RANT Dropped and Blocked Calls Classification Summary

(WCDMA Network MTN South Africa)

1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 2
2 Dropped Calls Classification .............................................................. 2
2.1 Missing Neighbours ........................................................................... 3
2.2 Poor Coverage .................................................................................. 3
2.3 Bad Radio Environment ..................................................................... 4
2.4 Congestion ........................................................................................ 5
2.5 Not Radio .......................................................................................... 6
2.6 Equipment Fault ................................................................................ 7
3 Blocked Calls Classification ............................................................... 9
3.1 Missing Neighbour ............................................................................. 9
3.2 Poor RF (Bad Coverage and Radio Environment) ........................... 10
3.3 Equipment Fault (UE) ...................................................................... 11
3.3.1 Security and Authentication Mode Failure ....................................... 11
3.3.2 UE Freeze ....................................................................................... 12
3.4 Not Radio ........................................................................................ 13
3.4.1 Disconnect on RAB Setup ............................................................... 13
3.4.2 Resources Unavailable (Congestion) .............................................. 14
3.4.3 UE Sensitivity Fault ......................................................................... 15
3.5 Abnormal blocked calls .................................................................... 16
3.5.1 Unclassified - Unanswered RRC requests ....................................... 16
3.5.2 Faulty Block Recording - Barred Network ........................................ 17
3.5.3 Call Initialisation during L.U. signalling............................................. 18
 1 Introduction
This document describes some of the typical dropped/blocked call
classifications encountered during several RAN Tuning Projects for WCDMA
networks. The purpose of the document is for RAN Consultants to understand
some of the problems to make the UE analysis and classification easier. The
analysis has been based on limited data (for example no UETR data or data
based on similar tool, no usage of RBS and RNC tracers) and for this result
there could be a deviation in the results. Some of these classifications are
only a guideline and should be viewed merely as documenting the typical
problem until the correct reason behind the dropped call is established.

All these dropped/blocked calls categories are adapted to the radio

environment evaluation thresholds set up for the MTN 3G RAN Tuning project
in the post-processing tool TEMS Deskcat 5.6.

In the table below are listed the main causes that must be considered during
the analysis, with the explanation for each cause.

CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA

The Drop occurs in regions where conditions CPICH RSCP and/or CPICH Ec/No are measured in
Poor Coverage
critical values not suitable for a proper connection.

Every drop that occurs when Best Server is Missing (Mostly in good CPICH RSCP conditions). The
UE active set update cannot follow the quick coverage changes. In this case Pilot Pollution
Bad Radio Environment
situations are included as well (3 cells in AS and more than 1 strong SCs is interfering the
connection within a range of 5 dB - Ec/No basis evaluation).

Every drop that occurs when there are no more available radio resources for the connection. The
Congestion network sends an RRC Connection Release when the RBS reaches the maximum available Power
in DL.

Every drop that occurs when the radio conditions are good, the logging equipment is working
properly and the RRC connection release cause (marked usually as "Unspecified") could be
Not Radio attributed to a RBS/Network fault, (including UL UE power going to maximum even if the CPICH
RSCP is measured at good values, crossed feeders causing false missing neighbours, crossed UL-
DL feeders, wrong parameter settings that can affect accessibility/SHOs in the cell).

Every drop that occurs when TEMS Investigation/UE are Blocking or Freezing and/or SW is
Equipment Fault
crashing, so that it's not possible to maintain the connection.

Every drop that occurs when there are poor RSCP and/or Ec/No levels/quality on the Best
Missing Neighbours Server/AS, with the contemporary possibility for the UE to perform a SHO on a better cell that is not
declared as a Neighbour for the AS cells themselves.

2 Dropped Calls Classification

The main cases and dropped call causes are listed below.
2.1 Missing Neighbours

Every drop that occurs when there are poor RSCP and/or Ec/No levels/quality
on the Best Server/AS, with the contemporary possibility for the UE to perform
a SHO on a better cell that is not declared as a Neighbour for the AS cells
themselves. An example of dropped call for missing neighbour problem is
shown in figure below.

Problem Description: The Active Set best server is cell 61888 (SC = 205).
During the call sector 62096 (SC = 293) becomes the strongest sector but is
not added to the active set, as the two cells are not defined neighbours. This
can be seen in the Serving/Active Set window in TEMS. The cell 62096 act as
an increasing interferer until eventually the call is released. The release cause
is classified as unspecified.

2.2 Poor Coverage

The Drop occurs in regions where conditions CPICH RSCP and/or CPICH
Ec/No are measured in critical values not suitable for a proper connection. In
the table below an example is shown.
 Problem Description: In this case the RF environment as reported by the UE
is very poor before the call is dropped. The best server RSCP=-127dBm and
Ec/No=-32dB. The scanner also reports poor radio conditions for the same
SC at the same instant i.e. RSCP = -11.97dBm and Ec/Io = -10.69dB. The
last message sent is the UL Active Set Complete message sent by the UE.
The UE then goes into idle mode.

2.3 Bad Radio Environment

Every drop that occurs when Best Server is Missing (Mostly in good CPICH
RSCP conditions). The UE active set update cannot follow the quick coverage
changes. In this case Pilot Pollution situations are included as well (3 cells in
AS and more than 1 strong SCs is interfering the connection within a range of
5 dB - Ec/No basis evaluation).
 Problem Description: The Active Set best servers are cells with SCs 49 and
303, and all MN (SCs 304, 179 and 180) are close to them on a RSCP basis
(from –70dBm to –79 dBm). During the call UE is performing a continuous
number of SHOs, affecting both the service continuity and the quality of the
connection (low values of Ec/No on each cell). So, the Radio Environment is
not suitable for a good connection and therefore the dropped call occurs.
Sometimes the TEMS Inv. doesn’t show the event on the chart, like in this
case, so it’s advisable to check the Events and Layer 3 messages: In the L3
table the RRC Connection Release DL corresponds (into the Event table) to
an RRC Connection Abnormal Release with the specification “Unspecified”.

2.4 Congestion

Every drop that occurs when there are no more available radio resources for
the connection. The network sends an RRC Connection Release when the
RBS reaches the maximum available Power in DL. In the corresponding DL
Layer 3 message “RRC Connection Release” when the drop happens, the
release cause is clearly marked as “Congestion”. An example is shown in
figure below.
 Problem Description: In this case the radio environment doesn’t show any
critical issue: the AS is full, and there is a Best Server cell (SC 352) with two
more cells that are carrying the service. Also the MN set is good, and the
Layer 3 messages sequence is regular.

The radio resource unavailability pops up suddenly after a certain number of

fast SHOs, and an “RRC Connection Release” message from the network
comes to interrupt the call. In the TEMS L3 messages window details the
release cause is clearly marked as “Congestion”.

2.5 Not Radio

Every drop that occurs when the radio conditions are good, the logging
equipment is working properly and the RRC connection release cause
(marked usually as "Unspecified") could be attributed to a RBS/Network fault,
(including UL UE power going to maximum even if the CPICH RSCP is
measured at good values, crossed feeders causing false missing neighbours,
crossed UL-DL feeders, wrong parameter settings that can affect
accessibility/SHOs in the cell).

This case also includes the “UE Sensitivity” drop, as shown in figure below.
 Problem Description: The radio environment as reported by the UE is very
poor just before the call dropped i.e. Best server RSCP=-127dBm and
Ec/No=-27dB. The scanner reports much better radio conditions for the same
SC at the same instant i.e. RSCP =-93.57dBm and Ec/Io = -8.66dB. Although
the drop is as a result of low RSCP as measured by the UE it should not be
classified, as a poor coverage drop since the scanner indicates the radio
conditions should be ok to maintain the call.

2.6 Equipment Fault

Every drop that occurs when TEMS Investigation/UE are Blocking or Freezing
and/or SW is crashing, so that it's not possible to maintain the connection.

An example of UE freezing dropped call is shown in figure below.

Problem description: In the example the network sends a DL Measurement
Control message and then the UE freezes. There are no further massages
sent between the network and the UE. The RF environment was good at the
time of the drop as can be seen from the scanner information i.e. RSCP =-
82.72dBm and Ec/Io = -5.44dB.
3 Blocked Calls Classification
The main cases and blocked call causes are listed below. In this situation the
cases of Blocked Calls are pretty equal to the corresponding ones in the
dropped calls list. It’s advisable to consider that it is intended as “blocked call”
a connection interrupted for the same problems shown in section 2 (with
some obvious exceptions shown in the following paragraphs) and according
the Classification Criteria table shown in section 1. It’s crucial to consider that
the blocked call event always happens during the call setup phase.

Due to these differences, the classification for the blocked calls is different for
the dropped calls’ one.

3.1 Missing Neighbour

 Problem Description: An example of a blocked call caused by a missing
neighbour is shown in figure above. The call is being set up on cell 49046 (SC
= 387). During the set up sector 48007 (SC = 451) becomes the strongest
sector but is not added to the active set as the two cells are not defined
neighbours. This can be seen in the Serving/Active Set window in TEMS. The
cell 48007 act as an increasing interferer until eventually the call itself is
released. The release cause is classified as unspecified.

3.2 Poor RF (Bad Coverage and Radio Environment)

 Problem Description: In this case the RF environment as reported by the UE
is very poor when the UE attempts to initiate a call. The attempt is indicated
by the event “Call Initialization” in TEMS Investigation, which is triggered at
the start of a command sequence. The best server RSCP=-121dBm and
Ec/No=-21dB. The scanner also reports poor radio conditions for the same
SC at the same instant i.e. RSCP =-114.17dBm and Ec/Io = -11.29dB.

3.3 Equipment Fault (UE)

3.3.1 Security and Authentication Mode Failure

 Problem Description: In this case there is a problem with the security and
Authentication procedure, which causes the connection to be dropped and
result in a blocked call. As can be seen in figure above the radio environment
at the time of the blocked call is good i.e. Best server RSCP=-71dBm and
Ec/No=-2dB.

The call is released normally during call set up and 6 seconds after the
network sends the security command. There is a timer for the correct
response to this security command, which is set to 6 seconds. This indicates
a problem in the security and authentication response by the UE.

3.3.2 UE Freeze
 Problem description: This type of dropped call classification is caused by the
UE “freezing” which can be seen in figure below. In the example the UE
sends a UL Active Set Update Complete message and then the UE freezes.
There are no further massages sent between the network and the UE before
the next call attempt, which is indicated by the Call initialisation event in
TEMS Investigation. The RF environment was good at the time of the drop as
can be seen from the scanner information i.e. RSCP =-94.17dBm and Ec/Io =
-5.13dB.

3.4 Not Radio

3.4.1 Disconnect on RAB Setup

 Problem description: In this case the radio environment is good as shown in
figure above (i.e. Best server RSCP= -94dBm and Ec/No= -3dB). During call
set up, after the “DL Call Proceeding” message the network sends a
Disconnect message. This can be seen in the Layer 3 messages window
below. The cause value is (127) Interworking, unspecified as shown in L3
message details window. The call is then released.

This case can include both DC Config Failure and RAB setup failure.

3.4.2 Resources Unavailable (Congestion)

 Problem description: In this example the network sends a Disconnect
message with the following message: cause value (47) Resources
Unavailable, Unspecified. This can be seen in the Layer 3 messages window
in figure above. The Disconnect message occurs after the Radio Bearer is set
up. The radio environment is good at the time of the Disconnect message as
seen in figure above.

Sometimes this example of blocked call can be also referred to Congestion

problems in the measured cell.

3.4.3 UE Sensitivity Fault

 Problem Description: In figure above, an example of a drop classified as UE
sensitivity fault is shown. The radio environment as reported by the UE is very
poor when the UE attempts to initiate a call (i.e. Best server RSCP=-122dBm
and Ec/No=-18dB). The scanner reports much better radio conditions for the
same SC at the same instant i.e. RSCP =-89.06dBm and Ec/Io = -2.65dB.
Although the blocked call is as a result of low RSCP as measured by the UE it
should not be classified, as a poor RF block since the scanner indicates the
radio conditions should be sufficient to set up a call.

3.5 Abnormal blocked calls

3.5.1 Unclassified - Unanswered RRC requests

 Problem description: In this example an RRC request is sent but the network
never responds with an RRC connection setup message. It is not clear
whether or not the network receives the RRC request. The radio environment
in the downlink as seen by TEMS is good i.e. good RSPC, low CPICH Ec/No.

3.5.2 Faulty Block Recording - Barred Network

 Problem description: This occurs when the UE attempts to initiate a call on a
network other than the measured one (in our case MTN). In the serving/Active
Set window in TEMS in figure above it can be seen that the DL UARFCN for
the network the UE is camped on in idle mode is 10564. The example shows
the case that happened for the Vodafone network (DL UARFCN 10712).
DeskCat considers this a blocked call but since the blocked call does do not
occur on the Vodafone network, it has to be excluded from our analysis.

3.5.3 Call Initialisation during L.U. signalling

Problem description: In this case the UE is involved in Location Update
signalling. As seen in the RRC Connection Request message the
establishment cause is registration and the Location Update request message
is for Normal Location Updating. During the L.U. signalling a new call attempt
is triggered by the command sequence in TEMS Investigation. This can be
seen in the events window in figure above.