SDCCH Congestion Analysis:

Hardware:
SDCCH Availability Rate=100*(C900060122/(C900060122+C900060123))
Average number of available SDCCH
Average number of unavailable SDCCH
-Traffic load:
SDCCH Traffic= C900060124/3600
SDCCH busy time
TCH Congestion
causes the high SDCCH usage:
Check Call Setups:
Check amount of SMS. Check and verify with Core engineers SMS Center parameterization.
Number of SMS on SDCCH UL=C901150016
Number of SMS on SDCCH DL=C901150017
Number of SMS on TCH UL=(C901150018+C901150020)
Number of SMS on TCH DL=(C901150019+C901150021)
Check LAU/RAU requests:
-Site position: LAC redesign and CRH
-Feature: SDCCH dynamic ,immediate assignment on TCH
- Data Configuration: T3212, RXLEV_ACCESS_MIN, MAX Retrans, power balance
- Interference on the Um interface:
C901230055:Mean number of idle SDCCHs with interference band 0
C901230056:Mean number of idle SDCCHs with interference band 1
C901230057:Mean number of idle SDCCHs with interference band 2
C901230058:Mean number of idle SDCCHs with interference band 3
C901230059:Mean number of idle SDCCHs with interference band 4
C901230060:Mean number of idle SDCCHs with interference band 5
-Increase the number of SDCCH:
grade of service 2% TCH 0.5% SDCCH, Daily average for SDCCH cong for month

Accessibility Optimization:

SDCCH Congestion
• Causes
SDCCH availability, high number of location updates, high level of short message service (SMS)
traffic, high number of call set-up bids
• Action
– Check historical statistics of SDCCH availability. In some systems, time slots may go into sleep
mode. Historical data can show if certain time slots are constantly idle. If this occurs over a long
period of time and especially during the busy hour (BH), a base transceiver station (BTS) restart and
retest validation may be required.
– Check for high number of location updates, call set-ups, and SMS traffic. Increasing the cell
reselect hysteresis (CRH) will delay GPRS reselection. It might be wise to expand SDCCH
resources, if possible. This can be done at the expense of one TCH, which can be converted to eight
SDCCHs. It is advisable to aim for no SDCCH congestion at all times.

TCH Congestion
• Causes
TCH availability, missing neighbors, missing assignments in neighbor list, traffic distribution
• Action
– Check TCH availability. TCH time slots may go into sleep mode. Real-time data can show if certain
time slots are constantly idle. If this occurs over a long period of time and especially during the BH, a
BTS restart and retest validation may be required.

– Check for cell mean holding time (MHT) and compare it with that of the surrounding cells in the
area. Greater MHT may be due to missing or incorrect neighbor cell definitions. Check the radio plan
for missing neighbor cell assignments.
– Use traffic management (load shedding) techniques that force traffic originating near the cell
border to the surrounding cells. This can be achieved with optimum use of capacity-efficient features
such as directed retry, cell load-sharing (traffic reason handover or changing the handover
hysteresis parameters), and handover
offset between two neighbor cells.
– In a hierarchical cell structure, distribute traffic to lower or higher cell levels as required, using layer
threshold and layer threshold hysteresis.
– Redistribute traffic among cells within the same layer, using early handover from a congested cell
to another cell. This can be accomplished by adjusting handover hysteresis and handover offset.
Note: The traffic distribution actions mentioned above will improve GPRS performance. They will
reduce TBF multiplexing and the number of PS immediate assignment rejections and will also
increase GPRS throughput.

Retainability and Quality Optimization

Deterioration of Performance with Sudden Increase in the Number of TCH Drops
• Causes
Hardware problem, handover problem
• Action
– Check historical statistics of TCH availability. Check if there are any alarms on the cell or the
transceiver or any of the TCH time slots.
– Check historical handover performance for the cell. If some external neighbor cells (belonging to a
different BSC or mobile switching center MSC) show no successful hand-overs, but only attempts,
missing or incorrect handover definitions on the parent BSC or MSC could be the reason.
– Check whether any neighbor cells have been deleted or whether any are not on the air. If any
neighbor cells are not on the air, the serving cell may suffer TCH congestion and show increased
MHT. There will be an increase of immediate PS assignment rejections, TBF multiplexing, and
reduction of GPRS throughput.

TCH Drops due to Downlink Signal Quality

• Causes
Downlink interference, coverage
• Action
– Identify cell pairs that have a high number of handover attempts with reasonable downlink (DL)
quality. This will help to identify the approximate area where mobiles experience DL interference.
Check how and
where the serving cell frequencies are reused to identify the interfering frequencies and plan a
frequency change. This is valid for base-band frequency hopping systems. For synthesizer hopping
systems, change the

hopping sequence number (HSN). If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, there will be high
value for block error rate (BLR) and poor throughput.
– When statistics show that drops are due to downlink quality, the drops may be due to poor
coverage. This is more common in hierarchical cell structures where traffic is forced down to lower
layers using aggressive layer thresholds of –90 dBm or lower. Change the layer threshold to initiate
earlier handovers to higher layers. Also modify the imperative (urgent) handover parameters to
initiate earlier urgent handovers to higher layers due to bad quality. For cells on the same layer, use
hysteresis and hysteresis offset to initiate early handover and modify the imperative handover
parameters to also initiate earlier handover due to bad quality.

TCH Drops due to Uplink Signal Quality

• Causes
Uplink interference, antenna feeder system, coverage
• Action
– Use cell traffic recording (CTR) and check the uplink quality for certain timing advance (TA) values.
Check the frequency plan to see what frequencies are used in these areas and schedule a
frequency retune.
– If the cell serves with a high TA value, make the cell less attractive in idle mode, using cell reselect
offset (CRO).

– There could be a problem in the antenna or feeder systems. Investigate for any alarms on the site.
Initiate damage assessment on coaxial and antenna systems.
– Consider increasing antenna downtilt to reduce the service area of the cell. This can be done if
there is coverage overlap so that a coverage hole is not created.

TCH Drops due to Both Links (BL) Signal Strength

and due to Sudden Loss
• Causes
Coverage, hardware faults
• Action
– This type of problem occurs in areas where a cell serves a tube or tunnel. To confirm this, run CTR
for this cell. Check the CTR file for both uplink and downlink signal strength. If any cell is a better
server than this cell, then initiate early handover using hysteresis and hysteresis offset.
– In hierarchical cell structures, if the affected cell is in a lower layer and if a cell from a higher layer
is stronger in CTR, make early handover to the higher layer using layer threshold.
– In a duplexed transmit/receive situation, a problem could exist in the antenna or feeder systems.
Investigate for any alarms on the site. Check the antenna feeder system.

TCH Drops due to Uplink Signal Strength

• Causes
Coverage, hardware faults
• Action
– Check for any missing neighbor cell relations or to see if any defined neighbors are out of service.
Mobiles traveling in certain directions will run out of coverage and drop out.
– Run CTR for the affected cell and check TA values. If TA values are high, restrict the coverage by
making the cell less attractive in dedicated mode with CRO and in idle mode by initiating early
handover with hysteresis and hysteresis offset.

– Consider installing a tower-mounted amplifier (TMA) to boost the uplink and see if there is room for
a TMA installation in the tower.
– Check downtilt and calculate if the existing downtilt is correct for the intended coverage area.
Increase downtilt if necessary.

– There could be a problem in the antenna or feeder systems. Investigate for any alarms on the site.
Check the feeder and antenna systems for proper operation.
Handover Performance Optimization
Handover due to Degraded Signal Quality
• Causes
Downlink interference, uplink interference, coverage, antenna feeder system
• Action
– Identify cell pairs that have a high number of handover attempts due to degraded signal quality.
Check to see how and where the serving cell frequencies are reused to identify the interfering
frequencies and plan
a frequency change. This is valid for baseband frequency hopping systems. For synthesizer hopping
systems, change the HSN.
– When statistics show that drops are due to downlink quality, the drops may be due to poor
coverage. In such cases, check the layer and layer threshold for the cell. Changing layer threshold
will help when the cells are on different hierarchical layers. If the cells are on the same layer, change
the value of hysteresis and hysteresis offset to initiate earlier handover.

– Run CTR for the affected cell and check TA values. If TA values are high, restrict the coverage by
making the cell less attractive in dedicated mode with CRO and in idle mode by initiating early
handover with hysteresis and hysteresis offset.
– There could be a problem in the antenna or feeder systems. Investigate for any alarms on the site.
Check the feeder system.

Handover Attempts but no Successful Handover Assignments

• Causes
Co-base station identity code/broadcast control channel (co-BSIC/BCCH) planning error, missing
neighbor definition on the BSC and/or MSC
• Action
– Co-BSIC/BCCH planning errors occur when a cell has two neighbors with the same BSIC and the
same BCCH. Mobiles report measurements of the surrounding cells with their BSICs and BCCHs;
the BSC uses this combination to identify the cell identification (CI) of these cells and might direct
the handover to the wrong cell. This can result in many dropped calls in the area. This can be
identified from many handover attempts with no successful assignments. Change the BSIC of one of
the neighbor cells.
– Check handover performance if there are attempts but no successful assignments for some
external neighbor definitions (neighbors on a different BSC and/or MSC). This is due to incorrectly
defined external
cells, i.e., the external neighbor cell has been incorrectly defined as a neighbor to the serving cell’s
BSC with either wrong location area code (LAC) or BSIC or BCCH.