10.

KPI
& Optimisation

Summary
GSM Network Planning Process
GSM Overview
Radio Propagation & Interference
Network Dimensioning
Network Characteristics
KPI & Optimisation

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Parameter Planning
Parameter Plan (1)
Handovers (2)
Location Areas (3)
Frequency Plan (4)
BCC Plan (5)

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Parameter Plan
Parameter planning means creating a
default set of BSS parameters
It is performed right before the network
launch
Relevant BSS parameter for NW
planning

frequency
transmit power
definition of neighbouring cells
definition of location areas
handover parameters
power control parameters
cell selection parameters

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Handovers
Handover Criteria & Priority
1. Interference (UL or DL)
2. UL quality
3. DL quality
Radio Resource HO
4. UL level
5. DL level
6. MS-BS distance (max or min)
7. Turn-around-corner MS
8. Rapid field drop
Imperative HO
9. Fast/Slow-moving MS
10. Better cell (Power budget or Umbrella)
11. PC due to Lower quality thresholds (UL and DL)
12. PC due to Lower level thresholds (UL and DL)
13. PC due to Upper quality thresholds (UL and DL)
14. PC due to Upper level thresholds (UL and DL)

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Location Areas
Location Area Design 1/2
Location updating
affects all mobiles in
network

major road

Location area 2

LocUp in idle mode

LocUp after call
completion

Location updating
causes signaling
and processing load
within the network
Location area 1

Avoid oscillating
LocUpdate
Trade-off between
Paging load
and Location Update
signaling

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Location Areas
Location Area Design 2/2

Different MSC cannot use the same

LAC.
Location areas are important input for
transmission planners
should be planned as early as possible

Never define location area borders

along major roads!
Dual band or microcellular networks
require more attention on LAC planning
co-located DCS and GSM cells are defined
to the same LAC
same MSC to avoid too much location
updates which would cause very high
SDCCH blockings

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Frequency Plan
Basics

Tighter re-use of
own frequencies
more capacity
more
interferences

Target
to minimise
interferences at an
acceptable
capacity level

First when a
complete area has
been finalised
Automatic
frequency planning
tools

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Frequency Plan
Best Method

Do not use
hexagon cell
patterns
regular grids
systematic
frequency
allocation

f2

Use
interference matrix
calculation
calibrated
propagation
models
minimise total
interference in
network

f3

f3
f5

f6

f7

f4
f2

f4

f7

f4
f2
f3

R
f5

f7

f4
f2

f7

f3
f5

f5

f4
f2

f6

f6

f3
f3
f4

f5

f2

f6

f6

f3
f5

f5

f4

10. KPI
& Optimisation

BCC Plan
Basics
NCC = Network Colour Code
BCC = Base station Colour Code
BSIC = Base station Identity Code = NCC +
BCC

For each mobile, BSIC and ARCFN

identify unambiguously a cell in the
whole network
BCC is made by 3 binary digits 8
possible values
The BCC plan can be done manually

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Network Optimization

Network Optimization (1)

Performance Evaluation (2)
Optimization Process (3)

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Network Optimization
Improving network quality from a
subscribers point of view
Improving network quality from an
operators point of view

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Performance Evaluation
Basics

Network is under permanent change

detect problems and symptoms early!
OMC

Its far too late

when customers
complain!

field tests
customer
complaints

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Performance Evaluation
Key Performance Indicators

KPIs are figures used to evaluate

Network performance
post processing of NMS data or
drive test measurements data

Usually one short term target and one

long term target
check the network evolution and which
targets are achieved

KPIs calculated with NMS data

network performance on the operator side.

KPIs from drive test

performance on the subscribers side

Usually turn key projects are evaluated

according to some predefined KPIs
figures like drop call rate

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Performance Evaluation
With Drive Tests

Evaluate network performance from the

subscriber point of view
KPIs information
DL quality, call success rate, handover
success rate, DL signal level
not statistically as reliable as NMS
information

Added value of drive test measurement

find out the geographical position of
problems like bad DL quality to look for a
possible interference source in the area
compare the performance of different
networks (benchmarking)
display the signal level on the digital maps
to individuate areas with lack of coverage
eventually improve the propagation model
verify the neighbour list parameter plan

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Optimization Process
There are not strict processes for
optimization because the activity is
driven by the network evolution

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Optimization Process
Young Network Case

In a young network the primary target

is normally the coverage
In this phase usually there is a massive
use of drive test measurement
check the signal and
the performance of the competitors

MMAC

GPS
NMS
X

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Optimization Process
Mature Network Case
In a mature network the primary targets are quality
indicators
drop call rate, average quality, handover failures
Important use the information from NMS
a general view of the network performance
Drive test measurements are still used
but not in a massive way
in areas where new sites are on air
where interference and similar problems are
pointed out by NMS data analysis

Drop Call Rate (%)

3.5
3
2.5
Call Bids / 10000

Av erage
1.5

Busy Hour

1
0.5
0
Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

10. KPI
& Optimisation

KPI

10. KPI
& Optimisation

KPI Definitions

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Indicators Coverage
Signal Strength -outdoors
In building, In-Car penetration signal levels
Uplink Voice Quality
Downlink Voice Quality
Call Drops
Cell Power control

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Indicators Capacity
Erlangs per Cell
TCH success
TCH assignment failures
TCH Drop calls
TCH Blocking
Cell congestion
Congestion Relief Usage
BHCA against rated MSC limit
mErl/subs. against rated MSC limit
SMS/subs. Against MSC limit
MM values(HO,LU,Paging) against limits
Overload : Voice/Signalling/Processor

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Indicators Quality

RxLev

TCH success

Handovers

TCH assignment failures

Call Drops

TCH Drop calls

Call Success Rate

SDCCH traffic blocking

Call set up success rate

SDCCH drop calls

Call completion rate

SDCCH Success rates

Call set up time

Voice quality(MOS)
RxQual
Echo

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Analysis - Typical Setup

Failure Causes - Distribution

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Analysis - Typical Dropped

Call Causes Distribution

10. KPI
& Optimisation

KPI
Network Health Statistics

We have considered a typical network with BSCs to

analyse the network performance. To undertake this
activity stastics of atleast 2 weeks should be analysed.
The key parameters to be considered are;
Call Success Rate
Call Setup Success Rate
Handover Success Rate
Dropped Call Rate
SDCCH Blocking Rate
TCH Blocking Rate

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Customer sets a bench mark for these parameters as a measure of quality

of the network and expects the performance to be equal or better than
this. The typical value of the bench marks for each of the above
mentioned parameters are as follows,

Call Success Rate Call Setup Success rate Handover Success Rate Dropped Call Rate SDCCH Blocking Rate TCH Blocking Rate -

98 %
98 %
98 %
1%
0.5 %
2%

10. KPI
& Optimisation

LETS START OPTIMIZATION

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Blocked Calls

Blocked Calls can occur due to :

Access Failures
SDCCH Congestion
SDCCH Drop
TCH Congestion
Trouble shooting cause :
Use Layer 3 messages to analyze the cause
Decode System Information Type 3 messages.
Note the parameter , max_retransmission ;

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Blocked Call Analysis -

3
Channel Request
RACH
.
:
RACH
max_retrans
NO RESPONSE FROM N/W
ACCESS FAILURE !

Channel Request
Imm Assignment
Service Request
Signalling
:
Signalling

2
Channel Request
RACH
Imm Assign Reject
SDCCH BLOCKED !

NO TCH ASSIGNMENT
Mobile Returns To Idle
TCH BLOCKED !

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Blocked Call - Cause

troubleshooting

Access Failures
- Uplink Interference at the Base Station
- Low Rxlev at the Base Station
- Downlink Low Rxlev ( Coverage Hole )
- Downlink Interference
- Excess Cell Range

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Access Failure Troubleshooting

Access Failure - Uplink Problem

Causes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

AGCH Overload at Base Station

RACH Collisions
MS out of Range
Poor Uplink quality
BTS Receiver Problem

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Blocked Call Analysis

SDCCH Congestion Cause

Location Updates
to be analysed with OMC statistics first.
If high, determine the source to target cell ratio
Drive around the suspected area in the Idle Mode
Configure Delta LAC < > Constant 0 alarms
Optimize Location Updates
Interference
Analyze OMC statistics on Idle Channel Interference
Carry out Uplink Interference Measurements using Viper
Heavy Traffic
Verify from OMC statistics SDCCH Congestion
Carry Call Setup Time measurements
Optimize set up time if high, else modify channel configuration

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Blocked Call

TCH Blocked - Causes

Interference
-- Verify Idle Channel Interference reports from OMC
-- If suspected, carry out uplink interference measurements
Heavy Traffic
-- Verify the TCH Holding time and no of attempts statistics from OMC
-- During low traffic hours, Activate Cell barring in the cell
-- Carry out Time slot testing , by setting Ignore Cell Barring.
Solutions To Blocked Calls
Optimize coverage
Optimize Cell loading
Interference management
Channel configurations
Optimize neighbors

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Dropped Call
Troubleshooting

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Drop Calls Analysis

2
Channel Request

Channel Request

Imm Assignment

Imm Assignment

Service Request

Service Request

Signalling
:
Signalling

SDCCH Signalling
:
Speech
TCH
RLT = 0 ; DROPS
TCH DROP !

RLT = 0 ; DROPS
SDCCH DROP !

SDCCH / TCH
Handover Command
Hand Access
Handover Failure
HANDOVER FAILURE DROP !

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Dropped Call Analysis

SDCCH Drops - Causes

Coverage
Interference & Multipath
BTS performance

TCH Drops - Causes

Coverage
Interference & Multipath
BTS performance
Pre-emption

Handover Failure - Causes

Threshold parameters
Missing neighbors

Solutions to Dropped
Calls
Optimize Coverage
Interference
Management
Optimize neighbors
Optimize handover
parameters
Effective Frequency
Hopping
Use of DTX & Power
control

10. KPI
& Optimisation

SDCCH Drop - Coverage

SDCCH Drop - Co- Channel Interference
SDCCH Drop - Adjacent Channel Interference
SDCCH Drop - Uplink Problem
TCH Drop - Coverage
TCH Drop - Co-Channel Interference
TCH Drop - Adjacent Channel Interference
TCH Drop - Uplink Problem
Handover Failure

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Poor Quality

Poor Speech Quality could be due to

Patchy Coverage ( holes)
No Target cell for Handover
Echo , Audio holes, Voice Clipping
Interference ---:
Co-channel
Adjacent channel
External
Multipath
Noise

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Speech Quality Parameters

RxQUAL : Measured on the midamble.

Indicates poor speech quality due to radio interface impairments
FER : Measured on the basis of BFI ( Ping -Pong effect on speech )
Preferred under Frequency Hopping situation
Audio holes : Blank period of speech, due to malfunctioning of Transcoder
boards or PCM circuits.
Mean Opinion Score (MOS) : ITU standard for estimating speech quality.

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Speech Quality Parameters

Mean Opinion Score

Criteria for Voice Quality : A set value x at which y percent of customers
rate the voice quality at Circuit Merits(CM) 4 - 5.

MOS

Quality Scale

Excellent ( speech perfectly understandable)

Good ( speech easily understandable, some noise)

Fair ( speech understandable with a slight effort,

occasional repetitions needed)

Poor ( speech understandable only with

considerable effort, frequent repetitions needed)

Unsatisfactory ( speech not understandable)

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Troubleshooting
Handover Problems

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Troubleshooting - No
Handover

Weak Neighbors - Reported by Phone

Create a Handover PLAN
Total Attempted Calls
Total Dropped Calls
Total Blocked Calls
RxQual Full
RxLeve Full
RLT Current Value
ARFCN
Neighbor Cell Measurements
RR Message
Phone State

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Missing Neighbors

Real Time

Frequency Reuse

BCH Analyzer : TOP N = 7

Configure an Alarm for Missing Neighbor
Subset BCH TOP N not-subset Value ARFCN

'B' NET

CH 35

BSIC 16

'B' NET

CH 35

BSIC 21

'A' NET

CH 88

BSIC 53

'B' NET

CH 40

'A' NET

BSIC 15

CH 98

'B' NET

BSIC
57

'B' NET

CH 29

PHONE REPORTS

'B' NET

CH
27
35
40
25

CH 27

RxQual
1

RxLev
-80
-85
-83
-95

BSIC
23

'A' NET

BSIC
22

CH 72

BSIC 75

Channel 29 is not in the neighbour list !

CH 25
BSIC
17

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Troubleshooting - Handover
Parameter Settings

Decide the Target Cell for handover in the Trouble Spot

Filter the Handover.txt file on Handover Attempts ( before AND after numbers)
Filter again on Neighbor ARFCN = Target Cell ARFCN
Create another column as HO_Margin , with Delta for Neighbor_Level to RxLev
Plot this on the MAP and see whether Handover Margin can be reduced to
improve quality OR increased to avoid Ping-Pong effects
If handover margin settings are proper, and still handover is not occurring then
it could be a problem with Handover decision and processing parameters at the
BSC.

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Troubleshooting - Uplink Interference

Uplink Interference can be due to:

Mobiles in reuse and adjacent channel cells
External sources
Interference due to Mobiles will be bursty and intermittent.
The behavior and its effect on quality will be time dependent.
More interference during heavy traffic hours.
Interference from external sources can be continous or also
time dependent if the source is not continously ON.
Uplink Interference measurement needs long term monitoring ,
collection of data, processing the data and estimating the
probability of interference , and also estimating the source.

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Optimization for Interference

After drive test - Co-Channel benchmarking, we know which

cells are generating severe co-channel problem

We also know by decoding BSIC , the interefering source
Following processes could be adopted to optimize
interference
---- Power Control
---- Antenna Tilts
---- Frequency Reallocations
---- Transmitter Tests
---- Mobile dispatch inspection
---- Space Diversity
---- Frequency Hopping /DTX

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Antenna Tilts
M

N
A

50m

x
6 km

l
l
l
l

l
l

1 km

Point x is having problem of C/I from Cell M

Estimate the C/I improvement required at Point x.
Refer to the Antenna Vertical Pattern, and calculate the tilting angle required
Example : To get an improvement of 3 dB , a tilt of 10 degrees is required.
Tilting of Antenna in certain cases may reduce coverage also.
Tilting of Antenna should be done after proper study.

10. KPI
& Optimisation

CoCo-Channel Optimization
H

Static Power Control

Antenna Tilting

Trade Off with EC/No

Frequency Reallocation

Implementing Features like

Dynamic Power Control, DTX and
Frequency Hopping

10. KPI
& Optimisation

DRT & Queuing

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Directed Retry (DR)

DR used to avoid the loss of a call in call-setup if the accessed cell is congested
When no TCH is available in serving cell, TCH can be allocated in an adjacent cell (SDCCH TCH
HO)
Mobile Originated (MOC) and Mobile Terminated (MTC) Calls
TCH
Target cell entry based on DR Method;
SDCCH
Method 0 - RxLevAccessMin
Method 1 - drThreshold
congested
Imperative Handover (only equation 1)
Candidates ranked based on radio properties.
Steps through candidates (if congested) until MaxTimeLimitDR expires
Queuing can take place in source cell, not in target cell.

Time

minTimeLimitDR
Assignment
Request
maxTimeLimitDR

DR not allowed : improves the reliability of

the measurements of adjacent cells and gives the
queuing process time
DR allowed

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Directed Retry
macrocell
DR
DR
congestion
microcells

congestion

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Intelligent Directed Retry

Based on Directed Retry : Target Cell selection

depends on
Classmark of the MS or MS Priority
Adjacent Cell Type
Subscribers Classified in GSM or MCN
Based on Classmark ( bitmap in BSC associates
classmarks to GSM / MCN )
Based on MS Priority ( bitmap in BSC
associates MS Priorities to GSM / MCN )
Criterion defined in the BSC
DR and IDR enabled / disabled independently on cell
basis.

Parameters
IdrUsed
CellType
AdjCellType

NOKIA TELECOMMUNICATIONS

macro cell (GSM

cell)
IDR
micro cells
congestion
(MCN cells)
MCN
subscriber

No TCH Available on Accessed Cell

GSM or MCN subscriber ?
MCN => IDR in Use in the Cell ?
Yes => Directed Retry Only to MCN
Cells
No => Reject Call
GSM => DR in Use in the Cell ?
Yes => Directed Retry (any Cell)
No => Reject Call

Value
Yes/No
GSM / MCN
GSM / MCN

macro cell (GSM cell)

DR
congestion
GSM
subscriber

micro cells
(MCN cells)

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Queuing of Radio Resources

Used to avoid rejecting call set-up or HO attempt by waiting for the release of a
suitable TCH

Queuing Environment
queuing is a BTS specific procedure (controlled by the BSC)
each BTS has a queue of its own
individual queue parameters and queue management for each BTS
call attempts and handovers in the same queue
the maximum queue length is relative to the number of traffic channels
the maximum queuing time can be set individually for both queue types
the queuing can be de-activated by setting queuing time or queue length to
zero
different priorities according to queue type (call/HO) and/or MS priority
Entering the queue:

The queue is entered when there is no traffic channels available of requested

kind and if

queuing is allowed in the BTS

queuing enabled in the assignment request from MSC
queue is not full (of higher or equal priority requests)

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Queuing of Radio Resources

Prioritisation:
The placement in the queue is determined by:
queue type (priority)
call set-up
handover attempt (non-urgent)
urgent handover attempt
MS Priority level in the PIE element of Assignment Request or
Handover Request
time of entering the queue
Allocation of TCH
When a TCH is released (in either channel release or TSL/TRX lock) the
queue is checked from top to bottom in order to find a queuer whose
requirements match with the released channel
If a suitable queued call is found the TCH is allocated to the queued call and
the queue is re-organised

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Queuing of Radio Resources

Leaving the Queue
A queuer is removed from the queue when
No suitable channel is released within queuing time limit => timer expires
Higher priority subscriber (queue type and/or MS priority) replaces a lower priority
queued entry when the queue is full
The queuing TRX/TSL is blocked (call release)
Queue size is reduced due to removing TRXs

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Queuing of Radio Resources

Queuing reserves SDCCH
SDCCH occupation for call setup 7 seconds.
If maximum queuing time for calls is 10 s
=> in case of queuing 50-60 % more load on SDCCH / call
attempt!!
(2 TRXs cell) with Combined BCCH / SDCCH
If maximum queue is 50 % of TRX x 8 = 8 queuing positions
If there are 4 call attempts in queue, SDCCHs are fully
booked
no space for short messages or for location updates on
SDCCH

cell is fully overloaded!!

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Queuing of Radio Resources

Queuing and Handover

Internal inter cell Handover

Ranked list is produced by the Handover algorithm and passed to RR management

Maximum sixteen cells as alternative target cells
The best candidate with free traffic channel is selected
If all BTSs in the list are congested

queuing possibility is checked in the candidates according to ranking

External inter cell Handover
The BTS identified by the MSC in a HANDOVER_REQUEST message is used as
queuing target

Averaging and processing for HO continues during queuing

The timers for hoPeriodPBGT or hoPeriodUmbrella are stopped during
queuing

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Queuing of Radio Resources

Queuing and Directed Retry (DR)

Directed retry and queuing are parallel procedures

When the queuing and DR processes are both active for a call;
If MaxTimelImitDR expires without any DR attempt, the queuing will be terminated
even if the queuing timer(s) have not elapsed
If a TCH is released in the serving cell during the period when DR is not
allowed/allowed, DR process is terminated

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Queuing of Radio Resources

Queuing Parameters

Parameters

Values

maxQueueLength

0 ... 100 %

timeLimitCall
timeLimitHandover

0 ... 15 (s)
0 ... 10 (s)

msPriorityUsedInQueuing
queuePriorityUsed

Yes / No
Yes / No

queuingPriorityCall
queuingPriorityHandover
queuingPriorityNonUrgentHO

1 ... 14
1 ... 14
1 14

10. KPI
& Optimisation

Dropped Call Control

Radio Link Timeout

A counter is initialised at the value of the
radioLinkTimeout
When SACCH is not correctly received
Counter decremented by 1
When SACCH correctly received
Counter incremented by 2
When counter reaches 0 call is released
Same behaviour UL and DL

Parameters
radioLinkTimeout
callReestablishmentAllowed

Call re-establishment
In case of a Radio Link Failure
(radioLinkTimeout) within 20 seconds.
Measurements averaged over 5 seconds
for
serving Cell BCCH
adjacent Cell BCCHs
Strongest is considered
BCCH data decoded (cell selection
param.)
If: C1 greater than 0, Cell not barred
Cell belong to selected PLMN,
Call re-establishment allowed
Call re-establishment attempted

Values
4 ... 64 SACCH
Yes/No

10. KPI
& Optimisation

SDCCH ASSIGNMENT