Feature Description
MME supports TAI-based routing of handover (HO) and configuration transfer messages towards Pico controller/HeNBGW when the target eNB ID is 28 bits, but it could not support TAI-based routing when the target Pico eNB ID is 20 bits.
Pico controller can transfer the target Pico eNB ID to 28 bits from 20 bits if the handover is Pico-to-Pico, but it could not handle Macro-to-Pico handover as there is no Pico Controller for Macro.
In releases 21.1 and beyond, the behavior of MME is modified so that it can perform TAI-based routing even if target home-eNB ID is 20 bits.
This feature provides a configurable option within MME service to configure target HeNB type (home or macro or both) behind HeNBGW. Based on this configuration, MME allows TAI-based lookup of target eNB, if target eNB ID is not found by MME during handover. By default, TAI-based lookup is performed only for home eNB ID (28-bits).
This feature is also introduced to support identification of target eNB using target TAI for target eNB type Macro or Pico nodes or both so that handover to such eNB can be supported if it is connected to MME through Pico controller/HeNBGW. From MME point of view, Pico controller is a Macro eNB which is using 20 bit eNB ID to support multi-cell.
Along with S1 based intra-MME HO, this feature can be applied to inter MME S1 HO procedures (inbound S10, S3 and Gn handovers). Please note that, in Gn case, MME converts target RNC ID to macro eNB ID so target TAI-based lookup for macro eNB works fine.
This feature allows operators to configure the global eNodeB IDs of HeNBGWs in the MME service. The MME uses this information to perform HeNBGW related functions. In case of S1-based handovers to home eNodeBs served by a HeNBGW, the lookup at MME for the target eNodeB based on global eNB ID will fail, as MME is aware of only the HeNBGW. In those cases, additional lookup needs to be done based on TAI to find the HeNBGW serving the home eNodeB.
Since TAI-based lookup for home or macro eNBs is supported for HeNBGWs, all such HeNBGWs should be defined in HeNBGW management database (HeNBGW-mgmt-db). The HeNBGW-mgmt-db should be associated within mme-service.
In this release, the number of HeNBGW entries in the HeNBGW-mgmt-db has been increased from 8 to 512.
Limitations
The following are the limitations of this feature:
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TAI-based lookup is performed only for home eNB.
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TAI should be unique and should not be shared across multiple HeNBGWs. If the TAIs are shared, then any one of the target eNBs sharing the TAC under consideration will be chosen during TAI-based target eNB selection and handover to the eNB might fail.