Channel Switching

Channel Switching
Capability
 Optimizes the utilization of radio resources, by switching UE’s to the
most suitable transport channel based on traffic volume (throughput),
radio resources availability, radio conditions and mobility.
 Only applies to PS data (Interactive/background).

Impacting features
 Admission Control
 Congestion Control
 Soft Handover

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 1

 Channel Switching

Channel type switching

User 1

DATA

Common Channel (Cell_FACH)

Switch to Switch to
dedicated TTime-out common
Packet Packet Packet

Dedicated Channel (Cell_DCH)

Release dedicated
channel

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 2

 Channel Switching

Channel rate switching

Up-switch Down-switch
e.g. 64 128 384 Kbps Bit rate e.g. 384 128 64 Kbps

Distance
Distance from RBS
from RBS or
or Load in
Load in the cell
the cell

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 3

 Channel Switching

Overview of trigger mechanisms

Channel Switching Down/up switch based on
Algorithms coverage and user activity

Congestion Control Channel Admission Control

Switching
Down-switch from dedicated Down-switch from one
to common channel to resolve dedicated channel to another,
congestion e.g. from 64/384 to 64/128 to
free up radio resources
Soft Handover
Down-switch from 64/384 or 64/128 to
64/64 if Admission Control denies adding
a radio link to the Active Set

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 4

 Channel Switching

Single RAB State Transitions

Connected Mode
1. Common to Dedicated
Dedicated Channel (Cell_DCH)
Cell_DCH 64/384 kbps UL/DL

2b 2a 2. Dedicated to dedicated
Cell_DCH 64/128 kbps UL/DL Single RAB
2b 2a 3
Cell_DCH 64/64 kbps UL/DL
3. Dedicated to common
1
Common Channel (Cell_FACH)
RACH/FACH
(max. 32 kbps) 4. Common to Idle Mode
4
Idle Mode

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 5

 Channel Switching

1. Common to Dedicated Evaluation cont’

Monitors if the UE shall be switched from a common to a dedicated transport
channel due to large amount of user data buffered in the RNC or the UE.

UL RLC
buffer load

Connected Mode
Up-switch
Dedicated Channel X
(Cell_DCH)
ulRlcBufUpswitch [256 bytes]
Cell_DCH
64/384 kbps UL/DL
A request is sent to
Cell_DCH or Admission Control to
64/128 kbps UL/DL
DL RLC perform an up-switch
buffer load from Cell_FACH to
Cell_DCH
Up-switch Cell_DCH 64/64 kbps
64/64 kbps UL/DL
X
Common Channel
(Cell_FACH)
dlRlcBufUpswitch [512 bytes]

RACH/FACH

Idle Mode

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 6

 Channel Switching

2a. Dedicated to Dedicated Coverage triggered

Down-Switch Evaluation cont’
Monitors if a switch to a lower rate radio bearer is required due to coverage.
DL TX code power > [Power Alarm Threshold], defined as Max Code Power
– downswitchPwrMargin. A down-switch to Cell_DCH with lower bitrate is
requested. Timer coverageTimer starts.
Connected Mode
Pcode
Dedicated Channel
(Cell_DCH)
Cell_DCH
64/384 kbps UL/DL

Cell_DCH
DL TX code power < [Power
64/128 kbps UL/DL
Alarm Threshold] –
reportHysteresis while the DL TX code power > [Power Alarm
timer is running, the down- Threshold] – reportHysteresis and
Cell_DCH switch request is cancelled.
64/64 kbps UL/DL timer coverageTimer expires. The
down-switch is executed.
Common Channel
(Cell_FACH)

RACH/FACH

Idle Mode

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 7

 Channel Switching

2b. Dedicated to Dedicated Up-Switch Evaluation

Monitors if the throughput becomes close to the max user bandwidth and switch to
the next higher bitrate radio bearer is required.
DL throughput is > 90 % of max. possible bitrate on current radio bearer
AND the DL code power is < [Power up-switch threshold] –
Pcode reportHysteresis, where the [Power up-switch threshold] is defined as Max
Code Power – downswitchPwrMargin – Estimated Power Increase –
upswitchPwrMargin. Timer upswitchTimer starts.
Connected Mode

Dedicated Channel DL throughput is < 90 % of

(Cell_DCH) max. possible bitrate on
current radio bearer OR
[2.9 dB for up-switch from 64-to-128 kbps]
Cell_DCH [4.7 dB for up-switch from 128-to-384 kbps]
64/384 kbps UL/DL the DL code power
becomes >= [Power up-
switch threshold] while the
upswitchTimer is still
Cell_DCH running. The timer stops
64/128 kbps UL/DL and no up-switch is
executed.

Cell_DCH
64/64 kbps UL/DL

Common Channel
(Cell_FACH)

RACH/FACH

Idle Mode DL throughput is > 90 % of max. possible bitrate of current RB AND the DL code power is
< [Power up-switch threshold] when timer upswitchTimer expires. The up-switch request is sent Admission Control.

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 8

 Channel Switching

3. Dedicated to Common Evaluation

Monitors if a switch from a Cell_DCH to Cell_FACH is required due to a decrease
in transmitted user data.
UL and DL throughput increases
above threshold
downswitchTimerThreshold
before the timer expires. The
timer stops and no down-switch
Connected Mode occurs.
Dedicated Channel
(Cell_DCH)
Cell_DCH
64/384 kbps UL/DL

Cell_DCH
64/128 kbps UL/DL
DownswitchTimer DownswitchTimer
Cell_DCH
64/64 kbps UL/DL

Common Channel
(Cell_FACH)
UL and DL throughput falls below
RACH/FACH
threshold defined by parameter The timer expires and a request
downswitchThreshold and is issued to down-switch from
Idle Mode timer downswitchTimer starts. common to dedicated channel.

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 9

 Channel Switching

4. Common to Idle Evaluation

Monitors if a switch from Cell_FACH to Idle mode is required due to a complete
lack of user data transmission.

Connected Mode

Dedicated Channel
(Cell_DCH)
Cell_DCH If both the UL and DL throughput is zero for a duration
64/384 kbps UL/DL
specified by parameter inactivityTimer, a request is
sent to the Connection Handling function and further to
Cell_DCH
64/128 kbps UL/DL Core via Iu, to release the connection.
Cell_DCH
64/64 kbps UL/DL

Common Channel
(Cell_FACH)

RACH/FACH

Idle Mode

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 10

 Channel Switching

Multi-RAB Down-switch Evaluation

Monitors if a release (or downswitch) of PS I/B RAB shall be initiated due to lack of
PS data throughput (zero), resulting in a single speech 12.2 kbps (or speech + PS
0/0) or CS64 RAB.

The SRNC measures the throughput in UL and DL every 500 ms.

When the throughput is zero in both UL and DL, timer
downswitchTimerUp (for CS64+PS8/8) or
downswitchTimerSp (for speech+PS64/64) starts. If there is any
throughput in UL or DL while the timer is running, the timer is
stopped.

When the timer expires, a request is sent to release the PS I/B

RAB (or to dowswitch if multiRabSp0Available) . The timer
starts again in case there is any throughput in UL or DL before
the PS RAB is released.

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 11

 Channel Switching

Multi-RAB Up-switch Evaluation

Monitors if an upswitch from multi-RAB SP0 to multi-RAB SP64 shall be initiated
due to data buffered in either RNC or UE.

When the RLC buffer load in the uplink exceeds the threshold
value set by the parameter ulRlcBufUpswitchMrab, a
measurement report is sent from the UE. An upswitch request is
issued upon reception of the measurement report. A request is
also issued when the RLC buffer load in the RNC exceeds the
threshold value set by the parameter dlRlcBufUpswitchMrab.

If the dlRlcBufUpswitchMrab parameter is set to 0, the

MultiRAB Upswitch Evaluation algorithm is turned off, meaning
that no upswitches from SP0 will occur, irrespective of the RLC
buffer load.

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 12

 Channel Switching

Future releases
speech + interactive
stand-alone interactive RAB
RAB

HS
speech
384/HS + 384/HS

DCH 64/384
speech
+ 64/HS
128/128
64/HS
speech
+ 64/64
64/128

speech
+ 0/0
64/64

Low/No throughput
Measurement for down
Switch timer period UL throughput-
PS RAB Establishment
FACH based upswitch
activity/inactivity-based coverage-triggered
switching UL and/or DL downswitch (DL only)
IDLE DL throughput- choice based on UE-
Low/No RLC buffer load for
Inactivity timer period based upswitch and cell-capability

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 13

 Channel Switching

Parameters related to Channel Switching

•dlRlcBufUpswitch,ulRlcBufUpswitch: downlink/uplink threshold for channel switching from
FACH/RACH to a dedicated channel (unit: bytes)
•dlMaxPower: maximum power on the downlink for a specific RAB. The power is relative to
the primary CPICH power. (unit: 0.1 dB).
•downswitchPwrMargin: margin, in relation to maximum allowed code power, which
indicates a high power usage (unit: 0.5 dB)
•coverageTimer :Time during which the power is allowed to be high before a downswitch
(DCH to DCH) is issued (unit: second)
•reportHysteresis: Reporting hysteresis for the code power measurements in the node B
(unit: 0.5 dB)
•upswitchPwrMargin: upswitch (DCH to DCH) power margin (unit: 0.5 dB)
•upswitchTimer: Time during which the bandwidth utilization is allowed to be high before an
upswitch request is issued (unit: second)
•downswitchThreshold: threshold for channel switching from dedicated channels to
FACH/RACH (unit: kbps)
•downswitchTimer: sets the time during which throughput has to be low in order to trigger a
downswitch fro DCH to FACH (unit: decisecond)
•downswitchTimerThreshold: timer threshold to achieve hysteresis for channel switching
from dedicated channel to FACH/RACH (unit: kbps)
•inactivityTimer: timer for sending of IU RELEASE REQUEST message to the CN for UE in
common state (unit: minutes)

RAN Feature Presentation Jul 27, 2005 14