LTE SINR Principle & Optimization

LTE SINR Principle & Optimization INTERNAL
LTE SINR Principle & Optimization
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved
Table of Contents
Introduction 2
purpose 2
SINR Calculations 3
Problems Affecting SINR Degradation 4
1 Lack of a Dominant Cell …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4
Page 1 of 12
Huawei Proprietary and Confidential
25-06-2020
2 Same PSS problem ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7

3 Bad RF Conditions …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9
4 High Traffic Load…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….10
5 External Interference …………………………………………………………………………………………………….11
1 Introduction
The performance of any wireless system has a direct relationship with the RF conditions at the time.
To aid with performance analysis then, it is typical to define some ranges of RF measurements that
correspond to some typical RF conditions one might find themselves in.
The following table represents a good classification of RF conditions Vs LTE KPIs
SINR is one of the most important quantities that is used to measure LTE RF Condition Quality
Purpose
The scope of the document is to provide basic Knowledge about SINR and how to optimize it.
Page 2 of 12
25-06-2020
2 SINR Calculations
The SINR is not specifically defined in 3GPP specifications as SINR is internally measured by most UEs
and recorded by drive test tools. A common formula is as follows: SINR = S/(I + N) where:
• S: indicates the power of measured usable signals. Reference signals (RS) and physical downlink
shared channels (PDSCHs) are mainly involved. 
• I: indicates the power of measured signals or channel interference signals from other cells in the
current system and from inter-RAT cells. 
• N: indicates background noise, which is related to measurement bandwidths and receiver noise
coefficients.
Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) is measured by UE on Resource Block (RB) basis. UE
computes SINR on each RB, converts it to CQI and reports it to eNodeB where it is used to select the
most suitable MCS for user data transmission in particular RB. SINR value defines the MCS to be used
for a RB i.e. the number of bits per modulation symbol to be sent i.e. throughput to be achieved for that
particular RB as well as the number of RBs to be allocated by eNodeB to user, So SINR can be defined
as the ratio of the signal power to the summation of the average interference power from the other cells
and the background noise.
SINR can be affected by several factors, we will try to present them in following pages
Page 3 of 12
25-06-2020
3 Problems Affecting SINR Degradation
Problems affecting SINR Degre
1-Lack of a Dominant Cell Problem:
A-Problem Description:
One of the most factors that Cause SINR degredation is Absence of Dominant Server problem.
In an area without a dominant cell, the received level of the serving cell is similar or near to the received
levels of its neighboring cells and the received levels of downlink signals between different cells are close
to cell reselection thresholds.The SINR of the serving cell becomes unstable because of frequency reuse,
and even receive quality becomes unsatisfactory. In this situation, a dominant cell is frequently reselected
and changed in idle mode. As a result, frequent handovers or service drops occur on UEs in connected
mode because of poor signal quality. An area without a dominant cell can also be regarded as a weak
coverage area.
This can be identified from DT, you will find neighbour cell is having close RSRP to the serving one and
SINR value is low
Page 4 of 12
25-06-2020
SINR also can be figured out from specific user trace, you will find several neighbouring PCIs with RSRP
value near to serving cell RSRP
B-Solution:
Determine cells covering an area without a dominant cell during network planning, and adjust antenna tilts
and azimuths to increase coverage by a cell with strong signals and decrease coverage of other cells with
weak signals.
Example:
Cross coverage occurred at the road below, and co-channel interference was detected in many areas
from DT Log files Analysis
Up tilt was done by two degrees for main cell serving the road in addition that down-tilt by 3 degrees and
power decrease was done for 1st neighbor cell. Dominancy was enhanced as shown below
Before After
Page 5 of 12
25-06-2020
Overshooting cells
PCI SINR
2-Same PSS problem:

if we have two adjacent sectors (overlaped coverage) using the same PSS sequence it can cause some
inetrference affecting SINR, as The location of the reference signals in the frequency domain is based on
the PCI, so two cells may have their reference signals in the same subcarriers,
Page 6 of 12
25-06-2020
B-Solution:
It’s recommended to avoid same PCIs or PCIs with the same frequency shift during network planning. İf
MOD 3 interference found between two PCIs then changing one PCI to another PSS Group will enhance
both SINR and average throughput
Example:
UEs access a cell whose PCI is 3 and SINR is low. UEs are about 200 m away from the eNodeB. This
problem may be caused by MOD interference. This problem is not caused by co-channel interference
because no neighboring cell has the same frequency as the current cell. Cell 6 interferes with cell 3.
SINRs increase after cell 6 is disabled.
Action Taken:
Change PCI 6 to PCI 8. Test results show that SINRs increase by about 10 dB.
SINR when cell 6 is enabled
Page 7 of 12
25-06-2020
SINR when cell 6 is disabled SINR when PCI 6 is changed to

PCI 8
Page 8 of 12
25-06-2020
3-Bad RF Conditions:
Signal Strength and Signal Quality numbers do not incorporate all of the relevant factors. In particular,
measurements of Signal Strength and Signal Quality for a specific moment do not reflect on the
STABILITY of a connection, as these values will vary as conditions change.
Above equation shows how can SINR be calculated on UE, at the end it has direct relation with RSRQ
which is a function in RSRP and RSSI as shown from following equation: RSRQ=(N*RSRP)/RSSI where
N is number of RBs
B-Solution
Page 9 of 12
25-06-2020
If SINR is degraded due to bad coverage, then it is logic to enhance it only by enhancing RF Conditions.
This can be done through:
 Physical changes
 Power increasing for dominant cell
 İndoor solutions
 Outdoor sites
4-High Traffic Load:

High load increases RSSI and Noise, since SINR can be decsribed from below formula:
So increasing the load will affect SINR Negatively.
Page 10 of 12
25-06-2020
B-Solution
Usually offloading or sharing traffic will enhance SINR of the highly utilized cell and this can be done by:
 Physical Optimization
 Soft Parameters (CIO, MLB parameters, Pre-load balancing ...)
5-External Interference:
Interference reduces coverage area by desensitizing the receiver and increasing the noise floor.
Throughput rate also suffers when interference degrades (SINR), preventing the use of higher modulation
coding schemes and efficient resource block allocation as the scheduler attempts to avoid impacted
spectrum. In one case a co-channel interferer reduced coverage by one mile and reduced throughput by
over 1Mbps. In network KPIs, interference has direct impact mostly on Ul Throughput and CQI (which is
reported in up-link indicating downlink channel quality based on SINR Calculations done by UE), while
value of external interference is measured by counters L.UL.Interference.Avg and L.UL.Interference.Max
B-Solution
Page 11 of 12
25-06-2020
Detecting and eliminating source of interference is the only way to solve this issue. Frequency scanner is
used to determine the source.
Thank You
Page 12 of 12
25-06-2020

LTE SINR Principle & Optimization

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

LTE SINR Principle & Optimization

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

LTE SINR Principle & Optimization

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

LTE SINR Principle & Optimization INTERNAL

LTE SINR Principle & Optimization

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

All rights reserved

2 Same PSS problem ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7

The following table represents a good classification of RF conditions Vs LTE KPIs

3 Problems Affecting SINR Degradation

Problems affecting SINR Degre

1-Lack of a Dominant Cell Problem:

2-Same PSS problem:

SINR when cell 6 is enabled

SINR when cell 6 is disabled SINR when PCI 6 is changed to

4-High Traffic Load:

So increasing the load will affect SINR Negatively.

You might also like