A Power Control Algorithm for 3G WCDMA System
Loutfi Nuaymi*, Xavier Lagrange*, Philippe Godlewski**
*ENST Bretagne, 2, Rue de la Chataigneraie, B.P. 78, Cesson Sévigné 35512 Cedex, FRANCE
**ENST, 46, Rue Barrault, Paris 75634 Cedex 13, FRANCE
e-mail: loutfi.nuaymi@enst-bretagne.fr, xavier.lagrange@enst-bretagne.fr, godlewski@enst.fr
ABSTRACT- In this paper, an evolution of the power
control algorithm is proposed for the third-generation
WCDMA system. The algorithm is based on a modification
of the transmitted power update step size. Instead of the
presently-suggested fixed value, the step size is modified
dynamically in order to guarantee more adapted power
variations. The proposed algorithm is justified and a
general form of this algorithm is presented. It is then
studied in a simple simulation, which allows useful
discussion and evaluation of the proposed algorithm.
Important elements of the proposed algorithm are
highlighted.
I. INTRODUCTION
Power control (PC) is an essential function of cellular
CDMA systems. WCDMA ([1], [2]), initially the
European and Japanese common proposal for third-
generation IMT-2000, is the third generation cellular
system (3G) of the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership
Project) forum. For WCDMA, power control is defined in
[3] for the FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) system and
[4] for the TDD (Time Division Duplex) system. Power
control in WCDMA system is reviewed for both FDD and
TDD systems in [5], where details of power control are
given for the ordinary mode, the soft handover and the
compressed mode.
In this paper, we start by reviewing power control in
WCDMA system then we propose a PC algorithm for
WCDMA. The ASPC (Adaptive-Step Power Control)
Algorithm uses the bits allocated to PC in WCDMA. This
algorithm may introduce some performance amelioration,
expressed by a capacity increase.
The proposed algorithm is simulated and compared to
the two algorithms of the 3GPP specification [3], already
mentioned. The parameters of our algorithm are discussed.
Although the implementation question is not directly
addressed in our paper, the results and the comparisons
obtained may be used for performance evaluation. A
discussion of the results and conclusions are given in the
last section
II. POWER CONTROL IN WCDMA SYSTEM
The WCDMA air interface is organized in frames of
10 ms duration. A frame contains 15 time slots and each
slot includes one PC command (up or down), which gives
a PC update rate of 1500 b/s. The transmitted power has a
fixed value during a given time slot.
Power control in WCDMA is a closed-loop PC which
is a combination of outer and inner closed loop control
(see Figure 1). The inner (also called fast) closed loop PC
adjusts the transmitted power in order to keep the received
Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) equal to a given target.
This SIR target is fixed according to the received BLER
(Block Error Rate) or BER (Bit Error Rate). The setting of
the SIR target is done by the outer loop PC, which is part
the Radio Resource Control Layer (Layer 3), in order to
match the required BLER ([3]). Outer loop PC update
frequency is 10-100 Hz ([1]). The BLER target is a
function of the service that is carried. Ensuring that the
lowest possible SIR target is used results in greater
network capacity.
The inner closed-loop PC measures the received
quality, defined as the received Signal-to-Interference
Ratio (SIR) and sends commands to the transmitter (i.e.,
the mobile in the case of uplink) for the transmitted power
update. In order to estimate the received SIR, the receiver
estimates the received power of the connection to be
power controlled and the received interference. The
obtained SIR estimate, noted SIRest, is then used by the
receiver to generate PC commands according to Algorithm
1 or 2 of the 3GPP specification [3].
In Algorithm 1 of [3], the transmitted power is updated
at each time slot (10/15 ms). It is increased or decreased
by a fixed value:
- if SIRest > SIRtarget then the TPC command to transmit is
"0", requesting a transmit power decrease;
- if SIRest < SIRtarget then the TPC command to transmit is
"1", requesting a transmit power increase.
Algorithm 2 of [3] is a slight variant of Algorithm 1
where the transmitted powers may be updated each five
time slots, which simulates smaller power update steps.
 SIRtarget
BERtarget
SIRtarget PC decision
estimation
Inner loop
Outer loop
Fig. 1. Power control in WCDMA system. In the receiver block, the received SIR and BER are estimated and used respectively for the
inner-loop and the outer-loop.
The power control step size is a parameter of the fast
(inner) closed-loop PC. In the case of the uplink, it is
equal to 1 or 2 dB in WCDMA system. Values smaller
than 1 dB can be emulated by taking larger PC update
periods (Algorithm 2). The power update step size may
be chosen according to the average mobile speed and
other operating environment parameters. For the
downlink, power update step sizes of the same
magnitude are proposed.
The authors of [6] suggest the coding of the power
control command on 2, 3 or 4 bits instead of one (which
leads to a power gain scheduling). The variation is made
according to the performance of the system, defined as
the total number of blocked calls. Power control steps
range from 0.25 to 1.5 dB. Results show that the
average SIR is higher.
The modification of the proposed controller, based
on a simple comparison between the estimated SIR and
the target SIR is studied in [7]. The new controller
decides the PC command based on history of the PC
commands and errors. Results show significant
ameliorations of the quality of the transmission.
The performance of the closed-loop power control of
FDD WCDMA system is evaluated in [8] for the two
algorithms proposed in [3]. The evaluation is done for
different values of the SIR estimation standard deviation
error. A SIR estimation scheme is proposed. With this
estimation, simulation results shows that Algorithm 1
outperforms Algorithm 2.
Radio
Receiver block
channel SIRest BERest
In [9], the PC algorithm of WCDMA and proposed
PC schemes are simulated and compared. Received
power level-based PC shows to have better performance
for some cases.
Specific power control of TDD systems is studied in
[10] and [11]. Power control of US 3G system
cdma2000 is reviewed and simulated in [12].
Three schemes of power control during soft
handover, for the downlink, are studied in [13]:
balanced power control ([3]), site selection diversity
power control ([3]) and an hybrid scheme combining the
two latters. The case where each of the three schemes
give better performance are outlined.
III. SYSTEM MODEL
Uplink of FDD WCDMA 3G system is considered.
In a FDD-CDMA system, a physical channel is defined
by its code and its frequency. The methods proposed in
this paper could be applied to downlink and TDD
systems after some slight adaptations. Power control is
only applied at Layer 1 (inner closed-loop PC). Circuit-
switched systems (e.g., voice service) are considered.
A rather simple simulation model is used. This
allows comparisons between the PC algorithms. A
maximal transmitted power limitation is considered. For
each mobile, the best-received base station is selected as
its corresponding one. Mobiles mobility,
communications starts and ends are also simulated. A
discrete event simulation is considered.
 At a given instant, M mobiles are transmitting
information sharing a common radio channel (CDMA).
Each mobile should communicate with one of the B
base stations. The index of the base to which mobile m
is assigned is am . A mobile is connected to the best-
received power level BS, which is not always the closest
one due to fadings. Mobile m transmitted power is pm
and the link gain from mobile m to base b is noted gbm ,
so matrix G = (gbm) is of size (B x M). Mobile m
received SIR on base b, noted γm,b , is then given by:
step by an adaptive step in the inner closed-loop one-bit
(of information) PC of 3G WCDMA systems. We call
this variant the Adaptive-Step Power Control (ASPC). It
is based on the following principle. If the transmitter
detects several simultaneous up commands, the step is
increased. This is also done for several simultaneous
down commands. The update step is decreased if an
alternative succession of up and down appears, showing
that the update step is probably too large. Using this
basic principle, the algorithm may have many forms.

g bm p m
γm,b = , (1)
M
∑ g bj p j + n b
j =1; j ≠ m TSn TSn+1 TSp

... ..........
where nb is the receiver noise, also called thermal noise,
at base b. The received SIR of mobile m on its assigned
BS is noted γm, so one can write: γ m = γ m, am . A mobile nq Time slots → nq PC commands
is in outage state when its SIR falls below ω0.
Paging or synchronization channels are not included : PC bit(s). One PC command
in the simulation. Performance of the algorithm is
evaluated with the outage probability, which is the
Fig. 2. Transmitted power update of inner closed-loop power
probability that the received SIR falls below the fixed
control (PC) in WCDMA: one PC command is transmitted per
threshold. Call dropping is not considered in our
time slot. This PC command is transmitted on one or more PC
simulations. More details about the simulation are given
bit (see TS 25.211). The time slot duration is 0.67 ms
in Section V.
(10ms / 15).

IV. ADAPTIVE-STEP POWER CONTROL FOR A 3G

Generally, the algorithm works as follows. The
CDMA NETWORK
Received quality-based power control outperforms
LQLWLDO YDOXH RI WKH SRZHU XSGDWH VWHS LV û0 , expressed in
dB. The APSC works in up or down commands as in the
received power level-based power control ([15]). The
case of WCDMA algorithms with the difference that the
two power control algorithms of WCDMA described in
power update step may change in some cases. These
Section II are based on received quality level. The
cases are given in the following:
transmitted power range may be up to more than 70 dB.
L WKH XSGDWH VWHS LV PXOWLSOLHG E\  ZKHQ n1
For the present version of power control algorithm of
successive up commands are received;
WCDMA, transmitted power update step is around 1
LL WKH XSGDWH VWHS LV PXOWLSOLHG E\  ZKHQ n0
dB. Frequent variations occur in the mobile network due
successive down commands are received;
to communications starts and ends, to mobiles
LLL WKLV YDOXH LV GLYLGHG E\  ZKHQ WKH SRZHU XSGDWH
movements and to propagation channel changes. Radio
command sequence is an alternate sequence of n01 up
channel modification may be due to multipath and to
and down commands (i.e., for a received sequence up-
obstacles movements. Thus, a fast power control is
down-up-down or down-up-down-up, if n01 is equal to
needed. The aim of the algorithm proposed in this paper
4).
is to converge faster than the present WCDMA power
7KXV WKH DOJRULWKP KDV VHYHQ SDUDPHWHUV û0  
control algorithms.
 n1, n0, and n01.
In WCDMA System, one PC command (up or
Using the above-described algorithm, we show some
down) is transmitted per time slot as shown in Figure 2.
results for the adaptive step power control algorithm. An
The value of the fixed step may be too small or too large
example of application of the adaptive step principle is
for the transmitted power adjustment needed. In the
considered.
following, we propose to replace the fixed power update
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
The numerical hypothesis of the simulated system
model for the mobile network are now given. The ASPC
Algorithm is evaluated in simulation and compared to
the power control Algorithms 1 and 2 of WCDMA (see
Section II). The simulated service is 8 kbps circuit-
switched service with voice activity 100%.
Class 3 mobile stations are considered. The
maximum transmitted power is 24 dBm and the
minimum transmitted power is -50 dBm as specified in
[16]. The receiver thermal noise for base station is -103
dBm. A receiver thermal noise is considered in order to
have absolute values for transmitted powers computed
by the PC algorithms (see Formula (1)).
The initial transmitted powers have random value
between the minimum value and 10% of the (real) value
of maximum transmitted power. In 3G proposed
In Figure 3, we see that Algorithms 1 and 2 of
WCDMA have practically the same plots for this
simulation environment. We see that the ASPC
converges faster than Algorithm 1 of WCDMA at the
price of some added instability. For the model and other
hypothesis considered, the average number of iterations
needed is divided by three approximately, with regard to
the algorithms of WCDMA system. It is here noted that
simulations show that smaller values of   DQG  OHDG
to more important instability of the ASPC algorithm.
Average outage percentage
80
70
60

systems, the outer-loop sets the SIR target. In this paper, 50

we consider a unique SIR target for all links, where we
40
assume that all communications have the same data rate.
The target SIR for all mobiles, on the uplink, is ω0 = –17 30

dB. A perfect estimation of the received SIR is assumed. 20

A CDMA system with 25 BS ( 5x5 ) is considered. 10

The base stations are placed on a rectangular grid. The
0
side of the average square cell is 200m. Mobiles are 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Iteration number
uniformly distributed. The link gain between mobile j
and base i is modeled as gij = cs / d4ij where coefficient
Fig. 3 : Convergence speed of PC algorithms. The average
cs corresponds to obstacles (shadow fading) and dij is the
outage percentage is plotted for the ASPC (solid) and for
mobile-to-base distance. Coefficient cs is a zero-mean
Algorithms 1 (x) and 2 (+) of WCDMA as a function of the
log-normal random variable whose standard deviation is
number of iteration steps. The ASPC converges faster at the
σ=6dB. In our simulations, we consider the following
$63& DOJRULWKP SDUDPHWHUV û0  G% 
price of some added instability.
  10;
n1= n0 = n01 = 2 for the simulations of Figures 3 and 5.
Average values are evaluated by Monte Carlo
In Figure 4, the parameters of the ASPC algorithm
simulations for 500 independent configurations (mobiles
distributions).
DUH û0  G%     n1= n0 = n01 = 3. The
convergence is not faster while the instability is higher.
Admission control is not addressed in this work, i.e.,
7KH UHVXOWV DUH QRW EHWWHU ZLWK VPDOOHU YDOXHV RI    DQG
an ‘admit-all’ policy is considered, the outage
  ,W LV WKHQ GHFLGHG DW WKLV OHYHO WR WDNH RQO\ WKH YDOXH
probability being the performance evaluation criterion.
2 for n1, n0 and n01 .
The association of the proposed algorithm with an
We then analyze the behaviour of the ASPC when
admission control policy is an interesting topic of
the terminals are moving in an event-driven simulation.
research.
Call arrivals to the network are modeled as a Poisson
We first consider a simulation with fixed-position
process and the call duration is taken to be an
mobiles. The number of mobiles in the simulated zone is
exponentially distributed random variable with mean
450 (18 mobiles per cell in average). The update step of
WCDMA PC algorithms is û0 = 1 dB. The average
value 120s. The mobiles speeds have a uniform
distribution between zero and 120 km/h, i.e., the average
outage percentage is the percentage of mobiles whose
mobile speed is 60 km/h. The outage probability is
SIR is smaller than the SIR target. It is plotted as a
plotted as a function of the average number of mobiles
function of the iteration step in Figures 3 and 4, in order
per cell in Figure 5.
to discuss the convergence speed of PC algorithms.
 Average outage percentage VI. CONCLUSIONS
80

70
Power control in 3G WCDMA System is studied in
60 this paper. We propose an evolution of the power
50
control algorithm of the third-generation WCDMA
system. The proposed algorithm is based on an adaptive
40
modification of the transmitted power update step size.
30 We notice that the Adaptive-Step Power Control
20 Algorithm, which could be easily implemented, is an
interesting variant of the one-bit command PC of
10
WCDMA System. We show some results of the ASPC
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Algorithm for a given numerical parameters set of the
Iteration number
algorithm. The quicker convergence of the proposed
ASPC (with regard to the present version of power
Fig. 4 : Convergence speed for a different parameters set for
control in WCDMA) may give a capacity increase.
the ASPC (    n1=n0=n01=3). The outage
The important parameters of ASPC Algorithm are
probability of ASPC (solid) and Alg 1 (x) of WCDMA are
the step modification formula and the sequences that
compared.
trigger step modification. The general form of the
algorithm allows further studies according to specific
mobile network environments. A convenient or optimal
selection of the parameters according to the mobile
Outage Probability
0.7 network environment (mobiles speeds characteristics,
other statistics) is left for future research. A more
0.6
general efficient coding of the PC command bits is
0.5 another interesting topic of research.
0.4

0.3
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0.2
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