WCDMA Power Control Principle

ISSUE 1.0

Huawei Confidential. All Rights Reserved

Chapter 1 Power Overview

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

Internal Use

Purpose of power control

Purpose of power control

Power control of the uplink channel is mainly to overcome

the near-far effect.

Downlink channel power control is to overcome fast fading and the interferences
of adjacent cells.

Power control must be used in CDMA system to ensure every user transmit
by minimum power and the network capacity can get maximum.

The purpose of inner loop power control of the WCDMA system is to maintain
a certain signal-to-interference ratio of transmission signal power when the
signals reach the receiving end.

However, in different multi-path environments, even if the mean signal-tointerference ratio is kept above a certain threshold, the communication
quality requirement (BER or FER or BLER) can not be always satisfied .

Internal Use

The Relationship between Transmitted Power and

Received Power after Power Control Methods Introduced

20
Channel

Transmitted power

15

Received power

Relative power (dB)

10

0
-5

-10
-15
-20
0

200

400

600

800

Time (ms)
4

Internal Use

Benefit from Power Control

Benefit from power control

Power control is known to be essential in a CDMA-based system due to the

uplink near-far problem

Adjust transmission power to ensure communication quality of uplink and

downlink.

Power control can well overcome the influences of unfavorable factors such as
fast fading, slow fading on radio channels

Decrease network interference, increase the capacity and quality of network

In a word, the purpose of power control is to ensure the QoS with minimum
power in the CDMA system.

Internal Use

Power control classification

Power control classification

Open loop Power control

Closed loop Power control

Uplink inner power control

Downlink inner-power control
Uplink outer power control
Downlink outer power control

Internal Use

Power control methods adopted for various physical channels

Power control methods adopted for various physical channels

"X" can be applied, "" not applied

Physical
channel

Open loop
power
control

Inner loop
power
control

Outer loop
power
Control

No power control process,

power is specified by upper
layers.

DPDCH

DPCCH

PCCPCH

SCCPCH

PRACH

AICH

PICH

Internal Use

Chapter 1 Power Overview

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

Internal Use

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

1.Open loop power control
2.Inner-loop power control
3.Outer loop power control

Internal Use

Open Loop Power Control Overview

Purpose

the UE estimates the power loss of signals on the propagation path by

measuring the downlink channel signals, then calculate the transmission
power of the uplink channel

The open loop power control principle

Under the FDD mode, fast fading of the uplink channel is unrelated to
fast fading of the downlink channel.

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Internal Use

Open Loop Power Control Overview

the disadvantage of open loop power control

This power control method is rather vague

Application scenarios of open loop power control

In the range of a cell, signal fading caused by fast fading is usually more

serious than that caused by propagation loss. Therefore, open loop

power control is applied only at the beginning of connection setup,
generally in setting the initial power value.

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Internal Use

Open Loop Power Control of PRACH

One access slot

Acq.
Ind.

AICH access
slots RX at UE
t
PRACH access
slots TX at UE

Preamble

p-a

Preamble

t
p-p

Message part

p-m

The random access procedure of PRACH is shown in above figure: UE transmit a

preamble using the selected uplink access slot, signature, and preamble transmission
power. After that ,UTARN will response AI if the preamble is received. Then the UE will
transmit the message part if the AI is received. But, if UE does not receive the AI from
UTRAN in p-p period, a next preamble will be transmitted. The process wont stop until
the AI received by UE.
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Internal Use

Open Loop Power Control of PRACH

The initial value of PRACH power is set through open loop power control
Preamble_Initial_Power = PCPICH DL TX power CPICH_RSCP + UL

interference + Constant Value

Parameters explanation

The values of PCPICH DL TX powerUL interference and Constant

Value are given in system information.

The value of CPICH_RSCP is measured by UE

PCPICH DL TX power is very closed to the downlink coverage ability,

which is already given in cell setup.

UL interference can be measured by NodeB, then it will be reported to RNC.

Constant Value is the threshold of preamble message. This value has to be

analysed very carefully.

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Internal Use

Open loop power control of PRACH

Pp-m
Power Ramp Step

Preable_Initial_
power
10ms/20ms

NO.

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Parameter

Parameter meaning

Power Offset Pp-m

The power offset of the last access preamble and message control part. This
value plus the access preamble power is the power of the control part

Constant Value

This parameter is the correction constant used for the UE to estimate the
initial transmission power of PRACH according to the open loop power

PRACH Power Ramp Step

This parameter is the ramp step of the preamble power when the UE has not
received the capture indication from NodeB

Preamble Retrans Max

This parameter is the permitted maximum preamble repeat times of the UE

within a preamble ramp cycle

Internal Use

Open loop power control of PRACH

Different Constant Values for different stage of WCDMA network

lifecycle. Take the beginning stage for example:

Constant Value could be greater (-16dB or -15dB) so that the preamble

message can be received easier by UTRAN

The power ramp step could be greater so that the possibility which the
preamble message can be received correctly will be higher

With the development of network, the number of users increased

very fast. On this stage, the Constant value could be less 1dB.

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Internal Use

Open loop power control of PRACH

Application scenarios
Node B
Serving RNS

UE

Serving
RNC

1. CCCH : RRC Connection Request

RRC

RRC
Allocate RNTI
Select L1 and L2
parameters
2. Radio Link Setup Request

Open loop power

control of PRACH

NBAP

NBAP

Start RX
description
3. Radio Link Setup Response
NBAP

NBAP

4. ALCAP Iub Data Transport Bearer Setup

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

5. Downlink Synchronisation
6. Uplink Synchronisation

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

Start TX
description
7. CCCH : RRC Connection Set up
RRC

RRC

8. Radio Link Restore Indication

NBAP

RRC

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NBAP

9. DCCH : RRC Connection Setup Complete

RRC

Internal Use

Open loop power control of DL DPCCH

The DL DPCCH open loop power control can be calculated by the

following formula:
P=Ec/IoReq-CPICH_Ec/Io+PCPICH

Parameters explanation

(Ec/Io)req is the required Ec/Io, which should satisfied UE can receive

the message from the dedicated channel correctly

CPICH_Ec/Io is measured by UE, then it is given to UTRAN by RACH

PCPICH is the transmission power of CPICH

Comments

Similar to UL, the (Ec/Io)Req value should be considered very carefully

Because there is not power ramp in the initial DL DPCCH, the initial power
should be satisfied with the requirements. Therefore, this value can be
greater than the one from simulation to ensure the success ratio

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Internal Use

Open loop power control of DL DPCCH

Application scenarios
Node B
Serving RNS

UE

Serving
RNC

1. CCCH : RRC Connection Request

RRC

RRC
Allocate RNTI
Select L1 and L2
parameters
2. Radio Link Setup Request
NBAP

NBAP

Start RX
description
3. Radio Link Setup Response
NBAP

NBAP

4. ALCAP Iub Data Transport Bearer Setup

Open loop power

control of DPCCH

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

5. Downlink Synchronisation
6. Uplink Synchronisation

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

Start TX
description
RRC

7. CCCH : RRC Connection Set up

RRC

8. Radio Link Restore Indication

NBAP

RRC

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NBAP

9. DCCH : RRC Connection Setup Complete

RRC

Internal Use

Open loop power control of UL DPCCH

The UL DPCCH open loop power control can be calculated by the

following formula:
DPCCH_Initial_powerPCPICH DL TX power-CPICH_RSCP
+UL interference+ DPCCH_SIRtarget
References explanation

PCPICH DL TX power is the transmission power of CPICH

CPICH_RSCP can be measured by UE
UL interference can be measured by NodeB

Comments

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The DPCCH_SIRtarget value should be considered very carefully.

It reflects the lowest requirement for decoding the DPCCH in a
certain multiple path environment

Internal Use

Open loop power control of UL DPCCH

Application scenarios
Node B
Serving RNS

UE

Serving
RNC

1. CCCH : RRC Connection Request

RRC

RRC
Allocate RNTI
Select L1 and L2
parameters
2. Radio Link Setup Request
NBAP

NBAP

Start RX
description
3. Radio Link Setup Response
NBAP

NBAP

4. ALCAP Iub Data Transport Bearer Setup

Open loop power

control of DPCCH

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

5. Downlink Synchronisation
6. Uplink Synchronisation

DCH - FP
DCH - FP

Start TX
description
7. CCCH : RRC Connection Set up
RRC

RRC

8. Radio Link Restore Indication

NBAP

RRC

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NBAP

9. DCCH : RRC Connection Setup Complete

RRC

Internal Use

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

1.Open loop power control
2.Inner-loop power control
3.Outer loop power control

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Internal Use

Close loop power control

Why the close loop power control is needed

The deficiencies of open loop power control

the open loop power control can decided the initial power, but its still inaccurate

For WCDMA-FDD system, the uplink fading is not related to the downlink
one because of the big frequency interval of them

Therefore, the path loss and interference estimated by downlink can not reflect
the one in uplink completely. But, the close loop power control can solve this

problem

The advantages of close loop power control

Can convergence the transmission power of uplink and downlink very fast, and
decrease interference in system.

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Maintains a higher quality of service

Internal Use

Inner-loop power control

The principle for Inner-loop power control

The receivers calculate the SIR by estimating the power strengthen

and the current interference. Then, compare this one to SIRtarget,

If less than SIRtarget, the TPC is 1 to tell receivers increase

transmission power

If greater than SIRtarget, the TPC is 0 to tell receivers decrease

transmission power

The receiver which get the TPC will adjust the transmission power by

algorithms. The inner loop power control can convergence the

estimated SIR to SIR target

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Internal Use

Inner-loop power control

Inner-loop power control Algorithm

In 3GPP protocol, two algorithms are adopted in the inner-loop

power control of uplink DPCCH

PCA1uplink power control step is tpc=1dB or 2dB

PCA2 uplink power control step is tpc=1dB

The power control adjustment range in DPCCH is

DPCCH=tpcTPC_cmd

TPC_cmd is achieved by different algorithm

The power offset shows the difference of transmission power of UL

DPDCH and UL DPDCH

The adjustment range of DPDCH is the same as the DPCCH.

The power offset is decided by the signaling from higher layer

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Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

NodeB compares the measured signal-to-interference ratio

to the preset target signal-to-interference ratio (SIRtarget).

1500Hz

Inner-loop

Transmit TPC
set SIRtar

UE

NodeB
Each UE has own loop

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Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

DPDCH/DPCCH structure

Data
DPDCH

N data bits
T

= 2560 chips, N
= 10*2 k bits (k=0..6)
slot
data

Pilot
N pilot bits

DPCCH

N TFCI bits
T

Slot #0

Slot #1

FBI

TFCI

N FBI bits

TPC
N TPC bits

= 2560 chips, 10 bits

slot

Slot #i

Slot #14

1 radio frame: T = 10 ms
f

The power ratio of DPCCH to DPDCH is

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c2
d2
Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

TPC

The uplink DPCCH SIR should be estimated by different serving cells.

In each time slot, the TPC can be generated by the following rules:

No soft handover

If SIR estimation is greater than SIR target, the TPC is 0 to

decrease the transmission power

If SIR estimation is less than SIR target, the TPC is 1 to

increase the transmission power

Soft handover

In one time slot, UE received several TPC, then combine then.

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Comments

in the last situation, the PCA decides how the TPC_cmd are combined.

The PCA has two methods. UTRAN decides which one is used.

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

UE can adjust the UL DPCCH transmission power with tpc step

according to the received TPC_cmd

The step tpc can be 1dB or 2dB, which is decided by UTRAN

If the TPC_cmd is 1the UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH transmission

power should be increased tpc

If the TPC_cmd is -1the UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH transmission

power should be decreased tpc

If the TPC_cmd is 0the UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH transmission

power should be decreased tpc

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Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA1

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UE only can receive one TPC in non-soft handover situation,

If TPC0TPC_cmd= -1

If TPC1TPC_cmd= 1

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA1

When UE is in soft handover

UE can receive several TPCs in one time slot and combine

them to get one TPC_cmd by the following two steps:

First, combine the TPCs from one RLS

Then, combine the TPCs from different RLS

Comments

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The TPC from RLSi is Wi

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA1

Wi can be achieved by the following rules

If the TPC is 0, Wi=0

If the TPC is 1, Wi1

Assume UE has N RLSesN TPC can be obtained after

combination, W1W2WN. The combination method for these
N TPCs from N RLSes can be described as following formula

TPC_cmd = (W1, W2, WN)

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function should satisfied:

If one Wi is 0, TPC_cmd is -1

If all Wi are 1TPC_cmd is 1

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA2

If UE is not in soft handover

Only one TPC is received in one time slot. The power control can be done once by
each 5 time slots. Each frame is divided 3 groups with 5 time slots. In the first 4
time slots, the TPC_cmds are 0, which means the power does not change. In the
5th time slot, the TPC_cmd can be achieved by the following rules:

If all the TPC are 0, the TPC_cmd is -1 and the transmission will decrease 1dB;
If all the TPC are 1, the TPC_cmd is 1 and the transmission will increase 1dB;
Otherwise, TPC_cmd=0.

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TPC RX

TPC_cmd

0000 0

0000 -1

1111 1

0000 1

else

0000 0

Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA2

When UE is in soft handover, the TPC_cmd can be achieved by the

following two steps

First, combine the TPC from a same RLS

N TPCi (i = 1,2......N) can be achieved from N RLSes in each time slot

The N TPC_cmds from different RLS can be achieved by the above
mentioned rules. So the first 4 time slot, the TPC_cmd is 0. And the
each final TPC_cmd is decided in the 5th time slot

Assume the each final TPC_cmd from N RLS are TPC_tempii = 1,2......N
The first 4 time slots, all TPC_tempi = 0

the TPC_cmd in fifth time slot can get by the following ruls
Mathematic average for N TPC_temps. If it is greater than 0.5,
TPC_cmd=1. If it is less than -0.5, TPC_cmd=-1, otherwise TPC_cmd=0

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Internal Use

Uplink-inner loop power control

Comparison between PCA1 and PCA2

The control frequency

TPC1, the power control frequency is 1500Hz

TPC2, the power control frequency is 300Hz

Application scenarios

When UE is moving with high speed (80Km/h), the fast inner-loop

power control can not catch up with the fast fading, which produce
negative gain. In this situation, PCA2 is prefered.

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Internal Use

Downlink Inner-loop power control

1500Hz
Set SIRtar

Transmit TPC

Inner-loop
Measure SIR and compare

NodeB

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Internal Use

Downlink inner-loop power control

Timeslot structure of Downlink DPCH :
PO1 defines the power offset of the TFCI bit in the downlink DPCCH to DPDCH.
PO2 defines the power offset of the TPC bit in the downlink DPCCH to DPDCH.
PO3 defines the power offset of the Pilot bit in the downlink DPCCH to DPDCH.
The values of PO1PO2 and PO3 are defined by RNC.

The inner-loop power control of downlink DPCCH include two typies: one is the
inner-loop power control in compressed mode, the other is the inner-loop power
control in non-compressed mode.

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Internal Use

Downlink inner-loop power control

Firstly, UE should estimate the downlink DPDCH/DPCCH power and the

current SIR

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Then, UE can generate TPC by comparing the estimated SIR to target SIR

If the estimated SIR is greater than the target one, TPC is 0 (decrease power)

If the estimated SIR is less than the target one, TPC is 1 (increase power)

The step of DL inner-loop power control could be 0.511.5 or 2dB

Internal Use

Downlink inner-loop power control

Power control in different state

When UE is not in soft handover

The TPC which is generated by UE is transmitted in TPC domain of UL channel

When UE is in soft handover, two power control modes can be used, which
is decided by DPC_mode:

DPC_MODE0UE will transmit TPC in every slot

DPC_MODE1UE will transmit the same TPC in every three time slot

When the downlink channel is in out of synchronization, UE will transmit

TPC 1 because UE can not measure the downlink SIR

As for responding to the receiving TPC, UTRAN will adjust the downlink
power of DPCCH/DPDCH. But the transmission power can not higher than
Maximum_DL_Power, and not less than Minimum_DL_Power neither.

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Internal Use

Downlink Power Balance

Downlink power balance process

SRNC can monitor every single NodeBs

transmission. If SRNC found the power

offset in soft handover is too much, it will

command the DPB process

The initiation and stop of DPB

Initiate the DPB

process

The power offset of two RL is greater

than the DPB initial threshold, the DPB

NodeB

NodeB

process is initiated

The power offset of two RL is less than

the DPB stop threshold, the DPB process

DPB process

is stopped

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Internal Use

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

1.Open loop power control
2.Inner-loop power control
3.Outer loop power control

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Internal Use

Outer-loop power control

The limitation of inner loop power control

The purpose of inner loop power control of the WCDMA system is to

maintain a certain signal-to-interference ratio of transmission signal
power when the signals reach the receiving end.

The character of outer-loop power control

The Qos which NAS provide to CN is BLER, not SIR

The relationship between inner-loop power control and outer-loop

power control

SIR target should be satisfied with the requirement of decoding correctly.

But different multiple path radio environment request different SIR

Therefore, the outer-loop power control can adjust the SIR to get a stable
BLER in the changeable radio environment

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Internal Use

Uplink outer loop power control

get the good quality

service data

Measure received
data and
compare BLER in
the TrCH

Set BLERtar

Measure and compare SIR

Out loop

Inner-loop

Set SIRtar

Transmit TPC

10-100Hz

RNC

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NodeB

UE

Internal Use

Downlink outer loop power control

Measure and compare BLER

L3

1500Hz

10-100Hz
Outer loop

set SIRtar

Transmit TPC

Inner loop

NodeB

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L1

Measure and compare SIR

Internal Use

outer loop power control

SIR target adjustment step

BLERmeas BLERtarg et

SIRtar SIRAdjustcoefficient* SIRAdjustStep *

BLERtarg et

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Internal Use

Outer loop power control

Uplink outer loop power control command transmit to NodeB through DCH-FP

Node B

SRNC

OUTER LOOP PC

45

Internal Use

46

Internal Use