Optimization Tips for Nokia

System
1: SDCCH Sucess Rate / CSSR
SDCCH Success Rate Analysis-Nokia System-1
Possible :
•

 Interference on BCCH frequency

 SDCCH Blocking
 SD Drop on Location Update
 A_If, TRC or LAPD Fail
 HW faulty
 Excessive TA

Data Collection :
•

 ND Report 72 to check BCCH clearance

 Alarm Log
 TA distribution ND Report 232
 Quality and Link Balance ND Report 195 and 196.
 Interference UL and ND 196

SDCCH Success Rate Analysis-Nokia System-2

Problem Analysis :
1. Check possibility Co. or Adj. Interference and clear the BCCH frequency.
2. Check SDCCH utilization and add SDCCH if needed.
3. Change TRP or change SDCCH allocation on TRX with good quality based on ND 196.
4. Check TRX alarm (mostly 7745 together with7743 or 7746). Check TRX configuration.
5. Check TA distribution, coverage distribution and propose physical tune.
6. Optimizing parameter C2 also if Location update is the highest contributor of SD Drop.
7. Highest contributor: Fail on RADIO, ABIS, A_IF, TR or LAPD.
8. Check TRX alarm (mostly 7745 alone or together with 7743)
9. Check rxLevAccessMin and Max Number of Retransmission. Check RACH Rejected and SDCCH
request (fails or ghost).
2: HOSR Analysis
HOSR Analysis-Tips on Nokia system-1
Possibilities :
•

 Co or Adjacent BCCH
 High TCH Blocking on target cell
 Wrong TSC setting regarding BSIC allocation
 Bad Neighbor Relation
 HW faulty or Unbalance TRX power among a sector
 Others ( Inter BSC-Inter MSC)

Preparation Data :
1.

 BCCH, BSIC planning, ND report 072

 Cell Stat or TQM of HO distribution and ND report 153
 Alarm (ZEOH & ZEOL) and site visit
 Timing Advance 232
 Adjacent Consistency Check ND060, 62 or 69
 ND Report 73 to check Undefined Neighbor.

HOSR Analysis-Tips on Nokia system-2

Problem Analysis

1. Check possibility Co. or Adj. Interference then change BCCH frequency.

2. Check neighbor traffic & TCH blocking, check possibility for traffic sharing or directed retry.
3. TSC value should be same with BCC, check performance HO out and incoming.
4. Parameter setting ADJE to make delay on worst target cell or faster HO on best target, focused on High
HO Fail. Relate parameter FMT or AUCL.
5. Check TRX alarm (mostly 7745 together with 7743 or 7746). Check TRX configuration.
6. Optimize coverage from TA distribution or update missing Neighbor from ND 73.
7. Check the highest handover cause: by interference, quality, level, power budget, GPRS, etc. Check for
the highest HO failure: by Blocked, Conn. Fail., Return to Old, End of HO,etc. The highest value is
possible as the highest contribution of HO fail.

3: TCH Drop Analysis / DCR

KPI Analysis on Nokia system-TCH drop-1
Hi All
some guidelines for optimization on Nokia system
The first KPI is TCH drop and Its analysis.

Possibilities :
- Interference on BCCH TRX
- Interference on hopping TRX(DL Interference)
- External Interference (UL interference)
- Bad Neighbor Relation (bad HO)
- Low Coverage
- HW Faulty or TRX Power Unbalance
- Other : A_If, TR or LAPD Fail
Some Important Reports number for Nokia system to analyze the TCH drop:

Preparation Data :
- BCCH Planning, ND report 072 (DL Interference distribution)
- ND Report 216, 196 and Alarm (Interference)
- ND Report 204, 153, 195 ( HO fail and Path Balance)
- ND Report 232 ( Coverage cell)
- ND Report 163 or TQM drop per causes

KPI Analysis on Nokia system-TCH drop-2

Problem Analysis:
1. Check possibility Co. or Adj. Interference. Check clean BCCH frequency.
2. Check DL quality Distribution and Check MAL and MAIO
3. Check UL quality Distribution, check UL interference Pwr Contrl setting to compensate interference.
4. Check % of HO fail from adjacencies, focused on High HO Fail. Check TCH_RF_HO_OLD. Check
possibility to add some neighbor. Try to prevent un proper HO and use FMT to reduce drop.
5. Check best serving cell, possibility HO to best serving cell (Macro or Indoor) make it faster to prevent
drop.
6. Check TRX alarm (mostly 7745 together with 7743 or 7746). Check TRX configuration or reset TRX if
needed.
7. Check TA distribution, coverage spillage and proposed physical tune.
8. Check and compare which one the highest: Fail on RADIO, ABIS, A_IF, TR or LAPD.
we use 2g NSN network too , and SDCCH drop rate for a few sector extremely high.

NSN support team suggested to :

1- Check whether Abis interface is stable using PA.

2- Add another SDCCH channel to the TRX suffering from SDCCH drop
3- Change TS of SDDCH to another TS in TRX
4- Replace BB2 & TRX with new ones
5- Change connector & Cable and even antenna if SDCCH drop continues.
6- Measure interferance,
7- ensure that there is no POWER issue in the site, ( DC power fluctuation)
8- Poor Coverage issue, may be the reason.... etc

i have observed that SDDCH drop as you mentioned it is related to Abis failure
Main reason in Abis Fialure is T3101 timer expiry,
i don't know how to improve T3101 timer expiry situation ,
if you have any idea , pls share it with us ,
Main BSS oriented KPIs
• PCH success: helps in dimensionning CCCH resources, may affect MS pageability
• RACH success: helps in dimensionning CCCH resources, may affect MS access to the
network
• AGCH success: helps in the dimensionning CCCH resources, may affect MS access to
the network
• SDCCH traffic: helps in dimensionning signalling resources

• SDCCH availability: informs about available SDCCH resources

• SDCCH load: helps in anticipating SDCCH upgrade and shows efficiency of the use of
signalling resources
• SDCCH blocking: lack of SDCCH resources, directly affects call setup failure, billing has
not started, action needed urgently
• SDCCH congestion
• SDCCH access probability: 1-SDCCH blocking
• SDCCH drop rate: may affect call setup failure, action needed
• SDCCH success ratio

• TCH traffic: helps in dimensionning TCH resources, traffic is money

• TCH usage
• TCH holding time
• TCH availability: informs about TCH resources available
• TCH load: helps in anticipating TCH upgrade and shows efficiency of the use of traffic
resources
• TCH blocking: directly affects call setup failure, billing has not started, action needed
urgently
• TCH congestion
• TCH denied for call request
• TCH drop rate: directly affects dropped call rate, billing has stopped, action needed
• TCH success ratio after assignment

• RxQuality: directly linked to Bit Error Rate, may affect call quality in the case that the
system does not succeed in correcting the erroneous bits
• DL/UL Cumulative Quality < 5
• Frame Erasure Rate: affect call quality, directly perceived by the end-user
• Frequency Load: together with quality indicators (FER and dropped call rate) shows the
efficiency of the spectrum usage
• Ho distribution
• Ho failure per adjacency
• Ho success rate

Segment/Cell/Sector/BTS monitoring (Bad cell)

• Paging deleted
• Paging buffer
• RACH load
• SDCCH blocking rate
• SDCCH failure rate
• TCH blocking rate
• TCH failure rate
• Handover failure rate
• Handover cause UL quality/interference
• Handover cause DL quality interference
• Drop of number of SDCCH requests
• Drop of TCH traffic
• Few incoming handovers
• Few normal calls

TRX (Bad TRX)

• Bad RxQuality UL 0
• Bad RxQuality DL 0
• Bad RxQuality UL 7
• Bad RxQuality DL 7
• Idle UL interference out of band 1
• High RxLevUL – RxLevDL
• High RxLevDL – RxLevUL

Adjacencies (Bad Adj)

• High handover failures per adjacency basis
• High handover blocking per adjacency basis
• No or few handovers per adjacency basis

SDCCH failure analysis example

• Can be taken out from Network Doctor report 166
• Sorted by SDCCH drop total rate
• Filtered by SDCCH bids (seizures) > 100
OR
• Sorted by SDCCH drop radio rate
• Filtered by SDCCH bids (seizures) > 100
• Formula : SDCCH success ratio, SDCCH Drop ratio
• Target value : SDCCH drop total < 10%
SDCCH drop radio < 3%

Ghost SDCCH

• Double-Access /Multiple reservations due to co-Bsic, co-BCCH. Check and improve

frequency plan.
• RACH retransmissions/Multiple reservations due to bad coverage or interference and high
numberOfRachRetransmissions. Lower RACH retransmission parameter value. Check and
improve frequency plan and/or downtilt.
• RACH retransmissions/Multiple reservations due to mass paging deleted. During festivals/
holidays/ concerts many subscribers are located at the same LAC, paging and rach load
increases considerably. Consider LAC optimization, Abis expansion, paging group
optimization, reduce paging repeat & rach retransmission times during busy hour.

Radio Fails
• Check alarms and RxQuality report to verify whether there is a badly functioning TRX. Fix
hardware problem. Check antenna line.
• Coverage. Verify TA report and planning tool.
• Interference. Check Frequency Plan. Solution e.g. add sites, downtilt antennas, increase
RxLevAccessMin.
• Extended coverage of cells in location area borders. Check LU parameters and/or downtilt
• 100% ABIS Fails
• Failure in BTS software (BCSU reset in BSC).
• 100% AIF Fails
• BTS connected to other BSC or BTS is not declared in MSC.

TCH blocking
• Can be taken out from Network Doctor report 182
• Sort descending by blocking in Busy hour
• Formula : TCH denied for call request ratio, TCH call blocking
• Target value : < 2% (could be anticipated by traffic consideration)

TCH availability
• Check alarms (are TRXs & TSLs in Working State? ), check availability report and RxQuality
report to verify whether there is a badly functioning TRX. Make Loop Tests on TRX. Fix
hardware problem.

TCH capacity
• Bad TCH capacity dimensioning. Check number of TRXs.

TCH traffic
• Cell is covering a region greater than planned. Verify TA statistics. Change DMAX, or downtilt.
• High traffic in some cells. Solution .eg.:
Quality degradation
Add Macrocells no
Add Microcells no
Add TRXs with new freq no
Add TRXs without new freq no/yes (IUO, FH)
Activate Directed Retry no/yes
Activate Queuing no
Activate HR yes
Activate AMR-HR no
Activate DADL/B no/yes
Activate AMH no/yes
Activate C2 parameter yes
Modify hoMarginPBGT yes

TCH drop
• Can be taken out from Network Doctor report 163
• Sorted by TCH drop total rate
• Filtered by TCH norm seizures > 100
OR
• Sorted by TCH drops absolute number
• Filtered by TCH drop rate > 3 %
• Formula : TCH drop call ratio (w/o re-est.), TCH dropped conv. (after TCH ass)
• Target value : TCH drop total < 2 %

Radio Fails
• Check alarms and RxQuality report to verify whether there is a badly functioning TRX. Fix
hardware problem. Check antenna line.
• Coverage. Verify TA report and planning tool.
• Interference. Check Frequency Plan. Solution e.g. add sites, downtilt antennas, increase
RxLevAccessMin.
• Lack of neighbours
• Bad neighbour declaration
• Transcoder Failure
• Due to synchronisation problem. Synchronisation source set in BTS clock. Change to BSC.
• AIF Failure:
• Interface failures: problem with ET cards. Solution: block the circuits connected to this card and
then change ET card when available.

Rx Quality
• Can be taken out from Network Doctor report 196, 197 and 204
• Sorted reports and 197 ascending by UL/DL cumulative quality
• Formula : UL/DL cumulative quality/level ratio
• Target value : UL/DL cumulative quality < 5 = 100 %

Rx Quality Rx Quality x Rx Level

• Coverage Problem
• Bad Quality is due to weak signal. Check TA statistics. Add sites.
• Interference Problem
• Internal interference. Check if interference profile follows increases in traffic profile. Check
frequency plan and TA statistics. Modify frequency to verify if problem is solved.
• External interference. Check if interference is independent of traffic profile.
• Due to synchronisation problem. Synchronisation source set in BTS clock. Change to BSC.
• HW Problem
• Bad quality in all RxLevel classes of ONE TRX. Check alarms to verify whether there is a badly
functioning TRX. Fix hardware problem. Check antenna line.
• Swap frequency. If problem persists on the same TRX, fix HW problem.
• Bad quality in all RxLevel classes of TWO TRX. Verify combiner or common parts connected to
both TRX
• High share of traffic far from the BTS
• Internal Interference Problem:
High drop call rate in a certain area. Rx Quality statistics indicates an internal
interference problem. With planning tool evaluate sites with the same frequency -
interfering candidates. TA statistics will show traffic distance of interfering cells.
Downtilt is needed.
• No neighbours in area:
High drop call rate. As this cell is covering na unexpected region, there will be no
close neighbours declared and HO will not happen. Downtilt is needed

Link Balance
• If high Drop Call rates are observed, check Link Balance Statistics.
• DL > UL: It will be necessary to add a MHA in BTS in order to increase BTS
sensitivity and balance the situation. Another solution can be to decrease cell size
and reduce BTS power.
• UL > DL: In this case a Booster can be used to increase DL coverage or to improve
indoor levels.

Network Doctor : Worst Cells Detection

• ND134:
• This report gives information about the RACH performance per cell
• ND163:
• This report gives information about the dropped TCH rate per cell as well as where the TCH
dropped
• ND166:
 • This report gives information about the dropped SDCCH rate per cell as well as where the
SDCCH dropped
• ND182:
• This report gives information about TCH traffic and TCH blocking per cell as well as about
SDCCH traffic and SDCCH blocking per cell
• ND186:
• This report gives information about the paging performance per cell
• ND202:
• This report gives information about the Access Grant performance per cell

Network Doctor: Cell Level Performance

• Benchmarking Reports: used to orient analysis and solution of the detected problem, output of the
worst cell detection process
• ND204
• RACH performance
• PCH performance
• AGCH performance
• blocking SDCCH
• drop SDCCH per cause
• blocking TCH
• drop TCH per cause
• Handover distribution
• Handover failure causes
• Idle UL interference
• RxQuality/RxLev distribution
• FER distribution
• Availability SDCCH, TCH, GPRS
• ND213: Cell Doctor
• ND216: Cell Analyzer

Network Doctor: Other useful reports

• ND181: TCH Traffic profile
• ND190: Interference Idle UL profile
• ND153: Handover per relation
• ND196: RxQuality distribution per TRX
• ND197: RxQuality distribution per TRX
• ND244: RxQuality distribution per AMR codec per TRX
• ND245: FER distribution per AMR codec per TRX
• ND195: Link Balance per TRX
• ND232: TA distribution
• ND229: GPRS related KPIs