Coverage-Adapted Load Management
Feature Description
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Copyright
© Ericsson AB 2016. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be
reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright owner.
Disclaimer
The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due to
continued progress in methodology, design and manufacturing. Ericsson shall
have no liability for any error or damage of any kind resulting from the use of
this document.
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Contents
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Basic Characteristics 1
1.2 Coverage-Adapted Load Management Summary 2
2 Feature Operation 3
2.1 Network Requirements 3
2.2 Process Steps 3
2.3 Configuration Guidelines 6
3 Parameters 8
3.1 Feature Configuration Parameters 8
3.2 Affected Parameters 8
4 Network Impact 9
4.1 Capacity 9
5 Associated Features and Affected Functions 10
5.1 Prerequisite Features 10
5.2 Affected Features 10
5.3 Related Features 11
5.4 Affected System Functions 11
6 Performance 12
6.1 KPIs 12
6.2 Counters 12
6.3 Events 12
7 Feature Activation and Deactivation 13
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Coverage-Adapted Load Management
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Introduction
1 Introduction
This document describes the Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature
and its main benefits and impacts in the LTE Radio Access Network (RAN).
This feature is an add-on to the following Load Management features and it
must be operated in combination with at least one of them:
• Inter-frequency Load Balancing
• Inter-Frequency Offload
• Inter-RAT Offload to WCDMA
The purpose of Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature is to optimize
the amount of load to be transferred to neighboring E-UTRAN and UTRAN
cells. The feature also optimizes the amount of required Inter-frequency and
Inter-Radio Access Technology (IRAT) measurements for load balancing. The
optimization is performed based on the available coverage overlap between
the source cell and neighboring cells. This is also estimated by at least one of
the following Best Neighbor Relations (BNR) features:
• Best Neighbor Relations for Intra-LTE Load Management
• Best Neighbor Relations for WCDMA IRAT Offload
This optimization potentially enhances the load balancing performance in most
network scenarios including heterogeneous networks where different cell sizes
can exist in the network.
1.1 Basic Characteristics
Table 1 Basic Characteristics
Feature name: Coverage-Adapted Load
Management
Product identity: FAJ 121 3077
Replaces: N/A
Dependencies: See Section 5 on page 10 for more
information.
Licensing: Licensed feature. One license
required per node.
Feature activation MO: CoverageAdaptedLoadMgmt
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Coverage-Adapted Load Management
1.2 Coverage-Adapted Load Management Summary
The benefits of the feature are as follows:
• Allowing the load balancing or offload to utilize the capacity of small cells
efficiently. This also reduces the load on macro cells.
• Avoiding waste of load management effort on target cells.
• Optimizing the number of inter-frequency or IRAT measurements initiated
for load management purposes.
• Allowing the load management to handle large numbers of load balancing
relations with better efficiency. This means allowing more neighbor cells to
be used for load balancing or offload without negatively affecting the
performance.
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Feature Operation
2 Feature Operation
2.1 Network Requirements
The Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature is license controlled per
RBS. For the feature to be operational, a valid license key must be installed on
an eNodeB level. The feature must also be explicitly activated by setting a
MOM attribute. See Section 7 on page 13 for more details.
The following must be fulfilled at feature activation:
• At least one of the following Load Management feature licenses is
activated:
– A license of the Inter-Frequency Load Balancing feature to enable
load distribution to Inter-frequency neighbor cells.
– A license of the Inter-Frequency Offload feature to enable load
handover to Inter-frequency neighbor cells.
– A license of the Inter-RAT Offload to WCDMA feature to enable load
handover to UTRAN neighbor cells.
• At least one of the following BNR feature licenses is activated:
– A license for the Best Neighbor Relations for Intra-LTE Load
Management feature to enable evaluation of inter-frequency neighbor
cells for load balancing or offload.
– A license for the Best Neighbor Relations for WCDMA IRAT Offload
feature to enable automatically and dynamically suitable cell relations
configuration for WCDMA IRAT offload.
2.2 Process Steps
A high level flow diagram of the feature operation is provided in this section.
This is the basis for dividing the feature into manageable parts. If the diagram
or flow chart appears in another referenced document, such as the standard,
include only a reference to the diagram.
2.2.1 Load Balancing Action
The Inter-frequency Load Balancing, Inter-Frequency Offload, and Inter-RAT
Offload to WCDMA features share a similar Load Balancing Action step. In
this step, each source cell determines the amount of traffic load to be handed
over to each target E-UTRAN or UTRAN cell to balance the load differences.
In the determinations, several parameters and criteria are considered.
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Coverage-Adapted Load Management
As an add-on feature to those three features, the Coverage-Adapted Load
Management feature enhances the Load Balancing Action step. This is
realized by considering an extra criterion along with the existing ones. The
extra criterion is related to the coverage overlap between the source cell and
target cells. The coverage overlap is referred to as hit rate in the Best
Neighbor Relations for Intra-LTE Load Management and Best Neighbor
Relations for WCDMA IRAT Offload features.
If multiple target cells exist, the total amount of traffic load to be handed over
from the source cell is divided among the target cells. The divided load
considers the available hit rate of target cells towards the source cell.
The adaptation of handover amount based on the available hit rate makes it
possible to allow load balancing towards multiple target cells without
negatively affecting the performance. The target cells can be with low hit rate,
such as pico cells.
2.2.2 Load Balancing Relation Configuration
Load balancing relations are configured in the source cell towards each target
cell. The parameter loadBalancing activates load balancing in one direction
from the source cell to the target E-UTRAN or UTRAN cell.
The Best Neighbor Relations for Intra-LTE Load Management feature and
Best Neighbor Relations for WCDMA IRAT Offload feature automatically
determines and configures the parameter loadBalancing for the load
balancing relations. However, the neighbor cells with low hit rate, such as pico
cells, cannot automatically be configured as load balancing relation.
If it is necessary to consider such target cells for load balancing, the
parameter lbCovIndicated of the target cells must be set to TRUE. This
happens when the Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature is operable.
When the load balancing evaluates the best neighbor cells, the total hit rate on
the corresponding target frequency is considered, instead of the individual hit
rate of such cells. If the Overlaid Cell Detection feature is operable the
lbCovIndicated parameter of the target cells is automatically set to TRUE .
For details, see document Overlaid Cell Detection.
The total hit rate per frequency is defined as the sum of the hit rate for the
following target cells on a certain frequency:
• Cells with loadBalancing are set to ALLOWED or OFFFLOAD
• Cells with lbCovIndicated are set to TRUE
Figure 1 shows the process of automatic configuration of E-UTRAN load
balancing relations, and Figure 2 shows the UTRAN relations.
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Feature Operation
The algorithm is triggered every load balancing cycle
and performed for each E-UTRAN neighbor relation
No
Is the feature BNR
for intra-LTE Load Mgmt
operable?
Yes Is Coverage-Adapted
Load Management
operable? No
IbHitRate > No IbHitRate < No
IbHitRateEutranAddThreshold? Yes IbHitRateEutranRemoveThreshold?
No
Yes Is lbCovIndicated=true? Yes
(EUtranCellRelation)
FALSE IbBnrAllowed? IbBnrAllowed? FALSE
(MO EutranCellRelation) Yes (MO EutranCellRelation)
Yes Is TotalHitRate >
TRUE (default) lbHitRateEUtranAddThreshold? TRUE (default)
NOT_ALLOWED NOT_ALLOWED
IbBnrPolicy? IbBnrPolicy?
(MO EutranFreqRelation) No (MO EutranFreqRelation)
Is TotalHitRate < Yes
lbHitRateEUtranRemoveThreshold?
OFFLOAD_ONLY LB_ONLY No
AUTO (default) AUTO (default)
LB_ONLY
OFFLOAD_ONLY
No Is target cell Is target cell No
Ericsson RBS? Ericsson RBS?
Yes Yes
LoadBalancing = LoadBalancing = LoadBalancing =
OFFLOAD ALLOWED NOT ALLOWED
Automatic configuration of the
E-UTRAN neighbor relation is complete
L0000938A
Figure 1 Automatic Configuration of E-UTRAN Load Balancing Relations
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Coverage-Adapted Load Management
The algorithm is triggered every load balancing cycle
and performed for each UTRAN neighbor relation
No
Is the feature BNR
for WCDMA IRAT Offload
operable?
Yes Is Coverage-Adapted
Load Management
operable? No
IbHitRate > No IbHitRate < No
IbHitRateUtranAddThreshold? Yes IbHitRateUtranRemoveThreshold?
No
Yes Is lbCovIndicated=true? Yes
(UtranCellRelation)
FALSE IbBnrAllowed? IbBnrAllowed? FALSE
(MO UtranCellRelation) Yes (MO UtranCellRelation)
Yes Is TotalHitRate >
TRUE (default) lbHitRateUtranAddThreshold? TRUE (default)
NOT_ALLOWED NOT_ALLOWED
IbBnrPolicy? IbBnrPolicy?
(MO UtranFreqRelation) No (MO UtranFreqRelation)
Is TotalHitRate < Yes
lbHitRateUtranRemoveThreshold?
OFFLOAD_ONLY No OFFLOAD_ONLY
(default) (default)
LoadBalancing = LoadBalancing =
OFFLOAD NOT ALLOWED
Automatic configuration of the
UTRAN neighbor relation is complete
L0000939A
Figure 2 Automatic Configuration of UTRAN Load Balancing Relations
2.3 Configuration Guidelines
To activate the Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature, either the Best
Neighbor Relations for Intra-LTE Load Management feature, or the Best
Neighbor Relations for WCDMA IRAT Offload feature, or both must be
configured.
For the Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature, two attributes are
configurable, attribute lbCovIndicated, MO EUtranCellRelation and
UtranCellRelation as well as lbMeasScalingLimit, MO
LoadBalancingFunction .
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Feature Operation
For details on configuration of the feature, see the Coverage-Adapted Load
Management section in Radio Network (DU Radio Node) or Manage Mobility
(Baseband Radio Node).
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Coverage-Adapted Load Management
3 Parameters
3.1 Feature Configuration Parameters
The following parameters are used to configure the Coverage-Adapted Load
Management feature:
• lbCovIndicated
Exists for MO classes:
– EUtranCellRelation
– UtranCellRelation
• lbMeasScalingLimit
3.2 Affected Parameters
The implementation of this feature affects no parameters.
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Network Impact
4 Network Impact
4.1 Capacity
The Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature enhances the load
balancing performance of the features Inter-frequency Load Balancing, Inter-
Frequency Offload, and Inter-RAT Offload to WCDMA especially in the
heterogeneous networks where different cell sizes can exist. The ability to use
the traffic capacity on all the available frequencies fully is improved.
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Coverage-Adapted Load Management
5 Associated Features and Affected
Functions
5.1 Prerequisite Features
The following are prerequisite features to this feature. They must be active
prior to introducing the Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature. For
details regarding feature activation, see Section 2.1 on page 3.
• Inter-frequency Load Balancing or Inter-Frequency Offload or Inter-RAT
Offload to WCDMA
• Best Neighbor Relations for Intra-LTE Load Management or Best
Neighbor Relations for WCDMA IRAT Offload
5.2 Affected Features
Table 2 lists features affected by the Coverage-Adapted Load Management
feature.
Table 2 Affected Features
Feature Description
Inter-frequency Load Balancing The Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature optimizes
the calculation algorithms of the amount of load to be
transferred and the number of required UE measurements
defined in the Inter-frequency Load Balancing feature.
Inter-Frequency Offload The Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature optimizes
the calculation algorithms of the amount of load to be
transferred and the number of required UE measurements
defined in the Inter-Frequency Offload feature.
Inter-RAT Offload to WCDMA The Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature optimizes
the calculation algorithms of the amount of load to be
transferred and the number of required UE measurements
defined in the IRAT Offload to WCDMA feature.
Cell Sleep Mode The purpose of Coverage-Adapted Load Managemen feature
is to optimize the amount of load to be transferred to
neighboring E-UTRAN and UTRAN cells when the load in the
source cell is higher than lbActivationThreshold . To
reduce the load on macro cells this feature allows load
balancing or offload to utilize the capacity of small cells
efficiently.
If Cell Sleep Mode feature is active at the same time, there is a
risk that small capacity cells are prevented from going into
sleep mode, since the load gets too high on these cells. To
avoid this, it is recommended to set the parameter
lbActivationThreshold to a higher value than the default,
to limit off-load to these cells.
Best Neighbor Relations for Intra-LTE The Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature modifies
Load Management the behavior of the BNR feature to respond more quickly to
possible fluctuation of the hit rate the target cells associated
Best Neighbor Relations for WCDMA with the load balancing relations present to the source cell.
IRAT Offload
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Associated Features and Affected Functions
5.3 Related Features
Table 3 lists features related to the Coverage-Adapted Load Management
Feature.
Table 3 Related Features
Feature Description
Overlaid Cell Detection The Overlaid Cell Detection feature
optimizes detection of small cells as
load balancing relations for load
balancing or offload by use of
automatic and dynamic identification.
In the Coverage-Adapted Load
Management feature it is possible to
manually configure such load
balancing relations by using attribute
lbCovIndicated. If the Overlaid
Cell Detection feature is operable,
this manual configuration is replaced
by automatic configuration and the
lbCovIndicated attribute in the
EUtranCellRelation MO is
automatically set to TRUE.
5.4 Affected System Functions
This feature affects no system functions.
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Coverage-Adapted Load Management
6 Performance
6.1 KPIs
This feature has no associated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
6.2 Counters
The following counters are associated with the Coverage-Adapted Load
Management feature:
• Inter-Frequency Offload
• Inter-Frequency Offload
• Inter-RAT Offload to WCDMA
For a full list with detailed information about counters, see the list files in the
Planning library folder.
6.3 Events
The Coverage-Adapted Load Management feature reuses existing events for
performance monitoring purpose.
For all events associated with the Coverage-Adapted Load Management
feature, refer to the following documents:
• Inter-frequency Load Balancing
• Inter-Frequency Offload
• Inter-RAT Offload to WCDMA
For a full list with detailed information about PM events, see the list files in the
Planning library folder.
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Feature Activation and Deactivation
7 Feature Activation and Deactivation
Activating the feature requires that the license is installed. Feature activation
and deactivation is described in Manage Licenses.
The MO instance used to control the feature state is listed in Table 1.
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