VoLTE Troubleshooting Cases

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD.

Contents

1 Call Setup Failure

2 Call Drop

3 Call Delay

4 Voice Quality Issue

5 eSRVCC Failure

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 2

 Case1
① Symptom 4. The Callee SBC forwarded 183 SESSION PROGRESS
immediately, and this message was sent down to Caller
The VoLTE call always failed in a particular location, after eNodeB in 0.5S to make SDP resource reservation,
preliminary analysis of SIP flow, we found there’re long delay unfortunately, eNodeB sent 500 PRECONDITION FAILURE
between SIP messages. back.

② Analysis
1. Capture SIP message in SBC(part of IMS) to analysis.
5. Due to the long delay of SIP message, the Caller had
2. The Caller sent INVITE message, and SBC received it at
already release the VoLTE context and may triggered
16:29:53.881, and SBC sent 100 TRYING to caller at once,
CSFB(depend on UE types).
the time stamp is exactly same.
6. The Callee’s SINR is -10dB during the test and RRC
reestablishment failure was found.

③ Conclusion
3. The INVITE message was forwarded to Callee SBC, and
SBC sent down the INVITE to Callee at 16:29.54.806, The poor UU quality of Callee caused the long delay of SIP
SBC received the 100 TRYING about 5.6S latter, and MSG, made a SDP reservation failure, finally led to VoLTE
received 183 SESSION PROGRESS after 4 more setup error.
seconds. ④ Optimization
Enhance the coverage and reduce interference to improve the
UU interface quality.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 3

 Case2:
① Symptom

VoLTE service Access Failure with ‘SIP_406 Not

Acceptable’ abnormal message from CN network

② Analysis
By checking the 3GPP description, the abnormal cause ‘SIP_406
Not Acceptable’ was due to contents unacceptable in header field
of Invite message, compare the Header Field of Invite message
between normal access and abnormal, we found the only
difference was ‘PLMN+TAC+eNodeBID+CellID
③ Conclusion

the root cause should be Cell information for VoLTE

service in Core Network illegal.
④ Optimization
Checking and modify cell information related to VoLTE
service in core network. The access failure problem
solved

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 4

 Case 3:
① Symptom
The VoLTE call test always failed in several newly on aired
eNodeBs, the failures were due to QCI1’s establishment, in
addition, the establishment of QCI5 is normal.
② Analysis
1. Refer to the signaling of UE, there’s no QCI1 establishment
requested by CN.
2. Due to the limitation of the SW version, some SIP
messages could not observed through UE log, in order to
troubleshoot this issue, capture the SIP by wireshark.
3. There’s only the 1st SIP REGISTER message during the
registration procedure.
HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential
4. In the KPIs, there’s no DL packets on QCI5, while some UL
packets were counted in.
5. Compared with the precious snapshot, we can make sure
that, the the DL packets, 401 UNAUTHORIZED, should be
received by eNodeB and UE were missing.
6. Push transmission engineer to check and found the DSCP
of QCI5 packet was not 46 which need configured by
transmission equipment.
③ Conclusion
The transmission equipment configuration problem.
④ Optimization
Push transmission engineer to check and modify.
Page 5
 Case 4:
① Symptom

The VoLTE call transferred to CSFB after Caller initiating the

call test 10s latter.
② Analysis
1. Caller triggered CSFB at 09:35:59.856, the signal strength
is not very good, and A2 event reported consecutively.
3. The TCALL timer expired 10S latter, then UE cancel the call
procedure by CANCEL message.
③ Conclusion
The root cause was unknown due to eNB/IMS signaling
required.
According to the coverage status, it’s unclear that SIP
messages were received by eNB/IMS or not.

④ Optimization
2. Check the SIP message interaction, Caller sent a INVITE
Trace signaling in IMS to check if INVITE message reaching
message ate 09:35:49.787, however, no 100 TRYING
to IMS or not.
responded by IMS.
Trace signaling in eNB if radio bearer was normal.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 6

Contents

1 Call Setup Failure

2 Call Drop

3 Call Delay

4 Voice Quality Issue

5 eSRVCC Failure

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 7

 Case1:
① Symptom 3. The RLF occurred in case of MSG1 retransmitted for 10
times. Usually, the RLF would not trigger a VoLTE call drop
There’re 19 VoLTE call drops during a drive test, all the call unless the RL can be restored.
drops were happened after RLF, QCI1 couldn’t be
reestablished due to RRC reestablishment failure. 4. The UE tried to reestablish the RRC but the was rejected.
Then UE access to a new cell by RRC connection setup
② Analysis message.
1. There’re 10 MSG1 sent in an example of RA procedure,
the retry times 10 hereby was defined in
preambleTransMax (n10，SIB2)

5. In the new cell, the default EPS bearer was established, but
2. The RA error information were shown as follows. the dedicate EPS bearer wasn’t exist, IMS sent UE the BYE
message due to 503 “A.450.402.228.0.0.00045.00000002
Media Bearer Lost” 5 seconds latter, and VoLTE call drop
happened.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 8

Case1:
③ Conclusion
UE RA to a new cell after RLF, and the dedicate EPS bearer
didn’t exist led to IMS release the VoLTE call.

④ Optimization
Enhance the coverage to avoid the RRC reestablishment.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 9

Case 2:
① Symptom
The VoLTE call drop rate is high and access success rate is low in Typical Inter-
TOP sites modulation
② Analysis Interference

The VoLTE call drop rate is high and access success rate
is low in TOP sites. And by checking the RSRP we found
UE call drop was not due to weak coverage(Uplink RSRP
was 10dB higher than -130dBm)
③ Conclusion

Use online wideband spectrum scanning function on

eNodeB, we found there are strong inter-modulation
interference in uplink, and RTWP between different
channel were different(10MHz/842~852).

④ Optimization

Checking RF Channel and resolve the inter-modulation

interference.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 10

 Case 3:
① Symptom

The VoLTE call transferred to CSFB after Caller initiating the

call test 10s latter.
② Analysis
1. Caller triggered CSFB at 09:35:59.856, the signal strength
is not very good, and A2 event reported consecutively.
3. The TCALL timer expired 10S latter, then UE cancel the call
procedure by CANCEL message.
③ Conclusion
The root cause was unknown due to eNB/IMS signaling
required.
According to the coverage status, it’s unclear that SIP
messages were received by eNB/IMS or not.

④ Optimization
2. Check the SIP message interaction, Caller sent a INVITE
Trace signaling in IMS to check if INVITE message reaching
message ate 09:35:49.787, however, no 100 TRYING
to IMS or not.
responded by IMS.
Trace signaling in eNB if radio bearer was normal.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 11

Contents

1 Overview

2 Call Setup Failure

3 Call Drop

4 Call Delay

5 Voice Quality Issue

6 eSRVCC Failure

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 12

 Case1:
① Symptom
The VoLTE call setup time-delay was long in a DT, the Callee
received INVITE message usually 1.2S later after Caller sent
the INVITE message.

② Analysis
1. The INVITE message forward delay can be observed in 3. Push CN engineer to analyze, finally found both the LIR/LIA
SBC side, captured signaling in both Caller SBC and Callee procedure time-delay and Domain selection procedure were
SBC as following snapshots. more than 400ms.

③ Conclusion
The unsuitable configuration in IMS/EPC generated a
abnormal time-delay.

④ Optimization

Push CN engineer to fix this issue.

2. The Caller SBC received a INVITE message at
16:19:18.278, while, the Callee SBC forward it at
16.19:19.541 , there is 1.2S interval, so the delay is
generated by IMS/EPC side.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 13

 Case2:
① Symptom
The VoLTE call setup time-delay was long in a DT, the Callee
responded the paging message after several seconds. 2.In the UE log, there’re 2 cell
② Analysis reselection during the call test,
there’re at least 6~9 second
1. Captured the signaling at MME side, during the VoLTE
call, the 1st paging occurred at 16:10:47.561, but no duration can’t receive paging
response from Callee, then MME restarted the paging message.
every other 3 seconds. Unfortunately, Callee responded
after 3 paging times. It’s already about 10 second latter.

1st Paging
③ Conclusion
UE reselect procedure postponed the paging response, which
2nd Paging delay the UE make through the VoLTE call.

3rd Paging
④ Optimization
Improve the quality of radio link, avoid ping-pong reselection,
4th Paging
adjust the hysteresis and reduce the reselection times in the
respective zone.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 14

Contents

1 Overview

2 Call Setup Failure

3 Call Drop

4 Call Delay

5 Voice Quality Issue

6 eSRVCC Failure

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 15

 Case1:
① Symptom
. At a site, a UE-UE MOS test is performed for VoLTE services ,and the
test result shows that most of MOS scores are extremely low

② Analysis

1) The results of actions 1-9 are normal.

2) During action 10, the log traced shows that during the period
when MOS score is 1, the number of PDUs on the uplink PDCP
layer does not increase. This indicates that no packets are sent
during this period.

③ Conclusion
The preceding analysis shows that the low MOS score is caused by UE
faults. This problem does not exist
after another UE is used.
④ Optimization
The root cause of this issue can be found by performing action
10: Packet loss impact analysis.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 16

 Case2:
① Symptom 2. Because of the weak coverage, the eRAB were released
abnormally, besides, RRC reestablishment was rejected too.
RRC reestablished always happened in a particular location
during DT, the radio link broken duration led to voice packets
lost, finally affected the MOS accordingly.

② Analysis
1. During the DT, there’re many A3 event report at that
location, meanwhile, the RSRQ decreased to -20dB.
3. Then UE initiated RA procedure, and there’re about 470ms
interval during which voice packets were lost.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 17

 Case3:
4. During the RRC reestablishment and RA procedure, about
13 RTP packets lost.

5. The MOS value decreased from 3.62 to 1.27.

③ Conclusion ④ Optimization
The root cause of MOS decrease is weak coverage, however, Add the neighbor cell and Ncell relationship for the relevant
the HO wasn’t triggered, the neighbor cell didn’t found by the cells.
configuration check.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 18

 Case 4:
① Symptom 2. The MOS value decrease about 0.1 during one of the HOs.
During the VoLTE call test, Ping-Pong HO happened,
accordingly, the MOS value decreased.
② Analysis
1. The Ping-Pong HO happened SZXZD_D3(PCI474) and
SZYT_D3(PCI53).

3. The Ping-Pong HO may affect the MOS value significantly

only in weak coverage area.
③ Conclusion
The Ping-Pong HO will decrease the MOS value about
0.5~1.5 in weak coverage zone, however, the MOS decrease
value is about 0.1~0.5 in good coverage zone.

④ Optimization
Adjust the RF parameters such as CIO.
Control the coverage.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 19

 Case 5:
① Symptom 2. The MOS value decrease from 3.99 to 3.51 due to the
interference.
During the VoLTE call test, the MOS value decreased in
particular location.
② Analysis
1. The UE’s RSRQ got down to -12dB in the test location, the
serving cell’s PCI was 67, and the 1st optional neighbor
cell’s PCI was 400, these 2 cells were in Mod3, in which
scenario would generate strong interference.

③ Conclusion
The Mod3 led to interference, which affected the modulation,
decreased the MOS value about 0.4~1.0

④ Optimization
Adjust the PCI.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 20

Contents

1 Overview

2 Call Setup Failure

3 Call Drop

4 Call Delay

5 Voice Quality Issue

6 eSRVCC Failure

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 21

 Case1:
① Symptom 2. Made the UE to camp on UMTS cell, and we can read the
PLMN/cell ID/frequency point/scramble, all these information
The eSRVCC from HW LTE to E/// UMTS always failed in
were exactly correct, but the RNC ID is unconfirmed.
drive test.
② Analysis
1. The eSRVCC failure message came down from MME, and the
root cause was “unknown target ID”, the reason must because
of neighbor cell’s configuration.

3. Push customer to checked the RNC ID, and the ID was

mismatched.

③ Conclusion
The mismatched RNC ID led to eSRVCC failure.

④ Optimization
Alter the RNC ID in UMTS side.

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.， LTD. Huawei Confidential Page 22

 Thank you !

Page 23
HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES
HISILICON CO.， LTD.
SEMICONDUCTOR