Sr. No.

Questions

Explain Ec/Io and RSCP; on what channel are they

measured on?

What does channelization codes do and function?

What does the scrambling code do and function?

Explain the concept of Cell Breathing. How is the

accounted for in the link Budget?

Explain the different Handover types in UMTS

What is an active set, monitor set and detected set?

What is the major difference in link budgets between

UMTS and GSM/TDMA?

In the Link Budget, what is a Shadow Fade Margin for

and what factors does it depend on?

What is the typical maximum active set size and what

needs to be consider when setting this?

10

What is typically the requirements (criteria) for a cell

to be added/removed/replaced to/from/in the active
set?

11

What would you define as a pilot polluter?

12

How would you find such cells from a planning tool and
from a drive test tool?

13

What would the call flow be for a Mobile Originated

Call (major RRC messages)?

14

What are the general triggers for an iRAT handover?

15

What is compressed mode, what is it's function, and

what impact does it have on the network?

16

Name the 4 RRC Connected Modes (states) and

describe the characteristics of each.

17

If a UE is on a data call (CELL-DCH state) and there is in

no activity for awhile what would you expect to see
occur?

18

In Release '99, how does the network manage the

throughput on the Radio Interface for a
user/connection?

19
20
21

What is the typical/most common bitrate that a voice

call uses?
Depending on the RF conditions, what can the
network do to manage call quality?
In HSDPA, how does the network manage the
throughput on the Radio Interface for a user/
connection?

22

Explain Inner and Outer loop power control and who

controls them.

23

In what cases is Open Loop Power Control used?

24

Explain the concept of a Monte Carlo Simulation for

UMTS Design

25

In pre-launch optimization, how are missing neighbors

usually detected?

26

What is the CQI in HSDPA?

27

What is the HARQ?

28

What is MIMO Antenna System?

29
30
31
32
33
34

What are the different RABs in R99?

What is TTI in WCDMA How it impact?
How many PSC in WCDMA?
What is the Processing Gain?
What is the Power Control?
what should be the idle CPICH power ?

35

What is rake receiver?

36

What kind of services are available with WCDMA?

37

Which modulation schemes are used in WCDMA?

38

What is interleaving?

39

What is threshold for adding and deleting a cell from

Active Set?

42

What are the types of location & routing are

registration update?
Which timer is involved for periodic LA & RA update
and in which
What are the idle mode tasks of UE?

43

Explain the cell selection criteria?

40
41

Answers
Ec/Io = energy of carrier over all noise. RSCP = Receive Signal Code Power. In FDD mode (what we normally deal with) they are
measured on the CPICH (pilot). Bonus if they know that Io is the sum of all interference: thermal/bg noise + interferers + own cell and
is wideband. Bonus if they understand that RSCP is actually measured AFTER despreading (i.e. narrowband)
Channelization codes are used for spreading and despreading of the signals, they also create the "channels" making it possible to
distinguish between users/connections/channels. Bonus if they know that they have an associated Spreading Factor and are allocated
depending on the bandwidth required by the service.
Scrambling Code makes it possible for the UE to distinguish the transmissions from different cells/NodeBs. Bonus if he knows there
are 512 primary scrambling codes and that the are broken up to 64 groups of 8 codes each.
Io or No (the interference part of Ec/Io and Eb/No) increase as the traffic on the network increases since everyone is using the same
frequency. Therefore as Io or No increases the UE or BTS needs to use more power to maintain the same Eb/No or Ec/Io. When the
power required is more than the maximum power allowed, the connection cannot be made. Users at the cell edge are usually the first
to lose service, hence the service area of a cell shrinks. As traffic decreases the reverse happens and the service area increases. They
should say that it is accounted for in the Noise Rise Margin found in the Link Budget.
Soft(er) Handover: connected to more than one cell on the same frequency, softer occurs when 2 cells in the active set belong to
same Node-B; Intra-frequency Hard Handover: Occurs when Ue moves from one cell in one RNC to a cell in another RNC and the RNCs
do not have an Iur link between each other; Inter-Frequency Hard Handover: when UE changes from one frequency to another
frequency (usually due to traffic layer management or Quality reasons);Inter-technology (iRAT) Hard Handover: Handover from UMTS
to GSM (v.v.) usually at the edge of UMTS service area but also due to quality reasons.
Active Set: the set of cells with which the UE is currently connected/communicating with; DriveTT usually show them as SC or Pilots
but they are actually cells; Monitored Set: Cells that the UE has detected and is monitoring and are known to the network, they either
don't meet the criteria or the active set is full; Detected Set - Cells that the UE has detected but are not known to the network as yet
(missing neighbor likely).
In UMTS you generally have a link budget for each service (voice, data, video etc), in GSM you usually only use 1 for voice. Each
service has a different Eb/No target. In UMTS you have to consider the target traffic load you will have and add a noise-rise margin, in
GSM you may have a slight interference margin but not normally related to traffic. In UMTS some services (like voice) will show up as
uplink limited but other services (like HSDPA, 384kbps service) will show as downlink limited. In UMTS you usually have to consider
that all users use the same power from the BTS therefore the more number of users the lower the maximum power available per user
(maximum power per connection) which is a starting point in the link budget.

The shadow fade margin is dependent on the target percentage area coverage, the propagation model, and the standard deviation of
the lognormal shadowing (usually the same as the model's standard deviation if the fast fading effects are removed). The Shadow
Fade Margin is a nadded margin placed in the link budget such that a guarenteed level of service can be offered "in the worst case"
3 to 4 cells, the larger the active set size the more likely it is that Iub link efficiency is reduced (more than one resource for a single
connection due to SHO)
For addition (Event 1a), candidate cell needs to have an Ec/Io value that is within a T_ADD threshold of the primary/reference (usually
the best) cell for a specify time hysteresis. For removal (event 1b), cell needs to have Ec/Io lower than T_DROP margin for a specific
time hysteresis. For replacement (event 1c), cell needs to have an Ec/Io better than the worst cell in the active set by the T_REPLACE
and for a specific time hysteresis.
Many definitions: A cell that has a high signal strength at a location but is not part of the active set. A cell that meets the criteria for
addition into the Active Set but can not enter because the active set is full.
Ignoring low signal conditions, if the best cell RSCP is greater than say -85dBm and there are cells not in the active set but are strong
enough to be in the active set then they are candidate for pilot polluters. Looking at cells that have a high noise rise, high amount of
traffic compared to surrounding cells, may also indicate a pilot polluter. Areas with high Signal strength for the (Active Set Size + 1)
best pilot (like the 4th best pilot if AS size is 3). In DTT, areas with poor Ec/Io but good RSCP, in the monitored set contains a cell with
a good Ec/Io but cannot enter the AS because it is full. Areas where scanner shows a strong signal for a far away cell.
RRC Connect Request -> RRC Connection Setup -> RRC Setup Complete -> (SETUP, authentication encyrption, TMSI reallocation etc) ->
CALL PROCEEDING-> Radio Bearer Setup -> Radio Bearer Setup Complete -> ALERT -> CONNECT -> CONNECT ACK ->DISCONNECT ->
RELEASE.
Ec/Io of best cell below a certain threshold (usually around -16 to -18 dB) or RSCP of best cell below a certain threshold (usually
around -100 dBm)
Compressed mode is when the mobile goes into a slotted transmit mode whereby it opens up an idle period (transmission gap) where
it can monitor another carrier or technology (GSM). The impact is that to maintain the same bitrate, it halves the SF, and therefore
increases power level causing higher interference to the network. If the SF cannot be halved then the bitrate of the bearer decreases.
If they seem knowledable, ask them if they know what messages and events trigger and configure compressed mode on/off. 2D event
for on, 2F for off. Messages would for configuration would be RADIO BEARER RECONFIGURATION, TRANSPORT CHANNEL
RECONFIGFURATION or PHYSICAL CHANNEL RECONFIGURATION.

Cell-DCH: UE has been allocated a dedicated physical channel in

uplink and downlink.
Cell-FACH: UE listens to RACH channel (DL) and is allocated a FACH channel (UL). Small amounts of UL/DL data can be transfers in this
state. The RNC tracks the UE down to the cell level and cell reselections are possible with the CELL UPDATE message.
Cell-PCH: UE monitors (using discontinuous reception) a PCH channel (PCH) indicated by the PICH channel. The RNC tracks the UE
down to the cell level and cell reselections are possible with the CELL UPDATE message. No data can be transfered in the UL in this
state.
URA-PCH: UE monitors (using discontinuous reception) a PCH channel (PCH) indicated by the PICH channel. The RNC tracks the UE
down to the URA level.
UE should go from CELL-DCH to CELL-FACH then if still no activity to either CELL-PCH or URA-PCH (via CELL-FACH). If they talk about
inactivity timers and mention that the state goes from CELL-DCH straight to CELL-PCH or URA-PCH, that is also possible. Bonus they
say they would see RADIO BEARER RECONFIGURATION messages when the states are changing.
This question is a little harder to ask, so you may need to work it differently a few times. Perhaps leading questions could be: What
parameter/configuration does the network change on the air interface What you are trying to hear from the candidate is that the
network assigns a radio bearer with a channelization code with a spreading factor that matches the requested service maximum bit
rate.
They should say 12.2kbps but may be different if they start talking about AMR and the different rates then the know more. Prod them
to see if they know the Spreading Factor (SF) used for the radio bearer, should be 128.
AMR - for good conditions use codec will low redundancy/overhead; for poor conditions use codec with lower bit rate requirement
but higher overhead, stronger coding and more redundancy.
Modulation (16QAM, QPSK etc), Coding (convolution coding, fire codes etc), number of codes allocated and scheduling (it's a shared
resource)
If they start talking about Open and Closed Loop PC, tell them you want Inner/Outer Closed Loop PC. Inner loop power control is
performed by the NodeB to set the transmit power of the UE and BTS to compensate for signal variations due to fading or pathloss to
maintain the set SIR (occurs up to 1500 times per sec). Outer loop power control is performed by the RNC to set the target SIR based
on the required BER/BLER for the requested services (occurs up to 100 times per sec).
1) Idle to Cell-DCH state, when a connection is setup. When UE goes into soft handover, ACTIVE SET UPDATE where the new Radio
Link initial power settings use open loop PC.

This is a simulator that randomly distributes terminals/users geographically onto the network and then checks the link budget for
each terminal/connection to see if they can successfully connect or not. The simulator modifies parameters such has UE Tx Power,
BTS Tx Power, requested bearer (in the case that multiple bearers could support the same service) when checking if a connection can
be made. In every snapshot the simulator runs through the list of terminals/connections and attempts to make them all connect
successfully, it starts a new snapshot when the number of successful connections converges. The process then starts on a new
snapshot.
Usually you use a scanner and compare the best pilots in Ec/Io from the scanner against that of the active set and monitored set from
an active UE. If there is a stonger pilot from a nearby cell that appears on the scanner but not on the UE, there is a possible missing
neighbor. One would then verify that the neighbor appears in defined neighbor list from the OSS.
CQI is the channel Quality Indicator, Which is calculated on the Basis of RF invoirment, and the and code allocation is done on the
basis of CQI.
This is the Hybrid Automatic repeat request Technique for the retransmission of the lost frame which is used by the HSDPA. Which
help to recover the lost frame by two partially lost frame.
this is the multiple input multiple output antenna technique system which improves the n/w throughput over the air interface
cs-12.2 for speech,cs-64 for video calls ,ps-16 ps-64 ps 128 ps-384 for data services
it is the transmission time interval for sending one frame for WCDMA it is 10ms
0-511, Total 512
ratio of chip rate to bit rate , lower bit rate services will offer higher processing gain
power control is the mechanism of maintaining minimal power level with acceptable QOS for each service
10% of the Total Power
A rake receiver is a radio receiver designed to counter the effects of multipath fading. It does this by using several "sub-receivers"
called fingers, that is, several correlators each assigned to a different multipath component. Each finger independently decodes a
single multipath component; at a later stage the contribution of all fingers are combined in order to make the most use of the
different transmission characteristics of each transmission path
conversational, background, streaming, interactive
QPSK. HPSK, BPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM
Interleaving is the technique used to distribute the data so as to make the error correction accurate at the reciever end.
For addition 3 dB and for deletion 6dB

1. IMSI attach / detatch 2. Normal LA & RA updating 3. Periodic LA & RA updating

Timer t3212 is involved and is contained in SIB1
1. PLMN selection & reselection
2.Cell selection & reselection
3. LA & RA registration
4. Paging procedure
5. Reading System information
Squal = Qqualmeas - qQualMin > 0
Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas - qRxLevMin - Pcompensation > 0
where ,Pcompensation = max (maxTXpowerUL - P ;0 )
qQualMin - Minimum required quality value and is sent in SIB3 for serving cell and SIB 11 for adjacent cell
qRxLevMin - Minimum required signal strength and is sent in SIB3 for serving cell and SIB 11 for adjacent cell
maxTXpowerUL - Maximum transmission power during random access on the RACH and is sent in SIB3
P - UE maximum output power according to its class