STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

March, 2006
SCRAMBLING CODE
PLANNING STRATEGY
Page 2 STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Scrambling Code Planning Strategy
Scrambling Code Groups
1 2 3 4 63 64
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
Scrambling Code Group
S
c
r
a
m
b
l
i
n
g

C
o
d
e
s

i
n

t
h
e

G
r
o
u
p
Page 3 STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Scrambling Code Planning Strategy
Cell search procedure, synchronisation time and battery life
Stage 3 requires more processing
complexity since the CPICH is spread
over the entire timeslot length (P-SCH
and S-SCH are only transmitted in the
first 10% portion of each slot).
Cell_DCH state synchronisation is the
main concern (the process is simplified
since UE knows which scrambling codes
to look for).
Trade-off between the number of
operations that the handset is required
to perform (impacts battery life) and
acquisition time:
Processing complexity depends on
number and length of correlations that
the UE needs to perform. Correlations
in Stage 2 are shorter than in stage 3.
Acquisition time depends on number of
errors in stages 2 and 3. When an error occurs UE will have to attempt synchronisation again. Stage 3 error
probabilities are lower than stage 2.
Stage 1 Slot Synchronisation
Stage 2 Frame Synchronisation & Group Detection
Stage 3 Scrambling Code Identification
(P-SCH)
(S-SCH)
(CPICH)
Page 4 STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Scrambling Code Planning Strategy
Frame and slot structures for CPICH, P-SCH and S-SCH
PSCH
SSCH
CPICH
1 Time Slot = 0.67ms, 2560 chips
1 Frame = 10ms
0.067ms, 256 chips
Page 5 STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Scrambling Code Planning Strategy
Strategy background
Battery life is an important issue in UMTS due to the complexity of the technology. Use of UE
battery should be optimised to lengthen the active life of the handset and improve user perception
and potential revenues.
Neighbour cell scrambling codes can be distributed in different ways that can modify the number of
operations required and the error probabilities in stages 2 and 3 of the synchronisation process. Two
extreme planning strategies would be:
Each neighbour cell belongs to a different code group. Stage 2 of the synchronisation process will
identify the cell almost completely and stage 3 will only confirm that the cell detected uses the expected
scrambling code (the network provides information about the neighbour cell codes while in Cell_DCH state).
Lowest number of operations required to acquire synchronisation (lowest battery consumption).
All neighbour cells belong to the same code group. Stage 2 will merely provide frame synchronisation
and therefore stage 3 will have to correlate with all possible codes to identify the cell. Lowest probability of
error in synchronisation process (lowest time to acquire synchronisation).
Simulations show that scrambling code plans using between 2 and 4 codes per group provide good
complexity properties without major increase in synchronisation time.
Using the same scrambling code group in all the sectors of each base station will ensure that the
neighbour list will contain in most of the cases 2 or 3 codes per group.
Page 6 STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Scrambling code groups allocated as follows:
Group 0 (SC 07): reserved for temporary use such as test, integration and special events;
Groups 1 to 50 (SC 8407): available for normal planning purposes;
Group 51 (SC 408415): used for in-building cells;
Groups 52 to 63 (SC 416511): reserved for future growth.
Sectors of the same site use the first codes of each group.
Neighbour sites should be assigned scrambling codes from
different groups.
Strategy aims at providing neighbour lists containing between
2 and 4 codes per scrambling code group, minimizing the number
of operations the UE needs to perform in the cell search
procedure and saving battery life.
Synchronisation times achieved are also acceptable from a network operation point of view.
2-sector sites where a new sector might be installed in the future should be assigned 3 scrambling
codes (1 unused for future sector).
Scrambling Code Planning Strategy
Strategy description
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
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3
1
2