Channel Switching

Channel Switching- Main Purpose

• Dynamically change the physical resources allocated to a UE, by switching

UE’s to the most suitable transport channel based on traffic volume
(throughput- UL & DL), radio resources availability, radio conditions and
mobility.

• Applies only to packet traffic on the interactive RAB (Interactive and

Background QOS classes with no guaranteed bit rates and no packet delay
requirements)

• Channel switching function works both on a Single RAB and on a Multi RAB
combination.
• There are basically two kinds of Channel Switching:
1. Channel Type Switching and
2. Channel Rate Switching.
 Channel Switching - Evaluation Criteria

The Channel Switching evaluation is based on two criteria:

• User activity: Measured in terms of either channel throughput(Cell-DCH) or RLC

buffer load(Cell-FACH)
• Coverage condition: Measured in terms of downlink code power(the DL power
of the pilot bits of the DPCCH field). When the code power coverage on DL of a
connection falls below a certain threshold considered to be insufficient for the
current rate, a downswitch to the next lower state will be requested.
• Capacity Management and Mobility:
1. Admission Control can initiate channel switching of an individual UE from
one dedicated transport channel to another (from 64/384 to 64/128 or
from 64/128 to 64/64...etc) when resources needs to be freed up for new
users
2. Congestion Control can initiate channel switching of an individual UE from
dedicated to common transport channel when needed to solve a congestion
situation.
3. Soft Handover
4. HS Mobility
 Buffer Based Up-Switch Common to Dedicated

• The Common to Dedicated Evaluation algorithm monitors the amount of

user data buffered in the RNC or UE. If the buffer load increases and a
switch from the common transport channels FACH/RACH to a higher bit
rate dedicated transport channel is required, an upswitch request is sent
to channel switching execution.
• When the RLC buffer load in the UL exceeds the threshold value set by
the parameter ulRlcBufUpswitch , a measurement report is sent from the
UE. An upswitch request is issued upon reception of the measurement
report(4A).
• A request is also issued when the RLC buffer load (in the RNC) in the
downlink exceeds the threshold value set by the parameter
dlRlcBufUpswitch .
• The common to dedicated switching function always tries to allocate a
EUL/HS, 64/HS or 64/64 transport channel in that order.
 Channel Switching– Common to Dedicated

Single RAB Transition – Common to Dedicated

MultiRAB Transition – Common to Dedicated

 Channel Switching–Dedicated to Common

EUL / HSDPA 384 / HS

• What we are interested in this activity is to EUL / HS

DCH / HSDPA
consider the DOWN switch procedure
(from EUL/HS/DCH -> FACH, 64 / HS

from FACH -> IDLE and

from DCH to DCH) regulated by inactivity. 64/384 128/384 384/384

• In particular:
64/128 128/128 384/128

1. HS  FACH (hsdschInactivityTimer)
64/64 128/64 384/64

2. DCH  FACH (downswitchTimer)

3. FACH  IDLE (inactivityTimer)
4. DCH  DCH (XXThroughputDownswitchTimer) FACH

SRB

URA
Idle
 Down switch Timer : DCH to FACH

DCH to Common Evaluation algorithm (UL and DL):

• IF Throughput (UL&DL) < downswitchThreshold (0) kbps for downswitchTimer (10s).
• IF the throughput increases above downswitchTimerThreshold (0) before the timer
expires, the timer is stopped and no switch is issued.
 Hsdsch Inactivity Timer: HS to FACH

HS to Common Evaluation algorithm (UL and DL):

• IF Throughput (UL&DL) < downswitchThreshold (0) kbps for hsdschInactivityTimer (2s)
• IF the throughput increases above downswitchTimerThreshold (0) before the timer
expires, the timer is stopped and no switch is issued.
Multi RAB Transition

Speech+DCH/DCH

Speech+DCH/HS
 Inactivity Timer : FACH to IDLE

384 / HS
EUL / HSDPA
EUL / HS
DCH / HSDPA
64 / HS

64/384 128/384 384/384

64/128 128/128 384/128

64/64 128/64 384/64

FACH
SRB
URA
Idle

FACH to IDLE algorithm (UL and DL):

• The algorithm is activated at the entry of the CELL_FACH state.
• IF no uplink or downlink activity has been detected (i.e. no data has been transmitted)
during inactivityTimer (30) seconds the mobile is witched to IDLE.
 Down switchTimer: DCH to DCH

• The Dedicated to Dedicated Downswitch Evaluation algorithm determines whether a switch

to a lower rate channel should be made. The same algorithm applies for Single/Multi RAB.
• A channel switch request to the next lower UL/DL rate (monitored independently) when:
1. the downlink throughput decreases below the threshold specified by
dlDownswitchBandwidthMargin (80%) or the uplink throughput decreases below the threshold
specified by ulDownswitchBandwidthMargin (80%) .
2. If the above conditions holds for the duration of dlThroughputDownswitchTimer (or
ulThroughputDownswitchTimer for an uplink trigger), a downswitch request is executed by the
Channel Switching function.

DL throughput

EUL / HSDPA 384 / HS

Max Throughput of EUL / HS

current DCH Channel
DCH / HSDPA
64 / HS

64/384 128/384 384/384

dlThroughputDownswitchTimer [2s]
64/128 128/128 384/128

Max Throughput of 64/64 128/64 384/64

next lower DCH Channel

FACH
SRB
XDownswitch to next lower DCH Channel URA
Idle
 CELL_DCH to CELL_DCH Downswitch

• The lack of coverage may cause the downlink code power to increase to its maximum.
In this case, a Down-Switch from 64/384 to 64/128 or from 64/128 to 64/64 is
preferable to exhausting power and possibly dropping the connection.
• The algorithm periodically (every 1 second) monitors downlink code power on all legs
in the Active Set.
• If the downlink code power on all legs in the Active Set is within
downswitchPwrMargin of the maximumTransmissionPower, then
coverageTimer is started ,after expiry, the UE is Down-Switched to the next
lower Radio Access Bearer (RAB).
 DL UpswitchTimer: DCH to DCH
• The Dedicated to Dedicated Upswitch Evaluation algorithm determines whether a switch
to a Higher rate channel should be made. The same algorithm applies for Single/Multi RAB.
• A channel switch request to the Highest possible DL rate when:
1. the downlink throughput exceeds the threshold specified by bandwidthMargin(90%) .
2. The above conditions holds for the duration of upswitchTimer .
3. When Up-Switching from 64kb, the first attempt will be made to Up-Switch to 384kb. If this
attempt fails, a second attempt to Up-Switch to 128kb will be made.
 UL UpswitchTimer: DCH to DCH

• The Dedicated to Dedicated Upswitch Evaluation algorithm determines whether a switch

to a Higher rate channel should be made. The same algorithm applies for Single/Multi RAB.
• A channel switch request to the next higher UL rate when:
1. The Uplink throughput exceeds the threshold specified by bandwidthMarginUl (90%) .
2. The above conditions holds for the duration of upswitchTimerUl.
 Optimization Tips and Tricks

• Increase the downswitchThreshold/Timer to avoid keeping

unnecessary users in the HS state
• Decrease the inactivity timer to quickly empty FACH from the
idle users
• These changes will be reviewed upon the results of statistics
and the field tests
• Different strategies will be applied on the RNC’s based on the
Cs/Ps traffic utilization
• Mind the trade off between resource utilization and Processor
load.