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
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
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
This commit extends get_ms() to really compare the IMSI if it has
been given. Matching by TLLI has a higher precedence than matching by
IMSI.
Ticket: #1674
Sponsored-by: On-Waves ehf
Currently the m_tlli member in GprsMs is set by the constructor,
circumventing the TLLI confirmation mechanism.
This commit replaces the get_or_create_ms() method by a create_ms()
method which takes the TLLI and the direction (UL or DL) as
parameters to select either set_tlli() or confirm_tlli(). The MS
object is instantiated with TLLI = 0, and therefore GprsMs::tlli() is
extended to return the DL TLLI if both of the other TLLI are not set.
Note that create_ms() will not check whether an MS object with a
matching TLLI is already stored in the list, so it should only be
called after a corresponding get_ms() in general.
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 the LListHead class which is a wrapper around the
linuxlist. It adds an additional member to refer to the container,
since the container_of macro doesn't work properly with C++ classes.
All functions and macros from linuxlist.h are support except for the
entry macros (e.g. llist_entry, llist_for_each_entry, ...). To access
the container (entry), an entry() method is provided instead:
llist_for_each(pos, &elems) {
pos->entry()->do_something();
}
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