3G/4G Mobile Communications Systems

Dr. Stefan Brck Qualcomm Corporate R&D Center Germany

Chapter IX:

Mobility Control

Slide 2

Mobility Control
Handover Types Mobility Measurements in UMTS Mobility Procedures for HSDPA and HSUPA (E-DCH) Mobility Measurements in LTE X2/S1 based Mobility Procedures in LTE

Slide 3

Cell (Re-)Selection and Handover

Cell (Re-)Selection
Procedure that allows the UE to change the cell it is camped on (E)-UTRAN provides parameters to control (re-)selection

Handover (Hand-off)
Procedure that allows the UE to change from one cell to another, while the UE has radio resources allocated to it

Slide 4

Types of Cell (Re-)Selection and Handover

Intra-Frequency Within the same carrier frequency Inter-Frequency Between different carrier frequencies Inter-RAT Between different Radio Access technologies (RAT), e.g. from UMTS FDD to GSM Soft handover Multiple radio links exist to cells of different Node Bs Softer handover Multiple radio links exist to cells of the same Node B Hard handover Existing radio links are dropped before a new link is established

Slide 5

Handover Control: Basics

General: Mechanism of changing a cell or base station during a call or session UE may have active radio links to more than one Node B Mobile-assisted & network-based handover in UMTS:
UE reports measurements to UTRAN if reporting criteria (which are set by the UTRAN) are met UTRAN then decides to dynamically add or delete radio links depending on the measurement results

Types of Handover:
Soft/Softer Handover (dedicated channels) Hard Handover (shared channels) Inter Frequency (Hard) Handover Inter System Handover (e.g. UMTS-GSM) Cell selection/re-selection (inactive or idle)

All handover types require heavy support from the UMTS network infrastructure!
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Slide 6

Soft/Softer Handover
In soft/softer handover the UE maintains active radio links to more than one Node B Combination of the signals from multiple active radio links is necessary Soft Handover
The mobile is connected to (at least) two cells belonging to different Node Bs In uplink, the signals are combined in the RNC, e.g. by means of selection combining using CRC

Softer Handover
The mobile is connected to two sectors within one Node B More efficient combining in the uplink is possible like maximum ratio combining (MRC) in the Node B instead of RNC

Note: In uplink no additional signal is transmitted, while in downlink each new link causes interference to other users, therefore:
Uplink: HO general increase performance Downlink: Trade-off

Slide 7

Soft Handover Example: UMTS

Multiple Node Bs are involved

Combining and Selecting

UE combines symbols received from each Node B RNC selects the best radio frame from each Node B

Slide 8

Softer Handover Example: UMTS

Only one Node B, but multiple Cells are involved

Combining and Selecting

UE combines symbols received from each cell Node B combines symbols received from each cell

Slide 9

Hard Handover Example: UMTS

Reasons for Hard Handover

Inter-frequency handover Inter-RAT handover Shared transport channels

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Slide 10

Example: Soft Handover Control UMTS

soft handover area NodeB 1 UE NodeB 2

Measurement Quantity CPICH 1

add
CPICH 2

drop
Tlink

Measurement quantity, e.g. EC/I0 on CPICH Relative thresholds add & drop for adding & dropping Preservation time Tlink to avoid ping-pong effects Event triggered measurement reporting to decrease signalling load
Link to 2 time

Link to 1

Link to 1 & 2

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Slide 11

UMTS Soft/Softer Handover in Practice

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Slide 12

Soft Handover Simulation Results

25%

Outage Probability (Blocking and Dropping)

20% 1 link max 2 SHO links max 4 SHO links max 6 SHO links

15%

10%

5%

0% 5 15 25 35 45 55 Offered Traffic [Erlang per site]

Soft handover significantly improves the performance, but

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Slide 13

Soft Handover Simulation Results II

2 Mean Number of Active Links

1,5

0,5

0 1 2 4 6 Max. Active Set Size

the overhead due to simultaneous connections becomes higher!

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Slide 14

Inter-Frequency Handover in UMTS

Hierarchical cell structure (HCS) Hot-spot

Macro f1

Micro f2

Macro f1 f1

Hot spot f2 f1 f1

Handover f1 f2 always needed between layers

Handover f1 f2 needed sometimes at hot spot

Hard handover Inter-frequency measurements of target cell needed in both scenarios

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Slide 15

Measurement Control and Reporting in UMTS

Categories of Cells
Active Set
Cells for which a radio links is established between UE and UTRAN UE is in soft/softer handover with all cells in the active set

Monitored (Neighbor) Set

UTRAN instructs UE to perform measurements on a list of cell in the geographic neighborhood All such cells that are not in the active set are in the monitored set Most likely candidates for soft/softer handover

Detected Set
All other cells which UE has detected and measured The UE may report such cells to the UTRAN to be added to the monitored set

Reporting is either event-triggered or periodic

Periodic reports generate a high load on the uplink Event triggered reporting is therefore usually preferred

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Slide 16

Parameters for Event Triggered Reporting (UMTS)

Events as a function of the Measurement Types
Intra-frequency: Inter-frequency: Inter-RAT: Events 1a to 1f Events 2a to 2f Events 3a to 3d

Each event is associated with a set of parameters

What cells can trigger the events? Absolute and relative threshold Time-to-Trigger

Time-to-Trigger
Interval between event detection and report sent Time-to-Trigger interval ranges between 0 and 5 seconds

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Slide 17

Intra-Frequency Reporting Events (UMTS)

Event 1a: A P-CPICH enters the reporting range
Used to indicate to UTRAN when a new cell should be added to the active set

Event 1b: A P-CPICH leaves the reporting range

Used to indicate to UTRAN when a new cell should be removed from the active set

Event 1c: A non-active P-CPICH becomes better than an active P-CPICH

Used to indicate to UTRAN to replace a cell in the active set with a different cell (active set is full)

Event 1d: Change of best cell

Used for changing cells in HSDPA

Event 1e: A P-CPICH becomes better than an absolute threshold

Used to indicate to UTRAN when a new cell should be added to the active set

Event 1f: A P-CPICH becomes worse than an absolute threshold

Used to indicate to UTRAN when a new cell should be removed from the active set

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Slide 18

Event 1a: A P-CPICH enters the Reporting Range

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Slide 19

Event 1c: Active Set is full

If Event 1c is received the UTRAN should replace the weakest active set with the new rising cell Event 1c may be configured such that the UE begins using periodic reporting if the UTRAN does not send active set update message
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Slide 20

HSDPA Mobility Procedures I

HS-DSCH for a given UE belongs to only one of the radio links assigned to the UE (serving HS-DSCH cell) The UE uses soft handover for the uplink, the downlink DCCH and any simultaneous CS voice or data Using existing triggers and procedures for the active set update (events 1A, 1B, 1C) Hard handover for the HS-DSCH, i.e. Change of Serving HS-DSCH Cell within active set Using RRC procedures, which are triggered by event 1D

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Slide 21

HSDPA Mobility Procedures II

CRNC

CRNC

Source HSDSCH Node B

MAC-hs NodeB NodeB NodeB

Target HSDSCH Node B

MAC-hs NodeB

s
Serving HS-DSCH radio link

t
Serving HS-DSCH radio link

Inter-Node B serving HS-DSCH cell change Note: MAC-hs needs to be transferred to new Node B !
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Slide 22

HS-DSCH Serving Cell Change

Measurement quantity CPICH 1

Hysteresis

CPICH 2

CPICH3

Time to trigger

Reporting event 1D

Time

Event 1D: change of best cell within the active set Hysteresis and time to trigger to avoid ping-pong (HS-DSCH: 12 dB, 0.5 sec)

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Slide 23

HSDPA Handover Procedure

UE Target HS-DSCH cell Source HS-DSCH cell SRNC = DRNC Serving HS-DSCH cell change decision i.e. event 1D If new NodeB

RL Reconfiguration Prepare RL Reconfiguration Ready ALCAP Iub HS-DSCH Data Transport Bearer Setup RL Reconfiguration Prepare RL Reconfiguration Ready RL Reconfiguration Commit

Radio Bearer Reconfiguration Radio Bearer Reconfiguration Complete

RL Reconfiguration Commit

Synchronous Reconfiguration with Tactivation Reset MAChs entity

DATA
ALCAP Iub HS-DSCH Data Transport Bearer Release

The RNC determines the activation time for the serving HS-DSCH cell change
Time is populated by the RNC
In the RRC message TRANSPORT CHANNEL RECONFIGURATION to the UE In the NBAP message RADIO LINK RECONFIGURATION COMMIT to the involved Node Bs

At this time the Node B commits and the UE activates a new transport channel configuration for HS-DSCH serving cell change After the transport channel configuration is completed the UE sends the RRC message RADIO BEARER RECONFIGURATION COMPLETE

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Slide 24

E-DCH Operation in Soft Handover

scheduling grant HARQ ACK/ NACK

scheduling grant HARQ ACK/ NACK

UE NodeB 1 Macro-diversity operation on multiple Node Bs

Softer handover combining in the same Node B Soft handover combining in RNC (part of MAC-es)

NodeB 2

Independent MAC-e processing in both Node Bs

HARQ handling rule: if at least one Node B tells ACK, then ACK Scheduling rule: relative grants DOWN from any Node B have precedence

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Slide 25

EDCH Mobility Handling

The UE uses soft handover for associated DCH as well as for E-DCH
Using existing triggers and procedures for the active set update (events 1A, 1B, 1C) E-DCH active set is equal or smaller than DCH active set
New event 1J: non-active E-DCH link becomes better than active one

The UE receives AG on E-AGCH from only one cell out of the E-DCH active set (serving E-DCH cell)
E-DCH and HSDPA serving cell must be the same Hard Handover, i.e. change of serving E-DCH cell Using RRC procedures, which maybe triggered by event 1D
Could be also combined with Active Set Update

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Slide 26

EDCH Mobility Procedures

SRNC
MAC-es

SRNC
MAC-es

MAC-e NodeB

MAC-e NodeB

MAC-e NodeB

MAC-e NodeB

s
Serving E-DCH radio link

t
Serving E-DCH radio link

Inter-Node B serving E-DCH cell change within E-DCH active set Note: MAC-e still established in both Node Bs !
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Slide 27

Serving E-DCH Cell Change

UE Target serving E-DCH cell Source serving E-DCH cell SRNC = DRNC Serving E-DCH cell change decision i.e. event 1D RL Reconfiguration Prepare RL Reconfiguration Ready Synchronous Reconfiguration with Tactivation If new NodeB

RL Reconfiguration Prepare RL Reconfiguration Ready

Radio Bearer Reconfiguration Radio Bearer Reconfiguration Complete

RL Reconfiguration Commit

RL Reconfiguration Commit

UE receives now AG & dedicated RG from target cell

Handover of E-DCH scheduler control

No changes in UL transport bearer No MAC-es RESET
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Handover of HS-DSCH serving cell

DL transport bearer setup MAC-hs RESET
Slide 28

Mobility Measurement Reporting in LTE

LTE mobility measurements are similar as in UMTS
Event triggered Event triggered with periodic reporting Periodic reporting

Event A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 B1 B2

Purpose
Serving cell becomes better than an absolute threshold Serving cell becomes worse than an absolute threshold Neighbor E-UTRA cell becomes an offset better than the serving cell Neighbor E-UTRA cell becomes better than an absolute threshold Serving cell becomes worse than an absolute threshold AND neighbor E-UTRA cell becomes better than another absolute threshold Inter-RAT neighbor cell becomes better than an absolute threshold Serving cell becomes worse than an absolute threshold AND inter-RAT neighbor cell becomes better than an absolute threshold

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Slide 29

Intra-LTE Handover Types

LTE supports two types of handover signaling
X2 based handover S1 based handover

From the air interface perspective

Handovers are hard Procedure is identical for intra- and inter-frequency
Random access is required for synchronization

From the core network perspective, handover type depends on the network topology
Intra- or Inter-MME/S-GW handover

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Slide 30

LTE Handover
LTE uses UE-assisted network controlled handover
UE reports measurements; network decides when handover and to which cell Relies on UE to detect neighbor cells no need to maintain and broadcast neighbor lists
Allows "plug-and-play" capability; saves BCH resources

For search and measurement of inter-frequency neighboring cells only carrier frequency need to be indicated

X2 interface used for handover preparation and forwarding of user data

Target eNB prepares handover by sending required information to UE transparently through source eNB as part of the Handover Request Acknowledge message
New configuration information needed from system broadcast Accelerates handover as UE does not need to read BCH on target cell

Buffered and new data is transferred from source to target eNB until path switch prevents data loss UE uses contention-free random access to accelerate handover

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Slide 31

LTE Handover: Preparation Phase

UE UE
Measurement Control Packet Data UL allocation Measurement Reports HO decision HO Request Admission Control HO Request Ack DL allocation RRC Connection Reconfig. SN Status Transfer Packet Data L1/L2 signaling L3 signaling User data

Source Source eNB eNB

Target Target eNB eNB

MME MME

sGW sGW

HO decision is made by source eNB based on UE measurement report Target eNB prepares HO by sending relevant info to UE through source eNB as part of HO request ACK command, so that UE does not need to read target cell BCH
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Slide 32

LTE Handover: Execution Phase

UE UE Source Source eNB eNB
Packet Data Detach from old cell, sync with new cell Deliver buffered packets and forward new packets to target eNB DL data forwarding via X2 Buffer packets from source eNB Synchronisation UL allocation and Timing Advance RRC Connection Reconfig. Complete Packet Data

Target Target eNB eNB

MME MME

sGW sGW

L1/L2 signaling L3 signaling User data

UL Packet Data

RACH is used here only so target eNB can estimate UE timing and provide timing advance for synchronization RACH timing agreements ensure UE does not need to read target cell P-BCH to obtain SFN (radio frame timing from SCH is sufficient to know PRACH locations)

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Slide 33

LTE Handover: Completion Phase

UE UE Source Source eNB eNB Target Target eNB eNB
DL Packet Data DL data forwarding Packet Data Path switch req User plane update req End Marker Path switch req ACK Release resources Flush DL buffer, continue delivering in-transit packets End Marker Release resources Switch DL path User plane update response

MME MME

sGW sGW

L1/L2 signaling L3 signaling User data

Packet Data

Packet Data

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Slide 34

LTE Handover: Illustration of Interruption Period

UEs stops Rx/Tx on the old cell UL
Measurement Report U- plane active HO Command

UE UE

Source Source eNB eNB

Target Target eNB eNB

HO Request HO Confirm

Handover Preparation

Handover Interruption (approx 35 ms)

approx 20 ms

DL DL sync synchronisation + RACH (no contention) + + Timing advance Timing Adv + + UL Resource Req and UL resource request/grant Grant

Handover Latency (approx 55 ms)

HO Complete ACK

U- plane active

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Slide 35