Analysis of LTE

Throughput Optimization
- Kshitij Vyas
Overview

Optimization is used by cellular carriers for deploying and improving the

currently existing networks. Once the base station are placed in the
fields there is a continuous need of improving the coverage for their
users, the demand for the throughput rates are increasing with respect
to number of users.
Throughput rates are very important in LTE as the user thrives on the
LTE Speed and coverage and expect the best out of their carriers.
We will go through the needs of current network and how it can be
improved using optimization
Index

Introduction of Cellular Technology

Evolution of Cellular Technology
Overview of Long Term Evolution
LTE Architecture
LTE Radio Parameters
Procedure of Throughput measurement
Problems with the existing network
LTE Optimization
Analysis of three cell sites
Conclusion
 Introduction of Cellular Technology
Cellular Generation One Analog Telecommunication
AMPS: Analog Mobile Phone System introduced in 1980s
Motorola Bag Phone and StarTac
28K modems(28Kbps)

Cellular Generation Two Digital Telecommunication (2G)

GSM replaced TDMA in early 2000
CDMA IS95 : Code Division Multiple Access Launched in
1991

Cellular Generation Three (3G)

GSM upgraded to GPRS to EDGE to WCDMA
CDMAIS95 to CDMA2000 to CDMA856 (EV-DO)

Cellular 3.5G
HSDPA to HSUPA to HSPA to HSPA+

Cellular 4G
LTE(Long Term Evolution)
Evolution of Cellular Technology

Data Rates in MBps

100

42

14.4

0.01
2G 3.1
3G HSPA HSPA+ LTE
Evolution of Cellular Technology
Introduction of Long Term
Evolution(LTE)

Current driving force for the cellular technology is LTE, there is a

immense increase in number of users and with that there is demand for
increase in data rates
After HSPA+ cellular technology needed the next step for its evolution
and which was fulfilled by LTE
As you see in todays world there are a lot of users with a smart phone
which are dependent on higher data rates which LTE can provide
Basic Drivers for LTE
Reduced Latency
Higher User Data Rates
Improved System Capacity and coverage
Channel 1.4 MHz 3 MHz 5 MHz 10 MHz 15 MHz 20 MHz
Bandwidth
6 Resource 15 25 50 75 100
Blocks Resource Resource Resource Resource Resource
Blocks Blocks Blocks Blocks Blocks
Modulation Downlink: QPSK, 16QAM, 64 QAM
Scheme Uplink: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM(Optional for Handset)

Peak Data Downlink: 100 Mbps

Rates Uplink: 50 Mbps

Radio Access 10 ms
Network
Latency
Multiple Access Downlink: OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Access)
Uplink: SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiplexing Access)
RB
Resource element
Sub Carrier spacing
and subframe
LTE Architecture

Architecture
Channel
Layer while
downlink
LTE Radio Parameters

Receive Signal Receive Power (RSRP)

Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR)
Handover Success Rate
Antenna Tilt (Electrical and Mechanical)
Latency Time
Receive Signal Receive Power (RSRP)
Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), is defined as the linear
average over the powercontributions (in [W]) of the resource
elements(REs)that carry cell-specific reference signals within
theconsidered measurement frequency bandwidth.
RSRP= RSSI(dBM)- 10*log(12*N)
where N= No. of Resource Blocks
Ideal RSRP > -70 dB
Signal to Interference Noise Ratio
(SINR)
SINR= S/(I+N)
S indicates the power of the measured usable signals
I indicates the power of the measured signals or channel interference
signals from cells in the current system and from inter-RAT cells
N indicates background noise, which is related to measurement
bandwidths and receiver noise coefficients.
It is generally used by UE carriers
SINR > 15 dB
Handover Success Rate

According to the signaling process in 3GPP TS 36.331

Handover success rate= Number of handovers/ Number of handovers
attempted X 100 %
Handover success rate ideally should be 100 %
Two kinds of Handover: Inter handover (Hard handover)
Intra handover (Soft Handover)
Antenna Tilts

The network efficiency for any carrier depends on it Antennas

One of the most important factors of Optimizations is Antenna Tilt or
inclination of Antenna.
There are two types of Antenna tilts
Mechanical Tilt Electrical Tilt
 Antenna Tilt in Degrees = tan^(-1)[(h1+h2)-h3/d]

h1= Height of the Antenna in meters

h2= Height of the elevation above the sea level in meters
h3= Height of the Device in meters
D= distance between the Antenna and Device meters
 Antenna Patterns
65
Degree
90 Degree
Latency Time

Time taken by small IP packet to reach the terminal through the network
to the internet server and back, this is called round trip time
Latency time is one of the most important aspect of LTE network
Ideal latency time in LTE defined by 3GPP is 10 ms
Users are dependent on Latency time for different applications like
watching videos, games, VOIP and etc.
Procedure for Throughput
measurement
Baseline Mapping
Drive Test
New site planning
New Site Implementation or site migration
Data Analysis
Comparison Between the sites
Problems of the existing Network

High Latency Time

Bad traffic utilization
Cross Coverage
Lack of a dominant cell
Coverage Holes
Overshooting of Cell Signal
Low SINR
Optimization

RF Optimization is a process to improve an existing network

RF Optimization has following considerations
Increase Handover Success rates
Ensure Normal distribution of radio signals

RF Optimization involves
Adjustment of Antenna System Hardware
Adjustment of Neighbor Lists

During the first RF Optimization all cells in the area should be verified to
rectify hardware faults
Analysis of Base Station Sites

Analysis was done for three newly implemented sites

Firstly the sites were planned by the RNO Engineer and then
implemented on the field
Performance of these sites were analyzed initially
After the review of the performance there were certain parameters that
were needed to be improved
By performing optimization the sites throughput capacity was increased
The sites were named as e1028, e1082 and e1047
 Site information of Base Stations
Cell ID Azimuth Electrical Mechanic Base Station Bandwidth
e1028 Down Tilt al Down Power (dBm) Provisioned
Tilt (Mbps)
10281 350 0 1 46 36
10282 90 0 1 46 36
10283 200 0 1 46 36
Cell ID Azimuth Electrical Mechanica Base Bandwidth
Down Tilt l Down Tilt Station Provisione
e1047 Power d (Mbps)
(dBm)
10471 340 2 2 46 36
10472 110 3 2 46 36
10473 250 3 2 46 36
Cell ID Azimuth Electrical Mechanica Base Bandwidth
Down Tilt l Down Tilt Station Provisione
e1082 Power d (Mbps)
(dBm)
10821 0 2 0 46 36
10822 120 2 0 46 36
 Satellite view of all the three BS Sites
e1028

e1047

e1082
Tools used for Analysis

LTE Data card with Sim Cards

GPS for positioning
A Laptop for data log during the drive test
Analysis Software provided by the company
Microsoft Streets and Trips for Maps
Measurement of DL throughput and latency in stationary mode all the
way till cell edge
RSRP, RSRQ and SINR Measurement, drive test was performed from cell
center to cell edge at about 15-20 MPH
Packet size used during drive test measurements :- 32 Gb
 RSRP Comparison

-120 RSRP Comparison

-100

-80

Power
-60 (dBm)

-40

-20

0
SINR Comparison

SINR Comparison
30

25

20

SINR 15

10

Base Station SItes

Downlink Throughput Comparison

DL Throughput Comparison
40

35

30

25

Data Rate in Mbps 20

15

10

BasE Station Sites

Steps taken for improving the Downlink
Throughput
e1028
After the drive test analysis, at sector 1 RSRP level wasnt at the optimum level
near the cell edge. RSRP level was in the range of -110 to -100 dBm, due to which
the Downlink throughput was low around 27 Mbps

After careful analysis of the terrain(traffic utilization) mechanical antenna tilt was
modified from 1 degree to 1.95 degree which results in increase of Performance at
cell edge.

The height of the tower is 17.37 meters and the mechanical tilt at the sector 2
focused the signal to reach till 890 mts where the next site is located. By adjusting
the tilt to 1.95 degree the cell signal is more concentrated around 460 mts which
is the cell edge.
 e1047

There was an issue with the cell edge performance at this site at sector
3. RSRP value which was measured after the initial drive test was in the
range of -100 to -110 dBM
Initial Base Station power was set at 30 dBM, it is usually done at every
site as the maximum power level is only set if the site needs
performance improvement
In order to increase the cell edge performance and to avoid the ping
pong handover (BLR291), power level of the site was increased from 30
dBm to 46 dBm
RSRP is dependent on RSSI as seen earlier and RSSI = Noise + Serving
Cell Power + Interference Power.
This resulted in RSRP to improve from -100 to -110 dBM range to -90 to
-100 dBm range
 e1082

There was a performance issue at sector 3 with the downlink throughput

Coverage at the site was overshooting at 1.3 km than expected range of 865
mts.
In the first attempt to resolve the issue the antenna tilt was changed from 2
degrees to 3 degrees which resulted in more concentrated RSRP within the
range of 865 mts
This solution helped in the site reselection process during the handover
process between the neighboring cells
Even after the change of antenna tilt the RSRP was in the range of -100 to
-110 dBm range
Then the Base Station power was changed from the initial 33 dBm to 46 dBm
which is maximum power
After the increase in Base Station Power RSRP range was improved to -90 to
-100 dBm
Conclusion
The downlink coverage for the users in LTE can be continuously improved
and it requires constant effort by the carriers
Optimization is one of the ways to improve the coverage and can be very
effective
Main factors on which the LTE throughput depends are the bandwidth
used, number of resource blocks, RSRP, SINR and the handover selection
We can improve RSRP, SINR and handover selection using optimization.
Although the theoretical value for the downlink throughput in LTE cannot
be achieved yet there is constant need improvement and optimization is
one way to achieve it.
Optimization has its limitations and therefore only a few techniques are
used to improve downlink throughput rates
Changing antenna tilts, defining neighboring cells, power adjustment,
azimuth adjustment are few ways to optimize the network.
References

http://www.androidauthority.com/hspa-vs-lte-which-one-is-better-78120/
http://www.oafrica.com/mobile/all-about-african-4g-lte/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/215326822/LTE-Cov-Problems