ATM Configuration for Nokia IUB

ATM Basics

Introduction to ATM

ATM is a cell switching technology designed for the high-speed transfer of voice, video and data AMT uses fixed sized cells. Fixed size cells allow for more efficient switching in hardware than can be achieved with variable sized cells ATM is connection orientated, with ATM cells routed over Virtual Circuits The asynchronous nature of the multiplexing allows for efficient interleaving of data of varying priority and size The characteristics above make ATM well suited to support the QOS requirements which 3GPP has defined for UMTS, hence the reason ATM was chosen as the transport method for UMTS

ATM Basics

Introduction to ATM

Each cell is fixed 53 bytes in length

The ATM switch does not need to detect the size of the cell which allows for fast switching The small size means cells can be switched quickly with minimal delay, important for real-time services such as voice and video
Header
5 bytes

Payload
48 bytes

ATM uses Virtual Paths and Virtual Circuits

A Virtual Path (VP) is a bundle of Virtual Circuits (VC) Virtual Paths are identified by the Virtual Path Identifier (VPI) Virtual Circuits are identified by the VPI and Virtual Circuit Identifier (VCI)

ATM Adaptation Layers

Introduction to ATM

ATM Adaptation Layers isolate higher layer protocols from the details of the ATM layer and ATM physical layer The job of the AAL is to map the higher level data packets into ATM cells. It performs segmentation and reassembly of packets For UMTS, the main ATM adaptation layers are:

AAL5: used for control plane signalling AAL2: used for user data transfer

Virtual Circuits for IUB

Nokia IUB

Each IUB link is configured as a single Virtual Path (VP) Within this VP there are a number of Virtual Circuits (VCs), which can be divided into 5 main types

AAL2 User Plane CBR, carries the actual user data AAL2 Signalling CBR, carries control signalling related to setting up AAL2 connections within the AAL2 User Plane VC DNBAP CBR, Dedicated NodeB Application Part. This carries messages related to the setting up and releasing of radio links CNBAP CBR, Common NodeB Application Part. This carries messages relating to setting up first radio links (SRBs) and RRI messages O&M UBR, Operations and Maintenance, alarms, software downloads

Virtual Circuits for IUB

Nokia IUB

There is always only one CNBAP VC per site There is always only one O&M VC per site There is always 1 DNBAP VC per WAM card

Recall: One WAM card supports up to 3 WSPC cards

The number of AAL2Sig VCs depends on whether AAL2 Multiplexing feature is used or not

1 AAL2Sig per WAM if AAL2 Multiplexing is not used 1 AAL2Sig VC per IUB if AAL2 Multiplexing is used

The number of AAL2 User Plane VCs depends on a number of factors

Whether the AAL2 Multiplexing feature is used or not. If used there is an option to configure a single AAL2 User Plane VC per WBTS Number of AAL2 connections for the traffic mix (see next slides)

IUB Capacity

Nokia IUB

IUB VC capacities are usually quoted in units of ATM cells per second (cps) 1 cps = (53 x 8)/1000 kbps IUB Capacity = User Plane + AAL2Sig + CNBAP + DNBAP + O&M O&M is recommended to be 151 cps (~64kbps) per WBTS

O&M is configured as Unspecified Bitrate (UBR) so that it can expand beyond the 151cps if required for example when performing software downloads

UBR does not offer any minimum cell rate guarantee, meaning the O&M link could be completely starved if the other links are full of traffic.

This would be unacceptable for O&M since it needs to carry alarms which can not be missed or delayed We can artificially create a minimum cell rate for O&M by making sure the combined cell rates of the other links leave some headroom and do not completely fill the available bandwidth In future, UBR+ will be available which allows a minimum cell rate to be defined for UBR links

IUB Dimensioning

Nokia IUB

Signaling link dimensioning is complicated and has many variables CNBAP dimensioning is a function of the number of, and rate of, radio link setups and also the Radio Resource Indication period used for sending NodeB reports to the RNC DNBAP dimensioning depends on many factors, including number of calls, call lengths, measurement reporting intervals.

DNBAP dimension is particularly sensitive to the number of PS calls, as each PS calls requires ~13 cps capacity on DNBAP

General guideline is to allocate ~6-8% of total IUB capacity to signalling links CNBAP, DNBAP, AAL2Sig

Nokia recommendation is to dimension CNBAP:DNBAP:AAL2Sig in ratios of 1:2:1 respectively

O&M 151 151 151 151 151 151 CNBAP 80 158 233 312 390 469 DNBAP 159 315 466 624 780 938 AAL2Sig 80 158 233 312 390 468 Total Signalling 319 631 932 1248 1560 1875 % of E1 7.29 7.21 7.10 7.13 7.13 7.14

Number of E1s 1 2 3 4 5 6

Nokia recommendations for Signalling link VC capacity as function of number of E1s

Architecture Constraints

Nokia IUB

Various NodeB architecture constraints, as well as ATM design constraints, influence the design decisions on the ATM layer of the IUB. This is especially the case with Ultrasite architecture. A single WAM can support up to 3 WSPC cards

WAMs and WSPC cards

There can be 6 WAMs in an Ultrasite WBTS => total of 18 WSPC cards

The IUB VC connections are routed to the WAM cards through the AXC. But the way this is done is dependent on whether AAL2 Multiplexing feature is enabled on the AXC

No AAL2 Multiplexing

AXC is basically doing simple cross-connect. Each WAM needs its own DNBAP, AAL2Sig and AAL2UserPlane VC AXC is performing true VC level ATM switching. Each WAM still requires its own DNBAP. However, with AAL2 multiplexing it is possible to configure only a single AAL2Sig and AAL2UserPlane VC per site (instead of per WAM)

AAL2 Multiplexing

Each WAM card can have up to 2 AAL2 User Plane VCs connected to it

Architecture Constraints

Nokia IUB

AAL2 Connection IDs Each Virtual Circuit can support a maximum of 248 AAL2 Connections
This is an ATM AAL2 specification limitation. The AAL2 CID address field in the AAL2 header is only 8 bits giving 256 possible addresses

CID 0 7 are reserved, giving 248 usable addresses

Common channels (CCCH) of each sector consume 4 AAL2 CIDs

3 sector site uses 12 CIDs for CCCH, 6 sector Moran site uses 24 CIDs for CCCH

Each DCH (AMR, Video or normal PS) uses 2 AAL2 CIDs

1 AAL2 CID for the DTCH logical channel 1 AAL2 CID for the DCCH logical channel

Voice only capacity of a single AAL2 User Plane VC

3 sector site: (248 3x4)/2 = 236/2 = 118 simultaneous AMR calls 6 sector site: (248 6x4)/2 = 224/2 = 112 simultaneous AMR calls

Example: Inner 3 sector site with 4 x WSPC cards, 3xE1s and a single AAL2UserPlane of 12,387cps. HSDPA enabled. Call mix is dominated by AMR calls, which is what we see at special events:

WSPC Capacity is (4x64 16 32) = 208 CEs can support 208 AMR voice calls 3 E1s provides for approx 5.1Mbps bandwidth ~ 300 AMR calls But the single AAL2Userplane can only support 118 AMR voice calls before AAL2 CID limit. AAL2 CID limit is clearly the bottleneck despite WSPC and E1 capacity

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Architecture Constraints

Nokia IUB

HSDPA Requirements The previous slide demonstrates how AAL2 CID limitations could become the bottleneck when a single AAL2UserPlane VC is configured on the IUB

Adding a second AAL2UserPlane VC, and splitting the total user plane bandwidth between the two VCs would overcome this limitation by providing additional AAL2 CIDs on the second VC

However, a single users HSDPA connection must have a single AAL2 CID, and so can only flow within a single AAL2UserPlane VC

With multiple AAL2UserPlane VCs, the maximum HSDPA throughput is then limited to the size of the biggest VC only, not to the combined size E.G. 3xE1 split evenly between 2 AAL2UserPlane VCs. Each VC is 12,387/2cps = ~ 6193cps = ~ 2.6Mbps. With ATM overheads, this would give maximum HSDPA speeds of approz 2Mbps. If the 3xE1 were configured as a single VC of 12,387cps we can achieve the full 3.2Mbps application throughput.

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Single WAM Configuration (1)

No AAL2 Multiplexing

IUB Configurations

A single WAM can support up to 3 WSPC cards Without AAL2 Multiplexing, VCs are connected directly from the RNC interface card to the WAM cards in the WBTS

The S-AXC and AXC simply cross-connect the VCs, no ATM switching is performed

In this example there is only a single AAL2 User Plane connected to the WAM

RNC

S-AXC
O&M CNBAP DNBAP AAL2SIG AAL2 User Plane VC-33 VC-34

NodeB
WSPC
WAM 2
192 HWCH

WSPC WSPC

IFUC

AXUB

VC-35 VC-36

IFU

NIS

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Single WAM Configuration (2)

No AAL2 Multiplexing

IUB Configurations

In this case the AAL2 User Plane has been split into two paths

In the Optus network, this is the pre-HSDPA configuration when we have 3 WSPC cards and 3 E1s In RAN04 there was a limit that a single VC could not be more than 9,999 cps (3 E1s is 12,387cps) Typical Optus configuration would be 9,000cps for AAL2 User Plane 1 and 3,387cps for AAL2 User Plane 2

This limitation no longer applies from RAS05 onwards and so even this configuration could now be done with a single 12.387cps AAL2UserPlane VC as in the previous slide

RNC

S-AXC
O&M CNBAP DNBAP AAL2SIG AAL2 User Plane 1 AAL2 User Plane 2 VC-33 VC-34

NodeB
WSPC
WAM 2
192 HWCH

WSPC WSPC

IFUC

AXUB

VC-35 VC-36 VC-37

IFU

NIS

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Multiple WAM Configuration

No AAL2 Multiplexing

IUB Configurations

The second WAM is required because of the 4th WSPC card The second WAM requires an additional DNBAP, AAL2Sig and AAL2 User Plane VC if AAL2 Multiplexing is not enabled Ideally, the relative sizes of AAL2UserPlane 1 to AAL2UserPlane 2 should reflect the capacity of the WSPC cards behind each respective WAM

In this case, AAL2 User Plane 1:AAL2 User Plane 2 would be in the ratio of ~ 3:2

With limited total E1 bandwidth, this solution limits total HSDPA throughput since HSDPA can only flow within a single VC
RNC S-AXC
O&M CNBAP DNBAP AAL2SIG AAL2 User Plane 1 VC-33 VC-34

NodeB
WSPC
WAM 2

WSPC WSPC WSPC

IFUC

AXUB

VC-35 VC-36

IFU

NIS

DNBAP AAL2SIG AAL2 User Plane 2

VC-44 VC-45 VC-46

WAM 4

WSPC

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Nokia IUB
Two WAMs with AAL2 Multiplexing

IUB Configurations

Still requires a second DNBAP VC AAL2Sig and AAL2UserPlanes can now be configured as a single, larger pipe. The now switches the AAL2 Connections within the single VC towards the appropriate WAM card which is connected to the WSPC card hadling that traffic
RNC S-AXC
O&M CNBAP DNBAP VC-33 VC-34

NodeB
WSPC
WAM 2

WSPC WSPC

IFUC

AXUB

IFU

NIS

AAL2SIG AAL2 User Plane 1 AAL2SIG DNBAP

VC-35 VC-36

WSPC
WAM 4

VC-45 VC-44

WSPC

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