HSPA Evolution: The Fundamentals for Mobile Broadband

HSPA Evolution

The Fundamentals for Mobile Broadband

Thomas Chapman

Erik Larsson

Peter von Wrycza

Erik Dahlman

Stefan Parkvall

Johan Sköld

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I: Introduction

Chapter 1: From 3G to 4G: background and motivation of 3G evolution

Abstract

1.1. History and background of 3G

1.2. Standardization

1.3. Spectrum for 3G and systems beyond 3G

1.4. The motivations behind continuing HSPA evolution

Part II: Technologies for HSPA

Chapter 2: High data rates in mobile communication

Abstract

2.1. High data rates: Fundamental constraints

2.2. Higher data rates within a limited bandwidth: Higher-order modulation

2.3. Wider bandwidth including multi-carrier transmission

Chapter 3: CDMA transmission principles

Abstract

3.1. Spread spectrum basics

3.2. Baseband transmitter model for a CDMA system

3.3. Spread spectrum in a real propagation environment

3.4. Receiver and equalization strategies

Chapter 4: Multi-antenna techniques

Abstract

4.1. Multi-antenna configurations

4.2. Benefits of multi-antenna techniques

4.3. Multiple receive antennas

4.4. Multiple transmit antennas

4.5. Spatial multiplexing

Chapter 5: Scheduling, link adaptation, and hybrid-ARQ

Abstract

5.1. Link adaptation: power and rate control

5.2. Channel-dependent scheduling

5.3. Retransmission schemes

5.4. Hybrid-ARQ with soft combining

Part III: HSPA and its evolution

Chapter 6: Overview of release 99 WCDMA

Abstract

6.1. System architecture

6.2. Protocol architecture

6.3. Physical layer; downlink

6.4. Physical layer; uplink

6.5. Resource handling and packet-data session

6.6. UE RRC states and state transitions

Chapter 7: Introduction to HSPA

Abstract

7.1. HSPA emerges from WCDMA: fundamental building blocks

7.2. Other enhancements

Chapter 8: High-speed downlink packet access

Abstract

8.1. Overview

8.2. Details of HSDPA

8.3. Finer details of HSDPA

8.4. Release 7 improved layer 2

Chapter 9: High-speed uplink packet access

Abstract

9.1. Overview

9.2. Details of HSUPA

9.3. Finer details of HSUPA

Chapter 10: Higher-order modulation

Abstract

10.1. Overview

10.2. Downlink 64-QAM

10.3. Uplink higher-order modulation

Chapter 11: Multi-antenna transmission

Abstract

11.1. Overview

11.2. Downlink transmit diversity

11.3. Downlink two-branch MIMO

11.4. Downlink four-branch MIMO

11.5. Uplink transmit diversity

11.6. Uplink two-branch MIMO

Chapter 12: Multi-carrier techniques

Abstract

12.1. Evolution of multi-carrier HSPA

12.2. Downlink multi-carrier HSDPA in detail

12.3. Uplink DC-HSUPA in detail

Chapter 13: Multi-flow transmission

Abstract

13.1. Overview

13.2. Details of multi-flow transmission

Chapter 14: Connectivity enhancements

Abstract

14.1. Continuous packet connectivity (CPC)

14.2. Enhanced CELL_FACH

Chapter 15: Multimedia broadcast multicast services

Abstract

15.1. Release 6 MBMS overview

15.2. Details of release 6 MBMS

15.3. Release 7 MBSFN

15.4. Release 8 Integrated Mobile Broadcast

Chapter 16: Spectrum and RF characteristics

Abstract

16.1. Spectrum for UTRA

16.2. Flexible spectrum use

16.3. Multi-carrier operation

16.4. Multistandard radio base stations

16.5. Overview of RF requirements for UTRA

16.6. Output power level requirements

16.7. Transmitted signal quality

16.8. Unwanted emissions requirements

16.9. Sensitivity and dynamic range

16.10. Receiver susceptibility to interfering signals

16.11. Multiband-capable base stations

Chapter 17: Heterogeneous networks

Abstract

17.1. Motivation for deployment of heterogeneous networks

17.2. Types of nodes in heterogeneous networks

17.3. Issues to consider with heterogeneous networks

Part IV: Performance and future outlook

Chapter 18: HSPA system performance

Abstract

18.1. Typical system modeling assumptions

18.2. System simulation performance metrics

18.3. HSPA performance drivers

18.4. HSPA performance figures

Chapter 19: Release 12 and Beyond

Abstract

19.1. Heterogeneous Networks

19.2. HSUPA Enhancements

19.3. DCH Enhancements

19.4. BCH Enhancements

19.5. Looking to the future - Release 13

List of acronyms

Index

Copyright

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First published 2015

Copyright © 2015 Peter von Wrycza, Erik Dahlman, Erik Larsson, Stefan Parkvall, Johan Sköld, and Thomas Chapman. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Preface

From the early deployments at the beginning of the twenty-first century to the powerful multi-carrier networks today serving millions of smartphones and laptops worldwide, HSPA technology has risen to become the engine of the mobile broadband revolution. During these years, a rapid evolution has occurred, transforming the initial HSDPA/HSUPA specifications into even more powerful tools for serving an expanding and diverse range of traffic to ever more complex devices and networks.

This book describes HSPA technology in detail from release 99 to release 13 enabling the reader to gain a complete picture of the toolbox of features and build a sound understanding of the 3GPP specifications, their background, and practical issues in building and deploying networks and devices. This description of the latest HSPA features is built upon an outline of the basic technologies and concepts that lie behind the standardization.

The book is divided into four parts. The first part provides an overview of the origins of the 3G standards and the processes behind the evolution of 3G and 4G and licensing of spectrum. The motivations behind continuing the evolution of HSPA are examined in the context of current market trends, such that an insight can be gained into the reasons for introducing the various features.

In Part II, a deeper insight is provided into some of the basic technologies that have been embedded into HSPA. The description is generic in nature, such that it enables not only an understanding of the technology drivers for HSPA but also similar use of the technologies in other specifications such as LTE and WiMAX.

In Part III, a core description of the HSPA feature set is provided. The underlying WCDMA, HSDPA, and HSUPA specifications are reviewed in detail. This is followed by detailed examination of the full set of HSPA features, including MIMO in downlink and uplink, higher-order modulations, multicarrier, multiflow, and traffic handling schemes such as CPC and enhanced CELL_FACH. These detailed chapters both trace the development of features in the standardization and provide a deep insight into their operation.

To build 3GPP-compliant equipment, certain radio-related performance criteria must be met. Part IV reviews how the RF performance specifications for HSPA are built. Furthermore, the definition and structure of HSPA frequency bands are discussed. Band definitions and appropriate RF criteria are essential to allow global mobility and operate in a radio environment in which other types of systems are ready.

Although the standards provide a specification of interfaces and signals, it is important to understand what factors drive performance in different types of network environments. Part IV also provides an insight into techniques for capturing HSPA performance using simulations and the key factors that drive performance, in addition to the throughput and capacity that can actually be provided.

Despite the growth of LTE, HSPA technology will remain deployed for many years to come, and the final chapter of the book provides an outlook on the challenges faced in the evolving mobile broadband environment and the likely feature developments that will be needed to meet these challenges.

Acknowledgments

We thank all our colleagues at Ericsson for assisting in this project by helping with contributions to the book, giving suggestions, and comments on the contents, and taking part in the huge team effort of developing HSPA.

The standardization process involves people from all parts of the world, and we acknowledge the efforts of our colleagues in the wireless industry in general and in 3GPP RAN in particular. Without their work and contributions to the standardization, this book would not have been possible.

Finally, we are immensely grateful to our families for bearing with us and supporting us during the long process of writing this book.

Part I

Introduction

From 3G to 4G: background and motivation of 3G evolution

Chapter 1

From 3G to 4G: background and motivation of 3G evolution

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the research and standardization background behind today’s HSPA technologies. A review of WCDMA development and standardization is provided in order for the reader to understand the framework upon which the 3G specifications have been built. This is followed by an insight into the workings of the standardization organizations that relate to WCDMA and HSPA, in particular 3GPP and ITU. The motivations and constraints behind the continuing evolution of HSPA are reviewed. This provides the reader with a framework with which to understand the drivers and processes behind the evolution features described in Part III of the book. In addition, a brief insight into the spectrum allocations and availability for HSPA is given.

Keywords

WCDMA

HSPA

3GPP

ITU

3G

HSDPA

HSUPA

GSM

LTE

UTRA

ACTS

FRAMES

ETSI

ARIB

IMT

Chapter outline

1.1 History and background of 3G    3

1.1.1 Before 3G    4

1.1.2 Research on 3G    5

1.1.3 3G standardization roots    6

1.2 Standardization    6

1.2.1 The standardization process    6

1.2.2 3GPP    7

1.2.3 IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced activities in ITU    9

1.3 Spectrum for 3G and systems beyond 3G    14

1.4 The motivations behind continuing HSPA evolution    15

1.4.1 General driving forces    16

1.4.1.1 Technology advancements    16

1.4.1.2 Services    17

1.4.1.3 User expectations    18

1.4.1.4 Operator business models    18

1.4.1.5 Cost    18

1.4.2 HSPA-specific evolution drivers and philosophy    19

References    19

From the first experiments with radio communication by Guglielmo Marconi in the 1890s, the road to truly mobile radio communication has been quite long. To understand the complex 3G mobile-communication systems of today, it is also important to understand where they came from and how cellular systems have evolved from an expensive technology for a few selected individuals to today’s global mobile-communication systems used by almost half of the world’s population. Developing mobile technologies has also changed, from being a national or regional concern to becoming a very complex task undertaken by global standards-developing organizations, such as the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and involving thousands of people.

1.1. History and background of 3G

The cellular technologies specified by 3GPP are the most widely deployed in the world, with more than 6.6 billion users in 2013 [1]. A very significant step forward was taken with the development of High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSPA) in the first few years of the 2000s, which was followed both by the continuing evolution of HSPA and the standardization of an advanced radio access referred to as the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and an evolved packet access core network in the System Architecture Evolution (SAE). Both HSPA and LTE networks are now widely deployed and together have continued to evolve.

Looking back to when it all started, it began several decades ago with early deployments of analog cellular services.

1.1.1. Before 3G

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the first commercial car-borne telephony service in 1946, operated by AT&T. In 1947, AT&T also introduced the cellular concept of reusing radio frequencies, which became fundamental to all subsequent mobile-communication systems. Commercial mobile telephony continued to be car-borne for many years because of bulky and power-hungry equipment. In spite of the limitations of the service, there were systems deployed in many countries during the 1950s and 1960s, but the users counted only in thousands at the most.

These first steps toward mobile communication were taken by the monopoly telephone administrations and wire-line operators. The big uptake of subscribers and usage came when mobile communication became an international concern and the industry was invited into the process. The first international mobile communication system was the analog Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) system, which was introduced in the Nordic countries in 1981, at the same time as analog Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) was introduced in North America. Other analog cellular technologies deployed worldwide were Total Access Communications System (TACS) and J-TACS. They all had in common that equipment was still bulky, mainly car-borne, and voice quality was often inconsistent, with cross-talk between users being a common problem.

With an international system such as NMT came the concept of roaming, giving a service for users traveling outside the area of their home operator. This also gave a larger market for the mobile phones, which attracted additional companies into the mobile communication business.

The analog cellular systems supported plain old telephony services, that is, voice with some related supplementary services. With the advent of digital communication during the 1980s, the opportunity to develop a second generation of mobile-communication standards and systems based on digital technology surfaced. With digital technology came an opportunity to increase the capacity of the systems, to give a more consistent quality of service, and to develop much more attractive truly mobile devices.

In Europe, the telecommunication administrations in CEPT¹ initiated the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) project to develop a pan-European mobile-telephony system. The GSM activities were in 1989 continued within the newly formed European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI). After evaluations of TDMA-, CDMA-, and FDMA-based proposals in the mid-1980s, the final GSM standard was built on TDMA. Development of a digital cellular standard was simultaneously done by Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in the USA, resulting in the TDMA-based IS-54 standard, later simply referred to as US-TDMA. A somewhat later development of a CDMA standard called IS-95 was completed by TIA in 1993. In Japan, a second-generation TDMA standard was also developed, usually referred to as Personal Digital Cellular (PDC).

All of these standards were narrowband in the sense that they targeted low-bandwidth services, such as voice. With the second-generation digital mobile communications came also the opportunity to provide data services over the mobile-communication networks. The primary data services introduced in 2G were text messaging (SMS) and circuit-switched data services enabling e-mail and other data applications. The peak data rate in 2G was initially 9.6 kbps. Higher data rates were introduced later in evolved 2G systems by assigning multiple time slots to a user and by modified coding schemes.

Packet data over cellular systems became a reality during the second half of the 1990s, with General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) introduced in GSM and packet data also added to other cellular technologies, such as the Japanese PDC standard. These technologies are often referred to as 2.5G. The success of the wireless data service iMode in Japan gave a very clear indication of the potential for applications over packet data in mobile systems, in spite of the fairly low data rates supported at the time.

With the advent of 3G and the higher-bandwidth radio interface of Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) came possibilities for a range of new services that were only hinted at with 2G and 2.5G. The 3G radio access development is today handled in 3GPP. However, the initial steps for 3G were taken in the early 1990s, long before 3GPP was formed.

What also set the stage for 3G was the internationalization of cellular standardization. GSM was a pan-European project, but quickly attracted worldwide interest when the GSM standard was deployed in a number of countries outside Europe. A global standard gains in economy of scale, since the market for products becomes larger. This has driven a much tighter international cooperation around 3G cellular technologies than for the earlier generations.

1.1.2. Research on 3G

In parallel with the widespread deployment and evolution of 2G mobile-communication systems during the 1990s, substantial efforts were put into 3G research activities. In Europe, the partially EU-funded project Research into Advanced Communications in Europe (RACE) carried out initial 3G research in its first phase. 3G in Europe was named Universal Mobile Telecommunications Services (UMTS). In the second phase of RACE, the Code Division Test bed (CODIT) project and the Advanced TDMA Mobile Access (ATDMA) project further developed 3G concepts based on Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and Wideband TDMA technologies. The next phase of related European research was Advanced Communication Technologies and Services (ACTS), which included the UMTS-related project Future Radio Wideband Multiple Access System (FRAMES). The FRAMES project resulted in a multiple access concept that included both WCDMA and Wideband TDMA components.

At the same time, parallel 3G activities were going on in other parts of the world. In Japan, the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) was in the process of defining a 3G wireless communication technology based on WCDMA. Also in the United States, a WCDMA concept called WIMS was developed within the T1.P1² committee. Korea started work on WCDMA at this time.

The FRAMES concept was submitted to the standardization activities for 3G in ETSI,³ where other multiple-access proposals were also introduced by the industry, including the WCDMA concept from the ARIB standardization in Japan. The ETSI proposals were merged into five concept groups, which also meant that the WCDMA proposals from Europe and Japan were merged.

1.1.3. 3G standardization roots

The outcome of the ETSI process in early 1998 was the selection of WCDMA as the technology for UMTS in the paired spectrum (FDD) and Time Division CDMA (TD-CDMA) for the unpaired spectrum (TDD). There was also a decision to harmonize the parameters between the FDD and the TDD components.

The standardization of WCDMA went on in parallel in ETSI and ARIB until the end of 1998 when the 3GPP was formed by standards-developing organizations from all regions of the world. This solved the problem of trying to maintain parallel development of aligned specifications in multiple regions. The present organizational partners of 3GPP are ARIB (Japan), CCSA (China), ETSI (Europe), ATIS (USA), TTA (Korea), and TTC (Japan).

The WCDMA and HSPA standards continue to be developed within 3GPP, which is currently (that is in 2014) working on release 12 of the specifications.

1.2. Standardization

1.2.1. The standardization process

Setting a standard for mobile communication is not a one-time job, it is an ongoing process. The standardization forums are constantly evolving their standards trying to meet new demands for services and features. The standardization process is different in the different forums but typically includes the four phases illustrated in Figure 1.1:

1. Requirements, where it is decided what is to be achieved by the standard.

2. Architecture, where the main building blocks and interfaces are decided.

3. Detailed specifications, where every interface is specified in detail.

4. Testing and verification, where the interface specifications are proven to work with real-life equipment.

Figure 1.1   The standardization phases and iterative process.

These phases are overlapping and iterative. As an example, requirements can be added, changed, or dropped during the later phases if the technical solutions call for it. Likewise, the technical solution in the detailed specifications can change due to problems found in the testing and verification phase.

Standardization starts with the requirements phase, where the standards body decides what should be achieved with the standard. This phase is usually relatively short.

In the architecture phase, the standards body decides about the architecture, that is, the principles of how to meet the requirements. The architecture phase includes decisions about reference points and interfaces to be standardized. This phase is usually quite long and may change the requirements.

After the architecture phase, the detailed specification phase starts. In this phase the details for each of the identified interfaces are specified. During the detailed specification of the interfaces, the standards body may find that it has to change decisions made either in the architecture or even in the requirements phases.

Finally, the testing and verification phase starts. It is usually not a part of the actual standardization in the standards bodies but takes place in parallel through testing by vendors and interoperability testing between vendors. This phase is the final proof of the standard. During the testing and verification phase, errors in the standard may still be found and those errors may change decisions in the detailed standard. Albeit not common, changes may need to be done also to the architecture or the requirements. To verify the standard, products are needed. Hence, the implementation of the products starts after (or during) the detailed specification phase. The testing and verification phase ends when there are stable test specifications that can be used to verify that the equipment is fulfilling the standard.

1.2.2. 3GPP

The 3GPP is the standards-developing body that specifies the LTE, 3G UTRA and GSM systems. 3GPP is a partnership project formed by the standards bodies ETSI, ARIB, TTC, TTA, CCSA, and ATIS. 3GPP consists of several Technical Specifications Groups (TSGs); see Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2   3GPP organization.

A parallel partnership project called 3GPP2 was formed in 1999. It also developed 3G specifications, but for cdma2000, which is the 3G technology developed from the 2G CDMA-based standard IS-95. It is also a global project, and the organizational partners are ARIB, CCSA, TIA, TTA, and TTC.

3GPP TSG RAN is the technical specification group that has developed WCDMA and its evolution HSPA and also LTE and is in the forefront of the technology. TSG RAN consists of five working groups (WGs):

1. RAN WG1 deals with the physical layer specifications.

2. RAN WG2 deals with the layer 2 and layer 3 radio interface specifications.

3. RAN WG3 deals with the fixed RAN interfaces, for example interfaces between nodes in the RAN, but also the interface between the RAN and the core network.

4. RAN WG4 deals with the radio frequency (RF) and radio resource management (RRM) performance requirements.

5. RAN WG5 deals with the User Equipment (UE) conformance testing.

The scope of 3GPP when it was formed in 1998 was to produce global specifications for a 3G mobile system based on an evolved GSM core network, including the WCDMA-based radio access of the UTRA FDD and the TD-CDMA-based radio access of the UTRA TDD mode. The task to maintain and develop the GSM/EDGE specifications was added to 3GPP at a later stage. The UTRA (and GSM/EDGE) specifications are developed, maintained, and approved in 3GPP. After approval, the organizational partners transpose them into appropriate deliverables as standards in each region.

In parallel with the initial 3GPP work, a 3G system based on TD-SCDMA was developed in China. TD-SCDMA was eventually merged into release 4 of the 3GPP specifications as an additional TDD mode.

The work in 3GPP is carried out with relevant ITU recommendations in mind and the result of the work is also submitted to ITU. The organizational partners are obliged to identify regional requirements that may lead to options in the standard. Examples are regional frequency bands and special protection requirements local to a region. The specifications are developed with global roaming and circulation of UEs in mind. This implies that many regional requirements in essence will be global requirements for all UEs, since a roaming UE has to meet the strictest of all regional requirements. Regional options in the specifications are thus more common for base stations than for UEs.

The specifications of all releases can be updated after each set of TSG meetings, which occur four times a year. The 3GPP documents are divided into releases, where each release has a set of features added compared to the previous release. The features are defined in Work Items (WIs) agreed and undertaken by the TSGs. The contents of releases 99 to 12 are described in Chapters 6–15 and 19. The date shown for each release is the day the content of the release was frozen. For historical reasons, the first release is numbered by the year it was frozen (1999), whereas the following releases are numbered 4, 5, etc.

For the WCDMA radio access developed in TSG RAN, release 99 contains all of the features needed to meet the IMT-2000 requirements as defined by ITU. There are circuit-switched voice and video services and data services over both packet-switched and circuit-switched bearers. The first major addition of radio access features to WCDMA is release 5 with High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and release 6 with High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), also known as Enhanced Uplink. These two are together referred to as HSPA and are described in more detail in Part III of this book. With HSPA, UTRA became the first mass market mobile broadband technology.

HSPA has evolved to incorporate technology advances such that its current evolution state, release 11, is technologically capable of meeting the most significant IMT-Advanced requirements.

With the inclusion of an Evolved UTRAN (LTE) and the related SAE in release 8 and its subsequent evolution, further steps are taken in terms of broadband capabilities. LTE evolution is described in more detail in the companion book to this one [2].

Table 1.1 and Figure 1.3 illustrate some of the most important of the specifications maintained by each 3GPP working group.

Table 1.1

Illustration of Working Group Specification (FDD) Responsibility

Figure 1.3   Illustration of specifications for UTRAN.

1.2.3. IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced activities in ITU

The ITU work on 3G took place in ITU-R Working Party 5D (WP5D),⁴ where 3G systems were referred to as IMT-2000. WP5D does not write technical specifications for IMT-2000, but kept the role of defining IMT-2000, cooperating with the regional standardization bodies to maintain a set of recommendations for IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced. Recently, ITU-R has initiated an activity, sometimes referred to as IMT-2020, to look at the development of IMT technologies beyond what is defined for IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced.

The main IMT-2000 recommendation is ITU-R M.1457 [3], which identifies the IMT-2000 radio interface specifications (RSPC). The recommendation contains a family of radio interfaces, all included on an equal basis. The original family of six terrestrial radio interfaces of IMT-2000 is illustrated in Figure 1.4, which also shows what Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) or Partnership Projects produce the specifications. In addition, there are several IMT-2000 satellite radio interfaces defined, not illustrated in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.4   The definition of IMT-2000 in ITU-R.

For each radio interface, M.1457 contains an overview of the radio interface, followed by a list of references to the detailed specifications. The actual specifications are maintained by the individual SDOs, and M.1457 provides URLs locating the specifications at each SDO’s web archive.

With the continuing development of the IMT-2000 radio interfaces, including the evolution of UTRA to Evolved UTRA, the ITU recommendations also need to be updated. ITU-R WP5D continuously revises recommendation M.1457 and at the time of writing, it is in its 11th version. Input to the updates is provided by the SDOs and Partnership Projects writing the standards. In ITU-R M.1457, LTE (or E-UTRA) is included in the family through the 3GPP family members for UTRA FDD and TDD, whereas Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) is included through CDMA2000, as shown in the figure (development of UMB stopped in 2008 and the technology is not commercially available). WiMAX is also included as the sixth family member for IMT-2000.

IMT-Advanced is the term used for systems that include new radio interfaces supporting the new capabilities of systems beyond IMT-2000, as demonstrated with the van diagram in Figure 1.5. The step into IMT-Advanced capabilities is seen by ITU-R as the step into 4G, the next generation of mobile technologies after 3G.

Figure 1.5   Technology evolution toward IMT-A.

The process for defining IMT-Advanced was set by ITU-R WP5D [4] and was quite similar to the process used in developing the IMT-2000 recommendations. ITU-R first concluded studies for IMT-Advanced of services and technologies, market forecasts, principles for standardization, estimation of spectrum needs, and identification of candidate frequency bands [5]. Evaluation criteria were agreed, where proposed technologies were to be evaluated according to a set of minimum technical requirements. All ITU members and other organizations were then invited to the process through a circular letter [6] in March 2008. After submission of candidate technologies in 2009, an evaluation was performed in cooperation with external bodies such as standards-developing organizations, industry fora, and national groups.

An evolution of LTE as developed by 3GPP was submitted as one candidate to the ITU-R evaluation. Although it actually was a new release (release 10) of the LTE system and thus an integral part of the continuing LTE development, the candidate was named LTE-Advanced for the purpose of ITU submission. 3GPP also set up its own set of technical requirements for LTE-Advanced, with the ITU-R requirements as a basis. HSPA was also developed into release 11 and, though not formally submitted to ITU, meets all of the IMT-Advanced requirements. The target of the process was always harmonization of the candidates through consensus building. ITU-R determined in October 2010 that two technologies will be included in the first release of IMT-Advanced, those two being LTE from release 10 (LTE-Advanced) and WirelessMAN-Advanced [7] based on the IEEE 802.16m specification. The two can be viewed as the family of IMT-Advanced technologies as shown in Figure 1.6. The main IMT-Advanced recommendation, identifying the IMT-Advanced radio interface specifications, is ITU-R M.2012 [8]. As for the corresponding IMT-2000 specification, it contains an overview of each radio interface, followed by a list of references to the detailed specifications.

Figure 1.6   IMT-A technology family.

Looking further into the future, a new recommendation, Framework and Overall Objectives of Future Development of IMT for 2020 and Beyond, is initiated within ITU-R WP5D. The recommendation is a first step for defining developments of IMT in the future, looking at the future roles of IMT and how it can serve the society, considering market, user, and technology trends and spectrum implications. As a parallel activity, ITU-R WP5D is also developing a report on Future technology trends of terrestrial IMT systems, with a focus on the time period 2015–2020. The report will cover trends of future IMT technology aspects by looking at the technical and operational characteristics of IMT systems and how they are improved with the evolution of IMT technologies.

1.3. Spectrum for 3G and systems beyond 3G

Another major activity within ITU-R has been to identify globally available spectrum, suitable for IMT systems. The spectrum work has involved studies of spectrum sharing between IMT and other technologies. Adequate spectrum availability and globally harmonized spectrum are identified as essential for IMT-Advanced.

Spectrum for 3G was first identified at the World Administrative Radio Congress WARC-92, where 230 MHz was identified as intended for use by national administrations that want to implement IMT-2000. The so-called IMT-2000 core band at 2 GHz is in this frequency range and was the first band where 3G systems were deployed.

Additional spectrum was identified for IMT-2000 at later World Radio communication conferences. WRC-2000 identified the existing 2G bands at 800/900 MHz and 1800/1900 MHz plus an additional 190 MHz of spectrum at 2.6 GHz, all for IMT-2000. As additional spectrum for IMT-2000, WRC’07 identified a band at 450 MHz, the so-called digital dividend at 698–806 MHz, plus an additional 300 MHz of spectrum at higher frequencies. The applicability of these new bands varies on a regional and national basis. WRC’12 did not identify any additional spectrum allocations for IMT, but the issue was put on the agenda for WRC’15. It was also determined to study the use of the band 694–790 MHz for mobile services in Region 1 (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).

The worldwide frequency arrangements for IMT are outlined in ITU-R recommendation M.1036 [9], which is presently being updated with the arrangements for the most recent frequency bands added. The recommendation outlines the regional variations in how the bands are implemented and also identifies which parts of the spectrum are paired and which are unpaired. For the paired spectrum, the bands for uplink (mobile transmit) and downlink (base station transmit) are identified for Frequency-Division Duplex (FDD) operation. The unpaired bands can, for example, be used for Time-Division Duplex (TDD) operation. Note that the band that is most globally deployed for HSPA is still 2 GHz.

The same bands that were originally defined for IMT-2000 and used for 3G deployment are also being used for 4G, including LTE-Advanced deployment. The latest version of the ITU-R spectrum recommendation M.1036 [9] is renamed with a more generic title having the identifier IMT instead of IMT-2000. Some regions and countries have issued licenses for new spectrum identified at WRC-2000 and WRC’07 with the intention of allowing 4G deployments, but in many cases, new spectrum is licensed on a technology-neutral basis. Many new deployments are either 4G or 3G, but some are also a mix of 4G and 3G, and some more also include 2G, since significant parts of the spectrum still used for 2G.

The somewhat diverging arrangement between regions of the frequency bands assigned to 3G means that there is not a single band that can be used for 3G roaming worldwide. Large efforts have, however, been put into defining a minimum set of bands that can be used to provide roaming. In this way, multi-band devices can provide efficient worldwide roaming for 3G.

3GPP first defined UTRA in release 99 for the 2-GHz bands, with 2 × 60 MHz for UTRA FDD and 20 + 15 MHz of unpaired spectrum for UTRA TDD. A separate definition was also made for the use of UTRA in the US PCS bands at 1900 MHz. The concept of frequency bands with separate and release-independent requirements was defined in release 5 of the 3GPP specifications. The release-independence implies that a new frequency band added at a later release also can be implemented for earlier releases. All bands are also defined with consideration of what other bands may be deployed in the same region through special coexistence requirements for both base stations and UEs. These tailored requirements enable coexistence between 4G and 3G (and 2G) deployments in different bands in the same geographical area and even for colocation of base stations at the same sites using different bands.

1.4. The motivations behind continuing HSPA evolution

Before entering the detailed discussion on technologies being used or considered for the evolution of HSPA mobile communication, it is important to understand the motivation for this evolution, that is, understanding the underlying driving forces. This section will try to highlight some of the driving forces, giving the reader an understanding of where the technical requirements and solutions are coming from.

1.4.1. General driving forces

A key factor for success in any business is to understand the forces that will drive the business in the future. This is in particular true for the mobile-communication industry, where the rapid growth of the number of subscribers and the global presence of the technologies have attracted several new players that want to be successful. Both new operators and new vendors try to compete with the existing operators and vendors by adopting new technologies and standards to provide new and existing services better and at a lower cost than earlier systems. The existing operators and vendors will, of course, also follow or drive new technologies to stay ahead of competition. Thus, there is a key driving force in staying competitive or becoming competitive.

1.4.1.1. Technology advancements

Technology advancements in many areas make it possible to build devices that were not possible 20, 10, or even 5 years ago. Even though Moore’s law⁵ is not a law of physics, it gives an indication of the rapid technology evolution for integrated circuits. This evolution enables faster processing/computing and more memory in smaller devices at lower cost. Similarly, the rapid development of color touch-screens, small digital cameras, etc. makes it possible to envisage services to a device that were seen as utopian 10 years ago.

The size and weight of UEs have reduced dramatically during the past 20 years. The standby and talk times have also been extended significantly and the end users do not need to re-charge their devices every day. Simple black-and-white (or brown-and-gray) numerical screens have evolved into color screens capable of showing digital photos at good quality and further into the touch-screens common on today’s smartphones and tablets. Mega-pixel-capable digital cameras have been added, making the device more attractive to use. Thus, the mobile device has become a multi-purpose device, not only a mobile phone for voice communications.

On the network side, a number of technologies have emerged that have altered the ways in which networks can be built. Base station miniaturization enables low cost, small cell deployments, while faster and more cost-effective backhaul mechanisms enable more varied deployments. In larger sites, advanced designs that integrate transceiver electronics and antenna systems reduce losses, energy costs, form factors, and site costs. In the longer term, network coordination and relocation of network functionality have the potential to change the topology of networks.

1.4.1.2. Services

Delivering services to the end users is the fundamental goal of any mobile-communication system. Because it is impossible to know what services will be popular and because service possibilities and offers will differ with time and possibly also among countries, the future mobile-communication systems will need to be adaptive to the changing service environment. Luckily, there are a few known key services that span the technology space:

• Real-time gaming applications: These have the characteristic to require small amounts of data (game update information) relatively frequently with short delays.⁶ Only a limited delay jitter is tolerable.

• Voice: This has the characteristic to require small amounts of data (voice packets) frequently with low delay jitter. The end-to-end delay has to be small enough not to be noticeable.⁷

• Interactive file download and upload applications: These have the characteristics of requiring low delay and high data rates.

• Background file download and upload applications: These have the characteristics of accepting lower bit rates and longer delays. E-mail (mostly) is an example of background file download and upload.

• App operation and synchronization: The development of the App ecosystem leads to a demand for downloading, synchronizing, and maintaining Apps.

• Broadcast: This has the characteristics of streaming downlink to many users at the same time requiring low delay jitter. The service can tolerate delays as long as it is approximately the same delay for all users in the neighborhood.

• Machine type communications (MTC): Machine-to-machine services are likely to expand enormously in coming years and in reality represent a plethora of different requirement types. Some general needs, however, include low cost, ultra-long battery life, improved link budget, and potentially high reliability. MTC will be further discussed in Chapter 19.

• Device to device (D2D). This very new type of traffic is one in which data are transmitted directly between devices, mainly under the control of the network. The principal application is support of specific groups, such as emergency services. High reliability and the ability to operate when a network is lacking capacity or not operating correctly are key needs of this type of service.

A mobile-communication system is designed to handle these services and the services in between (see Figure 1.7). The demands of these services and the mixture of services vary and evolve, such that even if general categories of services are known, the specific demands on the networks are difficult to predict.

Figure 1.7   The bit rate–delay service space that is important to cover when designing a new cellular system.

1.4.1.3. User expectations

In addition to the services themselves, user expectations evolve, too. In the first days of mobile communications, voice quality and dropped calls were key issues. As the quality of voice calls improved and mobile data began to play a larger role, peak rates became of greater importance. The development of the App ecosystem has significantly changed user expectations. With today’s devices, universal App availability, latency, and battery life play as important a role as data rate in shaping users’ expectations of services.

1.4.1.4. Operator business models

In the first days of mobile communications, operators could make money by providing voice services and charging per time unit. This business model began to shift with the introduction of flat rate charging for data usage. Flat rate charging led to the explosive success of mobile broadband but also broke the link between the cost of a service charged to a user and the cost of providing services. Furthermore, making Internet connectivity available to end users devalued the service offering from operators, reducing it toward being a bit-pipe provider.

Operators need to respond by providing differentiation to users by means of high-quality networks, service differentiation, and innovative charging structures. Mobile technologies, such as QoS-related traffic steering, play a key role in enabling operators to maintain a viable business in a rapidly evolving and challenging environment.

1.4.1.5. Cost

Another important driving factor for future mobile-communication systems is the cost of the service provisioning. Cost takes two forms: the so-called CAPEX, which is related to the cost of buying and owning the networks, and OPEX, which is the running cost for the networks. Factors contributing to CAPEX include the cost of the base stations, the efficiency of the base stations (that is, how much capacity each base station can serve), and the cost of devices (which are often subsidized by operators). Factors that contribute to OPEX include energy costs, site rental costs, and site maintenance costs.

1.4.2. HSPA-specific evolution drivers and philosophy

WCDMA, HSDPA, and HSUPA are in commercial operation throughout the world with established network node sites, especially the base station sites with their antenna arrangements and hardware⁸. This equipment is serving millions of UEs with different characteristics and supported 3GPP releases. These UEs need to be supported by the WCDMA operators for many more years.

The philosophy of the HSPA Evolution work is to continue to add new and more advanced technical features for the reasons outlined in the previous sections and at the same time be able to serve the already existing UEs. This is the successful strategy of GSM that has added new features constantly since its introduction in the early 1990s. The success stems from the fact that there are millions of existing UEs at the launch time of the new features that can take the cost of the upgrade of the network for the initially few new UEs before the UE fleet is upgraded. The time it takes to upgrade the UE fleet is different from country to country, but a rule of thumb is that a UE is used for two years before it is replaced. For HSPA Evolution, that means that millions of HSPA-capable UEs need to be supported at launch. In other words, HSPA Evolution needs to be backward compatible with the previous releases in the sense that it is possible to serve UEs of earlier releases of WCDMA on the same carrier as HSPA-Evolution-capable UEs.

The backward compatibility requirement on the HSPA Evolution puts certain constraints on the technology; for example, the physical layer fundamentals need to be the same as for WCDMA release 99.

References

[1] Ericsson Mobility report, November 2013 <www.ericsson.com/ericsson-mobility-report>.

[2] Dahlman, Parkvall, Sköld, ‘4G: LTE/LTE-Advanced for mobile broadband. 2nd ed.’. Academic Press, London; 2013.

[3] ‘Detailed Specifications of the Radio Interfaces of International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000)’, ITU-R, Recommendation ITU-R M. 1457-11, February 2013.

[4] ITU-R, ‘Principles for the process of development of IMT Advanced’, Resolution ITU-R 57 October 2007.

[5] ITU-R, ‘Framework and overall objectives of the future development of IMT-2000 and systems beyond IMT-2000’, Recommendation ITU-R M. 1645 June 2003.

[6] ITU-R, ‘Invitation for submission of proposals for candidate radio interface technologies for the terrestrial components of the radio interface(s) for IMT advanced and invitation to participate in their subsequent evaluation’, ITU-R SG5 Circular letter 5/LCCE/2, March 2008.

[7] ITU-R, ‘ITU paves the way for next generation 4G mobile technologies; ITU-R IMT-advanced 4G standards to usher new era of mobile broadband communications’, ITU press release, October 2010.

[8] ITU-R WP5D, ‘Recommendation ITU-R M. 2012. Detailed specifications of the terrestrial radio interfaces of International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced), January 2012.

[9] ITU-R, ‘Frequency arrangements for implementation of the terrestrial component of international mobile telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000) in the bands 806–960 MHz, 1710–2025 MHz, 2110–2200 MHz, 2500–2690 MHz, Recommendation ITU-R M1036-4, March 2012.

¹ The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) consists of the telecom administrations from 48 countries.

² The T1.P1 committee was part of T1 which presently has joined the ATIS standardization organization.

³ The TDMA part of the FRAMES project was also fed into 2G standardization as the evolution of GSM into EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution).

⁴ The work on IMT-2000 was moved from Working Party 8F to Working Party 5D in 2008.

⁵ Moore’s law is an empirical observation, and states that with the present rate of technological development, the complexity of an integrated circuit, with respect to minimum component cost, will double in about 18 months.

⁶ The faster the data is delivered the better. Expert Counter Strike players look for game servers with a ping time of less than 50 ms.

⁷ In 3G systems the end-to-end delay requirement for circuit-switched voice is approximately 400 ms. This delay is not disturbing humans in voice communications.

⁸ When operating with HSDPA and Enhanced UL, the system is known as HSPA.

Part II

Technologies for HSPA

High data rates in mobile communication

CDMA transmission principles

Multi-antenna techniques

Scheduling, link adaptation, and hybrid-ARQ

Chapter 2

High data rates in mobile communication

Abstract

A principal target for the evolution of HSPA mobile communication is to provide the possibility for significantly higher end user data rates compared to what is achievable with, for example, the first releases of the 3G standards. This includes the possibility for higher peak data rates but, even more importantly, the possibility for significantly higher data rates over the entire cell area. The initial part of this chapter discusses some of the more fundamental constraints that exist in terms of what data rates can actually be achieved in different scenarios. This is followed by a general theoretical discussion of higher-order modulation, which is a means of achieving higher data rates within a specific bandwidth, and methods for utilizing increased amounts of bandwidth.

Keywords

Shannon

Bandwidth

Signal-to-Noise Ratio

Higher-order Modulation

Multi-carrier

Chapter outline

2.1 High data rates: fundamental constraints    23

2.1.1 High data rates in noise-limited scenarios    25

2.1.2 Higher data rates in interference-limited scenarios    27

2.2 Higher data rates within a limited bandwidth: higher-order modulation    28

2.2.1 Higher-order modulation in combination with channel coding    29

2.2.2 Variations in instantaneous transmit power    30

2.3 Wider bandwidth including multi-carrier transmission    31

2.3.1 Multi-carrier transmission    32

References    34

As discussed in Chapter 1, one main target for the evolution of HSPA mobile communication is to provide the possibility for significantly higher end user data rates compared to what is achievable with, for example, the first releases of the 3G standards. This includes the possibility for higher peak data rates but, as pointed out in the previous chapter, even more so the possibility for significantly higher data rates over the entire cell area, also including, for example, users at the cell-edge. The initial part of this chapter will briefly discuss some of the more fundamental constraints that exist in terms of what data rates can actually be achieved in different scenarios. This will provide a background to subsequent discussions in the latter part of the chapter, as well as in the following chapters, concerning different means to increase the achievable data rates in different mobile communication scenarios.

2.1. High data rates: Fundamental constraints

In [1], Shannon provided the basic theoretical tools needed to determine the maximum rate, also known as the channel capacity, by which information can be transferred over a given communication channel. Although relatively complicated in the general case, for the special case of communication over a channel, for example a radio link, only impaired by additive white Gaussian noise, the channel capacity C is given by the relatively simple expression [2]

(2.1)

where BW is the bandwidth available for the communication, S denotes the received signal power, and N denotes the power of the white noise impairing the received signal.

Already from (2.1) it should be clear that the two fundamental factors limiting the achievable data rate are the available received signal power, or more generally the available signal-power-to-noise-power ratio S/N, and the available bandwidth. To further clarify how and when these factors limit the achievable data rate, assume communication with a certain information rate R. The received signal power can then be expressed as

(2.2)

where Eb is the received energy per information bit. Furthermore, the noise power can be expressed as

(2.3)

where N0 is the constant noise power spectral density measured in W/Hz.

Clearly, the information rate can never exceed the channel capacity. Together with the above expressions for the received signal power and noise power, this leads to the inequality

(2.4)

or, by defining the radio link bandwidth utilization γ = R/BW,

(2.5)

This inequality can be reformulated to provide a lower bound on the required received energy per information bit, normalized to the noise power density, for a given bandwidth utilization γ

(2.6)

The rightmost expression, that is, the minimum required Eb/N0 at the receiver as a function of the bandwidth utilization, is illustrated in Figure 2.1. As can be seen, for bandwidth utilizations significantly less than one, that is, for information rates substantially smaller than the utilized bandwidth, the minimum required Eb/N0 is relatively constant, regardless of γ. For a given noise power density, any increase of the information data rate then implies a similar relative increase in the minimum required signal power S = Eb · R at the receiver. On the other hand, for bandwidth utilizations larger than one, the minimum required Eb/N0 increases rapidly with γ. Thus, in case of data rates in the same order as or larger than the communication bandwidth, any further increase of the information data rate, without a corresponding increase in the available bandwidth, implies a larger, eventually much larger, relative increase in the minimum required received signal power.

Figure 2.1   Minimum required Eb/N0 at the receiver as a function of bandwidth utilization.

2.1.1. High data rates in noise-limited scenarios

From the discussion above, some basic conclusions can be drawn regarding the provisioning of higher data rates in a mobile communication system when the thermal noise level is greater than the level of other sources of interference, and hence noise is the main source of radio link impairment (a noise-limited scenario):

• The data rates that can be provided in such scenarios are always limited by the available received signal power or, in the general case, the received signal-power-to-noise-power ratio. Furthermore, any increase of the achievable data rate within a given bandwidth will require at least the same relative increase of the received signal power. At the same time, if sufficient received signal power can be made available, basically any data rate can, at least in theory, be provided within a given limited bandwidth.

• In case of low bandwidth utilization, that is, as long as the radio link data rate is substantially lower than the available bandwidth, any further increase of the data rate requires approximately the same relative increase in the received signal power. This can be referred to as power-limited operation (in contrast to bandwidth-limited operation, see below) as, in this case, an increase in the available bandwidth does not substantially impact what received signal power is required for a certain data rate.

• On the other hand, in case of high bandwidth utilization, that is, in case of data rates in the same order as or exceeding the available bandwidth, any further increase in the data rate requires a much larger relative increase in the received signal power unless the bandwidth is increased in proportion to the increase in data rate. This can be referred to as bandwidth-limited operation as, in this case, an increase in the bandwidth will reduce the received signal power required for a certain data rate.

Thus, to make efficient use of the available received signal power or, in the general case, the available signal-to-noise ratio, the transmission bandwidth should at least be of the same order