Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
RB Control EPC
Connection Mobility Ctrl
MME
Radio Admission Ctrl.
NAS Security
eNB Measurement
Config. & Provision
Idle State Mobility
Dynamic Resource Handling
Allocation (scheduler)
EPS Bearer
Control
RRC
PDCP
S-GW P-GW
RLC
Mobility UE IP Address
Anchoring Allocation
MAC Internet
S1
PHY Packet Filtering
GERAN Gb
Policy and Charging Rules Function
S5b
Home Subscriber Server
S5a
WCDMA /HSPA radio Networks “Super HLR”
Ref Pt.
Mobility Management Entity S6a HSS
User Plane Entity
S1 SGi Operator’s
Evolved MME 3GPP SAE IP Services
RAN: eNB Ref Pt. UPE Anchor Anchor
LTE radio Inter Access System Anchor IASA
Networks
S1AP
PDCP-LTE
GTPv2
X2AP
NAS-EPS
LTE RRC
RLC-LTE
MAC-LTE
UL Grant contents
•Resource Block assignment
–Indicates the PRB the UE may use for transmission
–Signaling format: index of starting PRB & number of contiguous
PRBs
•Modulation and Coding Scheme and the Redundancy version (5
bits)
•Power control command (2 bits)
•Cyclic Shift for the demodulation reference symbols
•CQI request flag
•PUSCH Hopping flag
•New data indicator
TDD specific
•UL index (indicates which UL subframe the grant refers to)
•Downlink assignment index
LTE Downlink
RB RB RB RB RB RB RB RB RB RB RB RB
Like RSRP, RSRQ is used to determine the best cell for LTE radio
connection at a certain geographic location. However, while RSRP
is the absolute strength of the reference radio signals, RSRQ is the
signal-to-noise ratio. Like RSRP, RSRQ can be used as the
criterion for initial cell selection or handover. RSRQ is calculated by
the formula above.
The following page shows how RSRP and RSRQ vary in the
outdoor environment due to varying propagation loss and
interference of various types.
September, 2013 Course 508 v2.0 (c)2013 Scott Baxter Page 32
RSRQ More RSRQ Details
dB -3
-4 The reporting range of RSRQ is defined from −19.5 to −3 dB
-5
with 0.5 dB resolution
-6 Comparing measured values of RSRQ and RSRP at one
-7
location will show whether coverage or interference problems
are present.
-8
-9 • If RSRP remains stable or gets better, but RSRQ is
declining, this indicates rising interference.
-10
-11 • If both RSRP and RSRQ decline, coverage is weak.
-12 This kind of logic helps in finding the root cause of drops due
-13 to radio problems.
-14 Three quality ranges can be defined for RSRQ:
-15 • RSRQ values above −9 dB give the best subscriber
-16 experience.
-17 • RSRQ of −9 to −12 dB degrades QoS, but with fair results.
-18 • RSRQ values of −13 dB and lower give reduced
-19 throughput and a risk of call drops.
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RSRQ-RSRP Interactions in the Field
-40 -60
-70 --90
• Headroom will be around or -80 -110 -12 +10 +10
UE
eNB Messaging
BTS Messaging
-70 --90
• RSRQ will be lower than -80 -110 -12 +10 +10
-70 --90
RSRP, RSRQ, and SINR aren’t -12 +10 +10
-80 -110
directly affected by Uplink 0 0
-120
interference --90
-15
-10 -10
-110 -130
• Their values will be consistent -140 -19.5 -23 -23
-120
with whatever is happening on
the downlink at that moment
BTS Messaging
Accessibility
Initial E-RAB Establishment Success Rate
Add E-RAB Establishment Success Rate
Retainability
E-RAB Retainability
Integrity
Downlink Latency (first packet)
Downlink Throughput
Downlink Packet Loss
Uplink Latency
Uplink Throughput
Downlink Packet Error Loss Rate
Uplink Packet Loss Rate
Mobility
Mobility Success Rate
Availability
Cell Availability
The Key Performance Indicators for an LTE system fall into several
major groups:
The most critical function in the E-UTRAN is the scheduling
algorithm implemented in the eNodeB
• This is the most critical and decisive function affecting the user’s
Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QOE)
• The most critical KPIs are those measuring scheduler
effectiveness
Radio Quality Measurements
Control Plane Performance Counters and Delay measurements
User Plane QoS and QoE Measurements
The free windows application WinMTR biy Appnor MSP will perform multiple pings
of any IP address you give it, also locating every node with an IP address along the
path. It shows packet loss percentage to/from each node, as well as the best,
average, worst and most recent latency for each node in the path.
September, 2013 Course 508 v2.0 (c)2013 Scott Baxter Page 51
LTE Optimization Measurements
and Techniques
On the LTE radio interface the most interesting aspect for radio quality
and throughput of particular connections between the UE and network is
inter-cell interference.
In LTE, thanks to Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA),
mechanisms exist to avoid inter-cell interference.
The base station (eNB) rapidly and frequently collects information about
the current interference situation in each cell.
Knowing which particular subcarriers of the available range are currently
impacted by interference, the scheduler can assign only interference-free
subcarriers to active connections.
Assigned resources are rescheduled with a periodicity of 1ms. In other
words, within 1 second the subcarriers used for a particular connection
can change up to 1000 times
For DL data transmission the interference status of subcarriers is derived
from quality feedback sent by the UEs:
• Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) and
• number of Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) retransmissions
This protocol controls MAC, RLC and PDCP layers in the LTE air
interface (connecting an LTE UE with an eNodeB). It is compliant
with Release 8 (V8.4.0 2008-12)(trunk V9.1.0 (2009-12))
Protocol dependencies
If NAS messages are encapsulated in RRC messages, LTE-RRC
calls NAS-EPS dissector. Although LTE RRC has control over
RLC-LTE and MAC-LTE, the LTE-RRC dissector does not
currently configure these dissectors. When that will be the case, a
log at the MAC interface will enable MAC dissector to call RLC and
RLC will be able to call PDCP.
Example traffic
Here is an example of a connection setup.
a
The eNB can report the usage of PRBs to the OMC, in these 5 types:
1. UL/DL total PRB usage: used as the traffic level indicator driving load
balancing information shared across the X2 interface, and general O&M
observability.
2. UL/DL PRB usage per traffic class: An aggregate for all UEs in a cell,
measuring just Dedicated Traffic Channels (DTCHs). The reference point
is the SAP between MAC and L1. The measurement is done separately
for DL DTCH for each QCI, and UL DTCH for each CQI.
3. UL/DL PRB usage per Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB): This
measurement is applicable to Dedicated Control Channels (DCCHs). The
reference point is the SAP between MAC and L1. The measurement is
done separately for DL DCCH and UL DCCH.
4. DL PRB usage for Common Control Channels (CCCHs), including the
Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) and Paging Control Channel (PCCH).
The reference point is the SAP between MAC and L1.
5. UL PRB usage for CCCHs: This is the percentage of PRBs used for
CCCHs’ Random Access Channel (RACH) and Physical Uplink Control
Channel (PUCCH). Value range: 0–100%.
x
Another important input for uplink scheduling sent via the MAC layer
is the UL buffer status report of the UE.
• It tells the serving eNB the amount of data waiting for
transmission at the UE.
Buffer Status Reports (BSRs) are sent either periodically or event
triggered. Typical event triggers are:
• UL data becomes available for a logical channel in a logical
channel group to be transmitted in the (RLC) or PDCP entity.
• UL resources are allocated and the UE detects that more
padding bits are scheduled than the size of the BSR MAC control
element. This BSR is called a Padding Buffer Status Report.
• A serving cell change occurs or the retransmission timer for
BSRs expires while the UE has data waiting for transmission.
• The 3GPP specs call this a “Regular Buffer Status Report.” This
should trigger an UL scheduling request to be sent in parallel.
x
x
The eNB and MME collect a set of common performance counters and
KPIs for accessibility, retainability, and mobility
These performance counters are also named network element counters or
OMC counters.
One disadvantage of such network element counters is that their trigger
point definitions are usually proprietary
• a set of Nokia Siemens Network MME counters will never be 100%
identical to a set from an Ericsson MME.
• the differences are not addressed directly by the standards
Each manufacturer’s set KPIs is quite sophisticated and almost impossible
to be implemented by external measurement equipment
• Access to user plane buffer status is mandatory, it can only be seen
from within the network, not by external monitoring equipment
• Even implementation inside the network element is not easy and
significant processing resources are required to compute such
sophisticated KPIs in the network elements.
During an LTE “call” multiple different service flows and bearers are
usually active.
• Each bearer has its own set of QoS parameters
Overall, it is useful to aggregate all accessibility performance counters on
two different levels:
• subscriber level
– allows computing “call setup” KPIs that reflect the user
experience
• service level
– reflects the network-centric view of a network
• In addition, it makes sense to aggregate accessibility counters on a
“per handset” dimension. This will be useful for checking the
robustness of new handset models and for benchmarking handsets of
different brands against each others.
• Significant differences in handset performance have been observed in
2G and 3G technologies
Due to radio interface testers and eNB trace ports, it is fairly easy
to monitor the random access procedure.
• Now a random access success ratio KPI can be defined as
follows:
Low percentage values of this KPI help identify cells with serious
problems on the radio interface
• the message defined for raw counters in this formula are the
first messages sent on the UL-SCH and Downlink Shared
Channel (DL-SCH) of a cell. If there are radio transmission
problems in a cell, the random access procedures will be the
ones most impacted. Failed random access also has the
highest user impact, because missing network access is
immediately recognized by a user.
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RRC Connection Setup Procedure
Using the timer T300, the RRC connection establishment procedure is pretty well
surrounded from a protocol standard’s point of view.
However, it is important to distinguish between two cases of T300 expiry
• the eNB receives the RRC Connection Request, but sends neither a RRC
Connection Setup nor a RRC Connection Reject before T300 expires.
– the root cause of this kind of problem would be located in the eNB, for
example, processor overload. The proper strategy for dealing with this is
to block access of UEs if a critical limit is reached and increase the wait
time parameter in RRC Connection Reject to balance the signaling load.
• The second failure case is when the eNB sent the RRC connection setup
message, but does not receive the expected RRC connection setup complete
message from the UE.
– The problem is usually transmission errors on the radio interface DL,
because the level of the received DL signal is too weak or there is
interference
– For a UE located at the cell edge, the partial frequency reuse settings for
the Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) and DL-SCH (in
particular, the resource blocks that carry the message itself) should be
verified and if necessary modified.
– In case of interference, the scheduler efficiency must be investigated
Here is a typical
update location failure
This isn’t necessarily
a network issue. In
fact, there are a
couple of cases
where it is meaningful
that access to the
network is restricted
to particular
subscribers or groups
of subscribers.
For instance, if the home network operator of the subscriber does not have
a roaming agreement with the operator of the visited network then the
subscriber cannot be charged for the roaming services and, hence, it is
good not to reject the attach request.
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Call Setup
Failures (4)
In these cases the
cause value from
DIAMETER or MAP
from the HSS will be
the same as in Attach
Reject.
However, it’s quite
likely failures in the
communication
between visited MME
and the home HSS
will occur.
If latency on the link between MME and HSS is too high, the Update
Location Response (DIAMETER or MAP) would not arrive in time.
• If this happens, typically the cause value “network failure” is
shown in the attach reject message – but remember not every
“network failure” actually has its origin in the core network.
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Call Setup
Failures (5)
If security
functions in the E-
UTRAN can’t be
activated as
requested,
“Network Failure”
is also reported.
This requires an
intelligent network
management and
troubleshooting
tool to distinguish
and report the
true location and
root cause of
“network failures.”
Since the initial attach procedure is linked with many other signaling
procedures in the E-UTRAN and EPC, failures that occur in a particular
network element or on a particular signaling link often trigger a chain
reaction. This is also true in case the initial context setup procedure on S1
between the MME and eNB fails, as shown in the figure.
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Call Setup Failures (5)
If the eNB is not able to set up the initial context, this triggers an
Attach Reject (with cause “network failure”? – which depends on
the implementation in MME software) and PDP Connection Reject.
In addition, due to the failed attach, the GTP tunnels on S1-U and
S5 that have already been established need to be deleted.
To do this, the GTP-C delete session procedure will be used on
the S11 signaling link between the MME and Serving Gateway (S-
GW) and on S5 between S-GW and PDN-GW.
Since the UE’s new location was already successfully updated in
the HSS, it is now necessary to delete this entry and mark the UE
in the HSS database as “not reachable,” because a UE that is not
attached to the network should not be paged.
The signaling procedure that is used to notify the HSS about this
new state of the connection is the purge UE procedure.
One failure can generate a lot of activity!
When the MME receives Activate Default EPS Bearer Failure it will
repeat the Activate Default EPS Bearer Request up to four times.
If this does not activate the bearer context on the UE side, the MME
may detach the UE to require new initial registration to the network.
September, 2013 Course 508 v2.0 (c)2013 Scott Baxter Page 99
Dedicated
Bearer Setup
Failures
Whenever a
dedicated bearer
cannot be
established, access
to an individual
service and its
contents is blocked
for the subscriber.
To properly measure user experience, this kind of failure should be aggregated
on a subscriber ID that can later be used to generate customer-centric reports.
Aggregation of performance counters for dedicated bearer setup on the service
level (defined by the embedded QoS parameters in the bearer setup request
message) and on the location level (defined by tracking area and E-UTRAN cell
ID) is also highly recommended.
Watch out! The message name for this bearer setup failure is “Successful
Outcome.” This is a carryover from RANAP outcome message in the UTRAN
which confirmed setup and/or failed setup for a list of multiple Radio Access
Bearers. This is why the message name in S1AP is now “Successful Outcome”
even if it reports that the required E-RAB could be established.
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Dedicated Bearer Setup Failures (2)
The most typical reasons for failed E-RAB setup are drops of the
radio connection before RAB establishment is completed.
The eNB may also reject the setup of a particular bearer, because
it is not able to provide the necessary resources for the requested
service
• for example it can’t support the desired bit rates.
• Often the leak of resources isn’t related to availability of
subcarriers and time slots on the radio interface, but simply to
limited processing power and system memory in the eNB.
• Processors and memory to serve a certain number of
connections are found on so-called “channel cards,” boards
that allow scalability of hardware (and in turn scalability of the
hardware price) according to the amount of expected traffic.
• If the eNB’s hardware is inadequate this will result in error
messages with cause values like “not enough user plane
processing resources,” especially during peak hours of traffic.
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Paging Failures
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Paging Failures (2)
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Paging Failures (3)
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Accessibility Delay Measurements
An accessibility problem isn’t always because of a dedicated failure
message sent by an involved protocol entity. Some problems don’t block
the progress of the accessibility procedures, but cause unacceptable
delay. Minimizing subscriber access delay is a key target in the 3GPP
spec. Accessibility delay measurements are crucial for optimizing
performance. These delay measurements are:
• Random Access Time: t MAC Random Access Preamble → RRC Connection
Request.
• RRC Connection Setup Time: t RRC Connection Request→RRC Connection
Setup Complete.
• NAS Attach Delay: t NAS Attach Request → NAS Attach Accept.
• Activate Default EPS Bearer Delay: t NAS Activate Default EPS Bearer
Request → NAS Activate Default EPS Bearer Accept.
• Initial Context Setup Delay: t S1AP Initial Context Setup Request → S1AP
Initial Context Setup Response.
• E-RAB Setup Delay: t S1AP E-RAB Setup Request → S1AP E-RAB Setup
Response.
• Service Request Delay: t S1AP Initial UE Message (NAS Service Request) →
S1AP Initial Context Setup Response.
• Paging Response Time: t S1AP Paging → S1AP Initial UE Message (NAS
Service Request).
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Accessibility Delay Measurements (2)
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Network Retainability: Call Drops
The total number of active calls is defined as the number of initial contexts
successfully established plus the number of incoming handovers (S1AP
handover notify message) minus the number of outgoing handovers (UE
Context Release “successful handover”).
Dropped calls in the all-IP world of E-UTRAN and EPC won’t usually be
perceived by the subscriber as a dropped connection
• For non-real-time services like web-browsing or e-mail, user
perception will be just short interruption of data transport, delay in
accessing a next web site, or slowdown of an ongoing download.
• If the network can re-establish the lost radio connection fast enough
the subscriber won’t even notice the drop.
– Re-establishment delay is an important KPI for RRC retainability)
In real-time services like voice calls, the user will immediately recognize
the loss of connection. It would require extremely fast RRC re-
establishment procedures (1-2 seconds) to save the situation.
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Call Drops (3)
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RRC Re-Establishment
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Mobility (Handover)
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Handover Execution Phase
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Mobility (Handover) 2
Handover Types
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Mobility (Handover) 3
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X2AP/S1AP Message Type
and Associated Procedure Code
handoverPreparation X2AP-ELEMENTARY-PROCEDURE ::= {
INITIATING MESSAGE HandoverRequest The message names
SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME HandoverRequestAcknowledge used in 3GPP standard
UNSUCCESSFUL OUTCOME HandoverPreparationFailure documents and in the
PROCEDURE CODE id-handoverPreparation previous KPI formulas
CRITICALITY reject need to be mapped to
} the ASN.1 encoded
handoverPreparation S1AP-ELEMENTARY-PROCEDURE ::= { message format used to
INITIATING MESSAGE HandoverRequired construct X2AP/S1AP
SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME HandoverCommand messages, based on
UNSUCCESSFUL OUTCOME HandoverPreparationFailure
X2AP/S1AP message
PROCEDURE CODE id-handoverPreparation
type and associated
CRITICALITY reject
procedure code:
}
handoverResourceAllocation S1AP-ELEMENTARY-PROCEDURE ::= {
INITIATING MESSAGE HandoverRequest
SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME HandoverRequestAcknowledge
UNSUCCESSFUL OUTCOME HandoverFailure
PROCEDURE CODE id-HandoverResourceAllocation
CRITICALITY reject
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Handover Execution Phase
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Handover Execution (2)
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Handover Delay Measurements
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User Plane KPIs (1)
User plane KPIs are typically measured on a per call basis, but we
don’t have to do it that way. There are various ways to store and
display user plane performance measurements. The chosen
approach should depend on the purpose of the measurement.
Consider the example of throughput measurements.
• To get a rough idea of the user plane load it is sufficient to
collect the data volume for a longer timer period like 15, 30, or
60 minutes.
• Using this time interval average throughput can be computed,
but typically this is not done since there’s not enough data
volume for a user plane metric except in the busiest cells.
• However, to describe the user experience in these cells, this
kind of measurement isn’t really meaningful.
September, 2013 Course 508 v2.0 (c)2013 Scott Baxter Page 122
User Plane KPIs (2)
A better way to measure the user experience or throughput is to collect
throughput measurement samples during each active call in a particular cell
and store and count the results in a bin histogram table.
The bin distribution of throughput measurement samples allows a good
evaluation of the subscriber’s throughput quality experience.
• However, most common applications in today’s mobile networks aren’t
very throughput-sensitive. Connections for e-mail and web-browsing
services show high volatility due to the traffic itself.
• This means distribution of samples in a bin histogram reflect the nature
of the traffic more than the user experience.
• Even if throughput is lower during downloading a web site, this isn’t
usually recognized as a problem by the subscriber, because they
experience the same kinds of issues all the other IP environments they
use.
• The bin histogram approach is meaningful to evaluate the user
experience in throughput-sensitive services like streaming video or File
Transfer Protocol (FTP), but not for a generic measurement of user
experience and cell quality.
• Another disadvantage is that this kind of measurement requires a lot of
hardware and cost.
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IP Throughput
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Throughput Measurement Graph of a Single Connection
Correlated with Occurrence of Handover Events.
xx
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IP Frame Header
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Application Throughput
TCP and FTP data frame
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Application Throughput
UP Datagram With Length Indicator
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UDP throughput of a connection between two terminal
endpoints as measured on S1-U interface
xx
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TCP Startup KPIs
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FTP (IP) service setup time
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TCP Port Numbers for Application Tracking
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TCP Round-trip Time Measurement
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HARQ Retransmissions Trigger TCP RTT Peaks
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Packet Jitter (2)
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Packet Delay and Packet Loss on a Hop-to-
Hop Basis
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Packet Delay and Lost Packets
Caused by eNodeB
The figure above shows the results for the following measurements:
• Packet delay UL: The time the eNB needs to forward a packet received from
the Uu to the S1-U interface.
• Packet delay DL: The time the eNB needs to forward a packet received from
the S1-U interface to the Uu interface.
• Lost packets: The total number of lost packets and the time distribution of
packet losses according to the tracking results after call trace.
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Packet Delay and Packet Loss on a Hop-to-
Hop Basis
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LTE System Statistics
and Operational Measurements
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System Statistics
Optional Exercise:
• Let’s look at available counter and statistical data from your
own network statistics tools
• We can explore the available manufacturer documents to
become more familiar with the statistics and counters available
from your network
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LTE Field Data Examples
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Example from 3HK trial – reusing 3G sites
Improving performance by blocking excess cells
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Example from 3HK trial – reusing 3G sites
Improving performance by blocking excess cells
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Detecting interference - SINR
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Summary
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RF optimization
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LTE RAN Optimization Tools
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LTE RAN Testing
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LTE RAN Test Tools
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Agilent RF Tools
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Anite Field Test Products
Anite in Finland absorbed the former Grayson wireless and Handy
offers its own comprehensive system of optimization tools
Handy – android-based portable
FSR-1
NEMO Autonomous
• Unattended/mobile data collection Autonomous
NEMO CEM customer experience tool Outdoor
• Reporting software on subscriber handsets and
back-end processor
CEM
NEMO FSR1
• Modular Receiver data collection
NEMO Outdoor
• Full-featured data collection in portable package
NEMO Invex Analyze
• Multi-device data collection for benchmarking and in-
depth problem capture
NEMO Analyze post processor
• Problem analysis, benchmarking Invex
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Anritsu RF Tools
JDSU purchased the wireless test product line of Agilent and has
expanded it to provide end-to-end testing of LTE systems,
integrating RF field-collected data with messaging captured from
the interfaces between RAN and Core Network for powerful event
and root cause analysis
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PCTEL RF Tools
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Transcom Instruments
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Core Network Tools
Core Network Tools monitor the various interfaces within and around the
LTE core network to collect packet and messaging information about
interface and node conditions, failed processing events, traffic levels, and
other network statistics.
Manufacturers of the core network nodes provide their own generic and
proprietary counters and indicators for the performance of their network
elements and the interfaces they use. These provide the main operational
statistics upon which LTE operators rely on to manage their networks
ordinary operation.
Test equipment manufacturers provide data monitoring and collection
tools which capture TCP/IP packets and network events. The
manufacturers also provide various software tools for post-analysis of the
collected data, making it possible to zoom in on specific types of packets
and events and drill down to first causes.
Some tools provide simulation of traffic and simulation of various network
nodes to support core network design and element selection, beyond the
narrower function of optimization.
Following pages describe available core network analysis tools.
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Agilent Core Network Tools
In addition to its
LTE RF
optimization tools
and broad line of
spectrum
analyzers and
other RAN-related
equipment, Agilent
also offers a
series of
Distributed
Network
Analyzers and
analysis software
for deep study and
event capture in
the LTE Core
Network
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JDSU Core Network Tools
Tektronix provides data probes to monitor all TCP/IP interfaces of an LTE network,
both in the RAN and the Core, along with its IRIS Performance, Traffic and Protocol
analyzers and new Spectra2 XL3 IMS and EP3 test application.
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Examining LTE
Message and Event Records
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Wireshark
http://www.wireshark.org/download.html
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cc
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Example RRC Traffic: Connection Setup
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RRC Wireshark Notes
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LTE-RRC Wireshark Preferences and Filters
Preference Settings
• There are currently no preference settings for this protocol.
Display Filter
• A complete list of RLC-LTE display filter fields can be found in
the display filter reference
• Show only the LTE-RRC based traffic: lte-rrc
Capture Filter
• You cannot directly filter LTE-RRC protocols while capturing.
External links
• 3GPP TS 36.331 Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
(E-UTRA) Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol
specification
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Wireshark Dissector Notes for LTE-RRC
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Example: (MAC) for LTE
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LTE-MAC Wireshark Notes
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LTE-MAC Wireshark Preferences and Filters
Preference Settings
• Number of Re-Transmits before expert warning triggered.
Default is 3.
• Attempt to decode BCH, PCH and CCCH data using LTE RRC
dissector. Default is TRUE.
• Dissect frames that have failed CRC check. Default is FALSE.
• Try Heuristic LTE-MAC framing over UDP. Default is FALSE.
• Attempt to dissect LCID 1&2 as srb 1&2. Default is FALSE.
LCID -> DRB Mappings Table. Can configure data channel ID and
RLC mode so RLC-LTE dissector can be called for these SDUs.
• Attempt to track UL HARQ resends. When frame marked as
reTx, looks for link back to original tx. Default is TRUE.
• BSR size when warning should be issued. Default is 50 (19325
< BS <= 22624)
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LTE-MAC Wireshark Preferences and Filters
(continued)
• track status of SRs within UEs. Looks for and shows links
between SR request and resulting grant or failure indication.
Default is TRUE.
• Which layer info to show in Info column.
– Choices are PHY, MAC or RLC info. Default is MAC-info.
Display Filter
• A complete list of MAC-LTE display filter fields can be found in
the display filter reference
Show only the MAC-LTE based traffic: mac-lte
You cannot directly filter MAC-LTE protocol frames while
capturing. But, if you are using the supported UDP framing format,
you may be able to filter on the UDP port you know that you are
using, e.g. udp port 9999
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Packet Data Convergence Protocol
(PDCP) for LTE
This protocol sits between the RLC and RRC layers in the LTE air
interface (connecting an LTE UE with an eNodeB).
Protocol dependencies
• A preference setting may be enabled to allow dissection of
(some) RRC payloads. This dissector may be called by the
RLC-LTE dissector for signalling PDUs (if preference settings
are enabled).
• A UDP framing format for PDCP-LTE has been defined
(described in packet-pdcp-lte.h, purely for use with Wireshark)
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PDCP-LTE Traffic Example
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PDCP-LTE Wireshark Notes
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PDCP-LTE Filters and References
Display Filter
• A complete list of PDCP-LTE display filter fields can be found
in the display filter reference
• Show only the PDCP-LTE based traffic: pdcp-lte
Capture Filter
• You cannot directly filter PDCP-LTE protocols while capturing.
External links
• 3GPP TS 36.323 Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
(E-UTRA); Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
specification
• RFC 3095 RObust Header Compression (ROHC): Framework
and four profiles: RTP, UDP, ESP, and uncompressed
• Example program that generates and sends frames using the
supported UDP framing format
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Radio Link Control (RLC) for LTE
RLC protocol sits between the MAC and PDCP layers in the LTE
air interface (connecting an LTE UE with an eNodeB).
Protocol dependencies
• The MAC-LTE dissector can call the RLC-LTE dissector for
srb1 and srb2 (since it is known that these should be AM). For
signalling PDUs, the RLC-LTE dissector can call PDCP-LTE
for SRB channels, or LTE_RRC for CCCH channels. This is
controlled by preferences (see below).
• A UDP framing format for RLC-LTE has been defined
(described in packet-rlc-lte.h, purely for use with Wireshark)
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Traffic Example: RLC for LTE
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Wireshark RLC-LTE Notes
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LTE RLC Traffic Statistics Example
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LTE-RLC Wireshark Preference Settings
Preference Settings
• Do sequence analysis for AM channels. Can be done for either
standalone RLC frames, or those found inside MAC frames.
Default is OFF.
• Do sequence analysis for UM channels. Can be done for either
standalone RLC frames, or those found inside MAC frames.
Default is OFF.
• Call PDCP dissector for SRB PDUs. Default is OFF.
• Call RRC dissector for CCCH PDUs. Default is OFF.
• Try heuristic LTE-RLC framing over UDP. Default is OFF.
• May see RLC headers only. Default is OFF.
• Attempt SDU reassembly. Default if OFF. Will not currently
work with out-of-order PDUs or resegmentation.
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LTE-RLC Wireshark Filters
Display Filter
• A complete list of RLC-LTE display filter fields can be found in
the display filter reference
• Show only the RLC-LTE based traffic: rlc-lte
Capture Filter
• You cannot directly filter RLC-LTE protocols while capturing.
External links
• 3GPP TS 36.322 Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
(E-UTRA) Radio Link Control (RLC) protocol specification
• Example program that generates and sends frames using the
supported UDP framing format
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Practical Considerations about
LTE Performance Measurements
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Some Realities about Measured
RF Performance Indicators
Not all UEs and LTE scanners measure the basic performance
indicators in the same way
The following pages show some of the differences you will likely
encounter with your own measurement equipment
Practical Advice:
• It is not necessary that your equipment measure the indicators
perfectly, in exact conformity with the definitions
• If you’re looking for perfect equipment, you’ll be waiting a long
time before beginning to optimize your network
• But as long as you use the same equipment for monitoring and
benchmarking, you will have useful and comparable data
• When changing or adding new equipment, compare the results
obtained with the results of the old equipment during
simultaneous measurements; note the differences, and
reconcile
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Measurement results with different tools
Scanners and terminals have their own specific algorithms for
RF measurements.
RSRP
• Can be measured from the whole bw or from part of the bw.
RSRQ
• RSSI, used in the RSRQ definition, can be measured from the
whole bw or from part of the bw.
SINR
• Measured from Reference Signal or from Synchronization
channel.
Other differences
• Averaging methods
• Sampling rate
• Receiver sensitivity
• Cell info decoding capabilities
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RSSI versus RSRP, measurement with
Samsung in fully loaded 10MHz cell
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RSRP vs. RSSI vs. Number of RBs
RSSI rises about 5dB when RB activity increases to 100%, in 10MHz cell
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SNR vs. RSRP, measurement,
Samsung BT-3710
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RSRQ to SINR mapping, scanner measurement
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RSRP vs. DL throughput
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SINR vs. DL throughput
Example measurement Drive test, 20MHz BW, ~2.6GHz
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MIMO variants, measurement, Samsung (1)
Example: RSSI measured by UE
Note rx power imbalance between receive antenna branches
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MIMO variants, measurement, Samsung (2)
Example: RSRQ measured by UE
Note that no notable RSRQ imbalance between receive antenna branches
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MIMO variants, measurement, Samsung (3)
Example: RSRP measured by UE with one external antenna (one
external antenna rx1 + one internal antenna used rx2)
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Channel correlation
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EPA03, change of correlation, MIMO subchannel throughputs,
from fading simulator, LG terminal, 20MHz, 2.6GHz, SINR=25dB
High spatial correlation causes rank-1 transmission even at high SNR (second stream tput almost zero)
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Measurement accuracy requirement, 3GPP TS
36.133 (simplified)
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Impact of serving cell traffic, SINR
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Impact of serving cell traffic, RSRQ
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Impact of intra eNodeB interference on SINR
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Impact of intra eNodeB interference, SINR
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Impact of intra eNodeB interference, RSRP & RSRQ
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Impact of intra eNodeB interference, RSRQ
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Impact of inter site neighbor, SINR
Measurement location is
between sites at the cell
edge
Serving cell SINR is not
impacted by own cell
traffic.
Neighbor cell SINR is
decreased by serving cell
traffic.
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Driving, idle vs. download RSRP
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Some Useful LTE Links and References
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