UMTS Radio Resource Control

UMTS explicitly pulls out RRC as a distinct network function. GSM/GPRS had RRC, of course, in the RR sublayer of L3, but in UMTS RRC is pulled aside as a special function of its own instead of as a sublayer within L3. The general shape of UMTS RRC is the same as GSM/GPRS RR, but the actual resources and messages are different. 3GPP 25.331. Message encoding is ASN.1 unaligned PER as per ITU-T X.691.

Handy Web References

RRC FAQ.

Beacon Channel Generation

As in GSM, the UMTS beacon is a series of system information messages, actually called "system information blocks" or "SIBs". The SIBs are described in 3GPP 25.331 10.2.48.8:

MIB (Master Information Block) -- SIB scheduling information and MNC/MCC network identities Type 1 -- Non-Access Stratum (NAS) system information: o Location Area Code, as in GSM o T3212 & Attach-Detach (ATT) flag for CS domains, as in GSM o RAC and NMO for PS domains, as in GPRS Type 2 -- UTRAN Registration Area (URA) identity list. Type 3 -- Cell identity and reselect information, similar to GSM cell selection parameters Type 4 -- Cell reselect parameters for connected mode, if different from those in SIB3. Optional. Type 5 -- PRACH parameters, similar to GSM RACH parameters o PRACH signature(s) o PRACH scrambling code(s) o PRACH spreading factor Type 6 -- PRACH parameters for connected mode, if different from those in SIB5. Optional. Type 7 -- PHY status o uplink interference level for FDD Type 8 (obsolete) Type 9 (obsolete) Type 10 (obsolete) Type 11 -- Measurement control information. Type 12 -- Measurement control information for connected mode, if different from SIB11. Optional. Type 13 -- ANSI-41 system information. Not used in GSM-MAP networks. Type 14 -- PHY information. TDD only. Type 15 -- GPS aiding information. Optional? Time and reference position appear to by mandatory. Type 16 -- PHY parameters related to handover Type 17 -- TDD only. Type 18 -- Neighbor identities. All elements are optional. Does that mean the whole message is optional?

The actual SIB formats are defined in ASN.1 in 3GPP 25.331 11. You can get a "clean" copy of that ASN.1 here. 3GPP 25.331 8.1.1.6 describes the UE actions to be taken upon receipt of the various system information messages. That information is very useful for understanding the actual meanings of some of the elements they contain.

SIB Scheduling (3GPP 25.331 8.1.1.1.5)

As per 3GPP 25.331 8.1.1.1.5, UMTS allows much more complex BCCH message scheduling than GSM. There is a Master Information Block (MIB, 3GPP 25.331 10.2.48.8.1) that defines the slot numbers on which the various SIBs will appear. Each MIB or SIB fills two consecutive frames, starting on an even-numbered slot. The MIB starts on SFN 0 and appears again on every 8th frame. The MIB contains a transmission schedule that describes when the other SIBs appear on the BCCH, in terms of a starting SFN and a repeat period. All of the parameters are powers of 2, but the repeat periods can be set independently for each SIB type. The fact that SIBs can span multiple transport frames, or be combined into shared transport frames, further complicates the set of scheduling possibilities.

The simplest way to schedule the messages would be:

non-segmented messages, one SIB per transport frame, schedule 3N messages with starting frames of 8*i+2, 8*i+4, 8*i+6 for i 0..(N-1) with a repeat period of 8N, where N is a power of 2.

Note that in this simple configuration, the MIB will appear N times in each cycle at SFN 8*i. For example, with N=4 we can schedule 12 messages at SFNs 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28 and 30, with a repeat period of 32 and with the MIB at SFNs 0, 8, 16 and 24. So, let's follow an SIB (a "System Information Block") from L3, where the fields of the SIB message receive their values, down through the stack to transmission. The best place to see this laid out in a clear way is in 3GPP 25.944 4.1.1. Message Formation and ASN.1 Encoding Following the ASN.1 encoding rules of 3GPP 25.331 11, we encode the SIB message to form a PER bitstring called a "production". There's an overview of this in 3GPP 25.331 12.1. This section tell us when delivering an RRC PDU as an RLC SDU to the RLC layer for transmission, the first bit of the RRC PDU shall be represented as the first bit in the RLC SDU and onwards. So the RRC PDU and the RLC SDU are the same, save any padding at the end. There is a header on the RRC PDU of 20-24 bits, depending on the segmentation and concatenation rules used. Forming a Transport Block The BCH transport block is always 246 bits, including a header and data fields. The data field (the RRC PDU / RLC SDU) is end-padded as needed with zeroes to fit the BCH transport block. FEC Coding The 246-bit transport block gets a 16-bit CRC, an 8-bit tail and is then convolutionally coded at rate-1/2 to yield 2*(246+16+8) = 540 channel bits. The 540 channel bits are interleaved, split into 2 270-bit radio frames and interleaved again. (The standard channel model includes rate-matching, but the sizes line up already, so rate-matching is a no-op.) Spreading and Scrambling The BCCH is carried on the BCH and the BCH always has a spreading factor of 256, Each 270-bit radio frame gets spread to 69120 chips with an OVSF code (256,1) (ie, code #1 in the SF-256 set) and scrambled with the downlink code (a configurable parameter of the Node B). Note these comments on the alignment of the scrambling code, from 3GPP 25.213 5.1.4: The sequence of complex valued chips shall be scrambled (complex chip-wise multiplication) by a complex-valued scrambling code Sdl,n. In case of P-CCPCH, the scrambling code shall be applied aligned with the P-CCPCH frame boundary, i.e. the first complex chip of the spread P-CCPCH frame is multiplied with chip number zero of the scrambling code. In case of other downlink channels, the scrambling code shall be applied aligned with the scrambling code applied to the P-CCPCH. In this case, the scrambling code is thus not necessarily applied aligned with the frame boundary of the physical channel to be scrambled. Wow! Radio Transmission These chips are formed into 34560 QPSK symbols and prepared for transmission with the root-raised-cosine channel filter. This 34560-symbol sequence is divided into 15 slots of 2304 symbols each. However, the P-CCPCH slot is 2560 chipping periods (10/15 ms @ 3.84 MHz). So what now? The first 256 chipping periods (1/15 ms) of each slot in the P-CCPCH is dead air, that's what.

PRACH Procedure
RACH transmissions from the user consists of two parts: (a) a sequence of preambles and (b) a message part. The channel format and other details are outline in 3GPP 25.211 5.2.2.1. The random-access transmission is based on a Slotted ALOHA approach with fast acquisition indication. The UE can start the random-access transmission at the beginning of a number of well-defined time intervals, denoted access slots. There are 15 access slots per two frames and they are spaced 5120 chips apart (over 2 UMTS frames). The timing of the access

slots and the acquisition indication is described in subclause 7.3. Information on what access slots are available for random-access transmission is given by higher layers. The RACH procedures is as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The terminal decodes the BCH to find out the available RACH sub-channels and their scrambling codes and signatures. The terminal randomly selects one of the RACH sub-channels from the group its access class allows it to use. Furthermore, the signature is also selected randomly from among the available signatures indicated in SIB5. The downlink power level is measured and the initial RACH power level is set with the proper margin due to the open-loop inaccuracy. A 1 ms RACH preamble is sent with the selected signature. The BTS sends an AICH preamble. The terminal decodes AICH the preamble. If no AICH is detected, the terminal increases the preamble transmission power by a step given by the BTS, as multiples of 1 dB. The preamble is retransmitted in the next available access slot. This cycle continues until the UE receives the AICH. The purpose of this procedure is to establish the appropriate uplink power level for the UE, since CDMA is exquisitely sensitive to variations in relative received power. When the AICH transmission is detected from the BTS, the terminal transmits the 10ms or 20ms message part of the RACH transmission and DCH assignment proceeds.

7.

RACH Preamble
YUP, that's right...the RACH preamble is longer than a timeslot, the AICH preamble is also longer than a timeslot. Each preamble is of length 4096 chips and consists of 256 repetitions of a signature of length 16 chips. There are a maximum of 16 available signatures. The set of available signatures is indicated by the SIB5 message, and the UE uses the ASC (0-7) to determine the subset of that set and access slot to use. The UE selects the scrambling code number by adding the code number of the downlink primary scrambling code and the preamble scrambling code number (0-15) from SIB5. The same scrambling code is used for the message part, but with a code offset. Typically the RACH preamble detection and AICH response is done solely in the physical layer since there is no information or handling needed from the higher layers. The physical layer simply detects a RACH preamble and echos a response either 7680 or 12800 chips after the arrival of the RACH preamble.

RACH Message Part

The 10 ms message part radio frame is split into 15 slots, each of length Tslot = 2560 chips. Each slot consists of two parts, a data part to which the RACH transport channel is mapped and a control part that carries Layer 1 control information. The data and control parts are transmitted in parallel. A 10 ms message part consists of one message part radio frame, while a 20 ms message part consists of two consecutive 10 ms message part radio frames. The message part length is equal to the Transmission Time Interval of the RACH Transport channel in use. This TTI length is configured by higher layers. The data part consists of 10*2k bits, where k=0,1,2,3. This corresponds to a spreading factor of 256, 128, 64, and 32 respectively for the message data part. The control part consists of 8 known pilot bits to support channel estimation for coherent detection and 2 TFCI bits. This corresponds to a spreading factor of 256 for the message control part. The pilot bit pattern is described in table 8. The total number of TFCI bits in the random-access message is 15*2 = 30. The TFCI of a radio frame indicates the transport format of the RACH transport channel mapped to the simultaneously transmitted message part radio frame. In case of a 20 ms PRACH message part, the TFCI is repeated in the second radio frame. More details are in 3GPP 25.213 4.3.2.5 and 4.3.3, particularly the scrambling codes and modulation waveform descriptions.

2. What is cell selection criterion? Answer - Cell selection is based on:

Qmean: the average SIR of the target cell. Qmin: minimum required SIR. Pcompensation: a correction value for difference UE classes. S = Qmean - Qmin - Pcompensation If S>0 then the cell is a valid candidate. A UE will camp on the cell with the highest S.

23. Idle Mode Behaviour is managed by System information send on which L3 Channel? Answer BCH

24. How many Radio Bearers (RB) are involved in CS voice call? Answer 3

25. How many Service Radio Bearers (SRB) are involved in CS voice call? Answer 4

26. SCH channel consists of how many chips? Answer -256 chips

27. What do you understand by DRX cycle? Answer - The UE listens to the PICH only at certain predefined times, reducing power consumption. The periodicity of these searches is set by the system and the time interval is called Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle.

Different DRX cycles are used for circuit switched and packet switched services in Idle mode. A separate DRX cycle is also used to page Connected mode UEs in state URA_PCH.

28. Cell Reselection is valid in both Idle and in which Sate in Connected mode? Answer - CELL FACH

29. Difference between PICH and PCH? Answer - PICH-Paging Indicator Channel PCH-Paging Channel

PICH is used to indicate UE to when it should read to S-CCPCH (Carries PCH) whereas PCH is used to carry RRC Message Paging type 1 which contains actual Paging information.

30. When is System information sent to UE? Answer - The system information is regularly broadcast to the UE on the BCCH. When a parameter in the system information is changed, all

UE in a cell are notified by a paging message or by a system information change indication message.

31. Explain Timer T3212? Answer -Periodic LA and RA updating is used to notify the network of the UEs availability, and to avoid unnecessary paging attempts for a UE that has lost coverage and is not able to inform the CN that it is inactive.

The periodic LA update procedure is controlled by a timer, called t3212, which gives the time interval between two consecutive periodic location updates. The value is sent by the WCDMA RAN to UEs on the BCCH.

32. Explain Near far effect?

Answer;-All users use the same bandwidth at the same time and therefore users interfere with one another. Due to the propagation path loss, the signal received by the base station from a UE close to the base station will be stronger than the Signal received from another terminal located at the boundary. Hence, the distant user will be dominated by the close user. This is called the near-far effect. To achieve a considerable capacity, all signals, irrespective of distance, should arrive at the base station with the same mean power. A solution to this problem is power control, which attempts to achieve the same mean received power for each user.

33. Name three loops in Power control In WCDMA? Explain them briefly. Answer; - Open Loop Inner Loop Outer Loop

Open Loop Power control The open-loop power control technique requires that the transmitting entity measures the channel interference and adjusts its transmission power accordingly. This can be done quickly, but the problem is that the interference estimation is done on the received signal, and the transmitted signal probably uses a different frequency, which differs from the received frequency by the systems duplex offset. As uplink and downlink fast fading (on different frequency carriers) do not correlate, this method gives the right power values only on average.

Inner Loop In this method the received signal-to interference ratio (SIR) is measured over a 667-microsecond period (i.e., one time slot), and based on that value, a decision is made about whether to increase or decrease the transmission power in the other end of the connection. Note that the delay inherent in this closed-loop method is compensated for by making the measurements over a very short period of time. The transmit power control (TPC) bits are sent in every time slot within the uplink and the downlink. There is not a neutral signal; all power control signals contain either an increase or decrease command.

Outer Loop The outer loop power control functions within the base station system, and adjusts the required SIR value (SIRtarget), which is then used in the inner loop control. Different channel types, which can be characterized by, for example, different coding and interleaving methods, constitute a channels parameters. Different channel parameters may require different SIRtarget values. The final result of t he transmission process can only be known after the decoding process, and the resulting quality parameter is then used to adjust the required SIR value. If the used SIR value still gives a low quality bit stream, then the outer loop power control must increase the SIRtarget value. This change in the outer loop will trigger the inner loop power control to increase the mobile station transmission power accordingly

34. What is SIR? Answer - SIR is the Signal-to-Interference Ratio the ratio of the energy in dedicated physical control channel bits to the power density of interference and noise after dispreading.

35. How many time Inner Loop Power Control happens and what type of fading it compensates? Answer - 1500Hz and compensates Fast Fading.

36. What is BLER? Answer - Block Error Rate

37. How is Initial RACH Power is calculated? Answer - The initial power on the PRACH - the power of the first preamble - is determined according to equation

P_PRACH = L_PCPICH + RTWP + constantValueCprach

Where L_PCPICH is the path loss estimated by UE since it knows transmit & receive CPICH power

RTWP is received Total Wideband Power(uplink interference) measured by RBS .

constantValueCprach is used by the UE to calculate the initial power on the PRACH . This parameter is configurable and decides at which level below RTWP preamble ramping will start.

38. What power RACH message Control Part is sent? Answer - The power of the control part of the RACH message is determined by the power of the last transmitted preamble and by a configurable offset powerOffsetPpm

39. Briefly describe why open loop power control is needed and how it works? Answer -Open Loop power control is used when no feedback mechanism is possible. An estimate of the required power is made from measurements and system information.

This is used for initial network access and finding initial power settings during dedicated mode.

40. Explain the functionality of TPC? Answer During Power Control, Transmit Power control(TPC) commands are used to power up or power down based on SIR target in the step of 0.5 dB ( 1 dB if the connection is made over Iur).

41. How many types of handovers are there in UMTS? Answer Soft/Softer Handover Inter Frequency Handover Inter RAT Handover

Core Network Hard Handover Service based handover to GSM HSDPA Mobility

42. Explain Soft and Softer handover? Give some advantage and disadvantage for soft handover. What is the target for soft handover in WCDMA networks?

Answer - In Soft Handover, the UE connection consists of at least two radio links established with cells belonging to different RBSs. In Softer handover, the UE connection consists of at least two radio links established with cells belonging to the same RBS.

It acts as macro diversity since UE is connected to more than one radio link at any given point, adds redundancy and reduces interference.

However there is a tradeoff between soft/softer handover & system capacity.

A UE involved in Soft/Softer Handover uses several radio links, more DL channelization codes, and more DL power than a single-link connection. Consequently, if all the UEs connected to a particular RNC are considered, more resources are needed in the RBSs, more resources over the Iub and Iur interfaces, and more resources in the RNC. For this reason, the number of radio links involved in the Soft/Softer handover must be limited

A typical target for soft handover in WCDMA network is less than or equal to 30%

43. Define Active Set? Pros and Cons of having a small or longer Active Set.

Answer - Active Set consists of group of cells that takes part in soft/softer handover & measure by UE. Typical size of Active set is 3 or 4 & generally a standard practice in all WCDMA networks.

A small active set size may provide more resources available due to less soft/softer handover but at the expense of handover gain thereby reducing the capacity & link redundancy