To cope with transmission failures due to bad radio conditions, a
different coding scheme with more redundance can be used.
This commit adds an implemenation that is based on the Ack/Nack
ratio per PACKET DOWNLINK ACK/NACK message received from the MS.
Basically the CS level is decreased, if the block error rate goes
above cs_adj_upper_limit (default 33%), and it is increased, if the
rate drops below cs_adj_lower_limit (default 10%). Only blocks that
have been encoded with the current CS are taken into account.
Note that this approach doesn't measure the MS->BTS conditions and
that the measurement values reported by the MS are not taken into
account.
Ticket: #1739
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the current CS value is stored in the cs field of
gprs_rlcmac_tbf and initialised when it is used the first time.
This commit adds separate fields for UL and DL CS values to the
GprsMs class and provides corresponding getter methods for GprsMs and
gprs_rlcmac_tbf.
Ticket: #1739
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
The ms_class value is a property of the MS and thus belongs to the
GprsMs class. Nevertheless the MS object is created after the TLLI
gets known, so the value still has to be stored in the TBF initially.
This commit add the ms_class value to the GprsMs class and introduces
TBF accessor functions which either access that object or, if that is
not available, the value stored locally.
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the enqueued DL LLC messages which have not yet passed to
RLC/MAC encoding are eventually copied from one TBF to the next one
(see gprs_rlcmac_dl_tbf::reuse_tbf). Since the enqueued LLC messages
are related to a specific MS, they should be stored at that layer.
This commit moves the gprs_llc_queue object to GprsMs and changes the
TBF's accessor methods accordingly. The LLC copying code is removed
from gprs_rlcmac_dl_tbf::reuse_tbf().
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the gprs_llc class handles both LLC queueing and the
partition into smaller pieces for RLC/MAC encapsulation. This hinders
the separation of TBF and MS related data, since LLC queueing belongs
to the MS related code while the RLC/MAC encoding/decoding belongs to
the TBF layer.
This commits takes the LLC queueing related methods and members and
puts them into a new class gprs_llc_queue. It puts the queueing
object into gprs_rlcmac_tbf and adds accessor functions. The
implementation in tbf.cpp and tbf_dl.cpp is adapted accordingly.
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
The TA value rather relates to an MS and not to a single TBF. So all
TBFs share the same TA value. Currently the TA value is stored per
TBF and eventually copied from an old TBF to a new one. It is in
general only passed with an RACH request when the TLLI and thus the
MS is not yet known.
This commit adds a TA member to the GprsMs class and uses that one
when the TBF is associated to an MS object. Since the TBF is not
always associated with an MS object (after RACH or when it has been
replaced by another TBF), the TA value is still stored in each TBF
and that value is used as long as no MS object is being associated.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the BTS::trigger_dl_ass() method assigns the IMSI to the MS
object. This should be (and is already) done earlier where the MS
object is retrieved/created.
This commit removes the corresponding code along with the 'imsi'
parameter from trigger_dl_ass.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the IMSI is stored in the TBFs. Since it directly refers to
an MS, it should rather be stored in an MS object.
This patch move the m_imsi field from gprs_rlcmac_tbf to GprsMs,
changes gprs_rlcmac_tbf::imsi() to get the IMSI from the associated
MS object, and adds getter and setter to GprsMs. Before changing the
IMSI of the associated MS object, assign_imsi() checks if there is
already another MS object with the same IMSI and eventually resets
the IMSI of that one. So using update_ms() and assign_imsi() ensures
that there are not two MS object entries is the storage with the
same TLLI or the same IMSI.
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the TLLI is stored in each TBF. Since each MS is now
represented by a GprsMs object which takes care of TLLI updating,
and each TBF that has been associated with an TLLI also contains a
reference to a GprsMs object, per TBF TLLI handling is no longer
needed. Keeping all TBF m_tlli members up to date is complex and
doesn't currently work correctly in all circumstances.
This commit removes m_tlli and related members from the TBF class and
the tbf_by_tlli functions from the BTS class.
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the MS will be searched based on the TLLI in resue_tbf().
Since the MS object is already known in the TBF when the TLLI is set,
it can just be passed to the new TBF.
This commit removes the call to update_ms() and just adds
new_tbf->set_ms(ms()) which will also work as expected if ms() == NULL.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
The type of the TBF update_ms() is being called on does not always
reflect whether the TLLI has been signaled by the MS or the SGSN.
This commit adds an additional parameter to tell the method, in which
direction the TLLI has been passed.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
According to the specification (GSM 04.08/24.008, 4.7.1.5) after a
new P-TMSI has been assigned, the old P-TMSI must be kept basically
until it has been used by both sides. Since the TLLI will be derived
from the P-TMSI, the old TLLI must also be kept until the new TLLI
has been used by both MS and SGSN.
This commit modifies the TLLI handling of GprsMs accordingly.
set_tlli() is only used with TLLIs derived from MS messages,
confirm_tlli() is used with TLLIs derived from messages received from
the SGSN. tlli() returns the value set by the MS. check_tlli()
matches each of the TLLI used by either MS or SGSN as well as the old
TLLI until it has been confirmed.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Use the MS storage to find a MS object for a given TLLI instead of
searching the TBF lists. The TBFs are then taken from the MS object,
if one has been found. If all TBF might be temporarily detached from
the MS object, a GprsMs::Guard is added to prevent the deletion of
the object, in case another TBF gets attached later on in the scope.
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
This commit adds MS object creation and cleanup to the TBF related
code. MS objects are created when a TBF that has been "anonymous" so
far gets associated with a TLLI. When a TBF is replaced by another,
the old TBF is detached and the new one is attached to the MS. When
all TBFs have been detached, the MS object gets deleted.
The TBF related code should not call attach_tbf/detach_tbf directly
but use set_ms instead to make sure, that the references are updated
properly. GprsMs::detach_tbf also calls set_ms(NULL) on the detached
TBF object.
The MS object is not really used yet, the focus is still on object
creation, TBF association, and cleanup.
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
The specification 28.018, allows to transmit the average LLC downlink
queueing delay in FLOW CONTROL BVC messages (BVC Measurement IE, see
GSM 28.018, 10.4.4 and 11.3.7).
This commit extends gprs_bssgp_pcu.cpp to compute the average delay
time between two subsequent FLOW CONTROL BVC messages. The average is
implemented as an arithmetic average without any weighting.
Ticket: OW#1432
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently this function which increments the corresponding counter is
just called in gprs_llc::clear(). It is not called on places where
LLC DISCARDED messages are sent.
This commit adds calls to llc_dropped_frame() at these places.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the value -1 is assigned twice to m_last_dl_drained_fn
within append_data().
This commit removes the first of these assigments.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the PCU silently discard LLC frames from the SGSN if a
DL TBF cannot be allocated.
This commit changes tbf_new_dl_assignment and reuse_tbf to send an
LLC discarded message to the SGSN in this case.
Ticket: #607
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
If the protocol layers above LLC (e.g. TCP) need an acknowledgement
to continue, it can take up to 400ms (single TS) until the MS is
polled for Ack/Nack which it can use to request an uplink TBF
quickly. The 400ms result from requesting an DL Ack/Nack every 20 RLC
blocks until all pending LLC frames have been sent.
Especially TCP's slow start mechanism can lead to a high delay at the
start of the connection, since the sender will eventually stop after
having sent the first packets (up to 4 (RFC2581) or 10 (RFC6928)).
This commit modifies append_data() to (re-)start
a timer every time it handles an LLC packet and to request an
Ack/Nack every time it expires. So if the server ceases to send IP
packets, the MS is polled in the assumption, that the server is
waiting for an ACK.
The following VTY commands are added (pcu node):
- queue idle-ack-delay <1-65535> timeout in centiseconds
- no queue idle-ack-delay disable this feature (default)
A sensible value is 10 (100ms) that at gave promising results when
testing locally.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently single LLC blocks are discarded when the PDU lifetime
expires. If an IP packet has been fragmented either on the IP or on
the LLC layer and is therefore distributed over several LLC frames,
the kept fragments are transmitted and then discarded by the MS
because of the missing PDU. This can cause massive IP packet loss
when there are many fragmented packets (e.g. when trying 'ping
-s1800' or if the GGSN chops downlink IP packets into several SNDCP
packets).
On the other hand, discarding too many packets might disturb the
congestion handling of TCP. Dropping plain TCP ACKs might also hinder
flow control and congestion avoidance.
This commit adds a hysteresis algorithm to the LLC discard loop. If
an LLC message's age reaches the high water mark, further message's
with an age above the low water mark are discarded, too. This is
aborted, if a GMM, a non-UI, or a small message is detected. In
these cases, that message is kept.
The following VTY commands are added (pcu config node):
- queue hysteresis <1-65535> set the difference between high
(lifetime) and low watermark in
centiseconds
- no queue hysteresis disable this feature (default)
Since the SGSN will most probably send all fragments of a single
N-PDU without much delay between them, a value slightly above the
average transmission delay jitter between SGSN and PCU is probably a
sensible value to discard all fragments of a single IP packet.
This is an experimental feature that might be replaced by more
advanced means of active queue management in the future.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
If an MS wants to open a new UL TBF, it can either use (P)RACH or
request one in a Ack/Nack message for a DL TBF (PACCH). When a TBF
becomes idle (LCC queue is empty but the TBF is kept open), there
aren't any Ack/Nack requests that can be used by the MS to ask for an
UL TBF, therefore it has to use the RACH. This leads to many RACH
requests even for a single HTTP transaction, so it takes some time to
retrieve even a simple web page.
This commit modifies the scheduler to regularly send Ack/Nack
requests on idle DL TBFs. It does so by extending the priority based
scheduling algorithm to have 5 priority levels (highest priority
first):
- Control block is pending
- High age (100%) threshold reached (-> request Ack/Nack)
- Data is waiting or there are pending Nacks
- Low age (200ms) threshold reached (-> request Ack/Nack)
- Pending Nacks that have been resent already
- None of the above (-> send DL dummy control block)
The 'age' refers to the time since since the last control block has
been sent on the TBF. This high age threshold is set to
dl-tbf-idle-time or to 50% of T3190 (whichever is smaller), aiming
for at least a poll (and TBF shutdown) after the TBF has expired and
to safely prevent expiry of T3190. So if dl-tbf-idle-time > 200ms,
there will be a poll every 200ms and a final poll after
dl-tbf-idle-time. On high load, the interval between polls can get
higher, but the 'high age' poll should be in place.
This commit implements the scheduling with respect to GSM 44.060,
9.3.1a ("Delayed release of downlink TBF").
Ticket: #556
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently a lot of LLC dummy commands will be generated while waiting
for an ACK for the DL TBF, even if there are blocks that could be
resent instead.
This patch modifies create_dl_acked_block to only call
create_new_bsn() if there is unsent LLC data or m_window is empty.
If the TBF is in state FLOW, no unsent LLC data is left, but there
are blocks left in m_window, those are resent instead.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently a DL TBF is immediately closed, when the LLC queue is
drained. This will lead to a new DL assignment if data is received
afterwards. In addition, it is not possible to keep the PACCH open
to poll the MS for UL establishment requests there.
GSM 44.060, 9.3.1a suggests to delay the release of an inactive TBF
for some time (max 5s).
This commit mainly changes create_new_bsn() to send LLC dummy
commands as filler if no LLC data is available until keep_open()
returns false. The keep_open() functions returns true unless a
configurable time has passed after the LLC data store drained. By
default, that time is not set which causes keep_open() to always
return false, so that delayed release is effectively disabled.
The following VTY commands are added:
- dl-tbf-idle-time <1-5000> to set the delay in ms
- no dl-tbf-idle-time to disable delayed release
Ticket: #556
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
If a BSN is going to be created but there is no frame stored in
m_llc, an empty LLC message would be created. This shouldn't happen
currently, but this will be a common case, when delayed TBF release
is implemented.
This commit changes create_new_bsn() to create an LLC dummy
command in that case and to put it into the frame buffer.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently if append_data() is used when there is no LLC data in the DL TBF,
it will either call reuse_tbf() which in turn will call put_frame(),
or it will append the LLC message to the queue, even if the queue and
the frame buffer are empty. This only happens with the test case so
far, but this would change when idle DL TBFs are kept open for some
time. It results in empty LLC message being sent to the MS (see log
below).
This commit changes append_data to check for this case and to
eventually use put_frame() instead of appending the LLC data to the
queue.
Addresses:
TBF(TFI=0 TLLI=0x00000000 DIR=DL STATE=FLOW) downlink (V(A)==0 ..
V(S)==0)
- Sending new block at BSN 0
-- Chunk with length 0 is less than remaining space (20): add length
header to to delimit LLC frame
Complete DL frame for TBF(TFI=0 TLLI=0x00000000 DIR=DL STATE=FLOW)len=0
- Dequeue next LLC for TBF(TFI=0 TLLI=0x00000000 DIR=DL STATE=FLOW)
(len=200)
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
This functions calculates the number of frames that have passed since
the last DL poll (RRBP flag set) has been sent. It returns a value
less than zero (fn_now - fn_sched) if the block has been scheduled but
not yet sent.
If the function is called before the first data block has been sent
it will return -1.
If the function is called before the first DL poll is sent, it
returns the number of frames since the first data block has been
sent.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Some properties of a DL TBF are explicitly calculated within modules
using DL TBFs.
This commit introduces the methods need_control_ts(), have_data(),
is_control_ts() to hide internals of the DL TBF implementation.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the DL Ack/Nack is not requested, if the last chunk of the
final LLC frame in the TBF fits exactly into the remaining space of
the RLC block. It is also not requested, if the RRBP flag cannot be
set due to scheduling issues (single block allocation, polling
already pending for this TBF, ...). So up to POLL_ACK_AFTER_FRAMES
(20) RLC data blocks will have to be resent, before requesting the
Ack/Nack will be retried.
This commit removes the first_fin_ack parameter of
create_dl_acked_block entirely and adds a request_dl_ack() method
that should be called, when the TBF's state changes to FINISHED. This
request will be reset, when the block has been scheduled
successfully. Since the first_fin_ack hasn't been set if chunk ==
space, calling request_dl_ack() on both places in create_new_bsn()
when the state is changed to FINISHED will also fix the first issue
described above.
Note that DL scheduling might not be fair concerning access to
first_ts when multiple TS are used for a TBF. In theory, a TBF might
never get access to first_ts in the worst case.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently two DL TBF objects with the same TLLI exist after reuse_tbf
which make the result of tbf_by_tlli undefined. This leads to several
DL TBFs belonging to the same TLLI.
This commit extends tbf_by_tlli to check the m_tlli_valid flag for
DL, too. That flag is set to 0 in reuse_tbf to mark the 'old' DL TBF
as invalid after its LLC data has been copied to the new one.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
If the PCU didn't receive the downlink ack/nack when it was polled there
is no reason to assume it will arrive at a later time. In that case
N3105 is already increased, but the next block sent should have a valid
RRBP set as well to poll again.
This can happen if either the BSN with the valid RRBP gets lost on the
downlink or the DL ACK/NACK gets lost on the uplink path.
Ticket: SYS#382
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
There are a couple of possibilities where one TBF is used to assign a
new one:
1. Assign a DL TBF from a UL TBF
2. Assign a UL TBF from a DL TBF
3. Assign a DL TBF from a DL TBF which is in wait-release state (T3193 is
running)
In these cases the assignment is sent on the existing TBF and triggers
the assignement of the new TBF (with different TFI/direction).
The current code detects these situations by looking at dl/ul_ass_state
and then chosing the TBF with the opposite direction (DL/UL) that has
the same TLLI. This does not work in the case 3 above where a new DL TBF
is triggered for a DL TBF. The current code reuses the old TBF (and
TFI), but this violates the spec.
This patch introduces a m_new_tbf member which is set to the new TBF to
be assigned. When receiving a control ack the code looks up the
n_new_tbf member of the tbf that requested the control ack and completes
the ul/dl assignment. If the old TBF was in the wait release state
(T3193 is running) it is released.
From 3GPP TS 04.60 9.3.2.6:
"""
If the network has received the PACKET DOWNLINK ACK/NACK message with
the Final Ack Indicator bit set to '1' and has new data to transmit for
the mobile station, the network may establish a new downlink TBF for the
mobile station by sending the PACKET DOWNLINK ASSIGNMENT or PACKET
TIMESLOT RECONFIGURE message with the Control Ack bit set to '1' on
PACCH. In case the network establishes a new downlink TBF for the mobile
station, the network shall stop timer T3193.
"""
reuse_tbf() is modified to allocate a new TBF with a new TFI and trigger
a dl assignment for that TBF on the old TBF. All pending data is moved
to the new TBF.
Ticket: SYS#382
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Jacob Erlbeck
Daniel Willmann