E User Description, Assignment to Another Cell

User Description, Assignment to

Another Cell
©Ericsson Radio Systems AB

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1999-02-09
User Description, Assignment to Another Cell

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 User Description, Assignment to Another Cell

Contents
1 Feature Overview.......................................................................................... 5

1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 5

1.2 Background.............................................................................................. 5
1.3 What can be achieved............................................................................. 5

2 Technical description................................................................................... 7

2.1 General .................................................................................................... 7

2.2 Algorithm.................................................................................................. 7

2.3 Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R7/BSS R7.0........................... 8

2.4 Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R7/BSS R7.1........................... 8

3 Engineering guidelines................................................................................. 9

3.1 Assignment to Better Cell........................................................................ 9

3.2 Assignment to Worse Cell....................................................................... 9

4 Parameters.....................................................................................................11

4.1 Main controlling parameters .................................................................... 11

4.2 Additional parameters..............................................................................11

4.3 Value ranges and default values ............................................................12

5 References.....................................................................................................13

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 Feature Overview

1 Feature Overview
1.1 Introduction
A Mobile Station (MS) in idle mode moving around in the network
selects a certain cell, to which it will normally connect in case of a call
set-up. At allocation of a traffic channel it may sometimes be better to
select a different cell for various reasons. The Assignment to Another
Cell feature makes it possible to allocate the mobile to another cell than
the one selected by the mobile.
The Assignment to Another Cell feature is implemented in the Base
Station Controller (BSC).

1.2 Background
An MS in idle mode listens to surrounding base stations. The idle
mobile selects the cell according to the idle mode selection/reselection
criteria. This choice of a cell might be different from what the Locating
functionality would recommend due to better available data quality and
different criteria used in Locating. For more information on cell
selection/reselection in idle mode, and on locating criteria in active
mode, see refs. 1 and 2.

1.3 What can be achieved

The Assignment to Another Cell feature operates at call set-up, during
which a traffic channel is to be assigned. (Assignment to Other Cell = a
handover from the Stand alone Dedicated Control CHannel, SDCCH, in
originating cell directly to a Traffic CHannel, TCH, in target cell.) The
feature makes it possible to select a traffic channel in another cell than
the one that is currently serving the connection. The result, in terms of
the effect on the entire network, depends on the radio conditions in the
target cell. The target cell is either ranked better than the serving cell in
the locating evaluations, or worse.

Better cell
When the locating evaluations start at an early stage in the call set-up
procedure, the locating evaluations may find cells with a higher locating
ranking than the serving cell. To prevent unnecessary handovers and
also to improve the general interference environment, the assignment
can be redirected to these cells. This is also called Assignment to Better
Cell (see Locating ref. 2).

Worse cell
If a mobile cannot connect to the selected cell due to congestion,
assignment to a cell with a lower locating ranking than the serving cell
can be recommended. The probability for a call to get a usable
connection to the network will then increase. This is in CME 20 called
Assignment to Worse Cell (see Locating ref. 2). It is also, in GSM,
known as Directed Retry.

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 Technical description

2 Technical description
2.1 General
When a call is to be established, the MS starts to signal towards the
serving cell (using SDCCH). On some occasions it might be better to
allocate a traffic channel in another cell than the one currently serving
the connection. On other occasions (e.g. congestion) this might be the
only possibility to succeed with the call set-up.
The logic of the Assignment to Another Cell feature is an integrated
part of the Locating algorithm (ref. 2).

2.2 Algorithm
At reception of an Assignment Request signal from the Mobile services
Switching Centre (MSC), the channel allocation function in the BSC
asks for a candidate list from the Locating function. The locating
algorithm selects the cells that shall be included in the candidate list.
The cells in the list will be selected for assignment in order of priority.
Better cells normally have priority over the serving cell, while the
serving cell normally has priority over worse cells, see ref. 2. If
another cell is selected for assignment, a handover (from SDCCH in
originating cell directly to TCH in target cell) is executed instead of
Channel Activation in the serving cell.
The Assignment to Another Cell feature is turned ON/OFF by
parameter ASSOC. Even if it is allowed to apply Assignment to
Another Cell, a certain neighbour might not be desired as a target cell.
This is set by the CAND parameter, which is defined for each
neighbour cell relation, see section Section 4 on page 11.
Depending on the compatibility of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS’s)
and the BTS configurations, cells belonging to another BSC should or
should not be included in the candidate list. The IBHOASS parameter
defined per BSC determines whether assignment to another BSC is
allowed or not.
Cell parameter AW defines whether worse cells can be candidates for
assignment or not. Worse cells are included in the candidate list if AW
= ON. At excessive Timing Advance (TA) urgency condition during
call set-up, it is always possible to do Assignment to Worse Cell
independent of the AW state, see Locating ref. 2.
To prevent assignment to distant cells, which would cause unacceptable
interference in the network, Assignment to Worse Cell has to be
restricted. Parameter AWOFFSET is a signal strength offset parameter.
It defines the maximum range of the signalstrength corridor between a
congested serving cell and its neighbour, in where the neighbour cells
are eligible as candidates for Assignment to Worse Cell. For example;
The MS measures SS (serving cell) = -70, AWOFFSET = 15 allows
assignment to neighbour with SS = -85 or stronger. The use of
AWOFFSET is analogous to that of BQOFFSET described in the
Locating feature (ref. 2).
If Assignment to Another Cell fails to due to congestion, Locating and
new allocation attempts are inhibited for a time interval defined by

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Technical description

TALLOC. When the timer expires, a new candidate list is sent to the
Channel Allocation function (see Locating ref. 2).

2.3 Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R7/BSS R7.0

Parameter AWOFFSET is applied at assignment to all worse cells, not
only at Assignment to Worse Cell within the same HCS layer.
The timer TINITAW is removed. Assignment to Worse Cell is not
restricted to this time interval any more. The other use of the timer, to
inhibit locating for a defined interval after Immediate assignment, is
replaced by TINIT (see Locating ref. 2).
The timer TALLOCAW is removed and TALLOC is used instead
(which function is explained in Locating ref. 2).
Hierarchical Cell Structure (HCS) evaluations are not done at
assignment if parameter AW is turned on.

2.4 Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R7/BSS R7.1

Hierarchical Cell Structure (HCS) evaluations are done at assignment
regardless of if parameter AW is turned on or off. This means that the
connection will be put in the correct cell layer at assignment according
to HCS evaluations (ref. 3).

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 Engineering guidelines

3 Engineering guidelines
3.1 Assignment to Better Cell
Assignment to Better Cell tends to improve speech quality. No
disadvantages are associated with it. The feature is therefore
recommended to be enabled, i.e. ASSOC should be set to ON.
A short filter for measurement evaluations on the signalling channel is
recommended and especially a short ramping. This is because the
filtered rxlev values for neighbour cells are suppressed until the ramping
up period is over or until the filter is filled. The type of filter should be
one for which the ramping can be specified separately from the filter,
that means SSEVALSI = 6 to 9. The ramping length must be short,
SSRAMPSI = 2 (= default). For more information on filters and filter
lengths, see locating ref. 2.
Note that the parameter FASTASSIGN (ref. 4) allows assignment to be
done before a candidate list is recieved from Locating. With quick call
set-up, e.g. without authentification, FASTASSIGN = 1 could prevent
Assignment to Better Cell otherwise performed.

3.2 Assignment to Worse Cell

It is recommended to also enable Assignment to Worse Cell by setting
AW to ON.
The recommended value for the AWOFFSET parameter is 10 dB.
However it can be increased to 20 dB if there are no adjacent
frequencies used in the neighbouring cells. If there is no interference (if
dedicated band is available) AWOFFSET could be set to its highest
value. On the other hand a smaller offset might be required if a tight
frequency re-use plan is implemented in the area. Thus if an average re-
use of around 10 is used, AWOFFSET should be decreased to 5 and if
a yet tighter average re-use is implemented the offset should be
decreased to 3.

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 Parameters

4 Parameters
4.1 Main controlling parameters
ASSOC is a parameter that turns the feature Assignment to Another
Cell on or off. The parameter is set per BSC.

AW determines if an assignment to a worse cell is allowed from that

cell. However, to allow assignment to a worse cell, the parameter
ASSOC has to be set to ON as well. The parameter is set per cell.

IBHOASS determines whether an assignment to another BSC can be

performed. The parameter is set per BSC.

4.2 Additional parameters

MSC data

HNDSDCCHTCH controls whether an inter-MSC/intra-MSC inter-

BSC handover from a SDCCH to a TCH is allowed (= 1) or not
allowed (= 0). This parameter is only defined for Ericsson MSCs. MAP
version 2 is requied as well as HNDBEFOREBANSW = 1 for
inter-MSC assignments.

HOMAPVERSION determines the primary MAP version to be used

when establishing outgoing inter-MSC handover dialogue towards
non-anchor MSCs.

HNDBEFOREBANSW determines if inter-MSC handover and inter-

MSC assignment before answer from B-subscriber are allowed (=1) or
not allowed (=0).

BSC data

AWOFFSET is a signal strength offset parameter. It defines the

maximum range of the signalstrength corridor between a congested
serving cell and its neighbour, in where the neighbour cells are eligible
as candidates for Assignment to Worse Cell. For example; The MS
measures SS (serving cell) = -70, AWOFFSET = 15 allows assignment
to neighbour with SS = -85 or stronger. The parameter is set per
neighbour cell relation.

CAND is set per neighbour cell relation and specifies if the neighbour
cell shall be treated as a possible candidate at assignment and at
handover. The parameter can take the following values:
• AWN, the cell is a possible candidate at assignment to a better or
worse cell, but not at normal handover.
• NHN, the cell is a possible candidate at assignment to better cell
and at normal handover.
• BOTH, the cell is a possible candidate at assignment to a better or
worse cell and at normal handover.

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 Parameters

4.3 Value ranges and default values

Table 1 Value Ranges and Default Values

Default
Parameter name Recommended value Value range Unit
value
ASSOC OFF ON ON, OFF
AW OFF ON ON, OFF
IBHOASS OFF ON ON, OFF
HNDSDCCHTCH 1 1 0, 1
HOMAPVERSION 2 2 1, 2
HNDBEFOREBANSW 1 1 0, 1
AWOFFSET 3 10 0 to 63 dB
AWN, NHN,
CAND BOTH BOTH
BOTH

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 References

5 References
1 User description, Idle Mode Behaviour
2 User description, Locating
3 User description, Hierarchical Cell Structures
4 Radio network parameters & Cell Design Data for Ericsson GSM
system

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