Handover Optimization

Contents
Basic Concepts
Handover Signaling Procedure
Handover-related Radio Parameters
Case Study
 Basic Concepts (1)
All handovers in LTE are hard handovers
There are not such concepts as idle handover and access handove
r in LTE. The counterpart concept is cell reselection
Intra-eNodeB handover
Inter-eNodeB handover
S1-based
X2-based

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 Basic Concepts (2)
S1: The interface between the E-UTRAN and
the EPC. It includes two parts,
S1-MME S1-U:

The control plane interface between the eNB and
the MME

The user plane interface between the
eNB and the S-GW

User plane
S1-AP
PDUs

GTP-U
SCTP
UDP
IP
IP
Data link layer
Data link layer
Physical layer Physical layer

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 Basic Concepts (3)
X2: The interface between eNodeBs for transmitting
Load and interference information
Handover information

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 Basic Concepts (4) - Measurement
Sent to the UE via the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message
Measurement configuration parameters includes:
Measurement objects
Reporting configurations: including reporting criterion and reporting format
Measurement identities (IDs): One ID links one object
Quantity configuration: One quantity configuration is configured per RAT type. The
quantity configuration defines the measurement quantities and associated filtering
.
Measurement gaps

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 Basic Concepts (5) Handover Event
Intra-RAT handover events: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5
Event A1: Serving cell becomes better than absolute threshold
Event A2: Serving cell becomes worse than absolute threshold
Event A3: Neighbour cell becomes better than an offset relative to the serving cell
Event A4: Neighbour cell becomes better than absolute threshold
Event A5: Serving cell becomes worse than one absolute threshold and neighbour c
ell becomes better than another absolute threshold
Inter-RAT handover events: B1, B2
Event B1: Neighbour cell becomes better than absolute threshold
Event B2: Serving cell becomes worse than one absolute threshold and neighbour c
ell becomes better than another absolute threshold

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Contents
Basic Concepts
Handover Signaling Procedure
Handover-related Radio Parameters
Case Study
 Signaling Procedure Intra-eNodeB Handover

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 Signaling Procedure S1-based Handover
Before handover

After handover

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 Signaling Procedure X2-based Handover
Before handover

After handover

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Contents
Basic Concepts
Handover Signaling Procedure
Handover-related Radio Parameters
Case Study
 Radio Parameters (1) -- Measurement
Configure handover-related measurement parameters in the OMC
1. Find the measurement configuration index

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 Radio Parameters (1) Measurement

2. Configure the index for handover

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 Radio Parameters (2) Handover Mode
S1-based handovers are certain to occur
X2-based handovers may take place
If X2 interface is configured, the X2-based handover is preferred
In the case of X2 interface association, configure the remote port as 36422
Enable X2 in neighbor cell configuration (The X2 is enabled by default)
Reporting mode
Event-triggered reporting (Event A3)
Periodical reporting

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 Radio Parameters (3) A3-triggered Reporting
Parameters configuration

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 A3

Radio Parameters (3) A3-triggered Reporting

Event A3 related parameters

Event A3 entering condition: Mn Ofn Ocn Hys Ms Ofs Ocs Off
leaving condition: Mn Ofn Ocn Hys Ms Ofs Ocs Off
Of which,
Mn: The measurement result of the neighbouring cell, not taking into account any offsets
Ofn: The frequency specific offset of the frequency of the neighbour cell
Ocn: The cell specific offset of the neighbour cell, which is set to zero if not configured for the
neighbour cell
Hys: The hysteresis parameter for this event
Ms: The measurement result of the serving cell, not taking into account any offsets
Ofs: The frequency specific offset of the serving frequency
Ocs: The cell specific offset of the serving cell, which is set to zero if not configured for the
serving cell
Off: The offset parameter for this event
If the values of Ofs and Ocs of the servicing cell are configured the same as the values of
Ofn and Ocn of the neighbor cell during the network planning, the entering condition can
simplified as

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 A3

Radio Parameters (3) A3 Threshold A3

a3-Offset
Off in the entering/leaving condition is a3-Offset
Its default value is 3 dB
The recommend value is 2, 3 or 4 dB. A greater or smaller value is not
recommended because it may lead to delayed handover and too man
y handovers at a time
This offset is applicable to all neighbor cells

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 A3

Radio Parameters (4) TimeToTrigger A3

TimeToTrigger (TTT)
This parameter specifies the value range used for time to trigger parameter, which
concerns the time during which specific criteria for the event needs to be met in or
der to trigger a measurement report.
Value range: enumerated (0, 40, 64, 80, 100, 128, 160, 256, 320, 480, 512, 640, 1024
, 1280, 2560, 5120)
Default value: 320 ms
A high TTT can put off measurement reporting and reduce handovers.
Recommended values: 256, 320, 480, 512 or 640 ms.

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 A3

Radio Parameters (5) Hysteresis A3

Hysteresis
Hysteresis, used to adjust the entering/leaving threshold of event-triggered reporti
ng, determines the period the UE stays at Event A3.

Default value is 0
If ReportOnLeave is not enabled the recommended value is 0

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 A3

Radio Parameters (6) ReportOnLeave A3

ReportOnLeave
This parameter indicates whether or not the UE shall initiate the measurement rep
orting procedure when the leaving condition is met.

Default value is False (no reporting)

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 A3

Radio Parameters (7) CIO A3

Cell Individual Offset (CIO)

Event A3 entering condiction

Ocn in the formula is CIO

Enumerated (-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 quicken handover from the serving cell to one neighbor cell or to lower the han
dover threshold, you can increase the CIO of the neighbor cell by 1 to 3 dB.

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 A3

Radio Parameters (8) filterCoefficient A3

Layer 3 filtering, filterCoefficient

The reported measurement by the UE is the result filtered at layer 3.
Mn: The measurement result at the physical layer
Fn : The filtered measurement result, used to evaluate whether the reporting criter
ia or for measurement reporting is met
Fn-1: The old filtered measurement result, where F0 is set to M1 when the measure
ment result is received from the physical layer for the first time
a = 1/2(k/4), where k is the filterCoefficient
Value range: enumerated (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)

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 A3

Radio Parameters (8) filterCoefficient A3

If k is set to 0, layer 3 filtering will not work

Default value is 4
In some fast fading scenarios (corner or shadowing area), the filterCoefficient shou
ld be decreased.

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 A3

Radio Parameters (9) ReportInterval and ReportA

mount
ReportInterval and reportAmount
Event triggering: reportInterval shall be used with reportAmount. When reportAmo
unt is greater than 1, reportInterval is valid.
Periodical reporting: ReportInterval is the period to report the measurement
Value range of ReportInterval: enumerated (120, 240, 480, 640, 1024, 2048, 5120, 1
0240, 60000, 360000, 720000, 1800000, 3600000), unit: ms
Value range of ReportAmount: enumerated (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, Infinity), unit: time
s
Recommend value for ReportInterval is 480ms, and that for ReportAmount is 4.

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 A3

Radio Parameters (10) T304 A3

T304
Timer waiting for handover success
Value range: enumerated (50, 100, 150, 200, 500, 1000, 2000), unit: ms
Default value: 1000 ms

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Contents
Basic Concepts
Handover Signaling Procedure
Handover-related Radio Parameters
Case Study
 Case Study
Handover failure due to improper radio parameter settings
Problem description

The cluster KPI analysis report shows there is about 5% call drop because of MR (measur
ement report) not processed.

In a cluster, the call drops because of MR (measurement report) not processed even acco
unt for over 50% of the call drops excluding those arisen from poor coverage.

Handover configuration: S1-based; the handover request is triggered when the neighbor
cells RSRP is 3.5 dB higher than the serving cells.

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 Case Study
Problem description

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 Case Study
Problem description
After receiving a handover request
from an eNB, the MME processes t
he request.
If the MME receives another hando
ver request from the eNB within 1s,
it will ignore this second handover
request.

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 Case Study
Problem analysis
Current parameter configuration

HO Prepare Timer = 1 s

(Upon receiving one UEs MR request, the source eNB sends the handoverRequired me
ssages to MME at an interval of 1 s.)

Intra-frequency Reporting Interval for Event = 1024 ms

Intra-frequency Amount of Reporting for Event = 1

(If the target cell meets the MR reporting criterion, the UE reports MR every 1024ms and
the total times is 1.)
If the UE performs handover to two neighbor cells one by one in 1 second, and the
amount of reporting is only 1, the second handover request message will be bypas
sed by the 1s timer on the core network side. As a result, the handover fails and cal
l drop occurs.

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 Case Study
Problem analysis: handover time sequence

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 Case Study
Problem solution

Setting
Parameter Explanation
before after
In an S1-based handover, the source eNB
sends the HandoverRequired message to the
core network, and starts this timer; After
HO Prepare Timer 1s 950 ms
receiving handover command from the core
network, it stops this timer. If the timer reports
a timeout, it means an abnormality.

Intra-frequency
The parameter indicates the interval to report
Reporting Interval for 1024 ms 480 ms
the MRs interval after event triggering.
Event

Intra-frequency
The parameter indicates the maximum report
Amount of Reporting 1 4
times after event triggering.
for Event

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 Summary
Common handover optimization methods
Neighbor cell optimization
RF optimization
Radio parameter optimization
ANR

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