See your network

Through the eyes of your customers

Engineering Efficiency
The Background
The explosion of mobile data usage confidently predicted for the last 10 years has finally arrived, driven by the uptake of the latest generation of Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices and their app stores, and fuelled by flat rate data tariffs. The excess capacity that has been dormant in UMTS networks for some years has been consumed and high data usage also impacts on voice performance, meaning operators need to focus on optimisation and capacity enhancements to preserve the quality of their networks for all users.

The Challenge
Facing this continued explosive growth in data usage, which in turn was driving a programme of RNC and site expansion, a region of a major tier 1 operator needed additional engineering resource to execute the expansion programme. As an alternative to bringing in external contractors, with all the associated challenges, they decided to free up capacity in their existing team of experienced engineers by dramatically increasing the efficiency of their day to day work of troubleshooting and optimising the network.

The Solution
The operator turned to ariesoGEO, making its rich store of subscriber derived information the first port of call for engineers investigating network issues. Because ariesoGEO uses geo-located data from real subscriber calls, it gives the engineer a clear view of the performance of the network as the users see it. For example, if investigating a complaint of poor data service in a particular location, the engineer would traditionally have consulted switch statistics and outage reports for several nearby cells to gauge the scale of the problem. With AriesoGEO the engineer is able to define a polygon around the area of interest far smaller than a cell footprint and immediately generate a performance report for calls in the polygon. This is only possible because ariesoGEO collects analyses and stores data from the entire network 24/7.

Dropped call hotspots, weighted by call volume Armed with this information the engineer can quickly see the extent and nature of the problem. With traditional methods, in most cases it would next be necessary to initiate a drive test or other in depth data collection exercise and then wait for the information to be collected before beginning to diagnose the problem, but ariesoGEO already has a wealth of information to carry out these analyses. The engineer can immediately view RSCP and Ec/I0 plots to understand the RF conditions in the area, and select individual problem calls for layer 3 drill down. Sector RSCP, showing overshooting into CBD

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See your network

Through the eyes of your customers
With ariesoGEO the problem is identified and typically diagnosed from a single screen without waiting for any data to be collected, dramatically reducing the time to solve problems. Having streamlined the troubleshooting process the engineers also found that ariesoGEO could save them significant time and effort with the initial deployments of new sites. Using the power of 24/7 data collection the engineer is able to examine the performance of the new site after some time, experience suggests 2 weeks captures all the usage patterns, and examine the actual coverage being achieved compared to the original intent. In many cases this exercise reveals the need to make small antenna adjustments that traditionally would have been impossible to spot without detailed drive testing.

Layer 3 drill down of a subscriber's call

The Results
The operator found that an engineer who used ariesoGEO as their first source of information usually took half the time to diagnose a problem compared to existing methods, and in some cases the saving in time was even more dramatic, particularly when a reported problem is a recurrence of a known issue, this can often be confirmed in minutes. With a team of 50 engineers spending 25% of their time on trouble tickets ariesoGEO had not only freed up resource equivalent of 6 contractors to work on expansion, but made that expansion work more efficient as well. In the majority of cases the new sites are optimised 2 weeks after deployment without the need for additional drive tests. By capitalising on the efficiencies delivered by ariesoGEO the region are confident they can complete their ambitious programme with their existing resources. Having become familiar with the powerful and flexible user interface of ariesoGEO the optimisation team are now starting to explore new ways to optimise the network to maximise capacity that are simply not possible with existing methods, the information within ariesoGEO provides an unprecedented level of insight into the true performance of the network as experienced by the subscribers.

About ariesoGEO
AriesoGEO delivers powerful insight into real customer voice and data experience to enable network operators to make technical and commercial business choices that put the customers first, maximise the return on investment and reduce churn. AriesoGEO geo-locates all customers calls, evaluates the quality of service provided down to building level resolution. Automated optimisation is also available as part of the Arieso solution which gives mobile operators the ability to easily and quickly optimise network changes based on real user traffic demand and real user experience of network quality and performance. This allows subscriber driven optimisation, sales, customer care and marketing. Arieso has been working with some of the worlds largest tier-1 mobile operators to tackle mobile data and iPhone problems head on: leveraging the power of geo-locating every voice and data call to put the subscriber at the very centre of their business operations. Using Arieso software solutions and services operators stand to gain 30% improvement in their KPIs with existing infrastructure whilst ensuring scarce CapEx is applied to where it matters for existing technologies as well as LTE.
EMEA (and Global) HQ Arieso Ltd, Astor House, Newbury Business Park, London Road, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2PZ, UK Americas HQ Arieso Inc, 3495 Piedmont Rd, Bldg 11, Suite 550, Atlanta, GA 30305, USA Tel: +44 (0) 1635 232470 | Fax: +44 (0) 1635 232471 | Email: info@arieso.com | Web: www.arieso.com