Ericsson Radio Systems AB

LA- AND PAGING ANALYSIS FOR RADIO

NETWORK INVESTIGATIONS

1 Introduction......................................................................... 2
2 Location Area Dimensioning ............................................. 2
2.1 Paging capacity versus subscribers..................................................... 2

2.2 Parameters ......................................................................................... 2

2.3 Important STS counters and formulas................................................. 5

2.3.1 General...................................................................................... 5
2.3.2 STS counters in MSC/VLR......................................................... 6
2.3.3 STS counters in BSC ................................................................. 9
2.4 Rural areas ........................................................................................13

2.5 Medium size cities .............................................................................14

2.6 Major size cities .................................................................................14

3 Paging ............................................................................... 15
3.1 General..............................................................................................15
3.2 Paging Capacity.................................................................................15
3.2.1 BSC ..........................................................................................15
3.2.2 BTS and Paging channel load limit............................................17
3.3 MFRMS impacts ................................................................................21
3.4 Analysing the Performance ................................................................22

4 Location Updating............................................................ 23
4.1 General..............................................................................................23

5 Procedure.......................................................................... 25
6 Conclusions ...................................................................... 26
7 References ........................................................................ 27
8 Revision History ............................................................... 28

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1 Introduction
The purpose of this document is to serve as an Ericsson internal guideline on
Location Area (LA)- and paging analysis for Radio Network Investigations.
The objectives are to find out how to dimension LAs and how to optimise the
paging performance. The document should also serve as a "competence store"
and shall be updated on regular basis by the unit e.g. after Radio Network
Investigations. Other LVR guidelines in this area are "Location area
dimensioning guideline CME 20 R6" [3] and "SDCCH Dimensioning
Guideline" [4].
An LA is the area in which a normal page for a particular mobile, registered in
this LA, will be broadcasted. The upper bound for the size of an LA is the
serving MSCs service area. In general the LAs is smaller than that, mainly due
to the paging load that would result in such a large LA. A lower bound for the
size of an LA is set by the location updating load, causing increased demand for
SDCCH resources.

2 Location Area Dimensioning

2.1 Paging capacity versus subscribers

When designing LAs it is necessary to have some knowledge about the paging
capacity requirement. The number of busy hour call attempts, the share of the
total number of call attempts which are mobile terminated, the share of detached
mobiles, usage of SMS, etc. have to be estimated in order to calculate the
paging capacity needed. Thus the number of subscribers that a BSC is designed
to support does not alone suffice to determine the paging capacity needed to
support these subscribers.

2.2 Parameters
In Table 1 some of the most important BSC parameters for Location Updating
and Paging are given.

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Parameters Explanation MML

MFRMS Multiframes period RLDEC
AGBLK No. of reserved access grant blocks RLDEC
BCCHTYPE Type of BCCH RLDEC
T3212 [Deci hours] Time-out, MS periodic LU RLSBC
ATT Attach-detach allowed RLSBC
MAXRET Max. retransmission at access RLSBC
CRH [dB] Cell reselect hysteresis RLSSC
Table 1. BSC parameters related to paging and location
updating.

Explanations and comments:

MFRMS sets the transmission interval of paging messages to paging
groups.
AGBLK sets the number of CCCH blocks in each multiframe that will
be reserved for access grants. Setting AGBLK to a value other than
0 will reduce the page capability.
BCCHTYPE is either COMB, COMBC or NCOMB.
COMB = Combined; Indicates that the cell has a combined BCCH and
SDCCH/4.
COMBC = Combined with CBCH; Indicates that the cell has a combined
BCCH and SDCCH/4 with a CBCH subchannel.
NCOMB = Not combined; Indicates that the cell does not have a
combined BCCH and SDCCH/4.
If COMB is used the capacity of the CCCH will decrease three times,
compared to the NCOMB case.
T3212 is the time between the periodic registration.
ATT sets if attach-detach is allowed. This should be YES.
MAXRET is the maximum number of times an MS tries to access the
system (if the first time failed).
CRH is the hysteresis value used when the MS in idle mode crosses an LA
border. As default this parameter is set to 4. A higher setting might be
advantageous in areas with many LA borders and thus problems with
many Location Updatings.

In Table 2 MSC parameters and exchange properties relevant for paging and
location updating are given.

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Parameters Explanation MML

BTDM [min] Base Time Duration, MGIDP
implicit detach
GTDM [min] Guard Time Duration MGIDP
TDD [days] Automatic de-registration MGADP
supervision time
PAGTIMEFRST1LA [s] Time supervision for the MGEPP
first page in one LA
PAGETIMEFRSTGLOB [s] Time supervision for the MGEPP
first global page
PAGEREP1LA Repeated paging in one MGEPP
LA
PAGEREPGLOB Repeated global paging MGEPP
PAGTIMEREP1LA [s] Time supervision for the MGEPP
repeated page in one LA
PAGTIMEREPGLOB [s] Time supervision for the MGEPP
repeated global page
TMSIPAR TMSI master parameter MGEPP
TMSILAIMSC New TMSI at changing MGEPP
of LA
Table 2. MSC parameters and exchange properties.

Explanation and comments:

BTDM implicit detach supervision should be equal (or longer) than
T3212 in the BSC. If T3212 is increased, BTDM MUST also be
increased.
GTDM is an extra guard time in minutes before the subscriber is set
to detached.
TDD sets the time (in days) that an inactive IMSI is stored in the VLR
before it is removed.
PAGTIMEFRST1LA is the time supervision for the page response of
the first page. The MS is paged in the LA with the first page if the LAI
information exists in the VLR. The parameter is set according to the
default values.
PAGETIMEFRSTGLOB is used instead of PAGTIMEFRST1LA if the
LAI information does not exist in the VLR.
PAGEREP1LA decides how the second page is sent:
0 Paging in LA is not repeated
1 Paging is repeated in LA with either TMSI
or IMSI
2 Paging is repeated in LA with IMSI

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3 Paging is repeated as global paging with

IMSI
PAGEREPGLOB defines how global paging is repeated according to:
0 Global paging is not repeated
1 Global paging is repeated with IMSI
PAGTIMEREP1LA is the time supervision for the second page to
LA. This is the timer used for the second page when PAGEREP1LA
is set to 1 or 2.
PAGTIMEREPGLOB, the time supervision for the second page, if it is
global.
TMSIPAR indicates if TMSI should be used or not:
0 TMSI is not allocated
1 TMSI is allocated only on encrypted
connection
2 TMSI is allocated
Setting this parameter to 0 means that TMSI is not used. The paging
capacity will be decreased if TMSI is not used.
TMSILAIMSC states if a new TMSI shall be allocated at a change of
LAI within the MSC/VLR. Only applicable if TMSIPAR is not equal to
0.

If TMSI is used it will be used at least in the first page. Then, depending on
how PAGEREP1LA is set the page is repeated with either TMSI or IMSI.
However, there will always be some pages which are sent out globally in the
first page. The reason for this is that information about the MS did not exist in
the VLR. Normally, this is due to that the MS was removed of the VLR, due to
being inactive too long time, see parameter TDD above. At an incoming call,
the HLR has information about the most recent location, i.e. VLR, where the
MS was registered. Then, when the call is connected to the VLR a global page
will be sent out due to that no information exist in the VLR about this particular
MS. If the MS would have been registered in the VLR but not active, no page
would have been sent out.

2.3 Important STS counters and formulas

2.3.1 General
Before any STS data can be collected a suitable measurement period should be
decided. The traffic level, on BSC level, can be measured by using the following
formula:

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T_TRAFF = TTRALACC / TNSCAN

TCH Traffic level

1000.0
900.0
800.0
700.0
600.0
Erlang

500.0 Erlang
400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
0.0
0000-0100

0200-0300

0400-0500

0600-0700

0800-0900

1000-1100

1200-1300

1400-1500

1600-1700

1800-1900

2000-2100

2300-0000
Time

Figure 1. Traffic level in Erlang for a BSC.

A measurement period with high traffic level can now be selected e.g. between
15:00 and 19:00.
The next step is to measure the Locating Updating- and Paging performance.
STS counters in MSC/VLR and in BSC will be used.

2.3.2 STS counters in MSC/VLR

Listed below are some very useful counters in STS in MSC/VLR.

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On Location Area Level: Objecttype = Location Area Level Statistics

(LOCAREAST).
Events are counted per LA.

Counter-name Description

NLAPAG1LOTOT Number of first page attempts to a LA

NLAPAG2LOTOT Number of repeated page attempts to a LA

NLAPAG1RESUCC Number of page responses to first page to a LA

NLAPAG2RESUCC Number of page responses to repeated page to

a LA

NLAPAGERR Number of unsuccessful page responses to a LA

NLALOCSSRFLT Number of location updating rejections due to the

CSS restriction

NLALOCTOT Total number of location updating attempts

NLALOCSUCC Number of successful location updatings

Table 3. MSC counters on Location Area level.

Note. When a page attempt is made, a timer is set up and a page response is
expected. If the page response is received after the time supervision has elapsed
or if the page response comes from an unidentified mobile subscriber, the page
response is counted as unsuccessful.

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On MSC/VLR Level: Objecttype = Update Location (UPDLOCAT).

Counter-name Description

NLOCNRGTOT Number of location updating attempts from non

registered subscribers (IMSI attach, normal
location updating or periodic updating)

NLOCIMSERR Number of failed location updating attempts due

to unknown IMSI number series

NLOCREGSERR Number of rejected location updating attempts

due to regional subscription

NLOCOLDTOT Number of location updating attempts for already

registered subscribers

NLOCPERTOT Number of periodic location updating attempts for

already registered subscribers

NLOCATTTOT Number of IMSI attach messages received

(already registered)

NLOCDETTOT Number of IMSI detach messages received

NLOCOLDSUCC Number of successful location updatings for

already registered subscribers

NLOCNRGSUCC Number of successful location updatings for non

registered subscribers

NLOCIDTTOT Number of implicit detach events in MSC/VLR

NLOCNRRTOT Number of national roaming implicit detach events

in MSC/VLR

Table 4. Location Update counters on MSC/VLR level.

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On MSC/VLR Level: Objecttype = Paging (PAGING).

Counter-name Description

NPAG1LOTOT Number of first page attempts to a location area

NPAG1GLTOT Number of first global page attempts

NPAG2LOTOT Number of repeated page attempts to a location

area

NPAG2GLTOT Number of repeated global page attempts

NPAG1RESUCC Number of page responses to first page

NPAG2RESUCC Number of page responses to repeated page

NPAGERR Number of unsuccessful page responses (includes

unexpected page responses)

Table 5. Paging counters on MSC/VLR level.

2.3.3 STS counters in BSC

The most useful BSC object types for the LA- and paging analysis are found in
Table 6.

User-Formula related to STS Object Types

BSC LOAS
Random Access RANDOMACC

SDCCH CELLSDCCH, CELLCCHDR

TCH CELLTCH, CELLTCHDR

Table 6. Useful STS object types in the BSC.

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The most useful BSC counters for LA- and paging analysis are found in Table
7.

Counter-name Object type Description

ACCLOAD LOAS Accumulated processor load in

percent

NSCAN LOAS Number of accumulations

TTCONGS CELLTCH TCH congestion time

TNSCAN CELLTCH Number of accumulations of

traffic level counter (TCH)

TTRALACC CELLTCH Traffic level accumulator.

Accumulations of the traffic
level counter

CCONGS CELLSDCCH SDCCH congestion counter.

Stepped when a selection of an
idle SDCCH fails

CME: CTRALACC, CELLSDCCH Traffic level accumulator .

CMS: CTRALCNT Accumulations of the traffic
level counter (SDCCH).

CNUCHCNT CELLSDCCH Number of defined channels

(SDCCH)

CTCONGS CELLSDCCH SDCCH congestion time

CNSCAN CELLSDCCH Number of accumulations of

SDCCH traffic level counter

CCONGSSUB CELLSDCCH Congestion counter for overlaid

subcell

CCALLS CELLSDCCH SDCCH call attempt counter.

Stepped at every attempt to
seize a SDCCH channel

RAACCFA RANDOMACC Failed random access

RAOTHER RANDOMACC Number of random accesses,

All other cases

RAANPAG RANDOMACC Number of random accesses,

answer to paging

CNROCNT RANDOMACC Number of random accesses

Table 7. STS counters in the BSC.

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A number of user formulas are defined in Turtle for producing the final
statistics. Some useful formulas are:

P_TOT: Total page attempts (MSC level)

NPAG1GLTOT + NPAG1LOTOT

To get Pages/s divide with the measurement period.

P_12_SUC-1: Successful First and Repeated Page Attempts of

Total Number of First Page Attempts (MSC level)
NPAG1RESUCC + NPAG 2 RESUCC
100 [%]
NPAG1GLTOT + NPAG1LOTOT

P_1_SUC-1: Successful First Page Attempts of Total Number of

First Page Attempts (MSC level)
NPAG1RESUCC
100 [%]
NPAG1GLTOT + NPAG1LOTOT

PL_SUC-1: Successful First and Repeated Page Attempts of Total

Number of First Page Attempts (LA level)
NLAPAG1RESUCC + NLAPAG2 RESUCC
100 [%]
NLAPAG1LOTOT

LU_TOT: Total location updatings (MSC level)

NLOCOLDTOT + NLOCNRGTOT

To get LU/s divide with the measurement period.

LU_SUC_TOT: Successful Location Update Attempts of Total Number

of Location Update Attempts (LA level)
NLALOCSUCC
100 [%]
NLALOCTOT

LU_R: Location Update Attempts from Already Registered

Subscribers of Total Number of Location Update
Attempts (MSC level)
NLOCOLDTOT
100 [%]
NLOCOLDTOT + NLOCNRGTOT

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LU_SUC: Successful Location Update Attempts of Total Number of

Location Update Attempts (MSC level)
NLOCOLDSUCC + NLOCNRGSUCC
100 [%]
NLOCOLDTOT + NLOCNRGTOT

LU_PERIOD: Periodic Location Update Attempts of Total Number of

Location Update Attempts from Already Registered
Subscribers (MSC level)
NLOCPERTOT
100 [%]
NLOCOLDTOT

LU_IMSI_AT: IMSI Attach Attempts of Total Number of Location

Update Attempts from Already Registered Subscribers
(MSC level)
NLOCATTTOT
100 [%]
NLOCOLDTOT

S_TRAFF: Average SDCCH Traffic Level (cell level)

CTRALACC
[E]
CNSCAN

S_CONG: SDCCH Congestion of Total Number of SDCCH Seizure

Attempts (cell level)
CCONGS + CCONGSSUB
100 [%]
CCALLS

T_TRAFF: Average TCH Traffic Level (cell level)

TTRALACC
[E]
TNSCAN

RA_TOT: Total Number of Random Access Attempts (BSC level)

CNROCNT + RAACCFA

RA_OTHER: Random Accesses with Cause All Other Cases, e. g.

Location Updating, Detach, Attach, etc. of Total Number

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of Accepted Random Accesses (BSC level)

RAOTHER
100 [%]
CNROCNT

CP_LOAD: CP Load on Average (BSC or MSC level)

ACCLOAD
[%]
NSCAN

When the over all behavior is known a deeper analysis on cell level can be done.
The cells with the highest rate of Random accesses due to Location Updating
should be analysed (see example in Figure 2). SDCCH/TCH congestion time
should be checked for those cells.

25.0

88 LOCATION UPDATING
TCH TRAFFIC LEVEL 20.0

84
15.0

Erlang
[%]

80
10.0

76 5.0

72 0.0
A B C D E F G H I J
Cell

Figure 2. Cells with the highest rate of Random Accesses due

to Location Updating and TCH traffic level.

2.4 Rural areas

The size of the LAs in rural areas, characterised by a low subscriber density, is
not very critical. The possible need for more SDCCH resources in the LA
border cells has a marginal effect on the system since in general capacity is not
a scarce resource in rural areas. (Cellular systems in rural areas are most often
limited by coverage and not by capacity.)
LA borders should be drawn up outside villages and minor cities and
unnecessary criss-crossing over high ways should be avoided.

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2.5 Medium size cities

It is preferable to fit a medium sized city (less than 1 million people) into one
LA to reduce the location updating load. For major cities and detailed
information, refer to chapter 2.6.
The LA borders should be drawn up in low subscriber density areas well
outside the city. LA borders crossing high ways should be avoided as much as
possible.

2.6 Major size cities

LAs in large cities (more than 1 million people) tend to be quite large, in
particular where the city is served by more than one BSC1. One reason to this is
that it is often difficult to find a good way to split a city into more than one LA.
However, provided that it is possible to split a city in two or more LAs, without
creating overload situations in those cells that thereby becomes LA border cells,
this is recommendable.
The upper bound of the size of an LA depends on the capacity of the equipment
used and the scenario. It is thus difficult to give a generally applicable
recommendation on the size of an LA. The best approach is to measure the
actual paging load and to evaluate the performance.
In case a city is covered by more than one LA, the LA border should be drawn
up in low density subscriber areas and it should not criss-cross over high ways.
The SDCCH capacity of the LA border cells should be dimensioned to cater for
the expected location updating load.

1 If more than one BSC/LA the paging load of the LA is shared by all the involved BSCs. Hence the total paging capacity increases with the number
of BSCs at least at BSC level. The cells in the LA are split between the BSCs. The paging load in the BTSs is however not reduced by load sharing
in the BSCs and it is thus important to look out for overload situations in the BTSs/paging channels.

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3 Paging

3.1 General
The MSC knows in which location area the mobile is and sends a paging
message to the BSCs handling this location area. In Ericsson's GSM systems
the BSC stores information about which cells belong to which location area.
The MSC sends down the identity of the location area and the BSCs distribute
the paging message to the concerned BTSs.
Since an LA normally is served by only a few BSCs2, each page is only
distributed to a few BSCs. For each paging message, sent from the MSC, the
BSCs have to generate paging commands to all cells in the LA. The number of
cells in an LA ranges from a few tens up to perhaps one hundred cells,
sometimes even more. Hence an incoming page to a BSC gives rise to a
considerably larger number of outgoing paging commands from the BSC. The
BSC is thus more likely than the MSC to be the unit limiting the paging rate.
Each paging command from a BSC is received by a BTS. Upon receipt of a
paging command a BTS3 has to broadcast the page at least once. A BTS has to
handle all pages addressing mobiles in the LA, which might amount to a
considerable load. Thus also the BTS or the paging channel are likely to set a
limit on the overall paging capacity.
The second page, issued if the first page is not answered, could optionally be
local, i.e. restricted to the LA, or global, i.e. it is sent to all cells in the whole
MSC service area. A global page as second page will of course increase the
total paging load more than would a local page as second page. The
improvement in paging success rate that possibly comes with a global second
page as compared to a local second page should be weighed against the
accompanying increased paging load. It is sometimes questionable if the
improved paging success rate of global second page motivates the
accompanying increased paging load.

3.2 Paging Capacity

3.2.1 BSC
Finding the paging capacity that could be anticipated in a particular BSC is
difficult since the capacity depends on so many things. However, the bottleneck
is usually the number of RP signals that can be sent from the CP to the RPDs in
the TRHs. In CME 20 R5 one TRH is normally serving up to four TRXs.
Typically up to 1500 RP signals can be sent per second. The figure should be

2 Normally 1-3 BSCs are connected to an MSC.

3 Optionally though the BTS can repeat the page once if the paging load is low enough to allow it. This re-transmission of a page should not be mixed
up with a second paging message, which is initiated by the MSC if the mobile does not answer the first page.

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viewed as a hint on the maximum page rate and not as an exact value. The
following calculations can be made:

RPSIG
NO _ PAGE = (1)
NO_ TRH RPp

( )
TRXpTRH

RPp = 1 1 NO _ CELLS (2)

NO _ TRX NO _ LA

where:
RPSIG Maximum number of RP signals per second
TRXpTRH Average number of TRXs per TRH
NO_LA Number of Location Areas
NO_TRH Number of TRHs belonging to the BSC
NO_TRX Number of TRXs belonging to the BSC
NO_CELLS Number of cells
RPp Probability that an RP signal is sent to an TRH
NO_PAGE Number of pages per second

In formula (1) the maximum number of RP signals is divided by the number of

TRH that should have the signal (page). The latter is calculated by multiplying
the Number of TRHs in the BSC with the probability that a TRH should
receive the signal (page). This probability is given by formula (2).
RPSIG was 1000 in early R5 releases but after CNI-180 this figure is 1500,
which also is valid for R6.
TRXpTRH, the number of TRXs per TRH, can be set to 4 for R5 and for R6 6
is a more reasonable figure. Note that the actual configuration might be
different (worse) and will influence the page performance in a negative way.
Example: Assume a scenario with 100 cells in one Location Area with 3 TRXs
per cell. Then the minimum number of TRHs needed is 75 (if 4 is assumed to be
the maximum no. of TRXs per TRH). Using the formulas above gives that 25
pages/s can be sent from the BSC. Note that this is the maximum number and
with more TRHs, the number decreases. If three LAs is used, 53 pages can be
sent per second. However, 50 pages per second seems to be the maximum due
to LOAS delay.
In the BSC there also exist a paging queue with 32 positions, i.e. 32 IMSIs or
TMSIs can be queued and transmitted when resources are available. Therefore
the time supervision for the page response of the first page,
PAGTIMEFRST1LA, should not be too short (shorter than 6 seconds).
In coming CME releases the paging capacity in the BSC will be further

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increased. The things that will be improved are the maximum number of RP
signals/s, lower CP load and maybe also a shorter paging queue.
As mentioned above, there is no measurement function today (CME 20 R6.0),
or counter, that tells if the BSC suffers from page congestion, i.e. pages are
thrown away. However, it is possible by using the test system to trace a
variable, CPAGEDISCARDED in block RMPAG. If the buffer gets full and
pages are thrown away, this variable is stepped.
The paging capacity in APZ 212 is slightly higher than APZ 211.

3.2.2 BTS and Paging channel load limit

In case the rate of pages to a BTS becomes higher than what the BTS is able to
handle, the BTS will discard paging commands. At present the BTS does not
indicate the overload situation to the BSC in any way. Because of this it is
imperative to be able to judge whether or not there is a tangible risk for paging
overflow in any of the BTSs.
The PCH and AGCH share the same TDMA frame mapping. The channels are
shared on a block by block basis, and information within each block when
deinterleaved and decoded, allows an MS to determine whether the block
contains paging messages or access grants.
The parameter AGBLK sets the number of CCCH blocks reserved for access
grants. For example, by setting AGBLK to 1, one block is used only for access
grants and thus the paging capacity will decrease. In the Ericsson system,
access grants have priority over pages and therefore it would be preferable to
have AGBLK to 0. However, in the early releases of CME 20 R5 it was
necessary to set AGBLK to1. AGBLK must also be set to 1 if cell broadcast is
to be used on a cell not using combined BCCH and SDCCH/4. As the
calculations later in this chapter shows, if combined BCCH and SDCCH/4 is
used AGBLK takes quite a lot of capacity away from paging, but in the non-
combined case the paging capacity decrease is limited. It should however now,
if the right correction, CNI-229, is loaded, be possible to set AGBLK to 0 also
for CME 20 R5.
The parameter MFRMS indicates the number of 51-multiframes between
transmissions of paging messages to the same paging group. The total number
of paging groups is MFRMS * (9 - AGBLK) for the case of non-combined
control channels. If combined control channels are used the number of paging
groups will be MFRMS * (3 - AGBLK).
In the BTS there exist one paging queue for each paging group, which evens out
the paging load at sudden tops in the paging. The setting of the parameter
MFRMS is related to the number of paging groups. The parameter does not
directly influence the paging capacity since it got nothing to do with allocation
of resource for paging. However, the setting of MFRMS does affect the paging
queue length4 and thereby the probability of paging queue overflow. Each

4 The higher the value assigned to MFRMS the shorter the queues become.

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paging queue length, QLength, can be calculated according to:

QLength = 14 - PQmax DIV 10
Where PQmax is equal to the number of paging groups in use in the cell. The
queues are handled in a FIFO manner when the first IMSI or TMSI intended for
a PAGING REQUEST message, is dequeued. When more than one IMSI or
TMSI are put into a PAGING REQUEST message, the first suitable IMSI or
TMSI (in FIFO order) is dequeued.
Ericsson base stations can be set to re-transmission pages once, provided that
there are free resources on the PCH. A high load on the paging channels results
in only a few pages being re-transmitted, if any, and thus entails a deteriorated
paging success rate. A decreased rate of answers to first pages results in more
(ordinary) second pages, i.e. an increased load in both MSC and BSC as well as
BTS/paging channels. Finally a decreased rate of answers to second pages lead
to an overall decreased success rate for paging.
A copy of the transmitted IMSI or TMSI is stored on a stack from their
respectively queue. There exists one stack per queue and the maximum number
of elements per stack is 4. An IMSI or TMSI stored for retransmission is
discarded depending on the setting of the parameter MFRMS as specified
below:
If MFRMS <= 3, the IMSI/TMSI is discarded if it has not been retransmitted
within two schedulings of its paging group.
If MFRMS > 3, the IMSI/TMSI is discarded if it has not been retransmitted
within one schedulings of its paging group.
It is possible to use extended page mode to meet overload problems on some of
the paging groups. If the Page Mode element (of the PAGING REQUEST or
IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT messages) is set to Extended Paging the MSs
will not only listen to their normal page group, but they will also listen to next
but one page group. That is, the MSs listening to group 23 should if extended
paging is active now also listen to group 25.
Before the pages are transmitted from the BTS a number of IMSIs and/or
TMSI are combined in one page. The following configurations are possible in
one Paging Request:
Type 1 2 IMSIs
Type 2 1 IMSI and 2 TMSIs
Type 3 4 TMSIs
Thus, by using TMSI the paging capacity can be considerably increased.
As many IMSIs and TMSIs as possible (for a certain paging group) will be
packed into one PAGING REQUEST message. If extended paging is used,
IMSIs and TMSIs originating from two different paging groups may be packed
into the same PAGING REQUEST message. IMSIs and TMSIs stored for
retransmission (in the corresponding paging stack) are included in the PAGING
REQUEST message if not enough IMSIs or TMSIs are found in the actual

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paging queue.
The following configuration parameter are used to control the retransmission
and extended page mode. The parameters are hard coded in the BSC and can
only be changed using the test system.
CCCH repeat ON, OFF Automatic retransmission of pages
and immediate assignments in use
(ON), or not in use (OFF).
DRX_DEV_MAX 0-100 0-100% allowed use of extended page
mode per paging group. (For example,
50% means that extended page mode is
used every other time it is possible to use
it).
The default values are ON for CCCH repeat and 50 for DRX_DEVMAX.
The paging capacity on the air interface is basically determined by the channel
configuration. Two different configurations are presently supported5; combined
and non-combined BCCH.
It is possible to measure the paging capacity in the BTS to some extent. For
RBS200 the TS monitor in RBS200 Local Maintenance Terminal, LMT, can
be used:
Common channels
- Number of paging request in queues.
- Number of random accesses since previous report.
- Size of largest page request queue.
- Size of all time largest page request queue.
- Current use of extended paging in percent (DRX_DEV)
- All time max DRX_DEV
For details on how to use LMT please refer to [5].
Unfortunately you have to use the Ericsson internal tool DVT (Debug and
Verification Tool) to get the same paging related information from RBS2000.
OMT2 does not give much information in this area. Some of the counters you
can monitor in DVT:
CCH
- Denied page mode extended
- Discarded channel request
- Discarded immediate assigns

5 Included in the GSM recommendations but not in CME20 R5 is a possibility to extend the paging channel to more than one time slot, thus
increasing the paging capacity.

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 LA- AND PAGING ANALYSIS FOR RADIO NETWORK INVESTIGATIONS

- Discarded pagings
- Maximum number of pagins in paging queue
- Maximum number of pagings in paging queue ever
- Pagings in paging queues.
LMT/DVT measurements on one typical BTS with regards to channel
configuration etc. would give a good picture of the BTS paging performance of
all BTSs in the LA.

Example with combined BCCH:

When using combined BCCH the maximum theoretical paging rate is 51
pages/s. To achieve this rate all pages have to use TMSI when addressing the
mobile and there must not be any messages to send on the AGCH.
Assume that:

maximum three paged MSs per paging message (TMSI is used to address
the mobile in the first page)

AGBLK is set to 0 (assume that 10 % of the CCCH resources are occupied

by AGCH)

reserving about 50% for BTS initiated re-transmissions of pages.

With this assumptions the page rate would be 17 pages/s. Note that if not
TMSI is used and especially if AGBLK is not set to 0, the paging capacity will
be significantly lower. If, for example, AGBLK is set to 1, 33 % of the CCCH
resources will be occupied by AGCH.

Example with non-combined BCCH:

On a non-combined BCCH the maximum theoretical paging rate is three times
that of the combined BCCH. A more realistic page rate to use for dimensioning
purposes would be about 52 pages/s, in which the following is assumed;
maximum three paged MSs per paging message (TMSI is used to address the
mobile in the first page)
AGCH is assumed to take 10% of the CCCH resources. (Approximately
equivalent to setting AGBLK = 1.)
reserving about 50% for BTS initiated re-transmissions of pages.

As seen from the calculations above, what clearly limits the page capacity is the
use of combined BCCH, especially with a disadvantageous parameter setting.
The system should be dimensioned according to its weakest link, i.e. if one cell
in the LA uses combined BCCH this cell will dimension the whole LA.

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Note also the affect of the AGBLK setting in the two examples above; with the
combined BCCH setting AGBLK to 1 will severely decrease the paging
capacity, while in the non-combined case the effect is much smaller.

3.3 MFRMS impacts

Overview of MFRMS impacts:
1. MFRMS defines the period of transmission for PAGING REQUEST
messages to the same paging subgroup.
2. Together with AGBLK, MFRMS determines the number of Paging Groups.
AGBLK set to 1 is assumed in this case.
3. MFRMS is also used by the MS to determine downlink signalling failure in
idle mode. The downlink signalling failure criterion is based on the downlink
signalling failure counter DSC. When the MS camps on a cell, DSC shall be
initialized to a value equal to the nearest integer to 90/N where N is the
MFRMS parameter for that cell. For MFRMS = 5 the start value of DSC
will be 18. This value is the maximum allowed value. If the maximum value
is not reached and if the MS successfully decode a paging message, DSC
will be increased by 1. If the MS fail to decode the paging message, DSC
will be decreased by 4. When DSC reaches 0, a downlink signalling failure
will be declared. A downlink signalling failure will result in a cell
reselection. A too low value on DSC i.e. a high MFRMS value can result in
more (unnecessary) cell reselections.
4. In the BTS there exist one paging queue for each paging group, which evens
out the paging load at sudden tops in the paging. In Table 8 only the
QLength for NCOMB is listed.
5. BTS re-transmission. Ericsson base stations can be set to re-transmit pages
once, provided that there are free resources on the PCH.
6. Mobile Station power consumption. The impact of MFRMS on the battery
consumption may differ for different mobiles but the more frequent the MS
has to leave sleep mode to listen to it's paging group the more power will be
consumed.
7. The average call setup time for mobile terminated calls will slightly increase
if MFRMS is high.
8. MSC and BSC load. MFRMS should not impact the load very much but the
load will increase slightly if the number of BTS re-transmissions is low. This
is because more second page attempts are needed.

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MFRMS1 Time Paging Paging DSC3 QL4 BTS MS MSC/ Call

between groups2 groups2 re- power BSC setup
pages [s] NCOMB COMB tran5 consum.6 load8 time7
2 0,47 16 4 45 13 few higher higher shorter
3 0,71 24 6 30 12
4 0,94 32 8 23 11
5 1,18 40 10 18 10
6 1,41 48 12 15 10
7 1,65 56 14 13 9
8 1,89 64 16 11 8
9 2,12 72 18 10 7 many lower lower longer

Table 8. Summary of the most important MFRMS impacts.

The risk of BTS overflow is not in proportion with MFRMS. In the extreme
case with MFRMS=2 and BCCHTYPE=COMB the BTS queue for each
paging group will be 14. With the longest possible queue and the shortest
possible transmission period the BTS is able to handle a normal paging load.
Theoretical paging capacity for MFRMS=2, AGBLK=1 and assuming 25%
pages with IMSI and no global pages:
NCOMB: (16*3.2)/0.47 = 109 pages/second
COMB: (4*3.2)/0.47 = 27 pages/second.
This theoretical paging capacity is almost the same for different values on
MFRMS.
Allowing the paging load to be 40% of the capacity:
NCOMB: 109*0.40 = 43.6 pages/second
COMB: 27*0.40 = 10.8 pages/second.

3.4 Analysing the Performance

When analysing the paging performance several things should be taken into
account. The present paging performance should be evaluated; by monitoring
the STS statistics for the LAs in the MSC the page load can be calculated and
compared to the estimated, maximum, page load that the system can handle.,
see previous chapters. Note that the system should be dimensioned after its
weakest link, e.g. if combined control channels are used, this sets the maximum
paging load for the LA.
If the page load is found to be higher than acceptable, several actions can be
taken: firstly, if not already in service, TMSI should be used, secondly, avoid
using combined control channels and thirdly, introduce more LAs. The last
proposition is the last action that should be taken, due to the negative effect on
the SDCCH load. Splitting a LA should thus be the last action to meet paging
congestion.

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4 Location Updating

4.1 General
A too high paging load can be alleviated through a reduced LA size. Smaller
LAs though tends to generate a larger location updating load since the rate of
mobiles crossing LA borders increases as the size of the LAs decreases. This
increased location updating load has a restraining effect on the desire to reduce
the size of the LAs. The increased location updating load is mainly manifested
in an increased SDCCH traffic in the LA border cells. The limiting factor will
thus be the SDCCH capacity requirement.
It is of course desirable to avoid paging a mobile which for some reason is not
possible to reach. A page to a turned off mobile is a wasted page or rather two
wasted pages since a second attempt will be made. Avoiding to page turned off
mobiles will thus improve the paging success rate and also reduce the paging
load. The function IMSI attach/detach enables the system to tell in advance
whether a particular mobile is attached or detached. Thus using this function a
lot of unnecessary pages could be avoided to the prize of an increased load due
to frequent attach/detach messages sent to the MSC/VLR.
Radio coverage, or rather lack of coverage, and radio disturbance are also
sources to unnecessary pages for obvious reasons. Forcing the mobiles to
register at uniform intervals, i.e. using the function periodic registrations, will
reduce the number of pages to mobiles temporarily in blind spots. Shorter
registration intervals will lead to fewer unnecessary paging messages sent and
longer intervals to more. The function periodic registration does however also
introduce an increased load in the system, which increases with a shorter
registration interval.
To continue the analysis from Figure 2 the SDCCH (and TCH) congestion time
for the cells with highest Location Updatings should be measured. These cells
are mainly LA border cells.
Figure 3 shows that some cells are in immediate need for actions by the
operator. A cheaper alternative than to add more capacity would be to consider
to change the LA borders e.g. to avoid major roads crossing between two LAs.
The figure also shows that the operator has been very good in dimensioning
cells with a high Location Updating load.

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 LA- AND PAGING ANALYSIS FOR RADIO NETWORK INVESTIGATIONS

18
16
SDCCH CONGESTION TIME
14
TCH CONGESTION TIME
12
10

[%]
8
6
4
2
0
A B C D E F G H I J
Cell

Figure 3. SDCCH and TCH congestion time for the 10 cells with
the highest rate of Location Updating.

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5 Procedure
The following procedure should be used as a basis for LA- and paging analysis:
1. Check the parameter setting of the system.
2. Use a map of the network indicating the LAs.
3. Use STS to measure the 24 hours traffic level of the network.
4. Select a daily period with high traffic level.
5. Use STS together with user formulas to measure the location updating and
paging performance for a number of days including the paging success rate.
6. Check if the overall location update load is high in the network.
7. Check if one or more BSCs are suffering from high paging load.
8. Check the average CP load.
9. Check problem cells i.e. cells which suffers from a high location updating
level and/or SDCCH congestion. LA border cells are often represented in
this list.
Examples on actions:
1. Consider changing the MSC parameters if the paging success rate is bad e.g.
the time supervision parameters.
2. Use TMSI if possible.
3. If the paging load is high, the LA might be too big and an LA split is needed.
Also consider moving cells to another LA.
4. If needed add SDCCH capacity in problem cells e.g. by changing the
channel configuration. Normally LA border cells.
5. If the paging load (and traffic) is high consider adding another BSC but
estimate the paging load in the BTSs.
6. Increase CRH in areas with many repeated location updatings.
7. Move cells to another LA in areas with many repeated location updatings.
8. Increase T3212 (and BTDM) if the location update load is high but no
problem with paging capacity and paging success rate.
9. Consider moving the LA border if the number of mobiles crossing the LA
border is high. To measure the number of handovers between LA border
cells give a good indication.
10.Use field measurements to verify changes to the network e.g. after an CRH
change.
11.Use STS to verify changes to the network. Measure the location update- and
paging performance, SDCCH load and CP load before and after the
changes. Calculate and/or measure the paging load.

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6 Conclusions
LAs consisting of 10-20 cells could be viewed as a reasonable lower limit on
the size of the LAs in rural areas. Larger LAs are of course also possible up to
the limit set by the paging capacity. As a rule of thumb it is recommended to
consider splitting an LA when the number of cells exceeds 100-150. This does
however not represent an absolute upper limit to the size of the LAs. Assuming
for instance that combined BCCH is not used in any of the cells, it could be
possible to have up to 200 cells in an LA.
It is here assumed that TMSI is used in the first page and that no blocks are
reserved for access grants. If IMSI is used and CCCH blocks are reserved for
access grants together with combined BCCH, the LA should be split before it
contains 100 cells. If only non-combined BCCH is used in the area the LA
should be able to cater for more than 100 cells.
Avoid using combined BCCH and SDCCH/4. One extra time slot can be used
for traffic but the paging capacity is reduced. For AGBLK=0 it is reduced by
approximately 66%.
Use TMSI to improve the paging capacity.
Avoid splitting the LAs in central parts of large cities.
It might be very difficult to find suitable LA borders and by splitting
these LAs the Location Updating load may increase considerably.
Monitor the paging load for all MSC/BSCs and if the load is
approaching the limit for the current set-up, try to move cells to
other MSCs

If the paging demands get too high, split the LAs in the MSCs covering the
outskirts of the city.
The LAs in these MSCs should also be monitored and if the load is
approaching the limit (maybe because cells are moved from the
central MSCs), split the LAs. It should be possible to find suitable LA
border for these MSCs by measuring the handover traffic between
cells in the MSCs.
Change the T3212, periodic location updating time out timer when the paging
capacity is increased.
If no paging capacity problems exists the timer could be increased from 2
hours to 4 hours to decrease the amount of periodic location updatings.
Use STS to measure the location update- and paging performance before and
after the change.

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7 References

[1] 1/190 82-CRH 201 103 Rev. L, TFS Command Description for DVT
[2] EN/LZT 123 2674 Rev. R2A, OMT User's manual
[3] 5/100 56-FCU 101 206 Rev. A ,Location area dimensioning guideline
CME 20 R6
[4] 4/100 56-FCU 101 206 Rev. A, SDCCH Dimensioning Guideline
[5] EN/LZT 120 761/4 Rev. A, LMT Monitor Description

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8 Revision History

Revision Date Remarks

Rev. A 97-04-07 Document responsible: Anders Liljegren,
LVR/PO. Review meeting 970204 see LVR/P-
97:0002.

Date: Signature:

Author:

Checked:

Approved:

28(28) LVR/P-97:0001 Rev A 1997-04-07