HANDOFF

MANAGEMENT

Handoff
2

Handof
Three issues need to be considered
for handof management
1.Handof Detection
2. Strategies for Handof Detection
3.Channel Assignment

Outline
Handof Detection
Who initiates the handof process?
How is the need for handof detected?

Strategies for Handof Detection

MCHO
NCHO
MAHO

Channel Assignment
Nonprioritized Scheme
Queuing Priority Scheme
Subrating Scheme
4

Fig 3.1 Handoff

5

1.Handoff Detection
To initiate a handof:
Who initiates the handof process?
How is the need for handof detected?

Handof detection is based on strength

(power) of the link measurement
The signal from BS transmitter will loss
power due to reflection or difraction around
buildings and terrain when it reaches the MS
The BS receiver experiences the same
problem as the MS due to the MS motion.
The slower fading phenomenon due to
reflection and difraction is called Shadow
fading
7

 Three measurement parameters are

used for handoff management
Word error indicator (WEI)
Received signal strength indicator
(RSSI)
80db~100db

Quality indicator (QI)

5db~25db

Three measurements for handof

detection
Three measurements are used for handoff
management
Word error indicator (WEI)
Metric that indicates whether the current burst was
demodulated properly in the MS.

Received signal strength indicator (RSSI)

Measure of received signal strength.
The RSSI metric has large useful dynamic range
80db~100db

Quality indicator (QI)

Estimate of the eye opening of a radio signal, which
relates to the signal to interference and noise (S/I)
ratio.
The QI metric has narrow range 5db~25db
9

 Handof may depend more reliably

on WEI of the current channel than
RSSI.
It is necessary to accumulate WEI
measurements over a period of time,
whereas RSSI is known
instantaneously.
To make sure the handof decision
accurately and quickly, it is desirable
to use both WEI and RSSI.
10

 RSSI measurements are afected by

Distance-depend fading
Occurs when the received signal becomes weaker
due to increasing distance between the MS and
BS

Lognormal fading (Shadow fading)

Occurs when the transmitting signal undergoes
the reflection and diffraction phenomena's

Rayleigh fading (multipath fading)

Occurs when two or more transmission path
exists (due to signal being reflected off from
buildings and mountains) between the MS and BS
There are two type of multipath fading
When the obstacles are close to the receiving
antenna
The reflected signal comes from an object far
away from the receiving antenna
11

 Ideally, the handof decision should be

based on
Distance-depend fading
Shadow fading
Independent of Rayleigh fading

Channel comparison for handof are

based on RSSI and QI metrics.
Filter should be applied on both RSSI
and QI metrics.
Window averaging
Leaky-bucket integration

 Window averaging method

The MS maintains a number proportional to
the avg. of the current measurement and
last w-1 measurements , where w is the
window size.
The MS implements the following procedure
for each new measurement

S(k)= S(k-1) +m(k) - m(k-1)

Where S(k) refers to the sum of the window
at time k and m(k) is the measurement
made at time period k
The MS must maintain a record of current
sample and the previous w samples

 Leaky- bucket method

The MS implements a discrete , digital
one pole low pass filter
S(k)= a*S(k-1)+m(k)
Where a<1 is a constant called forgetting
factor

The WA method requires w+1 units

of memory for each channel and it
also requires addition and
subtraction operation
The LB method requires only 1 unit of
memory and it has only one math

 Short-term Rayleigh fading is usually

handled in mobile system designs by
techniques including
Diversity techniques
Multiple receiver
Correlates with variable lines
Antenna diversity

Signal processing techniques

Bit interleaving
Convolution coding
equalizer
15

 The Raleigh fading is frequency

dependent, ie: drop in strength
occurs at dif. places for dif.
frequencies.
So reduce the Raleigh fading efect ,
the BS and MS may hop from fr. to fr.
During a call
The longer term shadow fading
is usually compensated by increasing
the transmitter power and the cochannel reuse distance.
The slow fading can usually be

2. Strategies for Handoff

Detection
There are mainly 3 strategies for
hand of detection
Mobile controlled handof (MCHO)
Network controlled handof (NCHO)
Mobile assisted handof (MAHO)

Mobile-Controlled Handoff
(MCHO)
MCHO is employed by lower-tier DECT and PACS.
The MS continuously monitors the signal of the
surrounding BSs
When some handof criteria are met, the MS checks
the best candidate BS for an available traffic
channel and launches a handoff request
Combines ALT and TST are used in MCHO
Automatic link transfer (ALT)
Handof between two BSs

Time slot transfer (TST)

Handof between channels on the same BS

 ALR requires the MS to make quality

measurements of the current and
candidate channels in the
surrounding BSs.
The MSs handof control between the
channels on the same BS is made
possible by passing the uplinkquality information in the form of a
word-error indicator , back to the MS
on the down-link.

Quality maintenance
process
Measurement
process

yes

no
Link-quality
acceptable?

Select new
channel or
time slot

Execute
ALT or TST

MS-quality maintenance processing

20

 The QMP consist of four components

Ongoing measurement and processing of
measurement data ,which allow the MS
to monitor the quality of links
The trigger decision mechanism : MS
uses the processed measurement data
to determine that some action such as
ALT or TST ,is required.
The choice for the new frequency for ALT
or the new time slot for TST
Execution of the ALT or TST via signaling
protocol between the MS and the
network equipment

 As part of the demodulation process

the MS receiver generally obtains
RSSI and QI parameters.
The required handof time for DECT is
100msec to 500 msec
For PACS ,it is 20 to 50 msec

Network-Controlled Handoff
(NCHO)
NCHO is employed by the lower tier CT-2 plus
and high-tier AMPS
The network (MSC) asks all surrounding BSs to
measure the signal (RSSI) from the MS and report
the measurement results back the network.
Then the network chooses a new BS for the
handof and inform the MS (through old BS) and
the new BS
Then the MS will be in connection with the New BS
The BSs supervise the quality of all current
connections by making measurements of RSSI.
23

 If the network has heavy traffic and

the lack of adequate radio resources
at BSs to make these measurements of
available links to a MS, the hand off
execution time is in order of second
To reduce the network load in the network,
the neighboring BSs do not send
measurement reports
continuously back to the MSC
The required handof time can be up to 10
seconds or more.

Mobile-Assisted Handoff (MAHO)

MCHO is a variant to NAHO

Here the network ask the MS to measure
the signals from surrounding BSs and
report those measurements back to the
old BS
So that the network can decide whether
the a handof is required , and to which
BS.
This strategy is employed by the lower
tier CT-2 plus and high-tier GSM, IS-95
CDMA, and IS-136 TDMA
25

 Both the MS and BS supervise the quality

of the link
RSSI measurement of neighboring BSs are
done by the MS
In GSM, the MS transmits the
measurement results to BS twice a second.
The decision as to When and where to
execute handof is made by the network
BS, MSC or BSC

For GSM ,handof ex.time is nearly 1sec

There is some probability that the link will
fail before this information can be
transmitted to the MS, in this case , the
call will be forces to terminate.

Handof Failures
Handof Failures
No channel is available
Handof is denied by the network for
reasons such as lack of resources
It takes the network too long to set up
the handof
The target link fails in some way
during the execution of handof

28

3. Channel Assignment
Channel assignment schemes attempt
to achieve
high degree of spectrum utilization,
least number of database lookups,
simplest algorithm employed in both the
MS and network

29

 Some trade-ofs when channel

assignments are carrying on :
Service quality
Implementation complexity of the
channel assignment algorithm
Number of database lookups
Spectrum utilization

30

 In a busy BS, Call attempts that fail

because there are no available
channels are called blocked calls
Handof request for existing calls that
must be turned down because there are
no available channels are called forced
termination
In generally , the forces terminations
are less desirable than blocked call
attempts.

 Successful handof access is

intimately tied to the radio technology
of the channel assignment process,
which may be
Dynamic channel assignment (DCA)
Fixed channel assignment (FCA)
Quasi-static autonomous frequency
assignment (QSAFA)

32

 Several channel assignments

strategies have been developed to
reduce the forced termination at the
cost of increasing the number of lost
or blocked calls
The 4 proposed strategies are
Non-prioritized Scheme
Reserved Channel Scheme
Queuing priority scheme
Subrating Scheme

Nonprioritized Scheme
Nonprioritized Scheme
The BS handle a handof call in the
same manner as a new call
The handof call is blocked immediately
if no channel is available
This scheme is employed by most PCS
radio technologies

34

Flowchart for nonprioritized scheme

New or
handoff call
arrival

Channel
available?

no
Call blocked

yes

Channel
assigned

Ongoing
call

Channel
released

35

Reserved Channel Scheme

Similar to the nonprioritized scheme,
except that some channels in each BS
are reserved for handof calls
In other words channels are divided in
two groups
Normal channel: which serve both new calls
and handof calls
Reserved channel: which only serve handof
calls

36

Flowchart for reserved channel scheme

New
call
arrival

no

Normal
channel
available?

Call
blocked

yes
Channel
assigned
yes

Handoff
call
arrival

Normal
channel
available?

Ongoing
call

Channel
released

yes
no

Reserved
channel
available?
no

no

Queuing priority Scheme

Queuing Priority Scheme
Based on the fact that adjacent coverage areas
of BSs overlap
There is a considerable area where a call can be
handled by either BS, which is called the
handoff area
If no new channel is available in the new BS
during handof, the new BS bufers the handof
request in a waiting queue.
The MS continues to use the channel with the
old BS until either a channel in the new BS
becomes available
38

Flowchart for queuing priority scheme

Handoff call
arrival

Channel
available?

yes

Ongoing
call

Channel
assigned

no

New
call
channel
released

Insert the
call into the
waiting queue

Is
a channel
available before
the call
expires
?
no
Call blocked

Channel
released

yes
no

Is
the waiting
queue
empty
?
yes
The channel is idle
39

Subrating Scheme
Subrating Scheme
Creates a new channel on a blocked BS
for a handof access attempt by
subrating an existing call.
Subrating is the process of temporarily
dividing an occupied full-rate channel
into two channels at the half of the
original rate.
One to serve the existing call , one to
serve handof request
40

Flowchart for SRS scheme

yes
Channel
available?

Handoff call
arrival

Channel
assigned

Ongoing
call

no

Channel
available for
subrating
?
New
call
channel
released

no

yes

Is there a
subrated channel pair ?
yes

Call
blocked

Channel
released

Each channel
no
of the subrated
pair is upgraded
to full-rate channels

no

Is
The release
Channel
no subrated
?

Theyes
channel
is idle

yes
The other channel
of the subrated
pair is upgraded

 This chapter described two major issues

for PCS handoff management
Handoff detection
Who initiates the handof process?
How is the need for handof detected?

Channel assignment

Nonpriority Scheme
Reserved Channel Scheme
Queuing Priority Scheme
Subrating scheme
MBPS scheme
42

Handof Management
Radio Link Transfer

Types of Hand of based on

links
There are several alternatives for
classifying link transfer procedures.
There is mainly two type of hand of
based on link transfer
Hard handoff-oriented
Soft handoff-oriented.

Hard Handof
For hard handof, the mobile station
(MS) connects with only one base
station (BS) at a time, and there is
usually some interruption in the
conversation during the link
transition.
Hard handof is typically used in
TDMA and FDMA systems.

Soft Handof
The MS receives /transmits the same
signals from/to multiple BSs
simultaneously.
The network must combine the
signals from the multiple BSs in some
way.
Thus soft handof is more
complicated than hard handof.

Outline
Hard handof for mobile-controlled
handof (MCHO), network-controlled
handof (NCHO), mobile-assisted
handof (MAHO), subrating under
TDMA systems,
Soft handof for MAHO under CDMA
systems or some TDMA systems with
macro diversity.

Link transfer

Two operation must take place for a

successful link transfer
The radio link must be transferred from
the old BS to the new BS
The network must bridge the link to the
new BS into the existing call and drop
the link from the old BS

 Link transfer has been done in two ways

One channel to another channel on the
same BS
From one BS to another BS, which subtends
the same controller or switch.
In these two cases, the network operation is
relatively simple.
Alternatively, the handof can take place
between BSs whose common point is much
higher in the switching hierarchy of the
network, in which case, the network operation
can be expensive, time-consuming, and
difficult.

Link Transfer cases:

Depending on the network elements

involved in handof , the PCS
architecture introduces five distinct
link transfer cases
Intra-cell handoff.
Inter-cell handoff or inter-BS
handoff.
Inter-BSC handoff.
Intersystem handoff or inter-MSC
handoff.
Intersystem handoff between two
PCS networks.

 Intracell handoff.
The link transfer is performed between
two time slots or channels in the same
BS. For a TDMA system, intracell handof
is also referred to as time slot transfer
(TST).

Intercell handoff or inter-BS

handoff.
The link transfer is performed between
two BSs attached to the same base
station controller (BSC);

 Inter-BSC handoff.
The link is transferred between two BSs
connected to diferent BSCs on the same
mobile switching center (MSC);

Intersystem handoff or inter-MSC

handoff.
The link transfer takes place at two BSs
connected to diferent BSCs on diferent
MSCs

Intersystem handoff between two

PCS networks.
The link transfer is between two BSs
connected to diferent MSCs homing to
diferent PCS networks.

Handof efect
Typical holding time for call is : 60
seconds.
0.5 inter-BS handofs,
0.1 inter-BSC handofs, and
0.05 inter-MSC handofs.

Hard Handof
The Hard handof for following
procedures are going to discuss
MCHO
NCHO/MAHO
Subrating protocol

MCHO Link Transfer

In MCHO, when a handof is needed,
a new radio channel is selected by
the MS, and a handof request
message is transmitted by the MS to
the new BS.
The handof can also be initiated by
the network.
It is, however, still the responsibility
of the MS to choose the best BS.

Failure case
In the case of a handof failure, the MS
link-quality maintenance process must
decide what to do next.
There are several possibilities. The MS
may choose to:
Initiate another handof to the "next best"
channel.
Simply stay on the old channel.
Try again later.
Perform some other action appropriate for the
situation.

MCHO

MCHO message flow for inter-BS

handof
Step 1. To initiate handof, the MS
temporarily suspends the voice
conversation by sending a link suspend
message to the old BS.
Step 2. The MS sends a handoff request
message through an idle time slot of the
new BS to the network.
Step 3. The new BS sends a handoff
acknowledgment message and marks the
slot busy. The network may check other
parameters to ensure that it wishes to
complete the handof.

MCHO

 Step 4. Upon receipt of the handof

acknowledgment message from the network,
the MS returns to the old assigned channel
by sending a link resume message to the
old BS.
Step 5. The MS continues voice
communication while the network prepares
for the handof.
Step 6. Upon receipt of a handoff request
message, the new BS checks if it already
controls this call.

If so, it is an intra-BS handof. The BS sends a

handof acknowledgment message and
reconfigures itself to efect the handof.
If it is an inter-BS handof, the new BS acquires the
cipher key from the old BS through the MSC. This
session privacy key is transferred to the privacy
coder associated with the new channel.

MCHO

 Step 7. The MSC inserts a bridge into the

conversation path and bridges in the new BS.
Steps 8 and 10. Finally, the network informs the
MS to execute the handof via both the old and
new BSs by sending the handoff execution
messages, 8 and 10, respectively.
Step 9. The MS releases the old channel by
sending an access release message to the old
BS. Note that messages 8 and 9 are not
exchanged if the old channel fails before the new
channel is established.
Step 11. Once the MS has made the transfer to
the new BS, it sends the network a handoff
complete message through the new channel,
and resumes voice communication. The network
can then remove the bridge from the path and
free up resources associated with the old channel.

MAHO/NCHO Link Transfer

The network protocol for
MCHO/NCHO link transfer is diferent
from that for MCHO

MAHO/NCHO Link Transfer

Step 1. The MS transmits the radio link
measurement report to the old BS. In
GSM, this information is updated every 0.5
seconds.
Step 2. When the old BS determines that a
handof is required, it sends a handoff
required message to the MSC. In terms
of actions on the network side, the handof
is originated by the old BS in MAHO/NCHO,
whereas in MCHO, the handof is initiated
by the new BS.
Step 3. When the MSC receives the
handof required message, it examines the
list of the candidate BSs supplied by the
old BS and selects the highest-ranked BS
with an available channel. Then it sends a

 Steps 4 and 5. When the new BS acknowledges

the request, the MSC sends the handoff command
message with the information regarding the new BS
and the RF channel to the old BS.
Step 6. The old BS sends handoff command
message to the MS to transfer the link to the new
BS.
Step 7. The MS tunes to the new RF channel,
establishes the channel to the new BS, and sends
the handof complete message to the new BS.
Steps 8 and 9. The new BS informs the MSC of the
handof completion by the handoff complete
message. The MSC then clears the link to the old
BS by the clear command message.
Step 10. The handof procedure is complete when
the old BS acknowledges the clear command
message.

Subrating MCHO Link Transfer

The procedure of subrating a full-rate
channel into subrated channels for a
handof request consists of three
parts:
1.Requesting the handof.
2.Subrating an existing call.
3.Assigning the newly created subrated
channel to the MS requesting the
handof.

Subrating procedure

Subrating procedure

Step 1. When MS_handof (the MS requesting the

handof) detects the need for a handof, it
attempts to seize an available traffic channel.
If an idle channel is found, the link transfer
follows the MCHO procedure.
If no traffic channels are available, the MS
synchronizes to a common signaling channel
(CSC) and transmits a priority access request
message.
Step 2. The new BS responds with either a
priority channel assignment message or a
priority access acknowledgment message.
In the former case, the new BS has a nonbusy
channel, which it can immediately make
available to the MS.
In the latter case, the BS does not have an
available channel and is simply acknowledging
the receipt of the request message.
The MS must continue to monitor the CSC for a

Subrating procedure

 Steps 3 and 4. An existing caller, MS_existing,

receives a time slot transfer message
commanding from the BS to perform a time slot
transfer to a subrated channel.
This action frees up a subrated channel for
MS_handof/ This message is acknowledged by
the transmission of the transfer complete
message.
The time slot transfer message is used by the
MS to command an MSC to transfer the time
slot in the same BS.
The new time slot could be a subrated channel
of the currently used full-rate traffic channel.
This same message is sent to return both calls
to full-rate time slots once a traffic channel
becomes available.

Subrating procedure

 Step 5. MS_hanaof is informed of the

newly available subrated traffic channel via
the priority channel assignment
message.
Steps 6 and 7. After receiving it, the MS
synchronizes to the available channel and
transmits a handoff request message,
which will be answered by the handof
complete message. The subrated channels
are switched back to full-rate channels
immediately after some occupied channels
are released, as shown in steps 8-12

 Step 8. When a user, Weaving/ terminates an

existing call or performs its own handof away from
the BS, it transmits an access release message
and releases its channel.
The released channel may be either a full-rate
channel or a subrated channel. Assuming that
the channel is full-rate, the channel is not made
available for access this time.
Instead, two subrated channels are switched
back to full-rate channels, as described in the
next steps.
Steps 9-12. The released full-rate channel is
assigned to either MS_existing or MS_handof
through the timeslot transfer and transfer
complete message exchange; both of these
users now enjoy full-rate transmission.

Soft Handof

Before we discuss soft handof, we first

introduce the code division multiple access
(CDMA) direct sequence spread spectrum
technology.
In this approach, the information-bearing
signal is multiplied with another faster
rate, wider-bandwidth digital signal that
may carry a unique orthogonal code.
This second signal is referred to as a
pseudo-noise sequence (PN sequence). The
mixed signal looks very similar to a noise
signal, but contains the information signal
embedded in its code.
The mixing operation is called
"spreading." To recover the information-

Spreading and despreading

 CDMA allows many users to share a common frequency/

time channel for transmission, and the user signals are
distinguished by spreading them with diferent PN
sequences.
Also, an MS can transmit/ receive the same information
to/from several BSs if they have the same PN sequence.
In other words, in a CDMA-based mobile system, an MS
may simultaneously receive/send the same information
from/to several BSs using multiple radio links.
The signaling and voice information from multiple BSs
are typically combined (or bridged) at the MSC, and the
MSC selects the highest-quality signals from the BSs.
Similarly, voice and signaling information must be sent
from the MSC to multiple BSs, and the MS must combine
the results.

 Thus, within the overlap area of two cells,

an MS can simultaneously connect to both
the old and the new BSs, and the link
transfer procedure is no longer timecritical.
The following subsections describe the
procedures for adding and removing BSs
with MAHO soft handof.
There is two procedures we have to discuss
Adding a new BS
Dropping a BS

Adding a New BS
CDMA BSs transmit pilot signals that assist
MSs to track/ synchronize the BS downlink
signals.
The MSs measure the strength of the pilot
signals of the serving BSs, that is, the old
BS and the surrounding BSs.
If the pilot signal strength of a surrounding
BS-the new BS-exceeds a threshold, then
the link between the MS and the new BS is
established.
The MAHO procedure of adding a new link
to an MS is described in the following
steps.

Adding a New BS

Step 1. The MS sends a pilot strength

measurement message to the old BS,
indicating the new BS to be added.
Steps 2 and 3. The old BS sends a handoff
request message to the MSC. If the MSC
accepts the handof request, it sends a handof
request message to the new BS.
Step 4. The new BS sends a null traffic
message to the MS to prepare the establishment
of the communication link.
Steps 5 and 6. The new BS sends a join
request message to the MSC. The MSC bridges
the connection for the two BSs, so that the
handof can be processed without breaking the
connection.

 Steps 7-10. The new BS sends a handoff

acknowledgment message to the old BS
via the MSC. The old BS instructs the MS to
add a link to the new BS by exchanging
handoff command and handoff
complete messages.
Steps 11-14. The old BS and the MSC
conclude this procedure by exchanging the
required handof information. The quality of
the new link is guaranteed by the exchange
of the pilot measurement request and
the pilot strength measurement
message pair between the MS and the new
BS.

 In soft handof MAHO, the link

between the MS and the old BS may
be of good quality. On the other
hand, in hard handof MAHO, the MS
and the old BS typically
communicate through a failing link.

Dropping a BS
If the signal strength on the link
between a BS and the MS falls below
a predetermined threshold, the MS
requests to remove the BS.
Assume that the old BS is to be
dropped. The MAHO procedure of
dropping an old link from an MS is
described in the following steps.

Dropping a BS

Drooping a BS
Steps 1-3. The MS sends a pilot
strength message to the old BS to
remove the BS with the failing link.
The old BS and the MS exchange the
handoff command message pair to
remove the link.
Steps 4 and 5. The old BS sends the
relevant call record information to
the new BS by exchanging the
interface primary transfer
message pair.

 Steps 6-9. The new BS and the MSC

exchange the handoff information
message pair to indicate the failing link to
be dropped. Then the new BS and the MS
exchange the pilot measurement
message pair to ensure that the
communication between the MS and the
network can be continued after dropping
the failing link to the old BS.
Steps 10 and 11. The MSC and the old BS
exchange the remove link message pair
to remove the bridge between the new
and the old BSs and other resources.