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UMTS/WCDMA - Universal Mobile Telephone System/Wide Band Code Division Multiple Access

Overview

Frequency Bands

Frequency Range

Duplex

Band I

1920 – 1980 MHz (uplink)
2110 – 2170 MHz (downlink)

190 MHz
12 channels

Band II

1850 – 1910 MHz (uplink)
1930 – 1990 MHz (downlink)

80 MHz
12 channels

Band III

1710 – 1785 MHz (uplink)
1805 – 1880 MHz (downlink)

95 MHz
15 channels

Band IV

1710 – 1775 MHz (uplink)
2110 – 2175 MHz (downlink)

400 MHz
12 channels

Band V

824 – 849 MHz (uplink)
869 – 894 MHz (downlink)

5 channels
45 MHz

Band VI

830 – 840 MHz (uplink)
875 – 885 MHz (downlink)

45 MHz
2 channels

Band VII

2500 – 2570 MHz (uplink)
2620 – 2690 MHz (downlink)

120 MHz

Band VIII

880 – 915 MHz (uplink)
825 – 860 MHz (downlink)

45 MHz

Band IX

1749.9 – 1784.9 MHz (uplink)
1844.9 – 1879.9 MHz (downlink)

95 MHz

Band X

1710 – 1770 MHz (uplink)
2110 – 2170 MHz (downlink)

400 MHz

Channel spacing

200 kHz

Channel Bandwidth

5 MHz

Modulation

QPSK (dl)
2*BPSK/HPSK (ul)

Chip rate

3.84 Mcps

Access format

CDMA

Speech

Adaptive multirate (AMR), dynamic operation on full and half rate channel depending on capacity and reception quality

Power control

Up to 1500 power control commands per second changing the level in increments of 1, 2 or 3 dB, depending on the setting of the Node B (base station)

Applications

WCDMA or UMTS – as it is called throughout Europe – is a standard which has been developed to accommodate higher data rates of up to 2 Mbps to allow features like internet surfing, video telephony or video download. Even though WCDMA is focusing on high data rates it still supports simple features like a plain voice call or sending of SMS.

The following table lists some of the service profile, the required data rate, whether this is circuit switched or packet data and example applications:

Service Profile

Data rate

Transmission method

Example Application

Voice

16 kbit/s

circuit switched

Voice Calls

Simple Messaging

14,4 kbit/s

packet data

SMS, MMS

Switched Data

14,4 kbit/s

circuit switched

E-Mail

High Interactive Multimedia

max. 128 kbit/s

packet data

Video-Telephony

High Interactive Multimedia

max. 384 kbit/s

circuit switched

Online-Gaming

High Multimedia

max. 2 Mbit/s

packet data

Video-Streaming

Technology in brief

WCDMA is a CDMA system. CDMA stands for code division multiple access. This means that the available frequency channel is broken down by different code sequences that are multiplied by the user signals of the individual subscribers. All subscribers transmit on the same frequency and at the same time.

For WCDMA different base stations are distinguished by a different scrambling code, which makes cell planning a lot easier, since neighboring cells can re-use the same frequency! (However, the occupied "SNR" – or Signal to Noise Ratio is the limiting factor and characteristic for CDMA)

The data rate used by a terminal depends on spreading factor assigned to this particular terminal. If several terminals use the same spreading factor, the signals are distinguished through different code channels. At present the maximum data rate is 384 kbps. In the future it will be possible to combine several code channels to a multi-code link, allowing data rates up to 2 Mbps. However, when this is used the capacity of this frequency channel is used up, i.e. no other terminal can operate on this frequency channel. The reason for this is that there is no more "SNR" left for additional connections. This is the capacity issue indicated above.

In order to address higher data rates high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) has been introduced into Release 5 of the WCDMA (3GPP) standard. HSDPA allows data rates of up to 10 Mbps (and 20 Mbps for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems) and is based on 16-QAM modulation. As the name suggests HSDPA is only available in the downlink direction, i.e. ideal for loading large Emails, surf the web or download videos.

Typical measurements

Transmitter Measurements:

  • Maximum Output Power
  • Frequency Error
  • Inner Loop Power Control in the Uplink
  • Minimum Output Power
  • Spectrum Measurements
    • Occupied Bandwidth (OBW)
    • Spectrum emission mask (SEM)
    • Adjacent Channel Leakage Power Ratio (ACLR)
  • Transmit Modulation
    • Error Vector Magnitude (EVM)
    • Peak code domain error (PCDE)

Receiver Measurements:

  • Reference Sensitivity Level
  • Maximum Input Level

Willtek Test Instruments


Terminal Test Products

 
Point-of-sale/Point-of-return tester/Service tester:
> 3100 Mobile Fault Finder


Service tester (high end): 4403 Mobile Phone Tester with WCDMA Option
> 4400 Mobile Phone Tester Series


Manufacturing tester: 4405 Mobile Phone Tester with WCDMA Option
> 4400 Mobile Phone Tester Series


> more
Keyword:
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March 18, 2008
Service centres test HSDPA-enabled wireless devices with Willtek’s 4400 series > more
Download the software you need > more
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