Accessibility/Retainability

2G TROUBLESHOOTING

DCR (Retainability)
There are two types of call drops given below:
>Call drop over SDCCH: Indicating the call drop occurs in the
course during which BSC assigns a SDCCH to an MS but a TCH
has not been successfully assigned yet .
>Call drop over TCH: Indicating the call drop occurs after BSC
assigns a TCH to MS successfully.
The Channel currently occupied is of TCH type when BSC
sends a clear Request message to MSC.
The cause values for sending clear Request are as follows:
> Radio Interface Message Failure
>O&M Intervention
> Equipment Failure
>Protocol Error Between BSS and MSC
>Preemption
Causes of Drop Call:
>Coverage
>HO
>UPLINK /DOWNLINK CAUSED BY ANTENNA & FEEDER
SYSTEM
>Interference
>Transmission Failure
Coverage:
Discontinuous coverage (Blind area):
>Call drop is caused by isolated BTS. As the signal is of weak
strength and poor quality at the edge of an isolated BTS,
handover to other cells cannot be implemented, and thus call
drop occurs.
>If BTS lies in the place where the landform is intricate and
radio propagation environment is complicated (e.g., a
mountainous area), it may cause call drop owing to
discontinuous coverage.
Poor Indoor Coverage :
>In the place where many buildings are located, call drop
easily occurs due to high transmission attenuation, low
indoor level and great penetrate loss.
Beyond Coverage :
>Owing to some reasons, the coverage of a serving cell is
beyond the defined coverage. For example, the power in cell
A is so high that a MS still occupies the signals of cell A after it
moves out of the coverage of the adjacent cell B that has
been defined by cell A and reaches cell C.
>However, cell A has not defined cell C as an adjacent cell
yet, so at this time the MS cannot find a proper cell when it

tries to perform a handover according to the adjacent cell B

provided by cell A, thus call drop occurs.
Shortage of coverage :
It may be caused by some equipment failure in a cell. For
example, the antenna is obstructed or the carrier taking
BCCH (power amplifier) gets faulty.
Handover:
Unreasonable Parameters :
>For example, if the level of the handover candidate cell is
set to be too low and the handover threshold is set to be too
little, some MSs will be handed over to the adjacent cell
when the level of the adjacent is a little stronger than that of
the serving cell for a time.
>But after a while, if the signal of the adjacent cell faint, and
it happens no proper cell is available for handover, call drop
could occur. See example 6 for call drop resulting from
improper settings of handover parameters.
Adjacent cell undefined:
>If an adjacent cell has not been defined yet, MS will keep
communicating in the serving cell until it goes out of its
coverage. At this time, call drop shall occur since MS cannot
be handed over to a cell with stronger signals.
>Existence od adjacent cells with same BSIC and BCCH
Frequency .
Traffic Congestion :
>Unbalance of traffic may cause handover failure due to lack
of handover channel available for the destination BTS. When
reestablishment of handover channel fails too, call drop
occurs.
>BTS Clock out of synchronization and frequency offset
beyond limits ,which can cause handover failure and call drop
.
Interference
>There are co-channel interference, adjacent-channel
interference and inter-modulation interference. When MS
receives signals in the serving cell with strong co-channel or
adjacent-channel interference, it may aggravate BER and
make MS cannot accurately demodulate BSIC of the adjacent
cell or BTS cannot correctly receive measurement reports of
MS.
>The interference threshold is set as co-channel carrier-tointerference ratio C/I9dB and adjacent-channel carrier-tointerference ratio C/A9dB. When the interference index is

so bad that it exceeds the threshold, conversations in

network shall be interfered, thus conversation of poor quality
and call drop might occur.
Causes UL /DL caused by Antenna & Feeder System
>Improper installation of antenna and/or feeder. For
example, the Tx antenna between two cells is installed just
reversedly, which shall make the uplink signal level is much
poorer than the downlink one, thus cause call drop, single
pass or difficult connection occurring far from the BTS.
>If single polarization antenna is adopted, a cell has two sets
of such antennas. If their azimuths are different, call drop
might occur.

A directional cell has a main antenna and a diversity

antenna, so it is possible that BCCH and SDCCH of this
cell come from the two different antennas. Different
azimuths will cause different coverage, consequently,
although the user can receive BCCH signal, it cannot
occupy SDCCH sent by another antenna when
originating a call, thus call drop occurs.
>As there are Abis interface and A interface link, poor quality
transmission and unstable transmission link also may cause
call drop.

Observe transmission and board alarms (e.g., FTC

failure alarm, A interface PCM out of sync alarm, LAPD
link break alarm, power amplifier alarm, HPA alarm,
TRX alarm, CUI/FPU alarm). Based on alarm data,
analyze whether transmission is intermittent or
whether there are faulty boards (e.g., the carrier board
is faulty or in poor contact).

Check transmission paths, test BER and check whether

E1 connector or grounding of equipment is reasonable,
thus decrease call drops by ensuring stable
transmission quality.

Observe whether there are too many call drops caused

by transmission problem via traffic measurement.
a) in TCH performance measurement of traffic
measurement observe whether there are too many A
interface failures when TCH is occupied.
b) In TCH performance measurement observe whether
the TCH availability rate is abnormal.
c) In TCH performance measurement observe
whether there are too many call drops caused by
interruption of terrestrial link.

Accessibility/Retainability

2G TROUBLESHOOTING

Drop Call Rate est relacionado con los sigs KPIs:

>TCH Drop Rate
>HO Success Rate

TCH Drop Call (Retainability):

The formula for measuring TCH Drop Rate (Optimi, Movistar,
Ericsson <Ericsson uses more parameters in case of
denominator who make reference to HO>) is:
=

_ _

+
+

+
+

+
+

Interference on Uplink/Downlink
Excessive TA
Incorrect/Not optimum Parameter settings for example
power regulation
Missing Ncells or Congestion in Ncells
MS or MS Battery problems
Subscriber Behavior
Antenna/Hardware or Transmission faults
Incorrect Installations

Check site location

& TALIM

YES

NO

Check lost
handovers
Most dropped
Call during
HO?

Perform handover
analysis

YES

NO

Check site
position
YES

Remove site or change

frequency

NO

Check BTS Error Log

Check locating parameters

HW
fault?

TFNDROP The total number of dropped full-rate TCH in UL

subcell.
TFNDROPSUB The total number of dropped full-rate TCH in
OL subcell.
THNDROP The total number of dropped half-rate TCH in
UL subcell.
TCHNDROPSUB The total number of dropped half-rate in
OL subcell.
THCASSALL Number of assignement complete messages
for all MS power classes in UL subcell, half-rate.
THCASSALLSUB Number of assignement complete
messages for all MS power classes in OL subcell, half-rate.
TFCASSALL Number of assignement complete messages
for all MS power classes in UL subcell, full-rate.
TFCASSALLSUB Number of assignement complete
messages for all MS power classes in OL subcell, full-rate.

Bad parameter
setting?

YES

Correct parameter
setting

Swap & repair

HW

YES

NO

Check link quality and

Synchronization

NO

Transmission
fault?

Check radio network features

Perform link
investigation

YES

NO

Power regulation
used properly?

NO

Correct power regulation

parameters

Best server
exists?

Add site

NO

YES

Check Dropped Calls per TS basis

YES

Check output power

Check MS fleet
Perform site survey

Power
balance?

NO

Adjust output power

DTX
used?

NO

Introduce
DTX

YES

NO

Activate frequency
hopping

YES

Missing
neighbours?

YES

Run NCS

NO

Check dropped call

reason
Bad
quality?

YES

Perform interference
analysis

NO
NO

Low signal
strength

Perform drive tests

Perform MTR/CTR
recordings

YES

Frequency
hopping
used?

The TCH Drop Call reasons has the following priority order:
>Excessive TA

TA > TALIM cell parameter

>Low signal strength in downlink and/or uplink

SSUL < LOWSSUL (BSC parameter)

SSDL < LOWSSDL

>Bad quality in downlink and/or uplink

RxQualUL> BADQUL (BSC parameter)

RxQualDL> BADQDL
>Sudden loss of connection

None of the above

>Other

Non radio-related
TCH Drop Call Optimization
Analyze the following issues that could be possible reasons
for poor TCH Drop performance:

Low Signal strength on Uplink/Downlink

High timing
advance

Dragoon
site?

Dropped Calls on TCH

100

YES

Perform low signal

strength analysis

Check antenna
installation

END

Accessibility/Retainability

2G TROUBLESHOOTING

DCR (RETAINABILITY)
Causas:
>Low SS UL
>Low SS DL
>Sudden
>RxQual UL
>RxQual DL
>Others
RxQual UL:
Causas:
Una celda A radia e interfiere el rea de cobertura de una
celda B. Los MS conectados a la celda B estn interfiriendo a
los MS conectados en la celda A.
Checar:
TA - Time in advance
RxQual DL:
Causas:
Una BTS A radia e interfiere el rea de cobertura de una celda
B y la BTS A interfiere a los MS conectados a la BTS B.
Checar:
Cobertura de BTS A y B
TA Timing Advance
Asignacin de frecuencias
HCN
Asinacin de MAIO
HW Posible radio daado
Low SS UL:
Checar:
TA relacionado con problema en TMA. Observar grfica de
SS_DL y SS_UL si se mueve un valor de 12dB por lo tanto si es
TMA.
Low SS DL:
Checar:
HW - Antena daada
HW - VSWR con valor alto
HW - TRX daado
Sudden:
Checar: Problema relacionado directamente con HW
Others:
Checar:
Corrimientos en enlace
Transcoders de la BSC

HOFR (RETAINABILITY)
The formula for measuring HOFR (Optimi, Movistar) is:
=

ATT= HOVERCNT
SUCC=HOVERSUC

100

sum of HO attempts
sum of HO Successful

Handover in Ericsson BSS system is controlled by what is

called as the locating algorithm in the BSC. Locating algorithm
i
operates on the basis of Measurement Reports (MR) sent in
by the MS on SACCH.
The inputs that the BSC uses for making a handover decision,
from the received MRs from the MS is the DL signal strength,
DL quality, and the signal strength of the six best reported
neighbours. From the serving BTS, for the same MS the BSC
will use UL signal strength, UL quality and TA.
Possible reasons for poor HO Performance:
>Neighbor Cells impact the following radio network areas:
Coverage
Interference
Incorrect parameter settings
Unnecessary or Missing NCELL relations
Hardware or Link/Transmission Faults
Missing Frequencies in the Measurement list
Poor Inter MSC/BSC handover performance
TCH Congestion
Frecuency plan, specifically for BCCH carriers
The values of the hysteresis
The filter lengths
The BSIC planning
The length of the active mode BA list
The defined nieghbours
The settings of parameters controlling TA and BQ
urgency HO
The setting of parameters controlling Assignment to
other cell
The values of the layer change thresholds when more
than one Hierarchical layer si used
>Handovers for Downlink Quality
-The HO is performed because DL conditions on the serving
cell are becoming too poor, there the BSC selects the best
neighboring cell as the target for the HO
Investigation
-Too strict configuration of the Handover parameters

-Hardware problems : Especially if the rates are high (around

100%) it can be due to the radio parts of the BTS on the
downlink (TRX, transmission antenna, feeders ...)
-GSM interference : co-channel or adjacent channel
-Radio Coverage : HO for UL Quality as well as HO for Level
reasons (UL and/or DL) shall be observed on the cell.
>Handovers for Uplink Quality- The HO is performed
because UL conditions on the serving cell are becoming too
poor, there the BSC selects the best neighboring cell as the
target for the HO
>Investigation
-Bad parameters settings
-If rates are high, probably hardware problem on the radio
uplink transmission part (TRX, antenna, diversity, feeders)
-Coverage problems(if also associated to HO for uplink level)
-Jamming on the uplink (if confirmed by bad RACH efficiency)
-GSM interference : if theres an equivalent rate of handovers
for downlink quality
>Handovers for Downlink Level
-The HO is performed because DL conditions on the serving
cell are becoming too poor, there the BSC selects the best
neighboring cell as the target for the HO
>Investigation
-In normal cases, this should be very rare so if the rates are
high it is probably: Bad parameters settings or Hardware
problems on the downlink
>Handovers for Uplink Level
-The HO is performed because UL conditions on the serving
cell are becoming too poor, there the BSC selects the best
neighboring cell as the target for the HO
>Investigation
-Insufficient coverage (if associated also with an equivalent
rate of uplink quality)
-Bad handover parameters settings for the cell
-Hardware problems (high rates) if the downlink and the
uplink are not balanced
-Could come from ping pong handover between two cells
(one leaves one of the cells for quality, then comes back for
level and so on, for example)

Accessibility/Retainability

2G TROUBLESHOOTING
Unsuccessful Handovers

Check congestion
performance

Is the cell at inter-MSC

border?

TCH
congestion?

Add TCH
capacity

YES

YE
S

Check inter-MSC HO
performance

NO

_ _

Check BTS Error Log

NO

Check SAE setting

SW
congestion?

HW
fault?

YE
S

Swap & repair HW

Increase SAE

YES

NO

NO

Check link quality

Check Neighbouring cell definitions

Wrong cells
defined?

YES

Remove incorrect
definitions

Transmission
fault?

YES

Add missing
relation

Perform site visit

NO

Too many
neighbours?

Improve
transmission

YE
S

NO

NO

Missing
neighbours?

Remove unnecessary
relations

YES

NO

Too many
measurement
channels?

Check antenna
installation

Antenna connected to
wrong feeder?
YES

YE
S

Change feeder

Review and correct the

defined MBCCHNO
NO

NO

Incorrect
downtilt?

Check Locating parameters

YE
S

Correct tilting

NO

Strange or corrupt
parameter setting?

YES

Correct parameters

Hided
antenna?

YE
S

Change antenna
position

YE
S

Correct installation

NO
NO

Paging Success Rate (ACCESSIBILITY)

The formula for measuring Paging Success Rate (Optimi,
Movistar) is:

Bad antenna
installation?

NO

100

PAGPCHCONG Number of paging messages discarded due

to full cell paging queue
PAGETOOOLD Number of paging messages discarded due
to being too long in the paging queue. At the point when a
page is taken from the paging queue, its age is calculated and
compared to the BTS parameter AGE-OF-PAGING (the
parameter is set to 5seg in Ericsson BSS). If it is too old, it is
discarded and PAGETOOLD is incremented.
THCASSALL Number of assignement complete messages
for all MS power classes in UL subcell, half-rate.
THCASSALLSUB Number of assignement complete
messages for all MS power classes in OL subcell, half-rate.
TFCASSALL Number of assignement complete messages
for all MS power classes in UL subcell, full-rate.
TFCASSALLSUB Number of assignement complete
messages for all MS power classes in OL subcell, full-rate.

END

Delayed handover

YES

decision?

Check handover
parameters

ACCESSIBILITY

NO

Ability for mobiles to set up calls.

Check use of radio

features

Are all radio

features used?

YES

Introduce unused
features

NO

Check coverage

Check interference

Probable causes related to accessibility:

Congestion due to amount of traffic
Interference (Quality of network)
Hardware or Transmission issues
Software file congestion
Coverage (no coverage)

Perform drive test

Timer Expiry After

MS is Lost
YES

Low SS on cell
border?

YES

Improve coverage

NO
NO

Bad
quality?

Call attempts
Start from: Successful random accesses
To: successful immediate SDCCH assignements
Finally: Successful assignement on TCH

YES

Reduce interference for

potential candidate

Accessibility includes de following KPIs:

Paging Success Rate
Location Update Success Rate
Random Access Failure
SDCCH Time Congestion
TCH Assignment Failure

Paging process:
> Step-1
In response to an incoming call, the MSC initiates the paging
process by broadcasting a paging request message on the
paging sub channel (IMSI or TMSI of the MS and its Paging
Group) and starts timer T3113. A paging message consists
of the mobile identity (IMSI or TMSI) of the MS being paged
and its paging group number.
>Step-2
The BSC receives this page and processes the paging request
and schedules it for transmission on the PCH at appropriate
time.
>Step-3
The MS on its part will analyse the paging messages sent on
the paging sub channel corresponding to its paging group.
>Step-4
Upon receipt of a page at the MS, the MS responds by
transmitting a channel request on the RACH.
>Step-5
BSS in response to the received channel request, will
process it and immediately assign the MS a SDCCH
(immediate assignment / assignment reject; done over
AGCH).
>Step-6

Accessibility/Retainability

2G TROUBLESHOOTING

MS Paging response- After receiving the immediate

assignment command, MS switches to the assigned SDCCH
and transmits a Paging Response.
>Step-7
The establishment of the main signalling link is then initiated
(E1) with information field containing the PAGING
RESPONSE message and the paging response is sent to the
MSC.
>Step-8
Upon receipt of the Paging Response MSC stops the timer
T3113. If the timer T3113 expires and a Paging Response
message has not been received, the MSC may repeat the
Paging Request message and start T3113 all over again. The
number of successive paging attempt is a network dependent
choice
>Paging Capacity for BTS:
MFRMS*(CCCH blocks - AGBLK) * X (X=4 when TMSI based
paging is used & X=2 when IMSI based paging is used)
When the rate of paging load at the RBS becomes higher
than what the RBS is able to handle (paging capacity of RBS),
RBS will start discarding pages (check for high page discard
stats at the cell level).
Paging Queue Length = 14 (Number of Paging Groups/10)
Which means higher the number of paging groups in a cell
(that is higher the MFRMS settings), lower will be the Paging
Queue length, this will compensate for lower number of
Paging Queue available at lower MFRMS. One Paging
Queue per Paging Group is available at the cell level (that
means when we decrease the number of paging groups for
the cell by reducing MFRMS to lower numbers, we actually
reduce the number of available paging queue).
>Paging capacity in BSC:
Paging Bottleneck at the BSC usually is the number of RP
signals that can be sent from the CP to the RPDs in the TRHs.
Calculations for number of pages per second:
NO _ PAGE=

RPSIG
NO _ TRH RPp

With more TRHs the paging capacity for the BSC decreases.
With more LACs within a BSC the paging capacity for the
BSC increases.
Analyze the following issues that could be possible reasons
for poor Paging Performance:

Insufficient coverage

High interference

Non-optimum Paging Strategy

Non-optimum Paging parameter settings

Paging Congestion in MSc, BSC or BTS

De-activated or incorrect use of Paging features

The following actions can improve Paging Congestion:
MSC Paging Congestion
Increase SAE
BSC/BTS Paging Congestion
Check Paging Strategy
Increase number of Location Areas (This will increase
SDCCH load)
Set BCCHTYPE to NCOMB
Use TMSI paging requests
Ensure IMSI attach/detach is activated (ATT = yes)
Decrease T3212/BTDM (This will increase SDCCH load)

(2)

RPSIG Maximum number of RP signals per second

TRXpTRH Average number of TRXs per TRH
NO_LA Number of Location Areas
NO_TRH
Number of TRHs belonging to the BSC
NO_TRX Number of TRXs belonging to the BSC
NO_CELLS Number of cells
RPp Probability that an RP signal is sent to an TRH
NO_PAGE Number of pages per second

Low Location Updating

Success

border
cell?

Yes

Reallocate to another LA or MSC

Increase CRH

No

Low CRH
Hysterisis?

Yes

Increase CRH

No

Low Paging Success

Yes

Re-dimensioning LA

No

No TMSI Attach
/ Detach?

Yes

Activate

Short perodic
registration?

Yes

Check T3212 in BSC &

BTDM in MSC

No

No

Wrong periodic location

updating setting?

Yes

Correct T3212 in BSC,

BTDM & GTDM in MSC

No

SDCCH
Congestion?

Paging
congestion?

Interference?

Yes

Increase SDCCH channel

Adaptive configuration feature

Plan more LA
Use TMSI paging

Yes

Activate

No

Implicit detach
after not periodic
registration not use?
No

END

Yes

Activate

Yes

Correct settings for SAE 500 Block

MLUAP, MLCAP,MLVAP,MMMLR

Yes

Increase SDCCH channel

Adaptive configuration feature

No

Automatic
deregistration?

No

TMSI paging
not use?

Check frequency plan

Activate radio feature

No

SDCCH
Congestion?
Yes

Yes

No

Software File
Congestion?

TRXpTRH

_ CELLS

RPp=1
1 NONO
_ TRX NO _ LA

Location Area (LA) dimensioning strategies:

>Size of a LA must not exceed the maximum paging capacity
for the BTS / BSC
>In a rural area, it is easy to find LA border cells. But theres
no reason to have a smaller LA than required
>General rule of thumb: 1 LAC per BSC
>If a BSC covers a large area with high traffic, consider
splitting the LA. This will reduce the paging load in BTS and
BSC
>In larger cities, SDCCH load will be higher for LA border cells.
If difficult is experienced to find LA border cells and the BSC
coverage area is small, several BSCs can share one LA
>Define LA border at cells with low subscriber density

Bad LA
Demensioning?

No

(1)

Location Update (ACCESSIBILITY)

END

Yes

Activate automatic
de-registration

Accessibility/Retainability

2G TROUBLESHOOTING

SDCCH Congestion(Accessibility)
SDCCH Activities:
>Mobility Management

Normal Location update

Periodic Registration

IMSI Attach / Detach

Connection Management

Call setup

SMS Point to Point

Fax Setup
SDCCH Channel Allocation:
>Channel Configuration can be done as follow

Combined BCCH/SDCCH on 1 TS (SDCCH/4)

Non-Combined BCCH and SDCCH on 2 TS (SDCCH/8)

Cell Broadcast Channel (CBCH)

The Cell Broadcast service provides the transmission of

an SMS from a message-handling centre to all MSs in
the serving area of the BTS.

If the Cell Broadcast service is active in a cell, one

signaling sub-channel is replaced by one CBCH resulting
in a SDCCH/7
SDCCH Channel Allocation Profile (CHAP)
>SDCCH Channel Allocation Profile (CHAP)

Channel Allocation is the feature that selects and

allocates suitable channels when one or more channels
are required

Channel Allocation Profile (CHAP) is the parameter that

provides different channel allocation strategies

For SDCCH assignments, CHAP 8 prioritize new

assignments as follows:
1) OL/SDCCH
2) UL/SDCCH (if OL/SDCCH is congested)
SDCCH Dimensioning Strategy:
>GOS Approach:

SDCCH should be dimensioned for better GOS compare

to TCH. Typical range is 0.5% - 1%.

Immediate Assignment of TCH with TCH as last option

strategy is recommended.

It is recommended to add SDCCH when 0.5 Erlang of

signaling traffic is carried by TCH.

Half Rate penetration, usage of Extended Range cell

and HSCSD should be taken into consideration.
>STS Approach:
Accurate dimensioning is achieved by using STS cell statistics

SDCCH Congestion Optimization:

SDCCH Congestion

>Analyze the following issues that could be possible reasons

for SDCCH Congestion:

SDCCH Dimensioning

Incorrect use of SDCCH capacity features such as

Adaptive Configuration of Logical channels

TCH Congestion

Location Areas not optimized

SMS usage and Cell Broadcast channel

SDCCH Availability
>The following recommendations will have a positive impact
on SDCCH congestion

Try not to use combined BCCH/SDCCH (SDCCH/4)

Use the optional SDCCH capacity features such as the

Adaptive Configuration of Logical Channel feature when
available.

Use Immediate Assignment on TCH, SDCCH first.

For manual dimensioning, use STS cell statistics

Configure one SDCCH on the BCCH carrier and the

others on the hopping layer (Non-BCCH)

Use the Ericsson SDCCH Dimensioning guideline.

>The following issues are worth taking into account when
analyzing SDCCH Congestion:

Use LAPD STS statistics to evaluate LAPD congestion

and optimize the LAPD Concentration factor

Analyze border cells with a large amount of random

access attempts resulting in SDCCH congestion.
>Use Random Access optimization to solve the SDCCH
congestion

Take into account Timeslot priority when deciding

where to configure SDC

Check HW availabilty

Low
availability?

YES

See TCH & SDCCH

Availability

NO

Check site position

Location area
border?

YES

YES

NO

Check and increase

CRH
Change Location
Area Border

Check TCH traffic

TCH
Congestion?

YES

Add TCH
capacity

NO

Check SMS activity

Many SMS
messages?

YES

Redimension
SDCCH

NO

Check periodic
registration

Too frequent
registration?

YES

Change registration
interval timers

NO

E
E
Check channel configuration

Combined
SDCCH?

YES

Make channel
non-combined

NO

Is cell broadcast
used?

YES

Avoid cell broadcast if

possible

NO

Check traffic trend

Short term
traffic growth?

YES

No activity

NO

Check SDCCH mean holding time

Long mean holding

time?

YES

Check HW and number

of False Accesses

NO

Check SDCCH dimensioning

Underdimensioned
SDCCH?

YES

Redimension
SDCCH

Check Adaptive configuration of

logical channel and parameters

ACSTATE off?
NO

END

YES

Switch on

Accessibility/Retainability

2G TROUBLESHOOTING

SDCCH Drops(Accessibility):
RANDOM ACCESS SUCCESS RATE (Accessibility):

Check SDCCH Dropped Per Cell

The formula for measuring SDCCH Drop Rate(Ericsson,

Optimi) is:
_ _ =

The formula for measuring SDCCH Drop Rate(Ericsson) is:

Check drop
reason

100

CNDROP The total number of dropped SDCCH channels in

a cell
CNRELCONG Total number dropped (released connections
on SDCCH due to TCH or Transcoder congestion in UL subcell.
CNRELCONGSUB The subset d for OL subcell
CMSESTAB Total number of successful MS channel
establishment on SDCCH.
SDCCH Drops are classified into one of the following
categories:
>SDCCH Drops because of Timing Advance
>SDCCH Drops because of Low Signal Strength
>SDCCH Drops because of Bad Quality
>SDCCH Drops due to Other Reasons
SDCCH Drop Optimization
>Analyze the following issues that could be possible reasons
for SDCCH Drops:

Low signal strength

Interference

Pathloss Imbalance between UL/DL

High Timing Advance

MS error or Subscriber behavior

TCH Congestion

Transmission Congestion (LAPD Concentration)

Hardware or Transmission failures

>The following issues are worth taking into account when
analyzing SDCCH Drops:
SDCCH Drops and TCH Drops often drop because of the same
RF reasons, such as for example insufficient coverage

Only use SDCCH power regulation and SDCCH HO when

the network has good coverage

BSC and transmission problems can impact SDCCH

drops so investigate Transcoders, A-interface and LAPD

SDCCH Drops on the hopping layer are normally

showing worse values than SDCCH on the BCCH

Bad
quality?

YES

Check ICM
Check frequency Plan
Run MRR & FAS
Frequency scan

NO

Low
SS?

YES

Refer to Low SS
analysis flowchart.

NO
YES

High
TA?

Check site location

& TALIM

NO

YES
TCH
Congestion ?

Check S_DR-S_NTC
Increase TCH or using
Radio Features, CLS, HCS

NO

Check BTS error

log

HW
fault?

YES

Swap &
Repair HW

NO

= 1

100

RAACCFA Number of Failed Random Accesses. This

counter is incremented for a Random access received with
too high TA, values that are not used or in case of "software
file congestion" (i.e. when the internal storage area in the
BSC is full which is a very rare case only occurring at very high
loads
CNROCNT Number of Failed Random Accesses. This
counter is incremented for a Random access received with
too high TA, values that are not used or in case of "software
file congestion" (i.e. when the internal storage area in the
BSC is full which is a very rare case only occurring at very high
loads.
PDRAC The counter value is incremented when a 44.058
CHANNEL REQUIRED containing 44.018 CHANNEL REQUEST
with establishment cause "One Phase Packet Access" or
"Single Block Packet Access" is received on RACH.

B
B

Check Link Quality

YES

Transmission fault?
NO

Check MS fleet

Perform Drive Test

Perform MTR/CTR/MRR

Perform site survey

Check antenna installation

END

Perform link
investigation

The measurements are done per cell for random access

channels.
For every cell there are counters registering the number of
random access attempts received in the BSC.
Random Accesses can be distributed into the following types:
>MS Originated RA
>Call Re-establishment
>Emergency Calls
>Answer to Paging
>All Other Cases

IMSI Attach/Detach

Location Updates

Period Registration
>Analyze the following issues that could be possible reasons
for high Random Access failure rate:
-High interference
-Lack of Coverage
-High Timing Advance
-Handover access burst mistaken as random access burst
-Non-optimized parameter settings
-Software Congestion (SAE)

Accessibility/Retainability

2G TROUBLESHOOTING
Not Approved Random Accesses

Check BSIC allocation

Check frequency plan

Access burst from

another co-channel
cell

YES

Change BSIC or
frequency plan

NO

Check cell parameter setting

MAXTA too
low?

Increase
MAXTA

YES

NO

Check site location

High located
site?

YES

Consider tilting or
lowering site

NO

Check SAE (COFLP,

DBTSP:TAP=SAACTION;)
Software file
congestion?

Increase SAE

YES

NO

Check interference

Check if unknown access code

High noise
floor?

YES

Reduce interference

NO

SUMEIABSUCC Sum of Successful External Assignment

Handovers to Better Cell (Incoming Handover)
SUMEIAWSUCC Sum of Successful External Assignment
Handovers to Worse Cell (Incoming Handover)
SUMIABSUCC Sum of Successful Internal Assignment
Handovers to Better Cell (Incoming Handover)
SUMIAWSUCC Sum of Successful Internal Assignment
Handovers to Worse Cell (Incoming Handover)
The TCH assignment success rate measures how often a call
set-up, ordered by the MSC, has been successful
>The major issues impacting TCH assignment failures are:
-TCH congestion
-Radio reasons such as coverage and interference
-Hardware or transmission problems
-Congestion can be defined as follow:
-The probability that a call attempt cannot be handled
successfully, because of not enough free circuits and other
switching equipments
-The Congestion (Blocking) Probability represented by B (n, A)
is determined by Offered traffic A and the number of
available circuits n

END

TCH Assignment Failure (Accessibility):

The formula for measuring TCH Assignment Failure (Ericsson)
is:
=

+
+

!"
"

+ #$ %&'"
+ #$ %&'"

+ #$$
( 100
+ #$$

outg(AB+AW)=SUMEOABSUCC+SUMEOAWSUCC+SUMOABSU
CC+SUMOAWSUCC
inc(AB+AW)=SUMEIABSUCC+SUMIAWSUCC+SUMIABSUCC+S
UMIAWSUCC
SUMEOABSUCC Sum of Successful External Assignment
Handovers to Better Cell (Outgoing Handover)
SUMEOAWSUCC Sum of Successful External Assignment
Handovers to Worse Cell (Outgoing Handover)
SUMOABSUCC Sum of Successful Internal Assignment
Handovers to Better Cell (Outgoing Handover)
SUMOAWSUCC Sum of Successful Internal Assignment
Handovers to Worse
Cell (Outgoing Handover)

Congestion Improvement
>Congestion can be improved by short, medium and long
term actions
>Medium and Long term:

Expansions: Add capacity to existing cells

Sectorize omni cells

Indoor and capacity microcells

Additional macro sites

>Short term:

Optimization of access parameters

Activation and optimization of capacity features

Congestion Improvement Expansions
Expansions need to be planned in advance Before
capacity is needed
Important for operators to have an expansion
procedure in place
Expansions can be limited by a variety of issues, for
example available spectrum
The following presentation take a more detailed look at
traffic and capacity management

Overlaid/Underlaid subcells
Cell Load Sharing (CLS)
AMR Half-rate (AHR)
Assignment to Worse Cell
Hierarchical Cell Structures (HCS)

Analyze the following issues that could be possible reasons

for TCH Assignment failures:
Low Signal strength or no dominant serving cell
Interference
Congestion on TCH
Incorrect use of Capacity features
Faulty Hardware or transmission
Incorrect Output power
It is worth taking into account the following issues when
optimizing TCH Assignment failures:
Make sure that problems with network availability are
not the cause of congestion
Often congestion problems are caused by network
design issues such as cells covering a large area
Try to make sure that as far as possible calls are made
on the best serving cell to reduce the negative impact
on Retainability and Voice Quality
Radio capacity features such as for example CLS should
preferably be only used as short or medium term
solutions for congestion.
Low TCH Assignment Success Rate

Check TCH congestion

Congestion
on TCH?

Add tranceivers or BTS

YES

Correct parameters

NO

Check output power

YES

Low output
power?

YES

Check output power

parameters

Corrupt parameter
setting?

NO
NO

Check BTS Error Log

Check Signal Strength of

BCCH and TCH
NO

HW
fault?

Swap & repair

HW

YES

YES

Check coverage plots

Adjust TCH output
power
Perform drive tests

Dominant
server exists?

NO

Add
BTS

YES

Check Interference

Congestion Improvement Short Term

>The following features can be used to ensure efficient use of
installed capacity and to reduce congestion:

Low SS for call

access?

NO

Disturbance
on SDCCH or
target TCH?
NO

END

YES

Improve & adjust

frequency plan