6/5/2017

GSM MS Behaviors in Idle Mode

 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
Access is the procedure that the MS switches from idle mode to connected mode.

1. Channelization:
2. ARFCN
890 – 915, 935 – 960
1710 – 1785, 1805 - 1880
6/5/2017

 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.
6/5/2017
 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’ssecond byte Format ID (bit8, bit7, bit4, bit3, bit2).
 These RACH control parameters include:
 Maximum re-transmittingtimes (MAX retrans)
 Extended transmission timeslots (Tx_integer)
 Common access control level (AC)
 Call reestablishment Forbidden
 Emergency call disable (EC)
 6/5/2017

 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)
 6/5/2017

 When MS is powered on, it will try to search a GSM PLMN. MS will select an  When MS is powered off, the BCCH carrier information of serving cell and BA
appropriate cell and it will read the cell parameters. This process is cell selection. The table will be stored in the MS . The MS will search the BCCH carriers from the
“appropriate cell” is restricted by many factors, such as whether the cell belongs to the stored list at first when it is powered on again.
selected network (under manual network selection mode), the cell status ( CBA ), cell  If the stored list cell selection process is failed, the MS will start the normal cell
selection priority ( CBQ ), access level of MS ( Common access control level ) and selection process.
coverage of radio channel (C1). Among the factors, the quality of radio channel is
most important factor of cell selection. GSMspecification defines a parameter as 3 conditions for cell selection:
path loss principle C1. The appropriate cell must fulfill the condition of C1>0. C1 is Right PLMN, c1>0 for 5s & cell priority (CBA & CBQ)
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, 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.
6/5/2017
 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
consideringthe PLMN. The MS is entered the emergency call mode (service bar
mode). Meanwhile, the MS keeps on monitoring all RF channels.
Remark:

 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.
MCC=636 & MNC=01
IMSI=MCC+MNC+MSIN
6/5/2017
• 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.
• POWER_OFFSET indicates PWRDIV (unit: dBm) of the MS. The setting of
the PWRDIVIND parameter determines whether PWRDIV takes effect.
• 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.
6/5/2017
 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 supportingpower level.
 Since SACCH is associated signalingchannel, 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.
 6/5/2017

In a GSM900 cell, the maximum power control level of an MS ranges from

0 to 19, corresponding respectivelyto the following values (unit: dBm): 43,
41, 39, 37, 35, 33, 31, 29, 27, 25, 23, 21, 19, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, and
5.Generally, the maximum transmit power supported by an MS is level 5
(corresponding to 33 dBm). The minimum transmit power supported by an
MS is level 19 (correspondingto 5 dBm). Other transmit power levels are
reserved for high-power MSs.
 In a GSM1800 or GSM1900 cell, the maximum power control level of an

MS ranges from 0 to 31, corresponding respectivelyto the following values

(unit: dBm): 30, 28, 26, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0,
0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 36, 34, and 32. Generally, the maximum transmit
power supported by an MS is level 0 (corresponding to 30 dBm). The
minimum transmit power supported by an MS is level 15 (corresponding to
0 dBm). Other transmit power levels are reserved for high-power MSs.

 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)

 6/5/2017

 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 priorityof the cell.
Usually the prioritiesof 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 networkoptimization 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.

 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.
6/5/2017
 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 appropriatelyto make MS not to reselect cell A.
 6/5/2017

 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.
 6/5/2017

 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.

MML: SET GCELLCCBASIC


 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.
6/5/2017
 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)

 This parameter is to inform MS whether C2 is used as the standard for cell
reselection. The minimum interval between cell reselectionscaused 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.
6/5/2017
 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 specificationsdefine 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 signalingload 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 overlappingcoverage of the adjacent cells belonging to different
LAC are wide, it is recommended to increase the value of cell reselection
hysteresis.
 6/5/2017

 There are three kinds of location update

 Generic/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.
 6/5/2017

 IMSI Attach/Power ONN is triggered by MS attachment to the network.

When the MS is powered on, the MS read the parameter “ATT” and “LAI” from
broadcasted system information.
 If “ATT= yes”, regardless the LAI identical or not, the MS will perform
attachment to the network, and the network will modify relevant flag of
MS status to “poweron” state. This is considered as one time of location
update. When the MS is switched off, a detachment process will be
triggered for changing the MS status to “power off” state.
 If “ATT= no”, MS will do the comparison between the new broadcasted
LAI and the current LAI stored in MS. If the LAIs are different, MS
will trigger one location update. Otherwise, no action will be triggered.
No detachment process will be triggered when MS is switched off.

 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.
Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission
 6/5/2017

 The bigger yellow clock is the timer in MSC side, which is called “implicit 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.
 Normally the timer in MSC side should be at least 2 times bigger as T3212, the
recommended value is 3 times bigger, so as to give the MS more chances to
perform a successful location update.
 6/5/2017

• LU not ACK due to no SD, ATT Allowed=N


 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.
6/5/2017
 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.
 Same LAC: OFF->ON & Y->N : No action, No detachment, Still off but physically
ON, conn processed ; ON->OFF & Y->N: No action, No LU, No detachment
 Different LAC: Y->N : off, LU=Yes, No detachment & N->Y: OFF & LU will be
processed
 6/5/2017

 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.
 6/5/2017

 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 signalingis 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.

 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.
 Atoo small value for this parameter makes MSs easily to access but the call drop
rate may rise.
 Atoo big value for this parameter may cause some MSs unable to make calls.
6/5/2017
 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.
 Atoo small value for this parameter makes MSs easily to access but the call drop
rate may rise.
 Atoo big value for this parameter may cause some MSs unable to make calls.
 6/5/2017

 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 correspondingaccess control class bit is set to “0” and “Emergent Call Disable” is set
to “Yes” at the same time.
 6/5/2017

Dynamic SDCCH Allow?  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
Same as TCH Imm ass but it is better b/c 1 TCH can be used by 8 users as SD for emergency operation during traffic peak in local radio network.
signaling,…from serving cell  If direct retry takes place frequently in a certain part of the radio network, it is
necessaryto adjust BTS TRX configuration and even the network layout.
 6/5/2017

 Once assigned with a dedicated channel, MS will start counter S. From then on, S  If cell A and B are adjacent to each other, assume that one MS moves from point
will decrease by 1 when a SACCH message fails to be decoded, and will increase by 2 P to point Q during a conversation, usually an outgoing cell handover will occur. If
when decoded correctly. When S decreases to 0, there will be a radio link failure. the value of parameter “radio link timeout” is too small and the qualityof signal at the
This allows either re-establishment or release of the connection. If the value of this edge of cells A and B is poor, the radio link will time out before the handover
parameter is too small, the radio link will easily get failed which will result in call occurs, thus resulting in call drops.
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.

 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.
6/5/2017
 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 signalingchannel. 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 signalingchannel 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. Networkoperators
can use parameter “ NCC Permitted” to control MS to report the neighbor cells with
NCC permitted in the serving cell only.
 6/5/2017

 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 considerablyreduce 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, includingeight “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 DTXof 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.
6/5/2017