Three Decades of 3GPP Target Cell Search through 3G, 4G, and 5G

Seunghwan Won,Sang Won Choi

doi:10.1109/access.2020.3003012

Abstract

This survey provides the reader with the open literature on the detailed operational scenarios of Target Cell Search (TCS) in both 3G and 4G systems, with a particular emphasis on the DownLink (DL). There is no completely latest survey of the TCS scenarios. Therefore, we examine the TCS-involved solutions which have been chosen for Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), Long-Term Evolution Frequency Division Duplex (LTE-FDD), and Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE). Especially for TD-SCDMA, there is no concrete literature demystifying the details of TCS scenario. Accordingly, this survey aims for repairing the associated crack in the literature. Moreover, as a recent evolution from the operational systems, we also focus on the TCS scenario which can be exploited in New Radio (NR) systems operating at both sub-6 GHz and millimeter-Wave (mmW) spectrum bands. A taxonomy diagram is also provided to classify relevant target cell search scenarios in 3G, 4G, and 5G as well as followed by those in inter-Radio Access Technologies (RATs). In a nutshell, our endeavors definitize the first comprehensive survey on the TCS progress tailored to the evolution of commercial mobile communication systems over three decades. It is worth mentioning that this survey is also informative for engineers and researchers to design practical mobile station modem.

Highlights

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has broadly supported Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) aided mobile communication systems, resulting in the 3G systems [1], [2], that is to say the Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) [1] and the Time Division-Synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA) [2] operating models
Implementation perspective: For the sake of stable and reliable operation of the Target Cell Search (TCS), we demonstrate leading challenging technical issues to be pondered with feasible ways
The remainder of the survey paper is organized as follows: In Section II, we provide a survey by introducing preliminaries on TCS, which constitutes the associated definitions, its importance, main TCS issues, and ways of resolving these issues

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has broadly supported Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) aided mobile communication systems, resulting in the 3G systems [1], [2], that is to say the Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) [1] and the Time Division-Synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA) [2] operating models. A. TARGET CELL SEARCH IN 3G Fig. 4 portrays an entire state transition diagram of all the cell search scenarios in active-RAT mode of 3G systems (either W-CDMA or TD-SCDMA) and their related inter-RAT TCS scenarios such as 2G to 3G and LTE to 3G, in which 2G and LTE are in active-RAT, respectively [47]–[50], [53]. By employing an entire state transition diagram of all the cell search scenarios in active-RAT mode of 3G systems (either W-CDMA or TD-SCDMA) of Fig. 4, we have proceeded by offering an insight into the TCS and multi-path search operational procedures and scenarios. Due to its highly limited observation period, the stored information based TCS can be exploited to boost their inter-RAT TCS performances

TARGET CELL SEARCH IN NR

VIII. CONCLUSIONS