Identifying the Agents

Call Drop Analysis in Huawei 2G Networks

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 ideas to discuss

1. Call Drop Analysis : definition and Methods.

2. Meaning of Radio-DR, TCH-DR and Call-DR.

3. The most helpful Huawei STS and Logs in call drop

analysis.

4. Call Drop Investigation flow chart.

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 ideas to discuss

6. Using Huawei Tools in the analysis process.

[Link] call drop analysis on real cases.

8. How to automate the call drop analysis process.

9. One-month plan to optimize CDR% on Network level.

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 Call Drop Analysis : definition and Methods

Call drop analysis :

To Find out the direct reason(class) and then the indirect
reason (agent) of call drop.
Direct like Interference , coverage , Hardware OOS etc
In-Direct like wrong frequencies , excessive down-tilt
etc

Indirect Reason
Wrong parameter direct Reason
planning mistakes Very bad quality
Band overlapping Faulty board
Improper maintenance RF signal loss
Old equipment not Transmission outage
replaced

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 Call Drop Analysis : definition and Methods

What can we analyze ?

counters
Drive test logfiles
Tracing logfiles
Alarms Logs
OMU Logs
How can we analyze in the right way?
Choosing Decisive counters
Follow Investigation flow chart
Accumulated knowledge database
Using optimization tools (e.g. Nastar)

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 Call Drop Analysis : definition and Methods
Visualize Collect and study the detailed statistics of problematic cell

Determine the class or type of the drop and determine the size of
Classify problem

Narrow down possible indirect root causes that could lead to

Correlate such type of drop

Check and eliminate these possible causes one by one by taking

Eliminate testing actions

Final decision and taking actions to solve the problem and add it
Solve to knowledge base

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 Meaning of Radio CDR%, TCH-DR% and CDR%

What is the difference between :

1. Call Drop Rate (call drop rate excluding handover)

2. TCH Drop Rate (call drop rate including handover)

3. TCH RF loss rate (or radio call drop rate)

4. Erlang minute per drop

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 Meaning of Radio CDR%, TCH-DR% and CDR%

1. Call Drop Rate (call drop rate excluding handover)

No of call drops

Successful TCH Successful TCH Successful TCH

Seizures Seizures Seizures
(by call setup) (inc handover) (out handover)

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 Meaning of Radio CDR%, TCH-DR% and CDR%

2. Call Drop Rate (call drop rate including handover)

No of call drops

Successful TCH Successful TCH Successful TCH

Seizures Seizures Seizures
(by call setup) (inc handover) (out handover)

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 Meaning of Radio CDR%, TCH-DR% and CDR%

3. TCH RF loss rate (or radio call drop rate)

No of call drops
Caused
No ofbycall
RFdrops
reasons

Successful TCH Successful TCH

Seizures Seizures
(by call setup) (inc handover)

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 Meaning of Radio CDR%, TCH-DR% and CDR%

4. Erlang minutes per drop

Traffic Volume (Erlang) 60

No of call drops

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop
analysis
The counters should be selected carefully in order to get
the best result :

1. The STS should be decisive

2. Cover all the possible root causes

3. Guide us to causes not the effects

4. Easy to visualize and analyze

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

1. Radio Link Failure Measurements (RLF)

2. Drop Causes distribution
3. Interference On Idle mode measurements (IOI)
4. Radio Quality Index Measurements (RQI)
5. Balance/Unbalance Measurements
6. Correlated level and quality measurements
7. E1 Bit errors measurements and TCH availability
8. Main and diversity signal measurements
9. Hardware Alarms

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

1. Radio Link Failure Measurements (RLF)

Record the last 3 or 4 measurement

reports before the drop happen

MR MR MR MR MR

BTS MS
Very important because it will give an idea about the
link condition when the drop happened

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Mean Rxlevel (value-110) dB =

(Rxlev in MR1+Rxlev in MR2+Rxlev in MR3 +.)/
Number of measurement reports
Same calculation for Rxquality and TA
More accumulated values means more accuracy

Rx level: 10 10 14 15
15 42 13
Rx Qual: 5 7 45 15 45 30 1 1
6 1 30 13 14 1
TA: 62 5 2 1 2 4 56 25
15 1 4 1 1 12
1 21 25 1 21
12 56

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
RLF Counters (Full rate)
S4307D:Uplink Level during Radio Link Failure
S4317D:Uplink Quality during Radio Link Failure
S4327D:Downlink Level during Radio Link Failure
S4337D:Downlink Quality during Radio Link Failure
S4347D:TA during Radio Link Failure
S4357D:Radio Link Failures

RLF Counters (Half rate)

S4308D:Uplink Level during Radio Link Failure (TCHH)
S4318D:Uplink Quality during Radio Link Failure (TCHH)
S4328D:Downlink Level during Radio Link Failure (TCHH)
S4338D:Downlink Quality during Radio Link Failure (TCHH)
S4348D:TA during Radio Link Failure (TCHH)
S4358D:Radio Link Failures (TCHH)

Since these counters are on TRX Level it will be affected by

Base band hopping

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

1. How to use RLF measurements in analysis :

HIGH GOOD FAR

Time
RX Level RX Quality Advance

LOW BAD NEAR

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Examples:
In case of interference :

HIGH GOOD FAR

Time
RX Level RX Quality Advance

LOW BAD NEAR

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Examples:
In case of coverage problem:

HIGH GOOD FAR

Time
RX Level RX Quality Advance

LOW BAD NEAR

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Examples:
In case of sudden drop due to faulty hardware:

HIGH GOOD FAR

Time
RX Level RX Quality Advance

LOW BAD NEAR

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

2. Drop Causes distribution

Counters will be begged according to the messages

or events between BTS-BSC-MSC that caused the
release of TCH resources.

There are 18 different causes in Huawei but 4 of

them are important and the rest rarely triggered.

By using the drop causes STS we can classify if the

drop is due to Hardware or RF and if the drop
happened during stable or handover state

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop
analysis

Drop Causes Counters

M3100A:Call Drops due to ERR IND Received (T200 Expired)
M3100B:Call Drops due to ERR IND Received (Unsolicited DM Response)
M3100C:Call Drops due to ERR IND Received (Sequence Error)
M3101A:Call Drops due to CONN FAIL Received (Radio Link Failure)
M3101B:Call Drops due to CONN FAIL Received (HO Access Failure)
M3101C:Call Drops due to CONN FAIL Received (OM Intervention)
M3101D:Call Drops due to CONN FAIL Received (Radio Resource Unavail) Most of
M3101E:Call Drops due to CONN FAIL Received (Other Causes) drops in
M3102:Call Drops due to REL IND Received these 4
M312:Call Drops due to No MRs from MS for a Long Time
M313:Call Drops due to Abis Terrestrial Link Failure reasons
M314:Call Drops due to Equipment Failure
M315:Call Drops due to Forced Handover
M316:Call Drops due to Resource Check
M319B:Clear Requests Sent on the A Interface in Handover State
RM3173:Call Drops Due to Loopback Start Failure
RM3174:Call Drops Due to Failures to Return to Normal Call from Loopback
CM339C:Clear Requests Sent on the A interface (TA Limit)

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
Bad Rx-Qual on UL/DL
Signal decreased sharply
Cell OOS

Layer 2 messages SACCH Messages not

unacknowledged decoded from MS or BTS

T200 expired
RLT expired
N200+1 times
Layer 3 Failure
Lapd layer 2 Failure

Err. Indication sent from Connection Failure sent

BTS to BSC from BTS to BSC

Clear request sent from Clear request sent from

BSC to MSC and BSC to MSC and

CALL DROP T200 CALL DROP RLT

reason triggered is error reason triggered is conn.
indication (T200 expired) failure (radio link failure)

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The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Abis Transmission Problems Hardware Problems

Synchronization ,high BER TRX , Combiner , GTMU

Site out of service TRX , Cell or Site

out of service

CALL DROP ABIS CALL DROP EQUIP

reason triggered Abis reason triggered is
terrestrial failure Equipment failure

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Most of the drops in the network

are caused by RF problems, it
means that we can bring
further Improvement
on the call drop rate

Percentage of drop
Due to T200 compared
to RLT depend on Timer
settings

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
3. Interference On Idle mode measurements (IOI)

Very helpful in distinguishing between internal and

external Interference
The existence of high values in Band 3,4 and 5 confirm
Interference but the opposite is not true.
Might give wrong averaged values in case if BB hopping is
active since they are on TRX level.
It only shows the uplink interference
Thresholds between bands can be changed to test special
range of level.
Sometimes it will not express the real strength of
interference since the measuring point is not the same
place as the interfered area.

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
3. Interference On Idle mode measurements (IOI):

IOI Measurements IOI Measurements (TCHH)

AS4207A:TCHFs in Interference Band 1 AS4208A:TCHHs in Interference Band 1
AS4207B:TCHFs in Interference Band 2 AS4208B:TCHHs in Interference Band 2
AS4207C:TCHFs in Interference Band 3 AS4208C:TCHHs in Interference Band 3
AS4207D:TCHFs in Interference Band 4 AS4208D:TCHHs in Interference Band 4
AS4207E:TCHFs in Interference Band 5 AS4208E:TCHHs in Interference Band 5

Number of highly interfered TSs

With level > -90 dBm

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
Internal Interference effect on IOI measure (strong)

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The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
Internal Interference effect on IOI measure (weak)

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
External Interference effect on IOI measure (strong):

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
External Interference effect on IOI measure (weak effect):

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The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

4. Radio Quality Index (RQI):

We can use it only if AMR is activated.

Radio quality index is the dB value of C/I multiplied by 2
RQI = 2 * C/I ( dBm) .
RQI represent the C/I values in the uplink only.
We can get RQI of all Mobiles per TA and by comparing it to
RLF per TA we can tell the RQI values in areas which suffer
from high radio link failures.
RQI range of values[055+] = 2 * C/I range of values [030].
RQI values less than 18 (C/I = 9) indicate very bad quality and
strong interference.
Since RQI values given on TRX level we might get wrong
averaged values in case of BB hopping is activated.

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
4. Radio Quality Index (RQI):
RQI Measurements
S4400E:Number of Measurement Reports (RQI = 0 to 1)
S4401E:Number of Measurement Reports (RQI = 1 to 2)
S4402E:Number of Measurement Reports (RQI = 2 to 3)
. . . .
. . . .
S4418E:Number of Measurement Reports (RQI = 45 to 55)
S4419E:Number of Measurement Reports (RQI greater than 55)
S4440E:Number of Measurement Reports with RQI

RQI Measurements RQI Measurements

S4400C:MRs with RQI (TA = 0) S4400D:RQI (TA = 0)
S4401C:MRs with RQI (TA = 1) S4401D:RQI (TA = 1)
S4402C:MRs with RQI (TA = 2) S4402D:RQI (TA = 2)
. .
. .
. .
S4455C:MRs with RQI (TA = 55 to 63) S4455D:RQI (TA = 55 to 63)
S4463C:MRs with RQI (TA greater than 63) S4463D:RQI (TA greater than 63)

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
4. Radio Quality Index (RQI):

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
4. Radio Quality Index (RQI):

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis
4. Balance/Un-Balance Measurements:
Used usually to detect Problems in RF Path (RF Path
include antenna , feeders , Jumpers , CDU, DDPU , DCOM
and Carrier receivers).
Having unbalanced measurements on uplink or downlink
indicate that we have path problem but the opposite is not
necessarily true.
We can determine if the problem on uplink or downlink
but getting deeper may require the help of regional team
to visit the site.
In case of BB hopping we should disable it to know the
problematic TRX , this will help the regional team a lot in
solving the problem.

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Downlink Uplink
high loss high loss

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Downlink Uplink
high loss high loss

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Correlated level and quality measurements

Strongest
levels

Hardware
Interference
issues

Hardware +
Coverage
Coverage

Weakest
levels

Worst Best
quality quality
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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

Correlated level and quality measurements

Give an idea about the situation of quality and level in all the cell not like RLF
measurements
Affected by BB hopping since the STS given on TRX level
Include 128 counters for FR and 128 for HR
Better to be analyzed by 3D chart since its three dimension Matrix

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 The most helpful Huawei STS in call drop analysis

E1 Bit errors and CRC check and TCH Availability

We have many STS that give the seconds of error during the
transmission ,CRC check and badly received or sent frames.
These counters can help in identifying the drops caused by
Abis interface Problems.
TCH availability check is necessary to make sure the call drop
is not caused by Hardware Problems

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 Call Drop Investigation flowchart

Its very important to choose the right procedure to analyze the

call drops.
The procedure should be adequate for Sudatel problems.
The procedure should be the initial schema for automating of call
drop optimization process.
Follow the rule : the larger problem should take priority.
Two methods ,either check every thing starting from the
important or follow the cause effect chain by using the correct
counters.

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 Call Drop Investigation flow chart

Shown Flow chart usually

used In CDR analysis ,

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 Call Drop Investigation flow chart

General Flow
Chart

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 How to Automate Call Drop Analysis Process

Automating the call Drop Analysis depend on the following

point :

1. Reducing the time needed to Visualize the data

2. Time needed for analysis

3. The availability of knowledge database to directly

correlate or compare the new problems and determine
the reason

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 How to Automate Call Drop Analysis
1. Reducing the time needed to Visualize the data

One of the most Important actions that must be taken by

Optimizer is to prepare the adequate post processing tool or
Macro that will import the raw counters and convert them to
different charts and tables that is easy to analyze.

Target of the macro not analyze the data but to help in analyzing
by better visualizing

Calculation on the raw counters are needed to reduce the

number of data shown and to give more meaningful charts

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 How to Automate Call Drop Analysis

2. Time needed for analysis :

the Optimizer capability to analyze.

Using different methods of analysis.
Cannot be done by macro or Optimizer created tools but can
be done faster by using vendor Optimization tools like
NASTAR, and other tools.

3. The availability of knowledge database :

The good Optimizer should always record a history of
problems that he encountered during his work.
yet its better to develop the small macro suggested earlier to
save the history of STS to small knowledge database that can
be used later for correlation.

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 How to Automate Call Drop Analysis

Prepare the raw Donebybythe

Done the
counters Optimizer
Optimizer

Done by the
VISUALIZING STS
Macro

Accumulated
Analyze the Done by the
Knowledge
Problem Optimizer
database

SAVE IN
KNOWLEDGE Done by the
DATABASE Macro

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 Three Month Plan to Improve CDR on Network
Level
Since most of the drop in Sudatel is caused by RF reasons
Its Possible to bring good Improvements to the network by
putting an organized Optimization Plan .

Key factors to speed up the implementation of the plan :

Solve by Groups not one by one

Solve easiest problems first
Using the macro and analysis tools as much as possible
Activating all the features that could bring further
enhancement to Voice or Frequency plan
Follow the investigation flow chart

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