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Reliability Training Slides

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Version: V1.0 (20YYMMDD)
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Contents

1. Flow Control

2. Cell Outage Detection

3. Base Station Always Online

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1. Introduction to Flow Control
With flow control, a gNodeB controls input and output flow to prevent overload and
maintain device stability. Flow control is performed on signaling, service, and
operation and maintenance (O&M) data. The following two methods are used to
ensure the effect of flow control:
 A gNodeB controls input flow to prevent overload of the gNodeB and ensure
the gNodeB's processing capability when service traffic dramatically increase.
 A gNodeB controls output flow to prevent overload of the peer eNodeB.

When heavy traffic exists on the device, flow control can reduce the device reset
risk and improve device reliability. Flow control also prevents the access success
rate and handover success rate from deteriorating, ensuring user experience.

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1. Application Scenarios of Flow
Control
Control-plane, user-plane, and
management-plane data flows exist on
the network. These three types of data
flows map to signaling, service, and
O&M data of flow control objects,
respectively, as shown in the figure on
the right. This version only supports flow
control for signaling and service data.

The table below lists the load points on

the NSA networking in the current
version.
Data Flow Type Data Flow Load Point
Control-plane data Signaling data between an Load point 1: A gNodeB is overloaded if the peer
flow eNodeB and a gNodeB eNodeB sends too much signaling data.
User-plane data gNodeB uplink and Load point 2: gNodeB's CPU is overloaded if there
flow downlink service data is too much uplink and downlink service data.

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1. Basic Principles of Flow Control
In the NSA networking, flow control is performed on control-plane and user-plane data flows within a gNodeB
or between a gNodeB and an external NE.
Flow control methods are as follows:
• The gNodeB controls its own output data flow or reduces the data flows received from the peer NE through
back pressure.
• The gNodeB reduces its own data rate or reduces the data rate of the peer NE through back pressure.
The gNodeB identifies service priorities and suppresses access of low-priority data flows.

Functions of the main processing and transmission unit (MPT)

are as follows:
• Radio resource control (RRC) and X2 Application Part (X2AP)
functions on the control plane
RRC functions over the air interface
X2AP functions over the X2 interface
• GPRS Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GTP-U) functions on
the user plane, implementing user plane functions and
transmission algorithms over the X2 interface

Functions of the baseband processing unit (BBP) are as follows:

• Control plane (OAM) functions, including the air interface
resource allocation function
• Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)/Radio Link
Control (RLC)/Media Access Control (MAC) functions on the
user plane over the air interface

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Control-Plane Flow Control: Data Flow
In NSA networking, the signaling data exchanged between a UE and a gNodeB is mostly
carried by an eNodeB. Therefore, control-plane flow control is only performed on the X2
interface between an eNodeB and a gNodeB to prevent signaling overload.

Control-plane data flows include:

 Uplink control-plane data from a UE
to an eNodeB
 Downlink control-plane data from an
eNodeB to a UE
 Uplink control-plane data from an
eNodeB to a mobile management
entity (MME)
 Downlink control-plane data from an Cable connection
MME to an eNodeB Data flow
 Control-plane data from an eNodeB
to a gNodeB
 Control-plane data from a gNodeB to
an eNodeB

In this version, X2 interface flow control only applies to the SgNB ADDITION REQUEST
message. This is the first message in an SgNB addition procedure. When the CPU load is over
a specified threshold for a certain period of time, the gNodeB performs message flow control to
prevent message loss due to overload.

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Flow Control Points and Flow Control
Actions of Control-Plane Flow Control
In this version, X2 interface flow control only applies to the SgNB ADDITION REQUEST message. This is the
first message in the SgNB addition procedure. The gNodeB supports an SgNB addition procedure initiated by
an eNodeB over the X2 interface. The eNodeB sends gNodeB radio resource configuration message to the UE
over the Uu interface. For details about the SgNB addition procedure, see NSA Networking based on EPC.
In this version, control-plane flow control is only implemented on the first message (SgNB ADDITION
REQUEST) in the SgNB addition procedure. The detailed flow-control process is as follows:
• When the average CPU load exceeds 80% (the flow control threshold), flow control is performed and 10%
of the first messages are discarded. The average CPU load is calculated based on the CPU load in a
specific time period.
• The flow control ratio stays the same throughout a flow control period.
• In the next flow control period, if the average CPU load exceeds 70% (the flow control restore threshold), an
extra 10% of the first messages are discarded.
• The preceding steps are repeated until the average CPU load decreases to under 70%.
The table below lists the related parameters and their default values.

Parameter Name Description Default Value

Flow control threshold When the CPU load reaches the flow control threshold, flow control starts. 80%
Flow control restore The CPU load drops after the start of flow control. When the CPU load is
70%
threshold lower than the flow control restore threshold, the flow control stops.
Flow control step Flow control step 10%

Flow control period Flow control period 1s

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Data Flow of User-Plane Flow Control
User-plane data flows include:  Downlink user-plane data from an eNodeB to
 Uplink user-plane data from a UE to a gNodeB a gNodeB
 Uplink user-plane data from a gNodeB to an  Downlink user-plane data from an S-GW to
eNodeB an eNodeB
 Uplink user-plane data from an eNodeB to an S-GW  Downlink user-plane from an eNodeB to a UE
 Downlink user-plane data from a gNodeB to
a UE

Cable connection Cable connection

User plane data flow User plane data flow

In this version, gNodeB's RLC and MAC layers periodically determine the CPU load and calculate the
load contribution of each cell. When the CPU load exceeds the flow control threshold, the number of
users and the amount of traffic scheduled for the cell with the highest load contribution are reduced.
On a network, downlink traffic is generally much greater than uplink traffic. This version only supports
downlink user-plane flow control.

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Flow Control Actions of User-Plane
Flow Control
User-plane flow control is performed on the protocol processing units of the RLC and MAC
layers.

• When the CPU load exceeds the 70% threshold, the protocol processing units of the MAC
and RLC layers start to use congestion backpressure to reduce the number of users
allocated to the corresponding cells. The purpose is to reduce CPU load, and ensure real-
time MAC and RLC protocol processing.

• The congestion is relieved when the CPU load remains under 70% in a specific time period.
The number of UEs scheduled for the corresponding cells is increased.

The table below describes the related parameters and their default values.

Parameter Name Description Default Value

When the CPU load reaches the flow control threshold, user-plane
Flow control
flow control starts. When the CPU load is lower than this threshold 70%
threshold
over a specific time period, flow control stops.

Congestion clearance When the CPU load is lower than the flow control threshold in a
5s
monitoring period specific time period, the congestion is relieved.

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2. Introduction to Cell Outage Detection

Cell Outage Detection (COD) is used to monitor the status of cells and identify
outage cells. A gNodeB detects cell outage based on:

(1) Alarms:
The alarms mainly refer to the cell unavailability alarms.

(2) Abnormal KPIs:

When no cell availability alarms are reported, cell outage is determined based on
major KPIs including the service setup success rate and abnormal release rate.

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Based on Cell Unavailability Alarms
2. After receiving the event, the OSS
determines that the cell is an outage cell. Outage cell list
generate
OSS
Cell 1 ... ...
1b. The gNodeB reports a cell Cell 2 ... ...
unavailability event to the
OSS.

gNodeB 1a. The gNodeB detects

a cell unavailability fault.

1. After detecting a cell unavailability fault, the gNodeB reports a cell

unavailability event to the OSS.
2. After receiving the event, the OSS determines that the cell is an outage cell.
3. The COD module displays the outage cell information in the outage cell list.

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Based on Abnormal KPIs
3. After receiving the notification, the OSS
reports cell outage to the COD module.
Outage cell list
2b. The gNodeB checks generate Cell 1 ... ...
whether the KPIs meet the OSS
criteria for cell outage
detection. If yes, the Cell 2 ... ...
gNodeB sends a cell outage 1. The OSS sends the criteria and
notification to the OSS. parameters for abnormal KPI-based cell
outage detection to the gNodeB (such
as traffic measurement period).

gNodeB 2a. Based on the received criteria and parameters,

the gNodeB detects cells with abnormal KPIs.

1. The OSS sends the criteria and parameters for abnormal KPI-based cell outage detection
to the gNodeB.
2. Based on the received criteria and parameters, the gNodeB monitors cell KPIs, and
checks whether the KPIs meet the criteria. If yes, the gNodeB sends a cell outage
notification to the OSS.
3. After receiving the notification reported by the gNodeB, the OSS reports cell outage to the
COD module.
4. The COD module displays the outage cell information in the outage cell list.

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Activating Cell Outage Detection Mode: 1.
Open the Cell Outage Detection
Management Screen
 Open the U2020 MBB home page. Choose SON -> NR Cell Outage Detection
and Recovery. The outage cell management screen is displayed, as shown in
the following screenshot.

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Activating Cell Outage Detection Mode: 2.
Enable the Cell Outage Detection Function
 Click Basic Parameters. In the following screen, enable the
cell outage detection function(s) and click Apply.

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Activating Cell Outage Detection Mode: 3.
Set the Base Station Monitoring
 Click Base Station Monitoring, select the site(s) whose
outage cell detection and compensation feature need to be
enabled, and click Apply.

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Activating Cell Outage Detection Mode: 4.
Set the Preset KPI Parameters
 Click Preset KPI Thresholds, set parameters for cell outage
detection based on abnormal KPIs, and click Apply.

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Activation Verification
• Verification by querying the outage cell list
If a cell served by an gNodeB selected during function activation is considered an outage
cell, the gNodeB sends the cell outage information to the U2020. The U2020 displays all
outage cells on the Outage Cells tab page in the Cell Outage Detection window, as shown
in the following screenshot. If cells are listed on this tab page, cell outage detection has been
activated.
Outage cell list

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3. Base Station Always Online
 Overview: Benefits
Background: There are a large number of base stations. When the OM channel of base
stations is interrupted, the faults need to be handled onsite, which costs time and money. This
leads to strong customer dissatisfaction.
Customer requirements

Scenario Recovery measure

OM channel
interrupted
 Feature introduction: Basic principles
Base station software Automatic
upgrade version rollback

After the OM channel is continuously interrupted, OM channel

interrupted
if the trigger conditions are met, the OMCH can Base station configuration
modification
Automatic
configuration data rollback

be remotely recovered by enabling functions such

Transmission link fault
as the automatic version rollback, automatic rectification
OM channel
configuration data rollback, and transmission link interrupted Automatic OM channel
No base station
establishment
fault rectification, and automatic OM channel modification

establishment. This helps avoid onsite handling.

 For details, see Training Slides _SRAN Base Station OMCH Self-Recovery.

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 Thank you
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