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Use case

Tool:
Specification number:
Title:

ANATOM
3d
Related request Nr:
Detection of unnecessary neighbour relation

Author:
Date:
Description Version:
Relevant Specification

Marek Lipski
10.12.2004
3.0

Department:
Phone:
Description State:

Com SDC NA B1
+48 71 7992362
IUS

Title

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Table of contents
1

General...........................................................................................................................3
1.1

Contributions................................................................................................................. 3

1.2

Document history.......................................................................................................... 3

1.3

Abbreviations................................................................................................................. 3

1.4

References..................................................................................................................... 3

1.5

Hints................................................................................................................................ 4

Objective........................................................................................................................5

Requested KPIs / Measurements.................................................................................6

3.1

Unnecessary neighbour relation..................................................................................6

3.2

Number of registered neighbours per cell...................................................................6

3.3

Number of outgoing handover attempts per BTS (cell)..............................................7

3.4

Number of outgoing handovers from a source to a target cell related to outgoing

handovers to all neighbour cells..................................................................................7

3.5

Number of outgoing handovers per neighbour cell....................................................8

3.6

Handover success rate per neighbour cell..................................................................8

3.7

Number of successful handovers per neighbour cell.................................................8

Problem detection.........................................................................................................9
4.1

Problem description......................................................................................................9

4.2

Used thresholds...........................................................................................................10

4.3

Problem reporting........................................................................................................11

4.3.1

Title
Number
Author

Geographical analysis............................................................................................................... 16

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1 General
1.1 Contributions
In addition to the authors named on the cover page, the following persons have collaborated on
this document:
D. Blechschmidt
A. Rocchetti
K. Majchrowicz
M. Chrostek
A. Sikora-Godlewska
S. Lasek

Com MN PG NT NE 5
Com MN PG NT NE 5
Com SDC NA B1
Com SDC NA B1
Com SDC NA B1
Com SDC NA B1

1.2 Document history

Version
1.0
2.0

Date
15.07.2003
15.03.2004

2.1

31.05.2004

2.2
2.2
3.0

23.06.2004
06.07.2004
10.12.2004

Change
Initial version
Second version, upgraded to ANATOM 3.7 using its new
functionalities
Main formula "DEL_NB" changed, minor changes in text of
document
Small changes according to MS P
Set to IUS
IUS version:
use case analysis including geographical reporting is based on
ANATOM 3.9.3

1.3 Abbreviations
ADJCN
BSC
BSCN
BTS
BTSN
CELLGLID
CM
HO
KPI
NB

ADJacent Cell Number

Base Station Controller
Base Station Controller Number
Base Transceiver Station
Base Transceiver Station Number
Cell Global IDentity
Configuration Management
Handover
Key Performance Indicator
Neighbour

1.4 References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]

ANATOM 3.9.3 User Guide

https://ims.icn.siemens.de/livelink/livelink/Guest/Open/329883323
PM: SBS Key Performance Indicators
https://ims.icn.siemens.de/livelink/livelink/Guest/Open/326563179
PM: SBS Counter
https://ims.icn.siemens.de/livelink/livelink/Guest/Open/329038792
MapInfo Professional Reference Guide
http://testdrive.mapinfo.com/TECHSUPP/MIPROD.NSF/5c41496d5951a49c852562b5004f
3a44/4241034b502e3d5885256f250048f0a1/$FILE/MI_70_Ref.pdf

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1.5 Hints
Formulas as denoted in chapter 3 can be copied directly into ANATOM Formula Editor to be used
for analysis. All necessary files to perform the analysis are in the table below:
Exported KPIs:
AnatomKPIExport_us
er_nb_del.sql

Title
Number
Author

Report template:
3d_Detection_of_un
necessary_NB_relation.arc

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2 Objective
The adjacency plan is one of the major contributors to network quality. Without the definition of the
optimum adjacencies, handovers may occur to cells, which are not optimal, and subsequently
a call drop might not be avoided. The goal of adjacency management is to have the right cell in the
neighbour list, to provide always the best target cell to perform a handover.
Based on performance measurement data provided through the network and the configuration of
the network the operator wants to analyse if specific cells have unnecessary neighbour relations.
To keep the best HO results some performance metrics such as total number of HO attempts,
relative number of HO attempts per neighbour and number of successful handovers should be
analysed.
NOTE: This document does not describe the whole process of neighbour optimisation. Its main
purpose is to help the user while looking for possible database inconsistencies in
neighbour definition. The use case is meant to be only the rough user guide so the user
can easily find problematic adjacencies in the network. The output of the use case should
only attract user's attention to possible improvements. The user must be aware of the fact
that the analysis should be checked by drive-tests performed before and after deleting the
potentially unnecessary neighbour.

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3 Requested KPIs / Measurements

In order to analyse neighbour relations and to find an unnecessary one, some specific KPIs can be
used. From the users point of view, there is no need to distinguish Inter Cell Intra BSC from Inter
Cell Inter BSC handovers.
To check necessity of defined neighbour relation, the user has to evaluate the number of handover
attempts to the target adjacent cell relative to a total number of outgoing handovers from the
source cell. Except the relative value of HO attempts, it is necessary to measure the total number
of HO attempts and their successful rate. The amount of defined neighbour relations is also an
important factor. The more adjacencies are defined, the less accurate the measurements per
neighbour will be and therefore the more wrong decisions for handover will be taken. This is why,
the quantity of declared neighbours, considering the traffic environment (rural, suburban, urban )
should be kept as low as possible to sustain the required quality.

3.1 Unnecessary neighbour relation

Long name:
Short name:
Description:

Formula:
Remarks:
KPIs used in
formula:
Anatom category:
Aggregation:

An indication whether a neighbour relation should be considered as

unnecessary
DEL_NB
This KPI can show only two different values: 0 or 1 with meaning:
0 = neighbour relation should be kept
1 = neighbour relation might be unnecessary
Value "1" is indicated only if the rule in the formula is fulfilled.
anatom_globals.log_and(anatom_globals.gt(HO_ATT_BTS, 500) ,
anatom_globals.lt(nvl(HO_ATT_RELATIVE, 0) , (1 / (NUMBER_ADJC *
50) ) ) )
The relation should be deleted only if the indicator gives "1" value for both
handover directions unless such a configuration is intended
NUMBER_ADJC
(new, see chapter 3.2)
HO_ATT_BTS
(new, see chapter 3.3)
HO_ATT_REALTIVE
(new, see chapter 3.4)
Neighbour analysis
SUM

3.2 Number of registered neighbours per cell

Long name:
Short name:
Description:
Formula:

Remarks:
KPIs used in
formula:
Anatom category:
Aggregation:
Title
Number
Author

Number of registered neighbours per cell

NUMBER_ADJC
This KPI shows the number of registered neighbours for a cell.
The KPI is aggregated on neighbour cell level.
anatom_globals.value_add(
rollup_from.outho
(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_PWR", "COUNT"),
rollup_from.outho
(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_PWR", "COUNT"))
Only one KPI is defined making no difference between intra and inter BSC
handovers
OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_PWR ATINBHDO[6]
([3] 6.0)
OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_PWR AOUINIRH[6,17,28,39] ([3] 5.1)
Neighbour analysis
MAX
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3.3 Number of outgoing handover attempts per BTS (cell)

Long name:
Short name:
Description:
Formula:

Remarks:
KPIs used in
formula:
Anatom
category:
Aggregation:

Number of outgoing handover attempts per BTS (cell)

HO_ATT_BTS
Number of outgoing intercell handover attempts to all neighbours.
The KPI is aggregated on neighbour cell level.
anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_DIRRET") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_DIRECT") )
+ anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_DIST") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_DIST") )
+ anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_DLLEV") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_DLLEV") )
+ anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_DLQUAL") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_DLQUAL") )
+ anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_FAST") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_FASTUL") )
+ anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_OM") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_OM") )
+ anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_PREEMP") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_PREEMP") )
+ anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_PWR") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_PWR") )
+ nvl(distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN,
"OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_TRAF"), 0)
+ anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_ULLEV") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_ULLEV") )
+ anatom_globals.value_add(
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTER_ATT_ULQUAL") ,
distribute_from.bts(BSCN, BTSN, "OUTG_HO_INTRA_ATT_ULQUAL") )
KPI is derived as distribution of counters from BTS level.
Only one KPI is defined making no difference between intra and inter BSC
handovers
INTER_BSC_HO_ATT (predefined [2] 11.3.1.a)
INTER_HO_ATT
(predefined [2] 11.2.1.a)
Neighbour analysis
SUM

3.4 Number of outgoing handovers from a source to a target cell related to

outgoing handovers to all neighbour cells
Long name:
Short name:
Title
Number
Author

Part of HO attempts to one neighbour cell compared to outgoing HO

attempts to all neighbour cells
HO_ATT_RELATIVE
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Description:
Formula:
Remarks:
KPIs used in
formula:
Anatom category:
Aggregation:

Confidential - for internal use only

This KPI shows the ratio of outgoing handovers to one neighbour cell
related to all outgoing handover attempts towards all neighbour cells.
HO_ATT_NB / HO_ATT_BTS
Only one KPI is defined making no difference between intra and inter BSC
handovers
HO_ATT_NB
(new, see chapter 3.5)
HO_ATT_BTS
(new, see chapter 3.3)
Neighbour analysis
AVG

3.5 Number of outgoing handovers per neighbour cell

Long name:
Short name:
Description:
Formula:
Remarks:
KPIs used in
formula:
Anatom category:
Aggregation:

Number of outgoing handovers per neighbour cell

HO_ATT_NB
Number of outgoing inter cell handover attempts per neighbour cell.
anatom_globals.value_add(INTER_BSC_HO_ATT, INTER_HO_ATT)
Only one KPI is defined making no difference between intra and inter BSC
handovers
INTER_BSC_HO_ATT (predefined [2] 11.3.1.a)
INTER_HO_ATT
(predefined [2] 11.2.1.a)
Neighbour analysis
SUM

3.6 Handover success rate per neighbour cell

Long name:
Short name:
Description:
Formula:
Remarks:
KPIs used in
formula:
Anatom category:
Aggregation:

Handover success rate per neighbour cell

HO_SUCC_RATE_NB
This KPI shows the ratio of outgoing successful handovers compared to all
outgoing handover attempts per neighbour cell.
HO_SUCC_NB / HO_ATT_NB
Only one KPI is defined making no difference between intra and inter BSC
handovers
HO_SUCC_NB
(new, see chapter 3.7)
HO_ATT_NB
(new, see chapter 3.5)
Neighbour analysis
AVG

3.7 Number of successful handovers per neighbour cell

Long name:
Short name:
Description:
Formula:
Remarks:
KPIs used in
formula:
Anatom category:
Aggregation:
Title
Number
Author

Number of successful handovers per neighbour cell

HO_SUCC_NB
This KPI shows the number of outgoing successful handovers to a
neighbour cell.
anatom_globals.value_add(INTER_BSC_HO_SUCC,
INTER_HO_SUCC)
Only one KPI is defined making no difference between intra and inter BSC
handovers
INTER_BSC_HO_SUCC (predefined [2] 11.3.1.b)
INTER_HO_SUCC
(predefined [2] 11.2.1.b)
Neighbour analysis
SUM
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4 Problem detection
4.1 Problem description
The important matter of the deletion process is to identify the required criteria. Any existing
neighbours that do not meet these conditions should be deleted from the neighbour list.
Handovers to most suitable cells are possible only with the definition of correct adjacencies. The
basic reasons for triggering a handover is better power budget provided through coverage from
neighbouring cells. To maintain a call also handovers due to other reasons might be invoked. Socalled emergency handovers are triggered by low receive level, bad quality or high distance from
the serving BTS. To perform HO, the target cells need to be evaluated using adjacent cell
measurements. Therefore, adjacent cell measurements are carried out for all the registered target
cells and a HO should be initiated to the best-suited one.
The analysis of neighbour relations' validity should cover certain period. The operator should be
aware of the fact, that long averaging windows tend to reduce the number of unnecessary
handovers due to traffic fluctuations. That is why the optimum period should be about a week,
because only then it is possible to detect badly or under-performing neighbours.
Second parameter, which should be taken into consideration, is number of handover attempts. If
there are no HO attempts in observed cell, then there is no need to analyse it.
Next important thing is to recognise potentially unnecessary neighbour by comparing HO attempts
from a source cell to a neighbour cell with all outgoing handovers to all neighbour cells. This ratio is
defined as HO_ATT_REL and if its value is below the desired threshold, it means that the observed
neighbour is not a preferred candidate for handovers and it could be considered to be deleted. On
the other hand, if HO_ATT_REL has reached the threshold such a neighbour should be kept in
the NB list. This high value indicates that the observed neighbour has been measured as a good
candidate and it should remain in the NB list.
And, last but not least, very important parameter is handover success rate. This metrics is
evaluated as a ratio of successful handovers to all attempted handovers per neighbour cell. If this
indicator is lower than the desired threshold, it means that the cell should be analysed with more
attention. The low success rate can happen in case of different factors such as interference,
wrong HO parameters or missing/unused adjacencies.
The user cannot forget to check the distances between adjacencies from geographical point of
view as well.
The process of detecting the unnecessary neighbour relation based on above metrics and rules is
shown in a diagram below:

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HO_ATT_BTS
>
TH1

NO

YES

HO_ATT_RELATIVE
<
TH2

NO

YES
DELETE NB
RELATION

KEEP NB
RELATION

Picture 1: Process of detecting unnecessary neighbour relation

Attention: The handover relation from cell A to cell B can be deleted only if the process
shows the same result for handover relation from cell B to cell A (A B = B A).

4.2 Used thresholds

The user can influence the behaviour of the rule DEL_NB by customizing the thresholds used to
build the formula. The formula is:

DEL _ NB HO _ ATT _ BTS TH1 HO _ ATT _ RELATIVE TH 2 ,

where HO_ATT_BTS should be higher than TH1, which means only cells with number of handover
attempts exceeding threshold TH1 are considered for analysis. In this case, the threshold TH1 is set
to 500. The second part of the formula is created of a condition depending on number of adjacent
cells and number of handover attempts to a particular neighbour. In fact, the threshold TH2 takes a
dynamically changing value, which can be different for each cell.
By default, the following thresholds are taken:
1. Number of outgoing handover attempts per BTS:
KPI
HO_ATT_BTS

Threshold (TH1)
> 500

2. Number of outgoing handover attempts per neighbour:

KPI

Threshold (TH2)
>

HO_ATT_RELATIVE

1
NUMBER_ADJC 50

All the thresholds can be changed using Formula Editor.

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Formula
Editor

Applied
threshold

It is very important to re-calculate all modified KPIs every time the user changes the values of the
thresholds. Another way, the changes will not be visible in the Universal Report.

4.3 Problem reporting

A specific report was defined in ANATOM to detect the described neighbour problem and to show
the results to the user. The report is called:
3d_Detection_of_unnecessary_NB_relation.arc
and can be opened through universal report template in ANATOM.
After the report is opened, the user has only to specify objects and time range to be analysed and
start the report by pushing the 'Refresh' button. Afterwards the following result will be displayed.

The report contains information about Cell Global Identifier of neighbour cell and number of
handover attempts per BTS as well as per neighbour cell. The number of handover attempts per
neighbour cell compared with HO attempts to all cells is also displayed together with handover
success rate per neighbour as additional information. The last column contains the result of the
main rule.
The lines are grouped by BSC, BTS and then Adjacent Cells.
In the above example the user can see that for all selected cells belonging to BSC0 the hint
whether delete NB relation is reported 109 times. To see the details, the user can expand the grid
to the BTS level and he will see the following details.
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For example, for BTSN 1.022 the DEL_NB flag was calculated 9 times and for BTSN 1.015 the flag
was calculated 18 times. Further, the user willing to see for which neighbours the rule was fulfilled,
he opens the evaluated BTS and checks every neighbour.

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As displayed on the report, the problem was indicated 9 times for ADJCN8 only. The user can
easily notice that, during the observation period, there was only one HO attempt outgoing to
neighbour 8. The value 9 in DEL_NB column means that the rule was fulfilled for nine days within
observation period for this neighbour, which gives true value for all days selected for evaluation.

Object
selection
panel

Time
selection
panel

To see the detailed information about number of handovers to this neighbour, their success rate or
what portion of all handovers from the source cell to the evaluated cell is attempted, the user can
expand the grid for particular adjacent cell.

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As the additional information, the user gets the Cell Global Identifier of the neighbour cell. In this
example, it is clearly stated that neighbour relation between BTS 1.022 (CELLGLID = 11142) and
BTS 1.015 (CELLGLID = 10652) should be considered for deletion. Now, the user must check if
the DEL_NB rule gives the same results in opposite direction. Only in this case, the relation can be
deleted.

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For BTS 1.015, there are two neighbours suspected to be unnecessary: ADJCN 5 and ADJCN 8.
Since ADJCN 8 is the BTS 1.022 (CELLGLID = 11142), this is the suspected neighbour, which the
user seeks.

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It occurs that in both handover directions (10652 11142 and 11142 10652) the result of the
rule DEL_NB gave the positive value so the neighbour relation can be removed from the system.
Except the result of the DEL_NB rule, the user gets some performance statistics as additional
information. These are:
number of handover attempts per BTS,
number of handover attempts per neighbour,
ratio of handover attempts per neighbour related to all handover attempts,
number of successful handovers per neighbour,
handover success rate per neighbour cell,
number of registered neighbours per cell.

4.3.1 Geographical analysis

In this chapter, geographical analysis of evaluated cells is described.
As ANATOM also offers geographical representation of data, the analysis results can be also
displayed on a map. From the predefined report supporting the described use case, the user can
switch to geographical representation by choosing the related sheet named geographical.
The pre-selected KPIs, raw counters and CM attributes as well as all selected cells in cell list are
applied automatically to this sheet. The user has to specify an individual day to see the results.
By pressing the button 'Refresh' the data will be available for display on the map. By default, the
geographical report shows the rule DEL_NB for all selected cells distinguishing the outcome of the
rule with different colours:
red the rule fulfilled,
green the rule not fulfilled:

If the user now wants to see the neighbour relations of a special cell of interest, he can click the
cell and the dedicated neighbour relations will be displayed as a line.
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The next step of finding the unnecessary neighbour relation is to check the same BTSs that were
pointed out to be suspected of suffering such problem:
Neighbour relations of cell 11142

Neighbour relations of cell 10652

As the example shows, the cell 11142 can be deleted from the neighbour list of the cell 10652 as
well as cell 10652 can be deleted from the neighbour list of cell 11142.

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