UMTS Optimization Guideline

UMTS Optimization Guideline
Page 1 of 85

1.
BASIC TUNING...................................................................................................................................2
1.1
KPIS AND SERVICE REQUIREMENTS..............................................................................................2
1.1.1
IRAT Performance....................................................................................................................2
1.1.2
CS Performance.......................................................................................................................2
1.1.2.1
1.1.3
CS Requirements......................................................................................................................3
PS Performance.......................................................................................................................4
1.1.3.1
PS Requirements......................................................................................................................5
1.2
TOOLS............................................................................................................................................8
1.2.1
Tools Requirements..................................................................................................................8
1.2.1.1
1.2.1.2
1.2.1.3
1.2.2
RF Measurements...................................................................................................................11
Throughput Measurements....................................................................................................12
Call Performance....................................................................................................................13
Tools Currently Available to Capture / Process data.............................................................15
1.2.2.1
1.2.2.2
Drive Test Equipment and Software.....................................................................................18

Post-Processing Software......................................................................................................22
1.3
PRE-LAUNCH OPTIMIZATION PROCESS........................................................................................24
1.3.1
Database Verification.............................................................................................................25
1.3.2
Drive Test Route Selection.....................................................................................................26
1.3.3
Drive Test Data Collection.....................................................................................................28
1.3.4
Data Post-processing and Root-Cause Analysis....................................................................29
1.3.5
Root Cause Analysis and Recommendation...........................................................................30
1.3.5.1
1.3.5.2
1.3.5.3
1.3.5.4
1.3.5.5
1.3.5.6
1.3.5.7
1.3.5.8
1.3.5.9
1.3.6
2
High Downlink Interference....................................................................................................30

Pilot Pollution...........................................................................................................................32
Out of Pilot Coverage.............................................................................................................33
Insufficient received UL DPCH power..................................................................................33
High UE TX Transmit Power..................................................................................................34
Swapped feeders....................................................................................................................35
Low data throughput...............................................................................................................37
Handover Event Detection Failure........................................................................................39
No Suitable Cell.......................................................................................................................40
Assessing Success of Recommended Change.........................................................................41
OMC STATISTICS BASED TUNING.............................................................................................42

2.1
KPIS.............................................................................................................................................42
2.1.1
IRAT - Inter Radio Access Technology (IRAT) performance.................................................50
2.1.2
CS Performance additional information................................................................................51
2.1.3
PS Performance additional information................................................................................51
2.2
TOOLS..........................................................................................................................................51
2.2.1
Tools Requirements................................................................................................................52
2.2.2
Tools Currently Available to Capture / Process Data............................................................53
2.3
POST-LAUNCH OPTIMIZATION PROCESS......................................................................................55
2.3.1
Data Post-processing and Root-Cause Analysis....................................................................56
2.3.2
Optimization Strategy per Root-cause and/or Problem Category/Type/Area........................66
2.3.3
Assessing Success of Recommended Change.........................................................................82
inCode CONFIDENTIAL and PROPIETARY
Page 2 of 85
1. Basic Tuning
1.1 KPIs and Service Requirements
1.1.1 IRAT Performance
Handover between WCDMA and GSM allows the GSM technology to be used
to give fallback coverage for WCDMA technology. This means subscribers
can experience seamless services even with a phased build-out of WCDMA.
The IRAT performance is evaluated under the following test cases.
IDLE mode to GERAN (3G to 2G cell reselection).
Cell FACH state to Cell PCH state (3G PS state transition)
URA PCH state (3G PS state transition)
3G to 2G with PDP context activation (PS test; 3G to 2G cell reselection)
2G to 3G with PDP context activation (PS test; 2G to 3G cell reselection)
3G to 2G CS Handover (CS-only test)
3G to 2G CS Handover with PDP context activation; Multi-RAB handover

(CS + PS test)
Event 3A measurement activation / deactivation
1.1.2 CS Performance
Call Event Success Rate
Call Block Rate
Drop Call Rate
SHO Event Success Rate
Location Update success rate
Channel Utilization
Call Completion Success Rate
Page 3 of 85
Signaling Load
Inter Cell Handover Success Rate
Handover Success Ratio
Paging and Routing Area Updates
Connection Setup Success and Dropped
Call Setup Rate
Bad Quality Call Rate %
DL Power Outage %
SHO Overhead
Bs TXP
RAB establishment success rate
1.1.2.1
CS Requirements
These two KPIs RRC setup complete rate and RRC Establishment
complete rate combine to give us another key KPI, accessibility, which is a
measure of the origination success rate.
Accessibility
The network operator should target an Accessibility rate greater than 98 %
for circuit switched voice conversations and packets switched data
sessions.
Retainability
Page 4 of 85
Retainability is a measure of the Radio networks ability to maintain an

active mobile session until the user terminates. It indicates the percentage
of active calls dropped.
A typical retainability requirement for a network is Drop Call Rate < 1.5%
for voice conversations.
1.1.3 PS Performance
RLC DL throughput: Total RLC downlink throughput.
RLC UL throughput: Total RLC uplink throughput.
Session App. Mean Throughput DL (kbit/s): Mean throughput, calculated

over the whole of the current session, for data received at the application
level (mean downlink throughput).
Session App. Mean Throughput UL (kbit/s): Mean throughput, calculated

over the whole of the current session, for data sent at the application level
(mean uplink throughput).
Ping Delay (ms): Delay for an individual Ping Response during the current
Ping session.
Success Rate of internet connections
Variable data rate performance
End to end packet delay transfers
Throughput at the edge of the cell
PS and CS Bearers
Attach / Context
Blocked Error Rate %
Packet Bad Quality %
Page 5 of 85
PDP Context Activation success ratio
Attach success ratio
PDP context drop ratio
Data Transfer drop ratio
Attach setup time
PDP context activation time
Service Access time
End to end access time
Mean user data rate
Round trip time
Packet loss ratio
Initial Service Response
Transfer interruption time
End to end accessibility success ratio
Service Access Success Ratio
1.1.3.1
PS Requirements
HSDPA DL Application Layer Throughput > 400 kbps
R99 DL Application Layer Throughput > 133 kbps
HSDPA Ping Round trip Latency < 150ms
R99 Ping Round trip Latency < 150ms
OCNS with 20% of Minimum Design capacity.
Optimization Insights
Optimizing the Network
The optimization process should start in the so-called pilot network, an
intermediate stage of the network rollout where only the common channels
Page 6 of 85
for signaling and synchronization are use. While carrying no traffic itself,
this pilot network provides a useful representation of the traffic flow in the
future operational WCDMA network. Many aspects of optimization
activities can be done in this phase.
Some other aspects of optimization such as adjusting the Soft Handover
ratio must wait until the user equipment (UE) is in operation.
Basic Tuning to be done early phase of roll out
Coverage Optimization
1. Since each Node Bs continuously transmits CPICH, scanning the
CPICH using a Drive test system enables a quick and effective
examination of the network RF Coverage, as well as a means to identify
the Node Bs. It is important to detect high CPICH levels from too many
cells as this causes interference.
2. Lack of RF Coverage - Can cause calls to drop or be blocked due to
lack of coverage at the edge of the cell site coverage or coverage hole in
the area.
Missing Neighbors and Pilot Pollution
1. Missing Neighbor in the neighbor list - Neighbor condition occurs when
a high level pilot (i.e
one whose measured value is above T_Add
(Threshold to Add)) that does not appear in the neighbor list is sent to a
phone. This condition adds interference, resulting in a low quality
connection, and possible causing dropped calls.
2. Pilot Pollution and Interference - Pilot Pollution occurs when there are
an excessive number of pilot signals. In such a situation a subscriber
could notice interference on an active call.
Balancing of Channel Transmission Powers:
Page 7 of 85
The relative output powers of various channels in WCDMA can be freely

adjusted, and should be since they have different requirements.
Signaling channels need less power than the channels that carry user
data.
Particularly important to ensure that Synchronization channels are
transmitted strongly enough to be reliably detected.
Cells in the vicinity of one another must use different offsets for the
synchronization burst in order for the synchronization channel to work
properly.
Type of test call in drive-test:
Short voice call: Each voice call is made to a PSTN number and held for
duration of 100 seconds and waited for 10 seconds between calls.
Long Voice call: Voice call is made to a PSTN number and held until the
end of the cluster drive test, or until the call dropped.
Short CS Data Call: CS data call is made to another mobile or to a CS ftp
server and held for a duration of 100 seconds then wait for 10 seconds
before making the next call.
Long CS Data Call: CS data call is made to another mobile or to a CS ftp
server and held until the end of the cluster drive test, or the call dropped.
Short PS Call: About 100 seconds worth of data transfer DL or DL FTP a
2.5 MB file (approximately).
Long PS Call: About 1 hr worth of data transfer DL or multiple DL FTP files
of size about 10MB.
KPIs:
CPICH RSCP: Received signal code power, the received power on one
code measured on the primary CPICH.
DL RSSI: Received signal strength indicator, the wide-band received
power within the relevant channel bandwidth.
CPICH Ec/No: The received energy per chip divided by the power density
Page 8 of 85
in the band.
UE UL TxPwr: The total UE transmitted power on one carrier.
Transport CH BLER: Estimation of the transport channel block error rate.
Call event success rate: Formula: # Call Ends / (# Call Ends + # Blocked
Calls + # Dropped Calls)
SHO event success rate: Formula: (# add + # remove + # replace) / # all
SHO
1.2 Tools
1.2.1 Tools Requirements
Different tools are required to accomplish basic tuning in UMTS network.
Cell Planning Tools
Route Planning Tools
Drive Testing Tools
Data Processing and Report Generation Tools
RF Test Tools
Cell Planning Tools

During basic tuning, Cell Planning Tool is used to:
Plan and design UMTS network,
Analyze coverage and interference,
Design neighbor cell relationships and define handover margins,
Analyze traffic,
Review network capacity planning for voice and data services.
Page 9 of 85
Route Planning Tools

Often Mapinfo is used to plan drive routers before drive-tests. Mapinfo is a
commercial application working on PC. In route planning process, Mapinfo
can be used to plan route, sites and spatial data visualization and printing.
A digital map is required with Mapinfo format including raster and vector
information of terrain.
Besides Mapinfo, maps or map software such as Microsoft Street and
Trips, can be used to plan routes.
Driver Testing Tools

During the basic tuning for a pre-launch UMTS network, drive-testing is the
most important way to collect the network performance data, since there are
limited subscribers using the UMTS pre-launch network and accurate network
statistics is not available from OSS. Drive testing tools are used to:
Record UE and scanner measurement data,
Visualize UE and scanner measurement data during drive testing

(synchronized maps, tables, graphs and text information).
To do the drive test in UMTS network, the following components are required.
Test UE
With Test UE, drive testing tools can capture RF measurements on the UE
side, like UE transmit power, DL CPICH Eb/No, DL RSSI, etc. Further more,
to get a full picture (both downlink and uplink information) of the problem, it is
possible to use UE trace function during the drive test, if the RAN and OSS
can support this function.
Page 10 of 85
Since UMTS can support voice, CS data and PS data, usually we need more
test UEs during the drive test. To get all RAB performances in UMTS network,
the following call type is necessary to do a drive test:
Short voice call: Each voice call is made to a PSTN number and held for
duration of 100 seconds and waited for 10 seconds between calls.
Long Voice call: Voice call is made to a PSTN number and held until the
end of the cluster drive test, or until the call dropped.
Short CS Data Call: CS data call is made to another mobile or to a CS ftp

server and held for a duration of 100 seconds then wait for 10 seconds
before making the next call.
Long CS Data Call: CS data call is made to another mobile or to a CS ftp

server and held until the end of the cluster drive test, or the call dropped.
Short PS Call: About 100 seconds worth of data transfer DL or DL FTP a

2.5 MB file (approximately).
Long PS Call: About 1 hr worth of data transfer DL or multiple DL FTP files

of size about 10MB.
Pilot Scanner
A pilot scanner is a tool to measure the CPICH Eb/No and CPICH RSCP
regardless the neighbor list setting, correlated with GPS positioning data. It is
useful to determine a handover relationship and to evaluate radio wave
propagation characteristics, pilot channel qualities, soft handover area
locations and downlink interference contributions.
GPS
GPS can provide position information during drive tests. With GPS we can get
the result that abnormal RF problem can be connected to geographical
information.
Page 11 of 85
FTP Server
In order to transfer data stably without any unexpected problem from Internet,
a dedicated FTP server should be set up before doing drive tests.
Different size files on a FTP server should be put so as to perform short PS
data calls or long PS data calls. For example: 1MB, 2 MB, 5 MB, 10MB,
100MB, etc.
Data Processing and Report Generation Tools

To analyze drive test log file, post data processing tools can be used to
display a plot, which includes radio measurement results and geographic
information on MapInfo. In addition, this post data processing tools can
provide the statistics of call events and radio measurement data, often
used in our customer reports.
RF Testing Tools
A spectrum analyzer is a tool to monitor spectrum characteristics. It is
useful to track external interference inside or outside of the operational
band. In the initial deployment phase (coverage limited system), it can be
used to survey the level of adjacent channel interference from other
operators.
1.2.1.1
RF Measurements
The following is the key RF performance indication in UMTS drive tests.

Test UE
Scrambling codes of active set cells and monitored set cells
CPICH_Ec/No of active set cells and monitored set cells (dB)
Page 12 of 85
CPICH_RSCP of active set cells and monitored set cells (dBm)
DL RSSI (dBm)
DL transport BLER (%)
DL SIR target and estimated DL SIR (dB)
UE transmitted power (dBm)
All UE sent and received L3 messages
Pilot Scanner
Scrambling codes of all CPICHs
Ec/No of all CPICHs (dB)
RSCP of all CPICHs (dBm)
DL RSSI (dBm)
1.2.1.2
Throughput Measurements
During the drive test in UMTS network, it is important to measure and monitor
wireless data service performance, since wireless data service is the
significant
characteristic
of
UMTS
technology.
PS
performance
measurements can be obtained as follows:
RLC DL throughput: Total RLC downlink throughput.
RLC UL throughput: Total RLC uplink throughput.
Session App. Mean Throughput DL (kbit/s): Mean throughput,

calculated over the whole of the current session, for data received at
the application level (mean downlink throughput).
Page 13 of 85
Session App. Mean Throughput UL (kbit/s): Mean throughput,

calculated over the whole of the current session, for data sent at the
application level (mean uplink throughput).
Application Throughput DL(kbit/s): Current throughput for data received

at the application level (current downlink throughput).
Application Throughput UL(kbit/s): Current throughput for data received

at the application level (current uplink throughput).
Ping Delay (ms): Delay for an individual Ping Response during the
current Ping session.
1.2.1.3
Call Performance
Often the drive test tools can provide some call events statistics that can
be used to evaluate radio network performance. These call performance
statistics can be categorized into four groups.
Accessibility
RRC connection setup successful rate from the UE point of view

Number of sent RRC connection setup complete
100%
Number of sent RRC connection request
RB establishment successful rate per RB from the UE point of view

Number of sent radio bearer setup complete
100%
Number of received radio bearer setup
Retainability
Average RRC connection drop rate when the UE is in cell_DCH mode
Page 14 of 85
Number of abnormal drops in which

the UE state is from Cell_DCH to idle -1
s
Total time of the whole drive test
Average RRC connection drop rate when the UE is in cell_FACH mode

Number of abnormal drops in which
the UE state is from Cell_FACH to idle -1
s
Total time of the whole drive test
Mobility
Soft handover success rate
(# add + # rem + # repl) / # all

Where
add = Radio Link Addition events
rem = Radio Link Removal events
repl = Radio Link Replacement events
all = all Radio Link events, including failures
IRAT hard handover success rate
From UMTS to GSM:

Number of HO from UTRAN Complete
100%
Number of HO from UTRAN command
From GSM to UMTS:

Number of HO to UTRAN Complete
100%
Number of HO to UTRAN command
Quality
Downlink transport channel BLER
Best serving cell CPICH Ec/No, i.e. pilot channel quality
Page 15 of 85
1.2.2 Tools Currently Available to Capture / Process data
At present many drive test software and analyze software are available to
capture and post-process measurement data. Basically these software
can be categorize into two groups based on the provider of these
software.
Software developed by Mobile Infrastructure Equipment Vendor

An advantage of this kind of software is that vendors can add some
additional test functions to let these software work well with their
infrastructure network. For example, Ericsson adds SQI measurement
function in their drive test tools Tems Investigation, this function can
evaluate voice quality during drive tests. Also in Ericsson infrastructure
network, same function is used in performance statistic.
Two major drive test and post-process tools listed below are commonly
used in different operators.
Nemo
Nemo is a Finland company which dedicates to develop drive test and
post-process software for mobile networks. The former of this company is
a branch of Nokia. Nemo is used commonly by operators who use Nokia
system, like T-Mobile.
Nemo Outdoor
Page 16 of 85
Nemo Outdoor is a portable engineering tool designed for measuring

and monitoring the air interface of wireless networks. Fast and accurate
measurement data provides detailed information in real time for 2G, 2.5G,
2.75G, and 3G networks.
For more detail information about Nemo Outdoor, please read his web
site. http://www.nemotechnologies.com/index.php?249
Nemo Analyze
Nemo Analyze is a front-line analysis tool for quick and easy data
review. It can be used on the field or in the office for immediate problem
solving and report generation. Nemo Analyze is designed to be the
analysis tool for measurement files produced with the Nemo measurement
tools: Nemo Outdoor and Nemo Handy.
For more detail information about Nemo Analyze, please read his web
site. http://www.nemotechnologies.com/index.php?267
Tems
Tems products are developed by a branch of Ericsson Corporation. Tems
products portfolio includes radio network planning, radio network
optimization, benchmarking, indoor coverage testing.
Tems Investigation
TEMS Investigation is a portable air-interface tool for troubleshooting,
verification, optimization, and maintenance of mobile networks. The tool
collects all the data needed to keep the network running smoothly and to
plan for future improvements. The collected data is presented in real time,
and can be used together with site information to improve troubleshooting
capability. The flexible interface allows the user to filter network data and
focus on relevant information for truly in-depth analysis
Page 17 of 85
For more detail information about Tems Investigation, please read his web
site.
http://www.ericsson.com/solutions/tems/realtime_diagnostics/investigation.
shtml
Tems DeskCat
TEMS DeskCat is advanced post-processing software. It enables users to
easily mine drive test data, visualize air interface problems, and drill down
into the data for easy analysis and problem resolution. It also provides the
unique System Quality Report for comprehensive network comparison.
Designed to support experienced RF engineers and network optimization
specialists, but able to provide managerial reports as well.
For more detail information about Tems DeckCat, please read his web
site.
http://www.ericsson.com/solutions/tems/realtime_diagnostics/deskcat.sht
ml
Software developed by Testing and Measurement Company
Developed by companies dedicating to develop sophisticated equipments,
these drive test tools have a common characteristic on RF testing
function.
For example:
Rohde-Schwarz TS9951+ ESPI+ROMES3
Rohde-Schwarz TS9951 is a drive test hardware used to support up to 4
mobile phones. Rohde-Schwarz ESPI is a test scanner to accomplish the
PN scan and CW measurement. These two tools should be run on the
drive test software Rohde-Schwarz ROMES3.
For more detail information about Rohde-Schwarz products, please read
their web site. http://www.rohde-schwarz.com
Page 18 of 85
Agilent E6474A
The E6474A Agilent Wireless Network Optimization Platform provides true
cross technology scalability and allows early verification of network
deployments for 2G, 2.5G and 3G wireless networks. Its optimization
platform enables wireless service providers and network equipment
manufacturers to proactively address challenges with wireless voice and
data networks by quickly and accurately identifying problems.
1.2.2.1
Drive Test Equipment and Software
The field measurement equipment usually consists of:
A laptop, which store the measurements data and run the drive test
software.
A GPS, to record the exact location of the measured parameters.
Mobile phones and scanners to be used as measurement devices.
Scanner
HUB
Three phones can used to provide a flexible test configuration and test
both data and voice calls (short and long calls). Using both mobile and
scanner simultaneously in WCDMA measurements enables the measuring
Page 19 of 85
of all pilots available in the area and the comparison of the results to the
view seen by the user equipment (UE). The UE reports values based on a
neighbor list received through signaling and makes cell reselections and
handovers based on the planned neighbor list. However, there can be
pilots available that are not defined in the neighbor list and these can be
spotted with a scanner. In other words, measurements together with
scanner and mobile would also identify missing or interfering pilots.
Effective UMTS drive test software should be able to measure and
perform the following tasks:
Evaluate call-processing operations
Perform selected call processing functions
Measure and report the amplitude of the received base station signal
Measure and report the signal quality of the received base station
signal
Read and report the neighbor cell list from the broadcast messages
Report the amplitude of neighbor list base stations
View and log protocol messages in decoded form for easy

interpretation
Quantify
wireless
data
users
quality
of
service
(with
data
measurement options).
Perform integrated analysis using the phone and receiver at the same
time
Correlate call drops within the RF environment
Show current position and the route traveled on a map as data is

collected.
The following is a list of some of the parameters measures.
Page 20 of 85
Interlayer Messages
UMTS Layer 3 Messages
GSM Layer 3 Messages
GSM Acknowledged Mode
Messages Layer 2
GPRS RLC/MAC Messages
GPRS GMM/SM Messages
QoS Indicators
Real-Time Data Throughputs
RLT Counter Radio link timeout
FER
Vocoder State
DTX State
Retransmitted RLC Block Rate
RLC/MAC Real-Time Data Throughputs
RLP Report
Handover Counter
UMTS Measurement Information
UL/DL ARFCN
ARFCN RxLev
Each CPICH in the Active List
Ec/No of each CPICH in the Active List
Composite and per finger RSCP
Each CPICH in the Candidate List
Ec/No of each CPICH in the Neighbor List
Cell ID of each CPICH in the Active and Neighbor Lists
BSIC
Power Control
Page 21 of 85
UE Tx Power
DPCH SIR
HSDPA Measurement Information
CQI
DCH BLER
DCH Retransmissions
DSCH Throughput (kbit/s)
SCCH OVSF Code Info
HS Session
GSM/GPRS/EDGE Layer State and Measurement Information
Layer 1 Information
RR Information
MM Information
MAC Information
RLC Information
Downlink Coding Scheme
Uplink Coding Scheme
LLC Information
GMM Information
SM Information
SNDCP Information
Service State
Data and service testing
Streaming Video
IP Protocol Trace
Data throughput UL/DL
Ftp, http, and ping test applications.
MMS and SMS testing
Page 22 of 85
New Command sequence

Roundtrip delay
1.2.2.2
Post-Processing Software
Post processing forms a key counterpart to data collection in the

verification of infrastructure performance, automated calculation of
performance metric analyses and troubleshooting.
Key features of a data analysis and post processing tool for UMTS is the
ability to:
Support multiple technologies i.e. GSM, GPRS and WCDMA on one

platform simultaneously.
Provide maps, histograms and cumulative distribution charts and

statistical analyses of key packet data and radio link performance
metrics.
Correlate WCDMA scanner and UMTS UE measurements from

independent log files.
Support interfaces to a variety of vendors of drive test equipment,

protocol analyzers and measurement programs.
Access to radio interface messaging, including message counters and

cause value breakdown for failure, error and reject messages.
Correlate abnormal data performance with radio link parameters.
Assess Subscriber-perceived performance analysis for IP and data

applications (e.g. HTTP, UDP)
Provide support for open interfaces, which can typically be used to

collect performance data well in advance of proprietary data sources,
like test mobile and peg counter data.
Page 23 of 85
Reduce data through binning and standard database type querying

and filtering capabilities.
Synchronize data collected from different network elements and

sources to remove timing discrepancies.
Provide interfaces into databases for storing collected data statistics

and provide web-enabled reporting interfaces for extracting data.
Embed engineering expertise into the software to automate the

process of analyzing large amounts of data.
Page 24 of 85
1.3 Pre-Launch Optimization Process

An overview of the radio network optimization process will be briefly presented.
Page 25 of 85
Basic Tuning
Database Verification
Performance Monitor
Drive Test
Performanc
e Report
Test User
Complain
Performance Analysis
Parameters
Tuning
Mechanical
Tuning
Performance Review
No
Meet
Project
Target
Yes
Finish
1.3.1 Database Verification
Purpose
Page 26 of 85
The purpose of the database verification activity is to verify that the radio
network has been properly configured, meaning that the actual system
parameter settings correspond to the recommended values, and RF
parameter settings correspond to the radio network design results.
RAN database verification is the first step of basic tuning. By implementing
the verification, unnecessary troubleshooting will be avoided and further
investigations can be carried out focusing on problems other than
parameter configuration mistakes.
Database verification includes two parts of work- RF Parameters
Verification and System Parameters Verification.
RF Parameters Verification
The RF parameter settings that are implemented in the live network and
the original radio network design results are the base to conduct basic
tuning. These RF parameter settings contain PN code plan, neighbor list
plan, antenna height, antenna direction and tilt. Make sure that the RF
parameter settings in the live network are exactly the same with the radio
network design results.
Meanwhile, conducting drive test for each site can ensure that no antenna
swap mistakes exist in the live network.
Often missing neighbors and antenna swaps are the most common
mistakes in the pre-launch network, resulting in serious radio network
performance problems in UMTS networks, e.g. high drop call rate in some
cells, bad quality area (with low Ec/No) etc.
System Parameters Verification

In order to avoid abnormal system parameter setting in live network,
verifying the parameter settings in the live network correspond to the
Page 27 of 85
recommended values is important.
These recommended values are
based on lots of testing and simulations results, which are optimal values
in most networks.
The procedure to implement system parameters verification is as below:
1. Retrieve current parameter settings from systems
2. Check current versus recommended parameter values
3. Apply the consistency check rules to current parameter values
4. Produce a list of parameters to be changed and generate the
change requests for clients
5. Get approval from clients and load changes to the systems
A parameter dump should be created from the live network to retrieve
current parameter settings, following by a conversion of the system dump
file into readable Microsoft Excel file with script developed by Excel Macro
or VB.
Equipments from different vendors often provide different recommended
system parameter setting values, which may require to be modified when
new software version is released. Therefore, it is important to get
recommended parameter setting values for current software version from
clients before implementing system parameter setting verification.
1.3.2 Drive Test Route Selection

Drive testing is done to verify the coverage and the service requirement
KPIs i.e. availability, Retentivity etc or for pin pointing and resolution of
any network related issue. The Drive route criteria for both the scenarios
are different.
Baseline drive route
Page 28 of 85
The main purpose of baseline drive testing is to find the problem areas
of the network. Using field measurement, coverage holes, interference
areas, and handoff regions.
The primary drive route consists mainly of freeways, highways and

high traffic areas (like downtown). The high traffics areas are also
define in the coverage and capacity objective, part of the Wireless
System Design (and Implementation) Report. Both directions of travel
need to be considered. If the three primary types of road do not cover
problem areas, secondary road should be considered. If time and
resource permit, selected secondary streets can be included in the
drive routes.
For baseline drive test, the drive routes need to cover farther than
good coverage areas. For example, route will include roads covered
lower than Ec/Io=-16dB.
The route should cover all the sectors included in the test.
Avoid the area with known coverage problem because of the

unavailability or hardware problems of cells covering the area.
Problem Resolution Drive route

When problem area is identified, a punctual drive route should be design
to verify and quantify the extent of the problem.
The route should be driven both directions to verify if the problem

exists in one direction or both directions. E.g. To verify handovers from
any sector from a site we need to check the outgoing and incoming
handovers for which we need to drive in both directions of the drive
route.
Page 29 of 85
If we do encounter any problem/ issue we should repeat the route so

as to repeat the problem.
If in the network there are a couple of problem areas, it is

recommended to have separate spot drives for each of the problem
areas.
1.3.3 Drive Test Data Collection

Before we start data collection we need to make sure that the hardware is
connected and configured properly.
Make sure all the Phones, Scanners, Scanner Antennas, GPS, Hubs
and Laptop are connected properly.
Make sure all the devices are connected to the appropriate COM port,
and the COM ports are configured accordingly.
Set up the Autocall settings to set up the phones for Long Call and
Short call with the appropriate set up times, number to call, Max Idle
time and Connect time.
Make sure the appropriate Mapinfo workspace for the drive test area is
configured in the Drive Test tool.
Import the most current Cell site database which has information on
the Sites, their PNs and the Antenna orientations.
Set up the FTP server with a suitable file for testing of Data Download
and upload speeds.
Set up the Scanner configurations as a Pilot Scanner with the

appropriate Scan lists, Avg Ec/Io and Correlation taps.
Open at least one window for the Map, The phone data, Scanner Data,
and the Summary data for all the devices.
Page 30 of 85
Connect all the devices, the Data collection software shows the
connected devices.
Run a test call to confirm that the Autocall, Scanners, GPS and the
phones working fine.
If everything is working fine, start logging and save the log files with
suitable identifiers like <<Date>><<Time>><<Log File>>. Save the log
files in the appropriate directory.
1.3.4 Data Post-processing and Root-Cause Analysis

Data Post-Processing
To optimize the pre-launch network, various input data is needed:
Performance statistics
Performance recording
Fault logs from RNC and Node B
Parameter data
Performance statistics
Performance statistics is generated from the live, and is made up of a
number of predefined counters. Combining these counters into formulas,
we can get statistical reports which are useful for performance monitoring
and optimization. During the basic tuning for a pre-launch network, since
there are limited test users in the network, the performance statistics are
not so accurate like the performance statistics in live network.
Performance recording
Performance recording includes two parts, log-file from drive-test tools and
UE trace log-file from OSS with UE tracing function. UE tracing function
provides UL information received by Node B side and signaling between
Page 31 of 85
Node B and RNC. Performance recording is the important input when

performing a basic tuning in pre-launch network.
Fault logs from RNC and Node B
Fault logs are useful to identify abnormal system behavior caused by node
faults
Parameter data
Parameter setting reviews are useful to understand the intention of the
original radio plan and to determine how the parameter changes should
be.
1.3.5 Root Cause Analysis and Recommendation
1.3.5.1
High Downlink Interference

Phenomena
During the drive test, following phenomena might be observed
through drive testing tools:
Received Ec/No of the pilot channel is less than 16dB and
Received RSCP of the pilot channel is high enough to maintain

the connection, e.g. > -100dBm and
DL RSSI is very high and
The connection drops eventually
Reason 1 Non Dominant Cell
Page 32 of 85
Many overlapping cells exist in the problematic areas and received

signal strengths of the pilots in these overlapping cells are almost
the same.
Recommendation
A direct and effective solution is to increase the pilot channel power
Primary CPICH power of the desired cell.
Reason 2 Dominant Interferer

An undesired cell is identified because of its high signal strength,
causing missing neighbor problem.
Recommendation 1
The simplest solution is to convert the interferer to a useful radio
link by including the overshooting cell into the neighboring cell list.
Recommendation 2
The second solution to solve this problem is to decrease the pilot
power - Primary CPICH power of the overshooting cell.
With the pilot power decreasing, the total downlink power for the
common channels of the interferer decreases. At the mean time,
the power of all other common channel decreases because their
parameter settings are related to the pilot power value.
Recommendation 3
The third solution is to change the antenna configuration of the
overshooting cell. The possible practices include tilting down the
antenna, re-directing the antenna orientation, reducing the antenna
height and so on.
This solution will not lead to UL/DL coverage imbalance problem in
the interferer because UL/DL path-loss is changed simultaneously.
Page 33 of 85
Reason 3 Low Best Serving PPilot/PTot

The third possible reason is that the pilot power setting is not large
enough to fulfill existing downlink load, because low received E c/No
of the best serving pilot channel (near or less than 16dB) can be
observed even if there is no other cell
Recommendation
To add a new site with good coverage control in the problematic
area is a common practice.
1.3.5.2
Pilot Pollution
Phenomena
In cell_DCH mode, pilot pollution refers to the phenomenon that a
UE at one location alters its active set cells frequently (e.g. active
set update rate is very high) because many received pilot channels
have similar quality (or signal strength) such as Ec/No (or RSCP).
Reason No Dominant Cell

Due to poor cell planning, a large number of overlapping cells exist
at a particular area
Recommendation 1
To change the antenna configurations or reduce the pilot power of
the undesired cells is a common practice to remove the cells
overlapping.
Recommendation 2
Page 34 of 85
An alternative solution to remove the cell overlapping is to increase

the pilot channel power Primary CPICH power of the desired
cells.
1.3.5.3
Out of Pilot Coverage

Phenomena
During the drive test, following phenomena might be observed.
Received Ec/No of the pilot channel is less than 16dB and
Received RSCP of the pilot channel is very low, e.g. <-100dBm

and
DL RSSI is very low and
Reason low pilot channel power

To set the low pilot channel power can lead coverage holes.
Recommendation 1
The most common solution to overcome this problem is to add a
new site in the problematic area.
Recommendation 2
To increase the pilot channel power is an alternative solution.
1.3.5.4
Insufficient received UL DPCH power

Phenomena
through drive test tools and UE tracing function:
Received Ec/No of the pilot channel is larger than 16dB and
UE Tx power does not reach the maximum allowed value and
Page 35 of 85
UL SIR target of the radio connection reaches to the maximum

allowed SIR target and
UL BLER of the radio connection increases and
Reason
The possible reason that the base station cannot receive high
enough power from the uplink dedicated physical channel is
because the parameter - maximum allowed UL SIR Target is set too
low.
Recommendation
The maximum allowed UL SIR Target should be justified to allow
UEs to transmit with higher power.
1.3.5.5
High UE TX Transmit Power

Phenomena
though drive test tools and UE tracing function.
Received Ec/No of the pilot channel is larger than 14dB and
Received RSCP of the pilot channel is good, e.g. <-85dBm and
UE Tx power reaches the maximum UE allowed value (23dB)

and
UL BLER of the radio connection increases
UL RSSI is high.
Page 36 of 85
Reason Uplink Interference

The possible reason that UE transmit with very high power even if
with good the downlink quality (Ec/No) and high downlink signal
strength (RSCP) is because of UL interference.
The UL interference could be internal interference (generate by
other
UEs)
or
external
interference
(repeater
or
industry
interference).
Recommendation
Check cell UL loading in nearby cells to determine whether the
interference is coming from internal. Check external interference
with spectrum analyzer if there is external interference exsiting.
1.3.5.6
Swapped feeders
Phenomena
Due to swapped feeders, many problems will occur such as no
downlink coverage, no uplink coverage or high UL/DL interference.
The following are some (but not limited to) examples of swapped
feeders:
Page 37 of 85
A
C
Case 1: Cell B Tx feeder is swapped with the cell A Tx feeder

The following symptoms might be observed:
Scrambling codes cover wrong directions.
Handover fails from other cells to Cell A/Cell B because

of improper handover relationship or uplink DPCH
synchronization problem.
Connection setup will fail during random access or uplink

DPCH synchronization procedures. Connection setup
fails
during
random
access
or
uplink
DPCH
synchronization procedures.
Case 2: Cell B Tx feeder is swapped with one of the cell A

Rx feeder. The following symptoms might be observed.
There is no downlink coverage. (Cell B desired coverage

area)
Downlink interference is high. (Cell A desired coverage

area)
Scrambling code covers wrong direction.
When the UE tries to connect to cell B in cell A area,

connection setup fails during random access or uplink
DPCH synchronization procedures.
Page 38 of 85
If the UE tries to handover to cell B in cell A area, the UE

may always send addition handover events to UTRAN
but handover function always fails due to uplink DPCH
synchronization problem.
The UE connected to cell A transmits with higher UE Tx

power than that in normal feeder case because of higher
UL interference (e.g. UL RSSI).
Connection drops when the UE moves to the planned cell

B area
Case 3: One of the cell B Rx feeder is swapped with another

cell A Rx feeder. The following symptoms might be observed:
The UE connected to cell A or/and cell B transmits with

higher UE Tx power than that in normal feeder case
because of higher UL interference (e.g. UL RSSI).
Recommendation
The direct solution to remove this problem is to ensure no crossed
feeders and correct scrambling codes for the all cells in the site.
1.3.5.7
Low data throughput

Phenomena
when downloading files to/from the operators server (or the known
public server) by FTP and pinging that server simultaneously.
Page 39 of 85
Average UL or DL throughput of the radio access bearer is

much lower than the data rate of the known source or
Long round trip time or
Many missing packets.
Reason 1 Poor Radio Link Quality

Poor radio links introduce error bits in packets. To keep integrity of
the packets received, system retransmits the error packets.
However, this may results in longer RTT and lower data throughput.
Recommendation
Refer to High Downlink Interference
Reason 2 - Many Down-Switches Due To Coverage Triggering

The imbalance between PS64/384 or PS64/128 radio bearer and
pilot coverage can trigger channel switching function to switch its
radio bearer to the next lower bit rate when it reaches to the
coverage border. This results in lower overall throughput of the
connection.
Recommendation
Improve the network coverage.
Reason 3 - Many Down-Switches Due To Congestion Control

Because of congestion, the connection might be switched down to
the common channel, causing the low overall throughput of
connection.
Page 40 of 85
Recommendation
The problem that low data throughput due to congestion control is
rarely happened in pre-launch network. If it happens, changing
handover parameter to move traffic to other neighbor cells, or
decreasing the CPICH power to reduce the coverage of the
congestion cell.
1.3.5.8
Handover Event Detection Failure

The handover event detection failure defined in this guide is that
the network side does not receive measurement reports when the
UE enters (or leaves) the desired (or undesired) cell coverage area.
Phenomena
through drive test tools and UE tracing function.
The UTRAN fails to receive measurement reports from UE

or
The UE does not generate measurement reports when it

enters the desired cell coverage area or
The UE does not generate measurement reports when it

leaves the undesired cell coverage area.
Reason 1 Poor Uplink Quality

UTRAN does not receive measurement reports from UE, which
implies the quality of poor uplink is poor.
Recommendation
Refer to High UE Transmit Power (Uplink Interference)
Page 41 of 85
Reason 2 - Missing Neighboring Relationship

Missing neighboring cell relationship is another possible reason.
Neighboring cell relationship can be checked by monitoring the
neighboring cell window during the drive test.
Recommendation
To add the desired cell to the neighboring cell lists of the cells in the
active set is a common practice. However, too many neighboring
cell relationship may make the process for searching pilot channel
slow.
Reason 3 pilot pollution in dedicated mode

The third possible reason is pilot pollution in dedicated mode.
Recommendation
Refer to solutions about pilot pollution.
Reason 4 slow searching or fast UE

Handover events may be neglected because:
Many cells in the monitored set slow down the search for pilot
channel
The UE is in fast moving.
Recommendation
The usefulness of the handover relationships should be reviewed
and the unnecessary relationships should be removed
1.3.5.9
Page 42 of 85
No Suitable Cell
Phenomena
During the drive test, the UE in the idle mode can not camp on any
cell and the display of the UE shows no coverage.
Reason 1 High Downlink Interference

High downlink interference is the possible reason causing no
suitable cell. Please refer to High Downlink Interference
Reason 2 - high restriction on cell (re)-selection parameters

The second possible reason causing no suitable cell is high
restriction on cell (re)-selection parameters, even though the actual
quality and signal strength of the pilot are good enough to provide
coverage.
The parameters for the cell (re)-selection are:
QqualMin: Minimum quality for selection/reselection
QrxlevMin: Minimum level for Selection/Reselection
UE Max Transmission Power
Recommendation
The cell (re)-selection parameters (i.e. QqualMin, QrxlevMin, UE
Max Transmission Power) should be reviewed and adjusted to
suitable values.
1.3.6 Assessing Success of Recommended Change
Page 43 of 85
Drive test and performance statistics are often used to assess success of
the recommended changes. Drive test conducted in the same problematic
area can verify whether these changes improve the performance in the
problematic area. Performance statistic in the following few days can be
used to check whether there is any side effect to other areas or other
cells.
2 OMC Statistics Based Tuning

2.1 KPIs
Differentiated Performance Monitoring
The QoS of differentiated packet switched (PS) and circuit switched (CS)
services can be assessed through counters collected and classified in the
RNS. The analytical approach assumes that the network topology where
the service performances are analysed is already defined (or selected
within a wider scope) together with the measurement period (history), and
user satisfaction criteria.
The identified area may encompass radio network controllers (RNC), base
stations (BSs) or Node Bs, cells and the interface between the base
station and the radio network controller (Iub). Our target is to define
essential counters and key performance indicators (KPIs) that need to be
retrieved, and/or derived from measurements in NEs, for a capacity and
QoS status view in the RNS and/or a detailed performance analysis. In the
latter case, for example, performance results may be compared directly to
the target values or, since only the QoS perceived by end-user matter,
expressed in terms of satisfied users. The network administrator may then
compare the number of satisfied users to the related target thresholds
defined a priority.
Page 44 of 85
Classification of Counters
CS Conversational
Call type: Speech or Transparent (T) data
Guaranteed bit rate
Transport channel type: e.g. DCH
CS Streaming
Non Transparent (NT) data
Guaranteed bit rate
PS Conversational
Guaranteed bit rate
Allocation Retention Priority (ARP)
PS Streaming
Guaranteed bit rate
Transport channel type: e.g. HS-DSCH, DCH
PS Interactive
Maximum bit rate

Traffic Handling Priority (THP)
Transport channel type: e.g. HS-DSCH, DCH, FACH, RACH
PS Background
Maximum bit rate
Transport channel type: e.g. HS-DSCH, DCH, FACH, RACH
Cell, RNC, URA, RA and LA identifiers
Page 45 of 85
QoS Monitoring
Uplink Eb/N0, BLER and BER
In the UMTS system the QoS is typically defined in terms of the BLER that
the system must provide for the specific application. The required BLER is
maintained
through
the
combined
operation
of
several
different
mechanisms. Among these, power control is unique in terms of its short

latency and ability to compensate for large changes in propagation and
interference conditions.
BLER: This is long-time average block error rate calculated from

transport blocks.
A transport block is considered to be erroneous if a CRC error is
indicated by appropriate information element of Framing Protocol for
uplink data. Unfortunately there is not good downlink BLER report
specified yet that could be sent by user equipment. Only RRC
measurement report with event-ID e5a indicates that downlink BLER
exceeded a defined threshold.
BER: Bit error rate (BER) can either be measured as Transport

Channel BER or Physical Channel BER. Reports are sent by Node B
to RNC for uplink data. The uplink BER is encoded in Framing Protocol
Quality Estimate value.
SIR Error: This shows the gap between the assigned SIR target and
measured SIR. Analysis of SIR error per connection shows how good
the SRNC is able to adjust uplink transmission power of UE, which
means accuracy of Open Loop Power Control.
Downlink BLER Computation

The downlink transport channel block error rate (BLER) is based on
evaluating the CRC of each transport block associated with the
Page 46 of 85
measured transport channel after RL combination. The BLER is

computed over the measurement period as the ratio between the
numbers of received transport blocks resulting in a CRC error and the
number of received transport blocks. The mobile when explicitly
ordered by the network may report such a measurement periodically
on event based
Throughput Computation
The throughput relates only to the correctly received bits during a
predefined measurement period (observation time), denoted by S in
the following, where RLC buffers are not empty.
RLC Retransmission Rate

This indicator relates to number of retransmissions required to transmit
an RLC PDU when the first transmission was not successful through
the radio interface. The metric can be used to set the maximum
number of allowed link layer retransmissions without compromising the
load of the cell for the global quality of service requirements
Service Data Unit Error Ratio

The SDU error ratio is defined as the fraction of SDUs lost or detected
as erroneous
Downlink Transfer Delay Computation

The transfer delay is defined as maximum delay for 95th percentile of
the distribution of delay for all delivered SDUs during the lifetime of a
bearer service, where delay for an SDU is defined as the time from a
request to transfer an SDU at one SAP to its delivery at the other SAP.
In practice, in these terms, the statistical measurement of the transfer
delay would require to measure the delay of all delivered SDUs during
the lifetime of one bearer service and save the corresponding values
separately so that the distribution of delay could be derived. The
Page 47 of 85
transfer delay would then be the delay that is greater than or equal to
the delays of 95% of the delivered SDUs during the lifetime of the
bearer service. Hence, the transfer delay measurement may become
an issue when a statistical analysis is required.
Downlink Jitter Computation

The jitter of a specific bearer service is defined as the difference
between the one-way delays of the selected packet pair, e.g.
consecutive packets.
QoS Accessibility and Retainability Monitoring

Accessibility and retainability measurements are based on the
success/failure of procedures needed to setup, modify or maintaining a
certain bearer service or signalling connection. Hence, the proposed
measurements are attached either to the successful or the
unsuccessful issue of a procedure for RAB or signalling connection
management.
RAB Management
Five measurement types may be defined for CS and PS domains

Number of RAB assignment attempts: On receipt by the RNC of a
RANAP RAB ASSIGNMENT REQUEST message for CN, each RAB
assignment request is added to RAB.AttEstab.m counter.
Number of successfully established RABs: On transmission by the
RNC of a RANAP RAB ASSIGNMENT RESPONSE message to the CN,
each successfully established RAB is added to RAB.SuccEstab.m
counter.
Number of RAB establishment failures: On transmission by the RNC
of a RANAP RAB ASSIGNMENT RESPONSE message to the CN, each
Page 48 of 85
RAB failed to establish is added to RAB.FailEstab.Cause.m counter

according to the failure cause.
RAB connection set-up time (mean): This measurement is obtained by
accumulating the time intervals RAB.SuccEstabSetupTimeMean.m for
each successful RAB establishment, which is then divided by the number
of successfully established RABs observed in the granularity period to
give the arithmetic mean.
RAB connection set-up time (maximum): This measurement may be
obtained by the high tide mark RAB.SuccEstabSetupTimeMax.m of the
monitored time intervals for each successful RAB establishment.
Number of RAB releases: On transmission by the RNC of a RANAP
RAB RELEASE REQUEST message, each RAB requested to be released
is added to the relevant per cause measurement RAB.Rel.Cause.m.
KPI may be derived from above:

Bearer Accessibility
Bearer Reliability
Page 49 of 85
Both Bearer Accessibility and Reliability product of the two KPIs above
result in RAB Success Ratio
Signalling Connection Management
Attempted signalling connection establishments: This measurement

provides the number of attempts SIG.AttConnEstab.m by RNC to
establish an Iu control plane connection with the CN. In this case, m may
simply denote the PS or CS domain. The trigger point is the transmission
of a RANAP Initial UE message by the RNC to the CN, which is sent by
the RNC on receipt of an RRC Initial Direct Transfer message from the
UE.
Attempted RRC connection establishments: This measurement provides
the number of RRC connection establishment attempts for each
establishment cause. On receipt of an RRC Connection Request message
by the RNC from the UE, each received RRC Connection Request
message
is
added
to
the
relevant
per
cause
measurement
RRC.AttConnEstab.Cause.
Failed RRC connection establishments: This measurement provides the
number of RRC establishment failures for each rejection cause. On
transmission of an RRC Connection Reject message by the RNC to the
UE, or an expected RRC CONNECTION SETUP COMPLETE message
not received by the RNC, each RRC Connection Reject message received
is
added
to
the
relevant
per
RRC.FailConnEstab.Cause.
cause
measurement
Page 50 of 85
Successful RRC connection establishments: This measurement provides

the number of successful RRC establishments for each establishment
cause. On receipt by the RNC of a RRC CONNECTION SETUP
COMPLETE message following a RRC establishment attempt, each RRC
Connection Setup Complete message received is added to the relevant
per cause measurement RRC. SuccConnEstab. Cause.
RRC connection set-up time (mean): This measurement is obtained by
accumulating the time intervals for every successful RRC connection
establishment per establishment cause between the receipt by the RNC
from the UE of a RRC CONNECTION REQUEST and the corresponding
RRC CONNECTION SETUP COMPLETE message over a granularity
period.
The
end
value
of
this
time,
denoted
as
RRC.AttConnEstabTimeMean.Cause, is then divided by the number of

successful RRC
connections observed in the granularity period to give the arithmetic
mean. The measurement is split into sub counters per establishment
cause.
RRC connection set-up time (max): This measurement is obtained by
monitoring the time intervals for each successful RRC connection
establishment per establishment cause between the receipt by the RNC
from the UE of a RRC CONNECTION REQUEST and the corresponding
RRC CONNECTION SETUP COMPLETE message. The high tide mark of
this time, RRC.AttConnEstabTimeMax.Cause, is the collected value.
Attempted RRC connection releases: This measurement provides the
number of RRC connection release attempts per release cause sent from
UTRAN to the UE. On transmission of an RRC CONNECTION RELEASE
message by the RNC to the UE, each RRC Connection Release message
sent
is
Page 51 of 85
added
to
the
relevant
per
cause
measurement
RRC.AttConnRel.Cause.
2.1.1 IRAT - Inter Radio Access Technology (IRAT) performance

Handover between WCDMA and GSM allows the GSM technology to be
used to give fallback coverage for WCDMA technology. This means
subscribers can experience seamless services even with a phased buildout of WCDMA. The IRAT performance is evaluated under the following
test cases.
IDLE mode to GERAN (3G to 2G cell reselection).
Cell FACH state to Cell PCH state (3G PS state transition)
URA PCH state (3G PS state transition)
Page 52 of 85
3G to 2G with PDP context activation (PS test; 3G to 2G cell

reselection)
2G to 3G with PDP context activation (PS test; 2G to 3G cell

reselection)
3G to 2G CS Handover with PDP context activation; Multi-RAB

handover (CS + PS test)
Event 3A measurement activation / deactivation
2.1.2 CS Performance additional information

Customer demand
Indicator
Measure
Service accessability
Availability & Coverage

Blocked calls
Call setup delay
Ec/No, RSCP
Admission control
RAB assignment
Service integrity
Voice quality
Noisy frames (FER), MOS
Service retainability
Dropped calls
Handover failure
No coverage
Interference
2.1.3 PS Performance additional information

Customer demand
Indicators
Measures
Service accessability
Availability & Coverage

Blocked service access
Service access delay
Ec/No, RSCP
Admission control
Attach, PDP context activation, IP
service setup
Service integrity
Video quality
Audio quality
Web page download time
E-mail sending time, etc.
BLER, FER, throughput, delay, jitter
Service retainability
Page 53 of 85
Dropped data connection

Connection timeouts
Dropped PDP context/attach

No coverage
Handover failure
2.2 Tools
This section gives an overview of the standard Tool setup in collecting,
monitoring
and
analyzing
Performance Indicators.
UMTS
performance
counters
and
Key
It discusses briefly the requirements and will
mention some known tools in the market today.
2.2.1 Tools Requirements

OMC/OSS Configuration
Page 54 of 85
PM
Server
PM Client
Citrix
Server
Mun
Core Network
OSS
Iu
Mur
RNC
Iur
Mub
RNC
Mub
Iub
Router
Node B
OSS PM
Client
Node B
UE
OSS/OMC Setup
OSS / OMC Server - is an integrated service and management system

for GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3G networks.
Configuration
Management,
Performance
It has 3 main features

Management
and
Fault
Management.
Performance Management Server is 3rd party Application Server

capable of generating Performance Reports.
Client/s can be setup to
access this application through CITRIX.
Page 55 of 85
OSS Performance Management Application is a third party

application supported by the OSS.
It can query the Performance
database from the OSS, create and generate Performance Reports and
customized KPI and formulas. Users or clients can connect and access
this application through CITRIX.
Some common features:
User defined KPIs
User defined reports
Real time reporting
Trending and Historical reports
Library of pre-configured calculations and KPIs
Export to excel or any database format
Alarm monitoring
2.2.2 Tools Currently Available to Capture / Process Data
NetworkAssure by Vallent (formerly Watchmark Prospect)
NetworkAssure is a high performance management (PM) solution that pulls

together OSS data to manage the most complex multi-vendor, multitechnology networks. It provides a seamless aggregation and correlation of
data from multi-vendor, multi technology networks and pre-built network
Page 56 of 85
interfaces for technologies, including UMTS, GSM, GPRS, IP, CDMA,

ATM/FR, transmission, switched voice and others.
Metrica / NPR data management systems (DMR)
Metrica/NPR gets you up and running quickly, with preconfigured solutions for
major network technologies. These Technology Layers include GSM, GPRS,
UMTS, IP and Voice Switching. With Metrica/NPR you get all the benefits of a
configurable, modular solution that you can easily extend and modify. It
interprets and manages large volumes of data at high performance, provides
comprehensive and easy to view performance information for business and
operational users, identifies problem areas and discovers underlying trends
before service-affecting problems occur and provides historical reporting and
forecasts performance trends and helps to predict effects of network change.
OPTIMA by Aircom
Provides historical reporting and forecasts performance trends and helps to

predict effects of network change.
Some typical uses of Optima for network operation and performance

management are:
Daily reporting of cell, site, BSC, MSC and transmission network

performance.
Daily reporting of any cluster of cell sites or network elements covering

particular cities, roads or other geographical regions.
Page 57 of 85
Identification of performance anomalies across network regions.
Overall monitoring of alarms and equipment operational status.
Identification and strategic reporting of traffic hotspots and network

locations generating high traffic and revenues.
Nokia Netact
Integrated
network
and
service
management
system
for
GSM/GPRS/EDGE/3G networks
Modular, scalable and open solution for operating mobile networks
Supports operator processes
Provides smooth management evolution towards a more service

oriented world
Multi vendor
Ericsson OSS
Ericssons
OSS-RC
provides
fault,
performance
and
configuration
management of Radio and Core networks.
Configuration Methods
Export configuration data then import configuration changes

through the OSS.
Enter configuration changes via the OSS Graphical User Interface

(GUI).
Make configuration changes in the UTRAN via a ChangeAll script.
Use EMAS (Element Manager Software).
Page 58 of 85
Call Trace Capability

Ericsson OSS supports three different types of call trace namely UETR, CTR
and GPEH.
UETR User Equipment Traffic Recording
CTR Cell Traffic Recording
GPEH General Performance and Event Handling
2.3 Post-Launch Optimization Process

Testing and monitoring QoS in the UMTS network requires several kinds of
analysis actions and network monitoring through the whole life cycle of the UMTS
network, starting from the network element development and ending with the
operation of the network. The protocol layers carrying signaling and user plane
data have to be accessed and verified to ensure proper network performance.
Protocol analysis and tracing of protocol messages are required for
troubleshooting purposes and for finding the origins of any problems. For long
term monitoring, the signaling and user plane traffic on the protocol layers must
be recorded and analyzed with post-processing tools as well as with applications
capable of visualizing real-time metrics and following certain Key Performance
Indicators. Real time analysis is usually done using several of the OSS tools
which help in recording and scheduling real time reports. These reports contain
several KPIs which help in understanding any key problems in the network and
also enable us to implement quick changes in the network in a very time efficient
manner. Most reports provide key statistical reports such as traffic and RF
measurements which enable to rectify problems and help in troubleshooting
process without the need of any extra resources.
Page 59 of 85
OMC
Reports
Recording
Definition
Node B
RNC
OSS Applications
Recording
Data
2.3.1 Data Post-processing and Root-Cause Analysis

Statistical measurements play an important and more traditional role in the
operative networks when QoS is controlled.
Moreover, statistical
measurements can be utilized right after rollouts to validate the UMTS

networks ability to provide satisfactory QoS level.
For performing QoS measurements, a monitoring tool is needed.
It
explores characteristics of a UMTS network in the field or in the laboratory

by analyzing and monitoring both signaling and user plane traffic captured
with probes from the network interfaces.
The QoS monitoring system
consists of network probes and sophisticated software for analyzing the

captured traffic.
QoS monitoring software consists of two main software components: the
GUI (graphical user interface) for operating the QoS monitoring system
Page 60 of 85
and showing the results of the QoS measurements, and the QoS server
software for processing the gathered information.
The QoS server
software performs all the analysis of the information captured from the
UMTS interfaces.
Current setup in the network has a built-in QoS Monitoring in the
OSS/OMC or as a third party application supported by the OSS/OMC
vendor. Raw data from the counter measurement tables are fetched and
converted in database or text format by a Mediation application. These
data are then available for the OSS Performance application and third
party Performance Monitoring application.
QoS
GUI
Statistics
Statistics
Measurement
Measurement
Call Trace
Call Trace
QoS
DB
Probe
Capacity
Capacity
Measurement
Measurement
QoS Monitor
Software
Probe
Probe
QoS Monitor Structure
The basic features of the QoS Monitoring system are for statistics
measurements, capacity measurements and call tracing.
Root Cause Analysis.
As the amount of UMTS subscribers quickly increases, operators and
equipment vendors are facing big challenges in maintaining and
troubleshooting their networks.
Page 61 of 85
We may raise the question of how one can efficiently narrow

down the root causes of the problems when there is a huge
amount of subscribers and traffic in a live UMTS network.
What are the principles of examination of the fault scenarios and

narrowing
down
the
problem
investigation
into
logical
manageable pieces?
MT Call
Paging
Paging
MO Call
RRC
RRC
Connection
Connection
Establishment
Establishment
RAB
RAB
Establishment
Establishment
User-Plane
User-Plane
Data
Flow
Data Flow
Overview of UMTS Call Setup
Before investigating and solving KPI triggered faults, make sure the
following has been performed:
1. The general alarm status of the network has been checked. No
clear network alarms pointing to the root cause of the fault can be
detected.
2. Traces from external interfaces of RNC have been taken with a
protocol analyser in order to record the fault scenario. Also RNC
internal trace has been taken when the fault took place.
Page 62 of 85
Troubleshooting Process Flowchart:
Page 63 of 85
New SW, HW,

parameters, UE
model or feature
introduced?
Network troubleshooting means to detect problems, and then find and

eliminate the root causes of these problems. The fewer problems one
finds, the higher quality of services can be guaranteed.
Page 64 of 85
The KPIs are useful because they give a first overview of network quality
and behavior and they may also be helpful to identify possible problems in
defined areas of the network. However, simple counters and simple ratio
formulas are often not enough. For instance, if the already defined GRPS
Attach Failure Ratio is calculated per SGSN, it can be used to indicate
whether there is an extremely high rate of rejected GPRS Attach Requests
in a defined SGSN area. However, such a high Attach Failure Ratio does
not need to indicate a network problem by itself. Always a further analysis
is necessary to find the root cause of network behavior. Based on the root
cause analysis it can be determined whether there are problems or not.
This procedure is also called drill-down analysis.
In case of rejected GPRS attach, the first step of analysis will always be to
check the reject cause value of the Attach Reject message. A value that is
often seen here is the cause network failure. From 3GPP 24.008
(Mobility Management, Call Control, Session Management) it is known
that the cause value network failure is used if the MSC or SGSN cannot
service an MS generated request because of PLMN failures, e.g.
problems in MAP. A problem in MAP may be caused by transmission
problems on Gr interface between SGSN and HLR. The address of a
subscribers HLR is derived from IMSI and the best way to analyze the
procedure is to follow up the MAP signaling on Gr interface after GRPS
Attach Request arrives at SGSN. On Gr it can be seen whether there is a
response from HLR or not and how long does it take until the response is
received.
Common reasons why GPRS attach attempts are rejected with cause
network failure are
expiry of timers while waiting for answer from HLR, because of

too much delay on signaling route between SGSN and HLR
Page 65 of 85
abortion of MAP transactions because of problems with

different software versions (application contexts) in SGSN and
HLR
invalid IMSI (e.g., if a service provider does not exist anymore,

but its USIM cards are still out in the field)
routing of MAP messages from foreign SGSN to home HLR of

subscriber impossible, because there is no roaming contract
between foreign and home network operators
The first two reasons indicate network problems that shall be solved to
improve the general quality of network service. The latter two reasons
show a correct behavior of the network that prevents misusage of network
resources by unauthorized subscribers.
This example shows how difficult it is to distinguish between good cases
(no problem) and bad cases (problem) in case of a single reject cause
value. In general, four main features can be identified as main
requirements of good KPI analysis:
Intelligent multi-interface call filtering
Provision of useful event counters
Flexible presentation of measurement results from different

points of view(sometimes called dimensions), e.g., show first
Attach Rejects messages by cause values and then show IMSI
of rejected subscribers related to one single cause value (to find
out if they are roaming subscribers or not)
Latency measurement to calculate time differences, e.g.,

between request and response messages
Page 66 of 85
Failure Cause-Type Per Measurement.

RAB Assignment Failures
RAB Release Cause Type
Protocol
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
Internal
RANAP
Cause type
Radio layer network cause
Transport layer cause
Protocol cause
Protocol cause
Protocol cause
Protocol cause
Protocol cause
Protocol cause
Miscellaneous cause
Miscellaneous cause
Description
Relocation Triggered
Unable to Establish During Relocation
Requested Ciphering and/or Integrity Protection algorithms not Supported
Failure in the Radio Interface Procedure
Requested Traffic Class not available
Invalid RAB Parameters Value
Invalid RAB Parameters Combination
Condition Violation for SDU Parameters
Invalid RAB ID
Interaction with other procedure
Request superseded
Iu Transport Connection Failed to Establish
Transfer Syntax Error
Semantic Error
Message not compatible with receiver state
Abstract Syntax Error (Reject)
Abstract Syntax Error (Ignore and Notify)
Abstract Syntax Error (Falsely Constructed Message)
No Resource Available
Unspecified Failure
Other causes
Requested guaranteed bit rate not available
Radio Link Setup Failures

RAB Release Cause Type
Protocol
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
Cause type
Transport layer network cause
Transport layer network cause
Description
Unknown C-ID
Cell not available
Power level not supported
DL radio resources not available
UL radio resources not available
RL Already Activated/allocated
Node B Resources unavailable
Requested configuration not supported
Unspecified
Invalid CM setting
Number of DL codes not supported
Number of UL codes not supported
UL SF not supported
DL SF not supported
Dedicated Transport Channel Type not supCM not supported
Transport resource unavailable
Unspecified
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
NBAP
Internal
Page 67 of 85
Protocol cause
Miscellaneous cause
Miscellaneous cause
Miscellaneous cause
Miscellaneous cause
Miscellaneous cause
Cause type not applicable
Protocol error
Control processing overload
OAM intervention
Hardware failure
Not enough user plane processing resources
unspecified
No Reply
Outgoing Hard Handover

Hard Handover Failure Causes
Protocol
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
Internal
Cause type
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Description
Configuration unsupported
Physical channel failure
Incompatible simultaneous reconfigurations
Protocol error
Compressed mode runtime error
Cell update occurred
Invalid configuration
Configuration incomplete
No Reply
Hard Handover Failure per Adjacent Cell Pair Causes

Protocol
RRC
RRC
Cause type
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
Internal
Failure cause (RRC)

Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Failure cause (RRC)
Description
Configuration unsupported
Incompatible simultaneous
reconfigurations
Protocol error
Compressed mode runtime error
Cell update occurred
Invalid configuration
Configuration incomplete
NoReply
Inter-RAT Hard Handover

Inter-RAT Hard Handover Failure Causes
Protocol
Cause type
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
Inter-RAT handover failure

RRC
RRC
RRC
Inter-RAT change failure (RRC)

Description
Configuration
unacceptable
Protocol error
Inter-RAT Protocol error
Configuration
unacceptable
Protocol error
Hard Handover Failure per Adjacent Cell Pair Causes
Protocol
Page 68 of 85
Cause type
RRC
RRC
RRC
RRC
Inter-Rat handover failure cause

Inter-RAT handover failure cause (RRC)
RRC
RRC
RRC

Description
Configuration
unacceptable
Protocol error
Inter-RAT Protocol error
Configuration
unacceptable
Protocol error
Iu Release
Iu release request causes
Protocol
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
Cause type
Miscellaneous cause
Description
Release due to UTRAN Generated Reason
User inactivity
Iu UP failure
Repeated Integrity Checking Failure
Release due to UE generated signaling connection reDirected retry
Radio Connection With UE Lost
OAM intervention
Iu release command causes

Protocol
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
Internal
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
RANAP
Cause type
NAS Cause
Miscellaneous cause
Miscellaneous cause
Description
Relocation Cancelled
Successful Relocation
Release due to UTRAN Generated Reason
User inactivity
Iu UP failure
No Remaining RAB
Release due to UE generated signaling connection release
Directed retry
Normal Release
Unspecified Failure
Other causes
Repeated Integrity Checking Failure
Radio Connection With UE Lost
OAM intervention
Admission Control
Causes for admission control rejections
Protocol
Internal
Internal
Internal
Cause type
Non-standard cause
Non-standard cause
Non-standard cause
Internal
Non-standard cause
Page 69 of 85
Description
Maximum uplink load
Maximum downlink load
Code allocation failure
Congestion Control is
ongoing
2.3.2 Optimization Strategy per Root-cause and/or Problem

Category/Type/Area
The root cause for degradation of network performance can be summed
up into two different categories.
Drop calls due to abnormal RAB release
Failures due to
Intrafrequency handovers triggered by radio conditions,
mobility
Interfrequency Handovers triggered by
capacity and
coverage
Intersystem Handovers (ISHO) triggered
by mobility and
limited UMTS coverage

The raw counters can be classified into three types according to the
interval in which it is updated.
1) Cumulative Counter :
Measurement data is incremented every time a message is received from
the monitored object or every time an event occurs in the monitoring
object.
2) Gauge Counter:
Page 70 of 85
The data of the monitoring object changes during the granularity

period, and the measurement data in that period are calculated in the
end of that period.
3) Suspect Flag:
Set to ON when regular measurement data cannot be properly
collected in the granularity period.
Some measurements are not really related to one dedicated cell, but to an
active linkset, which in case of soft handover comprises more than one
cell. There are different approaches for these measurements:
a) All cells approach: measurement is considered for every cell of the
active link set.
b) Newest cell approach: measurement is considered for the most
recently added
cell of the active link set only.
The diagram below shows the counters classified according to

measurements.
Page 71 of 85
There are vendor specific raw counters which can be formulated for
different KPIs and that gives a statistical insight of the network
performance.
Drop Call
The un-normal release of a connection UTRAN originated is indicated
either by the RAB RELEASE REQUEST message or the IU RELEASE
REQUEST message transmitted from the RNC to the CN. The RAB
RELEASE REQUEST message will be used when the failure occurs in the
RAB management as e.g. firmware failure PRLC, DHT. In any case the
UE is still reachable via a RRC connection. The IU RELEASE REQUEST
message is used in case the UE is lost at the air interface. The CN will
Page 72 of 85
response either with the RANAP message RAB ASSIGNMENT REQUEST

indicating the RAB to be released if another parallel transaction is still
ongoing or with the IU RELEASE COMMAND message.
The RAB release counter UTRAN originated
is incremented by the
number of RABs involved in the release even the RANAP message Iu

RELEASE REQUEST has been transmitted.
Thus, the number of abnormal RAB releases is used to determine the Call
Drop Rate. The number of abnormal RAB release along with reasons in
serving RNC for CS and PS connection is extracted using the following
counters
The counter numbers has to be converted to 3GPP numbers to find the

reason for abnormal release.
Page 73 of 85
About 70% of the drops occur in the UTRAN side and the remaining
occurs in interfaces between CN and UTRAN. Major reasons for drop calls
is abnormal RAB release due to
1) Unknown C-ID
The Node B is not aware of the cell with provided C-ID. This can
happen when a foreign cell is using the network. The switch database
must be data filled with this ID to prevent future drops.
2) Radio Resources not Available
The Node B does not have sufficient radio resources available. This
needs an increase in node capacity.
Page 74 of 85
3) Requested Configuration not supported

The concerning cell(s) do not support the requested configuration, i.e.
power levels, transport formats and physical channel parameters.
4) Hardware failure
This might be due to link and/or module failures. The nodes should be
checked for any alarms and cleared.
For detailed Drop Call analysis, monitor the following causes,
DL coverage
DL interference
High DL BLER
High UL Tx Power
High UL Tx Power and DL BLER
Network Commanded Release_DL Coverage
Network Commanded Release_High UL Tx Power
Network Commanded Release_Not Classified
No Data
Not Classified
Handover Failures
There are three types of handover performed by UMTS network,
1. Intrafrequency triggered by radio conditions, mobility
2. Interfrequency Handovers triggered by capacity and coverage
3. Intersystem Handovers (ISHO) triggered
by mobility and limited
UMTS coverage
The common failure reasons are,
Page 75 of 85
Configuration Unsupported
If UTRAN instructs the UE to use a configuration that it does not
support, the UE shall set the IE failure cause to configuration
unsupported. This usually happens when UE goes from UMTS
coverage area to GSM area.
Physical channel establishment failure

When a physical dedicated channel establishment is initiated by the
UE, the UE shall start a timer T312 and wait for layer 1 to indicate
N312 successive "in sync" indications. On receiving N312 successive
"in sync" indications, the physical channel is considered established
and the timer T312 is stopped and reset.
If the timer T312 expires before the physical channel is established,
the UE shall consider this as a "physical channel establishment
failure". This can be due to many reasons like node busy, UE in
coverage fringe, low timer value. If the failure is high, T312 wait timer
can be increased to give UE more time to sync.
Page 76 of 85
The counters used for intra RNC and inter RNC handovers are:
Other Optimization Strategies

1. Load Estimation based on Throughput
This approach is simple and fast. However, it ignores other cell
interference issues that may result in reduced throughput, thereby
giving false impression of the spare system capacity
2. Load Estimation based on Wideband Received Power
This approach provides a better view of the used resources (cell of
interest plus interferers) to provide an indication of the loading
Page 77 of 85
conditions. The problem with this approach lies in the accuracy of

the reported measurements and the fact that they have to be
averaged over a period of time for increased reliability.
3. Network Audit Strategy
Characterization of Radio Properties
Complete neighbor relations overview
Complete feeder check
Complete parameter value and consistency check
Counter statistics collection: starting point of performance
Setting up routine for monitoring all other activities in the
network (SW upgrades, re-parenting etc)
Network Audit Strategy
Radio Network Aspects
Cell Planning Coverage
Cell Planning , Interference
Neighbor Definitions
Location Area / Routing Area Planning
Careful geographical placement of LA/RA borders to

minimize the number of LA/RA updates and Iur handovers
In low traffic areas
Perpendicular to main traffic flow
Number of Cells in LA/RA
Load from LA/RA updates
Paging Load
Basic Rule
1 to 3 RNC per LA and RA
Page 78 of 85
Same RA as LA
No sharing of LA/RA i.e separate LA/RA for GSM /

GPRS and for WCDMA even if they cover the same
geographical area and the same sites in case of cositing.
UL / DL Power Balancing
Output Power of common control channels
Code Planning
Parameter Tuning
O & M Aspects
Parameter consistency
Software status
Detecting Crossed Feeders
Measurement Principles
Some Optimization examples done on live UMTS network:
1 Optimization of ISHO Thresholds
There is a main parameter in the ISHO procedure that determines whether to
leave the 3G network for the 2G network (connected mode) on RSCP or
EcNo. Even if these parameters are link (through the RSSI), there are rather
independent and it is difficult to guaranty a certain level of RSCP by a
level of EcNo and vice versa.
On IDF, we noticed that at RSCP levels of -100dBm the quality of the radio
links was rather poor and therefore it was difficult to correctly keep the
connection alive till the ISHO operation successes.
Page 79 of 85
There are 3 events involved in the ISHO procedures namely e2d, e2f and
e3a.
ed2 compressed mode activation UE starts measuring 2G cells based
on the 3G2G neighbors list
e2f compressed mode deactivation
UE stops the measurements
e3a handover from UTRAN command (ISHO)
UE sends the elected
2G cell to perform the HHO

The initial thresholds for these 3 events are respectively -100dBm, -97dBm
and -103dBm.
It is important to notice that during the compressed mode the UE is really
busy with the monitoring and the power control. Most of the time, it is during
this phase that we experience the worst quality of the voice. Hence the
settings will tend to reduce this time of CM.
The propose settings are:
e2f @ -97dBm
C
M
e2f @ -96dBm
e3a @ -97dBm
e3a @
-103dBm
BEFORE
e2d @ -98dBm
AFTER
The UE goes into CM 2dB early thus it guaranty a better quality of the RL.
The main modification is that e3a is higher than e2d which mean that
the UE is allowed to go on GSM has soon as the best suitable 2G cell is
found.
Remark: The procedure works correctly only and only if the 3G2G neighbor
plan is optimized
Page 80 of 85
2 Optimization of Qrxlevmin for 3G Network Eligibility
FDD_Qmin
Qqualmin + Ssearch-RAT
QRxLevmin_3G is lowered from

-111dBm to -115dBm
Ping-pong type 1 Green Area:

FDD_Qmin vs QRxLevmin_3G
The S criteria is there to prevent the UE selecting a cell with RSCP below
QRxLevmin and EcNo below QQUAL_min but the radio conditions change
quickly (especially at low levels). Hence it happens that the UE reselects the
3G layer and goes rapidly out of 3G coverage after the network reselection.
Also, when the RSCP is low the measurements of EcNo reported by the UE
are less accurate and this ping-pong effect is therefore emphasized.
Ping-pong type 2 Purple Area:
FDD_Qmin vs QQUALmin + SSearch-RAT
If the hysteresis between the 2 thresholds FDD_Qoffset and QQUALmin +
SSearch-RAT is not big enough then it will happen that the UE decides to
reselect the 2G layer right after a 3G reselection (and vice versa). This
Page 81 of 85
behavior is due to the fluctuating radio conditions. The actual margin of 4dB is
considered wide enough to regulate this effect.
Parameter modification: Qrxlevmin
It was noticed on the measurements made in connected mode that there are
situations where the UE goes back and forth between the 2G and 3G
networks. The 3G-2G reselection is necessary to control when the UE is
allowed to go (or should go) on the 3G network but the ping-pong is a side
effect of this procedure: the UE is in an undetermined state.
Hence, it is important to reduce this effect because:
- It reduces the availability of the UE (especially for video calls)
- It decreases the life time of the battery of the UE
- It loads the RNC with signalling for network selection management in
IDLE mode.
The proposition is to modify the Qrxlevmin 3G from -111dBm to the minimal
value of -115dBm
Remark: T0 is the 17th of February 2005. The period of observation is from
the 31st of January 2005 to the 6th of March 2005
Interpretations:
The inter-RAT cell reselection is a good criterion to know the rate of network
switching between 3G and 2G.
A low inter-RAT cell reselection rate means that you stay whether on the 3G
or the 2G network.
In our case we stay longer on the 3G network because the minimum level of
3G cell eligibility is lowered giving easier access to 3G cells
Page 82 of 85
Conclusions:
Processing amount on the RNC is decreased. Even if this issue is not

critical now, it will become an issue with the traffic growth.
Basically, the RNC processes more Service requests than Signalling

requests in proportion.
The ping-pong effect is reduced since the UE stays longer on the 3G

network.
Therefore the UE is more available on the 3G network.

Remark:
The quality criterion for a 3G network is the EcNo more than the RSCP. With
a Qrxlevmin 3G at the minimum level of -115dm, almost all cells are eligible
for 3G registration even when the UEs are indoor. It is then the minimum
EcNo requirement (FFD_Qmin) that will determine if a cell can be selected for
reselection. Also, as the lost of 3G coverage is detected -115dBm or -18dB
(Qqualmin) it becomes even more important to tune properly the other cells
reselection parameters.
3 Optimization of ROFFSET for Enhanced SHO Management
The event e1a is intended to release a call when the interferences brought by
the communication become too high. The Improved HO handling feature
helps in maintaining enough radio links after a SHO failure in order to allow
further SHO attempts. If we dont set a limit to this system then the UE will
bring interferences from the serving cells to the neighbour cells. The RRC ReEstablishment procedure will be initiated if e1a fails (which is equivalent to a
call drop for CS with the Qualcomm chipsets that do not support this call reestablishment).
Page 83 of 85
EcNo
P CPICH 1 Best Active cell
Reporting
Range
P CPICH 2
Monitored cell
Event 1A
Event 1A'
Time
SHO
area
When e1a is received the RNC performs a last try: if the procedure fails
then all the RL are released.
If there is a procedure e1a in progress when the e1a is received then all
the RL are released also if the procedure fails
e1a is triggered every reporting interval several attempts are allowed
since the radio links are not released after SHO failure
If the UE goes too deep inside the service area of cell 2 (with cell 2 as
neighbour and cell 1 as serving cell) then if the SHO attempt fails the
procedure asks to release the RL to avoid interferences on cell 2
The settings of event e1a are sent in the second measurement control
message right after the definition of SHO events e1a, e1b and e1c. To
distinguish the 2 measurement report types the measurement identity is
Page 84 of 85
set to 9 for e1a and to 14 for e1a. The event e1a inherits the settings of
event e1a except for the triggering threshold defined as follow:
Re1a = Re1a Roffset, with Re1a 0
Description of the problem
The parameter Roffset was initially set to 0dB such that e1a and e1a have
the same triggering threshold.
With this original setting events e1a and e1a are sent at the same time
resulting in a release of the radio links in case of SHO addition failure.
Indeed, as the e1a is sent to release the call in case of SHO failure.
Therefore, all e1a are pre-empted by e1a events.
This behaviour is suspected to create additional drops.

Implemented modification
The value of Roffset will be set to 3dB thus setting. Indeed, With the new
setting, the event e1a is delayed by 3dB compared to e1a which is
equivalent to extra time allowed to perform the HO. Eventually, when the
best SC of the neighbour set reaches the level of the best cell of the active
set within the range of 1dB (Re1a) then the call is released (for CS only
for PS there are different procedures).
Expected gains and behaviors
Reduction of the number of e1a and at the same time an increase of

the number of e1a
As the e1a is delayed we allow more attempts of e1a and therefore this
number should increase. But we should also decrease the number of e1a
since there will be fewer situations triggering this event. We will verify that
this delta between these two events does not increase so much that it may
overload the RNC in term of signalling.
Lower CDR
Page 85 of 85
As the system is more resistant to SHO failures there should be

improvements on the call drop rates.
2.3.3 Assessing Success of Recommended Change

The effect of the recommended changes should be analyzed for its
success. This can be verified through,
Drive Test real time throughput performance
Statistics - KPI improvements against Baseline
QoS Performance from Statistics or Protocol Analyzer

UMTS Optimization Guideline

Cargado por

Información del documento

Derechos de autor

Formatos disponibles

Compartir este documento

Compartir o incrustar documentos

Opciones para compartir

¿Le pareció útil este documento?

¿Este contenido es inapropiado?

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

UMTS Optimization Guideline

Cargado por

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

UMTS Optimization Guideline