T-Mobile  – Small Cell Requirements

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T-Mobile – Intra LTE Mobility Solution

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION....
INTRODUCTION..............
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2. MOBILITY CHALLENGES
CHALLENGES AND TOP LEVEL REQUIREMENTS......
REQUIREMENTS.................
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3. MOBILITY SOLUTIONS...........
SOLUTIONS.....................
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3.1. IDLE MODE MOBILITY CONTROL.................................................................................................................3
3.2. I NTRA-FREQUENCY CONNECTED MODE MOBILITY....................
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3.3. I NTER -FREQUENCY CONNECTED MODE MOBILITY......................................................................................6
4. INTRA-LTE
INTRA-LTE MOBILITY METHODS............
METHODS.......................
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4.1. I NTERFERENCE MITIGATION..........................................................................................................................8

4.2. PCI PLANNING AND TIME SYNCHRONIZED CELLS.....................
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4.3. I NTER -FREQUENCY TARGET MEASUREMENTS AND EVALUATION..................................................................
5. SUMMARY.........
SUMMARY....................
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1 Introduction
 This document describes intra-LTE mobility challenges and solutions with ocus on LTE
!mall Cell"!mall Cell# LTE $acro"!mall Cell scenarios% The description co&ers both idle
and connected mode mobility%

 This document ser&es only as basis or discussion and hence no commercial
commitments are intended by the inormation gi&en in this document%

2 Mobility challenges and top level requirements

 The main challenge or mobility solutions are
• To be easy to use and be robust against &ariations in 'E capabilities# 'E
mo&ements and propagation conditions%

• Pro&ide non-interrupted and consistent ser&ices to subscribers that eperience

&arying radio conditions and at the same time minimi*e the radio resource usage
and signaling load%

• +e consistent with capacity"energy management unctionality and support

operators di,erent strategy or trac distribution# networ. migration and /nter-
system"0T interaction%

• Control 'E cell reselection in idle mode to minimi*e setup delays and be
consistent with mobility and the intended trac distribution and camping
strategies%

• 0egulatory reuirements also needs to be addressed with due consideration to

the subscriber de&ice capabilities%

 The specifc challenges or LTE $acro"!mall Cell and LTE !mall Cell"!mall Cell are3
• 4icult to achie&e a good compromise between number o hando&ers and
retainability (0adio +earer drop# 56 ailures) and integrity (+itrates# 4elay)
• Pro&ide means to control mobility decisions to allow ull utili*ation o LTE !mall
cells but at the same time a&oid using !mall cells or 'Es that will stay in !mall
cell co&erage only or a &ery short time%

E&en i some specifc networ. scenarios are used to describe the solutions in this
document# one challenge is that there should be no inherent restriction on networ.
scenarios supported%

!ome o the networ. scenario &ariations3

•!ingle carrier or multi carrier sites
•/ntra-band or /nter-band carriers
•LTE carriers only or /0T carriers
•4i,erent LTE carrier +7
•4i,erent LTE carriers in di,erent sectors
•5igh power and low power cells using same or di,erent LTE carrier

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• 5igh power and low power cells using same or di,erent 0T
• Co-located or non co-located cells
• 6pen access or closed access cells
• /ndoor and outdoor cells

 The solutions or idle mode and connected mode /ntra reuency mobility# /nter
reuency mobility and /0T mobility# need to harmoni*e (no ping pong beha&ior# no
dead loc. beha&ior) in real time # regardless o scenario and interaction with other
unctions(e%g% Load balancing)%

$ulti-&endor support or mobility is co&ered in terms o signaling by 89PP% There is also
some support in :2 control signaling or hando&er tuning% 5owe&er since mobility
perormance depends on harmoni*ed solutions and obser&ables or hando&er tuning# a
multi-&endor scenario will add yet another dimension o challenges%

$ulti-&endor harmoni*ation or the basic co&erage triggered hando&ers can typically be
managed by agreements on parameters settings% The parameters used or tuning are
typically common between &endors since 89PP e&ents and associated parameters in /dle
and Connected mode are defned specifcally or support o co&erage triggered hando&er%

;or more elaborate networ. associated unctions where 89PP ha&e less detailed specifc
support# multi-&endor harmoni*ation is more challenging and probably need ocused
e,orts rom in&ol&ed &endors to reach ull unctionality and optimal perormance%
Eamples o such areas are3

• /ntra LTE and /0T 5ando&er 6ptimi*ation

• utomatic <eighbor 0elation 4etection
• Load and ser&ice triggered usage o hando&er

 Mobility Solutions

3.1 Idle Mode Mobility Control 

 The options or idle mode control are gi&en by the confguration options in 89PP T! 8=%881
and 'E beha&ior reuirements in 89PP T! 8=%8>?% The fgure below illustrates the typical use
o the idle mode parameters%

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Figure 1: Typical Idle Mode Parameters

6ne important aspect or idle mode"connected mode interaction is that the 'E should
preerably stay in the same cell when doing reuent transitions between idle and connected
mode% This can be achie&ed by using the ollowing concept%

/dle mode
• +roadcast a higher cell0eselectionPriority or the ser&ing reuency"cell in !/+ 8 than
what the neighbors broadcast or the same reuency"cell in !/+ @%
A6nce the cell is selected by the 'E the 'E will stay on the cell according to priority since
the priority o the chosen reuency"cell Awent upB ater cell reselectionB

Connected mode
• 6perator parameters or neighbour reuency"0T priority should typically be set
eual to the cell0eselectionPriority or the neighbor reuency"0T used or idle
mode%
AConnected mode will in this way inherit the Ahigh priorityB or the reuency"cell 'E rom
/dle modeB

;urthermore# hando&er or co&erage reasons to other reuency"0T is only done when the
decision to lea&e the current reuency"cell has been made and thus ser&ing cell reuency
priority is o less concern or mobility%

/t is possible to a&oid reuent Trac.ing area updates rom 'Es by utili*ing the T list
concept rom 89PP that allow hysteresis by using o&erlapping Trac.ing reas% /n a
$acro"!mall cell scenario the !mall cells should preerably belong to the same trac.ing area
list as the co&erage o&erlapping macro cells as long as the paging capacity is sucient%

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3.2 Intra-frequency Connected Mode Mobility 

;or /ntra reuency mobility in a reuency re-use 1 scenario it is &ery essential to .eep 'E
connected to the best cell at all times% This is achie&ed by using /ntra reuency 8
e&aluation to trigger /ntra reuency hando&er any time needed% / not connected to the best
cell the 'E will &ery soon su,er rom high /nter cell intererence le&els that e&entually will
cause high P0+ usage# pea. rate degradations and e&entually 'E drops due to radio Lin.
ailures# signaling ailures or hando&er ailures% The 'E ability to detect and measure on
neighboring /ntra reuency cells will be impaired by high intererence le&els and to some
etent also the time relation between ser&ing cell and measured neighbor% 'es using 40:
cycles  ?> ms will also degrade the ability to detect and measure on neighboring cells%

Deeping 'E connected to best cell at all times imply high hando&er reuencies and higher
ris.s or oscillating hando&ers% /t also implies that hando&er preparation times should
preerably be .ept low since the 'E is already in a Anon best cellB when hando&er
preparation is initiated%

t high load situations where admission denials start to occurred# e<+ will ha&e a possibility
to attempt hando&er to Asecond bestB intra reuency cells ulflling the e&ent criteria% This
allows the 'E to be connected to a better cell e&en i admission was not granted to the best
cell%

 This also imply that there is much less reedom to use e%g% cell indi&idual o,set other than
rather small o,sets or the purpose o tuning the ability to .eep the 'E connected to the
best cell# balance 'L and 4L or to get an earlier indication that hando&er is needed%

+elow is fgure illustrating simulation results showing the typical compromises when using
di,erent hando&er o,set (8 o,set) and TTT in a 5et<et scenario# here the 'E is mo&ing
8.m"h% The simulations are based on models and parameter settings defned in 89PP T0
8=%1? &F%>%> where confguration ?b is specifcally defned or 5otspot capacity
enhancements% The absolute perormance in the results is &ery 'E and e<+ model and <7
scenario dependent and may or may not represent absolute perormance in feld% The results
can though be used or understanding the relati&e e,ects rom changing parameters and
the typical relation between ailure causes%

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Figure 2: HetNet Scenario

<ote that or this scenario the dominant reasons or ailures where3
• 0adio Lin. monitoring (0L$) ailures which are based on the estimated ability or the
'E to detect P4CC5%
• $easurement report signaling ailures which are based on maimum number o 0LC
retransmission used by the 'E to reach e<+ acting as source%
6ther reasons modeled are3
• A5ando&er commandB (00C connection reconfguration with mobilitycontrolino)
signaling ailures which are based on maimum number o 0LC retransmission used
by the e<+ acting as source cell%
• 0andom access ailures which are based on 0C5 uality in the e<+ acting as target
and allowed 0 re-attempts used by the 'E%
• A5ando&er confrmB (00C connection reconfguration complete) signaling ailures
which are based on based on maimum number o 0LC retransmission used by the
'E to reach e<+ acting as target%

 The manual tuning e,orts to get optimal hando&er perormance or each scenario will be
reduced by !6< eatures li.e e%g% 'E or Cell le&el oscillating hando&er minimi*ation#
which detects that indi&idual 'Es or a specifc cell relation ha&e an oscillating tendency
and increase the hando&er o,set temporarily or that 'E"cell relation%

$obility 0obustness 6ptimi*ation unctionality with signaling support defned by 89PP is

also studied and may be incorporated in the uture%

5ando&er optimi*ations on 'E or Cell le&el typically allows the initial deault hando&er
o,set settings to be set lower and still .eep the <umber o hando&er per 'E and hour to

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be the same as beore acti&ation o the eature% Lower hando&er o,set settings ma.es
'Es to be connected to the best cell a larger portion o time at cell edge areas%

Possible other enhancements or optimal hando&er perormance under study are to
include 'E speed estimates and a&erage cell si*e estimates% 'E speed estimates are
assumed to be possible to get rom 'L 4oppler shit estimates ta.en rom e<+%

 To support !mall cell range epansion the use o 'E perormance enhancements (/0C)#
reuency domain /C/C and time domain /C/C (e%g% +!) schemes are under
in&estigation%

lso schemes where e<+ use coordinated cells that are using the same PC/ on the same
reuency are in&estigated% /n this case e<+ need to Ata.e o&er rom the 'EB and pro&ide
most o mobility support by itsel with no e&ent 8 triggered 'E PC/ measurement
support in connected mode% This implies that e<+ need to decide which antennas points
and which resources to use or 'L and 4L% 6ne challenge is that e<+ does not ha&e 'L
transmission to measure on rom each 'E at all times unless e<+ periodically reuest
Channel Guality /ndicators and Power 5eadroom 0eports rom the 'E% This e<+ ability
will typically also be de&eloped or 'L comp and 4L comp schemes%

3.3 Inter-frequency Connected Mode Mobility 

/nter-reuency networ. scenarios with source and target cell on di,erent carriers are
typically less challenging in terms o delay impact since there is no inter-cell intererence
rom target cell that increase when 'E mo&es towards the target% 6n the other hand the
'E measurements on inter reuency target cells are more delayed than intra-reuency
measurements and typically reuires the use o measurement gaps%

 The use o measurement gaps may reduce 4L and 'L pea. rates in low loaded scenarios%
 The gap causes a 1> ms interruption (? ms to a&oid 50G in gap and = ms gap) once
e&ery ?> ms or > ms which will gi&e 2@H and 12%@ H reduction in theoretical maimum
pea. rates respecti&ely%

 To reduce the usage o gaps e<+ will use 2 and 1 e&ents to control when 'E is
confgured to use gaps and search or inter reuency cells% <ote that or high speed
'Es# e<+ may not initiate inter reuency cell search at all to a&oid too short time in cell
beore hando&er is needed again% This will happen when 'E speed is too high in relation
target cell si*e% / 'E speed estimates are not a&ailable# periodical search or &alid
targets can be used instead% +y adIusting search periodicity and reuired number o
consecuti&e target hits beore /nter reuency hando&er is triggered the probability to
connect high speed 'Es to small target cells will be reduced%

e<+ use the 2"1 e&ent to get the ollowing generali*ed inormation (<ote that there
could be se&eral instances o the same e&ent confgured in the 'E but with di,erent
thresholds)3

1 - 'E is AClose enough to antennaB

2 - 'E is not AClose enough to antennaB

2 - !tart inter reuency cell search

1 - !top inter reuency cells search

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2 - 'E ha&e entered +ad co&erage

1 - 'E ha&e let +ad co&erage

<et fgure illustrates a typical use o the di,erent 1"2 thresholds3

Figure : Typical use o! t"e di#erent $1%$2 t"res"olds

7here3
Close enough to ser&ing cell antenna indication with di,erent thresholds are used by e<+
to
• /ndicate that it is possible or a 'E to participate in load balancing (see +2-@)
between co-located cells%
• /ndicate that it is possible to use co-located cells or carrier aggregation%
• /ndicate that there is no need in general or +! usage or other /C/C schemes%
• !tart using blind hando&er or hando&er between co-located cells%

!tart"!top inter-reuency cell search is used by e<+ or3

• !earching or /ntra LTE reuencies"cells and"or /0T reuencies"cells that ha&e more
optimal propagation conditions or the connection%
• !earching or /ntra LTE reuencies"cells and"or /0T reuencies"cells that it is
possible or a 'E to participate in load balancing with%

+ad 4L co&erage indication is used by e<+ or3

• !earching or /ntra LTE reuencies"cells and"or /0T reuencies"cells that is li.ely to
sa&e the connection rom dropping%
+4 'L co&erage indication is e&aluated by e<+ by estimating long term 'L 9/<0 (path
9ain /ntererence and <oise 0atio)% !hort term 'L 9/<0 is also used by lin. adaptation%

 Target e&aluations are done by using3

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• @ (+2 or /0T) !er&ing cell worse than threshold 1 and neighbor cell better than
threshold 2%
• 8 <eighbor cell is o,set better than ser&ing cell%

! Intra-LTE Mobility Methods

4.1 Interference mitigation

 There se&eral techniues to mitigate intererence% The techniues can be di&ided into
these general categories%
• /ntererence reIection techniues in 'E and"or e<+ recei&er
• Coordinated short term use o radio resources or transmission and reception in
time# reuency# power and direction"area
• Coordinated long term planning o radio resources e%g% reuency re-use planning
<ote that there is no clear distinction between the categories and eatures may
utili*e combinations rom each%

$obility perormance will beneft rom any techniues that reduce intererence when
the 'E is in a hando&er situation either by impro&ing the connection to source and"or
target cell but also impro&ing the ability and perormance to measure on neighboring
cells accurate and with low delays%
 The impro&ed ability can be utili*ed to epand cell co&erage areas to impro&e the
ability or an /ntra reuency low power cell to oKoad a macro cell%

+esides reducing the hando&er ailure rate the techniues are also epected to
reduce the hando&er reuency needed to .eep connections optimal rom a radio
resource perspecti&e%

dditional inormation describing the /ntererence mitigation solution or the co-
channel deployment o the LTE layer !mall cell"LTE $acro and LTE !mall cell"!mall
cell is pro&ided# please refer to our !ite paper B2-3 Interference Mitigation Solution"

4.2 PCI planning and time synchronied cells

 The prime purpose o PC/ planning in relation to mobility is to assure that each 'E can
identiy a&ailable cells uniuely in an area and select or report the ound PC/s and
associated measurements to the e<+ or urther hando&er e&aluation%
89PP ha&e also chosen to re-use PC/ &alues or coordinated control o C0! reuency
shit% The intention is that it should be possible to a&oid o&erlapping C0! 0E in time
and reuency between adIacent cells or a constellation o 8 intra reuency cells
using 2 antenna ports per cell% The typical usage is to plan or shited C0! transmitted
on the same reuency rom the same e<+ site%

/ the system is low loaded and small cell si*es are used it ha&e been obser&ed in feld
tests that it may be better rom a pea. rate perspecti&e to allow C0! rom adIacent
cells rom the same site to hit each other all the time rather than hitting data parts o
each other transmission%

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Cell border areas where hando&er is done in poor co&erage conditions will typically
beneft rom shited C0! since shited C0! will impro&e perormance or channel
estimation% !o i the scenario is dominated by many but wea. recei&ed cells# a shited
C0! approach is epected to be benefcial%

<ote that ha&ing time synchroni*ed inter e<+ cells (but maybe not time aligned)
pro&ides ull control o which parts o a cell transmission that hits adIacent cells
transmission and &ice &ersa and ma.es it possible to use non shited C0! within the
e<+ and shited C0! between e<+s%

Cell detection perormance and measurement accuracy or high intererence scenarios
is currently under in&estigation in 89PP 0< ?% The wor. has been initiated or 5et<et
scenarios where cell range epansion is assumed to be used% /n general current 89PP
0"0F 'E reuirements allow PC/s to be detected by 'Es down to !/<0 o apro% -=
d+% lso or cell detection it matters i PC5"!C5 o&erlaps in time and reuency and the
PC/ combination that collides% $ore feld e&aluation is needed to understand when
these properties are signifcant or not or mobility perormance% The frst results
indicate that current 'Es o&erestimate 0!0P at high intererence le&els% 0!0P
o&erestimation implies that cell indi&idual o,set should be used to fne tune the
hando&er borders in high intererence scenarios%

4.3 Inter-frequency target measurements and e!aluation

 The e&ents defned in 89PP or inter reuency target e&aluation is essentially o 2
.ind%
• 0elati&e comparison# supported by e&ent 8 (<eighbor becomes o,set better
than ser&ing)
• bsolute conditions# supported by e&ent @ (!er&ing becomes worse than
threshold 1 and neighbor becomes better than threshold)

;or mobility purposes both conditions are applicable% <ote howe&er or co-located inter
reuency cells there is a &ery high ris. that a unnecessary high amount o inter
reuency hando&ers are triggered i not a complemented with thresholds 2"1 that
prohibit inter reuency cell search and thus /nter reuency hando&ers%

 The fgure below illustrates the L8 fltered 0!0P beha&ior in a typical multi carrier <7
scenario%
s can be seen in the magnifed part the usage o 8 and @ e&aluation between co-
located carriers all the time is not possible i hando&er reuency shall be .ept low
e&en i measurement gap usage is considered to be o no issue%

/nter reuency measurements and 8"@ e&aluation need to be moti&ated by3

• +ad ser&ing reuency"cell co&erage
• !ignifcant long-term gains in radio resource usage
• Load balancing need when blind hando&er are not possible to use% ;or more
inormation regarding load balancing please reer to our white paper +2-@ LTE
Load +alancing !olution%
• 6bser&ables or <7 tuning purposes

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Figure &: ' (ltered )S)P *e"a+ior in a typical multi,carrier net-or.

scenario

2 will be possible to confgure or 0!0P e&aluation and 0!0G e&aluation in parallel#
both or search and bad co&erage reasons% s a complement 'L 9/<0 will also be
possible to monitor and e&aluated by using a Ae<+ 2 e&entB%

<ote that ser&ing cell 0!0G &alues can uctuate between -8 d+ to -11 d+ without any
inter cell intererence present due to the 89PP defnition o 0!0G%  Moip user will
typically eperience 0!0GN -8d+ close to the antenna whereas ull bu,er user will
eperience 0!0GN -11 d+ at the same position% This means that ser&ing cell 0!0G
thresholds abo&e -11 d+ should be a&oided since it depends more on ser&ing cell
transmission than on inter cell intererence%  ull bu,er single user in a 2 carrier co-
located scenario in a position close to the antenna may actually start to oscillate
between the carriers when ser&ing cell 0!0G thresholds or co&erage triggered
hando&er abo&e -11 d+ is used%

0!0G &alues or inter reuency neighbors will ha&e a similar property since all 0!0G
&alues abo&e -11 d+ could be due to the 'Es being scheduled in the neighbouring cell%

/ntra reuency 8 will be used at all times%

/nter reuency 8 and @ will be used either at the same time or one at a time%
Eample3 /nterreuency hando&er is typically triggered by @ but as a complement i
the di,erence between ;1 and ;2 is really large e%g% 1> d+ a /nterreuency hando&er
could still be moti&ated e&en i @ condition Aser&ing cell worse than threshold 1B is
not ulflled%

2012-03-26 Proprietary and Confdential 11(12)

T-Mobile  – Small Cell Requirements

Confidential Information: Do Not Disclose

 This means that it is not mobility that triggers hando&er when the connection is good
enoughO it is rather other unctions li.e load balancing% This also imply that it is
possible to a&oid doing intra reuency hando&er ollowed immediately by a /nter
reuency hando&er i load balancing is chosen by e<+ to be done on 'Es that ha&e
been connected to the cell or a while%

" Summary

 This document presents a set o tools to balance capacity# load and ser&ice eperience
or the end-user when it comes to intra-LTE mobility scenarios% lso# it is important to
ta.e into account what networ. operators should be considering rom planning
perspecti&e that maimi*es LTE eperience%

 The mobility scenarios must consider idle mode and connected mode beha&ior as well
as the interaction o both under changing radio en&ironment and load conditions% lso#
it is important to minimi*e radio resource usage# signaling load and setup
delays"latency%

2012-03-26 Proprietary and Confdential 12(12)