11
PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE DIVERSITY SCHEMES
USING A GSM RADIO LINK SDlCnATION
Luke J Ibbetson, Luis B Lopes
The University of Leeds
Currently being introduced throughout Europe is a new
standard for cellular telephony known as GSM ( Global
System for Mobile Communications ). Although
fonvard error correction and burst interleaving is
employed, the GSM radio link performance can be
seriously degraded by frequency selective fading and
dispersion of the received signal. A potentially effective
way of counteracting these effects introduced by the
mobile radio channel is to implement some form of
diversity scheme at the receiver. This paper considers
several alternative diversity techniques and discussea
their relative performance when implemented within an
accurate GSM radio link simulation.
1 INTRODUCTION
The mobile radio channel is generally hostile in nature
and can affect the signal to such an extent that the
system performance is seriously degraded. Time
dispersion is a major source of signal corruption, caused
by the existence of a multitude of alternative paths over
which the transmitted signal may propagate. For a given
antenna position, the various signal components will add
either constructively or destructively according to the
relative phase of the signals concerned. This vectorial
summation is altered by any movement of the mobile
antenna or reflecting surfaces, leading to variations in
the received signal amplitude commonly referred to as
fading. A change in frequency has a similar effect,
irrespective of receiver movement. In some systems this
phenomenon can be used to improve the radio link
performanceby altering the transmission frequency from
burst to burst, thus reducing the probabilityof the signal
remaining in a deep fade. This technique is known as
"Slow Frequency Hopping" ( SFH ) and is available as
a GSM system option.
Alternatively, the system performance can be
significantlyenhanced by using two antennas separated
by a distance large enough to achieve reasonable
decorrelation of the two incoming signals. This method
is known as antenna spatial diversity and operates by
capitalising on the position dependency of the fading. In
other words, the signal arriving via the first antenna
may be in a fade whereas the signal via the alternative
antenna may be strong. The principle advantage of
-
Mobile and Personal Communications, 13 15 December 1993. Conference Publication No. 387, @ IEE 1993
spatial diversity compared with frequency hopping is
that the alternative signals can be selected or combined
in an intelligent fashion, using information concerning
the signal strength or the signal quality.
The aim of this paper is to describe and evaluate several
diversity techniques within the context of the GSM radio
link. This is achieved using a comprehensive GSM radio
link simulation developed under a contract between the
University of Leeds and British Tele" Laboratories.
An overview of the GSM radio link is given in section
2, followed by an introduction to diversity techniques.
A description of the software tool is provided together
with a presentation of the key results. Finally,
conclusions drawn from the investigation are discussed
in section 7.
2 THE GSM RADIO LINK
GSM employs a combination of frequency and time
division access, comprising 124 FDMA radio channels
with full duplex operation. Each of these channels is
divided into 8 TDMA timeslots for a full rate channel,
or 16 timeslots for a half rate channel. This
investigation considers the full rate GSM speech channel
( TCH/FS ), fully specified in the GSM
recommendations [l].
The full rate speech coder employs a regular pulse
excited linear predictive coder in conjunction with a
long term predictor ( WE-LTP ). The encoding
technique is optimised for speech signals with the result
that only a very small amount of degradation is
introduced by the CODEC itself. The input speech
signal is divided into 20 ms segments, each of which
gives rise to a 260 bit speech frame corresponding to an
output rate of 13 kbitsls.
Each 260 bit frame is sub-divided into two sections such
that those bits with the greatest influence on speech
quality are placed at the beginning of the speech frame.
The first 182 bits ( referred to as "class 1" ) are
protected by coding, whereas the last 78 bits remain
unprotected. The "class 1" bits are further divided into
50 "class la" bitsand 132 "class lb" bits. The encoding
consists of an outer code designed to perform error
correction, and an inner code intended to detect any
remaining errors
 12
The "class la" bits are coded by a systematic cyclic
code which adds three parity check bits. Ultimately,
these check bits are used within the receiver to try and
determine the presence of errors in the decoded output
stream. If any errors are detected, the corrupted frame
will be erased and the speech output placed under the
control of a muting algorithm.
A half rate convolutional code is used to encode all the
"class 1" information and parity bits before being joined
with the "class 2" bits to form a block of 456 bits.
Finally, this block is reordered and partitioned into eight
sub-blocks which are diagonally interleaved across eight
successive bursts.
The purpose. of the reordering and interleaving
operations is to try and diversify the coded information
bits prior to transmission, so as to make non-
independent errors in the transmitted bits appear as
independent in the coded information bits. This goes
some way towards optimising the performance of the
error correction process, although at very low mobile
speeds the interleaving depth is not sufficient to
successfully decorrelate the error occurrences. For this
reason, the performance of faster moving mobiles in a
dispersive channel is generally superior to that of slow
or stationary mobiles.
3 DIVERSITY TECHNIQUES
The diversity techniques examined in this paper are
based on two branch antenna spatial diversity
implemented at the GSM base station. Hence antenna
angle, polarisation and macroscopic diversity are not
considered. Correlation between the two branches is set
to zero. This represents the ideal case since any
correlation between the signals will reduce the available
diversity gain. Although zero correlation is unlikely to
be possible in a practical system (where sufficient
antenna separation may not be possible), the aim of this
study is to compare the performance of various diversity
techniques with respect to each other rather than
attempting to predict the diversity gain in absolute
terms.
Diversity schemes can generally be divided into two
types involving either "switching" or "combining". In
each case the signals received by the two antennas are
down-converted and stored in buffers such that each
buffer contains a sequence of samples corresponding to
one TDMA burst. Switching diversity operates by using
some criterion to select one of these stored signals in
preference to the other. Depending on the selection
criteria, this can usually be achieved prior to signal
equalisation. The selection schemes considered by this
paper use a measurement of either the signal power or
the signal quality.
Combining diversity operates by performing a weighted
addition of the stored signals, normally after passing
each through a filter matched to the channel and
ensuring they are in phase with one another. The
combining weights are derived in a similar way to above
using a measurement of the signal power or the signal
quality, except in the simplest case where the signals are
added directly with equal gain.
Nine diversity techniques are described below. The first
four are based on switching and the remainder on
combining.
3.1 Switching diversity based on signal power
This scheme operates by selecting the signal with the
highest received power level. In the simulation this is
achieved by continuously comparing the power of the
two incoming signals and processing the one with the
highest level. In a practical system it may be more
desirable to set a threshold level such that when the
received power falls below this value the antenna is
switched.
3.2 Switching diversity based on ideal quality
This method operates by receiving both signals in
parallel and selecting the branch with the lowest number
of errors on a burst by burst basis. Since knowledge of
the actual number of errors is required, this scheme
could not be used in a practical system. However, this
represents the ideal situation and so provides a useful
upper bound on the performance of switching diversity
techniques in general.
3.3 Switching diversity based on square error
This scheme relies on obtaining an accurate estimate of
the signal quality on each receiver branch. This is
accomplished by passing the known training sequence
through a filter designed using the autocorrelation
coefficients of the channel estimate. The output is a
sequence comparable to the received training sequence
following operation of the matched filter. The mean
quare error ( MSE ) may then be calculated by
comparing the central sixteen samples of each sequence,
normalised by the power of the filter coefficients. The
signal with the lowest mean square error is selected
after calculating the MSE for each branch. Unlike the
ideal scheme, this technique could be implemented in a
practical system.
3.4 Switching diversity based on TS errors
In a similar way to the method outlined above, this
scheme operates by estimating the signal quality on a
burst by burst basis and could be implemented within a
real receiver. In GSM,each normal burst contains one
 13
of eight possible training sequences (TSs) known to the
receiver and used for the purpose of channel estimation.
By detecting the training sequence in the same way as
for a data field, an error count can be made by
comparing the received sequence with the known
sequence. The burst with the lowest number of errors is
selected. An obvious disadvantage of this scheme is the
need to operate the Viterbi equaliser prior to making a
decision.
3.5 Equal gain combining
With equal gain combining the signals from the two
antennas are CO-phased and added together with the
intention of maximising the received signal to noise
ratio. Although simple to implement, this scheme is sub-
optimal in that the signals are not weighted prior to the
addition. The simulation operates by adding the signals
after the matched filter, at which point the central peaks
of the overall impulse responses are in phase.
3.6 Maximal ratio combining
The technique of maximal ratio combining involves
weighting the signals in proportion to the received
power level prior to addition. In this way, more weight
is given to the branch with the highest power which will
maximise the signal to noise ratio in narrowband
channel conditions. The scheme is straightforward to
implement in a practical system, especially since a
power measurement is already available in the GSM
receiver as part of the handover control process.
3.7 Mean square error combining
Instead of relying on a power based weighting
algorithm, this scheme derives an estimate of the signal
quality using the mean square error method described in
section 3.3. The weighting factor for each branch is
simply the inverse of this measurement. Compared to
equal gain and maximal ratio combining,this scheme is
more complex to implement due to the quality
estimation procedure.
3.8 Viterbi output combining
It is possible to derive information concerning the
reliability of each individual bit during operation of the
Viterbi algorithm, as described in Mehlan and Meyr [2]
and Hagenhauer and Hoeher [3]. The method involves
continually updating a reliability indicator for each
decision, based on a comparison between the
incremental metrics of the paths entering each state ( at
each time instant ) with the current value of the
reliability indicator associatedwith the current survivor.
If the difference between the two incremental metrics is
less than the current reliability indicator, the indicator
assumes the smaller value.
The diversity technique operates by receiving both
signals and deriving the reliability vector for each
branch. The information is given the correct polarity by
multiplication with the hard decisions. Finally, the
signed reliability vectors are added together with equal
gain. Only hard channel decoding is being considered
within this study, so the combined reliability information
is converted from soft to hard information, i.e. any
value greater than zero becomes a one and any value
less than zero is set to "IS one. It should be noted
that the full potential of this scheme can only be realised
if soft channel decoding is employed. Furthermore, the
scheme requires two complete receiver chains up to the
channel decoder input.
3.9 Combining with a fixed delay
In an average urban environment, the maximum delay
introduced by the channel is generally around five or six
microseconds. The GSM receiver employs a sixteen
state equaliser capable of dealing with delays up to
approximately fifteen microseconds. This "spare"
capacity can be utilised in the following way to allow
more diversity gain, Lopes [4]. Before operation of the
receiver, one of the incoming signals is delayed by a
fixed amount equal to a single bit period ( = 3.69 p s ).
The other signal is then added to it forming the receiver
input signal. The scheme has the advantage of extreme
simplicity since no buffering or pre-processing of the
signal is required whatsoever.
4 GSM RADIO LINK SIMULATION TOOL
The simulation software used during this investigation
was developed jointly by the University of Leeds and
BT Laboratories. In its most basic form it comprises the
GSM channel coding and interleaving, GMSK
modulation, a time varying radio channel, receiver
equalisation and channel decoding. The simulation is a
flexible, modular tool capable of simulating any
combination of noise, cothannel or adjacent channel
interferencewith any number of independentinterferers.
More advanced features of the simulation include slow
frequency hopping and implementationof antenna spatial
diversity. In addition a GSM speech CODEC
demonstration has been developed which includes the
voice activity detection algorithm, discontinuous
transmission and speech output muting. The standard
COST-207[5] channel models are supported, and the
simulation also has the ability to directly import real
channel sounder measurements.
The channel decoder employs a 16-state Viterbi
algorithm and can use either soft or hard decoding
methods. Although simple to implement, hard d d i g
does not provide the radio link performance necessary
to meet the GSM specificationswith respect to receiver
performance. Soft decoding exploits information
 14

concerning the reliability of each bit (derived during the TU50 I AWGN / Gross 1 errors
equalisation process) and is therefore more effective. In
this study however, only hard decoding results are
considered for comparison of the various schemes. The
...... . ~.......
simulation output is a measurement of the raw and
coded bit error rate classes and the frame erasure rate
(FER). The m l t s presented consider only the gross
class 1 error rate, which is the protected bit error rate
across all bursts with no BccouIlt taken of frame
f .
1.. .... ..... .x,::...
\ . .......... L,. ;. ............... I
erasures.

5 SIMULATION CONDITIONS ......................... \..

.......................
................ .:. .......!. :\,. . :>:>,. ..........1'
\ ', :\.,'q,
The performance of each diversity scheme has been W1
4 8 12
assessed using the COST-207 lLpicul Urban channel
E b l M (dB)
model, with virtual mobile speed of 50 k"(denoted
TU50). Separate scenarios involving additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN) and continuous co-channel Figure 1 - Switching techniques in AWGN
interference have been simulated. As mentioned above,
only hard channel dewding has been considered,
allowing direct comparison with other published results
and limiting the number of receiver variables. In all Clearly, a diversity switch based on signal quality is
cases, the interfering signal consists of an entirely more robust than a power based method when operating

I_. ._/
random packet containing no embedded training with high levels of co-channel interference.
sequence. All bursts are given a random timing and
phase jitter, though the timing jitter never exceeds one
bit period. The Doppler channel files used to simulate
the fading channel conditions are completely Diversity
uncorrelated for each diversity branch. Finally, the 1%
BER is used throughput as a reference threshold for
performance comparison.
I"I It
6 RESULTS

6.1 Switching diversity

F i g u d l ] shows a graph of gross class 1 BER plotted

against increasing noise level for each of the four
switching diversity schemes. The maximum diversity
gain which may be achieved via an ideal packet switch
in noise limited conditions is shown to he just under 5
dB.Of the practical schemes, the power based diversity
switch gives the best performance and provides
approximately 4.5 dB of gain.
The performance of each scheme with continuous co-
channel interference is summarised in Table[l], again
for the TU50 channel model. The case with AWGN is
included for comparison. The maximum achievable
diversity gain is just over 6 dB, slightly greater than in
the noise limited case.
The power driven diversity switch is much less effective
than before and provides less than 3 dB of gain. This
occurs because in conditions limited by interference, the
received signal level is not strongly related to the signal
quuZity.he quality driven switching techniques ( MSE
and TS errors ) provide around 5.7 dB of diversity gain.
TABLE 1 - Diversity gain for switching techniques
6.2 Combining diversity
Results obtained using combining techniques are shown
in Figure[2] for noise limited conditions. The
straightforward equal gain combining scheme provides
over 5 dB of diversity gain, which is superior to that
obtained using ideal packet switching. The best
performance is given by maximal ratio combining,
which improves the class 1 error rate by almost 6 dB.
The MSE based quality combining method provides a
gain of 5.5 dB, whilst the simple fixed time delay
technique gives a respectable diversity gain of 4.6 dB.
Table[2] summarises the performance of combining
schemes in the presence of continuous co-channel
interference ( and AWGN for completeness ). The best
outright performance is given by the MSE quality driven
 15

TUSO I AWGN I Gross 1 errws soft information to the channel decoder. Indeed, this
method will only operate to full effect when used in
conjunction with soft channel d e c d i g .

The equal gain and maximal ratio methods achieve more

1 or less the same good level of performance, providing
approximately 5 to 6 dB of diversity gain under all
c conditions.

oi 7 CONCLUSIONS

Several antenna spatial diversity schemes have been

. . . . . .... .._. . .. . . . ..._. . . ....,.. . . . .,. . . . . . . . . described and their performance assessed under both
I noise and co-channel conditions using an accurate GSM
2 4 6 8 W
radio link simulation.
EbINo (de)

In noise limited conditions, the best outright

Figure 2 - Combining techniques in AWGN performance is given by maximal ratio combining. With
interference limited conditions, the maximum gain is
achieved with either the MSE quality based combining
scheme or a quality driven diversity switch.
method, which provides around 5.5 dB of gain. This
performance is close to that of a packet switch based on The performance of the Viterbi reliability combining
ideal signal quality. However, the increase in scheme cannot be properly assessed with hard decoding;
complexity required to estimate the signal quality must work is being done to evaluate the performance of this
be remembered. scheme in conjunction with soft channel decoding.

Combining
Diversity
Technique
1 GZ;ER ,
8 REFERENCES

1 GSM Recommendations, 1990,ETSIlTC

-. I
2 R. Mehlan, H. Meyr,1992,Proc. IEEE
Equal gain 4.9
Vehicular Technoloev Conf., 586-591
Max ratio 5.2
3 J. Hagenhauer, P. Hoeher,1989,Proc. IEEE
MSE 5.5 Globecom, 1680-1686
Viterbi 5.0
4 L.Lopes,1989,ElectronicLetters.25,1001,1002
1.7
Delay 5 COST-207 Final Report,1989,"Digital Land
Mobile Radio Communications", Commission
of the European Communities, Brussels
TABLE 2 - Diversity gain for combining techniques
9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The combining with fixed delay scheme distinguishes
itself by giving the worst performance, supplying less The authors would like to thank BT Laboratories for
than 2 dB of gain. Poor co-channel performance is an their support of this work, and for their cooperation in
inherent characteristic of this scheme due to the direct publishing this paper.
addition of random phase interferer signals. Although
only effective in noise limited conditions, the absolute
simplicity of the technique means that it may still be
attractive.

The Viterbi reliability combining method can be seen to

offer a constant gain of around 5 dB irrespective of
whether noise or interference is the dominant effect.
Although the gain is less than that produced by the MSE
quality scheme, it has the inherent ability of supplying