Security Level:

RF Network Planning and

Optimization Service UMTS
Performance Analysis for MultiCarrier Capacity Expansion

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Huawei Confidential

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Contents

Application Scenarios and Benefits

Capacity Expansion Paths

Relationship Between Capacity Expansion and Network Performance

Performance Gains and Cases

Negative Impacts on KPIs

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Application Scenarios and Benefits

Triggering
Factors

The power, code

resources, and RTWP of
current carriers are limited,
or the number of users
increases. Consequently,
the cell throughput cannot
ensure the use
experience. Then carriers
need to be added to
increase the network
capacity.

Operators'
Requirements

System capacity first

Voice performance first

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Application
Scenarios

Intra-frequency band
2/3/4 carriers
Inter-frequency band
2/3/4 carriers

Policies

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Overall Policies
Camping policy
Access policy
Connection policy
Mobility policy
DC policy

Capacity Expansion Paths

H Preferred

H Preferred

H Preferred

H Preferred

H+R99

H+R99

H Preferred

H Preferred
R99 Preferred

H+R99
H+R99

H+R99

R99 Preferred
H Preferred
Mature Phase

H Preferred
H Preferred
R99 Preferred

H+R99

H+R99

H+R99
H Preferred

H+R99

H+R99
H+R99
H+R99

H Preferred
R99 Preferred

H+R99
H+R99

H+R99

H Preferred

Initial Phase

H+R99

R99 Preferred

H+R99

H+R99

H+R99

H+R99

H+R99

H+R99

H+R99

Voice performance first

Ensure the signal quality of CS services. Ensure that the
CS services and HSPA services are served by different
carriers. The camping policy first is recommended.

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System capacity first

Improve the carrier usage.
Method: Enable users to randomly camp on several carriers providing
continuous coverage and initiate service access. For non-camping
carriers, enable users to perform HSPA service load balancing.

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Relationship Between Capacity Expansion and

Network Performance
The UMTS network is a self-interfering system. After capacity expansion, the number of cell users decreases. The
number of users, traffic volumes, and capacity are mutually interactive. Neighboring cells and local cells generate
interference to each other, which affects coverage. Consequently, network performance is affected. Besides,
discontinuous coverage and usage of features in capacity expansion also affect the network performance.

Capacity expansion
Discontinuous coverage

Number of single-cell users

Single-cell traffic volume

TCP RTWP
Number of handover
Cell
failures caused by
Ec/Io
congestion
Access
success
rate

Call
drop
rate

compression
mode

PS singleuser
throughput

Handover
success
rate

Total PS/CS
traffic
volume

Call drop
rate

Inter-frequency
handover
(including inter-RNC
handovers)

Relocation
success rate

Multi-carrier parameter policy

Load
balancing
DRD

LDR
DRD

PS access
success rate

Transmit power and pilot configurations

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FACH/PCH
reselection

PS call
drop rate

Relationship Between KPIs and

Network Interference

RRC connection setup success rate

AMR RAB
setup
success rate

RRC connection
setup success
rate

H RAB setup
success rate
PS R99 RAB
setup success
rate

CS call drop rate

PS call drop rate

After capacity expansion, the number of single-cell users decreases, traffic volumes decrease, Ec/Io
improves due to cell load decrease, and cell KPIs improves.
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Performance Gains Produced from

Capacity Expansion

F4

F3

F3

F2
F2

F1

F2

F1

F1

Counter Type

Gain Trend

F1

Reasons for Gains

Number of cell users

Some cell users are served by other carriers.

Cell load (TCP/RTWP)

The number of single-cell users and traffic volume decrease.

Interference (Ec/Io)

The cell TCP decreases.

PS single-user throughput

The volume of cell resources allocated to single users increases.

CS voice quality

Load and interference decrease.

CS/PS call drop rate

Load and interference decrease. Congestion in congested cells is eliminated by expanding capacity.

CS/PS access success rate

Load and interference decrease. Congestion in congested cells is eliminated by expanding capacity.

CS/PS handover success rate

Load and interference decrease. Congestion in congested cells is eliminated by expanding capacity.

Total PS traffic volume

(cells with limited load

or congestion exist)

Congestion is eliminated and the total volume of available resources increases.

Total CS traffic volume

(congested cells exist)

Congestion is eliminated.

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Performance Gains: Traffic Volume Increases

Case from 26 sites where the second carrier is expanded and the third carrier is activated:
The CS traffic volume remains unchanged and the HSDPA throughput increases by 28%.

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Performance Gains: The TCP

Usage and RTWP Decrease
F1 F2 F3

Traffic of cells on carriers F1 and F2 are shared by cells on carrier F3,

which reduces the air interface load. Gains are determined by the
number of service suppressed users before capacity expansion.
Specifically, a large number of service suppressed users indicates fewer
gains. The common channels also consume some TCP power.
Compared with the same peak hour one week ago, this site obtains the
following gains:
The TCP usage decreases by 17%.
The RTWP decreases by 3 dB.
The number of RAB setup failures caused by power congestion
decreases.

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Performance Gains: The Access

Success Rate Becomes
F1 F2Stable
F3

After the TCP usage and RTWP decrease in cells

on carriers F1 and F2, the Ec/Io improves, uplink
interference decreases, and the access success
rate becomes stable.

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Performance Gains: The Call Completion Success Rate Increases

F1

F2 F3

After the TCP usage and RTWP decrease

in F1 and F2 cells, the Ec/Io improves,
uplink interference decreases, call
completion success rate increases, and
call drop rate decreases.

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Performance Gains: The Handover Success

Rate Improves
F1

F2 F3

After the TCP usage and RTWP decrease

in F1 and F2 cells, the Ec/Io improves,
uplink interference decreases, mobility is
stable, and peak-hour KPI deterioration is
relieved.

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Negative Impacts on KPIs

Capacity expansion may produce negative impacts on some KPIs, which should be analyzed based on the actual
scenarios.
The possible factors that cause negative impacts include: carrier coverage continuity, Iur interface handover policy,
camping and service layering policy, state transition, load control policy, and inter-frequency carrier expansion. These
factors will be described in the following pages of this document.

The following table lists the affected KPIs:

Counter Type

Change Trend

Scenario

CS/PS call drop rate

Carriers provide discontinuous coverage, preferred camping+service layering policy is applied, LDR interfrequency load balancing is enabled, and inter-frequency UMTS900 carriers are expanded.

CS/PS access success rate

Preferred camping+service layering policy is applied, LDR inter-frequency load balancing is enabled, and
inter-frequency UMTS900 carriers are expanded.

CS/PS handover success rate

Inter-frequency UMTS900 carriers are expanded.

Iur relocation success rate

The Iur interface is not configured with any handover policy.

Note: With consideration to the preceding negative impacts, the capacity expansion policy should consider coverage
areas and traffic absorption. The specific policies and algorithm parameters should be adjusted based on the actual
scenarios to ensure that the KPIs on the network can improve.
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Factor 1 for Negative Impacts on KPIs:

Coverage
Continuity
Carrier discontinuous coverage produces negative impacts on KPIs.

If the new carriers provide discontinuous coverage, the call drop rate at the coverage edge will increase when
the compression mode is started to perform inter-frequency handovers for cell edge users served by new
carriers.
Carrier continuous coverage produces no negative impacts on KPIs.
If the new carriers provide continuous coverage, disable the inter-frequency handover function. The KPIs can
remain the same.

F4

F4

F4

F3

F3

F3

F2

F2

F2

F1

F1

F1

Carriers provide discontinuous coverage

and the call drop rate increases.

F2

SHO

Mobility
IFHO

F1

Carriers provide continuous

coverage and the call drop rate is
not affected.
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Factor 2 for Negative Impacts on KPIs: Iur

Interface Handover Policy

If handovers are allowed over the Iur interface, the Iur relocation success rate will not be affected.

If new carriers are not added on sites served by the SRNC and carrier capacity is not expanded on the sites served by the NRNC, carrier
discontinuous coverage occurs. If the Iur interface has been configured with a handover policy, the call drop rate in the coverage edge cells
will increase but the Iur relocation success rate will not be affected when the compression mode is started to perform inter-frequency
handovers for cell edge users served by new carriers.

If carriers are added on sites served by the SRNC and NRNC to provide continuous coverage, disable the inter-frequency handover. In this
case, the call drop rate remains unchanged. If the Iur interface has been configured with a handover policy, the Iur relocation success rate
will not be affected.

If handovers are not allowed over the Iur interface, the Iur relocation success rate will be affected.
If handovers are not allowed over the Iur interface, inter-frequency hard handovers with successful relocation will be triggered. Then the Iur
relocation success rate will decrease.
Carriers provide discontinuous coverage and the call
drop rate increases.
F4
F4
F4
If handovers are not allowed over the Iur interface, the
Iur relocation success rate will decrease.
F3
F3
F3
SHO

F2

F2

F2

F2

F1

F1

F1

F1

IUR

SRNC

Mobility
IFHO
NRNC

If handovers are not allowed over the Iur

interface,
the Iur relocation success rate will decrease.

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Factor 3 for Negative Impacts on KPIs: Camping

and Service Layering Policy

Negative impacts on KPIs from preferred camping and service layering policy:
When the preferred camping and service layering policy is applied, the DRD process is started in each PS service access and therefore the
access success rate may decrease. The failed rollback in the DRD process also affects the access success rate. If the rollback function is
not enabled in the DRD process, the PS access success rate will decline more.

Compared with the non-layering services, if one carrier serving the PS services is reduced, the network capacity in PS hotspots is reduced
as well.

If CELL_FACH state transition is enabled in the service layering networks, inter-frequency reselection occurs in the H2F state transition and
call drops may occur in the DRD process. On some site sites, the Qualcomm chips cannot normally read the system messages.

If CELL_PCH state transition is enabled, UEs will perform inter-frequency reselection in each H2F or H2P process, during which the DRD is
started. As a result, the access failure rate may increase.

Preferred camping and service layering policy

Solutions to avoid negative impacts on KPIs in the preferred camping

H preferred

scenarios:
1. Configure the preferred camping policy rather than use the policy

H preferred

F3

F3

H preferred

F2

F2

R99 preferred

F1

F1

barred mode.
2. Enable the SIB4 and ensure that the inter-frequency measurement
is not started in the connected mode.
For the preferred camping policy, configure IdleQoffset2sn for the
inter-frequency neighboring cells.

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F4

F4

PS
PS access
access success
success rate
rate

Call
Call drop
drop rate
rate

Page 16

Factor 3 for Negative Impacts on KPIs:

Camping and Service Layering Policy

The random camping and non-service layering policy has no impacts on KPIs.

If the random camping and non-service layering policy is applied, there are no impacts on KPIs.

With the random camping and non-service layering policy, the network capacity can be fully used.

Random camping and non-service layering policy

H +R99

F4

F4

H +R99

F3

F3

H +R99

F2

F2

H +R99

F1

F1

Cell Reselection
DRD blind

The PS access success rate

remains the same.
The call drop rate remains
normal.

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Factor 4 for Negative Impacts on KPIs:

Load Control Policy

The LDR load balancing function has negative impacts on KPIs.

When the HSPA service is carried on more than one carriers, enable the load balancing algorithm
to balance the number of HSPA users among different carriers. With the increased number of
DRDs, the PS access success rate decreases.
When the LDR inter-frequency load balancing algorithm is enabled, the number of DRDs in
congested cells increases and PS call drop rate rises.
Solutions for minimizing the impacts on KPIs when the LDR load balancing function is enabled:
To reduce the number of call drops caused by LDR DRDs, enable the MC DRD algorithm.

Load balancing algorithm enabled

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PS access success rate

PS call drop rate

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Factor 5 for Negative Impacts on KPIs:

Inter-frequency
Carrier Expansion
Adding UMTS900 carriers produces negative impacts on KPIs.

Capacity expansion involves frequency refarming, GSM/UMTS interference, UMTS900 bottom-layer networks. After capacity
expansion, KPIs deteriorate significantly. Therefore, KPIs should be reviewed after carrier capacity expansion.
The call drop rate for UMTS900 networks is higher than that for UMTS2100 networks.
An increase in the number of times inter-RAT compressed mode times out on the UMTS 900 network causes the success rate of
inter-RAT handovers to fall below that of the UMTS 2100 network in the same area. The success rate of inter-frequency handovers in
the UMTS 900 network also decreases.
The access success rate on the UMTS900 network also deteriorates.
If the UMTS900 networks are provided by other vendors, and the feature supporting the inter-frequency DRD is unavailable, the call
drop rate and access success rate deteriorate, compared with the scenario that all network carrier devices are provided by Huawei.
The UMTS900 call drop rate increases
and access success rate decreases.
U900

H+R99

H+R99
The
The inter-frequency
inter-frequency handover
handover
success
success rate
rate decreases.
decreases.

U2100

R99+H

R99+H

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R99+H

HHO
Blind-HO

R99+H

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SHO

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Thank you
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Copyright 2013 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
The information in this document may contain predictive statements including, without limitation, statements
regarding the future financial and operating results, future product portfolio, new technology, etc. There are a
number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed
or implied in the predictive statements. Therefore, such information is provided for reference purpose only and
constitutes neither an offer nor an acceptance. Huawei may change the information at any time without notice.