Punjab Swap Success Story

ZTE to Nokia Swap

Airtel- Jan2021

1 © 2021 Nokia Nokia Internal Use

Topics Covered

• Overall Swap Strategy-A Blended Approach

• Swap Planning
• Best Practices- Automation in UDA
• Parallel Working of Nokia and ZTE during swap
• Swap Execution- Layer by Layer, Cell By Cell- Zero Customer Impact
• Lesson Learnt
• Swap Performance Comparison
• Features in ZTE
• TA Restriction
• UE Positioning

2 © 2020 Nokia Nokia internal use

Steps for Punjab swap - minimizing customer experience impact
Aim - Maintain network quality and productivity at the top
Start with precise planning, flawless implementation and achieve overwhelming results

Strategic Swap Swap Post Swap SCFT& Results

Planning Planning Execution Checks Cluster KPI’s before and
Product Alignment
Requirements
Site Survey KPI verification Optimization after.
Configuration Quality verification
Swap Strategy Installation Alarm monitoring After the swap in
mapping. from drive test
Formation . Layer Wise DT verification cluster is finished.
KPI baselining. Strategic Objective
Service Solutioning Cutover Alarm fixations Drive test per cluster
Tools preparation achieved !
Equip Ordering Alarm checking Discrepancy checks level.
Transmission Happy Customers
Field test Coverage and quality
Planning & assurance
Readiness Dismantle

Automation through Proven Tools : UDA, RADAR, MUSA and NDPd

3 © 2020 Nokia Nokia internal use
Swap Strategy Formation

Site analysis Cluster size Sites in cluster

• Detailed site survey • Grouping approx 15-30 sites . • Contiguous & Homogenous
• Specific site solution • Minimized interaction with the
remaining part of the network

Hot and Cold Swap Swap approach Method of Procedure

• Mix of Both according to site infra • Adjacency rule followed. • Step by step procedure
• Cold swap preferred option • Starting from border cluster to adjacent • Mutual agreement
cluster

Performance measurement Customer experience Work and Safety aspects

• Measuring existing DT KPIs • Minimize the customer experience impact • Operational health and safety rules
• Maintain or enhance the same post • Optimized Layer by Layer Swap • Working hours- Night working
swap allowed/not allowed

4 © 2020 Nokia Nokia internal use

Swap Strategy Selection – A Blended Approach

Cold Swap Hot Swap

• Where extra Space and Power is available • Where extra Space and Power is NOT available
• Parallel installation & power ON of old and new equipment • De-installation of old equipment followed by installation of new
• Cluster Size of 15-25 sites equipment

Pros Cons Pros Cons

• Prevents complete site down,
Shorter layer-wise outage
• Customer experience verification
after each layer swap
• Simplified Handover definitions
based on cluster approach
• Faster Swap
• Additional RFI Required • Site RFI requirements are
lower
• Complete and extended Site
Outage
• Complex Handover definitions
on site-by-site basis
• LAC /TAC Islands
• Relative Slow pace of Swap

 An Optimised Swap strategy will be selected based on site specific conditions

 In Cold Swap, Power requirements can be optimized basis past learnings by carrying out C&I in night hours
 In Hot Swap, Site outage can be minimized by keeping new SM powered-on parallely during swap activity period

5 © 2020 Nokia
Swap Planning-Requirements

S.No Category Requirements Tech Owner Day

1 Datafill Plan Nomenclature Guidelines SRAN AIRTEL
2 Datafill Plan PCI RSI Plan 4G AIRTEL
3 Datafill Plan LAC TAC Planning 2G and 4G AIRTEL
4 Datafill Plan Freq Plan – 2G 2G AIRTEL
5 Datafill Plan IP Numbering / Txn Plan SRAN AIRTEL
6 Transmission New Tx Media at all sites/ IPv6 readiness SRAN AIRTEL D-15 , as per Cluster Plan
7 Transmission Testing of new media SRAN AIRTEL D-15, as per Cluster Plan
8 Core CGI Creation in Core 2G MSP D-7, as per Cluster Plan
9 Core LAC TAC Creation in Core 4G MSP D-7, as per Cluster Plan
10 KPI Pre KPI of Last one Month 2G and 4G MSP D-7, as per Cluster Plan
11 Infra Cluster RFAI- Power and Space Requirement SRAN AIRTEL D-7, as per Cluster Plan
12 Alarms Pre/Existing alarms 2G and 4G MSP D-3, as per Cluster Plan
13 Adjacencies External Neigh Creation on Boundary Sites 2G MSP D-3, as per Cluster Plan
14 Approvals Approval of CR for Swap Activity 2G and 4G AIRTEL D-3, as per Cluster Plan
15 During Swap Expert at ZTE OMCR during Swap 2G and 4G MSP D- Swap Day

6 © 2020 Nokia
Swap Planning– Assess and Porting of ZTE Config- Smart UDA
Standard Agreed during
parameter set to project setup
Contain the parameter be used
Mapping
mapping strategy agreed rules Creation
in the initial project phase of standard
templates
Hardware Agreed during
List of sites to configuration list
Site list project setup
be swapped in
current batch Engine
UDA*

xml for
CM data from target
MV NW node
ZTE OSS

Installed on a NESC
Actual NW NetAct creates
Configuration Config files for:
Management data • 2G, 4G
• Mobility

Swap

7 © 2020 Nokia *UDA- Unified Datafill Automation equivalent to Zyday

Cell to Cell Parameter Mapping
S.No ZTE_Parameter Nokia Parameter
1 selQrxLevMin Qrxlevmin
2 sIntraSearch Sintrasearch
3 qhyst Qhyst
4 cellReselectionPriority CellReselPrio
5 interReselPrio eutCelResPrio
6 interCarriFreq dlCarFrqEut
7 interQrxLevMin qrxlevminInterF
8 snonintrasearch sNonIntrsearch
9 tReselectionGERAN tResGer
10 geranThreshXLow gerFrqThrL
11 qRxLevMin qRxLevMinGer
12 geranReselectionPriority gCelResPrio
13 hysteresis hysThreshold2a
14 timeToTrigger a1TimeToTriggerDeactInterMeas
15 thresholdOfRSRP threshold2GERAN
16 rsrpSrvTrd b2Threshold1GERAN
17 geranNbrTrd b2Threshold2RssiGERAN
18 hysterisis hysB2ThresholdGERAN
19 trigTime b2TimeToTriggerGERANMeas
20 pci phyCellId
21 rd4ForCoverage actCSFBRedir
22 cpSpeRefSigPwr dlRsBoost
23 rootSequenceIndex rootSeqIndex
24 bcchFrequency bcchFrequency
25 cellIdentity cellIdentity
26 ncc ncc
27 bcc bcc
28 lac lac
29 rac rac
30 mcc mcc
31 mnc mnc

8 © 2020 Nokia Nokia internal use

Pilot Cluster– reference area in AIRTEL network
Pilot Cluster area
acting as reference
for the rest network
Pilot Cluster
9 © 2020 Nokia
• Introduce Pilot Cluster network area ; Area size : e.g. one cluster of 15-20 sites.
• Parameter and KPI Mapping- Alignment of harmonized KPI formulas and parameters to
be verified during Pilot Cluster. Based on the results, case some KPIs cannot be aligned then
Nokia may propose KPI baseline target and mutually agreed with AIRTEL before the Swap
starts.
• Proven approach for accelerating the root cause analysis and validation of optimization
recommendations prior their implementation to the whole network.
• Support for network-wide recommendations deployment & improvement
• The main purpose:
‑ Validate the new proposed swap process, introduce necessary improvements
‑ Prepare optimized network parameters-sets with traffic & mobility strategy well-fitted into
AIRTEL’s network
‑ Deploy and test benefits of latest Nokia features and SW releases
‑ Demonstrate achievable quality levels in new Nokia optimized network.
‑ Introduce E2E analyses to secure end user KPIs
 Item Code Description- Cascading LK
Parallel working of Nokia and ZTE during swap N4GSLT983
L2 Switching in AirScale BTS for two collocated BTS SW
Application

Remote Site Nokia-BSC

Nokia- OSS
IDU

Nokia SBTS
S1- U traffic
ZTE BTS
SAE-GW

IP Transport
Outdoor Remote Site IDU S1- MME

MUX
MME
ZTE BTS
O&M
2G
Nokia SBTS

Nokia SBTS Fiber PoP Location

ZTE BTS ZTE BSC ZTE OSS

Parallel working of Nokia and ZTE to ensure minimal impact on customer experience
10 © 2020 Nokia
Swap Execution
Sector-A D-1 Day
1800MHz
900MHz Install and Test SM & RFM of 1800 and 900 with new power and TX
2300MHz
D Day
Remove 2300 Sec A ZTE RRH & Install Nokia 2300 RRH and Test
Call/Data/Handovers

ARDB-RFM

AREA-RFM

System module
Remove 2300 Sec B ZTE RRH & Install Nokia 2300 RRH and Test

AZNA

AZNA

AZNA
Sector-B
900MHz Call/Data/Handovers
Sector-C

900MHz
1800MHz
1800MHz Remove 2300 Sec C ZTE RRH & Install Nokia 2300 RRH and Test
2300MHz Call/Data/Handovers
2300MHz
Swap Jumpers of 1800 Sec A & Test Call/Data
Swap Jumpers of 1800 Sec B & C Test Call/Data/Handovers
Swap Jumpers of 900 Sec B & Test Call/Data
Warehouse
Swap Jumpers of 900 Sec A & C Test Call/Data/Handovers
Tx
Power

Sys Room

11 © 2020 Nokia
Swap Execution and Customer Experience Management
Layer Wise / Sector wise swap
Step Activity Day Remarks
Step-01 Installation and Commissioning of Nokia SM No Impact- ZTE ON all sectors and Parallelly all New HW and Media
with new Power & Transmission Checked.
D-1 Day
Step-02 Install & Commission Nokia 1800 RFM Need additional Power , space and Transmission media
Install & Commission Nokia 900 RFM
Step-03 L 2300 Sec A Swap and Testing 4G Subscribers Shifted to L1800 and L900 , No Impact on Data & VoLTE
Service
Step-04 L 2300 Sec B Swap and Testing
Step-05 L 2300 Sec C Swap and Testing
Step-06 L 1800 Sec A Swap and Testing 4G Subscribers Shifted to L2300 and L900 , No Impact on Data Service .
Step-07 L 1800 Sec B & C Swap and Testing D Day
Step-08 2G/L 900 Sec B Swap and Testing 2G Voice , Data Services & CSFB Service impacted Sector wise during
change
Step-09 2G/L 900 Sec A & C Swap and Testing
Step-10 KPI & Customer Experience Monitoring and
analysis

12 © 2020 Nokia Nokia internal use

Pre and Post Swap Checks and Optimization
D-7 Pre Drive (Cluster Level) - G900, L900, L1800, L2300

D-5 Pre Drive Report Submission : Result of Pre drive and Sector swap to be captured

D-3 Swap to be rectified ( if required )

D-1 Install and Test new SM and RFM with new power and Transmission

D Swap

D SCFT Ph 1 (Call and Data testing of all layer- G900, L900, L1800 and L2300) with Nokia vs ZTE interworking checks

D Hourly KPI monitoring ( every 4 hrs ) after swap to find issues

D MS 1 Handover to MSP

D+1 KPI Monitoring+ SCFT Ph2 Optimization (SOFT+HARD)

D+3/5 Post Swap Cluster Optimisation - All Layer + KPI Monitoring+ Optimization (SOFT+HARD)

D+7 Cluster Report submission and discussion

D+7 Cluster Handover to MSP ( MS 2 Handover )

13 © 2020 Nokia Nokia internal use

 Lesson Learnt
• X2 Handover failures between Nokia & ZTE nodes – C Plane Changes done on ZTE sites.
• Uplink Throughput Concern- ZTE had a different methodology where the tail bits (padding bits) were not considered in
the UL Throughput calculations . This has been corrected by ZTE by putting a patch in the system.
• PS Drop- Formula changed by Nokia- Standardized with other OEMs
• Automatic X2 Neighbour addition from ZTE side was taking too much time compared to Nokia - Workaround executed
and adopted.
• RACH (Random-Access Channel) Setup Success Rate Improvement observed post allowing samples from more than 5
Km..

14 © 2021 Nokia Nokia Internal Use

 Swap Performance Comparison

17% 51% 79% 12%

Growth Growth Reduction Growth
Date Traffic Absolute DL user Customer Complaints Special Efficiency
Throughput

Payload(24hrs) Abs T’Put(DBBH) Complaints Spectral Efficiency(DBBH)

400000 3500 2000 1.75
3400
1.72
3300 1800

345,956 1600 1.7

350000 3100

1400
2900
1.65
300000
296,550 17% 2700
1200

51% 1000
2500 1.6 12%
800
79%
250000 2300 2246
600
1.55 1.54
2100
400

200000 1900 200 1.5

1700 0

1/Jan
4/Jan
7/Jan
10/Jan
13/Jan
16/Jan
19/Jan
22/Jan
25/Jan
28/Jan
31/Jan
3/Feb
6/Feb
9/Feb
12/Feb
15/Feb
18/Feb
21/Feb
24/Feb
27/Feb

11/Mar
14/Mar
17/Mar
20/Mar
23/Mar
26/Mar
29/Mar
2/Mar
5/Mar
8/Mar
150000 1500 1.45
ZTE Nokia ZTE NOKIA ZTE Nokia

15 © 2021 Nokia Nokia Internal Use

ZTE vs Nokia
Ducting impact Comparison

Similar NI Trend
Less SSF 5 Cells

Nokia, Fazilka (C-1) VS Clusters 13,14,15 of ZTE

Ducting Impact Comparison

With ZTE System With Nokia System

Higher % of cells in ZTE in Fewer % of cells in SSF 5
SSF 5 (Reduced Capacity by and thus higher % of cells Optimization Under Progress
More cells > 3mbps

16%) with similar NI. have DL user Thp. > 3mbps.

16 COE@AIRTEL© 2021 Nokia Nokia internal use

ZTE Vs Nokia
Ducting impact
Fazilka ducting impact
With ZTE System
(5th till 10th Jan)- more than 80%
cells where in SSF 5 for all
Hours of these 6 days.
17 COE@AIRTEL© 2021 Nokia
With Nokia System
(20th till 23rd Jan) – For Few
Hours 80% Cells where in SSF
5, while for rest of Hours, max
50% cells where in SSF 5.
Nokia internal use
16% Capacity get reduced during SSF5
Conclusion
• Increased capacity for TDD Cells with Nokia System
during Ducting Hours.
• Result in increase in capacity – SE improved by 33%
• <3mbps cells reduced by 22% post SWAP
• >80% PRB Utilized Cells- ~17% reduction
 TA Restriction Features- ZTE
For a UE in RRC_CONNECTED status, the eNodeB needs to maintain TA information of the UE in real
time to sustain uplink synchronization.
For the process that the eNodeB identifies whether the UE TA exceeds the threshold, see the following
figure

Set EUtranCellFDD.taLimitedReleaseSwch to Open to enable the user service restriction

function based on TA calculation.

If the number of times that a UE TA exceeds the TA threshold is CTA_Exceed, the eNodeB identifies that
the UE TA has exceeded the threshold when CTA_Exceed is greater than the threshold number.

The threshold number is fixed at 5. It is managed by the eNodeB and allows no user to configure through
the NM system.

The TA threshold (with Ts as the unit) can be configured by setting ServiceMAC.taMaxThr to limit
eNodeB service coverage.

Users can properly set ServiceMAC.taMaxThr in accordance with the following mapping relationship
between the Ts and physical distance:

The physical distance between the UE and the eNodeB corresponding to one Ts is (3*10^8) *
(1/30720000) / 2 ≈ 4.9 m.

3*10^8 denotes the transmission rate of radio electromagnetic wave with the unit as m/S, 1/30720000
denotes the time span of one Ts with the unit as S, and 2 denotes the uplink and downlink transmission in
the TA

18 COE@AIRTEL© 2021 Nokia Nokia internal use

UE Positioning Feature- ZTE
Parameters name Parameter Explanation Range

This parameter enables or disables the user location– 0:Close ， 1:CCU User Migrate Str
Switch for the User Location–
based migration strategy. If it is set to Open, the eNodeB can identify the users in the center ategy ， 2:CEU User Migrate Strate
Based Migration Strategy
or at the edge of a cell and hand over the users to the desired frequency. gy

This parameter determines whether to execute the user location–

based migration strategy for each QCI. The elements in the array correspond to QCI1 to QCI
User Location–Based QCI Migration Indicator 0:{No},1:{Yes}
255 in turn. If an element is configured to Yes, the eNodeB executes the user location–
based migration strategy for the corresponding QCI.

This parameter indicates the priority of the target frequency for user location–
Target frequency Priority of Migrate User Base
based migration. When the eNodeB identifies a UE in the center or at the edge of a cell, it m [0..255]
d Position
oves the UE to the frequency with a non-zero priority.

Judge CCU User Measurement Configuration I This parameter indicates the unique index of a measurement configuration that is used to det
[1..65535]
ndex ermine the users in the center of a cell.

Judge CEU User Measurement Configuration I This parameter indicates the unique index of a measurement configuration that is used to det
[1..65535]
ndex ermine the users at the edge of a cell.

Migrate User Based Position for Inter Frequenc This parameter indicates the unique index of an inter-
[1..65535]
y Measurement Configuration Index frequency measurement configuration for the user location–based migration strategy.

19 COE@AIRTEL© 2021 Nokia Nokia internal use