INTRODUCTION TO DRIVE TEST (MEASUREMENTS)

BY TAOFIQ A. AJANI (RNE)

1. WHAT IS MEASUREMENT? (DRIVE TEST)

Measurement is a process of acquires Information of Downlink Data of the Network

for the purpose of optimizing the Performances of the Network (In order to Improve
the quality of network).

There are two types of Measurement:

A. Cluster Measurement: When a Drive Test is carrying out within the Network for
More than one or two cells area, E.g. Abuja BSC 1.

B. Single Measurement: When a Drive Test is carrying out for one cell site only.

The following Information is necessary to observe when carrying out Drive Test:

I. Transmission Channel Reselection

II. Rx Level
III. Coverage Area
IV. Quality Service
V. Hand Over
VI. Cross Sectors

2. CONNECTING AND CONFIGURING THE TOOLS

Below are all the necessary tools needs to carry out Drive Test:

i. Laptop
ii. Dongle (Key for Agilent E6474A)
iii. GPS (NMEA Navigator)
iv. Handset (SAGEM OT 160 Test Tools)
v. 2 External Antenna (1 for GPS and 1 for Handset)
vi. Inverter Unit
vii. Two lighter point from a Car
viii. Dual I/O Serial Port
ix. Network Optimization Platform Software i.e. Agilent E6474A

All the items mentioned above should be connect together as stated below before Drive
Test can carry out:

A. Connect the Inverter Unit to the 1st lighter point

B. Connect the GPS to the 2nd lighter point
 C. Remove the Internal Antenna of the GPS, and then connect the External
Antenna to it.
D. Remove the Internal Antenna of the Handset, and the connect the External
Antenna to it.
E. Connect the Power Unit of the Laptop to the Output of the Inverter Unit.
F. Connect the GPS to the Serial Port
G. Also Connect the Handset to the Serial Port
H. Then, place all the External Antenna on top of the Car Roof

CAR

PHONE GPS INVERTER

LAPTOP
I/O Agilent
E6474A Tool

3. PERFORMING DRIVE TEST

The following procedure should be following in other to carryout Drive Test

i. Confirm the connections of the tool.

ii. Switch on the GPS
iii. Switch on the Handset
iv. Switch on the Laptop
v. Allow the Laptop to boot
vi. Insert the I/O Serial Port into PCMCIA Slot of the Laptop
vii. Allow the System to detect the I/O Serial Port
viii. Open the Network Optimization Platform Software i.e. Agilent E6474A
ix. Click on Toolbar and go to Tool, then click on System Setup and Open
x. Access the Com Ports to establish GPS and Handset.
xi. Select the Phone Type and go to Properties
xii. Cross Check, if all the parameters are highlighted
xiii. Then, go to Auto dial Window, Setup the following parameters, Auto dial,
Continuous Call, Call Number (e.g. 199 or 197), Idle Time, Call Setup and
then minimized the System Setup
xiv. Go to View on Tools bar, Select and Configure the following: Route Map,
GSM Signal, GSM Neighboring Cells, GSM Layer 3 and Chart
xv. Then go to Tools, Options, and Cell site Database and load the BTS Table
from where you stored it.
xvi. Go to Route Map Icon and right click, also click on Add, then browse to the
location where the Map is stored and load it.
xvii. Click on the live mode to test run the connection
xviii. Finally, click on the Start Logging by clicking on the green button, Select a
location or Path to save the measurement

NOTE:

Never allow the measurement to save more than 30mins before you click on stop
button, then click on Start Logging button to start saving the measurement again to
the same folder or path.

4. PERFORMING RAR (TO PROCESS THE MEASUREMENT)

1. Open the Agilent E6474A Tools

2. Click on Export Wizards (On Tools)
3. Bring the measurement by Time i.e. Export the first, second until the last
Measurement. Click on NEXT, after exporting the first.
4. Click back, then browse to the 2nd file and follow the same process, After second
measurement, go back to the 3rd, until all the measurement are saved, follow the
same process as others are saved.

HOW TO PROCESS THE TEXT FILE

1. Look for Fayezstone folder on your systems and then click to open it
2. Create a folder called DT (Drive Test)
3. Copy the measurement (Text Files) from the saved folder and paste it into the DT
folder on Fayezstone.
4. Copy a Fayezstone-Acees Template and paste, then rename it so that you will have
the
original Fayezstone intact on your system
5. Renamed the copied Fayezstone by using the date , job done, and City where the
measurement was carried out, e.g. 04-27-04 ABUJA_BSC1
6. Open the renamed Access Template
 7. Run combine Macro(to combine the Measurement together on Macro)
8. Go back to DT folder, you will see the combine measurement as Total. Out folder
9. Rename the total folder to txt i.e. total.out total.txt
10. Go back to DT Folder to check the renamed Folder

IMPORTING FILE (MACRO)

1. Click on Import to import the measurement

2. The Input Files are located on the Tables
3. Go to Queries and RUN MUL
4. MUL, will gives you another Table called INPUT MUL
5. Copy the INPUT MUL
6. Select and Paste the Input MUL on the structure only as INPUT 2
7. Right click on Input 2 and select the Design View
8. Make the MUL Field as primary key by clicking on KEY (Key Icon) and then save
9. After saving, then go back to Queries and RUN REMOVE MUL
10. Click on YES
11. Go back to the Tables and rename as follows:
a. Input Input 3
b. Input 2 Input
12. Right click on the Input and select the Design View
13. Then carryout the following changes as stated below:

Should be as followed

FIELD NAME DATA TYPE FIELD SIZE

Latitude Number Double
Longitude Number Double
ARFCN Number Unchanged
Rx Lev (Sub) Number Unchanged
Rx Qual. (Full) Number Unchanged
Rx Qual. (Sub) Number Unchanged

14. Then saved all the Changes.

HOW TO EXPORT THE PROCESS REPORT

1. Right click on Input, and then click on Export

2. Please, Export as Microsoft Excel 5_7 ( *.xls)
3. Select the path to the folder where the measurement was saved
4. Open the MapInfo. Professional 6.5 for the final Processing of the Measurement
5. Click on the open Table, then select the path to the table on your System.
6. Select file type as Microsoft Excel
7. Click on Input Folder (Open the input .xls in Mapinfo)
8. Choose Name Range as OTHER
9. Choose the Information to start from A2
10. Don’t forget to check this box ( Use Row above selected Range for column tittles)
11. Click on OK
12. Click on the Table and select Create Point
13. Choose Symbol as dot (.) and also coordinate as Longitude and Latitude
14. Click on Projection and Choose Projection as Long\Lat [WGS 84]
15. Note that the Category is Long\Lat
16. Click on OK
17. Click on OK again
18. Checked on and close all the files
19. Click on Open
20. Then, Open Input.Tab as Mapinfo (*.tab)
21. Click on Map and select CREATE THEMATIC MAP
22. Don’t forget to save the work as Workspace file

HOW TO CREATE THEMATIC MAP

This Thematic Map should be created only one time, then saved for Multi-Purpose.

1. Click on Map
2. Select create Thematic Map

TYPE FIELD
Level Ranges Rx Level (Full)
Quality Ranges Rx Quality (Full)
Inner Outer Ranges ARFCN
Best Server Individual Cell_ID

3. Select Ranges, Click Next, Select Rx level (full) and click next as well
4. Also, select Ranges and click on Custom (In Method)
5. Select 6 for the Ranges and click on RECAL
6. Inputting the Ranges as below

Minimum Maximum Colour Code

-111 -95 Dark Blue
-95 -87 Light Blue
-87 -80 Yellow
-80 -75 Orange
-75 -70 Red
-70 -20 Brown

7. Click OK to proceed
8. Go to Style to choose the colours of the Ranges
9. Also, go to Legend to choose How to Display and follows the procedure below.
 Title:- Rx Level, Click on the Title Font
Text Colour Yellow
Back Ground Auto
Effects Bold and Underline
FOR IN\OUT:

RANGES: 2

Min. Max. Types Colour Code

1 125 GSM Yellow
500 1000 DCS Brown

FOR Rx QUALITY:

RANGES: 3

Min. Max. Colour Code

0 2 Dark Blue
2 4 Yellow
4 7 Red

5. PERFORMING DT FOR MIGRATION

Drive Test for Migration is carried out to be able to check the performance of the
Network (E.g. Rx Level) after upgrading the software from B6 to B7. The DT after
Migration is also necessary, so as to cross check all the Network Parameters, if they are
still the same before the Migration carried out.
A. Check for sleeping cell (Make Call on each cell)
B. Check for HO (Performing HO on each cell)

6. WHAT IS DROP CALL

Drop call can be defined as a sudden termination of a call while the conversation is
going on against the wish of users (i.e. Caller and Receiver).

CAUSE OF DROP CALL

1. Interference
2. Bad Rx Level
3. Bad Quality