Default Re: TCH mean holding time in GSM (MHT)

MHT is the duration during which a MS is using the TCH in the cell.
So if it is too short, it means either the calls are dropped as soon as the TCH is
seize... or there is a HO taking place immediately. Check your drops and your
outgoing HO : are they high ?

If drops : HW problem, probably

If HO : settings are done in such a way that HO are triggered quickly from this
cell.

The Mean Holding Time for TCH reflects the average duration of calls on traffic
channel.

formula: (Traffic * Time duration(s) ) / (Number of Calls + Incomming Handovers)

===================================================================================
How to reduce Call Drops In a GSM Network
posted Oct 13, 2009, 12:53 AM by Gulzar Singh [ updated May 9, 2011, 1:13 PM ]

Meaning

The TCH call drop rate refers to the ratio of call drops to successful TCH seizures
after the BSC successfully assigns TCHs to MSs. The TCH call drop rate can be
measured from the following aspects:

l TCH call drop rate (including handover)

l TCH call drop rate (excluding handover)

The TCH call drop rate, one of the most significant KPIs for telecom operators, is
related to retainability. It indicates the probability of call drops due to various
reasons after MSs access TCHs. A too high TCH call drop rate adversely affects the
user's experience.

Recommended Formulas

TCH call drop rate (including handover) = Number of call drops on TCH/(Number of
successful TCH seizures (signaling channel) + Number of successful TCH seizures
(TCH) + Number of successful TCH Seizures in TCH handovers (TCH)) x 100%

TCH call drop rate (excluding handover) = Number of call drops on TCH/Number of
successful TCH seizures (TCH) x 100%

Factors That Affect the TCH Call Drop Rate

According to user complaints and network optimization experience, the major factors
that affect the TCH call drop rate are as follows:

l Hardware failure

l Transmission problem

l Version upgrade
l Parameter setting

l Intra-network and inter-network interference

l Coverage problem

l Antenna system problem

l Imbalance between uplink and downlink

l Repeater problem

1.1 Hardware Failure

When a TRX or a combiner is faulty, seizing the TCH becomes difficult, and thus the
TCH call drop rate increases.

1.2 Transmission Problem

The TCH call drop rate increases in the following conditions:

l The transmission quality on the A or Abis interface is poor for various

reasons.

l Transmission links are unstable.

1.3 Version Upgrade

After the BTS version or BSC version is upgraded, the BTS version may be
incompatible with the BSC version, and the parameters and algorithms in the new
version may be changed. In this case, the TCH call drop rate increases.

1.4 Parameter Setting

The settings of some parameters on the BSC and MSC sides may affect the TCH call
drop rate. If the following situations occur, the TCH call drop rate may increase:

1. The parameters SACCH Multi-Frames and Radio Link Timeout are set to too
small values.

2. The parameter RXLEV_ACCESS_MIN is set to a too small value.

3. The parameter RACH Min.Access Level is set to a too small value.

4. The parameters Min DL Power on HO Candidate Cell and Min Access Level
Offset are inappropriately set.

5. The length of timer T3103 (this timer is set to wait for a Handover
Complete message) is set to a too small value.

6. The length of timer T3109 (this timer is set to wait for a Release
Indication message) is set to a too small value.

7. The length of timer T3111 (this timer specifies the connection release
delay) is set to a too small value.

8. The length of timer T305/T308 is set to an invalid or too great value.

9. The parameter TCH Traffic Busy Threshold is set to a too small value.
10. The parameter Call Reestablishment Forbidden is set to Yes.

11. The parameters related to edge handover are inappropriately set.

12. The parameters related to BQ handover are inappropriately set.

13. The parameters related to interference handover are inappropriately set.

14. The parameters related to concentric cell handover are inappropriately

set.

15. The parameters related to power control are inappropriately set.

16. T200 and N200 are set to too small values.

17. Some neighboring cell relations are not configured.

18. The parameter MAIO is inappropriately set.

19. The parameter Disconnect Handover Protect Timer is set to a too small
value.

20. The parameter TR1N is set to a too small value.

21. The parameters Software Parameter 13 and MAX TA are set to too small
values.
22. If a repeater is used, the parameter Directly Magnifier Site Flag is set
to No.

1.5 Intra-Network and Inter-Network Interference

If inter-network interference and repeater interference exist, or if severe intra-

network interference occurs because of tight frequency reuse, call drops may occur
on TCHs because of poor QoS. This adversely affects the TCH call drop rate.

The following types of interference may occur:

1. Inter-network interference from scramblers or privately installed

antennas

2. Interference from the CDMA network of China Unicom

3. Repeater interference

4. Inter-modulation interference from BTSs

5. Intra-network co-channel and adjacent-channel interference

1.6 Coverage Problem

The following coverage problems may affect the TCH call drop rate.

1. Discontinuous coverage (blind areas)

The voice quality at the edge of an isolated BTS is poor and calls cannot be handed
over to other cells. In this case, call drops may occur.

In complex terrains such as mountainous regions, the signals are blocked

and thus the transmission is discontinuous, leading to call drops.

2. Poor indoor coverage

Densely distributed buildings and thick walls cause great attenuation and low
indoor signal level, which causes call drops.

3. Cross coverage (isolated BTS)

The serving cell causes cross coverage due to various reasons (such as excess
power). An MS cannot be handed over to another cell due to no suitable neighboring
cells. In this case, the signal level becomes low and the voice quality of the MS
deteriorates. Thus, call drops occur.

4. Insufficient coverage

If the signal from an antenna is blocked or the BCCH TRX is faulty, call drops may
occur because of discontinuous coverage.

1.7 Antenna System Problem

The following antenna system problems may affect the TCH call drop rate

1. If the transmit antennas of two cells are improperly connected, the

uplink signal level in each cell is much lower than the downlink signal level in
the cell. Therefore, call drops are likely to occur at places far away from the
BTS.

2. If a directional cell has main and diversity antennas, the BCCH and
SDCCH of the cell may be transmitted from different antennas. If the two antennas
have different pitch angles or azimuths, the coverage areas of the two antennas are
different. In this case, the following result may occur: An MS can receive the BCCH
signals from one antenna; when a call is made, the MS cannot seize the SDCCH
transmitted by the other antenna and thus a call drop occurs.

3. If the feeder is damaged, water leaks in the feeder, or the feeder and
the connector are not securely connected, both the transmit power and receiver
sensitivity of the antenna are reduced. Thus, call drops may occur.

1.8 Imbalance Between Uplink and Downlink

The difference between the uplink signal level and the downlink signal level may be
great in the following conditions:

? The transmit power of the BTS is high.

? The tower mounted amplifier (TMA) or BTS amplifier does not work properly.

? The antenna and the connector are not securely connected.

As a result, call drops may occur at the edge of the BTS coverage area.

1.9 Repeater Problem

If a cell is installed with a repeater, BTS coverage problems may occur in the case
that the repeater is faulty or that the uplink and downlink gain is inappropriately
set. Therefore, the TCH call drop rate increases.

If a wide-frequency repeater is used and the gain is set to a great value, strong
interference may be caused. As a result, the network quality is adversely affected
and the TCH call drop rate increases.

=====================================================
Cool TCH Drop: Reason & Solution
Drop during conversation is known as TCH drop. It takes place after connect ACK msg
on TCH.TCH drop occurring.
For TCH drop first cross check the BCCH of that cell, hardware issue may be, change
RXP and RLT value. Find out there is any interference ,neighbor defined.

Reasons for TCH Drop:

Wrong Parameter Planning.
BAD HOSR.
Hardware Fault.
High TR Fail.
Overshoot.
Outage.
Due to Low Coverage.
Due to ICM Band(CDMA)

Solutions for removal of TCH Drop:

Check Parameter:
Check the BCCH Plan (C/I or C/A), Co-BSIC & Co BCCH.
Check the Timer T 100(should be 20 ms)

Check Overshooting:
If a cell is picking call from long distance, Check the sample log according to
TA..
Site Orientation.
Effective tilt should be check.
Mount position should be check

Improve HOSR:
Check the Hopping plan.
Check the Neighbor Plan

High TR Fail:
Check and clear TR fail from oss end.

Check HW:
Check Alarms on site.
Check TRXs,Check Slips.
Check the Hopping plan.
Check BB2F card., Check VSWR,
Path imbalance,Connector, Connection,Check TMA

Bad Coverage:

If the drop call is due to low signal strength uplink, check the receive path of
this particular TRX. Check receiver sensitivity, VSWR, feeder connection and etc.
Drops due to Low Signal Strength.
If the drop call reason is due to low signal strength downlink, then, check the
transmit path. Check cards, feeder and etc.
Use MapInfo or Google Earth to find location of sites.
Effective tilt should be check.
Mount position should be check.

Drop Reason because of HW Issues:

if drops are only on one site, then go for a check for that particular even attach
with that site.
If drops are on all sites connected to a single link, then check the slip or
interference on that Abis interface.
If Drops are distributed on all site of the BSC, then check the slips on A-ter.
Down Time of the cell.
TRX condition.
BTS should not getting the temperature alarm continuously.
Reports for TCH Drop:
163 for TCH Drop
ZEOL for alarms.
ZAHP for Flicks.
232 for TA report.
208 Path Imbalance report.
204 for BTS report.
216 for all parameter.
196 for UL-DL Qul.
62 for Adj cell having same or adj freq.
=====================================================

@@@ LU @@@@@
##
rlsbp:cell=shi064a;

CELL SYSTEM INFORMATION BCCH DATA

CB MAXRET TX ATT T3212 CBQ CRO TO PT ECSC

NO 4 50 YES 10 HIGH 0 0 0 NO

ACC
CLEAR

Random Access (RACH) Success

T3212-location update timer

MAXRET-maximum number of retransmissions
TX-the randomness in the time interval between each of these access request

The number of times an MS tries to access the network (repeated access in the event
of no response from the BS in the form
of immediate assignment or immediate assignment reject on AGCH) is decided by the
BSS parameter MAXRET (maximum number of
retransmissions) and the randomness in the time interval between each of these
access request is defined by the parameter TX.

MAXRET and TX: for cells with ABIS over VSAT, it is recommended that MAXRET be set
to 4 and TX be set to 32. This will limit
the number of retransmission from the MS. When the ABIS is over a VSAT, delay in
response from the BSS to the received RACH
from MS can be sluggish, that�s the reason from keeping the number of
retransmission of RACH low and keeping the repeat interval
a bit longer.
Incorrect Cell Parameters: T3212 determines the periodic registration time for MS,
if its too large can lead to poor paging
performance where as if set too short can overload SDCCH. It is recommended to set
this timer between 2 Hrs to 4 Hr.
ACCMIN, CRO & CRH defines the idle mode reselection criteria; make use of these
parameters to tailor-make idle mode behaviour
of an MS as close to that of active mode; incorrect reselection of inappropriate
cells on the idle mode due to incorrect settings
of the idle mode cell reselection parameters

@@@@@ SDCCH Cong @@@@@@@

##
rlacp:cell=shi005a;

CELL ADAPTIVE LOGICAL CHANNEL CONFIGURATION

CELL ACSTATE SLEVEL STIME EXCHGR

SHI005A ON 2 20

SLEVEL-SDCCH Level
0-disabled
1
2
CONG

STIME

@@@@@ TCH Drop @@@@@@@

##
rlpcp:cell=shi013a;

DYNAMIC MS POWER CONTROL CELL DATA

CELL DMPSTATE
SHI013A ACTIVE

SCTYPE SSDESUL QDESUL LCOMPUL QCOMPUL

92 30 6 75

@@@@@ HO and TCH Cong @@@@

##
rllop:cell=shi005a;

CELL LOCATING DATA

CELL BSPWR BSRXMIN BSRXSUFF MSRXMIN MSRXSUFF SCHO MISSNM AW

SHI005A 55 105 150 100 0 OFF 3 ON

BCCHREUSE BCCHLOSS BCCHDTCBP BCCHDTCBN BCCHLOSSHYST

NORMAL 200 63 3

BCCHDTCBHYST
2

SCTYPE BSTXPWR EXTPEN HYSTSEP ISHOLEV MAXISHO FBOFFSP FBOFFSN

UL 55 90 99 6
OL 54

BSRXMIN Less
BSRXMIN Less
AW OFF
SCHO-On to allow HO on SDCCH............

@@@@@@ R LINK TCH Drop SACCH Measurement period @@@@@@@@

##
rlssp:cell=shi064a;
CELL SYSTEM INFORMATION SACCH AND BCCH DATA

CELL
SHI064A

ACCMIN CCHPWR CRH DTXU RLINKT NECI MBCR

105 33 6 1 32 0 0

NCCPERM
3

RLINKTAFR RLINKTAHR
32 32

CRH-Cell Reselection Hysterisis

6dB

Increase to 8

##
rlldp:cell=shi064a;

CELL LOCATING DISCONNECT DATA

CELL MAXTA RLINKUP RLINKUPAFR RLINKUPAHR

SHI064A 63 32 32 32

@@@@@ CELL CONFIGURATION @@@@@@@@@

##
rldep:cell=shi005a;

CELL DESCRIPTION DATA

CELL CGI BSIC BCCHNO AGBLK MFRMS IRC

SHI005A 404-77-4102-10051 32 71 1 5 ON

TYPE BCCHTYPE FNOFFSET XRANGE CSYSTYPE

INT NCOMB 0 NO GSM900
CELLIND RAC RIMNACC GAN
H'039

MFRMS and AGBLK; if paging discards at the cell level is too high, setting AGBLK to
0 can increase the paging bandwidth
also lower values of MFRMS (4 to 6) are ideally recommended to offload very high
paging load at a cell.

##
rlbdp:cell=shi013a;

CELL CONFIGURATION BPC DATA

CELL
SHI013A

CHGR NUMREQBPC NUMREQEGPRSBPC NUMREQCS3CS4BPC TN7BCCH EACPREF

0 8 0 0 EGPRS
1 8 2 0

##

CELL CONFIGURATION FREQUENCY DATA

CELL
SHI005A

CHGR SCTYPE SDCCH SDCCHAC TN CBCH HSN HOP DCHNO

0 UL 1 0 2 YES 0 OFF 71
1 UL 2 0 2 NO 6 ON 63
64
66
67
68
69
115
116
117
118
119
120
122
123
124
2 OL 0 0 2 NO 6 ON 611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
 625
626
627
628
629

##
rlhpp:cell=shi005a;

CONNECTION OF CELL TO CHANNEL ALLOCATION PROFILE DATA

CELL CHAP
SHI005A 6

##
rlchp:cell=shi013a;

CELL CONFIGURATION FREQUENCY HOPPING DATA

CELL
SHI013A

CHGR HSN HOP MAIO BCCD

0 0 OFF DEFAULT YES
1 22 ON 0 YES

@@@@@@@ EXTRA @@@@@@@@@@

##
rlcdp:cell=shi013a;

CELL MULTIPLE CHANNEL ALLOCATION DATA

BSCMC
OFF

CELL MC
SHI013A OFF

##
rlslp:cell=shi005a;

CELL SUPERVISION OF LOGICAL CHANNEL AVAILABILITY DATA

CELL SCTYPE
SHI005A UL

ACTIVE CHTYPE CHRATE SPV LVA ACL NCH

YES BCCH 1 A3 1
SDCCH 0 A3 23
TCH FR 1 0 A3 28
TCH FR 2 0 A3 28
 TCH FR 3 0 A3 28
TCH HR 1 0 A3 56
TCH HR 3 0 A3 56
CBCH 0 A3 1

CELL SCTYPE
SHI005A OL

ACTIVE CHTYPE CHRATE SPV LVA ACL NCH

YES BCCH 0 A3 0
SDCCH 0 A3 0
TCH FR 1 0 A3 32
TCH FR 2 0 A3 32
TCH FR 3 0 A3 32
TCH HR 1 0 A3 64
TCH HR 3 0 A3 64
CBCH 0 A3 0

##
rldap:cell=shi064a;

CELL DYNAMIC ALLOCATION ON ABIS DATA

CELL ATHABIS DAMRCRABIS ATHABISPR DAMRCRABISPR

SHI064A OFF

##
rldhp:cell=shi064a;

CELL DYNAMIC HR ALLOCATION DATA

CELL DHA DTHAMR DTHNAMR DHPRL DHPR

SHI064A ON 30 15
END

##
rldmp:cell=shi064a;

CELL DYNAMIC FR/HR MODE ADAPTATION DATA

CELL DMSUPP DMTHAMR DMTHNAMR DMTFAMR DMTFNAMR

SHI064A ON 20 10 100 100

DMQB DMQBAMR DMQBNAMR

 ON 50 45

DMQG DMQGAMR DMQGNAMR

ON 35 30

DMPR

DMPRL DMQBAMR DMQBNAMR DMQGAMR DMQGNAMR

##

rlllp:cell=shi064c;

SUBCELL LOAD DISTRIBUTION DATA

CELL SCLD SCLDLUL SCLDLOL SCLDSC

SHI064C OFF 20 20 UL

### TCH Cong###

rllcp:cell=shi064a;
CELL LOAD SHARING DATA

CELL CLSSTATE CLSLEVEL CLSACC HOCLSACC RHYST CLSRAMP

SHI064A ACTIVE 20 40 OFF 75 5