Radio Network Performance & Optimisation-II

Radio Network Performance & Optimisation-II

Abstract This is a technical document detailing a typical NDC Radio Network Performance & Optimisation Process based on Key Statistics.

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Radio Network Performance & Optimisation-II

CONTENTS Radio Network Performance & Optimisation-II

(1.0) Introduction (2.0) Raw Statistics (3.0) Key Statistic (3.1) Explanation of Key Statistic (4.0) Network Health Statistics Page 3 Page 4 Page 4 Page 5 Page 8

(4.1) Call Success Rate (CSR) Page 8 (4.2) Call Set-up Success Rate Page 9 (4.2.1) Recommendations to Improve Low CSR Page 9 (4.3) Handover Success Rate (HSR) Page 11 (4.3.1) Handover Causes Page 11 (4.3.2) Handover Failures Page 13 (4.4) Dropped Call Rate (DCR) Page 14 (4.4.1) Recommendations to Improve DCR Page 14 (4.5) SDCCH Blocking Rate Page 16 (4.5.1) SDCCH Access Success Page 16 (4.5.2) SDCCH Access Success Rate Page 17 (4.6) TCH Blocking/ TCH Assignment Success Rate Page 17 (4.6.1) Recommendations to Improve TCH Blocking Rate Page 17

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Radio Network Performance & Optimisation-II

(1.0) Introduction:
The aim of optimisation is to maximise the Quality of Service (QoS) of the GSM network. In order to do this we need to measure the QoS, compare the measured value with the desired value, and then take steps to correct the causes of any deviations from the desired value. The goal is to reach or exceed the customers required level of performance. Optimisation is used to examine the following criteria when tuning a cell: frequency planning (interference related issues); topology (neighbours list), cell dynamics (handover timers and margins); hotspot detection, database parameter and antenna tilts.

Optimisation is traditionally undertaken immediately after the commissioning stage, or after a new frequency plan is introduced in a deployed network. Several teams of
field personnel undertake extensive drive testing around each site making a number of calls, concentrating on testing the handovers between each cell. Each call is investigated and any identified or potential problems resolved by classical fault-reasoning/resolution methods. This methodology, termed drive-testing, is used by most network operators as a tried and tested way of identifying areas of their network for improvement through optimisation. This method of network performance measurement is very important for comparing the performance of network under test with competitors network. Drive test statistics represent a small sample of the total calls on the network and can provide a useful indication of network quality. In order to provide a precise imitation of user traffic, the statistics obtained from the whole network through the OMC-R (Operations and Maintenance Center-Radio) are a more accurate assessment of the quality of the network Raw statistics available from the OMC-R is used to generate Key Statistics. This Key Statistics will then be measured against the benchmark agreed with the customer. NDC believes this is the most effective way of monitoring the performance of the network as the result is derived from all of the users of the network. By deploying Advanced OMC Optimisation Tools which are more specific to Original Equipment Supplier (OEM), network operators can undertake intelligent optimisation, based on actual subscriber call information available from OMC statistics to provide optimisation information. Optimisation based on Key Statistics and Advanced OMC optimisation tools requires statistical data from the network; therefore the network must be carrying a significant amount of traffic, to start this process. Flow chart- (1.1) shows NDCs process of Radio Network Optimisation. To start the

optimisation process we require Key Statistics, Drive Test Data, RF Design Parameters, Database Parameters, and Quality Of Service data.
Raw statistics are collected from OMC and key statistics will be derived using the predefined formulae (OEM Specific). Advanced OMC Optimisation Tool also uses Raw statistics, alongwith layer 2, layer 3 messages, Timing advance information, quality and level information of up-link and down-link for an individual call to determine the performance of the network and provides suggestions to improve the Quality Of Service of the network. There will be a interactive process between the Optimisation Process and the Advanced OMC Optimisation Tool for understanding a problem in greater details based on the information and statistics fed to the system. The outcome of the process is an Optimisation Report which gives details on the changes need to be done in the database, Antenna down tilts etc to

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improve the quality of network. The Performance Engineering is part of Optimisation Process, which deals with the analysis of the statistics and gives a detailed performance report. The results of this report are used to compare the network performance with the benchmarks. This document discusses the process of Radio Network Performance Evaluation and Optimisations based on Raw Statistics available from OMC. We have discussed the Key Statistics in detail along with suggestion to improve the network performance based on the Key Statistics performance. Drive Testing for benchmarking system performance is equally important part of network optimisation and is discussed in a separate document.

(2.0) Raw Statistics: Performance related data and a copy of site database are present in the Operation and Maintenance Centre Radio (OMC-R). The management of BSS network is controlled from the OMC-R. The raw data (Statistics) that is appended in the OMC-R from individual BSCs on a pre-defined time interval basis is OEM specific. Typically customer chooses 30 minutes time interval for pegging the performance related information from the BSS to the OMC-R. Raw Statistics also referred to as Counters are chosen from the list of available performance parameters present in the OMC-R. The Key Statistics are computed from the counter value of these parameters and are presented to the operator/carrier on daily or operator defined time basis. The Key Statistics of importance and their counter values in the raw statistics are explained below.

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(3.0) Key Statistic: The details of the key parameters are as below, a) CELL IDs: b) Peak Hour: network. c) Call Volume: a TCH. Defines the Cell identity number of base station. Defines the peak busy hour for each cell in the The number of call origination which, successfully access Traffic intensity offered on TCH channels. Traffic intensity carried by the TCH channels.

d) TCH Offered [Erl.]: e) TCH Carried [Erl.]:

f) TCH Blocking (%): The portion of the call origination that failed due non-availability of TCH. g) SDCCH Offered [Erl.]: Traffic intensity offered on SDCCH channels. h) SDCCH Carried [Erl.]: Traffic intensity carried on SDCCH channels. i) SDCCH Blocking (%): The portion of channel access that failed due to non-availability of SDCCH. j) Call Success rate (%): It represents the proportion of calls which complete successfully i. e., set-up successfully and do not suffer a RF loss before user termination or successful handover. k) Drop Call rate (%): It represents the proportion of MSs which, having successfully accessed the TCH, subsequently suffer an abnormal release caused by RF losses and losses during handovers.

l) HO Success rate (%): It represents the proportion of handovers that were attempted from the source cell that succeeded making it to the destination cell. m) HO Failure rate (%): It represents the proportion of handovers that were attempted from the source cell that failed to make it to the destination cell it includes failure of ping-pong handovers.

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n) TCH RF loss rate (%): It represents the proportion of allocated calls on TCHs that are lost due to radio connection failure on the TCH . o) SDCCH RF loss rate (%): It represents the proportion of allocated SDCCHs that are lost due to radio link loss on the SDCCH.

(3.1) Explanation of Key Statistic: a) Call Volume: Call Volume = Total_calls b) TCH Offered [Erl.]: TCH offered = BUSY_TCH (MAX) c) TCH Carried [Erl.]: (BUSY_TCH_MEAN) x Measurement interval (Min.) TCH Carried = Interval (Min.) d) TCH Blocking (%): ATTCHSMBS TCH Blocking Where, ATTCHSMBS Attempted TCH seizures meeting a TCH blocked state and ATTCHSEI Attempted TCH seizures. e) SDCCH Offered [Erl.]: SDCCH Offered = BUSY_SDCCH (MAX) f) SDCCH Carried [Erl.]: (BUSY_SDCCH_MEAN) x Measurement interval (Min.) SDCCH Carried = Interval (Min.) = ATTCHSEI x 100

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g) SDCCH Blocking: SDCCH Blocking = 100 x ATSDCMBS NATTSDPE

Where, ATSDCMBS Attempted SDCCH seizures meeting an SDCCH blocked state NATTSDPE Number of attempted SDCCH seizures in a period h) Call Success Rate: Call Success Rate = Call_setup_success_rate x (1- (drop_call_rate / 100)) Where, SUM (TOTAL_CALLS) x100% Call_setup_success_rate = (CM_SERV_REQ_CALL + CM_REESTABLISH + PAGE_RESPONSE + CM_SERV_REQ_SMS + CM_SER_REQ_EMERG - SMS_INIT_ON_SDCCH) Where, CM_SERV_REQ_CALL CM_REESTABLISH PAGE_RESPONSE CM_SERV_REQ_SMS CM_SER_REQ_EMERG SMS_INIT_ON_SDCCH i) Drop Call Rate: RF_LOSSES_TCH + INTRA_CELL_HO _LOSTMS + OUT_INTRA_BSS_HO _LOSTMS + OUT_INTER_BSS_HO_LOSTMS x 100% TOTAL_CALLS + IN_INTER_BSS_HO _SUC + IN_INTRA_BSS_HO _SUC Service request for call. Call restablishment. Response for Paging. Service request for SMS. Service request for emergency calls. SMS initialisation on SDCCH.

Drop Call Rate =

Where, OUT_INTER_BSS_HO_LOSTMS = OUT_INTER_BSS_HO _ATMPT OUT_INTER_BSS_HO _SUC OUT_INTER_BSS_HO _RETURN

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j) HO Success Rate: OUT_INTER_BSS_HO _SUC + INTRA_CELL_HO _SUC + OUT_INTRA_BSS_HO _SUC x 100 % HO Success Rate = OUT_INTER_BSS_HO _ATMPT + INTRA_CELL_HO_ATMPT + OUT_INTRA_BSS_HO _ATMPT k) HO Failure Rate: INTRA_CELL_HO_LOSTMS + OUT_INTRA_BSS_HO_LOSTMS + OUT_INTER_BSS_HO_ATMPT OUT_INTER_BSS_HO_SUC OUT_INTER_BSS_HO_RETURN HO Failure Rate = OUT_INTER_BSS_HO_ATMPT + INTRA_CELL_HO_ATMPT + OUT_INTRA_BSS_HO_ATMPT l) TCH RF Loss Rate: RF_LOSSES_TCH TCH RF Loss Rate = TOTAL_CALLS + IN_INTER_BSS_HO_SUC + IN_INTRA_BSS_HO_SUC m) SDCCH RF Loss Rate: RF_LOSSES_SD SDCCH RF Loss Rate = ALLOC_SDCCH - CHAN_REQ_MS_FAIL To study further on handover Failure and Success rate a detail HO report reflects the causes of handover in uplink and downlink. The report includes, a) Attempted Intracell Handover: due to, (i) (ii) It shows the number of handovers x 100% x 100% x 100%

ULQ Uplink Quality. DLQ Downlink quality.

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b) Attempted Intercell Handover: due to, (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii)

It shows the number of handovers

ULQ Uplink Quality. DLQ Downlink Quality. ULS Uplink Level. DLS Downlink Level. DIST Timing Advance. PBGT Power Budget. DR Directed Retry.

C) Unsuccessful Intracell Handover with RF Loss: It measures Intracell handover failure due to RF loss. d) Unsuccessful Intercell Handover with RF Loss: It measures Intercell handover failure due to RF loss. e) Intracell Handover Failure Rate (%): It represents proportion of Intracell Handover that were attempted from the source cell but failed to make it to the destination cell. f) Intercell Handover Failure Rate (%): It represents proportion of Intercell Handover that were attempted from the source cell but failed to make it to the destination cell

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(4.0) Network Health Statistics:

We have considered a typical network with five BSCs to analyse the network performance. To undertake this activity stastics of atleast 2 weeks should be analysed. The key parameters to be considered are;

Call Success Rate Call Setup Success Rate Handover Success Rate Dropped Call Rate SDCCH Blocking Rate TCH Blocking Rate
Customer sets a bench mark for these parameters as a measure of quality of the network and expects the performance to be equal or better than this. The typical value of the bench marks for each of the above mentioned parameters are as follows, Call Success Rate Call Setup Success rate Handover Success Rate Dropped Call Rate SDCCH Blocking Rate TCH Blocking Rate 98 % 98 % 98 % 0.5% 0.5 % 2%

(4.1) Call Success Rate (CSR):

Call Success Rate is a network figure of merit which quantifies the network from a subscribers perspective. It represents the proportion of calls that are successfully completed. For this to occur the call must be successfully set-up and should not suffer a RF Loss prior to subscriber termination or handover. CSR is an important key statistics which is considered for performance analysis of a network. Figure- (3.1) gives CSR for five BSCs in a typical network compared with the benchmarks of 98%.

Call Success Rate

100 95 90 85 80 75 BSC1 BSC2 BSC3 BSCs BSC4 BSC5 BSC wise performance GOS Bench Mark

Call Success Rate (%)

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Fig.- (3.1) (4.2) Call Setup Success Rate:

The Call Set-up Success Rate relates to the proportion of subscribers that successfully achieve access to an allocated TCH, implying the end of a successful signalling phase in assignment procedure. Figure -(3.2) shows six worst cells with poor Call Set-up Success rate compared against benchmark in typical network.

Call Setup Success Rate

Call Setup Success Rate (%)

100 95 90 85 80 75 Cell 1 Cell 2 Cell 3 Cell 4 Cell 5 Cell 6 Cells Call Setup Success Rate GOS Bench Mark

Fig.- (3.2)

(4.2.1) Recommendations to Improve Low CSR:

A low CSR, not meeting its benchmark could be due to one or more of the following reasons;

a) SDCCH blocking: A high figure of SDCCH Blocking rate would bring down the call success rate significantly. Lack of sufficient SDCCH resources in a cell when a MS makes an attempt for access is SD blocking. SDCCH Blocking can be avoided by redefining the timeslot configurations (Combined / Non combined) i.e., adding more SDCCH slots to the cell with severe SDCCH Blocking. b) SDCCH failures This also account for poor CSR. Causes for radio failures have to be deciphered. It could be due to radio link failures or due to abnormal behaviour of individual SDCCH time slots. Call Set-up Success rate could be affected considerably due to severe Co-channel or Adjacent channel interference . In other words, the MS might not be able to hold on to the allocated SDCCH

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resource due to severe interference. The frequency plan deployed has to be checked for any cause of severe interference. c) Dropped calls
Other than the normal user termination of the call, if the call drops due to quality, distance or a handover failure at the old cell it brings down the CSR.

Handover failure at the old cell is the inability of the mobile to revert back to the original serving cell after an unsuccessful handover attempt . (d) TCH Blocking: The TCH Blocking Rate is defined as the proportion of TCH requests from origination and hand-in calls that fail due to there being insufficient TCH resources to carry the call. Unavailability of system traffic channel resources due to congestion or deliberate user blocking of TCH would reduce the CSR significantly. The allowable blocking rate is typically 2% for all cells. More carriers have to be added to heavily congested sectors to overcome TCH blocking and thereby to improve CSR. Figure -(3.3) gives the TCH Blocking rate for five BSCs with their benchmarks being 2 %. An arbitrary case of ten TCH congested cells is portrayed in figure -(3.4).

TCH Congestion
30 25 20 1 5 1 0 5 0 BSC1 BSC2 BSC3 B SC s BSC4 BSC5

TCH Congestion GOS Bench Mark

Fig.-(3.3)

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Worst TCH Congestion Cells

30 25 20 1 5 1 0 5 0 Cell 1 Cell 2 Cell 3 Cell 4 Cell 5 Cell 6 Cell 7 Cell 8 Cell 9 Cell 1 0 C ells

TCH Congestion GOS Bench Mark

Fig.- (3.4)

(4.3) Handover Success Rate (HSR): HSR is a measure of successful handovers from the serving cell to its best neighbour. Handovers can be intracell, intra BSS, inter BSS or inter MSC handovers. When a handover required to the best neighbour results in a rejection due to unavailability of resources or any other reason, it is considered as a handover failure. However it is to be noticed that a handover failure does not necessarily mean a dropped call. Attempt to handover the call to second best neighbour begins after an unsuccessful attempt to the best neighbour which will delay the handover process and deteriorate the quality further. Thus HSR is taken as a key statistics in evaluating the network performance. Figure- (3.5) presents the cells with low Intra Cell HSR. The Intra BSS HSR measures the success of a mobile completing a handover between cells physically located within the same BSC. This occurs once the BTS transmits the handover command to the MS. As the success rate is referenced to the source call, any TCH blocking on the target cell does not impact on this statistics.

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Handover Success rate (%)

Handover Success Rate

100 95 90 85 80 BSC1 BSC2 BSC3 BSC4 BSC5 BSCs

Handover Success Rate GOS Bench Mark

Fig. - (3.5) (4.3.1) Handover causes: Two criteria groups of different handover causes are defined below; a) Radio criteria:
Received quality (RX QUAL on up-link and down-link) too low / bit error rate too high on up-link and down-link.

Received level too low (RX LEV on up-link and down-link). MS-BS distance handover (Timing Advance). b) Network Criteria: Serving cell congestion (directed retry) MS - BS distance too high in Extended cells.

Power Budget handover (handover to a better cell with regard to relative received level).

The first three handover causes in radio criteria are known as mandatory or imperative causes due to the fact that an occurrence of one of these causes mean that a handover is necessary to maintain the call. In a well planned network, handover to a better cell cause (Power Budget) which is an optional one should be the overwhelming cause for handovers to happen. The pie chart in figure- (3.6) shows the breakdown of the handover causes within a typical network. So the handover due to causes other than Power Budget cause have to be identified and steps have to be taken to minimise their percentage of occurrence as a part of performance improvement process.

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Handover Causes
10.5 3.8 6.7 1.8 Uplink Quality Uplink Level Downlink Quality Downlink Level Power Budget 77.2

Fig. - (3.6) c) Up-link level Handovers This handover occurs specially in case of cells in rural areas or cell covering a large area. A handover observation has to be initiated to identify the cells having large number of uplink level handovers and measures like implementation of Tower Mounted Amplifiers (TMAs) have to be taken to improve the uplink level.
d) Up-link quality Handovers

As the name implies, this handover decision is made due to poor quality in the up-link. Dynamic Power control feature can be enabled in the up-link to improve its quality. By using this feature BTS instructs MS to transmit only that much power which is sufficient for maintaining the call. This makes MS transmit lower power hence the amount of interference at BTS level decreases thereby reducing up-link quality handovers. Other option available is using Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) where MS transmits only when there is voice activity. However, the disadvantage of enabling this feature is that the measurement reports are less reliable (SUB values) for SACCH frames than those for which there is no silence period (FULL values) SACCH frames. e) Down-link Quality Handovers This happens due to down-link quality deterioration. Interference of RF signals and the radio environment are major causes of it. Optimisation procedure for interference control such as redefining frequency plan, change of antenna parameters (using lower beamwidth antennas, down-tilt, etc.), power definition at BTS, etc., help in reducing Down-link Quality handover.

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f) Down-link Level Handovers

Unnecessary down-link handovers happen if the cell boundaries are not well defined with high overlapping areas. Even if the level of the serving cell is well within the acceptable threshold, a down-link handover decision is made because of a strong neighbour serving in the same area whose power needs to be redefined. (4.3.2) Handover Failures Some of the probable causes for handover failures and subsequent remedies that could be done to improve the network performance is given below. Usually the handover failure rate for any cell should be less than 0.5 %. The cells which do not meet this benchmark could have any of the reasons stated below. Figure- (3.7) shows ten cells in typical network with poor inter cell handover performance.

Worst handover Success Rate Cells

3.5 3 2.5 2 1 .5 1 0.5 0 Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 C ells

Handover Faliure Rate GOS Bench Mark

Fig.- (3.7) The first and foremost point to be considered is to check whether it is an incoming or an outgoing handover of a particular cell which is affected. In a highly congested zone, handover failures which are obviously due to lack of resources could be resolved by adding up more carriers suitably. Handover observations can be initiated in the OMC for cells not meeting the HSR benchmark to find out precisely why a handover attempt has failed.

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While defining the neighbour list, it must be ensured that the definition is bi-directional. Say for example if cell A has cell B as its neighbour it is mandatory that cell B has cell A in its adjacency list. Handover attempts could fail due to severe interference (Co-Channel or Adjacent Channel Interference). A check has to be run on the frequency plan of the poorly performing sites.

If more than one site in the neighbour list of a site with poor HSR have the same Base Station Identity code (BSIC) and Broadcasting Control Channel (BCCH) frequency, the site would be unable to make a handover decision which accounts for its poor performance. Thus the BSICs and the corresponding BCCHs in the neighbour list of the cell with poor HSR have to be checked. There is a possibility of a site being out of synchronisation with its adjacencies. In this case the HSR of all the sectors of a BTS would be affected. (4.4) Dropped Call Rate (DCR): A dropped call occurs when the subscriber has an allocated TCH and this is abnormally released due to either RF loss or equipment problems. The Drop Call Rate therefore is a measure of the proportion of subscribers that successfully access a TCH, but then abnormally drop the call. Thus DCR for a network is given more weight-age and should be as low as possible. Dropped Call Rate is an important parameter as far as performance of the network is concerned. Figure- (3.8) gives DCR for five BSCs in a typical network compared with the benchmarks of 0.5%.

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Dropped Call rate

3 2.5 2 1 .5 1 0.5 0 BSC1 BSC2 BSC3 B SC s BSC4 BSC5

Drop Call Rate GOS Bench Mark

Fig.- (3.8) (4.4.1) Recommendations to Improve DCR: a) Poor down link level: This is the main reason for the drop calls. If calls are dropping because of this reason at the boundary cells then expansion of the network is the solution. However, if it is caused because of some blind spots present in the network then this can be avoided by putting up more sites in the area, improving the EIRP of the existing cells, installation of repeaters etc. If these options affect the network performance owing to high interference because of more reuse then deployment of Micro, Pico cells and underlay-overlay cells can be very good options. b) Poor down link quality: If the received level in the downlink is good and the quality goes bad, it can be inferred that the major reason for poor quality is interference. Interference is either Co-channel or/and adjacent channel. If certain area is affected by interference resulting in poor quality then one of the ways to reduce interference level is by redefining your coverage boundaries, which can be achieved by increasing antenna down-tilt and reducing antenna height. EIRP of a BTS can also be reduced to counteract interference. Frequency plan deployed in the network can be redefined and

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reuse distances can be increased while dealing with quality problems in general. c) Poor up-link level: Generally in the coverage boundaries of cells covering large area, calls drop because of poor up-link level owing to high path loss. Probable solutions without reducing the coverage boundary of a cell are to implement Tower Mounted Amplifiers (TMAs). TMAs improve the sensitivity of the receiving BTS antenna thus improving the up link level and reducing the link imbalance. d) Poor up-link quality: Up-link quality can be poor because of interference in the up-link. Discontinuous transmission and dynamic power control in the up-link can be used to reduce interference in the up-link. As stated earlier a check has to be run on the current frequency plan. e) MS Loss during handovers: Unsuccessful handover attempts results in dropped call if the handovers are imperative. In other words the inability of a MS to return back to the old cell after an unsuccessful attempt at the neighbour results in dropped call. This could be due to lack of TCH resources in the target cell. The obvious solution is to increase the capacity of congested target cell to cater to the handover attempts made to it. Figure- (3.9) shows ten cells in typical network with worst dropped call rate performance compare against with benchmark of 2%.
Worst Dropped Call Cells
Drop call rates (%) 5 4 3 2 1 0 Cells Cells Cells Cells Cells Cells Cells Cells Cells Cells 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Cells Drop Call Rate GOS Bench Mark

Fig.- (3.9)

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(4.5) SDCCH Blocking Rate: The SDCCH Blocking Rate is defined as the proportion of all SDCCH request (from MS origination and hand-ins) that fail due to there being no available SDCCH resources. Figure- (3.10) shows an arbitrary case of SDCCH Blocking rate for 10 cells compared with the benchmark of 0.5 %. Recommendations to improve SDCCH Blocking is already discussed.

SDCCH Blocking Rate

1 .4

SDCCH Blocking GOS Bench Mark

SDCCH Blocking Rate (%)

1 .2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 Cell 1 Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 Cells

Fig. (3.10) (4.5.1) SDCCH Access Success: SDCCH Access begins when the BTS detects a Channel Request message (in the form of Random Access Burst) from a MS requesting resources for network transactions. The Establishment Cause encapsulated in the message will be accessed for validity. After validation of the RAB, the BTS will attempt to allocate a SDCCH for the MS. The success rate is derived from the number of successful attempts once the BTS has decoded a valid RACH. SDCCH access failure may occur for the following reasons; Poor RF Coverage Up-link Interference Phantom RABs. When the BTS receives a phantom RAB the SDCCH is allocated, but no MS accesses the channel. If the BTS does not receive a SABM on the SDCCH

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before timer rr_t3101 expires, the BSS will release the SDCCH. The main cause of phantom RABs is the BTS detecting uplink signals from MSs in cochannel, co-BSIC cells. These signals could either be Channel Request message or, more likely, Handover Access message which are intended for the remote cell.

(4.5.2) SDCCH Access Success Rate: The SDCCH Access Rate is not being caused by a lack of SDCCH resources as SDCCH blocking is subtracted in the calculation. The SDCCH Access Success Rate is therefore a measure of the RF Link Performance during SDCCH access. Reasons for low success rate could be due to calls attempts being made from areas of low signal strength, such as within building, or due to phantom RACHs from nearby cells. (4.6) TCH Blocking/ TCH Assignment Success Rate:
The TCH Blocking Rate is defined as the proportion of TCH requested from originating and hand-in calls that fail due to there being insufficient TCH resources to carry the call. Figure(3.11) shows five BSCs in a typical network which are experiencing low TCH Assignment Success Rate.

TCH Assignment Success Rate (%)

TCH Assignment Success rate

94 92 90 88 86 84 BSC1 BSC2 BSC3 BSC4 BSC5 BSCs
TCH assignment Success rate GOS Bench Mark

Fig.- (3.10)

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(4.6.1) Recommendations to Improve TCH Blocking Rate :

Problem of TCH Blocking can be resolved by deploying additional RF carriers within the cell. This will increase the number of TCHs. Congestion relief feature can be enabled. (OEM specific). Directed Retry feature can be enabled. (OEM specific). Call Queuing feature can be enabled.

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