Bad EcNo with good RSCP can be caused by 2 things

(barring any equipment issues as experts have pointed out)

1. DL interference such as SC clash or pilot pollution (lack of
dominant server), check your SC plan or reduce the number
of interfering servers by down tilting some unnecessary
sectors. you can confirm this if EcNo is poor, RSCP is good
and UE Tx power is low

2. Too high cell cell loading/ high noise or interference floor
(check if RTWP and TCP mean values are high as last
poster mentioned) you can confirm this if EcNo is poor,
RSCP is good and UE Tx power is high, try to balance traffic
between F1 and F2, check if any carrier is carrying traffic
from afar (overshooting) and reduce its coverage, reduce set
value for mobile access power on node b.
Why CQI? Some Questions answered

Why CQI
Several times weve asked ourselves these questions:
Q: Why do we get poor Ec/No when conducting HSDPA Drive Test?
Q: What is the calculations behind Ec/No going low when HSDPA session is initiated?
Q: Why do we consider CQI as a Quality Metric when conducting HSDPA Drive Test instead
of Ec/No?
Take a look at the following slides

Why CQI
Note the CQI value is 27 (good) while EcNo is about to explode (-12db)

Lets start by establishing some basics:
Ec/No for most of you is a Quality & Capacity measuring Metric. It generally gives us the
idea how good or bad the link Quality is. However, by definition, its quite confusing
CPICH Ec/No = Pilot channel quality energy per chip over total received power spectral
density
OR
RSCP = RSSI + Ec/No
EcNo = RSCP - RSSI
Lets go back to developing Basics
WHAT?!?!?
Ok..

So, we establish that,
The CPICH Ec/No measurements collected during HSDPA Transmission could mask the true
radio conditions
To avoid this, we have to monitor the Ec/No in IDLE mode only, which is a true reflection of
Interference and coverage problems
HSDPA session adds to the overall load of the cell which is taken into consideration during
computing Ec/No. As calculations above proved that this does not, necessarily, depict the
TRUE radio Conditions.
So, what is the ALTERNATIVE to Ec/No in HS session?
Its called Channel Quality Indication
CQI

Why CQI

What is CQI
HSDPA utilizes link adaptation techniques to substitute power-control and variable spreading
factor
The HS-DSCH link-adaptation algorithm at the Node-B is very dynamic, and adjusts the
transmit bit rate on the HS-DSCH every 2-ms TTI.
The UE periodically sends a CQI to the serving HS-DSCH cell on the uplink high-speed
dedicated physical control channel (HS-DPCCH)
The CQI tells the NodeB scheduler, the data rate the UE expects to be able to receive at a
given point in time.

NOTE: The HSDPA system defines a different CQI mapping table for different categories of UEs.
The category is determined according to the capability of UE
In addition to CQI, UE also sends HARQ on HS-DPCCH

Below figure shows the steps how CQI helps in determining the initial throughput that a UE
terminal demands from the system
STEPS
SINRis used to evaluate the channel quality as observed by the receiver, where a standard single
antenna Rake is used because it is the most common in the SISO HSDPA terminals.
CQI value for a given SINR is done via a linear mapping, as shown in figure

HSDPA CQI involvement

HSDPA CQI involvement
STEPS
The CQI values are used by the link adaptation algorithm at the Node-B. Every CQI value
reported corresponds to the Transport Block Size (TBS) that can be granted on a particular
Modulation type and Number of codes
Example of a UE category 10 CQI values from 0 to 30 are shown in the figure. Other UE
categories are shown in the following slide
The CQI is further defined as the TBS that can be supported with a BLER no greater than 10% -

STEPS
While CQI is sending UEs requirement to the system in UL, there is BLER calculation going on
and UL HARQ (Hybrid Auto Repeat Request) mechanism is helping in maintaining the BLER to
below 10%.
So the system (NodeB) is essentially calculating the Data Rate to be scheduled to the user based
on CQI reports and BLER which it receives from the UE
So DATA RATE (bps) = TBS (bits)/ TTI (sec) * (1-BLER)
HSDPA CQI involvement

HSDPA UE Categories 1-12

STEPS
While CQI is sending UEs requirement to the system in UL, there is BLER calculation going on
and UL HARQ (Hybrid Auto Repeat Request) mechanism is helping in maintaining the BLER to
below 10%.
So the system (NodeB) is essentially calculating the Data Rate to be scheduled to the user based
on CQI reports and BLER which it receives from the UE
So DATA RATE (bps) = TBS (bits)/ TTI (sec) * (1-BLER)
HSDPA CQI involvement

HSDPA UE Categories 1-12