Introduction To

pmPropagationDelay
Background on pmPropagationDelay
RBS counter to gauge how far a cell is overshooting
Represents the propagation delay measured on RACH message with
correct CRC
When a UE attempts to make a call, preamble is sent to the RBS. With
every successfully detected preamble by the RBS, a sample is taken
and propagation delay is measured. From the measured propagation
delay, the distance between the UE and RBS can be calculated.

Ericsson Confidential Introduction to pmPropagationDelay 2009-04-01

More on pmPropagationDelay
Unlike peg counter, this is a pdf counter, which is a list of range counter.
If the value falls within a certain range, the counter for that range is
increased.
pmPropagationDelay has 41 ranges with non-linear resolution, as below:

Ericsson Confidential Introduction to pmPropagationDelay 2009-04-01

How to calculate distance from propagation delay?
Distance [meter] = (speed of light * number of chips delay)/chip rate
pmPropagationDelay [0] holds the max delay of the cell and considering the default value of
cellRange = 35000m,
max. number of chips delay = 35000 * 3.84 * 10^6 / (3*10^8)
= 450
pmPropagationDelay [1]: [0% - 1%], i.e. num. of chips delay is in the range [0 4.5]
Distance = 3*10^8 * 4.5 / (3.84*10^6)
= 350m
Thus, pmPropagationDelay [1] is incremented when the distance between the UE and the
RBS is in the range [0m 350m]
pmPropagationDelay [2]: [1% - 2%], i.e. num. of chips delay is in the range [4.5 9]
Distance = 3*10^8 * 9 / (3.84*10^6)
= 700m
Thus, pmPropagationDelay [2] is incremented when the distance between the UE and the
RBS is in the range [350m 700m]
Attached is the spreadsheet illustrating the distance calculation for all the 41 bins.

Ericsson Confidential Introduction to pmPropagationDelay 2009-04-01

What to do with pmPropagationDelay Raw Data?
Below is an example of the raw data from xml file for a site with 2 sectors
for 1 ROP:

A good parser has been created by Darren Ng to parse the raw data,
which can be found in:
http://knowledgebase.internal.ericsson.com/N%20and%20TC%20Radio%20WCDMA/Lists/
KO/DispForm.aspx?ID=2478

Ericsson Confidential Introduction to pmPropagationDelay 2009-04-01

What to do with pmPropagationDelay Raw Data?
The above parser organized the output in a user friendly manner and
easy to be understood:

A graph can be produced to identify the overshooting sector.

pmPropagationDelay of AITAMU
100000

90000
80000
70000
No. of Samples

60000

50000
40000

30000
20000

10000
0
19
20
0.35
0.7
1.05
1.41
1.76
2.11
2.46
2.81
3.16
3.51
4.22
4.92
5.62
6.33
7.03
7.73
8.44
9.14
9.84
10.5
11.6
12.7
13.7
14.8
15.8
16.9
17.9

21.1
22.5
23.9
25.3
26.7
28.1
29.5
30.9
32.3
33.8
35.2
Distance (km)
sector1 sector2
sector3

Ericsson Confidential Introduction to pmPropagationDelay 2009-04-01

Ericsson Confidential Introduction to pmPropagationDelay 2009-04-01