Packet Data Capacity in a Wideband CDMA System
B Christer V Johansson
Ericsson Radio Systems AB
S-16480 Stockholm
Sweden
Abstract. An analytical formula similar to the Qualcomm
capacity formula for speech is theoretically derived for cellular
packet data with ARQ. The value of the target E,/N, that
gives the highest system capacity can from the formula together
with the E,/N, to BLER (Block Error Rate) mapping be
found. (We define a block to be the smallest unit that is re-trans-
missible on the air-interface.) The system capacity can be found
except for a multiplicative constant which depends on the reuse
and on the path loss function.
System simulations aiming for confirming the theory has been
performed for a downlink 32 kbps data channel in a CDMA test
system with non-orthogonal DL. Results for the alpha-group
concept (WCDMA) in ETSI are also shown.
The optimal value of the target E,/N, found by simulations
is very close to the one given by the theory. Furthermore, the
ratio of the capacity in the two cases investigated (with and with-
out fast PC) is very close to what was predicted by the theory.
The result in this paper indicate that using the theory makes it
possible to optimize coding, interleaving and block size with
respect to system capacity by only performing link simulations.
Hence, system simulations are probably not needed for this opti-
mization procedure.
I. Introduction
In this paper we discuss how to set the E b / N , target in a
CDMA packet data system: If the target is set too low, we will
suffer from many retransmissions. The result is a capacity
decrease. However, the number of mobiles that a system can
serve simultaneously is inversely proportional to the E,/No
target, so also a too high .!?,/No target will result in a capac-
ity decrease. This paper shows how one can find the optimal
E,/No target (with respect to system capacity) from the
.??,/No to BLER mapping alone. From this mapping also an
estimate of the capacity can be found. Hence, when different
coding schemes (e.g. coding rate, block length and interleav-
ing depth) and power control strategies (using fast PC or not)
are compared, the best scheme (with respect to system capac-
ity) can be found from the E,/N, to BLER mapping alone.
Section 11 derives the capacity formula. Section I11 briefly
0-7803-4320-4/98/$5.00 0 1998 IEEE 1878
describes the simulation set up for the CDMA test system,
including some radio network algorithms used. Section IV
presents system simulation results for the CDMA test system,
and these results are in Section V compared to the theory.
Section VI gives some resent results for the alpha-group con-
cept (WCDMA) in ETSI. Finally, Section VI1 discusses the
results found in this paper.
II. The Capacity Formula
A. Derivation
Excluding thermal noise and interference from other cells,
the number of users Nc!rcuft,uL that simultaneously can
communicate in the up link In a cellular CDMA telephone
system is given by (see [ 11)
-
‘circuit, U L
Here W is the band width, R is the information bit rate,
and E,/N, the information bit energy to the noise ratio that
is required for the link to operate satisfactorily.
We will in the following derive a similar formula usable for
a cellular ARQ packet data system. The arguments we will
use are valid for down-link as well as up-link, and holds for
CDMA system as well as TDMA systems. However, it is nec-
essary to have a power control algorithm that gives all users
the same E,/N,.
Let a cellular packet data system have Npacket users per
cell, all transmitting with the information bit rate R . Let
TP,,,,, (“throughput cell”) be the number of information bits
that per second are successfully transmitted in one cell.
Assuming that all users operate at the same E,/N, value
yields
TP,,,, = Npucker. R . [ 1 - B L E R ( E b / N o ) ], (2.2)
where BLER is the block error rate. A block is defined to
be the smallest unit that is re-transmissible on the air-inter-
face.
The interference I in a cell is proportional to the number of
users in a cell times the carrier energy C, so
VTC ‘98
 largest maximum value of this function. Hence only link sim-
I = k . C . Npackel (2.3)
ulations, and not system simulations, are needed.
where the constant k basically depends on the path loss Figure 1 shows the Block Error Rate as a function of
function between the BS and MS and on the reuse, but is E b / N o for the 32 kbps packet data channel in a CDMA test
independent of e.g. the coding and interleaving schemes used. system. The link simulations were performed by [2]. Figure 2
For the up-link k i s larger than 1 (with interference only from shows the capacity function f cap as a function of .??,/No.
the own cell, we would have k = 1). For the down-link k
will be of the order of one: using orthogonal codes in the 100
down link can also make k c 1 . BLER
C/I R
By (2.2) and (2.3), and by using the relation -= -
we derive
E b / N o w

TPcelI = E T 'Re [ 1- BLER(Eb/No)] = (2.4) 10.'

. .. . .

- -w. 1 -BLER(Eb/No)
k
lo+
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Comparing (2.1) with (2.4) shows that the main difference Eb/NO [dBl
is the factor [ 1 - B L E R ( E b / N o ) ] coming from the retrans- Figure 1. The Block Error Rate (BLER) as a function of E/N0 for the 32
kbps data channel in the CDMA test system. The channel has 4 equally
missions. Also note that in (2.1) we must derive the E b / N , strong Rayleigh fading taps, and the mobile speed is 6 d s .
that gives acceptable speech quality. In (2.4) the quality is Perfect first PC
taken into account by the factor [ 1 - B L E R ( E b / N o ) ] . _ _ _ _ - - _No
_ -fast PC
We now define the capacity function as

1on
fcap

We write (2.4) as

and remember the important fact that k basically depends

on the path loss function between the BS and MS and on the
reuse, whereas f tal! depends on the coding, interleaving,
block size, fast PC (in use or not) and on the radio channel.
We finally note that

TPcell - f cap(Eb/NO) (2.7)

the spectrum efficiency = - W
- k
B. Maximizing the capacity
For a given E b / N o to BLER function (i.e. for a given
coding, interleaving and block size, for using fast PC or not,
and for a given radio channel) we from (2.6) see that the oper-
ation point should, in order to maximize the capacity, be cho-
sen such that the capacity function f c a p is maximized. This
also means that when evaluating different coding, interleav-
ing, block size and PC strategies (using fast PC or not) for a
cellular ARQ packet data system, one plots the function f cup
for the different schemes, and chooses the scheme with the
Figure 2. The capacity functionfcU,)= (I - BLER) /E@'(, as a function of
E f l o for the 32 kbps data channel in the CDMA test system.
Perfect fast PC
_ _ - _--_ - -No fast PC
In Figure 1 and 2 we see that when fast PC is used the high-
est capacity is obtained for E b / N O , t a r g e =r 6 d B , corre-
sponding to BLER = 4.5% . When no fast PC is applied, the
highest capacity is obtained for E b / N O , t a r g e =
t 6 d B , cor-
responding to BLER = 36%. However, for the no fast PC
case the curve is quite flat around 6 . 5 d B , and almost the
same capacity is derived for Eb/NO,rarger= 7 d B , corre-

i
0 199SiEEE
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 sponding to BLER = 20%.
~

Towards a Eflo,rurgerSlow (not following the Ray-

The reason that we get almost the same capacity for so dif-
ferent BLER in the no fast PC case is that the many retrans-
missions for 6dB (BLER = 36% ) is compensated by that
more users can enter the system simultaneously. However,
decreasing E,/No,targ,, below 6dB will increase the
retransmissions more than can be compensated for by the
increase in the number of users. Furthermore, increasing
E b / N O , t x g e t above 7dB will lower the number of users
DL Power leigh fading) as well as fast (following the Rayleigh
Control fading) PC was simulated. (The Eflo,rurKer to BLER
function was derived from a link level simulation.)
The power of each BS was limited to P,,,,,.If this
Power power was not sufficient to let all connections operate at
limitation E&V(,,rurRer.all connections were given a slightly
smaller power than required. However, all connections
in the same cell were still operating at the same E,,jNo.
~ ~~

more than can be compensated for by the lower number of
retransmissions.
Finally we compare the maximum of f c U p for the two
cases. This shows that using PC according to this theory
should give
New users were put in a queue. We admitted users from
Queueing the queue one by one as long as the BS befim admitting
strategy 1 the user was capable of giving the admitted users the
target E@@ (A new user that was put in an empty
queue and immediately admitted was not considered
delayed in the queue.)

New users were put in a queue. We admitted users from

times as high capacity as not using fast PC.
111. System Simulation Set Up for the CDMA Test System
The system simulation set up is summarized in Table I.
Note that as the radio channel has four equally strong taps, we
have performed the system simulation with non-orthogonal
DL. Also note that a real system should be complemented
with a congestion algorithm that drops users e.g. if they have
been in the queue for an un-acceptably long time.
~
Queueing the queue one by one as long as the BS ufter admitting
strategy 2 the user was capable of giving the admitted users the
target E@(,. (A new user that was put In an empty
queue and immediately admitted was not considered
delayed in the queue.)
TABLE I The simulation set up.
IV. Simulation Result for the CDMA Test System
The aim of the simulations was to verify the theory in Sec-
tion 11. Therefore the system was simulated with different
offered traffic, and with different values of E,/N0,,,,,.
The offered traffic was increased until the system was unable
to serve all the mobiles, resulting in growing queues. (As no

Access method CDMA, system simulations were performed with non-

orthogonal DL connections were dropped, an over-loaded system resulted in
growing queues.)
Cell plan I-reuse, 5x5 macro omni cells with wrap around
simulated
A. General behavior
Channel model 4 equally strong Rayleigh fading taps. The doppler fre-
quency was 40 Hz,corresponding to a mobile speed of
Figure 3 shows the total number of users (admitted +
(link level
simulation) 6 m/s = 22 km/h. queueing) as a function of time for three different values of

Information 32kbps
Eb/No,rarget, namely E b / N o , t , ,,
= 5 dB, 6 dB and 7 dB.
In this particular simulation the ofiered traffic was 18 Erlang
data rate
(corresponding to 115 kbps/MHz/cell) and fast PC was used.
Block length 10 ms = 320 bit = 40 byte Each simulation started with an empty system, and run for 1.2
seconds (i.e. 120 time steps). We see that the system was sta-
Packet length 10 blocks = 100 ms = 3.2 kbit = 400 byte
ble only for E,/N,,,,,, = 6 dB. Both 5 dB and 7 dB
Poisson distributed. Each user was born, transmitted resulted in growing queues.
process one packet containing 10 blocks, and died. 2500

Every time a block was sent, a random experiment

ARQ using the error probability derived by the BLER map-
ping in Figure 1 was performed to decide if the block
was erroneous. If so the block was retransmitted. Error-
free and infinitely fast ACWNACK channel was used. * 500

Simulation
time
1.2 seconds simulated. Statistics collected between 0.2
and 1.2 seconds. I 0 0.5
time [SI
1 0 05
time [SI
1 0

Figure 3. The number of mobiles (admitted +in the queue) in the system as
05
time [SI
1

TABLE I The simulation set up.

a function of time. The offered traffic was 18 Erlang, and queueing strategy 1
was used.
The system was stable only for E,/N1, = 6 dB.

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 For each of the above simulations Figure 4 shows the histo-
gram over the number of retransmissions and over the queue- Fast PC Fast PC
ing times for the connections that were finished between 0.2 s Queueing strategy I Queueing strategy 2
and 1.2 s.
We see that the number of retransmissions becomes lower
the higher the Eb/No,rargetis (upper row).
The large queueing time for 7 dB (lower right figure)
depends on that the system is too restrictive in allowing new
mobiles. We conclude that 7 dB is a too large target value.

/irl/i!r
The large queueing time for 5 dB (lower left figure)
depends on that the system accepts too many mobiles at the Eb/N I target [dB1 Eb/N I target [dB1
same time, resulting in many retransmissions. These retrans-
missions in turn result in low throughput, and therefore also Figure 5. The delay (in blocks) as a function of E@o,,urRrt for the case that
long queueing time. We conclude that 5 dB is a too smail tar- fast PC is used. The left figure. is for using queueing strategy 1 , the right for
get value. using queueing strategy 2. Stable cases (no growing queues) are marked with
3 0
4000 0 0 r 1 rings and connected by solid lines. Unstable cases (growing queues) are
marked with crosses. (Note that the finite value of the delay in the unstable
case is solely due to the finite simulation time).
The different curves are for 16, 17, 18 and 19 Erlang offered traffic.
2000

1000 1000 1000 Figure 6 shows the total delay as a function of

0 L
0 10 20
I ou
c 0 10 20 OO 10 20
Eb/NO,targerfor the case when fast PC is not used. We see
that both for using queueing strategy 1 (left figure) and for
# retransmissions # retransfissions # retransmissions
using queueing strategy 2 (right figure) the capacity limit is
40007~4000m
4000i--l
3000 3000 3000
about 12-13 Erlang, and is obtained for Eb/NO,largef-- 6 d B .

5 dB 6 dB 7 dB N o Fast PC N o Fast PC
2000 2000 2000 Queueing strategy 1 Queueing strategy 2

1000 1000 1Mx).

O0 Ll 10 20 ou
ou 0 10 20 0 10 20

Figure 4. Histogram over the number of retransmissions (upper row) and 4-

1°'5 6 7 8 : a 10' '
5 6 7 8 9
the queueing time (lower row) for the simulation case in Figure 3.
The Eflo,rurRerequals 5,6 and 7 dB. Eb/N ' target IdB1 Eb/N I target IdB1
Figure 6. The delay (in blocks) as a function of E@o,rurget for the case that
B. The capacity limit fast PC is not used. The left figure is for using queueing strategy 1, the right
for using queueing strategy 2. Stable cases (no growing queues) are marked
Figure 5 and 6 for each simulation show the mean total with rings and connected by solid lines. Unstable cases (growing queues) are
delay (= transmission + retransmission + queueing delay) of marked with crosses. (Note that the finite value of the delay in the unstable
case is solely due to the finite simulation time).
the connections that have finished their transmission between The different curves are for 11.12 and 13 Erlang offered traffic.
0.2 s and 1.2 s. Note that we due to the finite simulation time
get a finite value of the delay even for the unstable cases. (The
queueing delay would equal infinity for an infinitely long V. Comparison between the Theory and the Simulation
simulation.) In order to separate the finite queueing delay Results for the CDMA Test System
from these that theoretically equals infinity, the finite values A. The Optimal E b mo,mrget
are in the figures marked with a ring and connected with a
The theory in Section I1 predicted that the maximum
solid line. The values that correspond to an unstable case with
capacity should be achieved for 6 dB (when using fast PC)
growing queues are marked with a cross.
and between 6 and 7 dB (when not using fast PC). The best
Figure 5 shows the total delay as a function of
Eb/NO,targervalue that was found in the simulations was
E b / N O , r a r g e rfor the case when fast PC is used. We see that
close to the theoretical value, see Table 11.
both for using queueing strategy 1 (left figure) and for using
queueing strategy 2 (right figure) the capacity limit is about
18-19 Erlang, and is obtained for Eb/NO,rarger =6dB.

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 Maximum offered
traffic per cell

I Fast PC,
Queueing 1 6 - 6.5 1 6 I 4.4
[Erlang per cell]

Spectrum efficiency
[kbps/cell/MHz]
122

I
strategy I
0.240
f f"Plmax
Queueing 6 4.4

1
I
strategy 2 f I
c t l p lmux
k = 1.97
spectrum efficiency

TABLE 111 The DL capacity (offered traffic per cell),L.a,,,mu and k. Wis
No Fast PC, 5 MHz. Remember that the system simulation was performed with non-
Queueing 6-7 20 - 36 orthogonal DL.

VI. Recent Results for the Wideband CDMA Proposal to

TABLE I1 Comparison between the best EIJNO.,urgptfound by simulations
(second column) and by the theory (third column).
In the fourth column we give the BLER value at the best E/Nu,turxerfound by
the theory.
Note that when using queueing strategy 2 the target value
should be set slightly lower than when using queueing strat-
egy 1. This is because the queueing strategy 2 is more restnc-
tive in allowing users than queueing strategy 1, and the target
shall therefore be set slightly lower.
In the last column in Table I1 we see that the BLER values
at the operating point are around 5% (when using fast PC)
and between 20% and 35% (when not using fast PC).
B. The capacity
From the theory in Section I1 we saw that the function
f c u p is proportional to the system capacity. In order to see
how well the theory agree with the simulations we also calcu-
late k. According to the theory k should be independent of
whether fast PC is used or not.
As the offered traffic per cell for a stable system equals
T P c e l l / R , we can by (2.6) calculate k as
W/R
k =
offered traffic p e r c e l l ' mux
In Table I11 we give the offered traffic per cell, f r a p , I1laJ(
and k for using fast PC, and for not using fast PC. We see that
k is the same in the two cases, which supports the theory in
Section 11.
ETSI
We finally give some recent simulation results on the Wide-
band CDMA proposal to ETSI, [4]. The simulations show
results for the 2 Mbps packet data channel used in the indoor
environment in [3]. Models, capacity measurements etc are
described in [3], and the simulation technique is described in
[41.
We briefly give some results that supports the theory in this
paper.
1oo
fcap
lo-'
-2 0 2
Figure 7. BLER as a function of E/No (left figure) and its capacity,function
(right figure) for the 2 Mbps UL packet data service in the WCDMA proposal
to ETSI. The simulations was performed by [2].
Figure 7 shows the E,/No to B L E R mapping for the 2
Mbps UL packet data service for the indoor environment
together with the capacity function. From the capacity func-
tion we see that the target E,/No should be chosen to 0 dB
in order to maximize the capacity.

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 showed very good agreement: The theoretically best
Eb/NO,target was close (within 0.5 dB) to the best
Eb/NO,rargerfound in the system simulations. The theory
correctly predicted the ratio of the system capacity for the
cases when fast PC was used and when it was not used.
We believe that the theory has a great potential as a tool for
evaluating which coding, interleaving and block size that
gives the highest system capacity, and how much the system
capacity is increased by introducing fast PC. Only link simu-
lations, but not system simulations, are needed. Furthermore,
the theory can be used to find the optimal (with respect to sys-
tem capacity) Eb/No,t,e, value from the E b / N o to
BLER mapping alone.

Figure 8. The percent satisfied users as a function of for the 2 VIII. Acknowledgments
Mbps packet data service in [3]. The left figure shows the UL and the right
shows the DL. Note that the maximum is derived close to where the capacity Maria Gustafsson at Ericsson Radio Systems AB is very
function fcUp in Figure 7 has its maximum. much acknowledged for providing the link simulation results.

Figure 8 shows the percent satisfied users (a user is satis-
fied if the mean session transmission speed is over 200 kbps,
see [3]) as a function of the target E b / N o for the 2 Mbps
packet data service. For the UL (left figure) the offered load
was 290 kbps/MHz/cell. For the DL (right figure) the offered
load was 490 kbps/MHz/cell. (The DL BLER mapping is
almost identical to the UL BLER mapping, and this particular
DL simulation was performed using the same mapping as in
the UL.) We see that in both cases around 99% of the users
are satisfied (ETSI, [3], only require 98%).
The most interesting observation for this paper is derived
by comparing the best Eb/NO,target found in the system
simulations to the theoretically best E b / N O , t a r g e t . For the
UL they were the same, and for the DL the best value found
by simulations was only 0.5 dB larger than the theoretical
value.
IX. References
[I]Gilhousen, K., Jacobs, J, Padovani, R., Viterbi, A., Weaver, A. Jr. and
Wheatley, C. 111: On the Cupucify of a Cellular CDMA System. IEEE
Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 40, No. 2, p 303-312, May
1991
[2]Maria Gustafsson, Ericsson Radio Systems AB. Personal communication.
[3]UMTS 30.03, version 3.0.0: Selection procedures for the choice of radio
transmission technologies of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications
Systems (UMTS).
[4]Tdoc SMG2 UMTS 11 1197: Concept Group Alphu- Wideband Direct-
Sequence CDMA (WCDMA). EVALUATION DOCUMENT (2.0).

VII. Conclusions
We have derived a capacity formula for a CDMA packet
data ARQ system. The formula gives the capacity as a func-
tion of the E b / N o to BLER mapping (found in link simula-
tions), the used ,!?,/No, the used band width W and a
constant k that basically depends on the reuse and on the path
loss function. The formula can be used for finding the optimal
value of Eb/NO,rarger.If k is known, the system capacity in
terms of information bits per time and cell can be found. Even
if k is not known, the formula makes it possible to optimize
the coding, interleaving and block size with respect to system
capacity by only performing link simulations. The system
capacity gain derived by using fast PC compared to only
using slow PC (not following the Rayleigh fading) can also be
derived by only performing link simulations. System simula-
tions are not necessary for these purposes.
System simulations aiming for confirming the theory has
been performed. Comparing the theory and simulations

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