ADMISSION CONTROL AND LOAD CONTROL IN UMTS NETWORK

Zdeněk RŮŽIČKA, Stanislav HANUS

Institute of Radio Electronics, Brno University of Technology
Purkyňova 118, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
e-mail: xruzic20@stud.feec.vutbr.cz
Phone:+420-54114 9126

Abstract
This article deals with ways of guarding UMTS radio access network against congestion.
There are described basic principles and several methods of Admission Control and Load
Control. These algorithms are fundamental for mobile network based on CDMA.

Introduction
Admission control and load control are processes, which prevent UMTS air interface
overloading. In this network, overloading may cause dropping calls, decreasing of QoS, etc.
Admission control (AC) algorithm is placed in Radio Network Controller (RNC). Its task
is to admit or deny new subscriber access into the network. Permit is based on current state of
air interface and type of service requested by user.
Load control (LC) guards the overloading in the network. When the congestion occurred,
LC execute action, which decreases the interference level.

Admission Control
In UMTS network isn’t exact limit of number of subscribers. This case is called “soft limit“.
Number of submitted users depends on interference level. Each admitted user increases
interference in his cell and probably in neighbour cells. It also increases cell load. It is need to
define threshold for interference level or cell load. If value crosses this boundary, some
trouble may occur. Cell load have direct effect on cell range and coverage. A new admitted
call can decrease the QoS of other calls or even drop some calls from cell border.
Admission control must be performed for both of uplink and downlink. When both
algorithms are passed, new connection can be established.
The admission control algorithm has to estimate the increasing of the resources usage the
new user would cause. It is quite difficult, because a new user can also affect the resource
consumption of existing users. The more of cell load means the more of load increase by new
user. It is clear from Figure 1.
There are several types of admission control algorithms shown below. Interference Based
Admission Control and Throughput Based Admission Control are described in [1]. Other
three algorithms are mentioned in [2].

Interference Based Admission Control

This admission control strategy may be used for both uplink and downlink. However, the
directions must be considered separately.
In the uplink a new user is admitted if a new total interference level is under the threshold
value:

I total _ old + ∆I < I threshold (1)

Important task is estimation of interference increase ∆I, which is caused by new user. Two
different methods of this estimation are shown below. Both take into account the load curve
(depicted in Figure 1) and load factor of the new connection presented in Equation (2):

1 (2)
∆L =
W
1+
υ ⋅ Eb / N 0 ⋅ R

where W is the chip rate, R is the bit rate of new user, Eb/N0 is the assumed Eb/N0 of the new
connection and υ is the assumed voice activity of the new connection.
The first one is the derivative method. It is based on the derivative of uplink interference with
respect to the uplink load factor which can be calculated as follows:

I total 1 PN dI total PN (3)

Noise _ rise = = ⇒ I total = ⇒ =
PN 1 −η 1 −η dη (1 − η )2

Figure 1: Uplink load curve and the estimation of the interference

increase due to a new user

The change in uplink interference can be obtained from assumption that the power increase is
the derivative of the old uplink interference power with the respect to the uplink load factor,
multiplied by the load factor of the new user ∆L:

∆I dI total PN I (4)
= ⇒ ∆I = ∆L ⇒ ∆I = total ∆L
∆L dη (1 − η )2
1 −η

The second method is the integration method, in which the derivative of

interference with respect to the load factor is integrated from the old value of
the load factor η to the new value of the load factor η+∆L:
 η + ∆L η + ∆L
PN I total (5)
∆I = ∫
η
dI total = ∫
η (1 − η )2
d η ⇒ ∆I =
1 − η − ∆L
∆L

The downlink admission control strategy is the same as in the uplink. The user is admitted if
the new total downlink transmission power does not exceed the predefined value:

Ptotal _ old + ∆P < Pthreshold (6)

The threshold is set by radio network planning. The load increase ∆P can be estimated by the
help of initial power which depends on the distance from the base station.

Throughput Based Admission Control

With this method the new user is admitted when the conditions in Equations (7) and (8) are
valid. Condition for uplink:

ηUL + ∆L < ηUL _ threshold (7)

and the same in downlink:

η DL + ∆L < η DL _ threshold (8)

Received Power Admission Control

This method can be used in the uplink, because there is the interference limitation. New user
is admitted if

Zk < Zi
t (9)

where Zk is the total received power before the new user and Zit is the threshold for bearer
service i which depends on bearer service vector.

Busy Channel Based Admission Control

This method is suited for downlink when it is code limited. Here the admission of new user
depends on this condition:

Nk < N t (10)

where Nk is the number of used channels at the base station and Nt is a predefined threshold.

Transmitted Power Based Admission Control

This method can be also used in downlink, but when it is interference limited. Condition for
admission is:

Pk < Pi t for ∀(k ∈ B ) (11)

where Pk is the transmitted power from a base station k without the new user, Pit is the
threshold which depends on bearer service vector and B is a set of base stations. This method
includes influence to neighbour base stations. New user is admitted only if transmitted power
from the base station does not exceed threshold of all neighbour base stations (in set B).

Load Control
This mechanism tries to settle the problems with network overloading. Its function seems to
be the same as the function of admission control. The difference is that load control takes
place after overload occurs. Admission control tries to prevent overload situation.
If the system is good planned and admission control and packet scheduling algorithms
works sufficiently, overload situations should be exceptional. But absolutely effective AC is a
very complicated task. In addition interference level in the cell may change over time and fast
moving user cause more interference than a stationary or slow moving user.
If congestion occurs, the load control must decrease the load to the limits defined by
network planning. There are several methods for load reduction.
First two possibilities are uplink fast power control and downlink fast load control. In
downlink it means prevention of power-up commands from mobile. These actions are done
within a base station. It is fast prioritisation of the different services. These actions only
decrease the rate of services which are not sensitive to delay and maintain the quality of the
conversational services.
The other load control actions are slower. It is possibly reduce the throughput of packet
data traffic. This action is provided by packet scheduler, see [1]. Next chance is to perform the
handover. Target of this handover may be other WCDMA carrier (for example handover from
microcell to macrocell in hierarchical structure of radio access network) or GSM network.
This method of load decreasing must look out for sense of this action. Handover of fast
moving user from macrocell to microcell may cause problems. Some services like
videoconference cannot be redirected to GSM network.
Load control algorithm also can decrease bit rates of real-time users. One example of this
is AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate) speech codec.
Last possibility is dropping of existing calls. This action is the last chance for reduce
overload of network and must be performed in a controlled fashion.

Conclusion
Interference level and overloading belongs to fundamental problems of radio access network
in UMTS. Admission and load control are basic tools for prevention these problems. Properly
designed algorithms of admission and load control may rapidly improve quality of mobile
network and services provided by network.

Acknowledgement
This research has been supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic under the
contract no. 102/03/H109 and no. 102/04/2080.

References
[1] Holma, H., Toskala, A. WCDMA for UMTS: Radio Access for Third Generation Mobile
Communications. New York: John Willey & Sons, 2000
[2] Korhonen, J. Intoduction to 3G Mobile Communications. Nordwood: Artech House, 2001
[3] Mishra, R. A. Cellular Network Planning and Optimisation, Chichester: John Willey &
Sons, 2004