Cellular Network Infrastructure » Radio Access Network » OsmoBSC

As described in #4829:

So.... the problem is something else altogether, or at least a large part of the problem.

For some reason, osmo-bsc these days immediately hard-releases the lchan if there is no MSC. There is no signaling sent back to the MS about this:

• no spoofing of MM/CM (LU REJECT, CM SERV REJECT, ...) which is still understandable, as it's a layering violation and those messages normally originat e at the MSC
• No RR CHANNEL RELEASE is sent to the MS. That is a big fat bug.

Instead, we simply immedaitely close the lchan on the BTS side. This of course means that from that point onwards there re only bit-errors in downlink in the UE.

DRSL INFO <0003> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:1453 (bts=0) CHAN RQD: reason: Location updating (ra=0x0f, neci=0x01, chreq_reason=0x03)
DCHAN INFO <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_select.c:247 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{UNUSED}: (type=SDCCH) Selected
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:1657 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{UNUSED}: (type=SDCCH) MS: Channel Request: reason=LOCATION_UPDATE ra=0x0f ta=0
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:329 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{UNUSED}: Received Event LCHAN_EV_ACTIVATE
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:548 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{UNUSED}: state_chg to WAIT_TS_READY
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/gsm_data.c:861 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_TS_READY}: (type=SDCCH) MS Power level update requested: 15 dBm
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/gsm_data.c:893 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_TS_READY}: (type=SDCCH) MS Power level update (power class 0): 0 -> 7
DCHAN INFO <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:626 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_TS_READY}: (type=SDCCH) Activation requested: FOR_MS_CHANNEL_REQUEST voice=no MGW-ci=none type=SDCCH tch-mode=SIGNALLING encr-alg=A5/0 ck=none
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/timeslot_fsm.c:106 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_TS_READY}: Received Event LCHAN_EV_TS_READY
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:644 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_TS_READY}: state_chg to WAIT_ACTIV_ACK
DRSL DEBUG <0003> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:476 (bts=0,trx=0,ts=0,pchan=CCCH+SDCCH4,state=IN_USE) Tx RSL Channel Activate with act_type=INITIAL
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:1152 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_ACTIV_ACK}: (type=SDCCH) Rx CHAN_ACTIV_ACK
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:1164 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_ACTIV_ACK}: Received Event LCHAN_EV_RSL_CHAN_ACTIV_ACK
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:772 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_ACTIV_ACK}: (type=SDCCH) Tx RR Immediate Assignment
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:822 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_ACTIV_ACK}: state_chg to WAIT_RLL_RTP_ESTABLISH
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:1899 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_RLL_RTP_ESTABLISH}: (type=SDCCH) SAPI=0 ESTABLISH INDICATION
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:1932 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_RLL_RTP_ESTABLISH}: Received Event LCHAN_EV_RLL_ESTABLISH_IND
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:850 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_RLL_RTP_ESTABLISH}: state_chg to ESTABLISHED
DRSL ERROR <0003> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/gsm_08_08.c:483 MM GSM48_MT_MM_LOC_UPD_REQUEST: IMSI-001010000000001: No suitable MSC for this Complete Layer 3 request found
DRSL DEBUG <0003> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:644 (bts=0,trx=0,ts=0,ss=0) DEACTivate SACCH CMD
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:1595 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{ESTABLISHED}: state_chg to WAIT_RF_RELEASE_ACK
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/bsc_subscr_conn_fsm.c:778 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_RF_RELEASE_ACK}: conn SUBSCR_CONN(msc4294967295-conn4294967295_subscr-IMSI-001010000000001)[0x28adc0] detaches lchan (primary lchan)
DMSC ERROR <0007> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/bsc_subscr_conn_fsm.c:153 SUBSCR_CONN(msc4294967295-conn4294967295_subscr-IMSI-001010000000001)[0x28adc0]{INIT}: Unable to deliver BSSMAP Clear Request message, no MSC for this conn
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:1644 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_RF_RELEASE_ACK}: lchan detaches from conn SUBSCR_CONN(msc4294967295-conn4294967295_subscr-IMSI-001010000000001)[0x28adc0]
DLINP ERROR <0017> ../../git/src/input/ipaccess.c:412 Bad signalling message, sign_link returned error: No such file or directory.
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:1152 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_RF_RELEASE_ACK}: (type=SDCCH) Rx RF_CHAN_REL_ACK
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/abis_rsl.c:1184 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_RF_RELEASE_ACK}: Received Event LCHAN_EV_RSL_RF_CHAN_REL_ACK
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:1206 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_RF_RELEASE_ACK}: state_chg to WAIT_AFTER_ERROR
DLSS7 ERROR <0021> ../../git/src/m3ua.c:507 XUA_AS(as-clnt-A-0-m3ua)[0x253d70]{AS_DOWN}: Event AS-TRANSFER.req not permitted
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../git/src/fsm.c:322 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_AFTER_ERROR}: Timeout of X3111
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:1550 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{WAIT_AFTER_ERROR}: state_chg to UNUSED
DCHAN DEBUG <000f> ../../../git/src/osmo-bsc/lchan_fsm.c:382 lchan(0-0-0-CCCH_SDCCH4-0)[0x28a0d0]{UNUSED}: (type=SDCCH) Clearing lchan state

We should at the very minimum send a proper RR CHANNEL RELEASE to the MS, so it knows the channel is closed. That's the least we can do. However, it also means that the MS will likely start re-trying again and again. After all, it did not receive any reject with a cause value that would tell it to back off.

So I think we actually should either simply not hard-fast-close but let things run into some timeout (send SCCP connect request but then no response received?), or do the effort of spoofing a LU REJECT / CM SERVICE REJECt with a suitable Reject Cause IE ("Network Failure" or "Service option temporarily out of order" look good to me).

Another oddity about this problem is that it only shows if the MSC is absent when the BSC starts up. If the BSC has once seen the MSC, then it considers it 'eligible'. Even if the MSC then is gone at a later point, it will not go back to this hard-fast-clear behavior (at least not quickly?).