IRAT Optimization / tuning

Initial tuning

- start with site shake down

o verify basic datafill – scrambling code, neighbors, parameters
o Call utran support to check if the site has any major / critical alarms before stating drive
test.
o conduct calls on each sector / cell to test if all sectors are ok and do not have any
hardware issues
o Drive around the site to determine if the feeders are not swapped
o Drive away from site to determine if the site plumbing ./ antennas are ok
o Once site is cleared, start with cluster tuning

Cluster tuning – scanner, short voice call, long voice call, hs calls if needed , R99 calls if needed, idle
mode UE, if needed.

KPI from drive test –

Metrics from Pilot scanner

• Measured Ec/Io : Purpose: Verify that the Ec/Io corresponds to loading.
• Measured RSCP: Purpose: Verify that the intended area is covered.
 The UE and the Pilot scanner might report different values; the more
stringent reading should be used to optimize the RF configuration.
• Best Server PSC : Purpose: Identify the best server in the test area; check for
overshoot/fragmentation and clean cell boundaries.
• Number of servers within a threshold : to determine pilot pollution
• Identify missing neighbors umts to umts
• Identify missing irat neighbors if scan is conducted for gsm.
• Pilot pollution – identify most polluting cell and suggest down tilt

Metrics from idle mode

• Percentage of Ec/Io (below Qualmin) – determine no UMTS coverage
• RSCP. EcIo
• Change of best cell and re selection parameters ( in case we need to tune these)

Metrics from connected mode

Rscp, ecio, drop call rate, call set-up time, % time in umts, UE tx power, pilot pollution
- Identify missing neighbors – in TEMS shows detected set
- UE set to umts only mode to determine poor quality / coverage on umts
- Test IRAT handover with UE in dual mode

For ps and hs calls – R99 thruput, hs thru’put, cqi plot for hsdpa

Neighbor list tuning – add neighbors / delete / re order neighbors

TIPS on HSDPA optimization

• Network performing well for R’99 may have sub-optimal HSDPA performance

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 – Impact of frequent changes of best server would NOT be visible in connected mode for
R’99 but would lead to sub-optimal HSDPA performance
– No soft handover in downlink on HSDPA for data channel

• RF optimization is the key to improving HSDPA performance

– Poor RF conditions results in lower CQI reported by UE and smaller Mac-HS TB sizes to
be scheduled
– Numerous cell-changes impact throughput due to
• During drive tests, run one of the UR in idle mode and collect idle mode log. Generate serving cell
plot and identify fragmented cells. Tilt / azimuth changes to create Pilot dominance

How will you evaluate call setup failures using Drive test post
processing tool

- identify if the UE initiated call in correct cell – cell re selection parameters and from idle
mode drive test
- Check if ue was in good / poor radio environment . If UE was in poor radio environment,
check scanner logs to identify split cells, overshooting cells and alarms on the site
- If ue was in good radio environment, check ue tx power – check if sector has ul
interference – rssi value from sib 7
- Layer 3 message to identify the stage of failure in the rrc process.
- Add layer 3 details

Difference between Open power control / Closed loop power control

Open loop is during call set-up – explained in next point

Closed loop is during a call – connected mode - has 2 sections inner and outer loop
Inner loop is during a call ue and node b exchange power control bits at 1500hz. The system sets
up a target SIR and tx power is adjusted ( increased / decreased) to meet / maintain the SIR
target.

Outer loop -At the RNC, the signal is combined from multiple node b and checks if the set SIR
target is sufficient to meet the BLER target. If no, the SIR target is shifted.

How does initial UE Tx power is determined?

Determined from rach control parameters – ue sends an initial burst – preamble and waits to
receive an AI access indication on the AICH channel…if there is no answer, ramps up the power
until receives an ack. Power steps and the time between the bursts is sent in the SIB -5 and 6.

Preamble Initial Power – initial PRACH transmit power

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Power Ramp Step – power increment between successive preambles
Time between preambles
Max number of prema
Time between preamble and AI (access indication sent on downlink)
Time between preamble and message
powerOffsetP0 - power increment between successive preambles

preambleRetransMax – max number of pre ambles

constantValueCprach – constant value
powerOffsetPpm
maxTxPowerUl

As a concept -
Preamble_Initial_Power = Primary CPICH TX power – CPICH_RSCP + UL interference + Constant Value
where CPICH_RSCP is calculated, and the other three parameters are sent on SIB 5 and 6

The Power Ramp Step is from an RRC signaling message. It is in dBs, and tells the UE how
much it should increase its power from the previous preamble.
.

Different IRAT parameters – Event 2D , 2C and 3a

2D Start compressed mode The estimated quality of the currently-used frequency is below a
certain threshold – Active Set based measurement

2F Stop compressed mode The estimated quality of the currently-used frequency is above a
certain threshold – Active Set based measurement

6A Start compressed mode The UE Tx power becomes larger than an absolute threshold

6B Stop compressed mode The UE Tx power becomes less than an absolute threshold

usedFreqThresh2dEcno
usedFreqThresh2dRscp
usedFreqThresh2fEcno
usedFreqThresh2fRscp
gsmThresh3a – GSM is better than specified threshold.
timeToTrigger2d, 2f and 3a
IRAT Tuning

Determine why the Ue is moving from W2G.

- Poor quality on WCDMA – fix pilot pollution, overshooting pilots, missing umts neighbors, alarms
on adjacent sites
- Poor coverage on WCDMA - missing sites, delayed integration of new sites, edge of the network.
- check for time spent on UMTS to decide if IRAT settings are too steep / lenient
- Verify IRAT KPI from table GSM Relation to view umts to gsm neighbor irat statistics to isolate
neighbor relationships with high failure rate.

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 -

- For optimization of IRAT HO

o Verify data fill – definition of external GSM cells in umts- bcch, bsic, lac,
o Verify any W2G missing neighbors from analysis of GSM and umts scanner data
o Verify definition of remote LAC in MSC datafill
o Verify definition of data fill in GSM and UMTS SGSN
o Verify coverage of GSM in the area of IRAT failures
o Verify if GSM cell has congestion / blocking, that could lead to failed IRATs

- check if an event 2d was triggered just before a drop call – indication that event 2d threshold
should be increased ( ecio from -12 to say -9 or rscp from say -105 to say -102 or higher.) Check
the cause of IRAT – ecio – bad quality or rscp –poor coverage in order to adjust these thresholds.
- Layer 3 message: measurement report contains the event 2d.
- Layer 3 message: measurement control - has information on gsm neighbors ( bcch, bsic) to
measure and the event 3a thresholds
- Layer 3 message: measurement report after the above will have the 3a event.

Various UMTS KPIs - Drive test KPIs and Stats KPIs

HS and PS KPI

Attempts
Successfully connected
Dropped
Successfully completed
Mean DL rate all
DL rate > 400k
Download Completed within 200 sec
(%)
Max DL timer (s)

KPI from statistics

CS Speech (AMR12.2 Quality at 95% percentile (UL & DL
Throughput Channels DL R99
Throughput Channels UL R99
Throughput Channels HS
Throughput Channels Eul
CS Speech Dropped Call Rate
PS Dropped Call Rate
HS Dropped Call Rate
Eul Dropped Call Rate
CS Speech Call Success Rate
PS Call Success Rate
HS Call Success Rate
Eul Call Success Rate
Successful Active Set Update Rate
CS Hard Inter-RAT UMTS->GSM HO Success Rate
Hard Inter-Frequency HO Success Rate

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HS Mobility for Target Cell
Eul Mobility for Target Cell
Congestion - User Perceived Blocking
CS Speech Traffic
Active Set Size Distribution Per Cell
Cell Availability
HS Availability
Eul Availability
Circuit-Switched (CS) Users
PS Data DCH Interactive Users
HS Data DCH Interactive Users
Eul Data DCH Interactive Users
RSSI
Transmit Power
T1 Error
Uplink CE usage
Downlink CE Usage

How do you find Uplink interference using drive testing

- High UE Tx power very the location of the node b
- Check SIB 7 – there is a value for ul rssi – for a new network with almost no traffic, this value
should be -102 to -104. Value of say -98 or higher indicate ul interference
- If we have network statistics, check average rssi for the cell

How to evaluate if UE is R99 / HSDPA ??

In initial call set-up UE sends MS class mark in CM service request – telling the network its
capability

Definition of AMR – Variable / Fixed AMR ?

What is the voice rate for AMR? -

12.2 Ericsson also allows amr7.950, amr5.900 but these are not used.

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Using post processing drive test tools

- Creation of super stream for data analysis of a small cluster

- Run missing neighbor analysis. Set-up thresholds for reporting range, % thresholds
for addition and removal, use of existing neighbor lists, min # of reports to consider
missing neighbor, max distance of nbr cell.
- Using network Image – Loading log files into say Actix and using facility of Network
image. The network image is a filtered version of all the data collected from drive test
logs. The “image” stores user defined parameters for a drive test log, instead of all the
parameters collected in the drive test. Helps to create a single log file from a
collection of multiple drive test logs for say a cluster. Also the data can be binned to
say 50m binns allowing further reduction of log files.
- Analysis and benchmarking is performed to generate the following -
o UMTS Drive Test Summary
o UMTS CPICH Level Analysis
o UMTS Call Statistics - # calls, call set-up success rate, call success rate, # drops,
drop call rate, drop call reasons, Mobile originated and mobile terminated call
statistics
o UMTS Call Setup Analysis - failed called attempts, # call attempts, call setup time,
call set-up failure causes
o UMTS Handoff Analysis –# of 1a, 1b nd 1c events. For HS # of e1d – change of best
cell
o UMTS Quality Analysis – DL bler Aggregate, bler per call or bler during sho, CQI
plots for HS calls.
o HS and PS Call Analysis - Mean DL rate all, DL rate > 400k, download completed
within 200 sec (%), Max DL time, %tile time of download < 120, Mean rate of
download t > 120sec for say a 5MB download.

Pl review additional document on call flow

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 Example Voice Call Flow (MOC)
UE RRC: RRC Connection Request (CCCH)
RNC
RRC: RRC Connection Setup (CCCH)
RRC: RRC Connection Setup Complete (DCCH)
RRC: Initial Direct Transfer - CM Service Request (DCCH)
RRC: Downlink Direct Transfer – Auth & Ciph Request (DCCH) Call Setup Phase
RRC: Uplink Direct Transfer - Auth & Ciph Response (DCCH)
RRC: Security Mode Command (DCCH)
KPIs:
Call Setup
RRC: Security Mode Complete (DCCH)
Success Rate
RRC: Uplink Direct Transfer - SETUP (DCCH) Call Setup Time
RRC: Downlink Direct Transfer – CALL PROCEEDING (DCCH)

Total Call RRC: Radio Bearer Setup (DCCH)

Time RRC: Radio Bearer Setup Complete (DCCH)

KPIs: RRC: Downlink Direct Transfer – ALERTING (DCCH)

Dropped
RRC: Downlink Direct Transfer - CONNECT (DCCH)
Call
RRC: Downlink Direct Transfer – CONNECT ACK (DCCH)
RRC: Measurement Control (DCCH)
RRC: Measurement Report (DCCH) RRC
Connection is
RRC: Uplink Direct Transfer - DISCONNECT (DCCH) released after
RRC: Direct Transfer - Release (DCCH) the Call
RRC: Uplink Direct Transfer – Release Complete (DCCH) Release.

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 Example PS R99 Call Flow
UE RRC: RRC Connection Request (CCCH)
RNC
RRC: RRC Connection Setup (CCCH)
RRC: RRC Connection Setup Complete (DCCH)
RRC: Initial Direct Transfer - CM Service Request (DCCH)
RRC: Downlink Direct Transfer – Auth & Ciph Request (DCCH) Call Setup Phase
RRC: Uplink Direct Transfer - Auth & Ciph Response (DCCH)
RRC: Security Mode Command (DCCH)
KPIs:
Call Setup
RRC: Security Mode Complete (DCCH)
Success Rate
RRC: Uplink Direct Transfer – SM ACTIVATE PDP CONTEXT Call Setup Time
REQUEST (DCCH)
RRC: Radio Bearer Setup (DCCH)
Total Call
Time RRC: Radio Bearer Setup Complete (DCCH)
RRC: Downlink Direct Transfer – SM ACTIVATE PDP CONTEXT
KPIs: ACCEPT (DCCH)
Dropped Call
RRC: Transport Channel Reconfiguration (DCCH)
Channel Switching
RRC: Transport Channel Reconfiguration Complete (DCCH)
RRC: Measurement Control (DCCH)
RRC: Measurement Report (DCCH)

RRC: Uplink Direct Transfer – SM Deactivate PDP Context

Request (DCCH)
RRC: Direct Transfer – SM Deactivate PDP Context Accept
(DCCH)
RRC: RRC Connection Release (DCCH)

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 Example HSDPA Call Flow
RN
UE RRC: RRC Connection Request (CCCH)
C
RRC: RRC Connection Setup (CCCH)
KPI RRC: RRC Connection Setup Complete (DCCH)
Call Setup
Success Rate
Call Setup Time
RRC: Uplink Direct Transfer – SM ACTIVATE PDP CONTEXT
REQUEST (DCCH)
RRC: Downlink Direct Transfer – SM ACTIVATE PDP CONTEXT
ACCEPT (DCCH)
RRC: Measurement Report (e1a) (DCCH)
E1A:
RRC: Active Set Update (DCCH) Radio Link
Addition
RRC: Active Set Update Complete (DCCH)
Not a HS Cell
RRC: Physical Channel Reconfiguration (DCCH) Change. Here
RRC: Physical Channel Reconfiguration Complete (DCCH) the procedure is
to realign the
RRC: Measurement Report (e1d) (DCCH) parameters.
E1D:
RRC: Active Set Update (DCCH) Change of Best
RRC: Active Set Update Complete (DCCH) Server
KPI HS Cell Change
RRC: Physical Channel Reconfiguration (DCCH)
HS Cell Change
Success Rate RRC: Physical Channel Reconfiguration Complete (DCCH)
HS Cell Change
time