UMTS Key Technologies

ZTE University

Content
RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Multi-path characteristics of radio channel

Electromagnetic propagation:

Signal attenuation:

direct radiationreflectiondiffraction and scattering

Path loss Loss of electromagnetic waves in large scope of the
spread reflects the trend of the received signal in the spreading
Slow fadingLoss because of being blocked by the building and
hill in the propagation path
Fast fadingElectromagnetic signals rapidly decline in a few
dozens wavelength ranges

Description of Fast fading distribution

Rayleigh distributionnon line-of sight(NLOS) transmission

Rician distributionline-of sight(LOS) transmission

Multi-Path Effects
sending signal

strength

receiving signal
0

time

Characteristics of Radio Propagation

Interference

dithering
0

Accepting signal

Sending signal

Accepting signal

Sending signal

delay

fading
0dB

-25dB

Sending signal

Accepting signal

Sending signal

Accepting signal

Frequency off-set caused by the movement of mobile that

is Doppler effect

RAKE Receiver

The multi-path signals contain some useful energy ,

therefore the UMTS receiver can combine these energy of
multi-path signals to improve the received signal to noise
ratio.
RAKE receiver adopts several correlation detectors to
receive the multi-path signals, and then combines the
received signal energy.

RAKE Receiver can effectively overcome the multi-path

interference, consequently improve the receiving performance.

RAKE Receiving

d1

d2

d3

transmitting

Receiving

Rake
combination
noise

Multi-finger receiver

Traditional receiver

Multi-path signals are treated as interference.

The receiving performance will decline because of the
Multi-address Interference (MAI).

Precondition of Multi-finger receiver

Multi-finger receiver utilizes the Multi-path Effect.

Multi-finger signals can be combined through relative
process
Multi-finger time delay is larger than 1 chip interval,
which is 0.26us=>78m.

Multi-finger receiver
Direct signal

coding

transmitter

decoding

Reflected signal

receiver

Dispersive time < 1 chip interval

Multi-finger receiver cant supply multi-finger diversity

Direct signal

decoding

coding

transmitter

Reflected signal

receiver

Dispersive time > 1 chip interval

Multi-finger receiver can supply multi-finger diversity, signal gain is improved

RAKE Receiving
Single
receiving
Single
receiving

receiver

combining

signal

Single
receiving

searcher
s(t)

calculate

s(t)

RAKE Receiving overcomes multi-finger interference, improves

receiving performance

Combination of Multi-fingers

Maximal ratio combining (MRC)

at each time delay

Finger 1

Finger 2

Finger 3

phase shifting

by adding

Content
RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Whats

When UE is moving from the coverage area of

one site to another, or the quality of service is
declined by external interference during a service,
the service must be handed over to an idle
channel for sustaining the service.
Handover is used to guarantee the continuity of
service
Handover is a key technology for mobile
networking

Category of Handover
Soft handover (SHO)

Intra-RNC, inter-Node B

Inter-RNC

UMTS system support

multiple handover technology

Softer handover

Same Node B, Inter-sector

Hard handover (HHO)

Intra-frequency

Inter-frequency

Inter-system (3G&2G)

Inter-mode (FDD&TDD)

Handover Demonstration

Hard
Handover

Soft
Handover

Soft Handover/Softer Handover

Soft Handover

C
A

Soft-Softer Handover
C
A

C
A

Softer Handover

C
A

Hard Handover

During the hard handover procedure,

all the old radio links with the UE are
abandoned before new ones are
established, so there must be
service interruption during the HHO.
Hard handover may occur in the
following main cases

When the UE is handed over to another

UTRAN carrier, or another technology
mode.
When soft handover is not permitted (if
O&M constraint)

Hard Handover

CN

SRNC

Node B

RNC or
BSC

Node B or
BTS

Soft/Softer Handover

The soft/softer handover allows to migrate from one cell to

another without service interruption or without deleting all
old radio links.
UE can connecte to more than one cell simultaneously and
take benefit from the macro-diversity.
Soft
Handover
Soft
SoftHandover
Handover

The two Node

Bs Node
may Bs
The two
may Same
belong RNC
to the
belong to the

CN
CN
CN

Softer
Handover
Softer
Handover
Softer
Handover

CN
CN

same RNC

SRNC
Iur

Node B

DRNC

SRNC

Node B

UMTS General Handover Trilogy

Measurement Control

Handover decision

UTRAN demands the UE to start measurement through

issuing a measurement control message.
UTRAN makes the decision based on the measurement
reports from UE. The implementation of handover
decision is various for different vendors. It impacts on
the system performance critically.

Handover execution

UTRAN and UE execute different handover procedure

according to the handover command.

General Procedure of Handover Control (I)

Measuring
The measurement objects are decided by RNC. Usually,
either Ec/No or RSCP (Received Signal Code Power) of PCPICH channel is used for handover decision.
ZTE RNC adopts Ec/No measurement, because Ec/No
embodies both the received signal strength and the
interference. The relation of Ec/No and RSCP is shown as
follows:

Ec/No RSCP/RSSI

In the above equationRSSIReceived Signal Strength

Indicatoris measured within the bandwidth of associated
channels

General Procedure of Handover Control (II)

Filtering
The measurement results should be filtered before being
reported. Measurement filtering can be regarded as a low pass
filtering procedure. The following equation is applied for filtering.
Fn=(1-a)Fn-1a*Mn
Variants definition

Fnfiltered measurement result

Fn-1last filtered measurement result
Mnlatest Ec/Io or RSCP measurement result received from
physical layer;
a = 1/2(k/2), k means the Filter coefficient, which is included in the
Measurement Control message. It is decided by the UTRAN.
F0 is initialized by the first measurement result M1.

General Procedure of Handover Control (III)

Reporting
Period report triggered handover

Base on the filtered measurement result

Event report triggered handover

Base on the event

Measurement result filtered in UE
Soft
Handover

Hard
Handover

Period

Event decided in RNC

Handover decided in RNC

Event

Measurement result filtered in UE

Event decided in UE
Handover decided in RNC

General Procedure of Handover Control (IV)

Handover algorithm

All the handover algorithms including soft handover,

hard handover and so on are implemented on the event
decision made according to the measurement reports.

Events defined in 3GPP specifications

Intra-frequency events1A~1F
Inter-frequency events2A~2F
Inter-RAT events3A~3D

Note: RAT is short for Radio Access Technology, e.g.

UMTS&GSM

Concepts Related to Handover

Active Set:

Monitored Set:

A set of cells that have established radio links with a

certain mobile station.
User information is sent from all these cells.
A set of cells that are not in the active set but are
monitored according to the list of adjacent cells
assigned by the UTRAN.

Detected Set:

A set of cells that are neither in the active set nor in the
monitor set.

Configuring Priority for Each Cell

Source Cell

Priority 0

Priority 1

Priority 2

Tactics of Deleting Neighboring Cells in Excess of 32

The protocol specifies the upper limit of co-frequency

neighboring cell quantity to be 32 (including source
cells). When the UE is in the macro diversity state, the
quantity of neighboring cells of multiple cells in the
macro diversity may exceed the upper limit. Therefore,
a tactic is required to delete the excessive neighboring
cells. The tactics are: combining and adjusting priority
levels, selecting the cell among the cells of the same
priority, and deleting excessive neighboring cells.

Tactics of Deleting Neighboring Cells in Excess of 32

Combining priority levels

If a cell is adjacent to multiple cells in an active set, the cell

may have different priority levels configured by the
background when it is adjacent to different cells. In this case,
the multiple priority levels will be combined, and the highest
priority level among them will apply.

Tactics of Deleting Neighboring Cells in Excess of 32

Updating the Adjacent Cell List and Deleting Neighboring

Cells in Excess of 32

If there are more than 32 neighboring cells in the neighboring cell

list of an active set, the neighboring cells will be arranged from the
high priority level to the low priority level. The cells subsequent to
the 32nd cell will be placed into the neighboring cell reservation list.
When triggering event 1a, 1b, 1c or 1d, the UE updates the priority
level of neighboring cells in the neighboring cell list. After event 1b
occurs, if there are less than 32 neighboring cells in the
neighboring cell list, the UE will select the neighboring cells from
the high priority level to the low priority level in the neighboring cell
reservation list, and put the selected cells into the neighboring cell
list. The quantity of cells that can be selected is: min (32 quantity
of cells existent in the neighboring cell list, quantity of cells in the
neighboring cell reservation list).

Soft handover event

Event

Description

1A

Quality of target cell improves, entering a

report range of relatively activating set quality

1B

Quality of target cell decreases, depart from a

report range of relatively activating set quality

1C

The quality of a non-activated set cell is better

than that of a certain activated set cell

1D

Best cell generates change

1E

Quality of target cell improves, better than an

absolute threshold

1F

Quality of target cell decreases, worse than

an absolute threshold

An Example of SHO Procedure

Pilot
Ec/Io

Pilot Ec/Io of cell 1

Pilot Ec/Io of cell 2

Pilot Ec/Io of cell 3

Connect to cell1

time
Event 1A
Event 1C
Event 1B
add cell2replace cell1 with cell 3remove cell3

RNS Relocation
Core Network

Core Network

Iu
Serving
RNS

Iu
Target
RNS

Iur

Target
RNS

Serviing
RNS

RNS
Radio Network Sub-system

RNS relocation can :

Reduce the Iur traffic significantly

Enhance the system adaptability

Hard Handover

Hard handover measurement is much more complex for

UE than soft handover measurement.
Inter-frequency hard handover requires UE to measure the
signal of other frequencies.
UMTS employs compressed mode technology to support
inter-frequency measurement.

Content
RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Purpose of Compressed Mode

In order to support inter-frequency and inter-RAT

handover, UE is required to perform inter-frequency
and Inter-RAT measurement periodically.
The UE with one transceiver does not have the
opportunity to perform inter-frequency measurement
during the service period (especially the voice call) ,
because the transceiver is busy in transmitting and
receiving the signals all the time.
Compressed mode can provide idle slot based
transmission time window, which can be used for
inter-frequency measurement, for the UEs in
connected state, e.g. CELL_DCH.

Content
RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Admission Control

The admission control is employed to admit the access of

incoming call. Its general principal is based on the
availability and utilization of the system resources.
If the system has enough resources such as load margin,
code, and channel element etc. the admission control will
accept the call and allocate resources to it.

Purpose of Admission Control

When user initiates a call , the admission control should

implement admission or rejection for this service according
to the resource situation.
The admission control will sustain the system stability
firstly and try the best to satisfy the new calling services
QoS request, such as service rate, quality (SIR or BER),
and delay etc. basing on the radio measurement.
Admission control is the only access entry for the incoming
services, its strategy will directly effect the cell capacity
and stability, e.g. call loss rate, call drop rate.

Admission Control in Uplink

Itotal_old+I >Ithreshold
Access
Threshold

Interference capacity
Service priority
Reserved capacity for
handover

The forecasted interference including the delta

interference brought by the incoming service is
calculated by the admission algorithm, and its
result depends on the QoS and transmission
propagation environment

Iown-cell

The current RTWP (Received

Total Wide Power) value of cell,
which is reported by Node B

Iother-cell
~
N0

Admission Control in Uplink

Different ultimate user numbers

Different interference threshold under different ultimate
user number conditions
Different ultimate throughputs

Quantity of Subscriber-- The Total Bandwidth Received by Node B

The Total Bandwidth Power Received by Node B (dBm)

The Total Bandwidth Power Received by Node B (dBm)

Throughput -- The Total Bandwidth Received by Node B

Throughput

Quantity of Subscriber

Ultimate Situation for different service rate

Admission Control in Downlink

Ptotal_old+P>=Pthreshold
Access
Threshold

Max TCP of cell

Service priority
Reserved capacity for
handover

The forecasted TCP value including delta

power required for the incoming service is
calculated by the admission algorithm, and its
result depends on the QoS and transmission
propagation environment.
The current TCP value of cell, which is reported by Node B
Transmitted Carrier Power*Pmax

Admission Control in Downlink

The Total Transmission Power (dBm)

Redlow speed service

Bluehigh speed service

Quantity of Subscriber

The above figure illustrates the relation between ultimate user number
corresponds to different service rate and distance under equidistant
distribution condition

Admission Control Analysis

The service can be either one-direction or bi-direction

type. For bi-direction service, it is admitted only after
both uplink and downlink are admitted.
Admission control is the only access entry for the
incoming services, its strategy will directly effect the
cell capacity and stability, e.g. call loss rate, call drop
rate.

Content
RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Purpose of Load Control

The speed and position
changing of UE may
worsen the wireless
environment.

Increased transmitted
power will increase the
system load.

The purpose of load control is to keep the

system load under a pre-planned threshold
through several means of decreasing it, so as to
improve the system stability.

Load control

Overload control
Cell load
Serious overload threshold
Common overload threshold
Admission control threshold
Overload recovery threshold

Overload control
1. The load exceeds the
common overload threshold
Common
overload
state

Normal
state
2. The load is smaller than the
overload recovery threshold
3. The load exceeds the serious overload threshold

6. The load is smaller than the serious overload threshold.

but greater than the common overload threshold
5. The load exceeds the
serious overload threshold.

4. The load is smaller than the

overload recovery threshold
Serious
overload
state

Load Control Flows

Start

Over loaded

Light loaded

Decision

Normal loaded

1. Handover in and access

are allowed
2. Transmitted code power
(TCP) increase is allowed
3. RAB service rate
upgrade is allowed

1. Handover in
and access are
allowed
2. TCP increase
is allowed

1.Handover in and
access are forbidden
2. TCP increase is
forbidden
3. RAB service rate
degrade
4. Handover out
5. Release call (call drop)

Load Control in Uplink

Triggers

Methods for decreasing load

RTWP (Received Total Wide-band Power) value from

measurement report exceeds the uplink overload threshold;
Admission control is triggered when rejecting the access of
services with lower priority due to insufficient load capacity in uplink.
Decrease the target Eb/No of service in uplink;
Decrease the rate of none real time data service;
Handover to GSM system;
Decrease the rate of real time service, e.g. voice call;
Release calls.

Methods for increasing load

Increase the service rate.

Load Control in Downlink

Triggers

Methods for decreasing load

TCP (Transmitted Carrier Power) value from measurement report

exceeds the downlink overload threshold;
Admission control is triggered when rejecting the access of
services with lower priority due to insufficient load capacity in
downlink.
Decrease the downlink target Eb/No of service in downlink;
Decrease the rate of none real time data service;
Handover to coverage-shared light loaded carrier;
Handover to GSM system;
Decrease the rate of real time service, e.g. voice call;
Release calls.

Methods for increasing load

Increase the service rate.

Cell Breathing Effect

Cell breathing is
one of the means
for load control

The purpose of cell breathing is to share the load of hotspot cell with the light loaded neighbor cells, therefore to
improve the utilization of system capacity.

Example for load control

Cell Breathing Effect
With the increase of activated
terminals and the increase of high
speed services, interference will
increase.
The cell coverage area will shrink.
Coverage blind spot occurs
Drop of call will happen at the edge
of cell

Coverage and
capacity are
interrelated

Content
RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

UMTS Code Resource

Channelized Code (OVSF code)

Uplink Channelized Code

Downlink Channelized Code

Scrambling Code

Uplink Scrambling Code

Downlink Scrambling Code

Function of OVSF Code

Downlink: distinguish different radio channels from the same NodeB.
OC3, OC4
OC1, OC2
OC5, OC6, OC7

Uplink: distinguish different radio channels from the same UE.

OC1, OC2
OC1 , OC2, OC3
OC1, OC2, OC3, OC4

Function of Scrambling code

Downlink: distinguish different Cells

Uplink: distinguish different UEs
Cell Site 1 transmits using PN code 1

PN1

PN1

PN3

PN4

Cell Site 2 transmits using PN code 2

PN2

PN5

PN2

PN6

Why Code Resource Planning?

The OVSF (Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor) code

tree is a scarce resource and only one code tree can be
used in each cell. In order to make full use of the capacity,
and support as many connections as possible, it is
important to plan and control the usage of channel code
resource.
Downlink scrambling code allocation should be planned to
avoid the interference between neighboring cells.
The uplink scrambling codes are sufficient, but RNC
should plan the codes to use for avoiding allocating same
code to different users in inter-RNC handover scenario.

Code Resource Planning

The uplink and downlink scrambling code can be planned

easily by computer.
The uplink channelized code does not need planning, for
every UE can use the whole code tree alone.
Therefore, only the downlink channelized code is planned
with certain algorithm in RNC.
Each cell has one primary scrambling code, which
correlates with a channel code tree. All the users under
this cell share this single code tree, so the OVSF code
resource is very limited.
The downlink channelized code tree is a typical binary tree
with each layer corresponds to a certain SF ranging from
SF4 to SF512.

Generation of Channelized Code

Cch,4,0 =(1,1,1,1)
Cch,2,0 = (1,1)
Cch,4,1 = (1,1,-1,-1)
Cch,1,0 = (1)
Cch,4,2 = (1,-1,1,-1)
Cch,2,1 = (1,-1)
Cch,4,3 = (1,-1,-1,1)
SF = 1

SF = 2

SF = 4

OVSF Code Tree

Channelized Code Characters

Code allocation restriction

The code to be allocated must fulfill the condition that its

ancestor nodes including from father node to root node
and offspring nodes in the sub tree are not allocated;

Code allocation side effect

The allocated node will block its ancestor nodes and

offspring nodes, thus the blocked nodes will not be
available for allocation until being unblocked .
SF=8
SF=16
SF=32

Strategy of Channelized Code Allocation

Full utilization

Low Complexity

Short code first.

Allocate codes for common channels and physical

shared channels prior to dedicated channels.

The fewer the blocked codes, the higher code tree

utilization rate.

Guarantee the code allocation for common physical

channels.

Apply certain optimized strategy to allocate codes

for downlink dedicated physical channels.

An Example of Code Allocation

SF = 4
SF = 8
SF = 16

SF = 32
0

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

10

11

12

13

14

15

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

SF = 4

Choose one
code from
three
candidates

SF = 8

SF = 16
SF = 32

Red spots represent the codes that have been allocated

Green spots represent the codes that are blocked by the allocated offspring codes
Blue spots represent the codes that are blocked by the allocated ancestor codes;
Black spots represent the codes that to be allocated;

Planning of downlink scrambling code

PN2

PN4

PN6

PN2

PN3

PN7

PN4

PN6
PN5

PN4

PN2

PN4

PN6
PN5

PN4
PN5

PN3

PN7

PN1

PN1
PN6

PN5

PN3

PN7

PN1

PN3

PN7

PN1
PN6

PN5

PN2

PN3

PN7

PN1

PN2

PN2

PN3

PN7

PN1
PN4

PN6
PN5

Content
RAKE Receiver
Handover Control
Compressed Mode
Admission Control
Load Control
Code Resource Allocation
Capacity Features

Capacity of UMTS

Power Rising

Power rising occurs because of the Multiple Access

Interference (MAI) resulting from the non-orthogonal
code channels.

UMTS network

Code channel transmit

Channel power
Promised channel quality
Channel power rise
Power climb
Collapse over the range

Meeting Room
talk with dialects
voice tone
listen clearly
voice tone rise
voice climb
can not hear each other

Power Rising
The Total Bandwidth Power Received by Node B (dBm)

Quantity of Subscriber-- The Total Bandwidth Received by Node B

Quantity of Subscriber

Capacity of UMTS System

Under the circumstance of single services:

=
=
=

Capacity of UMTS System

Under the circumstance of mixed services

...

+Y

+Z

UMTS Capacity Features

UMTS capacity feature

UMTS capacity is Soft Capacity.

The Concept of Soft Capacity

The system capacity and communication quality are

interconvertible.
Different services have different capacity.
Different proportion of services have different capacity
for mixed services.
The capacity is also restricted to the allocation of code
resource.

Concept of Soft Capacity

Different combination
of service has
different capacity

System capacity and QoS can be interconverted

Crucial Factors for UMTS Network (CQC)

Capacity

All the key technologies adopted are used to try to

achieve the optimal balance of the three factors

Coverage and Capacity

UMTS performance is determined by such factors

as

Number of users
Transmission rate
Moving speed
Wireless environment

The radius of cell depends on such factors as:

indoors
Outdoors

Local radio conditions (local interference)

Traffic in neighbouring cells (remote interference)

Cell Radius decrease according to the Increase of

user number

Coverage/capacity VS Data Rate

Higher data rate needs higher power

High data rate transmission is only available nearby the
station
Coverage decrease

>384 kbps
>144 kbps
>64 kbps

Subscriber
num
increase

>12.2 kbps

Optimization methods

To overcome Cell Breathing Effect caused by increased

traffic and meet different requirements for capacity and
coverage in different environment, following solutions can
be applied:

DL

transmission diversity (Tx Div)

high power amplifier

DL/UL:

Add carrier
six sectors

UL

Tower Mounted Amplifier (TMA)

4 Rx Div
OTSR

Add basestation
last choice

Factors affects UMTS Capacity

Factors

Impact on UMTS capacity

RAKE
Receiver

The advanced receiving and baseband processing

technology is introduced to overcome the fast fading

Power Control

Reducing interference, saving power and Increasing capacity

Handover
Control

Impacting the capacity through applying different proportion

and algorithm of soft handover

Admission
Control

Admitting a connection base on the load and the admission

threshold of planned capacity

Load Control

Monitoring system load and adjusting the ongoing services to

avoid overload

OVSF Code

The Allocation of codes impacts the maximum number of

simultaneous connections.

Wireless
Environment

Wireless environment such as interferences, UE position and

mobility etc. can influent the cell capacity