International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research (IJSETR), Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2016
SINGLE CELL FUNCTION TEST OF
LONG TERM EVOLUTION NETWORK
USING XCAL
Rakesh Patel1, J. M. Keller2, P. Mor3.
1
Research Scholar, 2 Professor, 3 Sr. Scientific Officer
1,2,3
Department of Physics and Electronics
1,2,3
Rani Durgavati Vishwavidyalaya, Jabalpur (M.P.) - 482001, INDIA
Abstract - The evaluation of the performance of a mobile
communication Long Term Evolution Network entails
collection of data which contains network parameters
details, along with desired range, such as Drive Route,
Coverage Plot (overall, sector Alpha, sector Beta, sector
Gamma), Mac Layer Throughput Download, Mac Layer
Throughput Upload and PCI Plot etc.. To collect such
data, drive test is performed using the drive test tool
XCAL. This paper concentrates on the procedure of the
drive test and the results obtained after completion of the
test.
Keywords - LTE, MCC, MNC, TAC, CGI, PCI, RSRP,
SINR, RSRQ, RSSI, BSSID, SSID, SNR, DTDL, DTUL,
FMS.
I. INTRODUCTION
The drive test is performed using XCAL to collect the
details of pameters on which the network depends. The
description of such parameters is given below:
MCC (Mobile Country Code): It represents the
three decimal number code (range 000-999)
indicates the home country of the mobile
subscriber. The MCC is used in combination with
MNC to uniquely identify a mobile phone operator.
[1] [8]
MNC (Mobile Network Code): It represents a
unique 2 or 3 digit number to identify a mobile
network. The MNC uniquely identifies a mobile
phone operator. Combination of MCC and MNC is
called as Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN).
[1] [8]
TAC (Tracking Area Code): It identifies a
tracking area within a particular network. TAC
when combined with PLMN can be used to arrive
at a globally unique Tracking Area Identity (TAI).
In LTE cellular network, the tracking area is
allocated to a group of eNodeB. [1] [8]
Corresponding authors Rakesh Patel is Research Scholar, Dr.
J.M.Keller is working as Professor, Dr. P.Mor is working as Sr.
Scientific Officers, Department of Physics and Electronics,
Rani Durgavati Vishwavidyalaya, Jabalpur (M.P.) - 482001, INDIA
ISSN: 2278 7798 All Rights Reserved 2016 IJSETR
CGI (Cell ID): The cell tower ID of the serving
cell is a unique number used to identify the cell to
which the mobile phone is connected. In conjuction
with the MCCs and MNCs this represents a
global cell id that is used to identify the cell
uniquely an operators network. [1] [8]
PCI (Physical Cell Identity): The PCI uniqueli
identifies a cell on the LTE interface. PCI will
determine the primary and secondary
synchronization signal sequence. It has a range of 0
to 503. It is possible for the PCI to be repeated in
the network. The two cells that shares the same PCI
should not be geographically close to each other
otherwise they will interface with each other. [2]
[8] [11]
RSRP (Referance Signal Received Power): It
represents the linear average of reference signal
power (I watts) across the specified bandwidth (in
number of Resource Elements). This is an
important item a User Equipmet has to measure for
cell selection, reselection and handover. [3] [8] The
RSRP ranges are:
Green: Greater than -100dBm
Yellow: -100dBm to -115dBm
Red: -115dBm and below
SINR (Signal to Interference - plus Noise
Ratio): It is a measure of the quantity of wireless
connection and represents theoretical upper limit
on channel capacity in wireless communication
systems or the network. SINR can be defined as the
power of desired signal divided by the sum of
interference power and power of receiver noise [3]
[8]. The SNR ranges are:
Green: 10dB and above
Yellow: 2dB to 10dB
Red: -5dB to 2dB
RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality): It is
defined as the ratio N*RSRP/(EUTRA carrier
RSSI) where N is the number of RBs (Resource
Block) of the EUTRA carrier RSSI measurement
bandwidth. [6][9] The RSRQ ranages are:
Green: greater than -13dB
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Yellow: -13dB to -15dB the SSID is performed in a pseudo-random order

Red: -15dB and below by all devices that are members of the network.
RSSI (Reference Signal Strength Indication): It [12]
measures the power present in the received radio Signal Stregth: It refers to the magnitude of the
signal. It averages total received power observed electric field at a reference point that is at a
only in OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division significant distance from the transmitting antenna.
Multiplexing) symbols containing reference It may also be referred to as received signal level or
symbols for antenna port 0 (i.e. OFDM symbol 0 field strength. Typically, it is expressed in voltage
and 4 in slot) in the measurement bandwidth over per length or signal power received by a reference
N resource blocks. The total received power of the antenna. [12]
carrier RSSI includes the power from co-channel Noise: It refers the stray frequencies that interfere
serving and non-serving cells, adjacent channel with the transmission of data in a wireless network
interference, thermal noise etc.. [1] The RSSI [12]
ranges are: SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio): It is defined as the
Green: -40dBm to -70dBm range boundary of an access point based on signal
Yellow: -70dBm to -85dBm to noise (SNR) ratio, which is the signal level (in
Red: -85dBm and below dBm) minus the noise level (in dBm). [12] The
Ping Latency: It is the average round trip time of a signal quality according to SNR are:
series of evenly spaced transmitted Internet Control 40dB SNR = Excellent signal (5 bars)
Message Protocol (ICMP) requests. Ping utility is 25dB SNR = very good signal (3-4 bars)
typically used to measure reachability of host on an 15dB SNR = Low Signal (2 bars)
Internet Protocol Network and to measure the 10dB - 15dB SNR = Very low signal (1 bar)
round trip time for messages sent from the 5dB - 10dB SNR = No Signal
originating host to a destination computer. Ping
operates by sending ICMP echo request packets to II. DRIVE TEST PROCEDURE USING XCAL
the target host and waiting for an ICMP response.
In the process it measures the time from The step by step procedure to perform drive test and
transmission to reception (round-trip time) and collect required network parameter data is as follows:
records any packet loss. [12] 1. Open XCAL tool on moblie so that the
FTP Throughput: It represents the speed at which XCALscreen appears as shown below:
the file can be uploaded or downloaded for FTP
serve. In both upload and download modes the test
uses a single TCP connection to perform the
transfer using the FTP protocol [12]
Average Throughput: This is the sum of bytes
transferred across all cycles/sum of total time
elapsed across all cycle
Maximun Throughput: It is the average of best
10 cycles on the basis of individual rate
Minimum Throughput: It is the average of 10
worst cycle on the basis of individual rate
BSSID (Basic Service Set Idetification): This
parameter uniquely identifies a BSS. For a BSS
operating in infrastructure mode, the BSSID is the
MAC address of the wireless access point (WAP)
generated by combining the 24 bit organization
Unique Identifier (the manufacturer identity) and
the manufacturers assigned 24 bit identifier for the
radio chipset in the WAP. The BSSID is the
formal name of the BSS and is always associated
with only one BSS[12]
SSID (Service Set Identification): Each BSS or
ESS is identified by a service set identifier (SSID)- 2. Press the setting button on the mobile and select
a 1 to 32 byte string. This is normally a human- FMS (Fleet Management System) mode,
readable string and is commonly called the network
name. In an IBSS, the SSID is chosen by the client
device that starts the network, and broadcasting of

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 International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research (IJSETR), Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2016

3. After selecting FMS mode , there is need to select 5. Next, press start button to begin SCFT test,
basic information i.e. band selection on which the
network works, and the destination selection on
which the drive test performs,

6. A call is established in 55555 number,

4. Next, press select scenario; after pressing scenario

five more fields are to be filled i.e. select SCFT
from select type, enter site details for which drive
test is performed, select Station 1 from test type
(there are three stations and one by one test is
perform for all the three stations), select count 1
from cycle option because the test is performed
only one time, feed 55555 in dial number option
and press save button,

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 International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research (IJSETR), Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2016

7. After 15 seconds the call is automatically 9. After performing test (for station 1, station 2, and
disconnected and there appears queries to station 3) in place of in progress option, complete
complete the test or the test is in progress, here the test option is selected to complete the station
option in progress is to be selected, test,

8. After pressing in progress the next station is to be 10. Change test type from station1,2,3 to moving
selected till all the three stations are covered, (the moving test is performed to test the
internet speed),

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 International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research (IJSETR), Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2016

11. Next, select scenario; there are two parameters
in select scenario option i.e., DTDL and
DTUL. The moving test is performed for both
DTDL and DTUL one by one. First the
moving test is performed for DTDL, select
DTDL from the select scenario option,
13. Next, press start button to perform moving test for
DTDL; in DTDL scenario XCAL tool downloads a
video file from the selected server and calculate the
downloading speed (maximum, average and
minimum),

14. By pressing the Auto call view the downloading

performance is checked and also the downloading
speed as well as the download throughput graph,
12. Next, click to FTP to select the nearest server to
perform moving test,

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 International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research (IJSETR), Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2016

15. Once the file is downloaded from the selected
server, the call is stopped automatically and
again query appears to complete the test or the
test is in progress; select in progress option to
perform DTUL test,
17. By pressing the Auto call view the uploading
performance is checked and also the uploading
speed as well as the upload throughput graph,

After completion of the DTUL test, the complete option

is selected to complete all the tests.
16. Next, change scenario from DTDL to DTUL to
perform the Data Uplink; again the FTP server is
selected , the video file uploads from XCAL to III. RESULT
FTP server and the uplink speed is checked,
Following results are obtained after performing Single
Cell Function Test (SCFT) for both voice calling, data
download and upload. The parameter details along with
the desired range are also shown:

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 International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research (IJSETR), Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2016

A. SCFT Acceptance Check List for DTDL and

DTUL,

B. Technical Site Details, E. Coverage Plot Sector Alpha,

C. Drive Route for which Drive test is perform,

F. Coverage Plot Sector Beta,

D. Complete Coverage Plot for all the three sector

Alpha, Beta, and Gamma,

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 International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research (IJSETR), Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2016

G. Coverage Plot for sector Gamma, J. PCI Plot Of all the three sectors Alpha, Beta and
Gamma.

H. MAC Layer Throughput Download,

IV. CONCLUSION

After performing SCFT for Voice calling, Data

Download DTDL and Data Upload DTUL, the above
result is achieved. The result shows the details of
necessay parameters along with its desired range. On
the basis of achieved result the success of the test is
shown. The region for which the SCFT is performed
delievers the good signal strength and better coverage;
the data transfer speed of data downlink and data uplink
is also good and the area covered is maximum area
where the test is performed.
V. REFERENCES
[1] Gunawan, A.H. (2013), LTE network and protocol, Advanced
Communication Technology (ICACT), 15th International
Conference.
[2] J. Huang, F. Qian, A. Gerber, Z. M. Mao, S. Sen, and O. Spatscheck.
A Close Examination of Performance and Power Characteristics of
4G LTE Networks. In MobiSys, 2012.
I. MAC Layer Throughput Upload, [3] G. Fritze (May 2012), SAE: The Core Network for LTE, Ericsson,
May.
[4] 3GPP TS 25.304: User Equipment (UE) procedures in idle mode
and procedures for cell reselection in connected mode (V10.2.0),
2011.
[5] 3GPP TS 36.321: Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol
specification (V10.3.0), 2011.
[6] 3GPP TS 36.331: Radio Resource Control (RRC) (V10.3.0), 2011.
[7] S. Sundaresan, W. de Donato, R. Teixeira, S. Crawford, and A.
Pescapl. Broadband Internet Performance: A View From the
Gateway. In SIGCOMM, 2011
[8] 3GPP LTE. http://www.3gpp.org/LTE
[9] Robert Nibarger and MallorieTeubner, An introduction to LTE,
COPS
[10] S. M. Chadchan, and C. B. Akki (Oct 2010), 3GPP LTE/SAE: An
Overview, International Journal of Computer and Electrical
Engineering Vol. 2, No. 5, 1793-8163
[11] Ian F. Akyildiz, David M. Gutierrez-Estevez, Elias Chavarria Reyes
(2010), The evolution to 4G cellular systems: LTE, Physical
Communication 3, 217244
[12] 3GPP, Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects,
Quality of Service (QoS) concept and architecture (Release 99),
Report TS 23.107, V3.9.0, Sep. 2002 (http://www.3gpp.org/).
[13] 3GPP, Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects,
Service aspects; Services and Service Capabilities (Release 99),
Report TS 22.105, V3.10.0, Oct. 2001 (http://www.3gpp.org/).

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