ranalysis short prod description 052011

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RANalysisRAN Analysis for UMTS Radio Engineers

RADCOM Ltd., 2010


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RANalysis: Short Product Description

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Introduction

RANalysis was designed for radio engineers, to help them understand radioproblems and make radio analysis both simpler and faster.

RANalysis is used by UMTS operators for:

Probe-based troubleshooting UTRAN monitoring Supporting Optimization / Planning

RANalysis saves history data for long periods, and monitors:

All known vendors of RNCs: Ericsson, ALU, Nokia, Huawei, ZTE, etc. Iu/Iub interfaces for full RNC area Iur interface with border area of RNC

Problems with Radio Network Quality

In a UMTS network deployment, the radio network is the most expensive part

for the service provider. This part, known as the Radio Access Network (RAN) is

also the most sensitive to environmental or usage changes, such as:

Topographical and urban condition changes, such as a new building builtopposite the cell, which may cause the mobile users locations and traffic

behavior to vary constantly

Widely varying radio capacity demand, because of new users or newlylaunched services

The optimization of the RAN is an ongoing challenge, with the Service Provider

making every effort to correct the radio interruptions and failures. As soon as

the network becomes commercial and is loaded with real traffic, problematicissues may be identified that are a direct result of low-quality planning due to:

A UMTS network planned by GSM planners High sites, used to increase coverage and speed up the implementation

process, cause pilot pollution and interference

Financially driven antenna strategies that lead to poor 2G site reuse Tight rollout schedules Immature technology (compared to GSM)


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Default parameters that are not always optimalThese issues resulting from the network planning and installation will cause

radio problems that should be identified and fixed in order to avoid low Qualityof Service.


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Challenges of Optimization

Each cellular service provider has a radio-optimization group that deals with thedaily task of tuning the RAN to support subscribers needs. They should focus onthree particularly important optimization challenges for the UMTS cell sites:

Traffic Load BalancingThe fundamental problem of traffic loading is that cellular traffic is distributed

unevenly among different geographical areas of the network. In fact, even

within cells, traffic tends to be distributed unevenly among the sectors. Suchimbalance has the effect of tying up network capacity in under-utilized sectors

while causing blocking problems in the most heavily used sectors. Balancing thetraffic load among the sectors of a cell relieves the blocking and creates space

for traffic growth. A targeted traffic load-balancing strategy allows more trafficgrowth and more efficient use of infrastructure and spectrum across the entire

network.

Handover Overhead Management

Another aspect of WCDMA optimization that directly affects cell site capacity isthe management of handover overhead. The soft/softer handover feature of the

WCDMA air interface improves the quality and reliability of WCDMA calls.However, because a given mobile may be in contact with two or more cells orsectors at any given time, soft/softer handover implies a significant cost in

capacity. After measuring the pilot strength in the area, the size of handover

zones within the cell footprint should be decreased. Handover zones should beshifted from high-traffic areas to low-traffic areas.

Interference ControlInterference directly limits capacity of WCDMA cell sites. One of the biggestinterference problems in WCDMA networks is pilot pollution. Pilot pollution is

often caused by high-elevation sites with RF coverage footprints much larger

than normal. The solution is to reduce the size of the coverage footprint. Thiscan be accomplished by reducing the elevation of offending antennas,introducing downtilt, or reducing the transmitted power.


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RANalysis Capabilities

Troubleshooting of the User PlaneRANalysis monitors data quality by continuous recording of the user plane overthe Iu interface full PS data, speech and video.

The user plane is analyzed and correlated to radio conditions:

EcNO RSCP

RSSI (in compressed mode) User throughput (Iu-PS) correlated with radio conditions

Figure 1 User Throughput


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Pre-defined Reports for UTRAN Optimization /Planning

RANalysis contains many existing reports:

Intra-frequency neighboring matrix, with recommendations to add or deleteneighboring.

Coverage (RSCP-EcNO) reports (per cell and per cluster of cells)

Figure 2 Coverage reports for individual cells

Inter-RAT neighboring matrix Inter-frequency neighboring matrix RRC propagation delay report detection of cell over-shooters HSDPA mobility report for HO planning HSPA coverage report Cell load - DL SF code usage per cell (resolution of 1 sec.) Active set effective usage detection of too-overlapped or isolated cells Drop calls troubleshooting Cell common measurement statistics TCP and RTWP (resolution of 1 sec.) Inter-RAT ping pong syndrome (GSM UMTS) Overlapping Overshooting


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Figure 3 Ping-Pong syndrome per Cell-ID


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Simple TroubleshootingRANalysis provides a simple way to find:

The call flow for each unit of user equipment (UE) on the monitored RNC.

Figure 4 Call flow for each UE session

The call flow for every UE on the monitored cell or cluster of cells. The call flow for roamers in the network. A List of most problematic IMSIs (UE that generates many errors) A List of most problematic UE models


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Figure 5 Most problematic UE models


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General StatisticsRANalysis generates statistics and KPIs for UTRAN activities such as: Distribution

of RRC drops by Cell-IDs:

Figure 6 Various KPI reports

Distribution of RRC drops by scenario Distribution of RRC drops by EcNO, RSCP levels Inter-RAT HO to GSM caused by low RSCP, EcNO,etc. Unsuccessful paging ratio Successful call ratio for voice, video PS sessions

Custom-defined StatisticsRANalysis provides a simple way to build KPIs for Iub-Iu-Iur interfaces:

KPIs based on protocols RRC, L3, NBAP, RNSAP, RANAP etc. KPI trends

Figure 7 KPI Trending

KPI alarms KPI distribution by parameter (for example, RRC drops ratio by service)


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Figure 8 KPI distribution by End Cause

Benefits of RANalysis

1. RADCOMs RANalysis is like no other radio analyzer on the market, because of:a. Expert commentator problem location information, immediatelyb. Detailed analysis for various key metrics, such as: Intra-frequency,

SHO, PD, and Pilot Pollution

c. Drill-down capabilities from all levels to signaling and radio analysis2. Supports all HSDPA/HSUPA analysis3. Analyzesdata services and correlates with radio quality4. Helps operators solve problems and show real network improvements5. Increases effectiveness of RF optimization6. Better customer experience by improving RANs

a. Coverageb. Capacityc. QoS

7. Directly leads to CAPEX & OPEX savings by:a. Enabling usage of fewer drive tests by pointing the drive test to specific

RAN elements

b. Reducing volume of customer complaintsc. Reducing infrastructure costs due to resource optimization

8. Compatible with all UTRAN vendors9. Collects and analyzes data for long durations


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10.Supports Iur to optimize the RNCs border quality

ranalysis short prod description 052011

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