Load Balancing in a Realistic Urban Scenario for LTE Networks

J. Rodrguez, I. de la Bandera, P. Muoz, R. Barco. {jaime-r-m@alu., ibanderac@ic., pabloml@ic., rbarco@}uma.es Dpto. de Ingeniera de Comunicaciones. Universidad de Mlaga. Campus de Teatinos. 29071. Mlaga

AbstractIn this paper the behavior and the self-optimization of an LTE network under realistic conditions are investigated. To enhance network performance in a urban environment a controller to auto-tune parameters has been proposed. An urban mobility model has also been dened in order to test the proposed method under realistic conditions. This model allows to investigate some performance features, which are not visible with a simple mobility model. In this paper, we propose to use a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) for the optimization of handover parameters for adaptive load balancing. Results show that under an agglomeration of vehicles in a main road of the scenario, the proposed method achieves an improvement in the global Call Blocking Ratio (CBR).

I. INTRODUCTION The exponential increase in demand of telecommunication services in wireless networks motivates a constant evolution in mobile communications technologies. A new cellular standard, known as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) has been standardized by the 3GPP [1]. LTE is considered as an evolution of the current UMTS third-generation, providing higher data rates and better Quality of Service. System-level simulations are necessary to investigate the behavior of LTE networks in order to increase the user quality and efciency in resource management. Network simulations that take place in an urban scenario are particularly important, due to the realism it brings to the results. In the urban environment, a complete and realistic mobility model is absolutely necessary to obtain interesting results and conclusions. In the literature, unrealistic assumption on user mobility are made in exchange for simplicity. Random movement of users over the whole scenario or non-existence of different types of users are very common approaches in networks simulations. Thus, some effects that inuence the network performance may not be taken into account. Several solutions for load balancing and handover parameter optimization have been proposed for LTE networks [2][3]. However, realistic situations created by a mobility model within an urban environment are not considering in most existing references. In [4], a bus is modeled as a moving hotspot and the problem of trafc balance is analysed, although the proposed load balance algorithm is different to the FLC proposed in this paper. In this paper a realistic mobility model is developed. This model allows to create relevant situations that the network

has to face commonly in an urban environment. Some of the features included in the model are: presence of different types of users, implementation of trafc lights in the intersections, capability of create non-uniform user spatial distribution and existence of a hot-spot within the scenario. As stated, network response to realistic situations can be investigated thanks to this mobility model. This mobility model will be used in the context of the Self-Organizing Networks (SON), which aim to minimize the operating costs by simplifying the management of the LTE network. In particular, the use case will be adaptive trafc balancing by means of modication of handover margins. We propose to use a fuzzy-logic controller (FLC) to auto-tune handover margins in order to reduce the Call Blocking Ratio (CBR). FLC has been previously proposed for load balancing for WCDMA networks [5]. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the proposed realistic mobility model and it explains the principal features and the general operation of the LTE simulator where the mobility model is integrated. Section III describes the implementation of the FLC for the network self-optimization. The use case, i.e. load balancing in an LTE urban scenario, is explained in Section IV. Results of the simulations and conclusions drawn after analysis are exposed in section V and VI, respectively. II. MOBILITY MODEL A. Model Description The Mobility model used in this paper emulates the realistic behavior of the users of a mobile network in a urban environment .This model implements the behavior of different types of users: vehicles, buses, pedestrians and inhabitants of buildings, allowing to characterize completely the urban environment. Manhattan Mobility Model is used for outdoors users and Random Waypoint Model for the indoor users [6]. Realistic dimensions of the component elements of the scenario are proposed. Dimensions are based on the real values of the streets and blocks of Ensanche area in Barcelona. Values of elements are dened in Table 1.
Table I D IMENSIONS OF ELEMENTS Block size 120x120 m Street width 20m Road width 10m Sidewalks width 10m

978-1-4244-8329-7/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

The realistic scenario structure is shown in Fig.1.

Figure 1. Manhattan scenario

Manhattan Mobility model is implemented to describe the outdoor users (vehicles, buses, pedestrians) movement. This model is widely used to describe the movement of mobiles in urban areas by means of a grid road topology. Users move along the streets of the scenario, and can turn at intersections with a given probability, that is recommended to be 25% probability to turn right and the same for a left turn [7]. Vehicles make the turn ensuring that they are at the correct lane of the road for their new direction. The scenario is composed by vertical and horizontal streets which are perpendicular to each other. Every street has two lanes (each for one movement direction): North/South for vertical streets and East/West for horizontal streets. Vehicles move along a particular area of the street (road) and pedestrians move along another area (sidewalks). Buses behavior in the model is the same as those of vehicles, but providing the possibility to allocate multiple users sharing the same position, movement direction and speed. Studies on moving hotspot can be made with this type of users [4]. Additional features are included in the basic Manhattan model previously presented in order to give more realism to the model. One of the features is the implementation of trafc lights at the street corners. Every street at an intersection has a trafc light [8]. In this way, the behavior of the network under conditions of user agglomeration in the corner where vehicles are stopped can be studied. Another important feature of the model is the possibility of creating different types of user spatial distribution. In the case of uniform spatial distribution, users are created in whatever point of the scenario with the same probability. Non uniform spatial distribution was also implemented. The typical spatial distribution in urban areas can be described by a lognormal distribution. To give more realism a function of trafc estimation is created adding to the log-normal distribution a Gaussian random variable [9]. To complete the Manhattan model for outdoors users, wrap around technique is implemented to avoid the edge effects [10]. This technique is used both for mobility and propagation model. Wrap around consists in creating replicas of the scenario surrounding the original one. In this paper, some changes to the application of this technique have been made. These have been motivated by the fact that when applying wrap around to a urban scenario, it is necessary to ensure that a user that leaves the original scenario, continues in a permitted area for it (a vehicle is not allowed to enter in the replica on a sidewalk or a block). Thus, adjustments to the

original dimensions of elements have been made to ensure the correct behavior of the technique in this mobility model. As said earlier, indoor users are modeled too. In this case, the Random Waypoint has been chosen. Random Waypoint is a simple model, but very useful to simulation studies of mobiles users in buildings. The objective of this implementation is to give the possibility of creating some trafc load in specic cells, representing inhabitants in the buildings of this cells. These users are modeled as static load, i.e. they do not leave the building where they were created. The network response from this load concentration in some cells can be easily examined thanks to this feature. B. Framework: LTE simulator An LTE system-level simulator has been developed. Fig. 2 shows the main functional blocks of the simulator.
Initialization Propagation computing and SINR calculation Link Adaptation Packet Scheduling Mobility Management (HO) Generation of new services (Admission Control) Presentation of results

Figure 2. Block diagram of LTE simulator

The rst stage of a simulation is the initialization of the main simulation parameters which establish the behavior of the main functions in the simulator. The scenario to be simulated is generated here. In this function, the OFDM channel samples are generated for each user. Finally, a warm-up distribution of users is created, which allows to obtain meaningful network statistics from the rst iterations of the simulation. The next function implements propagation computing. This function calculates the power received by each user from the base stations of the scenario. The simulator includes a propagation loss model, a slow fading model and a fast fading model. The effect of the latter is represented by in the OFDM channel samples generated in the previous step, following the Jakes model. During this phase the interference suffered by each user is also calculated. From this information, the value of SINR experienced by each user for different frequency subbands is obtained. After this, the functions of radio resource management are executed. At link level, the simulator includes link adaptation and resource scheduling functions. The link adaptation function selects the most appropriate modulation and coding scheme for each user to transmit the information, maximizing spectral efciency. The radio resource scheduling function aims to assign the available radio resources to users based on channel conditions (represented by the Channel Quality Indicator, CQI) experienced by each user for different frequency subbands. At network level the simulator includes several functions. The main ones are handovers and admission control. Lastly, the main results and statistics are shown.

III. F UZZY L OGIC C ONTROLLER FOR LOAD BALANCING The goal of the Fuzzy-Logic Controller (FLC) implemented in this paper is to auto-tune handover margins in order to balance the trafc load among different cells of the network. The relationship between a FLC and LTE network is shown in Fig. 3.

Key Performance Indicators

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FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER

New RRM Parameters

FLC denes a set of rules that, depending on the inputs, make different changes in the output. For example, if the load of the cell to be optimised is very high and the load in the adjacent one is small, a high decrement of their handover margins is made. The smaller the difference between the cell loads the lower the increment/decrement in the output. The third input used by the FLC is the current value of the Handover Margin. It is used to make the margins come back to their default value after the situation of unbalance has been solved. In this way, when the load of the optimized cell and its adjacent are both normal, if the value of the margin is very high or low it is modied to come closer to its default value. The Handover Margins can oscillate between 12 dB as the highest margin and 0 dB as the lowest and are initialized to 6 dB [2]. IV. U SE CASE The scenario in this paper is a street where a lot of trafc is concentrated during some intervals of time. In Fig.4, users are represented as blue points. A uniform distribution of 120 users is created at the initialization to set the network in a typical starting situation. After this, mobiles that gain access to the network are located in the main street where the special situation takes place. The mobility model locates the users in the main street in one of the two possible lanes (East or West direction). This main street is chosen to be the central street of the Manhattan scenario. Serving cells of this intense trafc are expected to experience a high CBR, whereas cells that serve a uniform trafc are expected to be less loaded. Under this realistic situation, an adaptive auto-tuning of the handover margins would reduce the CBR of the congested cells by shifting trafc to the adjacent less loaded cells. The auto-tuning process is executed by the FLC every 15 seconds. This time has been chosen in order to reduce the simulation time. During 23 minutes (iteration number 14000) this is the situation that has to be faced by the network. The trafc lights change every 90 seconds. Users are characterized by a Poisson distributed arrival rate.
Simulation Scenario
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Figure 3. Fuzzy Logic Controller Behavior [11]

The Controller sets new RRM Parameters based on the input data (Key Performance Indicators, KPIs). In this paper, the KPI used as input data for the controller is the cell load. The cell load is represented in the LTE simulator by the mean number of occupied slots in a given cell. This mean number of occupied slots is weighted to give more importance to the recent values of load. Based on this input, the FLC tunes the handover margins of its adjacent cells, making the loaded cells send off some trafc to its neighboring cells. The handover margins facilitate or hinder the possibility of making a handover. If the handovers margins are high, the handover is more difcult to make and vice-versa. The condition to perform handover from a cell to its adjacent cell n is the following [12]: RSRP (adjn ) RSRP (serv ) + HoM argin(serv, adjn )

Where RSRP (adjn ) is the reference symbol received power from the n adjacent cell and the RSRP (serv ) is the reference symbol received from the serving cell. The handover margins are dened for each adjacent cell, so self-optimization is made for every adjacent cell. The controller uses three different inputs to take the decision of the handover margins variation. One of the inputs is the mean number of occupied slots in the cell where the optimization is being made opt . The second is the mean number of occupied slots of one of its adjacent adj . The desired adaptive behavior of a cell is dened as: If opt adj , then the optimized cell reduces its handover margins in order to ease the handovers between them and consequently reducing its load. If opt adj , then the optimized cell increments its handover margins in order to difcult the handovers between them and consequently not allowing to its users to enter to the loaded adjacent cell. If opt adj , the handover margin has to increase or decrease tending to its default value. The implementation of a fuzzy-logic system as controller allows to map the inputs into four fuzzy sets: Small, Medium, High and Very High. Also there are some different possible outputs: (Small/Medium/High) Increment/Decrement. The

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Fig 4. Spatial Distribution of users

After this and during 10 minutes more (until iteration 20000), the new users that enter the network are allocated uniformly throughout the scenario, in order to break the

concentration of trafc in the main street creating a recovery phase. This last part of simulation allows to investigate how the handover margins come back to its default values once the spatial user distribution is uniform again. A system bandwidth of 1.4 MHz is chosen for keeping the system at a certain load even with a low number of users, in order to decrease the computing time. The main parameters that congure the simulator are exposed in Table II.
Table II S IMULATION PARAMETERS Parameter Scenario Antenna conguration Center frequency System Bandwidth Pathloss Model Slow Fading Fast Fading Value 57 Macrocells Rc=0.5 km with Wrap Around SISO 2GHz 1.4 MHz Okumura-Hata (COST 231 based) log-normal distribution with SF=8dB OFDM samples (Jakes Model)

or 47), do not present any blocked call in the non-optimized situation, but when the optimization is done some blocked calls appear because some trafc has being shifted to them. Anyway, this CBR is limited to an admissible value. CBR for all the network (Table III) demonstrates the global improvement achieved with the proposed method. The global CBR is reduced more than half of its non-optimized value. As expected, the optimization produces a small increase in the Call Dropping Ratio.
Table III G LOBAL CBR Non-optimized 3.19% Self-optimized 1.41%

B. Handover Margins These results show how the handover margins are adapted by the network according to the instant situation in trafc load. Fig.6 and Fig.7 show the evolution of the handover margins during all the simulation time. A cell (cell 3) crossed by the main road is presented in Fig. 6, whereas Fig.7 shows one of its neighboring cells (cell 9). In Fig. 6, the handover margins of cell 3 with regard to a representative group of adjacent cells are displayed. On the one hand, the handover margin between cell 3 and cell 9 decreases quickly when the agglomeration starts to be signicant (from 300 s) until reaching its minimum possible value 0 dB. When the agglomeration stars to be cleared (from 1400 s), the margin comes back to its default value as expected. On the other hand, the margin between cell 3 and cell 53 is only slightly modied, because they have similar loads due the road going through both of them. Margins with cell 2 and cell 10 show similar behavior.
Cell 3 Handover margins
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V. R ESULTS A. Call Blocking Ratio The results obtained in the simulation illustrate the enhancement experienced by the LTE network due to self-optimization. This enhancement is measured in terms of reduction of the CBR. CBR is dened as Blocked_calls/T otal_ accepted_calls and it is an important KPI of a LTE network. Values of CBR are measured at the iteration 14000, that is when the recovery phase of the network starts. Thus, the values are in the worst possible case, because in the recovery phase the new users are uniformly distributed throughout the scenario and they are not longer assigned to the main road. In the Fig. 5, the improvement experienced in all cells that presented blocked calls in the non optimized situation is quantied.
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Figure 6. Cell 3 Handover Margins Figure 5. Call Blocking Ratio per cell

In Fig. 5, it is shown that cells with high CBR in the non-optimized situation have reduce this KPI considerably when applying the proposed FLC. These cells are crossed by the main road, e.g. cell 3, cell 10 or cell 18. Blocked calls disappear completely in some cells, as cell 33 or cell 40. On the other hand, the adjacent cells to the main street (e.g. 32

Fig 7 shows the opposite case, that is the margins of a cell with low load. In this case, the margins between cell 9 and its adjacent highly loaded cells are quickly increased in order to avoid users in cell 9 going to a highly loaded cell . This is the behavior observed in the margins between cell 9 and cell 3 and 10. Fig.7 also shows no variation of the margins between cell 9 and similar loaded cells (cell 8).

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The improvement of the network in terms of the decrease in the CBR is visible in the results, reducing more than half the global CBR of the network. The CBR of the most loaded cells in the network has been decreased by means of self-tuning of the handover margins. The CBR has increased in some cells close to the most loaded cells, but the values are still within admissible values.
9 vs. 3 9 vs. 10

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work has been partially supported by the Junta de Andalucia (Proyecto de investigacin de Excelencia TIC4052). R EFERENCES
[1] 3GPP TS 36.300 V8.4.0: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN); Overall description (2008-03) R. Nasri, Z. Altman. Handover Adaptation for Dynamic Load Balancing in 3GPP Long Term Evolution Systems., MoMM2007- The Fifth International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing and Multimedia, 3-5 December 2007, pp. 145-154. A. Schrder, H. Lundqvist, G. Nunzi. Distributed Self Optimization of Handover for the Long Term Evolution. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 5343/2008, 281-286, 2008. A.Lobinger, S. Stefanski, T.Jansen , Load Balancing in Downlink LTE Self-Optimizing Networks, Vehicular Technology Conference ,2010 (VTC 2010-Spring Taiwan ) 2010 IEEE 71st C. Werner, J. Voigt, S. Khattak, G. Fettweis. Handover Parameter optimization in WCDMA using fuzzy controlling. The 18th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC07) Dr.I. Khider ,A.Saad, Prof. WangFurong. Study on Indoor and Outdoor environment for Mobile Ad hoc NETwork Supported with base stations. Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing, 2007. WiCom 2007. Shanghai. ETSI TR 101 112 v.3.2.0, Selection procedures for the choice of radio transmission technologies of the UMTS (UMTS 30.03 version 3.1.0), ETSI April 1998 A. Mahajan, N. Potnis, K.Gopalan,et al , Urban mobility models for VANETs, in Proc. of 2nd Workshop on Next Generation Wireless Networks, 2006 Ahn B., Yoon H., Cho J.W., A design of macro-micro CDMA cellular overlays in the existing big urban areas. IEEE Proc. Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC 2001), pp.2094-2104. Hytnen T., Optimal Wrap-around Network Simulation, Helsinki University of Technology Institute of Mathematics: Research Reports 2001. Z. Altman, H. Dubreil, R. Nasri et al. 2006. Autotuning of RRM Parameters in UMTS Networks. In Understanding UMTS Radio Network Modelling Planning and Automated Optimisation.(M. J. Nawrocki, M.Dohler, A.H. Aghvami, Eds) pp 405- 426 . John.Wiley and Sons. M-Kazmi, O. Sjbergh, W. Mller. Evaluation of InterFrequency Quality handover Criteria in E-UTRAN . Vehicular Technology Conference, 2009. (VTC-Spring 2009 Barcelona). IEEE 69th

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Figure 7. Cell 9 Handover Margins

C. Cell Occupancy The effects of load balancing in terms of the relative variation of the mean number of occupied slots in each cell are discussed in this section. This relative variation is dened as the difference between the mean number of occupied slots in the optimized case and non-optimized case divided by the mean number of occupied slots in the non-optimized case. In Fig.8, the relative variation of the mean number of occupied slots is presented. As expected, the cells with high load spread some of their trafc to their neighboring cells, thus reducing their mean number of occupied slots. That is the case for cells 3, 53 and 18, which are the most loaded cells in the scenario. On the contrary, the neighboring cells of the most loaded cells (e.g. cells 52 and 9) suffer an increase in the occupied slots. Although this relative increase in occupancy is high, its absolute value is still a low value (2.02 in cell 9 and 1.53 in cell 52).
Relative Variation of mean number of occupied slots (%)
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VI. C ONCLUSION In this paper, a method for self-optimisation of handover margins in a LTE network has been proposed and tested under realistic urban conditions. In order to create the realistic environment, a mobility model has been dened. A use case based on the realistic situation of an agglomeration of vehicles in a street has been described.
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