Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

Product version
V100R001
Product name: WCDMA
RNP

Confidentiality level
For internal use only
Total pages: 27

WCDMA Paging Area Planning

Guidance
For internal use only

Prepared by:
Reviewed by:
Reviewed by:
Approved by:

URNP-SANA

Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

All rights reserved

2003-02-28

WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

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Revision Record
Date
2003-02-28

Revision
version
0.90

Initial transmittal

Miao Jiashu

2003-03-28

1.00

Revision based on the review comments

Miao Jiashu

06-6-7

Description

Confidential

Author

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WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

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Table of Contents
1 Introduction to Paging Area ................................................................................................... 6
2 WCDMA Paging Mechanism ................................................................................................. 6
2.1
Paging Cause .................................................................................................................. 7
2.1.1
Paging Type 1............................................................................................................ 8
2.1.2
Paging Type 2............................................................................................................ 8
2.2
Structure of Paging Channel............................................................................................ 8
3 WCDMA Paging Channel Capacity Calculation................................................................... 11
3.1
CN_ID IMSI Paging ....................................................................................................... 11
3.2
CN_ID TMSI Paging ...................................................................................................... 11
3.3
UTRAN_ID Paging......................................................................................................... 12
4 Analysis on Location Area Size for Mixture Service ............................................................ 12
4.1
Analysis on Calculation Method..................................................................................... 12
4.2
Key Value Recommendations ....................................................................................... 16
5 Instance of Paging Area Cell Size in Typical Environment .................................................. 16
6 Precautions in the Paging Area Planning ............................................................................ 22
6.1
Paging Area Size Restriction ......................................................................................... 22
6.2
Geographic Distribution of Paging Area......................................................................... 23
6.3
Paging Area Crossing MSCs and RNCs........................................................................ 24
7 Summary of Pending Problems ........................................................................................... 25

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List of Tables
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Table 4
Table 5

SRB parameters of PCCH channel............................................................................ 8

Corresponding relations between the bits and different IEs in PCCH ........................ 9
Values of the four assumption conditions for paging area dimensioning ................. 20
Location area dimemsion for paging based on CN ID of IMSI ................................. 21
Location area dimemsion for paging based on CN ID of TMSI ................................ 22

List of Figures
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7

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CS service reference model..................................................................................... 17

PS service reference model ..................................................................................... 17
Assumption conditions for the dimensioning of the dense urban area ..................... 20
Diagram of paging area dimensioning for paging based on CN ID of IMSI.............. 21
Diagram of paging area dimensioning for paging based on CN ID of TMSI............. 22
Schematic diagram of location area division............................................................ 24
Motorola test result .................................................................................................. 26

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WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

Key words: LA, RA, URA, Paging
Abstract: This article briefs some concepts related to paging area in WCDMA, and then depicts
how to plan the paging area in the WCDMA network with the equipment. It also
provides the analysis methods and calculation formulas, with instances. It finally lists
some pending problems occurred in the analysis.
List of abbreviations:
LA

Location Area

RA

Routing Area

URA UTRAN registration area

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1 Introduction to Paging Area

In the WCDMA system, there are many types of area concepts, such as BSC
area, RNC area, location area (LA), routing area (RA), MSC area, VLR area, SGSN
area, Zones for Regional Subscription (RSA), service area, group call area, UTRAN
registration area (URA), cell area and etc. Among which four area concepts are
mainly related to paging area: Location Area and Routing Area (corresponding to the
CN side), and Registration Area and Cell areas (corresponding to the UTRAN side),.
When the UE is in the RRC-IDLE state, for the CS domain service, the CN
identifies and pages the UE with the location area. In the protocol, location area
refers to an area that the mobile terminal can freely move without updating the VLR.
One location area can cover one or more cells. Therefore, when several MSCs
share one VLR, the location area can cross MSC areas. But in practice, one MSC is
bound with one VLR in most cases, so the LA can cross RNC areas instead of MSC
areas. That is, one LA can be controlled by one CN serving node (UMSC or
3G_MSC/VLR) only. Therefore one MSC area can contain one or more LAs.
When the UE is in the RRC-IDLE state, for the PS domain service, the CN
identifies and pages the UE with the routing area. RA refers to an area that the
mobile terminal can freely move without updating the SGSN under the specific
operation mode. One RA can contain one or more cells. The relation between the
routing area and the location area the same as the GSM, that is, a routine area can
equal to a location area in size, or can be a subset of a location area. Therefore, RA
is always contained in an LA. In addition, RA can cross RNC areas instead of SGSN
areas. That is, one RA can be controlled by one CN serving node (UMSC or
3G_SGSN) only.
When the UE is in the RRC-CONNECTED state, the UE is paged with the
internal area of the UTRAN, which have the UE state be transited to CELL_FACH. In
the RRC-CONNECTED mode, the location of the UE can be learnt at the cell level or
URA level. After the RRC connection mode is set up, the UTRAN will assign the UE
with a temporary ID RNTI used in the UTRAN. The internal area updating process is
a radio network process, whose structure is invisible outside the UTRAN.
URA is a set of a group of cells, and one cell can belong to multiple URAs, so
URAs and cells are in multiple-to-multiple relation. URA and LA do not have fixed
relation, nor do the URA and RA.

2 WCDMA Paging Mechanism

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2.1 Paging Cause

The 3GPP protocol specifies two paging types: PAGING TYPE 1 and PAGING
TYPE 2
Viewing from the paging cause, paging is to be initiated in the following cases:
z

Traffic modeling dependent paging, including the following cases:

1. The UE is called in the idle state (PS/CS) to set up communication
2. The UE is called in the connection state or it needs to receive downlink
data (caused by a PS service)

Traffic modeling independent paging, including the following cases:

1. System information updating when the UE is in the idle or connection
state, or URA and cell updating when the UE is in the connection state 1
2. Periodical paging initiated at the network side when the location service
is supported
3. Paging initiated when the CN side starts the security mode (including
encryption at the CN side or completeness protection parameters)
4.

As the analysis on the traffic modeling independent paging will be complicated

with many uncertain factors, this article only discusses the influences on the paging
capacity caused by the traffic modeling dependent paging.
To increase the UE paging success rate, the UTRAN sometimes transmits a
paging message for several times. It is realized at the equipment side as follows:
CN Side: Before receiving the paging response of the UE, the CN is allowed to
initiate 5 times of paging to each UE (it is fixed in the program, which cannot be
modified). If the UE is assigned with a TMSI, the paging of the former two times will
be transmitted in the TMSI format, and the latter three paging will be transmitted in
the IMSI format. For the paging interval, it is (t-1) s

for the former four times, and t s

for the last time. The upper limit of paging interval is 5s, and it is 3s by default.
UTRAN side The UTRAN supports paging message re-transmission at the air
interface. The re-transmission times is once by default, but can be modified to 0..k (k
is the upper limit 2, that is, the paging can be transmitted for three times at the
maximum) with the MML command. Please note that the re-transmission times is

Example: When the UE needs to transit the state of the UE from URA_PCH or CELL_PCH to CELL_FACH; or
the network side expects to release the RRC connection, it needs to initiate paging to transit the state of the UE
from URA_PCH or CELL_PCH to CELL_FACH, and then release the RRC connection.
2
This parameter should be set with care. It must be greater than the interval required for the paging response of
the UE in the normal case. Especially when NodeB is in the asynchronous work mode, the value of this
parameter should be greater.
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dependent of the value of parameter k instead of the response of the UE. It

means the potential paging volume at the air interface is k+1 times more.
Recommendation: As the CN re-transmits paging message, we can set the
paging re-transmission times at the CN side only but not at the UTRAN side for a
higher paging efficiency.

2.1.1

Paging Type 1
For the UEs in the idle, CELL_PCH or URA_PCH state, the UTRAN transmits
PAGING TYPE 1 message through the PCCH channel to start the paging process.
Then these UEs will monitor the corresponding paging channel according to the
instruction of the PICH and DRX requirement.
As the PAGING TYPE 1 message is sent through the PCCH channel, and it is
specified in the protocol that each SCCPCH can contain only one PCH channel,
which corresponds to one PICH channel (The UE selects the suitable PICH channel
according to the algorithm specified in the protocol 25.304). Therefore, the paging
capability of the network will be restricted by the paging area size. On the other hand,
the paging area planning is mainly for reasonable dimensioning of LA, RA and URA
for PAGING TYPE 1.

2.1.2

Paging Type 2
For the UEs in the CELL_DCH or CELL_FACH state, the UTRAN transmits the
PAGING TYPE 2 message through the DCCH channel to start the paging process.
In the CELL_DCH and CELL_FACH connection modes, as the paging is
transmitted through the DCCH channel, the paging capability of the air interface is
not affected. Therefore, in the paging area planning, it is mainly to analyze the
influence on the paging area planning caused by the paging capacity when the UE is
in the idle, CELL_PCH or URA_PCH state.

2.2 Structure of Paging Channel

The logical channel for paging is PCCH, whose parameters are as follows
(Refer to 34.108 V340):
Table 1
Higher layer
RLC

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SRB parameters of PCCH channel

RAB/signalling RB
User of Radio Bearer
Logical channel type
RLC mode
Payload sizes, bit
Max data rate, bps
TrD PDU header, bit

Confidential

SRB
RRC
PCCH
TM
240 (alt. 80)
24000 (alt. 8000)
0

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The above table shows that PCCH has two formats of 240bit/10ms TTI and
80bit/10ms TTI. Obviously, the paging capability of the former one is much greater
than the latter one. At present, Huawei can configure only one PCH paging channel
for each cell, and support the format of 240bit/10ms TTI only 3 .
According to the specification of the 25.331 protocol, the PCH paging channel
transfers three types of information only: paging list, BCCH modified information

and Extension mechanism for non-release99 information 5 . Where, only the paging
list is for storing universal paging message. After the above three types of
information are mapped to the 240bit of the PCCH, the sequence and the number of
occupied bits are specified definitely. The actual situation of the RNC is as follows:
Table 2

Corresponding relations between the bits and different IEs in PCCH

PCCH-MessageType

Number
of bits
1

Indicates paging type 1 is selected

OPTIONAL(PagingRecordList)

Optional ID

OPTIONAL(BCCH-ModificationInfo)

Optional ID

OPTIONAL(Extension mechanism for nonrelease99 information)

Optional ID

PagingRecordList Index

PagingRecordList ::=SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..MaxPage1))OF
PagingRecord, here, MaxPage1= 8

PagingRecord Choice

Chooses the bit between CN-Identity and

UTRAN-Identity 6

PagingCause

Enumerated(Terminating Conversational Call,Terminating

Streaming Call,Terminating Interactive Call,Terminating
Background Call, Terminating High Priority Signalling,
Terminating Low Priority Signalling, Terminating cause
unknown)

CN-DomainIdentity

CN-DomainIdentity::= ENUMERATED {
cs-domain, ps-domain }

Name

cn-Identity part
(used when
PagingRecord
Choice is
selected)

Description

It is known that NOKIA uses alt 80bit/10ms TTI in Hutchisons network in Hongkong.
BHCA-SIBchange. This is a paging request caused by system information update. For example, system
information block 7 has a parameter requiring fast update, that is, uplink interference. This parameter is used to
calculate the initial transmission power of the random access channel in the case of random access. The
requirement of this aspect depends on the update frequency of the uplink interference value.
The update requirement of other information block is less (including the dynamic parameter configuration at the
background and the dynamic parameter update by the RRM in the communication process).
The paging requirement caused by the system information update is defined to BHCA-SIBchange.
5
At present, this part is not processed in the practice, so the influence of this part is not necessary to be
considered.
6
CN ID is used when the CN initiates paging to the UE in the idle mode; UTRAN ID is used when the UTRAN
actively initiates paging or when the CN initiates paging to the UE in the connection (CELL_PCH or URA_PCH)
state.
4

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cn-pagedUE-Identity Choice

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IMSI-GSM-MAP,
TMSI-GSM-MAP,
P-TMSI-GSM-MAP,
IMSI-DS-41,
TMSI-DS-41

IMSI-GSM-MAP ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (6..15)) OF Digit.

Where, Digit ::= INTEGER (0..9). That is each Digit
460
occupies four bits. As the length of the IMSI is
64
changeable, when this item is selected, four bits (0000
1001) are to be added, indicating the length adopted.
cn-pagedUE-Identity

utran-Identity
part( used when
PagingRecord
Choice is
cn-Origina
selected)
tedPage-c
onnected
Mode-UE

32

P-TMSI-GSM-MAP ::= BIT STRING (SIZE (32))

57

IMSI-DS-41 ::= OCTET STRING (SIZE (5..7)). It is not

used at present.

212

TMSI-DS-41 ::= OCTET STRING (SIZE (2..12)). It is not

used at present.

SRNC-Identity

12

S-RNTI

20

S-RNTI ::=BIT STRING (SIZE (20))

PagingCause

CN-DomainIdentity

pagingRecordTypeID

MIB-ValueTag
BCCH-ModificationTime
nonCriticalExtensions

BCCH-Modificati
onInfo

TMSI-GSM-MAP ::= BIT STRING (SIZE (32))

Indicates
whether
the
information
of
cn-OriginatedPage-connectedMode-UE (used by the CN
to initiate paging in the connection state)
SRNC-Identity ::= BIT STRING (SIZE (12))

Optional
U-RNTI

32

3
9

Enumerated(Terminating Conversational Call,

Terminating Streaming Call,Terminating Interactive
Call,Terminating Background Call, Terminating High
Priority Signalling,Terminating Low Priority
Signalling,Terminating cause unknown)
CN-DomainIdentity ::= ENUMERATED {
cs-domain, ps-domain }
PagingRecordTypeID ::= ENUMERATED {
imsi-GSM-MAP, tmsi-GSM-MAP-P-TMSI,
imsi-DS-41, tmsi-DS-41 }
MIB-ValueTag ::= INTEGER (1..8)
BCCH-ModificationTime ::= INTEGER (0..511)

None

This item is not processed in practice.

The IEs appear in the sequence specified in the table above. Consulting to the
protocol, we can learn that all the IEs corresponding to the OP item or expansion
item in the protocol will reserve a bit for identification, indicating this item is selected

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or not. The details of this OP item or expansion item will be displayed only when this
item is selected.

3 WCDMA Paging Channel Capacity Calculation

Table 2 shows that the paging based on different ID items generate different
paging overheads. For example:
z

One case for paging based on CN_ID: The CN_ID is selected when the CN
initiates paging, and the paged UE is in the connectionless state.

Two cases for paging based on UTRAN_ID:

The cn-OriginatedPage-connectedMode-UE of the UTRAN_ID is not
selected when the UTRAN initiates paging.
The cn-OriginatedPage-connectedMode-UE is selected when the CN
initiates paging but the paged UE is in the connection state.
Based on the above analysis and Table 2, we can respectively calculate
the paging volume that can be supported by one PCCH channel when
CN_ID and UTRAN_ID are used.

3.1 CN_ID IMSI Paging

As specified in the 3GPP protocol, IMSI is divided into IMSI-GSM-MAP and
IMSI-DS-41. IMSI-DS-41 is an IS-95 concept, which is not described here. The
length of IMSI-GSM-MAP is variable in the decimal mode. At present, China adopts
the IMSI of 15 digits, while some counties adopt the IMSI less than 15 digits.
With the decimal IMSI-GSM-MAP of 15 digits, the calculation is as follows:
Suppose M1=1+3+1+3+(15*4+4)=72. When BCCH modified information 7 is not
considered, with the equation of 1+1+1+1+3+M1*X1=240, the maximum number of
IMSI paging X1 that can be supported will be 3.23. Therefore, in the case of paging
based on the decimal IMSI-GSM-MAP of 15 digits, a maximum of three
IMSI-GSM-MAP paging can be supported by each 10ms TTI.
When the IMSI-GSM-MAP varies, the paging capacity can be calculated in the
same method as above, with the numeral of 15 in the equation changed to the
corresponding length value. This is not detailed here.

3.2 CN_ID TMSI Paging

It is shown in table 2 that BCCH modified information has 12 bits only, occupying 5% information bits in the
whole 240-bit 10ms TTI.

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As specified in the 3GPP protocol, TMSI is divided into TMSI-GSM-MAP,

P-TMSI-GSM-MAP and TMSI-DS-41. TMSI-DS-41 is an IS-95 concept, which is not
described here.
With the 32-bit TMSI-GSM-MAP, the calculation is as follows:
Suppose M2=1+3+1+3+(32)=40. When BCCH modified information is not
considered, with the equation of 1+1+1+1+3+M2*X2=240, the maximum number of
TMSI-GSM-MAP paging X2 that can be supported will be 5.83. Therefore, in the
case of paging based on the 32-bit TMSI-GSM-MAP, a maximum of five
TMSI-GSM-MAP paging can be supported by each 10ms TTI.
The P-TMSI-GSM-MAP is the same as TMSI-GSM-MAP in length, so the
calculation result will be the same.

3.3 UTRAN_ID Paging

When the UE is in the connection state (CELL_PCH or URA_PCH), the
UTRAN_ID will be used for paging. The bit length of UTRAN ID is SRNC-Identity +
S-RNTI, that is 12+20=32.
When cn-OriginatedPage-connectedMode-UE is not selected: Suppose
M3=1+1+(32)=34. When BCCH modified information is not considered, with the
equation 1+1+1+1+3+ M3*X3=240, the maximum number of UTRAN ID paging X3
that can be supported will be 6.85. Therefore, in the case of paging with the 32-bit
UTRAN ID, a maximum of six UTRAN ID paging can be supported by each 10ms
TTI.
When

cn-OriginatedPage-connectedMode-UE

is

selected:

Suppose

M4=1+1+(32)+3+1+2=40. When BCCH modified information is not considered, with

the equation 1+1+1+1+3+ M4*X4=240, the maximum number of UTRAN ID paging
X4 that can be supported will be 5.82. Therefore, in this case, a maximum of five
UTRAN ID paging can be supported by each 10ms TTI.

4 Analysis on Location Area Size for Mixture Service

4.1 Analysis on Calculation Method
In Chapter 3, only the paging of single CN ID or single UTRAN ID is considered.
But in the actual network, the users are in different status. On the other hand, the
paging capacity will be mapped to the number of users supported or the
number of corresponding carriers, which can be the reference for the location
area planning. Therefore, the analysis on the influence of the traffic modeling on the
paging capacity is necessary.

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In the analysis, for the service that may occupy paging channel, we suppose as
follows:
1.

Suppose the ratio of service callers to callees is A:B (which may vary with
different services).

2.

Suppose (1-C) percent of the MSs give response at the first time of paging,
and C percent of the MSs give response at the second time of paging. The
MSs giving response at the third time of paging or later are ignored.

3.

Suppose the ratio of the paged UEs in the idle state in the PS to those in
the CELL_PCH &URA_PCH state is D:E. The UEs in the CELL_FACH and
CELL_DCH state of the CS and PS is ignored. 8 .

4.

Suppose the ratio of the paging initiated by the UTRAN actively to the
paging initiated by the CN to the UEs in the connection state is F:G.

We can work out the number of busy hour paging requests generated when the
UEs using a certain type of CS service: Equation Section 4

Paging_Num_CSj =(k+1)1+C%)

Bi
BHCAi Penetrationi %User _ Contributioni (4.1)
Ai+Bi

Where, Paging_Num_CSj refers to the paging requests generated by the UEs

using a certain type of CS service, Penetrationi% is the penetration rate of different
levels of UEs using this type of service. User_Contributioni refers to the distribution
ratio of different levels of UEs using this type of service.
With the same analysis method as the CS service, we can get the number of
busy hour paging requests generated when the UEs using a certain type of CS
service.

Paging_Num_PSj =(k+1)
1+C%)

Bi
BHPC _ Numi Penetrationi %User _Contributioni (4.2)
Ai+Bi

Where, Paging_Num_PSj refers to the paging requests generated by the UEs

using a certain type of PS service. BHPC_Numi is the Busy Hour Packet Call
Number in the traffic modeling parameter. User_Contributioni refers to the
distribution ratio of different levels of UEs using this type of service.
Suppose: a =

Paging _ Num _ CS

b = Paging _ Num _ PS j

(4.3)

Suppose the number of carrier waves/sectors supported by the RA is NRA, and

that supported by the LA is NLA. The equation will be:
8

This is the worst case, with the maximum occupation the paging channel.

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PCCH _ Paging _ Capacity = a N celluser N LA + b N celluser N RA

(4.4)

Where, Ncelluser is the number of cell users obtained by means of dimensioning

under a certain condition, and PCCH_Paging_Capacity is the maximum paging load
allowed in a single PCCH channel.
As specified in the protocol, RA is a subset of LA. In a certain typical
environment with even user distribution, the number of carrier waves/sectors
supported by LA is NLA=n*NRA (n is a positive integer).
In the case of paging based on the CN ID of IMSI:
Under the traffic model condition, Mmix is the number of users supported by the
paging channel within 10ms:

240 (1+1+1+1+ 3)
(4.5)
Mmix =
an
b
D
b
E
F
G
M1 (
)+
)
+

(M 3
+ M 4
b + an b + an D+ E b + an D+ E
F +G
F +G

The UE selects the proper terminating time (V350) according to the

discontinuous

reception

(DRX)

algorithm

specified

in

the

3GPP

25.304

specifications.
Paging Occasion={(IMSI div K) mod (DRX cycle length div PBP)} * PBP + n *
DRX cycle length + Frame Offset;
Where n = 0,1,2 as long as SFN is below its maximum value.
The DRX cycle length shall be MAX(2k, PBP) frames.
PBP: Paging Block Periodicity, it is 10ms TTI at present.
The RNC maps the paging message to different CFNs according to the same
algorithm. We can learn from the equation that the location of the paging message is
the corresponding paging block position that the IMSI of the UE modulo the DRX
cycle length. Therefore, a UE can occupy only one paging block within a DRX cycle.
On the other hand, the paging messages of different UEs will be arranged to the
same paging block as long as the IMSI modulo results are identical. In this case, for
a specific paging block, when the number of paging message exceeds Mmix, the
paging block will suffer from blocking. At present, the RNC discards the excessive
paging messages instead of buffering them, and then transmits the paging message
within the next DRX cycle or waits for the CN re-transmits it according to the
re-transmission parameters of the UTRAN.

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For the point of time of a certain CFN, the paging message termination rate is
distributed based on poission distribution. For a specific paging block, when the
number of messages N messageperTTI exceeds the value of Mmix, the excessive ones
will be discarded. The blocking formula is as follows:

Poutage = P( NmessageperTTI > Mmix )

(4.6)

eH ( H )k
< Poutage
k!
k =0

Mmix

then 1

(4.7)

With the formula above, we can work out the value of

H , which indicates

the traffic supported by a specific paging block within a DRX cycle.

Based on the traffic model, the traffic generated by the UE within a DRX cycle is
as follows:

ErlangPerDRXCycleLengthInNRA =

PerDRXCycleLengthInN
(a n + b) (2k 0.01)2
=
PerDRXCycleLengthInN
3600

(4.8)

RA

RA

Then, we can work out NRA as follows:

NRA =

H L%

(4.9)

N
ErlangPerDRXCycleLengthInNRA celluser
2k

Where, L% is the paging margin reserved for the future development of network.
For the definitions and values of M1, M2, M3 and M4, refer to Chapter 3.
In the case of paging based on the CN ID of TMSI:
With the same analysis method, we can work out Mmix, the number of users
supported by the paging channel within 10ms:

240 (1+1+1+1+ 3)
(4.10)
Mmix =
an
b
D
b
E
F
G
M 2 (
)+
)
+

(M 3
+ M 4
b + an b + an D+ E b + an D+ E
F +G
F +G

eH ( H )k
< Poutage
k!
k =0

Mmix

Then 1

(4.11)

Based on the traffic model, the traffic generated by the UE within a DRX cycle is
as follows:

ErlangPerDRXCycleLengthInNRA =

PerDRXCycleLengthInN
(a n + b) (2k 0.01)2
=
PerDRXCycleLengthInN
3600
RA

(4.12)

RA

Then, we can work out NRA as follows:

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WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

NRA =

For internal use only

H L%

(4.13)

N
ErlangPerDRXCycleLengthInNRA celluser
2k

4.2 Key Value Recommendations

K parameter: k+1 represents the number of paging re-transmission at the
UTRAN side. The air interface must transmits the paging for k+1 times no matter the
UE gives response to the paging or not. As the CN side re-transmits paging, the
recommended value of k is 1 for a higher paging efficiency.
L parameter: (1-L)% is the paging margin reserved for the future development
of the network. Since the RNC supports modifying the paging area of the existing
cells by means of dynamic data configuration, the value of L mainly depends on the
special network construction requirement of the carrier. Generally speaking, to avoid
the paging area IDs of other existing cells are to be modified caused by the capacity
expansion of partial areas or individual sites, so we recommend the value of L is 80,
corresponding 20% of the paging margin.
Poutage parameter: Poutage is the blocking rate of the paging block. If it is
supposed that 99 percent of UEs can be paged within two continuous DRX cycles,
the value of Portage will be 1%.
DRX parameter: It is the k parameter is The DRX cycle length shall be MAX(2k,
PBP) frames. Its value is 8 at present.
n parameter: It is the n in the NLA=n*NRA (where n is a positive integer). The
bigger the n, the less the paging cells that can be supported by RA, and the more
paging cells supported by LA when the capacity of the paging channel keeps
unchanged. Generally, the paging requests of PS services are more than those of
CS services. To prevent the PS from occupying too much paging channel resources,
n can be set to a value greater than 1, depending on the value of a (for CS services)

+ 0.5 . To avoid the location

a

or b (for PS services), for example, n = M mix =

update flow caused by a too-small NRA, it is recommended that when NRA is less
than 50, the value of n can be decreased properly to make its value greater than 50.
Other parameters: The values are set according to the actual network
construction objective and traffic model together with the opinions of the carrier.

5 Instance of Paging Area Cell Size in Typical Environment

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Here we take a typical traffic modeling of the dense urban area in the radio
network calculation tool as the example to dimension the paging area based on the
result in Chapter 4.
CS traffic modeling
Busy
hour
thruput
/ user
(kbit)

Busy
hour
thruput
rate /
user
(kbit)

Service type

Penetrance

BHCA

AHT (s)

Active
factor

Average
bitrate
kbit/s

Busy
hour
traffic /
user
(Erl)

AMR Voice

100 %

90

0.5

0.025

360

100

VideoPhone

100 %

0.1

54

64

0.0015

345.6

96

Figure 1

CS service reference model

PS traffic modeling
Economical users

Normal users

Penetrance

BHSA

Busy
hour
packet
call
Num

BHSA

Busy
hour
packet
call
Num

BHSA

Busy
hour
packet
call
Num

Email

10 %

0.10

0.20

24.576

20 %

0.20

0.40

49.152

30 %

0.30

0.60

73.728

WWW

30 %

0.18

0.90

86.4

30 %

0.24

1.20

115.2

20 %

0.30

1.50

144

25 %

0.10

0.20

2.304

15 %

0.20

0.40

4.608

5%

0.30

0.60

6.912

25 %

0.10

0.20

47.616

15 %

0.20

0.40

95.232

10 %

0.30

0.60

142.848

0%

0.00

0.00

10 %

0.10

0.10

320.4

20 %

0.20

0.20

640.8

SMS

50 %

0.50

0.50

0.64

100 %

0.80

0.80

1.024

100 %

0.60

0.60

0.768

EMS /
MMS

50 %

0.50

1.00

122.88

100 %

0.80

1.60

196.608

100 %

0.60

1.20

147.456

Service
type

Game,
ICQ
Content
DL, FTP
Video
Stream

Busy
hour
thruput
/ user
(kbit)

Penetrance

VIP users
Busy
hour
thruput
/ user
(kbit)

Penetrance

User contribution
Mophology
Dense
Urban

Economical

Normal

VIP

Total

60 %

25 %

15 %

100 %

Figure 2

PS service reference model

In the above data service reference model, only the three services of Email 9 ,
SMS and MMS will occupy the paging channel, other data services do not involve
paging process, as the user initiates and terminates service actively.

At present, the realization mode is to notify the users with SM every time the network receives an email.

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Busy
hour
thruput
/ user
(kbit)

WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

For internal use only

Based on this traffic modeling, we suppose other conditions for the

dimensioning:
Tx power config
Max power of Tx
Tx power usage
threshold
Common channel
power allocation
Noise parameter
UE noise figure
Margin for background
noise
Coverage Info.
Mophology
Channel type
Site type
Antenna height of UE
Antenna height of BS
Uplink Frequency
Downlink Frequency
Max path loss of Uplink
Misc
Neighbour cell
interference
SHO overhead
DL orthogonality factor
Cell load upper limit
Cell load target
Dimensioning method

06-6-7

20 W
80 %
26.78 %

7.0 dB
4.0 dB

Dense Urban
1
TU3(3km/h)
2
3 Sectors2

1.5 m
30 m
1950 MHz
2140 MHz
137.00 dB

0.65
27 %
0.40
75 %
72 %
FALSE
By
Manual

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WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

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UL service info.
Service type
Voice
VideoPhone
Email
Email
WWW
WWW
WWW
Video Stream
Video Stream
Content DL, FTP
Content DL, FTP
Location

06-6-7

Bear type
AMR12.21
LCD64 3
LCD64 3
UDD64 7
UDD64 7
UDD1448
UDD3849
LCD64 3
LCD1444
UDD64 7
UDD1448
LCD64 3

Bear
proportion
%
100.0 %
100.0 %
50.0 %
50.0 %
70.0 %
28.0 %
2.0 %
75.0 %
25.0 %
75.0 %
25.0 %
100.0 %

BH thruput /
user (kbit)
360.00
345.60
7.25
7.25
28.51
28.51
28.51
8.71
8.71
12.86
12.86
0.57

Eb/N0 (dB)

BLER

5.4
2.7
2.7
2.4
2.4
1.9
1.6
2.7
2.3
2.4
1.9
2.7
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.3

0.01
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10

Confidential

Length of
session
(byte)
30,720
30,720
60,000
60,000
60,000
128,160
128,160
59,520
59,520
2,880

Reading
time in
session (s)
320
320
1648
1648
1648
0
0
5
5
8

Page 19 , Total 25

WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

For internal use only

DL service info.
Service type
Voice
VideoPhone
Email
Email
WWW
WWW
WWW
Video Stream
Video Stream
Content DL, FTP
Content DL, FTP
Location

Bear type
AMR12.2
1
LCD64 3
LCD64 3
UDD64 7
UDD64 7
UDD1448
UDD3849
LCD64 3
LCD1444
UDD64 7
UDD1448
LCD64 3

Bear
proportion
%
100.0 %
100.0 %
50.0 %
50.0 %
70.0 %
28.0 %
2.0 %
75.0 %
25.0 %
75.0 %
25.0 %
100.0 %

BH thruput /
user (kbit)

Eb/N0 (dB)

BLER

7.79
5.90
5.90
4.60
4.60
3.80
4.40
5.90
5.00
4.60
3.80
5.90
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00

0.01
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10

360.00
345.60
7.25
7.25
28.51
28.51
28.51
8.71
8.71
12.86
12.86
0.57

Length of
session
(byte)
30,720
30,720
60,000
60,000
60,000
128,160
128,160
59,520
59,520
2,880

Reading
time in
session (s)
320
320
1648
1648
1648
0
0
5
5
8

Common channel power allocation

Power relative to MAX BS Tx
Duty cycle
power [dB]
-10
0.10
SCH
-15
0.90
Primary CCPCH
-15
0.25
SCCPCH (PCH)
-11
0.25
SCCPCH (FACH)
-10
1.00
CPICH
-15
1.00
AICH
-13
1.00
PICH
Common channel power allocation ( with one SCCPCH )
Common channel power allocation ( with two SCCPCH )
Channel

Figure 3

Power allocation
1.00 %
2.85 %
0.79 %
1.99 %
10.00 %
3.16 %
5.01 %
24.80 %
26.78 %

Assumption conditions for the dimensioning of the dense urban area

In the conditions mentioned above, the configurations of sector 3 can be

obtained with the dimensioning tool 10 . The number of all kinds of users supported by
each carrier/sector is 1030.
Here are the values of the four assumption conditions required for paging area
dimensioning:
Table 3

AMR Voice
10

Values of the four assumption conditions for paging area dimensioning

A

60%

40%

25

M1(bit)
M2(bit)

72
40

The version of the dimensioning tool is V1.2.

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WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

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M3(bit)

VideoPhone

50%

50%

25

Email

50%

50%

25

50%

50%

50%

50%

M4(bit)

SMS

50%

50%

25

50%

50%

50%

50%

Ncelluser

1030

EMS/MMS

50%

50%

25

50%

50%

50%

50%

80

Poutage

0.1

DRX parameter

34
40

Based on the assumption condition above and the formula deducted in Chapter
4, the calculation result is as follows:
Table 4

Location area dimemsion for paging based on CN ID of IMSI

Erlang
PerDR
H XCycleLengthInN RA
n

RA

LA

0.002592996

133

133

1.741614489

0.003616996

95

190

1.74665366

0.004640996

74

222

1.744911078

0.005664996

61

244

1.745096566

0.006688996

51

255

1.745372494

0.007712996

44

264

1.745680526

0.008736996

39

273

1.745680526

0.009760996

35

280

1.746014764

0.010784996

32

288

10

1.746024614

0.011808996

29

290

Mmix
3

1.738624042

350
300
250
200

RA
LA

150
100
50
0
1

Figure 4

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10

Diagram of paging area dimensioning for paging based on CN ID of IMSI

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WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

Table 5

For internal use only

Location area dimemsion for paging based on CN ID of TMSI

Erlang
PerDR
H XCycleLengthInN RA
n

RA

LA

0.002592996

242

242

3.156601287

0.003616996

173

346

3.156601287

0.004640996

135

405

3.156601287

0.005664996

110

440

3.156601287

0.006688996

93

465

3.156601287

0.007712996

81

486

3.156601287

0.008736996

71

497

3.156601287

0.009760996

64

512

3.156601287

0.010784996

58

522

10

3.156601287

0.011808996

53

530

Mmix
5

3.156601287

600
500
400
RA
LA

300
200
100
0
1

Figure 5

10

Diagram of paging area dimensioning for paging based on CN ID of TMSI

According to the value formula for the n value in Chapter 4, we can work out

that n=1, that is, NRANLA.

Note: For the tools used, refer to WCDMA RNP Paging Area Planning Tool.

6 Precautions in the Paging Area Planning

6.1 Paging Area Size Restriction
As a paging message of the network paging mobile station will be sent in many
cells, the coverage of the paging area will be too large, which will lead to overload of
the paging channel, and increase the signaling flow at the Iub interface. In addition,
the excessive paging messages will be discarded in the case of re-transmission
failure within the specified re-transmission times. This will result in paging failure to
the active UEs within the service area (that is the UE is out of service). The upper
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WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

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limit of the paging area (the number of cells that can be supported by the area) is
limited by the bandwidth of the paging channel. The analysis in the above chapters
is mainly to determine the upper limit of the paging area.
On the contrary, if the paging area is too small, the UE will encounter frequent
location update in the traveling process, which increases the signaling flow of the
system. In the initial stage of network construction, the number of paging requests
are small, it is not necessary to plan the RA in a small size, but with the n being 1
instead. With the ever evolution of the network, the demands for PS serviced
increases. In this case, the size of the RA can be cut down. Of course, if the RA is
too small, the paging area update in the traveling process will be frequent, which will
enlarge the signaling overhead of the network side, and will shorten the standby time
of the mobile phone.
The lower limit of the RA cannot be determined by means of quantitative
analysis, which is a pending problem.
In addition, the equipment of higher version may support one cell being
configured with multiple PCCH paging channels. To ensure the balance of paging
load, the cells with the same paging channel numbers should be divided into the
same paging area (with the precondition that the cells with the same paging channel
numbers are in the same geographical area).

6.2 Geographic Distribution of Paging Area

The geographic distribution for the paging area is very important. Making the
best of the geographic distribution and behaviors of the mobile subscribers can lower
the location update frequency at the border of the paging area.
When the suburb is not covered within a continuous area with the urban area,
the location of the mobile phone cannot be updated when the periodical location
update time comes. After the protection time is time-out (set in the MSC), the system
will take that the IMSI is separated from the mobile phone. Suppose the mobile
phone travels the urban area, whose LAC is consistent with that of the suburb area,
some mobile phones will not perform normal location update immediately. In this
case, the mobile phone can receive signal but out of service. Therefore, for the
division of location area, the suburb area (county area) will be put into a location
area separate from the urban area. The location area distribution is similar to
concentric circles (the inner urban area may be set with several location areas due
to the capacity factors. The inner circle can adopt the fragmentation mode, or
inner-outer ring mode, or mixed mode), which can avoid the above problem
effectively. It is proved by practice that such a division can not only reduce the

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out-of-service problem, but also greatly improve the connection completion rate and
the call completion rate.

Figure 6

Schematic diagram of location area division

On the other hand, if more than two location areas exist in a city with
high-volume traffic, they can be divided by the geographic factors such as mountain
and river, for minimizing the overlap between different cells in the two location area.
If such a geographic factor is not available, the border between two areas should be
oblique crossing with a street instead of parallel or vertical with the street. Moreover,
the border should not be a street or the place with high-volume traffic (like
department store). In the intersection of the urban area and suburb, the border
between urban area and suburb area should be put at the base station of the
periphery instead of the intersection with high-volume traffic, so as to avoid frequent
location update in the intersection.

6.3 Paging Area Crossing MSCs and RNCs

It is described in the first chapter that when several MSC shares one VLR, and
the location area/routing area can cross MSC/SGSN areas. But in practice, one
MSC is bound with one VLR in most cases, so the LA/RA can cross RNC areas
instead of MSC/SGSN areas.
However, in the actual network application, if the location area/routing area
cross multiple RNCs, the paging will be delivered to multiple RNCs, and this
increases the signaling flow and the processing difficulty. The same as the lower
limit of paging area, quantitative analysis cannot be made for the impact on the
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system. The primary conclusion is: the location area/routing area should be set
within the RNC without crossing RNCs.
The multi-module RNC has the same problem. If an LA/RA corresponds to
multiple RNC modules, the paging signaling initiated by the CN will be forwarded
from module to module, till to the module corresponding to this TRX. The more
modules the LA/RA corresponds to, the much signaling flow the forwarding brings.
The same as the lower limit of paging area, quantitative analysis cannot be made for
the impact on the system. The primary conclusion is: The impact on the SPU is not
serious, and can be ignored.

7 Summary of Pending Problems

The pending problems are as follows:
z

For the traffic modeling independent paging, the load analysis is quite
complicated with many uncertain factors, requiring further analysis on the
influence on the paging. The primary analysis result is:
1. For location service: As the usage frequency of location service is not
high, the impact on the paging capacity will be small. At present, the
scheme is one RNC supports a maximum of 400 users at the same time
(queuing supported, with the maximum queuing time of 5s).
2. For the paging caused by the security mode command, as the CN will
not frequently update the encryption or the completeness protection
parameters, the impact on the paging capacity is small.
3. The system message update occupies a small signaling load, so the
impact can be ignored.
4. Cell update will be caused by downlink data transmission or release of
RRC connection by the CN side. The former cause is considered in the
traffic modeling, and the latter one seldom occurs, so the impact can be
ignored.
5.

The lower limit of the paging area cannot be defined by means of

quantitative analysis. It is affected by two factors:
1. Frequent location update increases the system signaling load.
2. Fast mobile phone power consumption
For the first factor, the upper limit of the SPU processing capability of the
RNC is restricted by the occupation rate of the CPU, while the CPU
occupation is not only related to the signaling flow for location update. So
quantitative analysis must be performed by means of test in the lab

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environment based on some assumption conditions. Figure 7 shows the

test result of Huaweis RNC performed by Motorola with the typical
parameter setting. We can learn that the contribution of the location update
signaling load is big. As to the second factor, research can not be
performed yet.
z

There is no reasonable specification for the average value of cell paging

load L% yet. It is 30% in Ericsons documentation and 90% in the relevant
documents of CDMA2000 (CDMA System Design Optimization).

The re-transmission interval of CN is also restricted by the paging area size

and minimum time of response to paging. Especially every NodeB works
asynchronously without GPS, the paging efficiency and paging success
rate will be affected in a large degree.

The PCCH has two formats: 240bit/10ms TTI and 80bit/10ms. Obviously,
the paging capability of the former one is greater than the latter one. But, it
is necessary to analyze the advantage of the latter one (for example,
whether the demodulation success rate is higher than the former one). This
is responsible by the link emulation working team.

Figure 7

06-6-7

Motorola test result

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WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance

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List of reference:
[1] Location Area Capacity Planning Guideline, GSM Network Planning Department 2002/04,
internal document
[2] CDMA1X Location Area Planning Guideline

Shenzhen Subdivision of Radio Network

System Department, 2003/01, Internal document

[3] Concepts about Area in the PLMN Architecture Tai Xiaomei
[4] 23.121,23.002,23.003,25.331,25.413

3GPP

[5] WCDMA Paging Area Analysis Report

Zhang Jingrong

2001/12

2002/06

Internal document
Internet

2001/05 Internal document

[6] LOCATION AREA DIMENSIONING GUIDELINE CME 20 R6 Ericsson

1996/12

Unknown
[7] WCDMA-Dimensioning-tool

06-6-7

Gu Jufeng

Confidential

2003/01

Internal document

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