Admission Control

Nokia - Admission Control

Task of Radio Admission Control
Radio Admission Control Introduction (1/3)

• Scope of RAC is cell level

• RAC algorithms controls establishment of
– Signaling radio bearer
– Data Radio Bearer
• RAC controls number of UE in a cell
– Number of established RRC connection per cell
– Number of active UEs (users) per cell
• RAC controls number of DRB in a cell DRB: Data Radio Bearer
SRB: Signalling Radio Bearer
– Number of data radio bearers (DRB)
– Number of DRB with QCI=1
• RAC controls emergency calls and emergency sessions
– Special margin considered for emergency calls
– Special margin considered for IMS emergency sessions
Radio Admission Control Introduction (2/3)

• RAC applies different criteria for call estblishment and Mobility (HO)

– offset in terms of number of rrc connections or active users used, etc

– aim is to keep the already established sessions active and support user mobility

• RAC interacts with other RRM entities

– Packet Scheduler
– Mobility management
– Radio Bearer Management
– UE State Management

• RAC acts based on events like:

– paging
– Handover Request
– Call establishment request
Radio Admission Control Introduction (3/3)
• Smart Admission Control
Service management
– Necessity when offering high bit rate services High RB requests with
– Configuration of access control threshold per cell simplified for GBR congestion control by using of
priority and smart admissions
traffic
Rejected UE requests due of too
– RAC reacts on measurements and therefore is adapted in a dynamic high RB utilization
way ▪ Only for QCI 2-4 S-RAC
▪ Not for VoIP
– Congestion control function allows more optimistic admission
decisions, and the system corrects overbooking situations using
preemption according to priorities (Radio) Descriptions / Objective:
• ARP based admission Control To admit or to reject the
requests for esta0blishment of
– Prioritize the availability of different services Radio Bearers (RB) on a cell
basis
▪ Lower availability services may be offered without jeopardizing
higher available services Based on number of RRC
connections and number of
▪ ‘Must’ availability services like emergency sessions need no active users per cell and
dedicated (reserved) resource allocation and retention priority
– Dynamic adaptation of resources to actual need (ARP)

ARP = Allocation and retention/maintenance Priority

Smart Admission control

• S-RAC only for GBR traffic

to avoid congestion on ‘guaranteed’ resources
• Counter based RAC will not work in case of serving high bit rate users

Replaced by a measurement based function
• S-RAC predicts load required/caused by each new GBR radio bearer
– Reflecting requested transmission rates in UL/DL under given radio conditions
– Considering existing GBR load
• S-RAC offers congestion handling when overbooking of resources is
detected e.g.
– Radio conditions of high bit rate users getting worse
– Too optimistic admission was done
– Bursting traffic cannot be served over time.
Admission Control Algorithms
and Thresholds
Radio Admission Control

• RAC checks against operator configurable thresholds

– on Call Establishment:
▪ max_number_of_rrc_connection
▪ max_number_of_rrc_connection_emergency_calls
▪ max_number_of_active_users
▪ max_number_of_active_DRB
▪ max_number_of_QCI1_DRB

– on Intra-Frequency (incoming) Handover:

▪ additional offsets can be defined for
• time critical handover (event A5)
• handover desired for radio reasons (event A3)
▪ „all or nothing“ – SRB && DRB must be admitted in target cell
Admission of SRB1

• RAC compares the number of currently allocated RRC connections in the cell
against following parameter:

Name Range Default Description

0...840, step Maximum number of UEs in the cell with an

maxNumRrc 1 240 established RRC connection.
(420)* Note*: min(ulChBw,dlChBW) is set to value '20
(LNCEL)
MHz'

• Admission Control criteria for Signalling Bearer:

Number of currently established RRC connections < maxNumRrc
Admission of SRB1

if min(ulChBw,dlChBw) has value ' 5MHz' and '10 MHz'

- maxNumRrc value range is restricted to 0...480 (default value 240)
- maxNumRrc+max(addAUeRrHo, addAUeTcHo) <= 480

if min(ulChBw,dlChBw) has value '15 MHz ' and '20 MHz'

- maxNumRrc value range is restricted to 0...840 (default value 420)
- maxNumRrc+max(addAUeRrHo, addAUeTcHo) <= 840

addAUeRrHo
Additional # of active UEs, which are allowed
to access a cell via handover with HO cause:
"HO desirable for radio reasons", when RRC
connection (maxNumRrc) or active UE
(maxNumActUE) limit already reached.
LNCEL; 0...840;1; 15
addAUeTcHo
Additional # of active UEs, which are
allowed to access a cell via handover with
HO cause: "Time critical handover", when
RRC connection (maxNumRrc) or active
UE (maxNumActUE) limit already reached
LNCEL; 0...840;1; 20

„0“ implies that no admission priority is granted for UEs accessing the cell via HO
Admission of SRB1 for Emergency Call

• RAC compares the number of currently allocated RRC connections in the cell against following parameter:

Name Range Default Description

0...840, step Maximum number of UEs in the cell which

maxNumRrcEme 1 440 may establish a RRC connection for an
rgency (800)* emergency call.
(LNCEL) Note*: min(ulChBw,dlChBW) is set to value
‚15 MHz‚ or '20 MHz'

• Admission Control criteria for Signalling Bearer:

Number of currently established RRC connections <
maxNumRrcEmergency

Note: maxNumRrcEmergency should be greater than the actual configured threshold maxNumRrc
Admission of Single non-GBR radio bearer

• As part of the S1AP initial context setup, the bearer management function requests RAC to admit the
single non-GBR data radio bearer setup request for UEs for which the SRB1 and SRB2 have been
successfully established.
• RAC compares the number of currently UEs with established DRB in the cell against following
parameter:

Name Range Default Description

0...840, step Maximum number of UEs in the cell with

maxNumActUE 1 120 established DRB.
(240) Note: default 240 for 20MHz
(LNCEL)

• Admission Control criteria for non-GBR radio bearer:

number of currently active UEs < maxNumActUE

Admission of single non-GBR radio bearer

if min(ulChBw,dlChBw) has value '10 MHz'

- maxNumActUE value range is restricted to 0...480 (default value 120)
- maxNumActUE +max(addAUeRrHo, addAUeTcHo) <= 480

if min(ulChBw,dlChBw) has value '20 MHz'

- maxNumActUE value range is restricted to 0...840 (default value 240)
- maxNumActUE +max(addAUeRrHo, addAUeTcHo) <= 840

addAUeRrHo
Additional # of active UEs, which are allowed
to access a cell via handover with HO cause:
"HO desirable for radio reasons", when RRC
connection (maxNumRrc) or active UE
(maxNumActUE) limit already reached.
LNCEL; 0...840;1; 15
addAUeTcHo
Additional # of active UEs, which are
allowed to access a cell via handover with
HO cause: "Time critical handover", when
RRC connection (maxNumRrc) or active
UE (maxNumActUE) limit already reached
LNCEL; 0...840;1; 20
Admission of Multiple EPS bearers

• The bearer management function requests RAC to admit the Data Radio Bearer setup request for UEs for
which the SRB1 and SRB2 have been successfully established.
• RAC compares the number of currently established DRB in the cell against following parameter:

Name Range Default Description

0...4200, maximum number of established DRBs in the cell.

maxNumActDrb step 1 360
Note: default 720 for 20MHz
(720)
(LNCEL)
• Admission Control criteria for Multiple EPS bearers:

number of currently established DRBs < maxNumActDrb

LTE7: Support of multiple EPS bearers

Admission of Multiple EPS bearers

If dlChBw is set to '5 MHz' or '10 MHz'

- maxNumActDrb + max(addNumDrbRadioReasHo, addNumDrbTimeCriticalHo) <= 2400

If dlChBw is set to '15 MHz' or '20 MHz'

- maxNumActDrb + max(addNumDrbRadioReasHo, addNumDrbTimeCriticalHo) <= 4200

addNumDrbRadioReasHo
Additional margin for the maximum number of
active DRBs in the cell accessing the cell via
HO with HO-cause: "HO desirable for radio
reasons“.
LNCEL; 0...4200;1; 35
addNumDrbTimeCriticalHo
Additional margin for the maximum number
of active DRBs in the cell accessing the cell
via HO with HO-cause: "Time Critical HO".
LNCEL; 0...4200;1; 60
Admission of QCI1 Conversational bearers

• The bearer management function requests RAC to admit the data radio bearer setup request for UEs‘
conversational voice
• RAC compares the number of currently established QCI=1 DRB in the cell against following parameter:

Name Range Default Description

0...200, step
maxNumQci1Drb 100 Max Number QCI1 DRBs (GBRs)
1
(LNCEL)
• Admission Control criteria for QCI=1 Conversational EPS bearers:

number of currently established QCI=1 DRBs <

maxNumQci1Drb

LTE10: Conversational Voice

Admission of QCI1 Conversational bearers

If dlChBw is set to '5 MHz'

- maxNumQci1Drb + max( addNumQci1DrbRadioReasHo, addNumQci1DrbTimeCriticalHo)
<= 150,

If dlChBw is set different to '5 MHz'

- maxNumQci1Drb + max( addNumQci1DrbRadioReasHo, addNumQci1DrbTimeCriticalHo)
<= 200

addNumQci1DrbRadioReasHo
Additional margin for the maximum number of
active DRBs in the cell accessing the cell via
HO with HO-cause: "HO desirable for radio
reasons“.
LNCEL; 0...200;1; 15
addNumQci1DrbTimeCriticalHo
Additional margin for the maximum number
of active DRBs in the cell accessing the cell
via HO with HO-cause: "Time Critical HO".
LNCEL; 0...200;1; 20
Radio Bearer Management
• Main feature of RL20 is retrieval & utilisation of UE capabilities in RRM
– A Layer 3 RRC signaling procedure
– 3GPP TS 36.306 defines UE capabilities

UE eNB

RRC: UECapabilityEnquiry
Ue-RadioAccessCapRequest (eutra)

RRC: UECapabilityInformation
{(eutra, ueCapabilitesRAT-Container (UE-EUTRA-Capability)),
optional UE capabilitities for other RAT types}
Radio Bearer Management

• Radio Admission Control may select UL/DL maximum bitrates for a UE:
– based on UE capability information received from UE (mbrSelector=0)
– based on O&M parameters maxBitRateUl and maxBitRateDl
(mbrSelector =1)
mbrSelector
LNCEL; 0 (ueCapability), 1 (OaM) ; 0

• The max. Bitrate for a UE in UL & DL for all radio bearers incl. SRBs are
limited to O&M parameter setting:

maxBitRateDl maxBitRateUl
LNCEL; 50…300000kbps;50 ; LNCEL; 50…75000kbps;50 ;
170000 Kbps 50000 Kbps
Radio Admission Control for Intra-Frequency HO

• For LTE intra-frequency handover there can be separate admission control

thresholds defined depending on HO trigger cause:

– Time Critical Handover – flag is set when HO trigger is event A5 (urgency

is „high“ for coverage handover (event A5))

– Handover Desirable for Radio Reasons – flag is set when HO trigger is

event A3 (urgency is „low“ for power budget handover (event A3))

• Better to support the call with Handover rather than rejecting and/or dropping
Radio Admission Control for Intra-Frequency HO

Definition of new admission control threshold for time critical HO:

• HoThreshRrc = maxNumRrc + max(addAUeTcHo, addAUeRrHo)
• HoThreshUe = maxNumActUe + max(addAUeTcHo, addAUeRrHo)
• HoThreshDrb = maxNumActDrb + max(addNumDrbRadioReasHo, addNumDrbTimeCriticalHo)
• HoThreshGbr = maxNumQci1Drb + max( addNumQci1DrbRadioReasHo, addNumQci1DrbTimeCriticalHo)

If NumRRC < HoThreshRrc (SRB1 &2)

AND NumActUE < HoThreshUe (Single Non-GBR RB)
AND NumActDrb < HoThreshDrb (Multiple EPS bearers)
AND NumQci1Drb < HoThreshGbr (Conversational Voice)
then
admit HO request in target cell

Otherwise
reject HO request for target cell
Smart admission Control

• Smart Radio Admission Control

– Default: max 75% of PRBs (air transmission resources) available for GBR traffic

– RAC checks unchanged compared to RL40 maxGbrTrafficLimit

Maximum radio resource consumption
▪ Amount of RRC_Connections (SRBs) (PRBs) for GBR traffic in UL and DL
▪ Amount of active Ues LNCEL; 30... 90; 75
▪ Amount of active DRBs

– New addGbrTrafficRrHo
▪ Estimation of needed resources for GBR-DRBs Additional margin on the threshold
▪ Load measurements are base for admission decision "maxGbrTrafficLimit" in case of handover
for radio reasons.
▪ Max. amount of GBR-DRBs (CR ongoing) LNCEL; 0... 30; 5

addGbrTrafficRrHo
Additional margin on the threshold
"maxGbrTrafficLimit" in case of handover
for time critical reasons .
LNCEL; 0... 30; 10
Smart admission Control RL40

– GBR-DRB admission takes into account:

▪ Requested bit rate UL/DL (incl. corrections for header info, etc)
▪ Radio conditions derived from CQI information etc (=> transmission efficiency in bits/PRB)
▪ Current load in cell (available PRB resources)
▪ Configured threshold for GBR traffic
– Congestion Handling
▪ If GBR-traffic cannot be scheduled according to QoS requirements RAC is informed to select
candidates (with the help of ARP-AC) to be kicked out in order to free resouces.
– Emergency Handling:
▪ No resources reserved for emergency traffic, because this is handled by ARP-AC
Smart admission Control RL40

Estimate throughput capacity

• eNodeB estimates throughput per User requested GBR

capacity efficiency; kbit/s possible per
RB from CQI / SINR
Calculate required RB
• eNodeB knows GBR requested by new
user

• eNodeB calculates from efficiency

number of RBs to fulfill requested GBR no
Is # PRBs required less
than PRB max –
reserved ?

Refer to ARP for

GBR-DRB request is admitted when; possible pre-emption
yes
k
( PRBi  PRBnew)  PRB max  PRBres Admit bearer

i 1

grossreqbitrate
PRBnew 
transm.efficiency
ARP Based Admission Control –RL40

• Basic rules for preemption (according to 3GPP)

– Priority Level
▪ Values between 1 and 14
▪ 1  highest priority; 14  lowest priority
▪ Only E-RABs with lower priority may be preempted
▪ Note: Value 15 is ‘no priority’ and correspond to preemption capability and vulnerability unset
– Preemption Capability maxNumPreEmptions
Limits the number of pre-emptions which
▪ If set, this E-RAB may preempt others the admission of a set of E-RABs may
– Preemption Vulnerability cause.
LNBTS; 1..32; 20
▪ If set, this E-RAB may be preempted by others
• LTE534 extension to 3GPP rules
– If preemption needed, useful and allowed, it shall happen
– Preemption done in order of decreasing priority level for vulnerable E-RABs
– Multiple vulnerable E-RABs with same priority, the most resource consuming shall be
preempted first
ARP Based Admission Control –RL40
• Examples
– Example 1: Single commercial operator
▪ Offered services:
• Background TCP-based data transfer (e.g. e-mail, ftp, ..)
• Foreground TCP-based data transfer (e.g. Web browsing, chat)
• Conversational video (live streaming)
• Conversational voice
• Emergency calls
– Proposed ARP Settings

Service Priority level Capability Vulnerability

Emergency calls 7 Y N

Conversational voice 10 Y Y

Conversational video 12 Y Y

Foreground data 12 Y Y

Background data 14 N y
ARP Based Admission Control –RL40
• Examples
– Example 2: Single commercial operator and one public safety (PS) operator
▪ Additional offered services compared to example 1 :
• PS Background TCP-based data transfer (e.g. e-mail)
• PS Foreground TCP-based data transfer (e.g. database access)
• PS Conversational voice
• PS Emergency calls
– Proposed ARP Settings

Service Priority level Capability Vulnerability

PS Emergency calls 2 Y N
PS Conversational voice 4 Y Y
PS Foreground data 5 Y Y
PS Background 6 Y Y
Emergency calls 7 Y N
Conversational voice 10 Y Y
ARP Based Admission Control –RL40

Emergency session handling

ARP based admission control for E-RABs means no reserved resources for IMS emergency session E-RABS are longer
necessary. Therefore, the eNB capacity for normal E-RABs can be used more effectively.

Values for ARP handling for emergency IMS sessions done on a per PLMN basis.

LNBTS managed object;

• emerSessArpPreemCap Whether a service data flow can get resources that were already assigned to another service
data flow with a lower priority level.
• emerSessArpPreemVul Defines whether a service data flow can lose the resources assigned to it in order to admit a
service data flow with higher priority level.
• emerSessArpPrioLev For emergency sessions, only ARP priority levels 1-8 may be applied
Huawei - Admission Control
Huawei Admission Control - Overview

• During admission control, an eNodeB decides whether to accept a guaranteed bit rate (GBR) service request (either new
service or handover) based on
➢ the physical resource block (PRB) usage and
➢ the quality of service (QoS) satisfaction rate of GBR services.

• During congestion control, the eNodeB controls system load to ensure a high overall QoS satisfaction rate and stable
system operation.

Benefit
• Load control maintains system stability by rejecting certain admission requests or releasing some admitted services,
while maximizing resource usage.
• Load control ensures the quality of admitted services by controlling the cell load. It also provides the required QoS for
individual radio bearers and maximizes cell capacity.
Admission Control

Radio-resource-based admission control is categorized into user admission and service admission
• When a piece of user equipment (UE) requests access to a network, that is, when a UE requests setup of a radio
resource control (RRC) connection or requests an incoming handover, the E-UTRAN NodeB (eNodeB) performs the
user admission procedure
• When a UE that has accessed a cell requests a new service, that is, when a UE requests establishment of an E-UTRAN
radio access bearer (E-RAB) or requests an incoming handover, the eNodeB performs the service admission
procedure
User Admission

User admission Procedure :

1. The eNodeB checks whether the CPU resource is
limited. If the CPU resource is limited, the eNodeB
rejects the access request.
2. The eNodeB checks whether the sounding reference
signal (SRS) resource is successfully allocated.
3. The eNodeB checks whether the PUCCH resource is
successfully allocated. If the PUCCH resource allocation
fails, the eNodeB rejects the access request.
4. The eNodeB checks whether the number of users is
limited. If the number of admitted users has reached the
maximum or the licensed user number, the eNodeB
determines that the number of users is limited and the
admission fails.
5. For the user that is admitted by the eNodeB, if the UE
requests a service (that is, to establish an E-RAB), the
eNodeB performs the service admission procedure.
6. If the UE's access request is rejected by the eNodeB, the
UE can initiate a user preemption procedure.
User Admission - AcReservedUserNumber

• In user admission, UE numbers are reserved for privileged UEs to increase their admission success rates. Privileged
UEs include emergency UEs and high-priority UEs with a "highPriorityAccess" cause value in an RRC connection
establishment request. Other UEs are common UEs.
• The prioritized access to services of privileged UEs can be achieved based on user preemption. However, user
preemption is not allowed in some areas according to local regulations. Therefore, UE numbers are reserved for
privileged UEs to ensure the admission of these UEs.
• The UE numbers reserved for privileged UEs are controlled by the CellRacThd.AcReservedUserNumber parameter.

Actual Recomm
MO Parameter ID Meaning Value ended
Range Value
Indicates the UE numbers reserved for UEs initiating emergency calls and
high-priority UEs. If this parameter is set to 0, no UE number is reserved
CellRacThd AcReservedUserNumber for UEs initiating emergency calls and high-priority UEs. A non-zero value 0~30 0
of this parameter represents the maximum UE number reserved for UEs
initiating emergency calls and high-priority UEs.

• When the CellRacThd.AcReservedUserNumber parameter is set to 0, user-number-reservation-based admission

control is disabled. In this case, the eNodeB rejects the access requests of high-priority UEs when the number of
admitted users has reached the licensed user number
Service Admission

Non GBR service Admission:

• If the SRS or PUCCH resource allocation fails, the
eNodeB rejects the access request.
• If both the SRS resource allocation and the PUCCH
resource allocation are successful, the eNodeB accepts
the request. In the admission procedure, the eNodeB
does not check the UE capabilities or whether the cell is
congested, or make the admission decision based on the
QoS satisfaction rates.

GBR Service Admission

• If the SRS or PUCCH resource allocation fails, the
eNodeB rejects the access request.
• If both the SRS resource allocation and the PUCCH
resource allocation are successful, the eNodeB makes
the admission decision as follows:
➢ For an emergency call, the eNodeB accepts the request.
➢ For a non-emergency call, the eNodeB checks the UE
capabilities and whether the cell is congested, and then makes
the decision based on the QoS satisfaction rates.
Ericssons - Admission Control
Admission Control

The purpose of Admission Control is to control the admission of UEs and E-RABs in such a way that requested Quality of
Service can be achieved for the UE or E-RAB seeking admission, as well as for the UEs or E-RABs previously admitted.

Admission control can also be configured to reserve a share of system resources to be used only for privileged access, for
example emergency calls. By reserving system resources, the accessibility and mobility success rate increases for UEs and
bearers assigned with privileged access.

The following types of admission control are defined in the LTE basic system:
• Emergency Call Prioritization
• Transport Network Admission Control
Monitored System Resources (MSR)

To understand whether the RBS can admit a request, it considers its Monitored System Resources (MSRs),
as shown in figure below.
Each MSR represents the utilization of a system resource that potentially is a bottleneck in the RBS.
Moreover, the MSRrepresents the accumulated resource utilization from all admitted requests.
Admission Control - Parameter

MO Class Name Parameter Name Parameter Description Range and Values Default Value
AdmissionControl resourceReservationForPAState Activates or deactivates the Resource Reservation for ACTIVATED DEACTIVATED
Priviliged Access. DEACTIVATED

AdmissionControl nrOfRbReservationsPerPaConn Number of Radio Bearers to be reserved per privileged 0..10 4

access connection. This includes SRB1, SRB2 and DRBs.
AdmissionControl nrOfPaConnReservationsPerCell Number of privileged access connections to be reserved 0..20 1
per cell.
THANK YOU