1.

Explain Ec/Io and RSCP; on what channel are they

measured on?
Ec/Io = energy of carrier over all noise. RSCP = Receive Signal Code Power.
In FDD mode (what we normally deal with) they are measured on the CPICH
(pilot). Bonus if they know that Io is the sum of all interference:
thermal/background noise + interferers + own cell and is wideband. Bonus if
they understand that RSCP is actually measured AFTER de-spreading (i.e.
narrowband)


2. What does channelization codes do and function?
Channelization codes are used for spreading and de-spreading of the signals,
they also create the "channels" making it possible to distinguish between
users/connections/channels. Bonus if they know that they have an
associated Spreading Factor and are allocated depending on the bandwidth
required by the service.


3. What does the scrambling code do and function?
Scrambling Code makes it possible for the UE to distinguish the
transmissions from different cells/NodeBs. Bonus if he knows there are 512
primary scrambling codes and that are broken up to 64 groups of 8 codes
each.


4. Explain the concept of Cell Breathing. How is the
accounted for in the link Budget?
Io or No (the interference part of Ec/Io and Eb/No) increase as the traffic on
the network increases since everyone is using the same frequency.
Therefore as Io or No increases the UE or BTS needs to use more power to
maintain the same Eb/No or Ec/Io. When the power required is more than
the maximum power allowed, the connection cannot be made. Users at the
cell edge are usually the first to lose service; hence the service area of a cell
shrinks. As traffic decreases, the reverse happens and the service area
increases. They should say that it is accounted for in the Noise Rise Margin
found in the Link Budget.


5. Explain the different Handover types in UMTS
Soft(er) Handover: connected to more than one cell on the same
frequency, softer occurs when 2 cells in the active set belong to same Node-
B; Intra-frequency Hard Handover: Occurs when Ue moves from one cell
in one RNC to a cell in another RNC and the RNCs do not have an Iur link
between each other; Inter-Frequency Hard Handover: when UE changes
from one frequency to another frequency (usually due to traffic layer
management or Quality reasons);Inter-technology (iRAT) Hard
Handover: Handover from UMTS to GSM (v.v.) usually at the edge of UMTS
service area but also due to quality reasons.



6. What is an active set, monitor set and detected set?
Active Set: the set of cells with which the UE is currently
connected/communicating with; Drive test usually show them as SC or Pilots
but they are actually cells; Monitored Set: Cells that the UE has detected
and is monitoring and are known to the network, they either don't meet the
criteria or the active set is full; Detected Set - Cells that the UE has
detected but are not known to the network as yet (missing neighbor likely).


7. What is the major difference in link budgets between
UMTS and GSM/TDMA?
In UMTS you generally have a link budget for each service (voice, data,
video etc), in GSM you usually only use 1 for voice. Each service has a
different Eb/No target. In UMTS you have to consider the target traffic load
you will have and add a noise-rise margin, in GSM you may have a slight
interference margin but not normally related to traffic. In UMTS some
services (like voice) will show up as uplink limited but other services (like
HSDPA, 384kbps service) will show as downlink limited. In UMTS you usually
have to consider that all users use the same power from the BTS therefore
the more number of users the lower the maximum power available per user
(maximum power per connection) which is a starting point in the link
budget.



8. In the Link Budget, what is a Shadow Fade Margin for and
what factors does it depend on?
The shadow fade margin is dependent on the target percentage area
coverage, the propagation model, and the standard deviation of the
lognormal shadowing (usually the same as the model's standard deviation if
the fast fading effects are removed). The Shadow Fade Margin is a added
margin placed in the link budget such that a guaranteed level of service can
be offered "in the worst case".


9. What is the typical maximum active set size and what
needs to be considered when setting this?
3 to 4 cells, the larger the active set size the more likely it is that Iub link
efficiency is reduced (more than one resource for a single connection due to
SHO)


10. What are typically the requirements (criteria) for
a cell to be added/removed/replaced to/from/in the
active set?
For addition (Event 1a), candidate cell needs to have an Ec/Io value that is
within a T_ADD threshold of the primary/reference (usually the best) cell for
a specify time hysteresis. For removal (event 1b), cell needs to have Ec/Io
lower than T_DROP margin for a specific time hysteresis. For replacement
(event 1c), cell needs to have an Ec/Io better than the worst cell in the
active set by the T_REPLACE and for a specific time hysteresis.


11. What would you define as a pilot polluter?
Many definitions: A cell that has high signal strength at a location but is not
part of the active set. A cell that, meets the criteria for addition into the
Active Set but cannot enter because the active set is full.


12. How would you find such cells from a planning
tool and from a drive test tool?
Ignoring low signal conditions, if the best cell RSCP is greater than say -
85dBm and there are cells not in the active set but are strong enough to be
in the active set then they are candidate for pilot polluters. Looking at cells
that have a high noise rise, high amount of traffic compared to surrounding
cells, may also indicate a pilot polluter, Any location where, high Signal
strength for the (Active Set Size + 1) best pilot (like the 4th best pilot if AS
size is 3). In DTT, areas with poor Ec/Io but good RSCP, in the monitored set
contain a cell with a good Ec/Io but cannot enter the AS because it is full,
Areas where scanner shows a strong signal for a far away cell.


13. What would the call flow be for a Mobile
Originated Call (major RRC messages)?
RRC Connect Request -> RRC Connection Setup -> RRC Setup Complete ->
(SETUP, authentication encryption, TMSI reallocation etc) -> CALL
PROCEEDING-> Radio Bearer Setup -> Radio Bearer Setup Complete ->
ALERT -> CONNECT -> CONNECT ACK ->DISCONNECT -> RELEASE.


14. What are the general triggers for an iRAT
handover?
Ec/Io of best cell below a certain threshold (usually around -16 to -18 dB) or
RSCP of best cell below a certain threshold (usually around -100 dBm).


15. What is compressed mode, what is its function,
and what impact does it have on the network?
Compressed mode is when the mobile goes into a slotted transmit mode
whereby it opens up an idle period (transmission gap) where it can monitor
another carrier or technology (GSM). The impact is that to maintain the
same bitrates, it halves the SF, and therefore increases power level causing
higher interference to the network, If, the SF cannot be halved then the bit
rate of the bearer decreases. If they seem knowledgably, ask them if they
know what messages and events trigger and configure compressed mode
on/off. 2D event for on, 2F for off. Messages would for configuration would
be RADIO BEARER RECONFIGURATION, TRANSPORT CHANNEL
RECONFIGFURATION or PHYSICAL CHANNEL RECONFIGURATION.


16. Name the 4 RRC Connected Modes (states) and
describe the characteristics of each.
Cell-DCH: UE has been allocated a dedicated physical channel in uplink and
downlink.
Cell-FACH: UE listens to RACH channel (DL) and is allocated a FACH
channel (UL). Small amounts of UL/DL data can be transfers in this state.
The RNC tracks the UE down to the cell level and cell reselections are
possible with the CELL UPDATE message.
Cell-PCH: UE monitors (using discontinuous reception) a PCH channel (PCH)
indicated by the PICH channel. The RNC tracks the UE down to the cell level
and cell reselections are possible with the CELL UPDATE message. No data
can be transferred in the UL in this state.
URA-PCH: UE monitors (using discontinuous reception) a PCH channel
(PCH) indicated by the PICH channel. The RNC tracks the UE down to the
URA level.


17. If a UE is on a data call (CELL-DCH state) and
there is in no activity for awhile what would you expect to
see occur?
UE should go from CELL-DCH to CELL-FACH then if still no activity to either
CELL-PCH or URA-PCH (via CELL-FACH). If they talk about inactivity timers
and mention that the state goes from CELL-DCH straight to CELL-PCH or
URA-PCH that is also possible. Bonus they say they would see RADIO
BEARER RECONFIGURATION messages when the states are changing.


18. In Release '99, how does the network manage the
throughput on the Radio Interface for a user/connection?
This question is a little harder to ask, so you may need to work it differently
a few times. Perhaps leading questions could be: What
parameter/configuration does the network change on the air interface What
you are trying to hear from the candidate is that the network assigns a radio
bearer with a channelization code with a spreading factor that matches the
requested service maximum bit rate.



19. What is the typical/most common bit rate that a
voice call uses?
They should say 12.2kbps but may be different if they start talking about
AMR and the different rates then the know more. Prod them to see if they
know the Spreading Factor (SF) used for the radio bearer, should be 128.


20. Depending on the RF conditions, what can the
network do to manage call quality?
AMR - for good conditions use codec will low redundancy/overhead; for poor
conditions use codec with lower bit rate requirement but higher overhead,
stronger coding and more redundancy.


21. In HSDPA, how does the network manage the
throughput on the Radio Interface for a user/ connection?
Modulation (16QAM, QPSK etc), Coding (convolution coding, fire codes etc),
number of codes allocated and scheduling (it's a shared resource)


22. Explain Inner and Outer loop power control and
who controls them.
If they start talking about Open and Closed Loop PC, tell them you want
Inner/Outer Closed Loop PC. Inner loop power control is performed by the
NodeB to set the transmit power of the UE and BTS to compensate for signal
variations due to fading or path loss to maintain the set SIR (occurs up to
1500 times per sec). Outer loop power control is performed by the RNC to
set the target SIR based on the required BER/BLER for the requested
services (occurs up to 100 times per sec).


23. In what cases is Open Loop Power Control used?
1) Idle to Cell-DCH state, when a connection is setup. When UE goes into soft
handover, ACTIVE SET UPDATE where the new Radio Link initial power
settings use open loop PC.


24. Explain the concept of a Monte Carlo Simulation
for UMTS Design
This is a simulator that randomly distributes terminals/users geographically
onto the network and then checks the link budget for each
terminal/connection to see if they can successfully connect or not. The
simulator modifies parameters such has UE Tx Power, BTS Tx Power,
requested bearer (in the case that multiple bearers could support the same
service) when checking if a connection can be made. In every snapshot the
simulator runs through the list of terminals/connections and attempts to
make them all connect successfully, it starts a new snapshot when the
number of successful connections converges. The process then starts on a
new snapshot.


25. In pre-launch optimization, how are missing
neighbors usually detected?
Usually you use a scanner and compare the best pilots in Ec/Io from the
scanner against that of the active set and monitored set from an active UE.
If there is a stronger pilot from a nearby cell that appears on the scanner
but not on the UE, there is a possible missing neighbor. One would then
verify that the neighbor appears in defined neighbor list from the OSS.


26. What is the CQI in HSDPA?
CQI is the channel Quality Indicator, Which is calculated on the Basis of RF
informant, and the code allocation is done on the basis of CQI.


27. What is the HARQ?
This is the Hybrid Automatic repeat request Technique for the retransmission
of the lost frame which is used by the HSDPA. That helps to recover the lost
frame by two partially lost frames.


28. What is MIMO Antenna System?
This is the multiple inputs multiple output antenna technique system which
improves the n/w throughput over the air interface.


29. What are the different RABs in R99?
cs-12.2 for speech,cs-64 for video calls ,ps-16 ps-64 ps 128 ps-384 for data
services.


30. What is TTI in WCDMA how it impact?
It is the transmission time interval for sending one frame for WCDMA it is
10ms.


31. How many PSC in WCDMA?
0-511, Total 512


32. What is the Processing Gain?
Ratio of chip rate to bit rate, lower bit rate services will offer higher
processing gain



33. What is the Power Control?
Power control is the mechanism of maintaining minimal power level with
acceptable QOS for each service


34. What should be the idle CPICH power?
10% of the Total Power


35. What is rake receiver?
A rake receiver is a radio receiver designed to counter the effects of
multipath fading. It does this by using several "sub-receivers" called fingers,
that is, several correlators each assigned to a different multipath
component. Each finger independently decodes a single multipath
component; at a later stage the contribution of all fingers are combined in
order to make the most use of the different transmission characteristics of
each transmission path.


36. What kinds of services are available with
WCDMA?
Conversational, Background, Streaming, Interactive.


37. Which modulation schemes are used in WCDMA?
QPSK. HPSK, BPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM


38. What is interleaving?
Interleaving is the technique used to distribute the data so as to make the
error correction accurate at the receiver end.


39. What is threshold for adding and deleting a cell
from Active Set?
For addition 3 dB and for deletion 6dB


40. What are the types of location & routing is
registration update?
1. IMSI attach / detach. 2. Normal LA & RA updating. 3. Periodic LA & RA
updating


41. Which timer is involved for periodic LA & RA
update?
Timer t3212 is involved and is contained in SIB1.


42. What is the Difference between Ec/No and Ec/Io?
Ec/No- Interference caused by combination of the Non-orthogonality of
Codes, thermal noise & all other noises present in the Channel. Ec/Io-
Interference caused by only due to non-orthogonality of codes in the
channel.


43. What are the no. of scrambling codes used in UL
and DL?
Scrambling codes in uplink- 2^24-1. Scrambling codes in Downlink- 2^18-
1= 8192.


44. What are the types of compressed mode
techniques used in 3G?
Three Types- 1. Puncturing. 2. SF/2. 3.Higher Layer Scheduling.



45. What are MM Procedures?
MM common procedures: 1. TMSI reallocation procedure. 2. authentication
procedure. 3. Identification procedure. 4. MM Information Procedure. 5.
Abort Procedure. 6. Normal Location Update. 7. Periodic Location update. 8.
Imsi attaches.



46. What is URA and URA_PCH state?
URA or UTRAN Registration Area is a collection of cells that are used for fast
moving UE's in connected mode when they are not transferring any data. In
this case the UE is in CELL_PCH state. Every time a fast moving UE in
CELL_PCH state changes the cell, a CELL UPDATE needs to be performed to
let the UTRAN know of the new position of the UE. This is done because in
the connected mode (CELL_PCH), UE is known at cell level rather than
UTRAN level as in IDLE state. If too many CELL UPDATES are performed, it
defeats the purpose of UE being in CELL_PCH. Hence in this case the UE is
put in URA_PCH state. Now the UE will perform CELL UPDATE only when the
URA is changed for a UE. The drawback is that when UE needs to be paged
the paging area is now extended to many cells belonging to the URA.
Also Note that the CELL_PCH state is actually a subset of the URA_PCH
state. It is possible to define overlapping URAs to be used in the URA_PCH
state. Thus, the UTRAN operator could define that each cell is a separate
URA in addition to other larger URAs. Then the operator could assign small
one-cell URAs for slow-moving mobiles, and larger URAs for mobiles with
greater mobility. The small URAs could nicely perform the task of the
CELL_PCH state. However, it has been decided to keep these states
separate.
The URAs can be overlapping or even hierarchical. The same cell may belong
to several different URAs, and the UEs in that cell may have been registered
to different URAs. SIB 2 contains a list of URA identities indicating which
URAs this cell belongs to. This arrangement is done to further reduce the
amount of location update signaling because now the UEs moving back and
forth in the boundary area of two URAs do not have to update their URA
location information if the boundary cells do belong to both URAs.


47. Which channel contains Layer 1 information?
DPCCH, Layer-1 contains information regarding Power control, Spreading-
De-spreading, Multiplexing-De-multiplexing, Scrambling.


48. Which Channel Contains Layer 3 Information?
DPDCH

49. What are the main KPI's?
Accessibility, Retainability, Intra Frequency HOSR, Intra Frequency HOSR,
IRAT HOSR



50. Which parameter decides the preference between
IFHO & IRAT HO
Handover type



51. UE goes to compress mode after which events?
Compress mode starts at events 2d (RSCP or EC/No base) & 6d (Tx power
base)



52. What are the idle mode tasks of UE?
1. PLMN selection & reselection,
2. Cell selection & reselection,
3. LA & RA registration,
4. Paging procedure,
5. Reading System information


53. Explain the cell selection criteria?
Squal = Qqualmeas - qQualMin > 0,
Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas - qRxLevMin - Pcompensation > 0,

where ,Pcompensation = max (maxTXpowerUL - P ;0 ), qQualMin -
Minimum required quality value and is sent in SIB3 for serving cell and
SIB 11 for adjacent cell, qRxLevMin - Minimum required signal strength
and is sent in SIB3 for serving cell and SIB 11 for adjacent
cell, maxTXpowerUL - Maximum transmission power during random access
on the RACH and is sent in SIB3, P - UE maximum output power according
to its class