Drive Test

Training 2021

BY\IBRAHIM SHERIF EL-MADDAH

A Report About What I Have Learnt During The Summer
Training

What is drive When and What kind of

where we do tools used in
testing ? DT? DT?

2G field 3G and 4G
Problems to field problems
be Drive test briefly

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 Why Perform a Drive Test ?
-Every alive Network needs to be under continues control to
maintain/improve the performance.

-Optimization is basically the only way to keep track of the network by

looking deep into statistics and collecting/analyzing drive test data.

-Drive test helps operation and maintenance for troubleshooting

purposes

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 When to Drive Test
Drive testing can take place during the day or at night and is dependent upon the
Operator’s
requirements and subscriber habits. Drive testing during the day will imitate the
conditions as seen by subscribers, but may clog up the network if call analysis
is being performed. Drive testing during the night will allow a greater area to be
surveyed due to the reduction in vehicular traffic jam. It will also allow for
certain test signals to be transmitted and tested, particularly when setting up a
new site, without interrupting normal operation. However, night-time testing
does not imitate the conditions experienced by subscribers. For planning
purposes, drive testing is typically performed at night and for maintenance
purposes, drive testing is performed during the day.

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Where to Drive Test
Some areas of a network will have greater performance problems than others.
Drive testing should not be regular throughout the whole network, but should be
weighted towards areas where there are significant RF problems. There may be
other areas of the network that require temporary coverage during a certain time
of the year e.g. an exhibition center or a sports stadium. These areas should be
examined and planned in greater detail. Sometime operators can perform drive
test for their customary check for a certain city or some specific clusters of a
city.

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 Types of drive Test
Drive test can be performed in very many ways. Different types of drive test
fulfill different types of
requirement from the customer.
1. Single site Drive Test
2. Cluster Drive Test
3. Mian Road Drive Test
4. Site Swapping Drive Test
5. Benchmarking Drive Test
6. Functionality Test
7. Walk Test for IBS

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Drive Test Tools

GPS Laptop computer Power Inverter Mobile phone and

Dongle(TEMS license )

Data cables
Software Drive test vehicle
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 Drive Test Software
1. Data collection Software
This is the software through which field data will be collected.
With this software we can analyze
the field data also. This software should be licensed from the
vendor company for proper
authorization. Every software has a key to work properly. The
most popular software for data
collection is “TEMS Investigation” from ERICSSON.

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 Drive Test Software
2. Digital Map
During drive test digital map is necessary for finding
the way to reach the selected site/cluster
and do DT according to some predefined routes. We
can load the digital map of the whole
region or we can load the map of some specific roads
that need drive test. This map comprises
all the accessible DT routs.

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 Drive Test Software
3. Cell file
We must load the cell file into the data collection
software. A cell file contains all the necessary
information related to the site, like ID of that site,
assigned frequencies of that site, direction of
the antennas of that site etc. Whenever we load the cell
file we can see the position of that site in
the digital map. Then we can easily find out our
required sites form the map and also the roads
to be covered for that site.

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 Drive Test Software
4. MapInfo
MapInfo allowed us to include mapping functionality into
DT software. We can easily plot our
sites position, routes, and building drawings (for indoor
test) with this software. MapInfo has the
ability to combine and display, on a single map, data from
a variety of sources that are in
different formats and projections. The software is capable
of overlaying vector layers on the
same map.
FIG: MapInfo Software

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 2G Sites Problems
1-2G Cross Sector:
When 2 sectors S1 and S2 in same site each is serving in the
other sector main beam area with a good BCCH Rx-level
while the other non-serving sector BCCH appears as a neighbor
in [GSM Serving + Neighbors] window with bad
Rx-level or not appears at all as its level is too low to be even
detected by MS.

There are 3 types of Cross sector:

 GSM cross sector.
 DCS cross sector.
 Total (GSM & DCS) cross sector

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 2G Sites Problems
1-GSM cross sector:
When the 2 feeders from GSM BTS 1st cabinet are connected
to sector 2 antenna and the 2 feeders from GSM BTS
2nd cabinet are connected to sector 1 antenna.

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 2G Sites Problems
2-DCS cross sector:
When the 2 feeders from DCS BTS 1st cabinet are connected to
sector 2 antenna and the 2 feeders from DCS BTS
2nd cabinet are connected to sector 1 antenna

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 2G Sites Problems
3-Total [GSM & DCS] cross sector:
When all the 4 feeders [both GSM 2 feeders and DCS 2 feeders]
from sector 1 BTS cabinet are connected to sector 2
antenna and the other 4 feeders from sector 2 BTS cabinet are
connected to sector 1 antenna.
Every sector cabinet is connected to the wrong other sector
antenna.

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 2G Sites Problems
NOTE: Once you notice on TEMS that a sector antenna is serving on its non-main beam, you then
suspect 1 of 2
problems:
1-This sector antenna has wrong azimuth whether in reality or cell file.
2-Site suffers from a cross problem.
But, why we shall solve cross sector problem in sites?
As it may cause problems like:
 Congestion which may causes blocked calls.
 Missing neighbor problem.
 Down-link interference [Co. or adjacent channel interference].
 Dropped calls due to the last 2 before mentioned reasons

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 2G Sites Problems
2-2G Cross Feeders:
When 2 sectors S1 and S2 are both serving in 1 side with almost
the same good Rx-levels in window [GSM Serving +
Neighbors] which may causes ping pong H.O while both have
very bad Rx-levels in the other side where none of
them is serving at all as you find very bad Rx-levels from both of
their BCCHs [same behavior from 2 sectors] in 2
sides.
Imagine 2 BTS cabinets S1 and S2 each is connected to its
correct sector antenna through 2 feeders TX/RX 1st feeder
and RX 2nd feeder, if by mistake 1 of these 2 feeders [Not both] is
connected to the wrong sector antenna, it will be a
cross feeders case.

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 2G Sites Problems
There are 2 types of cross feeders:
 GSM cross feeders.
 DCS cross feeders.

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 2G Sites Problems
1-GSM cross feeders:
We can say that there are 3 possibilities for this wrong
connection:
Case 1 [Most famous case in cross feeders]:
When the TX/RX feeder from GSM BTS 2nd cabinet is
connected wrong to sector 1 antenna or vice versa, where
sector 1 antenna will be transmitting both sector 1 and sector 2
BCCHs power.
The other sector 2 antenna will include the 2 RX diversity
feeders with no transmitted power from BTS cabinets in
them.

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 2G Sites Problems
BEFORE CROSS SOLVED
In front of sector 3 main beam
You find both sector 2 BCCH: 42 and sector 3
BCCH: 35 appear in [GSM Serving + Neighbors]
window with very good
Rx-level which may causes Ping-Pong H.O as
both the TX/RX feeders from the 2 BTS cabinets
are connected to
sector 3 antenna where all the 2 sector's BCCHs
power will be transmitted by sector 3 antenna.

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 2G Sites Problems
In front of sector 2 main beam
You find sector 2 BCCH: 42 serving with very bad Rx-level which is normal, why?
Because the 2 feeders connected to sector 2 antenna now are the up-link RX diversity feeders.

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 2G Sites Problems
AFTER CROSS SOLVED
In front of sector 3 main beam
You find sector 2 BCCH: 42 appears with normal bad Rx-Level because now the TX/RX feeder carrying the power for
BCCH: 42 is not connected to sector 3 antenna but it is connected to sector 2 antenna as it should be.

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 2G Sites Problems
In front of sector 2 main beam
You find sector 2 BCCH: 42 is serving with good normal Rx-level as now the TX/RX feeder is connected to sector 2
antenna, so coverage in the area is clearly enhanced now.

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 2G Sites Problems
Case 2 [Cross sector case]:
When the TX/RX feeder from GSM BTS 2nd cabinet is connected wrong to sector 1 antenna and the TX/RX feeder
from GSM BTS 1st cabinet is connected wrong to sector 2 antenna.
Sector 1 antenna will be transmitting sector 2 BCCH and TCHs, while sector 2 will be transmitting sector 1 BCCH and
TCHs.

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 2G Sites Problems
Case 3 [Cross in Rx diversity]:
When both RX feeders from BTS cabinets are cross connected to each other antennas, this case is named cross
diversity.
Both sector antennas will not be transmitting any BCCHs power

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 2G Sites Problems
But, why we shall solve cross feeders problem in sites?
As it may cause problems like:

 Bad coverage as in case 1 as 1 area has good coverage while the other area suffers very bad coverage from
serving site.

 Blocked calls.

 Down-link interference [Co. or adjacent channel interference] on neighboring sites.

 Dropped calls due to bad coverage or Ping-Pong H.O.

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 2G Sites Problems
3-Bad quality
Rx qual is proportional to BER (Bit Error
Rate), that affected by interference.
There are two types of interference:
1- Co-Channel interference
2- Adjacent interference
➢ Interference is appeared in hopping
channel window (C/I)
➢ C/I: Carrier to interference ratio.
➢ High Interference >>>> bad C/I >>>>
Bad Rx qual >>>> Bad SQI
➢ If we have interfered frequency, we
should change it by another one

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 2G Sites Problems
4-Faulty DTRU:
DTRU: Dual Transceiver Unit, Generate two frequencies.

Solution: replace the faulty DTRU by another one

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 2G Sites Problems
5-Over shooting
It means that the cell serve at very long distance with good level This area that the cell overshoots in
it most probably have cells with Co-channel or adjacent BCCH, so it will make interference that will
result in bad quality.

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 2G Sites Problems
6-Dropped calls: 8-Hand Over failure:
The call may be dropped due to: HO failure means that MS fails to reach the
➢ Bad quality due to interference. target cell due to bad quality or bad
➢ Faulty TRX. coverage or congestion, so it return to the
➢ Bad coverage. old cell.
➢ Transmission problem.
7-Blocked calls: 10-Bad coverage
The call may be blocked due to:
➢ Cell congestion
➢ Bad quality due to interference.
➢ Faulty TRX.
➢ Bad coverage.
➢ Transmission problem.
➢ Long distance between MS and BTS (MAX TA = 63).

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 3G & 4G Sites Problems
3G sites problems
a- Cross sector : the same concept of 2G cross sector
b- Bad coverage.
c- Pilot pollution.
Presence of more than pilot of approximately equivalent signal strength covers an area without primary
pilot that result in bad Eq/No, that may make dropping in call, and also result in low capacity.
Recommendations:
➢ Down tilt the antennas of the surrounding sites to decrease the Interference caused by them to have
dominant cell.
➢ Increase the power of one of them or decrease power of surrounding cells.
➢ Adjust the antenna azimuth.
d- Missing neighbors.
Existence of DN neighbor with high RSCP without adding it to AS list that result in bad Eq/No.

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 3G & 4G Sites Problems
e- Overshooting.
Finding a high DN but far from the detection area.
f- Drooped calls.
The call may drop due to:
➢ Pilot pollution
➢ Bad coverage (Low RSCP)
➢ Bad quality (Eq/No)
➢ Missing neighbor
➢ Over shooting
➢ Downlink interference
➢ Uplink interference
➢ Unidirectional missing neighbor
➢ Transmission problem
➢ Hardware problem
➢ Transmission problem

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 3G & 4G Sites Problems
g- Blocked calls.
The call may block due to:
➢ Cell congestion
➢ Uplink interference
➢ Bad Eq/No
➢ Hardware problem
➢ Transmission problem
h- IRAT (HO from 3G to 2G) failure.
The RSCP is decreased under the IRAT threshold, no
IRAT done, that result in dropping the call. IRAT failure
happen due to missing 2G neighbors

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 3G & 4G Sites Problems
LTE Drive test parameters:
1-RSRP: Reference signal received the average power received from a single Reference signal, and Its typical range is
around -44dbm (good) to -140dbm (bad).
2-RSRQ: Reference Signal Received Quality Indicates quality of the received signal, and its range is typically -19.5dB(bad) to
-3dB (good).is defined as the ratio N×RSRP/(E-UTRA carrier RSSI), N is the number of RB’s of the E-UTRA carrier RSSI
measurement bandwidth.
3- RSSI: Represents the entire received power including the wanted power from the serving cell as well as all co-channel
power and other sources of noise and it is related to the above parameters through the following formula:
RSRQ=N*(RSRP/RSSI)
4-SINR: is the reference value used in the system simulation and can be defined: Wide band SINR for a specific sub-carriers
(or for a specific resource elements)All measured over the same bandwidth.
5- Reference Signal :RS(RSRP) is a special signal that exists only at PHY layer, When UE try to figure out DL power the power
of the signal from a e-NB), it measure the power of this reference signal and take it as downlink cell power.

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 3G & 4G Sites Problems
The following tests are required for testing the LTE network:
All tests should be labeled properly.
STATIC TESTS
1- Attach/detach 5 attempts.
2- Ping.
3-FTP Download & Upload.
4-UDP Download & Upload.
5- Smart phone browsing
6- CSFB MO/MT IDLE.
7- CSFB MO/MT CONNECTED.
8- Cell edge UL & DL.
9-IRAT from 4G to 3G.
MOBILITY TESTS (both tests will be run simultaneously in the same DT) & check cross
1-UL Coverage.
2-DL Coverage.
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