RRC Setup Report

Presentation Timetable
Methodology wk5

Pilot
Neighbours wk5 Performance wk5

Services
Counters
RRC Stp wk7
RRC Access wk7 RRC Active wk7 SHO wk6 ISHO wk6

Net. Issues
Drive Data
Analysis wk3 CM Service wk2 Test Nos wk3 Script bugs wk3 6650 ISHO wk3 CC Disc wk1 Power Spikes wk1

Alarms
Access wk4

Common Alarms wk4

Common Failures wk4

HC Failures EOC
Inter RNC HO wk2 TCH/BCH wk2

Table of Contents

Introduction Detailed Descriptions

Handover Control
Admission Control Setup Fail BTS Setup Fail Trans

Setup Fail Frozen BTS/Internal RNC

Conclusion

Introduction

RRC Setup Phase

The RRC Setup phase starts when the UE sends the RRC CONNECTION REQUEST message and it is completed when the RNC, after reserving all the necessary resources for the RRC Connection (RNC, BTS, Radio and UE Transmission), replies with DL RRC CONNECTION SETUP message. During this phase, there are several processes happening between the Node B and the RNC. If any of these processes fail, the Ue will either try again or will fail. In either case the relevant counter will be triggered, giving the Network Analyst clues as to why calls are failing on a particular cell.

Node B RNC RRC: RRC Connection Request (RACH) NBAP: Radio Link Setup Request NBAP: Radio Link Setup Response ALCAP: Establish Request ALCAP: Establish Confirm FP: Downlink Sync FP: Uplink Sync RRC: RRC Connection Setup (FACH) L1 Synchronisation NBAP: Synchronisation Indication

A schematic of the Setup phase can be seen on the RHS.

RRC: RRC Connection Setup Complete (DCH)

RRC Setup Failures

RRC Setup Failure due to Handover Control (HC)

RRC Setup Failure due to Admission Control (AC)

RRC Setup Failure due to BTS RRC Setup Failure due to Transmission RRC Setup Failure due to BTS frozen

RRC Setup Failure due to RNC internal reason

Detailed Descriptions

Handover Control

Handover Control is the algorithm that is used to allow a Ue

connect to two or more cells simultaneously

RRC Setup Fail due to HC

Handover Control appears to start in the HA3 Program Block during RRC Setup Procedure

HC Setup Procedure in RNC

HC Setup appears to reside in the Interface Control and Signalling Unit (ICSU)
ICSU board resides in RNC ICSU board has redundancy

where the redundancy unit is only employed if the active unit fails.
Checked RNC alarms and there were older alarms on ICSU boards

Admission Control

Admission Control (AC) is the algorithm that decides whether a

request to establish a RAB is admitted or not. It is also involved during the handover procedure.

RRC Setup Failure due to AC

RRC Setup Failure for AC:
AC can block the call at RRC level if there is too much noise on a cell. (i.e. Target + Offset is exceeded)

AC also blocks calls if UL or DL is blocking. Check Cell Resource counters (Prx/Ptx total)
In general its possible to check the AC blocking in RRC setup phase by checking the Traffic counters(M1002):

DCH_REQ_LINK_REJ_UL_SRNC DCH_REQ_LINK_REJ_DL_SRNC

Main failure reasons for AC

RRC_conn_req_nack (Cell overload on UL or DL)

No response from BRM - timer expired (indicates a cell availability problem)

RRC Setup failure AC for cell availability

A high number of RRC failures for Admission Control does not necessary mean a high traffic or an interference problem but it might reflect a cell availability problem.

Typical detection through counters and KPIs:

High RRC Setup Failure AC Rate : There may also be a huge number of RRC attempts (see example). This indicates that the problem is continuous. Traffic counters may or may not reflect the full extent of the problem: in some cases the traffic counters are not incremented because the request is not even received by the Admission Control.(e.g. MHA Faulty) Cell Availability << 100% (see example). Alarm may or may not be present

Solution:
Cell Availability needs to be monitored and corrected as soon as possible after it occurs Cell Reset might help.

Cell Availability Example

Site GLN0395 shows high number of RRC Setup Failures for Admission Control on March 15.
From Service Level counters huge number of RRC attemptsRRC repetitions.

From Cell Resource counters:

Cell Availability problem from 17:30

Average PrxTotal shows nearly no traffic nor interference

Alarm in the cell

RRC Setup Failure BTS

RRC Setup Failure for BTS:
main failure reasons can be:

RL_setup_failure (not enough resources) might be a WSP problem RL_setup_failure (hardware overload): might be some internal BTS issue
SETUP_FAIL_RL_NOT_ENOUGH_RES SETUP_FAIL_FIRST_RL_HW_RES

These fails can be seen in the counters :

-

RRC Setup Failure BTS

BTS Resource Issue may occur here

RRC Setup Failure Trans

RRC Setup Failure due to Transmission:
main failure reasons is:

serv_req_nack_from_nrm meaning some problem in setting up AAL2 transmission resources in Iub

NRM (Network Resource Model) is in-charge of Iub capacity After capacity check, AAL2 signalling starts Counter RRC_CONN_STP_FAIL_TRANS is incremented if:
Not enough Iub capacity AAL2 setup fails

RRC Setup Failures Trans

It appears that the problem may be in this part of the setup protocol
Reason for fail is usually:
Not enough Iub capacity AAL2 setup fails

AAL2 Setup over Iub

Iub resource reservation is performed in order such that all CAC reservations for RNC internal and external (AAL2 path) resources are done before signaling.

If the CAC actions are successfully completed, the signaling is started and the RNC asks the BTS to arrange its resources accordingly.
If the CAC actions fail, the signaling phase is not started at all and the signaling counters are not aware of the connections rejected due to RNC AAL2 layer CAC.

A L2 user plane setup over Iub (MO ) A C

BTS (WAM) UE
AAL2 SIG C AC
RRC connection request :

RNC
C AC AAL2SIG ATM RM RRC

Transport res. reserv. req. resource reservation Possible NAC K ERQ (SUGR) resource reservation AAL2 connection establishement

Possible NAC K EC F AAL2 conn. estab. confirmation RRC :connection setup

NOKIA

Others RRC Setup Failures

RRC Setup Failure Frozen BTS: the AC blocks RL

establishment to allow the setup of an emergency call(in case of pre-emption, when BTS is frozen no new RRC connection are allowed)
RRC Setup Failure for RNC internal reason: all other failure

reasons (e.g. parameter mismatch, timer expiry)

RRC Setup Fail RNC

Problem should affect the entire RNC (ALL THE CELLS) Reasons are due to RNC Software/Hardware

RRC Setup Fails on Croydon RNC

AC, BTS and TRANS are the most common fails on Croydon

RNC
Numbers of fails can be huge but this does not indicate that the

issue is necessarily RNC wide. It is probably 1 site with a huge number of fails, possibly due to repeated registration attempts.
The other fails should be at or near 0.

Conclusion
Setup Fails generally occur due to hardware issues in a low

traffic situation. They are the first counters triggered by any attempt to access the network
The counters give us clues where to look Some Setup Fails will occur repeatedly in response to a single

issue causing the counter appear worse than the problem really is. Conversely, in some cases, the counters may not trigger when a fault is occurring but this can be seen by a drop in traffic.