Technical White Paper

July 2011



BSR Femto Mobility
WCDMA Metro to Macro Cell Handover
METRO TO MACRO CELL HANDOVER JULY 2011

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Copyright 2009 by Alcatel-Lucent. All Rights Reserved.
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service
providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video
communication services to end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband
networking, IP technologies, applications, and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end
solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on
the move. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-
lucent.com.
Notice
The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. At the time
of publication, it reflects the latest information on Alcatel-Lucents offer, however, our policy
of continuing development may result in improvement or change to the specifications
described.
Trademarks
Alcatel, Lucent Technologies, Alcatel-Lucent and the Alcatel-Lucent logo are trademarks of
Alcatel-Lucent. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Alcatel-
Lucent assumes no responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein.

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CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................4
2 NEIGHBOUR CELLS ............................................................................................4
3 HANDOVER TRIGGERS.........................................................................................4
INTER-RAT AND INTER-FREQUENCY .................................................................................... 4
INTRA-FREQUENCY .................................................................................................... 5
4 HANDOVER PROCEDURE......................................................................................5
WCDMA METRO TO 3G MACRO ....................................................................................... 5
WCDMA METRO TO 2G MACRO ....................................................................................... 5
WCDMA METRO TO LTE MACRO...................................................................................... 5
5 GLOSSARY.......................................................................................................6
6 APPENDIX - CALL FLOWS.....................................................................................7
WCDMA METRO TO 3G HO........................................................................................... 7
WCDMA TO 2G CS HO............................................................................................... 8
WCDMA TO 2G PS HO (CELL CHANGE ORDER) ....................................................................... 8
WCDMA TO LTE PS REDIRECTION..................................................................................... 9
WCDMA TO LTE PS HO.............................................................................................10

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1 INTRODUCTION
This document provides an overview of Alcatel-Lucents solution/proposed solution for
handover from a WCDMA Metro cell to a Macro cell.
The outgoing handover is performed to 3G through SRNS relocation UE Involved, and inter-RAT
SRNS relocation to 2G/LTE.
2 NEIGHBOUR CELLS
Neighbour cells are derived as a part of the network listening and autoconfiguration
procedure. Please refer to the related whitepapers for details.
Broadly speaking, the neighbour cells are obtained as follows :
1) Network Listening on the WCDMA Metro cell, where the metro cell goes temporarily off air
during startup/a quiet period and measures the DL system information of WCDMA, LTE and
GSM to determine the necessary handover parameters and mappings.
2) UE Automatic Neighbour Relation (ANR) measurements on the LTE Metro cell where the UEs
provide the LTE Metro cell the detected neighbours and handover characteristics of the
neighbours. The LTE metro cell then passes this information to the WCDMA Metro cell.
3) Optionally, the operator is able to provide a set of manually provisioned neighbour cells.
3 HANDOVER TRIGGERS
Various triggers are available for invoking handover. Some of the triggers are :
Quality based triggers where the Metro cell quality is degraded.
Intra Frequency UE based triggers
Load based triggers
Service based triggers

Inter-RAT and Inter-Frequency
Quality based handover is triggered when the UE reports that the RSCP or Ec/Io is worse than
a threshold, and is UE measurement 2D. The 2D then triggers either blind handover or mobile
assisted handover (MAHO). The 2D triggers may be set per RAB combination type.
Mobile Assisted Handover is supported on the Metro cell with compressed mode using SF/2 and
HLS in both UL and DL, and multiple RAT can be measured in parallel.
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The measurements are implemented as periodical UE measurements where the UE reports all
detected cells and the Metro cell can make a decision on the target cell to hand over to.
The layer priorities are configurable through OAM, and may be configured per RAB type. It is
also possible to forbid a certain handover type e.g. PS may be forbidden from handing over to
2G Macro, CS forbidden from handing over to LTE etc.
As well as the layer priorities, the target cell will be selected based upon the UEs capabilities
and whether the neighbour cell is detected as being of suitable quality for handover.
Intra-Frequency
Intra-frequency measurements may be run continuously on the UE to report a neighbour cell.
When a UE reports that an intra-frequency neighbour CPICH is higher than the Metro CPICH by
some margin (Event 1C), SRNS relocation is triggered.
It is possible to put some additional bias towards the Metro cell by only trigger the Intra-
Frequency HO once the Ec/Io reported in the 1C measurement report is below a threshold.
4 HANDOVER PROCEDURE
WCDMA Metro To 3G Macro
WCDMA Metro To 3G Macro is executed through SRNS relocation, UE involved.
Relocation of CS voice, PS and CS voice +PS are all supported for all PS RAB types (Single,
multiple PDP, different channel types etc).
WCDMA Metro To 2G Macro
WCDMA Metro To 2G Macro for CS or CS+PS is executed through SRNS relocation. In the case of
CS+PS, the CS portion is relocated and the PS portion re-establishes when the UE has
successfully completed the relocation (if DTM is not supported, this will be after termination
of the CS call).
In the case of PS only, cell change order is executed to 2G.
WCDMA Metro To LTE Macro
It is generally expected that LTE capable terminals will be handled on the LTE layer of the
Metro cell, but in any case WCDMA Metro to LTE Macro handover can be supported for PS
services. Handover of CS services from the WCDMA metro will not come until VOIP over the
WCDMA metro and LTE network is supported.
There are several options for WCDMA Metro to LTE Macro handover :
1) RRC Connection release with redirection - this option is simple and allows UE reselection to
trigger the HO. It will involve some small service interruption.
2) Inter-RAT SRNS Relocation

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5 GLOSSARY
HLS Higher layer scheduling
UL Uplink
DL Downlink
MAHO Mobile Assisted Handover
PS Packet Switched
CS Circuit Switched
RAT Radio Access Technology
CPICH Common Pilot Channel
RSCP Received Signal Code Power
Ec/Io Energy per chip to total interference
SRNS Serving Radio

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6 APPENDIX - CALL FLOWS
WCDMA Metro to 3G HO
UE
GW MSC UTRAN
3a. RANAP: Relocation Required
6. RRC: RRC Message
2. HO Trigger
BVG/BPG
7. RANAP: Forward SRNS Context
4a. RANAP: Relocation Request
3b. RANAP: Relocation Required
4a. RANAP: Relocation Request
4b. RANAP: Relocation Request Ack
4b. RANAP: Relocation Request Ack
5a. RANAP: Relocation Command
5b. RANAP: Relocation Command
8. RANAP: Forward
SRNS Context
9. Air interface synchronisation
10a. RANAP: Relocation
Detect
10b. RANAP: Relocation
Detect
11. RRC Message (Complete)
12a. RANAP: Relocation
Complete
13a. RANAP: Iu Release Command
12b. RANAP: Relocation
Complete
14a. Delete BVG User Plane Binding
13b. RANAP: Iu Release Command
15a. RANAP: Iu Release Complete
15b. RANAP: Iu Release Complete
14b. Delete BPG User Plane Binding
SGSN
1. CS + PS Call is established
16. Routing Area Update
Small
Cell


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WCDMA to 2G CS HO
UE
GW MSC 2G
3. RANAP: Relocation Required
7. RRC: HO From UTRAN Command
2. HO Trigger
BVG/BPG
4. Handover Request
5 Handover Request Ack
6. RANAP: Relocation Command
8. Air interface synchronisation
9. Handover
Detect
10. Handover Complete
11. Handover
Complete
12. RANAP: Iu Release Command
13. Delete BVG User Plane Binding
14. RANAP: Iu Release Complete
SGSN
1. CS or CS+ PS Call is established
Small
Cell

WCDMA to 2G PS HO (Cell Change Order)
3. RRC: Cell Change Order from
UTRAN
4. Connection Establishment
5. SRNS Context Request
6. SRNS Context Response
7. RANAP: Iu Release Command
8. Delete BPG User Plane Binding
9. RANAP: Iu Release Complete
UE
GW MSC 2G
2. HO Trigger
BVG/BPG SGSN
1. PS Call is established
Small
Cell

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WCDMA to LTE PS Redirection

3. RRC: Connection Release(Redirect
to LTE)
4. Connection Establishment
5. RANAP Iu Release request
6. RANAP: Iu Release Command
7. Delete BPG User Plane Binding
8. RANAP: Iu Release Complete
UE
GW MSC eNodeB
2. HO Trigger
BVG/BPG SGSN
1. PS Call is established
Small
Cell



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WCDMA to LTE PS HO
UE
GW MSC eNodeB
3. RANAP: Relocation Required
7. RRC: HO From UTRAN Command
2. HO Trigger
BVG/BPG
4. Handover Request
5 Handover Request Ack
6. RANAP: Relocation Command
8. Air interface synchronisation
9. Handover to eUTRAN Complete
10. Handover
Notify
12. RANAP: Iu Release Command
13. Delete BVG User Plane Binding
14. RANAP: Iu Release Complete
SGSN/
MME
1. PS Call is established
Small
Cell
11. TAU Procedure