Handovers

Handover is a GSM feature by which the control of communication of a mobile is transferred from one cell to
another if certain criteria are met.
An Handover algorithm is very important in mobile communications. The decision to trigger a handover and
and the subsequent choice of target cell has collective purpose which can be grouped into major objectives
of handovers.

Purpose

The main objectives of a handover decision are stated below.

a) to avoid loosing a call in progress when the Mobile Station leaves the radio coverage area of the cell in
charge. This type of handover has an important weight in the overall perception of the quality of service by
the subscriber since it has a high probability of loosing the call if the cell is not changed .

b) channel ought to be changed in case of severe disturbance (interference). Sometimes mobile stations
would be required to change serving cells because the cell corresponding to minimum pathloss will minimize
the mobile station transmit power when power control is being used. So handovers happen not only for the
sake of ongoing communicaiton but also to optimise the interference level .

c) Traffic reason handovers depending on system load and capacity of the serving and adjacent cells also
happen.

Handover types

Types of handovers in a network can be distinguished with respect to their changed region: a cell, a BSS
area, or an MSC area or with respect to their causes.They are :

a) Intra cell handover : It is enabled to allow a handover from a channel with high interference to another
one with low interference within the same cell. Intra-cell handover from one channel or timeslot in the serving
cell to another channel/timeslot in the same cell will normally be performed if the handover measurements
show a low RXQUAL, but a high RXLEV on the serving cell. This indicates a degradation of quality caused
by interference even though the MS is situated within the serving cell. The intra-cell handover should provide
a channel with a lower level of interference. Intra-cell handover can occur either to a timeslot on a new
carrier or to a different timeslot on the same carrier.

b) Intra BSS handover: This handover happens from one cell to another belonging to different base
stations and can take up any one of the handover causes stated below. Intercell handover from the serving
cell to a surrounding cell will normally occur either when the handover measurements show low RXLEV
and/or RXQUAL on the current serving cell and a better RXLEV available from a surrounding cell, or when a
surrounding cell allows communication with a lower TX power level.

This typically indicates that an MS is on the border of the cell area. Intercell handover may also occur from
the DCCH on the serving cell to a TCH on another cell during call establishment. This may be used as a
means of providing successful call establishment when no TCH resource is available on the current serving
cell.
Inter-cell handover between cells using different frequency bands is allowed for a multi band MS.

c) Intra MSC handover: This is a changed region handover from one BSS to another.

d) Inter MSC handover: It is enabled to allow a handover between cells belonging to different MSCs.

Handover causes:

Two criteria groups of different handover causes are defined:

Radio criteria:

a) Received quality (RX QUAL) too low / bit error rate too high.
b) Received level too low(RX LEV on uplink and downlink)
c) MS-BS distance handover (Timing Advance)
d) Power Budget handover (handover to a better cell with regard to relative received level)

Network Criteria:

a) serving cell congestion (directed retry)

b)MS-BS distance too high in Extended cells.

The first three handover causes in radio criteria are known mandatory or imperative causes due to the fact
that an occurrence of one of these causes mean that a handover is necessary to maintain the call.In a well
planned network handover to a better cell cause which is an optional one should be the overwhelming cause
for handovers to happen.

In network criteria a directed retry cause occurs due to congestion situation and not due to the radio
conditions of the link.This handover is performed from an SDCCH in a congested cell to a TCH in a
neighbour cell during Call Setup phase.

Maximum propogation delay within one time slot allows a MS-BS distance of 35 kms in GSM. In an
extended cell configuration TCHs are optionally configured as double time slot channels where two
contiguous time slots are used to provide coverage beyond 35 kms. Extended cell handover is an intracell
handover between a single time slot channel and a double time slot channel and vice versa. Hand over
detection is based on comparison of actual MS-BS distance with a set threshold.

Parameters to be considered for a Handover decision Process

A list of parameters to be taken into consideration while a handover decision is made is given hereafter :

Static data:

a) Maximum transmit power of the mobile staiton

b) Maximum transmit power of the serving BTS
c) Maximum transmit power of the neighbouring BTSs.

Measurements made by Mobile station:

a) Downlink transmission quality (Bit error rate)

b) Downlink reception level of the serving cell
c) Downlink reception level of the neighbouring cells

Measurements made by the BTS

a) Uplink transmission quality

b) Uplink reception level on current channel
c) Timing advance.

Traffic consideratons

- Cell capacity and load of the serving and neighbouring cells.

The actual handover process, need for handover margins and their typical settings are discussed below.

Handover process

For making a handover decision the BSS will process, store and compare certain parameters from the
measurements made and predefined thresholds. During every SACCH multiframe (480ms), the BSS shall
compare each of the processed measurements with the relevant thresholds.We can broadly classify the
handover causes into four broad categories :
a) RXLEV
b) RXQUAL
c) DISTANCE
d) PGBT (Power budget)

Some of the thresholds stored for handover purposes is given in table 1.1 below.

Table 1.1 :Parameters and Thresholds stored for handover purpose

Thresholds Description and typical settings

RXLEV threshold on the uplink for handover process to commence.It typically
L_RXLEV_UL_H ranges from -103 dBm to 73 dBm
RXLEV threshold on the downlink for handover process to commence.It
L_RXLEV_DL_H typically ranges from -103 dBm to 73 dBm
RXQUAL threshold on the uplink for the handover process to commence.
L_RXQUAL_UL_H
RXQUAL threshold on the downlink for the handover process to commence.
L_RXQUAL_DL_H
Threshold for maximum permitted distance between MS and BTS.It ranges
MS_RANGE_MAX from 2 to 35 kms (step size = 1)
RXLEV threshold on the uplink to trigger the intracell handover
RXLEV_UL_IH (interference).Typical range is -85 dBm to -40 dBm .
RXLEV threshold on the downlink to trigger the intracell handover
RXLEV_DL_IH (interference).Typical range is -85 dBm to -40 dBm .

Handover Margin

Handover Margin is a parameter used in order to prevent repetitive handovers between adjacent cells.It may
also be used as a threshold in handover cause Power Budget. It ranges from 0 to 24 dB and can be
incremented or decremented by 1 dB.

PBGT handovers:

PGBT(n) = (Min (MS_TXPWR_MAX,P) - RXLEV_DL - PWR_C_D) -

(Min (MS_ TXPWR_MAX(n),P) - RXLEV_NCELL(n))

This evaluation is done in the network as a criterion for a Power Budget handover.

Here,

MS_TXPWR_MAX is the maximum transmit power a mobile may use in the serving cell

MS_TXPWR_MAX(n) is the maximum transmit power a mobile may use in the adjacent cell .
P is the maximum transmit capabilitiy of the mobile station.
RXLEV_DL is the received level of the serving cell in the downlink obtained from the measurement reports.
RXLEV_NCELL(n) is the received level of the target cell obtained from the measurement reports.
PWR_C_D is the difference between the maximum downlink RF power permitted in the cell and the actual
downlink power due to BSS power control.

Comparison with HO_MARGIN (n)

Now PGBT(n) is compared with the handover margin to generate a handover cause as follows.Power
Budget handovers happen so as to ensure that a mobile is always linked with a cell of minimum path
loss.The condition for a Power budget handover cause is ,

PBGT(n) > 0 and PBGT(n) > HO_MARGIN (n) ,

Power budget handover margin is typically set as 6 db for non adjacent channel neighbours and 3 db for
adjacent channel neighbours.