WCDMA/UMTS Network

Advanced Mobile Communication

Lec-2
Physical Layer

UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) Protocol
Architecture
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Layered Architecture of the UTRA protocol
architecture also known as Access Stratum.

Layer 3
RRC: Controls all the layers of Access
Stratum. Performs variety of functions such
as connection setup and management in
UTRAN, paging, measurement control and
reporting etc.

Layer 2
RLC: Major functions include segmentation
reassembly, retransmission etc of
user/signaling data.

MAC: Mapping of logical to transport
channels, identification of UE on common
channels etc.

Layer 1
Physical Layer: Performs wide variety of
functions including all in the WCDMA Tx/Rx,
closed loop power control, soft handover,
measurements etc


Each layer communicates with the peer entity on the Tx/Rx side and utilizes the services
offered by the layer below.

The concept of Radio Bearers (RBs), logical channels, transport channels and
physical channels



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UTRA Protocol Architecture
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Channels in UTRA
The logical, transport and physical channels have different purpose:

Logical channels carry information about different tasks the network and the MS should perform
in different moments in time. Logical channels are grouped by information content what type of information
is transfered:

User data.
Layer 3 control and signalling refered to as mobility management
(e.g. measurement reports, handover commands).

. Transport channels are used by RNC to carry different information flow over the U
u
interface and
the physical elements. Transfer channels are grouped by method of transfer how data is transfered,
e.g. different coding can be applied.

Physical channels provide physical connectivity U
u
interface. Physical channels perform the actual
transmission of data bits. They are distinguished by:

RF frequency.
Channelization code.
Spreading code.
Modulation phase (uplink).

Logical channels are used to provide data transfer services of the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. They are
generally classified into two groups:

Control Channels, used to transfer control information.

Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH). It is used for broadcasting system information in downlink direction.
Paging Control Channel (PCCH). It is a downlink channel used to transfer paging information.
Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH). It is a point-to-point bi-directional channel used to transmit dedicated control
information between a UE and the RNC.
Common Control Channel (CCCH). It is a bi-directional channel used to transmit control information between the
network and UEs.

Traffic Channels, used to transfer user information.

Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH). It is a point-to-point bi-directional channel, dedicated only to one UE for user
information transfer.
Common Traffic Channel (CTCH). It is a point-to-point channel transmitted in downlink direction only, used to transfer
a dedicated user information for all or a group of specified UEs.

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Logical Channels

The purpose of Transport channels is to provide varying bitrate services and multiplexing of several services
over the air interface.

Common Transport Channels: Shared by all the users/group of users in a cell. Used mainly for signaling,
can be used for data as well.

Broadcast Channel (BCH): Downlink Only. Transmission of system level information
Forward Access Channel (FACH): Downlink Only. Transmission of common control information. Also can carry small
amount of data.
Paging Channel (PCH): Downlink Only. Used to carry paging messages.
Random Access Channel (RACH): Uplink Only. Used to carry control information like connection setup. Can also be
used to carry small amount of data.

Dedicated Transport Channels: Only one such channel.

Dedicated Channel (DCH): Downlink and/or Uplink. The channel carries all information intended for a given user
coming from layers above the physical layer, including data for the actual service as well as higher layer control
information. The DCH carries both the service data, such as speech frames, and higher layer control information, such
as handover commands or measurement reports from the terminal.


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Transport Channels
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Channels: Transport Channel Content
Physical channels carry higher layer data over the air interface. . The physical layer supports transport channels
of variable bit rate in order to offer bandwidth on demand services, and to be able to multiplex several services
to one connection.

Common Physical Channels.

Primary Common Control Physical Channel (PCCPCH). Downlink Only
Secondary Common Control Physical Channel (SCCPCH). Downlink Only
Random Access Channel (PRACH). Uplink Only

Dedicated Physical Channels

Dedicated Physical Data Channel (DPDCH). Downlink/Uplink
Dedicated Physical Control Channel (DPCCH). Downlink/Uplink

Other Physical Channels. Not visible to higher layers. Only for Layer 1 functions. Downlink only

Synchronisation Channel (SCH).
Common Pilot Channel (CPICH).
Paging Indication Channel (PICH)
Acquisition Indication Channel (AICH)

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Physical Channels
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Physical Channels: Carriers of Transport Channels
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Channel Mapping
Uplink Downlink
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Downlink Spreading Factors
Channel Bit Rate [kbps] Symbol Rate [ksps] Spreading Factor
15 7.5 512
30 15 256
60 30 128
120 60 64
240 120 32
480 240 16
960 480 8
1920 960 4
Basic Frame is of 10 msec duration with 15 slots. Each slot has 2560 chips => Total number of chips in the
frame = 38400.

Each basic frame is identified by a System Frame Number (SFN) ranges from 0 to 4096.

SFN is transmitted in system information carried by BCH over PCCPCH.
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Basic Physical Frame Structure
Operates at a data rate of 30 kbps => SF=256

Predefined bit sequence equal to all 1s transmitted continuously

Channelization Code C
ch,256,0

Primary Scrambling Code of the cell is used for scrambling.

The channel serves as reference for serving as well as neighboring cell physical layer measurements to be
done by the UE.

The channel also serves as reference for coherent detection of other physical layer channels such as PICH,
AICH and PCCPCH as these do not carry pilot bits.
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Common Pilot Channel (CPICH)
Data Bit Code Chip XOR Operation
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0
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DL Slot and Frame Structure for Dedicated PDCHs
Dedicated Physical Data and Control Channels
are time multiplexed onto the same physical
slot.

17 different DL timeslot formats with varying
count of data and control bits.

TPC: Power Control bits. Either all 0s or all 1s,
indicating to decrease or increase power.

TFCI: Transport Format Combination
Indication. Gives information regarding the
Transport formats being used.

Pilot bits: Used for coherent detection.

Note that all the control bits in DPCCH are
related to Layer 1 only and are transmitted at
higher power than the user data in DPDCH.
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DL Slot and Frame Structure for P-CCPCH
Operates at a data rate of 30 kbps => SF=256

Channelization Code C
ch,256,1

Primary Scrambling Code of the cell is used for
scrambling.

The first 10% of the slot i.e. 256 chips is not
occupied by PCCPCH.

Transmitted continuously over the entire cell and
carries the broadcast control channel (BCH) data.

PCCPCH will be transmitted in every slot,
although there will generally be different BCH
data in each slot.
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DL Slot and Frame Structure for S-CCPCH
Data rates on this channel range from 30kbps to
1920 kbps corresponding to spreading factors of
256 to 4.

The data can be varied as required using the TFCI.


Primary Scrambling Code of the cell is used for
scrambling.

Transmitted only when there is information to be
sent.

This is the physical channel that carry the paging
messages that are sent through PCH and small
amount of data in the form of FACH.
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Synchronization Channel (SCH) slot and Frame structure
In UTRA the synchronization channel is used
by UEs in the initial cell search process.

Time multiplexed with P-SCCPCH such that
first 10% of the timeslot is used by SCH.

Consists of two sub-channels that are
transmitted simultaneously;

Primary SCH: Same 256 word length
chip sequence in every timeslot and
every Node B.

Secondary SCH: 15 different 256 chip
length are transmitted in each of the 15
timeslots of a 10msec frame. In other
words the SSC changes from slot to slot
such that the sequence of 15 SSCs are
used to determine the Primary
Scrambling Code used in the cell.
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DL Slot and Frame Structure for PICH and AICH

To be discussed with Paging and Access Procedures.
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WCDMA Downlink Transmitter
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WCDMA Downlink Transmitter
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Downlink data path through Physical layer
Tx
Rx
Example: DL Speech RAB Mapping
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Uplink Spreading Factors
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Channel Bit Rate [kbps] Symbol Rate [ksps] Ndata SF
15 15 10 256
30 30 20 128
60 60 40 64
120 120 80 32
240 240 160 16
480 480 320 8
960 960 640 4
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UL Slot and Frame Structure for Dedicated PDCHs
In the Uplink, DPDCH and DPCCH are not time
multiplexed but rather are transmitted
simultaneously. Carried by I and Q branches.

OVSF code tree is used to spread the channels.
DPCCH is always spread by channelization code
C
ch,256,0.
DPDCH is spread using channelization
code C
ch,SF,SF/4.

If the data requirement from higher layer is such
that more DPDCH are required, then SF=4 is
used.


One of the 2
24
possible uplink scrambling codes is
assigned to UE at the time of connection setup.
This is used to scramble DPDCH and DPCCH
channels in the uplink.

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UL Slot and Frame Structure for PRACH
To be discussed with Access Procedure
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WCDMA Uplink Transmitter and Uplink data path
through Physical layer
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WCDMA Uplink Transmitter