Dealing

with
Congesti
on in
WCDMA
High congestion has a significant impact on degrading
Networks GoS & QoS. Carrying out expansion isnt
By :
always a straight forward option. This Document explains Imran
optimization techniques for dealing with all sorts of
congestion & explains the set of actions required from RF Khalid
Optimization side for minimizing/nullifying effect of high
utilization/congestion. Keywords : Congestion, utilization,
(I00711577
WCDMA, 3G, UMTS, optimization )
 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Back Ground______________________________________________________________4
Utilization Critical Thresholds___________________________________________5
RNC Units Congestion Combating Techniques________________________6
SPU/MPU________________________________________________________________________7
Utilization Calculation___________________________________________________________________7
Impact of Congestion___________________________________________________________________7
Optimization Actions for combating congestion_________________________________________7

DPU_____________________________________________________________________________9
Utilization Calculation___________________________________________________________________9
Impact of Congestion___________________________________________________________________9
Optimization Actions for combating congestion_________________________________________9

IU______________________________________________________________________________10
Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________10
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________11
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________11

INTERFACE Boards____________________________________________________________12
Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________12
Iub Interface__________________________________________________________________________12
Impact of Congestion_______________________________________________________________12
Optimization Actions for combating congestion______________________________________12
Iu Interface____________________________________________________________________________13
Impact of Congestion_______________________________________________________________13
Optimization Actions for combating congestion______________________________________13

Site/Cell level Congestion Combating Techniques___________________14

CE (UL)________________________________________________________________________15
Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________15
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________15
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________15

CE (DL)________________________________________________________________________17
Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________17
Incase of WBBPa______________________________________________________________________17
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________17
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________18

Iub_____________________________________________________________________________18
Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________18
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________18

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________19

Code___________________________________________________________________________19
Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________19
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________19
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________20

Power(DL)_____________________________________________________________________21
Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________21
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________21
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________21

Power(UL)_____________________________________________________________________22
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________22
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________22

HSPAUserCong________________________________________________________________23
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________23
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________23

SAAL Congestion______________________________________________________________24
Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________24
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________25
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________25

NodeB CPU Congestion_______________________________________________________26

Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________26
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________26
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________26

CIDs Over Usage______________________________________________________________27

Utilization Calculation_________________________________________________________________27
Impact of Congestion__________________________________________________________________27
Optimization Actions for combating congestion________________________________________27

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

Back Ground

All the entities used in the WCDMA Network have a capacity

limitation. Once the resource utilization reaches a certain
threshold, it doesnt remain possible for the system to keep
assigning the requested resources to the new users. As a result,
users experience Network degradation. This in turn is reflected in
the KPIs degradation as well.

Straight forward solution is to carry out expansion for the

over utilized entity. However it is not ideally possible in every
scenario. Therefore, we need to carry out other measures in order
to avoid Network degradation as much as possible. Similarly,
sometimes the utilization observes abnormal increase during
special events. For that purpose, parametric actions should be
taken for guarantying good Network quality.

This document intends to cover all the possible actions that

could be carried out in a bid to avoid degradation due to over
utilization of cell/NodeB/RNC level entities.

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

Utilization Critical Thresholds

Below table presents the critical thresholds for the different

entities. Once the utilization exceeds these thresholds, there
comes the risk of experiencing Network degradation. So a red flag
needs to be raised once the utilization starts touching these
thresholds.

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

RNC Units Congestion Combating

Techniques

RNC Units can be classified as below

RNC
Units

SPU +
DPU Iu INT
MPU

Iub Iu
Interfac Interfac
e e
Impact of over utilization & optimization actions for catering
congestion for each of these units will be discussed below in
detail

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SPU/MPU

Utilization Calculation

VS.XPU.CPULOAD.MEAN(%) to be checked in 30 minutes

trend for all the SPUs. Situation becomes critical once the
utilization reaches 60%

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once SPU/MPU utilization

becomes abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

Paging Success Rate

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify

the impact of high SPU utilization
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Optimization Action Trade of

Sites Rebalancing in case
utilization isn't uniform amongst
different boards Nothing

Enable cell_pch state Nothing

Increase rpt period to 2000 ms Nothing
Increase PS Inactivity timer Increase in FACH congestion
Increase BEF2Pstatetranstimer May impact Drop Rate
Might have a slight impact on
Increase T3212 Paging Success Rate
Degradation in RRC & Rab Setup
Success Rate in case you have lots
Enable EFD of high utilized sites in the region
Affects User perception (only to be
Delayed reselection from 2G & implemented in case of a real
early triggering from 3G to 2G emergency)
might affect RRC Setup Success
Rate (only to be implemented in
Change T381 from 600 ms to 0 case of a real emergency)
Affects User perception (only to be
Change RRCConnRejWaitTimer implemented in case of a real
from 4 to 15s emergency)
Increases Drop Rate (only to be
Delay soft ho/ decrease cells in implemented in case of a real
the Active Set emergency)
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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

DPU

Utilization Calculation

VS.DSP.UsageMean(%) to be checked in 30 minutes trend for

all the DSPs. Situation becomes critical once the utilization
reaches 80%

Also VS.DPU.CPULOAD.MEAN(%)to be checked in 30 minutes

trend for all the DSPs. Situation becomes critical once the
threshold reaches 70%

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once DPU utilization becomes

abnormally high

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

RAB Setup Success Rate

HSDPA Throughput

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify

the impact of high DPU utilization

Optimization Action Trade of

Sites Rebalancing in case
utilization isn't uniform amongst
different boards Nothing
DSPRestrainCPUthd should be
set as 85 Nothing
Decrease UserPlnSharingoutthd Nothing
Decrease might slightly increase MPU
UserPlnCPUSharingOutthd Utilization
May affect user perception at the
start of the session by assigning
Reduce GBR low data rate

IU

Utilization issue normally happens for IU-PS interface. Below

are the recommendations for catering congestion.

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

Utilization Calculation

Best way is to get traffic & capacity from CN & get the
utilization as below (Note that we can have a resolution of 5
minutes available at the CN side)

Iu-Utilization = Traffic / Capacity

However in case DT (Direct Tunneling) is enabled, we cant

rely on SGSN provided stats as they dont include DT traffic. In
that scenario, we have to use below equation

Iu-PS Utilization(%) = Max (VS.FEGE.RxBytes, VS.FEGE.TxBytes) /

Total Capacity

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once IU utilization becomes

abnormally high

RAB Setup Success Rate

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA
Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify
the impact of high IU utilization

Optimization
Action Trade of
Reduce Activity May affect user perception at the start of
Factor the session by assigning low data rate
May affect user perception at the start of
Reduce GBR the session by assigning low data rate
Decrease PS
inactivity timer Increases SPU load

INTERFACE Boards

Interface boards exist for Iub as well as Iu interface.

Utilization Calculation

VS.INT.CPULOAD.MEAN(%) to be checked in 30 minutes

trend for all the DSPs. Situation becomes critical once the
utilization reaches 70%

Iub Interface

Impact of Congestion

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA
Following KPIs get impacted once INT utilization becomes
abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify

the impact of high INT utilization

Optimization
Action Trade of
Sites rebalancing
amongst different
boards Nothing
May affect user perception at the start of the
Reduce GBR session by assigning low data rate

Iu Interface

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once INT utilization becomes

abnormally high

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

RAB Setup Success Rate

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify

the impact of high INT utilization

Optimization
Action Trade of
Sites rebalancing
amongst different
boards Nothing
May affect user perception at the start of the
Reduce GBR session by assigning low data rate

Site/Cell level Congestion Combating

Techniques

We can classify them as below

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

Site/C
ell
level

hspa NodeB
SAAL CIDs
Iub(DL, Power(DL, CPU
CE(UL,DL) Code userco Congest over
UL) UL) Congesti
ng ion Usage
on
Impact of over utilization & optimization actions for catering
congestion for each of these units will be discussed below in
detail

CE (UL)

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Utilization Calculation

UL CE Utilization =
VS.LC.ULMean.LicenseGroup.Shared/min(VS.HW.ULCreditAvailable
, VS.LC.ULCreditAvailable.Shared)

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once CE(UL) utilization becomes

abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

RAB Setup Success Rate

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify the

impact of high CE(UL) utilization

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Level of
Change Optimization Action Trade of
May affect user(R99) perception
Reduce UL BE Traffic Initial Bit at the start of the session by
Rate assigning low data rate
May affect user(HSUPA)
RNC Level perception at the start of the
Reduce Initial Rate of HSUPA BE session by assigning low data
Traffic rate
Reduce UL Mid Bit Rate Affects user perception in terms
threshold for DCCC of throughput
Check if all the cells belong to
the same UL Group Nothing
LDR algorithm with "BE Traffic
Rate Reduction" as the 1st Affects user throughput by
action lowering down the data rate
NodeB May affect users throughput as
Level Increase now the lowering of data rate
ULLDRBERateReductionRabNum will be triggered on more users
ber simultaneously
May affect users throughput as
Reducing ULLDRCreditSFResthd now the lowering of data rate
(SF8 --> SF4) will be triggered much earlier
Apply cellcac by
restricting/deactivating number
Cell Level of HSUPA users. Also change Affects user throughput by
Code Number for E-RGCH/E- forcing more HSUPA capable
HICH accordingly users to use R99

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CE (DL)

Utilization Calculation

Incase of WBBPb/WBBPd/WBBPf

DL CE Utilization(%) = VS.LC.DLMean.LicenseGroup.Shared /
Maximum capacity of the board amongst all the boards

Incase of WBBPa
Cell configured on WBBPa board cant use resources from
other CE boards. So, utilization for that cell will be as below

DL CE Utilization(%) = VS.LC.DLMean.LicenseGroup.Shared /
DL CE Capacity of WBBPa

(as DL sharing for CE isnt possible in case the cell is

configured on WBBPa)

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once CE(DL) utilization becomes

abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

RAB Setup Success Rate

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Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify the

impact of high CE(DL) utilization

Level of
Change Optimization Action Trade of
Soft HO(instead of softer HO)
NodeB takes place even between the
Level Distribute cells on different cells of the same site in case they
CE boards are configured on different boards

Iub

Utilization Calculation

Iub Utilization(%) = (VS.ATMDLAvgUsed.1 +

VS.IPDLAvgUsed.1)/( VS.ATMDLTotal.1 + VS.IPDLTotal.1)

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once Iub utilization becomes

abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

RAB Setup Success Rate

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify the

impact of high Iub utilization

Level of
Change Optimization Action Trade of

NodeB May affect user perception at

Level the start of the session by
Reduce Activity Factor assigning low data rate
May affect user perception at
RNC Level the start of the session by
Reduce GBR assigning low data rate

Code

Utilization Calculation

Code Utilization(%) = VS.RAB.SFOccupy/256

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once Code utilization becomes

abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

RAB Setup Success Rate

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify

the impact of high Code utilization

Level of
Change Optimization Action Trade of
HSDPA should be enabled Nothing
Setting HSDPAusernummax to
the maximum value Nothing
May affect R99 traffic in some cases
LDR Algorithm with "Code where code reshuffling is in
Adjust" as the 1st action & "BE abundance.
Traffic Rate Reduction" as the Affects user throughput by lowering
2nd action down the data rate
May affect users throughput & R99
traffic as code reshuffling & data
Increase rate lowering will be triggered on
DLLDRBERateReductionRabNum more number of users
ber & maxusernumcodeadj simultaneously
May affect users perception in
Cell Level terms of HS throughput as now less
number of users will be processed
Reduce HSSCCHCODENUM in 1 TTI
May affect SHO success rate as now
Increase DLHOCECODERESVSF low SF will be reserved for SHO
Reduce Code Number for E-
RGCH/E-HICH from '2' to '1' & Affects user throughput by forcing
decrease maxHSUPAusernum more HSUPA capable users to use
from 40 to 20 R99
May affect HSDPA throughput
Reduce number of reserved incase majority of the users in the
HSDPA codes cell are HSDPA users
It will trigger LDR algorithm much
earlier, hence may impact R99
Decrease cellldrsfresthd traffic & user throughput
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Power(DL)

Utilization Calculation

Power Utilization(%) = VS.MeanTCP/MaxTxpower

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once Power(DL) utilization

becomes abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

RAB Setup Success Rate

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify the

impact of high Power(DL) utilization

Level of
Change Optimization Action Trade of
Cell Level LDR Algorithm with "BE Traffic Affects user throughput by
Rate Reduction" as the 1st action lowering down the data rate
Increase CAC thresholds(conv Brings more interference in the
amr, non conv amr, ho, other) DL

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

results in traffic decrease during

Cell breathing busy hours

Power(UL)

There is no particular formula for measuring UL Power

Utilization. It depends upon setting of UL CAC algorithm & UL
Total Equivalent user number Incase UL CAC algorithm is
disabled, well never see congestion. However incase, it is set as
Algorithm_2nd, well start seeing failures once UL Total Equivalent
user number value is reached.

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once Power(UL) utilization

becomes abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

RAB Setup Success Rate

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify

the impact of high Power(UL) utilization

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Level of
Change Optimization Action Trade of
May affect user(R99)
perception at the start of the
Reduce UL BE Traffic Initial session by assigning low data
Bit Rate rate
RNC Level
May affect user(HSUPA)
perception at the start of the
Reduce Initial Rate of HSUPA session by assigning low data
BE Traffic rate
Increase UL Total Equivalent Might result in increased
Cell Level user number / Disable UL interference & increase in
CAC Algorithm Drop Rate

HSPAUserCong

It is pegged normally when the actual number of

HSDPA/HSUPA users in the cell increase than the HSDPA/HSUPA
user number parameter setting & there is a failure while trying to
downgrade HSPA user to R99

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once such a failure occurs.

RAB Setup Success Rate

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify

the impact

Level of
Change Optimization Action Trade of
Increase HSDPA/HSUPA user Might result in UL CE
number in case the user congestion(in case of
Cell Level
number is touching its increasing HSUPA user
maximum value number)

SAAL Congestion

These are the logical resources for carrying signaling on the

transport layer (ATM transmission).

Utilization Calculation

First get PCR settings for NCP, CCP & ALCAP for the site
suspected to be suffering from SAAL congestion. Normally the
triggering point is getting alarm of SAAL Congestion. Below is
the procedure to get it

Go to "AdjNode" & then check the SAALLNKN for this site. This will
provide SAALLNKN for "Alcap".
Go to "UNodeB" & then get SRN,SN for this site.

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Go to "UNCP" & "UCCP" & get SAALNKN for NCP & CCP.

Once, you have SAALLNKN for ALCAP, NCP, CCP & we have SRN,
SN for the site; we can go to "SAALLNK" & get TXTRFX/RXTRFX
against the 3 SAALLNKN

Then go to "ATMTRF" & get PCR for NCP, CCP & ALCAP by
putting the 3 SAALLNKN

Then calculate utilization for NCP, CCP & ALCAP. As the bandwidth
for ALCAP is the minimum, it is ok to just have a look at ALCAP
utilization to get a fair indication. ALCAP utilization can be
calculated as below

ALCAP_TX Utilization =
VS.SAALLNK.PVCLayer.Peak.TxRate / ALCAP Bandwidth (PCR for
ALCAP)
ALCAP_RX Utilization =
VS.SAALLNK/PVCLayer.Peak.RxRate / ALCAP Bandwidth (PCR for
ALCAP)

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once SAAL utilization becomes

abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

RAB Setup Success Rate

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

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Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify
the impact of high SAAL utilization

Level of
Change Optimization Action Trade of
Increase PCR for NCP,CCP & ALCAP
(We can call them logical resources
Cell Level
for carrying signaling on the Might have a very little impact
transport layer(ATM transmission) on user throughput

NodeB CPU Congestion

Utilization Calculation

VS.BRD.CPULOAD.MEAN(%) to be checked in 30
minutes trend. Situation becomes critical once the utilization
reaches 60%

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once NodeB CPU utilization

becomes abnormally high

RRC Setup Success Rate

RAB Setup Success Rate

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 Dealing with Congestion in WCDMA

Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify

the impact of high NodeB CPU utilization

Optimization Action Trade of

Try to decrease soft handover attempts Will affect Drop Rate

CIDs Over Usage

Utilization Calculation

CIDs Usage Utilization = VS.AAL2Path.Act.Con / 248

Impact of Congestion

Following KPIs get impacted once CIDs utilization becomes

abnormally high

RAB Setup Success Rate

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Optimization Actions for combating congestion

Following actions can be taken in order to minimize/nullify

the impact of high CIDs utilization

Level of Optimization
Change Action Trade of
There is a limit of adding
AAL2 paths. We can't
Cell Level
exceed a certain number
Add AAL2 paths on the RNC level

THE END
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