Channel Element at R99/HSDPA/HSUPA | Mohamed Abdel Monem | ... about:reader?url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/channel-element-r9...

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Channel Element at R99/HSDPA

/HSUPA | Mohamed Abdel Monem |
Pulse
Mohamed Abdel Monem
7-9 minutes

Channel Element

Channel Element (CE) describes the SW licensed capacity

resources required for a dedicated channel (DCH or E-DCH). The
number of channel elements required in a RBS is based on the
traffic type, and is dependent on the radio bearers to be used, as
well as on the number of simultaneous users for each specific
radio bearer.

Hardware

Each time a dedicated channel is allocated, channel elements will

be consumed in UL and DL. The consumption can be described
as a cost, and depends on the type of radio bearer for the
dedicated channel. The channel element cost can be expressed
with weighting factors for the various radio bearers.

If there is an insufficient amount of channel elements available,

blocking might occur. If possible, to avoid blocking, a best effort
user will be switched down to a lower rate to make channel
elements available for the requested dedicated channel.

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Channel Element (CE) Resource

CE resources are a type of NodeB hardware resource. The

number of CEs supported by single NodeB indicates the channel
demodulation capabilities resource of the NodeB. The more CEs
a NodeB supports, the more powerful the channel demodulation
and service processing capabilities for serving the
customers. Services at different rates require different numbers of
CEs to ensure proper channel demodulation.

In a RAN, CE resources are managed by both the RNC and

NodeB. The NodeB reports its CE capacity to the RNC. The RNC
determines whether to admit a new service based on the number
of CEs that need to be consumed and controls CE resources
during CE congestion. This ensures the proper use of CE
resources. The NodeB dynamically manages CE resources and
rapidly adjusts the number of CEs that can be consumed based
on the actual service rate. This increases CE resource usage.

BasicChannel ElementConcepts

CE is a basic unit that measures the channel demodulation

capabilities of a NodeB. CEs are classified into uplink (UL) CEs
and downlink (DL) CEs.

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One UL CE needs to be consumed by a UL 12.2 kbit/s voice

service (SF = 64) plus 3.4 kbit/s signaling.

One DL CE needs to be consumed by a DL 12.2 kbit/s voice

service (SF = 128) plus 3.4 kbit/s signaling.

If only 3.4 kbit/s signaling traffic is carried on a DCH or HSPA

channel, one CE still needs to be consumed. The number of CEs
that need to be consumed by services of other types can be
calculated by analogy.

The number of UL and DL CEs supported by a NodeB is

determined by the NodeB hardware capabilities and the
licensed CE capacity. The number of UL and DL CEs supported
by the NodeB hardware is called the physical CE capacity. The
licensed CE capacity may differ from the physical CE capacity.
The smaller determines the number of CEs that can be used by
an operator.

CE is a concept of the NodeB side. On the RNC side, it is called

NodeB credit. The RNC performs admission and congestion
control based on the NodeB credit. In the UL, the number of
Node credit resources is twice that of CEs. In the DL, the number
of NodeB credit resources equals that of CEs.

Rules for Calculating CE Consumption

The RNC determines the number of CEs required for a service

based on the SF that matches the service rate. When an RAB
connection is set up or released for a service, CE resources must
be allocated or taken back and the number of CEs must be
deducted or added accordingly. Different rules for calculating CE
resource consumption apply to channels or services of different
types.

CE resources reserved by the NodeB for common and HSDPA

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channels are shown in gray.

CE resources that need to be consumed by R99 and HSUPA

services are shown in pink.

Common ChannelsCE Consumption

CE resources required on the UL and DL common channels are

reserved by the NodeB. Therefore, they do not occupy the
licensed CE capacity. These CEs do not need to be considered in
the calculation of CE consumption.

HSDPA ChannelsCE Consumption

Similarly, the NodeB reserves CE resources for the high-speed

downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) and the related control
channels if HSDPA is used. These CEs also do not need to be
considered in the calculation of CE consumption.

Note that the signaling of an HSDPA UE that is not performing an

R99 service occupies one DCH and needs to consume one DL
CE. If the SRB over HSDPA function is enabled, the signaling of
an HSDPA service does not consume additional CE resources.
For an HSDPA UE that is performing an R99 service, its signaling
and the R99 service occupy the same DCH. Therefore, only the
CEs consumed on R99 traffic channels need to be calculated.

Traffic on the HS-DSCH will not consume channel elements.

However, every HSDPA connection will require A-DCHs for
UL/DL signaling and UL traffic. ADCHs are dedicated channels,
which consume channel elements. Dimensioning of DL resources
for A-DCH is not needed since DL A-DCHs do not consume
resources from the normal pool of SW licensed channel
elements. However, resources for UL A-DCH have to be

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considered since they consume channels elements from the

normal SW licensed pool.

R99 ServiceCE Consumption

For an R99 service, the RNC determines the number of CEs and
NodeB credit resources that need to be consumed based on the
SF that matches the maximum bit rate (MBR) of the service.

Enhanced Uplink (EUL)

EUL can only be used for connections that use HS-DSCH in the
DL. Each admitted EUL user will carry traffic and signaling on an
E-DCH. Similar to HSDPA, the E-DCH user has one serving cell.
The E-DCH serving cell is always equal to the HS-DSCH serving
cell for the connection. If the terminal is in soft or softer handover
there is always at least one non-serving E-DCH cell.

E-DCH users consume channel elements from the SW licensed

CE pool, but the resources for E-DCH are handled in a different
way compared to A-DCH and DCH. The resources for E-DCH are
controlled by the EUL scheduler located in the RBS and
resources for A-DCH and DCH are controlled by the RNC.

Each admitted E-DCH user will have a minimum amount of

channel elements allocated. The minimum amount of channel
elements depends on licensing.Those channel elements are
reserved to the E-DCH user as long as the user is active in the
cell. The minimum channel element allocation can be used for
non-scheduled data (signaling) and scheduled data to a certain
rate (user data). The channel elements represented by the
minimum CE allocation are guaranteed and are not affected by

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Enhanced Soft Congestion or re-scheduling in the RBS. As a

result, an admitted E-DCH user has the possibility to reach a
minimum rate supported by the minimum CE allocation.

If an E-DCH user requests rates higher than the rates supported

by the minimum CE allocation, additional channel elements will
be needed. These are handled by the EUL scheduler only and
are not seen by the Admission Control function. The EUL
scheduler will grant an E-DCH user a higher rate if it is possible
to allocate more CEs in addition to the other two required UL
resource types (air interface interference and Iub bandwidth [2]).
The additional CEs for an E-DCH user might be affected by
Enhanced Soft Congestion or re-scheduling in the RBS.

If the minimum amount of channel elements is not available at the

E-DCH establishment attempt it will not be possible to admit a
new E-DCH user.

Notes

It is not necessary to dimension for common channels, since

common channels do not consume channel elements.

Allocation of channel elements due to compressed mode has not

been considered, since there is no additional channel element
cost for connections in compressed mode.

This article is based on search at different documents for different

vendors and 3GPP TS 36.213.

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