E User Description, Dynamic BTS Power Control

User Description, Dynamic BTS

Power Control
©Ericsson Radio Systems AB

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1999-02-09
User Description, Dynamic BTS Power Control

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 User Description, Dynamic BTS Power Control

Contents
1 Feature Overview.......................................................................................... 5

1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 5

1.2 Background.............................................................................................. 5
1.3 What can be achieved............................................................................. 5

2 Technical description................................................................................... 7

2.1 General .................................................................................................... 7

2.2 Algorithm.................................................................................................. 8

2.3 Power regulation example.......................................................................15

2.4 Main changes in Ericsson GSM System R7/BSS R7.1..........................16

3 Engineering guidelines.................................................................................17

3.1 Interactions with other features ............................................................... 17

3.2 Frequency planning aspects....................................................................17

3.3 Recommendations...................................................................................18

4 Parameters.....................................................................................................25
4.1 Main controlling parameters .................................................................... 25

4.2 Additional parameters..............................................................................25

4.3 Value ranges and default values ............................................................26

5 References.....................................................................................................27

6 Appendix A....................................................................................................29

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 Feature Overview

1 Feature Overview
1.1 Introduction
The output power of a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) can be
controlled during a connection. The control strategy is to maintain a
desired received signal strength and quality in the mobile station (MS).
The Dynamic BTS Power Control feature is implemented in the Base
Station Controller (BSC).

1.2 Background
Implementation of BTS Power Control will be important when high
capacity is needed in a GSM network. Frequency Hopping, together
with BTS Power Control and Discontinuous Transmission (DTX)
improve the possibilities to achieve very tight frequency reuse, see
further ref. 1 and ref. 2.
Observe that improvement of the system performance with BTS Power
Control will only be achieved in an interference limited system.
Two additional reasons for implementing BTS Power Control are:
• If the power supply to a BTS is cut off, it will operate on battery
power. If it then always transmits at maximum power, its battery
consumption will be unnecessarily high.
• When an MS is close to a BTS, the MS receiver might become
saturated by the signal energy transmitted from the BTS. The
sensitivity of the receiver will then decrease and the speech
quality become poor.

1.3 What can be achieved

1.3.1 Interference
The aim with BTS Power Control is to increase the number of MSs with
sufficiently good Carrier-to-Interference ratio (C/I). BTS Power Control
will improve C/I if traffic is maintained, or maintain C/I when traffic is
increased or tighter frequency re-use is realised. The gain is obtained
by a reduction of the over all interference level (I) in the network.
When BTS Power Control is used in all BTSs in the network, the total
amount of radiated power is reduced compared to when it is not used.
This implies that the downlink co- and adjacent channel interference in
the network is reduced. Since MSs with low signal strength or bad
quality use full BTS output power, reduced interference level imply
increased C/I for these connections. On the other hand, the C/I is
decreased for connections with high signal strength and good quality
since they are subjected to a reduced BTS output power. Reduction of
C/I will not affect the speech quality of these connections since they
have a margin to the lowest tolerable C/I.

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1.3.2 Battery backup power consumption

If the power supply for the base station is impeded, a battery backup is
used. When BTS Power Control is used the battery consumption is
reduced and the maximum possible speech time will increase.

1.3.3 Receiver saturation

The high signal energy from BTSs transmitted to MSs that are close
might saturate the MS receiver. If the output power of the concerned
BTSs is lowered, the risk for this kind of radio frequency blocking is
reduced. The receiver might still be blocked if an MS is very close to
the base station, but the probability for this is significantly reduced.

1.3.4 Quality and signal strength impact

Both quality and signal strength is considered by the algorithm. Quality
is the estimated bit error rate which is represented by rxqual. Signal
strength is represented by rxlev. Bad quality as well as low signal
strength will increase the output power of the BTS and vice versa.

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 Technical description

2 Technical description
2.1 General
The objective of the Dynamic BTS Power Control algorithm is to adjust
the output power of the transmitters in the BTS so that a desired signal
strength is received in every MS controlled by the BTS. The desired
signal strength is however depending on the path loss (see Figure 1 on
page 7 ) and the quality (see Figure 2 on page 8 ).
Important notice: The algorithms of BTS Power Control in Ericsson
GSM System R7/BSS R7.0 and R7/BSS R7.1 are different (see Section
3.3.2 on page 18 and Section 3.3.4 on page 24).
Important notice: The algorithms in MS and BTS Power Control in
Ericsson GSM System R7/BSS R7.1 are different (see ref. 5 and
Section 2.4 on page 16).
In Figure 1 on page 7 , the BTS output power and the signal strength
in the MS versus path loss between a BTS and an MS is shown. A
BTS can only transmit at distinct power levels, this is illustrated in the
figure.

BTS output power MS received power

Maximum
power level

Minimum
power level

Regulation area Path loss

BTS output power MS received power

Figure 1 Base station output power and MS signal strength versus path loss. Quality is not
taken into account.
When a connection has low path loss (left part of Figure 1 on page 7 ),
the BTS transmits at its lowest possible power level. Although the MS
receives a signal that exceeds the desired value, the BTS can not reduce
the transmitted power any further. Conversely, when a connection
experience high path loss (right part of Figure 1 on page 7 ), the BTS
transmits at the maximum allowed power level for the cell. The power
cannot be increased even if the received signal strength in the MS is
low. Note that this is dependent on the path loss compensation used
(see Section 2.2.4 on page 12).
When quality is taken into account the output power is regulated up or
down depending on the received quality (see Figure 2 on page 8 ). The
base station power then varies with the quality measured by the MS.

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When an MS have low rxqual (high quality) the base station sends on
low power and when an MS have high rxqual, on high power. The
higher the rxqual, the higher the power and vice versa.

BTS output power

Maximum
power level

Minimum
power level

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 rxqual

Figure 2 Example of BTS output power versus rxqual. Signal strength is not taken into
account.

2.2 Algorithm

2.2.1 General
Dynamic BTS Power Control is performed for Traffic channels (TCHs)
as well as for Stand alone dedicated control channels (SDCCHs). Power
control of the SDCCHs is enabled with the switch SDCCHREG. All
time slots on the BCCH frequency are transmitted on full power, i.e.
there is no Power Control of these time slots.
During a call, the MS measures the downlink signal strength and
quality. These measurements are sent to the BTS in the Measurement
Report and further on to the BSC in the Measurement Result message
where they are used for calculation of a new BTS output power.
The measurements from the Measurement Result that are used in the
Dynamic BTS Power Control algorithm are shown in Table 1 on page
8.
Table 1 Measurements used by BTS Power Control

Data description Source

1
signal strength downlink full set MS
1
signal strength downlink subset MS
1
quality downlink full set MS
1
quality downlink subset MS
power level used by BTS BTS
DTX used by BTS or not BTS

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1
The MS performs signal strength and signal quality measurements on
the downlink. Measurements are made on the full set of frames (full
set), as well as on the subset of frames where there is always traffic
(subset). Which of the sets will be used depends on whether DTX
down link has been used or not, during the measurement period, see
also ref. 1.
The minimum time period between two consecutive power orders is
controlled by the parameter REGINTDL. REGINTDL can not be
shorter than one SACCH period (480 ms).
The BTS is able to change its output power on a time slot basis. The
resolution in output power is in steps of 2 dB and the maximum
configurative change is 30 dB.
For a single connection, the maximum change per SACCH period is
also 30 dB.
The Dynamic BTS Power Control algorithm consists of three stages:
1 Preparation of input data
The output power level used in the latest measurement period is
converted from a relative scale. A decision is taken about which
1
set of measurements (full set or subset ) to use. Signal strength
and quality are compensated for frequency hopping and power
control.
2 Filtering of measurements
Measurements are filtered in exponential non-linear filters in order
to eliminate variations of temporary nature.
3 Calculation of power order
Two power orders are calculated according to the algorithm using
two different parameter settings. The one with the maximum
power order (minimum attenuation) is chosen. A number of
constraints (according to hardware limitations and parameter
settings) are applied to the chosen power order.

2.2.2 Preparation of input data

The output power level used by the BTS at SACCH period k, is given
by PLused (see eq. 15) as a number of 2 dB steps downwards from
nominal output power. This is converted to an output value in relation
to the Locating reference point (LRP) (see ref. 3) according to eq. 1.

PWR_U = BSTXPWR - 2 * PLused (1)

where PWR_U is the used output power level, BSTXPWR is the

maximum BTS output power on TCH frequencies in the LRP. The
actual output power in the BTS is set by BSPWRT (see ref. 3).
In the Measurement result, the BTS sends information about whether
DTX (see ref. 1) has been used during the measurement period or not.
This information is used by the BSC to decide which set of downlink
measurements, full set or subset, to use on TCHs. The subset of
measurements should be used if DTX was used during the measurement

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period by the BTS. On SDCCHs the full set of measurements are

always used.
To be able to use the desired quality (QDESDL) and the measured
rxqual in the calculations, both must be converted to Signal to
Interference Ratio (SIR) expressed in dB according to Table 2 on page
10. The mapping between rxqual and SIR is non-linear due to that
faster regulation is needed for low and high rxqual values.
Table 2 Table with relations due to non-linear rxqual to SIR mapping

QDESDL [dtqu] 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
rxqual 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
SIR [dB] 23 19 17 15 13 11 8 4

QDESDL defines a desired value for rxqual that the regulation will aim
for in the regulation process and is given in dtqu units (deci-
transformed quality units). Difference between dtqu and rxqual is a
factor of ten. If QDESDL is not equal to the values given in Table 2
on page 10, linear interpolation is used to realize SIR.
Example for QDESDL:
If QDESDL = 35 then SIR = 15+(13-15)*0,5 = 14 dB

QDESDL_dB is then given by SIR, where QDESDL_dB is the value

used in the calculations.
The BCCH frequency is not subjected to power control. When
frequency hopping (ref. 2) is applied and the BCCH frequency is
included in the hopping set, the BTS output power will vary from burst
to burst depending on which frequency the burst is sent on. A
compensation is necessary to obtain a correct estimation of the
measured signal strength, see eq. 2.

SSTCH = SSM - (BSPWR-PWR_U) / Nf (2)

where SSTCH is the signal strength on the down regulated TCH carriers,
SSM the measured signal strength reported by the MS, BSPWR is the
BTS output power on the BCCH frequency in the LRP (see ref. 3),
PWR_U is the used output power level and Nf is the number of
frequencies in the hopping set. The compensation is performed if the
BCCH frequency is included in the hopping set and if the MS measure
on the BCCH frequency. All signal strength measurements are
compensated before the filtering (see Section 2.2.3 on page 11).

SSTCH is also compensated for power control according to eq. 3.

SS_COMP = SSTCH + (BSTXPWR-PWR_U) (3)

where SS_COMP is the signal strength compensated for both down

regulation and frequency hopping.
If the BSC does not receive the Measurement result from a BTS, the
power regulation is inhibited for that connection. At the same time the
REGINTDL counting is suspended. When a Measurement result is

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received again, power regulation and REGINTDL counting are

resumed.
The signal strength filter will not be updated when signal strength
results (measured in the Measurement report) are missing. This means
that the output from the signal strength filter is held until the next value
is received.
Missing quality values in the Measurement report are set to the worst
possible value. This means that missing quality values are interpreted as
rxqual = 7.
If information about the BTS power level used is missing in the
Measurement report, the missing values are set to the latest calculated
power order.

2.2.3 Filtering of measurements

The filtering for both signal strength and quality is done with
exponential non-linear filters. SSBSTXPWR in eq. 4 is the filtered signal
strength compensated for down regulation, i.e. the signal strength that
would have been received by the MS if no power control was used.
SSBSTXPWR is defined as:

SSBSTXPWR(k) = b * SS_COMP(k) + a * SSBSTXPWR(k-1) (4)

where b and a (b = (1-a)) represent the filter coefficients, SS_COMP is

the signal strength compensated for both down regulation and frequency
hopping and k is a sequence number. Coefficient a is given by the
length of the exponential filter (see Appendix A). Each filter length (L)
corresponds to a certain value of a, and L is determined in the
following way:

if SS_COMP(k) < SSBSTXPWR(k-1)

then L = SSLENDL
else L = SSLENDL * UPDWNRATIO / 100 (5)

where L is rounded upwards to SACCH periods. When the length

exceeds 30 SACCH periods, the length is set to 30.
To enable calculating and sending the power order immediately after
assignment or handover, the filter is initiated with SSBSTXPWR(k-1) =
SSDESDL. This leads to that the regulation starts immediately after the
first valid Measurement report.
Quality filtering is performed in the same way as for signal strength i.e.
with exponential non-linear filters. The filtering is done according to eq.
6 on page 11.

QBSTXPWR(k) = b * Q_COMP(k) + a * QBSTXPWR(k-1) (6)

where QBSTXPWR is the filtered quality compensated for down regulation,

i.e. the estimated C/I (in dB) that would have been received by the MS
if no power control was used. Q_COMP is the compensated quality
part according to eq. 7.

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Q_COMP = (BSTXPWR - PWR_U (k)) + RXQUAL_dB (7)

where RXQUAL_dB is the measured rxqual transformed to SIR (in dB)

according to Section 2.2.2 on page 9 .
The coefficient a in eq. 6 above is given by the length of the
exponential filter (see Appendix A) in the same way as for the signal
strength case, only that this time L is determined in the following way:

if Q_COMP(k) > QBSTXPWR(k-1)

then L = QLENDL
else L = QLENDL * UPDWNRATIO / 100 (8)

where L is rounded upwards to SACCH periods.

To enable calculating and sending the power order immediately after
assignment or handover, the quality filter is initiated with QBSTXPWR(k-1)
= QDESDL_dB.

2.2.4 Calculation of power order

The calculation of the power order is made in three steps:
1 The two basic power orders are calculated.
2 Certain constraints are applied.
3 The output data is finally converted to power order units before it
is transmitted to the BTS as a power order.
The actual information sent to the BTS is the power level, PLused,
according to Section 2.2.6 on page 13.
The basic power orders for regulation (pu1 and pu2) are given by the
following expression:

pui = BSTXPWR + αi * (SSDESDL - SSBSTXPWR)

+ βi * (QDESDL_dB - QBSTXPWR) (9)
i = 1, 2

where the parameters αi and βi are defined as follows:

α1 = LCOMPDL / 100 (pathloss (10)

compensation)
β1 = QCOMPDL / 100 (quality compensation) (11)
α2 = 0.3 (pathloss (12)
compensation)
β2 = 0.4 (quality compensation) (13)

The parameters αi and βi control the compensation of path loss and

quality. The parameters α1 and β1 can be set by means of LCOMPDL
and QCOMPDL while parameters α2 and β2 are fixed. These values
have been optimised to get the regulation towards the noise floor fast
without jeopardising the quality. The setting of α2 and β2 is however

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not critical since these parameters merely serve as a limitation for

regulation close to the noise floor (see Section 2.3 on page 15).
The two power orders are calculated simultaneously (eq. 9) and the one
with the highest value (minimum down regulation) is used. This
resulting power order is called the unconstrained power order, pu.

pu = max(pu1,pu2) (14)

2.2.5 Power order constraints

Dynamic power range limitation is applied if the unconstrained power
order is outside the dynamic range. Two different cases can occur:
• If the unconstrained power order is higher than BSTXPWR, the
power order is set equal to BSTXPWR.
• The lowest allowed power order is given by the maximum of

a minimum output power for the BTS

b BSTXPWR - 30
c BSPWRMIN

2.2.6 Conversion of output data

The new power order has to be converted from the internal dBm scale
to PLused representation before it can be transmitted to the BTS. In
reality this means that the constrained power order is quantisized in
steps of 2 dB according to:

PL used = Int [(BSTXPWR - pu / 2] ∈ [0..15] (15)

where PLused is the power level. PLused = 0 represents full power and
PLused = 15 represents 30 dB down regulation.
The power is always truncated to a higher value (lower power level).

2.2.7 Handover power boost

During a handover, the MS might experience worse quality than known
by the BSC due to the system delay in GSM. Thus in order to
maximise the probability of a successful handover, Handover power
boost should be used.
The speech coding in GSM is very robust. It can in fact cope with a
few bursts with very bad quality. BTS Power Control should therefore
also be used for connections close to the cell border. The coding of the
handover command is however NOT as robust as for speech coding.
Hence, handover command should always be sent on maximum power
in order to maximise the handover performance.
With Handover power boost, the handover command is sent by the
BSC/BTS to the MS on highest possible output power. The handover
command includes information about which uplink power the MS shall
use in the serving cell. If necessary, the MS then acknowledges the
handover command also using highest possible power. When the

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handover power boost is triggered, normal regulation is inhibited until

the MS has received the handover command. The BTS ignores all BTS
or MS power orders sent by the BSC in the serving cell until the MS
has acknowledged the handover command.
Handover power boost is activated with the state variable HPBSTATE.

2.2.8 Regulation procedure

When a TCH connection is set up, maximum configurative output
power is always used, for example in the following situations:
• assignment of a TCH.
• assignment failure or handover failure.
• intra-cell handover and subcell change.
• inter-cell handover.
Down regulation always starts after the first valid Measurement report
(see Section 2.2.3 on page 11). The response time for up regulation is
controlled by the parameters QLENDL and SSLENDL. QLENDL
determines the response time on high interference and SSLENDL on
signal strength drops. The values of QLENDL and SSLENDL
corresponds to a 90 % rise time of the exponential filters.
The response time for down regulation is determined by the expressions
QLENDL*UPDWNRATIO/100 and SSLENDL*UPDWNRATIO/100
where UPDWNRATIO is the ratio between up- and down regulation
speed. This results in a quick up regulation and a smooth down
regulation.

UPDWNRATIO is a BSC exchange property.

When a power order is sent it takes REGINTDL SACCH periods
before the next power order can be sent. If this power order differs
from the previous one, it is sent. If it does not differ from the previous
one, a new order is calculated every SACCH period until a different
power order is obtained. Then that order is sent, and REGINTDL
SACCH periods must elapse before a new order can be sent again.

2.2.9 Multislot configuration

If the TCH channel is a part of a channel combination, it can be either a
main, bi-directional or a uni-directional channel.
If the channel is a main channel in a multislot configuration, the
difference between the computed power order and the previous power
order must exceed a hysteresis of two dB before a new power order is
sent.
BTS power regulation on bi-directional channels is done independently
of the other channels.
For uni-directional channels BTS Power Control is activated without
starting normal power regulation. No Measurement reports will be
received for uni-directional channels. Instead the BTS power value of
the main channel is distributed to the uni-directionals in the multislot
configuration.

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In a multislot configuration only the main channel is affected by the

handover power boost, see Section 2.2.7 on page 13.
See further ref. 6 and ref. 7.

2.3 Power regulation example

The most important thing for good comprehension of the BTS Power
Control algorithm is to understand how the two algorithms work in
parallel and how different settings of the available parameters will
influence the regulation. The equations given in Section 2.2.4 on page
12 can be used to find out how much the output power will be down
regulated for a certain signal strength and quality. But to get an
overview picture of the algorithm as a whole, the dependence between
signal strength, quality and down regulation must be understood.
A suitable way of studying these three quantities is in a three
dimensional plot describing the static behaviour of the algorithm. Let
quality (rxqual) and signal strength (rxlev) constitute a two dimensional
plane that, if BTS Power Control is not active, holds all traffic in the
network (signal strength above rxlev = 63 is ). Let us now introduce
down regulation in the third dimension. If BTS Power Control is
activated, the surface then becomes raised for those values of rxqual
and rxlev where the algorithm allows down regulation. As an example
of this, see Figure 3 on page 15 which shows the static behaviour of the
recommended parameter setting for the feature.

SSDESDL:−90 QDESDL:30 LCOMPDL: 5 QCOMPDL:55

20

15
Down regulation [dB]

10
3

5 2

60
0 50
0 40
1
2 30
3
4 20
1 5 10
6
7 0 rxlev
rxqual

Figure 3 Static behaviour of the recommended parameter setting.

As it can be seen in Figure 3 on page 15, the surface is raised for rxlev
> 14 and rxqual < 4. It is MSs in this area that are down regulated.
The level of the down regulation is shown on the down regulation-axis.
For this, the recommended parameter setting, maximum down
regulation is 14 dB.
Cuo
ng
Digitally signed
by Cuong
DN: CN = Cuong,
C = VN, O =
Viettel, OU =
BSC
Date: 2004.09.06
15:04:35 -07'00'

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Note that rxqual and rxlev in Figure 3 on page 15 corresponds to the

measured values collected from the Measurement report before any
compensation has been done.
For the recommended setting, SSDESDL and QDESDL are set to -90
and 30 respectively. These two values define the point (marked 1 in
Figure 3 on page 15) on the two dimensional plane (quality vs signal
strength plane) where the two separate planes (marked 2 and 3 in
Figure 3 on page 15) of the algorithm meet. Plane 2 regulates the MSs
towards the noise floor (low signal strength) and plane 3 towards
quality. The position of these planes in the three dimensional plot is
determined by SSDESDL and QDESDL.
The parameters QCOMPDL and LCOMPDL decide about the angles
of plane 3 towards the two dimensional plane (quality vs signal
strength). QCOMPDL sets the angle along the QDESDL-value and
LCOMPDL along the SSDESDL-value. The angles of plane 2 are
fixed (see Section 2.2.4 on page 12).

2.4 Main changes in Ericsson GSM System R7/BSS R7.1

• The regulation algorithm is enhanced in such a way that a more
stable behaviour of the power control algorithm is achieved.
• Two regulation algorithms work in parallel. One is designed to
regulate towards the noise and one towards the interference. The
least down regulated algorithm defines the power order.
• Exponential non-linear filters for path loss and quality are used.
• Regulation starts already after the first Measurement report.
• PMARG is not used any more, instead nominal power is sent.
• Possibility to differentiate the up and down regulation speed is
introduced.
• Non-linear rxqual to SIR mapping according to Table 2 on page
10 is used.
• Missing Measurement reports are translated as rxqual = 7.
• The output from the signal strength filter is not changed when
signal strength values are missing.
• If Power Used is missing, it is set to the latest calculated power
order.
• Down regulation can be limited to 2 dB per SACCH by means of
the parameter STEPLIMDL. The default value of this parameter
is OFF.
• Extended value range for QCOMPDL from [0..60] to [0..100] is
implemented.

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3 Engineering guidelines
3.1 Interactions with other features
The gain of BTS Power Control increases in high capacity systems
utilizing a tight frequency reuse. The primary application is a system
that uses a combination of Dynamic BTS Power Control, Dynamic MS
Power Control, Frequency Hopping and DTX. The mutual interaction
between these features provides a very powerful method to increase
system performance, and thereby system capacity. See further in ref. 1,
ref. 2 and ref. 5.
Preferably, power regulation should be performed before an intra-cell
handover occurs and before a bad quality urgency handover is
attempted.
The desired regulation performance can be achieved through a well
balanced combination of the following:
• the BTS Power Control parameters SSDESDL and QDESDL that
set the limits for how close to the noise floor (how low rxlev) and
how high in interference (how high rxqual) BTS down regulation
can be performed.
• the quality compensation factor QCOMPDL and the path loss
compensation factor LCOMPDL that determine the angles of
inclination of plane 3 in Figure 3 on page 15.
• the intra-cell handover area defined by QOFFSETDL, (ref. 4).
• the threshold triggering bad quality urgency handovers, QLIMDL
(ref. 3).
• the lengths of the locating quality filter QLENSD (ref. 3), and the
power control quality filter, QLENDL.
Example:

QDESDL = 30, QOFFSETDL = 5 and QLIMDL = 55.

With this setting, full power will always be used before an intra-cell or
urgency handover occurs.

3.2 Frequency planning aspects

In order to utilize BTS Power Control in an optimum way, it is
preferable to use a dedicated BCCH band. This means that a BCCH
carrier is never used as a TCH carrier and vice versa. The level of
interference will in this way be decreased for all TCH carriers. The
BCCH carriers are unaffected, but will, depending on the frequency
plan, experience less adjacent channel interference from the down
regulated TCH carriers.
The BCCH carriers can either be allocated in a contiguous BCCH band
or in a staggered BCCH band. In a contigous band, carrier no. 1-15 can
for example be used as BCCH carriers whereas in a staggered band, for
example every second frequency can be used as BCCH carriers
(1,3,5..31). There are pros and cons with both these strategies. For BTS
Power Control it is probably beneficial to use the contigous BCCH band

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since when using staggered BCCH, the down regulated TCH carriers in
between BCCH carriers will suffer from adjacent channel interference
from the, on full power always transmitting, BCCH carriers.

3.3 Recommendations

3.3.1 General
When attempting to decrease the downlink co-channel and adjacent
channel interference in the system, the BTS Power Control feature
should be considered. However, since downlink power regulation never
is performed on BCCH carriers, the impact of downlink regulation will
be greater in systems having three or more Transceiver Units (TRUs)
per cell.
When introducing BTS Power Control into a system it is recommended
to begin with moderate settings for the controlling parameters. The
majority of the gain obtained from using power control originates from
the first decibels of regulation. Therefore, a good strategy is to down
regulate many connections with a few dB. To get the best effect it is
important to reduce the BTS output power for as many connections as
possible, also those connections to MSs in the cell border regions being
closest to neighbouring users. For such MSs however the interference
levels are often considerable, and great care has to be taken not to
degrade such calls.

3.3.2 Tuning of the algorithm

The shown down regulation in Figure 3 on page 15 and in the graphs in
this section is a target regulation that the algorithm aims for. Since the
environment changes quickly, and the filtering of signal strength and
quality introduces delays, the target down regulation is never reached
directly.
The recommended strategy (see Figure 3 on page 15) is a good
parameter setting that is not particularly aggressive according to any
regulation strategy. By changing the parameters, the regulation can be
made more aggressive towards quality, signal strength and down
regulation or combinations depending on the needs of the customer.
Note, it is not recommended to limit the down regulation with the
parameter BSPWRMIN. If used, the parameter will seriously limit the
regulation towards interference and also introduce a delay in the
regulation algorithm. Instead it is recommended to use a more
restrictive parameter setting e.g. according to Figure 6 on page 20.
To get a regulation that is more aggressive towards quality (i.e. allows
higher interference before it regulates up to full power), QDESDL can
be set to a higher value e.g. QDESDL = 40. This will lead to, if no
other parameters are changed, an increase of the raised surface in
Figure 3 on page 15 that grows mainly to the right (towards worse
quality) but also a little bit to the left (towards lower signal strength).
And if the inclination of plane 3 is left unchanged, the result is also an
upwards shift of this plane. As an example, Figure 4 on page 19 shows
more aggressiveness towards quality, signal strength and down
regulation compared to Figure 3 on page 15. Still, the only parameter
that has been changed is QDESDL.

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 Engineering guidelines

SSDESDL:−90 QDESDL:40 LCOMPDL: 5 QCOMPDL:55

20

15

Down regulation [dB]

10

60
0 50
0 40
1
2 30
3
4 20
5 10
6
7 0 rxlev
rxqual

Figure 4 Aggressive parameter setting towards quality. This setting is rather aggressive,
also towards signal strength and down regulation. Only parameter QDESDL has
been changed compared to recommended setting (see Figure 3).
For the parameter setting in Figure 4 on page 19, the quality part of the
power control will always fully compensate for bad quality. Full power
should be reached quickly in case of high rxqual (rxqual = 5, 6 or 7).
This is in order to minimise the risk of having poor speech quality due
to too much down regulation and also prevent unnecessary intra-cell
handovers and urgency handovers. Hence, a shorter quality filter might
be needed (see Section 3.3.3 on page 22).
As an example of more aggressive regulation towards signal strength,
study Figure 5 on page 20. The only parameter changed compared to
the recommended setting is SSDESDL which is set to -97. For this
setting MSs with rxlev = 10 and rxqual = 0 are down regulated 4 dB.
Note that this might sound a bit more aggressive than it is, since at this
low signal strength, noise will impose occasional bit errors to the
connection. This will make the regulation to “bounce” on the noise
floor. Very few connections will then manage to be as much as 4 dB
down regulated. Instead most connections will alter between 0 and 2
dB down regulation.

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Engineering guidelines

SSDESDL:−97 QDESDL:30 LCOMPDL: 5 QCOMPDL:55

20

15

Down regulation [dB]

10

60
0 50
0 40
1
2 30
3
4 20
5 10
6
7 0 rxlev
rxqual

Figure 5 Aggressive regulation towards low rxlev. MSs with low signal strength also get
down regulated in case of good quality.
As an example of a more careful regulation strategy see Figure 6 on
page 20. This shows how QDESDL can be decreased compared to the
recommended setting to get a very moderate setting. Maximum 10 dB
down regulation is then allowed.

SSDESDL:−90 QDESDL:20 LCOMPDL: 5 QCOMPDL:55

20

15
Down regulation [dB]

10

60
0 50
0 40
1
2 30
3
4 20
5 10
6
7 0 rxlev
rxqual

Figure 6 Moderate parameter setting. Only parameter QDESDL has been changed
compared to recommended setting (see figure 3)
To compensate for this low setting of QDESDL, one alternative could
be to allow more down regulation for those MSs that have good quality.
Figure 7 on page 21 show how this can be done. The parameter
QCOMPDL is increased and as a result the inclination of plane 3 is
changed. The algorithm then allows more down regulation for MSs
with good quality but is still careful when it comes to regulation
towards bad quality.

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 Engineering guidelines

SSDESDL:−90 QDESDL:20 LCOMPDL: 5 QCOMPDL:63

20

15

Down regulation [dB]

10

60
0 50
0 40
1
2 30
3
4 20
5 10
6
7 0 rxlev
rxqual

Figure 7 Moderate parameter setting, more aggressive towards down regulation.

Another way of changing the inclination of plane 3 would be to change
the path loss compensation parameter LCOMPDL. In Figure 8 on page
21 LCOMPDL has been set to 10 while all other parameters are the
same as in Figure 6 on page 20. This results in that the MSs with high
signal strength regardless of quality gets more down regulated.

SSDESDL:−90 QDESDL:20 LCOMPDL:10 QCOMPDL:55

20

15
Down regulation [dB]

10

60
0 50
0 40
1
2 30
3
4 20
5 10
6
7 0 rxlev
rxqual

Figure 8 Moderate parameter setting with path loss compensation factor LCOMPDL set to
10. This results in a very aggressive behaviour towards down regulation.
The behaviour of the regulation in Figure 8 on page 21 is somewhat
similar to the recommended setting for the BTS Power Control in
Ericsson GSM System R7/BSS R7.0. With the setting in Figure 8 on
page 21, plane 3 has become very large and dominating, almost as in
the former algorithm. The difference is that this setting has regulation
towards signal strength and is more aggressive towards down

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Engineering guidelines

regulation. The maximum down regulation is here 18 dB compared to

14 dB for the old recommended setting.
Important notice: Because of the new regulation algorithm, the
parameters do not have the same meaning in BSS R7.1 as in former
releases of the algorithm. The recommended setting for Ericsson GSM
System R7/BSS R7.0 algorithm is therefore NOT recommended to use!
To transform a parameter setting from a former release to the
corresponding setting in BSS R7.1, see Section 3.3.4 on page 24.
Important notice: The default values given in Table 3 on page 26 are
also NOT recommended to use!

3.3.3 Filter tuning

Generally for up regulation, the BTS Power Control quality filter
QLENDL can be set to a value between 2 or 5. This is fairly uncritical
since instability in the control loop has not shown to be a problem with
this control strategy. Therefore it is better to have a short power control
quality filter since the response to bad quality then becomes quick. It is
not useful to set QLENDL = 1. This would only lead to extremely
nervous behaviour resulting in less average down regulation. Tests have
shown that the difference in fast up regulation between QLENDL = 2
and QLENDL = 3 is insignificant.
In order to avoid unstable behaviour, the down regulation must be slow.
Tests have shown that a filter with lengths between 6 and 9 is good. Of
course longer filters can also be used. This would result in an even
more cautious behaviour. The filter length on the down regulation is
determined by parameters QLENDL and UPDWNRATIO.
UPDWNRATIO sets how much longer the down regulation filter is
compared to the up regulation filter in percent. It is recommended to use
high UPDWNRATIO instead of using STEPLIMDL. As an example
of how the system reacts to bad quality, see Figure 9 on page 23.
Example:

QLENDL is 2 and UPDWNRATIO is 600.

This gives 2 SACCH periods filter length for up regulation and 2*600%
= 2*6 = 12 SACCH periods filter length for down regulation.

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 Engineering guidelines

rxqual
4

0
0 5 10 15 20

Down regulation [dB]

0

−5

−10

−15
0 5 10 15 20

Time [seconds]

Figure 9 Step response to bad quality. Parameter setting QLENDL = 3 and UPDWNRATIO
= 300 was used. Note the logarithmic behaviour of the down regulation.
The BTS Power Control signal strength filter is less critical. The
regulation is done in the same way as for quality filtering. The length
of the up regulation filter is set by the parameter SSLENDL and for the
down regulation by SSLENDL and UPDWNRATIO. For up regulation
SSLENDL = 3 is recommended. The parameter UPDWNRATIO
should be tuned for the quality filter. If it is tuned for quality filtering,
it is also valid for signal strength filtering. Thus, for down regulation, a
filter length of 6 to 9 is recommended but longer filter lengths can be
used if necessary. See also Figure 10 on page 23.
Signal strength [dBm]

−40

−50

−60

−70

−80

−90

−100

−110
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Down regulation [dB]

−5

−10

−15
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Time [seconds]

Figure 10 Step response to low signal strength. Parameter setting SSLENDL = 3 and
UPDWNRATIO = 300 was used. Aggressive parameter setting gave 16 dB down
regulation before the low signal strength occurred. Note the logarithmic
behaviour of the down regulation.

REGINTDL should be set to REGINTDL = 1 in order to make the up

regulation quick in bad quality situations.

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Engineering guidelines

3.3.4 Conversion of parameter setting from former release to BSS R7.1.

Since parameters LCOMPDL and QCOMPDL have different meaning
in former releases than in BSS R7.1 release, it is important not to use
the recommended parameter setting for former releases with the new
algorithm. A transformation between the different algorithms is
necessary.
To transform a recommended parameter setting for a former release to
the corresponding BSS R7.1 setting LCOMPDL and QCOMPDL must
be changed according to eq. 16 and 17.

QCOMPDLold
QCOMPDL new = 100 * (16)
(QCOMPDL old + 100)

QCOMPDLnew
LCOMPDL new = LCOMPDL old * (17)
QCOMPDL old

Example:
The recommended parameter setting in Ericsson GSM System R7/BSS
R7.0 is given as:

SSDESDL = -105, QDESDL = 0, LCOMPDL = 20 and QCOMPDL

= 60
It will according to equations 16 and 17 be transformed to the new
parameter setting in BSS R7.1:

SSDESDL = -105, QDESDL = 0, LCOMPDL = 12,5 and

QCOMPDL = 37,5
This will result in a parameter setting for the new algorithm in BSS
R7.1 with the same static behaviour as the recommended parameter
setting for the old algorithm from Ericsson GSM System R7/BSS R7.0.

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 Parameters

4 Parameters
4.1 Main controlling parameters
SSDESDL defines the target value for the desired signal strength
measured by the receiver in the MS at the outer rim of the regulation
area. The parameter is set per subcell.

QDESDL defines the target value for the desired quality level measured
by the receiver in the MS. It is measured in rxqual units and
transformed into dB units before is used in the algorithm. The
parameter is set per subcell.

LCOMPDL is the parameter that determines how much of the path loss
that shall be compensated for in the algorithm that regulates towards
quality. The parameter is set per subcell.

QCOMPDL is the parameter that determines the weight of the quality

compensation. This parameter ranges between 0 and 100 and is set per
subcell.

4.2 Additional parameters

REGINTDL defines the regulation interval. The parameter is set per
subcell.

SSLENDL defines the length of the stationary signal strength filter.

The parameter is set per subcell.

QLENDL defines the length of the quality filter. The parameter is set
per subcell.

SDCCHREG is a switch for the regulation of SDCCH channels. The

switch is set per subcell.

BSPWRMIN defines the minimum allowed output power for the BTS
on the non-BCCH frequencies. The parameter is set per subcell.

BSTXPWR defines the maximum allowed power level for BTSs in the
current subcell. The parameter is also used in Locating, ref. 3.

BSC exchange properties

UPDWNRATIO is the ratio between the up- and down regulation

speed.

STEPLIMDL is a switch that makes it possible to limit the down

regulation to 2 dB per SACCH period.

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Parameters

4.3 Value ranges and default values

Table 3

Default Recommended
Parameter name Value range Unit
value value
(1)
SSDESDL -70 -90 -110 to -47 dBm
QDESDL 20 30 0 to 70 dtqu
LCOMPDL 70 5 0 to 100 %
QCOMPDL 30 55 0 to 100 %
SACCH
REGINTDL 5 1 1 to 10
periods
SACCH
SSLENDL 5 3 3 to 15
periods
SACCH
QLENDL 8 3 1 to 20
periods
SDCCHREG OFF ON ON, OFF
BSPWRMIN -20 -20 -20 to +50 dBm
(2)
BSTXPWR 0 to 80 dBm
UPDWNRATIO 200 300 100 to 700 %
STEPLIMDL OFF OFF ON, OFF

(1) SSDESDL takes the corresponding positive value in MML commands

and Cellular Network Administration (CNA).
(2) The value of this parameter is highly dependent on the cell planning. No
default value is provided.

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 References

5 References
1 User Description, DTX
2 User Description, Frequency Hopping
3 User Description, Locating
4 User Description, Intra-Cell Handover
5 User Description, Dynamic MS Power Control
6 User Description, Channel Administration
7 User Description, High Speed Circuit Switched Data

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References

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 Appendix A

6 Appendix A
Filter coefficients
Table 4 Coefficients for the exponential filters used.

Filter length L Filter coefficient a

1 0.1000
2 0.3162
3 0.4642
4 0.5623
5 0.6310
6 0.6813
7 0.7197
8 0.7499
9 0.7743
10 0.7943
11 0.8111
12 0.8254
13 0.8377
14 0.8483
15 0.8577
16 0.8660
17 0.8733
18 0.8799
19 0.8859
20 0.8913
21 0.8962
22 0.9006
23 0.9047
24 0.9085
25 0.9120
26 0.9152
27 0.9183
28 0.9211
29 0.9237
30 0.9261

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