Synchronization strategy for
mobile network today
Vítor Vieira
Telecommunications Engineer in Vodafone Portugal
ITSF 11/2013
Legacy Network
MOBILE CORE TRANSPORT BACKHAUL TRANSPORT ACCESS
E1s
BSC SDH PDH
2G 3G ATM
ATM PDH LMDS
RNC Ethernet
IP-RAN
• Current BTSs and ATM NodeBs require E1s connectivity
– Legacy transport systems are adequate for this requirement
• New traffic boom (data) requires different approaches
– IP-RAN NodeBs that require more bandwidth and Ethernet interfaces
– How to transport this “new” traffic?
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Packet Network
TRANSPORT BACKHAUL + ACCESS
PACKET
• Single Network • Increased Capacity • OAM
– Any client – Statistic gain – E2E management
– Any interface – QoS – E2E provisioning
– Any traffic
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Mobile Network Requirements (source: VF R&D)
Frequency Sync
Requirements
Reduce Handover Failures • 3G FDD, GSM, LTE-FDD
Drive oscillators in the base station to produce accurate – +/- 50 ppb (macro cells)
frequency signal over air interface (FDD systems) – +/- 100-250 ppb (pico/femto)
Phase Sync
Requirements
Increase System Efficiency • WCDMA TDD systems
Frame alignment to minimize timeslot interference – +/-2.5 μs (micro second)
(reduce guard interval) in adjacent base stations (TDD between base stations is
systems) required (+/- 1.25 μs between
ref and BTS)
– CDMA 2000: +/-3 μs time
alignment
• Mobile WiMAX
Frequency Sync for Real Time Applications – < +/-1.4 μs (+/- 1.0 μs for
some WiMAX profiles)
Requirements
• Voice – 32 ppm
Guarantee good user experience
Avoid pixilation, waves, video freeze, etc. • Two way video – 50ppb
• HDTV – 100 ppb
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Drivers & Standards for sync
Why Synch over Packet ? Which technologies / standards ?
E1 services will continue to be Adaptive Clocking
required for a long time
NTPv3
But transport based on TDM is
being replaced by ethernet Synch-Ethernet
Ethernet is asynchronous IEEE1588v2
(PTP – precision time protocol)
(… or at least used to be!)
The target Synch-over-packet architecture
for macro cells is a mixed of SynchE and
What’s going on all Mobile operators? PTP
All mobile operators are building
fibre based metro ethernet networks
and deploying IP MW to prepare for
IP NodeBs, HSPA+ and LTE
We need to synchronise the cell sites
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Synchronization strategy for packet network today
• For this new packet network it will be require to use the following Sync
techniques:
– First option should be always SyncE
– if it is only required Synchronization in frequency. Deploy Synchronous Ethernet interfaces on
access and backhaul transport using self built transmission.
– Second option should be 1588V2 UDP/IP
– unicast in both ways (Master to slave and slave to master) - (ITU-T G.8265.1). For those
backhaul cases where we are forced to use legacy or leased Asynchronous Ethernet.
• Time of Day or Phase distribution is not necessary for now (just FDD schemes
are applicable). If TOD or Phase has to be delivered then 1588V2 shall be
used for this purpose.
• For smallcells (pico and Femto) we can consider NTP.
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How to implement 1588V2
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1588V2 Implementation
Best Master Clock (BMC) algorithm
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PTP Domains Dimensioning concerns today
• The network was designed trying to maintain a low number of hops between master and
slave (typically 1-2 L3 and 10-15 L2)
• 1588v2 traffic is DSCP marked with ‘EF’ for QoS management and goes through priority
VLAN in Metro rings
• New PTP domains may be required if:
– The number of hops between a slave and its masters is too high
– The max number of slaves per master is reached
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Sync rollout scenarios examples
SynchE used
SynchE used
1588V2 used
SynchE used
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Performance
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How to check if sync quality is good?
• Check if handover failure rate increases in a certain cellsite
• Some sync probes deployed in certain areas is good to have a sample of the sync
quality in our network
1588V2 used
SynchE used
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Live Network Synch-over-packet Performance
Slave 1588V2 supplier A in fibre Slave 1588V2 supplier B in fibre
-We can see that supplier B slave has lower performance than A
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Live Network Synch-over-packet Performance (2)
Slave 1588V2 supplier A in fibre Slave 1588V2 supplier A in IP MW
-Performance of 1588V2 in IP MW is much worse than fibre
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Lessons Learned and looking
Forward
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Major issues found until today
• GPS issue in the receiver of the 1588V2 master after a upgrade in the GPS
system made by the US army
• SyncE issues because of lack of support of SyncE in certain cards (some
cards/equipments can only give SyncE but not to receive)
• SyncE misconfiguration
• In Femtocells when using NTP sometimes depending if the jitter of the
transmission (internet or unlicensed MW) is very high we can have issues
(“sleeping cells”)
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Lessons learned
• When deploying 1588V2:
– Avoid to only to deploy only GPS as Sync source to the master at least in one of the
masters of the domain
– Beware with sync quality over IP MW it is depedent of several factors
• When deploying SyncE
– always make sure that all the equipment supports SyncE (IN and OUT)
– In a Ring make sure that your equipment support SyncE ESMC
– In a ring using DWDM, often people forget that even though DWDM is Synchronous
the client interfaces (GE or 10GE) could not be, it depends if the client card supports
SyncE
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Sync Concerns for the near future
• Will it be necessary time and phase synchronization for LTE-A even in FDD?
– LTE-A Hetnet Coordination (eICIC)
– LTE-A CoMP (Network MIMO)
– If yes, what will be the sync requirements?
– How to assure the needed sync quality?
– Will today’s 1588V2 masters be enough to assure the Sync quality?
• With all nodes going to full IP, what will be the core nodes that will still need
synchronization?
– Examples: Depending of the supplier BSCs will not need Synchronization, RNCs will
still need Synchronization in frequency because of handovers
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