LTE Signal Quality Analysis

BTS Master, Cell Master, Spectrum Master

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 1

Anritsu LTE Test Instrument Portfolio

Signaling Tester Fading Simulator Signal Analyzers Vector Signal Generator

LTE Protocol Conformance Test System Radio Communication Analyzer Rapid Test Designer (RTD)

LTE RF Conformance Test System

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 2

Introducing the Next generation Anritsu Master family

MT8221B MT8222B

MT8212E MT8213E

MS2712E MS2721B MS2713E MS2722C MS2723C MS2724C MS2725C MS2726C

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 3

Cover all defined frequency plans and bandwidths

Frequency bands
All E-UTRA Operating Bands 700 MHz 2700 MHz

Channel bandwidths
20, 15, 10, 5, 3, 1.4 MHz
BTS Master MT8221B Spectrum Master MS2722/23/24/25/26C

LTE Bandwidth Selection

10, 5, 3, 1.4 MHz

BTS Master MT8222A Cell Master MT8212/13E Spectrum Master MS2712/13E Spectrum Master MS2721/23/24B

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 4

A Family of LTE Signal Quality Analyzers

RF Quality Analyzer
RF Measurements

Modulation Quality Analyzer

Modulation Measurements

DL Coverage Quality Analyzer

Over-the-Air Measurements

Pass/Fail Analyzer LTE Measurement Summary LTE Measurement Summary

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 5

LTE RF Quality Measurements

Channel Spectrum
Channel Power Occupied Bandwidth

ACLR Spectral Emission Mask (SEM) RF Measurement Summary RF Measurement Summary

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 6

LTE Modulation Quality Measurements

Constellation
QPSK, 16 QAM, 64 QAM

Control Channel Power Modulation Summary

Modulation Measurement Summary

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 7

LTE Downlink Coverage Quality Measurements

Scanner
Six Sync Signal Power Levels
Cell ID Sector ID Group ID

Dominance

Auto Save
OTA Scanner Measurements

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 8

Key Performance Indicators vs. LTE Field Measurement

Key Performance Indicators vs. Test
Call/Session Blocking Power shortage Resource Block shortage UL Interference Call/Session Drop Radio Link Timeout UL Interference DL Interference
x x x x x x x x x x X x x x x x x x x x xx xx xx

Sync Power

RS Power

Occupied BW, ACLR, & SEM

EVM (pk)

EVM

Freq Error

Rx Noise Floor

OTA EVM

x = probable, xx = most probable

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 9

LTE Field Measurement vs. BTS Field Replaceable Units

Test vs. BTS Field Replaceable Units
Sync Power RS Power Occupied BW Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR) Spectral Emission Mask (SEM) Error Vector Magnitude Peak (EVM pk) Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) Frequency Error OTA EVM
xx x x x x x

Freq Ref

Signal Generation
x x x x x x x

MCPA

Filters

Antenna

Antenna Down Tilt

xx xx xx x x xx x x xx xx xx

x x

x x

x = probable, xx = most probable

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 10

LTE Pass/Fail Mode

Guidelines
Direct Connect OTA Per Vendor

Consequences
Inconsistent settings between base stations, leads to

Pass/Fail Test LTE Pass/Fail

Set up common test limits, or sets of limits, for each instrument User modify via MST to set-up system-wide maintenance operating practice
CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011 Slide 11

inconsistent network behavior

LTE Occupied Bandwidth

Guideline Direct Connect
Less than defined LTE bandwidth
1.4, 3.0, 5.0, 10, 15, 20 MHz

Consequences
Leads to interference with neighboring carriers Dropped calls Low capacity

RF Quality Occupied Bandwidth

A measurement of the spectrum used by the carrier The occupied bandwidth contains 99% of the signals RF power

Common Faults
Tx filter MCPA Signal processing Antennas

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 12

LTE Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR)

Guideline Direct Connect
-45 dBc adjacent channels -45 dBc alternate channels

Consequences
Interference Low capacity Blocked calls

RF Quality ACLR (single-carrier displayed)

Measures how much of the carrier gets into neighboring RF channels Checks the closest (adjacent) and the next closest (alternate)

Common Faults
Tx filter MCPA Channel cards Cable connectors

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 13

LTE Spectral Emission Mask (SEM)

Guideline Direct Connect
Must be below mask

Consequences
Interference with neighboring carriers Legal liability Low data rate

RF Quality Spectral Emission Mask

SEM checks closer to the signal than ACLR does It also is sensitive to absolute power levels May be requirement of regulators
CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Common Faults
Check amplifier output filtering Look for intermodulation distortion Look for spectral re-growth

Slide 14

LTE Error Vector Magnitude (EVM)

Guidelines Direct Connect
QPSK - 17.5% 16 QAM 12.5% 64 QAM 8%

Consequences
dropped calls low data rate low sector capacity blocked calls

Modulation Quality EVM

The ratio of errors, or distortions, in the actual signal, compared to a perfect signal EVM measures the PBCH, if there is no data traffic and the PDSCH if there is traffic
CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Common Faults
distortion in the channel cards Power amplifier filter antenna system

Slide 15

LTE Frequency Error

Guideline OTA with GPS
0.05 ppm wide area BS 0.10 ppm local area BS 0.25 ppm home BS

Consequences
Calls will drop when mobiles travel at higher speed In some cases, cell phones cannot hand off into, or out of the cell

Modulation Quality Frequency Error

Checks to see that the carrier frequency is precisely correct Regulatory requirement in many countries

Common Faults
Reference frequency Frequency distribution system GPS, if used Backhaul

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 16

LTE Synchronization Signal Scanner

Guideline Direct Connect
3 or fewer codes Within 10 dB of dominant code Over 95% of the coverage area

Consequences
Low data rate Low capacity

Downlink Coverage Quality Synchronization Signal Power

Indicates which sectors are present at the current location Too many strong sectors creates frequency avoidance diminishing capacity
CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Common faults
Antenna down tilt Damaged antennas Control channel power settings Illegal repeaters

Slide 17

Downlink Coverage Mapping

OTA Scanner has Auto-Save Need GPS Receiver and Antenna Collects data every 5-10 s
Time depends on number of Sync codes and whether Modulation is turned on

Master Software Tools can export Downlink Coverage Quality data to a KML file Import into Google Maps/Earth Mouse over point to see Scanner results

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 18

LTE OTA Modulation Quality Testing

OTA Modulation Quality Testing
Valid signal quality measurements can be made OTA Guidelines are established from a known good base station Must be taken in valid location

Valid OTA Location

OTA Scanner validates location
Dominance >10 dB

OTA Modulation Quality Valid EVM OTA measurement

MIMO presents a challenge to measure EVM OTA Need to measure EVM of PBCH which has Transmit Diversity Measures both Tx1 & Tx2
CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

If Pass becomes sweet spot

Note GPS location Becomes location for future OTA Modulation Quality Testing Record and create OTA Pass/Fail limits

Slide 19

One quick test OTA Pass/Fail checks health of cell site

Start

Find valid Over-the-Air (OTA) location

If not, direct connect

Found Valid OTA spot? Y Run OTA or Direct Connect Pass/Fail Test

Start Direct Connect Transmitter Test

Run one-step Pass/Fail Test

Checks Feed Line Quality, if OTA Checks RF Quality Checks Modulation Quality

Test data throughput

Troubleshoot Feed Lines Base Station Coverage Interference

Use PC data card

Pass? N Y Run PC-based Throughput Test

If everything passes
DONE

If not troubleshoot
Feed lines and antenna system Base station field replaceable units Downlink Coverage issues Interference problems Backhaul bit-error-rates
Slide 20

Good Throughput? Y Done

Troubleshoot Backhaul

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

CRONY company presentation - Trebinje 2011

Slide 21