White Paper
Circuit-switched
fallback.
In collaboration with:
Qualcomm Circuit-switched fallback. The first phase of voice evolution for mobile LTE devices. 1
LTE Growth and Challenges
The 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) high-speed, high-
capacity data standard for mobile devices is on its way to
becoming a globally deployed standard. Launched com-
mercially in late 2009, first quarter 2012 deployment and
planning worldwide has expanded as reflected in Figure 1.
As an all-IP, data-only transport technology using packet
switching, LTE introduces challenges to satisfying estab-
lished quality of service expectations for circuit-switched
mobile telephony and SMS for LTE-capable smartphones,
while being served on the LTE network.
Two general approaches have been taken to address the
dichotomy between packet switched (PS) data and circuit
switched (CS) voice networks: dual radio solutions and
single radio solutions. Dual radio solutions use two
always-on radios (and supporting chipsets), one for packet
switched LTE data and one for circuit switched telephony,
and as a data fallback where LTE is not available. Dual
radio solutions have emerged for LTE-CDMA2000 net-
work interworking, driven by time-to-market pressures.
Single radio solutions use one radio to handle both types
of traffic, and use network signaling to determine when
to switch from the PS network to the CS network. This
solution is universally accepted for LTE-3GPP network
interworking solutions and is the focus of this paper.
With circuit-switched fallback, when the user’s device is
operating in LTE (data connection) mode and a call comes
in, the LTE network pages the device. The device responds
with a special service request message to the network,
and the network signals the device to move (fall back) to
2G/3G to accept the incoming call. Similarly for outgoing
calls, the same special service request is used to move
the device to 2G/3G to place the outgoing call.
While CSFB enables single radio voice solutions for LTE
handsets, the switching requirements impose some
technical challenges, for which solutions—described in
detail below—have been developed.
CSFB addresses the requirements of the first phase of
the evolution of mobile voice services, which began on
commercial scale in 2011. CSFB is the solution to the
reality of mixed networks today and throughout the
transition to ubiquitous all-LTE networks in the future
phases of LTE voice evolution.
Countries with commercial LTE service
Countries with LTE commercial network
deployments on-going or planned
Countries with LTE trial systems
(pre-commitment)
©Global Mobile Suppliers Association—GSA
Figure 1
First quarter 2012 LTE deployments and plans.
Qualcomm Circuit-switched fallback. The first phase of voice evolution for mobile LTE devices. 2
The 3 phases of LTE voice and
communication services evolution
The handling of voice traffic on LTE handsets is evolv-
ing as the mobile industry infrastructure evolves toward
higher—eventually ubiquitous—LTE availability. Central
to the enablement of LTE smartphones is to meet today’s
very high expectation for mobile user experience and
to evolve the entire communications experience by
augmenting voice with richer media services.
This voice evolution can be characterized into three major
phases, summarized in Figure 2.
In the first phase, currently under way, all voice traffic is
handled by legacy Circuit-Switched (CS) networks, while
data traffic is handled by LTE Packet-Switched (PS)
networks—when and where available—and by 2G/3G
networks as a fallback in non-LTE areas. Single radio
solutions use CSFB to switch between LTE and 2G/3G
access modes. CSFB has become the predominant
global solution for voice and SMS interoperability in early
LTE handsets, primarily due to inherent cost, size and
power advantages of single radio solutions on the device
side. In 2011, CSFB has commercially launched in several
regions around the world, and is the first step toward
subsequent LTE voice evolution phases, which are also
based on single radio solutions.
The second phase in LTE voice evolution introduces
native VoIP on LTE (VoLTE) along with enhanced IP mul-
timedia services such as video telephony, HD Voice and
Rich Communication Suite (RCS) additions like instant
messaging, video share and enhanced/shared phone-
books. This phase also uses a single radio solution with
Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) that seamlessly
maintains voice calls as mobile users move between
LTE and non-LTE coverage areas. CSFB continues to be
deployed during phase 2, to provide voice services for
roamers and CSFB only devices.
The third phase converges the enhanced capacity and
services of all-IP networks (Voice and Video over IP and
RCS) for continuous coverage across the broader range
of network access methods, including LTE, 3G/HSPA and
WiFi, with interoperability across operators and legacy
telephony domains.
Dual Radio (CDMA only):
1x Voice + 2G/3G Data
VoLTE w/Single Radio Voice Call
Continuity
Video Telephony & RCS-Enabled
Services & Apps
Seamless Packet Switched
VoIP & Data Continuity Across
LTE, 3G, HSPA, WiFi
Interoperable w/Non-IMS
Services & Apps
Fig. 2
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Single Radio: LTE Data, w/CSFB
to1x Voice + 2G/3G Data
CSFB Roaming CSFB &
VoLTE Roaming
2G/3G COVERAGE CONTINUITY & ROAMING W/CSFB
Simultaneous VoLTE
+ Rich Data Services
LTE/3G Data
+ 2G/3G Voice
Phase 2:
LTE VOIP HANDSETS
Phase 3:
CONVERGENCE
Phase 1:
LTE DATA HANDSETS
Multimedia Telephony
+ Data Services
Figure 2
The 3 phases of LTE voice evolution.
Qualcomm Circuit-switched fallback. The first phase of voice evolution for mobile LTE devices. 3
The network architecture of CSFB
The legacy 2G/3G network and the LTE network co-exist in
mixed networks, residing between the mobile customer’s
User Equipment (UE) and the common core network, where
an MME (Mobility management Entity) is serving users
while in LTE access, while for 2G/3G an SGSN (Serving
GPRS Support Node) is serving users when utilizing data
services and an MSC Server (Mobile Switching Center
Server) when utilizing voice services. The MSC Server
connects to the carrier’s telephony network. To support
CS Fallback signaling and SMS transfer for LTE devices,
the MME connects to the MSC Server.
The architecture in Figure 3 shows a simplified view of
the parallel LTE and 2G/3G networks.
The interface (SGs) between the MSC Server and the
LTE Mobile Management Entity(MME) enables the user’s
device to be both CS and PS registered while on the LTE
access network. This interface also enables the delivery
of CS pages via the LTE access, as well as SMS, without
having the device leave LTE.
With the default LTE data network connection in operation,
a mobile terminating (incoming) CS voice call triggers a
page via LTE to the user’s device, as shown in Figure 4.
This page initiates CSFB, as the device sends an extended
service request to the network to transition to 2G/3G, as
shown in Figure 5.
Once transitioned, the legacy call setup procedures
are followed to setup the CS call. Mobile originating
(outgoing) calls follow the same transition from LTE
(PS) to 2G/3G (CS), except for the paging step, which is
not needed. In 3G networks, PS data sessions can also
move for simultaneous voice and data services. In 2G
networks, PS data sessions may be suspended until the
voice call ends and the device returns to LTE, unless the
2G network supports dual transfer mode (DTM), which
permits simultaneous voice and data.
When the voice call ends, the device returns to LTE via idle
mode or connected mode mobility procedures, as shown
in Figure 6.
Fig. 3
MSC
Server
UE
MME
SGSN SGs
UTRAN (UMTS)
GERAN (GSM)
3GPP ACCESS
NETWORKS (LEGACY)
E-UTRAN (LTE)
Figure 3
EPS and legacy 3GPP packet core networks.
Fig. 4
UTRAN (UMTS)
GERAN (GSM)
3GPP ACCESS
NETWORKS (LEGACY)
MSC
Server
UE
E-UTRAN (LTE) MME
SGSN
CS PAGE
VIA LTE
ACCESS
SGs
active
standby
Figure 4
Incoming voice call: CS page via LTE.
Fig. 6
MSC
Server
UE SGs
MME
SGSN
RETURN
E-UTRAN (LTE)
UTRAN (UMTS)
GERAN (GSM)
3GPP ACCESS
NETWORKS (LEGACY)
active
standby
Figure 6
Return to LTE after voice call.
E-UTRAN (LTE)
Fig. 6
MSC
Server
UE SGs
MME
SGSN
CSFB
UTRAN (UMTS)
GERAN (GSM)
3GPP ACCESS
NETWORKS (LEGACY)
standby
active
Figure 5
Circuit-switched fallback.
Qualcomm Circuit-switched fallback. The first phase of voice evolution for mobile LTE devices. 4
Voice network acquisition
When the user’s device is paged via LTE with an incoming
call, or when the user initiates an outgoing call, the device
switches from LTE to 2G/3G. Acquisition of the 2G/3G
network and setup of the call can employ one of two
procedures: handover or redirection.
In the handover procedure, the target cell is prepared
in advance and the device can enter that cell directly in
connected mode. Inter-Radio Access Technology (IRAT)
measurements of signal strength measurements may be
required while on LTE in this procedure, prior to making
the handover.
In the redirection procedure, only the target frequency is
indicated to the device. The device is then allowed to pick
any cell on the indicated frequency, or may even try other
frequencies/RATs if no cell can be found on the target
frequency. Once a cell is found, the device initiates normal
call setup procedures. IRAT measurements of signal
strength are not needed prior to redirection. Consequently,
CSFB with redirection may require less time to identify
the best cell compared to the handover procedure.
Redirection-based CSFB has variations with differing call
setup speeds:
• With Release 8 Release with Redirection—Basic, the
device follows 3GPP Release 8 procedures and reads all
the System Information Block (SIB) messages prior to
accessing the target cell.
• With Release 8 Release with Redirection—SIB Skipping
(3G), the device follows 3GPP release 8, but only reads the
mandatory SIBs 1, 3, 5 and 7, skipping all other SIBs prior
to access. In this case, the neighbor information in SIB11
is delivered to the UE via measurement control messaging
once the UE is in connected mode on the target cell. This
approach can be either implicitly supported by the UE and
the network, or explicitly through Deferred Measurement
Control Reporting (DMCR) signaling.
• With Release 9 Enhanced Release with Redirection—SI
Tunneling, the device follows 3GPP release 9, where SIB
information can be tunneledfrom the target Radio Access
Network (RAN) via the core network to the source RAN
and be included in the redirection message sent to the
device. This can avoid reading any SIBs on the target cell.
The predominant solutions deployed today are based on
Release 8 Release with Redirection—SIB Skipping, in
order to achieve good call setup times, good reliability,
and simplify deployments. It is anticipated that Release
9 Enhanced Release with Redirection will be deployed in
the near future. At this time, there is not as much push
for handover-based CSFB since both Release 8 Release
with Redirection—SIB Skipping and Release 9 Enhanced
Release with Redirection—SI Tunneling have largely
addressed any call setup time issues that may have
existed with the Basic Release with Redirection solution.
Qualcomm Circuit-switched fallback. The first phase of voice evolution for mobile LTE devices. 5
Outgoing call setup time
The additional steps in switching from LTE to 3G net-
works for voice calls, expectably, incur a penalty in call
setup times.
For mobile-originated (outgoing) voice calls, measure-
ments of call setup times have been collected in live 3G
networks with commercial infrastructure, averaged over
a variety of good and poor radio conditions. Call setup
times for 2G have been measured with lab testing, since
adequate field data has not yet been captured.
Outgoing call setup times for 3G and 2G using the differ-
ent handover and redirection procedures outlined above
are summarized in Figure 7.
For 3G, handover-based CSFB has the lowest outgoing
call setup time penalty (+0.4 seconds, +9% above legacy
3G). Handover avoids SIB reading and access delays
altogether, but requires 0.3 seconds for IRAT measure-
ments while on LTE. Redirection-based Release 9 SI
Tunneling has only a slightly higher penalty (+0.5 seconds,
+13%), by not reading SIBs at all. The optimized Release
8 Skip SIBs methods takes only slightly longer (+0.9
seconds, +22% vs. legacy), since reading the manda-
tory—but lower periodicity—SIBs 1, 3, 5 and 7 takes only
about 0.3 seconds. The highest call setup time penalty
(+2.5 seconds, +63% vs. legacy) is incurred with Release 8
Basic, because it takes about two seconds to read all the
SIBs prior to access. SIB11/12 messages can be very
large depending on the number of neighbors, which can
result in segmentation.
UMTS GSM
Handover HandoverRedirection Redirection
LTE Idle to connected transition
Service Request for CSFB
IRAT Measurement
Handover
RRC Release
Tune To & Measure 3G Cells
Read MIB & SIBs
Camp on Cell/Channel Assignment
3G RRC Connection Setup
NAS / E2E Procedures
Total
GERAN
Legacy
UTRAN
Legacy
C
al
l s
et
up
ti
m
e,
in
s
ec
on
ds
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
Difference vs. Legacy
0.2
0.3
3.5
4.0
0.2
0.3
0.1
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.4
0.2
0.2
2.0
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.1 0.1
0.2
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.2
2.0
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.3
3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5
4.4 4.5 4.9 6.5 3.9
3.9
4.5 6.5 6.6
0.4
9% 13% 22% 63% 14% 65% 68%
0.5 0.9 2.5 0.6 2.6 2.7
0.3 0.3 0.3
0.4 0.4 0.4
0.3 0.3
2.4
0.4
Rel-8 /
Rel 9
Rel 9
SI Tunnel SI TunelSkip SIBs Basic Basic
Rel-8 Rel 9 Rel-8 /
Rel 9
Figure 7
Mobile-Originated (Outgoing) Call Setup Times, LTE to 3G CSFB by Setup Method, with Comparisons to Legacy 3G.
All units in seconds.
Qualcomm Circuit-switched fallback. The first phase of voice evolution for mobile LTE devices. 6
For 2G, redirection-based Release 9 SI Tunneling—with
a +0.6 second (+14%) penalty vs. legacy 3G—significantly
outperforms handover-based CSFB (+2.6 seconds, +65%)
for outgoing call setup time. Release 9 Basic setup time
(+2.6 seconds, +65%) is essentially equivalent to handover-
based CSFB. The difference in 2G handover-based CSFB
is due to the much higher IRAT measurement time of 2.4
seconds, about eight times the 0.3 seconds required for 3G,
caused by less efficient synchronization and cell identifica-
tion. The difference in 2G redirection-based Release 8 is
the 2 seconds required to read system information blocks,
and since, unlike 3G, none of the long-periodicity SIBs are
expendable, the SkipSIB option is not available.
So for 3G, handover and one or more of the redirection
options appear capable of acceptable performance. For
2G, only redirection-based Release 9 SI Tunneling offers
outgoing call setup times that do not compromise the
user experience.
Incoming call setup time
For mobile terminated (incoming) voice calls, measure-
ments of call setup times have also been collected in live
3G networks with commercial infrastructure, averaged
over a variety of good and poor radio conditions.
Incoming call setup times using the different handover and
redirection procedures outlined above are summarized
in Figure 8.
As was the case for outgoing calls on 3G, the best CSFB
incoming call setup time performance comes with
handover-based call setup, but it is only slightly faster
than redirection-based Release 9 SI Tunneling. Please
note that for the incoming calls, the NAS delay is shorter
because it doesn’t include the paging delay and the setup
delay on the outgoing device.
UMTS
Handover Redirection
Paging (Assuming 1.2s DRX Cycle)
LTE Idle to connected transition
Service Request for CSFB
IRAT Measurement
Handover
RRC Release
Tune To & Measure 3G Cells
Read MIB & SIBs
Camp on Cell
3G RRC Connection Setup
NAS / E2E Procedures
Total
UTRAN
Legacy
C
al
l s
et
up
ti
m
e,
in
s
ec
on
ds
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
Difference vs. Legacy
0.2
0.6
0.3
1.5
2.6
0.2
0.3
0.1
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.4
0.2
0.2
2.0
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.1 0.1
0.2
0.1
0.60.6 0.6 0.6 0.6
0.3
1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5
3.0 3.2 3.5 5.2
0.4
14% 20% 33% 96%
0.5 0.9 2.5
0.3 0.3 0.3
Rel-8 /
Rel 9
Rel 9
SI Tunnel Skip SIBs Basic
Rel-8
Figure 8
Mobile-Terminated (Incoming) Call Setup Times, LTE to 3G CSFB by Setup Method, with Comparisons to Legacy 3G.
All units in seconds.
Qualcomm Circuit-switched fallback. The first phase of voice evolution for mobile LTE devices. 7
One option to reduce CSFB call setup time is to shorten
the LTE DRX paging cycle time. This gain in incoming
call setup time comes at the cost of power consumption,
since a shorter DRX paging cycle requires additional
paging resources and, as a result, higher idle mode
power consumption.
Focusing on real world user experiences, comparisons of
incremental call setup time for CSFB over legacy 3G call
setups time should be evaluated in light of the normal
range of 3G call setup times. The less-than-a-second
CSFB call setup increments—in the handover method
and the two faster redirection methods—may not notice-
ably impact the user-perceptible experience, since they
fall within the range or pre-existing 3G call setup times,
and are more influenced by local signal strength and
network conditions than CSFB call setup time penalties.
Data interruption time
If a user is in an active PS data session (e.g., streaming
media) when a voice call is initiated, the inter-RAT
transition and routing area update will interrupt the data
transfer. The interruption time will depend on the mobility
mechanism, as summarized in Figure 9.
Using handover-based CSFB, the data stream interrup-
tion time of 0.3 seconds is unlikely to be noticeable. The
user experience impact of the much higher 5 second data
stream interruption in the redirection-based Release 9
SI Tunneling and Release 8 Skip SIBs methods may be
mitigated in practice by the fact that user attention will
already be diverted to initiating an outgoing call or
receiving an incoming call.
UMTS
Handover Redirection
Handover
RRC Release
Acquisition on UTRAN
Read MIB & SIBs
Camp on Cell
Connection Setup
Optional RAU Procedure
Total Data Interruption Time
D
at
a
in
te
rr
up
tio
n
tim
e,
in
s
ec
on
ds 7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
0.6
0.2
0.3
4.0
0.3
4.0
0.3
4.0
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.1 0.1
0.4
0.1
2.0
0.3
0.3 4.8 5.1 6.8
Rel-8 /
Rel 9
Rel 9
SI Tunnel Skip SIBs Basic
Rel-8
Figure 9
Data Interruption Time by Voice Call Setup by Setup Method.
All units in seconds.
Qualcomm Circuit-switched fallback. The first phase of voice evolution for mobile LTE devices. 8
Call setup reliability
Another key issue for the voice call user experience is call
setup reliability—the ability to successfully establish an
incoming or outgoing call on the first attempt, or within
a time frame that doesn’t indicate call setup failure. The
target is to at least match legacy performance, which is
in the 98% range.
With CSFB switching between LTE and 3G networks, there
are two primary challenges to call setup success: changes
in IRAT conditions between measurement and acquisition
(for handover-based CSFB), and mismatches between
LTE and 3G geographic signal coverage areas that require
server-side updates.
Changing IRAT conditions for handover-based CSFB
With handover-based CSFB, IRAT measurements can
change between the time the measurement is taken using
LTE and the time 3G voice network acquisition is attempted.
In that time, the cell identified and prepared for handover
may become unavailable, resulting in connection failure,
as visualized in Figure 10.
In handover-base
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