Crossed Antenna Connection & Solutions

Special Subject Training V1.0

Suitable for staff with junior P&O skill certificates (lower than
certificate III)
Issued by GSM Network Planning & Optimization Dept
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Version introduction

Versi Date Writer Assessor Translat Amendment

on or records
V1.0 2009-03-11 Su ShaoLi Fei AiPing Feng
XiaoYing
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Training goals

To know different situations of crossed

antenna connection;
To know negative effects caused by crossed
antenna connection;
To master the methods for checking crossed
antenna connection;
To know the difference between crossed RF
cable connection and crossed antenna
connection
Contents

Overview of Crossed Antenna Connection

Different Situations of Crossed Antenna Connection
Methods for Checking Crossed Antenna Connection
Typical Cases
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Introduction to Antenna Connection

 What is crossed antenna connection?

 RF signal is generated by TRX and transmitted
through RF cable, feeder cable, and finally sent out by
antenna. Any connection mistake inbetween will
affect the connection between TRX and antenna.
In normal situation, a cell’s signal is transmitted by

its antenna. If cell A’s feeder is connected to cell B’s

antenna, we call it crossed antenna connection.
Crossed antenna connection causes problems, such as

confusion in adjacent cell relation, poor coverage,

poor call quality, high call drop rate, low success rate
of originating call, and unbalanced traffic volume,
etc..
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Introduction to Antenna Connection

 Antenna direction
 Each cell’s signal is transmitted by different antenna, which covers
different areas.
 Wrong connection of antennas definitely leads to disordered signal
coverage.
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Introduction to Antenna Connection

 Feeder connection

 Feeder falls into two

parts, one part (a
jumper) connecting
CDU and rack top
interface;
 Another part
connecting rack top
interface to antenna,
which is complicated,
and connection
mistake often happens
to this part.
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Introduction to Antenna Connection

 RF cable connection
Contents

Overview of Crossed Antenna Connection

Different Situations of Crossed Antenna Connection
Methods for Checking Crossed Antenna Connection
Typical Cases
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Different Situations of Crossed Antenna Connection

Crossed connection of BCCH antenna

Crossed connection of TCH antenna

Crossed connection of the whole sector

Crossed connection of three sectors

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Different Situations of Crossed Antenna Connection

 Problems caused by
crossed connection of
TCH antenna are:
 Confusion in adjacent cell
relation, wrong handover relation,
low handover success rate, more
handover call drops.
 Disordered frequencies, stronger
interference.
 Unbalanced traffic volume,
unreasonable configuration of
resources, congestion.
 Discrepancy in BCCH coverage
and TCH coverage leads to high
TCH assignment failure rate,
difficulty in originating calls, low
TCH level, poor speech quality,
more handovers and call drops.
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Different Situations of Crossed Antenna Connection

 Problems caused by
crossed connection of
TCH antenna are:
 High TCH assignment
failure rate, difficult to
originate calls;
 Low TCH level, poor
speech quality, frequency
handovers, low handover
success rate, high call drop
arte;
 Disordered frequencies,
stronger interference,
deterioration in speech
quality.
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Different Situations of Crossed Antenna Connection

 Crossed connection of the whole sector leads

to the following problems:

 Confusion in adjacent cell relation, wrong handover

relation, low handover success rate, more handover
call drops.
 Disordered frequencies, stronger interference.
 Unbalanced traffic volume, unreasonable
configuration of resources, congestion.
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Difference among Situations of Crossed Antenna Connection

BCCH signal covers the wrong cell,

affecting adjacent cell relation, resource Crossed
configuration and handover, etc.. connection of
BCCH antenna
BCCH TRX signal and TCH TRX signal
are not in the same physical cell, and
level drops dramatically. Crossed
connection of
TCH antenna
It’s not easy to discover crossed
connection of TCH antennas, even in DT.
Crossed
connection of
Signal covers the wrong cells, causing the whole sector
frequency interference.
Crossed
connection of
Three cells are involved. three sectors
Contents

Overview of Crossed Antenna Connection

Different Situations of Crossed Antenna Connection
Methods for Checking Crossed Antenna Connection
Typical Cases
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Problem Checking Methods

 Traffic statistics analysis

 Analyze traffic statistics, locate the suspected cells with crossed
connection of antennas, then carry out on-site checking and test.
 It’s hard to relate the problem to crossed antenna connection from
OMCR analysis.

 Test analysis (DT or CQT)

 Test analysis is efficient in locating the problem, but its cost is high,
so it’s infeasible to test all sites in the network.
 it’s of great importance to perform good quality control during
project and discover the problem in the process of single-site test.
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Traffic statistics analysis

 Typical features of crossed antenna connection:

 Each of the two cells under the same BTS has two TRXs
with high assignment failure rate, average level is low.
 This is because crossed connection of antennas usually
involves two cells.
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Procedure of Traffic Statistics Analysis

 About crossed connection of TCH or BCCH antennas:

 Check TCH assignment failure rate of cell level, find if there are two
cells both experiencing high assignment failure rate.
 Create BTS measurement tasks to check the situations of all TRXs’
assignment failure rate, so as to find out if the high assignment failure
rate is centered on some TRXs.
 Record the cells’ signaling at Abis interface, compare the discrepancy
between BCCH level and TCH level with RMA to judge if crossed
connection of wires exists.
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Procedure of Traffic Statistics Analysis

 About crossed connection of TCH and BCCH antennas at the same time:

 Cell indicators display that both the two cells are experiencing high
call drop rate (most are radio link call drops), few handover times,
long coverage, poor UL/DL RQ.
 Extract the adjacent cells’ statistical measurement and use NOP to
observe the adjacent cells’ configuration and situations of handovers
between the cell and its adjacent cells in its coverage direction. If no
cells missed out in defining adjacent cells, and the number of
handovers between the cell and adjacent cells in its coverage direction
is smaller than that between the cell and adjacent cells in the opposite
direction, we can basically confirm that crossed connection of
antennas exists.
 Use RMA to judge the cell’s coverage situation.
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On-site Checking & Tests

 On-site checking & test methods are as follows:

 Method one: carefully check if RF line and feeders are
connected wrong.
 Method two: use test phone to measure signal level at the
place 100m from the antenna (in the antenna’s direction),
which is normally -40~-50dbm; move to another cell in
clockwise or counterclockwise direction (or around the BTS),
the antenna facing the place with strongest level is the signal’s
transmitting antenna; judge if the antenna configuration is the
same as planned through the corresponding frequencies, CI or
MAIO.
Contents

Overview of Crossed Antenna Connection

Different Situations of Crossed Antenna Connection
Methods for Checking Crossed Antenna Connection
Typical Cases
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Case 1: Problem Description

Both cell 1 and cell 3 under BTS DhawaraiSqr had the problem of low
TCH allocation success rate, which was under 95%. The BTS was
configured with V2 S444, and no congestion existed.
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Case 1: Process of Problem

After performing BTS measurement in the two cells, analyzed the
statistical results. It’s displayed that each of the two cells had two
TRXs with high TCH assignment failure rate.

After checking configuration, discovered that the two TRXs were

non-BCCH TRXs connected to the same CDU. It’s suspected that the
two cells’ antenna feeders were cross-connected.

After on-site checking BTS engineers discovered that there was

nothing wrong with antenna feeder connection. The problem still
existed even after the two TRXs of one cell and the CDU were
replaced.

In the second check of feeder connection, engineers discovered that

the feeders of right CDU in cell 1 and cell 3 were cross-connected.
After the problem was solved, indicators returned back to normal.
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Case 1: Summary of Experience

If two cells under one BTS both experience high TCH assignment failure
rate, and they are connected to one CDU, then it’s very probable that
antenna feeders are cross-connected.
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Case 2: Problem Description

Not long after network swap in June 2007, an operator office received
subscriber complaints saying it’s difficult to make calls in Ping’an
Mobile Cell 2-1 and Telecom Cell -1 and Cell -2, and signals were not
stable during calls, and speech quality was rather poor (the cells were
configured with 10 TRXs).
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Case 2: DT Result

When MS was occupying the 5th or 6th TRX of Ping’an Mobile cell
2-1 in call, test result showed: big fluctuation in level, a decrease of
more than 20dBm in level strength, and poor speech quality.
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Case 2: DT Result
When MS occupied the 3rd TRX of Cell -1 and that of Cell -2 in calls,
TCH level strength was lower than BCCH level by more than 20dBm.
The difference was that the speech quality was good, and level was
stable, no fluctuations.
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Case 2: Process of Problem

According to past experience in handling problems, it’s easy to relate

the problem to hardware fault, however, test result wasn’t improved
after replacement of TRX.

When checking TRX RF cables on site, engineers discovered that all

the phenomena were caused by wrong connection of RF cables.

After adjustment, all returned back to normal.

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Case 2: Summary of Experience

 crossed connection of feeder cables
Negative effects occur to cells in pairs.
All TRXs of a CDU are experiencing the
Common fault.
feature of
negative TRX fault
Possible Normally this won’t happen in pairs.
effects:
reasons
In calls occupying Wrong connection of RF cables
TRX with wrong Irregular
connection of RF Many TRXs or expansion
cables, TCH level
strength was more
than 20dBm CDU fault
lower than BCCH
AllTRXs of a CDU go wrong at the same
level strength
time.
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Questions for thinking

Explain the situations of wrong

connection of RF cables.

How to judge if antenna feeder cables

are wrongly connected through KPI
indexes?