GSM HR/FR Optimization

Contents

 HR/FR Overview
 Channel Type Configuration
 Case Analysis
 HR/FR Overview

 One TCH/F TS on Um interfaced can be divided into two TCH/H

half-rate TSs, provided to MSs that support the half-rate access
to perform the half-rate wireless access. The half-rate channel
combination function refers to combining the TCH/H TSs of two
different TCH/F TSs into one TCH/F TS by the internal cell
handoff. As a result, one TCH/F TS can be reserved to be
provided to MS to perform the full-rate service, or be
dynamically converted into the PDCH channel to perform the
GPRS/Edge data service.

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 Frame Structure

 The TDMA multi-frame of one voice channel TCH includes 26 frames,

with the duration of 120ms. In the multi-frame, the 13th frame is
SACCH (Slow Associated Control Channel), and the 26th frame is an
idle frame.
 Compared with the full-rate encoding, after the system adopts the
half-rate, the frame structure is not changed. Instead, the system
only assigns the odd frames in the multi-frame to one user and
assigns the even frames to another user, so the 26th idle frame
becomes the SACCH of the second user. As a result, one TCH/F
service as carried previously is increased into two TCH/H services, so
the channel capacity is doubled. The negative impact is that the
encoding rate of one user’s channel is decreased, the voice quality
is reduced and it requires the terminal to support the HR function.

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 Frame Structure

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 Half-rate Speech Coding

 According to the GSM protocol, the half-rate speech coding is

divided into HR (GSM half rate speech version 1) and AMR HR
(GSM half rate speech version 3).
 Between them, the HR speech coding rate is 5.6kbps, while the AMR HR has 6
coding modes: 7.95kbps, 7.4kbps, 6.7kbps, 5.9kbps, 5.15kbps, 4.75kbps.
 However, the Active Codec Set can includes 4 modes at most.

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 Half-rate Speech Coding

 Compared with the full-rate and enhanced full-rate speech

coding, the half-rate speech coding adopts the coding mode
with higher compression ratio, which reduces the coding ratio to
adapt to the narrower bandwidth of half-rate channel.

Channel Type Coding Algorithm Coding Bit Rate Compression Quality

Ratio Score
TCH/FS RPE-LTP-LPC 13kbps 8 3.8

TCH/EFS ACELP 12.2kbps 8.5 4.1

TCH/HS VSELP 5.6kbps 18.4 3.7

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 Half-rate Speech Coding

 The half-rate speech adopts the VSELP coding mode. To adapt to

the half-rate bandwidth, its coding rate is reduced to 5.6kbps.
Compared with the 13kbps of full-rate speech coding, it is
reflected as the decrease of voice quality.
 According to MOS (Mean Opinion Score) evaluated from the 3
speech coding modes, the MOS of half-rate speech is 0.1 lower
than that of the full-rate and 0.4 lower than the enhanced full-
rate, so the introduction of half-rate will lead to certain decrease
of voice quality, but this decrease is acceptable.

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 Half-rate Speech Coding

 Except for the change of speech coding, to adapt to the half-rate

wireless channel, the channel coding is also changed
correspondingly, including the check bit number, convolution code
rate and interleaving depth. These changes will affect the error-
tolerance capability of the channel.
 Check bit number 3Bit, is the same as full-rate, but 15Bit less than the enhanced
full-rate.
 Convolution code rate 104/211, is a little higher than half of full-rate or enhanced
full-rate.
 Interleaving depth 4, is apparently decreased from the value 8 of full-rate and
enhanced full-rate.
 The change of channel coding is comprehensively reflected as the
decrease of the error-tolerance capability of the channel. In the cell
border where the signal is weak and the interference is great, the
channel quality will be decreased and the call drop ratio will be
increased.

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 Contents

 HR/FR Overview
 Channel Type Configuration
 Case Analysis

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 Channel Type Configuration

Parameter Name Value Range & Unit Default

Dynamic TS Yes/No Yes

TCH/F
TCH/H(0,1)+FACCH/H(0,1)+SACCH/TH(0,1)
TCH/H(0,0)+FACCH/H(0,1)+SACCH/
TH(0,1)+TCH/H(0,1)
SDCCH/8+SACCH/C8
FCCH+SCH+BCCH+CCCH
Combination
types of TS BCCH+SDCCH/4 TCH/F
channel BCCH+CCCH
BCCH+SDCCH/4+CBCH
SDCCH+CBCH
PBCCH+ PCCCH+PDTCH+PACCH+PTCCH
PCCCH+PDTCH+PACCH+PTCCH
PDTCH+PACCH+PTCCH
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 Related Parameters for Dynamic HR Conversion

Level Parameter Name Abbreviation Value Default

Range &
Unit
BSC Support dynamic HR or not DynaHREnable Yes/No No

Threshold of applying for half rate HRThs 1~100, % 50

Threshold of AMR dynamic HR AmrHRThs 1~100, % 50
conversion

Threshold of HR TS percentage HRTsPercentage

动态 HR 转换 1~100, % 50
Cell Support cell dynamic Hr parameter or not UseCellDynHRPara Yes/No No

Support dynamic HR or not DynaHREnable Yes/No No

Threshold of applying for half rate HRThs 0~100, % 50

Threshold of AMR dynamic HR AMRHRThs 0~100, % 50

conversion

Threshold of HR TS percentage HRTsPercentage 0~100, % 50

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 Channel Assignment

 When MS applies for resources to BSS in the wireless network,

the BSS network refers from the following three aspects, to
decide the wireless channel type for this access.
 The capability of support channels on the MS
 The restriction of MSC upon the channel rate and type of the user’s access
channel
 The consideration of BSS about the resource assignment in this cell

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 MS Capability of Supporting Channels

 GSM MS can support the following types of speech

versions:
 GSM full rate speech version 1 （ FR ）
 GSM full rate speech version 2 （ EFR ）
 GSM full rate speech version 3 （ AMR FR ）
 GSM half rate speech version 1 （ HR ）
 GSM half rate speech version 3 （ AMRHR ）
 The MS capability of supporting the speech version is
based on the Bearer Capability of Setup (calling party)
or Call Confirmed (called party).

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 Restrictions for MS Distribution

 When MS is applying for network resources, MSC

restricts the channel rate and type according to the
MS access capability and user’s access level, to
provide BSC with the available channel range that this
MS can choose from.
 For TCH channel, there are the following two
situations:
 The channel of one rate is specified, so BSC must assign
channels according to this requirement.
 Choose form full rate or half rate. It can be one rate
preferable or no preferable relationship between the two
rates. In this situation, BSC adjusts the sequence of assigning
the channels according to its own setting.

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 BSC Parameter Setting

 When the cell has enabled the dynamic half0-rate, if

the occupancy ratio of the cell channel exceeds the set
threshold, BSC starts to assign the half-rate channel.
 On V6.20.100e or later versions, the option of forced
full-rate preferable is enhanced.
 Besides, considering that although AMR-HR adopts
the half-rate channel, it can still provide better voice
quality and anti-interference capability. Therefore,
when deciding the policy of assigning channels, we
also need to consider whether MS supports AMR-HR.
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 BSC Parameter Setting

BSC Parameter Result

Setting
Do not change the Use the channel rate specified by MSC
channel selection mode

Only one rate is If the rate allowed by BSC is the same of MSC, this
allowed. rate is chosen. Otherwise, the assignment fails.

Two rates are allowed, Use the rate specified by MSC

and one rate is
preferable.

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 BSC Parameter Setting

 If there is no change, BSC chooses the channel strictly according

to the channel range assigned by MSC.
 When the cell has configured the preferable or allowed rate, if it
conflicts with the preferable channel range distributed by MSC,
it takes the set cell-level parameter preferably. For example, if
the channel ranged specified by MSC is half-rate channel
preferable, but the cell parameter set within BSC is to assign the
full-rate channel only, BSC assigns the channel according to the
rule of assigning the full-rate channel only.
 If there is no intersection area between the channel preferable
range distributed by MSC and the cell parameter specified by
BSC, this channel application fails.
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 Impact of Half-rate Function Upon GSM
Network
 Impact of HR upon the coverage range:
 There is no impact upon the network wireless coverage by
enabling the half-rate function.
 HR impacts the network indexes.
 Call drop ratio: The half-rate function basically does not affect
the call drop ratio.
 Blocking ratio: After the half-rate function is enabled, the
blocking ratio is greatly decreased within a short period. On
the long term, the increase of traffic and attempted calls
cause the blocking ratio to increase. In this situation, we need
to consider expanding the whole core network resources.
 Uplink/Downlink quality: The half-rate function basically does
not affect the uplink/downlink quality.
 Call completion ratio: When the half-rate function is first
enabled, the call completion ration will apparently increase,
and the core network resources will become the bottleneck of
call completion ratio.

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 Impact of Half-rate Function Upon GSM
Network
 Impacts of HR upon GSM network resources:
 The half-rate function in fact greatly increases the number of TCH.
According to the number of half-rate channels in dynamic half-rate
setting and the threshold in dynamic half-rate setting, the theoretic
number of TCH will increase by 0% ~ 100%. In fact, as certain MS
does not support HR, TCH can be increased by about 60%.
Therefore, to enable the half-rate function, we need to consider
expanding the BSC capacity. The bottleneck of BSC capacity is the Erl
number that can be supported, because the half-rate function
causes the increase of TCH and thus increases the Erl number. As a
result, BSC needs to make expansion accordingly. Besides, the half-
rate function allows more users to be accessed at the wireless side,
leading to the result that the resources on the MSS side might be
insufficient, so the corresponding expansion is necessary.
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 Impact of Half-rate Function Upon GSM
Network
 User experiences:
 Though according to MOS, the MOS of half-rate speech is a
little lower than the full-rate and especially enhanced full-rate
speech, this decrease basically does not affect the
understandability of speech.
 According to the testing in the existing network, in places
with better wireless coverage, during a normal call, the user
basically cannot feel the decrease of voice quality caused by
half-rate. In places with week wireless coverage where the
voice quality itself is poor, the user can experience the
apparent decrease of voice quality.
 Besides, the half-rate coding is a coding mode with higher
compression rate, which is proposed for the speech in
particular. It has relatively great impacts upon the sounds that
has richer spectrums such as music, so when transmitting this
type of sound, its voice quality is apparently decreased
according to the enhanced full-rate.

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 Applicable Range for Enabling the Half-rate
Function
 Application of HR in areas with burst traffic
 The most effective application of half-rate function is to deal with the
rapidly-increasing service requirements, such as emergency
communication in the stadium, campus and large-scale assembly.
These areas have the outstanding features that the traffic is busy
periodically or suddenly, such as the traffic increase during a
competition in the stadium or during the break time on campus. They
cause impacts upon the network.
 Under these situations, it is most appropriate to use the dynamic half-
rate function. Under the normal situation with low traffic, the channel
is in the full-rate status; when the burst services suddenly increase, it
is automatically converted into half-rate, which both relieves the
congestion and reduces the waste caused by the expansion that the
carrier usually adopts.
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 Applicable Range for Enabling the Half-rate
Function
 Application of HR in areas with concentrated traffic
 In the dense urban area such as downtown, airport, station and
plaza, the traffic is highly concentrated. With the rapid development
of the city and the network users, there will be frequently expansion
requirements in these areas.
 To avoid the frequent network adjustment, we can adopt the half-
rate mode to temporarily relieve the pressure of pressure. Before the
next expansion, we can enable the dynamic or static half-rate
function at proper time to deal with the urgent capacity increase,
which, together with the long-term planning and expansion, can
provide the carrier with a flexible option of expansion. At the same
time, the half-rate function is also one network expansion plan in the
dense urban areas where the frequency resources are restricted and
the site type cannot be expanded.
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 Applicable Range for Enabling the Half-rate
Function
 Application of HR in areas with low-end users:
 In the areas with low-end users, such as distant suburban
areas, usually the carrier also provides the coverage because
of network integrity and brand competitiveness. However, the
population in these areas is not dense, so the input/output
ratio of the carrier is very low.
 Because the low-end users in these areas usually do not have
very high requirements, and they only need to make calls, we
can adopt the half-rate mode. By combining some wide-
coverage technology, the static or dynamic half-rate function
can satisfy the requirements of making calls in an open area,
so it provides a low-cost coverage mode.
 Besides, the low-end traffic area also has many unexpected
traffic burst, such as the capacity change caused by convenes
or population shift. In this case, the half-rate function can
serve as a solution.

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 Course Overview

 HR/FR Overview
 Channel Type Configuration
 Case Analysis

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 Case: The traffic congestion increased after HR
was enabled.
 Problem symptom:
 After xx carrier enabled HR, when certain congestion cell
configured the HR channel, the congestion was not relieved.
 Problem Analysis:
 After analyzing the performance report, we found that:
There were normal occupations on the TCH/H channel.
The maximum occupation number of TCH/F = the maximum number
configured.
It indicates that the TCH/F channel was occupied.
 Signaling analysis:
The proportion of supported HR on MS is much less than normal
cells. This problem existed because it is a BSC on the border
network.
 Problem processing:
 We modified the channel assignment policy into HR
preferable, so that the speech services used the HR channel
first.
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