UMTS: Alive and Well - 4G Americas

234 Pages·2012·3.8 MB·English

by  Krissy Gochnour

Bo
CONTENTS
PREFACE.............................. ....................................................................................................................... 5
1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 9
2 PROGRESS FROM RELEASE 99 TO RELEASE 10 AND BEYOND: UMTS/EVOLVED HSPA
(HSPA+) AND LTE/EPC/LTE-ADVANCED ............................................................................................... 11
3 THE GROWING DEMANDS FOR WIRELESS DATA APPLICATIONS................................................ 28
3.1 WIRELESS INDUSTRY FORECASTS ........................................................................................ 30
3.2 WIRELESS DATA REVENUE ....................................................................................................... 32
3.3 MOBILE BROADBAND DEVICES ................................................................................................ 34
3.4 MOBILE BROADBAND APPLICATIONS ................................................................................... 36
3.5 SMALL CELL GROWTH ................................................................................................................ 39
3.6 SPECTRUM INITIATIVES .................................................................................................................... 42
3.7 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................... 44
4 STATUS AND HIGHLIGHTS OF RELEASE 8 AND RELEASE 9: EVOLVED HSPA (HSPA+) AND
LTE/EPC ..........................................................................................................................................45
4.1 VoLTE ................................................................................................................................................ 47
5 STATUS OF RELEASE 10: HSPA+ ENHANCEMENTS AND LTE-ADVANCED ................................. 50
5.1 LTE-ADVANCED FEATURES AND TECHNOLOGIES ...................................................................... 50
5.1.1 Support of Wider Bandwidth ....................................................................................................... 50
5.1.2 Uplink Transmission Enhancements .......................................................................................... 53
5.1.3 Downlink Transmission Enhancements ...................................................................................... 55
5.1.4 Relaying ...................................................................................................................................... 57
5.1.5 Heterogeneous Network Support (eICIC) ................................................................................... 61
5.1.6 MBMS Enhancements ................................................................................................................ 63
5.1.7 Son Enhancements..................................................................................................................... 63
5.1.8 Vocoder Rate Adaptation ............................................................................................................ 65
5.2 HSPA+ ENHANCEMENTS FOR RELEASE 10 .................................................................................. 66
5.2.1 Four carrier HSDPA Operation ................................................................................................... 66
5.2.2 Summary of 3GPP Supported Band Combinations for Multicarrier HSDPA .............................. 68
5.3 NETWORK AND SERVICES RELATED ENHANCEMENTS .............................................................. 70
5.3.1 Home NodeB/eNodeB Enhancements ....................................................................................... 70
5.3.2 LIPA/SIPTO ................................................................................................................................ 70
5.3.3 Fixed Mobile Convergence Enhancements ................................................................................ 74
5.3.4 Machine-to-Machine Communications ....................................................................................... 76
5.3.5 Single Radio Voice Call Continuity ............................................................................................. 78
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5.3.6 IMS Service Continuity (ISC) and IMS Centralized Services (ICS) ............................................ 80
5.3.7 Interworking with Wi-Fi ............................................................................................................... 81
5.3.8 UICC ........................................................................................................................................... 82
5.3.9 IP-Short-Message-Gateway Enhancements for CPM-SMS Interworking .................................. 84
5.3.10 Lawful Interception LI10 in Release 10 ...................................................................................... 85
5.4 RELEASE-INDEPENDENT FEATURES ............................................................................................. 85
5.4.1 Band Combinations for LTE-CA ................................................................................................. 85
6 RELEASE 11 – HSPA+ AND LTE-ADVANCED ENHANCEMENTS .................................................... 87
6.1 STATUS OF TIMELINE FOR RELEASE 11 ........................................................................................ 87
6.2 LTE-ADVANCED ENHANCEMENTS .................................................................................................. 87
6.2.1 Coordinated Multi-Point Transmission and Reception ............................................................... 87
6.2.2 Carrier Aggregation..................................................................................................................... 92
6.2.3 Further Heterogeneous Networks Enhancements (feICIC) ........................................................ 93
6.2.4 Uplink Enhancements ................................................................................................................. 93
6.2.5 Downlink Enhancements ............................................................................................................ 93
6.2.6 Relaying Enhancements ............................................................................................................. 94
6.2.7 MBMS Service Continuity and Location Information .................................................................. 94
6.2.8 Further SON Enhancements ...................................................................................................... 94
6.2.9 Signalling and Procedure for Interference Avoidance for In-device Coexistence ...................... 99
6.3 HSPA+ ENHANCEMENTS ................................................................................................................. 100
6.3.1 Downlink Enhancements .......................................................................................................... 100
6.3.2 Uplink Enhancements ............................................................................................................... 102
6.3.3 Cell_Fach Improvements .......................................................................................................... 103
6.4 NETWORK AND SERVICES RELATED ENHANCEMENTS ........................................................... 104
6.4.1 Machine-Type Communication (MTC) ...................................................................................... 104
6.4.2 Network Provided Location Information for IMS (NetLoc) ........................................................ 110
6.4.3 SRVCC Enhancements ............................................................................................................ 111
6.4.4 SIPTO Service Continuity of IP Data Session (SIPTO_SC) ..................................................... 114
6.4.5 Policy Control Framework Enhancement: Application Detection control and QoS Control Based
on Subscriber Spending Limits (QoS_SSL) ............................................................................. 115
6.4.6 Non-Voice Emergency Services (NOVES) ............................................................................... 117
6.4.7 Fixed Mobile Convergence ....................................................................................................... 118
6.4.8 Interworking with WI-Fi Enhancements .................................................................................... 119
6.4.9 UICC (Smart Card) Enhancements .......................................................................................... 119
6.4.10 Lawful Intercept Enhancements ............................................................................................... 120
6.4.11 Further HomeNB/eNodeB Enhancements ............................................................................... 120
6.4.12 IMS Service Continuity and IMS Centralized Services Enhancements .................................... 120
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6.5 RELEASE INDEPENDENT FEATURES ........................................................................................... 120
6.5.1 New Frequency Bands ................................................................................................................ 121
6.5.2 New CA and DC Combinations ................................................................................................... 121
7 PLANS FOR RELEASE 12 ................................................................................................................. 123
7.1 TARGET TIMELINE FOR RELEASE 12 ............................................................................................ 123
7.2 HIGHLIGHTS OF RELEASE 12 PLANNING WORKSHOPS ............................................................ 124
7.2.1 LTE Small Cell/Heterogeneous Networks Enhancements .......................................................... 124
7.2.2 LTE Multi-Antenna/Site Enhancements....................................................................................... 129
7.2.3 New LTE Procedures to Support Diverse Traffic Types.............................................................. 130
7.2.4 Other Areas of Interest ................................................................................................................ 131
7.3 RELEASE INDEPENDENT FEATURES ........................................................................................... 139
7.3.1 New Frequency Bands ................................................................................................................ 139
7.3.2 New CA and DC Combinations ................................................................................................... 139
8 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................... 140
APPENDIX A: DETAILED MEMBER PROGRESS AND PLANS ON RELEASE 99 THROUGH
RELEASE 10: UMTS-HSPA+ AND LTE/LTE-ADVANCED .................................................................... 141
APPENDIX B: UPDATE OF RELEASE 9 STATUS: EVOLVED HSPA (HSPA+) AND LTE/EPC
ENHANCEMENTS .................................................................................................................................... 155
B.1 HSPA+ ENHANCEMENTS ................................................................................................................ 155
B.1.1 Non-contiguous Dual-Cell HSDPA (DC-HSDPA) ....................................................................... 155
B.1.2 MIMO + DC-HSDPA .................................................................................................................... 156
B.1.3 Contiguous Dual-Cell HSUPA (DC-HSUPA) .............................................................................. 156
B.1.4 Transmit Diversity Extension for Non-MIMO UES ...................................................................... 157
B.2 LTE ENHANCEMENTS ..................................................................................................................... 157
B.2.1 IMS Emergency over EPS ........................................................................................................ 157
B.2.2 Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) over EPS ............................................................... 159
B.2.3 Location Services over EPS ..................................................................................................... 164
B.2.4 Circuit-Switched (CS) Domain Services over EPS ................................................................... 168
B.2.5 MBMS for LTE .......................................................................................................................... 173
B.2.6 Self-Organizing Networks (SON) .............................................................................................. 180
B.2.7 Enhanced Downlink Beamforming (dual-layer) ........................................................................ 181
B.2.8 Vocoder Rate Adaptation for LTE ............................................................................................. 182
B.3 OTHER RELEASE 9 ENHANCEMENTS .......................................................................................... 184
B.3.1 Architecture Aspects for Home NodeB/eNodeB ....................................................................... 184
B.3.2 IMS Service Continuity ............................................................................................................. 188
B.3.3 IMS Centralized Services ......................................................................................................... 188
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B.3.4 UICC (Smart Card): Enabling M2M, Femtocells and NFC ....................................................... 189
APPENDIX C: 3GPP MOBILE BROADBAND GLOBAL DEPLOYMENT STATUS - HSPA/HSPA+/LTE190
APPENDIX D: ACRONYM LIST .............................................................................................................. 221
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 233

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PREFACE
Around three quarters of the world‘s inhabitants now have access to a mobile phone. The number of
mobile subscriptions in use worldwide, both pre-paid and post-paid, has grown from fewer than 1 billion in
2000 to over 6 billion in 2012, of which nearly 5 billion are in developing countries. Ownership of multiple
subscriptions is becoming increasingly common, suggesting that their number will soon exceed that of the
human population. The resource of mobile communications could almost be compared to other invaluable
resources like potable water and tillable soil as it advances human and economic development from
providing basic access to health information to making cash payments, spurring job creation, and
stimulating citizen involvement in democratic processes. At the grassroots level, such success may be
attributed to the careful science of technology standards developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership
Project (3GPP).
3G Americas, now 4G Americas, has annually published a white paper to provide the most current
understanding of the 3GPP standards work, beginning in 2003 with a focus on Release 1999 (Rel-99)
through February 2011 and the publication of 4G Mobile Broadband Evolution: 3GPP Release 10 and
Beyond - HSPA+, SAE/LTE and LTE-Advanced. The latter paper provided detailed discussions of
Release 10 (Rel-10) including the significant new technology enhancements to LTE/EPC (called LTE-
Advanced) that successfully met all of the criteria established by the International Telecommunication
Union Radiotelecommunication Sector (ITU-R) for the first release of IMT-Advanced. 3GPP Mobile
Broadband Evolution: Release 10, Release 11 and Beyond - HSPA, SAE/LTE and LTE-Advanced is
focused on LTE-Advanced and HSPA+ in Release 11 (Rel-11), and key technology innovations such as
Co-ordinated Multi-Point (CoMP), Carrier Aggregation enhancements, enhanced ICIC, HSPA+
enhancements (8-carrier HSDPA, UL dual antenna beamforming/MIMO, DL multi-point transmission, etc.)
and support of Machine Type Communications (MTC). An updated status of Rel-10 and a high-level view
of plans for Release 12 (Rel-12) are also provided in the white paper.
The standards work by 3GPP, the foundation of the world‘s mobile broadband infrastructure, is poised to
deliver international communications technologies to the masses. In the words of ITU Secretary-General,
Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, ―We are all aware that there is no longer any part of modern life on planet earth
that is not directly impacted by ICTs and by the work we do here at ITU. In the second decade of the 21st
century, in a world with over six billion mobile cellular subscriptions and more than 2.4 billion people
online, ITU‘s work permeates into every business, every government office, every hospital and school,
and every household.‖1
―Let us make no mistake: broadband is not just about high-speed Internet connectivity and accessing
more data, faster. Broadband is a set of transformative technologies, which are fundamentally changing
the way we live – and which can help ensure sustainable social and economic growth not just in the rich
world, but in every country, rich and poor, developed and developing,‖ stated Dr. Touré. ―Broadband will
change the world in a million ways. Some of these we can predict, but most of the changes will come as a
complete surprise to us – in just the same way that the harnessing of electrical power led to the
unexpected building of skyscrapers, made possible with electrically-powered elevators, or the invention of

1 State of the Union Address, ITU Council, Geneva, Switzerland, 4 July 2012.
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dozens of different sorts of labor-saving devices, from washing machines to hairdryers to toasters. So
broadband, too, will deliver unexpected and unpredictable benefits.‖2
Leading this progress is the GSM family of technologies, which is interchangeably called the 3GPP family
of technologies as they are based on the evolution of standards developed for GSM, EDGE, UMTS,
HSPA, HSPA+, LTE and LTE-Advanced. Network enhancements of mobile broadband HSPA+ continue
to progress in the commercial market today and the LTE revolution has arrived.

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media Subscriber Forecast, 2Q 2012
Figure 1.1. Global HSPA-LTE Subscriber Growth Forecast.
On a global basis, subscriptions to HSPA mobile broadband are growing rapidly. There were 900 million
global subscriptions for HSPA at of the end of December 2011, rising to 1 billion by 2Q 2012. This
number is expected to reach 2.8 billion by the end of 2015.3 There were 476 commercial HSPA networks
in 181 countries worldwide reported in September 2012.4
The ecosystem for HSPA is particularly vibrant. As of July 2012, there were a reported 3,362 HSPA
devices available worldwide from 271 suppliers, of which 245 included HSPA+ and 417 supported LTE.5
It may be helpful to consider the historical development of the 3GPP UMTS standards. Beginning with the
inception of UMTS in 1995, UMTS was first standardized by the European Telecommunications
Standards Institute (ETSI) in March 2000 when specifications were functionally frozen in Rel-99. This first
release of the Third Generation (3G) specifications was essentially a consolidation of the underlying GSM
specifications and the development of the new Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The

2 Broadband for All, Keynote Speech, Stockholm, Sweden, 25 June 2012.
3 World Cellular Information Service Forecast, Informa Telecoms & Media, June 2012.
4 Global Deployment Status HSPA-LTE, See Appendix C, 4G Americas, 1 September 2012.
5 GSA Fast Facts, 11 July 2012.
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foundations were laid for future high-speed traffic transfer in both circuit-switched and packet-switched
modes. The first commercial launch (of FOMA, a derivation of UMTS) was by Japan's NTT DoCoMo in
2001.
In March 2001, a follow up release to Rel-99 was standardized in 3GPP, termed Release 4 (Rel-4), which
provided minor improvements of the UMTS transport, radio interface and architecture.
The rapid growth of UMTS led to a focus on its next significant evolutionary phase, namely Release 5
(Rel-5), which was frozen March to June 2002. 3GPP Rel-5 – first deployed in 2005 – had many
important enhancements that were easy upgrades to the initially deployed Rel-99 UMTS networks. Rel-5
provided wireless operators with the improvements needed to offer customers higher-speed wireless data
services with vastly improved spectral efficiencies through the HSDPA feature. In addition to HSDPA, Rel-
5 introduced the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture that promised to greatly enhance the end-
user experience for integrated multimedia applications and offer mobile operators a more efficient means
for offering such services. UMTS Rel-5 also introduced the IP UTRAN concept to recognize transport
network efficiencies and reduce transport network costs.
Release 6 (Rel-6), functionally frozen December 2004 to March 2005, defined features such as the uplink
Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH), improved minimum performance specifications for support of
advanced receivers at the terminal and support of multicast and broadcast services through the
Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Services (MBMS) feature. E-DCH was one of the key Rel-6 features that
offered significantly higher data capacity and data user speeds on the uplink compared to Rel-99 UMTS
through the use of a scheduled uplink with shorter Transmission Time Intervals (TTIs as low as 2 ms) and
the addition of Hybrid Automatic Retransmission Request (HARQ) processing. Through E-DCH, operators
benefitted from a technology that provided improved end-user experience for uplink intensive applications
such as email with attachment transfers or the sending of video (for example, videophone or sending
pictures). In addition to E-DCH, UMTS Rel-6 introduced improved minimum performance specifications
for the support of advanced receivers. Examples of advanced receiver structures include mobile receive
diversity, which improves downlink spectral efficiency by up to 50 percent, and equalization, which
significantly improves downlink performance, particularly at very high data speeds. UMTS Rel-6 also
introduced the MBMS feature for support of broadcast/multicast services. MBMS more efficiently
supported services where specific content is intended for a large number of users such as streaming
audio or video broadcast.
Release 7 (Rel-7) moved beyond HSPA in its evolution to HSPA+ and also the standardization of Evolved
EDGE; the final Stage 3 was functionally frozen in December 2007. The evolution to 3GPP Rel-7
improved support and performance for real-time conversational and interactive services such as Push-to-
Talk Over Cellular (PoC), picture and video sharing, and Voice and Video over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
through the introduction of features like Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Continuous Packet
Connectivity (CPC) and Higher Order Modulations (HOMs). These Rel-7 enhancements are called
Evolved HSPA or HSPA+. Since the HSPA+ enhancements are fully backwards compatible with Rel-
99/Rel-5/Rel-6, the evolution to HSPA+ was made smooth and simple for operators.
Release 8 (Rel-8) specifications, frozen in December 2008, included enhancements to the Evolved HSPA
(HSPA+) technology, as well as the introduction of the Evolved Packet System (EPS) which consists of a
flat IP-based all-packet core (SAE/EPC) coupled with a new OFDMA-based RAN (E-UTRAN/LTE).
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Note: The complete packet system consisting of the E-UTRAN and the EPC is called the EPS. In this
paper, the terms LTE and E-UTRAN will both be used to refer to the evolved air interface and radio
access network based on OFDMA, while the terms SAE and EPC will both be used to refer to the evolved
flatter-IP core network. Additionally, at times EPS will be used when referring to the overall system
architecture.
While the work towards completion and publication of Rel-8 was ongoing, planning for content in Release
9 (Rel-9) and Release 10 (Rel-10) began. In addition to further enhancements to HSPA+, Rel-9 was
focused on LTE/EPC enhancements. Due to the aggressive schedule for Rel-8, it was necessary to limit
the LTE/EPC content of Rel-8 to essential features (namely the functions and procedures to support
LTE/EPC access and interoperation with legacy 3GPP and 3GPP2 radio accesses) plus a handful of high
priority features (such as Single Radio Voice Call Continuity [SRVCC], generic support for non-3GPP
accesses, local breakout and CS fallback). The aggressive schedule for Rel-8 was driven by the desire
for fast time-to-market LTE solutions without compromising the most critical feature content. 3GPP
targeted a Rel-9 specification that would quickly follow Rel-8 to enhance the initial Rel-8 LTE/EPC
specification. Rel-9 was functionally frozen in December 2009.
At the same time that these Rel-9 enhancements were being developed, 3GPP recognized the need to
develop a solution and specification to be submitted to the ITU-R for meeting the IMT-Advanced
requirements. Therefore, in parallel with Rel-9 work, 3GPP worked on a study item called LTE-Advanced,
which defined the bulk of the content for Rel-10, to include significant new technology enhancements to
LTE/EPC for meeting the very aggressive IMT-Advanced requirements. In October 2009, 3GPP proposed
LTE-Advanced at the ITU-R Working Party 5D meeting as a candidate technology for IMT-Advanced and
one year later in October 2010, LTE-Advanced was agreed by ITU-R Working Party 5D as having met all
the requirements for IMT-Advanced. Working Party 5D then completed development of Recommendation
ITU-R M.2012: Detailed specifications of the terrestrial radio interfaces of International Mobile
Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced), incorporating the detailed technical specifications of the
LTE-Advanced as one of the two approved radio interfaces. Recommendation ITU-R M.2012 received
final approval by the Member States countries in ITU-R at the Radiocommunication Assembly in January
2012. Rel-10 was functionally frozen in March 2011.
This white paper will provide detailed information on 3GPP Rel-10 including HSPA+ enhancements and
the introduction of LTE-Advanced; Rel-11 including further HSPA+, LTE-Advanced and Multi-RAT related
enhancements and other release independent features for which specifications were functionally frozen in
September 2012; and planning for Release 12 (Rel-12) and beyond. Rel-12 is targeted for a functional
freeze date of June 2014. This paper has been prepared by a working group of 4G Americas' member
companies and the material represents the combined efforts of many leading experts from 4G Americas‘
membership.

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1 INTRODUCTION
Mobile Broadband demand is at an all-time high thanks to the combination of more data-hungry devices
and higher service expectations on the part of users. As of June 2012, there was an estimated 5.63
billion 3GPP subscriptions worldwide. Projections through 2016 indicate an order of magnitude increase
in global mobile data traffic. Consequently, this is driving the need for continued innovations in wireless
data technologies to provide more capacity and higher quality of service. 3GPP technologies have
evolved from GSM-EDGE, to UMTS-HSPA-HSPA+, to LTE and soon LTE-Advanced, in order to provide
increased capacity and user experience. But even with these technology evolutions, the exponential rate
of growth in wireless data usage puts further pressure to continue driving innovations into the 3GPP
family of technologies.
The 3GPP evolution will continue in the coming years with further enhancements to HSPA/HSPA+ and to
LTE/LTE-Advanced. 3GPP froze the core specification for Rel-10 in March 2011, which provides further
enhancements to the HSPA+ technology and the introduction of LTE-Advanced. For HSPA, Rel-10
introduced support for four-carrier HSDPA as well as additional dual-carrier frequency combinations. For
LTE, Rel-10 introduced key features and capabilities needed to meet the IMT-Advanced requirements
specified by the ITU. Some of the key LTE-Advanced features introduced in Rel-10 include Carrier
Aggregation (CA), multi-antenna enhancements (for up to 8X8 MIMO), support for relays and
enhancements to Self Organizing Networks (SON), Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) and
heterogeneous networks. Other Rel-10 enhancements that are more network and service oriented and
that apply to both UMTS-HSPA and LTE include architecture improvements for Home (e)NBs such as
femtocells), local IP traffic offloading, optimizations for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and
SRVCC enhancements.
With the completion of Rel-10, focus in 3GPP turned to Rel-11, for which the core specifications were
frozen in September 2012 and added feature functionality and performance enhancements to both
HSPA/HSPA+ and LTE/LTE-Advanced. For HSPA, Rel-11 introduces new features such as 8-carrier
HSDPA, DL Multi-Flow Transmission, DL 4-branch MIMO, UL dual antenna beamforming and UL MIMO
with 64QAM. For LTE, Rel-11 provides enhancements to the LTE-Advanced technologies introduced in
Rel-10, such as enhancements to CA, heterogeneous networks, relays, MBMS and SON. Rel-11 also
introduces the Co-ordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) feature for enabling coordinated scheduling/beamforming
and MIMO across eNBs. Finally, Rel-11 introduces several network and service related enhancements
such as enhancements to Machine Type Communications (MTC), IMS related enhancements, Wi-Fi
integration related enhancements, H(e)NB enhancements, etc., most of which apply to both HSPA and
LTE.
As work on 3GPP Rel-11 neared completion, focus began on Rel-12 planning. With a targeted functional
freeze date of June 2014, work on Rel-12 is expected to ramp up at the end of 2012 and be the focus of
work in 2013. Some of Rel-12 will consist of unfinished work from Rel-11, but there will also be new ideas
and features introduced in Rel-12. However, there is general agreement that Rel-12 will be mainly an
evolution of the LTE and LTE-Advanced technologies. At the time of this writing, some main themes for
areas of Rel-12 focus include enhancements to LTE small cell and heterogeneous networks, LTE multi-
antennas (therefore, MIMO and Beamforming) and LTE procedures for supporting diverse traffic types.
In addition to these themes, other areas of interest include enhancements to support multi-technology
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