Location-aided handover in cellular systems of present and future generation

Sofoklis A. Kyriazakos National Technical University of Athens

MLW 2001 Helsinki, 7 June 2001

Outline
Handover in GSM cellular networks Handover in 3G systems Problems and limitations of existing handover procedure Intelligent handover algorithms Location Aided Handover (LAH) LAH & IST-CELLO Conclusions

MLW 2001 Helsinki, 7 June 2001

Handover in cellular systems

Handover is the mechanism that transfers an ongoing call from one cell to another as a user moves through the coverage area of a cellular system

BTS1

BTS2

MLW 2001 Helsinki, 7 June 2001

Handover in cellular systems

Each handover requires network resources to reroute the call to the new base station If handover does not occur fast, the quality of service (QoS) may degenerate below an acceptable level
H ,T

SD C C H ,F

AC C

QoS

HO-delay

MLW 2001 Helsinki, 7 June 2001

Best handover performance

Fast Handover Reduce Handover Failure Consider Avoid adjacent-cell ping-pong effect capacity Optimal BTS selection Reduce signaling overhead Increased Speech Quality Avoid far-away-cell effect

MLW 2001 Helsinki, 7 June 2001

Handover in cellular systems

The chances of dropping a call due to factors such as the availability of channels, increase with the number of handover attempts Handover reasons:
Signal strength (RXLEV) Signal Quality (RXQUAL) Power Budget

Handover shortcomings can be summarized as:

call-dropping ping-pong handover far-away cell etc.

MLW 2001 Helsinki, 7 June 2001

Handover statistics

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Handover causes

MLW 2001 Helsinki, 7 June 2001

Handover in GSM
MS signal level (RXLEV) and the measured bit-error ratio (RXQUAL) are important indications for the handover decision Potential target cells are evaluated on the basis of signal level measurements undertaken by the mobile station of the broadcast control channels (BCCHs) of neighbouring cells The GSM recommendation does not specify an algorithm for the handover decision or target cell selection. Usually the handover algorithm is defined by the vendor

MLW 2001 Helsinki, 7 June 2001

Handover in GSM
The handover process in GSM can be described in the following steps: Measurement and transmission of radio data over SACH A handover request, if it is required, is generated on the basis of these measurement values A handover decision is made on this request The appropriate signalling and channel change on both the mobile station and fixed network sides finally take place

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Handover in GSM

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Handover operations in GSM

During actual operation, several different situations can occur: Intracell handover: The channel for the connection is changed within the cell, e.g., if the channel has a high level of interference. The change can apply to another frequency of the same cell or to another time slot of the same frequency. Intercell/lntra-BSC handover: In this case there is a change in radio channel between two cells that are served by the same BSC. Inter-BSC/lntra-MSC handover: A connection is changed between two cells that are served by different BSCs but operate in the area of the same MSC Inter-MSC handover: A connection is changed between two cells that are in different MSC areas

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Handover in 3G
Soft/Hard handover. During a soft handover there are two simultaneous active links, whereas with a hard handover, even being possible that the two links coexist during a period of time, only one of them is active at a certain point in time. Therefore, in a hard handover there is the possibility of a temporary rupture in the communication. Macrodiversity. It is an extension of the concept of soft-handover. In a macrodiversity state, several links are active at a time. The different links are originated from/to different base stations and the information received over the simultaneous connections can be combined by using different methods.

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Handover in 3G
Forward/Backward. In order to transfer control information between the mobile station and the node in the network, which is controlling the handover process, an additional connection can be established either through the base station the mobile is leaving or the one the mobile is heading to. Origination of the handover. A handover can be requested and/or forced by various points in the network. We can mainly distinguish between Network Initiated handover, that is a network forced handover; Mobile Initiated handover, where the MT has to manage the handover while the network just adjusts the working parameters used by the MT in the handover procedures. Finally, Mobile Evaluated handover, that is similar to the Mobile Initiated case, but in which the final decision is taken by the network instead than the MT.

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Intelligent handover schemes

Fuzzy handover: Intelligent software technologies, i.e. fuzzy logic and neural networks can be applied to the handover process. The fuzzy handoveris based on an improved processing of the standard GSM measurement Fuzzy reports measurement reports. Handover
(RXLEV, RXQUAL)

Handover decision

Adaptive Antennas: The adaptive antennas can make the handovers smart. These handovers are neither hard nor soft. This happens because a good estimate of the mobile location allows the prediction of its speed and all this information can be transmitted from the base stations to a control center.

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Intelligent handover schemes

Handover prioritization: The most popular non-predictive channel
reservation approach for handover prioritization in cellular systems is the guard channel (GC) protocol. The logical channels that are set aside are often called guard channels. Handover prioritized schemes also exist for optimal capacity and overload management. These schemes can result in increased QoS in cellular networks. In addition, this approach aims at the optimum cell capacity by overcoming the integer nature of guard channels via the unequally shared channels. This number represents the channels which are shared both for call establishment and handover with unequal priorities.

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CELLO architecture

MGIS LS

BSC

MSC

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LAH algorithm
Exploit information from both MGIS and LS Identify critical areas Monitor users movement (depending on the LS accuracy) Intelligent handover decisions Prevent network shortcomings

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LAH algorithm
Initialize area/simulator
get area info MGIS

Define critical areas

WAIT for HO Ping pong detection ? Check user's location

YES

HO decision

LS

Area around the user / user's direction

far-away-cell detection ?

YES

HO decision

Lock user

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LAH algorithm
Expected results: Increased stability Decreased signaling traffic Decrease call dropping Real data: Average HO-signaling duration HO success rate (parameter: traffic congestion) LAH: Performance and success based on LS accuracy Drop-call-probability : congested cell

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Simulators Description
The development of the simulator can be classified in two phases : - Development of a simulator, capable for the investigation of the typical handover procedure - Implementation of the LAH algorithm, that will consider the location of user (including Location Update procedure)

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Simulators Data
Simulated area Propagation Model Area Description Handover Reasons : RXLEV, power budget, RXQUAL (later) BTS parameters : Cell ID, LAC, BCCH frequency (ARFCN), BSIC, Cell reselection hysteresis, HO threshold (RXLEV, RXQUAL), Adjacent cells Measurement Reports (modeling of SACCH)

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Simulators Structure
Implementation from scratch Development Tool : Visual C++ Event driven (space is more important than time)

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Implementation of Space
Creating a model for representing the space of an area is a primary concept Primary layer for all the other modules (BTSs, Users) Two possible implementations: - Use of conventional C++ data structures (e.g. matrixes) - Use of MapInfo MapX ActiveX component

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Use of data structures

Form of a raster(matrix), consisting of pixels Pixels will be identified by (x,y) values RXLEV from every BTS in sight will describe each pixel Measurements will be provided as :
- external files (more realistic approach) - propagation models

Initialization of the grid will mean placement of the BTSs, the users and mobility parameters (e.g. roads' position) on the area-map

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Simulation visualization
Use of component that will enable mapping functionality to any application for the LAH simulator External files of input, from cellular operator can be imported immediately minimizing the programming complexity Graphical display capabilities that would be difficult or impossible in textonly alternatives

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Mobility Modeling
According to the users profile that a user is a pedestrian or a car-passenger, in a Monte-Carlo simulation we will use following probabilities and distributions:
m obile user
0,56 0,44

pedestrian

car passenger

Mean velocity: 5km/h Variance: 30%

Mean velocity: 20km/h Variance: 30%

0,25

turn left current direction

Population distribution on the street of a micro-cell

0,5 0,25

turn right

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Mobility Modeling
Generic Mobility Model

According to random number generator the kind of the user will be decided (pedestrian or car passenger) The time step will be equal to the time frequency of a measurement report (480 ms) in both cases In every time-step a new velocity will be calculated

Output Parameters Functions and Methods Input Parameters

Measurements

Real Phenomena

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Traffic Modeling
Poisson Call Arrival Process Exponentially distributed call duration Estimations for moving users can be based on the following assumptions:
- Rate of outgoing calls and call duration depend on user mobility class - Rate of incoming calls does NOT depend on user mobility class Handover rate :
h sp , s

(i ) =

nsp ,s (i )

sp ,s (i )

c ,s (i ) sp

i=1,2, total number of cells

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LAH Expected Results

Increased Stability Reduced number of handovers Decreased signaling traffic Faster handovers Avoid ping-pong effect Avoid far-away-cell effect

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LAH & IST-CELLO

Case 1: Use of statistical MGIS-data for the LAH-simulations:
Extraction of statistical information about HO-executions & HOfailures Definition of critical areas in the environment based on MGISdata (definition of cell-borders) On-demand tracing of the user, if handover is requested Detect ping-pong effect Automatic update of the VLRs/HLRs based on the users position In case of far-away-cell effect a forced HO should be performed

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LAH & IST-CELLO

Case 2: Use of a reliable LS for the LAH simulation:
Define critical areas as in case 1. Detect ping-pong effect Automatic update of the VLRs/HLRs based on the users position Evaluate LS-information IF user located in a critical area THEN execution of the handover to the optimal cell, to avoid signaling overhead or a failure

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Implementation status
Simulator specifications Mobility models Traffic models Measurement reporting Handover decision Performance metrics

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Next steps
Assume the existence of MGIS & LS Implementation of the LAH Dimensioning of Paging/Location Areas Performance evaluation Handover simulation for 3G systems

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Conclusions
Handover procedure in cellular networks of present generation is not yet optimized Handover in 3G will be very important for the provision of high-speed services with guaranteed QoS Network parameters, coming from position location of mobile terminal will play a significant role for the improvement of the handover procedure CELLO-LAH will show the importance of MGIS & LS for the handover improvement

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