"

#$$%&'()&*+ ,*)-


Neighbor Cell Detecting Test

-.)&+/ 0112 ,-)3*45.
0-()64&+/ 78,.
9:.)-;.
.<=.<=



Can a Cellular Phone See All the Neighbor Cells?
MD8475A Signaling Tester / MG3710A Vector Signal Generator
By Patrick Chiang, Wireless Application Engineer



Table of Contents

Summary ............................................................................................................................... Page 2
Introduction ........................................................................................................................... Page 2
Anritsu MD8475A Signaling Tester as a Serving Cell ................................................................ Page 3
Anritsu MG3710A Vector Signal Generator Emulates Multiple Neighbor Cells ........................... Page 5
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ Page 7








>
Summary

A cellular phones neighbor cell detection capability is important to its overall performance, not only for mobility behavior
such as re-selection and handover but also for cellular assisted location estimation. Anritsu offers a user-friendly,
cost-effective and space-saving solution comprised of the MD8475A Signaling Tester and MG3710A Vector Signal
Generator for testing neighbor cell detection in a bench top lab environment. The MD8475A is capable of emulating two
active base stations: one as the serving cell and the other as a target neighbor cell. The MG3710A has two independent
RF output ports, each of which has two separate memory banks, enabling it to accommodate a total of four different high
fidelity waveforms for simulating up to four neighbor cells. If more than four neighbor cells are required, Anritsus
IQproducer Multi-Carrier
1
option can be used to mix multiple neighbor cell waveform files into a single waveform file
within the 120 MHz modulation bandwidth for each RF port.

Introduction

In a cellular network, a mobile phone typically registers on the cell with the strongest received power. After the
registration, it has to constantly monitor the received power of the neighbor cells whose frequencies and/or cell IDs are
broadcasted by the serving cell as neighbor list. Once the received power of any neighbor cell is stronger than the
serving cell, the phone should perform re-selection to the new cell, given all other requirements are met.

In reality, the number of neighbor cells a phone can see may vary with location and/or network configuration. For
example, Figure 1(a) shows a phone located right under the tower of a serving cell with large cell size layout, where the
signal power of every neighbor cell is too weak to be received. The circle indicates the area in which a neighbor base
station can be discovered given a phones receiver sensitivity. In this case no neighbor cell can be detected. When the
phone moves toward the cell boundary, then it should be able to see one or two neighbor cells, as shown in Figure 1(b).
In some locations such as stadiums or indoor shopping malls where micro/pico/femto cells are deployed within a
regular cell to improve coverage or capacity, a phone may see more than two neighbor cells.















(a) (b)

Figure 1. A Phone Sees Different Numbers of Neighbor Cells in Various Locations in the Cellular Network


It is important to verify that a phone can accurately detect the signal power and identity of each neighbor cell while
registering with the current serving cell. This capability is not only for re-selection and handover but also for assisted
location estimation through neighbor cells, especially when driving in a tunnel or strolling in indoor environment where
GPS signal is not available. Once the phone knows the neighbor cells identitties it can query any base station location
database to improve the estimated location using detected signal powers of the neighbor cells.

However it is impossible to test various combinations of carrier frequencies, bands, radio access technologies (RAT, such
as LTE, WCDMA, GSM, etc) and signal powers in the field. Even if there is a golden spot with a certain combination, the
signal strength from the cells may not be consistent over time, which makes the test not repeatable.


1
IQproducer is a PC application software for generating waveform patterns.
?

On the other hand, to test in a lab environment is also challenging. First, the user needs a base station emulator which
supports settings of corresponding System Information Blocks (SIB) to broadcast neighbor cell information, so a phone
will know what neighbor cells to monitor. Secondly, the user needs a way to repeatably emulate a large number of
neighbor cells. The combination of Anritsu MD8475A and MG3710A overcomes this challenge, as shown in Figure 2.
The procedure for configuring and setting up the instruments is described below.



Figure 2. Testing Neighbor Cell Detection in a Lab Environment using Anritsu MD8475A and MG3710A




Anritsu MD8475A Signaling Tester Operates as a Serving Cell

The MD8475A Signaling Tester is a universal base station emulator which supports all cellular RATs including LTE,
WCDMA, GSM, C2k/EVDO and TD-SCDMA. With only one box, it can emulate two base stations simultaneously for cell
selection, re-selection, redirection and handover testing without the need for an external combiner. There is a built-in
Windows 7 high performance PC to host the data servers and the Anritsu SmartStudio graphical user interface (GUI),
which supports the configuration of cell parameters, such as frequency band, channel, bandwidth, power, etc. No scripting
or programming is required to configure all the cell parameters - including SIB messages - and run the test.

The MD8475A supports all SIB messages required for neighbor cell testing. Figure 3 shows the supported customizable
LTE SIB messages in MD8475A SmartStudio GUI and the situations when they are needed.





@





SIB Messages

Needed For
SIB3 Serving cell itself
SIB4 Intra-Freq LTE neighbors
SIB5 Inter-Freq LTE neighbors
SIB6 WCDMA neighbors
SIB7 GSM neighbors
SIB8 C2k/EVDO neighbors
Figure 3. Customizable LTE SIB Messages Supported in MD8475A Smartstudio.

By default, the required SIB messages are automatically generated by MD8475A SmartStudio depending on the
second base station configuration. For example, SIB4 will be automatically configured and broadcasted when simulating
two Intra-Frequency LTE base stations, while SIB6 will be generated when simulating LTE and WCDMA base stations
simultaneously.


Figure 4. SIB5 Message Editor showing Downlink Channels and Physical Cell IDs for Inter-Frequency LTE Neighbor Cells


A
If more neighbor cells need to be added to the neighbor list, SmartStudio GUI provides a message coder tool to configure
the entire SIB message. Figure 4 shows an example SIB5 Message Setup window, where there are two downlink carrier
frequency channels (EARFCN): 2175 and 2300. For EARFCN 2175 there are two Physical Cell IDs: 0 and 1. By double
clicking the information element InterFreqCarrierFreqInfo, information element contents can be added or removed by
checking or unchecking the items appearing in the pop out window. Once checked (enabled) then, the content can be
edited by double clicking the information element.

For those who dont like to open and edit entire SIB message, SmartStudio offers an easy way to configure the neighbor
cell list only. Figure 5 shows the GUI, which adds three LTE neighbors, two WCDMA neighbors and one GSM neighbor.
This is accomplished by just a few mouse clicks.



Figure 5. Neighbor Cell List Configuration GUI in Smartstudio


Anritsu MG3710A Vector Signal Generator Emulates Multiple Neighbor Cells

Figure 6 shows the Anritsu MG3710A Vector Signal Generator. It features dual RF ports, each of which has two separate
memory banks holding up to 1024 M samples of baseband waveforms. The two RF ports are independent, so each port
has its own carrier frequency and power level, while each waveform in the memory bank has its own frequency shift and
power offsets relative to the RF carrier. Therefore, the four waveforms, which may carry all different RATs can be put in
different frequency channels with different power levels. The two waveforms in each RF port can be placed in any
separate channels as long as they are within the 120MHz modulation bandwidth of the IQ modulator.

Anritsu provides a command line utility that enables the user to calculate simulated neighbor cell waveforms using a
Windows PC. Tables 1, 2 and 3 show the supported cell parameters and arguments for simulating LTE, WCDMA and
GSM cells, respectively. After a waveform has been calculated and saved into a file, it can be transferred into any memory
B
bank of the MG3710A for playback via Gigabit Ethernet. If more than four neighbor cells are required, Anritsu
IQproducer Multi-Carrier option ebables the user to combine multiple neighbor waveform files into a single waveform
file. This lets one memory bank be used to simulate multiple neighbor cells. The drawback is that the frequency and
power shifts need to be determined when the waveform files are combined, so they cannot be dynamically adjusted while
the waveform is played back. In addition, combining multiple waveforms into a single memory bank can degrade the
fidelity of the generated signal, due to the 16 bit resolution of the MG3710A's digital to analog converter (DAC). If these
limitations become a concern, then a second MG3710A may be used to simulate additional neighbor cells.



Figure 6. MG3710A can Generate up to Four Independent Waveforms


Parameter Description Range
Bandwidth Bandwidth 1.4MHz, 3MHz, 5MHz,
10MHz, 15MHz,
20MHz
MCC Mobile Country Code 0 to 999
MNC Mobile Network Code 0 to 999
Physical Cell ID Cell Identity 0 to 503
FreqBandIndicator Channel Number of the
Internal Band
1 to 64

Table 1. Neighbor Cell Parameters Supported by MG3710A LTE Waveform Calculation


Parameter Description Range
PSC Primary Scrambling Code 0 to 511
MCC Mobile Country Code 0 to 999
MNC Mobile Network Code 0 to 999
LAC Local Area Code 0 to 65535
Cell ID Cell Identity 0 to 65535
RNC-ID Base Station Controller Identity 0 to 4095

Table 2. Neighbor Cell Parameters Supported by MG3710A WCDMA Waveform Calculation

C


Parameter Description Range
MCC Mobile Country Code 0 to 999
MNC Mobile Network Code 0 to 999
LAC Local Area Code 0 to 65535
Cell ID Cell Identity 0 to 65535

Table 3. Neighbor Cell Parameters Supported by MG3710A GSM Waveform Calculation



Conclusion

Neighbor cell detection test in the bench top lab environment usually involves multiple base station emulators, which
make it difficult and expensive for Research and Development and application testing. For example, simulating one
serving cell and five neighbor cells would typically require six base station emulators. Now, with the Anritsu MD8475A
and MG3710A, the same test can be realized with only two instruments. The MD8475A emulates two active base
stations: one as serving cell, the other as target neighbor. The MG3710A Vector Signal Generator has two independent
RF output ports, each with two separate memory banks to accommodate a total of four different high fidelity waveforms
for simulating four neighbor cells. If more than 4 neighbor cells are required, Anritsus IQproducer Multi-Carrier option
can be used to mix multiple neighbor cell waveform files into a single waveform file within the 120 MHz modulation
bandwidth for each RF port.
















D

Anritsu 2014 Application Note Neighbor Cell Detection Test

Can a Cellular Phone See All the Neighbor Cells? Printed July 2014