GO - NAST3006 - E01 - 1 GSM Network SDCCH Assignment Analysis-57

SDCCH Assignment Analysis
& Solutions
Contents
 Overview
 Analysis of signaling and counters related to
immediate assignment
 Radio parameters
 Instructions on checking of SDCCH assignment
failure
 Typical cases on SDCCH assignment
Definition of SDCCH
 SDCCH: the Stand-alone Dedicated Control Channel is used to

transmit information for channel assignment, which includes the
following two types:
 SDCCH/8: the standalone dedicated control channel;
 SDCCH/4: the SDCCH that is combined with CCCH.
 In brief, the following processes shall be taken into consideration

in the process of occupying SDCCH:
 Location update, periodical location update;
 IMSI attach/detach
 Call setup
 SMS
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Signaling flow of immediate assignment

Counters related to SDCCH assignment &
corresponding signaling messages V3
 Function:
C90006024 After BSC sends out the immediate assignment message

2 Number (IMM_ASS), this counter counts the number of successful MS

of SDCCH accesses to the corresponding SDCCH.
assignment  Sampling:
success  when BSC receives the correct EST_IND or the message of
assignment complete.
 Function:
C90006024 After BSC sends out the immediate assignment message

3 Number (IMM_ASS), this counter counts the number of failed MS
of SDCCH accesses to the allocated SDCCH.
assignment
 Sampling:
failure
 when BSC receives the wrong EST_IND, or when T3101 expires.

SDCCH assignment success rate
KPI SDCCH assignment success rate
Definition Number of successful SDCCH

assignments*100/(Number of successful SDCCH
assignments + Number of failed SDCCH
assignments)
Counter
C900060242*100%/(C900060242+C900060243)
formula

Difference: Random access success rate
 Definition: Number of successful random accesses / Number of

random access requests*100%
 Number of random access requests
 Definition: MS applies for a channel in the idle mode.
 Trigger point: it counts the message of CHANNEL REQUIRED received by BSC
from MS. (A1)
 Number of successful random accesses

 Definition: BSC successfully assigns a dedicated channel for MS.
 Trigger point: it counts the message of IMMEDLATE ASSIGNMENT sent from
BSC to MS. (A2)

Contents
 Overview
failure
Mobile Originating Call Establishment Procedure
-1
MS BTS BSC MSC
CH REQ(1)
CH RQD(2)
CH ACT(3)
CH ACT ACK(4)
IMM ASS CMD(5)
IMM ASS(6)
SABM(7)
EST IND(8)
UA(10) CM SERV REQ(9)
AUTH REQ(11)
AUTH REQ(12)
AUTH RSP(13)
AUTH RSP(14)
CIPH MODE CMD(15)
CIPH MODE CMD(16)
CIPH MODE CMD(17)
CIPH MODE CMP(18)

CIPH MODE CMP(19)

-2
MS BTS BSC MSC
TMSI REALL CMD(20)
TMSI REALL CMD(21)
TMSI REALL CMP(22)
TMSI REALL CMP(23)
SETUP(24)
SETUP(25)
CALL PRO(26)
CALL PROCEEDING(27)
ASSIGN REQ(28)
CH ACT(29)
CH ACT ACK(30)
ASSIGNMENT COMMAND(31)
SABM(32)
EST IND(33)
UA(34)
ASSIGNMENT COMPLETE(35)
ASSIGN CMP(36)
RF CH REL(37)
RF CH REL ACK(38)

-3 MS BTS BSC MSC
ALERTING(39)
ALERTING(40)
CONNECT(41)
CONNECT(42)
CONNECT ACK(43)
CONNECT ACK(44)
MEAS REPORT(45)
MEAS REPORT(46)
DISCONNECT(47)
DISCONNECT(48)
RELEASE(49)
RELEASE(50)
RELEASE COMPLETE(51)
RELEASE CMP(52)
CLEAR CMD(53)
CHANNEL RELEASE(54)
DEACT SACCH(55)
DISC(56)
UA(57)
REL IND(58)
RF CH REL(59)
RF CH REL ACK(60)
CLEAR CMP(61)
SCCP REL(62)
SCCP REL ACK(63)

Analysis of Channel Request cause
 Establishment Cause

 Establishment Cause (continued)

 Summary on Establishment Cause

 Emergency call
 Call re-establishment
 Paging response （ MTC, mobile terminal call ）
 Mobile originating call （ MOC ）
 Location update （ LOC ）
 Other access causes
 One-step access
 LMU service
 MBMS service

Channel Required

Channel Required
 Request Reference
 RA （ Random access reference ） : it continues to use the Cause and Random
Reference in the Channel Request.
 Byte 3 and 4 (T1, T2, T3): receive the frame number(42432) of the burst pulse.

Channel Required
 Access Delay
 The estimated TA
 Physical Context
 Including Rxlev_UL

Immediate Assignment
 Page Mode = same as before
 Packet Response Type and Dedicated mode or TBF
 Downlink assignment to mobile in Ready state: no meaning
 TBF or dedicated mode: this message assigns a dedicated mode resource
 PR Type: immediate assignment procedure for RR connection establishment
 Channel Description
 Type = SDCCH/8[0]
 Timeslot Number: 1
 Training Sequence Code: 0h
 ARFCN: 104
 Request Reference
 Random Access:
 Establish Cause: E0h = Originating call and TCH/F is needed, or originating call and the
network does not set NECI bit to 1
 Random Reference: 12h
 N32: 13h; N51: 1Fh; N26: 0Dh
 Timing Advance: 1 = 0,6 km
 Mobile allocation

Establish Indication

T represents the sub-channel number.


 Information on layer3:
 CM SERVICE REQUEST
 LOCATION UPDATING REQUEST
 IMSI DETACH
 PAGING RESPONSE
 CM RE-ESTABLISHMENT REQUEST
 NOTIFICATION RESPONSE
 IMMEDIATE SETUP
 RR INITIALISATION REQUEST

 CM SERVICE REQUEST
 Originate call
 Emergency call (Access statistics show that emergency call is not included in
MOC )
 SMS
 Supplementary service
 Group call establishment
 Voice broadcast call

Access counters
 Basic measurement
Counter Number Counter name

C900060001 Number of MTC access requests
C900060002 Number of MTC access successes
C900060131 Number of CM SERVICE REQ of MOC
C900060136 Number of MOC access requests
C900060137 Number of accesses due to paging response
C900060236 Number of MOC access successes

Access counters
 Radio access measurement (I)

Counter Number Counter name
C901110001 Number of invalid access requests
C901110003 Number of successful process for MOC access
C901110006 Number of successful process for MTC access
C901110008 Number of call re-establishment access requests
C901110009 Number of successful process for call re-establishment access
C901110010 Number of call re-establishment access success
C901110011 Number of emergency call access requests
C901110012 Number of successful process for emergency call access
C901110013 Number of emergency call access success
C901110014 Number of LOC access requests
C901110015 Number of successful process for LOC access
C901110016 Number of LOC access success
C901110017 Number of access requests due to other causes
C901110018 Number of successful process for other causes’ access
C901110019 Number of access success of other causes

Access counters
 Radio access measurement (II)
C901110020 Number of LMU Establishment access requests

C901110021 Number of successful process for LMU Establishment access
C901110022 Number of LMU Establishment access success
C901110023 Number of accesses due to location update
C901110024 Number of accesses due to CM SERVICE REQ
C901110026 Number of Emergency Call (CM SERVICE REQ) accesses
C901110027 Number of SMS (CM SERVICE REQ ) accesses
C901110028 Number of supplementary service (CM SERVICE REQ) accesses
C901110029 Number of accesses for LCS (CM SERVICE REQ ) accesses
C901110031 Number of accesses due to call re-establishment
C901110032 Number of accesses due to IMSI de-activation
C901110033 Number of accesses due to other causes

Contents
 Overview
failure
TxInteger
 Before response to the previous “channel request” is received,

MS waits for a period of time at random and sends the request
again after expiration. TxInteger is to decide the random waiting
time.
 The interval (number of timeslots) from MS originating the immediate
assignment to the transmission of the first “channel request” message is a
random number among { 0,1,…,Max （ T,8 ） -1 }.
 The interval (number of timeslots) between two consecutive “channel
request” is a random number among {S,S+1,…,S+T-1}.

TxInteger
TxInteger Number of
timeslots (T)
0 3
1 4 T(Number of S S
2 5 timeslots (CCCH is NOT (CCCH is combined
3 6 Of TxInteger) combined with SDCCH) with SDCCH)
4 7 3, 8, 14,50 55 41
5 8 4, 9, 16 76 52
6 9 5,10,20 109 58
7 10 6,11,25 163 86
8 11 7,12,32 217 115
9 12
10 14
11 16
12 20
13 25
14 32
15 50

MaxRetrans
 Because RACH is a ALOHA channel, in order to improve MS

access success rate, the network allows MS to send several
Channel Request messages before it receives the Immediate
Assign message. The max number of Channel Requests sent by
MS is decided by MaxRetrans.
MaxRetrans Max number of retransmission
0 1
1 2
2 4
3 7

TaAllowed
 It represents the max TA allowed for access to the cell.

 It is used to filter out fake accesses.

Contents
 Overview
 Instructions on checking of SDCCH
assignment failure
Explanation on common causes of SDCCH
assignment failure
 MS frequently originates location update due to poor downlink
quality;
 Improper setting of Tx-Integer;
 High SD assignment failure rate due to LAPD(Abis) delay
 Co-channel/co-BSIC interference
 Uplink interference
 Overshooting

Improper setting of Tx-Integer
 The default of Tx-Integer is 14, which is also the max value.

 Usually, the one-way signaling transmission delay at Abis
interface is 60ms~100ms; there should be a delay of about
240ms from MS originates Channel Request till it receives
Immediate Assign.
 When the transmission link delay is long, while TxInteger is set
with a small value, it will result in MS sending too many access
requests. However, MS only responds to the first Immediate
Assign it receives.

 Flow chart of repeated assignment failure

MS BTS BSC
Channel Request
Channel Required
Channel Active
TxInteger
Channel Active Ack Lapd
Delay
Channel Request(Re-Send ）
Channel Required
Imm Assign Cmd

MS change Imm Assign(OK)
to SDCCH Channel Active
Channel Active Ack
Imm Assign Cmd
Imm Assign(Fail)

LAPD delay
 Possible causes of LAPD delay

 Application of LAPD 1:4 multiplexing will lead to the situation that several
BCCH TRXs are multiplexed on one LAPD, which will cause heavy flow on the
LAPD and hence delay.
 Heavy flow on LAPD leads to delay. For example, improper LAC division will
lead to large amount of paging and hence LAPD flow control.
 Transmission equipment fault leads to loss of messages on LAPD or long
LAPD delay. These phenomena are often accompanied with SDCCH
assignment failure.
 The transmission equipment’s own delay, such as the delay caused by
satellite transmission at Abis interface.
 Impact of PS service: PS service is more sensitive to network delay. Any LAPD
delay will leads to re-transmission of PS service message, which increases the
flow on LAPD and causes longer LAPD delay, then a malicious circle will be
resulted.
Co-channel & co-BSIC
 Two cells have same BCCH and same BSIC

 The Channel Request sent by MS is received by two cells and they assign
SDCCH at the same time, but MS can only accept one SDCCH, therefore, one
of the two cells will inevitably experience SDCCH assignment failure.
 For RACH coding, first add in 6bit color code, which is obtained through
taking mod2 of 6bit BSIC and 6bit parity checking code. Therefore, co-BCCH
and co-BSIC may cause the BTS to incorrectly decode MS access bursts to
other sites, which will lead to SDCCH assignment failure

Co-channel & Co-BSIC
 Two cells have same BSIC and the TCH Arfcn of one cell is same
as the BCCH Arfcn in the other cell.
 The handover access request occurring on the TCH timeslot is received as
Channel Request by the other cell, which thereafter performs assignment. This
certainly leads to SDCCH assignment failure.
 It’s stipulated in protocols that the MS-started handover access information
and the random access request share the same format, which is AB frame; the
difference is that the handover access information content (RA) in one
handover started by MS is the same, and the FN is in consecution.
 Signaling related to this problem displays that the RA is the same, TA is in
consistence and FN in consecution. It’s confirmed that all the large amount
and consecutive Channel Requests are fake accesses caused by handovers
between co-channel cells.

Overshooting
 If the coverage of cell is too large, the DL Rxqual at the cell

margin will be poor. In this case, BTS can receive Channel
Request sent by MS, but MS can not receive Immediate Assign
sent by BTS, for BTS is more sensitive than MS,
 If the coverage of cell is too large, the cell may share channel and
BSIC with the cell which is far away.
 Solution to overshooting:
 Adjust the engineering parameters of antenna to limit the cell coverage.
 TA_allowed can effectively decrease SDCCH assignment failures caused by
overshooting. The side effect it brings is that the distant MS is not able to
access network. Therefore, the threshold of TA_allowed shall be set a bit
higher than the cell’s actual coverage. Besides, we should take into account
the transmission distance of repeater when calculating the cell coverage
range.

Uplink Interference --- False Access
 BTS receiving sensitivity is -112dbm~-125dbm. If the random access signal strength received
by BTS is lower than BTS sensitivity, it usually is confirmed to be interference. The
interference can be decoded as random access, which is called as fake access, and will
definitely lead to SDCCH assignment failure.
 Another feature of fake access is that TA is larger than that needed for the actual coverage
range.
 Solution: TA_allowed
 Note:
1. RachAccessMin is not recommended to use
2. As for TA-allowed, the corresponding name used by Nortel is RNDACCTIMADVTHRESHOLD,
whose description is as follows: adjust the parameter according to the cell’s actual coverage
range. Fake RACH request can be filtered out through setting proper threshold, therefore
unnecessary SDCCH assignment can be avoided. Test results prove that if TA-allowed is set
35Km for cells with small coverage radius, fake RACH (the system demodulate the noise into
RACH pulse by mistake) accounts for almost 30% of all RACH requests. After
rndAccTimAdvThreshold is changed to 2, false RACH is totally filtered out.

Frequent location update started by MS
 If MS needs to make location update, while the radio

environment is poor, it will retransmit Channel Request with the
cause of location update again and again, but it can never
receive Immediate Assign message.
 The frequent location update will cause fluctuations in SDCCH
assignment indicators.

Frequent location update started by MS
Number of SDCCH Number of SDCCH SDCCH assignment

assignment successes assignment failures success rate
Reference
indicators
Number of
(MOC+MTC
Number of Number of Number of Number of SDCCH
) (MOC+MTC
MOC access MOC access MTC access MTC access occupation
assignment ) proportion
requests successes requests successes attempts (for
success rate
assignment)

Troubleshooting instructions
 Check TxInteger of the problem cell, along with LAPD delay

observed from signaling.
 Check whether the LAPD link of BCCH TRX in the problem cell is
multiplexed with that of other cells.
 Check whether any of the adjacent cells have same Arfcn and
BSIC with the problem cell.
 Check whether the value of counter “number of access attempts
due to other causes” is big. If so, and the counter “number of
access successes due to other causes” is zero, it is possible that
“handover access” on other TCH TRXs are decoded as
“channel request” by the problem cell.
 Error Report with Channel Number 0x88 is available in the mplog
file.
Troubleshooting instructions
 Check SDCCH allocation KPIs and transmission alarms.

 If SDCCH &TCH assignment indicators are all bad, the problem
shall be related to radio environment.
 Analyze signaling and check if Channel Request with large TA, if
so, fake access exist and TA_allowed restriction can be used.

Contents
 Overview
failure
 A cell’s ordinary SDCCH assignment failure rate remains at around 20%

and hits 30% in busy hour. However, other KPIs(such as TCH assignment
failure rate, handover success rate) are all good.
 Problem analysis: After analyzing the cell’s signaling, we find there
usually are Channel Request messages appearing in couples in the cell
(with the same TA and cause). The Imm Assignment corresponding to
the first Channel Request was successful, but the one corresponding to
the second Channel Request failed.

 Problem analysis:
 Tx-Integer=12, which means “channel request” retransmission interval is
109~128

FN of the first Channel Request is 964; that of the second Channel Request is 1086;
there is a difference of 124 frames.

It’s confirmed that the two Channel Requests are sent by the same MS.
 Solution: change Tx-Integer to be 14. After the adjustment, the SDCCH
assignment failure rate drops to below 10%.

Access of interference signal—Case 1: TA
exceeding the actual coverage range
 Problem description: the SDCCH assignment success rate in a cell
is very poor.
11644(Number of 11645(Number of
Alias SDCCH Assignment SDCCH Assignment
Success) Failure)
Cell A 191 15
Cell A 190 24
Cell A 177 33
Cell A 192 26

Access of noisy signal—Case 1: TA exceeding
the actual range
 Problem analysis: analyze ABIS signaling; the TA of failed random
access Immediate Assign failure is as follows; the neighboring
sites are near each other , with a distance less than 1 Km.
Corresponding time stamp for sending Immediate
Serial No. TA Cause
Assign
1 35 MOC 06-08-55.375
2 36 MTC 06-08-55.562
3 35 MOC 06-08-55.984
4 34 MTC 06-08-56.578
5 32 MOC 06-09-11.640
6 30 MTC 06-09-24.546
7 27 MTC 06-09-38.031
8 27 MTC 06-09-38.578
9 27 MTC 06-09-39.109
10 0 MOC 06-09-57.171
11 24 MOC 06-09-57.828
12 10 MOC 06-11-15.406
13 2 MOC 06-12-12.781
14 0 MOC 06-12-52.671
15 0 MOC 06-12-53.218
16 1 LAC update 06-15-13.140

Access of noisy signal—Case 2: the Rxlev lower
than BTS sensitivity
 Problem description: A cell’s SDCCH assignment failure rate
keeps high, but the TCH assignment rate is acceptable.
SDCCH SDCCH TCH

SDCCH TCH assign
assign assign Assignmen TCH assign
assign failure
successful failure t Success failure rate
failure rate number
number number Number
14479 4490 23.63 4678 122 2.54

Access of noisy signal—Case 2: the Rxlev lower
than BTS sensitivity
 Problem analysis: The Physical Context carried by Channel
Required message reports the Rxlev of random accesses, in
which we find lots of Channel Request messages whose Rxlev is -
135dbm(0x87).

Co-BCCH & co-BSIC— Overshooting
 Problem description: the SDCCH assignment failure rate in many

cells exceeds 25%.
 Process procedure:
 After all the hardware is changed, the problem still exists.
 Through signaling trace we find that the co- BCCH/co-BSIC signals received
when TA=20 lead to SDCCH assignment failure.
 Based on the above finding, re-plan the BSIC of more than 10 cells in the
network. After the re-planning, coverage of the cells returns to normal.
 Solution:
 Temporary solution: the CMM of cells with high reset failure rate enables the
clock to reset, which lead to synchronous malposition of SDCCH timeslot.
 Ultimate solution: to avoid co-channel/co-BSIC.

Co-Channel & co-BSIC—Handover
 Problem description: a cell experiences a sudden increase of

SDCCH assignment failure rate in busy hour; the TCH assignment
indicators are good.
SDCCH assign TCH assign

Cell ID Pmdatatime
failure rate faliure rate
Cell A 19:00-20:00 15.85 0.68
Cell A 21:00-22:00 12.78 0.71
Cell A 20:00-21:00 11.27 1.36

Co-Channel & co-BSIC—Handover
 Problem analysis: Through signaling trace, we find that there is a large number of
continuous random accesses; these Channel Requests have the same RA, TA, and
consecutive frame numbers.
 Solution: After checking frequency planning, we find there are co-channel & co-
BSIC cells which are located 14km away from the BTS. After re-planning of
frequency, the problem disappears.

Weak coverage
 Problem description:
 The SDCCH assignment failure rate in a cell reaches 58% in busy hour, and
TCH assignment failure rate 56%; handover success rate in only 20%.
 Network performance statistics of fore-and-aft days display that the TCH
assignment failure rate, call drop rate and handover failure rate have
remained high.
Handover
SDCCH assign TCH assign
UserLabel success
failure rate failure rate
rate(%)
Cell A 20 58.67 56.19

Weak coverage
 Problem analysis:
 DT result shows that the problem cell not only experiences weak coverage, but also
overshooting and co-channel interference.
 Signaling trace shows a large number of abnormal accesses of consecutive Channel
Requests with TA =63.

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SDCCH Assignment Analysis

 SDCCH: the Stand-alone Dedicated Control Channel is used to

 In brief, the following processes shall be taken into consideration

© ZTE Corporation. All rights reserved

© ZTE Corporation. All rights reserved

2 Number (IMM_ASS), this counter counts the number of successful MS

© ZTE Corporation. All rights reserved

KPI SDCCH assignment success rate

Definition Number of successful SDCCH

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 Definition: Number of successful random accesses / Number of

 Number of successful random accesses

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CIPH MODE CMP(18)

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 Establishment Cause (continued)

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 Summary on Establishment Cause

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T represents the sub-channel number.

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Counter Number Counter name

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 Radio access measurement (I)

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 Radio access measurement (II)

C901110020 Number of LMU Establishment access requests

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 Before response to the previous “channel request” is received,

© ZTE Corporation. All rights reserved

© ZTE Corporation. All rights reserved

 Because RACH is a ALOHA channel, in order to improve MS

MaxRetrans Max number of retransmission

© ZTE Corporation. All rights reserved

 It represents the max TA allowed for access to the cell.

© ZTE Corporation. All rights reserved

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 The default of Tx-Integer is 14, which is also the max value.

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 Flow chart of repeated assignment failure

Imm Assign Cmd

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 Possible causes of LAPD delay

 Two cells have same BCCH and same BSIC

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 If the coverage of cell is too large, the DL Rxqual at the cell

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 If MS needs to make location update, while the radio

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Number of SDCCH Number of SDCCH SDCCH assignment