3GPP SON Series:

Minimization of Drive Testing

(MDT)

@3g4gUK
 RAN OpEx
RAN OPEX
Power Consumption Site Rental Operations Manpower Other Hw & Sw
Manpower

• Includes field testing, drive testing 15% 15%

& site maintenance, etc.

• SON and AI can help reduce the
costs significantly 10%

Operations
30%

• Includes lab testing,

troubleshooting, optimization, etc.
• Automation, AI and ML can help 30%

reduce the costs significantly

• Virtualization and softwarization
can help keep costs down.
• CI/CD also helping with keeping
costs down.

©3G4G
Minimization of Drive Testing (MDT)
• Drive testing is one of the biggest cost of running the network
after the energy usage
• In a traditional network, drive tests must be done multiple times
on different network loads to get an accurate picture of the cell's
coverage and capacity
• To reduce the amount of drive test, MDT feature was introduced
in Release-10
• Two types of MDT have been defined:
• Immediate MDT
• Logged MDT
• MDT Measurements can be on Control Plane or User Plane.
©3G4G
U-plane and C-plane MDT
• The U-plane MDT is
MDT server MDT server
operator specific with
operator deploying an
application on the phone
to do this measurements
RAN RAN
• The C-plane MDT is
based on the signalling
and would be
standardised across all
UE UE
devices and form factors.

©3G4G
 Logged v/s Immediate MDT
Log
Logged MDT
• Measurements in Idle mode
• Logging measurements and
reporting later on
• Optional for the UE to support
©3G4G
Coverage
Hole
Immediate MDT
• Measurement in Connected mode
• Immediate reporting e.g., at RLF
• Mandatory for the UE to support
 Logged MDT example
Logging interval

IDLE

Logging

measurement occasions
Logging duration

• Same amount of measurements as in normal case : radio measurements

• Periodical logging : 1280ms~61440ms : detailed location info. (if available)
: time stamp
• logging duration : 10min~120min
©3G4G
 Immediate MDT example
MDT RLF log Log
configuration indication retrieval

Coverage
CONNECTED
Hole
RLF Re-establishment CONECTECD

RRCConnectionReestablishmentComplete
measurement occasions
Logging
Signal strength,
location

• UE can discard RLF info 48 hour after the radio link failure is detected
©3G4G
Procedure for collecting RLF reports by OAM

OAM eNB UE
Trace session activation
Cell trace session
started
Connected mode

RLF/HOF
UE records the
RLF report
Idle mode

Call setup
Include RLF report available
indication
MDT server (TCE) UE information request
UE information response
Storing RLF(RLF report)
report
in trace record
Trace record reporting

©3G4G
RRC UE Information Request message

©3G4G
RRC UE Information Response message

©3G4G
MDT Enhancements for Rel-11
• MDT was enhanced for Rel-11 to collect not only measurements
indicating the network coverage condition but also those
indicating the users’ real-life throughput and connectivity issues.

• For most cases, the battery consumption is not significantly

impacted by MDT. One exception is the ability to request the UE
to activate its GNSS receiver for MDT that is introduced in Rel-11,
which is expected to involve significant battery power
consumption. The operator may choose to handle this by
subscription agreements, and only use requested location for
subscribers that have consented to this.

©3G4G
 References and Further Reading
• Minimization of Drive Tests (MDT) in Mobile Communication Networks by Daniel
Baumann (link)
• Nokia - The GeoSynthesis Project: Minimization of Drive Test (MDT) - An Innovative
Methodology for Measuring Customer Performance on Mobile Network by Andrea
Scaloni (link)
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP MDT - How it works and what is new in Rel. 16 (link)
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP Minimization of Drive Test (MDT) Signaling at a Glance (link)
• The 3G4G Blog: Minimization of Drive Tests (MDT) in 3GPP Release-10 (link)
• From 4G to 5G: Self-organized Network Management meets Machine Learning by
Jessica Moysen and Lorenza Giupponi (link)
• An Introduction To LTE (2nd Edition), Christopher Cox (link)
• 3G4G: Self-Organizing Networks / Self-Optimizing Networks (link)
• The 3G4G Blog: SON (link)

©3G4G
 To learn more, visit:
3G4G Website – https://www.3g4g.co.uk/
3G4G Blog – https://blog.3g4g.co.uk/
Telecoms Infrastructure Blog – https://www.telecomsinfrastructure.com/
Operator Watch Blog – https://www.operatorwatch.com/
Thank You Connectivity Technology Blog – https://www.connectivity.technology/
Free 5G Training – https://www.free5gtraining.com/
Free 6G Training – https://www.free6gtraining.com/

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