OMD6046 Case Analsyis--Handover ISSUE1.

Wireless Curriculum Development Section

Outline of Handover Topic

Statistics by handover counter Searching process of handover data

Analysis of causes of handover problem

Handover cases

Statistic Point of Handover Counter

Statistics of handover counter

Intra-BSC handover Inter-BSC handover

Statistic Point of Handover Counter Intra-BSC Handover

MS BTS(Source) BSC BTS(Target) MSC

Measurement Report Measurement Report

Attempted incoming internal inter cell handovers

Handover algorithm verdict on the cell handover request

T09++

(In-cell handover request get to)

T12++

Channel Activation Channel Activation ACK Handover Command (Old FACCH) Handover Access (New FACCH) Handover Complete (New FACCH) RF Channel Release Handover Performed
Successful incoming internal in-cell handover

Attempted outgoing internal inter cell handovers

T10++

T13++

Successful outgoing internal in-cell handover

Statistic Point of Handover CounterIntra-BSC Handover

Handover Formula
Internal inter cell handover Success rate
Attempted inter cell handovers
success inter cell handovers

cell radio handover Success rate

Inter cell handovers

success inter cell handovers

cell handover Success rates >=internal inter cell handover success rates

Statistic Point of Handover CounterIntra-BSC Handover

Possible causes of failure of intra-BSC handover

No available channel in the destination cell

Channel activation negative acknowledgementCHAN ACK NACK

Transmitting channel activation message failure Waiting channel activation timeout

MS access failureRadio interface may be the cause

Max repeat time of physical information *radio link connected with the timer < time interval of EST IND~HO DETECT (120~180ms) Waiting to timeout after establish indication (MS has not received UA frame or has not sent handover complete message)

Statistic Point of Handover CounterInter-BSC Handover

MS BTS(Source) BSC MSC BSC BTS(Target)

Measureme nt Report

Measurement Report
Handover Required

Attempted outgoing inter-BSC inter cell handovers

The same as intra-MSC

T17++

Attempted incoming inter-BSC inter cell handovers

Handover Request Channel ACT

T14++

Channel ACT ACK Handover Request ACK Handover Command Handover Access Handover Detect Handover Complete Handover Complete T15++ Clear Command(HO successful) RF Channel Release Clear Complete T18++
Successful incoming interBSC inter cell handover

Successful outgoing interBSC inter cell handover

Statistic Point of Handover CounterInter-BSC Handover

Signaling flow between MSCs

MS BSC-A MSC-A MSC-B
MAP_Prepare_HO

VLR-B

BSC-B

MS

HO-Required

MAP_Allocate_HO_NUM MAP_Send_HO_Repor t MAP_Send_HO_Report_ACK HO-Request

MAP_Prepare_HO_ACK
IAI

HO-Request-ACK

HO-Command

ACM

HO-Access MAP_Process_Access_Signalling HO-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal Clear-Command Clear-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal_ACK

Some intermediate steps are omitted

Statistic Point of Handover CounterInter-BSC Handover

Success ratio of

inter-BSC handover--------------100
Request times of inter-cell handover between BSCs

Success times of inter-cell handover between BSCs

Success ratio of

Destination BSC receives HO-COMP from MS In-BSC handover----------------100 After destination BSC receives HO-REQ Success ratio of Source BSC receives Clear-COMD from MSC Out-BSC handover------------100 After BSC sends HO-Required

Outline of Handover Topic

Statistics by handover counter Searching process of handover data

Analysis of causes of handover problem Handover cases

Searching Process of Handover Data

1. BCCH of all adjacent cells in BA2 table are sent to MS on system message 5. MS reports service cell and six adjacent cell where level is the most powerful (through measurement report) to BSS, including the BCCH , BSIC and signal level of the adjacent cells and service cells. When the measurement report is pre-processed, BSC determines the module ID, cell ID and CGI of all adjacent cells through BCCH frequency and BSIC in Cell Adjacency Relation Table and Cell Description Data Table (or External Cell Description Data Table). BSC executes handover verdict flow such as basic cell sorting (on LAPD board). Once a proper destination is found, the handover request message of the destination cell CGI will be sent to MPU of BSC host, and then MPU will confirm the module ID of the cell in Cell Module Information Table based on the CGI. MPU sends handover request message to the module and makes statistics of Out-cell handover request.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Searching Processing of Handover Data

6. If the destination cell triggered by BSC is an external cell, the CGI of the destination cell and service cell is sent to MSC with the handover request. 7. MSC first goes to Location Area Cell Table to search the cell that matches the CGI of the destination cell. Once the cell is found, confirm which BSC is belong to. Send the handover request message to this BSC. 8. If there is no CGI of the destination cell in Location Area Cell Table, go to adjacent MSC table and find the destination MSC, then send the handover request message to this MSC.

Outline of Handover Topic

Statistics by handover counter

Searching process of handover data Analysis of causes of handover problem

Handover cases

Analysis of Handover Problem

Types of Handover Problems

Locating problem Causes of Handover Problem

Type of Handover Problem

No handoverDropout occurs Handover failureAffect the communication quality, Frequent handoverAffect the communication quality

hence the dropout.

and increase the system load

Locating Handover Problem

Analyze traffic statistics

Measurement of BSC overall performance Measurement of inter-cell handover performance Measurement of out-cell/in-cell handover performance Measurement of performance of undefined adjacent cells

View alarm: Board fault, transmission, clock, etc. Drive test Analyze signaling: A interface, E interface, Abis interface

Analysis of Handover Problem

Coverage and interference at radio interface
Antenna

& feeder system

BS software/hardware Transmission

BSC software/hardware/ Data Configuration

A interface

problem

Destination cell is busy

Interconnection with equipment of other manufacturers

Analysis of Causes of Handover Problem

I. Coverage and interference at radio interface

1. Coverage:
Poor coverage: forest, complicated topography, building direction and indoor coverage Isolated site: no-neighbor cell Over coverage: island effect result in a no-neighbor cell 2. Interference: consequently, MS uplink can not be accessed or the downlink can not receive any signal.

Analysis of Causes of Handover Problem

Island effect results in handover failure
There is no adjacent cells, so handover become impossible.

Non-adjacent cell Adjacent cell N1 Non-adjacent cell Adjacent Cell N2

Service cell

Non-adjacent
cell Isolated island resulting from cross-cell coverage

Adjacent
Cell N3

Analysis of Causes of Handover Problem

II. Antenna & Feeder System

1. High voltage standing wave ratio(VSWR) 2. Antennae are not properly installed 3. Antennae are not parallel 4. The azimuth and obliquity are not correct 5. Poor antenna isolation 6. RF cables ,connection are loose or incorrect

connection

Analysis of Causes of Handover Problem

III. BTS software/hardware

1. CDU, splitter/combiner failure 2. TRX, RC board failure 3. TMU failure

4. FPU failure
5. Clock failure 6. Internal communication cable 7. BTS software

Analysis of Causes of Handover Problem

IV. Transmission
1. Transmission is not stable

2. Serious BER in transmission

V. Fault BSC Software/Hardware

Example for:Clock board: the defective clock board
causes clock inconsistency between BSs.

Analysis of Causes of Handover Problem

Data ConfigurationCause handover failure, delay, frequent
handover, no handover, unreasonable in/out handover ratio

Improper setting of handover threshold (higher, lower, the edge handover threshold is higher than the power control threshold.)
Improper setting of hysteresis handover and priority handover Improper setting of P, N value of statistic time

Incomplete frequency and adjacency relation configured in BA2 table

There are adjacent cells with the same frequency and the same BSIC CGI and module ID in Cell Description Data Table are different from those in Cell Module Information Table.

CGI, BCCH and BSIC in External Cell Description Table are different from those in the opposite BSC.
The Destination signaling point of BSC in MSC Location Area Cell Table is incorrect.

Analysis of Causes of Handover Problem

Precautions:

Frequency of Preprocess Measurement Report: when Measurement

Report Preprocess is enable , if the link configuration is 15:1, the setting is once per second. At this time, for the handovers that needs P/N verdict, such as boundary handover, layer handover, PBGT handover and concentric handover, the P/N verdict time should be shortened.

BSC can not process the CGI in lower case. Therefore it must be input
BSC does not recognize CI as FFFF cell, otherwise the handover

in upper case, otherwise the handover would fail.

would not happen

Transmitting BS/MS Power Level: If the measurement report

preprocess is enabled, this parameter must be set to Yes.

Analysis of Causes of Handover Problem

VI. A interface Problem
Basically the insufficient link resource results in the abnormal handover, as well as abnormal communication.

VII. Destination Cell Busy

The destination cell is busy and there is no available channel, which causes the handover failure. Then the destination cell should be expanded or reduce its traffic .

VIII. Handover between Equipment of Different Manufacturers

The signalings at A interface, E interface of the opposite end are not matching to our equipment and they can not be recognized or support, which causes the handover failure, such as voice version, handover number, TUP circuit, addressing mode (CGI or LAI).

Outline of Handover Topic

Statistics by handover counter

Searching process of handover data Analysis of causes of handover problem Handover cases

Typical Handover Cases

Case 1
Fault Description: a 1800 cell of a dual-band network
(all the cells of this are 1800), the success ratio of inBSC handover and in-cell handover in BSC are low from the beginning of the service, while out-cell handovers inside BSC and between BSCs are normal.

Typical Handover Case

Case 1
Tips for troubleshooting:
1. Register the traffic statistics and analyze whether the low handover ratio is due to the failure of handover from all cells to this cell or from some few cells to this cell. 2. If handover fails from some few cells to this cell, check the handover data and see whether there is co-channel or same BSIC problem. 3. If handover fails from all other cells to this cell, check the data of this cell. 4. If data cause is ruled out, check the hardware carefully. Check the alarm or perform drive test to locate uplink fault or downlink fault. Check step by step and find out the cause.

Typical Handover Case

Solution: 1. Register the in-cell handover performance measurement and find that the success ratio of handover from all other cells to this cell is low, although it is not always 0 percent. Check the data and the data are correct. 2. Perform drive test and find that the downlink signal is normal but almost all handovers to this cell fail. In the BS, the handover is successful occasionally.Perhaps the problem is with the uplink signal. 3. Check the uplink, antenna, CDU are no problem. Change the TRX and everything is normal.

Conclusion: The symptom is that the uplink and downlink at UM port are not balanced so the opposite hears low quality voice.

Typical Handover Case

Case 2

Fault Description: in a cell of a 900M monofrequency network, the success ratio of in-cell wireless handover in BSC is low (1030), which is the same as handover success ratio.

Typical Handover Case

Case 2

Analysis: Since the wireless handover ratio is low, check data, coverage and interference. Data: co-frequency of BCCH and co-BSIC Coverage: signal is weak, uplink and downlink are not balanced. Interference: high BER, MS can not be accessed or can not receive signals correctly.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution: 1. Check data: register In-cell Handover Performance Measurement and find that the success ratio of handover into all adjacent cells is low, but is not 0. Check the data to find that there is no co-frequency 0f BCCH and co-BSIC problem. Data cause is ruled out. 2. Check coverage: The traffic in this cell is relatively low. Check BS Maintenance to find that TCH channel can be occupied, but occupation times are few. Perform a drive test. In a place 2 km from the BS, the downlink receiving signal is 85dbm, but in-cell handovers always fail or dropout always occurs at handover. Make dial test in this cell by locking frequency, the caller can not be created. The called can be created but can not call out. A rough conclusion is that poor uplink causes the problem. 3. Check the installation of uplink hardware, nothing abnormal is identified. Maybe a fault has occurred to the uplink path of TRX or CDU. Replace CDU, the problem is solved.

Conclusion: hardware fault results in poor signal, and the success ratio of wireless handover is low.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 3
Fault Description: After a dual-band network was LAPD updated on September 19, it was found that some cells in module 4 under 1800M are seriously congested (4050), and overall handover index of BSC (success ratio of out/in-BSC handovers and inter-cell handover inside BSC) is lowered, from 95 to about 90. From Inter-cell handover performance measurement, it was found that beside module 4, some cells of other modules also suffer from the problem that inter-cell handover success ratio is lowered. After September 19, the situation was worsened.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 3

Analysis: 1. Check whether it is attributed to LAPD updating; 2. Analyze traffic statistics, the main causes of the failure and locate the problem.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution: 1. Check whether it is attributed to LAPD updating: after the upgdating,

not all cells under module 4 are congested and the handover indexes of
some indexes are not lowered. Upgrading is not the cause. 2. Analyze traffic statistics:

Congested cells are mostly at Site A and Site B. Their traffics are The cells where handover success ratio is lowered are mostly at Site A,

lowered than those before the upgrading. It is a pseudo congestion.

B, C, D and E and the main cause of the failure is timer timeout. 3. Check alarm: At 19:31 of September 18, the clock systems of Site A and Site B gave

alarms. It was found that 13M loses lock.

the clock problem lowers the handover success ratio of the two sites. Such impact is spread to the adjacent cells of these two cells and even to the whole network.

Typical Handover Cases

Solution: 4. Analyze handover data and traffic statistics: All cells where handover success ratio is lowered are adjacent to A and B except A and B themselves. 5. Reset Site A and Site B, the clock system is recovered, and the handover success ratio inter/intra-BSC goes up to 93. The problem is solved.

Conclusion: the problem in clock system will lower the handover success ratio. Pay attention to the alarm console and the slow switchover of the clock system.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 4
Fault Description: Huawei BSC and the another manufacturerBSC(for short S BSC) are connected to the same MSC. After the cutover, S BSCBS can not handover into Huawei BS but Huawei BS can handover into SBSC BS. In other words, In-BSC handover request times of Huawei BSC is 0.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 4

Analysis: Since in-BSC handover request times is 0 but the out handover is normal. Carefully check the out-cell handover signaling and handover data at S BSC side

Typical Handover Cases

Case 4
Solution:
1. Trace interface message. After receiving HO-REQUEST

message, Huawei BSC returns HO-FAILURE message immediately but Huawei BSC should have returned HOREQ-ACK message as in normal conditions. Carefully analyze HO-REQ message and HO-FAILURE message

Typical Handover Cases

Typical Handover Cases

HO-REQUEST

Typical Handover Cases

Case 4
Solution
2. HO-FALUER: The cause of the failure is invalid message

content
3. HO-REQthe difference is basically the Address Indicator in comparison with the normal handover request message. HUAWEI BSC does not recognize case 41. The system thinks that Address

Indicator must be 0x43. inform the owner of network, modify the

relation parameter,and this problem is solved.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 4

Conclusion:
In interworking with equipment of other manufacturers, faults can be located by analyzing the signaling.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 5
Fault Description: Huawei MSC interworks with MSC of N (manufacturer) with Ns BSC attached. The communication is
normal. The handovers inside Huawei BSC and in-BSC are normal, but out-BSC handover success ratio is about 25%.

The handover from the BSC of N to Huawei BSC is successful

and the subsequent handover is also successful (In the same communication, the handover goes back to BSC of N).

Typical Handover Cases

Case 5

Analysis: Check handover data, including the

external cell description table, BA2 table, cell
adjacency relation table inside Huawei BSC and opposite BSC and CGI at MSC side. If the data are correct, check out-BSC handover

signaling.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 5
Solution:
1. Check data: BSC and MSC of Huawei and N. No problem is found.

2. Check alarm: BS maintenance console, No.7 link and A interface circuit are all
normal. 3. Trace Huawei A interface signaling. After HO-Required message is received, HO-COMD command is not received from MSC. 4. Trace MAP message at E interface (inter-MSC) with a signaling meter. It is found

that after receiving HO-Number, Huawei MSC never sends IAI (Initial Address
Information). 5. Check HO-Number message from the opposite end to find that the handover code format is 130********(only a number of mobile telephone, no any prefix). But this mobile company requires that roaming/handover between exchanges should be in the format: 00+country code+roaming/handover number. In addition, Huawei equipment does not recognize the handover number without 00+country code. Therefore the signaling is halted. 6. Coordinate with N, asking them to add 00+country code before the handover number. Then out-BSC handover is normal.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 5

Conclusion: Problems can be located quickly and accurately familiar with the signaling flow of handovers. if you are

Typical Handover Cases

Case 6

Fault Description: In the independent MSC networking of a

dual frequency network, Huawei 1800M coordinates with
900M of manufacturer A . After the cutover, the success ratio of handover from M1800 to M900 is low (about 60), while the handover from M900 to M1800 are normal and the handover data are correct.

Typical Handover Cases

Analysis 1: Trace the signalings at A interface and E
interface. Normally:
MS BSC-HW MSC-HW MSC-B VLR-B BSC-B MS

HO-Required

MAP_Prepare_HO

MAP_Allocate_HO_NUM MAP_Send_HO_Repor t MAP_Send_HO_Report_ACK HO-Request

MAP_Prepare_HO_ACK
IAI

HO-Request-ACK

HO-Command

ACM

HO-Access MAP_Process_Access_Signaling HO-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal Clear-Command Clear-Complete MAP_Send_End_Signal_ACK Intermediate steps are omitted.

Typical Handover Cases

Analysis 2: Abnormally:
MS BSC-HW MSC-HW

MSC-B

VLR-B

BSC-B

MS

HO-Required

MAP_Prepare_HO MAP_Abort

HO-REJECT

Typical Handover Cases

Case 6
Analysis 2:
1. Analyze the Prepare-HO message sent from Huawei MSC to the opposite end. The voice version is full rate version 1, 2 and half-rate version 1. It is a PHASE 2+ version. However there is only full rate version 1 in the message sent from

M900 to Huawei M1800. It turns out that the opposite does not support half-rate
version, so the handover fails. 2. Modify A interface circuit pool table of Huawei MSC data, only using full-rate version 1. 3. Then the out-BSC handover is normal.

Conclusion: There are often many problems in coordination between the equipment of different manufacturers. However,

problems can be located accurately by tracing signaling.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7
Fault Description: A specific GSM network, where one MSC is attached with two BSC, is all configured with Huawei equipment. When the two BSCs are cut over one after another, the success ratio of handover from BSC1 to BSC2 is very low, but the success ratio of handover from BSC2 to BSC1 is normal. Intra-BSC handover inside BSC1 and BSC2 is normal.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7
Analysis: check handover data and trace signaling.

Solution: 1. Check all data of inter-BSC handover: external cell description data table, BA2 table, CGI of MSC. No problem is found. 2. Trace A interface message of BSC1 and BSC2. After BSC1 sends HORequired, BSC2 has not received HO-Request message, but BSC1 has. 3. The path of data search: MSC goes to Location Area Cell Table according to the CGI of the destination cell in HO-Required message, refers to the

description of the DSP of the cell given in the table and sends HO request to the
correct BSC. 4. The Ho-request message, which should have been sent to BSC2, is sent to BSC1, so it is DSP error. After correction, the problem is solved.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7
Conclusion: For the data of inter-BSC handover, besides checking

whether CGI at MSC side is consistent with that at the

opposite and at BSC, check whether the DSP is correct. MSC indexes to the CGI of the destination cell with the existing CGI.. When the DSP is incorrect, HO-Request will be sent to

wrong BSC.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7
Fault Description: A specific dual frequency network is a mixed networking of Huawei BSC (M1800) and manufacturer N BSC (M900), attached to MSC of manufacturer S. After the cutover, the success ratio of Huawei in-BSC handover is always 8892, while out-BSC and intra-BSC handovers are normal (above 92). Furthermore, the cells with low success ratio of in-BSC handover are randomly distributed. When there is no fixed BM, there is no fixed LAC.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7

Analysis: Since the handover success ratio is not very low

and the low ratio is not focused in some few cells, data problem is unlikely. Perhaps it is due to some interference at the radio port or some dead zone. Next, trace the signaling.

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7:
Solution: 1. Perform forced handover with a tester between several cells where handovers have failed. The forced handovers are all successful. Data problem is ruled out. 2. The interference band of cells is ideal, dropout and congestion ratio are normal. It is unlikely that the coverage and interference at the radio port causes the problem. 3. Trace A interface signal and compare the failure signaling and success signaling:

Typical Handover Cases

A interface signaling analysis of inter-BSC handover in MSC:
Failure signaling:

Success signaling:

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7:
Solution: 4. The comparison result is that Huawei BTS has not detected any MS access information (No HO DETECT signaling occurs). It shows that there is problem when the

MS is accessing cell M1800 or the MS does not access cell 1800.

5. Reconfirm that there is no problem with the handover data, otherwise the handover success ratio will be very low. 6. Re-trace large number of handover signalings to find that all failures are attributed to the same cause. In addition, the problem mode is the same: one MS makes multiple

handover requests in one communication and all requests fail.

7. Analyze other similarities of the failed message, to find that the first 6 digits of IMEI numbers of these MSs are all 449684. It shows that the MSs that have handover problem are of the same model. 8. Find the MS owners with the IMSI numbers and find that all MSs with handover problem are F-MS. Not long before it was proved that this MS has poor insulation performance between 900 and 1800, so it can not access 1800 network. Now the cause is found. .

Typical Handover Cases

Case 7:
Conclusion: MS problem will also causes handover failure.
1. In this case the handover success ratio is not very low, therefore coordination problem is unlikely. 2. Trace the signaling to find the cause of the handover failure: BTS has not received handover access message from MS. 3. Find the similarity of these MSs through large amount of signaling tracing: IMEI numbers are the same. Then it is found that the problem is on F-MS. 4. In this case, the coverage of M900 is very good, F-MS is always under M900 in idle status. Therefore in a call, TCH assignment seldom fail, which will not result in high

congestion ratio. But in handover, problem is very likely to

happen.