Alcatel-Lucent 9959 NPO

N E T W O R K P E R F O R M A N C E O P T I M I Z E R | R E L E A S E 4 .1

The Alcatel-Lucent 9959 Network Performance Optimizer (NPO) allows mobile service providers to monitor and optimize the performance of the radio access part of their wireless networks. The 9959 NPO is available for GSM/EDGE, W-CDMA/HSPA and LTE radio access technologies.

Overview
Radio Access Networks (RAN) are complex systems based on sophisticated hardware and algorithms that require a huge number of measurements to be carefully and frequently analyzed in order to maintain subscriber satisfaction and to guarantee an efficient use of the radio spectrum and hardware assets. From the collection of performance measurements to the identification of problems and solutions, the 9959 NPO helps wireless service providers to efficiently store, post process, and analyze the vast amount of data collected by the network elements. As a result, the 9959 NPO is able to characterize the behavior of the RAN elements and end-user devices in order to improve the efficiency of the network and maintain the high quality of service required to meet subscribers expectations. The primary benefit of the 9959 NPO is to consolidate in a single tool a combined view of performance measurements, topology data and configuration information of the cellular network as shown on Figure 1. Based on a unique combination of an intuitive but sophisticated user interface, multiple data sources, and

a Geographical Information System, NPO increases the efficiency of the QoS monitoring, troubleshooting and optimization activities. The automation of repetitive daily tasks frees up valuable expert resources, allowing them to focus on more essential activities, such as building automated diagnosis scenarios, or to define and leverage custom rules that will further enrich the system capabilities. Moreover, as the system autonomously detects QoS threshold violations and identifies longer term trends, the
Figure 1. NPO Functional overview diagram

9959 NPO helps anticipate problems before they become critical, and enables expand network capacity where and when it is the most appropriate. The 9959 NPO supports GSM/GPRS/ EDGE, W-CDMA/HSPA and LTE Radio Access Networks, from the same user interface, enabling consistent processes and significant savings in terms of training and operations streamlining. NPO addresses the following domains: Performance monitoring Network optimization QoS troubleshooting Call trace analysis Network availability reporting Alarm statistic

Reduced operations expenses

Reduces need for drive tests Integrates years of engineering know-how Efficiently collects, aggregates and analyzes all performance management data Automates recurring tasks Comes pre-integrated with AlcatelLucent RAN releases

Configuration parameter handling

Field versus target values comparisons with difference reports Tuning function allows operators to perform selective bulk configuration parameter changes Correlation of parameter changes to QoS drops Customizable rules checker ensures complex dependencies are enforced among parameters

Features
Data processing
Performance measurements storage and aggregation increase historical analysis efficiency Geographical Information System and Matrix display capability (see Figure 2) increase troubleshooting efficiency Flexible external interfaces accelerate integration with external systems On-line help provides detailed description of counters, parameters and rules

Measurements and reports

Advanced metrics definition (Key Performance Indicators) computation using system- or user-defined arithmetic and statistical formulas Graphical reports builder with built-in library can be scheduled Built-in metrics library for each supported RAN technology Real-time monitoring dashboard for critical KPIs

Benefits
Increased Quality of Service
Traffic and capacity monitoring help identify hot spots requiring upgrades Network areas with poor performance are automatically detected and highlighted to the operator Self optimizing algorithms are controlled and their efficiency constantly assessed Measurements collected from mobile devices can virtually transform any user device into drive test equipment Network performance can be improved faster by accelerating parameter tuning

Figure 2. NPO Analysis desktop Geographical display

Alcatel-Lucent 9959 NPO | Release 4.1 | Data Sheet

 Building of complete, customizable reports (e.g., call drops or traffic throughput) as illustrated in Figure 3 Per call measurement for subscriberor device-level analysis

Product architecture
NPO connects to the RAN Management System that is responsible for the collection of the measurements acquired by the different network elements composing the RAN, including: Base Stations (BS) and Base Station Controller/Packet Control Unit (BSC/PCU) for GSM networks NodeB and Radio Network Controller (RNC) for W-CDMA networks eNodeB, MME, S-GW and P-GW for LTE networks The 9959 NPO has a multi-user client-server architecture and offers carrier-grade administration and reliability. It supports the Citrix terminal server architecture, and provides interfaces to the external management system, allowing the operator to retrieve measurements via a WEB (HTTP/XML) or CLI (EQL)

Diagnosis and alerts

Detection of QoS threshold violations and trend evaluation Diagnosis editor allows the operator to build expert rules for automated troubleshooting and knowledge capture Technology-specific functions increase analysis value (carrier occupancy, Handover Matrix, Radio Distribution Matrix) Call failure analysis Network outages reporting (downtime, unavailability, statistics) Alarm statistics

interface, or to send QoS alarms (based on threshold violations) to an external system. Measurements and reports can be exported in various formats including Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. A rich administration interface that is easily accessible from a palette tool (see Figure 4) allows an operator to customize the NPO environment in order to match a wide range of specific requirements, such as exchanging data dictionaries or managing user accesses. The 9959 NPO uses a distributed database architecture, allowing the service providers to scale the system to the size of the managed network. The design and architecture of the 9959 NPO are optimized to take full benefit of the hardware and to provide excellent response times and availability.

Figure 3. NPO Analysis desktop QoS report

Figure 4. NPO Framework task selector

Alcatel-Lucent 9959 NPO | Release 4.1 | Data Sheet

Technical specifications
Server operating systems: Solaris, Linux Report formats: MS-EXCEL, PDF, CSV, HTML or XML Capacity and server dimensioning*
CELLS OPERATOR POSITIONS PROCESSORS STORAGE SPACE (TB)

Small Medium XLarge

1500 12000 48000

15 45 120

1 2+2 4+2

3.6 10.8 28.8

*I  nformational Please contact your Alcatel-Lucent representative for hardware requirements and platform sizing recommendations

Client workstations (minimum requirements): PC with 2 GB RAM or more Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 CPU core duo or higher Color graphic controller memory 128 MB, 1280x1024 16 bits (65536 colors) or higher LCD color monitor 17 in. or larger

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