Case Study: Call Drop

References:
BSC Traffic Statistic Manual Volume 1
BSS Troubleshooting Manual

Contents:
1. Principle of Call Drop

2. Analysis of Call Drop

3. Call Drop Cases

1.Principle of Call Drop

Definition of Call Drop
TCH Call Drop
SDCCH Call Drop

Definition of Call Drop

There are two types of call drop: TCH call drop and SDCCH
call drop:

TCH call drop means TCH channel is released abnormally

after it is occupied successfully.

SDCCH call drop means SDCCH channel is released

abnormally after it is occupied successfully.

Causes of TCH Call Drop:

Radio interface failure
O&M intervention
Equipment failure
Protocol error
Preemption

Formula of TCH Call Drop Rate

TCH call drop rate=TCH call drops / Successful TCH seizures (all)

Measurement Point of TCH Call Drop

TCH serves as traffic channel, BSC receives ERROR INDICATION message from BTS.

TCH is seized as traffic channel, BSC receives CONNECT FAILURE INDICATION

message from BTS.

In assignment procedure and handover procedure, failure of decoding HANDOVER

DETECTION and HANDOVER COMPLETE message.

TCH serves as traffic channel, incoming BSC handover initiated and the timer for the
target cell to wait for HANDOVER COMPLETE message expires.

TCH serves as traffic channel, outgoing BSC handover initiated and the timer for the
source cell to wait for CLEAR COMMAND message from MSC expires (Timer expires).

In intra-BSC handover procedure, the target cell sends Inter Clear Request to the
source cell when the timer for the target cell to wait for HANDOVER COMPLETE from
MS expires, in this case, this item is measured in the source cell.

Measurement Point of TCH Call Drop

In Intra-BSC handover procedure, the source cell, excluding the source cell for directed
retry, measures the item when the timer for the source cell to wait for Inter Clear
Request with cause value HANDOVER COMPLETE from the target cell expires.

In Intra-BSC handover procedure, when the target cell AM/CM net-drive fails
(due to timeout or negative acknowledgement), the target cell sends Inter Clear
Request to source cell, in this case, this item is measured in the source cell.

In the case that MS reverses to the original channel after intra BSC handover fails, the
source cell first releases the terrestrial connection but the AM/CM re-net-drive fails (due
to timeout or negative acknowledgement). In this case this item is measured in the
source cell.

The resource of the lower_priority call will be preempted by the higher_priority call if
MSC and BSC both supports preemption, which will cause call drop.

This item is measured when the RSL link of the TRX that the call is using disconnects,
which will cause call drop

TCH Call Drop - Assignment

TCH Call Drop Intra-BSC Handover

TCH Call Drop - Incoming BSC Handover

Measurement Point of Successful TCH Seizures

Measurement point of Successful TCH seizures
Upon BSCs reception of CHANNEL ACTIVATION ACKNOWLEDGE
message from BTS in very early assignment TCH process.
In the case the target cell of directed retry is located in other BSC and
directed retry succeeds, MSC sends CLEAR COMMAND message to
the originating BSC to release the original connection. This item is
measured when the originating BSC receives this message.
In the case the directed retry target cell is located in the same BSC
and the directed retry succeeds, target cell sends Inter Clear Request
message to the source cell to request to release the resource and the
original connection. This item is measured when the source cell
receives this message.

Measurement Point of Successful TCH seizures

This item is measured when BSC sends ASSIGNMENT COMPLETE
message to MSC after the assignment procedure is successfully
implemented.
In incoming BSC handover procedure, MS sends HANDOVER
ACCESS message to the BSC. This item is measured when BSC
receives HANDOVER DETECT message from BTS.
In the process of incoming internal inter cell handover and intracell
handover in BSC, MS sends HANDOVER ACCESS message to BSC.
BSC measures this item in the target cell when receiving HANDOVER DETECTION
message from BTS.

Successful TCH Seizure Assignment

Successful TCH Seizure Inter-BSC Handover

SDCCH Call Drop

Formula of SDCCH call drop rate:

SDCCH call drop rate = SDCCH call drops/ successful SDCCH
seizures*100%

Measurement Point of SDCCH Call Drop

This Stats is measured when BSC receives ERROR INDICATION
message from BTS due to an abnormal case for a radio link layer
connection.
This Stats is measured when BSC receives CONNECTION FAILURE
INDICATION message from BTS because an active connection has been
broken for some reason such as SDCCH link failure or hardware failure.

In incoming BSC handover procedure on SDCCH, this stats is measured

in the target cell in the case of the failure of decoding HANDOVER
DETECTION and HANDOVER COMPLETE message.
In the process of incoming BSC handover on SDCCH, this item is
measured in the target cell when the timer for the target cell to wait for the
HANDOVER COMPLETE message expires

Measurement Point of SDCCH Call Drop

In the process outgoing BSC handover on SDCCH, this stats is
measured when the timer for the source cell to wait for CLEAR
COMMAND message from MSC expires (Timer expires).
In the process of intra BSC handover on SDCCH, this stats is
measured in the source cell when the timer for the source cell or
the target cell to wait for HANDOVER COMPLETE message
expires.

This item is measured when the RSL link of the TRX that the call
is running on disconnect, which will cause call drop, this item
measures call drop on SDCCH for RSL disconnection.

Measurement Point of Successful

SDCCH Seizures
In immediate SDCCH assignment procedure, this item is
measured when BSC receives CHANNEL ACTIVATION
ACKNOWLEDGE message from BTS.
In the process of incoming BSC handover on SDCCH. This
item is measured when BSC receives HANDOVER
DETECTION from BTS.
In the process of incoming internal inter cell handover and
intracell handover in BSC.BSC measures this item in the
target cell when receiving HANDOVER DETECTION from BTS

Analysis of Call Drop

Main causes of high call drop rate

Troubleshooting of high call drop rate

Analysis of Call Drop

Analysis of Call Drop

According to the definition of call drop measurement point, call drop is
usually caused by the following:

Radio link fault. During the communication, messages can not be received
correctly.

Abis link broken during conversation.

Call drop during handover.

Other system faults.

Timers that may cause call drops (BSC timer):

T: starting from sending HANDOVER CMD and ending at receiving

HANDOVER CMP. Time out of the timer will cause call drop.

T: starting from sending CHAN REL and ending at receiving REL IND

Radio Link Fault

Timer Times Out

Causes of Radio Link Fault

The causes of radio link fault can be

Interference

Internal interference

External interference

Equipment interference

Poor coverage

Coverage hole

Isolated island

Uplink/downlink imbalance

Causes of Radio Link Fault

Improper parameter setting

Radio link timeout, SACCH multi-frames

Handover parameters

Power control parameters

Equipment problem (Antenna, feeder, combiner, TRX)

Clock problem

Transmission problem

Radio Link Fault - Interference

Co-channel interference
Adjacent-channel interference
Inter-modulation interference and other external interference

Radio Link Fault - Interference

Solution
First check equipment problems.
Make an drive test, check the interference area and distribution
of signal quality. Find the interference frequency.
Further search for the interference source with the spectrum
analyzer.
Activate hopping, DTX and power control functions to lower
the internal interference of the system

Radio Link Fault - Interference

Judgment Process
Analyze the occurrence regularity of interference band in the
traffic measurement.
Observe the receiving level performance
Find the poor quality handover rate
Observe receiving quality performance
Observe call drop performance
Observe whether there are many handover failures and reversion
failures.

Radio Link Fault - Coverage

Coverage:
Overshooting
Coverage hole
Signal attenuation
Incomplete definition of adjacent cells
Imbalance of uplink/downlink

Radio Link Fault - Coverage

Judgment Process
Power control measurement function
Receiving level measurement function
Cell measurement function/inter-cell handover measurement function
Call drop measurement function
Defined adjacent cell measurement function
Undefined adjacent cell measurement function
Outgoing inter-cell handover measurement function
Up-down link balance measurement function

Radio Link Fault Coverage

Solution
Adjust network parameters
Add BTS

Radio Link Fault - Parameters

Main parameters that may affect the call drop rate:
Radio link timeout and SACCH multi-frames
RACH busy threshold and RACH minimum access level.
MS minimum receiving signal level
Call re-establishment permitted.

Radio Link Fault - Parameters

Main parameters that may affect the call drop rate:
NCC permitted
Handover related parameters.
Power control related parameters.
Frequency planning parameters

Radio Link Fault

Judgment process
System information data
Cell data
Radio link connection timer
Maximum times of physical information
Call drop performance measurement function
Judge from the cause of call drop
error indication
connection failure.

Judgment

process :

In inter-cell handover measurement function, it occurs

frequently that the handover fails and the reversion also fails.
In inter-cell handover measurement function, handover failures
with successful reversions occur many times.\
In undefined adjacent cell measurement function, observe the
receiving level of the undefined adjacent cells and number of
the measurement reports.

Handover Problem
Judgment process
In outgoing inter-cell handover measurement function, the
outgoing inter-cell handover success rate is low (for a certain
cell). Find the adjacent cell to which the handover success rate
is low and find the cause.
Incoming inter-cell handover success rate is low. The handover
judgment parameter setting of the target cell may be improper.
In TCH measurement function, handover times are not in
normal proportion to successful TCH seizures for call.

Equipment Problem
Call drop arising from equipment problem
Hardware problem
Transmission problem
Antenna and feeder fault
Other causes

Call Drop Case 1

Analysis
From the analysis of BTS topology, it can be concluded that
the frequencies are well planned.

Next, check the interference band of traffic statistic

Call Drop Case 1

Call Drop Case 1

Troubleshooting
Conducting a drive tests, it is found that the quality is bad when
the receiving strength is high.
Check traffic statistic and it is found that when the call drop
rate is high, handovers are mostly caused by quality reasons,
and channel assignment failure rate is also high.
The conclusion is that there is interference from the analysis of
comprehensive traffic statistic and drive test.

Call Drop Case 1

Troubleshooting
A site investigation shows that the operator has a repeater. It
is a broadband repeater. It transmits the signals from a
remote TACS site. TACS signals are amplified and then there
is interference in second sector of base station C.
Problem has been located: interference causes the call drop.

Finally, lower the power of the repeater. The interference

band reduce to IB1. Now the high call drop rate problem at
site C is solved.

Common methods of checking and clearing call drop due to

interference

Rule out the internal interference caused by equipment problems and check
the separation of BTS transceivers, antenna feeder installation, and so on.

Check the interference band

Drive test

Check traffic statistic of handover causes to get judgment

Common methods of checking and clearing call drop due to interference

Clear uplink interference

Clear downlink interference

Check whether DTX, frequency hopping technology and power control

application are reasonable

Use PBGT handover algorithm flexibly to avoid co-channel and adjacentchannel interference effectively

Call Drop Case 2

Fault description
The call drop rate in cell 3 of a BTS is 10% accompanied with
high congestion rate, but call drop rate and congestion rate in
cell 1 and cell 2 are normal

Call Drop Case 2

Analysis
Check the related traffic statistic
Check whether there is high interference band in TCH measurement
function.
Check the situation of call drop in call drop measurement function.
Check whether handover of the cell is normal.
Check whether there is interference through checking frequency
planning, moreover confirm whether there is external interference with
spectrum analyzer.
Drive test
Check the hardware

Troubleshooting
Block TRX in turn and the congestion rate is always quite high no
matter which TRX is blocked.
Check and analyze the traffic statistic, interference band and traffic
volume and call drop rate, and it is found that the interference
becomes more serious as the traffic gets high.
Change frequency. The frequency of cell 3 is changed to 1MHz away
from the original value. But the problem persists.
Judge whether the equipment is faulty.
Locate external interference.

Call Drop Case 2

Conclusion: solution of interference
Solve internal interference through checking frequency
planning.
After internal interference is excluded, we can locate external
interference with spectrum analyzer.

Call Drop Case 3

Fault description
Subscribers complain that call drops often happen from on the
5th floor and above in a building.

Call Drop Case 3

Analysis
Perform on-site test
There are call drops and noise on the site
The test mobile phone shows that before the call drop the serving
cell is BTS-B. But this building should be covered by BTS-A.
Check traffic statistic
BTS-B is about 9 kilometers away from this building. It is
determined that the BTS-B signal received in this area is coming from
some obstacles reflection. Thus an isolated island coverage is formed in this area.

Call Drop Case 3

Analysis
Check data configuration
In BSC data configuration, BTS-A is not configured as the adjacency of
BTS-B
Cause analysis of call drop
When the MS uses the signal of cell 2 of BTS-B in this area, the signal of
cell 3 of BTS-A is strong. But cell 2 of BTS-B and cell 3 of BTS-A are not
adjacent, therefore, handover cannot happen.
The signal in cell 2 of BTS-B is the result of multiple reflections. When the
signal of BTS-B received by the mobile phone gets weak suddenly, an
emergency handover is needed. But there is no adjacent cell of BTS-B, so
call drops will occur.

Call Drop Case 3

Troubleshooting
Modify the data in BA1 table, BA2 table and add adjacent cell
relationship, set cell 3 of BTS-A as an adjacent cell of cell 2 of
BTS-B.
Optimize the network parameters to eliminate the isolated island.
The test results show that the call drop problem is solved.

Drop Case 3
Conclusion two methods to solve isolated island problem

Adjust the antenna of the isolated cell, to eliminate the isolated

island problem.

Define new adjacent cells for the isolated cell.

Call Drop Case 4

Fault description

In a drive test from A to B, it is found that there are many call

drops at entrance of a tunnel near a BTS due to slow handover.

Call Drop Case 4

Analysis
The tunnel is near the BTS. When the MS enters the tunnel, the
power of the target cell is -80dBm. But the signal of source cell goes
down quickly to less than -100dBm. Before the MS enters the tunnel,
the downlink power of the two cells is good and no handover is
triggered. When the MS enters the tunnel, the level of the source cell
goes down rapidly. The call drop occurs before any handover is
triggered.

Fault description
In the dial test, many call drops are found in cell 2.
Analysis
Check the traffic statistic and find out that TCH congestion rate
of this cell is over 10% and internal inter-cell handover failure
rate is high. It is found that one TRX board of this cell is
abnormal in OMC. A preliminary conclusion is that TRX board
problem causes the call drop.

Call Drop Case 5

Troubleshooting
Lock the frequency with a test mobile phone and perform dial
test for many times. It is found that call drops only happen in
timeslots 1, 3, 5, 7 while communications in timeslots 2, 4, 6, 8
are normal.
Move this board to another slot, and the problem still exists.
Move another good board to this slot, and the communication
is normal.
Move this defective board to other cabinet, the problem arises.
When it is replaced, the communication is recovered.

Call Drop Case 5

Conclusion
The BTS test should guarantee that communication should be
successful not only in each TRX but also in each timeslot of
the TRX.

It must be ensured that each TCH channel provides

bidirectional high quality communication.

Summary
Types of call drop
Measurement points of TCH call drop
Measurement points of SDCCH call drop
Causes of call drop
Cases

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