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Smart Soft Handover PDF
Smart Soft Handover PDF
Feature Guide
V1.01 2017-10-31 Feng Hong Wu Xiuling Add the strategy of SFN related and parameters.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Feature Attribute
2 Overview
2.1 Feature Introduction
2.1.1 ZWF21-03-015 Smart Soft Handover
2.2 License Control
2.3 Correlation With Other Features
3 Technical Description
3.1 Configured Neighboring Cells Handover in Primary Scrambling Code Confusion Scenario
3.1.1 Handover Strategy for Configured Neighboring Cells with Primary Scrambling Code Confusion
3.1.2 Candidate Cell Screening Strategy Based on SFN
3.1.3 Target Cell Selection Strategy Based on Distance
3.2 Missing Neighboring Cells Handover
3.2.1 Handover Strategy for Missing Neighboring Cells
3.2.2 Intra-frequency Blacklist Configuration
4 Parameters
6 Engineering Guide
6.1 Application Scenario
6.2 Feature Activation Procedure
6.3 Feature Validation Procedure
6.4 Feature Deactivation Procedure
6.5 Impact on the Network
7 Abbreviation
8 Reference Document
FIGURES
TABLES
Table 2-1 License Control List
Table 4-1 Parameter Description
Table 5-1 Counter List
Table 6-1 Feature Validation Procedure
Table 6-2 RNC parameter list
1 Feature Attribute
BSC/RNC Version: [ZXWR RNC V3.16.10.19/ZXUR 9000 V4.16.10.19]
Attribute: [Optional]
2 Overview
There are 512 scrambling codes defined in a UMTS network, but scrambling code collision may still occur in neighboring cells in an actual network. Because the
measurement report of a UE indicates only the primary scrambling code of a cell, if multiple neighboring cells have the same primary scrambling code, the RNC cannot
correctly identify the target cell indicated by a UE. As a result, the soft handover may fail. As Small Cells are widely deployed, the number of neighboring cells is increased
drastically, and the number of neighboring cells sharing the same scrambling code is also increased. Therefore, a macro cell is likely to have neighboring cells with the same
scrambling code. As the scrambling code confusion probability in UE’s measurement reports becomes higher and higher, the soft handover success rate is decreased.
To solve this problem, this feature is introduced. If a UE reports a primary scrambling code shared by multiple neighboring cells, the RNC can select the nearest neighboring
cell as the handover target cell according to the geographic information (such as longitude and latitude) or SFN difference. Thus, soft handover failure can be reduced. This
feature achieves smart handovers. It can identify the correct target neighboring cell from the neighboring cells with the same scrambling code, and increase the soft
handover success rate.
In addtition, the RNC always only supports the handover to neighboring cells configured on the OMC-R. But when the network deployment strategy changes, such as
deploying new base station, the existing neighbor relation configuration may be not thorough any more, call drops occur because the handover to non-configured
neighboring cells cannot be executed.
Therefore, the following improvements are introduced in UR15. If a cell in the Detect Set is configured in the RNC, but is not configured as a neighboring cell of the source
cell, it can still be regarded as the target cell to perform soft handovers, to ensure the communication continuity and decrease the call-drop rate. And if the primary
scrambling code reported in the detected set report is reused by multiple cells configured in the RNC, the RNC can select the nearest intra-frequency cell as the handover
target cell according to the geographic information (such as longitude and latitude) or SFN difference.
License Configured
Feature ID Feature Name Unit
Control Item NE
Smart Soft
ZWF21-03-015 N/A N/A N/A
Handover
Neighboring Cell Neighboring Cell
ZWF21-20-012 RNC RNC
Monitoring Monitoring
None
3. Affected Features
None
3 Technical Description
There are two features described in this paper: the selection of target cell for handover when configured neighboring cells are with primary scrambling code confusion, and
support of the handover to missing neighboring cells.
3.1 Configured Neighboring Cells Handover in Primary Scrambling Code Confusion Scenario
To describe the scrambling code confusion situation, an example is shown, see Figure 3-1.
Cell S is the servicing cell for the UE, Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3 are the neighboring cells of Cell S, and Cell 1 and Cell 3 have the same scrambling code. There are two
scrambling codes in a UE’s measurement report, and one code is used for both cell 1 and cell 3. Because only scrambling codes are available in the UE’s measurement
report, the RNC cannot correctly match the scrambling code to cell 1 or cell 3. So the RNC needs to determine which cell (cell 1 or cell 3) is indicated by the scrambling code
in the measurement report. The function of smart soft handover by determining the target cell according to the geographic information or SFN difference is introduced.
3.1.1 Handover Strategy for Configured Neighboring Cells with Primary Scrambling Code Confusion
Whether to obtain the SFN is controlled by URncInfo.getBfnSwitch, whether to obtain the latitude and longitude information for calculating the distance between cells is
controlled by UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw.
When UUtranCellFDD.smartHoSwch is set to “1: On”, and URncInfo.getBfnSwitch or UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw is set to “1: On”, if the RNC receives a measurement
report which requires to add a cell into the active set, the RNC obtains the candidate cell list (List1) for handover, which are the configured intra-frequency neighboring cells
and match the primary scrambling code indicated in the measurement report, where, the cells in block state must be eliminated. And then, the target cell of handover is
selected according to the following strategy:
l If URncInfo.getBfnSwitch is set to “1: On”, and UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw is set to “0: Off”, the List1 is screened according to “3.1.2Candidate Cell Screening Strategy
Based on SFN”. For the screened candidate cell list List2:
- If there is only one cell, the cell is the target cell of handover.
- If it is empty or there is more than one cell, the candidate cell with the least time difference (Delta*10) between it and the reported cell is the target cell of
handover.
l If URncInfo.getBfnSwitch is set to “0: Off”, and UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw is set to “1: On”, the target cell of handover is selected from List1 according to “3.1.3Target
Cell Selection Strategy Based on Distance”.
l If URncInfo.getBfnSwitch and UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw are both set to “1: On”, the List1 is screened according to “3.1.2Candidate Cell Screening Strategy Based on
SFN”. For the screened candidate cell list List2:
- If there is only one cell, the cell is the target cell of handover.
- If there is more than one cell, the target cell of handover is selected from List2 according to “3.1.3Target Cell Selection Strategy Based on Distance”.
- If it is empty, the target cell of handover is selected from List1 according to “3.1.3Target Cell Selection Strategy Based on Distance”.
1. Obtain the SFN difference between the reported cell and the serving cell
The UE sends the frame offset (Tm and Off) between the neighboring cell SFN and UE CFN to the RNC through measurement reports. According to that information,
the RNC can obtain the SFN difference as below:
2. Obtain the SFN difference between the candidate cells and the serving cell
The RNC can obtain the SFN of a cell under the RNC itself through cell FP node synchronization between the user plane and NodeB, and calculate the SFN of a
neighboring cell under another RNC. These SFNs are saved and updated periodically, and the update period is indicated by the parameter URncInfo.updateBFNPeriod.
1) The current moment SFN (ms) of candidate cells and serving cell is calculated according to the current time and saved SFN as follows:
2) The SFN difference between cells: (SFN Cell S – SFN Cell candidate)mod 256 (3)
3. Obtain the SFN difference between the candidate cells and the reported cell (Delta)
If the time difference (Delta*10) is greater or equal to the threshold URncInfo.smartHoTimeAccu, the candidate cell is eliminated from candidate cell list.
Note: The information about one scrambling code in a UE measurement report corresponding to multiple cells is exported to CT for network optimization analysis.
1. Obtain the longitude and latitude of each candidate cell and the serving cell.
Where,
2) The north and south latitude are based on 0 ~ 90 in database, and is distinguished through the direction parameter, thus the RNC further processes the latitude
and longitude information it has obtained. The south Latitude is set to negative. In other words, LatitudeSign is "1: South" and the latitude as "-Latitude".
2. Compare the longitude and latitude of each candidate cell with that of the serving cell. If the longitude difference or latitude difference is more than 1 degree, the
corresponding candidate cell is eliminated from the candidate list.
- If there is only one cell, the cell is the target cell of handover.
- If there is more than one cell, the nearest one to the service cell is selected as the target cell of handover. The distance between the candidate cell and the
serving cell is calculated according to the following formula (the units of A and B are “degree”).
When the UE moves to Cell 3, UE reports the primary scrambling code of Cell 3, but the handover to Cell 3 is not supported in the pre-version because the Cell 3 is a
missing neighboring cell, and call drop occurs. So this feature is introduced to support the handover to missing neighboring cells.
Moreover, as the primary scrambling code reported in the detected set report may be reused by multiple cells configured in the RNC, this feature supports to determine the
target cell according to the SFN difference or geographic information concurrently.
Whether to obtain the SFN is controlled by URncInfo.getBfnSwitch, whether to obtain the latitude and longitude information for calculating the distance between cells is
controlled by UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw.
When ULogicalRnc.detSetHoOptRncSw and UCelInfoFDD.detSetHoOptSw are both set to “1: On”, and URncInfo.getBfnSwitch or UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw is set to “1:
On”, the detected set measurement is started. After the RNC receives the detected set measurement report, the candidate cells for handover are obtained through primary
scrambling code matching. If there is any configured neighboring cell in these cells, the report is handled according to the former strategy of detected set handover. If all
candidate cells are the missing neighboring cells, these cells make up the candidate list and are dealt with according to the following strategy:
1. The RNC screens the cells in the candidate list based on the intra-frequency blacklist and authorization, those cells which are in the intra-frequency blacklist or not
authorized are eliminated from the candidate list. About the intra-frequency blacklist, refer to “3.2.2Intra-frequency Blacklist Configuration”.
2. For the screened candidate list (List1), if it is empty, the detected set handover is not performed. Otherwise, the RNC performs the following strategy:
l If URncInfo.getBfnSwitch is set to “1: On”, and UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw is set to “0: Off”, the List1 is screened according to “3.1.2Candidate Cell Screening
Strategy Based on SFN”. For the screened candidate cell list List2:
- If there is only one cell, the cell is the target cell of handover.
- If there is more than one cell, the candidate cell with the least time difference (Delta*10) between it and the reported cell is the target cell of handover.
l If URncInfo.getBfnSwitch is set to “0: Off”, and UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw is set to “1: On”, the target cell of handover is selected from List1 according to
“3.1.3Target Cell Selection Strategy Based on Distance”.
l If URncInfo.getBfnSwitch and UExtRncInfo.getDistanceSw are both set to “1: On”, the List1 is screened according to “3.1.2Candidate Cell Screening Strategy Based
on SFN”. For the screened candidate cell list List2:
- If there is only one cell, the cell is the target cell of handover.
- If there is more than one cell, the target cell of handover is selected from List2 according to “3.1.3Target Cell Selection Strategy Based on Distance”.
- If it is empty, the target cell of handover is selected from List1 according to “3.1.3Target Cell Selection Strategy Based on Distance”.
Note: If the selected target cell of handover only supports cell reselection, the detected set handover is not performed. Otherwise, the handover is performed normally.
For some cells, which are not appropriate for a UE to camp on or whose the handover failure rate is high, they can be not configured as the neighboring cells to avoid the
handover failure. However, after “Missing Neighboring Cells Handover” is introduced, the handover to missing neighboring cells is supported, which may lead to more
handover failures. So the intra-frequency blacklist is introduced. The cells, which are not configured with neighbor relation and not appropriate for handover, are added into
the blacklist to prohibit handover.
The blacklist is configured in the object UUBlkList, UUBlkList.refUUtranCellFDD is used to identify the intra-frequency black cell belonging to the RNC, and
UUBlkList.refUExternalUtranCellFDD is used to identify the intra-frequency black cell belonging to the external RNC.
4 Parameters
Table 4-1 Parameter Description
Counter ID Name
Number of attempted radio link addition for soft handover
C310880137
between cells
Number of successful radio link addition for soft handover
C310880138
between cells
Number of attempted active set update add no configuration
C310327375
adjacent cell
Number of successful active set update add no configuration
C310327376
adjacent cell
Number of attempted active set update add no configuration
C310910202
adjacent cell between cells
Number of successful active set update add no configuration
C310910203
adjacent cell between cells
Number of Measurement Report for no configurat ion
C310327417
adjacent cell
6 Engineering Guide
In the configuration resource tree window, open the [Modify Area → Managed Element->UMTS Logical Function Configuration->UTRAN Cell] interface and set the
parameter “Smart Handover Switch”, as shown in Figure 6-1.
In the configuration resource tree window, open the [Modify Area → Managed Element->UMTS Logical Function Configuration->PLMN Relating Configuration -> Logic RNC
Configuration interface and set parameter ” Detected Set Handover Optimization RNC Switch”, as shown in Figure 6-3.
In the configuration resource tree window, open the [Modify Area → Managed Element->UMTS Logical Function Configuration->UTRAN Cell -> Adjacent Relation
Configuration->Utran Neighbouring Cell Black List interface and set parameters ” UTRAN Blacklist Physical Cell Identity” and “External UTRAN Blacklist Physical Cell
Identity”, as shown in Figure 6-5.
7 Abbreviation
Abbreviations Full Characteristics
RNC Radio Network Controller
UE User Equipment
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System
8 Reference Document
None