Quality Based Handover

Feature Guide
 Quality Based Handover

Quality Based Handover

Version Date Author Reviewer Notes

Compared with UR14, there is no change

V1.00 2016/03/20 Feng Hong Wang Juntao
except software version.

© 2016 ZTE Corporation. All rights reserved.

ZTE CONFIDENTIAL: This document contains proprietary information of ZTE and is not to be disclosed or used
without the prior written permission of ZTE.
Due to update and improvement of ZTE products and technologies, information in this document is subjected to
change without notice.

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 Quality Based Handover

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Feature Attribute ............................................................................................... 4

2 Overview ............................................................................................................ 4
2.1 Feature Introduction ............................................................................................. 4
2.1.1 ZWF21-03-013 Quality Based Handover ............................................................. 4
2.2 License Control .................................................................................................... 5
2.3 Correlation with Other Features ........................................................................... 5

3 Technical Description ....................................................................................... 6

3.1 ZWF21-03-013 Quality Based Handover ............................................................. 6
3.1.1 Handling Strategy of the User Plane .................................................................... 6
3.1.2 Handling Strategy of the Control Plane ................................................................ 7

4 Parameters......................................................................................................... 8

5 Related Counters and Alarms .......................................................................... 9

5.1 Related Counters ................................................................................................. 9
5.2 Related Alarms .................................................................................................... 9

6 Engineering Guide .......................................................................................... 10

6.1 Application Scenario .......................................................................................... 10
6.2 Feature Activation Procedure ............................................................................. 10
6.3 Feature Validation Procedure ............................................................................ 12
6.4 Feature Deactivation Procedure......................................................................... 12
6.5 Impact on the Network ....................................................................................... 13

7 Abbreviation .................................................................................................... 13

8 Reference Document....................................................................................... 13

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FIGURES

Figure 6-1 Parameter Configuration Window 1 ..................................................................11

Figure 6-2 Parameter Configuration Window 2 ..................................................................11

TABLES

Table 2-1 License Control List ............................................................................................ 5

Table 4-1 Parameter List .................................................................................................... 8
Table 5-1 Counter List ........................................................................................................ 9
Table 6-1 Feature Validation Procedure.............................................................................12
Table 6-2 RNC Parameter List ...........................................................................................12

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1 Feature Attribute
RNC version: [ZXWR RNC V3.15.10.20/ZXUR 9000 V4.15.10.20]

Node B version: [ZXSDR V4.15.10]

Attribute: [Optional]

Involved NEs:
NE Name Related or Not Special Requirement

UE √ None

Node B √ None

RNC √ None

MSC - None

MGW - None

SGSN - None

GGSN - None

HLR - None
“√”: involved
“-”: not involved

2 Overview

2.1 Feature Introduction

2.1.1 ZWF21-03-013 Quality Based Handover

In an actual network, there may exist such a scenario: The quality of the pilot signal
hasn’t reached the threshold that is used to determine a coverage-based handover, but
the UE’s uplink quality is poor, the packet error rate is high, due to interference or the
difference in coverage scope between the service channel and the pilot channel. The
target SIR value has reached the maximum and power control cannot guarantee the

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UE’s QoS anymore. To avoid call drop, it is necessary to hand over the UE to other
inter-frequency cells.

ZTE RNC equipment detects a certain user’s uplink BLER. Once the uplink BLER cannot
guarantee the QoS and outer-loop power control has modified the target SIR to the
maximum SIR value allowed, the RNC will automatically initiate inter-frequency or
inter-RAT measurement to hand over the UE to an inter-frequency cell or an inter-RAT
cell that has a higher quality.

2.2 License Control

Table 2-1 License Control List

License Control Configured

Feature ID Feature Name Unit
Item NE

Quality Based Quality Based

ZWF21-03-013 RNC RNC
Handover Handover

2.3 Correlation with Other Features

1. Required Features

ZWF21-03-003 Inter-Frequency Hard Handover

ZWF21-03-004 Inter-RAT Mobility

ZWF21-03-110 Handover with LTE

2. Mutually Exclusive Features

None

3. Affected Features

None

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3 Technical Description

3.1 ZWF21-03-013 Quality Based Handover

This feature is controlled by the switch of RncUlBlerHoSwch (indicated by

URncFunction.rncUlBlerHoSwch)) in the RNC level and switch of UlBlerHoSwch
(indicated by UUtranCellFDD.ulBlerHoSwch) in the cell level. This feature is enabled only
when both of the switches are set to “On” and only available for DCH.

Whether to trigger a quality-based handover depends on the uplink BLER of a UE.

Whether the quality of BLER is good or poor is determined by the user plane. Triggering
a handover is performed by the control plane.

When RncUlBlerHoSwch and UlBlerHoSwch of the UE’s best serving cell are both open,
the user plane and control plane will perform the process according to the following
principles.

3.1.1 Handling Strategy of the User Plane

The user plane counts the uplink BLER of a UE periodically and detects the change of
SIRtarget. When the UE enters into BLER_BAD_Status or BLER_GOOD_Status based
on the uplink BLER, the user plane notifies the state of BLER to the control plane, and
the control plane executes the corresponding process according to “3.1.2 Handling
Strategy of the Control Plane”.

 If the following conditions are met, the UE enters into BLER_BAD_Status.

 Uplink BLER exceeds the threshold 1.25%;

 Uplink SIRtarget reaches the maximum SIRtarget (MaxSIRtarget) configured.

 If the following conditions are met, the UE enters into BLER_GOOD_Status.

 The current state of BLER is BLER_BAD_Status, but the uplink SIRtarget is

always less than the maximum SIRtarget (MaxSIRtarget) configured within the
duration of 400ms.

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Where, for the configuration principle of MaxSIRtarget, refer to ZTE UMTS Power
Control Feature Guide.

3.1.2 Handling Strategy of the Control Plane

When the control plane receives a notification of poor quality of BLER

(BLER_BAD_Status) for a UE from the user plane, the RNC regards it as a 2D event
reported.

 A blind handover attempt is performed if there are inter-frequency or inter-RAT

adjacent cells that cover the source cell.

 Compressed mode is initiated and a corresponding measurement control is initiated

if there is no inter-frequency or inter-RAT adjacent cell that covers the source cell or
a blind handover fails. A handover procedure is performed based on the signaling
quality reported by the UE.

Where,

 Whether the initiated compressed mode and measurement control is for the
inter-frequency handover or GSM inter-RAT handover or EUTRAN inter-RAT
handover is determined by the selection strategy of inter-frequency and
inter-RAT handover. For details, refer to ZTE UMTS Handover Control Feature
Guide and ZTE UMTS Handover with LTE Feature Guide.

 The handover events are generated in two ways: One is that the UE reports
the events directly. The other is that the UE reports the signaling quality of
cells periodically and the RNC determines whether the events are triggered.
For details, refer to ZTE UMTS Handover Control Feature Guide and ZTE
UMTS Handover with LTE Feature Guide.

When the RNC is waiting for the measurement report from the UE, if the user plane
notifies that the state of the uplink BLER is BLER_GOOD_Status, the RNC regards this
case as a 2F event reported, which means that the compressed mode should be
deactivated and the related measurement should be stopped. Because
BLER_GOOD_Status indicates that the UE’s QoS can be guaranteed in the current
frequency, the inter-frequency handover or inter-RAT handover is not needed.

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4 Parameters

Table 4-1 Parameter List

Recom
Parameter Value Default mende
GUI Name Parameter Description Unit
Name Range Value d
Value

This parameter indicates

the global handover switch
based on the uplink BLER.
RNC Switch If this switch is Off, the
URncFunct
for Handover function is disabled. If this 0: Off
ion.rncUlBl N/A 0: Off 1: On
Based on UL switch is On, the RNC 1: On
erHoSwch
BLER checks the cell-level switch
UlBlerHoSwch, and then
determines whether to
enable the function.

This parameter indicates

the handover switch based
on the uplink BLER. If the
switch is On, and the
UUtranCell UL BLER uplink BLER reaches a
0: Off
FDD.ulBler Switch for certain threshold N/A 0: Off 1: On
1: On
HoSwch Handover configured on the OMCR,
the RNC will start the
compressed mode and
perform inter-frequency
measurement.

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5 Related Counters and Alarms

5.1 Related Counters

Table 5-1 Counter List

Counter ID Name
Number of Inter-Frequency Handover Attempts for CS
C310332605
services due to UL DCH Quality
Number of successful Inter-Frequency Handover for
C310332616
CS services due to UL DCH Quality
Number of Inter-Frequency Handover Attempts for PS
C310332627
services due to UL DCH Quality
Number of successful Inter-Frequency Handover for
C310332638
PS services due to UL DCH Quality
Number of attempted outgoing CS inter-RAT handovers,
C310353198
due to UL DCH Quality
Number of successful outgoing CS inter-RAT handovers,
C310353206
due to UL DCH Quality
Number of attempted outgoing PS inter-RAT handovers,
C310353214
due to UL DCH Quality
Number of successful outgoing PS inter-RAT handovers,
C310353222
due to UL DCH Quality
Success Rate of RNC Inter-Frequency Outgoing Hard
300955
Handover
Cell Inter-RAT CS Outgoing Handover Success
300476
Rate(WCDMA->GSM)
Cell Inter-RAT PS Outgoing Handover Success
300478
Rate(WCDMA->GPRS)

300248 Ratio of all Call Drop

5.2 Related Alarms

This feature has no related alarm.

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6 Engineering Guide

6.1 Application Scenario

In an actual network, the UE’s uplink quality may be very poor due to the interference or
poor coverage of the service channel. The value of SIRtarget has reached the maximum,
and cannot be adjusted any more. However, the signaling quality of the P-CPICH hasn’t
reached the threshold that is used to determine a coverage-based handover. In this case,
the UE is still served in the current cell. Its QoS is not guaranteed and call drop may
occur. So, in such a scenario, it is recommended to enable this feature. The UE can be
handed over to other cells to improve the system performance.

6.2 Feature Activation Procedure

This procedure describes how to locate the parameters related to this feature in the GUI.
The parameter values on the screenshots in the procedure are for reference only. Refer
to Chapter 4 for the recommended values of the related parameters.

1. Set RNC Switch for Handover Based on UL BLER

In the configuration resource tree, select Modify Area > Managed Element > UMTS
Logical Function Configuration and set RNC Switch for Handover Based on UL
BLER, see the following figure.

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Figure 6-1 Parameter Configuration Window 1

2. Set UL BLER Switch for Handover.

In the configuration resource tree, select Modify Area > Managed Element > UMTS
Logical Function Configuration > UTRAN Cell and set UL BLER Switch for
Handover, see the following figure.

Figure 6-2 Parameter Configuration Window 2

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6.3 Feature Validation Procedure

Table 6-1 Feature Validation Procedure

Test Item Quality Based Handover

1. WCDMA system is ready.

2. Cell 1 and Cell 2 support HSUPA, HSDPA and DCH and they
belong to NodeB 1.
Prerequisite 3. Cell 1 and Cell 2 have different frequencies. Cell 1 and Cell 2
are adjacent cells with different coverage.
4. Activate the function of handover based on UL BLER for Cell 1.
5. UE 1 camps on Cell 1 in Idle mode.

1. UE 1 makes an AMR 12.2 kbps voice call to another UE or

PSTN in Cell 1. Hold the call.
2. UE 1 moves from Cell 1 to Cell 2 until the UP reports the power
Steps
control is invalid and the compressed mode is activated.
3. UE 1 moves close to Cell 2 to trigger event 2A and IFHO.
4. Release the voice call.

Expected 1. UE 1 performs the transmitted power based inter-RAT handover

Result successfully.

6.4 Feature Deactivation Procedure

Table 6-2 RNC Parameter List

Managed Object. Logic Name Default Value Deactivation

GUI Name
Value

RNC Switch for

Handover
URncFunction.rncUlBlerHoSwch 0: Off 0: Off
Based on UL
BLER

UL BLER
UUtranCellFDD.ulBlerHoSwch Switch for 0: Off 0: Off
Handover

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For the description and configuration of these parameters, refer to Section 6.2 Feature
Activation Procedure.

6.5 Impact on the Network

Advantages of this feature:

For a UE whose SIRtarget has reached the maximum and QoS still cannot be
guaranteed, the UE can be handed over to an inter-frequency or inter-RAT neighbor cell
that provides a higher service quality as soon as possible, which can guarantee its QoS
and decrease the call-drop rate.

Disadvantages of this feature:

None

7 Abbreviation
Abbreviation Full Name

BLER Block Error Ratio

DCH Dedicated Channel

QoS Quality of Service

RNC Radio Network Controller

SIR Signal to Interference Ratio

UE User Equipment

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

8 Reference Document
[1] ZXUR 9000 UMTS (V4.15.10.20) Radio Network Controller Radio Parameter
Reference

[2] ZXWR RNC (V3.15.10.20) Radio Network Controller Radio Parameter Reference

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[3] ZXUR 9000 UMTS (V4.15.10.20) Radio Network Controller Performance Counter
Reference

[4] ZXWR RNC (V3.15.10.20) Radio Network Controller Performance Counter

Reference

[5] ZTE UMTS Handover Control Feature Guide

[6] ZTE UMTS Handover with LTE Feature Guide

[7] ZTE UMTS Power Control Feature Guide

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