VoLTE Training 2017 NAM

NPO Enabling:
VoLTE Training
Detailed Analysis for Radio
13 March 2017
1 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

<Change information classification in footer>
Contents
• VoLTE KPI Performance • VoLTE Radio Optimization
• VoLTE KPI benchmarking • Periodical CQI reporting
• VoLTE Voice Quality • QCI1 specific T310 and T311 timers
• Voice quality analysis • DRX – optimized algorithm
• PDCP discard timer & SN size • High speed users
• VoLTE Mobility • VoLTE Call Flow Analysis
• VoLTE layering • Registration procedure
• SRVCC thresholds • Mobile originated VoLTE call
• Mobile terminated VoLTE call
• SRVCC to 3G

VoLTE KPI Performance

VoLTE KPI Benchmarking
Call setup success rate for QCI1
• VoLTE Call Setup Success KPI (LTE_5204c) measures both initial or an additional E-
RAB establishments for QCI1 voice bearer.
- In practise, QCI1 E-RAB is usually setup after the non-GBR E-RAB for application data and SIP
signalling so the ‘additional’ E-RAB counters are typically incremented for VoLTE.
E-UTRAN E-RAB Setup Success Ratio, QCI1 (LTE_5204c) =

100*sum(ERAB_INI_SETUP_SUCC_QCI1 + ERAB_ADD_SETUP_SUCC_QCI1 - ERAB_REL_TEMP_QCI1)
sum(ERAB_INI_SETUP_ATT_QCI1 + ERAB_ADD_SETUP_ATT_QCI1)
- ERAB_REL_TEMP_QCI1: number of temporary admitted QCI1 bearer release due to an

overbooking timer expiry (LTE2832 SRVCC due to admission control rejection), i.e. these bearers
were temporarily setup but not successfully handed over to UTRAN.

LTE2832 SRVCC due to Admission Control Rejection
QCI1 bearer release due to an overbooking timer expiry
UE eNB MME
• eNB establishes temporary the DRB
S1AP: E-RAB SETUP REQUEST
with QCI1 and configures the UE QCI=1
with event B1 based measurements Admission Control
within rejection
RRC:ConnectionReconfiguration Temporary overbooking
is possible
• AC Overbooking Supervision Timer RRC Connection Reconfiguration
DRB with QCI1 AC Overbooking
expired before preparation phase establishment + Supervision Timer
and thus, eNB releases E-RAB with configuration event RRC Connection Reconfiguration
B1 Complete
QCI1:
S1AP: E-RAB SETUP RESPONSE
- ERAB_REL_TEMP_QCI1 is
AC Overbooking
incremented on transmission of an Supervision Timer
DRB with QCI1 RRC Connection
S1AP: E-RAB RELEASE INDICATION Reconfiguration
deactivation +
message (eNB -> MME; 3GPP TS deconfiguration RRC Connection Reconfiguration
36.413) due to an overbooking timer event B1 Complete
S1AP: E-RAB RELEASE
expiry for a temporarily admitted QCI1 INDICATION
bearer.
Call setup success rate for QCI1
• KPI does not reflect the end user

experience in case of failures in
the following procedures:
- RACH and RRC signalling
establishment
- S1 signalling setup
- Security and authentication
- IMS bearer (QCI5) setup
- SIP message delivery over radio
interface.
- Mobility during E-RAB setup

VoLTE Call Setup Success
GBR vs. non-GBR eRAB setup performance
GBR and non-GBR E-RAB Setup Success (%) • QCI1 E-RAB setup success
E-RAB Setup Attempts, QCI1 E-RAB Setup Success Rate E-RAB Setup Success Rate, QCI1 Linear (E-RAB Setup Attempts, QCI1) rate is slightly worse than non-
100.00 400 000
GBR E-RAB setup success
720 users - 15 MHz
99.90
350 000
rate due to following factors:
Admission Control Threshold – 75% 600 users - 10 MHz
99.80 - Much less QCI1 bearer setups
300 000
99.70
compared to data bearers and
thus, the weight of setups
QCI1 Attempts (#)

250 000
Success Rate (%)
99.60 attempted under poor radio

99.50 200 000
conditions is increased
- If a handover becomes
99.40
150 000 necessary during E-RAB Setup,
99.30 the eNB may interrupt the
100 000
ongoing E-RAB Setup procedure
99.20
as specified in 36.413 (chapter
50 000
99.10 8.2)
99.00 0
08.27.2014
09.06.2014
09.10.2014
09.20.2014
09.24.2014
10.04.2014
10.08.2014
10.12.2014
10.18.2014
10.22.2014
08.25.2014
08.29.2014
08.31.2014
09.02.2014
09.04.2014
09.08.2014
09.12.2014
09.14.2014
09.16.2014
09.18.2014
09.22.2014
09.26.2014
09.28.2014
09.30.2014
10.02.2014
10.06.2014
10.10.2014
10.14.2014
10.16.2014
10.20.2014
VoLTE Call Setup Failure due to Handover in Progress
MME bearer request handling
• 3GPP 36.413 (chapter 8.2): If a handover becomes necessary during E-RAB Setup, the
eNB may interrupt the ongoing E-RAB Setup procedure and initiate the Handover
Preparation procedure as follows:
- The eNB shall send the E-RAB SETUP RESPONSE message in which the eNB shall indicate, if
necessary all the E-RABs fail with an appropriate cause value, e.g., ”S1 intra system Handover
triggered”, “S1 inter system Handover triggered” or “X2 Handover triggered”.
• Therefore, MME needs to resend the E-RAB Setup Request when it receives the Path
Switch Request after the failed E-RAB setup (applies for E-RAB release or modify
procedure as well) – feature implemented in Nokia MME (NS15 onwards).
- In case the SGW is changed due the HO then MME should send the Create Bearer Response
message to SGW indicating rejected E-RAB with cause 110 “Temporarily rejected due to
handover/TAU/RAU procedure in progress“.

PGW bearer request handling
• 3GPP TS 23.401: Upon reception of a rejection for an EPS bearer(s) PDN GW initiated
procedure with an indication that the request has been temporarily rejected due to
mobility procedure in progress, the PDN GW start a locally configured guard timer. The
PDN GW shall re-attempt, up to a pre-configured number of times, when either it
detects that the Tracking Area Update procedure is completed or has failed using
message reception or at expiry of the guard timer.
- PDN GW which initiated the bearer related request (e.g. Create / Update / Delete Bearer
request) is supposed to handle the rejection by re-sending the request after handover is
completed.
- Nokia PGW (NG3.2 onwards) has re-attempt mechanism, with the default value “handover-
rejection-guard-timer-reattempt-count” = 2, i.e. when PGW receives the rejection, it will re-initiate
rejected EPS bearer procedure to MME.

Failure message sequence
S-eNB T-eNB MME S-SGW T-SGW PGW
SIP:INVITE
SIP: TRYING
SIP: SESSION PROGRESS
Radio Handover in Progress

Create Bearer Request Create Bearer Request (QCI1)
E-RAB Setup Request
E-RAB Setup Response (failure) Cause: X2-Handover-Triggered
Patch Switch Request

Create Bearer Response Cause: Temporarily Rejected due to Handover Procedure in
(failure) Progress
SIP: 503 Service Unavailable

Correct message sequence
S-eNB T-eNB MME S-SGW T-SGW PGW
SIP:INVITE
SIP: TRYING
SIP: SESSION PROGRESS
Radio Handover in Progress

E-RAB Setup Request
E-RAB Setup Response (failure) Cause: X2-Handover-Triggered
Patch Switch Request
Retransmission
Create Bearer Response Cause: Temporarily Rejected due to Handover Procedure in
(failure) Progress
Create Session Request (QCI5)
Modify Bearer Request
Modify Bearer Response

Create Session Response
Patch Switch Request Ack
Delete Access Bearer in S-eNB and Session in S-SGW

SIP: PRACK

VoLTE Call Setup Failure in Poor Coverage
SIP message delivery failure
• The UL SIP message SESSION PROGRESS
(183) delivery is unsuccesful and thus, VoLTE call
setup fails.
- IP packet including SIP message is more than 1500B
which leads to packet fragmentation in the application
layer (mandatory).
- Under poor radio conditions, it takes too long time to
deliver the 1st piece of SIP message and therefore,
the 2nd piece of SIP message in eNB buffer is
discarded due to expiry of PDCP tDiscard timer.
- The entire SIP message can NOT be concatenated in
application layer, which leads VoLTE call failure
- Please note, in such case the UE doesn’t generate
new PDCP SN for buffered data which means that
data is kind of silently discarded and thus, eNB’s PM
counter or internal logs can’t reflect this failure.
- QCI5 the parameter tDiscard is recommended to set
to “infinity” to overcome this issue under very poor UL
channel.
Drop ratio for QCI1 – radio perspective
• VoLTE E-RAB QCI1 Drop Ratio (RAN View) KPI describes the ratio of abnormally
released (dropped) QCI1 E-RABs from RAN point of view.
- Abnormal E-RAB drops which are initiated by eNB are only counted.
E-UTRAN E-RAB QCI1 Drop Ratio, RAN View (LTE_5572e) =

100*sum(ERAB_REL_HO_PART_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_ENB_QCI1 - ERAB_REL_ENB_RNL_INA_QCI1 -
ERAB_REL_ENB_RNL_RED_QCI1 -ERAB_REL_ENB_RNL_RRNA_QCI1 - ERAB_REL_TEMP_QCI1)
sum(ERAB_REL_ENB_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_HO_PART_QCI1 + EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_N_QCI1
+EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_D_QCI1 + EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_R_QCI1 +
EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_O_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_EPC_PATH_SWITCH_QCI1 - ERAB_REL_TEMP_QCI1 +
ERAB_REL_SUCC_HO_UTRAN_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_SUCC_HO_GERAN_QCI1)

Drop ratio for QCI1 – end user perspective
• VoLTE E-RAB QCI1 Drop Ratio (user perspective) KPI describes the ratio of abnormally
released (dropped) QCI1 E-RABs from end user point of view.
- Abnormal E-RAB drops initiated both by eNB and EPC are counted.
- Call drops due to duplicated S1 connections and SRVCC during alerting are counted.
ERAB QCI1 drop ratio, user perspective (LTE_1263h) =

100 * SUM(EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_R_QCI1 + EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_O_QCI1 +
ERAB_REL_EPC_PATH_SWITCH_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_HO_PART_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_ENB_QCI1 -
ERAB_REL_ENB_RNL_INA_QCI1 - ERAB_REL_ENB_RNL_RED_QCI1 - ERAB_REL_ENB_RNL_RRNA_QCI1 -
ERAB_REL_TEMP_QCI1)
SUM(EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_N_QCI1 + EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_D_QCI1 +
EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_R_QCI1 + EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_O_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_ENB_QCI1 +
ERAB_REL_HO_PART_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_EPC_PATH_SWITCH_QCI1 - ERAB_REL_TEMP_QCI1 +

VoLTE Drop Call Rate
Duplicated S1 Connection
• Duplicated S1 connection occurs when the UE tries to
make HO from eNB-A cell to eNB-B cell but the HO fails
and following RRC connection re-establishment fails (no MME
LTE1617) and therefore, UE makes new RRC setup
attempt in eNB-B cell which causes new (duplicated) S1 eNB-B
connection establishment towards the MME
- The MME notices that there are two S1 connections for the
UE
UE and releases the old one (eNB-A). This release can be
done with cause: NORMAL release or RADIO, where the
latter causes dropped call counting (EPC initiated E-RAB
eNB-A
release due RNL)
UE
- After activation of LTE1617 there is no gain expected in
dropped call rate if the MME releases the duplicated S1
connection with NORMAL release cause (only gain on the
reduced mute time).
Drop ratio for QCI1 – active drops
• VoLTE E-RAB QCI1 Drop Ratio (active drops) KPI describes E-RAB QCI1 with data in
the queue drop ratio.
- ERAB_REL_ENB_ACT_QCI1: number of released active E-RABs, i.e. when there was user data
in the queue at the time of release with QCI1 characteristics. The release is initiated by the eNB
due to radio connectivity problems.
- E-RAB releases due to "No Radio Resources Available" initiated by eNB are counted as normal
releases from RAN perspective as drops are not resulted from any radio quality problems.
E-UTRAN E-RAB QCI1 with data in the queue drop ratio (LTE_5571f) =
100*sum(ERAB_REL_ENB_ACT_QCI1)
sum(ERAB_REL_ENB_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_HO_PART_QCI1 + EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_N_QCI1 +
EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_D_QCI1 + EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_R_QCI1 +
EPC_EPS_BEAR_REL_REQ_O_QCI1 + ERAB_REL_EPC_PATH_SWITCH_QCI1 - ERAB_REL_TEMP_QCI1 +

ERAB DR, RAN View, QCI1, LTE_5572A
Active call drop counters
ERAB DR, QCI1 w/ data in buffer, LTE_5571B
• Note that some network vendors are 1.00
counting only the drops when there is 0.90

data in the eNB buffer to be 0.80
transmitted to the UE in case of both
0.70
eNB triggered and EPC triggered
0.60
abnormal releases.
%
0.50
- The difference is quite large between all
drops (during inactivity) and drops only in 0.40
case there is data in buffer as shown in 0.30
the graph on the right:
0.20
• 0.4%-0.8% for all drops
0.10
• 0.05%- 0.15% for only drops with data
0.00
in buffer
20 00:00
20 07:00
20 21:00
21 04:00
21 11:00
21 18:00
22 01:00
22 08:00
22 15:00
22 22:00
23 05:00
23 12:00
23 19:00
24 02:00
24 09:00
24 16:00
24 23:00
25 06:00
25 13:00
25 20:00
26 03:00
26 10:00
20 14:00
26 17:00
GBR vs. non-GBR drop calls
GBR and non-GBR E-RAB Drop Rate (%) • QCI1 E-RAB drop rate is much
VoLTE Drops EPC initiated VoLTE Drops eNB initiated E-RAB Drop Rate, User Perspective (eNB pre-emptions excluded) VoLTE Drop Rate
worse compared to non-GBR
2.00 6 000
traffic.
1.80 720 users - 15 MHz
5 000
• VoLTE (QCI1) bearer drop rate
Admission Control Threshold – 75% 600 users - 10 MHz
1.60
has an increasing trend up to
1.40
4 000
1.6% with increased voice
traffic.
QCI1 Drops (#)

1.20
Drop Rate (%)
1.00 3 000
- The QCI1 session time (activity
time) is much longer compared
0.80 to the non-GBRQCI and
0.60
2 000 therefore, QCI1 is much more
sensitive to mobility related
0.40
1 000
performance challenges (too late
0.20
HO, too early HO, RRC re-
establishments)
0.00 0
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VoLTE KPI Benchmarking active drops per active minute QCI1
Active Drops per Session Time active drops per active minute non-GBR
• The simple dropped call rate calculation non-GBR to QCI1 ratio

0.0035 6
(drops/setup E-RABs per QCI) is not
necessarily a good metric due to the 0.003 5
extremely large difference in session
0.0025
times between QCI1 (100s – 200s) and
drops per minite

4
Non-GBR : (0.5s – 1.5s) 0.002
Ratio
3
• The QCI1 performance in terms of drops 0.0015
per minute is much better compared to 2
the non-GBR, i.e. QCI1 performance 0.001
should be also monitored by active drops 0.0005 1

per active in session time.
0 0
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10.12.2014
10.13.2014
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10.15.2014
10.16.2014
10.17.2014
10.18.2014
10.19.2014
10.20.2014
10.21.2014
10.22.2014
10.23.2014
10.24.2014
10.25.2014
DCR vs. Release Causes
• After iPhone6/6Plus launched with
iPhone6 VoLTE VoLTE enabled, the VoLTE calls
launch
increased by 6 times.
• VoLTE drop rate KPI is stable with
~1.6% level with more call attempts.
• Howeve, abnormal VoLTE call release
distribution is as follows:
- ~80% calls are caused by EPC release due to
Radio cause
- ~10% calls are caused by ENB release due to
Radio cause
- ~10% calls are caused by ENB release due to
Other cause

SRVCC success ratio – UTRAN
• VoLTE SRVCC Success Ratio KPI describes inter-RAT HO to UTRAN with SRVCC
success ratio when the source eNB receives information that the UE is successfully
connected to the target cell (UTRAN).
- This KPI is not triggered by load balancing cases to UTRAN.
- Reception of an S1AP:UE CONTEXT RELEASE COMMAND message (source eNB <- MME;
3GPP TS 36.413) with Cause value "Radio Network Layer (Successful Handover)" indicates the
successful SRVCC handover. Otherwise, after HO guard timer expiration UE CONTEXT
RELEASE REQUEST is sent by eNB and drop call is counted by ERAB_REL_ENB_QCI1 and and
ERAB_REL_HO_FAIL_TIM_QCI1
E-UTRAN Inter RAT HO UTRAN with SRVCC Success Ratio (LTE_5564a) =

100*sum(ISYS_HO_UTRAN_SRVCC_SUCC)
sum(ISYS_HO_UTRAN_SRVCC_ATT)

SRVCC success ratio – GERAN
• VoLTE SRVCC Success Ratio KPI describes inter-RAT HO to GERAN with SRVCC
success ratio when the source eNB receives information that the UE is successfully
connected to the target cell (GERAN).
- This KPI is not triggered by load balancing cases to UTRAN.
- Reception of an S1AP:UE CONTEXT RELEASE COMMAND message (source eNB <- MME;
3GPP TS 36.413) with Cause value "Radio Network Layer (Successful Handover)" indicates the
successful SRVCC handover. Otherwise, after HO guard timer expiration UE CONTEXT
RELEASE REQUEST is sent by eNB and drop call is counted by ERAB_REL_ENB_QCI1 and
ERAB_REL_HO_FAIL_TIM_QCI1
E-UTRAN Inter RAT HO GERAN with SRVCC Success Ratio (LTE_5567a) =

100*sum(ISYS_HO_GERAN_SRVCC_SUCC)
sum(ISYS_HO_GERAN_SRVCC_ATT)

SRVCC to WCDMA/GSM
SRVCC failure counter
• SRVCC failure counter
(ISYS_HO_UTRAN_SRVCC_FAIL or
ISYS_HO_GERAN_SRVCC_FAIL) is
only triggered due to
TS1RELOCoverall expiry in
execution phase and does not give
an exact indication possible failure
case, i.e. SRVCC attempts may be
greater than the sum of SRVCC
success and SRVCC failures.
• Therefore, the exact failure scenario
needs to be checked with a cell trace
from both LTE and 3G side.

SRVCC Failure Rate
t304 timer impact
• After increasing the t304InterRAT setting from 500ms (default) to 2000ms, the
SRVCC failure rate reduce ~13%, and QCI1 drop rate improvement can be
seen as well TS1RELOCoverall = TDRX + T304 + T311 + T301 + TS1RELOCoverallDelta
LTE_5562a Inter RAT HO Att, UTRAN, SRVCC LTE_5572a E-RAB QCI1 DR, RAN view
LTE_5563a Inter RAT HO FR, UTRAN, SRVCC 2.5
140 40
35 2
120
100 30
1.5
25
80
20
60 1
15
40 10 0.5
20 5
0 0 0
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SRVCC to WCDMA/GSM
iPhone6 issues with container size limitation
• SRVCC might fail due to size of "source to transparent container" is more that 255
bytes in S1AP: HandoverRequired message and thus, RNC does not decode WCDMA
BTS ID correctly and voice call is dropped.
- It could be caused by too big size of UE capability IE especially with Apple iPhones as it
supports lots of bands.
- As a workaround in some networks, SRVCC to WCDMA is set to both PS + CS in LNADJW
(SRVCC HO indication) because Relocation Request from PS CN has correct information even
though CS CN request is not valid.
- Another workaround could be the activation of LTE2324 Network requested UE capabilities
feature (FL15A) to limit UE capability information message size in case of CA is enabled in the
network.
- LTE2324 is based on 3GPP functionality and introduces filtering of supported CA band
combinations on UE side:
• upon eNB request, UE will report supported CA band combinations related only to bands used in Operator’s
network.
SRVCC Benchmarking
SRVCC Success Rate
SRVCC Success (%)
• SRVCC performance for
Inter RAT HO Attempts to UTRAN SRVCC Inter RAT HO UTRAN with SRVCC Success Rate
VoLTE has declining trend with
95 20 000 increased attempts.
90 720 users - 15 MHz 18 000 - SRVCC is degraded due to an
85 Admission Control Threshold – 75% 600 users - 10 MHz
issue in MSS not sending proper
16 000
cause code for successful
80
14 000 SRVCC HO and thus, SRVCC
75 success counter is not correctly
12 000
Attempts (#)
incremented.
Success (%)
70
10 000
65 • IMS network was not
60
8 000
supporting aSRVCC
55
6 000
- Customized firmware was
50
4 000 created for the phones to do
45 2 000
CSFB instead of VoLTE
when the RSRP is less than
40 0
-115 dBm.
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SRVCC
Handover interruption time
• There is a short interruption period during SRVCC, i.e. user can notice ‘silent’ period.
• The interruption time of SRVCC should not be higher than 300ms as required in
TS 22.278 from EUTRAN to UTRAN.

SRVCC to WCDMA/GSM
Challenge
• SRVCC causes always a short audio interruption (<300ms) and therefore, number of
SRVCC attempts should be reduced by lowering triggering threshold as much as possible
→ VoLTE service area is increased.
- SRVCC threshold and redirection thresholds should be enough far apart to avoid call drop during SRVCC.
• On the other hand, SRVCC should be triggered early enough to avoid degradation of voice
quality → VoLTE service area is reduced.
- SRVCC during the alerting stage without aSRVCC support (terminal/IMS) may cause the increased number of call
setup failures

References
KPI definitions
• Report Set RSLTE052 (accessible from JUMP) in Report Manager collects OSS KPIs and counters to
monitor the traffic load and VoLTE Service Quality.
• Performance monitoring for VoLTE by NetEng. Based on references from JUMP and RAN LTE KPIs
document is a collection of LTE KPIs and counters used when monitoring the VoLTE service.
KPI values
• The MBB and NPO KPI commitment targets guideline . Its contents are aligned with the more detailed
document KPI Targets document below. Note: Always download the latest one from the link above.
• MBB Performance Benchmarker
VoLTE KPI List for Acceptance
• A list covering all domains (not only radio) with OSS and drive test KPIs to be used as part of
customer discussions: VoLTE KPI List for Acceptance

VoLTE Voice Quality

Voice Quality Analysis
Measurement methods
• Perceptual methods (POLQA) try to model the human perception.
- Transforms the original and degraded speech signals into a psychophysical representation that approximates
human perception and maps this into an objective MOS score.
- E2E delay (mouth-to-ear) is not taken into account by POLQA as a degradation of the speech signal but only delay
variations that happen during active speech, i.e. Listening Quality.
Specified by ITU-T
recommendation P.800
• Non-perceptual methods (E-Model with R-Factor) are general physical or technical measures.
- Combines a number of values measuring the effect of various network impairments such as codec bitrate, jitter,
packet loss as well as mouth-to-ear delay which contributes to Conversational Quality.

Voice Quality Analysis
Measurement considerations for drive testing
• Used voice codec will have a big impact on the achieved MOS score
• Also the used voice samples (even languages) will have an effect on the MOS score.
- Results from different network cannot be compared unless the same sample used for all cases.
• Different handsets have different audio properties (frequency response, distortion, etc.)
- Changing the handset might give different results
- In the worst case handset audio module needs to be also calibrated and adjusted as there might
be differences in different units
• Drive test tool hardware (UEs, laptops, audio modules, power supplies, etc.) can have
effect on the MOS score if setup varies (cable routing)
• Other factors, e.g. there has been a case where a faulty switching power supply has
caused interference that has degraded the achieved MOS score

VoLTE Voice Quality 9.6 kbps 24.4 kbps
Voice codecs
• New EVS codec brings substantially

enhanced voice quality, improved error
resilience and increased coding
efficiency for narrowband (NB) and
wideband (WB) audio bandwidths.
- Introduction of super wideband (SWB)
and fullband (FB) audio.
- Backward compatibility with the Adaptive
Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) Codec
- Improved network capacity and coverage
while maintaining the same quality as in
HD Voice

Voice Quality Optimization
PDCP discard timer
tDiscard Median POLQA
300ms 2.9
500ms 2.86
1500ms 3.30
• The testing for the cell edge user showed significant MOS improvement when tDiscard
(for QCI1) was increased.

PDCP discard timer
• Case #1 (high loaded cells in DL)
- During high load the HARQ
retransmissions can be delayed in DL
and thus, the total delay can easily
exceed the tDiscard default value:
100ms.
• Case #2 (cell edge user)
- the tDiscard starts running @ PDCP layer
when the PDCP SDU is sent to lower
layer and timer runs despite the lower
layer problems for e.g. SR transmissions
-> some VoLTE packets never
transmitted causing problems for MOS
and causing OWA (One Way Audio)

PDCP sequence number size
• The UE might experience long lasting UL (or DL)

coverage problems (RTP time out) and eNB might
not hear the SRs at all (sent by PUCCH or RACH)
- This can cause several PDCP packets to be discarded and
eventually the PDCP HFN in the Tx and Rx (cipher and decipher
respectively) can have a mismatch causing ciphering
(deciphering) problems and RTP time out.
- Recommendation is to set 12bit to enable 2^12*20=81.92s
duration for better recovery and reduced probability of sequence
number ambiguity.
- Similarly the RLC header size should be 10bit to enable better
recovery
- Negative impact of the PDCP SN and RLC SN increase is that
the total TB size due to larger PDCP and RLC overhead.

Field Results
1. From the test resut, disable DRX can improve the RTP Jitter
2. increasing pdcp-SN-Size can further improve RTP jitter and MOS and RTP packet loss
RTP
Packet Loss
Date Test Case RSRP SINR MOS Jitter Duration Comments
Ratio
(ms)
20151215 Default -83.172 14.767 0.83% 3.83 14.37 286.31
20151215 Test case1 -83.166 15.129 0.58% 3.8 9.57 309.46 Disable QCI1 DRX
Disable QCI1 DRX, AND

20151215 Test case2 -82.765 14.942 0.03% 3.98 7.99 281.86 pdcp profile101/
snSize= len12bits

PDCP Parameters
Parameter Value Description Remarks
Intel chipset based iPhone7 models (A1778, A1784) are

This parameter configures suffering from a UE device SW bug that can lead to VoLTE
the maximum number of call drops and to a temporary loss of service under certain
pdcpProf101 - rohcMaxCid 2 ROHC contexts used for a circumstances. Therefore, Nokia recommends to all
data radio bearer in one customers that have a substantial amount of Intel based
direction. iPhone7 in their network to implement the parameter
mitigation action (LNBTS:rohcMaxCid = 2).
It may be beneficial to increase to 12 bits (sequence number
This parameter configures range corresponds to 81.92 secs) to improve PDCP
pdcpProf101 - snSize 12bit the size of the SN field in the recovery in case of lost packets and avoid RTP timeout. This
PDCP header increases the PDCP overhead but reduces the probability of
sequence number ambiguity.
This parameter indicates the
delay before a PDCP PDU The cell edge user might experience MOS improvement and
pdcpProf101 - tDiscard 300ms along with the corresponding reduction of discard packets when tDiscard (for QCI1) is
PDCP SDU is discarded increased, e.g. 300ms
from the buffer.

RLC Parameters
Parameter Value Description Remarks
It may be beneficial to increase to 10 bits (sequence number

This parameter configures
range corresponds to 20.48 secs) to improve RLC recovery
the length of the SN field for
rlcProf101 - snFieldLengthDL 10bit in case of lost packets and avoid RTP timeout. This
RLC UM procedures in
increases the RLC overhead but reduces the probability of
downlink direction.
sequence number ambiguity.
This parameter configures
the length of the SN field for
rlcProf101 - snFieldLengthUL 10bit
RLC UM procedures in
uplink direction
This timer is used by the
This timer depends on HARQ RTT and number of HARQ
receiving side of an UM RLC
rlcProf101 - tReord 50ms retransmissions.
entity for reordering and PDU
loss detection.

VoLTE Mobility

VoLTE Layering Strategy
• The layering strategy for the initial VoLTE deployments globally is depending on
country regulations, network topology and available spectrum.
Coverage Traffic Regulations

Balancing  TD-LTE may not
 LTE network may
not have not have  Traffic steering is be allowed to be
contiguous handled by idle or used for VoLTE
coverage connected mode service according
 VoLTE is enabled load balancing to government
across all the features regulations in
carriers to provide  VoLTE traffic may some countries
the best possible not have a
service dedicated layer
accessibility

Introduction
• However, VoLTE traffic steering with proper layering management could be beneficial in
order to improve network efficiency and end user experience for both VoLTE and data
services.
- Steering VoLTE traffic to dedicated layer free up control and data channel resources for non-VoLTE
users and thus, average throughput of data users might increase.
- Target VoLTE layer may have a better continuous coverage and therefore, VoLTE speech quality is
improved due to less frequent IFHO/SRVCC handovers, i.e. less voice interruptions during HO
measurement and execution phase.
• VoLTE calls can be steered to the preferred frequency layer using either service based
handover upon QCI1 bearer establishment or coverage/load based handovers.
- On the other hand, traffic steering is also increasing inter-frequency handovers in the network
which might lead drop calls unless mobility parameters are properly optimized.

Idle Mode Mobility
General strategy
Priority Scheme
• The general strategy is to use idle mode reselection
UEs move to highest freq layer when available

based on absolute priorities, i.e. UEs are pushed to LTE 2600 (F4) 7
the highest priority LTE layer (e.g. carrier with largest
bandwidth) and UEs only move away from the highest LTE 2100 (F3) 6
priority layer when coverage becomes poor.
- Higher Priority Reselection: UE always searches for LTE 1800 (F2) 5
higher priority layers
- Lower Priority Reselection: UE only searches for lower LTE 900 (F1) 4
priority when source layer falls below a certain threshold
• Note that VoLTE users cannot be steered differently UMTS2100 3
from data users in idle mode, i.e. existing strategy
applies also after VoLTE deployment. GSM900 2

Idle Mode Mobility
Considerations for SBHO parameterization
• Service based handover is recommended to offload VoLTE users to preferred frequency

layers from non-VoLTE layers.
• However, the target VoLTE layer should be set as a lower priority layer for idle mode cell
reselection otherwise non-VoLTE users can camp VoLTE preferred layer and establish PS
data call.
VoLTE user (Service Based HO)
Priority 6 F2 Data layer

VoLTE and Non-VoLTE user
(Cell Reselection)
Priority 5 F1 VoLTE layer

LTE Idle Mode Measurements and Cell Reselection Thresholds
Parameter alignment
Intra-frequency measurements will be started at Inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements will be UE is allowed to camp on LTE cell when RSRP level
qrxlevmin + sIntrasearch. Relatively high threshold is started at qrxlevmin + sNonIntrsearch. The lower exit exceeds qrxlevmin (must be aligned with
recommended in order to allow UE always to camp on the threshold can be applied in case of the strategy is to qrxlevminintraF, qRxLevMinInterF and
best cell (drawback is higher UE battery consumption). sustain more traffic in LTE. AdjLQrxlevminEUTRA)
Intra-frequency cell reselection to other LTE

cell will happen when neighbor is qHyst dB
better than serving cell.
interFrqThrH threshSrvLow
RSRP decreases sIntrasearch sNonIntrsearch qrxlevmin

Inter-frequency cell reselection towards a higher priority Inter-frequency cell reselection towards a lower priority LTE
LTE layer will be always triggered while a neighboring cell layer will be triggered once a own serving cell coverage falls
coverage is better than qRxLevMinInterF + interFrqThrH below qrxlevmin + threshSrvLow and a neighboring cell is
better than qRxLevMinInterF + interFrqThrL
The inter-RAT cell releselection from WCDMA towards a higher If no suitable LTE cell found, then reselection to WCDMA will
priority LTE will be always triggered while a LTE neighboring cell happen when a neighbouring UMTS cell RSCP is better than
coverage is better than AdjLQrxlevminEUTRA + AdjLThreshigh. qRxLevMinUtr + UtraFrqThrL
The lower threshold can be applied in case of the strategy is The target UMTS cell must also have a CPICH Ec/Io >
capture more traffic to LTE. qQualMinUtra.
Sufficient (e.g. 6dB) hysteresis required to avoid ping-pong effect because

Tracking Area Updates (TAU) might be drastically increased due to too small
hysteresis. MT calls may be directed to voice mail because UEs might not
45 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014 receive paging messages during TAU procedure.
Connected Mode Mobility
General strategy for VoLTE
• The general strategy for VoLTE deployment is to initially enable voice service on all
carriers in the network in order to ensure maximum coverage and accessibility.
• Once VoLTE traffic is increasing the strategy should be reviewed and possible layering
options studied to gain understanding of the impact of network capacity and coverage on
both VoLTE and data services.
• VoLTE preferred frequencies can be chosen based on the following factors:
- Coverage: Contiguous coverage to avoid risk of dropped calls due to IFHO or SRVCC handovers.
Alternatively, low frequency band operation for higher cell range is beneficial to minimize the
number of handovers as well as to provide a good indoor coverage.
- Capacity: Frequency band with highest capacity (i.e. large bandwidth) can serve more VoLTE
users and on the other hand, data users might have improved throughputs on non-VoLTE layers
due to more scheduling occasions without VoLTE traffic.

LTE Connected Mode Measurements and Handover Thresholds - Data
Parameter alignment
Inter-frequency measurements will be started at
threshold2InterFreq and A3 event is triggered once neighbouring
cell becomes a3OffsetRsrpInterFreq better than serving cell. The
Intra-frequency neighbouring
recommendation is to activate LTE inter-frequency measurements RRC connection release with
cell measurements will be
2-3 dB earlier than I-RAT measurements to favor handover to other redirect will be started at
started at Threshold1
LTE frequency before moving to WCDMA. threshold4 Thresholds are relative to -140 dBm
Inter-RAT WCDMA
measurements will be
started at
threshold2Wcdma.
Threshold2a b2Threshold1Utra
RSRP decreases Threshold1 threshold2InterFreq threshold4 -140

threshold2Wcdma
Inter-RAT handover will be triggered once a serving cell

Inter-RAT and inter- coverage falls below b2Threshold1Utra and a
frequency measurements neighboring cell RSCP and/or EcNo is better than
are stopped at Threshold2a b2Threshold2UtraRscp and/or b2Threshold2UtraEcn0
Cell reselection hysteresis from WCDMA to LTE should be

large enough to avoid UE immediately handover back to
WCDMA once entering the RRC connected mode (e.g. to
perform Tracking Area Update) in LTE.

LTE Connected Mode Measurements and Handover Thresholds - VoLTE
Parameter alignment
Inter-frequency measurements will be started at threshold2InterFreqQci1
and A3 event is triggered once neighbouring cell becomes
Intra-frequency neighbouring a3OffsetRsrpInterFreqQci1 better than serving cell. The recommendation
cell measurements will be is to activate LTE inter-frequency measurements 2-3 dB earlier than
started at Threshold1 SRVCC measurements to favor handover to other LTE frequency before
moving to WCDMA. Thresholds are relative to -140 dBm
RRC connection release with

SRVCC measurements
redirect will be started at
will be started at
threshold4. Parameter
threshold2WcdmaQci1.
a2RedirectQci1 (= disabled)
can be configured not to
trigger redirection for VoLTE
users
Threshold2aQci1 b2Threshold1UtraQci1
RSRP decreases Threshold1 threshold2InterFreqQci1 threshold4 -140

threshold2WcdmaQci1
SRVCC handover will be triggered once a serving cell coverage falls

Inter-RAT and inter-frequency below b2Threshold1UtraQci1 and a neighboring cell RSCP and/or
measurements are stopped at EcNo is better than b2Threshold2UtraRscpQci1 and/or
Threshold2aQci1 b2Threshold2UtraEcn0Qci1

Considerations for IFHO parameterization
• LTE inter-frequency measurement can be triggered at the same conditions

(threshold2InterFreqQci1 = threshold2InterFreq) for both VoLTE and non-VoLTE users
but measurements should not be configured too early before better cell (A3) criteria can
be met because there is no data transmission during measurement gaps which may lead
to user throughput and speech quality deterioration.
- The better cell (A3) inter-frequency handover from co-sited low frequency band to high frequency
band layer is advisable to be disabled for both VoLTE and data service and use idle mode selection
instead to avoid frequent IFHOs.
- Note also that frequent IFHO attempts might increase the propability of VoLTE call drops in case
IFHO handover is in progress while EPC requests to modify/release QCI1 bearer and therefore,
eNB may reject ‘parallel’ EPC request (36.413 - chapter 8.2) causing failure from MME/PGW
perspective.
• GBR E-RAB modification can occur when core network supports services which may require a change in the
GBR bitrate, e.g. answering machine and conference call.

Considerations for SRVCC parameterization
• VoLTE users are recommended to start measuring WCDMA layer earlier than non-
VoLTE users (threshold2WcdmaQci1 > threshold2Wcdma)
• SRVCC to trigger 2-3dB earlier than PS handover to maintain voice service quality
perceived by end users (b2threshold1UtraQci1 > b2Threshold1Utra).

SRVCC Performance
SRVCC I-RAT measurements
Modus avg time
Blind redirection w/o SRVCC and no 3G MEAS 110 ms

3G MEAS 1 neighbour 3G cell @ 1 UTRAN carrier 556 ms
3G MEAS 6 neighbour 3G cells @ 1 UTRAN carrier 707 ms
3G MEAS 12 neighbour 3G cells @ 1 UTRAN carrier 760 ms
3G MEAS 6+6 neighbour 3G cells @ 2 UTRAN carriers 853 ms
• If the measurements are started too late (low A2 threshold) and too large amount of 3G neighbors the
UE does not have enough time to send measurement reports (B2) hence the call drops.
• If A2 is set very close to B2 threshold this will reduce the time during which the measurement gaps
are scheduled to the mobile which may lead to non-optimal choice of target RAN cell if UE does not
have time to measure the best target cell (e.g. long neighboring list).
• However, if the SRVCC is triggered too early there might be too many SRVCC attempts and aSRVCC
attempts causing further challenges in case not supported by IMS.
SRVCC Performance
Setting B2 threshold VoLTE call drop case by redirect (from field measurement)
• If RRC release with redirect is No SRVCC

triggered before SRVCC the
VoLTE call drops. Especially, RSRP suddenly
degraded
high speed users can
experience this problem.
• Sufficient margin between
SRVCC and RRC release with
redirect threshold need to be
assigned.
VoLTE call
• In FL15A new parameter dropped
a2RedirectQci1 = disabled
allows to disable redirection for
VoLTE users

SRVCC Performance
Disabling redirection for QCI1
• After disabling the redirection for QCI1:
- Volte drop call rate (LTE_771 + LTE_5572) reduce significantly
- This indirectly cause higher SRVCC attempts, though SRVCC FR still remain at similar level
2.5 120 40
35
2 100
30
80
1.5 25
60 20
1 15
40
10
0.5 20
5
0 0 0
LTE_771b Rel R, QCI1 ENB rel, RNL Redir LTE_5562a Inter RAT HO Att, UTRAN, SRVCC
LTE_5572b E-RAB QCI1 DR, RAN view LTE_5563a Inter RAT HO FR, UTRAN, SRVCC
Parameter Name MOC Full Name Current value (Internal) Proposed value (Internal)
a2RedirectQci1 LNCEL <Change
A2information classification
based redirect in footer>calls
for VoLTE enabled (1) disabled (0)
SRVCC
RSRQ based SRVCC HO
• If SRVCC triggering threshold is set to very low value the user might experience bad RF
quality before RSRP threshold is reached.
• However, SRVCC trigger (B2) is typically based on RSRP and thus, SRVCC is not
triggered once RSRQ degrades.
• LTE2572 RSRQ based B2 feature is available from FL17 onwards.
Do we need RSRQ based SRVCC

triggering?
LTE
VoLTE
(QCI1)
WCDMA
SRVCC threshold SRVCC threshold(after)

(current:-113dBm)

SRVCC
RSRQ based SRVCC HO
• Relation between RSRQ and UL BLER shows that VoLTE voice quality deteriorates when
RSRQ becomes lower than -14dB @ UL BLER = 20%
RSRQ
Call -5 ○ Relation
drop -6 ○ between voice
Almost
Partially
Clear voice quality missing
missing -7 ○ quality and
-8 ○ RSRQ
-9 ○
-10 ○
-11 ○
-12 ○
-13 ○ Legend
-14 △ ○ Clear voice
BLER -15 △ △ Partially missing
20% -16 △ voice
-17 ▲ ▲ Almost Missing
-18 ▲ voice
55 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014 -19 × × Call drop
VoLTE Mobility Handling Features
Traffic Steering SRVCC

 Service based Mobility Trigger  Dedicated Mobility Thresholds for SRVCC
 Service based mobility thresholds  SRVCC Trigger Enhancements
 Dedicated VoLTE inter-frequency target  SRVCC due to Admission Control Rejection
frequency list  RSRQ based B2
 QCI1 Establishment Triggered Protection  VoLTE quality triggered SRVCC to GSM
Timer

VoLTE Radio Optimization
Periodical CQI Reporting

VoLTE Drop Call Optimization
CQI report failure detected on PUCCH
• From Traffica news, more

than 50% call failures are
cause by CQI report failure
detection on PUCCH
*Only 1 days data

eNB Detected Radio Link Failures (RLF) – CQI DTX Detection
• Nokia eNB can use periodic CQI reports for radio link failure detection on PUCCH and
PUSCH
- If MAC layer receives nCqiDtx consecutive reports from UL PHY, the MAC declares CqiRlf_ON
(this can be seen in BTS log and Emil)
- If the MAC has set CqiRLF_ON for a specific UE and nCqiRec consecutive CQI reports are
again detected successfully for that UE, the MAC sets CqiRlf_OFF.
- When a radio link problem is detected, an eNB-internal timer (T_RLF = T310 + T311 + 2200ms) is
started and stopped in case of radio link recovery or otherwise RRC+S1 release is triggered by
eNB
• In case the periodical CQI reporting periodicity is increased (or detection is disabled)
the dropped call rate decreases as some of the unnecessary call releases can be
avoided.
• NOTE: CQI_RLF detection does not apply to aperiodic CQI report in PUSCH

eNB Detected Radio Link Failures (RLF) – CQI DTX Detection
T_RLF = t310 + t311 RLF timer running
Periodic CQI detected

Periodic CQI
detected
DTX
DTX
DTX
DTX
DTX
CQI
CQI
CQI
CQI
CQI
DTX
DTX
DTX
DTX
DTX
CQI
CQI
CQI
CQI
CQI
time
LNCEL/cqiPerNp=10ms CQI_RLF ON
CQI_RLF
Example Vendor Parameter Values: OFF
nCqiDtx=4
nCqiRec=2

• E-RAB drop call rate has increased

from mid-March and it goes up to
0.2%, i.e. 2x higher than before.
ERAB Drop increased
• However VoLTE drop looks no suddenly
From mid of March
difference.
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 was
launched at mid of March
No Changes in VoLTE
Drop Ratio

Samsung Mobile Issue
• Due to Missing CQI report from Galaxy Note3 (NB3, NBD, NC3 version), eNB detect CqiRLF_ON and send
UEcontextReleaseRequest to MME with “radio connection with ue lost” Cause
Nomal case – CQI report
Abnormal case – no CQI report

nCqiDtx from 100 to 0
• eNB RLF detection
Both E-RAB DR(LTE_5025D) and E-RAB DR, based on periodic CQI
QCI1(LTE_5572A) is decreased
reporting was disabled
(nCqiDtx=0):
• E-RAB DR
(LTE_5025D) is
dropped from 0.068%
to 0.055% in average
(19% improvement)
• E-RAB DR,
QCI1(LTE_5572A) is
decreased from 0.116%
to 0.094% in average
(19% improvement)

LTE2206: Extended RLF handling
Feature in the Nutshell
• FL16 feature allows tuning RLF detection sensitivity at eNB in order to keep UEs longer
in RRC connection state.
• It applies to cases the eNB indicates RLF due to CQI DTX
- The tuning is possible by setting LNBTS:nCqiDtx and LNBTS:nCqiRec parameters
• LTE2206 does not change RLF detection functionality, sensitivity RLF indication is
issued
Before introduction LTE2206 feature: With LTE2206 feature:

Range and step
LNBTS:nCqiDtx==100 Hardcoded LNBTS:nCqiDtx 0…250 step 1
LNBTS:nCqiRec==2 values LNBTS:nCqiRec 1…8 step 1

For internal use
QCI1 Specific T310 and T311 Timers

Physical Layer Failure & Recovery
• Timer T310 supervises the recovery from physical layer problems and Timer T311
supervises the RRC connection re-establishment.
3. T310 expires -> detection of radio link
failure : all RBs are suspended except
SRB0, the UE tx turned off in 40ms, the UE 6. UE acquires UL grant via random access
initiates RRC re-establishment process and procedure and physical layer sends RRC
1. UE detects 1st out of
searches for the best cell. T311 is started connection re-establishment request message
synchronization
4. UE finds suitable cell
Time
T310 running T311 running

7. UE receives RRC connection re-
2. UE detects n310 amount
5. UE acquired System Information of establishment message and timer
of out of synchronization ->
the target cell. The UE layer 3 sends T301 is stopped. SRB1 is resumed
The UE starts timer T310
RRC connection re-establishment and layer 3 sends RRC connection
message to the lower layers. T311 is re-establishment complete message
stopped and T301 started. to physical layer and procedure ends.

LTE1569: QCI1 Specific RLF and Re-establishment Control
QCI1 specific T310 and N310 Only UEs Rel. 9 and higher are benefiting from LTE1569
LTE1569 allows to configure QCI1 specific settings of N310 (LNCEL:n310qci1) and T310 (LNCEL:t310qci1) which are provided to the
UE during QCI1 bearer establishment by RRC Connection Reconfiguration message (overwriting SIB2 broadcasted values).
When UE is ending the VoLTE call, eNB sends RRC Connection Re-configuration message to release QCI1 DRB, this message
includes also RLF-TimersAndConstants-r9 IE with legacy values of T310 and N310 (LNCEL:t310 and LNCEL:n310).
System Information Block Type 2 RRC Connection Reconfiguration

Information Element Parameter Information Element Parameter
Ue-TimersAndConstans RLF-TimersAndConstants-r9
> t300 LNCEL:t300 > t300-r9 LNCEL:t300
> t301 LNCEL:t301 > t301-r9 LNCEL:t301
> t310 LNCEL:t310 > t310-r9 LNCEL:t310qci1
> n310-r9 LNCEL:n310qci1
> n310 LNCEL:n310
> t311-r9 LNCEL:t311
> t311 LNCEL:t311
> n311-r9 LNCEL:n311
> n311 LNCEL:n311
Ue-TimersAndConstans from broadcasted SIB2 are replaced The rest of the parameters needed for
in the UE by parameters from RLF-TimersAndConstants-r9 in rlf-TimersAndConstants IE are taken from legacy
RRC Connection Reconfiguration parameters used for SIB2.
Note: If configured QCI1 specific T310 and N310 are equal to legacy values, eNB will not include rlf-TimersAndConstants IE.

For internal use
Field Trial Settings
• Tests were performed with 3 different parameter settings:

Set 1: Set 2: Set 3:
Abbreviate MO
Full Name Modification Range and step Feature Feature Feature
d Name Class
OFF ON: n6 ON: n4
n310Qci1 N310 for QCI1 LNCEL On-line 1:n1;2:n2;3:n3;4:n4;6:n6;8:n8;10:n10;20:n20 - - n4
0:0ms;50:50ms;100:100ms;200:200ms;500:500ms;1
t310Qci1 T310 for QCI1 LNCEL On-line - 500ms 500ms
000:1000ms;2000:2000ms
Maximum number of
n310 out-of-sync LNCEL On-line 0:n1;1:n2;2:n3;3:n4;4:n6;5:n8;6:n10;7:n20 n6 n6 n6
indications
0:0ms;1:50ms;2:100ms;3:200ms;4:500ms;5:1000ms
t310 Timer T310 LNCEL On-line 1000ms 1000ms 1000ms
;6:2000ms
Maximum number of
N311 LNCEL On-line 0:n1;1:n2;2:n3;3:n4;4:n5;5:n6;6:n8;7:n10 n1 n1 n1
in-sync indications
0:1000ms;1:3000ms;2:5000ms;3:10000ms;4:15000
T311 Timer T311 LNCEL On-line 3000ms 3000ms 3000ms
ms;5:20000ms;6:30000ms
0:100ms;1:200ms;2:300ms;3:400ms;4:600ms;5:100
t301 Timer T301 LNCEL On-line 400ms 400ms 400ms
0ms;6:1500ms;7:2000ms

Field Trial Results
• Set 1: initial ERAB drop rate for QCI1 with feature not activated: 0.14%
• Set 2: reduction of T310qci1 to 500ms improvement of ERAB DR QCI1 to 0.10%
• Set 3: reduction of N310qci1 from n6->n4 did not lead to further reduction, result: 0.13%
VoLTE capable Rel. 9 UEs during test: >95% => Higher penetration would even improve result
Nokia Internal Use
Field Trial Results
• Target is to start early re-establishment procedure by UE before call drop, but not to trigger too
early re-establishements and therefore, increase the risk to drop the call by a failed re-estabishment
procedure itself
• Set 1: Default parameters are T310=2000ms and N310=n10 -> Network was already adapted to
T310=1000ms, N310=n6 which leads to an improved ERAB DR.
• Set 2: QCI1 specific T310qci1 reduction leads to earlier triggering of re-establishment procedure
by UE and therewith to a further improvement of ERAB QCI1 DR from 0.14% -> 0.10%
• Set 3: Further parameter adaptions to trigger re-establishment procedure by UE even earlier lead
to an increase of DR compared to previous setting (Set 2) -> increased amount of re-
establishement procedures finally lead to an increased DR as re-establishement procedure might
fail as well
- It is recommended to activate feature LTE1617 RLF triggered handover to improve re-
establiment success in overall.

Nokia Internal Use
DRX – Optimized Algorithm

VoLTE Handset Power Consumption
Battery consumption:
THE CHALLENGE
 VoLTE users have a high battery 40 ms 1 ms

consumption due to a long call session
time compared to data users
 Voice application running in the handset
application processor requires a lot of
power Sleep mode VoLTE packets
 Handset power consumption is generally minimized by integrating a VoLTE client into the modem
processor (chipset)
 DRX (Discontinuous Reception) functionality uses sleep mode in the handset between VoLTE
packet receptions – eVTT profile further enhances battery savings

VoLTE Handset Power Consumption
VoLTE optimized DRX
300
• Different voice services tested on same VoLTE
smartphone 250
248
235
- 3G CS AMR-WB and AMR-NB
200
Current (mA)
- Native VoLTE
154
- VoIP (Viber) 150 131
129 125 121
• Without VoLTE optimized DRX
100
- VoLTE consumes up to 88% higher power than
3G CS call
50
- Viber consumed up to two times more power
than 3G CS call 0
3G CS 3G CS noDRX DRX DRX DRX Viber
• With VoLTE optimized DRX AMR-NB AMR-WB 20ms 40ms 40ms
6ms 6ms 4ms
- VoLTE has similar power consumption as 3G CS OnDur OnDur OnDur
call

DRX Impact on Poor RF
• The current analysis of DRX problems indicate that in case of poor RF the DRX causes
additional dropped calls:
- These dropped calls could be caused by additional delays caused by DRX
- Measurement delays for handovers
- Measurement inaccuracies of CQI (reported CQI in DRX active state might not correctly reflect the
RF quality due to the DRX sleep state)
- Due to this the LA might not work accurately and fast enough to be able to react on changing CQI in
poor RF and UE might never hear the HO command
• The DRX feature can be improved so that it could be turned off in poor RF (based on
CQI) and turned on in case of improved RF (improving absolute CQI value)

DRX Optimized Algorithm for VoLTE
• If UE has QCI-1 DRB and DRX is currently enabled, and C-plane receives RL Status
Indication for this UE indicating “BadChannelQuality” then C-plane sends RRC
Reconfiguration message to UE to disable DRX:
rrcConnectionReconfiguration-r8 :
{
radioResourceConfigDedicated
{
mac-MainConfig explicitValue :
{
drx-Config release : NULL,
…
}
• If UE has QCI-1 DRB and DRX was previously disabled due to Poor RF, and C-plane
receives new RL Status Indication for this UE indicating “GoodChannelQuality”, then C-
plane sends RRC Reconfiguration message to UE to re-install the DRX profile (i.e. re-
enable DRX) provided that other DRX feature add conditions (feature flag, configuration,
etc.) are satisfied

VoLTE Optimized DRX
Thresholds
• The parameters should be set according

to the network statistics i.e.
- qci1DrxOnThreshold (default=9) should be
set according to the average reported CQI
across the whole network i.e. if average
reported CQI = 9 then CDrxOnThreshold
should be set to 9.
- qci1DrxOffThreshold (default=7) should be
set 2 steps below the above parameter
value
• Above parameters will be tunable
parameters in release 16 (defaults used
as above)

VoLTE Optimized DRX
DRX Optimized Algorithm for VoLTE – Field Test
• CQI threshold for deactivation and activation need to be set according to network
performance
CQI CQI
DRX OFF 7-9
DRX OFF 9-11 Average CQI is 11 or
higher in the cluster and
therefore, CQI thresholds
needs to be set higher

High Speed Users
Optimization

High Speed Users Optimization
Doppler shift
• When a user is moving relative Access Point
to an eNodeB, the transmit

frequency of the eNodeB is
different from the receive
frequency of the user due to the
Doppler shift.
• In an LTE system, this Doppler
shift causes interference in or
between OFDM symbols.
• The faster the speed the greater
the shift and thus, the The highest Doppler shift is experienced by the UE that is in the
middle of the two cells that are pointing towards each other
interference.

High speed UE definition
• UE should be considered as high speed UE in case Doppler shift at eNB is higher than 400Hz
• LTE48 Support of High Speed Users feature improves the eNB UL reception performance for the high
speed users but does not bring any gain for the low speed user (Doppler shift less than 400 Hz)
• Because of the frequency offset estimation and the signal correction, the computation complexity and
the processing latency are increased at eNB - Therefore the feature activation should be a subject for
consideration during the network planning by the customer
• Table below shows exemplary calculations for different frequency bands:
Frequency Band [MHz] High speed UE in case UE speed is

higher than app.[km/h]
1900 >110
F _ o[ Hz]
2300 >90 v[km / h] 
2  F _ c[GHz]  0.926
2600 >80

LTE48 Support of High Speed Users
• LTE48 Support of High Speed Users feature can be activated by setting the parameter
prachHsFlag = ‘true’ (requires object locking)
- The range of allowed rootSeqIndex values becomes limited (restricted set) and the
number of PRACH sequences which can be generated from each root sequence is no
longer fixed -> RSI re-planning is required.
- hsScenario must be configured to ‘scenario1’ or ‘scenario 3’ dependently on the
deployment scenario - Scenario 1 (open space scenario) and scenario 3 (tunnel
scenario) defined by 3GPP
- ulCombinationMode must be set to ‘MRC’, i.e. LTE1402 Intra eNB UL CoMP cannot
be used.

High Speed Train Optimization
KPI Improvement after prachHsFlag=true
RRC Performance DRB Performance
Total Att LTE_753A CSSR LTE_5218C SR LTE_5220A Stp ATT LTE_5116A Data stp SR LTE_5003A
Data SR LTE_5117A
100.00 20,000
98.00 100.00 100,000
15,000
98.00 80,000
96.00
10,000 96.00 60,000
94.00
94.00 40,000
92.00 5,000
92.00 20,000
90.00 0 90.00 0
before after
04.28.00
04.28.06
04.28.12
04.28.18
04.29.00
04.29.06
04.29.12
04.29.18
04.30.00
04.30.06
04.30.12
04.30.18
05.01.00
05.01.06
05.01.12
05.01.18
04.30.01
04.30.08
04.30.15
04.28.00
04.28.07
04.28.14
04.28.21
04.29.04
04.29.11
04.29.18
04.30.22
05.01.05
05.01.12
05.01.19
Stp Att LTE_5118A eRAB Performance DR LTE_5025C
Stp SR LTE_5017A
8.00
Normal, NW view LTE_5024C 6.00
100.00 40,000 4.00
2.00
95.00 20,000 0.00
04.28.00
04.28.07
04.28.14
04.28.21
04.29.04
04.29.11
04.29.18
04.30.01
04.30.08
04.30.15
04.30.22
05.01.05
05.01.12
05.01.19
90.00 0
04.2…
04.2…
04.2…
04.2…
04.2…
04.2…
04.2…
04.3…
04.3…
04.3…
04.3…
05.0…
05.0…
05.0…

KPI Improvement after prachHsFlag=true
Intra ENB HO Att LTE_5124A Inter ENB HO Att LTE_5125A
Intra ENB HO Prep att LTE_5123A Inter ENB HO Prep att LTE_5126A
Intra ENB HO SR total LTE_5043A Inter ENB HO SR total LTE_5058B
Intra ENB HO SR LTE_5035A Inter ENB HO SR LTE_5048B
Intra ENB HO Prep SR LTE_5036A Inter ENB HO Prep SR LTE_5049B
100.00 45,000 100.00 45,000

40,000 40,000
99.00 35,000 99.00 35,000
30,000 30,000
98.00 25,000 98.00 25,000
97.00 20,000 97.00 20,000
15,000 15,000
before after 10,000 10,000
96.00 96.00
5,000 5,000
95.00 0 95.00 0
04.30.01
04.28.00
04.28.07
04.28.14
04.28.21
04.29.04
04.29.11
04.29.18
04.30.08
04.30.15
04.30.22
05.01.05
05.01.12
05.01.19
04.28.00
04.28.06
04.28.12
04.28.18
04.29.00
04.29.06
04.29.12
04.29.18
04.30.00
04.30.06
04.30.12
04.30.18
05.01.00
05.01.06
05.01.12
05.01.18
LTE2445: Combined Supercell
• High speed users handovers occur very frequently causing a large amount of signaling.
Moreover, the train is running between cell centers and cell edges, which significantly
impacts data rates even causing service drops.
• LTE2445 Combined Supercell feature
reduces drastically the handover
frequency in high speed scenarios.
- The UE can move seamlessly between
subcells, without interruption by a RACH
procedure due to cell change as with
normal cells
- 6 RRH support allows for extended
supercell coverage

Nokia Internal Use
VoLTE tunnel performance
• There are many RRC re-establishments of VoLTE call due to RLFs when train goes
through a tunnel and thus, RRC re-establishment causes missing voice packets and end
user experience is degraded.
RSRP
RSRQ
RRC
Re-establishment
VoLTE Packet
85
Re-esta
© Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014
Re-esta Re-esta Re-esta
86
WCDMA Voice
should be used
when train goes
through a tunnel
0
10
30
50
60
20
40
© Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

VoLTE tunnel performance
2014.11.18:06.00
2014.11.18:13.00
2014.11.18:20.00
2014.11.19:09.00
2014.11.19:16.00
2014.11.19:23.00
2014.11.20:12.00
2014.11.20:19.00
2014.11.26:08.00
2014.11.26:15.00
2014.11.26:22.00
2014.11.27:11.00
2014.11.27:18.00
2014.11.28:07.00
2014.11.28:14.00
2014.11.28:21.00
2014.11.29:10.00
2014.11.29:17.00
Drop Rate (ADR) [%]
2014.11.30:06.00
2014.11.30:13.00
2014.11.30:20.00
2014.12.01:09.00
2014.12.01:16.00
LTE
2014.12.01:23.00
WCDMA
2014.12.02:12.00
Lower
• LTE drop rate is around 38% but WCDMA’s drop rate is lower than LTE in tunnel sites.
drop rate
Possible design concept
• To make UEs enter tunnels continuously without drop, our new design forces VoLTE UEs
to move to WCDMA by SRVCC in tunnel adjacent sites and tunnel sites.
Forced SRVCC to WCDMA AMR

VoLTE Tunnel
LTE
WCDMA AMR AMR

TAC design
• In case VoLTE is launched for certain areas only the design of TAC and eNB QCI1
support needs to be as below
SRVCC to WCDMA AMR
VoLTE area VoLTE Non VoLTE area
LTE
WCDMA
AMR AMR
VoLTE ON site VoLTE OFF site VoLTE OFF site

TAC VoLTE ON TAC VoLTE OFF TAC VoLTE OFF TAC
Configuration
eNB VoLTE ON VoLTE ON VoLTE ON

Configuration

Considerations
• If VoLTE is supported by the target eNB but the TAC of the target eNB does not support
VoLTE then the HO for QCI1 should go through and path switch should be possible.
However there might be differences in different vendor’s MMEs.
• Also whether the UE SIP client drops the call or not (UE sending SIP : BYE message)
when TAC without VoLTE support is detected depends on the UE implementation.
• Therefore SRVCC to WCDMA is recommended to be triggered.

VoLTE Call Flow Analysis

xxx
VoLTE Call Flows:

Registration Procedure
91 08/08/2018 © Nokia 2015 - File Name - Version - Creator - DocID

Confidential
VoLTE Call Flows: Registration Procedure (1/3)



xxx
VoLTE Call Flows:

Mobile Originated VoLTE Call

Confidential
VoLTE Call Flows: Mobile Originated VoLTE Call (1/2)
user’s perspective, Accessibility is

typically considered from 180
RINGING or ACK (200 OK)
Call Setup time : SIP INVITE – SIP 180 Ringing

= 4910 ms = 4.9 s



xxx
VoLTE Signaling Flows:

Mobile Terminated VoLTE Call

Confidential
VoLTE Signaling Flows
• Mobile Terminated VoLTE Call (1/2)

0
• Mobile Terminated VoLTE Call (2/2)

1
Back to list of call flows
xxx
VoLTE Call Flows

SRVCC to 3G

2
Confidential
• SRVCC to 3G
Measurement event B2 (UTRA) reported
SRVCC/HO command

3
THANK YOU!

4

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NPO Enabling:

1 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

2 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

3 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

E-UTRAN E-RAB Setup Success Ratio, QCI1 (LTE_5204c) =

- ERAB_REL_TEMP_QCI1: number of temporary admitted QCI1 bearer release due to an

4 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

• KPI does not reflect the end user

6 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

QCI1 Attempts (#)

99.60 attempted under poor radio

8 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

9 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

SIP: SESSION PROGRESS

Radio Handover in Progress

E-RAB Setup Request

E-RAB Setup Response (failure) Cause: X2-Handover-Triggered

Patch Switch Request

10 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

SIP: SESSION PROGRESS

Radio Handover in Progress

E-RAB Setup Request

E-RAB Setup Response (failure) Cause: X2-Handover-Triggered

Patch Switch Request

Modify Bearer Response

Delete Access Bearer in S-eNB and Session in S-SGW

11 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

E-UTRAN E-RAB QCI1 Drop Ratio, RAN View (LTE_5572e) =

13 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

ERAB QCI1 drop ratio, user perspective (LTE_1263h) =

14 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

16 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

• Note that some network vendors are 1.00

counting only the drops when there is 0.90

QCI1 Drops (#)

• The simple dropped call rate calculation non-GBR to QCI1 ratio

drops per minite

should be also monitored by active drops 0.0005 1

20 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

E-UTRAN Inter RAT HO UTRAN with SRVCC Success Ratio (LTE_5564a) =

21 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

E-UTRAN Inter RAT HO GERAN with SRVCC Success Ratio (LTE_5567a) =

22 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

23 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

27 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

28 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

29 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

30 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

31 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

32 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

• New EVS codec brings substantially

33 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

tDiscard Median POLQA

34 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

35 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

• The UE might experience long lasting UL (or DL)

36 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

20151215 Default -83.172 14.767 0.83% 3.83 14.37 286.31

Disable QCI1 DRX, AND

37 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

Parameter Value Description Remarks

Intel chipset based iPhone7 models (A1778, A1784) are

38 © Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014