W-CDMA

AVIK DAS
ROLL-07 SEC-A
ECE 4th YEAR
 WHAT IS W-CDMA
 W-CDMA stands for Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
 Its an air interface standard found in 3G mobile
telecommunications networks designed for “always-on” packet-
based wireless service, so that computers entertainment devices
and telephones may all share the same wireless network and be
connected to the internet, anytime anywhere.
  It was adopted as a standard by the ITU under the name "IMT-
2000 direct spread."
 It is the technology used in the Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (UMTS) and is also known as
UMTS-FDD.
 It utilizes the DS-CDMA channel access method and the FDD
duplexing method to achieve higher speeds and support more
users compared to most time division multiple access (TDMA)
schemes used today.
 History of W-CDMA
 Developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G network
FOMA in the late 1990s.
 NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a candidate for the international
3G standard known as IMT-2000 which eventually accepted W-
CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards.
 Later, W-CDMA was selected as the air interface for UMTS, the 3G
successor to GSM.
 February1999 - Nokia claimed to have made the first WCDMA call in
the world through the PSTN at the Nokia test network in Finland
using a WCDMA terminal, WCDMA base station subsystem and
Nokia GSM Mobile with switching centers connected to the PSTN.
 April2001 - Ericsson and Vodafone UK claimed to have made the
world's first WCDMA voice call over commercial network.
 October2001 - NTT DoCoMo launched the first commercial WCDMA
3G mobile network.
 Technical Features
 Support of high data rate transmission: 384 Kbps with wide area
coverage and 2 Mbps or higher with local coverage.
 Minimum bandwidth of 5MHz each for reverse-link(uplink) and
forward-link(downlink).
 Chipping frequency of 3.84 Mchips/sec.
 Support both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division
Duplex (TDD).
 QPSK Modulation is used for both reverse and forward-link
frequencies.
 Based on Direct Sequence CDMA(DS-CDMA) technique with frame
duration of 10ms.
 Multiuser detection and smart antennas can be used to increase
capacity and coverage.
 Adaptive power control based on SIR (Signal-to-Interference Ratio).
 Multiple types of handoff (or handover) between different cells
including soft handoff, softer handoff and hard handoff.
WCDMA Protocol Stack
 Physical Layer
 Located in the user equipment between the MS(Mobile
Station) and BTS(Base Transceiver Station).
 Transmit direction – physical layer receives blocks of data
from higher layers(MAC layer) and multiplexes them onto a
physical channel.
 Receive direction – physical layer receives the physical
channels, extracts and processes the multiplexed data and
delivers it up to the MAC.
 Other functions of Physical layer:
 Various handover functions
 Error detection and report to higher layers
 Chip rate processing
 Symbol rate processing
 Fast Close loop Power control
 MAC Layer
 Data Link Layer MAC controls the flow of packets to and
from the network layer.
 It sends and receives data from control and user plane
service access points at the RLC layer and sends it to the
physical layer.
 Ciphering task is performed by the MAC layer.
 Responsible for traffic volume measurements across the
radio interface.
 Provide a multiplexing function that results in different logic
channels being mapped onto the same transport channel.
 RLC(Radio Link Control) Layer
 Provide radio link services for use between the UE and the
network.
 Transfer data in 3 modes:
1. Transparent mode of data transfer – uses only physical
layer protocol to transmit or receive data.
2. Acknowledged mode of data transfer – provides a very
reliable mechanism for transferring data between two peer
RLC entities.
3. Unacknowledged mode of data transfer – In this mode RLC
signaling is added to the data to permit a variable
relationship between the user of the data and the
capabilities of the radio channel.
 Provides segmentation and reassembly, which allows the RLC to
segment large PDUs into smaller PDUs; concatenation service
allows a number of PDUs to be concatenated.
 Provides error correction by Automatic Repeat Request(ARQ)
system and flow control.
 RRC(Radio Resource Control) Layer
 Responsible for configuration and control of all the layers
that create the radio connection between the UE and
the UTRAN(UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network).
 RRC messages can be grouped into 4 categories: RRC
connection management messages, RB control messages,
RRC connection mobility messages and RRC measurement
messages
Functions:
 Functions for connection establishment and release,
 Broadcast of system information,
 Radio bearer establishment/reconfiguration and release,
 RRC connection mobility procedures,
 Paging notification and release,
 Outer loop power control.
 Non-Access Stratum
 Divided into 2 parts: Control Plane & User plane.
 Sub layers in Control Plane – GMM(GPRS Mobility
Management),CC(call(connection)control),MM(Mobility
Management),SM(Session Management),SS (Supplementary
Service)and SMS(Short Message Service).
 GMM / SM protocol supports the mobility of user terminal so that
the SGSN can know the location of a MS at any time and to
activate, modify and deactivate the PDP sessions required by the
MS for the user data transfer.
 MM controls mobility issues and provides soft handover.
 CC support services such as call establishment, maintenance and
termination.
 Sub layers in User Plane – PDCP(Packet Data Convergence
Protocol) and BMC(Broadcast and Multicast Control) protocol.
 PDCP performs transfer of packet user data and header
compression and decompression of IP data streams.
 BMC provides support for Cell Broadcast Service(CBS) messages.
 TDD & FDD
W-CDMA supports 2 different modes of operation:
 TDD(Time Division Duplex): In this duplex method, uplink
and downlink transmissions are carried over the same
frequency band by using synchronized time intervals. Thus
time slots in a physical channel are divided into transmission
and reception part.
 FDD(Frequency Division Duplex): The uplink and
downlink transmissions employ two separated
frequency bands each of 5MHz bandwidth for this
duplex method. Uplink frequency of 1.92-1.98 GHz and
downlink frequency of 2.11 -2.17 GHz.  
 Power Control(1/2)
The purpose of power control (PC) is to ensure that
each user receives and transmits just enough
energy to prevent:
Without PC received
 Blocking of distant users (near-far-effect) UE1
power levels would
 Exceeding reasonable interference levels UE2 be unequal
UE3

UE1
UE2

In theory with PC
UE1 UE2 UE3
received power
levels would be
equal
UE3
 Power Control (2/2)
 Power control can be divided into two parts:
 Open loop power control (slow power control)
 UE transmitter sets its output power to a specific value. It is
used for setting initial uplink and downlink transmission
powers when a UE is accessing the network.
 estimate the path loss from the signal received in DL
 Closed loop power control (fast power control)
 Used to eliminate the effect of fast fading
 Applied 1500 times per second

Closed loop power control can also be divided into two parts:
 Inner loop power control - Measures the signal levels and
compares this to the target value and if the value is higher than
target then power is lowered otherwise power is increased
 Outer loop power control
 Adjusts the target value for inner loop power control
 Can be used to control e.g. the Quality of Service (QoS)
 Conclusion
 3GPP is currently the main standardization body in charge of
WCDMA and its evolutions
 WCDMA is designed to provide backward compatibility and
interoperability for all GSM, GPRS and EDGE switching
equipment and applications.
 WCDMA has been made compatible with cdmaOne and
CDMA2000 systems.
 Market share for WCDMA is growing rapidly
 More than 340 million WCDMA subscribers
 Fueled by various services such as mobile-TV and VoIP
 Bibliography
BOOKS
1. WCDMA design Handbook – Andrew Richardson
2. WCDMA: requirements and practical design -Rudolf Tanner,
Jason P. Woodard
3. Mobile Computing - Raj Kamal

Websites
4. www.sss-mag.com
5. www.3g-generation.com
6. www.3gtoday.com
7. Wikipedia
THANK YOU!!