CA FAQs

Q&A

• What parameter settings will allow to get to 80 or 90%

activation rate
• Some Sites are already reaching activation rates of 80-90%
• Activation rate of 80-90% on all sites may not be possible
because
• Not all Configured UEs on the sites may have enough data to be
transferred on Scell
• Prohibit Timer should not be running
• DL SINR/UE Rep CQI for the Scell may be below the threshold
triggering deactivation and impacting the Activation rate counter
Q&A - 2
• The limit on the SINR value for best scheduling rate.
• What risk for going to SINR of -4 or lower
• Pros:
• Lowering the SINR threshold will let the configured UEs, experiencing
small scale fading, to no deactivate, making Activations more robust.
• The lower the value more the activations, lesser the deactivations.
• Cons:
• DL Thrpt is impacted by the SINR of both the Pcell and the Scell
• If the CQI on the Scell is consistently low it could impact:
• Overall CA performance (higher DL CA Vol w/o DL Thrpt improvement)
• Resource utilization
Q&A - 3

• While Act/ DeAct Timer is running, there are a number of CQI samples
coming. How are They used to together to make a decision?
• If the SINR of Scell goes below the Threshold, the activation/deactivation timer is
run
• At the end of Activation/Deactivation timer, if the SINR is again below the
threshold, Scell is Deactivated.
Q&A - 4
Q. Does the Scheduler combine the UE Rep CQI for both the PCell and SCell when determining the DL Thrpt for CA? Or does it look
at both bands separately in deciding the DL Thrpt per CA band?

• It looks at CQI from each band separately.

• The CQI plays a role is determine the RF component of PF low algorithm for each Pcell cell and Scell and that’s how the scheduler
determines the scheduling priority for the UE on the Cell.
• In L14A the scheduler will try to give same throughput to 2 UEs regardless they are CA or not CA.
• Yes if the CA UE has better CQI it will get higher weight.
• For PF in L14A the aggregated rate from all CC is used so CA UE will not have any throughput advantage.
• That’s why they added in L14B the CaRateAdjustCoeff to give advantage to CA UE in the PF algorithm,
Q&A - 5
Q. Does the ProhibitTimer trigger as soon as CA is activate and scheduled on a site? E.g Regardless of the deactivation settings the
timer would have to expire.
• The prohibit timer starts after activation or deactivation of the Scell in the MAC Control element, so if the Scell is deactivated or
activated the prohibit timer starts (see below).

• Scell activation flow:

Q&A - 6
Q. Does ProhibitTimer also trigger once a deactivation threshold is met:
• Yes prohibit timer is triggered at S ell activation and deactivation
• Scell Deactivation flow:

• If the SINR of Scell goes below the Threshold ProhibitTimer is run. At the end of
Activation/Deactivation timer, if the SINR is again below the threshold, Scell is Deactivated.

• In the flow above you can see only when SINR is below threshold and Prohibit timer is not
running then we deactivate the SCell so we have to wait until prohibit timer is expired and SINR
is still below threshold then we deactivate the SCell.
Q&A - 7
Q. How is the SCell CQI threshold falling below the Threshold calculated – e.g one sample below SinrThres or is it averaged

• It is not based on single sample, but based on filtered GINR, i.e. averaged over period of time. The algorithm also takes into
account the link adaption and outer loop adjustment for ACK\NACK ratio of HARQ to determine the CQI reported form the UE is
correct and UE can be scheduled for higher MCS