3G Handover

Can be divided into;

Intra-frequency handovers
Inter-frequency (hard) handovers
Inter-system handovers (I-RAT)

Hand Over
Intra-mode handover
Include soft handover, softer handover and hard
handover.
Rely on the Ec/No measurement performed from
the CPICH.

Inter-mode handover
Handover to the UTRA TDD mode.

Inter-system handover
Handover to other system, such as GSM.
Make measurement on the frequency during
compressed mode.

 WCDMA handovers.
Soft handover.
Softer handover.

WCDMA handover types.

Intra-system handovers:
Intra-frequency handovers.

MS handover within one cell between different sectors:

softer
MS handover between different BS:
Soft.
Hard.
Inter-frequency handovers.

Hard
Inter-system handovers:
Handover between WCDMA <--> GSM900/1800: Hard
Handower between WCDMA/FDD <--> TDD: Hard

WCDMA handover types.

Avoidance of near far situation for circuit switched
connections
for high mobility users shadow fading + (slow) hard
handovers would create near
far situations.
Soft/Softer handovers will improve cell capacity (around
40-60 %)
Soft/Softer provide macrodiversity gain: compared the
hard handover larger
cell range.
Gain against shadow fading ( 1 -3 dB).
Gains against fast fading, typically 0.5 - 2 dB assumed.
Soft/Softer essential interference mitigating tool.

Softer handover

MS in overlapping cell coverage area of

two adjacent sectors of a BS.
Communication between MS and BS is
via two air interface channels (one for
each separate sector).
Different sectors have different
scrambling codes.
UL: MS tunes the RAKE fingers to
different sectors and combines the
outputs.
DL: BS receives signals with different
antennas and decodes and combines
them.

Soft handover
User has at the same time connection to more
than one BS.
Except PC bits exactly the same information is
sent via air interface.
Soft handover probability 20-40 %.
UL/DL processing different.
MS: At Rake Maximal Ratio Combining of
signals from different BS.
BS: Frame selection. Extra transmission
across Iub.

Handover procedure

Strength of the A becomes equal to

defined lower threshold. The
neighbouring signal has adequate
strength. B is added to active set.
Quality of signal B starts to become
better than signal A. The RNC keeps
that point as starting point for
handover margin calculation.
The strength of signal B becomes
equal or better than the defined lower
threshold. Thus its strength is
adequate to satisfy the required QoS
of the connection. The strength of the
summed signal exceeds the
predefined upper threshold, causing
additional interference to the system.
As a result, RNC deletes signal A
from the Active Set.

WCDMA Handovers (1/7)

WCDMA handovers can be categorized into three
different types which support different handover
modes
Intra-frequency handover
WCDMA handover within the same frequency and system. Soft,
softer and hard handover supported

Inter-frequency handover
Handover between different frequencies but within the same
system. Only hard handover supported

Inter-system handover
Handover to the another system, e.g. from WCDMA to GSM.
Only hard handover supported

WCDMA Handovers (2/7)

Soft handover
Handover between different
base stations
Connected simultaneously
to multiple base stations
The transition between them
should be seamless
Downlink: Several Node Bs
transmit the same signal to
the UE which combines the
transmissions
Uplink: Several Node Bs
receive the UE transmissions
and it is required that only
one of them receives the
transmission correctly

UE1

BS 1

BS 2

WCDMA Handovers (3/7)

Softer handover
Handover within
the coverage area
of one base
station but
between different
sectors
Procedure similar
to soft handover

UE1
BS 1

BS 2

WCDMA Handovers (4/7)

Hard handover
The source is released first and then new one
is added
Short interruption time

Terminology
Active set (AS), represents the number of links
that UE is connected to
Neighbor set (NS), represents the links that UE
monitors which are not already in active set

Handovers

The handover types can be divided in softer, soft and hard

handovers.
In softer handover the radio links are made under the same Base
Station within the different cells (sectors).
The UE can have multiple simultaneous active radio link
connections from different sectors.

Softer handover

Handovers (2)

Soft handover is performed between two cells belonging to

different Base Stations.
In a soft handover event the source and target cells have the same
frequency.
The UE can have multiple simultaneous active radio link
connections from different Base Stations.

Soft handover

Handovers (3)

The inter-frequency handovers (IFHOs) are categorized to hard

handovers.
The source and target cells have different frequencies when
performing IFHOs.
Several carriers can be used in the WCDMA network e.g. with high
capacity sites or between micro and macro cells.

Inter-frequency handovers
(IFHOs)

Handovers (4)

Inter-system handovers (ISHOs) are categorized also to hard

handovers.
ISHOs are made between WCDMA and GSM systems.
These handovers can be used e.g. for coverage or load balancing
reasons.

Inter-system handovers
(ISHOs)