Directed Retry to GSM

Directed Retry to GSM attempts to off-load traffic from the WCDMA RAN to a co-sited GSM RAN. Speech call that has no ongoing packet connection is the only service that is targeted since it is also the only one that is safe to divert to GSM. The decision is triggered by a RAB Assignment Request from the core network. This message contains the information needed to identify the call as a speech-only call. Incoming calls are screened for suitable candidates according to the following criteria: The call is a speech-only call with no ongoing packet connection. The UE can be handed over to GSM. If a call is chosen for Directed Retry to GSM, the request for the speech RAB will be rejected with cause Directed retry and then a request is made to the core network to relocate the UE to a specific GSM cell, using the Inter-RAT handover procedure (Handover). This handover is a blind one since the target cell is chosen not based on UE measurements. Therefore, the target cell must be co-located with the WCDMA cell. Co-located GSM cells are assumed to have similar coverage and accessibility as their respective WCDMA cells. Coverage mismatch near the boundary of the WCDMA RAN (and those due to blind spots in the GSM cell) can sometimes be a problem for blind redirections. A UE returning after failing the access to GSM will be reported to the core network, which would reinitiate the RAB establishment procedure on behalf of the UE. A speech RAB will then be set up for the UE in the WCDMA RAN following the normal call setup procedure. When to begin off-loading and how much traffic to send over to GSM can be configured via two control parameters. They are described in the operation section below. Selective handover (Handover) in a shared-network environment is not currently supported by the Directed Retry to GSM feature. Off-loading to GSM will be attempted as long as a Directed Retry target is defined. There is no guarantee, however, that the UE will be allowed in the target cell.

1. Configuration

Directed Retry to GSM is activated in an RNC by setting the flag loadSharingDirRetryEnabled to TRUE. One GSM target can be defined for each WCDMA cell via the cell parameter directedRetryTarget. Care must be taken to ensure that the correct GSM targets have been defined and that they are indeed co-located with their respective source cells in the WCDMA RAN.

2. Operation

There are two control parameters for this feature: loadSharingGsmThreshold specifies the minimum cell load at which off-loading to GSM begins. Remember that cell load is expressed as the radio of the downlink transmitted power to the admission limit (pwrAdm). This threshold is expressed as a percentage rather than a fraction. A value of 0 means the feature is always on, 100 means it is always off, and 50 means off-loading starts as soon as the cell load rises above 50% of the admission limit. (Note also that there is an idle load in each cell due to the various common channels.) Example: The parameter pwrAdm is expressed as a percentage of the maximumTransmissionPower. In the default setting where maximumTransmissionPower = 370 dBm (5 W) and pwrAdm = 75%, a value of 80% for loadSharingGsmThreshold means off-loading will start when the carrier power of the cell is above 5 W 0.75 0.80, or 3 W. loadSharingGsmFraction specifies the percentage of Directed Retry candidates to be diverted to GSM while the cell load is above the specified load threshold. A value of 0 means no diversion will take place and a value of 100 means all calls qualified for Directed Retry will be diverted.

Both of these parameters are cell-specific so that different values can be chosen to suit the needs of different cells. Note that no call will be diverted from a WCDMA cell unless all of the following criteria are met: 1 The RNC-wide flag loadSharingDirRetryEnabled is set to TRUE. 2 A GSM target has been defined. 3 The parameter loadSharingGsmThreshold is set to a value below 100. 4 The parameter loadSharingGsmFraction is set to a value larger than 0. The preferred way to temporarily turn off Directed Retry in a cell is to set loadSharingGsmFraction to exactly 0. Note also that a WCDMA cell makes the decision to send a call to GSM without knowledge of the load situation in the GSM target cell. Overloading of the target cell can occur. The parameters loadSharingGsmFraction and/or loadSharingGsmThreshold can be used to limit the amount of speech calls going to GSM.

The success rate can be monitored by two counters: pmNoDirRetryAtt gives the total number of Directed Retry attempts. pmNoDirRetrySuccess gives the number of successful attempts. Note that unsuccessful attempts are picked up by the WCDMA RAN if the call returns to the source cell. The call will then be set up according to the normal call-setup procedure. Finally, if inter-system handover from GSM to WCDMA is enabled because of coverage reason, care should be taken to ensure that the parameter MRSL is not set too low. Otherwise, there is a risk of back-and-forth redirections as calls off-loaded to GSM via Directed Retry may return to the WCDMA RAN. Handover from GSM to WCDMA for load reason is generally not recommended if Directed Retry is enabled in the WCDMA RAN. With the introduction of Service-Based Handover to GSM, the responsibility of Directed Retry has changed. How and whether a call can be handed over to GSM is determined from the RANAP Information Element (IE) Service Handover received from the Core Network during call setup. This IE has 3 values: Handover to GSM should , should not , and shall not be performed. It is handled as follow: Shall not Never handed over to GSM. Should not Only when losing coverage. Should Handed over via Service-Base Handover. If Service-Based Handover is not enabled, the call is considered by Directed Retry instead. IE is The call is considered by Directed Retry. missing

Load Based HO
Both the GSM and the Inter-frequency load based HO features aim at offloading speech users from a WCDMA cell when high load is detected. There is no check of the load in the target cell before a HO attempt is triggered, so the load is not balanced between cells with these features, they are intended for offloading. The detection of high load is using the same functionality and checks as admission control, but there is no other change in capacity management. Admission control checks are used to detect high load and then trigger already present speech-only users to offload to another cell/system, but new call attempts are not affected and can still be blocked by admission control as before. The accessibility in a cell can be expected to improve when the cell load is decreased by offloading already present speech users.

1. Detecting high load

Normal admission control checks are used to detect high load in a cell. If the Load based HO feature is ON in a cell, anytime an admission request is evaluated and the load is above the admission limits, a load based HO attempt can be triggered. Any type of normal admission requests such as new call establishments or upswitch attempts for PS interactive connections can trigger the features, but note that there are no triggers without admission requests. A further condition is that the cell is not in DL congested state. Any of the following load conditions apply and can trigger loadbased HO attempts: DL non-HS power + HS-req power > pwrAdm DL code tree load > dlCodeAdm DL RBS HW load > dlHwAdm UL RBS HW load > ulHwAdm ASE DL > aseDlAdm ASE UL > aseUlAdm Iub GBR load in DL > Iub soft-congestion threshold in DL (from W10) Iub GBR load in UL > Iub soft-congestion threshold in UL (from W10) Note that there are no changes to the admission control functionality; it is only used as a trigger for the load based HO features. Note that Iub GBR load monitoring is dependent on the features "Unified ATM/IP Admission control for Iub" and "Pre-emption over Iub".

2. Load based HO to GSM

2.a. Description

This feature will use the Admission control functionality as a way to detect high load in a WCDMA cell. If Admission control detects high load when evaluating an admission request in a cell, this will be used as a trigger for LBHO to GSM for a speech user, if the following conditions are fulfilled: High load detected in the cell by admission control according to above. loadbasedHoSupport is set to True and lbhoType is set to lbho_GSM in the cell. The number of speech users connected in the cell is more than lbhoMinSpeechUsers. This parameter can be set so that a number of speech users are allowed to remain in the cell before the loadbased HO is activated. The cell is not in DL congested state. The timer lbhoMinTriggerTime has expired for previous lbho attempts in the same cell. This timer can be set to slow down the loadbased HO functionality, so that the loadbased HO attempts happen more seldom. Note that one or several speech users can be triggered at each occasion, and this timer then measures the allowed time until the next occasion where one or several users can be triggered.

When the function is triggered by high load in a cell according to above, a number of conditions are checked to evaluate if there are any speech users connected in this cell, which can be triggered to perform a GSM HO attempt. The following conditions must be fulfilled for such a user: CS speech only user, and it is not an Emergency call. Compressed mode and other HO attempts not already ongoing for the user. Service handover IE not equal to "Shall not". fddGsmHoSupport is ON. The connection is not originating from another RNC over Iur. If one or several suitable speech users are present then load triggered HO attempts can be started for these users. At each detection of high load, several speech users that fulfill conditions above can be triggered to start HO attempts simultaneously, the max number defined by the parameter lbhoMaxTriggeredUsers. The timers

lbhoMinTriggerTime and tmStopGsmMeas are then started, a GSM monitored set is created and sent to each UE, and an event 3a measurement is started in the UE. Separate thresholds are used when the 3a measurement is triggered by load, the same as for Service based HO, and the measurement quantity Ec/No is used. The threshold gsmthresh3a is used for the GSM quality, the value 0 is used for the WCDMA quality. If a GSM cell is found then a HO attempt is executed, if no GSM cell is found before the timer tmStopGsmMeas expires then the HO attempt is aborted. Note that when loadbased HO attempts have been started for one or several speech users in a cell, the timer lbhoMinTriggerTime must first expire before new loadbased HO attempts can be started in the same cell. Admission control for the max number of allowed compressed mode users is first performed.

2.b. Configuration and Operation

The feature is activated in a cell by setting loadbasedHoSupport to True, and by setting lbhoType to lbho_GSM. Several different parameters are provided to be able to configure the behavior of the feature. The detection of high load is done in admission control and cannot be configured separately for loadbased HO, but the "aggressiveness" of the function, i.e. how fast or slow that the offloading should be, can be controlled. The parameter lbhoMinSpeechUsers can be set to allow a number of speech users to remain in the cell before the lbho is triggered, or it could be set 0, meaning that all speech users could always be offloaded. The parameter lbhoMaxTriggeredUsers can be set so that several speech users are triggered to do offloading simultaneously for each detection of high load, to speed up the process to reduce the WCDMA cell load. The timer lbhoMinTriggerTime defines the minimum allowed time between the loadbased HO attempts in a cell, and can be set to a larger value than default to slow down the offloading process so that the HO attempts happen more seldom. Default values for these parameters can be used initially, but they should then be tuned by the operator depending on wanted behavior. The total number of compressed mode users in a cell is limited by the parameter compModeAdm, and if many Load based HO attempts are started, the number of coverage triggered HO attempts might be limited. This possible effect should be monitored. The counter pmSumCompMode together with pmSamplesCompMode can be used to monitor the number of radio links in compressed mode per UtranCell before and after the feature is activated. New counters are provided per GSM cell relation, to be able to monitor performance for GSM HO attempts triggered by load. The number of attempts, successes, and failures for different reasons can be monitored in the same way as for normal GSM HO attempts triggered by coverage. Loadbased HO policies between 3G and 2G should be synchronized to avoid ping-pong behavior. The load in the possible GSM target cells should be monitored by the Operator, this feature has no information about the target cell load. If LBHO is activated from WCDMA to GSM in an area, then HO from GSM to WCDMA triggered by load should be disabled in the same area.

Service Based HO
This feature makes it possible to redirect speech users to GSM based on a Service Indicator (SI) that can be used per subscriber. This gives the operator the possibility to prioritize between subscriptions. The operator can even use it in order to "only" use UMTS for other services than speech (e.g. reuse of the existing GSM NW) The main goal of the Service Based HO is to be able to "send" UEs with SI="should" and RAB combination = "Speech only" to GSM as soon as possible. After the RAB has been setup, if the SI = "should" and the RAB combination = "speech only", the RNC sends a MEASUREMENT CONTROL to the UE, with trigger conditions for the existing Inter-RAT Handover functionality, that is GSM neighboring cell list, activation of Compressed Mode, GSM and UTRAN thresholds for event 3a. A high UTRAN threshold value is used as default, so that the UTRAN quality should always be fulfilled, and only the GSM target cell quality level is considered. The SB HO attempt will be stopped by a timer if there are no suitable GSM cells and the event 3a is not triggered within a specific time. The RAB Assignment Request is the first message from the CN that contains the RAB type and the Service Indicator (SI). First there is a check to see if the feature is supported (the corresponding Licence key is active) and if the UE capability supports GSM Handover; if these conditions are not satisfied, the connection is treated as a "normal call". If these requirements are fulfilled, a check is performed to evaluate if GSM Handover is allowed for this RAB (by checking the constant parameter C_gsmHoAllowed) and if Inter-RAT Handover is allowed (by checking the parameter FddGsmHoSupport). The Handover type is also checked: if the HO type is Inter Frequency or GSM preferred, then the user is a candidate for Service Based Handover, otherwise, if the HO type is "NONE", the connection will be treated as a "normal call". Finally the cell is checked to see if it has GSM neighboring cells. If Connection Quality is bad and event 3a or event 2b has started, the connection will be treated as a normal handling; on the other hand, if event 3a or event 2b has not started, the connection will be treated as Service Based Handover connection. Note that when a Service Based Handover connection is ongoing, Softer/Softer handover (that is event 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d) and Connection Quality Monitoring (that is event 2d and 2f) can be normally started, stopped and modified. The MEASUREMENT CONTROL sent to the UE contains: 1. GSM neighboring cell list, as for normal Inter-RAT Handover. 2. Activation of Compressed Mode. 3. Gsm threshold (gsmThresh3a). 4. UTRAN modified threshold (utranThresh3aForcedGsm). Ec/No measurements are always used. At the reception of event 3a, the Execution part of the Inter-RAT Handover takes place.

1. Service Based Handover Execution

Service Based Handover Execution performs the Execution part of the Inter-RAT Handover algorithm ordered by the SBHO Evaluation, when the event 3a is triggered. During the SBHO Execution phase, the Compressed Mode must be allowed by the Admission Control; also a timer is started in order not to let the UE to be in Compressed Mode for too long. The source RNC triggers Service Based Handover Execution if the SBHO function is enabled.

1.a. Interactions with Other Functions

This feature is based on the existing coverage triggered Inter-RAT Handover functionality. If triggered, SB HO will instead be ongoing for a specific time after call setup, until the timer expires or until the SB HO to GSM is done. Inter-Frequency Load-Sharing takes place at RRC connection request, (i.e. before the connection is identified to be a candidate for Service Based Handover). Users can be moved to another frequency due to load sharing and from that frequency make a Service Based Handover to GSM. Load sharing via directed retry to GSM takes place at RAB Assignment Request, (i.e. before the RAB is setup). The existing Load sharing via directed retry to GSM is not modified.

1.b. Actions taken by Service Based Handover Execution

The case is initiated at the end of Service Based Handover Evaluation phase (i.e. when the RNC has checked that the SI is "should" and the RAB combination is "speech only"). After having sent the RAB Assignment Response, the RNC has sent a MEASUREMENT CONTROL, to the UE with the GSM neighboring cell list, activation of Compressed Mode (if needed), GSM (gsmThresh3a) threshold and UTRAN (utranThresh3aForcedGsm) threshold. A timer is started, in order not to let the user to be in Compressed Mode for too long time (if it can't find a suitable GSM cell).

The Execution part of Inter-RAT Handover ordered by Service Based Handover takes place, i.e. event 3a is received. The connection has established a GSM connection, i.e. successful Service Based Handover. The timer is stopped.

1.c. Exception Handling

Before SBHO Execution, if the UERC state changes, i.e. an incoming packet data call takes place (Multi RAB state) or the speech RAB is changed to SRB during Service Based Handover measurements, the timer is stopped. If the Inte-RAT Handover Execution ordered by Service Based Handover fails (e.g. due to GSM capacity problem), the RNC will try, during the timer length, to handover the connection to GSM. If the IRAT HO doesn't succeed during the timer length, the timer expires and the Service Based Handover is stopped. At the expiry of the timer, the Connection Quality is checked: 1. If the Connection Quality is 'good', the Service Based Handover measurements is stopped. The UE hasn't succeeded to find a GSM cell (i.e. Service Based Handover failure) and UTRAN will not ask for a second SBHO for this user. This call will be treated as a "normal call" . This user will be a target for coverage triggered IRAT HO if the connection quality degrades. 2. If the Connection Quality is 'bad', the HO type is checked again due to the fact that the UE can have changed cell. If the HO type is "GSM_PREFERRED" the user will continue in Compressed Mode and the MEASUREMENT CONTROL (containing the thresholds used for coverage triggered IRAT HO measurements) is sent to the UE. (i.e. utranThresh3a is used instead of utranThresh3aForcedGsm). If the HO type is "IFHO_PREFERRED", Compressed Mode is modified for Inter Frequency Handover, i.e. GSM measurements are stop and Inter Frequency Handover measurements are started. If the HO type is "none", Service Based Handover measurements are stopped.

1.d. Engineering Guidelines

Service Based Handover forces UE on dedicated channels using a "speech only" service, to move from WCDMA RAN coverage to GSM network coverage; thus allowing the operator to redirect speech users to GSM using a Service Indicator (SI) that can be set for each subscriber. For service based handover to be initiated in a cell, parameter hoType in the particular cell must be set to GSM_PREFERRED or IFHO_PREFERRED. If parameter hoType is set to NONE, no service based handover to GSM attempt will be initiated. If service based handover to GSM is to be used in all cells, IRAT activity cannot be turned off by setting parameter hoType to NONE. Instead lower IRAT thresholds for event 2d and event 3a must be deployed in the cells to minimize GSM measurements and IRAT HO.