Chapter 2 Mobile Communication Networks

2.1 Evolving Mobile Networks

2.1.1 First-generation analogue mobile systems

In 1980 the mobile cellular era had started, and since then mobile communications
have undergone significant changes and experienced enormous growth. Figure 2.1
shows the evolution of the mobile networks.

First-generation mobile systems used analogue transmission for speech services. In

1979, the first cellular system in the world became operational by Nippon Telephone
and Telegraph (NTT) in Tokyo, Japan. The system utilised 600 duplex channels over a
spectrum of 30 MHz in the 800 MHz band, with a channel separation of 25 kHz. Two
years later, the cellular epoch reached Europe. The two most popular analogue systems
were Nordic Mobile Telephones (NMT) and Total Access Communication Systems
(TACS). In 1981, the NMT-450 system was commercialised by NMT in Scandinavia.
The system operated in the 450 MHz and 900 MHz band with a total bandwidth of 10
MHz. TACS, launched in the United Kingdom in 1982, operated at 900 MHz with a
band of 25 MHz for each path and a channel bandwidth of 25 kHz. Extended TACS
was deployed in 1985. Other than NMT and TACS, some other analogue systems were
also introduced in 1980s across the Europe. For example, in Germany, the C-450
cellular system, operating at 450 MHz and 900 MHz (later), was deployed in
September in 1985. All of these systems offered handover and roaming capabilities but
the cellular networks were unable to interoperate between countries. This was one of
the inevitable disadvantages of first-generation mobile networks. In the United States,
the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) was launched in 1982. The system was
allocated a 40-MHz bandwidth within the 800 to 900 MHz frequency range. In 1988,
an additional 10 MHz bandwidth, called Expanded Spectrum (ES) was allocated to
AMPS.

2.1.2 Second-generation & phase 2+ mobile systems

Second-generation (2G) mobile systems were introduced in the end of 1980s. Low
bit rate data services were supported as well as the traditional speech service. Digital

19
transmission rather than analogue transmission was used by these systems.
Consequently, compared with first-generation systems, higher spectrum efficiency,
better data services, and more advanced roaming were offered by 2G systems. In
Europe, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) was deployed to
provide a single unified standard. This enabled seamless services through out Europe
by means of international roaming. The earliest GSM system operated in the 900 MHz
frequency band with a total bandwidth of 50 MHz. During development over more
than 20 years, GSM technology has been continuously improved to offer better
services in the market. New technologies have been developed based on the original
GSM system, leading to some more advanced systems known as 2.5 Generation (2.5G)
systems. So far, as the largest mobile system worldwide, GSM is the technology of
choice in over 190 countries with about 787 million subscribers [GSMweb].

IMT-2000
UMTS
GPRS cdma2000
GSM HSCSD mc-cdma
NTT IS-136 EDGE 4G ?
TACS IS-95 IS-95B
NMT PDC 3G
AMPS 2.5G
2G
1G
• Higher bit rate?
• Speech & low rate • New applications?
data service
• Digital transmission
• Speech, data, multimedia services
• Speech service • Bit rate up to 2 Mbit/s
• Analogue transmission • Digital transmission

Figure 2.1 Evolution of mobile networks

In the United States, there were three lines of development in second-generation

digital cellular systems. The first digital system, introduced in 1991, was the IS-54
(North America TDMA Digital Cellular), of which a new version supporting
additional services (IS-136) was introduced in 1996. Meanwhile, IS-95 (cdmaOne)
was deployed in 1993. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also
auctioned a new block of spectrum in the 1900 MHz band (PCS), allowing GSM1900
to enter the US market. In Japan, the Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) system,
originally known as JDC (Japanese Digital Cellular) was initially defined in 1990.

20
Commercial service was started by NTT in 1993 in the 800 MHz band and in 1994 in
the 1.5 GHz band. Table 2.1 shows the technical parameters of four typical second-
generation digital mobile systems.

GSM IS-136 IS-95 PDC

TDMA TDMA CDMA TDMA

Multiple access
π/4-DQPSK
Modulation GMSK Coherent π/4-DQPSK QPSK/O-QPSK π/4-DQPSK
Coherent 8-PSK
Carrier spacing 200 kHz 30 kHz 1.25 kHz 25 kHz
48.6 kbit/s (π/4-DQPSK)
Carrier bit rate 270.833 kbit/s 1.2288 Mchip/s 42 kbit/s
72.9 kbit/s (8-PSK)
Frame Length 4.615 ms 40 ms 20 ms 20 ms
Slots per frame 8/16 6 1 3/6

Frequency band 880-915/935-960 810-826/940-956

824-849/869-894 824-849/869-894
(uplink/downlink) 1720-1785/1805-1880 1429-1453/
1930-1990/1850-1910 1930-1990/1850-1910
(MHz) 1930-1990/1850-1910 1477-1501
Maximum
HSCSD: 57.6 IS-95A: 14.4
possible data rate IS-136+: 43.2 28.8
GPRS: 115.2-182.4 IS-95B: 115.2
(kbit/s)
Handover Hard Hard Soft Hard

Table 2.1 Technical parameters of second-generation digital systems

Nowadays, second-generation digital cellular systems still dominate the mobile

industry throughout the whole world. However, they are evolving towards third-
generation (3G) systems because of the demands imposed by increasing mobile traffic
and the emergence of new type of services. The new systems, such as HSCSD (High
Speed Circuit Switched Data), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), and IS-95B, are
commonly referred as generation 2.5 (2.5G).

HSCSD, GPRS and EDGE are all based on the original GSM system. HSCSD is the
first enhancement of the GSM air interface: it bundles GSM timeslots to give a
theoretical maximum data rate of 57.6 kbit/s (bundling 4×14.4 kbit/s full rate
timeslots). HSCSD provides both symmetric and asymmetric services and it is
relatively easy to deploy. However, HSCSD is not easy to price competitively since
each timeslot is effectively a GSM channel.

Following HSCSD, GPRS is the next step of the evolution of the GSM air interface.
Other than bundling timeslots, 4 new channel coding schemes are proposed. GPRS

21
provides “always on”packet switched services with bandwidth only being used when
needed. Therefore, GPRS enables GSM with Internet access at high spectrum
efficiency by sharing time slots between different users. Theoretically, GPRS can
support data rate up to 160 kbit/s (current commercial GPRS provides 40 kbit/s).
Deploying GPRS is not as simple as HSCSD because the core network needs to be
upgraded as well.

EDGE uses the GSM radio structure and TDMA framing but with a new
modulation scheme, 8QPSK, instead of GMSK, thereby increasing by three times the
GSM throughput using the same bandwidth. EDGE in combination with GPRS will
deliver single user data rates of up to 384 kbit/s. For more details on GSM phase 2+
and on GSM’s evolution towards 3G systems, refer to [ZJK98].

2.1.3 Third-generation mobile systems and beyond

The massive success of 2G technologies is pushing mobile networks to grow
extremely fast as ever-growing mobile traffic puts a lot of pressure on network
capacity. In addition, the current strong drive towards new applications, such as
wireless Internet access and video telephony, has generated a need for a universal
standard at higher user bitrates: 3G. Figure 2.2 shows the bit rate requirements for
some of the applications that are predicated for 3G networks. Most of the new services
require bitrates up 2 Mbit/s.

data rate
2M video
I conference video on TV
N video demand mobile
384 K T streaming
E
64 K R
N
E ISDN
32 K audio MMS
T conference radio
16 K e mobile

9.6 K Email
voice fax
2.4 K

1.2 K

Figure 2.2 Bit rate requirements for some 3G applications [Sau02]

22
 Because of these drivers, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has
been developing 3G since 1985. 3G networks are referred as IMT-2000 (International
Mobile Telephony) within ITU and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications
Services) in Europe. In ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute),
UMTS standardisation started in 1990.

2.1.3.1 Objectives and requirement

Third generation systems are designed for multimedia communications: person-to-

person communication can be enhanced with high quality images and video. Also,
access to information and services on public and private networks will be enhanced by
the higher data rates and new flexible communication capabilities of these systems.
Third generation systems can offer simultaneous multiple services for one user and
services with different Quality of Service (QoS) classes.

The main objectives for the IMT-2000 systems can be summarised as:

• Full coverage and mobility for 144 kbit/s, preferably 384 kbit/s;

• Limited coverage and mobility for 2 Mbit/s;

• Provides both symmetric and asymmetric data transmission;

• Provides both circuit switched and packet switched connections;

• Capable of carrying Internet Protocol (IP) traffic;

• Global roaming capabilities;

• High spectrum efficiency compared to existing systems;

• High flexibility to introduce new services;

The bit-rate targets have been specified according to the integrated services digital
network (ISDN). The 144 kbit/s data rate provides the ISDN 2B+D channel
configuration, 384 kbit/s provides the ISDN H0 channel, and 1.92 Mbit/s provides the
ISDN H12 channel. Figure 2.3 shows the relation between bit rates and mobility for
the different systems.

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 User bit rate

2 Mbps

384 Kbps IMT-2000

GSM EDGE
144 Kbps

2.5 G (GSM HSCSD and GPRS, IS-95B)

10 Kbps
2 G (GSM, IS-95, IS-136, PDC)

Fixed / Low Mobility W ide Area / High Mobility

Figure 2.3 User bit rate versus coverage and mobility

2.1.3.2 Air Interface and spectrum allocation

Within the IMT-2000 framework, several different air interfaces are defined for 3G
systems, based on either CDMA or TDMA technology. Currently, there are five
interfaces agreed by ITU and being under standardisation as shown in Figure 2.4.

direct single multi- frequency

sequence time code carrier carrier time

DS TC SC MC FT
C

UTRA FDD UTRA TDD UWC Cdma DECT

(WCDMA) high & low
136 2000
chip rates

3GPP UWCC 3GPP2 ETSI

TR 45

Figure 2.4 IMT-2000 air interfaces [Scr02]

Among these interfaces, WCDMA has been adopted as the radio access technology
of UMTS; it is also to be used in Asia, including Japan and Korea. More details about
WCDMA technology will be presented in section 2.2. Multicarrier CDMA
(cdma2000) can be used as an upgrade solution for the existing IS-95.

24
 In 1992, the World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) allocated spectrum
bands 1885 – 2025 MHz and 2100 – 2200 MHz for IMT-2000 systems, and in
WRC2000, two further spectrum bands 1710 –1885 MHz and 2500 –2690 MHz were
added. However, different countries have their own usage because of the different
choices of 3G air interface and the different existing 2G systems. Figure 2.5 shows the
spectrum allocations for 3G systems in different countries and Table 2.2 shows the
expected frequency bands and geographical areas where different air interfaces are
likely to be applied [HT00].

GSM1800 IMT-2000 IMT-2000 MSS IMT-2000 IMT-2000 MSS

Downlink DECT TDD Uplink Uplink TDD Uplink Downlink
EUROPE

IMT-2000 IMT-2000
PHS Uplink Uplink
JAPAN

IMT-2000 IMT-2000
IS-95/Downlink Uplink Uplink
KOREA

PCS/Uplink PCS/Downlink
USA

1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2050 2100 2150 2200 MHz

Figure 2.5 Spectrum allocation in different countries

Area Frequency band Air Interface

IMT-2000 band WCDMA
Europe
GSM 1800 band EDGE
In the existing bands that are already EDGE, WCDMA, and multicarrier
Americas
used by second generation systems. CDMA (cdma2000)
IMT-2000 band WCDMA
Asia
GSM 1800 band EDGE
Japan IMT-2000 band WCDMA
Korea IMT-2000 band WCDMA

Table 2.2 Expected spectrums and air interfaces for providing 3G services.

2.1.3.3 3G systems and beyond

Currently 3G technologies are starting to be launched commercially; for example,

Hutchison launched 3G in the UK in 2002.

25
 Recently, systems beyond 3G (B3G systems) are attracting more and more
attention. Many international Forums such as ITU-R WP8F Vision Group and the EU
initiated Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) are undertaking research on B3G
systems. In 2002, ITU-R WP8F held the 9th meeting, subtitled “System Capabilities for
system beyond 3G”. Figure 2.6 shows the expected capabilities for B3G systems from
that. Higher bit rate with higher mobility is expected to be required for future new
applications.

Figure 2.6 Systems beyond 3G (Source: ITU-R M. [FPLMTS.REVAL])

Meanwhile, fourth-generation mobile networks branded 4G have already been

proposed. Although there is no uniform definition about what 4G is and what exactly
marks the generation, the vision for the 4G mobile networks is developing, with
different views being taken in different areas around the world. In Asia, 4G is being
foreseen as an air interface that could support up to 100 Mbit/s for high mobility and
up to 1 Gbit/s for low mobility.

26
 In the US, 4G is expected to be the combination of Wireless Local Access Network
(WLAN) and IEEE 802.20 1 . In Europe, the understanding of 4G is a network of
networks, which includes multiple interworking networks and devices. In this kind of
network, the following different technologies might coexist with seamless
interworking being supported between them.

§ Cellular Mobile (2/2.5/3G)

§ Wireless LAN (IEEE802.11x)
§ Personal Area Networking (Bluetooth)
§ Digital Broadcasting (video, audio, DVB, DAB)
§ Home Entertainment Wireless Networking
§ Multi-Modal Services

Figure 2.7 shows the concept of the heterogeneous network.

Figure 2.7 Heterogeneous network with interworking access

systems for next generation [W02]

1
On 11 December 2002, the IEEE Standards Board approved the establishment of IEEE 802.20, the
Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) Working Group. IEEE 802.20 specifies an efficient
packet based air interface that is optimized for the transport of IP based services. The goal is to enable
worldwide deployment of affordable, ubiquitous, always-on and interoperable multi-vendor mobile
broadband wireless access networks that meet the needs of business and residential end user markets.

27
 In the future, wireless communication is going to move towards universal
communication that uses a very flexible networking infrastructure and dynamically
adapts to the changing requirements.

2.2 Overview of CDMA Technology

2.2.1 Principles of spectrum spreading (CDMA)

Digital communications systems are designed to maximise capacity utilisation.

From Shannon’s channel capacity principle expressed as (2.1), it is obvious that the
channel capacity can be increased by increasing the channel bandwidth.

(
C = B ⋅ log 2 1 + S
N
) (2.1)

Where B is the bandwidth (Hz), C is the channel capacity (bit/s), S is the signal
power and N is the noise power. Thus, for a particular S/N ratio (Signal to Noise Ratio:
SNR), the capacity is increased if the bandwidth used to transfer information is
increased. CDMA is a technology that spreads the original signal to a wideband signal
before transmission. CDMA is often called as Spread-Spectrum Multiple Access
(SSMA).

The ratio of transmitted bandwidth to information bandwidth is called the

processing gain Gp (also called spreading factor).

Bt B
Gp = or G p = (2.2)
Bi R

Where Bt is the transmission bandwidth, Bi is the bandwidth of the information

bearing signal, B is the RF bandwidth and R is the information rate. Relating the S/N
ratio to the Eb/I0 ratio, where Eb is the energy per bit, and I0 is the noise power spectral
density, leading to:

S Eb × R E b 1
= = × (2.3)
N I0 × B I0 Gp

28
 Therefore, for certain Eb/I0 requirement, the higher the processing gain, the lower
the S/N ratio required. In the first CDMA system, IS-95, the transmission bandwidth is
1.25 MHz. In WCDMA system, the transmission bandwidth is about 5 MHz.

In CDMA, each user is assigned a unique code sequence (spreading code) that is
used to spread the information signal to a wideband signal before being transmitted.
The receiver knows the code sequence for that user, and can hence decode it and
recover the original data.

2.2.2 Spreading and de-spreading

Spreading and de-spreading are the most basic operations in DS-CDMA systems,
shown as Figure 2.8. User data here is assumed to be a BPSK-modulated bit sequence
of rate R. The spread operation is the multiplication of each user data bit with a
sequence of n code bits, called chips. Here, n=8, and hence the spreading factor is 8.
This is also assumed for the BPSK spreading modulation. The resulting spread data is
at a rate of 8×R and has the same random (pseudo-noise-like) appearance as the
spreading code. The increase of data rate by a factor 8 corresponds to a widening (by a
factor 8) of the occupied spectrum of the spread user data signal. This wideband signal
would then be transmitted across a radio channel to the receiving end.

symbol

data

Spreading ⊗ spreading
code
chip

De-spreading ⊗ spreading
code

data

Figure 2.8 Spreading and de-spreading

During de-spreading, the spread user data/chip sequence is multiplied bit by bit with
the same 8 code chips as used during the spreading process. As shown, the original
users data is recovered perfectly.

29
2.2.3 Multiple access

A mobile communication network is a multi-user system, in which a large number

of users share a common physical resource to transmit and receive information.
Multiple access capability is one of the fundamental components. The spectral
spreading of the transmitted signal gives the feasibility of multiple access to CDMA
systems. Figure 2.9 shows three different multiple access technologies: TDMA,
FDMA and CDMA.

FDMA TDMA CDMA

p p p
tm
t2 t
t1
f1 f2 fM f f

Figure 2.9 Multiple access technologies

In FDMA, (Frequency Division Multiple Access), signals for different users are
transmitted in different channels each with a different modulating frequency; in
TDMA, (Time Division Multiple Access), signals for different users are transmitted in
different time slots. With these two technologies, the maximum number of users who
can share the physical channels simultaneously is fixed. However, in CDMA, signals
for different users are transmitted in the same frequency band at the same time. Each
user’s signal acts as interference to other user’s signals and hence the capacity of the
CDMA system is related closely to the interference level: there is no fixed maximum
number, so the term soft capacity is used. Figure 2.10 shows an example of how 3
users can have simultaneous access in a CDMA system.

At the receiver, user 2 de-spreads its information signal back to the narrow band
signal, but nobody else’s. This is because that the cross-correlations between the code
of the desired user and the codes of other users are small: coherent detection will only
put the power of the desired signal and a small part of the signal from other users into
the information bandwidth.

The processing gain, together with the wideband nature of the process, gives
benefits to CDMA systems, such as high spectral efficiency and soft capacity.

30
However, all these benefits require the use of tight power control and soft handover to
avoid one user’s signal cloaking the communication of others. Power control and soft
handover will be explained in more detailed level in section 2.3.2.1 and Chapter 3
respectively.

user 1 1

2
1&2&3
user 2 2
1&3

Users transmit their output of user 2’

s
user 3 spread-spectrum receiver
3
signals simultaneously
narrow-band spread spectrum
data signals signals

Figure 2.10 Principle of spread-spectrum multiple access

2.2.4 Features of WCDMA

Wideband-CDMA (WCDMA) has been adopted by UMTS as the multiple access
technology and it is also referred to as UMTS terrestrial radio access (UTRA). This
section introduces the principles of the WCDMA air interface. Special attention is
drawn to those features by which WCDMA differs from GSM and IS-95.

Table 2.3 summarises the main parameters related to the WCDMA air interface.
Some of the items that characterise WCDMA are:

• WCDMA is a wideband CDMA system. User information bits are spread over a
wide bandwidth (5 MHz) by multiplying with spreading codes before transmission
and are recovered by decoding in the receiver [OP98].

• The chip rate of 3.84 Mchip/s used leads to a carrier bandwidth of

approximately 5 MHz. In GSM, carrier bandwidth is only 200 kHz. Even in
narrowband CDMA systems, such as IS-95, the carrier bandwidth is only 1.25
MHz. The inherently wide carrier bandwidth of WCDMA supports high user data

31
 rates and also has certain performance benefits, such as increased multipath
diversity [TR00].

• WCDMA supports highly variable user data rates; in other words the concept
of obtaining Bandwidth on Demand (BoD) is well supported. Each user is
allocated frames of 10 ms duration, during which the user data rate is kept
constant. However, the data capacity among the users can change from frame to
frame.

• WCDMA supports two basic modes of operation: Frequency Division Duplex

(FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD). In FDD mode, separate 5MHz carriers
are used for the uplink and downlink respectively, whereas in TDD only one
5 MHz is time-shared between uplink and downlink.

• WCDMA supports the operation of asynchronous base stations. Unlike the

synchronous IS-95 system, there is no need for a global time reference, such as a
GPS, so making deployment of indoor and micro base stations easier.

• WCDMA employs coherent detection on uplink and downlink based on the

use of pilot symbols or common pilot. In IS-95 coherent detection is only used on
the downlink. The use of coherent detection on uplink will result in an overall
increase of coverage and capacity on the uplink. This makes the downlink more
likely to be the bottleneck of the whole system.

• The WCDMA air interface has been crafted in such a way that advanced CDMA
receiver concepts, such as multiuser detection (MUD) [Ver86][OPH98][JL00]
and smart adaptive antennas [VMB00] [LA01], can be deployed by the network
operator as a system option to increase capacity and/or coverage. In most second
generation systems no provision has been made for such concepts.

• WCDMA is designed to be deployed in conjunction with GSM. Therefore,

handovers between GSM and WCDMA are supported.

32
 Multiple access method DS-CDMA
Duplexing method FDD/TDD
Base station synchronisation Asynchronous operation
Chip rate 3.84 Mcps
Frame length 10 ms
Multiple services with different quality of service
Service multiplexing
requirements multiplexed on one connection
Multirate concept Variable spreading factor and multicode
Detection Coherent using pilot symbols or common pilot
Multiuser detection, Supported by the standard, optional in the
Smart antennas implementation

Table 2.3 Main WCDMA parameters

2.3 Radio Resource Management

2.3.1 RRM in mobile networks

Radio Resource Management (RRM) in 3G networks is responsible for improving

the utilisation of the air interface resources. The objectives of using RRM can be
summarised as follows:

• Guarantee the QoS for different applications

• Maintain the planned coverage

• Optimise the system capacity

In 3G networks, pre-allocating resource and over-dimensioning the network are not

feasible any more because of the unpredictable need and the variable requirements of
different services. Therefore, radio resource management is composed of two parts:
radio resource configuration and re-configuration. Radio resource configuration is
responsible for allocating the resource properly to new requests coming into the system
so that the network is not overloaded and remains stable. But, as congestion might
occur in 3G networks because of the mobility of users, radio resource re-configuration
is responsible for re-allocating the resource within the network when load is building
up or congestion starts to appear. It is responsible for returning the overloaded system
quickly and controllably back to the targeted load.

33
2.3.2 Functionalities of RRM

Radio resource management can be divided into power control, handover,

admission control and load control functionalities. Figure 2.11 shows the typical
locations of RRM functionalities within a WCDMA network.

Base Station

Radio Network
Mobile Controller
Terminal

Power Control Power Control

Power Control
Handover Control
Handover Control
Admission Control
Load Control
Load Control

Figure 2.11 Typical locations of RRM functionalities within a WCDMA network

2.3.2.1 Power control

Power control is a necessary element in all mobile systems because of the battery
life problem and safety reasons, but in CDMA systems, power control is essential
because of the interference-limited nature of CDMA.

In GSM slow (frequency approximately 2 Hz) power control is employed. In IS-95

fast power control with 800 Hz is supported in the uplink, but in the downlink, a
relatively slow (approximately 50 Hz) power control loop controls the transmission
power. In WCDMA fast power control with 1.5kHz frequency is supported in both
uplink and downlink [OP98]. Tight and fast power control is one of the most important
aspects of WCDMA systems.

The reasons for using power control are different in the uplink and downlink. The
overall objectives of power control can be summarised as follows:

• Overcoming the near-far effect in the uplink

• Optimising system capacity by controlling interference

• Maximising the battery life of mobile terminals (not considered further)

34
 Figure 2.12 shows near-far problem [SL-SWJ99] in the uplink. Signals from
different MSs are transmitted in the same frequency band simultaneously in WCDMA
systems. Without power control, the signal coming from the MS that is nearest to the
BS may block signals from other MSs that are much farer away from the BS. In the
worst situation one over-powered MS could block a whole cell. The solution is to
apply power control to guarantee that signals coming from different terminals have the
same power or the same SIR (Signal-to-interference Ratio) when they arrive at the BS.

Figure 2.12 Near-Far effects (power control in UL)

In the downlink direction, there is no near-far problem due to the one-to-many

scenario. Power control is responsible for compensating the inter-cell interference
suffered by the mobiles, especially those near cell boundaries as shown in Figure 2.13.
Moreover, power control in the downlink is responsible for minimising the total
interference by keeping the QoS at its target value.

Mobile 1 Mobile 2

Figure 2.13 Compensating the inter-cell interference (power control in DL)

In Figure 2.13, mobile 2 suffers more inter-cell interference than mobile 1.

Therefore, to meet the same quality target, more power needs to be allocated to the
downlink channel between the BS and mobile 2.

35
 There are three types of power control in WCDMA systems: open-loop power
control, closed-loop power control, and outer-loop power control.

1. Open-loop power control

Open-loop power control is used in the UMTS FDD mode for the mobile initial
power setting. The mobile estimates the path loss between the base station and the
mobile by measuring the received signal strength using an automatic gain control
(AGC) circuit. According to this estimate of path loss, the mobile can decide its uplink
transmit power. Open-loop power control is effective in a TDD system because the
uplink and downlink are reciprocal, but it is not very effective with FDD system
because the uplink and downlink channels operate on different frequency bands and
the Rayleigh fading in the uplink and downlink is independent. So open-loop power
control can only roughly compensate distance attenuation. That is why it is only used
as an initial power setting in FDD systems.

2. Closed-loop power control

Closed-loop power control, also called fast power control in WCDMA systems, is
responsible for controlling the transmitted power of the MS (uplink) or of the base
station (downlink) in order to counteract the fading of the radio channel and meet the
SIR (signal-to-interference ratio) target set by the outer-loop. For example, in the
uplink, the base station compares the received SIR from the MS with the target SIR
once every time slot (0.666ms). If the received SIR is greater than the target, the BS
transmits a TPC command “0”to the MS via the downlink dedicated control channel.
If the received SIR is lower than the target, the BS transmits a TPC command “1”to
the MS. Because the frequency of closed-loop power control is very fast it can
compensate fast fading as well as slow fading.

3. Outer-loop power control

Outer-loop power control is needed to keep the quality of communication at the

required level by setting the target for the fast closed-loop power control. It aims at
providing the required quality: no worse, no better. The frequency of outer-loop power
control is typically 10-100Hz. Figure 2.14 shows the general algorithm of outer-loop
power control.

36
 Decrease Increase
SIR target SIR target

Received quality
Yes better than No
required quality

Figure 2.14 General outer-loop power control algorithm

The outer-loop power control compares the received quality to the required quality.
Usually the quality is defined as a certain target Bit Error Rate (BER) or Frame Error
Rate (FER). The relationship between the SIR target and the quality target depends on
the mobile speed and the multipath profile. If the received quality is better, it means
the current SIR target is high enough for guaranteeing the required QoS. In order to
minimise the headroom, the SIR target will be reduced. However, if the received
quality is worse than the required quality, the SIR target needs to be increased for
guaranteeing the required QoS.

2.3.2.2 Handover control

Handover is an essential component of mobile cellular communication systems.

Mobility causes dynamic variations in link quality and interference levels in cellular
systems, sometimes requiring that a particular user change its serving base station.
This change is known as handover. More detailed information is presented in the next
chapter (Chapter 3).

2.3.2.3 Admission control

If the air interface loading is allowed to increase excessively, the coverage area of
the cell is reduced below the planned values (so called “cell breathing”), and the QoS
of the existing connections cannot be guaranteed. The reason for the “cell breathing”
phenomenon is because of the interference-limited feature of CDMA systems.
Therefore, before admitting a new connection, admission control needs to check that

37
admitting the new connection will not sacrifice the planned coverage area or the QoS
of existing connections. Admission control accepts or rejects a request to establish a
radio access bearer in the radio access network. The admission control functionality is
located in RNC where the load information of several cells can be obtained.

The admission control algorithm estimates the load increase that the establishment
of the bearer would cause in the radio access network. The load estimation is applied
for both uplink and downlink. The requesting bearer can be admitted only if the
admission controls in both directions admit it, otherwise it is rejected because of the
excessive interference that it adds to the network.

Several admission control schemes have been suggested. In [DKOPR94] [HY96]

and [KBPY97], the use of the total power received by the base station is supported as
the primary uplink admission control decision criterion. In [DKOPR94] and
[KBPY98] a downlink admission control algorithm based on the total downlink
transmission power is presented.

Generally, the admission control strategies can be divided into two types: wideband
power-based admission control strategy and throughput-based admission control
strategy.

Figure 2.15 shows the wideband power-based admission control.

Interference level

Ithreshold

?I
Itotal_old
Max noise rise

Load η
?L
?I: Estimated increase of interference
?L: Estimated increase of load

Figure 2.15 Load curve

38
 The new user is not admitted if the new resulting total interference level is higher
than the threshold value:

reject : I total _ old + ∆I > I threshold

(2.4)
admit : I total _ old + ∆I < I threshold

The threshold value is the same as the maximum uplink noise increase and can be
set by radio network planning.

In throughput-based admission control strategy the new requesting user is not

admitted into the radio access network if the new resulting total load is higher than the
threshold value:

reject : η total _ old + ∆L > η threshold

(2.5)
admit : η total _ old + ∆L < η threshold

It should be noted that as the admission control is applied separately for uplink and
downlink, different admission control strategies can be used in each direction.

2.3.2.4 Load control (congestion control)

One important task of the radio resource management functionality is to ensure that
the system is not overloaded and remains stable. If the system is properly planned, and
the admission control works well, overload situations should be exceptional. However,
in mobile networks, overload somewhere is inevitable because the radio resource
cannot be pre-allocated within the network. When overload is encountered, the load
control, also called congestion control, returns the system quickly and controllably
back to targeted load, which is defined by the radio network planning. The possible
load control actions in order to reduce or balance load are listed below:

• Deny downlink power-up commands received from the MS.

• Reduce the uplink Eb/I0 target used by uplink fast power control.
• Change the size of soft handover zone to accommodate more users.
• Handover to another WCDMA carrier (inter-frequency handover).
• Handover to overlapping network (another UMTS network or GSM network).
• Decrease bit rates of real-time users, e.g. AMR speech codec.
• Reduce the throughput of packet data traffic (non-real-time service).

39
 • Drop calls in a controlled way.

The first two in the list are fast actions that are carried out within the BS. These
actions can take place within one timeslot, i.e. with 1.5kHz frequency, and provide
prioritisation of the different services. The third method, changing the size of soft
handover zone is especially useful to a downlink-limited network and this is discussed
in more detail in the next chapter.

The other load control actions are typically slower. Inter-frequency handover and
inter-system handover can overcome overload by balancing the load. The final action
is to drop real-time users (i.e. speech or circuit switched data users) in order to reduce
the load. This action is taken only if the load of the whole network remains very high
even after other load control actions have been effected in order to reduce the overload.
The WCDMA air interface and the expected increase of non-real-time traffic in third
generation networks give a large selection of possible actions to handle overload
situations, and therefore the need to drop real-time users to reduce overload should be
very rare.

2.4 Summary

This chapter gives a brief overview of the evolution of mobile networks and
introduces the basic concepts of CDMA technology and functionalities of radio
resource management. As one of the crucial components of radio resource
management, handover (the focus of this thesis) is described in the next chapter. The
basic principle, previous research and existing problems of soft handover are
presented, which bring out the motivation of the work.

40
Chapter 3 Handover

3.1 Overview of Handover in Mobile Networks

Mobile networks allow users to access services while on the move so giving end
users “freedom”in terms of mobility. However, this freedom does bring uncertainties
to mobile systems. The mobility of the end users causes dynamic variations both in the
link quality and the interference level, sometimes requiring that a particular user
change its serving base station. This process is known as handover (HO).

Handover is the essential component for dealing with the mobility of end users. It
guarantees the continuity of the wireless services when the mobile user moves across
cellular boundaries.

In first-generation cellular systems like AMPS, handovers were relatively simple.

Second-generation systems like GSM and PACS are superior to 1G systems in many
ways, including the handover algorithms used. More sophisticated signal processing
and handover decision procedures have been incorporated in these systems and the
handover decision delay has been substantially reduced. Since the introduction of
CDMA technology, another idea that has been proposed for improving the handover
process is soft handover and this is the focus of the work in this thesis.

3.1.1 Types of handover in 3G WCDMA systems

There are four different types of handovers in WCDMA mobile networks. They are:

§ Intra-system HO
Intra-system HO occurs within one system. It can be further divided into Intra-
frequency HO and Inter-frequency HO. Intra-frequency occurs between cells
belonging to the same WCDMA carrier, while Inter-frequency occurs between cells
operate on different WCDMA carriers.

§ Inter-system HO
Inter-system HO takes places between cells belonging to two different Radio
Access Technologies (RAT) or different Radio Access Modes (RAM). The most
frequent case for the first type is expected between WCDMA and GSM/EDGE

41
 systems. Handover between two different CDMA systems also belongs to this type.
An example of inter-RAM HO is between UTRA FDD and UTRA TDD modes.

§ Hard Handover (HHO)

HHO is a category of HO procedures in which all the old radio links of a mobile
are released before the new radio links are established. For real-time bearers it
means a short disconnection of the bearer; for non-real-time bearers HHO is
lossless. Hard handover can take place as intra or inter-frequency handover.

§ Soft Handover (SHO) and Softer HO

During soft handover, a mobile simultaneously communicates with two (2-way
SHO) or more cells belonging to different BSs of the same RNC (intra-RNC) or
different RNCs (inter-RNC). In the downlink (DL), the mobile receives both signals
for maximal ratio combining: in the uplink (UL), the mobile code channel is
detected by both BSs (2-way SHO), and is routed to the RNC for selection
combining. Two active power control loops participate in soft handover: one for
each BS. In the softer handover situation, a mobile is controlled by at least two
sectors under one BS, the RNC is not involved and there is only one active power
control loop. SHO and softer HO are only possible within one carrier frequency and
therefore, they are intra-frequency handover processes.

Figure 3.1 shows some scenarios of different types of HO.

soft handover

sector

softer handover

Inter-frequency handover

Inter-system handover

Figure 3.1 Scenarios of different types of handover.

Macro cells of WCDMA network
Pico cells of WCDMA network
Micro cells of GSM network

42
3.1.2 Objectives of handover

Handover can be initiated in three different ways: mobile initiated, network initiated
and mobile assisted.

• Mobile Initiated: the Mobile makes quality measurements, picks the best BS,
and switches, with the network’s cooperation. This type of handover is
generally triggered by the poor link quality measured by the mobile.

• Network Initiated: the BS makes the measurements and reports to the RNC,
which makes the decision whether to handover or not. Network initiated
handover is executed for reasons other than radio link control, e.g. to control
traffic distribution between cells. An example of this is the BS-controlled
Traffic Reason Handover (TRHO). TRHO is a load-based algorithm that
changes the handover threshold for one or more outgoing adjacencies for a
given source cell depending on its load. If the load of the source cell exceeds a
given level, and the load in a neighbouring cell is below another given level,
then the source cell will shrink its coverage, handing over some traffic to the
neighbouring cell. Therefore, the overall blocking rate can be reduced, leading
to a greater utilisation of the cell resource.

• Mobile Assisted: here the network and the mobile both make measurements. The
mobile reports the measurement results from nearby BSs and the network makes
the decision of handing over or not.

The objectives of handover can be summarised as follows:

• Guaranteeing the continuity of wireless services when the mobile user moves
across the cellular boundaries

• Keep required QoS

• Minimising interference level of the whole system by keeping the mobile

linked to the strongest BS or BSs.

• Roaming between different networks

• Distributing load from hot spot areas (load balancing)

43
 The triggers that can be used for the initiation of a handover process could be the
link quality (UL or DL), the changing of service, the changing of speed, traffic reasons
or O&M (Operation & Maintenance) intervention.

3.1.3 Handover measurements and procedures

The handover procedure can be divided into three phases: measurement, decision
and execution phases as illustrated in Figure 3.2.

In the handover measurement phase, the necessary information needed to make the
handover decision is measured. Typical downlink measurements performed by the
mobile are the Ec/I02 of the Common Pilot Channel (CPICH) of its serving cell and
neighbouring cells. For certain types of handover, other measurements are needed as
well. For example, in an asynchronous network like UTRA FDD (WCDMA), the
relative timing information between the cells needs to be measured in order to adjust
the transmission timing in soft handover to allow coherent combining in the Rake
receiver. Otherwise, the transmissions from the different BSs would be difficult to
combine and especially the power control operation in soft handover would suffer
additional delay.

§ Measure necessary information for

handover decision. Measurement Phase
(e.g. Ec/I0 of the CPICH of the serving
and neighbouring cells, the relative
timing information between the cells)

No Handover
criteria Decision Phase
fulfilled ?

Yes

• Finishing handover process Execution Phase

• Updating relative parameters

Figure 3.2 Handover procedures

2
Ec is the pilot energy per chip and I0 is the total interference power spectral density.

44
 In the handover decision phase, the measurement results are compared against the
predefined thresholds and then it is decided whether to initiate the handover or not.
Different handover algorithms have different trigger conditions.

In the execution phase, the handover process is completed and the relative
parameters are changed according to the different types of handover. For example, in
the execution phase of the soft handover, the mobile enters or leaves the soft handover
state, a new BS is added or released, the active set is updated and the power of each
channel involved in soft handover is adjusted.

3.2 Soft Handover (SHO)

Soft handover was introduced by CDMA technology. Compared to the conventional

hard handover, soft handover has quite a few inherent advantages. However, it also has
the disadvantages of complexity and extra resource consumption. Planning of soft
handover overhead is one of the fundamental components of the radio network
planning and optimisation [HT00]. In this section, the basic principles of soft handover
are presented.

3.2.1 Principles of soft handover

Soft handover is different from the traditional hard handover process. With hard
handover, a definite decision is made on whether to handover or not and the mobile
only communicates with one BS at a time. With soft handover, a conditional decision
is made on whether to handover or not. Depending on the changes in pilot signal
strength from the two or more BSs involved, a hard decision will eventually be made
to communicate with only one. This normally happens after it is clear that the signal
coming from one BS is considerably stronger than those come from the others. In the
interim period of soft handover, the mobile communicates simultaneously with all the
BSs in the active set 3 . The difference between hard and soft handover is like the
difference between a swimming relay and track-and-field relay events. Hard handover
happens on a time point; while, soft handover lasts for a period of time.

3
Active set: The active set is the list of cells that are presently having connections with the mobile.

45
 Figure 3.3 shows the basic process of hard and soft handover (2-way case).
Assuming there is a mobile terminal inside the car moving from cell 1 to cell 2, BS1 is
the mobile’s original serving BS. While moving, the mobile continuously measures
the pilot signal strength received from the nearby BSs. With hard handover shown as
(a) in Figure 3.3, the trigger of the handover can be simply described as:

If (pilot_Ec/I0)2 - (pilot_Ec/I0)1 > D and BS1 is the serving BS

Handover to BS2 ;
else
do not handover ;
end

Where (pilot_ Ec/I0)1 and (pilot_ Ec/I0)2 are the received pilot Ec/I0 from BS1 and BS2
respectively; D is the hysteresis margin.

MS received
pilot EC/I0 pilot EC/I0 of cell 1 pilot EC/I0 of cell 2

Cell 1 Cell 2

hard handover

(a)
BS 1 BS 2

(b)
BS 1 BS 2
soft handover

Figure 3.3 Comparison between hard and soft handover

The reason for introducing the hysteresis margin in the hard handover algorithm is
to avoid a “ping-pong effect”, the phenomenon that when a mobile moves in and out of
cell’s boundary, frequent hard handover occurs. Apart from the mobility of the mobile,
fading effects of the radio channel can also make the “ping-pong”effect more serious.
By introducing the hysteresis margin, the “ping-pong”effect is mitigated because the
mobile does not handover immediately to the better BS. The bigger the margin, the
less the “ping-pong”effect. However, a big margin, means more delay. Moreover, the

46
mobile causes extra interference to neighbouring cells due to the poor quality link
during the delay. Therefore, to hard handover, the value of the hysteresis margin is
fairly important. When hard handover occurs, the original traffic link with BS1 is
dropped before the setting up of the new link with BS2 so hard handover is a process of
“break before make”.

In the case of soft handover, shown as (b) in Figure 3.3, before (pilot_ Ec/I0)2 goes
beyond (pilot_ Ec/I0)1, as long as the soft handover trigger condition is fulfilled, the
mobile enters the soft handover state and a new link is set up. Before BS1 is dropped
(handover dropping condition is fulfilled), the mobile communicates with both BS1 and
BS2 simultaneously. Therefore, unlike hard handover, soft handover is a process of
“make before break”. So far, several algorithms have been proposed to support soft
handover and different criteria are used in different algorithms.

The soft handover process is not the same in the different transmission directions.
Figure 3.4 illustrates this. In the uplink, the mobile transmits the signals to the air
through its omnidirectional antenna. The two BSs in the active set can receive the
signals simultaneously because of the frequency reuse factor of one in CDMA
systems. Then, the signals are passed forward to the RNC for selection combining. The
better frame is selected and the other is discarded. Therefore, in the uplink, there is no
extra channel needed to support soft handover.

RNC
UL: no extra uplink channel
Selection combining in RNC

BS1 BS2

DL: 2 downlink traffic channels

Maximal ratio combining in mobile

Figure 3.4 Principles of soft handover (2-way case)

In the downlink, the same signals are transmitted through both BSs and the mobile
can coherently combine the signals from different BSs since it sees them as just

47
additional multipath components. Normally maximum ratio combining strategy is
used, which provides an additional benefit called macrodiversity. However, to support
soft handover in the downlink, at least one extra downlink channel (2-way SHO) is
needed. This extra downlink channel acts to other users acts like additional
interference in the air interface. Thus, to support soft handover in the downlink, more
resource is required. As a result, in the downlink direction, the performance of the soft
handover depends on the trade-off between the macrodiversity gain and the extra
resource consumption.

3.2.2 Algorithm of soft handover

The performance of soft handover is related closely to the algorithm. Figure 3.5
shows the IS-95A soft handover algorithm (also called basic cdmaOne algorithm)
[EIA/TIA/IS-95A] [Qualcomm97] [L-SJSWK99].

pilot Ec/I0

T_ADD

T_DROP

(1) (2)(3) (4) (5)(6)(7) Time

neighbour candidate active neighbour
set set set set

(1) Pilot Ec/I0 exceeds T_ADD, Mobile sends a Pilot Strength Measurement
Message (PSMM) and transfers pilot to the candidate set.
(2) BS sends a Handover Direction Message (HDM)
(3) Mobile transfers pilot to the active set and sends a Handover Completion
Message (HCM).
(4) Pilot Ec/I0 drops below T_DROP, mobile starts the handover drop timer.
(5) Handover drop timer expires. Mobile sends a PSMM.
(6) BS sends a HDM
(7) Mobile transfers pilot from the active set to the neighbour set and sends a
HCM

Figure 3.5 IS-95A soft handover algorithm

The active set is the list of cells that currently have connections to the mobile; the
candidate set is the list of cells that are not presently used in the soft handover
connection, but whose pilot Ec/I0 values are strong enough to be added to the active

48
set; the neighbouring set (monitored set) is the list of cells that the mobile continuously
measures, but whose pilot Ec/I0 values are not strong enough to be added to the active
set.

In IS-95A, the handover threshold is a fixed value of received pilot Ec/I0. It is easy
to implement, but has difficulty in dealing with dynamic load changes. Based on the
IS-95A algorithm, several modified cdmaOne algorithms were proposed for IS-95B
and cdma2000 systems with dynamic rather than fixed thresholds.

In WCDMA, more complicated algorithm is used, as illustrated in Figure 3.6 [ETSI

TR 125 922].

Ec/I0 ∆T ∆T ∆T

AS_Th+AS_Th_Hyst

AS_Th–AS_Th_Hyst

AS_Rep_Hyst

Connected to cell 1 Time

Event 1A: Event 1C: Event 1B:
add cell 2 replace cell 1 remove cell 3
with cell 3

- AS_Th Threshold for macro diversity (reporting range);

- AS_Th_Hyst Hysteresis for the above threshold;
- AS_Rep_Hyst Replacement Hysteresis;
- ∆T Time to Trigger;
- AS_Max_Size Maximum size of Active Set;

Figure 3.6 WCDMA soft handover algorithm

The WCDMA soft handover algorithm can be described as follows:

• If pilot_Ec/I0 > Best_ pilot_Ec/I0 –(AS_Th –AS_Th_Hyst) for a period of ∆T and the
active set is not full, the cell is added to the active set. This is called Event 1A or
Radio Link Addition.

49
• If pilot_Ec/I0 < Best_ pilot_Ec/I0 – (AS_Th + AS_Th_Hyst) for a period of ∆T, then
the cell is removed from the active set. This is called Event 1B or Radio Link
Removal.

• If the active set is full and Best_ candidate_pilot_Ec/I0 >Worst_Old_pilot_Ec/I0 +

AS_Rep_Hyst for a period of ∆T, then the weakest cell in the active set is replaced
by the strongest candidate cell. This is called Event 1C or Combined Radio Link
Addition and Removal. The maximum size of the active set in Figure 3.6 is
assumed to be two.

Where pilot_Ec/I0 is the measured and filtered quantity of Ec/I0 of CPICH; Best_
pilot_Ec/I0 is the strongest measured cell in the active set; Best_ candidate_pilot_Ec/I0
is the strongest measured cell in the monitored set; Worst_Old_pilot_Ec/I0 is the
weakest measured cell in the active set.

In the WCDMA algorithm, relative thresholds rather than absolute threshold are
used. Compare to IS-95A, the greatest benefit of this algorithm is its easy
parameterisation with no parameter tuning being required for high and low interference
areas due to the relative thresholds.

Most of the work in this thesis is based on the WCDMA soft handover algorithm.

3.2.3 Features of soft handover

Compared to the traditional hard handover, soft handover shows some obvious
advantages, such as eliminating the “ping-pong”effect (as mentioned in section 3.2.1),
and smoothing the transmission (there is no break point in soft handover). No “ping-
pong”effect means lower load on the network signalling and with soft handover, there
is no data loss due to the momentary transmission break that happens in hard
handover.

Apart from handling mobility, there is another reason for implementing soft
handover in CDMA; together with power control, soft handover is also used as an
interference-reduction mechanism. Figure 3.7 shows two scenarios. In the top one,
shown as (a), only power control is applied; in the lower one, shown as (b), power
control and soft handover are both supported. Assume that the mobile is moving from

50
BS1 towards BS2. At the current position, the pilot signal received from BS2 is already
stronger than that from BS1. This means BS2 is “better”than BS1.

BS1 BS2
mobile
transmit power

(a) no SHO

RNC

BS1 BS2
mobile
transmit power
(b) with SHO

Figure 3.7 Interference-reduction by SHO in UL

In (a), the power control loop increases the mobile transmit power to guarantee the
QoS in the uplink when the mobile moves away from its serving BS, BS1. In (b), the
mobile is in soft handover status: BS1 and BS2 both listen to the mobile simultaneously.
The received signals, then, are passed forward to the RNC for combining. In the uplink
direction, selection combining is used in soft handover. The stronger frame is selected
and the weaker one is discarded. Because BS2 is “better”than BS1, to meet the same
QoS target, the required transmit power (shown in blue) from the mobile is lower
compared to the power (shown in pink) needed in scenario (a). Therefore, the
interference contributed by this mobile in the uplink is lower under soft handover
because soft handover always keeps the mobile linked to the best BS. In the downlink
direction, the situation is more complicated. Although the maximum ratio combining
gives macrodiversity gain, extra downlink channels are needed to support soft
handover.

51
Summarising the features of soft handover:

A. Advantages
• Less the “ping-pong”effect, leading to reduced load on the network signalling
and overhead.
• Smoother transmission with no momentary stop during handover.
• No hysteresis margin, leading to lower delay being equivalent to
“instantaneous”macroscopic selection diversity.
• Reduced overall uplink interference, leading to:
§ Better communication quality for a given number of users
§ More users (greater capacity) for the same required QoS
• Fewer time constraints on the network. There is a longer mean queuing time
to get a new channel from the target BS, this helps to reduce the blocking
probability and dropping probability of calls.

B. Disadvantages
• More complexity in implementation than hard handover
• Additional network resources are consumed in the downlink direction (code
resource and power resource)

3.3 Motivation for the Work in this Thesis

3.3.1 Previous work on soft handover

Soft handover concept was firstly introduced for IS-95 systems. Since then, quite a
lot of research has been conduced on soft handover. Most published research can be
divided into three broad categories:

• Evaluation of soft handover performance by checking the link level indicators,

such as the average Eb/I0 and fade margin improvement for individual radio links.

For example, the fade margin analysis in [VVGZ94] shows how individual
uplink performance can benefit from selective diversity offered by soft handover; in
[MLG99], a comparison in terms of signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) between soft
handover and hard handover is carried out. That paper verified that, compared with
hard handover, soft handover has better performance in terms of SIR for individual

52
 links; In [KMJA99], the uplink soft handover gain offered by the selection
combining is estimated from a link level simulation;

• The second category uses system level indicators estimating the performance of
soft handover. The possible indicators could be related to the quality of service,
such as outage probability, call blocking probability and handover failure rate for a
given load; or related to the system optimisation, such as capacity and coverage
gain for a given quality of service requirement.

For example, [SCH96] analyses soft handover based on a CDMA model with a
birth-death Markov process and shows the effect of soft handover in terms of
improving blocking and handoff refused probabilities; in [LUK96], the initiation
condition is modified based on IS-95 algorithm for adapting the Manhattan street
microcell environment. The reduction of call dropping rate proves that the modified
approach can bring benefit to the system; [Che95] researches the use of soft
handover as a means of alleviating hot spot loading in order to reduce the blocking
rate. in [HKB00], IS-95B has been verified as having better performance than IS-
95A in terms of lower call/handover blocking probability; in [NT01] system
performance of soft handover is analysed in terms of call blocking rate; [CS01]
proposed an adaptive channel reservation scheme for soft handover that can control
the size of reservation capacity according to varying the number of soft handover
attempts. Results show this new approach yields a considerable enhancement in
terms of new call blocking and soft handover failure probabilities when compared
with the conventional fixed channel reservation scheme; [WW93] and
[LLWBFX00] prove that soft handover increases the uplink capacity; and the soft
handover effects on the downlink capacity is analysed in [LS98] [CK01] and
[FT02].

• A third category area of research is the investigation of soft handover based on the
resource efficiency indicators, such as the mean active set number, active set
update rate and handover delay time.

For example, in [YG-NT00], four soft handover algorithms with either fixed or
dynamic thresholds are analysed in terms of mean active set number, active set
update rate and outage probability; and in [YG-NT01], the power-triggered and
Ec/I0–triggered UTRA soft handover algorithms are evaluated by simulation and

53
 results show that the latter achieves a much lower active-set update rate and outage
probability but higher active-set number and call blocking probability than the
former. In [WSG02], an adaptive soft handover algorithm is proposed based on the
IS-95A algorithm: this adaptive algorithm calculates the threshold based on the
mobile location, signal strength and RF propagation statistics. Results show that it
reduces the unnecessary handover probability and the mean number of BSs in active
set.

3.3.2 Existing problems (motivation of the work in this thesis)

Because different combining schemes are employed in the uplink and downlink (as
mentioned in section 3.2.1) and the features of interference are very different for the
uplink and downlink, the performance of soft handover needs to be analysed separately
in each direction. Previous research for analysing soft handover performance in the
uplink is more comprehensive than that in the downlink. It is well believed that (i) in
the uplink, soft handover can increase the capacity and enlarge the coverage
[VVGZ94] [LLW00] [KMJA99] [LLWBFX00] and (ii) in the downlink direction, soft
handover improves the individual link quality by providing the macro diversity. For
example, in [[MLG99]], a comparison in terms of signal-to-interference ratio (SIR)
between soft handover and hard handover is investigated and the paper verified that,
compared with hard handover, soft handover has better performance in terms of SIR.
However, from a system level point of view, different opinions exist on whether soft
handover can benefit the system in the downlink direction or not: although the
individual link quality can be improved by the macrodiversity provided by soft
handover, extra downlink channels are needed for supporting the soft handover
process. Therefore, there is a trade-off between the macrodiversity and the extra
resource consumption. In [LS98], the downlink performance of soft handover is
analysed on a system level for IS-95 CDMA systems. The results show that there is a
small percentage loss of capacity in the downlink direction when soft handover is
employed in unsectorised cells. However, this small percentage of capacity loss does
not affect the system capacity, as the downlink capacity is higher than that of the
uplink due to coherent demodulation. However, the paper ignored the downlink power
control and simplified the soft handover as a distance-based process. More over, it is

54
important to note the difference between the narrow-band CDMA systems and the
WCDMA systems.

It is well accepted that the capacity of the narrow-band CDMA systems is uplink
limited [Vit95] because of the limited mobile transmit power and the lack of coherent
detection. However, in WCDMA systems coherent detection is employed in the uplink
(as well as in the downlink) using pilot symbols; this results in an overall increase of
coverage and capacity on the uplink [ETSI TS 125 211]. As a result, the downlink
capacity can be the limiting factor for the system capacity in certain situations
especially with those systems that support asymmetric services. Most of the new
applications of 3G systems are asymmetric shown as Figure 3.8.

Internet services
Video on demand
UL: sending request

Topology
File Edit LocateView Help

Ne two rk
Traf fic Help
Mo unt
43 1
19 50
/
743 7
79 %

DL: downloading

Base Station Mobile terminal

Mobile terminal

Figure 3.8 Asymmetric applications for 3G systems

The bitrate of the wireless traffic in the downlink is much heavier than that in the
uplink. Therefore, in 3G WCDMA systems, the downlink is more likely to be the
bottleneck of the system. Hence, the effects of soft handover on the downlink capacity
need to be further investigated.

3.3.3 The work in this thesis

In this thesis, an in-depth study of the soft handover effects on the downlink
direction of WCDMA networks is carried out, leading to a new method for optimising
soft handover aiming at maximising the downlink capacity and a new power control
approach.

The analysis starts from investigating soft handover effects on the downlink
interference and the link level performance in terms of total power consumption in
Chapter 4. This work is new. It provides a foundation for the system level performance

55
analysis in Chapter 5 and offer a theoretical basis for the new method for optimising
soft handover in Chapter 6 and the new power control approach presented in Chapter
7.

In the system level performance analysis, fast downlink power control and initial
cell selection schemes that had been ignored or simplified by most of the previous
literature are included. The soft handover gain under three different power control
conditions and three different cell selection schemes are estimated and compared. The
work quantifies the trade-off between the macrodiversity gain and the extra resource
consumption.

In most of the previous theoretical analysis for downlink capacity of CDMA

systems, soft handover is simplified. For example, in [LS98], soft handover is
simplified to a distance-based situation. The handover decision is made based on the
distance between the mobile and its serving BS; in [CK01], where the downlink
capacity of cdma2000 system is evaluated, the interference contributed by the user
under soft handover status is approximately calculated as double that of a user that is
not in soft handover. However, in the downlink, the interference contribution due to
the soft handover relates closely to the mobile’s location and is much more
complicated than just double the power. In this thesis, the downlink capacity of
WCDMA systems is analysed with the standard soft handover algorithm adopted by
3GPP. The soft handover gains of different algorithms are evaluated and compared.
Moreover, the sensitivity of the soft handover gain to different radio parameters is
analysed.

Based on the system level performance analysis, a new method for optimising soft
handover in order to maximise the downlink capacity is proposed. The optimum soft
handover overhead and threshold ranges are obtained. The results are valuable for
radio resource management in future mobile networks where the downlink is more
likely to be the bottleneck of the whole system.

Furthermore, a new power control scheme is proposed for optimizing the power
division between the BSs in the active set during soft handover. The feasibility of the
new approach is evaluated and the performance of the new scheme is investigated by
comparing with the balanced power control scheme adopted by 3GPP. Results prove

56
that the new power control scheme has better performance in terms of downlink
capacity gain.

57
Chapter 5 System Level Performance Analysis

5.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the performance of soft handover is analysed at the system level,
using the downlink capacity gain as the indicator. The whole chapter is organised as
eight sections with the system performance of soft handover being studied from
different angles.

Section 5.2 firstly gives the definition of the soft handover gain used in this thesis,
then, the procedure for analysing the soft handover gain is presented and the impact of
different factors is discussed. From section 5.3 to 5.6, the effects of cell selection, soft
handover algorithm, power control and multi-rate service environment on the soft
handover gain are analysed separately. Results are discussed and conclusions are
drawn in section 5.7. Finally, section 5.8 summarises the content of this chapter.

5.2 Downlink Soft Handover Gain

5.2.1 Introduction

As mentioned in Chapter 3, the system level performance of soft handover can be

evaluated by different indicators. One type is QoS-related, such as outage probability,
call blocking probability and handover failure rate; the other kind is system
optimisation related, such as capacity and coverage gain for a given QoS requirement.
Driven by the fast growing demand for downlink capacity in future mobile networks
because of the asymmetric nature of services, the soft handover effects on the downlink
capacity of WCDMA systems are analysed in this thesis. Therefore, the downlink
capacity gain caused by soft handover is defined as soft handover gain.

CDMA systems are interference-limited systems. One of the main differences

between CDMA systems and FDMA/TDMA systems is that the capacity of a CDMA
system is “soft”. How many users or how much throughout can be supported per cell
relates closely to the system interference level. In this thesis, pole capacity that
describes the system capacity limit is evaluated. Appendix D gives the derivation of
the downlink pole capacity from the load equation.

77
 By comparing the downlink pole capacity with soft handover to that without soft
handover, it is possible to obtain the soft handover gain with a certain soft handover
overhead. In next section, the method for analysing the soft handover gain is presented.
Most of the analysis afterwards is based on this method.

5.2.2 Soft handover gain

Using the system model as described in section 4.2 of Chapter 4, Figure 5.1 shows
part of a WCDMA system with ideal hexagonal topology.

B
BS2

BS1

S Non soft handover zone

Soft handover zone within the hexagonal boundary of BS1
S’<
Soft handover zone outside the hexagonal boundary of BS1

Figure 5.1 Soft handover zone and effective cell coverage

The blank area is the non-soft handover zone; the coloured area is the soft handover
zone. All the mobiles in the soft handover zone are communicating with two (2-way
SHO) or more BSs simultaneously. To support soft handover, the mobile has to be in
the overlapping area of the BSs in the active set. Therefore, for cell 1 and cell 2 in
Figure 5.1, the actual coverage should reach the red and blue circles (A and B). In later
analysis, S is used to denote the non-soft handover zone and S’is used to denote the
soft handover zone.

Assuming that active users are distributed evenly throughout the system, the pole
capacity can be derived according to the following steps:

78
 A. Outside soft handover zone

To a user outside the soft handover zone (as user 1 in Figure 5.2), which only has
connection with BS1, the transmit power of the downlink dedicated channel from BS1
to user 1, Ps1, can be calculated from the following equation:

Eb P L
= processing gain of user 1 ⋅ s1 1 ⇒ Ps1 (5.1)
I0 I total

Where Eb/I0 is the user received bit energy-to-interference power spectral density
ratio; L1 is the propagation attenuation of the radio channel between BS1 and the user;
Itotal is the total power (excl. own signal). L1 and Itotal are both related to the user’s
location. The process gain and the target value of Eb/I0 depend on the type of service
required by the user.

Ps1_SHO Psi_SHO

Ps1

BS1 BSi
θ1
r1 user 2
S’ S user 1

Figure 5.2 Cell layout

B. Inside soft handover zone

As in most of the previous literature, maximum ratio combining is assumed to be

applied in the mobile terminal. Therefore, to a user inside the soft handover zone, the
received Eb/I0 is the sum of the Eb/I0 from all the BSs in the active set. Assuming two-
way soft handover is supported and BSi is the other BS which is involved in the soft
handover process, the received Eb/I0 of user 2 in Figure 5.2 can be expressed as:

Eb  Eb   Eb   Ps1 _ SHO L1 Psi _ SHO L i 

=   +   = processing gain of user 2 ⋅  +  ⇒ Ps1 _ SHO (5.2)
I 0  I 0 1  I 0  i  I total 1 I total i 

Where Ps1_SHO and Psi_SHO represent the transmit power for the dedicated channels
from BS1 and BSi to user 2 separately. The relationship between Ps1_SHO and Psi_SHO is
related to the power division scheme applied during the soft handover. Substituting

79
Psi_SHO as a function of Ps1_SHO to (5.2), Ps1_SHO can be obtained. Please note that Itotal1
and Itotali are not the same.

C. Derivation of downlink capacity

The total the total transmit power of BS1 is thus

N
PT 1 = PT 1 ⋅ (1 − γ ) + ∑ Ps1, j = PT 1 ⋅ (1 − γ ) + ∫∫ ρ ⋅ Ps1 ⋅ ds + ∫∫ ρ ⋅ Ps1 _ SHO ⋅ ds (5.3)
j =1 S S'

Where γ is the fraction of the total BS transmit power devote to the dedicated
channels; (1-γ) is devoted to the downlink common control channels; N is the average
number of active users per cell; S represents the non-soft handover zone and S’
represents the soft handover zone. Both S and S’ rely on the soft handover algorithm
and overhead; ρ is the density of users. Under the assumption of uniform distribution
of mobile users, ρ can be expressed as

ρ=N = 2N (5.4)
A 3 3R 2

Where A is the area of each cell and R is the radius of the hexagonal cell.

Substituting ρ, Ps1 and Ps1_SHO into (5.3), the average downlink capacity N with
implementing soft handover throughout the system can be obtained as

3 3 2
R ⋅ γ ⋅ PT 1
N= 2 (5.5)
∫∫ Ps1 ⋅ ds + ∫∫ Ps1_ SHO ⋅ ds
S S'

D. Derivation of soft handover gain

By comparing the capacity with soft handover to that without soft handover, the soft
handover gain can be determined as

 capacity_ SHO  capacity_ SHO

SHO_ gain =  −1 ×100 [%] or 10 ⋅ log [dB] (5.6)
 capacity_ noSHO  capacity_ noSHO

The downlink capacity without implementing soft handover can be expressed as

80
 3 3 2
R ⋅ γ ⋅ PT 1
N _ noSHO = 2 (5.7)
∫∫ Ps1 ⋅ ds
A

Where A is the area of the cell. Substituting (5.5) and (5.7) to (5.6), the soft
handover gain can be calculated as

 
 ∫∫A Ps1 ⋅ ds 
SHO gain =  − 1 × 100 [%] (5.8)
 ∫∫ Ps1 ⋅ ds + ∫∫ Ps1 _ SHO ⋅ ds 
 S S' 

5.2.3 Impacts for soft handover gain

In the previous section, the derivation of the soft handover gain is described. There
are several issues that have an impact on the downlink capacity shown as Table 5.1, in
which a tick or cross indicates whether or not there is an association.

Processing Relationship between

gain & target Ps1 Ps1_SHO S & S’ N
Eb/I0 Ps1_SHO & Psi_SHO

Cell Selection
Scheme O P P P O P
Soft handover
algorithm O O O P O P
Soft handover
overhead O O O P O P
Downlink power
control O P P O O P
Power division
scheme O O P O P P
Service type P P P O O P

Table 5.1 Association table

• The cell selection scheme decides which BS to camp on first. Different decision
corresponds to different power level for the downlink channel. It also has an
impact on S and S’ because of the difference between the initiation and the
termination conditions of the soft handover algorithm.

• Different soft handover algorithms and overhead lead to different S and S’.

81
 • Different power control conditions bring out different Ps1 and Ps1_SHO.

• Different power division schemes lead to different relationships between Ps1_SHO

and Psi_SHO.

• Different service type corresponds to different processing gain and target Eb/I0.

In the following sections, the impact of different issues on the downlink capacity
and the soft handover gain is analysed respectively in more detail.

5.3 Cell Selection/Reselection Schemes

5.3.1 Introduction

Cell selection and reselection are two basic functionalities of mobile networks
[ETSI TS 125 214]. Cell selection is responsible for finding a cell for the mobile to
camp on: the selection decision is made based on the strength of the received Ec/I0 of
the downlink Common Pilot Channel (CPICH). Cell reselection is responsible for
guaranteeing the required QoS by always keeping the mobile camped on a cell with
good enough quality. By monitoring the nearby cells’information, the mobile can
reselect a base station to camp on when the quality of the current serving base station
deteriorates or when the network needs to balance the load between cells. The
handover procedure is actually a kind of cell reselection process. The “Weak”mobiles
near the cell boundaries can reselect a higher quality base station to communicate with
(hard handover), or reselect two or more base stations to communicate with
simultaneously (soft handover) in order to maintain the required QoS.

CDMA systems are interference-limited systems. In these systems, cell

selection/reselection and handover control are not only responsible for guaranteeing
the QoS of the individual mobile user: they can also bring benefits to the whole
network by minimising the interference by choosing better quality base stations. In
most of the previous literature, cell selection/reselection and handover control are
investigated separately. Cell selection has been mainly analysed in systems with
hierarchical cell structure [YN95] [AK99] and most analysis about soft handover
simplified the initial cell selection scheme to a distance-based process [VVGZ94]
[LS98]. In this thesis, the downlink soft handover gain is investigated under three
different Cell Selection (CS) schemes: distance-based CS, perfect CS and normal CS.

82
5.3.2 Basic principles of different CS schemes

Consider a mobile located near the cell boundary as shown in Figure 5.3. Ep1, Ep2,
Ep3 and Ep4 represent the received pilot Ec/I0 from the four surrounding BSs: BS1, BS2,
BS3 and BS4 respectively. Assuming that all the downlink pilot channels are allocated
the same amount of power, Epi can be expressed as

ζi
Ppilot ri −α 10 10
E pi = ζi ζj (5.9)
PTi (1 − a )ri −α 10 10
+ ∑ PTj r j−α 10 10

Where PTi is the total transmit power of BSi; Ppilot is the transmit power of the
downlink pilot channel; a is the downlink orthogonal factor; j is the index of the BSs
around BSi.

BS3

r3

r1 r2
BS1 BS2
r4

BS4

Figure 5.3 Cell layout for cell selection

A. Distance-based cell selection

In the distance-based CS scheme, the mobile always chooses the nearest BS to

camp on. In the situation shown as Figure 5.3, a downlink dedicated channel would be
set up between the mobile and BS1.

83
 B. Perfect cell selection

In the perfect CS scheme, the mobile always chooses the best BS to camp on: that
from which the mobile receives the strongest pilot Ec/I0. Because of shadowing, the
nearest BS, BS1, might not be the best BS. Figure 5.4 shows the flowchart of the
perfect cell selection.

Measure Ep1 Ep2 Ep3 Ep4

Max{ Ep1, Ep2, Ep3, Ep4} = Epi

Camping on BSi

Figure 5.4 Flowchart of perfect cell selection

C. Normal cell selection

If the mobile can always chooses the best BS to camp on, the interference level of
the system would be minimised. However, in a real situation, the mobile might not be
always linked to the best BS because of the mobility of the user, the delay in
reselection of a better cell, or the dynamic changes in the radio propagation channel. In
this thesis, a threshold CS_th is used to include this kind of imperfect situations in the
analysis. The basic principle is: the mobile always chooses the nearest BS to camp on
except when the Ec/I0 difference between the best BS and the nearest BS is higher than
threshold CS_th. The pseudocode of the cell selection scheme can be expressed as

if ( Ep_best –Ep_nearest > CS_th )

camping on BS_best ;
else
camping on BS_nearest ;
end

Figure 5.5 shows the flowchart of the normal cell selection. When the threshold
CS_th equals to 0, normal cell selection corresponds to the perfect cell selection
situation.

84
 Measure Ep1 Ep2 Ep3 Ep4

Min { r1, r2, r3, r4 } = ri ;

Max { Ep1 Ep2 Ep3 Ep4 } = Epj

No
i == j ?

No
Epj - Epi > CS_th ?
Yes
Yes

Camping on BSi Camping on BSj

Figure 5.5 Flowchart of normal cell selection

5.3.3 Effects of different CS schemes on SHO gain

Choosing a different BS to camp on leads to different power allocation for a user at

certain location who has a certain QoS target. This corresponds to different Ps1 and
Ps1_SHO in equation (5.5). Moreover, cell selection also has impact on the areas S and S’
in (5.5) because the initiation and the termination conditions of the soft handover
algorithm are normally different. Different choices of initial serving BS can lead to
different soft handover decisions. The impact of different cell selection schemes on the
soft handover gain is shown later in section 5.7.2.

5.4 Soft Handover Algorithms

5.4.1 Introduction

Soft handover gain depends closely on the soft handover algorithms. To date, quite
a few algorithms have been proposed and evaluated [NH98] [ASAN-K01] and [HL01].
Among these algorithms, the IS-95A soft handover algorithm, UTRA soft handover
algorithm and SSDT (Site Selection Diversity Transmit Power Control) are the most
representative.

In the IS-95A algorithm (also called basic cdmaOne algorithm), the handover
threshold is a fixed value of received pilot Ec/I0. It is easy to implement, but has

85
difficulty in dealing with dynamic load changes. Based on the IS-95A algorithm,
several modified cdmaOne algorithms were proposed for IS-95B and cdma2000
systems with dynamic rather than fixed thresholds [Chh99] [HKB00]. In WCDMA,
more complicated schemes are used. In the UTRA soft handover scheme adopted by
UMTS [ETSI TR 125 922], the handover decisions are made basing on relative
thresholds. The greatest benefit of this algorithm is its easy parameterisation. Apart
from UTRA soft handover algorithm, SSDT is an alternative scheme adopted by 3GPP
[ETSI TR 125 922] [FHU00]. Compared to all the other algorithms, the most
promising feature is that SSDT mitigates the interference caused by multiple site
transmissions, but it doesn’t have macrodiversity gain.

So far, some work has been done on comparing different soft handover schemes by
numerical analysis or simulation. For example, [Chh99] and [HKB00] analysed and
compared the performance of the IS-95A and IS-95B algorithms. In [YG-NT00], four
soft handover algorithms with either fixed or dynamic thresholds are analysed in terms
of mean active set number, active set update rate and outage probability. In [YG-
NT01], the power-triggered and Ec/I0–triggered UTRA soft handover algorithms are
evaluated by simulation and results show that the latter achieves much less active-set
update rate and outage probability but higher active-set number and call blocking
probability than the former. However, all these comparisons are made based on either
QoS-related or resource-allocation related indicators. In this thesis, the effects of
different soft handover algorithms on the downlink capacity are compared.

5.4.2 Different SHO algorithms

In a similar way to the cell selection scheme, the soft handover decision is also
made based on the received Ec/I0 of the downlink Common Pilot Channel (CPICH).
The mobile always monitors the Ec/I0 of the Pilot channels from the nearby BSs and
reports the result to the serving BS. Then the serving BS passes the information to the
RNC. Inside the RNC, a judgement on whether the trigger and terminate conditions are
fulfilled is made basing on the measured results. Because different algorithm have
different trigger and terminate conditions, the same user in the same network could be
in a different status when implementing different soft handover algorithms. This means
the shape of the soft handover zone could be different with different soft handover

86
algorithms even though the network situation is the same. In this thesis, two typical
soft handover algorithms are compared; they are the IS-95A and UTRA algorithms.

A. IS-95A soft handover algorithm

IS_95A algorithms have been described in Figure 3.5 in section 3.2.2. In this
algorithm absolute handover thresholds are used. T_ADD and T_DROP are
predetermined when dimensioning the network. More details about this algorithm can
be found in [EIA/TIA/IS-95A]. Figure 5.6 shows the flow chat of the IS-95A soft
handover algorithm. The trigger condition of IS-95A algorithm can be expressed as:

E  PpilotLi
Epi =  c  = M
≥ T _ ADD (5.10)
 I 0  pilot_ BSi P (1− a)L + P L
T i ∑T j
j

Where PT is the total transmit power of BS; a is the downlink orthogonal factor;
Ppilot is the transmit power of pilot channel; Li is the transportation attenuation of the
radio channel from BSi to the mobile.

Begin

Yes
BSi ∈ active set

No Epi < T_DROP No

Until drop timer expires
Epi > T_ADD
No Yes

Yes Transfer BSi to

the neighbour set
Transfer BSi to
the candidate set

Active set full

Yes

No

Transfer BSi to
the active set

Figure 5.6 Flowchart of IS-95A soft handover algorithm

87
 Unlike in the uplink, the interference in the downlink is related to the mobile’s
location. Therefore, the pilot Ec/I0 of BSi is not only related to ri, but also related to the
angle θi. As a result, the border of the soft handover region is not a circle as assumed
in some previous work, such as [SCH96] and [LS98]. Part (a) of Figure 5.8 shows the
relationship between the soft handover zone and the soft handover overhead based
with the IS-95A algorithm. The handover decision is made based on the average
received pilot Ec/I0.

B. UTRA Soft Handover Algorithm

The UTRA soft handover algorithm (also called the WCDMA soft handover
algorithm) has also been presented in section 3.2.2, in Figure 3.6. Differing from IS-
95A, relative rather than absolute thresholds are used in the UTRA algorithm.
Figure 5.7 shows the flow chat of the UTRA soft handover algorithm

Begin

Yes
BSi ∈ active set

No Epi < Ep_best -Th_drop No

for a period of ∆T
Ep_best - Epi < Th_add
for a period of ∆T Yes (Event 1B)
No

Yes Remove BSi

from the active set

Active set full

No (Event 1A)

Yes Add BSi to active set

Set up new link with BSi

BSi is the best

in candidate set No

Yes

Epi - Ep_worst > Th_rep

for a period of ∆T No
Yes
(Event 1C)
Replace the worst BS in
the active set with BSi

Figure 5.7 Flowchart of UTRA soft handover algorithm

88
 Where Epi represents the received Ec/I0 of CPICH from BSi; Ep_best is the Ec/I0 of the
strongest CPICH present in the active set; Ep_worst is the Ec/I0 of the weakest CPICH
present in the active set; Th _ add = AS _ Th − AS _ Th _ Hyst ;
Th _ drop = AS _ Th + AS _ Th _ Hyst ; Th _ rep = AS _ Re p _ Hyst . The definitions of AS_Th,

AS_Th_Hyst and AS_Rep_Hyst have been given in Figure 3.6.

Assuming BSi is the original serving BS of a user, the trigger condition of UTRA
algorithm can be expressed as:

 Ec  E 
  −  c  ≤ AS _ Th − AS _ Th _ Hyst (5.11)
 I 0  pilot_ BSi  I 0  pilot_ BSj

Part (b) in Figure 5.8 shows the soft handover zones of the UTRA algorithm with
different soft handover overhead. The handover decision is also made based on the
average received pilot Ec/I0.

5.4.3 SHO zone of different SHO algorithms

Figure 5.8 shows the soft handover zone of IS-95A and UTRA algorithm with
different soft handover overhead based on the average received pilot Ec/I0. Here, two-
way soft handover is considered and uniform load distribution is assumed. Therefore,
the soft handover overhead equals the fraction of the area of the soft handover zone to
the area of the cell.

SHO overhead 5% 20% 40% 70%

(a) IS-95A

(b) UTRA

non SHO zone SHO zone

Figure 5.8 Comparison of soft handover zone of different algorithms

89
 From Figure 5.8, it is clear that the shape of the soft handover zones of the two
algorithms is extremely different when the soft handover overhead is small. When the
overhead goes up, the differences tend to die out. Therefore, when estimate the soft
handover gain from equation (5.8), different S and S’should be substituted according
to the different soft handover algorithm.

5.5 Downlink Power Control

5.5.1 Introduction

As mentioned in Chapter 2, in CDMA systems, power control is one of the most

crucial functionalities for radio resource management. In the uplink, power control is
applied in order to overcome the near-far effect; in the downlink, the main reason for
employing power control is to decrease the inter-cell interference. Because downlink
power control is not as important as uplink power control, some previous work about
soft handover ignored the downlink power control [LS98][MLG99].

According to the analysis in Chapter 4, to the mobiles in soft handover status near
the edge of cells, the inter-cell interference is much higher than the intra-cell
interference. This is especially true when the orthogonality between different downlink
channels is well preserved. Therefore, it is not difficult to come to a conclusion that
there is some kind of relationship between the power control and the soft handover
gain. In this thesis, this intuitional conclusion is verified by analysing and comparing
the soft handover gain under three different power control conditions separately.

5.5.2 Power allocation under three power control conditions

A. No power control

Because in the downlink, power control is not as crucial as in the uplink, some
previous work on soft handover ignored it, such as [LS98] and [MLG99]. Without
power control, each downlink traffic channel is allocated the same amount of power.
Therefore,

PT 1 ⋅ γ
Ps1 = Ps1 _ SHO = (5.12)
N (1 + x)

90