WCDMA Power Control Principle

ISSUE 1.0

Huawei Confidential. All Rights Reserved

 Chapter 1 Power Overview

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

2 Internal Use
 Purpose of power control

 Purpose of power control

 Uplink channel: To overcome the near-far effect.
 Downlink channel : Overcome fast fading and the interferences of adjacent cells.

 Power control must be used in CDMA system to ensure every user transmits
at minimum power, thus maximizing network capacity

3 Internal Use
Power control classification

 Power control classification：

 Open loop Power control

 Closed loop Power control

 Uplink inner power control

 Downlink inner-power control
 Uplink outer power control
 Downlink outer power control

 The purpose of inner loop power control in WCDMA system is to maintain a certain
signal-to-interference ratio of transmission signal power when the signals reach the
receiving end.

 However, for different multi-path environments, even if the mean signal-to-

interference ratio is kept above a certain threshold, the communication quality
requirement (BER) can not always be satisfied .
4 Internal Use
The Relationship between Transmitted Power and
Received Power after Power Control Methods Introduced

20
Channel
15 Transmitted power
Received power
10
Relative power (dB)

-5

-10

-15

-20
0 200 400 600 800

Time (ms)

5 Internal Use
 Benefit of Power Control

 Benefit of power control

 Overcome uplink near-far problem

 Ensure good communication quality in uplink and downlink by adjust
transmission power
 Overcome the influences of unfavorable factors such as fast fading, slow fading
on radio channels
 Decrease network interference, increase the capacity and quality of network
 In other word, the purpose of power control is to ensure the QoS with minimum
power in the CDMA system.

6 Internal Use
Power control methods adopted for various physical channels

 Power control methods adopted for various physical channels

 "X" – can be applied, "–" – not applied

Physical Open loop Inner loop Outer loop No power control process,
channel power power power power is specified by upper
control control Control layers.
DPDCH － X X －
DPCCH X X X －
PCCPCH － － － X
SCCPCH － － － X
PRACH X － － －
AICH － － － X
PICH － － － X

7 Internal Use
 Chapter 1 Power Overview

Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

8 Internal Use
 Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

1.Open loop power control

2.Inner-loop power control

3.Outer loop power control

9 Internal Use
 Open Loop Power Control Overview

 Purpose
 UE estimates the power loss of signals on the propagation path by
measuring the downlink channel signals, then calculate the transmission
power of the uplink channel.
 Mainly used for initial connection setup.

 Under the FDD mode, fast fading of the uplink channel is unrelated to fast
fading of the downlink channel.

10 Internal Use
 Open Loop Power Control Overview

 Disadvantage of open loop power control

 This power control method is rather vague

 Application scenarios of open loop power control

 In the range of a cell, signal fading caused by fast fading is usually more
serious than that caused by propagation loss. Therefore, open loop
power control is applied only at the beginning of connection setup,
generally in setting the initial power value.

11 Internal Use
 Open Loop Power Control of PRACH

One access slot

Acq.
AICH access Ind.
slots RX at UE

t
p-a
PRACH access Pre- Pre- Message part
amble amble
slots TX at UE

t t
p-p p-m

Random access procedure of PRACH :

- UE transmit a preamble using the selected uplink access slot, signature, and preamble
transmission power.
- Then ,UTARN response by sending AI if the preamble is received.
- Next, UE transmit the message part if the AI is received.
- But, if UE does not receive the AI from UTRAN in τp-p period, a next preamble will be

transmitted.
12 Internal Use
 Open Loop Power Control of PRACH

 The initial value of PRACH power is set through open loop power control
Preamble_Initial_Power = PCPICH DL TX power －CPICH_RSCP + UL
Interference + Constant Value

 Parameters
 PCPICH DL TX power, UL interference and Constant are given in system information.
 The value of CPICH_RSCP is measured by UE
 PCPICH DL TX power is very closed to the downlink coverage ability,
which is already given in cell setup.
 UL interference can be measured by NodeB, then it will be reported to RNC.
 Constant Value is the threshold of preamble message. This value has to be
analysed very carefully.

13 Internal Use
 Open loop power control of PRACH

Pp-m

Power Ramp Step

Preable_Initial_
power

10ms/20ms

NO. Parameter Parameter meaning

1 Power Offset Pp-m
2 Constant Value
3 PRACH Power Ramp Step
4 Preamble Retrans Max
The power offset of the last access preamble and message control part. This
value plus the access preamble power is the power of the control part
This parameter is the correction constant used for the UE to estimate the
initial transmission power of PRACH according to the open loop power
This parameter is the ramp step of the preamble power when the UE has not
received the capture indication from NodeB
This parameter is the permitted maximum preamble repeat times of the UE
within a preamble ramp cycle

14 Internal Use
 Open loop power control of PRACH

 Different Constant Values for different stage of WCDMA network

lifecycle. Take the beginning stage for example:

 Constant Value can be greater (-16dB or -15dB) so that the preamble

message can be received easier by UTRAN
 The power ramp step could be greater so that the possibility which the
preamble message can be received correctly will be higher

 With the development of network, the number of users increased

very fast. On this stage, the Constant value could be less 1dB.

15 Internal Use
Open loop power control of PRACH
Application scenarios

Node B Serving
UE
Serving RNS RNC

1. CCCH : RRC Connection Request

RRC RRC

Allocate RNTI
Select L1 and L2
parameters

2. Radio Link Setup Request

NBAP NBAP
Open loop power
control of PRACH Start RX
description
3. Radio Link Setup Response
NBAP NBAP

4. ALCAP Iub Data Transport Bearer Setup

5. Downlink Synchronisation
DCH - FP DCH - FP

6. Uplink Synchronisation
DCH - FP DCH - FP

Start TX
description
7. CCCH : RRC Connection Set up
RRC RRC
8. Radio Link Restore Indication
NBAP NBAP

9. DCCH : RRC Connection Setup Complete

RRC RRC

16 Internal Use
 Open loop power control of DL DPCCH

 The DL DPCCH open loop power control can be calculated by the

following formula:
P =（Ec/Io)Req - CPICH_Ec/Io + PCPICH

 Parameters
 (Ec/Io)req is the required Ec/Io, which should be satisfied for UE to be able to
received the message from dedicated channel correctly
 CPICH_Ec/Io is measured by UE, then it is given to UTRAN by RACH
 PCPICH is the transmission power of CPICH
 Comments
 Similar to UL, the (Ec/Io)Req value should be considered very carefully
 Because there is no power ramp in the initial DL DPCCH, the initial power should
be satisfied with the requirements. Therefore, this value can be greater than the
one from simulation to ensure the success ratio

17 Internal Use
Open loop power control of DL DPCCH
Application scenarios

Node B Serving
UE
Serving RNS RNC

1. CCCH : RRC Connection Request

RRC RRC

Allocate RNTI
Select L1 and L2
parameters

2. Radio Link Setup Request

NBAP NBAP

Start RX
description
3. Radio Link Setup Response
NBAP NBAP

4. ALCAP Iub Data Transport Bearer Setup

Open loop power
5. Downlink Synchronisation
control of DPCCH DCH - FP DCH - FP

6. Uplink Synchronisation
DCH - FP DCH - FP

Start TX
description

7. CCCH : RRC Connection Set up

RRC RRC
8. Radio Link Restore Indication
NBAP NBAP

9. DCCH : RRC Connection Setup Complete

RRC RRC

18 Internal Use
 Open loop power control of UL DPCCH

 The UL DPCCH open loop power control can be calculated by the

following formula:

DPCCH_Initial_power＝PCPICH DL TX power - CPICH_RSCP

+ UL interference + DPCCH_SIRtarget
 Parameter
 PCPICH DL TX power is the transmission power of CPICH
 CPICH_RSCP can be measured by UE
 UL interference can be measured by NodeB

 Comments
 The DPCCH_SIRtarget value should be considered very carefully.
It reflects the lowest requirement for decoding the DPCCH in a
certain multiple path environment

19 Internal Use
Open loop power control of UL DPCCH
Application scenarios

Node B Serving
UE
Serving RNS RNC

1. CCCH : RRC Connection Request

RRC RRC

Allocate RNTI
Select L1 and L2
parameters

2. Radio Link Setup Request

NBAP NBAP

Start RX
description
3. Radio Link Setup Response
NBAP NBAP

4. ALCAP Iub Data Transport Bearer Setup

5. Downlink Synchronisation
Open loop power DCH - FP DCH - FP

control of DPCCH DCH - FP

6. Uplink Synchronisation
DCH - FP

Start TX
description
7. CCCH : RRC Connection Set up
RRC RRC
8. Radio Link Restore Indication
NBAP NBAP

9. DCCH : RRC Connection Setup Complete

RRC RRC

20 Internal Use
 Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

1.Open loop power control

2.Inner-loop power control

3.Outer loop power control

21 Internal Use
 Close loop power control

Why the close loop power control is needed

 Weakness of open loop power control

 Open loop power control can decided the initial power, but it is not accurate
 For WCDMA-FDD system, the uplink fading is not related to the downlink
one because of the big frequency interval of them
 Therefore, the path loss and interference estimated by downlink can not reflect
the one in uplink completely. But, the close loop power control can solve this
problem
 The advantages of close loop power control
 Can control the transmission power of uplink and downlink very fast, and
decrease interference in system.
 Maintains a higher quality of service

22 Internal Use
 Inner-loop power control

The principle for Inner-loop power control

 The receivers calculate the SIR by estimating the power strength

and the current interference. Then, compare this one to SIRtarget

 If SIRmeasured < SIRtarget, send TPC = 1 to inform receivers increase

its transmission power
 If SIRmeasured > SIRtarget, send TPC = 0 to inform receivers decrease
transmission power

 The receiver that receives the TPC will adjust the transmission power by
algorithms. The inner loop power control can convergence the
estimated SIR to SIR target

23 Internal Use
 Inner-loop power control

Inner-loop power control Algorithm

 In 3GPP protocol, two algorithms are adopted in the inner-loop

power control of uplink DPCCH
 PCA1 : uplink power control step is △tpc=1dB or 2dB
 PCA2 : uplink power control step is △tpc=1dB
 The power control adjustment range in DPCCH is
△DPCCH=△tpc×TPC_cmd
 TPC_cmd is achieved by different algorithm
 The power offset shows the difference of transmission power of UL
DPCCH and UL DPDCH
 The adjustment range of DPDCH is the same as the DPCCH.
The power offset is decided by the signaling from higher layer

24 Internal Use
 Uplink-inner loop power control

 NodeB compares SIRmeasured with the preset target signal-to-interference

ratio (SIRtarget).

1500Hz

Inner-loop

Transmit TPC
UE
set SIRtar
NodeB

Each UE has own loop

25 Internal Use
Uplink-inner loop power control

DPDCH/DPCCH structure

Data
DPDCH N data bits

T = 2560 chips, N = 10*2 k bits (k=0..6)

slot data

Pilot TFCI FBI TPC

DPCCH N pilot bits N TFCI bits N FBI bits N TPC bits

T = 2560 chips, 10 bits

slot

Slot #0 Slot #1 Slot #i Slot #14

1 radio frame: T = 10 ms
f

 c2
The power ratio of DPCCH to DPDCH is
 d2
26 Internal Use
 Uplink-inner loop power control

TPC
 The uplink DPCCH SIR should be estimated by different serving cells.
In each time slot, the TPC can be generated by the following rules:
 No soft handover

 If SIR estimation > SIR target,

then TPC = 0 to decrease the transmission power
 If SIR estimation < SIR target,
then TPC = 1 to increase the transmission power
 Soft handover

 In one time slot, UE received several TPC, then combine then.

 Comments
 In the last situation, the PCA decides how TPC_cmd are combined.
 The PCA has two methods. UTRAN decides which one is used.

27 Internal Use
 Uplink-inner loop power control

 UE can adjust the UL DPCCH transmission power with △tpc step

according to the received TPC_cmd

 The step △tpc can be 1dB or 2dB, which is decided by UTRAN

 If the TPC_cmd = 1，the UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH transmission
power should be increased △tpc

 If the TPC_cmd = -1，the UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH transmission

power should be decreased △tpc

 If the TPC_cmd = 0，the UL DPCCH and UL DPDCH transmission

power should be decreased △tpc

28 Internal Use
 Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA1

UE in Non - Soft handover case

UE receives only one TPC
 If TPC = 0, TPC_cmd = -1
 If TPC = 1, TPC_cmd = 1

29 Internal Use
 Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA1

UE in Soft handover

UE receives several TPCs in one time slot and combine them to get one TPC_cmd
by the following two steps:

 First, combine the TPCs from one RLS

 Then, combine the TPCs from different RLS

 Comments
 The TPC from RLSi is Wi

30 Internal Use
 Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA1

 Wi can be achieved by the following rules

 If the TPC = 0, Wi=0
 If the TPC = 1, Wi＝1
 Assume UE has N RLSs，N TPC can be obtained after
combination, W1、W2…WN. The combination method for these
N TPCs from N RLSes can be described as following formula
TPC_cmd = γ (W1, W2, … WN)
 γ function should satisfied:
 If one Wi = 0, TPC_cmd = -1
 If all Wi are 1，TPC_cmd = 1

31 Internal Use
 Uplink-inner loop power control

PCA2

UE in non-soft handover mode

 Only one TPC is received in one time slot. The power control can be done once by
each 5 time slots. Each frame is divided 3 groups of 5 time slots. In the first 4 time
slots, the TPC_cmds are 0, which means the power does not change. In the 5th
time slot, the TPC_cmd can be achieved by the following rules:

 If all TPC are 0, the TPC_cmd is -1 and the transmission will decrease 1dB;
 If all TPC are 1, the TPC_cmd is 1 and the transmission will increase 1dB;
 Otherwise, TPC_cmd=0.

TPC （RX） TPC_cmd

0000 0 0000 -1
1111 1 0000 1
else 0000 0

32 Internal Use
 Uplink-inner loop power control
PCA2

UE in soft handover
TPC_cmd can be achieved by the following two steps
 First, combine the TPC from the same RLS
 N TPCi (i = 1,2......N) obtained from N RLSs in each time slot
 The N TPC_cmds from different RLS can be achieved by the above mentioned rules.
 Assume each final TPC_cmd from N RLS are TPC_tempi（i = 1,2......N）

 TPC_cmd in the fifth time slot can be obtain by the following rules：
th
TPC_cmd (5 slot) = γ(TPC_temp1, TPC_temp2, …, TPC_tempN)
where γ is defined as follows:
N
1
  TPC _ tempi  0.5, TPC _ cmd  1
N i 1
or
N
1
  TPC _ tempi  0.5, TPC _ cmd  1
N i 1

otherwise, TPC_cmd = 0.

33 Internal Use
 Uplink-inner loop power control

Comparison between PCA1 and PCA2

 The control frequency

 PCA1, the power control frequency is 1500Hz
 PCA2, the power control frequency is 300Hz

 Application scenarios
 When UE is moving with high speed (80Km/h), the fast inner-loop
power control can not catch up with the fast fading, but will produce
negative gain. In this situation, PCA2 is preferred.

34 Internal Use
 Downlink Inner-loop power control

Transmit TPC

Inner-loop

Measure SIR and compare

NodeB

1500Hz

35 Internal Use
 Downlink inner-loop power control

Timeslot structure of Downlink DPCH :

－PO3 defines the power offset of the TFCI bit in the downlink DPCCH to DPDCH.
－PO2 defines the power offset of the TPC bit in the downlink DPCCH to DPDCH.
－PO1 defines the power offset of the Pilot bit in the downlink DPCCH to DPDCH.
－The values of PO1、PO2 and PO3 are defined by RNC.

Inner-loop power control of downlink DPCCH include two types:

- Inner-loop power control in compressed mode,
- Inner-loop power control in non-compressed mode.

36 Internal Use
 Downlink inner-loop power control

 First, UE should estimate the downlink DPDCH/DPCCH power and the

current SIR

 Then, UE can generate TPC by comparing SIRestimated to SIRtarget

 If SIRestimated > SIRtarget ; TPC = 0 (decrease power)
 If SIRestimated < SIRtarget ; TPC = 1 (increase power)

 The step of DL inner-loop power control could be 0.5, 1, 1.5 or 2dB

37 Internal Use
 Downlink inner-loop power control
Power control in different state

 When UE is not in soft handover

 TPC generated by UE is transmitted in TPC domain of UL channel

 When UE in soft handover, two power control modes can be used, which is
decided by DPC_mode:
 DPC_MODE＝0， UE will transmit TPC in every slot
 DPC_MODE＝1， UE will transmit the same TPC in every three time slot

 When the downlink channel is out of synchronization, UE will transmit

TPC=1 because UE can not measure the downlink SIR

 Upon reception of TPC, UTRAN will adjust the downlink power of

DPCCH/DPDCH. But the transmission power can not higher than
Maximum_DL_Power and not less than Minimum_DL_Power neither.

38 Internal Use
 Chapter 2 Power Control Algorithm

1.Open loop power control

2.Inner-loop power control

3.Outer loop power control

39 Internal Use
 Outer-loop power control

 The limitation of inner loop power control

 The purpose of inner loop power control of the WCDMA system is to
maintain a certain signal-to-interference ratio of transmission signal
power when the signals reach the receiving end.

 The character of outer-loop power control

 The Qos which NAS provide to CN is BLER, not SIR

 The relationship between inner-loop power control and outer-loop

power control
 SIR target should be satisfied to be able to decoding receive signal correctly.
But different radio path radio environment has different requirement on SIR
 Therefore, the outer-loop power control can adjust the SIR to get a stable
BLER in the changeable radio environment

40 Internal Use
 Uplink outer loop power control

Measure received
get the good quality
data and
service data compare BLER Measure and compare SIR

Out loop Inner-loop

Set SIRtarget Transmit TPC

Set BLERtarget

10-100Hz

RNC NodeB UE

41 Internal Use
 Downlink outer loop power control

Measure and compare BLER L3

1500Hz 10-100Hz
Outer loop
set SIRtar

Transmit TPC

Inner loop L1

Measure and compare SIR

NodeB

42 Internal Use
 Outer loop power control

SIR target adjustment step

 BLERmeas  BLERt arg et 

SIRtar   SIRAdjustcoefficient * SIRAdjustStep * 
 BLERt arg et 

43 Internal Use
44 Internal Use