Different level thresholds for RACH access

(RACHBT)and HO access (FACHBT)

Siemens 2G BR10 trial CYL16B1.
RACHBT and FACHBT principles, benefits and
requirements.
This feature provides two different thresholds for discrimination between valid access
bursts and noise (no burst, empty timeslot) at the receiving BTS: one for access bursts on
the random access channel (RACH) and the other one for access bursts on a traffic channel
(TCH/FACCH), mainly occurring as initial access to the target BTS in case of an inter-cell
handover.

Up to now ( before BR10) there was only one common threshold for both use cases causing
a trade off between these cases. This feature allows to handle signal-noise discrimination for
RACH access bursts and TCH access bursts received by the BTS separately and
independently.

With this feature it is now possible to set up optimal threshold values for discrimination of
access bursts on RACH and on TCHs as well (with only one threshold for both cases before,
it was necessary to find a compromise for the threshold value). Thus phantom RACH access
bursts can be avoided efficiently while TCH access bursts (e.g. to access the target cell / BTS
in case of inter-cell handover) are accepted even in case of low receive power level. As a
consequence the RACH load in the BTS and the rejection of inter-cell handovers (or even call
drops) can be kept low simultaneously.

Hardware requirements The BTSs belong to the present BTS familiy (comprising BS-
240/241, BS-240/241II, BS-240XS, BS-240XL, BS-240XL II, BS-288, BS-40/41, BS-40 II,
BS-82 II eMicro). BR10 release its needed.






RACHBT and FACHBT principles, benefits and
requirements.
The different level thresholds for RACH access and handover access functionality is
executed by the BTS exclusively.

The following effects of the thresholds are desired for the two principle use cases:
Signal-noise discrimination regarding access bursts on RACH: A high dBm value for the
RACH threshold efficiently prevents from phantom RACH access bursts even in networks
with high RACH interference figures and allows only sufficient signal levels which
guarantees a certain QoS level in uplink direction. All RACH signals lower than the
specified value are related with empty timeslots.
Signal-noise discrimination regarding access bursts on TCH/FACCH:A low dBm value
for the TCH/FACCH threshold ensures a high uplink sensitivity of the BTS for incoming
handover messages on the TCH/FACCH and for ASCI uplink access bursts. This supports
a low handover failure rate and also keeps the rejection of ASCI uplink requests on a low
level.










RACHBT and FACHBT parameters involved.
Short name Long name Description Setting Range
FACHBT fachBusyThreshold
Threshold for the received signal
level (RXLEV) during handover
access and ASCI uplink access. An
access burst signal is assumed as
valid (not noise), if the receive level
exceeds this threshold. 127 [dBm]
0 ... 127 [dBm] (
step size: 1dBm)

RACHBT rachBusyThreshold
Threshold for the received signal
level (RXLEV) during RACH access.
An access burst signal is assumed
as valid (not noise), if the receive
level exceeds this threshold. 109 [dBm]
0 ... 127 [dBm] (
step size: 1dBm)
RACHBT and FACHBT ; trial CYL16B1.
Feature switched on October 13
th
. Only 48 (BTSplus family) out of 110 cells are able to deal
with this feature due to HW limitations.
FACHBT changes from -109 to -127 dBm improving BTS sensibility on Uplink FACCH
signaling.














All types of handovers improve the success rate.












RACHBT and FACHBT ; trial CYL16B1.
Dropped calls related with HO process TCHHO IC, T200 and TCHHO reduce.












RACHBT and FACHBT ; trial CYL16B1.
RACHBT and FACHBT ; trial CYL16B1.
As RACHBT keeps its old setting -109dBm call setup values remains, peaks of degradation
appears from time to time.