Estimation of Network Load and Downlink
Throughput Using RF Scanner Data for LTE
Networks
Dr. Kwangrok Chang
Motiv Research co.
6-28-11 Minamioi, Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan
kwangrok.chang@motiv-research.com
Abstract This paper provides a methodology of estimating
downlink throughput using the drive test data collected by an RF
scanner device rather than obtaining the downlink throughput
via FTP downloading from UE. The throughput test using the
UEs FTP application to perform the throughput test has a merit
of presenting the packet data speed from the end user perspective
however, it also has significant shortcomings such as multiple RF
layers cannot be tested simultaneously as UE can have only a
single radio connection to eNB and no analytic performance
benchmarking between different LTE networks is possible. The
proposed algorithm utilizes the simple measurement quantities
collected by an RF scanner in order to estimate the LTE
networks traffic load and the available PRBs without relying on
network parameters or site information. Furthermore, the
proposed algorithm calculates the potential downlink throughput
at each location at which the RF scanner measured RSRP, RSRQ
and SINR assuming that the available PRBs of the LTE cell are
fully utilized at the location. Since the RF scanner is capable of
measuring the multiple RF layers simultaneously, the proposed
algorithm enables whole LTE networks to be benchmarked
comprehensively. In addition, the proposed algorithm helps in
analytically determining the root causes of the superiority or
inferiority of a LTE network whether it is due to traffic load,
system bandwidth, or spectrum efficiency.
Keywords LTE network load, throughput, RF scanner, RSRP,
RSRQ, SINR, PRB and benchmark.
I. INTRODUCTION
The downlink throughput performance is often regarded
as the significant metric defining the end user satisfaction on
the LTE network performance because it affects
straightforwardly the data downloading speed of the various
packet applications streaming, data downloading through File
Transfer Protocol (FTP), and HTTP web browsing, etc. It can
be said from this perspective that the improvement of downlink
throughput is the top priority of the LTE network optimizations
[1].
It is specified in 3GPP [2] that the Transport Block Size
(TBS), which is immediately related to the downlink
throughput, is determined by the Physical Resource Blocks
(PRB) allocated to the UE and the MCS (Modulation and
Coding Scheme) index of the PRB. The MCS to be used in the
PRB is determined by the eNB according to the UEs reported
Mr. Ragil Putro Wicaksono
Motiv Research co.
6-28-11 Minamioi, Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan
ragil.wicaksono@motiv-research.com
Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), which is not immediate
interpretation of SINR but represents the quality of channel at
the UE. UEs reported CQI is directly proportional to the
received SINR at the UE but how received SINR is converted
to CQI is UE manufacturer specific [3].
It is noted from the above-mentioned fact that the
downlink throughput of the UE can be obtained without the
UEs FTP downloading test if the number of remaining PRBs
after the usage of common channels and the traffic channel at
the eNB and the received SINR at UEs location are known. A
new algorithm is proposed in this paper to estimate the LTE
network load, in other word, PRB usage ratio at the eNB
accurately in terms of only RF scanners measurement entities,
RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, which are defined in 3GPP [4] and SINR
[5]. Once the PRB usage ratio is calculated using the proposed
algorithm from the RF scanners measurements, the downlink
throughput is also estimated. The proposed algorithm unleashes
the field tests and the performance benchmarking from the high
requirements of complex test configurations and the unforeseen
problems caused by FTP servers delayed responsiveness or
UEs temporary abnormal behaviors that are faced during the
field test but in fact not directly relevant to LTE networks
performances. This algorithm is applicable for both FDD LTE
and TDD LTE systems.
II. RELATED LTE THEORY
A. Downlink cell-specific reference signal
Cell-specific reference signal (RS) is a special signal that
exists only at physical layer. The purpose of RS is to deliver
the reference point for the downlink power to be used by the
UE for channel estimation. RSs are carried by multiples of
specific resource element (RE) in each slot. The number of RS
and the location (symbol and frequency) depends on the
number of transmit antenna ports and the physical layer cell
identity (PCI). 3GPP [6] defines the mapping of downlink RS
for one, two, and four antenna ports.
B. Available RE for Traffic and Control Channel
Depending on the number of antenna ports, the number of
RE used for RS and discontinuous transmission (DTX) is
different, which will affect the number of the available non-RS
RE that can be used for traffic and other control channels, or in
other words network load. For one antenna port, two REs per
PRB are allocated for RS and the remaining 10 non-RS REs
per PRB are available for traffic and other control channels in
symbols where RS symbol present, while all 12 REs are
available in the other symbol. The detail number of RE can be
seen on Table 1.
TABLE I. NUMBER OF RE ALLOCATION PER PRB.
Ant Symbol where RS0 Symbol where RS0 not
enna present present
Ports RSRE DTXRE NRSREB RSRE DTXRE
One 2 N/A 10 N/A N/A
Two 4 4 16 N/A N/A
4 or 12 or
Four 4 12 32
N/A N/A
Where, RSRE(n) is the total number of RE per PRB used for
RS signal depending on the number of antenna ports.
NRSREB(n) and NRSREA(n) are the total number of RE per PRB
that can be used for non-RS signals at the symbol where RS
present or not present, respectively.
C. Downlink Power Allocation
The eNB determines the downlink transmit energy per
resource element (EPRE) for RS RE and the other signals
(non-RS RE). The downlink reference-signal transmit power is
defined as the linear average over the power contributions of
all resource elements that carry cell-specific reference signals
within the operating system bandwidth. The ratio of non-RS
EPRE to cell-specific RS EPRE among non-RS REs for each
OFDM symbol is denoted by either A or B according to the
OFDM symbol index [6] as shown in Fig. 1. The cell-specific
ratio, B/A is given by 3GPP in Table 2 according to cell-
specific parameter PB signaled by higher layers and the
number of configured eNB cell specific antenna ports.
There are no power control implemented on the non-RS
REs, hence eNB sends either some RE with the aforementioned
power, or not sending that RE at all.
Fig. 1. EPRE for OFDM symbol A and B for one antenna port case.
D. Cell Synchronization
In TD-LTE case, uplink and downlink signals are sent at
the same frequency; hence, a strict time (frame) and phase
synchronization are required to avoid the inter-symbol
interference. In FDD LTE of 3GPP Rel.8 and Rel.9, the time
synchronization is not required due to the frequency duplex
separation for downlink and uplink frequencies. However it is
noted that in Rel. 10 LTE and beyond, time and frequency
synchronization are also required for the carrier aggregation
(CA) and the coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP) [7].
Cell synchronization becomes an important issue for RSRQ
and SINR calculations since it will affect the type of
interference generated by the neighbor cells. In synchronized
network, as shown in Fig. 2 (left) the interference or RSSI
component from the neighbor cells consists of both RS RE
and non-RS RE, however for non-synchronized network as
shown in Fig. 2 (right), there is a probability, prA that the
interference only consist of Non-RS RE component. In case of
normal cyclic prefix, both RS elements and non-RS elements
are transmitted at the same time in 2 symbols out of 7 symbols
NRSREA in a slot [6]. It means that there are 5 symbols transmitting
12
only non-RS elements in a slot, which result in prA = 5/7.
24
44.8 in
RS RE is always broadcasted in the specific locations for
average the whole LTE band. The load on that specific RS RE will
always be 100%. However, the non-RS RE interference varies
depending on the traffic at the eNB. Moreover, in the
synchronized network, there is 1/6 probability that the RS RE
of the different cells are broadcasted in the same locations as
shown in Fig. 3 (right); in this case SINR is dependent only on
the overlapping level of different cells RS signal, not on the
interfering cell load. It is noted that the cells with the same RS
RE locations can be detected from their PCIs.
Fig. 2. Reception time difference in synchronized and non-synchronized
networks in single antenna port case.
TABLE II. CELL SPECIFIC RATIO FOR 1, 2 OR 4 ANTENNA PORTS.
P B/A
B One antenna port Two or four antenna ports
0 1 5/4
1 4/5 1
2 3/5 3/4
3 2/5 1/2
Fig. 3. RS and RE locations in synchronized network.
E. Non-reference signal received power
The RS signal average received power per RE is defined
by 3GPP as RSRP [4]. In the case of flat fading, RSRP can be
used to estimate the average received power per RE for
resource element that is used for other than RS signal. The
non-RS RE is transmitted using two different powers,
EPRE_A or EPRE_B depending on its location in time domain
hence, the NRSRP can be defined in two different values
accordingly. In case RS is not present within the same OFDM
symbol index, NRSRP is expressed as follow in Eq. (1).
NRSRPA RSRP A (1)
If RS is present within the same OFDM symbol index,
NRSRP is defined as shown in Eq. (2).
NRSRPB RSRP B (2)
It is noted that the parameter A and B are configurable
by the network operator; however, the values are highly
dependent of the number of transmit antenna ports and the
precoding matrix used because the transmission power per
layer is reduced as the number of transmission layer increases.
As a rule of thumb, network vendors and operators use the
default value of A and B to be reciprocal to the number of
transmission layer. For example, in the case of single layer
transmission, the default value of A and B is 1, while for two
layer transmission the default value of A and B is 1/2.
III. CALCULATION OF OWN CELL LOAD
Fig. 4 shows the components constructing SINR such as
the signals from the own cell, interference from the
neighboring cells, and the thermal noise power. The
interference generated from the own cell is 0 because the sub-
channels in OFDMA system are orthogonal [8]. The
interference from the neighboring cells can come from RS
elements or from non-RS elements. By excluding the
interference coming from the RS elements, it is possible to
estimate the interference coming only from neighboring cells
loads, which is denoted by LN. In other words, LN is subtracted
from the total interference, RSSI to obtain the own cells load
denoted by LO.
Fig. 4. Instantaneous RSSI component at a single measurement sample for
one PRB SISO case in synchronized network.
IV. OWN CELL LOAD IN NON-SYNCHRONIZED NETWORK
A. Signal and interference components
In a non-synchronized network there are three
components constructing SINR as shown in Fig. 6. The own cell
signal is always calculated at the RS elements as its received
signal power is RSRP however, for a neighbor cells
interference, there are three cases determining its interference
power.
Fig. 5. SINR component at a single measurement sample for one PRB SISO
case in synchronized network.
1) Case A
The neighbor cells interference can come from the RE
comprising of non-RS elements of which OFDM symbol
index is different from own cells symbol index for RS. It
happens with the possibility, prA of 71.4%. The average power
of the received interference is expressed as Eq. (3).
I NRSRP (i) n NRSRPA (i) LN n RSRP (i) A LN
A
(3)
where, i is the cell index. When i=0, it stands for the own
cell and when i 1, it stands for the neighboring interfering
cells. n is the number of antenna ports, e.g. 1, 2, or 4.
2) Case B.1
The possibility, prB is for the case when the neighbor cell
interference contributing to the RSSI comes from the REs
located in the same OFDM index as own cells and its value is
28.6%. In addition, the neighbor cell interference in this
scenario is attributed to the RS elements of the neighbor cells.
The received power of this interference is denoted by RSRP(i)
for the i-th neighbor cell. In other words, this is the case when
the neighbor cells have similar RS locations with the serving
cells RS in time and frequency domains. It can be also said
that when the number of antenna port is one, the own cells
PCI mod 6 is equal to the neighbor cells PCI mod 6. If the
neighbor cell has different RS locations than the own cell does,
the next case mentioned below needs to be taken into account.
3) Case B.2
In this scenario, the neighbor cell interference
contributing to the RSSI is caused by non-RS RE of which
OFDM index is same as that of own cells for RS however,
PCI mode 6 is different from own cells PCI mod 6 with the
condition that the number of antenna port is one. The average
received power of this non-RS element is expressed as Eq. (4).
I NRSRP (i) n NRSRPB (i) LN n RSRP (i) B LN (4)
B
Where n is the number of antenna ports, e.g. 1, 2, or 4.
B. Thermal noise component
Noise component from the thermal noise power depends
on measurement bandwidth denoted by BW. Since it is
considered the average value per LTE sub-carrier in the SINR
calculation, the BW is fixed to 15 kHz.
No k B T f NF 125.24 dBm (5)
The noise figure denoted by NF is in the range of 7dB.
 LO RSSI RSSI [ Noise] RS RE (n) N RSRP (i 0)
Ncells
pr
i 1
A LN NRS RE A (n) A N RSRP (i)

prB RS RE (n) LN NRS REB (n) B N RSRP (i)
NRS RE B (n) B N RSRP (i 0) (11)
It is noted that the neighboring cell load may not be
derived with very small odd. It may happen in a poorly
planned network where the serving cell and the neighboring
cells have the same RS-elements location in both time and
frequency domain. In this case, the approach introduced in this
section is no longer valid and LN shall be assumed to be
similar to LO.
Fig. 6. SINR components in case of non-synchronized network.

C. Average SINR and average neighbor cell load V. OWN CELL LOAD IN SYNCHRONIZED NETWORK
Since there are no accurate way to find out whether case A similar approach can be used to calculate the own cell
A or case B occurred at an instantaneous time. The best load of the synchronized network as in the non-synchronized
method to get the accurate result is by using probability. In network. The difference is only the probability, prA and prB
this paper, for the interference component calculation, each values. The SINR calculation in the synchronized network
probability is used as a weighting factor for average becomes simpler because prA is 0% and prB is 100%. With the
interference, I calculation. updated prA and prB values, the neighboring cell load in the
synchronized network is expressed as Eq. (12).
I (i) N I (i 1) I (i 2) N
o
(6)
o
RSRP (i 0)
i 0
N o RSRP (i)
In case the number of antenna port is one and own cells SINR(i 0) iPCI mod 6 (12)
LN
PCI mod 6 is equal to neighbor cells PCI mod 6, the average B N RSRP
iPCI mod 6
(i)
interference is re-written as below. If the number of antenna
port is 2, the PCI mod 6 needs to be replaced with PCI mod 3. The own cell load can be obtained by subtracting LN from
I (i PCI mod 6) prA n A LN prB RSRP (i) (7) RSSI as shown in Eq. (13) [9].
Else LO RSSI RSSI [ Noise] RS RE (n) N RSRP (i 0)
I (i) prA A prB B n RSRP (i) LN
RS
Ncells
(8)
RE (n) LN NRS REB (n) B N RSRP (i)
Then, the SINR can be expressed as shown in Eq. (9). i 1

SINR
S NRS RE B (n) B N RSRP (i 0) (13)
i0 I (i) N o
VI. VERIFICATION OF THE OWN CELL LOAD CALCULATION

RSRP (i 0) prA n A LN prB RSRP (i) IN NON-SYNCHRONIZED NETWORK
iPCI mod 6 In order to verify the accuracy of the load estimation, the
measurement quantities - RSRP, RSRQ and SINR of a serving
prA A prB B n RSRP (i) LN N o (9)
cell, the cell with the best RSRP level are collected using RF
iPCI mod 6
scanner in stationary over 2 ~ 5 hours and the serving cells
The detailed procedure of SINR calculation is articulated
load is estimated using the proposed algorithm. The actual cell
in other study [9].
load of the serving cell is also obtained from the eNB KPI
It is noted that other than the neighbor cell load, LN, all
(Key Performance Indicator) for the same time period when
above variable are either known from LTE RF scanner data, or
the RF scanner measurements are carried out. The proposed
dependent only on the number of antenna ports. Therefore, by
algorithm is verified in the Softbanks FDD LTE network
knowing the antenna configuration, the neighbor cell load, LN
where MDMS service and eICIC feature is not enabled so that
can be derived as Eq. (10).
the network is considered non-synchronized network. The
RSRP (i 0)
LN N o prB RSRP (i) verification of cell load estimation in the synchronized LTE
SINR(i 0) iPCI mod 6 network was not made because the cell load information in
eNB side could not be obtained due to the mobile operators
prA n A RSRP (i) prA A prB B n RSRP (i) information security policy. The authors appreciate Softbank
iPCI mod 6 iPCI mod 6
mobile for providing the cell load information in eNB for the
(10)
verification purpose.
The own cell load can be obtained by subtracting LN The verification of the own cell load estimation was
from RSSI as shown in Eq. (11). The detailed calculation is performed throughout the four different train stations in Tokyo
articulated in other study [9]. metropolitan area. The station names are not disclosed for the
reason of information security. The traffic conditions and the onto the serving cell.
estimation deviations for the four different stations are
presented in Table 3.

TABLE III. CELL SPECIFIC RATIO FOR 1, 2 OR 4 ANTENNA PORTS.

Load by test
Estimation
Test area ID Traffic Level UE at the neighbor
deviation
cell
Station A High No 2.7%
Station B High No 3.3%
Station C Medium No 4.4%
Station D Low Yes 2.2%

The column of traffic level in Table 3 represents the

traffic load levels at each station during the RF scanner
measurements. The column of estimation deviation stands for
the accuracy of the serving cell load estimation at the four Fig. 8. Estimated serving cell load and actual cell load at station B.
stations, which is the average of the discrepancies of the
estimated cell load from the actual cell load obtained from the
eNB KPI over the measurement period. The detailed
comparison between the estimated cell loads and the actual
cell loads in the four stations are presented in the Fig. 7 to Fig.
10.

Fig. 9. Estimated serving cell load and actual cell load at station C.

Fig. 7. Estimated serving cell load and actual cell load at station A.

The eNB cell load KPI is updated in every 15 minutes,

which is the averaged cell load over last 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, the RF scanner collects RSRP, RSRQ and SINR
in every second so that the serving cell load is estimated in
every second too. The estimated serving cell load is then
averaged over 15 minutes in order to compare to eNBs cell
load KPI.
In the verification tests at station A and station B, a test
UE was used to impose additional traffic load onto the serving
cells. It is noted in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 that the time stamp with the
vertical dotted line is the moment when the test UE started
FTP downloading to generate the additional traffic load at the
serving cell. The test UE load is the ratio of the number of
PRBs allocated to the test UE to the total number of system
PRBs, e.g. 50 PRBs in 10MHz LTE system. It is found in Fig. 7
and Fig. 8 that the proposed algorithm estimates the serving cell
loads with a negligible deviation over the whole verification
period. The accuracy of the load estimation is well maintained
even when the test UE generated the additional traffic load
Fig. 10. Estimated serving cell load and actual cell load at station D.
Fig. 9 shows the estimated serving cell load and the actual
serving cell load obtained from eNB KPI for the station C
where the traffic load is observed medium level during the
verification test. This verification test is for the most usual
traffic load scenario that the most mobile networks operate.
The estimated serving cell load for this scenario is also well in
line with the actual cell load over the whole measurement
period.
The last scenario, station D is special that the test UE is
connected to the neighbor cell rather than the serving cell and
is downloading the properly sized files through the FTP
sessions to create the additional traffic load onto the neighbor
cell. Then the neighboring cell, geographically close to the traffic loads will schedule MIMO and MCS dynamically
serving cell introduces higher interference to the serving cell according to the reported CQI by UE. The UEs data
because more PRBs are transmitted due to the test UEs FTP collection was performed in a dense urban area of Tokyo and
downloading at the neighboring cell. all the eNBs equipped with 2X2 MIMO and 10MHz LTE
It is observed in Fig. 10 that the proposed algorithm system bandwidth.
estimates the serving cells load accurately and not negatively The allocated MCSid and MIMO ratio curves shown in
affected by the sudden increase of neighbor cells interference Fig.11 and the downlink throughput curves shown in Fig. 11
due to the test UEs FTP downloading. This scenario proves may differ in accordance with the system vendor of the LTE
that the proposed algorithm differentiates the RSSI contributed network because the packet scheduler of a LTE vendor is
by the neighbor cell and excludes it correctly in order to different from others [1],[3]. However, the pattern of the curve
calculate the net transmit power of the serving cell, which is stays the same even if the network topology is different, e.g.
the key to estimate the serving cell load. rural area or urban area as long as the LTE system vendor and
its system configurations are remained same; MIMO and
VII. DOWNLINK THROUGHPUT ESTIMATION FOR LTE scheduler metric such as proportional fair or round robin. The
NETWORK number of available PRBs is estimated using the algorithm
The LTE downlink throughput at a UE is determined by developed in the previous section.
three factors, TTI allocations to the UE in time domain, PRB
allocations per TTI to the UE, and MCS of the allocated PRB
[1]-[3]. If the RF condition in terms of the received SINR at
the UE is favorable, higher order MCS such as 64QAM can be
selected by eNB to the allocated PRB to the UE. The PRB and
TTI allocations to the UE depend on the traffic load of the
eNB serving the UEs within its coverage area. In case the
traffic load at the eNB is too high, the sufficient downlink
throughput is not achievable even if the received SINR at the
UE is good enough.
In 3GPP [2], it is specified how large TBS is selected by
eNB in accordance with the MCS index and the number of
allocated PRBs to the UE. The downlink throughput is then
calculated from the TBS and the number of MIMO streams as Fig. 11. Average MCSid and MIMO ratio allocated to UE at different SINR
level using UE measurement data.
expressed in the Eq. (14).
ThroughputDL TBS size Num of streams
1sec (14) SINR vs DL Throughput
1ms 50

The MCS index determined by eNB is selected based on 45

50 PRB 40 PRB 30 PRB 20 PRB 10 PRB

5 PRB 15 PRB 25 PRB 35 PRB 45 PRB

the CQI reported by UE, which indicates the quality of the 40

received SINR at the UE. It can be also said that downlink

DL Throughput (Mbps)

35

throughput can be re-expressed by the allocated PRBs to the 30

UE and the received SINR at the UE since the SINR is 25

proportional to the reported CQI. There are studies done using 20

the link level simulations to obtain the curves of downlink 15

10
throughput for the received SINR with the variance of the
5
number of PRBs allocated to the UE [10],[11]. In this paper,
instead of using the link level simulation, UEs measurement
0
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30

data in the live LTE network is used to obtain the curves of
downlink throughput upon the received SINR and the number
of PRBs allocated to the test UE. The UEs measurement data
is collected using a diagnostic monitoring tool for Qualcomm
chipset UE [12].
In order to obtain the downlink throughput curves
proportional to the received SINR, it is configured that the test
UE downloads a huge data file, e.g. 1GBytes through FTP
session continually to ensure the RLC buffer at the eNB is
always filled with user data provisioned by the FTP server.
While the test UE is downloading the data from the serving
cell, the UE moves around to be exposed to the different RF
coverage conditions so that the serving cells with different
SINR (dB)
Fig. 12. DL throughput upon received SINR for the various PRB allocations
using UE measurement data.
VIII. VERIFICATION OF DOWNLINK THROUGHPUT ESTIMATION
This section compares the estimated downlink
throughput based on the received SINR and the estimated PRB
load of the non-synchronized network serving cell using the
RF scanners measurement data to the actual UEs downlink
throughput by downloading a file via FTP. The estimation
algorithm of the downlink throughput at a UE assumes all the
remaining PRB resources of the serving cell are fully allocated
to the UE. Therefore, in order to verify the accuracy of the
estimated downlink throughput fairly to the test UEs actual
downlink throughput, a large file size, e.g. 1GBytes, needs to
be used for FTP downloading at the test UE to ensure that the
serving cell allocates most of its remaining PRB resources to
the test UE so that eNBs RLC buffer is filled enough with the
user data provisioned by the FTP server. It is noted, however,
that if the test UE downloads the big sized data file continually,
the RSRQ received at the UE will be significantly deteriorated
because the RSSI of the serving cell will increase by the REs
transmitting the FTP downloading data to the test UE. This
will result in a situation that the LTE load estimation algorithm
shows almost 0 availability of the PRB resource since most
of the PRB resources are occupied by the test UE, which is
downloading the big sized data file via FTP. As a result, the
estimated downlink throughput will become nearly 0kbps,
which is not absolutely correct way to verify the algorithm.
Therefore, it is necessary to compensate the additional
deterioration of RSRQ level by the test UEs FTP
downloading for the correct verification of downlink
throughput estimation. While the UE is downloading the data
file, the remaining available PRBs of the serving cell are
allocated to the UE and those allocated PRBs cause the
increase in RSSI and the deterioration in RSRQ. Since the
number of allocated PRBs to the test UE is known via the
diagnostic monitoring tool of the UE, it is possible to calculate
the RSRQ in the absence of the UEs FTP downloading
operation.
RSSI Scanner RSSI ScannerUE RSSI UE (15)
Where, RSSIScanner is the estimated RSSI emulating the
measurement condition where only RF scanner is used without
UEs FTP downloading. RSSIScanner+UE is the RSSI when both
RF scanner and UEs FTP download are performed
simultaneously so that total RSSI shall be increased by the
received power of PRBs allocated to the test UE, which is
denoted by RSSIUE.
RSSI UE RSRP B PRBUE PDSCH RE (16)
Where, RSRP is the value measured by RF scanner. PRBUE is
the number of PRBs allocated to the test UE when RSRP and
RSSIUE are measured. PDSCHRE is the number of resource
elements belonging to PDSCH, which depends on the number
of Tx antenna ports. For example, if 2X2 MIMO is used,
PDSCHRE becomes 16. With the re-calculated RSSIScanner, the
compensated RSRQ denoted by RSRQScanner is expressed as Eq.
(17).
RSRP (17)
RSRQ N
Scanner
RSSI Scanner
Where, N is the number of PRBs existing in the LTE system
bandwidth, i.e. 50 for 10MHz LTE bandwidth.
The verification of the estimated downlink throughput is
performed along a train line in Nagoya by measuring the RF
scanner and UEs FTP downloading at the same time. The
accuracy of downlink throughput estimation is greatly
influenced by the accuracy of PRB load estimation. The
accuracy of PRB load estimation is well verified in section 6
throughout the various traffic load conditions high traffic,
medium traffic and low traffic so that the accuracy of
downlink throughput estimation can be proved by any specific
traffic load condition. In this paper, the verification is made in
high traffic condition which is between 8pm and 9pm. The
FDD LTE network covers the train line is 10MHz system
bandwidth and 2X2 MIMO for the antenna configuration. The
test UE downloads 1GBytes data continually via FTP while
the RF scanner is collecting RSRP, RSRQ and SINR in every
second. The estimated number of available PRBs is
compensated by the number of PRBs allocated to the test UE
and the measured SINR by RF scanner are utilized to predict
the downlink throughput at each measurement location.
The estimated downlink throughput and the UEs FTP
throughput are displayed on the map together as shown in Fig.
13. The plot of UEs FTP throughput is drawn in shift on the
right of the estimated downlink throughput for convenient
comparison purpose.
It is also plotted that the estimated downlink throughput
and UEs FTP throughput in time domain graph as shown in
Fig. 14. The red dots and the blue dots stand for the
instantaneous throughput values of the estimated downlink
throughput and UEs FTP throughput, respectively. The pink
solid line and the green solid line are the fitted lines averaged
over the three instantaneous throughput samples of the
estimated downlink throughput and UEs FTP throughput to
mitigate the sudden fluctuations.
Estimated Throughput
UEs FTP
Throughput
Fig. 13. Estimated downlink throughput compared to UEs throughput via
FTP downloading.
It is noted that the estimated downlink throughput is well
predicted in most of the samples and proves the proposed
algorithm presents the LTE networks throughput reliably
without the usage of UE.
Fig. 15 shows that deviation of accuracy between the
estimated throughput and the UEs actual throughput is less
than 10%.

Fig. 14. Comparison of estimated throughput to UEs throughput in time
domain.
In fact, the estimated throughput is supposed to be higher
than UEs actual throughput as the estimated throughput is
calculated assuming that the remained PRB resources left over
from the use PRBs by common channels and PDSCH for other
UEs traffic data are fully utilized. However, the test UE may
not be fully allocated for the remaining PRBs by the eNB.
From this perspective, the estimated throughput is regarded as
the potential throughput that an LTE network can perform at
best.
Fig. 15. Comparison of PDF and CDF curves between the estimated
throughput and UEs throughput.
IX. CONCLUSION
This paper showed that LTE network load and downlink
throughput can be estimated using the RF scanner
measurement data without performing UEs FTP downloading
tests. It is observed that the estimated network load and the
downlink throughput based on RF scanner data are reliably
accurate when compared to eNBs load KPI and UEs FTP
throughput, respectively.
With the proposed algorithm, it is envisaged that the
throughput of a LTE network can be measured with much
lower complexity of test configuration by removing the usage
of UEs. As a future study, the algorithm presented in this paper
can be used to identify the root causes of unsatisfactory
throughput performance whether they are from poor RSRP,
high interference from the neighboring cells or high traffic load.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to show gratitude to the mobile
network planning division of Softbank co. for their support for
providing the actual network load information for the
verification tests. Thanks to their help, this paper could become
a meaningful work.
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