Overview of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

Introduction
The first generation (1G) of wireless cellular systems was based on analog technology. These systems were originally designed to carry only voice traffic. The conversion of the voice signal from analog to digital for transmission over the air interface is the key difference between second generation systems (2G) and 1G systems. Thus, 2G systems have increased voice quality and capacity compared to the 1G systems. Most 2G systems provide voice service and 9.6-14.4 kbps circuit-switched data service.

Introduction
2.5G refers to technology that is added to a 2G network to provide packet-data service with data rates up to 64 kbps. 3G (Third Generation) is a generic name for a set of mobile technologies, which are designed for multimedia communication.

Introduction
By International Telecommunications Union (ITU) definition, 3G systems must provide:
a.Backward compatibility with 2G systems b.Multimedia support c.Improved system capacity compared to 2G and 2.5G cellular systems. d.High-speed packet data services ranging from 144 Kbps in wide-area mobile environments to 2Mbps in fixed or in-building environments

Standardization
At first the standardization of 3G systems was conducted in several regions.
ETSI: European Telecommunications Standards Institute Standardization Committee T1 Telecommunications (US) ARIB: Association of Radio Industries and Business (Japan) TTC: Telecommunications Technology Committee (Japan) TIA: Telecommunications Industry Association (N. America) TTA: Telecommunications Technology Association (Korea) CWTS: China Wireless Telecommunications Standard group

Standardization
ITU: International Telecommunication Union
International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT2000) is the global standard for third generation (3G) wireless communications, defined by a set of interdependent ITU Recommendations. IMT-2000 provides a framework for worldwide wireless access. Out of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) "IMT-2000" initiative the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the 3GPP2 were born.

Standardization
3GPP is a collaboration agreement that was established in December 1998. The collaboration agreement brings together a number of telecommunications standards bodies, which are known as Organizational Partners. The current Organizational Partners are ARIB (Japan) and TTC (Japan), CCSA (China), ETSI (Europe), T1 (USA) and TTA (Korea). http://www.3gpp.org/ 3GPP2 is a collaborative effort between five officially recognized standards bodies (ARIB, CCSA, TIA, TTA, and TTC) http://www.3gpp2.org/

Standardization
The proposal of ETSI which is submitted to 3GPP is called UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). The terrestrial version of UMTS is called UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access). The proposal of 3GPP is also called UTRA, which in this case stands for Universal Terrestrial Radio Access. UTRA has two modes: a) FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) b) TDD (Time Division Duplex)

UMTS Architecture
A UMTS network consist of three interacting domains; Core Network (CN), UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) and User Equipment (UE). The main function of the core network is to provide switching for user traffic. Core network also contains the databases and network management functions. The basic Core Network architecture for UMTS is based on GSM network with GPRS. All equipment has to be modified for UMTS operation and services. The UTRAN provides the air interface access method for User Equipment. Base Station is referred as Node-B and control equipment for Node-B's is called Radio Network Controller (RNC).

UMTS Architecture

Spectrum allocation
The spectrum allocation in Europe, Japan and Korea for the FDD mode is 1920-1980 MHz for the Uplink and 2110-2170 MHz for the Downlink. The UTRA TDD mode utilizes two frequency bands in Europe, the 1900-1920 MHz and the 2010-2025 MHz band. In both modes each carrier has a bandwidth of approximately 5MHz. In the FDD mode, separate 5MHz carrier frequencies are used for the uplink and downlink respectively. On the other hand in TDD only one 5MHz is shared between uplink and downlink Each operator, subject to his license, can deploy multiple 5MHz carriers in order to increase capacity.

Main parameters of WCDMA

WCDMA is a wideband Direct-Sequence CDMA (DSCDMA) system. Each user (channel) is assigned a code sequence it uses to encode its information-bearing signal. In the transmitter the binary data are directly multiplied with the (Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor) code sequence, to produce the transmitted signal. The encoding process enlarges (spreads) the spectrum of the signal and is therefore also known as spread-spectrum modulation.

Code-tree for generation of OVSF codes

C ch,4,0 =(1,1,1,1) C ch,2,0 = (1,1) C ch,4,1 = (1,1,-1,-1) C ch,1,0 = (1) C ch,4,2 = (1,-1,1,-1) C ch,2,1 = (1,-1) C ch,4,3 = (1,-1,-1,1) SF = 1 SF = 2 SF = 4

OVSF codes
The signal transmitted from the Base Station to the mobile has a symbol rate RC/NS, where RC is the chip rate and NS = 512, 256, 128, 64, is the spreading factor. Since the chip rate is fixed, the service rate is determined by the spreading factor. If R = RC/512 is the lowest service rate, then each connection may have a service rate RS that is always a multiple of a power of two of the lowest available rate:

The higher the spreading factor the lower the transmission rate supported by a code. Leaf codes have the maximum spreading factor (SFmax) and therefore the minimum data rate, which is denoted by R.

Orthogonality
Two OVSF codes are orthogonal, if and only if, none is ancestor of the other. Therefore, once a code is assigned, all of its ancestors, as well as all of its descendants are blocked and cannot be used until the code is released.

Code Blocking condition

A difficulty in the assignment of OVSF codes is a condition called code blocking . Although the total remaining capacity is 8R, a connection of rate 8R will be blocked

Spreading

Despreading
During despreading we multiply the spread data with the same 8 code bits used for the spreading of the information-bearing signal.

Overview of Spreading Process

Processing gain and Interference

Processing gain and Interference

As can be seen, the amplitude of the own signal increases on average by a factor of 8 relative to that of the user of the other interfering system, i.e. the correlation detection has raised the desired user signal by the spreading factor, here 8, from the interference present in the CDMA system. This effect is termed 'processing gain' and is a fundamental aspect of all CDMA systems, and in general of all spread spectrum systems. Processing gain is what gives CDMA systems the robustness against self-interference that is necessary in order to reuse the available 5 MHz carrier frequencies over geographically close distances.

Processing gain and Interference

The ratio of transmitted bandwidth Bt to information bandwidth Bi is called the processing gain, Gp, of the spread-spectrum system.

Processing gain and Interference

WCDMA provides high spectral efficiency, since the high processing gain makes possible a frequency reuse factor of 1 between different cells of a wireless system. Multiple access interference from many system users is averaged out and this again will boost capacity. However both above benefits require the use of tight power control and soft handover to avoid one users signal blocking the others communications.

Decibel (dB)
The term dB or decibel is a relative unit of measurement used frequently in electronic communications to describe power gain or loss.

dBm is the generic form for a 1 milliwatt reference (P2)

Processing gain and Interference

Let's take an example with real WCDMA parameters. Speech service with a bit rate of 12.2 kbps has a processing gain of 25dB=10 x loglO(3.84e6/12.2e3). After despreading, the signal power needs to be typically a few decibels above the interference and noise power. The required power density over the interference power density after despreading is designated, as EblNo, where Eb is the energy per user bit and No is the interference and noise power density.

Processing gain and Interference

For speech service EblNo is typically in the order of 5.0 dB, and the required wide band signal-tointerference ratio is therefore 5.0 dB minus the processing gain = -20.0 dB. In other words, the signal power can be 20 dB under the interference or thermal noise power, and the WCDMA receiver can still detect the signal.

Scrambling
In the scrambling process the code sequence is multiplied with a pseudorandom scrambling code. The scrambling process is used in the: Uplink: to separate different mobiles Downlink: to separate different cells/sectors Scrambling does not affect the signal bandwidth.

Power Control
The power received from users close to the base station is much higher than that received from users further away. Since a user continuously transmits over the whole bandwidth, a user close to the base will constantly create a lot of interference for users far from the base station, making their reception impossible. This near-far effect can be solved by applying a power control algorithm so that all users are received by the base station with the same average power.

Power Control

Power Control
If a power control algorithm is not applied then the Signal received from mobile 1 is 100000 times stronger than the signal from mobile 2.

Power control
The power control algorithm used in WCDMA is fast closed-loop power control. The base station performs frequent estimates of the received Signal to Interference (SIR) ratio and compares it with the target SIR. If the measured SIR is higher than the target SIR, the base station will command the mobile station to lower the power; if it is too low it will command the mobile station to increase its power. The measure command react cycle is executed at a rate of 1500 times per second (1.5 KHz)

Power control
The same closed-loop is also used on downlink. On the downlink there is no near far problem due to one to many scenario. All the signals within one cell originate from the one base station to all mobiles. However, it is desirable to control the base stations transmission power in order to avoid the intercell interference.

Handovers
There are following categories of handover (also referred to as handoff): Hard Handover MS is connected to only one sector at time. Causes short delays. Hard handover means that all the old radio links in the UE are removed before the new radio links are established. UE is connected to only one sector at time. Causes short delays. Hard handover can be seamless or non-seamless. Seamless hard handover means that the handover is not perceptible to the user. In practice a handover that requires a change of the carrier frequency (inter-frequency handover) is always performed as hard handover.

Handovers
Soft Handover Soft handover means that the radio links are added and removed in a way that the UE always keeps at least one radio link to the UTRAN. Several radio links are active at the same time. Normally soft handover can be used when cells operated on the same frequency are changed.

Handovers
Softer handover Softer handover is a special case of soft handover where the radio links that are added and removed belong to the same Node B (i.e. UE is connected to two sectors of the same BS simultaneously).

Handovers
+ Decrease interference from one sector/BS to another => increase capacity Without soft/softer handover there would be near-far scenarios of a mobile station penetrating from one cell deeply into an adjacent cell without being power controled by the latter.The interference power would be very high because the same frequency is used in adjacent cells + Coverage gain due to diversity The signal to other BS can be temporarily very weak. Because of the soft/sofer handover branch the resulting signal can be relatively good Seamless handover No delays in the handover Requires additional resouces at the BS + additional signalling

Transport channels
In (UTRA FDD) WCDMA , there are three types of transport channels: Common channels are suited for the transmission of small data amounts such as signaling data or small IP packets. Therefore, common channels are mainly used during connection set up process. There are seven different common transport channel types defined in UTRA:

Transport channels
Broadcast channel (BCH) Is used to transmit information specific to the UTRA network or for a given cell (such as the available random access codes). Forward Access Channel (FACH) Random Access Channel (RACH) RACH is an uplink channel and FACH is a downlink channel. Usually are used during connection setup process. Paging Channel (PCH). Is used for the paging procedure (i.e. when the network wants to initiate communication with the terminal) Uplink Common Packet Channel (CPCH) is intended to carry packet-based user data in the uplink direction.

Transport channels
A special case of common channels are the Shared channels which allow a single OVSF channelization code to be shared among several users. They are made for the transmission of medium or large data amounts. There are two types of downlink shared channels: The Downlink Shared Channel (DSCH) and The High Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH). DSCH and HS-DSCH may change transmission rate every 10ms or 2ms respectively. Both DSCH and HS-DSCH channels are associated with a DCH.

Transport channels

Transport channels
Dedicated channels are reserved for a single user only and support transmmission rates from a few kbps up to 2Mbps. The DCH carries Data for the actual service as well as higher control information. The uplink DCH supports: soft handover, fast power control and fast data rate change on a frame-by-frame basis.

Transport channels
Each downlink DCH channel is assigned an OVSF code, which is normally fixed for the duration of the connection. Downlink DCH is used in the following cases: 1. For conversational Real Time (RT) services that have fairly constant bit rate but high delay sensitivity. 2. In association with a DSCH Channel. 3. In association with a HS-DSCH Channel. In the last two cases the DCH is used to carry signaling data to the terminal.

QoS classes
Third generation WCDMA systems will support, along with voice, a great number of new services and applications such as videotelephony, streaming multimedia, web browsing and e-mail. These applications and services can be divided in four different QoS classes : Conversational, Streaming, Interactive, and Background. The main distinguishing factor between these QoS classes is how delay sensitive the traffic is: Conversational class is meant for traffic which is very delay sensitive, while background is the most delay insensitive class.

QoS classes
Traffic class Conversational class Real Time Preserve time relation (variation) between information entities of the stream Streaming class Real Time Interactive class Best Effort Background class Best Effort

Fundamental characteristic s

Preserve time relation (variation) between information entities of the stream Streaming video

Request response pattern

Destination is not expecting the data within a certain time

Example of the application

Voice

Web browsing

e-mails

Packet Data
In third generation WCDMA systems, data applications are expected to finally dominate the overall traffic volume. The traffic generated by data applications is inherently bursty and asymmetric by nature, with higher data rates in the downlink than in the uplink. In addition to that, the reverse transmissions of all users in one cell share the same set of OVSF channelization codes. Therefore, optimal resource utilization is essential in the downlink.

Packet Data
In (UTRA FDD) WCDMA, there are three types of downlink transport channels that can be used to transmit bursty packet data: common, dedicated and shared transport channels. Among these, the dedicated and shared channels are suited for the transmission of medium to large data amounts, while the common channels are suited for the transmission of small data amounts; such as signaling data or small IP packets. Consequently, for the transmission of bursty packet data we have to select between the dedicated and the shared channels

Packet Data
The downlink dedicated channel (DCH) has a fixed spreading factor that does not vary on a frame-by-frame basis and is determined by the highest transmission rate of the source. The variable data rate transmission may be implemented with Discontinuous transmission (DTX) by gating the transmission on/off or by the use of flexible positions. If flexible positions are used, the transmission is continuous and the DTX is implemented by repeating the transmitted bits. Therefore the use of the DCH channel for the transmission of bursty data is not efficient, as it results in low OVSF code utilization and decreased system capacity.

Packet Data
On the other hand, shared channels are made for the transmission of bursty data as they allow a single OVSF channelization code to be shared among several users. However the use of the shared channels has some restrictions: The most important restrictions are:

The OVSF codes must be allocated from the same branch of the code tree. The root code of the DSCH subtree defines the spreading factor for maximum data rate transmission, while the rest codes are used when lower rates are needed. The DSCH does not support spreading factor 512 (the highest spreading factor of the OVSF code tree). HS-DSCH has a fixed spreading factor (16).

Packet Data
A comparison among the DCH, DSCH, HS-DSCH and FACH channels is shown in the next table:

TDD mode
The UTRA TDD mode uses a combined time division and code division multiple access scheme.

The major differences between the FDD and TDD modes are listed below: Utilization of the unpaired band. The TDD system can be implemented on an unpaired band while the FDD system always requires a pair of bands. Interference between uplink and downlink. Since uplink and downlink share the same frequency band, the signals in those two transmission directions can interfere with each other. In FDD this interference is completely avoided by the duplex separation of 190 MHz. In UTRA TDD individual base stations are synchronised to each other at frame level to avoid this interference.

TDD mode
Discontinuous transmission. Switching between transmission directions requires time, and the switching transients must be controlled. To avoid corrupted transmission, the uplink and downlink transmissions require a common means of agreeing on transmission direction and allowed time to transmit. Corruption of transmission is avoided by allocating a guard period which allows uncorrupted propagation to counter the propagation delay. Discontinuous transmission may also cause audible interference to audio equipment that does not comply with electromagnetic susceptibility requirements.

TDD mode

TDD mode
Asymmetric uplink/downlink capacity allocation In TDD operation, uplink and downlink are divided in the time domain. It is possible to change the duplex switching point and move capacity from uplink to downlink, or vice versa, depending on the capacity requirement between uplink and downlink.