Event Analysis Tutorial

INTRODUCTION
Event analysis is done in order to provide an explanation for relevant events that happen during drives. This includes Access Failures, CS and PS Drops, Application Drops, IFHO & IRAT Events and other relevant scenarios. We start our analysis for a particular UE by observing key attributes which include RSCP, EcNo, UARFCN and Technology modes(UMTS or GSM). Typically, low RSCP is due to coverage issues, event takes place far from the base station(base stations have limited range) or due to terrain issues(mountains , lakes, foliage etc). Low EcNo in areas with good coverage(RSCP) could be due to missing neighbors. Neighbor List(NL) for the frequency band under test must be carefully reviewed and NL additions must be submitted. Bad UCU cards might lead to degraded throughput on the aircards. Layer3 messaging interface in Actix(Protocol Stack) enables us to observe the messages exchanged between the server and the UE and helps us to determine the causes for events that happen during the drive. Note that the L3 messages can be expanded by clicking on the show all rows button . This is used mainly to find out reasons for application drops.

THE INTERFACE

Layer3

Basic steps to follow for Analyzing Events.

1) 2) 3) 4) Start with plotting the UE measurement( EcIo/RSCP depending on the event. Plot the relevant event(access failure/drop and so on). Open the UMTS Radio Interface and Protocol Signaling from the Protocol Stack Also open the custom form which can be used to observe the SC/RSCP/EcIo values for the active, monitored and detected set. It also displays the event id s, the layer3 message and the SC s involved in the same form. 5) Start with the L3 message where the event occurs, and observe all messages before the drop to find out the reason for the specific event. 6) Refer to the list of event abbreviations and what each event means, before working on the analysis. 7) Note that a reason for an event might not be observed in the L3 at the point where it occurs. We might have to go back and see what happens before the event.

Basic overview of L3 messages

DL interface between Base Station ->UE UL interface between UE -> Base Station All L3 messages with a prefix of DL indicates that it is sent from the UE to the server. Similarly all L3 messages with a prefix of UL are messages sent from the server to the UE. UE sends the measurement report which contain event data and RSCP, EcNo for SC in active, detected and monitored set. Base station sends measurement control information, this enables in updating active set.

Call initiation messaging

UE in idle mode, broad cast channel UE initiating call Acknowledgement from Base Station UE completes connection setup

Drops and AF Analysis

CS and PS Drops

Call Drops observed during drives

1) 2) 3) 4) Call drops can be of two types CS and PS. Normally we observe CS and PS drops during drives. These may or may not be RF related. Most of the times, the reason for a drop can be found out from observing the L3 messages. 5) Reasons for the drops are pretty much the same no matter which market the data is from. 6) However note that there are times when a reason for a drop cannot be found out from the L3.

The most common reason for a call drop is poor coverage. RSCP values are an indication of the coverage in a region. As shown below, poor coverage causes the drop

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Call Drop due to Pilot Pollution When there are too many servers in the region, the UE is unable to latch on to a single server. Note that all SC s in the active set have comparable EcNo.

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PS Call Drops are sometimes a result of huge traffic volumes caused by Buffer payloads.

Radio Link Failures Note that Radio Link failures are pegged with the drops and they are not causes for the drops. The reason for the radio link failure(i.e drop) can be found out by looking deeper in the L3

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MISSING NEIGHBOURS ANALYSIS

Indication of Missing Neighbors

1) Possibility of a Missing neighbor is indicated when we observe poor EcIo in regions with good RSCP. 2) We look in the measurement reports for e1a events( adding SC to the active set) and see if the UE is able to add the SC s present in the measurement report. 3) We take the SC s in the measurement report, find the sectors mapped to it, and find out if the sectors serving the UE is added as neighbors to it. 4) However, it does not necessarily mean that e1a events which are not completed are as a result of missing neighbors.

Missing neighbor from overshooting sector MIU40063(SC=310) to MIU32172(SC=278)

F3 Site

Access Failures

Access Failures Observed

1) One of the most common causes of Access failures are location updates performed by the UE at the same time that Agilent tries to initiate a call from it. 2) Many times we observe access failures in pairs(outgoing and incoming) 3) Incoming setup fails are caused by GPRS PDP context rejects 4) Access Failures are also observed due to poor RF conditions. 5) Absence of radio bearer reconfigurations after e1d events lead to access failures. 6) A sharp drop in the EcIo values is observed just before the e1d event.

Outgoing Setup Fails happen when the Call is trying to be setup during a location update. i.e Agilent tries to initiate a call from a UE while it is communicating with the server to perform a location update. Agilent interprets it as busy and pegs an access failure to it.

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HSDPA Outgoing Setup Fail No radio bearer reconfiguration after e1d event. The Reference cell does not change.( The UE fails to recognize the SC that it has latched on to)

Alternatively, before the e1d event, we see a sharp drop in the EcIo value when the call is setup. This results in an access failure as shown

Outgoing Setup Fail

Call Setup during GPRS Service Request

Incoming Setup Fail GPRS PDP Context rejected

Application Drops and 120s get/put

Application Drops and Timeouts

1) 120s get/put happens when the UE takes more than 120s for a single ftp download/upload session 2) Sometimes, application drops are pegged to the 120s timeout. 3) Application drops are caused by other reasons too which include winsock errors, socket exceptions and the tests being aborted by the user. 4) Note that using the IPv4/6 test in Agilent prevents the user from stopping the log file while the ftp session is in progress. 5) An easy way to find out a reason for an application drop is to plot Data Testing->Task Summary->Task failure cause. When we mouse over the plot, Actix displays the reason. We can also click on the dot displayed which will show the corresponding message in L3

Task Failure Cause

Plot Task Failure Cause Mouse over the dot to display the cause for the application drop. Clicking on it will take you to the L3 message accordingly.

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Application drop pegged to 120s get. Note that when app drops are caused by 120s get/put, we normally plot the RSCP of the UE and overlay it with the 120s get, the app drop and the ftp sessions. We show how the session starts in poor coverage thereby resulting in the download time to exceed 120s.

Reselection to F3

Plot the event task start for the ftp session

Application Drop Net Socket Exception

Reselection to F3

Application Drop

Test aborted by user

Reselection to F3

Application Drop Winsock Error

Application drops due to Winsock error occur due to problem in network. The new update has fixed this in Phoenix market.
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IFHO/IRAT in L3

Long MO IFHO Event e2d event triggered by RSCP thresholds for MIU32083(SC=238) to change to MIU32089(SC=238) . We search for the e2d(event trigger) which triggers the IFHO event. There will also be measurement control messages which will specify the EcIo or RSCP levels which triggered the UE to perform a handoff. A radio bearer reconfiguration message indicates an inter frequency handoff

Long MO IRAT event 1 e2d event when RSCP thresholds are reached for MIU32173(SC=286) to IRAT to GSM. We search for the e2d(event trigger) which triggers the IRAT event. There will also be measurement control messages which will specify the EcIo or RSCP levels which triggered the UE to perform a handoff. A Handover to GSM message indicates the technology change

Low throughputs are observed on the aircards when the UE latches on to servers from either side of the IUR Boundary

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