WCDMA for UMTS E-Book

Harri Holma

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1120

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Now in its fifth edition, the bestselling book on UMTS has been updated to cover 3GPP WCDMA and High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) from Release 99 to Release 9. Written by leading experts in the field, the book explains HSPA performance based on simulations and field experience, and illustrates the benefits of HSPA evolution (HSPA+) both from the operators and from the end user?s perspective. It continues to provide updated descriptions of the 3GPP standard including the physical layer, radio protocols on layers 1-3 and a system architecture description. The challenges and solutions regarding terminal RF design are also discussed, including the benefits of HSPA+ power saving features. There is also the addition of a new chapter on femto cells as part of the updates to this fifth edition.

Key updates include:

• HSPA evolution (HSPA+);
• Multicarrier HSPA solutions;
• HSPA femto cells (home base stations);
• TD-SCDMA system description;
• Terminal power consumption optimization.
• Updated description of LTE

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

1 Introduction

1.1 WCDMA Early Phase

1.2 HSPA Introduction and Data Growth

1.3 HSPA Deployments Globally

1.4 HSPA Evolution

1.5 HSPA Network Product

1.6 HSPA Future Outlook

2 UMTS Services

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Voice

2.3 Video Telephony

2.4 Messaging

2.5 Mobile Email

2.6 Browsing

2.7 Application and Content Downloading

2.8 Streaming

2.9 Gaming

2.10 Mobile Broadband for Laptop and Netbook Connectivity

2.11 Social Networking

2.12 Mobile TV

2.13 Location-Based Services

2.14 Machine-to-Machine Communications

2.15 Quality of Service (QoS) Differentiation

2.16 Maximum Air Interface Capacity

2.17 Terminals

2.18 Tariff Schemes

3 Introduction to WCDMA

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Summary of the Main Parameters in WCDMA

3.3 Spreading and Despreading

3.4 Multipath Radio Channels and Rake Reception

3.5 Power Control

3.6 Softer and Soft Handovers

4 Background and Standardization of WCDMA

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Background in Europe

4.3 Background in Japan

4.4 Background in Korea

4.5 Background in the United States

4.6 Creation of 3GPP

4.7 How Does 3GPP Operate?

4.8 Creation of 3GPP2

4.9 Harmonization Phase

4.10 IMT-2000 Process in ITU

4.11 Beyond 3GPP Release 99 WCDMA

4.12 Industry Convergence with LTE and LTE-Advanced

5 Radio Access Network Architecture

5.1 Introduction

5.2 UTRAN Architecture

5.3 General Protocol Model for UTRAN Terrestrial Interfaces

5.4 Iu, the UTRAN–CN Interface

5.5 UTRAN Internal Interfaces

5.6 UTRAN Enhancements and Evolution

5.7 UMTS CN Architecture and Evolution

6 Physical Layer

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Transport Channels and Their Mapping to the Physical Channels

6.3 Spreading and Modulation

6.4 User Data Transmission

6.5 Signaling

6.6 Physical Layer Procedures

6.7 Terminal Radio Access Capabilities

6.8 Conclusion

7 Radio Interface Protocols

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Protocol Architecture

7.3 The Medium Access Control Protocol

7.4 The Radio Link Control Protocol

7.5 The Packet Data Convergence Protocol

7.6 The Broadcast/Multicast Control Protocol

7.7 Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service

7.8 The Radio Resource Control Protocol

7.9 Early UE Handling Principles

7.10 Improvements for Call Set-up Time Reduction

8 Radio Network Planning

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Dimensioning

8.3 Capacity and Coverage Planning and Optimization

8.4 GSM Co-planning

8.5 Inter-Operator Interference

8.6 WCDMA Frequency Variants

8.7 UMTS Refarming to GSM Band

8.8 Interference between GSM and UMTS

8.9 Remaining GSM Voice Capacity

8.10 Shared Site Solutions with GSM and UMTS

8.11 Interworking of UMTS900 and UMTS2100

9 Radio Resource Management

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Power Control

9.3 Handovers

9.4 Measurement of Air Interface Load

9.5 Admission Control

9.6 Load Control (Congestion Control)

10 Packet Scheduling

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

10.3 Round Trip Time

10.4 User-Specific Packet Scheduling

10.5 Cell-Specific Packet Scheduling

10.6 Packet Data System Performance

10.7 Packet Data Application Performance

11 Physical Layer Performance

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Cell Coverage

11.3 Downlink Cell Capacity

11.4 Capacity Trials

11.5 3GPP Performance Requirements

11.6 Performance Enhancements

12 High-Speed Downlink Packet Access

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Release 99 WCDMA Downlink Packet Data Capabilities

12.3 The HSDPA Concept

12.4 HSDPA Impact on Radio Access Network Architecture

12.5 Release 4 HSDPA Feasibility Study Phase

12.6 HSDPA Physical Layer Structure

12.7 HSDPA Terminal Capability and Achievable Data Rates

12.8 Mobility with HSDPA

12.9 HSDPA Performance

12.10 HSPA Link Budget

12.11 HSDPA Iub Dimensioning

12.12 HSPA Round Trip Time

12.13 Terminal Receiver Aspects

12.14 Evolution in Release 6

12.15 Conclusion

13 High-Speed Uplink Packet Access

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Release 99 WCDMA Downlink Packet Data Capabilities

13.3 The HSUPA Concept

13.4 HSUPA Impact on Radio Access Network Architecture

13.5 HSUPA Feasibility Study Phase

13.6 HSUPA Physical Layer Structure

13.7 E-DCH and Related Control Channels

13.8 HSUPA Physical Layer Operation Procedure

13.9 HSUPA Terminal Capability

13.10 HSUPA Performance

13.11 Conclusion

14 Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS)

14.1 Introduction

14.2 MBMS Impact on Network Architecture

14.3 High Level MBMS Procedures

14.4 MBMS Radio Interface Channel Structure

14.5 MBMS Terminal Capability

14.6 MBMS Performance

14.7 MBMS Deployment and Use Cases

14.8 Benchmarking of MBMS with DVB-H

14.9 3GPP MBMS Evolution in Release 7

14.10 Why Did MBMS Fail?

14.11 Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) in Release 8

14.12 Conclusion

15 HSPA Evolution

15.1 Introduction

15.2 Discontinuous Transmission and Reception (DTX/DRX)

15.3 Circuit Switched Voice on HSPA

15.4 Enhanced FACH and Enhanced RACH

15.5 Latency

15.6 Fast Dormancy

15.7 Downlink 64QAM

15.8 Downlink MIMO

15.9 Transmit Diversity (TxAA)

15.10 Uplink 16QAM

15.11 UE Categories

15.12 Layer 2 Optimization

15.13 Architecture Evolution

15.14 Conclusion

16 HSPA Multicarrier Evolution

16.1 Introduction

16.2 Dual Cell HSDPA in Release 8

16.3 Dual Cell HSUPA in Release 9

16.4 Dual Cell HSDPA with MIMO in Release 9

16.5 Dual Band HSDPA in Release 9

16.6 Three and Four Carrier HSDPA in Release 10

16.7 UE Categories

16.8 Conclusion

17 UTRAN Long-Term Evolution

17.1 Introduction

17.2 Multiple Access and Architecture Decisions

17.3 LTE Impact on Network Architecture

17.4 LTE Multiple Access

17.5 LTE Physical Layer Design and Parameters

17.6 LTE Physical Layer Procedures

17.7 LTE Protocols

17.8 Performance

17.9 LTE Device Categories

17.10 LTE-Advanced Outlook

17.11 Conclusion

18 TD-SCDMA

18.1 Introduction

18.2 Differences in the Network-Level Architecture

18.3 TD-SCDMA Physical Layer

18.4 TD-SCDMA Data Rates

18.5 TD-SCDMA Physical Layer Procedures

18.6 TD-SCDMA Interference and Co-existence Considerations

18.7 Conclusion and Future Outlook on TD-SCDMA

19 Home Node B and Femtocells

19.1 Introduction

19.2 Home Node B Specification Work

19.3 Technical Challenges of Uncoordinated Mass Deployment

19.4 Home Node B Architecture

19.5 Closed Subscriber Group

19.6 Home Node B-Related Mobility

19.7 Home Node B Deployment and Interference Mitigation

19.8 Home Node B Evolution

19.9 Conclusion

20 Terminal RF and Baseband Design Challenges

20.1 Introduction

20.2 Transmitter Chain System Design Challenges

20.3 Receiver Chain Design Challenges

20.4 Improving Talk-Time with DTX/DRX

20.5 Multi-Mode/Band Challenges

20.6 Conclusion

Index

This edition first published 2010

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

WCDMA for UMTS: HSPA evolution and LTE / edited by Harri Holma, Antti Toskala.—

5th ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-68646-1 (cloth)

1. Code division multiple access. 2. Wireless communication systems—Standards.

3. Mobile communication systems—Standards. 4. Global system for mobile communications.

I. Holma, Harri, 1970- II. Toskala, Antti.

TK5103.452.W39 2010

621.3845—dc22 2010013154

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-470-68646-1 (H/B)

Preface

Second generation telecommunication systems, such as GSM, enabled voice traffic to go wireless: the number of mobile phones exceeds the number of landline phones and the mobile phone penetration is approaching 100% in several markets. The data handling capabilities of second generation systems are limited, however, and third generation systems are needed to provide the high bit rate services that enable high quality images and video to be transmitted and received, and to provide access to the web with higher data rates. These third generation mobile communication systems are referred to in this book as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System). WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and its evolution HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) is the main third generation air interface globally. During the publication of the 5th edition, the number of WCDMA/HSPA subscribers has exceeded 500 million. It is expected that the 1 billion landmark will be passed in less than two years. There are over 300 commercial HSPA networks globally supporting peak data rates up to 42 Mbps. HSPA has grown to be the preferred radio network for providing wireless broadband access, for supporting an increasing number of smart phones and for offering high capacity and high quality voice service in an efficient way. This book gives a detailed description of the WCDMA/HSPA air interface and its utilization. The contents are summarized in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Contents of this book

The book is structured as follows. Chapters 1–4 provide an introduction to the technology and its standardization. Chapters 5–7 give a detailed presentation of the WCDMA standard, while Chapters 8–11 cover the utilization of the standard and its performance. Chapters 12–16 present HSPA and its evolution. TD-SCDMA is described in Chapter 18. The home base stations, also called femtocells, are explained in Chapter 19. Chapter 20 covers terminal RF design challenges.

Chapter 1 briefly introduces the background, development, status and future of WCDMA/HSPA radio. Chapter 2 presents examples of the current UMTS applications and the main uses cases. Chapter 3 introduces the principles of the WCDMA air interface, including spreading, Rake receiver, power control and handovers. Chapter 4 presents the background to WCDMA, the global harmonization process and the standardization. Chapter 5 describes the architecture of the radio access network, interfaces within the radio access network between base stations and radio network controllers (RNC), and the interface between the radio access network and the core network. Chapter 6 covers the physical layer (Layer 1), including spreading, modulation, user data and signalling transmission, and the main physical layer procedures of power control, paging, transmission diversity and handover measurements. Chapter 7 introduces the radio interface protocols, consisting of the data link layer (Layer 2) and the network layer (Layer 3). Chapter 8 presents the guidelines for radio network dimensioning, gives an example of detailed capacity and coverage planning, and covers GSM co-planning. Chapter 9 covers the radio resource management algorithms that guarantee the efficient utilization of the air interface resources and the quality of service. These algorithms are power control, handovers, admission and load control. Chapter 10 depicts packet access and presents the performance of packet protocols of WCDMA. Chapter 11 analyses the coverage and capacity of the WCDMA air interface. Chapter 12 presents the significant Release 5 feature, High Speed Downlink Packet Access, HSDPA, and Chapter 13 the corresponding uplink counterpart High Speed Uplink Packet Access, HSUPA in Release 6. Chapter 14 presents Multimedia Broadcast Multicast System, MBMS. Chapter 15 introduces HSPA evolution in Releases 7, 8 and 9. Chapter 16 describes HSPA multicarrier evolution up to four carriers. Long Term Evolution (LTE) in Releases 8 and 9 is presented in Chapter 17. The time division duplex (TDD) based TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) is illustrated in Chapter 18. The femtocells are presented in Chapter 19 and the challenges in the terminal RF design in Chapter 20.

The 2nd edition contained coverage of the recently introduced key features of 3GPP Release 5 specifications, such as High Speed Downlink Packet Access, HSDPA and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). The 3rd edition of the book continued to deepen the coverage of several existing topics both based on the field experiences and based on more detailed simulation studies. The 3rd edition covered the main updates in 3GPP standard Release 6. The 4th edition added in detail 3GPP Release 6 features including High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) Multimedia Broadcast Multicast System (MBMS), HSPA evolution and terminal RF design challenges.

The 5th edition of the book introduces new material in the areas of HSPA evolution including Releases 8 and 9, HSPA multicarrier solutions, GSM band refarming for HSPA, Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB), TD-SCDMA description, femtocells, terminal power consumption estimates, services and LTE.

This book is aimed at operators, network and terminal manufacturers, service providers, university students and frequency regulators. A deep understanding of the WCDMA/HSPA air interface, its capabilities and its optimal usage is the key to success in the UMTS business.

This book represents the views and opinions of the authors, and does not necessarily represent the views of their employers.

Acknowledgements

The editors would like to acknowledge the time and effort put in by their colleagues in contributing to this book. Besides the editors, the contributors were Dominique Brunel, Leo Chan, Renaud Cuny, Karol Drazynski, Frank Frederiksen, Jacek Gora, Zhi-Chun Honkasalo, Seppo Hämäläinen, Kari Horneman, Markku Juntti, Jorma Kaikkonen, Troels Kolding, Martin Kristensson, Janne Laakso, Jaana Laiho, Fabio Longoni, Atte Länsisalmi, Nina Madsen, Preben Mogensen, Peter Muszynski, Laurent Noël, Maciej Pakulski, Klaus Pedersen, Johanna Pekonen, Patryk Pisowacki, Karri Ranta-aho, Jussi Reunanen, Oscar Salonaho, Jouni Salonen, Hanns-Jürgen Schwarzbauer, Kari Sipilä, Tommi Uitto, Jukka Vialén, Jaakko Vihriälä, Achim Wacker and Jeroen Wigard.

While we were developing this book, many of our colleagues from Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks offered their help in suggesting improvements and finding errors. Also, a number of colleagues from other companies have helped us in improving the quality of the book. The editors are grateful for the comments received from Heikki Ahava, Erkka Ala-Tauriala, David Astely, Erkki Autio, Matthew Baker, Luis Barreto, Johan Bergman, Angelo Centonza, Kai Heikkinen, Kari Heiska, Kimmo Hiltunen, Klaus Hugl, Alberg Höglund, Kaisu Iisakkila, Ann-Louise Johansson, Kalle Jokio, Susanna Kallio, Istvan Kovacs, Ilkka Keskitalo, Pasi Kinnunen, Tero Kola, Petri Komulainen, Mika Laasonen, Lauri Laitinen, Olivier Claude Lebreton, Anne Leino, Arto Leppisaari, Pertti Lukander, Esko Luttinen, Peter Merz, Wolf-Dietrich Moeller, Risto Mononen, Jonathan Moss, Jari Mäkinen, Magdalena Duniewicz Noël, Olli Nurminen, Tero Ojanperä, Lauri Oksanen, Kari Pajukoski, Kari Pehkonen, Eetu Prieur, Mika Rinne, Sabine Roessel, Rauno Ruismäki, David Soldani, Agnieszka Szufarska, Pekka Talmola, Kimmo Terävä, Mitch Tseng, Antti Tölli, Veli Voipio, Helen Waite and Dong Zhao.

The team at John Wiley & Sons participating in the production of this book provided excellent support and worked hard to keep the demanding schedule. The editors especially would like to thank Sarah Tilley and Mark Hammond for assistance with practical issues in the production process, and especially the copy-editor, for her efforts in smoothing out the engineering approach to the English language expressions.

We are extremely grateful to our families, as well as the families of all the authors, for their patience and support, especially during the late night and weekend editing sessions near different production milestones.

Special thanks are due to our employer, Nokia Siemens Networks, for supporting and encouraging such an effort and for providing some of the illustrations in this book.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the efforts of our colleagues in the wireless industry for the great work done within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to produce the global WCDMA standard in merely a year and thus to create the framework for this book. Without such an initiative this book would never have been possible.

The editors and authors welcome any comments and suggestions for improvements or changes that could be implemented in forthcoming editions of this book. The feedback is welcome to editors' email addresses [email protected] and [email protected].

Abbreviations

3GPP3rd Generation partnership project (produces WCDMA standard)3GPP23rd Generation partnership project 2 (produced cdma2000 standard)AAL2ATM Adaptation Layer type 2AAL5ATM Adaptation Layer type 5ABBAnalog basebandACELPAlgebraic code excitation linear predictionACIRAdjacent channel interference ratio, caused by the transmitter non-idealities and imperfect receiver filteringACKAcknowledgementACLAccess control listACLRAdjacent channel leakage ratio, caused by the transmitter non-idealities, the effect of receiver filtering is not includedACTSAdvanced communication technologies and systems, EU research projects frameworkADCAnalog to digital conversionAGCAutomatic gain controlA-GWAccess gatewayAICHAcquisition indication channelALCAPAccess link control application partAMAcknowledged modeAMAmplitude modulationAMDAcknowledged mode dataAMRAdaptive multirate (speech codec)AMR-NBNarrowband AMRAMR-WBWideband AMRARIBAssociation of radio industries and businesses (Japan)AOLAmerica on-lineAPAccess pointARPAllocation and retention priorityARQAutomatic repeat requestASCAccess service classASN.1Abstract syntax notation oneATMAsynchronous transfer modeAWGNAdditive white Gaussian noiseAWSAdvanced wireless servicesBBBasebandBB SS7Broadband signalling system #7BCCHBroadcast channel (logical channel)BCFEBroadcast control functional entityBCHBroadcast channel (transport channel)BERBit error rateBLERBlock error rateBMCBroadcast/multicast control protocolBM-SCBroadcast multicast service centerBOBackoffBoDBandwidth on demandBOMBill of materialBPSKBinary phase shift keyingBSBase stationBSCBase station controllerBSSBase station subsystemCA-ICHChannel assignment indication channelCBCell broadcastCBCCell broadcast centerCBSCell broadcast serviceCCCHCommon control channel (logical channel)CCHCommon transport channelCCHControl channelCDDCyclic Delay DiversityCDFCumulative distribution functionCD-ICHCollision detection indication channelCDMACode division multiple accessCFNConnection frame numberCIFCommon intermediate formatCIRCarrier to interference ratioCMConnection management or Cubic metricCMOSComplementary metal oxide semiconductorCNCore networkC-NBAPCommon NBAPCODITCode division test bed, EU research projectCPCContinuous packet connectivityCPCHCommon packet channelCPECustomer premises equipmentCPICHCommon pilot channelCQIChannel quality indicatorCRCCyclic redundancy checkCRNCControlling RNCC-RNTICell-RNTI, radio network temporary identityCSCircuit SwitchedCSCFCall state control functionCSGClosed subscriber groupCSICHCPCH status indication channelCTCHCommon traffic channelCWContinuous waveCWTSChina wireless telecommunications standard groupDACDigital to audio conversionDARPDownlink advanced receiver performanceDBBDigital basebandDCDirect currentDCADynamic channel allocationDCCHDedicated control channel (logical channel)DCFEDedicated control functional entityDCHDedicated channel (transport channel)DC-HSDPADual cell HSDPADC-HSPADual cell HSPADC-HSUPADual cell HSUPADCRDirect conversion receiverDDRDirect digital receiverDECTDigital enhanced cordless telephoneDFDecision feedbackDFCADynamic frequency and channel allocationDLDownlinkD-NBAPDedicated NBAPDNSDomain name systemDPCCHDedicated physical control channelDPDCHDedicated physical data channelDPIDeep packet inspectionDRNCDrift RNCDRXDiscontinuous receptionDS-CDMADirect spread code division multiple accessDSCHDownlink shared channelDSLDigital subscriber lineDTCHDedicated traffic channelDTXDiscontinuous transmissionDVB-T/HDigital video broadcast terrestrial / handheldDwPTSDownlink pilot time slotE-AGCHE-DCH absolute grant channelE-DCHEnhanced uplink DCHEDGEEnhanced data rates for GSM evolutionE-DPCCHE-DCH dedicated physical control channelE-DPDCHE-DCH dedicated physical data channelEFREnhance full rateEGSMExtended GSME-HICHE-DCH acknowledgement indicator channelEIRPEquivalent isotropic radiated powerEPElementary ProcedureEPCEvolved Packet CoreE-PUCHE-DCH physical uplink channelE-RGCHE-DCH relative grant channelE-RUCCHE-DCH random access uplink control channelETSIEuropean Telecommunications Standards InstituteE-UCCHThe E-DCH uplink control channelE-UTRANEvolved UTRANEVMError vector magnitudeFACHForward access channelFBIFeedback informationFCCFederal communication commissionFCSFast cell selectionFDDFrequency division duplexFDMAFrequency division multiple accessFERFrame error ratioFFTFast Fourier transformFPFrame protocolFPACHFast physical access channelFRAMESFuture radio wideband multiple access system, EU research projectFTPFile transfer protocolGERANGSM/EDGE Radio Access NetworkGGSNGateway GPRS support nodeGMSCGateway MSCGNSSGlobal navigation satellite systemGPGuard PeriodGPRSGeneral packet radio systemGPSGlobal positioning systemGSICGroupwise serial interference cancellationGSMGlobal system for mobile communicationsGTP-UUser plane part of GPRS tunnelling protocolGWGatewayHARQHybrid automatic repeat requestHBHigh bandHLRHome location registerHNBHome node BHNBAPHome node B application partHPHigh powerHPFHigh pass filterHSDPAHigh speed downlink packet accessHS-DPCCHUplink high speed dedicated physical control channelHS-DSCHHigh speed downlink shared channelHSSHome subscriber serverHS-SCCHHigh speed shared control channelHSUPAHigh speed uplink packet accessHTMLHypertext markup languageHTTPHypertext transfer protocolHUEHome Node B UEICInterference cancellation or Integrated circuitIDIdentityIETFInternet engineering task forceIFFTInverse Fast Fourier TransformIMBIntegrated mobile broadcastIMDIntermodulationIMEISVInternational Mobile Station Equipment Identity and Software VersionIMSIP multimedia sub-systemIMSIInternational mobile subscriber identityIMT-2000International mobile telephony, 3rd generation networks are referred as IMT-2000 within ITUINIntelligent networkIPInternet protocolIPDLIdle periods in downlinkIPIInter-path interferenceIPSecIP securityIRCInterference rejection combiningIS-95cdmaOne, one of the 2nd generation systems, mainly in Americas and in KoreaIS-136US-TDMA, one of the 2nd generation systems, mainly in AmericasIS-2000IS-95 evolution standard, (cdma2000)ISDNIntegrated services digital networkISIInter-symbol interferenceITUInternational telecommunications unionITUNSS7 ISUP TunnellingIu BCIu broadcastL2Layer 2LAILocation area identityLANLocal area networkLBLow bandLCDLiquid crystal displayLCSLocation servicesLNALower noise amplifierLOLocal oscillatorLPLow passLTELong term evolutionMACMedium access controlMAIMultiple access interferenceMAPMaximum a posterioriMBMSMultimedia broadcast multicast serviceMBSFNMobile broadcast single frequency networkMCCHMBMS point-to-multipoint control channelMCSModulation and coding schemeMCUMultipoint control unitMDTMinimization of drive testMEMobile equipmentMFMatched filterMGCFMedia gateway control functionMGWMedia gatewayMHAMast head amplifierMIMOMultiple input multiple outputMLSDMaximum likelihood sequence detectionMMMobility managementMMEMobility management entityMMSMultimedia messageMMSEMinimum mean square errorMNBMacro Node BMOSMean opinion scoreMPEGMotion picture experts groupMR-ACELPMultirate ACELPMRFMedia resource functionMSMobile stationMSCHMBMS scheduling channelMSC/VLRMobile services switching centre/visitor location registerMSNMicrosoft networkMTMobile terminationMTCHMBMS point-to-multipoint control channelMTP3bMessage transfer part (broadband)MUDMultiuser detectionMUEMacro UENASNon access stratumNBAPNode B application partNFNoise figureNITZNetwork identity and time zoneNRTNon-real timeO&MOperation and maintenanceOCNSOrthogonal channel noise simulatorODMAOpportunity driven multiple accessOFDMAOrthogonal frequency division multiple accessOSSOperations support systemOTDOAObserved time difference of arrivalOVSFOrthogonal variable spreading factorPAPower amplifierPADPaddingPARPeak to average ratioPCPower controlPCBPrinted circuit boardPCCCParallel concatenated convolutional coderPCCCHPhysical common control channelPCCHPaging channel (logical channel)PCCPCHPrimary common control physical channelPCFICHPhysical control format indicator channelPCHPaging channel (transport channel)PCIPrecoding informationPCMCIAPersonal computer memory card international associationPCPCHPhysical common packet channelPCRFPolicy and Charging Rules FunctionPCSPersonal communication systems, 2nd generation cellular systems mainly in Americas, operating partly on IMT-2000 bandPDCPersonal digital cellular, 2nd generation system in JapanPDCPPacket data convergence protocolPDNPublic data networkPDPPacket data protocolPDSCHPhysical downlink shared channelPDUProtocol data unitPEPPerformance enhancement proxyPERPacked encoding rulesPFProportional fairP-GWPacket Data Network GatewayPHYPhysical layerPIPage indicatorPICParallel interference cancellationPICHPaging indicator channelPLLPhase locked loopPLMNPublic land mobile networkPMPhase modulationPNFEPaging and notification control function entityPOCPush-to-talk over cellularPRACHPhysical random access channelPSPacket switchedPSCPhysical scrambling codePSCHPhysical shared channelPSTNPublic switched telephone networkP-TMSIPacket-TMSIPUPayload unitPUCCHPhysical uplink control channelPUSCHPhysical uplink shared channelPDCCHPhysical downlink control channelPLCCHPhysical layer common control channelPSDPower spectral densityPVCPre-defined Virtual ConnectionQAMQuadrature amplitude modulationQCIFQuarter common intermediate formatQoSQuality of serviceQPSKQuadrature phase shift keyingQVGAQuarter video graphics arrayRABRadio access bearerRACHRandom access channelRAIRouting area identityRANRadio access networkRANAPRAN application partRBRadio bearerRFRadio frequencyRLCRadio link controlRMCReference measurement channelRNRelay nodeRNCRadio network controllerRNSRadio network sub-systemRNSAPRNS application partRNTIRadio network temporary identityROHCRobust header compressionRRRound robinRRCRadio resource controlRRMRadio resource managementRSSReally Simple SyndicationRSSIReceived signal strength indicatorRSVPResource reservation protocolRTReal timeRTCPReal-time transport control protocolRTPReal-time protocolRTSPReal-time streaming protocolRUResource unitRUARANAP user adaptationSAAL-NNISignalling ATM adaptation layer for network to network interfacesSAAL-UNISignalling ATM adaptation layer for user to network interfacesSABPService Area Broadcast ProtocolSAESystem architecture evolutionSAICSingle antenna interference cancellationSAPService access pointSAPSession announcement protocolSASStand alone SMLCSAWSurface acoustic waveSCCPSignalling connection control partSCCPCHSecondary common control physical channelSC-FDMASingle carrier frequency division multiple accessSCHSynchronization channelSCRISignaling connection release indicationSCTPSimple control transmission protocolSDDSpace division duplexSDPSession description protocolSDQNRSignal to distortion quantization noise ratioSDUService data unitSeGWSequrity gatewaySEQSequenceSFSpreading FactorSFNSystem frame numberSFNSingle frequency networkSGSNServing GPRS support nodeS-GWServing GatewaySHOSoft handoverSIBSystem information blockSICSuccessive interference cancellationSIDSilence indicatorSINRSignal-to-noise ratio where noise includes both thermal noise and interferenceSIPSession initiation protocolSIRSignal to interference ratioSMSession managementSMLCServing mobile location centreSMSShort message serviceSNSequence numberSNRSignal to noise ratioSoCSystem on chipSONSelf optimized networksSQ-PICSoft quantized parallel interference cancellationSRBSignalling radio bearerSRNCServing RNCSRNSServing RNSSRSSounding reference symbolSS7Signalling System #7SSCFService specific co-ordination functionSSCOPService specific connection oriented protocolSSDTSite selection diversity transmissionSTDSwitched transmit diversitySTTDSpace time transmit diversitySVOPCSinusoidal voice over packet coderTCHTraffic channelTCPTransport control protocolTCTFTarget channel type fieldTD/CDMATime division CDMA, combined TDMA and CDMATDDTime division duplexTDMATime division multiple accessTD-SCDMATime division synchronous CDMA, 1.28 Mcps TDDTETerminal equipmentTFTransport formatTFCITransport format combination indicatorTFCSTransport format combination setTFITransport format indicatorTFRCTransport format and resource combinationTHPTraffic handling priorityTMTransparent modeTMGITemporary mobile group identityTMSITemporary mobile subscriber identityTPCTransmission power controlTRTransparent modeTSTechnical specificationTSTDTime switched transmit diversityTTATelecommunications Technology Association (Korea)TTCTelecommunication Technology Commission (Japan)TTITransmission time intervalTxAATransmit adaptive antennasUDPUser datagram protocolUEUser equipmentULUplinkUMUnacknowledged modeUMDUnacknowledged mode dataUMTSUniversal mobile telecommunication servicesUpPTSUplink pilot time slotURAUTRAN registration areaURLUniversal resource locatorU-RNTIUTRAN RNTIUSBUniversal serial busUSCHUplink shared channelUSIMUMTS subscriber identity moduleUS-TDMAIS-136, one of the 2nd generation systems mainly in USAUTRAUMTS Terrestrial radio access (ETSI)UTRAUniversal Terrestrial radio access (3GPP)UTRANUMTS Terrestrial radio access networkVADVoice activation detectionVoIPVoice over IPVPNVirtual private networkWAPWireless application protocolWARCWorld administrative radio conferenceWCDMAWideband CDMA, Code division multiple accessWiMAXWorldwide interoperability for microwave accessWLLWireless local loopWMLWireless markup languageWWWWorld wide webXHTMLExtensible hypertext markup languageZFZero forcing

1

Introduction

Harri Holma and Antti Toskala

1.1 WCDMA Early Phase

The research work towards third generation (3G) mobile systems started in the early 1990s. The aim was to develop a radio system capable of supporting up to 2 Mbps data rates. The WCDMA air interface was selected in Japan in 1997 and in Europe in January 1998. The global WCDMA specification activities were combined into a third generation partnership project (3GPP) that aimed to create the first set of specifications by the end of 1999, called Release 99. The first WCDMA network was opened by NTT DoCoMo in Japan 2001, using a proprietary version of the 3GPP specifications. The first 3GPP-compliant network opened in Japan by the end of 2002 and in Europe in 2003 (3 April 2003).

The operators had paid extraordinary prices for the UMTS spectrum in the auctions in the early 2000s and expectations for 3G systems were high. Unfortunately, the take-up of 3G devices and services turned out to be very slow. The global number of WCDMA subscribers was less than 20 million by the end of 2004 and more than 50% of them were located in Japan. The slow take-up can be attributed to many factors: it took time to get the system working in a stable way—the protocol specifications in particular caused a lot of headaches. The terminal suffered from high power consumption and from short talk time. The terminal prices also remained high due to low volumes. The packet-based mobile services had not yet been developed and the terminal displays were not good enough for attractive applications. Also the coverage areas of 3G networks were limited partly due to the high frequency at 2100 MHz.

The early WCDMA networks still offered some benefits for the end users including data rate up to 384 kbps in uplink and in downlink and simultaneous voice and data. WCDMA was also a useful platform for debugging the UMTS protocol layers and the development of wideband RF implementation solutions in the terminals and in the base stations.

WCDMA/HSPA subscriber growth is shown in Figure 1.1. After the slow take-up, the growth accelerated, starting in 2006 and the total number of subscribers was 450 million by the end of 2009, that is seven years (2002–2009) after the launch of the first 3GPP compliant network.

Figure 1.1 The growth of WCDMA/HSPA subscribers

1.2 HSPA Introduction and Data Growth

The early WCDMA deployments turned out to be important in preparing for the introduction of mobile broadband. 3GPP Release 5 included High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) that changed the mobile broadband world. HSDPA brought a few major changes to the radio networks: the architecture became flatter with packet scheduling and retransmissions moving from RNC to the base station, the peak bit rates increased from 0.384 Mbps initially to 1.8–3.6 Mbps and later to 7.2–14.4 Mbps, the spectral efficiency and network efficiency increased considerably and the latency decreased from 200 ms to below 100 ms. The commercial HSDPA networks started at the end of 2005 and more launches took place during 2006. Suddenly, wide area networks were able to offer data rates similar to low end ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and were also able to push the cost per bit down so that offering hundreds of megabytes, or even gigabytes of data per month became feasible. The high efficiency also allowed changes to the pricing model, either to be flat rate or gapped flat rate. The HSDPA upgrade to the existing WCDMA network was a software upgrade in the best case without any site visits. The corresponding uplink enhancement, the High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), was introduced in 3GPP Release 6. The combination of HSDPA and HSUPA is referred to as HSPA.

HSPA mobile broadband emerged as a highly successful service. The first use cases were PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) and USB (Universal Serial Bus) modem connected to a laptop and using HSPA as the high data rate bit pipe similar to ADSL. Later also integrated HSPA modems were available in laptops. The typical modems are shown in Figure 1.2. The penetration of HSPA subscriptions exceeded 10% of the population in advanced markets in less than two years from the service launch which made HSPA connectivity one of the fastest growing mobile services.

Figure 1.2 Examples of HSPA modems

The flat rate pricing together with high data rates allowed users to consume large data volumes. The average usage per subscriber is typically more than 1 gigabyte per month and it keeps increasing. The combination of more subscribers each using more data caused the total data volume to explode in HSPA networks. An example case from a West European country is shown in Figure 1.3. The growth of the total data volume is compared to the total voice traffic. The voice traffic has been converted to data volume by assuming 16 kbps data rate: 10 minutes of voice converts into 1.2 megabytes of data. The data volumes include both downlink and uplink transmission. Total voice traffic has been growing slowly from 2007 to 2009 from 4.4 terabytes per day to 5.0 terabytes per day. At the same time the data has grown from practically zero to 50 terabytes per day. In other words, 90% of the bits in the radio network are related to the data connections and only 10% to the voice connection in 2009. The wide area networks shifted from being voice-dominated to being data-dominated in just two years. Note that the data is primarily carried by HSPA networks and the voice traffic by both GSM and WCDMA/HSPA networks. Therefore, if we only look at WCDMA/HSPA networks, the share of data traffic is even larger.

Figure 1.3 The growth of HSPA data usage—example European market

Fast data growth brings the challenge of cost efficiency. More voice traffic brings more revenue with minute-based charging while more data traffic brings no extra revenue due to flat rate pricing—more data just creates more expenses. The HSPA network efficiency has improved considerably especially with Ethernet-based Iub transport and compact new base stations with simple installation, low power consumption and fast capacity expansion. HSPA evolution also includes a number of features that can enhance the spectral efficiency. Quality of Service (QoS) differentiation is utilized to control excessive network usage to keep users happy also during the busy hours.

It is not only USB modems but also the increasingly popular smart phones that have created more traffic in HSPA networks. Example smart phones are shown in Figure 1.4. The smart phones enable a number of new applications including community access, push mail, navigation and widgets in addition to browsing and streaming applications. Those applications create relatively low data volumes but fairly frequent flow of small packets which created a few new challenges for end-to-end performance and for the system capacity. The first challenge was terminal power consumption. The frequent transmission of small packets keeps terminal RF parts running and increases the power consumption. Another challenge is the high signaling load in the networks caused by the frequent packet transmissions. HSPA evolution includes features that cut down the power consumption considerably and also improve the efficiency of small packet transmission in the HSPA radio networks.

Figure 1.4 Example 3G/HSPA smart phones

1.3 HSPA Deployments Globally

Globally, there are 341 HSPA networks running in 143 countries with a total of over 380 commitments for HSPA launches in May 2010 [1]. HSPA has been launched in all European countries, in practice, in all countries in the Americas, in most Asian countries and in many African countries. The largest HSPA network is run by China Unicom with the first year deployment during 2009 of approximately 150,000 base stations. Another large market—India—is also moving towards large-scale HSPA network rollouts during 2010 when the spectrum auctions are completed. The total number of HSPA base stations globally is expected to exceed 1 million during 2010.

Many governments have recognized that broadband access can boost the economy. If there is insufficient wireline infrastructure, the wireless solution may be the only practical broadband solution. HSPA has developed into a truly global area mobile broadband solution serving as the first broadband access for end users in many new growth markets.

The WCDMA networks started at 2100 MHz band in Asia and in Europe and at 1900 MHz in USA. The high frequency makes the cell size small which limits the coverage area. Therefore, the WCDMA/HSPA networks have recently been deployed increasingly at low frequencies of 850 and at 900 MHz. The lower frequency gives approximately three times larger coverage area than 1900 or 2100 MHz. The first commercial UMTS900 network was opened in 2007 and widespread UMTS900 rollouts started in 2009 when the European Union (EU) changed the regulation to allow UMTS technology in the 900 MHz band. UMTS850 and UMTS900 have clearly boosted the availability of HSPA networks in less densely populated areas.

The bands 850, 900 and 1900 previously were used mainly for GSM. WCDMA/HSPA specifications have been designed for co-existence with GSM on the same band. The commercial networks have shown that WCDMA/HSPA can be operated together with GSM on the same frequency band while sharing even the same base station. The minimum spectrum requirement for WCDMA is 4.2 MHz.

In addition to these four bands, also the AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) band (1700/2100) is used for HSPA in the USA, in Canada and in some Latin American countries, starting in Chile. Japanese networks additionally use two further frequency variants: 1700 by Docomo and 1500 by Softbank. The frequency variants are summarized in Figure 1.5.

Figure 1.5 WCDMA/HSPA frequency variants

The typical HSPA terminals support two or three frequency variants with two upper bands (2100 and 1900) and one lower band (900 or 850). The wide support of 900 and 850 in the terminals makes the low band reframing a feasible option for the operators. Some high end terminals even support five frequency bands 850/900/1700/1900/2100. The number of global frequency variants in HSPA is still small and easier to manage compared to 3GPP LTE where more than 10 different frequency variants are required globally.

1.4 HSPA Evolution

3GPP Releases 5 and 6 defined the baseline for mobile broadband access. HSPA evolution in Releases 7, 8 and 9 has further boosted the HSPA capability. Development continues in Release 10 during 2010. The peak bit rate in Release 6 was 14 Mbps downlink and 5.76 Mbps in uplink. The downlink and uplink data rates improve with dual cell HSPA (DC-HSPA), with 3-carrier and 4-carrier HSPA and with higher-order modulation 64QAM downlink and 16QAM uplink. The multicarrier HSPA permits full benefit of 10–20 MHz bandwidth similar to LTE. The downlink data rate can also be increased by a multi-antenna solution (MIMO, Multiple Input Multiple Output). The peak bit rate in Release 9 is 84 Mbps downlink and 23 Mbps uplink. The downlink data rate is expected to double in Release 10 to 168 Mbps by aggregating four carriers together over 20 MHz bandwidth. The data rate evolution is illustrated in Figure 1.6. We can note that the HSPA peak rates are even higher than the best ADSL peak rates in the fixed copper lines, especially in uplink.

Figure 1.6 Evolution of HSPA maximum peak bit rate

End-to-end latency is another part of optimized end user performance. The commercial HSPA networks show that the average round trip time can be pushed to below 30 milliseconds with HSPA evolution offering faster response times for the applications. The radio latency in many cases is no longer the limiting factor. The latency development has been considerable since the early WCDMA networks had a latency of approximately 200 ms.

The terminal power consumption is reduced considerably with HSPA evolution by using discontinuous transmission and reception (DTX/DRX). The voice talk time can be extended to 10–15 hours. The usage time with data applications and always-on services can be pushed relatively even more by using new common channel structures in addition to DTX/DRX.

Voice service has traditionally been by circuit switched (CS) voice. HSPA evolution allows the traditional CS voice on top of HSPA packet radio to be run. The solution is a CS voice from the core network and from a roaming or charging point of view, but it is similar to Voice over IP (VoIP) in the HSPA radio network. The HSPA radio gives clear benefits also for the voice service: better talk time with discontinuous transmission and reception, higher spectral efficiency with HSPA-related performance enhancements and faster call setup time with less than 2 second mobile-to-mobile call setup time.

In short, the 3G network capability has improved enormously from Release 99 to Release 9. The simple reason is that radio has changed completely from the WCDMA circuit connection type operation to HSPA fully packet-based operation. It is possible to run all the service on top of HSPA in Release 9, including packet services, CS voice service, VoIP, common channels, signaling and paging. There are in practice only a few physical layer channels left from the early Release 99 specification in Layer 1—everything else has been rewritten in 3GPP specifications.

Self Optimized Network (SON) features have been included in 3GPP specifications and in radio network products. SON features allow easier network configuration and optimization, leading to lower operation expenditures and better end user performance. SON features are related, for example, to plug-and-play installation, automatic neighborlist management or antenna optimization. The complexity of the network management increases when the operators use three different radio standards in parallel: GSM, HSPA and LTE. The SON algorithms can help reduce the complexity especially in these multi-radio networks.

1.5 HSPA Network Product

The performance and size of the radio network products have seen concentrated development lately. The first phase 3G base station weighed hundreds of kilograms, required more than 1 kW of power and supported less than 10 Mbps of total data capacity when HSDPA was not available. The latest base stations weigh less than 50 kg, consume less than 500 W and support over 100 Mbps data capacity. The fast product development drives down the cost per bit in terms of base station prices and also in terms of installation costs, electricity and transmission costs with the support of IP transport. The way of installing the base stations has also changed. The RF (Radio Frequency) parts of the base station can be installed close to the antenna to minimize losses in the RF cables and to maximize the radio performance. When installed this way, the RF parts are called Remote Radio Units and the signal is transferred to the baseband unit via optical fiber. The length of the fiber can be even up to several kilometers, making also the so-called base station hotel a possible option. The next step in the evolution could be the integration of the antenna and the RF parts. Such a solution is called an active antenna. Development has been even faster in the radio network controller (RNC) where the capacity has increased by a factor of 100 to tens of Gbps while the physical size of the product has become smaller.

Another trend in the radio network products is multi-radio capability where the single product is able to support multiple radio standards simultaneously. The multi-radio is also called Single RAN or Software Defined Radio (SDR) and it is one factor reducing the cost of radio networks. Running just one base station with up to three radio standards costs less than running three separate base stations. The cost savings come from lower site rental costs, less electricity consumption, smaller operation and maintenance costs, and also transmission costs.

The new base station RF units have much higher output power level capabilities compared to the RF units of the early WCDMA base stations. Originally the typical output power of the carrier was 20 watts while today it has increased to 60 watts and is likely to increase even more. The higher output power has increased the base station coverage area and increased the HSDPA capacity and data rates. Also the sensitivities of the RF receiver have improved which, together with the remote radio unit solution, has improved the overall radio performance significantly.

The typical site installation and the products are shown in Figure 1.7. The size of the base station modules and RNC modules are 20–30 kg which makes it possible for a single person to carry the products during installation.

Figure 1.7 HSPA radio network installation and product evolution

1.6 HSPA Future Outlook

The power of HSPA lies in the capability to support simple CS voice service, high data rate broadband data and smart phone always-on applications all with a single network in an efficient way. There is no other radio technology with similar capabilities. Global HSPA market size has grown tremendously and it will keep the HSPA ecosystem running and evolving for many years. WCDMA/HSPA terminal sales exceeded CDMA sales in volume in 2008. WCDMA/HSPA has become the largest radio technology in terms of radio network sales and it is expected to become the largest technology in terminal sale volume by 2011. HSPA evolution continues in 3GPP in Releases 10 and beyond. Some of the work items in 3GPP are common between HSPA and LTE (Long-Term Evolution), such as femto cells. Some LTE-Advanced items are also being considered for introduction into HSPA specifications. The expected number of subscribers for different wide area radio technologies is shown in Figure 1.8. Figure 1.8 shows that HSPA is considered to be the main growth technology for the next five years.

Figure 1.8 Expected growth of subscribers for wide area radio technologies [2]

The long-term data rate and capacity evolution utilize LTE technology. LTE will be the technology choice for the new frequency bands such as digital dividend 700/800, 1800 and 2600. LTE has been designed for the smooth co-existence with HSPA in terms of multimode terminals and base stations, inter-system handovers and common network management systems. The evolution from HSPA to LTE can take place smoothly and those two radios can co-exist for long time. LTE serves also as the long-term platform towards LTE-Advanced targeting for data rates up to 1 Gbps.

References

[1] Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) Network survey, May 2010.

[2] Informa Telecoms & Media, WCIS+, June 2009.

2

UMTS Services

Harri Holma, Martin Kristensson, Jouni Salonen, Antti Toskala and Tommi Uitto

2.1 Introduction

This chapter will elaborate on UMTS services from the user's perspective. Successful practitioners of UMTS and WCDMA/HSPA technology need to understand the value of services to consumers and businesses, as well as the business models and value proposition options that operators have. The approach will be rather non-technical. Indeed, we can see that greatest successes in the market place are created when the underlying technology and complexity are hidden from the eventual user of the service. Readers are encouraged to reflect on the impact, requirements and trade-offs that various services have or imply to 3GPP-defined functionalities and network elements delivering the service.

In the early days of UMTS and WCDMA, the promise of the industry was that ‘we will put the internet in every pocket’. It was envisioned that this would be accomplished by ‘delivering up to 2 Mbps data rates’. This was very appealing since typical premium fixed broadband connections enabled similar data rates. Moreover, the improvement over 2G (second generation) cellular systems was very substantial: EDGE networks, for example, delivered tens of kbps or later at best close to 200 kbps data rates. Due to the legacy of the business models of 2G network operators, their market power and control points, the typical view was that operators should tightly control access of their UMTS subscribers to content and the Internet. Many operators wanted to avoid becoming ‘bit pipes’ and repeating the flat rate price competition experienced in fixed Internet access when it developed from narrowband to broadband. Some operators were keen to develop their portals to function as the control point and gateway to the Internet, to make sure that they could charge enough for various services in this ‘walled garden’. The portals and operator offerings were to become ‘3G service kiosks’ where there would not be just one ‘killer application’ but a wide variety of different services. Some people even envisioned a domain approach of having a parallel ‘mmm’ web separated from the world-wide web or ‘www’, in order to protect the operator control points. The challenge became even more relevant when incumbent and greenfield operators paid significant sums of money in auctions for their UMTS licenses in some parts of the world, such as the UK and Germany.

At the time of writing, we can now look back and conclude that UMTS business has been quite different from what was originally envisioned. As has often happened in the mobile industry, it takes a long time for successes to take place but when they do, they happen on a much bigger scale. 3GPP Release 99-based systems deployed during the first years certainly did not deliver ‘up to 2 Mbps data rates’. The effective data rates of some 300 kbps enabled by the PS384 downlink bearer represented only a marginal improvement over GSM/EDGE. However, in early 2010, at the time of compiling this edition, peak data rates of up to 21–28 Mbps (64 QAM downlink and MIMO 2 × 2 downlink) are being deployed to networks, enabling mobile broadband operators to compete against some of the best ADSL networks in the fixed broadband domain. Due to the site density required by 2.1 GHz frequency, UMTS/WCDMA coverage remained very patchy in many European countries for several years from the network roll-out. However, in many countries WCDMA coverage has now reached well over 90% of the population. By deploying WCDMA900, some operators are now effectively matching the coverage of their GSM networks operating at 900 MHz. Subscribers with a UMTS device have gradually started to take the availability of UMTS service for granted, only to be disappointed when dropping to GSM/EDGE layer outside of WCDMA coverage. UMTS has become an everyday technology from the user perspective in most countries where licenses have been issued.

Let us take a look at the expectations, targets and promise of UMTS starting from the legacy of 2G systems. 2G systems, such as GSM, were originally designed for efficient delivery of voice services. Functionalities supporting circuit-switched or packet-switched data services were added only later. UMTS networks, on the contrary, were designed from the beginning for flexible delivery of any type of service, where each new service does not require particular network optimization. UMTS networks were designed from the outset for both circuit-switched and packet-switched services and for a number of simultaneous connections per terminal, called Multi-RABs. Compared with 2G systems, the UMTS and WCDMA/HSPA radio solution brings advanced capabilities that enable new types of services. Such capabilities are, for instance:

High bit rates of up to 14.4 Mbps enabled in 3GPP Release 5, with the Release 5 and Release 6 terminals in the market supporting up to 10 Mbps, and with a further added capability enabled up to 28.8 Mbps in Release 7 specifications. Release 8 enabled 42 Mbps peak data rate and Release 9 specifications have enabled peak data rates up to 84 Mbps, and Release 10 is going to further increase the downlink peak data rates up to 168 Mbps with the technologies as discussed in Chapter 15. The practical bit rates were around 1–2 Mbps with the first Release 5 deployments while the development with the latest networks and devices can reach data rates up to 10 Mbps or even beyond. Such data rates, as shown in the example speedtest measurement plot in Figure 2.1, with 18 Mbps downlink and over 3 Mbps uplink, were totally unthinkable based on the experiences with first 3G networks in 2004.Low delays with packet round trip times below 100 ms with Release 5 and even below 50 ms with Release 6.Short connection set-up times and ‘always-on’ modes.Seamless mobility also for packet data applications.Quality of Service differentiation for high efficiency and segmentation of service delivery.Simultaneous voice and data capability.High bandwidth broadcasting.Interworking with other systems such as GSM/EDGE currently and LTE once LTE networks and terminals with 2G/3G inter-working are launched towards the end of 2010.

Figure 2.1 Example speedtest results from a release 7 capable HSPA network

Based upon these capabilities, it is possible to cater for various types of services through UMTS systems. This chapter divides UMTS services into the following categories, many or all of which are obviously enabled by other cellular technologies as well but with different experience, implementation and cost:

VoiceVideo telephonyMessagingMobile emailBrowsingDownloading (of applications)StreamingGamingMobile broadband for laptop and netbook connectivitySocial networkingMobile TVLocation-based servicesMachine-to-machine communications.

Examples in each category are provided in the sub-sections below. The categories are somewhat arbitrary and partly overlapping but they provide a way to present concrete examples. This chapter looks in addition at the above-mentioned service categories as well as service quality issues, the necessary network capacity from a service perspective, tariffs and the types of WCDMA devices currently available.

2.2 Voice

If there is one ‘killer application’ enabled by UMTS systems, it is still the voice service. In terms of the amount of traffic in bytes, laptop and netbook connectivity service, i.e. mobile broadband has surpassed voice traffic in many networks. However, in terms of service penetration, in other words the percentage of subscribers using a particular type of service, voice is still the dominant service in UMTS systems. The same can be said about the revenue share although many operators package voice service together with data services in their offering. However, operators are fiercely protecting their voice revenue, and even fighting against Voice-over IP delivered over Release 99 or HSPA bearers under a flat rate data package. Usually a maximum number of voice minutes are included in a flat rate package, after which a special price per minute or call will apply. The power of voice telephony combined with full mobility in a wide area indoors and outdoors is enormous in modern life.

We can list specific technical enablers and technical solutions for voice service in UMTS:

circuit-switched narrowband AMR calls, including lower codec AMR;circuit-switched wideband AMR calls (WB-AMR);circuit-switched over HSPA, supporting both wideband and narrowband AMR;Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC);Voice-over IP (VoIP).

The first three are provided through the circuit switched core network connected to WCDMA/HSPA radio access network, whereas VoIP is switched through Packet Core and, for example, IMS (IP Multimedia System). The first two use Release 99 WCDMA bearers in air interface, whereas CS over HSPA uses an obviously high speed shared channel and HSPA transport between Node B and Radio Network Controller (RNC). The last two use PS bearers, either Release 99 or HSPA.

2.2.1 Narrowband AMR and Wideband AMR Voice Services

2.2.1.1 General

Today, voice calls in UMTS are typically carried as 3GPP Release 99 based circuit-switched calls. After the Node B and Radio Network Controller (RNC), calls are routed over the Iu-Cs interface to Mobile Switching Centers (MSC, Release 99) or Mobile Softswitches (MSS, Release 4). As described later in the chapter, CS calls can also benefit from HSPA air interface and transport up to RNC but they are still switched in CS Core. Voice-over-IP calls are packet-switched calls that can be carried over both Release 99 and HSPA data bearers and routed over the Iu-PS interface to Packet Core and switched in IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) or dedicated VoIP server.

The circuit-switched voice calls in UMTS employ the Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) technique. The multi-rate speech coder is a single integrated speech codec with eight source rates: 12.2 (GSM-EFR), 10.2, 7.95, 7.40 (IS-641), 6.70 (PDC-EFR), 5.90, 5.15 and 4.75 kbps. The AMR bit rates can be controlled by the radio access network. To facilitate interoperability with existing cellular networks, some of the modes are the same as in existing cellular networks. The 12.2 kbps AMR speech codec is equal to the GSM EFR codec, 7.4 kbps is equal to the US-TDMA speech codec, and 6.7 kbps is equal to the Japanese PDC codec. The AMR speech coder is capable of switching its bit rate every 20 ms speech frame upon command. For the AMR mode, switching in-band signaling is used.

The narrowband AMR coder operates on speech frames of 20 ms corresponding to 160 samples at the sampling frequency of 8000 samples per second, whereas wideband AMR (WB-AMR) is based on the 16,000 Hz sampling frequency, thus extending the audio bandwidth to 50–7000 Hz. The coding scheme for the multi-rate coding modes is the so-called Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction Coder (ACELP). The multi-rate ACELP coder is referred to as MR-ACELP. Every 160 speech samples, the speech signal is analysed to extract the parameters of the CELP model (LP filter coefficients, adaptive and fixed codebooks' indices and gains). The speech parameter bits delivered by the speech encoder are rearranged according to their subjective importance before they are sent to the network. The rearranged bits are further sorted based on their sensitivity to errors and are divided into three classes of importance: A, B and C. Class A is the most sensitive, and the strongest channel coding is used for class A bits in the air interface.

During a normal telephone conversation, the participants alternate so that, on average, each direction of transmission is occupied about 50% of the time. The AMR has three basic functions to effectively utilize discontinuous activity:

Voice Activity Detector (VAD) on the TX side.Evaluation of the background acoustic noise on the TX side, in order to transmit characteristic parameters to the RX side.The transmission of comfort noise information to the RX side is achieved by means of a Silence descriptor (SID) frame, which is sent at regular intervals.Generation of comfort noise on the RX side during periods when no normal speech frames are received.