When the D-channel is down BSC try to get it up, each time the D_channel up request fails for

any reason the G: SABME-counter is incremented. During the D_channel up request the
protocol tries four times before reporting the failed.

Example figures;
D-channel rate T200 SABME Tx TOTAL Oct L3-Total
16k 4100 1050 1 500 000 0
64k 6200 1500 2 300 000 0
These were typical approximate values for T200, SABME and tx-total octets counters in case
the D-channel was down for the whole 30min measurement period in Nokia test network.
High load figures in L1 while relative small L3 load indicates link problems. This can be seen
also in high T200 figures.

Summary of unavailability analysis

Symptom Probable cause Required action

Tx_TOTAL_oct>0 Physical connection down Check physical lines and cross

And (at least in one direction) connection settings and nodes.
Rx_TOTAL_oct=0
Tx_TOTAL_oct=0 D-channel down Check if this D-channel is required
And UA-AD any more. Consider if
Rx_TOTAL_oct=0 UA-AD RN-RECOV Recourses to be activated
Resources to be released
T200 > 4000 D-channel down Check if
Blocked by system Any (un)planned work
Blocked by user was/is ongoing.
Any HW faults in the BTS
L3 = 0 D-channel is not up and not Physical connection, D-channel and
able to transfer layer 3 data BTS HW troubleshooting, as
requests or data indications. mentioned above.

Alarm 7705 LAPD TRX D-channel is failed (e.g. Check the correlation with other D-
FAILURE due to break in transmission channels in the same physical BTS
path or BTS HW failure) and/or the same physical
transmission line.

Alarm 7767 The physical transmission Check the failed BTS correlations
BCCH MISSING in connection (partially) lost. with ET and timeslot allocations in
all (or some) further cross-connection equipment.
sectors.

What is causing the load?

The following features/events are known to cause D-channel overload

SMS
 Half Rate
Average Call setup
HO-amount

It is not possible to state precisely what is causing the load just based on the
collected statistics, however, the following rules can be utilized for analysis.

Measurement reports from mobile phones are carried in UI frames and thus high
UL UI frame octet count indicates high measurement load. It shall be noted that
there is some internal loop test messages ongoing causing UI frame activities
even no measurement reports were sent.

D-channel load compared to air interface configuration gives hint of the causes.
Dynamic and half rate air interface time slots causes more signaling than full rate
timeslot. Changes in air interface configuration reflect to D-channels directly. This
shall be taken into an account when considering D-channel capacity extensions.

Other load indicators

If paging load is above 100 000 pages/h (16 kbit/s LAPD link) or above 410 000
pages/h (64 kbit/s LAPD link) it is a sign of overload.

This can be verified from the RESOURCE ACCESS MEASUREMENT

counter 003000 PAGING MESSAGES SENT TO BTS. This BSC counter
tells how many pagings have been sent via one LAPD link (and Location
Area). As paging messages are received on the Abis interface the counter is
increased. Here one message corresponds to one MS to be paged, which
means no packing of several IMSI /TMSI s to the same paging message. In
order to know the paging load over BTSs at the same location area it is
enough to check one BTS per LA. Paging is loading D-channel of the BCCH
TRX.

Immediate_assignment_reject and paging messages are 'labelled' so that

they may be discarded during very high load on the LAPD signaling link to
ensure that normal call signaling proceeds.

Alarm analysis for overload

In high traffic BSCs one should follow the alarm 2720 TELECOM LINK
OVERLOAD for BCSU/CPU general protection or statistics of BCSU/CPU RACH
load protection.

Also the alarm 2133 SEND BUFFER OVERFLOW IN SIGNALLING TERMINAL

indicates that the Abis LAPD interface capacity is overloaded.

Alarm 2720 TELECOM LINK OVERLOAD

 Meaning: The ratio between the number of rejected measurement results
and the number of all measurement results exceeds the acceptable limit set
by the user. The alarm is used to supervise the traffic load of LAPD links and
BCSU units and to detect the possible overload situations.

Alarm 2133 SEND BUFFER OVERFLOW IN SIGNALLING TERMINAL

Meaning: The send buffer on a plug-in unit is full. Messages are deleted until
the situation has been corrected. The situation may be caused by an
overload or a failure in the plug-in unit. The alarm is acknowledged when
there is a certain amount of space in the buffer.

Summary of load analysis

Symptom Probable cause Required action

High values in Timeouts and Rectify the error causes. See below
Tx_TOTAL_oct retransmissions are causing on unavailability analysis table and
and inefficiency of the D-channel quality analysis table below
Rx_TOTAL_oct
counters and low
L3-Total

Tx_TOTAL_oct or Normal increased load Load balancing and D-channel

Rx_TOTAL_oct situation. Provided that the capacity upgrade activities need to
exceeding limit1 load is stable during the be considered.
and at the same period (no ups and downs)
time no more than the signaling messages are
few errors not lost, however, due to the
burstiness some messages
may be lost already.

Tx_TOTAL_oct or Over load situation. High Urgent load balancing and D-

Rx_TOTAL_oct probability that the signaling channel capacity upgrade activities
exceeding limit2 messages are lost. need to be considered.
and at the same
time no more than
few errors

Overload situation High amount of mobile phone Urgent load balancing and D-
and high UL UI measurement messages. channel capacity upgrade activities
frame count need to be considered.

Alarm 2133 Send Messages are deleted due to Check the correlation of the other
buffer overload in overload or HW problem (DL) load indicators and the D-
signaling terminal channel availability.

Alarm 2720 Measurements rejected due Check the correlation of the other
Telecom link to overload or failure in plug- (UL) load indicators.
overload in-unit.
Summary of unavailability analysis

Symptom Probable cause Required action

Tx_TOTAL_oct>0 Physical connection down Check physical lines and cross

And (at least in one direction) connection settings and nodes.
Rx_TOTAL_oct=0
Tx_TOTAL_oct=0 D-channel down Check if this D-channel is required
And UA-AD any more. Consider if
Rx_TOTAL_oct=0 UA-AD RN-RECOV Recourses to be activated
Resources to be released
T200 > 4000 D-channel down Check if
Blocked by system Any (un)planned work
Blocked by user was/is ongoing.
Any HW faults in the BTS
L3 = 0 D-channel is not up and not Physical connection, D-channel and
able to transfer layer 3 data BTS HW troubleshooting, as
requests or data indications. mentioned above.

Alarm 7705 LAPD TRX D-channel is failed (e.g. Check the correlation with other D-
FAILURE due to break in transmission channels in the same physical BTS
path or BTS HW failure) and/or the same physical
transmission line.

Alarm 7767 The physical transmission Check the failed BTS correlations
BCCH MISSING in connection (partially) lost. with ET and timeslot allocations in
all (or some) further cross-connection equipment.
sectors.

Quality analysis

How to find bad physical lines?

Most of Nokia Network elements have physical layer interface statistics available
according the ITU-T G.826 [4] and ITU-T G.828 [5] or earlier corresponding
documents. In quite many cases the physical layer frame (e.g. E1 or T1)
generated by the BSC is terminated before the BTS equipment in the transmission
providers network elements and thus the low figures in the interface statistics does
not necessary prove the BSC to BTS physical layer quality.

To check the BSC to BTS physical layer quality LAPD error statistics can be used.
The useful counters provided by the ZDMI command are

CRC Errors
T200 expiries
Framing errors
Clock signal missing
Delay/RTT
Summary of the quality analysis

Symptom Probable cause Required action

No L1-errors over Good physical transmission No action required, however, in case

the whole connections. of relatively short measurement
measurement period (e.g. 24h only) the long-term
period. quality evaluation is unreliable.

Time to time External phenomena Check the correlation with

increased L1-error affecting the physical
values. transmission path or D-channels and physical
equipment. route of the transmission
path.
Calendar days and time of
the day.
Weather conditions over
the whole transmission
path. (Wind, heavy rain,
extreme/abnormal
temperatures)
Continuously high Bad physical transmission Check the correlation with ET/BTS
L1-error values. connection or equipment Transmission unit error counters. If
failure. those are clean the problem is most
probably deeper in the transmission
path (e.g. behind the first cross-
connection equipment, which is
terminating the E1/T1 frame)

Summary of configuration analysis

Symptom Probable causing Required action

BCCH TRX has High unbalance load within To consider SDCCH channel
SDCCH channel D-channels of the cell. reallocation
as well

BCCH TRX has High unbalance load within In case the cell has also full rate
dual rate and half D-channels of the cell. channels is shall be considered if
rate traffic those could be allocated to BBCH
channels TRX while half- and dual rate are on
other TRX.