for densification), or even six (has been used in IS-95 CDMA) sub-cells or sectors.
The former omni-directional antenna is substituted by a double- or triple- or six- panel antenna
system; and the original base station equipment is extended to a two-, three- or six-sector
configuration. This is shown in the Figure 80. Due to the sectorization, the traffic per cell (one third
of the old omni cell) decreases and therefore the cells sizes increase again.
Node B 1 Node B 3
Node B
Node B 2
Sector 3
Sector 2
Omni site Tri-sector site
Figure 80 Principle of cell sectorization
¨ Advantages
1. Sectorized sites simultaneously offer advantages in terms of coverage and in terms of capacity:
Firstly, the radio coverage provided by panel antennas is much easier to tune and to adapt to
terrain and building contours; secondly, sectored sites are less sensitive to interference from
other sites.
In an ideal case N sectors would give N times more capacity, but in practice the sectorization
efficiency is typically about 90%. This means that upgrading the site from an omni-site to a
three-sector site gives a capacity increase of about 2.7, and to a six-sector site a capacity
increase of about 5.4 [WFU]. The increased number of sectors also brings improved coverage
through a higher antenna gain.
2. Site sectorization process is also attractive in terms of operational costs, since more capacity can
be added without any need for finding and renting new sites.
¨ Disadvantages
If the number of sectors is increased, the antennas must be replaced and therefore the radio
network design changes. As the number of antennas increases, there might be problems due to
visual impact and civil works.
Adding cells or cell splitting pertains to the same class of network optimization processes than cell
sectorization and is considered the next step in densification.
If the UMTS traffic density grows significantly, the cells surfaces will shrink due to the breathing cell
phenomenon in order to be able to provide the active subscribers with the adequate quality of
service. This will cause the appearance of “coverage holes” in high traffic density areas, due to the
fact that the Node B downlink power is not enough to serve all the mobiles. Therefore new Node Bs
will be introduced where more capacity is needed.
¨ Advantages
The site density is increased, hence enhancing the offered capacity, supposing that each splitted or
added cell is provided with the same number of channels as each original cell.
¨ Drawbacks
1. Cell splitting can be exploited up to the point in which Node Bs become so close to each other
that the overall network performance starts worsening:
9.2.4 Microcells
In a UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, a combination of macrocells and microcells in a lower
layer can be used in order to solve situations where the macrocell capacity is insufficient. These
situations, in which microcells may be required, are the following:
- To provide coverage and a higher capacity in hot spots like a shopping mall, a stadium or a
business area.
- To provide indoor coverage and capacity.
¨ Advantages
With microcells, different traffic capacity gains can be achieved, depending on the available
channels and the street layout of the considered traffic area.
The amount of intercell interference is lower and the orthogonality of the downlink codes higher in
the microcells where there is less multipath propagation than in macrocells. On the other hand, less
multipath propagation gives less multipath diversity and therefore we assume there is a higher Eb/N0
requirement in microcells than in macrocells. In the Table 57 below exemplary simulation results of
data throughputs in micro and macrocellular environments are shown.
Assumptions in the throughputs calculations
Macrocell Microcell
UL loading 60% 60 %
Data throughput in macro and microcell environments per sector per carrier
Macrocell Microcell
The simulation results of Table 57 show that in macrocells the uplink throughput is much higher
than the downlink one, while in microcells the downlink and uplink capacities are quite balanced.
Interference
Macro-Cell
Micro-Cell
Figure 81 Microcells scenario , interference between the macro and microcell layer
If this option is chosen, one must take into account the side effects of this method. First, the
overlapping of the coverage zones of the macro and the microcell if both work within the same
carrier will bring pilot pollution17 and therefore interference rises, if a handover between both cells
can not be performed. Hence , the macrocell capacity is reduced, and the addition of the microcell
does not represent a linear capacity raise .
It would be also possible to make a handover to the microcell every time that the macro cell is pilot
polluted, but such a measure would only bring a rise in the handover percentage, that causes a
capacity reduction as well.
In this case, there are various possibilities to consider, they are summarized hereafter:
Option Nr. Macrocell Layer Microcell layer
1 FDD FDD
2 FDD TDD
Table 58: Possible hierarchical cells layers configuration
17 If in the macro cell the received Ec/Io coming from the micro cell is higher than a certain
threshold, the micro cell will be considered as a pilot polluter
References:
[SitSha] Site Sharing GSM-UMTS. RF aspects
Ref: 3DC 21019 0005 TQZZA, Ed. 02
[25.492] RF system scenarios TR 25.942 V.2.1.3 (2000-03).3GPP 3G TSG RAN R99
[SysPerf] UTRAN Radio Performance Requirement, 3BK112400014DSZZA
10.1 Introduction
Adjacent channel interference will affect all wide band systems where guard bands are not possible.
We can distinguish between four kinds of ACI sources:
- Multi-operator coexistence FDD-FDD (treated in the present document)
- Multi-mode coexistence TDD-FDD (not content of this guideline)
- UMTS-GSM (see chapter 7 of these guidelines) coexistence
- Multi-operator coexistence TDD-TDD (not content of this guideline)
In the present document, the Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI) phenomenon caused from Multi-
operator coexistence FDD-FDD will be treated. Their causes and effects on the network performance
will be pointed out, as well as possible solutions and their impact on the network planning strategy
to be carried out.
The adjacent channel interference is caused by transmitting non-ideal and imperfect receiver
filtering. In UL and DL the adjacent channel performance is limited by the performance of the
mobile. In the UL the main source of ACI is the non-linear power amplifier in the UE, which
introduces adjacent channel leakage power. In the DL the limiting factor for ACI is the receiver
selectivity of the WCDMA terminal.
The co-existence between two operators using adjacent bands has been taken into account in the
scenarios of simulations used for specifying the equipment (node B and UE) radio requirements in
the 3GPP/WG4 [25.492]. These simulations are referring to co-existence scenarios where the
adjacent band operators are not necessarily sharing the same sites but merely operating in the same
region.
Adjacent Channel Leakage power Ratio (ACLR) is the ratio of the transmitted power to the power
measured in an adjacent channel. According to [SysPerf], the ACLR shall be higher than the value
specified in Table 59 for uplink and downlink.
The uplink case denotes the interference coming from UTRA FDD mobiles of an operator A to the
UTRA FDD Node B of an operator B as shown in figure 1.
In the uplink, the adjacent channel interference causes noise rise, meaning an increase of the
wideband interference level over the thermal noise in the Node B reception of operator B. The effect
of the adjacent channel interference can be seen as a reduced uplink capacity.
Some Monte Carlo system simulations have been performed to quantify the capacity loss due to the
presence of an operator in the adjacent band in different co-existence scenarios. For detailed
description of the simulated scenarios please refer to [25.942].
Macro cell
Macro cell
operator A
operator B
Signal
Interference
Table 60 shows exemplary the uplink capacity losses for the FDD macro/ FDD macro case, which
can reach up to 13% in some scenarios.
The Adjacent Channel Interference Power Ratio (ACIR) given in Table 60 is defined as the ratio of
the total power transmitted from a source (Node B OR UE) to the total interference power affecting a
victim receiver. The occurring interference corresponds to an approximate cell load as given in Table
60. Two different scenarios have been investigated:
- Intermediate case, where the second system Node Bs are located at a half-cell radius shift
respect to the first system ones
- Worst Case, where the second system Node Bs are located at the cell border of the first system
The downlink case denotes the interference from UTRA FDD Node B of an operator B to a UTRA
FDD UE belonging to an operator A.
Operator A’s mobile is receiving adjacent channel interference in the downlink from operator B’s
Node B, this will bring the need to increase the downlink power of operator B allocated to that
connection in order to compensate the increased interference in the UE reception. This power
increase will allow that mobile to interfere with all other connections of this cell, that is why it is
preferable to drop that connection in downlink before the mobile gets extremely close to the
operator B’s Node B and causes additionally interference in the uplink connections of operator B
(Figure 83).
Macro cell
Macro cell
operator A
operator B
Signal Interference
Table 61 shows exemplary the downlink capacity losses for the FDD macro/ FDD macro case, which
can be up to 15% in some scenarios. The same definitions as for Table 2 are valid. The occurring
interference corresponds to an approximate cell load as given in Table 61.
In order to avoid a decrease of the system performance, some strategies can be carried out when
planning the network:
Large minimum coupling loss: It is recommended to maintain a coupling loss between Node B and
UE antennas as high as possible by choosing appropriate Node B antenna locations, antenna
patterns etc.
Node B co-location: Different operators should try to co-locate their Node Bs. Therefore, there will
not be large power differences at the both operators’ Node Bs and the adjacent channel attenuation
will be enough to fulfil the ACLR requirements (see Table 59) causing no adjacent channel
interference problems.
Adjustment of carrier spacing: Frequency coordination between the operators should be done where
ever possible. The nominal WCDMA carrier spacing is 5 MHz, but can be adjusted within a 200 kHz
raster according to the requirements of the adjacent channel interference.
Inter-frequency HO: Refer chapter 2 of this guideline.
Desensitization: Reduces the sensitivity of the Node B receiver, i.e. increases the noise figure of the Node
B RF parts, making the Node B receiver less sensitive. This would also bring a considerable cell
range reduction; therefore this method is only recommended for small cells without UL coverage
problems.
The ‘dead zone’ area has been defined in RAN4 as the area close to a Node B, where UEs
operating in a neighboring frequency f1 receive and provoke a high level of downlink and uplink
interference as described in the previous two sections. This may result in a loss of communication.
Note that dead zone areas exist in pure macrocell scenarios as well as in macro/micro scenarios,
however the latter are usually more critical since the UE can get much closer to a microcell antenna,
causing a small coupling loss between UE and Node B.
f1
Therefore, if we can avoid large power differences of own mobiles and other mobiles at the Node
Bs, we get enough adjacent channel attenuation and therefore reduce the ACI problems. This can
be done by avoiding scenarios where a mobile is far away from its serving cell (belonging to
This chapter is currently designed to give an idea what kind of test cases can be interesting to focus
on.
Some of the interesting test cases are shown in this chapter more detailed and in section 11.8 a list
of all test cases are available.
In the network planning of cellular networks usually macrocell prediction models are used for cell
planning. These models are based on empirical propagation formulas in combination with a
correction factor used to model the influence of the morpho structure.
These correction factors need to be adapted to the required region by a process of propagation
model calibration . Basic input for this calibration are analogue field strength measurements. This
measurement type is described in the calibration guide line [3DF009934000PGZZA]. An analogue
test transmitter providing a simple CW signal will be installed in a region which represents the
typical morpho structure there. While driving around this station the received field strength will be
monitored and mapped to the position. Based on the calculated path loss the propagation model
will be adapted to the measured values.
In terms of pathloss calculation the same procedure is required for UMTS networks to adapt the
used prediction model to the morpho structure. Compared to a GSM network additional effects have
to be considered later on in a UMTS network planning process. The most important ones in case of
wave propagation are as follows:
- The signal used is a wide band signal.
- The wide band receiver is using multipath reception.
- The frequency band is higher than for GSM
In case of additional gain the following facts have to be considered:
- The number of used received paths are depending on UE HO status (number of cells in active
set) due to limited number of receiver fingers.
- The cell load is affecting the cell coverage by creation of interference (cell breathing).
- Fast PC may compensate the influence of fading.
- Additional gain may expected if the UE is in soft HO state.
All these facts are effecting an additional gain to the received signal strength and has to be
considered in addition to the standard wave propagation.
The following tests are based on [GenTest]. As mentioned above the cell coverage is depending on
cell load plus interference and takes advantage of additional effects of UMTS technology like HO
gain or PC gain. Thereby we have to distinguish between UL and DL direction. The following
chapters will describe how to measure these gains.
This type of measurement is used to investigate the gain of the Rake receiver using multipath
reception compared to standard GSM receivers. The measured channel is the CPICH for UMTS,
which is transmitted by the Node B with full power and a BCCH for GSM. We investigate the effect
of the pathloss and the multipath profile in different environments.
The measured entities are RSCP on CPICH with BLER / BER for WCDMA and RXLEV on BCCH with
RXQUAL for GSM. The measurement should be done in the same environment for the Node B and
the BTS. Best case would be a co-located installation. In that case driving the same route would be
possible.
A call will be established and the measurement starts at the Node B and is going faraway to the cell
border. A call drop marks the end of the coverage area. Both measurements can be compared in a
map to find the coverage range or putting the quality values in a graph along the distance MS - BS.
Due to the fact that the UL in WCDMA networks will be more critical than the DL (cell breathing
depending on traffic load) the measurement should be repeated in a high traffic situation with
simulated load. This can be done by feeding in noise into the Node B receiver using an AWGN
generator. An earlier call drop due to bad quality in UL will be expected.
The received signal quality of the UE depends on their receiver sensitivity which is defined: Receiver
Eb
sensitivity = Thermal noise density + NF+ PG + Mi +
N0
With:
· Thermal noise density = -174 dBm
· NF: Noise figure, characteristic of the equipment
· PG = Processing gain = Rc / R j
Soft handover occurs when the UE is in communication with 2 Node Bs located at different sites. The
gain achieved by the soft handover is a gain in terms of achieved quality and in term of required
power. The quality is evaluated by the BLER or the BER according to the type of service, which is
considered. Since the achievable BLER or BER depend also on the decoding function, the handover
gain in terms of quality is related to the SIR gain. Since the handover is expected to improve the
reception with a higher diversity, the combining gain reduces the required power. To test this gain,
closed loop and open loop TPC (Transmit Power Control) should be enabled.
To test soft handover performance, two tests are performed. In the first test case, only one Node B is
switched on. In the second test case, both Node Bs are switched on. The UE is slowly moved over the
area. Set up one UE and all the Node Bs. Position the UE where it can receive the greatest number
of pilot channels, CPICH. This is equivalent to the location, where the number of radio links in the
active set is maximal and will determine the number of cells in soft handover in the overlap area.
Then, the UE is slowly moved until radio links are deleted.
The following measurements are performed:
Node B
· We can compare the SIR versus BLER (or BER) with handover and the SIR versus BLER (or BER)
without handover. Measurements on the radio links are available in the NBAP message,
DEDICATED_MEASUREMENT_REPORTING. Following measurements can be performed in FDD
mode: SIR value, SIR error value, transmitted code power value.
· Handover gain
= (UL SIR on RL1 before addition of RL2) – (UL SIR on RL1 after addition of RL)
or
= (DL transmitted code power value on RL1 before addition of RL2) – (DL transmitted code power
value on RL1 after addition of RL2)
· Measurements: RSSI on the UTRA carrier, SIR/SIR_error on each RL, BLER (BLER is calculated
from number of CRC error counted at Node-B), BER, transmitted code power value on RL1,
transmitted code power value on RL2 and transmit power at Node-B
RNC
· On the uplink and in the case of soft handover and not softer handover, we can compare the
BLER and BER at each Node B and the BLER and BER after combining at the RNC.
Softer handover gain will be measured using a similar method to that used for soft handover. Two
sectors of the same Node B with the biggest coverage overlap will be chosen. Softer handover
occurs when the UE is in communication with 2 sectors of one Node B.
Like in the soft handover case, the gain achieved by the softer handover is a gain in term of
achieved quality and in term of required power.
To test softer handover performance, two tests are performed. In both test cases, only one Node B is
turned on. In the first test case, only one sector is turned on. In the second test case, all the sectors
are turned on. The UE is slowly moved over the area. Position the UE where it can receive the
biggest number of pilot channels, CPICH. This is equivalent to the location, where the number of
radio links in the active set is maximal and will determine the number of sectors in softer handover
in the overlap area. Then, the UE is moved until one RL is dropped out of the active set.
Following measurements are performed:
Node-B side
· We can compare the SIR versus BLER (or BER) in softer handover and the SIR versus BLER (or
BER) with only one RL. Measurements on the radio links are available in the NBAP message,
DEDICATED_MEASUREMENT_REPORTING. Following measurements can be performed in FDD
mode: SIR value, SIR error value, transmitted code power value.
· Handover gain
= (UL SIR on RL1 before addition of RL2) – (UL SIR on RL1 after addition of RL)
or
= (DL transmitted code power value on RL1 before addition of RL2) – (DL transmitted code
power value on RL1 after addition of RL2)
· Measurements: RSSI on the UTRA carrier, SIR/SIR_error on each RL, BLER (BLER is calculated
from number of CRC error counted at Node-B), BER, transmitted code power value on RL1,
transmitted code power value on RL2 and transmit power at Node-B
RNC side
No measurement is performed. There is no softer handover gain at RNC side.
UE side
· On the downlink, the gain consists of the reduction of emitted power on a former radio link after
the addition of a new radio link
· Handover gain = (UE-received code strength on RL1 with handover) – (UE-received code
strength on RL1 without handover) = (Node B-transmitted code strength on RL1 with handover) –
(Node B-transmitted code strength on RL1 without handover)
One could imagine that the UE speed could damage the quality of the reception and then, the soft
handover zone will become larger for a fast UE. For this test, the overlap zone is already known
from previous tests. In the first test case, only one Node B is switched on. In the second test case,
both Node Bs are switched on. The UE is driven fast over the area. For both test cases, same
measurements as for soft/softer handover are performed.
Compare the results with those obtained with a slow UE.
One could imagine varying the pilot strength by modifying the interference level. Noise could be
added for loading purpose at the Node B’s side. This could not be done at the MS-SIM side since it
would damage the pilot of both Node Bs. For this test, the overlap zone is already known from
previous tests. In the first test case, only one Node B is switched on and the interference level is
artificially raised. In the second test case, both Node Bs are switched on, and the increased
interference level is kept at the first Node B. The UE is driven slowly over the area. For both test
cases, same measurements as for soft/softer handover are performed.
Compare the results with those obtained with a Node B without interference.
Open Loop power control is performed both in the UTRAN and UE to set the initial power for
transmission.
In the uplink, open loop power control is used by the UE in order to set the transmission power of
the PRACH. The initial power of the UE during random access is set using UE measurements on the
PCCPCH and broadcast system information. The UE estimates the path loss by measuring the
received power of P-CCPCH, and emits the required power in order for the Node B to receive the
target power level.
In the downlink, open loop power control sets the initial power of the downlink DCH channels using
measurement reports from the UE.
The path loss indicated in the UE measurement reports should be compared with the path loss
computed from the measurements of the drive test system on the CPICH. This test is done within the
propagation tests.
Downlink and uplink inner loop power control are located in both the UTRAN and UE.
The closed loop power control consists of an inner and outer loop.
Inner loop (UL)
· If SIR ³ SIR_target, then the Node B should set the TPC bits in the next transmitted downlink slot
period such that the UE will lower its transmit power,
When low diversity is provided, more variations of the transmitted power are observed and the
average transmitted power is higher. Simulations have shown that the gain from the fast power
control is larger for those cases where only a little multipath diversity is available, like in the
pedestrian environment.
The following procedure is performed twice: once with the Power Control disabled and once with the
Power Control enabled. The UE initiates the service close to the Node B. Measurements of the
Simulations have shown that the gain from the fast power control is larger for low UE speed than for
high UE speed. Fast power control is expected to compensate fast fading. This compensation causes
peaks in the transmission power. For UE speed exceeding 50km/h, inaccuracies in the SIR
estimation, power control signaling errors and the delay in power control loop degrade the
performances of the fast power control. The maximum cell range is obtained when the UE is
transmitting full constant power, i.e. without the gain of fast power control.
The following procedure is performed twice: once with the Power Control disabled and once with the
Power Control enabled. The UE initiates the service close to the Node B. Measurements of the
transmit and receive powers are performed at the Node B and at the UE, while the UE moves at
constant high speed away from the Node B. Measurements are continued until the call is dropped at
cell edge. If possible, take measurements of the received SIR. This test must be done in an
environment, which has been formerly investigated at a low speed. Several UE speeds may be
investigated.
The Node B’s receive and transmit power profiles are plotted against the distance to the Node B,
preferentially on a map.
The adjacent channel interference must be considered in any wideband system where large guard
bands are not possible.
The own frequency f1 of an UE could not be received if being nearby to a Node B of an other
operator having the adjacent frequency f2 (see Figure 85).
The effect is that frequency f1 has not the sufficient quality in the cell center with the frequency f2, so
an other operator generates a service area hole, a so-called dead zone. As summary, dead zones
can exist in a coexistence of at least two operators.
A solution would be a Co-location of UMTS operators, which avoids the occurrence of dead zones
Methods for measurements:
With the output powers of the wanted and interfering Node B set to the maximum Node B TX power,
the UE is brought close to the adjacent channel interfering Node B.
The first test consists in measuring the CPICH reception for the two Node Bs with the drive test
system and noting the cell selection done by the UE along a given road.
The second test consists in forcing the adjacent Node B to emit OCNS at full power on the adjacent
band. Then, the UE is driven together with the drive test system along the test road. A
communication is established with the “serving” Node-B. It must be studied if the cell range,
meaning the limit for the reception, is influenced by the adjacent OCNS. The CPICH Ec/Io is also
measured.
One could imagine varying the interference level in order to degrade the RF conditions. If OCNS is
added at the Node B’s side to emulate cell load on DL, the received SIR is decreased.
The UE initiates the service close to the Node B. Measurements of the transmit and receive powers
are performed at the Node B and at the UE, while the UE moves at a constant high speed away
from the NodeB. Measurements are continued until the call is dropped at cell edge. If possible, take
measurements of the received SIR. This test must be done in an environment, which has been
formerly investigated without adding interference. Several interference levels may be investigated.
The Node B’s receive and transmit power profiles are plotted against the distance to the Node B,
preferentially on a map for various noise level.
The document [SiteShare] presents a complete study of this topic. The required decoupling is given.
In order to prevent performance degradation for co-located mobile systems, Alcatel proposes due to
the three interference mechanisms the following decoupling requirements, see chapter 7:
GSM 05.05 39 dB 30 dB 85 dB 85 dB
GSM 1800 (TX) Blocking GSM GSM
® spurious spurious
Alcatel 39 dB 30 dB 62 dB 47 dB
Blocking Blocking GSM
spurious
3G TS 35 dB 30 dB 43 dB 30 dB
UMTS (TX) ® 25.104 Blocking
Blocking
Alcatel 35 dB 30 dB 43 dB 30 dB
Blocking
Blocking
Note: It is assumed, that the decoupling provided by the antenna/diplexer system is at least 30 dB. In fact, using Alcatel
EVOLIUM™ equipment requires for certain combinations even less isolation than those 30dB. Intermodulation is
suppressed by frequency planning.
Ø Isolation by using a diplexer for a dual-band antenna for GSM1800 and UMTS
Ø Isolation by using two diplexers for a dual-band antenna for GSM1800 and UMTS
Ø Filter for a dual-band antenna for GSM1800 and UMTS
The following measurements may applied:
- Measurement for GSM system
- Spurious emission received in UL
- Worse Rxlev, Rxqual distribution in DL / UL driving a specified route
The parameter will be derived from interference measurements by comparing the values obtained
with or without the effect of the orthogonality. Two procedures have been developed, and it could be
interesting to compare the values given by each method.
Method 1:
The ETSI gives a theoretical method to derive the parameter from Eb/No computations.
Two simulations are made, one with white Gaussian noise and one with intra-cell interference. The
BER is then plotted as a function of Eb/No and Eb/Io respectively. These curves may differ
significantly, where the Eb/Io curve is to the left of the Eb/No curve. A difference of 10 dB means
that a given Eb/Io gives the same BER as Eb/No = Eb/Io + 10. Consequently, a certain Io in the
system simulations is equivalent to having 10 dB less No in the link-level simulations. Hence, it is
æ ö
ç ÷
ç 1 1 ÷
Ptot - Pi × ç -
Ec SIR ÷
çç ÷÷
è N0 ø
= =
Ptot - Pi
SF is the spreading factor of the considered DPCH on downlink.
Pt is the transmitted power on the considered DPCH on downlink.
PCPICH Pti ,m × SF
Ptot i - ( - )
Ec Io SIRDPCH
=i =
Ptoti - Pti ,m
Since we will compute the value from several measurements, the accuracy of the measurements
must be known to check the validity of the method.
Test scenario:
The emit power of the CPICH is fixed. A communication is established between the UE and the Node
B. Measurements of the CPICH Ec/No and the CPICH SIR are performed, while the total emit power
at the Node B is measured thanks to a power meter. This procedure is repeated for different
environments, and at different speeds. The effect of the distance from the Node B and of the
service’s bitrate can also be studied.
The equation above is used to calculate the value of the parameter a for each environment/speed.
Acceptance tests must be specified clearly in the contract. The metholody of testing and the
acceptance criteria must be clearly specified. This step can often be the bottleneck to obtaining the
final payments, as well as the prospect of future expansion contract.
When the UMTS Network is in operation, its performance can be observed by measurements, and
the result of those measurements can be used to visualize and optimize network performance.
· UMTS Drive test tool E7476A from Agilent which supports the following measurement entities:
§ Primary Sync Channel Ec, Ec/Io, Eb, Eb/Io
§ Secondary Sync Channel Ec, Ec/Io, Eb, Eb/Io
§ Scrambling Code: Peak Ec, Peak Ec/Io, Peak Eb, Peak Eb/Io
§ Scrambling Code: Aggregate Ec, Aggregate Ec/Io, Aggregate Eb, Aggregate Eb/Io
§ Delay spread
§ Carrier Frequency Error
§ Time Stamp
§ Position
· Mobil Station Simulator or test mobile supporting the measurements as specify in 3GPP.
· AWGN generator to feed in noise in to a Node B
· Protocol Analyzer for NBAP message trace
Test cases which could be planned during the set-up of a network or for existing network. These test
cases are given in the following list.
UMTS PROPAGATION
COVERAGE WITH THE PILOT AND THE SYNCHRONISATION CHANNELS
CELL SELECTION
COVERAGE IN TERMS OF SERVICE
INTERFERENCE ON ADJACENT CHANNEL
CO-SITTING WITH GSM
CODE MULTIPLEX
ORTHOGONALITY OF SCRAMBLING CODES ON DOWNLINK (INTERCELL)
ORTHOGONALITY ON SPREADING CODES ON DL (INTRACELL)
POWER CONTROL
OPEN LOOP POWER CONTROL
CLOSED LOOP POWER CONTROL
INFLUENCE OF THE PROPAGATION ENVIRONMENT
INFLUENCE OF THE UE SPEED
INFLUENCE OF THE INTERFERENCE LEVEL
SOFT HANDOVER
NEIGHBOURING CELL SEARCH
NEIGHBOURING CELL SEARCH IN CASE OF SOFT HANDOVER
NEIGHBOURING CELL SEARCH IN CASE OF SOFTER HANDOVER
SOFT HANDOVER AREA
SOFTER HANDOVER AREA
SOFT HANDOVER GAIN
SOFTER HANDOVER GAIN
INFLUENCE OF THE UE SPEED
INFLUENCE OF THE INTERFERENCE LEVEL
TUNING OF THE PARAMETERS
CAPACITY AND PERFORMANCES
PERFORMANCE IN AN UNLOADED NETWORK
CAPACITY IN A LOADED NETWORK
TEST SET OF THE DIFFERENT SERVICE BEARERS
AMR(12.2KBPS)-CODED VOICE SERVICE FOR ORIGINATING CALL
AMR(12.2KBPS)- CODED VOICE SERVICE FOR TERMINATING CALL
DATA(384KBPS) SERVICE
COMPARISON GSM/UMTS, MEASUREMENT OF THE
CPICH DETECTION AREA
CPICH DETECTION ON A LOADED CELL
UMTS COVERAGE FOR VOICE SERVICE
UMTS COVERAGE FOR VOICE ON ONE LOADED CELL
UMTS COVERAGE FOR DATA -384KBPS SERVICE
UMTS COVERAGE FOR DATA -384KBPS ON A LOADED CELL
MECHANICAL PERFORMANCE OF SOFT HANDOVER
MEASUREMENT OF THE SHO ZONES
TUNING OF THE PARAMETER “HYTERISIS”
TUNING OF THE PARAMETER “REPORTING RANGE“
TUNING OF THE PARAMETER “REPORTING DEACTIVATION THRESHOLD“
BEHAVIOUR OF MECHANICAL PERFORMANCE OF POWER CONTROL
INFLUENCE OF THE PROPAGATION ENVIRONMENT
INFLUENCE OF THE UE SPEED
INFLUENCE OF THE TPC STEPO SIZE
TEST OF THE DIFFERENT SERVICE BEARERS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Explanations for all abbreviations used in 3GPP are given in [21.905]. Abbreviations used in this
document are given hereafter.
Abbreviation Full meaning
ACI Adjacent Channel Interference
ACLR Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio
AI Acquisition Indicator
AICH Acquisition Indicator Channel
AIO All-In-One
AMR Adaptive Multirate
ANC Evolium Evolution Duplexer and Combiner Stage
ANXU Antenna Network for UMTS
AP Access Preamble
AP-AICH Access Preamble Acquisition Indicator Channel
API Access Preamble Indicator
ARQ Automatic Repeat Request
ASC Access Service Class
AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise
BB Base Band
BCCH Broadcast Control Channel
BCH Broadcast Channel
BER Bit Error Rate
BLER Block Error Rate
BSC Base Station Controller
BSS Base Station System
BTS Base Transceiver Station
C- Control-
CA Channel Assignment
CAI Channel Assignment Indicator
CC Call Control
CCC CPCH Control Command
CCCH Common Control Channel
CCH Control Channel
CCPCH Common Control Physical Channel
CCTrCH Coded Composite Transport Channel
CD Collision Detection
CD/CA-ICH Collision Detection/Channel Assignment Indicator Channel
CDF Cumulative Density Function
CDI Collision Detection Indicator
CN Core Network
CPCH Common Packet Channel
CPICH Common Pilot Channel
CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check
CRNC Controlling Radio Network Controller
CS Circuit Switched
END OF DOCUMENT