eRAN8.

1 Deep Dive - ACH Feature I

ntroduction

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Contents
1. Background

2. Solution Introduction

3. Impact Analysis

4. Activation Guide

5. Verification

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES
HISILICON CO., LTD.
SEMICONDUCTOR Page 2
 ACH (Automatic Congestion Handling)
 Scenarios:
 Planned Event(Periodic busy hour, New year Eve, Sports meeting, football match, concert,)
 Unplanned Event (congregation, parade, carnival…)

Acceptance

 Value:
 Improve network capacity by seeking for new balance between system reliability and capacity.
 Save much manpower for guarantee activities in big event , and improve the efficiency.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES
HISILICON CO., LTD.
SEMICONDUCTOR Page 3
Contents
1. Background

2. Solution Introduction

3. Impact Analysis

4. Activation Guide

5. Verification

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES
HISILICON CO., LTD.
SEMICONDUCTOR Page 4
 Architecture of ACH

Strategy Adjustment 2. Strategy

Center Different condition will apply
different strategies

1. Condition • User Number 3. Strategy • Features On/Off

judgment • PRB Utilization Executive • Parameters tuning
• PDCCH CCE Utilization
Triggered
periodically

ACH feature deployed on eNodeB, and

all of the strategies are pre-defined
in the eNodeB.

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Heavy Load Network Mode
• Impact: User Experience
User experience is
degraded, including user User DL/UL Throughput Access Success Rate
throughput, access
success rate…

• Bottleneck:
Resource Utilization
Radio resource will be the
bottleneck before the
system hardware resource PDCCH CCE UL/DL PRB

User Number
• Trigger :
The User Number is the root cause of
Traffic Mode User Distribution network loading, including the traffic
mode and user distribution.
 Actions List in ACH for Congestion
Category Actions Theory
In high loaded network scenarios, reduce the resource overhead for TA measurement based on
TA Optimization DMRS, and enlarger the period of the TA adjust command, consequently, reduce the PDCCH CCE
and UL/DL PRB overhead.

Detect the abnormal UEs: stop the UL scheduling according to continuous 16 PUSCH CRC errors,
Overhead Reducing stop the DL scheduling according to continuous 16 UL DTX; And recover the UL scheduling when
Abnormal UEs Detection
receiving SR from UE, recover the DL scheduling when PUSCH CRC OK or PUCCH CQI response is
normal.

Switch off DL Frequency Switch off DL FSS to reduce the mass aperiodic al CQI report, and then decrease the resource
Selection Scheduling(FSS) overhead including CCE and UL PRB, and help to control the UL interference.

Try to schedule all of the data for user in one TTI even a little more PRB resource is allocated. For
Adjust the RBG Allocate example, if the UE require 1.5 RBG to schedule the data, then eNodeB assign 2 RBGs to this UE,
Strategy instead of scheduling the user in two TTI s and consume more PDCCH CCE and scheduling
Efficiency
changes. Then improve the PDCCH CCE efficiency and the DL PRB utilization rate.
Improvement

When a user require CCE resource with a high CCE aggregation level, the PDCCH CCE fragment
PDCCH Capacity Improve can't be used. then CCE aggregation level degraded with power boosting, will help to improve the
CCE utilization and schedule more users.

By default, PUSCH PRBs are allocated from high to low in RB index for all cells. In high loaded
UL PRB Allocate
Mitigate Interference network scenario, PUSCH PRBs are allocated at random position in the whole PUSCH bandwidth, in
Randomization
order to reduce the interference from neighbor cells.

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 Insight of ACH Strategy(All the threshold can be modified)
Category Action Action Condition Parameters Rollback Condition

User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% MOD User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%

Overhead
TA Optimization And TATIMER:TimingResOptSwitch or
Reducing
PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate > 60% =ON, TimeAlignmentTimer=Infinity. PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate < 25%

MOD
User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%
Overhead Abnormal UEs CELLALGOSWITCH:
And or
Reducing Detecting CellSchStrategySwitch=AbnUeSchS
PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate > 60% PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate < 25%
witch-1

User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% MOD User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%

Overhead DL FSS
And CELLALGOSWITCH:DlSchSwitch= or
Reducing Intelligent Off
PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate > 60% FreqSelSwitch-0 PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate < 25%

User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% MOD User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%

Efficiency Adaptive RBG
And CELLDLSCHALGO ： or
Improvement Allocate Strategy
DL_PRB_Utilization_Rate < 90% RbgAllocStrategy=ADAPTIVE DL_PRB_Utilization_Rate > 95%

MOD
UL PRB Allocate User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%
Mitigate CELLULSCHALGO:ULRBALLOCAT
Strategy And or
Interference IONSTRATEGY=FS_INRANDOM_A
Optimization UL_PRB_Utilization_Rate > 20% UL_PRB_Utilization_Rate < 10%
DAPTIVE

User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% MOD User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%

Efficiency PDCCH Capacity
And CELLPDCCHALGO ： or
Improvement Improvement
PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate > 60% PdcchCapacityImproveSwitch=ON PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate < 25%

Note: Rollback is to recover the original configured value no matter what was configured.
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 Overhead Reducing - TA Optimization
• Issue:
 TA command and TA measurement cost much resource, including PDCCH CCE and DL/UL PRB resource:
 The default TATimer value is short, which bring too many TA commands in big event.
 Too many UL PRB are scheduled just for measuring TA through DMRS.
• Solution
 Enlarge the TATimer value (Infinity), then reduce the frequency of TA command.
 Reduce the UL PRB used for measuring TA.
 In light traffic load, the eNodeB have sufficient channel resources to maintain uplink timing for UEs, ensuring TA accuracy
and service quality. If network congestion occurs, reducing the uplink scheduling resources used for TA measurement thr
ough DMRS to reduce UL PRB.
Category Action Action Condition Parameters Rollback Condition

User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% MOD User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%

Overhead
TA Optimization And TATIMER:TimingResOptSwitch or
Reducing
PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate > 60% =ON, TimeAlignmentTimer=Infinity. PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate < 25%

 Here, User_Spec_Occupy_Rate : Cell User Number divided by Cell user number specification;
 The condition threshold can be modified by MOD LIOptAtomRule command.
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 Overhead Reducing - Abnormal UEs Detecting
• Abnormal UEs Detecting:
 In the uplink, if the eNodeB detects 16 consecutive uplink CRC errors on a UE, the eNodeB stops uplink sche
duling for the UE and resumes uplink scheduling when it receives a scheduling request (SR) from the UE.
 In the downlink, if the eNodeB detects 16 consecutive uplink discontinuous transmissions (DTXs) on a UE, th
e eNodeB stops downlink scheduling for the UE and resumes it when the uplink CRC result is correct or whe
n periodic CQI reporting becomes normal on the PUCCH.

• Abnormal UEs Scheduling:

 eNodeB stop scheduling for abnormal UEs, preventing PRBs and PDCCH CCEs from being wasted by abnor
mal UEs.

• Gain:
 eNodeB can schedule more services in heavy traffic scenarios, improving cell capacity.

Category Action Action Condition Parameters Rollback Condition

MOD
User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%
Overhead Abnormal UEs CELLALGOSWITCH:
And or
Reducing Detecting CellSchStrategySwitch=AbnUeSch
PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate > 60% PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate < 25%
Switch-1

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 Overhead Reducing - DL FSS Intelligent Off

• Downlink frequency selective scheduling triggers large-scale aperiodic CQI reporting, consuming
many uplink PRBs and CCEs and increasing uplink interference. In event of network congestion,
disabling downlink frequency selective scheduling helps reduce the interference and increase the
uplink cell capacity. However, disabling downlink frequency selective scheduling slightly decrease
s downlink cell throughput.

Category Action Action Condition Parameters Rollback Condition

User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% MOD User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%

Overhead DL FSS
And CELLALGOSWITCH:DlSchSwitch= or
Reducing Intelligent Off
PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate > 60% FreqSelSwitch-0 PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate < 25%

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 Efficiency Improvement - Adaptive RBG Allocate
• Try to schedule all of the data for user in one TTI even a little more PRB resource is allocated. Then
lead to less scheduling requirement and less PDCCH CCE overhead.
• MML: MOD CELLDLSCHALGO ： RbgAllocStrategy=ADAPTIVE

10MHz
1RBG=3RB

Category Action Action Condition Parameters Rollback Condition

User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% MOD User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%

Efficiency Adaptive RBG
And CELLDLSCHALGO ： or
Improvement Allocate Strategy
DL_PRB_Utilization_Rate < 90% RbgAllocStrategy=ADAPTIVE DL_PRB_Utilization_Rate > 95%

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 Mitigate Interference - UL PRB Allocate Strategy Optimization
• 2 Mode of UL PRB allocation strategy:
 Mode 0 — Allocate RB resource from High frequency RB to Low frequency RB.
 Mode 1 — Allocate RB resource from Low frequency RB to High frequency RB.
 IN between different mode can be avoid.
Low High
Mode 0 RB Resource
• Mode chosen by cell
Free RBs Allocated RBs
 Cell PCI mod 2 = 0, choose Mode 0.
 Cell PCI mod 2 = 1, choose Mode 1. IN 0 IN 1

Mode 1 Allocated RBs

Low RB Resource High

IN 0 — Interference from Mode0 to Mode1.
IN 1 — Interference from Mode1 to Mode0.
Because non user to use the free RBs, the interference from other cell is low.

Category Action Action Condition Parameters Rollback Condition

MOD
UL PRB Allocate User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%
Mitigate CELLULSCHALGO:ULRBALLOCAT
Strategy And or
Interference IONSTRATEGY=FS_INRANDOM_A
Optimization UL_PRB_Utilization_Rate > 20% UL_PRB_Utilization_Rate < 10%
DAPTIVE

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 Efficient improvement

Efficiency Improvement - PDCCH Capacity Improvement (1)

8 CCE … Available CCE Level

DCCH CCE Tree

4 CCE …
Assigned CCE Level
2 CCE …
1 CCE 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 … Not available CCE Level

CCE agg. Optimization CCE agg.

high CCE agg. Level demand high CCE agg. Level demand Level = 8
Level = 8

CCE agg.
No available
+

Assign low CCE agg. Level with Level = 4

higher power

Category Action Action Condition Parameters Rollback Condition

User_Spec_Occupy_Rate > 50% MOD User_Spec_Occupy_Rate < 40%

Efficiency PDCCH Capacity
And CELLPDCCHALGO ： or
Improvement Improvement
PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate > 60% PdcchCapacityImproveSwitch=ON PDCCH_CCE_Utilization_Rate < 25%

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 Efficiency Improvement - PDCCH Capacity Improvement (2)
Improvement: Separate CCE aggregation level close loop adjustment initial value for DRB and SRB

Items Strategy(Before) Strategy(After)

RB Type SRB or DRB SRB DRB

Initial Value (for Set close-loop adjustment initial value to -10 for Set close-loop adjustment initial value to -10 for Set close-loop adjustment initial
parameter) SRB and DRB SRB only. value to 0 for DRB.

Aggregation level vs MCS for different adjustment initial value

Aggregation Level

8
4 Initial value:0
Initial value:-10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

MCS

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 ACH feature Dependency Analysis

 Dependency on Hardware/NEs/ Transimission

 None.
 Dependency on other Features
 The ACH feature has no dependency on other features.
 Dependency on UE
 The ACH feature has no dependency on UE.
 License
 Introduce a license on the eNodeB ： LOFD-081205 Automatic Congestion Handling (new License in eRAN8.1)

Page 16 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

 Contents
1. Background

2. Solution Introduction

3. Impact Analysis

4. Activation Guide

5. Verification

Page 17 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

 3. Impact Analysis
 Positive Impact
 For big event, ACH improve the system performance:
 A estimate for the gain: Under the same congestion situation (user number, traffic mode…), UL cell
throughput improve 5~10%, DL cell throughput improve 5~15%, when all of the ACH strategies take effect.
 Main factor impact the gains:
 Network parameter setting: for the relative parameters, if the current value is same with the target
value of ACH strategy, then there are no gains for this ACH strategy.
 Network loading: in general, with more users and higher loading, ACH can bring to higher gains.
Furthermore, ACH focus on the air resource limitation.

 Negative Impact
 “Abnormal UEs Detecting” strategy may increase the call drop probability a little.

Page 18 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

 Contents
1. Background

2. Solution Introduction

3. Impact Analysis

4. Activation Guide

5. Verification

Page 19 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

 4. Activation Guide 1
• It is recommended that ACH be used in all scenarios by default, which can monitor the net
work loading automatically, and adjust the parameter based on pre-defined strategies, and
make more users enjoy better experience when network is in heavy loading.

• Enabling the ACH Feature:

› Step 1: ensure the license for ACH is active.
› Step 2: Switch on the ACH:
» MOD ENODEBALGOSWITCH ： IOptAlgoSwitch= ACHSwitch-1;

• Deactivate the ACH Feature:

› Step 1: Switch off the ACH:
» MOD ENODEBALGOSWITCH ： IOptAlgoSwitch= ACHSwitch-0;

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 4. Activation Guide 2
 Dependency on Hardware/NEs/ Transimission
 None.
 Dependency on other Features
 The ACH feature has no dependency on other features.
 Dependency on UE
 The ACH feature has no dependency on UE.
 License
 Introduce a license on the eNodeB ： LOFD-081205 Automatic Congestion Handling (new License in eRAN8.1)

Page 21 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

 Contents
1. Background

2. Solution Introduction

3. Impact Analysis

4. Activation Guide

5. Verification

Page 22 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

 5. Verification 1

 Check the algorithm switch

 MML ： LST ENODEBALGOSWITCH. To check the value of IOptAlgoSwitch.ACHSwitch;

 Monitor the operate status by SON log:

 Log in the U2000, and select the menu “SON -> SON log”
 In the “Query SON log” sheet, drop the “Log Category” and select “LTE Automatic Congestion Hander Log”

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 5. Verification 2
 KPI :
 Based on these KPIs , monitor the performance gain.

KPI formula Notes

DL Cell Throughput L.Thrp.bits.DL / L.Thrp.Time.Cell.DL.HighPrecision
DL User Throughput (L.Thrp.bits.DL - L.Thrp.bits.DL.LastTTI)/ L.Thrp.Time.DL.RmvLastTTI
KPIs to observe the
UL Cell Throughput L.Thrp.bits.UL / L.Thrp.Time.Cell.UL.HighPrecision
gains.
UL User Throughput (L.Thrp.bits.UL - L.Thrp.bits.UE.UL.SmallPkt)/ L.Thrp.Time.UE.UL.RmvSmallPkt
RRC Success Rate L.RRC.ConnReq.Succ/L.RRC.ConnReq.Att
DL PRB Utilization Rate L.ChMeas.PRB.DL.Used.Avg / L.ChMeas.PRB.DL.Avail
Just to monitor these
UL PRB Utilization Rate L.ChMeas.PRB.UL.Used.Avg / L.ChMeas.PRB.UL.Avail resource utilization
(L.ChMeas.CCE.CommUsed + L.ChMeas.CCE.ULUsed + L.ChMeas.CCE.DLUsed) / Rates, which are not
CCE Utilization Rate for gain evaluating.
（ Maximum possible CCE number for the certain bandwidth ）

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 5. Verification 3
 Statistics
 The table list the counters for calculating the KPIs and some other important counters, such as number of RRC reject:

Counter ID Counter Name Counter Description

1526728261 L.Thrp.bits.DL Total downlink traffic volume for PDCP SDUs in a cell
1526728259 L.Thrp.bits.UL Total uplink traffic volume for PDCP PDUs in a cell
1526728997 L.Thrp.Time.Cell.DL.HighPrecision Total duration of uplink data transmission in a cell (with the precision of 1 ms)

1526728998 L.Thrp.Time.Cell.UL.HighPrecision Total duration of downlink data transmission in a cell (with the precision of 1 ms)

1526729005 L.Thrp.bits.DL.LastTTI Downlink traffic volume sent in the last TTI for PDCP SDUs before the buffer is empty

1526729015 L.Thrp.Time.DL.RmvLastTTI Data transmit duration except the last TTI before the downlink buffer is empty

1526729415 L.Thrp.bits.UE.UL.SmallPkt Uplink traffic volume of PDCP PDUs scheduled for small packets
1526729416 L.Thrp.Time.UE.UL.RmvSmallPkt Uplink data transmission duration except that for small packets
1526726659 L.RRC.ConnReq.Succ Number of RRC Connection Setup Complete messages received from UEs in a cell

1526726658 L.RRC.ConnReq.Att Number of RRC connection setup attempts performed by UEs in a cell (retransmission excluded)

1526728269 L.RRC.SetupFail.Rej Number of RRC Connection Reject messages sent to UEs in a cell
1526728490 L.RRC.SetupFail.Rej.FlowCtrl Number of times the eNodeB sends an RRC Connection Reject message to the

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 5. Verification 4
 Statistics (continue.)

Counter ID Counter Name Counter Description

1526726737 L.ChMeas.PRB.UL.Used.Avg Average number of used uplink PRBs
1526726740 L.ChMeas.PRB.DL.Used.Avg Average number of used PDSCH PRBs
1526728434 L.ChMeas.PRB.UL.Avail Number of available uplink PRBs
1526728433 L.ChMeas.PRB.DL.Avail Number of available downlink PRBs
1526728303 L.ChMeas.CCE.CommUsed Number of PDCCH CCEs used for common DCI
1526728304 L.ChMeas.CCE.ULUsed Number of PDCCH CCEs used for uplink DCI
1526728305 L.ChMeas.CCE.DLUsed Number of PDCCH CCEs used for downlink DCI

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