IRAT Handover

Northeast RAN Performance

Proprietary and Confidential

IRAT

• IRAT handover was successfully tested on 01/09/06 in the UMTS

FOA network in Queens.
• All UMTS cells except for BQU4363C was locked for testing.
• Call was originated on BQU4363C and then handover to BQ04744B
was performed.
 IRAT Handover – Site Location

For 3G: Only BQU4363C

needs to be on-air and
the remaining cells
should be off.

Site Address:
77-16 101st Ave,
Queens, NY
2G Cell 3G Cell
BQ4744A BQU4363C
and
BQ4744B
 UMTS & GSM Cell Information

3G
Sector Scrambling Code Cell ID LAC RNC MSC
BQU4363A 76 28631 52153 NYRNC003 NYMSS900
BQU4363B 84 28632 52153 NYRNC003 NYMSS900
BQU4363C 92 28633 52153 NYRNC003 NYMSS900

2G
Sector BCCH BSIC Cell ID LAC BSC MSC
BQ04744A 594 45 27441 32121 112 NYMSC04
BQ04744B 601 07 27442 32121 112 NYMSC04
BQ04744C 606 62 27443 32121 112 NYMSC04
Active Set – Ec/Io
UE starts
compressed mode
measurements to
start measuring
GSM neighbors
RSCP: -96dBm
Ec/Io : -4 dB

Handover Command
from RNC to UE
RSCP: -102dBm
Ec/Io: -5 dB

Handover
completed
to GSM
UMTS Call Initiated
IRAT Events

Event 2d: When estimated quality

of currently used freq is below a
certain threshold, UE sends a
event 2d to SRNC, which on
receiving this message asks the
UE to set up event 3a

Contd…
IRAT Events Contd..
RNC send a Physical
channel reconfiguration
message to UE which tells
the UE to enter
compressed mode to
measure GSM neighbor
cells.

The method to
induce
compressed
mode is SF/2

Contd…
IRAT Events Contd..

Event 3a -> Event trigger for IRAT; RNC asks

UE to report GSM neighbors fulfilling a
minimum criteria for signal quality
Time to trigger: 100 s

UE sends a
measurement report to
RNC reporting the RSSI
measurements of all the
GSM neighbors fulfilling
the criteria
 IRAT Events Contd..

Handover to GSM
command sent by
RNC to UE

IRAT handover successfully completed. A more detailed analysis

will be done for parameter optimization and to control IRAT
boundaries as part of FOA
IRAT Analysis – RNC Log

• The figure shows the IRAT handover

sequence

• A brief analysis of the corresponding

RNC log is attached with all the
messages showing the successful IRAT
HO.
Path Forward

• For this IRAT testing, the UMTS network was changed to 2 digit MNC
– the same as the 2G network.
• After the testing, the UMTS network was reverted back to 3 digit
MNC.
• The way forward is to standardize the MNC length to ensure that
both UMTS and GSM networks have the same length MNC for
successful IRAT handovers.
Appendix

Tables illustrating the concept of

Handover events 2d and 3a
related to IRAT.
Taken from Ericsson ALEX
library