:

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Author

Vivek Kumar
Tripathi

Staff Number

742914

Depart
ment

GSRC India
Radio
Network
Planning
Dept.

Product Family:

Wireless Performance &

RNP & RNO

Update
Time

2013-11-07

Product Version:

V900R013SPH588

Approv
er
Title

High CDR troubleshooting and Optimization Guide

Pheno
menon
Descri
ption:

We were facing high CDR AMR & CDR PS issue in XX network of YY country. It was a big challenge for
us to improve and maintain KPI better than threshold.

Alarm
Inform
ation

None

Cause
Analysi
s

This document describes step by step approach for analysis and optimization for high CDR of AMR & PS
services. It can be used as technical reference guide for optimizing high CDR issues in any network.

Handli
ng
Process

If facing high CDR issue in any RNC of a network. First of all we should try to know the main reasons of
high CDR by analyzing PCHR data (which we can download from RNC BAM) using NPMASTER tool.

When we will analyze the PCHR data for CDR KPI we can get two .txt files with name CallDropStat_CS &
CallDropStat_PS. We can open these files using excel. We can know basic stats of call drop reasons in
particular RNC as shown bellow.

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By above stats of CS Call drop we can see that major call drops were happening due to High RTWP
(59.9%), Bad Coverage (13.57%), Missing Neighbors (6.6%), Slow handover & ASU Time out (10.71%),
and interference from other vendor (8.34%) etc as main reason. Similar was the stats of PS call drop also
with almost same reasons.
So using this approach we came to know that we should focus on bellow mentioned points in order to
improve CDR performance of network.
1- Improve RTWP and drops caused in high RTWP scenario by PIM rectification / external
interference rectification / parameter optimization case to case basis.
2- Improve Coverage and drops in bad coverage scenario by physical optimization.
3- Missing Neighbor addition and unwanted neighbor deletion by considering SIB 11 size limitation
for neighbor list.
4- Parameter Optimization solution to improve CDR caused by ASU timeout and other bad coverage
related issues.
5- Finding the source of interference from other vendor to take appropriate actions to improve CDR.
In this case study we focused on top 4 points as finding source of interference from other vendor is a
separate topic. We taken appropriate actions as mentioned bellow to improve CDR by considering top 4
reasons as major reason of high CDR.
1- Resolving call drop due to high RTWP:
We can use bellow approach to troubleshoot and optimize CDR caused by high RTWP.
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If facing high RTWP issue at some sites in any network. First of all we should confirm this high RTWP is
related with PIM or external interference or due to high traffic.
Method to do PIM Testing: Please follow bellow method to confirm if issue is related with PIM or not.
Step 1: Open M2000 and login with user name and password

Step 2: M2000 select Main Topology

Step 3: Use CTRL+F to find the site

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Step 4: locate site

Step 5 select Maintenance Client:

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Step 6: Use MML command Lst RRU to know Cabinet, subrack and slot number

Step 7: start the board RTWP by filling cabinet, subrack and slot number

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Step 8: Open Board RTWP monitoring window

Step 9:Adjust the board RTWP window

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Step 10 start the output power monitoring

Step 11 Output power monitoring

Step 12 adjust the window as below

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Step 13 MML: STR RFTEST

Step 14 record screen

Case 1: No PIM interference: if board RTWP not changing with change in output power as shown bellow

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Case 2: PIM interference : if board RTWP changing with change in output power as shown bellow

Now by this method we can know which cells have high RTWP issue caused by PIM. If we found PIM it
need to be rectified. If NO PIM then we can do FFT testing to confirm if high RTWP caused by some
external interference or not.
Method to do FFT spectrum scan test: FFT spectrum scan is a off-line MML command
So the permission should be approved in advance to do the FFT scan.
Step 1: DEA Cell: we need to deactivate cell as per bellow snap shot

Step 2: Open LMT as per bellow snap shot

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Step 3: use command LST RRU to know cabinet no, subrack no & slot no

Step 4:SET parameter for FFT as per bellow snap shot

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Step 5: Save scan result picture

Step 6: ACT ucell

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Using above FFT spectrum scan method we can see if high RTWP belongs to external interference or not. If
found external interference need to trace the source and turn it off.
Solution for Passive Inter Modulation (PIM): we have found many cells which have PIM issue. We
suggested to solve PIM by finding out PIM location as per bellow methods.
Here is example of one cell (BKF0014_S01) affected by PIM issue. Borad RTWP was increasing with
increase in output power. Hence PIM is confimred.

Locating the PIM interference: Solution 1

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Locating the PIM interference(solution 2)

If High RTWP issue is not related with PIM & External interference and it is caused by high traffic at site.
Then in this case we can try to do some parameter optimization as suggested bellow.
Solution 1: Optimization of CQI Feedback Period from 2ms to 8 ms
Basic principle and application scenario:
Basic principle: The shorter the CQI feedback period is, the better the downlink data transmission is. The
longer the CQI feedback period is, the lower the load is.
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Application scenario: any scenarios where the HSUPA cell capacity needs to be expanded and the cell
RTWP needs to be reduced.
Gain and risk
Gain: On the office in country A, the CQI feedback period is changed from 2 ms to 8 ms. After optimization,
the average value of the RTWP traced in real time is reduced by about 8 dB. The average RTWP value of
hour-level traffic statistics is reduced by about 10 dB.
Risk: After this solution is implemented on offices A and B, there is no impact on the entire network.
Version in which the solution is implemented
In RAN13.0, parameters are baselined to 4 ms. Parameters are modified manually in earlier versions

Impact: As in above picture when we modify the CQI feedback period from 2 ms to 8 ms. The RTWP
average value is reduced by about 8 dB in real-time trace (-76.97-> -85.05). The load overshoots in a short
time, and the frequency decreases obviously.
Solution 2 : Access Parameter Optimization
Basic principle and application scenario
Basic principle: By reducing the spike of the preamble open-loop power control on the uplink RTWP in
RACH initial access, the RTWP is significantly reduced in the cell with frequent RACH access (thousands
of times per hour).
Application scenario: This solution is mainly used for indoor coverage scenarios, and for cells with frequent
subscriber access and high RTWP.
Gain and risk
Gain: After the Constantvalue parameter is modified on the office in country C, the RTWP average value is
reduced by 3 dB to 4 dB. After PreambleRetransMax, PowerRampStep and Mmax parameters are modified,
the average RTWP value is reduced by 1 dB.
Risk: For indoor coverage scenarios, the access delay increases.
Version in which the solution is implemented
All
Solution :
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For the indoor scenario:

Modify the constant value of the initial transmit power: Constantvalue=-20-> Constantvalue=-30,
Modify the Preamble retransmit times: PreambleRetransMax=20 -> PreambleRetransMax=40,
Modify the step: PowerRampStep=2 -> PowerRampStep=1,
Modify the maximum number of cycles: Mmax=8->Mmax=3,
Modify the upper limit of random rollback: NB01max=0 -> NB01max=10.
For the outdoor scenario:
Modify the maximum cyclic times: Mmax=8->Mmax=3,
Modify the upper limit of random rollback: NB01max=0 -> NB01max=10.
Application effect :
After the access parameter optimization, the RTWP average value is reduced by 3 dB to 4 dB.
The RTWP short-time overshoot still exists, but with significantly better frequency and intensity.
The RTWP distribution in the low interval increases significantly.

Solution 3: 10 ms Fixed PO Optimization

Basic principle and application scenario
Basic principle: Configure higher reference PO for the 10 ms PO, to reduce DPCCH SIR working point and
uplink load cost, and to improve the throughput of the HSUPA cell with many subscribers.
Application scenario: This is used for the network with a high ratio of HSUPA 10 ms subscriber, and with
limited uplink capacity.
Gain and risk
Gain: For the lab test with dual antennas, 75% uplink load target threshold, 18 online subscribers and two
uploading subscribers, the gain of the uplink throughput in the cell is 15%.
Risk: The peak rate of the HSUPA 10 ms subscriber in commercial network competition is slightly affected.
Version in which the solution is implemented
All (Versions earlier than R13 involve internal parameter modification. You need to obtain the commands
for modifying internal parameters from the PDT manager of the product line. It is recommended that
HSUPA PO adaptive adjustment is used on R13 version and later versions.)
Solution 4: 2 ms Fixed PO Optimization
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Basic principle and application scenario

Basic principle: Configure higher reference PO for the 2 ms PO, to reduce DPCCH SIR working point and
uplink load cost, and to improve the throughput of the HSUPA cell with many subscribers.
Application scenario: This is used for the network with a high ratio of HSUPA 2 ms subscriber, and with
limited uplink capacity.
Gain and risk
Gain: For the lab test with one antenna, 90% uplink load target threshold, and with 7 to 8 subscribers
running FTP for upload, the gain of the uplink throughput in the cell is 15%.
Risk: The peak rate of the HSUPA 2 ms subscriber in commercial network competition is greatly affected.
Version in which the solution is implemented
All (If internal parameters are involved, you need to obtain the commands for modifying internal parameters
from the PDT manager of the product line.)
Solution 5: State Transition/EFD
Basic principle
Basic principle: Transit the light-traffic subscribers to the FACH state, reduce dedicated channel resources
occupation of light-traffic subscribers, and reduce uplink and downlink load. EFD is used for networks with
high iPhone penetration rates.
Application scenario: This is used for networks with high penetration rates for intelligent terminals, large
amount of online subscribers and low throughputs.
Gain and risk
Gain: The gain is related to traffic models and the permanent online timer.
Risk: This increases PS call drop rate, and decreases the setup success rate of CS composite services.
Because the EFD is not compatible with other terminals, you are advised to use this solution for iPhones
only.
Version in which the solution is implemented
R12
Application effect :
If the state transition is disabled, the capacity loss is severe, and the whole RTWP increase is obvious (by
about 15 dB).

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Solution 6: iPhone Link-Deleting Problem

Basic principle and application scenario
Basic principle: When iPhone releases a link, the iPhone retransmits the RRC CONN REL CMP signaling
message. However, the network side releases the link before UE. As a result, the uplink power control is
abnormal and the RTWP spike occurs. The solution is delaying the link release on the network side when
iPhone releases a link.
Application scenario: This is used for networks with high iPhone penetration rates and high RTWP.
Gain and risk
Gain: The RTWP spike is reduced, especially for networks with high iPhone penetration rates. After the
solution is implemented on the site in Thailand, the RTWP average value improves by about 3 dB.
Risk: None
Version in which the solution is implemented
RNC RAN12 SPC516
Application effect:
The RTWP average value increases by about 3 dB (89.9 dBm -> 93.1 dBm).

Solution 7: RTWP Value Optimization of SIB7 Broadcast

Basic principle and application scenario
Basic principle: Reduce the spike of the preamble open-loop power control on the uplink RTWP in RACH
initial access, especially in high load scenarios. The RTWP in SIB7 is broadcast in real time. If you reduce
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the RTWP in SIB7, the effect is essentially the same as that of reducing the Constvalue. Both are for
reducing the UE power of transmitting the first preamble.
Application scenario: This is used in the scenario where the RACH causes RTWP ramp.
Gain and risk
Gain: After the RTWP value of SIB7 broadcast is optimized on the office in country A, the average RTWP
value is reduced by about 3 dB.
Risk: In the scenario with low load and not obvious RTWP spike caused by RACH, each RACH access
needs a large amount of preamble ramp progress, which causes hundred-ms-level delay to increase.
Version in which the solution is implemented
NodeB R12SPC430
Application effect:
After the RTWP value of SIB7 broadcast is optimized, the RTWP average value is reduced by about 3 dB:
93.5 vs 90.8.
In the real-time trace data, you can see that the frequency of load short-time overshoot obviously becomes
lower.

Solution 8: Adaptive Adjustment of HSUPA PO (power offset)

Basic principle and application scenario
Basic principle: If the subscriber rate is lower than a certain threshold, and the air interface load is limited,
increase the HSUPA reference PO to reduce the SIR working point of lower rate subscribers, and to improve
uplink capacity.
Application scenario: This is used for the network with a high ratio of HSUPA 10 ms subscriber, and with
limited uplink capacity.
Gain and risk
Gain: When the subscriber amount is large and the rate is low, the gain is obvious. For example, more than
fifteen 10 ms subscribers that only have small amounts of data to be retransmitted are online and uploading
at the same time. If the power offset of data channels for these subscribers all can be adjusted, the HSUPA
capacity of the cell can improve by more than 40% without object load increase. This is shown by the
increase of the average throughput or the increase of uplink data transmission subscriber number at the same
time. The effect is better with HSUPA TTI switchover based on the load enabled.
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Risk: Four minutes are taken from triggering to completion of this feature. The gain is not obvious for
frequent link-release/link setup subscribers or subscribers with too short lasting time links.
Version in which the solution is implemented
RAN13.0 (fixed PO configuration can be carried out on early versions.)
Solution 9: HSUPA TTI Selection and Switchover Solution Enabled + 2 ms Periodic Retry Disabled
Basic principle and application scenario
Basic principle: If the subscriber rate is lower than a certain threshold, and the air interface resource or the
CE resource is limited, the switchover of the HSUPA subscriber from 2 ms TTI to 10 ms TTI is triggered.
The RTWP overshoot caused by data burst because of high minimum rate of 2 ms subscribers is reduced.
The 2 ms periodic retry is disabled to prevent TTI ping-pong switchover.
Application scenario: This is used for networks with HSUPA 2 ms function enabled, lots of 2 ms subscribers
and limited uplink load.
Gain and risk
Gain: The RTWP overshoot caused by data burst because of high minimum rate of 2 ms subscribers is
reduced.
Risk: When the 10 ms TTI subscriber requires high-speed data transmission, the rate rises a little slowly
because of the reconfiguration process to the 2 ms TTI.
Version in which the solution is implemented
RAN10.0
Comparison of Different TTI Switchover Solutions

Solution 10: Reception Using Multiple Antennas

Basic principle and application scenario
Basic principle: For the same transmission rate, the reception using multiple antennas reduces the signal
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power that each antenna receives, that is, the uplink load. For the same load, the reception using multiple
antennas allows the UE to send larger transmission blocks, which means the uplink capacity is improved.
Gain and risk
Gain: Compared with the single antenna reception, the dual-antenna reception improves the uplink capacity
by more than 50%. Compared with the dual-antenna reception, the four-antenna reception improves the
uplink capacity by more than 50%.
Risk: No for now.
Version in which the solution is implemented
All

2-

Resolving call drop due to bad coverage issue:

If call drop is high due to bad coverage. We should check if worst cells coverage is in normal range or it is
overshooting. We can consider TP distribution and inter site distance to know about overshooting or normal
coverage. If worst cells are overshooting suggest containing overshooting by down tilting antenna or by
reducing CPICH power. If cell coverage is normal but still poor Ec/No and RSCP during drop then we can
do RF tuning to improve coverage and improve CDR performance.
We can know RSCP, Ec/No, propagation delay and RTWP values at time of drop by checking
CallDropDetails (.txt file output by NPMASTER as a result of PCHR analysis) as bellow.

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3- Resolving call drop due to Missing Neighbors:

Check Missing neighbor related call drops using NPMASTER as bellow.

Above data can be obtained by checking file CallDropMissingNeighbor (.txt file output of NPMASTER by
PCHR analysis)
In this data we can know PSC, Ec/No & RSCP of missing neighbors responsible for high CDR. We can
check these neighbors and if suitable we can add them as neighbor, if not suitable to add as neighbor and
coming from large distance we can contain overshooting of these detected neighbors.
By using above method call drop caused by missing neighbor can be optimized.

4- Parameter Optimization solution to improve CDR caused by ASU timeout and other bad
coverage related issues.

After basic optimization actions like missing neighbor addition, neighbor definition correction, RF tuning,
hardware issue rectification, RTWP optimization we can try bellow mentioned parameter optimization to
further improve CDR performance of network.

With above parameter settings CDR will improve to great extent.

We can try implementing call reestablishment as per bellow parameter settings to improve CDR
performance.

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We tried call re-establishment in our network and observed good improvement in CDR performance as
shown bellow.

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Our network CDR KPI improved to a great extent after basic optimization actions like missing neighbor
addition, neighbor definition correction, RF tuning, hardware issue rectification and call re-establishment
implementation. So we not tried other parameter optimization solution but those solutions already tested in
other networks and can be used for further improvement of CDR if required.
Sugges
tions
and
summa
ry
Attach
ments

Relate
d
docum
ent
link

If facing high CDR issue in any RNC of a network we can use the troubleshooting method and optimization
techniques as explained in this document.

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