UMTS Concept and Architecture

Fajar Adityawarman
Telecommunication Engineering 2014
Jalan Telekomunikasi No 1 Bandung
[email protected]
AbstractThe first Multiple Access Third Generation
Partnership Project (3GPP) Wideband Code Division
networks (WCDMA) were launched in 2002. At the
end of 2005, there were 100 WCDMA networks open
and a total of more than 150 operators with licenses
for frequencies WCDMA operation. Currently,
WCDMA networks are deployed in UMTS band of
around 2 GHz in Europe and Asia, including Japan
and America Korea. WCDMA is deployed in the 850
and 1900 of the existing frequency allocations and the
new 3G band 1700/2100 should be available in the
near future. 3GPP has defined WCDMA operation for
several additional bands, which are expected to be
commissioned in the coming years.

I.

INTRODUCTION

W
CDMA is one of the third generation cellular
technology (3G) which serves services with high
bit rate so not only voice that will have a good
transmission but picture and videos with high
quality can be transmitted. As WCDMA mobile
penetration increases, it allows WCDMA networks
to carry a greater share of voice and data traffic.
WCDMA technology provides some advantages for
the operator in that it allows the data, but also
improves the voice of base. Voice capacity offered
is very high due to interference control
mechanisms, including frequency reuse of 1, fast
power control, and soft handover.
WCDMA can offer a lot more voice
minutes to customers. Meanwhile WCDMA can
also improve broadband voice service with AMR
codec, which clearly provides better voice quality
than fixed telephone landline. In short, WCDMA
can offer more voice minutes with better quality.
In addition to the high spectral efficiency,
third-generation (3G) WCDMA provides even
more dramatic change in capacity of the base
station and the efficiency of the equipment. The
high level of integration in the WCDMA is
achieved due to the broadband carrier: a large
number of users supported by the carrier, and less
radio frequency (RF) carriers are required to
provide the same capacity.
With less RF parts and more digital
baseband processing, WCDMA can take advantage
of the rapid evolution of digital signal processing
capability. The level of integration of the high base

station enables efficient building high capacity sites

since the complexity of RF combiners, additional
antennas or power cables can be avoided. WCDMA
operators are able to provide useful data services,
including navigation, person to person video calls,
sports and video and new mobile TV clips.
WCDMA enables simultaneous voice and
data which allows, for example, browsing or email
when voice conferencing or video sharing in real
time during voice calls.
The operators also offer mobile
connectivity to the Internet and corporate intranet
with maximum bit rate of 384 kbps downlink and
both uplink. The first terminals and networks have
been limited to 64 to 128 kbps uplink while the
latter products provide 384 kbps uplink. [1]
II.

WCDMA CONCEPT

In this third generation network, it is providing

communication person to person which has a good
quality of picture and video. This system is the
evolution of CDMA. The infrastructure supported
user with high data rata that provide asynchronous
operation, the bandwidth overall is 5MHz, there are
some characteristic of this system [2]:
1. WCDMA is a wideband direct sequence
code division multiple access (DSCDMA) system, this means every
information bits will be spread into a wide
bandwidth with a multiply between two
users with chips that come from codes
spreading CDMA.
2. Chip rate values 3,84 Mcps. In the past,
bandwidth that being used is 1MHz, but
now is 5MHz.
3. WCDMA supports data rates user variable
that quite big. Data rate user will be kept
constantly every 10, 20,40, and 80 ms
frame depend on the need of QOS.
4. WCDMA supports two basic mode:
Frequency Division Duplex and Time
Division Duplex. In FDD, carrier
frequency will be separated 5MHz for the
use of uplink and downlink, but in TDD
only one frequency 5 MHz that used time
shared technique between uplink and
downlink. [2]

III.

equivalent of the previous Base Station

Subsystem or BSS in GSM. It provides
and manages the air interface fort he
overall network.

WCDMA ARCHITECTURE

The UMTS 3G architecture is required to

provide a greater level of performance to that of the
original GSM network. However as many networks
had migrated through the use of GPRS and EDGE,
they already had the ability to carry data.
Accordingly many of the elements required for the
WCDMA / UMTS network architecture were seen
as a migration. This considerably reduced the cost
of implementing the UMTS network as many
elements were in place or needed upgrading.
With one of the major aims of UMTS being to
be able to carry data, the UMTS network
architecture was designed to enable a considerable
improvement in data performance over that
provided for GSM.

3.

Core Network:
The core network
provides all the central processing and
management for the system. It is the
equivalent of the GSM Network Switching
Subsystem or NSS.

The core network is then the overall entity that

interfaces to external networks including the public
phone
network
and
other
cellular
telecommunications networks.
B. UMTS Network Architecture Overview
The USER Equipment or UE is a major
element of the overall 3G UMTS network
architecture. It forms the final interface with the
user. In view of the far greater number of
applications and facilities that it can perform, the
decision was made to call it a user equipment rather
than a mobile. However it is essentially the handset
(in the broadest terminology), although having
access to much higher speed data communications,
it can be much more versatile, containing many
more applications. It consists of a variety of
different elements including RF circuitry,
processing, antenna, battery, etc.
There are a number of elements within the UE
that can be described separately:
1.

UE RF circuitry: The RF areas handle all

elements of the signal, both for the
receiver and for the transmitter. One of the
major challenges for the RF power
amplifier was to reduce the power
consumption. The form of modulation
used for W-CDMA requires the use of a
linear amplifier. These inherently take
more current than non linear amplifiers
which can be used for the form of
modulation used on GSM. Accordingly to
maintain battery life, measures were
introduced into many of the designs to
ensure the optimum efficiency.

2.

Baseband processing:
The base-band
signal processing consists mainly of
digital circuitry. This is considerably more
complicated than that used in phones for
previous generations. Again this has been
optimised to reduce the current
consumption as far as possible.

Figure 1. UMTS Network Architecture Overview

A. UMTS network constituents

The UMTS network architecture can be divided
into three main elements:
1.

2.

User Equipment (UE):

The User
Equipment or UE is the name given to
what was previous termed the mobile, or
cellphone. The new name was chosen
because
the
considerably
greater
functionality that the UE could have. It
could also be anything between a mobile
phone used for talking to a data terminal
attached to a computer with no voice
capability.
Radio Network Subsystem (RNS): The
RNS also known as the UMTS Radio
Access Network, UTRAN, is the

3.

4.

Battery: While current consumption has

been minimised as far as possible within
the circuitry of the phone, there has been
an increase in current drain on the battery.
With users expecting the same lifetime
between charging batteries as experienced
on the previous generation phones, this
has necessitated the use of new and
improved battery technology. Now
Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries are used.
These phones to remain small and
relatively light while still retaining or even
improving the overall life between
charges.
Universal Subscriber Identity Module,
USIM: The UE also contains a SIM card,
although in the case of UMTS it is termed
a USIM (Universal Subscriber Identity
Module). This is a more advanced version
of the SIM card used in GSM and other
systems, but embodies the same types of
information. It contains the International
Mobile Subscriber Identity number (IMSI)
as well as the Mobile Station International
ISDN
Number
(MSISDN).
Other
information that the USIM holds includes
the preferred language to enable the
correct language information to be
displayed, especially when roaming, and a
list of preferred and prohibited Public
Land
Mobile
Networks
(PLMN).
The USIM also contains a short message
storage area that allows messages to stay
with the user even when the phone is
changed. Similarly "phone book" numbers
and call information of the numbers of
incoming and outgoing calls are stored.

The UE can take a variety of forms, although

the most common format is still a version of a
"mobile phone" although having many data
capabilities. Other broadband dongles are also
being widely used.
This is the section of the 3G UMTS / WCDMA
network that interfaces to both the UE and the core
network. The overall radio access network, i.e.
collectively all the Radio Network Subsystem is
known as the UTRAN UMTS Radio Access
Network.
The radio network subsystem is also known as
the UMTS Radio Access Network or UTRAN.
The 3G UMTS core network architecture is a
migration of that used for GSM with further
elements overlaid to enable the additional
functionality demanded by UMTS.

In view of the different ways in which data

may be carried, the UMTS core network may be
split into two different areas:
1.

Circuit switched elements:

These
elements are primarily based on the GSM
network entities and carry data in a circuit
switched manner, i.e. a permanent channel
for the duration of the call.

2.

Packet switched elements:

These
network entities are designed to carry
packet data. This enables much higher
network usage as the capacity can be
shared and data is carried as packets which
are routed according to their destination.

Some network elements, particularly those that

are associated with registration are shared by both
domains and operate in the same way that they did
with GSM.

C. UMTS Core Network

The circuit switched elements of the UMTS
core network architecture include the following
network entities:
1.

Mobile switching centre (MSC): This is

essentially the same as that within GSM,
and it manages the circuit switched calls
under way.

2.

Gateway MSC (GMSC):

This is
effectively the interface to the external
networks.

The packet switched elements of the 3G

UMTS core network architecture include the
following network entities:

1.

Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN): As

the name implies, this entity was first
developed when GPRS was introduced,
and its use has been carried over into the
UMTS network architecture. The SGSN
provides a number of functions within the
UMTS network architecture.
A. Mobility management When a
UE attaches to the Packet
Switched domain of the UMTS
Core Network, the SGSN
generates MM information based
on the mobile's current location.

B. Session management:
The
SGSN manages the data sessions
providing the required quality of
service and also managing what
are termed the PDP (Packet data
Protocol) contexts, i.e. the pipes
over which the data is sent.
C. Interaction with other areas of
the network: The SGSN is able
to manage its elements within the
network only by communicating
with other areas of the network,
e.g. MSC and other circuit
switched areas.
D. Billing:
The SGSN is also
responsible billing. It achieves
this by monitoring the flow of
user data across the GPRS
network. CDRs (Call Detail
Records) are generated by the
SGSN before being transferred to
the charging entities (Charging
Gateway Function, CGF).
2.

Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN):

Like the SGSN, this entity was also first
introduced into the GPRS network. The
Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) is
the central element within the UMTS
packet switched network. It handles interworking between the UMTS packet
switched network and external packet
switched networks, and can be considered
as a very sophisticated router. In
operation, when the GGSN receives data
addressed to a specific user, it checks if
the user is active and then forwards the
data to the SGSN serving the particular
UE.

Figure 2. Core Network

D. Shared Elements
The shared elements of the 3G UMTS
core network architecture include the following
network entities:
1.Home location register (HLR):
This
database
contains
all
the
administrative information about each subscriber
along with their last known location. In this way,
the UMTS network is able to route calls to the
relevant RNC / Node B. When a user switches on
their UE, it registers with the network and from this
it is possible to determine which Node B it
communicates with so that incoming calls can be
routed appropriately. Even when the UE is not
active (but switched on) it re-registers periodically
to ensure that the network (HLR) is aware of its
latest position with their current or last known
location on the network.
2. Equipment identity register (EIR):
The EIR is the entity that decides whether
a given UE equipment may be allowed onto the
network. Each UE equipment has a number known
as the International Mobile Equipment Identity.
This number, as mentioned above, is installed in the
equipment and is checked by the network during
registration.
3.Authentication centre (AuC) : The AuC is a
protected database that contains the secret key also
contained in the user's USIM card. [3]
IV.

CONCLUSION

The demand for mobile communication

services is globally on the rise. Mobile phone
networks are being built rapidly and are mainly
steered by economical and legislative drivers.
Environmental aspects are mainly incorporated
only for singular aspects like nonionizing radiation
of antennae and mobile phones, or the energy use
of switching centers. A complete picture of the
different environmental impacts of the UMTS.
UMTS services are highly portable, they have been
designed to roam easily.
In addition, almost all UMTS services are
UMTS/GSM dual mode devices, so if a UMTS
phone travels outside of UMTS coverage during a
call the call may be transparently handed off to
available GSM coverage. UMTS networks initially

required a higher base station density. As UMTS

gains in credibility and functionality, experts
believe it will overtake GSM as the industry
standard. UMTS is already able to operate at a
higher frequency than GSM.
REFERENCES

[1]
[2]
[3]

Ian Poole [Online] Available: http://radio-electronics.com

R.
Akbar.
(2011)
[Online].
Available:
http://repository.usu.ac.id
Saurabh Patod. (2015). [Online]. Available:
http://www.ijarccse.com/