LTE Throughput

Optimizations
LTE Large-Scale Commercial Application, Fast Network Construction
The commercial application of LTE networks speeds up; the terminal industrial chain matures in
2014; and the number of UEs increased dramatically.

The number of commercial LTE networks has reached 274 (28 LTE TDD
UE Quantity 5 million 10 million 100 million
networks) by February 17, 2014
300 263 274
2 years 3 years 6 years
250 2G
(1992–1994) (1992–1995) (1992–1998)
200
148 2 years 3 years 6 years
150 3G
(2001–2003) (2001–2004) (2001–2006)
100
46 1.8 years 2 years 3.3 years
50 16 4G
2 (Jan 2010–Oct 2011) (Jan 2010–Jan 2012) (Jan 2010–Apr 2013)
0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014.2 The number of LTE users exceed 100 million in 3.3 years, doubling the
growth rate of 2G or 3G UEs.
According to GSA, the number of TD-LTE UE types has increased to 304
by January 30, 2014, among which 63 were smart UEs, exceeding 20%
of the total number. The LTE TDD UE industry chain is mature.
Increasing rapidly
since 2012
 Insufficient LTE Network Optimization Capability
Issue 2: Optimization bottlenecks caused by limited optimization
Issue 1: As an end-to-end network KPI, LTE throughput may fluctuate
methods due to insufficient in-depth analysis capability of RF
due to various factors. problems in LTE networks

Capacity
expansion
Neighboring
cell

Building
new sites

Bottleneck!
Issue 3: Poor batch delivery and high labor cost due to the current Issue 4: High network risk and O&M cost due to experience-based
optimization platform which provides only process data for analysis, adjustment or uniform optimization using baseline values
but no clear analysis results and closure actions. Suggestions
not
differentiated
SmartRNO: Increase the Value on
Cell Baseline Optimization
1. Supporting neighboring cell planning value as an the Live
Name Value Suggestion
checks (topology analysis only) Network
attempt. If
KPIs Cell A X1 Y1 X1–Y1
FMA:
deteriorate,
1. Supporting NE fault analysis and top cell Cell B X1 Y1 X2–Y1
FMA filtering
decrease the
value again.
2. Cannot provide optimization suggestions Cell C X2 Y1 X2–Y1
 Optimization Scheme
Low spectral efficiency
Low throughput Poor user experience

Identification of
KPIs evaluation and Identification problematic cells Select top cell groups based on
of problematic cells
customer concerns and focus on
MRF top sites

Perform end-to-end analysis and

TCP/IP
associate the impact of various
Problem isolation & RF SP
MME network nodes on LTE throughput
demarcation Transmission MRF, alarms, and CHR

Missing neighboring cells Overshoot island coverage PCI conflicts

RF root Delayed handovers PCI confusion Azimuth exceptions

Perform in-depth analysis to
causes
identify air interface root causes
Deeper w eak coverage No primary serving cells Netw ork interference
Root cause identification due to coverage overlap and problematic scenarios
Uplink/dow nlink CHR, MRs, engineering
imbalance Pilot pollution
parameters, and configurations

The blue blocks invoke other topics.

Key parameter adjustment PCI adjustment Channel check ACP antenna adjustment
Optimization suggestion for
different root causes
Optimization
End-to-End Problem Isolation by Segment
Air interface Root Cause Non-Air Interface Public Network Root Cause
Root Cause
Air interface channels: Factors 1. NEs with flow
1. Incorrect parameter 1. Incorrect TCP
1. Air interface encoding Bearer network 1. Incorrect control
settings parameter settings
(MCS/MIMO/IBLER) transmission channels: parameter settings 2. Public network
2. Limited traffic capacity 2. Capacity
2. Air interface resources 1. Bandwidth restriction 2. Limited capacity bandwidth
3. Poor coverage restrictions
(Grant/RB) 2. Long delay and jitter or capability restrictions
4. Interference
3. Weak 3. Packet loss and 3. Transmission
5. Handover exceptions
coverage/interference disorder quality problems

1
Uu

UE Root Cause eNodeB Root Cause CN Root Cause SP Root Cause

1. Hardware 1. eNodeB rate 1. Incorrect parameter 1. Registration 1. Server 1. Hardware
1. UE capability 1. Incorrect
performance restriction settings configurations capability performance
2. QCI parameter settings
2. MME 2. eNodeB processing 2. Incorrect projects 2. Rate 2. TCP parameter 2. Incorrect
configurations 2. Device faults
configurations capability 3. eNodeB exceptions restriction settings parameter
3. AMBR rate 3. Version quality
3. Algorithm feature 4. Version quality 3. Packet 3. Software settings
problems
restrictions problems disorder configurations
Note: Problems related to public networks and SP servers cannot be analyzed currently.
Weak Coverage Root Cause Location
Weak coverage scenarios:
Missing configurations of neighboring cells/delayed
handovers/island coverage/no primary servicing cells/link
imbalance/weak intensive coverage
Serving cell Target cell
Delayed
handovers UE

✓ Low RSRP of the serving cell and high RSRP of the target cell.
Missing No primary
configurations of serving cells ➢ Unconfigured neighbor relationships: If the distance between the UE
neighboring cells
and the serving eNodeB is smaller than the average inter-site
Identification of distance, the root cause of low throughput is missing configuration of
weak coverage
neighboring cells.
root causes
➢ If the distance between the UE and the serving cell is greater than the
average inter-site distance, the root cause of low throughput is island
Island Link
coverage imbalance coverage.
➢ If neighbor relationships are configured and the root cause of low
throughput is delayed handover, adjust handover parameters based
Weak
intensive on the signal level difference between the neighboring cell and the
coverage
serving cell.
 Weak Coverage Root Cause Location

-104 dBm
-102 dBm
Serving cell UE Serving cell
Neighboring cell 1
✓ UEs close to the serving eNodeB are in weak coverage areas. This
phenomenon is called coverage hole. This occurs because of a coverage
hole, mostly in indoor scenarios close to eNodeBs UE
-101 dBm

Neighboring cell 2
Serving cell
UE
✓ At the coverage border of multiple neighboring cells that have small
✓ Due to link reciprocity in LTE TDD networks, path loss imbalance occurs difference in the signal level, there is no primary serving cells with strong
between the uplink and downlink. As a result, downlink signals may be too signals, increasing the probability of ping-pong handovers.
weak for UEs far from eNodeBs to receive, causing link exceptions. This root
cause does not lead to problems to LTE FDD cells.
Interference Root Cause Location
Interference scenarios:
overshoot coverage/PCI mod 3 conflicts/pilot
pollution/azimuth exceptions
Serving cell
Neighboring cell 1
Pilot
pollution
UE

Overshoot Identification of Azimuth

air interface
coverage
root causes
exceptions
Neighboring cell 2

✓ The RSRP of the serving cell is high, but the channel quality is low.
➢ If the serving cell has an intra-frequency neighboring cell with a similar
RSRP value, intra-frequency interference has a large impact on the
throughput. If PCI mod 3 conflicts occur, the SINR deteriorates.
➢ If the serving cell has no intra-frequency neighboring cells or its
PCI mod 3 neighboring cells have low RSRP, inter-RAT interference may occur,
conflicts
such as intermodulation interference of GSM 1800 band to band F and
outband interference from PAS.
 Interference Root Cause Location
✓ Method of checking the azimuths of cells (relative locations between cells)

PCI: 0
PCI: 6
-80 dBm -84 dBm

Serving cell Neighboring cell

UE

✓ If PCI mod 3 conflicts occur between the serving cell and neighboring cells and
the reception level of the serving cell is lower than 6 dB, interference occurs in
pilot channels. As a result, the SINR on the RS channel deteriorates, and intra-
frequency PCI mod 3 conflicts occur, affecting the throughput.
✓ Interference due to azimuth exceptions occurs if the following conditions are met at the
same time:
• Relative locations between the serving cell and neighboring cells do not cause
overlapping coverage.
• UEs receive signals from the neighboring cells.
• PCI mod 3 conflicts occur.
• The reception level of the serving cell is lower than 6 dB.
 Interference Root Cause Location
Neighboring cell PCI: 6
PCI: 0 PCI: 0
-84 dBm PCI: 1
-80 dBm
-80 dBm -83 dBm

Serving cell Interference cell Serving cell Neighboring cell 1

UE
UE
✓ Overshoot coverage of interference cells occurs when signals -82 dBm
from a remote cell passing through neighboring cells in between
cause interfere to the serving cell. PCI: 2

Neighboring cell PCI: 6 Neighboring cell 2

PCI: 0

-90 dBm
-91 dBm
✓ If PCI mod 3 conflicts do not occur in multiple cells but
Interference the RSRP of these cells are close, there is a probability
Serving cell that carriers for data service transmission collide with
cell
UE the RS channel, causing interference to the carriers. As
✓ Overshoot coverage of the serving cell occurs when signals from a result, the SINR deteriorates, and the throughput of
the serving cell passing through neighboring cells in between the serving cell decreases, causing pilot pollution.
cause overlapping coverage with a remote cell.
 Root Cause-based Optimization Suggestions
Parameter classification for optimization in specific problematic scenarios
1. Identify incorrect handover ✓ Provide targeted optimization
1. Find the exact missing 1. Provide optimization 1. Provide accurate frequency
parameter settings based on air 1. Check and optimize channels
neighbor relationships, suggestions on antenna optimization suggestions
interface quality and TMAs to address the
instead of performing
2. Perform targeted optimization for problem of severe path loss
dow ntilts for cells based on interference methods for different problems to
topology-based search experiencing overshoot measurement results and
different handover parameters imbalance betw een the uplink
2. Quantize handover
parameters (CIO)
(magnetic hysteresis parameters and dow nlink
coverage or w eak intensive
coverage
changes associated w ith PCI
optimization
ensure optimization effect.
and CIO)
✓ Perform intensive parameter
management to lower the

Accurate Accurate
maintenance cost and ensure
Accurate optimization Quantitative
optimization on PCI optimization
on neighboring cell optimization on optimization on healthy network operation.
configurations handover parameters feature parameters antenna parameters
✓ Perform regular check on
parameters and neighboring cells to
Missing Delayed PCI mod 3
configurations of Link imbalance
Overshoot detect minor and potential problems,
handovers coverage conflicts
neighboring cells
ensuring optimal network
configurations.
No primary Weak intensive Azimuth ✓ Perform quantitative analyses on RF
Island coverage
serving cells coverage exceptions
problems and accurately measure
RF root causes the percentage of weak coverage
Pilot pollution and interface root causes to resolve
problems.