WCDMA Call Drop Problems Analysis

Course Contents

Definition of call drop problems

Call drop problems analysis process

Case study on call drop problems

Definition of call drop problems

Definition of call drop problems :

Course Contents

Definition of call drop problems

Call drop problems analysis process

Case study on call drop problems

Call drop problems analysis process

General call drop analysis flow

Categories for call drop reasons

Call drop problems analysis process

General call drop analysis flow:

Call drop problems analysis process

Call drop location analysis: based on the location of the call drop event in the map

window in the post processing tool

Neighbor list analysis: to find out any cell not defined in the neighbor list
Analyze the pilot coverage to make sure whether following coverage events take
place or not: Coverage limited, System interference, Poor uplink coverage, Poor
downlink coverage, pilot pollution
Handover analysis to make sure whether following cause exist or not: insufficient
handover area, too late to start CM, too late to add target cell, too early to delete
serving cell
Signaling analysis is used for those call drops that are still confused about the
exact reason through analysis mentioned above

Call drop problems analysis process

General call drop analysis flow

Categories for call drop reasons

Call drop problems analysis process

Categories for call drop reasons:
1.

RF problems

2.

Equipment problems
RF problems usually can be find out by neighbor list analysiscoverage analysis
handover analysis, while signaling analysis is helpful to equipment problems.

Course Contents

Definition of call drop problems

Call drop problems analysis process

Case study on call drop problems

Case study on call drop problems

RF concerned problems

1.

Neighbor missing

2.
3.

Coverage Limited
Handover problems

Equipment concerned problems

1.

UE problem

2.

Data configuration problem

Neighbor list analysis

To analyze Neighbor list:
to find out any cell not defined in the neighbor list.
the best serving 3G cell before the call dropped

the best serving 3G/2G cell after the call dropped

the existing neighbor list of the best serving 3G cell
intra-freq HO neighbor list
inter-freq HO neighbor list
inter-RAT HO neighbor list

Neighbor list analysis

There maybe missing neighbor if the best serving cell is not the same
one before and after the call dropped.
Before the call dropped, the best serving cell maybe not the signal

strongest cell
Before the call dropped, the best serving cell should be picked out by the
latest measurement control message and corresponding 1d event
measurement report.
Compare the scanner data with UE data
prior to the drop, the CPICH Ec/Io (and CPICH RSCP) degrades for
UE ONLY while scanner shows no degradation

prior to the drop, the best server for the UE is not the same as that
of the scanner

Neighbor missing
Call drop location-1-ScannerRscp:

Neighbor missing
Call drop location-2-ScannerEc/I0 :

Neighbor missing
Call drop location-3-ScannerBestserver :

Neighbor missing
Before call drop, SC489 goes poor, while SC504 is good the moment before drop,
according to the measurements by UE shown below; but SC03 which is not
measured by UE is becoming good gradually :

Neighbor missing
SC03 is becoming good gradually measured by Scanner:

Neighbor missing
Further investigation shows different performance between UE and Scanner.
Before the drop, the Ec/Io degrades for UE ONLY while scanner shows no
degradation.:

Neighbor missing
Before the drop, the RSCP degrades for UE ONLY while scanner shows no
degradation:

Neighbor missing
Before the drop, the best server for the UE is not the same as that of the scanner :

Corresponding measurement control shows theres

no neighbor relation between SC489 and SC03:

Case study on call drop problems

RF concerned problems

1.

Neighbor missing

2.
3.

Coverage Limited
Handover problems

Equipment concerned problems

1.

UE problem

2.

Data configuration problem

Coverage analysis
To analyze the coverage:
the pilot coverage
CPICH transmission power
Coverage limited
System interference
Poor uplink coverage
Poor downlink coverage
pilot pollution
the service coverage
Service related Maximum downlink transmission power
SIR before the call dropped
Max uplink transmission power allowed for UE
Actual uplink transmission power before the call dropped

Coverage limited
General definition of coverage limited :
The signal of strongest cell should be in ranges:
CPICH_EcNo_in_ActiveSet < Threshold1
And, CPICH_RSCP_in_ActiveSet <Threshold2
And, UeTransmittedPower > Threshold3.
Theshold1~3 is -15 dB -95 dBm 10 dBm respectively in our analysis

Coverage limited
Call drop location-1-ScannerEc/I0 :

Coverage limited
The strongest cells Cpich_Ec/I0 and Cpich_RSCP (shown in next page) is poor,
while UE TxPower reaches the threshold of 21dBm:

Coverage limited
The strongest cells Cpich_Ec/I0 and Cpich_RSCP is poor :

Case study on call drop problems

RF concerned problems

1.

Neighbor missing

2.
3.

Coverage Limited
Handover problems

Equipment concerned problems

1.

UE problem

2.

Data configuration problem

Handover analysis
To analyze the handover:
the signal change
Source cell
Target cell
insufficient handover area
Too late to add new cell
Too early to delete old cell
ping-pang handover

Handover problem
Call drop caused by handover problems, is helpful for us to get solutions to
parameters optimization. Heres an example. Call drop place is shown below:

Handover problem
Call drop location-ScanneEc/I0:

The UeTxPower is not high:

Handover problem
The drop call occurred in the area of frequent change of best server shown by the
scanner :

Handover problem
Compare Ec/Io from both scanner and UE at the time of the drop: the UE Ec/Io
drop to < -18 dB while the scanner remained above -6 dB :

Handover problem
Comparing the best servers from the UE and the scanner at the time of drop: for
the scanner and UE SC506 is the best server prior to the drop. However, before
the drop, the scanner selected SC505 as the best server while the UE continued
to have only SC506 in its active set resulting in the drop call. Immediately after the
drop, the UE camps on SC505:

Handover problem
It seems that the best server changes from SC506 to SC505 too fast for the UE to
perform soft handover on time. As the handover threshold of 1a event is 4.5dB,
the delay is 0dB, the delay trigger time is 320ms, the filter coefficient is 3 (1
second is required), so the requirement for the handover area is: the lasting time
when (Ec/Io of 506 cell Ec/Io of 505 cell) < 4.5dB is about 2 seconds :

Handover problem
Uu_Interface messages that 1a event of SC505 was triggered at 54:04:

Handover problem
But SC506 went bad too severe for the procedure of Active Set Update to be
finished:

Case study on call drop problems

RF concerned problems

1.

Neighbor missing

2.
3.

Coverage Limited
Handover problems

Equipment concerned problems

1.

UE problem

2.

Data configuration problem

Equipment concerned problems

During tests, problems caused by UE happen occasionally, well give an example
that we met with when testing with Motorola A835. Call drop place is shown below :

Equipment concerned problems

Call drop location-ScannerEc/I0 :

Equipment concerned problems

Call drop location-ScannerBestserver :

Equipment concerned problems

Before call drop, SC507 went poor, and SC473 was becoming good according to
the measurements by UE :

Equipment concerned problems

Further investigation shows that UE reports event 1b of SC500 before drop
instead of reporting event 1a of SC473 :

Equipment concerned problems

Ec/I0 of SC500 before drop measured by UE :

Equipment concerned problems

Ec/I0 of SC500 before drop measured by scanner :

There must be something wrong with the performance of UEs measurement.

Further reliability of UE is required .

Case study on call drop problems

RF concerned problems

1.

Neighbor missing

2.
3.

Coverage Limited
Handover problems

Equipment concerned problems

1.

UE problem

2.

Data configuration problem

Equipment concerned problems

Problems caused by data configuration are always indiscoverable, here is an
example. Call drop place is shown below :

Equipment concerned problems

Call drop location-ScannerEc/I0 , The position of the drop call was at the border of
two RNCs :

Equipment concerned problems

Before call drop, SC473 went poor, and SC31SC16 were becoming good
according to the measurements by UE :

Equipment concerned problems

Further investigation shows that UE reports event 1a of SC31SC16 before drop:

Equipment concerned problems

That active set updating about adding Sc31 was successful :

Equipment concerned problems

While active set updating about adding Sc16 failed for the neighbor RNC cell
configuration mistake:

Summary
Weve discussed of several kinds of call drop, so typical they are as
mentioned above. Engineers may meet with call drops that seem more
puzzling. Taking no account of equipment problems, RF problems can be
solved by suggestions below mostly:

1.

If coverage is poor, we can reduce the downtilt and adjust the azimuth, or we can
increase the pilot transmit power or maximum downlink transmit power for service. The
negative effect: is other places may be interfered, and soft handover ratio maybe

higher.
2.

If the interference is strong, first make sure whether it is internal network

interference or external network interference. If it is internal network interference, find
the interference source cell, increase the downtilt and adjust the azimuth, or reduce the
pilot transmit power or maximum downlink transmit power for the service. The negative

effect is coverage in other places may become discontinuous, and soft handover areas
maybe shrink.
3.

As for the handover area is insufficient, and if its too slow to add the target cell, we
can modify corresponding 1a event parameters. If its too fast to delete the serving cell,
we can modify corresponding 1b event parameters. The negative effect is other places

may be interfered and soft handover ratio maybe increase.