OMF000401 Case Study Handover ISSUE1.

Wireless Training Department

Course Contents

Measurement points of handover

Searching process of handover data

Analysis of handover problem

Handover cases

Measurement Points of Handover

Intra BSC handover

Inter BSC handover

Measurement Points of Intra BSC Handover

MS BTS (Original) BSC BTS (Target)
MSC

Measurement Report Measurement Report

Attempted outgoing internal inter cell handovers T12++Channel_Activate Attempted incoming internal inter cell handovers T09++

Channel_Activate ACK Handover Command (Old FACCH) Handover Access (New FACCH)

Handover Complete (New FACCH) T10++

Successful incoming internal inter cell handovers

T13++ Successful outgoing internal inter cell handovers RF Channel Release Handover Performed

Measurement Points of Intra BSC Handover

Handover formula definition

Inter cell radio handover success rate

=(Successful incoming internal inter cell handovers handovers + Outgoing internal inter cell handovers ) + Successful outgoing internal inter cell handovers) / (Incoming internal inter cell

Internal inter cell handover success rate

=(Successful incoming internal inter cell handovers + Successful outgoing internal inter cell handovers) / (Attempted incoming internal inter cell handovers + Attempted outgoing internal inter cell handovers)

Inter cell radio handover success rate >= Internal inter cell
handover success rate

Measurement Points of Intra BSC Handover

Possible causes of intra BSC handover failure

No channel available in the target cell

Channel activation negative acknowledgement CHAN ACK NACK

Transmitting channel activation message failure Channel activation timeout MS access failure (It may be caused by radio interface.) Max resend time of physical information * radio link connected

with the timer < time interval of EST IND ~ HO DETECT

(120~180ms)

Waiting until timeout after establish indication (MS has not received UA frame or has not sent handover complete message)

Measurement Points of Handover

Intra BSC handover

Inter BSC handover

Measurement Points of Inter-BSC Handover

Signaling intra MSC
MS

BTS(original)

BSC1

MSC

BSC2

BTS (Target)

Measurement Report Measurement Report Attempted outgoing interBSC inter cell handovers Handover Required Handover Request
Attempted incoming interBSC inter cell handovers

Channel_Active Channel_Active_ACK

Handover_Request_ACK Handover Command Handover Access Handover Detect Handover Complete

Successful incoming inter BSC handovers Successful outgoing interBSC inter cell handovers

Handover Complete

Clear Command (HO Successful)

RF Channel Release Clear Complete

Measurement Points of Inter-BSC Handover

Signaling flow between MSC
MS BSC-A MSC-A MSC-B
MAP_Prepare_HO

VLR-B

BSC-B

MS

HO-REQUIRED

MAP_Allocate_HO_NUM MAP_Send_HO_Repor t MAP_Send_HO_Report_ACK HO-REQUEST

MAP_Prepare_HO_ACK
IAI

HO-REQUEST-ACK

HO-Command

ACM

HO-Access MAP_Process_Access_Signalling HO-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal Clear-Command Clear-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal_ACK

Some intermediate steps are omitted

Measurement Points of Inter-BSC Handover

Signaling flow between MSC
MS BSC-A MSC-A MSC-B
MAP_Prepare_HO

VLR-B

BSC-B

MS

HO-REQUIRED

MAP_Allocate_HO_NUM MAP_Send_HO_Repor t MAP_Send_HO_Report_ACK HO-REQUEST

MAP_Prepare_HO_ACK
IAI

HO-REQUEST-ACK

HO-Command

ACM

HO-Access MAP_Process_Access_Signalling HO-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal Clear-Command Clear-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal_ACK

Some intermediate steps are omitted

Measurement Points of Inter-BSC Handover

Inter BSC handover

Success rate
=(Successful incoming inter BSC inter cell handovers + Successful outgoing inter BSC inter cell handovers) / (Attempted incoming inter BSC inter cell handovers + Attempted outgoing inter BSC inter cell handovers )

Incoming BSC handover

Success rate
=(Successful incoming inter BSC inter cell handovers) / (Attempted incoming inter BSC inter cell handovers)

Outgoing BSC handover

Success rate
=(Successful outgoing inter BSC inter cell handovers ) / (Attempted outgoing inter BSC inter cell handovers)

Course Contents

Measurement points of handover

Searching process of handover data

Analysis of handover problem

Handover cases

Searching Process of Handover Data (1)

BCCH frequencies of all adjacent cells in BA2 table are sent to MS on system message 5. MS reports measurement report to BSS. It including the BCCH , BSIC and signal level of the adjacent cells and serving cells. When the measurement report is preprocessed, BSC determines the module ID, cell ID and CGI of all adjacent cells through BCCH frequency and BSIC in Adjacent Cell Relation Table and Cell Description Table (or External Cell Description Table). BSC executes handover judgement flow such as basic cell ranking (on LAPD board). Once a proper target cell is found, the handover request message which includes the target cell CGI will

be sent to MPU of BSC host, and then MPU will confirm the
module ID of the cell in Cell Module Information Table based on the CGI.

Searching Process of Handover Data (2)

MPU sends handover request message to the module and

makes statistics of "outgoing inter cell handover request".

If the target cell triggered by BSC is an external cell, the CGI

of the target cell and service cell is sent to MSC on the

handover required.

By matching the CGI of the target cell, MSC search target cell in LAI And GCI Table . Once the cell is found, MSC will confirm which BSC is belong to, and send the handover request message to this BSC.

If there is no CGI of the target cell in " LAI And GCI Table ", MSC will go to Adjacent MSC Table" and find the target MSC, then send the handover request message to that MSC.

Course Contents

Measurement points of handover

Searching process of handover data

Analysis of handover problem

Handover cases

Analysis of Handover Problem

Types of handover problems

Locating handover problem

Causes of handover problem

Types of Handover Problems

Types Possible Results

No handover
Cause call drop

Handover failure
Affect the conversation quality, and call drop.

Frequent handover
Affect the conversation quality and increase load of the system

Analysis of Handover Problem

Types of handover problems

Locating handover problem

Causes of handover problem

Locating Handover Problem

Traffic statistics analysis

Measurement of BSC overall performance

Measurement of inter cell handover performance Measurement performance of outgoing/incoming inter cell handover

Measurement of performance of undefined adjacent cell

View alarm

Board fault, transmission, clock, etc.

Drive test Signaling analysis

A interface, E interface, Abis interface

Analysis of Handover Problem

Types of handover problems

Locating handover problem

Causes of handover problem

Causes of Handover Problem

Coverage and interference at radio interface

Antenna and feeder system

Base station software or hardware Transmission

BSC software, hardware, Data Configuration

A interface target cell congestion

Cooperation with equipment of other manufacturers

Analysis of Handover Problem

Coverage and interference at radio interface

Coverage:
Poor coverage: forest, complicated topography, building direction and indoor coverage Isolated site: no adjacent cell

Over shooting: island effect result in no adjacent cell

Interference: MS can not access network or receive any signal.

Analysis of Handover Problem

Island effect results in handover failure
There is no adjacent cell, so handover become impossible.

Non-adjacent cell

Adjacent cell N1

Service cell
Non-adjacent cell Adjacent Cell N2 Non-adjacent cell Adjacent Cell N3

Isolated island resulting from over shooting

Analysis of Handover Problem

Antenna & Feeder System

High voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR)

Antenna are not properly installed Antenna are not parallel The azimuth and downtilt are not correct Poor antenna isolation value RF cables, connection are loose or incorrect

Analysis of Handover Problem

BTS hardware

CDU, splitter/combiner failure

TRX failure TMU failure FPU failure Clock failure Internal communication cable

Analysis of Handover Problem

Transmission

Transmission is not stable

Serious BER in transmission

Fault of BSC Hardware

Example:
Clock board: the faulty clock board causes clock inconsistency between base stations.

Analysis of Handover Problem

Data Configuration

Improper setting of handover threshold (higher, lower, the edge handover threshold is higher than the power control threshold.) Improper setting of handover hysteresis and handover priority. Improper setting of P, N value of statistic time Incomplete frequency and adjacency relation configured in BA1/BA2 table There are adjacent cells with the same frequency and the same BSIC

CGI and module ID in "Cell Description Table" are different from those in "Cell Module Information Table".
CGI, BCCH and BSIC in "External Cell Description Table" are different from those in the opposite BSC. The DPC of BSC in MSC "LAI And GCI Table" is incorrect.

Analysis of Handover Problem

A interface problem

Basically the insufficient link resource results in the abnormal

handover, as well as abnormal communication.

Target cell congestion

The target cell is congested, which causes the handover failure. Then the target cell should be expanded or reduce its traffic .

Handover between equipment of different manufacturers

The signaling at A interface, E interface of the opposite equipment are not matching to our equipment and they can not be recognized or support, which causes the handover failure, such as voice version, handover number, TUP circuit, addressing mode (CGI or LAI).

Course Contents

Measurement points of handover

Searching process of handover data

Analysis of handover problem

Handover cases

Typical Handover Cases

Case 1
Fault Description: A 1800 cell of a dual-band network (all
the 1800 cells belong to one BSC), the incoming handover success rate of incoming BSC and intra BSC are low from the beginning of the service, while the outgoing handover success rate of intra-BSC and inter-BSC are normal.

Typical Handover Case

Case 1
Analysis:
1. Register the traffic statistics and analyze whether the low

handover success rate is due to the failure of handover from all

cells to this cell or from some few cells. 2. If handover fails from some few cells to this cell, check the handover data and see whether there is co-channel and co-BSIC

problem.
3. If handover fails from all other cells to this cell, check the data of this cell. 4. If data cause is ruled out, check the hardware carefully. Check

the alarm or perform drive test to locate uplink fault or downlink

fault. Check step by step and find out the cause.

Typical Handover Case

Solution:

1. Register the incoming inter cell handover measurement function and find that the successful rate of handover from all other cells to this cell is low, although it is not always 0 percent. Base on careful data checking, the data of this cell is correct. 2. Perform drive test and find that the downlink signal is normal but almost all handovers to this cell are failure. Near the BTS, the handover is successful occasionally. Perhaps the problem is with the uplink signal. 3. Check the uplink channel, antenna, CDU, they are no problem. Change the TRX , everything is normal.

Conclusion:

The symptom is that the uplink and downlink at UM interface are unbalanced so uplink voice quality is bad.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 2
Fault Description: After LAPD software upgrade of a dual-band
network on 19th September, it was found that some cells in module 4 under 1800 network are seriously congested (40 50 ), and overall handover indices of BSC come down from 95 to 90. From "Inter -cell Hanover Measurement Function, it was found that beside module 4, some cells of other modules also suffer from the problem that inter cell handover success rate is low. After 19th September, the situation became worse.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 2
Analysis:
1. Check whether it is attributed to LAPD software upgrade. 2. Analyze traffic statistics and the main causes of the failure to locate the problem.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

1. Check whether it is attributed to LAPD software upgrade.

After the upgrade, not all cells under module 4 are congested and the handover indices of some cells are not low. Upgrade isnt the cause.

2. Analyze traffic statistics:

Congested cells are mostly at site A and site B. Their traffics are lower than before the upgrade. It is a pseudo congestion. The cells where handover success rate is low are mostly at site A, B, C, D and E and the main cause of the failure is timer timeout.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

3. Check alarm:
At 19:31 of 18th September, the clock system alarms of site A and site B occurred. It is found that 13M clock isnt synchronous. The clock problem result in low handover success rate of the two sites.

Such impact is spread to the adjacent cells of these two cells and
even to the whole network.

4. Analyze handover data and traffic statistics: All cells where handover success rate is low are adjacent to A and B except A

and B themselves.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

5. Reset site A and site B, the clock system is recovered, and

the handover success rate inter/intra BSC goes up to 93. The problem is solved.

Conclusion:

The problem in clock system will result in low handover success rate. Pay attention to the alarm console and the excursion of the clock system.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 3
Fault Description: Huawei BSC and another manufacturers BSC
(S vender) are connected to the same MSC. After cutover, MS can not handover from S BSC to Huawei BSC but opposite is normal. In other words, Attempted incoming interBSC inter cell handover" of Huawei BSC is 0.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 3
Analysis: Since incoming BSC handover request times is 0 but the
outgoing handover is normal. Carefully check the outgoing intercell handover signaling and handover data at S BSC.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

1. Trace interface message. After receiving HO-REQUEST

message, Huawei BSC returns HO-FAILURE message immediately. In normal conditions Huawei BSC should return HO-REQ-ACK message. Carefully analyze HO-REQ message and HO-FAILURE message.

Typical Handover Cases

Handover failure

Typical Handover Cases

HO-REQUEST

Typical Handover Cases

Solution

2. HO-FALUER: The cause of the failure is invalid message

content

3. HO-REQUEST: The difference is basically the Address Indicator in comparison with the normal handover request message. HUAWEI BSC does not recognize case 41. The system thinks that Address Indicator must be 0x43. Inform the owner of network, modify problem is solved. the relation parameter, and this

Typical Handover Cases

Conclusion:

In cooperation with equipment of other manufacturers, faults can

be located by analyzing the signaling.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 4
Fault Description: Huawei MSC cooperate with MSC of N (vender).
The communication is normal. The Huawei intra BSC handover and incoming BSC handover are normal, but outgoing BSC handover success rate is about 25%. The handover from the N BSC to Huawei BSC is successful, but opposite is failure sometimes.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 4
Analysis: Check handover data, including the external cell
description table, BA2 table, cell adjacency relation table inside Huawei BSC and N BSC and CGI at N MSC. If the data are correct, check outgoing BSC handover signaling.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

1. Check data: There is no fault in BSC and MSC of the two

venders.

2. Check alarm: BTS maintenance console, No.7 link and A interface circuit are all normal.

3. Trace Huawei A interface signaling. After "HO-REQUIRED" message is sent, "HO-COMD" command is not received from MSC.

4. Trace MAP message at E interface (inter-MSC) with a signaling meter. It is found that after receiving HO-Number, Huawei MSC never sends IAI (Initial Address Information).

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

5. Check HO-Number message from the opposite and find that

the handover code format is 130********(only a number of mobile telephone, no any prefix). But this mobile company requires that roaming/handover between exchanges should be in the format: 00+country code + roaming/handover number. In addition, Huawei equipment does not recognize the handover number without 00+country code. Therefore the signaling is halted.

6. Discuss with N, asking them to add "00+country code" before the handover number. Then outgoing BSC handover is normal.

Typical Handover Cases

Conclusion:

Problems can be located quickly and accurately if you are familiar with the signaling flow of handovers.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 5
Fault Description: In the independent MSC networking of a dual
band network, Huawei 1800 network cooperate with 900 network of vender A . After cutover, the successful rate of handover from M1800 to M900 is low (about 60), while the handover from

M900 to M1800 are normal and the handover data are correct.

Typical Handover Cases

Analysis 1: Trace the signalings at A interface and E interface.
Normal signaling is as follow:
MS BSC-HW MSC-HW MSC-B VLR-B BSC-B MS

HO-REQUIRED

MAP_Prepare_HO

MAP_Allocate_HO_NUM MAP_Send_HO_Repor t MAP_Send_HO_Report_ACK HO-REQUEST

MAP_Prepare_HO_ACK
IAI

HO-REQUEST-ACK

HO-Command

ACM

HO-Access MAP_Process_Access_Signaling HO-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal Clear-Command Clear-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal_ACK Intermediate steps are omitted.

Typical Handover Cases

Analysis 2: Abnormally signaling is as follow:
MS BSC-HW MSC-HW

MSC-B

VLR-B

BSC-B

MS

HO-REQUIRED

MAP_Prepare_HO MAP_Abort

HO-REJECT

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

1. Analyze the Prepare-HO message sent from Huawei MSC to

the opposite. The voice version is full-rate version 1, 2 and halfrate version 1. It is a PHASE 2+ version. However there is only full-rate version 1 in the message sent from M900 to Huawei M1800. It turns out that the opposite does not support half-rate version, so the handover fails.

2. Modify A interface circuit pool table of Huawei MSC data, only using full-rate version 1.

3. Then the outgoing BSC handover is normal.

Typical Handover Cases

Conclusion:

There are often many problems in coordination between the

equipment of different manufacturers. However, problems can be located accurately by tracing signaling.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 6
Fault Description: A GSM network, where one MSC is attached with
two BSC, is all configured with Huawei equipment. When the two BSC

are cutover, the successful rate of handover from BSC1 to BSC2 is

very low, but opposite is normal. Intra BSC handover of BSC1 and BSC2 are normal.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 6

Analysis:

Register outgoing inter-cell handover measurement function of

BSC1 and incoming inter-cell handover measurement function of BSC2.

Check the data relate to handover of BSC1 and BSC2. Analyze signaling of handover failure.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

1. Check all data of inter-BSC handover: external cell

description data table, BA2 table, CGI of MSC. No problem is found.

2. Trace A interface message of BSC1 and BSC2. After BSC1 sends "HO-REQUIRED", BSC2 has not received "HOREQUEST" message, but opposite is normal.

3. The path of data search: MSC goes to "LAI and GCI Table" according to the CGI of the target cell in "HO-REQUIRED" message, and sends HO request to the correct BSC base on the description of the DPC of the cell given in the table.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

4. The HO-REQUEST message, which should have been sent

to BSC2, is sent to BSC1. It is DPC error. After correction, the problem is solved.

Typical Handover Cases

Conclusion:

For the data of inter-BSC handover, besides checking whether

CGI at MSC side is consistent with that of opposite and BSC, check whether the DPC is correct. MSC look up target DPC base on the CGI of the target cell. When the DPC is incorrect, "HO-REQUEST" will be sent to wrong BSC.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7
Fault Description: A dual band network is a mixed networking of
Huawei BSC (M1800) and vender N BSC (M900), attached to MSC of vender S. After the cutover, the successful rate of Huawei incoming BSC handover is always 8892, while outgoing BSC and intra-

BSC handovers are normal (above 92). Furthermore, the cells with
low successful rate of incoming BSC handover are randomly distributed.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7
Analysis: Since the handover success rate is not very low and the
low ratio is not in some few cells, data problem is excluded.
Perhaps it is due to some interference at the radio interface coverage hole. Next, trace the signaling.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

1. Perform forced handover with a test mobile between several

cells where handover success rate is low. The forced handovers are all successful. Data problem is excluded.

2. The interference band of cells is ideal, call drop and congestion rate are normal. It is unlikely that the coverage and interference at the radio interface causes the problem.

3. Trace A interface signaling and compare the failure signaling with success signaling:

Typical Handover Cases

A interface signaling analysis of inter-BSC handover in MSC:

Failure signaling:

Success signaling:

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

4. The comparison result is that Huawei BTS has not detected

any MS access information (No HO DETECT signaling occurs). It shows that there is problem when the MS is accessing M1800 cells.

5. Reconfirm that there is no problem with the handover data, otherwise the handover success rate will be very low.

6. Re-trace large number of handover signaling to find that all failures are attributed to the same cause. In addition, the problem is the same: there are several handover requests in a call duration but all requests fail.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution:

7. Analyze other similarities of the failed message, to find that

the first 6 digits of IMEI numbers of these MS are all 449684. It shows that the MS that have handover problem are of the same model.

8. Find the MS owners with the IMSI numbers and find that all MS with handover problem are F MS. Not long before it was proved that this MS has poor insulation performance between M900 and M1800, so it can not access M1800 network. Now the cause is found.

Typical Handover Cases

Conclusion: MS problem will also causes handover failure.

1. In this case the handover success rate is not very low,

therefore coordination problem is unlikely.

2. Trace the signaling to find the cause of the handover failure: BTS has not received handover access message from MS.

3. Find the similarity of these MS through large amount of signaling tracing: IMEI numbers are the same. Then it is found that the problem is on F MS.

4. The coverage of M900 is very good, F MS is always under M900 in idle status. Therefore in a call, TCH assignment seldom fail, which will not result in high congestion rate. But in handover, problem is very likely to happen.