Missing Neighbour Analysis in A-RVS

Actix Professional Services

Actix Ltd, 2004

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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 3 SETTINGS EXPLAINED ........................................................................................................... 4

MISSING NEIGHBOURS EXAMPLE .............................................................................................. 5 NEIGHBOUR LIST RECOMMENDATIONS REPORT ......................................................................... 7 MISSING AND REMOVAL NEIGHBOUR ATTRIBUTES ...................................................................... 8 DROPPED CALL ANALYSIS DUE TO MISSING NEIGHBOURS ........................................................ 11

Actix Ltd, 2004

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Introduction
Missing Neighbour Analysis is a fundamental aspect to WCDMA network optimisation. It should be performed as part of the rollout phase of a network to construct and/or optimise the adjacency lists of each cell; and throughout the life of the network as changes to traffic and tilt affect the coverage pattern and interference interaction between the cells. Missing Neighbour Analysis in Actix RVS solution has been designed to allow engineers to generate a list of suggested Missing Neighbours and allow engineers to visualise the suggested cells on a map. Full control of the suggestion criteria is included to allow for changes in clutter, terrain and rollout phase of the network. These suggestion criteria are described as follows:

New settings inside Tools > Preferences

These criteria are applied to the scanned signal measurements to build a suggested list of cells. Only cells which satisfy all criteria are included in the final list of suggested Missing Neighbours.

Actix Ltd, 2004

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Settings Explained Criteria

Reporting Range (dB)

Default Value
5

Description
EcIo offset applied to the Best EcIo value. EcIo values must be within this offset of the Nth_Best cell to be included as a suggested cell. Maximum size of the suggested list. This should be set to your network infrastructure s maximum adjacency list size. The percentage of samples of the suggested cell relative to the Nth_Best cell must at least equal this value to be suggested. This is to reduce stray signals affecting the choice. The percentage of samples that must be achieved for a cell in the current adjacency list of the Nth_Best cell, or it will be recommended for removal. The minimum number of samples of the Nth_Best cell before it s neighbours will be analysed. This is to remove statistically invalid measurements from the suggestions. The line-of-sight distance between the Nth_Best and suggested cell must be less than or equal to this value. Increase this value for rural areas where the average intersite distance is naturally greater than a dense-urban environment. Set this value to 0 to disable this feature. The maximum criteria applied to the angle between any point in the drive route and a suggested missing neighbour. This is to ensure Missing Neighbours are not suggested from reflected signals / back-lobes, and ensure only cells angled towards the scanned drive are suggested. Set this value to 0 to disable this feature. This feature controls whether the criteria is applied to existing neighbours, to validate the current adjacency list of each cell according to the scanner measurements. By selecting this option, the adjacency list of only the Nth_Best cells will be included in the creation of the suggested list. By disabling this feature, the adjacency list of all cells that fall within the Reporting Range will also be analysed.

Maximum size

32

Addition Threshold (%)

Removal Threshold (%)

0.2

Minimal Samples

50

Maximum Intersite Distance (metres)

5000

Angle to site threshold (degrees)

90

Include existing neighbours

Disabled

Only process first best SC

Enabled

Actix Ltd, 2004

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Missing Neighbours Example

The following example explains how the Missing Neighbours are calculated:
201

Site 2
101

203

Scanned route Site 1

102 103 202 401

402 403

Site 4

point X

301

Site 3
302 303

4.5Km 6Km Example scanner measurement drive. SC 103 on Site 1 is the strongest signal at point X In this example, at point X , SC 103 is the Nth_Best SC (CPICH_Scan_SC_SortedBy_EcIo_0). The closest cell to point X is at Site 11. Its adjacency list includes 101, 102, 201 and 202. At point X , the scanned list is as follows: SC 103 202 302 203 402 301 101 303 EcIo (dBm) -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -9 -11 -15

At point X , the strongest signal is SC 103 is at -5dBm. Applying the Reporting Range of 5dB creates a short-list of SC 202, 302, 203, 402 and 301 (greater than -10dBm). The signals from SC 101 and 303 are too weak to be considered. SC 202 is are already defined as a neighbour of SC 103, so this is eliminated too, leaving us with a suggested list of 203, 302, 402 and 301. Applying the intersite distance threshold, SC 402 is over 5Km away from SC 103, so it is removed from the suggested list, leaving us with SC 203, 302 and 301. The angle between the point X and the azimuth of the SC s is now analysed. To be considered, the azimuth must fall with +/- 90 degrees of the line-of-sight vector from the
1

Note: The scanner reports SC numbers, so Actix RVS selects the closest cell to the drive route at that time, with a matching SC. Actix Ltd, 2004 Page 5 of 12

point X to that site. To allow for the spread of beamwidth, half the beamwidth is added/subtracted to the azimuth to give extra tolerance of angle. Site 2
201 +90 202 203 -90

+90

point X
301

Site 3
302 303

-90

Example of angle to site threshold for validation of SC 203, 302 and 302 When half the beamwidth is added/subtracted (depending on whether the azimuth is to the left or right of the vector connecting the scanner point and the cell) to the azimuth of the cell, the final criteria is applied to the cell. If the angle of the cell then falls within the angle setting in Tools > Preferences the cell will be included in the suggested list. In the example above, SC 302 is included as a Missing Neighbour. The azimuth of SC 301 was originally outside our 90 threshold, but when subtracting half its beamwidth, it falls within our acceptable range so is therefore included as a Missing Neighbour. The azimuth of SC 203 + half its beamwidth still does not fall within our 90 threshold, so it is not included in the list. Our final list of Missing Neigbours is then 301 and 302. Due to the fact that SC 302 has a stronger EcIo value than SC 301 at point X , the Missing Neighbours at point X are as follows: Missing_Neighbours_0 = 302 Missing_Neighbours_1 = 301 relative to CPICH_Scan_SC_SortedBy_EcIo_0 = 103 at point X . This is repeated for all points in the scanned drivetest route, creating an array of SC s at each point, sorted by their EcIo value, which satisfy the selection criteria and are not currently defined as a neighbour of the Nth_Best_0 cell at that time. If the Only use Nth Best cell option is disabled, not only the Nth_Best cell will be considered. Using the principle that if cell A and cell B are within 5dB, and cell A and cell C are within 5dB, the relationship between cell B and cell C should be analysed too. This obviously increases that processing needed at each point, and is recommended for neighbour list optimisation of more mature networks. Once the final list of suggested Missing Neighbours has been compiled, the results can be viewed in two ways: through the Accelerated Network Rollout analysis pack report (Neighbour List Recommendations), and also by visualising them on the map/chart/table.

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Neighbour List Recommendations report

Once this report has been run from the ANR analysis pack, the recommended additions / removals / retentions are presented in a tabular format as follows: Nth_Best SC 110 Site Site123 Cell Site123-a Sample Count 5000 Action Add Retain Remove Nbr SC 200 112 113 Sample Count 1250 500 5 % 25 10 0.1 Intersite Distance 2.5 3.5 3.5

In this example, SC 110 (Site123-a) was the Nth_Best measurement for 5000 samples during the scanner measurement. It s current adjacency list includes SC 112 and 113. While SC 111 was the Nth_Best cells, there were 1250 samples of SC 200, 500 samples for SC 112 and only 5 samples for SC 113 (sorted by % samples). SC 200 is not already in the adjacency list for SC 110, all criteria have been met for this cell, so it is suggested as a Missing Neighbour. SC 112 was scanned enough times to recommend to be kept in the adjacency list. SC 113 (at the same site as SC 112, 3.5Km away from SC 110) was only scanned 5 times, so it has been recommended to be removed. NOTE: It is important to drive enough routes and collect enough data to ensure these cell suggestions are statistically valid.

Actix Ltd, 2004

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Missing and Removal Neighbour attributes

In the workspace explorer, a new grouping has been introduced Neighbour Analysis containing 2 sorted lists, for Missing Neighbour suggestions and Removal suggestions.

Workspace Explorer showing new Neighbour Analysis group The lists are sorted by signal strength and contain the SC values of the cells in the list at each point in the scanned drivetest. The strongest Missing Neighbour (Missing_Neighbour_0) should be analysed first, as it could potentially be the strongest pollution source at that time. Drag the parameter onto the map and open the Top 10 Scan Measurements stateform (optionally dock it to under the Workspace Explorer). The legend of the map gives you the list of SCs that were the strongest Missing Neighbour at any point in the drive. The most frequent SC should be targeted first, and by selecting any point in the map, the stateform will synchronise to show the top 10 scanned measurements giving the Nth_Best SC at the top of the list2. A decision needs to be made whether to add this suggested Missing Neighbour SC into the adjacency list of the Nth_Best SC.

In the case of repeated SC values, the closest cell with a matching SC to the Nth_Best_0 cell will be selected. Actix Ltd, 2004 Page 8 of 12

Screenshot of Nth_Best SC (CPICH_Scan_SC_SortedBy_EcIo_0) plotted on the map. Missing_Neighbours_0 is added to the map, and synchronised to the Top 10 Scan Measurements stateform. The Display Cell Data view shows the adjacency list of cell example0184c (SC 242). Once all the strongest Missing Neighbours have been analysed, the next strongest signal should be analysed. Following this process with ensure that the most important Missing Neighbours are analysed first. The same SC could appear as a Missing Neighbour for multiple Nth_Best cells, so it may be easier to create a crosstab query with two dimensions: Missing_Neighbours_0 and Nth_Best_0, to give all occurrences of the combinations. This list can then be filtered from the Statistics Explorer to filter the map view for single SC combinations individually.

Actix Ltd, 2004

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Screenshot showing validation of intersite distance between Nth-Best SC 242 at site Example0184 and Missing Neighbour 202 at site Example0199. The map s distance tool has been used and the distance 1.7046Km is underlined.

Actix Ltd, 2004

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Dropped Call Analysis due to Missing Neighbours

Neighbour list analysis can also be used verify the reason behind a dropped call. This method uses the process of combining the scanner and UE together and checking the Active and Monitored Sets for the UE against the scanned measurements at the point of a dropped call.

Screenshot showing synchronised scanner and handset traces, indicating Missing Neighbour 202 (and differences between best scanned SC 242 and Active Set SC 338.

This requires the scanner and UE traces to be collected at the same time, and for the resulting collection files to be superstreamed together (and correcting any time offset between the collection devices). See the online Help for instructions on superstreaming using Time Offsets. Once the files have been combined, parameters such as the UTRA_UE_CarrierRSSI and the Uu_CallDropped event can be dragged onto the map. By opening the UE Missing Neighbours stateform for the superstream and synchronising it with dropped call, the top 10 scanned measurements can be visually compared to the Active and Monitored sets for the UE at the time.

Actix Ltd, 2004

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Screenshot showing how dropped calls from the handset can be viewed with the Missing Neighbour attributes when the scanner and handset are synchronised. Here the Active Set and Monitored Set SC s are at very low RSCP values, and poor EcNo too. The scanner detected 3 other SCs, and a missing neighbour just before the drop.

This allows the engineer to understand whether the UE had dropped a call due to a missing neighbour not being defined in the cell s adjacency list, or whether it was a handset problem, resulting in a neighbour that had already been defined not being added to the Monitored Set, and therefore never being able to be added to the Active Set.

Actix Ltd, 2004

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