EUGAP #39
Bangkok, Thailand
6th – 8th November 2017
VoLTE Experience
Abdulrahman AlSindi
Network Engineer, PS-Core & MPBN
Agenda
• VoLTE trend
• Measuring the right KPIs?
• Tracing & troubleshooting
• Tweaks and fixes
• Recommendations
VoLTE Investments
Fast call setup
160
140 HD Voice
120
100
Efficient Radio
80 82 resources
60
55
46 enriched
40
25 30 communication
20
14
0
Jan (2015) Jul (2015) Oct (2015) Jan (2016) Apr (2016) Jul (2016) Multi Access
/Service
Investing Launched
IMS investments growing with VoLTE one of main drivers
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 3
Batelco VoLTE
40% of Batelco subscribers are on 4G
20% of LTE subscribers are VoLTE subscribers
Launched VoLTE with Apple
All IMS nodes are Ericsson, and recently updated to 17A
Geo-redundant IMS
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 4
Measuring the right KPIs ?
VoLTE R-KPIs and S-KPIs
Resource KPIs (R-KPIs) Service KPIs (S-KPIs)
› measure the performance of network › optimum points in network to measure
domains and network elements KPIs of VoLTE as overall service
› good indicators of system capability › provide a view of the Service Quality as
perceived by users
› used for troubleshooting
Integrity
Accessibility
Retainability
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 6
Service KPIs (S-KPIs)
Accessibility
› VoLTE / ICS Session Set-up Success Ratio [%]
› Attach Success Ratio [%] and IMS Initial Registration Success Ratio [%]
Retainability
› VoLTE/ICS Session Completion Ratio [%]
› SRVCC Access Transfer Success Ratio [%]
Integrity
› IMS / ICS Session Set-up Time [s]
› Attach / IMS Initial Registration time [s]
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 7
S-KPIs (Accessibility)
› VoLTE/ICS Session Set-up
Success Ratio [%]
› VoLTE Originating calls: SBG is first SIP aware node
› VoLTE Terminating calls: MMTel AS is a more reliable point for this KPI when considering potential
error cases on PS access and fallback to CS access
› ICS calls originating over CS access: SCC AS is the entry point to IMS for ICS calls
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 8
S-KPIs (Accessibility)
› IMS Initial Registration Success Ratio [%]
› SBG as the first SIP aware node is used for Registration KPI
› S-CSCF is used in this KPI to capture 3rd party registration
› Attach Success Ratio [%]
› The probability that the EPC generates and sends out a successful attach
response.
› MME is the recommended point for this KPI
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 9
Tracing and Troubleshooting
Tracing & troubleshooting
› OSS-RC Subscriber Trace application
› Basic tracing for SIP and HSS DIAMETER messages
› Doesn’t capture terminating calls if originating leg non VoLTE
› Limited protocol capture capability, no MEGACO, MAP, DNS, etc.
› No historical traces to investigate customer complaints
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 11
Tracing & troubleshooting
› Port Mirroring / Trace Server
› Temporary solution to provide troubleshooting capabilities for VoLTE
› Mirrored all IMS vlans on MPBN towards a server running a trace 24/7
› Disadvantages:
– large pcap files after commercial launch
– requires experience in IMS and Wireshark
IMS Site 1 IMS Site 2
Port mirror
Wireshark Trace Server Trace Server
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 12
Tracing & troubleshooting
› Ericsson Expert Analytics – VoLTE Call Browser (Expectations ..)
› Detailed e2e VoLTE events for individual calls
› Core and RAN events for both legs of the call
› pinpoint voice quality issues (garbled voice, silent calls, etc.)
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 13
Tweaks and Fixes
Ring Back Tone
› Ring back tone should be unified for subscribers across VoLTE and CS domains
› In Batelco case, VoLTE UE provided RBT was similar to NRBT in CS for international calls
› Some UE vendors will not provide tailored RBT based on Operators preferences
› Solution: MTAS: Implement Network Provided Ring Back Tone (NRBT)
A B
MTAS MRFP
Invite
RBT service enabled
Invite
183 Session Progress 183 Session Progress
P-Early Media: Inactive
180 Ringing
180 Ringing
Add [SDP A1]
183 Session Progress
P-Early Media: Send Only
Ring Back Tone played
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 15
IMS/DSC Diameter Redundancy
› The expected behavior of CSCF and MTAS is to reroute
traffic through DSC_2 if DSC_1 replies with one of the
below Diameter errors:
– TOO_BUSY
– UNABLE_TO_DELIVER
– LOOP_DETECTED
– OUT_OF_SPACE
› In case the rerouteDueToError is set to FALSE, the TSP
node does not re-route the message and user session fails.
› Solution
› CSCF & MTAS: rerouteDueToError FALSE TRUE
› CSCF: CXDestinationHost peer name NotConfigured
› MTAS: ShDestinationHost peer name EMPTY
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 16
SBG dynamic transport UDP/TCP
Internet
SIP Notify
> 1300Byte SBG
› IMS core sends SIP Notify to UE after RAT handover and during conference calls
› SIP notify is > 1300 Bytes
› If not delivered to the UE, user gets deregistered due to SIP timeout in S-CSCF
› Solution
› SBG
– Outgoing UDP Fragmentation attribute (towards Access)
If size > 1300Bytes
Always use UDP Use TCP as first try
If TCP fails use UDP
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 17
Prepaid-Only Services
› Postpaid subscriber should not be allowed to dial prepaid services
numbers
› IMS network does not have the capability of Post/Prepaid specific
routing
› Solution: S-CSCF/ENS (External Network Selection)
SIP Invite P-Charging-function-Address Yes Prepaid
B-Party=111 =? RO.batelco.com Allow call
No
SIP 404 Not found
Postpaid
Error
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 18
VoLTE Prepaid Grace Period
› VoLTE Prepaid in Grace period (3 months) should still
be allowed to receive calls while in HPLMN
› When Ro triggered for terminating calls, OCS rejects
the call due to no balance
› Solution
› MTAS: Suppress charging trigger to OCS for VoLTE Prepaid terminating calls while in HPLMN
› Attribute: ChargingProfileSuppressTermChargingInHplmn
0=NONE 1=SUPPRESS_ONLINE_CHARGING
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 19
Provisioning without Entitlement Server
MME ADM EMA Weekly
server adaptation process
› Using ADM server for detecting new VoLTE capable UEs
› Adaptation in EMA to get user self supplementary services from HLR
› Provision Volte with users self supplementary services
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 20
Number Portability Impact
› IMS NP required to apply ON-NET/OFF-NET differential charging
› IMS MNP Implementation
– Features: NP in CSCF/MTAS & ERH in IP-Works
– Integration: IP-Works / FNR
– Charging details: EMM & OCC use “Number-Portability-Routing-Information” field in AVP
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 21
Number Portability Call flow
CSCF SBC MTAS IPWorks FNR
Invite - A User (Native or Ported-in) or OOB
ENUM Query
Check EnumDnShed for record,
if not then check EnumDnRange
for NP trigger
SS7 Query
SS7 Resp
ENUM Resp
Invite
ENUM Query
ENUM Resp
Invite
MGCF
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 22
TADS Strategy
› In case UE does not answer LTE paging, MTAS triggers CS breakout
– Aligned MME paging timer and number of paging attempts with IMS TADS timer
› MME Service Aware Adaptive Paging for faster call setup & termination
MTAS SBG MME
EPG
Invite Invite
Invite DDN
TADS Timer Starts 1st Paging
TADS B Starts
Ts 2nd Paging
T ms T ms
Ts n Paging
TADS Timer Expiry
Cancel
200 OK Canceling Timer B
Invite MGCF
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 23
TADS Strategy – Last Session
› New sessions within mtasTadsLastSessionValidTime call will be delivered
based on Recent session data
– Default value 60s
– Result in undesired behavior when 1 call terminated to CS
– Solution: changed to 10 seconds
T-ADS
Yes Deliver call based on
Ongoing VoLTE Session ? current session data
No
Last VoLTE session Yes
Deliver call based on
terminated within
recent session data
mtasTadsLastSessionValidTime
Continue
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 24
O&M Readiness
x5
› New KPIs for Voice Quality
CSRs in IMS vs MSS
› New Platforms & added complexity domain with
› New skillset (IMS & IP) commercial launch
› IMS related CSRs x5 increase
› Recommendation:
MSS IMS
– Plan for tracing and troubleshooting tools
– IMS assured Service (1 year)
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 25
EUGAP#39 Bangkok, Thailand | Commercial in confidence | 21-23 November, 2016 | Page 27
