8/19/16

CSFB Delay Analysis and Optimization

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Issue Description
Customer informed Huawei that the Call setup time for CSFB was high and requested to
analyze and provide recommendations to improve the delay. At the time of the request
the CSFB strategy was to 2G, during the last 3 weeks Huawei RF department and China
GSM / LTE HQ team have analyzed LTE and GSM network , tested and showed the
improvement in the network.
This report shares the analysis , troubleshooting, optimization and recommendations for
the CSFB set up time improvement

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Existing Network Analysis

When the CSFB test was done , the call was setup was setup
in GSM and as shown the Mobile Originate Setup time was
around 21.8 seconds and Mobile Terminate Setup time was
around 12.9 seconds.
The initial analysis was done on the LTE signaling to identify
whether any abnormal delay was present in the LTE network.
The analysis showed that there was no exceptional delay in
the LTE network during CSFB , so the focus was placed on
the GSM network
The next few slides show the GSM analysis.

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GSM Network Analysis for CSFB Action 1

It was found during the analysis when the UE CSFB to 2G, the UE will access the GSM network
as a new user. As such several authentication steps as well as system information reading must
be done before the call can be setup. This leads to a further delay in call setup after CSFB has
been triggered.
One of the authentication process was class mark enquiry sent by BSC, which is not required as
UE will report by itself the class mark change. The BSC needs to send class mark enquiry if 2G
to 3G voice handover is enabled, which is not the case in Customer and most networks. As
such it was suggested to modify this parameter

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GSM Network Analysis for CSFB Action 2

In GSM network the UE has read up to SI 13 message but it contributes to further delay. To
improve this , it was noted that SI 13 could be sent with SI 1 information at the same time.
Using BCCH_Ext this was accomplished as shown below.

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CSFB to GSM Optimization result

The above mentioned optimization changes were implement in BSC33 and a cell cluster. There
was a significant improvement in Mobile Originate and Mobile Terminate call setup time as shown
below. The average Mobile Originate setup time reduced by 6s and the Mobile Terminate
setup time by 3.4s

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CSFB to 3G (Service Steering ) result

The CSFB to 3G was configured using service steering . As such UE would measure the 3G
neighbors signal strength and if it met the threshold set in eNode B the CSFB would be
triggered to 3G. Due to this measurement process a further delay in introduced and the
average Mobile Originate setup time is 7.6s and the Mobile Terminate setup time is
4.2s

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Service Steering Configuration

1. MOD CSFALLBACKHO: CsfbHoUtranB1ThdRscp=-106, CsfbHoUtranB1ThdEcn0=-13,
2.First, we need to enable CSFB Switch, configure UtranCsfbSwitch=ON GeranCsfbSwitch=ON
3.ConfigureUtranPsHoSwitch=OFF GeranPsHoSwitch=OFF UtranFlashCsfbSwitch=OFF GeranFlashCsfbSwit
ch=OFF GeranCcoSwitch=OFF UtranRedirectSwitch=ON. Hence, this will ensures that terminal can only
choose redirection CSFB Mode.
4.MOD ENODEBALGOSWITCH: HoModeSwitch=BlindHoSwitch-0;///close BlindSwitch
5.MOD ENODEBALGOSWITCH: HoAlgoSwitch=UtranCsfbSwitch-1&GeranCsfbSwitch-1; ///Open UTRAN/GERAN
CSFB switch
6.MOD ENODEBALGOSWITCH: HoAlgoSwitch=UtranCsfbSteeringSwitch-1&GeranCsfbSteeringSwitch-1,
FreqLayerSwtich=UtranFreqLayerMeasSwitch-1; ///Open UtranCsfbSteeringSwitch GeranCsfbSteeringSwitch
UtranFreqLayerMeasSwitch
7.ADD UTRANNCELL:///No need config BlindHoPriority
8.ADD GERANNCELL: LocalCellId=X, Mcc="X", Mnc="X", Lac=X, GeranCellId=X, BlindHoPriority=1; ///need config
BlindHoPriority
9.MOD CSFALLBACKBLINDHOCFG: InterRatHighestPri=UTRAN, InterRatSecondPri=GERAN,
IdleCsfbHighestPri=UTRAN,
///Config system priority
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GSM Parameter Optimization Clarifications

Parameter ID

SendUtranECSCFlag

CMUPDATEOPTIMIZETYPE

POSSI13

Current Value

YES

BCCH_Norm

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Suggested Value

Clarification requirement

NO

Details on other impacts of the change

there is no other impacts, because the 2G to 3G
handover is not open, so no need to sent the 3G
capacity to network side

Since ECSC is set to YES in Customer,

BSC does not send a Classmark Enquiry message
to the MS when this parameter changed to 2.
Then how does the network get the MS capability
details
MS will send class mark update itself,as following
pic1, in the test, there are 2 times class mark
change, first one is update by MS itself, the
second one is enquiry by the MSC, the second
one is redundant message.

BCCH_Ext

Details on paging capacity reduction & other

parameter changes necessary to configure
BCCH_Ext
This parameter is not BCCH type,
no need to change other parameter, so there is
no influence the Paging capacity. As pic2,
currently, the 2quater and SI13 reuse TC=4, after
change to BCCH_EXT, the SI13 will reuse TC=0
with SI1

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Recommendations
Generally for CSFB , it is recommended to configure the fall back to 3G with blind HO. In terms of
call setup time this strategy will give the lowest call setup time. As per Customer requirement to
have service steering based on 3G coverage levels, the previous mentioned service steering was
proposed.
To further reduce the delay when the UE falls back to 2G , the optimization has been done and
optimized parameter setting has been provided. It is suggested that CSFB to 3G with Blind HO be
used in areas where 3G coverage is good and service steering be used in remaining areas.

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Thank You
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