RTWP Problem Analysis and Solution

Summary

High RTWP will cause low performance in CSSR and CCSR.

Currently the background noise is -106dBm, if the RTWP is higher than -95dBm then
the load factor will more than 90%, CAC will be overload congestion status.

To troubleshooting a high RTWP issue, please refer the procedure as below.

Analysis procedure
1 Check Alarm
1.1 Check the hardware alarm.
Like RF Module Rx Branch RTWP Difference Too High Alarm etc.
1.2 Check whether VSWR alarm exists.
Command: DSP VSWR
If have alarm or high VSWR (more then 11), first escalate to BSS team, then assistant them
to check whether it is hardware problem or interference.

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2 Check NodeB configuration in NodeB LMT

2.1 Check uplink RF sensitivity
Command: DSP RFDESPARAM and DSP DESENS
Usually the value of these two parameters should be 0, if it is not 0, fallback to 0 to check
whether RTWP can restore normal.
2.2 Check Uplink Attenuation Value
Command: LST RXATTEN
This configuration will affect the RX gain. If TMA is not used, then no need to configure it;
and if TMA is used then we should configure it as per TMA gain.
The default value is 0. (Without TMA)
2.3
Check the intermodulation interference
If primary RTWP is very high but secondary RTWP is normal, it may be caused by this case.
Method: suggest to shut off the transmit power then monitor the RTWP. If RTWP become
normal after transmit power is switched off and RTWP become high when transmit power is
switched on, we can suspect that it may caused by feeder joint problem, need BSS team
check the feeder connection (primary feeder).
Command to shut off the transmit power:
SET TXSW

3 Check the interference feature

3.1 Check the RTWP trend
Check the RTWP counter VS.MeanRTWP, VS.MaxRTWP, VS.MinRTWP. Make a chart to
show the interference trend in one day.
Trace the RTWP in NodeB LMT; trace 24hours in one day and save the result to txt format
and make chart to show the primary and secondary RTWP trend in one day.
Through the chart, we can know the interference feature:
What time the interference happens, in day or night; in busy hour or always.
How about the consistency between primary and secondary RTWP trend?
Through the trend we can analyze whether heavy traffic causes the high RTWP; whether
external or internal interference?
3.2 Check the site information
Check it is indoor site or outdoor site.
For indoor site, need collect the information as below:

Whether 2nd carrier is implemented or not?

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Whether the combiner is used? Combiner frequency is match or not?

For outdoor site, need collect the information as below:

How many sectors experience high RTWP?

How about RTWP status of nearby sites?

Is repeater located near the site?

4 Find the interference source

4.1 Judge external or internal interference
Disconnect the jumper (jumper at the cabinet side) from the NodeB, and then trace the
RTWP.
If RTWP is still very high after disconnection, that means NodeB have problem. Need BSS
team check the RF module.
If RTWP become normal after disconnection, that means NodeB have no problem. We can
conclude that the problem may exist in Feeder system or external interference.
BSS team can help to do the VSWR test for the feeder and jumper to check the feeder system
ok or not. Or we can change jumper to verify.
4.2 Troubleshoot the interference
Do the frequency scanning in NodeB LMT.
From the result we can check whether there is strong interference from some special
frequency band.
If from the result we find the interference, we need visit the site to find the interference
source. We can:

If frequency scanning tool available (like frequency analyzer), we can use tool to
scan the interference.
The method to check the interference by scanning tool:
Switch off the transmit power of the interference sector. Make the test antenna of the
tool toward the direction of the antenna of the NodeB (follow the same orientation, same
down tilt, also the same attitude) and scan the interference. By this method we can check
whether external interference exists or not.

If frequency scanning tool unavailable, we can adjust the azimuth of the

interference to check from which direction the external interference comes from.
4.3

Common methods

NodeB have two sets of RTWP, primary and secondary RTWP; if only one set of
RTWP is abnormal but the other set is OK. We can swap the primary feeder with
the secondary feeder to check whether high RTWP swap or not.

If two sectors are very near but only one sector experience high RTWP and the
other sector is OK. We can swap the feeder of these two sectors at the antenna side

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to check whether high RTWP will swap from one sector to the other.
By these swap actions, we can analyze the interference feature and find the interference
source.

RTWP Problem
CheckList

Typical Values
Ok, we know that RTWP can help us in checking the uplink interference,
then we need to know its typical values.
In a network is not loaded, normal, acceptable RTWP Average value is
generally around -104.5 and -105.5 dBm.

Values around -95 dBm indicate that the cell has some uplink interferers.
If the value is around -85 dBm, the situation is ugly, with strong uplink
interferers.
Usually we have High, Low and Medium measures of RTWP. However, the
maximum and minimum values are recommended only as auxiliary or
reference, since they may have been caused by a peak of access, or even
been forced to have a momentary value due to some algorithm i.e..
Thus, the value that helps us, and has the most accurate information is
the same Mean RTWP!
For cases in which cell has two carriers, the difference between them
RTWP should not exceed 6 dB.

Based on these typical values, most vendors have an alarm: RTWP "Very
High. "

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What to do in case of problems?

We have seen that RTWP can cause performance degradation, mainly CS
Call Drops. Note: Actually, it's not RTWP that causes performance
degradation. What happens is that when its value is 'bad', it's actually
indicating the presence of interference - the latter being responsible for
degradation.
But what can we do when we find bad values?
If RTWP is not at acceptable levels, some actions should be taken.
The first thing to do is check if there is a configuration issue with the RNC
or NodeB. This is the most common case, especially in cases of new
activations.
Once verified the parameter settings, the next step is the physical
examination, especially jumpers and cables, often partially reversed. It
also should be checked if there is faulty transmitters, or any other
problem that could generate intermodulation between the NodeB and the
antenna.
If the parameter settings and hardware are ok, the chance is very high
that we have external interference, such as a Interferer Repeater.
In cases where there may be external interference, we must begin to act
after such a prioritization based on how much this is affecting the cell
KPI's across the network, if it carry high traffic, major subscribers, etc..
Note: There are many forms of interference in the uplink, both internal
and external. Only a few are listed above. The deepening of all
possibilities is beyond the goal of being simple to teach the concepts, but
this is a suggestion for whoever wants to deepen the study, identification
and elimination of interference.

In practice
to find - and eliminate - problems of interference is one of the biggest
challenges in our area. For being such a complex problem, we
recommend that be collected enough data for each investigation.
Insufficient data collected can lead to erroneous conclusions, further
worsening the problem.
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The uplink interference may appear only in specific periods. Thus, it is

recommended that data be collected from at least one week (7 days) for
every 24 hours. Usually this amount of data is sufficient. In the figure
below, we see different days and times - colorful - a fictional example
where the interference occurred.

Data should be collected for the suspicious cell, but also for its adjacent
cells, allowing it to make a triangulation increasing the chances of
locating the source of interference.
Another way to locate the source of interference is to do a test in field.
An antenna guy must gradually change the azimuth of the antenna, while
another professional do RTWP measurements. That is, through the
information directing the antenna and the respective values of RTWP, you
can draw conclusions very good.
It is obvious that changing the online system may not be a good practice,
and tests can be made with a Yagi antenna and a Spectrum Analyzer.
Vendors

offer

several

ways

to

measure

RTWP, using

the

OSS,

performance counters and logs

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