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Congestion Control in WCDMA with Respect to Different Service Classes

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Congestion Control in WCDMA with Respect to Different Service Classes


Joachim Sachs, Thomas Balon, Michael Meyer

Ericsson Eurolab Deutschland GmbH


Ericsson Allee 1, 52134 Herzogenrath, Germany
e-mail: {Joachim.Sachs | Michael.Meyer}@eed.ericsson.se

Abstract – In the Universal Mobile (WCDMA) technology. In contrast to Time Division


Telecommunications System (UMTS) the radio Multiple Access technology, the radio resources in
resource management functions are jointly handled in WCDMA are not as easily “countable”. This property is
two different protocol layers, the Radio Resource also referred to as soft-capacity, meaning that the balance
Control (RRC) and the Medium Access Control of capacity, quality and coverage can be shifted towards
(MAC). Congestion control functions are performed improving any of these characteristics for the price of
in the RRC layer. Therefore congestion control reducing the other ones. For this reason, congestion
requires strong interactions between the radio control mechanisms in WCDMA are challenging to
interface protocol layers, including measurement define, since there are no hard limits imposed by the
reports which are transmitted, as well as system owing to the soft-capacity property.
reconfiguration procedures. In this paper different congestion control mechanisms
In a simulation environment different radio resource will be discussed and analysed. This comprises the
reconfiguration procedures are evaluated for methods of how congestion is detected, how radio
congestion control. One aspect is the method which is resources are reassigned and which protocol sequences
used to detect congestion. The system performance is are involved.
presented for a mix of traffic with different service In section II the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
classes. Network (UTRAN) is described, including the properties
It is demonstrated how during a congestion, different of the WCDMA channel and the protocols which are
service classes can be differentiated. This provides involved in the congestion control process. In section III
improved quality of service provisioning for the users a simulation scenario is presented and results on
according to their service requirements. By choosing congestion control mechanisms are provided in section
the best congestion indicator, a good trade-off can be IV. Eventually, a conclusion is drawn in section V.
found between quick congestion resolution and
quality of service control on one hand, and efficient II. UTRAN
utilization of the radio resources on the other hand.
A. WCDMA Channel
I. INTRODUCTION
The physical layer that is used in the paired frequency
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System bands of UMTS is based on WCDMA [1]. Variable data
(UMTS) is the European 3rd generation mobile rates can be provided on the transport channels by using
telecommunication system. In a global co-operation of codes with different spreading factors. This implies that
standards organisations it is being standardised at the transport channels with higher data rates have a reduced
Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), where a spreading gain. In order to balance the reduced spreading
technical specification is being developed on the basis of gain and still achieve the required ratio of received
an evolved GSM core network and the UMTS Terrestrial energy per bit to the effective noise power, Eb/N0, the
Radio Access (UTRA). The resulting specification is output power level has to be increased. On dedicated
contributed to ITU for the International Mobile channels, this is achieved by fast power control. 1600
Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000) standards family. power control commands per second are transmitted from
Requirements for UMTS are to support multimedia the receiver to the transmitter, so that the transmitter can
services with data rates of up to 384 kbit/s for wide-area adapt its transmit power accordingly. When multiple
coverage and up to 2 Mbit/s for indoor and low-range users are transmitting at the same time, each user
outdoor coverage. Furthermore, UMTS has to provide a increases the interference level for all other users.
high service flexibility to support both circuit- and Therefore the radio link quality depends not only on the
packet-switched services with a wide range of applicable radio channel attenuation, but also on the traffic load
data rates. Additionally, it must be possible to use caused by all mobile terminals in the same and
multiple services simultaneously. Hence, UMTS will neighbouring cells. In this sense, the common shared
make many data services available to mobile users, resource is power. An increase in interference forces each
especially those currently known from the Internet. mobile terminal to also increase the transmit power. This
The paired frequency bands of UMTS – 1920-1980 in turn increases the interference for other users and they
MHz in uplink and 2110-2170 MHz in downlink – use will react in the same way. In general, this converges to a
the Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode which is certain transmit power for all users. However, when the
based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access traffic load becomes too high this can lead to a

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congestion situation. If some users reach the limit of their 3.


Measurement Report

RRC
transmit power they cannot follow the power control RRC
4.
Radio Resource
Assignment 6.
process any longer. Therefore they perceive a lower

Control

Control
Eb/N0 and an increased error rate on the channel. 5. RLC RLC
5.
RLC retransmission
B. UMTS Radio Access Bearers

Measurements
control

Measurements (Interference Level)

Measurements
Control

Control
The UTRAN provides radio access bearers for data
services. They offer a bearer transport between the MAC MAC
mobile user equipment and the core network. These radio

Control
access bearer services can be configured very flexibly in

Measurements
order to support the quality of service requirements of a

Control
data service. A given radio access bearer is defined by a 2.
L1
1. L1
set of parameters, like maximum bit rate, bit error rate
and transmission delay. UT RAN UE
Four quality of service classes are defined for UMTS: Figure 1 Radio interface protocol reconfiguration
½ Conversational Class,
½ Streaming Class, 1) L1 – Physical Layer (PHY)
½ Interactive Class,
The tasks of the physical layer comprise to perform
½ Background Class.
forward error correction (FEC), error detection and
interleaving. Further tasks are the multiplexing of
The Conversational Class is used for conversational
transport channels, spreading, modulation and radio
real time applications, like e.g. voice over IP or video
frequency processing. The physical layer is also
conferencing. Requirements are a low transmission
responsible for frequency and time synchronisation and
delay, a low jitter and a low round trip delay.
closed-loop power control. The power control
The Streaming Class is used for real time streaming
dynamically adapts the transmitter power to the channel
applications, e.g. audio or video streaming. The
conditions, so that the receiver always receives the signal
requirements on the transmission delay are less stringent
at the correct power level. For that the receiver informs
then for the Conversational Class. However, the timing
the transmitter with power control commands at a rate of
relations between data packets have to be preserved and
1600 signals per second. Another function of the physical
therefore the jitter must be low.
layer is to measure transmission values, e.g. transmit
The Interactive Class is used for best effort data
power, interference power, signal-to-interference ratio
services which are following a request-response pattern.
(SIR), block error rate. These values are indicated to the
Examples for such services are WWW traffic or telnet.
Radio Resource Control layer, which uses them for radio
Requirements are a low residual error rate and a low
resource management.
round trip delay.
For the physical layer, a set of Transport Formats (TF)
The Background Class is used for best effort data
– the so-called Transport Format Set (TFS) – is assigned
services with no requirements on delay. Examples are file
to each transport channel. A Transport Format can be
transfer and e-mail.
described as a combination of channel encoding,
For each radio access bearer a link is established and
interleaving, bit rate and mapping onto a physical
all radio interface protocols are configured with
channel. The Transport Format Set specifies those
appropriate parameters.
Transport Formats which a radio access bearer can use on
a transport channel. The physical layer multiplexes one
C. UTRAN Radio Interface Protocols or more transport channels onto physical channels. When
transport channels are multiplexed not all possible
The UTRAN radio interface is layered in three combinations of Transport Formats of the different
protocol layers: transport channels may be applied by the physical layer
½ the physical layer (L1), at a certain point in time. An authorised combination of
½ the data link layer (L2), Transport Formats that may be applied simultaneously is
½ the network layer (L3). referred to as a Transport Format Combination (TFC).
The set of Transport Format Combinations that can be
The relationship of the radio interface protocol applied by the physical layer is called Transport Format
architecture is depicted in Fig. 1. Combination Set (TFCS). It is a subset of all possible
The radio resource management functions are split Transport Format Combinations.
into two parts which are handled in two protocol layers. For example, a transport channel 1 (TC1) and transport
The Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer is responsible channel 2 (TC2) shall have the following Transport
for assigning a pool of radio resources to each radio Format Sets:
access bearer and reconfiguring the radio resources. The ½ TC1: TFS1 = {0, 8, 16, 32} kbit/s,
Medium Access Control (MAC) manages this pool of ½ TC2: TFS2 = {16, 32} kbit/s.
radio resources instantaneously. So to speak, MAC has Then a resulting TFCS could be:
short-term control over the radio resources and RRC ½ TFCS = {16, 24, 32, 40} kbit/s,
defines the long-term guidelines for MAC.

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thus excluding the combinations of using 32|16 kbit/s and 4) L3 – Radio Resource Control Protocol (RRC)
32|32 kbit/s.
The RRC protocol is located in the control plane of the
The physical layer is configured by RRC when a radio
network layer. It handles the control plane signalling
access bearer is setup or reconfigured. The TFSs and
between the user equipment (UE) and the core network.
TFCS are then assigned by RRC. A detailed description
It is also responsible for the management of radio
of the physical layer can be found in [1] and [6].
resources, comprising establishment, reconfiguration and
2) L2 – Medium Access Control Protocol (MAC) release of radio access bearers. It is the task of RRC to
control the requested quality of service and perform
The MAC layer is a sublayer of the data link layer. It congestion control.
provides logical channels to the RLC layer. Logical Several radio access bearers can be assigned to the
channels describe “what type” of information is same user equipment. The task of RRC is to manage the
transported. The MAC layer maps logical channels onto available radio resources among all radio access bearers
transport channels. Transport channels are provided by of all mobile terminals within the cell. The radio resource
the physical layer to the MAC layer, and they describe management procedures are performed in the RRC entity
“how” information is transported. on the UTRAN side of the radio link. The appropriate
Furthermore, MAC is responsible for the information is then transmitted to the RRC entities in the
instantaneous radio resource management. This is mobile terminals. The other radio link protocols are then
achieved by selecting the Transport Format for each configured accordingly by the RRC entities.
transport channel, taking into account the instantaneous RRC controls the parameters and settings of the
source rate. In this process MAC also has to prioritise underlying protocol layers RLC, MAC and PHY, thus
between data flows of the same user equipment. MAC is selecting the radio access bearer processing [3]. It signals
limited to the TFSs and TFCS which have been assigned to MAC and PHY the Transport Format Set and
to it by RRC. MAC multiplexes packet data units from Transport Format Combination Set for the transport
RLC onto the transport channels. The instantaneous radio channels. Additionally, the RLC data transfer mode is
resource management is handled every transmission time assigned.
interval, e.g. 10 ms.
Furthermore, MAC is responsible for managing D. Congestion Control
common transport channels, which are not considered in
In contrast to other mobile communication systems,
the analysis of this paper. For further information refer to
the radio network controller in UMTS does not
[5].
permanently control the actual uplink data rates of the
3) L2 – Radio Link Control Protocol (RLC) mobile terminals. As described in the previous section,
the RRC in the network assigns a pool of radio resources
The RLC layer is a sublayer of the data link layer. to the radio access bearers and MAC manages these
There is one RLC connection per radio access bearer. resources instantaneously. Thus, the mobile stations
Higher layer data is segmented into packet data units of choose their data rates – within the limitations given by
sizes which are suitable for the radio transmission. On RRC – independent from the radio network controller.
the receiving side the original data format is reassembled. Due to the movement of the mobile stations, the
The RLC layer provides three different data transfer characteristics of the radio channel and the traffic
modes to the higher layer. transmitted by all applications, overload situations may
The acknowledged data transfer mode is a guaranteed occur in a system. In such a situation the interference in
service. All higher layer data is transferred error-free the system increases rapidly, leading to a reduced quality
over the radio interface. This is achieved by of service or call dropping.
retransmissions of erroneous RLC packet data units. This A fast detection of an overload situation can be based
mechanism is also referred to as automatic repeat request on several measurements, e.g.:
(ARQ). An efficient radio access bearer configuration ½ in the sender by monitoring the transmit power and
can be achieved by finding a good balance between the power control commands,
forward error correction in the physical layer and ARQ in ½ in the receiver by monitoring the interference power,
the link layer. the signal-to-interference ratio or the block error
In unacknowledged data transfer mode, no rate.
retransmissions are performed. The transmission delay is
reduced, but the delivery of higher layer data cannot be The congestion can be resolved by reducing the
guaranteed. interference level. This can be achieved by reducing the
In transparent data transfer mode, no specific protocol allowed data rates of one or several radio access bearers.
information is added to the packet data units and As stated before, the radio network controller in UMTS
therefore the protocol overhead is minimized. No does not permanently control the data rates of the radio
retransmissions are performed. access bearers. Therefore several steps are necessary to
The RLC connection is configured by RRC when a react to congestion. First the congestion needs to be
radio access bearer is setup or reconfigured [4]. detected by measurements, which have to be signalled to
the RRC layer. If the RRC entity in the UTRAN
recognises congestion it reconfigures the radio resources

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in order to resolve the congestion. There are several the UTRAN. During connection establishment RRC
possibilities to reconfigure the radio resources for one or assigns a Transport Format Combination Set to the user
more mobile terminals [3]: equipment according to the requirements of the
½ Limiting the TFCS of the transport channels. This is application. The congestion control mechanism triggers
achieved by sending the RRC message Transport the reconfiguration of the transport channel when a
Format Combination Control from the UTRAN to congestion situation occurs. This reconfiguration is done
the user equipment. The TFCs in the TFCS can thus by assigning new TFCSs to the mobile terminals as
be temporarily restricted, excluding too high data described in the previous section. After the
rates. The advantage of that method is that the reconfiguration, the reduced data rate leads to a lower
message does not need to be acknowledged from the interference level.
user equipment, since all TFCs are still valid and the RLC is responsible for the segmentation of higher
message size is comparatively small. Even if the layer datagrams into RLC packet data units of size 10
message is lost, the unlimited TFCS can still be bytes on the transmitting side and the corresponding
used. However, this method is not as flexible as reassembly at the receiving side. A selective repeat ARQ
when a completely new TFCS is used. mechanism is used.
½ Assigning a completely new TFCS to a user The MAC layer selects the Transport Format Set out
equipment. This is achieved by sending the RRC of the Transport Format Combination Set according to
message Transport Channel Reconfiguration from the RLC queue length.
the UTRAN to the user equipment, containing the The physical layer includes a WCDMA channel model
new TFCS. The message needs to be confirmed by a and the signalling of measurement reports to the RRC
Transport Channel Reconfiguration Complete layer. The WCDMA channel model calculates a Eb/N0
message, before the new TFCS becomes valid. value at the receiver for each transport channel. The
½ Reconfiguring the whole radio access bearer. In Eb/N0 is then mapped to a block error rate, which has
difference to the previously described transport been derived from dedicated physical layer simulations.
channel reconfiguration, this method includes a These simulations include the effects of multipath fading
complete reconfiguration of all the protocol entities and closed loop power control, which are therefore
of the radio access bearer. The RRC message Radio included in the block error rate. The calculation of the
Access Bearer Reconfiguration is send from the Eb/N0 is based on the received signal power, the
UTRAN to user equipment. The message needs to be spreading factor and the interference caused by all other
confirmed by a Radio Access Bearer active mobile terminals. In an iterative process, the
Reconfiguration Complete message, before the new transmit power of all active mobile terminals is adapted
radio access bearer becomes valid. until each reaches its target Eb/N0 unless this is prohibited
If the congestion detection is based on a measurement by the transmit power range. This process is performed
from the user equipment, a measurement report has to be once at the beginning of each transmission time interval
transmitted from the RRC entity in the user equipment to of 10 ms and the Eb/N0 is then assumed to be constant
the RRC entity in the UTRAN prior to any of the above over that transmission time interval. The target Eb/N0 is
mentioned congestion control schemes. chosen as 3 dB corresponding to a block error probability
In the presence of radio access bearers with different of roughly 13% and the transmit power is upper bound
quality of service configurations, the congestion control by 27 dBm. The delay for physical layer processing and
is performed according to the service class. For example, transmission has been set to 15 ms.
only radio access bearers for Background Class traffic For the simulations a single cell system is assumed
and Interactive Class traffic are reconfigured, while real with a certain number of active mobile terminals which
time services keep their configuration. are initially randomly distributed within the cell. Two
classes of mobile terminals are distinguished according to
III. SIMULATION SCENARIO their type of application:
A simulator is used in order to analyse the
performance of congestion control algorithms in UMTS. Class A: This type of UE has a single delay sensitive
The simulator comprises all protocols of the radio real-time connection. The Transport Format is
interface, RRC, RLC, MAC, a WCDMA channel model set to a data rate of 16 kbit/s. The generated
and traffic sources generating e.g. IP traffic. The UMTS traffic consists of constant rate IP packets with
core network and external packet data networks are not a packet size of 100 bytes. This type of traffic
considered. Objective of the simulations is to analyse is generated e.g. by a voice over IP traffic
congestion control methods, including the influence of source.
the protocols which are involved. Hereby users with Class B: This type of UE has a single best effort
different types of applications and thus different service connection that is not delay sensitive, e.g. a
requirements are assumed. WWW session. The Transport Format Set is
The RRC layer is responsible for connection chosen to allow variable data rates between 8
establishment, connection release and the radio access and 32 kbit/s. The IP packet size is 1000 bytes.
bearer reconfiguration in case of congestion. It handles In the simulation scenario a mixture of mobile
measurement reports from the physical layer and terminals of both classes are assumed, where 25% of the
transmits them, if necessary, from the user equipment to terminals are of class A and the remaining 75% of class

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B. The session arrival and session duration are cell a degradation of the service is perceived. The reason
exponentially distributed and the call duration has a mean for the degradation is, that in a growing number of cases
value of 120 s. the mobile terminals are not able to transmit at the power
In the scenario as it has been chosen, the two service which is necessary to achieve the required Eb/N0 against
classes A and B are differentiated in the congestion the larger interference introduced by other users.
control mechanism. The users of class A have only one Consequently, the block error rate increases which leads
TF in the TFS that provides a single data rate of 16 kbit/s, to a higher number of retransmissions in the RLC layer
so the data rate for those users cannot be reduced. For the and the IP throughput decreases.
users of class B the TFS contains TFs for several data In contrast to the mobile terminals of class A, those of
rates. In this way, the users in class A – having a harder class B see a degradation of their mean IP throughput at a
service requirement – can maintain their service level for much lower load. This is depicted in Fig. 3 for the same
a higher traffic load by reducing the quality of service for interference thresholds as in Fig. 2. With increasing load
the users in class B. Nevertheless, during the time it takes an increasing number of mobile terminals with best effort
to resolve the congestion the quality of service of the service are reconfigured to lower data rates. The
mobile terminals of class A is also reduced. Therefore a paradigm of the applied method is to provide to class A
fast and efficient congestion control mechanism is users the required service and fill the remaining capacity
required to achieve a high cell capacity, while still with traffic of class B. However the service quality of
maintaining a good quality of service according to the users of class A shall not be degraded owing to the traffic
service class. of class B. From Fig. 2 and 3 it becomes obvious that this
Note, that in this example, no priority scheduling in paradigm works better, if a reconfiguration of the data
the MAC layer can be applied for service differentiation rate of the mobile terminals of class B is triggered at a
of uplink traffic, since each mobile terminal has only one lower interference threshold. However, the total cell
single data connection of either class A or B. In capacity is not utilised as efficiently as with higher
downlink, the same network node is responsible for the interference thresholds. This can be seen in Fig. 4, where
transmission to all mobile terminals within a certain area the accumulated IP traffic of the users of class A and B is
and thus the knowledge about the traffic volume and depicted. With an interference threshold of –93 dBm the
service classes can be exploited for scheduling. total throughput in the cell is up to 15% increased
compared to an interference threshold of –95 dBm. This
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS can be explained by the effect that reconfiguration is
For the simulation results presented in Fig. 2-4 a performed more conservatively. On the other hand, at a
congestion control mechanism is applied comprising the very high traffic load a high interference threshold can be
following steps, as indicated in Fig. 1: In the UTRAN the less stable as can be seen in Fig. 4 for 20 mobile
interference level at the receiver is measured (1). When a terminals on average in the cell. At this point the
certain threshold is surpassed a measurement report is interference is already very high, and the resulting high
signalled to the RRC entity (2). RRC makes a decision on block error rate delays the reconfiguration messages
reassigning new TFCSs for one or more mobile terminals which are transmitted.
(3) which are then sent to the user equipment (4). On In Fig. 5 a comparison is drawn between the different
UTRAN and UE side, the radio bearers are reconfigured options of reconfiguring the radio resources, which were
accordingly (5) and a confirmation is sent (6). presented in section II D. The reconfiguration delay
The mean IP throughput for mobile terminals of class A specifies the time interval between the moment that
versus the number of active mobile terminals is depicted congestion has been detected until the radio resources
in Fig. 2 for different interference thresholds. It can be have been reconfigured. If a radio access bearer or
seen that up to a mean load of approximately 12 mobile transport channel is reconfigured, a RRC message is
terminals all users of class A can keep their requested transmitted from the UTRAN to the UE and
data rate and only with still further increasing load in the
18 35
Mean uplink IP throughput per mobile station [kbit/s]
Mean uplink IP throughput per mobile station [kbit/s]

16
30

14
25
12

20
10

8 Interference limit = -95 dBm 15

6
Interference limit = -94 dBm 10 Interference limit = -95 dBm
4
Interference limit = -94 dBm
5
2 Interference limit = -93 dBm
Interference limit = -93 dBm
0 0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Average number of mobile terminals
in cell
Average number of mobile terminals in cell

Figure 2 Mean application data rate per UE for class A Figure 3 Mean application data rate per UE for class B

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250
200
UE triggered bearer reconfiguration
180 UTRAN triggered bearer reconfiguration
Total uplink IP throughput of the cell [kbit/s]

160 200 UTRAN triggered TFCS limitation

Uplink reconfiguration delay [ms]


140

120 150

100

80 100

60
Interfere nce Lim it = -9 5 dB m
40 50
Interfere nce Lim it = -9 4 dB m
20 Interfere nce Lim it = -9 3 dB m
0
0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Ave ra g e n u m b e r o f m o b ile te rm in als in c ell Average number of mobile terminals in cell

Figure 4 Mean application data rate per UE for class B Figure 5 Mean application data rate per UE for class B
is acknowledged with a complete message, thus resulting that an extended TFCI field can be used, increasing the
in two messages which are transmitted over the radio size of the TFCS to 1024 [6]. This reduces the probability
link. In the simulations the size of the reconfiguration of having too few TFCI values to apply TFCS limitation.
messages has been set to 30 bytes leading to
segmentation into several RLC packet data units. If the V. CONCLUSION
congestion detection is based on measurements in the The impact of the WCDMA radio channel of the
mobile terminal, an additional measurement report has to UMTS FDD mode on radio resource usage has been
be sent to the UTRAN prior to the reconfiguration. An described. Congestion control methods have been
example for that is when the detection for uplink discussed with different radio resource reconfiguration
congestion is based on transmit power information of the mechanisms and congestion detection indicators.
physical layer in the mobile terminal. Therefore a third The choice of an optimal threshold for the congestion
message over the radio link is introduced, thus adding to indication measure allows to find the appropriate balance
the reconfiguration delay. The reconfiguration delay is a between efficient utilisation of the cell capacity on one
significant measure for the congestion control, since hand and quickly resolving congestion and maintaining
during that time interval a congestion is leading to an the quality of service for the data services on the other
increased block error probability on the radio link and hand.
thus an increased number of RLC retransmissions. This Simulations have shown how users of different service
effect is depicted in Fig. 5. For a higher traffic load in the classes can share the radio resources according to their
cell, the reconfiguration delay increases due to the service requirements. Results indicated that it is possible
increased number of retransmissions. to shield traffic flows with strict service requirements
Another option to handle congestion, is the limitation from best effort flows. Radio resources provided to best
of the valid TFCS by means of an RRC message effort service traffic can dynamically be adapted to use
Transport Format Combination Control. This is a short only resources not required by traffic with strict service
message, which needs to be transmitted only from the requirements.
UTRAN to the mobile terminal. In Fig. 5 it is shown that
the reconfiguration delay for TFCS limitation is much VI. REFERENCES
shorter compared to a transport channel reconfiguration.
[1] E. Dahlman, P. Beming, J. Knutsson, F. Ovesjö, M.
It is also less depending on the traffic load owing to its
Persson, and C. Roobol, “WCDMA – The Radio
small message size. A large reconfiguration message is
Interface for Future Mobile Multimedia
segmented into several RLC datagrams. Therefore it is
Communications,” IEEE Transactions on Vehicular
immensely stronger influenced by increased block error Technology, Nov. 1998.
rates. However, the TFCS limitation has the drawback of
[2] 3GPP, TSG RAN, WG 2, Services provided by the
low flexibility. The momentary Transport Format
Physical Layer, TS 25.302 V2.3.0, June 1999.
Combination used in a frame on the physical channel is
[3] 3GPP, TSG RAN, WG 2, Radio Resource Control
indicated in an identity field (TFCI) of 6 bits, providing a
(RRC) Protocol Specification, TS 25.331 V1.1.0,
maximum of 64 different Transport Format June 1999.
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service k has lk different Transport Formats, then the
(RLC) Protocol Specification, TS 25.322 V1.1.0,
number of possible TFCs can be rather large: ∏l k . June 1999.
k [5] 3GPP, TSG RAN, WG 2, Medium Access Control
Therefore, the number of Transport Format (MAC) Protocol Specification, TS 25.321 V3.0.0,
Combinations is limited and must be used efficiently. A June 1999.
TFCS limitation reduces the number of TFCs that can be [6] 3GPP, TSG RAN, WG 1, Multiplexing and channel
used whereas a traffic channel reconfiguration reassigns a coding (FDD), TS 25.212 V2.0.0, June 1999.
new TFCS and is therefore more flexible. In the
meantime it has been added to the UMTS specification

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