Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at

High Load

USER DESCRIPTION

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Copyright

© Ericsson AB 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be

reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Disclaimer

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continued progress in methodology, design and manufacturing. Ericsson shall
have no liability for any error or damage of any kind resulting from the use
of this document.

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 Contents

Contents

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Basic Characteristics 1
1.2 Benefits 1
1.3 Additional Information 1

2 Feature Operation 3
2.1 Network Requirements 3
2.2 Feature Sequence Diagram 3

3 Parameters 7
3.1 Feature Configuration Parameters 7
3.2 Affected Parameters 7

4 Network Impact 9
4.1 Capacity 9

5 Associated Features and Affected Functions 11

5.1 Prerequisite Features 11
5.2 Affected Features 11
5.3 Related Features 11
5.4 Affected System Functions 11

6 Performance 13
6.1 KPIs 13
6.2 Counters 13
6.3 Events 14

7 O&M Information 15
7.1 Feature Activation and Deactivation 15

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 Introduction

1 Introduction

This document describes the Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High

Load feature, its main benefits and impacts in the LTE RAN.

The purpose of the Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load feature

is to adjust the uplink Time Alignment Timer (TAT) depending on the
Physical Uplink Common Control Channel (PUCCH) resource utilization.

1.1 Basic Characteristics

This section describes the basic characteristics of the feature.

Feature name: Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load

Product identity:
See Feature Overview.

Replaces: N/A

Dependencies

This feature has no prerequisite features and affects no other features.

1.2 Benefits
The main benefits of the feature are:

• More User Equipments (UEs) in connected mode

• Avoid penalties to latency in low load since UEs are kept in-sync

• PUCCH resource utilization efficiency in high load

1.3 Additional Information

More information about time alignment and related topics can be found in the
following documentation:

• 3GPP TS 36.321, Medium Access Control (MAC), Protocol specification

• 3GPP TS 36.331, Radio Resource Control (RRC), Protocol specification

The latest versions of these documents can be obtained from

http://www.3gpp.org.

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 Feature Operation

2 Feature Operation

This section describes the Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load

feature in more detail, including network configuration requirements and
operation flows.

2.1 Network Requirements

This is a licensed feature. This means that for the feature to be operational, a
valid license key must be installed and the feature must be explicitly activated
by setting a MOM attribute. See Section 7.1 on page 15 for more details.

This feature has no prerequisite network configuration requirements.

2.2 Feature Sequence Diagram

This feature monitors PUCCH resource utilization and provided the utilization
level exceeds a threshold an operator controlled value is used for the TAT,
forcing UEs to go out-of-sync after TAT has expired. When the utilization level
is below the threshold, the value Infinity is used for TAT regardless of the
configured value and UEs are always seen as in-sync.

2.2.1 PUCCH Resource Utilization

In this feature the PUCCH resource utilization refers to the utilization level of
the number of resources reserved for Scheduling Requests (SR). PUCCH
resource utilization is monitored both on cell level as well as on baseband
processing resource level within one Digital Unit (DU). The feature is by that
operational in both single and multi-DU eNB configurations. Recommendation
document,Control Channel Dimensioning, details how PUCCH and SR capacity
is configured on cell level. Baseband processing resource capacity is calculated
by the system based on a number of configuration settings.

Note: In 1.4 Mhz systems, the PUCCH capacity is reduced by Physical

Random Access Channel (PRACH), see Control Channel
Dimensioning. For systems in this configuration, the feature
overestimates the available PUCCH SR resources on baseband
processing level. This results in that UEs are kept in-sync longer than
desired.

2.2.2 Time Alignment Timer

As long as the PUCCH resource utilization is low to moderate it is beneficial
to keep all served UEs in sync. This gives best end user experience with
low latency for the UE and at the same time save processing and signalling

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 Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load

resources in eNB and UE. When all connected users are in-sync, PUCCH
capacity limits the maximum number of users that can be served in a cell or in a
baseband processing resource unit. Statistically not all UEs are active at the
same time, one set of UEs are inactive while another set of UEs are active. In
order to free PUCCH resources inactive UEs are allowed to go out-of-sync and
thereby allow more connected users, This comes with the cost of added end
user latency when the UEs have data to transmit or receive.

The duration an UE is kept in sync is controlled by the parameter Time

Alignment Timer (TAT) that can be set by the operator on cell level, see
Table 1. This parameter can either be set to Infinity meaning that UEs are
always kept in-sync or to a specific time value. If a specific time value is
set then the UE shall consider itself to be out-of-sync after this time period,
provided that it has not received a new Timing Advance Command.

Figure 1 shows TAT set to a specific value forcing the UE out-of-sync to be

able to reuse the PUCCH resources for other UEs. Figure 2 shows TAT set
to Infinity and thus reserving the PUCCH resources for this UE throughout
the RRC connection.

RRCConnectionSetup
RRCConnectionReconfiguration RRCConnectionRelease
RRCConnectionReestablishment

Inactivity Timer

TAT

DL/UL traffic Timing Out-of-Sync

Advance
Command

PUCCH RESOURCES USED NO RESOURCES USED EXCEPT RANDOM ACCESS

Allocate PUCCH Release PUCCH

L0001143A

Figure 1 Time Alignment Timer expired with UE session out-of-sync

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 Feature Operation

RRCConnectionSetup
RRCConnectionReconfiguration RRCConnectionRelease
RRCConnectionReestablishment

Inactivity Timer

TAT

DL/UL traffic Timing

Advance
Command

PUCCH RESOURCES USED

Allocate PUCCH Release PUCCH

L0001144A

Figure 2 Time Alignment Timer set to infinity with UE session in-sync

2.2.3 Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load Threshold

The Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load feature combines
the benefits of keeping UEs in-sync when the PUCCH utilization is low and
letting UEs go out-of-sync at high PUCCH utilization. If the PUCCH resource
utilization increases above a threshold on cell or baseband processing resource
unit, the TAT for subsequent RRC Connection Setups, RRC Reconfigurations
and RRC Connection Reestablishments is set to the operator configured
tTimeAlignmentTimer (EUtranCellFDD.tTimeAlignmentTimer or
EUtranCellTDD.tTimeAlignmentTimer). This means that UEs with TAT
set to a specific value can go out-of-sync provided no new Timing Advance
Command is received. RRC connections already setup keep their TAT setting.

When the PUCCH resource utilization falls below the threshold, TAT is set to
Infinity regardless of the configured value. This means that UEs with this TAT
value are regarded as in-sync.

Note: The Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load threshold is

controlled by the system and is not operator configurable.

Figure 3 shows the Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load threshold

where the resource utilization varies over time.

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 Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load

PUCCH
Resource
Utilization

ON OFF TAT Adjustment

Threshold

Time
L0001145B

Figure 3 Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load Threshold

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 Parameters

3 Parameters

This section describes configuration parameters for the Inactivity-Triggered

PUCCH Release at High Load feature and parameters affected by activating
the feature.

3.1 Feature Configuration Parameters

Table 1 describes the feature parameters.

Note: The parameters exist in the following MO classes:

• EUtranCellFDD

• EUtranCellTDD

Table 1 Feature Parameters

Parameter Description
tTimeAlignmentTimer tTimeAlignmentTimer sets the TAT to either infinity or definite
time. When this feature is active the TAT shall be set to a definite
value, 1920 ms is the recommended value.

3.2 Affected Parameters

The implementation of this feature affects no parameters.

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 Network Impact

4 Network Impact

This section describes how the Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High

Load feature impacts the network functions and capabilities.

4.1 Capacity
This section provides information on the impact of the feature on network
capacity.

With this feature activated and configured the number of connected UEs will be
higher and at the same time letting UEs stay in-sync in low load.

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 Associated Features and Affected Functions

5 Associated Features and Affected

Functions

This section describes how the Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High

Load feature affects other features and functions.

5.1 Prerequisite Features

This feature has no prerequisite features.

5.2 Affected Features

This feature affects no other feature

5.3 Related Features

This feature is not related to any other feature.

5.4 Affected System Functions

This feature affects no system functions.

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 Performance

6 Performance

This section describes performance indicators, counters, and events associated

with the Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load feature.

6.1 KPIs
This feature has no associated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

6.2 Counters
Table 2 and Table 3 list the counters associated with the Inactivity-Triggered
PUCCH Release at High Load feature. There are no specific counters for the
feature operation. The listed counters can be used to observe the PUCCH
resources.

Note: The counters in Table 2 exist in the following MO classes:

• EUtranCellFDD

• EUtranCellTDD

Table 2 Counters for EUtranCellFDD and EUtranCellTDD

Counter Description
pmPucchSr Counter pmPucchSr indicates the total number of received
Scheduling Requests on PUCCH.
pmPucchFailSr Counter pmPucchFailSr indicates the number of received
Scheduling Requests (SR) over RACH due to a failure from the
UE to access the node by means of SR over PUCCH.
pmRaSuccSrInSync Counter pmRaSuccSrInSync indicates the total number of
received Scheduling Requests on RACH from In-Synch UEs.
pmRaSuccSrOutOfSync Counter pmRaSuccSrOutOfSync indicates the total number of
received Scheduling Request on RACH from Out-Of-Synch UEs.
pmRrcConnLevSumUlOutOfSync Counter pmRrcConnLevSumUlOutOfSync indicates the
number of UEs in RRC_CONNECTED that have UL sync state
'out-of-sync'.
pmPucchSrCqiResAllocAtt Counter pmPucchSrCqiResAllocAtt indicates the aggregated
number of attempts to allocate PUCCH resources.
pmPucchSrCqiResCongSr Counter pmPucchSrCqiResCongSr indicates the number of
times a PUCCH allocation request for SR resource(s) could not
be granted.
pmPucchSrResShortUtilCell Counter pmPucchSrResShortUtilCell indicates the
maximum utilization of SR resources in the short periodicity pool
in the cell

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Counter Description
pmPucchSrResMediumUtilCell Counter pmPucchSrResMediumUtilCell indicates the
maximum utilization of SR resources in the medium periodicity
pool in the cell
This counter is active only when the Variable SR and CQI
Periodicity feature is enabled.
pmPucchSrResLongUtilCell Counter pmPucchSrResLongUtilCell indicates the maximum
utilization of SR resources in the long periodicity pool in the cell
This counter is active only when the Variable SR and CQI
Periodicity feature is enabled.

Table 3 Counters for BbProcessingResource

Counter Description
pmPucchSrResUtilBbm Counter pmPucchSrResUtilBbm indicates the maximum
utilization of SR resources in the baseband processing resource
unit.
pmPucchSrResCongBbm Counter pmPucchSrResCongBbm indicates the number of times
a PUCCH allocation request for SR resource(s) could not be
granted due to lack of resources in the baseband processing
resource unit.

More information about counters can be found in Managed Object Model

(MOM) RBS.

6.3 Events
This feature has no associated events.

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 O&M Information

7 O&M Information

This section provides Operation and Maintenance (O&M) information for the
Inactivity-Triggered PUCCH Release at High Load feature.

7.1 Feature Activation and Deactivation

This feature license is implemented by the MO instance OptionalFeature
License = InactTrigPUCCHRelAtHighLoad.

To activate the feature:

1. Ensure that the corresponding license key is installed by checking that the
licenseState attribute for the feature is set to ENABLED.

2. Activate the feature by setting the attribute featureState to ACTIVATED.

3. Set tTimeAlignmentTimer (EUtranCellFDD.tTimeAlignmentTi

mer or EUtranCellTDD.tTimeAlignmentTimer) to a non-zero value
for all cells where this feature is to be operative.

4. Lock all relevant cells.

5. Unlock all relevant cells to activate the new setting of tTimeAlignme

ntTimer .

Note: For cells with tTimeAlignmentTimer set to Infinity (zero) the feature
is not operative.

To deactivate the feature:

1. Set tTimeAlignmentTimer to zero (Infinity) for all relevant cells.

2. Lock all relevant cells.

3. Unlock all relevant cells to activate the new setting of tTimeAlignment

Timer.

4. Set the attribute featureState to DEACTIVATED

Note: If the featureState is deactivated before tTimeAlignmentTimer

is set to Infinity, UEs can be forced out-of-sync even if the PUCCH
resource utilization is low.

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