WCDMA LAC/RAC Planning
Guidance
Prepared by: Date:
Reviewed by: Date:
Reviewed by: Date:
Approved by: Date:
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved
Table of Contents
1 Introduction to Paging Area ...................................................................................................... 3
2 Structure of Paging Channel .................................................................................................... 3
3 WCDMA Paging Channel Capacity Calculation....................................................................... 5
3.1 CN_ID IMSI Paging ............................................................................................................ 5
3.2 CN_ID TMSI Paging ........................................................................................................... 6
3.3 Combination Efficiency of Paging Channel ........................................................................ 6
3.4 Safety Paging Capacity ...................................................................................................... 6
3.5 Paging Message Times for Single Termination Call .......................................................... 6
3.6 Termination Call Times for Safety Paging Capacity .......................................................... 7
4 LAC/RAC Plan .......................................................................................................................... 7
4.1 Paging Area Size Restriction.............................................................................................. 7
4.2 Geographic Distribution of Paging Area ............................................................................. 7
4.3 LAC/RAC Plan .................................................................................................................... 8
WCDMA Paging Area Planning Guidance
1 Introduction to Paging Area
For the CS domain service, the CN identifies and pages the UE with the location
area(LA). 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.
For the PS domain service, the CN identifies and pages the UE with the routing
area(RA). 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.
2 Structure of Paging Channel
The logical channel for paging is PCCH, whose parameters are as follows (Refer
to 34.108 V340):
Table 1 SRB parameters of PCCH channel
Higher layer RAB/signalling RB SRB
User of Radio Bearer RRC
RLC Logical channel type PCCH
RLC mode TM
Payload sizes, bit 240 (alt. 80)
Max data rate, bps 24000 (alt. 8000)
TrD PDU header, bit 0
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.
According to the specification of the 25.331 protocol, the PCH paging channel
1
transfers three types of information only: paging list, BCCH modified information
and Extension mechanism for non-release99 information2. 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
Number
Name Description
of bits
PCCH-MessageType 1 Indicates paging type 1 is selected
OPTIONAL(PagingRecordList) 1 Optional ID
OPTIONAL(BCCH-ModificationInfo) 1 Optional ID
OPTIONAL(Extension mechanism for non-
1 Optional ID
release99 information)
PagingRecordList ::=SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..MaxPage1))OF
PagingRecordList Index 3
PagingRecord, here, MaxPage1= 8；
PagingRecord Choice 1 Chooses the bit between CN-Identity and UTRAN-Identity
Enumerated(Terminating Conversational Call,Terminating
Streaming Call,Terminating Interactive Call,Terminating
PagingCause 3 Background Call, Terminating High Priority Signalling,
Terminating Low Priority Signalling, Terminating – cause
cn-Identity part unknown)
(used when
PagingRecord
Choice is CN-DomainIdentity::= ENUMERATED {
CN-DomainIdentity 1
selected) cs-domain, ps-domain }
IMSI-GSM-MAP,
TMSI-GSM-MAP,
cn-pagedUE-Identity Choice 3 P-TMSI-GSM-MAP,
IMSI-DS-41,
TMSI-DS-41
1
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.
2
At present, this part is not processed in the practice, so the influence of this part is not necessary to be
considered.
IMSI-GSM-MAP ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (6..15)) OF Digit.
Where, Digit ::= INTEGER (0..9). That is each Digit
4＋60＝ 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 32 TMSI-GSM-MAP ::= BIT STRING (SIZE (32))
32 P-TMSI-GSM-MAP ::= BIT STRING (SIZE (32))
IMSI-DS-41 ::= OCTET STRING (SIZE (5..7)). It is not
5–7
used at present.
TMSI-DS-41 ::= OCTET STRING (SIZE (2..12)). It is not
2–12
used at present.
MIB-ValueTag 3 MIB-ValueTag ::= INTEGER (1..8)
BCCH-Modificati
onInfo
BCCH-ModificationTime 9 BCCH-ModificationTime ::= INTEGER (0..511)
nonCriticalExtensions
None This item is not processed in practice.
3 WCDMA Paging Channel Capacity Calculation
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 information3 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
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.
3.2 CN_ID TMSI Paging
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 Combination Efficiency of Paging Channel
Possible mode of combination efficiency of Paging channel as below:
Ø 3 IMSI
Ø 5 TMSI (P-TMSI)
Ø 2 IMSI + 2 TMSI (P-TMSI)
Ø 4 TMSI (P-TMSI) + 1 IMSI
If IMSI paging percent <20%, one TTI can send out 5 paging messages.
If IMSI paging percent >50%, one TTI can send out 3 paging messages.
Generally, IMSI paging percent <15% in the network, so general combination
efficiency of paging channel is 5.
3.4 Safety Paging Capacity
Base on network experience, 1‰ paging congestion will happen if PCH average
utility exceed 40%, because peak paging will exceed 5 times, so LAC/RAC should be
split if it exceed 40%.
Safety Paging Capacity = Combination Efficiency of Paging Channel * 100 *
3600 * Paging Utility
= 5 * 100 * 3600 * 40% = 720000
It means 720000 times is safety paging capacity of PCH in busy hour.
3.5 Paging Times for Single Termination Call
RNC default configuration for L2 re-transmission is 1 (SET UDPUCFGDATA:
MaccPageRepeatTimes=1), it means 2 paging messages will send out for one
termination call.
Paging times for single termination call = ( 1 + L2 re-transmission times) /
( 1 – IMSI percent ) = ( 1 + 1 ) / ( 1 – 15% ) = 2.35
3.6 Termination Call Times for Safety Paging Capacity
Termination call times for safety paging capacity = safety paging capacity /
paging message times for single termination call = 720000 / 2.35 = 306382
That means paging congestion risk will be very high if totally CS + PS termination
call times exceed 306382 in the LAC/RAC area in busy hour.
4 LAC/RAC Plan
4.1 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 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.
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. With the ever evolution of the
network, the demands for PS serviced increases. In this case, the size of the RA can
be splited. 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.
4.2 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.
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.
4.3 LAC/RAC Plan
LAC/RAC plan flow as blew:
a) Calculate voice termination call times base on voice call traffic, termination
call ratio, average voice call time in busy hour.
b) Calculate totally termination call times in the cell base on voice termination
call times, voice service ratio.
c) Calculate paging times of all termination service in one cell base on paging
L2 retransmission times.
d) Calculate cell number that one LAC/RAC can support, base on PCH safety
paging capacity, paging times of all termination call in one cell.
Paging times of cell in busy hour = average CS traffic of cell in busy hour
(without SHO) * termination call percent * (3600 / average duration of one call) *
(Paging message times for single termination call / CS call paging percent)
Suppose
average CS traffic of cell in busy hour = 2 Erlang;
termination call percent = 50%;
average duration of one call = 60s;
paging for different service, SMS: CS: PS = 1: 2: 7, that means CS call paging
percent = 20%;
So
Paging times of cell in busy hour = 2 * 50% * ( 3600 / 60 ) * ( 2.35 / 20% ) =
705
Cell number of LAC/RAC support = safety paging capacity / Paging times
of cell in busy hour = 720000 / 705 = 1021
Thus, one LAC/RAC can support 1021 cells.
