Low Throughput Issue

1 - Poor coverage (BLER)

2 - Avaibility issue
3 - Uplink Interference
4 - A poor RACH deconding SR
5 - High error on S1 link.
6 - Delay on S1 link towards MME & SGW.
7 - Accessiblity issue.
8 - Handover failure.
9 - Lack of PRBs.
10 - Problemtic UE.
11 - Downlink Interference (Bad CQI)
12 - MIMO Parameters
13 - High VSWR
14 - High radio errors or instability issue.
15 - Maximum number of RRC connections active per cell
16 - Maximum number of users per TTI supported per cell.
17 - Core network, MME/SGW, etc
18 - Transmission insability & bottleneck.
19 - Incorrect parameter setting.
20 - Badly tuned handover parameters.
21 - High traffic on Cell limit THp
Radio Analysis - Downlink
22 - CQI (Channel Quality Index) and RI (Rank Indicator) reported from UE.
23 - Transmission Mode: MIMO (tm3) vs. TxD (tm2) vs. SIMO (tm1)
24 - MCS vs. number of assigned PRBs vs. assignable bits in scheduler
25 - UE Scheduling percentage of TTIs (how often is the UE scheduled)
26 - CFI (number of OFDM symbols for PDCCH) vs. MCS vs. % scheduling
27 - HARQ
28 - RLC retransmissions
29 - Another cause of low (or lower than expected) throughput is that the UE is not being
scheduled in every TTI. Packet loss can lead to (retransmissions, dropped in RBS, etc)
Radio Analysis – Uplink
30 - Uplink scheduling overview
31 - BSR (Buffer Status Report)
32 - PHR (Power Headroom Report) – is the UE at maximum power?
33 - Cell bandwidth vs. maximum allowable PRBs
34 - Link Adaptation
35 - MCS available and 16QAM
36 - PDCCH SIB scheduling colliding with UL grant
37 - HARQ (less important, because we can measure SINR)
38 - QPSK cases in UL has increased from ~30% to ~40%. If more QPSK cases then there
are more UEs in poor radio conditions
TE THROUGPUT TROUBLE SHOOTING

In this write up we will learn briefly general troubleshooting guidelines for

downlink throughput in LTE networks with MIMO 2x2

The general troubleshooting strategy is described below and the covered

reasons for bad throughput are shown in the figure below.Low Throughput
causes in the Downlink for LTE networks.

Step 1: Identify cell with low DL (downlink) throughput

a) The first thing is to identify those cells with low throughput. This threshold
is defined by your network policies and practices (it also depends on your
design parameters). Reports should be run for a significant number of days
so that data is statistically valid.

Step 2: Identify Downlink interference

a) Cells with downlink interference are those whose CQI values are low (an
exception to this rule is when most traffic is at the cell edge –bad cell
location-). Analyze the CQI values reported by the UE for

1. Transmit Diversity

2. MIMO one layer

3. MIMO two layers

Typical values for transmit diversity oscillate between 7 and 8.

Typical values for MIMO one and two layers oscillate between 10 and 12.

b) If low CQI values are found after a CQI report is obtained, then downlink
interference might be the cause of low throughput.

c) Common sources of interference in the 700 MHz band (LTE deployment in

the USA) are: inter-modulation interference, cell jammers and wireless
microphones

Step 3: BLER Values

a) Run a report for BLER in the cells identified. The BLER should be smaller or
equal than 10%. If the value is larger, then, there is an indication of bad RF
environment.
b) Typical causes of bad BLER are downlink interference, bad coverage
(holes in the network, etc.)

Step 4: MIMO Parameters

a) Identify the transmission mode of your network. There are seven

transmission modes as shown in the table below

b) Adjust the SINR thresholds for transition of transmission modes as

recommended by the OEM. Request the Link Level simulations they used to
set these thresholds and see if the conditions under which the values were
calculated apply to your network. Otherwise, update them if the parameters
are settable and not restricted.

Step 5: Low Demand

a) Run a report using the counters provided by the OEM to find

1. Maximum number of RRC connections supported per cell (parameter or

feature)

2. Maximum number of RRC connections active per cell

3. Average number of RRC connections active per cell

4. Maximum number of users per TTI supported per cell (parameter or

feature)

5. Maximum number of users scheduled per TTI in the cell(s) of interest

6. Average number users scheduled per TTI in the cell(s) of interest

b) If the maximum number of RRC connections active per cell is close or

equal to the maximum number of RRC connections supported, then. The
cause for low throughput is load.

c) A high number of scheduled users per TTI does not necessarily mean that
demand is the cause for low throughput.

Step 6: Scheduler Type

a) Find the scheduler types your OEM supports

b) Select the one that is more convenient for the type of cell you are
investigating. Examples of schedulers are: round robin, proportional fairness,
maximum C/I, equal opportunity, etc. OEMs allow you to switch the scheduler
in your network but recommend one in particular.

c) The wrong scheduler may be the reason for bad throughput.

Step 7: CQI reporting parameters

a) Check if your network is using periodic or aperiodic CQI reporting (or

both).

b) Verify the frequency in which the CQI reporting is carried out for periodic
reporting as well as the maximum number of users supported per second.

c) If the value is too small compared with the maximum number of RRC
active connections, then, increase the values of the parameters
CQIConfigIndex as well as RIConfigIndex (deal with in future blog).

d) If your network is not using aperiodic CQI reporting, then enable it.

e) Slow frequencies of CQI reporting might yield bad channel estimations

that prevent the eNodeB from scheduling the right amount of data and
Modulation and Coding Schemes to UE.

Step 8: Other

a) Run a VSWR report or ask your OEM to run it for you.

b) High values of VSWR result in low throughput due to losses.

c) Check your backhaul capacity. Often times, the backhaul links are shared
among multiple RATs. Make sure your backhaul is properly dimensioned.

At the end of this methodology, you will be able to determine is the reasons
for low throughput in your cells one of the following or a combination,
thereof:

- BLER (bad coverage)

- Downlink Interference (Bad CQI)

- MIMO Parameters

- Scheduling algorithm
- Low Demand

- CQI reporting frequency

- Other (VSWR, Backhaul capacity)

Low DL throughput is the major issues in any LTE network, there are few steps that
can be taken whenever we troubleshoot low DL throughput in the network.
Whenever we do drive test, this is the most accurate way to know the actual throughput
obtained.
Based from my experience, we can do the following to obtained maximum throughput:
1) Find the good spot to do throughput test (FTP DL). SINR should be greater than
25dB. Make sure there's LOS from the testing point towards the site. It's not
advisable if we select the testing point that have LOS with the site (antenna location)
2) Configure the FTP server correctly. We can try to ping the FTP server when the
mobile connected to ensure the FTP server dont have any issues
3) Try to DL/UL big file size (>500MB) file, and try to download multiple files
concurrently to boost the DL throughput
4) Try to avoid using multiple sim mobile phone when doing throughput test. It will
affect your throughput test
5) You can do the throughput test when enodeB working in reserve mode (enodeb and
simcard need to be configured).
So, what should we do when we already do everything as above but still getting low
DL/UL throughput?
1) Try to do the throughput test using other phone. For example if you are using Mate 8
during the throughput test, you may try using S6, Lenovo, or Xiaomi phone
(with the same LTE category) phone
2) If other phone still gave the same results, means it's genuine throughput issue.
3) Now, try to check that whenever we are getting the SINR>25, CQI value suppposed
to be max CQI which is 14/15. Observed as well the MCS that we are
getting. It should be max MCS which is 27/28. If we are getting the SINR>25, but the
CQI and and MCS still not max, means the location that we select still not
optimum location, or there could be due to non-LOS environment between the
testing point and the site (antenna location)
4) If the SINR>25, and we get the CQI around 14/15 and MCS around 27/28, but still
getting low throughput try check the PRBnum assigned. For example if we are
using TD-LTE network with 20 MHz spectrum and using config2 network, we should
be getting around 60 PRBnum assigned. If we are getting significant
difference from the supposed PRBnum assigned, for example we getting only
around 30-35 PRBnum it clearly indicate that we have a transmission issue.
5) To confirm we have transmission issue we can try to do the throughput test at
another 2 cells. If all 3 cells having same pattern of low DL throughput this is strong
justification for transmission issue. if only 1 cell having this issue only it could be only
dedicated cell issues, which is more related to specific enodeb issues.
What are related enodeb issues? (if no alarms triggered)

1) Improper parameter planning for example clashing of PCIs and PSSs, or SSs
2) Improper TD ratio ratio setting (for example within the same B38 (2.6 GHz), other
TD-LTE operator using config 1 and we are using config 2). We should
configure the same TD ratio used by other operator as well within the same B38 (2.6
GHz)
3) External intereference issues which we can't see degrading in SINR when doing field
test. To confirm the external interference, we can do remote spectrum
scanning and shutdown the PA. If there's significant stronger UL signal inside our
LTE signal, means the external interference exist
4) Too many users connected at the cell, and have high PRB utilization
5) Unknown issues (which normally will be solved by performing soft/hard reset)

What if we are getting poor SINR even near the site?

But, if we have poor SINR even near to the site it means that we have co-channel
interference, means it was internal interference.
It could be the co-channel signal overshoot too much near the testing point. In this case
we should proceed with RF optimization activities which includes physical changes
(antenna re-azimuth, tilting) and maybe adjusting the interference signal power to be
non-dominant so that it will reduce the interference level.