Internal

Principles of the WCDMA

System
GSM-to-UMTS Training Series_V1.0
www.huawei.com

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Huawei Confidential

Evolution from GSM to WCDMA

GSM

GPRS

EDGE

WCDMA
HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Mainly designed for the speech service

Theoretical rate/actual rate: 64 kbit/s/9.6 kbit/s
Supports higher data rates through the introduction of
packet channels
Theoretical rate/actual rate: 171.2 kbit/s/20 kbit/s-40
kbit/s
With the introduction of new modulation mode, the
theoretical rate is three times higher than that of the GPRS
Theoretical rate/actual rate: about 473.6 kbit/s/100 kbit/s
Has the capability of high-speed data access and
provide various services
Theoretical rate/actual rate:
R99 and R4: 2 Mbit/s/384 kbit/s
R5 (HSDPA): 14.4 Mbit/s/1 Mbit/s higher
Huawei Confidential

Page 2

Multiple Access Technology - Distinguish Different

Users
FDMA
Power

TDMA

CDMA

Power

Power

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Huawei Confidential

Page 3

Comparison of Multiple Access Technology

Between the GSM and the WCDMA
GSM: FDMA + TDMA

WCDMA: FDMA + CDMA

Bandwidth of a single carrier: 200 kHz

Bandwidth of a single carrier: 5 MHz

Weak anti-interference capability. C/I: >

9 dB

Strong anti-interference capability. C/I: > -8

dB

With eight timeslots for a single carrier,

the system capacity is relatively
fixed. It can be estimated according to
the timeslot quantity.

The capacity is not fixed (soft capacity),

closely related to user distribution, service
type, and interference.

Since different users occupy different

timeslots, they rarely interfere with each
other.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Users interfere with each other. They must

be well controlled.

Huawei Confidential

Page 4

Comparison of Radio Access Technology

Between the GSM and the WCDMA
GSM

WCDMA

Source coding

FR: RPE LTP coding, 13 kbit/s

EFR: enhancing the voice quality, 13
kbit/s
HR: increasing the system capacity, 6.5
kbit/s
AMR coding

Channel coding

Convolutional code (1/2)

Channelization

Packed in the pulse mode, data is sent

out in different timeslots.

AMR: eight types of speech rates

Compatible with the coding of current mainstream mobile communication systems,
helpful for designing multimode terminals
Provided with the traffic-adaptive
capability: able to automatically adjust the
speech rate so that the system can balance
between the coverage, capacity, and speech
quality
Speech service: convolutional code (1/2 and
1/3)
High-speed data service: Turbo code
Through spread spectrum and scrambling,
data is combined and outputted.

GMSK, 8PSK (EDGE)

QPSK, 16QAM (HSDPA)

Slow power control (2 Hz)

Fast power control (1500 Hz): used to

restrain fading

Transmit diversity

Transmit diversity (BTS3012)

Transmit diversity

Receiving
technology (antifading)

Space diversity The effect similar to that

of the frequency diversity can be
realized through frequency hopping.
and polarization diversity

Space diversity and polarization diversity

Frequency diversity: rake receiver

Modulation
technology
Power control
technology

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Huawei Confidential

Page 5

Comparison Between GSM and WCDMA

Network Interfaces
WCDMA Core Network

GSM NSS
Gb

Iu PS

Iu CS

Iu

RNS

BSS

RNS
Iur

RNC

BSC
Abis
BTS

Abis
BTS

Sector = Cell. One cell can

include multiple carriers.
HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Iub
Node B

RNC
Iub

Iub
Node B

Node B

Iub
Node B

One sector can include multiple cells. Cell = Carrier

Huawei Confidential

Page 6

Comparison Between GSM and WCDMA Protocols

GSM

A/Iu-CS

Abis/Iub

WCDMA

L3: BSSAP

L3: RANAP

L2: MTP

L2: ATM

L1: E1

L1: E1 or STM 1

L3: BTSM

L3: NBAP

L2: LAPD

L2: ATM

L1: E1

L1: E1 or STM 1

L3: RR

RRC

L2 (data link layer): LAPDm

L2 (data link layer): RLC/MAC

L1 (radio frequency band) (MHz):

Radio
interface

Major frequency band: 1920-1980 / 2110-2170

L1 (radio frequency band) (MHz):
890-915/935-960
1710-1785/1805-1880

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Supplementary frequency band: 17101785/1805-1880

(In China, only 30 MHz in the high frequency
band serves as a supplementary frequency
band.)

Huawei Confidential

Page 7