UMTS Optimization Guideline

UMTS Optimization Guideline
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BASIC TUNING.............................................................................................................................................2 KPIS AND SERVICE REQUIREMENTS....................................................................................................................2 IRAT Performance..................................................................................................................................2 CS Performance......................................................................................................................................2
CS Requirements..............................................................................................................................................3
PS Performance......................................................................................................................................4
PS Requirements...............................................................................................................................................5
TOOLS............................................................................................................................................................8 Tools Requirements................................................................................................................................8

RF Measurements...........................................................................................................................................11 Throughput Measurements..............................................................................................................................12 Call Performance............................................................................................................................................13
Tools Currently Available to Capture / Process data..........................................................................15

Drive Test Equipment and Software...............................................................................................................18 Post-Processing Software................................................................................................................................22
PRE-LAUNCH OPTIMIZATION PROCESS...............................................................................................................24 Database Verification...........................................................................................................................25 Drive Test Route Selection....................................................................................................................27 Drive Test Data Collection...................................................................................................................29 Data Post-processing and Root-Cause Analysis..................................................................................30 Root Cause Analysis and Recommendation.........................................................................................31
High Downlink Interference...........................................................................................................................31 Pilot Pollution.................................................................................................................................................33 Out of Pilot Coverage.....................................................................................................................................34 Insufficient received UL DPCH power...........................................................................................................34 High UE TX Transmit Power.........................................................................................................................35 Swapped feeders.............................................................................................................................................36 Low data throughput.......................................................................................................................................38 Handover Event Detection Failure..................................................................................................................40 No Suitable Cell..............................................................................................................................................42
Assessing Success of Recommended Change.......................................................................................42 OMC STATISTICS BASED TUNING.......................................................................................................43 KPIS............................................................................................................................................................43 IRAT - Inter Radio Access Technology (IRAT) performance ..............................................................51 CS Performance additional information..............................................................................................52 PS Performance additional information...............................................................................................52 TOOLS..........................................................................................................................................................53 Tools Requirements..............................................................................................................................53 Tools Currently Available to Capture / Process Data..........................................................................54 POST-LAUNCH OPTIMIZATION PROCESS.............................................................................................................57 Data Post-processing and Root-Cause Analysis..................................................................................58 Optimization Strategy per Root-cause and/or Problem Category/Type/Area......................................68 Assessing Success of Recommended Change.......................................................................................84
inCode CONFIDENTIAL and PROPIETARY
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Basic Tuning
KPIs and Service Requirements
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) 2G to 3G 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
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 Signaling Load
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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
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 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.
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A typical retainability requirement for a network is Drop Call Rate < 1.5% for voice conversations.
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 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 % PDP Context Activation success ratio Attach success ratio PDP context drop ratio current Ping session.
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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
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 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.
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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: 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.
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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 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.
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Call event success rate: Formula: # Call Ends / (# Call Ends + # Blocked Calls + # Dropped Calls) SHO event success rate: Formula: (# add + # remove + # replace) / # all SHO
Tools
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.
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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. 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:
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between calls.
Short voice call:
Each voice call is made to a PSTN
number and held for duration of 100 seconds and waited for 10 seconds
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.
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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.
RF Measurements The following is the key RF performance indication in UMTS drive tests. Test UE (dB) Scrambling codes of active set cells and monitored set cells CPICH_Ec/No of active set cells and monitored set cells
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(dBm)
CPICH_RSCP of active set cells and monitored set cells
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)
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).
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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.
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 view
Number of sent RRC connection setup complete 100 % Number of sent RRC connection request
RRC connection setup successful rate from the UE point of
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
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Average RRC connection drop rate when the UE is in
cell_DCH mode
N um ber abnorm al of dropsin w hich he U Estateis fromC ell_D C H idle -1 t to s T otaltim eof the w hole drivetest
cell_FACH mode
[ ]
Average RRC connection drop rate when the UE is in
N um ber abnorm al of dropsin w hich he U Estateis fromC ell_FA C H idle -1 t to s T otaltim eof the w hole drivetest
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
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Quality Downlink transport channel BLER Best serving cell CPICH Ec/No, i.e. pilot channel quality
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.
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Nemo Outdoor 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
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capability. The flexible interface allows the user to filter network data and focus on relevant information for truly in-depth analysis 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.
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For more detail information about Rohde-Schwarz products, please read their web site. http://www.rohde-schwarz.com
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.
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
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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 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 Measure and report the signal quality of the received base station 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 Quantify wireless data users quality of service (with data Perform integrated analysis using the phone and receiver at the Correlate call drops within the RF environment
signal signal
interpretation measurement options). same time
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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. 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
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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 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
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Streaming Video IP Protocol Trace Data throughput UL/DL Ftp, http, and ping test applications. MMS and SMS testing New Command sequence Roundtrip delay
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.
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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.
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.
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Pre-Launch Optimization Process

An overview of the radio network optimization process will be briefly presented.
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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
Database Verification
Purpose
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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
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recommended values is important. in most networks.
These recommended values are
based on lots of testing and simulations results, which are optimal values
The procedure to implement system parameters verification is as below: 1. 2. 3. values 4. Produce a list of parameters to be changed and generate the Retrieve current parameter settings from systems Check current versus recommended parameter values Apply the consistency check rules to current parameter
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.
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

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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. test. Avoid the area with known coverage problem because of The route should cover all the sectors included in the
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
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and incoming handovers for which we need to drive in both directions of the drive route. If we do encounter any problem/ issue we should repeat
the route so as to repeat the problem. areas. If in the network there are a couple of problem areas, it is
recommended to have separate spot drives for each of the problem
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.
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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.
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
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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.
Root Cause Analysis and Recommendation
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
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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.
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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 Ec/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.
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
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An alternative solution to remove the cell overlapping is to increase the pilot channel power Primary CPICH power of the desired cells.
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 The connection drops eventually
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.
Insufficient received UL DPCH power Phenomena During the drive test, following phenomena might be observed 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
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UL SIR target of the radio connection reaches to the
maximum allowed SIR target and UL BLER of the radio connection increases and The connection drops eventually
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.
High UE TX Transmit Power Phenomena During the drive test, following phenomena might be observed 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.
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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.
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:
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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.
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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.
Low data throughput Phenomena During the drive test, following phenomena might be observed when downloading files to/from the operators server (or the known public server) by FTP and pinging that server simultaneously.
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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.
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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.
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 During the drive test, following phenomena might be observed 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)
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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
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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.
Assessing Success of Recommended Change
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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.
OMC Statistics Based Tuning

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.
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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 Transport channel type: e.g. DCH PS Conversational Guaranteed bit rate Allocation Retention Priority (ARP) Transport channel type: e.g. DCH PS Streaming Guaranteed bit rate Allocation Retention Priority (ARP) Transport channel type: e.g. HS-DSCH, DCH PS Interactive Maximum bit rate Traffic Handling Priority (THP) Allocation Retention Priority (ARP) Transport channel type: e.g. HS-DSCH, DCH, FACH, RACH
PS Background Maximum bit rate Allocation Retention Priority (ARP) Transport channel type: e.g. HS-DSCH, DCH, FACH, RACH
Cell, RNC, URA, RA and LA identifiers
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 cause measurement RRC.FailConnEstab.Cause.
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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
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sent
is
added
to
the
relevant
per
cause
measurement
RRC.AttConnRel.Cause.
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) 3G to 2G with PDP context activation (PS test; 3G to 2G cell
reselection)
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2G to 3G with PDP context activation (PS test; 2G to 3G cell 3G to 2G CS Handover (CS-only test) 2G to 3G CS Handover (CS-only test) 3G to 2G CS Handover with PDP context activation; Multi-RAB Event 3A measurement activation / deactivation
reselection)
handover (CS + PS test)
CS Performance additional information

Customer demand Service accessability Indicator Availability & Coverage Blocked calls Call setup delay Voice quality Dropped calls Measure Ec/No, RSCP Admission control RAB assignment Noisy frames (FER), MOS Handover failure No coverage Interference
Service integrity Service retainability
PS Performance additional information

Customer demand Service accessability Indicators Availability & Coverage Blocked service access Service access delay Video quality Audio quality Web page download time E-mail sending time, etc. Dropped data connection Connection timeouts Measures Ec/No, RSCP Admission control Attach, PDP context activation, IP service setup BLER, FER, throughput, delay, jitter
Service integrity
Service retainability
Dropped PDP context/attach No coverage Handover failure
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Tools
This section gives an overview of the standard Tool setup in collecting, monitoring and analyzing UMTS performance counters and Key Performance Indicators. It discusses briefly the requirements and will
mention some known tools in the market today.
Tools Requirements
OMC/OSS Configuration
PM Server PM Client Core Network

Mun
Citrix Server
OSS
Iu Mur
RNC
Iur Mub Mub
RNC Router Node B
Iub
Node B
OSS PM Client
UE
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OSS/OMC Setup
OSS / OMC Server - is an integrated service and management system for GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3G networks. Configuration Management. Management, Performance It has 3 main features Management and Fault
Performance Management Server is 3rd party Application Server capable of generating Performance Reports. access this application through CITRIX. Client/s can be setup to
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
Tools Currently Available to Capture / Process Data
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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 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.
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Daily reporting of any cluster of cell sites or network elements covering particular cities, roads or other geographical regions. 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 OSS-RC provides fault, performance and configuration
Ericssons
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).
Call Trace Capability

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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
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.
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OMC
Reports Recording Definition

OSS Applications
Node B
RNC
Recording Data
Data Post-processing and Root-Cause Analysis

Statistical measurements play an important and more traditional role in the operative networks when QoS is controlled. networks ability to provide satisfactory QoS level. For performing QoS measurements, a monitoring tool is needed. It Moreover, statistical measurements can be utilized right after rollouts to validate the UMTS
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. captured traffic. QoS monitoring software consists of two main software components: the GUI (graphical user interface) for operating the QoS monitoring system The QoS monitoring system consists of network probes and sophisticated software for analyzing the
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and showing the results of the QoS measurements, and the QoS server software for processing the gathered information. 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. The QoS server software performs all the analysis of the information captured from the
QoS GUI
Statistics Measurement
Call Trace
Capacity Measurement
QoS DB
QoS Monitor Software
Probe
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.
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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
MO Call
Paging
RRC Connection Establishment
RAB Establishment
User-Plane 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.
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Troubleshooting Process Flowchart:
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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.
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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
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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
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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 Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Transport layer cause Protocol cause Protocol cause Protocol cause Protocol cause Protocol cause Protocol cause Miscellaneous cause Miscellaneous cause Radio layer network 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 NBAP NBAP Cause type Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Transport layer network cause Transport layer network cause Protocol cause Miscellaneous 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 Protocol error Control processing overload
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NBAP NBAP NBAP NBAP Internal
Miscellaneous cause Miscellaneous cause Miscellaneous cause Miscellaneous cause Cause type not applicable
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) Cause type not applicable 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 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) Cause type not applicable Description Configuration unsupported Physical channel failure 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 RRC RRC RRC RRC RRC RRC RRC Cause type Inter-RAT handover failure Inter-RAT handover failure Inter-RAT handover failure Inter-RAT handover failure Inter-RAT change failure (RRC) Inter-RAT change failure (RRC) Inter-RAT change failure (RRC) Description Configuration unacceptable Physical channel failure Protocol error Inter-RAT Protocol error Configuration unacceptable Physical channel failure Protocol error
Hard Handover Failure per Adjacent Cell Pair Causes

Protocol Cause type Description
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RRC RRC RRC RRC RRC RRC RRC
Inter-Rat handover failure cause Inter-Rat handover failure cause Inter-Rat handover failure cause Inter-RAT handover failure cause (RRC) Inter-RAT change failure (RRC) Inter-RAT change failure (RRC) Inter-RAT change failure (RRC)
Configuration unacceptable Physical channel failure Protocol error Inter-RAT Protocol error Configuration unacceptable Physical channel failure Protocol error
Iu Release
Iu release request causes
Protocol RANAP RANAP RANAP RANAP RANAP RANAP RANAP RANAP RANAP Cause type Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Miscellaneous cause Description Failure in the Radio Interface Procedure 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 Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause NAS Cause Miscellaneous cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network cause Radio layer network 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 Failure in the Radio Interface Procedure Repeated Integrity Checking Failure Radio Connection With UE Lost OAM intervention
Admission Control
Causes for admission control rejections
Protocol Cause type Description
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Internal Internal Internal Internal
Non-standard cause Non-standard cause Non-standard cause Non-standard cause
Maximum uplink load Maximum downlink load Code allocation failure Congestion Control is ongoing
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 coverage Intersystem Handovers (ISHO) triggered 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. by mobility and capacity and
2) Gauge Counter:
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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.
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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
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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 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 is incremented by the number of RABs involved in the release even the RANAP message Iu
The counter numbers has to be converted to 3GPP numbers to find the reason for abnormal release.
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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.
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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 UMTS coverage The common failure reasons are, by mobility and limited
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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.
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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 conditions. The problem with this approach lies in the accuracy of
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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 Same RA as LA
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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.
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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 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: C M UE stops the measurements UE sends the elected
e3a handover from UTRAN command (ISHO)
e2f @ -97dBm
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
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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
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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
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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).
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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
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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
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As the system is more resistant to SHO failures there should be improvements on the call drop rates.
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

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UMTS Optimization Guideline