Internal Use Only

Concentric Cell
Technology
Huawei
RNO Service Team

www.huawei.com

Contents
Contents
Concentric Cell Concept
Concentric Cell Advantages
Concentric Cell Types
Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment
Co-BCCH Cell Handover

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Concentric Cell Concept

Concentric Cell Technology is used to divide the service area into
two parts; overlaid and underlaid
The underlaid sub cell covers the traditional cells and the overlaid
sub cell covers the areas near the base station, so the target for
the overlaid sub cell is to absorb more traffic while the underlaid
sub cell is to perform necessary coverage
The Co-BCCH (Common-BCCH) cell refers to the cell where both the
GSM900 and DCS1800 TRXs exist together
As the underlaid and overlaid sub cells share the BCCH carrier, so it
must be sent on the underlaid sub cell

Overlaid
sub cell
Underlaid
sub cell
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Concentric Cell Concept

Co-BCCH

Structure
Co-BCCH

Co-Site

MSC

MSC

BSC

BSC

900/ 1800
BTS

900/ 1800
BTS

GSM900M cell
900
M

900
M

TRX

TRX

BCCH
SDCCH
TCH,TCH

GSM900M/DCS1800M cell

DCS1800M cell
1800
M

1800
M

900
M

900
M

1800
M

1800
M

TRX

TRX

TRX

TRX

TRX

TRX

BCCH
SDCCH
TCH,TCH

Only one BCCH

BCCH/SDCCH
must be in underlaid
cell

BCCH
SDCCH
TCH,TCH
TCH,TCH

Concentric Cell Concept

Co-BCCH Coverage
Co-Site

Co-BCCH

GSM900 BCCH
SDCCH/TCH

GSM900 BCCH
SDCCH/TCH

GSM1800 BCCH
SDCCH/TCH

DCS1800 TCH

GSM900 subcell
SDCCH

TCH

DCS1800 cell

SDCCH

TCH

SDCCH

GSM 900 cell

TCH
DCS1800 subcell

Concentric Cell Concept

In different networks around the world, we usually

use the GSM as the underlaid sub cell while the
DCS is the overlaid sub cell except in some special
cases, we use the opposite when GSM has strong
external interference and DCS has continuous
coverage and this situation mainly happened at
the city.

Contents
Contents
Concentric Cell Concept
Concentric Cell Advantages
Concentric Cell Types
Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment
Co-BCCH Cell Handover

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Concentric Cell Advantages

Advantages
1) Enhancement for the network capacity.
2) Improving network quality by minimizing interference.
3) Reduce the cell reselection and system signaling load.
4) Decrease the handover occurrences.
5) Reduce no. of neighbors in the network.
6) Easy maintenance.

Concentric Cell Advantages

Capacity enhancement example
S 4/4/4 Co-BCCH

S 2/2/2 900 and S 2/2/2 1800

Networking

BCCH

Mode

Numbe Numbe Numbe n Rate

Volum

28

Common dual-

SDCCH TCH

Congestio Traffic

2%

band network
Dual band
network in coBCCH cells

16.40
ERL

29

2%

21.04
ERL

Concentric Cell Advantages

Network Quality
improvement
There is a large buffer area between two
DCS1800M sub cells.
so: the DCS1800M frequency can be reused with
more aggressive reuse pattern

DCS1800
DCS1800
GSM900

10

GSM900

Contents
Contents
Concentric Cell Concept
Concentric Cell Advantages
Concentric Cell Types
Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment
Co-BCCH Cell Handover

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Concentric Cell Types

Normal concentric cell

Enhanced concentric cell

The advantage is that it can reduce the blind HO from

overlaid to underlaid and the corresponding ping-pong HO.

12

Contents
Contents
Concentric Cell Concept
Concentric Cell Advantages
Concentric Cell Types
Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment
Co-BCCH Cell Handover

www.huawei.com
13

Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment

The target of concentric cell is that the GSM900 TRX configured in
the underlaid sub cell to expand the coverage, while the DCS1800
TRX is configured in underlaid sub cell to absorb the traffic volume
The channel assignment of the Co-BCCH cell should follow the
channel assignment algorithm of the concentric cell for different
channel assignment technologies which is explained as follows:
Immediate assignment
Assignment

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Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment

Immediate assignment:
Normally, the BSC selects the channel of the UL
sub cell for the immediate assignment.
And there are flexible TA parameters can be
adjusted for this procedure.
If TA Pref. of Imme-Assign Allowed is set to Yes and the
access_delay in the channel request message is lower than
TA Threshold of Imme-Assign Pref. , a channel in the OL
is preferentially assigned during the immediate assignment.
Otherwise, a channel in the UL is preferentially assigned.

15

Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment

Assignment:
When the MS only supports the UL band or the system cant get
the classmark3 of the MS, it will only allocate the UL channel.
When the MS supports both UL & OL bands.
Assign Optimum Layer
Assign-optimum-level Threshold
TA Threshold of Assignment Pref
Low Rxlev Overlaid Forbid Allocation Switch
Assign to Overlaid RxLev Offset
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Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment

Assignment:
When Assign Optimum Layer is set to System
Optimization, the UL RX_LEV > Assign-optimum-level
Threshold and TA < TA Threshold of Assignment Pref., it
will allocate the OL channel.
When Low Rxlev Overlaid Forbid Allocation Switch is
enabled, the UL RX_LEV < OtoU HO Receive Level
Threshold + Assign to Overlaid RxLev Offset 31, it will
only allocate the UL channel. Otherwise, according to the
normal procedure.
17

Contents
Contents
Concentric Cell Concept
Concentric Cell Advantages
Concentric Cell Types
Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment
Co-BCCH Cell Handover

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Co-BCCH Cell Handover

UL&OL Handover:
B/m criteria that determine the handover in enhanced concentric
cells.
Level (if RX_LEV for UO HO Allowed is set to YES)
Quality (if RX_QUAL for UO HO Allowed is set to YES)

TA (if TA for UO HO Allowed is set to YES)

Underlay sub cell Traffic (if UtoO Traffic HO Allowed set to YES)
RX_LEV RX_LEV of the highest neighbor (if ATCBHoSwitch set to
YES)

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Co-BCCH Cell Handover

UL to OL Handover
All the b/m conditions must be met to make HO from UL to OL.
The penalty timer with duration of Penalty Time of UL to OL HO
is timed out or is not start.
Number of Failed HOs from UL to OL < MaxRetry Time after UtoO
Fail.
RX_LEV condition: Received level UtoO HO Receive Level
Threshold
RX_QUAL condition:

Received quality < RX_QUAL Threshold

TA condition: TA < TA Threshold - TA Hysteresis

ATCB condition: (RX_LEV RX_LEV of the highest neighbor)
Distance Between Boundaries of UL And OL Subcells +
Distance Hysteresis Between Boundaries of UL And OL
Subcells

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Co-BCCH Cell Handover

OL to UL Handover
The 1st condition is RX_LEV of OL must be less than the RX_LEV of
UL, and some b/m conditions should be met to make HO from OL to
UL.
RX_LEV condition:

Received level < OtoU HO Receive Level

Threshold
RX_QUAL condition:
TA condition:

Received quality > RX_QUAL Threshold

TA > TA Threshold + TA Hysteresis

ATCB condition: (RX_LEV RX_LEV of the highest neighbor) <

Distance Between Boundaries of UL And OL Subcells Distance Hysteresis Between Boundaries of UL And OL
Subcells
Traffic condition: Underlay sub cell traffic < En Iuo Out Cell Low
Load Threshold
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Co-BCCH Cell Handover

Advantages

1) Implement the traffic handover between underlaid and overlaid to

balance the traffic between both sub cells
2) Better utilization for frequency resources
3) The handover control is better as we can adjust the handover
parameters for underlaid to overlaid and vice versa
independently

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Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment

Incoming Internal Inter-Cell Handover:
When the MS only supports the UL band or the system cant get
the classmark3 of the MS, it will only allocate the UL channel.
When the MS supports both UL & OL bands.
Pref. Subcell in HO of Intra-BSC
UtoO HO Received Level Threshold
OtoU HO Received Level Threshold
Low Rxlev Overlaid Forbid Allocation Switch
Handover to Overlaid RxLev Offset
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Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment

Incoming Internal Inter-Cell Handover:
When Pref. Subcell in HO of Intra-BSC is set to System
Optimization, the DL RX_LEV > (UtoO HO Received Level
Threshold+ OtoU HO Received Level Threshold)/2, it will
allocate the OL channel.
When Low Rxlev Overlaid Forbid Allocation Switch is
enabled, if the DL RX_LEV < UtoO HO Receive Level
Threshold + Handover to Overlaid RxLev Offset 31, it
will only allocate the UL channel. Otherwise, according to
the normal procedure.
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Co-BCCH Cell Channel Assignment

Incoming External Inter-Cell Handover:
When the MS only supports the UL band or the system cant get
the classmakr3 of the MS, it will only allocate the UL channel.
When the MS supports both UL & OL bands.
Incoming-to-BSC HO Optimum Layer
There is no system optimization between BSCs.

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Questions and answers

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