Handover Parameters :

There are three ways of optimizing handovers in LTE:

1. Via the modification of the parameters a3offset and Hysteresisa3

2. By changing the parameter timetotriggereventa3
3. Via the modification of the parameter filtercoefficient for event a3.

These set of blogs will dealt with parameter setting for Periodic Reporting of Event A3 only. The
intention is to deal with each of the cases mentioned above, one at a time. Hence, this blog will
concentrate in case a).

Definitions:

Event A3 is defined as a triggering event when a neighbour cell becomes an offset better than
the serving cell. The UE creates a measurement report, populates the triggering details and
sends the message to the serving cell. The parameters that define the trigger include:

 a3offset: This parameter can be found in 3GPP 36.331. It configures the RRC IE a3-Offset
included in the IE reportConfigEUTRA in the MeasurementConfiguration IE. The value
sent over the RRC interface is twice the value configured, that is, the UE has to divide
the received value by 2.The role of the offset in Event A3 is to make the serving cell look
better than its current measurement in comparison to the neighbor.
 Hysteresisa3: The role of the hysteresis in Event A3 is to make the measured neighbor
look worse than measured to ensure it is really stronger before the UE decides to send a
measurement report to initiate a handover.
 timetoTriggera3: The role of ttt in Event A3 is to avoid a ping-pong effect.
 CellIndividualoffsetEutran: This parameter is applied individually to each neighbor cell
with load management purposes. The higher the value allocated to a neighbor cell, the
“more attractive” it will be. This parameter can only be used if the neighbor list is
broadcast in SIB4 or in an RRC connection reconfiguration.
Based on the picture above, event A3 will trigger when:

RSRP(target) > RSRS(Serving) +a3offset + Hysteresisa3 – cellindividualoffsetEutran

And this condition is valid for timetoTriggera3.

At the expiration of timetoTriggera3, if the UE does not receive an RRC connection

reconfiguration message (handover command) from the eNodeB, then it will start a timer
called reportingintervala3. At the expiration of this timer, if the conditions for event A3 are still
met and the eNodeB has not responded, then another measurement report will be sent to the
eNodeB. This process will continue until the eNodeB responds or until a number of
measurement reports given by the parameter reportingamount have been sent.

Examples:

The table below assumes that cellindividualoffsetEutran is not used and shows when the
eventa3offset is triggered and when the UE ceases sending measurement reports.
As it can be seen from the table, eventa3 triggers at a3offset+Hysteresisa3

However!!! After the first measurement result, subsequent measurement results can be sent if
the RSRP of the neighbor cell is only a3offset-hysterisisa3 dB stronger! Hence, weaker
neighbors could be reported in the measurements sent by the UE (this case is very rare but it
exists in real systems).

Therefore, it is recommended to follow the optimization rules:

1. a3offset should always be larger than Hysteresisa3 if we want UE to handover to cells

with an RSRP at least equal to the RSRP value of its serving cell.
2. Ensuring a3offset > Hysteresisa3 avoids ping-pongs
3. The higher the value of a3offset+Hysteresisa3 the more we drag the calls to
neighboring cells. This is very useful where we have coverage holes (not a one to one
deployment scenario on top of 3G cells)
4. The smaller the value of a3offset+Hysteresisa3 the faster we release the calls to
neighboring cells. This is useful in those scenarios where a large number of LTE cells
exists in a given geographical area.
5. The higher the value of a3offset+Hysteresisa3 the more difficult we make it for calls do
handover to other cells.

Remember, eventa3 triggers at a3offset+Hysteresisa3. Subsequent message reports are sent

when the RSRP of the neighbor cell is a3offset-Hysteresisa3 (See figure below).
In our next blog, we will discuss the parameter timetoTriggera3, which is another tool for
optimizing handovers in LTE.

Handover Parameters (Part 2 of 3)

TimetoTrigger Event a3

As explained in part 1 of these blogs, if the RSRP of a neighbor cell is a3offset+ Hysteresisa3 dB
stronger than the serving cell for a time period equal to timetoTriggera3 then the UE sends the
first measurement report to the eNodeB indicating that eventa3 has
occurred. timetoTriggera3 typical values are [0, 40, 64, 80, 100, 128, 160, 256, 320, 480, 512,
640, 1024, 1280, 2560, 5120] milliseconds.

Clearly, the utilization of timetoTriggera3 is highly dependent on the

parameters a3offset and Hysteresisa3.However, some general troubleshooting guidelines are
provided here to minimize ping pong effects.

Rules:

1. If a3offset+ Hysteresisa3 is relatively large (i.e.: 6dB or stronger), then a value

of timetoTriggera3 under 100 ms is acceptable.
 2. Explanation: Since the RSRP of the neighbor cell is already stronger than the value of the
source cell, the time to trigger should not be large.
3. If a3offset+ Hysteresisa3 is relatively small (i.e.: 2dB), then a value
of timetoTriggera3 should be around 320 to 640 ms.
4. Explanation: Since the RSRP of the neighbor cell is not much stronger than the value of
the source cell, the time to trigger should not large to ensure the value remains the
same for a long period of time.
5. If a3offset = Hysteresisa3, see b)
6. If a3offset > Hysteresisa3, see a)
7. If a3offset < Hysteresisa3, see a)

However, these recommendations depend much on the speed of the mobile and the coverage
scenarios.

The value allocated to timetoTriggera3, hence, depends on:

a) Parameter setting of a3offset and Hysteresisa3,

b) Morphology (dense urban, urban, suburban, rural)
c) Speed of UE in the cells (freeways and or suburban roads).

So far, we have discussed two methods for optimizing event A3. In out next blog we will talk
about the benefits of optimizing another parameter called, filtercoefficient for event A3 that
will allow us to eliminate some of the effects of fast fading in the UE measurements.

he formula used by the user equipment for evaluating entry to EventA3 is shown below:

Mn − Hysteresisa3 > Ms + a3offset

Where,
Mn = measured value of the neighboring cell (either RSRP or RSRQ)
Ms = measured value of the serving cell (either RSRP or RSRQ)

Once EventA3 is triggered, the user equipment will wait a predetermined time (timetoTriggera3)
before it commences sending measurement reports to the serving RBS. These measurement
reports contain measurements for the serving cells and up to three detected intra frequency
neighbor cells. The reportQuantityA3 parameter indicates whether RSRP or RSRQ measurements,
or both, are to be included in the measurement reports.

Measurement reports are sent periodically whilst the EventA3 condition is active. The
parameter reportIntervalA3 determines the time interval between measurement reports. The
parameter reportAmountA3 indicates how many reports to send; a value of 0 indicates that the
reports should be sent indefinitely whilst the EventA3 condition is active.
The user equipment uses the same offset and hysteresis values to determine when to leave
EventA3 when the serving cell improves in RSRP or RSRQ relative to the neighboring cells. The
formula used by the UE is shown below:

Mn + Hysteresisa3 < Ms + a3offset