HSDPA/HSUPA Overview

E-DPDCH with data E-DPCCH, SF256 (15 kbit/s) E-TFCI, transport format (7 bits) Retransmission sequence number (2 bits) Happy bit (1 bit)
Figure 5-10 E-DCH dedicated physical control channel

E-TFCI The E-DCH transport format combination indicator is a 7-bit field informing the base station about the transport block size and the number of parallel code channels as well as their spreading factor. If the base station is unable to decode this information, the whole radio frame (or sub-frame) is lost. If a 10 ms TTI is used, the information is repeated 5 times for increase reliability and reduced power. Retransmission sequence number, RSN This 2-bit field indicates the sequence number of the retransmission by setting the initial transmission to RSN=0 and then the first retransmission to RSN=1 and so on.

SA

Happy bit This bit indicates if the terminal is happy or not with the current data rate or whether it could use a higher output power (increase data rate).

5.3.3

E-DCH HARQ Indicator Channel, E-HICH

This channel is used to send acknowledgements (Ack) or negative acknowledgements (Nack) in response to uplink data transmission. The decision about the correctness is taken in relation to the appended 24-bit cyclic redundancy code (CRC). The base station will compare the appended CRC with the one calculated over the received data block. As the E-DCH can be in soft handover, there is a possibility that one of the cells receive the data correctly while others do not. There is always one serving E-DCH cell that decides about the capacity in uplink. The serving cell may send an Ack and a Nack while other cells in the active set only send Ack. The terminal will repeat the transmitted data until it receives an Ack from any cell. Nack will not be sent by other cell than the serving cell in order to save transmission resources in downlink. Figure 5-11 shows the main principle

ACK but no NACK Data on E-DCH

M
35

PL

E
Data on E-DCH

ACK or NACK

Other cell in active set

Serving E-DCH cell

RNC
RNC takes data from any cell in active set
Figure 5-11 Main principle of E-HICH

Tech Support AB, 2007 (1.0)

HSDPA/HSUPA Overview

5.3.4

E-DCH Absolute Grant Channel, E-AGCH

An absolute grant gives the terminal information about the allowed resources it may use in uplink. The term absolute is slightly misleading as the value is a relative value to the power used on the associated dedicated channel. The value is a 5-bit field giving a value between 0 and 31. Figure 5-12 shows the main principle of the channel.

Absolute grant value (0-31) UE identity

Serving E-DCH cell

Figure 5-12 Absolute grant channel

The absolute grant is a relative value in relation to the power controlled DCH. This means that the base station can specify a power value that can be translated to a number of added kilobits/s on top of the DCH transmission. Figure 5-13 shows an example of what an absolute power grant is. In this example is the base station allocating more power (resources) to the terminal. Before and after the absolute grant, there is a fixed relationship between the power used on the DCH and the power used on E-DCH when transmitting.

SA
UE transmit power

M
36

Node B has given UE more power to use for E-DCH

Figure 5-13 Meaning of an absolute grant

PL
5.3.5 E-DCH Relative Grant Channel, E-RGCH
Tech Support AB, 2007 (1.0)

E-DPDCH power level

This new downlink channel orders the terminal to perform a single step-up or step-down of the relative transmission power given in an absolute grant. If the base station finds that the resources given to one terminal should be adjusted, the relative grant method can be used. It may also be used by any other cell than the cells included in the active set of the terminal. This would be the case when a cell discovers heavy interference from one HSUPA user transmitting at high power. Cells included in the active set may send UP,

E
DPCCH power level Time

HSDPA/HSUPA Overview DOWN or HOLD commands to the terminal while other cells may only send DOWN commands. Figure 514 shows the main principle.
UP, DOWN or HOLD DOWN

Cell in E-DCH active set

Figure 5-14 Relative grant channel

Any other cell

5.4

Transmission Time Interval

HSDPA changed the TTI value from R99 to 2 ms. This value makes it possible to have the fast scheduling and link adaptation that gives so good characteristics to HSDPA. HSUPA has two different TTI values, the 10 ms and the new 2 ms. The reason for introducing the 2 ms TTI was to reduce the delay and latency in the radio network. The highest bitrates in HSUPA require a 2 ms TTI. However, at lower bitrates than 2 Mbit/s, the difference in capacity is not that big. The 2 ms TTI is therefore optional for many terminal categories supporting lower bitrates. There is also another problem with the 2 ms TTI at operation near the cell edge (or indoor usage with high attenuation). If a high number of users are located at the cell edge, then the downlink transmission to them would consume too much power and it becomes impossible. This means that 10 ms TTI has to be used at cell edge as can be seen in Figure 5-15.

SA
Too much downlink power if 2 ms TTI

M
37

Figure 5-15 Transmission time interval and coverage

PL
Only 10 ms TTI

E
2 or 10 ms TTI can be used

5.5

Retransmission

The principle of retransmission used in HSDPA is rather similar to the principles used in HSUPA. Both chase combining and incremental redundancy are available for retransmission in HSUPA. The difference is that the procedure in HSUPA is synchronous while the base station in HSDPA could schedule the retransmission at any time. The number of HARQ processes is also limited to 4 within the 10 ms TTI. Figure 5-16 shows the retransmission principle used when 10 ms TTI is used.

Tech Support AB, 2007 (1.0)

HSDPA/HSUPA Overview
E-DCH with data E-HICH: NACK

30 ms (3 TTI) E-DCH Data 14-16 ms E-HICH NACK Time Data 1:st retransmission

Figure 5-16 Retransmission for 10 ms transmission time interval

After reception of the data on the E-DCH channel, the base station has to send an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) within 14-16 ms. The terminal will then schedule the retransmission to 3 x 10 ms later than the initial transmission. This means that the base station does no need to know which HARQ process the retransmission belongs to. The only indication given by the terminal is if the data is new or not.

SA
Category 1 2 3 4 5 6 Channels and spreading factor 1 x SF4 2 x SF4 2 x SF4 2 x SF2 2 x SF2 2 x SF2 + 2 x SF4

5.6

Terminal Categories

The principle of having terminal categories has the same function as in HSDPA, it enables manufacturers to release terminals in a phased development with better and better characteristics. The defined terminal categories can be seen in Figure 5-17.

It can be seen that only 3 out of the 6 categories support the shorter 2 ms TTI. It is anticipated that initial terminals only support 10 ms TTI as the highest bitrates shown in the table are not offered initially. It can also be seen that there is no difference in bitrate between the 2 and 10 ms TTI for terminal category 2 offering 1.45 Mbit/s in both cases. To offer the highest possible bitrates, 5.76 Mbit/s, support for 2 ms TTI is needed. The main reason for requiring 2 ms TTI for the highest bitrates is that the transport blocks would be too large using 10 ms TTI (difficulties in compatibility for protocols and channel coding functions).

M
38

Figure 5-17 HSUPA terminal categories

PL
Supported TTIs 10 10 10 2 and 10 2 and 10 2 and 10

Peak data rate at 10 ms TTI 0.72 Mbit/s 1.45 Mbit/s 1.45 Mbit/s

Peak data rate at 2 ms TTI 1.45 Mbit/s 2.91 Mbit/s 5.76 Mbit/s

E
2 Mbit/s 2 Mbit/s 2 Mbit/s

Tech Support AB, 2007 (1.0)

HSDPA/HSUPA Overview Some headers will consume bits as will be shown in chapter 6 Protocols. The medium access protocol (MAC) will in HSUPA add some information used for identification and also scheduling. Figure 5-18 shows the available data rates for radio link control protocol (RLC) when the packed data unit size (PDU) is set to 320 bits.

Category 1 2 3 4 5 6

Maximum data rate with 10 ms TTI 0.672 Mbit/s 1.376 Mbit/s 1.376 Mbit/s 1.888 Mbit/s 1.888 Mbit/s 1.888 Mbit/s

Maximum data rate with 2 ms TTI 1.280 Mbit/s 2.720 Mbit/s 5.440 Mbit/s

Figure 5-18 RLC data rates with a 320-bit packet data unit size

Tech Support AB, 2007 (1.0)

SA

M PL E
39

HSDPA/HSUPA Overview

6
6.1

Protocols
User plane Protocols for HSDPA

The main change of the system if one compare R99 with R5 including HSDPA, is the introduction of the MAC high-speed (MAC-hs) protocol in the base station. An R99 base station has no protocols that take any decisions at all. All the intelligence is located in the radio network controller (RNC). MAC-hs will implement most of the user plane functionality as well as some control functions related to HSDPA. Figure 6-1 shows the location of the protocols in the protocol stack.

RNC
RLC MAC-d RLC MAC-d Frame protocol Iub Frame protocol

WCDMA L1

It can be seen that the protocol (MAC-hs) is located in the base station as well as in the mobile terminal. On top of that is the old MAC-d protocol that takes care of dedicated channels. This protocol is located in the RNC and is more or less unmodified. The reason for having this protocol is to enable channel type switching. The channel type switching is the process when a dedicated channel is modified (e.g. from FACH to DCH or from DCH to HSDPA in downlink). The radio link control protocol (RLC) is also unmodified and located in the RNC. The RLC protocol can be configured to operate in three different modes:

SA
MAC-hs Uu

MAC-hs

WCDMA L1

Figure 6-1 User plane protocols for HSDPA with MAC-hs

M
40

PL

Unacknowledged mode (UM) the protocol will only number RLC frames to identify lost frames. It is used for applications that do not require retransmission like streaming and voice over IP. Transparent mode (TM) the RLC protocol is not used at all and will not add any headers to the data. This mode of RLC is only used for circuit switched voice and will not be used in connection with HSDPA. Acknowledged mode (AM) the protocol will create numbered frames with checksums enabling retransmission. This mode is typically used by applications requiring reliable data transfer with low requirements on delay and delay variations. Examples are file transfer and streaming with large play-out buffers. When RLC operates in AM mode, it is possible to have retransmission both at layer 1 (HSDPA) and layer 2 (RLC). This is affecting service quality at handover or when HSDPA buffers need to be flushed for other reasons.

The MAC-hs protocol is therefore taking care of most of the functions related to HSDPA. The main parts of the protocol can be seen in Figure 6-2.

Tech Support AB, 2007 (1.0)