BSSPAR2: Chapter 7

Precise Paging

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Module Objectives

• Describe the Precise Paging for Paging Procedure

• Describe Precise Paging for repaging procedure
• Describe the benefit of Precise Paging as for capacity enhancement
• Describe the Precise Paging versus Intelligent Selective Paging(ISP)
• Explain the parameters for defining Precise Paging for repaging procedure
• Explain the parameters to avoid misconfiguration issue with repaging
• Describe the TMSI optimization procedure
• Describe the feature requirements
• Describe the activation and parameters of precise paging

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Introduction: Paging procedure

• Normally the MSC pages a MS indicating the LAC where the MS is registered. The BSC sends this
paging to all the cells belonging to the affected LAC.

Paging Paging

MSC
BSC1

The result of this behavior is LAC1

that all cells where the MS is
not present receive a paging
command that is useless.

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Introduction: Principle
• Precise Paging reduce the paging load by sending the first paging only to the cell where the MS was
last known and to its adjacent cells.
• If there is no immediate paging response, after paging the cell where MS location was last known
and its neighbous, BSC pages the remaining cells in the location area
Based on the fact that:
Based on the fact that:
 most of the MS have low
 most of the MS have low
mobility.
mobility.
 Continuous growing use
 Continuous growing use
of data services like
of data services like
email, instant
email, instant
messaging, multipart
messaging, multipart
games etc. generate
games etc. generate
paging frequently.
paging frequently.
 both CS and PS calls
 both CS and PS calls
are used.
are used.

 If the mobile is in the cell where the feature is active but the feature is not active in one of its neighbor cells PP
is applied also in the neighbour cell where the feature is not active.

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Capacity Enhacement

• Precise paging decreases the paging load, the following resources can be
saved:
‒ Additional CCCH used for high paging load, now can be switched back for
TCH/SDCCH/PDCH
‒ Capacity of TRXSIG needed used for Abis resources can be used e.g. for EDAP
and better utilization of Packet Abis
‒ Fewer sites can serve the same amount of subscribers when CCCH was the
bottleneck. ( It allows to send paging to the reduced number of cells, paging load
is reduced)
Network with
Precise paging
CCCH
limited
network

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Precise Paging VS Intelligent Selective Paging(ISP)

• Precise paging feature works in the same way as Intelligent Selective Paging(ISP)

• The difference is that Precise Paging considers both CS and PS calls to keep track on
MS location while ISP only the CS calls are considered.

• Compare to ISP, Precise Paging feature also provides gains for PS paging, which may
be higher in some cells than the CS paging load.

• Precise Paging feature works with ISP feature. If ISP feature is active in the MSC and
Precise Paging feature in BSC, then the BSC initially tries to use the location information
of its own database. If that is not available, then it uses the location information sent by
the MSC in the paging message. BSC location information can be more accurate due to
updating made during GPRS connection.

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MS location in the BSC DB
Precise Paging is base on:
Precise Paging is base on:
 MSC provides the IMSI to the BSC for all the procedures, LU, SMS etc
MSC provides the IMSI to the BSC for all the procedures, LU, SMS etc
 BSC keeps stored in a IMSI hashed table the last visited cell for that MS when a CS connection ends or TBF is
 BSC keeps stored in a IMSI hashed table the last visited cell for that MS when a CS connection ends or TBF is
being established.
being established.
 When the BSC receives the paging, it checks the availability of the IMSI in its internal data. In case it is found,
When the BSC receives the paging, it checks the availability of the IMSI in its internal data. In case it is found,
the paging command is sent to the cell stored for that IMSI and to its adjacent cells
the paging command is sent to the cell stored for that IMSI and to its adjacent cells

MO Abbreviated Range And Step Description Default BSC - MML

Class Name value Name

BSC precPageRecLife 1..24 h (step 1h) Defines how long BSC is allowed to use a  24 h PRECPL
location record of a MS for Precise Paging after
creation or last update.

Update of MS location record in BSC database is impacted by setting of periodical location update in BTS
 parameter(Timer For Periodic MS Location Updating, default 0.5h).

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Repaging procedure
BSC can be configured by Precise Paging enabled for repagings parameter to use Precise Paging for all pagings or
only for the first one
• precPageEnRepage =1 for all pagings
‒ First the cell where MS’s location was known (together with its neighbor cells) is paged
‒ If there is no response(supervision timer defined by Precise Paging expanding delay expires) then the paging is
expanded to the rest of the cells in the LA or RA
• precPageEnRepage =0 for only for the first one
‒ Precise Paging is repeated for the same MS again after the location information of the MS has been updated first.

MO Abbreviated Name Range And Step Description Default value BSC - MML
Class Name

BSC precPageEnRepage (0) Disabled, (1) Defines if BSC shall use Precise Pagings also for repagings  (1) Enabled PRECRP
Enabled (repaging from MSC or another paging after first Precise
Paging was unsuccsesful).
If disabled, Precise Paging is used next time for the MS
after the MS’s location has been updated in BSCs location
database (mobile's location is updated at the end of each
TCH/SDCCH connection or when TBF is etsblished)

BSC precPageExpandDelay 2..8 s (step 0.1s) Defines the time BSC waits for paging response before   2s PRECPD
paging is expanded to all cells in the Loaction/Routing area
(when the MS was first paged in the precise paging style).
After paging the mobile in the Precise Paged area, BSC
starts timer defined by this parameter and waits for MS
response (CHANNEL REQUIRED). If the timer expiries
before BSC receives response, paging is send to the whole
Location/Routing Area.

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Misconfiguration issue with repaging
• Precise Paging expanding delay parameter must be set to the value indicating shorter time then interval between
pagings (INT) set in MSC (or SGSN).

• If there is no paging response after time defined by Precise Paging expanding delay BSC retransmits paging to the
rest of the cells in the LA/RA

• If MSC is configured for repagings (AT>0) and there is no paging response during time defined by Interval between
pagings (INT) MSC retransmits paging
Default settings allows to avoid
MS answer to
misconfiguration issue:
Precise Paging expanding
BTS sends paging paging with
delay timer expires BSC
response to BSC Channel Request • MSC settings (NSN):
‒ Repaging Attempt (AT) =
2
‒ Interval between pagings
MSC Paging (INT) = 3 sec
BSC • BSC settings:
‒ Precise Paging enabled
for repagings = Enabled
BSC forwards After Precise Paging expanding delay LAC1 ‒ Precise Paging
paging response to timer expires BSC sends paging to the expanding delay = 2 sec
MCS rest cells in the LA /RA

 Misconfiguration in paging parameters can be very harmful for the network

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TMSI Optimization
• Paging capacity can be further expanded by converting IMSI to TMSI for re-paging's in BSC

• BSC stores TMSI(into hash table) from the first paging message and could use it for the possible re-paging's instead
of IMSI

• TMSI optimization should be disabled if MSC is sending repaging with TMSI (this can be checked in NSN MSC from
TMSI repetition - RTPMTC paramter setting)

• If the TMSI optimization is activated this means that intention is to send repaging from MSC with TMSI. This
parameter should be set to the same value as MSC repaging timer in MSC (INT in NSN MSC, T3113 in TS44.018)

MO Abbreviated Name Range And Step Description Default value BSC - MML Name
Class

BSC precPageTmsiOpt (0) Disabled, Defines if BSC shall convert IMSI repagings to TMSI  (0) Disabled PRECTO
(1) Enabled, pagings when possible.

BSC precPageMscDel 1..10 s (step 0.1s) Defines the timer value used for repaging in MSC.   5s PRECMD
It defines for how long time the BSC has to save TMSI from
previous paging attempt to be used for possible next
repaging attempt from MSC. This parameter has effect only
when Precise Paging TMSI optimization is enabled.

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TMSI Optimization
• TMSI optimization procedure could be disturbed because there is always some small delay in
paging message transfer between MSC and BSC.

• Example of TMSI optimization procedure :

MSC repaging delay = 3 sec

INT = 3 sec
TMSI based paging
MSC BSC
TMSI based paging Thanks to 1 sec added to
MSC repaging delay,
TMSI is kept and used for
INT expire repaging (inspite of longer
delay on A interface for
MSC paging MSC paging repaging than initial paging)
repetition IMSI only

MSC 500 ms on
A interface
800 ms on
A interface
3 sec
3 sec
BSC 0 0,5 3 3,5 3,8
If there was no 1 sec added to
time [sec]
BSC receive paging and
starts MSC repaging delay MSC repaging delay timer it
timer would expire at that moment
and repaging would have been
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Feature requirements
• To activate Precise Paging feature one of the following paging methods must be
configured in MSC (for the configuration process contact Core expert as this is MSC
vendor specific)
‒ MCC + MNC + LAC
‒ LAC
‒ LAC + CI with Intelligent Selective Paging active in the MSC
(one cell identified in a paging message)

• To activate Precise Paging feature one of the following paging methods must be
configured in SGSN (for the configuration process contact Core expert as this is SGSN
vendor specific)
‒ MCC + MNC + LAC
‒ MCC + MNC + RAC

• Precise Paging is license controlled and it has three states, OFF, ON and CONF
• The Precise Paging feature is under TRX capacity type of licence and is activated in
cell/segment level.
• The feature works only for PS pagings on cells that are served by PCU2s. PCU1 is not
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Activation
• Feature can be activated on cell basis by means of Precise Paging usage parameter:
MO Abbreviated Name Range And Step Description Default BSC - MML
Class value Name

BTS precPagingUsage (0) Disabled, This parameter defines if the Precise Paging feature  (0)Disabled PRECPG
(1) Enabled for CS , is active in the cell for:
(2) Enabled for PS, - CS pagings coming from MSC via A or Gb interface
(3) Enabled for both, - PS pagings received from SGSN via Gb interface
- Both CS pagings coming from MSC via A or Gb
interface and PS pagings received from SGSN via
Gb interface.

• It is recommended to activate feature for both CS&PS paging(3) but if:

‒ RA is much smaller then LA and the number of cells in RA is comparable to the number of cells in the
reduced paging area (e.g if average number of NBs per cell is 20 and size of RA is 20-25) it is recommended
to use Precise Paging for CS paging only(1).
‒ Call setup time is sensitive topic it is recommended to avoid Precise Paging for CS paging (2) if hit rate is low
(e.g due to high mobility or low smartphone penetration)

 Precise
setup).
paging increases the call setup time as the need for retransmissions is higher (retransmissions adds 4 sec to the call

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