Documentation Center of Radio Planning and Design Section, Huawei Technologies

Document No.

Product version

Confidentiality level

Product name: M900/M1800

15 pages in total

LA Capacity Planning Guideline

(Internal Use Only)

Drafted by: Reviewed by: Reviewed by: Approved by:

Topic Research Study Group

Date: Date: Date: Date:

2002-10-22 yyyy/mm/dd yyyy/mm/dd yyyy/mm/dd

Huawei Technologies All Rights Reserved

LA Capacity Planning Guideline (V1.0)

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Table of Contents
1. Overview..............................................................................................................................................................4 2. LA Design Principle..........................................................................................................................................5 3. Paging..................................................................................................................................................................7 3.1 Paging group...........................................................................................................................................8 3.2 BS-AG-BLKS-RES................................................................................................................................8 3.3 BS-PA-MFRMS.......................................................................................................................................8 3.4 Paging Group, BS-PA-MFRMS and BS-AG-BLKS-RES ...................................................................9 3.5 Paging Strategies......................................................................................................................................9 4. LA Capacity Calculation.....................................................................................................................................9 4.1 Calculating Paging Load.......................................................................................................................10 4.2 Calculating LA Capacity......................................................................................................................10 5. Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................13

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LA Capacity Planning guideline

Key words: Paging, LAC Capacity Abstract: This document introduces how to calculate LA capacity and configure a rational
LA. Reference List Name Author Code Released date Where and how to access Publisher

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1. Overview A location area, LA, is an important concept in GSM network. According to GSM protocol, the whole GSM network is divided into different service areas based on location area code, LAC. The network pages a particular MS through broadcasting the paging message in the LA in which this MS registered. To establish call with a particular MS, the network side should record the LA information about this MS at any time so that this MS can be paged if necessary. The Home Location Register, HLR, in the network side have the basic information about the MS registered in this LA and the current location information about the MS (the information about MSC/VLR in which the MS is). The MSC/VLR has the basic information and location information (in which LA) of all MSs that currently stay in this MSC. The SIM card has the LA information of the current MS. After an MS is powered on and camped to a particular BCCH, it compares between the location information in the SIM card and the location information delivered by this BCH. If they are not matched, this MS initiates Location updating. The Location updating is to register new LA in the current MSC/VLR. If the LA information in the MSC/VLR has been changed, this MS sends signaling to the HLR in which it registered to modify its MSC/VLR information and to delete its old MSC/VLR information. When an MS is in idle state, it keeps monitoring the location information of BCH. The Location updating will be performed once this MS detects that the received location information is not matched with that in the SIM card. When an MS is in active state, it keeps monitoring the location information delivered through SACCH. Once this MS detects that the received location information is not matched with that in the SIM card, it will perform Location updating immediately after the call finished. To guarantee that an MS can be paged, the information kept in HLR, VLR and SIM should be consistent at any time. LA is a basic unit of GSM. That is, the paging message is broadcasted in all cells within the LA an MS currently locates. An LA might contain one or multiple BSCs, but these BSCs share the same MSC, as shown in the following diagram.

PLMN MSC
CELL CELL

MSC
LA
CELL CELL CELL CELL

LA

CELL CELL

CELL

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CELL 4 CELL

CELL CELL

LA

CELL CELL

CELL

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Figure 1 Service area division

2. LA Design Principle
To locate the MS, the coverage of every GSM PLMN is divided into many LAs. The dimension of an LA is a key factor in GSM. So LA division is very important during the network planning. The LA division should base on the principle of minimizing the Location updating under the prerequisite that paging load cannot be too high. For network operators, the frequent Location updating cannot produce any profit but only waste the network resource. The paging load determines the maximum range of an LA and the Location updating of border cells determines the minimum range of an LA. But the most important limitation is the maximum paging capacity of BTS. The LA dimensioning should follow the following principles: A. Avoid too large or too small LA

Too small LAC increases the number of location updating thus to increase signaling flow. Too large LAC may lead to a too high paging load on PCH and an increase to the signaling flow at Abis interface. The LA dimensioning is related with paging policy of different manufacturers. See LA Calculation section in this document. Generally the number of TRXs per LA is recommended to be approximate 300. For the beginning stage of a network, an LAC can contain more than 300 TRXs due to the low traffic. The long-term monitoring of PCH load and traffic increase is very important. Besides, adding a slave BCCH also can increase PCH capacity effectively but this method has a price of losing a speech channel. B. Try to divide LAC according to the subscriber geographical distribution and

behavior for reducing the border Location updating if the suburb and city are not covered continually, it might lead to the Location updating uncompleted due to the Location updatingT3212 timeout. After the timer of Location updating times out (duration can be set in MSC), the system regards IMSI implicit detach. If such an MS moves from suburb to the city, this MS maybe do not perform the normal Location updating since the LAC of city is the same as that of suburb. Thus this MS can receives signals but it is not in the service area. To avoid this phenomenon, the suburb (usually counties) uses the LAC different from the city LAC. In this case, this phenomenon can be avoided effectively as the LA distribution is similar to an concentric circle (the city in the inner circle might use several LACs due to capacity limitation. The different LACs can be division can base on some particular areas or an inner circle and an excircle, or the combination of both above two cases). It has been proven that the LAC division in this way

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can effectively reduce the case that the MS is not in the service area and also greatly improve call completion rate.

Figure 2 LAC division For the large city with high traffic, if there are two or more than two LACs, the division can be made based on the geographical features such as mountain and river to reduce the overlapping depth between cells of different LACs. If these geographical features are not available, the division based on street or the border locates at the place with high traffic (such as shopping center) should be avoided. Generally, the LAC boarder should be bevel instead of being parallel or vertical with the street. For the border area between the city and suburb, to avoid frequent Location updating, the LAC border should be located in the most outer site instead of in the site with high traffic (such as the border area). In dual band network, the LAC division has some new features. The following are some experience of LAC division for dual band network. A) If M1800 and M900 belongs to different MSCs, their LACs certainly is

different. In this case, the LAC division principle is to try to keep MSs in M1800 cells through data configuration to absorb traffic as much as possible and to reduce the handover and reselection between two bands. Meanwhile, the load resulted from Location updating should be fully considered during the signaling channel design. B) If M1800 and M900 share the same MSC, it is recommended to use the

same LAC as large as the network capacity permitting at the beginning stage. If two or more than two LACs have to be divided due to the paging capacity limitation, there are

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two design concepts: division based geography and division based on frequency band, as shown in the following figure.

900 Cell 900 Cell

1800 Cell

900 Cell LA2 900 Cell

1800 Cell LA1 1800 Cell 1800 Cell

900 Cell 900 Cell

1800 Cell

LAC division based on frequency band

Figure 3 LAC division based on frequency band

900

900

900 1800

900

1800

1800

1800

1800

1800

LA1 LAC division based on geography

LA2

Figure 4 LAC division based on geography For LAC division based on frequency band, the LAC division principle is to try to keep MSs in M1800 cells through data configuration to absorb traffic as much as possible and to reduce the handover and Cell Reselection between two bands. Meanwhile, the signaling load resulted from Location updating should be fully considered during the signaling channel design. The LAC division based on geography is free from the frequent handover and Cell Reselection between two bands. But the data of the original M900 should be modified. Meanwhile, at the LAC border, there are the handover and reselection between the same frequency band and between two different frequency bands. Thus the signal flow is very high and it should be fully considered during the LAC border design.

3. Paging

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3.1 Paging group

An MS can calculate which PCH channel it should monitor after it decodes BCCH message and the system message. The paging group dimension can be defined in OMC. A paging group defines the number of sub-PCHs that the PCHs in a cell can be divided into. In the actual network, if the MS supports DRX and the network DRX is enabled, the MS will monitor only the sub-PCH and ignore others. See protocol 0502, 0508. The larger paging group, the more sub-PCHs in a cell, the fewer subscribers in each subPCH (See protocol 0502 for paging group calculation), the longer the MS battery lasts, and the larger paging capacity. The increase of paging capacity of the system will lead to an increase to the average delay of paging message on the radio interface, thus the average service performance is lowered. The smaller paging group, the shorter response time for paging messages, but the shorter the MS battery lasts and the smaller the system paging capacity. The number of paging group is determined by BS-AG-BLKS-RES and BS-PA-MFRMS.

3.2 BS-AG-BLKS-RES
The parameter BS-AG-BLKS-RES in Huawei BSC indicates the number of CCCH message blocks that can be specially reserved for AGCH. After the configuration of CCCH, BS-AG-BLKS-RES actually is to distribute the CCCH occupancy proportion between AGCH and PCH. This parameter has an impact on the duration for MS to response a page and on the system performance. If there are idle PCHs after all AGCHs have been occupied, PCHs can be borrowed for the delivery of immediate assignment command. If the number of message blocks reserved for AGCH is set to 0, the immediate assignment command should be delivered through the idle PCHs.

3.3

BS-PA-MFRMS
The parameter BS-PA-MFRMS indicates the number of multiframes as a cycle of subPCH. This parameter specifies how many sub-PCHs can be divided from PCHs in a cell. The larger BS-PA-MFRMS, the more sub-PCHs in a cell. This parameter can be set based on a principle that PCH should not overload and then the smaller the better. The PCH overload of running network should be measured periodically. Then the adjustment of BSPA-MFRMS can be performed based on this measurement. As a page in an LAC is broadcasted in all cells of this LAC, the PCH capacity of each cell (the finally calculated number of sub-PCHs) in the same LAC should be the same or nearly the same. For example, BS-PA-MFRMS = 9 means that mobiles belonging to a certain paging group is paged every 9th multiframe, which means approximately every 2.1 second (235.4ms*9).

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BS-PA-MFRMS is also related with the radio link counter of the MS in standby state: Counter Initial value = 90/BS-PA-MFRMS Therefore, the more BS-PA-MFRMS, the smaller the initial value of the counter, the more possible to result in MS cannot be served at the network border with poor coverage.

3.4

Paging Group, BS-PA-MFRMS and BS-AG-BLKS-RES

Combined BCCH/SDCCH cells: Number of paging groups = (3-AGB)*BS-PA-MFRMS Non-combined BCCH/SDCCH cells: Number of paging groups = (9-AGB)*BS-PA-MFRMS Relation between paging group, BS-PA-MFRMS and BS-AG-BLKS-RES is shown in the following table.
Time between transmission of each paging group 0.47 0.71 0.94 1.18 1.41 1.65 1.89 2.12 Number of paging groups Combined BCCH/SDCCH Number of paging groups Non-combined BCCH/SDCCH

BS-PAMFRMS

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

3 paging bloks 2 paging bloks 9 paging bloks 8 paging bloks per multiframe per multiframe per multiframe per multiframe AGB=0 AGB=1 AGB=0 AGB=1 6 4 18 16 9 6 27 24 12 8 36 32 15 10 45 40 18 12 54 48 21 14 63 56 24 16 72 64 27 18 81 72

3.5

Paging Strategies
If the MS's LA is known in the VLR, the first page is only broadcasted in the cells belonging to the LA in which the MS is registered, i.e., a local page. If a page was not successful due to the MS does not response to the page, the MSC can be set to send a second page. The second page is still a local page, or might be broadcasted in the whole MSC if this is supported by the manufacturer, i.e., a global page. The success rate of global paging is higher than that of local paging. When a mobile is paged, either TMSI or IMSI can be used to identify the mobile. The Huawei paging strategies is: MSC supports up to 5 times of resending. Whether TMSI or IMSI is used for paging can be set through MSC. And whether the second time paging is local or global also can be set through MSC. But the first time paging must be local. When IMSI is used for paging, IMSI will be used for all pages. When TMSI is used for paging, the last time paging will use IMSI, if TMSI paging is not successful for many times.

4. LA Capacity Calculation

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4.1

Calculating Paging Load

LA load is the number of subscriber that an LA can contain or the number of TRXs. It is closely related with the paging capacity of cells. So to calculate paging capacity, the cell paging capacity should be first calculated. Pages are sent through the timeslot 0 on BCCH. And the sub-channels in timeslot 0 are:

BCH: FCCH, SCH, BCCH CCCH: PCH, AGCH DCCH (if it is combined BCCH/SDCCH): SDCCH, SACCH, CBCH (if cell broadcast is adopted

The timeslot 0 of the physical channel is logically divided into multiframes, with each multiframe being 235.4 ms. The multiframe has different channel configurations, such as combined BCCH/SDCCH or non-combined BCCH/SDCCH, and therefore the paging capacity varies.

Non-combined BCCH/SDCCH

Each non-combined BCCH/SDCCH has 9 paging blocks (as the timeslot 0 of the TRX where BCCH locates does not include SDCCH, there will offcourse be no CBCH.).

Combined BCCH/SDCCH

Each multiframe of combined BCCH/SDCCH can have 3 paging blocks. In the timeslot 0 of the TRX where BCCH locates, there are 4 sub-SDCCHs (in the case there is no CBCH) or 3 SDCCHs + 1 sub-CBCH. The configuration of combined BCCH/SDCCH has a great impact on the paging capacity. As there are only 3 paging blocks in each multiframe instead of 9 in non-combined BCCH/SDCCH, the paging capacity of combined BCCH/SDCCH is only 1/3 as that of noncombined BCCH/SDCCH. In addition, AGCH and PCH share the same radio resource. Either a certain number of blocks can be reserved for AGCH or none is reserved for AGCH (AGB). If there is no block reserved for AGCH, PCH will be borrowed when AGCH needs.

4.2

Calculating LA Capacity

LA capacity can be calculated through the following expression:

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Number of paging blocks per second number of pages per paging block = max. number of paging times per supported number of pages per hour traffic reserved per LA supported number of TRXs per LA Number of paging blocks per second:

1 frame=4.615ms, 1 multiframe=51 frames=0.2354s. Assume BS-AG-BLKS-RES=AGB, then number of paging blocks per second can be calculated as follows: Non-combined BCCH: number of paging blocks per second = (9-

AGB)/0.2354 (paging blocks/second) Combined BCCH: number of paging blocks per second = (3-AGB)/0.2354

(paging blocks/second) For non-combined BCCH: in Huawei BSC, generally AGB=2, then number of paging blocks per second = 29.7 paging blocks/second. When AGB = 0, number of paging blocks per second = 38.2 paging blocks/second. For combined BCCH: Generally AGB=1, then number of paging blocks per second = 8.5 paging blocks/second. When AGB = 0, number of paging blocks per second = 12.7 paging blocks/second. Thus, the more BS-AG-BLKS-RES=AGB, the smaller number of paging blocks per second, and the less paging capacity. The paging capacity of combined BCCH is much less than that of non-combined BCCH. It should be noted the mix of combined BCCH and non-combined BCCH cell in an LA is not recommended and the BS-AG-BLKS-RES=AGB should be kept consistent in the same LA. Otherwise the paging capacity will be lowered (paging capacity is determined by the cell with least paging capacity). If LA capacity is small and the LAC resource is limited, the combined BCCH cell and non-combined BCCH cell can be mixed in an LA to increase the TCHs of L1 and S1/1/1 site. Number of pages per paging block (X):

Each paging block has 23 bytes, and can send 2 IMSI pages (a), or 2 TMSI pages and 1 IMSI page (b), or 4 TMSI pages (c). See GSM protocol 0408 section 9.1.22. For IMSI, the pages/second (X): X=2 Number of pages/number of paging blocks

For TMSI: X=4 Number of pages/number of paging blocks

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Max. number of paging times per second (P)

It can be calculated from: Combined BCCH: P = (9-AGB)/0.2354 (number of pages per second) X (number of paging times per paging block) Non-combined BCCH: P =3-AGB/0.2354 (number of pages per second) X (number of paging times per paging block) IMSI: For non-combined BCCH, when AGB=2, P = 59.47 pages / second; when AGB=0, P=76.47 pages/second. For combined BCCH, when AGB=1, P=16.99 pages/second; when AGB=0, P=25.49 pages/second. TMSI: For non-combined BCCH, when AGB=2, P=118.95 pages/second; when AGB=0, P=152.93 pages/second. For combined BCCH, when AGB=1, P=33.98 pages/second; when AGB=0, P=50.98 pages/second. Conclusion: The paging capacity for IMSI is only half as that for TMSI. Traffic/LA (T)

One of major principle in LA capacity design is that the LA dimension cannot exceed its maximum paging capacity. For the expansion network, the number of forwarding busy hour paging command times can be collected through MSC. Convert this value into a value with second as a unit. The converted value should not exceed the above-calculated value. In the case of no reference traffic statistic data, such as new network, traffic/LA (T) can be calculated based on a assumed traffic model. Average holding time for connection: 60 seconds Success rate of MS being paged (traffic occurs): 30%

Average holding time 60 seconds corresponds to 1/60 calls per second (second. Erl) 30% MS terminated calls => 1/60 * 0.3 = 0.005 MS terminated calls per second (second. Erl) Assuming: 75% of all MS response to the first page, 25% of all MS response to the second page, not including the response until 3rd paging (this is a assumed value, the actual value should be used in the actual situation). So one terminated call need 1.25 times of paging, and the total paging load is: Y=0.005 * 1.25 = 0.00625 pages per second (second. Erl) For IMSI, traffic/LA: T=P*50%/Y = 4757.86 Erl (AGB=2, non-combined BCCH)

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T= 6117.25 Erl T= 1359.39 Erl T= 2039.08 Erl For TMSI, traffic/LA: T= 9515.72 Erl T= 12234 .49 Erl T= 2718.78 Erl T= 4078.16 Erl

(AGB=0, non-combined BCCH) (AGB=1, combined BCCH) (AGB=0, combined BCCH)

(AGB=2, non-combined BCCH) (AGB=0, non-combined BCCH) (AGB=1, combined BCCH) (AGB=0, combined BCCH)

TRXs per LA

Each NTRX has an average of 7.2 TCHs, the maximum traffic for each TRX in 1 hour is 7.2 Erl: For IMSI: NTRX =T/7.2= 660 TRX/LA NTRX = 849 TRX/LA NTRX = 188 TRX/LA NTRX = 283 TRX/LA For TMSI: NTRX = 1321 TRX/LA (AGB=2, non-combined BCCH) NTRX = 1699 TRX/LA (AGB=0, non-combined BCCH) NTRX = 377 TRX/LA NTRX = 566 TRX/LA (AGB=1, combined BCCH) (AGB=0, combined BCCH) (AGB=2, non-combined BCCH) (AGB=0, non-combined BCCH) (AGB=1, combined BCCH) (AGB=0, combined BCCH)

5. Conclusion
The capacity of an LA is closely related with paging mechanism and it is also directly related with AGB and the combination mode of BCCH. When the AGB and combination mode of BCCH are inconsistent, the capacity of this LA is determined by the cell with smallest capacity in this LA. So it is critical keep the AGB and the combination mode of BCCH consistent during the LA planning. The number of TRXs in an LA should be limited within the value calculated above. Otherwise the overloaded pages will be discarded if it is not sent within the MSC re-

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sending times, resulting in the MS standby state cannot receive pages (due to MS not in service area). If some TRXs are added for coverage purpose instead of capacity purpose, an LA can support more TRXs. If the number of point-to-point short messages increases dramatically, the pages also increase so the fewer subscribers can be supported or even the flow protection is needed. The traffic modes at different areas and different stages might be different. So the same parameter used the calculation expresses might have different values. Considering the different traffic density, it is recommended that combined BCCH cell, noncombined BCCH cell, and multi-BCCH cell form an LAC respectively. When there is combined BCCH/SDCCH in a cell, the LA can be as large as possible within the capacity range in the BTS. As all pages of an LAC will be broadcasted in all cells of this LAC, the cell adopting combined BCCH/SDCCH will be the bottleneck of this LAC. The LAC division based on geography should try to avoid the Location updating as much as possible. Generally, LAC planning is performed based the negotiation result with operators.

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