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Analyzer LTE: Training Course
Analyzer LTE: Training Course
March 2011
Analyzer LTE
The content of this manual is provided for information only, is subject to change without notice, and
should not be construed as a commitment by Actix. Actix assumes no responsibility or liability for any
errors or inaccuracies that appear in this documentation.
Copyright Actix 2011. All rights reserved. All trademarks are hereby acknowledged.
Contents
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 5
SCOPE OF THE COURSE ............................................................................................. 5
WHO SHOULD ATTEND THIS TRAINING COURSE? ............................................................... 5
PREREQUISITES ..................................................................................................... 5
Hardware requirements ................................................................................... 6
AIM OF THE COURSE ................................................................................................ 7
HELP FILE ............................................................................................................ 7
SPOTLIGHT ............................................................................................. 10
SOLVING COMMON NETWORK PROBLEMS WITH SPOTLIGHT.................................................. 10
Spotlight features ......................................................................................... 11
Whats in Spotlight? ...................................................................................... 11
Navigating around Spotlight ........................................................................... 13
What can you do with Spotlight? .................................................................... 14
GETTING STARTED................................................................................................ 15
EXPLORING WORKSPACE ......................................................................................... 16
Summary Dashboard .................................................................................... 16
LTE Report ................................................................................................... 18
Issues Panel................................................................................................. 20
CELL COVERAGE ANALYSIS ...................................................................................... 21
LTE FAILURE: DROPPED CONNECTION ANALYSIS ............................................................ 23
DATA SERVICE ANALYSIS ........................................................................................ 30
THROUGHPUT ANALYSES ......................................................................................... 32
Example 1: High Throughput Analysis ............................................................. 33
Example 2: Low Throughput Analysis .............................................................. 35
ANALYZER .............................................................................................. 39
WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH ANALYZER? .......................................................................... 39
GETTING STARTED................................................................................................ 40
EXPLORING WORKSPACE ......................................................................................... 41
VIEWING DATA .................................................................................................... 44
Displaying on chart ....................................................................................... 44
Displaying on Map ........................................................................................ 47
Displaying in a Table ..................................................................................... 48
PERFORMING LTE ANALYSES .................................................................................... 50
StateForm ................................................................................................... 50
Protocol Stack Browser .................................................................................. 55
PERFORMING CUSTOMIZED LTE ANALYSES ................................................................... 56
About Queries .............................................................................................. 56
Binned Query ............................................................................................... 57
Histogram.................................................................................................... 58
Crosstab Query ............................................................................................ 59
REPORTING NETWORK PERFORMANCE ......................................................................... 62
Creating Custom Single File Report ................................................................. 62
Creating Custom Multiple Files Report ............................................................. 65
Superstream ................................................................................................ 69
Repository ................................................................................................... 71
SAVING YOUR WORK ............................................................................................. 77
Saving Screen Layouts .................................................................................. 77
Introduction
Scope of the course
The Analyzer LTE Training Course provides a comprehensive overview of Spotlight and Analyzer for
LTE. The goal of the course is to give an understanding of the capabilities of the system and how it
can help users to improve quality of service for their network subscribers. Advanced users will be
introduced to new network applications.
The instructors for this course are experts in using Actix solutions to increase productivity, and are
familiar with the challenges faced by engineers working in cellular/PCS environments.
Class size is limited to ensure that everyone receives extensive one on one instruction. Participants
have many opportunities to ask questions relevant to their particular optimization needs. Upon
completing the course, participants will be able to use what they learned in class to identify and
solve real network problems.
The Analyzer LTE Training Course begins with a high-level presentation of the Actix platform
interface and its capabilities. We will then cover how existing optimization processes can be
tailored to the specific needs of the participants.
Prerequisites
Access to Actix software and a familiarity with the Actix software platform.
Basic computer literacy, including familiarity with Windows and MS Office applications.
Hardware requirements
A computer that should meet these minimal hardware requirements:
Item
Requirement
Processor
1+ GHz
Framework
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 and .NET 1.1 &
3.5 are installed automatically in the standard Actix
installation.
Operating System
Memory
1+ GB
Hard Disk
2 GB
Other Requirements
Appreciate common network problems and how they are classified in Spotlight and
Analyzer.
Configure Spotlight and Analyzer to work with your data and methodologies.
Appreciate different analyses methods (Event Based and Radio Network Analyses) in
Spotlight.
Appreciate manual analyses (create and customize your own methods, queries and
reports, repositories and screen layout) in Analyzer
Use Spotlight and Analyzer to analyze problems in data sets of differing sizes.
Appreciate the role thresholds perform in Spotlight and Analyzer, and how to modify them.
Spotlight related
From the Repository Analysis - Drilldown, you should be able to:
Drilldown problem by File or Time to message level with or without loading the whole file.
Help File
This training manual mainly contains LTE-related information and features in Spotlight and
Analyzer. For basic features of Spotlight and Analyzer, or information regarding how to
troubleshoot network in other technologies, please refer to HELP in Spotlight or Analyzer, which
can be accessed by clicking on the Help menu in the main menu. You can look up information
about a particular topic either by choosing an item from the index or by entering keywords to
perform a search.
Specific information such as attributes (engineering parameters) can be found in Attribute
Reference. You can look up an item in the alphabetized list, or you can open the Context Help
window, and then click on an item in the Workspace.
Key features
The following key features are available for LTE in Spotlight and Analyzer:
Analyzer
Performing customized
LTE analyses using
queries such as filter,
binned, histogram, crosstab
and event queries
No
Performing LTE
analyses based on
preconfigured
applications
Yes
Yes
If more detailed
analyses required
Spotlight
Solving common network problems with Spotlight
With the Seek-See-Solve approach, Spotlight is designed to allow you to follow your own
investigations throughout the various analysis pages and reports. However, a typical path through
Spotlight is to start from the Summary Dashboard, examine the summary map and then the
appropriate report for the loaded data, which might indicate the presence of one or more
problems. Spotlight breaks these problems down into two groups:
Cell coverage, interference problems and LTE visualization can be investigated from the Radio
Network Explorer analyses (links to these are shown as Important Issues in the Issues panel of
the Summary Dashboard). These then point you at specific problem events which you can examine
and diagnose using the Event Explorer (links to these failure events are shown as Critical Issues
in the Issues panel).
10
Spotlight features
The Spotlight features available for LTE are radio network analyses, event-based troubleshooting
and reporting.
Event-based troubleshooting
Automated root-cause diagnostics for the most common subscriber problems such as
call drops, call setup failure, location update failures, handover failures and low throughput
issues.
Reporting
Whats in Spotlight?
11
Data Configuration
A step-by-step wizard guides the user to configure thresholds and cellrefs, and also to
select data to process into the repository.
Summary Dashboard
From the Repository Dashboard, the user can choose a problem (critical or important
issues) to further investigate using either Event-based or Radio Network analyses.
Spotlight Report
Identifies critical and important issues, and provides links to summary statistics of the
loaded data files.
Event Investigation/Analyses
Provides a breakdown of the critical and important issues by filename and handset
identifier. These tabular pages are reached through links on the Summary Dashboard.
Radio Network Investigation/Analyses
Provides a breakdown of the important issues by filename and handset identifier. These
tabular pages are reached through links on the Summary Dashboard.
12
Return to Summary
Dashboard page.
Return the
current page to
its default
appearance.
13
Starting up Spotlight
No
Yes
Yes
Performing
manual analyses
in Analyzer
14
Getting Started
Before you begin, ensure that you have a valid
Spotlight/Analyzer license, a cellrefs that contains
network information and a set of data you want to
investigate. It is crucial that you follow the
following steps to avoid inaccurate results or have
to go through these steps again for
reconfiguration later.
your
Start up Spotlight.
LTE = both
UE and scanner
New
These thresholds are settings for format specific advance configuration options.
LTE_UE_PoorRSRQ_Threshold and LTE_Scan_PoorRSRQ_Threshold
15
In step 3: click on Add Files button to load your log files or data.
If you prefer to load the entire folder, click on Add Folder button.
Click on Done button to begin saving settings and loading files.
Exploring Workspace
Summary Dashboard
After the data is loaded, an overview page or Summary Dashboard is
displayed. A Summary Dashboard shows an overview of the data loaded
in the current Repository project on a per device basis. If you have
configured multiple devices during the template configuration phase, a
separate tab per device will appear in the dashboard.
As you can see below, this page is divided into three parts:
Top Panel, Issues Panel, and Map.
Top Panel
Issues
Panel
Map
Top Panel
This panel contains a summary table of the loaded dataset information. You can view the LTE
report (Data Service Analysis Report) or go to the Event Explorer (event-based analyses, i.e.
dropped connection, failed connection) page or Radio Network (radio network analyses, i.e.
coverage, low throughput) page.
16
Issues Panel
This panel lists all the critical (event based KPIs) and important issues (radio network analyses)
that need further investigation. Click on any KPI that you might want to further investigate.
Map
The map is an integral part of the interface representing the drive route with the default attribute
plotted (RSRP or the application throughput).
Select
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Layers
Pan
Map
Region
Filter
SelectAnnotations
Area
Attributes
Legend
Swap Legend
to other side of
map
Print
Layout
Batch
Printing
Print
Preview
Direction
Cell
Sites
Use enhanced
drawing styles
17
LTE Report
The Spotlight LTE report (Data Service Analysis Report) shows a quick overview of your
network performance. It is divided into a Report sheet and different activities (FTP, HTTP)
sheet(s), which consists of FTP, HTTP download information (statistics based on status and types
of analyses) and application throughput.
The report sheet contains a technology independent overview of all the activities, while the activity
sheet contains radio KPIs for all technologies.
18
19
Issues Panel
This panel lists all the critical and important issues occurring in the dataset and allows you to
investigate an issue or troubleshoot a problem in more detail.
Category
First, you have to select a category, indicating which type of analysis or information you want to
be displayed on the issues panel. For example if you select LTE as your category, all event-based
critical issues and radio networks important issues will be displayed (as shown below). If you
choose DSA Task Summary as your category, you will get a list of tasks summary which contains
the FTP, HTTP, Web browsing Uplink and Downlink success rate and throughput measurements.
Well go through these categories again later in the Throughput Analysis chapter.
Critical Issues
The critical issues section provides an overview and the link to the drive in terms of failure
events. To investigate the KPIs and the cause of the dropped connection, click on the link to go to
the Event Dashboard.
Important Issues
On the other hand, the important issues section provides an overview and the link to the
corresponding radio network analysis page. For further investigation, click on the link to go to the
Radio Network Dashboard.
20
In the Cell Coverage Analysis page, again, it is divided into three parts:
top panel with the table with related information and measurements, a side panel with
statistics and charts regarding the quality, distance and cell visualization,
and a map.
At a glance, we can
see the overall
quality of the entire
areas coverage.
LTE thresholds
set before
loading data.
21
It is wise to filter out the unimportant information, i.e. numbers of samples < 50 or
distance > 15km. To do so, create a filter by clicking on the Filters(#) link.
Set your criteria and click on Add Filter. Click OK to apply filter.
Sort the column again after youve applied the filter.
Select an interesting sector to view in detail. The map and left panel will be updated
accordingly. The red circle represents your pre-defined boundary in Thresholds settings
and any data points outside this circle represent overspill.
You can also change the cell-site properties
PCIs color.
22
Make use of the additional features to help you visualize the coverage footprint of your
network.
Additional Features
To create a filter
23
In the Event Explorer page, the top panel contains of site information with numbers of
failures (depending on the problem), a side panel with a list of diagnostics (in a table and
also detailed information) of what causes the fail, and a map to help you to visualize where
the problem occurred.
You can click on the column header to sort your information, or click
on an individual row to view a particular failed event. You can even
perform a specific analysis, filter your information, or choose a
specific attribute or event to be plotted in the map.
Lets say we want to confirm if the dropped connection is caused by interference First of
all, scroll down (side panel) to read more about the detail event diagnostics.
According to the diagnostics and measurements, when the connection dropped, the quality
was bad (-20 dB) but the signal
strength was reasonably OK (-89
dBm).
The CQI value was low and > 86% of
these CQI values were lower than 10.
We might now replay the file around
the time of the problem to see how
RSRQ ended up being so low when
the connection dropped.
To investigate this, select the row in
the diagnostic table and click Begin
Drilldown to perform connection
dropped analysis.
24
This will bring us to the Drilldown page. As you can see, Spotlight displayed the
appropriate forms, Protocol Stack Browser (PSB) and map plotted with the related
attributes. This will help you to understand what has happened between 5 seconds before
and 30 seconds after the connection was dropped. Lets take a closer look at each of the
forms and the map.
Scroll down and select the attribute you want to delete one
at the time. Delete Event_Task_Fail, Event_Task_Start
and Event_Task_End.
Click OK to save.
Click on
25
Examine Task Chart. There is a lot of Ping information displayed on the chart and it is
almost too cluttered to view. To get a cleaner view, edit the chart by clicking on
toggle to Design mode.
to
Now lets take a look at the Protocol State Browser. If we scroll up to view what
happened before the connection was dropped, notice that about 1 to 2 seconds before the
drop, the neighbor cells has much better signal strength. Requests for changing serving
cell have also appeared a few times. There should have been a handover but unfortunately
no handover occurred.
26
Continue to look at the map. You can plot an extra attribute on the map by clicking on the
Attributes icon. From the Edit Attributes dialog, Add the attribute from the Available
Attributes column and click OK to show it on the map.
Click on a beam to see the current serving PCI (solid line) and which one
is the neighbor cell (dash line).
Move your mouse over to any measurement or dropped connection on
the map to view more detailed information.
27
If for some reason the layers are overlapped or you want to rearrange them, click on the
Layers icon to reorder them.
Click on a point in the map and now take a look at the StateForm next to the map.
All measurements and related information will be displayed on the StateForm. Again, if you
want to modify the form, right-click on the form and toggle Design Mode. Edit the form,
save it and toggle back to View mode. For example, change the RI attribute to
Throughput.
10 It is useful to synchronize your view, i.e. to show the same map and StateForm
information at the same time. Click on a point in the map to synchronize with the
StateForms display. You can even step through the whole drive route by clicking on the
play button. If necessary, change the speed of playback using the slider.
28
11 Make use of the additional features to help to you to visualize and further investigate your
dropped connection.
To create filter
Additional Features
29
The followings issues and tasks you can investigate in a DSA Failure page (default) are:
30
From the Select Category drop down list in Summary Dashboard you can select these three
DSA categories:
DSA Failure
DSA Summary
We will perform some Throughput Analyses by viewing the DSA All Services and Tasks
category in the next chapter.
31
Throughput Analyses
This analysis allows you to analyze and investigate the throughput by using the DSA
Services and Tasks page. Click the Display All # Task link to view the related
information in Event Explorer page. In the following examples, well be
viewing the FTP DL link.
In the side panel in Event Explorer page, you can find a list of FTP tasks with throughput
measurement and status. The four typical statuses are:
OK = Successful or completed
D = Dropped
when
C = User Cancelled
neither
into
Click on any of the headers to sort your information accordingly. For example, to identify
worst/best performing tasks, you could also sort by Throughput (Tput DL). To only view
successful or completed tasks, you should sort by Status.
If you continue to scroll down, below the Drilldown-Throughput-Status table, you can see some
useful data service statistics. The information displayed depends on the task type (upload or
download), as well as the technologies that the UE experienced during the task.
Once you are ready to proceed, click on the Drill Down checkbox and follow by clicking the Begin
Drilldown button to begin your analysis. Well continue to analyze high and low throughput in the
following sections.
32
33
Move your mouse over any point of the transmission to view detailed information.
High throughput
High throughput
(18 Mbps for application throughput and 26 Mbits/s for Layer 1 DL throughput).
Average CQI (14.0) throughout the FTP download.
Very good modulation (64 QAM and most of the time MIMO usage at 100%) during FTP
download.
If you need to further investigate the throughput, examine the PSB, map and StateForm next
to the task chart.
34
On the left side panel of the Drilldown page, the Key Issues section explains the reason of
the low throughput is due to a reselection to HSDPA from LTE during the transmission. The
redirected reselection from LTE to UMTS caused the UE to be idle for almost 21 seconds.
35
Low throughput
High throughput in the beginning, but degraded very quickly till 0, at which point the UE is
redirected to UMTS. Once the reselection was completed, it continued to transmit in a
lower throughput in HSDPA.
Fairly low Frame Usage in HSDPA mode, and inverse relationship between CQI and Frame
Usage in HSDPA (i.e. the Frame Usage goes up when CQI goes down) whilst the
throughput remains flat; which could indicate that the throughput is not limited by the air
interface.
Good system bandwidth allocation (~90%) in both LTE (number of RBs) and HSDPA
modes (number of codes).
Much lower NACK Rate after the reselection.
As a result, the FTP download was completed even the data is transmitted with low
throughput. If you need to further investigate the throughput, examine the PSB, map and
StateForm next to the task chart. Resize, dock or even move them around for better
visualization. To restore the layout, click on Drilldown link on the top left of the screen.
36
When there is almost no MIMO transmission, the Frame Usage % increases to almost
100% because the network has to transmit more frames to compensate the rate.
See example 2 for correlations between the CQI, Resource Block allocation and Frame Usage.
37
Example 2
The following Task Chart shows a more erratic application throughput (between 0 and 10 Mbit/s)
but CQIs value is about average (less dramatic than the throughputs value).
Now take a closer look at the correlation between the CQI, Resource Block allocation and Frame
Usage %. As the CQI value increases, the # of RB decreases and so does the Frame Usage.
As for the radio condition, the radio link quality is good (good RSRQ and RSRP value).
In other words, the air interface is good (and so can deliver more throughput) but the network has
nothing to transmit at this particular time. That explains the erratic application throughput.
In this case, we can conclude that radio link quality is not the limiting factor here.
38
Analyzer
What can you do with Analyzer?
A flowchart depicting/describing the best practice when troubleshooting a network problem using
Analyzer:
Starting up Analyzer
Performing LTE
analyses based on
preconfigured
applications
39
Getting Started
Before you begin, ensure that you have a valid Analyzer license, a cellref
that contains your network information, and a set of data you want to
investigate. It is crucial that you follow the following steps to avoid
inaccurate results or have to go through these steps again for
reconfiguration later.
Start up Analyzer.
your
Map
Change map unit by right-clicking on map, Map Units Distance Kilometer (or other unit)
40
Exploring Workspace
After the data is loaded, a blank workspace is displayed with the Attribute
Explorer docked on the left panel. If you recall, in Spotlight, you get a
summary of your data, issues and problem encountered with diagnostics
and a map. Within Analyzer, you perform manual analysis and therefore no
pre-defined screen layout is displayed.
Here is where you can load your data file, create a repository and
perform dataset operations for a quick overview of your network.
Attribute Explorer
indicates that the Attribute Explorer is currently docked on this
panel. Click on the same icon to undock it. This will allow you to
move the Attribute Explorer panel around.
Here you can view and search your attributes in your data file. You
can also create and save a group of attributes you often use in
Favorites.
41
Right-click on Loaded Data Files to load your log files. You can also load files by selecting
File Open Logfile from Main Menu or press Ctrl-O.
Note Well be troubleshooting the same dropped connection
(previously diagnosed in Spotlight). In the following chapters youll
be performing manual/customize analyses, creating reports and
repositories.
Expand the Loaded Data Files node by clicking on
in your data file(s).
You can select and display the attribute(s) on map, chart, table, workbook etc to view your
data, the same way you view the data in Spotlight.
42
exact
analysis.
selecting
Tools
whole or
attribute
nodes.
43
Viewing Data
You can view your data the same way as you do in Spotlight. In Analyzer you
have to decide which attribute(s) to be displayed and how you want to view
your data in a way that helps you to troubleshoot or investigate an issue.
Displaying on chart
To take a quick look at the radio condition of the drive data, select and
display the RSRQ attribute in a chart. The attribute is located at LTE
Downlink Measurements LTE_UE_RSRQ. Right-click on the attribute
and display on chart.
with the timeline.
Here you can see the distribution of the radio quality throughout the drive along
44
Data Aggregation
There are four methods to aggregate data in Analyzer. These different binning modes are based on
time, location, distance and message.
In order to perform a detailed manual analysis, you should change the binning mode to Message
and make sure Message = 1 so that you can view every message in your data.
Take a look at the chart again. Data is now displayed more densly on the chart.
Drag and drop the LTE Event Data RRC LTE_RRC_RRCConnectionDrop attribute to the
same chart to see when the connection was dropped.
45
It looks like the channel interference plus noise ratio value degraded tremendously right before the
drop as well.
46
Displaying on Map
Display the same attributes (LTE_UE_RSRQ and LTE_RRC_RRCConnectionDrop) on the map
to visualize the area, radio condition and location of the dropped connection.
Zoom in to take a closer look at the 1st drop.
Click on
Cell/Sites icon to color the sector based on PCI.
This will help you to identify the serving sectors based on their own color.
Click on the
47
Displaying in a Table
Display the following attributes in a table:
LTE_UE_PCI
LTE_UE_RSRP
LTE_UE_RSRQ
LTE_RRC_RRCConnectionDrop
To go to the next
dropped connection,
press Ctrl- .
It seems like there are lots of empty rows in the table and you have to keep scrolling down to find
the next measurement. This problem can be resolved by selecting the
Hide empty rows checkbox to hide these empty rows.
You can now see the actual measurement of each attribute on table.
If you wish, you can also display these attributes on Workbook (Excel).
Rearrange the map, chart and table in your workspace so that you can see them
Clicking at any point in the table to synchronize table with the map and chart.
48
To solve this problem, we can create a filter to remove the empty rows by eliminating
messages with attributes not set to a value. This can be done by creating a filter query, or
more conveniently by using Attribute Spy.
Attribute Spy
Attribute Spy is a smart feature that allows you to display the attributes set at a message, as well
as to perform some basic operations on them. A lot of the time you might not know what other
attributes are associate to the attribute you have just displayed on a map. For example in our
previous filter example, LTE_UE_CINR.
To find out information of an attribute at a particular selected point, and even any other associated
attributes, you can select the View Display Attribute Spy from the Main Menu. The
AxaAOAttributeSpy Class window will be opened.
In your CINR chart or table, click on any point that contains the LTE_UE_CINR attribute. The same
attribute will be selected in the Attribute column in the window. Right-click on the attribute and
select Filter Stream where IsValid(LTE_UE_CINR) to eliminate all the empty rows.
Note that after youve applied the filter, the bottom right of
your screen will be updated. Display the attribute in a workbook
again. This time no warning message pops up.
49
StateForm
StateForm allows you to view multiple performance metrics simultaneously.
Used in conjunction with the replay tool, maps, tables, and charts, you can
quickly ascertain the values of several radio parameters for problem identification.
To open a pre-configured LTE StateForm, select:
Lets open the LTE Radio Charts (same as the Task chart in Spotlight) and take a closer look.
To do so:
1
If the StateForm contains some Ping information (too crowded to look at), toggle to
Design mode and remove the event tasks such as Fail, Start and End.
See Step 4 in Spotlights LTE Failure: Dropped Connection Analysis if you cannot
remember how to remove the event tasks.
50
Arrange your StateForm, chart, table and map in the Workspace so that you can see them
all side-by-side. Click on a point in the map or chart to synchronize your view and
information.
At this point of time, we still cannot conclude what really caused the connection drop.
4
To further investigate this, we should probably look at the neighbors radio condition by
displaying the best neighbors RSRQ, RSRP and PCI on a table. We should also check out
the RRC and Layer 3 messages for the handset by opening the LTE Handset PSB. Well
take a look at this later in other chapters.
If this is not enough, try customizing your own StateForm (See example below).
51
If you do not have the StateForms window open, click Tools StateForms Editor.
1
To start a new StateForms file, right-click inside the StateForms Editor and select
Design Mode. The StateForms sheet can now be edited and objects can be added.
Delete
Toggle
Design
Mode
Copy
Cut
Paste
Label
Select
Scan
Chart
Array
Attribute
Attribute
Value
Time
chart
Group
Box
Select the label object and make these modifications in the Attribute Window:
Caption: LTE_UE_PCI
Font Size : 9
Label button.
Select the LTE_UE_PCI Attribute Value object and make the following modifications:
Font Size: 9
Select LTE_UE_RSRQ Attribute Bar and make the following modifications in the Attribute
Window:
Bar Color:
52
Font Size: 6
Bar Color:
11 To add the Group Box object, click on the Group Box button, then click and drag a
rectangle around all of the items in your form.
12 Select the Group Box object and make the following modification in the Attribute Window:
Font Size: 14
13 Click the Save As button and save the StateForms file in the StateForms directory and call
it LTE NetworkParameters - Trainings.axl.
14 Return to the View Mode by clicking on the Toggle Design Mode button.
15 Test your new form by displaying a parameter from your logfiles stream on a map. Click
on any point on the map, and see the parameter values for PCI, RSRQ and RSRP appear
on your StateForm.
StateForms name
53
Before the connection was dropped, you can see that about a few seconds before the drop, the
best neighbor cells has much better signal strength. Have a look at the difference between the
serving cell and the best neighbor cell.
We also noticed that right after the drop, PCI 122 appeared to be the serving cell and the radio
conditions were good.
Maybe it is time to take a look at the RRC and Layer 3 messages to further investigate the cause
of the connection drop, and find out for instance whether the UE has requested a handover in RRC
Measurement Report messages before the drop occurred. To do so, we can open a Protocol Stack
Browser or a Message Browser.
54
55
About Queries
Queries are a means of searching and filtering data based on events and thresholds you define.
Queries operate on binned data and are written using Boolean expressions and arithmetic
operations containing data parameters. Analyzer supports six types of queries:
In the following chapters, we will continue to analyze the same dropped connection by creating
queries (binned, histogram and crosstab), single and multiple files reports, and repositories.
56
Binned Query
So far, weve managed to display the serving and best neighbor cells PCI, RSRQ and RSRP on
tables, and it was useful to look at a particular point of data. It will be nice if we can also see the
signal strength difference between the serving cell and the best neighbor cell throughout the whole
drive.
To do so, create a binned query that computes the difference between the serving cells RSRP and
the best neighbor cells RSRP:
1
In Analysis Manager (if you are not there yet, press Ctrl-A), double-click on Binned
Query icon to go to the Expression Builder.
So, our formula should look something like:
Difference = Best Neighbor Cells RSRP Serving Cells RSRP
A positive value will indicate that the best neighbor is stronger than the serving cell.
Type in your query expression or select the attribute from the attribute nodes column.
This State() function is required to ensure that the last valid value of the parameter
persists.
57
Apply the query by right-clicking your query and display on a chart, map or table.
In the example below, weve displayed the query on a map, along with a connection
dropped attribute. From the chart, we can see a big signal strength difference right before
the connections were dropped.
Histogram
A histograms results expressed as a percentage may provide a more meaningful comparison to
results expressed as a count. In the example below, we will use a histogram to look at the channel
to interference plus noise ratio (CINR).
We will select a range from -50dB to 10dB and divide it into 30 columns.
To create a histogram:
1
In Analysis Manager (if you are not there yet, press Ctrl-A), double-click on Histogram
icon to open the Histogram Wizard window.
To generate this column:
1. Key in the minimum value,
maximum value and the
number of columns.
2. Click on the Generate
button to generate your
column. The ranges will be
automatically calculated
based on the number of
columns you have set.
Note that the ranges will
look slightly strange but
evenly distributed.
To set your desired range,
you have to manually
define and key in the
range.
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Crosstab Query
The crosstab query is used to group data and display statistics for each group. The groups can be
sorted, and a query can contain several options for grouping data. It is flexible and you can
combine many different data groups together (you are not limited to one format group as you are
in binned and histogram queries).
In this example, we would like to see CINR distribution and the correlation between CINR, RSRP
and RSRQ. To create a crosstab query:
1
In Analysis Manager (if you are not there yet, press Ctrl-A), double-click on Crosstab
Query icon to open the Crosstab Query Wizard window.
Click on the New Dimension button. The query dimension allows you to group and order
your results using the attribute you select. Use
attribute chooser to select LTE
Downlink Measurement LTE_UE_CINR to add the CINR as the dimension. We will
create a dimension for CINRs histogram (set with 3 dB difference).
Click on Edit Dimension to open the Expression Builder to set your criteria.
Now apply the query on a Statistics Explorer to see if your query works.
Always do so before you continue to build a bigger query!
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3 dBs
difference for
each column
Next, create two new statistics: Avg RSRP and Avg RSRQ.
Use the attribute chooser
to select LTE Downlink Measurement
LTE_UE_RSRP and LTE_UE_RSRQ to add the CINR as the statistics so that the state()
function is applied when an attribute is selected.
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Lastly add a global filter to only retrieve data with status = connected.
Status = Connected
In the next chapter we will learn how to create a Single File Report using this crosstab
query. You will then use the report for other log files.
61
Ensure that the logfile you used to create the crosstab query is loaded into the Workspace.
Ensure that the modified version of crosstab query (in this example:
CINR_vs_RSRP_RSRQ_CONNECTED_CINRFilter.aqf) is loaded.
Right-click on Queries Crosstab Queries Your Query Name and choose Display
on Workbook.
Note Excel will launch and the Workbook will contain three
sheets, which can be accessed by clicking on the corresponding tab
at the bottom sheet window.
Select whole column A to C (in this example) to create a chart and place it on the right.
Adjust and format chart accordingly.
62
Ensure that the logfile you want to create a single file report (based on the crosstab query)
is loaded into the Workspace.
63
Run the report through the Workbook Open Workbook/Report from Main Menu
before making any modifications.
Make modifications to the existing report, including adding additional parameters from the
same data stream, adding the same parameters from different data stream, or making
cosmetic adjustments.
Add Additional Parameters to the Report Add to the existing report different
parameters from the same data stream using the Display on Workbook (Active) command.
Update the Report page to show results for all parameters included.
Create a Comparison Report Add to the existing report the same parameter from a
different data stream using the Display on Workbook (Active) command. Update the
Report page to show results for both data sets.
Provide Histogram Results as a Percentage Histograms results expressed as a
percentage may provide a more meaningful comparison than results expressed as a count.
Create an Intermediate sheet in Excel to convert the histogram values into percentages.
Update the Source Data for the histogram chart to reflect the new display method.
Embedded an Excel Macro in a Report Any Excel format or technique may be applied
to a report, including macros which automate specific tasks within Microsoft Excel. For
example, create a report that provides a comparison of a parameter at common locations
in two different logfiles.
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65
66
On the 1st logfiles stream name, right-click on Queries Crosstab Queries Your
Query Name and choose Display on Workbook.
On the 2nd logfiles stream name, right-click on Queries Crosstab Queries Your
Query Name and choose Display on Workbook (active).
Save file as YourQueryName-MultipleReport.xlsx.
Report Sheet
3
If everything looks correct in the Report sheet, go to the Crosstab Formatted Sheet and
remove all data in that sheet.
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Make sure that the Report sheet is the default page and save the file again.
Ensure that the logfiles you want to use to create a multiple file report (based on the
crosstab query) are loaded into the Workspace.
The same Stream Selection window will appear again to prompt you to select another
data stream. In this example, we are only going to compare two sets of data. Therefore,
the Stream Selection window will only appear twice.
Click on the 2nd stream name follow by OK to create your multiple report.
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Superstream
A superstream is a new stream created by merging two or more sets of data into one large data
set. Beware that the size can be huge (since the superstream contains all attributes, even those
that we might not need in our analysis).
To create a superstream:
1
Select Tools Create Superstream from the Main Menu or press Ctrl-U.
Key in a meaningful name for your superstream and select the streams you want to
merge.
Click on the Settings >> button if you want to merge your data with a common attribute
or a correlated parameter, which, in this example is the LTE_UE_RSRQ attribute.
Note This merge method is useful when merging the data for two
devices (for instance a handset and a scanner) that were logged
concurrently, but for which the timestamps are not aligned. If the
two streams correspond to two log files logged consecutively, then
it is better to use the default Use timestamps method of
superstreaming.
69
Click OK. A new stream, Super Streams containing the same attribute nodes will be
created in Attribute Explorer.
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Repository
The repository function provides a mechanism for handling large volumes of data, by loading the
results of queries into a relational database mainly applicable to crosstab, event and binned
queries.
In the Actix terminology, databases are called repositories. A repository is based on a template,
which specifies how the results are to be structured into data sources (called devices) and which
attributes and queries are to be included in each device. The repository stores the binned data for
the attributes as described in Repository Binned Data.
Some of the engineering process modules use repositories to store data but hide the details of
creating repositories and loading data into them behind the task pages. However, Analyzer Classic
includes features that advanced users can use to create new repositories directly, and to open,
close, and delete existing repositories, and to load data into them.
When a repository is open, it is displayed in the Open Repositories folder in the Attribute
Explorer. Data is loaded into the devices based on the stream name filter and stream type
specified in the Define Devices page of the Repository Template.
that
that all
them
our
71
Select Repository Template Manager from Main Menu to open the Repository
Template Wizard window.
Click New to create a new template. This opens the Repository Template wizard's
Welcome page. Step through the selection by selecting the default settings except the
query selection:
Continue to click on Next > till youve reached the Name and Description step.
Key in a meaningful name for your repository template and a description about the
template.
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Creating a Repository
To create a repository based on the template you have just created:
1
In the Attribute Explorer, expand the Open Repositories node and right-click on the new
repository you have just created (in the example below this is LTE Training Repository)
to load your logfiles.
Right-click on your new
repository node and select Load
Data to load your logfiles
Click on Add Files... to select your data files to be loaded into the repository.
Click OK to start loading the files.
73
A File load results window will be displayed and the Result column will show the status
of the file. OK means files are successfully loaded.
74
If you prefer to display the result directly into a workbook, right-click on the OpenRepository Your New Repository All Queries Crosstab Queries Your
Crosstab Query Name and display it on Workbook.
2
A workbook in Excel with a report for all log files will be created where the repository is
loaded.
Save and name your report as Report for Your New Repository.
If everything looks correct in the report, remove all data in that sheet.
Note Reports opened from a repository will be different from
reports opened directly from Analyzer. You will get the same
results but the Excel file will be different. Standard Analyzer
reports can be run on repositories but repository reports cannot be
run on Analyzer streams. Either keep only the standard Analyzer
version of reports, or save a separate copy of your repository
report in a separate file.
Save the file again and close the file after you have saved it.
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Select Workbook Open Workbook/Report from the Main Menu and select Report
for Your New Repository (the one you have just created). Click on Open to proceed. A
Stream Selection window will appear.
Select the All stream from Your New Repository stream name and click OK to display
your repository report. Do you notice any difference?
Note
Repositories are very useful to generate reports on a large set of
logfiles. The workflow you should follow is:
1. Create queries using Analysis Manager.
2. Create a report in Analyzer.
3. Create a Repository Template containing all the queries
required by the report.
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Window layouts
To save your workspace click File Save Workspace As and give the file a name. The Analyzer
file structure includes a Workspaces folder that can be used to hold the saved workspace(s),
though you can save a workspace to any location.
A workspace created with Analyzer may be opened directly from the Windows Desktop. To start up
Analyzer with a set of commonly used queries, simply save a workspace with the queries of
interest, but no data files. The workspace may then be saved as a shortcut on the Windows
Desktop. Double-click on the Desktop shortcut to open Analyzer with all of your frequently used
queries in place.
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