Coverage Problem Analysis

ISSUE 1.0

Huawei Confidential. All Rights Reserved

object

Upon completion this course, you will be

able to:

Learn how to analyze coverage problem

and solve it

Learn how to Improve coverage capability

Internal Use

Chapter 1 Coverage problem types

Chapter 2 Coverage analysis steps
Chapter 3 Coverage improvement
Chapter 4 Typical cases analysis

Internal Use

Coverage problem types

Dead zone

Coverage hole

Coverage overshoot

Pilot pollution
Uplink/Downlink unbalance

Internal Use

Coverage problem types

Dead zone

The zone in which pilot signal is lower than the minimum access
level, e.g., valley, lift, tunnel, indoor zone of high buildings

Solutions

Adjust antenna for increasing coverage (using high gain

antenna, increasing the height of the antenna, etc.)

Add RRU (Radio Remote Unit) or repeater

Add a new site (macro site or mini site)

Use loss cable

Internal Use

Coverage problem types

Coverage hole

The zone in which pilot signal is higher than the minimum access
level but lower than the request of the services (voice, video
phone PS64 etc.)

Solutions

Adjust antenna for increasing coverage (using high gain

antenna, increasing the height of the antenna, etc.)

Use RRU (Radio Remote Unit), repeater or mini site

Internal Use

Coverage problem types

Coverage overshoot

The coverage of a site is more than the range of our plan

Solutions

Adjust the downtilt or direction of antenna

Avoid the beam of antenna straight to the road

Use the buildings around the site

Reduce the power of CPICH channel to decrease coverage

Internal Use

Coverage problem types

Pilot pollution

In some place, UE can receive so many pilots, but there is no one

main pilot
we can judge pilot pollution exist or not through following
method:
There are more than 3 cells which pilot signal level
CPICH _ RSCP 95dBm

and (CPICH _ RSCP1st CPICH _ RSCP4th ) 5dB

Solutions

Adjust the position of sites or adjust antenna

Reduce the power of CPICH channel

Combine some sector or delete some sector if capacity is

enough

Internal Use

Coverage problem types

Uplink/Downlink unbalance

Interference of uplink can cause unbalance of uplink/downlink

When downlink cell loading is too large, it can cause unbalance of

uplink/downlink (cell breath)

Internal Use

Chapter 1 Coverage problem types

Chapter 2 Coverage analysis steps
Chapter 3 Coverage improvement
Chapter 4 Typical cases analysis

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Internal Use

Coverage analysis steps

Step 1: Preparation

Step 2: Drive test data analysis

Step3: Performance analysis

Step4: Signaling analysis

Step5: Consumer complaint analysis

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Internal Use

Step 1: Preparation
Coverage planning

Before

coverage

analysis,

you

must

know

some

basic

information, it include:

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The position of the sites

The configuration of the sites

The configuration of antenna (gain, direction, downtilt, etc.)

The coverage planning of CPICH

The loading distribution of deferent services

Internal Use

Step 1: Preparation
Analysis tools

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Drive test data analysis software: Genex Assistant

Performance analysis tool: RNC traffic statistics console

UL RTWP (Received Total Wideband Power) alarm console

Test log

Internal Use

Step 1: Preparation
Parameters related to coverage

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CPICH TX Power

MaxFACHPower

Sintrasearch Sintersearch Ssearchrat

PreambleRetransMax

Intra FILTERCOEF

Intra CellIndividalOffset

RLMaxDLPwr RLMinDLPwr

Internal Use

Step 2: Drive test data analysis

Downlink coverage analysis - Ec
Coverage hole

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Internal Use

Step 2: Drive test data analysis

Downlink coverage analysis - main cell

No main cell

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Internal Use

Step 2: Drive test data analysis

Drive test data comparison between UE and scanner

SHQ position

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Internal Use

Step 2: Drive test data analysis

Downlink coverage analysis - soft handover proportion

Pilot pollution

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Internal Use

Step 2: Drive test data analysis

Uplink coverage analysis uplink interference

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Internal Use

Step 2: Drive test data analysis

Uplink coverage analysis uplink power distribution

Uplink
coverage
limitation

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Internal Use

Step 3: Performance analysis

KPI

Coverage problem can affect the following index:

access successful rate

congestion rate
call drop rate
HO successful rate

Traffic distribution

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Too heavy traffic can cause coverage decrease (cell breath)

Internal Use

Step 4: Signaling analysis

When call is dropped or handover is failure during drive test, we

can use signaling tracing function to analyze the causes

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If the causes is Ec too low, it is coverage problem

Internal Use

Step 5: Consumer complaint analysis

When some VIP consumer complain that they can not take a call
in their room, maybe we need to go to their house to test

if the receive signal is too weaker, it is coverage problem and we

need to increase the signal

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Internal Use

Chapter 1 Coverage problem types

Chapter 2 Coverage analysis steps
Chapter 3 Coverage improvement
Chapter 4 Typical cases analysis

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Internal Use

Coverage improvement
Site configuration adjustment

Sector adjustment

Diversity technologies

RRU, Repeater

TMA (Tower Mounted Amplifier)

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Internal Use

Site configuration adjustment

Different kinds of site can support different output and different

capacity

Site configuration Huawei NodeB can support

Macro site: BTS3812E (indoor), BTS3812A (outdoor)

Maximum output: 30W (support TD)/40W (not support TD)

Support 11, 31, 32, 34, 62, etc

Mini site: BTS3802C

Maximum output: 20W (support TD) /30W (not support TD)

Support 11, 12, 21

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Distributed site: BBU & RRU

Internal Use

Sector adjustment

In some condition, we can add some sector to adjust coverage

OTSR (omni Tx, sector Rx): it can be used in some special area:
large coverage and low capacity, e.g. road coverage

Tx

Rx

Rx

Rx

BB

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Internal Use

Diversity technologies

Downlink: Transmission Diversity

processed signals are transmitted from two antennas of the BTS,

and combined at the terminal, to enhance system capacity and
coverage

Generally, 0 2 dB extra coverage can be gained, and up to

26% coverage area
STTD

TSTD:
b0 b1 b2 b3

Channel bits

Slot #0

Antenna 1

b0 b1 b2 b3

Antenna 1

acp
i,0

acs

-b2 b3 b0 -b1 Antenna 2

(Tx OFF)

Antenna 2

STTD encoded channel bits

for antenna 1 and antenna 2.

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just used for SCH

(Tx OFF)

Slot #1
(Tx OFF)

(Tx OFF)

acp
i,1

acs

Slot #2
acp
acs

i,2

(Tx OFF)

(Tx OFF)

Slot #14
acp
acs

i,14

(Tx OFF)

(Tx OFF)

Internal Use

Diversity technologies

Uplink: 4 Antennas Receiving Diversity

4 antenna receiving diversity reduces the requirement of Eb/No

required in demodulation and improves uplink coverage of the
network by 2.5 3 dB

After adopting 4 antennas receiving diversity, BTS coverage area

increases 41%

RF channel 1

Baseband
processing

RF channel 2
RF channel 3
RF channel 4

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Internal Use

RRU, Repeater

RRU (Radio Remote Unit): typical feeder loss is

2 3 dB. RRU makes RF part as close as
possible to the antenna to reduce the feeder
lost to the least

Fiber

Repeater: it is mainly used in areas where it is

difficult to extend the coverage, or used as a
low-cost solution for network construction

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Internal Use

TMA (Tower Mounted Amplifier)

TMA is recommended to be used under the conditions below

A large coverage area, e.g. rural, suburban or highway, because

UL coverage is limited for the most of time but DL coverage is
usually not limited

An area, e.g. dense urban or urban, according to RNP, DL

capacity is not limited. UL sensitivity and coverage area can be
increased by using TMA

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Internal Use

Chapter 1 Coverage problem types

Chapter 2 Coverage analysis steps
Chapter 3 Coverage improvement
Chapter 4 Typical cases analysis

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Internal Use

Case 1: coverage hole

Case description

Through drive test map, it was found that Ec was less than
-90dBm in some area

The area in
which
Ec<-90dBm

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Internal Use

Case 1: coverage hole

Case analysis

According to RNP, the coverage was also discontinuous

The area in
which
Ec<-90dBm

The distance
between sites
was too far

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Internal Use

Case 1: coverage hole

Case solution

The reason of this case was that the site position was
unreasonable

But in this area, the operator didnt want to build new site room, all
of WCDMA sites should be installed in GSM site room, so we just
could use some coverage improvement technologies

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Increasing output of site

Increasing the height of antenna

Reducing tilt angle

A good network planning is the basis of coverage!

Internal Use

Case 2: coverage overshoot

Case description

Through drive test map, it was found that the coverage of a site
was too far
Red color
showed the
coverage of
the site was
too far

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Internal Use

Case 2: coverage overshoot

Case solution

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Decreasing output of site

Decreasing tilt angle

Changing the direction of antenna

Decreasing the height of antenna if possible

Internal Use

Case 3: coverage limitation

Case description

It was found that the quality of Video Phone was very bad in a
special position

Qos of VP badly in
this position

WCDMA antenna

GSM antenna

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Internal Use

Case 3: coverage limitation

Case analysis

In this site, WCDMA and GSM site were installed in the same
room. We tested GSM network signal and found it was very good.
But the position of GSM antenna was near to the edge of the wall,
and the position of WCDMA antenna was far from the edge of the
wall

Because the position of WCDMA antenna was far from the edge
of the wall, the wall would affect the signal heavily

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Internal Use

Case 3: coverage limitation

Case solution

If possible, change the position of antenna

If the antenna installation platform is too small, we must confirm

one antenna is near to the edge of the wall

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Internal Use

Summary

Summary

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Coverage problem types

Coverage analysis steps: five steps

Coverage improvement technologies

Typical cases analysis

Internal Use

Huawei Confidential. All Rights Reserved