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In this section, we are listing the different measurements that could be taken on a drive test,
while using either a 3G scanner or a trace mobile or both.
The purpose of this document is not to tackle with implementation-specific measurements
for commercial 3G scanners or trace mobiles.
On a drive test, one tester can take following measurements:
Radio measurements
Higher-layer measurements (RLC and over)
Cell detection
On one UMTS carrier, a cell is identified by its PSC (Primary
Scrambling Code). There are 512 scrambling codes grouped into 64
groups of each 8 different scrambling codes.
To detect a cell, the UE searches sequentially for:
the universal 256-chip primary synchronization code, being
identical for all cells and repeated at the beginning of each slot
of the P-SCH. Once the peak is detected, the slot boundary is
known.
the largest peak from the secondary synchronization code
word based on the slot boundary. The UE needs to check the
64 possible scrambling code group for the secondary
synchronization code word, beginning at each of the 15
positions, since only the slot boundary is known and not the
frame boundary.
the current PSC in the identified scrambling code group by
scanning the CPICH: the correlation peak obtained while
descrambling the CPICH with the current PSC allows the
detection of the PSC.
RAKE measurements
The RAKE receiver performs the multi-path combining at the mobile
side. The 3GPP definitions for measurements are always after
RAKE recombining. It does not make sense to analyze each path for
radio optimization for following reasons:
The RAKE coefficients are not configurable
The RAKE algorithm is proprietary
Multi-path profile changes from one test to the other
CPICH RSCP
The CPICH RSCP is the key measurement for DL coverage. The
CPICH RSCP is an RXLEV measurement. This measurement is
for:
Cell re-/selection
UL open loop power control
From the 3GPP TS25.215, the CPICH RSCP (Received Signal Code
Power) is the received power on one code measured on CPICH.
From the 3GPP TS25.133, the reporting range is for CPICH RSCP is
from 115dBm to -25 dBm.
As a rule of thumb, one can say (for dense urban):
-108dBm CPICH RSCP < -105dBm
Uncertain CS64 coverage on unloaded network
-105dBm CPICH RSCP < -98dBm
Uncertain CS64 coverage on 50%UL-loaded network
-98dBm CPICH RSCP < -85dBm
CS64 coverage on 50%UL-loaded network for outdoors
-85dBm CPICH RSCP < -70dBm
CS64 coverage on 50%UL-loaded network for in-car
-70dBm CPICH RSCP < -62dBm
CS64 coverage on 50%UL-loaded network for indoor daylight
-62dBm CPICH RSCP
CS64 coverage on 50%UL-loaded network for indoor first-wall
With a typical value of 33dBm for the CPICH TX power, the range for
path loss is then 58dB to 148dB.
One should be careful with the figures for the path-loss, since this
definition does not correspond to the pure radio loss.
3GPP Pathloss = CPICH TX power @ NB antenna connector -
CPICH RSCP @ UE antenna connector
CPICH EC/I0
The CPICH EC/I0 is the key measurement for radio optimization for
CDMA. The CPICH EC/I0 measures the soft radio capacity. This
measurement is for:
Cell re-/selection
Radio admission control
DL open-loop power control
Soft HO and inter-frequency Hard HO
From the 3GPP TS25.215, the CPICH EC/I0 is the received energy per
chip divided by the power density in the band. The EC/I0 is identical to
RSCP/RSSI.
From the 3GPP TS25.133, the reporting range for CPICH EC/I0 is from
24dB to 0dB.
The typical distribution of the CPICH EC/I0 highly depends on the cell
load. Requirements in term of CPICH EC/I0 depends on:
The non-limitation in UL and DL
coverage
The number of cells that can be
recombined
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The mobile sensitivity
As a rule of thumb, one can say:
-15dB CPICH EC/I0 -18dB
Preferred situation is more than 1 active RL
-12dB CPICH EC/I0 -15dB
Good value for 60%-loaded network
-8dB CPICH EC/I0 -12dB
Preferred situation is not more than 1 active RL
CPICH EC/I0 -8dB
Only 1 active RL for high-quality best server
Uplink
UE TX power
The UE TX power is the key measurement to analyze UL coverage.
It is the only uplink measurement that is available at the UE side. It is
defined in the 3GPP TS25.215 as the total UE transmitted power on one
carrier at the UE antenna connector.
From the 3GPP TS25.133, the reporting range for UE transmitted power
is from -50 dBm to 33 dBm. But, the Power Class of the UE bounds the
upper limit (defined in 3GPP TS25.101).
Power Class Maximum TX power
1 +33 dBm
2 +27 dBm
3 +24 dBm
4 +21 dBm
Downlink
Signal-to-Interference Ratio
The Signal-to-Interference ratio is not standardized for the UE.
This internal measurement should be used in the DL outer-loop power
control. The SIR target for DL is defined through UE-proprietary
algorithms to achieve the BLER Quality Value assigned by the UTRAN
(see Downlink Transport Channel BLER).
Therefore, one should be cautious when analyzing such measurements
in a mobile trace, since various definitions are possible.
Downlink BLER
The Transport Channel block error rate (BLER) is based on evaluating
the CRC of each transport block associated with the measured transport
channel after RL combination (performed by the Rake receiver). It is
computed as the ratio between the number of received transport blocks
resulting in a CRC error and the number of received transport blocks
over the measurement period.
Transport channel BLER value shall be calculated from a time window
with following size:
if periodical reporting mode is specified by the UTRAN, the size
should be equal to the IE Reporting interval in mentioned SIB11 or
12 (see 3GPP TS 25.331)
otherwise, this is an internal measurement at the UE side and the
window size is freely designed
The Transport channel BLER reporting range is from 0 to 1.
The BLER Quality value is a target indicated by the UTRAN at the RRC
CONNECTION SETUP and at the RADIO BEARER SETUP for
the initiated service. Therefore, the follow-up of the BLER helps
assessing whether the UE is performing according to the quality
requirements or not.
If the BLER is lower than the targeted Quality value, the QoS
offered by the UTRAN is sufficient, as far as the data integrity is
concerned.
If the BLER is higher than the targeted Quality value, the radio
interface is not able to satisfy the required QoS. This could be due
to:
Shortage of power to be dedicated to the UE on DL
Power limitations due to radio parameter settings
Power limitations due to high traffic on DL
High interference level on DL
Poor performances of the DL outer-loop power control
Logically, the Transport channel BLER and the SIR are bound through
the DL outer-loop power control, which is a mobile-proprietary
algorithm.
RLC statistics
Three RLC modes are available for Radio Bearers: Transparent,
Unacknowledged and Acknowledged.
For all RLC modes, statistics can be done on traffic volume and data
rate.
In the RLC Acknowledged Mode, several algorithms manage packet
retransmission, mainly:
Transmission and reception windows
Polling and Status signaling
In the RLC Acknowledged Mode, following measurements can be
done:
Transmitted but not acknowledged PDU (UL)
Retransmitted PDU (UL)
Received erroneous PDU (DL)
Window follow-up (UL and DL)
1.2.2 User-data measurements
TCP statistics
Mostly used assessments are the FTP throughput and the PING round-
trip time.
45
40
No 35
ise
e 30
Ris
in 25
dB 20
15
10
5
20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%
0
Cell Load
0.00
%
Others traffic
Other mobiles
Trace Mobile
traffic
Trace mobile
UE Node B CN
RNC
DCCH Radio
RRC Link set-up request
connection
Initiate AAL2 Iub data
connection for DCCH
RRC connection setup
RRC connection setup complete
RB setup complete
Uu Iub Iu
AND
Intra-network interference
Intra-network interference can be analyzed with the help of the scanner
on DL.
See Pilot pollution
See Missing adjacencies in the neighboring cell list
External interference
Specific investigations with a spectrum analyzer have to be performed
for interference coming from other radio sources than the operating
UTRAN.
This becomes a Spectrum Clearance issue.
Two kinds of problems may then be distinguished:
Interference that is due to out-of-band emissions from other
transmitters. In this case, filters must be set at the interfering
transmitter.
Interference that is due parasite transmitters that should not
transmit in this band. In this case, parasite emissions must be
stopped in the UMTS band.
On radio-loaded networks
On loaded networks, coverage problems may be linked to radio
limitations on DL. Indeed, the cell may not be able to serve the power
required by the Radio Link if the cell is already emitting at full power.
Cell TX power can be assessed based on Node B measurements on DL
Transmitted carrier power.
- Best RSCP 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, () Scanner Check Best RSCP 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, () in order to decide
CAPACITY: Cells -Number of link in the AS Mobile Check azimuths between co-site cells: where possible
from the same site -Number of link in the AS simulated maintain the azimuth between cells to 100-120o for 3 sectors
appear at similar Scanner site. Check antennas have unobstructed views, including at
coverage levels - Best SC regarding CPICH Ec/Io roof edges to minimise scatter.
Scanner
Call Performance: If the correct cell is not used in soft Tuning neighbour lists is a major aspect of optimisation.
Neighbour Lists handovers, the Ec/No and BLER will Check ACTIX options to find quickly missing neighbour
degrade and Ue_Tx_Power will increase cells between Mobile and Scanner measurements.
in Mobile Plots.
Check correct values for parameters:
Compare also: ReportingRangeEvent1A_1B_1C and
- Best SC regarding CPICH Ec/Io HysteresisEvent1A_1B_1C.
Scanner
- Best SC regarding CPICH Ec/Io Mobile Check Active Set Management problems, mainly: The UE
is sending repetitive MEASUREMENT REPORT without
getting an ACTIVE SET UPDATE; The UE can not
manage as many radio links as present in the Active Set (e.g.
in case of Rake limitations)-PILOT POLLUTION.
Pilot pollution
Soft handover is working well, when:
Radio links have a non-negligible life time and no Ping-Pong
overloads the signaling,
Radio links can be recombined in an effective manner at the
Rake receiver.
A polluter transmitter is a transmitter that checks all criteria to enter in
active-set but which is not admitted due to the active-set limit size.
One can distinguish different levels of criticality for pilot pollution:
A non-potential candidate cell for soft handover
A potential candidate cell for soft handover but with poor
performance
A potential candidate cell for soft handover but not declared in
the neighboring cell list
To limit pilot pollution, further investigations must be driven, especially
on:
Antenna azimuth and tilt
CPICH power setting
Cell maximum TX power
Neighboring-cell list and Monitored Set
2.2.5 RL problem
The Radio Link maintenance can engender call drops, when
unrecoverable RL failures occur. In a failure case on DL, the UE drops
the call and sends a RRC CELL UPDATE message on the RACH with
the cause RL failure.
RL failures are described in 3GPP TS25.331. They consist in L1
synchronization loss. In CELL_DCH State, after receiving N313
consecutive "out of sync" indications from L1 for the established
DPCCH physical channel, the UE starts T313. If N315 successive "in
sync" indications from L1 are received before T313 expiry, the RL
failure is recovered and T313 is stopped. Otherwise, this is a RL failure.
L1 reports "out of sync" if one of these criteria is fulfilled:
The UE estimates the DPCCH quality over the previous 160ms
period to be worse than a threshold Qout
The 20 most recently received transport blocks with a non-zero
length CRC have been received with incorrect CRC. In addition,
over the previous 160ms, all transport blocks with a non-zero
length CRC have been received with incorrect CRC.
Abbreviations
AM Acknowledged Mode
AS Active Set
BLER Block Error Rate
CAC Connection Admission Control
CFN Connection Frame Number
CN Core Network
CPICH Common Pilot Channel
CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check
DL Downlink
DPCCH Dedicated Physical Control Channel
Dedicated Physical Data Channel
DPDCH File Transfer Protocol
FTP Handover
HO Maximum Allowable Path Loss
MAPL Mobile Originating Call
MOC Mobile Terminating Call
MTC Mobile To Mobile
MTM Node B
NB Node B Application Protocol
NBAP Orthogonal Channel Noise Simulation
Protocol Data Unit
OCNS Primary Scrambling Code
PDU Quality of Service
PSC Radio Access Bearer
QoS Radio Admission Control
RAB RAN Application Protocol
RAC Radio Link Control
RANAP Radio Network Planning
RLC Radio Resource Control
RNP Received Signal Code Power
RRC Received Signal Strength Indicator
RSCP Received Total Wide-band Power
RSSI Synchronization Channel (Primary: P-SCH, Secondary: S-SCH)
RTWP Sequence Frame Number
SCH Signal to Interference Ratio
SFN Serving RNC
SIR Transmit Power Command
SRNC Transmitted
TPC User Equipment
TX Uplink
UE UMTS
UL Terrestrial
UTRA Radio Access
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