Handover Parameter Optimisation in LTE

Victor Ermolayev, professor, technical expert, MERA, Russia

ermol@mera.ru
1. Introduction
Handover (HO) is key procedure for ensuring that users can move freely within
a network being connected to high quality services [1]. In currently deployed
mobile networks, handover optimization is performed manually over a long time
period - days or weeks. This approach is both time consuming and can not be
carried out as often as needed. By introducing an online self-optimising algorithm
that can tune the parameters of the HO process, we aim at improving overall
network performance and user QoS. The main goals are reducing the number of
HOs that are initiated but not carried out until completion (HO failures), repeated
back and forth HOs between two base stations (ping-pong HOs) and dropped
calls.
One of the most important directions of LTE expertise evolution is
comprehension of Self-Organizing Network (SON) functionality [2]. Every
wireless telecom service provider needs infrastructure that is self-configuring, selfoperating and self-optimizing. Ideal infrastructure deploys quickly without any
special expertise, automatically discovers the neighbors, automatically
reconfigures around network failures and automatically optimizes radio
parameters. In addition, backhaul and interconnect should be automatically
configured and QoS should be self-established and autonomously optimized. These
capabilities, along with many others, are the vision of the SON.
SON is defined as a set of use cases that covers the entire network lifecycle:
planning, deployment, operation and optimization. Hence, SON is designed to be a
multi-vendor solution. The key SON subjects are network planning, network
deployment and network optimization. The goal of SON at the stage of network
planning is to eliminate as much pre-planning of network configuration as
possible. SON does allow pre-planned network configuration, but it strongly
encourages that as much of network configuration as possible should be
generated/discovered automatically. The goal of SON at the stage of network
deployment is to radically decrease deployment time and procedures, especially in
the deployment of eNBs. The goal of SON at the stage of network optimization is
to maintain the desired performance level over the life of the network as new
equipment is deployed, usage patterns change, etc. In particular SON optimization
should provide automatic handoff optimization, including monitoring KPIs (key
performance indicators) to optimize handoff by iteratively adjusting target C/I
(carrier-to-interference) and RSSI (received-signal strength indication).
Self-optimization of future radio access networks is one of the main topics for
MERA research group. MERA has developed an LTE system-level Matlab-based
simulator. It allows evaluating and optimizing the system performance. This paper
describes the handover parameter optimization problem for LTE.

2. Handover procedure
There are two types of handover procedure in LTE for UEs in active mode:
the S1-handover procedure;
the X2-handover procedure.
The S1-handover procedure is performed between two eNBs without the X2
interface. The X2 handover is used when direct connectivity between source and
target eNBs exists. The X2 handover is quicker. The message chart of the X2
handover procedure is reported in Figure 1 [1]. During the handover, the
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) endpoints must be moved from the Source
eNB to the Target eNB. The Source eNB collects the UE measurements of the link
quality and assists in the function control of the UEs handover. As a next step,
source eNB makes a decision based on the measurement reports and RRM
information to hand off the UE and it issues a handover request message to the
Target eNB. After that, admission control may be performed by the Target eNB
according to the received quality of service information. The Target eNB prepares
the handover and sends the handover request acknowledgement to the Source eNB.
Such a message may also include information about Radio/Transport Network
Layer (RNL/TNL) for the forwarding tunnels. When handover request
acknowledgement is received, data forwarding from the Source eNB to the Target
eNB through the router may be initiated. The Source eNB generates the handover
command (RRC message) towards the UE. Then, the UE performs synchronization
to Target eNB and accesses the target cell. Then it sends a handover message to
indicate that the handover procedure is completed. The Target eNB can now start
sending data to the UE and at the same time send a path switch message to the
server MME to inform that the UE has changed the cell.
Handover can be described as a very precise flow of events and some might
argue that there is little if anything to be improved in it. In our approach we are
looking not at modifying this flow but rather at making the parameter settings that
control it flexible and modifying them accordingly. The main challenges faced by
such an algorithm is finding a perfect balance between the control parameters of
the HO process and ensuring that the network is in a stable operating point for a
long time.
3. Handover parameters and optimization metrics
The HO process can be controlled by two parameters: HO hysteresis (HYST),
Time to Trigger (TTT). These parameters are shown in Figure 2. The red curve
indicates decreasing reference signal received power (RSRP) Pa received by UE
from eNBA and the blue curve gives increasing RSRP Pb received by UE from
eNBB. Due to shadowing and fast fading the curves are irregular. At the moment
T1 Pb is equal to Pa plus HO hysteresis.

Figure1. Message chart of the LTE handover procedure.

The time interval (T2-T1) can be called handover area. It depends on HYST and
TTT values. The time-to-trigger values for LTE networks are specified by 3GPP
and equal to 0; 0.04; 0.064; 0.08; 0.1; 0.128; 0.16; 0.256; 0.32; 0.48; 0.512; 0.64;
1.024; 1.28; 2.56; 5.120 in [s]. In simulations the hysteresis value varies between 0
dB and 10 dB with steps of 0.5 dB. Hence there are 336 valid control parameter
combinations from the hysteresis and time-to-trigger values.
A handover is initiated at T2 if two conditions are fulfilled: the RSRP Pb (dB) is
greater than the RSRP Pa (dB) plus the hysteresis value HYST and this condition
holds at least for the time specified in the time-to-trigger parameter TTT.
The time interval (T3T2) is equal to 0.2s. Handover procedure is executed
during this interval. There is critical time (Tcrit=5s) that starts with T3. It is
necessary to evaluate ping-pong occurrences.
Following three HO performance indicators (HPI) are introduced.
1. The handover failure ratio (HPIHOF) is the ratio of the number of failed
handovers (NHOfail) to the number of handover attempts. The number of handover
attempts is the sum of the number of successful (NHOsucc) and the number of failed
handovers:
HPI HOF

N HOfail
N HOfail N HOsucc

(1)

2. The ping-pong handover ratio (HPIHPP) represents the number of ping-pong

handovers (NHOpp) divided by the total number of handovers, i.e. the number of
ping-pong handovers (NHOpp), the number of handovers where no ping-pong occurs
(NHOnpp) and the number of failed handovers (NHOfail):
HPI HPP

N HOpp
N HOpp N HOnpp N HOfail

(2)

If a call is handed over to a new cell and is handed back to the source cell in less
than the critical time (Tcrit) this handover is considered to be a ping-pong handover.

Fig.2 Handover process

3. The Radio Link Failure Ratio (HPIRLF) is the ratio of the number of radio link
failures NHOrlf to the number of calls that were accepted by the network Naccepted.:
HPI RLF

N HOrlf
N accepted

(3)

The following handover performance objective function (OF) combines the

three HPIs in one handover performance value, which ensures importance of each
HPI:
HPI w1 HPI HOF w2 HPI HPP w3 HPI RLF
(4)
Applied weighting coefficients were: w1=1, w2=0.5, w3=2.
4. Simulations
Network configuration is assumed to be as following:
network is made up of 7 hexagonal cells;
each eNB has three 1200 sector antennas to serve users;
plane coordinates of eNBs can be set at will.

distance between two eNBs is about 1km;

user mobility is simulated by means of motion with fixed speed;
initial user coordinates are random and evenly distributed;
initial direction of the speed is also random and evenly distributed
throughout the interval (0-2);
speed value can be set at will;
motion time is equal to 90sec;
there is a no-go area with 30m radius around each BS.
on the external boundary of the network each user changes its speed
direction randomly.
Network configuration, trajectory of UE, boundary of simulation area will be
clear from Figure 3.

Fig.3 Network configuration (scale in meters).

Initial random distributions UE coordinates and velocities are shown on the
Figure 4.

Fig.4 Distributions of the initial UE coordinates and velocities.

For simulation of radio propagation 3GPP channel model is applied [3].
Environment parameters are taken for urban macro channel scenario. The model
enables to simulate the following effects: path loss, shadowing, fast fading.
The interference from neighboring cells we valuate as
(5)
I j i RSRPi RSRPi
i j

i j

where i is subcarrier activity factor of i-th cell.

It is assumed that the average cell load is equal for all cells and activity factor
=0.5.
Signal to Interference to Noise (SINR) is calculated for source eNB with
number j as the next value [3]
SINR j

RSRP j
I j Pnoise

(6)

Call drop is assumed to be under SINR-6.5dB.

Shadowing is realized as lognormal distribution with standard deviation of 8dB.
Figure 5 indicates the power distribution when path los, shadowing and fast fading
are simulated. It can be seen that RSRP is randomly distributed value over
network. High power level is indicated by red and low power level is indicated by
dark blue.

1000

800

600

400

200

-200

-400

-600

-800

1000

800

600

400

200

-200

-400

-600

-800

-1000
-1000

Fig.5 Power distribution in the network.

Signal filtration is applied as recommended in 3GPP specification. This
improves the estimation of RSRP. Initial and filtered signal strengths are presented
on Figure 6.

Fig.6 Initial and filtered signal strengths.

First of all, the simulator enables analysis of the objective function depending
on HYST and TTT values. If the values of handover HYST and TTT are the same
for all the eNBs in the network, the objective function takes a form of 2-D function
and can be shown graphically. The corresponding result obtained with MERAs
simulator is given in Figure 7.

Fig.7 Handover objective function

The lower value of the objective function is the better HO performance. As seen
from Figure 7, a ditch of low values is noticeable lying in a circular shape
(magenta line) around the point with HYST of 0 dB and TTT of 0 s. Hence, the
optimal set of parameters does exist and the handover optimization algorithm has
to drive parameters towards this area of good handover performance.
Therefore, the crucial issue of SON functionality involving the HO performance
is the optimization algorithm. It should find the optimum set of control parameters
under the disturbances due to the measurement errors and the finite observation
time subject to keeping computation complexity at a reasonable level.
MERA has developed two effective algorithms that allow finding optimal
handover parameters. Operation of one of them is indicated on the Figure 8.

Velocity: 19; start hop: hyst - 0.000000, ttt - 0.000000

100
80
60
0
20

5
15

10
10

15
20

5
25

Fig.8 Operation of HO optimization algorithm.

5. Conclusions
The proposed handover optimization algorithms can change the values of the
hysteresis and time-to-trigger parameters in an automated manner in response to
changes in the network performance. These algorithms take into account the
weighting factor given by the operator policy to different performance metrics
(handover failure ratio, ping-pong handover ratio and radio link failure ratio). This
novel feature makes SON algorithm flexible and very appealing to operators. The
simulation results show that the optimization algorithms can increase the system
performance significantly.
References
1. 3GPP, Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal
Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2, 3rd Generation
Partnership Project (3GPP), TS 36.300, Sep. 2008. [Online]. Available:
http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/ html-info/36300.htm
2. INFSO-ICT-216284 SOCRATES D5.9 Final Report on Self-Organisation and its
Implications in Wireless Access Networks
3. 3GPP TR 25.996 V10.0.0 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification
Group Radio Access Network; Spatial channel model for Multiple Input Multiple Output
(MIMO) simulations (Release 10)