Absolute priority based cell reselection

The cell ranking algorithm (reselection based on thresholds) does not allow the network operator
to control easily cell reselection between different RATs. Some parameters can be used to favour
reselection to a given RAT, but it gets all the more complex as more RATs are involved and if
thresholds/offsets vary dynamically.
Therefore Release 8 introduced another degree of control on the RAT (or frequency) to be
reselected. This mechanism is called absolute priority based cell reselection. A priority is
assigned per WCDMA frequency, LTE EARFCN or group of GSM ARFCN, which are referred
as layers. The principle of priority based reselection is that the UE should always try to camp
on the highest priority layer. It will measure (and possibly reselect to) lower layer only in case
the serving cell quality becomes too low.
This feature is mandatory for multi-RAT UEs supporting LTE.
Although the principle of priority based cell reselection is quite simple, the description is split
into several 3GPP specifications. The purpose of this document is to give an overall description,
point to the relevant parts of the 3GPP specification, describe the basic scenarios and give some
hints about abnormal cases in order to create good test coverage. Then it illustrates how test
scenarios can easily be written with RTD.
Although the priority based reselection principle is the same for all RATs, the parameters are a
bit different. Therefore they are going to be described separately in the following sections.
Absolute priority based cell reselection.........................................................................1
References:.....................................................................................................................3
Priority characteristics....................................................................................................4
Use case 1: the UE is camped on GSM..........................................................................5
Parameters involved in the priority based algorithm............................................. 5
Measurements on neighbour RATs........................................................................ 5
Cell reselection criterion........................................................................................ 6
Blacklisting of EUTRAN cells...............................................................................7
Barred cells.............................................................................................................8
Cells not suitable....................................................................................................8
Abnormal case........................................................................................................8
Fragmentation of SIquater for multi RAT UE........................................................8
Use case 2: the UE is camped on UTRAN.................................................................. 10
Parameters involved in the priority based algorithm........................................... 10
Measurements on inter-frequency, inter-RAT cells..............................................10
Cell reselection criterion...................................................................................... 10
Mobility states......................................................................................................11
Blacklisting of EUTRAN cells.............................................................................11
Abnormal cases.................................................................................................... 11
Cells barred, cell access restriction and not suitable cells....................................11

Use case 3: the UE is camped on EUTRAN................................................................12

Parameters involved in the priority based algorithm........................................... 12
Measurements on intra-frequency cells............................................................... 12
Measurements on inter-frequency and inter-RAT cells........................................12
Cell reselection criterion...................................................................................... 12
Mobility states......................................................................................................13

References:
Reference to 3GPP Release 8 specification
TS 45.008 Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Radio subsystem link control
(3GPP TS 45.008 version 8.11.0 Release 8)
TS 44.018 Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Mobile radio interface layer 3
specification; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol (3GPP TS 44.018 version 8.12.0 Release
8)
TS 44.060 Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); General Packet Radio Service
(GPRS); Mobile Station (MS) - Base Station System (BSS) interface; Radio Link Control /
Medium Access Control (RLC/MAC) protocol (3GPP TS 44.060 version 8.12.1 Release 8)
TS 25.133 Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Requirements for support of
radio resource management (FDD) (3GPP TS 25.133 version 8.14.0 Release 8)
TS 25.304 Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); User Equipment (UE)
procedures in idle mode and procedures for cell reselection in connected mode (3GPP TS 25.304
version 8.12.0 Release 8)
TS 25.331 Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Radio Resource Control
(RRC); Protocol specification (3GPP TS 25.331 version 8.15.0 Release 8)
TS 36.133 LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Requirements for
support of radio resource management (3GPP TS 36.133 version 8.14.0 Release 8)
TS 36.300 LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal
Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2 (3GPP TS 36.300
version 8.9.0 Release 8)
TS 36.304 LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE)
procedures in idle mode (3GPP TS 36.304 version 8.10.0 Release 8)
TS 36.331 LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control
(RRC); Protocol specification (3GPP TS 36.331 version 8.14.0 Release 8)

Priority characteristics
A priority is an integer that ranges between 0 and 7, 7 being the highest priority. Two different
frequencies from the same RAT can have the same priority, but two different RATs can never
have the same priority. This is in order to avoid ping pong between different RATs.
This priority is broadcasted in system information. The layer priority should be consistent: it
should remain the same when broadcasted on different RAT (i.e. if GSM has prio 4 in GSM
system information, it should have priority 4 as well in WCDMA system information).
Priorities can be common or individual. Common priorities define the general behaviour for
inter-RAT reselection within one cell and apply to UEs that do not have individual priorities.
They are broadcasted in the system information.
Individual priorities override common priorities. They are provided through dedicated signalling
(channel release in GSM, RRCConnectionRelease in UTRAN and EUTRAN) to a UE and are
user specific. They could be used for example to prioritize a layer to provide high data rate for
premium users. The Subscriber Profile ID for RAT/Frequency (SPID) is an index referring to
user information (e.g mobility profile, service usage profile). The information is UE specific and
applies to all its Radio Bearers. It can be used by the network to assign individual priority. See
TS 36.300 for reference SPID values.
Individual priorities are only valid until a change of PLMN is performed, or the UE is switched
off, or new individual priority is received that override previously assigned ones, or the validity
timer expires (i.e., T320 in EUTRA, T322 in UTRA and T3230 in GERAN). These timers are
optionally provided to invalidate the priority after some time (see TS 44.018 section 3.2.3.3).

Use case 1: the UE is camped on GSM

If the UE has received SI2quater containing E-UTRAN priority information, it shall use priority
based cell reselection. Otherwise cell ranking based reselection applies.
Parameters involved in the priority based algorithm
The parameters below taken from SI2quater (see TS 44.018 Table 10.5.2.33b.1: SI2quater Rest
Octets information element).
Serving Cell Priority Parameters
GERAN_PRIORITY: GERAN priority (note that this priority applies to all GERAN cells,
unlike UTRAN and EUTRAN where different frequencies can have
different priorities)
THRESH_Priority_Search:Rxlev Threshold under which the UE shall start monitoring lower
priority layers
THRESH_GSM_low: Threshold where GSM should start considering reselection to lower
priority layers
H_PRIO:
Hysteresis used for reselection to lower priority layers
T_Reselection:
Minimum duration during which the target cell should be better than
serving in order to perform cell reselection
UTRAN Priority Parameters (per UTRAN frequency index)
UTRAN_FREQUENCY_INDEX: Index of the frequency layer in the 3G frequency list
UTRAN_PRIORITY: Priority of UTRAN frequency
THRESH_UTRAN_high: Threshold used when this UTRAN layer priority is higher than GSM
serving cell priority
THRESH_UTRAN_low:
Threshold used when this UTRAN layer priority is lower than
GSM serving cell priority
UTRAN_QRXLEVMIN:
Minimum RSCP required on UTRAN. Used to calculate the Srx
parameter in the reselection criterion
Note that it is possible for the network to specify DEFAULT_UTRAN_PRIORITY,
DEFAULT_THRESH_UTRAN and DEFAULT_UTRAN_QRXLEVMIN that apply to all
frequencies of the 3G frequency list that were not assigned specific parameters.
E-UTRAN Neighbour Cells parameters (per EARFCN)
Measurement Bandwidth:
Specifies the minimum value of the channel bandwidth of all valid
E-UTRAN cells on the specified EARFCN. It is defined by the
parameter Transmission Bandwidth Configuration, NRB (see 3GPP TS
36.104). The values indicate the number of resource blocks over which
the mobile station could measure.
E-UTRAN_PRIORITY: Priority of EUTRAN frequency
THRESH_E-UTRAN_high: Threshold used when this EUTRAN layer priority is higher than
GSM serving cell priority
THRESH_E-UTRAN_low: Threshold used when this EUTRAN layer priority is lower than
GSM serving cell

E-UTRAN_QRXLEVMIN: Minimum RSRP required on EUTRAN. Used to calculate the Srx

parameter in the reselection criterion
Measurements on neighbour RATs
The UE measures periodically the signal level on layers that have higher priority than the serving
GSM cell. The frequency of measurements is defined on other RAT is not defined explicitly but
the requirements on the reselection time to other RAT are defined accurately in the TS 45.008
section 6.6.4.
The UE starts measuring on lower priority layers in case the serving cell Rxlev on the serving
cell falls below THRESH_Priority_Search.
Cell reselection criterion
UE calculates the following values (TS 45.008 section 6.6.6):
SUTRAN = QrxlevmeasUTRAN - UTRAN_QRXLEVMIN
SEUTRAN = QrxlevmeasEUTRAN - E-UTRAN_QRXLEVMIN
SGSM = C1
The UE shall reselect to a higher priority layer in case:
UTRAN target: SUTRAN > THRESH_UTRAN_high for more than T_Reselection
EUTRAN target: SEUTRAN > THRESH_E-UTRAN_high for more than T_Reselection
If more than one cell meets the cell reselection criteria above, the UE shall reselect the cell with
the highest Srxlev level among the cells meeting the criteria on the highest absolute priority
layer.
If SGSM< THRESH_GSM_low for more than T_Reselection for the serving cell and all GSM
neighbours, the UE shall reselect to
UTRAN target: SUTRAN > THRESH_UTRAN_low for more than T_Reselection
EUTRAN target: SEUTRAN > THRESH_E-UTRAN_low for more than T_Reselection
If no target cell is fulfils the conditions above, then the cells satisfying the condition
SUTRAN/EUTRAN > SGSM + HPRIO should be considered in decreasing order of SUTRAN/EUTRAN.
A UTRAN FDD cell shall only be reselected if, in addition to the criteria above, its measured
Ec/No value is equal to or greater than FDD_Qmin - FDD_Qmin_Offset (as broadcasted in
SI2ter and SI2quater).
A E-UTRAN cell shall only be considered for reselection if not included in the list of not
allowed cells.
If a UTRAN or a E-UTRAN cell has not been assigned a priority, it shall not be considered for
reselection. (Since the priority is optional in SI2quater, it could be that the neighbour cell is ont
assigned any priority.)
The cell reselection to higher layer and cell reselection to lower layer are illustrated on figures
Figure 1 and Figure 2. Note that there is another scenario where no lower priority cell fulfils

SEUTRAN > THRESH_E-UTRAN_low for more than T_Reselection, and in that case the UE shall
reselect a lower priority cell fulfilling SEUTRAN > SGSM + HPRIO.
Measured quantity
(SEUTRAN)

THRESH_E-UTRAN_high

Trigger reselection to EUTRAN cell

T_reselection

Time

Figure 1: reselection to a higher priority RAT (Here the serving cell is GSM and the higher
priority cell is a EUTRAN cell)
Measured
RXlev < THRESH_Priority_Search
2) The low priority (EUTRAN) cell has been above
quantity
Starts
measuring
on lower priority layers (EUTRAN)
(SEUTRAN for LTE

THRESH_E-UTRAN_low

SGSM for GSM)

THRESH_GSM_low
THRESH_E-UTRAN_low

T_reselection

1) Serving cell and all GSM neighbour below ThreshGSM,low

Time

Figure 2: reselection to a lower priority RAT (Here the serving cell is GSM and the lower
priority RAT is EUTRAN)

Conditions 1) and 2) are fulfilled => Trigger a cell reselection to the low priority
(EUTRAN) cell.

Blacklisting of EUTRAN cells

The mobile station shall not perform measurements or attempt reselection to the EUTRAN Not
Allowed Cells sent in the Measurement information or in the SI2quater. (see 44.018 section
9.1.54)
There are 3 different way to describe a blacklist of EUTRAN cells (see TS 44.060 section
12.57):
- explicit list of 9 bit long physical cell IDs
- PCID bitmap group, a 6 bit long bitmap where each bit stand for a range of 84 cell IDs
(to cover all the 503 possible physical cell IDs).
- PCID pattern: a pattern of 1 to 9 bits which is applied to the most significant bit of the
physical cell ID of the EUTRAN neighbour cells. Depending on the pattern sense, a
match between the pattern and the physical cell ID will include or exclude the cell.
Barred cells
See TS 45.008 section 6.6.6.
In case a target UTRAN cell is barred, the UE shall not attempt any reselection during Tbarred
(value defined on the barred UTRAN cell).
In case a target EUTRAN cell is barred, the UE shall not attempt any reselection during up to 20
minutes.
Cells not suitable
See TS 45.008 section 6.6.6.
In case the UE attempts reselection to a UTRAN cell which is not suitable (either belonging to
the "list of forbidden LAs for roaming" or belonging to a PLMN which is not indicated as being
equivalent to the registered PLMN), the UE may abandon further reselection attempts towards
this UTRAN cell and all other cells on the same frequency, for a period of up to 20 min.
In case the UE attempts reselection to a E-UTRAN cell which is not suitable due to being part of
the "list of forbidden tracking areas for roaming" (see 3GPP TS 24.301), and if the MS has
received the PCID to TA Mapping information element (see 3GPP TS 44.018 and 3GPP TS
44.060) for the frequency of the cell, it shall abandon further reselection attempts towards this EUTRAN cell and any E-UTRAN cell which is known to belong to the same Tracking Area
Abnormal case
See TS 45.008 section 6.6.6.
The serving cell has no allocated priority. Then it shall be assigned a negative priority so that a
reselection is triggered as early as possible.

Fragmentation of SIquater for multi RAT UE

The SI2quater may be quite long since it contains UTRAN and EUTRAN neighbour cell
information. The maximum size of a BCCH message is 22 octets, therefore the SI2quater is split
into several instances. The networks broadcast one instance per multiframe and the acquisition
by the UE can therefore take some time.
For a UE that does not support UTRAN or EUTRAN, the START and STOP bit may be used to
speed up System information reading and several seconds can be saved at cell reselection by not
reading the instances containing information that is non relevant for the UE.
UTRAN information is not mixed with EUTRAN information. They are sent in different
SI2quater instances. If instances 0 to 1 contain UTRAN information, and instances 2 to 4 contain
EUTRAN information, then the UE that does not support EUTRAN may skip the reading of
instances 2 to 4.

Configure meas
GSM neighbour
Higher priority l
Lower priority la

no

Measurements don
(at least every 5s o
If serving cell and all GSM cells Rxlev is below THRES_GSM_low during T_reselec
A lower layer fulfils the reselection criterion and path loss criteria
yes
reselection*

Go through the higher

A higher layer fulfils th

reselection*: reselection provided that the target cell is suitable for normal
camping
no

GSM neighb

Figure 3: Priority based cell reselection in GSM

Use case 2: the UE is camped on UTRAN

In the GSM case, priority based reselection only involves reselection to other RATs, but in the
UTRAN case, it may involve reselection to other UTRAN frequencies.
It is a bit more complex than GSM since both the priority based and cell ranking based
reselection can be used at the same time: priority based reselection can apply to inter-frequency
layers and cell ranking based reselection to inter-RAT layers and vice-versa.
The priority based cell reselection applies for inter-frequency layers as soon as SIB19 as been
received and assigned at least one inter-frequency neighbour cell priority and threshold
parameters. Similarly it applies for inter-RAT layers as soon SIB19 as been received and
assigned at least one inter-RAT neighbour cell priority and threshold parameters.
Otherwise if no priority was provided the cell ranking algorithm shall apply.
If the priority based reselection applies and one cell has no priority or threshold assigned, it shall
not be considered for cell reselection. (see TS 25.304 , 5.2.6.1.4a)
Parameters involved in the priority based algorithm
Squal and Srxlev are defined as:
Squal = Qqualmeas Qqualmin
Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas Qrxlevmin
Serving Cell Priority Parameters
Sprioritysearch1: threshold on the serving cell Srxlev used to trigger measurement on lower
priority layers
Sprioritysearch2: threshold on the serving cell Squal used to trigger measurement on lower
priority layers
threshServingLow: threshold on the serving cell Srxlev used for reselection to lower priority
layers
Treselection: provided in SIB3/4. Depend on the state DCH or FACH.
GSM/UTRAN/E-UTRAN Priority Parameters (same)
threshXhigh: threshold on the higher priority target cell Srxlev used to trigger reselection
threshXlow: threshold on the lower priority target cell Srxlev used to trigger reselection
qRxLevMinGSM: minimum signal level on GSM (used to calculate Srxlev for GSM)
qRxLevMinFDD: minimum signal level on UTRA (used to calculate Srxlev for UTRA)
qRxLevMinEUTRA: minimum signal level on EUTRA (used to calculate Srxlev for EUTRA)
Measurements on inter-frequency, inter-RAT cells
The UE measures periodically the signal level on layers that have higher priority than the serving
UTRAN cell.
The Thigher_priority_search period is defined as (60 * Nlayers) seconds, where Nlayers is the
total number of configured higher priority E-UTRA, UTRA FDD and UTRA TDD carrier
frequencies and is additionally increased by one if one or more groups of GSM frequencies is
configured as a higher priority.(see 25.133 section 4.2.2)

Table 4.1 in the same document defines more specifically measurement and evaluation periods
depending on the DRX cycle.
If SrxlevServingCell <= Sprioritysearch1 or SqualServingCell <= Sprioritysearch2, the UE
shall perform measurements on lower priority layers. (see 25.304 section 5.2.6.1.2a)
Cell reselection criterion
UE calculates the following values for the non serving cells:
SrxlevUTRAN = QrxlevmeasUTRAN - QrxlevMinUTRAN
SrxlevEUTRAN = QrxlevmeasEUTRAN - QrxlevMinEUTRAN
SrxlevGSM = Rxlev - Qrxlevmin
The 25.304, 5.2.6.1.4a explains the reselection criterion:
A reselection to a higher priority layer cell is triggered if its Srxlev is greater than threshXhigh
during a time interval Treselection.
If SrxlevServingCell < threshServingLow or SqualServingCell < 0, the UE shall first try to
reselect to a interfrequency cell with equal priority satisfying SrxlevnonServingCell,x>
threshXlow during a time interval Treselection.
If not interfrequency cell satisfies this, it shall reselect to a RAT with lower priority satisfying
SrxlevnonServingCell,x > threshXlow during a time interval Treselection.
Note: new thresholds Threshx,high2 and Threshx,low2has been introduced in Release 9 that rely
only on Squal for the reselection criteria.

Mobility states
In UTRAN are defined mobility states. Depending on the number of reselections that occurred
previously, the Treselection value will be scaled to be larger in case of high mobility. This way
the number of reselections is reduced.
In all the above criteria the values of Treselections, Treselections,PCH or Treselections,FACH
apply for Treselection and are scaled according to the UE mobility state and target RAT, as
specified in TS 25.304 section 5.2.6.1.1a.
Blacklisting of EUTRAN cells
The "E-UTRA frequency and priority" IE in SIB 19 can contain a "Blacklisted cells per freq list"
information element. Cells within this list shall not be reconsidered for reselection (see TS
25.331).
Abnormal cases
There is no priority associated with the serving cell. The UE shall perform a cell reselection.

Cells barred, cell access restriction and not suitable cells

TS 25.304 section 5.2.6.1.3 describes the UE behaviour in case of access restrictions or cell
unsuitable for normal camping.
If the target cell is barred the UE shall select another cell and not try to reselect to the barred cell
during Tbarred (see section 5.3.1.1).
If the highest ranked cell or best cell according to absolute priority reselection rules is not
suitable due to being part of the "list of forbidden LAs for roaming" or belonging to a PLMN
which is not indicated as being equivalent to the registered PLMN, the UE shall not consider this
cell and other cells on the same frequency, as candidates for reselection for a maximum of 300s.

Use case 3: the UE is camped on EUTRAN

On EUTRAN, only the priority based cell reselection can apply. The cell ranking based
reselection does not exist on EUTRAN.
Parameters involved in the priority based algorithm
Squal and Srxlev are defined as:
Squal = Qqualmeas Qqualmin
Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas Qrxlevmin
Serving Cell Priority Parameters
Sintrasearch: Threshold below which the UE shall perform intra frequency measurements
Snonintrasearch: Threshold below which the UE shall perform inter frequency and inter RAT
measurements
Threshserving, low: Threshold below which the UE shall consider lower priority cells for cell
reselection
GSM/UTRAN/E-UTRAN Priority Parameters (same)
Qqualmin: Minimum quality level on a target cell to be considered for cell reselection
Qrxlevmin: Minimum signal level on a target cell to be considered for cell reselection
Threshx, high: Threshold to be fulfilled if priority is higher than the serving cell
Threshx, low: Threshold to be fulfilled if priority is lower than the serving cell
TS 36.304 section 5.2.4.2 describes when measurement are performed.
Measurements on intra-frequency cells
- If Sintrasearch is sent in the serving cell and SServingCell > Sintrasearch, the UE may choose
to not perform intra-frequency measurements.
- If SServingCell <= Sintrasearch, or Sintrasearch is not sent in the serving cell UE shall perform
intra-frequency measurements
Measurements on inter-frequency and inter-RAT cells
The UE shall perform measurements on E-UTRAN inter-frequency or inter-RAT frequency with
a higher reselection priority periodically according to TS 36.133 section 4.2.2.4 and 4.2.2.5.
The UE shall perform measurements on E-UTRAN inter-frequency with an equal or lower
priority and on inter-RAT frequency with lower priority:
- If Snonintrasearch is sent in the serving cell and SServingCell > Snonintrasearch UE may
choose not to perform measurements of E-UTRAN inter-frequencies or inter-RAT frequency
cells of equal or lower priority.
- If SServingCell <= Snonintrasearch or Snonintrasearch is not sent in the serving cell the UE
shall perform measurements of E-UTRAN inter-frequencies or inter-RAT frequency cells of
equal or lower priority according to TS 36.133 section 4.2.25.

Cell reselection criterion

TS 36.304 section 5.2.4.5 describes the cell reselection criterion:
Cell reselection to a cell on a higher priority E-UTRAN frequency or inter-RAT frequency than
serving frequency shall be performed if:
- SnonServingCell,x > Threshx, high during a time interval TreselectionRAT
- more than 1 second has elapsed since the UE camped on the current serving cell.
If no reselection to higher priority cell or intra-frequency cell is possible, cell reselection to a cell
on a lower priority E-UTRAN frequency or inter-RAT frequency than serving frequency shall be
performed if:
- SServingCell < Threshserving, low and the SnonServingCell,x of a cell of a lower priority E-UTRAN
frequency or inter-RAT frequency is greater than Threshx, low during a time interval
TreselectionRAT
- more than 1 second has elapsed since the UE camped on the current serving cell.

Mobility states
On EUTRAN are defined mobility states. Depending on the number of reselections that occurred
previously, the mobility state will be high, medium or normal and the Treselection value will be
scaled to be larger in case of high mobility. This way the number of reselections is reduced.
In all the above criteria the values of Treselections is scaled according to the UE mobility state
and target RAT, as specified in TS 36.304 section 5.2.4.3.