GSM Network SDCCH Assignment Analysis

GSM Network SDCCH Assignment
Analysis
Contents
1 SDCCH Assignment Failure Troubleshooting Guide............................................................................. 1
1.1 Procedure .......................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Causes of Several SDCCH Assignment Failure:............................................................................... 2
1.2.1 Inappropriate Tx-Integer Setting Parameter:.......................................................................... 2
1.2.2 Lapd delay leads to high SDCCH assignment failure rate ..................................................... 4
1.2.3 Co-BCCH & Co-BSIC interference ....................................................................................... 5
1.2.4 Over coverage ........................................................................................................................ 6
1.2.5 Uplink Noise Interference ...................................................................................................... 7
1.2.6 MS frequent location update due to poor downlink quality ................................................... 7
2 Cases of high SDCCH assignment failure rate........................................................................................ 9
2.1 LAPD delay caused by too many paging .......................................................................................... 9
2.1.1 Too much paging causes LAPD delay.................................................................................... 9
2.1.2 Satellite transmission delay.................................................................................................. 10
2.1.3 Transmission equipment failure causes LAPD delay........................................................... 12
2.2 High SDCCH assignment failure rate caused by other signals with the same BCCH and the same
BSIC...................................................................................................................................................... 14
2.2.1 Case 1................................................................................................................................... 14
2.2.2 Case 2................................................................................................................................... 14
2.3 Noise signal access.......................................................................................................................... 16
2.3.1 Noise signal is represented as TA oversteps practical coverage........................................... 16
2.3.2 Noise signal is represented as receiving level is lower than BTS receiving sensitivity ....... 18
2.4 High SDCCH assignment failure rate because frequency of target channel to hand over is the same
with that of BCCH of the problem cell, and target cell has same BSIC with that of problem cell ....... 19
2.4.1 Case 1 ...................................................................................................................................19

2.4.2 Case 2 ...................................................................................................................................19
2.5 SDCCH assignment failure caused by bad network coverage.........................................................20
2.5.1 Case 1 ...................................................................................................................................20
2.5.2 Case 2 ...................................................................................................................................21
2.5.3 Case 3 ...................................................................................................................................22
2.6 SDCCH assignment failure caused by continuous access request of location update .....................23
2.7 SDCCH assignment failure caused by improper-set Tx-Integer......................................................24
ii
1 SDCCH Assignment Failure

Troubleshooting Guide
1.1 Procedure
Upon receiving the complaint of high SDCCH assignment failure, extract performance
report from OMC-R Client, filter out trouble cells based on SDCCH assignment failure
rate.
Adjust TX_INTEGER to 14 for the bad cells.
Check whether BCCH Trx of the bad cell share the same Lapd with that of other cells
BCCH Trx. If its the case, make a BCCH shift to other Lapd board to avoid the
multiplexing.
Check whether therere cells that use the same BSIC and same BCCH; If its the case,
modify it.
Observe one day. If the problem still exists, take the next step.
Collect measurement report of the bad cells and get to know the time span of high
SDCCH assignment failure.
Analyze basic measurement report. If counter 11687(Number of other access request
attempts ) is high while counter 11639(Number of other successful access requests) is
zero, its probable that TCH handover request of other cell is mistaken for access
request of serving cell. If Mplog file contains the error message
Channel
Number=Ox88 then it indicates the existence of the same BCCH handover

interference, check whether there is the cell with the same BCCH and BSIC.
Analyze basic measurement report, check whether counter 11643(Number of sdcch
allocation failures including handover) has value, if so then we may suspect for
transmission problems . Check whether transmission alarm exists or whether there is
lapd error printing by analyzing mplog.
Analyze basic measurement report to see whether high SDCCH assignment failure
still exists. If its the case then check whether TCH assignment failure rate is high too.
Generally TCH assignment failure rate is lower than SDCCH assignment failure rate. If
1
GSM Network SDCCH Assignment Analysis
TCH assignment failure rate is high, it suggests that the cell is having some
interference or poor coverage. So reduce BCCH interference and improve the coverage.
If TCH assignment failure rate is good, observe signaling tracing of the cell for 10
minutes, convert it to be MA10 format and filter Channel Request messages. If there
are many Immediate Assign failure of Channel Request with high TA, it suggests there
is overshooting or false signaling access (big difference between TA of channel
required and actual coverage range). For overlapping, adjust BCCH transmission
power or coverage range of the cell; For false signaling access, adjust TA Allowed to
filter false access.
If SDCCH assignment failure increases suddenly, check whether it is periodic (High
SDCCH in fixed time of each day), if its the case then the coverage area is blind spot.
When SDCCH assignment failure increases suddenly but not periodic, confirm whether
its accompanied by TCH assignment failure. If its the case then the cell may have
sudden strong interference.
If SDCCH assignment failure is suddenly increased instead of periodic and without
accompanied with sudden high TCH assignment failure, check counter 11686 (LOC
access attempt times), counter 11638(LOC access success times) and counter
11645(SDCCH assignment failure times). If the difference between counter 11686 and
counter 11638 is close to counter 11645 then most probably failures are caused by
disconnection due to Mobile Station uplink poor quality, which is common in GSM
network..
1.2 Causes of Several SDCCH Assignment Failure:

1.2.1 Inappropriate Tx-Integer Setting Parameter:
The interval (TS number) between the two channel request messages is a random
number in {S,S+1,,S+T-1}. In which, T is the TS number which represents by
TxInteger, S value are as follows
TS number TxInteger
represents
(CCCH not combines with SDCCH)
(CCCH combines with SDCCH)
3, 8, 14,50
55
41
4, 9, 16
76
52
5,10,20
109
58
6,11,25
163
86
2
Chapter 1
7,12,32
0BSDCCH Assignment Failure Troubleshooting Guide
217
115
TxInteger value
TS
number
represents
0
10
11
12
10
14
11
16
12
20
13
25
14
32
15
50
From the above two grids, we get the relation between TxInteger with the interval
between request message of the two channels
Interval(ms)
Interval(ms)
(CCCH not combined with SDCCH)
(CCCH combined with SDCCH)
12
501ms~593ms,109~129 slot
267ms~359ms,58~78 slot
13
750ms~865ms,163~188 slot
396ms~511ms,86~111slot
14
998ms~1146ms,217~249 slot
529ms~676ms,115~147 slot
15
253ms~483ms,55~105 slot
189ms~419ms,41~91 slot
TxInteger
Generally , Tx-Integer is 14 by default. When transmission link delay is large,

TxInteger is small, it may cause many MS access requests.
Abis one-way signaling transmission delay is 60ms~100ms. For your notice,delay of
one immediate assignment without the UM delay as follows
Channel Required
uplink3
60ms
Channel Activation
downlink- 60ms
Channel Activation Ack uplinkImmediate Assign
60ms
downlink- 60ms
Time delay between MS sending Channel Request and receiving Imm Assign shall be
around 240ms.
But if transmission link delay is large and TxInteger is inappropriately set, for example
if Tx integer is set to 15 it corresponds that the interval between two-channel request is
about 300ms. Ie.
MS resends Channel Request
before receiving Imm Assign. At the
same time when MS sents the second attempt for channel request it receives Channel
Request Imm Assign of the first attempt and complete access procedure, during this
process the Channel Request of the second attempt fails.
1.2.2 Lapd delay leads to high SDCCH assignment failure rate

There are several causes leading to lapd delay,
If Lapd1*4 multiplex is adopted, its probable that multiple BCCH share the same lapd
which will lead to great lapd throughput and finally time delay.
Large lapd flow results in delay. For example, inappropriate LAC allocation will lead
to great paging number which will result in lapd overflow.
Transmission equipment has great delay. For example, ABIS adopts satellite
transmission.
PS effect. PS is sensitive to network delay. If lapd has delay, PS message will be resend
which will add to the throughput and finally results in lapd delay and so on its vicious
circle.
If lapd delay reaches certain degree which leads to MS resending Channel Request,
SDCCH assignments may fail. Please refer to the following diagram
Chapter 1
BTS
MS
BSC
Channel Request
Channel Required
Channel Active
TxInteger
Channel Active Ack
Channel Request(Re-Send
Lapd
Delay
Channel Required
S change to
SDCCH
Imm Assign Cmd
mm Assign(OK)
Channel Active
Channel Active Ack
Imm Assign Cmd
Imm Assign(Fail)
1.2.3 Co-BCCH & Co-BSIC interference

There are two situations, which lead to co-BCCH & co-BSIC interference:
Two cells sharing BCCH & BSIC: Channel Request sent by MS is received by two
cells simultaneously and is assigned by SDCCH. MS can only provide access of one
SDCCH thus SDCCH assignment of another cell will fail.
Firstly six-bit color codes are added to the original eight information bits. These six-bit
color codes are generated by (BSIC and six-bit parity codes) mode 2.
Co-BCCH and co-BSIC may make BTS decode it as MS initial access of other site,
which may result in SDCCH assignment failure. Due to limited information of random
access signaling (8bit and BSIC), two cells of same bcch and bsic may cause false
access. Therefore we should avoid co-BCCH and co-BSIC.
When one cell uses the BCCH same as other cells TCH/BCCH and CO-BSIC, during
the time of handover, handover access message happened in the TCH TS will be
decoded by both the targeted cell as well as other cell that uses the same BCCH/BSIC
and so the cell which is not the original target cell will also decode as Channel Request
message. Hence the case will result in great SDCCH assignment failure.
When MS initiate Channel Request, RA is random and not consistent. MS access
5
request resend interval is a false random number, therefore FN of MS channel requests

are not continuous. According to the protocol, if handover access message sent by MS
is the same with random access request message in format(AB frame) but MS
handover access message content of one time is consistent and FN is continuous. If
BCCH of one cell shares the same frequency with TCH of another cell, handover
access on TCH can be considered as random access request, which will lead to SDCCH
assignment failure. For checking these type of problem we can analyze the signal trace,
when we find RA is the same, TA is same while FN is continuous. Thus we can
conclude that great number of Channel Request is false access caused by handover
access of co-BCCH cell.
Thus if the two cell share the use the same BCCH and is close, downlink interference
may occur which will also lead to SDCCH assignment failure.
1.2.4 Over coverage

There are two situation causing over coverage,
Coverage area is large leading to poor downlink reception quality of cell edge. Because
sensitivity of BTS is high than that of MS, BTS can receive Channel Request sent by
MS and MS cant receive Imm Assign sent by BTS.
Cell coverage is large which results in co-BCCH and co-BSIC with the cell far away.
To solve the problem, antenna-engineering parameter needs to be adjusted for coverage
control purpose. TA_allowed can also be used to solve the problem but it may cause
MS to fail to get access to the network. Therefore, threshold of TA_allowed shall be
greater than actual coverage range of the cell. Repeater influence shall be taken into
account when calculating cell coverage range.
We do adjust TA_Allowed parameter in order to avoid reselection failure due to TA
TA_Allowed. We do experiment concerning this problem and the result is when MS
selects a cell with strongest power . If TA_allow area update is unsuccessful, MS will
select another cell with less strong power(C1>0)access of this cell is allowed. Interval
of cell reselection is decided by TX_Integer and maximum resend time and is generally
several seconds. Computing method is as follows,
Cell reselection interval = TX_Integer * MaxRetrans +T3126
Judging from the result, we can see that cell that fails to reselect will be punished, as a
result, reselection will not fail due to TA_Allowed.
6
Chapter 1
Remark: Other manufacturers have similar parameters like TAallowed. For example,
Nortel has RNDACCTIMADVTHRESHOLD and it is described as follows,avoid
SDCCH assignment by making the parameter link to actual coverage area range and
setting proper threshold to filter false RACH request. It shows that for cells with small
radius coverage,
RNDACCTIMADVTHRESHOLD is set to be 35Km and RACH
misjudgement ,system demodulate the noise to be RACH burst by mistake is almost

30% of all RACH requests. When rndAccTimAdvThreshold is changed to be 2, RACH
misjudgement seldom occurs.
1.2.5 Uplink Noise Interference

BTS receiving sensitivity is generally between -112dbm and -125dbm and random
access signaling with less sensitivity has noise interference, which will definitely lead
to SDCCH assignment failure.
RACHMin(-dbm) is a parameter set to filter noise signaling. Random access signaling
with receiving level lower than RACHMin will be discarded as noise interference. By
adjusting RACHMin, SDCCH assignment success rate can be greatly increased.
False noise access signaling reflects in two aspects: 1- receiving level is week, 2- TA is
greater than actual coverage range. Hence RACHMin integrated with TA_allowed can
reduce the influence of noise interference to a larger extent.
Notice: RachMin shall be carefully set. If its too high, it may affect paging success
rate.
1.2.6 MS frequent location update due to poor downlink quality

Because receiving sensitivity of BTS is high than that of MS, BTS can receive Channel
Request sent by MS, and MS cant receive Imm Assign sent by BTS.Especially when
MS is put in pockets or under the pillows. If MS needs to do location update, Channel
Request may be frequent launched which will result in SDCCH assignment failure
because Imm Assign message fails to reach.
2 Cases of high SDCCH assignment failure

rate
2.1 LAPD delay caused by too many paging
2.1.1 Too much paging causes LAPD delay
Problem description
We discover that ZTE BSC3 SD assignment success rate is relatively low in a certain
place while analyzing its performance parameters and the rate is especially low on late
busy hour, only about 60%.
Analysis
After checking statistic we find out that almost each cells SD assignment failure rate is
high, and the bad assignment isnt caused by cells radio parameters;
We can see that SD channel has no congestion generally from statistic, the congestion
rate is only 0.02%;
ZTE BSC1/2/4 SD assignment success rates are all above 95%, thats a normal figure.
Only BSC3 is abnormal. Because BSC3 is separately controlled by MSC7, after
contacting China Unicom we find out that SD assignment success rates of all BSC
controlled by MSC7 (including Siemens BSC) are about 60%, and MSC7 paging
success rate is also low. We get to know from China Unicom that there is only one
LAC controlled by MSC7. We have to page all cells in LAC while paging, then more
traffic, more paging.
Adjustment and effect
Contact Siemens and ask them to add one more LAC to MSC7 and update LAC SN of
cells controlled by part of BSC (Siemens). After the adjustment, BSC3 SD assignment
success rate comes back to normal and reaches above 95%.
Time
Object
Signaling
Total
channel
attempts
congestion
signaling
rate (%)
channel
call
in
Total
overflow
times
signaling
channel
9
of
SDCCH
SDCCH
SD
assignment
assignment
assignment
success
failure
success
Number
Number
rate
March 10th
Bsc3
0.04
171155
69
96228
74855
56.25%
March 11
th
Bsc3
0.04
173784
72
97894
75796
56.36%
March 13
th
Bsc3
0.05
158272
87
86770
71373
54.87%
March 14
th
Bsc3
105145
100085
5045
95.20%
March 15
th
Bsc3
101817
98763
3045
97.01%
2.1.2 Satellite transmission delay

Problem description
There are total 4 sites, TBT-G, TBT-D, GWD-G and GJR-Gall of which are controlled
by BSC01 but by different periphery modules. From the following performance
parameter form we can see that these sites SD assignment failure rates are as high as
50% or even higher.
SDCCH
Object
CI
LAC
FreqBand
CellName
ASS Failure
Rate
2_1_92_1
10921
2008
E-GSM900
GWD1
50.31
2_1_92_2
10922
2008
E-GSM900
GWD2
50.64
2_1_92_3
10923
2008
E-GSM900
GWD3
50.3
2_1_252_1
12521
2008
E-GSM900
TBT1
55.74
2_1_252_2
12522
2008
E-GSM900
TBT2
50.2
2_1_252_3
12523
2008
E-GSM900
TBT3
63.57
2_1_326_1
13261
2008
E-GSM900
GAR1
49.6
2_1_326_2
13262
2008
E-GSM900
GAR2
50.26
2_1_326_3
13263
2008
E-GSM900
GAR3
50.54
2_1_999_1
12524
2008
DCS1800
TBT4
50.24
2_1_999_2
12525
2008
DCS1800
TBT5
49.38
2_1_999_3
12526
2008
DCS1800
TBT6
49.01
Analysis
We record signaling on Abis interface of TBT1, 4, 5, 6, GAR and GWD. Set TBT5
signaling as an example, the analysis is as follows:
We can see that the average time required to successfully activate one channel is 0.58s.
10
Chapter 2
1BCases of high SDCCH assignment failure rate
We figure out from the following signaling whether the two signaling is Channel
Required sent by the same mobile phone
We can calculate frame numbers of the two channels by T1, T2 and T3. The formula is
FN=T1*26*51+((T3-T2)mod 26)*51+T3
The frame number difference of the two channels is 32454-32227=227(frames)
Tracking the whole process of the first channel request we can see it is a complete
signaling process to turn off the mobile phone. Tracking the whole process of the
second channel request we can see immediate assignment failure, BSC doesnt receive
Establish Indication message, and T3101 is overtime and then channel is released.
11
The two signaling has the same Access delay: 3. Meanwhile the max retransmission
times that system configured is 4, TX Integer=14(T=32,S=217). Then the interval for
any mobile phone to send two Channel Require messages in one call is a random one
from 217 to 248 timeslot, which means the shortest interval between two requests sent
by mobile phone is 1001ms, and the longest interval is 1144ms.
The interval between these two Channel Require messages received by BSC is
1.906-0.875=1.031s. We suppose that uplink and downlink signaling transmission
delays between BTS and BSC are the same, then signaling length of the whole
immediate assignment process is 0.58*2=1.16s, which is close to 1.031s.
According to upper calculation of frame number, the real interval between these two
messages is 227 frames (1048), and then we deduce that the two Channel Require
messages are sent by one mobile phone in one call attempt.
Conclusion
We have to use satellite to transmit because these sites are far away from the urban area.
The satellite transmission delay on one direction is around 260ms, and then
transmission delay of 4 signaling is 1040ms, which accords with the upper signaling
analysis.
2.1.3 Transmission equipment failure causes LAPD delay

Problem description: massive SDCCH assignment failures occur in 3 cells of a site in
India accompanied with lots of TCH assignment failures. Basic measure data are
shown in the following figure.
12
Chapter 2
Problem analysis: commonly SDCCH assignment failure represents transmission

failure. After checking mpLog print we find out that the site has lots of LAPD Errors
get printed: Site 36, BTS 3, TRX 2 catch errorF: receive SABME in Mulframe or
TimerRec, Site 36, BTS 1, TRX 0 catch errorF: receive SABME in Mulframe or
TimerRec. Then we check alarm, there are lots of transmission alarm:
Therefore we can confirm that there is transmission problem that causes lots of LAPD
13
breaks.
2.2 High SDCCH assignment failure rate caused by other signals

with the same BCCH and the same BSIC
2.2.1 Case 1
Problem description: In a place the high SDCCH assignment failure rate problem
hasnt been solved for a long time, and SDCCH assignment failure rates of lots of cells
in the whole network are higher than 25%.
Solution: The problem cant be solved by replacing all the hardware. When TA=20, a
signal from another cell with the same frequency and the same BSIC is received that
causes SDCCH assignment failure. Therefore we re-plan over 10 cells BSIC in the
whole network. After re-planning, parameters of all cells whose BSIC has been
modified come back to normal.
Conclusion of fault analysis: Within 5km, if a mobile phone locates in an area covered
by two cells with the same BCCH and the same BSIC, then SDCCH assignment failure
may occur. The failure is triggered by these two cells with the same BCCH and the
same BSIC, two cells SDCCH timeslots are synchronous. After mobile phone
synchronizes with BTS and chooses to be accessed into one of these two cells, it will
be interference to another cell.
So we have two solutions for high SDCCH assignment failure problem (within a
certain multiplexing distance, high SDCCH assignment failure rate caused by other
signals with the same BCCH and the same BSIC)
Reset cells CMM whose assignment failure rate is high, reset clock to avoid SDCCH
timeslot synchronization, so as to decrease the impact. This is just a temporary solution.
In field situation we shall modify parameters and then change them back, it is the
reason to reset CMM.
The basic solution is to avoid signal with same frequency and same BSIC.
2.2.2 Case 2
Problem description: SDCCH assignment failure rate keeps high in a cell in Indian
spice network, but its TCH assignment rate is normal. Basic measure data are shown in
the following figure.
14
Chapter 2
Problem Analysis: after tracking signaling of troubled cell, we find out that SDCCH
assignment failure is caused by lots of random signal access whose TA>37.
We figure out that there is a cell 20Km away using same frequency and BSIC after
15
checking the cells surrounding frequencies and BSIC.

Analysis conclusion: Indian Spice doesnt have much frequency resource and its sites
distribute densely, therefore it is inevitable that cells use same frequency and BSIC
within 34km. We have to change antenna down tilt angle or modify TA_Allowed to
shrink cells coverage, so as to solve SDCCH assignment failure caused by cells use
same frequency and BSIC.
2.3 Noise signal access

2.3.1 Noise signal is represented as TA oversteps practical coverage
1.
Problem description: a cells SDCCH assignment success rate is low. The

following table shows the cells basic data measured on April 26th busy hour.
Time
Alias
11644(Number
11645(Number
of
of
SDCCH
Assignment
Assignment
Successful)
Failure)
2007-4-26 19:15
ASHOKA PILLAR-1
191
15
2007-4-26 19:30
ASHOKA PILLAR-1
190
24
2007-4-26 19:45
ASHOKA PILLAR-1
177
33
2007-4-26 20:00
ASHOKA PILLAR-1
192
26
2.
SDCCH
Problem analysis: after analyzing signaling on Abis interface, the summary of

immediate assignment failure signal accesses into TA (in channel required) is as
follows:
Time
when
SN
TA
Reason
location update
location update
location update
MTC
location update
MTC
05-56-43.343
MTC
05-57-24.531
MTC
06-00-02.109
MTC
06-00-02.890
10
63
MOC
06-05-56.828
11
61
MOC
06-06-12.656
assignment being sent
16
05-49-52.640
immediate
Chapter 2
12
59
MOC
06-06-23.578
13
location update
06-06-43.078
14
53
MOC
06-06-57.718
15
49
location update
06-07-22.578
16
46
MOC
06-07-42.718
17
43
MTC
06-08-08.515
18
41
MOC
06-08-14.765
19
40
MTC
06-08-20.578
20
18
Call reset
06-08-22.203
21
38
MOC
06-08-27.546
22
36
location update
06-08-45.062
23
MTC
06-08-52.140
24
MTC
06-08-52.625
25
34
MOC
06-08-52.796
26
MTC
06-08-53.281
27
35
MOC
06-08-55.375
28
36
MTC
06-08-55.562
29
35
MOC
06-08-55.984
30
34
MTC
06-08-56.578
31
32
MOC
06-09-11.640
32
30
MTC
06-09-24.546
33
27
MTC
06-09-38.031
34
27
MTC
06-09-38.578
35
27
MTC
06-09-39.109
36
MOC
06-09-57.171
37
24
MOC
06-09-57.828
38
10
MOC
06-11-15.406
39
MOC
06-12-12.781
40
MOC
06-12-52.671
41
MOC
06-12-53.218
42
location update
06-15-13.140
The surrounding sites of the site distribute densely with distances lesser than 1km. TA
values are unreal on the table, we suppose there are fake signals. Further more,
assignment failure in half an hour almost focuses on 5 minutes. We shall use
TA_Allowed parameter to filter fake signals.
17
2.3.2 Noise signal is represented as receiving level is lower than BTS receiving
sensitivity
Problem description: a cells SDCCH assignment failure rate keeps high but TCH
assignment rate is ok.
2007-12-23
UserLabel
SUNKADA
KATTE
-PIPLINE-3
Object
identifier
0:00 ~ 24:00
Cell
and
Location Area
Cell(LAC-CI)
Bsc107-Sit
LAC107-CI1
e35-Bts3
7353
SDCCH
SDCCH
SDCCH
TCH
TCH
TCH
assign
assign
assign
Assignme
assign
assign
successful
failure
failure
nt Success
failure
failure
number
number
rate
Number
number
rate
14479
4490
23.63
4678
122
2.54
Problem analysis: the cell uses EDGE TRX; in this version, random accessed receiving
level can be reported in physical context by Channel Request. Through observing the
cells signaling tracking data, we find out there are lots of Channel Request messages
whose receiving level is -135dbm0x87which cause large numbers of SDCCH
assignment failures.
We can confirm that most of these Channel Requests are noise signal; we can solve it
through setting RACHMin.
18
Chapter 2
2.4 High SDCCH assignment failure rate because frequency of

target channel to hand over is the same with that of BCCH of the
problem cell, and target cell has same BSIC with that of problem
cell
2.4.1 Case 1
Problem description: the following are a cells signaling. We can see that there are
continuous Channel Requests with same RA, TA, and their frame numbers are
consecutive. All of the SDCCH assignments corresponding to these Channel Requests
are failed with no exception. Besides, other access request attempt times in basic
measurement are extremely high. Then we can confirm that all these abundant and
consecutive Channel Requests are fake access caused by incoming handover of
co-channel cells.
2.4.2 Case 2
A cells SDCCH assignment failure rate soars on busy hour, but TCH assignment
19
failure rate is low, network performance parameters are in the following table:
UserLabel
Object identifier
Cell
and
Location
Area Cell(LAC-CI)
Pmdatatime
SDCCH
TCH
assign
assign
failure
failure
rate
rate
GOLLARAHTTI-XCEL-2
Bsc107-Site64-Bts2
LAC116-CI17642
19:00-20:00
15.85
0.68
GOLLARAHTTI-XCEL-2
Bsc107-Site64-Bts2
LAC116-CI17642
21:00-22:00
12.78
0.71
GOLLARAHTTI-XCEL-2
Bsc107-Site64-Bts2
LAC116-CI17642
20:00-21:00
11.27
1.36
After tracking the sites signaling we find out there are lots of consecutive abnormal
random access whose Channel Request RA and TA are the same and frame number are
consecutive.
We find out there is a cell uses same frequency and same BSIC 14km away from the
site after checking frequency planning. The problem is solved by re-planning the
frequency.
2.5 SDCCH assignment failure caused by bad network coverage

2.5.1 Case 1
Problem description: a cell has high SDCCH assignment failure rate problem
20
Chapter 2
accompanied with high TCH assignment failure rate. Outgoing handover attempts are
frequent and call drop rate is high. Customer has complaints about it. The problem isnt
solved after resetting TRX and the site.
Problem analysis: we can see from the cells basic measurement report that access
reasons are various for SDCCH assignment failure, both MOC access and MTC access
account for a certain proportion. The number of uplink sampling whose RQ3 is quite
large, uplink quality is very bad. Therefore we can confirm that the cells uplink signal
has interference or the coverage is unfavorable.
2.5.2 Case 2
Problem description: a cells SDCCH assignment failure rate reaches as high as 58% on busy hour,
accompanied with 56% TCH assignment failure rate, handover success rate is only 20%. After
tracking signaling we find out there are lots of consecutive Channel Requests whose TA are 63 get
accessed abnormally.
Handover
UserLabel
Object identifier
success
rate (%)
GAYATRIPU Bsc23-Site19-Bt
RAM-MYS-3 s3
20
SDCCH
SDCCH
assignmen assignment
t success
failure
number
number
1915
3001
21
SDCCH
assignment
failure rate
58.67
TCH
TCH
assignment assignment
success
failure
number
number
1033
1325
TCH
assignment
failure rate
C11658*100/
C11611
56.19
Problem analysis: after checking the cells performance data of these days, we find out
that its TCH assignment failure rate, call drop rate and handover failure rate keep high
but without any alarm. DT engineer discovers that not only the cells own coverage is
bad, but the cell has overlapping problem and co-channel interference.
2.5.3 Case 3
A cells SDCCH assignment failure rate reaches as high as 20% on busy hour.
SDCCH
Cell and Location

UserLabel
Object identifier
Area
Pmdatatime
Cell(LAC-CI)
assign
failure
rate
TCH
Assignment
Success Rate
NANJANGUD-1
Bsc36-Site19-Bts1
LAC1036-CI36191
2007-12-17 20:00-21:00
10.8
81.75
NANJANGUD-1
Bsc36-Site19-Bts1
LAC1036-CI36191
2007-12-17 21:00-22:00
21.52
85.32
NANJANGUD-1
Bsc36-Site19-Bts1
LAC1036-CI36191
2007-12-18 20:00-21:00
18.28
82.17
NANJANGUD-1
Bsc36-Site19-Bts1
LAC1036-CI36191
2007-12-18 21:00-22:00
22.24
84.7
TCH assignment failure rate is as high as 20% while SDCCH assignment failure rate
rises. These two parameters are ok when traffic is low, which means the cells has
downlink interference. We can solve it through re-planning frequencies, or using
downlink power control of surrounding cells.
22
Chapter 2
2.6 SDCCH assignment failure caused by continuous access

request of location update
Problem description: in some boundary sites and suburban sites of city A, their
SDCCH assignment failure rates soar without any rule, but meanwhile cells other
parameters are normal.
The following are signaling and basic measure data recorded when SDCCH assignment
failure rate is high. We can see from signaling that the reason for one MS keeps
sending access attempts is Channel Request due to location update, but all attempts are
failed.
23
2.7 SDCCH assignment failure caused by improper-set Tx-Integer

Problem description: a cells ordinary SDCCH assignment failure rate keeps around
20%, hits 30% on busy hour. But other parameters (such as TCH assignment failure
rate, handover success rate) are all normal.
DATETIME
BSC_NAME
BSCID
CELL_ID
SITE_NAME
MYHOUR
SD_ASSN_FAIL_RATE
13-Dec-07
JAYANAGAR-BSC
102
12282
THAYAGRAJNAGAR-2-s
21
30.21
Problem analysis: after tracking the cells signaling, we find out there are couples of
Channel Request messages of the cell commonly appearing together (with same TA
and for same reason). The Imm Assign corresponding to the first Channel Request is
successful, but the Imm Assign corresponding to the second Channel Request is failed.
24
Chapter 2
Set colored messages in the upper figure as an example; the FN of the first Channel
Request message is 964, the FN of the second Channel Request message is 1086, the
FN difference is 124. While Tx-Integer=12. Then we can confirm these two Channel
Request messages are sent by one MS. Because there is a certain delay on transmission
link, then MS resends Channel Request.
The cells SDCCH assignment failure rate decreases lower than 10% after changing
Tx-Integer into 14.
25

GSM Network SDCCH Assignment Analysis

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GSM Network SDCCH Assignment

2.4.1 Case 1 ...................................................................................................................................19

1 SDCCH Assignment Failure

Number=Ox88 then it indicates the existence of the same BCCH handover