1.

Introduction
An important point to take into consideration for a mobile network and cell
selection is that the network
must be able to route calls toward the subscriber. The infrastructure must
know some minimum
Information concerning the location of the subscriber to do so. This
information can be provided only
by the MS, and the service provided to the user depends on the
consistency between the location
Currently assessed by the infrastructure and the cell chosen by the MS. It
is then necessary to look at
how the infrastructure deals with calls toward GSM subscribers.
In order to avoid a waste of signaling, when a mobile terminated call has
to be established, the
system is designed to look for a subscriber (paged) in a group of cells of
the system. This group of
cells belongs to the same Location Area (LA). Therefore, the MS must
inform the system of the LA in
which the subscriber should be paged. It does so by a location updating
procedure.
The network, on the other hand, must store the present LA of each
subscriber. Each change of LA
puts an extra load, not only on the infrastructure equipment, but also on
the radio path.
PAGING and LOCATION AREAS
The goal is to minimize resource consumption, taking into account the
signalling load on the radio path (both from paging and location
updating) as well as the processing load of the equipment.
The Location Updating procedure is carried out in order to inform
the network about the location and availability of the subscribers. If an
MS wants to obtain normal service from a cell, and in particular to
receive calls, it must make sure the MS is registered in the LA of its
current serving cell.
Three different types of Location Updating are defined:
Normal location updating used when the MS has selected a cell that belongs
to a new LA;
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IMSI attach used when the MS is powered on or the SIM is put into the mobile
equipment;
Periodic updating used to prevent MS from becoming accidentally detached from the
system.
It should be remembered that the smaller the sizes of the LA, the lower the
paging load but the higher the number of Location Updates. Conversely, the
bigger the size of the LA, the higher the paging load and the lower the
number of Location Updates. Effectively, the LA is chosen to ensure that
 Paging congestion will not occur and that BSC load is acceptable. Within
these constraints, the LA should be designed to :
- be as large as possible in order to minimize the number of boundary cells;
- ensure the boundary between two LAs occurs in clear hand over area where
the risk of ping- pong Location Update is minimum;
-keep the traffic flow between the LAs to a minimum.
Reference Document: Optimum Location Area Planning (2DF009937000PGZZA).
11. Location Areas dimensioning

2.1Location Area general design

The maximum size of a Location Area is mainly driven by the max number of paging it can
handle, i.e.by the traffic seen on this Location Area. Paging messages are transmitted within
CCCH blocks
contained within each 51 multi-frame.
Nr. of frames according to BCCH configuration:

BCCH
Non-
Combine
Channel Combined d.
FCCH 5 5
SCH 5 5
BCCH 4 4
SDCCH 16 0
SACCH 8 0
CCCH
dl 12 36
DL
Total 50 50
SDCCH 16 0
SACCH 8 0
RACCH 27 51
UL
Total 51 51

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The downlink CCCH is shared between PCH and AGCH. The different parameters, which
influence this, are:
- CCCH_CONF: definition of the CCCH configuration (combined or not
combined).
- BS_AG_BLK_RES: number of blocks reserved for the AGCH.A block is the information
transmitted on four consecutive TDMA frames on the CCCH. The default parameters are:
BS_AG_BLK_RES = 1 in combined mode
BS_AG_BLK_RES = 4 in Un-combined mode
From the Table above, it is seen that there are :
-in Combined Mode : 12/4 =3 blocks available for PCH and AGCH.
 -in Not Combined Mode : 36/4 =9 blocks for PCH and AGCH.
There are9 CCCH blocks per M51 frame (duration of one M51 is 235 ms) fornon-
combined cells. Among those 9 blocks, 9 minus BS_AG_BLK_RES are reserved
for paging (BS_AG_BLK_RES=4 as an usual default value for non-combined
cells).
There are3 CCCH blocks per M51 frame for combined cells. Among those 3
blocks, 3 minus BS_AG_BLK_RES are reserved for paging
(BS_AG_BLK_RES=1 as an usual default value for combined cells).
Thus, with the above settings for BS_AG_BLK_RES:
-in Combined Mode :2 blocks areavailable for paging channels
-in Not Combined Mode:5 blocks in notcombined mode, respectively.
Depending of the usage of IMSI or TMSI, from 1 to 4 mobiles can be paged simultaneously
Paging request type 1: 2 mobiles (IMSI or TMSI)
Paging request type 2: up to 3 mobiles (2 IMSI, 1 TMSI)
Paging request type 3: up to 4 mobiles (4 TMSI)
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The maximum number of paging per Location Area is derived from the paging limitations at Um
interface, Abis Interface and BSC side.
12.1.1 Um interface Limit with Combined cells

A 2 Paging/PCH value has been used to derive the maximum paging load per Location
Area. A value of 3 paging or even 4 paging per PCH can be reached if and only if:
•high PCH load (> 80%). The (safe) engineering limit taken later makes likely that this
load is
not reached. Indeed the CCCH capacity is not a linear function because of the paging
request encoding method. Real time simulations performed internally show that when
the 3
Paging/PCH ratio is reached we usually have a high blocking rate on PCH (about 5%),
which will induce repetition by the MSC.
•very good distribution of MS among all paging groups. This depends on the IMSI
distribution.
A 3s duration is a realistic approximation value for SDCCH Holding times events.
Finally, we obtain the following values.
Available blocks for paging per hour:
2 PCH/Multiframe * (3600s / 235 ms) = 30 638 PCH / hour
Paging per hour:
2 paging / Block x 30 638 Blocks=61 276 paging/hour at 100% load.
When the 70% engineering limit is applied, we obtain 42 890 paging/hour.
If this limit is too low, uncombining the CCCH enable to enhance this maximum number
of
paging at Um level.
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2.1.2 Um interface Limit with Uncombined cells

The calculation is similar to the one related to combined cell above. The only difference
is a higher number of paging blocks per M 51 frame.
Finally, we obtain the following values.
Available blocks for paging per hour:
5 PCH/Multiframe * (3600s / 235 ms) = 76 596 PCH / hour
Paging per hour:
2 paging / Block x 76 596 Blocks=153 192 paging/hour at 100% load.
When the 70% engineering limit is applied, we obtain 107 234 paging/hour.
2.1.3 Moderation Factor principle
The Moderation Factor is defined as the ratio between the actual traffic incurred by the
BSC at its
busy hour and the “theoretical” traffic figure obtained by summing the maximum traffic
generated by each connected cell according to the Erlang B rule.
It has been noticed that the actual traffic incurred by the BSC is generally significantly
lower than the “theoretical” traffic calculated as above. This “theoretical” calculation
does not account for the fact that the maximum traffic is not reached simultaneously in
each cell, or that not all the TRXs of a BTS or all the Traffic Channels of a TRX are fully
used; see [8] for more details.
The value of the Moderation Factor can vary very significantly depending on the network
context;
except for very dense urban areas, a maximum value of 0.8 may already be used;
significantly lower values may even be used in many cases.
For Sub-Urban or Rural area a moderation factor of 0.9 could be used.
12.2 Estimated number of Paging:

The total number of estimated pagings on the Location Area is obtained with some
assumptions:
Estimated # Paging/Hour = Total incoming Traffic x { (Average Mobile Terminated
Ratio) / (AverageTraffic/Call/hour)}
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13. Example For Pune.

13.1 Present Day BSNL Pune Network.
2• At present there are 10 functional BSC s in Pune city.
3• The total no. of LACs in these 10 BSC is 11.
4• Apart from the LACs for sites outside Pune city, there are around 9 LACs in
main Pune city.
5• Under the present situation we have many LAC boundaries in high traffic zones
of the city as seen below.

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Almost 5-6 LAC Boundaries in High Traffic Zone.

•As seen from the above slide there are almost five LAC boundaries in the High Traffic Zones of the city.
•This leads to a high no. of Location updates every time a Mobile Station travels from
one LA to another.
•To avoid this the LA size has to be increased keeping in mind the paging requirements.
•The LA size should not be too large so that there is paging congestion in the network.
•This can be calculated as below.
13.2 Solution for Pune.
1• First of all we need to know the traffic pattern for the pune city, through which the
paging per BSC can be estimated.
2• This can be seen from the Table Below.

TR Designed Traffic in Erl with 0.8 Estimated

BSC X Erl. Moderation factor Pagings/HourEstimated Hour
Pune_1 350 1670 1336.00 62347
Pune_2 281 1777 1421.60 66341
Pune_3 323 2010 1608.00 75040
Pune_4 292 1805 1444.00 67387
Pune_5 350 1805 1444.00 67387
Pune_6 152 670 536.00 25013
Pune_8 86 544 435.20 20309
Pune_9 134 190 152.00 7093
Pune_1
0 258 1075 860.00 40133
Pune_1
1 292 935 748.00 34907
251
Total 8 12481 9984.00 465957

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3.2.1. Parameter Settings For Pune BSNL.
CCCH_CONF = Non Combined.
BS_AG_BLK_RES = 0.
Based on these two parameters the total paging limit per LAC is
Paging per hour:
2 paging/ block* 9 PCH/Multiframe* (3600s/235ms) = 2,75,744 Paging/Hour at 100 %
Load.
When 70% engineering limit is applied, we obtain 1,93,021 Pagings/Hour.
So based on the above calculations and the total estimated Pagings/ Hour we can say that
pune city can be overall divided in three LAC areas.
The resulting change in the pune city network would be as seen below.
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Page 8
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Only Three LAC Boundaries in High Traffic Zone

1• AS seen from the above slide the LAC Boundaries are reduced creating a
healthy Network.
2• LAC for the rest of the BSNL Maharashtra Network can be RE-
DIMENSIONED in a similar fashion.
 3• Preferably all the cells in one LA should be concentrated geographically as
well.

END OF DOCUMENT
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