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E User Description 1 (10)

Uppgjord — Prepared Datum — Date Rev Dokumentnr — Document no

KI/ERA/LVR/DT Erik de Pomian 850 42873 1999-02-11 C 17/1553-HSC 103 12 Uen

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ERA/LVR/DT (OLA SVENSSON)

User Description, Cell Load Sharing

Copyright

Contents Page

1 Feature overview 2
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 Background 2
1.3 What can be achieved 2

2 Technical description 2
2.1 Algorithm 2
2.2 Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R7/BSS R7.0 6
2.3 Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R7/BSS R7.1 6

3 Engineering guidelines 6
3.1 General considerations 6
3.2 Parameter setting 7
3.3 Influence from E- and R-GSM bands 9

4 Parameters 9
4.1 Main controlling parameters 9
4.2 Additional parameters 9
4.3 Value ranges and default values 10

5 References 10

SEIF v1.2,
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1 Feature overview

1.1 Introduction

The purpose of the Cell Load Sharing feature is to distribute some of

a cells traffic load to surrounding cells during peaks in traffic. This is
achieved by moving established connections to neighbouring cells
that have idle resources.

The logic of the Cell Load Sharing feature is an integrated part of the
Locating algorithm (see ref. 1) and is implemented in the Base
Station Controller (BSC).

1.2 Background

The traffic load in a cell is often subjected to large variations during a

short time. One specific cell may be heavily loaded one moment but
may have hardly any load the next. All cells must, nevertheless, be
dimensioned for the case of heavy load although the average load is
significantly lower. This can be regarded as a waste of resources.
With a mechanism to distribute the load between cells the high load
peaks can be evened out and the network can instead be
dimensioned for a higher average load.

1.3 What can be achieved

The Cell Load Sharing feature distributes the traffic load more evenly
in a network and reduces the probability of congestion in a cell. This
is achieved by moving established connections to neighbour cells and
thereby reducing the high load peaks in the cell. A higher average
load can be allowed while the grade of service (allowed congestion
level) remains the same. The trunking efficiency of a BSC is thus
greater, resulting in an increase in carried traffic and better resource
utilisation.

Cell Load Sharing increases the number of handovers in the part of

the network where the traffic load is unevenly distributed.

2 Technical description

2.1 Algorithm

2.1.1 Overview
The Cell Load Sharing feature is limited to Traffic Channels (TCHs)
carrying speech or data. It consists of the following activities:

• The traffic load level in the cells where Cell Load

Sharing is activated is examined,
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• if the traffic load in a cell is above an acceptable level,

the ranking values in Locating (see ref. 1) are recalcu-
lated for every connection in the cell. This will make
connections, close to neighbouring cells, perform
handover,

• the handovers are carried out only if the receiving cells

have a low enough load and accept incoming handovers
due to Cell Load Sharing.

Cell Load Sharing needs to be activated at both BSC and cell level
for Cell Load Sharing evaluations to be attempted. The performance
of the feature is regulated by parameters which are changeable by
operator commands.

2.1.2 Load monitoring

The amount of idle full rate traffic channels is examined every Cell
Load Sharing time interval for each cell that is activated for Cell Load
Sharing. The time interval is given by a BSC exchange property
CLSTIMEINTERVAL.

The following criterion then defines when Cell Load Sharing

evaluations are performed in a cell where the feature is enabled:

• If the number of idle full rate traffic channels is equal to

or below parameter CLSLEVEL (the parameter value is
given as the percentage of all idle full rate traffic chan-
nels in the cell) in a cell, that cell tries to rid itself of
some traffic by initiating Cell Load Sharing handovers to
neighbouring cells.

When the result of the Cell Load Sharing evaluations in a cell indi-
cates that a connection should be moved to a neighbour cell, the
traffic load in the target cell is examined. To accept an incoming han-
dover due to Cell Load Sharing the cell must both indicate that it
accepts incoming Cell Load Sharing handovers according to the HO-
CLSACC parameter and have a low enough traffic level. The
following criterion for the traffic level in a target cell is relevant:

• If the number of idle full rate traffic channels is above

the value of parameter CLSACC (given as a percent-
age) in a cell, that cell will accept incoming Cell Load
Sharing handovers from other cells.

Note that the amount of idle traffic channels is counted as if only full-
rate channels exist. This means that if one of a pair of half-rate
channels in a dual rate channel is busy, and the other is idle, the en-
tire dual-rate channel is counted as busy. However, both connections
using a full rate channel and a half rate channel respectively can be
selected for load sharing handovers. Cell Load Sharing evaluations
are not performed at all for channels in multislot configurations. Also,
the E-GSM and R-GSM band channels can be included in the Cell
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Load Sharing evaluation by turning on the BSC exchange property

ERBANDSINCLUDED.

2.1.3 Ranking recalculations

The cell load sharing evaluation is performed after the normal locating
evaluation of the neighbouring cells. This means that new ranking cal-
culations, apart from the normal locating evaluations, are performed
for all the connections having the number of idle traffic channels in a
cell below parameter CLSLEVEL. It is repeated for every measure-
ment period as long as the traffic load in the cell is below parameter
CLSLEVEL. In the recalculations, reduced hysteresis values (for the
different hysteresis parameters) are used. If a neighbour cell be-
comes better ranked than the serving cell for any of the connections
as a result of this new cell ranking, a Cell Load Sharing handover is
requested for that connection. This implies that only neighbour cells
ranked worse than the serving cell by the normal locating evaluation
can be considered for Cell Load Sharing handovers. A regular inter-
cell handover will still be performed if the normal locating evaluation
indicates a better ranked neighbour cell for a connection.

The locating recalculations due to Cell Load Sharing are done with a
linear ramping down of the hysteresis with a percentage that is given
by parameter RHYST. The ramping down is performed during a time
defined by parameter CLSRAMP, or until the number of idle traffic
channels increases above CLSLEVEL. The actual hysteresis h used
at each time is given by:

(t - t 0 )
h = H [1 - 2(RHYST/100) ], (1)
CLSRAMP

where:

h is the hysteresis used in locating,

H is KHYST, TRHYST, LHYST, HIHYST or LOHYST, and
t0 is the starting time of the load sharing, i.e. the time when
the load rises above CLSLEVEL.

t in equation (1) runs from t0 to t0 + CLSRAMP. After t0 + CLSRAMP,

the hysteresis remain at their reduced values for the Cell Load Shar-
ing recalculations until the number of idle traffic channels increases
above CLSLEVEL . The recalculations are then omitted.

table 1 and figure 1 give examples of the effect of different settings of

parameter RHYST:
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Table 1 Effects of hysteresis reduction

RHYST hysteresis reduction

0% no reduction of the hysteresis area (h=H in figure 0)
50 % 50% of the hysteresis area is removed, cell border
reduced to nominal cell border (h=0 in figure 0)
100% all the hysteresis area is removed (h=-H in figure 0)

nominal cell border

h h
(cell B = target cell) (cell A = serving cell)

RHYST = 100%
Handover border, RHYST = 75%
cell A to cell B
RHYST = 50%
without reduction
RHYST = 25%
RHYST = 0%

hysteresis area

Figure 1 Actual cell border after hysteresis reduction

The purpose of ramping down the hysteresis is twofold:

• the mobiles closest to the handover border are selected

first,

• the mobiles selected for handover are few at a time; too

many Cell Load Sharing handovers at the same time
might otherwise cause instabilities.

Certain additional conditions must be fulfilled for a Cell Load Sharing

handover to take place:
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• Locating conditions:

− Cell Load Sharing handover is not allowed

during the assignment procedure,

− Cell Load Sharing handover is not allowed

if there is an urgency condition, see ref. 1.

• Conditions for the neighbour cell:

− the neighbour cell must belong to the same

BSC as the serving cell,

− the neighbour cell must belong to the same

hierarchical layer (see ref. 2) as the
serving cell,

− incoming Cell Load Sharing handover must

be allowed (parameter HOCLSACC) for
the neighbour cell. Note that Cell load
Sharing can still be set to inactive in the
neighbour cell if Cell Load Sharing
evaluations in that cell are to be avoided.

2.2 Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R7/BSS R7.0

It is possible to select both full rate and half rate channels for Cell
Load Sharing handovers. New default value for the parameter
CLSRAMP.

2.3 Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R7/BSS R7.1

It is possible to include/exclude the E-GSM and R-GSM band

channels in the Cell Load Sharing evaluations.

3 Engineering guidelines

3.1 General considerations

The gain in terms of capacity that can be expected when using the
Cell Load Sharing feature depends on how many subscribers that will
be situated in the region where they can be subject for the evalua-
tions, i.e. the region defined by the locating hysteresis parameters
KHYST (and/or LHYST and TRHYST, see ref. 1) and the hysteresis
reduction parameter RHYST .

Even for low locating hysteresis values there will be a large area
where cell load sharing can be performed. Assume that the "normal
cell radius" is 1.0 km. A calculation using standard propagation mod-
els gives a path loss of approximately 125 dB. At 1.5 dB lower path
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loss (corresponding to a shift from the nominal cell border to the edge
of the hysteresis area, see figure 1 and figure 2) the cell radius is 0.9
km. For an omnicell this is equal to a difference of about 20 % in
terms of cell area. Thus, for KHYST = 3, a significant part of the cell
area will be subject for evaluations.

3.2 Parameter setting

If RHYST = 100 the maximum region for load sharing is obtained, see
figure 1 and figure 2. With this setting maximum capacity gain is
achieved. The drawback is that the risk increases that a connection
that has been transferred to another cell, might be handed back to
the old cell again very soon (when TINIT has expired). The aim for
RHYST should be 100%. However, in the process of tuning, the rate
of handover back to the old cell within ten seconds should be care-
fully monitored. If this rate is considered too high, RHYST should be
set to a lower value.

Increasing the cell load sharing-region by increasing the locating hys-

teresis KHYST (and/or LHYST and TRHYST) should be avoided. If it
is performed anyway, it should be done under very careful observa-
tion since it gives a risk of worse handover performance and can
disturb the planned C/I ratio in the system.

Nominal cell border

Target cell Serving cell

100% idle TCH 100% idle TCH

CLSACC
CLSLEVEL

Maximum load
sharing region

Incoming traffic due Outgoing traffic due

to load sharing to load sharing

Figure 2 Thresholds for cell load sharing triggered handovers

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A suitable setting of CLSLEVEL and CLSACC depends on the

number of TRXs in the cells involved, see table 2.

Example:

Assume that two cells have three TRXs each and that one cell tends
to be congested more than its neighbour.

For the cell with high load a suitable setting is:

CLSLEVEL = 15 and CLSACC = 40

and for the neighbour

CLSLEVEL = 10 and CLSACC = 25.

As can be seen in table 2, this means that when the cell with high
load has only three or less idle TCHs (CLSLEVEL = 15), the cell will
start to perform load sharing evaluations. Its neighbour will accept in-
coming load sharing-triggered handovers if it has six or more idle
TCHs (CLSACC = 25).

Table 2 Amount of TCHs corresponding to different settings of

CLSLEVEL and/or CLSACC

No. of 10 % 15 % 20 % 25 % 30 % 35 % 40 %
TRXs
1 (7 TCHs) 0 1 1 1 2 2 2
2 (14 TCHs) 1 2 2 3 4 4 5
3 (21 TCHs) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
4 (28 TCHs) 2 4 5 7 8 9 11
5 (36 TCHs) 3 5 7 9 10 12 14

If the number of TCHs is very low, a change in only one idle channel
causes the percentage of idle TCHs to change greatly. Thus a situa-
tion can occur where the percentage of idle TCHs changes from
above CLSLEVEL to below CLSACC by handover of only one single
connection. This may lead to ping-pong handover, unless the
parameter values are adjusted with the described effect in mind.
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A suitable value for CLSRAMP is eight seconds. This will give a slow
enough hysteresis reduction in order to guarantee that connections
closest to the cell border are transferred first.

3.3 Influence from E- and R-GSM bands

With the introduction of the E-GSM and R-GSM bands in a cell, the
number of free TCH channels that are used in the CLS evaluation
algorithm might be inadequte if the exchange property ERBANDSIN-
CLUDED is set to ON. The reason for this is that the algorithm does
not consider that all MSe are not capable of using the E- and R-GSM
bands. The possible amount of E-GSM and R-GSM band capable
MSs should be considered when using CLS. If there are 100 % E-
GSM and R-GSM MSs, ERBANDSINCLUDED should be set to ON.
With 100 % P-GSM (standard GSM900) MSs it should be set to OFF.
When there is a mixture of MSs with different capabilities, the opera-
tor has to consider the benefit and possible degradation by including
E-GSM and R-GSM TCHs in the CLS evaluation algorithm.

4 Parameters

4.1 Main controlling parameters

CLSLEVEL defines a percentage of idle TCHs, at or below which the

ranking recalculations are started. The parameter is defined as a per-
centage of the total number of available TCHs in the cell. It is defined
per cell.

CLSACC defines a percentage of idle TCHs, at or below which no

handovers due to cell load sharing are accepted. The parameter is
defined as a percentage of the total number of available TCHs in the
cell. The value of CLSACC shall be greater than that of CLSLEVEL.
It is defined per cell.

RHYST is the hysteresis reduction parameter. It defines the final

reduction of the hysteresis area as a percentage. It is defined per cell.

4.2 Additional parameters

CLSRAMP is the parameter which defines the time interval during

which the hysteresis is ramped down from the full hysteresis to the
final value, as given by RHYST. It is defined per cell.

CLSTIMEINTERVAL is a BSC exchange property. It defines the

cycle time of the load monitoring. It is defined per BSC.

HOCLSACC is a switch to enable and disable incoming handover

due to load sharing. This gives a possibility to have one way load
sharing handover traffic in a specific cell. It is defined per cell.
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ERBANDSINCLUDED is a BSC exchange property. It is a switch to

include or exclude E-GSM and R-GSM band channels in the
evaluation of GSM cells.

4.3 Value ranges and default values

Table 3

Parameter name Default Recommended Value range Unit

value value
CLSLEVEL 20 - 0 to 99 %
CLSACC 40 - 1 to 100 %
CLSRAMP 5 8 0 to 30 s
HOCLSACC OFF ON ON, OFF
RHYST 75 100 0 to 100 %
CLSTIMEINTERVAL 100 100 100 to 1000 ms
ERBANDSINCLUDED OFF - ON, OFF

5 References

1 User Description, Locating

2 User Description, Hierarchical Cell Structures