A WCDMA-to-GSM cell transition (reselection / handover / change) is useful at th e edge of an WCDMA coverage area, for service continuity.

Inter-RAT is also useful for extending WCDMA coverage indoors; such coverage is not yet readily available 3G to 2G transitions can happen in the following scenarios: Leaving contiguous WCDMA coverage, i.e., the border areas of WCDMA and GSM cover age Lack of indoor coverage within WCDMA network, i.e., less coverage depth when com pared to that of GSM Load balance between WCDMA and GSM Insufficient WCDMA coverage/capacity 2G to 3G is not considered as critical as 3G to 2G. 2G coverage is considered to be ubiquitous. 2G to 3G transitions are mainly beneficial in the PS domain, due to the better dat a throughput possible with 3G technology. Inter-RAT is not a way to fix Pilot Pollution or coverage hole problems within a WCDMA network.

Tool Box (Inter System Related) Identify the cells serving the locations where issues are reported. Verify that these cells are radiating and there are no hardware faults/alarm rep orts. Monitor the Network Performance Counters and look at the following statistics: RAU/ LAU Failure Rate on WCDMA border cells IRAT Handover Failure Rate Low Call Setup Success Rate on WCDMA border cells High Call Drop Rate on WCDMA border cells Ratio of RRC Connection Request due to Inter-RAT reselection /Total RRC Connection Request Compressed Mode Success Rate If these statistics are all normal: Collect UE and scanner logs around the problem areas. Also enable network IMSI/RNTI traces to debug problem. Post-process UE and Scanner logs to debug issues. Recommend and implement solutions to address the issues.

Impact of RF Issues on Inter-RAT Performance Inter-RAT performance is aggravated by unresolved RF issues. Non-optimized RF environments often cause Neighbor List issues, resulting in wro ng or missing target cell. Overshooting cells may provide incorrect information on location. Event 2d could be triggered (not intended) due to bad RF in non-boundary areas. Frequent changes in Active Set cause delay of inter-system reselections and hand overs. Large number of MRMs. RNCs typically favor intra-frequency handover processing over inter-RAT processi ng. Unnecessary activation of Compressed Mode Late trigger of Event e1a (missing strong neighbor) could unnecessarily trigger

Event 2d, leading to Compressed Mode activation. Absence of a clear boundary (single W to single G) increases ping-pong, which ha s detrimental effects on UE battery life and user experience. Some operators resort to Inter-RAT as a means of fixing Pilot pollution and cove rage holes in WCDMA network. RF issues should be resolved through RF optimization, not through parameter /NL tuning. Common Issues During IRAT Transition 3G <--> 2G reselection ping-pong in WCDMA border area Non-optimized IRAT cell reselection parameters Non-clean IRAT RF boundary UE lost service before W2G cell reselection Non-optimized W2G cell reselection parameters UE camping on overshooting 3G Cell, which does not have proper GSM Neighbor List in intended area Call Drop before / during Compressed Mode (CM) Non-optimized IRAT parameter settings Too-late CM activation Low Ec/No or RSCP causes high Block Error Rate (BLER) Too-late Event3a trigger CM was activated, but Event3a triggered too late Call Drop due to WCDMA Neighbor List problems Missing WCDMA neighbors, unnecessary CM activation Call Drop due to UL/DL Link imbalance Poor Uplink leads to UE maximum power while Downlink BLER is good UL Interference Different CPICH powers for different cells Call Drop due to fast variation & degradation of Ec/No during outdoor / indoor t ransition Frequent activation and deactivation of Compressed Mode. UE does not have enough time in Compressed Mode to trigger Event3A. Call Drop due to 2G Neighbor List problems If the BSIC of the GSM cell in Neighbor Cell List sent to UE does not match OTA BSIC, then the UE would not trigger Event3A for that GSM cell even though it may be the dominant 2G server for that area. Call Drop in edge of coverage Ec/No degrades very slowly in unloaded network and no RSCP-based CM trigger sett ing. Call Drop due to HOfromUTRANcommand to the wrong GSM cell Resulting in Call drop in GSM after successful GSM (blind) Handover Index Replacement problem in R99 is fixed in R5. Allows correct GSM cell identif ication Recommended Solutions to Address IRAT Issues 3G <--> 2G reselection ping-pong Verify the following IRAT cell reselection parameters: Qrxlevmin, Qqualmin, Ssea rchRAT, Treselection, and FDD_Qmin. Ensure a clean IRAT RF boundary. UE Lost Service before W2G cell reselection Verify W2G Cell reselection parameters.

Verify whether the UE camped on an Overshooting 3G Cell, which does not have pro per GSM Neighbor List in test area. RF optimization is the best way to solve an o vershooting cell. For IRAT Handover/ CCO Failure, verify the following: Are system parameters for Events e2d/e2f and e3a set properly? Were e2d/e3a events triggered in time? DL/UL BLER, and UE Tx power was not too high. Are correct GSM cells included in the NL? Did the UE report the expected GSM cell in e3a? Was the IRAT preparation phase successful? Target GSM cell was not blocked/congested and resources were allocated. Did the UE receive the HO from URTAN command for the correct GSM cell? IRAT execution phase was successful. Did the UE acquire the target GSM cell? GSM cell coverage was not very poor/did not have high interference. Did the UE come back to the old WCDMA cell if it could not acquire the GSM cell? Low call success rate (system accessibility) in known WCDMA border area: Verify Qrxlevmin, Qqualmin, Sintrasearch, and SsearchRAT parameters. High call drop rate in WCDMA border area: Verify CM parameters. High ratio of RRC Connection Requests due to Inter-RAT reselection / total numbe r of RRC Connection Requests: Verify Qrxlevmin, Qqualmin, Sintrasearch, SsearchRAT, FDD_Qmin, FDD_Qoffset, and FDD_RSCPmin parameters. Low Compressed Mode success rate: Verify GSM Neighbor List and CM parameters. Large number of Compressed Mode activations within WCDMA polygon: Verify WCDMA Neighbor List and CM parameters. Determine if there is a WCDMA coverage hole in test area.

Parameters ... 3G: UTRA Idle, Cell_FACH, Cell_PCH / URA_PCH states UE initiated 2G: GSM Idle Mode UE initiated 2.5G: GPRS Packet Idle and Packet Transfer Modes UE initiated Possibly network directed in Packet Transfer Mode, depending on the Network_Cont rol_Order

The UE wakes up to monitor for potential incoming pages, according to its DRX cy cle. If no paging is detected, the UE performs intra-frequency, inter-frequency, or inter-system reselection measurements. All types of reselections follow a si milar process, but the parameters involved are different. UTRAN sets the inter-RAT cell reselection parameters in: SIB3 (Idle Mode) / SIB4 (Connected Mode) SIB3/SIB4 convey the triggering conditi on for inter-RAT measurements, in addition to other cell reselection parameters. SIB11 (Idle Mode) / SIB12 (Connected Mode) SIB11/SIB12 convey the inter-RAT (GSM /GPRS) neighbors and related parameters (BSIC, ARFCN, required minimum RSSI).

The UE shall measure the signal level of each GSM neighbor cell indicated in the measurement control system information of the serving cell, according to the me asurement rules defined in TS25.304, at least every TmeasureGSM. The UE shall ma intain a running average of 4 measurements for each cell. The measurement samples for each cell shall as far as possible be uniformly dist ributed over the averaging period. The UE shall attempt to verify the BSIC for each of the 4 best ranked GSM BCCH c arriers , if GSM cells are measured according to the measurement rules.

3GPP 3GPP 3GPP 3GPP

25.331 25.331 25.331 25.331

14.2.1.4 (Event 2d), 14.2.1.6 (Event 2f). 14.1.2.5 (Event 1e) and 14.1.2.6 (Event 1f). 14.3.1.1 (Event 3a). 14.2.1.4.

3GPP 25.331 14.2.1.4 (Event 2d), (Event 2f). 3GPP 25.331 (Event 1e) and (Event 1f). 3GPP 25.331 (Event 3a). 3GPP 25.331 14.2.1.4 ,14.2.1.6 ,14.1.2.5 , 14.1.2.6 ,14.3.1.1