HUAWEI BSC6000 Base Station Subsystem

BSS Feature Description 45 BSC Local Switching

45 BSC Local Switching

About This Chapter

45.1 Overview
This provides the definition and describes the purposes of BSC local switching.
45.2 Availability
This lists the NEs, software versions, and other support required for the implementation of BSC
local switching.
45.3 Impact
This describes the impact of BSC local switching on system performance and other features.
45.4 Technical Description
This describes the technical aspects of BSC local switching, consisting of start, recovery, and
handover of BSC local switching calls.
45.5 Implementation
This describes how to configure and verify BSC local switching.
45.6 Maintenance Information
This lists the alarms and performance counters related to BSC local switching.
45.7 References
None.

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45 BSC Local Switching BSS Feature Description

45.1 Overview
This provides the definition and describes the purposes of BSC local switching.

Definition
BSC local switching refers to a process in which speech signals on the Abis interface loop back
to the MS without passing through the NSS when the calling party and called party are served
by the same BSC, as shown in Figure 45-1. BSC local switching saves transmission resources
of section C.

Figure 45-1 BSC local switching diagram

A B C D E

BTS

BTS MSC MGW

BSC MGW

BTS
E

Speech signal flow of the BSC

local switching among different
BTSs controlled by one BSC
Service link
Signaling link

NOTE

BSC local switching is performed on the BSC side without involving the NSS. Speech signals do not pass
through the MSC. The transmission resources of section D and section E on the MSC side, however, are
not released.

Purposes
BSC local switching saves transmission resources of the Ater interface.

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BSS Feature Description 45 BSC Local Switching

Terms
Term Definition

Loopback Refers to local switching in this document.

BTS local switching When the calling party and called party are served by the
same BTS or BTS group, speech signals on the Abis
interface loop back to the MS in a BTS or BTS group
without passing through the BSC and MSC.

Loopback recovery Calls in the local switching state are recovered to the
ordinary conversation state.

Ater A transmission channel between the GMPS or GEPS and

the GTCS.

Speech version In the GSM communication system, the versions of the

speech coding/decoding algorithm are categorized into
full-rate speech versions 1, 2, and 3 and half-rate speech
versions 1, 2, and 3.

Call completion supplementary This supplementary service enables a user to handle an

service ongoing call. This supplementary service is categorized
into two types: call hold and call waiting.

MPTY supplementary service This supplementary service enables a user to have a multi-
connection call, that is, a simultaneous communication
with more than one party. This supplementary service is
categorized into two types: three-party service and
conference call.

Abbreviations
Abbreviation Full Spelling

ACS Active Coding Set

TFO Tandem Free Operation

AMR Adaptive Multi Rate

CIC Circuit Identity Code

GMPS GSM Main Processing Subrack

GEPS GSM Extended Processing Subrack

GTCS GSM TransCoder Subrack

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45 BSC Local Switching BSS Feature Description

45.2 Availability
This lists the NEs, software versions, and other support required for the implementation of BSC
local switching.

Network Elements Involved

Table 45-1 lists the NEs involved in BSC local switching.

Table 45-1 NEs involved in BSC local switching

MS BTS BSC MSC MGW SGSN GGSN HLR

– √ √ – – – – –
NOTE
l –: not involved

l √: involved

Software Versions
Table 45-2 describes the software versions of GBSS products that support BSC local switching.

Table 45-2 GBSS products and software versions

Product Version

BSC BSC6000 V900R003C01 and later releases

BTS BTS3012 V100R001C07 and later releases

BTS3012AE V100R001C07 and later releases

BTS3006C V100R001C07 and later releases

BTS3002E V100R001C07 and later releases

Miscellaneous
The other requirements for BSC local switching are as follows:

l A license is required for the use of BSC local switching.

l For a group of combined BTSs, if BTS versions support BSC local switching, but carrier
versions of BTSs do not support this feature, BSC local switching cannot be enabled.
l Charging for local switching is controlled by the NSS.

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BSS Feature Description 45 BSC Local Switching

45.3 Impact
This describes the impact of BSC local switching on system performance and other features.

Impact on System Performance

The impact of BSC local switching on system performance is as follows:

l After BSC local switching is enabled, the success rate of handover may decrease, and the
call drop rate may increase. For details about the causes, refer to 45.4.3 Handover of BSC
Local Switching Calls.
l When the GTCS is locally configured, BSC local switching should not be enabled because
the transmission line of the Ater interface is relatively short.
l When BSC local switching is enabled, a forced handover must be initiated. When the BSC
requests channels, it does not support a request to the PCU for TCH changeback and queuing
preemption. Enabling BSC local switching may fail because no radio resources are
available.
l Enabling BSC local switching may cause discontinuous voice for a short time.

Impact on Other Features

The impact of BSC local switching on other features is as follows:

l After BSC local switching is enabled, call completion supplementary services and MPTY
supplementary services are not supported.
l After BSC local switching is enabled, the announcement and lawful interception services
of the MSC are not supported.

45.4 Technical Description

This describes the technical aspects of BSC local switching, consisting of start, recovery, and
handover of BSC local switching calls.

45.4.1 Start of BSC Local Switching Calls

This describes the requirements for the start of BSC local switching calls. To initiate a BSC local
switch call, the call must meet the relevant conditions, pass the BSC local switch call check,
comply with the relevant initiation policies, and select the correct speech version for the calling
and called parties.
45.4.2 Recovery of BSC Local Switching Calls
This describes the recovery of BSC local switching calls. When a handover occurs during a BSC
local switching call, the target cell may not support local switching or the outgoing BSC handover
fails. In this case, the BSC local switching call must be recovered to an ordinary call.
45.4.3 Handover of BSC Local Switching Calls
This describes the handover of BSC local switching calls. The intra-BSC handover and outgoing
BSC handover of BSC local switching calls are different from the common handover
mechanism.

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45.4.1 Start of BSC Local Switching Calls

This describes the requirements for the start of BSC local switching calls. To initiate a BSC local
switch call, the call must meet the relevant conditions, pass the BSC local switch call check,
comply with the relevant initiation policies, and select the correct speech version for the calling
and called parties.
1. After the called party answers or the incoming BSC handover of speech service is complete,
the BSC checks the conditions for starting BSC local switching. The conditions for starting
BSC local switching are as follows:
l Whether the license supports BSC local switching.
l Whether BSS General Strategy supports BSC local switching.
l Whether the conditions in Options for BSC Local Switch are met.
2. If these conditions are met, the BSC starts local switching call detection to detect whether
the calling and called parties are served by the same BSC.
3. If the calling and called parties are located under the same BSC, proceed with the following
steps:
l If Options for BSC Local Switch is set to Prefix Number, and one party meets the
start conditions, BSC local switching is started.
l If Avoid Number for BSC is set, and one party meets the closing conditions, BSC local
switching is not started.
When starting BSC local switching, ensure that the voice coding rates of the calling and called
parties are the same. The same voice coding rate must be used by the calling and called parties.
In addition, the rate is fixed. If different voice coding rates are used, the BSC adjusts the different
rates to the same rate through a forcible handover. If the adjustment fails, BSC local switching
is suspended.
During the selection of speech version, the BSC must calculate to acquire the intersection of
speech versions that both parties support. If there is an intersection of speech version, and the
speech versions used by both parties are in the intersection, select speech version by referring
to the policy for selecting speech versions in Table 45-3.
l If only one speech version that is being used belongs to the intersection, select the speech
version as the target speech version.
l If neither the speech version currently used by the calling party nor the speech version
currently used by the called party belongs to the intersection, select the speech version of
the highest version from the intersection. Full rate is preferred when both full rate and half
rate are supported.
NOTE

As the same rate set is used for a call when the call uses Adaptive MultiRate (AMR), AMR is not selected
when neither the speech version used by the calling party nor the speech version used by the called party
belongs to the intersection.

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Table 45-3 Policies for selecting a speech version for local switching
AMR Whether the Full- or Half- Speech Adjustment
ACS Is Rate Channel Version Policy
Consistent
and Uses the
Same Rate

Both the calling Yes Not involved Not involved The conditions
and called for local switch
parties use are met. There is
AMR. no need for
adjustment.

No Not involved Not involved Both the calling

and called
parties need to
be adjusted.

AMR is used by Not involved Not involved Not involved Change an MS

either the calling using AMR to a
party or called non-AMR MS.
party of a call. Ensure that the
specific rate and
speech version
of one party are
consistent with
those of the
other party.

Neither the Not involved Inconsistent Not involved Change a half-

calling party nor rate MS to a full-
the called party rate MS. Ensure
uses AMR. that the specific
rate and speech
version of one
party are
consistent with
those of the
other party.

Consistent Same The conditions

for local switch
are met. There is
no need for
adjustment.

Different Change the

speech version
of a high-rate
MS to the
speech version
of a low-rate
MS.

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45 BSC Local Switching BSS Feature Description

When the speech versions used by both parties are consistent, the BSC sets up speech signal
links, and both parties perform TDM switching in the BSC. After the TDM switching is
successful, the call enters the BSC local switching state, and the redundant resources on the Ater
interface are released.

NOTE

l The MSC cannot obtain BSC local switching information because speech signals do not pass through
the MSC. During a BSC local switching call, the MSC does not support announcement, lawful
interception, or supplementary services.
l To ensure the consistency of circuit resources on the MSC and BSC sides, the BSC does not release
the CIC circuit.

45.4.2 Recovery of BSC Local Switching Calls

This describes the recovery of BSC local switching calls. When a handover occurs during a BSC
local switching call, the target cell may not support local switching or the outgoing BSC handover
fails. In this case, the BSC local switching call must be recovered to an ordinary call.

The BSC sets up the Ater interface transmission channel between the GMPS or GEPS and the
GTCS. The speech signals are sent to the MSC through the BSC and then are switched to the
MS.

The recovery of BSC local switching calls is determined by the BSC without manual intervention
and configuration parameters.

45.4.3 Handover of BSC Local Switching Calls

This describes the handover of BSC local switching calls. The intra-BSC handover and outgoing
BSC handover of BSC local switching calls are different from the common handover
mechanism.

Intra-BSC Handover
The difference between the intra-BSC handover of BSC local switching calls and the common
handover is that the speech version cannot be changed during the handover of BSC local
switching calls. That is, the speech version before the handover must be consistent with that
after the handover. Therefore, the success rate of handover may decrease, and the call drop rate
may increase.

l After the intra-BSC handover succeeds, the BSC local switching call may be maintained
or switched to a BTS local switching call and then recovered to an ordinary call depending
on the local switching support capability of the target channel.
l If the intra-BSC handover fails, the BSC local switching call is kept in the BSC local
switching state.

Outgoing BSC Handover

The outgoing BSC handover process for BSC local switching calls is as follows:

1. The BSC decides to initiate an outgoing BSC handover through the handover decision
algorithm and sends a handover request to the MSC.

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2. Upon receipt of the handover request, the MSC sends a handover command to the BSC.
l After receiving the handover command from the MSC, the BSC instructs the MS to
recover the call to an ordinary call to ensure that the outgoing BSC handover is
successful and the voice quality is sound.
l If the BSC does not receive the handover command, the BSC local switching call is
maintained.
l If the MS reports a handover failure message, the BSC local switching call is recovered
to an ordinary call at the party that initiates the handover.

45.5 Implementation
This describes how to configure and verify BSC local switching.

45.5.1 Configuring BSC Local Switching

This describes how to configure BSC local switching on the BSC6000 Local Maintenance
Terminal.
45.5.2 Verifying BSC Local Switching
This describes how to verify BSC local switching on the BSC6000 Local Maintenance
Terminal.

45.5.1 Configuring BSC Local Switching

This describes how to configure BSC local switching on the BSC6000 Local Maintenance
Terminal.

Procedure
Step 1 Apply for a license and activate it.
1. When you apply for a license for BSC local switching, ensure that in the
BSC6000V900R003 (None) Commercial License Application Template, the Number of
resources corresponding to the Number of the TRX supporting BSC local switching in
the Resource control items column is not 0 and input the actual number of TRXs that
support BSC local switching.
2. Activate the license on the BSC6000 Local Maintenance Terminal. For details, refer to
Activating the BSC License.
Step 2 Configure BSC local switching on the BSC.
1. On the Management Tree tab page of the BSC6000 Local Maintenance Terminal, right-
click BSC6000 and choose Configure BSS Local Switching from the shortcut menu. A
dialog box is displayed, as shown in Figure 45-2.

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Figure 45-2 BSS General Strategy

2. Set BSS General Strategy to BSC Priority or BSC Local Switching.

3. Set Options for BSC Local Switch.
l If Options for BSC Local Switch is set to Start Ater for BSC, set Start Ater Threshold
for BSC. Go to Step 2.4.
l If Options for BSC Local Switch is set to Prefix Number or Unconditional Start, go
to Step 2.4.
4. Click Next. A dialog box is displayed, as shown in Figure 45-3.
l If Options for BSC Local Switch in Figure 45-2 is set to Prefix Number, set Prefix
Number for BSC and Number in the BSC Local Switching Prefix Start tag page.
Go to Step 2.5.
l If Options for BSC Local Switch in Figure 45-2 is set to Unconditional Start, go to
Step 2.5.

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Figure 45-3 BSC Local Switching Prefix Start

5. Click the BSC Local Switching Prefix Close tab, as shown in Figure 45-4.
l If BSC Close Based on Number in Figure 45-2 is set to Yes, set Avoid Number for
BSC and Number. Go to Step 2.6.
l If BSC Close Based on Number in Figure 45-2 is set to No, go to Step 2.6.

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Figure 45-4 BSC Local Switching Prefix Close

6. Click Finish to complete the configuration of BSC local switching.

----End

45.5.2 Verifying BSC Local Switching

This describes how to verify BSC local switching on the BSC6000 Local Maintenance
Terminal.

Procedure
Step 1 On the BSC6000 Local Maintenance Terminal, choose BSC Maintenance > Maintain User
Resource > Query Call Resources . A dialog box is displayed, as shown in Figure 45-5.

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Figure 45-5 Query Call Resources dialog box

Step 2 Enter an ID number in the Calling ID field, and then click Query. The query results are
displayed, as shown in Figure 45-6.
If BSC local switching is started successfully, the following output is displayed in the Query
Result window:
l The TC subrack information contains only A interface information instead of Ater
interface information.
l The BM subrack information contains Abis interface information.

The activation of BSC local switching is successful.

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Figure 45-6 Query Call Resources dialog box

----End

45.6 Maintenance Information

This lists the alarms and performance counters related to BSC local switching.

Alarms
None.

Counters
Table 45-4 lists the counters related to BSC local switching.

Table 45-4 Counters related to BSC local switching

Counter Description

R381 Number of Loopback Start Attempts

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Counter Description

R3820 Number of Loopback Start Failures (No

Loopback Policy Available)

R3821 Number of Loopback Start Failures

(Speech Version Adjustment Failure)

R3822 Number of Loopback Start Failures

(Invalid State)

R3824 Number of Loopback Start Failure

(Territorial Resource Request Failure)

R3825 Number of Loopback Start Failure (Timer

Expired)

R3826 Number of Loopback Start Failures (Not

Support by the BTS)

R3827 Number of Loopback Start Failures

(Other Causes)

R382b Number of BSC Loopback Failures after

the Handover during the BTS Loopback

R382c Number of BTS Loopback Failures after

the Handover during the BSC Loopback

R382d Number of BSC Loopback Failures after

the Handover during the BSC Loopback

R3830 Number of Successful BSC Loopback

Attempts

R3830a Number of Successful BSC Loopback

Attempts after the Handover during the
BTS Loopback

R3830b Number of Successful BSC Loopback

Attempts after the Handover during the
BSC Loopback

R3831b Number of Successful BTS Loopback

Attempts after the Handover during the
BSC Loopback

CR382 Number of Loopback Start Failures

R3840 Number of Attempts to Return to Normal

Call from BSC Loopback

R3850a Number of Failures to Return to Normal

Call from BSC Loopback (Territorial
Resource Request Failure)

R3850b Number of Failures to Return to Normal

Call from BSC Loopback (Others)

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Counter Description

CR3850 Number of Failures to Return to Normal

Call from BSC Loopback

R3860 Number of Successful Attempts to Return

to Normal Call from BSC Loopback

TR3860 BSC Loopback to Normal Call Success

Rate

M3720 Call Drops due to BSC Loopback Start

Failure (Terrestrial Resource Request
Failure)

M3721 Call Drops due to BSC Loopback Start

Failure (Others)

M390 Call Drops due to Loopback Start Failure

(Timer Expired)

CM397 Call Drops due to Loopback Start Failure

CM398 Call Drops due to Handover Failure

During the Loopback

M3701 Call Drops due to Connection Failures in

Stable BSC Loopback State

M3700 Call Drops due to Error Indications in

Stable BSC Loopback State

M3702 Call Drops due to Release Indications in

Stable BSC Loopback State

M372 Call Drops due to No MRs from MS in

Stable BSC Loopback State

M375 Call Drops due to Forced Handovers in

Stable BSC Loopback State

M373 Call Drops due to Abis Terrestrial Link

Failure in Stable BSC Loopback State

M374 Call Drops due to Equipment Failures in

Stable BSC Loopback State

CM370 Call Drops in Stable BSC Loopback State

M3751 Call Drops due to Failures to Return to

Normal Call from BSC Loopback
(Terrestrial Resource Request Failure)

M3752 Call Drops due to Failures to Return to

Normal Call from BSC Loopback (Others)

CM385 Call Drops due to Failures to Return to

Normal Call from Loopback

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Counter Description

CM390 Call Drops During Loopback

M3852 Call Drops due to Failures to Return to

Normal Call from BTS Loopback (Others)

CM385 Call Drops due to Failures to Return to

Normal Call from Loopback

CM390 Call Drops During Loopback

45.7 References
None.

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