1x EVDO

By
Yogesh Dave
Sachin Varshney
CDMA Testing Team, Mumbai
 Why the name 1x-EV-DO

• 1x = single 1.25 MHz carrier

• EV = Evolution
• DO = Data Optimized or Data only

• EV-DO or EVDO and often EV, is a telecommunications standard for the

wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for
broadband Internet access. It uses multiplexing techniques including
Code division multiple access (CDMA) as well as
Time division multiple access (TDMA) to maximize both individual user's
throughput and the overall system throughput. It is standardized by
3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2)
 Why the name 1x-EV-DO
• EVDO was designed as an evolution of the CDMA2000 (IS-2000) standard
that would support high data rates and could be deployed along side a
wireless carrier's voice services. An EVDO channel has a bandwidth of
1.25MHz, the same bandwidth size that IS-95A (IS-95) and IS-2000 (1xRTT
) use. The channel structure, on the other hand, is very different.

• The EV-DO feature of CDMA2000 networks provides access to mobile

devices with forward link air interface speeds of up to 2.4 Mbit/s with Rev. 0
and up to 3.1 Mbit/s with Rev. A. The reverse link rate for Rev. 0 can
operate up to 153 Kbit/s, while Rev. A can operate at up to 1.8 Mbit/s. It
was designed to be operated end-to-end as an IP based network, and so it
can support any application which can operate on such a network .
 EVDO Architecture
• EV-DO implementation is the same as 1X architecture system but without
using Mobile Switching Center (MSC).

• EV-DO uses 1.25 MHZ carrier frequency (MC-1X).

• When users transmit data, data packets will be sent from wireless device
through air interface towards BTS. Data packets then forwarded to BSC.
BSC will forward data to PCF, who will forward it to PSDN.

• For receiving data, data packets for users will be prepared in the provider’s
IP network then forwarded by PDSN to PCF/BSC

• Cell site, towers, antenna share carrier frequency between 1x and 1xEV-
DO.
• 1xEV-DO can reach peak rate 2.4Mbps on forward link (from BS to device),
and 153.6 Kbps on reverse link (from device to BS)

• 1x and 1xEV-DO uses the same PDSN in the network

 1x EVDO—IP Data only
IP BTS - IP Base Transceiver Station
IP BSC - IP Base Station Controller
IS-2000
AAA - Authentication, Authorization,
and Accounting
PDSN - Packet Data Serving Node
Home Agent - Mobile IP Home Agent
IP
BTS

Internet

IP IP
Firewall Router
IP BSC IP
Router
IS-2000

RADIUS over UDP/IP

Privata
IP Data
BTS Network

AAA PDSN Home

Agent

5 Uke Kurniawan Usman - 2005

 3 revisions of EV-DO technology
Rel 0

This version was released in 2000 which introduced the EV-DO technology in
CDMA.

Datarate:
EV-DO allowed data rates of up to 2.4 Mbps on forward link [download speed]
and 154 Kbps reverse link [upload speed].

Features:
•It supports all IP network.
•It allows high data rates when compared to CDMA1X.

Services:
•http [ internet browsing].
•Voice on Demand.
•Movies on Demand.
 Rel 0 forward link channel structure

• The primary characteristic that differentiates an EV-DO channel from a

1xRTT channel is that it is Time Multiplexed on the forward link (from the
tower to the mobile). This means that a single mobile has full use of the
forward traffic channel within a particular geographic area (a sector) during
a given slot of time. Using this technique, we are able to modulate each
user’s time slot independently.
• The forward channel is divided into slots, each being 1.667 ms long. In
addition to user traffic, overhead channels are interlaced into the stream.
These include the Pilot which helps the mobile find and identify the channel,
the Media Access Channel (MAC) which tells the mobiles when their data is
scheduled, and the Control Channel, which contains other information that
the network needs the mobiles to know.
• The modulation to be used to communicate with a given mobile is
determined by the mobile itself. It listens to the traffic on the channel, and
depending on the receive signal strength along with the perceived multi-path
and fading conditions, makes its best guess as to what data-rate it can
sustain while maintaining a reasonable frame error rate of 1-2%.
 Rel 0 forward link channel structure
• This allows us to serve users that are in favorable RF conditions with very
complex modulation techniques while also serving users in poor RF
conditions with simpler and more redundant signals.
• It then communicates this information back to the serving sector in the form
of an integer between 1 and 12 on the "Digital Rate Control" (DRC) channel.
• The DRC values are as follows:
 DRC Slots Payload
Data rate Code Rate Modulatio
Index in kbps scheduled size (bits) n
1 38.4 16 1024 1/5 QPSK
2 76.8 8 1024 1/5 QPSK
3 153.6 4 1024 1/5 QPSK
4 307.2 2 1024 1/5 QPSK
5 307.2 4 2048 1/5 QPSK
6 614.4 1 1024 1/3 QPSK
7 614.4 2 2048 1/3 QPSK
8 921.6 2 3072 1/3 QPSK
9 1228.8 1 2048 2/3 8-PSK
10 1228.8 2 4096 1/3 8-PSK
11 1843.2 1 3072 2/3 16-QAM
12 2457.6 1 4096 2/3 16-QAM
 Rel 0 reverse link structure

• The reverse link (from the mobile back to the Base Transceiver Station) on
EVDO Rev. 0 operates very similar to that of 3G1X CDMA. The channel
includes a reverse link pilot (helps with decoding the signal) along with the
user data channels. Some additional channels that do not exist in 3G1X
include the DRC channel (described above) and the ACK channel (used for
HARQ). Missing from the reverse link is any sort of Power control, because
the forward link is always transmitted at full power for use by all the mobiles.
• All of the reverse link channels are combined using code division and
transmitted back to the base station using QPSK where they are decoded.
The maximum speed available for user data is 153.2 kbps, but in real-life
conditions this is rarely achieved. Typical speeds achieved are between 20-
50 kbps.
 Rev A

• Revision A of EVDO makes several additions to the protocol while keeping it

completely backwards compatible with Revision 0.
• These changes included the introduction of several new forward link data
rates that increase the maximum burst rate from 2.45 Mbit/s to 3.1 Mbit/s.
Also included were protocols that would decrease connection establishment
time (called enhanced access channel MAC), the ability for more than one
mobile to share the same timeslot (multi-user packets) and the introduction
of QoS flags. All of these were put in place to allow for low latency, low bit
rate communications such as VoIP.
 The additional forward rates for EVDO Rev. A

Data rate in Slots Payload

DRC Index Code Rate Modulation
kbps scheduled size (bits)

13 1536 2 5120 12-May 16-QAM

14 3072 1 5120 6-May 16-QAM
 .

• In addition to the changes on the forward link, the reverse link was
enhanced to support higher complexity modulation (and thus higher
bit rates).

• An optional secondary pilot was added, which is activated by the

mobile when it tries to achieve enhanced data rates.
 Rev B
• EV-DO Rev B is a multi-carrier evolution of the Rev A specification. It
maintains the capabilities of EVDO Rev A, and provides the following
enhancements:
• Higher rates per carrier (up to 4.9 Mbit/s on the downlink per carrier). Typical
deployments are expected to include 3 carriers for a peak rate of 14.7 Mbit/s
• Higher rates by bundling multiple channels together enhance the user
experience and enables new services such as high definition video streaming.
• Uses statistical multiplexing across channels to further reduce latency,
enhancing the experience for latency-sensitive services such as gaming, video
telephony, remote console sessions and web browsing.
• Increased talk-time and standby time
• Hybrid frequency re-use which reduces the interference from the adjacent
sectors and improves the rates that can be offered, especially to users at the
edge of the cell.
• Efficient support for services that have asymmetric download and upload
requirements (i.e. different data rates required in each direction) such as file
transfers, web browsing, and broadband multimedia content delivery.
 How does EVDO compare to other 3G Technologies ?

Network Max Data Download Technology Network Cost per Mbyte

Rate Time

GSM 9.6 Kbps 41 minutes GPRS $.415

IS95-A CDMA 14.4 Kbps 31 minutes W-CDMA $.069

GPRS 45 Kbps 9 minutes

CDMA2000 1x $.059

IS95-B CDMA 64 Kbps 6 minutes

CDMA2000-1xEV-DO $.022
CDMA2000 1x 307 Kbps 1.5 minutes

W-CDMA 384 Kbps 61 seconds

CDMA2000- 2.4 Mbps 11 seconds

1xEV-DO Cost per MBytes for different wireless network

Download Time of 3 minutes MP3 file

 Conclusion
 3G Technologies continue leading wireless WAN and EV-DO is the
evolution of CDMA 1x to support data at rates comparable to broadband
cable connections.
  -- Higher Data rates and Capacity

  Three dimensions of wireless technology evolution 

– Higher spectral efficiency (lower cost)
– Enhanced services (new revenue streams)
– Higher peak rates (for bursty apps)

  EV-DO support the full range of services

– High-Speed Download and Upload, Voice, Push-to-Connect, Video
Telephony, and Multicast, VoIP
 References and footnotes
• 3G - CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Technologies. CDMA development Group.

• CDMA2000 1xEV-DO. QUALCOMM Technology and Solutions.

• EVDO high data rate system", IEEE Wireless Communications and

Networking Conference, IEEE, pp. 389-395

• A Forward Link Performance Study of the 1xEV-DO Rev. 0 System Using

Field Measurements and Simulations (PDF). Lucent Technologies.

• Gopal, Thawatt (11-15 March 2007), "EVDO Rev. A Control Channel

Bandwidth Analysis for Paging", IEEE Wireless Communications and
Networking Conference, IEEE, pp. 3262-7, doi:10.1109/WCNC.2007.601

• Cdma2000 High Rate Packet Data Air Interface (PDF). 3GPP2 (July
2005).