Professional Documents
Culture Documents
EFR FR
Better Protection
In high-error conditions more bits are used for error correction to obtain error robust coding,
while in good transmission conditions a lower amount of bits is needed for sufficient error
protection and more bits can therefore be allocated for source coding
CODEC RATE
AMR Codec Rates
Up to 4 codec modes are allowed in AMR at any one time - This is
known as the Active Codec set.
The Active codec set may contain something like :-
12.2, 7.95, 5.9 and 4.75 kbps.
AMR switches between the 4 rates - independently on the Uplink and
the Downlink - based on the prevailing RF conditions on each link.
Under good RF conditions - a Rate of 12.2 kbps may be used which is
similar to EFR. Under poor conditions 4.75 kbps may be used -
offering lower quality speech - but higher protection against errors.
Available AMR CODECs
Channel mode C/I Codec Kbps
Channel Codec Bit Rate (kbps) [> 7 dB] 10.2
12.2 (~GSM EFR) [8dB, 5 dB] 6.70
FR
10.2 [6dB, 3dB] 5.90
7.95 [< 4dB] 4.75
7.40 [> 15 dB] 6.70
FR 6.70
HR [16dB, 10 dB] 5.90
5.90
5.15
[<11dB] 4.75
4.75
7.95
7.40
6.70
HR 5.90
5.15 • Best performing codecs
4.75
• Codecs providing the most continuity
• Codecs with most efficient implementation
• Codecs with most capacity benefits
AMR Codec Rate Switching
AMR will switch modes within the active codec set, based on
C/I and RxQual calculations.
C/I
12.2
kbps
Hysterisis
7.95
kbps Hysterisis
5.9 kbps
Hysterisis
4.75
kbps
Adaptation : principle
Principle : the MS and the BTS evaluate the C/I of each frame, compare this
value to a set of thresholds and deduce an appropriate codec mode .
AMR FR
C/I
10.2
6.7
5.9
4.75
t
ADAPTATION
Codec Mode Adaptation
At call setup, the mobile (MS) is assigned an AMR Half Rate or Full Rate channel
based on
Mobile capabilities
Network capabilities
Radio conditions
Mobile is given information about
Codec mode set
Initial codec mode
Thresholds and hysteresis
During the communication
Mobile and network compare assigned codec to C/I
Requested and applied codec info is exchanged
Mobile is told which codec to use for uplink
Network makes decision on which codec to use for downlink and MS sends its
recommendation based on DL measurements
Codec Mode Adaptation
The purpose of AMR codec mode adaptation is to provide the "best" compromise
between data rate of codec mode and channel protection, according to the link
quality. This adaptation is done for uplink and downlink and there is no
interdependence between the 2 links, but both sets of codec have to be identical.
Each 40ms, according to the requested codec mode and the applied codec mode, the
BTS :
increases by one step the rate of the codec mode, if the requested codec mode
(CMR) is greater than the applied codec mode,
decreases by one step the rate of the codec mode, if the requested codec mode
(CMR) is lower than the applied codec mode,
keeps the same codec mode, if the requested codec mode (CMR) is equal to the
applied codec mode.
Codec Mode Adaptation
For each mobile, the following set of parameters has to be defined :
one threshold per codec mode and per link (4+4 in FR and 3+3 in HR
channel for UL and DL),
one hysteresis (the same value is used for each codec mode, but one for
FR and another one for HR channel).
These parameters are linked to a set of factors, some of them being determined
by the BTS (frequency hopping, MS speed), others being network dependent
(environment profile…).
The operator using one parameter (AMRAdaptationSet on bts object)
and the BSS using the TS configuration and the MS speed applies the
appropriate set.
PARAMETER
Basic Parameter AMR
Parameter Description
AMR FR and AMR HR are activated by changing BSC exchange properties. Transcoder pools for AMR FR
and AMR HR must also be defined in order for AMR to work. Note if AMR HR shall be activated the feature
Half Rate Channels must have been purchased by the operator.
AMRFRSUPPORT
Indicates if AMR FR is turned ON or OFF and also which full rate codec set that shall be used within the BSC.
AMRHRSUPPORT
Indicates if AMR HR is turned ON or OFF and also which half rate codec set that shall be used within the BSC.
Codec sets 3 and 4 for both FR and HR channels can be defined per BSC using the command RLADC. The
following parameters are set using this command:
SET :Indicates which of the codec sets for a specific channel rate that shall be modified.
MODE :Specifies the codec modes that shall be included in the codec set. For Full Rate all 8 codec modes can
be used, expressed as a numeral between 1 and 8, and defined in ascending order.
1 = 4.75 kbps
2 = 5.15 kbps to
8 = 12.2 kbps
For Half Rate only the 5 lower codec modes can be used.
1 = 4.75 kbps to
5 = 7.4 kbps
THR :Specifies the thresholds between the codec modes in the codec set, expressed as a numeral between 0
and 63, in steps of 0.5 dB.
HYST :Specifies the hysteresis values for the threshold in the codec set. It is expressed as a numeral between 0
and 15, in steps of 0.5 dB.
EFFECTS AND BENEFIT
AMR effect on HO
RXLEV and Power Budget HO parameters are identical for AMR and EFR
AMR call would handover at the same point as an EFR call.
Separate RXQUAL threshold settings for AMR
Default set to “worse” values than EFR. (e.g. EFR =4, AMR = 5)
With these default settings AMR calls would be expected to have fewer HO due to quality
No difference in RXQUAL measurement method between EFR and AMR
EFR call and AMR call in identical location should show identical RXQUAL
measurements
Packing/Unpacking
Unpacking from HR to FR is always based on RX quality
In congested cell with no available TS for unpacking, Inter-cell HO required based on
RXQUAL.
Improved robustness in AMR over EFR
AMR better able to handle poor radio conditions - low RXLEV, poor RXQUAL, low C/I
Optimization of separate AMR parameters is important to ensure no negative impact to
HO. Different environments will need different parameter settings to optimise the
performance. Other AMR parameters should have no negative impact in a network
designed for EFR
AMR effect on KPIs
The AMR feature itself will not impact the individual connections DCR, but it
will affect the overall system DCR since the interference generated in the
network is lower due to the AMR power control settings.
Radio Link Timeout can be adapted to AMR in order for dropped calls to
maintain the same correlation with voice quality degradation as with EFR
Quality -> better perceived speech quality.
Traditionally, GSM voice quality has been usually benchmarked based on BER
measurements
With Frequency Hopping and AMR, BER becomes increasingly meaningless
and therefore alternative indicators are needed to benchmark the voice quality
AMR effect on Capacity & Coverage
AMR provides a significant performance enhancement that can be translated into a
tradeoff between quality and capacity
AMR feature impact and deployment strategy depends strongly upon the AMR capable
mobile penetration
AMR gains:
Quality -> AMR maintains good speech quality in the situation where the connection
faces low C/I or low signal level. Also due to retransmissions schemes used by these
channels the probability of signaling success maintain very high even for very
degraded conditions
Capacity -> HR utilization doubles the hardware capacity of the cell since two half-
rate connections can be allocated to fill only one timeslot. Practically the gain is up to
150% higher capacity for the same quality
Coverage -> additional 3-4 dB effective coverage
Cost (HR hardware efficiency) -> 20-40% lower number of TRXs
Improved BCCH plan: tighter frequency reuse or better quality with same frequency
reuse, potentially releasing frequencies to be used on the non-BCCH layer
AMR Benefit
AMR Half Rate nearly doubles capacity
Increased Spectral Efficiency: AMR codec allows for more aggressive
fractional frequency reuse solutions
Improved Voice Quality:AMR FR has 4 - 6 dB of extra tolerance as
compared to EFR. This can result in improved in-building penetration as well
as better coverage at the cell-edge at least from a speech quality point of
view*.
Reduced Hardware Cost: AMR Half Rate modes increase capacity per
radio without adding new equipment or sites.
Capacity gain is the highest when both AMR FR and AMR HR modes
are used in conjunction.
AMR HR allows higher capacity by allowing 2 users per TS under good
C/I conditions
What AMR brings
to the operator & to the subscriber
-
Best voice
quality
Double capacity on
part of the cell
Best indoor
Same voice quality
as Std EFR Even from here, penetration
I still can hear you!
Hi, I am listening to you (AMR FR)
(AMR HR)