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SDCCH Study :- Uses,Signalling Analysis,Drop Reasons and Solutions

SDCCH usage:

User Requests (Mobile Originated Call, SMS, Supplementary Services)

Answer To paging (Mobile Terminated Call)

Call - Re Establishment

Location Update Procedure

IMSI detach indication

Signalling Analysis:First of all the channel request message is sent from the MS on RACCH Channel to the BTS
and the BTS sends the channel required message to the BSC.
This is always the first step for accessing the network. This part of signalling is performed for
every MS accessing a service, independently on the kind of service required, meaning that it is
valid also for all the other services (not call) the MS can ask: SMS, Location Update, IMSI
detach, Supplementary Service.
This CR message consists of 8 bits 3 bits are reserved for the establishment cause and 5 bits for
the random reference. Among the 8 possible combinations of establishment cause's 3 bits, 5 are
valid as establishment causes.
the other 3 combinations are not valid and then refused by the network.
The usage of random reference is when two MSs access the network exactly the same time; they
can be separated
by using the random reference.
After the BSC received the channel required message if the establishment cause is valid (5 valid
cases out of 8 cases
mentioned above) the BSC starts searching for a SDCCH channel.if the channel is available in
the cell where the original access came from, it is reserved otherwise the MS cannot access the
service, the immediate assignment rejected message will be sent to the MS (if SDCCH dynamic
allocation and/or FACCH call setup are not active)
if the establishment cause is not valid (3 cases out of 8 cases mentioned above) the BSC doesn't
proceed with the signalling and RACH will be considered as Ghost RACHH.
Three events may happen:

1. A successful case is acknowledged by the BTS with channel activation acknowledgement


message (#4). The BTS will starts the transmission and reception on the associated SACCH
using the power levels and the timing advance received in the channel activation message.
2. The BTS refuses to activate the new channel, it sends the channel activation not
acknowledgement message to the BSC with the reason of the failure. Possible failure causes are
like radio resource not available, radio channel already activated/allocated, protocol error and
subclause, such as mandatory information error, O&M failure reasons, ciphering algorithm not
supported, Service or option not available.
3. The GSM timer T9103 is used for supervising the channel activation procedure. If the BSC
does not receive the channel activation ack/nack message within the time limit of the timer
T9103, the timer expires and it releases the allocated channel by sending the procedure of
assignment failure to the MSC.
After a successful SDCCH channel activation, the BSC sends the immediate assignment
command message to the BTS on AGCH channel containing data like SDCCH channel number,
page mode: normal paging, channel description of the SDCCH allocated and the associated
SACCH and hopping frequency, mobile allocation if frequency hopping is used, initial timing
advance.
This message is an order from the network to the MS to move to the SDCCH channel defined
before.The GSM timer T3101 is used to supervise the immediate assign procedure. If the
SDCCH channel reservation or activation has failed, the BSC sends the immediate assignment
reject message to the MS.
When the mobile has sent the channel request message on the RACH channel, it expects an
answer from the network within a certain period. The MS starts the timer T3120 and waits for
the answer (immediate assignment or immediate assignment reject).
If the MS doesn't receive the answer within the time limit defined by the timer T3120, the MS
makes a new attempt(Automatically - not by pressing dial button on MS) and sends another
channel request message with a new random reference on the next time slot. A new value of
timer T3120 is computed and used. The MS repeats this process either until it is granted access
or until the maximum number of repetitions is reached; the network broadcasts the maximum
repetition number.
This phenomenon leads to a big value of a counter related to SDCCH failures in Abis interface
that are not perceived by the subscriber.
Now When the MS has performed the radio access phase (i.e. it received the immediate
assignment from the BTS), the signalling proceeds with the establishment phase, the
authentication procedure, the ciphering and encryption reported.
After receiving the immediate assignment message, the MS tunes to the assigned SDCCH and
starts to establish the signalling link across the network. The MS sends the layer 2 SABM to the

BTS on the SDCCH. The SABM contains the layer 3 CM service request message in which the
MS specifies the service type required to the network.
The service request message includes one of the following informations:

header

CM service type: mobile originated call, short message service, supplementary


services, emergency call

Ciphering key sequence number

MS classmark 2

mobile identity

The BTS forwards the MS service request to the BSC in the establish indication message with
following data:

message discriminator - radio link layer management

message type - establishment indication

channel number - SDCCH + AGCH

link identifier - main signalling channel SDCCH

L3 Information - complete L3 service request as received from the MS.

This message indicates to the BSC that MS is now on the SDCCH channel. If this message is not
received by the BSC, the counter of abis failure will be incremented and the setup of the service
will be interrupted.
The BSC decodes the cause of the service request from the content of the establish indication
message.
Reasons For SDCCH Failures:1. Poor RF Condition:The MS is in poor coverage area is sending RACCH to access the cell.After receiving RACCH
request BTS is reserving SDCCH for that request and send immediate assignment message to

MS.But due to bad coverage area MS will not receive assignment command.The BTS will
release the SDCCH upon expiry of Timer T3101 which will counted as SDCCH abis
failure.Then MS will re transmit the RACCH upto parameter Max No. Of Retrasmission defined
in the BTS.If RF conditions improve within this period then call set up will be successful
otherwise user will have to redial the call.So incase of poor coverage condition there might be
cumulative SDCCH failure and hence it show high SDCCH drop in statastics but the end user
wont perceive the same at that level. The only effect will be long call set up time.
2. Path imbalance or sensitivity difference between MS and BTS
It is observed that path imbalance between uplink and downlink is poor as in most of the cases
uplink diversity gain is not expected due to installation limitations.At the same time sensitivity
difference between the BTS (-110 dbm) and MS ( typically -102 dbm) is also high.
3. Co-BCCH & BSIC problem
The MS is sending RACCH request to serving BTS that have the same BCCH and BSIC with
another BTS so far.
The request will be received by both of the BTS and will reserve the SDCCH and both BTS's
will send immediate assignment to MS.But MS will accept the command only from the dominant
BTS so far BTS will not receive any ack from MS.So far BTS will drop the reserved SDCCH
after timer expiry of T3101.
4. Ghost random RACCH
The BTS is continuously monitoring the UL Random Access Channel slots in order to find
whether or not there has been a random access from a mobile. The information contents of a
random access burst are rather
limited, thus it is possible the BTS detects a random access from background noise. This kind of
a "ghost random access" contains a random Establishment Cause, and it is detected with a
random timing advance.
There will always be a certain number of ghost accesses in the network. If the number of
SDCCH seizures per site is very small, then it is possible that the majority of the accesses are
ghost accesses. If this is the case, then the result will be a high failure rate, and nothing can really
be done except to ignore the SDCCH Abis fail on sites where there is very little traffic.
The rejection is based on the Establishment Cause. Since the Establishment Cause is random, in
some cases the Establishment Causes in the ghost random accesses will not be valid.
5.Bursts of random accesses (HO access)
The handover access burst is exactly like a random access burst (as electromagnetic shape); the
fields in the handover access burst may be interpreted as the Establishment Cause and the
random reference of the Random Access burst.So the MS will receive the assignment command
from far BTS but will not respond and finally far BTS will release the reserved SDCCH and
considered as SDDCH drop.

6. channel activation not acknowledgement message failure


After the BSC has sent the channel activation message to the BTS, it waits for the answer; three
different events may happen:

The BTS sends the channel activation acknowledgement,successful case

The BTS sends the channel activation not acknowledgement because of a failure

The BSC doesn't receive any signal from the BTS; in this case (after the timer
T9103 expires

Download to find out solutions/recommendation to reduce the SDCCH drop.

What is Phantom RACH?

Phantom RACH is a process when specific mobile is sending Random Access burst to a serving
cell (cell which specific mobile is camping on). The Random Access burst contains TSC
(Training Sequence) the TSC is derived from BCC number which is part of BSIC transmitted on
Synchronization Channel (SCH) on BCCH TRX i.e. TSC=BCC for BCCH TRX.

I am working NSN S14, with below problem.


Sudden increase of SDCCH REQ, the increased cause is SDCCH_LU_ATTEMPT, SDCCH
resources are assigned and then there is no established indication. T3101 expires so
I have High SDCCH ABIS FAIL
The problem is random and starts mostly after midnight and automatically resolves
after an average of 6-8 hours.
The sites are not on LA border, are present in same BSC and Same MSC.
There is no specific pattern of occurence of this behaviour, it random will appear on
any site. I have dual BCCH network the colocated cells are impacted usually
together but not always. But geographically the problem is not centered to some
particular area, its spread.

SDCCH Fail (abrupt discontinuous LU ATTEMPT Increase)


There is no problem of C0-BCCH/BSIC
This cannot be a GHOST access as the casue is LU attempt and, GHOST cannot
always be an LU but a random distribution over all causes, counter GHOST CCCH is
nearly equal to zero.
Also one thing noticed is that although the problem resolves automatically after few
hours, if the sector is reset it resolves at the same time.
Nothing could be observed during the drive test, there were no failures in the drive
test.

I just surfed the web and saw some people of other vendors talking about the same
problem but with no conclusion.

There are no RAJ Rejections, no AGCH overload, no channel activation failures, no


Busy Attempt
The difference between SDCCH_LU_ATTEMPT - SDCCH_LOC_UPD = nearly equal to
T3101 Timer Expiry
SDCCH_LU_ATTEMPT = no of SD request with casue location update
SDCCH_LOC_UPD = no of successful LOC update
an example case:
SDCCH_REQ = 1000
SDCCH_SEIZURE_ATTEMPTS =1000
SDCCH_LU_ATTEMPT = 900
SDCCH_LOC_UPD = 50
SDCCH_LU_ATTEMPT_FAIL=0
SDCCH ABIS FAIL CALL = 850
T3101 Expiry = 850

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SDCCH Study - Uses,Signalling Analysis,Drop Reasons


and Solutions
Introduction:The signalling transported on the SDCCH channel is aimed at reaching the service requested by
the Mobile Station; in some cases this represents only the setup of the service, in other cases the
service is completely performed on the SDCCH channel.
SDCCH usage:-

User Requests (Mobile Originated Call, SMS, Supplementary Services)


Answer To paging (Mobile Terminated Call)
Call - Re Establishment
Location Update Procedure
IMSI detach indication
Signalling Analysis:-

First of all the channel request message is sent from the MS on RACCH Channel to the BTS and
the BTS sends the channel required message to the BSC.
This is always the first step for accessing the network. This part of signalling is performed for
every MS accessing a service, independently on the kind of service required, meaning that it is
valid also for all the other services (not call) the MS can ask: SMS, Location Update, IMSI
detach, Supplementary Service.
This CR message consists of 8 bits 3 bits are reserved for the establishment cause and 5 bits for
the random reference. Among the 8 possible combinations of establishment cause's 3 bits, 5 are
valid as establishment causes.
the other 3 combinations are not valid and then refused by the network.

Download to read More on Signalling Analysis


Reasons for SDCCH failures:-

Poor RF Condition

Path imbalance or sensitivity difference between MS and BTS

Co-BCCH & BSIC problem

Ghost random RACCH

Bursts of random accesses (HO access)

channel activation not acknowledgement message failure

Recommendations:-

Modify the SDCCH formula:- Remove the SDCCH fails due to Timer expiry T3101 from
SDCCH abis failure counter
SDCCH KPI could be improved by optimized use of cell parameters and removing the CoBCCH and Co-BSIC problems.
Lower the Rx Lev min Access in urban area. Make cell boundary less by tilting and improving
coverage area.
It has been observed that SDCCH failures are in the cells between location area boundaries due
to high location updates.It is recommended that use cell hysteresis value high for example like
10dbm in the cells at location boundary.
Also increase the periodic location update counter to lower the no of location updates.
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Directed Retry parameters

Directed Retry is a procedure used when there is congestion in the network in the call set-up
phase and the mobile station (MS) is assigned to a traffic channel in a cell other than the serving
cell.

directed retry used (DR) - drInUse


With this parameter you define if the directed retry feature is in use in the cell.
Range:- 0 - Not used 1 - DR used
directed retry method (DRM) - drMethod
With this parameter you define which method is used in directed retry procedure when candidate
cells are evaluated. This parameter is also used to switch off directed retry method
improvements.
Range:-0 - Basic directed retry method used, 1 - Threshold evaluation method
[B]Directed retry threshold (DRT) - drThreshold[B]
With this parameter you define the threshold value of the signal strength in the adjacent cell for
the Directed Retry procedure. If the signal strength level in the cell is lower than this threshold
value, adjacent cell is not accepted as a candidate in directed retry.
Range:- -110...-47 dBm
Recommended value:- -85 dBm
Min time limit directed retry (MIDR) - minTimeLimitDirectedRetry
With this parameter you define the period starting from the assignment request during which the
target cell evaluation for the directed retry handover is not allowed.
Range:- 0....14 sec
Max time limit directed retry (MADR) - maxTimeLimitDirectedRetry

With this parameter you define the maximum time period starting from the assignment request
during which the target cell evaluation for the directed retry handover is allowed.
Range:- 0.....15 sec
Intelligent directed retry used (IDR) - idrUsed
With this parameter you define if the directed retry feature is in use in the cell.
Range:- 0 - Intelligent Directed Retry is not in use, 1 - Intelligent Directed Retry is in use
Load Control in UMTS

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, 11-04-2012 at 01:27 PM (25561 Views)
Overview of Load Control
The WCDMA system is a self-interfering system. As the load of the system increases, the
interference rises. A relatively high interference can affect the coverage of cells and QoS of
established services. Therefore, the capacity, coverage, and QoS of the WCDMA system are
mutually affected. To solve these problems, the load control function is introduced that controls
the load in a cell.
Load control aims to maximize the system capacity while ensuring coverage and QoS by
controlling the key resources, such as power, downlink channelization codes, channel elements
(CEs), Iub transmission resources, which directly affect user experience.
Each cell has its own set of load control functions that are responsible for monitoring and
controlling the resources of the cell. The load control functions monitor the load condition of the
cell through load measurement, make the admission decision for services through intelligent
access control and call admission control, and relieve congestion in a cell.
>> Load Control in Different Scenarios
Depending on the different phases of UE access, different load control functions are used, as
shown in the following figure.
1 Load Control functions in different UE access phases
Load Control-1.jpgLoad Control-1.jpg

The load control functions are applied to different UE access phases as follows:
* Before UE access: Potential User Control (PUC)
* During UE access: Intelligent Access Control (IAC) and Call Admission Control (CAC)
* After UE access: intra-frequency Load Balancing (LDB), Load Reshuffling (LDR), and
Overload Control (OLC)
The following sections will provide detailed information about the load control functions
performed in the different UE access phases.
2 Functions of Load Control
Load control is implemented in the RNC after obtaining measurement reports from the NodeBs.
2 Load control function in the WCDMA system
Load Control-2.jpg
The load control functions are described as follows:
* Potential User Control (PUC) The function of PUC is to balance traffic load between cells on
different frequencies. The RNC uses PUC to modify cell selection and reselection parameters,
and broadcasts them through system information. In this way, UEs are directed to the cells with
light load. The UEs can be in idle mode, CELL_FACH state, CELL_PCH state, or URA_PCH
state.
* Intelligent Access Control (IAC) The function of IAC is to increase the access success rate
with the current QoS guaranteed through rate negotiation, queuing, preemption, and Directed
Retry Decision (DRD).
l Call Admission Control (CAC) The function of CAC is to decide whether to accept resource
requests from UEs, such as access, reconfiguration, and handover requests, depending on the
resource status of the cell.
* Intra-frequency Load Balancing (LDB) The function of intra-frequency LDB is to balance
the cell load between intra-frequency neighboring cells to provide better resource usage. When
the load of a cell increases, the cell reduces its coverage to lighten its load. When the load of a
cell decreases, the cell extends its coverage so that some traffic is sent from its neighboring cells
to it.
* Load Reshuffling (LDR) The function of LDR is to reduce the cell load when the cell enters
the basic congestion state. The purpose of LDR is to increase the access success rate by taking
the following actions:
Inter-frequency load handover

Code reshuffling
BE service rate reduction
AMR voice service rate reduction
QoS renegotiation for uncontrollable real-time services
CS inter-RAT load handover
PS inter-RAT load handover
MBMS power reduction
* Overload Control (OLC) The function of OLC is to reduce the cell load rapidly when the cell
is overloaded. The purpose of OLC is to ensure the system stability and the QoS of most UEs in
the following ways:
Restricting the Transport Format (TF) of the BE service
Switching BE services to common channels
Adjusting the maximum transmit power of FACHs
Releasing some RABs
Below table lists the resources that are considered by different load control functions.
Load Control-3.PNG
3 Priorities Involved in Load Control
Different types of priorities are used in load control to preferentially ensure the QoS of the
services or users with high priorities.
The priorities involved in load control are user priority, Radio Access Bearer (RAB) integrated
priority, and user integrated priority.
3.1 User Priority
User priorities are adopted to provide differentiated services for users. For ease of application,
the RNC maps the 15 levels of Allocation/Retention Priority (ARP) that is carried in the RAB
ASSIGNMENT REQUEST message from the core network (CN) onto three user priorities, that
is, gold (high priority), silver (medium priority), and copper (low priority). The relation between
user priority and ARP can be set by running SET UUSERPRIORITY command; the typical
relation is shown in Table below:
Load Control-4.PNG
Note : If ARP is not received in messages from the Iu interface, the user priority is regarded
as copper.
3.2 RAB Integrated Priority
The priority of an RAB is determined by its traffic class, ARP, and carrier type. Such a priority is
called RAB integrated priority. When resources are insufficient, services with the highest

integrated priority are preferentially processed.


The values of RAB integrated priority are set according to the integrated priority configuration
reference parameter (PriorityReference):
- If PriorityReference is set to Traffic Class, the integrated priority abides by the following
rules:
- Traffic classes: conversational > streaming > interactive > background
- Services of the same traffic class: priority based on ARP, that is, ARP1 > ARP2 > ARP3 > ... >
ARP14 > ARP15
- Service of the same traffic class and ARP (only for interactive services): priority based on
Traffic Handling Priority (THP) that is carried in the RAB ASSIGNMENT REQUEST message,
that is, THP1 > THP2 > THP3 > ... > THP14 > THP15
- Services of the same traffic class, ARP and THP (only for interactive services): High Speed
Packet Access (HSPA) or Dedicated Channel (DCH) service preferred depending on
CarrierTypePriorInd.
>> If PriorityReference is set to ARP, the integrated priority abides by the following rules:
* ARP: ARP1 > ARP2 > ARP3 > ... > ARP14 >ARP15
>> Services of the same ARP: priority based on traffic classes, that is, conversational >
streaming > interactive > background
* Only for the interactive service of the same ARP value: priority based on Traffic Handling
Priority (THP), that is, THP1 > THP2 > THP3 > ... > THP14 > THP15
>> Services of the same ARP, traffic class and THP (only for interactive services): HSPA or DCH
service preferred depending on CarrierTypePriorInd.
3.3 User Integrated Priority
A user may have multiple RABs, and the RABs may have different priorities. In this case, the
highest priority is considered as the priority of this user. Such a priority is called user integrated
priority. User integrated priority is used in user-specific load control. For example, the selection
of R99 users during preemption, the selection of users during inter-frequency load handover for
LDR, and the selection of users during switching of BE services to common channels are
performed according to the user integrated priority.
Good WCDMA parameter setting document from Qualcomm.
Contents:-

1. CELL RESELECTION PARAMETER SETTINGS


2. PAGING, ACCESS AND CONNECTED-MODE PARAMETER SETTINGS
3. POWER CONTROL PARAMETERS
4. POWER ALLOCATION PARAMETERS
5. MEASUREMENT REPORT CONTROL AND HANDOVER PARAMETERS
6. COMPRESSED MODE OPERATION
7. RADIO LINK CONTROL TIMERS AND PROTOCOL PARAMETERS
8. RRC STATE TRANSITION PARAMETERS/TIMERS FOR PS USER EXPERIENCE
OPTIMIZATION
9. HSDPA/HSUPA PARAMETERS

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