Session 9

LTE Advanced and Self

Organizing Networks
(SONs)
ITU ASP COE Training on Technology,
Standardization and Deployment of Long
Term Evolution (IMT)
Sami TABBANE

9-11 December 2013 Islamic Republic of Iran

1

Agenda

1.

SON Definition

2.

Quality of Service (QoS) and Policy Management

3.

EPS Bearer

4.

QoS parameters per EPSbearer

5.

Scheduling

1. SON Definition

INTRODUCTION
Many network elements and associated parameters are
manually configured
Planning, commissioning, configuration, integration and
management of these parameters are essential
The associated operations costs are significant: human
resources (experts) + time consuming
Recent deployment of LTE has highlighted the need and
value of self-organizing capabilities
Reductions in operational expenses (OPEX)
Higher end user Quality of Experience (QoE)
Reduced churn
4
Allowing for overall improved network performance

The Self Organizing Networks (SON)

SON is defined as: A set of use cases that cover the

entire

network

lifecycle

including

planning,

deployment, operations, and optimization.

SON is designed to be a multi-vendor solution, with
standard interfaces utilized at key points to allow
inter-operability

between

vendors.

Some

SON

algorithms are not standardized in order to allow for

differentiation

and

infrastructure vendors.

competition

between

the

SON framework

Self Organizing Networks (SON)

Telecom service providers have long desired infrastructure that is:
Self-configuring,
Self-operating,
Self-optimizing.
Wireless telecom providers want:
BTS infrastructure that deploys quickly with:
No specialized technician expertise,
Automatically discovers its neighbors,
Automatically reconfigures around network failures,
Automatically optimizes its radio parameters,
Backhaul and interconnect should be automatically configured,
QoS should be self-established and autonomously optimized.

Self-Organizing Network (SON).

Self Organizing Networks (SON)

SON can improve both the efficiency of network

deployment and operation and user experience:
Self-configuration,
Self-optimization,
Self-healing.
Important SON features include:
Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR),
Coverage and Capacity Optimization (CCO),
Mobility Load Balancing (MLB),
Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO).
Interference management: eICIC + CCO.
Mobility Management: MRO.
Traffic Management: MLB.

Self Organizing Networks (SON)

Self Configuring

Plug-n-play
hardware

Automatic
neighbor lists

Self configuring RF
and Transport

Auto binding to
EMS

Network
Deployment

Network
Planning

Self Operating

Self-healing

Auto-inventory

Automated upgrade

Multivendor trade

Network
Operations

Network
Optimization
Self Optimizing

QoS optimization

RF Plan optimization

Interference control

Energy saving

SON PRINCIPAL ASPECTS

The process of
recovering from un
exceptionnal event, such
as the dramatic change
of interference
conditions or the
detection of a ping-pong
situation between
Femto cell and Macro
Cell

Continuous process of
environment data using
such as UE and
stations measurements
to optimize the current
network parameters
based on configuration
process constraints

The process of automating a

specific event such as the
introduction of a new Femto
Cell using O&M interface
and network management
module

10

LTE SON HIGHHIGH-LEVEL SCOPE AND TIMELINE

R8
Automatic Inventory
Automatic SW
Download
Automatic Neighbor
Relation
Automatic Physical
Cell ID assignment

R9
Mobility Robustness/
Handover
optimization
Random Access
Channel Optimization
Load Balancing
Optimization
Inter-Cell Interference
Coordination

R10
Coverage & Capacity
Optimization
Enhanced Inter-Cell
Interference
Coordination
Cell Outage detection
and Compensation
Self-healing functions
Minimization of
Drive Testing
Energy Savings

R11
Automatic Neighbor
Relations
Load Balancing
Optimization
HO Optimization
coverage and capacity
Optimization
Coordination between
various SON
functions
Minimization of
Drive Tests

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SON DEVELOPMENTS IN NGMN

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2. Self Configuration

SON: Self-configuration

(1/2)

Self-configuration process is defined as the process

where newly deployed nodes (eNBs) are configured by
automatic installation procedures to get the necessary
basic configuration for system operation.
Self-configuration process works in preoperational
state, which starts from when the eNB is powered up
and

has

backbone

connectivity

transmitter is switched on.

until

the

RF

SON: Self-configuration

(2/2)

Self-configuration includes two stages: basic setup and initial radio

configuration:
1. An IP address is allocated to the new eNB and the information of the
Self configuration Subsystem of OAM (Operation and Management)
is given to the eNB.
2. A GW is configured for the new eNB so that the eNB can exchange IP
packets with other internet nodes.
3. The new eNB provides its information, including type, hardware and
etc., to the Self-configuration Subsystem for authentication.
Necessary software and configuration data are downloaded from the
Self-configuration Subsystem.
4. The new eNB is configured based on the transport and radio
configuration data.
5. The new eNB connects to the normal OAM subsystems for other
management functions.
6. S1 and necessary X2 interfaces are established

Self-configuration procedure

3. Mobility Management Parameters Optimization

Mobility parameters optimization

The following mobility parameters

may be optimized:
Hysteresis,
Time to Trigger,
Cell Individual Offset
Cell reselection parameters

SON: Self-optimization

Self-optimization process is defined as the process where

UE & eNB measurements and performance
measurements are used to auto tune the network.
This process works in operational state, which starts
when the RF interface is switched on.
The self-optimization process:
1. Collects measurement information from UE and eNB
2. With the help of external optimization tool, it autotune the configuration data to optimize the network.
3. A typical example is neighbor list optimization.

Self-optimization: Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR)

ANR function aims at automatic setting of neighbor relation.
ANR function relies on UE to report the cells that it has detected but not in
the neighbor list.
According to the standards, the UE measures and reports the following
types of cells:
The serving cell.
Listed cells, i.e. cells that are indicated by the E-UTRAN as part of the
list of neighboring cells (i.e. as measurement object).
Detected cells, i.e. cells that are not indicated by the E-UTRAN but
detected by the UE. However, E-UTRAN does indicate the carrier
frequency.
The detected cell can be a LTE cell within the same frequency or a LTE cell
with a different frequency or even a cell belonging to another RAT.
To detect inter-frequency cells or inter-RAT cells, eNB needs to instruct UE
to do the measurement on that frequency.

Self-optimization: ANR Procedure (1/2)

Example of intra-RAT ANR procedure:
1. UE does the measurement according to the measurement configuration
set by EUTRAN. In this example, UE detects an EUTRAN cell with
Physical ID 3.
2. UE sends the measurement report to the serving cell, using Physical ID
to identify different E-UTRAN cells. Here, UE includes the
measurements of the cell with Physical ID 3.
3. eNB receives the report and instructs the UE to report Global Cell ID
for the cell with Physical ID 3.
4. UE gets the Global Cell ID by reading the BCCH (Broadcast Control
Channel) of the detected cell.
5. UE reports the Global Cell ID to the serving cell.
6. The serving eNB updates the neighbor cell list.
7. The serving eNB sends the updated neighbor list to OAM and gets the
IP address of the new detected cell from OAM.
8. If required, the serving eNB will establish a new X2 interface with the
target eNB.

Self-optimization: ANR Procedure (2/2)

AUTOMATIC NEIGHBOR RELATIONS

UE moving towards a new

cell and identifies the
Physical Cell Identity (PCI)
based
on
the
synchronization
signals.
UE sends measurement
report to eNodeB when
handover
reporting
threshold fulfilled.
If the eNodeB does not
have X2 connection to that
cell, the serving eNodeB
requests the UE to decode
the global cell ID from the
broadcast channel of the
target cell.
Based on the global cell ID
the serving eNodeB can
find the transport layer
address of the target cell
using the information from
the MME and set up a new
X2 connection.

4. Self Operation

SON: Self-Operating
To maximize network performance, we can optimize the configuration while
taking into account:
Regional characteristics of radio propagation,
Traffic and UE mobility in the service area.
It typically entails a heavy workload for site surveys, analysis of the
performance statistics and decision of the optimal parameters.
Optimization has not been frequently applied
SON automates these tasks by using measurements from network equipments:
It substitutes measurements from eNodeB and UE for the site
survey data.
It detects problems with quality, identifies the root cause, and
automatically takes remedial actions on the basis of the
measurement and performance statistics from the OMC.
This autonomous optimization allows problems to be handled faster
and network performance to be improved.

SON: Self-Operating
Coverage and capacity optimization
This optimization aims at maximizing the system capacity and ensuring there
is an appropriate overlapping area between adjacent cells. The optimal
parameter setting is acquired by cooperatively adjusting antenna tilt and
pilot power among the related cells. This optimization should operate with
some effect even if the measurement reports from UE do not include their
data on their own location.
Mobility robustness optimization
To eliminate unnecessary handover and to provide appropriate handover
timing, this optimization automatically adjusts the thresholds related to cell
reselection and handover. The adjustment is triggered by the related KPI
degradations and is processed while identifying the root causes of the
degradations such as a handover that is too early or too late or the ping-pong
effect.
Mobility load balancing optimization
This optimization automatically gets some UEs in the edge of a congested
cell reselect or hand over to the less congested adjacent cells by adjusting
the thresholds related to cell reselection and handover.

EXAMPLE OF EXPECTED GAINS

Real time coordination, interference

management and load balancing
algorithms to monitor and adjust
small cell performance:
10-45 % gain in average cell data
throughput,
10-30 % improvement in cell edge
user data throughput.

5. Release 11 SON features

KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON

UPDATES
PCI Planning
Each eNB is given a signature sequence referred to as Physical Cell ID
(PCI)
This allows UEs to uniquely identify the source of a receiving signal
There are a total of 504 unique physical layer cell identities (3GPP TS
36.211-840 ):

Where,

is in the range of 0~167, representing the physical layer cell

identity group, and

is in the range of 0~2, representing the physical layer

identity within the physical layer cell identity group

29

KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON

UPDATES
Load Balancing
Similar network elements that are intended to share traffic, share the load
The similar network elements can be anything from packet gateways to MMEs to
base stations and sectors
In LTE, MME pools are expected to share user traffic load across different MMEs
as load increases
eNBs may have RRM functions that share/offload traffic to neighboring cells in
order to increase system capacity
Release 11 Updates
Radio Resource Connection (RRC)
establishment failure rate related to load
E-RAB setup failure rate related to load
RRC Connection Abnormal Release Rate
Related to Load
E-RAB Abnormal Release Rate Related to
Load
Rate of failures related to handover.

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KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON UPDATES

Mobility Robustness / Handover Optimization (MRO)
Automated optimization of parameters affecting active mode and idle mode
handovers to ensure good end-user quality and performance
Incorrect handoff parameter settings can negatively affect user experience and
waste network resources due to handoff and radio link failures (RLF)
Release 11 Updates

HO/RLF-related performance measurements:

the number of RLF events within an interval after handover
success
the number of unnecessary handovers to another RAT without RLF
number of handover events
number of HO failures
number of too early HO failures
number of too late HO failures
number of HO failures to wrong cell
number of unnecessary HOs to another RAT

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KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON UPDATES

Mobility Robustness / Handover Optimization (MRO)

Poor Intra-RAT HO-related performance

can be categorized by the following events:
Late HO triggering
Early HO triggering
HO to an incorrect cell

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KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON

UPDATES
RANDOM ACCESS CHANNEL (RACH) OPTIMIZATION
The configuration of the random access procedure has a critical impact on end-user
experience and overall network performance.
The RACH optimization entity is specified to reside in the eNB
Performance measurements related with RACH optimization include: distribution of
RACH preambles sent and distribution of RACH access delay.
A poorly configured RACH may increase access setup time and access failures,
impacting call setup delays.
With optimal random access parameter setting, maximum end-user experience can
be obtained
This is achieved by reaching the desired balance in the radio resource allocation
between random accesses and services while avoiding the creation of excessive
interference
An optimized RACH configuration enables end-user benefits and network
performance gains through:
Reduced connection time
Higher throughput
Better cell coverage.

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KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON

UPDATES
INTER-CELL INTERFERENCE COORDINATION (ICIC)
The reuse of one cellular network frequency (reuse-1) is characterized by
mutual interference between cells.
Given the orthogonal nature of intra-cell transmissions, the source of
interference in LTE is inter-cell interference.
Within the OFDM and SC-FDMA based LTE system interference has to
be coordinated on the basis of the physical resource blocks (PRBs).
The ability to schedule users over variable portions of the carrier
bandwidth allows for inter-cell interference coordination techniques to be
utilized which can shape the interference in frequency
Each cell gives up use of some resource in a coordinated fashion to
improve performance especially for cell edge users which are impacted34
the most by inter-cell interference.

KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON UPDATES

INTER-CELL INTERFERENCE COORDINATION (ICIC)
Release 10 ICIC enhancements
Introduction of Enhanced ICIC (eICIC) as an interference mitigation technique to
enhance the operation of heterogeneous networks
Overlaying small cells within the coverage area of the macro cell
co-channel deployment of heterogeneous networks presents interference issues
Usage of Cell Range Expansion (CRE) to offload Traffic from macro cell to small
cells

35

KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON UPDATES

INTER-CELL INTERFERENCE COORDINATION (ICIC)
Release 10 ICIC enhancements
The key concept behind eICIC is the idea of an Almost Blank Sub-Frame (ABS)
wherein a cell is not allowed to schedule any transmission on the PDSCH (physical
downlink shared channel) or the PDCCH (physical downlink common channel).
In the context of heterogeneous networks the ABS is a tool that can be used to
mitigate the effect of the interference from the macro cell to the small cell UEs that
happen to be in the CRE region

36

KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON

UPDATES
Energy Savings
Energy consumption is a significant part of an operators OPEX.
OPEX reduction can be accomplished by designing network elements with lower
power consumption and temporarily shutting down unused capacity when not
needed

Release 11 Updates
3GPP Rel-11 has defined two energy saving states for a cell with respect to energy
saving namely: notEnergySaving state and energySaving state.
Based on the above energy saving states, a full energy saving solution includes two
elementary procedures: energy saving activation (change from notEnergySaving to
energySaving state) and energy saving deactivation (change from energySaving to
notEnergySaving state)
A cell in energySaving state is not considered a cell outage or a fault condition
In Rel-11, three general architectures that are candidates to offer energy savings
functionalities are described, namely: distributed, network management
centralized, and element management centralized
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KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON

UPDATES
Cell Outage Detection And Compensation
eNB equipment is unable to recognize being out of service
eNB failed to notify OAM of the outage
Cell Outage Detection and Compensation provides automatic mitigation of eNB failures
Detection and Compensation are two distinct cases that cooperate to provide a complete
solution:
Cell Outage Detection typically combines multiple separate mechanisms to determine
whether an outage has occurred
This is needed to detect the latent fault case, often described as Sleeping Cell, where
OAM is unaware of the issue
If a cell continues transmitting but does not accept RACH access or hand-ins, it will
simply generate interference
The most immediate mitigation available is to stop that cell from transmitting
Cell Outage Detection uses a collection of evidence and information to determine that a
cell is no longer working correctly
Cell Outage Compensation techniques are
generally only applied after standard soft
recovery techniques have failed to restore
normal service
Cell Outage Compensation provides temporary
alleviation of the problem caused by the loss of a
Cell from service

38

KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON UPDATES

Generalized case of Cell Outage Detection and Compensation

39

KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON UPDATES

Coverage And Capacity Optimization (CCO)
CCO complement the traditional planning methods by adjusting the key RF
parameters ( antenna configuration & power)
CCO permits the system to periodically adjust to modifications in traffic (load &
location), changes in the environment such as new cell put on air.
3GPP TS 32.521 specifies the following requirements on CCO:
Coverage and capacity optimization shall be performed with minimal human
intervention.
Operator shall be able to configure the objectives and targets for the coverage and
capacity
optimization function.
Operator shall be able to configure the objectives and targets for the coverage and
capacity
optimization functions differently for different areas of the network.
The collection of data used as input into the coverage and capacity optimization
function shall be automated to the maximum extent possible and shall require
minimum possible amount of dedicated resources.

Coverage Gap optimization

40

Before

After

KEY LTE SON FEATURES, RELEASE 11 SON UPDATES

Coverage And Capacity Optimization (CCO)
Release 11 Updates
Symptoms of capacity and coverage optimization problems, namely, coverage hole,
weak coverage, pilot pollution, overshoot coverage and DL and UL channel coverage
mismatch are addressed in detail
a tradeoff between capacity and coverage needs to be considered
Parameters to be optimized to reach capacity and coverage optimization targets are
defined, namely, downlink transmit power, antenna tilt and antenna azimuth
Logical Functions for CCO, namely CCO Monitor Function and CCO Policy Control
Function, to be used for configuring the capacity and coverage optimization policies
Performance measurements related with CCO are specified including: maximum
carrier transmit power and mean carrier transmit power

41

6. SON Architectures

The Self Organizing Networks Architecture

A Self
Self--configuration Subsystem will be created in OAM to be responsible for
the self-configuration of eNB. For self-optimisation functions, they can be located
in OAM or eNB or both of them.
According to the location of optimization algorithms, SON can be divided into
three classes:
Centralized SON,
Distributed SON,
Hybrid SON.

SON ARCHITECTURE ALTERNATIVES

SON algorithms reside within the eNBs

Distributed

part of a given SON optimization algorithm is

executed in the NMS while another part of
the same SON algorithm could be executed in
the eNB

Centralized

Hybrid
44

SON algorithms for one or more use cases reside on the

Network Management System or on a separate SON
server that manages the eNBs.

EXAMPLES OF SON ARCHITECTURE REALIZATION

Centralized

Distributed
Hybrid

45

MULTI--TECHNOLOGY APPROACHES IN MULTIMULTI

MULTI-VENDOR
HETEROGENEOUS NETWORKS (HTN)
Two broad solution types in accommodating multi-vendor multitechnology deployments:
Uncoordinated Solutions: The simplest configurations are when the
Macro layer is mostly uncoordinated with the small cell layers.They
may lack in many key areas such as OA&M integration, Mobility
Performance and interference mitigation schemes.
Coordinated Solutions: they allow for improved performance and
functionality between multiple layers and nodes in the network.
Macro and small cell nodes can all coordinate with each other.

46

MULTI--VENDOR SON ARCHITECTURES

MULTI
3GPP MANAGEMENT REFERENCE MODEL

47

MULTI--VENDOR SON ARCHITECTURES

MULTI
Functional Multi-Vendor Integration Architecture

48

MULTI--VENDOR SON ARCHITECTURES

MULTI
DATA INTEGRATION ARCHITECTURE
3GPP has defined Northbound Interface (NBI) specifications that define information
schemas and information transmission formats between the EMS and the OSS
applications. These are known as the Integration Reference Points (IRPs)

49

MULTI--VENDOR SON ARCHITECTURES

MULTI
GENERAL CONCEPTS OF SELF-OPTIMIZATION
3GPP specifications also define the following functions that are addressing the
corresponding SON use cases:
Automatic Neighbor Relations Function
Load Balancing Function
Interference Control Function
Coverage and Capacity Function
RACH Optimization Function
Hand Over Optimization Function

50

SON IN THE DEPLOYMENT OF MULTIMULTI-VENDOR

LTE HTN
There are several approaches to increase the capacity of the network:
Improve the capacity of each macro layer cell.
Increase the density of cells in the macro layer.
Complement the macro layer with low power nodes, thereby creating a heterogeneous
network.

51

OPEN AND HYBRID ACCESS SCENARIOS

An open access small cell provides services to any subscriber with the normal
PLMN membership or roaming. A small cell in open access mode does not
broadcast any CSG (Closed Subscriber Group) identity and does not perform any
kind of CSG-based access control.
A hybrid access small cell is accessible as a CSG cell by UEs which are members
of the CSG and as a normal cell by all other UEs. A hybrid cell is identified in such
a way that it broadcasts a CSG identity but no (or FALSE) CSG indicator

52

Thank you