GSM NETWORK OPTIMIZATION

Module Objectives
 Give an overview about GSM Channel
 Describe the basic configuration i.e combined mode and non-combined mode.
 Demonstrate speech coding and channel coding.
 Give an overview about the Burst structure
 Give an overview about the Call Signalling
 Describe the call phases and causes.
 Demonstrate, the signalling of basic calls .
 Give an overview about the DX cause
 Describe the purpose of the Network Optimization
 Explain the various performance monitioring KPI’S and discuss how to overcome these
problems.
 Discuss the Timers setting in Nework

Ritesh Karan
Gsm Network Optimization

•DX cause
•Network Optimization
• SDCCH Traffic
•SDCCH access probability
•TCH traffic
•TCH blocking
•TCH drop call ratio
•Ho failure
•Timers
GSM Causes and DX Causes
Levels of information

Performance
Reports KPI's

BSS
Measurements Counters

Observations DX-causes
GSM Causes and DX Causes

Successful
N
DX CAUSE  DX CAUSE

N
1

1
Unsuccessful = CLEAR CODES
GSM CAUSE

MSC BSC BTS

N
1

COUNTERS

Netact
Nokia BSS counters: numbering

Counter = XXXYYY where

XXX = measurement table
YYY = counter number in measurement table

Example: counter 001000 or c1000

XXX = 001 = c1 = traffic measurement
YYY = 000 = SDCCH requests
DX-cause cause mapping

KPI

COUNTER

CAUSE VALUE

DX-CAUSE
PHASE

CHANNEL TYPE TCH SDCCH

Counter pegging example

NMS2000 Counter 1003 1004 1005 1013 1014 1015

CAUSE VALUE 315 - conn_fail

PHASE 1-8 9-11 12-14 15

CHANNEL TYPE SDCCH TCH

DX Cause

Note that there are no counters that are incremented by the same DX Cause, so if you
have the channel, phase and cause value you are able to know which is the counter
incremented!
RECOMMENDATION
Synchronised handover

• Non-synchronised Handover
• MS sends access bursts (HO_ACCESS) (with varying TA) until it receives PHYSICAL_INFO
• Synchronised Handover
• MS sends a few access bursts (HO_ACCESS) and then starts transmission with previous TA

• Non-synchronised handover leads to a longer communication interruption than synchronised handover

(200ms vs. 100ms)
• Synchronized HO should be activated between sectors of the same site. If activated on inter-site adjacencies
the handover can fail

Synchronized HO
Non- Synchronized HO

Site A
Site B
 Examples of wrong parameter set with impact on network
operation/performance – call setup, qual, bands

• No calls happening in a cell

– Cell Barred
– Non existent (LAC, Cell ID) in MSC
– DMAX = 0
• Bad quality in UL after rehoming
• Few traffic in 1800 layer of a dual band 900/1800 network
Example 1a

No calls happening in a cell:

The cell has been barred

Handover


(CeSYS
Call Setup

llB INF
arr O 3
Ac (B
ce CC
ss H
=y )
es
)
Example 1b

No calls happening in a cell:

CI different between MSC and BSC or non existent (LAC, Cell ID) in MSC

MSC does not find (LAC,

CI) in its database
Example 1c

No calls happening in a cell:

MsMaxDistanceInCallSetup (DMAX) = 0

Despite the coverage of

the cell, no calls will be
established!

Call Setup
DMAX = 0


RxLevel = -70
dBm
Example 2

Bad quality in UL after rehoming:

DiversityUsed parameter not set to yes anymore

After rehoming
RDIV parameter RDIV = Y
was set to
default value
(No) and UL
quality was
affected.
Uplink Diversity
improves quality of
signal received.
 Examples of wrong parameter set with impact on network
operation/performance – frequencies

• Drop call rate increase after new frequency plan implementation

– Double BA List activated
• No handover happening after frequency retune between 2 cells from different BSCs
– ADCE table has not been updated for other BSC

• Examples of wrong parameter set with impact on network operation/performance

• – Handover
Example 1

Drop call rate increase after new frequency plan implementation:

In the meantime, measurementBcchAllocation has been changed to idle and
MA list defined with old BCCH frequency band

OLD MA List

BCCH TCH OLD FREQUENCY PLAN

TCH BCCH TCH

NEW FREQUENCY PLAN

These BCCH frequencies will not be measured by old MA List

These TCH frequencies will be wrongly measured

Example 2

No handover happening after frequency retune between 2 cells from different BSCs:
Frequency retune has been done with MML command. ADCE table has not been updated for
incoming adjacencies belonging to other BSCs

TRX
BSC id BTS id TRX id FREQ
fA

N-Neighbour
fAB ADCE
Cell A Cell B BSC id BTS id N-LAC N-Cell id N-BCCH
fA fAB
 Examples of wrong parameter set with impact on network operation/performance –
Handover

1. No handover from a cell towards all its neighbours

– PLMN permitted = No
2. High Handover failures after implementation of new adjacency plan
– SYNC = YES

3. No handover happening from an interfered cell

– hoMarginQual set to 0
4. 100% of handover failures in an adjacency relation
– Co-BSIC co-BCCH declaration
5. High number of handovers
– hoThresholdsLevUL = hoThresholdsLevDL

6. Handover not happening when DL signal level of neighbour much greater than serving cell
1. POC DL activated
 Example 1
• No handover from a cell towards all its neighbours:
• PLMN permitted not set properly. MML Default value is the NCC of the BTS. So
HOs will not happen towards neighbours with different NCC.

Plmn permitted 0 = No
….
Plmn permitted 3 = Yes
Plmn permitted 4 = No Cell A
… NCC 3
No Measurement reports of
Cell B are sent to BSC. So no
HOs occur from Cell A to Cell
B
Cell B Set Plmn permitted 4 = Yes
NCC 4

Plmn permitted 7 = No

PLMN permitted parameter consists actually of 8 parameters (0 …7) related to

the NCC part of the BSICs of neighbour cells. MS only reports measurements of
cells with NCC permitted (plmn permitted = YES).
 Example 2
• High Handover failures after implementation of new adjacency plan
• All adjacencies have been implemented with synchronised parameter set
to yes. HOs between cells of different sites will probably fail.

Synchronized Handover Set SYNC = YES

MS NETWORK only between
sectors of the
ACTIVE CALL
same site.
HANDO CMD Old Channel, Old Cell

HANDO ACC
SYNC = NO
New Channel, New Cell

x
PHYS INFO HANDO COM
ACTIVE CALL
SYNC = YES

Recommendation is to have Sync HO within BTSs in the

same BCF and Non Sync HO between BTSs in different
BCFs.
 Example 3
• No handover happening from an interfered cell
• hoMarginQual set to 0
A

Ho Margin Qual = -4 PBGT margin = 6dB

B
Ho Margin Qual = 0
(MML Default)

• In an interfered cell, despite high signal strength, quality is not good. So HO Margin
Qual should permit HO to a cell that despite it’s lower signal strength, may have a
better quality.
 Example 4
• 100% of handover failures in an adjacency
relation
• Co-BCCH declaration (Co-BSIC)

Cell A  Cell B
FREQ=10 FREQ=10
BSIC = 33 BSIC = 33
 Example 5
• High number of handovers. hoThresholdsLevUL = hoThresholdsLevDL
•
Quality 0

Level Ho No Action Needed

hoThresholdsLevUL,
2

high thresholds will 3

anticipate HOs:
-95 -> -100 4

5
Quality Ho Interference Ho
hoThresholdsLevDL:
6
-95 -> -90
7
dBm
-98

-92
-90

-84
-82
-80
-78
-76

-70
-68

-62
-60

-54
-52
-96
-94

-88
-86

-74
-72

-66
-64

-58
-56

-50
-110

-104
-108
-106

-102
-100

HoThresholdInterferenceUL/DL

HoThresholdLevUL HoThresholdLevDL

HoThresholdLevUL/D
L
 Example 6
• Handover not happening when DL signal level
of neighbour much greater than serving cell
• Power control DL activated
A

Power Control

-6dB
-9dB
B
-3dB
Graphical Summary of Formulas

TCH Successful Call

SDCCH Successful
Assigned SDCCH Assigned
TCH Seizure
SDCCH
Attempts
Seizure
SDCCH TCH
Attempts

Blocked Blocked
SDCCH Dropped TCH Dropped
SDCCH TCH
SDCCH Traffic, TCH Traffic,
Availability, Availability,
Congestion, Access Congestion, Access
probability probability or
Blocking
PAGING SUCCESS RATE
Major Issues that affect Paging Performance
• SMSC Capacity Utilization
SMSC • Page Time Out

• A Interface( SS7) Signaling Load

• Page Time Out
MSC • VLR Subscriber Capacity
• BHCA ( SMS & Voice)
A - Interface

• BCSU Processor Overload – Lower/Upper Limit Issues

BSC • BSC Hardware Utilization

LAPD (Abis) Interface

• LAPD Load – Against the Signaling Link Used ( 16/32/64Kbps)
• Paging Load ( High Page Volume) Above Capacity Limits

LA - LA - • Paging Deletion in Cells

BTS 1 2
BTS • RACH Collisions – Overload
BTS BTS

• Cell Reselection Strategy ( HYS - Specially in LA borders)

• Overshooting of Cells beyond the desired boundary
• Distant & Un-necessary neighbor relations
Air - Interface
• Poor Coverage & Quality

MS
MS

Other than Capacity Issues, PAGE TIME OUT is the main reason that is
to be analyzed
Network Element Capacity & Interface Analysis
- SMSC

SMS Assessment – No Page Response

Clear Code 12 (NO PAGE RESPONSE) - Reasons

• Paging time out
• Subscriber is not reachable
• No response to paging message
Possible reasons
• Mobile Station Reason
• MS does not give the response to the paging messa
ge
• Network Availability Issues
• Out of Coverage Area
• During Location Update Process / LU Update
Failure
Network Element Capacity & Interface Analysis - SMSC

SMS Assessment – No Page Response

B-Subscriber is in Same BSC ( In this case BSC48) Time Out after 7 Sec

MT SMS to Same Customer

But Took 2 RETRY

• DX Cause 0x12 indicates NO PAGE RESPONSE ( Or

Page Failure).

MS in same location – User A sends SMS to User B

• NO PAGE RESPONSE to 1st Attempt Including, REPAGE ( Time Out after 7 Sec)
• PAGE SUCCESFUL in 2nd RETRY , but 5.66 Sec Page Response time

Indicates need to increase INT ( Re-page Interval) as MS took long

time to RESPOND
Network Element Capacity & Interface Analysis - SMSC

SMS Assessment – No Page Response

B-Subscriber switches between 2 BSC

Report Time Length Orig Calling No Msisdn Number Bsc Id Lac Cell Paging Time Dx Cause
19.07.2009 9:16:20 PM 59 639103106764 639071071672 48 0x12
19.07.2009 9:19:06 PM 59 639103106764 639071071672 145 12145 21704 402 0x0

Finding from Trace file :

• B Subscriber switches between 2 LACs.
• When the subscriber was paged 1st time, the MS may be under location update process & NO PAGE RESPONSE
• Again after 2 min 46 Sec , the customer was again Paged with new LAC / Cell ID
• Page was Successful, again the response time was 4.02 Sec.
Main Observations
• Location update and/or Cell Reselection process took more time. Observed high setting of Cell Reselect Hysteresis
• However its evident that the Page Response time is high as 4.02 Sec, After 1st SMS delivery attempt failed.
• In SMART the Page Response Timer ( INT- Re Page Interval) is set at 3.5 Sec.

1. Need to increase Re- Page interval from 3.5 Sec  4.5 Sec
2. Review Cell Reselect Hysteresis (HYS) in Cells at LAC border.
Network Element Capacity & Interface
Analysis - MSC
• A Interface Signaling Link Load ( MSC  BSC)

1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
Erlangs

B1148
0.5
BS145
0.4
0.3
0.2

0.1
0
2009-06-28

2009-07-01
2009-07-02

2009-07-04
2009-07-05

2009-07-07
2009-07-08
2009-07-10

2009-07-12

2009-07-15

2009-07-17
2009-07-18
2009-07-19
2009-06-27

2009-06-29
2009-06-30

2009-07-03

2009-07-06

2009-07-11

2009-07-13
2009-07-14

2009-07-16

2009-07-20
2009-07-22
Date

• All of Signaling links towards BSCs (BSC1148 and BSC145) are overload during busy hour.
• The average are 0.34 Erlang since before and after new promotion.
• NSN recommended Value is 0.2 Erlang.

Recommended to change few VLR/PLMN Parameters to reduce the Signaling Load.

Ref: Next Slide
ND Report--Paging Deletion--186
Cell having AG Deletion—ND 202
BCSU LOAD—ND 184
Paging Success -Overview

Factors affecting Paging success rate;-

Successful Paging response on SDCCH received by network cause successful
paging.PSR can affected by any of following reason:-

Poor RF: Interference on the BCCH / SDCCH carrier & or poor coverage.
Check BCCH Plan
Poor Paging Strategy: Using Location Area based first page is usually
recommended to bring down the amount of paging needed (as compared to
global first page).

If “paging discard rate” at the BSC is too high use TMSI based paging
strategies. Also check for too short page response timers.
Recommended value of MFRS=4 and Re-paging interval=50ms
Random Access Success Rate
RACH Rejections –ND 134
 Description of the root causes for poor RASR

•Poor BCCH & BSIC Plan

Excess levels of interference (co and adjacent) on the BCCH carrier can cause poor RASR
Change BCCH & BSIC Plan

•Poor Radio Network coverage

Poor signal strength coverage within a cell can cause poor RA success Rate especially
from across the rapid fading (received signal strength on UL) cell boundaries.

work to improve coverage in hot spot areas (antenna tilts, azimuth, height, transmit
power setting revisions for both MS and BS, power control setting revision for both MS and
BS, use of TMA etc).
•Phantom Rach
When the traffic in a cell is low, there will not be many access burst coming to the BTS. In
such cases most of the received signal will be noise and if the receiver at the BTS is
sensitive, some of this received noise will be interpreted as an access burst (cases where
certain bit pattern in the noise matching the 8 bit checks sequence). This is called as
Phantom RACH .
introduce powerful filtering function in the signal processor by optimizing the type of
filtering that is used in the BTS or increase traffic.

•Wrong Value of RX level Access Min.

Value for Rx level access minimum is -110 can cause poor RASR.
Higher settings for this parameter will ensure that the MS will camp on a cell if the
received signal strength on the downlink is good enough
BCSU Overloaded
when BCSU overload lower limit occurs, all calls except emergency, MOC and
MTC calls are refused
When the overload upper limit occurs, all calls are refused.
Decrease the no. of cells in BCSU.

Faulty Antenna / Cable

If the other root causes are not fitting the profile check for faulty antenna,
loose /damaged jumper/feeder cables, VSWR alarms etc
SDCCH BLOCKING
SDCCH Blocking

SDCCH avalability-Unavailability of SDCCH cause SDCCH blocking

 Check alarms (are TRXs & TSLs in Working State? ), check availability
report and RxQuality report to verify whether there is a badly functioning
TRX. Fix hardware problem.

Redimensioning of SDCCH capacity

Check actual SDCCH configuration ( e.g. Combined BCCH/SDCCH, Number
of SDCCH channels). If there is insuficient SDCCH capacity and enough TCH
capacity, add SDCCH TSL.
SDCCH Blocking

Add hardware or Software capacity

 Other solution e.g. are to add TRX, activate Dynamic SDCCH,
activate FACCH Call Setup.

High SDCCH traffic due to Location updates

 Bad location area setting
(Check MCC, MNC and LAC parameters)
Bad Location area geographical configuration. Too small LA
definition will cause many LA updates. Border of LA in a busy avenue
will cause many LUs in both location areas!
 Change Location area boundary
Low value for CellReselectHysteresis
Change HYS parameter value
Low value of periodicTimerLU
Change value of PRAU timer(not too small)
SDCCH blocking

If none of the other root cause/s are responsible for SDCCH Blocking, then try to

Look into the A-ter status and also the site fluctuations or neighbor site
not taking call, escalate the same to OMC and O&M team

Look into the coverage foot print and over shooting of the site thro TA
report , optimize.

Look into the A-bis signaling load if possible for a high configuration site
go for 64K PCM slot for LAP-D signaling thro OMC Engineer.

Disable Direct retry in that cell and enable Traffic reason HO.
BLOCKING—ND Report-182
SDCCH DROP
SDCCH Drop

•Ghost SDCCH
Double-Access /Multiple reservations due to co-Bsic, co-BCCH.
Check and improve frequency plan.
RACH retransmissions/Multiple reservations due to bad coverage or
interference and high numberOfRachRetransmissions.
Lower RACH retransmission parameter value. Check and improve
frequency plan and/or downtilt.
•Radio Fails
Check alarms and RxQuality report to verify whether there is a badly
functioning TRX. Fix hardware problem. Check antenna line.
SDCCH Drop

•Radio Fails (cont.)

Coverage. Verify TA report and planning tool.
Interference. Check Frequency Plan. Solution e.g. add sites, down
tilt antennas, increase RxLevAccessMin.
Extended coverage of cells in location area borders. Check LU
parameters and/or downtilt

•100% ABIS Fails

Failure in BTS software (BCSU reset in BSC).

•100% AIF Fails

BTS connected to other BSC or BTS is not declared in MSC.
ND REPORT__SD DROP--166
TCH BLOCKING
TCH Blocking

One TDMA frame has 8 timeslots (one radio) and each timeslot can act as TCH
channel (traffic channel carrying the payload).
 
There are three types of TCHs:
 
Full rate channel, which is used for full rate speech at 13 kbps or for data rate
up to 14.4 kbps.
Half rate channel, which is used for half rate speech at 6.5 kbps or for data rate
up to 4.8 kbps.
AMR Channel
TCH BLOCKING—182-ND REPORT
TCH blocking

•TCH availability
Check alarms (are TRXs & TSLs in Working State? ), check
availability report and RxQuality report to verify whether there is a
badly functioning TRX. Make Loop Tests on TRX. Fix hardware
problem.

•TCH capacity
Bad TCH capacity dimensioning. Check number of TRXs.
TCH blocking

•TCH traffic
Cell is covering a region greater than planned. Verify TA statistics. Change
DMAX, or downtilt.
High traffic in some cells. Solution .eg.:
Quality degradation
Add Macrocells no
Add Microcells no
Add TRXs with new freq no
Add TRXs without new freq no/yes (IUO, FH)
Activate Directed Retry no/yes
Activate Queuing yes
Activate HR yes
Activate AMR-HR no
Activate DADL/B no/yes
Activate AMH no/yes
Activate C2 parameter yes
Modify hoMarginPBGT yes
Decongestion and TCH blocking Issues

•Check the BBH KPI report and find out the cells having utilization more than
90% .
•Check the blocked TRX report 111 and if TRX blocked found, follow up with O&M
team to rectify the same as soon as possible.
•Look into the A-ter /TRAU status of the BSC in which the congested cell is
integrated
•Look into the GPRS and SD configuration and their usages in the congested cell
,Try to reduce the same and obtain more TS for TCH.
•Check the site location along with any site nearby to share the traffic and look
into the TA report 232 for the coverage foot print of the congested cell, if possible
reduce the coverage foot print and let the neighbour cell to share the traffic thro
proper optimization
SUGGESTIONS

•Suggestion ,in multiple site areas first go for nearest low utilized sites
optimization to share the traffic from the congested cells and after doing the
optimization introduce the Traffic reason HO or Direct Retry between the
neighbours .
•Change FRL & FRU parameters to overcome blocking issue.
•If SD block is there in cells never go for Direct Retry between the neighbours
better go for Traffic reason HO with the neighbouring cells of the congested
cell.
•For single site areas if there is spectrum issue we should look for the
customized MA list by adding some BCCH carriers carefully looking into BCCH
reuse pattern in neighbouring cells and their presence close to the site
•If we are unable to add TRX due to Spectrum limitation propose for a new
capacity site to share the traffic .
TCH ASSIGNMENT SUCCESS RATE
Assignment Failures

•Look into the BSS BBH KPI reports for High Assignment failure cells
•Mostly due to HW issues like : TRX faulty, TS issues , Wrong Combiner
,Antenna connections, Wrong Air combing antenna positions , TRX cable
loose, VSWR issues ,Wrong PCM mapping ,TRAU issue, Site Fluctuations, A-bis
link BER .
•Escalate to O&M and OMC team to rectify the same and follow up till got
rectified
•RF issues : High Coverage foot print of the site , High Dense clutter ,Wrong
Antenna positioning . Needs optimization and site visit
•IMPACT ; High assignment failures in cells contributes to Call drop , HOSR
failures, SD drops in dynamic SD , Low call volume etc etc .
•Check report 208 for hardware issue.
Path Balance—208
Path balance --208

Case1: Jumper from TRX 4 to combiner loose (check connectors at

Case2: Jumper from Duplexer to TRX 4 (check connectors at
both ends) both ends)

Case3: Check common feederline from

Top of cabinet to Antenna port ( loose
connector’s at either end or High VSWR problem, TRX 2&4 in
this case use the same feeder)

In this case, the Path imbalance (DL-UL) varies between +1.6 to

-4dB which doesn’t tell much
BUT DL pathloss variations between TRX’s is from 112.8 to
136dB
& UL pathloss variations between TRX’s is from 111.2 to 140dB
DEFINITELY A PROBLEM!
DROP CALL RATE
TCH Drop and Corrective action

Non RF drops :
•Check the TCH drop reason in BBH stats report.
•Non RF drops may have two reasons one is TR drop and other A-bis fail .
If you find such issues in a site/cell then escalate to O&M team and do
continuous follow up till the same got corrected.
 Hint : If all cells or a single cell in a site is having TR drops then check
the PCM mapping and the link stability . If most of the cells /sites in a
BSC is having TR drops High then escalate the same to OMC to check
TRAU block . For A-bis drop, it is the link or the E1/T1 card which may
have issues or any issue in the internal wiring of the BTS .
 TCH Drop and Corrective action

RF Drops :
• If RF drop is high in cells first step is to check the Air interface clearance (BCCH
reuse pattern and C/I, and the database for Hopping.
• Over shooting sites, neighbor missing and neighbor definitions , call dragging due
to congestion in neighbor cells, border cells.
Optimize your neighbor sited and Adjancy definition.
•VSWR issues or TRX wrong connections. See the path balance reports (208) to find
out the VSWR issues. Escalate issue to BSS team.
• Minimize the Hand Over attempts between cells by minimizing the overlapping of
source and target cells and also setting the margins and Ping pong rejection timers .
•Check the Hopping pool MA List and MAIO and try to have best offset to avoid
co.and adj. interference. Check Fractional Frequency loading in the cell ,restrict over
shooting cells( This can be checked thro the report (196) which will give you a clear
indication of bad samples and confirms if all TRXs are having bad samples during
BBH )
 TCH Drop and Corrective action

• Another reason for RF drop may be due to HW faults in BTS ,like TRX
having poor quality TS , wrong antenna connections ,VSWR Issues in sites
• Corrective action : Check the assignment success rates in those cells
where drop rate is high this will give you hint about the wrong connections
of the devices ,Antennas . Look into the TRX Quality reports (196) where
you can look into the poor quality samples per TRX if some TRX is having
high poor UL/DL quality samples and others in the same cells are having
good samples then the particular TRX is having some issue ,replace the
same thro O&M team
• Ensure the RLT and ARLT (in AMR environment ) is properly set .(Bharti
guidelines we can set RLT 24 Frames and ARLT 38 Frames )
• If all above you are finding ok still there is high RF drops then have a drive
test and site audit to find out any external interference or Antenna issues in
field ,check the VSWR thro O&M team .
• Following the procedures defined above and taking corrective action in
time will result into a Quality network with Drop KPI maintained .
TCH DROP-ND REPORT—(163)
UL AND DL QUALITY, UL INTERFERENCE PER TRX,ND-196
Handover

Handover

The inputs that the BSC uses for making a handover decision, from the
received MRs from the MS is the DL signal strength, DL quality, and the
signal strength of the six best reported neighbours. From the serving
BTS, for the same MS the BSC will use UL signal strength, UL quality and
TA
Poor HOSR

•Look into the 153 report for HOSR between source and target cells
•List all the neighbours where there is poor HOSR
•See the sites are performing well and there is no assignment failure issues and
TRX HW issues
•Look into the BCCH and BSIC reuse pattern of the neighbours to ensure good C/I
of the BCCH carrier and their definition in neighbour.
•Do the neighbour audit and check all the neighbours defined with proper
database and LAC etc etc (Chedk60,61,67etc.)
•Define Sync neighbours between cells in a single site
•Check the Signaling load on A-bis and A-ter
•Thro Neighbour audit remove all neighbours which are not with level to retain
the call and add all missing neighbours.
•Check the HO parameters and margins.
•Check Software miss match( BSC and BTS end)
Poor HOSR

•Optimize the Overlap areas between cells to have minimum HO requests in each
call .
•Decongest the target cells to ensure TCH resource availability for a HO request .
•Try to introduce more Ho margin between cells inter BSC to have less attempts for
Inter BSC HO .
•Allow RX Lev HO between single sites and minimum overlapping neighbours , with a
very less HO Margin and penalty timer
•In an AMR scenario to minimize the quality HO ensure the Threshold level for
Quality HO is set RX qual 5 or 6 .
•Poor HOSR Impact: Enhances TCH drop, TCH Block due to poor mobility
management between sites.
HO Failure Report—ND (153)
Handover Analysis
HO Causes –BCS Wise
Ho Causes—cell Wise--154
Adjacency Discrepancies-ND-60
This report lists the discrepancies of various parameters between the source
cell adjacency parameters and target cell parameters
BCCH
DISCREPANCIES IN
NBR LIST
Non-symmetrical Adjacencies,nd-61

This report shows all missing adjacencies assuming that all adjacencies should be
DEFINED FROM 27661
symmetrical (bidirectional). TO 1712 BUT NOT
VICE-VERSA
Handover Synchronisation,ND-67

This report lists all adjacencies

- that are in the same BS site but are not synchronous
. This is serious and may result in call failures and decrease
. voice quality
- that are not in the same BS site but are synchronous
. This is serious and can result in call failures
A synchronous HO means that the MS uses the old value of timing advance.
A non-synchronous HO means that the MS finds the new value of timing advance.
Normally only adjacent cells in the same site are synchronous for HO.

TO BE YES

TO BE NO
TIMERS
TIMERS
T10 Supervision of the assignment procedure
•Interpretation: The timer T10 supervises the assignment procedure.
•Timer start condition: The timer T10 starts before the BSC sends a
PHYSICAL_CONTEXT_REQUEST message to the BTS.
•Timer stop condition: The timer T10 stops when the MS sends either an
ASSIGNMENT_COMPLETE or an ASSIGNMENT_FAILURE message to the BSC.
•Action performed on timer expiry: When the timer T10 expires, the BSC sends an
ASSIGNMENT_FAILURE message to the MSC.
•Appropriate value:
1.Min. = 4 s.Max. = 14 s.Def. = 8 s.Rule = T10 > T3103, T10 > T3107
NOTE: It is recommended that T10 be at least 2 seconds longer than T3107.

Figure: T10 timer activation

 T3101 Supervision of the immediate assignment
procedure
•Interpretation: The timer T3101 supervises the immediate assignment procedure.
•Timer start condition: The timer T3101 starts when the BSC sends an
IMMEDIATE_ASSIGNMENT_CMD message to the BTS.
•Timer stop condition: The timer T3101 stops when an ESTABLISH_IND message is received
from the MS.
•Action performed on timer expiry: When the timer T3101 expires, the BSC sends an
RF_CHANNEL_REL message to the BTS.
•Appropriate value:
•Min. = 1 s.Max. = 5 s.Def. = 3 s.Rule = -
Signalling diagram:

Figure: T3101 timer activation

Figure: T3101 timer expiry

T3103 Supervision of the internal handover
procedure
•Interpretation: The timer T3103 supervises the internal handover procedure.
•Timer start condition: The timer T3103 starts when the BSC sends a HANDOVER_CMD
message is sent to the MS (via a BTS).
•Timer stop condition: The timer T3103 stops when the BSC receives either a
HANDOVER_CMPL message on the new channel or HANDOVER_FAILURE message on the
old channel from the MS.
•Action performed on timer expiry: When the timer T3103 expires, a CLEAR_REQ
message is sent to the MSC and the new channel is released.
•Appropriate value:
•Min. = 3,5 s.Max. = 10 s.Def. = 6 s.Rule = T3103 < T10
•Signalling diagram:

Figure: Successful handover with T3103 timer activation

Figure: Unsuccessful handover

Figure: T3103 timer expiry

T3107 Supervision of the assignment procedure

•Interpretation: The timer T3107 supervises the assignment procedure and

the internal intracell handover.
•Timer start condition: The timer T3107 starts when the BSC sends an
ASSIGNMENT_CMD message to the MS (via a BTS).
•Timer stop condition: The timer T3107 stops when the BSC receives either
an ASSIGNMENT_CMPL or ASSIGNMENT_FAILURE message from the MS.
•Action performed on timer expiry: When the timer T3107 expires, the new
and the old channel are released, all the appropriate MS connections are
cleared, and an ASSIGNMENT_FAILURE message is sent to the MSC. In the
case of the internal intracell handover, a CLEAR_REQUEST message is sent to
the MSC.
•Appropriate value:
1.Min. = 3.5 s.Max. = 10 s.Def. = 6 s.Rule = T3107 < T10
NOTE: It is recommended that T10 be at least 2 seconds longer than T3107.
Signalling diagram:

Figure: Successful
assignment with T3107 timer
activation
Figure: Unsuccessful assignment

Figure: T3107 timer expiry

T3109 Supervision of the channel release procedure
•Interpretation: The timer T3109 supervises the channel release procedure.
•Timer start condition: The timer T3109 starts when the BSC sends a CHANNEL_REL
message to the MS (via a BTS).
•Timer stop condition: The timer T3109 stops when the BTS sends a
RELEASE_INDICATION message. This is done after the BTS has received a DISC-frame
from the MS.
•Action performed on timer expiry: When the timer T3109 expires, the BSC sends an
RF_CHANNEL_REL message to the BTS.
•Appropriate value:
•Min. = 8 s.Max. = 15 s.Def. = 12 s.
•Signalling diagram:

Figure: T3109 timer expiry

Figure: T3109 timer activation