UMTS-WCDMA Coverage Problems Analysis 1.0

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Level:
WCDMA Coverage Problems Analysi

s
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HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Course Objectives
After learning the course, you can:

 Analyze problems of pilot coverag
e and service coverage, and then
solve them
 Measure the coverage performance

of a network
 Know coverage enhancement technol

ogy
HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 2

Contents
Coverage problems classification
Coverage analysis flow
Coverage enhancement technology
Typical coverage problems analysis
Key items at each stage of network

optimization
Training.huawei.com

Coverage Problems Classification
 Signal dead zone

 Coverage void
 Cross-cell coverage
 Pilot pollution
 Imbalance of uplink and downlink


 In the zone, pilot signal is lower than the minimum acce
ss threshold of mobile phone. For example, RSCP threshol
d is -115 dBm, and Ec/Io threshold is -18 dB, such
as valley, opposite of the sidehill, elevator well, tunn
el, underground garage or basement, and inside of the hi
gh buildings.
 Solutions:
 Construct a new NodeB
 Add coverage areas
 Use RRU and repeaters
 Use leakage cable and micro cell
 Use indoor distributed coverage system
 Coverage void
 In the area, pilot signal is lower than minimum requirem
ent in full-coverage areas (such as Voice, VP, PS128K),
but better than the minimum access threshold of mobile p
hone.
 Solutions
 Construct micro NodeBs or repeaters
 Use high-gain antenna, increase antenna height, reduce the
mechanism tilt angle of antenna
 Optimize power configuration of full-coverage services (in
scenes without large capacity requirements

 Coverage areas of some NodeB are beyond the planned rang
e, and forms pilot areas satisfying full-coverage servic
es in coverage areas of other NodeBs.
 Solutions:
 Adjust tilt angel and azimuth of antenna
 Avoid antenna propagation directed to the road
 Use the shield effect of peripheral buildings
 Adjust pilot power, and reduce coverage areas of NodeB

 Pilot Pollution
 Multiple pilot signals are received in one point, but th
ere is primary pilot strong enough.
 If over three pilots meet
CPICH _ RSCP  95dBm an
d
(CPICH _ RSCP1st  CPICH _ RSCP4th )  5dB
, the
re is pilot pollution.
 Solutions:
 Consider pilot pollution at planning stage to facilitate la
ter network optimization.
 Adjust distribution and antenna parameters
 Lower pilot power
 Merge NodeB sectors or remove redundancy sectors without af
fecting capacity
 Imbalance of uplink and downlink

 In target coverage areas, uplink coverage is limited (th
e transmit power of UE is maximum but cannot meet uplink
BLER requirements), or downlink coverage is limited (the
transmit power of downlink dedicated channel code is max
imum but cannot meet downlink BLER requirements)
 Imbalance of uplink and downlink due to uplink interfere
nce
 Imbalance of uplink and downlink due to limited downlink
power

Contents

optimization
Training.huawei.com

Coverage Analysis Flow
 Prepared knowledge
 Coverage data analysis

Planning Schemes
 Analyzing problems of pilot coverage and service

coverage is based on knowing planning schemes of
target areas. The schemes include:
 Site distribution
 NodeB configuration
 Antenna configuration
 Pilot coverage prediction
 Service load distribution

Tools for Analysis
 The analysis of coverage data contains drive test cal

l and the BAM of pilot census data, traffic measureme
nt of current network, UL RTWP alarm of each cell, an
d user call flow traced by RNC.
 Drive test BAM (such as Actix and Genex Assistant)
 Traffic measurement tools
 UL RTWP alarm system
 Testability log

Configuration Parameters Adjustment
 The radio configuration parameters to be adjusted for

solving coverage problems include:
 CPICH TX Power
 MaxFACHPower
 Sintrasearch, Sintersearch, and Ssearchrat
 PreambleRetransMax
 Intra-FILTERCOEF
 Intra-CellIndividalOffset
 RLMaxDLPwr and RLMinDLPwr (oriented to services)

Coverage Analysis Flow
 Prepared knowledge
 Coverage data analysis

Coverage Data Analysis
 Analysis of coverage data include:

 Analysis of drive test data
 Analysis of traffic measurement data
 Analysis of tracing data
 Analysis of user complaints

Analysis of Drive Test Data
 Downlink coverage
1. Analysis of pilot coverage strength
Coverage void

2. Analysis of primary c
ell
No primary cell

3. Comparative analysis of UE and Scanner coverage
Difference in soft
handover areas

4. Analysis of downlink code transmit power distribution
Frequency Accumulation %

5. Analysis of soft handover ratio
According to the Scanner drive test data, the soft handover area ratio
is defined as follows:
The soft handover ratio from the perspective of traffic is

defined as follows:

5. Analysis of soft handover ratio
Pilot pollution

 Uplink coverage
1. Analysis of uplink interferen
ce

 Uplink coverage
2. Uplink transmit power distribution of UE (micro cellular)

 Uplink coverage
2. Uplink transmit power distribution of UE (macro cellular)
Uplink
上行覆盖受限 coverage
restricted

Analysis of Traffic Measurement Dat
a
 Traffic measurement indexes

The effect on access success ratio, congestion ratio, call dro
p ratio, and handover success ratio from the coverage
 Traffic distribution
The coverage problem caused by traffic volume measurement and
imbalance of service distribution
 Excessive busy cells and idle cells
The effect on the coverage based on the load adjustment

Contents

optimization
Training.huawei.com

Coverage Enhancement Technology
 NodeB configuration adjustment

 Sectorized configuration
 High-power PA

 TMA
Tower mounted amplifier (TMA) improves the uplink coverage
performance by reducing the total noise factor of NodeB rece
iving subsystem, and the coverage gain depends on the mechan
ism of receiving subsystem and the feeder loss.
When the WCDMA network shares feeders with the GSM system, t
he coverage gain is the greatest. If the system capacity is
restricted in downlink, the TMA reduces the system capacity.
Typically, the capacity loss ranges from 6% to 10%.

 Transceiver diversity
In the downlink, provided with the time switched transmit d
iversity (TSTD) and space time transmit diversity (STTD), yo
u can add the RAKE receiver number of UE and improve the qua
lity to increase the coverage range, improve the system capa
city and reduce the NodeB number.
In the uplink, adopting four-antenna receiving diversity dec
reases the requirements on Eb/No needed by demodulation. The
gain of four-antenna receiving diversity is 2.5 dB to 3.0 d
B. You can improve the uplink sensitivity by 2.5 dB to 3.0 d
B, and reduce the site quantity by 25%-30%.

 Repeaters
Repeaters expand the coverage range of primary cell. WCDMA r
epeaters are similar to analog repeaters, the noise and signa
l are amplified at the same time.
The repeater increases the Eb/No required by uplink and downl
ink demodulation. Most repeaters do not use uplink receiving
diversity technology. In this way, Eb/No required in uplink d
emodulation increases dramatically.
 If the system capacity is restricted in uplink, using repeaters
leads to decrease of the system capacity.
 If the system capacity is restricted in downlink, the effect on
the system capacity from the repeater depends on:
 Link budget between primary NodeB and repeater
 Repeater power transmission setup
 Maximum path loss related to repeater coverage area
 Service allocation between host cell and repeater

 Remote RF amplifier
The remote RF amplifier allows physical separation of NodeB R
F module from baseband module so that the RF module is place
d far away without using long feeder.
The uplink and downlink budget improves and RF being remote
means that coverage performance increases but the capacity d
oes not reduce. Compared with the remote coverage through th
e RRU, the TMA adds the maximum path loss and introduces ins
ertion loss to reduce the EIRP of NodeB.

 Micro-cellular
The urban and dense urban areas require high density of NodeB, so t
he site selection is difficult. The micro-cellular can meet the hig
h capacity and applicable for city and dense city.
The feature of micro-cellular solution is that micro-cellular requi
res Eb/No and quick fading margin needed in demodulation, increases
channel code orthogonality, but reduces neighbor cell interference
and soft handover margin. When micro-cellular and macro-cellular ha
ve the same power, the air interface volume of micro-cellular is tw
ice of that of macro-cellular.

 Indoor coverage
You can perform indoor deep coverage using indoor distributed anten
nas, and this proves efficient.

 Omni transmission sectorized receive technology

In the Omni Transmission Sectorized Receive technology (OTS
R), signals are transmitted in the omni-direction and receiv
ed in three sectors. Because the gain of directional antenna
is higher than that of omni-directional antenna, the coverag
e radius is farther.
At the earlier stage of network construction when lower capa
city is required, OTSR can reduce the network construction c
ost and improve the coverage range.

Contents

optimization
Training.huawei.com

Coverage Void Problems Caus
ed by Improper Site Planning
 Case 1
As shown in this figure, in part of coverage areas, the pilot signal
strength is lower than –90 dBm, lower much than that of
surrounding areas, so coverage void occurs.
Coverage signal
strength < -90 dBm

Coverage Void Problems Caus
ed by Improper Site Planning
 Analysis
Coverage signal
strength < -90 dBm
Coverage signal
strength > -70 dBm

Coverage Void Problems Caused b
y Improper Site Planning
 Irregular mesh structure causes coverage void

Cross-cell Coverage Problems caused
by Improper Site Selection
 Case 2
If a site is over high, cross-cell coverage occurs easily, so intra-
frequency interference to other sites occurs.
Red indicates
cross-cell
coverage areas
by the
first sector
of Road 27 Site

Cross-cell Coverage Problems caused
by Improper Site Selection
 Solution
Increase mechanism tilt angle and adjust direction angle to solve
cross-cell coverage problems for high sites.
Red indicates
Part cross-cell
coverage areas
in Wenhua Rd.
by the first sector
of Rd. 27 Site

Coverage Restriction Problems Cause
d by Improper Installation of Antennas
 Case 3
The Pilot Network: 701070_ParkLaneHotel site of S project covers the
Victoria Park and the antenna is mounted on the platform (10 meters high),
as shown in this picture. At the optimization phase after the network
construction, before the traffic light under the antenna, Video Phone mosaic
adds and image quality is worse and PS 384K service is reactivated.
Call drop
occurs easily
by traffic lights
New 3G
antenna
Existing
2G
antenna
d by Improper Installation of Antennas
 Analysis
From the perspective of planning, 3G network and 2G network co-locate.
Compared with 2G coverage test data, 2G network has not large signal
fluctuation under the road and site, that is, if the antennas of 3G network
and 2G network are in the same location, the road’s 3G coverage is
performed by 701070_ParkLaneHotel_Podium site. The problem lie in than
3G antenna is so close to the platform that the wall blocks the signal and
installation conditions of antenna are not met.
Meanwhile, 2G antenna and installation components affect the 3G antenna
pattern.
 Solution
 Change least without affecting the 2G coverage, connect the transceiver
feeders of 3G and 2G respectively with two ports of external broad
frequency polarization antenna, and connect other transceiver feeders of 3G
and 2G with two antennas of internal broad frequency antennas.

d by Incorrect Installation of Antennas
 Case 4
 In the Pilot network of S project, 701640_ElzHse1 site has only one cell
and combines transmitter A, B and C (It is not OTSR, but the
combination of three antenna receiving signals and distribution of
NodeB transmission signal).
 During the antenna installation at the NodeB construction phase, all the
transmission feeders are combined to sector A by mistake, so sector B
and C have no signals to transmit and the coverage effect is worse. The
problem is found after RF engineers test RTWP interference at the site.
Before the problem is found, the single site test is passed. The problem
even remains in the later network optimization test until RF engineers
identifies it during testing RTWP interference.

The figure shows the comparison of pilot RSCP
before and after the antenna installation correction.
After
antenna
is
corrected…
Before
antenna
is
corrected…

 Analysis
 The pilot RSCP before the antenna correction in the previous figure
shows that the signals close to the bottom of the site are below -76
dBm. Comparing the coverage of three sectors, obviously, you can find
that the coverage of sector A is 20 dB stronger than that of sector B and
sector C. From the perspective of current single site test Checklist, it is
difficult to find the pilot RSCP is larger than -85 dBm, especially for the
micro-cellular site.
 Most sites of S project share 2G sites location or sector. Therefore, use
the 2G coverage distribution to check whether the 3G coverage is
normal.
For example, compare the distribution area ranging from -90 dBm to -80
dBm. Currently, the minimum work level of 2G network is about -60
dBm, and only when the minimum working level at the bottom of 3G
sites also should reach about -60 dBm, the sites are basically normal.

Contents

optimization
Training.huawei.com

Single Site Test Stage

Concern the major coverage target of each transmitter
and confirm whether the signal dead zone is present base
d on the specified target.
 Coverage void
Concern whether the continuous coverage of full-covera
ge service can be guaranteed.
 Planning verification
Concern the difference between the digital map and act
ual environment, and perform a comparison and verificati
on between the coverage prediction and actual drive test
data.
Evaluation Stage before Optimization
 Uplink and downlink interference

Concern the change of uplink RTWP of each cell, Scanne
r in the drive test or RSSI of UE.
 Ec/Io mean
Under the unloaded downlink and loaded downlink, concer
n whether the areas less than the mean value affects con
tinuous coverage of full-coverage service
 RSCP mean
Concern whether areas with the mean value affect seamle
ss coverage of full coverage service.

RF Optimization Stage
Concern the repeated coverage due to inconsistent heig
ht of sites.
 Pilot pollution
Concern whether the ping-pong handover exists in the s
oft handover area to reduce the intra-frequency interfer
ence.
 Over large areas of soft handover
Concern volume restriction due to over large areas of
soft handover.

Network Optimization Project Acceptance Stage
 Traffic measurement indexes

Concern the inconsistency between the specified covera
ge target and actual user traffic distribution.

Summary
The network optimization can improve quality o

f the whole network used by the mobile users a
nd use network resources more effectively. Alth
ough the coverage indexes are not reflected in
the KPI, the coverage optimization is the basic
requirement for improving the network performan
ce. The radio performance optimization can take
effect only based on the coverage optimization.

Thank you!

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Security

WCDMA Coverage Problems Analysi

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

After learning the course, you can:

 Measure the coverage performance

 Know coverage enhancement technol

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 2

Coverage problems classification

Coverage analysis flow

Coverage enhancement technology

Typical coverage problems analysis

Key items at each stage of network

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 3

 Signal dead zone

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 4

 Signal dead zone

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 6

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 7

 Imbalance of uplink and downlink

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 9

Coverage problems classification

Coverage analysis flow

Coverage enhancement technology

Typical coverage problems analysis

Key items at each stage of network

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 10

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 11

 Analyzing problems of pilot coverage and service

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 12

 The analysis of coverage data contains drive test cal

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 13

 The radio configuration parameters to be adjusted for

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 14

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 15

 Analysis of coverage data include:

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 16

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 17

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 18

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 19

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 20

The soft handover ratio from the perspective of traffic is

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 21

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 22

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 23

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 24

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 25

 Traffic measurement indexes

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 26

Coverage problems classification

Coverage analysis flow

Coverage enhancement technology

Typical coverage problems analysis

Key items at each stage of network

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 27

 NodeB configuration adjustment

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 28

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 29

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 30

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 31

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD. Huawei Confidential 32