Category

Ericsson vs. Huawei: Technical

parameter and SIB comparison: RSSA
What did we prove?
› Ericsson parameters and SIB information is compared to Huawei’s to see if the
difference in network performance is due to optimizable settings or HW and SW
implemented

Value to Customer
› Many customers try to align parameters between different vendors, but is the value in
the optimization of parameters or does it lie inherently in the vendors implementation

What did we do? Key Information

› Observe and record the E and H
parameters in the Trial Network
› Compare and contrast the parameters
between E and H
› In a future revision differences between
commercial and trial network settings will
be captured
› Created Date: 2012-11-22
› Expiration Date: -
› Key Contact(s): Praven Reddy, Scott
Channel, Carlo Petersen
› Reuse Count:
› Link to Proof Point:
https://ericoll.internal.ericsson.com/sites/Mobile_Broadband/Documents/Eric
sson%20vs.%20Huawei%20SIB%20and%20Parameter%20comparison.ppt

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 Ericsson vs. Huawei
Parameter settings and SIB
Information
Version 1: Trial Network

Praven Reddy and Scott Channel

Why this investigation?

› Ericsson has proven to be better than

the competition offering coverage and
capacity advantages

› However a question that frequently

comes up when dealing with operators
is “Does the Ericsson network perform
better because of optimization, or is it
because of Ericsson’s Hardware and
Software build?”

› This presentation attempts to answer

these questions comparing Ericsson
to Huawei in terms of optimizable
parameters and SIB settings

› The first version covers the settings

used in a Trial Network

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How was the comparison performed?

› The baseline for these tests are the following

– Ericsson L11B software (Macro Radio Solution)
– Huawei eRAN 2.1 software (Macro Radio Solution)
– LTE 1800 MHz (Band 3) with 10 MHz of spectrum

› Settings on the Macro Network are compared

– Trial network as off 25th September 2012
– Once the commercial network has launched (expected December
2012) the settings will be re-evaluated to see how much they have
deviated from what was showcased in the trial phase.

› Software used to captured the SIB information:

– TEMS Investigation 13.1 with Sierra Wireless A320U dongle
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What are the SIBs?
› MIB: Bandwidth and PHICH related information (Master Information Block)
› SIB 1: Cell Access related parameters (PLMN, TAC etc.)
– Physical Cell ID and specific information
– Scheduling Block (SB) providing scheduling details for other SIB’s
› SIB 2: Common and shared channel information (access barring information,
random access, physical layer parameters)
› SIB 3: Cell reselection information
› SIB 4: Information about Intra-Frequency Neighboring cells
› SIB 5: Information about Inter-Frequency Neighboring cells
› SIB 6: Information for reselection to UMTS (UTRAN) if no suitable LTE cell is
found
› SIB 7: Information for reselection to GSM (GERAN) if no suitable LTE or UMTS
cell is found
› SIB 8: Information for reselection to CDMA (CDMA2000)
› SIB 9: Home eNode-B name (future Home eNode-Bs and femto-cells)
› SIB 10 and 11: ETWS Information
– Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System
› SIB 12: Commercial Mobile Alerting System (CMAS)
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 SIB 1
› Differences in
– qRxLevMin (The required minimum received Reference
Symbol Received Power (RSRP) level in the E-UTRA
frequency for cell reselection.)
› Ericsson: -60 (default -140)
› Huawei: -64
› Comment: Lower value means UE camp on cell in
poorer conditions. Better idle mode coverage by Huawei

– Si-Periodicity (The periodicity of SI messages)

› Ericsson: 8 radio frames
› Huawei:16 and 32 radio frames
› Comment: The recommended value is 8 radio frames,
that is 80 ms, and must not be changed since this would
affect broadcast of vital SIBs in the cell. Huawei may be
limiting themselves by having periodicity so low.

– Si-Window length (range: 1ms to 40ms)

› Ericsson: 10ms
› Huawei:40ms
› Comment: Ericsson setting of 10ms could be due to the
following: CDMA2000 system time corresponding to the
SFN boundary at or after the ending boundary of the SI-
window in which SystemInformationBlockType8 is
transmitted. If synchronized to CDMA2000 system time
then the size is 39 bits and the unit is 10 ms based on a
1.2288 Mcps chip rate.

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 › Differences in
SIB 2 (1)
– NumberOfRA-Preambles (range: n4 to n64)
› Ericsson: 64
› Huawei: 52
› Comment: Higher number leads to higher chance of success

– preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower (range -120dBm to -90dBm)

› Ericsson: -116 dBm
› Huawei: -104 dBm
› Comment: Lower value helps lower UL Noise floor (better
Ericsson sensitivity)

– ra-ResponseWindowSize (range: 2 to 10 subframes)

› Ericsson: 4
› Huawei: 10
› Comment: a larger window size may be better, but less efficient

– mac-ContentionResolutionTimer (range 8 to 64 subframes)

› Ericsson: 48
› Huawei: 40
› Comment: Specifies the number of consecutive subframe(s)
during which the UE shall monitor the PDCCH after Msg3 is
transmitted.

– maxHARQ-Msg3Tx (range1 to 8)
› Ericsson: 4
› Huawei: 5
› Comment: Maximum number of Msg3 HARQ transmissions used
for contention based random access

– modificationPeriodCoeff (range 2 to 16 radio frames)

› Ericsson: 2
7 › Huawei: 4
 SIB 2 (2)
› Differences in
– prach-ConfigIndex
› Ericsson: 3
› Huawei: 4
› Comment: Both Ericsson and Huawei are not using Preamble
Formats 1 to 4 (maximum cell range feature uses Preamble
Format 1)

– referenceSignalPower
› Ericsson: 12
› Huawei: 20
› Comment: A UE may assume downlink cell-specific RS EPRE is
constant across the downlink system bandwidth and constant
across all subframes until different cell-specific RS power
information is received. The downlink cell-specific reference-
signal EPRE can be derived from the downlink reference-signal
transmit power given by the parameter referenceSignalPower
provided by higher layers.

– enable64QAM (on Uplink)

› Ericsson: False
› Huawei: True
› Comment: Huawei is communicating supporting 64QAM on
Uplink. Preparation for Category 5 device perhaps?

– groupHoppingEnabled (on ulReferenceSignalsPUSCH)

› Ericsson: On
› Huawei: Off
› Comment: Not sure why Huawei has disabled Hopping on
PUSCH. Ericsson has it ON.

– soundingRS-UL-ConfigCommon
› Ericsson: Release (Null)
› Huawei: Setup (used)
8 › Comment: Huawei is using Sounding Reference Signals.
Ericsson does not have UL Frequency Selective Scheduling in
 SIB 2 (3)
› Differences in
– p0-nominalPUSCH (range: -126 to 24 dBm)
› Ericsson: -93
› Huawei: -67
› Comment: Higher value increases effective cell
range and throughput, but also increases offered UL
Interference. Lower value limits cell range and
throughput, but also prevents excessive UL
interference. Due to superior Ericsson UL, a lower
value can be used that helps showcase better Cell
Range and Throughputs.

– p0-nominalPUCCH (range: -127 to -96 dBm)

› Ericsson: -114
› Huawei: -107
› Effects are similar to p0-nominalPUSCH. Due to
superior Ericsson UL, a lower value can be used that
helps showcase better Control Channel Cell Range.

– More details on following slide

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PUSCH – Effect of pZeroNominalPusch
› The following graph shows how approximate levels of the average received power per resource
block, depends on the power control target and cell range

Adding more Rx
Antenna Ports
(Diversity) also
improves P0
increasing cell
range

Higher P0 settings
Lower P0 settings mean larger cell
mean smaller cell range, but also
range, but also more offered
less offered interference
interference

› As can be seen average received power per resource block increases with a higher setting of P 0 and
decreases with the cell range
› The region to the left where the average RX power does not change with the attenuation represent
cells in which all UE reach the power control target and are received with the same SINR.
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 SIB 2 (4)
› Differences in
– t300 (Transmission of RRCConnectionRequest timer)
› Ericsson: 1000ms
› Huawei: 200ms

– t301 (Transmission of RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest timer)

› Ericsson: 1000ms
› Huawei: 200ms

– t310 (Upon detecting physical layer problems i.e. upon receiving N310
consecutive out-of-sync indications from lower layers timer)
› Ericsson: 2000ms
› Huawei: 200ms

– n310 (Maximum number of consecutive "out-of-sync” indications

received from lower layers)
› Ericsson: n20
› Huawei: n6

– t311 (Upon initiating the RRC connection re-establishment procedure)

› Ericsson: 3000ms
› Huawei: 10000ms

– n311 (Maximum number of consecutive “in-sync” indications received

from lower layers)
› Ericsson: n1
› Huawei: n5

– TimeAlignmentTimer (used to control how long the UE considers the

11 serving cells belonging to the associated TAG to be uplink time aligned)
› Ericsson: sf5120
 SIB 3
› Differences in
– s-NonIntraSearch (Specifies the threshold when inter-frequency and
inter-RAT measurements are required)
› Ericsson: 10
› Huawei: 5
› Comment: Optimizable parameter. Higher value inhibits
measurements on Inter-Frequency and Inter-RAT

– threshServingLow (Specifies the threshold used by the UE on the

serving cell when reselecting towards a lower priority RAT/ frequency)
› Ericsson: 2
› Huawei: 0
› Comment: Optimizable parameter. If the Srxlev value of the serving
cell falls below the threshServingLow value, the UE attempts to
reselect a cell on an inter-frequency carrier or an inter-RAT
frequency with cell reselection priority lower than the frequency
where the UE is camping.

– qRxLevMin (The required minimum received Rx level in the UTRAN

frequency used in cell reselection)
› Ericsson: -70
› Huawei: -64
› Comment: Optimizable parameter to qualify/disqualify reselection to
a different cell

– s-IntraSearch (Specifies the threshold when intra-frequency measurements are

required)
› Ericsson: 31
› Huawei: 29
› Comment: Measurements on intra-frequency cells are performed if
SServingCell ≤ SIntraSearch. If SServingCell > SIntraSearch, the
UE does not need to perform these measurements.

› Huawei Mobility configured parameters for Speed Scale Factors

– sf-Medium and sf-High: concern the additional hysteresis applied in
12 medium and high mobility states)
– t-ReselectionEUTRA

Ericsson: SIB4 contains
information about the intra-
frequency neighboring
cells. This message is sent
if a cell re-selection offset
for a particular cell
relationship is set to a non
default value.
In the trial rollout so far
there are no cases where
cell-reselection values are
set to non-default values
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SIB 4
› q-OffsetCell is mapped to
qOffsetCellEUtran in Ericsson system
– Ericsson default value for
qOffsetCellEUtran is 0 (this parameter
resides under the EUtranCellRelation
Managed Object)
› Not sure why Huawei transmits SIB4
information when q-OffsetCell is 0
 RRC Reconfiguration (1)
› Differences in
› Differences in
– SRB bucketSizeDuration
(Bucket Size Duration for
logical channel
prioritization)
› Ericsson: 50ms
› Huawei: 300ms

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 RRC
Reconfiguration (2)
› Differences in
– discardTimer (for PDCP SDU)
› Ericsson: Infinity
› Huawei: 1500ms
– T-PollRetransmit (Timer for RLC AM)
› Ericsson: 50ms
› Huawei: 40ms
– pollPDU
› Ericsson: 4
› Huawei: 32
– pollByte
› Ericsson: Infinity
› Huawei: 25kB
– T-Reordering
› Ericsson: 35ms
› Huawei: 50ms
– T-StatusProhibit
› Ericsson: 25ms
› Huawei: 50ms
– Priority
› Ericsson: 12
› Huawei: 11
– prioritizedBitRate:
› Ericsson: Infinity
› Huawei: 64kbps
– bucketSizeDuration
› Ericsson: 50ms
› Huawei: 300ms
– logicalChannelGroup
› Ericsson: 1
› Huawei: 3

› Huawei does not have DRX setup, compared to Ericsson

› Huawei does have detailed info for Buffer Status Reporting, TTI Bundling,
and CQI reporting

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Key Parameter differences

Ericsson
Ericsson Default Deployed Value Huawei
MO Class Name Parameter Name Value (L11B) Deployed Value Unit
EUtranCellFDD qRxLevMin -140 -60 -64 dBm

EUtranCellFDD pZeroNominalPucch -117 -114  -105 dBm

EUtranCellFDD pZeroNominalPusch -103 -93  -67 dBm

EUtranCellFDD siWindowLength 10 10  40 ms

EUtranFreqRelation qRxLevMin -140 -70 -64 dBm

PeriodicitySI siPeriodicitySI1 8 8  16 Radio Frames

SIB3 qHyst 4 4  4 dB

SIB3 tEvaluation 240   60 s

SIB3 tHystNormal 240   30 s

SIB3 nCellChangeMedium 16   4 Number

SIB3 nCellChangeHigh 16   8 Number 

SIB3 sIntraSearch 1000 31  29 dB

SIB3 sNonIntraSearch 0 10  5 dB

SIB3 threshServingLow 0 2  0 dB

FreqPrioEUTRA cellReselectionPriority -1000   7  

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Key Conclusions
› Huawei appear to be “pushing” more coverage than Ericsson in the trial
network
– Lower qRxLevMin values than Ericsson (translates to 4 dB “extra” idle mode
coverage)
– Higher p0-nominalPUSCH and p0-nominalPUCCH compared to Ericsson
› All things being equal, higher values for these settings offer larger cell ranges but
also higher levels of interference
› Huawei are not implementing/communicating DRX configuration settings
compared to Ericsson
– Leads to power in-efficiencies in the UE
– Will this be the case in the commercial network as well?

› Huawei have developed features that are not aligned with UE Device roadmap
– E.g. support for 64 QAM on Uplink despite Category 5 UEs only being available in
late 2013

› Huawei appears to be supporting advanced functionality like Buffer Status

Reporting, TTI Bundling, CQI reporting and mobility configured parameters for
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Speed Scale Factors
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