ERICSSON LTE – LTE KPI

OPTIMIZATION

April 14, 2020

Oke Adekunle Yakubu
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Table of Content

Part 01
• Overview
• Coverage Optimization
• Drop Call Optimization
• Mobility Optimization
Part 02
• 4G capacity evaluation and
optimization
• Internal Interference Optimization

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 Part 01

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 Overview

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Overview
A good network optimization can fully reduce interference level of the whole
network, improve the network performance and call success rate, reduce service
interruption, improve the data throughput, optimize the whole network handover
success rate, and improve the network capacity. Optimization is necessary so the
network performance satisfies certain thresholds or targets for key performance
indicators (KPIs) agreed beforehand with the operator.

The KPI in LTE is majorly divided into four categories:

Accessibility – The ability to get the service in a LTE network
Retain-ability – The probability that a service once obtained would continue for a
given duration of time under given conditions
Integrity – The quality experienced by the end user during a call or session
Mobility – The ability of the system to allow UE movement within the LTE RAN

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 Coverage Optimization

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Coverage Optimization
Coverage optimization is the key for LTE network optimization. The purpose is to highlight the
domain serving cell and reduce the coverage overlapping. The coverage of a functional
network is given by the downlink (DL) and the uplink (UL) coverage.

Major KPIs Impacted by Coverage Issues:

Accessibility: RRC SSR, CBRA SSR, E-RAB SSR etc.
Retainability: E-RAB Drop Rate
Integrity: UL/DL Throughput, Latency
Mobility: Intra-Freq HOSR, Inter-Freq HOSR

Coverage Issues:
Coverage holes definition: RSRP < −120dBm
Weak coverage definition: RSRP < −105dBm
Extended Coverage
Cell Border Adjustment
Vertical Coverage
Tx1/Tx2 RSRP Imbalance
Overshooting definition
Overlapping Coverage
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TYPES OF COVERAGE ISSUES IMPACTING RF
PERFORMANCE
Coverage holes definition: RSRP < −120dBm : Independent of the cause, coverage holes can be detected by
looking at the inter‐RAT handover statistics per each adjacency. More specifically, in case of a hole, a number of
terminals served by a set of neighbouring LTE cells, will perform inter‐RAT handover toward the same set of 3G/2G
cells. Inter‐RAT handover statistics may detect DL coverage holes from various causes: worse than expected
propagation, blocking by a building, and indoor penetration losses. The factors affecting DL coverage include path
loss (PL), frequency band, distance between a receive point and an eNB, scenarios (urban and suburban areas)
and terrains (plains, mountains, and hills) of electric wave propagation, and antenna related parameters, and so
on.

Weak coverage definition: RSRP < −105dBm: Because of, for example, excessive downtilt, attenuation due
to worse than expected propagation, or high indoor penetration, suffers from UL coverage limitation. UL coverage
limitation can result in radio link failures, in case the RSRP levels are still good and do not trigger any sort of intra
or inter‐RAT handover.

Extended Coverage: Large cells are suitable to obtain coverage in sparsely populated areas where the
requirement for capacity is low. Examples of such areas are deserts, coastal areas, or sea environments. For 3GPP
standard, LTE enable cell sizes up to 100 km. The limit corresponds to the maximum timing advance value that
can be sent to a UE. This will give the UE a minimum amount of processing time after receiving data in DL and
before transmitting a response in UL. For each cell, the maximum desired cell range can be defined from 1 up to
100 km by 3GPP. First, it is important to carefully select the correct combination of PRACH format type and special
subframe type. Either PRACH format or special subframe type will be the upper bound for maximum cell radius,
independent of link budgets. For LTE FDD, only PRACH format 0, 1, 2, 3 set an upper bound for maximum cell
radius.

Cell©Border Adjustment: During troubleshooting activities in a live network it has been seen that when the idle
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2015 parameters are not tuned correctly, the eNB will experience an abnormal number of time outs of the RRC
connection set up procedure. Similarly, if the bad coverage parameters are tuned incorrectly the eNB will
TYPES OF COVERAGE ISSUES IMPACTING RF
PERFORMANCE
Vertical Coverage: In most scenarios, users are predominantly distributed in the azimuth plane, so in the
narrowly spaced, horizontal configuration, antenna is clearly the best all‐around antenna. The vertically configured
antenna may show benefits for scenarios, such as the urban canyon, coverage of high‐rise buildings and small
cells. The vertical configuration requires UEs to be distributed in elevation.

Tx1/Tx2 RSRP Imbalance: The antenna system is one of the major components contributing to the
performance of a wireless communication system. When using multiple antennas, the antennas and feeders must
align well, when at least one antenna works well, but the others may be disconnected or have RF loss, there is
almost no gain from the disconnected antennas in such scenarios. Before launching the network, it will have to
make it possible to discover both slowly failing and wrongly mounted antenna systems timely and remotely.

Overshooting definition: Beyond the expected coverage, the victim cell’s RSRP is good, but RSRQ/SINR is
poor. Overshooting happens when a cell is giving coverage out of its designed coverage area into a neighbor cell
causing interference. Because of, for example, actual propagation being better than assumed in planning or an
error in setting the tilt value provides coverage farther than expected, overshooting is happening. It can be
detected by looking at the average inter‐site distance calculated over the target cells for outgoing handovers or by
looking into drive test results plot marked with serving cells IDs along with handovers. Overshooting cell usually
contributes to low throughput and drop call. The coverage area should be reduced to a certain degree by down
tilting or power setting.

Overlapping Coverage : LTE network use the same frequency, if the overlap area is too big between two cells,
it will cause a lot of interference with each other. As discussed previously, interference reduces the throughput in a
strong way, so the identification of the strongest interferers is needed. The main method of the coverage
optimization includes adjustment of the antenna azimuth, adjustment of the antenna downtilt, adjustment of the
antenna height,
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site, adding new sites or RRU for the poor coverage area, adjustment of the RS power, and so on.
 Parameters Related to Coverage
MO Class Range and Default Un
Name Parameter Name Parameter Description Values Value it Change Take Effect
EUtranCellFDD cellRange Defines the maximum distance from the base station where a connection to a UE can be 1..100 15 km Object unlocked
setup and/or maintained.
EUtranCellFDD qRxLevMin The required minimum received Reference Symbol Received Power (RSRP) level in the E- -140..-44 -140 dBm Immediately
UTRA frequency for cell reselection. Corresponds to parameter Qrxlevmin in 3GPP TS 36.304.
This attribute is broadcast in SIB1.
EUtranCellFDD pZeroNominalPucch The nominal component of the UE transmit power for Physical Uplink Control Channel -127..-96 -117 dBm Immediately
(PUCCH).
EUtranCellFDD pZeroNominalPusch The nominal component of the UE transmit power for Physical Uplink Shared Channel -126..24 -103 dBm Immediately
(PUSCH).
EUtranCellFDD qQualMin Specifies the minimum required quality level (RSRQ) in the cell in dB. -34..-3, 0 0 dB Immediately
Corresponds to Qqualmin in TS 36.304, sent in SIB1. Value 0 means that it is not sent and UE
applies in such case the (default) value of negative infinity for Qqualmin.
EUtranCellFDD alpha The pathloss compensation factor for power control of the Physical Uplink Shared Channel 0, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 . Immediately
(PUSCH). 9, 10
EUtranCellFDD crsGain Sets the DL power of the Cell specific Reference Signal (CRS) relatively a reference level -300,-200,- 0 dB Cell lock/unlock
defined by the power of the PDSCH type A resource elements. If crsGain is +3dB, the CRS 100,0,177,300,4
power is 3dB higher than that of a PDSCH type A resource element. 77,600
The settings crsGain=4.77db and 6dB are mapped to 3dB. These settings are not supported.
PDSCH type A resource elements are located in symbols that do not contain CRS.
EUtranCellFDD preambleInitialReceivedT -120..-90 -110 dBm Cell lock/unlock
argetPower Initial preamble power value in dBm, according to 3GPP specification 36.331 and 36.321.
EUtranCellFDD pdschTypeBGain Sets the DL power of the PDSCH type B resource elements relatively the PDSCH type A 0 ,1, 2, 3 0   Cell lock/unlock
resource elements. Values pdschTypeBGain=(0,1,2,3) define the gains (5/4,1,3/4,1/2)
respectively, corresponding to the multi-antenna scenario specified in 3GPP TS 36.213.

Example: If the pdschTypeBGain is 3 (gain=1/2), the power of the PDSCH type B resource
elements is a factor 1/ 2 of the power of the PDSCH type A resource elements.

PDSDH type A resource elements are located in symbols that do not contain cell specific
reference signals (CRS). PDSCH type B resource elements are located in symbols that contain
CRS.
EUtranCellFDD channelBandwidth The downlink channel bandwidth in a cell that is served by a neighboring RBS. In TDD mode, 0, 1400, 3000,   kHz  
(DL,UL) the uplink bandwidth is equal to the downlink bandwidth. The attribute is set by the RBS at 5000, 10000,
X2 SETUP procedure. The value 0 means there is no valid value available. 15000, 20000
SectorCarrier noOfTxAntennas The number of antennas that can be used for downlink transmission in a sector. 0,1,2,4,8 0   Cell lock/unlock
A parameter value of 0 means that the available configured resources will be used.
SectorEquipmentF configuredOutputPower Requested maximum sector power. The value represents the sum of the power for all 0..250000 20000 mW Lock/unlock of the Cell and
unction antenna connectors used by the sector. The value 0 represents 0 mW output power. Sector MOs.
Note: The valid range of confOutPutPower will be limited by the RU hardware capability or
the lack of suitable HWAC, or both.

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OSS COUNTERS RELATED TO COVERAGE

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 Drop Call Optimization

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Drop Call Optimization
Drop call will cause abnormal release. The definition of an abnormal session release can be presented by that the release
of the E‐RAB had a negative impact on the end‐user. In a packet domain system as LTE it is natural to establish and
release E‐RABs. Drop call usually caused by radio link failure (RLF). To check this there are two criteria, if the E‐RAB was
considered active at the time of release and the cause value of the release. There are several radio connection
supervision schemes in LTE to monitor the air interface link.

● UE detected DL sync by decoding PDCCH/PHICH and the BLER performance

● UE detected radio link failures (RLF) by T310 expiry, maximum number of RLC retransmissions, integrity check failure,
handover failure (T304 expiry) or non‐handover related random access problem

● eNB detected radio link failures (RLF) by PUSCH RLF, CQI RLF, Ack/Nack RLF, RLC failure SRB/DRB, also by vendor
specific, like UE capability enquiry time out, security mode complete time out, RRC connection reconfiguration complete
time out, RRC connection reestablishment complete time out, tRelocOverall time out (e.g. handover preparation or
handover execution takes too long time) etc.

● eNB initiated release: TA timer expiry and maximum RLC (radio link control) retransmissions exceeded.

For UL, the radio link supervision is performed in the eNB, for DL, it is carried out by similar supervision
function located in the UE.

Radio link failure (RLF) means the radio link between the eNB and the UE is lost. Once the eNB has
detected the loss of the radio link and the radio link failure condition is met, the eNB requests the MME to
release the UE context in the eNB, by sending the UE context release request message, with the cause
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“Release
13 2015 due to E‐UTRAN generated reason,” to the MME. Finally the UE switches to idle state, and the call is
dropped. Once the UE re‐enter the coverage area it may initiate the UE triggered connection re‐activation at any point in
Reasons for Call Drop
● Missing neighbour relations.
● Poor radio environment
● Badly tuned handover parameters.
● Admission reject (due to lack of licenses).
● PCI Conflict
● Abnormal Neighbour Relation (very distant neighbouring cells)
● S1_reset, due to S1 link issues
● Interference

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 Call Drop Optimization Actions
 Radio coverage control via physical optimization:

 Optional enhancement Features: Multi-Target RRC Re-establishment, ANR, Adapative RLC Retransmission,
Mobility Control at Poor Coverage etc.

 RLC Retransmission Parameter Tuning: dlMaxRetxtHhreshold, tPollRetransmit etc.

 Timer Tuning: T304 (Re-establishment), T310, tRelocOverallexpiry etc.

 Wrong Basic Parameter Configuration: TAC, PCI

 Badly Tuned Handover Parameters: cellindivdualoffseteutran, a3offset, a5threshold, b2threshold etc.

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 Mobility Optimization

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Mobility Optimization
Mobility is the key procedure for ensuring that users can move freely within a network. The LTE mobility can be divided
into “intra‐LTE mobility” and “inter‐LTE mobility” (inter‐working with 2G/3G and CDMA2000).

RRC_connected mobility (LTE handover) consists of four distinct phases: measurement configuration, measurement
reporting, handover evaluation, and handover execution. Handover process in LTE is hard handover; it means that
it has to break the wireless connection first and re‐establish the connection after it handover to a new cell, thus it will
impact the user experience in network.

The purpose of handover is to ensure that a UE in RRC_connected mode is served continuously when it moves. Mobility
including intra‐frequency handover, inter‐frequency handover, inter‐RAT handover and handover between TDD and FDD
LTE. From the mobility point of view, the mobility can be classified into intra‐LTE handover, coverage trigger session
continuity, inter‐frequency load balancing, service‐triggered mobility, and subscriber‐triggered mobility.

The parameters of mobility can be derived from SIB message below.

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RRC Connection Management
RRC connection management involves RRC connection establishment, RRC connection reconfiguration, RRC connection
re‐establishment, and RRC connection release.

● RRC connection establishment: This procedure is performed to establish an RRC connection. RRC connection
establishment involves signalling radio bearer 1 (SRB1) establishment. The procedure is also used to transmit the initial
NAS dedicated information or messages from the UE to the E‐UTRAN.
● RRC connection reconfiguration: This procedure is performed to modify an RRC connection, for example, to establish,
modify, or release radio bearers, to perform handovers, and to configure or modify measurements. As a part of the
procedure, NAS dedicated information may be transmitted from the E‐UTRAN to the UE.
● RRC connection re‐establishment: This procedure is performed to re‐establish an RRC connection after a handover
failure or radio link failure. RRC connection re‐establishment involves the restoration of SRB1 operation and the re‐
activation of security. A UE in RRC_ connected mode, for which security has been activated, may initiate the procedure in
order to continue the RRC connection. The connection re‐establishment will succeed only if the cell has a valid UE
context.
● RRC connection release: This procedure is performed to release an RRC connection. RRC connection release involves
the release of the established radio bearers and the release of all radio resources.

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Measurement Reporting
The UE performs radio measurements of its surrounding radio environment. The eNB controls the UE measurement in idle
mode with the broadcast system information blocks and in connected mode with a RRC measurement control message.
Two parameters are used to trigger measurements of the neighbouring cells, idle mode uses sIntrasearch, and
connected mode uses sMeasure.
When UE is in connected mode, a UE measurement consists of two parts: measurement object and report configuration.
This pair is referenced by a measurement ID. In connected mode, when the eNB provides the UE with a measurement
configuration, it includes the following parameters

● Measurement objects: The objects on which describes the radio technology and frequency to measure on.
● Reporting configurations: A list of reporting configurations where each reporting configuration consists of reporting
criterion and reporting format. Reporting criteria triggers the UE to send a measurement report (e.g., RSRP and RSRQ).
● Measurement identities: A list of measurement identities where each measurement identity links one measurement
object with one reporting configuration.
● Quantity configurations: One quantity configuration is configured for intra‐frequency measurements, and one per RAT
type.
● Measurement gaps: Periods that the UE may use to perform measurements, that is, no (UL, DL) transmissions are
scheduled.

Measurement procedures distinguish the following types of cells: the serving cell, cells listed within the measurement
objects, and cells that are not listed within the measurement objects but are detected by the UE on the carrier
frequencies indicated by the measurement objects.

When the measurements triggering conditions are met, the UE initiates the measurement reporting procedure and sends
a measurement report message to the eNB. The message includes the information related to the event previously
configured by the eNB. From the measurement report sent by the UE, the eNB may take a handover decision. LTE
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Handover Events
● Event A0: Periodical reporting
● Event A1: Serving becomes better than threshold
● Event A2: Serving becomes worse than threshold
● Event A3: Neighbour becomes offset better than serving
● Event A4: Neighbour cell becomes better than a threshold value. Event A4 is mainly used to configure UE to perform measurements
on inter‐frequency carriers for offloading purpose
● Event A5: Serving becomes worse than threshold1 and neighbour becomes better than threshold2
● Event B1: Inter‐RAT neighbour cell becomes better than a threshold value. Event B1 is use for CS fallback to UTRAN and GERAN
● Event B2: Serving becomes worse than threshold1 and inter RAT neighbour becomes better than threshold2 .

Note: In Ericsson, there is a feature introduced Mobility control at Poor Coverage which mobility actions and possibility to perform blind handover or
release with redirect to that RAT at critical threshold after measurement (search zone) with no suitable candidate meeting threshold2 value.
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Handover Procedure
The successful handover was determined by verifying the following message sequence
● Measurement report sent from UE to source cell.
● RRC connection reconfiguration message including MobilityControlInfo sent by a source cell to UE, and
● RRC connection reconfiguration complete sent from UE received by a target cell.

It can be either S1 or X2 Based Handover.

During the X2 handover procedure, the eNB performs the following

● An X2AP handover preparation procedure
● An X2AP SN status transfer procedure if the PDCP SN status preservation applies for at least one of the (RLC‐AM) radio
bearers handed over
● An RRC connection reconfiguration procedure for mobility within EUTRAN
● A X2 user‐plane data forwarding
● An X2AP UE context release procedure
● An S1AP path switch request procedure
● A UE context deletion in the source eNB (with associated resources)

During the S1 handover procedure, the eNB performs the following

● An S1AP handover preparation procedure
● An S1AP SN status transfer procedure if the PDCP SN status preservation applies for at least one of the (RLC‐AM) radio
bearers handed over
● An RRC connection reconfiguration procedure for mobility within EUTRAN
● A X2 user‐plane or S1 user‐plane data forwarding
● An S1AP handover notify procedure
● A UE context deletion in the source eNB
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.
Handover Procedure
X2 BASED HANDOVER S1 BASED
HANDOVER

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Mobility Parameter
● Qrxlevmin configures the cell minimum required RSRP level used by the UE in cell reselection as shown in Figure 8.21. Once the cell selection is
accomplished, UE dominated reselection is about to happen, the following rules are used by the UE:
● Intra‐frequency criterion: If Srxlev ≤ sIntraSearch, the UE performs intra‐frequency measurements, if Srxlev > sIntraSearch, the UE does not
perform these measurements.
● Inter‐frequency and/or inter‐RAT criterion: If Srxlev ≤ SNonIntraSearch, the UE performs inter ‐frequency and/or inter‐RAT measurements, if Srxlev
> SNonIntraSearch, the UE does not perform these measurements
● sIntraSearch: Specifies the threshold (RSRP) for intra‐frequency measurements, i.e. how bad must the serving cell before the UE starts to measure
on neighbouring cells.
● Cell Priority: The priority of a given neighbour relation is set by its cellReselectionPriority. All priority settings range from 0 to 7 with 7 being the
highest priority.

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Intra‐Frequency Cell Reselection
Cell Reselection Procedure The cell reselection process is run when the UE, in “camped normally” state, has found a better
neighboring cell than the cell on which it is camping. During cell reselection procedure the UE is not continuously measuring neighbor
cells in search of a better cell to camp on but only performs these measurements when the (S) criteria below is met:

Pcompensation factor, which considers the UE power (23dBm) and the maximum allowed power in the cell (PmaxServingCell). This is
done in order to prohibit low power UEs to select large cells. In the example: sintrasearch = 62, qrxLevMin = 130 dBm, The UE starts
measuring for a better cell when QrxlevMeas is worse than (62−130) = −68dBm.
Once the measurements for neighbor cells have been triggered the UE ranks the measured cells which fulfill the S‐criterion according
to the R‐criterion: intra‐LTE cell reselection occurs when neighbor cell becomes better than source cell (Rn > Rs) within a time interval
(TreselectionEUTRA).

where Qoffset is: qOffsetCellEUtran: Cell individual offset in the intra‐frequency and equal priority inter‐frequency cell ranking criteria.
qOffsetFreq: Frequency specific offset in the equal priority inter‐frequency cell ranking criteria.

Inter‐Frequency Cell Reselection:

LTE cell reselection uses priority‐based levels. Parameter sNonIntraSearch decides when UE starts searching and measuring all priority
cells. Priority based cell reselection is configured so that LTE frequencies have either higher or lower priority than 2/3G serving cell
priority. Inter‐frequency and inter‐RAT cell reselection are decided by higher‐priority cell reselection threshold ThreshXHigh and lower‐
priority cell reselection threshold ThreshXLow.

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 Intra‐LTE Handover Optimization
Intra‐LTE handover feature manages the UE in connected mode and allows for seamless mobility from one LTE cell to another. In
contrast to idle mode, connected mode mobility is entirely managed by the LTE RAN based on configured and received measurement
reports from the UE. Only hard handover is supported in LTE. Good handover performance will ensure the UE throughput and
experience. By modifying the handover parameters can avoid or reduce the too early, too late and ping‐pong handovers, so as to
improve the system performance. In a live network, either event (A3, A4, or A5) can be used in the LTE system with the intra and
inter‐frequency handover decision.

A3 and A5 Handover Event

A3 means neighbour becomes offset better than serving cell, event A3 is used for connected mode handover. The formula for Event
A3 triggered is shown below:

Offset, hysteresis, and timetotrigger values play major role in Intra handover. So if it considers offseta3 = 3dB, hysteresisa3 = 1dB,
and timetotriggera3 = 640msec then it could say that neighbouring sector has to be 4dB higher than serving cell for 640msec to
make the UE to generate event a3.
The formula of event A3 entering condition: Mn +Ofn + Ocn – Hyst > Ms + Ofs + Ocs + Off
The formula of event A5 entering condition: Ms + hysteresis < thresholdEutraRsrp and Mn + qoffsetFreq - hysteresis >
thresholdEutraRsrp 2

● Mn = measurement result of the neighbouring cell [dBm]

● Ofn = MeasObjectEUTRA: offsetFreq, Ofn is the frequency specific offset of the frequency of the neighbour cell [dB]
● Ocn = cellIndividualOffset for neighbouring cell [dB], can be used to fine tune the handover hysteresis on a cell‐to‐cell basis, which
make the handover from cell1 to cell2 more difficult by decreasing the cellIndividualOffset of the cell2

Note: increasing TimeToTrigger and hysteresis might reduce ping pong effect and unnecessary handover but at the same time
increasing tooSolutions
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Intra‐LTE Handover Optimization

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 Mobility Improvement
 Radio coverage control via physical optimization:

 Optional enhancement Features: ANR, Mobility Control at Poor Coverage, AMO (Automated Mobility
Optimization), X2 Activation etc.

 PCI/ TAC Correction.

 Parameter Tuning – ANR Policy Tuning, triggerQuantityEvent, eventThresholdRsrp/RSRQ, Hysteresis,

timetotrigger, cfraenabled etc.

 Wrong Basic Parameter Configuration: TAC, PCI

 Badly Tuned Handover Parameters: cellindivdualoffseteutran, a3offset, a5threshold, b2threshold etc.

 S1 Issues Correction

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 Part 02

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 4G capacity evaluation
and optimization

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4G capacity evaluation and optimization
Capacity optimization focuses on the resource utilities and high traffic solution. It is not only about user plane
dimensioning but also interference control, signalling solutions, and user connectivity dimensioning. LTE cell and user
throughput is an important KPI of capacity
optimization. Many high‐resource utilities are usually UL limited while the networks in general are DL limited, which
adds further complexity on the high capacity optimization. When performing root cause analysis of LTE low throughput
investigations, it is important to analyze the radio conditions, signalling flows, logging messages, and cell loading to
understand low throughput reasons. In order to improve the SIR, it may be necessary to perform antenna tilting to
reduce over shooting cells and minimize coverage overlap as this may cause excessive inter‐cell interference.

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Factors Impacting 4G Capacity
RS SINR:
RS SINR is the most important factor impacted the network capacity. RS SINR is determined by position in cell (RSRP),
interfering cell load, interferer cell geometry, clutter and terrain type, and reference signal configuration, and so on. A
high‐speed LTE data network requires excellent SINR distribution planning besides parameter optimization and
troubleshooting. Various internal and external assessments have shown that the network has room for improving the
SINR and CQI distribution which would be a precursor to any additional optimization under static and mobility scenarios,
and directly impacts the accessibility, retainability, throughput, and quality.

PDCCH Capacity:
PDCCH (Physical DL control channel) is used to transfer DCI (DL control information) for the scheduling of DL resources
on PDSCH and UL resources on PUSCH. PDCCH symbols in the beginning of each subframe can be dynamically adjusted
based on the load and radio conditions. UE in poor radio coverage will require 8 control channel elements (CCE, PDCCH
can be aggregated in groups of 1, 2, 4, and 8 CCEs) for each PDCCH transmission where as UE in good radio conditions
may need 1 CCE. Therefore, higher aggregation levels should be employed at cell‐edge whereas lower aggregation
levels are meant for users close to the cell. PDCCH capacity is measured in terms of CCEs, which are 9 sets of REGs
(resource element groups), that is, 36 REs as each REG contains 4 RE. PDCCH coding is restricted to QPSK and coding
scheme (convolutional 1/3) in order to enhance the decoding in low SINR conditions at cell‐edge with BLER below 1%.

PUCCH Capacity:
The physical UL control channel (PUCCH) is used for the transmission of signaling (scheduling requests, HARQ
acknowledgments, channel state information) when no simultaneous UL data is being sent. The PUCCH resources are
always allocated on the extreme ends of the bandwidth in order to maximize the number of contiguous PRBs that can be
allocated for the PUSCH. Additionally, users will hop between the bandwidth edges (intra subframe hopping) in order to
provide frequency diversity gain for PUCCH transmissions.
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Factors Impacting 4G Capacity
Number of Scheduled UEs:
The user throughput is impacted by the number of users in the cell. If an excessively large number of users have
accessed the cell and eNB are exhausted when a UE accesses the cell, the user throughput will be low. The maximum
number of active UEs is dependent on the RAN license. In fact, when the maximum number of users of the cell began to
restricted, it can be improved by increasing inactivityTimer. Inactivity timer is a system parameter controlling the
transition from RRC connected state to idle state.

● Actively scheduled user: the definition of the number of actively scheduled UEs are the scheduled UEs per TTI by
eNB, there is a license feature on the eNB capacity. The No. of UL actively scheduled UEs is dependent on the channel of
PRACH, SRS, and PUCCH, the No. of DL actively scheduled UEs is dependent on the channel of PHICH and PDCCH.
● Connected user: connected user is 3GPP defined concept, a connected user is defined as UE in the state of
RRC_connected. UE is considered connected UE, if it has at least one DRB established. When a user is in RRC_connected
state, it does not necessarily need to transfer any data. The maximum range for the amount of simultaneous connected
users depends on the digital unit hardware, the number of RRC connected users is relevant for the radio network
dimensioning. Usually a single cell can offer no less than 1200 connected users.
● Attached user: the definition of a connected user is different from a simultaneously attached user. Simultaneously
attached users in the EPC include users in both RRC_idle and RRC_ connected states. Another critical key distinction is
that connected users is not equal to subscribers in the cell (including detached users).

Spectral Efficiency:
Spectral efficiency is the user data transmission rate over a given radio bandwidth (1Hz). It is determined by multiple
factors, including coverage, quality of signal, MIMO, and so on. From eNB available data, it can be estimated the spectral
efficiency by modulation and coding scheme used (MCS), network layers overhead, control and signaling overhead and
cyclic prefix overhead. Modulation and coding scheme are related to the radio signal quality, that is, SINR. Overheads
are the radioSolutions
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symbol transmission.
 DL Throughput Optimization
In LTE, DL throughput is directly correlated with SINR. Typically, the UE has an algorithm to report CQI to the eNB
depending on the SINR measurement. DL UE throughout increases as CQI increases or MIMO usage increases, and as DL
iBLER decreases or UE‐eNB distance decreases. The general troubleshooting strategy is described in the following along
with different factors responsible for poor throughput.

● Excessively high BLER (bad coverage)

● DL interference (bad CQI)
● MIMO parameters
● Scheduling algorithm
● Low demand
● CQI reporting frequency
● Other (VSWR, backhaul capacity) Analysis flow for DL throughput investigation if backhaul or other physical issues
work well.
● CQI and 64/16QAM ratio: average CQI and the ratio of 64QAM samples and RI (rank indicator, decides how many
codewords is used for the data transmission) indicates DL SINR status. Average CQI should be high (>10%), the ratio of
64QAM sample should be high (>10%).
● TM modes: MIMO (tm3) versus TxD (tm2) versus SIMO (tm1).
● UE scheduling percentage of TTIs (how often is the UE scheduled).
● PRB(DL) and PDCCH utilization: High PRB and PDCCH utilization would impact the DL throughput.
● DL latency and RLC retransmission: High value of DL latency (>9 ms) and RLC retransmission (>1%) would impact DL
throughput.
● Power limited UE and No. of A2 events: High occurrence of transport block PWR restricted and the counter of bad
coverage report indicates poor DL coverage.
● RRC connected users: DL throughput would reduce with increase in number of connected users.

In conclusion, the impacted

© Nokia Solutions factors of low throughput includes UL/DL bandwidth, signalling quality (CQI, SINR, MCSs),
and Networks
33 2015
number of DL bearers, QoS (QCIs, GBR), transmission mode (SISO, MIMO, TxDiv), backhaul delay (RTT‐affecting on ACK‐
ed traffic), UE capacity, UL power control (TPC command), scheduler, and so on. Before investigating any throughput
 UL Throughput Optimization
UL throughput optimization is not a trivial task in since there are different features that affect the UL throughput. UL
scheduler assignments will decide how many PRBs are allocated to each UE, UL adaptive modulation and coding will
decide the MCS to be used by each UE every time it is granted UL resources, and adaptive transmission bandwidth will
reduces the number of PRBs assigned to the UE in the UL based on the UEs power headroom reports in order to favor
retainability of the call. The general troubleshooting strategy is described in the following along with different factors
responsible for poor UL throughput.
● High BLER (bad coverage)
● UL interference (high RSSI)
● Low power headroom
● Scheduling algorithm
● Low demand
● Other (VSWR, backhaul capacity) Analysis flow for UL throughput investigation:
● Alarm and parameter/feature check: make baseline audit for parameter and feature.
● RSSI: High UL RSSI would impact the UL throughput.
● Percentage of 16 QAM samples: Low usage of 16 QAM modulations scheme in UL would impact the UL throughput.
● PUCCH and PUSCH SINR: Poor UL_SINR conditions would impact UL throughput.
● Power limited UE: High number of power limited UE indicates poor UL coverage.
● Cell bandwidth versus maximum allowable PRBs, the number of PRBs available for UL scheduling.
● Link adaptation, SINR of PUSCH is the inputs for UL.
● MCS available and 16QAM
● PDCCH SIB scheduling colliding with UL grant, PDCCH collisions can occur with SIB/ DL transmissions as DL and UL
grants are both scheduled using the same PDCCH resources.
● HARQ for UL.

© Nokia Solutions and Networks

34 2015
 Parameters Related to Capacity/Throughput
Default Uni
MO Class Name Parameter Name Parameter Description Data Type Range and Values Value t
QciProfilePredefined resourceAllocationStrategy Defines the resource allocation strategy of the QoS ResourceAllocationStr RESOURCE_FAIR RESOURCE_FAIR  
Class Identifier (QCI). ategy FREQUENCY_SELECTIVE
QciProfilePredefined qciSubscriptionQuanta Normalized subscription quantity associated with the long 0..50000 1  
specific the QCI. Specifies the subscription cost of a
bearer with this predefined profile. The subscription
cost is used for traffic load balancing purposes.
QciProfileOperatorDefi resourceAllocationStrategy Defines the resource allocation strategy of the QoS ResourceAllocationStr RESOURCE_FAIR RESOURCE_FAIR  
ned Class Identifier (QCI). ategy FREQUENCY_SELECTIVE
QciProfileOperatorDefi schedulingAlgorithm Specifies which scheduling algorithm is to be used for a SchedulingAlgorithm RESOURCE_FAIR RESOURCE_FAIR  
ned certain QCI. EQUAL_RATE
PROPORTIONAL_FAIR_HIGH
PROPORTIONAL_FAIR_MEDIUM
PROPORTIONAL_FAIR_LOW
MAXIMUM_C_OVER_I
DELAY_BASED
EUtranCellFDD noOfPucchCqiUsers The number of Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) long 0..4000 160  
resources available on the PUCCH channel.

For 1.4 MHz system bandwidth the recommended value

is 50.

EUtranCellFDD cellRange Defines the maximum distance from the base station long 1..100 15 km
where a connection to a UE can be setup and/or
maintained.
EUtranCellFDD pdcchTargetBler PDCCH target error rate for UEs that do not have any long 1..200 24 %
secondary cell configured and do not have any bearer
mapped to a QCI with serviceType of VoIP.
EUtranCellRelation loadBalancing This attribute indicates whether Inter-Frequency Load LoadBalancingVals NOT_ALLOWED NOT_ALLOWED  
Balancing is ALLOWED or NOT_ALLOWED or if Inter- ALLOWED
Frequency Offload shall be applied from the current cell OFFLOAD
to the cell indicated by the cell relation.
EUtranCellRelation sCellCandidate Secondary Component Carrier (SCell) candidate status. SCellCandidate NOT_ALLOWED AUTO  
ALLOWED
© Nokia Solutions and Networks The value indicates whether the cell indicated by AUTO
35 2015 parameter cellrelation can be used as SCell for UEs
using this cell as their Primary Component Carrier
(PCell).
Parameters Related to Capacity/Throughput
Parameter Data Default Un
MO Class Name Name Parameter Description Type Range and Values Value it
EUtranCellFDD noOfRxAntennas The number of antennas that can be used for uplink long 0,1,2,4,8 0  
beamforming/MIMO
A parameter value of 0 means that the available configured resources
will be used.
EUtranCellFDD pdcchCfiMode Controls the CFI (Control Format Indicator) used for the control region. CfiMode CFI_STATIC_BY_BW CFI_STATIC_BY  
cfiMode maps to CFI as described under enumerations. For DL BW of CFI_STATIC_1 _BW
1400 kHz, values of CFI = 1, 2 and 3 map to 2, 3, and 4 control region CFI_STATIC_2
symbols respectively. Other BW, CFI maps directly to number of control CFI_STATIC_3
region symbols. CFI_AUTO_MAXIMUM_2
CFI_AUTO_MAXIMUM_3
EUtranCellFDD mobCtrlAtPoorCovAc Specifies if the feature Mobility Control at Poor Coverage is enabled or boolean   false  
tive disabled in the cell.
EUtranCellFDD crsGain Sets the DL power of the Cell specific Reference Signal (CRS) relatively long -300,-200,-100,0,177,300,477,600 0 dB
a reference level defined by the power of the PDSCH type A resource
elements. If crsGain is +3dB, the CRS power is 3dB higher than that of
a PDSCH type A resource element.

The settings crsGain=4.77db and 6dB are mapped to 3dB. These

settings are not supported.

PDSCH type A resource elements are located in symbols that do not

contain CRS.
EUtranCellFDD pdschTypeBGain Sets the DL power of the PDSCH type B resource elements relatively long 0 ,1, 2, 3 0  
the PDSCH type A resource elements. Values
pdschTypeBGain=(0,1,2,3) define the gains (5/4,1,3/4,1/2)
respectively, corresponding to the multi-antenna scenario specified in
3GPP TS 36.213.

Example: If the pdschTypeBGain is 3 (gain=1/2), the power of the

PDSCH type B resource elements is a factor 1/ 2 of the power of the
PDSCH type A resource elements.

PDSDH type A resource elements are located in symbols that do not

contain cell specific reference signals (CRS). PDSCH type B resource
elements are located in symbols that contain CRS.
ExternalEUtranCellTDD channelBandwidth The downlink channel bandwidth in a cell that is served by a long 0, 1400, 3000, 5000, 10000, 15000,   kHz
© Nokia Solutions and Networks neighboring RBS. In TDD mode, the uplink bandwidth is equal to the 20000
36 2015 downlink bandwidth. The attribute is set by the RBS at X2 SETUP
procedure. The value 0 means there is no valid value available.
 Internal Interference
Optimization

© Nokia Solutions and Networks

37 2015
Internal Interference Optimization
High interference leads to bad impact on several KPIs. For voice‐centric service, this translates to reducing the probability
of bad coverage zones or zones with low SINR. For datacentric service, improving coverage refers to improvement in the
lowest 5% achievable data rates. In a cellular system, since the zones with poor coverage are usually areas that see
maximum interference, a desirable goal is important to design mechanisms to mitigate the intra‐LTE interference.

Interference Concept:
The UL thermal noise power within the UL system bandwidth consisting of NRB UL resource blocks as defined in 3GPP
standard It is defined as (No × W), where No denotes the white noise power spectral density on the UL carrier
frequency and W denotes the UL system bandwidth. The measurement is optionally reported together with the
received interference power (RIP) measurement, it shall be determined over the same time period as the RIP
measurement. The reference point for the measurement shall be the RX antenna connector. In case of receiver diversity,
the reported value shall be linear average of the power in the diversity branches. The noise floor on the UL is estimated
using the formula as following,
UL NoiseFloor = Thermalnoise + NoiseFigure

For nominal cell values in a network with RRU deployments, when the noise floor without loading is not more than −118
dBm, and no more than −108 dBm with full loading is accepted.

The noise floor on the DL is estimated using the formula as following,

NoiseFloor = RSRP – RSSINR

Noise rise is a quantity that describes the increase in interference that comes with increased traffic. A bad SINR is based
on bad high noise or high interference, SINR/SNR can be expressed as:

SINR/SNR = 1/ (1 + interference/noisepower)
For SINR/SNR = 1, means that noise is a lot higher than interference, and this is a noise‐limited scenario (typically
© Nokia Solutions and Networks
SINR/SNR
38 2015 > 0.5). For SINR/SNR = 0, means that interference is a lot higher than noise, this is a interference‐limited
scenario (typically SINR/SNR < 0.5). For SINR/ SNR = 0.5, means that noise is equal to the interference. Usually, there
 DL Interference
The interference in an LTE system comes from the surrounding cells, called inter‐cell interference. Reduce neighbour cell interference is
the key method to improve DL SINR. The case of normal RSRP and lower SINR is generally caused by interference from neighbours cells.
For the same frequency network in LTE, co‐channel interference is inevitable, with the increase of the cell loading, SINR value decreases,
but the RSRP is basically unchanged. Use overlapping coverage index to evaluate the possible impacts between cells is a very good
method to evaluate and optimize the LTE network.

Interference Concept:
The UL thermal noise power within the UL system bandwidth consisting of NRB UL resource blocks as defined in 3GPP standard It is
defined as (No × W), where No denotes the white noise power spectral density on the UL carrier frequency and W denotes
the UL system bandwidth. The measurement is optionally reported together with the received interference power (RIP) measurement,
it shall be determined over the same time period as the RIP measurement. The reference point for the measurement shall be the RX
antenna connector. In case of receiver diversity, the reported value shall be linear average of the power in the diversity branches. The
noise floor on the UL is estimated using the formula as following,
UL NoiseFloor = Thermalnoise + NoiseFigure

For nominal cell values in a network with RRU deployments, when the noise floor without loading is not more than −118 dBm, and no
more than −108 dBm with full loading is accepted.

The noise floor on the DL is estimated using the formula as following,

NoiseFloor = RSRP – RSSINR

Noise rise is a quantity that describes the increase in interference that comes with increased traffic. A bad SINR is based on bad high noise
or high interference, SINR/SNR can be expressed as:
SINR/SNR = 1/ (1 + interference/noisepower)
For SINR/SNR = 1, means that noise is a lot higher than interference, and this is a noise‐limited scenario (typically SINR/SNR > 0.5). For
SINR/SNR = 0, means that interference is a lot higher than noise, this is a interference‐limited scenario (typically SINR/SNR < 0.5). For
SINR/ SNR = 0.5, means that noise is equal to the interference. Usually, there seems to be an interference issue when densifying the
network.
© Nokia Solutions and Networks
But39in 2015
the case of no load around the cell, the following two cases will also produce the interference that we do not
expect. First, the surrounding area PCI setting is incorrect, the second is neighbour cell overshooting.
 Balance Between SINR and RSRP
In LTE, it should more strictly optimizing the coverage among cells. Interference control aims to find the balance between
SINR and RSRP. As seen below, with too little overlap, handover may fail, whereas with too much cell overlap, higher
interference occurs and cell‐edge throughput can be reduced. Again, a balance must be achieved by adjusting overlap
margins and cell sizes. This can be achieved with parameters and physical changes. Cell overlapping area is a sensitive area
in LTE network optimization. In the area, the SINR and RSRP is refers to the lowest 5% samples, cell reselection, handover,
dropped calls, and other failure events will probably happen frequently.

© Nokia Solutions and Networks

40 2015
 UL Interference
In the UL, received interference power (RIP, equivalent UL RSSI) and thermal noise power at eNB reflect the experienced interference at
eNB and they indicate the network load. In the UL, the UEs near the cell border will cause most of the interference to adjacent cells, the
eNB scheduler can adjust the transmit PSD of mobiles near the cell edge in a frequency selective manner in order to shape the inter‐cell
interference that is generated.

More UEs with bad RF conditions trying to excess eNB transmitting high power without success causes high UL noise floor and thus
causes access failures/drop calls, which further reduces the spectrum efficiency (capacity) since MCS determines the spectrum
efficiency (capacity). With the increase of simultaneous UEs, after the critical point, all of major performance stats worsen dramatically.

Interference sources include high traffic in the UL, external source of interference (WiFi, power generator, GSM interference), too high in
values of P0NominalPUCCH and P0NominalPUSCH, incorrect installation (wrong feeder type), incorrect parameters setting (UL
attenuation and VSWR) and sharing a site with different technology (CDMA and LTE, GSM and LTE) that will have high chance to have
interference during high traffic load.

UL Interference Detection:
RSSI is a measurement of all of the power contained in the used bandwidth. This could be signals, background noise, anything. High UL
RSSI issue is an common issue that will impact the UL performance of the LTE network. In a normal case, the UL RSSI on each resource
block is about −119 to 120 dBm when the cell is unloaded. If the RSSI is 3 to 5 dBm higher than the normal value at unloaded, UL
interference exists. The causes of high UL RSSI are coming from LTE internal caused by inter‐cell UL interference at cell edge, and
external system interference includes hardware issue, such as antenna, cable, RU module, and wrong parameter configuration.

UL interference level can be spot by UL RSSI simply. When UL RSSI’s range is −121 to −110 dBm, that means no UL interference. When
UL RSSI’s range is −110 to −100 dBm, it means that UL is under medium interference. When UL RSSI is higher than −100 dBm, it
means that UL is under higher interference. There are also two counters that are used to measure the interferences for PUSCH and
PUCCH channels, pmRadioRecInterferencePwrPusch and pmRadioRecInterferencePwrPucch. From these counters at the cell level in
which the measurements are averaged over receive antennas, is it possible to identify antenna branches with external interference, as
shown below

© Nokia Solutions and Networks

41 2015
 Counters Related to Interference
Counte
Counter r Size Description Unit Condition
pmRadioRecInterferencePwr PDF[16] The measured Noise and Interference Power on PUSCH, according to dBm/PRB A wideband value for the frequency domain is measured in every valid UL
36.214 subframe, including the UpPTS part of special subframe.

PDF ranges:
[0]: N+I <= -121
[1]: -121 < N+I <= -120
[2]: -120 < N+I <= -119
[3]: -119 < N+I <= -118
[4]: -118 < N+I <= -117
[5]: -117 < N+I <= -116
[6]: -116 < N+I <= -115
[7]: -115 < N+I <= -114
[8]: -114< N+I <= -113
[9]: -113 < N+I <= -112
[10]: -112 < N+I <= -108
[11]: -108 < N+I <= -104
[12]: -104 < N+I <= -100
[13]: -100 < N+I <= -96
[14]: -96 < N+I <= -92
[15]: -92 < N+I

pmRadioRecInterferencePwrPucc PDF[16] The measured Noise and Interference Power on PUCCH, according to dBm/PRB A wideband value for the frequency domain is measured in every valid UL
h 36.214. subframe, including the UpPTS part of special subframe.

PDF ranges:
[0]: N+I <= -121
[1]: -121 < N+I <= -120
[2]: -120 < N+I <= -119
[3]: -119 < N+I <= -118
[4]: -118 < N+I <= -117
[5]: -117 < N+I <= -116
[6]: -116 < N+I <= -115
[7]: -115 < N+I <= -114
[8]: -114< N+I <= -113
[9]: -113 < N+I <= -112
[10]: -112 < N+I <= -108
[11]: -108 < N+I <= -104
[12]: -104 < N+I <= -100
[13]: -100 < N+I <= -96
[14]: -96 < N+I <= -92
[15]: -92 < N+I

© Nokia Solutions and Networks

pmRadioRecInterferencePwrPrb1
42 2015 Single The accumulated interference power for PRB100 mW * 2^(- Samples summed over the measurement period. Measurements are averaged
00 44) over receive antennas. One sample for each PRB per 40ms.
Counters Related to Interference
Count Uni
Counter er Size Description t Condition
pmSinrPucchDistr PDF[8] Distribution of the SINR values calculated for PUCCH . dB Each SINR value for a PUCCH
transmission yields one sample in the
PDF ranges: distribution.
[0]: SINR <= -15
[1]: -15 < SINR <= -12
[2]: -12 < SINR <= -9
[3]: -9 < SINR <= -6
[4]: -6 < SINR <= -3
[5]: -3 < SINR <= 0
[6]: 0 < SINR <= 3
[7]: 3 < SINR
pmSinrPuschDistr PDF[8] Distribution of the SINR values calculated for PUSCH . dB Each SINR value for a PUSCH
transmission yields one sample in the
PDF ranges: distribution.
[0]: SINR <= -5
[1]: -5 < SINR <= -2
[2]: -2 < SINR <= 2
[3]: 2 < SINR <= 6
[4]: 6 < SINR <= 10
[5]: 10 < SINR <= 14
[6]: 14 < SINR <= 17
[7]: 17 < SINR
pmBranchDeltaSinr PDF[60] The purpose of the measurement is to monitor the antenna status and detect the faulty antenna in   Each sample steps up one bin counter
Distr0 antenna branch pair 0. increment but it depends on the
The measurement is the SINR difference of PUSCH channel between antenna branch A and antenna measurement results to determine
branch B in antenna branch pair 0. which bin counter is incremented. If
PDF ranges: the bin measurement value falls, the
[0]: =< -29 dB bin counter increments. This counter is
[1]: ]-29..-28] dB used for antenna branch pair 0 with
[2]: ]-28..-27] dB antenna branch A and B.
...
[29]: ]-1..0] dB
[30]: ]0..1] dB
[31]: ]1..2] dB
...
[57]: ]27..28] dB
[58]: ]28..29] dB
© Nokia Solutions and Networks [59]: > 29 dB
43 2015 Compressed: true.
 Interference Optimization Actions
 Fractional Pathloss Power Control: P0NominalPucch, P0NominalPusch, alpha

 Adjustable RS power: crsGain, pdschTypeBGain

 Radio coverage and interference control via physical optimization:

 Optional Interference enhancement Features: Interference Rejection Combining, Uplink Interference Reporting,
Drx (Discontinuous Reception) etc.

© Nokia Solutions and Networks

44 2015