HSUPA (Enhanced Uplink)

By
Praveen Kumar
 Overview
• High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) is
also known as Enhanced Uplink.
• What it Does ?
– Provides the Improvement in WCDMA uplink
capabilities and performance in terms of
• Higher data rates
• Reduced Latency
• Improved System Capacity
• It is a complement to HSDPA
 Difference Between the HSDPA and
HSUPA
HSDPA (DL)
The Shared resource is transmission
power and code space, located at NodeB
The scheduler and the transmission buffer The scheduler is located at NodeB and
are located at the same place in NodeB
Different transmit channel are
orthogonal. In HSDPA, where a (more or
less) constant transmission power with
rate adaptation is used.
HSUPA (UL)
Shared resource is the amount of allowed
uplink interference which depends on the
transmission power of multiple
distributed UE.
transmission buffers are distributed in the
UEs. Therefore UE needs to signal buffer
status information to the scheduler.
WCDMA uplink is inherently non-
orthogonal and subject to interference
between uplink transmission within the
same cell. Therefore Fast Power Control is
essential for uplink to handle near-far
problem.
 Difference Between the HSDPA and
HSUPA
HSDPA (DL)
No Soft handover. Transmission from
multiple cells in case of HSDPA is
cumbersome and with questionable
benefit.
HSUPA (UL)
Soft handover is supported. Receiving
data from a terminal in multiple cell is
fundamentally beneficial as it provides
diversity
 HSUPA Scheduling - 1
• Scheduler at NodeB controls when and at what
data rate the UE is allowed to transmit.
– High date rate ≈ High Power transmitted by Ues
– High Power ≈ Higher Interference (due to UL non
orthogonality)
• Scheduler needs to manage the UL interference
– If Interference is too high, UL transmission may not
received properly.
– If interference is too low, the full system capacity not
exploited.
 HSUPA Scheduling - 2
• Since the scheduler and transmission buffer are
not co-located, there is Request/Grant
mechanism is defined. UE sends the Scheduling
Request, indicating its buffer occupancy.
Scheduling Grant sent by the UEs to control the
UE transmission activity. The Scheduling Grants
control the maximum allowed E-DCH-to-pilot
power ratio the terminal may use; a large grant
means higher data rate but also contributes more
to interference level in cell.
 HSUPA Scheduling - 3
• As the interference increases in the cell, it affects
the neighbor cell also, so inter-cell interference
needs to be controlled. The scheduler has
allowed a UE to transmit at a high data rate based
on an acceptable intra-cell interference level, this
may cause non-acceptable interference to the
neighboring cell. Therefore in soft handover, the
serving cell has the main responsibility for the
scheduling operation, but UE monitors scheduling
information from all cells with which the UE is in
soft handover.
HSUPA Scheduling - 4
 HSUPA HARQ (soft combining)
• It provide robustness againt occasional
transmission errors. A similar scheme as for
HSDPA
• One main difference compared to HSDPA from
the use of soft handover in uplink.
– When UE is in soft handover, HARQ is terminated
in multiple cells. It is possible that few NodeB has
not received data correctly and some NodeB has
received correctly. So If the UE receives an ACK
from at least one of the NodeBs, the UE consider
the data to be successfully received .
HSUPA Architecture
 Enhanced Uplink - TTI
• A new transport channel type is introduced
Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH). It can be
configured with one or several DCHs.
• Introduction of 2ms TTI for efficient packet-data
support. It allows for rapid adaptation of
transmission parameters and reduction of the
end-user delays associated with packet-data
transmission. But for large cells a longer TTI may
be beneficial as the payload in a 2ms TTI can
become unnecessarily small and the associated
relative overhead too large. Hence the E-DCH
supports two TTI lengths, 2 and 10ms and the
network can configure the appropriate value.
Channel Structure with HSDPA and
HSUPA
 Channel Structure with HSDPA and
HSUPA
• E-HICH -> HARQ ACK/NAK information is sent on
a new downlink dedicated physical channel, the
E-DCH Hybrid ARQ Indicator channel.
• E-AGCH -> Scheduling grants sent from the
scheduler to the UE, using the shared E-DCH
Absolute Grant Channel. The E-AGCH is sent from
the serving cell only as this is the cell having main
responsibility for the scheduling operation and is
received by all UEs with an E-DCH configured. It is
typically used for large changes in the data rates
 Channel Structure with HSDPA and
HSUPA
• E-RGCH -> Scheduling grant information can also be
conveyed to the UE through and E-DCH Relative
Grant Channel. It is typically used for small
adjustment during on going data transmission.
• E-DPCCH -> In the uplink, control signaling is
required to provide the NodeB with the necessary
information to be able to demodulate and decode
the data transmission. Even though serving cell has
this information but non serving cells in soft
handover clearly don't have this information. Also E-
DCH also supports non-scheduled transmission.
Hence there is a need of out-band signaling in UL.
 Channel Structure with HSDPA and
HSUPA
• UL by design is non-orthogonal, fast closed-
loop power control is necessary to address the
near-far problem. E-DCH is power controlled
in the same way as other uplink channels.
Power control commands can be transmitted
using DPCH or to save channelization codes,
the fractional DPCH (F-DPCH)
Physical Layer Processing
 MAC-es/e UE Side
To MAC-d MAC – Control

MAC-es/e
E-TFC Selection Multiplexing and TSN setting

HARQ

Associated Scheduling
Downlink Signalling
(E-AGCH / E-RGCH(s))

Associated ACK/NACK Associated Uplink

signaling Signalling E-TFC
(E-HICH) (E-DPCCH)
 E-TFC (E-DCH Transport Format
Combination)
• Only the UE has accurate knowledge about the
buffer situation and power situation in the UE at
the time of transmission of the transport block in
the UL. Hence the UE is allowed to autonomously
select the data rate or E-TFC.
• E-TFC is responsible for selecting the TF of the E-
DCH and to control MAC-e multiplexing.
• NodeB scheduler handles resource allocation
between UEs, the E-TFC Selection controls
resource allocation between flows within the UE.
 E-TFC (E-DCH Transport Format
Combination)
• E-DCH needs to be coexist with DCHs.
Therefore a basic requirement is to serve DCH
traffic first and only spend otherwise unused
power resources on the E-DCH.
• TFC Selection is two step process. First the
normal DCH TFC selection is performed then
UE estimates the remaining power and TFC
Selection step is performed where E-DCH can
use the remaining power.
E-TFC (E-DCH Transport Format
Combination)
 MAC-es UTRAN Side
To MAC-d

MAC-es

MAC – Control
Disassembly Disassembly Disassembly

Reordering/ Reordering/ Reordering/

Combining Combining Combining

Reordering Queue Reordering Queue

Distribution Distribution

MAC-d flow #1 MAC-d flow #n

From From
MAC-e in MAC-e in
NodeB #1 NodeB #k
 MAC-e UTRAN Side
MAC-d Flows

MAC-e

MAC – Contro l

E-DCH E-DCH De-multiplexing

Scheduling Contro l

HARQ entity

Associated Scheduling
Downlink Signalling
(E-AGCH / E-RGCH(s))
Associated Associated
E-TFC ACK/NACK E-DCH
Uplink Downlink
Signalling Signalling
(E-DPCCH) (E-HICH)