WCDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles
"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".
UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-1 August, 02

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles
The transmission medium is a resource that can be subdivided into individual

channels according to different criteria that depend on the technology used.
Here‟s how the three most popular radio technologies establish channels:
• FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access)
-Each user is on a different frequency
-A channel is a frequency.
• TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)
-Each user is on a different window in time (“time slot”)
-A channel is a specific time-slot on a specific frequency.
• W-CDMA (Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access)
-Each user uses the same frequency all the time, but it is mixed with different
distinguishing code patterns.
-A channel is a unique (set of) code pattern(s).

W-CDMA Principles
The possibility to operate in either FDD or TDD mode is allowed for efficient utilization
of the available spectrum according to the frequency allocation in different regions.
FDD and TDD are defined as follows:
• FDD
A duplex method whereby the uplink and downlink transmissions use 2 separate
frequency bands:
-Uplink: 1920 MHz - 1980 MHz
-Downlink: 2110 MHz - 2170 MHz
Each carrier is 5 MHz wide and the uplink channel is 190 MHz away from the
downlink. So there are up to 12 pairs of carriers.
• TDD
A duplex method whereby the uplink and downlink transmissions are carried over
same frequency using synchronized time intervals. The carrier still uses a 5 MHz
band.
FDD mode is the preferred mode for macro-cellular applications.
TDD mode is the preferred mode for the unpaired part of the spectrum. Because
each time-slot can be assigned a different direction, the TDD mode offers a great
flexibility to manage duplex and asymmetric traffic. The TDD spectrum will be used
for low mobility coverage in urban areas.

W-CDMA Principles
The information to transmit is a succession of bits, i.e. “0” or “1”. Bits, unlike electrical
signals have no physical existence. It is the purpose of data modulation (example
above: NRZ used in UMTS) to give a physical existence to the virtual bits.
When looking at the power spectrum of a succession 0 and 1 coded with NRZ
modulation, we can see that the spectrum is composed of lobes that cut the
frequency axis at multiples of the bit period T.
The main part of the power (90%) is located in the first lobe which has a maximum
value for f = 0 of a2T = Eb. Nevertheless, the remaining parts are consuming
spectrum as the theoretical spectrum is infinite.
So, the faster the modulation is (the smaller T is), the more the energy is spread over
the frequency domain.

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles
Spreading the spectrum consists in artificially increasing the modulation rate (chip
rate) in order to spread the energy of the information signal on a wide frequency band
without modifying the data rate.
The number of chips per bit is called the Spreading Factor (SF) and defines the data
service required for the user:
Tbit = SF ×Tchip
For UMTS:
Bit Rate x SF = 3.84 Mchip/s (Chip Rate)
The following table shows examples of data services and associated Spreading
Factors:
Service Bearer Data Rate (kb/s) SF Modulation rate (Mchip/s)

Speech 30 128 3,84
Packet 64 kbps 120 32 3,84
Packet 384 kbps 960 4 3,84

W-CDMA Principles
To be able to perform the de-spreading operation, the receiver must not only know
the sequence used to spread the data signal, but the spreading sequence of the
received signal and the locally-generated spreading sequence must be synchronized.
This synchronization must be accomplished at the beginning of reception and
maintained until the whole signal has been received.

W-CDMA Principles
All W-CDMA users occupy the same frequency at the same time. Frequency and time
are not used as discriminators. W-CDMA operates by using CODES to discriminate
between users.
The receiver will „hear‟ all the transmitter signals mixed together. But by using the
correct code sequence, it can decipher the required transmission channel and the
rest is background noise.
Spreading sequences are actually unique streams of 1 and -1 which compose the
code associated with a user. Therefore, users are discriminated thanks to spreading
codes.
Many code channels are individually “spread” with their associated “code” and
then added together to create a “composite signal”.
In the receiver, the composite signal is correlated with a replica of the code
used to spread the data to be recovered. Thus, low cross-correlation between
the desired users and the interfering users is important to suppress multiple
access interference.
Good auto-correlation properties are required for initial synchronization and to reliably
separate multi-path components.
Remark:
The correlation between two bit strings of the same length is defined as the “degree
of similarity” between them:
• When the correlation is determined between two copies of the same string,
it is called auto-correlation.
• When the correlation is determined between any two same length strings,
it is called cross-correlation.

W-CDMA Principles
User A after spreading

spreading sequence = +1 -1 +1 -1
= +a -a +a -a
User B after spreading
spreading sequence = +1 -1 -1 +1
= +b -b -b +b
The signals will be added together and received as:
(+a +b) (-a -b) (+a -b) (-a +b)
The receiver reapplies the sequence

spreading sequence = +1 -1 +1 -1
therefore +1x(+a +b) = +a +b

-1x (-a -b) = +a +b
+1x(+a -b) = +a -b
-1x(-a +b) = +a -b
therefore +a +a +a +a = 4a
+b +b -b -b = 0
100% of the results are „a‟ and 0% are „b‟, so we assume „a‟.
If we apply the spreading code for user B to the same received signal we will receive
a result in favor of „b‟.

W-CDMA Principles
Orthogonality means that there is no correlation between codes, so, Ck presence

does not affect Cj energy.
OVSF codes are completely orthogonal for zero delay. For other delays they have
very bad cross-correlation properties, and thus they are suitable only for synchronous
applications.
If the synchronization at To is not respected then there is no orthogonality anymore
==> Cj and Ck interfere.

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles
A mobile station or UE is surrounded by BSs (Base Station), all of which transmitting

on the same W-CDMA frequency.
It must be able to discriminate between the different cells of different base stations
and listen to only one set of code channels. Therefore two types of codes are used:
• Channelization
The user data are spread synchronously with different channelization codes. The
orthogonality properties of OVSF enable the UE to recover each of its bits
without being disturbed by other user channels.
• Scrambling
Scrambling is used for base station identification. It reduces the interference with
neighboring cells since the same channelization codes are used.
It is important to maintain good cross correlation characteristics between the
different scrambling codes in order not to decode an interferer.
Once allocated to the UEs, these codes, remain the same during the whole
communication. Otherwise, the base station must be notified of the change.
Similar to the reuse of frequency in GSM, scrambling codes are necessarily reused.

W-CDMA Principles
The W-CDMA system must be able to uniquely identify each UE that may attempt to
communicate with a BS.
The different uplink code channels are distinguished by different UE scrambling
codes. They may be scrambled by either long or short scrambling codes.
Orthogonality from channelization codes is lost because there is no longer
synchronous transmission.
Nevertheless UE scrambling codes reintroduce some kind of reduced orthogonality
thanks to their good cross-correlation properties.

W-CDMA Principles
The channelization codes are OVSF (Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor)

codes that preserves the orthogonality between a user‟s different physical channels.
The OVSF codes can be defined using a code tree.
In the code tree the channelization codes are uniquely described as Cch,SF,k, where
SF is the Spreading Factor of the code and k the code number, 0 k SF-1.
A channelization sequence codes one user bit. As the chip rate is constant, the
different lengths of code enable different user data rates to be coded.
The length of an OVSF code is an even number of chips and the number of codes is
equal to the number of chips.
The codes generated within the same layer constitute a set of orthogonal codes.
Furthermore, any two codes of different layers are orthogonal except when one of the
two codes is a father code of the other. For example C4,3 is not orthogonal with C1,0
and C2,1, but is orthogonal with C2,0.
Each sector in each base station is transmitting W-CDMA downlink traffic channels
with up to 512 code channels.
Exercise: Find code Cch,8,3 and code Cch,16,15
OVSF shortage
Scrambling enables neighboring cells to use the same channelization codes. This
allows the system to use a maximum of 512 OVSF in each cell. Notice that the use of
an OVSF forbid the use of the other codes of its branch. This considerably reduces
the number of available codes especially for fast rate service. This may lead to OVSF
shortage. For such a case, secondary scrambling codes are allocated to cells and
enable to re-use the same OVSF in the same cell.

W-CDMA Principles
The UTRA/FDD Transmission is a continuous transmission. The Spreading factor has

to be chosen so that the transmission is compliant with the UMTS Frame Format.
A slot is equal to 2560 chips. The number of bits per slot is variable and depends on
the Spreading Factor.
A Radio Frame is equal to 15 slots, or 38.400 chips, during 10 ms. It corresponds to a
processing time element.
The System Frame Number is a counter used for a time reference in one cell. SFN
value is given in the BCH (from 0 to 4095 frames).

W-CDMA Principles
In conventional radio technologies (AMPS, TDMA and GSM), the desired signal must
be strong enough to override any interference. The figure of quality is the C/I (signal
power divided by co-channel interference power).
Co-channel users are kept at a safe distance by careful frequency planning to keep
interference at low levels. Nearby users and cells must use different frequencies to
avoid interference.
In W-CDMA all users occupy the same frequency at the same time! W-CDMA
interference comes mainly from nearby users (UE and BTS).
Each user is a small voice in a roaring crowd, but with a uniquely recoverable code.
The figure of quality is the Eb/No (Energy per bit over the interference [noise]
spectral density).

W-CDMA Principles
At the receiver, as the codes are different and are known, only the power of the
intended user is de-spread.
After despreading (decoding), correct data recovery requires a given value for the Eb
to No ratio. Under this Eb/No ratio the noise will generate too many errors. The noise
is mainly generated by the other users transmitting at the same time and at the same
frequency but using different spreading codes.
Therefore, in order not to cross this maximal noise level, all the users have to share
their power: In W-CDMA the Time-Frequency plane is not divided among the mobile
subscribers as is done in TDMA or FDMA. So the common shared resource is power.
The de-spreading process gives processing gain proportional to the bandwidth of the
spreading signal. The larger the spreading factor, the larger the gain.
This means that by using a larger spreading factor, we can reduce the power (and
therefore the background noise). Thanks to this property, spread signals can operate
at negative signal-to-noise ratios provided that they possess enough gain.
Example:
The narrow-band signal requires an Eb/No of 12 dB to achieve a certain bit-error rate
performance. What is the required Ec/No, knowing that the processing gain is 20 dB?

W-CDMA Principles
For a given noise level, as the processing gain is smaller for a high rate user data,
the acceptable path loss is lower and therefore so is the range of the cell.

W-CDMA Principles
The radius of a cell varies with the SF (Spreading Factor) and, as we will see, the
noise level or, as a matter of fact, the number of active subscribers in the cell.
The figures are given for a traffic load of 50% of the maximum traffic acceptable in
the cell.

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles
In uplink, the cell load is a measure for interference. The point where the interference
goes to infinity, the uplink cell load is 100%.
The interference level depicted in the schematic represents the total interference
generated by the system (W-CDMA). It does not include the thermal noise but include
the intra-cell power as well as the extra-cell power received. In reality the system will
not operate beyond a certain limit of the cell loading since the system can become
unstable for a high cell load. This maximum value is usually between 65% and 75%. It
is therefore still reasonable to dimension for an uplink cell load of 50% in order to
maintain a certain capacity margin before reaching the maximum allowed cell load.

W-CDMA Principles
In uplink, the cell load is a measure for interference. The point where the interference
goes to infinity, the uplink cell load is 100%.
The interference level depicted in the schematic represents the total interference
generated by the system (W-CDMA). It does not include the thermal noise but include
the intra-cell power as well as the extra-cell power received. In reality the system will
not operate beyond a certain limit of the cell loading since the system can become
unstable for a high cell load. This maximum value is usually between 65% and 75%. It
is therefore still reasonable to dimension for an uplink cell load of 50% in order to
maintain a certain capacity margin before reaching the maximum allowed cell load.

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles
In a multi-path environment, the original transmitted signal is reflected by obstacles

such as buildings or mountains, and the receiver has to treat several copies of the
signal with different delays. Actually, from each multi-path point of view, other multi-
path signals are considered as interference and are partially suppressed after de-
spreading thanks to the processing gain. However, a further benefit is obtained if
several multi-path signals are combined together using a rake receiver.
The rake receiver has multiple fingers (4 to 8), each for a multi-path component. In
each finger, the received signal is de-spread by the code which is time aligned with
the delay of the multi-path signal. After despreading, the signals are combined using
either equal gain or maximum ratio combining. This technique provides a more stable
transmission channel.
Rake receivers are used in the uplink and the downlink. In addition to multi-path
combination the rake receiver is used by the UE to communicate with several cells
(macro-diversity). A trade-off has to be made between the multi-path gain and the
capacity loss due to the use of multiple channels.

W-CDMA Principles
During softer handover, a mobile station is in the overlapping cell coverage area of
two adjacent sectors of a base station.
The communication between mobile station and base station take place concurrently
via two air interface channels, one for each sector separately. This requires the use of
two separate scrambling codes in the downlink direction, so that the mobile station
can distinguish the signals. The two signals are received in the mobile station by
means of Rake processing, very similar to multipath reception, except that the fingers
need to generate the respective codes for each sector for the appropriate
descrambling and despreading operations.
In the uplink direction, a similar process takes place at the base station: the code
channel of the mobile station is received in each sector, then routed to the same
baseband Rake receiver.

W-CDMA Principles
During soft handover, a mobile station is in the overlapping cell coverage area of
two sectors belonging to different base stations.
As in softer handover, the communications between mobile station and base stations
take place concurrently via two air interface channels from each base station
separately. As in softer handover, both channels (signals) are received at the mobile
station by Rake combining. Seen from the mobile station, there are very few
differences between softer and soft handover.
In the uplink direction, soft handover differs significantly from softer handover: the
code channel of the mobile station is received from both base stations, but the
received data is routed to the RNC for selection. This is typically done so that the
same frame reliability indicator as provided for outer loop power control is used to
select the better frame between the two possible candidates within the RNC.

W-CDMA Principles
When soft handover is used, and when two cells belong to two node Bs, that each
belong to two different RNCs, these RNCs have a specific functionality described
below:
• SRNC (Serving RNC)
This a role an RNC can take with respect to a specific connection between a UE
and the UTRAN. There is one SRNC for each UE that has a connection to
UTRAN. The SRNC is in charge of the radio connection between the UE and
UTRAN. The SRNC terminates the Iu for this UE.
• DRNC (Drift RNC)
This a role an RNC can take with respect to a specific connection between a UE
and the UTRAN. An RNC that supports the SRNC with radio resources when the
connection between the UTRAN and the UE needs to use cell(s) controlled by
this RNC, is referred to as a drift RNC.

W-CDMA Principles
Although more than one frequency can exist in a UMTS network, handover is usually to the
same frequency.
There exists three types of Handover in the UMTS system, depending on the scenario:
• Soft handover
The UE can communicate with more than one cell at a time if more than one cell meets
the energy/noise requirements. This means that the UE can send the same information
(coded differently) to more than one BTS and receive the incoming information from
more than one BTS.
The UE will send and receive the same information to/from two BTSs. As this increases
the chances of interpreting the received signal, the UE can transmit with reduced power,
thus reducing the background noise it creates for other users.
If the UE continues to move, the first BTS signal will become unacceptable and so the
UE will drop the connection and continue communication on the second BTS only.
• Softer handover
If the UE is in communication with two BTSs, it will have two channels on the Iub
interface. However, if the two cells are controlled by the same BTS or the two BTSs
have the same RNC, the BTS can interpret the two incoming signals and only send one
to the RNC. If a UE hands over from one cell to another and both cells belong to the
same Node B, the channel on the Iub interface will not be changed.
• Hard handover
If the UE is obliged to hand over to a different frequency (on another system like GSM,
GPRS, or UMTS), this is known as a hard handover.

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles
In UMTS, 3 types of channel are used:

• Logical channels
Each logical channel type is defined by « what type of information » is
transferred.
• Transport channels
Each transport channel is described by « how » and with « what
characteristics » data is transmitted over the radio interface.
• Physical channels
These provide the real transmission resource, being in charge of the association
between bits and physical symbols (electrical signals). This corresponds, in UMTS,
to a frequency and a specific set of codes.
As a conclusion:
Physical Channel = information container
Transport Channel = characteristics of transmission
Logical Channel = specification of the information global content

W-CDMA Principles
As it was mentioned before, the radio interface (Uu) is layered into three protocol
layers:
• the physical layer (L1)
• the data link layer (L2)
• the network layer (L3).
The MAC (Medium Access Control) sublayer provides data transfer services on
logical channels. There is one set of logical channel types defined per service
offered by the MAC sublayer. Each type of logical channel is defined by the type of
information it transfers.
The mapping between the logical and transport channels is performed by the MAC
sublayer.
Basically, data blocks come from the RLC sublayer in the form of Packet Data Units
(PDU). These blocks originate from higher layers. Each block corresponds to a logical
channel depending on the content of the block. Then, the MAC sublayer might add a
header (transparent mode) to form a MAC PDU. These PDUs are then sent to the
physical layer.
So, the logical channels are defined in relation to the traffic or control data coming from
the RLC sublayer.

W-CDMA Principles
CEM: Handles the call processing

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles

W-CDMA Principles

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W-CDMA Principles

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-1 August, 02

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-2 August, 02

The transmission medium is a resource that can be subdivided into individual

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-3 August, 02

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-4 August, 02

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-5 August, 02

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-6 August, 02

Service Bearer Data Rate (kb/s) SF Modulation rate (Mchip/s)

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-7 August, 02

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-8 August, 02

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-9 August, 02

User A after spreading

The receiver reapplies the sequence

therefore +1x(+a +b) = +a +b

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-10 August, 02

Orthogonality means that there is no correlation between codes, so, Ck presence

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-11 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-12 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-13 August, 02

A mobile station or UE is surrounded by BSs (Base Station), all of which transmitting

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-14 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-15 August, 02

The channelization codes are OVSF (Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor)

"Confidential information -- may not be copied or disclosed without permission".

UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-16 August, 02

The UTRA/FDD Transmission is a continuous transmission. The Spreading factor has

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-17 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-18 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-19 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-20 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-21 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-22 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-23 August, 02

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UMT/TRD/CN/0003 02.02/EN 4-24 August, 02

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