EUGAP #39

Bangkok, Thailand
6th – 8th November 2017

VoLTE Experience
Abdulrahman AlSindi
Network Engineer, PS-Core & MPBN
Agenda
• VoLTE trend
• Measuring the right KPIs?
• Tracing & troubleshooting
• Tweaks and fixes
• Recommendations
VoLTE Investments
Fast call setup

160

140 HD Voice
120

100
Efficient Radio
80 82 resources

60
55
46 enriched
40
25 30 communication
20
14
0
Jan (2015) Jul (2015) Oct (2015) Jan (2016) Apr (2016) Jul (2016) Multi Access
/Service
Investing Launched

IMS investments growing with VoLTE one of main drivers

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 3

Batelco VoLTE

40% of Batelco subscribers are on 4G

20% of LTE subscribers are VoLTE subscribers

Launched VoLTE with Apple

All IMS nodes are Ericsson, and recently updated to 17A

Geo-redundant IMS

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 4

Measuring the right KPIs ?
VoLTE R-KPIs and S-KPIs

Resource KPIs (R-KPIs) Service KPIs (S-KPIs)

› measure the performance of network › optimum points in network to measure
domains and network elements KPIs of VoLTE as overall service

› good indicators of system capability › provide a view of the Service Quality as

perceived by users
› used for troubleshooting

Integrity

Accessibility

Retainability

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 6

Service KPIs (S-KPIs)
Accessibility
› VoLTE / ICS Session Set-up Success Ratio [%]

› Attach Success Ratio [%] and IMS Initial Registration Success Ratio [%]

Retainability
› VoLTE/ICS Session Completion Ratio [%]

› SRVCC Access Transfer Success Ratio [%]

Integrity
› IMS / ICS Session Set-up Time [s]

› Attach / IMS Initial Registration time [s]

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 7

S-KPIs (Accessibility)

› VoLTE/ICS Session Set-up

Success Ratio [%]

› VoLTE Originating calls: SBG is first SIP aware node

› VoLTE Terminating calls: MMTel AS is a more reliable point for this KPI when considering potential
error cases on PS access and fallback to CS access

› ICS calls originating over CS access: SCC AS is the entry point to IMS for ICS calls

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 8

S-KPIs (Accessibility)

› IMS Initial Registration Success Ratio [%]

› SBG as the first SIP aware node is used for Registration KPI
› S-CSCF is used in this KPI to capture 3rd party registration

› Attach Success Ratio [%]

› The probability that the EPC generates and sends out a successful attach
response.
› MME is the recommended point for this KPI

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 9

Tracing and Troubleshooting
Tracing & troubleshooting
› OSS-RC Subscriber Trace application

› Basic tracing for SIP and HSS DIAMETER messages

› Doesn’t capture terminating calls if originating leg non VoLTE
› Limited protocol capture capability, no MEGACO, MAP, DNS, etc.
› No historical traces to investigate customer complaints

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 11

Tracing & troubleshooting
› Port Mirroring / Trace Server

› Temporary solution to provide troubleshooting capabilities for VoLTE

› Mirrored all IMS vlans on MPBN towards a server running a trace 24/7
› Disadvantages:
– large pcap files after commercial launch
– requires experience in IMS and Wireshark

IMS Site 1 IMS Site 2

Port mirror

Wireshark Trace Server Trace Server

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 12

Tracing & troubleshooting
› Ericsson Expert Analytics – VoLTE Call Browser (Expectations ..)

› Detailed e2e VoLTE events for individual calls

› Core and RAN events for both legs of the call
› pinpoint voice quality issues (garbled voice, silent calls, etc.)

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 13

Tweaks and Fixes
Ring Back Tone
› Ring back tone should be unified for subscribers across VoLTE and CS domains

› In Batelco case, VoLTE UE provided RBT was similar to NRBT in CS for international calls

› Some UE vendors will not provide tailored RBT based on Operators preferences

› Solution: MTAS: Implement Network Provided Ring Back Tone (NRBT)

A B
MTAS MRFP

Invite

RBT service enabled

Invite

183 Session Progress 183 Session Progress

P-Early Media: Inactive
180 Ringing
180 Ringing
Add [SDP A1]
183 Session Progress
P-Early Media: Send Only

Ring Back Tone played

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 15

IMS/DSC Diameter Redundancy
› The expected behavior of CSCF and MTAS is to reroute
traffic through DSC_2 if DSC_1 replies with one of the
below Diameter errors:
– TOO_BUSY
– UNABLE_TO_DELIVER
– LOOP_DETECTED
– OUT_OF_SPACE

› In case the rerouteDueToError is set to FALSE, the TSP

node does not re-route the message and user session fails.

› Solution
› CSCF & MTAS: rerouteDueToError FALSE TRUE

› CSCF: CXDestinationHost peer name NotConfigured

› MTAS: ShDestinationHost peer name EMPTY

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 16

SBG dynamic transport UDP/TCP

Internet

SIP Notify
> 1300Byte SBG

› IMS core sends SIP Notify to UE after RAT handover and during conference calls
› SIP notify is > 1300 Bytes
› If not delivered to the UE, user gets deregistered due to SIP timeout in S-CSCF

› Solution

› SBG
– Outgoing UDP Fragmentation attribute (towards Access)

If size > 1300Bytes

Always use UDP Use TCP as first try
If TCP fails use UDP

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 17

 Prepaid-Only Services

› Postpaid subscriber should not be allowed to dial prepaid services

numbers

› IMS network does not have the capability of Post/Prepaid specific

routing

› Solution: S-CSCF/ENS (External Network Selection)

SIP Invite P-Charging-function-Address Yes Prepaid

B-Party=111 =? RO.batelco.com Allow call

No

SIP 404 Not found

Postpaid
Error

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 18

VoLTE Prepaid Grace Period

› VoLTE Prepaid in Grace period (3 months) should still

be allowed to receive calls while in HPLMN

› When Ro triggered for terminating calls, OCS rejects

the call due to no balance

› Solution

› MTAS: Suppress charging trigger to OCS for VoLTE Prepaid terminating calls while in HPLMN

› Attribute: ChargingProfileSuppressTermChargingInHplmn

0=NONE 1=SUPPRESS_ONLINE_CHARGING

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 19

Provisioning without Entitlement Server

MME ADM EMA Weekly

server adaptation process

› Using ADM server for detecting new VoLTE capable UEs

› Adaptation in EMA to get user self supplementary services from HLR

› Provision Volte with users self supplementary services

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 20

Number Portability Impact

› IMS NP required to apply ON-NET/OFF-NET differential charging

› IMS MNP Implementation
– Features: NP in CSCF/MTAS & ERH in IP-Works
– Integration: IP-Works / FNR
– Charging details: EMM & OCC use “Number-Portability-Routing-Information” field in AVP

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 21

 Number Portability Call flow

CSCF SBC MTAS IPWorks FNR

Invite - A User (Native or Ported-in) or OOB

ENUM Query

Check EnumDnShed for record,

if not then check EnumDnRange
for NP trigger

SS7 Query

SS7 Resp
ENUM Resp
Invite

ENUM Query

ENUM Resp
Invite
MGCF

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 22

TADS Strategy
› In case UE does not answer LTE paging, MTAS triggers CS breakout
– Aligned MME paging timer and number of paging attempts with IMS TADS timer

› MME Service Aware Adaptive Paging for faster call setup & termination

MTAS SBG MME

EPG
Invite Invite
Invite DDN
TADS Timer Starts 1st Paging
TADS B Starts
Ts 2nd Paging
T ms T ms
Ts n Paging
TADS Timer Expiry
Cancel

200 OK Canceling Timer B

Invite MGCF

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 23

TADS Strategy – Last Session
› New sessions within mtasTadsLastSessionValidTime call will be delivered
based on Recent session data
– Default value 60s
– Result in undesired behavior when 1 call terminated to CS
– Solution: changed to 10 seconds

T-ADS

Yes Deliver call based on

Ongoing VoLTE Session ? current session data

No

Last VoLTE session Yes

Deliver call based on
terminated within
recent session data
mtasTadsLastSessionValidTime

Continue

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 24

O&M Readiness
x5
› New KPIs for Voice Quality
CSRs in IMS vs MSS
› New Platforms & added complexity domain with
› New skillset (IMS & IP) commercial launch
› IMS related CSRs x5 increase

› Recommendation:
MSS IMS
– Plan for tracing and troubleshooting tools
– IMS assured Service (1 year)

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 25

EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 27