FACH Congestion
FACH Congest Due to……
Limited Number of users
Raise the ceiling
Step#1: Increases number
of users from 30 to 60 users
on FACH
Step# 2: Unrestricted
number of FACH users.
Resources congestion of
the logical channels
carried on FACH are
congested (CCCH, DCCH
Decrease simultaneous & DTCH)
number of FACH users
Enable FACH flow control
for the needed logical
4B decrease FACH FC: channel type.
P2D & D2Idle
 I. FACH Congestion due to limited
number of users
 What is the cons of having limitation in number of FACH users?
1. If D2F failed (due to max number of FACH users are reached) then UEs in the
CELL_DCH state, having little or no data to transmit, may continuously occupy the
dedicated channels and cell resource utilization may decrease as a result
2. If P2F failed then CELL_PCH UEs fail to perform data transmission or respond to
paging messages and finally enter the idle state, leading to PS service drops plus
paging failure.
3. If the number of UEs in the CELL_FACH state reaches the upper limit, cell updates
may fail, including those triggered by radio link setup failures. As a result, call
drops may occur.

 Proposal
• Step#1: Increase number of FACH users from 30 to 60 (but take care of FACH
resource congestion)  “FACH_60_USER_SWITCH-1”
 Proposal cont….
 Proposal
• Step#2: FACH FC “P2D and D2Idle”:

• D2Idle transition SET UCORRMALGOSWITCH command.

• P2D transition SET URRCTRLSWITCH command. During a P2D transition, the RNC
delivers the UE a cell update confirm message on the CCCH, which prevents call
drops because the delivery does not use up resources designated for UEs in the
CELL_FACH state.
 Proposal cont….
 Proposal
• Step#2: FACH FC “P2D and D2Idle”.
• Step#3: If the number of UEs in the CELL_FACH state reaches the upper
limit, cell updates may fail, including those triggered by radio link setup
failures. As a result, call drops may occur. To prevent this, you can reserve
some UEs in the CELL_FACH state for cell updates. To set the number of
reserved users, run the SET UCORRMALGOSWITCH command and modify
the ReservedU32Para1 parameter.
If the maximum number of UEs in the CELL_FACH state is 30 and the
number of reserved UEs in the CELL_FACH state is 5, the D2F transition
shown in Figure 4-2 will not be implemented when the number of UEs in
the CELL_FACH state reaches 25. Instead, the D2Idle transition may be
triggered. The resources for reserved UEs are for the users who send cell
update messages.
• Step#4: Unrestricted number of FACH users  not recommended as the
FACH resource congestion may increase dramatically.
Note: from counters we can’t decide that there is congestion due to number
of FACH users are congested, but we can decide the number of simultaneous
FACh users per cell from VS.CellFACHUEs (it is better to use this counter from
LMT monitor to get it per 1sec)
 FACH logical channels

CCCH DCCH DTCH

New congestion counter
“VS.FACH.CCCH.CONG.TI
ME” only enabled on 7-
11-2013
 DTCH Congestion
• What is the benefit of relieving the DTCH
congestion:
1. Better user experience.
2. Less PS Call Drop
 DTCH Congestion

Optimized DTCH P2D D2Idle FACH efficiency

congestion decision boost

DTCH Congestion depend on Delay:

The RNC considers the DTCH congested if
the following conditions are met:
− FACHAdmCondSDUDelaySwitch is set
to ON.
− There are 10 or more PDUs whose SDU
delay is greater
than FACHAdmSDUDelayThd in the DTCH
buffer.
− The DTCH queue is congested.
 FACH efficiency boost
Data Transmission
Suspension
the RNC suspends RLC data transmission
when triggering an F2D state transition.
The RNC keeps RLC data transmission
suspended until the F2D state transition is
complete or the UE returns to the
CELL_FACH state. This ensures that user-
plane data is transmitted over the DCH
whenever possible.
SET
URRCTRLSWITC  PROCESSSWITCH3 
RNC_F2D_RLC_SUSPEND_SWITCH-1.
TVM-based P2D
Transition
This function enables UEs in
the CELL_PCH state to enter
the CELL_DCH state when the
amount of data to be
transmitted exceeds the 4A
threshold. This eliminates the
need for P2F transitions prior
to F2D transitions and
thereby improves the FACH
resource utilization
efficiency.
F2P Transition by Means of
Physical Channel
Reconfiguration
F2P transitions by means of
physical channel
reconfiguration reduce FACH
bandwidth consumption,
because physical channel
reconfiguration messages
generate 50% less air interface
traffic than RB reconfiguration
messages.
 P2D (for DTCH congestion)
• When the DTCH is congested, RNC triggers P2D
transition. The trigger conditions and how
DTCH flow control is implemented are as follows:
• When a UE with PS services in the CELL_PCH state
initiates a cell update, a P2D transition is triggered if
the following conditions are met:
1. The PROCESSSWITCH2 parameter is set
to FACH_DTCH_CONGEST_P2D-1.
2. The UE is of Release 5 or a later version.
3. The DTCH is congested but the CCCH and DCCH are not.
4. In the cell update message triggered by PS data
transmission, the value of IE "Cell update cause" is "uplink
data transmission" or "paging response", and the
IE "Establishment cause" is not reported.
 D2Idle
• The following describes how a D2Idle procedure is
triggered for UEs processing PS services when the DTCH is
congested:
• When PERFENH_DTCH_FACH_CONG_D2I_SWITCH is
selected under PerfEnhanceSwitch, the RNC initiates a D2F
transition request. If the DTCH is congested, the RNC
evaluates the measurement quantities (indicating the
traffic volume or throughput) contained in the uplink and
downlink 4B measurement reports. If the measurement
quantities are all 0, a D2Idle transition starts. If the
measurement quantities are not all 0, the UE remains in
the CELL_DCH state.
• DTCH flow control stops once the DTCH is no longer
congested.
 Time Plan
P2D (for DTCH FACH Efficiency boost D2Idle
Congestion) – Data suspension

2
3
21/ /
11/11 13/11
13/11 15/11
15/11 18/11
11 1
1

FACH 60 FACH Efficiency Decrease 4B

users boost – TVM
based P2D