MME offloading http://localhost:8787/informationbrowser/topic/m183060348_html/htm/d...

Flexi Network Server, Rel. 16.5 MP2, Operating Documentation, v. 1 (HTML) > Operate and Maintain > Flexi NS User Guide >
Self-organizing network (SON) features

MME offloading
The MME offloading feature enables operators to move (offload) all or part of the LTE subscribers from one MME
to other MMEs within the same MME pool.

Active offloading
MME offloading is part of the S1 flex feature. As part of S1 flex, the eNB functionality is to select an MME for the
UE. If the UE gives selected MME information in RRC signaling, then the eNB always selects the same previously
selected MME. The MME offloading feature is required to revert the previously selected MME information so an
MME can be taken out of service, for example, for maintenance use. Offloading does not disturb the existing
sessions of the UEs.
The MME offloading feature is fully based on 3GPP standards and the mechanism is described in 3GPP TS
23.401 chapter 4.3.7.3.
Flexi NS - MME supports different ways of offloading EMM-REGISTERED UEs:
full offloading
partial offloading
offloading based on the tracking area (TA) or TA range.
When offloading is started, MME starts to offload subscribers to other MMEs in the pool.
For ECM-CONNECTED UEs, MME initiates S1 Release with cause ‘Load balancing TAU required’ as
shown in Figure S1 Release with cause ‘Load balancing TAU required’.
For ECM-IDLE UEs, MME initiates paging. When the service request procedure has been completed,
MME initiates S1 Release with cause ‘Load balancing TAU required’.

Figure: S1 Release with cause ‘Load balancing TAU required’

Subscribers are offloaded randomly (IDLE and ACTIVE users not separated). The subscribers are offloaded at
constant velocity that cannot be modified.
Counters are available for checking the success of the offloading procedures. See Statistics for details.

Passive offloading
The relative capacity can also be used for passive offloading. If passive offloading is enabled and if the MME
relative capacity is set to 0, passive offloading will start immediately. If active offloading is started during passive
offloading, both passive and normal offloading will proceed in parallel.

1 de 2 12/09/2017 10:34 a.m.

MME offloading http://localhost:8787/informationbrowser/topic/m183060348_html/htm/d...

The cause for eNB-initiated S1 releases (due to user inactivity) will be set as ‘load balancing TAU required’. The
UE will then initiate a TAU procedure without registered MME information, and the eNB selects another MME in
the pool based on the MME weight factors.
Note that after a system restart, you need to enable MME TAU load balancing by setting the MME relative capacity
to 0 again (even if the value is already set to 0). If the MME relative capacity is set back to something other than 0,
the MME will again start using normal procedure-related cause values in S1 releases (that is, no longer ‘load
balancing TAU required’).
If the passive offloading is disabled, the MME will behave normally regardless of the MME relative capacity, and
will not set the cause ‘load balancing TAU required’ in S1 release.

Note: Subscribers with active emergency or group communication service sessions are not offloaded.

Related resources

More on this topic

Configuring active MME offloading

To enable active MME offloading, follow these instructions.
Configuring passive MME offloading
To start passive MME offloading, follow these instructions.

Parent topic: Self-organizing network (SON) features

Id: DN70669723 © 2017 Nokia. All rights reserved.

2 de 2 12/09/2017 10:34 a.m.