(E)GPRS Advanced

Practical Case Studies

Nokia Siemens Networks

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(E)GPRS Advanced Case Studies

Content
Practical cases
High EDGE UL TBF establishment failure
Bad EDGE Performance
Low EDGE throughput
Exercise

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High EDGE UL TBF Establishment Failure

During EDGE optimization project one BSC BSC01 was having
high EDGE UL TBF failure rate (10-20 %)
Next slide shows daily statistics over BSC
Problem was constant before BSS parameter change (27.10) no
other changes were made at the same day.
Question: What parameter was changed?

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BSC01 TBF Failure Rate

25.00%

GPRS_UL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
GPRS_DL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
EDGE_UL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
EDGE_DL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
UL_TBF_LOST
DL_TBF_LOST
UL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
DL_TBF_EST_FAILURE

20.00%

15.00%

10.00%

5.00%

0.00%

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High TBF Establishment Failure - Answer

In project MCA was set to 6
27.10 MCA was changed to 3
Network had coverage limitations
Changing MCA to 3 changed initial MCS modulation type from 8PSK to GMSK
More robust coding scheme helped in initial connection against
coverage and interference

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Bad EDGE Performance

Operator was complaining bad EDGE performance in general in
specific area based on customer complaints
Following performance problems were found
Low GPRS attach ratio
RAU failing
Low application throughput
Operator was selling unlimited (E)GPRS usage with reasonable
pricing
Problem had emerged during last few months for specific area
What could be behind all problems?

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Bad EDGE Performance

BSS parameters were audited and everything were set as defaults
no problems found
Radio interface
Maximum hard blocking in cells for data around 5% (tbf_16)
Abis interface
EDAP usage was seen high for some busy DAPs
Bad performance was observed from drive tests where RLC
download were having breaks although there were no cell
reselections

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Bad EDGE Performance

Gb link measurement Link Size 128 kbit/s

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Bad EDGE Performance

Answer

High Gb utilization was limiting traffic and causing bad

performance

90% Gb link load = Gb link used 90% of time with CIR 128
kbit/s

Data through Gb link during one hour = 0.9*128Kbit/s*3600s - 400 Mbit

In the worst case high Gb link utilization was causing real user
blocking

Solution
1.
2.

to increase Gb link size based on traffic needs

Increase radio interface capacity

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Unstable and Low EDGE Throughput

During EDGE trial throughput problems were seen in laboratory
environment
Laboratory environment
RxLevel ~ 50-55 dBm
No capacity problem
Dedicated BSS
Own test server not in commercial use

Tested application was FTP, file size 2 Mb

4 RTSL MS average throughput 120 - 160 kbit/s
Several downloads
What could be the problem?
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Unstable and Low EDGE Throughput - Configuration

Data

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Unstable and Low EDGE Throughput - Configuration

Data

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Low EDGE Throughput Measurement FTP

Throughput Example

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Low EDGE Throughput Measurement

Answer PRFILE parameter problems
BSSGP parameters were not optimal for 4 RTSL MS
Polling intervals were not frequent enough

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Exercise
Please list all factors which can affect to EDGE throughput and which
do not relate to BSS/packet core network
Network capacity (all elements and interfaces) and all network
parameters are assumed to be optimal
No congestion
No blocking etc

RF environment is good

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Answer to Exercise
Laptop
PC speed
Client TCP/IP settings
MSS, TCP window size
Modem settings
Modem settings can limit maximum throughput
Simultaneous other programs
disable automatic updates, minimize background processes, disable firewalls and anti-virus programs
Used method for throughput verification
RLC, LLC or application throughput
Program used for measurement - MSDOS or throughput application how throughput will be
calculated?

Mobile terminal
Multislot class (RTSL support)
MS connection infrared, cable or Bluetooth
Tested file size should be large enough (>2 MB)
HLR parameters (CS core)
Server type (Unix/Windows)

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