4 New Transport & Physical Channels

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4.1 Overview .......................................................................................3 4.2 The new HS-DSCH........................................................................4 4.3 The new HS-SCCH........................................................................5 4.4 The new HS-PDSCH .....................................................................6 4.5 The new HS-DPCCH .....................................................................7 4.6 Physical Layer Operation (1/5) ....................................................8 4.6 Physical Layer Operation (2/5) ....................................................9 4.6 Physical Layer Operation (3/5) .................................................. 10 4.6 Physical Layer Operation (4/5) .................................................. 11 4.6 Physical Layer Operation (5/5) .................................................. 12

HSDPA, Version 1.1e

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4.1 Overview

For user data and signaling information transport, HSDPA uses one new transport channel and three new physical channels as an enhancement of the physical layer specifications. The new transport channel is named High-Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH). The new physical channels are:

The High-Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channel (HS-PDSCH) that carries actual HSDPA data of HS-DSCH transport channel. The High-Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) that informs the UE how to receive HS-PDSCH in the same Transmission Time Interval. The High-Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH) for MAC-hs Ack/Nack information and general Channel Quality Information.

Let us have a closer look at each of the new channels.

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4.2 The new HS-DSCH

The transport channel carrying the user data with HSDPA operation is described as the Highspeed Downlink Shared Channel. We will identify its properties by comparing them with those of the Rel. 99 Downlink Shared Channel (DSCH). Both transport channels support Multi-Code operation as described earlier. HS-DSCH use Adaptive Modulation and Coding for a robust bit encoding and a Fast Layer 1 Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request for a reliable data packet transfer. In contrast, Rel 99 DSCH uses Fast Power Control and a variable Spreading Factor to cope with interference on the air interface.

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4.3 The new HS-SCCH

The high-speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) is the downlink signaling channel that carries key physical layer control information to enable decoding of the data on HS-DSCH and to perform the possible physical layer combining of the data in the case of retransmission of an erroneous packet. HS-SCCH information includes:

The channelization code set modulation scheme, transport block size, transmission time interval, H-ARQ process information and redundancy version.

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4.4 The new HS-PDSCH

The high-speed physical downlink shared channel (HS-PDSCH) is the physical channel that carries the user-specific packet data in the DL from the transport channel HS-DSCH. It has a fixed spreading factor of 16 and multi-code transmission using 1 to 15 codes with QPSK or 16QAM modulation. The peak data rate is 10Mbit/s if 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) is applied. It always starts 2 Timeslots or 5,120 chips after the transmission of the HS-SCCH. An associated Rel. 99 DPCH, Dedicated Physical Channel, is needed for each HSDPA User Equipment for signaling and uplink data.

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4.5 The new HS-DPCCH

The high-speed dedicated physical control channel (HS-DPCCH) is the uplink signaling channel that carries necessary control data. These are ARQ acknowledgements and downlink quality feedback information to be used in the basestation scheduler. It carries an ACK/NACK indication, to reflect the results of the cyclic redundancy checking after the packet decoding and combining. It also carries the downlink channel quality indicator (CQI) to indicate which estimated transport block size, modulation type and number of parallel codes could be received correctly with reasonable block error rate in the DL.

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4.6 Physical Layer Operation (1/5)

The HSDPA physical layer operation goes through the following steps. The scheduler in the Node B evaluates the channel conditions for different users, e.g. how much data is pending in the buffer for each user, how much time has elapsed since a certain user was last served, for which users retransmissions are pending and so on. Deciding the exact criteria that are taken into account in the scheduler is a vendor-specific implementation issue.

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4.6 Physical Layer Operation (2/5)

Once it is been determined that a terminal will be served in a particular Time Transmission Interval, the Node B identifies the necessary HS-DSCH parameters. E.g. how many codes are available or can be filled, can 16 QAM be used and what are the limits of the terminal capabilities? The terminal soft memory capability also defines which kind of HARQ can be used.

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4.6 Physical Layer Operation (3/5)

The Node B starts to transmit the HS-SCCH two slots before the corresponding HS-DSCH TTI to inform the terminal of the necessary parameters. The mobile decodes this data and stores it for further use. Now the terminal can determine to which HARQ process the data belongs and if it has to be combined with data already in the buffer.

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4.6 Physical Layer Operation (4/5)

Upon decoding the potentially combined data, the terminal sends an ACK/NACK indicator in the uplink direction using a High-Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel. This indicator is based on the outcome of the CRC check conducted with the received HS-DSCH data. lf the network continues to transmit data for this particular mobile in consecutive TTIs, the terminal will use the same HS-SCCH that was decoded during the previous TTI.

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4.6 Physical Layer Operation (5/5)

HSDPA terminal operation has to obey strict timing values between HS-SCCH reception, HS-DSCH decoding and uplink ACK/NACK messages in HS-PDCCH. The key timing value from the terminal point of view is a 7.5 time slot spacing from the end of the HS-DSCH TTI to the start of the HS-PDCCH in the uplink.

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