3G HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access is an upgrade to the original 3G UMTS cellular

system that provides a much greater download speeds for data. With more data being transferred
across the downlink than the uplink for data-centric applications, the upgrade to the downlink was
seen as a major priority. Accordingly 3G UMTS HSDPA was introduced into the 3GPP standards as
soon as was reasonably possible, the uplink upgrades following on slightly later.
3G UMTS HSDPA significantly upgrades the download speeds available, bring mobile broadband to
the standards expected by users. With more users than ever using cellular technology for emails,
Internet connectivity and many other applications, HSDPA provides the performance that is
necessary to make this viable for the majority of users.

Key 3G HSDPA technologies

The 3G HSDPA upgrade includes several changes that are built onto the basic 3GPP UMTS
standard. While some are common to the companion HSUPA technologies added to the uplink,
others are specific to HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access, because the requirements for
the each direction differ.

Modulation: One of the keys to the operation of HSDPA is the use of an additional form of
modulation. Originally W-CDMA had used only QPSK as the modulation scheme, however
under the new system16-QAM which can carry a higher data rate, but is less resilient to
noise is also used when the link is sufficiently robust. The robustness of the channel and its
suitability to use 16-QAM instead of QPSK is determined by analyzing information fed back
about a variety of parameters. These include details of the channel physical layer conditions,
power control, Quality of Service (QoS), and information specific to HSDPA.

Fast HARQ: Fast HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request), has also been implemented
along with multi-code operation and this eliminates the need for a variable spreading factor.
By using these approaches all users, whether near or far from the base station are able to
receive the optimum available data rate.

Improved scheduling: Further advances have been made in the area of scheduling. By
moving more intelligence into the base station, data traffic scheduling can be achieved in a
more dynamic fashion. This enables variations arising from fast fading can be
accommodated and the cell is even able to allocate much of the cell capacity for a short
period of time to a particular user. In this way the user is able to receive the data as fast as
conditions allow.

Additional channels: In order to be able to transport the data in the required fashion, and
to provide the additional responsiveness of the system, additional channels have been
added which are described in further detail below.

Use of 16QAM within HSDPA

The rate control within HSDPA is achieved dynamically by adjusting both the modulation and the
channel coding. Both 16WAM and QPSK are used, the higher order 16QAM modulation being used
to provide a higher data rate, but it also requires a better Eb/N0 (effectively signal to noise ratio). As
a result the 16QAM modulation format is normally used under high signal conditions, e.g. when the
mobile is close to the NodeB and in the clear.
The coding rate as well as the modulation are then selected for each 2ms TTI by the NodeB
according to its assessment of the conditions. In this way the rate control mechanism can rapidly
track the variations that may occur.

HSDPA Hybrid ARQ and soft combining

Hybrid ARQ or HARQ is hybrid automatic repeat request and it is essentially a form of the more
common ARQ error correction methodology. When the basic ARQ format is used, error-detection
information bits are added to data to be transmitted. One form of this may be a cyclic redundancy
check, CRC. However when Hybrid ARQ is used, forward error correction (FEC) bits are also added
to the existing error detection bits. The added error detection means that Hybrid ARQ performs
better than ordinary ARQ in poor signal conditions, but the additional overhead can reduce the
throughput in good signal conditions.
The combination of Fast Hybrid ARQ and soft combining enables the terminal to request the
retransmission of data that may be received erroneously. This can be done within the adaptive
modulation and channel coding scheme so that when error-rates rise the link can be modified
accordingly.
The user equipment or terminal receives the data and decodes it, reporting back the result to the
NodeB after the reception of each block, and in this way rapid retransmission of any blocks with
errors can be undertaken. This significantly reduces delays, especially under poor radio link
conditions or when the link is changing rapidly.
Soft combining is a process whereby the user equipment or terminal does not discard information it
cannot decode. Instead it retains it to combine with any retransmission data to increase the chance
of successful decoding of the data.
A process called Incremental Redundancy (IR) is also used with the retransmissions. This process
adds additional parity bits in retransmissions to make the data retransmission more robust.

HSDPA performance
Using HSDPA scheme it will be possible to achieve peak user data rates of 10 Mbps within the 5
MHz channel bandwidth offered under 3G UMTS. The new scheme has a number of benefits. It
improves the overall network packet data capacity, improves the spectral efficiency and will enable
networks to achieve a lower delivery cost per bit. Users will see higher data speeds as well as
shorter service response times and better availability of services. However new mobile designs will
need to be able to handle the increased data throughput rates. Reports indicate that handsets will

need to have at least double the memory currently contained within handsets. Nevertheless the
advantages of 3G HSDPA mean that it will be widely used as networks are upgraded and new
phones introduced.
By Ian Poole

3G HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access is an upgrade to the original 3G UMTS cellular
system that provides a much greater download speeds for data. With more data being transferred
across the downlink than the uplink for data-centric applications, the upgrade to the downlink was
seen as a major priority. Accordingly 3G UMTS HSDPA was introduced into the 3GPP standards as
soon as was reasonably possible, the uplink upgrades following on slightly later.
3G UMTS HSDPA significantly upgrades the download speeds available, bring mobile broadband to
the standards expected by users. With more users than ever using cellular technology for emails,
Internet connectivity and many other applications, HSDPA provides the performance that is
necessary to make this viable for the majority of users.

Key 3G HSDPA technologies

The 3G HSDPA upgrade includes several changes that are built onto the basic 3GPP UMTS
standard. While some are common to the companion HSUPA technologies added to the uplink,
others are specific to HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access, because the requirements for
the each direction differ.

Modulation: One of the keys to the operation of HSDPA is the use of an additional form of
modulation. Originally W-CDMA had used only QPSK as the modulation scheme, however
under the new system16-QAM which can carry a higher data rate, but is less resilient to
noise is also used when the link is sufficiently robust. The robustness of the channel and its
suitability to use 16-QAM instead of QPSK is determined by analyzing information fed back
about a variety of parameters. These include details of the channel physical layer conditions,
power control, Quality of Service (QoS), and information specific to HSDPA.

Fast HARQ: Fast HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request), has also been implemented
along with multi-code operation and this eliminates the need for a variable spreading factor.
By using these approaches all users, whether near or far from the base station are able to
receive the optimum available data rate.

Improved scheduling: Further advances have been made in the area of scheduling. By
moving more intelligence into the base station, data traffic scheduling can be achieved in a
more dynamic fashion. This enables variations arising from fast fading can be
accommodated and the cell is even able to allocate much of the cell capacity for a short
period of time to a particular user. In this way the user is able to receive the data as fast as
conditions allow.

Additional channels: In order to be able to transport the data in the required fashion, and
to provide the additional responsiveness of the system, additional channels have been
added which are described in further detail below.

Use of 16QAM within HSDPA

The rate control within HSDPA is achieved dynamically by adjusting both the modulation and the
channel coding. Both 16WAM and QPSK are used, the higher order 16QAM modulation being used
to provide a higher data rate, but it also requires a better Eb/N0 (effectively signal to noise ratio). As
a result the 16QAM modulation format is normally used under high signal conditions, e.g. when the
mobile is close to the NodeB and in the clear.
The coding rate as well as the modulation are then selected for each 2ms TTI by the NodeB
according to its assessment of the conditions. In this way the rate control mechanism can rapidly
track the variations that may occur.

HSDPA Hybrid ARQ and soft combining

Hybrid ARQ or HARQ is hybrid automatic repeat request and it is essentially a form of the more
common ARQ error correction methodology. When the basic ARQ format is used, error-detection
information bits are added to data to be transmitted. One form of this may be a cyclic redundancy
check, CRC. However when Hybrid ARQ is used, forward error correction (FEC) bits are also added
to the existing error detection bits. The added error detection means that Hybrid ARQ performs
better than ordinary ARQ in poor signal conditions, but the additional overhead can reduce the
throughput in good signal conditions.
The combination of Fast Hybrid ARQ and soft combining enables the terminal to request the
retransmission of data that may be received erroneously. This can be done within the adaptive
modulation and channel coding scheme so that when error-rates rise the link can be modified
accordingly.
The user equipment or terminal receives the data and decodes it, reporting back the result to the
NodeB after the reception of each block, and in this way rapid retransmission of any blocks with
errors can be undertaken. This significantly reduces delays, especially under poor radio link
conditions or when the link is changing rapidly.

Soft combining is a process whereby the user equipment or terminal does not discard information it
cannot decode. Instead it retains it to combine with any retransmission data to increase the chance
of successful decoding of the data.
A process called Incremental Redundancy (IR) is also used with the retransmissions. This process
adds additional parity bits in retransmissions to make the data retransmission more robust.

HSDPA performance
Using HSDPA scheme it will be possible to achieve peak user data rates of 10 Mbps within the 5
MHz channel bandwidth offered under 3G UMTS. The new scheme has a number of benefits. It
improves the overall network packet data capacity, improves the spectral efficiency and will enable
networks to achieve a lower delivery cost per bit. Users will see higher data speeds as well as
shorter service response times and better availability of services. However new mobile designs will
need to be able to handle the increased data throughput rates. Reports indicate that handsets will
need to have at least double the memory currently contained within handsets. Nevertheless the
advantages of 3G HSDPA mean that it will be widely used as networks are upgraded and new
phones introduced.
By Ian Poole

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has divided HSDPA UEs or mobile terminals into
twelve categories. These HSDPA categories define the different characteristics including different
HSDPA data rates.
These HSDPA categories are needed to cater for a number of implementations of the HSDPA
standard. This allows for different levels of performance to be implemented including the maximum
HSDPA data rate. The characteristics of the UE can then be easily communicated to the network
which can then communicate with the UE in a suitable manner. Accordingly these HSDPA categories
are widely used.

HSDPA category definitions

The different HSDPA categories are outlined inth e table below. From this it can be sent hat the
overall raw data rate and hence the category is determined by a number of elements including the
maximum number of HS-DSCH codes, TTI, block size, etc.

HS-DSCH
CATEGORY

MAX NO
OF HSDSCH
CODES

MIN
INTER-TTI
INTERVAL

HSDPA
DATA
RATE
(MBPS)

TRANSPORT
BLOCK SIZE

MAX
NO
SOFT
BITS

SUPPORTED
MOD
SCHEMES

3.6

7298

19200

16QAM, QPSK

3.6

7298

28800

16QAM, QPSK

3.6

7298

28800

16QAM, QPSK

3.6

7298

38400

16QAM, QPSK

3.6

7298

57600

16QAM, QPSK

3.6

7298

67200

16QAM, QPSK

10

7.2

14411

115200

16QAM, QPSK

10

7.2

14411

134400

16QAM, QPSK

15

10.1

20251

172800

16QAM, QPSK

10

15

14

27952

172800

16QAM, QPSK

11

1.8

3630

14400

QPSK

12

1.8

3630

28800

QPSK

Additional information about the HSDPA categories and HSDPA data rates table:

The maximum number of HS-DSCH codes is the number of multiplexed codes on the highspeed physical downlink shared channel (HS-PDSCH) that receive data.

The minimum transmission time interval (TTI) is the time interval allocated to the mobile
terminal for receiving data. There is a balance between a short TTI for providing adaptivity
and while keeping the overhead to a minimum.

The maximum buffer size for hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) is determined
considering signals received prior to resend and resent signals; it is the maximum number of
bits in the receive buffer after demodulation.

Categories 1-10 support 16QAM (16 quadrature amplitude modulation) as well as QPSK
(quadrature phase shift keying). Categories 11 and 12 only support QPSK.

By Ian Poole

High Speed Uplink Packet Access, HSUPA is the companion technology to HSDPA, but applied to
the uplink from the UE or user equipment to the NodeB or base station. HSUPA uses many similar
technologies to those found in HSDPA, but in view of the differences between the links, HSUPA is
not identical.

HSUPA provides a considerable increase in speed for users in the uplink. Although lower data rates
are normally required in the uplink direction, emails, two way data traffic and other uploads do
require higher speeds than are often available with the basic 3G system, and accordingly the
inclusion of HSUPA gives a significant improvement.
Although HSUPA provides a significant increase in the upload speed, it does not provide the same
capacity as the downlink because in general the majority of the data flows in the downlink direction,
i.e. towards the UE. In addition to this there are additional difficulties providing the same
performance from the UE in view of some of the restrictions imposed by the fact that a large number
of UEs are communicating with the NodeB.

3G UMTS HSUPA key characteristics

3G HSUPA brings enhanced performance through the addition of new features that sit on top of the
existing UMTS / W-CDMA technology.
The key specification parameters that are introduced by the use of HSPA are:

Increased data rate: The use of HSUPA is able to provide a significant increase in the data
rate available. It allows peak raw data rates of 5.74 Mbps.

Lower latency: The use of HSUPA introduces a TTI of 2 ms, although a 10ms TTI was
originally used and is still supported.

Improved system capacity: In order to enable the large number of high data rate users, it
has been necessary to ensure that the overall capacity when using HSUPA is higher.

BPSK modulation: Originally only BPSK modulation, that adopted for UMTS, was used.
Accordingly it did not support adaptive modulation schemes. Higher order modulation was
introduced in Release 7 of the 3GPP standards when 64QAM was allowed.

Hybrid ARQ: In order to facilitate the improved performance the Hybrid ARQ (Automatic
Repeat reQuest) used for HSDPA is also employed for the uplink, HSUPA.

Fast Packet Scheduling:

In order to reduce latency, fast packet scheduling has been

adopted again for the uplink as for the downlink, although the implementation is slightly
different.
With these specification parameters enable HSUPA to complement the performance of HSDPA,
providing an overall performance improvement for systems incorporating HSPA.

3G HSUPA basics

At the core of HSUPA, High Speed Uplink Packet Access are a number of new technologies that are
very similar to those used with HSDPA. However there are a few fundamental differences resulting
from the different conditions at either end of the link.

The uplink in UMTS, and HSUPA is non-orthogonal because complete orthogonality cannot
be maintained between all the UEs. As a result there is more interference between the uplink
transmissions within the same cells.

The scheduling buffers are located in a single location (NodeB) for the downlink, whereas for
the uplink they are distributed within several UEs for the uplink. This requires the UEs
requiring to send buffer information to the scheduler in the NodeB so that it can then provide
an overall schedule for the data transmission.

In the downlink, the shared resource is the transmission power. In the uplink, the resource is
limited by the level of interference that can be tolerated and this depends upon the
transmission power of the multiple UEs.

High order modulation techniques are able to provide higher data rates for high signal level
links in the downlink. There is not the same advantage in the uplink where as there is no
need to share channelisation codes between users and the channel coding rates are
therefore lower, although higher order modulation was introduced under Release 7.

By Ian Poole

In order to be able to cater for a number of variations in the level to which HSUPA is implemented, a
number of different HSUPA categories have been defined. These HSUPA categories are equivalent
in function to those used on the downlink, althought he actual parameters and speeds are naturally
different.
The HSUPA categories allow for different levels of performance within the UE. The characteristics of
the UE can then be easily communicated to the network which can then communicate with it in a
suitable manner.

HSUPA category definitions

The HSUPA categories are detailed in the table below. This shows the different HSUPA categories
with their data rates, and other required parameters.

HSUPA
CATEGOR
Y NUMBER

MAXIMU
M
NUMBER
EDPDCHS

MINIMUM
SPREADIN
G FACTOR

SUPPOR
T FOR 2
MS TTI*

MAXIMUM
TRANSPOR
T BLOCK
SIZE
(10 MS TTI)

MAXIMUM
TRANSPOR
T BLOCK
SIZE
(2 MS TTI)

MAXIMU
M DATA
RATE
(MBPS)

SF4

7110

0.7 Mbps

SF4

14484

2798

1.4 Mbps

SF4

14484

1.4 Mbps

SF2

20000

5837

2 Mbps
for 10 ms
TTI
2.9 Mbps
for 2 ms
TTI

SF2

20000

2.00 Mbps

2 + 2**

SF2

20000

11520

2 Mbps
for 10 ms
TTI
5.74 Mbps
for 2 ms
TTI

HSUPA category definitions

Notes:
*A
10
ms
TTI
is
** Two E-DPDCHs at SF2 and two at SF4

supported

in

all

categories

Support for the E-DCH TTI (Transmission Time Interval) of 10 ms is required for all HSUPA
categories. It is only some HSUPA categories that support a 2 ms TTI. Also the highest data rate
supported with a 10 ms TTi is 2 Mbps. The reason for this is to limit the amount of buffer memory
required in the NodeB for soft combining because a larger block transport size means that a larger
soft buffer is needed for retransmissions.
By Ian Poole

In order to provide the required data speeds and capabilities within HSUPA, further channels have
been added to the basic 3G UMTS scheme that is used. These HSUPA channels provide additional
signalling and data capabilities.

While HSUPA is effectively an uplink enhancement, channels have been added to both the uplink
and the downlink. The reason for the downlink HSUPA channels is to provide the control, etc needed
for the uplink data.

Uplink HSUPA channels

A variety of new channels have been introduced for HSUPA to enable the system to carry the high
speed data. These new channels are:

E-DCH, the Enhanced Dedicated Channel: This HSUPA uplink channel carries on block
of data for each TTI (Transmission Time Interval). The E-DCH can be configured
simultaneously with one or more DCHs. In this way high speed data transmission can occur
at the same time and on the same UE as services that use the standard DCH.
As a low latency (delay) is one of the key requirements for the high speed uplink a short TTI
(Transmission Time Interval) of 2 ms is supported in addition to one of 10 ms. The short TTI
allows for rapid adaptation of transmission parameters and it reduces the end-user delays.
There is a balance to be determined for the TTI. It is found that the physical layer processing
is proportional to the amount of data to be processed, and accordingly the shorter the TTI the
lower the level of data per TTI. However for applications requiring relatively low data rates,
the overheads required with a 2 ms TTI may be unduly high. In these circumstances a longer
TTI
is
more
appropriate.
The E-DCH is mapped to a set of E-DCH Dedicated Physical Data Channels.

E-DPDCH (Enhanced Dedicated Physical Data Channel):

This HSUPA uplink channel

carries uplink user data. Each UE can transmit up to four E-DPDCH channels at a spreading
factor of SF256 to SF2. The number of E-DPDCHs s and their spreading factors are varied
according to the instantaneous data rate required. As an example of a typical scenario, to
achieve a 2 Mbps rate - the raw data rate of early devices - two SF2 E-DPDCHs were
required.

E-DPCCH (Enhanced Dedicated Physical Control Channel):

This HSUPA channel

carries the control data required by the Node B to decode the uplink channels including the
E-DCH Transport Format Combination Indicator which indicates the block size,
retransmission sequence number, etc.

Downlink HSUPA channels

A variety of new channels have been introduced for HSUPA to enable the system to carry the high
speed data. These new channels are:

E-AGCH (Enhanced Absolute Grant Channel):

This HSUPA channel provides the

absolute limit of the power resources, i.e. the serving grant, that the UE may use. The
channel is used to send scheduling grants from the scheduler to the UE to control when and
what data rate the UE should be used. The E-AGCH is only sent by one NodeB regardless of
the number that the UE is communicating with. The NodeB used is the one that has the main
responsibility for the scheduling operation. The E-AGCH is typically used for large changes
in data rate.

E-RGCH (Enhanced Relative Grant Channel):

This channel is used to move the UE

serving grant up, down or remain the same. This HSUPA channel is generally used for
relatively small changes during an ongoing data transmission. Large changes are handled by
the E-AGCH.

E-HICH (Enhanced DCH Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel): This HSUPA channel is used
to provide the acknowledgement of the UE data received by the Node B.

By Ian Poole

Evolved HSPA is also known as HSPA+ HSPA Evolution and even Internet HSPA (I-HSPA). By its
name it can be seen that Evolved HSPA is an enhanced version of the 3G HSPA or High Speed
Packet Access system that was used to increase the speeds of the basic 3G system. Using Evolved
HSPA / HSPA+ the data transfer rates are enhanced further over those that could be achieved using
HSPA and other factors such as latency and the backhaul have also been addressed.
The need for HSPA+ arose out of the increasing use of data and users wanting download speeds
that were comparable with fixed broadband lines. Many other applications were also starting to need
much faster data transfer rates and lower levels of latency. These are addressed by the use of
HSPA+.

HSPA+ in 3GPP releases

The definition of HSPA+ / Evolved HSPA have been included in Releases 7 and 8 of the 3GPP
standards.

3GPP Release 7: This release of the 3GPP standard included downlink MIMO operation as
well as support for higher order modulation up to 64 QAM in the uplink and 16 QAM in the
downlink. However it only allows for either MIMO or the higher order modulation. It also
introduced protocol enhancements to allow the support of more users that are in a
"continuously on" state.

3GPP Release 8: This release of the standard defines dual carrier operation as well as
allowing simultaneous operation of the high order modulation schemes and MIMO. Further to
this, latency is improved to keep it in line with the requirements for many new applications
being used.

Evolved HSPA / HSPA+ highlight features

There are a number of major new features as well as some enhancements to existing capabilities
that enable HSPA+ or Evolved HSPA to provide a significant improvement in performance over that
provided by the standard HSPA systems.
Some of the major features include:

MIMO:

many other systems have utilised MIMO and so too, HSPA+ is able to gain

significant advantages from its use.

Higher Order Modulation:

Although MIMO provides some significant improvements in

throughput, where the multiple antennas needed for MIMO are not available, and where
signal strength is relatively high, it is possible to increase the order of the modulation to
enable higher throughput rates. However this can only be achieved when signal levels are
sufficiently high otherwise data errors increase.

Continuous packet connectivity:

With much of the data traffic being in the form of IP

data, continuous connectivity is an increasing requirement. To achieve this the HS-DSCH

and E0DCH channels have been reconfigured to enable them to be rapidly able to transmit
user data.

Enhanced CELL_FACH operation:

This enhanced operation is required to assist in

maintaining the always-on packet connectivity during periods when there have been little or
no activity.

Layer 2 protocol enhancements: In order to benefit from the higher data rates over the
HS-DSCH enhancements to the RLC and MAC-hs protocols have been introduced.

HSPA+ data rate comparison with LTE

The next migration of the cellular services beyond HSPA+ is known as LTE. Using a completely new
air interface based around the use of OFDM rather than W-CDMA which is used for UMTS, HSPA

and HSPA+, it offers even higher data traffic rates. It is then anticipated that it will be used as the
basis for the next generation, i.e. 4G systems.
It is however worth comparing the maximum data rates offered by both HSPA+ and LTE.
CHANNEL
BANDWIDTH
(MHZ)

HSPA+ DATA RATE

(MBPS)

LTE DATA RATE

(MBPS)

42

37

10

84

73

20

--

150

Although the basic comparisons appear to show that LTE will offer few advantages, there are several
other features of LTE that mean that it is a preferable option for the long term. LTE enables wider
bandwidths and the OFDM modulation enables data transmissions to be made more resilient to
multipath and other propagation effects.
By Ian Poole
MIMO is one of the major features that have been incorporated into Evolved HSPA / HSPA+.
UMTS HSPA MIMO enables the peak data rates achievable to be increased through the use of what
may be termed multi-stream transmission.

Evolved HSPA MIMO basics

MIMO used with HSPA+ is able to provide significant increases in data throughput. With data
throughput being one of the key advantages of Evolved HSPA, MIMO is a significant element of the
overall system.

Note on MIMO:
Two major limitations in communications channels can be multipath interference, and the data throughput limitations
as a result of Shannon's Law. MIMO provides a way of utilising the multiple signal paths that exist between a
transmitter and receiver to significantly improve the data throughput available on a given channel with its defined
bandwidth. By using multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver along with some complex digital signal
processing, MIMO technology enables the system to set up multiple data streams on the same channel, thereby
increasing the data capacity of a channel.

Click on the link for a MIMO tutorial

Traditionally radio systems wanted to minimise the effects of multipath transmission as the multiple
paths introduced phase delays that caused distortion and interference. However MIMO exploits the
multiple paths in ways that enable the system to become more resilient to interference or to enable
high data throughput rates by using spatial multiplexing.
MIMO is able to achieve high data rates - above those predicted by Shannon for a single channel
because it is able to utilise the multiple paths to transmit multiple data streams in parallel. However
to achieve these high data rates, a correspondingly high carrier to interference ratio must exist for
the receiver. This means that spatial multiplexing is really applicable to small cells or larger ones
where the receiver, in this case the mobile handset is relatively close to the base station.
In cases where a sufficiently high signal to noise ratio for spatial multiplexing cannot be achieved,
the multiple antennas can be used to give receive diversity to improve the reception of a single data
stream.

HSDPA MIMO
One of the main areas where the increase in data is required is within the downlink. For this the
MIMO capability is applied to the HSDPA elements of the signal. The scheme used for HSDPAMIMO is sometimes referred to as dual stream transmit adaptive arrays - there may be up to two
streams of data. HSDPA MIMO is a multi-codeword scheme that uses rank adaptation and precoding.
The two streams of data within HSDPA-MIMO are subject to the same physical layer processing,
spreading, etc. The same channelisation codes can used to save on channelization code resources.
After this has been completed, linear pre-coding is applied to the signal before the resulting signals
are applied to the two antennas. The linear pre-coding attempts to make the two signals nearly
orthogonal to each other. This reduces the level of interference between the two signals and also
reduces the level of receiver processing required.
In order to support dual stream transmission format of HSDPA-MIMO, the HS-DSCH is modified to
support up to two transport blocks per TTI - one transport block per stream.
The use of pre-coding provides several benefits:

It is important in the case of single stream transmission where pre-coding provides both
diversity gain and array gain. Two antennas are used at the transmitter and weights of the
two streams adjusted so that the signals add coherently at the receiver.. This results in a

higher signal to noise ratio and thereby increases the coverage area for a particular data
rate.

In the case of two stream transmission pre-coding is used as to enable the receiver to
separate the two data streams. If the pre-coding vectors are chosen to be orthogonal, then
the two streams will not interfere.

In order to be able to demodulate the signals, the UE needs to be able to estimate the channel
characteristics between all the antennas on the base station and those on the UE. This is achieved
by transmitting common pilot channels on each physical transmit antenna. By decoding the pilot
channel the UE is able to estimate the channel characteristics.

HSDPA-MIMO rate control

Rate control for HSDPA MIMO is very similar to the rate control used for the standard non-MIMO
case. However the system needs know how many streams are being transmitted and also the precoding matrix being used. The rate control mechanism needs to determine the number of streams to
transmit, the modulation scheme, and the pre-coding matrix. This information is transmitted to the
UE on the HS-SCCH.
The multi-stream transmission provided by HSDPA-MIMO is only really beneficial when the signal
channel is good, i.e. a high signal to noise ratio. It is therefore only used for the highest data rates.
For lower data rates single stream transmission is generally used with the two transmission
antennas providing diversity transmission to improve the fading, signal quality, etc.
By Ian Poole

To further improve the HSPA performance a scheme utilising two HSDPA carriers to increase the
peak data rates has been made available. The scheme known under a variety of names and
acronyms - DC-HSPA, Dual carrier HSPA, Dual Cell HSPA, and DC-HSDPA, Dual cell HSDPA, also
better utilises the available resources by multiplexing carriers in the CELL DCH state.
DC-HSPA or DC-HSDPA enables better utilisation of the resources, especially under poor channel
conditions where signal to noise ratios may not be as high as normally needed for high data rate
links.

DC-HSPA / DC-HSDPA background

UMTS / W-CDMA was initially conceived as a circuit switched based system and was not well suited
to IP packet based data traffic. Once the basics UMTS system was released and deployed, the need

for better packet data capability became clear, especially with the rapidly increasing trend towards
Internet style packet data services which are particularly bursty in nature.
The initial response to this was the development and introduction of HSDPA, followed by HSUPA for
provide the combined HSPA service. These were defined in 3GPP Release 5 & 6. Later this was
further developed and deployed in some areas to provide even higher data transfer rates as HSPA+
which occurred in Release 7.
A further release, Release 8 detailed the dual cell HSDPA, or HSPA, and then a combination of DCHSDPA and MIMO being defined in Release 9.

DC-HSPA / DC-HSDPA basics

The concept behind DC-HSPA / DC-HSDPA is to provide the maximum efficiency and performance
for data transfers that are bursty in nature - utilising high levels of capacity for a short time. As most
of the traffic is in the downlink direction, dual carrier HSPA is applied to the downlink - i.e. HSDPA
elements, and therefore dual carrier HSPA is also known as DC-HSDPA.
The concept of packet data is that it data is split into packets with a destination tag, and these are
sent over a common channel - sharing the channel as data traffic from one source is not there all the
time.
DC-HSDPA seeks to take apply this principle to the multiple carriers that may be available to an
operator. Often UMTS licences are issued in paired spectrum of either 10 MHz or 15 MHz blocks two or three carriers, for uplink and downlink.
Using UMTS, HSPA, or even HSPA+ these carriers operate independently, and dependent upon the
usage, one carrier could be fully utilised while the other is under used. Coordination between the
carriers only takes place in terms of the connection management, and the dynamic load is not
balanced. DC-HSDPA / DC-HSPA seeks to provide resource allocation and optimisation.
This joint resource allocation over multiple carriers requires dynamic allocation of resources to
achieve the higher peak data-rates per HSDPA user within a single Transmission Time Interval (TTI),
as well as enhancing the terminal capabilities. The use of DC-HSDPA is aimed at providing a
consistent level of performance across the cell, and particularly at the edges where MIMO is not as
effective.

Channels for DC-HSDPA

When implementing DC-HSDPA, the channels present within the system need to be modified to
enable the system to operate as required.

HS-DPCCH: While it would have been possible to utilise two HS-DPCCHs, one on each
carrier, only one is used - the feedback information being mapped to the single channel.
There are either 5 or 10 CQI - channel Quality Indicator bits that are used. Five are used
when only one channel is utilised, and ten when two are in use. The compound CQI is made

up from two independent CQIs: one for each channel. New channel coding schemes are
defined for the overall HARQ feedback format.

HS-SCCH: The HS-SCCH is transmitted on both the anchor, or primary carrier as well as
the supplementary one, and the UE has to monitor up to four HS-SCCH codes on each
carrier. However the UE is only required to be able to receive up to one HS-SCCH on the
serving or main cell and one HS-SCCH on the secondary cell.

DC-HSDPA signalling & scheduling

One of the key processes required within DC-HSDPA is that of scheduling the data to be transmitted
as this has to be achieved across the two carriers. The scheduling algorithms required developing in
a manner that provided backwards compatibility for single carrier transmissions while providing
throughput speed improvements for the dual carrier scenarios.
The queues for data to be transmitted are operated in a joint fashion to provide the optimum
flexibility in operation - it enables the carrier with the least traffic queued to be used (not all UEs will
have the dual carrier facility and therefore one carrier may be loaded more heavily than the other,
etc..)
One area which did require addressing was the operation of the MAC-ehs entity within the Node-B
stack. Within HSPA this was designed to support HS-DSCH operation in more than one cell served
by the same Node-B and therefore extending this for dual carrier operation required only minor
changes.
Separate HARQ entities are required for each HS-DSCH. In this way the transmission is effectively
two separate transmissions over two separate HS-DSCHs - each one has its own uplink and
downlink signalling.
Each carrier has a transport block that uses a Transport Format Resource Combination (TFRC)
which is based on the HARQ and CQI feedback sent over the uplink HS-DPCCH. Any
retransmissions required by HARQ will use the same modulation coding scheme as the first
transmission.

UE categories for DC-HSPA

UE categories were developed to enable the base stations to be able to quickly determine the
capabilities of different UEs. The numbers required extending for HSPA+ and DC-HSPA / DCHSDPA.

UE
CATEGORY

3GPP
RELEASE

MAX NO OF HSDSCH CODES

MODULATIO
N

MAXIMUM RAW
DATA RATE

COMMENTS

21

Rel 8

15

16-QAM

23.4

DC-HSDPA

22

Rel 8

15

16-QAM

28.0

DC-HSDPA

23

Rel 8

15

64 QAM

35.3

DC-HSDPA

24

Rel 8

15

64 QAM

42.2

DC-HSDPA

25

Rel 9

15

16 QAM

46.7

DC-HSDPA +
MIMO

26

Rel 9

15

16 QAM

55.9

DC-HSDPA +
MIMO

27

Rel 9

15

64 QAM

70.6

DC-HSDPA +
MIMO

28

Rel 9

15

64 QAM

84.4

DC-HSDPA +
MIMO

DC-HSUPA and Multicarrier HSPA

The concepts behind DC-HSDPA can be taken further in a number of areas to provide further
improvements in the performance of the overall HSPA+ system.
The first of these is to utilise a similar dual carrier system for the uplink. Using dual carrier HSUPA,
DC-HSUPA, would provide similar gains in the uplink as DC-HSDPA provides for the downlink. The
broad implementation would also be similar.
Another way in which performance of the system can be further pushed is to utilise multiple carriers,
beyond the two used in DC-HSPA. Y aggregating further carriers the improvements gained with DCHSPA can be further improved along higher still peak data rates.
By Ian Poole