WCDMA RF Optimization

ISSUE 1.0

Huawei Confidential. All Rights Reserved

 This

lecture introduces the various stages

involved in optimizing a 3G radio network
and focuses mainly on the RF Optimization
phase.
Step-by-step approach for the analysis of
drive survey data collected by Agilent
Scanner and test UE is presented. The
analysis is carried out using the post
processing tool Actix Analyzer.

Internal Use

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RF optimization will be an ongoing

activity and will need to be revisited as
traffic increases in the network and as
new sites are deployed.
In addition, as the network matures,
the optimization process should be
enhanced to take into account
statistical data and key performance
indicators collected throughout the
network.

Chapter 1 Optimization Phases

Chapter 2 RF Optimization
Chapter 3 RF Analysis Approaches
Chapter 4 Antenna Adjustment Example
Chapter 5 Drop Call Analysis Example

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Network Optimization Phases Flow Chart

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Network Optimization Phases Step 1

Single Site Verification

To verify the functionality of every new site.

Objectives
To ensure there are no faults related to site installation or
parameter settings.

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Network Optimization Phases Step 2

RF Optimization
Once all the sites in a given area are integrated and
verified, RF (or Cluster) optimization can begin.

Objectives
To optimize coverage while at the same time keeping
interference and pilot pollution under control over the
target area. This phase also includes the verification and
optimization of the 3G neighbor lists.

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Network Optimization Phases Step 3

Services Testing & Parameter Optimization

To be conducted in areas of good RF conditions in order
to exclude any coverage issues. Such testing does not
need to be performed for each cell but the drive route
must include different clutter types and environments.

Objectives
To assess the performance and identify any need for
specific parameter optimization.

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Network Optimization Phases Step 4

Regular Reference Route Testing & Stats Analysis

Constant monitoring and evaluation of the network
performance can be based on field testing as well as
network stats analysis.
Results of regular analysis may necessitate re-visits to
RF optimization and/or parameters tuning.

Objectives
To identify any new issues that could arise, for example,
as a result of increase in traffic or changes in the
environment.

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Chapter 1 Optimization Phases

Chapter 2 RF Optimization
Chapter 3 RF Analysis Approaches
Chapter 4 Antenna Adjustment Example
Chapter 5 Drop Call Analysis Example

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10

RF Optimization - Preparation

Clutters
RF optimization should be carried out for groups or
clusters of sites rather than on single site basis.

Drive Routes
Cluster drive surveys should include the coverage areas
of each cell and all the major roads and streets as well
as any other important locations.

Tools
Agilent scanner
Qualcomm/Huawei UE in continuous AMR call
Actix Analyzer/Probe

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11

RF Optimization - Targets

Item
CPICH RSCP
CPICH Ec/Io
Active Set size
(estimated)

Requirements
Target

- 85 dBm

Minimum

-95 dBm

Target

-8 dB

Minimum

- 14 dB

Corresponds to outdoor
measurements.
Applicable for unloaded network.

Target

Max %

< 10 %

% of time a cell is seen as a pilot

polluter.

8 dB

Relative to best server when cell

is not in Active Set.

Pilot pollution
Threshold
UE Tx power

Max

SHO Success rate

Target

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Comments

<15 dBm
>95 %

Based on scanner data.

Assuming 21 dBm max.

For e1A, e1B & e1C

12

RF Optimization Flow Chart

Drive
Drive Test
Test
Identify
Identify any
any RF
RF Issues
Issues
Identify
Identify candidate
candidate
cells
cells for
for changes
changes

Identify
Identify nature
nature of
of
required
required changes
changes

Determine
Determine amount
amount
of
of changes
changes

Implement
Implement changes
changes
N

Repeat
Repeat Drive
Drive Test
Test
Problem
Problem Resolved?
Resolved?
Finish
Finish

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13

RF Optimization - Solutions
Antenna

tilt

Antenna

azimuth

Antenna

location

Antenna

height

Antenna

type

Site
New

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location
site

14

Chapter 1 Optimization Phases

Chapter 2 RF Optimization
Chapter 3 RF Analysis Approaches
Chapter 4 Antenna Adjustment Example
Chapter 5 Drop Call Analysis Example

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15

RF Analysis Approaches Cell Dominance

No dominance Cells
A site was not radiating during the drive survey
Very poor dominance may be due to antenna blocking
Site visit must be done to verify the antenna clearance

Cells with either excessive or poor dominance

This could be due to a high site or non-optimum antenna
tilts.
Cells with too large dominance will be causing
interference to adjacent cells resulting in poor capacity.

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16

RF Analysis Approaches Cell Dominance

Areas of non-dominance:
Areas where there is not a single clear dominant cell and
the best server changes too frequently.
Result: Excessive soft handover events reduce the
system efficiency and increase the probability of call
drops.

UE vs. Scanner Best Serving Cells:

Comparison between UE and scanner SC plots.
Significant differences between the plots may indicate a
missing neighbor or failed soft handoff problem.

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17

RF Analysis Approaches Cell Dominance

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18

RF Analysis Approaches CPICH Coverage

Check areas of poor coverage, suggestion value as below:

Good : RSCP -85 dBm
Fair : -95 dBm RSCP < -85 dBm
Poor :
RSCP < - 95 dBm

Examine the RSCP coverage on per cell basis in order to

highlight any cells that have too large transmitting power.

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19

RF Analysis Approaches CPICH Coverage

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20

RF Analysis Approaches Interference

CPICH

Ec/Io Plot

Good: Ec/Io -8 dB
Fair: -14 dB Ec/Io < -8 dB
Poor: Ec/Io < - 14 dB

The -8 dB threshold takes into account the expected future

interference increase as a result of increased traffic.

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21

RF Analysis Approaches Interference

Whats the
problem?

Because
Becausethe
theRSCP
RSCPLevel
Levelisispoor,
poor,and
and
the
thefundamental
fundamentalcause
causeof
of low
lowEc/Io
Ec/Ioisis
poor
poorcoverage
coverage

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22

RF Analysis Approaches Interference

-14
-15

-63

-60
-65

-15.5

-16

-70

-17

-75

-18

-80

-19

-85

-20

Whats the
problem?

-90
Ec/Io

RSCP

RSCP
RSCPlevel
levelisisgood,
good,and
andthis
thiswill
will
imply
implystrong
strongsystem
systeminterference
interference

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23

RF Analysis Approaches Interference

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24

RF Analysis Approaches UL Coverage

Uplink Coverage (UE Tx Power)

High UE Tx power means possible poor uplink coverage.
Areas of high Tx power should be compared to the CPICH pilots
to verify if the problem only exists on the uplink.

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25

RF Analysis Approaches UL Coverage

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26

RF Analysis Approaches Pilot Pollution

Pilot Pollution Point Definition:

Not all points in the active set
Within a certain margin of the best server( the margin is
set to 8dB)

Cells which are frequently seen as polluters (e.g. >8% time)

should be marked and investigated.

Pilot Pollution results should be used in conjunction with the

estimated Active Set Size

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27

RF Analysis Approaches Pilot Pollution

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28

RF Analysis Approaches Pilot Pollution

SC
8
9
10
11
12
13
16
17
18
19
20
21
32
35
37
43
48
53
67
80
130

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Count
206
165
157
156
148
135
95
94
76
74
73
56
54
39
33
19
8
7
3
2
2

% in Pollution Set
12.9%
10.3%
9.8%
9.7%
9.2%
8.4%
5.9%
5.9%
4.7%
4.6%
4.6%
3.5%
3.4%
2.4%
2.1%
1.2%
0.5%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%

Should be investigated

29

RF Analysis Approaches Pilot Pollution

Estimated Active Set Size

Another useful measure of pilot pollution is by looking at

the estimated active set based on the scanner data. This
plot is obtained by modeling the network soft handoff
parameters within Actix.

In order to see areas of excessive SHO candidates, the

estimated active set size is allowed to exceed maximum
of 3.

This can be done in conjunction with the Pilot pollution

analysis.

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30

RF Analysis Approaches Pilot Pollution

Estimated

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Active Set Size Example

31

RF Analysis Approaches Neighbor List

Neighbor List Verification

The neighbor list can be verified and optimized using the
Neighbor List Verification tool within Actix.

Recommendations for Each Cell:

Retain: This indicates that those neighbors have been
confirmed from the drive survey data.
Add: Missing neighbors
Remove: These neighbors that were not measured but
are in the neighbor list.

Careful consideration is needed prior to removing neighbours

since the Actix results are drive route dependent.

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32

RF Analysis Approaches Neighbor List

Neighbor List Verification Example

SC

Cell

Site

Latitude

Longitude

009

70548

Ajman Central

25.41204

55.447

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Sample
Sample
Action Nbr SC
Count
Count
576

Retain
Retain
Retain
Retain
Retain
Add
Retain
Retain
Retain
Retain
Retain
Remove
Remove
Remove
Remove
Remove
Remove

018
010
016
032
011
130
021
008
020
012
017
053
019
034
037
013
051

82
46
31
20
18
17
17
12
6
5
2
0
0
0
0
0
0

%
14.2%
8.0%
5.4%
3.5%
3.1%
3.0%
3.0%
2.1%
1.0%
0.9%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%

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RF Analysis Approaches SHO

UE

SHO Performance
The success rates for event 1a, 1b & 1c and can be
obtained from Actix
Number of Active Set Updates
Event
Count
Event 1a - Cell Addition
328
Event 1b - Cell Removal
306
Event 1c - Cell Replacement
64

Number of Active Set Update Completes

Event
Count
Event 1a - Cell Addition
326
Event 1b - Cell Removal
305
Event 1c - Cell Replacement
62

Soft-Handover Success Rate

Event
Rate
Event 1a - Cell Addition
99.4
Event 1b - Cell Removal
99.7
Event 1c - Cell Replacement
96.9

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34

RF Analysis Approaches Call Drop

Internal Use

Drop Call Analysis - RF related issues :

Poor coverage (RSCP & Ec/Io)
High interference and hence poor Ec/Io
Poor uplink coverage (insufficient UE Tx power)
Poor dominance (best cell changes too frequently
resulting in too many SHO events)
Pilot pollution (too many cells present)
Missing neighbors
Fast change of RF conditions (e.g. turning a corner)

35

RF Analysis Approaches Call Drop

Drop Call Analysis Example 1

RSCP & Ec/Io degrades
BOTH for scanner and UE

Check for Coverage problems

Call Drop

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36

RF Analysis Approaches Call Drop

Drop

Call Analysis Example 2

Ec/Io
Ec/Io(and
(andRSCP)
RSCP)degrades
degradesfor
forUE
UE
ONLY
ONLYwhile
whilescanner
scannershows
showsno
nodegradation
degradation

UE
UEcamp
campon
onnew
newcell
cellimmediately
immediately
after
afterdrop,
drop,and
andUE
UEdid
didnot
not
measure
measurethis
thiscell
cellbefore
beforeDrop
Drop
Call Drop
Check
Checkthe
theNeighbor
Neighbor

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37

RF Analysis Approaches Call Drop

Drop

Call Analysis Example 3

Too
Toomany
manyand
andtoo
tooquick
quickchanges
changes
of
ofbest
bestserver
server
UE
UEto
toperform
performmeasurements
measurements
and
andSHO
SHOinintime
timedifficultly
difficultly

Ping-Pong
Ping-PongHandover,
Handover,need
needto
to
improve
improvecell
celldominance
dominance
Call Drop

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38

Chapter 1 Optimization Phases

Chapter 2 RF Optimization
Chapter 3 RF Analysis Approaches
Chapter 4 Antenna Adjustment Example
Chapter 5 Drop Call Analysis Example

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39

Antenna Adjustment Example

RSCP

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Coverage before Adjustment

40

Antenna Adjustment Example

RSCP

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Coverage after Adjustment

41

Antenna Adjustment Example

RSCP

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Distribution

42

Antenna Adjustment Example

Down

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Tilt from 4 to 6 Result

43

Antenna Adjustment Example

Down

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Tilt from 4 to 8 Result

44

Chapter 1 Optimization Phases

Chapter 2 RF Optimization
Chapter 3 RF Analysis Approaches
Chapter 4 Antenna Adjustment Example
Chapter 5 Drop Call Analysis Example

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45

Call Drop Analysis Example

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Call Drop Distribution

46

Call Drop Analysis Example

There are total 5 drop calls in the plot.

The example of drop call 1 is analyzed to show the process of

analysis in the following.

Call drop 1 occurred at an area of frequent change of best

server as shown by the scanner scrambling code plot

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47

Call Drop Analysis Example

CPICH

RSCP and Ec/Io before the Call Drop

UE Ec/Io
Scanner

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48

Call Drop Analysis Example

Compare Ec/Io from both scanner and UE at the time of the drop as
shown in the figure. This clearly shows the UE Ec/Io to drop to < -21
dB while the scanner remained above -11 dB.

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49

Call Drop Analysis Example

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Best server before and after the Call Drop

50

Call Drop Analysis Example

Comparing the best servers from UE and scanner at

the time of drop:

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Call Drop 1 (UE vs. scanner best server) shows that

SC008 is the best server before call drop in both UE and
scanner.
However, about 30 seconds before the drop, the scanner
selected SC018 as the best server while UE continued to
have only SC009 in its active set resulting in the drop call.
Immediately after the drop, UE camps on SC018.

51

Call Drop Analysis Example

UE

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Active Set and Monitor Set Before and After the Call Drop

52

Call Drop Analysis Example

Conclusion

Examining UE Active and Monitored set, the figure shows that

SC018 was not measured by the UE prior to the drop.

This scenario resembles a missing neighbor problem

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53

Call Drop Analysis Example

Coverage

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of Call Drop Point

54

Call Drop Analysis Example

Solution:

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Looking at call drop, the figure clearly shows that at the

location of the drop, SC018 should not be the best server.

Cell SC018 clearly requires some down tilting to control its

interference into the area of Drop 1. To illustrate this,
RSCP coverage of SC018 shows that the cells is
extending into a large area. E.g. around the location of
drop call, SC018 RSCP is > -75dBm.

Add the Missing Neighbors

55

Huawei Confidential. All Rights Reserved