1 Introduction The main purpose of the Idle Channel Measurements feature is to provide the Channel Administration feature (see

Reference [1]) with information about the uplink interference on each idle channel (Traffic Channel (TCH) or Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH)). This information can then be used during channel allocation to select the best suited channel for a connection. Idle Channel Measurements also generates statistics on interference, giving a general picture of the quality of the channels in a cell. The statistics can be used for evaluating the frequency plan. 2 Capabilities Through the use of Idle Channel Measurements the general quality of radio connections in the network can be improved. For each channel allocation, the Channel Administration feature (see Reference [1]) can use the information from Idle Channel Measurements to select the most suitable channel. When selecting the most suitable channel from the circuit switched domain to be configured as dedicated or on-demand PDCHs, information from Idle Channel Measurements may be used, (see Reference [3]). Within Idle Channel Measurements there are five interference bands defined, which together cover the signal strength measurement range. Idle Channel Measurements ranks each idle channel to one of the five bands. The ranges of these bands determine the resolution of the measurements. The interference bands can be changed on a per cell basis from their default ranges, so that the resolution can be adjusted for optimum performance of the feature. For example, in micro cells the tolerable interference level may be significantly higher than in rural areas, as the signal strength of the carrier in general will be higher. Therefore, it can be beneficial to tighten the interference bands so that a better resolution is achieved at the interference levels that can be considered to be critical for each cell. Idle Channel Measurements can be activated and deactivated on a per cell basis. It is also possible, on a per cell basis, to have the measurements active but not used for channel allocation. In this case Idle Channel Measurements is only used for statistics. These statistics show, per cell, the number of channels in each interference band. As measurements are performed on a per channel basis, information about the interference on a specific frequency is not retrievable when frequency hopping is used.