Location Area Definition and CCCH Parameters

Paging channel

(PCH) signalling will be sent over the whole location area (LA). This means that one paging message (CCCH) TRX of cells in the same

over the A interface is 'copied' to all Abis links going to the common control channel

location area. An optimal LA size is a balance between PCH load and location updates (LU). If the LA size is too large, paging channels and capacity will be saturated because of limited

LAPD Abis or radio interface CCCH paging capacity

and BCSU processor may become overloaded. On the other hand, with large location areas there will be a smaller number of location updates (LU) performed and vice versa. The same applies to paging coming via the Gs and Gb interfaces: the MSC sends the paging message to the SGSN with the LA info and the SGSN defines it to a more accurate area: cell, routing area (RA), LA or BSS. If within the SGSN area there are cells that do not support GPRS services, the SGSN will group these cells under a 'null RA'. The SGSN will perform the paging procedure described above within both the RA(s) derived from the location information and the 'null RA'. The number of CCCHs depends on the channel structure as follows: COMBINED: for a small cell, 2 TRXs/cell, 3 CCCHs in every signalling multiframe (51

TDMA, 235 ms)

NONCOMBINED: for a large cell, 3 TRXs/cell, 9 CCCHs in every signalling multiframe (51 TDMA, 235 ms), used if GPRS is enabled in the cell. Note that this is a kind of 'rule of thumb' of today, assuming not very heavy SMS traffic. The parameters that affect the CCCH capacity on a cell basis are the following:

Number of blocks reserved to AGCH (BS_AG_BLKS_RES); once this parameter is specified, the PCH is
calculated; the parameter range is 0 to 7 and value zero is not recommended.

number of multiframes (BS_PA_MFRMS); this specifies how many multiframes will go until the given paging group
is re-paged; the parameter range is 2 to 9 and the recommended value is 5. The paging method is also set in MSC

TMSI or IMSI. TMSI is more commonly used, because of bigger capacity (4/page

group). Here we assume that all the radio interface capacity is used, thus all extra paging will be ignored. Below there are two extreme cases in terms of how high or low the paging capacity is over the radio interface. These examples are theoretical ones and the intention is to show the range of variation caused by different parameterisations.

CCCH

COMBINED MAX total CCCH PCH AGCH Pages per hour

Table 2:

NONCOMBINED ( 3 TRXs/cell) 9 8 1 490 212

( 2TRXs/cell) 3 2 1 122 553

Extreme case 1: theoretical maximum (maximum paging capacity in radio interface, TMSI4 in use, for example 4 TMSIs in each paging)

COMBINED MIN total CCCH PCH AGCH Pages per hour

Table 3:

NONCOMBINED ( 3 TRXs/cell) 9 2 7 30 638

(2 TRXs/cell) 3 1 2 15 319

Extreme case 2: theoretical minimum (minimum paging capacity in radio interface, IMSI1 in use only, for example 1 IMSI in each paging)

The following examples gives some estimation of parameters and LA sizes with BSC3i 2000 configuration, when 60% of total Erlang capacity is assumed to be used. The paging capacity is presented for four different cell configurations: 2 + 2 + 2 4 + 4 + 4 6 + 6 + 6 12 + 12 + 12

Example: LA size for small cells (2 + 2 + 2 configuration)

In this example it is assumed that we have a configuration with 2 TRXs per cell. If we use 2% blocking in the radio interface, we can see from the erlang (the unit of measure of carried traffic intensity) B-table that some 9 erlangs will be served on a cell basis. This can be converted to some 360 subscribers per cell (0.025 erlang per subscriber). If one site consists of 2 + 2 + 2 as a configuration, some 264 sites together will serve some 7 128 erlang or 285120 subscribers. For small cells (2 + 2 + 2 configuration) LA configuration should be considered. For example, if three LAs are used then LA size would be 528 TRXs.

Total number of subscribers Example TRXs in LA Cell configuration CCCH channel structure Total CCCH Typical PCH Typical AGCH Number of multiframes Max. Pages per hour (in Air) theoretically Pages per hour with BSC nominal call mix
Table 4: Parameter values for the LA size for small cells

285 120 (in 792 cells, each 360 subs.) 528 2+2+2 COMBINED (for example small cell) 3 2 1 5 110 297 (TMSI4 80%, IMSI2 20%) 47 249

Here we assume the BSC nominal call model with only 0.1 SMS call rate per subs/hour. The parameter

number of multiframes value is 5 here. It means that the same paging group will be re-paged after 5

x 235 ms = 1.175 sec. This will ensure longer MS battery lifetime, because the MS has to listen quite seldom to a CCCH channel in a serving cell. You must ensure that the paging load does not exceed the physical limits in radio/Abis interfaces. These could be practical values provided that the SMS paging amount in the BSC call model would be less for example 0.1 SMS call rate subscribers per hour, which would reduce the paging load.

Example: LA size for medium size cells (4 + 4 + 4 configuration)

In this example it is assumed that we have a configuration with 4 TRXs per cell. If we use 2% blocking in the radio interface, we can see from the erlang B-table that some 21.9 erlangs will be served on cell basis. This can be converted to some 876 subscribers per cell (0.025 erlang per subscriber). If one site consists of 4 + 4 + 4 as a configuration, some 108 sites together will serve some 7117 erlang or 284700 subscribers. For medium size cells (4 + 4 + 4 configuration) LA configuration should be considered. For example, if three LAs are used then LA size would be 434 TRXs.

Total number of subscribers Example TRXs in LA Cell configuration CCCH channel structure Total CCCH Typical PCH Typical AGCH Number of multiframes Max. Pages per hour (in Air) theoretically Pages per hour with BSC nominal call mix
Table 5:

284 700 (in 325 cells, each 876 subs.) 434 4+4+4 NONCOMBINED (for example large cell) 9 6 3 5 147 062 (TMSI2 60%, IMSI1 40%) 47 179

Parameter values for the LA size for medium size cells

Here we assume the BSC nominal call model with only 0.1 SMS call rate per subs/hour.

Example: LA size for large cells (6 + 6 + 6 configuration)

In this example it is assumed that we have a configuration with 6 TRXs per cell. If we use 2% blocking in the radio interface, we can see from the erlang B-table that some 34.6 erlangs will be served on cell basis. This can be converted to

1384 subscribers per cell (0.025 erlang per subscriber). If one site consists of 6 + 6 + 6 as a configuration, some 68 sites together will serve some 7 127 erlang or 285104 subscribers. For large size cells (6 + 6 + 6 configuration) LA configuration should be considered. For example, if three LAs is used then LA size would be 412 TRXs.

Total number of subscribers Example TRXs in LA Cell configuration CCCH channel structure Total CCCH Typical PCH Typical AGCH Number of multiframes Max. Pages per hour (in Air) theoretically Pages per hour with BSC nominal call mix ( 0.1 SMS)
Table 6: Parameter values for the LA size for large cells

285 104 (in 206 cells, each 1384 subs.) 412 6+6+6 NONCOMBINED (for example large cell) 9 8 1 5 490 212 (TMSI4) 47 246

Here we assume the BSC nominal call model with only 0.1 SMS call rate per subs/hour.

Example: LA size for extra large cells (12 + 12 + 12 configuration)

In this example it is assumed that we have a configuration with 12 TRXs per cell. If we use 2% blocking in the radio interface, we can see from the erlang B-table that some 77.3 erlangs will be served on cell basis. This can be converted to some 3092 subscribers per cell (0.025 erlang per subscriber). If one site consists of 12 + 12 + 12 as a configuration, some 30 sites together will serve some 7 111 erlang or 284 464 subscribers. For extra large size cells (12 + 12 + 12 configuration) LA configuration should be considered. For example, if three LAs is used then LA size would be 369 TRXs.

Total number of subscribers Example TRXs in LA Cell configuration CCCH channel structure Total CCCH Typical PCH Typical AGCH Number of multiframes Max. Pages per hour (in Air) theoretically Pages per hour with BSC nominal call mix (0.1 SMS)
Table 7: Parameter values for the LA size for extra large cells

284 464 (in 92 cells, each 3092 subs.) 369 12 + 12 + 12 NONCOMBINED (for example large cell) 9 8 1 5 490 212 (TMSI4) 47 140

Here we assume the BSC nominal call model with only 0.1 SMS call rate per subs/hour. The parameter

number of multiframes value is 5 here. It means that the same paging group will be re-paged after 5

x 235 ms = 1.175 sec. This will ensure longer MS battery lifetime, because the MS has to listen quite seldom to a CCCH channel in a serving cell. In this case you must also ensure from the estimated call mix or from live network statistics and measurement values that you operate in the nominal BSC load area and that the Abis paging load does not exceed the limits of LAPD (16 kbit/s, 32 kbit/s, or 64 kbit/s) link capacity nor the radio interface paging capacity. The recommendation concerning MSC paging parameters (see The LAPD counters used to check the LAPD load statistics) is to use the 'LA' paging method (LAC or LAI), which prevents the unnecessary cell level CI information from being sent to the BSC via the A interface. If the CI information is included, it is sent for each cell in the LA. Paging via the A interface is always performed on LA level. Inclusion of the CI information does not provide any benefit and loads the MSC, BSC and the A interface unnecessarily. In the MSC there are also parameters related to

CCCH (actually PCH) capacity, which are on a LA basis. To ensure that

the paging message reaches the MS, the paging message is sent several times. The repetition procedure is defined in the

Repaging_Interval (time between paging attempts) and Number_of_Repaging_Attempts, which can be modified in the (Nokia) MSC.
MSC. These MSC parameters are The recommended values are:

Number_of_Repaging_Attempts = 0, Repaging_Interval = 3.5s. This works better

if TMSI is in use. This means that the first paging goes with TMSI, and then after 3.5 seconds with IMSI, if the subscriber does not respond to TMSI. The conclusion is that paging load is highly dependent on parameters. In the same LA, the paging load should be monitored. Note that if there is only one small cell in a given LA, where combined channel structure is in use, this will be the bottleneck if paging blocking criteria are strictly followed. In other words: the smallest cell in the LA will set the PCH limit. Note also that some maximum configurations would not be possible because of other limiting factors such as the 16 kbit/s Abis or radio interface, which would start to limit the message traffic, thus it would be useless to define such parameter settings (for example too large location area size). If there are only one or two cells with combined channel structure in an LA, you can choose to live with a high paging blocking rate in this cell because the probability of MS location in this cell is very low. Therefore, the Paging blocking rate as seen from the MSC is not modified much by too few PCHs on this cell.

Blocking rate Cell 1 Cell 2 Cell 3 Cell 4 Cell 5 Cell 6 Cell 7 Cell 8 Cell 9 Cell 10
Table 8:

MS location probability 2% 2% 6% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10%

30% 30% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%

LA with 2 cells Combined and 8 cells Noncombined

The final Blocking rate is 30 x 4/100 + (1 x 96/100) = 2.16%. Moreover, if the MSC repeats the Paging messages, the end user blocking rate can be considerably reduced if the PCH is not overloaded too much: 10% x 10% 1%.

DN9812388

Id: 0900d805805914db

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