6.11a CS Domain Signalling Requirements (in particular relating to handover)

23.2213GPPArchitectural requirementsRelease 17TS

Correct operation of the Call Control, Mobility Management and Call Independent Supplementary Service protocols requires that downlink messages from the MSC shall be delivered in the correct order and shall not be lost, duplicated or delivered in error.

The RAN and Iu/A interfaces shall provide this functionality in all cases except for when the Iu/A interface SCCP connection is being changed, e.g. at SRNS relocation or inter-BSC (external) handover.

When the SCCP connection is being changed, the MSC shall buffer downlink CC, MM and CISS messages. Specifically, the MSC shall buffer messages from these protocols after transmission of a (BSSMAP) Handover Command or RANAP-Relocation Command message and until receipt of a Handover Complete, Relocation Complete, Handover Failure or Relocation Cancel message.

In the uplink, the UE is responsible for delivering the CS domain messages across the radio interface. Once the message has been received by part of the network, it is the network’s responsibility to deliver the message to the MSC. This can result in duplicate message delivery to the CN. The RAN shall ensure that the protocol used between UE and RAN permits any duplicate messages that are delivered to the CN, to be correctly discarded by N(SD) mechanism specified in TS 24.007 [22] for the uplink CC, MM and CISS messages.