Why CQI?

Some Questions answered

Prepared by Faraz Husain

Why CQI
Several times weve asked ourselves these questions:
Q: Why do we get poor Ec/No when conducting HSDPA
Drive Test?
Q: What is the calculations behind Ec/No going low
when HSDPA session is initiated?
Q: Why do we consider CQI as a Quality Metric when
conducting HSDPA Drive Test instead of Ec/No?
Take a look at the following slides

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Why CQI
Note the CQI value is 27 (good) while EcNo is about to explode (-12db)

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Lets go back to developing Basics

Lets start by establishing some basics:
Ec/No for most of you is a Quality & Capacity
measuring Metric. It generally gives us the idea how
good or bad the link Quality is. However, by
definition, its quite confusing
CPICH Ec/No = Pilot channel quality energy per chip over total received power
spectral density
OR

WHAT?!?!?

RSCP = RSSI + Ec/No

EcNo = RSCP - RSSI
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Ok..

Misconceptions about Ec/No

It is believed that Ec/No is an expression of signal-to-noise ratio and
is therefore, an indicator of signal quality.

IT IS NOT !
The N0 consists of three things: interfering (non-orthogonal)
power, thermal noise, and, non-interfering (orthogonal) power.
In situations where N0 consists mainly of "in-cell" power (e.g., during
HS-DSCH bursts), Ec/N0 can be "low", whereas the objective signal
quality is high. This will be shown in the following slides

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Misconceptions about Ec/No

Further, Ec is an expression of power in the CPICH, not in the downlink

DPxCH.

Though the dynamic range of downlink DPxCH power is often expressed

relative to the CPICH, downlink power control will do its best to ensure that
downlink SNR is whatever it needs to be to meet the transport channel
quality target.

The point being: The traffic channel SNR has almost nothing to do
with pilot Ec/N0.

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Basics.
Dont be shy. I know were still Confused
..

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For the sake of simplicity, just imagine that youre

in a test-bed, being served by a single cell

Then,
Ec/No for a UE is
The measure of PCPICH (code power) over Total Wideband
Power on that particular carrier
Measure of PCPICH = RSCP dBm (right?)
Measure of Total Wideband power = RSSI dBm

So our Ec/No will become Ec/No = RSCP / RSSI

(cannot divide

dBm values so we have to apply logarithmic rules)

Ec/No = RSCP RSSI (db) (dBm dBm = value in dB)

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Are you there yet?

Hope youre able to make a picture of how
Ec/No works.
If yes, proceed further to find what happens
when an HSDPA session is initiated
If not, I suggest you discuss this concept first
before proceeding.
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Cell Power Distribution

Lets take a look at how the POWER of a CELL is distributed among

different channels

For simplicity, check the diagram below

Notice that HSDPA uses the REMAINING power of the cell after power is
allocated to Common and Dedicated channels (check more detailed figure
in the next slide)

Total available cell power

HSDPA

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Dedicated channels (power controlled)

Common channels (not power controlled)

Cell Power Distribution

The figures highlight the following points:
1) Common Channels have the highest priority for Power. Their power is
fixed
2) DCH come second in priority Power control is applicable
3) All that remains after DCH utilization can be used up for HSDPA power
4) So if a cell is less loaded, a single UE HS session can utilize the whole
HSDPA power space which is lying unused.

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Ec/No Computation No Load

Now imagine yourself conducting a test in Test Bed on a cell having ZERO
DCH or HS Traffic.
Assuming only 10% cell power is dedicated to CPICH (33dBm = 2watt)
Cell MAXTXPOWER is 20W or 43dBm
Ideally, if you have NO traffic on this cell, your UE will calculate the CPICH
Ec/No in the following manner
Ec/No = 10 log (CPICH power / Total Transmit power)
Ec/No = 10 log (2w/2w) = 10 log (1) = 0 dB (VERY high, but thats IDEAL!!!)
OR
Ec/No = RCSP RSSI
Ec/No = 33 (dBm) 33 (dBm) = 0

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(in dBm)
*

Ec/No Computation One HSDPA user

Now assume you start an HS session.Since there is no DCH traffic,
all the REMNANT power is given to HSDPA

Cell Transmit power is now 2W for CPICH and REMNANT power (18W) for
HSDPA so ideally, Cell is utilizing almost 100% power

So UE will measure the Ec/No in the following manner

Ec/No = 10 log (CPICH power / Total Transmit Power)

Ec/No = 10 log (2W / 20W)
Ec/No = 10 log (0.1) = -10dB
(Very low again very IDEAL!)

OR (in dBm)
Ec/No = RCSP RSSI
Ec/No = 33 (dBm) 43 (dBm) = -10 dB

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Why CQI
From above computations, we establish the following:
In Idle mode and with no resources allocated, a UE will measure
as low as 0 dB Ec/No
In HS Mode and with no resources allocated on DCH, a UE will
measure as low as -10dB. It cannot report ANY better than
-10dB

Hence, that means, in a live network where resources of

cell are shared between many users, and Interference
from other cells also plays its part, the Ec/No will always
give a FALSE value for an HSDPA user. And it will show
a very poor value
What you should be asking yourself:
1) What happens when more users join in to share
the REMNANT power?
2) Will Ec/No improve or degrade further with
addition of DCH or HS user?

Prepared by Faraz Husain

Why CQI
So, we establish that,
The CPICH Ec/No measurements collected during HSDPA Transmission could
mask the true radio conditions
To avoid this, we have to monitor the Ec/No in IDLE mode only, which is a true
reflection of Interference and coverage problems
HSDPA session adds to the overall load of the cell which is taken into
consideration during computing Ec/No. As calculations above proved that this
does not, necessarily, depict the TRUE radio Conditions.

So, what is the ALTERNATIVE to Ec/No in HS session?

Its called Channel Quality Indication

CQI
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What is CQI

HSDPA utilizes link adaptation techniques to substitute power-control and

variable spreading factor
The HS-DSCH link-adaptation algorithm at the Node-B is very dynamic, and
adjusts the transmit bit rate on the HS-DSCH every 2-ms TTI.
The UE periodically sends a CQI to the serving HS-DSCH cell on the uplink
high-speed dedicated physical control channel (HS-DPCCH)
The CQI tells the NodeB scheduler, the data rate the UE expects to be able
to receive at a given point in time.
NOTE: The HSDPA system defines a different CQI mapping table for different
categories of UEs. The category is determined according to the capability of UE

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In addition to
CQI, UE also
sends HARQ on
HS-DPCCH

HSDPA CQI involvement

Below figure shows the steps how CQI helps in determining the initial
throughput that a UE terminal demands from the system
STEPS
SINR is used to evaluate the channel quality as observed by the receiver,
where a standard single antenna Rake is used because it is the most
common in the SISO HSDPA terminals.

CQI value for a given SINR is done via a linear mapping, as shown in figure

Contd..

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HSDPA CQI involvement

STEPS

The CQI values are used by the link adaptation algorithm at

the Node-B. Every CQI value reported corresponds to the
Transport Block Size (TBS) that can be granted on a
particular Modulation type and Number of codes

Example of a UE category 10 CQI values from 0 to 30 are

shown in the figure. Other UE categories are shown in the
following slide

The CQI is further defined as the TBS that can be supported

with a BLER no greater than 10% -

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HSDPA CQI involvement

STEPS

While CQI is sending UEs requirement to the system in UL, there is BLER
calculation going on and UL HARQ (Hybrid Auto Repeat Request)
mechanism is helping in maintaining the BLER to below 10%.

So the system (NodeB) is essentially calculating the Data Rate to be

scheduled to the user based on CQI reports and BLER which it receives
from the UE

So DATA RATE (bps) = TBS (bits)/ TTI (sec) * (1-BLER)

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HSDPA UE Categories 1-12

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Thank you for reading

Prepared by Faraz Husain