Optimization of Soft Handover Parameters for UMTS Network in Indoor

Environment
J. Ł cki, J. Niemelä, J. Lempiäinen
Institute of Communications Engineering
Tampere University of Technology
P.O. Box 533 FI-33101 Tampere, Finland
jaroslaw.lacki@tut.fi
jarno.niemela@tut.fi
jukka.lempiainen@tut.fi

Abstract—The aim of this paper is to present the impact of
different SHO parameters on UMTS network performance
in indoor environment. The measurement results of the
impact of the most important SHO parameters, i.e., the
thresholds for add and drop events and their time to trigger
values are presented on UMTS indoor network
performance in terms of average downlink SIR target,
downlink transmit power, SHO probability, and observed
BER values. Due to indoor propagation channel, which
causes smaller delay spread and hence less multipath
diversity, a UMTS signal becomes inherently
“narrowband”. Therefore, the gain of SHO against fast and
slow fading would be crucial. Moreover, the characteristics
of indoor radio channel enforce to apply different SHO
parameter settings than for outdoor network. In the frame
of this paper, the analysis is based on the downlink as it is
seen more crucial from SHO point of view due to additional
link required for SHOs. The measurement results indicate
that relatively large thresholds for add and drop events
simultaneously with a long time to trigger for drop event are
the most suitable for UMTS indoor environment due to the
lack of multipath diversity, and to combat fast and deep
fluctuations of the indoor radio channel.
Key words: indoor, optimization, soft handover, UMTS.
1 . Introduction
WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access)
technology introduces other kind of handovers, namely
SHO (soft handover) and SfHO (softer handover). A soft
handover occurs, when two or more BSs serve a MS
simultaneously. During a soft handover, MS is in the
coverage area of two or more sectors belonging to
different BSs. On the other hand, in softer handover, the
MS is in the coverage of two or more sectors, which
belong to the same base station. SHO and SfHO are
supported in UTRA FDD (UMTS Terrestrial Radio
Access Frequency Division Duplex) mode only.
The performance and functionality of SHO and SfHO is
controlled through dedicated functionalities and their
parameters (see Section II). So far, most of the research
concerning SHO (herein SHO is understood as SHO and
SfHO as SHO function does not separate these two)
parameter optimization has been concentrated on outdoor
UMTS networks (e.g., [1] and [2]). Moreover, other
already accomplished simulations of SHO in [3] shows
that optimum static parameters, i.e., the thresholds for add
and drop events and dynamic parameters, i.e., time to
trigger values of add and drop events can improve the
downlink performance, and therefore also the overall
network performance, quality of service (QoS) and
capacity. However, during the current evolution of the 3G
radio networks, indoor UMTS networks are becoming
more and more important and also more popular.
Moreover, the indoor environment introduces different
radio propagation characteristics than outdoor
environment. Due to small delay spread in a typical
indoor propagation channel, the resulting amount of
multipath diversity is inherently small. Moreover, due to
frequency non-selective channel, the fading of the signal
is mostly characterized by large amplitude variations. In
terms of SHO function and parameters, small delay spread
values and lack of multipath diversity should be taken into
account when setting the different parameters for SHO
function. Due to the fact that diversity reception is
typically not used in passive indoor antenna systems due
to cost constrains, the possibility of using the “diversity
component” of SHO against fast and slow fading indoor
radio channel should be studied. In this paper, the
measurement results of thresholds for add and drop events
together with their time to trigger values are shown for the
indoor UMTS network in the downlink direction.
2 . UTRA FDD soft handover
2.1. Soft handover procedure and algorithm
The soft handover procedure is divided into three phases:
measurements, decision, and execution. In the
measurement phase, energy per chip over interference
spectral density ratio (Ec/N0) is evaluated based on the
measurements on the downlink primary common pilot
channel (P-CPICH) and received signal strength indicator
(RSSI) as shown in (1):
Ec /No = RSCP (1)
RSSI
RSCP (received signal code power) is the power of
decoded pilot channel. The performed measurements
results are sent by the MS to the BS. All measurements
parameters are contained in measurement report, and then
passed to RNC (radio network controller), where the
decision phase takes place. In this phase, the performed
 Figure 1: The meaning of SHO parameters.
measurements are compared with predefined soft
handover criteria. This process is carried out by RNC.
After the decision phase, the execution of soft handover is
accomplished, if the soft handover criteria are fulfilled.
The effect of the execution phase is that the MS either
enters or leaves SHO area.
The SHO algorithm currently used in WCDMA systems
and in measurements presented in this paper is adopted
from [1]. In explanation of soft handover algorithm, the
following terms are crucial, and have to be defined:
• Active set contains the list of cells, having the
connection with MS, in other words, the cells,
which are in soft handover connection.
• Monitored set contains the list of cells, which
pilot channels power is not high enough to be
added to the active set, or active set is already
full.
The RNC decides, which SHO event is triggered based on
continuous measurements performed by MS on P-CPICH
channel. These events are radio link addition (event 1A),
radio link removal (event 1B), and radio link replacement
(event 1C). These events are executed depending on
relative strengths the pilot signal from different cells as
well as on the time to trigger value (∆T). A cell is added
or dropped from active set depending on the difference
between its P-CPICH Ec/N0 level and the power level of
the best pilot signal in active set. SHO algorithm is
illustrated in Figure 1 and more details can be found from
[7].
2.2. Soft handover performances
Soft handovers provide many advantages to the WCDMA
network. One of them is smaller amount of “ping-pong”
event, which occurs, when a mobile moves closer and
further from a cell boundary causing frequent handovers.
Non-optimal SHO parameters may cause unnecessary
high power rise peaks, which result in high interference
and reduce network capacity. This negative effect can be
mitigated by providing a larger hysteresis margin for
execution of SHO. However, in turn, this solution may
introduce longer handover delays and higher interference
Figure 2: Antenna positions and orientations during the
measurements.
in neighbor cells. This “ping-pong” effect is strongly
decreased by soft handovers.
The other feature of soft handovers is smoother data
transmission. During a soft handover, there is no break in
data transmission like during hard handovers. Moreover,
SHOs eliminate possible data loss and decrease drop call
rate. This feature is very essential, because high
transmission data rates are utilized in UMTS networks,
where even a short brake in the transmission can cause a
loss of high amount of data. The SHOs have also negative
effects. There is more complexity in implementation of
SHOs than with, e.g., hard handovers (HHO), as well as
additional consumption of downlink resources (transmit
power and spreading codes) is caused by the mobile being
in SHO. SHO advantages and disadvantages give the
reason to consider its parameters, algorithms, etc. The soft
handover function should be planned carefully and have
to be compromise between power gain and possible
losses.
3 . Measurement environment and setup
3.1. General description UMTS indoor test nework
The measurements were conducted in indoor UMTS test
network implemented in a university building. In the
measurements, two cells belonging to different BSs were
used. Base stations were connected through Iub interface
to RNC/Iub simulator. RNC/Iub was supporting soft
handovers between BSs [8]-[9]. Coaxial cable (i.e., a
passive distributed antenna system, DAS) was employed
to connect transmitting antennas and radiating cables to
BSs. Antennas used in measurements were two standard
discrete UMTS antennas [10]. Used antennas are
highlighted in Figure 2. Antennas gain was 7 dBi and the
horizontal beam width was 90°. The effective isotropic
radiated power (EIRP) values for antennas were close to
20 dBm.
3.2. Measurement equipment
The equipment used to provide the result was two base
stations, two discrete antennas, MS, RNC/Iub simulator
[8] and WCDMA radio interface analyzer [11] RNC/Iub
simulator was used in this measurement campaign for
setting SHO parameters, and capturing the transmit
powers of two BSs. The radio interface analyzer was used
to measure and store the radio interface parameters during
the measurements. The mobile equipment connected to a
laptop was placed on small trolley. The height of the
trolley was approximately 1 m. During the measurements
the trolley was moved along a pre-defined route (see the
black solid line in Figure 2), on which the measurements
were performed. The speed of the trolley was
approximately 2-3 km/h.
3.3. Measurement campaign
Two antennas belonging to different BSs were
symmetrically placed and their beams were partly
overlapping in this area on each other. Measurements
were partly conducted in corridors, where a clear SHO
area was obtained (Corridor C in Figure 2). Measurements
were mostly conducted during weekends in order to
minimize the impact of external interferences on the
measurement results. During the measurements, the
trolley with laptop and mobile was moved from corridor
G to the corridor F, through the C corridor of the first
floor (Figure 2). While the trolley was moved, the
transmit powers from both base stations were recorded.
Radio interface analyzer recorded the time, when the MS
was in SHO area, and when MS was connected to only
one cell. Moreover, the radio interface analyzer stored
also other parameters like BER (bit error rate) and
downlink SIR (signal to interference) target values. The
measurements were conducted for the combination of
various SHO static and dynamic parameters. During each
measurement, the transmit powers of both base stations
were recorded. Power levels were later averaged in such
manner that first the power outside SHO area was
averaged and added to the sum of average power
transmitted during SHO from both base stations. Finally,
the sum of these two values was averaged again. Hence, it
impact of additional radio link and additional transmit
power was taken into account in final transmit power
values. In this paper, SHO probability is the ratio of the
time, when the mobile is in SHO area to the total time of
the connection. Only one mobile was used for making a
call (12.2 kbps speech bearer), and this call was reflected
from the RNC/Iub simulator. Reflection of the call means
that the call was initiated and terminated by the same MS.
4 . Measurement results
Tables 1-4 presents the measurement results with all
measured sets of considered SHO parameters. The rows
contain the list of thresholds for add and drop events (in
dB) in such a manner that add thresholds are in the left
side of the brackets and the drop thresholds in the right
side. The columns contain the time-to-trigger values for
add and drop events expressed (in ms), respectively.
Table 1 shows the required SIR target values for used
radio bearer (12.2 kbps speech). SIR target is set per
bearer basis in RNC, and corrected in outer loop power
control. In practice, the lower the average SIR target is,
the smaller is also the amount of required resources, i.e.,
downlink transmit power. If power control is able to
compensate the changes in the radio channel, the average
SIR (adjusted by closed-loop power control) should
correspond to average SIR target. As indicated by the
results, increasing the threshold for add event decreases
slightly the required SIR target. However, increasing the
time-to-trigger for add event increases the required SIR
target. Hence, the results indicate that in indoor
environment in order to achieve lower SIR target values,
the threshold for add event should be high but the time-to-
trigger value short. In other words, a cell is easily and
quickly included in the active set in order to provide as
much diversity gain as possible. On the contrary, if the
threshold for drop event is increased, the required SIR
target decreases as well. However, this phenomenon is the
most efficient with higher time-to-trigger values for drop
event. Hence, the results indicate that also high threshold
for drop event should be used but also with longer time-
to-trigger values. In other words, a cell is not easily
dropped from the active set, and if it is about to drop, the
level of the signal should maintain for a longer time below
the threshold for drop event. Nevertheless, the results
clearly point out that in indoor environment, the used
thresholds should be high with short time-to-trigger for
add event and long for drop event.
Table 2 presents the average downlink transmit power for
different sets of SHO parameters. The average downlink
transmit powers are mostly inline with the required SIR
target values. However, in some cases, the downlink
transmit power is lower although the required SIR target
has been higher. The reason for this might have been the
different distribution of SHO area and certain level of
measurement inaccuracy. Nevertheless, the measured
results show that the used thresholds should be high with
short time-to-trigger for add event and long for drop
event. Figure 3a shows the comparison of transmission
powers between different time-to-trigger values for all
measured combinations of the thresholds for add and drop
events. With low thresholds, the difference between
[160ms 1280ms] scenario and [100ms 640ms] is minimal.
However, with higher thresholds the gain of longer time-
to-trigger values is obvious. In addition, the trend of all
time-to-trigger curves indicates that even higher
thresholds than [6dB 9dB] should be used for indoor
networks. For example, with [0dB 1dB] thresholds for add
and drop events and with [100ms 240ms] time-to-trigger
values, the resulting downlink transmit power was around
31 dBm where as with the highest measured add and drop
thresholds [6dB 9dB] and with the longest time-to-trigger
values [160ms 1280ms], the resulting average downlink
transmit power was only 22.7 dBm. Hence, over the
measurement route, the gain of more correct SHO
parameters is 8.3 dB in the downlink transmit power.
However, as a consequence of this, the resulting SHO
probability increases over the measurement route from
16% up to 51% (see Table 3). Meaning that instead of
having 1/6 of the users in SHO, there are half of the users
 Table 1. Required SIR target values for 12.2. kbps Table 3. Resulting SHO probabilities [%].
speech link [dB].

SHO Time to trigger value [add drop] ms SHO Time to trigger value [add drop] ms
threshold Threshold
[add drop] dB [40 640] [100 640] [160 640] [160 1280] [100 240] [add drop] dB [40 640] [100 640] [160 640] [160 1280] [100 240]
[0 1] 18.54 20.50 22.45 16.40 23.41 [0 1] 21 20 19 23 16
[1 2] 17.21 19.32 23.32 16.20 24.46 [1 2] 21 20 20 24 17
[1 4] 16.43 19.12 21.23 17.54 23.85 [1 4] 22 21 20 25 17
[2 4] 16.42 18.93 18.16 15.80 25.42 [2 4] 23 22 21 26 18
[1 5] 15.12 17.56 16.92 14.12 22.69 [1 5] 25 25 23 27 20
[2 5] 14.87 16.74 16.86 15.55 21.74 [2 5] 27 26 24 27 21
[3 4] 13.61 15.58 14.63 13.36 18.61 [3 4] 29 26 25 30 22
[3 5] 13.34 15.31 15.39 12.83 17.30 [3 5] 30 28 27 32 24
[3 6] 12.81 14.27 15.65 11.68 15.57 [3 6] 31 30 28 33 25
[3 8] 13.13 16.93 14.34 10.28 15.81 [3 8] 35 33 32 36 28
[4 7] 11.79 12.25 14.82 9.36 12.95 [4 7] 38 36 35 39 31
[6 9] 9.54 9.18 11.57 9.48 11.20 [6 9] 48 48 47 51 43

Table 2. Required DL transmit powers in [dBm]. Table 4. BER values of P-CPICH [%].

SHO Time to trigger value [add drop] ms SHO Time to trigger value [add drop] ms
Threshold Threshold
[add drop] dB [40 640] [100 640] [160 640] [160 1280] [100 240] [add drop] dB [40 640] [100 640] [160 640] [160 1280] [100 240]
[0 1] 28.54 29.11 30.92 28.42 31.09 [0 1] 4.30 6.85 6.51 4.54 8.24
[1 2] 28.31 28.67 30.15 27.32 30.87 [1 2] 3.78 6.70 6.51 4.17 6.39
[1 4] 27.31 27.65 29.17 27.53 30.32 [1 4] 5.91 8.82 8.19 3.75 7.36
[2 4] 27.12 27.52 28.32 26.42 30.87 [2 4] 4.47 5.73 6.65 3.02 6.75
[1 5] 26.43 26.53 28.23 26.23 30.11 [1 5] 3.38 5.28 6.28 3.44 4.58
[2 5] 25.87 25.34 27.32 25.83 29.44 [2 5] 3.95 2.94 4.84 3.82 5.28
[3 4] 28.43 29.55 30.32 25.21 30.31 [3 4] 4.49 3.18 5.39 5.63 4.25
[3 5] 27.65 29.21 29.32 24.79 29.73 [3 5] 3.27 2.94 3.84 2.73 4.72
[3 6] 27.54 28.56 28.64 24.22 29.60 [3 6] 3.48 3.57 2.94 2.59 3.25
[3 8] 26.43 27.93 28.20 23.58 28.99 [3 8] 2.94 3.47 3.06 1.22 2.70
[4 7] 24.65 25.93 26.21 23.32 27.40 [4 7] 1.17 2.81 2.43 0.98 2.25
[6 9] 23.22 24.94 25.18 22.69 26.56 [6 9] 1.40 2.18 1.35 0.97 1.98

continuously in SHO. Note that the impact of additional
radio links required for SHO is already taken into account
when calculating the average transmit powers of the base
stations for a single user. However, in multi-user scenario,
the gain in the downlink transmit power is not as huge as
indicated by the results, but since the downlink power
requirement for users in SHO is considerably smaller than
for mobiles not in SHO, the overall gain of having large
thresholds for add and drop events is expected to be
significant. Hence, the only implication is the increased
SHO probability that causes a higher requirement of Iub
capacity from the indoor base station. Table 3 gathers the
BER values calculated at the mobile station on the P-
CPICH. These results further verify the previous
discussion about SHO parameter settings for indoor
environment.
Figure 3a shows the comparison of transmission powers
between different time-to-trigger values for all measured
combinations of the thresholds for add and drop events.
With low thresholds, the difference between [160ms
1280ms] scenario and [100ms 640ms] is minimal.
However, with higher thresholds the gain of longer time-
to-trigger values is obvious. In addition, the trend of all
time-to-trigger curves indicates that even higher
thresholds than [6dB 9dB] should be used for indoor
networks. Figure 3b shows the cumulative distribution
function (CDF) of the downlink transmit power with
[160ms 1280ms] time-to-trigger values for [6dB 9dB]
(solid) and for [0dB 1dB] (dashed) parameter setups. As
clearly indicated by the figure, the fast fading dips with
small thresholds for add and drop events requires larger
dynamics for the downlink transmit power as the required
power varies between 16 dBm and 36 dBm, whereas with
higher thresholds, the required range is between 16 dBm
and 22 dBm. The fundamental difference in the downlink
transmit power comes directly from the possible SHO
area (i.e., from Corridor C in Figure 2) since in the non-
SHO areas (i.e., Corridors F and G) the required transmit
power is the same (see Figure 3).
Figure 4 shows the drop call rates for all measured time-
to-trigger values with [3dB 4dB] thresholds for add and
drop events. As indicated by the curve, the resulting drop
call rate decreases tremendously from 30% down to 4%
when time-to-trigger values are changed from [100ms
240ms] to [160ms 1280ms]. However, since the
acceptable drop call rate is typically 1-2%, the results
clearly indicate that in addition to long drop timer, higher
thresholds for add and drop event are needed for indoor
UMTS networks. The impact of different SHO parameter
values on the required downlink SIR target, downlink
transmit power, SHO probability and P-CPICH BER was
analyzed in this paper. The analyzed SHO parameters
 32 100

90
30
80
DL transmission power [dBm]

28 70

60
26

CDF[%]
50
24
40

22 30

20
20 Best case [160 1280]
Typical case [100 640] 10 Best case [6dB 9dB]
Worst case [100 240] Worst case [0dB 1dB]
18 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 15 20 25 30 35 40
Measurement point Transmit power [dBm]

(a) (b)
Figure 3: (a) An example of downlink transmit powers for three different sets of time-to-trigger values. Measurement points
correspond to all measuremed combinations of the thresholds for add and drop event in order of appearance in the tables. (b)
Cumulative distribution function of the transmit power with high [6 dB 9 dB] and low [0 dB 1dB] add and drop window sizes.

were the threshold values for add and drop events together 35
with their time-to-trigger values. Due to smaller delay
spread values in indoor environment, UMTS signal is 30

behaving inherently as a narrowband signal. Moreover,

25
due to resulting lack of multipath diversity, the required
Drop call rate [%]

SIR target for a radio bearer increases if SHO is not 20

utilized. Hence, the diversity gain provided by SHO
clearly reduces the required SIR target, and hence results 15

in also smaller required TX power. This fundamentally

10
increases the capacity of an indoor network.
5

5 . Conclusions 0
1 2 3 4 5
Measurement point
The smallest SIR target values and correspondingly the
smallest downlink TX powers were observed with [6dB Figure 4: Drop call rates as a function of add and drop
9dB] thresholds for add and drop events and with [160ms window sizes.
1280ms] time-to-trigger values, correspondingly. Proc. IEEE 57th Semiannual Vehicular Technology Conference,
However, the measurement results and analysis indicate vol. 3, pp. 1979-1983, April 2003.
that even higher thresholds or longer time-to-trigger for [2] M. Schinnenburg1, I. Forkel1, B. Haverkamp, “Realization and
Optimization of Soft and Softer Handover in UMTS Networks,”
drop event should be utilized. The required dynamic range in Proc. IEEE 5th Personal Mobile Communications Conference,
for downlink TX power is considerably smaller with pp. 22-25, April 2003.
higher threshold for add and drop events. The future [3] D. Wong, T.J. Lim, “Soft Handoffs in CDMA mobile systems”,
studies concentrate on providing the impact of SHO IEEE Transition on Personal Communications, vol. 4, issue 6, pp.
6-17, December 1997.
diversity gain on the capacity of indoor network.
[4] N. Binucci, K. Hiltunen, M. Caselli, “Soft Handover gain in
Moreover, the impact of larger thresholds for add and WCDMA”, in Proc. IEEE 52th Semiannual Vehicular Technology
drop events with longer time-to-trigger values is analyzed Conference, vol. 3, pp. 1467-1472, September 2000.
in uplink direction. [5] X. Yang, S. Ghaheri-Niri, R. Tafazolli, “UTRA Soft Handover
optimization”, in Proc. IEE 3rd International Conference on 3G
Acknowledgement Mobile Communication Technologies, pp. 37-41, May 2002.
[6] 3GPP, TS 25.331, “Radio resource control”, Version 5.2.0,
Release 5.
Authors would like to thank European Communications
[7] 3GPP, TR 25.922, “Radio resource management strategies”,
Engineering (ECE) Ltd for helpful comments, Elisa Version 3.8.0, Release 6.
Mobile Finland for allocating the frequency for UMTS [8] Web site, http://www.nethawk.fi, NetHawk Oyj, NetHawk
test network, Nemo Technologies for providing radio RNC/Iub Simulator.
interface analyzer, and the National Technology Agency [9] 3GPP, TS 25.433, “UTRAN Iub interface NBAP signaling”,
of Finland for funding the work. Version 4.5.0, Release 4.
[10] Web site, http://www.kathrein.de, Indoor Directional Antenna
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