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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
I. Combiner Configuration
For some areas or bands whose uplink signal quality needs to be strengthened,
consider designing tower amplification.
III. Antenna
Using high gain antenna can improve the base station’s coverage capacity to a
certain extent.
When doing network planning, first consider the network quality from the perspective
of network coverage and select appropriate antenna. Under normal circumstances
the 900M directional antenna gain shall be in the range of 15-17dBi; the 1800M
directional antenna gain shall be in the range of 15-18dBi. For city areas the
directional antenna with horizontal half power angle of 65 degrees is preferable.
When high gain antenna is used, the problem of “Shadow right under the tower”
should be taken into account. Preferably zero-point filling antenna should be used. If
the omni-antenna is built over high mountains, the problem of “Shadow right under
the tower” should be taken into account too. Preferably omni-antenna with built-in low
incidence should be used.
I. Bad base station location and antenna installation will lead to the problem
of coverage.
When there is a possibility that bad station location and antenna installation may lead
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
to the problem of coverage, the on-site surveying personnel shall insist their
viewpoints from the perspective of network coverage. The issue shall be explained
thoroughly if it cannot be solved ultimately. What shall be explained is also the base
station’s coverage areas and objectives (in particular government offices, hotels,
airports, residential areas, main roads, shopping centers and former cell’s coverage
margins), as well as the cell’s carrier frequency configurations. Usually for intensively
populated urban areas the height of the base station’s antenna is 25-30 meters; the
height of the base station’s antenna in the suburbs (or the ones that point to the
suburbs) is 40-50 meters. The planning personnel shall assist the network carriers to
decide the coverage areas and objectives after a thorough study of the geographical
features, the buildings’ absorption and loss features, and multipath effect to ensure
that the base station will be constructed as expected. Furthermore, the base station,
in particular the omni antenna base station shall not be too high. This is because the
omni antenna’s vertical beamwidth is narrow. If the base station is too high, it will
have bad coverage on the nearby area and good coverage on the faraway area
where there aren’t many subscribers. Usually the height of the omni antenna base
station shall not be 50-60 meters more than the covered area. For base stations that
are too high, the built-in down-tilt omni antennas or antennas with broad vertical beam
are desirable.
II. The antenna direction difference between the old and newly built network
For directional cells, if the antenna direction of the newly built network is different from
that of the old network, such as: the old antenna’s direction was 0/120/240, while the
newly built antenna’s direction is 60/180/300. For omni cells, if the antenna direction
of the newly built network is different from that of the old network, such as: the old
antenna’s direction (transmit and diversity antenna) is 0/180, while the newly built
antenna’s direction is 90/270. This will cause the change of the diversity surface and
transmit antenna position. This may make the previous good coverage a bad one,
and previous bad coverage a good one. But the mobile phone subscribers are only
concerned with the change from good to bad, which will give rise to complaints.
Solution recommendations: During the engineering design, the antenna shall be so
designed as to make the direction of it as identical as that of the old one. In cases
where the direction change is desired, the main beam of the directional antenna or
the direction of the omni antenna shall point to the places where heavy coverage is
emphasized. Due explanations are also desirable.
III. The difference of the antenna height between the old and newly built
network
The engineering design shall be so made as to ensure that the height of the new
antenna is not lower than that of the old antenna. If the tower platform has not enough
space to install the antenna, the explanations shall be given for decreasing the
antenna height.
IV. Concerning the directional antenna’s down-tilt of the newly built network
Preferably the down-tilt shall not change. In cases where such change is desired due
to the increase of the base station in the urban area for purpose of controlling the
coverage area, such change shall be duly recorded.
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
of the directional antenna points to the area where emphatic coverage is desired and
describe the coverage differences between the omni-antenna and directional
antenna.
Generally, the base station’s uplink and downlink signals are balanced. Bad antenna
installation may leave the mobile phone subscribers such impression that the base
station’s uplink coverage capacity is weak.
(1) The transmitting antenna is installed inverse.
Transmitting feeder and the cell’s antenna were mistakenly connected or BTS set top
jumper was mistakenly connected.
Possible phenomenon clue for fault discovery:
The mobile phone is somewhere in the cell but cannot call out (the
receiving antenna is in the other direction, the uplink is bad);
The field intensity distribution of the BCCH frequency band between the
adjacent sectors were found to be displaced during the drive test;
II. The problem of shadow adjacent to the coverage area in the directional cell
During the installation of the directional antenna, caution must be taken to avoid the
creation of large area of shadow in its coverage area. Shadow usually comes into
being as a result of huge hindrance near the base station, such as skyscrapers, or
mountains. Caution must be taken to circumvent such hindrance during the
installation. When the directional antenna is installed at the surface of the top of the
building, caution must be taken so that the wave beam is not hindered by the edge of
the building, and that the antenna is not installed near the edge, thus reducing or
extirpating the shadow. Due to the complexity of the antenna surface, when the
antenna must be installed away from the edge of the building, it must be installed high
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
above the antenna surface. For this reason, the bearing capacity of the building
surface and the antenna’s against-wind force must be taken into account during the
engineering.
The effective horizontal interval of the 900M directional antenna space diversity
should be more than 4m (at least greater than 3m); The effective horizontal interval of
the 1800M directional antenna space diversity should be more than 2m.
Omni base stations are mostly located along the roads from villages to counties, or
from counties to other cities. These base stations are mainly to serve the mobile
subscribers along the road or subscribers in the villages. The common mistake that is
made during the installation of the antenna feeder is that the distribution of the above
subscribers are not fully taken into account, leading to the incomplete utilization of the
performance of the base station, leaving the subscribers such impression that the
coverage is bad. There are mainly 3 points concerning the design and installation of
the omni antenna:
(1) The interval between the omni antennas and the interval between the antenna and
the tower
(2) Diversity direction: the diversity surface should be directed to the area where
subscribers are heavily populated
(3) The position of the host transmitting antenna (TX) (the host transmitting antenna
refers to that of the BCCH transmitting channel). The main transmitting antenna
should be directed to the area where the subscribers are heavily populated. The
following figure is on the direction of the base station omni antenna that covers the
roads:
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
M S _ T X P W R _ M A X (n )
R X L E V _ N C E L L (n )
M S _ T X P W R (n )
M s O p tL e v e l( n )
B T S 1H O B T S 2
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
To reduce the interference with the adjacent frequencies, lower the height of the
antenna, increase the down-tilt, or decreasing the base station’s transmitting power.
Usually, decreasing the transmitting power can also worsen the indoor coverage. So
what are commonly adopted arefalling down the height of the antenna and increasing
the down-tilt.
To control the uplink access (call, paging response), and to balance between the
coverage and call drop ratio, Huawei adds the parameter “RACH access threshold” in
the BTS3.X base station. The parameter can go upward from –110dBm, and
effectively controls the mobile phone’s uplink access.
The setting of the random access error threshold can also restrict the mobile phone’s
access. Its value, which is usually greater than 180, is set subject to the radio
environment’s bottom noise and statistical result. The other parameters settings that
have effect on the mobile phone attached, access, handover, and connection are:
BSIC, NCC_PERMITTED, CELL_BAR_ACCESS, CELL_BAR_QUALIFY, radio link
failure timer, the number of mobile phone’s maximum retransfer, the number of send
distribution time slots (the number of extended distribution time slots), the number of
SACCH multi-frames, the number of maximum physical retransfer, radio link
connection timer, location update and paging-related parameters (including LAC
distribution), handover-related parameters, power control-related parameters, flow
control-related parameters, roaming permit-related parameters, TRX power settings
of different CDU channels, etc.
When the base station’s upper clock is bad, MCK (TMU) is failure, propagation is
unstable, or the carrier frequency board is failure (no warning, sometimes stable
interferences), the mobile phone’s accessing, call and handover (usually
asynchronous handover) will be affected.
When the system information is wrong or is not delivered correctly, the mobile
phone’s accessing, call or handover will be affected.
When the frequency interference is severe, the mobile phone’s accessing, call and
handover will be affected.
When the channel is congested the mobile phone’s handover and call access will be
affected.
Multipath effect can lead to signal fluctuation
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
During the cell reselection and frequent location border update, the signal of the
mobile phone will fluctuate.
During the connection, direct re-try and load handover caused by congestion can lead
to strong fluctuation of the signal; Priority handover (for layered network) and edge
handover (the edge handover threshold is set too low and there is no PBGT
handover) can also lead to strong fluctuation of the signal. If the power control and
handover parameters are not set properly during the signal fluctuation, the fluctuation
will be strengthened until call drop happens.
The cross-area coverage or coverage in the border areas for different services can all
cause problems, leading to the subscriber’s huge increase of roaming bill. To solve
the problem, the coverage area should be controlled or enlarged during the planning
and optimization phase to avoid mutual cell reselection or only single-direction cell
reselection. Solve the problem by adjusting the height, down-tilt, and direction of the
antenna, CRH and MS minimum access threshold, and BAI table.
The mobile phone subscriber having not sufficient understanding on the terrain,
construction material’s absorption loss, or multipath effect will tend to rise questions
on coverage.
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
The causes for high TCH congestion ratio are many, among others, data configuration
problems, hardware problems and external interference. But in light of solution steps
and sequence, it is desirable to first check the software and hardware problems of the
equipment per se, and then check other equipment-unrelated factors such as external
interference and constraints due to complex terrain
(1) Interface A trunk circuit data configuration errors.
(2) Carrier frequency board faults or unstable performance, leading to high
congestion ratio.
(3) Bad base station hardware installation causes unbalanced uplink and downlink
level, leading to TCH congestion.
The transmit branch has antenna feeder – standing wave ratio warning;
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
If the congestion is not related to the carrier board, then the whole cell
may be interfered or affected by the terrain.
(4) Use the Signaling Analyzer to diagnose the ABIS interface message.
According to the call flow and TCH assignment failure statistics, use the Signaling
Analyzer to trace the ABIS interface message at every high-congestion-ratio cell. The
figure shown here uses MA10 Signaling Analyzer, the detailed analysis of which is as
follows:
Analyze the assignment command Assignment CMD delivered in SDCCH, as the TEI
value in figure 10-2, to determine the carrier board that SDCCH is in. The carrier
board that TCH is in can be determined by referring to the ARFCN radio frequency
band. Determine if the assignment failures are all in a TRX. Also analyze the causes
of the assignment failures by focusing on the mobile phone’s TA value,
uplink/downlink level value, and uplink/downlink signal quality in the measurement
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
If the assignment failures are randomly distributed over the carrier boards of the
whole cell, the analysis on the measurement report may point to the following causes:
(1) Complex terrain within the coverage area of the base station;
(2)Interference of the frequency band within the whole the cell, such as the one from
the repeater station
(1) Local maintenance: See if there are any abnormal warnings and solve them
timely.
(2) Check if there are any such hardware problems in the uplink and downlink
antenna feeder branch as loose connector, inverse antenna, half-rigid cable
connection error, and backplane loose wiring, etc.
(3) Use mobile phones for calling in the same place;
Calling by every carrier or by every channel to see if there are any time
slots or boards that cannot be assigned.
Check weather all the carrier’s downlink levels are approached. For
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
The primary causes for the problem of “subscriber out of the service area” are
twofold: one is paging response time over; the other is no paging response. First let’s
look at how the paging is done. The paging strategy can be divided into the following
three parts as per MSC, BSC, and BTS.
MSC can page the same message for a maximum of four times. If the latest paging is
not responded, it will retransfer the paging message. The resend time interval is 3
seconds, 3 seconds, 2 seconds, and 2 seconds respectively. Two seconds after the
last resend, i.e., twelve seconds after the first retransfer, if the paging is not
responded, MSC will regard it as time-over and deliver prompt tone of “Subscriber out
of the service area” to the subscriber. The paging methods MSC can choose are
TMSI and IMSI.
II. BSC Paging Group Calculation and Paging Message Transfer between the
Modules
After BSC receives the Paging Request delivered by MSC, it will calculate the paging
group that the paging belongs to by the last three digits of IMSI, the cell’s CCCH
channel configuration, and the paging block configuration, and then deliver Paging
Command to that cell. Under multiple modules conditions, the Paging Command
needs to be transferred between the modules.
After BTS receives the Paging Command from BSC, it will put the paging in the
Paging Group Queue that the Paging Command designates, and send the paging
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
content of the paging group at intervals of the same paging frame period. At present,
every queue length of the paging group in BTS is 9.In one paging reserve block, 2
IMSI paging or 4 TMSI paging can be delivered. So every time the paging is
delivered, BTS must combine the paging according to the paging message type in the
queue.
When in idle state the mobile phone can not only receive the system information from
the broadcast channel, but also detect paging in its Paging Sub-channel. Therefore
when the mobile phone receives the paging that is directed to it, it will send Channel
Request to the Network Side and finish an immidiate assignment process. If the
assignment is successful, it will report the Paging Response in the assigned SDCCH
channel and complete a call connection process.
Faults in any one of the above-mentioned four steps will lead to the problem of
“subscriber out of the service area”.
When in idle state, the mobile phone will stay in a cell that belongs to a location area.
The mobile phone’s location area information is stored in VLR. When a mobile phone
is being called, MSC will read the mobile phone’s location area and status information
from VLR. If the mobile phone is in “Attached, Idle” state, it will send Paging Request
to the BSC to which the location area belongs. The BSC will calculate the mobile
phone’s paging subgroup, create Paging Command, and deliver the Paging
Command to all the cells in the location area. When in idle state the mobile phone
can not only receive the system information from the broadcast channel, but also
detect any paging in the Paging Subchannel to which it belongs. Therefore after the
mobile phone receives the paging that is directed to it, it will send Channel Request to
the Network Side and finish an immidiate assignment process. If this immidiate
assignment is successful, it will report Paging Response to the assigned SDCCH
channel and complete a call connection process.
Note: The Paging Response is reported in Establishment Indication.
For example: all the cells in a region belong to one location area, the common control
channel parameter configuration for the cells is as follows:
One non-combined CCCH
The number of frames between the same paging: 6
The number of access reserve block:1
Thus, there are 6x(9-1)=48 paging groups in every cell. The mobile phone will decide
the paging group it belongs to according to the last three digits of its IMSI and the
number of the paging groups, then detect in the relevant sub-channel. For a mobile
phone whose number is 13013362000, and the IMSI is 460013361000037, the last
three digits of its IMSI is 037, its paging sub group is 37.When in idle state, the mobile
phone will always listen to the paging sub channel related to the No. 37 paging group.
If someone calls 13013362000, the paging will be sent to that subscriber from the
cells in that area. After the mobile phone receives the paging directed at
460013361000037, it will send a channel request, and finish an instant assignment
according to the instant assignment from the network side. If there is idle SDCCH
channel in the cell, a SDCCH channel will be assigned to that mobile phone, the
mobile phone establishes the connection in the channel, and reports the paging
response.
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The reasons that cause “Subscriber out of the service area” are the time-out of the
mobile phone’s response to the paging or no response. From the flow of the paging
response report and analysis on the real cases, there are the following reasons that
cause this problem:
If MSC subscriber status management is down and the request cannot be delivered
to BSC, then MS will fail to receive the paging and to respond, leading to time-out. In
real situations, there are cases when MSC didn’t deliver the paging. There were also
such abnormalities as faulted called being regarded as caller and 3Tick release
abnormalities. Such abnormalities are non-recurrent. And can be identified by being
traced by the GSM subscriber interface of MSC Maintenance Station.
If the receiver of the base station, including DSP, TRX, and antenna feeder, is down, it
will fail to detect the mobile phone’s access pulse or to establish connection with the
mobile phone within the time limit, the paging response (in essence the instruction to
set up connection) cannot be reported to BSC, leading to paging response time out or
no paging response. For example, we found that T2688 in somewhere is slow in
getting online. After the amplifier and the antenna feeder are discarded, the access
speed can be 10 seconds faster. As this situation involves air interface and
sometimes can be caused by the problems of MS, the diagnosis of it is difficult and
dictates experts equipped with special devices.
III. The differences of the mobile phone’s fake accessing and accessing mode
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
The radio signal can be classified into uplink and downlink according to the
propagation direction. Ideally the uplink-downlink are at balance, that is to say, at any
area the base station and the mobile phone can receive (or not receive) the other
side’s signal simultaneously. The uncertainty of the radio signal propagation and the
discrepancy of the actual circumstances dictate that complete balance within the
whole network is impossible. So in the network there must be some areas where he
downlink signal can cover but the uplink signal cannot. In these areas, the subscriber
can receive message sent by the network, while the network cannot receive the
message reported by the subscriber, including paging response. Therefore in these
areas it is very common for the “Subscriber out of the service area” message to occur.
To solve such problem of “Subscriber out of the service area”, adjust the radio
parameters such as “RACH access threshold”, “random access error threshold”, “MS
minimum access level”, and “RSSI check” to optimize the balance. In particular, note
that the displacements of the measured level value in the measurement report for
different versions of base stations are different.
V. SDCCH Congestion
After the mobile phone receives the paging command, it will send channel request to
the network side. If there is no SDCCH channel available, or if the procedure to set up
SDCCH channel fails, the paging response cannot be delivered to the network side,
thus the problem of “Subscriber out of the service area” occurs. The causes for the
SDCCH congestion are SDCCH all busy, random radio link failure, etc. For the
SDCCH all busy situation, adjust that cell’s coverage area to reduce the SDCCH
congestion. For congestion caused by other reasons, such as random radio link
failure or surface link failure, the solution is subject to real situation.
The paging message in the network is random. Due to the restrictions on the
structure of the radio channels and the limitations on the capability to send the paging
command, it is possible that some of the paging groups are overloaded, leading to
failure to send the paging messages out timely, and the resend paging cannot be
responded within the valid time, thus causing the problem of “Subscriber out of the
service area”.
This situation can be improved by modifying CCCH configuration parameters “the
number of frames in the same paging”, “the number of access grant reserved block”,
and “CCCH channel allocation”. Reducing “the number of access grant reserved
block” to a proper extent will increase the number of PCH sub channels, thus
increasing the capacity of the paging channels; Reducing “the number of frames in
the same paging” will improve the frequency of sending the paging message;
Increasing the number of CCCH channels in the cell can significantly improve the
system’s paging capacity, but at the same time reducing the number of TCH
configurations. Thus this method is seldom used. If PCH is severely overloaded, the
size of the location area needs to be reduced, thus lowering the flow of the paging
message.
When the mobile phone’s radio frequency module is down, the antenna loosens, or
the battery is down, its receiving sensitivity goes down, the uplink signal quality
worsens, and the capability to receive the paging command and access the network
lowers. Mobile phones with such problems are prone to have the phenomenon of
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
“Subscriber out of the service area”. The evaluation on the quality of the mobile
phone sometimes requires special devices. The problems of the mobile phone can
take the following forms:
(1) Bad power supply leads to insufficient uplink transmitting power and uplink access
failure.
(2) Faulted mobile phone software leads to the mobile phone’s exceptional dead-end
and failure to respond to the paging message.
(3) Problems in the radio frequency part of the mobile phone will lead to failure to
receive, unstable transmission, or high frequency error within some frequency band.
In areas where the radio signal coverage is not good, usually indoors, the signal
quality is likely to be bad, and the call drop is not uncommon .As the subscriber status
in the VLR has not changed, when that subscriber is being called, the network side
can deliver paging message normally, but the subscriber cannot receive the paging
message and cannot respond to the paging message. Or because of the low quality
of the signal, the paging response cannot reach the network side. It is normal under
this circumstance that “Subscriber out of the service area” occurs. For such
“Subscriber out of the service area” phenomenon, the quality can be improved by
increasing the number of the base stations and perfecting the coverage.
There is a significant percentage of complaints concerning the problem of “Subscriber
out of the service area” that is due to bad coverage.
In the wireless network, because of the radio channel congestion or radio signal
coverage, it is certain that the problem of “No paging response” occurs.
In some areas where the coverage is bad, bad signal quality will lead to the failure to
deliver the paging or paging response to the peer side, causing the phenomenon
“Subscriber out of the service area”.
For example, due to the temporary congestion of the SDCCH channel, the MS cannot
be assigned an SDCCH channel, and the paging response cannot be reported, in
which case the first dial may receive the prompt tone of “Subscriber out of the service
area” and the second dial may succeed. As the paging sub channel of the cell where
the subscriber is in is fixed, so the chance for that sub channel overload increases
significantly. Calling that subscriber many times will be very likely to encounter the
phenomenon of “Subscriber out of the service area”. These phenomena are all
normal no-paging-response.
It is an exception only when the attempt to call an idle state subscriber with good
signal continuously for a long time receives “Subscriber out of the service area”.
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
(b) Connect the base 13M clock and CMD57 reference clock input by the clock line
and synchronize the equipment to the frequency band to test every timeslot’s power,
frequency error, and phase error.
If the test result shows that every timeslot’s frequency error and phase error conform
to the standards, and that base station’s 13M clock works stably, then the possibility
that signal fluctuation is due to the 13M clock’s fluctuation can be excluded.
After ensuring the output power stability, let’s check the installation quality of the
antenna feeder to see if there is any instability in the standing waves. If the
installation quality is good, then the possibility that the signal fluctuation is due to the
equipment’s output power instability can be excluded.
(2) Within the visual distance of the antenna (about 1km away. The purpose is to test
the influence of the multipath propagation), test the base station’s transmitting level to
see if it is stable.
(a) Use the spectrum analyzer 8594 and do the test by feeding the signal received
through omni-mini antenna to the spectrum analyzer directly, as shown in the
following figure:
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
spectrum Omni-mini
analyzer 8594 antenna
Figure 10-4 Use the mini-antenna to test the base station’s transmitting
level
(b) Use the mobile phone SAGEM and the test software MobileShow to do the test at
the place that is within visual distance and is 1 km away. Preserve and test the signal
wave by the laptop computer to see weather the transmitting level is stable.
By the above test, we can determine if the output power at the amplifier interface is
stable. The shortcoming of it is that it cannot obtain the concrete value of the output
power in the amplifier interface.
It seldom happens that the output power of the base station is unstable.
1.4.2 Cell Reselection (in idle state) or Handover (in conversation state)
Both cell reselection and handover can lead to the fluctuation of the signal. To find the
causes, use the following testing methods:
(1) Watch and test the mobile phone to see if the cell reselection or handover occur
as the signal level changes;
(2) Use the test mobile phone SAGEM and software MobileShow to see if the cell
reselection and handover occur as the signal fluctuates.
By the above tests we can decide if the signal level fluctuation is caused by the cell
reselection or handover. This phenomenon normally happens at the edge of the cell.
But if the network has serious trans-cell coverage,, frequent cell reselection and
handover can also arise, leading to the fluctuation of the signal.
When the power control or DTX is down, the receiving level in the mobile phone
fluctuates. If the threshold value for the uplink power control is set too low, the uplink
signal from the mobile phone to the base station will be weak, This, together with the
normal fluctuation in the radio space, will give rise to handover. During handover, if
the adjacent signal’s quality is not strong to maintain the conversation, call drop will
arise. Naturally the Level Indicator in the mobile phone will go down to one scale or
zero scale from the previous full scale.
Phenomenon:
The Level Indicator points to full scale, suddenly the peer’s voice at the other end of
the line cannot be heard in the middle of the conversation; the Level Indicator in the
mobile phone points to one scale or zero scale. Call drop happens. After several
seconds the conversation is on again.
Procedure and Analysis:
The Level Indicator pointing to full scale means that mobile phone is in good receiving
quality. The level value at this time is about -75dBm. If the downlink level exceeds this
value, the level fluctuation cannot be displayed in the mobile phone. So such
fluctuation is not easy to be seen when the signal is strong. So when the network’s
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
downlink power control is on, it is desirable to set the downlink level control to
-75dBm.One further note: the level indicated in the mobile phone is the mean value of
its radio frequency level. So the signal fluctuation of the narrow pulse duration will be
partly smoothed away. So the scale change in the Level Indicator is not the real-time
performance of the receiving signal’s strength. It is delayed. During diagnosis, we did
the following monitoring and testing: Test the downlink power at the combiner’s test
interface, no fluctuation was found; the downlink power at the drop-off point was
measured to be -85dBm by the spectrum analyzer. Though there was a fluctuation of
10-15dB, its minimum level was not enough to drop off the mobile phone; Next we
monitored and tested the downlink level of the mobile phone by connecting it to
mobile show, we found that starting from a certain time (subject to small differences
every time), the level went down from –85dBm along the 60 degree slope, when it
went to the middle of the slope, there happened a handover, but the strength of the
signal continued to go down, until at last the level was almost the same with that of
the other areas (about –105dBm), and maintained at this value for about 10 seconds
and then it dropped off. If after 10 seconds it didn’t drop off, it went upward along the
60 degree slope after another 10 seconds, and there happened a handover in the
middle of the slope. Then it continued to go upward, and maintained some time for
conversation at about –85dBm.Then it repeated the above procedure, making its path
like a sloped square wave, until it dropped off at some trough. By watching the Um
interface from the background, we found that before or after the drop-off and
handover, the downlink receiving level was strong and stable, and the uplink level
was mostly at –105dBm.So it can be determined that the handover and drop-off were
caused by the bad uplink quality, that is to say, because of the effect from the uplink
power control, the uplink signal has almost approached the uplink level’s minimum
threshold value when it reached the base station. That, along with the normal
fluctuation under the radio environment, will cause the base station to think that the
conversation quality in that cell is poor, so it orders the mobile phone to hand over to
the adjacent cell. If the quality in the adjacent cell is good, the conversation goes on,
otherwise, there will be a drop-off. In light of the call drop, the level indicated in the
mobile phone after the handover is the downlink level of the adjacent cell. And the
downlink level of the adjacent cell is quite small, so naturally the mobile phone’s level
goes down to 1 scale or 0 scale. If the signal in the adjacent cell is not sufficient to
sustain the conversation or the drop-off, the base station will order the mobile phone
to hand over back to the previous cell. If this time it is successful, the conversation
can go on, the level in the mobile phone will return to full scale from 0 scale. This is
the reason why the conversation suddenly cuts off but doesn’t call drop, and after a
while, the conversation recovers. When the subscriber is having long time
conversation, due to the periodicity of the above square waves, along with the
randomness of the environment’s fluctuation in the radio space, the subscriber will
experience intermittent cutoff and recovery, (not necessarily cutoff at every trough, but
certainly weakening of the conversation quality), until call drop happens. As the uplink
power control makes any level from the mobile phone to the base station very weak,
giving rise to drop-off regardless of the distance. Certainly as the radio fluctuation for
the mobile phones that are near to the base station is small, so is its chance of call
drop. As the indoor radio fluctuation is greater than outdoor radio fluctuation, so is its
call drop ratio. In addition, the antenna is usually placed at high tower, , the radiation
lobe is in fusiform, so the area right under the tower is blinded. The coverage only
reaches to the edge of the lobe. The carrier’s office is usually located at that area,
and they keep performing trial dialing, so the chance for the fluctuation is greater.
Solution:
First make some brief judgments according to the above analysis. If the situations are
likewise, call the uplink power control parameters from the background and set the
reasonable threshold value (preferably –80dBm.In addition the parameters
concerning the handover need to be set as per the real situation, the reasonableness
of which will affect the quality of the network and the fluctuation of the signal. Please
do the modifications only after a thorough understanding of the meaning of each
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
Phenomenon:
The mobile phone’s Receiving Signal Indicator points to the full scale. When the
subscriber dials the number and press <OK>, the mobile phone drops out within a
few seconds, at the same time the Indicator lowers to one scale or zero scale. This
phenomenon happens intermittently.
Cause and Analysis:
After <OK> key is pressed, BCCH assigns a TCH to the mobile phone through
SDCCH. When the TRX where the TCH is located is down, such as no power output
or output too small, then the TCH will fail to set up the communication, leading to
drop-off, and the Indicator lowering from full scale to 1 scale or 0 scale. After a few
seconds it will return to the Wait Status, and the Indicator returns to full scale. As the
TCH’s assignment is dynamic, that is to say, the first subscriber occupies the first
carrier frequency, the first time slot; the second subscriber occupies the first carrier
frequency, the second time slot, and so on. After eight subscribers’ calls, (or one
subscriber’s eight consecutive calls), TCH will switch to the second carrier frequency,
thus leading to normal conversation after several calls. As the number of callers is
large, the interval for the examiner to encounter such fault may vary. And the more
the number of carrier frequencies in the cell, the more difficult for it to discover the
cause. On the other hand, there is no fault warning when the carrier frequency is not
being used, but the warning of Power Too Small after the assignment.
Solution:
See if there is any warning in the TRX at the background when the mobile phone is
having call test. If yes, replace that TRX with the adjacent carrier frequency amplifier
or TRX, decide where the fault is and substitute the standby board for the at-fault
board. Furthermore, this method can be one of the effective ways to determine if
there are any faults in the carrier frequency channels at the cell. At the opening
phase, use two mobile phones and finish continuous testing on all the carrier
frequencies at the cell within several minutes.
1.4.5 Interferences
Interferences can lead to signal fluctuations. Interferences can cause the timeout for
the DCS counter (90/the multiframes between the same paging) in the mobile phones
at the current service area, thus leading to cell reselection, which when reflected on
the mobile phone side, is the fluctuation of signals.
First let us explain the problem by analyzing the signals: After a call is initiated by the
mobile phone, first SDCCH channel is assigned, after the corresponding signaling is
finished, a TCH will be assigned to the mobile phone for its use by the network. What
is the normal procedure is that BSC activates a TCH channel by sending to BTS in
the current cell a signal activation command, and then the channel is assigned to the
mobile phone. But what actually happens is that (in times when the current cell is
congested) the network gives the mobile phone a command to switch to other cells,
whose signal is weaker than the current cell. As a result, the level goes down
immediately, leading to the fluctuations of the signal. It is possible that after the
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
penalty time the mobile phone switches to other cell again, whose signal is stronger,
in which case the level indicated in the mobile phone goes up. Or after hooking the
mobile phone is in IDLE state and receives the BCCH signal from the cell where the
mobile phone is in, which reflected in the Indicator is the going up of the signal
strength. Therefore the essential cause of this problem is too much traffic, causing
congestion in the cell.
Multipath effect is one of the main causes that lead to the signal fluctuation in the
network. The performance of the radio communications system is largely constrained
by the radio channel. The propagation path between the transmitter and receiver is
very complex, ranging from the simple visual distance propagation to encountering
such terrain as buildings, hills and trees. The form the electromagnetic wave takes to
propagate is diverse. In the main, it can take the forms of reflection, diffraction, and
scattering. Most cellular radio systems operate in the city. There is no visual path
between the transmitter and receiver, and what’s more, the skyscrapers produce
strong scattering loss. Furthermore, as different objects have different multipath
reflections, the electro-magnetic waves, after passing paths of different length,
interfere to produce multi-path loss. At the same time the strength of the electro-
magnetic waves attenuates as the distance between the transmitter and receiver
increases. The attenuation in the radio environment can be classified into fast
attenuation and slow attenuation according to the estimation on the field intensity.
In skyscraper cities, as the height of the mobile antenna (mobile phone) is much
lower than that of the surrounding buildings, there is in most cases no visual
propagation between the mobile station to the base station, thus causing attenuation.
Even if there is such a path for visual propagation, multipath effect may still arise due
to the reflection of the surface and the surrounding buildings. The incident waves
arrive in different directions and have different propagation delay. The signal received
by the mobile station at any position in the space consists of many signal waves,
which have randomly distributed amplitude, phase, and incident angle. These
multipath components are combined in vectors by the receiver, thus giving rise to the
attenuation and infidelity of the signal being received. Even when the mobile receiver
is static, attenuation can still arise as the signal being received is affected by the
propagation medium (the air flow change), or by the moving objects where the radio
channel is in.
The method the base station uses to solve the fast-attenuation phenomenon is space
diversity (polarized diversity), i.e. host diversity antenna. The effectiveness of this host
diversity receipt is guaranteed by the irrelevancy of the host diversity antenna receipt.
By irrelevancy, it means the signal received by the host antenna doesn’t have the
simultaneous attenuation feature with the signal received by the diversity antenna.
This requires that the gap of the host diversity antenna is 10 times greater than the
radio signal wavelength (for GSM 900M the antenna gap must be greater than 4
meters), or that the polarized diversity is used to guarantee the different attenuation
features of the signals received by the host diversity antenna. Whereas the single
antenna mobile station (mobile phone) is helpless before the fast-attenuation feature
under the wireless environment. So multipath will lead to the fluctuation of the mobile
phone’s receiving level.
(1) Poor antenna feeder connection will lead to ups and downs of the standing wave,
which when reflected in the mobile phone, is the fluctuation of the signals
(2) Serious propagation flickers will lead to the amplification of the on/off in the base
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
station.
(3) Some mobile phones will also have fluctuation of the level when doing location
area updating. This is especially so when in the location area border of the city.
(4) The signal level after the assignment will fluctuate deeply due to the difference of
the carrier combination method or the disaccord of transmission channel gain within
the cell.
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
(1) Hardware faults, poor propagation and bad grounding will lead to poor voice
quality.
(2) Worse interference leads to poor voice quality, especially when the frequency is
density reuse.
(3) Poor coverage, leading to poor receiving level and receiving quality.
Cannot update the location area (The CGI table of MSC fails to keep record of the
cell, leading to location area update failure and network access failure)
Possibly related to the mobile phone’s access mode. Generally when the mobile
phone is opened, it will try to access the network according to the information stored
when the mobile phone was closed last time. In cases when the information is invalid
or there is no stored information, the mobile phone will try to access the network by
scanning for the strongest signal. As the scanning method may differ, so does the
access speed. Furthermore as the mobile phone needs to decode the scanned
frequency band according to the level, when the cell has a low access priority, it can
only access the network after ensuring that there is no higher priority. This will also
cause the slow attach speed.
As the network access procedure includes authority verification on the mobile phone,
the speed is also related to the performance, propagation and system processing of
the cell. Notwithstanding the foregoing, many factors shall be considered in an
integrated way.
Possible causes:
(1) Effect on the same number of paging multi-frames. The paging may be delayed for
0-0.235N seconds. Certainly its setting is related to many a factor such as location
area. Its parameter change shall be considered in an integrated way.
(2) Effect on the number of time slots during propagation extension. In areas where
coverage is poor, when the first access request is not decoded successfully, resend
may be delayed for 55x0.477 to 1 second. (Subject to the parameters)
(3) Related to the system processing performance.
The common cause may come from the equipment or transmission. This problem will
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Wireless network Planning Chapter 10 Special Topic
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