2 Overview of Call Admission Control

Call Admission Control (CAC) is used to determine whether the system resources in a cell are sufficient to
accept a resource request. If the system resources are sufficient, the resource request is accepted;
otherwise, the resource request is rejected.
A radio link sends a resource request to the CAC functional module when additional resources are
required, in cases such as radio resource control (RRC) connection setup, new service setup, change of
existing services, soft handover, and cell change. Upon receiving a resource request, the CAC functional
module determines whether the request can be accepted by measuring the cell load and the requested
resources. For details about measuring the cell load, see the Load Control Feature Parameter
Description.
The admission decision performed using CAC is based on the following resources: code resources,
power resources, NodeB credit resources, and Iub resources. In the case of an HSPA resource request,
the admission decision is also based on the number of HSPA users. The admission succeeds only when
the resources on which CAC is based are available.
With CAC, an overloaded cell can accept resource requests for an RRC connection setup only in the case
of emergency calls, detachments, or registrations. This is because the priority of such requests is high.
This helps maintain system stability when cells are overloaded. In addition, admitting or rejecting users
over FACH or enhanced FACH channels (HS-DSCH) in an overloaded cell can be specified by setting
FACH_UU_ADCTRL of the NBMCacAlgoSwitch parameter.