LTE Technical Paper: VoLTE Feature Parameter Description

VoLTE Background cont.

The LTE voice solution is as follows:

• Voice solution based on dual-standby UEs

A dual-standby UE is capable of receiving or sending signals in both E-UTRAN and
GERAN or UTRAN. Dual-standby UEs automatically select GERAN or UTRAN to
perform voice services and select E-UTRAN to perform data services. That is, the
E-UTRAN provides dual-standby UEs with only data services.

• Voice solution based on CSFB

In the initial phase of LTE network deployment, CSFB is a transitional solution to
provide voice services for LTE users if the IMS is not yet deployed.

With the CSFB solution, when a UE initiates a CS service in the E-UTRAN, the MME
instructs the UE to fall back to the legacy CS domain of the GERAN or UTRAN
before the UE performs the service.
VoLTE Background
• Voice solution based on IMS
This solution is used in the mature stage of the LTE network when the IMS is deployed. With this solution, UEs can directly
perform voice services in an LTE network. This solution is also termed as the Voice over LTE (VoLTE) solution.
When LTE coverage has not been complete, UEs may move out of LTE coverage and their voice services may be discontinued.
Huawei uses the following methods to ensure voice service continuity:

• If the PS domain of the UTRAN/GERAN does not support VoIP services,

VoIP services are handed over to the CS domain of the UTRAN/GERAN
through single radio voice call continuity (SRVCC).
• If the PS domain of the UTRAN/GERAN supports VoIP services, VoIP
services are handed over to the UTRAN/GERAN through PS handovers.
VoLTE Introduction
Introduction

VoLTE is the voice service supported by the IP transmission network between UEs in the E-UTRAN and the IMS.
That is, with VoLTE, UEs in the LTE network can perform voice services directly.

Benefits

VoLTE provides UEs in the E-UTRAN with voice services, without the need of falling back to GERAN or UTRAN.
VoLTE features the following characteristics:

• Higher spectral efficiency

• Better user experience, such as lower access delay and better voice quality

IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) includes multiple network elements (NEs). These NEs perform voice session
control and multimedia negotiation between the calling and called UEs.
Basic VoLTE functions

Function Description
During a VoLTE call, the UEs negotiate a speech codec scheme with the IMS. The commonly used
Speech codec scheme and traffic model codec scheme is Adaptive Multirate (AMR).

During the attach procedure, the UE negotiates with the MME and selects VoLTE as the voice
VoLTE voice policy selection policy.

Radio bearers with QoS class identifiers (QCIs) of 1 and 5 are set up between the calling and called
Radio bearer management UEs to carry conversational voice and signaling, respectively.

The eNodeB performs admission and congestion control for conversational voice (QCI 1) and
Admission and congestion control signaling (QCI 5).

By default, the eNodeB performs dynamic scheduling and uses power control policies that are
Dynamic scheduling and power control suitable for dynamic scheduling.
Enhanced VoLTE features/functions
Category Feature/Function Name
Semi-persistent scheduling and power control
Capacity enhancement
Robust header compression (ROHC)
Transmission time interval (TTI) bundling
Coverage improvement
Robust header compression (ROHC)
Uplink RLC segmentation enhancement
Voice characteristic awareness scheduling
Quality Improvement
Uplink compensation scheduling
Voice-specific AMC
Discontinuous reception (DRX)
Power saving
Intra-frequency handover
Mobility management
Inter-frequency handover
Inter-RAT handover
Description
The eNodeB performs semi-persistent scheduling and uses suitable power control policies for UEs during talk spurts.
This feature applies only to voice services.
The eNodeB performs dynamic scheduling and uses suitable power control policies for UEs at voice service setup and
during silent periods.
ROHC compresses the headers of voice packets to reduce air interface overheads.
This feature applies only to voice services.
Multiple TTIs are bound together for UEs with poor signal quality to transmit the same data. This increases the once-off
transmission success rate.
This feature applies only to uplink voice services.
ROHC compresses the headers of voice packets to reduce air interface overheads and increase the once-off transmission
success rate.
This feature applies only to voice services.
This feature restricts the transport block size (TBS) in UL dynamic scheduling to control the number of uplink RLC
segments for VoLTE packets. This restriction improves voice quality when channel quality is poor.
During uplink dynamic scheduling, the eNodeB adjusts the scheduling priorities of UEs based on their waiting time and
estimates the voice volume to be dynamically scheduled in the uplink. An independent inactivity timer is configured for
voice services. The purpose is to improve voice quality, decrease the service drop rate, and increase the proportion of
satisfied voice service users.
This feature applies only to voice services. For details about how UL delay-based dynamic scheduling, UL VoLTE volume
estimation for dynamic scheduling, and independent configuration for voice inactivity timer work for VoLTE.
For each voice user, the eNodeB measures the duration in which the user is not scheduled in the uplink. If the duration
reaches a threshold, the eNodeB performs uplink compensation scheduling for the UE. The purpose is to ensure that
uplink voice packets can be timely transmitted, shorten their waiting time, and reduce the number of packets discarded
because of the expiry of PDCP Discard Timer.
This feature applies only to voice services.
The eNodeB sets a target IBLER for uplink voice services.
This feature applies only to voice services.
With DRX, UEs enter the sleep state when data is not transmitted, saving UE power.
The eNodeB performs intra-frequency, inter-frequency, or inter-RAT handovers to transfer UEs performing voice services
to appropriate neighboring cells to maintain voice continuity.
Basic VoLTE Functions
The ENodeBAlgoSwitch.EutranVoipSupportSwitch parameter specifies whether to enable VoLTE.

• When this parameter is set to ON(On) on an eNodeB, this eNodeB supports VoLTE and allows the establishment,
access, incoming handover, and reestablishment of the dedicated bearer with a QCI of 1.
• When this parameter is set to OFF(Off)) on an eNodeB, this eNodeB does not support VoLTE and does not allow the
establishment, access, incoming handover, and reestablishment of the dedicated bearer with a QCI of 1.

Speech Codec Scheme and Traffic Model

The speech codec scheme is classified into AMR and G.7 series. VoLTE uses the AMR-based speech codec scheme.

AMR
Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) is an audio data compression scheme optimized for speech coding and is now widely used in GERAN and UTRAN.
AMR is classified into adaptive multirate wideband (AMR-WB) and adaptive multirate narrowband (AMR-NB).

 AMR-NB has eight speech coding rates. They are 12.2 kbit/s, 10.2 kbit/s, 7.95 kbit/s, 7.4 kbit/s, 6.7 kbit/s, 5.9 kbit/s, 5.15 kbit/s, and 4.75 kbit/s.
 AMR-WB has nine speech coding rates. They are 23.85 kbit/s, 23.05 kbit/s, 19.85 kbit/s, 18.25 kbit/s, 15.85 kbit/s, 14.25 kbit/s, 12.65 kbit/s, 8.85 kbit/s, and
6.6 kbit/s.
VoLTE traffic states

There are two VoLTE traffic states:

•Talk spurts: During talk spurts, the uplink of UEs transmits voice packets or the downlink of UEs receives voice packets.
Voice packets are transmitted at intervals of 20 ms, and the packet size is determined by the speech coding rate.

•Silent period: During silent periods, the UE transmits silence insertion descriptor (SID) frames or receives SID frames at
intervals of 160 ms. For different AMR speech codec rates, the SID frame sizes are all 56 bits.

The differences between talk spurts and silent period are as follows:

• The size of voice frames is greater than the size of SID frames.
• The interval between neighboring voice frames is different from the interval between SID frames.

The eNodeB distinguishes between voice frames and SID frames based on the preceding differences.
 VoLTE Voice Policy Selection cont.
UE capability and configurations on the MME determine whether a UE uses VoLTE. However, VoLTE may be
inappropriate for certain sites or regions. This case is termed as VoLTE-prohibited scenario.

During the UE attach and tracking area update (TAU) period, the MME selects a voice policy based on the UE capability and
configuration on the MME side. The MME then sends the UE the voice policy contained in the Attach Accept and TAU Accept
messages. During voice policy selection, the MME selects a voice policy based on the following principles:

• If the UE supports only CSFB, the corresponding voice policy is CS Voice only.
• If the UE supports only VoLTE, the corresponding voice policy is IMS PS Voice only, that is, VoLTE.
• If the UE supports both CSFB and VoLTE, the voice policy used before negotiation with the MME is one of the following
voice policies specified by operators during UE registration:

 CS Voice only
That is, CSFB.
 IMS PS Voice only
That is, VoLTE.
 Prefer CS Voice with IMS PS Voice as secondary
That is, CSFB takes precedence over VoLTE.
 Prefer IMS PS Voice with CS Voice as secondary
That is, VoLTE takes precedence over CSFB.
VoLTE Voice Policy Selection
Procedures for voice policy selection (non-combined attach) Procedures for voice policy selection (combined attach)
 VoLTE Mobility Capability Decision
1.During the UE attach period, the MME sends the UE
Radio Capability Match Request message to the eNodeB to
query whether the UE has the VoLTE mobility capability.
2.If the eNodeB does not receive the UE radio capability
message from the UE, the eNodeB sends a UE Capability
Enquiry message to the UE.
3.The UE reports its radio capability through the UE
Capability Information message.
4.If the eNodeB determines that the UE can ensure mobility
after the UE performs VoLTE services, the eNodeB replies
the MME with the decision result through the UE Radio
Capability Match Response message.
The SupportS1UeCapMatchMsg option of
the GlobalProcSwitch.ProtocolSupportSwitch parameter specifies
whether the eNodeB supports the VoLTE mobility decision.
1. When the SupportS1UeCapMatchMsg(SupportS1UeCapMatchMsg)
option is selected, the UE can ensure mobility after the performing VoLTE
services if the UE meets any of the following conditions:
•The UE supports UTRAN and SRVCC from E-UTRAN to UTRAN.
•The UE supports GERAN and SRVCC from E-UTRAN to GERAN.
2. When the SupportS1UeCapMatchMsg option is deselected, the
eNodeB does not perform VoLTE mobility capability decision. In this case,
the eNodeB replies ERROR INDICATION when receiving the UE RADIO
CAPABILTY MATCH REQUEST message. If the UE uses VoLTE but does
not support SRVCC, VoLTE mobility cannot be ensured.
The UE RADIO CAPABILTY MATCH REQUEST message is introduced in 3GPP Release 11.
The MME informs the eNodeB of the MME's SRVCC capability in the Initial UE Context Setup
message.
•After the eNodeB obtains the MME's SRVCC capability, it also considers the MME's capability while
determining the preceding conditions. Otherwise, the eNodeB replies to the eNodeB that the VoLTE
mobility cannot be ensured.
•If the eNodeB is not informed of the MME's SRVCC capability, for example, the UE RADIO
CAPABILTY MATCH REQUEST message arrives at the eNodeB earlier than the Initial UE Context
Setup message, the eNodeB does not consider the MME's capability while determining UE voice
service continuity.
Radio Bearer Setup
From the perspective of eNodeBs, voice session setup includes the following procedures: RRC connection setup,
QCI 5 radio bearer setup, and QCI 1 radio bearer setup.

1.In the RRC connection setup procedure, a radio connection

is set up between a UE and an eNodeB so that the UE can
send service requests and data packets to upper-layer NEs.
2.In the EPS bearer setup (QCI 5) procedure, a QCI 5 radio
bearer is set up for signalling exchange between the UE and
the IMS.
3.After the QCI 5 radio bearer is set up, the calling UE and the
IMS perform Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) negotiation on
the speech codec scheme, IP address, port number, called
UE's information, and other information.
4.In the EPS bearer establishment (QCI 1) procedure, a QCI 1
radio bearer is set up to carry voice packets.
https://www.facebook.com/LTE-Network-Planning-Optimization-1405650069761875/