Inter-system Inter-working Cegetel consultancy Main results

Benoist Guillard Jose Marcos

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Context
Cegetel (VF CBT) has set a high priority on inter-system inter-working A must for commercial opening (Q3/03) In a multi-vendor context But is concerned about any impact on live GSM/GPRS network performance A 5 months consultancy Define the strategy Evaluate the architecture Explain the mechanisms Propose parameters Identify the risk areas for the mechanisms Prepare testing Decode the roadmaps Identify impacts on GSM Suggest solutions to alleviate the risks on GSM Discussion on our conclusions has only happened little with Cegetel, so comments and critics are welcome now ! (and later :-)
2 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Agenda
Define the strategy Propose parameters Identify impacts on GSM

Suggest solutions to alleviate the risks on GSM

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Strategy
Objectives Ensure service continuity Obtain maximum use of WCDMA Better quality (AMR, PS bit rates) Investment efficiency Avoid ping-pongs Analysis WCDMA coverage does not just end at the edge of roll-out, it also stops indoor before GSM

GSM

WCDMA

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Strategy
What gain brings 2G->3G Voice ISHO ?
At what Dual-Mode UE penetration level P can we see a visible gain on GSM capacity ? Arbitrary threshold : A gain of 1 Erlang in GSM load At high load levels, Erlang B can be approximated by Erl B ( , blocking) C is the traffic in Erlang blocking the blocking target C is a constant

We estimate a mobility factor M, ratio of calls setup in GSM-only coverage and ending in WCDMA coverage (good guess 3% ?)
A gain in GSM load is visible if M P 1 Therefore no gain is visible if the penetration is below

Pthreshold

1 M

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Agenda
Define the strategy Propose parameters Identify impacts on GSM

Suggest solutions to alleviate the risks on GSM

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Should we use HCS for 3G2G reselection?

HCS with the same priority on WCDMA and GSM Allows to introduce a temporary offset on R-criterion Introduces latency, risk to set-up a call in a bad cell Allows to discriminate neighbor selection depending on server quality If Qsearch_RAT > 0 dB: Very poor server Take any neighbor Poor server Be more demanding on the neighbor quality
WCDMA Ec/No GSM AV_RXLEVNCELL( n)

Parameters

Qsearch_RAT(s)=4 dB

-16 dB

Qhcs(n)=-85 dBm

QHCS(s)=-18 dB

AdjgQrxLevMin(n)=-102 dBm

QqualMin(s)=-20 dB
7 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

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Should we use 3G2G HCS ?

HCS with different priorities on WCDMA and GSM Then GSM must have a lower priority than WCDMA Otherwise, reselection will occur preferentially to GSM, which is not the objective Allows to introduce a mobility evaluation criterion, but Mobility is not a suitable trigger for reselection (coverage is) It introduces ping-pong, as mobility is not evaluated in GSMWCDMA reselection Reselection to WCDMA shall not occur within 5 secs after UE has
Priority (HCS_PRIO)=3 GSM GSM reselected GSM a GSM cell from a WCDMA cell if a suitable GSM cell can be found [05.08] GSM GSM GSM

Parameters

Priority (HCS_PRIO)=4 WCDMA WCDMA WCDMA WCDMA WCDMA Reselect WCDMA Reselect GSM with different priorities WCDMA

Reselection Ncr=1

Ncr=2

Ncr=3 Fast Moving state detected start GSM measurements for reselection
8 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

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Parameters
Use of GSM thresholds
Operators have worked on thresholds for access to the cell, and they have proved successful, therefore they must be re-used Reselection AdjgQrxLevMin (n) = RxLevAccessMin (n) Handover 3G2G ISHO is an emergency handover (coverage) Therefore the minimum threshold could be applied AdjgRxLevMinHO (n) = rxLevMinCell (n) However this threshold is in general very low and not sufficient to hold the call drop in GSM Besides at these levels a subsequent handover should occur immediately Therefore handover thresholds are good references to use AdjgRxLevMinHO (n) = hoThresholdsLevDL (n) This increases call drop in WCDMA but reduces it in GSM

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

3G2G ISHO triggers

Activating all five triggers may cause unwished handover Principle to activate triggers one by one upon requirements AMR Normally the uplink direction should limit UL Quality trigger activates only when the Outer Loop PC is already out due to UE Tx Power limitation Because of UL DTX a downlink direction trigger can also be checked Either CPICH Ec/No or CPICH RSCP PS Power triggers are not very useful due to rate adaptation MAC layer Transport Format selection in the UL Dynamic DL bitrate Adaptation in the DL PS Coverage is therefore best measured with CPICH coverage Either CPICH Ec/No or CPICH RSCP CPICH Ec/No or CPICH RSCP ? CPICH Ec/No is a better measure of coverage But the CPICH Ec/No trigger may cause unexpected ISHO in the polluted middle of a good WCDMA coverage: Is that good ? Trials are required to decide on the proper trigger
10 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Parameters

Company Confidential

Inter-system neighbor definition (1/7)

Environment
Problems: Manage the different site densities : more sites in GSM than in WCDMA macro-layer Therefore more than 32 neighbors could be required Take into account the different site configuration GSM and WCDMA collocated/not collocated M900 and M1800 collocated/not collocated Define simple and deployable processes Make use of the existing neighbouring definition rather than simulating Avoid handovers to bad quality cells Rather drop the call in WCDMA than increase counters in GSM Assumptions WCDMA and M1800 coverage are equivalent M900 coverage wider and deeper than WCDMA and M1800 Traffic is higher on GSM1800 (due to Cegetels strategies)

11

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Inter-system neighbor definition (2/7)

Principles
When WCDMA and M900 are collocated Use the underlying M900 cell as the basis for neighbor definition Ignore the underlying M1800 cell if it exists When WCDMA and M1800 are collocated Use the underlying M1800 cell as the basis for neighbor definitions If the WCDMA site is standalone Simulate a virtual collocated M1800 cell and use existing processes for neighbor definitions (2G simulation) Use all M900 neighbors of the underlying neighbor M900 provides a continuous coverage Use M1800 neighbors of the underlying neighbor only when standalone If they are cosited with WCDMA SHO should occur If they are cosited with M900 it covers further than M1800
12 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

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Inter-system neighbouring definition (3/7)

3G2G
Tri-band collocated site (WCDMA site collocated with dual band site M900/M1800)
Neighbour

M900
Neighbour Neighbour

M900

900 M1800 M1800

WCDMA
Isolated M1800 site
13 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Collocated tri-band site

Company Confidential

Inter-system neighbouring definition (4/7)

3G2G
WCDMA site collocated with M900 site only
Neighbor

M900
Neighbor Neighbor

M900

900 M1800

WCDMA
Isolated M1800 site
14 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Collocated tri-band site

Company Confidential

Inter-system neighbouring definition (5/7)

3G2G
WCDMA site collocated with M1800 site only

M900
Neighbor Neighbor Neighbor

900 M1800 M1800

WCDMA
Isolated M1800 site
15 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Collocated tri-band site

Company Confidential

Inter-system neighbouring definition (6/7)

3G2G
Isolated WCDMA site

M900
Virtual Neighbor Virtual Neighbor Virtual Neighbor

900 M1800 Virtual collocated M18 00

WCDMA
Isolated M1800 site
16 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Standalon e WCDMA site

Company Confidential

Inter-system neighbouring definition (7/7)

2G3G
Collocated 2G/3G site The WCDMA cell must be declared as neighbour cell of The GSM collocated M900/M1800 All the GSM neighbours of all the collocated GSM cells This does not raise the same issues as 3G2G as the site density is higher in GSM Isolated 3G site Use M1800 virtual colocated site

Virtual Neighbor

Follow existing neighbouring definition process

M900
Virtual Neighbor

900 Virtual collocated M1800

Virtual Neighbor

M1800

WC DMA

Standalone WC DMA site

17 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Agenda
Define the strategy Propose parameters Identify impacts on GSM

Suggest solutions to alleviate the risks on GSM

18

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Signalling Transfer Traffic (LU)

Impact: Each inter-system reselection will cause a Location Update to occur Increases greatly the SDCCH load Possible solutions: Redimension SDCCH Redesign LA borders to reduce 2G-2G LAU Introduce Gs interface to have combined LAU/RAU over GPRS If not yet done due to PBCCH Introduce BSS8 Dynamic SDCCH Use a common LAC in a common 2G/3G-MSC

19

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Mobile distribution & GSM QoS

Impact
All Dual Mode terminals will go to WCDMA in the centre of a GSM/WCDMA collocated cell But they will return or remain in GSM at the borders Modified C/I distribution Mean speech quality may be degraded Mean rxLev/rxQual may be degraded GPRS CS1/CS2 use proportion may be degraded : lower bitrate
100 % Without 2G/3G interworking 90 % 80 % With 2G/3G interworking

M900

70 % 60 %

Density
WC DMA
50 % 40 % 30 % 20 % 10 % 0% 0

DM UE Penetration

Distance
20 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

10

15

20

25

30

35

Company Confidential

Mobile distribution & GSM QoS

Possible solutions
Develop a weak C/I design methodology Work on site configurations ro reduce overlapping Introduce this mobile distributions in the frequency plan production tools Introduce interference management features RF Hopping DL Power Control Change parameters to manage this interference

21

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

GSM Indicators
Impacts: Here the focus is on existing GSM KPIs, and whether they are affected by interworking New HO table (004000) counters are created, and the existing ones are not incremented Therefore ISHO has not impact on HO KPIs However new formulas or new KPIs are required Existing TCH table (001000) counters are implement by ISHO Therefore the HO Failure KPIs will be degraded (except if ISHO performance is better than 2G2G HO performance ) Possible solutions: Tune the 3G2G capture level AdjgQrxLevMinHO to keep unevitable drop calls in WCDMA while ensuring executable ISHOs are performed
22 NOKIA Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

adjQrxLevMinHO adjgQrxLevMinHO

MA900 M1800 WCDMA

Company Confidential

Measurement Performance
Impact Idle Mode It can be expected that the time taken to measure WCDMA is taken away from GSM measurements, and that reselection delays occur Dedicated mode 3G measurement reports steal intra-band and inter-band measurement reports Possible solutions Measure the phenomenon Reduce the number of WCDMA neighbors Set fddMultiRatRep=1 Reduces the number WCDMA measurement reports, affecting ISHO Set qSearchC in [8 14] WCDMA is measured only when GSM quality is good

23

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

GPRS service degradation: SGSN queuing system

Impact Data transfer after a PS 3G2G cell reselection risks to overflow the 2GSGSN buffers Possible solutions Increase 2G-SGSN capacity Provide 2G-only subscribers a higher QoS priority than 3G subscribers A paradoxal solution to safeguard the lowest bitrates

(source)

RNC
Dual mode MS Forward unsent data

(source)

Old GTP Tu

nne l

3GSG S N G G SN
l ne

moves

Forward

w Ne
Dual mode MS

un PT GT

(target)

(target)

BSC
24 NOKIA

2GSG S N
Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential

Actual GSM neighbour cells amount

On Nokia system, when ISHO feature is activated, the amount of neighbouring GSM cells is reduced by 1 The maximum number of neighbouring cells for a BTS/SEG object is:

32 without any ISHO or CBCCH feature activated 31 if ISHO or CBCCH is activated 30 if ISHO and CBCCH are activated

In dense urban environment this does represent a heavy constraint for Cegetel, because no satisfying neighbouring cleaning solution.

25

NOKIA

Centra.PPT / 04-03-2003 / BGu, JMa

Company Confidential