1.

MESSAGE FLOWS IN UMTS

In the Chapter Error! Reference source not found., we talked about the UMTS Channels with a quick description of each of them. In this Chapter we will see the most important events in a mobile network and their message flows are included in the Error! Reference source not found. The most of the problems that happen in a real mobile network can be detected and solved with the usage of the In terms of network composition, signaling flow scan be categorized as circuit-switched or packetswitched.

2. TROUBLESHOOTING FOR MOBILE NETWORKS.

2.1. TROUBLESHOOTING FOR CALLS SETUP

2.1.1. RRC connection setup

RRC connection Establishment provides the ability to establish an RRC connection, which is a logical connection, between the UE and UTRAN at L3. A radio connection comprises the connection between a UE and UTRAN including all the resources, i.e., Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3. The UE makes the initial access to UTRAN and requests for a RRC connection. Radio resources are allocated and a RRC connection is established between UE and UTRAN.

2.2. Troubleshooting for Location Area and Routing Area

From the traces captured either by drive test or RNC, many location area (LA) and routing area (RA) updates, are found from observing the L3 message. The problems concern the LA / RA Updating Procedure message. There are several causes; the most common are when the subscriber moves from one LAC (Local Area Code) to another one.

Example:

2.2.1. RRC Connection Setup problems

Case Failure The UE receives an RRC connection setup message and starts the transmission. But the UE does not send out RRC connection setup complete message to UTRAN. This implies that the UE and UTRAN are trying to synchronize to each other but the downlink is not synchronized.
Protocol RRC Message RRC Connection Request Encapsulated Protocol Encapsulated Message

Solution The problem is due to the too low initial downlink SIR target. If the initial SIR target of the downlink channel Dlinitsirtarget is set too low, synchronization in downlink dedicated radio link during connection setup will fail. The solution is to Increase the SIR target Dlinitsirtarget. Note: DlInitSirTarget is the required initial SIR target for the DL DPDCH The SIR target Dlinitsirtarget is a parameter per Radio Bearer
Message IEs C-Id 18237, RNC Id 103, TMSI and LAI 0x682A66B1-214-03-1114, Term. Background Call, Meas. Results On RACH: Ec/No -23.75 dB, HS-DSDCH + E-DCH supported by the UE, PS Domain TI 21064, C-RNC CC 0, RL Id 0, C-Id 18237, 1st RLS, P.Delay 6 chips, DL Pwr 1.0 dB TMSI and LAI 0x682A66B1-214-03-1114, U-RNTI 108179497, S-RNC 103, S-RNTI 176169, Cell-DCH, UL DCH 31, DL DCH 31, UL SF 64, PSC 433, DL SF 128 Source Conf (0) : Undefined, Src Conn Prop: SRB on X/DCH, CPC not used, Target Conf (0) : Undefined, Wanted Conf (1) : , Procedure indicator: RRC Connection Establishment, Exception Class: Uu Interface RRC Protocol Area, Cause Value: Procedure Timeout, Not Used, Trigger point RRC Connection Release, PS Domain, Idle state

Time 14/10/2013 9:02:13

14/10/2013 9:02:13 14/10/2013 9:02:13 14/10/2013 9:02:20

NBAP RRC Ericsson GPEH

Radio Link Setup Request FDD RRC Connection Setup Call Setup Fail

If the received Ec/No of the best serving pilot in active set is close to or less than 16dB, it implies the pilot channel almost fails and the performance of the channel estimation for the downlink dedication channel becomes very poor. The UE receives an RRC connection setup message and starts Due to worse downlink quality, the UE will stop transmitting, and the the transmission. After a while, the UE sends out RRC connection quality on uplink consequently becomes poor. setup complete to UTRAN; but the RRC connection establishment fails. The most direct and effective way to solve this problem is to increase the This might be because UTRAN does not receive the RRC pilot channel power (Primary Cpich Power) of the desired cell. Due to connection setup complete message. Therefore, a possible reason uneven pilot power setting, some UEs might no longer be connected to the is poor quality in uplink. closest cell with respect to the path loss. Then they transmit with high UE powers. As a result, the uplink interference level of the carrier is consequently increased. It means the uplink is not optimized and this phenomenon is named uplink near-far problem. 3

The UE receives RRC connection reject message with cause value congestion. At each request for establishment of a new RRC connection, it is checked that this is accepted by the The engineer should re-dimension the capacity of the existing RNC. If processor load supervision function in the RNC. In case of reject needed, more processors are added. from the load supervision function, the S-RCH will send RRC connection reject to the UE and the procedure ends. The cause value of the message is congestion. The reason for this fault might be a failure in the dedicated radio link setup. The RNC does not receive any message after sending the Radio link setup The UE receives RRC connection reject with cause value request. unspecified. The reason for this fault is because of no response from the target RBS. The engineer should check if: 1. The target RBS is blocked. 2. The Transport network has problem.
Protocol RRC RRC Ericsson GPEH Message RRC Connection Request RRC Connection Reject Call Setup Fail Encapsulate d Protocol Encapsulate d Message Message IEs C-Id 18377, RNC Id 103, TMSI and LAI 0x682A66B1-214-03-1114, Orig. Interactive Call, Meas. Results On RACH: Ec/No -13.25 dB, HS-DSDCH + E-DCH supported by the UE, PS Domain C-Id 18377, TMSI and LAI 0x682A66B1-214-03-1114, Unspecified, Wait Time 15 s Source Conf (0) : Undefined, Src Conn Prop: SRB on X/DCH, CPC not used, Target Conf (0) : Undefined, Wanted Conf (1) : , Procedure indicator: RRC Connection Establishment, Exception Class: Procedure Execution Interrupt, Cause Value: Not Used, Trigger point RRC Connection Release, PS Domain, Idle state

Time 14/10/201 3 9:11:08 14/10/201 3 9:11:08 14/10/201 3 9:11:08

The UE does not receive any message from UTRAN. The RRC connection reject or RRC connection setup message is transmitted via S-CCPCH (FACH). If the UE does not receive any message from UTRAN, a possible reason is because of SCCPCH (FACH) failure. 8 There is no power control on the common channels. For that reason, the engineer has to carefully plan enough FACH power to fulfill the assumed downlink load. If mistake is done during the power calculation or the real load of the downlink carrier is larger than the assumed level, the FACH might not cover the whole cell.

There is no power control on the common channels. For that reason, the engineer has to carefully plan enough FACH power to fulfill the assumed downlink load. If mistake is done during the power calculation or the real load of the downlink carrier is larger than the assumed level, the FACH might not cover the whole cell. Increasing the common channel power level can solve DL CCH and pilot coverage imbalance problems. The common channels are: BCH, SCH, FACH PCH PICH and AICH. The drawbacks of increasing the powers of the DL common channels are increased DL interference in the carrier and increased load of the cell. 4

2.2.2.

Location Area and Routing Area

Failure Short periodic LA or RA updating timers: If the timer for periodic LA or RA updating, i.e. T3212 or T3312 respectively, is too short, many location area or routing area updates might be caused. Many location areas or routing areas: If there are too many location areas or routing areas in a network, many location area or routing area updates might be caused.
StartTime 10/14/2013 7:15:48 AM 10/14/2013 7:16:59 AM 10/14/2013 7:26:19 AM 10/14/2013 7:26:23 AM 10/14/2013 7:27:47 AM 10/14/2013 7:28:00 AM 10/14/2013 7:28:05 AM EndTime 10/14/2013 7:15:50 AM 10/14/2013 7:17:39 AM 10/14/2013 7:26:21 AM 10/14/2013 7:26:25 AM 10/14/2013 7:27:49 AM 10/14/2013 7:28:03 AM 10/14/2013 7:28:07 AM DetailedService Terminating SMS Originating HSPA Data Call Normal LA / RA Updating Procedure Normal LA / RA Updating Procedure Normal LA / RA Updating Procedure Normal LA / RA Updating Procedure LA / RA Updating Procedure Normal LA / RA Updating Procedure Terminating SMS Originating HSPA Data Call EstablishmentCause Terminating Low Priority Signalling Originating Interactive Call Registration Status Normal Normal Normal TerminationCause Iu Release Normal Release Iu Release - User Inactivity Iu Release Normal Release Iu Release Normal Release Iu Release Normal Release Iu Release Normal Release RRC Connection Failure - RRC Connection Setup not completed Iu Release Normal Release Iu Release Normal Release Iu Release Release due to UE generated signalling connection release

Case 1

Solution The engineer should adjust the T3212 and T3312 timers to suitable values, e.g. 1 hour. The engineer should check if there are too many location areas or routing areas in a network, e.g. driving along the RA or LA borders, and merge the unnecessary location or routing areas into each other.
StartRNC_Id 165 165 165 StartCellId 18970 18970 18970 EndRNC_Id 165 165 165 EndCellId 18970 18970 18970 StartEcNo -7.25 -5.25 -7.25 StartPropagationDelay 0.24 0.24 0.24

2
CallId 1831569878 1831075104 1831111578

1832112945

Registration

Normal

165

17999

165

17997

-11.75

0.24

20912465

Registration

Normal

163

20279

163

20279

-7.75

0.24

1831118496

Registration

Normal

165

17999

165

17997

-14.25

0.24

21413759

Registration

UTRAN Blocked

163

20279

163

20279

-12.75

0.24

21965246

10/14/2013 7:39:05 AM 10/14/2013 7:41:32 AM 10/14/2013 7:41:36 AM

10/14/2013 7:39:07 AM 10/14/2013 7:41:34 AM 10/14/2013 7:41:45 AM

Registration

Normal

163

29748

163

29748

-7.75

2.88

21475861 21476145

Terminating Low Priority Signalling Originating Subscribed Traffic Call

Normal Normal

163 163

26123 26123

163 163

26123 26123

-5.75 -6.25

2.4 2.4

21480882

10/14/2013 7:42:35 AM

10/14/2013 7:42:41 AM

Terminating HSPA Data Call

Terminating Background Call

Normal

21493583

10/14/2013 7:45:15 AM

10/14/2013 7:45:17 AM

Normal LA / RA Updating Procedure

Registration

Normal

Iu Release Release due to UE generated signalling connection release Iu Release Normal Release

163

26123

163

26123

-4.75

2.16

163

22835

163

22835

-10.75

0.48

2.2.3.
Case

Coverage Problem
Failure Solution In general, if the coverage of adjacent base stations is not overlapping and there are considerable users or the area is large, a new base station should be established or the coverage should be expanded (such as, improving the pilot transmitting power and the antenna height at the cost of the capacity) to enable the overlapping depth to reach about 0.27R (where R refers to the cell radius), ensuring a certain-sized soft handover area. In general, the unreasonable site distribution should be avoided in the planning. Selecting a suitable location can guarantee either that the pilot RSCP density of the network reaches a certain level, such as -65dBm in the road in a dense urban area and -80dBm in an ordinary area, or that the pilot Ec/lo of the network with a certain loading is not lower than the lowest requirement for full-coverage services. Because of the restriction of estates and equipment installation, improper locations have to exist. When a coverage hole happens, a new mini-base station or a repeater can be set up to improve the coverage. If the coverage hole is not serious, the coverage can be optimized by using high gain antennas, increasing antenna height and reducing the mechanical tilt angle of the antenna. If the pilot Ec/lo coverage cannot be efficiently improved through RF adjustment, a dominant cell can be generated by adjusting the pilot frequency (increasing the strongest and 7

Signal Dead Zone: concerns the area where the pilot signal is less than the lowest access threshold (such as for example RSCP threshold is -105dBM, Ec/lo threshold is -16dB), and the area can be a concave area, hill rear, elevator shaft, tunnel, underground garage or basement, and internal part in a tall building. Coverage Hole: A coverage hole refers to the coverage area where the pilot signal is lower than the lowest value required by fullcoverage services such as voice and data services, but higher than the lowest access threshold of mobile phones. For example, if the traffic is even but the sites locations are unevenly distributed, RSCP will not be able to meet the lowest requirement for full-coverage services in some areas. III. Trans-Regional Coverage The trans-regional coverage usually refers to the coverage of some base stations exceeds the planned scope. The trans-regional coverage can cause discontinuous dominant areas in the coverage of other base stations if the strength of trans-regional signal meets the requirement for the full-coverage services. For example, some sites of which the locations are much higher than the average height of around buildings can transmit signals very far along highlands or roads, and form the dominant coverage, Island, in the coverage of other base stations. Therefore, when a call is accessed to the Island area which is far from a

nearby base station and the nearby cells are not set as adjacent cells to Island the during setting the cell handover parameters, the call drop will happen as soon as the mobile phone leaves the "Island. Even if the adjacent cells are configured, but for the too small Island area, the call drop will happen if the handover cannot proceed in time. In general, for the trans-regional coverage, the signal transmission of facing road should be avoided or using the obstacle effect with around building to reduce the trans-regional coverage. But it should also be noted whether the intra-frequency interference is generated to other base stations. For the base station in high location, the effective method is to change the location. However, because of the restriction of estates and equipment installation, if a suitable location cannot be found, the intensive adjustment to the mechanical tilt angle of the antenna will cause that the antenna directional diagram is distorted. If necessary, the pilot power can be adjusted or the electric tilt angle antenna can be used so as to remove the "Island effect by reducing the coverage. IV. Pilot Pollution The pilot pollution means that too many pilots are received on a point, in which there has not a dominant pilot. In this guide, the following method is used to judge the existent of

reducing the rest).

the pilot pollution: the number of the pilots that meet the condition CPICH _ RSCP > 95dBm is more than 3, with CPICH RSCP CPICH RSCP dB st th ( _ _ ) 5 1 4 <. The reason of adding the judgment to the absolute threshold of pilot RSCP is to distinguish coverage hole from no dominant call in the edge of the target coverage area. No matter it is the coverage of a micro cell or a macro cell, if the pilot pollution happens, the available signals will be influenced, which leads to the increased lo, decreased Ec/lo and increased BLER and causes the pingpong handover and call drop. In general, the possible reasons for pilot pollution may be the unreasonable site distribution, too high the location of the base station or too high antenna, unreasonable directional angle of the antenna, and the influence caused by the back radiation of the antenna, unreasonable setting of pilot power and the influence of around environments. Where, the influence of around environment can be the obstacle of tall building or mountain, signal transmission extended along streets or water area, or signal reflection caused by the glass curtain wall on the tall building. Therefore, besides adjusting the distribution and antenna parameters, combining the sectors of the base station or deleting redundant sectors can reduce
9

the pilot pollution without affecting the capacity condition. The pilot pollution should be overcome during the planning as much as possible so as to facilitate the future network optimization. V. Unbalanced Uplink/Downlink The unbalanced uplink/downlink refers to the restricted uplink coverage (for example, the transmitting power of UE cannot meet the uplink BLER requirement although it reaches the maximum) or the restricted downlink coverage (for example: the transmitting power of the private downlink channel code cannot satisfy the downlink BLER requirement although it reaches the maximum) in the target area. What operators care mostly is that the service coverage quality mapped to the performance statistics, because an excellent pilot coverage is the precondition for ensuring the excellent service coverage. Because WCDMA support multi-service bearing, the planned target area should guarantee the continuous up/downlink balancing of the full-coverage service, and some areas should support the asymmetrical service of discontinuous coverage, such as uplink 64K and downlink PS 12KB service, and uplink 64K and downlink PS384K service. For the uplink coverage restriction, the theoretical reason is that the maximum UE transmitting power cannot satisfy the required receiving sensitivity
10

by NodeB. For example: the uplink interference of the base station caused by the inter-modulation interference, signal leakage generated in the cell edge or equipment in the same site, the incorrect setting of repeater UL gain which raising the bottom noise and increasing the uplink coupling loss. For the downlink coverage restriction, the theoretical reason is the increased noise received by the downlink mobile phone, leading to the Ec/lo degradation. For example: the increased interference in this cell caused by increased user, or raised interference in the adjacent cell, or the restricted downlink power (the combined network of 10W and 20W power amplifier causes that the assignment of the radio resources is unbalanced). Usually, the unbalanced up/downlink coverage problem easily causes the call drop. If it is caused by the interference to the uplink and downlink, the problem can be located by monitoring the alarms on the RTWP of the base station, and solved by checking the antenna feeder installation and adding the RF configuration. For example, for the problem happens on the antenna shared by 3G and 2G system, it can be solved by adding a band-pass filter. For the interference from the repeater, it can be solved by changing the antenna installation location. For the uplink coverage
11

restriction on the cell edge, it can be solved by improving the base station sensitivity with the tower amplifier, subject to due downlink capacity loss. For the unbalanced up/downlink due to the restricted up/downlink power, the congestion can be viewed through the OMC traffic statistic data, or be judged by comparing the traffic on busy of the cells of each base station with the calculating capacity. It can be solved by sector splitting or adding carrier frequency, or by establishing the new micro cell. If the sector splitting is adopted, the narrow-beam high-gain antenna should be used accordingly. WCDMA Radio Network Optimization Guide Chapter 8 Category of Optimization Problems and Case Analysis Huawei Technologies Proprietary 8-5 While the system capacity is increased, the service coverage is improved. However, the interference and soft handover rate between cells must be under control.

12

1. System Information (BCCH): The UE reads the System Information that is broadcast on BCCH. The information is not read continuously. It is only read if the information changes. 2. RRC Connection Request (CCCH): The Mobile user decides to initiate a voice call. The first message the UE will send on CCCH is RRC Connection Request. This will contain among other things, Initial UE Identity and Establishment Cause. 3. NBAP Radio Link Setup Request: The SRNC sends this message to NodeB. It will pass the Cell Id, TFS, TFCS, frequency, UL Scrambling code, etc to NodeB. 4. NBAP Radio Link Setup Response: NodeB allocates the resources and starts PHY Reception. While transmitting the response it includes the Transport layer addressing information that includes the Binding Identity of the AAL2 for Iub data transport bearer. 5. ALCAP Establish REQ: The AAL2 binding identity (Iub Data Transport Bearer Id) is passed to ALCAP protocol in NodeB. The Iub Data Transport bearer is now bounce to DCH. 6. ALCAP Establish CNF: Establish confirm from ALCAP in NodeB. 7. DCH-FP Downlink Synchronization: The NodeB and SRNC establishes synchronization for the Iub Data Transport bearer by means of exchange of the appropriate DCH Frame Protocol frames. 8. DCH-FP Uplink Synchronization: Once the UL synchronization is achieved, NodeB starts DL transmission. 9. RRC Connection Setup (CCCH): RRC Connection Setup message is sent on CCCH with the parameters required to establish DCH. Also the state indicator will be set to DCH for the voice (or CS) call. 10. NBAP Radio Link Restore Indication: Once the UE establishes Radio Link, NodeB will send RL Restore indication to the SRNC. 11. RRC Connection Setup Complete (DCCH): RRC Connection Setup complete will be sent on DCCH. Integrity and Ciphering related parameters and UE capability information will be sent back to SRNC. 12. RRC Initial Direct Transfer [CM Service Request]: First NAS message is now sent by the UE. It indicates that a UE originated Voice call is required. The UE identity (TMSI) will also be passed in this message. 13. RANAP Initial UE Message [CM Service Request]: The NAS message will be forwarded to appropriate CN Domain (CS Domain in this case). Along with the CM service request, it will also include LAI and SAI. 14. RANAP Direct Transfer [Authentication Request]: MSC/VLR needs to perform authentication to make sure that the UE is genuine. For this reason it will challenge the UE with a Authentication token and RAND (random number). 15. RRC Downlink Direct Transfer [Authentication Request]: SRNC transfers the NAS message to the UE. 16. RRC Uplink Direct Transfer [Authentication Response]: UE computes the response (RES) and sends it back in the NAS message. 17. RANAP Direct Transfer [Authentication Response]: SRNC relays the response to the MSC/VLR. The MSC/VLR will compare the response RES with the expected response XRES. If they are the same then the procedure will continue. 18. RANAP Security Mode Command: MSC/VLR sends the Security Mode Command to start Ciphering and Integrity Protection. Ciphering is optional while Integrity Protection is mandatory. The Algorithms, etc are known to the MSC/VLR and the UE and only the ones that are common between them are used. 19. RRC Security Mode Command: RRC Forwards the Security Mode command received from MSC/VLR to the UE.

20. RRC Security Mode Complete: The UE configures the Ciphering and Integrity Protection and responds back to the network. The response message is Integrity Protected for further safety. Ciphering is started at Ciphering activation time. Since this is a Circuit switched call, the Ciphering will be started in MAC. In case of AM and UM bearers it is started in RLC. 21. RANAP Security Mode Complete: The network forwards the Security Mode Complete message to MSC/VLR. 22. RANAP Direct Transfer [TMSI Reallocation Command]: The network may decide to reallocate the TMSI to the UE. It sends a DT message which includes the NAS TMSI Reallocation Command. 23. RRC DL Direct Transfer [TMSI Reallocation Command]: The RNC relays the DT message to the UE. 24. RRC UL Direct Transfer [TMSI Reallocation Complete]: The UE takes the new TMSI and responds with the complete message. 25. RANAP Direct Transfer [TMSI Reallocation Complete]: The RNC relays the message to the CN domain. 26. RRC UL Direct Transfer [Setup]: The UE now sends the 'Setup' message in UL Direct Transfer message. This will include all the required parameters for setting up the voice call. It will include the number that UE wishes to be contacted and the bearer capability. 27. RANAP Direct Transfer [Setup]: The network relays the message to the MSC/VLR. 28. RANAP Direct Transfer [Call Proceeding]: The MSC/VLR sends Call Proceeding to the UE indicating that it is now starting with the RAB establishment procedure. 29. RRC DL Direct Transfer [Call Proceeding]: The network relays it to the UE. 30. RANAP RAB Assignment Request: The CN initiates establishment of the Radio Access Bearer using the RAB Assignment Request message. This message includes the QoS of the call being established, the Transport Address, Iu Transport association, etc. 31. ALCAP Establish REQ: SRNC initiates the set-up of Iu Data Transport bearer using ALCAP protocol. The request contains the AAL2 Binding Identity to Bind the Iu Data Transport Bearer to the RAB. (Note that this is not done in case of PS RAB). 32. ALCAP Establish CNF: The CN responds with the ALCAP Establish CNF. 33. NBAP Radio Link Reconfiguration Prepare: SRNC requests NodeB to prepare establishment of DCH to carry the RAB. It passes the TFS, TFCS and Power Control Information in the message. 34. NBAP Radio Link Reconfiguration Ready: NodeB allocates the resources and responds with the Ready message. It sends back the AAL2 address and the AAL2 binding Id for the Iub data transport bearer. 35. ALCAP Establish REQ: SRNC initiates setup of Iub Data Transport Bearer using ALCAP protocol. The request contains the AAL2 Binding Identity to bind the Iub Data Transport Bearer to DCH. 36. ALCAP Establish CNF: The NodeB responds with the Establish Confirm. 37. DCH-FP Downlink Synchronization: The NodeB and SRNC establish synchronism for the Iub Data Transport Bearer by means of exchange of the appropriate DCH frame protocol frames. SRNC sends the DL Synchronization frames. 38. DCH-FP Uplink Synchronization: The NodeB responds with the UE Synchronization frames. 39. NBAP Radio Link Reconfiguration Complete Finally the SRNC instructs the NodeB of the CFN at which the new configuration will come into effect. 40. RRC Radio Bearer Setup: SRNC sends the RB Setup message to add the new DCH's. The message will be received using the old configuration. 41. RRC Radio Bearer Setup Response: After the activation time the UE will respond with complete message using the new configuration. 42. RANAP RAB Assignment Response: The SRNC responds with the response to the MSC/VLR. 43. ISUP Initial Address Message: MSC/VLR sends the Initial Address Message to the PSTN. The message tells the PSTN to reserve an idle trunk circuit from originating switch to the destination switch. 14

44. ISUP Address Complete Message: The ACM message is sent to indicate that the remote end of the trunk circuit has been reserved. 45. RANAP Direct Transfer [Alert]: The Alert message is sent to the SRNC. This message contains the ACM received from the PSTN. 46. RRC Direct Transfer [Alert]: The Alert message is forwarded to the UE. The Alert message will initiate the ringing tone on the handset. 47. ISUP Answer Message: When the person that is being called picks up his phone, an Answer message is sent to the MSC/VLR. 48. RANAP Direct Transfer [Connect]: The MSC/VLR sends the Connect message to the SRNC via Direct Transfer message. The Connect message indicates that the End User has answered the call. 49. RRC DL Direct Transfer [Connect]: The SRNC forwards the Connect message to the UE. 50. RRC UL Direct Transfer [Connect Acknowledge]: The UE confirms the reception of the Connect message using the Connect Acknowledge and sending it via Direct Transfer. 51. RANAP Direct Transfer [Connect Acknowledge]: The Network forwards the Connect Acknowledge to the MSC/VLR. The call has now been successfully established.

15