White Paper

Radio Resource Management aricent.com

 White Paper

Copyright Information
© 2008 Aricent™, Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, including photocopying, reprinting
or recording, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Aricent.

Disclaimer
Information in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment on the part of Aricent. Aricent does
not assume any responsibility or make any warranty against errors that may appear in this document and disclaims any implied warranty of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

URLs mentioned in this whitepaper, being the copyright of their respective owners may be changed by them anytime, without prior notice, and may
not lead to the mentioned Web page.

Trademarks
All other company, brand, product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Aricent
CORPORATE OFFICES
700 Hansen Way
Palo Alto, CA 94304,
USA

Toll Free +1-888 426 6679

Tel +1 650 391 1088
Fax +1 650 391 1089
e-mail: info@aricent.com
Visit us at: http://www.aricent.com
January, 2008

2 aricent.com
 White Paper

CONTENTS

1. Introduction 4

2. Indoor Coverage Aspects 4

3. Key Driving Factors for RRM 4

4. RRM Functional Decomposition 5

4.1 Inputs to RRM Algorithms 5

5. Admission Control 6
5.1 Uplink Admission Control Algorithms 6
5.2 Downlink Admission Control Algorithms 7

6. Power Control 8
6.1 Uplink Power Control 8
6.2 Downlink Power Control 9

7. Congestion Control (Load Control) 9

7.1 Congestion Detection 10
7.2 Congestion Resolution 10
7.3 Congestion Recovery 10

8. Handover Control 10
8.1 Inputs to the handover Algorithm 11
8.2 Factors to be considered during Handover Evaluation 13
8.3 Factors not to be considered for Handover Evaluation in a Femtocell Environment 14

9. Acronyms 14

10. Bibliography 14

3 aricent.com

1. INTRODUCTION
Radio Resource Management (RRM) is one of the most important
functions in the framework of 3G systems because the system relies
on it to guarantee a certain target Quality of Service (QoS), maintain
the planned coverage area and offer a high capacity. These targets
often tend to be contradictory (e.g. capacity may be increased at the
expense of coverage reduction or at the expense of QoS reduction
etc.). Radio Network Planning and RRM go hand in hand to meet
the above requirements with an efficient use of scarce radio
resources. Radio Network Planning partly tunes these elements at a
high level (statically) while RRM function provides the fine-tuning
mechanism to balance these requirements dynamically.
The RRM function in Wideband CDMA (WCDMA)-based radio
network becomes quite significant and complex as compared to
FDMA or TDMA-based systems because there is no hard limit on
the radio resources available with the WCDMA based radio network.
Further, the WCDMA system needs to support end-users needing
different services such as video-telephony, streaming video, and
web browsing with diverse QoS requirements. An inefficient RRM
strategy can lead to a degradation of the end user experience due to
its inability to meet the required QoS level and/or losses to the
network operator by not being able to provide a high capacity within
its coverage area. This impacts overall system efficiency, operator
infrastructure cost, and revenue. Additionally, RRM function is not
subject to standardization, and therefore can be a differentiating
factor among different equipment manufacturers and network
operators.
The evolution of the universal mobile telecommunications system
(UMTS) technology for providing high data-rate services using
high-speed packet access (HSPA) is pushing the operators and
vendors in the UMTS space to come up with innovative and
cost-efficient solutions for providing these services along with the
required in-building network coverage. Providing in-building
coverage is one of the major challenges for the network operators.
Operators are banking on the emerging 3G femtocell technology to
provide better indoor coverage.
This paper presents an overview of the radio resource management
related aspects for the UMTS femtocells and outlines an effective
RRM strategy for WCDMA deployment in an indoor environment.
4 aricent.com
White Paper
2. INDOOR COVERAGE ASPECTS
In a typical WCDMA network, the in-building penetration loss of the
radio signal strength is around 20 dB, which is significant consider-
ing the fact that a high percentage of both packet-switched (PS)
calls (requiring high bit-rate and stringent BER/BLER requirements)
as well as circuit switched (CS) calls are made while the end user is
stationary/indoor. Therefore, being able to serve these users
effectively is very important to maximize the revenues of an
operator.
Adding more number of cells/NodeBs in the coverage area is one
possible solution but it has the following limitations:
. Installation Cost: Large-scale cell installation and maintenance in
the urban environment can be cost prohibitive. The number of
indoor users can increase proportionately with the extent of
urbanization and so would the cost of renting/owning the sites for
newer NodeBs.
. In an indoor scenario, the transmitter has to transmit signals at a
higher power due to the weakening of signal strength in in-building
penetration, which causes increased interference for the other
users. To maintain the required QoS for other users, the Tx power
has to be increased for all the users in the coverage area. This
results in increased interference in both the uplink and downlink
directions, leading to loss of capacity, coverage and quality, which
cannot be resolved by just adding more cell sites.
3. KEY DRIVING FACTORS FOR RRM
Five key driving factors for developing an effective radio resource
management strategy in the femtocell environment would be the
ability to provide:
. Handover: Ability to handover from a femtocell to a (intra/inter
frequency) macro-cell. In the indoor environment, maintaining the
coverage area would be relatively lesser important as compared to
providing capacity and QoS. The cell coverage has to be well
planned to avoid outdoor cells dominating too much in the indoor
environment and at the same time, the indoor cell shall be able to
handover the call to the macro network while the user moves from
the indoor to the outdoor environment during a call
. High end-to-end throughput: As the coverage of an indoor cell
would be less than 100 metres with an overlapping macro cell,
there would be a strong possibility of a ping-pong effect due to
frequent change in the relative signal strength of the femtocell and
macro cell. This may reduce the overall throughput due to
discontinuity in data transfer
. Quality of Service: Deliver predictable throughput with tight
power control to avoid interference
 White Paper

. Power Control: It is important to ensure that the signal
interference from a femtocell is not so high that the other UEs in
its coverage area, but camped on the macro network, are unable
to use macro network service
. Simplicity: Minimises complexity of the algorithm to make it
operate within the CPU constraints of the femtocell environment.
Hence, pre-allocating resources and over-dimensioning of
resources may be a short term solution but due to variable and
unforeseen requirement of various services like HSDPA, may not
be an optimum one.
. Primary Scrambling Code
. Max. DL Tx Power for Cell (in dBm)
. Max. UL Tx power for UE (in dBm)
. Max. UL Cell Load Factor (ratio between the maximum allowed
load on the system with respect to its maximum theoretical
capacity)
. Max. DL Cell Load Factor
. Neighbouring Cell Information (Scrambling code, Cell Id, etc. for
all Intra-Frequency, Inter-Frequency and Inter-RAT cells) -
Getting this information configured from an external OAM
(Operation, Administration and Maintenance) entity might be

As the coverage of the indoor cell would be less difficult in a possibly large-scale and ad-hoc femtocell

than 100 metres with an overlapping macro cell, deployment environment. Some intelligent mechanism can be

there would be a strong possibility of a ping-pong built in femtocell to listen the network configuration to facilitate

effect due to frequent change in the relative signal the OAM in building the neighbour cell database for the

strength of the femtocell and macro cell. femtocell.

The Cell Resource Management (CRM) module analyzes the radio

planning inputs and accordingly computes these parameters.
4. RRM FUNCTIONAL DECOMPOSITION
. Cell Load Measurements: Measurements reports from femtocell
The following figure shows a logical decomposition of RRM function
physical layer and existing UE(s) is used to calculate the uplink
from an indoor deployment perspective:
and downlink cell load level. This is used by the admission control

UE/ RAB/ Handover

function during the admission of UEs and Radio Access Bearers
Radio Planning and
Admission Request Configuration Inputs (RABs).
RRM Algorithms . Quality Estimates: The quality estimates from the uplink frames,
and Procedures
UL Cell Load Cell Resource Update
Check Management received by the femtocell also serve as an input to the RRM
(UL Interence
Based) Cell Resource function for power control.
Database
DL Cell Load
. SIR Reports: The power control module takes care of
Check
Update UE Resource maintaining the QoS committed during RAB admission by
(DL Power
Database
Based) admission control. Power control function calculates the SIR

Load Initiate Load

target for each RAB based on the estimated or measured load in
DL Code Cell Load
Management Reports Control Control Action
Handover
the cell. On a continuous basis, it tracks the Bit Error Rate (BER)
Initiation
and Block Error Rate (BLER) reported by the lower layers to
Admission Control Measurements
UL and DL
Power SIR Report and Handover update the SIR target for maintaining the required QoS.
Control Control
Cell Load
. UE Measurement Report: Both, the power control and the
Measurements Quality UE Measurement
Update SIR Estimates Report handover control modules use the measurement reports received
Targets
from the UE, but for different purposes. Power control uses it to
maintain the committed QoS while handover control uses the
Illustration 1: RRM Functional Decomposition
measurement report to build the handover hysteresis.

3.1 INPUTS TO RRM ALGORITHMS

. Radio Planning and Configuration Inputs: These are some of the
basic initial inputs needed by RRM from an external configuration
manager to initialise the cell resource database. The type of
parameters that need to be configured/ computed before the RRM
operation can start are:
5. ADMISSION CONTROL
The admission control (AC) module contains the algorithms for
admitting or rejecting new UEs and RABs in the femtocell depending
on the radio resource availability and the requested QoS. The
admission control function is invoked when any of the following
events occur:

5 aricent.com
 White Paper

. A UE requests RRC connection by sending RRC connection
request message to the UMTS terrestrial radio access network
(UTRAN).
. RAB assignment request message is received from the core
network for establishing a RAB.
. Relocation request message is received from the core network
for execution of handover of an ongoing call in the UTRAN.
. A UE needs to be moved from ‘Cell PCH’ state to ‘Cell DCH’ state
by UTRAN for a PS RAB scenario
Whenever a new connection in the uplink is required to be admitted
at femtocell, it is essential that the AC algorithm considers the worst
possible values of the factors, that contribute towards the increase
in the interference margin (hence the cell load). In case, the
increase in cell load is within the acceptable limits, the user is
admitted and otherwise, rejected.
There could be different strategies for admitting a new request in the
uplink as defined below.

5.1.1 Admission based on UE Count

Since there is no hard limit on the maximum cell capacity, admission
This algorithm for admission control is based only on the number of
control operates dynamically depending on the amount of existing
users already existing in the system and the interference level in the
interference (cell load level in other words) as well as the estimation
air interface is not taken into account. This approach is similar to the
of the load increase that the acceptance of the new request causes.
admission control mechanism used in 2G systems. In particular, the
AC algorithm is executed separately for uplink and downlink
algorithm considers that each user consumes a certain amount of
direction since the uplink and downlink capacity in the femtocell may
radio resources, which can be based upon the user transmitting at a
differ at any point in time. A request is admitted only after successful
reference bit rate (e.g. the bit rate for the 12.2 Kbps AMR voice
admission from both UL and DL admission control algorithms.
service). A certain admission threshold corresponding to the
maximum number of radio resources available in the system then
The decision of the admission control algorithm to accept or reject a
provides the information on the maximum number of users that can
user request could be based on one or more of the following criteria:
be accepted. This algorithm is straightforward and simple to
. Uplink cell load factor threshold check based on the estimated
implement but does not provide an accurate picture of the femtocell
UL interference added by the new request.
system capacity at any given point in time. It can be implemented in
. DL power availability based on the current DL Tx power and
cases where different types of services with varying QoS
maximum Tx power available in the femtocell.
requirements need not be supported and therefore, the capacity
. Downlink spreading code availability.
estimation can be done simply with the number of existing users. In
. Number of UEs already existing in the cell.
a femtocell environment, the total number of users is very low,
. Cumulative bit-rate of the all the user channels in the cell (both
known at the time of network planning and the main varying factor in
uplink and downlink).
this environment is actually the different types of services from the
same set of users. Hence this strategy might not be very effective
The specific uplink and downlink admission control strategies are
for a femtocell environment.
discussed below.

5.1.2 Admission based on measured uplink cell load factor

5.1 UPLINK ADMISSION CONTROL ALGORITHMS
Cell load is an important parameter, which may be used in the uplink
In the uplink direction, each new UE connection results in an
direction to admit or reject a user connection or the RAB request.
increase in interference for the on-going connections. Therefore,
The total cell load at a femtocell, in uplink direction, can be
admission control in the uplink needs to take into account the
determined at any time using the following factors:
maximum interference that can be received at femtocell such that
. BER and hence Eb/No required for the connections being handled
the QoS for existing UEs does not suffer. The interference increase
at femtocell
can be measured as a maximum interference margin or a maximum
. Number of users and their respective connections
load factor, which can be easily related to the number of
. Data rate requested for each connection
connections in the cell. In a femtocell environment, the cell edge
. Inter-cell interference
might not be too far away from the cell center, therefore the distance
. Activity factor. Initially it can be set to 1 for data calls and 0.55 for
of the UE from Node B need not be considered for admission control
voice calls.
and it may assume a fixed average value of this parameter for all
the UEs.

6 aricent.com

The cell load is a derivative of the current total interference
(intra-cell as well as inter-cell) in the uplink direction. The uplink cell
load factor provides a much accurate view of the uplink radio
interface conditions for admission control. The admission control
strategy here is to admit a new user if the load factor increase
caused by the new user does not increase the total uplink load
factor beyond the maximum permissible value. That is,
Where,
. hUL is the current average uplink load factor of the cell.
. hMAX is the maximum admission threshold defined as part of
femtocell network planning.
. Dh is the estimated load factor increase due to the new user being
admitted.
As long as the total load factor remains below the maximum
threshold, the new users can be admitted. The increase in the uplink
cell load factor, Dh, can be estimated as shown below [1]:
Where,
. i is the intercell-to-intracell interference ratio.
. b is the channel activity ratio for voice/data calls. A typical value of
0.55 can be assumed for voice calls.
. W is total available bandwidth, i.e., 3.84 Mcps in case of WCDMA.
. R is the bit rate for the new user.
An estimation of target Eb/ No can be done based on the target
BER/ BLER. The target bit energy to noise ratio (Eb/ No) is inversely
proportional to the target BER ratio. The exact estimation of target
Eb/ No can be enhanced by using a feedback mechanism where the
measurement reports from Layer 1 for a previously set-up RAB and
the reported BER is used along with the other physical layer
parameters such as the channel coding and interleaving scheme. A
typical range of Eb/ No can also be predefined for various QoS
profiles for admission control in the femtocell.
The cell load is a derivative of the current total
interference (intra-cell as well as inter-cell) in the
uplink direction. The uplink cell load factor provides
a much accurate view of the uplink radio interface
conditions for admission control
7 aricent.com
White Paper
5.2 DOWNLINK ADMISSION CONTROL ALGORITHM
The admission control in the downlink direction is based on
checking the availability of code and transmission power
consumption, which are the two radio resources that are used by
each UE connection. Therefore, the downlink admission control
operates in two steps, and a connection is admitted only if both
conditions are fulfilled.
. Code Allocation: In case of downlink, a hard limiting factor, the
Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) code availability,
has to be considered in the admission control. A certain portion of
the downlink OVSF codes are taken up by the common channels,
and therefore all dedicated channels put together with varying
spreading factor have the remaining codes available. The fraction
of OVSF code resources consumed by any channel is inversely
proportional to its spreading factor. Therefore, a new user can be
admitted as long as the summation of the inverse of spreading
factor of all downlink channels (including the new one) remains
less than 1.
. Power Avalilability: The total available power in the downlink
direction is shared by all the (common and dedicated)
transmissions in the cell. As a result, each new accepted
connection, apart from increasing the interference to the rest of
the connections, reduces the total available power. Due to this
power sharing, the instantaneous user locations have a large
impact on the performance of the rest of the users in a cell, even
for low loads, while in the uplink direction a particular user location
has impact only on its own performance. As a result, the cell load
as well as the amount of downlink resources demanded by a
specific user varies as this user moves around the cell. In the
femtocell environment, the cell radius is limited and therefore, the
impact of user position might not have a major impact apart from
any attenuation caused by the internal walls and other
obstructions within the home environment.
5.2.1 Based on User Count
This downlink admission control strategy to check the power
availability can be based on the user count in the downlink. The user
count based algorithm here operates on the same principal as for
the uplink direction. It assumes that each user consumes a certain
amount of radio resources and limits the maximum acceptable
amount of radio resources to be consumed. This algorithm is simple
to understand and easy to implement but has some limitations in
terms of providing the correct picture of the downlink capacity
available in the femtocell. This algorithm can be deployed in cases
where there is not much variation in the type and QoS of the RABs
that need to be supported.

5.2.2 Based on Cell Load
Downlink cell load provides a better picture of the actual loading of
the cell at any given point. Cell load can either be estimated
(calculated) or measured by using any of the following ways:
. Load can be calculated based on the throughput of the cell, using
the sum of all allocated downlink channel bit rates. Though this
mechanism is a straightforward way of calculating the cell load in
downlink, it does not take into account other factors, such as the
DL power availability, inter-cell interference in DL for the UE,
Eb/ No requirements for the channels and, the orthogonality factor
in downlink
. Another and a more accurate snapshot of the load factor can be
provided by weighing the UE bit rates with some other parameters
as follows:
where,
. N is the total number of users in the downlink
. a is the orthogonality factor for the downlink
. i is the other-to-own cell interference for the jth user
The indoor users are mostly stationary without any fast fading
effects, so the orthogonality factor can be assumed closer to 0.95.
Approximate other-to-own cell interference can be also be estimated
by femtocell by sniffing the cell power received from the
neighbouring environment. The values of Eb/No need to be chosen
for each service for a femtocell environment. The new user can be
admitted if the cell load increased by the new user does not exceed
a certain maximum cell load limit.
5.2.3 Transmitted Power-based Admission Control
In this case, a new user is admitted if the new total downlink
transmitted power does not exceed the predefined target value. The
following condition is checked to decide the acceptance of a new
connection request in the system, arriving at the ith frame:
where,
. PAV (i) is the average total transmitted power during the last T
frames
. DPT is the power increase estimation due to the new request
. PMAX (i) is the admission threshold. It is assumed that not only
the average transmitted power but also the admission threshold
may vary with time in order to adapt to different load situations
8 aricent.com
White Paper
6. POWER CONTROL
Any CDMA-based system, including WCDMA, depends on a tight
power control algorithm to efficiently use the radio resources
available in the cell. Power control is needed to keep the
interference levels at minimum in the air interface while maintaining
the required QoS. Power control aspects would remain quite
important in the femtocell environment as well. The objective of
power control is to provide the required QoS to each user with
minimum interference to other users in the same cell. By having an
effective power control mechanism in place, the intra-cell
interference can be controlled well. The inter-cell interference
(caused by the neighbouring cells) cannot be controlled but it has to
be taken into account in the power control algorithm. Inter-cell
interference can either be estimated by listening to the neighbouring
cells based on the received signal strength or an average value can
be configured for the cell based on its geographical location.
. Fading Aspects: A moving subscriber in the outdoor WCDMA
environment normally suffers from the effects of slow fading as
well as fast fading, which lead to a degradation of the received
signal strength to some extent even with the rake receivers. Slow
fading does not impact the users in the indoor environment since
the propagation distance is very small. Fast fading, though, might
have an impact due to walls, doors etc. leading to multi-path
propagation (due to reflection). Fast fading effects are normally
taken care by the fast power control that takes place at Layer 1 of
WCDMA. Therefore, it can be derived that the effects of fading has
a lesser impact on the Outer Loop Power Control (OLPC)
algorithm for an indoor environment.
6.1 UPLINK POWER CONTROL
6.1.1 Initial Setting of SIR Target
The initial setting of SIR target is done during RAB Assignment
procedure. The required BER and BLER for a RAB are provided in
RAB parameters. An estimate of target Eb/No is done based on the
target BER/BLER. The target bit energy to noise ratio (Eb/No) is
inversely proportional to the target BER ratio. The exact estimation
of target Eb/No can be done using a feedback mechanism where
the measurement reports from Layer 1 for a previously set-up RAB
is used along with other physical layer parameters such as the
channel coding and interleaving scheme.
From the target Eb/ No, the initial target Signal to Interference Ratio
(SIR target) is derived based on the following:
where,
. Rb is the required bit rate for the RAB
. W is the total bandwidth (3.84 Mcps in case of WCDMA)
 White Paper

6.2.2 OLPC in the downlink direction

The OLPC algorithm shall further track the reported BER/BLER to
UTRAN does not support any downlink closed loop power control.
modify the SIR target dynamically.
However, based on the measurement report from the UE, the DPCH
transmit power can be reconfigured in the downlink direction.
6.1.2 Outer Loop Power Control with Adaptive Step Power Control
As the inner loop power control is handled between the UE and
femtocell, the power control algorithm only plays the role in setting
7. CONGESTION CONTROL (LOAD CONTROL)
the target SIR based on the BER or BLER. OLPC function tracks the
Depending on the randomness of traffic generation, mobility, and
BER reported from femtocell L1 over a period of time against the
propagation conditions in the femtocell environment, the overload
BER required for the RAB. OLPC execution frequency is typically in
situation may occur in the uplink and/or the downlink direction,
the order of 1 to 2 Hz. The SIR target is reconfigured at L1 based on
which could prevent one or more UEs to achieve the desired QoS.
this reported BER. In particular, the SIR target is decreased if the
This overload could happen due to one or more of the following
(reported BER) < (target BER) and vice versa. The change in SIR
causes:
target is done to the extent that will bring the Eb/No to a point where
. Increased uplink interference resulting in increase of uplink
the required BER can be met while ensuring that the maximum
cell load factor: This could be due to increased inter-cell
transmit power limit for that radio link is not exceeded.
interference or due to increase in simultaneous uplink
transmissions in femtocell
Power control algorithm can be made predictive in nature, with the
. Increased downlink interference due to increase in
help of hysteresis, predictive path loss, and reported SIR values.
downlink-transmitted power: This could happen due to increase
Power control algorithm can set the target SIR by adding/subtracting
in simultaneous downlink transmissions from the femtocell
the delta value to the desired target SIR required for that radio link.
. Increased buffer occupancy for one or more transport
However, the maximum allowed power should not exceed the
channel(s) in case of interactive or background traffic: This
maximum transmit power allowed for the UE.
could happen if the incoming packet rate becomes more than the
maximum bit-rate supported on radio interface for a PS RAB. One
As the BLER reported and SIR estimate reported by L1, PC shall
simple mechanism could be to keep a maximum buffer capacity
build the hysteresis and take the decision on increasing or
for each RAB and keep buffering the packets till that limit. Any
decreasing the SIR target.
more packets can be dropped and let the higher layer user plane
protocols handle the situation (for example, in case of TCP,
6.2 DOWNLINK POWER CONTROL
retransmissions and flow control will take place)
6.2.1 Initial Setting Up of Target DL Power
. CPU overloads: This could happen if the femtocell starts running
With the help of admission control, power control module
out of processor power (MIPS) or system memory availability. This
determines the desired power level. The desired power level should
can happen in a femtocell since the availability of processor and
be based on the path loss.
memory will be limited to keep the overall cost of the equipment
UE estimates the desired SIR based on the BLER and BER
lower. This kind of situation should normally not occur if the
reported in the downlink direction. Based on the target SIR, UE
system dimensioning parameters have been set properly based
request UTRAN to increase or decrease the desired power level. On
on the femtocells’ capability to handle a particular load.
receiving the TPC command UTRAN adjusts the power level of the
DPCCH/DPCH power. UTRAN calculates the desired power based
The admission control strategy and/or the system load estimation
on the following formula.
parameters could be configured in such a way that the overload
situation can be avoided. Also, in the femtocell environment, since
the mobility and propagation conditions does not vary a lot, so the
where,
overload condition because of the first two reasons mentioned
. P (k-1) is the current downlink power
above should rarely occur. In a rare case when it does occur, the
. Pbal (k) is a correction according to the power control
congestion control algorithm must ensure that the system can
. Ptpc (k) is calculated based on Limit Power Increase used as well
recover from such overload situations. This is done in 3 steps:
as DL_Power_average_window_size. The possible values of the
congestion detection, resolution, and recovery [2].
power step size are 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2.0 dB

9 aricent.com

7.1 CONGESTION DETECTION
The uplink cell load and downlink transmitted power can be tracked
with respect to the maximum uplink load and DL power allowed as
per the resource planning. Other ways could be to get an input from
the OLPC algorithm to check if all the users are able to achieve the
expected quality over a period of time.
7.2 CONGESTION RESOLUTION
Some strategies that can be used to resolve the overload situations
in the femtocell are:
. Block New Calls: Any new calls requested in the femtocell can be
rejected either based on the traffic class or irrespective of the
traffic class. This can depend upon the severity of the congestion
detected
. TFCS Control: The Transport Format Combination Set (TFCS)
control procedure can be executed in such a way that the higher
bit-rate TFCs are restricted from usage, thereby reducing the load
on the radio link. TFCS control can either be done in small steps
for each user or in bigger steps for one user and so on. In
femtocell, since the number of users is anyway limited, therefore,
the second strategy is preferable since it leads to an effective and
faster reduction in system load
. Handover Execution: Handover of a UE to the macro network
(UMTS or GSM) can also be triggered as a congestion resolution
strategy. This strategy ensures that no user suffers due to TFCS
control. In the femtocell environment, this might not be a good
strategy since the user might prefer to be attached with the
femtocell (due to cost differential) even if the bit rate suffers
temporarily
. RAB Modification Request: Femtocell can request the core
network to downgrade the QoS for one or more RABs such that
the system load can be recovered. This is a slow process as this
involves interactions with the core network. In the femtocell
environment, the need for this kind of congestion resolution
mechanism might not be a favourable option.
7.3 CONGESTION RECOVERY
In the final step, when the congestion resolution has taken place
and cell load comes to a normal level, the TFCS of the users that
were restricted earlier are brought back to normal. The mechanism
for bringing the TFCS back to normal could also be done either in a
user-by-user basis with slow TFCS recovery or it can be done in
bigger TFCS recovery steps for one user at a time. Again, for the
femtocell environment, the second approach suits better since there
would not be too many simultaneous users anyway.
10
White Paper
8. HANDOVER CONTROL
Handover function enables mobility of the UEs across cell
boundaries and in the femtocell environment, providing a seamless
handover from femtocell to the overlay network would provide an
edge to WCDMA-based femtocells as compared to some other
technologies where handover feature is not yet supported. The
decision to execute a handover is based on the measurement
reported by UE and by Layer 1 of the network. The macro cell could
either be a UTRAN or a GSM/GPRS cell of the macro network.
Within UTRAN, soft and hard handovers are possible but for the
femtocell, the requirement for soft handover is not foreseen. The
hard handover scenario could either be inter-frequency or
intra-frequency handover. The handover control algorithm in
femtocell is invoked after analyzing the measurement reports from
the UE based on the measurement events set by the femtocell. The
measurement event is reported when any of the criteria is met for
reporting the measurement.
The handover control algorithm in femtocell is
invoked after analyzing the measurement reports
from the UE based on the measurement events set
by the femtocell
The main challenges in execution of handovers in the femtocell
environment are:
. Absence of soft handover: because of which the UE can only be
connected to one cell at any given time. Therefore, the network
needs to ensure that the handover decision is not taken too early
which could be possible with the existence of soft handovers. If
decision is taken too early, it could lead to a ping-pong effect in
case the UE is just moving around the cell boundary but not really
moving out towards the target cell
. Limited cell overlapping: The coverage area of a femtocell is
quite limited since it is expected to cover only the indoor
environment. This reduces the overlap between a femtocell and
the macro cell. A limited overlap between the 2 cells reduces the
time for the femtocell to handover a call to the macro cell. This
could lead to call dropping if the handover execution is done too
late
. Abrupt change in cell signal strength: The cell boundary of
femtocell and macro cell is expected to be around the doors and
windows of a building. This is because the signal strength of
femtocell suddenly decreases while the signal strength of macro
cell suddenly increases when the UE steps out from the indoor
environment. Exactly the reverse occurs when the UE moves into
the indoor environment. This further limits the distance overlap
between the cells and the window of time available for execution
of a handover
aricent.com

. Identification of neighbouring cells: Another challenge foreseen
in the handover execution in femtocell environment is the
identification of neighbouring cells by the macro cell and the
femtocell
. Network planning: Hierarchical cell structures including macro,
micro, pico and femtocells have been widely deployed in 2G
networks in order to increase the capacity by using cells with
reduced sizes. However, in case of WCDMA networks, the high
overlapping that exists between layers, which causes an excess of
inter-cell interference, normally requires that each layer operates
with a different carrier. Therefore it is desirable that femtocells
work on a different frequency than that of the overlay cells.
Based on the deployment scenario the femtocell network operator
activates measurement-reporting events for one or more of the
following:
. Intra frequency
. Inter frequency
. Inter-RAT measurement.
The femtocell either builds a list of neighbouring macro cells at start
up using the network listening feature or this information is
pre-configured.
8.1 INPUTS TO THE HANDOVER ALGORITHM
8.1.1 UE Measurements Reports
For a femtocell, the operator can configure the UEs for event based
or periodical depending on the event to be used for reporting. The
set of events to trigger the UE measurement report needed for the
handover evaluation algorithm are as explained below.
8.1.1.1 Femtocell and macro cell having the same carrier
frequency
The maximum power transmitted by a macro cell is of a different
order of magnitude as compared to a femtocell. This rules out the
use of events 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D as described in [3] for the
handover evaluation. Therefore the handover process is most often
triggered when the measured quantity goes above the absolute
threshold (1E) for the neighbouring macro cells or goes below the
absolute threshold (1F) for the femtocell.
The need for periodic reporting triggered by the above events is not
needed in the femtocell environment because:
. There is no need for soft handover in femtocell environment
. Chances of femtocell missing a reported event are very less.
11
White Paper
8.1.1.2 Femtocell and macro cell having different carrier
frequency
In the femtocell environment, a UE should be sending a
measurement report on the following events:
. Event 2B: The estimated quality of the currently used frequency
(femtocell) is below a certain threshold and the estimated quality
of a non-used frequency (macro cell) is above a certain threshold.
. Event 2C: The estimated quality of a non-used frequency is above
a certain threshold.
. Event 2D: The estimated quality of the currently used frequency is
below a certain threshold.
The other inter-frequency events are ruled out. The estimated
quality could be based either on CPICH Ec/No or RSCP, which can
be chosen based on the current network load as explained in
section 8.1.6.
For the events 2B and 2C, the femtocell also needs to make the
appropriate compressed mode settings to enable a UE to make the
inter-frequency measurement.
8.1.1.3 Femtocell and macro cell having different RAT
For this case, the femtocell needs to configure conditions necessary
to start measurements in GSM according to the thresholds for the
events 2D and 2F. These events specify the minimum levels for the
current UTRAN network to initiate or stop GSM measurements by
means of the threshold sRATsearch.
Depending on how the threshold and parameters are defined, it is
very likely that GSM is re-selected, which may turn into a high
number of inter-RAT handovers. When the operator prefers to keep
the mobile camped on the UTRAN cell by adjusting radio
parameters, there are several options:
. Define a low value for the sRATsearch threshold to avoid mobiles
measuring GSM. However, if the value is set too low, it might be
possible that the mobile loses UTRAN coverage and no GSM cell
is measured, thus losing service. Consequently, the setting of this
parameter is a trade-off between the number of handovers to
GSM and the probability that the service is lost for the mobile
. Introduce a certain offset in the GSM cells measurements in order
to delay the decision of inter RAT handover.
The definition of the GSM cells to be measured is critical in order to
have an adequate inter-RAT handover that avoids, as much as
possible, the loss of service situation.
aricent.com

Following the receipt of UE measurement report triggered by event
2D, the femtocell would send a measurement control event
message with parameters corresponding to the event 3A (the
estimated quality of the currently used UTRAN frequency is below a
certain threshold, and the estimated quality of the other system is
above a certain threshold).
8.1.1.4 UE quality measurements
The DL BLER measurements reported by the UE when a predefined
number of bad CRCs are exceeded (event 5A) can also be used as
an input to the handover algorithm. These measurements should
ideally be sent periodically as long as a DCH is established.
8.1.1.5 Measurement initiation
The neighbouring cell measurements are started for a UE by the
femtocell at an appropriate time. The various strategies for
measurement initiation are:
. In case the RRC connection is setup only for signalling, the
measurements need not be initiated since the probability of
handover is minimal in such small time duration.
. In case the RRC connection is setup for a CS or a PS call and
there are no inter frequency and inter RAT cells for measurement,
the measurements on the intra frequency cells can be started
immediately after the successful completion of RRC connection
and security related procedures.
. In case, the ‘service handover’ option requires a handover to be or
not to be initiated to a GSM cell, the action shall be taken
according to the ‘service handover’ requirement and as per the
availability of a GSM cell.
. In case there are inter-frequency or inter RAT cells available and a
PS or a CS call is being established, the compressed mode
configuration shall be provided to the UE immediately, but
compressed mode shall not be activated at the RRC connection
setup time.
8.1.2 Network Quality Measurements
The network can also provide the UL BLER measurements for an
established RB periodically. This input to the handover algorithm can
be used either along with the UE quality measurements or also as a
standalone input. The network L1 evaluates BER/BLER on a per
radio block basis for an established DCH. However, periodicity of
this input to the handover algorithm needs to be regulated.
8.1.3 Adaptive threshold for Hysteresis and Time-to-Trigger
The handover algorithm for the femtocell need to be developed such
that it can dynamically adjust the handover related parameters
based on its actual performance. Hysteresis could be added around
12
White Paper
the absolute thresholds as well as in the time domain (time to
trigger). The hysteresis and time-to-trigger margin is fine-tuned
using an adaptive algorithm that tracks these margins over a period
of time and adjusts it based on the observed performance. The
handover algorithm for the femtocell needs to be developed such
that it can dynamically adjust these parameters based on the
observed performance. In case a particular set of these values is
leading to frequent call drops (above a certain threshold), the
hysteresis and/or time-to-trigger margin is reduced such that the
events can be reported earlier and handover is executed within time.
If the ping-pong effect is taking place (handover to macro
immediately followed by a hand in back from macro to femtocell),
then the hysteresis and/or time-to-trigger margin can be increased
further to ensure that the handovers are not getting executed too
soon. Whenever the CPICH RSCP or CPICH Ec/No is compared
between the target cells, this difference has to be above the
hysteresis value. For example, CPICH RSCP difference should be
at least 20db.
8.1.4 Cell Individual Offset
Another mechanism that can be applied for making the handovers
more effective is the usage of Cell Individual Offset (CIO) parameter.
This parameter is used to ensure that the UE is more likely to
connect to a particular cell. By configuring the CIO in the
Cell_Info_List, a particular cell is provided a higher priority over the
other cells during handover and the extent of the prioritisation
depends upon the offset value provided (a higher offset value would
increase the probability of that cell being selected). In the femtocell
environment, a high CIO value for the femtocell (configured in the
macro cell neighbour list) leads to a quicker handover decision from
macro cell to femtocell.
In some cases, it might be possible that a femtocell is in very close
proximity to a macro cell and is getting overshadowed. In these
cases it might be necessary to apply a negative CIO value to this
particular macro cell to allow a user to stay connected to the
femtocell.
8.1.5 Prioritized cell list
A priority is associated with all the available macro cells in the
neighbouring environment by the femtocell. The probability is more
for handover getting initiated on a macro cell that is on top of the
priority list. The priority of a macro cell is determined based on the
following criteria:
. Macro cell IDs in the same PLMN as the femtocell PLMN is higher
on the priority list. PLMN of the macro cell can be known to
femtocell by listening to the neighbouring environment on start-up
aricent.com

. The statistical probability of a handover being successful to a
particular macro cell can be taken into account while deciding the
cell priority.
. Cell Relation: The knowledge about the cell relations, i.e.
overlapped (nearby femtocell), Macro/ Micro cells or in general
Hierarchical Cell Structure (HCS) is useful in order to direct the
traffic to the most optimal cell.
. RAT: The operator/user might have a preference for UMTS macro
cells over GSM cells or vice versa.
8.1.6 Network Load
The choice of measurement quantity could be between the DL
CPICH Ec/ No and RSCP. This could vary dynamically depending
on the network load whereby RSCP is used in a low network load
situation and Ec/ No when the network load is high or the network is
not optimized.
8.1.7 Femtocell Load
Besides being used as an input to determine the prioritised
neighbouring cell list, the femtocell load can be used as a
standalone input to trigger a handover evaluation along with other
factors mentioned above.
8.2 FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED DURING HANDOVER
EVALUATION
8.2.1 Intra Frequency Handover
8.2.1.1 CPICH RSCP and CPICH Ec/ No
UE measures the CPICH RSCP or CPICH Ec/ No based on the
UTRAN request. In general, the CPICH RSCP is used when the
network load is low and network is optimised whereas the CPICH
Ec/ No is used when the network load is high and the network is not
optimised. In the intra-frequency handover scenario, femtocell may
not have more than 3 neighbouring macro cells. In order to avoid the
ping-pong between macro to femtocell and vice versa, handover
decision should consider the both CPICH RSCP and CPICH Ec/ No.
8.2.1.2 BLER or Bit error rate based on QoS RAB
UTRAN is designed to support the QoS service for CS and PS RAB.
Whenever the BLER or Bit Error Rate is higher than a threshold and
it remains so for a certain period of time, it is desirable to handover
the UE to the macro cell. This factor is taken in combination with the
CPICH RSCP and Ec/ No of the neighbouring cell. The downlink
BLER/ Bit Error Rate is received from the measurement report from
the UE as mentioned in section 7.1.1.4. The uplink BLER and Bit
Error Rate is received from the L1 as described in section 7.1.2. For
example, during the AMR calls, if the BLER >2% than UTRAN may
decide to handover to a better cell.
13
White Paper
8.2.1.3 Pathloss
In the indoor environment, path loss is also important factor to be
considered due to high signal attenuation in indoor system such as
concrete, brick, and wooden walls. The path loss is calculated as
follows:
UE is able to send the measurement once the path loss exceeds a
certain threshold. Femtocell requests the CPICH RSCP of the
current cell and calculates the path loss. If the user moves towards
an area where path loss is high, it is better to handover the UE to
the macro cell.
8.2.2 Inter-frequency Handover
In the inter frequency handover, operating frequency is different. In
order to receive the measurement report from a UE, compressed
mode needs to be enabled. As the femtocell boundary is quiet small,
around 50 to 75 meter range, the user is able to move out from the
indoor to macro environment within 120 to 180 seconds. As the UE
can report the neighbouring cell measurement within 800 ms, so the
enabling of compressed mode when the current CPICH RSCP goes
below a certain threshold value allows the possibility of call being
handed over without being dropped. The factors to be considered
remain the same as that of intra frequency handover. However, if the
femtocell is overloaded or congested, it may decide to handover to
the macro cell of different frequency to reduce the interference level
within the cell.
8.2.3 Inter-RAT Handover
A relationship should exist between the thresholds to trigger events
2D, 2F and 3A. In particular, event 2D determines the instant to start
GSM measurements, which usually involves the use of compressed
mode. Therefore, low values of the threshold associated with this
event are suitable in order to not trigger the compressed mode
unnecessarily, which could cause certain performance degradation.
In any case, this threshold must be above the threshold of event 3A,
which specifies the instant when the handover to GSM must start, in
order to have GSM measurements available when this occurs.
Furthermore, a certain separation between both 2D and 3A
associated thresholds is convenient, because a certain delay may
exist from the instant when the GSM measurements are triggered to
the reception of the first measurement, due to the compress mode
activation. Event 2F specifies the instant when GSM measurements
are stopped, consequently, a certain separation is necessary
between the 2D and 2F associated thresholds to avoid signal
variations leading to the continuous activations and deactivations of
the GSM measurements.
aricent.com
 White Paper

The threshold for event 3A should be set high enough to avoid the
mobile losing UTRAN coverage during the handover procedure due
to sudden signal degradations. Furthermore, it should be set in
accordance with the threshold that triggers the handover from GSM
to UTRAN. If both the thresholds are very similar, undesirable
ping-pong effects between the systems are likely to occur.
10. BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Holma H. and Toskala A., "WCDMA for UMTS: radio access for
third generation mobile communications", John Wiley, 2000
[2] 3GPP TS 25.922: Radio Resource Management Strategies
[3] 3GPP TS 25.331: Radio Resource Control
[4] 3GPP TS 21.905: Vocabulary of 3GPP Specifications

8.3 FACTORS NOT TO BE CONSIDERED FOR HANDOVER

EVALUATION IN A FEMTOCELL ENVIRONMENT
. Distance from femtocell access point: Considering that the
coverage area of a femtocell will be less than 100 meters,
distance from the access point will not be an important criterion for
handover.
. Change of service: Ideally in an overlay environment, it is
advisable to have the high data rate, low speed services be
served by a Micro/Pico cell whereas the low rate, high speed
services would be routed to a macro cell. However, due to the cost
benefits to user using the femtocell environment, handovers
should not be done based on the user service requirement unless
the change of service requires additional resources that are not
available at the femtocell.

9. ACRONYMS
For detailed list of standard 3GPP acronyms refer to [4].
BER: Bit Error Rate
BLER: Block Error Rate
CIO: Cell Individual Offset
CPE: Customer Premises Equipment
CPU: Central Processing Unit
CRM: Cell Resource Manager
HSPA: High Speed Packet Access (HSDPA and HSUPA combined)
Eb/No: Bit energy over noise spectral density ratio
HCS: Hierarchical Cell Structure
OAM: Operation, Administration and Maintenance
OLPC: Outer Loop Power Control
OVSF: Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor
QoS: Quality of Service
RAT: Radio Access Technology
RRM: Radio Resource Management
RSCP: Received Signal Code Power
SF: Spreading Factor
SIR: Signal to Interference Ratio
TFCS: Transport Format Combination Set
TPC: Transmit Power Control

14 aricent.com
 White Paper

This page has been left blank intentionally.

15 aricent.com
 White Paper

Aricent is a global leader in communications software, providing strategic solutions

that empower billions of people. By delivering the best and most innovative
communications software in the industry, we’re helping our clients change the world.

We have an extensive portfolio of services and products covering the full spectrum
of communications software—from strategic design to implementation in the field.
Our uniquely talented team of designers, consultants and engineers work to solve
the most complex, high-impact challenges for our clients—the world’s leading
equipment manufacturers, device manufacturers and service providers.

China +86 10 5924 4700

Finland +358 9 25166241

France +33 1 56 60 53 56

Germany +49 911 25270

India +91 124 234 6666

Japan +81 44 221 5360

Korea +82 2 6001 3510

Mexico +52 81 8218 9090-99

South Africa +27 11 293 0500

Sweden +46 8 601 4106

Taiwan +886 2 89771667

Ukraine +380 432 55 0955

United Kingdom +44 208 622 3859

aricent.com