Internal Only▲

Handover Optimization

CL Product Support Department

 Internal Only▲

Contents

 Handover basic concepts

 Handover signaling procedure
 Handover related radio parameters
 Typical cases
 Internal Only▲

Handover basic concepts (1)

 All handover in LTE is Hard Handover

 There is no “idle handover” and “access
handover” in LTE, the counterpart concept is “cell
reselection”
 Intra site handover
 Inter site handover
 S1 based
 X2 based
 Internal Only▲

Handover basic concepts(2)

 S1: the interface between E-UTRAN and EPC
including two parts,
 Control plane S1-MME  User plane S1-U

Between eNB and MME 
Between eNB and S-GW

User plane PDUs

S1-AP

GTP-U
SCTP
UDP
IP
IP
Data link layer
Data link layer
Physical layer Physical layer
 Internal Only▲

Handover basic concepts(3)

 X2: X2 is used to connect two eNodeBs to
interconnect signaling between them,
 Load and interference information
 Handover information
 Internal Only▲

Handover basic concepts(4)

Send to UE by RRCConnectionReconfiguration
Measurement configuration includes parameters,
Measurement object
Report configuration: includes report principle, report

format
Measurement id: one id is related to one object

Measurement provision ： Quantity provision defines

measurement quantity and filter. One quantity provision is

configured for each RAT.
Measurement interval
 Internal Only▲

Handover basic concepts(5)

 Intra RAT handover: A1 、 A2 、 A3 、 A4 、 A5
 Inter RAT handover: B1 、 B2
Event A1 (Serving becomes better than threshold)
Event A2 (Serving becomes worse than threshold)
Event A3 (Neighbour becomes offset better than serving)
Event A4 (Neighbour becomes better than threshold)
Event A5 (Serving becomes worse than threshold1 and neighbour
becomes better than threshold2)

Event B1 (Inter RAT neighbour becomes better than threshold)

Event B2 (Serving becomes worse than threshold1 and inter RAT
neighbour becomes better than threshold2)
 Internal Only▲

Contents

 Handover basic concepts

 Handover signaling procedure
 Handover related radio parameters
 Typical cases
 Internal Only▲

Handover procedure (1) – intra site

eNodeB
Source Target S1 S11 S5
UE MME S-GW PDN-GW
CELL CELL

Handover
decision

Preparation Phase
Handover Request

Radio Resource
allocation
Handover Request ACK
RRC Reconfiguration
(Handover Command)

Handover Confirm(Synchronization,

Execution Phase
RRC Reconfiguration Complete)

Release Resource
Radio Resource
Release
 Internal Only▲

Handover procedure (2) – S1 based

S1

 Before handover UE
Source Target S1 MME
S11
S-GW
S5
PDN-GW
MME eNodeB eNodeB

Handover
S1 S1 decision
Handover Required

Preparation Phase
Handover Request
X2
eNodeB2 Radio Resource
eNodeB1
allocation

Handover Request ACK(Handover Command)

Uu
Handover Command

Handover Command

Handover Confirm
 After handover Handover Notify

MME User Plane Update Request

Execution Phase
User Plane Update Response

S1 S1 UE Context Release Command

X2 Radio Resource
eNodeB2 Release
eNodeB1
UE Context Release Complete

Uu
 Internal Only▲

Handover procedure (3) – X2 based

S1
 Before handover Source X2 Target S11 S5
UE MME S-GW PDN-GW
eNodeB eNodeB

Handover
S1 S1 decision

Preparation Phase
Handover Request
X2
eNodeB2
eNodeB1 Radio Resource
allocation

Handover Request ACK(Handover Command)

Uu Handover Command

Handover Confirm
Path Switch Request

User Plane Update Request

 After handover User Plane Update Response

Execution Phase
MME
Path Switch Request ACK

Release Resource

S1 S1 Radio Resource
Release

X2
eNodeB2
eNodeB1

Uu Uu
 Internal Only▲

Contents

 Handover basic concepts

 Handover signaling procedure
 Handover related radio parameters
 Typical cases
 Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (1) -- measurement

 Configure handover parameters in OMC
 Step 1, measurement configure index
 Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (1) – measurement

 Configure handover parameters in OMC
 Step 2, select measurement configure index
 Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (2) – handover mode

 S1 based must exist
 X2 based may exist
 If X2 is configured, then prefer to X2 based mode
 Configure X2 integration, remote port: 36422
 Neighbor configuration enable X2 （ enable by
default ）

 Report mode
 Event triggered （ A3 ）
 Periodical report
 Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (3) – A3 triggered

 A3 event related parameters
 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (3) – A3 triggered A3 事件的离开条

件为：

 A3 event related parameters

A3 Event Activation: Mn  Ofn  Ocn  Hys  Ms  Ofs  Ocs  Off
Deactivation: Mn  Ofn  Ocn  Hys  Ms  Ofs  Ocs  Off
Of which,
Mn: Neighbor cell measurement result, no offset;
Ofn: Specific frequency deviation of neighbor cell;
Ocn: Specific cell deviation of neighbor cell;
Hys: The hysteresis parameter between the event activation and deactivation;
Ms: The measurement result of local cell, no offset;
Ofs: Specific frequency deviation of the service frequency point (local cell);
Ocs: Specific cell deviation of the local cell;
Off: The deviation of A3 event. High level configuration is required.
When the cell is well configured, the values of Ocs and Ocn are determined. If the values of Ofs
and Ocs of the service cell are configured the same as the values of Ofn and Ocn of the
neighbor cell during the network planning, the A3 event activation formula can simplified as
 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (3) – A3 threshold A3 事件的离开条

件为：

 a3-Offset
A3 Event Activation: Mn  Ofn  Ocn  Hys  Ms  Ofs  Ocs  Off
Deactivation: Mn  Ofn  Ocn  Hys  Ms  Ofs  Ocs  Off
 Off in formular is A3-Offset
 Default value is 3dB
 The recommend value is 2 、 3 、 4dB in project. It is not
recommended to set higher or lower (avoid late handover
and much handover simultaneously)
 Used for all neighbor cells
 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (4) – time to trigger

A3 事件的离开条
件为：

 Time To Trigger (TTT)

 This parameter indicates how long the value should
persist before reporting the event when it reaches the
reporting threshold.
 Value range: (0, 40, 64, 80, 100, 128, 160, 256, 320,
480, 512, 640, 1024, 1280, 2560, 5120)
 Default value: 320ms 。
 Higher TTT can put off measurement report and reduce
handover number.
 To avoid much handover and not-in-time handover, the
recommend value is 256, 320, 480, 512 or 640ms in
normal case.
 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (5) – hysteresis A3 事件的离开条

件为：

 Hysteresis
 Hysteresis indicates hysteresis for event reporting
judgment, which is used to prevent jitters.

 Default value is 0 。
 If ReportOnLeave is unable ， the recommended value
 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (6) – ReportOnLeaveA3 事件的离开条

件为：

 ReportOnLeave
 This parameter indicates whether the UE reports the
event when the A3-2 conditions are met.
 deactivation

 Default value is False （ no report ）。

 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (7) – CIO A3 事件的离开条

件为：

 Cell Individual Offset, CIO

 A3 activation

 Ocn in the formula is CIO

 Enumerate(-24,-22,-20, -18, -16, -14, -12, -10, -8, -6, -5,
-4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20,
22, 24), unit: dB
 To “faster” handover to one neighbor (or lower handover
threshold),You can set this neighbor CIO higher (1 to 3
dB in common) in corner or deep fading case
 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (8) – filterCoefficent

A3 事件的离开条
件为：

 Layer 3 filtering ， filterCoefficent

 UE reported measurement value is processed by layer
3 filter.
 Mn ： measurement value in physical layer

 Fn ： reported value, also used to decide if report

requirement is met
 a = 1/2(k/4) ， of which k is filterCoefficent
 Enumerate (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)
the listed value here is corresponding to k in the formula
 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (8) – filterCoefficent A3 事件的离开条

件为：

 Layer 3 filtering ， filterCoefficent

 k = 0 ， filter is invalid
 Default value is 4
 In fast fading case,
Recommend to lower this value
(eg, corner or

through shadowing area)

 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (9) – ReportInterval and

A3 事件的离开条

reportAmount
件为：

 ReportInterval and reportAmount

 Event trigger: reportInterval shall be set with
reportAmount. When reportAmount is greater than 1,
reportInterval is valid.
 Periodical report: report interval is the period
 ReportInterval: Enumerate(120, 240, 480, 640, 1024,
2048, 5120, 10240, 60000, 360000, 720000, 1800000,
3600000), unit: ms
 ReportAmount: enumerate(1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64,
Infinity), unit: times
 Recommend value for reportInterval is 480ms, and for
reportAmount is 4.
 A3 事件的进入条
件为： Internal Only▲

Radio parameters (10) –T304 A3 事件的离开条

件为：

 T304
 Timer waiting for handover success
 Enumerate(50,100,150,200,500,1000,2000), unit: ms
 Default1000ms
 Internal Only▲

课程内容

 Handover basic concepts

 Handover signaling procedure
 Handover related radio parameters
 Typical cases
 Internal Only▲

Typical cases(1)
 Core network timer(1s) vs Radio parameter setting
 Problem description
 There is about 5% call drop because of MR
(measurement report) not processed in cluster KPI
analysis report.
 Some clusters is highlighted with this problem: over
50% (4 in 7)after discounting coverage reason.
 Handover configuration is: S1 based; neighbor RSRP is
3.5dB higher than serving cell;
 Internal Only▲

Typical cases(1)
 Core network timer(1s) vs Radio parameter setting
 Problem
description
 Internal Only▲

Typical cases(1)

 Problem description
 After receiving a
handover requirement
from eNB, MME starts
to process.

 If receives another
handover requirement
from eNB in 1s, MME
will ignore this second
handover requirement.
 Internal Only▲

Typical cases(1)
 Problem analysis
 Current parameter configuration

HO Prepare Timer = 1s
(for one UE’s MR, the interval of two “handoverRequired”
messages from source eNB to MME is 1s)

Intra-frequency Reporting Interval for Event = 1024 ms

Intra-frequency AmountofReporting for Event = 1
(if target cell report exceed threshold for a time, UE reports MR
every 1024ms and the total times is 1.)
 If UE handover to 2 neighbors one by one in 1 second,
and report amount is only 1, then the second handover
require message will be bypassed by core network timer
(1s) so that call drop by handover failure.
 Internal Only▲

Typical cases(1)
 Problem analysis: handover time sequence
HO prepare timer
expires, handover
process is cancelled;
trigger a 2nd
Receive MR Receive handover based on
Trigger handover 2nd MR 3rd MR

eNB

950ms

UE
0 480ms 960ms 1440ms 1920ms 2400ms 2880ms

Trigger 1st
MR Trigger 3rd MR

Trigger 2nd MR Trigger 4th MR

 Internal Only▲

Typical cases(1)
 Problem solution
parameter before after explanation
S1 based handover, source eNB sends
core network “HandoverRequired”, then
starts this timer; After receiving handover
HO Prepare Timer 1s 950ms
command from core network, stop this
timer; if the timer is expired, process as
abnormal.

Intra-frequency
1024m The parameter indicates periodical MR
Reporting Interval 480ms
s interval after event trigger
for Event

Intra-frequency
Amount of The parameter indicates the maximum
1 4
Reporting for report times after event trigger
Event
 Internal Only▲

Summary
 Common handover optimization methods
 Neighbor optimization
 RF optimization
 Radio parameter optimization
 ANR
Internal Only▲