WCDMA Overview
GSM Vs WCDMA
GSM
Services : Voice & Data
Speed : 9.6kbps (FR, HR, EFR)
Modulation Scheme : GMSK
Nodes : MSC, BSC, BTS, ME
Air interfaces : Abis, A, Ater, Gb etc
BW : 25 MHz with 200 KHz per carrier.
Channels : BCCH, PCH, SDDCH,
FACCH, RACH, etc
Access Method : TDMA
Access Media : TDM
Multipath Fading : Viterbi Equalizer.
Coding scheme : CS1 (9.6kbps) To
CS4 (21.4 kbps)
BSC to BSC no direct connectivity
AUC : Triplets (SRES, Ki, RAND)
WCDMA
Services : Voice, data, Video
Speed : 12.8kbps-4.5 kbps (AMR)
Modulation scheme : QPSK
Nodes: SMSC, MGW, RNC, RBS, UE
Air interfaces : Iu-CS, Iu-PS, Uu etc
BW : 60 MHz, with 5 MHz spread BW.
Channels: CPICH, PRACH, DPDCH,
DPCCH etc
Access Method : Spread Spectrum
technique with wide bandwidth.
Access Media : ATM, IP, TDM
Multipath fading : Rake reciever
Coding Scheme : MCS1(8.8kbps) to
MCS9 (59.2kbps)
RNC to RNC connectivity via MGW.
AUC : Vector-5 ( XRES, Ik, RAND, Ck,
AUTN)
AUTN : MAC + SQN + Ak + AMF
3GPP Releases
R99, R4, R5, R6 etc.
Media gateway introduced in R99.
IMS introduced in R4.
HSDPA introduced in R5.
EUL introduced in R6.

**** : Kindly refer 3GPP for further information.

Spreading and Dispreading
Spreading Factor and Data Symbol Rate
Carrier ARFCNDL Downlink Frequency (MHz) Uplink Frequency (MHz) ARFCNUL
10550 2110 1920 9600
10551 2110.2 1920.2 9601
10552 2110.4 1920.4 9602
10553 2110.6 1920.6 9603
10554 2110.8 1920.8 9604
10555 2111 1921 9605
10556 2111.2 1921.2 9606
10557 2111.4 1921.4 9607
10558 2111.6 1921.6 9608
10559 2111.8 1921.8 9609
10560 2112 1922 9610
10561 2112.2 1922.2 9611
1 10562 2112.4 1922.4 9612
10563 2112.6 1922.6 9613
10564 2112.8 1922.8 9614
10565 2113 1923 9615
10566 2113.2 1923.2 9616
10567 2113.4 1923.4 9617
10568 2113.6 1923.6 9618
10569 2113.8 1923.8 9619
10570 2114 1924 9620
10571 2114.2 1924.2 9621
10572 2114.4 1924.4 9622
10573 2114.6 1924.6 9623
Microsoft Excel
10574 2114.8 1924.8 Worksheet
9624
 GSM vs WCDMA
GSM WCDMA

TCH (User payload) DCH : DPDCH (user + L3) &

DPCCH (L1 ie Pilot bits, power
control).
PCCPH (Broadcast Info)
BCH

SCPCCH ( FACH + PCH)

AGCH

CPICH, PCCPCH are continuous.

S-CCPCH, PICH, AICH, DDCCH, DPCCH are on demands.
Basic frame structure
Frames Structure
DPCCH

RACH

DPDCH & DPCCH

Control Channels vs SF

Note : AICH (Acquisition Indicator channel) uses 20 msec as it consist of 2 frames (means 30 slots).
Power Control
Open Loop : When UE is IDLE, No air interface link.
In GSM, RACH is sent with max. power.
In WCDMA, RACH is sent with min. power.
Inner Loop (fast power control): When UE connected.
SIR) target< SIR)estimat-----Reduce Power
SIR) target> SIR)estimat-----Increase Power
Frequency of commanding for power control:
GSM : 2 times/sec ; CDMA : 800 times/sec ; WCDMA : 1500
times/sec.
Outer loop (Slow power control) : RNC to control BLER.
BLER high------Quality low-----SIR) target increase.
BLER low------Quality high-----SIR) target reduce.
Handover Mechanism
Softer Handover: Intra site handover (within two sector of same
site.

Soft Hanover: Handover between two sites.

Hard Handover:
Inter frequency (IF): WCDMA f1 and WCDMA f2.
Inter Radio Access technology (IRAT): WCDMA to GSM.
Rake reciever
Deployed in UE to avoid Multipath fading.
At least 4 rake receiver and 1 search finger is deployed.
Inner loop power control is used to overcome the fast fading.
Maximum ratio Combiner (MRC) is employed as combining
technique.

Search Finger is used when performing handovers, scans

neighbor node B and estimated the channel parameters.