10/04/2020

CSFB Delay Analysis and Optimization

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HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential

Issue Description

Customer informed Huawei that the Call setup time for CSFB was high and requested to analyze and provide
recommendations to improve the delay. At the time of the request the CSFB strategy was to 2G, during the last
3 weeks Huawei RF department and China GSM / LTE HQ team have analyzed LTE and GSM network , tested
and showed the improvement in the network.

This report shares the analysis , troubleshooting, optimization and recommendations for the CSFB set up time
improvement

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Existing Network Analysis

When the CSFB test was done , the call was setup was setup in GSM and as
shown the Mobile Originate Setup time was around 21.8 seconds and
Mobile Terminate Setup time was around 12.9 seconds.

The initial analysis was done on the LTE signaling to identify whether any
abnormal delay was present in the LTE network. The analysis showed that
there was no exceptional delay in the LTE network during CSFB , so the
focus was placed on the GSM network

The next few slides show the GSM analysis.

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GSM Network Analysis for CSFB – Action 1
It was found during the analysis when the UE CSFB to 2G, the UE will access the GSM network as a new user. As such
several authentication steps as well as system information reading must be done before the call can be setup. This leads
to a further delay in call setup after CSFB has been triggered.

One of the authentication process was class mark enquiry sent by BSC, which is not required as UE will report by itself
the class mark change. The BSC needs to send class mark enquiry if 2G to 3G voice handover is enabled, which is not
the case in Customer and most networks. As such it was suggested to modify this parameter

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GSM Network Analysis for CSFB – Action 2
In GSM network the UE has read up to SI 13 message but it contributes to further delay. To improve this , it was noted
that SI 13 could be sent with SI 1 information at the same time. Using BCCH_Ext this was accomplished as shown
below.

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CSFB to GSM Optimization result
The above mentioned optimization changes were implement in BSC33 and a cell cluster. There was a significant
improvement in Mobile Originate and Mobile Terminate call setup time as shown below. The average Mobile Originate
setup time reduced by 6s and the Mobile Terminate setup time by 3.4s

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CSFB to 3G (Service Steering ) result
The CSFB to 3G was configured using service steering . As such UE would measure the 3G neighbors signal strength and
if it met the threshold set in eNode B the CSFB would be triggered to 3G. Due to this measurement process a further
delay in introduced and the average Mobile Originate setup time is 7.6s and the Mobile Terminate setup time is 4.2s

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 Service Steering Configuration
1. MOD CSFALLBACKHO: CsfbHoUtranB1ThdRscp=-106, CsfbHoUtranB1ThdEcn0=-13,
2.First, we need to enable CSFB Switch, configure UtranCsfbSwitch=ON ， GeranCsfbSwitch=ON
3.ConfigureUtranPsHoSwitch=OFF ， GeranPsHoSwitch=OFF ， UtranFlashCsfbSwitch=OFF ， GeranFlashCsfbSwitch=OFF ， GeranCcoSwit
ch=OFF ， UtranRedirectSwitch=ON. Hence, this will ensures that terminal can only choose redirection CSFB Mode.
4.MOD ENODEBALGOSWITCH: HoModeSwitch=BlindHoSwitch-0;///close BlindSwitch
5.MOD ENODEBALGOSWITCH: HoAlgoSwitch=UtranCsfbSwitch-1&GeranCsfbSwitch-1; ///Open UTRAN/GERAN CSFB switch
6.MOD ENODEBALGOSWITCH: HoAlgoSwitch=UtranCsfbSteeringSwitch-1&GeranCsfbSteeringSwitch-1,
FreqLayerSwtich=UtranFreqLayerMeasSwitch-1; ///Open
UtranCsfbSteeringSwitch 、 GeranCsfbSteeringSwitch 、 UtranFreqLayerMeasSwitch
7.ADD UTRANNCELL:///No need config BlindHoPriority
8.ADD GERANNCELL: LocalCellId=X, Mcc="X", Mnc="X", Lac=X, GeranCellId=X, BlindHoPriority=1; ///need config BlindHoPriority
 9.MOD CSFALLBACKBLINDHOCFG: InterRatHighestPri=UTRAN, InterRatSecondPri=GERAN, IdleCsfbHighestPri=UTRAN,
IdleCsfbSecondPri=GERAN; ///Config system priority

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GSM Parameter Optimization Clarifications
Parameter ID Current Value Suggested Value Clarification requirement

Details on other impacts of the change

there is no other impacts, because the 2G to 3G handover is
SendUtranECSCFlag YES NO not open, so no need to sent the 3G capacity to network side

Since ECSC is set to YES in Customer,

CMUPDATEOPTIMIZETYPE
0 2
BSC does not send a Classmark Enquiry message to the MS
when this parameter changed to 2.
Then how does the network get the MS capability details
MS will send class mark update itself,as following pic1, in the
test, there are 2 times class mark change, first one is update by
MS itself, the second one is enquiry by the MSC, the second
one is redundant message.

Details on paging capacity reduction & other parameter

changes necessary to configure BCCH_Ext
This parameter is not BCCH type,
no need to change other parameter, so there is no influence the
Paging capacity. As pic2, currently, the 2quater and SI13
reuse TC=4, after change to BCCH_EXT, the SI13 will reuse
POSSI13 BCCH_Norm BCCH_Ext TC=0 with SI1

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Recommendations
Generally for CSFB , it is recommended to configure the fall back to 3G with blind HO. In terms of call setup time this
strategy will give the lowest call setup time. As per Customer requirement to have service steering based on 3G coverage
levels, the previous mentioned service steering was proposed.

To further reduce the delay when the UE falls back to 2G , the optimization has been done and optimized parameter setting
has been provided. It is suggested that CSFB to 3G with Blind HO be used in areas where 3G coverage is good and service
steering be used in remaining areas.

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 Thank You
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