0 Omo133000 Bsc6900 GSM v9r11-r16 Ms Behaviors in Idle Mode

GSM MS Behaviors in Idle Mode
Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

 System information reception

The network broadcasts the network information to the MS that camps on the cell. Upon
reception of broadcasted information, the MS obtains the network information and takes
actions accordingly.
 Cell selection and reselection
Used to ensure that the MS finds a suitable cell to camp on.
 Location update
This procedure is used by the MS to report its status and location based on LA to the
network. This procedure is triggered by periodical location update and the location update
by changing location area.
 Paging procedure
Used for the network to send paging messages to a MS during idle mode.
 Access procedure
From the view of access stratum, access is the procedure that the MS switches from idle
mode to connected mode.



 SYS INFO sent on BCCH, including SYS INFO 1, 2, 2BIS, 2TER, 3, and 4, which are used by
MS in idle mode.
 SYS INFO sent on SACCH, including system information 5, 5BIS, 5TER, and 6, which are
used by MS in dedicated mode. Additionally Huawei BSC supports the system information
7 and 13 to support GPRS.
 System information 1, 2, 2TER, 3, 4, 5, 5TER, and 6 are default system information to be
transmitted to cells. System information 2BIS and 5BIS are conditionally transmitted on
GSM1800 cells. It will be explained in the following section.

 The maximum number of cell frequencies configured in CA(Cell Allocation) is 64. Due to
the restriction of cell channel description format, the frequencies of a cell cannot be
configured unlimitedly.
 The formats of cell channel description are determined respectively by Cell Channel
Description’s second byte Format ID (bit8, bit7, bit4, bit3, bit2).
 These RACH control parameters include:
 Maximum re-transmitting times (MAX retrans)
 Extended transmission timeslots (Tx_integer)
 Common access control level (AC)
 Call reestablishment Forbidden
 Emergency call disable (EC)

 Neighbor cell description describes all the neighbor cells’ BCCH ARFCNs. Currently, Huawei
supports 64 neighbor cells at most. Except the fifth bit (BA_IND) and sixth bit (EXT_IND) of
the second byte, the coding format of neighbor cell description is the same as cell channel
description.
 Extended indication (EXT_IND) is transmitted in system information 2 and 5. It indicates
whether there are BCCH frequencies of neighbor cell transmitted in system information
2BIS and 5BIS. It has one bit. If it is set to “0”, this indicates system information 2 and 5
have carried all the BCCH frequencies (the same band as serving cell’s )in the BA table. If it
is “1”, it means system information 2 and 5 carries only part of the content of BA table.
 BA table indication (BA_IND) is transmitted in system information 2 and 5. It has one bit
and it is used to tell the MS to decide whether to use the data of BA1 or BA2 table. In
other words, if the current neighbor cell relationship and BA2 table are modified during
the conversation of MS, BA_IND in system information 5 will be set to “1” instead of “0”.
It instructs MS to re-decode the neighbor cell frequency shown in the system information
5 (maybe also 5BIS and 5TER) to get the latest information.
 Network Color Code Permitted (NCC Permitted) is transmitted on system information 2
and 6. It has eight bits.The eight bits are used to show if the particular NCC codes are
permitted for the MS to access. If bit N is set to “0” (0<=N<=7), the MS will not measure
the BCCH of the cell with NCC=N at all. Thus, the MS will not be handed over to the cell
with NCC=N.


 Except the fifth bit (BA_IND), sixth, and seventh bit (Multi-band reporting) of the second
byte, the coding of other information is the same with cell channel description.

 Control channel description includes the following parameters

 IMSI Attach-Detach Allowed (ATT)
 Common Control Channel Configuration (CCCH_CONF)
 Access Granted Blocks Reserved (BS_AG_BLKS_RES)
 Paging Channel Multi-frames (BSPAMFRAMES)
 Periodic Location Update Timer (T3212)
 Cell option contains the following parameters:
 Power control indication (PWRC)
 Discontinuous transmission (DTX)
 Radio link timeout
 Cell selection parameters indicate how the MS should behave after the MS is powered on.
It includes the following parameters:
 Cell Reselection Hysteresis (CRH)
 Maximum power level of control channel (MS_TXPWR_MAX_CCH)
 Minimum receiving level of MS permitted to access (RXLEV-ACCESS-MIN)
 Half-rate supported (Support Half-Rate)


 SI4 rest octets contains the following parameters:

 Cell Reselection Parameter Indicator (PI)
 Cell Bar Qualify (CBQ)
 Cell Bar Access (CBA)
 Cell Reselect Offset (CRO)
 Temporary Offset (TO)
 Penalty Time (PT)


 Corresponding to System Information 2 (System Information 2 describes BA1),System

Information 5 describes part of the BA2 table. The BA2 table is used when MS is in the
dedicated mode. Generally, the contents of BA1 and BA2 are the same. In special cases,
such as they are modified for radio network optimization purpose, their contents can be
different.

 Corresponding to System Information 2BIS (2BIS is for BA1), the content of 5BIS is a part
of the BA2 table. It is used when MS is in dedicated mode. The neighbor cells’ frequencies
which belong to the same band as the serving cell will be put into 5BIS to be transmitted
to the MS while there is no room in System Information 5.

 Corresponding to System Information 2TER (2TER is for BA1), the content of the 5TER is a
part of the BA2 table. It is used when MS is in the dedicated mode. The neighbor cells’
frequencies which belong to different band (900, 1800) than the serving cell, will be put
into 5TER for transmitting to the MS.



 When MS is powered on, it will try to search a GSM PLMN. MS will select an appropriate
cell and it will read the cell parameters. This process is cell selection. The “appropriate cell”
is restricted by many factors, such as whether the cell belongs to the selected network
(under manual network selection mode), the cell status ( CBA ), cell selection priority
( CBQ ), access level of MS ( Common access control level ) and coverage of radio channel
(C1). Among the factors, the quality of radio channel is most important factor of cell
selection. GSM specification defines a parameter as path loss principle C1. The appropriate
cell must fulfill the condition of C1>0. C1 is obtained by the calculation of receiving level
and the cell selection parameters.
 When the appropriate cell is found, the MS will camp on it and measure the BCCH signal
level neighbor cells. It records six neighbor cells with the strongest signals strength (refresh
at least every 60s), extracts various cell parameters and control information of each
neighbor cells. MS must conducts data block decoding for all the six strongest BCCH of
neighbor cells within 5 minutes, including parameters which affecting cell reselection.
When MS gets a new neighbor BCCH as one of the six strongest BCCHs, it will conduct
data block decoding for this new BCCH at least every 30s). Moreover, MS must check one
of the six strongest at least every 30s. If the BSIC is changed even same BCCH carrier, it is
still considered as a new BCCH and data decoding will be conducted again. Meanwhile,
the MS is monitoring the PCH for paging message.
 The serving cell of the MS will be changed if the cell reselection condition is fulfilled. The
condition includes many factors which are related to the coverage of the radio channels.
When the radio channel condition of the neighbor cell is better than serving cell, cell
reselection is triggered. The radio channel condition is referring the parameter C2 which is
obtained by calculation of the receiving level and some parameters.

 When MS is powered off, the BCCH carrier information of serving cell and BA table will be
stored in the MS . The MS will search the BCCH carriers from the stored list at first when it
is powered on again.
 If the stored list cell selection process is failed, the MS will start the normal cell selection
process.

 When MS is powered off, it will store some BCCH carrier information. When MS is
powered on, it will first search the BCCHs which have been stored. If MS can decode the
BCCH data of this cell but cannot reside, it will check the BA table of this cell and try these
BCCHs. If it still cannot pass, MS will start the cell selection process without BCCH list.

 If no BCCH is stored in the SIM card (e.g. new SIM card), the MS will search and measure
124 ARFCNs of GSM900 and 374 ARFCNs of GSM1800 for dual-band MS. The process will
take about 3s to 5s.
 MS obtains at least 5 measurement samples from each ARFCN and descends the carrier
receiving level for ranking. Next, the MS will search for the BCCH carrier by decoding the
FCCH and synchronize with the cell by decoding the SCH. So that the MS is able to read
the cell parameters from the broadcasted System Information.
 MS decodes the PLMN ID, cell selection priority and computes the C1 value from the
system information. If C1 is greater than 0 and the cell selection priority is normal, the MS
will trigger Location Update or Attach procedure and resides in the cell if the process is
succeed. Otherwise, MS will try for second strongest BCCH carrier and repeat with the
same procedure.
 After the MS tried the cell selection procedure on the strongest 30 (single-band) or 40
(dual-band) carriers but it is still failed, the MS will try to access to the cells with low cell
selection priority. If cell selection process is remained unsuccessful, the MS will try the cells
of other PLMNs which are allowed by the SIM card. Otherwise, MS will stay in the cell
which is having strongest signal strength and the C1 value is greater than 0 which cell
selection priority is not prohibited without considering the PLMN. The MS is entered the
emergency call mode (service bar mode). Meanwhile, the MS keeps on monitoring all RF
channels.
 Remark:
1. The MS access level will not affect the cell selection algorithm. The MS will still try to reside
in this cell although the MS access level is prohibited if the condition is fulfilled.
2. MS belongs to the selected PLMN, but which is prohibited for access, or C1<0, then the
MS will obtain the BA table from the cell and search the BCCHs according to the BA.
3. When MS is powered off, the BCCH carrier information of serving cell and BA table will be
stored in the MS . The MS will search the BCCH carriers from the stored list at first when it
is powered on again. If the stored list cell selection process is failed, the MS will start the
normal cell selection process.

 As a global cellular mobile communication system, GSM conducts strict coding for each
GSM network in every country, and even every location area, BTS, and cell, so as to ensure
that each cell corresponds to a unique number all over the world. The adoption of this
coding scheme can achieve the following objectives:
 1. Ensure that MS can identify the current network correctly, so that MS can select the
expected network.
 2. Ensure that the network knows the real-time position of MS, so that the network can
provide various service requests from the MS.
 3. Ensure that the MS can reports correct neighbor cells’ information to the network
during conversation, so that network can perform handover to keep the continuous
conversation for the mobile subscribers.

• RXLEV indicates the average receive level of the MS in the unit of dBm.
• RXLEV_ACCESS_MIN indicates the minimum receive level (unit: dBm) required for the
MS to access the network. It is specified by the RXMIN parameter.
• Minimum received signal level of the MS. This level is reported in the system
information. This parameter specifies the minimum receive level of an MS to access
the BSS. For details. see GSM Rec. 05.08. The value of this parameter ranges from
0 to 63 (corresponding to -110 dBm to -47 dBm).
• MS_TXPWR_MAX_CCH indicates the maximum transmit power (unit: dBm) allowed for
the MS to access the network. It is specified by the FMSMAXOPCC parameter. Maximum
transmit power level of MSs. As one of the cell reselection parameters in system message
3, this parameter is used to control the transmit power of MSs. For details, see GSM Rec.
05.05.
• P indicates the maximum output power of the MS in the unit of dBm.

 To prevent MS from accessing the system when the receiving signal level is very low (this
will make unsatisfactory communication quality and waste the radio resources of the
network), GSM specifications require that the MS’s receiving level must be greater than
the threshold when it needs to register in the network. The threshold is the RXLEV-
ACCESS-MIN.
 For some cells with high traffic load, this parameter can be increased appropriately to
lower the values of C1 and C2 of this cell. Accordingly the effective coverage range of the
cell will be reduced. But the value of RXLEV-ACCESS-MIN should not be too big, otherwise
coverage hole (with regard to idle mode MS) will be created at the edge of the cell. When
this method is used for traffic balancing, the value of RXLEV-ACCESS-MIN is recommended
to be no more than 20.
 Except for the areas with densely distributed BTS and good coverage, generally it is not
recommended to use RXLEV-ACCESS-MIN to adjust the traffic of the cell. For isolated BTS
or BTS with poor coverage, this value should be set properly, otherwise the call drop rate
may be increased and QoS will be affected.

 During MS’s communication with BTS, the transmitting power is controlled by the network
via power control command. This command is transmitted through SACCH (There are two
head bytes. One is power control byte, the other is time advance). MS must get the power
control head from the downlink SACCH, and output the power which is indicated in the
power control header. If the MS unable to support the power level in the power control
header, it will use the nearest supporting power level.
 Since SACCH is associated signaling channel, it must be combined with other channels,
such as SDCCH or TCH. Therefore, the power control begins after MS receives SACCH.
While the power level used by MS before it receives SACCH (power used when RACH is
sent) is determined by the “MS TXPWR_MAX_CCH “ (maximum power level of control
channel).
 This parameter will affect cell selection and cell reselection.

 The network operator can control the cell accessibility by the parameter. Normally all cells
are allowed MS to access, if it is set as “No”. For special cases, the operator may allow the
cell to be used for handover service only, thus the parameter can be configured as “Yes”
(CBQ should be “No” in this case).
(See GSM Rec. 0408)

 For the area overlapped by cells, the operator might prevent MS to select certain cells
during cell selection due to the cell capacity, traffic and cell functions by configures the cell
priority. This function can be implemented by setting parameter “cell bar quality”. The
parameter is operated with the parameters “cell bar access” together to determine the cell
selection and cell reselection priority of the cell.
 Usually the priorities of all cells should be configured as “Normal”. For some special cases
such as micro-cell and dual-band network, the operator may prefer the MS to select on
certain cells. In this case, the network operator can set the cell priority as “Normal” while
setting the other cells as “Low”. MS will select the cell with lower priority only when there
is no appropriate cell with the priority as “Normal”. During the network optimization by
means of cell priority, it is necessary to note that CBQ only influences the cell selection.
Therefore, in order to achieve the target, C2 (cell reselection parameter) must be taken
into consideration.
(See GSM Rec. 0408)


 Each circle in the diagram indicates a cell. For some causes, the traffic in cell A and that of
cell B are obviously higher than those of the adjacent cells. To make the traffic of the
entire area distributed on average, set the priorities of cell A and cell B as “Prohibited” and
those of other cells as “Normal”. In this way, the services in the shadow areas in the
diagram will be shared by the adjacent cells. It must be pointed out that this setting will
reduce the actual coverage areas of cell A and cell B, which is different from decreasing
the transmitting powers of cell A and cell B.

 Assume that micro-cell B and macro-cell A together cover an area. In order to make
micro-cell B share more traffic of macro-cell A, the priority of cell B can be set as “Normal”
and that of cell A as “Low”. Thus in the coverage area of cell B, MS will select cell B as
long as the level of cell B reaches the RXLEV-ACCESS-MIN, no matter cell B has a lower
signal level than cell A’s or not. And then reselection parameters can be set appropriately
to make MS not to reselect cell A.


 There are table BA1 and table BA2.

 Table BA1 describes BCCH frequencies of the adjacent cells to be measured when
the MS is in idle mode.
 Location: SET GCELL2GBA1
 Table BA2 describes BCCH frequencies of the adjacent cells to be measured when
the MS is in dedicated mode.
 Location: SET GCELLHO2GBA2
 MS keeps on measuring the BCCH signal level of the serving cell and the neighbor cells. In
order to know the adjacent cells, neighbor cell description information will be broadcast
periodically in cell parameter of each cell. This information lists the BCCH of all neighbor
cells. MS extracts the information from cell parameter and use it as basis for neighbor cell
measurement.
 For GSM network, the neighbor relationship between cells is accomplished when
designing the network topology. During the network construction, the neighbor cell
relationship must be configured accordingly the topology design that has been planned.
Moreover, after the commission of network, neighbor relationship should be modified
referring to the data of drive test and traffic measurement. When the network architecture
is changed (e.g. adding BTSs or changing the network frequency configuration), the
network operator must strictly follows the changed-cell-neighbor-relationship, re-set and
verify it. Improper neighbor cell description is usually one of the main reasons of call drop.
Besides, since the actual network topology structure is often greatly different from the
theoretical calculation result, and network is in ever-changing environment, the network
operator must configures the neighbor cell description according to the actual situation.

 Normally when the MS releases a call and it found that the serving cell is prohibited for
camp on, then the MS will start to reselect another cell.
 DSC=90/BS_PA_MFRMS, along with the MS monitoring the paging blocks, the DSC is
computed. The Initial value of DSC is calculated by the formula, when the MS fails to
decode on paging block, the DSC decrease by 4. Otherwise the DSC increase by 1, but
could not greater than the initial value . If the MS fails to decode paging channel
continuously and the DSC drops to 0, it is considered as one time down link fail, and
forced cell reselection will be triggered.
 When MS moves to a location where cell reselection can not be triggered by C2 due to
some reasons, and C1 is lower than 0, the forced cell reselection will be triggered too.
 When the MS tries to access to the network but it fails to get the response from the
network, the MS will retransmit the uplink RACH until the retransmission time is reached
to the value of parameter MSMAXRETRAN, the MS will trigger a cell reselection procedure.

 If the C2 value of the target cell is higher than that of the serving cell for longer than 5
seconds, a cell reselection process will be performed and the MS tunes to the new cell.
 If the C2 value of the target cell is higher than that of the serving cell by at least the value
of CRH for longer than 5 seconds, a location update process and the cell reselection
process will be performed.
 Two consecutive cell reselections caused by C2 have a time interval of 15 seconds. In other
words to say, if because of C2 a MS reselected to a cell, then the MS cannot reselect to
another cell by the cause of C2 within 15 seconds.

 C2=C1+CRO-TO*H(PT-T) When PT is not equal to 31:

 C2=C1-CRO When PT is equal to 31.
 Wherein:
 1. Function H(x)=0, when x<0; H(x)=1, when x>0.
 2. T is a timer with initial value 0. When a certain cell becomes one of the six strongest
neighbor cells, T corresponding to this cell begins to count. When the cell is out of the six
strongest neighbor cells, the corresponding timer is reset.
 3. CRO is used to revise the C2 intentionally.
 4. The function of TO is to reduce the value of C2 from T begins to T reaches the
stipulated PENALTY_TIME.
 5. PT is the time that TO functions on C2. But if PT=31, the C2 formula is changed as
C2=C1-CRO.

 After cell selection, MS will reselect another better cell in idle mode. It is C2 parameter
that determines cell reselection. The principle for MS reselection is: select the cell with the
maximum C2 as the serving cell. C2 is determined by the following factors:
 C2=C1+CRO-TO*H(PT-T) (PT <31)
 C2=C1-CRO (PT = 31)
 H(x)=0 if x<0；
 H(x)=1 if x≥0
 As shown above, C1 indicates the quality of radio channel. The larger C1 is, the better the
channel is. C2 value is based on C1, through CRO, C2 of various cells can be adjusted.
Thus C2 value can be calculated according to CRO, TO and PT in order to prefer selecting
the cell in reselection process. That is, in dual-band network,several parameters that
influence C2 value can be set to make C2 value of GSM1800 larger than that of GSM900.
Therefore, even though the signal strength of GSM1800 cell is weaker than that of
GSM900 cell, MS can still reside in GSM1800 by the aid of these parameters. Besides CRO,
there are another two parameters influencing C2:TEMPORARY_OFFSET(TO) and
PENALTY_TIME(PT).
 CRO is a artificial modification on C2. Reasonable setting of this parameter can reduce
handover times and realize assignment to a better cell. Usually it is not set as larger than
25dB. Generally the cells with the same priority in the network have the same CRO
basically Setting of this parameter only affects MS of GSM Phase II and above. (Refer to
GSM Rec. 05.08 and GSM Rec. 04.08)

 TO indicates the temporary modification on C2. Temporary means that it functions for C2
only within a duration which is determined by PT parameter. Setting of this parameter only
affects MS of GSM Phase II and above.

 If the performance of a cell is affected due to heavy traffic load or some other reasons, the
cell is not be the preferable cell for MS to camp on(a repulse should be made for this cell).
In this case, PT can be set as 31, which causes TO invalid and C2=C1 – CRO. Therefore, C2
value of this cell is decreased and the possibility of MS to reselect to this cell will be
lowered. Besides, the network operator can set CRO according to the repulse degree to
this cell. The higher the repulse degree, the larger CRO.
 For the cell with very low traffic, MS should prefer to work in this cell. In this case, CRO is
recommended to be between 0-20dB. It can be set according to the preference degree to
this cell. The higher the preference degree and the larger CRO. Generally TO is
recommended to be the same as or a little more than CRO. PT is mainly used to prevent
MS’s too frequent cell reselections. Generally it is recommended to be 0 (20s) or 1 (40s).
 For the cell with medium traffic, generally CRO is recommended to be 0 and PT be 31 as a
result of C2=C1.
 Setting of PT can effectively prevent the fast moving MS from accessing the micro-cell.
This parameter can be set according to the size of micro-cell. And it is recommended to be
20s for the ordinary micro-cells. When PT is set as 31, it is used to change the direction of
CRO.

 This parameter is to inform MS whether C2 is used as the standard for cell reselection. The
minimum interval between cell reselections caused by C2 parameter is 15s to avoid too
frequent cell reselection.
 If PI=Yes, C2 is used for cell reselection standard; if PI=No, C1 is used for cell reselection.

 This parameter aims to prevent the frequent location update that may increase the
network signaling flow and to reduce the possibility of paging message loss. Due to the
fading of radio channel, C2 values of two cells at the their edges will be fluctuated, which
might cause MS to reselect frequently. To reduce the influence, GSM specifications define
a parameter called cell reselection hysteresis. It is required that MS start cell reselection
only when C2 value of the adjacent cell (in a different location area) is greater than that of
serving cell and their difference is greater than the value of reselection hysteresis.
 If the value of this parameter is too small, the “ping-pong” cell reselection effect might be
happened and the signaling load on SDCCH will be increased due to location update.
Moreover, the call setup success rate of the system will be lowered due to MS will not
respond to the paging message during location update. the value of this parameter is too
large, the cell where MS resides for a long time may not be the best cell when MS is
moving away to a new location area. When MS reselects a cell from a different location
area, location update process will triggered.
 Appropriate cell reselection hysteresis is important for network optimization. Usually it is
recommended to be 8~10dB and can be adjusted in the following cases:
1) When the traffic of an area is very heavy and the signaling overload often occurs, it is
recommended to increase the value of cell reselection hysteresis of the adjacent cells
belonging to different LACs.
2) When the overlapping coverage of the adjacent cells belonging to different LAC are
wide, it is recommended to increase the value of cell reselection hysteresis.


 Notes: When cell reselection happens between two location areas, the CRH from serving
cell will be choose. C2(N)>C2(S)+ CRH(S).


 There are three kinds of location update

 Normal location update is triggered by a MS moving from one location area to
another location area. The changes of LA happen with two procedures:
 Cell reselection: When the cell reselection is triggered between two cells
in different LA, the new LAI will be broadcasted to MS in BCCH. MS will
trigger normal location update procedure automatically and immediately if
it found that the new LAI is different with the stored LAI.
 Handover: when the MS is in dedicated mode and handover to the target
cell which belongs to another location area, the location update will not be
triggered immediately until the current call is released. After the call release
and MS get into idle mode again, the MS will trigger location update
immediately.
 Period location update, triggered by the expiry of timer T3212.
 In case of the MS is powered off or out of service implicitly, the MSC will
continue to deliver the paging message to the subscriber due to the reason
that the core network does not receive any MS status update, which might
waste of system resources and the subscribers might have negative
experience.
 In order to avoid this issue, the periodical location update is existed. The
MS will report its location by periodical location update for every certain
period, so that the core network might have the updated MS status from
time to time. The interval between periodical location update is defined by
T3212.

 MS will trigger location update when changing of location area. Besides, MS will tirgger
periodic location update controlled by the parameter T3212. Once MS read T3212 from
cell parameter, it will be stored in the SIM card. When the T3212 timer is expired, the
location update process will be triggered. The shorter the period is, the better the
performance is. However, it might cause higher signaling load for the system. For setting
of this parameter, the processing capability of MSC and BSC, the flux of A interface, Abis
interface and Um interface, the flux of HLR and VLR should be considered. Generally this
parameter is set as a larger value for urban area and smaller for suburb, countryside or the
place with poor coverage.
 Large T3212( 16 hours 20 hours) is recommended for the area with heavy traffic, and
small T3212 (3 hours, 2 hours) for the area with normal traffic. For the area where the
traffic exceeds the system capacity, it is recommended to set T3212 as 0 (no periodic
location update). To set the value of T3212 properly, it’s necessary to conduct long-term
measurement on the processing capability and flux of each entity in the system. If any
overload occurs, increase the value T3212.
 Note that this value must be smaller than the period by which the network queries the
IMSI attached subscriber(e.g. Implicit Detach Timer at MSC). Otherwise, the following
situation occurs: When MS do not trigger any operation including normal location update
or periodical location update in a period of time of the core network timer expires, the
network will set IMSI flag of MS as detached. Thus, the network will not process the
paging of this MS. Therefore, before MS initiates another round of periodic location
update, if there is a call to the MS, the network will response the calling party that the
called MS is powered off. As usual, the T3212 is set smaller than one third of the MSC’s
check time.
 When MS reselects a cell in a different location area, it will make a non-periodic location
update and T3212 is reset. If the cell reselection is within a same location area, then the
timer value will be remainder of the original one divided by the new T3212.


 The bigger yellow clock is the timer in MSC side, which is called “implicit IMSI detach
timer”.
 The smaller one is T3212 which defined in BSS side, it will be broadcasted to MS and MS
take it as a reference to trigger periodic location update.
 Case 1 of Abnormal Occasion:
 MS doesn’t trigger any service, and the periodic location update fails. So then the
implicit IMSI detach timers expires, the IMSI will be set to detach mode.

 Case 2 of Abnormal Occasion:

 MS doesn’t trigger any service, and the setting of implicit IMSI detach timer is
smaller than T3212. So before the T3212 expires, the IMSI has already been set to
detach mode.

 Detach process (IMSI) refers to the process that MS informs the network that it is shifting
from working state to non-working state (usually a power-off process), or the SIM card is
being taken out from MS. Upon receiving the notice from MS, the network knows that the
IMSI subscriber is in non-working state. Therefore, if the MS is called, the call connection
will be implemented.
 IMSI attach process is opposite to detach process. It is the process that MS informs the
network it has entered the service area (usually a power-on process) or SIM card has been
inserted into MS. After entering service state again, MS will test whether the current
location area (LAI) is the same with the latest LAI recorded in MS. If yes, MS will start IMSI
attach process. Otherwise MS will start location update process, upon receiving the
location update or IMSI attach process, the network will indicate that this IMSI subscriber
is in working state.

 Note that ATT configuration of different cells in the same LAI must be the same. This is
because IMSI detach process will be started when MS is power-off in the cell with ATT set
to yes. The network will record that this subscriber is in non-working state and reject all
the called connection requests to this subscriber. When MS is power-on again, if it is in the
same LAI as it was power-off (thus the LAI update process will not be started) but in
another cell, and ATT of the cell is set as no, then the MS will not start IMSI attach process.
In this case, this subscriber can not be called normally until the MS starts the location
update process.


 The common control channel includes PCH, AGCH and RACH, in which AGCH and PCH are
downlink while RACH is uplink. Its purpose is to send the access granted (immediate
assignment) message, paging message and random access message. Based on the
configuration of traffic channels in the cell and the traffic model of the cell, the CCCH
channel can be borne by one or more physical channels. Moreover, the CCCH can share
the same physical channel with the SDCCH channel. The combination mode for the
common channel in the cell depends on the configuration parameter of the common
channel.

 Determination of CCCH_GROUP and PAGING_GROUP for MS in idle mode

 CCCH_GROUP (0 .. BS_CC_CHANS-1) = ((IMSI mod 1000) mod (BS_CC_CHANS x
N)) div N
 PAGING_GROUP (0 .. N-1) = ((IMSI mod 1000) mod (BS_CC_CHANS x N)) mod N
 Where
BS_CC_CHANS: number of basic physical channels supporting
common control channels (CCCHs)
N = number of paging blocks "available" on one CCCH = (number of
paging blocks "available" in a 51 frame TDMA multiframe on one
CCCH) x BS_PA_MFRMS.
IMSI = International Mobile Subscriber Identity, as defined in
GSM 03.03.
mod = Modulo.
div = Integer division.

 In GSM system, the downlink common control channel mainly includes Access Granted
Channel (AGCH) and Paging Channel (PCH). It serves to send the access granted
(immediate assignment) and paging messages. CCCH is shared. According to the
configuration of traffic channel and traffic model, CCCH can be carried by either one or
multiple physical channels. Moreover, CCCH and SDCCH can share one physical channel.
The MS needs to know how the CCCH(s) is/are configured, so that it can find and select
one to listen to. The CCCH Conf is just used to tell the MS about this matter.
 When CCCH is a physical channel which combined with SDCCH, the capacity of CCCH is
the lowest. When CCCH is a physical channel which is not combined with SDCCH, the
capacity is higher. For other cases, the more the physical channels are used as CCCH, the
higher the CCCH capacity is.
 Configuration of CCCH Conf is specified according to the traffic model. This model is
closely related to the cell location and environment. According to experiences, when TRX
quantity in the cell is 1 or 2, it is recommended to use a combined CCCH as the common
control channel. When TRX quantity in the cell is 3 or 4, it is recommended to use a non-
combined CCCH as the common control channel.
 Currently CCCH can be configured according to actual traffic load. If the paging load is
very heavy, the paging traffic of cell should be distributed via multiple CCCH physical
channels other way. Special attention should be paid to PCH in CCCH. Generally PCH
capacities of various cells under one LAC must be the same.

 As downlink CCCH includes both AGCH and PCH, it is necessary to set the number of
blocks, which are reserved for AGCH among CCCH message blocks. To let MS know such
configuration information, the cell parameter of each cell includes a configuration
parameter, which is the number of access granted blocks reserved (BSAGBLKSRES). This
parameter actually assigns the proportion of AGCH and PCH on CCCH. It affects the time
of MS’s response to the paging.
 The network operator can adjust this parameter to balance the traffic of AGCH and PCH
by referring to the following principles:
 1. Principle for BSAGBLKSRES: make this parameter as small as possible without causing
overload of AGCH, so as to increase the capability of paging and improve the system
performance.
 2. Generally it is recommended to select 1 (when CCCH Conf is 1 combined CCCH), 2 or 3
(when CCCH Conf is one of other values) for BSAGBLKSRES.
 3. During operation, observe the statistics of AGCH overload and adjust BSAGBLKSRES
properly.
 Note: In Huawei system, when AGCH has been all occupied, if PCH is free, it can be used
to send the immediate assignment command. If AGCH blocks reserved is set as 0, the
immediate assignment would be sent only when there is free PCH channel. Therefore, a
fixed capacity reserved for AGCH is necessary.

 This parameter specifies the number of paging sub-channels that are assigned in a cell. In
the network, MS only monitors the paging sub-channel it belongs and ignores the
description of the others. When this parameter is set larger, there will be more paging sub-
channels in the cell and accordingly there will be less MS in each paging sub-channel.
Therefore, the bearing capability of PCH will be more (theoretically the capacity of each
PCH does not increase, but the buffer that buffers paging message in each BTS is
increased, which makes the sending of paging messages more even in the time domain),
and the lifetime of MS battery will be longer. The value of this parameter should be as
small as possible under the condition that the overload on PCH does not occur. In the
operation, the PCH load should be measured regularly and the value of this parameter
should be adjusted properly according to the PCH load. In a location area, paging is sent in
all the cells. Therefore, all cells in the same location area should have the same or nearly
the same PCH capacity (number of paging sub-channels). In the area where the PCH bears
a medium or large load, it is suggested to be set as 6 or 7 (6 or 7 multi-frames are used as
a cycle of paging). For the area with a small load, it is set as 4 or 5. Besides, it is often set
as 2.
 Note:
 1. One CCCH block (four consecutive CCCH timeslots) can bear the information of two
IMSI pagings or four TMSI pagings or two AGCH immediate assignments.
 2. In idle mode MS camps in a cell. The DSC is initialized to the integer part of 90/N (N is
BSPAMFARMES, with the value range: 2~9). when MS can successfully decode the
message on paging sub-channel, DSC will increase by 1, but it will not exceed initially
value. If decoding fails, DSC will decrease by 4. If DSC<=0, the downlink signaling link fails,
resulting in cell reselection.

 Both assignment message and paging message share downlink CCCH channel.
 Assignment message can be transmit either by AGCH or PCH, while paging message can
be sent only by PCH.

 In the GSM network, when a CS call reaches an MSC, the MSC determines the registered
location area of the MS. Then, the MSC sends the CS paging message to all the BSCs
within the location area.
 If the Gs interface between the SGSN and the MSC is available and the GPRS/GSM
network operates in network operation mode I, the CS paging messages of GSM services
can be transmitted on GPRS packet channels. If the MS is attached to the GPRS, the CS
paging messages are sent from the MSC to the SGSN over the Gs interface and then to the
PCU over the Gb interface. Then, the PCU determines the channel for sending the paging
message according to the following conditions:
 If the MS is assigned the PDCH, the paging message is sent on the PACCH.
 If no PDCH is assigned to the MS but the PCCCH is configured, the paging
message is sent on the PPCH.
 If no PDCH is assigned to the MS and no PCCCH is configured in the system, the
PCU forwards the paging message to the BSC. Then, the BSC sends the paging
message to the MS on the PCH.

 If the Gs interface is not configured, the CS paging message can be sent only on the PCH.
The MS (except class A)in packet transfer mode, however, listens to messages only on the
PACCH rather than paging messages on the PCH. Therefore, the MS does not respond to
the CS paging message on the PCH.
 In BSS paging coordination mode, the BSC determines whether the CS paging message is
sent on the PACCH. In GPRS-capable networks, the paging success rate increases when
BSS paging coordination is enabled.
 After receiving the CS paging message, the MS accesses the network through the RACH to
establish a circuit connection. If necessary, the MS initiates the GPRS Suspend procedure
to suspend the ongoing GPRS service. After the circuit connection is released, the MS
resumes the GPRS service.
 Note:
 When external PCUs are used, BSS paging coordination is not supported.

 GPRS
 Meaning: Whether the current cell supports GPRS
 GUI Value Range: NO(Not support), SupportAsInnPcu(Support as built-in PCU),
SupportAsExtPcu(Support as external Pcu)
 Actual Value Range: NO, SupportAsInnPcu, SupportAsExtPcu
 BSS Paging Co-ordination
 Meaning: Whether to support the paging function of the CS domain of the A
interface when MS is handing PS service. Yes: the MS can be called upon paging
request on the A interface when handling the PS service; No: the MS cannot be
called upon paging request on the A interface when handling the PS service.
 Value Range: NO, YES
 Impact on Network Performance: If this parameter is set to "YES" and Network
Operation Mode in the SET GCELLPSBASE command is set to "NOMI", the paging
success rate is increased but the downlink PS service disruption rate may also be
increased.


 Regardless what kind of network access, it must initiate with channel request. Only when
there is a channel available that MS can send the relevant information to network to
perform further connection with network, including signaling and voice connection.
 How could the MS sends the channel request to network successfully? How could the
system knows which signaling is channel request or not?
 There are a lot of rules defined in GSM system, and these rules will be broadcasted to MS
 The rules are the parameters which are going to be introduced in the following section.


 It is set to reduce the collisions on RACH. It mainly affects the execution efficiency of the
immediate assignment process. The value of this parameter is related to CCCH
configuration mode, both of them together determine the parameter S (see the next page).
The MS sends the first random access burst at a random TS in the set {0, 1, …, MAX(T, 8)-
-1}. And the TS number between any two adjacent channel request messages is a random
value in the set {S, S+1, …, S+T-1}.
 Generally, parameter T+S should be as small as possible (in order to shorten the access
time of MS), but AGCH and SDCCH must not be overloaded. If AGCH or SDCCH of the cell
is overloaded, then parameter T can be changed to make parameter S larger, until AGCH
or SDCCH of the cell is not overloaded.
 When the RACH collisions is serious, value T should be large. When the number of RACH
collisions is small, value T should be as small as possible.
 In case of faillure: TX_INT (parameter ID: TXINT) SET GCELLPRACH Extension
transmission timeslots of random access. This parameter determines the interval of sending
another channel request after the MS fails to request a channel.

 When T becomes larger, the interval range between channel request messages sent by
different MSs will increase and RACH collisions will be reduced. When value S becomes
larger, the interval between channel request messages sent by the same MS will increase,
collisions on RACH will be reduced and the availability of AGCH and SDCCH will increase.
But the increase of either will prolong the access duration of MS, resulting in deterioration
of access performance of the entire network. Generally, value T should be selected to
make S as small as possible (in order to shorten MS access time), but AGCH and SDCCH
must not be overloaded.

 After initiating immediate assignment process, MS keeps monitoring messages on BCCH

and CCCH group it belongs to. If the network does not send Immediate Assignment or
Immediate Assignment Extend message, MS will resend the channel request message at a
certain time interval. The larger this parameter is, the higher the call setup success rate is,
but also the heavier the load of RACH and SDCCH is.
 When MS initiates immediate assignment, it will send the “channel request” message to
the network via RACH. As RACH is an ALOHA channel, the network is incapable of
controlling the access time of MS. Thus in heavy traffic spot, it is unavoidable that several
MSs may simultaneously make access request and cause collision which will lead to two
results: one is when one request signal level is obviously higher than the others’ access
signals, the access request with higher level will be handled; the other is the network can
recognize none of them due to mutual-interference. As the traffic is increasing, access
request loss due to collision will increase, too. To make sure that the system can correctly
receive the access request and increase the access success rate, the network allows MS to
send several channel requests before receiving an immediate assignment message so as to
achieve a higher access success probability. MS will return to idle mode if it fails to receive
an immediate assignment command after the MAX Retrans exceeds. Once MS sends a
channel request, it will start timer T3120 and wait on the downlink CCCH. When T3120
times out and RACH resend times are not more than “MAX Retrans.”, MS will resend
channel request message (containing one new random reference), and restart T3120 with
a random value. When T3120 is times out and “MAX Retrans” is reached, MS will start
T3126. If MS still fails to receive a response from the network after T3126 times out, it will
give up the access. If MS receives the access rejection, it will stop T3120 and start T3122.
Within T3122, no new access attempt will be allowed.

 To avoid MS being unable to set up call even it is in the coverage area, consideration
should be given to BTS sensitivity and MS RXLEV-ACCESS-MIN during the setting of this
parameter.
 A too small value for this parameter makes MSs easily to access but the call drop rate may
rise.
 A too big value for this parameter may cause some MSs unable to make calls.

 To avoid MS being unable to set up call even it is in the coverage area, consideration
should be given to BTS sensitivity and MS RXLEV-ACCESS-MIN during the setting of this
parameter.
 A too small value for this parameter makes MSs easily to access but the call drop rate may
rise.
 A too big value for this parameter may cause some MSs unable to make calls.

 In some special case, the operator expects to prohibit all or part of the MSs from sending
access requests or paging response. For example, emergency status occurs or a serious
fault occurs to a GSM PLMN. Therefore, GSM specification 0211 requires to assign an
access level for each common GSM subscriber. The common access level is divided into
level 0~9, which is stored in the SIM card of MS, and has nothing to do with access
priority.
 Some cells with extremely heavy traffic may be congested during busy hour, resulting in a
large number of RACH collisions, AGCH overload, Abis interface overload, etc. GSM
specifications provide a variety of ways for dealing with the overload and congestion, but
most of them will lower the availability of equipment resources. The network operator can
set the access control parameter (C0-C9) properly to control the traffic inside the cell. For
example, when the cell suffers traffic overload or congestion, Ci can be set as 0 to prohibit
MS with this access level from accessing this cell (change of Ci will not affect MS in
dedicated mode), thus reducing the traffic of the cell. To solve this problem, values of C0-
C9 in the cell can be changed periodically. For example, at intervals of five minutes,
alternatively allow the access of MS with odd access levels and those with even access
levels.
 For example, 1000000000 indicates to allow the access of subscribers with the levels
other than 0. During installation and commissioning of BTS or during maintenance test for
some cells, they all can be set to “1” to prohibit the access of subscribers.

 For some special subscribers, GSM specifications have reserved five special access levels
11-15, which usually have higher access priority. A special subscriber can have one or
multiple access levels (between 11 and 15) at the same time, which are also stored in the
SIM card of the subscriber.
 Class15——PLMN Staff;
 Class14——Emergency Services;
 Class13——Public Utilities (e.g. water/gas suppliers);
 Class12——Security Services;
 Class11——For PLMN Use.
 For subscribers with the access levels 0~9, their access right is also applicable to the home
PLMN and visit PLMN. For subscribers with the access levels 11-15, their access right is
only applicable to the home PLMN. For subscribers with the access levels 12, 13 and 14,
their access right is applicable to the area of the country to which the PLMN belongs.
 Subscribers with the access level 11~15 have a higher access priority than those with the
access levels 0~9.
 The access level control parameter consists of 16 bits: C0-C15, which respectively
corresponds to 15 access levels in bit mapping mode (C10 is used for permitting
emergency call). When a bit is 1, it indicates not to allow MS with the corresponding level
to access then cell. Otherwise it indicates to allow the access.

 For MS with common access control class 0~9, when “Emergent Call Disable” is “Yes”, it
indicates not to allow an emergency call.
 For MS with access levels 11~15, the emergency call will not be allowed only when the
corresponding access control class bit is set to “0” and “Emergent Call Disable” is set to
“Yes” at the same time.


 In GSM network, MS’s service capability, supported band, power capability, encryption
capability and so on are described by classmarks. There are three classmarks which are
classmark1, classmark2 and classmark3. The network can know the MS’s capability by
checking the classmarks of the MS. After receiving the class mark enquiry message, MS
will send classmark change message to the network as soon as possible. CM3 (Classmark 3)
includes the information about MS power, multiband and/or multislot capability. To
perform handover between different bands, the power level must be described correctly.
In the process of paging and sending of the BA2 information between different bands, the
CM3 message must be known.
 Note:
 1) ECSC is invalid for single-band MS. For dual-band MS, when ECSC is not used, after the
MS sends EST IND , MSC will still send the CLASSMARK REQUEST message, and MS will
response with the CLASSMARK UPDATE message, and other functions are not affected.
For the dual-band MS, when this parameter is set to Yes, the connection time between
different MS will be obviously shortened.
 2) When the encryption function is enable, The parameter must be set to "Yes".
 3) M900/M1800 hybrid cells sharing BCCH are advised to be configured as "yes", and
M1800 cells in dual-band network are advised to be configured as “yes".


 Class mark update flow.

 For dual-band MS, after the SCCP connection is established and before receiving message
“CM service Accepted”, there will be a classmark update flow. Classmark is originated by
MSC. MSC will send one “Classmark Request” message, then BSC will convert this
message into “Classmark Enquiry”. This is classmark request. Then MS will send one
“Classmark Change”, and convert it into “Classmark Update” at BSS. MSC can get the MS
Classmark 3 via this message. Here the “Classmark Update” is to make MSC get MS
Classmark 3. CR message reports the information of Classmark 2. And in the classmark
update flow, MS will report Classmark 3 information which is related to the dual-band
capability. Therefore, MSC needs classmark update to get the MS Classmark 3.



 This parameter is valid only if IMMASSEN is set to YES or CSFBIMMASSENSW is set to ON.
To prevent the TCH congestion rate from increasing, it is recommended that this
parameter be set to a value less than or equal to the value of TCH Traffic Busy Threshold.
 Setting ImmTchLoadThres to an appropriate value can reduces impacts on the channel
congestion rate.


 In TCH assignment process, if there is no TCH available, hand over can take place instead
of assignment, and this is called direct retry.
 Direct retry is not a main measure to solve traffic congestion. Instead, it is only an
emergency operation during traffic peak in local radio network.
 If direct retry takes place frequently in a certain part of the radio network, it is necessary to
adjust BTS TRX configuration and even the network layout.


 Directed Retry
 Meaning: Whether to enable a directed retry. The directed retry is to hand over an
MS to a neighboring cell in the same procedure as the handover. The directed retry
is an emergency measure applicable to abnormal traffic peaks in some areas of a
radio network. You should not use the directed retry as a major means of solving
traffic congestion. If the directed retry always occurs in some areas of a network,
consider adjusting the sector and TRX configuration and the network layout.
 GUI Value Range: NO(No), YES(Yes) Actual Value Range: NO, YES
 Unit: None Default Value: None Recommended Value: YES
 Assignment Cell Load Judge Enable
 Meaning: When this parameter is set to ENABLE, if the cell supports direct retry
and the current cell load is equal to or larger than the value of Cell direct retry
forbidden threshold in SET GCELLOTHEXT during the assignment, the BSC6900
continues with the direct retry procedure.
 GUI Value Range: DISABLE(Disable), ENABLE(Enable)
 Actual Value Range: DISABLE, ENABLE
 Unit: None
 Default Value: None
 Recommended Value: DISABLE

 Inter-cell HO Hysteresis
 Meaning: Reduces ping-pong handovers between cells on a same layer. This
parameter is invalid when cells are on different layers.
 GUI Value Range: 0~63
 Actual Value Range: 0~63
 Unit: dB
 Default Value: 4
 Recommended Value: In densely populated urban areas, the recommended value is
4; in the suburbs, the recommended value is 8.
 Directed Retry Handover Level Range
 Meaning: Maximum signal level difference between the neighbor cell and the
serving cell for triggering directed retry
 GUI Value Range: 0~128
 Actual Value Range: -64~64
 Unit: dB
 Default Value: 72
 Recommended Value: 72

 Once assigned with a dedicated channel, MS will start counter S. From then on, S will
decrease by 1 when a SACCH message fails to be decoded, and will increase by 2 when
decoded correctly. When S decreases to 0, there will be a radio link failure. This allows
either re-establishment or release of the connection. If the value of this parameter is too
small, the radio link will easily get failed which will result in call drops. If it is too large, MS
will not release for a long time which will lower the availability of resources (this parameter
functions for the downlink).
 For area with little traffic (remote area), it is recommended to be between 52~64.
 For area with light traffic and large coverage(suburb or countryside), it is recommended to
be between 36~48.
 For area with heavy traffic (urban), it is recommended to be between 20~32.
 For the area with very heavy traffic (area covered by microcell), it is recommended to be
between 4~16.
 For the cell with obvious coverage hole or the area where the call drops is serious during
movement, this parameter can be increased appropriately in order to increase the
possibility to resume the conversation.
 Note: Radio link timeout is the parameter used to judge the downlink failure. Likewise, the
uplink will be monitored at BTS, either based on the uplink SACCH error or based on the
receiving level and quality of the uplink.

 If cell A and B are adjacent to each other, assume that one MS moves from point P to
point Q during a conversation, usually an outgoing cell handover will occur. If the value of
parameter “radio link timeout” is too small and the quality of signal at the edge of cells A
and B is poor, the radio link will time out before the handover occurs, thus resulting in call
drops.

 Because the robustness of the AMR voice frames is not at the same level with that of
SACCH frames, the GSM specification only improves the robustness of the AMR voice
frames but not that of the SACCH frames. Therefore, the actual coverage capability of
AMR is determined by the coverage capability of the SACCH.
 In application, the data——[RLT] and [SACCH Multi-Frames] should be set to higher values
for AMR channels to increase the robustness of the SACCH. Thus the network coverage
performance of AMR is improved and the call drop rate is reduced.
 "Robustness" indicates the anti-interference capability. Protocols in 3GPP R6 version
provide several new technologies to enhance the robustness of the SACCH. The problem
about low robustness of the SACCH is expected to be solved with the evolution of
technologies.

 In the immediately assignment flow/assignment flow/handover flow, if the parameter “SA

Multi-frame Counter Optimization Switch” is set to “ON”, SACCH multi-frame counter
will be start while the BTS complete the Um radio link establishment and send “Establish
indication” command to BSC. If the parameter “SA Multi-frame Counter Optimization
Switch” is set to “OFF”, SACCH multi-frame counter will be start while the BTS receives
“Channel Activation” command from BSC.
 Every time BTS fails to decode the MR sent from MS, this timer decreases by 1;
 Every time BTS succeeds to decode the MR, this timer increases by 2.
 When this timer reaches 0, BTS judges that the uplink radio connection fails, then
BTS sends a radio connection failure message to BSC.
 This parameter and the radio link timeout (RLT) are used to judge the uplink/downlink
radio connection failure.




 Whether to allow call re-establishment. Burst interference or blind spots (e.g. the cell has a
dead zone at a fixed position), due to high buildings may lead to a radio link failure. If a
call drop is caused by such a failure, the MS can start call re-establishment to resume the
conversation. The network has the right to decide whether to re-establish or not. This
function is achieved by setting “Call Re-establishment Forbidden”.
 If this parameter is set to NO, the average call drop rate decreases. This setting is
applicable in suburbs or urban areas with poor coverage. Call reestablishment, however,
may take a long time. Therefore, the subscriber may hang up the phone before the call is
re-established. Generally, the recommended value is YES. Therefore, the re-establish of call
not only fails to achieve the target, but also waste a lot of radio resources. For this reason
for some special cells, it is not permitted to re-establish the call on the network.

 BSIC is transmitted on Synchronous Channel (SCH) of each cell. Its functions are as below:
 1. If MS have read SCH, it is considered as being synchronous with that cell. However, to
correctly read the information on the downlink common signaling channel, MS must get
the TSC (Training Sequent Code) that is adopted by the common signaling channel.
According to GSM specification, TS (Training Sequent) has eight fixed formats, which are
represented by TSC ranged 0~7 respectively. TSC number adopted by common signaling
channel of each cell is just the BCC of the cell. So one of the functions of BSIC is to inform
MS of the TSC adopted by the common signaling channel of the cell.
 2. Since BSIC attends the coding process of information bits in random access burst, it can
be used to prevent the BTS from accepting a RACH transmitted from MS in a neighbor cell
as the access signal from the MS of the serving cell.
 3. When MS is in dedicated mode, it must measure the BCCH level of the neighbor cells
and report it to BTS according to BA2 that is sent on SACCH, including their respective
BSIC. In special circumstance, when there are two or more cells using the same BCCH in
the neighbor cells, BSC can use BSIC to distinguish these cells and avoid wrong handover
or even handover failure.
 4. MS must measure the BCCH signals of neighbor cells in dedicated mode, and report the
results to the network. Since MS sends measurement report which contain the
Descriptions of a maximum of 6 neighbor cells each time, it is necessary to control MS to
report only the cells which have neighbor relationships with the serving cell. The NCC is
used for the above purpose. Network operators can use parameter “ NCC Permitted” to
control MS to report the neighbor cells with NCC permitted in the serving cell only.

 In working status, MS needs to measure adjacent cells BCCH signals and report them to
network. But each report can only include a maximum of six adjacent cells. Thus it is
necessary to make MS only report the potential target cells for handover, instead of
reporting all according to the signal level (usually MS does not report the signals of cells
from other GSM PLMN). The above function can be implemented by making MS only
measure the cells whose NCC are selected. Parameter “NCC Permitted” lists the NCCs of
the cells that the MS needs to measure.
 BSIC is transmitted continuously on SCH of each cell and the higher three bits of BSIC are
NCC. MS only needs to compare the measured NCC of the adjacent cell with parameter
NCC Allowed. If it is allowed, MS will report it to BTS, otherwise it will discard the
measurement result.
 Note: Improper setting of this parameter will lead to lots of call drops.

 When the value is “0”, MS will report measurement results of six strongest adjacent cells
no matter which band they are in. When it is “X(X<=3)”, MS will report measurement
results of X strongest adjacent cells in each band other than the serving band, and the
remaining positions are used to report the strongest ones in the serving band. If there are
still some position left, MS will use them to report the left strongest cells no matter what
band they are. If there are no special requirements on different bands and the traffics in
the various bands are basically the same, “0” is recommended. When the traffics on
various bands are obviously different from each other and MS is expected to enter a band
preferably, “3” is preferred. When traffics on various bands are slightly different from
each other, “1” or “2” is recommended.
 In the initial stage of dual-band network, the traffic of GSM1800 system is very light,
usually dual-band MS are expected to work on this band preferably. Therefore, the priority
of GSM1800 cells for HO should be higher than that of GSM900 cells, and “3” is
recommended for MBR.
 Note: In the single-band system, the MBR parameter does not exist.
 (For details, see the GSM Rec. 05. 08)

 S is a GSM900 cell, cells A~H are adjacent to cell S. Of them, A and B are GSM1800 cells
and others are GSM900 cells. The above diagram shows the influences of different MBR
parameters as follows:
 1)When MBR = 0, MS will report six adjacent cells with strongest signals without
considering the bands, the report result is: C, E, B, H, F, D.
 2)When MBR = 1, the result is: C, B, E, H, F, D.
 3)When MBR = 2, the result is: C, E, B, A, H, F.
 4)When MBR = 3, the result is: C, E, H, B, A, F (3 GSM1800 cells should be reported. But
there are only 2 currently, so 2 GSM1800 cells are reported. For the rest, GSM900 cells
will be reported).

 In a non-synchronized handover, an MS keeps sending Handover Access Burst messages

(usually, the value of timer T3124 is 320 ms) to the network. When detecting these
messages, the BTS returns a Physical Information message to the MS through the main
DCCH (FACCH) channel, starts timer T3105, and sends a MSG_ABIS_HO_DETECT message
to the BSC.
 The BTS includes the information of different physical layers in the Physical Information
message, thus ensuring correct traffic transmission for the MS. If the timer timeouts before
a SAMB frame is received from the MS, the BTS retransmits the Physical Information
message to the MS.
 For details, see protocols 08.58 and 04.08.

 When BTS sends physical information to the MS, the BTS starts the timer T3105. If the
timer T3105 times out before receive the SAMB frame from MS, BTS re-sends physical
information to MS and restarts the timer T3105. The maximum times for re-sending
physical information is Ny1.
 The physical information is sent through FACCH, which is sent every four TDMA frames
and takes 18 ms. If the value of T3105 is smaller than or equal to 18 ms, then BTS should
re-send the physical information to the MS when the timer T3105 times out for the first
time. This timeout is meaningless if the physical information sent at the previous time is
not sent on the FACCH because the time is shorter than a FACCH period. Considering the
previous factors, 20 ms is the reasonable minimum value for this parameter. At present,
the default value of this parameter is 70 ms.


 In order to monitor the communication quality of radio link and conduct power control,
both MS and BTS must have measuring function. But the measurement will encounter
some problems when several independent functions of GSM specification are combined
for use. First, GSM specification allows BCCH frequency to attend frequency hopping
(excluding the BCCH timeslot); secondly, GSM specification allows to conduct downlink
power control for the frequency hopping channel; lastly, the power of BCCH frequency is
not allow to be changed because MS needs to measure the signal level of the adjacent
cells. In the above conditions, the downlink power control of a channel can only be
applicable to a subassembly of the frequency assembly that the channel is using, that is,
the BCCH frequency during the frequency hopping process cannot be power-controlled. If
MS measures the downlink channel level in ordinary mode, the measurement result
involving the BCCH frequency will be inaccurate for the power control. To reduce the
influence of this problem upon power control, MS is required to deduct the receiving level
value obtained from the timeslot of BCCH carrier when calculating the average value of
receiving level during frequency hopping. To make MS execute the above operation, the
parameter “PWRC” should be set as “yes” in the system.
 This parameter is a cell option in system messages 3 and 6.

 The dual timeslot extended cell combines two timeslots to provide sufficient delay.
Theoretically, a maximum TA value of 219 (63+156) is supported, i.e., the maximum
coverage radius can be 120km theoretically. Dual timeslot extended cell can be divided
into two types: Cell level and TRX level. Versions after 03.1120A (BTS 00.1130A and latter)
support TRX level dual timeslot extended cell.
 For dual timeslot extended cell, MAX TA should be set as 219, or calls may fail even there
are good signals. For the TRX where the main BCCH/SDCCH/GPRS are located, the
concentric circle (HW_IUO Property) must be set as overlaid subcell, or a prompt of error is
displayed. For dual timeslot TRXs in the dual timeslot extended cell, only the even timeslots
are effective, while the normal TRXs in the dual timeslot extended cell are the same with
the TRXs in normal cell, i.e. eight timeslots are all effective. The RF hopping of dual
timeslot extended cell is similar to that of normal cell. But if the hopping mode of the dual
timeslot extended cell is baseband hopping, the identical MA group should be applied to
TRXs of the same type (either all dual timeslot TRXs or all normal TRXs), or a prompt of
error is displayed.


 When the TCH is idle mode, BTS measures the uplink signal strength and sort the results
into different interference bands and then sends them to BSC. BSC will use these data as a
basic criteria to allocate the channels. Interference can be divided into six grades according
to the interference signal strength. The signal level used to define the grades is called
inference band threshold. Based on these interference band thresholds, BTS can know
which band the current interference belongs to, and send it to BSC via radio resources
indication messages.
 In the traffic statistics system, we can register “interference band” in cell measurement
function. Interference band 1 to 5 are supported. The definition of the interference bands
are listed below.
 Interference band 1 means the interference intensity is below interference band
threshold 1;
 Interference band 2 means the interference intensity is between interference band
threshold 1 and 2;
threshold 2 and 3;
threshold 3 and 4;
 Interference band 5 means the interference intensity is above interference band
threshold 4.
 Because interference band threshold 0 is too weak and interference band threshold 5 is
too strong, they are not adopted by the traffic statistics system.


 This parameter is valid only if “Interference Band Algorithm Enhance Switch” is set to ON.
Otherwise, then BTS will sends the average interference level and interference band to
BSC.

 DTX has very limited influence on the conversation quality. But its application has two
advantages: one is that the interference on radio channel is effectively reduced and a
better average conversation quality can be achieved; the other is that DTX can
considerably reduce the power consumption of MS. Therefore DTX is recommended on
the network.
 According to the protocol, MS reports BTS with two kinds of measurement report. One is
called full measurement report. It will average the levels and qualities of 100 timeslots in
the whole measurement cycle (one measurement cycle involves 4 TCH-multi-frames except
idle frames). The other is called sub measurement. It averages the levels and qualities of 12
timeslots, including eight “consecutive” TCH bursts and four SACCH bursts.
 According to GSM specification, both BTS and MS should conduct this two kind of
measurement (FULL and SUB) no matter whether the uplink/downlink DTX of the system is
activated or not. Each measurement report of SACCH indicates whether DTX is active or
not. According to this indication, BTS can make the right selection, either FULL or SUB.
(see GSM Rec. 05.08)



0 Omo133000 Bsc6900 GSM v9r11-r16 Ms Behaviors in Idle Mode

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0 Omo133000 Bsc6900 GSM v9r11-r16 Ms Behaviors in Idle Mode

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GSM MS Behaviors in Idle Mode

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 System information reception

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 Control channel description includes the following parameters

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 SI4 rest octets contains the following parameters:

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 Corresponding to System Information 2 (System Information 2 describes BA1),System

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(See GSM Rec. 0408)

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(See GSM Rec. 0408)

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 There are table BA1 and table BA2.

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 C2=C1+CRO-TO*H(PT-T) When PT is not equal to 31:

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 There are three kinds of location update

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 Case 2 of Abnormal Occasion:

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