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This page covers WCDMA questionnaire set prepared by experienced specialists in WCDMA
domain. These top 10 WCDMA interview questions and answers help engineers seeking
WCDMA/UMTS job to crack the interview at initial attempt.These questions are very useful as
viva questions also.
9. What are the physical, transport and logical channels in WCDMA? Explain function of each.
10. What is the function of channelization code, scrambling code and synchronization code?
UMTS Tutorial-Page1
Introduction
This tutorial covers following in addition to overview and UMTS releases outlined here:
UMTS Overview
UMTS stands for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. It came into existence from
GSM technology developed by 3GPP. UMTS network composed of three main parts UE (User
Equipment), Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core Network. UMTS is released in several
phases by 3GPP standard body as shown below. UMTS is also referred by 3G. The main features
of 3G standardization by ITU includes support for circuit and packet switching, support for both
voice and data applications, support for seamless mobility for both voice and data, improvement
in spectral efficiency, legacy support for GSM/GPRS systems, increase in voice quality, low
round trip packet delay and more.
UMTS Releases
R5 HSDPA
HSPA, MIMO, higher modulation scheme 64QAM, continuous packet connectivity and Flexible
R7
RLC
R9 DC HSUPA
References
UMTS Tutorial-Page2
FUL_Off and FDL_Off is defined in TS 21.101 standard released by 3GPP, with this we can
obtain following UARFCNs.
This tutorial on UMTS covers multiple access types used in UMTS system.
UMTS uses Direct Sequence CDMA and information is spread across bandwidth in multiple
ways as shown below, which derives different physical channels or air interfaces.
1. Information is spread across 1.6 MHz BW (1.28Mcps), referred as narrowband CDMA
2. Information is spread across 5 MHz BW (3.84 Mcps), referred as WCDMA
3. Information is spread across 10MHz BW (7.68 Mcps)
UMTS supports both FDD and TDD duplex modes. FDD is supported in 3.84Mcps option. TDD
is supported in all the three options i.e. 1.28, 3.84 and 7.68 Mcps.
UMTS Tutorial-Page4
Figure depicts UMTS frame structure for 3.84Mcps radio system. It is made of super frame,
radio frame and chips. Each radio frame is of duration 10ms and composed of 15 slots. Each slot
is composed of 2560 chips. Chip duration is about 0.26micro-sec (derived from 1/3.84Mcps).
Slot duration is about 0.667ms.
WiMAX physical layer Frame Structure as per 802.16d and 802.16e standards
WiMAX MAC layer Frame Structure as per OFDM 802.16d standard
Zigbee RF4CE Frame Structure
Zigbee physical layer Frame Structure
Zigbee MAC layer Frame Structure
GPRS Frame Structure
GPS Frame Structure
LTE Frame Structure
TD-SCDMA Frame Structure
UMTS Frame Structure
SONET Frame Structure
SDH Frame Structure
802.11ac PHY Frame Structure
802.11ac MAC layer Frame Structure
WLAN Frame Structure as per 802.11a,11b,11n,11ac standards
AMPS Frame Structure
Ethernet Frame Structure
VLAN Frame Structure
GSM Frame Structure
As shown in the figure there are three main components in UMTS network architecture, User
Equipments is composed of Mobile Equipment (ME) and USIM. Radio Access Network is
composed of NodeB and RNC. Core Network is composed of circuit switched and packet
switched functional modules. For Circuit switched (CS) operations MSC and GMSC along with
database modules such as VLR, HLR will be available. For packet switched (PS) operations
SGSN and GGSN will serve the purpose. GMSC will be connected with PSTN/ISDN in CS case.
GGSN is connected with Packet data Network (PDN) for PS case. Interfaces between these
entities are summarized below.
Uu interface between UE and NodeB
Iub interface between NodeB and RNC
Iur interface between RNC and RNC
Iu-CS interface between RNC and MSC
Iu-PS interface between RNC and SGSN
UMTS Protocol stack
UMTS protocol stack consists of Access Stratum(AS) and Non Access Stratum(NAS). Access
Stratum supports OSI-layer 1 to 3. It consists of PHY(layer 1), MAC(layer 2),RLC(layer 2) and
RRC(layer 3). NAS or core network part is divided based on circuit switched(CS) or packet
switched(PS) functionalities.
This tutorial on UMTS covers UMTS logical channels, transport channels and physical channels.
Logical,transport,physical channels
As shown in the figure, there are three types of UMTS channels viz. logical channels(RLC
layer), transport channels(MAC layer) and physical channels(PHY layer). As they tranverse
between layers they map to other layer frames. For example logical channels are mapped to
transport channels and transport channels are mapped tp physical channels.
As shown in the figure, UMTS/WCDMA logical channels are divided into control channels and
traffic channels(DTCH,CTCH). As the name suggests traffic channels carry information(voice)
annd control channels carry signalling information useful to establish and maintain connection
between UE and network(NodeB).Following are the functions of each of these logical channels.
Pls. note that DL stands for Downlink from network to UE and UL stands for Uplink from UE to
Network.
DTCH(DL and UL, point to point)- Dedicated Traffic channel,carry user information.
CTCH(unidirectional point to multi-point)-Common traffic channel.
BCCH(DL broadcast)- Broadcast Control Channel, carry SYSTEM INFORMATION
CCCH(Bidirectional)- Common Control Channel
DCCH(Dedicated Control Channel, point to point bidirectional)
PCCH(Paging Control Channel,DL)-carry paging information
SHCCH(Shared Channel Control Channel,Bidirectional)
Shared control
carry control messages Uplink/Downlink TDD
channel(SHCCH)
Common control
It is used to carry control messages Uplink/Downlink FDD/TDD
channel(CCCH)
UMTS/WCDMA Duplex
Function Direction
Transport Channel Mode
Random access
It is used for initial access of the network by UE Uplink FDD/TDD
channel(RACH)
Common packet
It is used as contention channel for bursty data Uplink FDD/
channel(CPCH)
UMTS Channels
Following are links to various UMTS channels which cover SCH, SCCPCH, PRACH, PICH,
PDSCH, PCPCH, PCCPCH, DPDCH, DPCH, DPCCH, CSICH, CPICH, CD CAICH, AICH
channels.
Modulation:
DPCCH and DPDCH are BPSK modulated.