WCDMA Characteristics

The chip rate of 3.84 Mcps provides a bandwidth of 5 MHz. A chip rate is a pseudo random code bit. The carrier spacing of 200 kHz is used to allow refarming of GSM frequencies which have been set at 200 kHz spacing. The frame length is set at 10ms.Each frame is split it into 15 timeslots,each slot contains user data,power control and signalling data. The UMTS system does not require synchronization due to the framing structure and use of matched filters for the framing alignment. The spreading factor is the ratio b/w the user data and chip rate. As the user data increases this factor will vary b/w 4 & 512. The user data rates available in the UMTS system is up to 384 kbps.

Spreading factor
Spreading factor = chip rate/bit rate =3.84 Mcps/480 kbps =8 In this case spreading operation has resulted in an increase of the signalling rate of the user data by a factor of 8. So, eventually it coresponds to a widening of spectrum occupied by the user data signal.

Processing Gain
PG = 10 *log SF Processing gain is an extremely important part of CDMA. It determines how much the received signal can be lifted out of a noise floor.

UTRAN Architechture

3G

MEASUREMENT REPORT

Active Set
A group of cells or a single cell on which the UE has established a radio link. The maximum no. of cells in the active set is fixed to 3. The active set contains only cells that operate on the same frequency.

Monitored Set
Cells that are not currently in the active set, but the UE is monitoring for handover according to the neighbour list. The maximum no. of cells to measure is : 32 intra-frequency 32 inter-frequency 32 inter-RAT cells

Detected Set
Cells that are not included in the neighbour list to monitor but are detected by the UE on its own. The UE only reports detected cells that are under the same frequency as the active cells and only when in CELL_DCH state. The main purpose is to provide information to the network operator for manually updating the neighbour list.

Measurement Control

3G-2G handover
When RSCP gets < -95 dBm, radio link triggers from 3G to 2G in dedicated mode. This is called hard handover or Inter-RAT handover. When Ec/No gets < -18 dB or RSCP < -100 dBm, radio link triggers from 3G to 2G in idle mode. This is called cell reselection not a handover.

2G-3G handover
UE is always searching for a 3G signal. FDD Qoffset equals to zero.

Layer 3 messages

Handovers