The UMTS network architecture is required to provide a greater level of performance to that of the original GSM network.

However as many networks had migrated through the use of GPRS and EDGE, they already had the ability to carry data. Accordingly many of the elements required for the WCDMA / UMTS network architecture were seen as a migration. This considerably reduced the cost of implementing the UMTS network as many elements were in place or needed upgrading. With one of the major aims of UMTS being to be able to carry data, the UMTS network architecture was designed to enable a considerable improvement in data performance over that provided for GSM.

UMTS network constituents

The UMTS network architecture can be divided into three main elements: 1. User Equipment (UE): The User Equipment or UE is the name given to what was previous termed the mobile, or cellphone. The new name was chosen because the considerably greater functionality that the UE could have. It could also be anything between a mobile phone used for talking to a data terminal attached to a computer with no voice capability. 2. Radio Network Subsystem (RNS): The RNS is the equivalent of the previous Base Station Subsystem or BSS in GSM. It provides and manages the air interface for the overall network. 3. Core Network: The core network provides all the central processing and management for

the system. It is the equivalent of the GSM Network Switching Subsystem or NSS. The core network is then the overall entity that interfaces to external networks including the public phone network and other cellular telecommunications networks.

UMTS Network Architecture Overview

User Equipment, UE
The USER Equipment or UE is a major element of the overall UMTS network architecture. It forms the final interface with the user. In view of the far greater number of applications and facilities that it can perform, the decision was made to call it a user equipment rather than a mobile. However it is essentially the handset (in the broadest terminology), although having access to much higher speed data communications, it can be much more versatile, containing many more applications. It consists of a variety of different elements including RF circuitry, processing, antenna, battery, etc. There are a number of elements within the UE that can be described separately: UE RF circuitry: The RF areas handle all elements of the signal, both for the receiver and for the transmitter. One of the major challenges for the RF power amplifier was to reduce the power consumption. The form of modulation used for W-CDMA requires the use of a linear amplifier. These inherently take more current than non linear amplifiers which can be used for the form of modulation used on GSM. Accordingly to maintain battery life, measures were

introduced into many of the designs to ensure the optimum efficiency. Baseband processing: The base-band signal processing consists mainly of digital circuitry. This is considerably more complicated than that used in phones for previous generations. Again this has been optimised to reduce the current consumption as far as possible.

Battery: While current consumption has been minimised as far as possible within the circuitry of the phone, there has been an increase in current drain on the battery. With users expecting the same lifetime between charging batteries as experienced on the previous generation phones, this has necessitated the use of new and improved battery technology. Now Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries are used. These phones to remain small and relatively light while still retaining or even improving the overall life between charges.

Universal Subscriber Identity Module, USIM: The UE also contains a SIM card, although in the case of UMTS it is termed a USIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module). This is a more advanced version of the SIM card used in GSM and other systems, but embodies the same types of information. It contains the International Mobile Subscriber Identity number (IMSI) as well as the Mobile Station International ISDN Number (MSISDN). Other information that the USIM holds includes the preferred language to enable the correct language information to be displayed, especially when roaming, and a list of preferred and prohibited Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN). The USIM also contains a short message storage area that allows messages to stay with the user even when the phone is changed. Similarly "phone book" numbers and call information of the numbers of incoming and outgoing calls are stored.

The UE can take a variety of forms, although the most common format is still a version of a "mobile phone" although having many data capabilities. Other broadband dongles are also being widely used.

UMTS Radio Network Subsystem

This is the section of the UMTS / WCDMA network that interfaces to both the UE and the core network. The overall radio access network, i.e. collectively all the Radio Network Subsystem is known as the UTRAN UMTS Radio Access Network. The Radio Network Subsystem comprises two main components:

Radio Network Controller, RNC:

This element of the radio network subsystem controls the

Node Bs that are connected to it. The RNC undertakes the radio resource management and some of the mobility management functions, although not all. It is also the point at which the

data encryption / decryption is performed to protect the user data from eavesdropping. Node B: Node B is the term used within UMTS to denote the base station transceiver. It contains the transmitter and receiver to communicate with the UEs within the cell.

In order to facilitate effective handover between Node Bs under the control of different RNCs, the RNC not only communicates with the Core Network, but also with neighbouring RNCs.

UMTS Radio Network Subsystem Architecture

UMTS Core Network

The UMTS core network architecture is a migration of that used for GSM with further elements overlaid to enable the additional functionality demanded by UMTS. In view of the different ways in which data may be carried, the UMTS core network may be split into two different areas:

Circuit switched elements: These elements are primarily based on the GSM network entities and carry data in a circuit switched manner, i.e. a permanent channel for the duration of the call. Packet switched elements: These network entities are designed to carry packet data. This

enables much higher network usage as the capacity can be shared and data is carried as packets which are routed according to their destination. Some network elements, particularly those that are associated with registration are shared by both domains and operate in the same way that they did with GSM.

UMTS Core Network Circuit switched elements The circuit switched elements of the UMTS core network architecture include the following network entities:

Mobile switching centre (MSC): This is essentially the same as that within GSM, and it manages the circuit switched calls under way. Gateway MSC (GMSC): This is effectively the interface to the external networks.

Packet switched elements The packet switched elements of the UMTS core network architecture include the following network entities:

Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN):

As the name implies, this entity was first developed

when GPRS was introduced, and its use has been carried over into the UMTS network architecture. The SGSN provides a number of functions within the UMTS network architecture.

Mobility management When a UE attaches to the Packet Switched domain of the UMTS Core Network, the SGSN generates MM information based on the mobile's current location. Session management: The SGSN manages the data sessions providing the required

quality of service and also managing what are termed the PDP (Packet data Protocol) contexts, i.e. the pipes over which the data is sent.

Interaction with other areas of the network: The SGSN is able to manage its elements within the network only by communicating with other areas of the network, e.g. MSC and other circuit switched areas. Billing: The SGSN is also responsible billing. It achieves this by monitoring the flow of user data across the GPRS network. CDRs (Call Detail Records) are generated by the SGSN before being transferred to the charging entities (Charging Gateway Function, CGF).

Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN):

Like the SGSN, this entity was also first

introduced into the GPRS network. The Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) is the central element within the UMTS packet switched network. It handles inter-working between the UMTS packet switched network and external packet switched networks, and can be considered as a very sophisticated router. In operation, when the GGSN receives data addressed to a specific user, it checks if the user is active and then forwards the data to the SGSN serving the particular UE. Shared elements

The shared elements of the UMTS core network architecture include the following network entities:

Home location register (HLR): This database contains all the administrative information about each subscriber along with their last known location. In this way, the UMTS network is able to route calls to the relevant RNC / Node B. When a user switches on their UE, it registers with the network and from this it is possible to determine which Node B it communicates with so that incoming calls can be routed appropriately. Even when the UE is not active (but switched on) it re-registers periodically to ensure that the network (HLR) is aware of its latest

position with their current or last known location on the network. Equipment identity register (EIR): The EIR is the entity that decides whether a given UE equipment may be allowed onto the network. Each UE equipment has a number known as the International Mobile Equipment Identity. This number, as mentioned above, is installed in the

equipment and is checked by the network during registration. Authentication centre (AuC) : The AuC is a protected database that contains the secret key also contained in the user's USIM card.

UMTS / WCDMA radio air interface

- the air interface, frequencies and power control used within UMTS or Wideband CDMA, WCDMA, cellular telecommunications system

Physical layer within UMTS / WCDMA is totally different to that employed by GSM. It employs a spread spectrum transmission in the form of CDMA rather than the TDMA transmissions used for GSM. Additionally it currently uses different frequencies to those allocated for GSM.

UMTS Uplink and Downlink

When looking at the radio air interface and its associated properties, it is necessary to define the directions in which the transmissions are occurring. Being a full duplex system, i.e. transmitting simultaneously in both directions, it is necessary to be able to define which direction is which.

Uplink; This may also sometimes be known as the reverse link, and it is the link from the User Equipment (UE) to the Node B or base station. Downlink; This may also sometimes be known as the forward link, and it is the link from the Node B or base station to the User Equipment (UE).

The terms Uplink and Downlink are the terms that are used with UMTS, and especially within Europe. The terms forward link and reverse link are more commonly used with the CDMA2000 technologies and also within North America.

Uplink and downlink transmission directions

UMTS frequencies
There are currently six bands that are specified for use for UMTS / WCDMA although operation on other frequencies is not precluded. However much of the focus for UMTS is currently on frequency allocations around 2 GHz. At the World Administrative radio Conference in 1992, the bands 1885 2025 and 2110 - 2200 MHz were set aside for use on a world wide basis by administrations wishing to implement International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000). The aim was that allocating spectrum on a world wide basis would facilitate easy roaming for UMTS / WCDMA users. Within these bands the portions have been reserved for different uses:

1920-1980 and 2110-2170 MHz Frequency Division Duplex (FDD, W-CDMA) Paired uplink and downlink, channel spacing is 5 MHz and raster is 200 kHz. An Operator needs 3 - 4 channels (2x15 MHz or 2x20 MHz) to be able to build a high-speed, high-capacity network. 1900-1920 and 2010-2025 MHz Time Division Duplex (TDD, TD/CDMA) Unpaired, channel spacing is 5 MHz and raster is 200 kHz. Transmit and receive transmissions are not separated in frequency. 1980-2010 and 2170-2200 MHz Satellite uplink and downlink.

UMTS carrier frequencies are designated by a UTRA Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (UARFCN). This can be calculated from: UARFCN = 5 x (frequency in MHz) UMTS uses wideband CDMA as the radio transport mechanism. The UMTS channels are spaced by 5 MHz.

Synchronisation
The level of synchronisation required for the WCDMA system to operate is provided from the Primary Synchronisation Channel (P-SCH) and the Secondary Synchronisation Channel (S-SCH). These channels are treated in a different manner to the normal channels and as a result they are not spread using the OVSFs and PN codes. Instead they are spread using synchronisation codes. There are two types that are used. The first is called the primary code and is used on the P-SCH, and the second is named a secondary code and is used on the S-SCH.

The primary code is the same for all cells and is a 256 chip sequence that is transmitted during the first 256 chips of each time slot. This allows the UE to synchronise with the base station for the time slot. Once the UE has gained time slot synchronisation it only knows the start and stop of the time slot, but it does not know information about the particular time slot, or the frame. This is gained using the secondary synchronisation codes. There is a total of sixteen different secondary synchronisation codes. One code is sent at the beginning of the time slot, i.e. the first 256 chips. It consists of 15 synchronisation codes and there are 64 different scrambling code groups. When received, the UE is able to determine before which synchronisation code the overall frame begins. In this way the UE is able to gain complete synchronisation. The scrambling codes in the S-SCH also enable the UE to identify which scrambling code is being used and hence it can identify the base station. The scrambling codes are divided into 64 code groups, each having eight codes. This means that after achieving frame synchronisation, the UE only has a choice of one in eight codes and it can therefore try to decode the CPICH channel. Once it has achieved this it is able to read the BCH information and achieve better timing and it is able to monitor the P-CCPCH.

UMTS power control

As with any CDMA system it is essential that the base station receives all the UEs at approximately the same power level. If not, the UEs that are further away will be lower in strength than those closer to the node B and they will not be heard. This effect is often referred to as the near-far effect. To overcome this the node B instructs those stations closer in, to reduce their transmitted power, and those further away to increase theirs. In this way all stations will be received at approximately the same strength. It is also important for node Bs to control their power levels effectively. As the signals transmitted by the different node Bs are not orthogonal to one another it is possible that signals from different ones will interfere. Accordingly their power is also kept to the minimum required by the UEs being served. To achieve the power control there are two techniques that are employed: open loop; and closed loop. Open loop techniques are used during the initial access before communication between the UE and node B has been fully established. It simply operates by making a measurement of the received signal strength and thereby estimating the transmitter power required. As the transmit and receive frequencies are different, the path losses in either direction will be different and therefore this method cannot be any more than a good estimate. Once the UE has accessed the system and is in communication with the node B, closed loop techniques are used. A measurement of the signal strength is taken in each time slot. As a result of this a power control bit is sent requesting the power to be stepped up or down. This process is undertaken on both the up and downlinks. The fact that only one bit is assigned to power control means that the power will be continually changing. Once it has reached approximately the right level then it would step up and then down by one level. In practice the position of the mobile would change, or the path would change as a result of other movements and this would cause the signal level to move, so the continual change is not a problem.

UMTS CDMA technology

- tutorial, or overview of the basics of CDMA, code division multiple access scheme used within UMTS, or Wideband CDMA, WCDMA.

The use of CDMA, code division multiple access, in the form of Wideband CDMA, WCDMA for use with the 3G UMTS telecommunications system marked a distinct change in the type of technology used for the multiple access scheme for a telecommunications system. However it offered many advantages for both users and operators and as a result, it has provided many benefits. The use of CDMA for UMTS and other cellular formats was made possible by the fact that semiconductor technology had moved forward sufficiently. At the time the first cellular technologies were introduced sufficient processing power could be provided to enable the coding and decoding of CDMA to be accomplished within a mobile handset. CDMA as a form of multiple access scheme was first used on the cdmaOne system that was first deployed in the USA in 1995, and has successors that were marketed under the CDMA2000 banner. The use of a CDMA based technology for UMTS represented a further step forward in the use of CDMA.

CDMA for UMTS

The choice of CDMA for use with the third generation, 3G UMTS telecommunications system arose from a variety of technical reasons. It offers significant advantages over the schemes used in the previous 2G systems that were predominantly TDMA based schemes. The main benefits of the use of CDMA as a multiple access scheme are:

Improved spectral efficiency: The use of CDMA as the multiple access technology, combined with the QPSK modulation format used provides significant improvements in terms of the spectral efficiency. Figures for the performance improvements gained vary considerably dependent upon the conditions, but the scheme gives some significant benefits. Some calculated estimates give figures as high as three or four times that of technologies such as

GSM, although in reality the benefits may be a bit less. Adjacent cells may use the same channel frequency:

As a result of the way in which

spread spectrum signals such as CDMA operate. Improved handover: Within CDMA it is possible to do what is termed a "soft handover" where the UE communicates with two base stations at the same time. This significantly improves handover reliability.

Enhanced security: The use of spread spectrum and the multiple spreading codes for CDMA significantly reduces the possibility of eavesdropping, although within GSM eavesdropping of the transmitted signal was not the problem it was for the original analogue systems where anyone with a scanner radio receiver could listen to telephone conversations.

Note on CDMA:
CDMA, Code Division Multiple Access, is a multiple access scheme used by many 3G cellular technologies, and other forms of wireless technology. It uses a process called Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum where spreading codes are used to spread a signal out over a given bandwidth and then reconstituting the data in the receiver by using the same spreading code. By supplying different spreading codes to different users, several users are able to utilises the same frequency without mutual interference. Click on the link for a CDMA tutorial

UMTS CDMA format

The data to be transmitted is encoded using a spreading code particular to a given user. In this way only the desired recipient is able to correlate and decode the signal, all other signals appearing as noise. This allows the physical RF channel to be used by several users simultaneously. The data of a CDMA signal is multiplied with a chip or spreading code to increase the bandwidth of the signal. For WCDMA, each physical channel is spread with a unique and variable spreading sequence. The overall degree of spreading varies to enable the final signal to fill the required channel bandwidth. As the input data rate may vary from one application to the next, so the degree of spreading needs to be varied accordingly. For the downlink the transmitted symbol rate is 3.84 M symbols per second. As the form of modulation used is QPSK this enables two bits of information to be transmitted for every symbol, thereby enabling a maximum data rate of twice the symbol rate or 7.68 Mbps. Therefore if the actual rate of the data to be transmitted is 15 kbps then a spreading factor of 512 is required to bring the signal up to the required chip rate for transmission in the required bandwidth. If the data to be carried has a higher data rate then a lower spreading rate is required to balance this out. It is worth remembering that altering the chip rate does alter the processing gain of the overall system and this needs to be accommodated in the signal processing as well. Higher spreading factors are more easily correlated by the receiver and therefore a lower transmit power can be used for the same symbol error rate. The codes required to spread the signal must be orthogonal if they are to enable multiple users and channels to operate without mutual interference. The codes used in W-CDMA are Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes, and they must remain synchronous to operate. As it is not possible to retain exact synchronisation for this, a second set of scrambling codes is used to ensure that interference does not result. This scrambling code is a pseudo random number (PN) code. Thus there are two stages of spreading. The first using the OSVF code and the second using a scrambling PN code. These codes are used to provide different levels of separation. The OVSF spreading codes are used to identify the user services in the uplink and user channels in the downlink whereas the PN code is used to identify the individual node B or UE. On the uplink there is a choice of millions of different PN codes. These are processed to include a masked individual code to identify the UE. As a result there are more than sufficient codes to accommodate the number of different UEs likely to access a network. For the downlink a short code is used. There are a total of 512 different codes that can be used, one of which will be assigned to each node B.

UMTS / WCDMA modulation

- tutorial, or overview of the basics of the UMTS, WCDMA modulation formats or schemes used

The modulation schemes used within the CDMA signal format have been chosen to optimise the performance of the overall UMTS, WCDMA system. One major driver that influenced the choice of the UMTS modulation formats was experience gained from 2G systems. By using a careful choice of modulation scheme it has been possible to overcome the problems experienced in 2G. However there many other requirements that need to be met in addition to this.

UMTS modulation schemes

There are several considerations that were taken into account when making the choice for the overall format for the UMTS WCDMA modulation formats. Some of the considerations were:

It is necessary to ensure that the data is carried efficiently over the available spectrum, and therefore maximum use is made of the available spectrum, and hence the capacity of the system is maximised. The modulation scheme should be chosen to ensure that the efficiency of the RF power amplifier in the handset or UE is made as high as possible. By enabling the power amplifier to be maximised, less battery power is consumed for the same transmitted power. As battery power is of particular importance to users, this is a key requirement.

The modulation format should be chosen to avoid the audio interference caused to many nearby electronics equipment resulting from the pulsed transmission format used on many 2G systems such as GSM

As the uplink and downlink have different requirements, the exact format for the modulation format used on either direction is slightly different. UMTS modulation schemes for both uplink and downlink, although somewhat different are both based around phase shift keying formats. This provides many advantages over other schemes that could be used in terms of spectral efficiency and other requirements.

Note on PSK:
Phase shift Keying, PSK is a form of modulation used particularly for data transmissions. If offers an effective way of transmitting data. By altering the number of different phase states which can be adopted, the data speeds that can be achieved within a given channel can be increased, but at the cost of lower resilience to noise an interference. Click on the link for a PSK tutorial

Downlink modulation
The UMTS modulation format for the downlink is more straightforward than that used in the uplink. The downlink uses quadrature phase shift keying, QPSK. The QPSK modulation used in the downlink is used with time-multiplexed control and data streams. While time multiplexing would be a problem in the uplink, where the transmission in this format would give rise to interference in local audio systems, this is not relevant for the downlink where the NodeB is sufficiently remote from any local audio related equipment to ensure that interference is not a problem.

Uplink modulation
However the uplink uses two separate channels so that the cycling of the transmitter on and off does not cause interference on the audio lines, a problem that was experienced on GSM. The dual channels (dual channel phase shift keying) are achieved by applying the coded user data to the I or In-phase input to the DQPSK modulator, and control data which has been encoded using a different code to the Q or quadrature input to the modulator.

UMTS / WCDMA channels

- tutorial, or overview of the basics of UMTS / WCDMA logical, physical and transport channels.

There are many UMTS channells that are used within the UMTS system. The data carried by the UMTS / WCDMA transmissions is organised into frames, slots and channels. In this way all the payload data as well as the control and status data can be carried in an efficient manner. UMTS uses CDMA techniques (as WCDMA) as its multiple access technology, but it additionally uses time division techniques with a slot and frame structure to provide the full channel structure. A channel is divided into 10 ms frames, each of which has fifteen time slots each of 666 microseconds length. On the downlink the time is further subdivided so that the time slots contain fields that contain either user data or control messages. On the uplink dual channel modulation is used so that both data and control are transmitted simultaneously. Here the control elements contain a pilot signal, Transport Format Combination Identifier (TFCI), FeedBack Information (FBI) and Transmission Power Control (TPC). The channels carried are categorised into three: logical, transport and physical channels. The logical channels define the way in which the data will be transferred, the transport channel along with the logical channel again defines the way in which the data is transferred, the physical channel carries the payload data and govern the physical characteristics of the signal. The channels are organised such that the logical channels are related to what is transported, whereas the physical layer transport channels deal with how, and with what characteristics. The MAC layer

provides data transfer services on logical channels. A set of logical channel types is defined for different kinds of data transfer services.

Logical Channels:
Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH), (downlink). This channel broadcasts information to UEs relevant to the cell, such as radio channels of neighbouring cells, etc. Paging Control Channel (PCCH), (downlink). This channel is associated with the PICH and is used for paging messages and notification information. Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH), (up and downlinks) This channel is used to carry dedicated control information in both directions. Common Control Channel (CCCH), (up and downlinks). This bi-directional channel is used to transfer control information. Shared Channel Control Channel (SHCCH), (bi-directional). This channel is bi-directional and only found in the TDD form of WCDMA / UMTS, where it is used to transport shared channel control information. Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH), (up and downlinks). This is a bidirectional channel used to carry user data or traffic. Common Traffic Channel (CTCH), (downlink) A unidirectional channel used to transfer dedicated user information to a group of UEs.

Transport Channels:
Dedicated Transport Channel (DCH), (up and downlink). This is used to transfer data to a particular UE. Each UE has its own DCH in each direction. Broadcast Channel (BCH), (downlink). This channel broadcasts information to the UEs in the cell to enable them to identify the network and the cell. Forward Access Channel (FACH),(down link). This is channel carries data or information to the UEs that are registered on the system. There may be more than one FACH per cell as they may carry packet data. Paging Channel (PCH) (downlink). This channel carries messages that alert the UE to incoming calls, SMS messages, data sessions or required maintenance such as re-registration. Random Access Channel (RACH), (uplink). This channel carries requests for service from UEs trying to access the system Uplink Common Packet Channel (CPCH), (uplink). This channel provides additional capability beyond that of the RACH and for fast power control. Downlink Shared Channel (DSCH) (downlink).This channel can be shared by several users and is used for data that is "bursty" in nature such as that obtained from web browsing etc.

Physical Channels:
Primary Common Control Physical Channel (PCCPCH) (downlink). This channel continuously broadcasts system identification and access control information.

Secondary Common Control Physical Channel (SCCPCH) (downlink) This channel carries the Forward Access Channel (FACH) providing control information, and the Paging Channel (PACH) with messages for UEs that are registered on the network. Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) (uplink). This channel enables the UE to transmit random access bursts in an attempt to access a network. Dedicated Physical Data Channel (DPDCH) (up and downlink). This channel is used to transfer user data. Dedicated Physical Control Channel (DPCCH) (up and downlink). This channel carries control information to and from the UE. In both directions the channel carries pilot bits and the Transport Format Combination Identifier (TFCI). The downlink channel also includes the Transmit Power Control and FeedBack Information (FBI) bits. Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) (downlink). This channel shares control information to UEs within the coverage area of the node B. Physical Common Packet Channel (PCPCH). This channel is specifically intended to carry packet data. In operation the UE monitors the system to check if it is busy, and if not it then transmits a brief access burst. This is retransmitted if no acknowledgement is gained with a slight increase in power each time. Once the node B acknowledges the request, the data is transmitted on the channel. Synchronisation Channel (SCH) The synchronisation channel is used in allowing UEs to synchronise with the network. Common Pilot Channel (CPICH) This channel is transmitted by every node B so that the UEs are able estimate the timing for signal demodulation. Additionally they can be used as a beacon for the UE to determine the best cell with which to communicate. Acquisition Indicator Channel (AICH) The AICH is used to inform a UE about the Data Channel (DCH) it can use to communicate with the node B. This channel assignment occurs as a result of a successful random access service request from the UE. Paging Indication Channel (PICH) This channel provides the information to the UE to be able to operate its sleep mode to conserve its battery when listening on the Paging Channel (PCH). As the UE needs to know when to monitor the PCH, data is provided on the PICH to assign a UE a paging repetition ratio to enable it to determine how often it needs to 'wake up' and listen to the PCH. CPCH Status Indication Channel (CSICH) This channel, which only appears in the downlink carries the status of the CPCH and may also be used to carry some intermittent, or "bursty" data. It works in a similar fashion to PICH. Collision Detection/Channel Assignment Indication Channel (CD/CA-ICH) This channel, present in the downlink is used to indicate whether the channel assignment is active or inactive to the UE.

UMTS TDD / TD WCDMA

- a summary or tutorial about the basics of UMTS TDD, the time division duplex cellular technology sometimes called TD WCDMA, part of the UMTS 3G system.

UMTS TDD (Universal mobile telecommunications system - time division duplex) is a growing cellular technology. Although UMTS TDD or TD WCDMA is not as widely deployed as the more popular UMTS FDD which is being deployed for the 3G mobile phone systems, UMTS TDD is nevertheless being widely used and providing a viable service for many applications. In particular it is being used to provide mobile broadband data services, and other applications may include its use in providing

mobile TV applications. In this way, UMTS is a growing cellular technology which will be far more widely used in the years to come

TDD - time division duplex

A communications system requires that communication is possible in both directions: to and from the base station to the remote station. There are a number of ways in which this can be achieved. The most obvious is to transmit on one frequency and receive on another. The frequency difference between the two transmissions being such that the two signals do not interfere. This is known as frequency division duplex (FDD) and it is one of the most commonly used schemes, and it is used by most cellular schemes. It is also possible to use a single frequency and rather than using different frequency allocations, use different time allocations. If the transmission times are split into slots, then transmissions in one direction take place in one time slot, and those in the other direction take place in another. It is this scheme that is known as time division duplex, TDD, and it is used for UMTS-TDD.

Note on TDD and FDD duplex schemes:

In order for radio communications systems to be able to communicate in both directions it is necessary to have what is termed a duplex scheme. A duplex scheme provides a way of organizing the transmitter and receiver so that they can transmit and receive. There are several methods that can be adopted. For applications including wireless and cellular telecommunications, where it is required that the transmitter and receiver are able to operate simultaneously, two schemes are in use. One known as FDD or frequency division duplex uses two channels, one for transmit and the other for receiver. Another scheme known as TDD, time division duplex uses one frequency, but allocates different time slots for transmission and reception.

One of the key elements of any radio communications system is the way in which radio communications are maintained in both directions. Terms including simplex, duplex, frequency division duplex, FDD, and time division duplex, TDD, are all methods that can be used. For cellular systems it is necessary that it is possible to talk or send data in both directions simultaneously, and this places a number of constraints on the schemes that may be used to control the transmission flow. As it is such a key element of the system, it is necessary to settle on the scheme that will be used from outset. As a result the duplex scheme to be used forms a very basic part of the overall specification for the cellular (or any radio communications system) that is to be used. The different schemes for controlling the transmission range from simplex through half duplex to full duplex. Furthermore, schemes such as TDD and FDD need to be defined for the system depending upon its application and the traffic it is likely to carry. Many aspects of the performance will be governed by aspects such as whether FDD or TDD is used.

Transmission control schemes

There are a variety of different ways of controlling the two way passage of information using two transmitters. They range in complexity from the simplest systems requiring the least complex circuitry and providing more basic performance, to more complex systems providing higher levels of performance. However each scheme has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Simplex: Although the definition of simplex is not always clear the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) definition for a simplex transmission, is one that can only occur in one direction. One example of this may be a broadcast system. Occasionally simplex may refer to a half duplex scheme as described below. Half duplex: This is a duplex scheme whereby communication is possible in two directions, but communication is only possible in one direction at a time. If one transmitter is transmitting, the other one must wait until the first stops before transmitting. This form of communication is used for walkie-talkies, CB, etc. It may also be referred to as Simplex, in some circumstances although exact definitions can be contradictory at times.

Full duplex: Full duplex, which is sometimes referred to simply as duplex is a scheme whereby transmissions may be sent in both directions simultaneously. However it sis till necessary for the transmissions to be separated in some way to enable the receivers to receive signals at the same time as transmissions are being made. There are two ways of achieving this. One is to use frequency separation (frequency division duplex, FDD, and the other is to use time, time division duplex, TDD.

The two schemes are both widely used. Some cellular systems use TDD while others use FDD. Some standards also allow for the use of either as both FDD and TDD have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Frequency division duplex, FDD

Frequency division duplex, FDD, uses the idea that the transmission and reception of signals are achieved simultaneously using two different frequencies. Using FDD it is possible to transmit and receive signals simultaneously as the receiver is not tuned to the same frequency as the transmitter as shown.

FDD - frequency division duplex

For the FDD scheme to operate satisfactorily, it is necessary that the frequency, i.e. channel separation between the transmission and reception frequencies must be sufficient to enable the receiver not to be unduly affected by the transmitter signal. This is known as the guard band. Receiver blocking is an important issue with FDD schemes, and often highly selective filters may be required. For cellular systems using FDD, filters are required within the base station and also the handset to ensure sufficient isolation of the transmitter signal without desensitising the receiver. While cost is not such a significant driver for the base stations, placing a filter into the handsets is more of an issue. The use of an FDD system does enable true simultaneous transmission and reception of signals. However two channels are required and this may not always use the available spectrum efficiently. The spectrum used for FDD systems is allocated by the regulatory authorities. As there is a frequency separation between the uplink and downlink directions, it is not normally possible to reallocate spectrum to change the balance between the capacity of the uplink and downlink directions if there are changing capacity requirements for each direction.

Time division duplex, TDD

The other system uses only a single frequency and it shares the channel between transmission and reception, spacing them apart by multiplexing the two signals on a time basis. Time Division Duplex, TDD, is used with data transmissions (data or digitised voice), transmitting a short burst of data in each direction. As the transmission periods are relatively short no time delay is noticed on voice transmissions resulting from the time delays introduced by using TDD.

TDD - time division duplex While FDD transmissions require a guard band between the transmitter and receiver frequencies, TDD schemes require a guard time or guard interval between transmission and reception. This must be sufficient to allow the signals travelling from the remote transmitter to arrive before a transmission is started and the receiver inhibited. Although this delay is relatively short, when changing between transmission and reception many times a second, even a small guard time can reduce the efficiency of the system as a percentage of the time must be used for the guard interval. For systems communicating over short distances, e.g. up to a mile or so the guard interval is normally small and acceptable. For greater distances it may become an issue. The guard interval required for TDD will comprise two main elements:

A time allowance for the propagation delay for any transmissions from the remote transmitter to arrive at the receiver. This will depend upon the distances involved, but it takes 3.3 microseconds to travel a kilometre, 5.4 microseconds to travel 1 mile.

A time allowance for the transmitter receiver to change from receive to transmit. Switching speeds can vary considerably between equipments but can take a few microseconds.

As a result, TDD is not normally suitable for use over long distances as the guard time increases and the channel efficiency falls. Also transmit receive switching must be fast. It is often found that traffic in both directions is not balanced. Typically there is more data travelling in the downlink direction of a cellular telecommunications system. This means that, ideally, the capacity should be greater in the downlink direction. Using a TDD system it is possible to change the capacity in either direction relatively easily by changing the number of time slots allocated to each direction. Often this is dynamically configurable so it can be altered to match the demand. A further aspect to be noted with TDD transmissions is the aspect of latency. As data may not be able to be routed immediately onto a transmission as a result of the time multiplexing between transmit and receive, there will be a small delay between the data being generated and it being actually transmitted. Typically this may be a few milliseconds dependent upon the frame times, but in some applications it may be of interest, although for normal digitised speak, there would be no noticeable delay.

Transmission directions
It is often necessary to distinguish between the link from the mobile to the base station, and the link from the base station to the mobile. This is often necessary not only when talking of the duplex schemes in use. There are obviously two links:

Downlink, or forward link: This is the link from the base station to the mobile or user equipment. The words may be abbreviated to DL or D/L. Uplink, or reverse link: This is the link from the mobile or user equipment to the base station. The words uplink may be abbreviated to UL or U/L.

Although the definitions of transmission direction in this format are generally sued for cellular communications, they may also be used in other areas where a base station and mobile or remote equipments are in use.

TDD FDD Comparison

Both TDD and FDD have their advantages and each can be used to advantage in different circumstances. Before deciding on a particular type of duplex scheme, it is necessary to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of each. An FDD TDD comparison will then determine the best option.
ATTRIBUTE Use of spectrum TDD Uses only a single frequency for transmission and reception FDD Requires one channel for transmission and another for reception. Spectral efficiency may not be as good. Unbalanced traffic It is possible to easily adjust the capacity in either direction by Capacity in either direction can only be made by re-allocating channels.

ATTRIBUTE

TDD changing the number of slots dedicated to either direction. This can be achieved dynamically within the protocols of the system.

FDD This is not normally easy to achieve as allocations are made by regulators specifically for uplink or downlink with sufficient spacing, and are normally balanced providing the same capacity in either direction.

Distance

Is normally suited to small distances as guard time increases with distance as signal propagation time increases and this needs to be accommodated. Signals take 3.3 s to travel a kilometre and 5.4 s to travel 1 mile.

Does not have a problem with small or large distances.

Latency

A small degree of additional latency may be added as a result of the TDD multiplexing.

FDD introduces no additional time delays and latency as channels are always "open". Filters are normally required to prevent the transmitter block and desensitising the receiver. These costs can be a cost driver in items such as cellular handsets where volumes are high.

Equipment costs

No major additional equipment costs required as transmit-receive switching is cheap to effect.

Comparison of TDD and FDD duplex schemes In view of this TDD FDD comparison, TDD systems are often used in scenarios where short distances are required, with the possibility of unbalanced data traffic. FDD schemes are better over greater distances and where the traffic is balanced, i.e. similar in both directions. Both TDD and FDD duplex schemes have their own advantages and disadvantages. Accordingly they are used in different applications, or in different areas where the advantages of TDD and FDD can be used to the greatest advantage. In view of the advantages of unbalanced uplinks and downlinks in short range cellular and wireless applications, TDD solutions are finding an increasing number of applications, while FDD systems are still in widespread use where the there are different requirements. When using a TDD system, there are a number of characteristics that are pertinent for TDD systems. These characteristics need to be accommodated when developing or using TDD systems.

Utilisation of unpaired bands: Typically there is more traffic in the downlink (network to the mobile) than in the uplink (mobile to network). Accordingly the operator is able to allocate more time to the downlink transmission than the uplink. This is not possible with the paired spectrum required for FDD systems where it is not possible to re-allocate the use of the different bands. As a result of this, it is possible to make very efficient use of the available spectrum.

Discontinuous transmission: In any TDD system it is necessary to switch between transit and receive. This takes a certain amount of time. Not only does it take time for the mobile and

the base station to change between transmit and receive in terms of ramping up or down the power, along with the settling of any transients. In addition to this the time is required between transmit and receive to accommodate the transmission time between the mobile and

the base station. As a result a guard band is required. Uplink / downlink interference: As both uplink and downlink share the same channel there can be interference between the two transmission directions. To overcome this, base stations are synchronised to ensure that they do not transmit when an adjacent base station is

receiving, otherwise the better siting and possible higher power level will cause interference. Equivalent conditions for uplink and downlink: As both uplink and downlink use the same channel, they are subject to the same propagation conditions. With FDD systems using different frequencies for the uplink and downlink there are significant differences. By using the same frequency fading conditions can be counteracted more effectively.

UMTS TDD / FDD comparison

While UMTS TDD and UMTS FDD are both specified in the same standard and share very many properties, there are naturally some differences.
PARAMETER Multiple access method Duplex method Channel spacing Carrier chip rate Time slot structure Frame length (ms) Multirate concept UMTS TDD TDMA, CDMA TDD 5 MHz[1] 3.84 Mcps 15 / 14 slots / frame 10 Multicode, multislot and OVSF Burst types
[2]

UMTS FDD CDMA FDD 5 MHz 3.84 Mcps 15 slots / frame 10 Multicode, and OVSF[2]

(1) traffic bursts (2) random access burst (3) synchronisation burst

N/A

Detection

Coherent based on midamble

Coherent based on pilot symbols

Dedicated channel power control

Uplink: open loop 100 Hz or 200 Hz rate Downlink: closed loop max 800 Hz rate

Fast closed loop 1500 Hz rate

Spreading factors

1 .. 16

4 .. 512

Notes [1] for TD-SCDMA the channel [2] OVSF = Orthogonal variable Spreading Factor spacing is 1.6 MHz

UMTS TDD within 3GPP

All the standards for UMTS 3G systems have been defined under the auspices of 3GPP - the third generation partnership project. The standards not only define the FDD systems, but also the TDD system. In these specifications, it was the original intent of UMTS that the TDD spectrum would be used to provide high data rates in selected areas forming what could be termed 3G hot zones.

UMTS TDD details

UMTS TDD uses many of the same basic parameters as UMTS FDD. The same 5 MHz channel bandwidths are used. UMTS TDD also uses direct sequence spread spectrum and different users and what can be termed "logical channels" are separated using different spreading codes. Only when the receiver uses the same code in the correlation process, is the data recovered. In W-CDMA all other logical channels using different spreading codes appear as noise on the channel and ultimately limit the capacity of the system. In UMTS TDD, a scheme known as multi user detection (MUD) is employed in the receiver and improves the removal of the interfering codes, allowing higher data rates and capacity. In addition to the separation of users by using different logical channels as a result of the different spreading codes, further separation between users may be provided by allocating different time slots. There are 15 time slots in UMTS TDD. Of these, three are used for overhead such as signalling, etc and this leaves twelve time slots for user traffic. In each timeslot there can be 16 codes. Capacity is allocated to users on demand, using a two dimensional matrix of timeslots and codes. In order for UMTS TDD to achieve the best overall performance, the transport format, i.e. the modulation and forward error correction can be altered for each user. The schemes are chosen by the network, and will depend on the signal characteristics in both directions. Higher order forms of modulation enable higher data speeds to be accommodated, but they are less resilient to noise and interference, and this means that the higher data rate modulation schemes are only used when signal strengths are high. Additionally the levels of forward error correction can be changed. When errors are likely, i.e. when signal strengths are low or interference levels are high, Similarly higher levels of forward error correction are needed under low require additional data to be sent and this slows the payload transfer rate. Thus it is possible to achieve much higher data transfer rates when signals are strong and interference levels are low.

Spectrum allocations for UMTS TDD

Standard allocations of radio spectrum have been made for 3G telecommunications systems in most countries around the globe. In Europe and many other areas spectrum has been allocated for UMTS FDD between 1920MHz to 1980MHz and 2110MHz to 2170MHz. For UMTS TDD spectrum is primarily located between 1900MHz and 1920MHz and between 2010MHz and 2025MHz. In addition to this there are some other allocations around 3 GHz.

UMTS TDD performance

UMTS TDD is able to support high peak data rates. Release 5 of the UMTS standard provides HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access). The scheme allows the use of a higher order modulation scheme called 16-QAM (16 point quadrature amplitude modulation), which enables peak rates of 10 Mbps per sector in commercial deployments. The next release increases the modulation to 64-QAM, and

introduces intercell interference cancellation (called Generalized MUD) and MIMO (multiple in, multiple out). In combination, these increase the peak rate to 31 Mbps per sector.

3G TD-SCDMA Tutorial
- overview or tutorial of the basics of TD-SCDMA, the 3G UMTS TDD system that has been widely deployed in China.
TD-SCDMA is an additional TDD version of UMTS. Devised in China, the system provides a number of advantages in several applications. TD-SCDMA has been adopted as a 3G standard by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and it is part of the 3GPP UMTS system being defined in the 3GPP standards. Much of the initial work for the system was undertaken by the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT). Apart from the advantages of the basoc TDD approach, TD-SCDMA is able to support IP services, and it has been designed to incorporate new technologies such as joint detection, adaptive antennas, and dynamic channel allocation While similar in many was to UMTS TDD, TD-SCDMA is has a number of differences and handsets for the two systems would not be compatible unless the capability for both systems was specifically built in to them.

TD-SCDMA basics
One of the key elements of TD-SCDMA is the fact that it uses a TDD, Time Division Duplex approach. As seen with UMTS TDD this has advantages in a number of areas, enabling the balance to be changed between uplink and downlink to accommodate the different levels of data transfer. It also has advantages in terms of using unpaired spectrum, spectrum efficiency for certain loads and it does not require expensive diplexers in the handsets to enable simultaneous transmission on the uplink and downlink, although transmit / receive switching times must be accommodated and can reduce the efficiency of the system.

Note on TDD and FDD duplex schemes:

In order for radio communications systems to be able to communicate in both directions it is necessary to have what is termed a duplex scheme. A duplex scheme provides a way of organizing the transmitter and receiver so that they can transmit and receive. There are several methods that can be adopted. For applications including wireless and cellular telecommunications, where it is required that the transmitter and receiver are able to operate simultaneously, two schemes are in use. One known as FDD or frequency division duplex uses two channels, one for transmit and the other for receiver. Another scheme known as TDD, time division duplex uses one frequency, but allocates different time slots for transmission and reception. Click on the link for more information on TDD FDD duplex schemes

As a further advantage, TD-SCDMA uses the same RAN as that used for UMTS. In this way it is possible to run TD-SCDMA alongside UMTS, and thereby simplifying multi-system designs. Although UMTS (W-CDMA) and cdma2000 are widely recognized as 3G cellular standards, TD-SCDMA is equally valid. In fact it has been adopted as the low chip rate (LCR) version of the 3GPP TDD standard.

TD-SDCMA specification overview

The TD-SCDMA standard provides many advantages. As already mentioned it has many similarities to W-CDMA, although a summary of the basic features and specification is given below:
CHARACTERISTIC Bandwidth Chip rate per carrier Spectrum spreading mode Modulation Channel coding 1.6 MHz 1.28 Mcps DS SF=1/2/4/8/16 QPSK Convolutional codes: R=1/2,1/3 Turbo implemented Interleaving Frame structure 10/20/40/80 ms Super frame 720ms,Radio frame 10ms Subframe 5 ms Uplink synchronisation Number of voice channels per carrier Spectrum Efficiency Total transmission rate provided by each carrier 25Erl./MHz 1.971Mbps 1/2 chip 48 FIGURE

UMTS WCDMA handover or handoff

- tutorial, overview of the basics of handover or handoff within UMTS detailing hard handover, soft handover, softer handover and inter-RAT UMTS GSM handover.
Handover or handoff is as important for UMTS as any other form of cellular telecommunications system. As with any other cellular telecommunications system it is essential that UMTS handover is performed seamlessly so that the user is not aware of any change. Any failures within the UMTS handover (or UMTS handoff) procedure will lead to dropped calls which will in turn result in user dissatisfaction and ultimately it may lead to users changing networks, thereby increasing the churn rate. It is worth noting that the two terms UMTS handover and UMTS handoff have the same meaning. UMTS handover tends is the terminology that tends to be used within Europe, whereas UMTS handoff is more likely to be used within North America.

UMTS handover types

Within UMTS it is possible to define a number of different types of UMTS handover or handoff. With the advent of generic CDMA technology, new possibilities for effecting more reliable forms of handover became possible, and as a result one of a variety of different forms of handover are available depending upon the different circumstances. For purely inter W-CDMA technology, there are three basic types of handover:

Hard handover: This form of handover is essentially the same as that used for 2G networks where one link is broken and another established. Soft handover: This form of handover is a more gradual and the UE communicates simultaneously with more than one Node B or base station during the handover process. Softer handover: Not a full form of UMTS handover, but the UE communicates with more than one sector managed by the same NodeB. UMTS GSM inter RAT handover: This form of handover occurs when mobiles have to change between Radio Access Technologies.

Each of the different types of handover is used on different occasions dependent upon the conditions. Further details of each type of UMTS handover are given in the individual sections below.

UMTS hard handover

The name hard handover indicates that there is a "hard" change during the handover process. For hard handover the radio links are broken and then re-established. Although hard handover should appear seamless to the user, there is always the possibility that a short break in the connection may be noticed by the user. The basic methodology behind a hard handover is relatively straightforward. There are a number of basic stages of a hard handover:

1. The network decides a handover is required dependent upon the signal strengths of the existing link, and the strengths of broadcast channels of adjacent cells. 2. The link between the existing NodeB and the UE is broken. 3. A new link is established between the new NodeB and the UE. Although this is a simplification of the process, it is basically what happens. The major problem is that any difficulties in re-establishing the link will cause the handover to fail and the call or connection to be dropped. UMTS hard handovers may be used in a number of instances:

When moving from one cell to an adjacent cell that may be on a different frequency. When implementing a mode change, e.g. from FDD to TDD mode, for example. When moving from one cell to another where there is no capacity on the existing channel, and a change to a new frequency is required.

One of the issues facing UMTS hard handovers was also experienced in GSM. When usage levels are high, the capacity of a particular cell that a UE is trying to enter may be insufficient to support a new user. To overcome this, it may be necessary to reserve some capacity for new users. This may be achieved by spreading the loading wherever possible - for example UEs that can receive a sufficiently strong signal from a neighbouring cell may be transferred out as the original cell nears its capacity level.

UMTS soft handover

Soft handover is a form of handover that was enabled by the introduction of CDMA. Soft handover occurs when a UE is in the overlapping coverage area of two cells. Links to the two base stations can be established simultaneously and in this way the UE can communicate with two base stations. By having more than one link active during the handover process, this provides a more reliable and seamless way in which to perform handover. In view of the fact that soft handover uses several simultaneous links, it means that the adjacent cells must be operating on the same frequency or channel as UEs do not have multiple transmitters and receivers that would be necessary if they were on different frequencies. When the UE and NodeB undertake a soft handover, the UE receives signals from the two NodeBs and combines them using the RAKE receiver capability available in the signal processing of the UE. In the uplink the situation is more complicated as the signal combining cannot be accomplished in the NodeB as more than one NodeB is involved. Instead, combining is accomplished on a frame by frame basis. The best frames are selected after each interleaving period. The selection is accomplished by using the outer loop power control algorithm which measures the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the received uplink signals. This information is then used to select the best quality frame. Once the soft handover has been completed, the links to the old NodeB are dropped and the UE continues to communicate with the new NodeB. As can be imagined, soft handover uses a higher degree of the network resources than a normal link, or even a hard handover. However this is compensated by the improved reliability and performance of the handover process. However with around 5 to 10% of handovers falling into this category, network operators need to account for it.

Note on the RAKE receiver

A RAKE receiver is a form of radio receiver that has been made feasible in many areas by the use of digital signal processing, DSP. It is often used to overcome the effects of multipath propagation. It achieves this by using several sub-receivers known as "fingers" which are given a particular multipath component. Each finger then processes its component and decodes it. The resultant outputs from the fingers are then combined to provide the maximum contribution from each path. In this way rake receivers and multipath propagation can be used to improve the signal to noise performance.

UMTS softer handover

A form of handover referred to as softer handover is really a special form of soft handover. It is a form of soft handover that occurs when the new radio links that are added are from the same NodeB. This occurs when several sectors may be served from the same NodeB, thereby simplifying the combining as it can be achieved within the NodeB and not require linking further back into the network. UMTS softer handover is only possible when a UE can hear the signals from two sectors served by the same NodeB. This may occur as a result of the sectors overlapping, or more commonly as a result of multipath propagation resulting from reflections from buildings, etc. In the uplink, the signals received by the NodeB, the signals from the two sectors can be routed to the same RAKE receiver and then combined to provide an enhanced signal. In the downlink, it is a little more complicated because the different sectors of the NodeB use different scrambling codes. To overcome this, different fingers of the RAKE receiver apply the appropriate despreading or de-scrambling codes to the received signals. Once this has been done, they can be combined as before. In view of the fact that a single transmitter is used within the UE, only one power control loop is active. This may not be optimal for all instances but it simplifies the hardware and general operation.

Inter-RAT / Intersystem UMTS / GSM handover

In many instances it is necessary for the UMTS radio access network to handover to the 2G GSM network. These handovers are given a variety of names including Inter-RAT handover as they are handing over between different forms of Radio Access Technology, Intersystem Handover, and UMTS / GSM Handover. These handovers may be required for one of a variety of reasons including:

Limited UMTS coverage UMTS network busy whereas spare capacity is available on GSM network

The most common form of intersystem or inter-RAT handover is between UMTS and GSM. There are two different types of inter-RAT handover:

UMTS to GSM handover:

There are two further divisions of this category of handover:

Compressed mode handover:

Using compressed mode handover the UE uses the

gaps in transmission that occur to analyse the reception of local GSM base stations. The UE uses the neighbour list provided by the UMTS network to monitor and select a suitable candidate base station. Having selected a suitable base station the handover takes place, but without any time synchronisation having occurred.

Blind handover: This form of handover occurs when the base station hands off the UE by passing it the details of the new cell to the UE without linking to it and setting the timing, etc of the mobile for the new cell. In this mode, the network selects what it believes to be the optimum GSM based station. The UE first locates the broadcast channel of the new cell, gains timing synchronisation and then carries out nonsynchronised intercell handover.

Handover from GSM to UMTS : This form of handover is supported within GSM and a "neighbour list" was established to enable this occur easily. As the GSM / 2G network is normally more extensive than the 3G network, this type of handover does not normally occur when the UE leaves a coverage area and must quickly find a new base station to maintain contact. The handover from GSM to UMTS occurs to provide an improvement in performance and can normally take place only when the conditions are right. The neighbour list will inform the UE when this may happen.

UMTS handover methodology

The decisions about handover are generally handled by the RNC. It continually monitors information regarding the signals being received by both the UE and NodeB and when a particular link has fallen below a given level and another better radio channel is available, it initiates a handover. As part of this monitoring process, the UE measures the Received Signal Code Power (RSCP) and Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and the information is then returned to the node B and hence to the RNC on the uplink control channel.

Cellular Telecommunications and Cell Phone Technology

- articles and information on the basics of cellular telecommunications and cell phone technology
For wireless technologies (Wi-Fi, WiMAX, etc), please refer to our Wireless technologiespages.

These pages cover the technologies associated with mobile or cellular telecommunications - everything from LTE and HSPA back to GSM and before. Additionally topics including Self Optimising Networks, HetNETs and much more are described.

3G UMTS HSPA - High Speed Packet Access Tutorial

- UMTS HSPA, High Speed Packet Access, combines HSDPA and HSUPA for uplink and downlink to provide high speed data access.
3G HSPA, High Speed packet Access is the combination of two technologies, one of the downlink and the other for the uplink that can be built onto the existing 3G UMTS or W-CDMA technology to provide increased data transfer speeds. The original 3G UMTS / W-CDMA standard provided a maximum download speed of 384 kbps. With many users requiring much high data transfer speeds to compete with fixed line broadband services and also to support services that require higher data rates, the need for an increase in the speeds obtainable became necessary. This resulted in the development of the technologies for 3G HSPA.

HSPA features
The system provides an enhancement on the basic 3G WCDMA / UMTS cellular system, providing data transfer rates that are considerably in excess of those originally envisaged for 3G as well as much greater levels of spectral efficiency.

Note on 3G UMTS / W-CDMA:

UMTS - Universal Mobile Telecommunications System is a 3G cellular system that uses Wideband CDMA, WCDMA as the format for the radio transmission. Its aim was to provide high speed data at much higher speeds than was previously possible. The basic system provided for speeds of 2 Mbps in the downlink and 384 kbps in the uplink. Click for a UMTS / WCDMA tutorial

The system provides many advantages for users over the original UMTS system. As the 3GPP standards evolved, so did the performance available.

3G HSPA SPEED & SALIENT FEATURES 3GPP RELEASE TECHNOLOGY DOWNLINK SPEED (MBPS) UPLINK SPEED (MBPS)

3G HSPA SPEED & SALIENT FEATURES 3GPP RELEASE TECHNOLOGY DOWNLINK SPEED (MBPS) Rel 5 Rel 6 Rel 7 HSDPA HSUPA 2xdata capacity 2x voice capacity Rel 8 Rel 9 Multi-carrier Multicarrier, 10 MHz, 2x2 MIMO UL, 10 MHz & 16-QAM D/L Rel 10 20 MHz 2x2 MIMO in UL, 10 Rel 11 40 MHz 2x2 / 4x4 MIMO UL, 10 MHz 64-QAM MIMO DL 336 - 672 70 168 23 42 84 11 23 14.4 14.4 28 UPLINK SPEED (MBPS) 0.384 5.7 11

3G HSPA benefits
The UMTS cellular system as defined under the 3GPP Release 99 standard was orientated more towards switched circuit operation and was not well suited to packet operation. Additionally greater speeds were required by users than could be provided with the original UMTS networks. Accordingly the changes required for HSPA were incorporated into many UMTS networks to enable them to operate more in the manner required for current applications. HSPA provides a number of significant benefits that enable the new service to provide a far better performance for the user. While 3G UMTS HSPA offers higher data transfer rates, this is not the only benefit, as the system offers many other improvements as well: 1. Use of higher order modulation: 16QAM is used in the downlink instead of QPSK to enable data to be transmitted at a higher rate. This provides for maximum data rates of 14 Mbps in the downlink. QPSK is still used in the uplink where data rates of up to 5.8 Mbps are achieved. The data rates quoted are for raw data rates and do not include reductions in actual payload data resulting from the protocol overheads.

2. Shorter Transmission Time Interval (TTI):

The use of a shorter TTI reduces the round

trip time and enables improvements in adapting to fast channel variations and provides for reductions in latency. 3. Use of shared channel transmission: Sharing the resources enables greater levels of efficiency to be achieved and integrates with IP and packet data concepts. 4. Use of link adaptation: By adapting the link it is possible to maximize the channel usage. 5. Fast Node B scheduling: The use of fast scheduling with adaptive coding and modulation (only downlink) enables the system to respond to the varying radio channel and interference conditions and to accommodate data traffic which tends to be "bursty" in nature. 6. Node B based Hybrid ARQ: This enables 3G HSPA to provide reduced retransmission round trip times and it adds robustness to the system by allowing soft combining of retransmissions. For the network operator, the introduction of 3G HSPA technology brings a cost reduction per bit carried as well as an increase in system capacity. With the increase in data traffic, and operators looking to bring in increased revenue from data transmission, this is a particularly attractive proposition. A further advantage of the introduction of 3G HSPA is that it can often be rolled out by incorporating a software update into the system. This means its use brings significant benefits to user and operator alike.

3G UMTS HSPA constituents

There are two main components to 3G UMTS HSPA, each addressing one of the links between the base station and the user equipment, i.e. one for the uplink, and one for the downlink.

Uplink and downlink transmission directions The two technologies were released at different times through 3GPP. They also have different properties resulting from the different modes of operation that are required. In view of these facts they were often treated as almost separate entities. Now they are generally rolled out together. The two technologies are summarised below:

HSDPA - High Speed Downlink Packet Access:

HSDPA provides packet data support,

reduced delays, and a peak raw data rate (i.e. over the air) of 14 Mbps. It also provides around three times the capacity of the 3G UMTS technology defined in Release 99 of the 3GPP

UMTS standard. Read more about High speed downlink packet access, HSDPA HSUPA - High Speed Uplink Packet Access: HSUPA provides improved uplink packet support, reduced delays and a peak raw data rate of 5.74 Mbps. This results in a capacity

increase of around twice that provided by the Release 99 services. Read more about High speed uplink packet access, HSUPA

Beyond 3G HSPA
With the elements of 3G HSPA launched, further evolutions were in the pipeline. The first of these was known as HSPA+ or Evolved HSPA. The evolved HSPA or HSPA+ provides data rates up to 42 Mbps in the downlink and 11 Mbps in the uplink (per 5MHz carrier) which it achieves by using high order modulation and MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technologies.

UMTS HSPA and 3GPP standards

The new high speed technology is part of the 3G UMTS evolution. It provides additional facilities that are added on to t e basic 3GPP UMTS standard. The upgrades and additional facilities were introduced at successive releases of the 3GPP standard.

Release 4: This release of the 3GPP standard provided for the efficient use of IP, a facility that was required because the original Release 99 focussed on circuit switched technology. Accordingly this was a key enabler for 3G HSDPA. Release 5: This release included the core of HSDPA itself. It provided for downlink packet support, reduced delays, a raw data rate (i.e. including payload, protocols, error correction, etc) of 14 Mbps and gave an overall increase of around three over the 3GPP UMTS Release 99 standard.

Release 6: This included the core of HSUPA with an enhanced uplink with improved packet data support. This provided reduced delays, an uplink raw data rate of 5.74 Mbps and it gave an increase capacity of around twice that offered by the original Release 99 UMTS standard. Also included within this release was the MBMS, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services

providing improved broadcast services, i.e. Mobile TV. Release 7: This release of the 3GPP standard included downlink MIMO operation as well as support for higher order modulation up to 64-QAM in the uplink and 16-QAM in the downlink. However it only allows for either MIMO or the higher order modulation. It also introduced

protocol enhancements to allow the support for Continuous Packet Connectivity (CPC). Release 8: This release of the standard occurred during the course of 2008 and it defines dual carrier operation as well as allowing simultaneous operation of the high order modulation schemes and MIMO. Further to this, latency is improved to keep it in line with the

requirements for many new applications being used. Release 9: 3GPP Release 9 occurred during 2009 and included facilities for HPSA including 2x2MIMO in the uplink and a 10MHz bandwidth in the downlink. The uplink carriers may be from different bands.

Release 10: HSPA Release 10 utilises up to 4-carriers, i.e. 20 MHz bandwidth which may be from two separate bands. In addition to this 2x2 MIMO in the downlink provides data rates up to 168 Mbps. This figure equates to that obtained for LTE Release 8 when using comparable bandwidth and antennas configurations.

Release 11:

Release 11 occurred during 2011 / 2012. It provided the facility for 40MHz

bandwidth in the uplink along with up to 4x4 MIMO. The downlink was upgraded to accommodate 64-QAM modulation and MIMO.

Release 12:

This 3GPP release is occurring in 2013 / 2014.

3G HSPA is able to provide very high speed data transmission, competing with the top performance of LTE and LTE-A. While its spectral efficiency is not as high, it is nevertheless a considerable improvement on previous systems.

3G UMTS HSDPA - High Speed Downlink Packet Access Tutorial

- 3G UMTS HSDPA, High Speed Downlink Packet Access, provides the high speed downlink for HSPA. Using new data channels it enables speeds up to 14.4 Mbps to be provided.
3G HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access is an upgrade to the original 3G UMTS cellular system that provides a much greater download speeds for data. With more data being transferred across the downlink than the uplink for data-centric applications, the upgrade to the downlink was seen as a major priority. Accordingly 3G UMTS HSDPA was introduced into the 3GPP standards as soon as was reasonably possible, the uplink upgrades following on slightly later. 3G UMTS HSDPA significantly upgrades the download speeds available, bring mobile broadband to the standards expected by users. With more users than ever using cellular technology for emails, Internet connectivity and many other applications, HSDPA provides the performance that is necessary to make this viable for the majority of users.

Key 3G HSDPA technologies

The 3G HSDPA upgrade includes several changes that are built onto the basic 3GPP UMTS standard. While some are common to the companion HSUPA technologies added to the uplink, others are specific to HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access, because the requirements for the each direction differ.

Modulation: One of the keys to the operation of HSDPA is the use of an additional form of modulation. Originally W-CDMA had used only QPSK as the modulation scheme, however under the new system16-QAM which can carry a higher data rate, but is less resilient to noise is also used when the link is sufficiently robust. The robustness of the channel and its suitability to use 16-QAM instead of QPSK is determined by analyzing information fed back about a variety of parameters. These include details of the channel physical layer conditions,

power control, Quality of Service (QoS), and information specific to HSDPA. Fast HARQ: Fast HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request), has also been implemented along with multi-code operation and this eliminates the need for a variable spreading factor. By using these approaches all users, whether near or far from the base station are able to receive the optimum available data rate.

Improved scheduling:

Further advances have been made in the area of scheduling. By

moving more intelligence into the base station, data traffic scheduling can be achieved in a more dynamic fashion. This enables variations arising from fast fading can be accommodated and the cell is even able to allocate much of the cell capacity for a short period of time to a particular user. In this way the user is able to receive the data as fast as conditions allow.

Additional channels: In order to be able to transport the data in the required fashion, and to provide the additional responsiveness of the system, additional channels have been added which are described in further detail below.

Use of 16QAM within HSDPA

The rate control within HSDPA is achieved dynamically by adjusting both the modulation and the channel coding. Both 16WAM and QPSK are used, the higher order 16QAM modulation being used to provide a higher data rate, but it also requires a better Eb/N0 (effectively signal to noise ratio). As a result the 16QAM modulation format is normally used under high signal conditions, e.g. when the mobile is close to the NodeB and in the clear. The coding rate as well as the modulation are then selected for each 2ms TTI by the NodeB according to its assessment of the conditions. In this way the rate control mechanism can rapidly track the variations that may occur.

HSDPA Hybrid ARQ and soft combining

Hybrid ARQ or HARQ is hybrid automatic repeat request and it is essentially a form of the more common ARQ error correction methodology. When the basic ARQ format is used, error-detection information bits are added to data to be transmitted. One form of this may be a cyclic redundancy check, CRC. However when Hybrid ARQ is used, forward error correction (FEC) bits are also added to the existing error detection bits. The added error detection means that Hybrid ARQ performs better than ordinary ARQ in poor signal conditions, but the additional overhead can reduce the throughput in good signal conditions. The combination of Fast Hybrid ARQ and soft combining enables the terminal to request the retransmission of data that may be received erroneously. This can be done within the adaptive modulation and channel coding scheme so that when error-rates rise the link can be modified accordingly. The user equipment or terminal receives the data and decodes it, reporting back the result to the NodeB after the reception of each block, and in this way rapid retransmission of any blocks with errors can be undertaken. This significantly reduces delays, especially under poor radio link conditions or when the link is changing rapidly. Soft combining is a process whereby the user equipment or terminal does not discard information it cannot decode. Instead it retains it to combine with any retransmission data to increase the chance of successful decoding of the data. A process called Incremental Redundancy (IR) is also used with the retransmissions. This process adds additional parity bits in retransmissions to make the data retransmission more robust.

HSDPA performance
Using HSDPA scheme it will be possible to achieve peak user data rates of 10 Mbps within the 5 MHz channel bandwidth offered under 3G UMTS. The new scheme has a number of benefits. It improves the overall network packet data capacity, improves the spectral efficiency and will enable networks to achieve a lower delivery cost per bit. Users will see higher data speeds as well as shorter service response times and better availability of services. However new mobile designs will need to be able to handle the increased data throughput rates. Reports indicate that handsets will need to have at least double the memory currently contained within handsets. Nevertheless the advantages of 3G HSDPA mean that it will be widely used as networks are upgraded and new phones introduced.

3G LTE Tutorial - 3GPP Long Term Evolution

- developed by 3GPP, LTE, Long Term Evolution is the successor to 3G UMTS and HSPA providing much higher data download speeds and setting the foundations for 4G LTE Advanced..
LTE, Long Term Evolution, the successor to UMTS and HSPA is now being deployed and is the way forwards for high speed cellular services. In its first forms it is a 3G or as some would call it a 3.99G technology, but with further additions the technology can be migrated to a full 4G standard and here it is known as LTE Advanced. There has been a rapid increase in the use of data carried by cellular services, and this increase will only become larger in what has been termed the "data explosion". To cater for this and the increased demands for increased data transmission speeds and lower latency, further development of cellular technology have been required. The UMTS cellular technology upgrade has been dubbed LTE - Long Term Evolution. The idea is that 3G LTE will enable much higher speeds to be achieved along with much lower packet latency (a growing requirement for many services these days), and that 3GPP LTE will enable cellular communications services to move forward to meet the needs for cellular technology to 2017 and well beyond. Many operators have not yet upgraded their basic 3G networks, and 3GPP LTE is seen as the next logical step for many operators, who will leapfrog straight from basic 3G straight to LTE as this will avoid providing several stages of upgrade. The use of LTE will also provide the data capabilities that will be required for many years and until the full launch of the full 4G standards known as LTE Advanced.

3G LTE evolution
Although there are major step changes between LTE and its 3G predecessors, it is nevertheless looked upon as an evolution of the UMTS / 3GPP 3G standards. Although it uses a different form of radio interface, using OFDMA / SC-FDMA instead of CDMA, there are many similarities with the earlier forms of 3G architecture and there is scope for much re-use. In determining what is LTE and how does it differ from other cellular systems, a quick look at the specifications for the system can provide many answers. LTE can be seen for provide a further evolution of functionality, increased speeds and general improved performance.

WCDMA (UMTS) Max downlink speed bps Max uplink speed bps Latency round trip time approx 3GPP releases Approx years of initial roll out Rel 99/4 2003 / 4 150 ms 128 k 5.7 M 384 k

HSPA HSDPA / HSUPA 14 M

HSPA+

LTE

28 M

100M

11 M

50 M

100 ms

50ms (max)

~10 ms

Rel 5 / 6 2005 / 6 HSDPA 2007 / 8 HSUPA

Rel 7 2008 / 9

Rel 8 2009 / 10

Access methodology

CDMA

CDMA

CDMA

OFDMA / SC-FDMA

In addition to this, LTE is an all IP based network, supporting both IPv4 and IPv6. Originally there was also no basic provision for voice, although Voice over LTE, VoLTE was added was chosen by GSMA as the standard for this. In the interim, techniques including circuit switched fallback, CSFB are expected to be used

What is LTE? - specification overview

It is worth summarizing the key parameters of the 3G LTE specification. In view of the fact that there are a number of differences between the operation of the uplink and downlink, these naturally differ in the performance they can offer.
WHAT IS LTE? - BASIC SPECIFICATIONS PARAMETER Peak downlink speed 64QAM (Mbps) Peak uplink speeds (Mbps) Data type All packet switched data (voice and data). No circuit switched. Channel bandwidths (MHz) Duplex schemes Mobility FDD and TDD 0 - 15 km/h (optimised), 15 - 120 km/h (high performance) Latency Idle to active less than 100ms Small packets ~10 ms Spectral efficiency Downlink: 3 - 4 times Rel 6 HSDPA 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 50 (QPSK), 57 (16QAM), 86 (64QAM) DETAILS 100 (SISO), 172 (2x2 MIMO), 326 (4x4 MIMO)

WHAT IS LTE? - BASIC SPECIFICATIONS PARAMETER Uplink: Access schemes DETAILS 2 -3 x Rel 6 HSUPA

OFDMA (Downlink) SC-FDMA (Uplink)

Modulation types supported

QPSK,

16QAM,

64QAM (Uplink and downlink)

These highlight specifications give an overall view of the performance that LTE will offer. It meets the requirements of industry for high data download speeds as well as reduced latency - a factor important for many applications from VoIP to gaming and interactive use of data. It also provides significant improvements in the use of the available spectrum.

What are the main LTE technologies?

LTE has introduced a number of new technologies when compared to the previous cellular systems. They enable LTE to be able to operate more efficiently with respect to the use of spectrum, and also to provide the much higher data rates that are being required.

OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex):

OFDM technology has been

incorporated into LTE because it enables high data bandwidths to be transmitted efficiently while still providing a high degree of resilience to reflections and interference. The access schemes differ between the uplink and downlink: OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access is used in the downlink; while SC-FDMA(Single Carrier - Frequency Division Multiple Access) is used in the uplink. SC-FDMA is used in view of the fact that its peak to average power ratio is small and the more constant power enables high RF power amplifier efficiency in the mobile handsets - an important factor for battery power equipment. Read more about LTE OFDM / OFDMA / SCFMDA

MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output): One of the main problems that previous telecommunications systems has encountered is that of multiple signals arising from the many reflections that are encountered. By using MIMO, these additional signal paths can be used to advantage and are able to be used to increase the throughput. When using MIMO, it is necessary to use multiple antennas to enable the different paths to be distinguished. Accordingly schemes using 2 x 2, 4 x 2, or 4 x 4 antenna matrices can be used. While it is relatively easy to add further antennas to a base station, the same is not true of mobile handsets, where the dimensions of the user equipment limit the number of antennas which should be place at least a half wavelength apart. Read more about LTE MIMO

SAE (System Architecture Evolution): With the very high data rate and low latency requirements for 3G LTE, it is necessary to evolve the system architecture to enable the improved performance to be achieved. One change is that a number of the functions previously handled by the core network have been transferred out to the periphery. Essentially this provides a much "flatter" form of network architecture. In this way latency times can be reduced and data can be routed more directly to its destination.Read more about LTE SAE

A fuller description of what LTE is and the how the associated technologies work is all addressed in much greater detail in the following pages of this tutorial.

LTE SAE System Architecture Evolution

- information, overview, or tutorial about the basics of the 3G LTE SAE, system architecture evolution and the LTE Network

Along with 3G LTE - Long Term Evolution that applies more to the radio access technology of the cellular telecommunications system, there is also an evolution of the core network. Known as SAE System Architecture Evolution. This new architecture has been developed to provide a considerably higher level of performance that is in line with the requirements of LTE. As a result it is anticipated that operators will commence introducing hardware conforming to the new System Architecture Evolution standards so that the anticipated data levels can be handled when 3G LTE is introduced. The new SAE, System Architecture Evolution has also been developed so that it is fully compatible with LTE Advanced, the new 4G technology. Therefore when LTE Advanced is introduced, the network will be able to handle the further data increases with little change.

Reason for SAE System Architecture Evolution

The SAE System Architecture Evolution offers many advantages over previous topologies and systems used for cellular core networks. As a result it is anticipated that it will be wide adopted by the cellular operators. SAE System Architecture Evolution will offer a number of key advantages: 1. Improved data capacity: With 3G LTE offering data download rates of 100 Mbps, and the focus of the system being on mobile broadband, it will be necessary for the network to be able to handle much greater levels of data. To achieve this it is necessary to adopt a system architecture that lends itself to much grater levels of data transfer. 2. All IP architecture: When 3G was first developed, voice was still carried as circuit switched data. Since then there has been a relentless move to IP data. Accordingly the new SAE, System Architecture Evolution schemes have adopted an all IP network configuration. 3. Reduced latency: With increased levels of interaction being required and much faster responses, the new SAE concepts have been evolved to ensure that the levels of latency have been reduced to around 10 ms. This will ensure that applications using 3G LTE will be sufficiently responsive. 4. Reduced OPEX and CAPEX: A key element for any operator is to reduce costs. It is therefore essential that any new design reduces both the capital expenditure (CAPEX)and the operational expenditure (OPEX). The new flat architecture used for SAE System Architecture Evolution means that only two node types are used. In addition to this a high level of automatic configuration is introduced and this reduces the set-up and commissioning time.

SAE System Architecture Evolution basics

The new SAE network is based upon the GSM / WCDMA core networks to enable simplified operations and easy deployment. Despite this, the SAE network brings in some major changes, and allows far more efficient and effect transfer of data. There are several common principles used in the development of the LTE SAE network:

a common gateway node and anchor point for all technologies. an optimised architecture for the user plane with only two node types. an all IP based system with IP based protocols used on all interfaces. a split in the control / user plane between the MME, mobility management entity and the gateway. a radio access network / core network functional split similar to that used on WCDMA / HSPA. integration of non-3GPP access technologies (e.g. cdma2000, WiMAX, etc) using client as well as network based mobile-IP.

The main element of the LTE SAE network is what is termed the Evolved Packet Core or EPC. This connects to the eNodeBs as shown in the diagram below.

LTE SAE Evolved Packet Core As seen within the diagram, the LTE SAE Evolved Packet Core, EPC consists of four main elements as listed below:

Mobility Management Entity, MME: The MME is the main control node for the LTE SAE access network, handling a number of features: o Idle mode UE tracking

o o o o o o o

Bearer activation / de-activation Choice of SGW for a UE Intra-LTE handover involving core network node location Interacting with HSS to authenticate user on attachment and implements roaming restrictions It acts as a termination for the Non-Access Stratum (NAS) Provides temporary identities for UEs The SAE MME acts the termination point for ciphering protection for NAS signaling. As part of this it also handles the security key management. Accordingly the MME is the point at which lawful interception of signalling may be made.

Paging procedure

o o

The S3 interface terminates in the MME thereby providing the control plane function for mobility between LTE and 2G/3G access networks. The SAE MME also terminates the S6a interface for the home HSS for roaming UEs.

It can therefore be seen that the SAE MME provides a considerable level of overall control functionality.

Serving Gateway, SGW: The Serving Gateway, SGW, is a data plane element within the LTE SAE. Its main purpose is to manage the user plane mobility and it also acts as the main border between the Radio Access Network, RAN and the core network. The SGW also maintains the data paths between the eNodeBs and the PDN Gateways. In this way the SGW forms a interface for the data packet network at the E-UTRAN. Also when UEs move across areas served by different eNodeBs, the SGW serves as a mobility anchor ensuring that the data path is maintained.

PDN Gateway, PGW: The LTE SAE PDN gateway provides connectivity for the UE to external packet data networks, fulfilling the function of entry and exit point for UE data. The UE may have connectivity with more than one PGW for accessing multiple PDNs. Policy and Charging Rules Function, PCRF: This is the generic name for the entity within the LTE SAE EPC which detects the service flow, enforces charging policy. For applications that require dynamic policy or charging control, a network element entitled the Applications Function, AF is used.

LTE SAE PCRF Interfaces

LTE SAE Distributed intelligence

In order that requirements for increased data capacity and reduced latency can be met, along with the move to an all-IP network, it is necessary to adopt a new approach to the network structure. For 3G UMTS / WCDMA the UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, comprising the Node B's or basestations and Radio Network Controllers) employed low levels of autonomy. The Node Bs were connected in a star formation to the Radio Network Controllers (RNCs) which carried out the majority of the management of the radio resource. In turn the RNCs connected to the core network and connect in turn to the Core Network. To provide the required functionality within LTE SAE, the basic system architecture sees the removal of a layer of management. The RNC is removed and the radio resource management is devolved to the base-stations. The new style base-stations are called eNodeBs or eNBs. The eNBs are connected directly to the core network gateway via a newly defined "S1 interface". In addition to this the new eNBs also connect to adjacent eNBs in a mesh via an "X2 interface". This provides a much greater level of direct interconnectivity. It also enables many calls to be routed very directly as a large number of calls and connections are to other mobiles in the same or adjacent cells. The new structure allows many calls to be routed far more directly and with only minimum interaction with the core network. In addition to the new Layer 1 and Layer 2 functionality, eNBs handle several other functions. This includes the radio resource control including admission control, load balancing and radio mobility control including handover decisions for the mobile or user equipment (UE). The additional levels of flexibility and functionality given to the new eNBs mean that they are more complex than the UMTS and previous generations of base-station. However the new 3G LTE SAE network structure enables far higher levels of performance. In addition to this their flexibility enables them to be updated to handle new upgrades to the system including the transition from G LTE to 4G LTE Advanced. The new System Architecture Evolution, SAE for LTE provides a new approach for the core network, enabling far higher levels of data to be transported to enable it to support the much higher data rates that will be possible with LTE. In addition to this, other features that enable the CAPEX and OPEX to be reduced when compared to existing systems, thereby enabling higher levels of efficiency to be achieved.

4G LTE Advanced Tutorial

- overview, information, tutorial about the basics of LTE Advanced, the 4G technology being called IMT Advanced being developed under 3GPP.

With the standards definitions now available for LTE, the Long Term Evolution of the 3G services, eyes are now turning towards the next development, that of the truly 4G technology named IMT Advanced. The new technology being developed under the auspices of 3GPP to meet these requirements is often termed LTE Advanced. In order that the cellular telecommunications technology is able to keep pace with technologies that may compete, it is necessary to ensure that new cellular technologies are being formulated and developed. This is the reasoning behind starting the development of the new LTE Advanced systems, proving the technology and developing the LTE Advanced standards. In order that the correct solution is adopted for the 4G system, the ITU-R (International Telecommunications Union - Radiocommunications sector) has started its evaluation process to

develop the recommendations for the terrestrial components of the IMT Advanced radio interface. One of the main competitors for this is the LTE Advanced solution. One of the key milestones is October 2010 when the ITU-R decides the framework and key characteristics for the IMT Advanced standard. Before this, the ITU-R will undertake the evaluation of the various proposed radio interface technologies of which LTE Advanced is a major contender.

Key milestones for ITU-R IMT Advanced evaluation

The ITU-R has set a number of milestones to ensure that the evaluation of IMT Advanced technologies occurs in a timely fashion. A summary of the main milestones is given below and this defines many of the overall timescales for the development of IMT Advanced and in this case LTE Advanced as one of the main technologies to be evaluated.

MILESTONE Issue invitation to propose Radio Interface Technologies. ITU date for cut-off for submission of proposed Radio Interface Technologies. Cutoff date for evaluation report to ITU. Decision on framework of key characteristics of IMT Advanced Radio Interface Technologies. Completion of development of radio interface specification recommendations.

DATE March 2008 October 2009 June 2010 October 2010 February 2011

LTE Advanced development history

With 3G technology established, it was obvious that the rate of development of cellular technology should not slow. As a result initial ideas for the development of a new 4G system started to be investigated. In one early investigation which took place on 25 December 2006 with information released to the press on 9 February 2007, NTT DoCoMo detailed information about trials in which they were able to send data at speeds up to approximately 5 Gbit/s in the downlink within a 100MHz bandwidth to a mobile station moving at 10km/h. The scheme used several technologies to achieve this including variable spreading factor spread orthogonal frequency division multiplex, MIMO, multiple input multiple output, and maximum likelihood detection. Details of these new 4G trials were passed to 3GPP for their consideration In 2008 3GPP held two workshops on IMT Advanced, where the "Requirements for Further Advancements for E-UTRA" were gathered. The resulting Technical Report 36.913 was then published

in June 2008 and submitted to the ITU-R defining the LTE-Advanced system as their proposal for IMTAdvanced. The development of LTE Advanced / IMT Advanced can be seen to follow and evolution from the 3G services that were developed using UMTS / W-CDMA technology.

WCDMA (UMTS)

HSPA HSDPA / HSUPA

HSPA+

LTE

LTE ADVANCED (IMT ADVANCED)

Max downlink speed bps Max uplink speed bps Latency round trip time approx 3GPP releases

384 k

14 M

28 M

100M

1G

128 k

5.7 M

11 M

50 M

500 M

150 ms

100 ms

50ms (max)

~10 ms

less than 5 ms

Rel 99/4

Rel 5 / 6

Rel 7

Rel 8

Rel 10

Approx years of initial roll out

2003 / 4

2005 / 6 HSDPA 2007 / 8 HSUPA

2008 / 9

2009 / 10

Access methodology

CDMA

CDMA

CDMA

OFDMA / SCFDMA

OFDMA / SCFDMA

LTE Advanced is not the only candidate technology. WiMAX is also there, offering very high data rates and high levels of mobility. However it now seems less likely that WiMAX will be adopted as the 4G technology, with LTE Advanced appearing to be better positioned.

LTE Advanced key features

With work starting on LTE Advanced, a number of key requirements and key features are coming to light. Although not fixed yet in the specifications, there are many high level aims for the new LTE Advanced specification. These will need to be verified and much work remains to be undertaken in the specifications before these are all fixed. Currently some of the main headline aims for LTE Advanced can be seen below: 1. Peak data rates: downlink - 1 Gbps; uplink - 500 Mbps. 2. Spectrum efficiency: 3 times greater than LTE.

3. Peak spectrum efficiency: downlink - 30 bps/Hz; uplink - 15 bps/Hz. 4. Spectrum use: the ability to support scalable bandwidth use and spectrum aggregation where non-contiguous spectrum needs to be used. 5. Latency: from Idle to Connected in less than 50 ms and then shorter than 5 ms one way for individual packet transmission. 6. Cell edge user throughput to be twice that of LTE. 7. Average user throughput to be 3 times that of LTE. 8. Mobility: Same as that in LTE 9. Compatibility: LTE Advanced shall be capable of interworking with LTE and 3GPP legacy systems. These are many of the development aims for LTE Advanced. Their actual figures and the actual implementation of them will need to be worked out during the specification stage of the system.

LTE Advanced technologies

There are a number of key technologies that will enable LTE Advanced to achieve the high data throughput rates that are required. MIMO and OFDM are two of the base technologies that will be enablers. Along with these there are a number of other techniques and technologies that will be employed. OFDM forms the basis of the radio bearer. Along with it there is OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) along with SC-FDMA (Single Channel Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access). These will be used in a hybrid format. However the basis for all of these access schemes is OFDM.

Note on OFDM:
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) is a form of transmission that uses a large number of close spaced carriers that are modulated with low rate data. Normally these signals would be expected to interfere with each other, but by making the signals orthogonal to each another there is no mutual interference. The data to be transmitted is split across all the carriers to give resilience against selective fading from multipath effects.. Click on the link for an OFDM tutorial

One of the other key enablers for LTE Advanced that is common to LTE is MIMO. This scheme is also used by many other technologies including WiMAX and Wi-Fi - 802.11n. MIMO - Multiple Input Multiple Output enables the data rates achieved to be increased beyond what the basic radio bearer would normally allow.

Note on MIMO:
Two major limitations in communications channels can be multipath interference, and the data throughput limitations as a result of Shannon's Law. MIMO provides a way of utilising the multiple signal paths that exist between a transmitter and receiver to significantly improve the data throughput available on a given channel with its defined bandwidth. By using multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver along with some complex digital signal processing, MIMO technology enables the system to set up multiple data streams on the same channel, thereby increasing the data capacity of a channel.

What is MIMO? Multiple Input Multiple Output Tutorial

- MIMO: Multiple Input Multiple Output technology is uses multiple antennas to make use of reflected signals to provide gains in channel robustness and throughput.

Multiple-input multiple-output, or MIMO, is a radio communications technology or RF technology that is being mentioned and used in many new technologies these days. Wi-Fi, LTE; Long Term Evolution, and many other radio, wireless and RF technologies are using the new MIMO wireless technology to provide increased link capacity and spectral efficiency combined with improved link reliability using what were previously seen as interference paths. Even now many there are many MIMO wireless routers on the market, and as this RF technology is becoming more widespread, more MIMO routers and other items of wireless MIMO equipment will be seen. As the technology is complex many engineers are asking what is MIMO and how does it work.

MIMO development and history

MIMO technology has been developed over many years. Not only did the basic MIMO concepts need to be formulated, but in addition to this, new technologies needed to be developed to enable MIMO to be fully implemented. New levels of processing were needed to allow some of the features of spatial multiplexing as well as to utilise some of the gains of spatial diversity. Up until the 1990s, spatial diversity was often limited to systems that switched between two antennas or combined the signals to provide the best signal. Also various forms of beam switching were implemented, but in view of the levels of processing involved and the degrees of processing available, the systems were generally relatively limited. However with the additional levels of processing power that started to become available, it was possible to utilise both spatial diversity and full spatial multiplexing. The initial work on MIMO systems focussed on basic spatial diversity - here the MIMO system was used to limit the degradation caused by multipath propagation. However this was only the first step as system then started to utilise the multipath propagation to advantage, turning the additional signal paths into what might effectively be considered as additional channels to carry additional data.

Two researchers: Arogyaswami Paulraj and Thomas Kailath were first to propose the use of spatial multiplexing using MIMO in 1993 and in the following year their US patent was granted. However it fell to Bell Labs to be the first to demonstrate a laboratory prototype of spatial multiplexing in 1998.

MIMO -Multiple Input Multiple Output basics

A channel may be affected by fading and this will impact the signal to noise ratio. In turn this will impact the error rate, assuming digital data is being transmitted. The principle of diversity is to provide the receiver with multiple versions of the same signal. If these can be made to be affected in different ways by the signal path, the probability that they will all be affected at the same time is considerably reduced. Accordingly, diversity helps to stabilise a link and improves performance, reducing error rate. Several different diversity modes are available and provide a number of advantages:

Time diversity:

Using time diversity, a message may be transmitted at different times, e.g.

using different timeslots and channel coding. Frequency diversity: This form of diversity uses different frequencies. It may be in the form of using different channels, or technologies such as spread spectrum / OFDM. Space diversity : Space diversity used in the broadest sense of the definition is used as the basis for MIMO. It uses antennas located in different positions to take advantage of the different radio paths that exist in a typical terrestrial environment.

MIMO is effectively a radio antenna technology as it uses multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver to enable a variety of signal paths to carry the data, choosing separate paths for each antenna to enable multiple signal paths to be used.

General Outline of MIMO system One of the core ideas behind MIMO wireless systems space-time signal processing in which time (the natural dimension of digital communication data) is complemented with the spatial dimension inherent in the use of multiple spatially distributed antennas, i.e. the use of multiple antennas located at different points. Accordingly MIMO wireless systems can be viewed as a logical extension to the smart antennas that have been used for many years to improve wireless. It is found between a transmitter and a receiver, the signal can take many paths. Additionally by moving the antennas even a small distance the paths used will change. The variety of paths available occurs as a result of the number of objects that appear to the side or even in the direct path between the transmitter and receiver. Previously these multiple paths only served to introduce interference. By using MIMO, these additional paths can be used to advantage. They can be used to provide additional

robustness to the radio link by improving the signal to noise ratio, or by increasing the link data capacity. The two main formats for MIMO are given below:

Spatial diversity: Spatial diversity used in this narrower sense often refers to transmit and receive diversity. These two methodologies are used to provide improvements in the signal to noise ratio and they are characterised by improving the reliability of the system with respect to the various forms of fading. Spatial multiplexing : This form of MIMO is used to provide additional data capacity by utilising the different paths to carry additional traffic, i.e. increasing the data throughput capability.

As a result of the use multiple antennas, MIMO wireless technology is able to considerably increase the capacity of a given channel while still obeying Shannon's law. By increasing the number of receive and transmit antennas it is possible to linearly increase the throughput of the channel with every pair of antennas added to the system. This makes MIMO wireless technology one of the most important wireless techniques to be employed in recent years. As spectral bandwidth is becoming an ever more valuable commodity for radio communications systems, techniques are needed to use the available bandwidth more effectively. MIMO wireless technology is one of these techniques.

MIMO Formats - SISO, SIMO, MISO, MU-MIMO

- overview and definitions about MIMO formats or configurations: SISO, SIMO, MISO and MIMO for receiver diversity and transmitter diversity, etc..

There is a number of different MIMO configurations or formats that can be used. These are termed SISO, SIMO, MISO and MIMO. These different MIMO formats offer different advantages and disadvantages - these can be balanced to provide the optimum solution for any given application. The different MIMO formats - SISO, SIMO, MISO and MIMO require different numbers of antennas as well as having different levels of complexity. Also dependent upon the format, processing may be needed at one end of the link or the other - this can have an impact on any decisions made.

SISO, SIMO, MISO, MIMO terminology

The different forms of antenna technology refer to single or multiple inputs and outputs. These are related to the radio link. In this way the input is the transmitter as it transmits into the link or signal path, and the output is the receiver. It is at the output of the wireless link. therefore the different forms of single / multiple antenna links are defined as below:

SISO - Single Input Single Output SIMO - Single Input Multiple output MISO - Multiple Input Single Output MIMO - Multiple Input multiple Output

The term MU-MIMO is also used for a multiple user version of MIMO as described below.

MIMO - SISO
The simplest form of radio link can be defined in MIMO terms as SISO - Single Input Single Output. This is effectively a standard radio channel - this transmitter operates with one antenna as does the receiver. There is no diversity and no additional processing required.

SISO - Single Input Single Output The advantage of a SIS system is its simplicity. SISO requires no processing in terms of the various forms of diversity that may be used. However the SISO channel is limited in its performance. Interference and fading will impact the system more than a MIMO system using some form of diversity, and the channel bandwidth is limited by Shannon's law - the throughput being dependent upon the channel bandwidth and the signal to noise ratio.

MIMO - SIMO
The SIMO or Single Input Multiple Output version of MIMO occurs where the transmitter has a single antenna and the receiver has multiple antennas. This is also known as receive diversity. It is often used to enable a receiver system that receives signals from a number of independent sources to combat the effects of fading. It has been used for many years with short wave listening / receiving stations to combat the effects of ionospheric fading and interference.

SIMO - Single Input Multiple Output SIMO has the advantage that it is relatively easy to implement although it does have some disadvantages in that the processing is required in the receiver. The use of SIMO may be quite acceptable in many applications, but where the receiver is located in a mobile device such as a cellphone handset, the levels of processing may be limited by size, cost and battery drain. There are two forms of SIMO that can be used:

Switched diversity SIMO: that antenna.

This form of SIMO looks for the strongest signal and switches to

Maximum ratio combining SIMO: This form of SIMO takes both signals and sums them to give the a combination. In this way, the signals from both antennas contribute to the overall signal.

MIMO - MISO

MISO is also termed transmit diversity. In this case, the same data is transmitted redundantly from the two transmitter antennas. The receiver is then able to receive the optimum signal which it can then use to receive extract the required data.

MISO - Multiple Input Single Output The advantage of using MISO is that the multiple antennas and the redundancy coding / processing is moved from the receiver to the transmitter. In instances such as cellphone UEs, this can be a significant advantage in terms of space for the antennas and reducing the level of processing required in the receiver for the redundancy coding. This has a positive impact on size, cost and battery life as the lower level of processing requires less battery consumption.

MIMO
Where there are more than one antenna at either end of the radio link, this is termed MIMO - Multiple Input Multiple Output. MIMO can be used to provide improvements in both channel robustness as well as channel throughput.

MIMO - Multiple Input Multiple Output In order to be able to benefit from MIMO fully it is necessary to be able to utilise coding on the channels to separate the data from the different paths. This requires processing, but provides additional channel robustness / data throughput capacity. There are many formats of MIMO that can be used from SISO, through SIMO and MISO to the full MIMO systems. These are all able to provide significant improvements of performance, but generally at the cost of additional processing and the number of antennas used. Balances of performance against costs, size, processing available and the resulting battery life need to be made when choosing he correct option.

MIMO Spatial Multiplexing

- overview of MIMO - Multiple Input Multiple Output, spatial multiplexing used to provide additional data bandwidth in multipath radio scenarios.

One of the key advantages of MIMO spatial multiplexing is the fact that it is able to provide additional data capacity. MIMO spatial multiplexing achieves this by utilising the multiple paths and effectively using them as additional "channels" to carry data. The maximum amount of data that can be carried by a radio channel is limited by the physical boundaries defined under Shannon's Law.

Shannon's Law and MIMO spatial multiplexing

As with many areas of science, there a theoretical boundaries, beyond which it is not possible to proceed. This is true for the amount of data that can be passed along a specific channel in the presence of noise. The law that governs this is called Shannon's Law, named after the man who formulated it. This is particularly important because MIMO wireless technology provides a method not of breaking the law, but increasing data rates beyond those possible on a single channel without its use. Shannon's law defines the maximum rate at which error free data can be transmitted over a given bandwidth in the presence of noise. It is usually expressed in the form: C = W log2(1 + S/N ) Where C is the channel capacity in bits per second, W is the bandwidth in Hertz, and S/N is the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). From this it can be seen that there is an ultimate limit on the capacity of a channel with a given bandwidth. However before this point is reached, the capacity is also limited by the signal to noise ratio of the received signal. In view of these limits many decisions need to be made about the way in which a transmission is made. The modulation scheme can play a major part in this. The channel capacity can be increased by using higher order modulation schemes, but these require a better signal to noise ratio than the lower order modulation schemes. Thus a balance exists between the data rate and the allowable error rate, signal to noise ratio and power that can be transmitted. While some improvements can be made in terms of optimising the modulation scheme and improving the signal to noise ratio, these improvements are not always easy or cheap and they are invariably a compromise, balancing the various factors involved. It is therefore necessary to look at other ways of improving the data throughput for individual channels. MIMO is one way in which wireless communications can be improved and as a result it is receiving a considerable degree of interest.

MIMO spatial multiplexing

To take advantage of the additional throughput capability, MIMO utilises several sets of antennas. In many MIMO systems, just two are used, but there is no reason why further antennas cannot be employed and this increases the throughput. In any case for MIMO spatial multiplexing the number of receive antennas must be equal to or greater than the number of transmit antennas. To take advantage of the additional throughput offered, MIMO wireless systems utilise a matrix mathematical approach. Data streams t1, t2, tn can be transmitted from antennas 1, 2, n. Then there are a variety of paths that can be used with each path having different channel properties. To enable the receiver to be able to differentiate between the different data streams it is necessary to use. These can be represented by the properties h12, travelling from transmit antenna one to receive antenna 2 and so forth. In this way for a three transmit, three receive antenna system a matrix can be set up: r1 = h11 t1 + h21 t2 + h31 t3 r2 = h12 t1 + h22 t2 + h32 t3

r3 = h13 t1 + h23 t2 + h33 t3 Where r1 = signal received at antenna 1, r2 is the signal received at antenna 2 and so forth. In matrix format this can be represented as: [R] = [H] x [T] To recover the transmitted data-stream at the receiver it is necessary to perform a considerable amount of signal processing. First the MIMO system decoder must estimate the individual channel transfer characteristic hij to determine the channel transfer matrix. Once all of this has been estimated, then the matrix [H] has been produced and the transmitted data streams can be reconstructed by multiplying the received vector with the inverse of the transfer matrix. [T] = [H]-1 x [R] This process can be likened to the solving of a set of N linear simultaneous equations to reveal the values of N variables. In reality the situation is a little more difficult than this as propagation is never quite this straightforward, and in addition to this each variable consists of an ongoing data stream, this nevertheless demonstrates the basic principle behind MIMO wireless systems.

MIMO Space Time Block Coding and Alamouti Codes

- overview of MIMO coding including MIMO precoding, mimo diversity coding, space time diversity coding and Alamouti codes.

In order that MIMO spatial multiplexing can be utilised, it is necessary to add coding to the different channels so that the receiver can detect the correct data. There are various forms of terminology used including Space-Time Block Code - STBC, MIMO precoding, MIMO coding, and Alamouti codes.

Space time block codes

Space-time block codes are used for MIMO systems to enable the transmission of multiple copies of a data stream across a number of antennas and to exploit the various received versions of the data to improve the reliability of data-transfer. Space-time coding combines all the copies of the received signal in an optimal way to extract as much information from each of them as possible. Space time block coding uses both spatial and temporal diversity and in this way enables significant gains to be made. Space-time coding involves the transmission of multiple copies of the data. This helps to compensate for the channel problems such as fading and thermal noise. Although there is redundancy in the data some copies may arrive less corrupted at the receiver. When using space-time block coding, the data stream is encoded in blocks prior to transmission. These data blocks are then distributed among the multiple antennas (which are spaced apart to decorrelate the transmission paths) and the data is also spaced across time.

A space time block code is usually represented by a matrix. Each row represents a time slot and each column represents one antenna's transmissions over time.

Within this matrix, Sij is the modulated symbol to be transmitted in time slot i from antenna j. There are to be T time slots and nT transmit antennas as well as nR receive antennas. This block is usually considered to be of 'length' T.

MIMO Alamouti coding

A particularly elegant scheme for MIMO coding was developed by Alamouti. The associated codes are often called MIMO Alamouti codes or just Alamouti codes. The MIMO Alamouti scheme is an ingenious transmit diversity scheme for two transmit antennas that does not require transmit channel knowledge. The MIMO Alamouti code is a simple space time block code that he developed in 1998.

Differential space time block code

Differential space time block coding is a form of space time block coding that does not need to know the channel impairments in order for the signal to be decoded. The differential space time block codes are normally based upon the more standard space-time block codes. One block-code is transmitted from a set in response to a change in the input signal. This enables the system to work because the differences among the blocks in the set are designed to allow the receiver to extract the data with good reliability.

MIMO Antenna Beamforming

- overview of the basics of MIMO antenna technology including MIMO beamforming antenna technology.
The MIMO antenna technologies used are key to the overall MIMO performance. Additionally MIMO beamforming is an option that is coming to the fore. As various forms of technology improve the MIMO antenna technology can be pushed further allowing techniques like MIMO beamforming to be considered.

MIMO antenna & MIMO beamforming development

For many years antenna technology has been used to improve the performance of systems. Directive antennas have been used for very many years to improve signal levels and reduce interference. Directive antenna systems have, for example, been used to improve the capacity of cellular telecommunications systems. By splitting a cell site into sector where each antenna illuminates 60 or 120 the capacity can be greatly increased - tripled when using 120 antennas. With the development of more adaptive systems and greater levels of processing power, it is possible to utilise antenna beamforming techniques with systems such as MIMO.

MIMO beamforming smart antennas

Beamforming techniques can be used with any antenna system - not just on MIMO systems. They are used to create a certain required antenna directive pattern to give the required performance under the given conditions. Smart antennas are normally used - these are antennas that can be controlled automatically according the required performance and the prevailing conditions. Smart antennas can be divided into two groups:

Phased array systems:

Phased array systems are switched and have a number of pre-

defined patterns - the required one being switched according to the direction required. Adaptive array systems (AAS): This type of antenna uses what is termed adaptive beamforming and it has an infinite number of patterns and can be adjusted to the requirements in real time.

MIMO beamforming using phased array systems requires the overall system to determine the direction of arrival of the incoming signal and then switch in the most appropriate beam. This is something of a compromise because the fixed beam is unlikely to exactly match the required direction. Adaptive array systems are able to direct the beam in the exact direction needed, and also move the beam in real time - this is a particular advantage for moving systems - a factor that often happens with mobile telecommunications. However the cost is the considerable extra complexity required.

MU-MIMO Multi-User MIMO

- An overview of the basics of MU-MIMO Multi-User MIMO - a form of advanced Multiple Input Multiple Output technology including MIMO-BC and MIMO-MAC
Multi-user MIMO or MU-MIMO is an enhanced form of MIMO technology that is gaining acceptance. MU-MIMO, Multi-user MIMO enables multiple independent radio terminals to access a system enhancing the communication capabilities of each individual terminal. MU-MIMO exploits the maximum system capacity by scheduling multiple users to be able to simultaneously access the same channel using the spatial degrees of freedom offered by MIMO. To enable MU-MIMO to be used there are several approaches that can be adopted, and a number of applications / versions that are available.

MU-MIMO basics

MU-MIMO provides a methodology whereby spatial sharing of channels can be achieved. This can be achieved at the cost of additional hardware - filters and antennas - but the incorporation does not come at the expense of additional bandwidth as is the case when technologies such as FDMA, TDMA or CDMA are used. When using spatial multiplexing, MU-MIMO, the interference between the different users on the same channel is accommodated by the use of additional antennas, and additional processing when enable the spatial separation of the different users. There are two scenarios associated with MU-MIMO, Multi-user MIMO:

Uplink - Multiple Access Channel, MAC: The development of the MIMO-MAC is based on the known single user MIMO concepts broadened out to account for multiple users. Downlink - Broadcast Channel, BC : The MIMO-BC is the more challenging scenario. The optimum strategy involves pre-interference cancellation techniques known as "Dirty Paper Coding", DPC - see below. This is complemented by implicit user scheduling and a power loading algorithm

MU-MIMO Multi-User MIMO advantages

MU-MIMO, Multi-user MIMO offers some significant advantages over other techniques:

MU-MIMO systems enable a level of direct gain to be obtained in a multiple access capacity arising from the multi-user multiplexing schemes. This is proportional to the number of base station antennas employed. MU-MIMO appears to be affected less by some propagation issues that affect single user MIMO systems. These include channel rank loss and antenna correlation - although channel correlation still affects diversity on a per user basis, it is not a major issue for multi-user diversity.

MU-MIMO allows spatial multiplexing gain to be achieved at the base station without the need for multiple antennas at the UE. This allows for the production of cheap remote terminals - the intelligence and cost is included within the base station.

The advantages of using multi-user MIMO, MU-MIMO come at a cost of additional hardware - antennas and processing - and also obtaining the channel state information which requires the use of the available bandwidth.

MIMO-MAC
This form of MU-MIMO is used for a multiple access channel - hence MIMO and it is used in uplink scenarios. For the MIMO-MAC the receiver performs much of the processing - here the receiver needs to know the channel state and uses Channel Sate Information at the Receiver, CSIR. Determining CSIR is generally easier than determining CSIT, but it requires significant levels of uplink capacity to transmit the dedicated pilots from each user. However MIMO MAC systems outperform point-to-point MIMO particularly if the number of receiver antennas is greater than the number of transmit antennas at each user.

MIMO-BC
This form of MU-MIMO is used for the MIMO broadcast channels, i.e. the downlink. Of the two channels, BC and MAC, it is the broadcast channel that is the more challenging within MU-MIMO. Transmit processing is required for this and it is typically in the form of pre-coding and SDMA, Space Division Multiple Access based downlink user scheduling. For this the transmitter has to know the Channel State Information at the Transmitter, CSIT. This enables significant throughput improvements over that of ordinary point to point MIMO systems, especially when the number of transmit antennas exceeds that of the antennas at each receiver.

Dirty Paper Coding, DPC

Dirty Paper Coding, DPC is a technique used within telecommunications scenarios, particularly wireless communications to provide efficient transmission of digital data through a channel that is subject to interference, the nature of which is known to the transmitter. The Dirty Paper Coding, DPC, technique consists of precoding the data so the interference data can be read in the presence of the interference. The pre-coding normally uses the Channel State Information. To explain Dirty Paper Coding, DPC, an analogy of writing on dirty paper can be used. Normally black ink would be used, but if the paper is dirty, i.e. black, then the writing cannot be read. However if the writing was in white, although it could not be read on white paper, it would be perfectly legible on black, or dirty paper. The same technique is used on the data transmission, although the nature of the interference must be known so that the pre-coding can be incorporated to counter the effect of the interference. Multi-user MIMO is still in its infancy, and many developments are underway to determine the optimum formats for its use. Coding types as well as levels of channel state indication are being determined as these use up valuable resource and can detract from the overall data throughput available. However the significant gains that can be made by using MU-MIMO, multi-user MIMO mean that it will be introduced in the foreseeable future.