Nonblocking OVSF Codes for 3G Wireless and Beyond Systems

Hasan C am Computer Science and Engineering Department Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287 hasan.cam@asu.edu

Abstract Orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) codes are employed in the third generation (3G) wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) wireless system as channelization codes. Any two OVSF codes of different tree levels are orthogonal if and only if one of two codes is not mother code of the other. This results in a major drawback of OVSF codes, called blocking property: when an OVSF code is assigned, it blocks all of its ancestor and descendant codes from assignment because they are not orthogonal to each other. This paper presents nonblocking OVSF (NOVSF) codes that are orthogonal to each other. Therefore, no NOVSF code blocks the assignment of any other NOVSF code.

same OVSF code tree is used for the downlink transmissions and therefore the base station must carefully assign the OVSF codes to the downlink transmissions. The uplink transmissions do not suffer from this limitation due to that each mobile station as a single source uses a unique scrambling code with the spreading codes of its OVSF code tree, which makes signals from different mobile stations separable from each other. All OVSF codes can be generated recursively using a binary complete tree. OVSF codes are very valuable resources in a CDMA-based wireless system and, therefore, should be managed very efciently. Any two OVSF codes of different tree levels are orthogonal if and only if one of two codes is not mother code of the other. This results in a major drawback of OVSF codes, called blocking property: when an OVSF code is assigned, it blocks all of its ancestor and descendant codes from assignment because they are not orthogonal. To alleviate the effects of the blocking property of OVSF codes, various schemes were proposed such as code reassignment schemes [7, 8, 9, 10], time sharing of channels, statistical multiplexing of bursty data trafc [11]. To the best of our knowledge, no improvement other than the improvement of FOSSIL codes [12] in one branch of the code-tree was made on the orthogonality properties of OVSF codes. FOSSIL codes satisfy the orthogonality properties of OVSF codes plus an additional property that those codes of only one branch of the OVSF code-tree are orthogonal to each other. This paper presents nonblocking OVSF (NOVSF) codes such that they do not have any blocking at all. Hence, all NOVSF codes are orthogonal to each other and, therefore, can be assigned simultaneously as far as orthogonality is concerned. In this paper, four different techniques are discussed to obtain the proposed NOVSF codes. Two techniques are involved with the rearrangement of OVSF code trees as follows. Initially, there are X orthogonal codes with the spreading factor of X , where X is either four or

1 Introduction
The third generation (3G) wireless standards UMTS/IMT-2000 use the wideband CDMA (WCDMA) to support high data rate and variable bit rate services with different quality of service (QoS) requirements. In WCDMA, all users share the same carrier under the direct sequence CDMA (DS-CDMA) principle [5]. In the 3GPP specications [6], orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) codes [4] are used as channelization codes for data spreading on both downlink and uplink. OVSF codes also determine the data rates allocated to calls. Because OVSF codes require a single RAKE combiner at the receiver, they are preferable to multiples of orthogonal constant spreading factor codes which need multiple RAKE combiners at the receiver. In OVSF, once a particular code is used, its descendant and ancestor codes cannot be used simultaneously because their encoded sequences become indistinguishable. Thus, the OVSF code tree has a limited number of available codes. Because one OVSF code tree, along with one scrambling code, is used for transmissions from a single source that may be a base station or mobile station, the

eight. Each of these X orthogonal codes may rst generate Y orthogonal codes with spreading factor of Y and then the generated codes may be placed on a layer of NOVSF code tree, where Y is a power of two. When X is equal to four, the code tree has four layers whose spreading factors range from 4 to 32, which could be a very desirable code tree especially for broadband xed wireless networks where the highest spreading factor is desirable not to exceed 32. The third technique proposes a rather different approach, that is, it proposes to share the initial X OVSF codes in time whenever it is predicted to result in better spectral efciency and throughput. Thus, this technique is involved with time multiplexing and OVSF codes. The fourth technique introduces a very structured way of generating NOVSF codes starting with spreading factor of 4 and ending with any spreading factor. The tree-structured generation of NOVSF codes in this technique is accomplished in two stages. In the rst stage, base OVSF codes are generated and then NOVSF codes are generated in the second stage. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we review the tree-structured generation and blocking properties of OVSF codes. Section 3 describes the proposed NOVSF codes. Concluding remarks are made in Section 4.

codes are blocked.

assigned code C 8,1 = (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1) C 4,1 = (1,1,1,1) C 2,1 = (1, 1) C 8,2 = (1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1)

C 1,1 = (1)

C 4,2 = (1,1,1,1) C 4,3 = (1,1,1,1)

C 2,2 = (1, 1) C 4,4 = (1,1,1,1)

SF = 1 layer 1

SF = 2 layer 2

SF = 4 layer 3

SF = 8 layer 4

Figure 1: OVSF code blocking.

3 Nonblocking OVSF Codes

The basic ideas behind the proposed NOVSF codes are discussed next by describing four different cases. In every case, all the codes are orthogonal to each other. They differ from each other in the range of SF and whether time multiplexing is applied. Technique 1: NOVSF codes for 4 SF 32. In this case, as shown in Figure 2, there are initially four orthogonal codes, namely, A, B, C, and D. Using these four orthogonal codes, a binary code tree is constructed as follows. Code A is made the root code with SF 4 in the layer 1 of the tree. For the tree layer 2, the following two orthogonal codes with SF 8 are generated from code B: B B and B  B . Similarly, four codes are generated from code C and are placed on layer 3 of the tree. Finally, eight generated codes from D are placed on layer 4 of the tree. All the codes of the tree are orthogonal to each other and, they can be very desirable codes for broadband xed wireless networks where maximum SF should not exceed 32. Indeed, each one of four codes A, B, C, and D can have any spreading factor depending on the requested data rates. Technique 2: NOVSF codes for 8 SF 512. In this case, as shown in Figure 3, there are initially eight orthogonal codes, namely, A, B, C, D, E , F , G, and H . Using the rst seven orthogonal codes, a binary code tree is constructed as follows. Code A is made the root code with SF 8 in the layer 1 of the tree. For the tree layer

Let Cn i denote the ith member of the set having n binary spreading codes of n-chip length, for n 2 k and k is a positive integer. Cn i can be used to generate two orthogo nal binary code sequences of length 2n, C 2n i Cn i Cn i and C2n j Cn i Cn i , where Cn i denotes the inverted sequence (or binary complement) of C n i [4]. Recursive generation of higher-dimensional OVSF codes from lower-dimensional OVSF codes can also be depicted using a code-tree structure [4] as shown in Figure 1. All higher layer codes spanned from a lower layer code are dened as descendant codes. All low layer codes linking a particular code to the root code are called its mother codes. Two sibling codes are those generated from their immediate mother code. All codes in each layer are mutually orthogonal. Any two codes of different layers are orthogonal except for the case that one of the two codes is a mother or ancestor of another code. This exception in OVSF codes leads to the blocking property that once a particular OVSF code is assigned, it blocks the assignment of its all descendant or ancestor codes because they are not orthogonal to each other and, therefore, their encoded sequences are indistinguishable. For instance, when code C 4 1 is assigned as shown in Figure 1, all of its ancestor and descendant

2 OVSF Code Generation and Blocking Property

Orthogonal Codes: A, B, C, D A =( 1, 1, 1, 1) B =(1,1,1,1) C =(1,1,1,1) D =(1,1,1,1) C 16,1 = (C,C,C,C) C 32,2 = (D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D) C 8,1 = (B,B) C 32,3 = (D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D) C 16,2 = (C,C,C,C) C 4,1 = (A) C 16,3 = (C,C,C,C) C 32,4 = (D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D) C 32,1 = (D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D)

Orthogonal Codes: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H A =( 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1) B =( 1, 1, 1, 1,1,1,1,1) C =( 1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1) D =( 1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1) E =( 1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1) F =( 1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1) G =( 1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1) H =( 1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1)

C 512,2 = (G,G,...,G,G)

C 256,2 = (F,F,...,F,F) C 32,1 = (C,C,C,C) C 128,2 = (E,E,...,E,E) C 64,2 = (D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D) C 32,2 = (C,C,C,C) C 8,1 = (A)

C 32,5 = (D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D) C 32,6 = (D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D)

C 16,1 = (B,B)

C 8,2 = (B,B) C 16,4 = (C,C,C,C)

C 32,7 = (D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D) C 32,8 = (D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D)

SF = 4

SF = 8

SF = 16

SF = 32

C 32,3 = (C,C,C,C) C 16,2 = (B,B) C 32,4 = (C,C,C,C)

Figure 2: The binary code tree for NOVSF codes with 4 SF 32. 2, the following two orthogonal codes with SF 16 are generated from code B: B B and B  B . Similarly, four codes are generated from code C and are placed on layer 3 of the tree. As illustrated in Figure 3, codes D, E , F , and G generate 8, 16, 32, and 64 codes, respectively, and are placed on layers 4, 5, 6, and 7, respectively. Code H can be used as a standby code in any tree layer whenever more codes are needed. Indeed, each one of the eight codes A, B, C, D, E , F , G, and H . can have any spreading factor depending on the requested data rates. For instance, if there are eight users requesting codes with SF 8, then each layer is assumed to be assigned a code with SF 8. Technique 3: NOVSF codes with SF 4 and time multiplexing. In this case, as shown in Figure 4 there are initially four orthogonal codes of SF 4, namely, A, B, C, and D. Each code is associated with a time-slot number and cyclelength, in addition to the SF of the code. Cycle-length is simply the sum of the time slots in a cycle. The time-slot number is the label of the time slot in a cycle. When a code is not shared in time, its cycle-length becomes equal to one. Thus, a code is assigned to a communication channel along with its time-slot and cycle-length. There are mainly two reasons why a code may be shared in time. One reason is to have better utilization of codes, which leads to an improvement in spectral efciency of WCDMA. Another reason to share a code in time is to help rate matching techniques such as repetition or puncturing to achieve the requested data rates. Note that repetition or puncturing is used to adjust the channel-coding rate of each

layer 1

layer 2

layer 3

layer 4

layer 5

layer 6

layer 7

SF = 8
1 code

SF = 16
2 codes

SF = 32
4 codes

SF = 64
8 codes

SF = 128
16 codes

SF = 256
32 codes

SF = 512
64 codes

Figure 3: The binary code tree for NOVSF codes with 8 SF 512. Only one NOVSF code is illustrated in layers 4 to 7 due to space limitations.

Orthogonal Codes: A =( 1, 1, 1, 1)

B =( 1, 1,1,1)

C =( 1,1, 1,1)

D =( 1,1, 1,1)

Code A, cyclelength=2, channel 1= slot 1, channel 2= slot 2 channel 1 channel 2 A A A A A A A A

Code B, cyclelength=1, channel 3= slot 1, channel 4= slot 1 channel 3 channel 4 (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B) (B,B)

Code C, cyclelength=3, channel 5= slot 1, channel 6= slot 2, channel 7= slot 3 channel 5 channel 6 channel 7 C C C C C C C C

Code D, cyclelength=1, channel 8= slot 1 channel 8 D D D D D D D D

Figure 4: The NOVSF codes with time multiplexing.

transport channel to match the coded bit rates to one of a limited set of rates on the physical channel. In Figure 4, code A with SF 8 is shared by two communication channels such that channels 1 and 2 employ code A in time slots 1 and 2, respectively. No time multiplexing is applied for code B. Codes B B and B  B of SF 8 each that are generated from code B are assigned to channels 3 and 4, respectively. Similary, code D is not shared in time either. But, code C is shared by three channels. Since the number of channels that share C in different time slots is equal to three, it may be easier to support different data rates. Technique 4: NOVSF codes with SF  4. In this case, we show how to generate NOVSF codes when there is no limit on the upper bound for SF. We rst dene BOVSF codes and then NOVSF codes. BOVSF codes: 1) Let the codes A [1, 1] and B [1, 1] be two initial BOVSF codes. 2) Use a BOVSF code X of length k to generate two orthogonal codes of length 4k and length 2k: X X X X and X  X , where X is the inverted sequence of X . Using this procedure recursively, generate all BOVSF codes that can be represented as nodes (other than the root node) in a balanced binary tree. BOVSF codes have the same property as OVSF codes, that is, i all BOVSF codes of the same lvel of BOVSF codetree are orthogonal to each other, and ii any two codes of different layers are orthogonal except for the case that one of the two codes is a parent code of the other. NOVSF codes: For a given BOVSF code Y of length k, generate the following so-called NOVSF code of length 4k: Y Y  Y  Y , where Y is the inverted sequence of Y . By repeating this procedure for each and every BOVSF code, generate all NOVSF codes that can be represented as nodes (other than the root node) in a balanced binary tree. s and Bs , NOVSF and BOVSF codes are represented by C n i n i respectively, where s, n, and i stand for spreading factor, number of codes with the same spreading factor, and index of code, respectively. The recursive generation of BOVSF and NOVSF codes are shown by code trees as in Figures 5 and 6. It is stated earlier that the tree-structured generation of BOVSF codes is very similar to that of OVSF codes. To consolidate their similarity, the following lemma shows that BOVSF codes have the same orthogonality properties as OVSF codes. Then, the next theorem proves that all NOVSF codes are orthogonal to each other. Lemma 3.1 BOVSF codes have the same property as OVSF codes, that is, i all BOVSF codes of the same level of BOVSF code-tree are orthogonal to each other, and ii

B 8,1 = (D,D,D,D)=(H) B 4,1 = (B,B,B,B)=(D)

B 2,1 = (A,A,A,A) = (B)
4 16

64

B 8,2 = (D,D)=(I) B 8,3 = (E,E,E,E)=(J)

32

32

B 1,1 = (1) = (A) Root

B 4,2 = (B,B)=(E)

B 8,4 = (E,E)=(K)
32

16

B 8,5 = (F,F,F,F)=(L) B 4,3 = (C,C,C,C)=(F) B 8,6 = (F,F)=(M)

2 16 8

B 2,2 = (A,A) = (C)

B 8,7 = (G,G,G,G)=(N)

16

B 4,4 = (C,C)=(G) SF = 2,4 SF = 4,8,16

B 8,8 = (G,G)=(O)
SF = 16,32,64

Figure 5: BOVSF code tree.

C8,1 = (H,H,H,H) C4,1 = (D,D,D,D)

16 64

256

C8,2 = (I,I,I,I) C8,3 = (J,J,J,J)

128

128

C 2,1 = (B,B,B,B)

C 1,1 = (A,A,A,A)

C 4,2 = (E,E,E,E)

32

C8,4 = (K,K,K,K) C8,5 = (L,L,L,L)

128

64

C4,3 = (F,F.F,F) C8,6 = (M,M,M,M)

8 64

32

C 2,2 = (C,C,C,C)

C8,7 = (N,N,N,N)

64

C 4,4 = (G,G,G,G) SF = 4 SF = 8,16 SF = 16,32,64

16

C8,8 = (O,O,O,O)

32

SF = 32,64,128,256

Figure 6: Code tree of NOVSF codes.

any two codes of different layers are orthogonal except for the case that one of the two codes is a parent code of the other. Proof. It follows from the denition of BOVSF codes that a BOVSF code Bs n i generates two orthogonal codes s and B4s B4 . 2n i 2n i  n
s B4 2n i

Bsn i

s s Bs n i Bn i Bn i

Bsn i  Bsn i Bsn i  Bsn i  s 4s Note that B4 2n i and B2n i  n are orthogonal to each other beand
s B4 2n i  n

cause their inner product is is equal to

generation method of BOVSF and NOVSF codes, note that 16s also consist of mulall descendant NOVSF codes of C2 n i s tiple non-inverted and inverted copies of B 4 2n i , in order to 4 s show that Cn i is orthogonal to its all descendant NOVSF 16s it sufces to show that codes including its child code C 2 n i 4 s 4 s Cn i is orthogonal to B 2n i . Similarly, in order to show that 4s is orthogonal to its all descendant NOVSF codes inCn i 16s 4s cluding its child C2 n i  n it sufces to show that Cn i is ors 4s thogonal to B 4 2n i  n . Hence, it will be shown next that C n i 4 s 4 s is orthogonal to both B 2n i and B2n i n . 4s is orthogonal to both B 4s . We shall rst prove that Cn i 2n i Let us rst consider
4s Cn i

Bs n i

  s !" s   s  Bn i Bn i Bn i

0 and

Bsn i

s s Bs n i % Bn i % Bn i s s Bs n i Bn i Bn i &

s Note that the rst half of B 4 2n i is orthogonal to the rst s 4 s half of B2n i  n , and similarly the second half of B 4 2n i is ors thogonal to the second half of B 4 2n i  n . Also, note that the 4 s rst half of B2n i is the same as its second half, and simis larly the rst half of B 4 2n i  n is the same as its second half. Furthermore, if the code generation method of OVSF codes were implemented in the generation of BOVSF codes, only 4s s be the rst (or second) halves of B 4 2n i and B2n i  n would 2 1 1 and generated. Also, the initial BOVSF codes B 2 1 B2 1 1 are the same as the two children codes of # 2 2 the OVSF root code. Therefore, it may be thought that the matrix of BOVSF codes at each layer of the code-tree is obtained by concatenating two Walsh matrices of OVSF codes. Therefore, BOVSF codes have same orthogonality properties as OVSF codes. $

s B4 2n i

Bsn i
Bs n i

4s and B4s is equal to Note that the inner product of C n i 2n i

Bs n i

!'

  s   s  Bn i Bn i

and, therefore, they are orthogonal. Similarly, we consider

4s Cn i

Bsn i

s s Bs n i % Bn i % Bn i s s Bs n i Bn i % Bn i 

and

4s and B4s Note that the inner product of C n i 2n i  n is also equal to  s   s !' s   s  Bn i Bn i Bn i Bn i 0 4s and, therefore, they are orthogonal, as well. Thus, C n i s 4s is orthogonal to both B 4 2n i and B2n j . It follows that any NOVSF code is orthogonal to its all descendant NOVSF codes. This implies all the NOVSF codes of the subtree 8 (i.e., the right child of the with topmost parent node C 2 1 root node) are orthogonal to each other. Similarly, all the 8 NOVSF codes of the subtree with topmost parent node C 2 2 (i.e., the left child of the root node) are also orthogonal to 8 and each other. Moreover, note that the two children C 2 1 8 C2 2 of the root node are also orthogonal to each other be 1 1 and B2 1 ) 1 are orthogonal to cause B2 2 1 2 2 each other. Therefore, all NOVSF codes are orthogonal to $ each other. When the root code is used in OVSF codes, no other OVSF code can be employed because of the blocking property of OVSF codes. In addition, the root code has the highest data rate. Therefore, when OVSF codes are used in the forward link (or downlink) of 3G DS-CDMA systems, the aggregate data rate of forward link channels is at most

s B4 2n i 

Bsn i (

Theorem 3.1 Any NOVSF code is orthogonal to all other NOVSF codes. 4s , is Proof. We now show that any NOVSF code, say C n i orthogonal to its all descendant NOVSF codes. Note that 4s are the two children of Cn i
16s C2 n i

4s s B4 2n i B2n i %

s 4s B4 2n i % B2n i

and
16s C2 n i n

4s s B4 2n i  n B2n i  n 

s B4 2n i 

s B4 2n i 



16s consists of two copies of B 4s followed by Note that C2 n i 2n i the two copies of its inverted sequences. Due to the fact that, if a code is orthogonal to another code , is also orthogonal to the inverted sequence of (and vice versa), 4s is orthogonal to C 16s it sufces to show to show that Cn i 2n i 4s is orthogonal to B 4s . Furthermore, because of the that Cn i 2n i

equal to the root code rate. (Indeed, the root code is not used in 3G DS-CDMA since the spreading factor should be at least 4). However, if NOVSF codes are used in 3G wireless and beyond systems, the aggregate data rate of forward link can be the summation of all NOVSF codes rates because all NOVSF codes can be employed simultaneously.

[7] T. Minn and K.Y. Siu, Dynamic assignment of orthogonal variable spreading factor codes in WCDMA, IEEE J. on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 18, no. 8, pp. 1429-1440, Aug. 2000. [8] R.G. Cheng and P. Lin, OVSF code channel assignment for IMT-2000, Proc. of VTC2000, vol. 3, pp. 2188-2192, May 2000. [9] A.C. Kam, T. Minn, and K.Y. Siu, Reconstruction methods of tree structure of orthogonal spreading codes for DS-CDMA, IEICE Trans. Fundamentals, vol. E83-A, no. 11, pp. 2078-2084, Nov. 2000. [10] F. Shueh, H.C. Lai, and W.E. Chen, On-line preemption of code assignment for IMT-2000, Proc. of 3Gwireless01, pp. 814-819, May 2001. [11] A.C. Kam, T. Minn, and K.Y. Siu, Supporting rate guarantee and fair access for bursty data trafc in WCDMA, IEEE J. on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 19, no. 11, pp. 2121-2130, Nov. 2001. [12] L. Tsaur and D.C. Lee, Symbol rate adaptation and blind rate detectionusing FOSSIL (forest for OVSF-sequence-set-inducing lineages), Proc. of IEEE ICC2001, pp. 1754-1759, 2001. [13] H. C am, Dynamic Assignment of Nonblocking OVSF Codes for 3G Wireless Systems, To appear in the Special Issue of Computer Communications on 3G Wireless and Beyond For Computer Communications, Fall 2002. [14] F. Adachi, M. Sawahashi, and H. Suda, Wideband DS-CDMA for next-generation mobile communication systems, IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 36, pp. 5669, Sept. 1998. [15] Y. Okumura and F. Adachi, Variable-rate data transmission with blind-rate detection for coherent DSCDMA mobile radio, IEICE Trans. Commun., vol. E81-B, no. 7, pp. 1365-1373, July 1998.

4 Conclusion
We have introduced nonblocking OVSF (NOVSF) codes in the sense that all codes are orthogonal to each other and no code blocks the assignment of any other NOVSF code. An immediate consequence of this property is that the aggregate data rate of all NOVSF codes is the summation of all NOVSF codes rates, as opposed to the OVSF property that the aggregate date rate of all OVSF codes can be at most the rate of root code.

Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank Halim Yanikomeroglu and Ertan Ozturk for having constructive discussions.

References
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