GSM Active Mode

❑Course Outlines
▪ Handover.
▪ HCS (Hierarchical Cell Structure).
▪ Concentric & Multi Band Cells.
▪ CLS ( Cell Load Sharing).
▪ Frequency Hopping.
▪ Power Control.
▪ GSM to UMTS Cell Reselection and Handover.
▪ Trouble Shooting and KPIs monitoring.
Copy Rights © LEGEND Co. 2010

Handover (Locating)
▪ Handover (Locating) Algorithm
❑ The Handover (Locating) Algorithm

is the basic feature to provide mobility in the Radio Network.
❑ Aims At?
i. Keep the continuity of a current call with acceptable quality.
ii. Cell size control in-order to decrease total interference in the system.
❑ Implemented
where? In the
BSC.
❑ Location process initiated when?

After Hand Over (HO), Assignment or Immediate Assignment.

Handover (Locating)
❑ Inputs to the Algorithm?

Signal Strength, Quality measurements &TA for serving cell and Signal
Strength measurements for neighbor cells.
❑ Output from the Algorithm?
List of candidates which the algorithm judges to be possible candidates for
HO (List of HO candidates are ranked and sorted in descending order)

Handover (Locating)
❑ What types of Handover (locating) algorithm we have?

i. SS & Path Loss based Algorithm: Follows the GSM specifications. HO decision is
taken based on both Signal Strength (SS) and Path Loss.
ii. SS based Algorithm: HO decision is taken based on Signal Strength only and
this leads to better performance.
⮚ It is less complex, uses less parameters and easy to be maintained in the

Radio Network.

Handover (Locating)
⮚ The main Flow of the Handover (locating) Algorithm goes as follow:
Initiation Filtering Basic Ranking Urgency Conditions

Handling
Auxiliary Radio
Network
Features
Evaluation
Organizing the
List
Sending the
List &
Allocation
Reply

Handover (Locating)
I. Initiation.
II. Filtering.
III. Basic Ranking.
IV. Urgency Conditions Handling.
V. Auxiliary Radio Network Features Evaluation.
VI. Organizing the List.
VII. Sending the List & Allocation Reply.

Handover (Locating)
I. Initiation of the Handover (Locating) Process/Algorithm
Immediate assignment
You are assigned SDCCH to make call setup, or a TCH to make call setup on
when no free SDCCH channels exist.

Handover (Locating)
I. Initiation of the Handover (Locating) Process/Algorithm

❑ Handover on SDCCH can be enabled/disabled based on parameter
SCHO
❑ At initiation of Locating after successful HO, Assignment or Immediate

assignment a timer TINIT starts which will disable HO for some time until
it expires.
❑ The reason is to leave the connection on the current channel for some time
until the locating algorithm produces reliable results we can rely on.
❑ TINIT will disable HO only, but Assignment on own or other cell will occur
normally and will not wait TINIT till expired.
❑ TINIT is a BSC parameter not a cell parameter and it measured in SACCH
periods.

Handover (Locating)
II. Filtering
❑ Simply it is the process of collecting the required data on Signal Strength
(SS), Quality and Time Advance (TA) for serving and neighbor cells and
average these consecutive measurements over a specified period to rank
these cells.
❑ This is accomplished in two steps:

1. Measurements Preparation
2. SS, Quality and TA Filtering

Handover (Locating)
II. Filtering
1. Measurements Preparation
▪ SS measurements are delivered as integer values 0 € 63 corresponds to
real SS from -110 dBm € - 47 dBm
▪ Quality is measured based on the BER and it may be represented in two
forms:
i. Integers 0 (Best) € 7 (Worst)
ii. Deci Transformed Quality Units (dtqu) from 0 (Best) € 70 (Worst)
▪ Time Advance (TA): is reported as values between 0 € 63 bit period.

N.B:
If TA=1 then the MS is at nearly 0.5 km from the cell

Handover (Locating)
II. Filtering
2. SS, Quality and TA Filtering:
▪ The consecutive measurements for SS, Quality and TA are averaged in
some way based on the equation of the filter used.
▪ We’ve 5 Types of Filters that may be used, each one has its own equation or
its way to produce output results from the collected consecutive
measurements:
A. General FIR Filters
B. Recursive Straight Average Filter
C. Recursive Exponential Filter
D. Recursive 1st Order Butterworth Filter
E. Median Filter

Handover (Locating)
II. Filtering
2-i) Signal Strength Filters controlling parameters
❑ SSEVALSI € Selects the Type of the filter that will be used during Signaling phase.
❑ SSEVALSD € Selects the Type of the filter that will be used during Connection phase.
❑ SSLENSI € Selects the Length of the filter that will be used during Signaling phase.
❑ SSLENSD € Selects the Length of the filter that will be used during Connection phase.
N.B:
SSLENSI & SSLENSD are measured in the form of SACCH periods,
i.e. if SSLENSD=10, then the length of the filter during the connection
phase = 10*0.48 sec = 4.8 seconds Default=8 SACCH period

Handover (Locating)
II. Filtering
2-ii) Quality Filters controlling parameters
❑ QEVALSI € Selects the Type of the filter that will be used during Signaling
phase.
❑ QEVALSD € Selects the Type of the filter that will be used during
Connection phase.
❑ QLENSI € Selects the Length of the filter that will be used during Signaling
phase.
❑ QLENSD € Selects the Length of the filter that will be used during
Connection phase.
N.B:
QLENSI & QLENSD are measured in the form of SACCH periods,
i.e. if QLENSD=10, then the length of the filter during the connection
phase = 10*0.48 sec = 4.8 seconds

Handover (Locating)
II. Filtering
2-iii) Time Advance (TA) controlling parameters
❑ One single type of filters is used which is the Recursive Straight Average
Filter and the length of the filter is specified by parameter TAAVELEN which
is also measured in SACCH periods.

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

❑ It is called “Basic” coz in this stage ranking is done before handling the
urgency conditions and evaluation of the auxiliary radio network features.
❑ As mentioned earlier, two algorithms are available for basic ranking

(SS&Path loss based Algorithm and SS based Algorithm) and they’re
selected according to the parameter EVALTYPE
❑ EVALTYPE=1, SS & Path loss based Algorithm is used for basic ranking
taking into consideration both Signal Strength measurements and the path
loss.
❑ EVALTYPE=3, SS based Algorithm is used for basic ranking

taking into consideration Signal Strength measurements only.

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

⮚ Basic Ranking Algorithm following the SS based Algorithm will be done on
four steps:
A. Correction of Base Station output power. Common
B. Evaluation of the minimum signal strength condition for neighbors. both
Algorithms
C. Subtraction of signal strength penalties.
D. Rank the Candidates after applying Offsets and Hysteresis.

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

⮚ Basic Ranking Algorithm following the SS based Algorithm
A. Correction of Base Station output power
▪ The location algorithm aims at making the Pure Traffic Frequencies to control the
cell borders and not the BCCH frequencies, coz most of the time the seized TCH
Time slot will be located on a TCH frequency.
❑ BSPWR is a parameter to set the output power of the BCCH carrierAnd

❑ BSTXPWR is a parameter to set the output power of the TCH frequencies.
▪ Correction for the output power will done for both:

(A-i) Correction for Neighbor Cells.
(A-ii) Correction for Serving Cell.

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

(A-i) Correction for Neighbor Cells
❑ The MS is informed by the BCCH frequencies of the neighbors cells on
which he has to perform his measurements via Active BA list.
❑ SS_corrected_DLneighbor = SS_measured_DLneighbor - ( BSPWR - BSTXPWR )

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

(A-ii) Correction for Serving Cell
1)TCH Time Slot (TS) is on the BCCH frequency
SS_corrected_DLservingcell = SS_measured_DLservingcell - ( BSPWR - BSTXPWR )
2)TCH TS is hopping between a BCCH frequency and a TCH frequency:

SS_corrected_DLservingcell = SS_measured_DLservingcell - ( BSPWR -
BSTXPWR )/N , Where N is the no. of the hopping frequencies
3) TCH TS is on the OL (Over Laid sub cell)

SS_corrected_DLUnderLaid = SS_measured_DLOverLaid+ ( BSTXPWR Under Laid
– BSTXPWROverLaid )

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

B. Evaluation of the minimum Signal Strength condition for Neighbors
▪ Not all the neighbors are allowed to be ranked!!
▪ The neighbor should pass the minimum signal strength condition in order to be ranked.
❑ SS_corrected_DLneighbor will be compared with respect to parameter called
MSRXMIN, If SS_corrected_DLneighbor ≥ MSRXMIN € this neighbor will be included
in ranking
If SS_corrected_DLneighbor < MSRXMIN € this neighbor will be excluded from ranking
❑ If UL measurements are included then SS_corrected_ULneighbor will be compared

with respect to parameter called BSRXMIN,
If SS_corrected_ULneighbor ≥ BSRXMIN € this neighbor will be included in ranking
If SS_corrected_ULneighbor < BSRXMIN € this neighbor will be excluded from ranking

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

B. Evaluation of the minimum Signal Strength condition for
Neighbors
Example:
Assume that a MS is connected to cell A that has five neighbors
B,C,D,E&F, the MSRXMIN for all the cells is -104 dBm and the
SS_corrected_DL
Neighbors neighbor for each cell after correcting the BTS o/p power
is SS_corrected_DL
given
B in the below Table:
-85
neighbor
dBm
-110 € Cell C will be excluded
dBm from ranking ’and won t be
C -87
dBm considered in the next
-70
dBm stage and the MS will
D -100 never HO to it
dBm
E
F
Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

C. Subtraction of signal strength penalties
▪ Penalties or Punishments will be applied on cells that are for some reasons
temporarily undesirable.
▪ A Penalty value will decrease the rank of some cells for certain penalty time.
▪ SS_punished_DL = SS_corrected_DL – Locating Penalties – HCS Penalties
▪ In the coming slides we’ll talk about the two types of penalties:
(C-i) Locating Penalties
(C-ii) HCS Penalties

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

C. Subtraction of signal strength
penalties (C-i) Locating Penalties
1) Due to HO failure:
If HO to a neighbor cell failed then we ’ve to apply a penalty value for some
time on this neighbor so when basic ranking is done again we don’t go back
to this cell.
⮚ Penalty value will be configured using parameter PSSHF (default 63 dB)
⮚ Penalty time will be configured using parameter PTIMHF (default 5 sec)

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

C. Subtraction of signal strength
penalties (C-i) Locating Penalties
2) Due to Bad Quality (BQ) Urgency HO:
If a cell was abandon due to BQ, then it should have been the best cell from
SS point of view so without penalties using the basic ranking we’ll be back to
this cell.
⮚ Penalty value will be configured using parameter PSSBQ (default 7 dB)
⮚ Penalty time will be configured using parameter PTIMBQ (default 5 seconds)
3) Due to Excessive TA Urgency HO:

Handled in the same manner like the BQ case.
⮚ Penalty value will be configured using parameter PSSTA (default 63 dB)
⮚ Penalty time will be configured using parameter PTIMTA
(default 30 seconds)

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

C. Subtraction of signal strength penalties
(C-ii) HCS Penalties
❑ It is related to the HCS (Hierarchical Cell Structure) feature when a MS is
detected as a fast moving mobile.
❑ A penalty will be applied on lower layer cells so in ranking we will prioritize

cells in the same layer of the serving cell and cells in higher layers and in this
way unnecessary HO’s are prevented ( ex: layer2 cells will be prioritized
than layer1 cells)

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

D. Rank the Candidates after applying Offsets and Hysteresis
▪ Ranking for neighbor cells will be done after applying Offsets and Hysteresis.
❑ Offset: Displace the cell border as compared to

the border strictly given by SS.
Controlling parameter: OFFSET (default: zero dB)
❑ Hysteresis: To reduce the risk of ping pong HO

a region for Hysteresis is applied
around the cell border.

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking
D. Rank the Candidates after applying Offsets and Hysteresis

▪ If the Hysteresis value is too high there will be a risk that the MS will be connected to the
cell of low SS for long time and if the Hysteresis is too low then there will be a risk that ping
pong HO’s occur.
▪ So the applied value of Hysteresis will be variable based on the received SS of the serving
cell.
▪ SS_corrected_DLservingcell will be compared to value HYSTSEP (default -90 dBm),
€ If SS_corrected_DLservingcell > HYSTSEP, then the serving cell is strong enough and high
value of Hysteresis will be applied such that Hysteresis value=HIHYST (default 5 dB)
€ If SS_corrected_DLservingcell < HYSTSEP, then the serving cell is not strong enough and low
value of Hysteresis will be applied such that Hysteresis value=LOHYST (default 3 dB)

Handover (Locating)
III. Basic Ranking

D. Rank the Candidates after applying Offsets and
Hysteresis
N
SS_corrected_DLservingcell > o HYST=LOHY
HYSTSEP ST
Yes
HYST=HIHY
ST
Rank = SS_corrected_Dl
servingcell servingcell
Rank = SS_punished_DL – OFFSET –

neighbor neighbor neighbor
HYST
SS-Neighbor > SS-Serving + HYST
neighbor

Handover (Locating)
IV. Urgency Conditions Handling

❑ After the Basic Ranking stage a check is made on the serving cell to know if
Urgency conditions are detected or not.
❑ We have two types of Urgency HO:

1. Bad Quality (BQ) Urgency HO
2. Excessive Time Advance (TA) Urgency HO
❑ If Urgency conditions are detected then the serving cell should be abandon
as fast as possible, but some of the neighbors will be removed from the
candidate list and the MS will not be able to HO to them as we will see later.
❑ As seen before, cells that were abandon due to Urgency HO will be

subjected to punishment/penalty.

Handover (Locating)

▪ The Quality measured at the DL and UL for the serving cell will be compared
with two parameters QLIMDL & QLIMUL (default 50 dtqu) and if:
rxqual_DL > QLIMDL

Or € Urgency HO due to BQ should be done
rxqual UL > QLIMUL
▪ The Quality may drop like that as a result of Co-Channel Interference or

when the SS became very low.
▪ When Urgency Condition is detected the MS has to leave the cell and make
HO to other cell, but in this case the serving cell is the one that has the
highest SS so the MS has to HO to a cell of worse SS, but is the MS allowed
to HO to any worse cell?

Handover (Locating)

▪ Is the MS allowed to HO to any worse cell? No, this will be based on a
parameter called BQOFFSET which will ensure that far neighbors won’t be
selected.
▪ If Rankservingcell – Rankneighbor < BQOFFSET+HYST, then this neighbor is near

to the serving cell and it is not much worse than the serving cell and it can
be candidate for HO.
▪ If Rankservingcell – Rankneighbor > BQOFFSET+HYST, then this neighbor is far

from the serving cell and it will be removed from the candidate list.

Handover (Locating)

Example:
If Urgency condition is detected where Rankservingcell = -75 dBm and
the neighbors: ((RankB = -79 dBm , RankC = -90 dBm , RankD = -87
dBm)) and ((BQOFFSET=5dB, HYST=0 dB))
⮚ Rank – = 4dB < BQOFFSET= 5dB€ “Cell B is kept in the

servingcell
⮚ candidate list”
= 15dB > BQOFFSET= 5dB€ “Cell C is
Rank
Rank –
servingcell
B removed from the
Rank
⮚ “ candidate
Cell Dlist”
C
Rank – = > BQOFFSET=5dB€ is
servingcell
8dB removed from the
Rank
D candidate list”

Handover (Locating)

2. Excessive Time Advance (TA) Urgency HO
▪ TA can be used as a measure for the distance between the BTS and the
MS.
▪ If TA > TALIM (63 bit period) € Urgency HO due to TA is initiated.

Handover (Locating)
❑ After Basic Ranking and Evaluation of the Urgency Conditions, the Serving
Cell and Neighbor Cells will be divided into 3 Groups:
Better
⮚ Categorizatio Cell
Serving
n #1 Cell
Worse
Cell

Handover (Locating)
V. Auxiliary Radio Network Features Evaluation

1. Assignment to Another Cell Evaluation
2. Cell Load Sharing Evaluation
3. Over Laid/Under Laid sub-cell Evaluation
4. IHO Evaluation
5. HCS Evaluation
€ After these Evaluations, some candidates will be removed from the HO

candidate list and Categorization#2 will be performed.

Handover (Locating)

▪ The Locating Algorithm may be initiated after immediate assignment to know
whether it is better for the MS to take a TCH time slot on the current cell or
not.
▪ If during the signaling phase a Better Cell was found after ranking
then “Assignment to Better Cell” will be initiated.
▪ If during the signaling phase no better cell was found, then the MS will
normally be assigned a TCH time slot on the current cell.
▪ If the Better/Serving Cells were congested then “Assignment to

Worse Cell” will be done.

Handover (Locating)

▪ Is the MS allowed to take TCH time slot on any worse cell? No, this will be
based on a parameter called AWOFFSET which will ensure that far
neighbors won’t be selected.
▪ Only if Rankservingcell – Rankneighbor < AWOFFSET, then this neighbor is near

to the serving cell and it is not much worse than the serving cell and
assignment to it can be done.
▪ If Rankservingcell – Rankneighbor > AWOFFSET, then this neighbor is far from the
serving cell and it will be removed from the candidate list.

Handover (Locating)

2. Cell Load Sharing (CLS) Evaluation
▪ This feature is used to reduce congestion on the serving cell.
▪ When CLS is activated and the load on the serving cell becomes higher than
certain threshold then:
i) Valid CLS HO candidates are defined
ii) Re-calculation of their ranking values will be performed.

Handover (Locating)

2. Cell Load Sharing (CLS) Evaluation
i. Valid CLS HO candidates are defined as follow:
❑ Worse cells: coz if they were better then they’ll be chosen at Basic
Ranking
❑ Load on neighbor cells < CLS load threshold
❑ Internal cells: lies in the same BSC
❑ Same Layer
ii. Re-calculation of their ranking values will be performed:

❑ We’re going to recalculate the Ranking values of the valid CLS
neighbors with reduced offset so these worse neighbors will appear with
higher SS than they really are and the MS can make HO to them and
relief the congestion on the current cell.

Handover (Locating)

3. OL/UL Sub-Cell Evaluation
▪ The OL/UL feature provides a way of increasing the traffic capacity in a
cellular network without building new sites.
▪ Since OL sub-cell serves smaller area than the corresponding UL sub-cell a

smaller reuse distance can be used in in the OL sub-cell than in the under
laid.
▪ The OL/UL evaluation may result in a recommendation to change the sub-

cell from the one currently in use, this evaluation is based on:
DL SS, TA Serving Cell, Distance to cell border, Traffic Load in the cell
▪ This feature will be discussed in details afterwards.

Handover (Locating)
V. Auxiliary Radio Network Features

Evaluation
4. Intra Cell HO (IHO) Evaluation
▪ The IHO feature provides a way to improve the speech quality during the
conservation when bad quality is detected while the SS is high.
▪ This is can be accomplished by changing the channel the connection is currently

using within the same cell.

Handover (Locating)

5. Hierarchical Cell Structure (HCS) Evaluation
▪ The HCS feature provides the possibility to give priority to cells that are not
strongest but provide sufficient SS.
▪ The priority of a cell is given by associating a layer to the cell.
▪ We have 8 layers from layer 1 (Highly prioritized) to layer 8 (least

prioritized).
▪ Micro cells are prioritized than Macro cells for capacity purposes.
▪ Cells of lower layers will be ranked higher than cells of higher layers in the
HO candidate list.

Handover (Locating)
❑ After the Auxiliary Radio Network features evaluation some candidates may be
prioritized and the order of the candidate list will be modified.
❑ The Serving Cell and Neighbor Cells will be divided into 3 Groups:
Above S
⮚ Categorizatio Serving Cell
n #2 (SC)
Below
S

Handover (Locating)
VI. Organizing the List

❑ The final list will contain maximum up to Six Neighbors + The Serving Cell
and categorized as follows: Serving Cell (SC), Above S, Below S
❑ To reach the final form before sending the list the following steps will be
done:
A. Removal of Candidates
B. Ordering the Candidate List based on the Current Conditions.

Handover (Locating)

A. Removal of Candidates
▪ Some Candidates may be removed coz:
Some Controlling timers are active and preventing HO to certain cell:
❑ TALLOC: This timer prevents HO on a target cell for some time after
assignment/HO failure due to congestion on target cell.
(N.B: No penalties are applied on this cell)
❑ TURGEN: This timer prevents HO on a target cell for some time after
urgency HO failure due to congestion on target cell.
N.B:
TALLOC and TURGEN are BSC parameters

Handover (Locating)

B. Ordering the Candidate list based on the Current Conditions
❑ Means what? Means in what order the 3 categories (Above S, S, Below S)
will be arranged before sending the candidate list. This will be based on
some condition flags.
❑ Condition Flags:
1. Assignment Request Arrived
2. Assignment to Worst Cell is in Use
3. Excessive TA Detected
4. BQ Urgency HO
5. OL/UL Sub-Cell Load Change or IHO

Handover (Locating)

B. Ordering the Candidate list based on the Current
Conditions
Cas Condition Flags Ordering Comment
e 1 2 3 4 5
1 0 x 0 0 0 Above S Normal Case

Serving Cell has BQ so it should be
2 0 x 0 1 0 Above S Below S
abandon either to the Above S
or Below S cell
3
An Assignment request came and the
1 0 0 0 0 Above S S
AW flag is not raised
4
An Assignment request came and the
1 1 0 0 0 Above S S Below
AW flag is raised
S
5 Serving Cell has BQ so it should be

abandon but coz the OL/UL subcell
0 x 0 1 1 Above S S Below change flag is raised, then the serving
S cell is included coz this subcell change
may solve the issue with no need to go
for a below worse cell
Condition
Copy Rights Flags:
© LEGEND Co. 2010 3€ Excessive TA Detected
1€ Assignment Request Arrived 4€ BQ Urgency HO

Handover (Locating)
VII. Sending the List & Allocation Reply

❑ The resulting candidate list will form the basis on which HO will be
performed.
❑ Empty list means that no options are better than remaining on the current
cell and no HO will occur.
❑ The channel allocation reply may be success or failure.
❑ Failure may be due to congestion or signaling failure on the target cell.
❑ Based on the result of allocation either success/failure, some actions will be

taken like applying some penalties or enabling of certain timers as we saw
previously.

Handover (Locating)
Example:
Assume that the o/p from the Filtering stage for the SS
measurements is as below and we want to prepare the Basic
Ranking Candidate list for HO:
Cell SS(dB
m)
A -70
B (Serving Cell) -74
C -78
D -68
E -80
F -92
Where, G -95
BSPWR = BSTXPWR, MSRXMIN = -90 dBm,
Cell A was abandon due to BQ urgency HO
(PSSBQ=7dB)
SS based Algorithm is in use where OFFSET=0,
HYSTSEP= -90 dBm,
HIHYST=
Copy 5 dB,
Rights © LEGEND Co. LOHYST=
2010 3 dB
Handover (Locating)
Solution:
A) Correction of Base Station output power:
❑ Since BSPWR = BSTXPWR then the current measurements will be
kept as it is.
⮚ SS_corrected_DLneighbor = SS_measured_DLneighbor
⮚ SS_corrected_DLserving = SS_measured_DLserving
B) Evaluation of the minimum Signal Strength condition for

Neighbors:
❑ The SS for neighbors will be Cell
compared against MSRXMIN = -90 dBm
SS(dB
Cell F and Cell G have SS < MSRXMIN then m)they will be removed from
A for HO.-70
the list and can’t be candidates
C -78
D -68
E -80
F -92
G -95
Handover (Locating)
Solution:
C) Subtraction of signal strength penalties:
❑ Since Cell A was abandon due to BQ urgency HO
(PSSBQ=7dB) then it will be punished,
⮚ SS_punished_DL Cell A = SS_corrected_DL – PSSBQ = -70 – 7 =
-77 dBm
❑ The candidate list will now be in the following

Cell SS(dBm form:
)
A -77
C -78
D -68
E -80

Handover (Locating)
Solution:
D) Rank the Candidates after applying Offsets and
Hysteresis
❑ Since= SS
-74 dBm > HYSTSEP= -90 dBm, then it is better to stay on the
Serving
current
cell B
cell and high Hysteresis will Cell SS(dBm
be applied )
A -77
⮚ i.e. HYST = HIHYST = 5 dB
C -78
D -68
⮚ Rank = -74 € “Serving E -80

servingcell B
⮚ RankA= -77 dBm – OFFSET Cell” – HYST = -77 – 0 – 5 = -82 dBm €
dBm
“Worse Cell”
⮚ RankC= -78 dBm – OFFSET – HYST = -78 – 0 – 5 = -83 dBm €
“Worse Cell”
⮚ RankD= -68 dBm – OFFSET – HYST = -68 – 0 – 5 = -73 dBm €
“Better Cell”
⮚ Rank
Copy Rights
E= -80 dBm – OFFSET – HYST = -80 – 0 – 5 = -85 dBm €
© LEGEND Co. 2010
“Worse Cell”
Handover (Locating)
Solution:
Now the final list according to Categorization#1 will be
arranged as follows:
Categorization#1
Cell SS(dBm) Category
D -73 Better Cell
B -74 Serving Cell
A -82 Worse Cell
C -83 Worse Cell
E -85 Worse Cell

Handover (Locating)
3G Radio link Supervision
▪2G Disconnection Criteria

❑ The Disconnection algorithm is not part of the locating algorithm but for completeness,
the topic is treated here.
❑ The Disconnection algorithm manages when the connection between the MS and the
Network shall be dropped when signaling failure is detected.
❑ The Disconnection criterion can be made in both the DL and the UL such that:
€ In the DL: managed by the MS
and
€ In the UL: managed by the BSC
Handover (Locating)
▪ Disconnection Criteria
❑ In DL:
⮚ Controlled by a parameter RLINKT (max. bucket size) , when the MS couldn’t decode a
SACCH message (0.48 sec), the bucket will be decreased by 1 unit, when the MS
successfully decodes a SACCH message, the bucket will be increased by 2 units, if the
bucket reached value = Zero then disconnection will occur, recommended value
RLINKT=16
❑ In UL:
⮚ The disconnection algorithm will run in the same way, the BSC will make the evaluation,
and the controlling parameter is called RLINKUP, , recommended value RLINKUP=16
▪ N.B: The bucket can’t have values larger than the max. value given by
RLINKT/RLINKUP

Handover (Locating)
❑ Parameters Summary
Algorithm Selection
Parameter Value Range Recommended Unit

Name Value
EVALTYPE 1 or 3 3 ─
Flow Control Parameters
Parameter Value Range Recommended Unit
Name Value
TINIT 0 to 120 10 SACCH period=480 msec
TALLOC 0 to 120 2 SACCH period=480 msec
TURGEN 0 to 120 2 SACCH period=480 msec

Handover (Locating)
Filtering Control Parameters

Parameter Value Range Recommended Value Unit
Name
SSEVALSI 1 to 9 6 ─
SSEVALSD 1 to 9 6 ─
QEVALSI 1 to 9 6 ─
QEVALSD 1 to 9 6 ─
SSLENSI 1 to 20 4 SACCH period=480 msec
SSLENSD 1 to 20 10 SACCH period=480 msec
QLENSI 1 to 20 4 SACCH period=480 msec
QLENSD 1 to 20 10 SACCH period=480 msec
TAAVELEN 1 to 20 4 SACCH period=480 msec

Handover (Locating)
Signal Strength based Basic Ranking

Parameters
Parameter Name Value Range Recommended Value Unit

HYSTSEP −150 to 0 -90 dBm
LOHYST 0 to63 3 dB
HIHYST 0 to63 3 dB
OFFSET Handover Failure
−63 to 63 Parameters 0(Signaling Failure)
dB
PSSHF 0 to 63 63 dB
PTIMHF 0 to 600 5 Seconds

Handover (Locating)
Urgency Conditions Parameters

QLIMUL 0 to 100 55 dtqu
QLIMDL 0 to 100 55 dtqu
BQOFFSET 0 to 63 3 dB
PSSBQ 0 to 63 7 dB
PTIMBQ 0 to 600 15 Seconds
TALIM 0 to 63 62 Bit Period (0.577msec)
PSSTA 0 to 63 63 dB
PTIMTA 0 to 600 30 Seconds
Disconnection Algorithm Parameters

RLINKT 4 to 64 in steps of 4 16 SACCH period=480 msec
RLINKUP 1 to 63 16 SACCH period=480 msec

Hierarchical Cell Structure (HCS)
▪ HCS Evaluation Algorithm
❑ HCS feature provides the ability and flexibility to give priority to cells that are
not strongest but provide sufficient Signal Strength.
❑ The priority of a cell is given by associating an HCS layer to the cell where
each cell will be belonging to an HCS band.
❑ The lower the layer ( and the HCS band), the priority is higher,
i.e. layer 1 has higher priority than layer 2, layer 3, layer 4, …..
layer 2 has higher priority than layer 3, layer 4, layer 5,
…..
❑ Up to 8 layers (in up to 8 bands) may be defined, where one or several layers

can be assigned to the same HCS band.

❑ The lower HCS bands will only include lower layers compared to a higher
HCS bands.
❑ A mixture of small micro cells (lower layers) and large macro (higher layers)
cells will achieve both high capacity and good coverage.
❑ Micro cells will be used for capacity issues while macro cells
will be used to provide coverage, fill coverage holes and handle the
fast moving mobiles.

❑ With Basic Ranking only, micro cells will be ranked as the strongest server in
very small area, so to let micro cells serve in an area where acceptable SS
is guaranteed then HCS should be used.

❑ The idea with a layered cell structure is to let lower layer cells serve MSs that
receive sufficient SS even if there is other cells with strongest received SS in
the area.
❑ But how to decide if the lower layer cell has sufficient SS to be prioritized over
strongest cells?
€ This will be according to two thresholds LAYERTHR (Layer Threshold) and
HCSBANDTHR (HCS Band Threshold)
▪ LAYERTHR: Decides if the cell should be prioritized over stronger cells lie in
the same HCS band or not.
▪ HCSBANDTHR: Decides if the cell should be prioritized over stronger cells

from different HCS bands or not.

❑ The input to the HCS Evaluation Algorithm is the Basic Ranking list we
prepared from the locating process.
❑ The output will be in the form of two lists: HCS prioritized list (on Top) then
Basic Ranking list.
❑ HCS prioritized list: will include cells that fulfilled the HCS conditions & rules
and will be ranked according to HCS evaluation (layered ranking)
❑ Basic Ranking list: will include cells that didn’t fulfill the HCS conditions and
will be ranked according to basic ranking rules (SS ranking)
HCS Prioritized Cell

Inp HCS Outp Lis
Basic Ranking t
ut Evaluatio ut
List
n Basic Ranking
Algorithm List


⮚ Mechanism of the HCS Algorithm


❑ Optimizing a problematic Traffic Case:
▪ Assume we have the below case with 3 Macro cells (layer 4) and 1 Micro cell
(layer2) and all of them belong to the same HCS band, HCSBAND 1
▪ One of the Macro cells carries very high traffic and it is about to congest, how
could we solve this case?
Macro Macro Cell

Cell (L4)
(L4)
Micro
Cell
(L2)
Macro
Cell
(L4)


Solution 1:
▪ Direct more Traffic to the Micro Cell
⮚ We can decrease the LAYERTHR of the Micro cell (Layer 2) from -75dBm to -
80dBm for example, so the micro cell will capture more traffic from the congested
macro cell.


Solution 2:
▪ Direct more Traffic to the Adjacent Macro Cells
⮚ We can increase the Layer of the congested Macro cell (Layer 4 € Layer 5) so it
will appear less prioritized with respect to the adjacent neighbor cells and it will
offload its traffic to them.


Solution 3:
▪ Direct more Traffic to one of the Adjacent Macro Cells
⮚ We can decrease the Layer of one of the adjacent Macro cell (Layer 4 € Layer 3)
so it will appear more prioritized with respect to the congested cell and it will
capture some of its traffic.


Fast Moving MSs
▪ If cell parameter FASTMSREG is “ON” and MS made no. of HOs >NHO
(default=3) in time window THO (default=30sec) then MS is considered as fast
moving MS.
▪ The stronger cells according to Basic Ranking in all higher layers within the
same system type are given priority.
⮚ For Example:
▪ 1800 candidates are in Layers 1,2&3 while 900 candidates are in Layers 4&5, if
the MS is considered as fast in layer1, then candidates in layers 2&3 of higher
basic ranking than the serving cell are given priority.
▪ Highest priority is given for the strongest cell regardless of its layer.
▪ To prevent HO back to lower layer cells, a penalty PSSTEMP (0 to 63) is applied
for a time PTIMTEMP (0 to 600s) on all neighbor cells within the current system
type and all cells in other system types.

Concentric Cells (Over laid Under laid Sub-cells)
▪ Concentric Cells (Over laid Under laid Sub-cells)
❑ Traffic Capacity of a cellular network can be increased by either adding more

frequencies or reducing the frequency reuse distance.
❑ One approach is to apply a second frequency reuse pattern with a tighter

frequency reuse (Overlay) on the existing pattern.
❑ These cells should be restricted in size, so shorter reuse distance can be

accomplished without causing Co-channel/Adjacent channel interference.
❑ They are termed Overlaid (OL) Sub-cells, whereas the original cells will be called
Under laid (UL) Sub-cells.
❑ Now by having more frequencies per cell, then Network capacity is increased.

❑ The fundamental idea behind the OL/UL sub-cells is to let the traffic close to the
site to be moved to the OL sub-cell, while traffic close to the cell border to be
moved to the UL sub-cell.
❑ In that way of treading the traffic, the frequencies in the OL sub-cell can have
tighter frequency reuse.

Example:
⮚ Assume that cell A has frequencies: f1&f2, cell B has frequencies:
f3&f4 and now cell A has increase in the traffic, so we’re going to
assign cell A frequency f4 also.
⮚ Now high Co-channel interference will occur on f4 at the border between

the two cells, coz f4 is reused between two adjacent cells.

⮚ Using the OL/UL concept we can solve the case as follows:
⮚ f4 will be used in the OL sub-cell and it will be restricted to serve in a

small area only near to the site so interference from the neighbor cell will
be minimized and a good C/I can be enjoyed.


❑ To maintain the service area of the OL sub-cell restricted to a certain
region we have three thresholds we can play with:
A. Path Loss Threshold
B. Timing Advance Threshold
C. Distance to Cell Border Threshold
❑ With the ordinary OL/UL sub-cells, the MS near the cell will camp on the
overlaid sub-cell but even if the OL sub-cell got congested there is no way to
push traffic to the UL sub-cell and blocking will occur.
❑ Using Sub-cell Load Distribution (SCLD) Concept, we can configure the cell
to use the OL as the preferred sub-cell initially and when traffic on the OL
increased beyond certain load, any extra traffic will be offloaded to the UL sub-
cell.

❑ Algorithm
I. OL/UL Sub-cell Change with Sub-cell Load Distribution Deactivated
▪ As we stated before, the service area of the OL sub-cell can be defined based
on one of three criteria: Path Loss, Time Advance and Distance to cell
border.
A. Path Loss Criterion: more used

▪ Controlling Parameters are the path Loss threshold LOL and the path Loss
hysteresis LOLHYST
▪ DL Path Loss L=(BSTXPWR - BTS power reduction) –Received_SS_DLfiltered
▪ BSTXPWR: BTS output power for the TCH frequencies.
▪ DL Path Loss L will be checked vs. LOL (Path Loss Threshold) and
LOLHYST to know whether a sub-cell change from OL€UL or UL€OL is
needed.

❑ Algorithm
I. OL/UL Sub-cell Change with Sub-cell Load Distribution
Deactivated
B. Time Advance Criterion:
▪ Time Advance can be used as a measure for the distance between the BTS
and MS.
▪ Controlling Parameters are the Time Advance Threshold TAOL and the Time
Advance Hysteresis TAOLHYST
▪ The “ta” of the MS will be measured via BTS and checked vs. TAOL and
TAOLHYST to know whether sub-cell change is needed or not.

❑ Algorithm
Deactivated
C. Distance to Cell Border Criterion:
▪ DTCBSC: Is a BSC parameter that enables/disables the Distance to Cell
Border Evaluation Criterion on whole cells on the BSC.
▪ Controlling Parameters are the Distance to Cell Border Threshold DTCB and
the Distance to Cell Border Hysteresis DTCBHYST
▪ The Cell Border is defined as the difference between the

Received_SSServingCell and the Received_SSStrongest Neighbor , where this
strongest neighbor should meet the following: Non Co-sited, Same System
Type (900/1800), Same HCS Layer.

❑ Algorithm
Deactivated
C. Distance to Cell Border Criterion:
▪ Received_SSServingCell - Received_SSStrongest Neighbor will be checked vs. DTCB

and DTCBHYST to see whether sub-cell change is needed or not.
▪ But for the evaluation to be triggered (initiated), the serving cell should have
number of neighbor cells > NNCELLS (if NNCELLS=2, at least 2 neighbor
cells) that are measured by the MS having enough SS such that:

❑ Algorithm
Deactivated
OL € UL Sub-cell change: for a sub-cell change from OL to UL then one of the
⮚ following should
L (Path Loss) be fulfilled.
> LOL + LOLHYST “OR”
⮚ ta (Time Advance) ≥ TAOL + TAOLHYST

“OR”
⮚ SSServing - SSNeighbor < DTCB - DTCBHYST

❑ Algorithm
I. OL/UL Sub-cell Change with Sub-cell Load Distribution Deactivated
UL € OL Sub-cell change: for a sub-cell change from UL to OL then othe following
should be fulfilled.
⮚ L (Path Loss) ≤ LOL - LOLHYST “and”
⮚ ta (Time Advance) < TAOL - TAOLHYST “and”
⮚ SSServing - SSNeighbor ≥ DTCB + DTCBHYST
Strongest, Non Co-sited, Same Type, Same HCS Layer

❑ Algorithm
II. OL/UL Sub-cell Change with Sub-cell Load Distribution Activated
▪ A sub-cell load distribution is used to control the traffic between the OL/UL
sub-cells, so if the initially preferred cell got congested we will try to allocate
resources in the other sub-cell.
(Activated by setting cell parameter SCLD = ON)
▪ SCLDSC: Is a cell parameter used to define the preferred cell in

allocation whether UL or OL i.e. the sub-cell which will carry traffic first.
▪ But if the OL sub-cell is the preferred one, i.e. if SCLDSC=OL, then the below
conditions should be met otherwise a TCH on the UL sub-cell will be
allocated.
⮚ L < LOL – LOLHYST and ta < TAOL – TAOLHYST and
⮚ SSServing - SSNeighbor ≥ DTCB + DTCBHYST

❑ Algorithm
▪ A sub-cell change may occur due to load based on the settings of the parameters SCLDLUL
an SCLDLOL.

❑ Algorithm
▪ If some traffic will be moved from the OL €UL sub-cell due to load distribution, then the
MSs with the high path loss will be chosen first i.e. MSs that are near to cell border.
▪ If some traffic will be moved from the UL €OL sub-cell due to load distribution, then the
MSs with the low path loss will be chosen first i.e. MSs that are near to the site.
▪ A part from the sub-cell change due to SCLD, as we mentioned before the MS can also
request to move from OL € UL because of path loss, TA or distance to cell border criterion
and in this case the load is not checked coz the thresholds : SCLDLUL&SCLDLOL are
only controlling the load incase of sub-cell change due to load distribution.

Overlaid/Underlaid Control Parameters

Parameter Value Range Default Value Recommended Unit
Name Value
SCTYPE UL,OL − − −
LOL 0 to 200 − − dB
LOLHYST 0 to 63 3 3 dB
TAOL 0 to 61 − − Bit Periods (3.69 µsec)
TAOLHYST 0 to 61 − − Bit Periods (3.69 µsec)
DTCBSC 0,1 0 − −
DTCB −63 to 63 -63 − dB
DTCBHYST 0 to 63 2 2 dB
NNCELLS 1 to 5 3 1 −
SCLD ON,OFF OFF − −
SCLDLOL 0 to 99 20 − %
SCLDLUL 0 to 99 20 − %
SCLDSC UL,OL UL OL −

We can implement the concept of Multi Band Cell ( Concentric Cells ) by using OL/UL
Also can be by HCS ( dual Cell ) but will define 2 BCCH .

Multi Band Cells (MBC)
▪ Multi Band Cells (MBC)
❑ A multi band network consists of cells from different frequency bands for
example: 900/1800 MHz
❑ By combining these frequencies in the same cell with 1 common BCCH, the
radio performance and traffic capacity are improved where the no. of cells
and neighbor relations are significantly reduced.
❑ Using 1 BCCH instead of two will increase the no. of time slots that will be
used for traffic.

❑ Using MBC concept with only 1 BCCH, this will reduce the no. of defined
neighbors to 50% leading to better accuracy for the measurement reports
coz there will be more time available for measurements for each neighbor.

❑ The Dynamic OL/UL sub-cells (Concentric Cells) is a prerequisite feature for

the Multi Band Cells.
❑ Mostly the frequency band with “Better Coverage” (i.e. lower frequency band)
is configured as the Under laid sub-cell while the other frequency band with
“Worse Coverage” (i.e. higher frequency band) is configured as the Overlaid
Sub-cell.
⮚ Ex: 900MHz frequency band € UL, while 1800MHz frequency band € OL
❑ It is recommended to select the BCCH frequency to lie in the “Better

Coverage” i.e. UL sub-cell.
⮚ For the previous example then BCCH frequency will belong to the 900MHz
band.

❑ A parameter CSYSTYPE : defines the band of the used BCCH frequency in

a multi band cell.
❑ A parameter BAND : defines the band of the Channel Group, where the
channel group consists of no. of frequencies as will be seen later.
❑ As mentioned before, the Path Loss/Distance to Cell Border/Time Advance

Criteria will define the coverage limit of the frequency band used in the OL
sub-cell vs. UL sub-cell, (In this case the OL&UL will belong to two
different bands)
❑ Also the traffic load can be maintained between the two sub-cells (that
belong to two different bands) using the sub-cell load distribution feature
where the SCLD parameter will define which sub-cell is
preferred first.
❑ The propagation of the radio waves depend on the used frequency band,
i.e. the reported signal strength from one MS will differ depending on the
frequency band used.
MS
MS
MS is in the same
location but the reported
SS differs depend on
the used frequency band

Cell Load Sharing
▪ Cell Load Sharing
❑ The Purpose of the Cell Load Sharing Feature is to distribute some of a cells
traffic load to surrounding cells during peaks in traffic.
❑ This is achieved by moving established connections to neighboring cells that

have idle resources.
❑ Cell Load Sharing increases the number of handovers in the part of the
network where the traffic load is unevenly distributed.

Cell Load Sharing
❑ Cell Load Sharing is activated on the BSC level via parameter LSSTATE
(Active/Inactive)
❑ The traffic load (amount of idle full rate TCHs) on each cell is examined by the BSC every
CLS time Interval defined by a parameter CLSTIMEINTERVAL (default=100msec)
❑ If the percentage of idle full rate traffic channels is ≤ parameter CLSLEVEL, then this
cell will try to get rid of some traffic by initiating cell load sharing handovers to neighbors.

Cell Load Sharing
❑ For a neighbor cell to accept HOs due to cell load sharing then parameter
HOCLSACC should be set to “ON”
❑ The traffic load on the neighbor cells should also be examined so handovers
due to cell load sharing will only be done to neighbors having enough idle full
rate TCHs (percentage of idle full rate TCHs > CLSACC in order to
accept HO due to CLS)

Cell Load Sharing

❑ For a neighbor cell to be candidate for HO due to CLS, then it should satisfy
the following:
▪ Lies in the same BSC as the source cell.
▪ Has the same HCS layer.
▪ Can Accept HO due to CLS i.e. HOCLSACC= ON
▪ % Idle full rate TCHs > CLSACC
⮚ Done for UE on cell edge ( absorb traffic on edge area )
❑ The settings for CLSLEVEL and CLSACC should be adjusted such that
⮚ CLSACC > CLSLEVEL in order to not having unstable situation.
100% idle
TCHs
Accept Incoming HOs due
CLSACC=50 to CLS
%
CLSLEVEL=3 Make Outgoing HOs due

0%
to CLS
Cell Load Sharing

Parameter Default Recommended Value Unit

Value Value Range
CLSLEVEL 20 − 0 to 99 %
CLSACC 40 − 1 to 100 %
HOCLSACC OFF ON ON/OFF
RHYST 75 100 0 to 100 %
CLSTIMERINTERV 100 100 100 to 1000 ms
AL
LSSTATE Inactive Active Active/
Inactive

Overview :
Power Control is used to control the transmit power of the MS and BTS during a connection. The transmit
power level is actively managed to provide the receive signal strength and quality desired.
The benefits of Power Control are as follows:
- Decreased interference
- Improved link quality consistency, specifically a reduction in bad calls
- Less power consumption
1. During handover, MS will access the target cell with the maximum transmitting power (associated
handover command) allowed by the target cell. But if “MS power prediction after HO” is enable,
then MS will use the optimized power to access the target cell.
2. Power control can be implemented on TCH carriers only, BCCH carrier is not allowed power control.
Because MS needs to measure the receiving level of BCCH from the adjacent cell. It will be inaccurate
when power control is performed on BCCH.
3. Power control is performed independently for each channel.

Dynamic Power Control
▪ Dynamic Power Control
⮚ In this chapter we’ll talk on both BTS and MS Dynamic Power Control.
❑ The aim with Power Control is to increase the number of connections while
maintaining good C/I (Carrier to Interference Ratio).
❑ Why Power Control is important ?

i. Decreases the total interference in the system ( Interference )
⮚ So when Traffic increases (no. of MSs) then good C/I can be
maintained.
⮚ When Traffic is normal, C/I is improved.
⮚ When Interference is low, MSs with poor quality will be able to
successfully complete their calls.
ii. Decreases the consumption of the MS battery and the BTS backup batteries
when the main supply is down.

Dynamic BTS Power Control
▪ Dynamic BTS Power Control
❑ The Algorithms for both BTS and MS dynamic power control are the same.
❑ The below graph shows the relation between BTS o/p power and the
measured (received) signal strength at the MS vs. the path loss between BTS
and MS.
1
2

❑ For the area before point 1, the received power at the MS in the DL is very
good and sufficient, however the BTS can’t make any sort of down regulation
and sends with power less than its minimum power.
❑ As the MS is moving away from the BTS, the received power is decreasing,
so after crossing point 1, the BTS will start up regulating its power in steps to
compensate for the path loss.
❑ At point 2, the BTS can’t up regulate its power for a value above the max.
allowed power level even if the received power in the MS is deteriorated or the
path loss increased. ( Handover decision Take step )

❑ Algorithm:
⮚ The Dynamic BTS Power Control algorithm is done on 3 stages:
1. Preparation of the Input Data.
2. Filtering of measurements.
3. Calculation of Power Order.

❑ For Quality measurements the below graph shows the up regulations in the
BTS o/p power when quality is deteriorated (SS is not into consideration here)
❑ As the Quality got worse ( 0 to 7), the BTS will try to increase its power
to compensate for the quality drop.

Dynamic BTS/MS Power Control
❑ Algorithm:
1) Preparation of The Input Data
⮚ Dynamic Power Control is made on TCHs time slots as well as on the SDCCH
time slots, while the BCCH frequency with all its time slots is sent with max.
power with no power control.
⮚ Type of Measurements:
Measurement Source
SS_DL MS
Quality_DL MS
power level used by the BTS
BTS_DL
⮚ Both SS_DL and Quality_DL measurements will be used in the equation
through which the next power order is calculated.

❑ Algorithm:
⮚ REGINTDL: A parameter that defines the minimum time period between two
consecutive power orders in the DL. Measured in SACCH periods (0.48
Seconds) from 1 to 10 SACCH periods i.e. Regulating Interval in DL. (It is a
BSC parameter)
⮚ The BTS is able to changes its output power , the resolution in o/p power is in
the form of steps of 2 dBs and maximum change is 30 dBs.
(ex: 0 , 2dBs, 4dBs,………. , max to 30 dBs)
⮚When power control is in use the BTS output power level will be given as:
Down Regulation: BTS o/p power (dBm) = BSPWRT – 2*PLused ,
Up Regulation: BTS o/p power (dBm) = BSPWRMIN – 2*PLused ,
where PLused = 0to 15
€ PLused is the power regulation step
❑ Algorithm:
⮚ SSDESDL: A parameter that defines the desired Signal Strength in DL
which we aim to maintain using power control. Measured in dBm
⮚ The SS measured will be checked against SSDESDL to know if Down

regulation in the BTS power or up regulation is needed
⮚ QDESDL: A parameter that defines the desired Quality in DL which we aim

to maintain using power control. Measured in dtqu ( 0 to 70)
⮚ The Quality measured will be checked against QDESDL to know if Down

regulation in the BTS power or up regulation is needed.

❑ Algorithm:
⮚ SS Compensation
❑ We aim to get the SS of the pure TCH time slot compensated for both
frequency hopping when BCCH frequency is included and compensated for
power control.
i. Compensating for frequency hopping:

€ When the MS is using a TS on BCCH carrier
⮚ SS_DLTCH = SS_DLMeasured –[ BSPWR – (BSTXPWR - 2*PLused) ]
⮚ SS_DLTCH = SS_DLMeasured –( BSPWR – BSTXPWR + 2*PLused )
€ When the MS is using a TS on TCH frequency
⮚ SS_DLTCH = SS_DLMeasured
Student Notes
MS : The lowest allowed power order is given by the minimum of 16 dB i.e. it is not
allowed to decrease the o/p power or increase it by a value > 16 dB
Dynamic BTS Power Control Parameters

Parameter Name Value Range Default Value Recommended Unit
Value
SSDESDL −110 to −47 −90 −90 dBm
QDESDL 0 to 76 30 30 dtqu
SSLENDL 3 to 15 3 3 SACCH period (0.48
Seconds)
QLENDL 1 to 20 8 3 SACCH period (0.48
Seconds)
LCOMPDL 0 to 100 5 5 −
QCOMPDL 0 to 100 55 55 −
UPDWNRATIO 100 to 700 200 300 −
REGINTDL 1 to 10 1 1 SACCH period (0.48
Seconds)

GSM to UMTS Cell Reselection and
Handover
▪ GSM to UMTS Cell Reselection and Handover
❑ All 3G user equipments (UEs) can support Multi RATs(Radio Access

Technology) i.e. Both GSM and UMTS.
❑ With feature GSM-UMTS cell reselection and HO feature an operator can

make use of both GSM and UMTS systems to complement each other.
❑ Multi RAT users can have good coverage even in areas where no UMTS
coverage and this can be accomplished using UMTS-GSM cell reselection
and HO.
❑ COEXUMTS: Is a BSC parameter used to activate the feature GSM-UMTS

cell reselection and Handover.

Handover
▪ GSM to UMTS Cell Reselection and Handover
€ New concepts will be introduced to understand how the feature works:

❑ CPICH Ec/No:
⮚ Common Pilot Channel - Energy per chip/Noise level power density.
⮚ Used as a measure of the Quality of the neighbor UMTS cell.
❑ CPICH RSCP:
⮚ Common Pilot Channel - Received Signal Code Power.
⮚ Used as a measure of the SS of the neighbor UMTS cell after
dispreading.

Handover
❑ Measurements on UMTS Cells
▪ In order to be able to make cell reselection or HO to a UMTS neighbor cell,
the multi RAT UE should be able to make measurements on this neighbor as
well as the ordinary GSM cells.
▪ But when or at which conditions the UE will perform measurements on the

UMTS neighbors?
€ This will be based on the settings of the parameters QSI and QSC:
❑ QSI: used to manage the conditions of measuring the UMTS cell in Idle Mode.
❑ QSC: used to manage the conditions of measuring the UMTS cell in Active
Mode.

Handover
❑ Measurements on UMTS Cells
When to start measuring the neighbor
UMTS cell ?
QSI/QSC Signal Strength of the serving GSM Cell
0 to 6 "Below" -98dBm to -74 dBm in steps of 4 dB
7 Always
Example: 8 to 14 "Above" -78dBm to -54 dBm in steps of 4 dB
If QSC=8, then the
15 UE is allowed to Never
measure the neighbor UMTS
cell only when the SS of the serving GSM Cell > -78 dBm
SS(dBm)
-78 dBm
-90 dBm ─
tim
GSM GSM GSM&UMT e
GSM&UMTS measureme S
measurements nts measureme
measurements nts
Handover
(I) GSM to UMTS Cell Reselection:
⮚ This is controlled through set of parameters:
▪ QSI: Which defines at which conditions the UMTS cell will be measured in idle
mode, because there won’t be any kind of cell reselection without performing
measurements.
▪ FDDQMIN: Defines the minimum quality of a UMTS cell inorder to be

candidate for cell reselection i.e. this condition should be satisfied CPICH
Ec/No >FDDQMIN€ condition#1
default value = 5 (-10 dB)
▪ FDDRSCPMIN: Defines the minimum SS of a UMTS cell inorder to be

candidate for cell reselection i.e. this condition should be satisfied CPICH
RSCP >FDDRSCPMIN€ condition#2
default value= 6 (-102 dBm)

Handover
(I) GSM to UMTS Cell Reselection:
▪ FDDQOFF: It is the key parameter to control the behavior of the cell
reselection provided that condition#1 and condition#2 are fulfilled.
• If CPICH RSCP > RLA (S+N) + FDDQOFFS for at least 5 sec € condition#3
then “Cell reselection will occur”
▪ RLA (S+N): It is the Received Level Average of the signal strength of the
serving+neighbor GSM cells measured in dBm, averaging is made on at least
5 measurements over a period of 3€5 seconds.
▪ N.B: If the criteria for inter system cell reselection from GSM to UMTS is
fulfilled then the multi RAT UE will perform cell reselection to the UMTS cell
even if the criteria for selection another ordinary GSM cell is fulfilled.

Handover
(II) GSM to UMTS Handover:
▪ FDDMRR: The multi RAT UE is informed on how many UMTS cells (0€3) he
should report in the measurement report using this parameter.
⮚ Upon receiving the measurements from the multi RAT UE, the BSC will
handle the GSM and UMTS cells separately by filtering out the UMTS
measurements before the GSM locating algorithm.
Filteri
Filtering out the UMTS ng
cells Basic Ranking
Urgency
UMTS % idle TCHs ≤ Condition
Aux. Radio GSM
Evaluati ISOLEV
features Evaluati
on Ec/No > Organizing the on
MRSL Add UMTS cells to list
Candidate list Sending the
list and
allocation
reply

Handover
▪ QSC: Which defines at which conditions the UMTS cell will be measured in
active mode, because there won’t be any kind of cell reselection without
performing measurements.
▪ MRSL: It is a BSC parameter that gives the minimum threshold for the quality
(Ec/No) for a UMTS neighbor cell in order to be added to the HO candidate
list, recommended value=-9dB
▪ ISHOLEV: It is a Cell parameter. The percentage of idle TCHs in the serving

GSM cell will be compared vs. ISHOLEV to decide if the UMTS will be added
to the HO candidate list or not.

Handover
€ Conditions that should be fulfilled for a UMTS cell to be added to the
HOcandidate list:
(1) No. of Idle TCHsGSM ServingCell ≤ ISHOLEV, or urgency conditions are
detected in the GSM serving cell either due to BQ or TA
(2) CPICH Ec/No UMTS Neighbor ≥ MRSL

Handover
▪ Now all the valid neighboring UMTS cells will be sorted in order of decreasing
CPICH Ec/No in order to form the UMTS candidate list.
▪ But how the two lists, the GSM and UMTS will be sorted?
▪ Ans.: this will depend on the urgency conditions and the load as follow:
Non-Urgency HO Urgency HO Condition

Condition
No Load Load No Load Load
UMTS GSM UMTS

GSM list
list list list
GSM UMTS GSM
list list list
▪ N.B: To have balance between the behavior in the idle & active modes it is
recommended to set the values for FDDQMIN (idle) = MRSL (active)

Handover
GSM-UMTS Cell Reselection and HO Control Parameters
Parameter Value Range Default Recommended Unit
Name Value Value
COEXUMTS 0(OFF),1(ON) 0(OFF) 1(ON) −
0 to 6(Below:-98dBm t o -
74dBm)
QSI 7(Always)
15 − −
8 to 14(Above:-78dBm to -
54dBm) 15
(Never)
0 to 6(Below:-98dBm t o -
74dBm)
QSC 7(Always)
15 − −
8 to 14(Above:-78dBm to -
54dBm) 15
(Never)
0 to 7 (-20dB, -6dB, -18dB, -8dB,
FDDQMIN 0 (-20dB) 5(-10dB) −
-16dB, -10dB, -14dB, -12dB)
FDDRSCPMIN 0 to 15(-114 dBm to -84 dBm in steps of 6(-102 dBm) 6(-102 dBm) −
2dBm)
FDDQOFF 0 to 15 (-inf, -28dB to 28dB in steps of 4 8(0 dB) 0(-inf) −
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FDMRR 0 to 3 0 1 or 2 −
MRSL 0 to 49 − 30 (-9 dB)
Trouble Shooting & KPIs monitoring
▪ Trouble Shooting & KPIs monitoring
❑ The Quality of service means that how the subscriber is satisfied with the
overall service.
❑ To keep the quality of service good as much as possible, we have to enhance

the following:
(A)Accessibility: The ability of users to access the network.
(B)Retainability: The ability of users to successfully continue their connections

with the network until it is terminated in a normal way.
(C)Service Integrity: The ability to keep the quality of the service good enough
during the connection with the network.

❑ KPIs: “Key Performance Indicators” it is a general term used to define the

keys or observations through which you can judge if the performance is good
or not.
(A) Accessibility KPIs:

1. Paging Success Rate
2. Random Access
3. SDCCH Congestion (Blocking)
4. TCH Blocking
5. SDCCH Drop

(B) Retainability KPIs:

1. TCH Drop Rate
2. Handover Success Rate
(C) Service Integrity KPIs:

3. Rxqual (Received Signal Quality)
4. SQI (Speech Quality Indicator)


1. Paging
⮚ On MSC level there is counters to count:
❑ No. of attempts of paging to the Location Area.
❑ No. of paging response to first paging.
❑ No. of paging response to the repeated paging.
€ Using these counters we can form the equation to calculate the

paging success rate.


1. Paging
⮚ The Paging Success rate on certain LA as appeared from the statistics:
Paging Attempts
Paging Success
Rate

1. Paging
⮚ What are the causes of bad paging performance?
❑ Implicit detach is not used: parameter ATT is set to “Off”
❑ Low Signal Strength ( Bad RF Condition's )

(Blind coverage area, low coverage level, or cross coverage, which can not
be solved through network optimization)
❑ Not optimized paging strategy ( Paging interval BS-PAMFRAMS & Location area dimensioning)
❑ Use of combined BCCH mapping in high traffic location areas. ( SDCCH on TS0 )
❑ Using of IMSI most of the time instead of TMSI

(TMSI paging can improve the utilization of the PCH as well as the security)
RACH Min.Access Level : If the receive level of the RACH burst is lower than the value of RACH
Min.Access Level(dbm), the BTS regards this access as an invalid one and no decoding is performed.
If the receive level of the RACH burst is higher than the value of RACH Min.Access Level(dbm), the BTS
regards that an access request exists on this timeslot, and determines together with the value of
Random Access Error Threshold whether the RACH access is valid.
RXLEV_ACCESS_MIN----Minimum DL receive level of an MS to access the BSS.
Can be taken as RXLEV_ACCESS_MIN is the Minimum DL receive level of the BTS received by MS &
RACH Min.Access Level is the minimum UL receive level of the MS reported to BTS
MAX MS PWR specify Max level UE Should sent but not specify how min should be rx by BTS

2. Random Access
❑ A failure in the random access doesn’t mean a call setup failure because the
MS sends many random access bursts each time it tries to access the
network.
❑ There are counters to count the no. of accepted random access requests, and
the no. of discarded requests (incremented for random access requests that
are received with too high Time Advance) through which the random access
success rate can be calculated.
❑ Causes of low random access success rate may be due to:

⮚ Too high Time Advance (TA)
⮚ High Interference
⮚ Bad BSIC Planning
Accessibility KPIs
SDCCH
SDCCH CHANNEL :
 SDCCH is a dedicated channel which is
using for LAC updation, Call setup, SMS in
idle mode. It works in UL & DL.
SDCCH
Congestion
SDCCH Congestion
❑ It is the failure of call/connection setup due to high signaling load.
❑ There are counters to count the no. failed allocations due to SDCCH congestion and the
no. of call attempts through which the SDCCH congestion rate can be calculated.
❑ Causes of high SDCCH congestion? This is may be due to:
⮚ Location Area border cell.
⮚ High SMS Traffic.
⮚ Hardware Availability Prob.
⮚ No. of configured SDCCHs is low.


4. TCH Blocking ( TCH-Congestion )
❑ It is the failure of setup a call/connection due to TCH congestion.
❑ There are counters to count the no. of released connections on SDCCH due
to TCH congestion and the no. of assignment attempts on TCH channel
through which the TCH blocking rate can be calculated.
❑ Causes of high TCH Blocking may be due to:

⮚ Hardware problem.
⮚ Too few TCH resources defined.
⮚ Missing neighbor cell definition.


4. TCH Blocking
The TCH Blocking as appeared from the Statistics
TCH Traffic
TCH
Blocking
Defined
TCH
Channels
€ TCH Blocking was solved after expansion (adding new frequency)


5. SDCCH Drop
❑ It is the failure of setup a call/connection due to SDCCH channel drop.
▪ N.B: when a connection is dropped at call setup it will affect the accessibility
KPIs.
❑ There are counters to count the no. of dropped connections on SDCCH and
the no. of successful MS channel establishments on SDCCH through
which the SDCCH drop rate can be calculated.
❑ Causes of high SDCCH drop rate may be due to:

⮚ Bad Coverage.
⮚ Interference.
⮚ Hardware problems.
⮚ Wrong parameters’ settings (Offsets and Hysteresis).


1. TCH Drop
❑ It is the drop of the connection on the traffic channel which was assigned to
the MS.
❑ There are counters to count the no. of dropped connections and the initiated
connections on TCH channels through which the TCH drop rate can be
calculated.
❑ Causes of high TCH drop rate may be due to:

⮚ Bad coverage.
⮚ Interference.
⮚ Missing Neighbors.
⮚ Wrong parameters' settings.


1. TCH Drop
The TCH drop as appeared from the statistics.
TCH Traffic
TCH Drop
Rate
€ High drop rate was solved after fixing a hardware problem.


1. TCH Drop
The TCH drop reasons as appeared from the statistics.
BQ Both
Links BQ
Downlink
BQ Uplink
Low SS Both
Links Low SS
Downlink Low
SS Uplink
Sudden Lost

€ Main drop reason is due to BQ in downlink

1. TCH Drop
The TCH drop reasons as appeared from the statistics.
BQ Both
Links BQ
Downlink
BQ Uplink
Low SS Both
Links Low SS
Downlink Low
SS Uplink
Sudden Lost

€ Main drop reason is due to low SS Both link

2. Handover Success Rate
❑ There are counters to measure the number of Handover attempts from cell to
cell and the Handover success rate.
❑ Poor Handover Success rate may be due to:

⮚ Bad Frequency plan.
⮚ Wrong definitions and missing neighbors.
⮚ Wrong parameters settings.
❑ Handover failure does not mean a drop call will occur.


1. Rxqual
❑ It is obtained by averaging the Bit Error Rate over a certain period ~ 0.5 sec
and it is measured in both the Downlink and Uplink
❑ Rxqual take values from 0 (Best) € 7 (Worst) and gives indication for
thequality of the radio environment.
❑ There are counters to measure the no. of samples that received with Rxqual
0,1,2,….7


2. SQI (Speech Quality Index)
❑ Is a good measure for the end user perceived speech quality.
❑ The algorithm used for calculation the SQI takes into account the BER, the
distribution of BER, the FER (Frame Erasure Rate) and the codec used (HR,
FR, EFR). The output values are measured on a dBQ scale.
❑ Typically, the SQI take values from 0 (Worst) € 30 (Best), on HR connection

SQImax=17dBQ, FR connection SQImax=22dBQ, EFR connection
SQImax=30dBQ
▪ N.B: HR ≡ Half Rate, FR ≡ Full Rate, EFR ≡ Enhance Full Rate


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❑Course Outlines

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▪ Handover (Locating) Algorithm

❑ The Handover (Locating) Algorithm

❑ Location process initiated when?

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▪ Handover (Locating) Algorithm

❑ Inputs to the Algorithm?

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▪ Handover (Locating) Algorithm

❑ What types of Handover (locating) algorithm we have?

⮚ It is less complex, uses less parameters and easy to be maintained in the

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▪ Handover (Locating) Algorithm

⮚ The main Flow of the Handover (locating) Algorithm goes as follow:

Initiation Filtering Basic Ranking Urgency Conditions

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▪ Handover (Locating) Algorithm

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I. Initiation of the Handover (Locating) Process/Algorithm

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I. Initiation of the Handover (Locating) Process/Algorithm

❑ At initiation of Locating after successful HO, Assignment or Immediate

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❑ This is accomplished in two steps:

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▪ Time Advance (TA): is reported as values between 0 € 63 bit period.

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III. Basic Ranking

❑ As mentioned earlier, two algorithms are available for basic ranking

❑ EVALTYPE=3, SS based Algorithm is used for basic ranking

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III. Basic Ranking

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III. Basic Ranking

❑ BSPWR is a parameter to set the output power of the BCCH carrierAnd

▪ Correction for the output power will done for both:

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III. Basic Ranking

❑ SS_corrected_DLneighbor = SS_measured_DLneighbor - ( BSPWR - BSTXPWR )

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III. Basic Ranking

2)TCH TS is hopping between a BCCH frequency and a TCH frequency:

3) TCH TS is on the OL (Over Laid sub cell)

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III. Basic Ranking

❑ If UL measurements are included then SS_corrected_ULneighbor will be compared

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III. Basic Ranking

III. Basic Ranking

▪ SS_punished_DL = SS_corrected_DL – Locating Penalties – HCS Penalties

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III. Basic Ranking

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III. Basic Ranking

3) Due to Excessive TA Urgency HO:

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III. Basic Ranking

❑ A penalty will be applied on lower layer cells so in ranking we will prioritize

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