eRAN

AQM
Feature Parameter Description

Issue

01

Date

2010-07-30

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Copyright Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2010. All rights reserved.

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eRAN
AQM

1 Introduction

Contents
1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................1-1
1.1 Scope.............................................................................................................................................................1-1
1.2 Intended Audience.........................................................................................................................................1-1
1.3 Change History..............................................................................................................................................1-1

2 Overview of AQM .....................................................................................................................2-1

3 Technical Description ...............................................................................................................3-1
3.1 Queue Management ......................................................................................................................................3-1
3.2 Packet Discarding..........................................................................................................................................3-2
3.3 Cooperation with TPE...................................................................................................................................3-2

4 Engineering Guidelines............................................................................................................4-1
5 Parameters ...................................................................................................................................5-1
6 Counters .......................................................................................................................................6-1
7 Glossary .......................................................................................................................................7-1
7.1 Terms.............................................................................................................................................................7-1
7.2 Acronyms and Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................7-1

8 Reference Documents ...............................................................................................................8-1

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1 Introduction

Introduction

1.1 Scope
This document describes the Active Queue Management (AQM) feature in terms of key
techniques and engineering guidelines.

1.2 Intended Audience

This document is intended for:
z

Personnel who need to understand AQM

Personnel who work with Huawei products

1.3 Change History

This section provides information on the changes in different document versions.
There are two types of changes, which are defined as follows:
z

Feature change: refers to the change in the AQM feature of a specific product version.

Editorial change: refers to the change in wording or the addition of the information that
was not described in the earlier version.

Document Issue
The document issue is as follows:
z

01 (2010-07-30)

Draft (2010-05-20)

01 (2010-07-30)
Compared with draft (2010-05-20) of eRAN2.0, issue 01 (2010-07-30) of eRAN2.0
incorporates the changes described in the following table.

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1 Introduction

Change Type

Change Description

Parameter Change

Feature change

None.

None.

Editorial change

The mapping between sections and

features is added.

None.

Draft (2010-05-20)
This is the draft.

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AQM

2 Overview of AQM

Overview of AQM

A radio link has a lower bandwidth than a wired link. In addition, the bandwidth occupied by
a radio link fluctuates. Therefore, a large amount of buffer data may congest on the air
interface during downlink data transmission.
At present, most data services use the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The TCP,
however, has its limitations. When multiple TCP connections are simultaneously set up on
one radio bearer, the TCP connections with large data volume occupy a high bandwidth, and
thus the TCP connections with small data volume encounter long transmission delay. In
addition, many packets may arrive at a buffer queue over a short period because of the burst
characteristic of data services. Therefore, if a large amount of buffer data persists when the
queue is filled or nearly filled, data overflow and TCP service disruption may occur because
of data congestion.
AQM is introduced to actively discard packets for the services with large data volume, while
maintaining a high link usage. In this way, the buffer queue can be kept at a proper length.
This relieves queue congestion, reduces the transmission delay of the services (for example,
web browsing) that have a high requirement for interaction, enhances the fairness of
bandwidth allocation among data streams, and thus improves user experience.
AQM has the following advantages:
z

Detects possible congestion in the buffer queue at the earliest and minimizes congestion
by discarding packets

Maintains a relatively short queue so that the data throughput and transmission delay can
be balanced

Avoids global synchronization caused by the simultaneous overflow of multiple data

streams
Multiple TCP senders sharply decrease the send window upon detection of lost packets. Then, the packet
arrival rate declines quickly. In this way, the network is not congested. The TCP senders, however, start
to increase the transmission rate after detecting that the network is not congested, which results in
network congestion again. This problem occurs repeatedly, which is called global synchronization.

Huawei AQM is applicable to non-GBR (GBR is short for guaranteed bit rate) services.
This document describes optional features LOFD-001027 Active Queue Management (AQM)
and TDLOFD-001027 Active Queue Management (AQM). AQM is controlled by the
AqmAlgoSwitch parameter.

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3 Technical Description

Technical Description

LTE AQM is implemented through queue management and packet discarding. When AQM
detects that the length of a queue buffered at the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
layer exceeds a specified threshold, it discards some TCP packets to avoid possible congestion.
In this way, AQM reduces the delay of interactive services and improves the fairness among
data streams.

3.1 Queue Management

AQM discards some packets when the length of the queue exceeds a specified threshold. The
working area of AQM is divided into normal area, congestion avoidance area, and congestion
control area based on the minimum and maximum congestion thresholds. Figure 3-1 shows
the AQM working area, where Max represents the maximum packet discarding rate of a
non-GBR service in the congestion avoidance area.
Figure 3-1 AQM working area

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3 Technical Description

AQM calculates the average queue length and compares it with the minimum and maximum
congestion thresholds. AQM then performs different operations in different conditions:
z

Average queue length Minimum congestion threshold

In the normal area, AQM does not discard any packet because the queue is not
congested.

Minimum congestion threshold < Average queue length < Maximum congestion
threshold
In the congestion avoidance area, AQM discards some packets because the queue is
congested to some extent. The probability of discarding packets increases linearly with
the data amount and average queue length.

Average queue length Maximum congestion threshold

In the congestion control area, AQM discards every newly arriving packet because the
queue is severely congested.

AQM adjusts the congestion thresholds based on the rate of the data stream reported by the
Radio Link Control (RLC) layer. For example, if the rate of the data stream is low, AQM sets
the congestion thresholds to small values because the probability of congestion is high in this
case.
When the rate on the air interface is very high, AQM does not discard packets. If AQM
discards packets in this situation, packets of low-rate services will have little chance to be
transmitted although TCP connections can reach the original rates rapidly after packet
discarding.

3.2 Packet Discarding

AQM can discard packets in the way of head drop or tail drop. In the way of head drop, the
packet at the beginning of the queue is discarded first. In the way of tail drop, the newly
arriving packet is discarded first. The head drop algorithm affects the PDCP header
compression algorithm. Therefore, Huawei eRAN2.0 AQM uses the tail drop algorithm.
To ensure normal data transmission, AQM does not discard special packets such as TCP ACK
packets, IPSec packets, and SYN packets. To ensure normal web browsing and improve user
experience, AQM does not discard the packets from special ports such as TCP ports 80 and
8080.

3.3 Cooperation with TPE

TCP Performance Enhancer (TPE) is a technology that reduces the transmission rates of TCP
connections when AQM decides to discard packets. TPE avoids data retransmissions due to
packet discarding and thus improves transmission performance. The decrease in the TCP
window size may cause an unexpected failure of a TCP connection. For details about TPE, see
the TPE Feature Parameter Description.
Cooperation between AQM and TPE is enabled by selecting the AqmTpeUnitSwitch check
box under the AqmAlgoSwitch parameter.

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4 HEngineering GuidelinesH

Engineering Guidelines

When multiple types of service are carried on one radio bearer, it is recommended that the
AqmAlgoSwitch check box under the AqmAlgoSwitch parameter be selected. The purposes
are to ensure the transmission bandwidth and delay of the data streams with small data
volume and to enhance the fairness of bandwidth allocation among data streams. After the
AqmAlgoSwitch check box under the AqmAlgoSwitch parameter is selected, the packet
discarding mechanism is started upon congestion of the buffer queue. This decreases the
transmission delay of interactive services.
When both the AQM and TPE features are enabled, TPE data transmission rate limitation
rather than AQM packet discarding can be used if the AqmTpeUnitSwitch check box under
the AqmAlgoSwitch parameter is selected. This relieves congestion of the buffer queue.

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5 Parameters

Parameters

This chapter describes all the parameters presented in this document.

For the description of each parameter, see Table 5-1. For the default value, value ranges, and MML commands of
each parameter, see Table 5-2.
Table 5-1 Parameter description (1)
MO

Parameter ID

Description

CellAlgoSwitch

AqmAlgoSwitch

AqmAlgoSwitch: Indicates the switch that is used to enable and

disable the AQM algorithm. When this switch is set to ON, the AQM
function is enabled. In this case, service-based flow control is
performed on the basis of cell resource usage, to improve fairness
between streams in terms of bandwidth usage. When this switch is set
to OFF, the AQM function is disabled. AqmTpeUnitSwitch:
Indicates the switch that is used to enable and disable the TPE/AQM
joint algorithm. When this switch is set to ON, the TPE/AQM joint
algorithm is enabled. In this case, flow control is performed on TCP
services on the basis of cell resource usage, to improve fairness
between streams in terms of bandwidth usage. When this switch is set
to OFF, the TPE/AQM joint algorithm is disabled.

Table 5-2 Parameter description (2)

MO

Parameter
ID

Default
Value

GUI Value Range

Actual Value Range

Unit

MML
Command

CellAlg
oSwitch

AqmAlgoSw
itch

AqmAlg
oSwitch:
Off,
AqmTpe
UnitSwit
ch:Off

AqmAlgoSwitch,
AqmTpeUnitSwitch

AqmAlgoSwitch,
AqmTpeUnitSwitch

None

MOD
CELLALGOS
WITCH

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6 Counters

Counters

For details about the counters related to AQM, see the eNodeB Performance Counter
Reference.

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7 Glossary

Glossary

7.1 Terms
None.

7.2 Acronyms and Abbreviations

AQM

Active Queue Management

IPSec

IP Security

PDCP

Packet Data Convergence Protocol

RLC

Radio Link Control

TCP

Transmission Control Protocol

TPE

TCP Performance Enhancer

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8 Reference Documents

Reference Documents

This chapter lists the reference documents related to AQM.

[1] eNodeB Performance Counter Reference
[2] eNodeB MO Reference

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