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Prepared by:
Ascom Network Testing
Date:
2/1/2013
Document:
NT13-16812, v2.0
Ascom (2013)
TEMS is a trademark of Ascom. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
No part of this document may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holder.
The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due to continued progress in methodology, design and
manufacturing. Ascom shall have no liability for any error or damage of any kind resulting from the use of this document.
Contents
1
Introduction ................................................................ 1
1.1
1.2
1.3
Background...............................................................................1
Aspects of Present-day Mobile Networks That Must
Inform ABM Design ..................................................................1
Requirements on ABM for 4G Mobile Networks .....................2
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.5
2.6
Examples .................................................................... 9
Conclusions ............................................................. 10
References................................................................ 10
2.4
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Introduction
1.1
Background
1.2
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In LTE and HSPA, the radio channel is a shared resource between all
users in a cell. An FTP file transfer to one user in a cell (for example,
the testing device) will significantly affect other users in that cell, as will
any other traditional drive test activity.
1.3
Taken together, the points in section 1.2 above offer enough good reasons
to devise a new method for measuring the available bandwidth: a method
specifically designed for state-of-the-art wireless technologies. The
essential requirements on such an ABM method can be stated as follows:
1. Network load. To be able to probe the limits of bandwidth availability,
the method must be capable of loading the bit-pipe up to the maximum.
At the same time, however, it must have low intrusiveness meaning
that it must keep down the time-averaged network load as far as
possible to minimize interference with regular network users.
2. Fast adaptation in time domain. The method must take into account
the properties of a radio link with Rayleigh fading conditions varying on
a millisecond time scale.
3. Adaptation to network and user equipment configuration. The
method must take into account different MIMO configurations, channel
bandwidths, and UE capability categories1.
4. Adaptation to scheduling. The method must take into account the
network schedulers mechanisms for maximizing the utilization of the
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UE capabilities are not taken into account in current TEMS product ABM implementations.
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2.1
The packet train transmissions are designed to make full use of the
maximum bandwidth, without the throughput rate being limited by slowstart or low-load scheduling mechanisms.
2.2
Measurement Procedure
Data bursts are sent at 0.5 second intervals. In between these bursts,
nothing is sent.
Each data burst consists of a number of packets sent back-to-back,
collectively referred to as a packet train.
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time
2.2.1
Example: LTE
2.2.2
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2.2.3
Accuracy Considerations
time
One TTI
Figure 2 Distribution of one ABM data burst across TTIs. The bandwidth allocated to
other users is not represented in this figure; furthermore, optimal radio
conditions are assumed. The point illustrated here is that at the beginning
and end of the burst, the ABM transmission is not competing for the whole
of a TTI.
2.3
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Below are some use cases with their associated ABM setups, designed to
achieve a good trade-off between level of intrusiveness and measurement
accuracy as discussed in section 2.2.3.
Technology
# Packets
in Packet
Train
Level of Intrusiveness
(Typical) (%)
DL
UL
ABM
Maximum
Error (%)
LTE, 20 MHz
bandwidth, 2 TBs,
Category 3 UE
58
1.5
3.0
4.5
LTE, 10 MHz
bandwidth, 2 TBs
58
2.0
4.0
1.7
LTE, 10 MHz
bandwidth, 1 TB
58
4.1
4.1
1.7
LTE, 5 MHz
bandwidth, 1 TB
58
8.2
8.2
1.8
30
1.8
6.7
HSPA, non-MIMO
16-QAM, 15 codes
30
5.5
26
6.2
WCDMA Rel. 99
15
10
60*
0.6
EGPRS
15
8.7
68*
8.7
GPRS
10
17
68*
EV-DO
20
33*
4.7
CDMA (1x)
20
16.5
16.5*
3.6
Wi-Fi
30
1.4
1.4
2.1
* The level of intrusiveness is inevitably much higher in these cases (and would be high
even if just a single packet were sent) because the data transfer is so slow.
The ABM packet train properties (packet size and interval) are selected to
suit the particular radio bearer configuration. Consequently, different ABM
setups will typically be used for different networks/operators. Likewise, as a
testing session proceeds, the ABM setup will frequently vary over time as
the UE moves between cells, or to another carrier, or switches to a different
radio access technology (for example, between a 3G WCDMA and a 4G
LTE network).
In future Ascom solutions, the plan is to use an even more flexible
implementation which continuously adjusts to the level of cross-traffic and
to the radio environment, further increasing the measurement accuracy
while maintaining the same level of intrusiveness, or in some cases even
reducing it. See chapter 4 for more on this topic.
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2.4
Figure 3 Ramp-up of ABM data rate. The "knee" in the graph is where the interpacket separation starts to exceed the interval at which the packets were
sent; that is, the point where the network can no longer provide the
bandwidth requested.
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2.5
1 second
time
Figure 4 Comparison of approaches to ABM. The black line curve indicates the true
available bandwidth as a function of time. The red bars represent TEMS
ABM data bursts. Near-maximum bandwidth is attained for the second ABM
data burst. The blue area represents ABM performed by means of an FTP
data transfer (1 s segment). The average throughput over one second is
substantially below the maximum throughput reached.
There is, in fact, an additional and grave shortcoming to using FTP with
currently available UEs: it has proven impossible during LTE network
testing to reach bit rates higher than about 60 Mbit/s (one-second average)
even in perfect radio conditions and with no other users present. The
bottleneck here is the UE processor, whose performance is hampered by
the tasks imposed on it by the UE operating system (running applications,
background processes, etc.). Since the packet trains used in Ascoms ABM
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2.6
Examples
The picture below shows a live test with two devices, one running Ascom
ABM (red line for downlink, green for uplink) and the other one running FTP
download (blue line). Both devices are in the same cell, using HSPA with
10 codes. The cross-traffic is unknown. As can be seen, the available
bandwidth correlates very well between the two devices.
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Future Work
To further reduce the impact on the shared radio resources, the ABM
procedure should be made adaptive to the rapidly varying radio
environment. For example, the algorithm might adapt to the channel
rank controlling MIMO usage, or to other channel state information
measured by the UE and reported to the network.
For HSPA, just as for LTE, the ABM procedure should adjust to the
highly dynamic radio configuration. This is very important in order to
lower the level of ABM intrusiveness. At one extreme, an HSPA cell
using higher-order modulation (64-QAM), dual carriers, and MIMO over
the air interface, can provide up to 82 Mbit/s downlink throughput if the
RF environment is good enough. Compare this to a cell where the
uplink is HSUPA with 10 ms TTI, offering a maximum throughput of
2 Mbit/s: that is, 40 times less.
Conclusions
References
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