A.F. COSME.

UMTS CAPACITY SIMULATION STUDY

As it is mentioned in [Handoverthesis], a handover is generally performed

when the quality of the link (measured in terms of the power of the
received pilot) between the Node B and the UE on the move is decreasing
and it is possible to hand over the connection to another cell with better
radio characteristics. In previous 2G systems like GSM, the handover
process tears down (i.e. literarily interrupts the connection for a short
period of time, not noticeable by the end user) an existing connection and
replaces it with a new connection to a new cell where the user is handed
over with a different frequency (concept known as “hard handover”). This
cell where the user is handed over is so-called the “”target” cell. Since all
cells in W-CDMA use the same frequency, in 3G systems it is possible to
make the connection to the new cell before leaving the current cell and
keeping always at least one radio link with a Node B. This concept is
known as "soft" handover. Hard Handover however, is also used in 3G
systems when it is needed to change the frequency of the carrier, either
performing inter-frequency handover (i.e. change of UMTS carrier
frequency for balancing load purposes) or performing Inter-RAT (Radio
Access Technology) handover from UMTS to GSM.

In summary, in 3G systems there are two new handover concepts: Soft

and Softer handover, and they basically mean that it is possible to keep
two or more concurrent connections with different Node Bs (Soft
handover) or with the same Node B (e.g. when multi-path propagation
between the UE and Node B makes the Node B to receive the signal sent
from the UE from two different sectors). In both soft/softer handover,
the UE always keeps at least one radio link to the UTRAN. Both
concepts are illustrated in the next Figure.

1
B
de
No
r 1
c to
Se

Sector Node B
2 2
RNC
RNC
Softer Handover Soft Handover
Figure 90: Differences between Soft and Softer Handover

To keep track of the number of connections, the concept of the Active Set
is required. The Active Set, as it is defined in [Ericssonhandover], is the
set of cells used for a particular UE connection. The UE has a radio link

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established to each of the cells present in its Active Set. This set is
updated dynamically (event based) during all the time that a connection is
alive, based on the measurements of the strength of the Primary Common
Pilot Channel (P-CPICH) Ec/Io or the Primary Common Pilot Channel (P-
CPICH) RSCP (Received Signal Code Power).

Ec/Io can be defined in terms of RSCP in the following way:

Ec/Io = RSCP/RSSI (8-1)

Where RSCP is the power (measured in the UE) carried by the decoded
pilot channel and RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) is the total
wideband received power (measured in the UE) within the channel
bandwidth.

So basically, during a user service session, there are these possible events
related to Active set updating (using the name of the events described in
[25.922]:

• Event 1A : add new cell

• Event 1B : remove cell
• Event 1C : replace cell (if the active set is full)
• Event 1D : change best cell

Best Cell, according to [Ericssonhandover], is defined as the cell, among

the ones in the Active Set, having a measured P-CPICH with the highest
quality Ec/No.

From a Node B’s point of view, an incoming handover request is similar to

an incoming call, although the RRM algorithms can differentiate whether
the request comes from a Handover Connection or not, as it is the case in
the Ericsson RRM algorithms. Given that using handover in an appropriate
way leads to an improvement in capacity because of the soft hand over
gain, the handover connections have less probability to be blocked than
new incoming non-handover calls. This feature can be seen clearly in all
the Ericsson Diagrams where different thresholds for blocking are set
depending if the connection is guaranteed (e.g. voice) or not guaranteed
(e.g. Web), handover or non handover (i.e. new request) call. The inability
to establish a new connection in the target cell is referred to as a
“handover failure” and it occurs when no new resources are available in
the target cells or when the radio link quality has decreased below
acceptable levels before the call could be handed-over [Handovertesis].
The first reason leads to Handover Blocked attempts and the last one
leads to Handover Dropped attempts and both are good measures of the
Handover Performance in the network.

The parameter Timetotrigger1a, as documented in [Ericssonhandover]

is a timer that represents the minimum time required to trigger the
Event 1a. Event1a represents the Addition of a new cell to the
active set. The Handover Algorithm example in [25.922] is presented

185 Beneficiario COLFUTURO 2003