What is RTWP?

If you work with UMTS,'ve probably heard someone talk about RTWP. Its definition can be found in a
dictionary of acronyms, such as: Received Total Wideband Power.

Represents a measure of UMTS technology: the total level of noise within the UMTS frequency band of
any cell.

RTWP is related to uplink interference, and its monitoring helps control the call drops - mainly CS. It also
has importance in the capacity management, as it provides information for the Congestion Control
regarding Uplink Interference.

In UMTS, the uplink interference may vary due to several factors, such as the number of users in the cell,
the Service, Connection Types and Conditions of Radio, etc..

As our goal is to always be as simple as possible, we will not delve in terms of formulas or concepts
involved. We will then know the typical values, and know what must be done in case of problems.

Typical Values

Ok, we know that RTWP can help us in checking the uplink interference, then we need to know its
typical values.

In a network is not loaded, normal, acceptable RTWP Average value is generally around -104.5 and -
105.5 dBm.
Values around -95 dBm indicate that the cell has some uplink interferers.

If the value is around -85 dBm, the situation is ugly, with strong uplink interferers.

Usually we have High, Low and Medium measures of RTWP. However, the maximum and minimum
values are recommended only as auxiliary or reference, since they may have been caused by a peak of
access, or even been forced to have a momentary value due to some algorithm i.e..

Thus, the value that helps us, and has the most accurate information is the same Mean RTWP!

For cases in which cell has two carriers, the difference between them RTWP should not exceed 6 dB.
Based on these typical values, most vendors have an alarm: RTWP "Very High. "