Location Area Planning

www.huaei.com

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Definition of Location Area

• GSM mobile communication network is divided into

multiple service areas according to the codes of location
areas.

• Location area is the basic unit of paging areas in GSM

system. The paging message of a subscriber is sent in all cells
of a location area.
• A location area contains one or more BSCs, but it belongs to one
MSC only.

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2ved.

1
Definition of Location Area

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3ved.

Location Area Code˄LAC˅

• Definition
□ To locate the location of MS, the whole area covered by each
GSM PLMN is divided into different location areas. LAC is used
to identify different location areas.

• Format
□ LAI contains LAC, which is composed of two bytes. LAC
adopts hexadecimal coding. The available range is from 0001H
to FFFEH. The code 0000H and FFFFH cannot be used
(please refer to specification GSM0303, 0408, and 1111). One
location area can contain one or more cells.

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger4ved.

2
Location Update

• Purpose of location update:

□ To inform the system the LA in which the MS is to
facilitate paging

• When need the MS perform location update ˛

□ Getting into a new LA
□ Periodical location update

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger5ved.

Size of location areas

• The size of a location area, plays a key role in a GSM system.
• If the size of location area is too big, the paging traffic will be higher,
perhaps PCH will be congestion.
• If the size of location area is too small, the MS will occur more
location update process. The signaling traffic is higher, SDCCH
channel perhaps be congestion.

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger6ved.

3
Paging VS Location update Traffic
signaling
traffic

Paging Location update

optimum number # of cells

in Loc. area of cells in Loc. area

minimize signaling traffic

optimum varies with network evolution

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger7ved.

Division of location areas

• If two or more location areas are present in a big city of great
traffic, the landforms, such as mountains and rivers within this city
can be used as edges of the location areas.

• If no such landforms available within this city, the areas

(such as streets and shopping centers) with great traffic cannot
be used as edges of the location areas.

• In the intersected areas of urban areas and suburban

areas, to avoid frequent location update, should design the
edges of location areas near the outer base stations.

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger8ved.

4
Location Area Design For Dual-band
• If 1800 MHz cells and 900 MHz cells are under the control of two
MSCs respectively, their location areas are different.
• Related parameters should be set to maintain the mobile stations
stay in the 1800 MHz cells where the traffic is absorbed. In this
case, the times for the mobile station to handover between the two
bands and reselect cells will decrease.
• Designing signaling channels, fully consider the load resulted from
location update.

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger9ved.

Location Area Design For Dual-band

• If 1800 MHz cells and 900 MHz cells share a MSC, at the early
network construction stage, they are suggested to use the same
location area without affecting the network capacity.
• If the restriction on paging capacity is present, two location areas
must be divided for them either in terms of band or geographic
location, as shown in Figure .

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger1v0ed.

5
Location Area Design For Dual-band

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger1v1ed.

Location Area Design For Dual-band

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger1v2ed.

6
Location Area Design For Dual-band
• If the location is divided in terms of geographic location, the
frequent location updates resulted from inter-band handover and
cell reselection can be avoided.
• However, need to modify the related data of the original 900 MHz
network. In addition, at the edges of the location areas, because
the location updates caused by intra-band and inter-band
handover and cell reselection is present simultaneously, the
signaling flow is huge at these edges. As a result, carefully design
the edges of the location areas.

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger1v3ed.

Physical Combination of Logical Channel

26-frame multi-frame
TCH/F+SACCH/F (full-rate TCH)
TCH/H+SACCH/H (half-rate TCH)

51-frames multi-frame
FCCH+SCH+BCCH+CCCH (main BCCH)
FCCH+SCH+BCCH+CCCH+SDCCH/4+SACCH/4 (combined BCCH)
BCCH+CCCH (extended BCCH)
SDCCH/8+SACCH/8 (main SDCCH)

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All

rights rPeasger1v4ed.

7
 Structure of Main BCCH
1 multi-frame (51TDMA Frames) 235.38ms Downlink
Group3,4
(same
Group Group1 Group2 Grpup5
as
Group2)

Channel F S BX4 CX4 F S CX4 CX4 …… F S CX4 CX4 I

Frame
0 1 2-5 6-9 10 11 12-15 16-19 20-39 40 41 42-45 46-49 50
Number

1 multi-frame (51TDMA Frames) 235.38ms Uplink

Channel R R R R R R R R R R R R R R……R R R R R

Frame
Number 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13-46 47 48 49 50

F:FCCH; S:SCH; B:BCCH; C:CCCH; I:IDLE; R:RACH

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger1v5ed.

Structure of Combined BCCH

1 multi-frame (51TDMA Frames) 235.38ms Downlink

Group Group1 Group2 Group3 Group4 Grpup5

B C C C D0 D1 D2 D3 A0 A1
Channel F S F S F S F S F S I
×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4

B C C C D0 D1 D2 D3 A2 A3
Channel F S F S F S F S F S I
×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4

Frame 12- 16- 22- 26- 32- 36- 42- 46-

Number 0 1 2-5 6-9 10 11 20 21 30 31 40 41 50
15 19 25 29 35 39 45 49

1 multi-frame (51TDMA Frames) 235.38ms Uplink

Channel D3×4
R R A2×4 A3×4
R……R D0 ×4 D1×4
R R D2×4

Channel D0×4
R R A0×4 A1×4
R……R D0 ×4 D1×4
R R D2×4
Frame 0-3 4 5 6-9 10-13 14-36 37-40 41-44 45 46 47-50
Number

F:FCCH; S:SCH; B:BCCH; C:CCCH; D:SDCCH ;A:SACCH; I:IDLE; R:RACH

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger1v6ed.

8
 Structure of Logical Channel
Combination Frame-Main SDCCH
1 multi-frame (51TDMA Frames) 235.38ms Downlink

D0× D1× D2× D3× D4× D5× D6× D7× A0× A1× A2× A3×
Channel I I I
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

D0× D1× D2× D3× D4× D5× D6× D7× A4× A5× A6× A7×
Channel I I I
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

Frame 12- 16- 20- 24- 28- 32- 36- 40- 44-
Number 0-3 4-7 8-11 48 49 50
15 19 23 27 31 35 39 43 47

1 multi-frame (51TDMA Frames) 235.38ms Uplink

A5 A6× A7× D0 D1 D2× D3 D4× D5× D6× D7× A0×
Channel I I I
×4 4 4 ×4 ×4 4 ×4 4 4 4 4 4
A1 A2× A3× D0 D1 D2× D3 D4× D5× D6× D7× A4×
Channel I I I
×4 4 4 ×4 ×4 4 ×4 4 4 4 4 4
Frame 15- 19- 23- 27- 31- 35- 39- 43- 47-
0-3 4-7 8-11 12 13 14
Number 18 22 26 30 34 38 42 46 50

D:SDCCH; A:SACCH; I:IDLE

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger1v7ed.

ATT
• Value range: Yes, No
• Content˖It is used to inform MS whether IMSI attach-detach is
allowed in this cell. If it is set to “Yes”, the network will not
process the connection to the called mobile subscriber when MS
is power-off. Thus network processing time and radio resources
are saved. Otherwise the network will process the connection
even though the MS has been powered off.
• Recommendation˖Yes

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger1v8ed.

9
CCCH_CONF
• Value range: 1 Non-Compounding CCCH, 1 Compounding CCCH, 2
Non-Compounding CCCHs, 3 Non-compounding CCCHs, 4 Non-
compounding CCCHs.
• Content: It is “Common Control Channel Configuration”. CCCH
configuration determines the capacity of PCH, AGCH and RACH. This
parameter can be automatically configured by the BSC Data Auto
Configuration System according to the TRX channel configuration.
• Recommendation: When there is one TRX in the cell, one combined
CCCH is recommended (in a system with few paging messages in
location area). For others, it is configured according to the number of
TRX in the cell.

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger1v9ed.

BS_AG_BLKS_RES
• Value range: 0~2 (1 combined CCCH), 0~7 (others)
• Unit: Block
• Content: It is also called Access Granted Blocks Reserved. It is
the number of CCCH channel message blocks that are reserved
in one multi-frame for access granted channels (AGCH).
• Recommendation: 2 (non-combined CCCH)

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v0ed.

10
 BS_PA_MFRAMES
• Value range: 2̚9
• Unit: Multi-frame period (51 frames)
• Content: It is Paging Channel Multi-frames. It defines the
number of multi-frames used as a cycle of paging sub-
channels.
• Recommendation: 2

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v1ed.

T3212
• Value range: 0~255
• Unit: 6 minutes
• Content: It is the Periodic Location Update Timer. It defines the
interval of periodic location update.
• Recommendation: 30 (for urban area), 20 (for suburban area)

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v2ed.

11
CRH
• Value Range: 0~14, the step size is 2dB
• Unit: dB
• Default Value: 6
• Description: Cell Reselection Hysteresis. It is the parameter used
when cell reselection happens between two location areas.
• Location: Cell Attributes/Idle Mode/Basic Idle Parameters

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v3ed.

TCH Immediate Assignment

• Value Range: Yes, No
• Default Value : No
• Description: Option "Yes" means that TCH channel can be
immediately assigned as signaling and traffic channel when
SDCCH has no available resource. The option "No" means that
only SDCCH can be assigned.
• Location: Cell Attributes

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v4ed.

12
 Calculating For Location Area
• Generally, the capacity of a location area is calculated as
follows:

The number of paging blocks sent in each second × the

number of paging messages sent in each paging block =
the maximum paging times in each second.

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v5ed.

Calculating For Location Area

The number of paging blocks sent in each second

1 frame = 4.61ms,

1 multiframe = 51 frames = 0.2354s;

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v6ed.

13
 Calculating non combined For
Location Area
• suppose the number of access grant blocks is AGB, the number of
blocks, the number of paging blocks sent in each second is
calculated by the following formulas:
□ For non-combined BCCH, the number of paging blocks sent in
each second = (9 – AGB)/0.2345 (paging block/second).
□ For non-combined BCCH, the AGB is 2 according to Huawei BSC.
Therefore, the number of paging blocks sent in each second is 29.7
(paging block/second).

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v7ed.

Calculating combined For

Location Area
• suppose the number of access grant blocks is AGB, the number of
blocks, the number of paging blocks sent in each second is
calculated by the following formulas:
□ For combined BCCH, the number of paging blocks sent in each
second = (3 – AGB)/0.2345 (paging block/second).
□ For combined-BCCH, the AGB is 1, so the number of paging blocks
sent in each second is 8.5 (paging blocks/second).

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v8ed.

14
Calculating For Location Area
• The number of paging messages sent in each paging block
(X)
□ According to protocols, each paging block has 23 bytes, and
can send 2 IMSI pages, or 2 TMSI and 1 IMSI pages, or 4
TMSI pages.
□ According to the paging strategies of Huawei MSC, if the IMSI
paging mechanism is adopted, the number of paging messages
sent in each paging blocks is 2 (paging times/paging block); if
the TMSI paging mechanism is adopted, it is 4 (paging
times/paging block)

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger2v9ed.

Calculating For Location Area

• If the IMSI paging mechanism is adopted, for non-combined
BCCH
when AGB = 2, P = 59.47 (paging times/second);
• For combined-BCCH
when AGB = 1, P = 16.99 (paging times/second);

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3v0ed.

15
Calculating For Location Area
• If the TMSI paging mechanism is adopted, for non-combined
BCCH,
when AGB = 2, P = 118.95 (paging times/second);
• For combined BCCH,
when AGB = 1, P = 33.98 (paging times/second);

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3v1ed.

Calculating For Location Area

• Paging Capability (Hour)= [(CCCH CONF-BS AG BLKS
RES)×Paging Strategy×3600] / [51×TDMA period
×(1+Sencond Paging Ratio)]

• Paging Strategy: IMSI paging or TMSI paging

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3v2ed.

16
Calculating For Location Area
• LAC Capability (ERL)= [(CCCH CONF-BS AG BLKS
RES)×Paging Strategy× Average Holding Time ×Average
Paging Load at BTS ] / [51×TDMA period×(1+Sencond
Paging Ratio) × MTC Ratio]

• Paging Strategy: IMSI paging or TMSI paging

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3v3ed.

Calculating For Location Area

• LAC Capability (TRX)= LAC Capability (ERL) / Average
Traffic Volume per TRX × (1+TCHH Ratio) ]

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3v4ed.

17
Calculating For Location Area
CCCH CONF Main BCCH

BS AG BLKS RES 5

Sencond Paging Ratio 15%

Paging Strategy TMSI

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3v5ed.

Calculating For Location Area

CCCH CONF 9
BS AG BLKS RES 2
BS PA MFRMS 2
Sencond Paging Ratio 15%
MTC Ratio 50%
Average Paging Load at BTS 50%
TCHH Ratio 70%
Average Holding Time 58
Paging Strategy TMSI
Average Traffic Volume per TRX 4.8

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3v6ed.

18
Calculating For Location Area

[(9 - 2)  2 4 3600]
Paging Capability (Hour)  51 0.00461 2  1  372813
0.15

[(9 - 2)  4  58] 0.5

LAC Capability (ERL)  51 0.00461 1 0.15  6006
0.5

LAC Capability (TRX)= 6006 / 4.8 × (1+ 0.7) ] =736

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3v7ed.

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights rPeasger3v8ed.

19
Thank you
www.huawei.com

20