User Guide for

Generating Actix
Cellrefs file
For Desktop Users of Actix
Spotlight
Copyright Actix 2008. Commercial in confidence.

Revision History
Date

Version

Author

Notes

10/07/2008

1.0

Mukul Kishore

First release Guide to generating

Cellrefs file for Actix Desktop Users

Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

Introduction
The Cellrefs.txt file is used by Actix desktop software to read
site/sector data for the network.
This file is in ASCII format and contains different tables in
Tab separated format
The Cellrefs.txt file may contain information about sectors
belonging to one or more technologies (GSM, UMTS, CDMA
etc). Actix software uses exactly one cellrefs.txt file as
reference.
If non-standard fields are added to the Cellrefs.txt file then a
corresponding Cellrefs.ini file must be placed in the same
folder.
This document provides instructions on how to generate or
obtain the Cellrefs.txt file for using Actix Spotlight software.
Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

Document Contents
1. Where to get readymade Actix Cellrefs
files
2. How to generate Actix Cellrefs file
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

Obtain latest UMTS and GSM .csv files

Isolate/Extract cell data for your market
Place template files in user data area
Import data using Network Explorer

Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

Where to get readymade

Actix Cellrefs files option
Option
# 1 1: ActixOne Generated

ActixOne generates Cellrefs files daily for certain

markets that are authorized by FSC to use
desktop Actix software
Location:
\\rfnsnq04\NetworkConfigurationData\Desktop_Users\
HowTo:
1. If your market is listed in this folder, you will need
to copy 2 files from here (cellrefs.txt and cellrefs.ini)
2. Place both the files in the same location when
pointing Actix software to the cellrefs.txt file
3. Always get both files from same server location
Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

Where to get readymade

Actix Cellrefs files option
Option
# 2 2: Existing Spotlight task

If someone has created a Spotlight investigation task on

log files driven on the date you want the cellrefs file
for you may get them by opening the Spotlight task.
HowTo:
1. Start Spotlight from ENG OPS GSM1900 Citrix Webpage
2. Locate and open the task from the list of tasks loaded that contains
logfiles driven on the relevant date
3. After the task loads, from top window menu, click on Tools >>
Preferences
4. From the Preferences Dialog box, locate the Cellrefs section and click
on the path specified next to File Location
5. This shall open the local folder on the Spotlight server where Cellrefs.txt
and Cellrefs.ini files are stores
6. One at a time, copy those files (ctrl+c) and paste to your local hard
drive. Remember that your local hard drive is mounted as V: drive on
the server.
Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

How to generate Actix

Cellrefs yourself
If none of the previous two
methods work for you then the
following slides will help you create
the cellrefs file yourself

Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

1. Obtain latest GSM/UMTS

.csv files
The OSS and EDW generate 2 daily flat files containing
information about all sectors in the T-Mobile network.
These 2 files are in CSV (comma separated values) format
Their file names contain the date
UMTS CSV files are available at:
ftp://10.16.6.183/UMTSExport/UMTS_ActixCellref/
GSM CSV files are available (zipped) at:
ftp://10.16.6.183/Actix_GSMCellRef/
Copy the latest files from these locations
to your PC/Laptop
Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

2. Isolate cell data for your

market
Since these .csv files contain cell data for the whole
country, you would need to extract the cell data for
your market.
HowTo:
1. Open the UMTS csv file in Microsoft Excel
2. From the menu choose Filter (Excel 2007) or Autofilter (Excel 2003)
for all columns so you can choose to only display data for your
market

3. Apply the filter feature on the market column and select your
market name so that the entire spreadsheet only shows cells
from your market.
Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

2. Isolate cell data for your

market
-- contd

4. Select all (ctrl + A), copy (ctrl + c) and paste (ctrl +v) all the
cells
from your market into a new worksheet. (Include header row)
5. Save the new worksheet in the CSV format (lets call it
UMTS.csv)
6. Repeat steps 1 5 to extract the GSM cell information for your
market from the national csv file into a new csv file (lets call it
GSM.csv)

Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

10

3. Place Template files in

User Area
Actix software needs templates for importing data from the 2 CSV
files. While templates are easy to create, you may use precreated templates included in this document.
T-Mobile GSM Template.xml

T-Mobile UMTS Template.xml

Place the UMTS and GSM template files embedded above in the
following folder
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Actix\Analyzer\Bin\CellRefs\Templates\

1.
2.

Right click on the embedded files above and choose Copy

Navigate to the folder specified above and paste these files
there

Note: Once you have placed these files in the right folder you do
not need to do this step again.
Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

11

4. Import cells using Network

Explorer
The two .csv files created in previous steps now need to be
imported into Actix Software using the Network Explorer
module
HowTo:
1. Start Actix Spotlight software on your computer
2. Open Preferences window by clicking on
Tools >> Preferences
3. Click on the File Location
under Cellrefs section and
choose a blank cellrefs file.
You may use the blank cellrefs
file embedded in this slide
Cellrefs .txt

Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

12

4. Import cells using Network

Explorer
-- contd

4.

Open the Network Explorer window by clicking on the

Cells link from menu

5.

Click on Import icon on toolbar and select

the UMTS template as shown in figure below

6.

Browse to select the UMTS.csv file that

you created in the previous step

Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

13

4. Import cells using Network

Explorer
-- contd

7.
8.

On the following screen, click NEXT and then click FINISH

You will be asked if you want to remove
all existing cell data. Since we started
with a blank file, click YES
9. You will notice the WCDMA sites and cells get listed in the
Network Explorer
10. Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 for selecting GSM.csv file

11. Similar to step 8 above, you will see a box asking you to remove
existing network data. Click NO this time since we want to
combine UMTS and GSM cells in the same cellrefs file.
12. You shall now see both GSM and WCDMA sites and cells listed in
the Network Explorer. If you obtain import errors, ignore the
message at this point in time.
14
Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

4. Import cells using Network

Explorer
-- contd

13. Click on the SAVE button as shown

14. Click YES on the following prompt since our initial cellrefs file
was empty to start with.

15. All the cell data for GSM and UMTS cells are now available in
the cellrefs.txt file as indicated by the path in the prompt
above. This is empty cellrefs.txt file that you selected in step
# 3.
Note: You do not need to have a corresponding cellrefs.INI file
when using the cellrefs.txt file created manually following the
steps in this document.
15
Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

Useful Notes and

References
1.

Actix Knowledge base on MyActix.com

2.

Actix Software Help documentation

3.

CA Package User guide on

www.MyActix.com/TMobile

Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

16

Additional Information
If possible, use Excel 2007 for filtering the national CSV file for your
market since the national GSM file may have more than 65000 rows
Start with a fresh blank cellrefs.txt file whenever you expect to
generate a new cellrefs.txt using the manual process
Cellrefs.INI must be used if using cellrefs.txt is obtained from
ActixOne system. Do not use cellrefs.ini if using cellrefs.txt
generated manually.
All files embedded in this presentation are available at
\\rfnsnq04\NetworkConfigurationData\Desktop_Users\Files_for_manual_process\

For questions and assistance, please contact Actix Helpdesk at the

numbers given on www.Myactix.com/TMobile webpage.

Copyright Actix 2007. Commercial in confidence.

17