RF optimization issues in GSM networks

Sh.O.Seytnazarov

108 Amir Temur, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Abstract—All GSM operators use Key Performance Indicators • The Network and Switching Sub-system (NSS) – comprising
(KPIs) to judge their network performance and evaluate the Quality of an MSC and associated registers
Service (QoS) regarding end user perspective. All the events being
occurred over air interface are triggering different counters in the Base Several interfaces are defined between different parts of the
Station Controller (BSC). In this paper GSM network RF performance system:
evaluation is presented based on some major KPIs such as Call set up
success rate (CSSR), Call Drop Rate (CDR), Handover Success Rate • 'A' interface between MSC and BSC
(HSR) and Traffic channel (TCH) congestion rate.
• 'Abis' interface between BSC and BTS
I. INTRODUCTION
• 'Um' air interface between the BTS (antenna) and the MS
The GSM network is divided into two systems. Each of
these systems are comprised of a number of functional units First of all, before GSM system installation RNP(RF
which are individual components of the mobile network. The network planning) plans the BTS sites to cover a certain
two systems are: specific area keeping in view the terrain and population.
Moreover, marketing teams also help RNP teams to predict
• Switching System (SS) population and user traffic estimation in the days to come. RNP
teams visit the areas to be covered and prepare technical site
• Base Station System (BSS)
survey reports (TSSR). RNP teams use specific enterprise tools
In addition, as with all telecommunications networks, GSM such as MapInfo, ASSETT etc to plan the sites having
networks are operated, maintained and managed from different frequency and miscellaneous parameter allocations.
computerized centers.
If site is planned, it’s time for site acquisition process. Site
acquisition is the process of acquiring property or arranging
leases for final site locations. The process starts by issuing
search areas maps (SAMs) or SARFs (Search Area Request
Form) for proposed site locations based on the preliminary RF
design. A site acquisition firm is typically used to actually
investigate and negotiate leases for each site. This group will
uses the SAMs to find two or three candidates. The
engineering team is responsible for assessing the candidates
and making suggestions as to which one will best fit the
design objectives. As sites are accepted, rejected, moved,
and modified, the preliminary design evolves into the final
Fig. 1. GSM system architecture design. After site acquisition, engineering teams install BTS
sites. RNP teams also testify the planned sites with some test
A GSM network is made up o f three subsystems: parameters and frequencies to verify their planned parameters
and link budgets etc such as signal level, signal quality, speech
• The Mobile Station (MS) quality, path balance, path loss, call connectivity and so on.
• The Base Station Sub-system (BSS) – comprising a BSC and
several BTSs

978-1-4244-6904-8/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

 II. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION In order to be capable to measure the network performance, the
patterns of a normal day should be considered, while for
The system is being constantly monitored for system performance evaluation congestion situations should also be
performance. The goal is to maintain a given level of call analyzed. Following KPIs are more important for GSM radio
quality and coverage. The engineer has several sources that can network optimization & benchmarking to achieve remarkable
be used to measure the performance of the network: QoS:
• Switch data 1) CSSR (Call Set up Success Rate).
• Periodic drive testing 2) CDR (Call Drop Rate).

• Customer complaints 3) HSR (Handover Success Rate).

Switch data is probably the most useful when evaluating 4) TCH (Traffic Channel) Congestion Rate.
the performance of the network. The switch data collects a
variety of information associated with network performance: Call origination process has been briefly mentioned here from
counters perspective.
• Site fault alarms registered
Step1: Channel Request or demand sent to BTS by MS in order
• Call attempts / failures to set up a call. BTS then forwards the request to BSC. A
counter activates in BSC upon receiving channel request from
• Erlang traffic
MS in a cell/BTS.
• Handover statistics
Step2: BSC sends the channel activation command to MS
A number of problems can only be identified through hrough BTS. Another counter activates here in order to count
periodically drive testing the field. These tests are expensive the channel allocation in a cell/BTS.
since it can take days to completely drive test an area. As a
Step3: After the channel allocation, call initiates after
result, this type of testing is generally performed on a quarterly
necessary authentication from core/MSC end. Once the call
basis.
connected, another counter starts in order to count the
Similar to the initial optimization drive testing, the routes abnormal call drop or failures (due to BSS or radio link
should be pre-determined. The goal is to collect data over the problems).
entire network. Routes should cover major highways and
In order to understand how the behavior of traffic channels
roads. The routes should be defined to cover more roads in
(TCH) and control channels (SDCCH) affects the network’s
high demand areas, like downtown and commuter routes, than
performance; one has to analyze TCH and SDCCH blocking
in the rural areas.
when congestion in the network increases. As discussed above,
The network provider will usually have a customer service four major KPIs are frequently used in performance judgment
department that registers customer complaints. These and QoS estimation of the network.
customer representatives can be a valuable source of
Call set up success rate(CSSR) is one of the major KPI,
network performance information. The key is to have an
which should be optimized to improve QoS.
educated staff and a defined reporting scheme.
TABLE I
Customer Service Representatives need to understand the
operation of the network almost as well as the engineer. The CALL SETUP SUCCESS RATE
customers are generally ignorant of RF issues and will
register general complaints, like noisy calls or dropped Indicator CSSR
calls or access failures. The Customer Service Definition Rate of call attempts until TCH successful
Representative needs to be able to gather the crucial assignment.
information that allows the engineer to investigate the Formula Number of successful seizure of SD channel
problem. Total number of requests for seizure of SD
channel.
Where SD (usually called SDCCH stands for Stand-alone Definition Rate of calls not completed successfully.
dedicated control channel) and TCH stands for traffic channel.
Formula Number of TCH drops after assignment
A number of issues are related for its degradation as addressed Total number of TCH assignments.
below.

A. Issues Observed
A number of issues are associated to its degradation as
CSSR might be affected and degraded due to following issues: demonstrated below.

1) Due to radio interface congestion. A. Issues Observed

2) Due to lack of radio resources allocation (for CDR might be affected due to following issues:
instance:SDCCH).
1) Interference (either external or internal) being observed
3) Increase in radio traffic in inbound network. over air interface. Internal interference corresponds to in-band
(900/1800 MHz) while external interference corresponds to
4) Faulty BSS Hardware.
other wireless (usually military) networks.
5) Access network Transmission limitations (For instance: 2) Coverage limitation is also one of the factors, which
Abis expansion restrictions) increase CDR values.
B. Analysis & Findings
3) Hardware faults (such as BTS transceiver) can also be
incorporated in an increasing CDR, which is a part of BSS
Following methods are used to diagnose CSSR degradations as
failures.
well as improvements:
4) Missing adjacencies (definition in BSS/OMCR) is also an
1) Radio link Congestion statistics monitored using radio
important factor in CDR values increment.
counter measurement.

2) Drive Test Reports. B. Analysis & Findings

3) Customer complaints related to block calls have been Following methods are used to diagnose the rise in CDR
reviewed. values:

C. Improvement Methodologies 1) Radio uplink statistics monitored using radio counter

measurement in order to confirm any uplink interference.
Following measures significantly improve the CSSR in live
network: 2) Path Balance stats which depict average of ‘ERP-RX
Power’ (where ‘ERP’ stands for effective radiated
1) Radio Resources enhancement (Parameter
modification/changes in BSS/OMCR) such as half rate, power over downlink and ‘RX’ stands for receive power over
uplink) also divert attention towards faulty
traffic load sharing and direct retry parameters implementation.
Transceivers hardware.
2) Transmission media Expansion to enhance hardware
additions (such as TRX). 3) Customer complaints related to block calls would have been
reviewed.
3) Faulty Hardware Replacement (such as TRX) in order to
ensure the resources availability in live network. 4) Interference band / Spectrum scanners are also useful in
finding and tracing the contaminated frequency carriers
TABLE II resulting in increasing CDR.

CALL DROP RATE 5) Drive Test Reports.

Indicator CDR C. Improvement Methodologies

Following are some methods in order to improve the CDR B. Analysis & Findings
value up to certain pre-Defined baseline:
Following methods are used to diagnose HSR degradations
1) Faulty Hardware Replacement in order to ensure the as well as improvements:
resources availability in live network.
1) Radio Congestion statistics monitored using radio counter
2) Frequency plans review and model tuning in order to ensure measurement in order to confirm congestion occurrence in a
the clean band carriers for serving cells. For instance; band particular cell or area.
conversion is done from 900 to 1800 MHZ in order to cater
uplink interference. Some times concentric cells (multi band 2) Neighboring plans reviewed and adjacencies audits being
cell having GSM & DCS transceivers) solution is also devised. done.

3) New site integration is also suggested in order to improve 3) Drive Test reports reviewed.
indoor and outdoor coverage, which is usually termed as “Grid
C. Improvement Methodologies
Enhancement”.
Following methods are employed in order to improve the HSR
4) Sometimes RF repeaters are also used in order to amplify
in live network:
the radio signal to extend coverage area.
1) Interference free band i.e., Spectrum analysis might be
Handover Success Rate is one of the major KPIs that should
done to ensure it.
be optimized to improve handover quality.

TABLE III
2) Adjacencies audits must be done in order to improve
HSR.
HANDOVER SUCCESS RATE
3) Coverage improvement is also a vital factor of HSR
Indicator HSR enhancement.
Definition Rate of successful handovers (intercell +
intracell). 4) BSS Resources addition (such as TRX) is also a factor for
HSR improvement.
Formula No of successful [intercell + intracell] HA
Total number of handover requests. 5) Parameter modification in OMCR such as Handover
margin, traffic handover, power budget parameters to assist
better cell handovers.
A. Issues Observed
Traffic Channel Congestion (TCH) rate is one of the major
HSR might be affected and degraded due to following
KPI, which should be optimized to improve QoS.
issues:
TABLE IV
1) Interference (either external or internal) being observed
over air interface, which might affect on going call TRAFFIC CHANNEL CONGESTION
switching in case of handover.
Indicator TCH Congestion
2) Missing adjacencies can also result in HSR degradation. Definition Rate of blocked calls due to resource
unavailability
3) Hardware faults (such as BTS transceiver) can also be
incorporated as a decreasing HSR, which is a part of BSS Formula No of calls blocked due to resource unavailable
Total number requests.
failures.

4) Location area code (LAC) boundaries wrongly planned

and/or defined (where Location area represents a cluster of
cells). A. Issues Observed
5) Coverage limitation is also one of the factors, which
decrease HSR values.
TCH (traffic channel) congestion might arise due to following 2) Faulty hardware maintenance or replacement can also
issues: minimize TCH congestion.

1) TRX Hardware faults can also be incorporated as an 3) Deployment of moving/portable BTS (commonly called
increasing factor in TCH congestion. COW BTS) can be used as a better solution to improve
congestion in case of foreseeable special events such as
2) Increasing number of subscribers and/or traffic in a certain sports events, important meetings, festivals and exhibitions
area also causes congestion. etc.

3) Lesser capacity sites (mainly due to the media issue or Parameter modification in OMCR (such as half rate and
hardware resource unavailability) also cause congestion traffic handover implementation) and concentric cells
problems. additions are quite practical ways to improve congestion up
to significant extent [3].
B. Analysis & Findings
III. CONCLUSION
Following methods are used to diagnose TCH congestion as
well as improvements: The paper describes simple procedure for cellular
network performance estimation. In this paper, it has been
1) Radio Congestion statistics monitored using radio counter
analytically proved that we can optimize an existing
measurement in order to confirm congestion occurrence in a
cellular network using different methodologies and fine
particular cell or area.
parameter tuning to offer remarkable QoS to the end
2) Customer complaints can also reveal the issue. users. Moreover, the issues discussed here are quite helpful
for the analysis and performance evaluation of different
3) Drive Test reports reviewed. cellular networks. Optimization teams use QoS reports in
order to detect bad service quality areas.
4) WCR (Worst Cell Ratio) and CSSR (Call Setup Success
Rate) KPIs also depict the TCH congestion problem. REFERENCES

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