3G Cellular Systems: Design Issues on the Air Interface

Presented to: Dr. Oussama Bazi

Done by: Nabil Maher

Outline
1.

Introduction

2.
3.

Evolution of generations relative to design techniques

Towards the 3G

4.
5.

operational constraints facing 3G systems

Problems that impose constraints on the physical layer

6.
7.

Air Interface Solutions

Conclusion

Introduction

3G cellular systems are starting to be introduced worldwide, offering much higher transmission rates for users and much better flexibility and integration in service provisioning. Despite the increase in the performances of successive generation of cellular systems, same problems in radio communications applied to new services requiring higher performances continued to exist.

The basic concepts of cellular systems are essentially two: Frequency Reuse Handover

Evolution of generations relative to design techniques

In 1G Systems:
FDMA technique was used Each user channel used analog FM modulation The service provided was for voice only The architecture was based on circuit switching only The service quality was low to medium There was no worldwide standard

Evolution of generations (Continued)

In 2G Systems:
there was a major improvement in communication quality due to the use of digital techniques for communications. In the first phase of 2G systems: GSM networks and IS-95 networks where deployed. voice and limited data using circuit switching techniques were offered. GSM Networks used: a combination of FDMA and TDMA techniques. a channel BW of 200 KHz and eight timeslots in each frame. In IS-95: CDMA technique was used a bandwidth of 1.25MHz at a chip rate of 1.25Mcps.

Towards the 3G

In following phases of GSM development, packet switching was introduced for the GPRS and EDGE with much higher rates for users. In 3G systems: requirements for high data rate transmission are specified, and rates as high as 2Mbps over a bandwidth of 5MHz must be possible.

Integrated services must be offered to single users, permitting multiple sessions at the same time for any user. The CDMA technique with a wide spreading bandwidth have been normalized for these systems. the design must be adapted to the broadband ISDN and the internet, offering similar services and equivalent quality. The types of services considered for these systems are very wide, and include voice, video, multimedia and high data rate services.

operational constraints facing 3G systems

There are three levels of operational constraints under which 3G systems will operate:

constraints on the physical layer: due to the nature of the air interface, which result primarily from large and small scale variations of the received radio signals, and from the nature of the transmitted signals. constraints on the dynamic resource allocation: to prevent congestion and quality of service (QoS) degradation for all users, when many users become active and wish to transmit. constraints on call admission: to prevent from overloading the system and causing long delays.

Factors that impose constraints on the physical layer:

Area coverage: The parameter of interest in this case is the mean value of the transmitted signal in any point of a cell.

It is dependent on many factors (geographical distance and path loss exponent, major obstacles, presence of water area, trees, antennas height, street orientation, in-building, propagation inside tunnels, etc)

Doppler and multipath effects: they are related to the small scale variations of the signal.

The Doppler Effect is a function of the speed of a mobile; it shows that the variations are much faster at high speed than at low speed. The multipath effect results from the reception of a very big number of waves for the same signal, coming from different directions and with different amplitudes and phases. combination of these waves may result in a received signal envelope that experiences a wide range of variations, of the order of 40dB.

Factors imposing the constraints(Continued)

Selective fading:

it is one particular effect when the bandwidth of the transmitted signal is much greater than the coherence bandwidth of the channel. It is due to the delay following different paths of propagation, which will cause a spreading in time of the received signal.

For an example in the UMTS system, a chip duration is ~ 0.25s, while the channel impulse response may be spread over a few s.

Factors imposing the constraints(Continued)

The near-far problem:

problem of fixing the transmission of all users to the minimum level that will ensure that the QoS requirements are met. One criterion to minimize interference in the system is to equalize the received power of all users transmitting with the same rate and using the same service. it is then essential that a user having a higher radio distance transmit at a higher power than one that has a smaller one.

Factors imposing the constraints(Continued)

Interference limitations in CDMA:

Depending on: the number of interfering users (both in-cell and out-of-cell) the effect of selective fading the fast variations due to the channel the compensating techniques that are used (power control and diversity)

Time-varying channel characteristics : The mobile radio channel is known for its variation in space and time.

This results into a situation that all constraints can be characterized only statistically and follow stochastic processes. An estimation of the channel for each user at regular interval in time is essential.

Factors imposing the constraints(Continued)

Different QoS requirements:

It is possible to have at the same time users having different QoS requirements, in terms of the required SNR, although the interference is ~ similar for all users in a cell in CDMA. The target received power for users with different QoS will be different from each other. It is necessary that the system be able to handle all users asking for different services.

Air Interface Solutions

Interleaving and channel coding:

both work impair in the transmission and reception chain to improve the performance of digital modulation.

Interleaving randomizes the burst of errors that are a characteristic of multipath effect, and channel coding corrects or detects the errors.
Their role is to combat the multipath effect by correcting the errors due to the fast fading and the limitation of interference in CDMA systems by lowering the required SNR.

Equalization or time diversity:

it is usually done by means of a RAKE receiver which is equivalent to a structure that exploits the intrinsic characteristic of the channel response to the wideband spread signal. It achieves time diversity for the fading signals, and reduces the variations around the mean of the received signals. Its role is to combat the effects of selective fading and the multipath and Doppler effects.

Air Interface Solutions

Channel estimation:

It is done by transmitting a known sequence to estimate the channel parameters, which are then fed to the RAKE receiver for correct detection of symbols. In UMTS, a dedicated channel called DPCCH (for dedicated physical control channel) is used by all mobiles to estimate the channel. The role of this function is to compensate the time and space variations of the channel arriving to a mobile, and is included in the transmission and reception chain.

Power control:

This is an absolute process in all CDMA systems, and its role is to control the transmit power in order to receive the minimum required received power at the receiver.

Power Control (Continued)

The logic of the power control is to compare the received power or the SIR to a certain level: if it is above, the transmit power is decreased by a fixed step. if it is below, it is increased by the same fixed step. the performance of the power control module also depend on the speed of the mobiles, and the higher the speed, the faster the variations and the poorer the performance.

CONCLUSION

The design issues of equipments depend on the air interface, because the major constraints in the system come from there.

The nature of the services in 3G systems is very demanding, and put additional constraints on the expected performance on the air interface.
The specifications for 3G cellular systems are now attaining maturity, in terms of air interface, service definitions, and logical channels performing specific functions for cellular systems. The specifications have covered all basic compensating techniques, however they leave room for future improvements by more complex designs such as smart antennas, interference cancellation, etc Other work and improvements not covered by standardization are about resource allocation algorithms and call admission handling different types of services with differing QoS requirements.

Thanks for your attention !