Handover Parameters (Part 1 of 3)

Lauro
22 Feb 2012 8:17 PM
 4

There are three ways of optimizing handovers in LTE:

a) Via the modification of the parameters a3offset and hysteresisa3

b) By changing the parameter timetotriggereventa3

c) Via the modification of the parameter filtercoefficient for event a3.

These set of blogs will dealt with parameter setting for Periodic Reporting of Event A3
only. The intention is to deal with each of the cases mentioned above, one at a time.
Hence, this blog will concentrate in case a).

Definitions:

Event A3 is defined as a triggering event when a neighbor cell becomes an offset better
than the serving cell. The UE creates a measurement report, populates the triggering
details and sends the message to the serving cell. The parameters that define the
trigger include:

 a3offset: This parameter can be found in 3GPP 36.331. It configures the RRC IE
a3-Offset included in the IE reportConfigEUTRA in the
MeasurementConfiguration IE. The value sent over the RRC interface is twice
the value configured, that is, the UE has to divide the received value by 2.The
role of the offset in Event A3 is to make the serving cell look better than its
current measurement in comparison to the neighbor.
 Hysteresisa3: The role of the hysteresis in Event A3 is to make the measured
neighbor look worse than measured to ensure it is really stronger before the UE
decides to send a measurement report to initiate a handover.
 timetoTriggera3: The role of ttt in Event A3 is to avoid a ping-pong effect.
 CellIndividualoffsetEutran: This parameter is applied individually to each
neighbor cell with load management purposes. The higher the value allocated to
a neighbor cell, the “more attractive” it will be. This parameter can only be used if
the neighbor list is broadcast in SIB4 or in an RRC connection reconfiguration.
Based on the picture above, event A3 will trigger when:

RSRP(target) > RSRS(Serving) +a3offset + hysteresisa3 – cellindividualoffsetEutran

And this condition is valid for timetotriggera3.

At the expiration of timetotriggera3, if the UE does not receive an RRC connection

reconfiguration message (handover command) from the eNodeB, then it will start a
timer called reportingintervala3. At the expiration of this timer, if the conditions for
event A3 are still met and the eNodeB has not responded, then another measurement
report will be sent to the eNodeB. This process will continue until the eNodeB responds
or until a number of measurement reports given by the
parameter reportingamount have been sent.

Examples:

The table below assumes that cellindividualoffsetEutran is not used and shows when
the eventa3offset is triggered and when the UE ceases sending measurement reports.
As it can be seen from the table, eventa3 triggers at a3offset+hysteresisa3

However!!! After the first measurement result, subsequent measurement results can be
sent if the RSRP of the neighbor cell is only a3offset-hysterisisa3 dB stronger! Hence,
weaker neighbors could be reported in the measurements sent by the UE (this case is
very rare but it exists in real systems).

Therefore, it is recommended to follow the optimization rules:

a) a3offset should always be larger than hysteresisa3 if we want UE to handover to

cells with an RSRP at least equal to the RSRP value of its serving cell.

b) Ensuring a3offset > hysteresisa3 avoids ping-pongs

c) The higher the value of a3offset+hysteresisa3 the more we drag the calls to
neighboring cells. This is very useful where we have coverage holes (not a one to one
deployment scenario on top of 3G cells)

d) The smaller the value of a3offset+hysteresisa3 the faster we release the calls to
neighboring cells. This is useful in those scenarios where a large number of LTE cells
exists in a given geographical area.

e) The higher the value of a3offset+hysteresisa3 the more difficult we make it for calls
do handover to other cells.

Remember, eventa3 triggers at a3offset+hysteresisa3. Subsequent message reports

are sent when the RSRP of the neighbor cell is a3offset-hysteresisa3 (See figure
below).
 In our next blog, we will discuss the parameter timetotriggera3, which is another tool for
optimizing handovers in LTE.

Handover Parameters (Part 2 of

3)
Lauro
2 Mar 2012 5:45 PM
 0

TimetoTrigger Event a3

As explained in part 1 of these blogs, if the RSRP of a neighbor cell is a3offset+

hysteresisa3 dB stronger than the serving cell for a time period equal
to timetotriggera3 then the UE sends the first measurement report to the eNodeB
indicating that eventa3 has occurred. timetotriggera3 typical values are [0, 40, 64, 80,
100, 128, 160, 256, 320, 480, 512, 640, 1024, 1280, 2560, 5120] milliseconds.
Clearly, the utilization of timetotriggera3 is highly dependent on the
parameters a3offset and hysteresisa3.However, some general troubleshooting
guidelines are provided here to minimize ping pong effects.

Rules:

a) If a3offset+ hysteresisa3 is relatively large (i.e.: 6dB or stronger), then a value

of timetotriggera3 under 100 ms is acceptable.

Explanation: Since the RSRP of the neighbor cell is already stronger than the value of
the source cell, the time to trigger should not be large.

b) If a3offset+ hysteresisa3 is relatively small (i.e.: 2dB), then a value

of timetotriggera3 should be around 320 to 640 ms.

Explanation: Since the RSRP of the neighbor cell is not much stronger than the value of
the source cell, the time to trigger should not large to ensure the value remains the
same for a long period of time.

c) If a3offset = hysteresisa3, see b)

d) If a3offset > hysteresisa3, see a)

e) If a3offset < hysteresisa3, see a)

However, these recommendations depend much on the speed of the mobile and the
coverage scenarios.

The value allocated to timetotriggera3, hence, depends on:

 Parameter setting of a3offset and hysteresisa3,

 Morphology (dense urban, urban, suburban, rural)
 Speed of UE in the cells (freeways and or suburban roads).

So far, we have discussed two methods for optimizing event A3. In out next blog we will
talk about the benefits of optimizing another parameter called, filtercoefficient for event
A3 that will allow us to eliminate some of the effects of fast fading in the UE
measurements.

he formula used by the user equipment for evaluating entry to EventA3 is

shown below:

Mn − HysteresisA3 > Ms + a3offset

Where,
Mn = measured value of the neighboring cell (either RSRP or RSRQ)
Ms = measured value of the serving cell (either RSRP or RSRQ)

Once EventA3 is triggered, the user equipment will wait a predetermined time
(timeToTriggerA3) before it commences sending measurement reports to the
serving RBS. These measurement reports contain measurements for the serving
cells and up to three detected intra frequency neighbor cells.
The reportQuantityA3 parameter indicates whether RSRP or RSRQ
measurements, or both, are to be included in the measurement reports.

Measurement reports are sent periodically whilst the EventA3 condition is

active. The parameter reportIntervalA3 determines the time interval between
measurement reports. The parameter reportAmountA3 indicates how many
reports to send; a value of 0 indicates that the reports should be sent
indefinitely whilst the EventA3 condition is active.

The user equipment uses the same offset and hysteresis values to determine
when to leave EventA3 when the serving cell improves in RSRP or RSRQ relative
to the neighboring cells. The formula used by the UE is shown below:

Mn + HysteresisA3 < Ms + a3offset