RF Tuning by Measurements

Jari Ryynanen, Head of Product Management

Anite Wireless Trading (Beijing) LTD. Beijing, Feb 2010

Presentation / Author / Date

Document Info
Title Reference Guideline: RAN Tuning Shanghai Unicom, China

Target Group
Technology Software Release Service Service Item

NPO WCDMA
WCDMA

Radio Network Optimization RAN Tuning

Author Email

Jari Ryynanen Jari.ryynanen@anite.com

Version
Version Date

Ver. 2.0
1 Feb 2010

Presentation / Author / Date

Document Control
Version
1.0 20 Aug 2009

Date
Jari Ryynanen

Edited by

Section
RAN tuning all

Comment
First version

2.0

1 Feb 2010

Jari Ryynanen

Only air measurements

Second version

Copyright

Presentation / Author / Date

Contents
Objectives Scope of Work RAN Tuning
o RAN Tuning Lifecycle o List of Activities o Analysis of Activities

Appendix
o Change Request

Presentation / Author / Date

Objectives

The objective of RAN Tuning is to perform network and service performance analysis that lead to tuning activities both physical and radio parameters. This service module involves activity of performance data collection, performance evaluation, parameter audit and parameter or physical changes.

Parameter & Configuration Audit

Performance Problem Identification

Performance Analysis

Tuning Activities
Presentation / Author / Date

Contents
Objectives Scope of Work RAN Tuning
o RAN Tuning Lifecycle o List of Activities o Analysis of Activities

Appendix
o Change Request

Presentation / Author / Date

Scope of Work
Scope of RAN Tuning will follow below working items:

1. Performance Problem Identification, refer to KPI Definition and Performance 2. 3. 4.

Evaluation result from Drive test and OSS performance data, like Health Check data (input). Radio Parameter Audit, refer to Parameter Assessment result (input, only if required) Performance Analysis (input) Parameter/Physical Tuning to implement the changes (output)

Presentation / Author / Date

Contents
Objectives Scope of Work RAN Tuning
o RAN Tuning Lifecycle o List of Activities o Analysis of Activities

Appendix
o Change Request

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
RAN Tuning Lifecycle General lifecycle of RAN tuning is started from performance problem identification (input), the analysis (main activity), tuning/change (output), and performance verification (follow up).

Performance Problem Identification

Performance Data Analysis (OSS, DT, etc)

Parameter Audit, if required

Performance Monitoring & Evaluation

Changes Execution

Change Request

Presentation / Author / Date

Contents
Objectives Scope of Work RAN Tuning
o RAN Tuning Lifecycle o List of Activities o Analysis of Activities

Appendix
o Change Request

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
List of Activities, Background

The basic methodology going to be used for performance analysis will follow the previously defined scope of work, i.e. performance problem identification, performance analysis, and parameter tuning.

Since the analysis itself might be actualized into a lot of type of activities depending on the faced problem, for simplification purposes this document will cover only limited analysis activity and will directly be incorporated into troubleshooting samples.
Thus, meaning of guideline for RAN tuning will not always cover all activities in ordered manner, i.e. flexibly chosen for each faced troubleshooting requirement.

Another document, called KPI Pible, covers KPI based optimisation activities, where as this document is meant for problem based analysis.

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RAN Tuning
List of Activities
Item
0 General Consistency Check

RAN Tuning Activity

NPO Engineer

Responsible

Network Health Check

NPO Engineer

Coverage & Quality Review

NPO Engineer

Scrambling Code Review

NPO Engineer

Missing Neighbor Identification

NPO Engineer

Pilot Pollution Analysis

NPO Engineer

Downlink Interference Analysis

NPO Engineer

Uplink Interference Analysis

NPO Engineer

Imbalance Pilot Coverage Analysis

NPO Engineer

Swapped Feeders Analysis

NPO Engineer

10

AAL2 Configuration Problem

NPO Engineer

11

Sleeping Cell Problem

NPO Engineer

12

Admission Reject Problem

NPO Engineer

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RAN Tuning List of Activities

Item
13 Cell Reselection Failure

RAN Tuning Activity

NPO Engineer

Responsible

14

RRC Establishment Failure

NPO Engineer

15

RAB Establishment Failure

NPO Engineer

16

Blocked Call Analysis

NPO Engineer

17

Dropped Call Analysis

NPO Engineer

18

IRAT Analysis

NPO Engineer

19

Low Data Throughput Analysis

NPO Engineer

Presentation / Author / Date

Contents
Objectives Scope of Work RAN Tuning
o RAN Tuning Lifecycle o List of Activities o Analysis of Activities

Appendix
o Change Request

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
General Consistency Check

Objective

Item 0

Basic step to find any discrepancy on parameter or configuration data that causes a performance problem. This action has to be performed before actual RAN tuning is started. However, parameter consistency check needs to be performed multiple times during RAN tuning process.

Methodology

Compare the actual radio parameters against Default Parameter Design. Check any recent parameter, SW or HW upgrades in the NW Parameter consistency check (for those parameters which cannot be defined as Default,
e.g. SC)

Please see next diagram.

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RAN Tuning
Coverage and Quality Review

Objective

Item 2

To verify actual (pilot) coverage of cell(s) on particular area against Design Criteria or KPI.

Methodology

Plotting strongest cells RSCP and Ec/No using scanner and/or UEs log data taken from
field test measurement. Using Batrana to see Cell Availability. Using Netact Optimizer to find out coverage holes and potential interference.

When it is found that those metrics on particular area/route under test are below the
target, then it would be stated that coverage and/or quality problem exists.

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RAN Tuning
Coverage and Quality Review, Serving System

Only 1 area, were ISHO WCDMA->GSM->WCDMA is performed Later findings show that it is caused by a blocked site

RAN Tuning
Coverage and Quality Review
Area of bad coverage (RSCP), plotted on a map

Item 2

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RAN Tuning
Coverage and Quality Review, RSCP

Get an overall picture of coverage by plotting RSCP and Ec/No on a map Here, only a couple of areas with low coverage (RSCP) Explanations in later slides

Site Down, Slide xx Site Down, Slide xx Lack of dominance, Slide xx

RAN Tuning
Coverage and Quality Review, Ec/No

Many areas with low Ec/No, but for very basic reasons

Low coverage

Site down, Missing NB, Slide xx Strange coverage, Slide xx Mobile in idle

1-way NB definition, Slide xx

Site Down, Slide xx

Site Down, Slide xx

RAN Tuning
Coverage and Quality Review

Item 2

Methodology continues Nemo Analyze can show average RSCP and EcNo per each best active set SC over drive test log file. Low coverage cells can be easily pinpointed.

RAN Tuning
Coverage and Quality Review

Item 2

Methodology continues Nemo Analyze can show RSCP versus EcNo distribution It can be used to analyse the size of bad coverage or pilot polluted areas

Pilot pollution samples

Bad coverage samples

RAN Tuning
Coverage and Quality Review, Solution

Analysis

Item 2

Site down (Cell availability) No site in the test area Missing neighbor relationship Incorrect antenna implementation

Not good antenna position and configuration

High Loss in feeder or loose or bad connection

Solution

Check the hardware in the case of cell down (alarms, reason for blocked state, visual
check)

Recommend new site if possible Neighbor optimization Recommend new antenna configuration e.g. tilt, azimuth, height Change bigger feeder, fix feeder or use Remote Radio Head

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
Scrambling Code Review

Objective

Item 3

Aim of the scrambling code review is to ensure that all cells have been on service with the correct scrambling codes according to the radio network design.

Methodology

Review/verification can be done by importing the drive test mobile or scanner log files to
Nemo Analyze and open with the BTS file.

Display RSCP or Ec/No of a particular SC used by UE or scanner. If the result shows wrong scrambling code area related to the plan, the problem may be
either swapped feeders (Item 9) or wrong scrambling code implementation in the network.

Also a Co-Scrambling Code assignment should be checked. This can be done

automatically by selecting Scrambling code clash analysis from parameter tree of Nemo Analyze, by using Batranas automatic SC analysis feature, or by using Netact Optimiser.

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RAN Tuning
Scrambling Code Review

Analysis

Item 3

The analysis shall be rectified to Faulty scrambling code implementation compared to the design plan. Swapped feeder implementation, see Item 9.

Solution

The solution is to compare the current SC configuration against the planned. Also
check the feeder implementation. Run co-SC analysis.

neighbour neighbour neighbour

macro
inbldg

macro
inbldg

SC = 14

ActiveSet

SC = 14

Example of the co-scrambling code problem during soft handover.

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RAN Tuning
Scrambling Code Review, Nemo Analyze
Outdoor log files, mobile or scanner
Plot the Best Server SC Check and report if some cells are not on-service during the test Verify the SC is correct, compare between Outdoor log file and planning database Verify co-SC problem

Item 3

Nemo Analyze

BTS file

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RAN Tuning
Scrambling Code Review, Nemo Analyze

Item 3

Displays Ec/No of a particular cell (SC 416) to verify how far particular cells coverage is propagated.
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RAN Tuning
Scrambling Code Review, Nemo Analyze

Item 3

Analyze can color the drive test route by serving SC. Sectors can be colored by the same color. SCs 335 and 186 provide no coverage. Cells are probably blocked, sleeping or wrong SCs are assigned to the cells.

RAN Tuning
Scrambling Code Review, Nemo Analyze

Item 3

Co-Scrambling Code assignment can be identified automatically by using Analyze. Select a log file for analysis, select Scrambling code clash analysis from parameter tree.

RAN Tuning
Missing Neighbor Identification

Objective

Item 4

Aim of the missing neighbor identification is to find Missing Neighbour events and try to analyze the missing neighbor relations, thus as the output we are able to redefine the neighbor data.

Methodology A) Enable the function of Missing Neighbor Detection in Nemo Outdoor

Scanner measurements are compared to the neighbour list retrieved from mobile,
missing neighbours are detected.

Filters can be set to remove less important neighbour relations: If missing relation is within a certain dB window of the strongest cell If missing relation lasts for a certain time

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
Missing Neighbor, Outdoor
Using Nemo Outdoor with
scanner and mobile to detect missing neighbour definitions

Item 4

3G-3G and 3G-2G missing

neighbours can be detected

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RAN Tuning
Missing Neighbor Identification, Analyze

Item 4

Analysis continues ..

Based on Nemo Outdoor Missing Neighbour Detection measurement, missing neighbours

can be shown in Nemo Analyze in table format

UMTS to UMTS and UMTS to GSM missing neighbours can be shown together with the
distance to missing neighbour

Solution

Create new relation for those validated Missing Neighbors. In case the cause of missing neighbor is overshooting, then tilt the antenna on
overshooting cell. Check also if some sites are down causing missing NB alarm.
Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
Missing Neighbor Identification, Analyze

Item 4

Analysis continue .. Double-clicking the line in earlier table, drill-down to a map view can be done to see where the missing NB situation actually happened

RAN Tuning
Missing Neighbor Identification, Detected Set Reporting

Analysis continue ..

Item 4

Detected set reporting and Measurements feature activated in network UE reports also cells not included in the neighbour cell list (valid only for intra
frequency neighbours)

A special RAN feature enables the addition of the detected set cells to the active set
(SHO)

By using the above mentioned features, normal mobiles when making calls in the
network, will automatically report the missing neighbour information. That data can be saved in OMC.

Solution

Missing neighbours can be detected from drive test data

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
Missing Neighbor Identification, Nemo Outdoor

Item 4

After Detected set measurement feature has been activated in the network, mobiles start to measure and report detected set cells Ec/No and RSCP of active, monitored and detected cells can be shown in line graph. If signal level or quality of detected set cell is much stronger than that of serving cell, there is a potential case of missing neighbour.

Ec/No of Detected set cell

RAN Tuning
Missing Neighbor Identification, Analyze

Item 4

Analysis continues ..

Based on RAN 1191 feature: Detected Set Measurement, missing neighbours can be
shown in Nemo Analyze in table format

Optimization toolkit option needed

Solution

Create new relation for those validated Missing Neighbors. In case the cause of missing neighbor is overshooting, then tilt the antenna on
overshooting cell.

Presentation / Author / Date

Missing Neighbour/ Site Down, Case 1

Sector 306 is down (or antenna is pointing to the sky), causing low Ec/No to
the area SC 299 has strong Ec/No based on scanner, but it is not defined as a neighbour. Possibly, it is in SC 306s neighbour list, but because sector is down (not seen by mobile), it is never added to the mobiles NB list. ISHO to GSM is performed.

Missing Neighbour, Case 2

SC143 missing from SC81s neighbour list. 1st tier NB. SC 143 is seen by a scanner as strong NB canditate, causing interference for about 3s time when SC 81 is serving

Scanner measurement

Missing Neighbour, Case 3

SC274 is missing neighbour from SC386. When combined NB list with SC386 and SC367 is used, SC274 is dropped out of NB list

Area, where SC274 is causing interference

Missing Neighbour, Case 4

SC3 missing NB from SC29 NB list 2 road sites, their signal levels are still high far away from the sites

Missing Neighbour, Case 5

SC342 is providing coverage to side slope quite far There is no neighbor relationship from SC342 to SC268, but from 268 to 342 there is one

When moving to SC268 coverage area, the call will drop

Solution: change 1-way NB relationship to 2-way NB relationship
Cell coverage areas Situation after call drop

Missing Neighbour / Blocked Cells, Case 6

Site (CID 31921-31923) is down causing low coverage Bad Ec/No in the area causing call drop 51 wrong missing neighbour alarms, which are caused by 1 blocked site

Missing Neighbour / Indoor Leaking Outside, Case 7

Many indoor sites which are leaking outdoors causing interference to Macro sites, since indoor sites not defined as neighbors. Could use 2nd carrier for indoor, reduce pilot power, use attenuator, or redesing indoor antenna positions

Missing Neighbour / Examples of Overshooting Cells, Case 8

Some cells are overshooting an can be seen from far away, e.g. 4.6 km far They generate some interference, therefor you may need to follow carefully: The level of interference caused The time interference caused

The interfering cells ID

If some of above conditions is met, you may need to consider to down tilt the interfering cell

RAN Tuning
Pilot Pollution Analysis

Objective

Item 5

Aim is to identify Pilot Pollution area and its contributor. Pilot pollution definition is the detection of many high power pilots as compared to Best Serving Pilot that do not contribute positively to the received signal.

Methodology

The concept is to find from drive test log files data (Ec/No, RSCP, number of pilots) the
number of pilots outside Active Set cells, where Ec/No of the serving cell drops below a threshold but RSCP remains above a threshold.

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RAN Tuning
Pilot Pollution Analysis

Item 5

Pilot Pollution Situation.

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RAN Tuning
Pilot Pollution Analysis

Item 5

Displays areas with 4 or more pilots within a set dB of the strongest cell by using Nemo Analyze (Ec/No below threshold, strong RSCP)
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RAN Tuning
Pilot Pollution Analysis, Feature Request

Methodology continue

Item 5

Using xx tool, displays and ranks cells which have caused the most pollution and those which have suffered the most pollution.

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RAN Tuning
Pilot Pollution Analysis

Analysis

Item 5

Find the possible problem cause: Not suitable antenna tilting angle, antenna pattern or azimuth? Not suitable antenna location at the site? Blocked cells -> lack of dominance Too high CPICH power (outdoor-outdoor, indoor-outdoor, 40W amplifier) River, lake or sea area, overshooting or lack of dominance

Solution

Tilt the antenna mechanically or electrically to reduce the coverage of polluter. Antenna type change. Antenna azimuth change. Antenna positioning change. Find reason for blocked cell, unblock. Reduce CPICH power of polluting cell or use attenuator.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
Pilot Pollution Analysis

Many areas with high pilot pollution

Following slides show reason for one of the cases

Pilot Pollution, Case 1

Serious pilot pollution along the road for a long time Upto 8 cells having almost equal signal levels See next slide

Pilot Pollution, Case 1

Basically, coverage is low in the area, many cells are serving the area about at the equal levels Solution: a new site should be added, or try to tune some of the existing cells to serve the area better

RAN Tuning
Downlink Interference Analysis

Objective

Item 6

Aim is to identify a particular area with high interference (DL path). This case is very similar to Pilot pollution case. Interference cause (cell) is not in neighbour list.

Methodology

The observed symptoms that can be derived from drive test are:

Received Ec/No of the pilot channel is less than -16dB and,

Received RSCP of the pilot channel is high enough to maintain the connection, e.g. > -100dBm and, DL RSSI is very high and, The connection finally drops.

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RAN Tuning
Downlink Interference Analysis

Analysis

Item 6

One of the analysis methods is to identify an undesired cell with very high signal
strength in the problem area.

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RAN Tuning
Downlink Interference Analysis

Solution-1

Item 6

The simplest solution to overcome this problem is to include the overshooting cell into
the neighboring cell list. This means, the interferer becomes a useful radio link.

The drawbacks of this solution are:

It creates more unnecessary handovers and excessive number of UEs are in soft handover. If the overshooting cell is physically far way to the problem area, the handover sequence might be messed up after including it into the neighboring cell list. Additional radio link will consume hardware resources in both interferer and interfered cell, including possibility of cell blocking.

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RAN Tuning
Downlink Interference Analysis

Solution-2

Item 6

An alternative solution is to change the antenna configuration of the overshooting cell,

e.g. tilting down the antenna, re-directing the antenna orientation, or reducing the antenna height.

The drawback of this solution is that a coverage hole might occur, and neighboring
cells of the interferer need to cover larger area than maybe planned

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RAN Tuning

Item 6

Downlink Interference Analysis

Solution-3

The third possible solution is to decrease the power of Primary CPICH of the overshooting
cell.

After decreasing the pilot power, the total downlink power for the common channels of the
interferer decreases.

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RAN Tuning

Item 6

Downlink Interference Analysis

Solution-3

The drawbacks of this solution are: Normally, it is not a long term solution. This solution is not suitable for a capacity limited interferer. The uplink is not optimized due to uneven pilot power setting. Reducing the pilot power, the downlink channel estimation in the UE is affected. This
influences the downlink quality. In the end, the UE might request more power from base stations.

When the pilot power is reduced, the maximum allowed DL DCH power decreases
simultaneously because this parameter setting is relative to the pilot power value.

The desired coverage of the interferer is modified. Coverage holes might occur.
Verification of the coverage should be done again.

Neighboring cells of the interferer will cover a larger area and will thus absorb additional
UEs -> higher need of capacity

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
Uplink Interference Analysis

Objective Aim is to identify particular area with high interference (UL path). Methodology

Item 7

Uplink interference leads to dropped calls. This can be monitored either by the initial
tuning drive test or by collecting the RNC counters.

Nemo Outdoor can show uplink interference during/after the call. Nemo Analyze can be
used for uplink interference analysis after the call.

After the call drop, checking the System Information Block 7 can verify the uplink
interference level. Nemo Outdoor and Analyse have a ready parameter for UL interference.

The RNC counter Average Prx Total - RNC_101b can interpreted as the uplink
interference load of the base station.

By using Online Monitoring feature, uplink interference of a cell can be monitored in a

real time (and downlink TX power).

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RAN Tuning
Uplink Interference Analysis

Methodology

Item 7

Uplink Interference display on Nemo Analyzes predefined workbook

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RAN Tuning
Uplink Interference Analysis

Analysis

Item 7

Find the possible problem cause: Wrong BTS commissioning parameters (MHA, cable loss) Antenna cable or other HW problem External interference Too far from the site? The UE which is far from the site have to transmit higher power,
causing higher interference in uplink part to the network.

Too many users in compressed mode? Uneven pilot power setting? This can cause the UE serve with the higher pathloss cell,
which cause the UE use higher transmitted power.

Solution

Check BTS commisioning and HW problems

Optimize the coverage and dominance of the network.

Optimize the time in compressed mode and number of compressed mode users. Balance the pilot power setting between cells.

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RAN Tuning
Imbalance Pilot Coverage Analysis

Objective

Item 8

Aim is to identify particular area being served by imbalanced path loss between downlink and uplink coverage.

Methodology

The observed symptoms that can be derived from drive test are:

Received Ec/No of the pilot channel is larger than -16dB and;

Transmitted UE Power reaches to maximum allowed value and; The connection finally drops.

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RAN Tuning
Imbalance Pilot Coverage Analysis

Item 8

Using Nemo Analyze, TX power and Ec/No can be plotted simultaneously to verify power imbalance

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RAN Tuning
Imbalance Pilot Coverage Analysis

Methodology continues

Item 8

Low RSSI indicates bad DL coverage High UL TX power indicates bad UL coverage or high UL interference In Example below, UL and DL coverage are in balance

RAN Tuning Imbalance Pilot Coverage Analysis

Item 8

Methodology continues
Using Nemo Analyze, the following table can be composed, showing AVE Ec/No, RSCP and TX power per each SC. Table can be sorted in Excel to find out bad DL or UL coverage cells, and to compare DL and UL coverage.

RAN Tuning
Imbalance Pilot Coverage Analysis

Analysis

Item 8

a) b) c)

Verify whether the cause of uplink and pilot coverage imbalance is due to the pilot power of the cell has been set too high (e.g. 36 dBm for 40W amplifier). Check whether too low UE MAX Transmission Power restriction has been applied. Thus, the UE Tx power is limited by the parameter setting. When implementing MHA, path loss calculation including uplink feeder attenuation, downlink feeder attenuation, uplink MHA gain, downlink MHA insertion loss, etc. should be verified. Also, the commissioning parameters for BTS should be verified. Check possibility of swapped antenna feeders or antenna feeder problems

d)

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RAN Tuning
Imbalance Pilot Coverage Analysis

Solution continues

Item 8

a)

When the uplink coverage border (PRACH or DPCH) cannot reach the soft handover area location, the pilot coverage is larger than the uplink coverage. The only way to solve this problem is to reduce the Primary CPICH power.

This modification will reduce the downlink coverage and pull back the soft handover area. Nothing can be done on the uplink side since UE Tx power is restricted by terminal design.

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RAN Tuning
Imbalance Pilot Coverage Analysis

Solution continues

Item 8

b)

When the UE Tx power restriction has been too high, i.e. too low UE Max Transmission Power, then UE Max Transmission Power should be set as the one used in dimensioning or cell planning. For example, if the maximum UE Tx power is assumed to be 24 dBm for all UE classes in the dimensioning, the UE Max Transmission Power should be set to be 24 dBm.

The UE Max Transmission Power parameter will affect the cell re-selection procedures in idle mode. If it is set too high, the Pcompensation, which is equal to maximum value between the UE Max Transmission Power - output power of the UE according to its class and zero, becomes large and the idle mode cell coverage for some UE classes will shrink.

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RAN Tuning
Imbalance Pilot Coverage Analysis

Solution continues

Item 8

c)

When incorrect power measurement due to MHA is the case, the unique way to solve this problem is to correct these parameters to the real ones. However, it is a time consuming solution and difficult to measure the accurate feeder loss and MHA gain values. For swapped feeder issue, see Item 9.

d)

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Objective

Item 9

Aim is to identify case of swapped installation on feeders or antennas that affect to the radio interface performance of WCDMA cells.

Methodology

The monitoring tools for swapped feeder problems are Nemo Outdoor drive test tool and
Nemo Analyze for analysis.

The observed symptoms can be:

High downlink interference; Slight high UE Tx power; Connection setup failures during random access or uplink DPCH synchronization procedures; No downlink coverage; Handover failure; Wrong scrambling code coverage, etc.

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Analysis

Item 9

Swapped feeders can cause many major problems in the network, e.g. no downlink
coverage, no uplink coverage or high UL/DL interference. Normal UL and DL coverage pattern should follow:

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Analysis

Item 9

Below are some (not all) examples of swapped feeders:

Using test mobile and RSCP plot, it can be found that the scrambling codes cover
wrong areas

Using test calls, it can be identified:

Handover may fail from other cells due to improper handover relationship or uplink DPCH synchronization problem. Connection setup may fail during random access or uplink DPCH synchronization procedures.

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Analysis

Item 9

Examples of swapped feeders continues:

Using test mobile and RSCP/mobile TX power plot, it can be found:

Scrambling codes cover wrong directions. No downlink coverage, i.e. low RSCP in somewhere, but good UL coverage High downlink interference, i.e. low Ec/No and high DL RSSI in some areas.

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Analysis

Item 9

Automatic cross-feeder analysis can be done by

Nemo Analyze by using scanner or mobile log files

As a result, a list of suspected cells will be found If a lot of measured samples are located outside
the main beam (e.g. 140 deg) and are within certain distance, e.g. 1 km radius, there is a possibility for a swapped feeder case

Alarm can also be caused by wrong information in

BTS file

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis
Analysis As a result, exact location and the nature of crossed feeder problem can be further analysed on a map view

Here, 2 potential cases are shown

RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Analysis

Item 9

Using Nemo Outdoor and test mobile, it can be identified:

If the UE tries to connect to cell B in cell A area, connection setup may fail during random access or uplink DPCH synchronization procedures. If the UE tries to handover to cell B in cell A area, the UE may always send addition handover events to UTRAN but handover function always fails due to uplink DPCH synchronization problem. The UE connected to cell A transmits in slightly higher UE Tx power due to higher UL interference, i.e. UL RSSI. Connection may drop if the UE moves to the planned cell B area due to no coverage.

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Analysis

Item 9

Examples of swapped feeders continues:

Using Nemo Outdoor and test mobile, it can be found:

The UE connected to cell A or/and cell B slightly transmits higher UE Tx power due to higher UL interference, i.e. UL RSSI.

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Analysis

Item 9

Examples of swapped feeders continues:

Using Nemo Outdoor and test mobile, it can be found:

Connection setup will fail in both cells during random access or uplink DPCH synchronization procedures. Handover will fail from other cells to either cell A or cell B due to uplink DPCH synchronization problem or improper handover relationship.

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Analysis

Item 9

Examples of swapped feeders continues:

Using Pilot Scanner, it can be found:

No downlink coverage, i.e. low RSCP in some areas. High downlink interference, i.e. low Ec/No and high RSSI in somewhere. Scrambling code covers wrong areas.

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Analysis

Item 9

Using Nemo Outdoor and test mobile, it can be identified:

Connection setup will fail in cell A during random access or uplink DPCH synchronization procedures. Connection may drop if the UE moves to the planned cell B area due to no coverage.

Handover will fail from other cells to either cell due to uplink DPCH synchronization problem or improper handover relationship.
The UE connected to cell B slightly transmits higher UE Tx power due to higher UL interference, i.e. UL RSSI.

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RAN Tuning
Swapped Feeders Analysis

Solution

Item 9

The direct solution is to check that feeders are not crossed and the scrambling codes are
set correctly for all the cells in the site.

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RAN Tuning Sleeping Cell Problem

Objective

Item 11

Aim is to find sleeping cells on which the cell that is on-services and can be camped on but somehow the UE can not establish a call nor handover.

Methodology

oFinding the cells with no traffic being carried from statistics. oConduct test call to verify call establishment and handover process.

Analysis

oHave a look on layer 3, in the case of handover, the UE sends many measurement
reports to add the cell into the active set. However, the UTRAN does not reply the measurement report by sending active set update message even the uplink RF performance is very good. After connection drop, the UE still cant be connected to that sleeping cell.

oIt is possible that the RNC does not send the radio link setup request for resource
allocation.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Sleeping Cell Problem

Captured screen of Nemo Outdoor windows
during sleeping cell test.

Item 11

There are continuous Measurement reports

coming from terminal, but network does not send Active Set Update command.

The situation can be seen on a map, where

there is no active set connection to the cell (SC221), even it is just nearby and pilot signal level of that cell is high.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Sleeping Cell Problem

Solution

Item 11

In most cases, it is hanging resources or hardware problem. Restart the site. Check alarms of the site.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
Admission Reject Problem, Outdoor

Item 12

Objective Aim is to identify cause of admission reject problem identified during drive test. Methodology

oDrive test log file can show if the RRC connection failure is due to admission control.
OMC KPI analysis helps to pinpoint the actual cause.

RRC Connection Reject message.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Admission Reject Problem

Analysis

Item 12

o The analysis shall be rectified to verify cell load and power setting. o Possible reason on this case:
Higher load in cells. This can be caused by the amount of traffic in a cell, or not enough power left in the cell due to high feeder loss. Improper common channel power setting. Improper admission control parameter setting. Improper MAX power settings.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Admission Reject Problem

Solution amplifier to get higher output power.

Item 12

o Check if the feeder loss is high, recommend to change the bigger one or change the o If traffic load is high, add another carrier. o Verify and correct improper parameter settings for both common channel power and
admission control power.

o If there are hanging resources, restart the site.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Cell Reselection Failure

Objective

Item 13

Aim is to identify cause of cell reselection failure for UE in idle or cell_FACH mode. Methodology

oFrom the drive test, following symptoms can be found by using Nemo Outdoor with test
mobile and pilot scanner:

The UE in cell_FACH mode does not send cell update message to the UTRAN even it has entered a coverage area of the desired cell, or
The UE in idle mode camps on a wrong cell even it has entered a coverage area of the desired cell.
oMethod of identification to find the failure shall be following the analysis part.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Cell Reselection Failure

Analysis

Item 13

The following possible reasons shall be analyzed to identify the exact cause of cell reselection failure:

oMissing neighbour relationship.

The possible reason why the cell re-selection detection fails is because of missing neighboring cell relationship. In the drive test, the engineer can monitor the neighboring cell window to check if the desired cell is included in the neighboring cell list. The UE also might have camped on wrong cell and this cell does not have neighboring relationship with the desired cell.

oOvershooting.
Re-selection path could be messed up because of unwanted cell overshooting.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Cell Reselection Failure

Analysis

Item 13

o Pilot pollution in idle or cell_FACH mode.

Pilot pollution can lead failure in the cell re-selection event detection.

o Improper cell re-selection offset setting. If the cell re-selection offset QOffset1/2 (CPIC Ec/No / RSCP) between the camped
cell and the desired cell is too positive, the ranking in the cell re-selection procedure of the desired cell becomes very low. Therefore, even though the actual quality and signal strength of the pilot in the desired cell are good enough to provide coverage, the UE does not camp on the cell, i.e. cell re-selection fails.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Cell Reselection Failure

Solution

Item 13

o Missing neighbor relationship. The direct solution is to add the desired cell into the neighboring cell list. However, it
should be noted that too many neighboring cell relationships might slow down the search for the pilot channels in the UE.

o Overshooting. If the problem is due to too many unnecessary neighboring relationships, the engineer
should carefully justify the usefulness of these relationships and remove the unnecessary ones.

If the problem is due to overshooting of the unwanted cell, the engineer should check
why the cell is overshooting and do possible adjustments.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Cell Reselection Failure

Solution

Item 13

o o

Pilot pollution in idle or cell_FACH mode. Refer to pilot pollution identification and solution. Improper cell re-selection offset setting. The QOffset1/2 should be changed to not too positive.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning RRC Establishment Failure

Objective Aim is to identify causes of RRC establishment failure. Methodology Drive test analysis and Network failure statistics analysis. Analysis

Item 14

oRRC connection Establishment provides the ability to establish an RRC connection,

which is a logical connection, between the UE and UTRAN at L3. It includes RRC connection setup and RRC connection access phases.

oFrom the drive test, the following symptoms can be identified as starting point of
analysis:

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning RRC Establishment Failure

Analysis continue

Item 14

Case-1: UE does not send out RRC connection request message to the UTRAN.
There can be a failure in earlier RRC connection release. If RRC connection has been established, it is not possible to connect another RRC connection, unless the previous RRC connection is released. There can be a test system failure. This can be seen from Nemo log file.

Case-2: UE receives RRC connection setup message, gets DL syncronisation, sends RRC connection setup complete message. However, target NodeB does not send out NBAB:Sync indication to RNC.
Probably there is uplink radio link synchronization failure. The UE receives RRC connection setup message and starts the transmission. It implies UE and UTRAN are trying to synchronize each other but uplink is not synchronized.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning RRC Establishment Failure

Analysis continue

Item 14

Case-3: UE receives RRC connection setup message and starts the transmission for synchronisation. However, UE does not send out RRC connection setup complete message to UTRAN.
It is probably due to downlink radio link synchronization failure. The UE receives RRC connection setup message and starts the synchronisation. However, the UE does not send out RRC connection setup complete message to the UTRAN. It implies the UE and UTRAN are trying to synchronize each other but downlink is not synchronized.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning RRC Establishment Failure

Analysis continue

Item 14

Case 4: UE receives RRC connection setup message and starts the transmission. After a while, UE sends out RRC connection setup complete message to UTRAN; however, the RRC connection establishment fails.
It is probably due to poor quality in uplink. UE sends out RRC connection setup complete message to UTRAN via the established dedicated channel; however, the RRC connection establishment still fails. It implies the UTRAN does not receive the RRC connection setup complete message.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning RRC Establishment Failure

Analysis continue

Item 14

Case 5: The UE receives RRC connection reject message with cause value Congestion.
It is probably due to connection rejected by Admission Control function. At each request for establishment of a new RRC connection, it must be accepted by the Admission Control function in the RNC. In case of reject, RRC connection reject message is sent to UE and the procedure ends. The cause value of the message is Congestion. You can check counter M1001C3: RRC_CONN_STP_FAIL_AC statistics from Batrana for that particular cell to pinpoint possible congestion reasons for failure.

Case 6: The UE receives RRC connection reject message with cause value Unspecified.
It is probably due to dedicated radio link setup failure.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning RRC Establishment Failure

Analysis continue

Item 14

Case-7: The UE repeatedly sends RRC connection request messages but the number of transmission is less than N300 + 1 times.
It is because of no suitable cell. Normally, the UE will repeatedly transmit RRC connection request in or more than N300 + 1 times, if the UE does not receive any RRC connection setup message. Therefore, if the number of transmissions is less than N300 + 1 times, it implies no suitable cell event happens during RRC connection establishment.

Case 8: The UE does not receive any message from the UTRAN.
The RRC connection reject or RRC connection setup message is transmitted via SCCPCH (FACH). If the UE does not receive any message from the UTRAN, the possible reason is because of S-CCPCH (FACH) failure. This can indicate to a poor radio quality.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning RRC Establishment Failure

Solution

Item 14

Case-2: One of below solutions might be a reason for uplink dedicated radio link synchronization failure: Uplink and pilot coverage imbalance. Refer to previous solutions. Improper cell re-selection offset setting. QOffset2 (CPIC Ec/No) or Q Offset1 (CPIC RSCP) of the camped cell has too positive value, the new idle mode coverage may be larger than the maximum allowed UL DPCH coverage, i.e. the location where UE transmits the maximum allowed UE Tx power. Those offsets should be changed to less positive. Incorrect initial power calculation for dedicated channel. Try to adjust the UL initial SIR target and UL DPCCH power offset to suitable values.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning RRC Establishment Failure

Solution continue

Item 14

Case-3: One of below solutions might be a reason for downlink dedicated radio link synchronization failure: DL DPCH and pilot coverage imbalance. Review power setting between DL DPCH and pilot channel.

Improper cell re-selection offset setting. Refer to previous case.

Too low initial downlink SIR target. Consider to increase this value.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning RRC Establishment Failure

Solution continue

Item 14

Case-5: The engineer should re-dimension the capacity of the existing RNC. If need, more capacity is added. Case-6: Refer to RAB Establishment Failure description. Case-7: No suitable cell can be due to high interference or out of pilot coverage. Case-8: S-CCPCH (FACH) failure shall be due to low common channel power. Engineer has to carefully plan enough common channel power to fulfill the assumed downlink load.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
RAB Establishment Failure, Drive Test Analysis

Objective Aim is to identify causes of RAB establishment failure. Methodology Signaling trace analysis from Nemo Analyze. Analysis

Item 15

oFound and relate the problem against the following symptoms:

Case 1: The UTRAN does not send Radio bearer setup message to the UE. Case 2: The UTRAN sends out Radio bearer setup message to the UE; however, the UE does not receive it. Case 3: The UE receives Radio bearer setup message; however, it does not send out Radio bearer setup complete to the UTRAN. Case 4: The UE sends out Radio bearer setup complete message to the UTRAN; however, the UTRAN does not receive it.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning
RAB Establishment Failure , Nemo Analyze
Solution

Item 15

o Case-1: High traffic load. The cell (cells in SHO) does not have enough power, code or
transmission resources for the new radio bearer.

o Case-2: Poor quality in downlink. o Case-3: Probably non-radio issues, unless mobile just gets out of coverage. Mobile
may have an internal problem.

o Case-4: Probably poor quality in uplink.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis

Objective

Item 16

Aim is to identify causes of the blocked call event that happens during the call setup phase during drive test.

Methodology Signaling trace analysis from Nemo Outdoor.

Analysis

oThe analysis shall be related to identify below issues:

Missing neighbor reason. Poor coverage reason. Security and Authentication Failure reason. UE freeze. Disconnect on RAB setup. Congestion. UE sensitivity fault. Unanswered RRC request. Barred network reason. Call initiation during Location Update signaling.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis, Missing Neighbour

Missing neighbor reason, example:

Item 16

Problem Description: An example of a blocked call caused by a missing neighbor is shown beside. The call is being set up on cell SC= 200. During the set up SC=72 becomes the strongest sector but is not added to the active set as the two cells are not defined neighbors. This can be seen in the Serving / Active Set / Scanner measurement window. The SCs 73 and 72 act as an increasing interferers until eventually the call itself is released. The release cause is classified as unspecified. Solutions, see Item 4.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis, Missing Neighbour

Item 16

Ec/No of active set SC 124 goes to -25. Scanner shows good Ec/No for SC 73. SC 73 is missing from the mobiles current neighbour list.
After a while, SC73 becomes the best active set

Scanner Ec/No

Ec/No best active set goes down to -25 dB

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis

Poor coverage reason, sample:

Item 16

Problem Description: In this case the RF environment as reported by the UE is very poor when the UE attempts to initiate a call. The attempt is indicated by the event Call Attempt in Nemo Outdoor. The best server Ec/No=-25dB. It can be seen, that UE sends 4 RRC connection requests and receives 2 NACKs from the NW, since Ec/No is worse than the minimum accepted quality of the cell. Solution, see Item 2.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis

Security and Authentication Failure reason, sample:

Item 16

Problem Description: In this case there is a problem with the security and Authentication procedure, which causes the connection to be dropped and result in a blocked call. As can be seen in figure above the radio environment at the time of the blocked call is good i.e. Best server RSCP=-71dBm and Ec/No=-2dB. The call is released during call setup as Normal Event 6 seconds after the network sends the security command. There is a timer for the correct response to this security command, which is set to 6 seconds. This indicates a problem in the security and authentication response by the UE.
Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis

UE freeze, example:

Item 16

Problem Description: This type of blocked call classification is caused by the UE freezing which can be seen beside. In the example, there is a call attempt, but the UE does not send any RRC connection request message. There are no massages sent between the network and the UE between 16:32:50 and 16:33:36. The RF environment was good at the time as can be seen from the information i.e. RSCP = -69 dBm and Ec/No = -7 dB. There is no clear solution for this item. Mobile can be only restarted and avoid to get overheated.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis

Disconnect on RAB setup, sample:

Item 16

Problem Description: In this case the radio environment is good as shown in figure above (i.e. Best server RSCP= 94dBm and Ec/No= -3dB). During call set up, after the DL Call Proceeding message the network sends a Disconnect message. This can be seen in the Layer 3 messages window below. The cause value is (127) Interworking, unspecified as shown in L3 message details window. The call is then released. This is normally a case of congestion in originating side, or interference problem in terminating side.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis

Congestion on Terminating side:

Item 16

Signalling of Originating side:

Problem Description: In this example the network sends a Disconnect message with the cause (34) No circuit/channel available. This can be seen in the signalling window of Originating side. The Disconnect message occurs after the Radio Bearer is set up. This case refers to the RAB setup failure in the terminating side. There are no resources to setup the RAB in terminating side -> normally refers to AC failure, like UL interference, not enough DL power, no code resources, etc.

Signalling of Terminating side:

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis

UE sensitivity fault, sample:

Item 16

Problem Description: In figure above, an example of a drop classified as UE sensitivity fault is shown. The radio environment as reported by the UE is very poor when the UE attempts to initiate a call (i.e. Best server RSCP=122dBm and Ec/No=18dB). The scanner reports much better radio conditions for the same SC at the same instant i.e. RSCP =-89.06dBm and Ec/Io = -2.65dB. Although the blocked call is as a result of low RSCP as measured by the UE it should not be classified, as a poor RF block since the scanner indicates the radio conditions should be sufficient to set up a call.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis

Call initiation during LU signaling, sample:

Item 16

Problem Description: In this case the UE is involved in Location Update signaling. As seen in the RRC Connection Request message the establishment cause is registration and the Location Update request message is for Normal Location Updating. During the LU signaling a new call attempt is triggered by the command sequence in TEMS Investigation. This can be seen in the events window in figure above.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Blocked Call Analysis

Unanswered call:

Item 16

Signalling of Originating side:

Signalling of Terminating side:

Problem Description: In this example, call setup in originating side continues until; alerting but the terminating side never receives the paging message. It is not clear whether the problem is in the network or in the terminal of terminating side. Terminating UE is making Location Update during the time it should receive paging. That can be a reason for not receiving paging message. The radio environment in the downlink is OK i.e. reasonable CPICH RSPC, reasonable Ec/No.

RAN Tuning Dropped Call Analysis

Objective Aim is to identify causes of the dropped call event during drive test. Methodology

Item 17

Signaling trace analysis from Nemo Outdoor. Batrana analysis to verify drop reasons in cell level.

Analysis

oThe analysis shall be related to identify below issues:

Missing neighbor reason. Poor coverage reason. Bad radio environment. Congestion. Non-radio reason. Equipment fault.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Dropped Call Analysis

Dropped Call Analysis Criteria

Criteria
Poor Coverage Bad Radio Environment

Item 17

Description
The Drop occurs in regions where conditions CPICH RSCP and/or CPICH Ec/No are measured in critical values not suitable for a proper connection, see Items 2, 4 and 8. Every drop that occurs when Best Server is Missing (Mostly in good CPICH RSCP conditions). The UE active set update cannot follow the quick coverage changes. In this case Pilot Pollution situations are included as well (3 cells in AS and more than 1 strong SCs is interfering the connection within a range of 5 dB - Ec/No basis evaluation), see Items 3-7. Every drop that occurs when there are no more available radio resources for the connection. The network sends an RRC Connection Release when the NodeB reaches the maximum available Power in DL. Every drop that occurs when the radio conditions are good, the logging equipment is working properly and the RRC connection release cause (marked usually as "Unspecified") could be attributed to a NodeB/Network fault, (including UL UE power going to maximum even if the CPICH RSCP is measured at good values, crossed feeders causing false missing neighbors, crossed UL/DL feeders, wrong parameter settings that can affect accessibility/SHOs in the cell). Every drop that occurs when UE is Blocked or Freezing and/or SW is crashing, so that it's not possible to maintain the connection.

Congestion Non-Radio

Equipment Fault Missing Neighbours

Every drop that occurs when there is poor RSCP and/or Ec/No level/quality on the Best Server/AS, with the contemporary possibility for the UE to perform a SHO to a better cell, but that is not declared as a Neighbour for the AS cells, see Item 4.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Dropped Call Analysis, Drive Test

Poor coverage reason, sample:

Item 17

Problem Description: In this case the RF environment as reported by the UE is very poor before the call is dropped. The best server RSCP=82.6 dBm and Ec/No=-21 dB. BLER is 47.4% and DL Power up % is 88.3. The NW releases the call by reason No circuit/channel available. In this case it means, that one of the SHO branches has got out of DL power. Coverage optimization is needed to improve the coverage in this area. See Items 2, 4 and 8.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Dropped Call Analysis, Drive Test

Bad radio environment, sample:

Item 17

Problem Description: Every drop that occurs when Best Server is Missing (Mostly in reasonable CPICH RSCP
conditions). The UE active set update cannot follow the quick coverage changes. In this case Pilot Pollution situation is included as well (3 cells in AS and more than 1 strong SCs is interfering the connection within a range of 5 dB - Ec/No basis evaluation). See Items 2 and 5.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Dropped Call Analysis, Drive Test

Congestion reason, sample:

Item 17

Problem Description: In this case the radio environment doesnt show any critical issue: the AS is full, and there is a Best Server cell (SC 352) with two more cells that are carrying the service. Also the MN set is good, and the Layer 3 messages sequence is regular. The radio resource unavailability pops up suddenly after a certain number of fast SHOs, and an RRC Connection Release message from the network comes to interrupt the call. In the TEMS L3 messages window details the release cause is clearly marked as Congestion.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Dropped Call Analysis, Drive Test

Non-radio reason, sample:

Item 17

Problem Description: Every drop that occurs when the radio conditions are good, the logging equipment is working properly and the RRC connection release cause (marked usually as "Unspecified") could be attributed to a BTS/Network fault, (including UL UE power going to maximum even if the CPICH RSCP is measured at good values, crossed feeders causing false missing neighbors, crossed UL-DL feeders, wrong parameter settings that can affect accessibility/SHOs in the cell).

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Dropped Call Analysis, Drive Test

Equipment fault reason, sample:

Item 17

Statistics are frozen

Problem Description: Every drop that occurs when TEMS Investigation/UE are Blocking or Freezing and/or SW is crashing, so that it is not possible to maintain the connection. In the example, the network sends a DL Measurement Control message and then the UE freezes. There are no further massages sent between the network and the UE. The RF Environment was good at the time of the drop as can be seen from the scanner information i.e. RSCP =-82.72dBm and Ec/No = -5.44dB.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning DCR Analysis, RAB_ACT_FAIL_CS_VOICE_RADIO

Analysis

Item 17

RAB_ACT_FAIL_CS_VOICE_RADIO is normally the most common reason for

dropped calls. It normally points to DL coverage problem or UL interference. Check UL interference and DL power usage of the problem cell

Solution

Decrease the CIPICHtoRefRABOffset, Improve the GSM neighbours (so that correct targets are found during the first

CM), Increase the max amount of measurement reports (6->18,20), ISHO triggering parameters could be tuned to start the measurements earlier check the neighbouring plan there might be some missing neighbours, Check the location of the cell as there might be some outdoor to indoor access way and therefore the calls are often dropping Increase T313 to allow more time to re-establish the L1 sync.

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (1), Measurement Event Failure

Objective

Item 18

Aim is to identify any problem that might occur during IRAT handover with mobility event detection failure.

Methodology IRAT verification using mobile test with the following symptom recognized: oLow received Ec/No or RSCP of the best serving cell triggers inter-RAT measurements oThe UE receives the measurement control from the UTRAN to indicate the GSM neighboring cells,
and has started compressed mode to measure them.

oA suitable GSM cell is found and received RSSI of that cell is higher than GSM MIN access
threshold;

oEvent measurement report is not sent from the UE to the UTRAN or the Event measurement report is
sent to the UTRAN, but the UTRAN does not receive it.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (1)

Analysis

Item 18

The following reasons should be verified as causes of the mobility event detection failure.

oPoor uplink quality. oMissing GSM neighbor cells or too low GSM coverage oUTRAN coverage rapidly fades. oToo long GSM neighboring list.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (1)

Solution

Item 18

o Poor uplink quality might caused by: Pilot channel failure: Due to poor downlink quality, the UE will stop transmitting and the
quality on uplink consequently becomes poor. Please refer to solution on pilot pollution, downlink or uplink interference that causes pilot channel failures, Items 5-7.

Poor quality in downlink: It might cause errors on the TPC. If the UE follows the wrong
TPC pattern to adjust its transmission power, the uplink quality becomes poor. Please refer to solution on pilot pollution, downlink or uplink interference that causes pilot channel failures, Items 5-7.

Uplink and pilot coverage imbalance: If the UE has transmitted by MAX allowed UE
transmission power, the reason of causing poor quality in uplink is because of uplink and pilot channel imbalance. Please refer to solution on Pilot coverage imbalance, Item 8.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (1)

Solution continues

Item 18

o Poor uplink quality might be caused by: Insufficient received UL DPCH power: The possible reason of causing poor quality in
uplink is because of insufficient received UL DPCH power.

The base station cannot receive sufficient power from the uplink dedicated physical
channel if the Maximum allowed SIR target is set too low. It should be set sufficiently high.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (1)

Solution continues

Item 18

o Poor uplink quality might caused by: Rapidly changing radio environment: The possible reason of causing poor quality in
uplink is because of rapidly changing radio environment.

If a cell covers several diverse radio environments, e.g. outdoor, indoor, tunnels etc., the
outer loop power control may not be properly able to adapt to the rapid changes of the environment.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (1)

Solution continue

Item 18

o Missing GSM neighbor cell might be caused by: The direct solution is to add the desired cell into the neighboring cell lists of the cells in
the active set. However, it should be noted that too many neighboring cell relationships might slow down the search for the GSM carriers.

o UTRAN coverage rapidly fades:

If the UTRAN coverage rapidly fades out, e.g. outdoor to indoor, the UE might not have
enough time to move to the GSM network. The solution is to tune HHORSCP/EcNOThreshold to trigger ISHO measurements earlier, HHoRscpTimehysteresis to shorten time for HO, GSMNcellSearchPeriod to 0 (1 valid measurement result is enough).

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (1)

Solution continue

Item 18

o Too long GSM neighboring list: If there are too many unnecessary GSM handover relationships, the engineer should
carefully justify the usefulness of the GSM handover relationships and remove the unnecessary ones.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (2), Handover Failure

Objective

Item 18

Aim is to identify any problem that might occur during IRAT handover with handover failure.

Methodology IRAT verification using drive test & RNC ICSU log file with the following symptom recognized: oCase 1: Relocation preparation failure RANAP message is sent to the SRNC from the circuit
switched core network.

oCase 2: Relocation cancel RANAP message with cause value Relocation canceled (10) is sent out
to the circuit switched core network from the SRNC.

oCase 3: Relocation cancel RANAP message with cause value TRELOCprep expiry (3) is sent out to
the circuit switched core network from the SRNC.

oCase 4: The UE sends Handover from UTRAN failure message to the UTRAN. oCase 5: Connection drops during the inter-RAT handover.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (2)

pmNoOutIratHoSuccess / pmNoOutIratHoAtt).

Item 18

Methodology continue o Case 6: The successful ratio of inter-RAT handover to GSM per cell relation is very low (i.e.
o Case 7: The ratio of inter-RAT handover attempts to GSM where the UE returns to old channel per
cell relation is very high (i.e. pmNoOutIratHoReturnOldChOther / pmNoOutIratHoAtt).

o Case 8: The number of inter-RAT handover attempts to GSM where the resource allocation in the
GSM network fails per cell relation is very high (i.e. pmNoOutIratHoResourceAllocFail)

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (2)

Analysis The following reasons should be verified as causes of the handover function failure:

Item 18

oCase 1: No resource available in GSM network. oCase 2: Cannot fulfill the GSM request. oCase 3: No response from core network. oCase 4 & 7: Failure to access GSM cell. oCase 5: Abnormal disconnection in inter-RAT handover. oCase 6: Failure of outgoing inter-RAT handover attempt.

oCase 8: No GSM resources or no response from core network.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (2)

Solution

Item 18

o Case 1: No resource available in GSM network. Optimize the GSM network to lower the congestion, e.g. add more TRXs or re-dimension
the GSM network. Or the GSM amount proposal repeat can be increased so that the congested GSM cell can be repeatedly attempted more.

o Case 2: Cannot fulfill the GSM request no solution and the connection still kept.
o Case 3: No response from core network no solution and the connection still kept. o Case 4 & 7: Failure to access GSM cell. Optimize the GSM network to make the GSM connection setup successful.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (2)

Solution continue

Item 18

o Case 5: Abnormal disconnection in inter-RAT handover. Optimize the GSM network to reduce connection setup fails. When the UE is camping on
the GSM network. For UTRAN side, please refer to the solution of poor downlink quality.

o Case 6: Failure of outgoing inter-RAT handover attempt. Refer to case number 4 and 5. o Case 8: No GSM resources or no response from core network. Refer to case number 1
and 3.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (3), Cell Change Failure

Objective Aim is to identify any problem that might occurred during IRAT handover with cell change failure.

Item 18

Methodology IRAT verification using drive test & RNC ICSU log file with the following symptoms recognized:

oCase 1: The UE sends Cell change order from UTRAN failure message to the UTRAN. oCase 2: Connection drops during the inter-RAT cell change. oCase 3: The ratio of inter-RAT cell change attempts to GSM where the UE on dedicated
channel returns to old channel per cell relation is very high (i.e. pmNoOutIratCcReturnOldCh / pmNoOutIratCcAtt).

oCase 4: UE camps on GSM cell, but receives RA update failure.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning IRAT Analysis (3)

Analysis

Item 18

The following reasons should be verified as causes of the cell change function failure:

oCase 1 & 3: Failure to camp on GSM cell. oCase 2: Abnormal disconnection in inter-RAT cell change.

Solution

oCase 1 & 3: Try to optimize the GSM network to make the GSM connection setup
successful.

oCase 2: abnormal disconnection in inter-RAT cell change. Optimize the GSM network to reduce connection setup fails. When the UE is camping
on the GSM network. For UTRAN side, please refer to the solution of poor downlink quality.

oCase 4: No known solution at the moment.

Presentation / Author / Date

RAN Tuning Low Data Throughput Analysis

Objective

Item 19

Aim is to identify reasons of low data throughput for HSDPA/HSUPA service, e.g. FTP download.

Methodology Verification is performed by using drive test tool with a separate FTP application, like Thunder.

Analysis Analysis shall be rectified to see the following cases:

oAverage UL or DL throughput of the radio access bearer is much lower than the data
rate of the FTP server or much lower than expected for available radio and core configuration, mobile capability and current traffic amount.

oData rate is high for a certain time of the drive test, but then suddenly it drops below
target speed.

oRound trip time is very long and many missing packets.

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RAN Tuning Low Data Throughput Analysis

high interference.

Item 19

Analysis o Low average CQI and high MAC-HS 3rd retransmission rate indicate an area of bad coverage or Solution o Improve the radio link quality. Poor radio links lead to packet errors. In order to recover the packets, RLC layer retransmits the
problematic packets. However, too many retransmissions cause longer RTT and the throughput consequently decreases. See Items 2-9 how to improve the quality of radio link.

High 3rd retransmission rate

Low CQI

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Solution continues

Item 19

o Improve the occurrence of too many down-switches due to coverage triggering

Set the reporting period of SIR error measurement to 0: SIR error measurement is disabled.

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Solution continues

Item 19

o Improve the occurrence of down-switches after serving cell change

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Solution continues .

Item 19

o Set the Maximum allowed HSDPA power to be the same than MAX cell DL power
capability. This allow HSDPA to use all the remaining power available after Common channel and REL99 traffic. Check that 15 codes feature is enabled. Check MAX throughput license.

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RAN Tuning Low Data Throughput Analysis

Item 19

Analysis o REL99 PS traffic limits HSDPA throughput. Amount of REL99 traffic can be
seen e.g. from Batrana or RNC Online monitoring.

Solution o Giving higher weighting for HSDPA than for REL99 data o Service weights can be set individually for each release: R99 and HSPA o Weights be set individually for each traffic class: Interactive THP1, THP2, THP3 and Background o Limiting PtxTargetPSMax reserves more power for HSDPA

RAN Tuning Low Data Throughput Analysis

Analysis

Item 19

o Low HS-SCCH usage rate points to capacity, server or transmission problem.

Solution

o Check traffic load of the NW. If load is limiting the throughput, add another carrier. o Check transmission of the serving cells. Probably there is a configuration error, or lack
of transmission.

o Use multiple threads within one FTP download session (use external FTP client, like
Thunder). Try another FTP server for comparison.

Low throughput

Low usage rate

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Analysis RRC state and Packet technology parameters.

Item 19

o Control FACH usage is too high. This can be seen from drive test log file by looking at

Solution

o Set lower Low utilisation threshold, longer time to trigger, longer window size for
measurement.

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Contents
Objectives Scope of Work RAN Tuning
o RAN Tuning Lifecycle o List of Activities o Analysis of Activities

Appendix
o Change Request

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