Huawei Confidential

LTE KPI Optimization

Ali Khalid
00273272
 RRC Success Rate
RRC Attempt : This is pegged when the eNodeB receives the RRC Connection Request
message from the UE.
RRC Success : After RRC attempt, eNodeB sends a RRC Connection Setup message to the
UE and waits for RRC Connection Setup Complete. Once, eNodeB receives RRC
Connection Setup Complete, the RRC success counter is pegged.
RRC Failure Causes: There are many causes for RRC setup failures but usually, the most
common one is the L.RRC.SetupFail.NoReply. This is pegged when the eNodeB has sent RRC
Setup but the UE does not respond with RRC Setup Complete.
Optimization : The following parameters can be used to increase the RRC success rate.
WaitRrcConnSetupCmpTimer : The time for eNodeB to wait for the RRC Setup
Complete message from UE. Increasing this timer can increase the RRC SR.
T300 : The time for UE to wait for RRC Setup from eNodeB. This can increase the
probability that the RRC setup is received by the UE.
CellRadius : If the cell radius is large, cell edge UE can have timing errors which can
result in false decoding of RRC Setup Complete message. This can happen as
demodulation of Setup Complete message requires more robustness than RRC
Connection Request message.
MrcIrcAdptSwitch : IRC algorithm increases the probability of demodulation and can
increase the RRC SR due to better decoding of RRC Setup Complete message.
PucchSwitch : If RRC fails due to PUCCH, then enabling this switch will solve the
issue as it changes PUCCH resource count based on requirement.
TAC Planning : Incorrect TAC planning can cause increase in RRC mo-sig.

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 ERAB Success Rate
ERAB Failures : The most common ERAB establishment failure is L.E-RAB.FailEst.MME.
Optimization : The L.E-RAB.FailEst.MME can also be caused due to bad coverage users.
As seen below, eNB sends Initial_UE_Msg for a TMSI and then sends another
Initial_UE_Msg for the same TMSI. This will initiate a UE_Ctxt_Rel from MME for one
the instances and consequently, an Init_Ctxt_Setup_Fail by eNB. This will be pegged
as L.E-RAB.FailEst.MME. This can happen when the UE is in bad coverage and loses
radio link and then accesses again causing eNB to send Init_UE_Msg twice before
receiving the Init_Ctxt_Setup from MME.

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 S1 Setup Success Rate
S1 Attempt : This is pegged when the eNodeB sends Initial UE Message to MME. The counter
L.S1Sig.ConnEst.Att is incremented by 1.
S1 Success : After Initial UE Message, the eNodeB waits for any of the following three
messages. If any of these messages is received, it means that the S1 signaling connection is
functional and L.S1Sig.ConnEst.Succ is incremented by 1.
Initial Context Setup Request
Downlink NAS Transport
UE Context Release
S1 Failure Causes: The following issues can cause S1 degradations
Transmission faults
Delay in S1 response message from MME
MME failing to send Fast Retransmission for SCTP packet loss
Optimization : The following parameters can be used to increase the S1 setup success rate.
s1APinitUeMsgTimer : The time for eNodeB to wait for the S1 response message from
MME. Increasing this timer can increase S1 Setup SR.
MME RTO : The RTO timer at MME governs the retransmission of lost packets. If that
timer is larger than s1APinitUeMsgTimer, it can cause S1 degradations.
Incorrect TAC Configuration : If the TAC on the site is incorrect or if there is no mapping at
the MME, the quickest way to check from counters is as follows
S1 Success Rate will be nearly 100% but the ERAB attempts will be zero
This happens because when UE tries combined attach with a TAC that is not mapped at EPC,
the MME responds with UE Context Release. This ensures that S1 success is pegged but
since ERAB attempt is only pegged at Initial Context Setup Request message, so ERAB
attempts remain zero.

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 Service Drop Rate (1)
Service Drop Rate : Service drop rate is the number of abnormal releases over total
releases.
Optimization : The following parameters can be used to improve the Service Drop
Rate.
N310 : This is the number of consecutive out-of-sync messages in downlink to
cause a RLF. One N310 unit is equal to 200 ms interval of PDCCH decoding
failure. Increasing this parameter value, reduces the RLF probability and hence
reduces the drop count.
UeInactiveTimer : If a UE does not perform any data transaction during this
time, then the eNB releases the RRC connection for the UE and UE moves into
idle mode. This is considered a normal release. If this timer is lowered, the
number of normal releases will increase and this reduce the SDR. However, this
can cause increase in signaling.
ENodeBMaxRetxThreshold : This is the maximum RLC retransmissions a user
can have. If this threshold is exceeded, the user is dropped. Increasing this will
reduce the drops at the RLC layer.
T301 : This is the RRC Re-establishment timer. The UE starts this at the RRC
Reestablishment Request and stops it at the response from eNodeB. Increasing
this timer can increase the probability of RRC Reestablishment success and
reduce drops.

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 Service Drop Rate (2)
X2 Initiation : Another important aspect to reduce drops is to verify that X2 links are setup between eNodeBs. The reason is that when a
UE experiences a RLF and tries to perform RRC Re-Establishment, the UE may try this on the source or the NBR cell. So, the source
eNodeB sends a RLF indication carrying UE’s context over the X2 interface to all the NBRs. If the NBR has the context, the RRC Re-
Establishment will succeed and the drop will not occur. The following parameters play an important role to ensure the X2 successful
setup
X2SonLinkSetupType : If the eNodeBs are on two different U2000, then this should be selected as X2_over_S1 , otherwise
X2_over_OSS.
X2BasedUptENodeBCfgSwitch : This switch ensures that any changes in the source cell are updated in all the NBR cell relations
over the X2.
X2SonDeleteTimer : This timer should be activated to remove faulty X2 links so that X2 link DB does not get full and new X2 links
can be initiated.
X2SonDeleteSwitch : This should be ON along with the above timer to activate deletion.
X2SonDeleteHoOutNumThd : This also helps to delete X2 links which do not have any Handovers between them. This keeps the X2
DB realistic.

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 CSFB Success Rate
CSFB Preparation Attempt : This is pegged when the
eNodeB receives S1 Initial Context Setup Request or S1
Initial Context Modification Request with CSFB Indicator.
CSFB Preparation Success : This is pegged when the eNodeB
responds to MME for the S1 request.
CSFB Execution: This is pegged when the eNodeB sends RRC
Release with the UTRA frequency to the UE.
Paging Paging Paging
CSFB Failures : The CSFB failures can be in two phases
Preparation : If CSFB preparation failure happens (between
1 & 2) then it is usually caused by two things ESR ESR
Interaction with other procedure : Two S1 context
modification messages are received by the eNodeB for
S1 Ctxt
the same UE. Resolved in V100R010C10SPC120. 1 Mod - CSFB
Handover Preparation : The UE has already initiated a
handover procedure to another eNodeB. This will be S1 Ctxt
pegged by L.CSFB.PrepFail.Conflict counter and as per 2 Mod Rsp
3GPP, the call will not fail as the MME will send CSFB
indication for that UE to the target eNodeB. RRC Rel 3
Execution : If the execution is failing then verify the
following parameters
UtranCsfbSwitch : This should be ON.
BlindHoPriority : This should have a non-zero value in
UtranNCell for NBR Utran cell.
UtranNFreq : Correct UTRA Frequency is added. 1- L.CSFB.PrepAtt 2 – L.CSFB.PrepSucc 3 – L.CSFB.E2W

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 Handover
S1 & X2 Handovers : A basic signal flow is given below for the S1 & X2 handovers.
S1 Handover : MME acts as the anchor and both the source and target eNodeBs communicate via MME over the S1 interface. This
usually has a higher delay and lower chance of success.
X2 Handover : Both the eNodeBs communicate with each other over the X2 interface and proceed with handover. This has lower
latency and higher chances of success as X2 link RLF indication ensures RRC Re-establishment success.

X2 Based Handover
S1 Based Handover

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 Handover Preparation
Handover Preparation : Once the source eNodeB sends a Handover Request to Target eNodeb or a Handover Required to MME, the
preparation phase begins. The target eNodeb checks admission control and credentials for the request and responds with an ACK or
failure. After preparation success, the execution phase starts.
TAC Configuration : Preparation failure can happen if the target’s configuration is incorrect in the source NCL. For instance, if the target
TAC is incorrect in the source NCL, then handover preparation failure will happen.

S1 Handover Required S1 Handover Preparation Fail

Preparation Failure as target

cell with this ECGI/TAC
combination does not exist

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 Handover Execution (1)
Handover Execution : Once the RRC Connection Reconfiguration
with Mobility Command has been sent to the UE, the Handover
Execution attempt is pegged. After that, the UE moves to the
target cell and sends RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete
after random access synchronization – this pegs the Handover
Execution Success. Most common handover execution failures and
the corresponding optimization steps are given below
Cell Radius : If the inter-site distance is greater than the cell
radius, the UE will not be able to move to the target cell
successfully. This happens because when the UE sends random
access preamble to the target cell but as the distance between the
UE and the target cell is more than the configured cell radius of
the target cell, so random access will fail.
The example below shows that 90% of the handovers from 110042
to 110174 failed in execution because the cell radius of the site
110174 was set to 5 km. After changing the cell radius to 14 km,
the issue was resolved.
Tx2RelocOverall-Expiry : This timer indicates the interval for
which the source eNodeB holds the UE context after the UE has
left the source cell. When this expiry is seen then most probably FMA Diagnosis Output
the UE was unable to perform handover successfully on the target
cell and tried re-establishment on the source cell but failed as this
timer had expired. This can happen due to cell radius issue or due
to path switch failure on the target eNodeB.

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 Handover Execution (2)
PCI Confusion : PCI confusion related HO execution
failures are one of the most common type of failures in
LTE especially when ANR is on. ANR adds cells from far
away and that can cause a scenario where two cells with
the same PCI are added in the NCL DB. Now, when the UE
detect the PCI of one of these cells, the eNodeB can
instruct the UE for a HO to the other cell and that can
cause a HO failure as the UE is not in the coverage of that
cell. A similar example is given below where eNB 542150
had two cells with same PCI – 541215 & 542157. While
the correct NBR was 541215, the source eNodeB sent
many HO requests to 542157 as the PCI was same
resulting in execution failures.
Optimization :
NBR Removal : A routine activity of removing NBRs that
are more than cell radius away can be done to minimize
this issue in the beginning of the network.
PciConflictAlmSwitch : Enable this switch to raise an
alarm whenever there is a PCI confusion or collision.
NBR Blacklist : Once a network has matured and it is
observed that removing NBRs is not effective as ANR adds
them again, then a blacklist is a more practical approach.
Select the cell which is not the practical NBR and blacklist
it by putting NoHoFlag to FORBID_HO_ENUM.

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 Handover Execution (3)

X2 Based Handover
EPC Faults : If the L.RA.Dedicate.HO.Msg3.Rcv is higher than
L.HHO.IntereNB.ExecSuccIn, then that can be an indication of EPC
faults. The point is that the UE sends dedicated preamble during
HO and a RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete message is L.HHO.InterEnB.
sent to target cell. After that, the target eNodeb just needs to ExecAttIn
send a path switch request to MME and waits for Acknowledge
from MME. This results in the UE context release message to the
L.RA.Dedicate.
source eNodeB indicating a successful handover. However, if the HO.Msg3.Rcv
L.HHO.IntereNB.ExecSuccIn is much less than the
L.RA.Dedicate.HO.Msg3.Rcv and the approximately same number
of failures are observed between L.HHO.*.IntereNB.ExecAttOut
and L.HHO.*.IntereNB.ExecSuccOut, then that indicates that there
is a fault in the Path Switch phase and the EPC should be checked
for any errors. Now, we have path switch counters L.HHO.*.InterEnB
“L.HHO.IntereNB.PathSwSucc” to detect this issue. .ExecAttOut
Intra-Freq ANR Indication : If ANR is being used in the network to
populate NBRs and there is no intra-freq handovers on a cell, then
the following parameter in the MO Cell should be checked.
IntraFreqAnrInd : This parameter should be set to
“allowed” to ensure that ANR can add intra-freq NBRs. L.HHO.InterEnB.
L.HHO.*.InterEnB
Otherwise, ANR will not be able to add intra-freq NBRs and ExecSuccIn
.ExecSuccOut
intra-freq handovers will not take place.
* Indicates inter-freq or intra-freq as inter-eNB can be both

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 Throughput (1)
RBG Round Up : There are two basic Resource Block Allocation Strategies which are given below
Round_Up
Round_Down
The allocation strategy for better throughput is Round Up as it strives to send all data in the same TTI. This increases the number of bits
per TTI and thus increases throughput. Moreover, the PDCCH utilization is also reduced as the user will not be scheduled in the next TTI
which can provide further room to PDSCH if PdcchSymNumSwitch is ON.
PdcchSymNumSwitch : This parameter helps to adjust PDCCH symbol count based on the utilization and therefore, remaining resources
can be used by PDSCH.

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 Throughput (2)
CQI Adjustment : The UE sends a CQI value that is UE’s approximate and eNodeB matches the CQI to a MCS. However, the reported CQI
can have inaccuracy and inconsistency and at the same time, every UE may not be able to support same data rates with the same error
rate on the same CQI. Moreover, the reported CQI cycle is larger than the scheduling cycle so the reported CQI may not be true
throughout that interval.
CqiAdjAlgoSwitch : If this switch is turned on, the eNodeB adjusts the CQI to keep the BLER under a pre-defined threshold. This
adjustment results in a positive or a negative change in the MCS and that keeps the BLER in check.

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 Throughput (3)
Adaptive BLER Target : The eNodeB scheduler adjusts the CQI based on IBLER and this is adjusted CQI is used to allocate the optimum
MCS. However, there is a IBLER target that is maintained at the scheduler to maximize the spectral efficiency. The following parameters
can be used to optimize the BLER target
Dlvariblertargetswitch : If this switch is turned on, the downlink target IBLER is adjusted based on the size of transport blocks
(TBs) to improve the spectrum efficiency.
DlEnVarIblerTargetSwitch : If this switch is on, the downlink target IBLER is adaptively adjusted based on CQI fluctuation and
transmit block (TB) size.

Average MCS 17.75

Average MCS 17.61 Spectral Efficiency

Average MCS 18.41

MCS

SINR to MCS Allocation

The graph depicts the

MCS index allocation for
a given SINR – providing
a measure of the
scheduler’s efficiency
SINR

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 Throughput (4)
Handover MCS Degradation : The eNodeB assigns MCS-0 (least order MCS) to the UE once the UE makes a Handover. This is done as the
eNodeB needs a new CQI report to allocate the correct MCS and therefore, it chooses the most conservative MCS. This can be optimized
using the following parameters
HoStaticMcsTimer : This timer governs the length of time for which MCS-0 is assigned to the UE after the handover. Reducing this
timer value can reduce the MCS-0 allocation interval.
HoAperiodicCqiCfgSwitch : This switch enables aperiodic CQI during HO and can help to assign better MCS based on the CQI.

After HO, MCS-0 is

allocated to UE for 60 ms

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Note

All the parameters mentioned in this document should first be

tested in the network on a small scale to verify any impact. An
incorrect parameter configuration can cause adverse impact. GTAC
verification should also be requested, if required.