A Monte Carlo simulation approach to nding

optimal parameter settings for soft handovers in

WCDMA
Sarel F. Roets
3G Radio Planning and
Optimisation Engineer
Mobile Telephone Networks
Johannesburg, South Africa
Email: roets sa@mtn.co.za
Poovendren Govender
3G Radio Planning and
Optimisation Engineer
Mobile Telephone Networks
Johannesburg, South Africa
Email: goven po@mtn.co.za
AbstractThe aim of this paper is to nd the optimal
parameter settings for the WCDMA soft handover algorithm
as described by the 3GPP standards and the impact on the
system performance. The various layers involved during a soft
handover are modelled inclusive of the physical layer, layer 2
and layer 3. Event based handover is considered in terms of
a handover being triggered by the reporting of certain events.
Utilising Monte Carlo simulations, the effect of soft handover
parameters are investigated to determine the effect on soft
handover boundaries in a suburban morphology. The optimal
set of parameter values can now be determined and provide
insight on what can be expected prior to implementation in
a live network. The proposed parameter settings were trialled
and validated in a live WCDMA network. Experimental results
showed that the optimal settings implemented in the network did
signicantly improve soft handover performance and drop call
rate, thereby improving the subscriber experience.
I. INTRODUCTION
In Mobile Communication the aim is to provide the sub-
scriber with seamless mobility and an acceptable Quality
of Service. In the case of WCDMA networks the same
requirement holds true for users making use of the speech/R99
services. Parameters associated with soft handover can be used
to control handover boundaries as soft handover is used to
enhance quality, coverage and capacity [1]. A well planned
RF network enables improved handover performance and re-
duced signalling. The subsequent timely additions, change and
removal of cells in the active set ensure cells do not reserve too
many resources for too long a period. Changing the parameters
creates either early or late handover event triggering and one
needs to nd the optimal settings for the handover parameters.
Delayed handovers may lead to scenarios where the UE enters
a bad rf environment of the serving cell and the call may
subsequently be dropped. Handovers that occur too soon may
result in the UE entering a poor rf environment of the new
serving cell as compared to the environment of the previous
serving cell.
Using methods like the Monte Carlo method allows one to
obtain results for various scenarios or settings in a particular
morphology. Results obtained from a Monte Carlo simulation
can now be used to determine the optimal parameter setting for
Soft Handovers. Taking into consideration that morphologies
and antenna heights etc, may differ throughout an area, various
RNCs will require different settings with regards to the Soft
Handover parameters.
Literature in analysis of Handover initiation criteria is
mainly based on the length of the averaging window, threshold
level and hysteresis margin. WCDMA further introduces the
Time-to-Trigger mechanism to reduce unnecessary signalling
and ping pong effects. The averaging window reduces random
signal uctuations in order to make handover decisions based
on a trend instead of instantaneous changes [1]. Previous
work in [1] aims to use an appropriate combination of lter,
hysteresis and Time-to-Trigger to ne tune real time decisions
in order to optimise the handover decision. Work in [2],
utilises a analytical and dynamic simulation for changes in
the active set size, reporting range, hysteresis and Time-
to-Trigger values. The focus of this paper is to obtain the
optimal combination of Reporting Range(RR) and Hysterises
parameter values for event1a and event1b respectively, using
Monte Carlo simulations.
In section II an overview of WCDMA is discussed and
modelling concepts are introduced in section III. In section
IV we review the Monte Carlo method and in section VI we
analyse the results of the simulations along with live network
results, nally drawing a conclusion and proposing future
work.
II. WCDMA NETWORK THEORY
According to 3GPP the radio access network for UMTS
(WCDMA RAN) provides a connection between the Core
Network (CN) and the UE while also interfacing towards
the external Network Management Systems (NMS) [3]. The
Network Elements (NEs), RNC, RXI and Radio Base Station
(RBS) manage the data links between WCDMA RAN and
the UE. An architecture diagram for the WCDMA network is
shown in gure 1.
Radio Access Bearers (RAB) are setup between the CN and
IV International Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control Systems 2012
978-1-4673-2015-3/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE 188
the UE, as shown in gure 1. There are different trafc classes,
conversational (voice), streaming class (video), interactive (in-
ternet browsing) and background (email). The aforementioned
services utilise a signalling connection between the NEs. RRC
(radio resource control) signalling protocol messages occur
between the UE and RNC establishing the signalling radio
bearers required for exchange of signalling. The measurements
performed by the UE is controlled by the RRC layer sent from
the RNC. The RRC determines what/when to measure and
reporting thereof. It includes both WCDMA and other systems
such as GSM/GPRS. NAS (non access spectrum) signalling
protocol messages occur between the UE and CN. The RAB
contains an Iu bearer from the RNC to the CN, a user plane
Transport Channel (TRCH) on the Iub which forms a radio
link between the UE and RNC [3]. The Iu and RRC connection
enable end to end signalling between the UE and CN. The UE
can then attach to either the packet/circuit CN for data/voice
services. The CNs signalling initiates authentication on the
UE, if valid, ciphering and integrity is activated. These pro-
tection keys are generated during the authentication. Data radio
bearers consist of logical, transport and physical channels
where the physical channel size depends on the data rate of
the service. The RNC modies the rate and other characteristic
of the bearer when required. If a UE is inactive on a data
service, the RRC initiates a state change from CELL DCH to
CELL FACH, releasing dedicated channels. Once a voice call
is over, the RNC releases the RRC connections, data bearers
and Iu connections are subsequently released. Measurement
information is sent in the system information on the BCH
(SIB 11) for UEs in idle mode and over SIB 12 for UEs in
CELL FACH or CELL PCH or CELL URA [3], [4].
A. UTRAN RRC States
Idle Mode - UEs receive paging info without transmitting
back while camped to a cell or registered to a service on
the PS/CS CNs;
Connected mode - For UEs in CELL DCH, an RRC
Connection is established and signalling messages is sent
to the UE;
CELL DCH circuit - switched calls or high data rate
packet calls;
CELL FACH - Used for bursty data, no dedicated re-
sources. UE and RNC can send info at any time;
CELL PCH - RNC knows cell location for a UE in sleep
mode, when there is no activity during a packet call;
URA PCH - limits UEs cell update procedure in the case
when the UE has high mobility and no activity during a
packet call.
The UE receives a Measurement Control message from the
RNC when it enters CELL DCH state which includes CPICH
and Ec/No that the UE measures. In the event certain criteria
is triggered, the UE sends a measurement report to the RNC
for a specic event, i.e add (1a), remove (1b), replace (1c),
change of best cell (1d), Inter-frequency (2d, 2f, 6a, 6b, 2b)
and InterRAT (2d, 2f, 6a, 6b and 3a) [3].
Radio Base
Station
Radio Access
Network
User Equipment
Iub
Iur
Core Network
Iu
Uu
RXI
Management
systems
RNC1 RNC2
OSS-RC
Network Management systems
Mur
Mub
Iub
Iu
Iub
Fig. 1. WCDMA network architecture layout. Architecture is drawn from
the Subscriber side up to the Core Network.
B. Mobility overview
The handover function is important to mobility as this is
only possible with correctly dened neighbours to ensure
connection quality is maintained as the UE moves between
cells. A neighbour is dened as a cell on the Neighbour Cell
List (NCL) of a source cell with a certain selection priority
while an undened neighbour is a cell not included in the
NCL. WCDMA handover decisions are taken by the RNC
based on UE measurements. The UE constantly monitors the
connection quality of adjacent cells and informs the RNC
when the measured quantities full the criteria for specied
events [5]. The UE evaluates and sends measurement reports
to the RNC for the active set to be changed only when certain
events occur, i.e. when a cells measurement result fulls
certain criteria. The utilisation of which must be considered for
event triggered or periodical measurements. Event triggered
reports are sent from UEs located in Soft Handover (SHO)
areas while periodical reporting is a uniform distribution in the
serving area of the cell. The RNC keeps the active set updated
with cells for the best connection quality thereby enabling the
UE to measure these scramble codes [6]. The UE performs
measurements according to the measurement control message
on the CPICH-Ec/No of both the Active and Monitored sets.
Every WCDMA cell will have a number of intra-frequency
neighbours dened with a maximum of 31 per cell however
it is wise to limit this number so as to avoid truncation of
monitored neighbour lists. Soft handovers are only possible
if the UEs NCL contains the target cell. Correctly dened
Iur (see gure 1) denitions between RNCs is crucial for
cells with relations in adjacent RNCs. The set of radio links
simultaneously participating in a SHO connection between a
UE and a RBS is called an active set. A maximum of 3 radio
links can be a part of the active set and the UE in connected
mode measures the neighbours to all cells in the active set and
reports to the RNC to decide a change of active set. The RNC
orders the UE to add or remove cells from its active set.
The monitored set consists of the surrounding cells not in
189
the active set that the UE continuously monitors/measures.
The detected set contains all cells that the UE detects that are
not part of the active or monitored sets. Every neighbour is
assigned a selection priority to reduce dropped calls. Without
selection priority, the neighbour receives by default the lowest
priority and would be truncated thereby limiting its effective-
ness.
In softer handover, the UE has more than one radio link to
the cells on a RBS and in soft handover the UE has more than
one radio link from different RBSs. The UEs cell list contains
all the NCLs of the cells in the active set. The Soft/softer
handover functionality determines the number of carriers to
connect and can be combined for a UE connection for setup
and release between the RBS. Soft/softer handover ensures
seamless handover without disconnection of the RAB. The
required transmission power of the UE decreases with macro-
diversity gain realised by combining the receive signals in the
RNC (SHO) or the RBS (softer HO) and thus improving the
uplink signal quality [6].
C. Soft Handover Events
Soft handover events can be listed as follows [3], [4]:
event1a is triggered when P-CPICH (Primary - Common
Pilot Channel) that is not in the active set enters the
reporting range. This results in an addition of a radio
link to the active set;
event1b is triggered when P-CPICH, included in the
Active Set, leaves the reporting range. This results in the
removal of a radio link;
event1c is triggered when a P-CPICH that is not in the
active set becomes stronger than the worst P-CPICH in
the active set. This results in a replacement of a radio
link in the active set;
event1d is triggered when any P-CPICH within the active
set becomes better than the best cell. It can also be sent
by a UE for monitored or detected set cells.
Cells in the monitored set are periodically checked against
triggering conditions and if met, the UE creates a Mea-
surement Report message which is sent to the RNC for
handover evaluation. If any of the above-mentioned events
occur, a Evaluation report triggers a Execution proposal in
the RNC. This results in an addition/replacement/removal of
the reported cell to the Active Set of the UE. A Active Set
update message is sent to inform the UE of the decision and
the UE sends an Active Set Update Complete conrming
the new conguration. The RNC thereafter updates the UE
with a new Measurement Control message. The following
parameters affects soft handover event triggering. Time to
trigger: From gure 2, is the time period in which the event
triggering condition must be met before the UE can transmit
measurement reports. Reporting Range: From gure 2, a high
value of RR1a may cause cells with lower quality to trigger
event 1a and be added to the active set subsequently degrading
downlink capacity. A low value of RR1a, would result in good
quality cells not triggering an event1a. This would result in the
strong cell not being added to the active set and may result
Time
H1a/2
Time to
Trigger
Reporting
interval
Event 1a
Detected
Start reporting
event 1a
Stop reporting
event 1a
Hysteresis
H1a/2
CPCH 3
CPCH 2
CPCH 1
Reporting Range R1A
Measurement Quantity
Fig. 2. Visual representation of measured RF conditions and the resulting
handover events.
in a dropped call due to bad quality if greater or equal to the
releaseconnoffset. A high value of RR1b causes low quality
cells not to trigger event1b resulting in degraded capacity. A
low value for cells with good quality may trigger event1b too
early resulting in bad call quality. Weighting factor: is applied
to the cell quality in the inequality criterion (7) and must
be met in order for an event1a to occur. Report deactivation
threshold: is the maximum amount of cells allowed in the
active set for event1a. Reporting amount: in the event of
periodic reporting triggered by event1a, the reporting amount
is the maximum number of measurement reports sent by the
UE. Reporting Interval: From gure 2, is the interval of
event-triggered periodical measurement reporting sent by a
UE. Hysteresis: From gure 2, is the condition to activate or
deactivate event1a reporting. A large value may cause delays
in the measurement reporting of cells with good quality and
may cause an increase of reporting of cells with relatively poor
quality.
From gure 2, CPICH3 must exceed the upper boundary
of the hysteresis in order to start the timer and the level
of CPICH3 may not drop below the lower boundary of the
hysteresis until the Time to Trigger has elapsed. The cell is
then added to the active set. If the CPICH leaves the hysteresis
range at any point, the timer will stop, reset and the cell will
be removed from the active set.
III. MODELLING HANDOVERS
In gure 1, a graphical representation of the network is
provided. Soft Handovers are originated by the UE over the air
interface by reporting either event1a or event1b. This message
is reported over the RF medium and is then received by the
NodeB which performs a layer one ltering on the message.
This layer 1 lter takes 100 samples and determines the
average. A ltered message is then sent to the RNC where the
layer 3 lter is applied to the message. The message contains
the signal strength and quality of the possible cells to handover
to or break connections from. Thus the values contained in the
messages are changed according to the lters. The RNC then
190
makes the Soft Handover decision based on the signal strength
and quality values obtained from the layer 3 lter.
A. Propagation Model
A propagation model is used to estimate the coverage of a
sector in mobile communications. For purposes of this paper
the HATA model is used. The Hata model expresses the path
loss undergone by a RF signal from the base station antenna
to the receiving antenna. For the Hata Model the pathloss, L
p
,
can be expressed as follows in dB units:
L
p
= A13.82Log(H
b
)+(44.96.55Log(H
b
)log(R)a(H
m
)
(1)
In (1), A is a factor with a value of 147.9 for suburban areas
and 155.1 for urban areas. The variable H
b
represents the
height of the base station and H
m
the height of the UE. The
distance between the base station antenna and the receiver,
UE, is indicated by R. The function a(H
m
) is expressed as
follows:
a(H
m
) = 3.2(log(11.75H
m
))
2
4.97 (2)
According to [7], [6], an RF signal also undergoes shadowing
which can be modelled by a Gaussian distributed Random
variable with a zero mean described by the variable, . The
standard deviation for the Gaussian distribution has been found
to be in dB values for the following morphologies as:
Rural = 6dB
Suburban = 6dB
Urban = 8dB
Dense urban = 10dB
To obtain the RSCP at the UE antenna one uses, L
p
, a(H
m
)
and as in (3).
UE Received
R
SCP = P
r
= CPICH RSCP L
p

(3)
For purposes in this paper a CPICH RSCP = 30dB shall
be considered as it is the average value in the area of testing.
To obtain the quality, Ec/No, at the UE receiver antenna
[6] suggests that the following relationship is used as given in
(4).
E
c
N
o
=
Pilot Tx Power
Lp
(kTBNF) +
Total Cell Power
Lp
+

other cell power

Lp
(4)
B. Signal Path Model
According to [4] a UE sends measurement reports on a
intra-frequency via the physical layer towards the RNC. The
path for the measurement report will then also include Layer
2 and Layer 3. In [4] a model is prescribed indicating the path
a measurement report undergoes, the aforementioned model is
illustrated in gure 3. The measurement report includes the
CPICH RSCP, CPICH Ec/No and Pathloss as measured by
the UE. A decision on either adding or removing a cell as a
neighbour is based on these measurements.
Layer 1
Filtering
Layer 3
Filtering
Soft Handover
nequalities
A A
B
C
Fig. 3. Illustration of the layers a measurement report travels through [4].
1) Layer 1 Filter: To model the effect of layer 1 on the
measurement report [4] prescribes no specic model, but does
specify the output of layer 1, at point B in gure 3, to be
available at every measurement period. A measurement period
of 1 second was set on the network during this trial. Thus
a sampling period of 10 ms was used for the duration of
the measurement period in an attempt to average out the
measured signal strength. Mathematically the Layer 1 lter
can be expressed as in (5).
L
1
=

100
i=0
M
i
1000
(5)
In (5) L
1
is the output of the layer 1 lter and M
i
is the
sampled CPICH RSCP from the measurement report.
2) Layer 3 Filter: To accomplish the layer 3 ltering an
exponential averaging formula as described in [4]. Mathemat-
ically the layer 3 lter is expressed as in (6).
F
n
= (1 a)F
n1
+aM
n
(6)
The coefcient a in (6) is known as the layer 3 coefcient and
can also be adjusted/tuned, F
n
indicates the layer 3 ltered
measurement output for the current output and F
n1
the layer
3 lter output from the previous time step. M
n
is the layer 1
lter output L
1
.
3) Soft Handover Inequalities: The standards prescribed in
[3] describe the decision algorithm used to determine when
radio links should be added to the active set or removed from
it. To consider a radio link to be added to the active set the
following inequality is considered:
10Log(M
new
) W 10Log(
N
A

i=1
M
i
) + (1 W)
10Log(M
best
) (R
1a

H
1a
2
) (7)
For purposes of this paper W or the weight term shall be
considered as 0 for both event1a and event1b. Thus for event1a
the inequality in (7) becomes:
10Log(M
new
) W 10Log(M
best
) R
1a
+
H
1a
2
(8)
In (8), M
new
is the newly measured radio link and M
best
is
the best radio link currently in the active set. Also in (8) are
the terms R
1a
and H
1a
representing the reportingrange1a and
hysteresis1a parameters.
The inequality to determine if a radio link should be
removed from the active set according to event1b is described
as follows according to [3]:
10Log(M
old
) 10Log(M
best
) R
1b
+
H
1b
2
(9)
191
Where M
old
is a old radio link in the active set and R
1b
and
H
1b
are the reportingrange1b and hysteresis1b parameters.
IV. MONTE CARLO METHOD
To compute a problem subdued to a random input several
executions of the problem is required. Executing a problem for
every possible random input to the system is computationally
expensive. The Monte Carlo method assumes the output from a
problem is representative of the whole population or possible
outcomes. Accordingly only a certain amount of executions
are necessary for outputs within a certain level of condence.
V. MONTE CARLO SIMULATION
According to [8], [9], [10] and [11] the Monte Carlo method
can be viewed as a general method of numerical integration.
Function f(x) is to be evaluated by a denite integral to
determine the area otherwise stated as approximating the
function or integral.
=

1
0
f(x)dx (10)
The function f(x) in (10) might be multidimensional, which is
usually the case with functions being analysed with the Monte
Carlo simulations, and can be rewritten as:
=

1
0

1
0

1
0
f(x
1
, x
2
, , x
n
)dx
1
dx
2
dx
n
=

(0,1)
n
f(x)dx (11)
Equation (11) is a denite integral providing a deterministic
answer. If x contains random numbers
1
uniformly distributed
throughout the area of the integral, the function f(x) becomes
a random variable.
The random variable f(x) has an expected value:
2
E[f(x)] =

(0,1)
1
f(x)dx (12)
By comparing (11) with (12) a probalistic expression for the
integral is found to be:
= E[f(x)] (13)
A statistical estimator for the expression in (13) is given in
[10] to be:
H = f(x) (14)
The estimator in (14) is unbiased and indicates the random
variable f(x) has a mean ,

and standard deviation, . For

n samples where each sample has a mean, expected value and
standard deviation, (14) can be expressed as:
H =
1
n
n

k=1
f(x
k
) (15)
1
Numbers chosen randomly within a certain statistical distribution
2
The sum of the values of a random variable divided by the number of
values for discrete random variables
In [8], (15) is referred to as the crude Monte Carlo estimator
with a standard deviation

n
. In practise the variance is
obtained through:
s
2
=
1
n 1
n

k=1
(x
k
x)
2
(16)
Where x is the average of all values contained in vector x. The
standard deviation, , is then found to by taking the square
root of s in (16).
=

s
2
=

1
n 1
n

k=1
(x
k
x)
2
(17)
According to [11] the crude Monte Carlo estimator is similar
to the theory of large numbers. The theory of large numbers
implies that a quantity

Q can be approximated if N samples
of independent values Q
1
, Q
2
, , Q
N
are used to calculate
the mean.

Q =
Q
1
, Q
2
, , Q
N
N
(18)
For (18) to approximate Q to a satisfactory level of accuracy
N has to be very large, leading to computationally expensive
solution. For purposes in this project N was chosen to be 100
as Q lead to a converging solution with 100 iterations.
VI. RESULTS
Using the outputs of the models discussed in the previous
sections one obtains counts of the amount of events 1a and 1b
that has been reported by the UE. The result of the amount
of reported events due to the reporting range and hysteresis
parameters are also included. Another outcome is the insight
into the distance away from the serving and measured base
stations.
A. Using only reportingrange1a and reportingrange1b
The rst set of results looks at the amount of event1a and
event1b reported according to (8) and (9). In gure 4 the
amount of event1a and event1b is indicated also with a trend
line indicating that for reporting range between 2 and 4, the
least amount of event reports occur.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
500
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Reportingrange1a and Reportingrange1b
A
m
o
u
n
t

o
f

e
1
a

o
r

e
1
b

r
e
p
o
r
t
e
d


Event1A
cubic
Event1B
data 1
data 2
Fig. 4. The amount of events 1a and 1b reported with only reportingrange1a
and reportingrange1b set.
192
B. Taking into consideration the reportingrange and hysteresis
parameters
When considering (8) and (9) and values for hysteresis are
included. We now obtain results as given in gures 5 and 6. For
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Reportingrange1a + Hyst1a
A
m
o
u
n
t

o
f

r
e
p
o
r
t
e
d

e
v
e
n
t
s


data 2
cubic
Fig. 5. The amount of event1as reported with reportingrange1a + hyst1a.
the reportingrange1a and hyst1a parameters, the least amount
of reports occur when the sum of the two parameters are 4.
The least amount of event1bs are reported when the sum of
reportingrange1b and hyst1b are between 10 and 12 as shown
in gure 6.
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Reportingrange1b + Hyst1b
A
m
o
u
n
t

o
f

r
e
p
o
r
t
e
d

e
v
e
n
t
s


data 2
cubic
Fig. 6. The amount of event1b being reported when taking into consideration
reportingrange1b + hyst1b.
C. Distance away from the NodeB
The aim is to have the event1a and event1b reported from
the UE as close as possible to the middle of the distance
between the two base stations. Thus at a distance of 2.5 km
away from the transmitting base station, which is assumed
to be on the right hand side of the graph. In gure 7 the
distance from the base station is optimal for event1a when the
sum of the reportingrange and hyteresis values are between 2
and 4. At the aforementioned point in gure 7 the distance
from the serving base station is roughly 2.3 km. For event1b
the distance from the base station remained around 2.5 km
for various values of the reportingrange1b and hysteresis1b
parameters.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
Reportingrange1a+Hyst1a and Reportingrange1b+Hyst1b
D
i
s
t
a
n
c
e

f
r
o
m

B
S
1


Event1a
Event1b
Fig. 7. Distance from the transmitting Nodeb of the rst reported event1a and
event1b. Negative distance indicates the distance from the measured nodeB.
D. Effects of implementing simulated results in the network
Once the results from the simulation was processed a deci-
sion was made that the optimal setting would be as follows:
reportingrange1a = 2.5 dB
reportingrange1b = 3 dB
hyst1a = 5 dB
hyst1b = 5 dB
The aim was to have a small amount of events reported as
close as possible to the midpoint between the two NodeBs. It
should be however noted that this simulation does not include
event1a and event1b reports being acknowledged explaining
that more events appear to be reported with the simulation
than in the actual network condition. From the gure shown
below (gure 8), drops due to soft handover failure and loss
of synchronisation in the uplink has decreased over time.
The time that the parameter settings were implemented is
indicated in the area between the two vertical red lines. Figure
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1
0
/
2
2

1
6
:
0
0
1
0
/
2
3

1
1
:
0
0
1
0
/
2
4

0
6
:
0
0
1
0
/
2
5

0
1
:
0
0
1
0
/
2
5

2
0
:
0
0
1
0
/
2
6

1
5
:
0
0
1
0
/
2
7

1
0
:
0
0
1
0
/
2
8

0
5
:
0
0
1
0
/
2
9

0
0
:
0
0
1
0
/
2
9

2
0
:
0
0
1
0
/
3
0

1
5
:
0
0
1
0
/
3
1

1
0
:
0
0
1
1
/
0
4

0
1
:
0
0
1
1
/
0
4

2
0
:
0
0
1
1
/
0
5

1
5
:
0
0
1
1
/
0
6

1
0
:
0
0
1
1
/
0
7

0
5
:
0
0
1
1
/
0
8

0
0
:
0
0
1
1
/
0
8

1
9
:
0
0
1
1
/
0
9

1
5
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
0

1
0
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
1

0
5
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
2

0
5
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
3

0
0
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
3

1
9
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
4

1
4
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
5

0
9
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
6

0
4
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
6

2
3
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
7

1
8
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
8

1
3
:
0
0
1
1
/
1
9

0
8
:
0
0
1
1
/
2
0

0
3
:
0
0
1
1
/
2
0

2
2
:
0
0
1
1
/
2
1

1
7
:
0
0
1
1
/
2
2

1
2
:
0
0
Sumof PMNOSYSRELSPEECHULSYNCH
Sumof PMNOSYSRELSPEECHSOHO
Sumof PMNOSYSRELSPEECHNEIGHBR
Linear (Sum of PMNOSYSRELSPEECHULSYNCH)
Linear (Sum of PMNOSYSRELSPEECHSOHO)
Linear (Sum of PMNOSYSRELSPEECHNEIGHBR)
Fig. 8. A decrease is noticed since the implementation of the soft handover
parameters as indicated to be optimal by the simulation.
9 shows a signicant decrease in the dropped call rate on the
RNC which translates to improved subscriber experience. In
[1] it is mentioned that changing handover parameters can
affect resource utilisation of both the NodeB and RNC. It was
decided to obtain results in terms of NodeB resource utilisation
and RNC processor load during the trial period. The data was
193
Fig. 9. A denite decrease in the dropped call rate on the RNC after the
implementation of the soft handover parameters.
normalised and plotted as in gure 10. As shown in gure
Fig. 10. NodeB and RNC resource utilisation during the trial period.
10, no perceived increase in resource utilisation on either the
RNC or NodeB was observed indicating that with improved
retainability resource utilisation remained the same.
VII. CONCLUSION
The Monte Carlo simulation results provided an optimal
relation between hysteresis and reporting range parameters.
From the simulation results it is clear that small values are
required for reporting range parameters for both event1a and
event1b. Larger parameter values cause delayed soft handovers
with the possibility of dropped calls. A slightly larger value
for hysteresis parameters can be considered than for reporting
range parameters. Results from the simulation were used to
implement values with as few as possible reporting events
roughly halfway between the serving cell and measured cell.
Signalling load is impacted by unnecessary active set updates
caused by too many reporting events, however infrequent
reporting could delay the handover. Signalling load also in-
creases the amount of hardware and other resources being
utilised in the UTRAN. It was proved from results that with
the optimal settings no noticeable increase in resource usage
or signalling is observed.
Soft handover parameters also affect the distance from the
serving base station at which the measurement reports are sent
from the UE. Small values for event1a parameters indicated
measurement reports to be sent from the UE at just before the
half way point between two base stations and proved to be a
optimal position for the handover process to be reported and
timely to the point where chances of a dropped call is at a
minimum. Parameter values obtained from the simulation that
were implemented in a live network did show a signicant
improvement in handovers and a reduction in dropped calls.
Further work may include a propagation model which can
now be used to simulate different morphologies and to opti-
mise the soft handover parameters for various morphologies.
REFERENCES
[1] J. Kim, D. Kim, and P. Song, Design of optimum parameters for
handover initiation in wcdma, IEEE - ISBN 0-7803-7005-8/01, 2001.
[2] M. Schinnenburg, I. Forkel, and B. Haverkamp, Realization and opti-
misation of soft and softer handover in umts networks, IEEE, 2007.
[3] Radio resource control protocol for the ue-utran radio interface, 3GPP
TS 25.331 v8.1.0.
[4] Services provided by physical layer, 3GPP TS 25.302 Ver 6.2.0,
December 2004.
[5] P. Zanier, R.Guerzoni, and D. Soldani, Detection of interference, dom-
inance and coverage problems in wcdma networks, PIMRC Helsinki,
2006.
[6] J. Laiho, A. Wacker, and T. Novosad, Radio Network Planning and
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[10] Unknown, Monte carlo method, [Online] available at
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