Troubleshooting For Call Drop PDF

Troubleshooting Manual
M900/M1800 Base Station Subsystem Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter 10 Troubleshooting for Call Drop................................................................................ 10-1

10.1 Overview ........................................................................................................................ 10-1
10.1.1 Description .......................................................................................................... 10-1
10.1.2 Formula for Call drop .......................................................................................... 10-4
10.2 Causes........................................................................................................................... 10-5
10.2.1 Coverage............................................................................................................. 10-5
10.2.2 Handover............................................................................................................. 10-8
10.2.3 Interference ....................................................................................................... 10-10
10.2.4 Uplink/downlink Unbalance Caused by Antenna & Feeder System ................. 10-12
10.2.5 Transmission Failure......................................................................................... 10-13
10.2.6 Unreasonable Parameter Settings .................................................................... 10-14
10.2.7 Others................................................................................................................ 10-15
10.3 Examples ..................................................................................................................... 10-15
10.3.1 Reducing Call Drop by Optimizing Handover Related Parameter .................... 10-15
10.3.2 Call Drop Caused by Interference..................................................................... 10-16
10.3.3 Call Drop Caused by Interference..................................................................... 10-18
10.3.4 Uplink/downlink Unbalance ............................................................................... 10-19
10.3.5 Call Drop Caused by Interference from Repeater............................................. 10-20
10.3.6 Call Drop Caused by Isolated Island Effect ...................................................... 10-20
10.3.7 Settings of Version Related Parameters........................................................... 10-21
Huawei Technologies Proprietary
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M900/M1800 Base Station Subsystem Chapter 10 Troubleshooting for Call Drop
Chapter 10 Troubleshooting for Call Drop
10.1 Overview
For GSM network, call-dropping failure rate is an important index measuring the
quality of radio network.
This chapter analyzes the causes resulting in call drop and describes the methods
of troubleshooting for the purpose of reducing call-dropping failure rate, thus
improving the quality of network. In addition, it also introduces the measures of
dealing with worst cells caused by high call-dropping failure rate, reducing worst cell
ratio, thus decreasing call-dropping failure rate.
Definitions of worst cell ratio indices that are calculated according to different
network sizes are given below:
Worst cell ratio in super network: Number of worst cells/number of cells where the
busy time average traffic per channel exceeds 0.15Erl.
Worst cell ratio in large network: Number of worst cells/number of cells where the
Worst cell ratio in medium network: Number of worst cells/number of cells where the
Definition of worst cell: The cell where the busy time TCH congestion rate (not
including handover) is greater than 5%, or the TCH call-dropping failure rate is
greater than 3%.
Definition of call-dropping failure rate: Call-dropping failure rate = [Busy time total
TCH traffic * 60]/total number of busy time TCH call drops, in which the number of
call drops indicates the number of Clear Request messages.
10.1.1 Description
There are two types of call drops given below.

Call drop over SDCCH: Indicating the call drop occurs in the course during
which BSC assigns a SDCCH to an MS but a TCH has not been successfully
assigned yet
Call drop over TCH: Indicating the call drop occurs after BSC assigns a TCH to
MS successfully.
There are three causes resulting in call drop, which are given below.
10-1
Radio link failure, which occurs in the course of communication and causes the
situation that messages cannot be received.
T3103 timeout. It indicates the MS cannot occupy a channel of the destination
cell or return to the original channel.
System failure, such as equipment failure etc.
1) Among the three causes, radio link failure is the main factor
During a conversation, when the voice quality of a MS is too bad to be accepted
and cannot be improved via radio frequency power control or handover, the MS
will consider the radio link gets faulty and forcedly release the link, which thus
causes call drop. As stated in GSM specification, there is a counter S in the MS.
As soon as a conversation starts, the counter is assigned an initial value, which
is the parameter Radio Link Timeout. If the MS fails to decode a SACCH
message with period of 120 ms, 1 will be subtracted from S. Contrarily, every
time when the MS receives a SACCH message successfully, 2 is added to S,
but the value of S cannot be greater than the initial value. When S is 0, the MS
reports radio link failure. The Signaling procedure is shown in Figure 10-1.
Steps (1) and (2) shows SDCCH/TCH have been established, while step (3)
cannot decode the SACCH message block (uplink/downlink), thus radio link
timeout is caused.
SACCH multiframe number (namely, SACCH multiframe period with a unit of

480 ms) in the cell attributes table defines uplink connection failure time. When
detecting an activated connection on the radio link is broken, BTS will report the
message Connection Failure. The system judges whether a connection fails by
the BER of uplink or by checking whether SACCH can correctly decode. As
stated by GSM protocol, if the BER of SACCH is used to judge whether a
connection fails, when the uplink BERs in N continuous SACCH multiframe
periods are greater than the set threshold, BTS will report the message
Connection Failure to BSC. N, the number of SACCH multiframe periods, has
been set during data configuration, which is no other than the SACCH
multiframe number in the cell attributes table, with a unit of 480 ms.
In addition, in case that the layer 2 frame cannot interwork with MS normally,
BTS layer 2 radio interface will report the message Error Indication to BSC, as
shown in step (3) in Figure 10-1. The cause is T200 timeout, and at this time,
BSC will release the radio link and report the message Clear REQ.
10-2
MSC BSC BTS MS
(1)
Measurement Result
(2)
Connection Failure
(3)
Clear REQ
(Radio Interface Failure)
Figure 10-1 Signaling flow of radio link failure
2) T3103
(a) Definition: In the course of an intra-BSS or inter-BSS handover, BSC
reserves TCHs of the cell initiating the handover and the destination cell in
terms of T3103. This timer is activated as soon as BSC sends the message
Handover Command, and is cleared after receiving Handover Complete (for
intra-BSS handover), or Clear Command (for inter-BSS handover).
(b) This timer is used to reserve a channel for a long time so that MS can return
to the channel. Nevertheless, If MS lost, it will be used to release the channel.
When BSS sends a handover command to MS, the timer starts to perform the
timing function. After BSC receives a Handover Complete message from the
destination cell or a Handover Failure message from the source cell, the timer
will be reset. Following BSC sending a Handover Command message to BTS,
if no messages are received after T3103 expires, BSC will consider radio link
failure occurs to the source cell, and then release the channel of the source cell.
The Signaling flow is shown in Figure 10-2.
10-3
MS BTS2 BTS1 BSC MSC

Handover Indication
Channel Activate
Channel ACK
Handover Command Set T3103

Handover Command
Handover Access
Handover Detection
Physical Info (TA)
SABM
Establish Indication
UA
Handover Complete
Handover Complete
Reset T3103
Figure 10-2 Call drop resulting from T3103 timeout
3) See example 8 for detailed descriptions of call drop resulting from the causes
such as equipment failure.
10.1.2 Formula for Call drop
1) TCH call-dropping failure rate = number of TCH call drops/times when TCH is
occupied successfully % 100%
2) TCH call drop measurement point: The channel currently occupied is of TCH
type when BSC sends a Clear Request message to MSC.
3) The cause values for sending Clear Request are as follows:
Radio Interface Message Failure
O&M Intervention
Equipment Failure
Protocol Error Between BSS and MSC
Preemption
The Signaling flow is shown in Figure 10-3.
10-4
MS BTS BSC
Call Assignment Procedure Signaling
Connection or Connection Acknowledge
Or.
Handover Procedure Signaling
Handover Complete
Or. Connection Failure
Or. Error Indication
Figure 10-3 Signaling flow for TCH call drop
Formula of SDCCH call-dropping failure rate:
SDCCH call-dropping failure rate = number of SDCCH call drops/total times when
SDCCH is occupied successfully % 100%
SDCCH call-dropping failure rate (%) = [number of radio link failures when SDCCH
is occupied (connection failure) + number of radio link failures when SDCCH is
occupied (error indication) + number of terrestrial link failures when SDCCH is
occupied (Abis)]/total times when SDCCH is occupied successfully % 100%
SDCCH call drop measurement point: The channel currently occupied is of SDCCH
type when the messages Clear REQ and Error Indication are sent to MSC.
10.2 Causes
10.2.1 Coverage
I. Analysis
1) Discontinuous coverage (blind area)

Call drop is caused by isolated BTS. As the signal is of weak strength and poor
quality at the edge of an isolated BTS, handover to other cells cannot be
implemented, and thus call drop occurs.
If BTS lies in the place where the landform is intricate and radio propagation
environment is complicated (e.g., a mountainous area), it may cause call drop
owing to discontinuous coverage.
2) Poor indoor coverage
10-5
In the place where many buildings are located, call drop easily occurs due to
high transmission attenuation, low indoor level and great penetrate loss.
3) Beyond coverage (isolated island)
Owing to some reasons, the coverage of a serving cell is beyond the defined
coverage. For example, the power in cell A is so high that a MS still occupies
the signals of cell A after it moves out of the coverage of the adjacent cell B that
has been defined by cell A and reaches cell C. However, cell A has not
defined cell C as an adjacent cell yet, so at this time the MS cannot find a
proper cell when it tries to perform a handover according to the adjacent cell B
provided by cell A, thus call drop occurs, as shown in Figure 10-4.
Can't find next

cell cause call
drop
Cell C
Cell A
Expected Coverage
Cell B
Actual Coverage
Figure 10-4 Call drop resulting from overlarge coverage
4) Shortage of coverage
It may be caused by some equipment failure in a cell. For example, the
antenna is obstructed or the carrier taking BCCH (power amplifier) gets faulty.
II. Location
Get familiar with the area that is not covered enough and perform a large-scope test.
Observe the signal level, whether the handover is normal and whether call drop
occurs. In addition, by means of OMC traffic measurements check the BSC
call-dropping failure rates to find the cells with high call-dropping failure rates and
other relevant statistics, facilitating the location.
The related traffic measurement tasks and items are listed below:
1) In power control performance measurement, see whether the average
uplink/downlink signal strength is too low.
10-6
2) In receive signal level performance measurement, see whether the proportion

of number of low receive signal levels is too large.
3) In cell/inter-cell handover performance measurement, see whether the level
class and the average receive signal level are too low when a handover is
initiated.
4) In call drop performance measurement, see whether the level is too low when
call drop occurs, and whether TA is abnormal prior to call drop.
5) Defined adjacent cell performance measurement. Based on the statistics of
adjacent cells defined in the cell adjacent relationship table and reported by MS,
you may locate in which adjacent cell the average level is too low.
6) In undefined adjacent cell performance measurement, see whether the
undefined adjacent cells in which the average level is too high exist.
7) In power control performance measurement, see whether the maximum
distance between MS and BTS, namely TA, keeps abnormal in multiple
continuous time segments.
III. Solution
1) Find the area that is short of coverage

Perform tests to find the areas that are short of coverage. For the isolated BTS
or the BTS in a mountainous area, continuous coverage can be formed by
adding BTSs or expanding the original coverage via other ways, such as
improving the maximum transmit power of BTS, adjusting azimuth, downtilt and
height of antenna etc. Analyze whether the trouble is caused by surroundings,
e.g., tunnel, mall, subway entry, underground parking lot and depression.
Generally, call drop easily occurs at these places, and micro cells can be used
to handle the trouble.
2) To guarantee indoor communication quality, the signals going outside must be
strong enough. If indoor communication quality can not be improved greatly by
enhancing the maximum transmit power of BTS, adjusting azimuth, downtilt
and height of antenna, adding BTSs can be helpful. To build up indoor
coverage of main publics such as office buildings and hotels, the indoor
distribution system could be applicable.
3) For the cell where beyond coverage may occur, define its all potential adjacent
cells to reduce call drops resulting from lack of proper cell for handover. The
problem of beyond coverage can be solved by lessening the antennas downtilt
of the BTS.
4) Removing hardware failure.
Perform tests to judge whether hardware failure occurs and causes short of
coverage. If the call-dropping failure rate of a BTS rises abruptly and all other
indices remain normal, check whether the adjacent cells work normally. Such
trouble may be caused by failure of the downlink, such as failure of TRX,
10-7
diversity unit or antenna, because faults of the uplink will cause high handover
failure rate of the original cell.
10.2.2 Handover
I. Analysis
1) Unreasonable parameters
For example, if the level of the handover candidate cell is set to be too low and
the handover threshold is set to be too little, some MSs will be handed over to
the adjacent cell when the level of the adjacent is a little stronger than that of
the serving cell for a time. But after a while, if the signal of the adjacent cell
faint, and it happens no proper cell is available for handover, call drop could
occur. See example 6 for call drop resulting from improper settings of handover
parameters.
2) Adjacent cell undefined
If an adjacent cell has not been defined yet, MS will keep communicating in the
serving cell until it goes out of its coverage. At this time, call drop shall occur
since MS cannot be handed over to a cell with stronger signals.
3) Existence of adjacent cells with the same BSIC and BCCH frequency.
4) Traffic congestion
Unbalance of traffic may cause handover failure due to lack of handover
channel available for the destination BTS. When reestablishment of handover
channel fails too, call drop occurs.
5) BTS clock out of synchronization and frequency offset beyond limits, which can
cause handover failure and call drop.
6) T3103 timeout
II. Location
According to traffic measurement indices analyze whether there are cells with low
handover success rate, high call-dropping failure rate, multiple handover and
reestablishment failures. By ways of traffic measurement analyze the causes
resulting in handover, such as uplink/downlink receive signal level, uplink/downlink
receive quality, power budget (PBGT), call directed retry and traffic. Observe
whether there are BTS related clock alarms and whether BTS clock runs normally.
Check BTS clock and remove clock fault if necessary. Perform a road test to find the
cell in which handover is abnormal. Perform multiple road tests near the problem
cell to find handover related call drop, and optimize handover parameters to reduce
call-dropping failure rate.
10-8
The following problems might be detected during traffic measurement:

1) Too many handover failures and reestablishment failures in inter-cell handover
performance measurement.
2) Too many handovers and successful re-establishments in inter-cell handover
performance measurement.
3) The number of measurement reports including undefined adjacent levels in
undefined adjacent cell performance measurement is beyond limits.
4) Low outgoing handover success rate (for a cell) in outgoing handover
performance measurement. Find the adjacent cell to which the handover
success rate is low, and further search the cause in the destination cell.
5) Low incoming handover success rate and unreasonable settings of handover
parameters of the opposite cell.
6) Number of handovers in disproportion with number of successful TCH
occupancies and too much handover in TCH performance measurement.
(number of handovers/number of calls >3)
III. Solution
1) Check the parameters impacting handover, e.g., settings of stratum levels,

handover thresholds, handover hystereses, handover measurement time,
handover duration and minimum access level of handover candidate cell. For
instance, to decrease call drop resulting from handover, the minimum access
level of the handover candidate cell can be improved from -100dBm to -95dBm.
That is, it is changed from grade 10 to grade 15. Also, when handover is slow
or handover success rate is low owing to clock problem or poor transmission,
the value of the parameter NY1, which is the maximum retransmission times of
physical information could be set greater, In a word, handover optimization
should be based on the actual conditions. Example 6 introduces how to reduce
call drop by adjusting handover parameters. See it for details.
2) Traffic adjustment is to handle the call drop resulting from no handover channel
available for the destination BTS due to unbalance of traffic. For example,
control the coverage of cell by adjusting the engineering parameters such as
downtilt and azimuth of antenna, or lead MS to stay in an idle cell via network
parameters such as CRO, or lead MS in conversation to hand over to an idle
cell by setting stratum level priority, or balance traffic by adopting load
handover or directly expand the carrier.
3) Calibrate the BTS clock that is faulty until clock synchronization.
10-9
10.2.3 Interference
I. Analysis
There are co-channel interference, adjacent-channel interference and

inter-modulation interference. When MS receives signals in the serving cell with
strong co-channel or adjacent-channel interference, it may aggravate BER and
make MS cannot accurately demodulate BSIC of the adjacent cell or BTS cannot
correctly receive measurement reports of MS.
The interference threshold is set as co-channel carrier-to-interference ratio C/I9dB

and adjacent-channel carrier-to-interference ratio C/A9dB. When the interference
index is so bad that it exceeds the threshold, conversations in network shall be
interfered, thus conversation of poor quality and call drop might occur.
II. Location
Interference may be from inside or outside of the network and exists in uplink or
downlink signals. The following methods can be used to locate interference.
1) Find the position that may be interfered by analyzing traffic measurement.
2) Perform road tests at the position that may be interfered according to
complaints of the users and search downlink interference. With road test tools
check whether the position where the receive signal level is strong but the
conversation quality is poor exists. Or use a test MS to perform dialing tests at
a locked frequency to observe whether interference occurs at the frequency.
3) Check whether there is co-channel interference caused by improper frequency
planning.
4) Adjust the frequencies that might be interfered to try to reduce even avoid
interference.
5) Remove the interference caused by equipment failure.
6) If interference still remains, perform frequency scan with a spectrum analyzer to
search the frequency that is interfered and to further find the interference
sources.
See examples for detailed analysis of interference. List below the traffic
measurement indices used for interference analysis.
1) Interference band for observing uplink interference
If an idle channel appears in interference bands 3, 4 and 5, generally it
indicates there is interference. For intra-network interference, the interference
may increase with the augmentation of traffic, while out-network interference
has nothing to do with it. Note that interference band is reported to BSC by the
BTS carrier channel in an idle state via radio frequency resource indication, it
indicates the uplink characteristics of the radio channel occupied by MS,
10-10
namely interference severity of uplink signals. If the channel is busy, it is

difficult for it to report resource indication, therefore, the measurement of
interference band should be comprehensive.
2) Receive signal level performance measurement (denoting the matrix
relationship of level and quality)
This is a measurement item used for carrier. If there are too many times when
level is high but quality is poor for a carrier board, it indicates co-channel or
adjacent-channel or out-network interference occurs to the frequency of the
board.
3) Handover ratio on poor quality communication
In cell performance measurement/inter-cell handover or outgoing handover
performance measurement, handover attempts due to various reasons are
measured. If there is too much handover caused by poor quality
communication, it means there could be interference. Furthermore, if there is
lots of handover resulting from uplink communication of poor quality, and vice
versa.
4) Receive quality performance measurement
Measure average received quality level for carrier, which serves as a reference.
5) Call drop performance measurement
Record average level and quality in case of call drop, which serves as a
reference.
6) Too many handover failures and reestablishment failures
It might be caused by interference in destination cell, serving as a reference.
III. Solution
Out-network interference could be solved with the help of operators, while

intra-network interference can be handled by adjusting network planning.
1) Perform actual road tests, check the places where interference occurs and
distribution of signal quality and analyze the coverage overlap of which cells
causes the interference. Then according to the actual condition, adjust the
related BTS transmit power, downtilt/azimuth of antenna or frequency planning
to prevent interference.
2) Application of discontinuous transmission (DTX), frequency hopping, power
control and diversity
These technologies can help to reduce system noise and improve
anti-interference capability. DTX is classified into uplink DTX and downlink DTX,
which can help to reduce the effective time for transmission, thus to decrease
the interference level of the system. Nevertheless DTX should be adjusted
properly considering the actual radio surroundings and relationships with the
10-11
adjacent cells. When MS receives signals of poor quality, the application of

DTX might cause call drop. Because after MS sets up a conversation, the BTS
transmit power will be stronger during the conversation due to the activation of
DTX downlink function, while in the interval of conversations, the power will
decrease. In this manner, it may reduce the interference to other BTSs, but on
the other hand, if interference exists around the BTS, DTX of downlink signals
may aggravate the quality of conversation. As a result, when the BTS transmit
power decreases, debasement of conversation quality even call drop may
easily occur at the position where the receive signal level is low but
interference signal is strong.
3) Remove the interference caused by equipment itself (e.g., carrier board
self-excitation, antenna inter-modulation interference).
10.2.4 Uplink/downlink Unbalance Caused by Antenna & Feeder System
I. Analysis
1) Improper installation of antenna and/or feeder. For example, the Tx antenna

between two cells is installed just reversedly, which shall make the uplink signal
level is much poorer than the downlink one, thus cause call drop, single pass or
difficult connection occurring far from the BTS.
2) If single polarization antenna is adopted, a cell has two sets of such antennas.
If their azimuths are different, call drop might occur.
A directional cell has a main antenna and a diversity antenna, so it is possible
that BCCH and SDCCH of this cell come from the two different antennas.
Different azimuths will cause different coverage, consequently, although the
user can receive BCCH signal, it cannot occupy SDCCH sent by another
antenna when originating a call, thus call drop occurs.
3) Different azimuths of two antennas may cause call drop.
Different azimuths of two antennas will cause the situation that the user can
receive SDCCH, but call drop shall occur once it is assigned to TCH
transmitted by another antenna.
4) Antenna problem also can cause call drop.
Mar, watering, bend and connector of poor contact all can reduce Tx power and
Rx sensitivity, thus cause serious call drop, which can be confirmed via
standing wave ratio.
II. Location
1) Check whether there are combiner, CDU, tower top amplifier and standing
wave ratio alarms.
10-12
2) View whether all boards of BTS work normally via remote maintenance.
Analyze whether uplink/downlink unbalance appears from traffic measurement.
3) Trace relevant Abis interfaces by performing Abis interface tracing function or
with a Signaling analyzer. Further observe whether uplink/downlink signals are
balanced from the measurement report about Signaling messages.
4) Perform road tests and dialing tests. Make sure the BCCH frequency of the
serving cell is consistent with the expected one and the Tx antenna is installed
correctly prior to road tests.
5) After full remote analysis, perform on-site inspections and tests. Check whether
the azimuth and the downtilt of the antenna are designed normatively and
whether the feeder and jumper are connected accurately. Make sure the
antenna & feeder connector is in good contact and the feeder is in good
condition. Test whether the standing wave ratio is normal.
6) Judge whether BTS hardware failure causes the uplink/downlink unbalance.
For hardware failure, replace the part that might be faulty or disable other
carriers in the cell before performing dialing test on the doubtful carrier to locate
the fault point. Once a part is found in a faulty state, it should be replaced in
time. If no alternative part is available, block the faulty board first lest call drop
should occur to impact the running quality of the network.
List below some traffic measurement items used for analysis of uplink/downlink
balance:
1) From Up-Down Link Balance Measurement, analyze whether uplink/downlink
unbalance exists.
2) From Call Drop Measurement, analyze the average uplink/downlink levels
and qualities in case of call drop.
3) From Power-Control Measurement, analyze uplink/downlink average receive
signal levels.
10.2.5 Transmission Failure
As there are Abis interface and A interface link, poor quality transmission and
unstable transmission link also may cause call drop.
I. Analysis and solution:
1) Observe transmission and board alarms (e.g., FTC failure alarm, A interface
PCM out of sync alarm, LAPD link break alarm, power amplifier alarm, HPA
alarm, TRX alarm, CUI/FPU alarm). Based on alarm data, analyze whether
transmission is intermittent or whether there are faulty boards (e.g., the carrier
board is faulty or in poor contact).
2) Check transmission paths, test BER and check whether E1 connector or
grounding of equipment is reasonable, thus decrease call drops by ensuring
stable transmission quality.
10-13
3) Observe whether there are too many call drops caused by transmission
problem via traffic measurement.
a) in TCH performance measurement of traffic measurement observe whether
there are too many A interface failures when TCH is occupied.
b)In TCH performance measurement observe whether the TCH availability rate
is abnormal.
c) In TCH performance measurement observe whether there are too many call
drops caused by interruption of terrestrial link.
10.2.6 Unreasonable Parameter Settings
Check relevant parameter configurations and make sure they are configured
reasonably, which are as follows:
1) System message data table: Radio link failure counter
If the value is too little, call drop may occur easily when the receive signal level
of MS declines greatly and abruptly due to some reasons such as fluky
landform. If it is too great, only when the radio link expires can the network
release the related resource although the quality of voices is too bad to tolerate,
which thus reduces the resource utilization. Generally, this value should be set
greater for the area with low than that for the area with high traffic.
2) Cell attribute table: SACCH multiframe number
Recommended value: BTS3X 14 (31 for version 05.0529 or newer)
BTS2X 31
3) System message data table: MS minimum received signal grade, RACH
minimum receive signal level, RACH busy threshold.
In virtue of existence of uplink/downlink signals, the actual coverage is subject
to the weaker signal. If in a cell the coverage of the uplink signal is larger than
that of the downlink signal, the downlink signal is weaker at the edge of the cell
and can be submerged easily by stronger signals from other cells. Contrarily,
if the coverage of the downlink signal is larger than that of the uplink coverage,
MS shall have to stay in the strong signal. However, MS cannot originate a call
owing to weak uplink signal, or although it can set up a call, the voice quality is
very poor, or signal pass even call drop may occur. Therefore, it is necessary to
ensure the uplink/downlink balance as possibly as you can.
MS minimum received signal grade:
It indicates the minimum receive signal level required for MS accessing the
system, which is for the downlink signal. If the value of this parameter in a cell
is too little, MS in the cell can access network easily, and the coverage is large.
10-14
But MS at the edge of the cell tries to stay in the cell, which shall cause greater
load on the cell and increase the possibility of call drop. If it is too great, the MS
with low receive signal level cannot access network, which helps to reduce
call-dropping failure rate but lessens the coverage. Therefore, both coverage
and call-dropping failure rate should be taken into account for setting of this
parameter. Call-dropping failure rate cannot be reduced at the cost of lessening
of coverage.
RACH minimum receive signal level
It indicates the minimum receive signal level required for MSs uplink access to
the system (RACH busy threshold used in BTS20 is similar to MS minimum
receive signal level. Both coverage and call-dropping failure rate should be
fully considered for setting of this parameter.)
See M900/M1800 Base Station Controller Data Configuration Reference

Network Planning Parameters for details.
10.2.7 Others
There are many other reasons causing call drop. For example, when the version of
TRX in a BTS is inconsistent with that of FPU, it may increase the number of call
drops occurring to the whole network. Or, improper use of BTS version related
parameters also causes call drop, as shown in example 7.
10.3 Examples
10.3.1 Reducing Call Drop by Optimizing Handover Related Parameter
I. Description
Too many call drops that occurred at the mouth of the cave near the BTS and were
caused by the situation that handover cannot be executed immediately were found
during road tests from place A to place B.
II. Analysis
The mouth of the cave lay just near the BTS. In the cave, the power of the
destination cell can be about 80dBm, but the signal power of the serving cell rapidly
declined to be less than 100dBm. Handover cannot be triggered since the downlink
power of the two cells was good enough, but the signal level of the serving cell
decreased rapidly in the cave, which caused the situation that call drop occurred
before the measurement ended.
10-15
III. Handling process
The related parameters shown in Table 10-1 should be modified.
Table 10-1 Modification table of parameters
Value before
Parameter name Value after modification
modification
PBGT handover measurement time 5 3
PBGT handover duration 4 2
PBGT handover threshold 72 68
Emergency handover uplink quality
70 60
threshold
Candidate cell minimum downlink
10 15
power
Optimizing handover related parameters could help to reduce the call-dropping

failure rate.
1) Make PBGT handover occur easily so as to achieve anti-interference and
reduce call-dropping failure rate on the premise of no toggle handover that may
cause too much voice discontinuity.
2) Reasonably set the emergency handover trigger threshold so that emergency
handover can be triggered in time before call drop occurs, thus to reduce the
call-dropping failure rate.
10.3.2 Call Drop Caused by Interference
I. Description
The BTSs distribution of an area is shown in Figure 10-5. (The red digits indicate
BCCH frequencies. DTX is adopted without frequency hopping). As shown in the
figure, it could be seen that there were too many call drops occurring in cell 2 of BTS
C. (The reason that hardware failure could cause such trouble has been excluded.)
10-16
Figure 10-5 BTS distribution
II. Analysis
1) By analyzing the BTS topology map, it could be concluded that the frequency
planning was reasonable.
2) By viewing traffic measurement, the interference bands of the cells of BTS C
are shown in Table 10-2.
Table 10-2 Traffic measurement interference band
Interferenc
(09:00~10:00) Interferenc Interferenc Interferenc Interferenc
e band 1
e band 2 e band 3 e band 4 e band 5
Cell 1 2.85 14.25 1.14 0.27 0.54
Cell 2 4.09 12.57 3.14 0.03 0.01
Cell 3 0 2.92 13.27 0.25 0.37
(03:00~04:00) Interferenc Interferenc Interferenc Interferenc Interferenc

e band 1 e band 2 e band 3 e band 4 e band 5
Cell 1 2.85 4.28 0.00 0.00 0.00
Cell 2 4.09 2.89 0.00 0.00 0.00
Cell 3 0.00 2.12 0.00 0.00 0.00
3) By performing actual road tests, it was found that the conversation quality had
been very poor when the receive signal level become high.
4) By observing traffic measurement, it was found that handover was mainly
caused by poor quality conversation and the channel assignment failure rate
rose with the augmentation of call drops.
5) By analyzing traffic measurement and the results of road tests, it could be
concluded that there was interference.
10-17
6) A repeater was found through the on-site inspection. The repeater was a set of
broadband equipment, amplifying the signals of a remote analog BTS sent to
the near end via optical fiber and transmitting them. Also, the digital signals
were amplified by the repeater and then the cell 2 of BTS C was interfered.
The maintenance personnel reduced the transmit power of the repeater so that the
interference level could degrade from bands 2 and 3 to band 1. Consequently, the
high call-dropping failure rate at BTS C was solved.
10.3.3 Call Drop Caused by Interference
I. Description
A BTS adopted 1%3 RF hopping. After it was expanded, TCH assignment failure
rate kept high owing to radio link failure, accompanied with high TCH call-dropping
failure rate and high handover failure rate. Nevertheless the SDCCH call-dropping
failure rate remained normal.
II. Analysis
Considering high call-dropping rate and high handover failure rate accompanied
high assignment failure rate, it could be caused by two reasons as follows.
1) TCH was assigned incorrectly.
2) The frequency or time slot occupied for this conversation was interfered or
unstable.
As the SDCCH call-dropping rate remained normal, it is almost impossible that the
carrier carrying BCCH frequency and BCCH frequency itself were interfered. But the
carriers carrying non-BCCH frequencies and hopping frequencies might be
interfered.
No faults were found during the check of equipment, antenna & feeder and
transmission stability. It was found that the situation of high level with poor quality
was serious during road tests. Through an on-site dialing test the voice quality was
found very poor, and MAIO of the newly added carrier was found the same as that
of another carrier during the check of parameters.
Fault point: The hopping frequencies collided.
10-18
10.3.4 Uplink/downlink Unbalance
I. Description
The MS occupied a cell but cannot originate a call. Single pass occurred. Call drop
always occurred at the place away from the cell. Call drop could occur after
frequency handover.
II. Analysis
The unbalance between the uplink signal level and the downlink signal level might
cause such trouble.
Perform on-site tests. Make the MS move to the edge of the cell during the test and
trace data with a Signaling analyzer at BTS so as to observe the receive signal
levels of the BTS and the MS.
Figure 10-6 Explanation of measurement report MA10
As shown in Figure 10-6, the uplink signal level is 98dBm (highlighted with a red
circle) and is much lower than the downlink signal level that is 66dBm. If the level
is lower than 98dBm, it means the signal is too weak, which can cause call drop
easily.
10-19
10.3.5 Call Drop Caused by Interference from Repeater
I. Description
The call-dropping failure rate in cell 3 of a BTS reached 10%, while the call-dropping
failure rates and congestion rates in cells 1 and 2 kept normal.
II. Handling process
1) High congestion rate always existed no matter how to block the carrier channel
of the cell.
2) The maintenance personnel found the interference band was regular by
viewing and analyzing traffic measurement data. Generally it was high at days
but low at nights. That is to say, when traffic was high at days, interference
become high, and vice versa.
3) The maintenance personnel set the frequency of cell 3 to be over 1 MHz
higher/lower than the original one, but the trouble still existed. Therefore,
co-and adjacent-channel interference could be excluded.
4) The maintenance personnel checked the equipment and excluded the
possibility of equipment fault.
5) The maintenance personnel located the trouble was caused by external
interference.
6) The maintenance personnel performed the frequency scan test with a spectrum
analyzer and found a suspicious signal that was similar to a spectrum with the
central frequency of 904.14MHz and broadband of 300KHz. And the signal
existed continuously and stably.
7) The strength of the interference signal at the mouth of the divider in cell 1 was
27dBm, and those in cells 2 and 3 were 40dBm and 60dBm respectively.
Since traffic at days is higher than that at nights, inter-modulation occurs at
days more easily than at nights. Therefore, it can be located that the trouble
was caused by the external interference source of 904 MHz.
8) The maintenance personnel couldnt locate the interference source by
performing road tests with a spectrum analyzer. Then he performed all tests at
the roof and found the interference came from the little antenna of a repeater.
He interrupted the signal test of the repeater, and the interference disappeared.
10.3.6 Call Drop Caused by Isolated Island Effect
I. Description
The user complained call drop always occurred at the fifth floor or above of a
building.
10-20
II. Analysis
There are two ways for eliminating isolated island effect.

1) Adjust the antenna of the isolated cell.
2) Define new adjacent cells for the isolated cell.
1) After the on-site test, the maintenance personnel found call drop and noise
existed. And from the test MS, he found the MS had always stayed in a serving
cell not belonging to the local BTS A before call drop occurred.
2) The cell belongs to BTS B that is 3~4km away from the building. Therefore, he
concluded that the signal received here was the signal reflected by an
interrupter, consequently a coverage equivalent to an isolated island was
formed.
3) By viewing the data configuration, the maintenance personnel found that only
cell 2 of BTS A had been configured in adjacent relationship between A and B
of BSC data configuration. When a MS adopts the signal of cell 2 of BTS B in
the area, the signal of cell 3 of BTS A is stronger but no adjacent relationship
has been defined for cell 2 of BTS B and cell 3 of BTS A. As a result, handover
cannot be implemented.
4) As the signal of cell 2 of BTS B has been reflected for many times, when the
signal from BTS B received by the MS weakens abruptly owing to a certain
reason, an emergency handover might occur. However, for cell 2 of BTS B
cells 2 and 3 of BTS A are not the most ideal candidate cells, thus handover to
another BTS (e.g., BTS C) might occur. Nevertheless, the MS cannot receive
the signal from BTS C at this time, hence call drop occurs.
5) By modifying the data in [BA1(BCCH) Table], [BA2(SACCH) Table] and
[Adjacent cell relationship table] in BSC data configuration, the maintenance
personnel set cell 3 of BTS A as an adjacent cell of cell 2 of BTS B and further
optimized the network engineering parameters to eliminate the isolated island
effect.
6) Solving the trouble was confirmed after tests.
10.3.7 Settings of Version Related Parameters
I. Description
After an expansion, the call-dropping failure rates of five BTSs in an area reached
5%, and the number of call drops in each cell reached 100. In addition, the
call-dropping failure rate of a cell that was not expanded rose too. All these troubles
were the RF call drop. But the maintenance personnel had no idea whats the cause
since no interference and no hardware faults were found.
10-21
II. Handling process
1) The maintenance personnel checked data, frequency planning and BSIC

planning.
2) He observed the traffic measurement and found that the interference band kept
normal and no interference occurred.
3) The handover success rate remained above 93%.
4) He checked the versions of all TRXs and FPUs of the BTS and found the
version of TRX was inconsistent with that of FPU after the expansion. Then he
upgraded them to make them consistent. But the trouble still remained.
5) He checked the data again and found that the BTS after expansion was in 15:1
multiplexing and enabled the measurement report pre-processing function for
all BTSs of 2.0 versions, but parts of older versions didnt support the function,
which hence caused the increasing of the call-dropping failure rate.
III. Summary
After the system is adjusted greatly, e.g., cut-over access of new BTS, expansion of
BTS, re-planning of frequency, upgrading and patching etc., the related parameters
should be checked and adjusted correspondingly, especially the adjacent cell
relationship, frequency interference, frequency hopping and cell parameters etc.
And the version of BTS should be fully taken into account as well.
10-22

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Troubleshooting Manual

M900/M1800 Base Station Subsystem Table of Contents

Chapter 10 Troubleshooting for Call Drop................................................................................ 10-1

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Chapter 10 Troubleshooting for Call Drop

There are two types of call drops given below.

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SACCH multiframe number (namely, SACCH multiframe period with a unit of

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MSC BSC BTS MS

Figure 10-1 Signaling flow of radio link failure

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MS BTS2 BTS1 BSC MSC

Handover Command Set T3103

Figure 10-2 Call drop resulting from T3103 timeout

10.1.2 Formula for Call drop

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Call Assignment Procedure Signaling

Connection or Connection Acknowledge

Or. Error Indication

Figure 10-3 Signaling flow for TCH call drop

Formula of SDCCH call-dropping failure rate:

1) Discontinuous coverage (blind area)

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Can't find next

Figure 10-4 Call drop resulting from overlarge coverage

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2) In receive signal level performance measurement, see whether the proportion

1) Find the area that is short of coverage

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The following problems might be detected during traffic measurement:

1) Check the parameters impacting handover, e.g., settings of stratum levels,

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There are co-channel interference, adjacent-channel interference and

The interference threshold is set as co-channel carrier-to-interference ratio C/I9dB

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namely interference severity of uplink signals. If the channel is busy, it is

Out-network interference could be solved with the help of operators, while

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adjacent cells. When MS receives signals of poor quality, the application of

10.2.4 Uplink/downlink Unbalance Caused by Antenna & Feeder System

1) Improper installation of antenna and/or feeder. For example, the Tx antenna

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10.2.5 Transmission Failure

I. Analysis and solution:

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10.2.6 Unreasonable Parameter Settings

MS minimum received signal grade:

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RACH minimum receive signal level

See M900/M1800 Base Station Controller Data Configuration Reference

10.3.1 Reducing Call Drop by Optimizing Handover Related Parameter

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III. Handling process

The related parameters shown in Table 10-1 should be modified.

Table 10-1 Modification table of parameters

Optimizing handover related parameters could help to reduce the call-dropping

10.3.2 Call Drop Caused by Interference

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Figure 10-5 BTS distribution

Table 10-2 Traffic measurement interference band

(03:00~04:00) Interferenc Interferenc Interferenc Interferenc Interferenc