Internal

Drive Test Analysis

Version1.0
www.huawei.com

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Upon completion of this course, you will be
able to:

Understand the common procedure
Of drive test data analysis

Identify the basic problems and cause
of the problems

Propose the solutions to solve the
network problems

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 Chapter 1 Common procedure of drive test data
analysis

Chapter 2 Case study for drive test analysis

Chapter 3 Practice on drive test analysis

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Common procedure of DT data analyze
1. Check if the Drive test KPIs meet the requirement. If not, identify the problematic log
files. Capture the figure and events (e.g. locations, time, identify problematic cells)

2. Check the RxLevel and RxQual distribution, check if they are related to the points
that miss the KPI requirement?

3. (If new site or cluster) Check the distribution of each BCCH (CGI), pay attention to
the crossed feeder.

4. Analyze the points that miss the KPIs point by point. (To make the analysis more
comprehensive , get more information from engineering parameters, BSC data
configuration, traffic statistic and BTS alarms)

5. Identify the possible causes of each problem points ,discuss with customers

4. Propose solutions and get approval from customers before execute the change
request

4. Re- Drive Test to verify the problem after implemented the solutions

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 Chapter 1 Common procedure of drive test data
analysis

Chapter 2 Case study for drive test analysis

Chapter 3 Practice on drive test analysis

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 Coverage
• Downlink RxLevel
• Coverage of single cell
• Coverage of whole network

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 Coverage
Network Coverage is evaluated by:
RxLev = EIRP(dBm) – L(dB)
Where:
EIRP = Effective Isotropic Radiated Power
L = Propagation Losses
EIRP(dBm)

L(dB)

RxLev(dBm)

Unexpected coverage
Good coverage (overshooting)

In urban area, Lower Antenna Height (<=25m), Greater downtilt (>=6 degree),
and Lower EIRP (<=41 dBm) are used to control overshooting & interference.

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Coverage(one cell)

The following example shows the

downlink RxLevel(Dedicated Mode)
decreases when MS is driving away
from BTS.
Downtilt: 0 drgree

The RxLevel decrease faster when

Antenna Downtilt increase.
RxLevel

Variation
s due to
Rayleigh Downtilt: 8 drgree
fading
Global Variation
means due to
shadowing
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 Coverage(Network)

The picture shows the coverage of a city, which contains good and bad
coverage areas.

The distribution of downlink RxLev concentrates from -80 to -95 dBm.

Good Coverage

Bad Coverage

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 Coverage Issues
• Coverage hole
• Sudden Decrease on Signal Level
• Line of Sight Lost
• Lack of Dominant Server
• Coverage Overlapping
• Overshooting

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Coverage Hole
Legend
RxLevel

Poor Coverage
Bad Call
Areas RxQuality Drop

RxQuality

 RxLevel(Serving Cell) is about (or less than) -95 dBm

 RxLevel(Neighbours) are about (or less than) -95 dBm

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Sudden Decrease on Signal Level

 RxLev(Serving Cell and

Neighbors) decrease in a
short time.
 Check if there is big change
of testing environment, e.g.
check if the test was
performed on a highway
and that particular area was
a tunnel or not.
 Signal level on the chart will
make a curve rather than
unstable changes.
 This usually cause Ping
Pong Handovers

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Line of Sight Lost

Signal Strength of Serving cell make fast up and down due RxQuality goes
to far away server being blocked by obstacles from the worse when the
terrain. The other way, signal from the server lose line of level drops down
sight(LOS) to the mobile because of a hill of something. fast

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Lack of Dominant Server
 Signal Level of more
than one cell (Serving
Cell and Neighbors) are
not high enough.

 This might happen

because the MS is
located on the cell
borders and there is no
any best server to keep
the call.

 Lack of Dominant Server

Causes too many
handovers

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Coverage Overlapping
 Signal Level of 3–4
cells are too closed to
each other.

 This might point

overlapping cells.

 This will cause quality

problems because of
frequency reuse and
frequent HO
 Immediate action to
optimize cell coverage
should be taken by
power reductions,
downtilt or other
configuration changes.

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Overshooting
 MS is covered by the
serving cell, but is
outside the cell
 BSC thinks that it is
neighbor cell A and Serving
makes a handover to Other cell B
cell
cell A BSIC 1
Freq. A
 The MS is not near cell BTS
A so the assigned TCH
for the handover is not
used
Coverage spot
 Cell A will have unused Neighbour cell A (island effect)
TCH (handover) BSIC 1
Freq. A
 The call might be
dropped because it
cannot make the
handover or bad quality

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 Propose solutions for Coverage Issue

Solution of low coverage

Solution of no dominant cell ,overshooting and overlapping

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Solutions of Low Coverage
Possible solution can be listed as below:
 New Site Proposal

 Sector Addition

 Site Configuration Change (Antenna Type, height, azimuth, tilt changes)

 Loss or Attenuation Check ( Feeders, Connectors, Jumpers, etc..)

Proposal Remark How to do

Most effective solution, Using prediction tool(U-net) to identify the best
New Site Proposal but the cost is highest locations to put new sites
Effective solution Using prediction tool(U-net) to identify the
Sector Addition but only for Omni-Site recommended azimuth of new sectors
Height Difficult, high cost
Type Difficult, high cost Using prediction tool(U-net) to identify the
Antenna
Azimuth Easy to operate recommended height, type, azimuth or down tilt of
Downtilt Easy to operate sector.
Feeders Only for troubleshooting
Hardware Connectors Only for troubleshooting
Jumpers Only for troubleshooting Referring to hardware checking guide

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Solutions of overshooting or overlapping
Possible solution can be listed as below:
 Site Configuration Change (Antenna Type, height, azimuth, tilt changes)
 Cell Configuration Change (Carrier Power Type, Static TRX Power Class, Fine Tuning
of Static TRX Power…)

Proposal Remark How to do

Height Difficult, high cost
Type Difficult, high cost Using prediction tool(U-net) to identify the
Antenna
Azimuth Easy to operate recommmended height, type, azimuth or
Downtilt Easy to operate downtilt of sector.
Easy to operate, but with Referring to Data Configuration Reference
Parameter Output Power related risk of coverage reduction Help

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 Cross Feeder
What is crossed feeder issue (1)
The term crossed feeder is used to describe the problem that
arises when the feeders for two or more sectors in a site are
inadvertently connected incorrectly. For Example, consider a new
cell site that has three sectors, A, B, and C:

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What is crossed feeder issue (2)
 The crossed feeder problem would arise
if the feeder for sector A is connected to
sector C and vice versa. When this
happens, the sectors typically continue
to provide good coverage. However, the
network parameters for the two sectors
are also reversed. For example, the
parameters storing the sectors' BCCH
and lists of adjacent sectors would be
swapped.

 For example, suppose we run a drive test

through the area served by the cell
whose feeders are crossed display the
ServBCCH attribute on the Map while
the cell sectors are colored by BCCH.
This is what we might see:

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 What is crossed feeder issue (3)

There are 3 types of crossed feeder:

 Crossed transmit feeders

 Crossed receive feeders

 Crossed transmit and receive feeders

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The problems raised by crossed feeder
issue

Normal Situation Crossed Feeder Situation

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The problems raised by crossed feeder issue

Crossed feeder will raise many problems, such as:

 A greater degree of interference

 A poor uplink signal strength

 A poor performance of handover

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How to detect crossed feeder issue by DT

Crossed transmit feeders

Crossed transmit feeders will result in the swap of 2 or more sectors

BCCH frequency and TCH’s. As the sectors are pointing in the
incorrect direction, performance will suffer as the frequency plan has
been changed and a greater degree of interference will be present.
In DT, we will find that the handset receives the signal which shouldn't
have been received in the current cell.

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How to detect crossed feeder issue by DT

Crossed transmit feeders

In the example shown above, point A is in the area of coverage of Cell

D3, but the handset at point A receives the stronger signal of Cell D2. It
indicates that TX feeders were crossed between Cell D3 and Cell D2.

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How to detect crossed feeder issue by DT

Crossed receive feeders

It is not easy to detect this fault by DT, because the BCCH frequencies will
appear exactly as they were designed. However, the statistics for the cell
would help us to detect the fault:

 Uplink signal strength would be very poor

 Link balance would be larger than expected
 Handover success rate would be very low

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How to detect crossed feeder issue by DT

Crossed receive feeders

The MR measurement is very useful in detecting this type of feeder
cross.
Uplink-and-Downlink Balance Measurement per TRX and TCH
Receive Level Measurement per TRX are the most useful statistics .

For example, if the uplink-and-downlink balance is always in level 10

or level 11, we can consider that there is something wrong in the
receive path of the site, crossed receive feeder is a possible problem.

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How to detect crossed feeder issue by DT

Crossed transmit and receive feeder

The symptom is similar with the fault “crossed transmit feeder”, and we can
detect the fault by DT easily .

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 Poor Quality Issue

Downlink RxQual Issue

 What is RxQual Issue

 The problems raised by RxQual issue

How to detect quality issue by DT

 Bad Quality due to Signal Strength – FER is Bad

 Bad Quality due to Signal Strength – FER is OK

 Bad Quality due to C/A Interference

 Bad Quality due to Time Dispersion

The solution to RxQual issue

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What is RxQuality Issue

Bad RxQual is one of the biggest problems in a Network. The RxQual
that a network operator can offer to customers mostly depends on the
RxLevel and the interference of the network.

There are two types of RxQual problems, uplink RxQual and downlink
RxQuality. We can only detect downlink RxQual problem by DT,
however, if the downlink RxQual is bad in one cell, there is a risk that
there would be problems on the uplink as well.

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 What is RxQual Issue

Good
Bad
RxQua
RxQua
lity
lity

RxQual is divided into eight levels which are from 0 to 7, the level 0 is the
best and the level 7 is the worst.

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 The problems raised by RxQual Issue

Bad RxQual may raise many problems, such as:

 Difficulty in accessing the network

 Dropped calls due to bad quality

 Poor handover success rate

 Low MOS value (poor speech quality)

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 Bad Quality due to Signal Strength – FER is Bad
 As the signal strength drops
down, the quality of the call
becomes worse being effected
by interference and/ or fading.
Consequently the system
becomes weaker to handle the
interference.

 Drop calls and ping pong

handovers usually happen in
such environments.

RxLev (Serving Cell and

Neighbors) is not high enough
(about less than -95dbm).

 Maybe there are

interferences in this region for
bad FER.
Bad RxLev
Bad RxQual
Bad FER

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 Bad Quality due to Signal Strength – FER is OK

This case is similar with

the previous except for
FER. Signal strength is
also bad in this, but FER is
still fine.

 FER is ok, it means that

there is no obvious
interference in the area.
The coverage is usually
the problem in this
situation.

Bad RxLev
Bad RxQual
Fine FER

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 Bad Quality due to C/A Interference
There is adjacent channel
interference in this case and
the RxQual is not good.

Bad Quality due to Adjacent

Interference.

Adjacent BCCH between

best server and best neighbor.

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Bad Quality due to Time Dispersion

Site
Reflecting object

MS

Time dispersion is caused by the reflections. The MS uses all or most of the
received power, instead of only the direct signal, there is a larger probability to
decode the information. So the RxQual will be very bad perhaps.

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Bad Quality due to Time Dispersion

The MS is near the

cell, it is less than 1
mile far away.
The RxQual is very
bad for the bad C/R,
in which, R stands for
reflected signal and C
stands for original
signal.
 The TA is too high.
It is because that TA
stands for the
reflected signal but
the original signal.

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The solution to RxQual issue (1)

RxQual Issue Solution

Find out the interference source

(e.g. frequency planning) or /and
Bad Quality due to Signal Strength – FER is adjust the azimuth or down tilt of
Bad the antenna or /and adjust the
power of the transmitter(s) to
improve coverage

There is no obvious interference in

Bad Quality due to Signal Strength – FER is this situation. Adjust the azimuth or
OK down tilt of the antenna or /and
adjust the power of the
transmitter(s) to improve coverage

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The solution to RxQual issue (2)

RxQual Issue Solution

Bad Quality due to C/A Avoided adjacent frequencies in the same cell
Interference and preferably in neighboring cells as well.

Move the site to be placed near the reflecting

Bad Quality due to Time object to prevent time dispersion. Another
Dispersion efficient solution is to modify the antenna
arrangement, either in azimuth (horizontally) or
by tilt (vertically).

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 Interference Issue
 Hardware Problem

 TRX Problem
 Feeder & Arrester Problem
 Intra-Interference

 Adjacent channel & Co-channel

 Inter-modulation Interference
 Inter-Interference

 Other Equipment

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Co-Channel & Adjacent Channel Interference

As beside Figure show Station A~D,

Supposing the frequency N have
already allocated to cell A-3.so
frequency N can not be allocate to
A1、A2、B1、B2、B3、C1、C2、
C3、D1、D2、D3; and frequency
N±1 can not be allocated to cell A1、
A2、A3、B1、C2、D1、D2
(No ,hoping)

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Co-Channel & Adjacent Channel Interference

As below, From the neighbor

list ,BCCH 73 interfered
BCCH 72,it is adjacent
interference. When the co
channel or adjacent channel
happen

It will bring the strong

interference. The typical
phenomena:

High Rxlev
Worst Rxqual

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 C/I Problem

 C/I Definition

C/I: Carrier signal /Interference signal

 Optimize C/I method

 Improve Coverage
 Decrease Interference

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 C/I Problem due to poor coverage

 RxLevel(Serving Cell) is about (or less than) -95 dBm;

 RxLevel(Neighbours Cell) is about (or less than) -95 dBm;
Result: Worst C/I due to poor coverage.
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 C/I Problem due to Interference (frequency)

 RxLevel (Serving Cell) is about -70dBm; (strong)

 RxLevel (Neighbors Cell) is about -65 to -80 dBm
Result: Worst C/I due to interference ( no dominant cell)
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The solution to Interference, C/I,BER issue (1)

Interference Issue Solution

Serious interference due to Co-channel or Adjust cell frequency or adjust

Adjacent channel coverage
Serious interference due to feeder or Arrester Check whether the Feeder and
Problem antenna tightening, or direct
replacement its.

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The solution to Interference,C/I,BER issue (1)

C/I Issue Solution

Improve coverage by adjusting

Worst C/I due to poor coverage antenna azimuth and downtilt or
add new sites

Worst C/I to interference Ensure the interference source

and solution as interference
solution.

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The solution to Interference,C/I,BER issue (1)

BER Issue Solution

Improve coverage by adjusting

Worst BER due to poor coverage antenna azimuth and downtilt or
add new sites

Worst BER due to interference Ensure the interference source

and solution as interference
solution.
Worst BER due to Transmission Checking transmission alarm in
M2000

Worst BER to TRX At first check equipment alarm in

M2000,ensure which TRX is
problem

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 Handover Issues

What is…

Handover procedure in network?

Handover Um signaling flow?

Purpose of Handover Analysis in DT?

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Handover Procedure

Uplink MR (Measured by BTS)

•RXLEV Uplink
•RXQUAL Uplink
•TA
Neighbor Cell_1 •Current BTS TX power

NeighborCell
Serving Cell2
 MS in dedicated mode
will continuously perform
measurements on serving
NeighborCell
Serving Cell2 and neighbor cells.

Measurement Reports
are sent to BSC and used
in the handover algorithm.
Downlink MR (Measured by MS)
•Downlink RXLEV(Sever) BSC  Serving BSC decides
•Downlink RXQUAL(Sever)
whether a handover is
•RXLEV_NCELL(n) on the 6 best
neighboring cells (+BSIC) necessary and send HO
command

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Handover signaling on Um(TEMS Message)

Tell MS how to access to

Target TCH Channel

Target cell Description

Target channel Description
BCCH of Neighbors
to beServing Cell:
measuredChannel Type, Timeslot
TSC
DL DTX is ON
RF hopping
RxLev(sub) is -109+ 62 =--49dBm
MAIO,isHSN
RxQual (sub) 0

Handover Complete ≠ Handover Success!!!

The RxLev of
Neighbors
Only after SABM & UA
in Layer2 Message,
handover success! Inter cell Synchronous
Handover

Speech version: EFR

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 The purpose of Handover Analysis

The purpose of handover analysis in DT is

 understand the wireless handover performance of network.

 find out whether the handovers are healthy in this network.

 what is typical handover failure in this network.

 find out whether neighbor audit work is needed in this network.

To make optimization of HSR, the most effective way is based on traffic

analysis, combining DT events, neighbor audit, and data configuration
audit together.

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 Handover Types

Different handover types by network topology

Different handover types by algorithm

PBGT handover

Quality handover

Edge Handover

Intracell Handover

Other types of handover

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Handover Types(Network Topology)
Operator

MSC MSC

BSC BSC BSC BSC

BTS BTS BTS BTS BTS BTS

CELL CELL CELL CELL CELL CELL CELL CELL

Case1 Intra cell HO
Synchronous
Case2 Synchronous Inter cell HO
Asynchronous
Case 2 Case 4 Case 5
Case3 Asynchronous Inter cell HO
Case 1 Case 3

Case4 Inter BSC HO

Case5 Inter MSC HO

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Handover Types(Algorithm)

OM Forced HO
 In DT, the most common handover
types happens in following order of
Directed Retry
priority

TA Emergency HO Edge HO

TA

RxQuality Bad Quality HO Layer HO

RxLevel
Rapid Level Drop HO PBGT HO

PBGT

OL&UL Interference HO Fast Moving MS HO
HO

Load HO Overlay/Underly HO

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PBGT Handover
 PBGT HO Exp: Serving Target
Cell Cell
When:
RXLEV_NCELL(n) – (RXLEVEL+
PWR_DIFF) > HO_MARGIN
HO_MARGIN > 0
MS is handed over to the RXLEV_NCELL(n)
neighboring cell .
RX LEVEL + PWR_DIFF
 HO_MARGIN is usually set to 3 to
6 dB. PBGT HO Power-budget

 HO_MARGIN could be increased Distance

to reduce number of handovers.
HO_MARGIN should be
decreased if faster handover
decision is wanted.

 PBGT Handover is considered as

most healthy handover in a
network. A typical PBGT HO

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Quality Handover

Quality Handover Exp:

When:
DL RxQuality >= DL Quality HO
Threshold
handover caused by DL
RxQuality takes place.

When:
UL RxQuality >= UL Quality HO
Threshold
handover caused by UL
RxQuality takes place.

 DL&UL Quality HO
Thresholds are generally
set to 6.
Handover was performed to a better quality
UL Quality HO can’t be cell just after experiencing quality problems.
monitored in DT.

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EDGE Handover

Edge Handover Exp:

When:
DL RxLevel < Edge HO DL
RX_LEV Threshold
handover caused by DL
RxLevel takes place.

When:
UL RxLevel < Edge HO UL
RX_LEV Threshold
handover caused by UL
RxQuality takes place.

UL EDGE handover can’t be

monitored in DT.
Handover was performed to the cell with
higher downlink Rxlev.

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 Intracell Handover Based on Interference

 The Intra–cell Handover

feature aims to maintain
good quality by performing
a handover to a new
channel within the same
cell when uplink or
downlink interference is
detected.

 Interference is defined by
bad RxQual and high
enough RxLEV.

 Intracell HO also can be

triggered by:
• Rate change between Full rate
and Half rate
• Handover between overlaid and
underlaid subcell. An example of intracell handover after
experiencing quality problems.

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 Other types of handover

Other types of handover are not easy to judge or not easy to encounter
in DT test, for example :
TA handover

 Directed Retry

 Load handover

 Rapid Level Drop HO

 Fast Moving MS HO

For analysis of different types of handover or handover caused by

uplink, it is recommended by traffic analysis or single-user signaling
tracing.

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 Handover Issues

What is …

Dragged Handover

Power Control Effect

Ping–Pong Handover

Missing Neighbor Relation

Fake Neighbor

Handover Failure

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 Dragged Handover
There will be such cases that you will notice handover process taking
place a little late, which is called dragged handover.

 First thing to check will be handover

margins between the neighbors. If
margins for level, quality or power
budget handovers are not set
correctly, If margins are too much,
handover will happen late, vice
versa. A Quality handover
should happen earlier

 Dragged handover events often

occur after a GSM serving cell loses
dominance for a significant time
period.

Dragged Handover often cause Call

Drop or Handover Failure.

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 Power Control Effect

 Power Control Effect sometimes

may mislead us, you might think
that handover is happening too
Power control
late between two neighbors.

 When the call is continuing on a

timeslot that belongs to
TCHTRX, power control feature
will try to reduce output power
as much as possible until a
quality problem occurs. That’s
why you will see serving cell
signal level is less than
neighbor’s level. It looks less
but in reality, the signal level on
BCCH TRX is still higher than
neighbors broadcasting level.

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 Ping-pong Handover
Ping-pong handovers occur when the MS is handed over from one cell to
another but is quickly handed back to the original cell.

 The shot shows two ping-

pong handovers displayed on
the map along with the
Servering CI attribute. The
first ping-pong handover is
from cell 12424 to cell 12368
and back and the second is
from cell 12424 to cell 12366
and back. Changes in the
value of the CI is shown below
the route. It can be clearly Ping-pong HO
visualized by lines to cells
display.

 For most cases, Ping-pong Handover is caused by no dominant cell. There was
a handover back to cell 12366 after the second ping-pong handover, but this was
outside of the defined window. The change in dominance after the handover was
9dB, which represents a much healthier handover.

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 Missing Neighbor Relation
If a handoff is not performed to a neighbor cell that seems to be best
server, there is a possibility of a missing neighbor relation. This will
happen with sudden appearance of strong cell in the neighbor list
just after a handover.

 The shot shows after

second handover in
the red box, a much
stronger Serving Cell
appears. ( suspect
there might be missing
neighbor in the 1st HO
attempt)

 At this time Neighbor

audit should be
performed.

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 Fake Neighbor Relation

 Sometimes you will see a good

handover candidate in the
neighbor list but handover will
not take place and call will drop.

 Although that overshooting cell

with a very good signal level
appears in neighbor list, in reality
it is not. Just because the
serving cell has another
neighbor cell use same with the
same BCCH&BSIC ,so the
measurement of the
overshooting cell appears in the
list.

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 Handover Failure
Handover Failure: Handover attempt was failed and the call returned back to its
all channel.

Target Cell is
 BCCH is 13
 BSIC is 65
Target channel is
 900M RF hopping
Handover Failure Channel.
 Half Rate
 MA list is 1, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
 MAIO is 4, HSN is 31,
The
 TSC is 5. handover has not
successfully
 Channel completed yet!
mode is AMR(SV3)
Handover Failure is
Another example: Excessive Number
caused by T200ofExpired
Handover
Failure due to Hardware Problem

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 Proposal of Handover Issue

Dragged Handover

Ping–Pong Handover

Missing Neighbor Relation

Handover Failure

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 Solutions of Handover Issues
Issue Proposal
Check if the parameter of handover, such as: PBGT, Quality, Interference, Edge
Dragged Handover handover threshold, and P/N Value is set too high.
 Check if there is no dominant coverage. Referring to the solution of Low Coverage.
 Check if the traffic volume of target cell is high or has congestion at measuring time.

 Check if there is hardware problem. Referring to hardware checking guide

 Check if there is no dominant coverage. Referring to the solution of Low Coverage.
Ping-pong Handover  Check if the parameter of handover, such as: PBGT, Quality, Interference, Edge
handover threshold, and P/N Value is set too low .
 Check if there is overlapping coverage area, which may also cause ping-pong
handover.
 Neighbor Audit. Check if there is neighbor missing according to data configuration in
Missing Neighbor OMC.
 Find out the cause of Handover failure form Um signaling flow from Layer2 and
Layer3 Message.
Handover Failure  Check if the HSR between source and target cell is low. If it is, find the root cause of
handover failure reasons by traffic statistic analysis.

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