RAN Dropped and Blocked Calls Classifcation Summary

(WCDMA Network MTN South Arica!

1 Introducton 2
2 Dropped Cas Casscaton 3
2.1 Mssng Neghbours 3
2.2 Poor Coverage 4
2.3 Bad Rado Envronment 5
2.4 Congeston 6
2.5 Not Rado 7
2.6 Equpment Faut 8
3 Bocked Cas Casscaton 9
3.1 Mssng Neghbour 10
3.2 Poor RF (Bad Coverage and Rado Envronment) 11
3.3 Equpment Faut (UE) 12
3.3.1 Securty and Authentcaton Mode Faure 12
3.3.2 UE Freeze 13
3.4 Not Rado 14
3.4.1 Dsconnect on RAB Setup 14
3.4.2 Resources Unavaabe (Congeston) 15
3.4.3 UE Senstvty Faut 16
3.5 Abnorma bocked cas 17
3.5.1 Uncassed - Unanswered RRC requests 17
3.5.2 Fauty Bock Recordng - Barred Network 18
3.5.3 Ca Intasaton durng L.U. sgnang 19
" #ntroduction
Ths document descrbes some of the typca dropped/bocked ca casscatons
encountered durng severa RAN Tunng Pro|ects for WCDMA networks. The purpose of the
document s for RAN Consutants to understand some of the probems to make the UE
anayss and casscaton easer. The anayss has been based on mted data (for exampe
no UETR data or data based on smar too, no usage of RBS and RNC tracers) and for ths
resut there coud be a devaton n the resuts. Some of these casscatons are ony a
gudene and shoud be vewed merey as documentng the typca probem unt the correct
reason behnd the dropped ca s estabshed.
A these dropped/bocked cas categores are adapted to the rado envronment evauaton
threshods set up for the MTN 3G RAN Tunng pro|ect n the post-processng too TEMS
Deskcat 5.6.
In the tabe beow are sted the man causes that must be consdered durng the anayss,
wth the expanaton for each cause.
C$ASS#%#CAT#&N CR#T'R#A
Poor Coverage: The Drop occurs n regons where condtons CPICH RSCP and/or CPICH Ec/No
are measured n crtca vaues not sutabe for a proper connecton.
Bad Rado Envronment: Every drop that occurs when Best Server s mssng (Mosty n good
CPICH RSCP condtons). The UE actve set update cannot foow the quck coverage
changes. In ths case Pot Pouton stuatons are ncuded as we (3 ces n AS and more
than 1 strong SCs s nterferng the connecton wthn a range of 5 dB - Ec/No bass
evauaton).
Congeston: Every drop that occurs when there are no more avaabe rado resources for the
connecton. The network sends an RRC Connecton Reease when the RBS reaches the
maxmum avaabe Power n DL.
Not Rado: Every drop that occurs when the rado condtons are good, the oggng
equpment s workng propery and the RRC connecton reease cause (marked usuay as
"Unspeced") coud be attrbuted to a RBS/Network faut, (ncudng UL UE power gong to
maxmum even f the CPICH RSCP s measured at good vaues, crossed feeders causng fase
mssng neghbors, crossed UL-DL feeders, wrong parameter settngs that can ahect
accessbty/SHOs n the ce).
Equpment Faut: Every drop that occurs when TEMS Investgaton/UE are Bockng or
Freezng and/or SW s crashng, so that t's not possbe to mantan the connecton.
Mssng Neghbours Every drop that occurs when there are poor RSCP and/or Ec/No
eves/quaty on the Best Server/AS, wth the contemporary possbty for the UE to perform
a SHO on a better ce that s not decared as a Neghbour for the AS ces themseves.
2 Dropped Cas Casscaton
The man cases and dropped ca causes are sted beow.
2.1 Mssng Neghbours
Every drop that occurs when there are poor RSCP and/or Ec/No eves/quaty on the Best
Server/AS, wth the contemporary possbty for the UE to perform a SHO on a better ce
that s not decared as a Neghbour for the AS ces themseves. An exampe of dropped ca
for mssng neghbour probem s shown n gure beow.
Probem Descrpton: The Actve Set best server s ce 61888 (SC = 205). Durng the ca
sector 62096 (SC = 293) becomes the strongest sector but s not added to the actve set, as
the two ces are not dened neghbours. Ths can be seen n the Servng/Actve Set wndow
n TEMS. The ce 62096 act as an ncreasng nterferer unt eventuay the ca s reeased.
The reease cause s cassed as unspeced.
2.2 Poor Coverage
The Drop occurs n regons where condtons CPICH RSCP and/or CPICH Ec/No are measured
n crtca vaues not sutabe for a proper connecton. In the tabe beow an exampe s
shown.
Probem Descrpton: In ths case the RF envronment as reported by the UE s very poor
before the ca s dropped. The best server RSCP=-127dBm and Ec/No=-32dB. The scanner
aso reports poor rado condtons for the same SC at the same nstant .e. RSCP =
-11.97dBm and Ec/Io = -10.69dB. The ast message sent s the UL Actve Set Compete
message sent by the UE. The UE then goes nto de mode.
2.3 Bad Rado Envronment
Every drop that occurs when Best Server s Mssng (Mosty n good CPICH RSCP condtons).
The UE actve set update cannot foow the quck coverage changes. In ths case Pot
Pouton stuatons are ncuded as we (3 ces n AS and more than 1 strong SCs s
nterferng the connecton wthn a range of 5 dB - Ec/No bass evauaton).
Probem Descrpton: The Actve Set best servers are ces wth SCs 49 and 303, and a MN
(SCs 304, 179 and 180) are cose to them on a RSCP bass (from -70dBm to -79 dBm).
Durng the ca UE s performng a contnuous number of SHOs, ahectng both the servce
contnuty and the quaty of the connecton (ow vaues of Ec/No on each ce). So, the Rado
Envronment s not sutabe for a good connecton and therefore the dropped ca occurs.
Sometmes the TEMS Inv. doesnt show the event on the chart, ke n ths case, so ts
advsabe to check the Events and Layer 3 messages: In the L3 tabe the RRC Connecton
Reease DL corresponds (nto the Event tabe) to an RRC Connecton Abnorma Reease wth
the speccaton "Unspeced".
2.4 Congeston
Every drop that occurs when there are no more avaabe rado resources for the connecton.
The network sends an RRC Connecton Reease when the RBS reaches the maxmum
avaabe Power n DL. In the correspondng DL Layer 3 message "RRC Connecton Reease"
when the drop happens, the reease cause s ceary marked as "Congeston". An exampe s
shown n gure beow.
Probem Descrpton: In ths case the rado envronment doesnt show any crtca ssue: the
AS s fu, and there s a Best Server ce (SC 352) wth two more ces that are carryng the
servce. Aso the MN set s good, and the Layer 3 messages sequence s reguar.
The rado resource unavaabty pops up suddeny after a certan number of fast SHOs, and
an "RRC Connecton Reease" message from the network comes to nterrupt the ca. In the
TEMS L3 messages wndow detas the reease cause s ceary marked as "Congeston".
2.5 Not Rado
Every drop that occurs when the rado condtons are good, the oggng equpment s
workng propery and the RRC connecton reease cause (marked usuay as "Unspeced")
coud be attrbuted to a RBS/Network faut, (ncudng UL UE power gong to maxmum even
f the CPICH RSCP s measured at good vaues, crossed feeders causng fase mssng
neghbours, crossed UL-DL feeders, wrong parameter settngs that can ahect
accessbty/SHOs n the ce).
Ths case aso ncudes the "UE Senstvty" drop, as shown n gure beow.
Probem Descrpton: The rado envronment as reported by the UE s very poor |ust before
the ca dropped .e. Best server RSCP=-127dBm and Ec/No=-27dB. The scanner reports
much better rado condtons for the same SC at the same nstant .e. RSCP =-93.57dBm and
Ec/Io = -8.66dB. Athough the drop s as a resut of ow RSCP as measured by the UE t
shoud not be cassed, as a poor coverage drop snce the scanner ndcates the rado
condtons shoud be ok to mantan the ca.
2.6 Equpment Faut
Every drop that occurs when TEMS Investgaton/UE are Bockng or Freezng and/or SW s
crashng, so that t's not possbe to mantan the connecton.
An exampe of UE freezng dropped ca s shown n gure beow.
Probem descrpton: In the exampe the network sends a DL Measurement Contro message
and then the UE freezes. There are no further massages sent between the network and the
UE. The RF envronment was good at the tme of the drop as can be seen from the scanner
nformaton .e. RSCP =-82.72dBm and Ec/Io = -5.44dB.
3 Bocked Cas Casscaton
The man cases and bocked ca causes are sted beow. In ths stuaton the cases of
Bocked Cas are pretty equa to the correspondng ones n the dropped cas st. Its
advsabe to consder that t s ntended as "bocked ca" a connecton nterrupted for the
same probems shown n secton 2 (wth some obvous exceptons shown n the foowng
paragraphs) and accordng the Casscaton Crtera tabe shown n secton 1. Its cruca to
consder that the bocked ca event aways happens durng the ca setup phase.
Due to these dherences, the casscaton for the bocked cas s dherent for the dropped
cas one.
3.1 Mssng Neghbour
Probem Descrpton: An exampe of a bocked ca caused by a mssng neghbour s shown
n gure above. The ca s beng set up on ce 49046 (SC = 387). Durng the set up sector
48007 (SC = 451) becomes the strongest sector but s not added to the actve set as the two
ces are not dened neghbours. Ths can be seen n the Servng/Actve Set wndow n TEMS.
The ce 48007 act as an ncreasng nterferer unt eventuay the ca tsef s reeased. The
reease cause s cassed as unspeced.
3.2 Poor RF (Bad Coverage and Rado Envronment)
Probem Descrpton: In ths case the RF envronment as reported by the UE s very poor
when the UE attempts to ntate a ca. The attempt s ndcated by the event "Ca
Intazaton" n TEMS Investgaton, whch s trggered at the start of a command sequence.
The best server RSCP=-121dBm and Ec/No=-21dB. The scanner aso reports poor rado
condtons for the same SC at the same nstant .e. RSCP =-114.17dBm and Ec/Io =
-11.29dB.
3.3 Equpment Faut (UE)
3.3.1 Securty and Authentcaton Mode Faure
Probem Descrpton: In ths case there s a probem wth the securty and Authentcaton
procedure, whch causes the connecton to be dropped and resut n a bocked ca. As can be
seen n gure above the rado envronment at the tme of the bocked ca s good .e. Best
server RSCP=-71dBm and Ec/No=-2dB.
The ca s reeased normay durng ca set up and 6 seconds after the network sends the
securty command. There s a tmer for the correct response to ths securty command, whch
s set to 6 seconds. Ths ndcates a probem n the securty and authentcaton response by
the UE.
3.3.2 UE Freeze
Probem descrpton: Ths type of dropped ca casscaton s caused by the UE "freezng"
whch can be seen n gure beow. In the exampe the UE sends a UL Actve Set Update
Compete message and then the UE freezes. There are no further massages sent between
the network and the UE before the next ca attempt, whch s ndcated by the Ca
ntasaton event n TEMS Investgaton. The RF envronment was good at the tme of the
drop as can be seen from the scanner nformaton .e. RSCP =-94.17dBm and Ec/Io =
-5.13dB.
3.4 Not Rado
3.4.1 Dsconnect on RAB Setup
Probem descrpton: In ths case the rado envronment s good as shown n gure above (.e.
Best server RSCP= -94dBm and Ec/No= -3dB). Durng ca set up, after the "DL Ca
Proceedng" message the network sends a Dsconnect message. Ths can be seen n the
Layer 3 messages wndow beow. The cause vaue s (127) Interworkng, unspeced as
shown n L3 message detas wndow. The ca s then reeased.
Ths case can ncude both DC Cong Faure and RAB setup faure.
3.4.2 Resources Unavaabe (Congeston)
Probem descrpton: In ths exampe the network sends a Dsconnect message wth the
foowng message: cause vaue (47) Resources Unavaabe, Unspeced. Ths can be seen n
the Layer 3 messages wndow n gure above. The Dsconnect message occurs after the
Rado Bearer s set up. The rado envronment s good at the tme of the Dsconnect message
as seen n gure above.
Sometmes ths exampe of bocked ca can be aso referred to Congeston probems n the
measured ce.
3.4.3 UE Senstvty Faut
Probem Descrpton: In gure above, an exampe of a drop cassed as UE senstvty faut s
shown. The rado envronment as reported by the UE s very poor when the UE attempts to
ntate a ca (.e. Best server RSCP=-122dBm and Ec/No=-18dB). The scanner reports much
better rado condtons for the same SC at the same nstant .e. RSCP =-89.06dBm and Ec/Io
= -2.65dB. Athough the bocked ca s as a resut of ow RSCP as measured by the UE t
shoud not be cassed, as a poor RF bock snce the scanner ndcates the rado condtons
shoud be sumcent to set up a ca.
3.5 Abnorma bocked cas
3.5.1 Uncassed - Unanswered RRC requests
Probem descrpton: In ths exampe an RRC request s sent but the network never responds
wth an RRC connecton setup message. It s not cear whether or not the network receves
the RRC request. The rado envronment n the downnk as seen by TEMS s good .e. good
RSPC, ow CPICH Ec/No.
3.5.2 Fauty Bock Recordng - Barred Network
Probem descrpton: Ths occurs when the UE attempts to ntate a ca on a network other
than the measured one (n our case MTN). In the servng/Actve Set wndow n TEMS n gure
above t can be seen that the DL UARFCN for the network the UE s camped on n de mode
s 10564. The exampe shows the case that happened for the Vodafone network (DL UARFCN
10712). DeskCat consders ths a bocked ca but snce the bocked ca does do not occur on
the Vodafone network, t has to be excuded from our anayss.
3.5.3 Ca Intasaton durng L.U. sgnang
Probem descrpton: In ths case the UE s nvoved n Locaton Update sgnang. As seen n
the RRC Connecton Request message the estabshment cause s regstraton and the
Locaton Update request message s for Norma Locaton Updatng. Durng the L.U. sgnang
a new ca attempt s trggered by the command sequence n TEMS Investgaton. Ths can
be seen n the events wndow n gure above.