CELLULAR NETWORKS OPTIMISATION

Course Mobile Communications ALTTC (Ghaziabad) - February 18th 22nd 2002

Sami Tabbane (ITU)

SUMMARY
- 1 Network structure and basic equipment - 2 Cellular engineering basics - 3 Network tuning - 4 Quality of service monitoring process and equipment - 5 Decision process
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- 1 GSM NETWORK
STRUCTURE AND BASIC EQUIPMENT
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GSM NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE AND INTERFACES

PSTN Switch VLR MSC X25 BSSAP OMC X25 PTS BSC Abis BTS MAP SP HLR AuC SP ISUP SP MAP

Um
... ...
< ^>

SP HLR AuC

..

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ANTENNA CHARACTERISTICS
Antenna: one of the most critical elements in a RF communications system. Antenna used for receiving and transmitting: 1 dB gain = 2 dB gain for the system (1 dB in each way). It is a passive element: Cannot transmit more power than received (in each direction), Can concentrate energy in a specific direction and thus, shows a gain.

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RADIATION PATTERNS
The radiation pattern: polar diagram: Horizontal plane: azimuth radiations (i.e., according to the direction N-E-S-W), Vertical plane: radiations according to the height (i.e., up, down and horizontally). Antennas can be compared through their diagram characteristics:
Points at -3 dB, -6 dB, -10 dB, Front to back ratio, Zeros angles, minor lobes, etc.
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EXAMPLES OF ANTENNA DIAGRAMS (1) Sector antenna

EXAMPLES OF ANTENNA DIAGRAMS (2)

Omnidirectional antenna

GAIN OBTENTION
Optical-based methods: - Reflectors used to focus the radiations. Works well for the microwaves where the reflectors have small sizes (parabolic reflector). Array-based antennas (discrete elements): - Power feeded to multiple elements, - The radiations of the elements are on-phase in some directions.

ARRAY ANTENNAS FOR SECTOR SITES

Sector antennas: Dipoles, yagis, or log-periodic elements vertical combinations with reflectors in the back.

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SOME ANTENNA SELECTION CRITERIA

Before chosing an antenna, check: The radiation patterns of the vendor: Radiating pattern in the low, central and upper frequencies of the band, Minor beams and zeros, Symetry. Test: Physical integrity, water resistance, Type of power, Measurements. Ask other users.
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USUAL ANTENNAS
Type Dipole Omni Gain omni Helicoidal Yagi Parabolic Gains (in dB) 0 0 3 to 12 5 to 15 3 to 20 10 to 30

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RADIATING CABLES
Classical solution to cover indoor tunnels. Signal remains constant over several hundreds of meters. The use of radiating cables allows to smooth the signal variations and to extend the coverage.

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BTS ARCHITECTURE
A BTS contains:
A transmission board (TRU), A unit for combining, filtering and duplexing functions, A TRX for: digital/analog processing, power amplifying, main receiver and diversity, frequency hopping (synthesized and baseband).

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BTS BASIC ARCHITECTURE

TRU Power Combiner TRX

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BTS TRANSMISSION/RECEPTION
CHARACTERISTICS

Receiver sensitivity With duplexer - 106 dBm - 105 dBm Without duplexer - 111 dBm With diversity Transmitter output power Without combiner 42 dBm 39 dBm With combiner
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RBS 2000 (ERICSSON) EXAMPLE

Elements: - DXU, Distribution Switch Unit (interface between PCM links and the TRU, LAPD multiplexing), - TRU, Transceiver Unit (management of the 8 time slots, include A5/1 or A5/2 protocols), - CDU, Combining and Distribution Unit (combining the signals transmitted by the different TRU), - PSU, Power Supply Unit (+24V), - BFU, Battery Fuse Unit (safety power), - ECU, Energy Control Unit (supervises and controls the power and the cooling of the equipment).
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MICRO-BTS (ALCATEL)

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TMA (TOWER MOUNTED AMPLIFIER)

Amplifier which compensate the power losses in the feeder link of the antenna and reduces the noise level. If a usual antenna is provided for reception and transmission with a TMA installed on the mast, a duplexor filter must be installer on the mast. External alarms: RBS2000 provided the necessary connections for the external alarms. These are defined by the operator and transmitted to the BSC through the LAPD signaling link on the Abis interface. 16 types of different alarms can be defined.
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MICRO-WAVE LINKS
BTSs to BSC links can be insured by micro-waves (MW). Example of MINI-LINKs: - Bitrates: 2, 22, 42 or 8, 28 or 82, 34+2 or 172 Mb/s. - Frequency bands: 7, 14-15, 17-19, 21-23, 25-26 and 37-39 GHz.

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EXAMPLE OF MW USE

BSC Digital Cross Connector

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BSC
Example of Ericsson BSC and TRC equipment BSC/TRC Up to 1020 2 to 8 512 16 200 000 6 400 48 54.5 V BSC Up to 1020 1 to 5 512 200 000 1 000 TRC 3 to 11 16 700 000 6 400 -

Number of TRX Number of cabinets Number of cells Number of BSCs BHCA Capacity in Erlangs Power

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REPEATERS
Transmission-Reception equipment: To fill coverage holes (indoor, ). Amplify the signals in these areas. To extend the service area of a cell beyond its normal coverage. Not visible by the system. Passive function of signal regeneration in both ways. Channel management remains under BTS complete control.

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REPEATER EXAMPLE OF USE

Repeater

BTS Coverage hole

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- 2 CE L L U L A R
ENGINEERING BASIC CONCEPTS
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SOME BASIC RULES

Urban areas coverage:
Define regular pattern (reals sites located within 10 to 20% radius distance from the theoretical position). Homogeneous antennas azimuths in the same area (for example, 0, 120 and 240). Similar antennas heights in the same area (15 meters for example). Choice of the BTSs sites: buildings of (n+1 or n+2) floors compared to the mean neighbouring buildings height (n floors) in the area, that is, about 6 to 8 meters. Do not use quasi-bi or quasi-tri sites in urban areas. Use only trisector sites.

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AERIAL INSTALLATION
Diversity techniques
Horizontal space diversity: put two antennas separated by a certain distance (1 to 2.5 meters typically). Gains: 5 dB on the uplink. Vertical space diversity: put two antennas one above the other with a separation (1 meter typically, a too large distance gives rise to different coverages). Gains: 4 dB on the uplink. Note: The BCCH should be transmitted on the lowest antenna. Polarisation diversity: use a cross-polar antenna which transmits and receive with polarisation angles of +45 and 45.

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HORIZONTAL DIVERSITY
The most current one. If it cannot be used polarisation diversity in urban environment and vertical space diversity in rural environment. Diversity antennas must have: Same height, Same azimuths, Same tilts, Coplanar (i.e., in the same plan).
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ANTENNAS
In the transmission system, feeders must be of same type and length, antennas must be similar. Antennas types: 65 or 85 horizontal aperture and 4.5 and 7 vertical aperture with an electrical tilt. Mechanical tilt: physical inclinaison of the antenna. An important downtilt up shifts the back lobes of the antenna pattern. Electrical tilt: Allows to gather the lateral lobes of the horizontal radiations towards the center of the radiating area.

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ANTENNA INSTALLATION ON THE ROOFTOP INSTALLATION ON A CENTRAL MAST

Antenna

Rooftop

Mast

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ANTENNA INSTALLATION ON THE ROOFTOP - INSTALLATION ON SEPARATE 3 MASTS

Mast

Rooftop Antenna

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AERIAL CLEARING RULES (1)

Antennas close obstacles (horizontal or vertical plan) Importante reduction of the signal and thus

of the site role. Horizontal clearing: Avoid obstacles located within an angle of 120 from the antenna.
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AERIAL CLEARING RULES (2)

Vertical clearing: Angle between obstacles and the lower part of the
antenna 30.
Mast L

Hm Obstacle h d

Antenna height (Hm) = d.tg(30) + h + L/2.

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AERIAL INSTALLATION
BTS to aerials connection includes:
A jumper between the output of the BTS and the feeder connector. A feeder. A jumper between the feeder connector and the antenna connector. The connectors. To avoid important losses: Minimise the BTS to antennas distance. Maximum acceptable value: 3 dB. Curvature radius cables indicated by the vendor must be respected to avoid an increase in the value of the SWR (Stationary Wave Ratio).

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CONNECTION OF THE BTS TO THE AERIALS

Antenna

Jumper

Feeder Jumper

BTS cabinet

Connector
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FEEDERS SIZES
For a 3 dB maximum loss. Feeder super flex 7/8 1 1 5/8 Link 1 feeder 1 feeder + 1 jumper 1 feeder + 2 jumpers 1 feeder + 2 jumpers 1 feeder + 2 jumpers Maximum length 17 m 23 m 35 m 47 m 55 m

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BTS INSTALLATION BTS INSTALLATION

Some basic rules: BTS cabinet must be installed close to each others with an easy access. Transmission equipement (MW or HDSL) installed on the same line as the BTS or the closest possible. A/C installed front of the BTS equipment. Backup power supply (rectifier and battery) installed the farest possible from the BTS cabinets. Cabling (energy, ground, transmission) on the cable tray. Patch pannel with multipoints connection to fixed half-way from the BTS equipment and power equipment, directly connected to the ground. Feeder cables outgoing path must be waterproofed.

BTS SITE INSTALLATION PLAN

BTS cabinet installation way Transmission
Cabinet 3 Cabinet 2 Cabinet 1

BTS equipment Working space Typical: 4 meters over 3 meters

Batteries

Rectifier

Patch panel

A/C

BTS CONNECTIONS WITH NETWORK

EQUIPMENT
DDF

MSC

TC

Transmission links ...

BSC

Switch DDF

Transmission DDF

DDF DDF: Digital Distribution Frame

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- 3 NETWORK PARAMETER SETTING

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NETWORK PARAMETER SETTING

Working parameters setting is one of the main tasks to realize when putting a network into operation.

Essential task of the network operator for:

Activate or desactivate some fonctionnalities, Quality of Service, Network optimisation.

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DIFFERENTS TYPES OF PARAMETERS

Equipment related parameters: Specific to the equipment. System parameters (activation of certain fonctionalities such as ciphering, power control, ). Product related parameters (software versions). Engineering parameters (almost fifteen for optimising the network): Can be modified by the operators at the OMCs. Numbering (BSC number, ). Network design (sites numbers, ). Optimisation for system tuning (handover margins, access thresholds, ). Operation (barred cells, ).
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BSS PARAMETERS (1)

Cell selection/reselection parameters - Cell_Reselect_Offset: Favor the cells of a frequency band. - Temporary_Offset: Avoid Ping-Pong cell reselection. - Cell_Reselect_Hysteresis: Avoid the reselection of cells belonging to different LAs and reduces the unsuccessful paging rate. Example: 6 dB.

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BSS PARAMETERS (2)

Access related parameters - Max_Number_Retransmission: Maximum number of retransmissions on the access channel (example: 1, 2, 4, 7). Default value: 2. - Number_of_Slots_Spread_Trans: Maximum number of slots between 2 successives retransmissions (3 to 12, 14, 16, 20, 25, 32, 50). - RXLEV_Access_Min: Defined the cell area. A change of 3 dB corresponds to 21% of the cell radius and 46% of the cell coverage area.
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BSS PARAMETERS (3)

Handover Their tuning is done to meet the following goals: Minimise the number HO/distance, HO triggered off the closest to the cell border, Target cell correctly selected, Link quality maintained during the HO phase.
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BSS PARAMETERS (4)

Handover To meet these constraints, we shall minimise:
The number of HO attempts, The HO failure probability or call dropping rate, Ping-pong effect, Handover duration (handover triggering successful establishment), Resource consumption. target BS link

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BSS PARAMETERS (5)

Handover related parameters
- L_RXQUAL_H: Maximises the quality of the communication and minimises the HO rate. Typical value: 1.6 to 3.2%. - L_RXLEV_XX_H: Determined by radio engineering, so that the HO triggering occurs at the cell border. If too low, the HO will be triggered too soon (ping-pong effect), if too large, HO triggered too late (call dropping). Default value: -101 to 110 dBm. - MAX_MS_RANGE: Determined according to cell sizes (fixed during the cellular engineering phase). - HO_MARGIN(n): Hysteresis allowing to meet a tradeoff between the ping-pong handover rate and the quality of service.

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HO_MARGIN ADJUSTEMENT (1)

Signal issued from A Handover Margin 1 HO from A to B Signal issued from B

HO from B to A Considered signal: Min(MS_TXPWR_MAX, P) - RXLEV_DL - PWR_C_D for the current BTS Min(MS_TXPWR_MAX, P) - RXLEV_DL for the neighbouring BTS

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HO_MARGIN ADJUSTEMENT (2)

Signal issued from A Signal issued from B

HO from A to B

Considered signal: Min(MS_TXPWR_MAX, P) - RXLEV_DL - PWR_C_D for the current BTS Handover Margin 2 Min(MS_TXPWR_MAX, P) - RXLEV_DL for the neighbouring BTS

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- 4 MEASUREMENTS

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INTERFACES TYPES
Air Interface (Um): Provide information on the downlink as well as on the exchanged messages during the protocols operation (calls, lcoation updates, ). Tools (mobiles with trace and associated tools) such as Ericsson TEMS. BTS-BSC Interface (Abis): Allows evaluate radio performance of one or several calls in both ways (uplink and downling). Allows observe resource allocation mechanisms (TCH or SDCCH) as well as intra-BSC handovers operation. Tools (protocol analysers) such as Siemens K11XX or K12XX series. BSC-MSC Interface (A): FoAllows capture additional information on the protocol operation and BSS - NSS problems. Tools such as Siemens K11XX or K12XX series.
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Radio interface analysis

Radio interface analysis tools: essential to identify the origins of the problems (handover failures, coverage holes, bad quality due to interference, call drop, ). Mobiles with trace: display the serving cell frequency, the allocated time slot number, RXLEV and RXQUAL, neighbouring cells list, neighbouring cells BCCHs, timing advance, ... Data can be stored in a laptop. GPS receiver connection allows to display on a map (for instance in MAPINFO) the mobile trajectory and the evolutions of the indicated parameters.

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ERICSSON TEMS TOOL EXAMPLE

A measurement chain using TEMS includes: PC software with a serial port for the data, TEMS mobile with trace including the related software, GPS receiver.

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TEMS collected information

- Serving cell and neighbouring cells identities (BSICs) and BCCH frequencies. - Radio parameters: RXLev, RXQual, TXPower, DTX, Timing Advance, FER, SQI (voice quality), C1, C2, - Current channel: CGI (MCC, MNC, LAC, CI), BSIC, BCCH ARFCN, TCH ARFCN, Time slot, Channel type, Channel mode (FR, EFR, HR), Hopping Channel, Hopping Frequencies, HSN (Hopping Sequence Number). - Map to display the measurement itinerary with: parameters values, main events (handover, call drop, ) and sites position. A GPS receiver is required for this feature. - Level 2 messages (RR-RSP, DISC-CMD, UA-RSP, SABM-CMD, ) and 3 (Synch Channel Information, System Information Type 6, Measurement Report, Synch Channel Information, Paging Request, Assignement Complete, Handover Complete, ). - Frequency scanning.
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Voice quality analysis

QVOICE example (Ascom)
This tool allows: - To recognize FR and EFR types of coding. - To measure the voice quality of several networks in parallel. - Store the differents voice effects (live recording), - To detect blank, mettalic voice, Ping-Pong effect, echos problems.

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OMC-R counters analysis to partir des

Counters transmitted by the BSCs to the OMC-R. Essentials to analyse the quality, to detect problems, to realize statistics, at the system side. Analysis tools use these counters (generally, these are specific). Example: Alcatel RNO or NPA, Metrica.

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EXAMPLE OF A QUALITY REPORT TABLE

Operator quality monitoring teams may developp applications (Excel based typically) to extract the required information.
BSC OUARDIA1
CELL TBLOCTCH TBLOCSD TRUPTCH TRUPTSD THBETERC TEHOSintra TEHOSinter TEHOEintra TEHOEinter TEHO/cel HODROP

Aeroport_Tunis_M_12_2 Aeroport_Tunis_M_51 Asdrubal_13_3 Asdrubal_7_1 Asdrubal_7_2 Bardo_10_1 Bardo_10_2 Bardo_10_3 Belvedere1_1 Belvedere1_2 Belvedere2_3

1,0% 0,0% 0,0% 0,0% 0,4% 0,0% 5,9% 0,2% 0,0% 0,0% 0,0%

0,1% 0,0% 0,4% 0,0% 0,0% 0,3% 0,9% 0,0% 0,0% 0,0% 1,0%

2,3% 1,3% 1,0% 0,6% 0,8% 1,3% 0,7% 0,6% 0,5% 0,9% 0,6%

0,3% 0,0% 0,3% 0,3% 0,4% 0,5% 0,4% 0,3% 0,2% 0,2% 0,3%

90,0% 15,7% 64,6% 69,1% 59,7% 52,2% 26,5% 41,6% 48,4% 55,3% 46,1%

2,2% 3,0% 2,5% 3,3% 3,8% 12,3% 9,0% 12,4% 3,5% 4,1% 6,5%

13,6% 0,0% 72,5% 17,6% 19,4% 34,8% 42,5% 32,5% 10,3% 45,1% 14,4%

6,5% 10,1% 3,0% 2,5% 5,0% 9,3% 17,6% 5,2% 2,1% 4,7% 46,0%

33,3% 0,0% 5,9% 10,6% 8,9% 7,2% 13,9% 3,3% 5,0% 11,1% 95,5%

2,1% 6,7% 4,5% 1,3% 7,1% 0,0% 0,0% 1,0% 2,2% 1,0%

0,3% 0,0% 0,6% 0,2% 0,2% 0,4% 0,2% 0,1% 0,2% 0,5% 0,2%

Quality of service indicators Indicator TBLOCTCH TRUPTCH THBETERC TEHOSinter TEHOEinter HODROP Meaning TCH blocking rate (TCH congestion) TCH dropping rate Best cell criterion HO rate Inter-BSC outgoing HO failure rate Inter-BSC incoming HO failure rate Call drop due to HO problem Indicator TBLOCSD TRUPTSD TEHOSintra TEHOEintra TEHO/cel Meaning SDCCH bloking rate (SDCCH congestion) SDCCH dropping rate Intra-BSC outgoing HO failure rate Intra-BSC incoming HO failure rate Intra-cell HO failure rate

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- 5 DECISION PROCESS

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ANALYSIS PROCESS
Field measurements OMC counters analysis Subscribers complaints

Problems analysis and detection

- Parameters adjustment - On-site intervention - Maintenance actions - ...

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DECISIONS EXAMPLES
Interference Capacity Problem Coverage Detection Access failure rate Call drop rate Important RXLEV HO rate Communication quality RXQUAL HO rate Call dropping Blocking rate HO failure rate Solutions New sites Antennas (tilt, azimuths, aperture) TMA installation Frequency change Power control tuning Antennas action TRX adjunction Cell load distribution HO thresholds and cell access parameters adjustment - HO parameters adjustement - BTSs power adjustment -

Handover Ping Pong

- Bad quality - Micro-communication interruption

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CONCLUSIONS
Network optimisation is a continuous process. Requires well-trained and experienced staff. Many problems can have various origins (maintenance, parameters tuning, features activation, frequency planning, equipment installation, ). Close interaction between Quality Monitoring Team, Engineering Department and Maintenance Teams is necessary.
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