3G HSUPA - High Speed Uplink Packet Access

- a tutorial, description or information about the basics of 3G UMTS HSUPA, High Speed Uplink Packet Access, with the HSUPA UE category definitions and channels.

This 3G UMTS HSPA (HSDPA + HSUPA) and HSPA+ / Evolved HSPA tutorial is split into several pages each of which address different aspects of the HSPA upgrade or evolution to the 3G UMTS telecommunications system:

High Speed Uplink Packet Access, HSUPA is the companion technology to HSDPA, but applied to the uplink from the UE or user equipment to the NodeB or base station. HSUPA uses many similar technologies to those found in HSDPA, but in view of the differences between the links, HSUPA is not identical.

HSUPA provides a considerable increase in speed for users in the uplink. Although lower data rates are normally required in the uplink direction, emails, two way data traffic and other uploads do require higher speeds than are often available with the basic 3G system, and accordingly the inclusion of HSUPA gives a significant improvement.

Although HSUPA provides a significant increase in the upload speed, it does not provide the same capacity as the downlink because in general the majority of the data flows in the downlink direction, i.e. towards the UE. In addition to this there are additional difficulties providing the same performance from the UE in view of some of the restrictions imposed by the fact that a large number of UEs are communicating with the NodeB.

3G UMTS HSUPA key characteristics

3G HSUPA brings enhanced performance through the addition of new features that sit on top of the existing UMTS / W-CDMA technology.

The key specification parameters that are introduced by the use of HSPA are:

• Increased data rate:   The use of HSUPA is able to provide a significant increase in the data rate available. It allows peak raw data rates of 5.74 Mbps.
• Lower latency:   The use of HSUPA introduces a TTI of 2 ms, although a 10ms TTI was originally used and is still supported.
• Improved system capacity:   In order to enable the large number of high data rate users, it has been necessary to ensure that the overall capacity when using HSUPA is higher.
• BPSK modulation:   Originally only BPSK modulation, that adopted for UMTS, was used. Accordingly it did not support adaptive modulation schemes. Higher order modulation was introduced in Release 7 of the 3GPP standards when 64QAM was allowed.
• Hybrid ARQ:   In order to facilitate the improved performance the Hybrid ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest) used for HSDPA is also employed for the uplink, HSUPA.
• Fast Packet Scheduling:   In order to reduce latency, fast packet scheduling has been adopted again for the uplink as for the downlink, although the implementation is slightly different.

With these specification parameters enable HSUPA to complement the performance of HSDPA, providing an overall performance improvement for systems incorporating HSPA.

3G HSUPA basics

At the core of HSUPA, High Speed Uplink Packet Access are a number of new technologies that are very similar to those used with HSDPA. However there are a few fundamental differences resulting from the different conditions at either end of the link.

• The uplink in UMTS, and HSUPA is non-orthogonal because complete orthogonality cannot be maintained between all the UEs. As a result there is more interference between the uplink transmissions within the same cells.
• The scheduling buffers are located in a single location (NodeB) for the downlink, whereas for the uplink they are distributed within several UEs for the uplink. This requires the UEs requiring to send buffer information to the scheduler in the NodeB so that it can then provide an overall schedule for the data transmission.
• In the downlink, the shared resource is the transmission power. In the uplink, the resource is limited by the level of interference that can be tolerated and this depends upon the transmission power of the multiple UEs.
• High order modulation techniques are able to provide higher data rates for high signal level links in the downlink. There is not the same advantage in the uplink where as there is no need to share channelisation codes between users and the channel coding rates are therefore lower, although higher order modulation was introduced under Release 7.

HSUPA channels

A variety of new channels have been introduced for HSUPA to enable the system to carry the high speed data. These new channels are:

• E-AGCH (Enhanced Absolute Grant Channel):   Downlink
• E-DCH, the Enhanced Dedicated Channel:   Uplink
• F-DPCH (Fractional-Dedicated Physical Channel):   Downlink
• E-DPCCH (Enhanced Dedicated Physical Control Channel):   Uplink
• E-DPDCH (Enhanced Dedicated Physical Data Channel):   Uplink


• E-HICH (Enhanced DCH Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel):   Downlink
• E-RGCH (Enhanced Relative Grant Channel):   Downlink

HSUPA categories

In order to be able to cater for a number of variations in the level to which HSUPA is implemented, a number of different HSUPA categories have been defined. These HSUPA categories allow for different levels of performance within the UE. The characteristics of the UE can then be easily communicated to the network which can then communicate with it in a suitable manner.

Notes:
*A 10 ms TTI is supported in all categories
** Two E-DPDCHs at SF2 and two at SF4

HSUPA summary

HSUPA is an integral element of the overall HSPA upgrade for UMTS. HSUPA enables much higher data rates to be achieved in the uplink and thereby provides a significant improvement. As a result, the overall UMTS system is able to support data rates more in line with those being achieved by wired connections.

Further pages from this tutorial
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