CME 20 R6 RADIO NETWORK LOGIC,

OVERVIEW

Contents

1 Introduction ..................................................................... 3
1.1 Scope.............................................................................................. 3

1.2 General considerations ..................................................................... 3

2 Radio network logic......................................................... 5

2.1 General ........................................................................................... 5

2.2 Basic, indispensable features ............................................................ 5

2.3 Features to increase traffic capacity .................................................. 7

2.4 Features to increase subscriber service quality ................................. 16

2.5 Features to increase network service quality .................................... 19

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1 Introduction

1.1 Scope
This document serves the purpose of giving an overview of the radio network
features provided in the Ericsson CME 20 mobile telephony system, release
R6. The questions that this description attempts to answer are the fundamental
whys and hows of the radio network logic. It is the intention that this document
shall give the basic understanding as to why the radio network logic is designed
as it is, what tools and facilities are provided with the CME 20 product, and
how and when to use them. The structure of the document is according to the
different types of benefit, or quality, that the radio network features can
provide. Each feature has a user descriptions that describes it and its
algorithms in detail.

This document is intended as a background information for systems designers,

software designers, network planners, product managers and others that need a
quick overview of the considerations behind the design of the radio network
logic.

1.2 General considerations

The usefulness of radio network features is measured by the quality that it can
provide. There are a great number of quality measures. In this document, the
quality measures are structured in the following categories.

9
Capacity
Quality in terms of traffic capacity, as measured in number of subscribers
per square kilometers.
9
Subscriber service quality:
Quality as perceived by the subscribers. Examples are call setup success
rate and number of dropped calls.
9
Network service quality:
Quality as perceived by the network operator. Examples are features that
can be used to simplify dimensioning of the radio resources, and features
that aid in operation and management of the radio network.

An additional category for basic functionality is also included.

9
Basic, indispensable features:
Idle mode behaviour, Locating and Channel administration
This way of dividing the radio network logic is one of many possible
categorisations. It is intended to give focus to the level of utilising a mobile
telephony system that subscribers and operators see.

In section 2, these four ways to utilise radio network logic will be described in
more detail, in terms of the radio network features themselves.

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Table 1 below lists all radio network features provided in the CME 20 mobile
telephony system, release R6. The main purpose or purposes behind the feature
according to the four categories above are indicated.

Table 1 Radio network features categorised

subscriber service quality

network service quality
basic indispensible
traffic capacity
Feature
Idle mode behaviour 9 9 9
Locating 9 9 9 9
Channel administration 9 9
MS power control 9 9 9
BTS power control 9
DTX uplink 9 9
DTX downlink 9
Frequency hopping 9 9
Intra-cell handover 9 9
Assignment to another cell 9 9 9
Overlaid/underlaid subcells 9 9
Hierarchical cell structures 9 9 9
Extended range cells 9
Immediate assignment on TCH 9 9
Double BA lists 9
Idle channel measurements 9 9
Cell load sharing 9 9
Multiband operation 9 9 9
Differential channel allocation 9

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2 Radio network logic

2.1 General
All operators have their own business strategies, based on the situation on the
market that they shall serve. One business strategy can be to serve as many
subscribers as possible in a small area, e.g. in a city centre. Another idea may
be to serve a limited number of subscribers, but provide them with an extensive
coverage, e.g. in rural areas. A third to provide a varied set of services,
including a variable degree of radio network service.

The CME 20 radio network logic is designed so as to provide tools and

possibilities to adapt to a large variety of operating conditions. The
possibilities are the radio network features, and the tools are the parameters
that govern them. The setting of these parameters will be very different for the
different strategies indicated above, as will the cell plan that underlies the
network. The adaption, i.e. the selection of features and adjustment of the
parameters that belong to the different features, must be an ongoing activity,
that can only be performed by those who know how that specific system is to
be used.

2.2 Basic, indispensable features

2.2.1 Idle mode behaviour

The idle mode behaviour is governed mainly by the GSM specifications 02.11,
03.03, 03.22 and 05.08. The tasks are varied, and can be summarised as
follows:
PLMN selection at power on in the mobile station,
cell selection at power on,
cell reselection,
location updating and similar activities,
paging.

The PLMN selection ensures that the mobile is served by a network that is
allowed to camp on. In case none such is available, it can still make emergency
calls.

The cell selection mechanism selects a cell at power on of the MS. The
selection aims at connecting the MS to the cell with the lowest path loss, the
nearest cell in some sense. This cell is then assigned as a serving in the event
of a mobile originated call, a paging or a location updating etc. from the
network.

Cell reselection is done with a multiple purpose. One is to reselect a potential

new serving cell if the MS moves away from the first one. The other purpose is
to be able to handle fast moving mobiles in a complicated network. This

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mechanism lets fast moving mobiles go past small cells (micro-cells) without
attempting to reselect these cells for a defined time interval. The idea is here to
provide an opportunity to build a network with mixed cell sizes, and still
achieve a high service quality to fast car-mounted mobiles as well as to slow
handhelds.

At location updating, the VLR updates its information regarding the location
area in which the mobile is situated. The purpose is to be ready for paging
when a paging request is issued (mobile terminated call). The mobile is paged
the first time in its current location area. If not found, global pagings are issued
according to a scheme that can be defined by the operator. In this way, the
mobile can be found reasonably quickly, while at the same time the signalling
load on the MSC and BSC is kept low.

2.2.2 Locating
Locating is the name for the counterpart to cell selection/reselection in the
active mode.

The central intelligence that administers the radio resources must first and fore-
most be able to determine to which radio base station a call shall be connected.
This intelligence locates the mobile continuously to a specific cell in the
network, and allows the network to allocate a radio channel in the proper base
station.

As the mobile is moving, the connection is redirected to the base station that is
best suited to handle the traffic in some sense. This is the Locating feature.
The Locating process is working continuously during a connection. The
implementation of this feature produces output in the form of a list containing
suggestions for handover in order of priority. The list is repeatedly updated and
taken care of by another function, channel allocation. The channel that is
allocated is finally submitted to the function that actually executes the
handover.

The input to Locating is a number of measurements performed by the mobile

and by the base station. The mobile measures
the signal strength from the cell currently serving the connection,
the quality (based on the bit error rate for the decoded digital signal) for the
signal from the cell currently serving the connection,
the signal strength from a number of neighbouring cells that the mobile can
hear.
The base station measures

the signal strength from the mobile station,

the quality from the mobile station,
the timing advance needed for the connection (and that is sent to the
mobile).

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2.2.3 Channel administration

When the proper base station has been determined, a radio channel must be
allocated. As soon as there is more than one type of radio resource, there must
be some intelligence that selects the proper one. Different situations have
different requirements, in a many-to-many relationship. This puts additional
requirements on the intelligence and complexity of the channel administration
feature.

The different types of radio resource can be classified by a number of

parameters. A combination of these parameters defines a specific type of
resource. The following list contains the different resource type parameters that
are handled in CME 20 R6 channel allocation:
procedure (handover/assignment/immediate assignment etc. according
to GSM),
usage (signalling or speech/data),
subcell (overlaid/underlaid),
rate (CME 20 R6.1).

The data that is needed to pinpoint a preferred specific resource type by these
parameters, arrives from two directions:
signalling procedure block (determines the procedure and usage),
Locating (determines subcell in the cell).

Further considerations in the channel allocation process are

if and how a channel is frequency hopping,
if the channel is on a BCCH carrier or not,
speech coder (CME 20 R6.1).

2.3 Features to increase traffic capacity

2.3.1 General comments

Capacity can be increased in many ways. The most straightforward method is
simply to make smaller cells. This is however not a cost effective method in all
cases. An operator will want to try all means possible to raise the capacity
without having to implement a great number of sites.

There is often a trade-off between capacity and speech quality. If features that
increase speech quality are introduced, a tighter cell planning can be implemen-
ted, with speech quality back to the original level.

In this section, the emphasis is on capacity, and how the features (also those
that in the direct application increase speech quality) can be utilised. An
assumption is that whenever there is a quest for high capacity, the system
planning will soon become interference limited. Therefore, the following
discussions are focused on C/I considerations.

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The features in the capacity category are divided into four groups.

Features that are aimed at maintaining an "maximised" C/I ratio geograph-

ically (see section 2.3.2). This group includes
Locating,
Assignment to another cell (assignment to better cell),
Overlaid/underlaid subcells.

Features that are aimed at minimising the amount of interference in the

network (see section 2.3.3). In this group we find
Locating,
Dynamic MS power control,
Dynamic BTS power control,
Uplink DTX,
Downlink DTX.

Features that are aimed at improving the radio environment by smoothing

out variations and making it predictable throughout the network (see section
2.3.4). This group consists of
Frequency hopping.

Features that give an increased capacity by utilising the radio resources in a

more efficient way (trunking gain, see section 2.3.5). This group consists of
Hierarchical cell structures,
Immediate assignment on TCH,
Cell load sharing,
Multiband operation.

2.3.2 Maximising C/I

Frequency utilisation and re-use distance

An efficient utilisation of the limited number of carrier frequencies in the radio

network involves a number of techniques. The basic technique is frequency re-
use, i.e. using the same carrier frequency at several base stations at a certain
distance from each other, the frequency re-use distance. The smaller the re-use
distance, the more efficiently the spectrum is utilised.

Some radio network features are explicitly aimed at providing a possibility to

decrease the frequency re-use distance. The physical limit is given by the
amount of interference from the connections using the same carrier frequency,
the co-channel interference. The useful signal will be distorted by too much co-
channel interference, and the connection can even be lost. One wants to achieve
two overall goals, that are of high importance in the cell planning:
to minimise the cell planning margins,
to minimise the amount of connections that have conditions worse than
acceptable.

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Thus the immediate purpose of many of the radio network features in this
category, is to maximise the carrier-to-interference power ratio (C/I ratio) for
every location and/or for every connection in the network. Three different
strategies for the maximisation can be used:
1. maximising the mean C/I ratio for every location in the network,
2. using a strategy where mean C/I is not maximised, but kept at a good
enough level, and
3. minimising the spread of C and C/I totally and statistically in the network by
using diversity techniques, e.g. frequency hopping.

C/I as a basis for handover borders

The first objective is to achieve a high enough C/I ratio for all connections
everywhere in the coverage area. What is then high enough? The digitalized
speech transmission is designed to withstand a C/I ratio of 9 dB before the
speech becomes noticeably deteriorated. However, a higher C/I ratio than that
will only give a marginally better speech quality.

The C/I ratio that the system planner considers, is always a type of worst
case interference. This is characterised by persistent interference at as close a
distance as the respective cell borders allow.

The C/I ratio for a connection is normally high close to a base station. It is in
areas far from the base station that low C/I ratios can be expected. The re-use
distance should be planned according to the minimum C/I ratio that can be
tolerated at the locations where handover is expected. In the CME systems, this
is 9 dB plus a cell planning margin due to e.g. variations in radio conditions
and uncertainties in the planning predictions. If the base station positions are
given, the frequency allocation (and thus the re-use distance) should be planned
so that the minimum C/I ratio is fulfilled along all (or almost all) handover
border segments.

One would want to base the handover on the average C/I ratio. The cell
providing the highest planned C/I ratio should be the cell to provide the radio
link to the connection. The handover borders would thus be equal to the lines
where the C/I obtained as a result of being connected to one cell is equal to the
C/I obtained as a result of being connected to the adjacent cell. Any deviation
of the handover border from this line, or any instance of a mobile making a
handover off this C/I handover border, will cause interference somewhere
else, thus decreasing the general C/I level in the network.

C as a basis for handover borders

In CME 20 Locating, handover is based on measurements of downlink signal

strength from serving cell and from a number of neighbouring cells. Handover
is performed on the criterion of equal signal strength from the neighbouring cell
and from the serving cell. Handover borders are thus obtained as lines or
curves where the signal strengths from two adjacent cells are equal. This can
be seen as an approximation of the C/I handover borders.

Since cells are usually of a very irregular shape, there will be a large statistical
spread in the network of the C/I ratio. If the re-use distance would be planned

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such that the locations or areas with the lowest C/I ratio were provided with a
satisfactory speech quality (i.e. C/I ratio), the major part of the network, and
even the major part of the handover border areas, would obtain a C/I ratio well
in excess of that necessary for satisfactory speech quality.

Now, what can be done to increase the C/I ratio at the cell borders, or rather,
what techniques can be used in order to ensure the actual C/I ratio at the hand-
over borders that was planned for?

Raising C locally helps the connections concerned, but that C constitutes I for
someone else. The C/I ratio for that connection will thus be spoiled. Raising C
everywhere does not help either. C and I will increase with the same factor,
leaving the C/I ratio unaffected.

A first step is to arrange the handover borders such that they approximate the
C/I handover borders mentioned above. The variation of C/I across a cell
depends more on C (serving cell signal strength) than on I. This is indicated in
figure 1, which shows schematically the variation of signal strength from four
bases. I is almost equal over the entire cell area around base 1, (in comparison
to C, which varies significantly). Thus, with a reasonably regular re-use pattern,
an average C/I handover border can be approximated with a C handover
border.

C variation

I variation

Base 22 Base1 Base 2 Base 11

(interferer to cell 2) (interferer to cell 1)
cell 1

Figure 1 Average carrier and interference strength variations

This approach amounts essentially to arranging handover borders so that the

received power at all mobiles and at all base stations everywhere in the
network is maximised. In other words, the average C/I ratio in the network as a
whole is maximised by attempting to maximise it for each single connection
separately.

Adjusting cell borders to maximise C

In CME 20 Locating, handover borders can be obtained by always assigning a

connection to the cell that provides the highest signal strength, i.e. the C

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handover borders. If the re-use pattern is very irregular, the C handover

border might be very far from the average C/I handover border. For such
situations, if detected, CME 20 Locating provides mechanisms to manually
move individual cell borders. If the locations of the equal C line and the equal
average C/I line are known from predictions or simulations, cell border sections
can be moved so that they coincide more closely.

At disturbances or other extraordinary events, Locating allows traffic to make a

handover to a cell that is not suitable from a C/I point of view. The idea is that
it might be better to maintain ongoing connections than to maximise the total
C/I distribution at any price. The price can however be set by adjusting how
far into the wrong cell a connection is allowed to be. In this way the
emphasis can be balanced between the two desired effects, C/I maximisation
and call continuity.

The cell selection/reselection in idle mode might give a result differing from
the one that the C/I maximising Locating evaluations would have done. In
CME 20, the Locating evaluations are started at an early stage in the call setup,
so that the cell providing a speech channel can be selected according to the C/I
maximising Locating evaluations. This functionality is part of the feature
Assignment to another cell, or, more specifically, assignment to better cell.

2.3.3 Minimising interference

General strategy

Another approach to raising the C/I ratio is to minimise I, the interference.

There are several possibilities available to minimise I. One type of approach is
to concentrate on the areas of low C/I, i.e. where C/I is critical to the air trans-
mission quality, and try to improve the situation where it is really needed.
Another is to try to limit the total amount of transmitted energy in the system.
A third is to limit the long term variations in interference as well as in received
signal strength, i.e. the statistical variance. Some of the most important inter-
ference reducing features in CME 20 combine these three types of strategy.

Power control

A connection to a mobile close to the base station has a C/I ratio in excess of
that necessary for a sufficient air transmission quality, see figure 1. If the out-
put power for that connection (uplink as well as downlink) could be decreased,
the received signal strength C would be decreased, and consequently also the
C/I ratio. This can be tolerated as long as there is a sufficient C/I margin to the
speech quality limit. However, since this connection now radiates less power
into the air, the interference for someone elsewhere in the network will be
lower.
If the same strategy can be adopted by all connections in the network, the total
amount of radiated power, and thus the total average interference will be
decreased. This fact can be used in the efforts to achieve the planning goals for
the C/I ratio. In a way, this can be seen as a Robin Hood strategy, where C/I is
taken from areas rich in C/I (close to the base station), and given to areas poor
in C/I (cell border areas).

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How then should the Robin Hood strategy be obtained? One way is to utilise
the approximation that the C/I ratio varies roughly as C across the cell area,
figure 1. If C can be kept constant for a connection irrespective of where in the
cell the mobile station is situated, the average C/I ratio will be kept roughly
constant, and can be planned to the lowest acceptable level. For this scheme to
be effective in a balanced network, it must be implemented in uplink as well as
downlink.

CME 20 R6 provides control of the transmitted power in the mobile station as

well as in the base station. The objective of the mobile power control algorithm
is twofold:

1. to adjust the output power so that the received signal strength C in the base
station is at a desired value, according to the strategy described above,

2. to power up the transmitter when poor radio conditions (bad quality) is

detected at the receiving end.

The same applies to the base station power control.

Overlaid/underlaid frequency plans

A different approach to distributing the average C/I ratio more evenly across
the cell area is to divide each cell into two subcells, an overlaid subcell and an
underlaid subcell. Each subcell network is then provided with its own
frequency plan. Furthermore, the overlaid subcells have their coverage
restricted. The idea can be conceived as follows:

Suppose the frequency re-use for a cell network has been planned too tightly,
i.e. the average C/I ratio that is obtained for connections to mobiles in the
vicinity of the cell borders, is found to be below the threshold for acceptable
speech quality. A simple and straightforward way to save the situation would
be to decrease the cell area, and limit it where the C/I ratio is at the threshold.
What will happen then with traffic in the areas outside the shrunk cells, in
between them? If the cells can be provided with an second, independent, set of
frequencies, planned more spaciously in terms of frequency re-use, these areas
can be covered in a way that the C/I requirements in the areas in between are
also met, and the situation is cleaned up again.

In practice, the planning of a cellular network might start with the more spa-
cious frequency planning, saving a number of frequencies for later. This is the
underlaid network. When capacity requirements increase, the remaining frequ-
encies are planned with the tighter re-use plan, and with the overlaid subcell
area limitations applied. This is the overlaid network. Figure 2 shows an
example of a few underlaid and overlaid subcells. Two frequencies, f o in the
overlaid subcell network and f u in the underlaid subcell network, are indicated.

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fu
fu fo

fo

fo

fo
fo

fo
fu

Figure 2 Overlaid and underlaid subcells

Power control within the subcells will provide an additional benefit. The power
control can be adjusted separately for the two subcells. Thereby the fraction of
the cell area that can be covered by the control can be increased, which adds to
the efficiency of the power control.

Discontinuous transmission

If nothing is said into the microphone, there is no point sending anything at all
in the air. Discontinuous transmission, DTX, means transmitting speech
information only when speech is detected. At silence, only a small amount of
control information is sent. DTX reduces the amount of energy emitted into the
air. Less radio power means less average interference. The received signal
strength will not be affected, since whenever something is sent, it is sent at the
proper power level. Thus the average C/I ratio will be raised when using DTX.

2.3.4 Smoothing variations

C distribution: frequency and space diversity

The system planning margins are usually set in relation to a worst case
behaviour. The C/I protection limit must be able to cope with rather extensive
C variations of different types, e.g. fast fading (multipath propagation) and
shadow fading. The variations that are a result of fast fading can be smoothed
out if the reception is arranged so that several channels or paths can be
received. If the propagation conditions are independent or almost independent
between the paths, there is a high probability that at least one of them gives a
high C. Methods of this type are called diversity reception. Since they deal
with C variations only, they are effective in noise limited environments as well
as in interference limited environments.

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Frequency hopping is a feature that provides frequency diversity. Frequency

diversity arrives from the fact that fast fading is frequency dependent. When
hopping between e.g. two frequencies, the fading dips will appear more
shallow, see figure 3:

received signal strength

distance

Figure 3 Multipath fading at two different frequencies and at frequency

hopping between the two frequencies.

Because of this, the perceived radio environment for a slowly moving mobile
will show less dramatic variations, and the cell planning margin that is added to
account for the deep fading dips, can be decreased. Expressed mathematically,
the variance of the probability density function for C will decrease.

A fast moving mobile obtains the diversity effect simply by moving. The
fading dips will have short duration, and the disturbance caused by them can be
taken care of by the error correction in the speech coding scheme. Frequency
diversity is effective in uplink as well as downlink.

A cell with two separate antennas for reception provides space diversity.
Space diversity occurs because multipath fading is often different, and
independent at two antenna locations at a certain distance from each other. If
the two antennas are provided with separate receivers, the two (independent)
signals can be combined according to a scheme that accomplishes improved
performance. The effect is very similar to frequency diversity. The result is
that frequency diversity and space diversity can cover up for one another, i.e.
when one does not work, the other may well do. This type of space diversity is
only effective in the uplink.

I distribution: interference averaging

The worst case considerations regard interference as well as signal strength.

The C/I protection limit must be able to cope with a situation where the
interfering and the interfered connections are as close to each other as the cell
borders allow. An average DTX factor of 50% can not be taken advantage of
directly in considering C/I maximising, since the worst case is that the
interference is persistent during several seconds. Unfortunately, the rare worst
case examples are such that the theoretical benefits from power control and
DTX can not be taken advantage of. The following two examples will illustrate
this.

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1. Suppose that DTX is enabled for a connection. In general, co-channel

interference to this connection will come from someone that talks with a
duration of 1.5 to 2 seconds or more at a time. This is too long time for the
interleaving process to spread out the interference so that the error
correction in the speech coding scheme can work. As a consequence, cell
planning has actually to be performed as if DTX is not enabled.

2. The same type of argument applies to power control. An average interferer

transmits for a time period that is too long for the decoding process. Thus
the worst case interference must always be planned for, rather than the
statistically averaged interference. And this worst case can actually be
worse than without power control when the interferer transmits at full power
and the interfered connection transmits at minimum power.

Frequency hopping offers a method to break the endurance of the co-channel

interference mentioned in the two examples, by an effect that can be called
interference diversity, or interference averaging. For each burst, the transmis-
sion and reception changes frequency. If a co-channel interferer changes freq-
uency in a manner independent of that in the interfered connection, the inter-
ference is cut into single bursts, and thereby spread out more evenly among all
active connections in the network. In this way, the error correction in the speech
coding scheme is able to restore the signal. Thus, again, a Robin Hood strategy
is employed, this time in order to take average C/I from the rich and give it to
the poor.

As a consequence of the breaking of enduring co-channel interference, the C/I

benefit predicted for power control and DTX can really be utilised.

The total interference in the network, in terms of total emitted radio energy,
does not change with frequency hopping. But as the statistical spread of mean
C/I ratio that cell planning has to take into consideration is reduced, the cell
planning margin can be reduced with the same amount.

2.3.5 Trunking efficiency

When planning the capacity of a network, the grade of service determines the
maximum load in each cell. However, in reality, the load in different cells are
always different at any given point in time. Thus a situation often arises where
one cell is heavily congested while its neighbour yields the planned grade of
service or more. The features Assignment to another cell and Cell load sharing
detect such situations, and transfer some traffic from the heavily loaded cell to
the less loaded cell by network initiated handover. The result is that the cell
can be designed for a higher level of traffic, for the same grade of service.

The same type considerations apply to the dimensioning of SDCCH channels

within a cell. If the SDCCHs are congested temporarily, the excess signalling
traffic is carried by TCHs by Immediate assignment on TCH. The result is that
the total signalling capacity is increased, at little expense of TCH capacity.

In a hierarchical network characterised e.g. by a layer of big umbrella cells

covering a great number of small street-cells (micro-cells), the traffic tends to
be picked up by the high-powered umbrella cells. Thereby the street-cells do

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not carry the amount of traffic they have been designed for. This is an
inefficient utilisation of the system resources. The feature Hierarchical cell
structures provides a mechanism to direct the traffic to the lower layer, where
the great traffic capacity is to be found. Thus the radio resources are utilised in
a more efficient manner, with a capacity gain as a result.

Multiband operation allows to combine GSM900 and DCS1800 networks to

one single network. With the provision of dual-band mobiles, handover
between the two frequency bands is possible. The subscriber will not know that
the network is actually composed of two.

2.4 Features to increase subscriber service quality

2.4.1 General comments

This section covers radio network features that can be used to increase the
service quality from the more limited point of view of a subscriber using a
mobile station. A large number of radio network features within CME 20 R6
can be used to improve the speech quality and connection stability. The
features can be divided into three groups:

Features that increase air transmission quality and reliability (higher speech
quality and/or more reliable and efficient data transmission, fast response
times, see section 2.4.2). This group contains the features:
Idle mode behaviour,
Locating,
Frequency hopping,
Intra-cell handover,
Assignment to another cell,
Hierarchical cell structures,
Double BA lists,
Idle channel measurements.

Features to increase the battery lifetime of the mobile station (see

section 2.4.3). These features are:
Dynamic MS power control,
Uplink DTX.

Features to increase the availability of the network (see section 2.4.4):

Assignment to another cell (assignment to worse cell),
Immediate assignment on TCH,
Extended range,
Multiband operation,
Differential channel allocation.

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2.4.2 Air transmission quality

One of the main tasks of the Idle mode behaviour is as to provide a safe and
fast call setup to the best server.
CME 20 R6 Locating contains two features that aim at providing a stable
connection at a high quality:
handover at bad quality,
handover at excessive timing advance.

Speech quality, measured as bit error rate (BER), is supervised continuously

for the uplink and the downlink radio connection. If poor speech quality is
detected (too high BER), handover is performed to another cell. This cell will
not be the most suitable one from the overall C/I point of view. In effect, this
feature may destroy the cell borders that might have been established in order
to maximise C/I, see section 2.3.2.

The timing advance for the uplink radio connection is also monitored contin-
uously. If out of bounds, handover can be performed. This feature is primarily
intended to be used in large cells with very low attenuation of the signals, e.g.
across lakes or in maritime environments, in order to obtain an outer soft limit
to the cell. In such cases, the C/I spoiling effect would be of limited
importance.

An alternative way to take care of bad quality (high BER), especially in conn-
ection with high signal strength, is to switch channel within the cell or subcell,
i.e. to initiate an intra-cell handover. The presumption is that the cell/subcell is
good enough for the connection, and that the interference that causes high BER
is due to temporary variations. In such a case, a channel change might improve
the speech quality.

The speed and reliability of a call setup increases if there is a wider choice of
cells to which to direct the connection. The idle mode cell selection makes one
choice, but Assignment to another cell supplements this first-hand choice with
alternatives, in case a more favourable cell is detected (assignment to better
cell) or in case of congestion (assignment to worse cell, see below).

A system utilising frequency hopping provides connections that are subjected

to less variations in the air transmission quality after the decoding process. The
effects at work in this case are frequency diversity and interference averaging,
see sections 2.3.3 and 2.3.4. Thus the connections will be more stable and
more reliable.

Hierarchical cell structures can increase the service quality by providing a

refuge for connections subjected to bad radio conditions. The probability to
retain the connection increases, and thus the reliability.

Idle channel measurements allows to allocate a channel with a low measured

interference. This leads to an improvement in the speech quality.

With double BA lists, one BA list can be used for the idle mode and another
for the active mode. In the idle mode, the list can be long. At power on of the
mobile, this increases the probability to find the network during the first search.
Otherwise, the entire band has to be searched, which takes longer time.

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2.4.3 Battery lifetime

Dynamic MS power control and uplink DTX are two features that will reduce
the battery power consumption in the mobile station, and consequently increase
the time between recharging.

2.4.4 Availability
With Assignment to another cell, a call setup can be completed even if TCH
resources in a cell are congested. Immediate assignment on TCH offers the
same type of benefit with regard to congested SDCCH resources. This
improves the availability.

Extended range cells is a feature that will allow a wider coverage. Extended
range cells can be used to increase the coverage from 35 km to approximately
72 km (if the radio propagation allows it). Since two time-slots are used for
each connection instead of one, the capacity of an extended range cell is much
lower than that of a normal cell.

From a subscribers point of view, Multiband operation increases the

availability since the subscriber now has access to two networks instead of
one. This presupposes that dual-band terminals are available.

Differential channel allocation elaborates the management of the radio

resources. It allows to define subscriber categories and to give these categories
a differentiated service concerning access to the radio resources.

2.5 Features to increase network service quality

2.5.1 Overview
A network operator wants his customers, the subscribers, to be satisfied.
Pricing, services and availability are his main weapons in the competition for
subscribers. This section describes radio network features that can be used to
maintain and increase the network service quality, in terms of reliability and
availability in a broad sense.

The operator must have possibilities to maintain the network and to get the
maximum return from the investment. A failed call setup is a missed revenue
opportunity. Congestion in one place, while radio resources are idle someplace
else, is mismanagement. Radio resources must be distributed to where they are
needed in order to raise the service level that the network can offer.

Within this category, four groups can be distinguished.

Features that are used to manage base station resources (radio channels) in
an efficient manner (see section 2.5.2). This group includes:
Channel administration.

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Features that are used to increase the utilisation of the radio resources in the
radio network (which is manifested as increased availibility for the
subscriber, see section 2.5.3). This group includes:
Dynamic MS power control,
Assignment to another cell (assignment to worse cell),
Hierarchical cell structures,
Immediate assignment on TCH,
Cell load sharing.

Features that can be used to ease the load on the switches (see
section 2.5.4). This group includes:
Idle mode behaviour,
Locating,
Overlaid/underlaid subcells,
Intra-cell handover.

Features that can be used to simplify network management and

dimensioning (see section 2.5.5). This group includes:
Assignment to another cell,
Overlaid/underlaid subcells,
Immediate assignment to TCH,
Idle channel measurements,
Cell load sharing.

The features that are seen as tools for managing network service quality, can
not be used in an isolated manner. When using some of them, properties that
are important for other aspects of the system may be influenced.

2.5.2 Resource management

The main purpose of the intelligence in the channel allocation feature is to allo-
cate the proper radio resources whenever a connection is set up and when the
radio channel must be changed for some reason. The allocation must select
radio resources in a way that matches the needs, and that utilises the hardware
in an efficient manner.

When the GSM systems mature, there will be a large number of options avail-
able for those that purchase a mobile station. There may be options for mobiles
with or without SMS capability; mobiles capable of different rate vocoders
(full-rate, half-rate and enhanced full-rate) in all kinds of combinations; there
may be a variety of multi-band and multi-mode mobiles; mobiles may be
designed for certain classes of service, mobile equipment for data traffic only,
etc. The different types of mobile will only be able to use a subset of the
channel resource types available to the system. Therefore, the channel
allocation must be able to recognise the mobile station type, by information
elements arriving in signals from the mobile station, and deduce correctly
which channel resource types this mobile station can use, and which it prefers.

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Furthermore, from the network vantage point, different situations require dif-
ferent channel resources. Signalling requires a certain set of channel type re-
sources with a certain priority, speech requires another, emergency calls a
third, etc. The situation must be recognised by the type of signals arriving from
the mobile station and/or the network.

Different types of subcell (overlaid and underlaid) will consist of dedicated

sets of channels. Depending on which subcell is preferred, an appropriate
channel must be allocated. In this case, Locating, or logic in conjunction with
Locating, determines the preference to be used at the channel allocation.

2.5.3 Resource utilisation

In case of congestion in the cell selected for a speech channel at call setup, a
different cell (i.e. not the desired one from a signal strength or C/I point of
view) can be selected. In other systems, this functionality is known by the name
directed retry. In CME 20 R6, neither directing nor retry is required,
since all information needed is provided by Locating. The CME 20 R6 feature
is called Assignment to another cell, or, more specifically, assignment to
worse cell. It increases the utilisation of the radio resources and thereby the
availability of the system., by making a larger number of speech/data channels
available at call setup. The result is a lower risk of call congestion at call
setup.

Immediate assignment on TCH and Cell load sharing increases the utilisation of
the radio resources in the same manner as Assignment to another cell, i.e. by
making a larger number of channels available to the system.

The Hierarchical cell structures feature has been introduced to add flexibility
to network building. A higher layer cell (low priority cell, umbrella cell), is
a designated cell that can be utilised in a number of ways. It can be used to
increase the network service quality by bridging coverage gaps, by providing
spare capacity (congestion cases), etc. The main idea is to provide extra
resources that are used rarely, in a way that they can be shared over a large
area of cells in a lower layer (higher priority cells, micro cells), see
figure 4. The alternative would be to provide extra resources locally in each of
the lower layer cells, resources that would be idle most of the time. In addition,
one or a few isolated lower layer cells in a regular network can be used to add
capacity locally in a busy business district, a shopping mall, an airport etc.
without a need for replanning the entire network.

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Figure 4 Hierarchical cell network

The Hierarchical cell structures feature provides a systematic way of passing

between the different layers. The main criterion for going up or down between
layers is a signal strength threshold.

The base station receiver has a limited dynamic range. This may cause
problems when mobile stations are very close to a base station. In these cases,
the base station receiver can become saturated. The sensitivity of the receiver
will decrease and the speech quality can become very poor. In some extreme
situations, all timeslots on the frequency may become affected. To avoid this,
down regulation of the mobile station power is preferrable. The mobile station
output power is decreased as the power received from it in the base station
increases, i.e. when the mobile approaches the base station.

2.5.4 Load on the switches

A high load in the network means a high load on the processors in the base
station and the BSC. Most of the tasks performed cause a load that is the same
for each connection. Each connection requires one set of signalling procedures
for call setup and call release, it occupies one signalling channel for call setup
and one traffic channel for speech/data, the ongoing Locating supervision
causes a constant load for each connection, etc. The only thing that can vary
significantly between connections of the same type, is the number of
handovers. The total load caused by handovers has in principle no limit.

According to the CME 20 R6 Locating feature, handover shall occur when the
signal strength received from a neighbouring cell becomes stronger than that
from the cell currently serving the connection. However, variations in pro-
pagation conditions, reception conditions, receiver characteristics and sto-
chastic variations, makes the point of equal signal strength between two cells
rather diffuse. Consequently, a great number of unnecessary handovers may be

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performed before it is settled with any confidence which of the two cells
provide the strongest signal.

The hysteresis in CME 20 R6 Locating can be used to control the load caused
by handovers. The wider the corridor, the lower the number of handovers, and
the lower the extra load caused by unnecessary handovers. The same
considerations apply for the hystereses associated with Overlaid/underlaid
subcells and Hierarchical cell structures. The feature Intra-cell handover can
also contribute to the BSC load if the threshold for an intra-cell handover is
low. The trade-off in all these cases is between BSC load and the air
transmission quality and stability.

Cell load sharing will also contribute to the BSC load. The trade-off in this
case is between BSC load and radio network capacity.

The paging strategy affects to a great extent the load on the switches. Large
location areas leads to high paging load in the first page, and, hopefully, less
load due to a second page. A suitable location area size, with respect to paging
load, will be determined by the mobility of the average subscriber relative to
the size of the network.

2.5.5 Management and dimensioning

The two features Assignment to another cell and Cell load sharing can direct
traffic to another cell in case of congestion. In this way they make dimensioning
of the radio resources in the cells less critical. This can be taken advantage of
in either of two ways: to allow a less accurate dimensioning of the hardware in
the base stations, or as a capacity increase. The same considerations apply for
Immediate assignment on TCH, concerning SDCCH dimensioning within a cell.

A single overlaid subcell can be used to increase capacity very locally, and
with a restricted area. This possibility aids in the dimensioning and frequency
planning of the network is simplified.

The statistics that can be obtained by Idle channel measurements can be used
to detect weak spots in the frequency plan. This facilitates tuning or replanning
of the system.

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