Systems and Capacity Planning

GENERAL OPTIMISATION TIPS

Prepared By: Approved By: Approved By: Document Reference: Issue Number: Date Issued: Document Version: Priority:

Amol Kshirsagar Helen Jones Graham Webb CR/GUIDE/0183 2.0 16th May 2003 V1 High

Accessibility
Symptom
SDCCH Congestion

Causes
SDCCH Availability

Action
Check SDCCH availability using visa script. RBS200, sometimes the timeslot goes into sleeping mode, therefore even though they show 100 % availability of SDCCH, they will not take any traffic. Check the RLCRP command on switch several times looking for timeslots status. Timeslots will be either in Idle / Busy state and not in Blocked state. If you run this command 2-3 times you should see the status for some channels changing. This shows that they are not in sleeping mode. However if all the Timeslots remain in Idle mode then there is possibly a problem. To solve this the timeslots need to blocked and then unblocked. Check alarm for SDCCH availability using allip:acl=a2; Check on Clarify whether case is open for cell. If not, open a Clarify case for an Availability fault. Check the BA list for the cell using the visa script. If BA list is missing any / all MBCCHNOs, raise a DT to add the missing MBCCHNO in BA list.

Impact on GPRS
There will be no impact on GPRS

Script /VGis
GSM_CCH_C ELL RLCRP

Missing / Incomplete BA List

There will be no impact on GPRS GSM_BALIST _CHECK RLMFP LA Extraction

Identify reason for SDCCH use. Whether it is for MO Call, MTC call or Location Update. You can check this using VISA script GSM_CCH_CELL High Check the location of the cell using the RPT Location area extraction. Due to a CRH change, there will be less renumber of selection during data transfer mode, which is If the cell is on a Location area border, increasing the CRH value will cause a reduction in the Location good for GPRS users. But if you increase number of times this cell is selected and therefore the number of location updates. Currently the updates. CRH to value like 10 or more, it may result in default CRH =6 (db), you can try CRH=8 (db). Dont forget to put this change in Cell Profile. more re-transmissions. After doing this change monitor the statistics for this cell, concentrating on CCH as well as TCH A reduction in CRO will make the cell less performance of cell and its ncells. attractive for GPRS .If you didnt want to use Check the predicated coverage of cell, terrain of the area, antenna downtilt. This will show where a cell for GPRS then this is one method of the cell serves and its coverage area. Run CTR for cell release to know serving TA value. You can discouraging GPRS traffic. make cell less attractive by using CRO. We have CRO=0 for Macro (900 and 1800). You can try A GPRS cell serving a RA border will show a using CRO=2 (4dB), PT=31. Normally you should have same coverage of cell in idle as well as high amount of Uplink data but Average dedicated mode. Changing value of CRO will reduce the coverage of cell in idle mode. So you throughput figure will be low as during RA need to reduce value MSRXMIN so as to have the same coverage in idle as well as dedicated update a very small amount of data is mode. You can try the value of MSRXMIN=100. transferred. In throughput calculations a minimum 8Kbit of data has to be transferred. High no. of You can make a cell less attractive by using CRO. We have CRO=0 for Macro (900 and1800). Reduction in CRO will make the cell less Call set up You can try CRO=2 (4dB), PT=31. Normally you should have same coverage of cell in idle as attractive for GPRS. Bids well as dedicated mode. Changing value of CRO will reduce coverage of cell in idle mode. So you Check TBF Multiplexing for the cell as a need to reduce the value MSRXMIN so as to have same coverage in idle as well as dedicated reduction of TCH will increase TBF mode. You can try value of MSRXMIN=100.Dont forget to put these changes in Cell Profile and multiplexing, result is reduction in GPRS Siteprob database. Throughput. Check whether the cell is the dominant server in the area. If so, you may need to increase the SDCCH. But before doing this you should see TCH traffic for cell as increasing SDCCH will reduce number of TCH. Also Dont forget to put these changes in Cell Profile. For all parameter changes update Cell profile and Siteprob database.

Default NOD

Symptom TCH Congestion

Cause TCH Availability

Action Check TCH availability using visa script. Use ERIC_ALARM script to check for hardware faults. The following link gives the mapping of fault code and suspected faulty hardware http://view1/ops/oandm/ntsrv/EricBSS/btsfcods.htm Check on Clarify whether a case is open for the cell. If not, open Clarify case for a TCH Availability fault. Check the BA list for cell using the visa script. If the BA list is missing any / all MBCCHNOs, raise a DT to add the MBCCHNO in BA list. Check whether Half Rate is activated for the cell, a Celload value other than 255, means that half rate is active. We have Half Rate activated for 900 Macro and Indoors with a Celload value of 15 (when 15% of resources are available, Half Rate is activated). You can activate half rate earlier by increasing the Celload value to 30 (when 30% of resources are available) You can reduce congestion by diverting traffic to other cells. This can be done using the Assignment to Worse feature. We have AW=ON for 1800 and SLM as a default. If your cell is 900 Macro, you can activate AW feature to other less congested cells. You need to specify the signal difference. Between serving cell and worse cell using AWOFFSET. Presently we have AWOFFSET = 63 between Micro to Macro. If your cell is 1800 macro, you can try value of 10 towards 900 macro. You can also put AWOFFSET=63 for 1800 Macro towards 900 Macro of same sector provided 900 Sector is not congested. You can divert traffic towards non-congested cells during BH using cell load sharing (CLS). Currently the default value for RHYST = 75%. You can a try value of 100%, (this removes the Hystersis border between the cells). In our network, CLS triggers when 14 % of resources are left and half rate triggers when 15 % of resources are left. Therefore, if you are planning to implement this change, you need to activate CLSLEVEL before activating half rate. After implementing, you need to check whether Ping-Pong handovers have increased or not. If your cell is a lower layer cell, you can restrict the incoming traffic by changing HCS parameters. It could be either by Layer Timer or Layer Threshold. The Layer timer PSTMTEMP has a default value of 3 sec, and you can try a value of 6 sec. The Layer threshold LAYERTHR depends upon which layer the cell is defined. You can try a value of 80 for SLM or 83 for a 1800 Macro. When changing Layer parameters you need to ensure that any External BSC parameters are updated manually (RECORD fault). You can force the MS to make earlier handovers to neighbours using KOFFSET. Presently we have KOFFSET=0, you can try KOFFSET -4 to make early handover for a particular cell pair. When raising the DT you need to put KOFFSETN=4. If the cells are on different BSCs, then for the cell that you are trying to make early handover from you need to put KOFFSETN =4 and for the other (External) Ncell you need to put KOFFSETP=4. (RECORD fault). Check the cells' requirements in the Radio Capacity Plan.. If an expansion is required for the cell, check the date when it is going to happen either with Deployment or with Implementation. If feasible a Tactical Expansion can be requested

Impact on GPRS There will be increase of PS Immediate assignment rejects, TBF Multiplexing and a reduction in GPRS Throughput. There will be increase of PS Immediate assignment rejects, TBF Multiplexing and a reduction in GPRS Throughput. Although GPRS MS does not support Half Rate, this change will reduce TBF multiplexing and will improve GPRS throughput, as more resources are available. The actions mentioned here will improve GPRS performance. These should reduce the number of PS Immediate Assignment Rejects, TBF multiplexing and increase GPRS throughput.

Script /VGis GSM_TCH_C ELL ERIC_ALAR M GSM_BALIST _CHECK RLMFP GCELL , RLDEP

Missing Incomplete BA List Half Rate

Traffic Distribution

GCELL RLLOP RLNRP RLLHP RLLCP

Quality of service
Symptom Dropping Suddenly Increase in Number of TCH Drop Cause Change of Parameter Hardware Problem Action Use GSM_DROP_CELL to check the performance of the cell for the last month to see when the increase started. Use NICS log check the parameter change for cell or its neighbour. Check TCH availability using a visa script. Check alarm for TCH availability using allip:acl=a2; Use the ERIC_ALARM script to check for a hardware fault. The following link gives the mapping of fault code and suspected faulty hardware http://view1/ops/oandm/ntsrv/EricBSS/btsfcods.htm Check on Clarify whether a case is open for cell. If not, open Clarify case for TCH Availability. Check the BA list for cell using the visa script. If BA list is missing any / all MBCCHNOs, raise DT to add MBCCHNO in the BA list. Use visa to check the handover performance for the cell. If you find that for some external Ncells, that there are no successful handovers but only attempts and all have failed due to congestion, then this could be due to missing or incorrect definitions on the BSC or MSC. Check missing definition using visa script. Check whether any Ncells have been deleted or if any Ncells are not on air. Impact on GPRS Check GPRS performance of cell. Script /VGis NICS, GCELL

There will be increase of PS Immediate assignment rejects, TBF Multiplexing and reduction in GPRS Throughput.

GSM_TCH_CE LL ERIC_ALARM

Missing/ Incomplete BA List Handover

There will be increase of PS Immediate assignment rejects, TBF Multiplexing and a reduction in GPRS Throughput. Missing/incorrect definition will not impact GPRS service. If any of the Ncell is not on air, the cell will have TCH congestion. There will be increase of PS Immediate assignment rejects, TBF Multiplexing, DL BLER and reduction in the GPRS throughput.

GSM_BALIST_ CHECK RLMFP MGCOP, MGCEP ERIC_HANDO VER_CELLPAI R RLDEP RLNRP ERIC_HANDO VER_CELLPAI R RXCDP RLCRP

Drops due to Downlink Quality

Downlink Interference

Using the Visa Handover script, identify cell pairs that have a high number of handover attempts due to Downlink quality. Use the RPT check to see if is due to CCI/ACI and if it is, plan a retune for cell. After doing the retune put the source cell and its interfere in an exclusion file so that same frequency will not be planned after any future retune for cell. If you are not able to identify source of interference, turn Hopping Off and then check for high values of ICM for individual timeslots using RLCRP. This command will tell you BPC (Basic Physical Channel). Use RXCDP to identify the frequency with a high ICM. Follow the same procedure mentioned above for doing a retune.

If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput.

Coverage

There are situations when statistics show that drops are due to Downlink quality, however this may not always be the case as the drops may be due to poor coverage. In such cases you need to check the layer and layer threshold for the cell. We have SLM defined as Layer 1 with Layer Threshold of 89, 1800 Macro as Layer 2 with Layer Threshold of 87, you can reduce this value so that it will make early handover to higher layer. You can try a value 80 for SLM, or 83 for 1800 macro. A change of Layer Threshold will help when the cells are on different layers. If the cells are on the same layer, then you need to change value of KOFFSET. Presently we have KOFFSET=0, you can try KOFFSET -4 to make early handover for a particular cell pair. When raising the DT you need to put KOFFSETN=4. If the cells are on different BSCs, then for the cell that you are trying to make early handover from you need to put KOFFSETN =4 and for the other (External) cell you need to put KOFFSETP=4.

If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput.

ERIC_HANDO VER_CELLPAI R RLLHP RLNRP

Symptom Drops due to Uplink Quality

Cause Uplink Interference Coverage

Action Use RPT to check the coverage area for the cell. . Run CTR for the cell to check serving TA values. Using RPT see whether there is frequency problem in area of TA value. See which frequency is reused in these areas. Do a retune for suspected frequency. If the cell serves with a high TA value you can make the cell less attractive by using CRO. We have CRO=0 for Macro (900 and1800). You can try value CRO=2 (4dB), PT=31. Normally you should have same coverage of cell in idle as well as dedicated mode. Changing value of CRO will reduce coverage of cell in idle mode. So you need to reduce value MSRXMIN to have the same coverage area in idle as well as dedicated mode. You can try value of MSRXMIN=100. There could be problem in the antenna or feeder. Check the ASC database for the condition of the feeder or any information on the antennas. If there is no information about antenna or feeder condition, you can raise a Clarify case to have antenna and feeders checked. Check Clarify to see if there is any open case for faulty hardware. There are fewer things that can be tried in such a situation. Such problem occurs in areas where cell is serving a Tube or tunnel. To confirm this you can run CTR for this cell for Cell Release. From CTR check both Uplink and Downlink signal strength. In the CTR if you find any cell that is a better server than this cell, then you can initiate early handover to that cell using KOFFSET. If cell that you are looking is on a lower layer and if you find that a cell from higher layer is stronger in CTR, you can make early handover to higher layer using layer threshold. For 1800 cells you can try 83, for SLM you can try 80. When changing Layer parameters you need to ensure that any External BSC parameters are updated manually (RECORD fault). There could be problem in the antenna or feeder. Check the ASC database for the condition of the feeder or any information on the antennas. If there is no information about antenna or feeder condition, you can raise a Clarify case to have antenna and feeders checked. Check Clarify to see if there is any fault in the hardware. There are fewer things that can be tried in such a situation. Such problem occurs in areas where cell is serving a Tube or tunnel. To confirm this you can run CTR for this cell for Cell Release. From CTR check both Uplink and Downlink signal strength. In the CTR if you find any cell that is a better server than this cell, then you can initiate early handover to that cell using KOFFSET. If cell that you are looking is on a lower layer and if you find that a cell from higher layer is stronger in CTR, you can make early handover to higher layer using layer threshold. For 1800 cells you can try 83, for SLM you can try 80. When changing Layer parameters you need to ensure that any External BSC parameters are updated manually (RECORD fault).

Impact on GPRS If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput. If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput. If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput. If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput.

Script /VGis CTR

RLSBP RLLOP

Antenna feeder hardware problem Drops due to BL Signal strength Coverage

/ /

ASC CLARIFY

CTR RLNRP RLLHP

Drops due to sudden loss

Hardware Fault

Coverage

If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput. User may see high percentage of DL BLER due to which there will be poor throughput.

ASC CLARIFY

CTR RLNRP RLLHP

Symptom Drops due to Uplink Signal strength

Cause Coverage

Action Use NCS to find any undefined Ncells. If you find that the undefined Ncells have Weighting 1 of more than 1% then check the location to see if it is a suitable Ncell. If you find it OK then raise a DT for a Ncell addition. Run CTR for the cell to check serving TA values. If the TA values are high you can restrict the coverage. You can make cell less attractive by using CRO. We have CRO=0 for Macro (900 and1800). You can try value CRO=2 (4dB), PT=31. Normally you should have same coverage of cell in idle as well as dedicated mode. Changing value of CRO will reduce coverage of cell in idle mode. So you need to reduce value MSRXMIN so as to have the same coverage in idle as well as dedicated mode. You can try value of MSRXMIN=100. You can force the MS to make earlier handovers to neighbours using KOFFSET. Presently we have KOFFSET=0, you can try KOFFSET -4 to make early handover for a particular cell pair. When raising the DT you need to put KOFFSETN=4. If the cells are on different BSCs, then for the cell that you are trying to make early handover from you need to put KOFFSETN =4 and for the other (External) Ncell you need to put KOFFSETP=4. (RECORD fault). Check whether a TMA can be installed on this site to improve the performance. If after trying the above there is insufficient improvement, then check if new sites are planned in the area and when they are going to become live. If there are no planned of new sites, check the cells' downtilt (both mechanical and electrical). If there is insufficient downtilt , calculate downtilt using following

Impact on GPRS Adding Ncells will not help GPRS performance if the frequency of Ncell is already in the BA list. Applying a negative CRO will make the cell less attractive for GPRS.

Script /VGis NCS CTR RLSBP RLLOP RLNRP

a
Vertical

h q
D

D3

Figure shows the main lobe of an antenna (dark brown line) touching the ground D meters away from the antenna. The upper 3 dB point (dashed blue line) is reaching the ground at D3.

Symptom

Cause

Action We know from trigonometry that Tan q = h / D To calculate the value of down-tilt: q = Tan-1 (h / D) But this method does NOT calculate the location of upper 3-db point. To consider the location of the upper 3dB point of the vertical beam STEP I: Decide distance D3. This would set a value the cell footprint. STEP II: Calculate a = Tan-1 (h / D3) STEP III: The value of down tilt q = a + (vertical beamwidth/2) Based on this new downtilt produce coverage plots and check the impact using the RPT to see whether it will solve the problem. Discuss these changes with the C and T planner and if the changes are practical request that the changes are made. If the cell is from lower layer, you can make early handover to higher layer. This can be achieved by changing layer threshold .We have SLM defined as Layer 1 with Layer Threshold of 89, 1800 Macro as Layer 2 with Layer Threshold of 87, you can reduce this value so that it will make early handover to higher layer. You can try a value 80 for SLM, or 83 for 1800 macro. There could be problem in the antenna or feeder. Check the ASC database for the condition of the feeder or any information on the antennas. If there is no information about antenna or feeder condition, you can raise a Clarify case to have antenna and feeders checked. Check Clarify to see if there is any open case for faulty hardware.

Impact on GPRS

Script /VGis

Coverage Drops due to Uplink Signal strength

Antenna feeder hardware problem

/ /

If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput.

ASC

Handovers
Symptom Handover due to Quality Cause Downlink Interference Action Using the Visa Handover script, identify cell pairs that have a high number of handover attempts due to Downlink quality. Use the RPT check to see if is due to CCI/ACI and if it is, plan a retune for cell. After doing the retune put the source cell and its interfere in an exclusion file so that same frequency will not be planned after any future retune for cell. If you are not able to identify source of interference, turn Hopping Off and then check for high values of ICM for individual timeslots using RLCRP. This command will tell you BPC (Basic Physical Channel). Use RXCDP to identify the frequency with a high ICM. Follow the same procedure mentioned above for doing a retune. There are situations when statistics show that drops are due to Downlink quality, however this may not always be the case as the drops may be due to poor coverage. In such cases you need to check the layer and layer threshold for the cell. We have SLM defined as Layer 1 with Layer Threshold of 89, 1800 Macro as Layer 2 with Layer Threshold of 87, you can reduce this value so that it will make early handover to higher layer. You can try value 80 for an SLM, or 83 for a 1800 macro. Change of Layer Threshold will help when the cells are on different layers. If the cells are on the same layer, then you need to change value of KOFFSET. Presently we have KOFFSET=0, you can try KOFFSET - 4 to make early handover for a particular cell pair. When raising the DT you need to put KOFFSETN=4. If the cells are on different BSCs, then for the cell that you are trying to make early handover from you need to put KOFFSETN =4 and for the other cell you need to put KOFFSETP=4. Use RPT to check the coverage area for the cell. . Run CTR for the cell to check serving TA values. Using RPT see whether there is frequency problem in area of TA value. See which frequency is reused in these areas. Do a retune for suspected frequency. If the cell serves with a high TA value you can make the cell less attractive by using CRO. We have CRO=0 for Macro (900 and1800). You can try value CRO=2 (4dB), PT=31. Normally you should have same coverage of cell in idle as well as dedicated mode. Changing value of CRO will reduce coverage of cell in idle mode. So you need to reduce value MSRXMIN to have the same coverage area in idle as well as dedicated mode. You can try value of MSRXMIN=100. There could be problem in the antenna or feeder. Check the ASC database for the condition of the feeder or any information on the antennas. If there is no information about antenna or feeder condition, you can raise a Clarify case to have antenna and feeders checked. Check Clarify to see if there is any fault in the hardware. Due to this error handovers will be attempted to wrong cells. To rectify this problem, identify which Ncells have the same BSIC/BCCH. Check their locations using the RPT. Identify whether both should be Ncells or not. If you find that one of them is not required to be an Ncell then raise a DT to remove the Ncell. But if you think that both should be defined as Ncells then you need to re-plan the BSIC of one of the Ncells (NCC=0-7, BCC=0-7). Use Visa to check the handover performance. If you find that for some external Ncells there are no Succ. Handovers, only attempts that have failed due to Cong, then this could be due to missing or wrong definition on MSC or BSC. Check the definitions using Visa and if they are incorrect or missing then raise a DT to correct. Impact on GPRS If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput. Script /VGis ERIC_HANDO VER_CELLPAI R RLCRP RXCDP RLLHP RLNRP

Uplink Interference

If the GPRS user is in a high interference area, you will see a high value for BLER and poor GPRS Throughput.

CTR RLSBP RLLHP ASC CLARIFY

No Handovers/ High Handover fails Co BSIC/BCCH Missing definition on switch

GCELL

MGOCP, MGCEP, RLDEP