UE/UTRAN Radio Link Failure

3.1.4.1 Background

Layer 1 timers for Radio Link Failure on UE and RNC side can be increased. That way
more time is allowed for the UE to be in poor radio before the radio connection is
improved again. This way the risk for dropped call is reduced.

The time for UE Radio Link Failure is calculated using parameter N313 and timer T313.
After receiving N313 (default: 100) consecutive "out of sync" indications from layer 1,
the UE starts timer T313. If T313 expires, the UE consider it as a Radio Link Failure and
goes to Idle. The total time for the UE to detect RL failure is calculated as:

Total time UE = N313 * 10 ms + T313

UTRAN RL failure detection is controlled by the Radio Connection Supervision (RCS) and
Radio Link Set (RLS) Supervision functions. After receiving nOutSyncInd (default: 10)
consecutive frames, UTRAN starts timer rlFailureT (default: 1s). If rlFailureT expires,
the RLS function considers the connection as out-of-sync and reports RL Failure to SRNC.
When RL Failure is received on all radio links in the connection, the SRNC starts timer
dchRcLostT and when it expires the connection is considered lost by RCS and the call is
counted as dropped. The total time for UTRAN to detect RL failure:

Total time RNC = nOutSyncInd * 10 ms + rlFailureT + dchRcLostT

For a connection that includes HSDPA, the PS part of the connection is considered lost by
the RCS when the RLS that contains the Serving HS-DSCH cell, has been out-of-sync for
a time given by the parameter hsDschRcLostT. This means that when the
hsDschRcLostT timer expires, an Iu Release will be requested to the PS CN and when
the dchRcLostT timer expires, an Iu Release will be requested to all involved CNs, if call
re-establishment is OFF. If call re-establishment is ON, Iu connecetion for any PS RAB is
released while UE enters CELL_FACH, searches for suitable cell and sends cell update and
the CS call is re-established on that cell.

The total time for UTRAN to detect RL failure for the serving HS-DSCH radio link:

Total time RNC, HS = nOutSyncInd * 10 ms + rlFailureT + hsDschRcLostT

Figure 1 Interaction between Uplink Timer dchRcLostT and Downlink Timer T313 (with
Default Values)

Figure 1 shows how uplink and downlink RCS interacts (with default parameters). When
the UE looses sync in the downlink it will turn off its transmitter and only monitor
downlink until in sync again. Since the UE is turning off its transmitter there will be no in
sync detected in the uplink. To recover the radio link the UE must get in sync on the
downlink, and then start to transmit on the uplink again.

It is important to align timers on uplink and downlink to detect RL. If, for example,
dchRcLostT is set to a short value, then setting the timer T313 to a long value will
make no difference, since the call will be released when timer dchRcLostT expires. It is
important to set the timer dchRcLostT to a longer value than T313, so that the system
does not release the call before the UE goes to idle (at expiry of T313).