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Actix A Solutions
September 2004
Getting Started: Actix A Solutions September 2004 Edition for Actix A Solutions Version 4.2 Copyright Actix Limited 1996-2004. All rights reserved. All trademarks are hereby acknowledged. Actix and the Actix logo are the trademarks of Actix Limited. Similar restrictions to use of our company and product names may apply elsewhere. The content of this manual is provided for information only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Actix. Actix assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that appear in this documentation. SentinelLM is a trademark of SafeNet, Inc. Licenturion is a registered trademark of Licenturion GmbH. See www.licenturion.com for details of Licenturion Product Activation. MapInfo and MapInfo MapX are registered trademarks of MapInfo Corporation. Actix also uses open-source components from MIT Software. See The MIT License.txt for details. This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/). Microsoft, Excel and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Contents
Integrate uplink and downlink data...........................................................50 Queries.....................................................................................................51 Create a filter ..................................................................................... 51 Filter the data .................................................................................... 53 Generate new reports...............................................................................54
Delete data files................................................................................. 95 View summary data..................................................................................96 GSM pre-configured reports .............................................................. 96 The Message Browser ...................................................................... 99 The Protocol Stack Browser ............................................................ 100 View attribute data..................................................................................101 View data in a Map .......................................................................... 101 Replay the data ............................................................................... 103 View data in a Form ........................................................................ 103 View data in a Chart ........................................................................ 104 View data in a Table........................................................................ 106 View data in a Workbook................................................................. 107 About synchronized data windows .................................................. 107 Configure your Solution..........................................................................108 Map backgrounds and layers .......................................................... 108 Change the size of GSM cell site sectors........................................ 111 Show lines to cells on a map ........................................................... 111 Loading large amounts of data...............................................................113 About Network Images .................................................................... 113 Performance limitations.................................................................................... 113 Create a Network Image.................................................................. 114 Load data into a Network Image...................................................... 114 View data from a Network Image .................................................... 115 Integrate uplink and downlink data.........................................................116 Queries...................................................................................................117 Create a filter ................................................................................... 117 Filter the data .................................................................................. 118 Generate new reports.............................................................................119
Contents 3
Examine Gb Load Time Queries ............................................................134 Load Time Queries in each Scenario .............................................. 135 Analyze GPRS Drive Test data ..............................................................137 Map DT files lacking GPS data........................................................ 137
4 Contents
iDEN pre-configured reports............................................................ 176 Reset thresholds for a new analysis................................................................. 178 The Message Browser .................................................................... 179 The Protocol Stack Browser ............................................................ 180 View attribute data..................................................................................181 View data in a Map .......................................................................... 181 Replay the data ............................................................................... 183 View data in a Form ........................................................................ 183 View data in a Chart ........................................................................ 184 View data in a Table........................................................................ 186 View data in a Workbook................................................................. 187 About synchronized data windows .................................................. 187 Configure your Solution..........................................................................188 Map backgrounds and layers .......................................................... 188 Display network information ............................................................ 190 Show lines to cells on a map ........................................................... 191 Loading large amounts of data...............................................................193 About Network Images .................................................................... 193 Performance limitations.................................................................................... 193 Create a Network Image.................................................................. 194 Load data into a Network Image...................................................... 194 View data from a Network Image .................................................... 195 Queries...................................................................................................196 Create a filter ................................................................................... 196 Filter the data .................................................................................. 197 Generate new reports.............................................................................198
9 INDEX ....................................................199
Contents 5
For a detailed understanding of your solution, you should attend a full training or workshop session. These can be tailored exclusively to your individual or corporate requirements.
Getting help
To get a complete overview of the product, you should refer to the online help, which also contains systematic instructions for various tasks and reference help for immediate assistance.
The following features of the online help will assist you in finding an answer to your problem. The Contents tab displays the help topics in an ordered, collapsible view. Double-click on a desired topic to view it.
The Index tab lets you find any index entries that match a word or part of the word you are looking for. As you type, the list of matching topics changes. Select the desired topic and click Display to view it.
The Search tab lets you type in the word or words to search for, and then click List Topics. All matching topics are then listed. Select the desired topic and click Display to view it.
If you need to refer to a help topic often, you may want to add it to your 'favorites' list. Click on the Favorites tab, and click Add to add the displayed topic to the list. Select a topic from the list and click Display to view it.
As Actix is committed to provide rapid support for new file formats, this reference help may not be up to date. If there are particular attributes you would like to see in the help but are not currently documented, please email technical support: support@actix.com.
Certain areas of this section are password protected and can only be accessed by authorised users with registered products.
Actix is committed to providing excellent technical support for its entire product range. To achieve this we have dedicated Technical Support telephone numbers and a specific area on our worldwide web site to enable 24-hour support. UK Direct +44 (0) 208 735 6303 09:00 17:00 GMT US Direct +1 877 722 2849 +1 877 72 ACTIX US toll free +1 703 648 0300 09:00 17:00 Eastern Time (GMT -05:00) Asia Pacific +65 332 2313 09:00 17:00 (GMT +08:00)
Outside of hours: Please leave your contact details and a brief description of the nature of the call.
Call Trace
The data sources could include field-test equipment and switch call traces, and the data could be a one-off test, or part of a planned series of samples to build up an image of overall network performance. Once the data is loaded, a variety of analysis tools and displays provide a clear view of network performance for engineers, technicians or operations management staff. The Actix A Solutions address applications such as: Network performance optimization Feature testing Service validation Problem diagnosis and analysis Network bench-marking Competitive analysis
Distance binning combines data into bins corresponding to the distance traveled by the test mobile. This mode is commonly used for drive test analyses when viewing on a map to ensure plot points are evenly spaced.
Message binning If you set the number of messages to average equal to 1, each message is placed into its own bin with the net result of no averaging of the data. Note that message binning should be usually only set to 1. Location binning is like overlaying a spatial grid on top of the data with a user-definable granularity. This can be used when examining several drive files crossing over the same geographic area. This method is often used for superstreams (see the online help for more information).
Drive Routes
All points in this box will be binned together to produce one plotted point
To change the aggregation modealso known as the 'binning' mode: 1 2 Within your Actix Solution, from the Tools menu, select Preferences to open the Preferences dialog. Under the heading Binning, select the appropriate Binning Mode. A typical setting for viewing drive test data would be to select Time binning, with Time (ms) set to 1000.
Click OK.
The arrangement of loaded help files and data display windows is called the current workspace. You can save and reuse workspaces as necessary. You may find it useful to create one or more workspaces to act as templates for future work sessions. Save these to your desktop, so you can double-click them to start your Actix Solution with your preferred layouts.
Parameter Site Name Site Number Latitude Longitude Sector Number Azimuth Beamwidth
Purpose
Text description of the Site for display on map. Numeric identifier for the site. Locates site icons on map. Locates site icons on map. Sector-specific information useful for display on maps (can be alpha or numeric) Orients the sector icons on the map. Governs the shape of the sector wedge icon to reflect the beamwidth of antenna deployed at the site. Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power for informational purposes only
EIRP
WCDMA_Cell
EIRP
Purpose
Used for cell site identification and to calculate lines to cells Mobile Country Code for informational purposes only National Domain Code for informational purposes only Location Area Code for informational purposes only Cell Identity for informational purposes only Legacy parameter - unused Used to define a pre-defined neighbor list for each cell. Used during neighbor list recommendations analysis. Configurable text field that specifies which cell layer (for example, by technology, band or status) the site belongs to. Used for multiple cell layers.
Layer Type
WCDMA_Cell
LayerType
From the Cells menu, select Network Explorer. The Network Explorer display consists of two panels. The left panel contains a tree view of the network element data. The right panel shows details about relevant parameters for the current selection.
On the toolbar, select Import, then Import From New Template to open the Import dialog. Select the appropriate export data file from your planning tool and click Open to display the Custom Import Wizard.
The Import Settings page of the Custom Import Wizard is now displayed:
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Give the Template a meaningful Template Name ('UMTS example' in this example). Check the appropriate Delimiter that separates the data from the file into different columns. If you choose the wrong delimited, you will see the effect in the Data Preview window at the bottom of the dialog. In most cases, the default information under General Settings and Coordinate Information will apply. If your file has more than one header or uses a different array list separator (the character used to separate the array values under the 'Neighbours' column in the example for step 1), adjust these settings as necessary. Click Next.
The Column Settings page of the Custom Import Wizard is now displayed. This allows you to associate a network parameter with a column of data in the text file.
Note that each of the field names has an associated icon: Key fields Required fields You must select a field type for this field, but you cannot set a default value. These must be either bound to a particular type or have a default value set. Binding particular field types or setting default values is not strictly necessary for this field.
Other fields
Open up the node called WCDMA_Site. Click on the adjacent field under Column and select the parameter name from your site database that corresponds to the Site_Name parameter. Repeat for each of the fields in the WCDMA_site node. Open the WCDMA_Cell node. Click in the Column field next to Sector_ID. Select the parameter name from your site database that corresponds to the Sector_ID parameter.
You can enter a default value that takes effect if the actual value is unknown. For example, all Beamwidths could be set to 65 degrees.
10 Repeat for each of the fields in the WCDMA_Cell node. A description of each of these parameters and their use is given in the table at the beginning of this section. For this example, we will ignore the following columns: EIRP, MCC, MNC, LAC, CI and BSIC. 11 Click Finish when all the columns have been assigned. The new cell information will be added at the bottom of the existing list in the Network Element editor. 12 Inspect the cell data in the Network Explorer by expanding the All_WCDMA_Site_Elements folder in the left-hand pane of the Network Explorer. 13 Double-click on any site name in the right hand pane. The Name, ID, latitude and longitude of the site will appear, as well as a folder containing WCDMA Cell Elements. Drill into the WCDMA Cell Elements folder and examine the values corresponding to each sector. 14 Save the formatted site information by clicking Save. 15 Close the Network Explorer window by clicking the 'X' at the upper right hand corner. 16 The window shown below is now displayed. Click Yes to overwrite the old settings ('No' would append this information to your existing network data):
17 After closing the Network Explorer, view a new map by selecting View Display New Map.
18 If cell icons do not appear on the map, right click on the map and select Zoom, Go to Layer, WCDMA_Site to zoom the map to the appropriate location. 19 Set the cells to be labeled by SC as described earlier.
Click on File Location to select the text file containing network element data. This file must be in the Actix 'cellrefs' format. The information from this cellrefs file takes effect from the next time a new workspace is created. Note that you can set up an automatic cellrefs import if your network data is liable to change frequently (see the online help for details).
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog. You will now see a message saying that the new file will take effect with the next workspace created or loaded. You may now want to close and restart your Actix Solution for the change to take effect.
Manage data
Load data files
The simplest way to load logfile data is as follows: 1 From the main toolbar, click the Open Logfile button:
This displays the Open dialog. 2 Select an appropriate file. Files of Type defaults to 'All Formats', but you can select a specific file type to look for. This also illustrates the many file formats available. The Network Image feature (see later) is more practical than using Open Logfile if you need to analyse many large logfiles
The exact structures and icons used depend on the data file In UMTS, you may find it easier to locate attributes using the Find Attribute command, which lets you enter all or part of the attribute's name or help description in a new Attribute Search dialog. 24 Analyzing UMTS data Actix A Solutions Getting Started
Select Tools, Find Attribute (or use the hotkey Ctrl + Shift + F) to add a search panel is added to the Workspace Explorer tree-view pane. Enter search criteria about the required attributes into this panel. Find What: Enter some text which is part of the required attribute name. Stream: Select which stream of data should be searched. <All Streams> is set by default. Settings: o Whole Word: Check this to search only for attributes where the search text exactly matches the whole attribute name. Otherwise, search for attributes where the search text is contained within the attribute name. Case Sensitive: Check this to search only for attributes where the case of the search string exactly matches the case of the attribute.
Direction: When down is selected, only search for attributes further down in the attribute tree from the currently selected attribute. When up is selected, only search for attributes further up in the attribute tree from the currently selected attribute. Find Next: Based on the current search criteria, find the next matching attribute. This attribute is highlighted in the All tab at the bottom of the Workspace Explorer. Find All: Based on the current search criteria, find all matching attributes in the tree-view. The matching attributes are listed in the Search Results tab at the bottom of the Workspace Explorer. Done: The search for attribute panel is closed. Search results remain visible in the Search Results tab.
Message Browser
Once you have used the summary data views to identify problem areas, you can use the attribute views to examine the data in detail. For more information, see the section View attribute data.
Use the top pane as necessary to narrow down your selection. All reports appropriate to your selection are displayed under the Suggested tab. If you want to use another report, look under the All tab to view all reports available within the current application pack.
This will report on all data selected by cell in the upper tree-view panel. 5 As required, use the buttons at the bottom of the window to Save the report as a web-compatible HTML file set, Print the report to your printer or open the report in Excel using Show Excel Report.
The Message Browser combines an event panel (sequentially listing call events) with a panel of Layer 3 messaging, allowing you to pinpoint the root causes of problems.
Event panel shows a tree view of messages in the selected data stream
Select a message to synchronise to equivalent data points in other open data windows
Now select the required browser view. Each view displays messaging and information appropriate to that view. The example shown here is the UMTS UTRAN Protocol Signaling view.
Select one of the display methods to open the appropriate data display window.
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Click and drag the data around the map window. Experiment with the Zoom buttons. In the Workspace Explorer, open up the 'Event Data' set and under 'Call', drag the Uu_CallDropped' event onto the map, which should look similar to this:
Adding various events to the mapped data can help you see where problems are occurring. 6 Drag another data attribute onto the map. You can also change the size, symbol or color of the data, apply offsets to an attribute or merge attributes for a multidimensional display. See the online help for further details. The map legend defines histogram ranges for charts. 7 To hide a data series, in the legend pane on the left, click in the check box beside the series name.
To find out how to add background geographical and network information to map windows, see the section 'Configure your Solution'.
The Form window now displays a variety of attributes based on the data point you selected. Below are two form windows above a map window, displaying data for the selected data point on the map:
See the online help for details on how to create your own forms.
You can display more than one attribute on the same chart. 2 Select and drag the data attribute 'ServRxQualFull' from the Workspace Explorer window onto the existing chart.
You can also zoom into selected areas of the chart by defining a frame for the zoom.
On the chart, click the upper left corner of the zooming rectangle, and drag down to the lower right extent of the rectangle.
Note that the zoom only operates in the X-axis, not in the Y-axis.
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Now return the chart its original state and zoom back out by dragging a box, but this time up and to the right. Use the right mouse button to scroll and pan around the chart window. Although you can scroll the X-axis for all attributes on the chart, you can only pan the Y-axis for the last attribute to be displayed on the chart.
Note the other toolbar buttons for selecting data points. 2 Now click on a data point on the map. You should see that the relevant parts of the map and the chart look as shown below, with a line appearing at the equivalent time on the chart:
In the Map Window, click on the Layers icon: The Layer Control dialog now opens: All layers in the map from top to bottom, with the top layer currently selected
Making a checkmark in a layer's box controls: if the layer is visible if objects on it can be selected if the layer can be annotated (unchecking this 'locks' the Annotations layer from having any further annotations added)
In the Layer Control dialog, click Add to open the Open Layer dialog. Select or type in the name of a MapInfo Map (*.tab) file, then click Open. MapInfo layers are named according to the geographic location of the data and by the type of data contained in the file. The following table lists some of the common abbreviations used for MapInfo data types:
Suffix Y1 Y2 X1 X2 Pc Pn Pm R H S Wr Wb Lm Cb Mc Cy
Layer Type RtHwy010_Top RtHwy010_Bot IntShld010 IntShld1040 Cultural Points Natural Points Municipal Points Railroads Highways Streets Water (rivers) Water (bodies of water) Landmarks City Boundary Minor Civic Division County
You may want to modify the layer properties by selecting the layer and choosing the various options within the Layer Control Dialog: Properties Labels: Use the Label Properties dialog to show, hide, or modify map labels.
To turn off labels (recommended to improve map load time), uncheck the Display within range boxes. Check boxes also are also available to Allow Overlapped Text and Allow Duplicated Text. The label font can be controlled through the Label Style button.
The label position and label offset can be modified at the bottom right corner of the dialog. Select OK to exit the Label Properties dialog. Properties Display: Use the Display Properties dialog to control the display features of the map layer.
Override the default vector coloring by checking Override Style and modifying the Layer Style. Select OK to exit the Display Properties dialog. Reorder Up and Reorder Down: Use the Reorder buttons to change the ordering of the layers.
Moving map layers to the bottom of the stack is recommended to provide an uncluttered backdrop for cell site data and log file parameters. Layer Accessibility: To display a layer, check the box next to the layer name under the eye icon . To make a layer selectable, check the box next to the layer name under the arrow icon . To make a layer writeable, check the box next to the layer name under the pencil icon .
Layers Remove: Use the Remove button to remove a map layer from the workspace. After modifying any desired layer properties, close the Layer Control dialog with the Close button and changes will take effect. Pan the map viewing area to the new map by rightclicking in the map area, then choosing Zoom Go to Layer and selecting the map layer you just added.
Reorder the map layers using the Up and Down buttons on the Map Layer dialog to improve the appearance of the map Right-click on the map and choose Zoom Zoom In from the pop-up menu or click on the Zoom In button on the Map toolbar.
10 Click and drag a rectangle around a small area of interest on the map. Return the cursor to the passive mode by clicking on the Select button. 11 To return to the previous view, right-click on the map and choose Zoom Previous View. 12 For some detailed layers, like the street layers, you can control at what degree of magnification they become visible. This helps to eliminate cluttered map displays. In the case of the S (street names) layer, you can control the point at which the street names and street numbers become visible on the map. In the Map Layers, select the S layer, and use the Properties Display dialog to set the Display within Zoom levels 010 miles. For the street numbers, use the Properties Labels to set the visible range to 0-3 miles. Note what happens as a result of your changes.
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As shown above, set the Lines draw mode to 'Selection', Color lines with to 'Uu_ActiveSet_SC', check that the Disable box is empty, and click OK, then Yes.
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Close the Layer Control dialog. Zoom In on data points near a cell site, and use Select to pick a data point. A solid line is drawn to the serving cell site, with dotted lines drawn to neighboring cells.
If 'All datapoints' was selected in the Line layer properties dialog, you would not need to select a data pointall data points would have a line to their neighbor cells. This can be useful in some situations.
You can also add data to the Network Image later, but for the data stored within the Network Image to be consistent, the same binning method and time-offset settings must be used. In your Actix Solution there are typically several Network Image templates provided for each mobile phone technology, and you can create and maintain as many individual Network Images as you need, for various analysis purposes. For more information on Network Images, including how to create new templates for Network Images, see the online help.
Performance limitations
Binning - When there are a large number of bins, memory usage increases and load speed deteriorates. Use lowresolution location binning where possible. Logfiles - It is better to use a few large files than many small files. If you have problems with many small files you can load a batch in one worksession, restart your Actix Solution and load another batch. Scanner data - Network Images are not suitable for use with large arrays of data, and some scanner uses are not possible.
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Select the UMTS Network Image template and click OK. From the Save As dialog, enter a File name and location for the Network Image file and click Save. You may want to share this Network Image file with colleagues, so ensure that you save the file with a sensible name in a suitable location. The Network Image is saved in the specified location with a .dat file extension, and is displayed in the Workspace Explorer panel:
At this stage, the Network Image does not contain any data, so the next step is to load it up with data from existing streams or logfiles.
From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on the Network Image and select the appropriate data loading option. Select one or more logfiles from a folder
Select a folder and load all logfiles in that folder and all subfolders
Select the required data loading option, and choose which stream, folder or multiple logfiles to load. When the data has been processed, you should see a message window showing the results for each stream or logfile:
You can use Maps, Charts, Tables and Workbooks to display Network Image data attributes. To view data from a Network Image 1 If the required Network Image is not already shown in the Workspace Explorer, from the Network Image menu, select Attach Network Image. Select the appropriate Network Image .dat file and click Open to display the Network Image in the Workspace Explorer.
From the Workspace Explorer, open up the structure underneath your attached Network Image.
Now view the batched Network Image data attributes in the same way as you would for standard data attributes, using maps, charts and so on, by rightclicking on the attributes and selecting options from the pop-up menu.
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The superstream is now generated and appears in the Workspace Explorer. You can view data from the superstream in any of the standard data display windows.
Queries
Actix Solutions provide a querying interface that lets you construct simple or complex expressions. These expressions extract meaningful performance data, based on user-defined thresholds or the value of other expressions. As an example, you can create a query that returns statistics for a particular eventsuch as a dropped callfor a given window in time around that event. This is useful when looking for data trends. Queries are created and edited from the Tools menu, Analysis Manager option. You can create these query types: Filter queries Binned queries Histogram queries Statistical queries Crosstab queries Event queries
You can also: Perform logical and arithmetic operators Save queries to a default Workspace Apply filters to queries
Create a filter
This example query is the same as the existing High Mobile Transmit Power. 1 From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on a data stream and select Filter, then Create a New Filter. The Filter Wizard opens. 2 Enter 'High Mobile Transmit Power test' as the name of the filter.
Click on the right-arrow of the attribute picker and select 'UMTS > DownLink Measurements > UE_TxPow'. Set the filter operation to 'Greater than (>)'. Set the threshold to '0'.
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Poor Mobile Receive Power High Mobile Transmit Power Low Mobile Transmit Power High Mobile Receive Power Poor Ec/No High Ec/No
CPICH_RSCP_in_ActiveSet[0] < -95 dBm UeTransmittedPower > 0 dBm UeTransmittedPower < -30 dBm CPICH_RSCP_in_ActiveSet[0] > -80 dBm CPICH_EcNo_in_ActiveSet[0] < -15 dB CPICH_EcNo_in_ActiveSet[0] > -8 dB
Click OK to process and display the data in the workbook. You can proceed to adapt the workbook, use other Excel tools on the data, and so on.
The arrangement of loaded help files and data display windows is called the current workspace. You can save and reuse workspaces as necessary. You may find it useful to create one or more workspaces to act as templates for future work sessions. Save these to your desktop, so you can double-click them to start your solution with your preferred layouts.
If you import the file using the Network Explorer, this line is added automatically. To maximize the benefit for CDMA network analysis, the following parameters should be included in the import:
Parameter Site Name Site Number Latitude Longitude Sector Number Azimuth Beamwidth Actix Workspace Name CDMA_Site SiteName CDMA_Site SiteID CDMA_Site SiteLatitude CDMA_Site SiteLongitude CDMA_Cell Sector ID Can 1,2,3 etc. or a combination of site numbers CDMA_Cell Azimuth CDMA_Cell Beamwidth Purpose Text description of the Site for display on map. Numeric identifier for the Site. Locates Site icons on the map. Locates Site icons on the map. Sector-specific information useful for display on maps. Orients the sector icons on the map. Governs the shape of the sector 'wedge' on the map to reflect the beamwidth of the antenna deployed at the site. Base station power, used in CDMA Toolkit calculations. Used in CDMA Toolkit calculations, lines to neighbor cells and to color sectors/sites on maps to reflect PN planning. Mobile Country Code System Identity Network Identity Broadcast Identity Text that specifies which cell layer (for example, by technology, band, purpose or status) that the site belongs to. Used for multiple cell layers.
To import the network information 1 From the Tools menu, select Network Explorer to open the Network Explorer window. For more information on using the Network Explorer, see the online help.
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From the toolbar, click Import and select Import From New Template to open the Import dialog. Select the appropriate network data file. Click Open to display the Custom Import Wizard. Give the Template a meaningful Description. Under Delimiters, check Tab. Under General Settings, enter '1' for Ignore header rows and ';' for Array (list) Separator. If your file has more than one header or uses a different array list separator, set these options accordingly. Click on the Column Settings tab. The Column Settings tab allows you to associate a network parameter with a column of data in the text file. Note that each of the field names has an associated icon: Key fields You must select a field type for this field, but you cannot set a default value. These must be either bound to a particular type or have a default value set. Binding particular field types or setting default values is not strictly necessary for this field.
Required fields
Other fields
10 Select a column binding from the drop-down list. The Wizard then displays the selected parameter against the appropriate column. 11 Select the appropriate columns for CDMA Site and Site Name. Repeat this for the SiteID, Latitude, and Longitude. 12 For the remaining columns, look for the attribute headers under CDMA Cell. Use the Cell ID column for the CDMA Cell Sector ID, Azimuth, Beamwidth, EIRP, PN, MCC, SID, NID, and BID (a description of each of these parameters and their use is described in the table at the beginning of this section).
13 Click Finish when all the columns have been assigned. The new cell information will be added at the bottom of the existing list in the Network Explorer. When the cellrefs file is updated, you should use the template you have created on the new file, so you do not have to repeat work you have already done, including the column-by-column parameter assignment.
Click on File Location to select the text file containing network element data. This file must be in the Actix 'cellrefs' format. The information from this cellrefs file takes effect from the next time a new workspace is created. Note that you can set up an automatic cellrefs import if your network data is liable to change frequently (see the online help for details).
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog. You will now see a message saying that the new file will take effect with the next workspace created or loaded. You may now want to close and restart your Actix Solution for the change to take effect.
Manage data
Load data files
1 2 From the main toolbar, click the Open Logfile button to display the Open dialog. Select an appropriate file. Files of Type defaults to 'All Formats' but you can select a specific file type to look for. This also illustrates the many file formats available for use with Actix A Solutions. The Network Image feature (see later) is more practical than using Open Logfile if you need to analyse many large logfiles
The exact structures and icons used depend on the data file 1 Click on the symbols to open out and explore the data in your logfile. See how your data relates to the structure shown above. In the example below, the file 'MyFile1' contains a data stream called 'Qualcomm MDM 1900' (the number is the data stream number within the file, starting from zero).
The 'CDMA' group contains the 'Pilot Sets' set, which contains the 'SearcherMaxEnergy' data attribute. However, the only objects that you actually need to recognize are filenames, data streams and data attributes. The logical tree-view layout of the Workspace Explorer allows you to drill down and identify all logged data. Once you have located the appropriate data attribute, you can open it in a data windowfor example, a map, chart, table or spreadsheetto examine the data in detail. You can examine data streams using the Message Browser tool. You can also use Find Attribute from the Tools menu to locate a particular attribute. See the online help for more details. You may also want additional information about a particular data attribute. 2 3 Select 'ActiveDelay_Max1'. From the Help menu, select Show Context Help.
button to dock the attribute help window Click the and drag it to a useful position.
Select a new attribute. Note that the help now provides information on that attribute.
Message Browser
Once you have used the summary data views to identify problem areas, you can use the attribute views to examine the data in detail. For more information, see the section View attribute data.
From the Analysis menu, select an application pack (in this example, 'CDMA Distant Server Analysis'). Once you select an application pack, this window opens:
The top pane shows a tree-view of the network structure against various statistics produced by the application pack. 3 Use the top pane as necessary to narrow down the data in your selection. All reports appropriate to your selection are displayed under the Suggested tab. If you want to use another report, look under the All tab to view all reports available within the current application pack. A description of the reports contained within each application pack is also provided in this window. 4 Double-click on a report icon to open the report window. This will report on all data selected in the upper tree-view panel. As required, use the buttons at the bottom of the window to Save the report as a web-compatible HTML file set, Print the report to your printer or open the report in Excel using Show Excel Report.
To reset thresholds for a new analysis A number of the application pack reports use Custom Attributes. To change the thresholds for a new analysis, you need to re-run these Custom Attributes directly from the Custom Attribute Manager: Distance_Input EcIo_Threshold_Input
The Message Browser combines an event panel (sequentially listing call events) with a panel of Layer 3 messaging, allowing you to pinpoint the root causes of problems.
Now select the required browser view. Each view displays messaging and information appropriate to that view. The example shown here is the CDMA Signaling (Radio Interface) view.
Select one of the display methods to opens the appropriate data display window.
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Click on the Pan button. Click and drag the data around the map window. Experiment with the Zoom buttons.
In the Workspace Explorer, open up the 'Event Data' set and drag the 'WeakPilotWarning' event onto the map, which should look similar to this:
Adding events (for example 'CallDropped') to the mapped data can help you see where problems are occurring. 6 Drag another data attribute onto the map. You can also change the size, symbol or color of the data, apply offsets to an attribute or merge attributes for a multidimensional display. See the online help for further details. The map legend defines histogram ranges for charts. 7 To hide a data series, in the legend pane, click in the check box beside the series name.
To find out how to add background geographical and network information to map windows, see the section Configure your Solution.
See the online help for information on the StateForms available for your Actix Solution. 2 In a map window, click Select point. and select a data
The Forms window now displays a variety of attributes based on the data point you selected. Here is an example StateForm:
You can synchronize all views in other open data windows by clicking on the timeline in Navigator-type StateForms like this. Other StateForms provide information for the currently selected point in the drive test:
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If you have scanner data in your logfile, start another Form window. Right-click on the form and select Open File, then select a form (.axw) file for a scanner. Right-click on the form and select Stream Selector, then the scanner stream.
You can display more than one attribute on the same chart. 2 Select and drag the data attribute 'ForwardFER' from the Workspace Explorer window onto the existing chart.
You can also zoom into selected areas of the chart by defining a frame for the zoom. 3 On the chart, click the upper left corner of the zooming rectangle, and drag down to the lower right extent of the rectangle.
Note that the zoom only operates in the X-axis, not in the Y-axis. 5 6 Now return the chart its original state by dragging a box, but this time up and to the right. Use the right mouse button to pan and scroll around the chart window.
Although you can scroll in the X-axis for all attributes on the chart, you can only pan in the Y-axis for the last attribute to be displayed on the chart.
Making a checkmark in a layer's box controls: if the layer is visible if objects on it can be selected if the layer can be annotated (unchecking this 'locks' the Annotations layer from having any further annotations added) 3 4 In the Layers box, click Add. From the Open Layer dialog, select one or more MapInfo Map (.tab) files.
MapInfo layers are named according to the geographic location of the data (for example, the abbreviated US state name and/or county name), and by the type of data contained in the file. Here are some of the common abbreviations used for MapInfo data types: Suffix Layer Type Y1 RtHwy010_Top Y2 RtHwy010_Bot X1 IntShld010 X2 IntShld1040 Pc Cultural Points Pn Natural Points Pm Municipal Points R Railroads H Highways S Streets Wr Water (rivers) Wb Water (bodies of water) Lm Landmarks Cb City Boundary Mc Minor Civic Division Cy County Other MapInfo layers: Voting District, Native American Lands, Sub-MCD, State level tables (school districts and elevation contours). For example, the MapInfo layer named GAFULTS.TAB contains street-level data for Fulton County, Georgia. 5 Click Open to show the .tab file in the layer list.
The top of the layer list represents the uppermost layer in this map window. 6 7 Click Up and Down to move 'examplemap' to the bottom and 'Annotations' to the top. Click Close to return to the map view. In a new Actix installation, the map location defaults to 0 longitude, 0 latitude, so you will need to arrange the map view to display the new map. 8 Pan the map viewing area by right-clicking in the map area, then choosing Zoom, Go to Layer and selecting the new map layer. Use the Zoom and Pan controls to arrange the map as required. To zoom in to an area, click Zoom In, then click and drag a rectangle around the area of interest. For some detailed layerslike the Street layersyou can control at what degree of magnification they become visible. This helps to minimize map clutter. 10 Right-click on the map window and select Map Layers to display the Layer Control dialog. 11 Select the S1 (street names) layer. 12 Click Display to open the Display Properties dialog. 13 Check Display within Zoom range and enter '0' for Min Zoom and '10' for Max Zoom. 14 Now do the same for the street numbers layer, but set the visible range to 0-3.
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Select the appropriate cells layer. Click Lines to open the Lines Configuration dialog.
Set the Lines draw mode to 'Selection' and Color lines with to 'PN_1stBestEcIo', check that the Disable box is empty, and click OK, then Yes. Click OK to close the Layer Control dialog.
Zoom In on data points near a cell site, and use Select to pick a data point.
A solid line is drawn to the serving cell site, with dotted lines drawn to neighboring cells.
If 'All datapoints' was selected in the Lines Configuration dialog, you would not need to select a data pointall data points would have a line to their neighbor cells. This can be useful in some situations.
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You can also add data to the Network Image later, but for the data stored within the Network Image to be consistent, the same binning method and time-offset settings must be used. In your Actix Solution there are typically several Network Image templates provided for each mobile phone technology, and you can create and maintain as many individual Network Images as you need, for various analysis purposes. For more information on Network Images, including how to create new templates for Network Images, see the online help.
Performance limitations
Binning - When there are a large number of bins, memory usage increases and load speed deteriorates. Use lowresolution location binning where possible. Logfiles - It is better to use a few large files than many small files. If you have problems with many small files you can load a batch in one worksession, restart your Actix Solution and load another batch. Actix A Solutions Getting Started Analyzing CDMA data 79
Scanner data - Network Images are not suitable for use with large arrays of data, and some scanner uses are not possible.
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From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on the Network Image and select the appropriate data loading option. Select one or more logfiles from a folder Select a folder and load all logfiles in that folder and all subfolders
Select the required data loading option, and choose which stream, folder or multiple logfiles to load. When the data has been processed, you should see a message window showing the results for each stream or logfile.
You can use Maps, Charts, Tables and Workbooks to display Network Image data attributes. To view data from a Network Image 1 If the required Network Image is not already shown in the Workspace Explorer, from the Network Image menu, select Attach Network Image. Select the appropriate Network Image .dat file and click Open to display the Network Image in the Workspace Explorer. From the Workspace Explorer, open up the structure underneath your attached Network Image. Now view the batched Network Image data attributes in the same way as you would for standard data attributes, using maps, charts and so on, by rightclicking on the attributes and selecting options from the pop-up menu.
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CDMA StateTip
The CDMA StateTip utility provides a synchronized view of Handset and PN Scanner data, allowing for a detailed evaluation of neighbor list and pilot pollution problems. By displaying the state of many different engineering parameters at a given trouble spot, you can best judge how to make changes to correct the problem.
The StateTip provides a simple but powerful window (shown on the right of the above example) that synchronizes with all other active windows.
CDMA Toolkit
Once you are familiar with the basics of using your Actix Solution, you may like to use the CDMA Toolkit utility. CDMA Toolkit automates key CDMA optimization tasks, and appears within the Actix interface as a task bar on the right of the screen. The Toolkit uses a task-based layout to let you perform these analyses: Search Window analysis Neighbor List analysis Optimize coverage areas Analyze multi-carrier statistics
Every analysis contains several web-based reports, each of which can be saved and printed out for management use.
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10 From the attribute picker, select 'PN_Primary'. 11 Click OK. The superstream is now generated and appears in the Workspace Explorer. You can view data from the superstream in any of the standard data display windows.
Queries
Actix Solutions provide a querying interface that lets you construct simple or complex expressions. These expressions extract meaningful performance data, based on user-defined thresholds or the value of other expressions. As an example, you can create a query that returns statistics for a particular eventsuch as a dropped callfor a given window in time around that event. This is useful when looking for data trends. Queries are created and edited from the Tools menu, Analysis Manager option. You can create these query types: Filter queries Binned queries Histogram queries Statistical queries Crosstab queries Event queries
You can also: Perform logical and arithmetic operators Save queries to a default Workspace Apply filters to queries
Create a filter
This example query is designed to filter poor quality in CDMA data. 1 From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on a data stream and select Filter, then Create a New Filter.
The Filter Wizard opens. 2 Enter 'Poor Quality' as the name of the filter.
Click on the right-arrow of the attribute picker and select CDMA > DownLink Measurements > ForwardFER.
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Set the filter operation to 'Greater than (>)'. Set the threshold to '5'.
Several default filters are provided to allow you to select the data that is displayed in the Workspace.
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Click Open. Select the data source that you want to view in the workbook report.
You can proceed to adapt the workbook, use other Excel tools on the data, and so on.
The arrangement of loaded help files and data display windows is called the current workspace. You can save and reuse workspaces as necessary. You may find it useful to create one or more workspaces to act as templates for future work sessions. Save these to your desktop, so you can double-click them to start your Actix Solution with your preferred layouts.
If you import the file using the Network Explorer, this line is added automatically. To maximize the benefit your Actix Solution can bring to GSM network analysis, the following parameters should be included in data imported into the tool.
Parameter Site Name Site Number Actix Workspace Name GSM_Site_SiteName GSM_Site ID Purpose Text description of the Site for display on map. Numeric identifier for the Site. Used as the linking column to associate the GSM_Site and GSM_Cell rows. Locates Site icons on map. Locates Site icons on map. Sector-specific ID information useful for display on maps. Orients the sector icons on the map. Governs the radius of the sector 'wedge' icon to reflect the beamwidth of antenna deployed at the sector. Base station power Broadcast control channel. Mobile Network Code Mobile Colour Code Location Area Code Cell ID value Base Station Identity Code, comprising of a concatenation of the NCC and BCC values. Text that specifies which cell layer (for example, by technology, band, purpose or status) that the site belongs to. Used for multiple cell layers.
GSM_Site Latitude GSM_Site Longitude GSM_Cell Sector ID Can be 1,2,3, etc, or a combination of site numbers GSM_Cell Azimuth GSM_Cell Beamwith
Azimuth Beamwidth
Base Station Power BCCH MNC MCC LAC CI BSIC Layer type
GSM_Cell EIRP GSM_Cell BCCH GSM_Cell MNC GSM_Cell MCC GSM_Cell LAC GSM_Cell CI GSM_Cell BSIC Layer_type
To import the network information 1 From the Tools menu, select Network Explorer to open the Network Explorer window. For more information on using the Network Explorer, see the online help. 2 3 4 5 6 7 From the toolbar, click Import and select Import From New Template to open the Import dialog. Select the appropriate network data file. Click Open to display the Custom Import Wizard: Give the Template a meaningful Description. Under Delimiters, check Tab. Under General Settings, enter '1' for Ignore header rows and ';' for Array (list) Separator. If your file has more than one header or uses a different array list separator, set these options accordingly. Click on the Column Settings tab. The Column Settings tab allows you to associate a network parameter with a column of data in the text file. Note that each of the field names has an associated icon: Key fields You must select a field type for this field, but you cannot set a default value. These must be either bound to a particular type or have a default value set. Binding particular field types or setting default values is not strictly necessary for this field.
Required fields
Other fields
10 Select a column binding from the drop-down list. The Wizard then displays the selected parameter against the appropriate column. 11 Select the appropriate column for Site Name from inside the GSM Site group. Repeat this for the SiteID, Latitude, and Longitude.
12 For the remaining columns, look for the attribute headers under GSM Cell group. Use the Cell ID column for the GSM Sector ID, and repeat for the Azimuth, Beamwidth, EIRP, BCCH, MNC, MCC, LAC, CI, and BSIC columns. A description of each of these parameters and their use is described in the table at the start of this section. 13 Click Finish when all the columns have been assigned. The new cell information will be added at the bottom of the existing list in the Network Explorer. When the cellrefs file is updated, you should use the template you have created on the new file so that you do not have to repeat work you have already done, including the column-by-column parameter assignment.
Click on File Location to select the text file containing network element data. This file must be in the Actix 'cellrefs' format. The information from this cellrefs file takes effect from the next time a new workspace is created. Note that you can set up an automatic cellrefs import if your network data is liable to change frequently (see the online help for details).
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog. You will now see a message saying that the new file will take effect with the next workspace created or loaded. You may now want to close and restart your Actix Solution for the change to take effect.
Manage data
Load data files
1 From the main toolbar, click the Open Logfile button:
This displays the Open dialog. 2 Select an appropriate file. Files of Type defaults to 'All Formats' but you can select a specific file type to look for. This also illustrates the many file formats available for use. The Network Image feature (see later) is more practical than using Open Logfile if you need to analyse many large logfiles
The exact structures and icons used depend on the data file 1 Click on the symbols to open out and explore the data in your logfile. See how your data relates to the structure shown above.
In the example below, the file 'edgec1' contains a data stream called 'Tems' (the number is the data stream number within the file, starting from zero). The 'GSM' group contains the 'UpLink Measurements' set, which contains the 'ULDTXUsed' data attribute. However, the only objects that you actually need to recognize are filenames, data streams and data attributes. The logical tree-view layout of the Workspace Explorer allows you to drill down and identify all logged data. Once you have located the appropriate data attribute, you can open it in a data windowfor example, a map, chart, table or spreadsheetto examine the data in detail. You can examine data streams using the Message Browser tool.
You can also use Find Attribute from the Tools menu to locate a particular attribute. See the online help for more details. You may also want additional information about a particular data attribute. 2 From the Help menu, select Show Context Help.
button to dock the attribute help window Click the and drag it to a useful position, as shown here:
Select a new attribute. Note that the help now provides information on that attribute.
Message Browser
Once you have used the summary data views to identify problem areas, you can use the attribute views to examine the data in detail. For more information, see the section View attribute data.
From the Analysis menu, select an application pack (in this example, 'DT Design Validation and Quick Analysis'). Once you select an application pack, this window opens:
The top pane shows a tree-view of the network structure against various statistics produced by the application pack. 3 Use the top pane as necessary to narrow down the data in your selection. All reports appropriate to your selection are displayed under the Suggested tab. If you want to use another report, look under the All tab to view all reports available within the current application pack.
This will report on all data selected in the upper treeview panel. 5 As required, use the buttons at the bottom of the window to Save the report as a web-compatible HTML file set, Print the report to your printer or open the report in Excel using Show Excel Report.
The Message Browser combines an event panel (sequentially listing call events) with a panel of Layer 3 messaging, allowing you to pinpoint the root causes of problems.
Now select the required browser view. Each view displays messaging and information appropriate to that view. The example shown here is the GSM Layer 3 Signalling view.
Select one of the display methods to open the appropriate data display window.
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Click and drag the data around the map window. Experiment with the Zoom buttons. In the Workspace Explorer, open up the 'Event Data' set and drag the 'EventCallCompleted' event onto the map, which should look similar to this:
Adding various events to the mapped data can help you see where problems are occurring. 6 Drag another data attribute onto the map. You can also change the size, symbol or color of the data, apply offsets to an attribute or merge attributes for a multidimensional display. See the online help for further details. The map legend defines histogram ranges for charts. 7 To hide a data series, in the legend pane, click in the check box beside the series name.
To find out how to add background geographical and network information to map windows, see the section 'Configure your Solution'.
The Form window now displays a variety of attributes based on the data point you selected, which should look similar to this:
See the online help for details on how to create your own forms.
You can display more than one attribute on the same chart. 2 Select and drag the data attribute 'ServRxQualFull' from the Workspace Explorer window onto the existing chart.
You can also zoom into selected areas of the chart by defining a frame for the zoom.
On the chart, click the upper left corner of the zooming rectangle, and drag down to the lower right extent of the rectangle.
Note that the zoom only operates in the X-axis, not in the Y-axis. 5 6 Now return the chart its original state by dragging a box, but this time up and to the right. Use the right mouse button to scroll and pan around the chart window.
Although you can scroll the X-axis for all attributes on the chart, you can only pan the Y-axis for the last attribute to be displayed on the chart.
Note the other toolbar buttons for selecting data points. 2 Now click on a data point on the map. You should see that the relevant parts of the map and the chart look as shown below, with a line appearing at the equivalent time on the chart:
Making a checkmark in a layer's box controls: if the layer is visible if objects on it can be selected if the layer can be annotated (unchecking this 'locks' the Annotations layer from having any further annotations added)
From the Open Layer dialog, select one or more MapInfo Map (.tab) files. MapInfo layers are named according to the geographic location of the data (for example, the abbreviated US state name and/or county name), and by the type of data contained in the file. Here are some of the common abbreviations used for MapInfo data types: Suffix Layer Type Y1 RtHwy010_Top Y2 RtHwy010_Bot X1 IntShld010 X2 IntShld1040 Pc Cultural Points Pn Natural Points Pm Municipal Points R Railroads H Highways S Streets wr Water (rivers) wb Water (bodies of water) lm Landmarks cb City Boundary mc Minor Civic Division cy County Other MapInfo layers: Voting District, Native American Lands, Sub-MCD, State level tables (school districts and elevation contours). For example, the MapInfo layer named GAFULTS.TAB contains street-level data for Fulton County, Georgia.
Click Open to display the new map layer in the Layer Control dialog.
The top of the layer list represents the uppermost layer in this map window. 6 7 Click Up and Down to move the new 'example' layer to the bottom and 'Annotations' to the top. Click Close to return to the map view. In a new installation, the map location defaults to 0 longitude, 0 latitude, so you will need to arrange the map view to display the new map. 8 Pan the map viewing area by right-clicking in the map area, then choosing Zoom, Go to Layer and selecting the new map layer. Use the Zoom and Pan controls to arrange the map as required. To zoom in to an area, click Zoom In, then click and drag a rectangle around the area of interest. For some detailed layers, you can control at what degree of magnification they become visible. This helps to minimize map clutter. 10 Right-click on the map window and select Map Layers to display the Layer Control dialog. 11 Select a detailed layerfor example, street names. 12 Click Display to open the Display Properties dialog. 13 Check Display within Zoom range and enter '0' for Min Zoom and '10' for Max Zoom.
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As shown above, set the Lines draw mode to 'Selection', Color lines with to 'ServBCCH', check that the Disable box is empty, and click OK, then Yes. Close the Layer Control dialog. Zoom In on data points near a cell site, and use Select to pick a data point. A solid line is drawn to the serving cell site, with dotted lines drawn to neighboring cells.
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If 'All datapoints' was selected in the Line layer properties dialog, you would not need to select a data pointall data points would have a line to their neighbor cells. This can be useful in some situations.
You can also add data to the Network Image later, but for the data stored within the Network Image to be consistent, the same binning method and time-offset settings must be used. In your Actix Solution there are typically several Network Image templates provided for each mobile phone technology, and you can create and maintain as many individual Network Images as you need, for various analysis purposes. For more information on Network Images, including how to create new templates for Network Images, see the online help.
Performance limitations
Binning - When there are a large number of bins, memory usage increases and load speed deteriorates. Use lowresolution location binning where possible. Logfiles - It is better to use a few large files than many small files. If you have problems with many small files you can load a batch in one worksession, restart your Actix Solution and load another batch. Actix A Solutions Getting Started Analyzing GSM data 113
Scanner data - Network Images are not suitable for use with large arrays of data, and some scanner uses are not possible.
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From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on the Network Image and select the appropriate data loading option. Select one or more logfiles from a folder Select a folder and load all logfiles in that folder and all subfolders
Select the required data loading option, and choose which stream, folder or multiple logfiles to load. When the data has been processed, you should see a message window showing the results for each stream or logfile.
You can use Maps, Charts, Tables and Workbooks to display Network Image data attributes. To view data from a Network Image 1 If the required Network Image is not already shown in the Workspace Explorer, from the Network Image menu, select Attach Network Image. Select the appropriate Network Image .dat file and click Open to display the Network Image in the Workspace Explorer. From the Workspace Explorer, open up the structure underneath your attached Network Image. Now view the batched Network Image data attributes in the same way as you would for standard data attributes, using maps, charts and so on, by rightclicking on the attributes and selecting options from the pop-up menu.
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10 From the attribute picker, select 'ServRxLevFull'. 11 Click OK. The superstream is now generated and appears in the Workspace Explorer. You can view data from the superstream in any of the standard data display windows.
Queries
Actix Solutions provide a querying interface that lets you construct simple or complex expressions. These expressions extract meaningful performance data, based on user-defined thresholds or the value of other expressions. As an example, you can create a query that returns statistics for a particular eventsuch as a dropped callfor a given window in time around that event. This is useful when looking for data trends. Queries are created and edited from the Tools menu, Analysis Manager option. You can create these query types: Filter queries Binned queries Histogram queries Statistical queries Crosstab queries Event queries
You can also: Perform logical and arithmetic operators Save queries to a default Workspace Apply filters to queries
Create a filter
This example query is designed to filter poor quality in GSM data. 1 From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on a data stream and select Filter, then Create a New Filter.
The Filter Wizard opens. 2 Enter 'Poor Quality' as the name of the filter.
Click on the right-arrow of the attribute picker and select 'GSM > DownLink Measurements > ServRxQual'. Set the filter operation to 'Greater than or equal to (>=)'. Set the threshold to '4'.
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Several default filters are provided to allow you to select the data that is displayed in the Workspace.
Click OK to process and display the data in the workbook. You can proceed to adapt the workbook, use other Excel tools on the data, and so on.
The first usage model is explained below. For information on developing and using your own analyses for PCM Link data, see the online help. Using Actix Scenarios This is the standard method for PCM Link analysis, and follows this general pattern: 1 2 3 Start your Actix Solution. Do not load a logfile yet. Choose one or more pre-generated Scenarios. For details, see the section 'Choose A or Abis Scenarios'. Load the logfile to be examined. The default Load Mode is 'Minimal Load', which avoids loading unnecessary data from the logfile and reduces the load time. Select an application pack, narrow the data selection and display the results in a report. Use the tools available in your Actix Solution to identify problem areas in the logfile. These tools are described in Analyzing GSM data and the online help.
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The data in this new stream can now be analyzed using maps, charts, tables etc.
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A General Analysis
By default, the General Analysis Application Pack is loaded when you open an A interface logfile. Launched from the Analysis menu, General Analysis contains a variety of statistical reports that evaluate how the network is being used. Each report can be run against the entire file, a single cell or a selection of cells. Location Update Count, percentage and breakdown of Location Update messages, types and reject causes. Clear Cause Cause Code count and percentage for Clear Command messages. Useful when trying to identify the cause of dropped calls. Services Requested Count, percentage and breakdown. Channel Assignment Assignment message count and percentage, Assignment Failure breakdown. Channel Assignment by Cell Assignment message count and percentage for each cell. Connection Analysis Count and percentage of SCCP Connection messages. Breakdowns of SCCP Services Requested and CSSP Connection Refused Causes.
A Subscriber Analysis
Subscriber Analysis takes advantage of useful information encoded in the IMSI and EIMI code. This information is automatically extracted and new attributes are created in the Workspace Explorer tree when the file is opened with Full Load. For example, from the IMEI handset details such as the TAC (Type Approval Code) can be obtained. The IMSI contains the subscribers MCC and NCC (Country and Network codes). For maximum performance, log files can be opened in Minimum Load with specific queries enabled to collect this information. Before loading the log file, select Tools | Choose Scenario and select Subscriber Analysis. This enables queries and reports in the Subscriber Analysis application pack. Handset Types Breakdown of mobile handsets based on Type Approval Code. Channel Type Speech and Data channel type counts and percentages. Classmark Classmark count, phase and graph. Roaming by Country Lists the count and proportion of Roaming Subscribers from each country in a table and graph. Roaming by Network Lists the count and proportion of Roaming Subscribers from each network in a table and graph.
A Handover Analysis
This application pack provides statistical analysis of both Intra and Inter BSC handovers. It is useful for identifying handover problems as well as analysis of LAC boundaries. Handover Cause HO Performed and HO Required-Attempt cause counts, percentages and graph. Handover Reject and Fail Cause Counts, percentages and graph for HO Request Reject and Failure. BSS Handover Cause by Cell Intra-BSC handover statistics for each cell.
SSS Handover Cause by Cell Inter-BSC handover statistics for each cell. Handover Messages by Cell Inter-BSC outgoing and incoming statistics for each cell. Useful for finding cells with a high handover failure rate. BSS Handover Matrix Intra-BSC Handovers by Source and Target. This is useful for LAC boundary analysis. Initially the report shows handovers in tabular view. It is also possible to open the Excel report and examine a subset of source and target cells in pivot table view by clicking Show Excel Report. SSS Handover Matrix Inter-BSC Handovers by Source and Target.
Link Balance Distribution Graph showing corrected downlink level corrected uplink level.
interference definition chart. Interference calculation is based on a combination of level and quality measurements. Timing Advance and Interference Interference vs timing advance followed by interference definition chart. Interference calculation is based on a combination of level and quality measurements.
The first two ways are explained below: Using Actix Scenarios This is the standard method for Gb Link analysis, and follows this general pattern: 1 2 3 Start your Actix Solution. Do not load a logfile yet. Choose one or more pre-generated Scenarios. For details, see the section 'Choose Gb Scenarios'. Load the logfile to be examined. The default Load Mode is 'Minimal Load', which avoids loading unnecessary data from the logfile and reduces the load time. Select an application pack, narrow the data selection and display the results in a report. Use the tools in your Actix Solution to identify problem areas in the logfile. These tools are described in Analyzing GSM data and the online help.
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Using user-defined analyses These are non-standard analysis methods produced by advanced users for co-workers. 1 2 3 Start your Actix Solution. Do not load a logfile yet. Import the appropriate Load Time Queries from the Analysis Manager. Load the logfile to be examined. The default Load Mode is 'Minimal Load', which avoids loading
unnecessary data from the logfile and reduces the load time. 4 Use custom reports to analyze data.
Choose Gb Scenarios
Scenarios are collections of analyses that can be performed on any PCM Link data as it is loaded. You select the Scenarios you need, depending on the tasks you want to perform. However, the more Scenarios that are selected, the longer the data takes to load, so only the basic analysis sets are selected by default. Note that you must have at least one Gb Scenario selected for Gb analysis features to work correctly. For more information on Scenarios, see the online help. To choose a Scenario 1 From the Tools menu, select Choose Scenario to open this dialog:
The upper panel shows a formatted breakdown of every message, while the bottom panel shows the full decode for the currently selected message. 132 Analyzing GPRS data Actix A Solutions Getting Started
You can also use the Sync Msgs button to synchronize the display with chart windows and with the Message Browser window to provide a better understanding of the data. If you do not intend to continue using the Protocol Stack Browser, then from the Tools menu, select Preferences, and ensure that under PCM Link, Load Mode is set to 'Minimal'.
SM PDP Context Deactivation Count, percentage, and cause value breakdowns for MS-initiated and network-initiated deactivations. Flow Control Statistics BVC and MS Flow Control Statistics including bucket size and leak rates. Discarded LLC-PDU Statistics Shows average LLC frames discarded and Octets deleted. Cell Update Table Shows the GPRS cell update occurrences using the Cell Identity in the uplink messages of the BSSGP protocol layer. Flush Statistics Shows Flush Action and average number of Octets affected.
To display a Load Time Query in the Statistics Explorer 1 From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on the appropriate Load Time Query to open the pop-up menu. Select Display the Statistics Explorer.
The Statistics Explorer opens with the Load Time Query selected. All other queries are also displayed in the Queries panel, and may be selected as required.
This generates a new analysis stream for the mobile in question that can be examined in the Protocol Stack Browser (without needing to set the Load Mode to 'Full') and the Message Browser.
The arrangement of loaded help files and data display windows is called the current workspace. You can save and reuse workspaces as necessary. You may find it useful to create one or more workspaces to act as templates for future work sessions. Save these to your desktop, so you can double-click them to start your Actix Solution with your preferred layouts.
If you import the file using the Network Explorer, this line is added automatically. To maximize the benefit for network analysis, the following parameters should be included in the import:
Parameter Site Name Site Number Latitude Longitude Sector Number Actix Workspace Name IS-54/IS-136_Site_SiteName IS-54/IS-136_SiteID IS-54/IS-136_SiteLatitude IS-54/IS-136_SiteLongitude IS-54/IS-136_Cell Sector ID Can 1,2,3, etc, or a combination of site numbers IS-54/IS-136_Cell Azimuth IS-54/IS-136_Cell Beamwith IS-54/IS-136_Cell EIRP IS-54/IS-136_Cell ACCH IS-54/IS-136_Cell Color_Codes Purpose Text description of the Site for display on map. Numeric identifier for the Site. Locates Site icons on map. Locates Site icons on map. Sector-specific information useful for display on maps.
Orients the sector icons on the map. Governs the shape of the sector 'wedge' icon to reflect the beamwidth of antenna deployed at the site. Base station power Analog control channel. A list of color codes (SAT and DVCCs) separated by semicolons. This list is designed to match the entries in the Traffic_Channels field. Used for determining likely serving and neighbor cells. Digital Color Code used to determine lines to serving cells for Analog servers in idle mode. Digital Control Channel Digital Voice Color Code A list of traffic channels separated by semicolons. This list is designed to match the entries in the Color_Codes field. Used for determining likely serving and neighbor cells. Mobile Country Code System Identity Text that specifies which cell layer (for example, by technology, band, purpose or status) that the site belongs to. Used for multiple cell layers.
To import the network information 1 From the Tools menu, select Network Explorer to open the Network Explorer window. For more information on using the Network Explorer, see the online help. 2 3 4 5 6 7 From the toolbar, click Import and select Import From New Template to open the Import dialog. Select the appropriate network data file. Click Open to display the Custom Import Wizard. Give the Template a meaningful Description. Under Delimiters, check Tab. Under General Settings, enter '1' for Ignore header rows and ';' for Array (list) Separator. If your file has more than one header or uses a different array list separator, set these options accordingly. Click on the Column Settings tab. The Column Settings tab allows you to associate a network parameter with a column of data in the text file. Note that each of the field names has an associated icon: Key fields You must select a field type for this field, but you cannot set a default value. These must be either bound to a particular type or have a default value set. Binding particular field types or setting default values is not strictly necessary for this field.
Required fields
Other fields
10 Select a column binding from the drop-down list. The Wizard then displays the selected parameter against the appropriate column. 11 Select the appropriate columns for IS-54/IS-136_Site and SiteName. Repeat this for the SiteID, Latitude, and Longitude.
12 For the remaining columns, look for the attribute headers under IS-54/IS-136 Cell. Use the Cell ID column for the IS-54/IS-136_Cell Sector ID, Azimuth, Beamwidth, EIRP, ACCH, DCC, Color_Codes, Traffic_Channels, DVCC, DCCH. A description of each of these parameters and their use is described in the table at the start of this section. 13 Click Finish when all the columns have been assigned. The new cell information will be added at the bottom of the existing list in the Network Explorer. When the cellrefs file is updated, you should use the template you have created on the new file so that you do not have to repeat work you have already done, including the column-by-column parameter assignment.
Click on File Location to select the text file containing network element data. This file must be in the Actix 'cellrefs' format. The information from this cellrefs file takes effect from the next time a new workspace is created. Note that you can set up an automatic cellrefs import if your network data is liable to change frequently (see the online help for details).
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog. You will now see a message saying that the new file will take effect with the next workspace created or loaded. You may now want to close and restart your Actix Solution for the change to take effect.
Manage data
Load data files
1 From the main toolbar, click the Open Logfile button:
This displays the Open dialog. 2 Select an appropriate file. Files of Type defaults to 'All Formats' but you can select a specific file type to look for. This also illustrates the many file formats available for use with Actix A Solutions. The Network Image feature (see later) is more practical than using Open Logfile if you need to analyse many large logfiles
The exact structures and icons used depend on the data file 1 Click on the symbols to open out and explore the data in your logfile. See how your data relates to the structure shown above.
In the example below, the file '0408_001' contains a data stream called 'Tems IS136 1900 (0)' (the number is the data stream number within the file, starting from zero). The 'IS-136' group contains the 'Dedicated Radio Link' set, which contains the 'FACCH_CurChannel' data attribute. However, the only objects that you actually need to recognize are filenames, data streams and data attributes. The logical tree-view layout of the Workspace Explorer allows you to drill down and identify all logged data. Once you have located the appropriate data attribute, you can open it in a data windowfor example, a map, chart, table or spreadsheetto examine the data in detail. You can examine data streams using the Message Browser tool.
You can also use Find Attribute from the Tools menu to locate a particular attribute. See the online help for more details. You may also want additional information about a particular data attribute. 2 3 Select 'DVCC'. From the Help menu, select Show Context Help.
Click the button to dock the attribute help window and drag it to a useful position, as shown here:
Select a new attribute. Note that the help now provides information on that attribute.
Message Browser
Once you have used the summary data views to identify problem areas, you can use the attribute views to examine the data in detail. For more information, see the section View attribute data.
To use an application pack 1 2 Ensure that you have a data file loaded and a cellrefs file selected. From the Analysis menu, select Summary Reports. Once you select an application pack, the application pack window opens. The top pane shows a tree-view of the network structure against various statistics produced by the application pack.
Use the top pane as necessary to narrow down the data in your selection. All reports appropriate to your selection are displayed under the Suggested tab. If you want to use another report, look under the All tab to view all reports available within the current application pack.
This will report on all data selected in the upper treeview panel. 5 As required, use the buttons at the bottom of the window to Save the report as a web-compatible HTML file set, Print the report to your printer or open the report in Excel using Show Excel Report.
You can now re-run the application pack. Actix A Solutions Getting Started Analyzing IS-136 data 147
The Message Browser combines an event panel (sequentially listing call events) with a panel of Layer 3 messaging, allowing you to pinpoint the root causes of problems.
Now select the required browser view. Each view displays messaging and information appropriate to that view. The example shown here is the UMTS UTRAN Protocol Signaling view.
Select one of the display methods to open the appropriate data display window.
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Click on the Pan button. Click and drag the data around the map window. Experiment with the Zoom buttons.
In the Workspace Explorer, open up the 'Event Data' set and drag the 'Call_Dropped' event onto the map, which should look similar to this:
(Here there is only one dropped call, as the drive-test is completed.) Adding various events to the mapped data can help you see where problems are occurring. 6 Drag another data attribute onto the map. You can also change the size, symbol or color of the data, apply offsets to an attribute or merge attributes for a multidimensional display. See the online help for further details. The map legend defines histogram ranges for charts. 7 Click on one of the check boxes in the Map Legend pane to hide the related attribute data on the map. Click on it again to redisplay the data.
To find out how to add background geographical and network information to map windows, see the section 'Configure your Solution'.
The Forms window now displays a variety of attributes based on the data point you selected:
Note that in this example, an appropriate cellrefs file has not been set, so no Cell or Sector ID information is displayed.
Advanced users can use the Design Mode of this feature to create new forms for IS-136 and other technologies. See the online help for details.
You can display more than one attribute on the same chart. 2 Select and drag the data attribute 'DedicatedCell_BER' from the Workspace Explorer window onto the existing chart.
You can also zoom into selected areas of the chart by defining a frame for the zoom. 3 On the chart, click the upper left corner of the zooming rectangle, and drag down to the lower right extent of the rectangle.
Note that the zoom only operates in the X-axis, not in the Y-axis. 5 6 Now return the chart its original state by dragging a box, but this time up and to the right. Use the right mouse button to scroll and pan around the chart window.
Although you can scroll the X-axis for all attributes on the chart, you can only pan the Y-axis for the last attribute to be displayed on the chart.
Making a checkmark in a layer's box controls: if the layer is visible if objects on it can be selected if the layer can be annotated (unchecking this 'locks' the Annotations layer from having any further annotations added) 3 4 In the Layers box, click Add. From the Open Layer dialog, select one or more MapInfo Map (.tab) files. MapInfo layers are named according to the geographic location of the data (for example, the abbreviated US state name and/or county name), and by the type of
data contained in the file. Here are some of the common abbreviations used for MapInfo data types: Suffix Layer Type Y1 RtHwy010_Top Y2 RtHwy010_Bot X1 IntShld010 X2 IntShld1040 Pc Cultural Points Pn Natural Points Pm Municipal Points R Railroads H Highways S Streets wr Water (rivers) wb Water (bodies of water) lm Landmarks cb City Boundary mc Minor Civic Division cy County Other MapInfo layers: Voting District, Native American Lands, Sub-MCD, State level tables (school districts and elevation contours). For example, the MapInfo layer named GAFULTS.TAB contains street-level data for Fulton County, Georgia. 5 Click Open to display the new map layer(s) in the Layer Control dialog. The top of the layer list represents the uppermost layer in this map window. 6 Click Up and Down to move the new 'examplemap' layer to the bottom and 'Annotations' to the top.
Click Close to return to the map view. In a new installation, the map location defaults to 0 longitude, 0 latitude, so you will need to arrange the map view to display the new map.
Pan the map viewing area by right-clicking in the map area, then choosing Zoom, Go to Layer and selecting the new map layer. Use the Zoom and Pan controls to arrange the map as required. To zoom in to an area, click Zoom In, then click and drag a rectangle around the area of interest. For some detailed layers, you can control at what degree of magnification they become visible. This helps to minimize map clutter.
10 Right-click on the map window and select Map Layers to display the Layer Control dialog. 11 Select a detailed layerfor example, S1 (street names). 12 Click Display to open the Display Properties dialog. 13 Check Display within Zoom range and enter '0' for Min Zoom and '10' for Max Zoom. 14 Now do the same for the street numbers map layer, entering a zoom range of 0-3.
Set the Cell Size to be an attribute shared by all related cell sites, such as Layer_type (recommended if available from your cellrefs file) or MCC, and click OK. This will be displayed as a layer in the Legend panel on the left. Expand the new layer to show one item in the range, called 'Unspecified'. Right-click on this item and choose Selected range's style to open the Style chooser dialog. Set the new font size as required and click OK. The cell site sectors will now change size to reflect your selection.
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Set the Lines draw mode to 'Selection' and Color lines with to 'FACCH_CurChannel', and click OK, then Yes. Close the Layer Control dialog. Zoom In on data points near a cell site, and use Select to pick a data point. A solid line is drawn to the serving cell site, with dotted lines drawn to neighboring cells.
5 6
If 'All datapoints' was selected in the Line layer properties dialog, you would not need to select a data pointall data points would have a line to their neighbor cells. This can be useful in some situations.
You can also add data to the Network Image later, but for the data stored within the Network Image to be consistent, the same binning method and time-offset settings must be used. In your Actix Solution there are typically several Network Image templates provided for each mobile phone technology, and you can create and maintain as many individual Network Images as you need, for various analysis purposes. For more information on Network Images, including how to create new templates for Network Images, see the online help.
Performance limitations
Binning - When there are a large number of bins, memory usage increases and load speed deteriorates. Use lowresolution location binning where possible. Logfiles - It is better to use a few large files than many small files. If you have problems with many small files you can load a batch in one worksession, restart your Actix Solution and load another batch. Scanner data - Network Images are not suitable for use with large arrays of data, and some scanner uses are not possible.
2 3
From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on the Network Image and select the appropriate data loading option. Select one or more logfiles from a folder Select a folder and load all logfiles in that folder and all subfolders
Select the required data loading option, and choose which stream, folder or multiple logfiles to load. When the data has been processed, you should see a message window showing the results for each stream or logfile.
You can use Maps, Charts, Tables and Workbooks to display Network Image data attributes. To view data from a Network Image 1 If the required Network Image is not already shown in the Workspace Explorer, from the Network Image menu, select Attach Network Image. Select the appropriate Network Image .dat file and click Open to display the Network Image in the Workspace Explorer. From the Workspace Explorer, open up the structure underneath your attached Network Image. Now view the batched Network Image data attributes in the same way as you would for standard data attributes, using maps, charts and so on, by rightclicking on the attributes and selecting options from the pop-up menu.
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3 4
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7 8 9
10 From the attribute picker, select 'DedicatedCell_SignalStrength'. 11 Click OK. The superstream is now generated and appears in the Workspace Explorer. You can view data from the superstream in any of the standard data display windows.
Queries
Your Actix Solution provides a querying interface that lets you construct simple or complex expressions. These expressions extract meaningful performance data, based on user-defined thresholds or the value of other expressions. As an example, you can create a query that returns statistics for a particular eventsuch as a dropped callfor a given window in time around that event. This is useful when looking for data trends. Queries are created and edited from the Tools menu, Analysis Manager option. You can create these query types: Filter queries Binned queries Histogram queries Statistical queries Crosstab queries Event queries
You can also: Perform logical and arithmetic operators Save queries to a default Workspace Apply filters to queries
Create a filter
This example query is designed to filter poor quality in IS-136 data. 1 From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on a data stream and select Filter, then Create a New Filter.
2 3 4 5
Enter 'Poor Quality' as the name of the filter. Click on the right-arrow of the attribute picker and select 'IS-136 > DownLink Measurements > ForBER'. Set the filter operation to 'Greater than (>)'. Set the threshold to '5'.
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Several default filters are provided to allow you to select the data that is displayed in the Workspace.
Click OK to process and display the data in the workbook. You can proceed to adapt the workbook, use other Excel tools on the data, and so on.
The arrangement of loaded help files and data display windows is called the current workspace. You can save and reuse workspaces as necessary. You may find it useful to create one or more workspaces to act as templates for future work sessions. Save these to your desktop, so you can double-click them to start your Actix Solution with your preferred layouts.
If you import the file using the Network Explorer, this line is added automatically. To maximize the benefit for iDEN network analysis, the following parameters should be included in the import:
Parameter Site Name Site Number Latitude Longitude Sector Number Actix Workspace Name IDEN_Site_SiteName IDEN_SiteID IDEN_SiteLatitude IDEN_SiteLongitude IDEN_Cell Sector ID Can use 1,2,3, etc, or a combination of site numbers IDEN_Cell Azimuth IDEN_Cell Beamwidth Purpose Text description of the Site for display on map. Numeric identifier for the Site. Locates Site icons on map. Locates Site icons on map. Sector-specific information useful for display on maps. Orients the sector icons on the map. Governs the shape of the sector 'wedge' icon to reflect the beamwidth of antenna deployed at the site. Base station power Common control channel. Can be used to color the sector wedges. A list of color codes separated by semicolons. This list is designed to match the entries in the TCH_List field. Used for determining likely serving and neighbor cells. Digital Control Channel Digital Voice Color Code A list of traffic channels separated by semicolons. This list is designed to match the entries in the Color_Codes field. Used for determining likely serving and neighbor cells. Mobile Country Code Cell Identity Text that specifies which cell layer (for example, by technology, band, purpose or status) that the site belongs to. Used for multiple cell layers.
Azimuth Beamwidth
To import the network information 1 From the Tools menu, select Network Explorer to open the Network Explorer window. For more information on using the Network Explorer, see the online help. 2 3 4 5 6 7 From the toolbar, click Import and select Import From New Template to open the Import dialog. Select the appropriate network data file. Click Open to display the Custom Import Wizard. Give the Template a meaningful Description. Under Delimiters, check Tab. Under General Settings, enter '1' for Ignore header rows and ';' for Array (list) Separator. If your file has more than one header or uses a different array list separator, set these options accordingly. Click on the Column Settings tab. The Column Settings tab allows you to associate a network parameter with a column of data in the text file. Note that each of the field names has an associated icon: Key fields You must select a field type for this field, but you cannot set a default value. These must be either bound to a particular type or have a default value set. Binding particular field types or setting default values is not strictly necessary for this field.
Required fields
Other fields
10 Select a column binding from the drop-down list. The Wizard then displays the selected parameter against the appropriate column. 11 Select the appropriate columns for IDEN Site and Site Name. Repeat this for the SiteID, Latitude, and Longitude.
12 For the remaining columns, look for the attribute headers under IDEN Cell. Use the Cell ID column for the IDEN Cell Sector ID, Azimuth, Beamwidth, EIRP, CCCH, Color_Codes, TCH_List. A description of each of these parameters and their use is described in the table at the start of this section. 13 Click Finish when all the columns have been assigned. The new cell information will be added at the bottom of the existing list in the Network Explorer. When the cellrefs file is updated, you should use the template you have created on the new file so that you do not have to repeat work you have already done, including the column-by-column parameter assignment.
Click on File Location to select the text file containing network element data. This file must be in the Actix 'cellrefs' format. The information from this cellrefs file takes effect from the next time a new workspace is created. Note that you can set up an automatic cellrefs import if your network data is liable to change frequently (see the online help for details).
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog. You will now see a message saying that the new file will take effect with the next workspace created or loaded. You may now want to close and restart your Actix Solution for the change to take effect.
Manage data
Load data files
1 From the main toolbar, click the Open Logfile button:
This displays the Open dialog. 2 Select an appropriate file. Files of Type defaults to 'All Formats' but you can select a specific file type to look for. This also illustrates the many file formats available for use. The Network Image feature (see later) is more practical than using Open Logfile if you need to analyse many large logfiles
The exact structures and icons used depend on the data file 1 Click on the symbols to open out and explore the data in your logfile. See how your data relates to the structure shown above. In the example below, the file 'atlantW' contains a data stream called 'Nextel iDEN Handset (0)' (the number is the data stream number within the file, starting from zero). The 'iDEN' group contains the 'DownLink Measurements' set, which contains the 'ServRSSI' data
attribute. However, the only objects that you actually need to recognize are filenames, data streams and data attributes. The logical tree-view layout of the Workspace Explorer allows you to drill down and identify all logged data. Once you have located the appropriate data attribute, you can open it in a data windowfor example, a map, chart, table or spreadsheetto examine the data in detail. You can examine data streams using the Message Browser tool.
You can also use Find Attribute from the Tools menu to locate a particular attribute. See the online help for more details. You may also want additional information about a particular data attribute. 2 3 Select 'ServRSSI'. From the Help menu, select Show Context Help.
button to dock the attribute help window Click the and drag it to a useful position, as shown here:
Select a new attribute. Note that the help now provides information on that attribute.
Message Browser
Once you have used the summary data views to identify problem areas, you can use the attribute views to examine the data in detail. For more information, see the section View attribute data.
From the Analysis menu, select an application pack. Once you select an application pack, the application pack window opens.
The top pane shows a tree-view of the network structure against various statistics produced by the application pack. 3 Use the top pane as necessary to narrow down the data in your selection. All reports appropriate to your selection are displayed under the Suggested tab. If you want to use another report, look under the All tab to view all reports available within the current application pack.
This will report on all data selected in the upper treeview panel. 5 As required, use the buttons at the bottom of the window to Save the report as a web-compatible HTML file set, Print the report to your printer or open the report in Excel using Show Excel Report.
The Message Browser combines an event panel (sequentially listing call events) with a panel of Layer 3 messaging, allowing you to pinpoint the root causes of problems.
Now select the required browser view. Each view displays messaging and information appropriate to that view. The example shown here is the UMTS UTRAN Protocol Signaling view.
Select one of the display methods to open the appropriate data display window.
2 3 4
Click on the Pan button. Click and drag the data around the map window. Experiment with the Zoom buttons.
In the Workspace Explorer, open up the 'Event Data' set and drag the 'HandOver_Complete' event onto the map, which should look similar to this:
Adding various events to the mapped data can help you see where problems are occurring. 6 Drag another data attribute onto the map. You can also change the size, symbol or color of the data, apply offsets to an attribute or merge attributes for a multidimensional display. See the online help for further details. The map legend defines histogram ranges for charts. 7 Click on one of the check boxes in the Map Legend pane to hide the related attribute data on the map. Click on it again to redisplay the data.
To find out how to add background geographical and network information to map windows, see the section 'Configure your Solution'.
The Forms window now displays a variety of attributes based on the data point you selected:
Note that in this example, an appropriate cellrefs file has not been set, so no Cell or Sector ID information is displayed.
Advanced users can use the Design Mode of this feature to create new forms for iDEN and other technologies. See the online help for details.
You can display more than one attribute on the same chart. 2 Select and drag the data attribute 'ServSQE' from the Workspace Explorer window onto the existing chart.
You can also zoom into selected areas of the chart by defining a frame for the zoom. 3 On the chart, click the upper left corner of the zooming rectangle, and drag down to the lower right extent of the rectangle.
Note that the zoom only operates in the X-axis, not in the Y-axis. 5 6 Now return the chart its original state by dragging a box, but this time up and to the right. Use the right mouse button to scroll and pan around the chart window.
Although you can scroll the X-axis for all attributes on the chart, you can only pan the Y-axis for the last attribute to be displayed on the chart.
Making a checkmark in a layer's box controls: if the layer is visible if objects on it can be selected if the layer can be annotated (unchecking this 'locks' the Annotations layer from having any further annotations added) 3 4 In the Layers box, click Add. From the Open Layer dialog, select one or more MapInfo Map (.tab) files. MapInfo layers are named according to the geographic location of the data (for example, the abbreviated US state name and/or county name), and by the type of
data contained in the file. Here are some of the common abbreviations used for MapInfo data types: Suffix Layer Type Y1 RtHwy010_Top Y2 RtHwy010_Bot X1 IntShld010 X2 IntShld1040 Pc Cultural Points Pn Natural Points Pm Municipal Points R Railroads H Highways S Streets wr Water (rivers) wb Water (bodies of water) lm Landmarks cb City Boundary mc Minor Civic Division cy County Other MapInfo layers: Voting District, Native American Lands, Sub-MCD, State level tables (school districts and elevation contours). For example, the MapInfo layer named GAFULTS.TAB contains street-level data for Fulton County, Georgia. 5 Click Open to display the new map layer in the Layer Control dialog.
The top of the layer list represents the uppermost layer in this map window. 6 Click Up and Down to move the new 'examplemap' layer to the bottom and 'Annotations' to the top. Analyzing iDEN data 189
Click Close to return to the map view. In a new Actix installation, the map location defaults to 0 longitude, 0 latitude, so you will need to arrange the map view to display the new map.
Pan the map viewing area by right-clicking in the map area, then choosing Zoom, Go to Layer and selecting the new map layer. Use the Zoom and Pan controls to arrange the map as required. To zoom in to an area, click Zoom In, then click and drag a rectangle around the area of interest. For some detailed layers, you can control at what degree of magnification they become visible. This helps to minimize map clutter.
10 Right-click on the map window and select Map Layers to display the Layer Control dialog. 11 Select a detailed layerfor example, S1 (street names). 12 Click Display to open the Display Properties dialog. 13 Check Display within Zoom range and enter '0' for Min Zoom and '10' for Max Zoom. 14 Now do the same for street numbers, entering a zoom range of 0-3.
Set the Cell Size to be an attribute shared by all related cell sites, such as Layer_type (recommended if available from your cellrefs file) or MCC, and click OK. This will be displayed as a layer in the Legend panel on the left. Expand the new layer to show one item in the range, called 'Unspecified'. Right-click on this item and choose Selected range's style to open the Style chooser dialog. Set the new font size as required and click OK. The cell site sectors will now change size to reflect your selection.
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Set the Lines draw mode to 'Selection' and Color lines with to the channel, and click OK, then Yes. Close the Layer Control dialog.
Zoom In on data points near a cell site, and use Select to pick a data point. A solid line is drawn to the serving cell site, with dotted lines drawn to neighboring cells.
If 'All datapoints' was selected in the Line layer properties dialog, you would not need to select a data pointall data points would have a line to their neighbor cells. This can be useful in some situations.
You can also add data to the Network Image later, but for the data stored within the Network Image to be consistent, the same binning method and time-offset settings must be used. In your Actix Solution there are typically several Network Image templates provided for each mobile phone technology, and you can create and maintain as many individual Network Images as you need, for various analysis purposes. For more information on Network Images, including how to create new templates for Network Images, see the online help.
Performance limitations
Binning - When there are a large number of bins, memory usage increases and load speed deteriorates. Use lowresolution location binning where possible. Logfiles - It is better to use a few large files than many small files. If you have problems with many small files you can load a batch in one worksession, restart your Actix Solution and load another batch. Scanner data - Network Images are not suitable for use with large arrays of data, and some scanner uses are not possible.
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At this stage, the Network Image does not contain any data, so the next step is to load it up with data from existing streams or logfiles.
From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on the Network Image and select the appropriate data loading option. Select one or more logfiles from a folder Select a folder and load all logfiles in that folder and all subfolders
Select the required data loading option, and choose which stream, folder or multiple logfiles to load. When the data has been processed, you should see a message window showing the results for each stream or logfile.
You can use Maps, Charts, Tables and Workbooks to display Network Image data attributes. To view data from a Network Image 1 If the required Network Image is not already shown in the Workspace Explorer, from the Network Image menu, select Attach Network Image. Select the appropriate Network Image .dat file and click Open to display the Network Image in the Workspace Explorer. From the Workspace Explorer, open up the structure underneath your attached Network Image. Now view the batched Network Image data attributes in the same way as you would for standard data attributes, using maps, charts and so on, by rightclicking on the attributes and selecting options from the pop-up menu.
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Queries
Your Actix Solution provides a querying interface that lets you construct simple or complex expressions. These expressions extract meaningful performance data, based on user-defined thresholds or the value of other expressions. As an example, you can create a query that returns statistics for a particular eventsuch as a dropped callfor a given window in time around that event. This is useful when looking for data trends. Queries are created and edited from the Tools menu, Analysis Manager option. You can create these query types: Filter queries Binned queries Histogram queries Statistical queries Crosstab queries Event queries
You can also: Perform logical and arithmetic operators Save queries to a default Workspace Apply filters to queries
Create a filter
This example query is designed to filter poor quality in iDEN data. 1 From the Workspace Explorer, right-click on a data stream and select Filter, then Create a New Filter.
The Filter Wizard opens. 2 3 4 5 Enter 'Poor Quality' as the name of the filter. Click on the right-arrow of the attribute picker and select 'iDEN > DownLink Measurements > ServSQE'. Set the filter operation to 'Less than ( < )'. Set the threshold to '-20'.
Several default filters are provided to allow you to select the data that is displayed in the Workspace.
Click OK to process and display the data in the workbook. You can proceed to adapt the workbook, use other Excel tools on the data, and so on.
9
A
Index
Display Message Browser, 29, 64, 99, 148, 179 Display on Table, 37, 72, 106, 155, 186 Display on Workbook, 37, 73, 107, 156, 187
A and Abis Scenarios, 121 Abis Call Analysis, 123 About Actix, 10 Analysis Manager, 51, 85, 117, 166, 196 Annotations, 76, 110, 158, 189 applications, 11 Attach Network Image, 48, 49, 80, 81, 114, 115, 163, 164, 194, 195 attribute help, 9, 94, 143, 174 attributes, 60, 94, 143, 174 attributes, right-clicking on, 66 attributes, searching for, 24
E
Error Indication Cause report, 129 Excel templates, 54, 87, 119, 168, 198
F
Favorites tab, online help, 9 Favorites tab, Workspace Explorer, 15, 55, 89, 138, 169 filenames, 60, 94, 143, 174 Filter queries, 51, 85, 117, 166, 196 filter the Workspace Explorer, 123 Find Attribute, 24 Flow Control Statistics report, 134 Flush Statistics report, 134 Forms feature, 34, 68, 103, 152, 183
B
Batch Load Files, 48, 81, 115, 164, 195 Binned queries, 51, 85, 117, 166, 196 binning, 14 BSS Handover Cause by Cell report, 126 BSS Handover Matrix report, 127
C
Call Analysis, 123 CDMA StateTip, 82 CDMA Toolkit, 83 Cell Update Table report, 134 cellrefs, 56, 90, 139, 170, 190 Channel Assignment by Cell report, 125 Channel Assignment report, 125 Channel Configuration report, 129 Channel Type report, 126 Classmark report, 126 Clear Cause report, 125 Connection Analysis by Cell report, 126 Connection Analysis report, 125 Connection Failure report, 127, 129 Contents tab, online help, 8 context help, 9 coverage analysis, 83 Create a New Filter, 51, 85, 117, 166, 196 Create Network Image, 47, 80, 114, 163, 194 Crosstab queries, 51, 85, 117, 166, 196
G
Gb Load Time Queries, 134 Gb Scenarios, 131, 135 generating reports, 54, 87, 119, 168, 198 geographical data, 74, 108, 157, 188 GSM A Application Packs, 125 GSM Abis Application Packs, 125
H
Handover Cause report, 126 Handover Fail Cause report, 129 Handover Messages by Cell report, 127 Handover Reject and Fail Cause report, 126 Handover Statistics report, 127, 129 Handovers by Target report, 129 Handset Performance report, 129 Handset Types report, 126 help, context, 9 Histogram queries, 51, 85, 117, 166, 196
I
Index tab, online help, 8 integrating data files, 84
D
data attributes, 60, 94, 143, 174 data streams, 60, 94, 143, 174 Discarded LLC-PDU Statistics report, 134
L
Layer 3 messaging, 29, 64, 99, 148, 179 Layer Control dialog, 74, 108, 157, 188 Level and Interference report, 129
Index 199
lines to cells, 43, 77, 111, 160, 191 Link Balance by DL Level report, 128 Link Balance by Timeslot report, 128 Link Balance Distribution report, 128 Link Balance UL vs DL report, 128 Load Time Queries, 134 Location Update report, 125
S
Scenarios, 121, 131 Search tab, online help, 9 Search Window analysis, 83 Services Requested report, 125 Show Context Help, 94, 143, 174 SM Error Conditions report, 133 SM PDP Context Deactivation report, 134 SM PDP Context report, 133 SSS Handover Cause by Cell report, 127 SSS Handover Matrix report, 127 StateTip, 82 Statistical queries, 51, 85, 117, 166, 196 Statistics Explorer, 122 viewing Gb Load Time Queries, 135 streams, 60, 94, 143, 174 superstreaming, 50, 84, 116, 165 synchronized data, 38, 73, 107, 156, 187 System Sensitivity report, 128
M
MapInfo data types, 75, 109, 158, 189 Message Browser, 60, 64, 94, 143, 148, 174, 179 Microsoft Excel reports, 54, 87, 119, 168, 198 MM Attach report, 133 MM Detach report, 133 MM Error Conditions report, 133 MM RA Update report, 133 Msg Breakdown report, 133 multi-carrier statistical analysis, 83 multidimensional display, 32, 67, 102, 151, 182
T
tables, using, 37, 72, 106, 155, 186 TCP Traffic Type Analysis report, 134 Technical Support telephone contact details, 10 Timing Advance and Interference report, 127, 129 Toolkit, 83 Traffic Statistics report, 127, 129
N
Neighbor List analysis, 83 Network Explorer, 56, 91, 140, 159, 171, 190 network information displaying, 159, 190 importing, 90, 139, 170
O
online help, using the, 8 Open Logfile, 24, 59, 93, 142, 173 Open Workbook, 54, 87, 119, 168, 198
U
UDP Traffic Type Analysis report, 134 UMTS filters, 53, 86, 118, 167, 197 UMTS pre-configured reports, 27 uplink and downlink data integration, 50, 116, 165
P
panning chart windows, 37, 71, 105, 154, 185 panning map windows, 31, 66, 101, 150, 181 Poor Quality Contributors report, 128 Preferences dialog, 14, 23, 58, 92, 141, 172 Protocol Stack Browser, 30, 65, 100, 149, 180
V
viewing data in charts, 35, 70, 104, 153, 184 viewing data in maps, 66, 101, 150, 181
Q
Quality Distribution report, 127, 128
W
WCDMA cell site parameters, 16 workbook reports, 54, 87, 119, 168, 198 workbooks, using, 37, 73, 107, 156, 187 workspace, 15, 55, 89, 138, 169 Workspace Explorer, 24, 93, 142, 173
R
Replay feature, 33, 68, 103, 152, 183 reports, 54, 87, 119, 168, 198 CDMA Toolkit, 83 reverse and forward link data integration, 84 Roaming by Country report, 126 Roaming by Network report, 126
Z
zooming chart windows, 36, 71, 105, 154, 185 zooming map windows, 32, 66, 102, 150, 181
200 Index