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Half Rate

Abstract The purpose of this document is to describe the feature " Half Rate" from a data transcript point of view. Contents 1 2 2.1 2.2 3 4 4.1 Revision Information Description Technical Information Setup of a Half Rate Call Data Transcript Impacts Miscellaneous Information Abbreviations

1 Revision Information
This document has been revised to revision D due to editorial changes.

2 Description
The Half Rate (HR) feature was introduced in system release R6.1/R3. The purpose of the feature Half Rate is for an operator to be able to increase network capacity. The capacity gain depends not only on introducing the Half Rate feature itself, but also on the penetration of Half Rate capable mobile stations. The Half Rate feature is based on a new speech codec and changes to the signalling protocols. These are implemented in accordance with the ETSI GSM Phase 2+ standards for GSM900/GSM1800 and in accordance to the ANSI standard for GSM1900. Using the same radio spectrum doubles the amount of traffic channels that can be available on the air interface as compared to GSM Full Rate. The channel allocation scheme within the BSC will work so that physical channel fragmentation is avoided. Channels which are partly allocated for a Half Rate call will be selected for the next Half Rate call before a completely idle channel is taken. A repackaging mechanism for ongoing Half Rate calls also has the purpose of avoiding

channel fragmentation. Speech and data calls are supported on a Half Rate channel. A Half Rate channel can carry a maximum data rate of 4.8 Kbit/s. HR will be supported by RBS 2000, for GSM900/GSM1800 also by RBS 200 with SPU+/SPE boards. TRA R4, TRA R5 or newer TRAs, with software for the new speech encoding/decoding algorithms is required. Changes to the signalling on the BSS interfaces to cater for new speech codecs has also been implemented. The feature "Dynamic Allocation of Transcoder Resources" is a prerequisite for HR. The transcoder resource supporting the relevant speech codec, for example HR, will be selected on a per call basis depending on the MS capabilities. This feature requires Half Rate capable (dual rate) mobile stations. Circuit Pool Handling and Handling of Half Rate must be supported in the MSC/VLR (commands MGTEI & MGBSC).

2.1 Technical Information


The speech information is encoded and decoded between 64 Kbit/s PCM code (A-law or u-law) on the A-interface and 6.5 Kbit/s used for transmission of Half Rate speech information over the A-bis interface. Control information is added to the speech information resulting in a total channel rate of 8 Kbit/s sent to the BTS, compared to 16 Kbit/s used for Full Rate channels.

2.2 Setup of a Half Rate Call


At call setup the MS sends "channel services preference list" to the MSC/VLR. It contains a list of different speech coder version combinations in preferred order, see table 1. Table 1 Part of "Channel Services Preference List" Speech Half Rate (8kbit/s) TCH 2 (HR) Speech Full Rate (16kbit/s)

First choice Channel Mode Channel Rate Channel Type Speech Version Second choice Channel Mode Channel Rate

Channel Type Speech Version Third choice Etc.

TCH 1 (FR) Etc.

The operator can modify the preference list by command in the MSC/VLR. MSC/VLR selects an initial speech coder according to the first choice of the list. The MSC sends an Assignment Request which will include the " channel services preference list" to the BSC. The BSC tries to allocate a Channel according to the " channel service preference list". If the first channel service is not allocated (maybe the BTS in the current cell does not support it), the next alternative is tried until success or the end of the list is encountered. When a channel has been allocated a TRA resource will be seized from the TRA pool. If the TRA resource does not match the channel service of the allocated channel, the old channel is released and a new allocation of a channel, matching the TRA resource is tried. If both a channel and a transcoder resource is successfully allocated an Assignment complete will be sent to the MSC. The first speech coder version assigned for the call and the speech coder preference list will be recorded in the toll ticket record used for charging in the MSC.

3 Data Transcript Impacts


TRA devices of type RTTH2D (TRA R4) or RTTH1D (TRA R5) and a TRA pool for Half Rate has to be defined. See basic function document "TRA in Pool Handling and Dynamic Allocation of TRA Resources" for more information.

4 Miscellaneous Information
TRA R4 Half Rate uses a more complex coding than TRA R4 Full Rate and requires 2 TRA boards per EM. This results in that one TRA R4 magazine has capacity for 8 EMs and 8 SNTs. The SNT cables are connected to every other TRA board. There is a plug on the right side of the magazine which decides if the magazine uses 2 or 1 board configuration.

4.1 Abbreviations
ANSI BSC BSS BTS ETSI HR MS MSC PCM RBS TCH TRA American Standards Institute Base Station Controller Base Station System Base Station Transceiver European Telecommunication Standard Institute Half Rate Mobile Station Mobile Station Controller Pulse Code Modulation Radio Base Station Traffic Channel Transcoder and Rate Adaptor

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