RF Optimization Solutions

For Telkomsel project

Description

RF optimization is a very important part of network performance optimization. We

collect some valuable cases to share with our team. Some cases may happen in our
current network, so we can refer to the cases to provide solutions

1 Handover Problem Analysis

1.1 Soft handover problem analysis

Usually soft handover failures are caused by 4 reasons as below:

1. Missing the neighbor cells
2. Pilot pollution problem
3. Some algorithm parameters were configured unreasonable
4. Equipment problem.

1.1.1 Common cases

Case1: Missing configuration of neighbor cells

Phenomenon and analysis

Usually handover failure will cause call drop. From DT file, we can find the call drop point and
check the CPICH information of UE and Scanner of this point. If Active set of UE and scanner are
not the same, two possibilities there are:
1. missing neighbor cells
2. handover not happened in time
ASU info of UE and record of scanner at the call drop point

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Then we can check the monitor set of this point, if SC 170 is not in monitor set, most possibility
SC 170 was missed neighbor cell.
We can check the measurement control information to verify whether SC170 was sent by RNC. If
not, this cell is missing neighbor cell.

If there is no scanner, we also have one method to check whether it is missing neighbor cells:
After call drop UE will do cell reselection and camp in a cell. We can check whether this cell was
in previous Active set and Monitor set. If not, this cell is missing neighbor.

Solution:
Add neighbor cells.

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Case2: Corner effect

During very short time, EcIo of current service cell decreased very much and EcIo target cell
increased very much suddenly; UE cant receive ASU (active set update) and call drop. This case
usually happened at the corner of a street.
Phenomenon and analysis
Corner effect- EcIo change trend

From the table, we can see that: EcIo of cell56 decreased 10dB in 1 second and EcIo of cell041
increased 10dB. When UE report measurement report to RNC, if 1a event is triggered RNC will
send ASU update command to UE; but due to the bad EcIo of the service cell, UE cant
demodulate the signaling so that call drop happen.
Here is a typical corner effect case:

Before turning the corner, EcIo of SC104 and SC168 decreased very much (below -17dB); but

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EcIo of SC208 in monitor set is good (-8dB). Then from the signaling message from RNC we find
UE report 1a event of SC208 and RNC send the ASU but cant receive ASU complete message.

Solution:
Usually we can solve this problem by following methods:
1. Tuning the antenna of SC208, to make this cells coverage can overcome the corner so that
avoiding the call drop.
2. Configure specific 1a parameters of cell (SC=104) to make soft handover more easily to
happen. For example: change TrigTime1A to 200ms or 100ms (default 320ms);
MML command: ADD CELLINTRAFREQHO
3. Configure CIO to make target cell more easily to be added into active set. For example:
configure CIOOffset=5dB.
MML command: MOD INTRAFREQNCELL: CellId=104(SC), NCellId=208(SC),
CIOOffset=5;

Case3: Pinpoint effect

Phenomenon and analysis

In very short time, EcIo of target cell is good meanwhile EcIo of current cell experience quick
decrease and quick increase. The figure shown as below is the EcIo change trend of a typical
pinpoint effect.

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In some occasions pinpoint effect will cause call drop:

1. If the pinpoint time is too short to trigger the handover, it will not cause call drop but the
service quality will be affected.
2. If the pinpoint time is not very short but handover threshold is very strict to trigger, it may
cause call drop before handover due to the bad downlink signal quality.
3. If handover is triggered but the EcIo of current service cell becomes too bad, call drop can
also happen.
4. If target cell success to be added into active set, another handover will happen to delete the
previous cell, when EcIo of target cell becomes bad call drop may also happen again.
Compare to corner effect, pinpoint effect will cause 2 handovers and each handover failure will
cause call drop.
Usually if two antennas of two cells radiate one road from two ends of the road, pinpoint effect
may happen on the central road. We can check the pinpoint effect form scanner record.
Here is a pinpoint effect case:
This figure shows the intra-freq hard handover example. It shows the RSCP distribution of the
best service cell. Drop4, drop5, drop6, drop7, drop15 and drop16 are caused by pinpoint effect.

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Solution:
1. Tuning the antenna to avoid the pinpoint.
2. Configure specific parameters to remain previous cell (cell 104) always in active set during
the pinpoint time to avoid the call drop.
For example:
MML command: MOD INTRAFREQNCELL: CellId=168, NCellId=104, CIOOffset=10;
3. Of course we also need to make sure target cell (cell 168) can be added into active set in
time. For this we can refer to the solution of corner effect.

TO BE CONTINUED

To RNC owners:
We plan to collect some valuable common cases to guild us to do better optimization. This is just
the beginning, in future we plan to output more cases. So if you think some part of optimization is
very difficult due to lacking materials, you can communicate with Pak EKO. We will collect some
related cases which is useful for us to optimize current Telkomsel network. Of course if you have
some successful optimization case, you can also tell us. We will make cases then share with the
team.
Hope we can use less time to do more efficient optimization..

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