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DRIVE TESTING USING TEMS

A Concise Guide
Revision 1.0

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Table of contents
GETTING STARTED 3

SETTING YOUR TEMS INVESTIGATION SOFTWARE 5

SETTING UP AND CONNECTING EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT 6

CONNECTING TEMS MOBILE STATION 6

CONNECTING GPS 8

RECORDING/LOGGING THE DRIVE TEST 9

SWAPPING LOGFILES 9

TYPES OF DRIVE TESTS 10

IDLE MODE 10
HOW TO ESTABLISH A CONTINUOUS/LONG CALLS 10
HOW TO ESTABLISH SHORT CALLS 10

READY FOR DRIVE TEST?(SOME IMPORTANT TIPS) 12

BEFORE GOING TO THE DRIVE TEST 12

WHILE SETTING UP AND CONNECTING THE EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT (TEMS OR GPS) 12
DURING DRIVE TEST 12
AFTER THE DRIVE TEST 12

TRX TESTING USING TEMS 13

COMMON BCCH TESTING DRIVE 14

AMR TESTING DRIVE 15

DRIVE TEST USING MORE THAN ONE TEMS MOBILE 16

SOME PROBLEMS AND THEIR REMEDIES 17

WHY IS MY MOBILE SPONTANEOUSLY DISCONNECTED EVERY NOW AND THEN? 17

Why does the mouse pointer starts behaving weirdly when I connect my GPS? 18

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Getting Started
ACE TELECOM welcomes you to this concise tutorial/document on Drive Testing using TEMS
Investigation GSM. It is the leading air-interface test tool for Wireless Networks.
Getting started gives a quick overview of the TEMS Investigation user interface. The working of
the TEMS INVESTIGATION is described in more detail in the later part of the document.

Workspace and Worksheets

The entity that stores all the windows and settings used in a working session is called the
workspace. Only one workspace can be open at a time.
To manage your windows more smoothly, you can divide your workspace into several
worksheets. Up to ten worksheets can be active simultaneously.

Toolbars
Through the toolbars all the central functions are accessible. Most of the toolbar buttons are
mirrored in the menus.

Navigator
From the Navigator, you can open presentation windows, change the color ranges of information
elements, and manage your worksheets.
The Navigator is especially useful for configuring the workspace at the beginning of a session.

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Menu Bar
The menus mirror most of the toolbars as well as the Navigator's Menu and Worksheets tabs.

Status Bar
The Status bar displays symbols and short messages that indicate the current status of the
application.

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Setting your TEMS INVESTIGATION software

This chapter deals with preliminaries that you must work through before you can start using
TEMS Investigation, such as configuring your TEMS software and connecting external equipment
like GPS and TEMS mobile station.
1) TEMS Investigation can be opened by choosing:
StartProgramsTEMS ProductsTEMS Investigation GSM 5.1.

2) Now go to the Map Worksheet by clicking MAP tab at the bottom of the TEMS
Investigation window.

3) Next thing now is to zoom into the country or city where you want to drive test and add
sufficient layers.

4) Adding Layers(for example area map, drive route or any other layer)
a. Adding layers is simple. Just click the Layer Control button at the top of the
Map window.
b. Layer Control window will appear and you can easily add new layers (tab files) by
clicking on the Add button and browsing your folders for the required layer.
(Remember to keep the layers above the ocean and also the map layer)
c. The new layers will be visible on the Map window as soon as you click OK.

5) Adding Cellfiles (cellfile contains the cell information in the network like Cellname, Cell id,
direction, ARFCN, BSIC, LAC, etc)
a. Click on the configuration tab at the bottom of the TEMS Investigation window.
b. Now go to the window named GENERAL and double click Cellfile Load
(highlighted in the snap on the right).
c. Another window will appear named
PROPERTIES (as seen in the snap
below). Check on USE CELL
DEFINITION FILE. And then browse
for the folder where you have saved
the latest cellfile
d. After loading the cell file click OK on
the properties window and go back to
the MAP window to check whether the
cellfile has been loaded.

Your TEMS Investigation is now ready to be used and next step is to connect external equipment
like TEMS and GPS.

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Setting up and connecting External equipment

Connecting TEMS Mobile Station
1) Place the external antenna at the roof of your drive test vehicle. It is magnetic and will
stick easily to the rooftop.

2) Connect the connector of the antenna to an adaptor(a wire) that will lead to the jacket of
the TEMS mobile station.

3) Now place the TEMS MS into the jacket.

4) The TEMS MS is now ready to be connected to the laptop via USB data cable.

5) Connect the TEMS MS to your laptop ports.

When you have plugged an external device (MS or GPS) into a PC port, you must perform
two steps in TEMS Investigation before you can start using it: first to enable the device, then
to connect it (in an abstract sense of the word). From now on in this chapter, the word
"connect" when used by itself refers to the operation carried out within the application, not to
connecting the device physically to the port.

Enabling can be done in two ways: either for all devices at once, using the Identify Equipment
function (Automatic), or for each device separately (Manual). But its always a nice practice to
connect manually.

6) Automatic enabling can be done by going to the Port configuration window in the

Configuration Tab and clicking IDENTIFY EQUIPMENT button .

7) Manual enabling (preferred to avoid port conflicts) is done using the buttons that looks
like this . (this enables one device at a time)
a) When you click the manual enable button a window will appear named
ADD EQUIPMENT.
b) In the Port combo box you select the correct COM port. (In our case it’s
the one other than COM3 and COM16)
c) Under Equipment you select the type of external device. Choose "T610"
for the TEMS MS and it will appear as an MS device.
d) You can repeat step a, b, c for connecting more than one tems.

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8) To connect a single external device(TEMS):

Choose the device in the combo box of the Equipment Control toolbar (at the top of
TEMS Investigation).

And
Click Connect on the
Equipment Control toolbar.

9) To connect all external devices:

Click Connect All on the Connections toolbar.

Connected devices are accompanied by a green-light symbol in the combo box. The
same symbol appears in the status bar and in the Port Configuration window.

Note: If you have a logfile opened, you must close it to be able to connect equipment.

12) If you want to leave an external device plugged into the port, but disconnected in the
application for the time being:
Choose the device in the toolbar combo box.
Click Disconnect on the Equipment Control toolbar.
To disconnect one external device.

Click Disconnect All on the Connections toolbar.

For a disconnected device, the symbol representing it reverts to red.

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Connecting GPS
1) Connect the GPS to the laptop via the data cable.

2) Manually enable the GPS (as said before manual enabling is preferred to avoid port
conflicts) using the ADD button which looks like this .
a) When you click the manual enable button a window will appear named
ADD EQUIPMENT.
b) In the Port combo box you select the correct COM port. (In our case its
COM16 because the PCMIA card is already configured at COM16).
c) Under Equipment you select the type of external device. Choose
"NMEA0183" for the GPS and it will appear as a GPS device.

3) To connect a single external device:

Choose the device in the combo box of the Equipment Control toolbar (at the top of
TEMS Investigation).
And
Click Connect on the
Equipment Control toolbar.

4) To connect all external devices:

Click Connect All on the Connections toolbar(or press shortcut key F2).

Connected devices are accompanied by a green-light symbol in the combo box. The
same symbol appears in the status bar and in the Port Configuration window.

Note: If you have a logfile opened, you must close it to be able to connect equipment.

5) If you want to leave an external device plugged into the port, but disconnected in the
application for the time being:
Choose the device in the toolbar combo box.
Click Disconnect on the Equipment Control toolbar.
To disconnect one external device.

Click Disconnect All on the Connections toolbar.

For a disconnected device, the symbol representing it reverts to red.

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Note: Place the GPS at some position where you have a clear view of the sky either on
the dashboard or at the back of the car where the speakers are installed.

Recording/Logging the Drive Test

After Setting up your equipment and TEMS INVESTIGATION you are now ready for drive test.
The main aim is to recording what you are testing. Recording can be started by simply clicking
the recording button at the top of the TEMS INVESTIGATION window in the recording tool bar. It

is the button with a red circle.

Swapping logfiles
 At any time while recording, you can close the current logfile immediately and continue
recording to a new file.

Click Swap Logfiles.

The new logfile will be named according to the default format MMDD_nn.log, regardless
of the name you chose for the original file.

 There is another thing called quick logging in TEMS. In this you simply set the no. of
messages per logfile and the logfile swaps automatically.
To do quick logging we:
1) Choose Recording Properties... from the Logfile menu.
2) A window will appear select the default folder where you want to save the logfiles.
3) Then check on the Quick Logging option and type in the no. of messages for the
logfile to swap.

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Types of Drive Tests

We usually come across 3 types of Drive test:
1) Idle Mode
2) Short Call
3) Long Call/Continuous Call

or you may asked to use any two or may be all three.

Idle Mode
In idle mode you don’t need to try anything. Just have to connect the mobile and relax keeping an
eye on disconnection or dropped Rx level due to antenna connections.

How to establish a Continuous/Long calls

1) For the first time you have to manually dial a no. from your TEMS mobile station.
2) After the first time you can use the redial button in the toolbar at the top of the TEMS
INVESTIGATION window.
 (In idle mode) It redials the last call;
(in dedicated mode:) It terminates the ongoing call.

In the latter case, the receiver symbol is crossed out.

How to establish Short calls

We can generate short calls using the command sequences in the TEMS INVESTIGATION. The
COMMAND SEQUENCE window can be found in the CONTROL worksheet which can be
opened by clicking the Control tab at the bottom of the TEMS INVESTIGATION window.

To add commands we click add in the Command Sequence and an ADD COMMAND
window appears.
The commands are organized in a tree structure in the left-hand box. Choose the command you
want to add and specify the arguments.
The Command line box at the bottom of the dialog contains the full wording of the command,
complete with mobile designation and all arguments.

 Click the Add above button to add the command above the one selected in the Command
Sequence window.
 Click the Add below button to add this command below the one selected in the Command
Sequence window.
 Click the Close button to close the dialog when you are done with the command
sequence.

A snap of the ADD COMMAND dialog box can be seen below:

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For example if we want to make a call sequence of 60 second call with a delay of 10 second
between each call the command sequence will look like this:

 For the above sequence we just go to the ADD Command window and select Voice (at
the bottom left of the ADD COMMAND window
 Then select the dial command and make changes according to our need.
 Like in this case we set the Number as “09122055968” and do not any other of the
options.
 Then we add the a wait of 60 seconds by going to General Command options and
selecting wait and changing the seconds options in the wait command to 60.
 Then we add in the End Call command from the Voice (at the end of the ADD
COMMAND window).
 At the last instance we add a wait of 10 sec to give a delay of 10 sec between two
consecutive calls

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Ready for Drive Test?(Some important tips)

After you have setup and installed the TEMS and GPS you are now ready to Drive Test.
Following are some of the tips that might help during and before you start the drive test.

Before going to the Drive Test

 Make sure that you have the required data :
o updated cellfile, route that you need to follow
o and any other information from the person you are reporting to.
 You are not missing any equipment at office or at home like GPS, inverter, antenna , etc
 TEMS mobile is charged because charging during the drive test really wastes time.
 You have bought batteries for the GPS.

While setting up and connecting the External Equipment (TEMS

or GPS)
 Be patient and DONT RUSH
 Handle the antennas with care because they are delicate and usually if one mishandles it
can affect its performance (loss in Rxlevel).
 While connecting the equipment make sure that you first connect the TEMS mobile and
then GPS. Otherwise you might experience COM port conflicts.
 Check the Rxlevels of the the tems just to check their is no abnormal behavior.
For example sometimes when the antenna connection is loose you might experience a
considerable drop in the Rxlev.
 If you are using more than one TEMS MS make sure that all of them give the same Rxlev
in idle mode. (Compare the Rxlevel at some point where you are being served by the
same cell) If the Rxlev is difference check your external antenna connections.

During Drive Test

 MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOGGING/RECORDING and that you know the folder you are
saving the log file in.
 Keep an eye on any disconnections. If there are any disconnections stop logging and
reconnect. And start from the point where the equipment disconnected.
 If you are not able to reconnect then simply disconnect every external device and try
again. If you are still not able to connect then simply restart TEMS INVESTIGATION. If
still you are not able to connect then SIMPLY restart your PC.

After the Drive Test

 Just wrap your equipment in a nice orderly manner and make sure that you dont RUSH
because the equipment is really delicate and mishandling can easily damage it.
 Check everything before leaving the drive test vehicle especially the TEMS Mobile.

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TRX Testing using TEMS

Steps to be followed:
- Stand in the main lobe of the sector whose TRXs are to be checked
- Don’t be very close to the SITE keep a distance of 100 meter so that the call is not
handed over to some other cell.
- Establish a call and wait for 60 secs
- Disconnect the call and establish a call again to check the other TRX
- Using the same procedure to check all the TRXs of that sector.
- If call cannot be made on any one of the TRXs try for at least 20 times. If still you cant
make a call then note this down.
- Also note down any other problems that you observe for example low power TRX,
frequency swap etc.
Sometimes if u cannot reach any of the 900 bands it is a usual tactic enabling only 900 band on
your MS. Following steps tells you how to do that:
1) Go to the Control Properties worksheet by clicking on the Control tab at the bottom of the
TEMS window.
2) Now go to the Handset control window of the desired MS and right click.
3) Now choose properties
4) Mobile Properties window for that MS will open.
5) Now click on the Band Control tab and disable/uncheck 1800.

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Common BCCH Testing Drive

- The check for common BCCH is just like any other drive test the only thing that we need
to observe is that for each sector or segment the BCCH is the same for both 900 and the
1800 band. This can be seen from the snapshot of the Current Channel window below:

As can been seen from the two figures above the BCCH of the two TRX although one is in the
900 hopping and the other in the 1800 hopping. This show that common BCCH is working
properly on this sector.

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AMR Testing Drive

During the AMR test the only change that need to be made in your TEMS configuration that is to
enable the TEMS mobile station’s AMR setting. Rest of the test depends on the RF engineer who
sends you for the Drive. It depends on how he wants the comparison result. For example he may
ask you to set one MS on only AMR (Full or Half rate or both) and one non AMR (Full rate, EFR
or etc).

Steps to enable AMR on your TEMS MS:

1) Go to the Control Properties worksheet by clicking on the Control tab at the bottom of the
TEMS window.
2) Now go to the Handset control window of the desired MS and right click.
3) Now choose properties
4) Mobile Properties window for that MS will open.
5) Go to the Speech Codec tab and check on the AMR full and AMR Half rate.

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Drive Test using more than one TEMS Mobile

Connecting more than one TEMS MS has already been explained in the CONNECTING
EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT chapter. So the task now is to open new Radio Parameter or Current
Channel windows for the second MS or the third MS.(MS2 and MS3)
For example, if you want to open a Radio Parameter Window for the second TEMS MS (MS2)
just follow the following steps:
1) Click on the Presentation tab at the top of the TEMS INVESTIGATION window
2) Go to GSM
3) Now select Radio Parameter
4) A new Radio Parameter window will open.
5) Right Click it
6) Select Properties
7) And change the MS to MS2 in the Properties Dialog box that opens.
8) Click OK to make the changes.

Simple isn’t it.

A snapshot of the Radio Parameter’s Properties dialog box can be seen below.

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Some Problems and their Remedies

Why my mobile is spontaneously disconnected every now and then?

 USB Legacy Support
USB Legacy Support must be turned off in BIOS. For information on how to do this,
please consult the user manual for your computer.

 Advanced Power Management (APM)

Advanced Power Management (APM) should be disabled if possible, since it may cause
disconnects in TEMS Investigation. The reason that this can happen is that APM
sometimes switches off the communication circuits to save power. This may occur even
when a mobile station is connected and communicates with the PC on a regular basis.
For information on how to disable APM in BIOS, please consult the user manual for your
computer.

 Windows Power Management

You must disable all power management routines in Windows. For further instructions,
please consult the documentation for the variety of Windows you are using.

 Screen Savers and Energy Saving Features

You should make sure that the computer used for measurement and recording does not
go into any kind of standby mode:
Disable the Windows screen saver under Control Panel Display Screen Saver. In the
same dialogs, make appropriate settings under "Energy saving features..." so that these
features are never activated during measurement.
Disable any other screen savers.

 Port-scanning Software
You should not have any software installed that periodically scans COM or USB ports, for
instance Microsoft Outlook synchronization software from Sony Ericsson (Extnd Connect)
or Nokia (Nokia PC Suite). The reason is that such software may cause difficult connect
problems in TEMS Investigation.

 Automatic Updating of Software

Software that uses an "auto update" function to receive automatic updates from a web
site over a dial-up connection should be disabled.

 IR Port
The IR port on your PC may need to be disabled, since it may interfere with the ordinary
COM ports. Please consult the user manual for your computer regarding how to disable
the IR port.

 Bluetooth
Bluetooth must be disabled on the PC.

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Why does the mouse pointer starts behaving weirdly when I connect
my GPS?
In some cases Windows 2000/XP will mistakenly identify an NMEA GPS as a Microsoft Serial
BallPoint, i.e. a type of mouse. You will then lose control of the mouse pointer, and the pointer will
start moving around on the screen.

If this occurs you need to disable the Microsoft Serial BallPoint device in Windows. The easiest
way to do this is as follows:
 Disconnect the GPS from the PC.
 From the Control Panel, open the Device Manager.
 Now connect the GPS. In the device list under "Mice and other pointing devices", a new
mouse device "Microsoft Serial BallPoint" will be displayed.
 Disengage the power supply to the GPS.
 The Microsoft Serial BallPoint device will remain visible in the list for some seconds;
during this period it is possible to open the device property page without interference from
the mouse pointer.
 Right-click the Microsoft Serial BallPoint device and choose Properties.
 In the Device usage combo box, choose "Do not use this device (disable)". This disables
the Microsoft Serial BallPoint device.

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Drive Testing Using TEMS

A Concise Guide

Created by:
Zahoor ul haq

Zahoor ul haq