WCDMA Call Drop

Problem Analysis

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Copyright © 2010 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Contents
1. Definition of Call Drop and Traffic Statistics Indexes

2. DT/CQT Optimization Flow

3. Traffic Statistics Analysis Flow

4. Case Analysis

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 Definition of DT Call Drop
 DT call drop occurs when the UE receives:
 Any BCH message (system information)
 The RRC Release message with the release cause Not Normal.
 Any of the CC Disconnect, CC Release Complete, CC Release
message with the release cause Not Normal Clearing, Not Normal,
or Unspecified

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 Descriptions of Traffic Statistics
 The related index at UTRAN side is the number of RAB for each
service triggered by RNC.

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 Descriptions of Traffic Statistics
 Call drop rate in Statistc:

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 Contents
1. Definition of Call Drop and Traffic Statistics Indexes

2. DT/CQT Optimization Flow

3. Traffic Statistics Analysis Flow

4. Case Analysis

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 Contents
2. DT/CQT Optimization Flow
2.1 Optimization Flow

2.2 Call Drop Cause Analysis

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 DT/CQT Optimization Flow

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 Contents
2. DT/CQT Optimization Flow
2.1 Optimization Flow

2.2 Call Drop Cause Analysis

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 Call drop because of weak coverage
 Weak coverage usually refers to weak RSCP and weak EcNo.Uplink or
downlink DCH power helps to confirm the weak coverage is in uplink or
downlink by the following methods.
 If the uplink transmit power reaches the maximum before call drop, the uplink BLER is weak or
NodeB report RL failure according to single subscriber tracing recorded by RNC, the call drop
is probably due to weak uplink coverage.
 If the downlink transmit power reaches the maximum before call drop and the downlink BLER
is weak, the call drop is probably due to weak downlink coverage.

 A simple and direct method for confirming coverage is to observe the data
collected by scanner. If the RSCP and Ec/Io of the best cell is low, the call drop
is due to weak coverage.

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 Call drop because of interference
 In downlink, when the active set CPICH RSCP is greater than –85
dBm and the active set Ec/Io is smaller than –13 dB, the call drop
is probably due to downlink interference

 Uplink interference increases the UE downlink transmit power in

connection mode, so the over high BLER causes SRB reset, TRB
reset, or call drop due to asynchronization.

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 Call drop because of handover
 During service procedure if handover can not be executed in time,
call drop will happen. This scenario needs to be analyzed based on
signaling trace result and some other information.

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 Contents
1. Definition of Call Drop and Traffic Statistics Indexes

2. DT/CQT Optimization Flow

3. Traffic Statistics Analysis Flow

4. Case Analysis

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 Traffic Statistics Analysis Flow
 When analyzing traffic statistics indexes
 check RNC call drop indexes
 analyze the cell concern for detailed call drop indexes

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 Analyzing RNC CDR
 The RNC CDR involves the number of RAB of each service
triggered by RNC, including two aspects:
 After a service is established successfully, the RNC sends CN the
RAB RELEASE REQUEST message.
 After a service is established successfully, the RNC sends CN the IU
RELEASE REQUEST message, and then receives the IU RELEASE
COMMAND message sent by CN.

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 Analyzing Cell CDR
 analyze CS call drop of various rates,
 CS CDR = ( VS.RAB.Loss.CS.Abnorm.RNC + VS.RAB.Loss.CS.RF.RNC )
/( RAB.SuccEstabCSNoQueuing.Conv + RAB.SuccEstabCSQueuing.Conv +
RAB.SuccEstabCSNoQueuing.Strm + RAB.SuccEstabCSQueuing.Strm )
 analyze PS call drop of various rates,
 PS CDR=( VS.RAB.Loss.PS.Abnorm.RNC + VS.RAB.Loss.PS.RF.RNC )
/( RAB.SuccEstabPSNoQueuing.Conv + RAB.SuccEstabPSQueuing.Conv +
RAB.SuccEstabPSNoQueuing.Strm + RAB.SuccEstabPSQueuing.Strm ＋
RAB.SuccEstabPSNoQueuing.Inter + RAB.SuccEstabPSQueuing.Inter ＋
RAB.SuccEstabPSNoQueuing.Bkg + RAB.SuccEstabPSQueuing.Bkg )

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 Analyzing Causes to Call Drop
Failure cause Analysis
OM
interference OM interference The O&M tasks cause call drop.
Causes due to RAB This kind of call drop occurs when the load and
preemption resources are limited.
This corresponds to abnormal process, so you must
Causes due to UTRAN further analyze it based on CHR.
RLC reset
because the coverage quality (including missing
synchronization failure neighbor cell and over mall handover area) is bad.
No response of UU The UE air interface fails to respond the command
interface transmitted by system, because the coverage is bad.
RF Other RF causes It is due to RF causes and the coverage quality is bad.
The problem might be due to abnormal transport
equipment. Immediate normal release during RB
establishment is counted by statistics as abnormal
Abnormal AAL2 link release as the cause.
Abnormal GTPU The problem is due to equipment failure.
need to analyze the abnormal call drop based on RNC
Non RF Other causes logs.

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 Check Cells
 If the previous KPIs of the cell are normal, check the alarms. By
this, you can exclude the causes due to abnormal cells.

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 Further DT for Relocating Problems
 Analyzing traffic statistics indexes helps to expose potential
problems. To locate and analyze problems, you need to use DT
and CHR. For problematic cells, the cell-oriented DT is performed
to trace the signaling flow at UE side and of RNC

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 Contents
1. Definition of Call Drop and Traffic Statistics Indexes

2. DT/CQT Optimization Flow

3. Traffic Statistics Analysis Flow

4. Case Analysis

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 Case 1
 Description
 In DT call drop happened
 Check the signaling trace at UE side

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 Case 1
 Analysis
 Check the cell information from UE active set and cell information
from scanner at call drop points

The signal
from
scrambling
code 170 is
very good but
it is not in the
active set of
the UE.

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 Case 1 Scrambling code 170 is not in the
monitor set of the UE. So it is possible
that scrambling code 170 is not
 Analysis configured as the neighboring cell.

 Checking monitor set

 Missing neighborcell
 Delayed handover

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 Case 1 Check the neighboring cell list
in measurement control
message before call drop.
 Analysis
 Check the latest measurement control

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 Case 1

Scrambling code 170 is

not in the neighboring
cell list of scrambling
code 6.

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 Case 1
 Solution
 Add neighbor cells in neighbor cell list

 Summary
 In the beginning stage of network, it is very common that missing
neighbor cell cased cause call drop
 Analysis with signaling procedure is the common way to find and
solve the problem

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 Case 2
Call drop
 Description happened here.

 In DT call drop happened at a corner.

Page27
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 Case 2
 Description
 Before turning corner, the Ec/Io of active set scrambling code 104
and 168 attenuate to smaller than –17 dB, but Ec/Io of scrambling
code 208 is strong (–8 dB) which is out of active set. According to
the signaling traced by the RNC, the UE reports the 1A event of the
cell of scrambling code 208, then RNC sends the active set update
message. But the RNC does not receive the active set update
complete message, so the call drop occurs.

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 Case 2
 Signaling trace result in RNC

RNC receives 1A
(SC 208)report.

RNC sends active set

update but doesn’t
receive active set
update complete.

Page29

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 Case 2
 Analysis
 The signals of original cell attenuates sharply, and the signals of
target cell increases sharply, so the UE cannot receive the active set
update messages, and consequently call drop occurs.

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 Case 2
 Analysis
 The signals of original cell attenuate 10 dB sharply within 1s, and the signals
of target cell increase 10 dB. If the signals are weak before attenuation, and
1a event is configured to easily-triggered state, the measurement report is
sent according to traced signaling of the UE, and the RNC receives the
measurement report according to signaling traced by the RNC.
 When the RNC sends the active set update message, the UE cannot receive it
due to weak signals of original cell, so the signaling is reset, and call drop
occurs. If 1A event is slowly triggered (such as configuring great hysteresis
or triggering time), TRB reset occurs before the UE sends the measurement
report.

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 Case 2
 Solution 1
 Configure 1A event parameter of a cell to enable handover to be
triggered more easily.
If you lower the triggering time to 200ms, you can reduce hysteresis.
You must configure the triggering time for a specified cell, because
the change of the parameter might lead to easily occurrence of
handover between the cell and other cells without turning corner
effect, or frequent ping-pong handover

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 Case 2
 Solution 2
 Configure the CIO between two cells with turning corner effect to
add the target cell more easily. The CIO only affects the handover
between two cells, with less impact, however, it impacts handover.
The configuration leads to an increase of handover ratio.

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 Case 2
 Solution 3
 Adjust antenna to enable the antenna of target cell cover the turning
corner. This helps avoid fast variance of signals, and avoid call drop.
Actually experiences help judge whether the adjustment of
engineering parameters can cover the turning corner, so using this
method is difficult.

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 Case 2
 Summary
 Based on previous analysis, the first method prevails. If it fails, use
the second method. If the second method fails, use the third method
(the third method is the best solution, especially in areas where you
can adjust antenna easily)

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 Case 3
 Signaling trace result in RNC side
 .

RNC triggers IU
RELEASE
REQUEST. It is
abnormal.

Page36
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 Case 3
 Signaling trace result in UE side

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 Case 3 RSCP and
Ec/Io are good.

 Check information recorded by UE

But the UE Tx
power is very
high.
It is possible
that uplink
interference is
high, so UE
Tx power is
high because
of power
control.

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 Case 3
 Check the RTWP of the serving cell
 The RTWP is around -80dBm. It is too high.
 So the reason of call drop in this case is serious uplink interference in the cell.

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Thank you
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