MSC POOL

3.1 General
The main principals for MSC in Pool are:

1. Each MSC in the MSC pool is serving the complete MSC pool area (at least)
2. Each BSC/TRC within the MSC pool area is connected to all MSCs within the
MSC pool

Figure 1 MSC Pool Area Consisting of Five Location Areas

An MSC pool area consists of one or more Location Areas and is the total radio coverage
area served by a pool of MSCs. All the Location Areas served by one BSC/TRC must
belong to the same pool. One Location Area can belong to more than one MSC pool area
(overlapping MSC pool area). All the MSCs in an MSC pool share the responsibility of
handling all the MSs, in all the LAs of the MSC pool area. Each MS within the MSC pool
area can be served by any MSC within the MSC pool. Once the MS has entered a new
MSC pool area, the MS shall in normal operation be served by the same MSC as long as
the MS roams within the MSC pool area. This is controlled by use of the Temporary
Mobile Subscriber Identity, TMSI.

With MSC Reselection and Alternative Routing it is also possible to move some or all
traffic from one MSC to other MSCs in the pool. Some scenarios where this can be useful
are described below:

 One of the MSCs in the pool can be highly loaded although there is spare
capacity in some of the other MSCs in the pool. Then traffic to that MSC
should be reduced and spread out on the other MSCs in the pool.
  In case one MSC will be taken out of service, or removed from the pool. Then
it is useful to gracefully redirect traffic from that MSC.
 In case one MSC become temporarily (and unintentionally) out of service, the
damage will be minimized since the BSC/TRC can move the MSs to other
MSCs in the pool. The support is valid for the cases with signalling link failure
or if the MSC refuse a signalling connection establishment. The support does
not include redistribution of traffic due to transmission link failure affecting
transmission devices.

In BSS, the MSC in Pool functionality is implemented in the BSC/TRC. Support is also
available in OSS for configuration and Performance Management. The MSC in Pool
functionality requires also corresponding support in the MSC. For an overview of the MSC
functionality, see further Reference [1].

The Ericsson Implementation is based on the standard specification 3GPP TS 23.236, see
further Reference [6].

The MSC in Pool consists of two sub features. The first sub feature MSC in Pool includes
MSC Selection and TMSI Based Routing and is described in Section 3.2. This sub feature
can be extended with the sub feature MSC in Pool with MSC Reselection and Alternative
Routing, that is additional Ericsson proprietary functions not defined in the 3GPP
standard, see further Section 3.3.