White Paper:

Bit Error Rate (BER)

Abstract
The purpose of this document is to provide the local office and operator with
a method to troubleshoot and to analyze BER issues on CTU2s and CTUs.

Kevin ODonnell/Johnny Luo

Version 2.0

Base Transceiver Systems

Networks
Motorola, Inc
Mar 7, 2006

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Revision History
Date Version Issued By Changes
14 April 2005 1.0 K. ODonnell

Initial Release

26 Oct 2005 1.b K. ODonnell

Acceptable Limit updates

15 Nov 2005 1.c K. ODonnell

Internal Review

7 March 2006 2.0 Johnny Luo

Updates

References
Ref. Version Issued By Title
1

2
3

4
5
6
7

V8.15.0 (2002-06) 3GPP ESTI 5.08 3rd Generation Partnership Project;

Technical Specification Group GSM/EDGE
Radio Access Network;
Radio subsystem link control
(Release 1999)
GSR7 HALF-RATE
68P02901W56-Q Maintenance Information
(1.7.6.0)
GSM Statistics Application
68P02902W02-A GSD Documentation Service Manual Horizonmacro outdoor
Category 523 Maintenance Information
(Maint.)
Chapter 3 - FRU replacement procedures
68P02902W96 -B GSD Documentation Service Manual: Horizon II macro
Chapter 7: FRU replacement procedures
1.0 BTS CoE DE IOI Debug Guide
gsm_g_bss_112 EMEA Customer
Horizon macro CTU900/1800 Bit Error
Support Centre
Rate detection
3859_Featue_Plan David S. Lee Plan for Frame Erase Rate Feature

Page

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Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

1.
I
n
tr
o
d
u
ct Description of the Bit Error Rate
2.
i3. Possible
statistic
............................................
sources for poor
o....................
5
BER
....................................
4.
Data
and information to be
n........................................
17
gathered
.................................
information........................................................................................
... 4.1. General
...................................
22
4.2. TEST #1: Calibration
issue.............................................................................
... 22
23 TEST #2: Cabinet/Cabling issue ....................................................................
... 4.3.
... 28
4.4. TEST #3: Environment issue..........................................................................
... 30
5.
Troubleshooting Process
...
Flow
5.1....................................
Data Collection ...............................................................................................
...
..........................................
31
5.2. Verification......................................................................................................
...
3131
5.3. Follow-up Debug
...
Actions........................
...
....................................
...
.................... 31
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
4
Page 3of 31

Table of Contents

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

1.

Introduction

Bit Error Rate (BER) is usually monitored by customers to ensure optimal

performance of the network. A BER measurement can be derived for the uplink or
the downlink signals. This document is going to provide customers or local offices
an analytical and systemic method to identify difference between BER and FER &
the root cause of poor BER.
Understanding the scope of the problem
Customers and local offices need to understand the scope of the BER issue and the
extent of the problem. BER is a dynamic measurement that may indicate
interference issues and possibly fading concerns and noisy channels. Other
statistics need to be examined including path balance along with the IOI statistics.
An occurrence of poor BER along with another bad statistic, will typically point to
another issue.
Also, it is important to identify if the problem is isolated to a single radio or if the
problem is present on all the radios of the site:
If the problem is only on one radio, customers can try to change the
configuration of the site (e.g. move the RTF of the poor BER DRI to another
DRI) and check if the problem followed the RTF or stayed on the DRI.
If the problem is on all or multiple radios of the site then focusing on the
cabinet cabling, the surf, and the environment might shorten the investigation.
BSS Gather may be used to collect BER data for whole network. Assistance with
OMC-R diagnosis and the use of the BSS Gather tool is available from your local
CNRC. Bulletin 112 has more information on how to collect it .BSS Gather
Version 3.0.220 or later is needed to collect BER data.
Recalibration of the GCLK
Performing a GCLK calibration on the cabinet exhibiting the problem can quickly
resolve the problem since invalid/inaccurate calibration may magnify other factors
that degrade the BER performance of the radio. This should always be the first
step taken in troubleshooting poor BER.
Recalibration of the cabinet for the radios exhibiting high BER
Performing a cabinet offset calibration (TX/BAY CAL) on the radio exhibiting the
problem can quickly resolve the problem since invalid/inaccurate calibration has
been identified as a recurrent issue on customers networks.
Poor installation/maintenance (Cabling)
During initial installation/deployment, it is critical that care is taken on the
equipment. Damaged connectors, cables, poor ANT VSWR and dropped equipment
can lead to poor BER statistics. A regular maintenance schedule is recommended
to inspectof
and
identify faulty
before a problem
Presence
interference
in thecomponents
RF environment
4of 31 worse.
Page becomes

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Sometimes poor cell planning or the presence of other equipment near by,
transmitting at the same frequency of the wireless equipment can result in
interferences. Tools are available to scan the RF environment of the site and check
if poor BER is due to an abnormally noisy RF environment.
The remainder of this document will describe in detail how to proceed in the BER
investigation and will provide tools and tips to root cause the poor BER issue. This
document addresses possible BER issues on CTU and CTU2 radios.

2.

Description of the Bit Error Rate statistic

Fig1:Full Rate Traffic for speech block

Avoiding transmission error in the air, GSM deployed coding & interleaving
technologies. For full rate traffic, per 20ms speech block of 260 bits, can be divided
into Class 1a, Class 1b, Class 2 based on their importance on speech quality. A 3 bit
CRC is applied to Class 1a. If Class 1a bits error occurs, the whole speech block will
be discarded for bad frame.
By encoding, this speech block becomes 456 bits, and
then be interleaved into 8 successive halfbursts(TDMA frames).
The half rate convolutional coding process applied to all class 1 bits provided a
significant error correction capability. However, transmission errors tend to occur in
bursts due to nature of the multipath channel fading. Since the convolutional coding
does not operate effectively in such conditions, an interleaving process has been
devised whereby each coded, 456bits long block is reordered and diagonally
interleaved
fully
interleaving
described
over
operations.
in8ETSI
successive
05.03.
However,
halfbursts(TDMA
Theisdegree
function
of success
of frames).
the speed
of
the
The
ofchannel
the
interleaving
mobile.
coding
The
process
and is
5of
31
Page

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

performance of fast moving mobiles is usually better than slow moving mobiles for
the same average C/I.

Fig2: Normal Burst

BER per burst varies depending on urban, suburban and rural areas. In same
scenario, BER per burst is not depending on the C/I, but also on frequency selective
fading (Rayleigh Fading). And the main determinative is C/I. In a burst, where the
desired signal is in a fading, it is most likely higher BER per burst than that in
non_fading condition. The faster mobiles moving speed, the less fading influence on
BER per burst.
As required in ETSI 05.08 [REF 1], BER statistic pegs every SACCH multiframe(104
TDMA frames) per timeslot. The BER statistic tracks the minimum, maximum, and
the mean Bit Error Rate. Mean BER statistic is uploaded to OMC every 30 or 60
minutes depending on network settings. The same as uplink BER statistic (U_BER).
NOTE 1: BER statistics are reported per timeslot only when the channel is active.
NOTE 2: GPRS timeslots do not report BER measurements.
NOTE 3: For the full rate channel, BER/U_BER is based on 104 TDMA frames.
NOTE 4: For the half rate channel, BER/U_BER is based on 52 TDMA frames.
NOTE 5: For the DTX mode, BER/U_BER is based on 12 TDMA frames.
Mean BER statistic is a statistical value based on thousands of MS calls during
intervals. Every MS just has little influence on the statistic. For this reason, Mean
BER statistic can only simplified into a function of C/I, ignoring Rayleigh Fading. The
lower C/I, the higher Mean BER statistic. Note this relation varies depending on
urban, suburban and rural areas.

Page

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Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Fig3
BER defined as the ratio of the number of bits in error detected over the total
number of bits before deinterleaving and decoding.
FER defined as the ratio of the number of bad speech frames over total speech
frames after deinterleaving and decoding. The FER will then be reported every
multiframe (480msec) along with the Bit Error Rate statistic.
speech frames are decoded and a ratio calculated.
For full rate traffic, the 20ms speech block was interleaved into 8 successive
halfbursts. After deinterleaving , reordered into one speech frame. If Class 1a bits
error occurs, the whole speech block will be discarded for bad frame.

Residual BER defined as the ratio of the number of bits in error detected in speech
frames defined as good over the total number of bits in speech frames defined as
good.
Mean BER statistic can only simplified into a function of C/I, in nature, it reflects the
wireless transmission quality. The lower C/I, the higher Mean BER statistic.
FER statistic
technologies.
techniques
quality.
to can
When
recover
take
bits
them.
advantage
are in
Inerror
nature,
of coding
, ititisreflects
often
& interleaving
still
thepossible
MS
error
correction
of speech
7using
31 error correction
Pageuser
ofperception

During this period, 24

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

It is also possible to report high enough BER and high FER, when error correction
can not completely recover bits in error. Under this condition, the MS users will feel
bad speech quality.
The Bit Error Rate (BER) statistic provides an indication of the signal wireless
transmission quality received by the mobile. The Uplink Bit Error Rate (U_BER)
statistics provides an indication of the signal wireless transmission quality received
by the BTS. An operator can use the BER and U_BER statistic to identify a fault or
interference in the RX or TX signal transmission path.
The FER statistic provides an indication of the MS user perception of speech quality.
Now, OMC can only report uplink FER as current MS can not report FER estimation
in measurement report. But, the Test Mobile can report downlink FER estimation.
There will be a downlink FER substitute feature in GSR10

The OMC BER and OMC U_BER statistic is reported using values 0 to 7 that are
derived from the RXQUAL values. The BER and U_BER statistics are
just = total/sample .The total value is the sum of RXQUAL values during peg
intervals, and the sample value is the quantity of measure.
The statistic reports
Mean RXQUAL level during peg intervals, not BER ratio. BER statistic range is 0-7.
RXQUAL BER (min to max)
0
1

0 to 0.2
0.2 to 0.4

Assumed

0.14
0.28

0.4 to 0.8

0.57

3
4

0.8 to 1.6
1.6 to 3.2

1.13
2.26

3.2 to 6.4

4.53

6
7

6.4 to 12.8
greater than 12.8

9.05
18.1

The Uplink FER is converted to a FER_Quality measure which Firmware reports to

the RSS/HO process to peg the stat. The Uplink FER statistic is just = total/sample.
The total value is the sum of FER_Quality values during peg intervals, and the
sample value is the quantity of measure.
The statistic reports Mean FER_Quality
level during peg intervals, not FER ratio. FER statistic range is 0-9.
FER_Quality

FER

0.0000 0.0416

0.0417 0.0832

2543

0.0833
0.1250
0.1667
0.2083
0.1249
0.1666
0.2082
0.2499

Page

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Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

0.2500 0.2916

0.2917 0.3332

8
9

0.3333 0.3749
0.3750 1.0

The OMC BER and OMC U_BER statistic only read correctly in high traffic. And there
is unreliable BER value in low traffic.
The same as FER statistic.
Note: dealing with BER issue, we should screen the unreliable BER issue due to low
traffic firstly!
Below are some cases of unreliable BER value in low traffic.
Typical unreliable BER due to low traffic chart will own large variations. By its
standard deviation, we can screen it. Also we can screen it by Path_Balance chart.
As Path_Balance is only reported in active traffic.
5

4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

Fig4:typical high U_BER due to low traffic

Page

9of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Fig5: corresponding typical high BER due to low traffic

Fig6 is corresponding PB chart, from PB chart, we can conclude that the voice traffic
is low. For PB statistics only be calculated with active traffic.
140

120

100

80

60

40

20

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Fig6:
chart
PagePB 10
of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

There is a filtering method to screen high BER due to low traffic.

For each timeslot ,
1: calculate average BER/U_BER from 08:00 to 20:00(12 busy hours).
2: calculate standard deviation from 08:00 to 20:00.
3: if standard deviation <average/5, means low variations. Can confirm it maybe is
true constant high BER/U_BER.
This filtering can be easily implemented by Excel, using Statistical Function
AVERAGE, AVEDEV; Logical Function IF.
Below table gives corresponding value for above case, It can be seen that standard
deviation >average/5 on all timeslots, means should ignore the high BER issue.
TS0
TS1
TS2
TS3
TS4
TS5
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
1.5 1.103846 1.593077 0.852308 0.783077 1.190769 0.796923 1.382308

TS6
Mean

TS7
Mean

TS0 Dev TS1 Dev TS2 Dev TS3 Dev TS4 Dev TS5 Dev TS6 Dev TS7 Dev
1.512308 0.954556 1.067929 0.78213 0.63716 1.117751 0.671598 1.36284
TS0
TS1
TS2
TS3
TS4
TS5
Mean/5
Mean/5
Mean/5
Mean/5
Mean/5
Mean/5
0.3 0.220769 0.318615 0.170462 0.156615 0.238154 0.159385 0.276462
Below is high BER due to extremely low traffic on switchable PDTCH.

Fig7: unreliable BER on Switchable PDTCH due to low

11 of 31
Page traffic

TS6
TS7
Mean/5 Mean/5

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

ConfigurationW
TS0 BCCH

TS1,TS2 are SDCCH Wtheir BER is higher

TS1 (SDCCH/8)

than TS3 (TCH)Wbased on GSM Statistic

TS2 (SDCCH/8)

Application (68P02901W56-Q), BER on

TS3 (TCH/F)

SDCCH will be affected by phantom RACHs.

TS4 (16K PDTCH)h SWITCHABLE

TS5 (16K PDTCH) SWITCHABLE h

TS4,TS5,TS6 are switchable PDTCH, under

TS6 (16K PDTCH) SWITCHABLE

specific condition, they will be switched for
TS7 (16K PDTCH)h RESERVED
speech traffic, and then be switched for
GPRS traffic based on Database setting, commonly there is low speech traffic on
these timeslot, possibly results in high BER due to low traffic.
Presently, PDTCH timeslot only was deployed on BCCH carrier.
Figure 8 is corresponding U_BER chart.

Fig8: unreliable U_BER on Switchable PDTCH due to low traffic

The BER statistic data should be examined on a site by site basis. The individual
timeslots should then be analyzed to find consistent reading. Large variations due
to low traffic should be excluded. Sort the site data into sectors to look for site /
sector problems. GPRS timeslots do not make BER measurements. The SDCCH
timeslot may be affected by phantom RACHs. For cells with a non-combined BCCH
configuration,
will
planning,
typically
interference
there
vary are
throughout
and
no loading
valuesthe
presented
canday
all affect
depending
on timeslot
BERPage
on
performance.
0.traffic
The
and
interference. Cell
12
31 measurements
of BER

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

A typical plot of BER performance for a DRI is show below for a 24 hour period
in
Figure 9. Each line represents a different timeslot.
Typical BER Performance

Be r0
5

Be r1

Be r2

Be r3

Be r4

Be r5

Be r6

Be r7
2

Hour

Fig 9
Typically hundreds to thousands of mobiles will connect to a radio over a long
period of time. Since there is a large sample of mobiles reporting TX and RX power
levels, these numbers should show a normal distribution. Over time inaccuracies in
any one mobile will have little affect on the BER number. Except wireless
interference ,this means that it takes an error at the BTS TX and/or RX path or
power reporting to cause a change in the BER number. If there is a BER problem
then this points to a BTS TX transmit path problem. If there is a U_BER problem
then this points to a BTS RX receive path problem. If there is also an IOI issue
then there is either a problem with the RX path or interference on the RX
frequency. A plot for radio failing U_BER is shown below in Figure 10. Note
that
only odd or even timeslots have poor BER. This failure is on a Horizon I CTU with a
loose lid. The local office should be contacted with reference to Bulletin #
gsm_g_bss_112
to solve this BER issue on Horizon I CTUs. This fault has only been
seeing on Horizon I CTUs. This behavior is showed below in Figure 10.

Page

13 of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Failing CTU

B er0
5

B er1

B er2

B er3

B er4

B er5

B er6

B er7

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hour

Fig10

Page

14 of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

A plot of degraded BER performance is illustrated below in Figure 11. The BER may
be degraded due to weak signals or interference into the BTS receiver. This plot is
for a 24 hour period of the U_BER statistic. Note each line represents a different
timeslot.
Degraded BER

B er0
5

B er1

B er2

B er3

B er4

B er5

B er6

B er7

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hour

Fig11

Page

15 of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

A plot of poor U_BER performance is illustrated below in Figure 12. The

U_BER
may be degraded due to an uplink path or interference problem into the BTS
receiver, commonly, it will be accompanied with high IOI issue. This plot is for a 24
hour period of the U_BER statistic.
Poor BER

B er0
5

B er1

B er2

B er3

B er4

B er5

B er6

B er7

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
M o n th

Fig12

BER acceptable limit:

The BER statistic pegs every 480 ms (corresponding to each SACCH multiframe).
This statistic can be used for trend analysis of the BER for active channels.
Note: The average BER should typically be below 2% for good speech quality. This
corresponds to OMC Mean_BER number between 3 and 4.
These values should have a small standard deviation during busy hours. Large
variations due to low traffic should be excluded. However this number when
slightly out of range does not indicate a failure of the equipment. The more
channels reused close to high traffic sites will increase the mean BER due to
interference. Follow the steps in section 3 to troubleshoot and diagnose the BER
issue. Typically if the number is significantly above 3, then the poor bit error rate
will be accompanied by another bad statistic such as high IOI, path balance or a
highmost
Note1:
will
number
it islikely
acceptable
of dropped
be more
tocalls.
interferences
have BER values
in thevarying
naturalthroughout
environment
during
day since there
31
Page 16 ofthe

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

peak hours of the day than during non-peak hours.

Note2: BER and U_BER statistics varies depending on urban, suburban and rural
areas. There is no one acceptable limit for all areas.

3.

Possible sources for poor BER

Mean BER statistic can only simplified into a function of C/I. The RF channel is
constantly changing due to various mechanisms that impact propagation. In nature,
BER reflects the wireless transmission quality. The lower C/I, the higher Mean BER
statistic . In nature, FER reflects the MS user perception of speech quality.
It is also possible to report high enough BER and high FER, when error correction
can not completely recover bits in error. Under this condition, the MS users will feel
bad speech quality (Poor performance).
Note: dealing with BER issue, we should screen the unreliable BER issue due to low
traffic firstly!

The first contributor to BER issue is co_channel interference and adjacent

interference. These interferences will result in low C/I, and consequently high BER.
Poor BER due to BTS(radios)'s H/W issue is just only low output power(low
C/I) or worse modulation quality(like CTU-1 odd-even BER issue).
Poor U_BER due to BTS(radios)s H/W issue is just only worse Rx(low C/I) or worse
modulation quality(like CTU-1 odd-even BER issue).

The items listed below are some typical causes and solutions to improve BER and
system performance.
- Co-channel_interference and adjacent_interference
Co-channel interference is the interference from a cell using the same frequency.
Adjacent Channel interference is the interference from a cell using a frequency
adjacent to the one we are using .
Changing RTF's(Frequencies) and optimizing the frequency planning may be
needed to help reduce the effect of the interference. The interference may be
averaged using features such as frequency hopping ,DTX and power control to
reduce the impact on a particulat noisy channel and to improve the overall
performance of the site.
In hopping system, the whole RTFs belonged to one hopping sequence will
experience
the
issue.
hopping
other
It issystem.
non_hopping
ahigh
hint BER
to find
issue
RTFs
the when
Co-channel
belonged
interference
to
and
same
Adjacent
falls
cell
into
will
Channel
the
not
experience
sequence
high
inBER
and
17
31interference
Page
ofhopping

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

- Invalid or inaccurate TX/BAY CAL

o If the radio is a new spare it comes with default CAL data and must be TX
and RX offset calibrated within the slot it will function in
o If the radio was swapped from one slot to another and the preserve bay level
calibration feature is not enabled, a recalibration of the TX and RX is
necessary
o If an expansion cabinet is added to the configuration it might be necessary to
recalibrate the TX and RX
o If external combining, filtering or amplification is added to the configuration a
TX or RX calibration is required.
- HW/Connection problem with the cabinet slot/cabling/antenna:
An element in the Rx/Tx path might have failed , or might not be used or
installed correctly: backplane, cabling, bad connectors or connections, faulty
jumpers ,faulty feed line, fautly antenna ,loose connections.
Remove and reinsert suspect radio from BTS cabinet. Verify all antenna
connections internal and external to the BTS. Verify antenna VSWR is within
acceptable limits.
- Base Band Hopping (BBH) or RF hopping:
Hopping can supply extra hopping gain by frequency diversity and interference
diversity.
Frequency diversity is the capability to anti Rayleigh fading. It is rather helpful
for stationary and low speed moving MS. And no helpful for high speed moving
MS, for Rayleigh fading has little influence on high speed moving.
Correct frequency diversity planning is the selection of uncorrelated frequency
set. The adequate uncorrelated frequency gap is >0.6 Mhz. The complete
uncorrelated frequency gap is > 1 Mhz.
Interference diversity can average the interference impact. The number of
hopping frequency channels is the key to interference diversity.
By extra hopping gain, either can improve network performance, or can enrich
network capacity. If hopping is used to enrich network capacity, in this
condition, lower C/I will contribute the BER issue.
Incorrect hopping plan, will result in Co_channel,and Adjacent interference.
Note: In the
naturally
higher
hopping
than system,
that of non_hopping
due to inherent
system.
frequency
collision,
Page 18
of 31 BER will be

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

- HW problem with the DRI:

A HW component of the transceiver (CTU or CTU2) can have failed which results
in abnormal noise in the transceiver or loss of output power.
Due to radios H/W issue, poor BER will be possibly accompanied with poor FER
(poor performance).
As for abnormal noise, possibly accompanied with high IOI.
As for Tx power loss, possibly accompanied with DRI Tx power low alarm.
DRI 91 Alarm: Power Amplifier Power Low But Functioning. It is a major alarm.
The output power of the transmit power amplifier is marginally below specified
limits, but calls may continue. The spec is 2dB.
DRI 86 Alarm: Transmitter Failure - Output Power. It is a critical alarm.
The output power of the transmit power amplifier is below the power range
required to sustain RF transmission. The spec is 4dB.
If this alarm occurs three times within a 10 minute period, the DRI is soft reset
on the first two occurrences and then be inhibited on the third occurrence.
Swap suspect radio with a different unit from a different sector. If the poor
performance stays with the sector then the hardware is performing correctly
and you may have an interference or planning issue. If the poor performance
follws the radio then follow chart shown if Figure 14.
- Cell Planning:
There is a relationship between C/I and network capacity. The higher reuse of
frequencies , the lower the C/I. The lower C/I, the higher BER.
A group of cells in which each cell has a different frequency is called a cluster.
The number of sites per cluster is = N. Some common reuse patterns are 7/21,
4/12 and 3/9.The 4/12 ,for example ,is 4 sites ,3 sectors each with 12
frequencies used where N=4.
Radio frequency spectrum is limited but the largest possible reuse pattern
should be used to have the highest C/I and lowest possilbe interfernce. A plot
of C/I vs. N is shown in Figure 13.

Page

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Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Fig13: Plot of C/I vs. sites per cluster

In this document, we will describe how to identify if the high BER problem falls in
one of these categories. Your investigation will follow the graph below.

Page

20 of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Poor BER
detected?

- Contact the network

optimization team and/or
- Modify the frequencies
to be used on this sector Section 4.1: Gather generic

Yes

No

Yes
Calibrate the radio
and monitor the
BER again

configuration information on
the radio and the site.

TEST #1
Section 4.2: Is the
calibration data accurate?

Yes

TEST #2
Section 4.3: Is the problem due
to other HW failure?

Yes

No

No

TEST #3
Section 4.4: Is the problem
due to the environment

- Open an SR (provide a description of the

problem and attach the logs you gathered
during your investigation) AND
-Contact the network optimization team

Fig14 Debug Flowchart

Page

21 of 31

Return or fix
the faulty
equipment
and monitor
the BER again

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

4.

Data and information to be gathered

WARNING: Throughout this procedure, keep logs of all MMI commands and all the
results or you tests.
4.1.

General information

In this section, we want to have a snapshoot of:

- the radios state and configuration, and
- the sites performance.

Please answer the following questions below before you change anything in the
site:
- How many radios/sectors are affected?
- What type of radio is affected (CTU, CTU2, both)?
- For all radios affected, get OMC INTF_ON_IDLE statistic.
- Monitor PB, BER, call drop rates and IOI performance, if High IOI please see IOI
white paper
- Did the problem start after an upgrade, a cell replanning, or HW change?
- Run the following commands for the site at the MMI-RAM:
disp_proc 0
disp_proc <site number>
state <site number>
disp_cell_status <site number>
disp_gsm_cell <site #>
disp_hop <site #>
disp_hop <cell_number> active
state <site #> rtf * *
disp_neighbor <cell id>
disp_act_alarm <site number>
- Run (at the MMI-RAM) the following commands for ALL DRIs/RTFs that of the
site:
disp_rtf_chan <site> <RTF id 0> <RTF id 1>
disp_eq <site number> rtf <RTF id 0> <RTF id 1>
disp_eq
-disp_cal_data
Provide
<site
a map
number>
<site_number>
showing
driwhere
<DRI
drithe
id
<DRI
0>
sites
<DRI
idare
0> and
id
<DRI
1>their
full
id
1>
respective
frequencies.
22 of 31
Page

4.2.

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

TEST #1: Calibration issue

In this section, we will verify that the calibration data is valid for the antenna and
branch(es) being used. (Note: It is recommended to calibrate all antennas but in
some cases, only the antenna being used is calibrated by the customer).
4.2.1.

Verification that the calibration data is valid

Verification that the calibration data is valid:

(a) CTU radio
At the EQCP MMI prompt, enter the following commands:
EQCP TEST > calchk
EQCP TEST >
RX Branch 1: CAL CHECKSUM RX Branch 2: CAL CHECKSUM
AIC
YES 0001
AIC
YES 0007
AGC
YES d3f0
AGC
YES b845
BAY
YES 7f3b
BAY
YES 7f3b
BBG
YES 002a (This is for both branches.)
DCO
YES 3ef0
DCO
YES 169b
FREQ
YES ffe3
FREQ
YES fe21
IFG
YES 0006
IFG
YES 0005
RSSI
YES a19a
RSSI
YES a0ce
TX
CAL CHECKSUM
DET
YES 5865
PWR
YES 04a2
TX
YES 0000
VVA
YES a3c7

Verify that the "CAL" value for the row titled BAY is "YES".
If there is a NO, then the result for TEST #1 is NO and you should recalibrate the
radio and monitor the BER again. If IOI is also occurring then please reference the
IOI white paper and perform specific tasks.
Otherwise if calibration data is ok go to (4.2.2) below

(b) CTU2 radio

At the DSP MMI prompt, run the following commands:

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23 of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

CTU2.carA.ts_0>chg
Enter Password: pizza
Access Level 3 Granted
CTU2.carA.ts_0>cal_status tall
Cal Ca Br Status Result Valid Checksum Ver S/HC
--------------------------------------------------------------------RF Lop A 0 pass valid 0x0672d5b5 1 / 1
RF Lop B 0 pass valid 0x0d7b5025 1 / 1
RX RF A 0 pass valid 0x2ae0b9fc 1 / 1
RX RF A 1 pass valid 0x2bb91f4a 1 / 1
RX RF B 0 pass valid 0x2c1ed905 1 / 1
RX RF B 1 pass valid 0x2b063b6b 1 / 1
RX IF A 0 pass valid 0xc8bc3caf 1 / 1
RX IF A 1 pass valid 0xc8d99f37 1 / 1
RX IF B 0 pass valid 0xc8dadb3f 1 / 1
RX IF B 1 pass valid 0xc8bfbd0a 1 / 1
RX FR A 0 pass valid 0xa8fe3af6 1 / 1
RX FR A 1 pass valid 0xa8e8ba39 1 / 1
RX FR B 0 pass valid 0xa8fb5db7 1 / 1
RX FR B 1 pass valid 0xa8f593e0 1 / 1
RX CAB A 0 pass valid 0x53703256 0 / 1
RX CAB B 0 pass valid 0x45562835 0 / 1
TX VVA A 0 pass valid 0xb0be7eb2 1 / 1
TX VVA B 0 pass valid 0x96686359 1 / 1
TX DSA A 0 pass valid 0x01a775df 1 / 1
TX DSA B 0 pass valid 0x01a7863a 1 / 1
TX FP A 0 pass valid 0x09e81286 1 / 1
TX FP B 0 pass valid 0x07c8ee22 1 / 1
TX Ver A 0 pass valid 0x064b1162 1 / 1
TX Ver B 0 pass valid 0x063b5e9a 1 / 1
TX CAB A 0 pass valid 0x019e2da9 1 / 1
TX CAB B 0 pass valid 0x01bd2da9 1 / 1
PA Det A 0 pass valid 0x15cc24be 1 / 1
PA Det B 0 pass valid 0xd7dc8932 1 / 1
PA VVA A 0 pass valid 0xda5d5f94 1 / 1

Verify that the rows for the "RX CAB A" and RX CAB B values are pass
and
valid.
If this is not the case, then the result for TEST #1 is NO and you should recalibrate
the radio and monitor the BER again. If IOI is also occurring then please reference
the IOI white paper and perform specific tasks.
Otherwise if calibration data is ok go to (4.2.2) below

Page

24 of 31

4.2.2.

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Manual verification

WARNING: Be sure to take the radios connected to this duplexer out of service so
that the TX power is off.

(1) A signal generator is required to inject an RF signal into the antenna (ANT) port
of the duplexer.
At the RSS MMI prompt:
MMI-RAM 1015 -> lock <site> pchn <dri0> <dri1> <ts_number>
Example:
MMI-RAM 1015 -> lock 52 pchn 0 0 6
This command should be entered for each time slot of each DRI connected to the
duplexer. There should be no TX power into the duplexer.
(2) Disconnect the antenna from the duplexer
(3) Attach a good RF cable from the signal generator to the ANT port using
appropriate adapters
(4) Set the signal generator to a power level of -70dBm and a frequency of the
desired RX channel to be measured. See appendix for a list of ARFCNs and
corresponding frequencies. For this example we will use ARFCN 512 1710.2MHz
(5) L og into the radio and set the ARFCN being measured. For this example it
is
512. At the EQCP TTY ts a chan 512 .
(6) N ow measure RXLEV. For CTU use self cal rx_lev, for CTU2 use rxlev.
(a) CTU Radio
EQCP > .gsmfw
EQCP > te
WARNING: The EQCP is now in test mode.
EQCP TEST > ts a chan 512
EQCP TEST >
The data for all timeslots has been changed.
EQCP TEST >
EQCP TEST > self cal rx_lev
EQCP TEST >

Power into radio: (AIC is assumed out.)

B1 Rx Lev: -105.4468
B2
-66.1049 dBm
dBm

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25 of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Power into cabinet:

B1 Rx Lev: -71.4258 dBm
B2 Rx Lev: -112.6094 dBm
EQCP TEST >

(b) CTU2 Radio

CTU2.carA.ts_0>
CTU2.carA.ts_0>ch
Enter Password: pizza
Access Level 3 Granted
CTU2.carA.ts_0>set_c cara
Setting carrier to carrier A
CTU2.carA.ts_0>
CTU2.carA.ts_0>ts a chan 512

Name rx_synth_channel
TS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- ------State
OVRD OVRD OVRD OVRD OVRD OVRD
OVRD
OVRD
200 200 200 200 200 200 200
200
rt
21b 21b 21b 21b 21b 21b 21b
21b

OVRD

Decimal Equivalent
OVRD
512 512 512 512 512 512 512
512
rt
539 539 539 539 539 539 539
539
Freq. 1710.2 1710.2 1710.2 1710.2 1710.2 1710.2 1710.2
1710.2

Name tx_synth_channel
TS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- ------State
OVRD OVRD OVRD OVRD OVRD OVRD OVRD
OVRD
OVRD
200 200 200 200 200 200 200
rt
200
21b
21b 21b 21b 21b 21b 21b 21b Page 26 of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Decimal Equivalent
OVRD
512 512 512 512 512 512 512
512
rt
539 539 539 539 539 539 539
539
Freq. 1805.2 1805.2 1805.2 1805.2 1805.2 1805.2 1805.2
1805.2
CTU2.carA.ts_0>
CTU2.carA.ts_0>rxlev
TS

------- -------Hex

b9a1

Dec

47521

dBm

-70.371

TS

------- -------Hex

8736

Dec

34614

dBm

-120.789

CTU2.carA.ts_0>

(7) The CTU command will report both the cabinet and the radio power measured.
The CTU2 command will report only the cabinet power measured. The cabinet
power reading should be -70dBm +/-4dB or between -62 to -74dBm.
(8) If diversity is used, connect the signal generator to the appropriate diversity
connection on the SURF or SURF2. Repeat the procedure to measure reported
power on all utilized branches.
(9) Using a power meter and proper couple verify the TX power level.

If the radio reads a value that is off by more than 4dB on the main or diversity
path, then the result for TEST #1 is NO and you should monitor the BER again with
the new RX calibration offset values.
Other wise continue to section 4.2.3

4.2.3.

Recalibration of the radio

Re-calibrate the radio according to the procedure described in REF [3] (CTU) or
REF[4] (CTU2) and then run the disp_cal_data <site_number> dri <DRI id 0>
<DRI id 1> command at the MMI-RAM.
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Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

Verify that the new calibration offsets are not too different from the initial ones you
got in Section 4.1 for this radio. To do that, use the excel spreadsheet that can be
found at http://compass.mot.com/go/154713360.
(1) Select the frequency you are going to use
(2) Copy and paste the initial and new values into the spreadsheet
(3) Look at the differences between the initial and new data. If the difference for
the antenna being used is more than 2 dB for most of the offsets, the result for
TEST #1 is NO and you should monitor the PB again with the new RX
calibration
offset values.
Otherwise continue to section (4.3) below

4.3.

TEST #2: Cabinet/Cabling issue

In this section we will discuss the various items that could be broken or damaged
on the cabinet. In many situations all that is required is a close inspection of the
cabinet looking for damaged connectors and cables. There are three places to look
to identify this type of failure: TX path, RX path and the combined TX/RX path.
There are two other possibilities, though less likely, in which interference can be
generated. These are after the duplexer combining and a bad SURF/SURF2.
TX Path
- Lock the radio and power down.
- Inspect the short TX cable that goes from the CTU/CTU2 to the duplexer. Make
sure there are no cuts or frays or places where it looks like the cable is coming
apart. If there is damage replace the cable.
- If the short TX cable looks ok, remove the cable connecting the CTU/CTU2 to the
duplexer. Inspect the center conductor on the cable, the CTU/2, and the
duplexer. If there is damage to the cable or the cables center conductor is
bent, replace the cable. If it looks like the CTU/CTU2 connector is damaged or
loose, return the CTU/CTU2 for repair and note the damaged connector on the
RMA. Inspect the duplexer center conductor and return if there is damage or if
the connector is bent.
- Inspect any other cables that might be used in the TX path such as cables
connected to combiners, add-on VSWR units, and external filters.

RX Path
- Lock the radio and power down.
- Pull out the radio and inspect the connectors on the back of the radio for
damage. Replace if damaged and make note of Page
it on the
28 RMA.
of 31

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

- Remove the RX cable, for the desired path, from the duplexer and SURF.
Inspect the cable for damage and cuts. If it looks like the cable is breaking near
the connector, it is bad. Replace this cable as necessary. Also inspect the NType connector on the SURF/SURF2 and the duplexer. Look closely at the
center conductor to see if there is any damage. If one prong is bent or missing
or if the prongs are spread far apart, then the connector is bad. Replace the
unit and mark the reason on the RMA.
- If it is ok to take down the entire site, the SURF/SURF2 can be removed to
inspect the SURF connectors. Again, look for any damage to this connector.
Look closely to see if prongs are bent or missing and center conductor is ok.
- In some cases an external LNA is used before the duplexer to improve the
sensitivity. If this is the case try removing the LNA for a period of time to see if
the interference goes away. If an LNA is used, it is important to calibrate the
cabinet with the LNA connected to account for the extra gain.

RX/TX Path
Remove the ANT connector from the duplexer. Inspect both the antenna feeder
cable connector and the duplexer connector. Look closely for bent or missing
pins/prongs. If there is damage replace either the cable or duplexer. Measure the
VSWR of the antenna. If the VSWR is worse than 2.33 then inspect all cabling to
and including the antenna. Check for bad lightening arresters or other bad
connectors.

External Combining, Filtering, Amplification

It is not recommended to use any RF combining external to the cabinet, after the
duplexer. Motorola certifies all equipment used on the cabinet to ensure that a
minimum amount of interference exits. If add-on combining is used, it is important
that (1) the part is rated to handle the power and (2) the part does not generate
any additional interference. If interference is detected on a cabinet, and the
problem does not appear to be related to the environment, then try removing any
external components not supplied by Motorola for a period of time to see if the
interference subsides.

SURF/SURF2
It is possible but not likely that the SURF/SURF2 might generate interference in the
form of an oscillation. There is no record of this type of occurrence but you can
check it in two ways.
1. The SURF/SURF2 can be swapped with another SURF/SURF2 to see if the
problem clears. This will require a cabinet TX and BAY RX offset calibration.
If the interference
SURF/SURF2
for repair
clearsand
bynote
simply
the failure
swapping
on the
theRMA.
then return the
29
31
Page
of SURF

Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

If you have found a faulty cable, connector, equipment, etc. then the answer to
TEST #2 is YES - replace the faulty part and re calibrate both the TX and BAY
offsets. If no faulty equipment is found the answer to TEST #2 is NO, continue to
section 4.4

4.4.

TEST #3: Environment issue

In this section, we will check that there is not a signal in the radios environment at
the frequency (or frequencies) which the radio is tuned to.
There are three procedures to determine the result for TEST #3
4.4.1.

Use of a spectrum analyzer

For this procedure, you will have to power down the whole sector for approximately
15 minutes
(1) Using the output of the disp_gsm_cell <site #> command, get the list of
frequencies the radio exhibiting high IOI uses.
(2) Turn off all of the radios of the site. This procedure should take only 15 minutes,
so the customer should not be inconvenienced too much.
(3) Using the diversity path of the Surf or Surf 2, connect the sector of interest to
port 0B of the Surf/Surf 2.
(4) Connect the spectrum analyzer to the expansion port B of the Surf/Surf 2.
(5) Look for obvious spurs or humps in the noise floor on or near the center
frequency, narrow the span to 1MHz to determine how close to on-channel the
noise/spurs are.
If you find spurs or humps on the frequencies being used by the radio then the
answer to TEST #3 is YES. Otherwise, its NO.

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Troubleshooting guide for poor BER

5.

Troubleshooting Process Flow

5.1.

Data Collection
Gather gene ric configuration information on the radio and the site.
Collect and analyze BER, Path Balance and IOI statistics.

5.2.

Verification
Verify calibration data is accurate.
Determine if problem is cabinet / sector / slot issue.
Verify if degraded BER performance is related to environment, see
section 4.4.

5.3.

Follow-up Debug Actions

Contact Network optimization team
Change frequencies of DRI to confirm issue is interference with a
specific frequency or oth er issue.
Have network optimization team verify proper frequency reuse pattern.
Turn on Frequency hopping, DTX and power control if available to
reduce and or average interference.
Open SR
Provide description of problem and attach logs gathered during
investigation.

Page

31 of 31