UMTS RAN Overview

Presentation to ethiotelecom RAN staff

UMTS RAN Overview| 02/16/2023

Author Adopted from Huawei training document

Yibeltal Addis
WCDMA Optimization Spécialiste (Engineering/RAN)
Presenter ethio telecom
Tel: +251 (0)911517203
e-mail: yibeltal.addis@ethiotelecom.et   
Reference Huawei training document (WCDMA RAN Overview)

 Describe the development of 3G

 Outline the advantage of CDMA Principle
Key messages  Characterize code sequence
 Outline the fundamentals of RAN
 Describe features of wireless propagation

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Outline

1
3G Overview
2 WCDMA Network Architecture
Protocol Structure
3 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

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01 3G Overview
Development and Evolution of 3G

Growth and development of

• Service Type (Multiples of services)
• Throughput
• Frequency spectrum efficiency
• Confidentiality 4

• Equipment cost
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01 3G Overview
Continued…
• It is Formulated by the European standardization organization 3GPP at the end of
1998 and beginning of 1999 which support the smooth transition of
GSM/GPRS/3G.
• The core network evolves on the basis of GSM/GPRS and can thus be compatible
backward with the existing GSM/GPRS networks.

• The concept of multimedia service (streaming, interactive, background) is

introduced

• It can be based on the TDM, ATM and IP technologies to evolve towards the all-
IP network architecture. Based on the ATM technology, the UTRAN uniformly
processes voice and packet services and evolves towards the IP network
architecture. 5

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01 3G Overview
Continued…
Feature of R7:
• HSPA+ is introduced which adopts higher order modulation and
MIMO.
• Max. DL rate: 28Mbps, Max UL rate: 11Mbps
Feature of R8:
• HSPA+ adopt 64QAM + MIMO or 64QAM +DC (DL)
• LTE introduced(OFDMA)
• Max. DL rate: 100Mbps, Max UL rate: 50Mbps( 20 MHz BW)

• In the R4 network, MSC as the CS domain of the CN is divided into the MSC Server and the MGW, at
the same time, a SGW is added, and HLR can be replaced by HSS (not explicitly specified in the
specification).
• In the R5 network, the end-to-end VOIP is supported and the core network adopts plentiful new
function entities, which have thus changed the original call procedures. With IMS (IP Multimedia
Subsystem), the network can use HSS instead of HLR
• In the R6 network, the HSUPA is supported which can provide UL service rate up to 5.76Mbps. And
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MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) is also supported.

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01 3G Overview
UMTS Spectrum allocation and Band Used

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01
3G Overview
3G Service Categories

 Data: 144 kbps High speed and driving, 384 kbps Modest speed and walking
and 2 Mbps Low speed and indoor
 Voice: 4.75Kb/s --12.2Kb/s and 64kb/s (Video Phone)
 Information transmission at variable rate according to bandwidth requirements 8
 Delay requirements of different service
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01 3G Overview
Core Technologies of 3G

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01 3G Overview
Multiple Access Technologies

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01 3G Overview
Continued…

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01 3G Overview
Continued…

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01 3G Overview
Duplex Technologies
• In third generation mobile communication systems, WCDMA and cdma 2000 adopt frequency division duplex
(FDD), TD-SCDMA adopts time division duplex (TDD).

• TDD mode uplink and downlink has the same frequency adaptable to any frequency band and
suitable for both asymmetric and symmetric services
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• FDD mode uplink and downlink has different frequency. Paired frequency bands are needed and
suitable for symmetric services.
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02 WCDMA Network Architecture Protocol

Structure
UTRAN Architecture and Interfaces NodeB function:
• processes the Uu interface physical layer protocols. It provides the
functions of spectrum spreading /dispreading,
modulation/demodulation, channel coding/decoding, and mutual
conversion between baseband signals and radio signaling.
RNC function:
• manages various interfaces, establishes and releases connections,
performs handoff and macro diversity/ combination, and manages and
controls radio resources. It connects with the MSC and SGSN through lu
interface. The protocol between UE and UTRAN is terminated here

 Iu interface: connects the UTRAN to the CN and is split in two parts (i.e Iu-CS and Iu-PS)
 UU Interface: Radio interface with in UMTS. It is the interface through which the UE accesses the fixed
part of the network.
 Iub interface: Interface between NodeB and the RNC. Contrarily to GSM, this interface is fully open in
UMTS and thus more competition is expected.
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 Iur interface: the RNC-RNC interface for inter RNC soft handover, but more features were added
during the development
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02 WCDMA Network Architecture Protocol

Structure
Uu Interface Protocol Structure
• Layer 1 supports all functions required for the transmission
of bit streams on the physical medium such as Frame Error
Rate (FER), SIR, interference power and transmit power.

• Layer 2 provide functions such as mapping, retransmission

and segmentation. It is made of four sub layers: MAC
(Medium Access Control), RLC (Radio Link Control), PDCP
(Packet Data Convergence Protocol) and BMC
(Broadcast/Multicast Control).

• layer 3 splitted into 2 parts: The access stratum part is made

of “RRC (Radio Resource Control)” entity and “duplication
avoidance” entity. The non access stratum part is made of
CCM(Call Control Management),Identity Management (IM),
MM(Mobility Management) and SM (session Management
parts).

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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

Processing Procedure of WCDMA System

Bit, Symbol, Chip

• Bit : data after source coding
• Symbol: data after channel coding and interleaving 16
• Chip: data after spreading

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1. Source Coding
 The AMR codec offers the possibility to adapt the coding scheme to the radio channel conditions. The most
robust codec mode is selected in bad propagation conditions. The codec mode providing the highest source
rate is selected in good propagation conditions.
 During an AMR communication, the receiver measures the radio link quality and must return to the
transmitter either the quality measurements or the actual codec mode the transmitter should use during
the next frame. That exchange has to be done as fast as possible in order to better follow the evolution of
the channel’s quality.
 It can increase the transmitting efficiency

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2. Block Coding-CRC Coding
• Used to detect if there is any uncorrelated errors(corrupted data) of the transport blocks at the receiving end left after
error correction.
• Adding the CRC bits is done before the channel encoding and these bits will be checked after the channel encoding. If
there is an error, the receiver can request that data be re-sent
• The CRC length that can be inserted has four different values: 0, 8, 12, 16 and 24 bits. The more bits the CRC contains, the
lower is the probability of an undetected error in the transport block in the receiver.
• Used to calculate BLER. Transmitter

Original Data CRC Original Data Checksum

100101101010 Generator 100101101010 011010

RF
Transmission Path

Receiver

Received Data Received Checksum If Checksums do not match,

100101001010 011010 there is an error

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CRC Re-Generated Checksum

Generator 011011 UMTS RAN Overview| 02/16/2023
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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

3. Channel Coding
• The idea is to add redundancy to the transmitted bit stream, so that occasional bit errors can be corrected
in the receiving entity.
• In WCDMA network, both Convolution code and Turbo code are used. Convolution code applies to voice
service while Turbo code applies to high rate data service.

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Continued…
Transmitter

Original Data FEC FEC Encoded data

00011011... Generator 1010011100110110...

RF
Transmission Path

Receiver
Viterbi Original Data
Decoder 00011011

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4. Interleaving
• Used to reduce the probability of consecutive bit errors
• The longer the interleaving period, the better the protection provided by the time diversity. However, longer
interleaving increases transmission delays and a balance must be found between the error resistance
capabilities and the delay introduced.

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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

5. Spreading
 Spreading means increasing the bandwidth of the signal beyond the bandwidth normally required to
accommodate the information. User information bits are spread over a wide bandwidth by multiplying
with high speed spread code (chip). Spread Signal BW is wider than the original signal BW Rb
Spreading Consists of Two Steps of Operations:
 Channelization: Transforming Data to high rate of Symbols. User information bits are spread over a wide
bandwidth by multiplying with high speed spread code (chip)
 Scrambling: A pseudo-random sequence applied to Spreading Signals. Can make the user data further
random , strengthened by scrambling a code to keep secret the user data, at the same time easy to carry out
multiple access communication.

Symbol Rate * SF = Chip Rate = 3.84Mcps

Up Link Scrambling Code: 224 and allocated in connection establishment from a list of
SF Uplink Synchronization code: 4 to 256 codes inside a single RNC 22
SF Downlink Synchronization Code: 4 to 512 Downlink Scrambling Code: 2 – 1. Used the first 8192 codes = 512*16 = 512*1(PSC) +
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512*15(SSC)
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Continued…

 Any code channel can be extracted from the received composite signal by using right Orthogonal
code 23
 Energy for transmitting signal can be lower than interference and noise
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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

Spreading mode

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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

Direct Spreading/De spreading Technique
Amplitude Signal 1

Two Transmitters Frequency SC1 (Pseudo Noise Codes)

at the same
frequency SPREADING Both signals combined
in the air interface
Amplitude

Signal 2

Frequency
SC2

AT THE RECEIVER... Spread Spectrum

Processing Gain
Both signals are
received together  PN Code Rate 
 
 Data Rate 

S1*SC1 +S2*SC2 SC1 Signal 1 is reconstructed 25

Signal 2 looks like noise

UMTS Overview
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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

Continued…

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UMTS Overview
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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

Correlation
It is computed by multiplying the two signals and then summing (integrating) the result over a defined time
windows. If the two signals identical and therefore their correlation is 1 or 100 percent. If the two signals
are uncorrelated, and therefore knowing one of them does not provide any information on the other.

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Continued…
By spreading, each symbol is multiplied with all the chips in the orthogonal sequence assigned to the user. The
resulting sequence is processed and is then transmitted over the physical channel along with other spread
symbols.. In this figure, 4-digit codes are used. The product of the user symbols and the spreading code is a
sequence of digits that must be transmitted at 4 times the rate of the original encoded binary signal.

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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

5.1. Channelization
 It means transforming every data symbol into a number of chips, thus increasing the bandwidth of the
signal. The number of chips per data symbol is called the Spreading Factor (SF). Channelization codes are
orthogonal codes, meaning that in ideal environment they do not interfere each other.
 In code division multiple access (CDMA) communication, the Hadamard code is referred to as Walsh
Code, and is used to define individual communication channels. It is usual in the CDMA literature to
refer to code words as “codes”.

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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

Channelization OVSF Code Transmitter/Receiver

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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

Channelization OVSF Code Generation

 The length of an OVSF code is an even number of chips and the number of codes (for one SF) is 31
equal to the number of chips and to the SF value.
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Continued…

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5.2. Scrambling
• Classified as UL and DL Scrambling codes
• It is used on top of spreading, so it does not change the signal bandwidth but only
makes the signals from different sources(transmitters) separable from each other.
As the chip rate is already achieved in channelization by the channelization codes,
the chip rate is not affected by the scrambling.
• It is a Gold Sequence which are 224 long uplink scrambling codes which are used for
scrambling of the UP-Link Signals. These uplink codes are assigned by RNC.
• For downlink, 512 primary scrambling codes are used.
• Have no effect on signal bandwidth
• For downlink, scrambling code is used to separate different cells in one carrier. For
Up-link, scrambling code is used to separate different UEs in one carrier.
• The scrambling code is always applied to one 10 ms frame.
• In UMTS, Gold codes are chosen for their very low peak cross -correlation.

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5.2. Continued…
• The 512 primary scrambling codes defined by 3GPP are further divided into 64 primary scrambling code
groups. There are 8 primary scrambling codes in every group. Each cell is allocated with only one
primary scrambling code.

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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

Code Multiplexing

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03 WCDMA Wireless Fundamental

6. Modulation

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6.1. Analog Modulation

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6.2. Digital Modulation
The Purpose of digital modulation is to convert an information-bearing discreet-time symbol sequence into a
continuous-time waveform(perhaps impressed on a carrier)
There are three basic ways to modulate a carrier signal in a digital sense:
• Amplitude shift keying (ASK): amplitude of the carrier signal is modified by the digital signal.
• frequency shift keying (FSK): the frequency of the carrier signal is modified by the digital signal.
• phase shift keying (PSK): is the most widely used modulation scheme in modern cellular
systems.

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QPSK(Quadrature Phase Shift Key)
• WCDMA system uses QPSK which is a PSK Modulation Scheme
• Separates input stream into two channels I and Q
• I and Q spread and de-spread separately using scrambling codes. Modulation to desired RF frequency
uses sine for Q and cosine for I. Modulation symbol on air consists of 2 Consecutive bits / chips.
Modification on QPSK used in real transmitters to enhance power utilization.

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7. Transmission (Wireless Propagation)
• A mobile communication channel is a multi-path fading channel and any transmitted signal reaches a
receive end by means of multiple transmission paths, such as direct transmission, reflection, scatter, etc.

• with the moving of a mobile station, the signal amplitude, delay and phase on various transmission
paths vary with time and place. Therefore, the levels of received signals are fluctuating and unstable
and these multi path signals, if overlaid, will lead to fast fading. The mid-value field strength of fast 40
fading has relatively gentle change and is called “slow fading”. Slow fading conforms to lognormal
distribution.
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6.1. Fading Categories

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Diversity
• Diversity technology means that after receiving two or more input signals with mutually uncorrelated
fading at the same time, the system demodulates these signals and adds them up. Thus, the system can
receive more useful signals and overcome fading..

• It is an effective way to overcome overlaid fading. Because it can be selected in terms of frequency, time
and space, diversity technology includes: frequency diversity, time diversity and space diversity.

• Time diversity: Channel coding, Block Interleaving

• Frequency diversity: WCDMA is a kind of frequency diversity. The user signal energy is distributed on the
whole bandwidth.

• Space diversity: using two antennas

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Principles of Rake Receiver
• RAKE receiver is a technique which uses several baseband correlators to individually process multipath
Signal components.
• With RAKE receiver WCDMA system can use the multipath characteristics of the channel to get signal with
better quality
• The output from different corrugators are combined to achieve improved reliability and performance

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Thank
you!!
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