WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Chapter 4

Performance monitoring

Page 1
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Content

1. KPI overview ........................................................................................................ 4

2. Call setup ............................................................................................................. 6

2.1. Busy Hour ...................................................................................................... 6

2.2. Call setup phases .......................................................................................... 8

2.2.1. RRC connection establishment ............................................................... 8

2.2.2. Radio Access Bearer establishment and release.................................. 13

2.3. Call setup failure .......................................................................................... 15

3. Call drop ............................................................................................................ 17

3.1. Possible causes .......................................................................................... 17

3.2. Soft Drop ..................................................................................................... 19

4. Mobility .............................................................................................................. 20

4.1. Soft handover .............................................................................................. 20

4.1.1. Successful soft handover ...................................................................... 20

4.1.2. Soft handover overhead ........................................................................ 21

4.2. Inter-RAT handover ..................................................................................... 22

4.2.1. Successful inter-RAT handover ............................................................ 22

4.3. Inter RNC mobility ....................................................................................... 25

4.3.1. Successful RNC relocation ................................................................... 25

4.3.2. Possible failures .................................................................................... 26

5. HSPA setup ....................................................................................................... 27

5.1.1. Successful call setup ............................................................................ 28

5.1.2. Analysis process ................................................................................... 29

Page 2
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

5.1.3. Possible failures .................................................................................... 30

6. HSPA drop ........................................................................................................ 32

7. HSPA mobility ................................................................................................... 33

7.1. Intra-Node B Serving HS-DSCH cell change without change of active set.. 34

7.2. Inter-Node B Serving HS-DSCH cell change............................................... 37

Page 3
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

1. KPI overview

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a business metric used to evaluate factors that
are crucial to the success of an organization. KPIs differ per organization; business
KPIs may be net revenue or a customer loyalty metric, while government might
consider unemployment rates.

In telecommunications the management system of the operator uses this KPIs to

evaluate and supervise the network operations in order to recognize the problems
that the operator may face.

KPIs are classified into different classes depending on their use field (as illustrated in
figure 1) like availability, accessibility, retainability….

In detail to support customer SLAs, KPI should be used to evaluate user's degree of
satisfaction with the service provided. The user's degree of satisfaction depends on
quality of service that is on the user's perception of the service performance: the
support, the operability, the serveability and the security In the present document,
KPI is only used to evaluate the service serveability performance. The service
serveability performance is further subdivided into three terms: service accessibility,
retainability and integrity performance.

From network performance point of view, serveability performance depends on

trafficability performance that is the combined aspects of availability, reliability,
maintainability and maintenance support performance. So that KPIs defined in the
present document are widely used for network performance monitoring and quality
benchmarking, such as hand-off success rate, call drop-rate, hold time, and
congestion are continuously monitored to provide indicators of areas that might
require tuning.

KPI is only valid when performance related data is non-zero or non-null

Page 4
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

UMTS KPI architecture

3G KPIs

Service
Accessibility Retainability Mobility Delay/latency Availability
integrity

• Call setup • Call drop • Call setup Worst cell rate

PS throughput • SHO success
success rate rate delay
rate
• PDP context • PDP context • PDP context
• Hard
activation drop rate activation
Handover
success rate time
success rate
• SMS/MMS • RTT
• Inter-RAT
success rate
handover
success rate

Figure 1: 3G KPIs architecture

Page 5
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

2. Call setup

2.1. Busy Hour

The busy hour (BH) can be evaluated per cell for all selected cells. Two alternative
approaches can be used for the BH calculation. In both cases, the counters values
must be aggregated per cell and per hour (that is for four Recording Output Periods,
ROP).
• BH calculation based on the total number of successful RRC Connection requests
BH calculation based on the total payload concerning the traffic carried in both UL
and DL on dedicated and common channels, both for PS and CS services. In the first
case, the BH evaluation can be based on a counter specified by vendor. This counter
increases at every successfully established RRC connection. Per cell and within the
period under observation, the counter values must be aggregated per hour
(normalized to the available ROP periods).
The BH must be defined as the hour for which the aggregated value is maximum. In
the second case, the BH can be evaluated by considering the total payload
considering the traffic carried both in UL and DL on dedicated and common channels
(both for PS and CS services).

Page 6
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Busy Hour
Busy hour is that continuous 60 minutes time span of the day
during which the highest usage occurs.

Figure2: Busy Hour

Page 7
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

2.2. Call setup phases

2.2.1. RRC connection establishment

A call is an active connection between the UE and the network used to exchange
signaling and data. The exchange of signaling is a prerequisite to establishing a
voice or data call. Hence, analyzing the setup of signaling connections represented
by SRBs is as important as analyzing the establishment of voice and data
connections represented by radio bearers (RBs) and/or radio access bearers (RABs).
Signaling radio bearers are established when an RRC connection between the UE
and the SRNC is set up. This RRC signaling connection establishment is requested
by the UE and executed/controlled by the SRNC.
In this scenario an RRC connection setup success rate can be defined as follows. It
does not matter if SRBs are mapped onto common transport channels
(RACH/FACH) or dedicated channels (DCH).

RRC Connection Setup & Access and

UE
Active
BTS

RRC: RRC connection Request

RNC CN

RRC SETUP fails if some of the needed resources (RNC, BTS, AIR, Transport) are
RRC SETUP phase not available. When an RRC setup failure occurs the RNC sends an RRC: RRC
(Resource Reservation in RNC, BTS, Transport) CONNECTION REJECT message to UE
RRC: RRC connection Setup
RRC ACCESS fails if the UE does not reply to RRC: RRC CONNECTION SETUP
RRC ACCESS phase
message with the RRC: RRC CONNECTION SETUP COMPLETE message in
(RNC waits for Reply from UE)
given time, if the BTS reports a radio link synchronisation failure or in an RNC
RRC: RRC connection Setup Complete
internal failure occurs
RRC ACTIVE phase
RRC: Initial Direct Transfer RRC ACTIVE fails when an interface related (Iu, Iur , Iub, or Radio) or RNC internal
RANAP: Initial UE Message
failure occurs, and the failure causes the release of the RRC Connection. When an
RRC active failure occurs, the RNC send a RANAP: IU RELEASE REQUEST to all
UE-CN Signalling involved CNs and waits for RANAP: IU RELEASE COMMAND message (s)
(E.g. RAB Establishment and Release)

RANAP: Iu Release Command

RRC: RRC connection Release RRC ACTIVE release cause can be either ISHO,
RRC: RRC connection Release Complete IFHO, SRSN relocation or pre-emption
Release RRC resources in RNC, BTS,
Transport

Figure 3: RRC connection setup & Access procedure

Page 8
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

RRC Connection Events and KPIs

UE RNC CN
RRC CONNECTION REQUEST
Event 1
Event 1 RRC_CONN_ATT_EST
Setup phase incremented
RRC CONNECTION SETUP Event 2 RRC_CONN_ATT_COMP
Event 2
incremented
Access phase Event 3 RRC_CONN_ACC_COMP
RRC CONNECTION SETUP COMPLETE incremented
Event 3 Event 4 RRC_CONN_ACT_COMP
Active phase incremented

Event 4 IU RELEASE COMMAND

Sum of RRC_CONN_STP_COMP
RRC Setup Complete Rate = Sum of RRC_CONN_STP_ATT x 100 %

RRC Establishment Complete Rate = Sum of RRC_CONN_ACC_COMP x 100 %

Sum of RRC_CONN_STP_ATT

RRC Retainability Rate = Sum of RRC_CONN_ACT_COMP x 100 %

Sum of RRC_CONN_ACC_COMP

Figure 4: RRC connection events and KPIs

The KPI described in Figure 4 are used to indicate whether there’s a failure case or
not

Page 9
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

If the setup of the RRC connection fails there are three different cases. In case 1 the
RNC is – due to load conditions – not able to offer a sufficient quality for the desired
service in the cell initially selected by the UE. Based on the establishment cause
included in the RRC Connection Setup Request the RNC has already received the
information about why signaling radio bearers are to be established: is it only to
register to the network or does the UE wish to set up a voice or data call? If there are
not enough resources available for the desired service the RRC connection
establishment is blocked by the RNC that sends the RRC Connection Reject
message. Rejecting the desired establishment of an RRC connection is also known
as blocking.
The second failure case is that the UE’s RRC Connection Request is not answered
at all although it is sent several times to the same RNC. The RRC connection setup
procedure on the UE side is guarded by timer T300 and counter N300. The default
value of T300 is one second, the default value of N300 is three. This means that if
the RNC does not answer, the UE will send three RRC Connection Request
messages using a time difference of one second (as shown in Figure 5). If all three
attempts fail the UE falls back into IDLE mode.

Page 10
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

RRC connection setup procedure

UE RNC

RRC connection request

RRC connection request 1sec

1sec
RRC connection request

RRC connection setup

Success
RRC connection setup complete

RRC connection reject

Failure 1

No answer from RNC: UE back to idle Failure 2

Figure 5: RRC connection setup procedure

Page 11
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

As another failure case it must be taken into account that the UE is not able to
respond to the RRC Connection Request sent by the RNC, because it has again lost
radio contact with cell. Since this failure happens relatively often a number of NEMs
have implemented a proprietary counter/timer function similar to the one in the UE in
their RNC software. In a typical configuration scenario if the UE does not respond
with RRC Connection Setup Complete within one second, then RRC Connection
Setup will be sent again. If a second try is not successful either the RNC will send
RRC Connection Setup a third time and then stop the procedure. From the
perspective of performance measurement software the procedure must be detected
as failed if after the second repetition of RRC Connection Setup plus waiting a typical
maximum response time (not more than one second) there is still no answer from the
UE as illustrated in Figure 6. RRC Connection Setup ‘no answer’ failure

UE does not answer RRC Connection Setup

Figure 6: RRC connection failure in case “no answer from UE”

Page 12
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

2.2.2. Radio Access Bearer establishment and release

Establishment of voice and data calls can be checked by analyzing radio bearer
setup or radio access bearer setup procedures. From the protocol point of view an
RAB Establishment Request sent on Iu triggers the setup of the radio bearer on the
lub/Uu interface and a successful RB set up triggers the successful completion of
RAB Establishment. For reasons of root cause analysis it makes sense to analyses
both procedures (but do not add counter results). An analysis focused on the user
perceived quality of service needs to look at only one procedure on one interface.
Regarding aggregation levels it makes sense to show the analysis of this procedure
related to involved network elements: the UE, SRNC, MSC and/or SGSN.
Aggregation on cell level must take into account that when RRC Radio Bearer Setup
is sent the UE might already be in soft handover situation (in contrast to GSM where
handovers are only necessary if traffic channels are already set up). This means that
one and only one RRC radio bearer setup procedure is always performed, but
identical transport blocks containing segments of the same involved RRC messages
are often seen transmitted on multiple lub/Uu interfaces simultaneously.

Page 13
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

RAB Setup & Access and Active

RAB Access failures are not so
Common
UE BTS RNC CN
RAB SETUP fails if some of the needed resources (RNC, BTS, AIR, Transport) are not
RRC Connection Active Phase, UE-CN Signalling
available. When an RAB setup failure occurs the RNC sends a RANAP: RAB ASSINGMENT
RESPONSE message to the CN with an appropriate failure cause
RANAP: RAB Assignment Request
RAB SETUP phase
RAB Setup time

(Resource Reservation in RNC, BTS, Transport) RAB ACCESS fails if the UE replies with an RRC: RADIO BEARER SETUP FAILURE
RRC: Radio Bearer Setup message or the connection cannot be established in a give time. When a RAB access failure
RAB ACCESS phase occurs, the RNC sends a RANAP: RAB ASSINGMENT RESPONSE message to the CN
(RNC waits for Reply from UE) with an appropriate failure cause. Immediately after this, the RNC sends also a RANAP: IU
RRC: RB Setup Complete RELEASE REQUEST to the CN and waits for RANAP: IU RELEASE COMMAND message
RANAP: RAB Assignment Response
RAB ACTIVE phase
(User Plane Data Transfer)
RANAP: RAB Assignment Request with IE: RAB reconfiguration RAB ACTIVE fails when an interface related (Iu, Iur, Iub, or Radio) or RNC internal failure
RAB Holding Time

occurs, and the failure causes the release of the RAB connection.
RAB Reconfiguration Actions
(Reconfigure RAB resources in RNC, BTS, Transport) • If the UE has more than one RAB connection and the failure is not so critical that it would
RRC: RB Reconfiguration lease to an RRC Connection drop, only the failed RAB connection is released. The RNC
RRC: RB Reconfiguration Complete sends a RANAP: RAB RELEASE REQUEST message to the CN and waits for a RANAP:
RANAP: RAB Assignment Response RAB RELEASE COMMAND or RANAP: IU RELASE COMMAND from CN
RANAP: RAB Assignment Request with IE: RAB Release • Otherwise, both the RRC connection and RAB connection (s) are released. The RNC send
RRC: Radio Bearer Release a RANAP: IU RELASE REQUEST message to the CN and waits for a RANAP: IU
RRC: Radio Bearer Release Complete RELEASE COMMAND MESSAGE from the CN
RANAP: RAB Assignment Response
Release RAB resources in RNC, BTS, Transmission

Figure 7: RAB setup & Access and active

Page 14
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

2.3. Call setup failure

Call Setup Failure Scenarios

–RF issue
• Interference / Dominance / Coverage
• Missing neighbour
–System Issue - BTS
• No response to “RRC Connection Request”
• “RRC Connection Reject” to “RRC Connection Request”
–System issue - RNC
• “CC Disconnect” after “Call Proceeding” due to “DL RRC Connection Release”
–Core NW
• “CM Service Abort” after “CM Service Request”
–System issue (test number)
• “CC Disconnect” after “CC Progress”

Figure 8: Call setup failure scenarios

Page 15
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Start

Best server’s Coverage Optimization

No
RSCP > -102dBm
Missing No
Dominance Optimization
Yes Neighbour ?
Best server’s No
Yes Neighbour list Optimization
Ec/No > -12dB

Yes
UL coverage & RACH
parameter. Optimization No AICH(ACK) received? Report & Finish
(changing serving cell) (Check failure cause)
Yes No
“RRC Connection No “RRC Setup
Setup” received? Reject” received?

Yes
AC optimization (check PrxNoise
Report & Finish No (DCH) “RRC Connection setup Yes & interferer around BTS)
(Reason of problem: L1 sync fail) Completed” sent from UE?

Report & Finish

Yes

Report & Finish No “Radio Bearer setup

(Check failure cause) failure”Received?

Yes
Report & Finish
Check failure cause
(Not radio problem/cell update)

Figure 9: Analysis process

Page 16
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

3. Call drop

3.1. Possible causes

Call drop can occurs due to many causes:

 RF issue

RF drops mostly due to poor dominance or interference. Poor coverage could lead
to ISHO, although poor dominance or interference can cause ISHO to fail. Rapid
field drop can cause drop due to coverage

Poor dominance or interference can cause Compressed Mode (CM) to start even if
RSCP is still good.

In CM UE transmits with higher power (more interference) and spends less time on
3G (less accurate measurement reporting)

Poor dominance or interference can lead to Active Set update failures and eventually
to drop call.

 System Issue

“CC Disconnect” due to “DL RRC Connection Release” .It can also happen when
there is no response to UL Measurement Reports.

 Link Balance

UL & DL Power Control commands can help indicating problems in link balance.

PC frequency is 1500 Hz, thus ideally the sum of PC commands to increase or

decrease power is 1500

E.g. if the sum of UL PC commands is < 1500, this would indicate UE is starting to
loose synchronization in Compressed Mode there is less PC commands, UE spends
time on 2G

 SC conflict

Sudden drop to idle mode (no disconnect messaging)

Page 17
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Cause of the failure: overshooting site and SC reuse

Short term solution to add overshooting neighbour in ADJS definitions

Top (N) drops

Neighbours’ Performance
Traffic
(use SHO success per adjs
Cell and its Neighbour counters to identify badly
performing neighbours) & Map
Cells availability Site OK ? Audit adjacent sites for
Alarms/Tickets alarms, Availability,
configuration and
YES
capacity
NO
Configuration & Conf OK
Parameter audit ? 3G Cell at Iur
YES
RNC Investigation Iur
YES performance
border?
SHO YES
SHO Success
Rate < 90%?

NO New site ?

ISHO ISHO NO Analyse last detailed RF and IF/IS HO

Failures radio measurements neighbour optimisation

YES 3G cell at 3G cell covers

over a
inter-RNC coverage hole
border ? ?
No cell
YES RF and ISHO
found ratio
neighbour optimisation
Core: Inners / Outers
>40 %
audit
NO
2G : TCH ISHO No cell found
blocking YES ratio > 90 % Coverage issue (new
Success and enough site needed)
3G : Wrong N’ Rate < ADJG
borgs definition 95%

Figure 10: Analysis process

Page 18
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

3.2. Soft Drop

Soft Drop

• for RT services, the communication between UE and network trigger

RAB drop once it (the communication) is interrupted

•For NRT services, Interrupted communication between UE and network

will not trigger immediately RAB drop. Network tries to shift UE to
Cell_FACH state, i.e. tries to keep RAB running

Figure 11: Soft Drop

Page 19
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

4. Mobility

4.1. Soft handover

4.1.1. Successful soft handover

The soft/softer handover functionality includes decision on how many cell carriers to
connect in soft/softer handover and functionality for setting up and releasing
connections between the NodeB and the UE. Soft/softer handover is supported for
dedicated channels. In soft handover the UE is communicating with two or more
sectors on different NodeBs as. In softer handover the UE is communicating with two
or more sectors on the same NodeB. The first thing to check is to see if any fraction
of drop call is related to handover.

Example of successful soft handover

UE Target Node B Source Node B RNC

RRC measurement report (event 1A) ( from source Node B to RNC)

Executing
handover
judgement and
adding a radio link
NBAP: Radio Link setup request in target node BB

NBAP: Radio Link setup response

Start to
receive
B
Distributing transmission resources on Iub interface
Start to
receive RRC Active set update (event 1 A) (from source Node B
B to UE)
RRC Active set update complete (from source & target
Node B to RNC simultaneously)

UE connects to source node B and target node B

Figure 12: example of successful handover

Page 20
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

4.1.2. Soft handover overhead

The soft overhead happens when a UE is in SHO area which is an overlap between
two cells to which the UE is connected. It’s indicated by a high value of the KPI
indicated as an example in figure 13. The reason of this overhead is that:

-If two cells are active, during this time a call is counted in both of them two times

-If three cells (all active set) are active, during this time a call is counted in all the
active cells, i.e. three times

SHO – Overhead
Cell level

E1A CPICH E1B CPICH

KPI shall give average
Offset 4dB Offset 6dB
number of radio links
during a call

SHO
area

cell A

ONE _ CELL _ IN _ ACT _ SET _ FOR _ RT / NRT  Factors 1/2/3 =

number of radio cell B
TWO _ CELL _ IN _ ACT _ SET _ RT / NRT  2  links
THREE _ CELL _ IN _ ACT _ SET _ RT / NRT  3
ONE _ CELL _ IN _ ACT _ SET _ RT / NRT 
TWO _ CELL _ IN _ ACT _ SET _ RT / NRT  Total time of all
calls
THREE _ CELL _ IN _ ACT _ SET _ RT / NRT

Total time during which all calls are

running with different AS size

Figure 13: Soft Overhead

Page 21
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

4.2. Inter-RAT handover

4.2.1. Successful inter-RAT handover

If the UE is moving and there is no other UTRAN cell offering sufficient quality for
handover of an intra-frequency or inter-frequency type a neighbor GSM cell might be
the best solution for handover. Basically inter-RAT relocation/handover is the same
procedure as explained before with some minor, but decisive differences. The figure
14 shows the inter-RAT handover from UMTS to GSM
The connection quality is monitored in DL based on both CPICH Ec/No and CPICH
RSCP and in UL based on UE TX power.
The UE informs the RNC of connection quality with 2d, 2f, 6d and 6b events, and
RNC continually keeps track of whether the DL Ec/No, the DL RSCP or the UL
coverage is good or bad.
When at least one of these gets bad, an GSM HO (or IF) attempt will be started, and
if the coverage then gets good for all then the IRAT HO (or IF HO) attempt will be
aborted.

Page 22
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Figure 14:inter-RAT handover

Page 23
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

ISHO – analysis
No
Too low No
action
success rate needed

Top N cells Yes

Low ISHO
CM Start Not
Measurement
Possible? No
success ?
No
Yes Yes
No
Missing ADJG or Low ISHO
Check admission Bad Neighbor Success ?
control rejection planning ?
TCP and RTWP
Wrong 2G Ncell
Poor
Parameter (BSIC) GSM Missing or wrong
Or BSIC collision Coverage 2G parameter in
2G MSC or SGSN
(BCCH, LAC,
CellID)
Non-optimum Too low ISHO
Compressed triggering threshold or
mode Too strict ADJG 2G Ncell Half Rate
parameter set minimum threshold Congestion in 2G
Ncell ?

Figure 15: inter-RAT handover analysis process

Page 24
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

4.3. Inter RNC mobility

4.3.1. Successful RNC relocation

An example illustrated in figure 16 shows a successful SRNS relocation in the

scenario where the UE is connected to a combined CN node and can be active in
both the IP domain and the PSTN/ISDN domain simultaneously. It is assumed that:

-All Cells in the active set are under the control of the DRNC

- The CN performs Hard Switching of the user traffic

Successful SRNC relocation

Figure 16: successful SRNC relocation

Page 25
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

4.3.2. Possible failures

Possible failures
 Target RNC does not respond to RANAP relocation request or
RNSAP relocation commit (internal RNC or Iu problem)

 Target RNC responds with RANAP relocation request NACK (no

resource available in target RAN)

 Synchronization failure on Iur (transmission problem)

 UE does not respond to RRC UTRAN mobility info (air interface or

UE problem)

 Synchronization failure on radio link (air interface problem)

Figure 17: SRNC relocation possible failures

Page 26
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

5. HSPA setup

The setup of HSDPA-capable Release 5 cells is differs from the setup of Release 99
cells in that some additional signaling procedures can be monitored. The audit
procedure performed between Node B and CRNC as well as the setup of cells (see
Figure 18) and common transport channels RACH, FACH and PCH is identical to the
procedures seen when a Release 99 Node B or cell is taken into service. However,
after a successful audit procedure (that might have been caused by a Node B reset)
the Node B indicates which of its local cells are HSDPA capable using the NBAP
Resource Status Indication message. Unfortunately, this message cannot be
monitored while the cell is in service and thus reliable topology status information
about which and how many cells of a network are HSDPA capable is only available in
the RNC operation and maintenance center (OMC). Making this information available
to performance measurement software requires again sophisticated topology
detection algorithms or a topology import/export interface between this software and
the RNC.
After a successful NBAP cell set up and common transport channel set up for PCH,
RACH and FACH(s) for all HSDPA-capable cells, an NBAP shared physical channel
reconfiguration procedure is executed, which contains information about how many
high-speed physical downlink shared channel (HS-PDSCH) codes are available in
each cell. This means the maximum number of DL spreading codes with the fixed
spreading factor 16 that can be combined for radio transmission of HS-PDSCH.
Based on this number of combined spreading codes the maximum theoretical DL
data transmission rate on the high-speed physical shared channel can be calculated.

Page 27
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

5.1.1. Successful call setup

Example of successful HSDPA call setup

Figure 18: Successful HSDPA call setup

Page 28
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

5.1.2. Analysis process

HSDPA setup – analysis process

High setup No No action

failure rate needed

Setup Setup
Yes
No Setup Fail No
Setup Fail No Setup No Fail No Fail Too
Setup UL return Iub Fail UE RNC Many
Fail BTS Channel Transport internal Users

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes

Check Check RNC

UL power Check RB Check
AAL2 Iub Unit load
congestion ? reconfigurat number of
resource (DMPG)
ion Failure simultaneo
congestion and faulty
Check CE rate us HSDPA
No alarms
resource users
usage at BH

Lack of CE mainly problem for UL return DCH

For HSDPA CE reserved per scheduler
For associated DCH on DL just 1 CE per user

Figure 19: HSDPA setup analysis process

Page 29
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

5.1.3. Possible failures

HSDPA call set up can fail for many causes:

 If too many HSDPA users

. Use license for more users

• Use dedicated instead of shared scheduler

 If due to UL DCH

• Monitor UL load

• Check PrxTarget and PrxNoise settings

• Check for intermodulation

 If due to UE

• Check RB reconfiguration failure rate

• Check air interface performance

• Check ICSU log for UE type troubleshooting

 If due to BTS

▪ Lack of UL channel resources

▪ Check for SHO overhead (all branches must have enough

CE capacity if UE is in SHO when HS-DSCH shall be
allocated)

 If due to Iub transport

▪ Evaluate number of reconfiguration failure due the

transmission

▪ Check for SHO overhead (all inter-BTS branches must

have enough capacity for associated DCH)

▪ Check for number of individual AAL connections

Page 30
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

▪ Check for frame delay or even frame loss due to

congestion

Page 31
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

6. HSPA drop

HSDPA drop – analysis process

High drop ratio No No action

needed

Top N cells
Yes
No Transition to
No Transition No
Pre-emption to DCH due DCH due to
No Drop due to
other reason Drop due to
to mobility other reason
(e.g. type of radio
RAB)
Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes

Normal
Release Normal
Release Normal High SCC
(No action Check RB
(No action Release (No Failure Rate
needed) reconfiguration failure
action needed)
needed) rate (UE response with
Yes failure or no response
at all)
No
Check ICSU log (UE
HSDPA drop = soft drop
Check CQI type)
RNC tries to shift UE to Cell_FACH Check HSDPA
RNC tries to keep RAB running distribution and mobility settings
Ec/Io (SHO and SCC
distribution for parameter)
coverage issue

Figure 20: HSDPA drop analysis process

Most of the HSDPA drops are caused by “Radio Link failure”.

Page 32
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

7. HSPA mobility

Mobility definitions for HSDPA are very strict. 3GPP has defined that HSDPA is only
possible if the UE is in CELL_DCH state. There is one – and always only one –
serving HSDSCH cell. Usually this cell should be the best available cell of an active
set, but this is not always guaranteed. Within the serving HS-DSCH cell one or more
HS-PDSCH can exist.
They all belong to the same serving HS-DSCH radio link of a UE. RRC connection
mobility management is allowed to be realized by mobile evaluated soft and hard
handover procedures only. This means that serving HS-DSCH cell change – as
HSPDA handovers are called by 3GPP – triggered by periodical measurement
reports are not allowed.

Page 33
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

7.1. Intra-Node B Serving HS-DSCH cell change without

change of active set

This handover scenario (see Figure 21) is also known as intra-node B synchronized
serving HS-DSCH cell change. In this scenario the dedicated transport channels for
uplink IP traffic and RRC signaling remain unchanged. The target-serving HS-DSCH
cell is in the same Node B as the source-serving HS-DSCH cell, which looks similar
to a softer handover, but indeed there is no such handover because the active set of
the UE remains unchanged.

Intra-Node B synchronized serving HS-DSCH cell

change

Figure 21: Intra-Node B synchronized HS-DSCH cell change

Page 34
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

The true softer handover procedure as shown in Figure 20 may have happened
before radio bearer setup, which means before this call entered virtual ‘HSDPA
active’ state. For an application that tracks the changing location of the UE it is
important to analyze the initial NBAP radio link setup procedure as well as the
following radio link addition procedure, because in these procedures cell identities (c-
ID) have been signaled. From parameters found in the RRC radio bearer setup
request message it emerges that the initially serving HSDSCH cell is cell identified by
PSC ¼ 100, which is correlated to NBAP c-ID ¼ 1.
The HSDPA handover is then triggered by the RRC measurement report containing
event- ID 1D ‘change of the best cell’ and the primary scrambling code of the target
cell. When the SRNC has performed the handover decision, Node B is prepared for
the serving HS-DSCH cell change at an activation time. This activation time is once
again represented by a certain CFN. Another important parameter is the new H-RNTI
that is assigned to the UE due to cell change. An NBAP synchronized radio link
reconfiguration preparation procedure is executed.
Besides the new H-RNTI this message contains an HS-DSCH radio link id (HS-
DSCH-RLID) that is correlated with the radio link id (RL-ID) already monitored in the
NBAP radio link addition request message. On behalf of this correlation the new
serving HS-DSCH cell is identified on the NBAP layer. After this procedure all
necessary information regarding the reconfiguration is available in Node B. The
SRNC then sends either a Physical Channel
Reconfiguration message (as described in 3GPP standards) or a Transport Channel
Reconfiguration messages (as introduced by some NEM and shown in figure 20),
which indicates the target HS-DSCH cell identified by its primary scrambling code
and the activation time to the UE. Since the same Node B controls both the source
and the target HS-DSCH cells, the Iub transport bearer and its related parameters
are not changed on the Iub interface. When the UE has completed the serving HS-
DSCH cell change it transmits a Physical/Transport Channel Reconfiguration
Complete message to the network. If radio bearer parameters are changed, the
serving HS-DSCH cell change needs to be executed by a radio bearer
reconfiguration procedure, respectively.

Page 35
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Intra-Node B synchronized HS-DSCH cell change

Figure 22: Intra-Node B synchronized HS-DSCH cell change procedure

Page 36
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

7.2. Inter-Node B Serving HS-DSCH cell change

The next mobility scenario (Figure 23) is a synchronized inter-Node B serving HS-
DSCH cell change in combination with hard handover. The reconfiguration is
performed in two steps within UTRAN. On the radio interface only a single RRC
procedure is used.
It is expected that this procedure is performed especially if the new serving HS-
DSCH cell is connected to a different RNC and no Iur interface is available or if the
new cell is working on a different UTRAN frequency than the old one. Hence, there
might be additional network elements and interfaces involved in this procedure that
are not shown in this particular example of the scenario.

Figure23: Inter-NodeB synchronized serving HS-DSCH cell change after active set update

Page 37
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

The cell change is triggered once again when the UE transmits an RRC
Measurement Report message containing intra-frequency measurement results, here
assumed to be triggered by the event 1D ‘change of the best cell’ (see Figure 24-25-
26). When the SRNC has performed the handover decision, Node B is prepared for
the serving HS-DSCH cell change at an activation time, again represented by a
certain CFN.
As an alternative to the RRC measurement reports the SRNC may also determine
the need for a handover based on load control algorithms. Since the target cell is
working on a different UTRA frequency than the source cell RRC measurements it
might be necessary to activate the compressed mode before measurement is
started.
In the first step, the SRNC establishes a new radio link in the target Node B. In the
second step this newly created radio link is prepared for a synchronized
reconfiguration.
The SRNC then sends a Transport Channel Reconfiguration message on the old
configuration.
This message indicates the configuration after handover, both for the DCH and HS-
DSCH. The Transport Channel Reconfiguration message (Figure 24-25-26) includes
a flag indicating that the MAC-d flow parameters and the appropriate Iub transport
resources need to be established on the new configuration and to be released on the
old Iub. The message also includes an update of transport channel related
parameters for the HS-DSCH in the target HS-DSCH cell.
The UE terminates transmission and reception on the old radio link if the indicated
CNF is received and configures its physical layer to begin reception on the new radio
link. After radio link data transmission is synchronized, the UE sends a Transport
Channel Reconfiguration Complete message. The SRNC then terminates reception
and transmission on the old radio link for the dedicated channels and releases all
resources allocated to the considered UE.

Page 38
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Inter-Node B serving HS-DSCH cell change call flow

1/3

Inter-Node B serving HS-DSCH cell change call flow

2/3

Page 39
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Inter-Node B serving HS-DSCH cell change call flow

3/3

Figure 24-25-26: Inter-Node B serving HS-DSCH cell change call flow

Page 40
WCDMA RF Optimization: Performance monitoring

Serving Cell Change – analysis process

High SCC No No action

failure rate needed

Top N cells
Yes SCC SCC
No No SCC Fail
No SCC No SCC No SCC Fail
Fail Fail Fail prevention
transmis Fail UE timer
BTS AC sion others

Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes

Check
DL power Check Check RB HSDPACellCh
angeMinInterv
Check congestion AAL2 Iub reconfigurati
al parameter
resource on Failure
BTS HW ? congestion rate

No
Check RNC internal
Check transport resources
Channelization No
Maximum (DMPG) ICSU
code number of troubleshooting
congestion ? HSDPA users

Figure 27: serving cell change analysis process

Page 41