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for problems and receive accurate guidance on how
Market leading
multi-vendor post
processing for LTE
The LTE Rollout Challenge
The mobile internet is here and many mobile networks
are experiencing a year on year doubling in the volumes
of data traffic they need to support. For most operators
the only cost effective strategy to cope with this
exponential data growth is the deployment of LTE (Long
Term Evolution) networks.
LTE will enable operators to carry data traffic at a lower
cost per bit than current network technologies thanks
to improved spectral efficiency, a simpler all IP
architecture, increased equipment standardization and
improved operational efficiency through SON.
However, LTE is a new and evolving standard and to
realise its full potential operators need to measure,
validate and maximise real world performance during
the early phases of network rollout.
Drive testing will be a key feature of the LTE rollout
process and operators and vendors need a post
processing tool able to support:
Acceptance Testing: A detailed acceptance process
will enable operators and vendors to ensure the
correct performance of their LTE networks prior to
launch. To do this it is essential that they capture the
right performance measures, get the correct diagnoses
best to resolve issues.
Planning Validation: Network planners need to
understand if theoretical models used in planning tools
are accurate.
Functional Testing: During the early phases of rollout
basic functional testing is required to ensure the
network is ready to handle traffic.
To complicate matters LTE provides unique features
that will present new measurement challenges:
LTE features such as MIMO offer the possibility of
higher data rates but are not achievable in all network
conditions. The success of LTE rollouts will depend on
understanding when and where the new features are
available, being used and what improvements they
deliver.
LTE is first and foremost a data network. Voice
measures like drop call rate (DCR) are both easy to
measure and broadly representative of customer
experience. In contrast data networks require complex
KPIs that measure both the underlying IP network and
the services, such as web surfing, video streaming and
Twitter updates that run over it.
Inter technology handover is a traditional weakness in
new networks technologies. Initial LTE deployments
will provide capacity overlays in data hotspots,
meaning that successful handover to 3G networks will
be critical to maintaining user experience.
Operators and vendors require a powerful and flexible
post processing tool that has been specifically built for
LTE.
Actix Industry Leadership in LTE
Actix is maintaining its leadership in mobile network
analytics and has gained real world LTE experience in
research projects, test networks and standards bodies.
Actix is already helping the leading edge operators in
the process of rolling out some of the world’s first LTE
networks and has been nominated for an Informa
Award recognizing LTE industry leadership.
Analyzer for LTE is the first multi-vendor post processing
solution for LTE on the market today; it features:
Full support for LTE scanners and Ue devices
Detailed LTE measurements with flexible KPI definition
Dedicated data service analysis for troubleshooting
data services
Performance reports for use in Acceptance Testing

Analyzer for LTE
Actix has transformed its market leading Analyzer
product to bring the same advanced capabilities already
used by 9 of the top 10 operators in UMTS rollouts to
LTE.
Analyzer’s power and flexibility enables it to support
both detailed radio engineering analysis and the
creation of complex acceptance KPIs and reports.
Support for LTE Logging Tools: Analyzer supports the
latest logging formats from all major vendors including
Qualcomm, Accuver, Rohde & Schwarz, Agilent and
TEMs. Including both Ue and Scanner support.
LTE Network Measurement Visualization: Analyzer
enables powerful visualization of key LTE network
measurements including:
Radio Quality CQI, RSRP, RSRQ
Modulation & coding
Frame usage
MIMO analysis
Scheduler variations.
Resource allocation
Event analysis: RRC, NAS
Flexible KPI Definition: Analyzer’s event and query
engines allow virtually any KPI to be built from LTE
network and data service measurements. The ability to
define and measure a rich set of KPIs is essential to
acceptance reporting.
Dedicated Data Service KPIs: Analyzer provides top
down KPIs that measure the quality of how different
data services delivered over LTE are perceived by end
users.
For each service thresholds can be set to define precise
goals for data service performance. These allow the
detection of:
IP service setup failures and drops
Data sessions failures due to radio link drops
Low absolute throughput for a network technology
Low composite throughput across different network
technologies (LTE, 3G, 2G)
Web browsing high page download duration
High ping round trip time
Lost pings
Data Session Analysis: Analyzer enables drill down to
full data session analysis providing in one location all
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the information required to understand the root cause
of the problems affecting the quality of data services.
The analysis covers the entire data session and provides
a view of data service performance synchronized with
network measurements and the underlying layer three
messages.
Detailed RF Analysis: Radio Network Analysis enables
the analysis and verification of RF conditions including
coverage (overshooting, cross feeders), interference,
and neighbors.
IP Packet Inspection: Analyzer provides full IP layer
decodes and session analysis to provide full inspection
into the IP traffic layer supported by LTE allowing KPIs
to be built that cover Jitter and other measure of IP
performance.
Summary Dashboard: Analyzer highlights failed KPIs
and summarizes the performance of all data sessions in
an easy to use dashboard. From here engineers can
quickly understand the performance of individual data
sessions, whether LTE features were used and drill
down to establish the underlying causes of any
problems and areas of poor performance.
LTE Acceptance Reporting: Out of the box reports can
be tailored to communicate whether a broad range of
LTE acceptance criteria are being met; these include:
Accessibility
Retainability
RF Verification (such as RSRQ, RSRP, CQI, MIMO, …)
Service Verification (such as throughput, initialization
time, jitter, etc.)
Reports can use exclusion zones and other exceptions
to paint an accurate picture of network quality.
Benchmark reports can be built allowing operators to
compare their LTE network performance and coverage
with their competitors and their existing network.
About Actix
Actix is one of the world’s leading mobile network
analytics companies, helping mobile network service
operators provide reliable connections on a global scale.
Established in 1991, we’ve grown to support more than
500 customers, with over 10,000 active software
licenses deployed.