LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 2

❖ Basic and Key

MIMO is a basic and key feature in LTE. How to keep it to play an
important role in our network?
❖ Care and Value
Customer cares and values the MIMO usage, it means resource
utilizing efficiency, end-user performance, and competition advantage
❖ Benefit
MIMO is very important for KPI improvement. It is a good weapon in the
3rd part test.
❖ Neglect
Related issues may be easily neglected. Need new focus in the LTE
optimization

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 3

 ▪ Follow UE RI
suggestion
▪ Select MCS basing on
CQI Schedule ➢ Transmission Mode (TM)
▪ May consider other – TM3, default setting
conditions o Open Loop Spatial Multiplexing
Rank1 (Transmit Diversity)
– Rank1, use for cell edge, with
low SINR
o Open Loop Spatial Multiplexing
Rank2
Measure – Rank2, use for improve
throughput, with high SINR
Report
▪ Measure downlink
signal
▪ Calculate CQI and RI
▪ Report CSI

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 4

 ENB Scheduled UE reported
Radio Environment
❖ pmRadioTxRankDistr ❖ pmRadioUeRepRankDistr
Scheduling

ENB pmRadi pmRadi UE

pmRadi pmRadi Schedul oUeRep oUeRep Reporte
oTxRan oTxRan ed RankDis RankDis d
eutrancellFDD kDistr_1 kDistr_2 Rank2% tr_0 tr_1 Rank2%
DGCP_FE_D4991
45_A 604400 916538 60.26% 462180 748559 61.83%
DGCP_FE_D4991
45_B 785728 1934567 71.12% 818503 2004642 71.01%
DGCP_FE_D4991
45_C 1680812 3840838 69.56% 1339427 3465111 72.12%

These 2 percentages are very close

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 5
 ❖ All outdoor sites deploy ❖ Most of indoor sites
MIMO (2T2R, 4T4R...) don’t have MIMO
(only 1T1R)
❖ Only some key
buliding deploy MIMO
or partial MIMO

Parameters setting to achieve MIMO

noOfTxAntennas should be 2

Should have 2 Rfbranch

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 6

 ❖ Identify problem cells by KPI analysis
– Low CQI, and Low Rank2 percentage (CQI<9, Rank2%<45% or lower)
– High CQI, and Low Rank2 Percentage (CQI > 10, Rank2% <30%)

pmRadioT pmRadioT ENB_Sche pmRadioU pmRadioU UE_Report

xRankDist xRankDist duled_Ran eRepRank eRepRank ed_Rank2
eutrancellFDD Start date End date Avg_CQI r_1 r_2 k2% Distr_0 Distr_1 %
DGCP_FE_D497794_B 20150909 20150915 6.67 117185 31718 21.30% 48181 18002 27.20%
DGCS_FE_D497899_B 20150909 20150915 8.83 1084863 691016 38.91% 1030126 821746 44.37%
DGCS_FE_D499230_B 20150909 20150915 6.99 1148269 506121 30.59% 754094 487481 39.26%
More focus on the
DGHJ_FE_D499073_C radio
20150909 20150915
environment 8.35 2379880 1365349 36.46% 1717908 1323259 43.51%
DGQX_FE_D499001_A 20150909 20150915 7.89 5238155 3612023 40.81% 2117855 1312370 38.26%
DGTX_FE_D499053_2A 20150909 20150915 7.82 3147249 1453387 31.59% 4230876 3357649 44.25%
DGTX_FE_D499050_2B 20150909 20150915 6.89 5091532 2082573 29.03% 6706337 4931753 42.38%
DGFG_WE_D498513_A 20150909 20150915 13.40 4867213 19386 0.40% 3734398 17610 0.47%
DGHL_WE_D498543_F 20150909 20150915 13.40 15891432 1138158 6.68% 14384147 1303453 8.31%
DGHL_WE_D498539_E 20150909 20150915 14.09 31582261 1021451 3.13% 26873342 1174939 4.19%
DGQT_FE_D498995_A 20150909 20150915 10.69 17221179 2725889 13.67% 15077975 2197204 12.72%
DGSP_WE_D498842_A
More focus on 20150909 20150915 10.66 3040063 26803 0.87% 2633822 32885 1.23%
hardware issues 20150909 20150915
DGTX_FE_D497674_C 10.41 8779105 1679184 16.06% 6900350 874236 11.24%
DGZMT_FE_D499099_A 20150909 20150915 11.08 6445571 17881 0.28% 5572124 22845 0.41%
DGZMT_FE_D497879_A 20150909 20150915 12.71 25894414 314441 1.20% 18551588 201505 1.07%

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 7

 ❖ Issue Category 1: Low CQI, and low rank2 percentage
– Coverage and Interferene: Low coverage, No domain cell, Too many overlapping
cell…
– Improve coverage, Reduce the interference: Adjust antenna (bearing, downtilting),
cell power; Install more site (macro, small site, RDS...)

❖ Issue Category 2: High CQI, but with low rank2 percentage

o Analysis
– Indoor design: ENB MIMO setting doesn’t match the engineering installation
Such as RRU different port covers different area; only part of IBS has MIMO design
– Power unbalance: the power of 2 ports is different, difference big than 5dB
o Troubleshooting for power unbalance
– IBS Design issue: check IBS design, calculate the power
– Equipment fault
i. Alarm check
ii. VSWR difference check for 2 ports
iii. Testing on site: Block one port with a load, then test another, to check
iv. Scanner: can test RS power of different port
v. Feature-Antenna System Monitoring: help to identify the issue
LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 8
 ❖ Scanner to find power unbalance issue
– Scanner which supports MIMO can scan the RSSI of different port
– Compare the RSSI of port0 and port1 to see whether the power is balanced
Primary Primary Secondar Secondar
Carrier Carrier Sync Sync Sync y Sync y Sync Ref Ref
RSSI RSSI Signal - Channel Channel Channel Channel Signal - Signal - Ref
Longitud Antenna Antenna Timeoffs Received Received Received Received Received Received Signal -
Latitude e Cell ID Port 0 Port 1 et Power Quality Power Quality Power Quality CINR
22.83245 114.1549 283 -60.89 -61.09 13668 -87.26 -3.99 -87.15 -3.81 -82.89 -8.53 10.17
22.83245 114.1549 282 -64.91 -65.11 13668 -89.86 -6.59 -90.99 -7.65 -86.91 -12.55 2.36
22.83245 114.1549 93 -66.96 -67.16 13444 -89.21 -5.95 -88.8 -5.48 -88.96 -14.5 -2.16
22.83245 114.1549 274 -73.59 -73.79 13573 -87.31 -4.1 -90.81 -7.53 -95.59 -21.26 -11.47

❖ Antenna System Monitoring

– Measure UL SINR for every RX port, to see the balance of 2 RX ports and find related issues
– Also can use these data to judge the possible DL unbalance problems

Misaligned: 2 ports, Swapped Counters to monitor

not fully overlapping

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 9

› DGZMT_FE_D497879_A : Rank2 percent is less than 1%. Only cell A has this
problem, other 2 cells are normal in this site.
ENB
pmRadioTxRa pmRadioTxRa Scheduled pmRadioUeRe pmRadioUeRe UE reported
Date Average CQI nkDistr_1 nkDistr_2 Rank2 % pRankDistr_0 pRankDistr_1 Rank2%
2015/8/19 12.94 2682059 25022 0.92% 1919557 13708 0.71%
2015/8/20 12.81 3775290 35083 0.92% 2428947 16850 0.69%
2015/8/21 12.92 3846546 36697 0.95% 2605718 18839 0.72%
2015/8/22 13.06 4009007 38007 0.94% 2710242 20030 0.73%
2015/8/23 12.92 3335525 32468 0.96% 2343490 15991 0.68%
2015/8/24 12.73 3424595 35341 1.02% 2219820 13859 0.62%
2015/8/25 12.67 2994269 26751 0.89% 1970237 14074 0.71%
› From above table, rank2 percent for both ENB scheduled and UE reported are very low.
But the average CQI is very good, more than 12. Below is the UE test log:

› Very good radio environment (SINR is around 20dB), and the PDSCH BLER is also very
low. But the RI is always 1.
LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 10
› So the possible issue should be unbalanced power of 2 ports.
› RRU, Antenna, Cable, Connector, and other equipments in the route are all
suspected.
› This site uses beautified antenna, and also was installed a CSFU to eliminate
the interference to F band. See below figure:
› VSWR check: see below figure. 2 ports’ VSWR are
all less than 1.5 (customer request). One port is
1.15, another is 1.39

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 11

 › From the engineering point of view, the VSWR is not a problem
› But in this case we can see the VSWR difference is not small (one is
1.15, another is 1.39)
› Use the VSWR value, we can calculate the Return Loss. Different
Return Loss means different forward power transmission

Return Loss= - 20*lg((VSWR - 1)/(VSWR + 1)

RL1.15 – RL1.39= 23.13 – 15.74 = 7.39 (dB)

› The Power difference is more than 7dB. So UE considers it unbalanced power,
then RI=1
› We also can check the Return Loss in our system by command (cabx)

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 12

After check on site, and re-connected the connector (the cable connector to CSFU is not tight).
The VSWR of this port goes to 1.15. Problem solved.

100.00%
Rank2 Percentage
80.00%
60.00%
40.00%
20.00%
0.00%
Hour

3
3
7

3
7

3
7

3
7

3
7

7
11
15
19
23

11
15
19
23

11
15
19
23

11
15
19
23

11
15
19
23
Da 2015/9/16 2015/9/17 2015/9/18 2015/9/19 2015/9/20 2015/9/21
te

› So there is a new requirement for LTE network: VSWR need to

meet not only engineering requirement, but also need to meet the
power balance request for MIMO. We suggest the power difference of
2 ports should be less than 5dB at least.
LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 13
 ❖ RRU different port covers different area
2
– Customer uses that way to save RRU resource
R
– RRU should be set MIMO (2 branch, 2 tx antenna), but
1
R
U 4
maybe no chance to use MIMO
3
– It will impact on RANK statistics

❖ Only part of IBS area has MIMO installation

2 – To reduce cost, only part of area (such business hall…)
R 1 has been modified to support MIMO
R
U
4
– RRU should be set MIMO (2 branch, 2 tx antenna)
4

3
– It also will impact on RANK statistics
3

❖ Very difficult to do the power balance for IBS system

– So many indoor equipments (Combiner, Coupler, Power splitter, Cable,
Connector, Antenna…), hard to keep it good quality, especially for the OLD IBS
– MIMO modification for OLD IBS, very hard to do the power design to balance
the power of different antenna

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 14

There is a building with MIMO modification, but difficult to use RANK2.

RSRP, SINR are all very good, but can’t use RANK2, throughput is only
around 47Mbps

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 15

 Port one test: RSRP -74dBm Port2 test: RSRP -95dBm

Power difference is more than 20dB, not possible to use RANK2

After check and

replace a combiner,
problem is solved

LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 16

❖ MIMO scheduling
UE tests DL signal, calculate RI, then report to ENB
ENB mainly follow UE suggestion to schedule MIMO
❖ Top cell analysis
Low CQI and low rank2%
High CQI, but low rank2% New VSWR
requirement
❖ Troubleshooting
Test on different port, Check VSWR difference, Scanning, Activate
feature (antenna system monitoring) to troubleshoot unbalanced power
❖ Solution
DL SINR optimization to improve overall rank2%
Solve hardware issue (RRU, antenna, cable, connector, combiner,
coupler, power splitter…) to balance the power of 2 ports
LTE MIMO Optimization | Denny Cai | 2015-09-24 | Page 17