LOW ERAB DROP RATE

DUE TO CAUSE CODE MISMACTH FROM

Huawei MME

STC KSA
Problem description
› Observation shows that in STC network under Huawei MME there is negligible
drops to due to MME initiated abnormal releases
› Investigation done to catch problematic scenario which Huawei MME
considering it as “NORMAL RELEASE”

Commercial in confidence | 2015-02-16 | Page 2

Problematic scenario under Huawei MME

Commercial in confidence | 2015-02-16 | Page 3

Problematic scenario under Huawei MME
› 1 - UE is connected to S-eNB and has active UE_context
› 2 - Due to problem in radio, UE will initiate RRC-Connection-reestablishment-
request with T-eNB
› 3 - If T-eNB would reject the RRC-Connection-reestablishment-request, the
UE will initiate new radio connection with T-eNB
› 4 - UE sends Initial_UE_message to the MME through T-eNB
› 5 - Huawei MME would find this UE already has active UE-Context, so will
send UE_context_release_command with “normal release’ to S-eNB
› 6 - As S-eNB received normal release indication from MME, this release will
NOT be counted as drop.

Commercial in confidence | 2015-02-16 | Page 4

Ericsson MME SCENARIO
› The same scenario under Ericsson MME is considered as drop as Ericsson
MME is sending release command to S-eNB with cause: release-due-to-
eutran-generated-reason and considered as drop call/session in S-eNB.

› The MME send this cause because it didn’t received path-switch-request from
T-eNB or S1-handover request from S-eNB. What MME received is an
INITIAL_UE_MESSAGE for a UE already having context established with
another eNB. So from the MME point of view, the context established via old
eNB(S-eNB) is broken and has to be released. So MME used an appropriate
cause value from “Radio Network Layer Cause” group specified in 3gpp
specification.

Commercial in confidence | 2015-02-16 | Page 5

 drop-call call flow>> Ericsson MME
› LN100011, Cell /2 PCI=448, Cell /3 PCI=447, UE call flow as follows.
› 1. UE with TMSI E0D72746 set up a call from cell /2 (PCI=448)
2. UE experienced poor RF radio link failure and triggered RRC Connection reestablishment. But it sent request to cell /3, instead of cell /2
3. Cell /3 rejected the request because feature multi-target RRC reestablishment is disabled
4. UE did RRC via cell /3
5. MME detected same TMSI with duplicate context and initiated UE context release to Cell /2
Same TMSI
› In Cell /2
› [09:01:37.996] /2 |<====| | | 181624962 (RRC) rrcConnectionSetup srbId:1 logChGr:0 txMode:3(OL-MIMO)
› [09:01:38.030] /2 |====>| | | 181624962 (RRC) rrcConnectionSetupComplete selPlmnId:1
› [09:01:38.030] /2 | |===========>| 181624962 (S1AP) InitialUEMessage enbUeS1Id:2817 plmnId:46601 tac:19132 plmnId:46601 cellId:25602837(100011.21) tmsi:E0D72746
› [09:01:38.030] /2 |=================>| 181624962 (NAS) serviceRequest
› ……
› [09:01:38.125] /2 | |===========>| 181624962 (S1AP) InitialContextSetupResponse enbUeS1Id:2817 eRabId:5 trAddr:10.42.102.1 gtpTeId:45B62215
› [09:01:53.620] /2 | |<===========| 181624962 (S1AP) UEContextReleaseCommand mmeUeS1Id:46977790 cause:radioNetwork:release-due-to-eutran-generated-reason
› [09:01:53.620] /2 | |===========>| 181624962 (S1AP) UEContextReleaseComplete enbUeS1Id:2817
›

› In Cell /3 Wrong cell to send RRC Reestablishment

› [09:01:53.381] |====>| | | (RRC) rrcConnectionReestablishmentRequest rnti:23453 phCellId:448 eCause:otherFailure
› [09:01:53.382] |<====| | | (RRC) rrcConnectionReestablishmentReject
›
› [09:01:53.578] /3 |<====| | | 265003313 (RRC) rrcConnectionSetup srbId:1 logChGr:0 txMode:3(OL-MIMO)
› [09:01:53.604] /3 |====>| | | 265003313 (RRC) rrcConnectionSetupComplete selPlmnId:1
› [09:01:53.605] /3 | |===========>| 265003313 (S1AP) InitialUEMessage enbUeS1Id:2877 plmnId:46601 tac:19132 plmnId:46601 cellId:25602847(100011.31) tmsi:E0D72746
› [09:01:53.605] /3 |=================>| 265003313 (NAS) serviceRequest
› [09:01:53.620] /3 | |<===========| 265003313 (S1AP) InitialContextSetupRequest enbUeS1Id:2877 agMbrDl:150.00Mbps agMbrUl:75.00Mbps eRabId:5 qci:7
› ….
› …. MME detected same TMSI
› [09:01:53.685] /3 | |===========>| 265003313 (S1AP) InitialContextSetupResponse enbUeS1Id:2877 eRabId:5 trAddr:10.42.102.1 gtpTeId:23238BAF
with duplicate UE context
and initiate UE context
Commercial in confidence | 2015-02-16 | Page 6 release command to cell /2
Expected impact on ERAB DCR
› If eNB will receive ERAB release with cause: release-due-to-eutran-generated-
reason initiated by MME while there is data on eNB/UE buffer, eNB will
consider this a drop and ERAB DCR will be increased “real reflection for
customer experience”

Commercial in confidence | 2015-02-16 | Page 7

Final verdict

› The cause code sent by Ericsson MME is more suitable and matching the radio
link failure scenario observed in the network.
› Where as the one used by Huawei MME gives false interpretation that
everything is fine in network while actually it is NOT.

Commercial in confidence | 2015-02-16 | Page 8