gsm, umts and hspa atraining

However, a typical path through Spotlight is to start from the Summary Dashboard, examine the summary map and then the appropriate report for the loaded data, which might indicate the p

GSM, UMTS and HSPA

Training Course

October 2010

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.

Copyright © Actix 2010 All rights reserved All trademarks are hereby acknowledged.

Contents

INTRODUCTION 6

S COPE OF THE COURSE 6

W HO SHOULD ATTEND THIS TRAINING COURSE ? 7

P REREQUISITES 7

A IMS OF THE COURSE 8

SOLVING COMMON NETWORK PROBLEMS WITH SPOTLIGHT 9

A CTIX S POTLIGHT F EATURES 10

W HAT ‟ S IN S POTLIGHT ? 11

PREPARATION 12

S TART UP S POTLIGHT 12

NEW PROJECT AND TEMPLATE CREATION 14

C REATING A N EW P ROJECT T EMPLATE 15

N EW P ROJECT C REATION ( USING A PRE - DEFINED TEMPLATE ): 16

E XERCISE : N EW T EMPLATE C ONFIGURATION 19

SUMMARY DASHBOARD 26

SPOTLIGHT REPORTS 27

EVENT EXPLORER 28

RADIO NETWORK ANALYSES 29

GSMSECTION 31

GSMSUMMARY DASHBOARD 32

GSMSPOTLIGHT REPORTS 33

GSMEVENT EXPLORER 38

A DDITIONAL F EATURES 41

D ETAILED E VENT D IAGNOSTICS 43

E XERCISE : D ROP C ALL A NALYSIS 45

GSMRADIO NETWORK ANALYSES 46

C ELL C OVERAGE A NALYSIS 47

GSM R ADIO N ETWORK E XPLORER I NTERFACE 48

E : N D 53

WORKSHOP:EXAMINING YOUR OWN DATA (OPTIONAL) 58

APPENDIX GSM.A:THRESHOLDS 59

S POTLIGHT 59

GSM / A DVANCED _H ANDOVER _A NALYSIS 59

GSM / A NALYSIS 60

GSM / C ELL _P LAN _V IEWER 61

GSM / E VENTS 61

GSM / S POTLIGHT 61

GSM / T ROUBLESHOOTER 62

APPENDIX GSM.B: DATA SETTINGS FOR GSM2G NEIGHBOR ANALYSIS 64

APPENDIX GSM.C:GSMDIAGNOSIS 66

APPENDIX GSM.D:GSMVISUALIZATION 72

UMTSSECTION 75

UMTSSUMMARY DASHBOARD 76

UMTSSPOTLIGHT REPORTS 77

UMTSEVENT EXPLORER 83

A DDITIONAL F EATURES 86

D ETAILED E VENT D IAGNOSTICS 88

E XERCISE : D ROP C ALL A NALYSIS 91

UMTSRADIO NETWORK ANALYSES 92

C ELL C OVERAGE A NALYSES 93

R ADIO N ETWORK E XPLORER I NTERFACE 94

E XERCISE : C ELL C OVERAGE A NALYSIS U SING H ANDSET D ATA 97

E XAMPLE : M ISSING N EIGHBORS A NALYSIS 100

A DDITIONAL F EATURES FOR 3G N EIGHBOR A NALYSIS 106

E XERCISE : 3G-2G M ISSING N EIGHBORS A NALYSIS 110

E XAMPLE : P ILOT P OLLUTION A NALYSIS 115

A DDITIONAL F EATURES FOR P ILOT P OLLUTION A NALYSIS 117

E XERCISE : P ILOT P OLLUTION A NALYSIS U SING S CANNER D ATA 121

WORKSHOP:EXAMINING YOUR OWN DATA (OPTIONAL) 126

APPENDIX UMTS.A:THRESHOLDS 127

S POTLIGHT 127

UMTS / S CAN _ COVERAGE 127

UMTS / S POTLIGHT 128

UMTS / UE_C OVERAGE 130

APPENDIX UMTS.B: DATA SETTINGS FOR NEIGHBOR ANALYSIS 132

APPENDIX UMTS.C:UMTS EVENT DIAGNOSES 134

HSPASECTION 141

HSPASPOTLIGHT REPORTS 142

HSPAEVENT EXPLORER 147

A DDITIONAL F EATURES 150

D ETAILED E VENT D IAGNOSTICS 152

D RILLDOWN 153

E XERCISE : D ROP C ALL A NALYSIS 155

HSPA+DATA SERVICE ANALYSES 156

O VERVIEW 157

E XAMPLE OF A GOOD HSPA+ TASK 164

E XAMPLE OF A MIMO HSPA+ FTP DOWNLOAD 166

E XAMPLE OF A PROBLEMATIC HSDPA TASK 170

E XERCISE 172

HSPARADIO NETWORK ANALYSES 173

C ELL C OVERAGE A NALYSIS 173

R ADIO N ETWORK E XPLORER I NTERFACE 174

E XERCISE : C ELL C OVERAGE A NALYSIS U SING H ANDSET D ATA 176

E XAMPLE : M ISSING N EIGHBORS A NALYSIS 178

A DDITIONAL F EATURES FOR 3G N EIGHBOR A NALYSIS 184

E XAMPLE : P ILOT P OLLUTION A NALYSIS 187

A DDITIONAL F EATURES FOR P ILOT P OLLUTION A NALYSIS 189

E XERCISE : P ILOT P OLLUTION A NALYSIS U SING S CANNER D ATA 192

WORKSHOP:EXAMINING YOUR OWN DATA (OPTIONAL) 195

APPENDIX HSPA.A:THRESHOLDS 196

S POTLIGHT T HRESHOLDS 196

HSDPA > HSDPA_NW_A CCEPTANCE T HRESHOLDS 196

APPENDIX HSDPA.B: DATA SETTINGS FOR NEIGHBOR ANALYSIS 198

MYACTIX AND SUPPORT 200

Introduction

Scope of the course

The GSM, UMTS and HSPA Spotlight Training Course provides a

comprehensive overview of Spotlight for GSM, UMTS and HSPA The goal of

the course is to give an understanding of the capabilities of the system and

how it can help users to improve quality of service for their network

subscribers Advanced users will be introduced to new network applications

The instructors for this course are experts in using Actix solutions to increase

productivity, and are familiar with the challenges faced by engineers working

in cellular/PCS environments

Class size is limited to ensure that everyone receives extensive one on one

instruction Participants have many opportunities to ask questions relevant to

their particular optimization needs Upon completing the course, participants

will be able to use what they learned in class to identify and solve real

network problems

The GSM, UMTS and HSPA Spotlight Training Course begins with a high-level

presentation of the Actix platform interface and its capabilities We will then

cover how existing optimization processes can be tailored to the specific

needs of the participants

Who should attend this training course?

RF Engineers responsible for enhancing cellular performance and

implementing wireless system optimization

Engineers looking to further understand the application of log file

data in optimizing networks

Experienced technicians involved in field optimization

Anyone looking to maximize the return on investment in Actix

software

Prerequisites

Familiarity with network infrastructure and operation of the air

interface

A general understanding of drive test and call trace collection

and post-processing methodology and advantages/limitations with each dataset

Access to Actix software and a familiarity with the Actix software

platform

Basic computer literacy, including familiarity with Windows and

MS Office applications

Aims of the course

After this course, you should be able to:

Appreciate common network problems and how they are

classified in Spotlight

Configure Spotlight to work with your data and methodologies

Appreciate pre-defined Spotlight Reports

Appreciate different analyses methods (Event Based and Radio

Network Analyses) in Spotlight

Use Spotlight to analyze problems in data sets of differing sizes

Appreciate the role thresholds perform in Spotlight and how to

modify them

From the Repository Analysis - Drilldown, you should be able to:

Add extra data during the analysis

Save the project file

Create and save your own template for your project

Start Spotlight and reload the project file

Drilldown problem by File or Time to message level with or

without loading the whole file

Perform different analyses based on handset and scanner data

Perform 3G-2G Neighbor Analysis for UMTS/HSPA

Solving common network problems with

Spotlight

With the Seek-See-Solve approach, Spotlight is designed to allow you to

follow your own investigations throughout the various analysis pages and

reports However, a typical path through Spotlight is to start from the

Summary Dashboard, examine the summary map and then the appropriate

report for the loaded data, which might indicate the presence of one or more

problems Spotlight breaks these problems down into two groups: critical

issues, where an event has occurred that discontinued a call, and important

issues, where the quality of service has been reduced without necessarily

ending any calls

Cell coverage, interference problems and GSM/UMTS/HSPA visualization can

be investigated from the Radio Network Explorer analyses (links to these

are shown as Important Issues in the Issues panel of the Summary

Dashboard) These then point you at specific problem events which you can

Actix Spotlight Features

The following Actix Spotlight features are available for GSM/UMTS/HSPA:

Radio Network Analyses

For GSM:

Coverage and Overspill Analysis

Determines the coverage footprint of cells and identifies overshoot against coverage design boundaries

2G Missing Neighbors Analysis

Lets you use scanner data to optimize neighbor lists for sites within a user-defined radius of the selected cell

For UMTS/HSPA:

Cell Coverage Analysis (based on Scanner/Handset data)

It determines the coverage footprint of cells and identifies

overshoot against coverage design boundaries

Missing Neighbors Analysis (3G-3G, 3G-2G)

Pilot Pollution Analysis (based on Scanner/Handset data)

Event-based troubleshooting

Automated root-cause diagnostics for the most common

subscriber problems such as call drops, call setup failure, location update failures, handover failures, lack of pilot dominance issues and HSDPA low throughput issues

Reporting

Integrated, professional-quality reports including embedded

maps

What‟s in Spotlight?

New Project and Template Creation

Provides a link to the new template configuration wizard or allows a user to create a new project using an existing template

New Template Configuration Wizard

Step by step wizard that guides the user to configure a new template with required devices, KPIs, reports, queries and so on

Radio Network Investigation/Analyses

Provides a breakdown of the important issues by filename and handset identifier These tabular pages are reached through

links on the Summary Dashboard

Preparation

Start up Spotlight

Open Actix Software

Splash Screen

After you have clicked on Actix Software, a splash screen starts up and

initializes the software

1 Click on Actix Software

Choosing an Engineering Process

2 Select the Spotlight

engineering process

1 If you want to launch

Analyzer using the same

engineering process every

time, check this box

New Project and Template Creation

To create new project,

click on New Project

To open an existing

project, click on Open

To delete an existing

project, click on Delete

To start Analyzer Classic, click

on Classic Mode

Creating a New Project Template

Spotlight project templates define KPIs, reports and attributes, which are

available within a Spotlight project, and how the data is to be stored in the

repository It is important to configure a project template correctly because it

controls not only what analyses are available, but also how the data is

organized, and this can affect the validity of an analysis

In addition, the way you configure the project template can affect the

performance of the projects that are based on it For example, if you include

KPIs and reports that are not relevant, performance may be slower than

necessary, particularly when creating the project and loading data into it, but

also when subsequently closing and reloading it

Although Spotlight is based on the Repository technology, project templates

are not the same as repository templates When you create a project

template using Spotlight's New Template option, Spotlight also generates a

repository template based on the KPIs and other options that are selected

During this process, Spotlight uses a default repository template that is

supplied with Spotlight

New Project Creation (using a pre-defined template):

You can use the default repository template or an existing custom-defined

template by starting a new Spotlight project on the Creating a New

Project Step 1: Name and Template page, click on New Template

Follow the instructions and configure your template by following the three

simple steps as below:

Step 1: Name and Template

Step 2: Preferences and Thresholds

Step 3: Choose Data

Step 1: Name and Template

1 Key in a meaningful project name

2 Select a suitable pre-defined template

If you prefer to create your own

template, click on New Template 3 Click Next to continue to configure your settings

Step 2: Preferences and Thresholds

Preferences settings provide a link to the Actix Software preferences dialog

Spotlight is a map-centric product So, it is necessary to have a valid cellrefs

file corresponding to the drive test data

Thresholds (See Appendix GSM.A for all GSM Spotlight thresholds,

Appendix UMTS.A for all UMTS Spotlight thresholds and Appendix HSPA.A

for all HSPA Spotlight thresholds information) are user-definable values that

can be used as constants in event detection and queries

This opens the Preferences dialog

Select a cellrefs file if you have not already done so

3 This opens the Thresholds dialog

You do not need to make any changes here yet, but click the button to have a quick look at the dialog

Choose the correct cellrefs file for Actix Spotlight to refer to

Click Next when you are done with your configuration

Step 3: Choose Data

All file information is displayed You can either add more files, more folders or

remove files

Click on Done to load your data files

Choose the data file(s) you would

like to load by clicking on Add File

You can also add the entire folder

by clicking on Add Folder and/or Add all subfolders

Click on Done to begin your troubleshooting

Actix Software will first save the Settings and Thresholds as part of the project The progress bar for data processing will appear and this will give you an idea of how long it will take

The entire process of loading data is dependent on the volume

of data to be loaded into the project However, once the data

has been loaded into the Repository, it can be reattached very

quickly

Exercise: New Template Configuration

Start a new Spotlight project and on the Creating a New Project  Step 1:

Name and Template page, click on New Template You then need to fill

out options on four pages as follows:

Step 1: Choose Name and Starting Template

Step 2: Choose Devices

Step 3: Choose KPIs and Reports

Step 4: Choose Attributes

Step 5: Choose Global Filters

In this exercise, you will be creating your own GSM/UMTS/HSPA Template

and define all the related devices (handset and/or scanner if you have them),

KPIs, Reports, Queries and Attributes Let‟s start by creating a template as

shown below:

Step 1: Choose Name and Starting Template

1 Key in a meaningful Project Name

2 Click on New Template to

create your template

Step 2: Choose Devices

By default, all devices are aggregated into one device (ALL) In this page,

you can define your devices Click on Add Device Enter the Device Name

and the related Filter that identifies the stream of interest within the logfile

Choose a meaningful Device Name Actix software determines whether data

from a stream should be loaded into the Device based on whether the Filter

text matches any text in the data stream name

For example, if you have TemExp (1) and TemExp (2) in your logfile, Filter 1)

uniquely identifies the handset stream in the file, while using an identifier

that is common to many types of logfiles

1 Add a Device if you

would like to define your own devices

3 Key in a meaningful Template Name

for easy access in the future

4 Choose a template you would like to base the

project on by clicking on Based on Template

2 Click Next to

proceed

If the Filter field is left empty, data from all streams will be loaded into the

device

22 Actix Spotlight GSM/UMTS/HSPA Training Course October 2010

l 2009

Step 3: Choose KPIs and Reports

You can choose the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and Reports needed

from these three columns (select whichever applies):

Event KPIs

Radio Network KPIs

Summary Report

For this exercise, select or check on all GSM/UMTS/HSPA Events & Radio

Network KPIs and the related GSM/UMTS/HSPA reports To ensure best

load time performance, do not forget to uncheck other options you do not

require Click Next> to continue

4 If have a different format or device, click on Import From File to add your device filter(s)

Choose the appropriate Event KPIs, Radio Network KPIs and Reports

Step 4: Choose Attributes

In this step, you can add more binned attributes to the set of default

attributes available in the repository You can also configure location binning

settings in this page

For this exercise, choose all GSM/UMTS/HSPA-related binned queries and

GSM/UMTS/HSPA attributes required for your template by checking the

checkbox on the left of the Attribute Click Done when you‟ve finished

2 Select all the required attributes

3 Configure the binning method

1 Choose your required binned Data Queries

Step 5: Choose Global Filters

The fifth step in creating a new Spotlight project template involves choosing

whether to enable File/Stream, Time and regional filtering in the project You

can activate or modify them (if these options are enabled) by clicking on the

Global Filters link at the top right of a Spotlight analysis page

For your information, regional filtering option is not shown in the above

example

Global Filtering also supports filtering by region (using the

region.xml mechanism) However, this is only possible when using

a Spotlight Template that includes Region Filtering To enable

filtering by region you should already have defined the Regions,

created a new Spotlight Template and on the Filtering page checked

the relevant region types under Region Filters

Click on Done will bring you back

to the New Project start page

You can filter your data based on file or time

After clicking Done on the fifth page, you are returned to the New Project

start page, where the new template appears in the list of project templates

Note that for convenience, Spotlight appends the date on which it was

created to the project template's name

Select your new template Click Next> to continue to select the cellrefs file,

and change the settings and configure thresholds , as described in Step 2

and Step 3 on page 17

Summary Dashboard

Spotlight Summary Dashboard provides you a quick overview of the data

loaded in the current Repository project on a per device basis If you have

configured multiple devices during the template configuration phase, a

separate tab per device will be displayed on the dashboard The Summary

Dashboard consists of these main components:

Click on Log Files to display all information

regarding the data file(s) you‟ve loaded

Click on Report to generate your Spotlight Report based on the

configuration and settings you‟ve defined The report consists of RF parameter charts and maps with important events and attributes

Click on Event Explorer to

drill down to all Event-based

analysis such as Dropped

calls, Call setup Failures etc

Click on Radio Network Explorer to investigate all

Radio Network problems and perform wide-area coverage-based analyses

The Map is the main integral part of

Spotlight interface, where the important attributes in a specific technology are plotted The cell wedges are colour coded: Green

represents site that were serving

The Issues panel lists all critical and important issues occurring in the

Spotlight Reports

Reports are a good place to start when attempting to identify problems in the

loaded data These can be accessed by clicking on the Reports link from

Spotlight's Summary Dashboard page The selected reports will be opened in

Microsoft Excel format

You can find these Spotlight reports based on the following technologies:

File Overview Overview Overview Map

Overview Map Overview Map Radio

PS Domain

To see these sample reports, please refer to:

GSM Reports on page 33

UMTS Reports on page 77

A report must be activated before the current project's template is

created It shows all unfiltered data in the project database for the

associated technology Make sure you have Microsoft Excel installed

before you open these reports

Event Explorer

The Event Explorer provides a detailed analysis of critical failure events such

as call drops, call setup failure, location update failures, handover failures,

lack of pilot dominance issues and HSPA low throughput issues

You could arrive at this page from the Summary Dashboard as a result of

clicking on a Critical Issue or on the Event Explorer icon

We will further explore these features related to different technologies in the

following pages:

GSM Event Explorer on page 38

UMTS Event Explorer on page 83

HSPA Event Explorer on page 147

Radio Network Analyses

Spotlight contains the following Radio Network Analyses to provide you to

perform wide area coverage based analyses in GSM/UMTS/HSPA:

For GSM:

Coverage and Overspill Analysis

Determines the coverage footprint of cells and identifies overshoot against coverage design boundaries

2G Missing Neighbors Analysis

Lets you use scanner data to optimize neighbor lists for sites within a user-defined radius of the selected cell

For UMTS/HSPA:

Cell Coverage Analysis (based on Scanner/Handset data)

It determines the coverage footprint of cells and identifies

overshoot against coverage design boundaries

Missing Neighbors Analysis (3G-3G, 3G-2G)

Pilot Pollution Analysis (based on Scanner/Handset data)

We will further explore these features related to different technologies in the

following pages:

GSM Radio Network Analysis on page 46

UMTS Radio Network Analysis on page 92

HSPA Radio Network Analysis on page 156

Miscellaneous Navigation Concepts

When moving from a Critical Issue to an Important Issue, all diagnostic views

will be unloaded, except for those opened by the user - for example: tables,

Message Browser, Protocol Stack Browser

During your analysis, you may have found it necessary to move or remove

the existing diagnostic views and to open one or more new views To get

back to the original layout, click on the Restore Layout at the top right

corner of the navigation bar

The navigation bar allows you to move around in

Spotlight It also provides some useful functions from any stage of your analysis

GSM Section

GSM Section

GSM Summary Dashboard

The GSM Spotlight Summary Dashboard provides you a quick overview of the

data loaded in the current Repository project on a per device basis If you

have configured multiple devices during the template configuration phase, a

separate tab per device will be displayed on the dashboard The Summary

Dashboard consists of these main components:

Click on Log Files to display all information

regarding the data file(s) you‟ve loaded

Click on Reports to generate your GSM Spotlight Report based on the

configuration and settings you‟ve defined The report consists of some

RF parameter charts and maps with important events and attributes

Click on Event

Explorer to drill down

to all event-based

analyses such as

Dropped Calls, Call

Setup Failures etc

Click on Radio Network Explorer to investigate

all Radio Network problems and perform wide area coverage- based analyses

The Map is an integral part of the

Spotlight interface, showing the entire drive, with RxLev being the default attribute plotted The cell wedges are colour coded: Green

represents site that were serving during part of the drive The

Yellow represents sites were seen

during the drive but were never serving

Use these links to return to the Project dialog to select

another project, select a Global Filter to apply to the project,

Add Data files to the current project, Restore Layout of the

current set of views and panels back to the default layout,

and open the Help file to advice on the current screen

The GSM Issues panel lists all critical and important issues occurring in the dataset It allows you to further investigate

and drill down to issues in more detail by clicking on the link of the KPIs The Critical issues section provides an overview

of the drive in terms of failure Events The Important Issues section includes the Radio Network analyses

GSM Spotlight Reports

The GSM Spotlight reports are:

File Overview Radio

GSM Report: File Overview

GSM Report: Overview Map

Maps with Measurements and Failure Events help you to visualize the problem better and create a more appealing report

Call Failure Overview Map

RxLev Overview Map

GSM Report: Radio

Statistics and histograms give you a quick overview of the statistics (min, max, average, etc.) and the distribution of the RxQual, RxLev, Ue Tx, Timing Advance , Neighbor and Design Validation

GSM Report: CS Domain

Call Information drills down to each call and provides call information based on your log file Call Drops will be highlighted in Red while call setup failure will be highlighted in Orange

GSM Event Explorer

The GSM Event Explorer provides a detailed analysis of critical failure events

such as Call Drops and Call Setup Failures You can come to this page from

the Summary Dashboard as a result of clicking on a Critical Issue or on the

Event Explorer icon

Spotlight contains the following Event Explorer pages for you to perform a

wide range of analyses:

Circuit Switched

Dropped Calls

Call Setup Failures

Location Update Failures

Handover Issues

 Handover Failures

 Missing Neighbors (Only available for Handset and Scanner

data files, using the handset and scanner merge feature)

 Information only

o % Strong NBR Diff Baud (better than the serving cell)

o % NBR with 5dB (within 5dB of the serving cell)

o % NBR with 5dB diff Baud (within 5dB of the serving

cell but different frequency)

The table in the top panel has a row for each site and lists the failure rates

for that site On the bottom side panel, there is a list of all the dropped calls

occurring in the drive If you select a check box in one of the rows, the

bottom side panel will only show the events appearing for the site or sector in

that row

Click on a KPI link to go to the corresponding event-based analysis section

Top Panel‟s table lists the failure and attributes concerning the sites and

sectors

Click on Event Explorer on the top panel

to go to the Event dashboard page

If the top table shows high values for a particular problem KPI, check the top

left hand box to enable the selection boxes for each row Then check each

row with high problem KPIs The side panel is now filtered to show the events

appearing for only the selected site or sector rows

If there are too many rows in the table, you might want to sort by the

Diagnostics column to see the diagnostic types grouped alphabetically

View + Drilldown option

View Only

You can sort by the Diagnostics

column to see the diagnostic

types grouped alphabetically