WCDMA Idle Mode (Ericsson)

SME Team
Oct 2017

1
Agenda
• Introduction
• PLMN selection
• Cell selection
• Cell reselection
• Location area (LA) and Routing area (RA) updating
• Paging
• System information broadcast

2
Introduction
Idle mode
• No connection to radio network (No RRC connection established)
• This minimizes resource utilization in UE and the network
• UE must be able to access the system and be reached by system with reasonable delays

URA_PCH
• UE in Connected Mode monitoring the paging channel is defined as being in URA_PCH state
• UE in URA_PCH is known by the WCDMA RAN on a UTRAN Registration area (URA) level
CELL_FACH mode
• User Equipment (UE) in Connected Mode (has an RRC Connection to radio network)
• UE uses the common transport channels RACH or FACH

CELL_DCH mode
• User Equipment (UE) in Connected Mode (has an RRC Connection to radio network)
• UE uses dedicated channels for transmitting data and signalling

3
Idle mode
Functions performed
• PLMN Selection
• Cell Selection and
Reselection
• Location Area (LA) and
Routing Area (RA)
updating
• Paging
• System Information
Broadcast

4
PLMN Selection
PLMN selection performed upon power on or upon recovery from lack of coverage

If there is no last registered PLMN, or if it is unavailable, the UE will try to select

another PLMN “AUTOMATICALLY” or “MANUALLY” depending on its operating
mode

Manual mode:
• UE displays all PLMN’s (allowed and not allowed) by scanning all frequency carriers
• The user makes a manual selection and the UE attempts registration on the PLMN

5
PLMN Selection (Contd)
•In automatic mode, if no last registered
PLMN exists or is available, the UE selects
a PLMN in the following order of priority

•Each PLMN in the user-controlled PLMN

list in the USIM, in order of priority
•Each PLMN in the operator-controlled
PLMN list in the USIM
•Other PLMN’s according to the high-
quality criterion
(WCDMA: CPICH RSCP >= -95 dBm; GSM:
SS >= -85 dBm)
•Other PLMN’s, in order of decreasing
signal strength

6
PLMN selection (Contd)
• Roaming is a service through which a UE is able to obtain services from another
PLMN

• The UE in Automatic mode, having selected and registered a Visited PLMN

(VPLMN) periodically attempts to return to its Home PLMN (HPLMN)

• The time interval between consecutive attempts is stored in the USIM and is
managed by the network operator using a timer.
 The timer may have a value between 6 minutes and 8 hours with
a step size of 6 minutes. A default value is 30 minutes.

7
Cell Selection
• UE looks for a suitable cell in the selected PLMN and
camps on it, this state called "camped normally".

• Then UE monitors the paging and system information (SI),

performs periodical radio measurements and evaluates
cell reselection criteria

• WCDMA is sensitive to intra frequency interference

• Measurements used in cell selection and cell re-selection not
only relate to signal strength but also to quality of CPICH

8
Cell Selection (Contd)
Strategies used for the cell selection process:
• Initial Cell Selection: UE has no knowledge of the WCDMA radio
channels
• UE scans all WCDMA radio frequency channels to find a suitable cell with
the highest signal level and read BCCH
• The PLMN is determined from the mcc and mnc in the MIB in BCCH
• Stored Information Cell Selection: UE knows the carrier
frequencies that have previously been used

The UE must synchronize with the WCDMA RAN to read SI on the BCCH to select a
PLMN and to find a suitable cell. The cell search procedure is performs the
synchronization between the UE and the WCDMA RAN

9
Cell Selection Procedure (Contd)

10
Cell search procedure
Cell search procedure

• UE acquires slot synchronization using P-SCH

• It acquires frame synchronization using S-SCH
• Primary scrambling code is obtained from CPICH

11
Cell Selection Procedure (Contd)

• For cell selection criteria the UE calculates

Squal = Qqualmeas - qQualMin (for WCDMA cells)
Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas - qRxLevMin – Pcompensation (for all cells)

Where Pcompensation = max(maxTxPowerUL – P,0)

P is output power of UE according to class
• Cell selection criteria (S criteria) is fulfilled when
Squal > 0 ( for WCDMA cells only)
and Srxlev > 0

12
Cell Selection Procedure (Contd)
The UE attempts to make a cell selection to find a suitable cell on which to camp in
the following cases:

At power on
After a number of failed RRC Connection requests
When entering Idle Mode after a number of failed cell update attempts
After transition from dedicated mode (CELL_DCH) to any of the following states:
CELL_FACH, URA_PCH or Idle Mode
When entering Idle Mode after completion of an emergency call on any PLMN

13
Cell Reselection
Two different mechanisms for cell reselection are supported in WCDMA:

Legacy (or ranking based) cell reselection: This mechanism applies for intra-
frequency cell reselection and inter-frequency cell reselection within WCDMA as
well as for cell reselection from WCDMA to GSM.
Priority based cell reselection: This mechanism applies for cell reselection from
WCDMA to LTE.

Both legacy-based and priority based cell reselection can be active at the same
time. At the time when any of the algorithms has found a better cell according to its
criteria, cell reselection is attempted.

14
Cell Reselection
UE ranks available cells using R criteria
R(Serving) = Qmeas(s) + qHyst(s)
R(Neighbour) = Qmeas(n) – qOffset(s,n)

Qmeas is the quality value of the received signal

• Derived from the averaged received signal level for GSM cells
• Derived from CPICH Ec/N0 or CPICH RSCP for WCDMA cells depending on the value of
qualMeasQuantity

qHyst(s) = qHyst1 when ranking based on CPICH RSCP

qHyst(s) = qHyst2 when ranking based on CPICH Ec/N0
qOffset(s,n) = qOffset1sn when ranking based on CPICH RSCP
qOffset(s,n) = qOffset2sn when ranking based on CPICH Ec/N0

15
Cell Reselection (Contd)
The ranking is first based on RSCP
• If a GSM cell is the best cell, the UE reselects to that cell
• If a WCDMA cell is the best cell, the UE again performs ranking on a parameter depending on
qualMeasQuantity and then performs cell reselection
The UE will reselect a new cell if it is better ranked than the serving cell for a time
interval of treSelection
Intra frequency measurements
If Squal < SIntraSearch, the UE performs Intra-Freq measurements
Remember: Squal = Qqualmeas - qQualMin
Inter frequency measurements
If Squal < SInterSearch, the UE performs Inter-Freq measurements ()
Inter-RAT measurements
If Squal < SRatSearch or Srxlev < sHcsRat, the UE performs Inter-RAT measurements

16
Cell Reselection (Contd)
Priority-Based Measurement Rules
The UE has to always perform measurements on LTE frequencies with higher priority than
the serving WCDMA cell.

For lower priority LTE frequencies, the need to perform measurements is controlled by the
absPrioCellRes.sPrioritySearch1 and absPrioCellRes.sPrioritySearch2 parameters in
relation to Srxlev and Squal as specified below:

• if Srxlev is > absPrioCellRes.sPrioritySearch1 and Squal is >

absPrioCellRes.sPrioritySearch2, the UE can choose not to measure on lower priority LTE
frequencies.

• If Srxlev is =< absPrioCellRes.sPrioritySearch1 and/or Squal is =<

absPrioCellRes.sPrioritySearch2, the UE is required to perform measurements on lower
priority LTE frequencies

17
Cell Reselection (Contd)
Priority-Based Cell Reselection Criteria
Cell reselection to a higher priority LTE frequency is performed by the UE if Srxlev of the LTE
cell is greater than threshHigh for a duration of treSelection second.

Cell reselection to a lower priority LTE frequency is performed by the UE if the following
criteria are fulfilled for a duration of treSelection seconds.

• Srxlev of the serving cell < absPrioCellRes.threshServingLow or Squal of the serving cell
<0

• Srxlev of the LTE cell is greater than threshLow

Srxlev of the LTE cell is defined as:

• Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas – qRxLevMin

18
Location and Routing Area updating
If the Location Area Identity (LAI) or Routing Area Identity (RAI) read on system information is different to
the one stored on the USIM, the UE performs a LA or RA registration update

Three types of registration update

• Normal
• Periodic
• IMSI attach/detach

Periodic update
• T3212 is the time interval between two periodic LA updates
• T3312 is the time interval between two periodic RA updates
IMSI attach/detach used if att = 1 (1)
• UE sends “attach” or “detach” messages when the UE is powered on or off

19
Paging
Two types of paging
• Core Network informs a UE of a terminating service request
• RAN informs all UE’s that the system information has been modified

Paging messages sent to all UE’s in LA or RA

• trade-off between the number of registration attempts and the paging load which
depends on the size of the LA or RA

PICH is used to indicate to the UE when it should read the S-CCPCH

• Number of times RAN pages the UE is determined by noOfPagingRecordTransm

20
 Paging
Discontinuous Reception
• UE listens to PICH at predefined
times only
• The time interval Discontinuous
Reception (DRX) cycle = (2^k) * 10
(ms)
where k = cnDrxCycleLengthCs
for CS and cnDrxCycleLengthPs
for PS

• Updated system information from RAN

– RAN pages the UE consecutively
– The number of times the UE hears it is defined by noOfMaxDrxCycles

21
System Information
System parameters are broadcast in BCCH. It has information regarding
• Cell Selection and Reselection
• Measurement Management
• Location and Routing Registration
• Handover
• Power Control

The System Information elements are broadcast in System Information Blocks (SIB’s). Each SIB
contains a specific collection of information

The MIB gives the scheduling information of the SIB’s

• Repetition Rate for SIB (sibxRepPeriod where x = 1,3,5,7,11,12)
• Start Position for SIB (sibxStartPos where x = 1,3,5,7,11,12)

22
System Information
•MIB has a fixed repetition rate of 80ms

•When there is a system information update, the RNC updates the RBS up to a
maximum of updateCellReattNo

23
SIB Contents

24
System Information Update
For rereading SIB’s, there are different rules for static and
dynamic SIB’s

For static SIB’s, when the information changes, the

corresponding value tag in the MIB changes

When any SIB is modified, the RAN pages all UE’s with the
information element “BCCH modification info”

Dynamic SIB’s (SIB7) are not linked to value tags in MIB

• Expiration time is used as the reread mechanism
Expiration time = sib7RepPeriod * sib7expirationTimeFactor

25
SIB Characteristics

26
SIB Characteristics (Contd)

27
Reference
Idle Mode and Common Channel Behavior ,Alex,USER DESCRIPTION
,71/1553-HSD 101 02 Uen AA

28
Thank You

29