In contrast to the slots currently used by existing TBFs, the
reserved slots refer to the time slots that can be used for newly
allocated TBFs without causing conflicts (given that the first common
TS does not change). They correspond to the potential use of the
PDCHs and can be used to achieve a more uniform slot allocation.
This commit adds bit set based methods to GprsMs and gprs_rlcmac_trx
and a counter to gprs_rlcmac_pdch. The current TRX will also be
stored in the MS object.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
To avoid the need for a switch or conditional statement when needing
a TBF from an MS object in direction independant code, this method
contains that case distinction. For additional flexibility, a
reverse() function is added to get the opposite direction.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
This method gets the index (0 based) of first common time slot used
by the TBFs attach to it. It expects that all of them have the same
notion of this. If no TBF is attached, -1 will be returned.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the MS object are created when the TLLI gets known.
Therefore some information (TA, MS class) must be stored in the TBF
itself and is copied to the MS object later on. This would get even
more complex, if the allocation algorithms were extended based on
this scheme.
This commit ensures, that an MS object will always be created on TBF
allocation, even if the TLLI is not yet known. These 'anonymous'
objects are still managed by the MS storage. To avoid dangling
entries without a TLLI there (which cannnot be retrieved anyway), the
timer in the MS objects is not started after all TBF have been
detached, so that they get deleted immediately in that case.
Note that an MS object can still be removed (e.g. by replacement)
from an existing TBF, so tbf->ms() can be NULL.
Ticket: #1794
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
If just a few bytes are left to send to the MS, it makes sense to
reduce the coding scheme level to increase the throughput. This
has been shown by Chen and Goodman in their paper "Theoretical
Analysis of GPRS Throughput and Delay". See their throughput over C/I
measurement graphs (figures 4 and 5 in the paper) for details.
This commit implements a simplified CS downgrade feature for the
downlink. The coding scheme will be downgraded if there are only a
few octets are left to be send over the TBF (see the
downgrade-threshold command below) and the NACK rate is not low (the
CS will not get degraded on a high quality RF link). As an exception,
CS-3 will be degraded to CS-1, since CS-2 does not improve the
throughput in general when a few small packets are sent and the
signal fades slowly (see Chen/Goodman).
The following VTY command is added to the config-pcu node:
- cs downgrade-threshold <1-10000>
- cs no downgrade-threshold
to set the threshold of the number of remaining bytes to be RLC/MAC
encoded. The CS will only be reduced, if the number is below the
threshold. The 'no' command disables this feature completely. The
default value is 200 octets.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the NACK/unconfirmed ratio is already passed to the
corresponding MS object, but the value is not being stored there.
This commit adds a member and a getter method and include the values
into the output of the 'show ms' command.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
This commit extends the pcu_l1_meas structure by MS side measurement
values which are transmitted by PACKET DOWNLINK ACK/NACK and
PACKET RESOURCE REQUEST messages. The encoded values are remapped to
dB respectively % values. The values are stored in the corresponding
MS object (if there is one).
Note that the values are store as (rounded) integers, so some
different encodings are mapped to the same decoded value.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the UL CS values are set to the corresponding DL CS value,
eventually limited by a maximum value. This approach does not reflect
the general situation of the RF link between ME and BTS, which is
rather asymmetric e.g. due to a lower degree of TX efficiency of the
built-in antenna. This means, that UL and DL CS control should be
decoupled for better results.
This commit adds automatic UL CS selection based on the link quality
measurement parameter. Each coding scheme is mapped to a link quality
range. If the link quality value leaves that range, the current UL CS
value is increased/decreased accordingly. This value will be copied
when the next PACKET_UPLINK_ACK_NACK or PACKET_UPLINK_ASSIGMENT is
sent to the MS.
The following VTY command will be added to the config-pcu node:
- cs link-quality-ranges cs1 <0-35> cs2 <0-35> <0-35>
cs3 <0-35> <0-35> cs4 <0-35>
which sets the ranges for the four coding schemes. For instance the
example below reflects the current default values:
cs link-quality-ranges cs1 6 cs2 5 8 cs3 7 13 cs4 12
set the following ranges, where the overlapping is used to configure
a hysteresis:
CS1: -inf .. 6
CS2: 5 .. 8
CS3: 7 .. 13
CS4: 12 .. inf
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
This commits adds the GprsMs::update_l1_meas() and GprsMs::l1_meas()
methods to store and access the measurement values. The internal
state is updated depending on which values are actually set.
In addition, these values are shown in the output of the 'show ms
imsi|tlli' command.
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the timer can be started even if m_ul_tbf is attached.
Replace m_dl_tbf by m_ul_tbf to only start the timer if _both_ TBF
are detached.
Fixes: Coverity CID 1304683
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the CS values can be increased to CS4 even when the "cs"
configuration command has been used with a lower value. The "cs"
command just sets the initial coding scheme, so other means are
needed to limit the selection. One approach is to use the CS flags
passed in SI, but these are currently ignored.
To make it possible to limit the CS selection by configuring the PCU,
this commit adds the following VTY commands to config-pcu:
- cs max <1-4> Limit DL and UL CS to the given value
- cs max <1-4> <1-4> Limit DL and UL CS separately (DL first)
- no cs max Don't limit
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the CS level is immediately increased if the error rate
drops below the lower threshold. Since the measurement values are not
damped, this behaviour leads to a quick return to higher CS values
even under bad radio conditions. Since with GPRS RLC/MAC blocks
cannot be resent with another coding scheme, increasing the CS value
should be done carefully.
This commit adds a blocking period that only allows higher CS values
if all error rate measurements were below the LOW threshold for a
certain amount of time (currently fixed to 1s).
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
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
Since more functionality will be moved to the GprsMs class, a pointer
to the current BTS object is added to allow access to configuration
data and other methods.
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 MS object is immediately idle when all TBFs are
detached and if no guard is being used. Since the plan is to use the
MS objects to pass information from one TBF to the next one even
across the gap of some seconds of inactivity, a mechanism is needed
to keep the MS objects around for some time.
This commit extends the GprsMs class by a timer that keeps the MS
objects in non-idle state for some time after all TBFs have been
detached. The set_timeout method must be used with a non-zero value
to activate this feature.
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 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
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
Currently the MS objects are contained in the TBF objects only. To
allow for an extended life time after the TBF objects have been freed
and to find them based on TLLI, a container for the MS objects is
needed.
This commit adds the container class and also adds the corresponding
m_list member to GprsMs. Further integration into the PCU code is not
yet done.
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
Currently only TBF objects are used to handle the data flow between
the MS and the SGSN. MS specific data (e.g. pending LLC frames, TLLI)
is copied between successive TBFs. If all TBFs (uplink and downlink)
are idle for some time, all information about the MS is discarded in
the PCU. This makes the implementation of some features more
difficult, e.g. proper TLLI and timing advance handling,
connection based CS selection, and proper management of multiple TBF.
This commit adds the GprsMs class that is intended to hold
information directly related to the MS and to keep references to the
active TBFs.
The class is not yet integrated with the other PCU code. A GprsMs
object container and MS specific fields (TA, CS) will be added in
later commits.
Note that calling detach_tbf() can possibly delete the MS object
depending on the callback implementation.
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Jacob Erlbeck