Feature Description for LTE Mobility Load

Balancing

Organization Nokia SON

Version 14
Date Dec 14, 2015

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Contents
1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 3
1.1 Eden-NET Release Information ............................................................................... 3
1.2 Audience ................................................................................................................. 3
2 Background ............................................................................................................. 5
3 Dependencies and Interactions ............................................................................... 6
3.1 Dependencies ......................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Interactions .............................................................................................................. 6
4 Module Functional Description................................................................................. 7
4.1 Module Reporting .................................................................................................... 7
4.2 CM and PM Inputs for LTE Load Balancing ............................................................. 8
4.3 Supported Vendors and Technologies ..................................................................... 8
4.4 Running the LTE Load Balancing Module ................................................................ 8
Module Configuration Parameters (user accessible, graphical interface) ................. 9
Module Configuration Parameters (Configuration File, Export settings) ................... 11
4.5 LTE Load Balancing Flow Chart .............................................................................. 14
5 System Delay .......................................................................................................... 16
6 Module Outputs ....................................................................................................... 21
6.1 Action Performed ..................................................................................................... 21
6.2 Offset Data .............................................................................................................. 21
6.3 KPI Data .................................................................................................................. 23

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1 Introduction
This document contains the functional description and high level requirements for the Eden-NET
LTE Mobility Load Balancing (MLB) module.
It should be noted that additional implementation level requirements may be identified by developers
implementing the module.

1.1 Eden-NET Release Information

The version of module described in this document is planned as part of the Eden-NET 15 SP2
release.

1.2 Audience

This document is intended for the use of the following audience(s):

1. Operators using the Eden-NET LTE Load Balancing module

This document provides a reference describing the module that may be reviewed by operators
and other customers that plan to use this tool.
Please note that the information contained in this document is confidential and proprietary to
Eden Rock Communications and is generally only shared outside of Eden Rock under the terms
of a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA), Proprietary Information Agreement (PIA) or similar
agreement.

1. Developers implementing the Eden-NET LTE Load Balancing module

This document provides the requirements that feed into the development of the module

1. Testers developing test cases and testing the Eden-NET LTE Load Balancing module

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 The requirements in this document directly feed into the test cases that are developed for testing
the functionality of the module.

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2 Background
The Eden-NET LTE Load Balancing module detects cells that are exhibiting signs of high utilization
when compared to neighbor cells. The module redistributes traffic through the use of idle mode
reselection parameters and dedicated mode offset parameters to up to five immediate intra-
frequency neighbor cells.
The module monitors the impacted cells to ensure that the parameter changes do not negatively
impact those cells. When the high utilization has abated, the module reverts the parameter settings
to their default, long-term, settings.
Reports detailing network changes taken by the module can be automatically sent to the relevant RF
engineers.

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3 Dependencies and Interactions
3.1 Dependencies

The LTE MLB module is adjusting CIO and reselection offsets according to the mobility flows,
utilization, buffer delay, and performance.
The module target cell selection inputs are based on handovers, so it is necessary to have clean
neighbor lists or the module may select non-optimal target cells for traffic mitigation.

3.2 Interactions

The LTE MLB module needs to have clean coverage delimitation so it is recommended to run the
LTE CCO before working on CIO offsets or optimizing the mobility performance (LTE MRO).

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4 Module Functional Description
The LTE load balancing module detects cells within the LTE network that exceed the loading
threshold triggers for admission control access failures, physical resource block utilization, and
buffer delay. When congested cells are detected, the module attempts to reduce congestion by
moving idle mode users on the congested cell edges and dedicated users on the congested cell to
neighbor cells. The LTE loadbalancing will only operate on cell where enough average active users
are present.
The LTE load balancing module does this through:
- Making adjustments to neighbor cell offset parameters used in both dedicated and idle mode.
- Making adjustments to handover thresholds.
The module examines the loading on neighbor cells and attempts to distribute load among the top 5
target neighbor cells in order to reduce source cell congestion. Every 15 minute PM reporting period,
the module retrieves the load on the source and neighbor cells and adjusts individual offsets per
neighbor pair to allow priority selection in UE offload to these neighbor cells. The cell with the lowest
load can be assigned the highest priority and the cell with the highest load is assigned the lowest
priority.
The module monitors the handover success rate for each handover pair to ensure that the most
suitable neighbors are selected as target cells for sharing the excess load on the source cell. The
module ensures that corrective actions do not cause the neighbors cells themselves to become
congested.
The module continually monitors the load of the neighbor cells to ensure that the UE offloading
(particularly for dedicated mode UEs) does not cause the target neighbor cells to become
congested. If this occurs, other neighbor cells will be made more attractive (through offset
adjustments), so offloading decreases to the loaded target cell.
Once loading consistently decreases the module returns all parameters to operator defined settings.
Section 3.6 provides the LTE Load balancing flow chart for the above description.

4.1 Module Reporting

In open and closed loop modes the module provides the following reports at each iteration of the
module:

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- All cells that exceed the load thresholds, together with the cause of the cell load trigger -
accessibility or cell loading or both.
- The congested cells top 5 neighbor target cells with their offset priorities as well as their
respective cell loading metrics.
- PM metrics that provide accessibility, retainability and cell loading measurements per cell which
is being acted on by the load balancing algorithm.
The report is in the form of an Excel spreadsheet.
In addition to the module reports, the Eden-NET framework logs module activity. These logs may be
retrieved and reviewed by the module user.

4.2 CM and PM Inputs for LTE Load Balancing

The LTE Load Balancing module requires the intra frequency neighbor list configuration for each of
the target cells in the network. This data is read via the OSS interfaces.
The configuration information (e.g., lat/long, neighbor lists, etc.) used by the module shall be read
from the Eden-NET CM cache in order to minimize accesses to OSS. The Eden-NET framework
automatically determines if the parameter data should be read from the radio access network, based
on timeout parameters for the cache.
The LTE Load Balancing module requires cell load and accessibility PM data. In particular, the
module retrieves blocking metrics including call establishment success rates, and cell loading
metrics including PRB utilization, scheduler buffer delay, and average connected UEs.

4.3 Supported Vendors and Technologies

This module shall provide load optimization for all LTE RAN Vendors that are supported by Eden-
NET. This includes but is not to be limited to Ericsson 4G and NSN 4G.

4.4 Running the LTE Load Balancing Module

The module shall be launched by users using the standard Eden-NET interface. Target cells shall be
selected by the user. Eden-NET restricts module to making changes to only those target cells
selected by the user. Note that a module may retrieve configuration and performance information for
other cells in the network that are not on the target list. For many modules, this information may be
required by the modules core algorithms.

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The module run mode may be one time or continuous. For continuous operation, the module shall
re-evaluate the load triggers every performance measurement period - e.g. 15min.
The reports are stored within the Eden-NET framework. When the module is run in open loop, the
reports are created after the overloaded cells have been determined. When the module is run in
closed loop, the reports are created after the module has validated whether or not the changes
pushed to the network were successful.
The module shall support open loop and closed loop modes of operation.
Multiple instances of the module, each with its own target cell list are permitted.

Module Configuration Parameters (user accessible, graphical interface)

Parameter Name Parameter Description Default Range Step

Value (min,
max)

PRB threshold This parameter allows the user to 80 0..100 1

define a trigger threshold for setting
of PRB occupancy over a
measurement period.

Buffer Delay QC1 This parameter defines the 30 10..100 10

maximum amount of time data
scheduled for a user is allowed to be
delayed within the eNB. As the eNB
loads per cell the delays for
transmission of data will increase
and eventual exceed this threshold
indicating overload.

Buffer Delay Non GBR This parameter defines the 300 100..1000 50
maximum amount of time data
scheduled for a user is allowed to be
delayed within the eNB. As the eNB
loads per cell the delays for
transmission of data will increase
and eventual exceed this threshold
indicating overload.

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Parameter Name Parameter Description Default Range Step
Value (min,
max)

Userdefined_L_RAC This parameter allows the user to 5 0..100 1

(LACHysteresis / RACHysteresis)
define a threshold for the percentage
of blocking due to Load and
Admission Control before load
balancing is activated.This
parameter sets the threshold for the
increase in eNB resource failure on
the target cell before the algorithm
attempts to reduce the offsets
applied.

Userdefined_Erab This parameter allows the user to set 5 0..100 1

a threshold for ERAB failures due
eNB resource blocking before load
balancing is activated

Userdefined_Time_No_Res This parameter allows the users to 5 0..100 1

set a percentage of time threshold
for blocking due to lack of eNodeB
resources over the measurement
period, before load balancing is
activated.

HOHysteresis This parameter sets the threshold for 10 0..100 1

the increase in HO failure rate
between the target and source cell
before the algorithm attempts to
reduce the offsets applied.

ERABHysteresis This parameter sets the threshold for 10 0..100 1

the increase in drop rate for the
target cell before the algorithm
attempts to reduce the offsets
applied.

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Parameter Name Parameter Description Default Range Step
Value (min,
max)

SNRThreshold This parameter allows the user to set 10 0..100 1

a threshold to allow high levels of
interference for a percentage of all
SINR measurements before
reducing the cell weighting for all
neighbor cells.

RedOffset Value that sets the amount by which 1 0..2 1

the CIO offsets can be decreased.

IncOffset Value that sets the amount by which 1 0..2 1

the CIO offsets can be increased.

Maintenance_Window_Start_Time Start time 0 - 23 hours 22 0..23 1

Maintenance_Window_End_Time End time 0 - 23 hours 8 0..23 1

Allowed non-congestion times for Consecutive times of non-congestion 3 0..10 1

reducing offsets till which offsets can be reduced

SON Operation Mode Set to "Open Loop" to run module in Open Open
open loop mode. Set to "Closed Loop Loop,
Loop" to run module in closed loop Close
mode. In Open Loop mode, module Loop
cannot push parameter changes to
network elements.

Module Configuration Parameters (Configuration File, Export settings)

For reference purpose, the parameters available through the configuration file are listed in appendix
B. These parameters are set by Nokia's engineers.

[Global] Comments

Low_Users = 5 The minimum required average active users for the

module to trigger a cell for mitigation

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Buffer_Slope = 2 Model factor for penalizing utilization calculation for cells
with high latency

Buffer_Weight = 30 Model factor for penalizing utilization calculation for cells

with high latency

Loading_Threshold = 20 Overhead capacity required over the source cells for

qualifying target cells for mitigation

Reduce_Congested_Target_Offset = 2 Offset reduction when a target cell goes triggers high

utilization

Hourly_kpi_interval_hrs = 24 Aggregation window for handover traffic kpis

Quarterly_kpi_periods = 3 Number of kpi periods to scan back for valid and

complete data before starting algorithm run

[Cell Data]

White_listed_cells = , For testing purposes only. For the cluster selected, only
the white listed cells are allowed to enter mitigation

[Target Neighbor Offloading - Dedicated Specify the changes of offset for the 5 targets, the first
Mode (S->T, T->S)] value being the offset from source to cell and the second
value being the offset for the reverse flow target to
source.

Target1 = 2, -2 Lowest load

Target2 = 2, -2

Target3 = 3, -3

Target4 = 3, -3

Target5 = 4, -4 Highest load

Threshold_Increment = 6 sMeasure offset

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[Target Neighbor Offloading - Idle Mode Specify the changes of offset for the 5 targets, the first
(S->T, T->S)] value being the offset from source to cell and the second
value being the offset for the reverse flow target to
source.

Target1 = 2, -2 Lowest load

Target2 = 2, -2

Target3 = 3, -3

Target4 = 3, -3

Target5 = 4, -4 Highest load

Threshold_Increment = 10 sIntraSearch offset

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4.5 LTE Load Balancing Flow Chart

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5 System Delay
In consideration of PM File Delay and System Feedback Cycle Length, the module should not make
a response action if the current available PM Period is not older than the last OSS Push Time. This
means the system will take steps at least every 3 PM file periods for 15 mins data. See diagram
below:

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6 Module Outputs
6.1 Action Performed

Timestam Source Action_performe Reason-congestion Reason- Reason

p d performance -Uplink-
-degradation Noisy

8/17/2015 LBQ04820B3 Overloaded Congestion Detected:

10:15 1 Cell/Pushing %_DL_PRB_Util=85.497199059
offset 9. Greater than 80

8/17/2015 LBQ04820B3 No degradation Congestion Detected:

12:15 1 or noisy %_DL_PRB_Util=96.706579775.
uplink/Increasing Greater than 80
offset

8/17/2015 LBQ04820B3 No degradation Congestion Detected:

14:15 1 or noisy %_DL_PRB_Util=84.258996442
uplink/Increasing 4. Greater than 80
offset

8/17/2015 LBQ04820B3 No degradation Congestion Detected:

20:15 1 or noisy %_DL_PRB_Util=84.698447184
uplink/Increasing 6. Greater than 80
offset

6.2 Offset Data

Time Relatio Source Cell 1 Cell 2 Offset name Offse Action

n Type t Performe
value d

8/17/201 Source LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBK04040C cellIndividualOffsetEUtr 1 new

5 10:18 - NR_1 31 31 11 an offset
applied
(S->T)

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8/17/201 NR_1 - LBQ04820B LBK04040C LBQ04820B cellIndividualOffsetEUtr -1 new
5 10:19 Source 31 11 31 an offset
applied
(T->S)

8/17/201 Source LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBK04040C qOffsetCellEUtran 1 new

5 10:19 - NR_1 31 31 11 offset
applied
(S->T)

8/17/201 NR_1 - LBQ04820B LBK04040C LBQ04820B qOffsetCellEUtran -1 new

5 10:19 Source 31 11 31 offset
applied
(T->S)

8/17/201 Source LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBQ04820B cellIndividualOffsetEUtr 1 new

5 10:19 - NR_2 31 31 11 an offset
applied
(S->T)

8/17/201 NR_2 - LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBQ04820B cellIndividualOffsetEUtr -1 new

5 10:19 Source 31 11 31 an offset
applied
(T->S)

8/17/201 Source LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBQ04820B qOffsetCellEUtran 1 new

5 10:19 - NR_2 31 31 11 offset
applied
(S->T)

8/17/201 NR_2 - LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBQ04820B qOffsetCellEUtran -1 new

5 10:19 Source 31 11 31 offset
applied
(T->S)

8/17/201 Source LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBQ04820B cellIndividualOffsetEUtr 1 new

5 10:19 - NR_3 31 31 21 an offset
applied
(S->T)

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8/17/201 NR_3 - LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBQ04820B cellIndividualOffsetEUtr -2 new
5 10:19 Source 31 21 31 an offset
applied
(T->S)

8/17/201 Source LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBK04040C cellIndividualOffsetEUtr 2 Increase

5 12:15 - NR_1 31 31 11 an d Offset
(S->T)

8/17/201 NR_1 - LBQ04820B LBK04040C LBQ04820B cellIndividualOffsetEUtr -2 Decrease

5 12:15 Source 31 11 31 an d Offset
(T->S)

8/17/201 Source LBQ04820B LBQ04820B LBK04040C qOffsetCellEUtran 2 Increase

5 12:15 - NR_1 31 31 11 d Offset
(S->T)

8/17/201 NR_1 - LBQ04820B LBK04040C LBQ04820B qOffsetCellEUtran -2 Decrease

5 12:15 Source 31 11 31 d Offset
(T->S)

6.3 KPI Data

Timesta Cell Cell %_DL_PR Avg_Lat_ Avg_Lat_All Avg_Act_ DL_Traffic %_B_PUSCH

mp Type B_Util QC1 _QCI User _Vol _SNR

12/31/2 Sour LCH3202 89.2 18 463 28.66 10385257 18.46838818

014 ce 9A11 696
14:50

12/31/2 nr-1 LCH2282 76.8 15 191 10.5 41752943 16.17648273

014 6B21 68
14:50

12/31/2 nr-2 LCH3202 63.9 18 173 9.16 53223200 9.00862671

014 9A21 88
14:50

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12/31/2 nr-3 LCH2070 64.5 23 167 5.08 42453023 13.99109283
014 0B31 36
14:50

12/31/2 nr-4 LCH1209 80.0 19 144 16.26 98864343 20.00402641

014 9A21 60
14:50

12/31/2 nr-5 LCH1209 42.9 17 64 9.27 41799716 8.20935475

014 8A31 24
14:50

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