Air Interface

Chapter 5
This chapter is designed to provide the student with an overview
of the air interface.
OBJECTIVES:
Upon completion of this chapter the student will:
Have an understanding of logical and physical channels
Have an understanding of how logical channels are mapped
onto physical channels
Have an understanding of how soft handover and power
control work in the WCDMA Experimental System
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5 Air Interface
Table of Contents
Topic Page
AIR INTERFACE SPECIFICATION.....................................................93
RADIO CHANNEL ....................................................................................................... 93
FREQUENCY SPECTRUM......................................................................................... 94
CELLS AND SECTORS............................................................................................... 94
CARRIER SYMBOL RATE.......................................................................................... 95
CHIPRATE................................................................................................................... 95
MODULATION METHOD ............................................................................................ 96
ACCESS METHOD...................................................................................................... 96
SPREADING CODES.................................................................................................. 96
LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CHANNELS.............................................97
GENERAL.................................................................................................................... 97
LOGICAL CHANNELS................................................................................................. 97
PHYSICAL CHANNELS............................................................................................. 100
MAPPING OF LOGICAL CHANNELS ONTO PHYSICAL CHANNELS.................... 102
RADIO FRAMES AND TIME SLOTS ........................................................................ 103
SUPERFRAME.......................................................................................................... 103
SOFT HANDOVER AND POWER CONTROL...................................104
DETAILS OF CHANNEL CODING, INTERLEAVING AND
MULTIPLEXING.................................................................................104
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AIR INTERFACE SPECIFICATION
RADIO CHANNEL
A Mobile Station (MS) communicates with a Base Transceiver
Station (BTS) via a radio channel. A radio channel is a bi-
directional radio transmission path. Each radio channel has two
distinct frequencies; one for Downlink (DL) and one for Uplink
(UL).
DL is defined as the transmission path from the BTS to the MS,
while UL is defined as the transmission path from the MS to the
BTS. See Figure 5-1.
Uplink
Downlink
Figure 5-1 Uplink and downlink
The BTS transmits on one frequency while the MS transmits on
another frequency. This creates a full-duplex communication
path. That is, simultaneous communication in both directions.
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FREQUENCY SPECTRUM
For the WCDMA Experimental System, the available frequency
bands are:
Uplink 1920-1940 MHz
Downlink 2110-2130 MHz
Uplink Downlink
1920 1940 2110 freq. [MHz]
Duplex distance, 190 MHz
2130
Figure5-2 Available frequency bands for WCDMA
Experimental System
The distance between one UL frequency and its corresponding
DL frequency is called the duplex distance. The duplex distance
is 190 MHz. See Figure 5-2.
The carrier frequencies (center frequencies) are:
Uplink
UL: 1922.5, 1927.5, 1932.5, 1937.5 MHz
Downlink
DL: 2112.5, 2117.5, 2122.5, 2127.5 MHz
The bandwidth is approximately 4.4 MHz.
CELLS AND SECTORS
A radio cell (cell) is the geographical area served by one BTS.
In the WCDMA experimental system a cell can be divided into
a maximum of six sectors by using directional antennas (sector-
antennas) at the BTS for transmission and reception. A sector is
the geographical area served by one sector-antenna.
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c (t)
c (t)
c (t)
5
4
1
c (t)
c (t)
c (t)
7
6
2
c (t)
c (t)
c (t)
9
8
3
c (t) ,
1
c (t) , ... ,
2
c (t) = Cell or sector specific long spreading
9
Figure 5-3 Cell or sector specific long spreading
On the WCDMA Experimental System DL, physical channels
of different cells are separated by employing cell-specific long
spreading codes. Physical channels of different sectors are
separated by employing different phases of that long code.
Physical channels within the same sector are separated by
employing different short spreading codes. Short codes are also
used for the UL. See Figure 5-3.
On the WCDMA Experimental System UL, physical channels
for random access employ sector-specific long spreading codes.
Dedicated UL physical channels (except for SDCCH) employ
MS-specific long spreading codes, i.e. there is no cell or sector
specific code assignment.
In the WCDMA Experimental System, two out of four different
carrier frequencies can be applied simultaneously per sector in
UL and DL.
CARRIER SYMBOL RATE
The carrier symbol rate is:
16, 32, 64, 128, or 256 ksymbols/sec.
CHIPRATE
The chiprate is 4,096 Mchip/sec.
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MODULATION METHOD
The modulation method used is Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
(QPSK). The simplest way of describing QPSK is that one
modulated symbol corresponds to two bits.
ACCESS METHOD
The access method used is Direct Sequence CDMA (DS-
CDMA) with a chiprate of 4,096 Mchip/sec (Wide band Code
Division Multiple Access, WCDMA).
SPREADING CODES
Short codes
256, 128, 64, 32, 16 chips long.
Long codes
DL: 10ms (use 2
18
-1 chip-long Gold code cut into 10ms
length).
UL: 2
16
x 10ms (use 2
41
-1 chip-long Gold code cut into 2
16
x
10ms length).
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LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CHANNELS
GENERAL
Carrier separation is 5 MHz which provides four different
carriers in the frequency band for the WCDMA Experimental
System. Each carrier contains a number of physical channels. A
physical channel is defined by a unique:
Long code
Short code
Transmission rate
A variety of information is transmitted between the BTS and the
MS. Different logical channels are used depending on the type
of information being transmitted. Each logical channel is used
for a specific purpose such as paging, call set-up and speech.
These logical channels are mapped onto the physical channels.
For example, speech is sent on the logical channel Dedicated
Traffic Channel (DTCH).
LOGICAL CHANNELS
The configuration of the logical channels is presented in Figure
5-4.
Dedicated control channels (ACCH, SDCCH) and dedicated
traffic channels (DTCH, UPCH) are on both UL and DL. The
RACH is on the UL only. Other common control channels are
DL channels (BCCH, PCH, FACH).
Logical Channels
Control channels
CCH
Traffic channels
TCH
DCCH
Dedicated Control
Channel
CCCH
Common Control
Channels
DTCH
Dedicated Traffic
Channel
UPCH
User Packet
Channel
ACCH
Associated
Control
Channel
PCH
Paging
Channel
BCCH
Broadcast
Control
Channel
RACH
Random
Access
Channel
SDCCH
Stand alone
Dedicated
Control
Channel
BCCH1 RACH-L
RACH-Long
RACH-S
RACH-Short
FACH
Forward
Access
Channel
FACH-L
FACH-Long
FACH-S
FACH-Short
Figure5-4 Logical channel structure
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A brief description of each logical channel is given below.
Broadcast Control Channel 1 (BCCH1)
Unidirectional DL channel for sending system control
information (for each cell or sector) from the BTS to the MS.
This channel transmits system information and information
whose content changes over time such as long code phase
information, UL interference power, and so on.
Paging Channel (PCH)
Unidirectional DL channel that transfers paging information
from the BTS to the MS.
Forward Link Access Channel - Long (FACH-L)
Unidirectional DL channel for transmitting control information
or packet user data from the BTS to the MS. This channel is
used in case the network knows the cell location of the MS. This
channel is used for transmitting relatively large amount of
information.
Forward Link Access Channel - Short (FACH-S)
Unidirectional DL channel for transmitting control information
or packet user data from the RNC to the MS. This channel is
used when the network knows the cell location of the MS. The
channel is used for transmitting relatively small amounts of
information.
Random Access Channel - Long (RACH-L)
Unidirectional UL channel for transmitting control information
or user packet data from the MS to the BTS. This channel is
used for transmitting relatively large amounts of information
such as low bit rate service.
Random Access Channel - Short (RACH-S)
Unidirectional uplink channel for transmitting control
information or user packet data from the MS to the BTS. This
channel is used for transmitting relatively small amounts of
information such as page response.
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Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH)
A point-to-point bi-directional channel that transmits control
information. It is assumed that the Stand-Alone Dedicated
Control Channel (SDCCH) is employed for exchange of service
selection information, authentication, and location update, for
example. The SDCCH is only temporarily used (after a random
access) for exchange of signalling information. The connection
is then either released or it is switched to a combination of a
Dedicated Traffic Channel and an Associated Control Channel
(DTCH and ACCH) or a physical channel for packet data
transmission (UPCH or FACH/RACH).
Associated Control Channel (ACCH)
A point-to-point bi-directional channel that transmits control
information. This is a control channel associated with DTCH.
Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH)
A point-to-point bi-directional channel that transmits user
information such as speech and data.
User Packet Channel (UPCH)
A point-to-point bi-directional channel that transmits packet
control and user data.
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PHYSICAL CHANNELS
There are two classes of physical channels, common and
dedicated physical channels. The class of common physical
channels is further separated into perch channel and physical
channel for common control.
The classification of physical channels is illustrated in Figure 5-
5. Features and parameters of the various physical channels are
listed in Appendix B.
Logical channels are sometimes denoted according to the
symbol rate of the physical channel they are mapped to, for
example 32, 128 or 256 ksymbols/sec. It should be noted that
the symbol rate always refers to the rate of respective physical
channel, not to the rate of the logical channel itself.
Physical Channels
Common Physical
Channel
Dedicated Physical
Channel
Physical Channel for
Common Control
Perch Channel
1 st Perch
Channel
2 nd Perch
Channel
256 ksps
128 ksps
32 ksps
16 ksps 64 ksps
Figure5-5 Physical channel classification
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Perch Channel
The perch channel is the subject of reception level
measurements for MSs to select cells. It is the physical channel
the MS acquires first upon power on. The first perch channel
conveys pilot symbols, data symbols, and so-called long code
mask symbols according to a specified slot-structure. The
second perch channel conveys long code mask symbols only.
The second perch channel is transmitted discontinuously, i.e. the
burst is much shorter than a Time Slot (TS).
The long code mask symbols of the first and second perch
channels are spread with two different shorter long codes of
Gold type. The other symbols of the first perch channel are
spread with a short Walsh code. The short Walsh and Gold
codes employed on the first perch channel are the same
throughout the system. The Gold code used on the second perch
channel defines the identity of the group of the cell-specific DL
long code. The perch channel is a unidirectional physical
channel from the BTS to the MS. It enables the MS to achieve
fast cell selection upon power on and during communication.
Physical Channel for Common Control
This channel is shared by multiple MSs located in the same
sector. Physical channels for common control are employed on
the UL for random access (RACH), and on the DL for the
Paging Channel (PCH) and Forward Access Channel (FACH).
Dedicated Physical Channel
This channel is set up point-to-point between MS and BTS.
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MAPPING OF LOGICAL CHANNELS ONTO PHYSICAL CHANNELS
Figure 5-6 presents the correspondence between the physical
channels and the logical channels they are mapped to.
Perch channels (16 ksps)
Common control ph. ch. (64 ksps)
Common control ph. ch. (16 ksps)
Dedicated ph. ch. (32 ksps)
Dedicated ph. ch. (128 ksps)
Dedicated ph. ch. (256 ksps)
BCCH1
PCH
FACH-L
FACH-S
RACH-L
SDCCH
DTCH
ACCH
UPCH
RACH-S
Figure 5-6 Mapping of logical channels onto physical channels
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RADIO FRAMES AND TIME SLOTS
A radio frame is a numbered time interval of 10 ms
duration. The radio frame number is denoted as System
Frame Number (SFN). A radio frame is divided into 16
time slots of 0.625 ms duration for all physical channels
except for RACH-S. Physical channels supporting RACH-
S are divided into 8 time slots of 1.25 ms duration. See
Figure 5-7.
radio frame #0
superframe (640 ms)
radio frame (10 ms)
timeslot (0.625 ms)
timeslot #1
radio frame #1 radio frame #63
timeslot #2 timeslot #16
...
...
4 36
1 8 151
1 4 75
1 4 15
4 5 1
1
1st perch channel
perch 1
symbols for logical channel
long code
mask symbol
2nd perch channel
perch 2
pilot symbols
pilot symbols
pilot symbols
pilot symbols
pilot symbols
symbols for logical channel
symbols for logical channel
symbols for logical channel
symbols for logical channel
TPC symbol
TPC symbol
TPC symbol
perch channel
16 ksps
downlink physical
channel for
common control
64 ksps
dedicated
physical channel
256 ksps
dedicated
physical channel
128 ksps
dedicated
physical channel
32 ksps
Figure 5-7 Radio frames and time slots
SUPERFRAME
A multiframe structure consisting of 64 radio frames is denoted
as a superframe. A radio frame for which SFN modulo 64 equals
0 is defined as the head frame of a superframe.
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SOFT HANDOVER AND POWER CONTROL
Information on how soft handover and power control works in
the WCDMA Experimental System can be found in Appendix
A.
DETAILS OF CHANNEL CODING, INTERLEAVING AND
MULTIPLEXING
For more information on channel coding, interleaving and
multiplexing, please refer to Appendix B.