Security Level:

47pt

How to analyze Handover

Issues in DT

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HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential

Handover

What is…
• Handover procedure in network?
• Handover Um signaling flow?
• Purpose of Handover Analysis in DT?
Handover Procedure

Uplink MR (Measured by BTS)

•RXLEV Uplink
•RXQUAL Uplink
l •TA
DNeighbor
o
ow
Cell_1
L eve •Current BTS TX power
(Ne nlin Rx
ig k k
hbo RxL in
rs) eve nl r) d
l ow rve an
Neighbor
DServing
(S
e Cell2
mCell el
m HO
co
co v m
MS in dedicated mode
HO xLe m
an
R R d will continuously perform
n k kM
li in measurements on serving
Serving Cell
Neighbor Cell2 Up wnl
and neighbor cells.
o
cc eDss
u
o ver S
Measurement Reports
nd
Ha are sent to BSC and used
in the handover algorithm.
Downlink MR (Measured by MS) BSC
•Downlink RXLEV(Sever)
Serving BSC decides
•Downlink RXQUAL(Sever)
whether a handover is
•RXLEV_NCELL(n) on the 6 best
neighboring cells (+BSIC) necessary and send HO
command

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 3

Handover signaling on Um(TEMS Message)

Tell MS how to access to

Target TCH Channel

Target cell Description

Target channel Description
BCCH of Neighbors
to beServing Cell:
measuredChannel Type, Timeslot
TSC
DL DTX is ON
RF hopping
RxLev(sub) is -109+ 62 =--49dBm
MAIO,isHSN
RxQual (sub) 0

Handover Complete ≠ Handover Success!!!

The RxLev of
Neighbors
Only after SABM & UA
in Layer2 Message,
handover success! Inter cell Synchronous
Handover

Speech version: EFR

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 4

The purpose of Handover Analysis

The purpose of handover analysis in DT is

understand the wireless handover performance of network.

find out whether the handovers are healthy in this network.

what is typical handover failure in this network.

find out whether neighbor audit work is needed in this network.

To make optimization of HSR, the most effective way is based on

traffic analysis, combining DT events, neighbor audit, and data
configuration audit together.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 5

Handover Types

• Different handover types by network topology

• Different handover types by algorithm
• PBGT handover
• Quality handover
• Edge Handover
• Intracell Handover
• Other types of handover
Handover Types(Network Topology)
Operator

MSC MSC

BSC BSC BSC BSC

BTS BTS BTS BTS BTS BTS

CELL CELL CELL CELL CELL CELL CELL CELL

Synchronous
Asynchronous • Case1 Intra cell HO
Case 2 Case 4 Case 5 • Case2 Synchronous Inter cell HO
Case 1 Case 3
• Case3 Asynchronous Inter cell HO
• Case4 Inter BSC HO
• Case5 Inter MSC HO

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 7

Handover Types(Algorithm)

OM Forced HO

In DT, the most common
handover types happens in
following order of priority Directed Retry

 TA TA Emergency HO Edge HO
 RxQuality
 RxLevel Bad Quality HO Layer HO
 PBGT
 OL&UL
Rapid Level Drop HO PBGT HO

Interference HO Fast Moving MS HO

HO

Load HO Overlay/Underly HO

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 8

PBGT Handover

PBGT HO Exp: Serving Target
Cell Cell
When:
RXLEV_NCELL(n) – (RXLEVEL+
PWR_DIFF) > HO_MARGIN
HO_MARGIN > 0
MS is handed over to the RXLEV_NCELL(n)
neighboring cell .
RX LEVEL + PWR_DIFF

HO_MARGIN is usually set to 3 to
6 dB. PBGT Power-budget
HO

HO_MARGIN could be increased Distance
to reduce number of handovers.
HO_MARGIN should be
decreased if faster handover
decision is wanted.

PBGT Handover is considered as

most healthy handover in a
network. A typical PBGT HO

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 9

Quality Handover

Quality Handover Exp:

When:
DL RxQuality >= DL Quality HO
Threshold
handover caused by DL
RxQuality takes place.

When:
UL RxQuality >= UL Quality HO
Threshold
handover caused by UL
RxQuality takes place.

DL&UL Quality HO
Thresholds are generally
set to 6.
Handover was performed to a better quality
UL Quality HO can’t be cell just after experiencing quality problems.
monitored in DT.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 10

EDGE Handover

Edge Handover Exp:

When:
DL RxLevel < Edge HO DL
RX_LEV Threshold
handover caused by DL
RxLevel takes place.

When:
UL RxLevel < Edge HO UL
RX_LEV Threshold
handover caused by UL
RxQuality takes place.

UL EDGE handover can’t be

monitored in DT.
Handover was performed to the cell with
higher downlink Rxlev.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 11

Intracell Handover Based on Interference

The Intra–cell Handover

feature aims to maintain
good quality by performing
a handover to a new
channel within the same
cell when uplink or
downlink interference is
detected.

Interference is defined by
bad RxQual and high
enough RxLEV.

Intracell HO also can be

triggered by:
• Rate change between Full rate
and Half rate
• Handover between overlaid and
underlaid subcell. An example of intracell handover after
experiencing quality problems.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 12

Other types of handover

Other types of handover are not easy to judge or not easy to

encounter in DT test, for example :

TA handover

Directed Retry

Load handover

Rapid Level Drop HO

Fast Moving MS HO

For analysis of different types of handover or handover caused by

uplink, it is recommended by traffic analysis or single-user signaling
tracing.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 13

Handover Issues

What is …
•Dragged Handover
•Power Control Effect
•Ping–Pong Handover
•Missing Neighbor Relation
•Fake Neighbor
•Handover Failure
Dragged Handover
There will be such cases that you will notice handover process taking
place a little late, which is called dragged handover.

First thing to check will be handover

margins between the neighbors. If
margins for level, quality or power
budget handovers are not set
correctly, If margins are too much,
handover will happen late, vice
versa. A Quality handover
should happen earlier

Dragged handover events often

occur after a GSM serving cell loses
dominance for a significant time
period.

Dragged Handover often cause Call

Drop or Handover Failure.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 15

 Power Control Effect

Power Control Effect sometimes

may mislead us, you might think
that handover is happening too
Power control
late between two neighbors.

When the call is continuing on a

timeslot that belongs to
TCHTRX, power control feature
will try to reduce output power
as much as possible until a
quality problem occurs. That’s
why you will see serving cell
signal level is less than
neighbor’s level. It looks less
but in reality, the signal level on
BCCH TRX is still higher than
neighbors broadcasting level.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 16

 Ping-pong Handover
Ping-pong handovers occur when the MS is handed over from one cell to
another but is quickly handed back to the original cell.

The shot shows two ping-

pong handovers displayed on
the map along with the
Servering CI attribute. The
first ping-pong handover is
from cell 12424 to cell 12368
and back and the second is
from cell 12424 to cell 12366
and back. Changes in the
value of the CI is shown below
the route. It can be clearly Ping-pong HO
visualized by lines to cells
display.

For most cases, Ping-pong Handover is caused by no dominant cell. There was
a handover back to cell 12366 after the second ping-pong handover, but this was
outside of the defined window. The change in dominance after the handover was
9dB, which represents a much healthier handover.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 17

Missing Neighbor Relation
If a handoff is not performed to a neighbor cell that seems to be best
server, there is a possibility of a missing neighbor relation. This will
happen with sudden appearance of strong cell in the neighbor list
just after a handover.

The shot shows after

second handover in
the red box, a much
stronger Serving Cell
appears.

At this time Neighbor

audit should be
performed.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 18

 Fake Neighbor Relation

Sometimes you will see a

good handover candidate in
the neighbor list but
handover will not take place
and call will drop.

Although that neighboring

cell with a very good signal
level appears to be a
neighbor, in reality it is not.
Just because the serving cell
has another neighbor with
the same BCCH, this cell
appears in the list.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 19

Handover Failure
Handover Failure: Handover attempt was failed and the call returned back
to its all channel.

Target Cell is

BCCH is 13

BSIC is 65
Target channel is

900M RF hopping Channel.
Handover Failure

Half Rate

MA list is 1, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24

MAIOThe
is 4,handover has not
HSN is 31,
successfully

TSC is 5. completed yet!

Channel mode is AMR(SV3)
Handover Failure is
Another example: Excessive
caused by T200ofExpired
Number Handover
Failure due to Hardware Problem

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 20

Proposal of Handover Issue

•Dragged Handover
•Ping–Pong Handover
•Missing Neighbor Relation
•Handover Failure
Solutions of Handover Issues
Issue Proposal

Check if the parameter of handover, such as: PBGT, Quality, Interference,
Edge handover threshold, and P/N Value is set too high.
Dragged Handover
Check if there is no dominant coverage. Referring to the solution of Low
Coverage.

Check
Checkififthe traffic
there volume ofproblem.
is hardware target cell at measuring
Referring time. checking
to hardware
guide

Check if there is no dominant coverage. Referring to the solution of Low
Coverage.
Ping-pong

Check if the parameter of handover, such as: PBGT, Quality,
Handover
Interference, Edge handover threshold, and P/N Value is set too low .

Check if there is overlapping coverage area, which may also cause ping-
pong handover.

Neighbor Audit. Check if there is neighbor missing according to data
Missing Neighbor
configuration in OMC.

Find out the cause of Handover failure form Um signaling flow from
Layer2 and Layer3 Message.
Handover Failure

Check if the HSR between source and target cell is low. If it is, find the
root cause of handover failure reasons by traffic statistic analysis.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 22

Thank you
www.huawei.com