Outline

• UMTS architecture and main features (FDD mode)

• Discussion of packet performance issues
• Present concepts for support of packet-switched services
• UMTS evolution
• Conclusions

Rev A 30-November-2001 1
On the Performance of UMTS Packet Data Services

Wolfgang Granzow
Ericsson Research Corporate Unit
Ericsson Eurolab Deutschland, Nürnberg
(wolfgang.granzow@eed.ericsson.se)

Rev A 30-November-2001 2
UMTS – enabler for the mobile Internet

• Mobile Internet: the unification of Cellular Networks and the

Internet, enabling use of Internet services when mobile
• Examples of packet data services
– Conventional internet services
• Web-browsing, electronic mail, file transfer, video/audio streaming,
e-commerce, ...
– Combination with location information and mobility
• Location based services, navigation

Rev A 30-November-2001 3
 UMTS network architecture
MSC Mobile Services Switching Center
GSN GPRS Support Node
RNC Radio Network controller MSC/GSN
Node B Base Node

RNC Radio network

RNC System (RNS)

Node B Node B

Node B
Node B Node B

Node B Node B

Rev A 30-November-2001 4
UMTS – Main Features

• New radio access technology using new spectrum

– spectrum allocation around 2 GHz
– two radio transmission modes
• Frequency Division Duplex (FDD): 2  60 MHz
• Time Division Duplex (TDD): 15 + 20 MHz
– Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)
– Chip rate 3.84 Mcps  Channel bandwidth 4.4 – 5 MHz
• Built on GSM Core Network technology
• Support of user data rates 0 – 2 Mbps
• Multi-call, multimedia capability

Rev A 30-November-2001 5
Radio interface architecture (simplified)
CTRL USER USER CTRL

RRC Signaling RRC

Radio Bearers

Radio Bearers

PDCP PDCP

RLC RLC RLC RLC

Logical Channels
Control channels
MAC Traffic channels MAC
Transport Channels
Common
Dedicated
PHY Shared PHY

Physical Channels

UE UTRAN

Rev A 30-November-2001 6
UMTS Protocol Architecture (user plane)
UTRAN Packet switched Core Network
UE IP
server
Applic. Application
GGSN TCP
TCP
Radio Access Bearers
IP IP IP IP
RNC SGSN

Radio Bearers
PDCP PDCP Iu UP Iu UP
GTP-U GTP-U
GTP-U GTP-U GPRS
RLC Logical channels RLC
IP backbone
MAC MAC UDP UDP UDP/ UDP/
Transport channels TCP IP routing
TCP
Node B PHY
PHY IP IP IP IP IP IP
FP FP
AAL2/ AAL2/ AAL5/ AAL5/
PHY ATM ATM ATM ATM
Physical channels

Uu Iub Iu Gn Gn/Gp Gi

Rev A 30-November-2001 7
Data flow for packet data (UE side)
40 bytes typ. 512 bytes (MSS = 1460 bytes)
TCP/IP
TCP/IP
header
payload (application data)
TCP/IP
header
…

2 or 3 PDCP PDCP PDU PDCP PDCP PDU

L2 PDCP bytes header header

RLC SDU RLC SDU

L2 RLC typ. 40
bytes
…
2–4
bytes
RLC
header
… RLC
header

L2 MAC 0 or 3 MAC MAC SDU

… MAC
MAC SDU
bytes header header

Transport block (MAC PDU) … Transport block (MAC PDU)

L1 2 bytes
CRC … CRC

Rev A 30-November-2001 8
Transmission Format UTRA FDD
1 radio frame (10 ms), 15*2560 chips (3.84 Mcps)

time
Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot i Slot 15

Uplink Downlink
Macrocell layers frequency
Microcell
layer

5 MHz 5 MHz 5 MHz 5 MHz

Duplex distance, e.g. 190 MHz

• bit level QPSK (downlink) or dual-channel BPSK (uplink)

• modulation rates 15 ... 960 Ksps for spreading factors 256 ... 4
Rev A 30-November-2001 9
Principal Mobile Station Transceiver Structure

Higer Physical Layer Processing

Power setting
layers
Encoding Up
Interleaving Spreading & conversion &
Rate matching Baseband D/A Power
Multiplexing Modulation Amplification

Power control commands

Code Time Freq.

generator Sync. Synthes. Duplexer

Decoding Despreading & Down

Deterleaving Baseband A/D conversion
Demux Demodulation
Transport Physical
channels channels

Rev A 30-November-2001 10
Coding, Interleaving, Rate Matching, Multiplexing

TFI1
TFI2 TFCI
.. TFCI
. Coding
TFIN
TrCh1 CRC Inter-frame
Coding
attachment interleaving
Rate
TrCh2 CRC Inter-frame
Coding Matching Multi- Intra-frame
attachment interleaving
.. .. .. .. (repetition
plexing interleaving
. . . . and
puncturing)
TrChN CRC Inter-frame
Coding
attachment interleaving

TF: Transport Format

TrCh: Transport Channel
TFCI: Transport Format Combination Indicator
Rev A 30-November-2001 11
 Principle of spectral spreading

Spreading code

Tsymbol Tchip

Baseband Sample-and Pulse

modulation -hold shaping
Data

Frequency Frequency

Rev A 30-November-2001 12
General design objectives for packet services

• High spectral efficiency, i.e. low Eb/N0 for desired error rate (low
overhead, efficient radio link adaptation, diversity, ...)
• Low delay (interaction between TCP and RLC)
• High throughput (system and users)
• Simplicity and effectiveness of radio resource management (including
QoS management)
• Efficient usage of channelization codes on the downlink
• Efficient usage of BTS transmitter power
• Efficient usage of hardware resources (especially in the Node B)
• Low terminal power consumption

Rev A 30-November-2001 13
Performance measures
• Link performance (BER/BLER vs. Eb/N0)
– Advanced coding (turbo)
– High degree of diversity (multipath, Rx antenna)
– Optional enhancements: interference cancellation, adaptive antennas, Space-
Time Transmit Diversity (STTD) 10
0

target BLERreq = 10 % 10-1

-2
10
Example:
BLER
performance of a 144 kbps DCH -3
10

in vehicular environment (120 km/h)

with turbo coding -4
10

-5
10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
(Eb/N0)req Eb/N0
Rev A 30-November-2001 14
Packet data throughput definitions
slope: average throughput
data volume wrt. single packet („packet bit rate“)
(e.g. # bytes)

slope:
average link
throughput Rlinktrp
e.g.
retransmissions time

data arrival inititial Variable-rate tx

in tx buffer setup on the radio link, slope: Rlink
delay

„total amount of served data“ (average packet bit rate

average user throughput =
„time to deliver data“ for one user)

average link throughput Rlinktrp = Rlink / Ntransm = Rlink (1 – BLER)

number of transmissions/block: Ntransm = 1/(1 – BLER)
Rev A 30-November-2001 15
Performance measures
• System throughput (capacity):
– Average throughput of all users in the system
– Maximum system throughput is reached when the packet delay can grow
unbounded
– Capacity definitions:
• average number of users, or
• system throughput
when user quality drops to an unacceptable level („outage“)
– Outage can be defined in terms of a delay and/or throughput threshold
that should be met with a certain probability
– Capacity defined as system throughput is less sensitive to the traffic load
generated per user

Rev A 30-November-2001 16
UTRA transport channels categories
• Common channels
– Multiplexed users (user ID in the MAC header)
• Forward Access Channel (FACH)
• Random Access Channel (RACH)
• Common Packet Channel (CPCH)
• Dedicated channels (DCH)
– Assigned to a single user (identified by the spreading code)
• Shared channels
– „Sharing“ of code resource by several users by fast re-assignment scheduling
• Downlink Shared Channel (DSCH)

Rev A 30-November-2001 17
Dedicated Channel (FDD downlink)
10 ms

1-rate

1/2-rate
fixed
0-rate spreading
factor

Variable
rate
R=1 R=0 R = 1/2 R=1

: user data (Dedicated Physical Data Channel, DPDCH)

: physical control info (Dedicated Physical Control Channel, DPCCH)
(Pilot+TPC+TFCI)

DL DCH Features: • Fast closed-loop power control

• Macro diversitity
• potential blocking due to insufficient spreading codes

Rev A 30-November-2001 18
Dedicated Channel (FDD uplink)
10 ms

1-rate

1/2-rate variable
spreading
1/4-rate factor on
0-rate DPDCH

Variable
rate
R=1 R = 1/2 R=0 R=0 R = 1/2
: DPDCH (Data)
: DPCCH (Pilot+TFCI+FBI+TPC), fixed spreading factor 256

UL DCH Features: • Fast closed-loop power control

• Macro diversitity
Rev A 30-November-2001 19
DCH characteristics

• Lowest delay among all transport channels

• Large overhead in Eb/N0 at low data duty cycle due to physical control :
12

11

10
Example: 9

[dB]
UL RDPCCH = 15 kbps,

overhead (dB)
8

overhead
independent of RDPDCH (w = 1) 7

DPCCH
5
( Eb / N 0 ) total R DPCCH
  1  w  DPCCH 4

( Eb / N 0 ) DPDCH Rs data
3

( E / N 0 ) DPCCH 1

w s 0
( E s / N 0 ) DPDCH 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
mean modulation rate
140 160 180 200

mean modulator data rate [kbits]

Rev A 30-November-2001 20
Impact of overhead on capacity

400

Example: 350

M G
K max  300
F  ( E s / N 0 ) req  α  w  R DPCCH / R data 
250 no overhead

max
Capacity, max
(Es/N0)req = 3 dB

KK
200 min overhead
M = 0.6 (load margin)

capacity,
F = 1.5 (ratio of inter-cell to intra-cell interference) 150
RDPCCH = 15 kbps
full overhead
Rdata = RDPDCH(UL) =120 kbps 100

50

0
-2 -1 0
10 10 10
activity factor, 
activity factor, 

Rev A 30-November-2001 21
 Random Access Channel (FDD uplink)

Message
38400 chips (10 ms) or 20 ms
Preamble
4096 chips Physical
“Access slot” Random Access
DPDCH Channel (PRACH)
5120 chips
-Uplink -
DPCCH
Timing
offset
Acquisition Indicator
Channel (AICH)
- Downlink -

Acquisition Indicator
(AI)
4096 chips
Rev A 30-November-2001 22
RACH characteristics

• Slotted-ALOHA type of contention-based channel

• No power control during message transmission
– reasonable initial message power derived via preamble ramping
• Access delay due to ramping 5 – 50 ms (mean  15 ms)
• Increased delay in case of message collisions

Rev A 30-November-2001 23
 RACH throughput performance
• Example (derived with a specific choice of parameter settings, throughput S and
offered load G normalized to 1 message per access slot):
6
S=G S = G e G/16 (K = 16 signatures),
5
no interference
Throughput
4
S simulation for 10 ms messages, SF = 128, K = 16
3

2
no load control
1
S = G e G (K = 1)
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Offered Traffic G

max normalized throughput S = 3.3 corresponds to 2475 messages/s

(80 user data bits/message, 198 kbps)

Rev A 30-November-2001 24
Forward Access Channel (FDD downlink)
• Several FACHs with different transport format can be multiplexed on the physical layer
• Mapped to Secondary Common Control Physical Channel (S-CCPCH)
• No fast power control, no macro diversity (transmitted at broadcast power level, i.e. on
average rather high energy per data bit Eb spent)
• Scheduling delay

S-CCPCH data of desired users data of other users

TTI 3
TTI 2
physical control TTI 1 TTI 1

Rev A 30-November-2001 25
Downlink Shared Channel (DSCH)
• Format indicator (TFCI) on associated DPCH includes assignment of PDSCH
spreading code
• Jointly power controlled with the associated DCH

10 ms

Data for Data for the

PDSCH 2 other users considered user

Data for the

PDSCH 1 considered user

DL-DPCH

10 ms
DPCCHs DPCCHs
UL-DPCH

Rev A 30-November-2001 26
DSCH characteristics
• No macrodiversity
– mostly suitable in the inner cell area
– then approximately same spectral efficiency as a DCH with the same rate
• Avoids capacity limitation due to non-availability of codes
• Scheduling delay
– Aimed to be compensated by higher link data rate
SF = 256
SF = 128
SF = 64
SF = 32
SF = 16

SF = 8

SF = 4

SF = 2 OVSF codes allocated

SF = 1
to PDSCHs (example)

Rev A 30-November-2001 27
 UE modes and RRC States („activity levels“)

UTRAN Connected Mode

– UE listens to PCH in DRX mode – UE listens to PCH in DRX mode

–
URA_PCH CELL_PCH – location known on cell level
location known on URA level

– DPCH allocated
– UE continuously monitors FACH on downlink
– location known on cell level CELL_DCH CELL_FACH – RACH (and/or CPCH) can be used anytime
Dedicated (DCH) or Shared
(DSCH) Transport Ch. can – location known on cell level
be used

Release RRC Establish RRC Release RRC Establish RRC

Connection Connection Connection Connection

Idle Mode – UE not registered to the network

– Cell broadcast info can be received

Rev A 30-November-2001 28
 UTRAN

Service example:
Cell_FACH: e.g. email download, WAP browsing
UE

S-CCPCH data of desired users data of other users

TTI 3
TTI 2
TTI 1 physical control
PRACH TTI 1
DPDCH DPDCH
DPCCH DPCCH
AICH

TCP acks
RLC acks 4.5 - 6.5 kbps
RRC measurement reports average load

Rev A 30-November-2001 29
 UTRAN
Service example:
Cell_DCH: ftp or email download, Web browsing
UE

DL-DPCH

TTI 2
TTI 1
UL-DPCH
DPDCH DPDCH
DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH

Rev A 30-November-2001 30
 UTRAN
Service example:
Cell_DCH: ftp or email upload
UE

DL-DPCH

UL-DPCH

DPDCH DPDCH DPDCH DPDCH

DPDCH DPDCH DPDCH DPDCH
DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH DPCCH

Rev A 30-November-2001 31
 UTRAN
Service example:
Cell_DCH: e.g. file download, Web browsing
UE

Data for the

Data for
considered
PDSCH 2 other users
user

Data for the

considered
PDSCH 1 user
10 ms
DL-DPCH
10 ms
DPCCHs DPCCHs
UL-DPCH

Rev A 30-November-2001 32
Channel Switching
• Dynamic switching between common and dedicated channels, i.e.
common channel RRC states (Cell_FACH and Cell_PCH) and dedicated
channel RRC state (Cell_DCH)
• provides radio link adaptation to different levels of data transmission
activity, in order to achieve at low transmission activity following
objectives:
• efficient utilisation of BTS TRX hardware resources dedicated to each cell
• high utilisation of the downlink channelization codes available in a cell
• low terminal power consumption
• reasonable high spectral efficiency and reasonable delay compared to dedicated
channel transmissions
• channel type switching is a special type of intra-cell handover

Rev A 30-November-2001 33
Up-switching (Cell_FACH  Cell_DCH)
time
switching
Power decision (RRC/SRNC)
PDSCH
assigned to
the given user

DPCCH
downlink PDSCH
and DPCH

switching DPCH
command
SCCPCH

measurement
report
PRACH

ramping

confirm

uplink DPCH

Cell_FACH Cell_DCH (DCH + DSCH)

transport and DPCH synchr.
radio interface delay
delay

Rev A 30-November-2001 34
 Down-switching (Cell_DCH  Cell_FACH  Cell_PCH)
switching time
PDSCH decision
Power (RRC/SRNC)
assigned to
the given user

switching
downlink command
PDSCH DPCCH
and DPCH

Paging indicator
RLC ack On PICH
SCCPCH

confirm measurement
report
PRACH

ramping

uplink RLC ack

DPCH

inactivity transport and

Cell_DCH (DCH + DSCH) Cell_FACH Cell_PCH
interval radio interface
delay

Rev A 30-November-2001 35
Throughput illustration for Web page download
600
completed
generated
arrived at RLC
500
Downlink Traffic Volume [kbits] delivered

400
Downlink bits [kbit]

50 kBytes data packet

300

200

slope: Rlinktrp = Rlink (1-BLER)

100 Rlinkmax = 64 kbps

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Time [s]

Rev A 30-November-2001 36
System throughput vs. user throughput
50
10% best packets
45 median 20 30 35
10% worst packets 45

Example 40 50

(kbps/cell)
configuration: 35
(kbps/cell)
64 kbps DCH,
30
ratethroughput

30 codes
available per cell 25
20 30 35
with SF= 32
bit user

20 45
average

15
20 50
30
packet

10 35
users per cell
5 45
50
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
system throughput (kbps/cell)

Note: This example shall just illustrate the principal characteristics of throughput
performance which were obtained for some specific assumptions not discussed here; absolute
capacity figures depend strongly on the choice of simulation parameters and assumptions.

Rev A 30-November-2001 37
Summary on packet data performance

• Results from system-level simulations:

– Data on dedicated channels
• throughput very much dependent on configuration and traffic characteristics,
• can be very low if only a few channels for very high rate are configured due to
code limitation effects
– Data on common channels
• inefficient for large amount of data due to lack of tight power control
(especially FACH)
– Data on shared channels
• can reach approx. same system throughput as a configuration with low-rate
dedicated channels, at much higher peak data rate per user
• scheduling policy affects performance („fairness“ reduces system throughput)

Rev A 30-November-2001 38
UMTS Evolution (Release 4 and 5)

• Main future new features (affecting packet services):

– All-IP transport in the Radio Access and Core Networks
– Enhancements of services and service management
– High-speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)
• Introduces additional downlink channels:
– High-Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH)
– Shared Control Channels for HS-DSCH

Rev A 30-November-2001 39
HS-DSCH characteristics
• Provision of 8 –10 Mbps peak user data rate by
– Fast selection of modulation and coding scheme depending on channel conditions
(no fast power control)
– Short transmission time interval (2 ms)
– Fast hybrid ARQ (incremental redundancy and/or Chase combining)
– Fast scheduling
– Fast cell selection/handover

dedicated
channels
dedicated HS
sh
channels a re
d c -DS
on CH
tro
lc
ha
nn
els

Rev A 30-November-2001 40
HS-DSCH physical layer processing chain

Adaptation Algorithm

Ch. Code #1
Turbo Mapping on gain scrambling
Encoding Code-Tree

CRC Puncturing and Modulation

Repetition

other
Interleaving
Ch. Code #N channels

Coding Rate: QPSK Example:

1/3 - 1 16QAM 12 out of 16 codes
(64QAM opt.) with SF=16

Rev A 30-November-2001 41
Adaptive Modulation and Coding

Modulation and
Coding Schemes
(Example)

64QAM, R=0.75 (12.96 Mbps)

C/I C/I
64QAM, R=0.50 (8.64 Mbps)
16QAM, R=0.63 (7.20 Mbps)
16QAM, R=0.38 (4.32 Mbps)
QPSK, R=0.50 (2.88 Mbps)
QPSK, R=0.25 (1.44 Mbps)

time 1 0.1 0.01 FER for 12 codes

(of 16)

Rev A 30-November-2001 42
Scheduling Strategies
Transmission time interval
3 slots (2 ms)

Example: C/I
Max C/I scheduling

time
C/I
served
mobile

time
C/I

time

Rev A 30-November-2001 43
Conclusions

• UMTS provides the presently most advanced cellular radio

access technology
• Mature technology, already proven to work
• Prepared for future evolution
• Fine-tuning of parameters in order to optimize end-to-end user
and overall system performance still remains a challenging
task

Rev A 30-November-2001 44
Conclusions (cont.)

• But ...
the market success will primarily not depend on technology
– Marketing strategy of network operators and service providers
– Charging policy and tariffing
– Availabilty of handsets in large volumes at low price at UMTS introduction
– Early provision of useful and inventive new services
– Simplicity to apply the offered services
– Readiness of the subscribers to get used to new services
• Social factors: openess to modern technology (provision of high level of
security to resolve all doubts on potential hazards, EMC, confidentiallity)

Rev A 30-November-2001 45