Feb 2004

WHITE PAPER

HS-DSCH
A Solution For
High Speed Downlink
Packet Access in 3G

E-mail: [email protected] www.hssworld.com

3G:High Speed Dow nlink Shared Channel

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
© Copyright Hughes Software Systems, 2004

All information included in this document is under a licence agreement. This publication and its contents
are proprietary to Hughes Software Systems. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or
by any means without the written permission of

Hughes Software Systems

Plot 31, Electronic City,
Sector 18, Gurgaon 122 015, INDIA
Tel: +91-124-2346666, 2455555
Fax: +91-124-2455100, 2455101
Website: www.hssworld.com
E-mail: [email protected]

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of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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 Contents

1. Introduction ........................................................................ 5
2. HS-DSCH Overview ............................................................... 5
3. Key Benefits of using HS-DSCH............................................... 6
4. Key Features of HS-DSCH ...................................................... 6
5. Impact of introducing HS-DSCH on existing protocol layers ....... 6
6. HS-DSCH Configurations ........................................................ 7
7. MAC-HS implementation feature checklist ............................... 7
8. HSS Offering ........................................................................ 8
9. Summary ............................................................................. 9

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3G:High Speed Dow nlink Shared Channel

Figures

Figure 1: UE MAC-HS Architecture (3GPP 25.308 Figure 6.1.2-2) .. 6

Figure 2: HS-DSCH, Configuration with MAC-c/sh (25.308 Figure
5.1-1) ................................................................................ 7
Figure 3: HS-DSCH, Configuration without MAC-c/sh (25.308 Figure
5.1-2) ................................................................................ 8
Figure 4: NodeB Architecture ..................................................... 8

4
 Wideband CDMA is rapidly emerging as the leading global 3G technology. It caters to both Packet Switched and
Circuit Switched based applications.

As more and more applications develop, there is a need for both higher data rates and lower delays. Moreover
there is always a need to maximize utilization of the limited bandwidth provided by the air interface. HSDSCH support
has been added to R5 of the 3GPP specifications to address these requirements. This will help achieve both reduced
delays and peak data rate exceeding 8 Mbps.

transmissions the RLC layer re-transmission are also

1. Introduction required.

There is ever growing demand for high data An important feature of HS-DSCH is adaptive
rates. The very need for high data rates has lead to modulation and coding. UE continuously indicates the
evolution of UMTS in 3G. From mere 9.6kbps we have channel quality to the UTRAN (CQI). The channel
evolved to 54 kbps with GPRS and now upto 2Mbps in quality feedback is used by NodeB/MAC-HS to
UMTS. But this is not the end. There is still need for dynamically change the modulation scheme to be
more bandwidth. Hence a new feature was introduced used for the particular UE. The CQI feedback can also
in Release 5 of 3GPP specifications. This is High Speed be used in UE selection/multi-code selection.
Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). This feature can
2.1. Code Allocation
provide data rate of upto 10Mbps. To realize such
high data rate a new channel is introduced called HS- The spreading factor for HSDSCH is fixed - 16.
DSCH. The code allocation is done at the NodeB. The codes
are shared across multiple UE's. Each UE can have
multiple MACD flows and each MACD flow can have
2. HS-DSCH Overview multiple priority queues.
HS-DSCH is a high-speed down-link channel. Here
the re-transmissions are done from the Node B itself. DCCH DTCH DTCH DTCH DTCH

An up-link channel (HS-DPCCH) is used to indicate

ack/nack for the data sent on the down-link channel.
There is also a down-link signaling channel. First the C/T C/T
MUX MUX
signaling information is sent on the signaling channel
and then after a defined time, the data is sent on the MAC-d Flows
data channels. The UE will receive the data and will
send an up-link ack/nack to indicate if the received
packet has been successfully decoded or not. Along
with the up-link ack/nack the UE also indicates the
Re- Re- Re-
quality of the channel (CQI) continuously to UTRAN. ordering
ordering ordering
Buffer Buffer Buffer
Both RLC and MAC-HS perform re-transmitting.
RLC does retransmission from the SRNC while MAC-
HS does transmission from the NodeB. The minimum
HARQ-Processes – Soft Memory
TTI for RLC transmission/re-transmission is 10ms
while for MAC-HS it is 2 ms. Along with MAC-HS re-

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3G: High Speed Dow n-link Shared Channel

Figure 1: UE MAC-HS Architecture (3GPP ¡ Reduced delay

25.308 Figure 6.1.2-2) ¡ Reduced retransmissions leading to better
The code is allocated every TTI to a priority bandwidth utilization
queue. While allocating the code MAC-HS has to
consider various factors, these include: -
4. Key Features of HS-DSCH
¡ UE selection
Important features of the channel include: -
¡ priority queue selection after taking into account
§ AMC Adaptive modulation and coding
the priority of the priority queue
§ New entity MAC-HS introduced at the NodeB
¡ Multi-code selection
§ Re-transmissions from the NodeB
¡ Signaling channel (SCCH) to be used
§ TTI of 2 milliseconds
¡ Ack/nack repetition factor
§ Code allocation at NodeB
¡ UE capability
§ No synchronization required on the Iub interface
¡ N-stop and wait window provided by HARQ
¡ N-stop and wait HARQ between NodeB and UE
¡ available HARQ processes
¡ Fast scheduling
¡ transmission or retransmission
¡ re-ordering buffer size
¡ modulation scheme to be used
5. Impact of introducing HS-
¡ guaranteed bit-rate handling DSCH on existing
¡ redundancy version to be used for transmission protocol layers
The UE is continuously listening on the signaling
channels (SCCH) to detect if a data for itself is
5.1. MAC-D
scheduled or not. The UE is identified on the signaling
channel in all the messages. When SCCH indicates MAC-D has remained essentially un-changed.
data scheduled for a particular UE then the down-link MAC-D flow has to be configured for HS-DSCH.
signaling also indicates the down-link physical data
5.2. MAC-C
channel on which the data will arrive for the UE. UE
decodes the indicated physical data channel. Now UE MAC-C is not involved in all the configurations. If
does the error checking on the data received. If error involved, it only does flow control. It will be involved
checking is successful then UE sends an up-link ACK now in 2 flow controls- one towards SRNC and other
on the Uplink feedback channel. If the error checking towards NodeB.
fails then the UE will keep the data buffered and will
send an up-link NACK.
5.3. Iur-FP
Support for a new transport channel has to been

3. Key Benefits of using HS- added. The handling is similar to the handling for
other down-link channels (like DSCH).
DSCH
5.4. Iub-FP
High Speed Down-link Shared Channel is a new It has to interact with both MAC-C and MAC-D
transport channel added to Release 5. Key benefits of now for HS-DSCH
using HS-DSCH include: -
¡ Increased data rate

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5.5. RLC 7. MAC-HS implementation
There is no impact on the UTRAN side RLC feature checklist
¡ Feature
¡ TFRC Selection
6. HS-DSCH Configurations ¡ Scheduling/priority handling for the different
There are multiple configurations of HS-DSCH UE/priority queues.
possible: - ¡ Multi-code selection for the UE.
¡ MAC-C and MAC-D are not co-located. If the
¡ Dynamic changes in the modulation scheme
transport bearer CANNOT be directly setup
¡ Different modulation scheme for transmission and
between SRNC and NodeB, by-passing the CRNC,
re-transmission
then MAC-C is involved in flow control. Iur
¡ Flow control towards RNC
interface comes into picture for this case.
¡ HS_PDSCH code allocation
¡ Different code sets for transmission and re-
RLC RLC transmission
¡ Transmission window based on N-stop and wait
MAC MAC-D
¡ Guaranteed bit rate handling for the priority
MAC-c/sh HS- HS- queues
DSCH DSCH
MAC- HS- HS- FP FP ¡ Mapping between the transmission and
hs DSCH DSCH ACK/NACK received.
FP FP
¡ SCCH code allocation and SCCH code selection
L2 L2 L2 L2 ¡ Re-ordering buffer size of the UE
¡ SCCH Code Change procedure
¡ Measurements
PHY PHY L1 L1 L1 L1
¡ Maximum timeout handling/Handling for
maximum number of retransmissions.
¡ Redundancy version for transmission
Uu Iub Iur
¡ CQI handling
¡ Handling of the case when ACK is received as an
Figure 2: HS-DSCH, Configuration with MAC-
NACK or vice versa.
c/sh (25.308 Figure 5.1-1)
¡ Handling of the case when no ACK/NACK is
¡ MAC-C and MAC-D are not co-located. If the received from the PHY.
transport bearer CAN be directly setup between ¡ UE/priority queue selection based on some
SRNC and NodeB, by-passing the CRNC, then priority mechanism.
MAC-C is not involved. FP below MAC-D (Iur-FP)
can directly talk to NodeB.
¡ MAC-C and MAC-D are co-located. In this case FP
below MAC-D (Iub-FP) will directly talk to NodeB.

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3G: High Speed Dow n-link Shared Channel

RLC RLC
NodeBArchitecture for HS-DSCH
MAC MAC-d

N
MAC- HS- HS-
O
hs DSCH DSCH
FP FP
D
E
L2 L2 B

A Relay S
P M
PHY PHY L1 L1 P E
L MAC-HS
I Iub-FP L
C M
Uu Iub/ Iur
A E
PHY
T
Figure 3: HS-DSCH, Configuration without MAC- I
c/sh (25.308 Figure 5.1-2) O
N
¡ CQI repetition factor
¡ New Data indicator handling.
¡ ACK/NACK repetition factor in code allocation
Figure 4: NodeB Architecture
¡ Consideration of UE capability for UE scheduling
and code allocation
The scheduling function for MAC-HS can vary
¡ Cell Change procedure - Intra NodeB
quite a lot from one implementation to another, hence
¡ Cell Change procedure - Inter NodeB
this has been left open. Hooks are provided to the
¡ Cell Change procedure - Inter RNC scheduling module for the various events like,
initialization, configuration, reconfiguration, deletion,
8. HSS Offering data arrival, cell tick etc. The scheduling module has
to do the scheduling/priority handling and TFRC
MAC-HS stack is implemented as per selection.
specification 25-321/25-308. MAC-C, MAC-D, Iur-FP
and Iub-FP also support HS-DSCH. HSS MAC-HS inter- 8.1. Interface with PHY
works seamlessly with the HSS Iub-FP stack at the APIs with PHY interface
NodeB. ¡ cell tick
¡ signaling request
¡ data request
¡ ack/nack/cqi indication

8.2. Interface with Scheduling Module

Interface APIs
¡ stack initialization
¡ Cell configured

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¡ Cell Re-configured ¡ Priority queue deleted
¡ Cell Deleted ¡ UE reconfigured
¡ UE configured ¡ Priority queue reconfigured
¡ HARQ configured ¡ Data Arrival from Iub-FP
¡ HARQ Deleted ¡ Cell tick (cfn+tti) from PHY
¡ MACD flow configured ¡ flow control
¡ priority queue configured ¡ ack
¡ UE deleted ¡ nack
¡ Macd flow deleted ¡ timeout for HARQ/max retransmissions

9. Summary

HSS has developed the source code for MAC HS. This
is a generic implementation, which can be used by
Node-B vendors to introduce HSDPA feature. This is
standards based implementation and can be
seamlessly integrated with the system.

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 Hughes Software Systems (HSS) is a key
supplier of communication
technologies for Mobile Networks, Voice
over Packet, High-speed Intelligent
Networks and, and is fully focussed
on the needs of its customers to build
Next Generation Networks.

The comprehensive set of software building blocks

from HSS consists of both protocol stacks and
Integrated Interfaces for the 3G/UMTS Network Nodes

Integrated Interfaces Stacks

Uu RRC,RLC,MAC,FP, PDCP
Iu-PS RANAP, SIGTRAN
Iu-CS GTP
Iub NBAP, SAAL, ALCAP
Iur RNSAP

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Tel: +91-124-2346666, 2455555 Fax: +91-124-2455100, 2455101
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