(E)GPRS Advanced

Practical Case Studies

Company Confidential
1

2005 Nokia

(E)GPRS Advanced - Practical Case Studies

(E)GPRS Advanced Case Studies

Content
Practical cases
High EDGE UL TBF establishment failure
Bad EDGE Performance
Low EDGE throughput

Exercise

High EDGE UL TBF Establishment Failure

During EDGE optimization project one BSC BSC01 was having high
EDGE UL TBF failure rate (10-20 %)
Next slide shows daily statistics over BSC
Problem was constant before BSS parameter change (27.10) no other
changes were made at the same day.
Question: What parameter was changed?

BSC01 TBF Failure Rate

25.00%

20.00%

15.00%

10.00%

5.00%

0.00%

GPRS_UL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
GPRS_DL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
EDGE_UL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
EDGE_DL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
UL_TBF_LOST
DL_TBF_LOST
UL_TBF_EST_FAILURE
DL_TBF_EST_FAILURE

High TBF Establishment Failure - Answer

In project MCA was set to 6
27.10 MCA was changed to 3
Network had coverage limitations
Changing MCA to 3 changed initial MCS modulation type from 8-PSK to
GMSK
More robust coding scheme helped in initial connection against coverage
and interference

Bad EDGE Performance

Operator was complaining bad EDGE performance in general in specific
area based on customer complaints
Following performance problems were found
Low GPRS attach ratio
RAU failing
Low application throughput

Operator was selling unlimited (E)GPRS usage with reasonable pricing

Problem had emerged during last few months for specific area
What could be behind all problems?

Bad EDGE Performance

BSS parameters were audited and everything were set as defaults no
problems found
Radio interface
Maximum hard blocking in cells for data around 5% (tbf_16)

Abis interface
EDAP usage was seen high for some busy DAPs

Bad performance was observed from drive tests where RLC download
were having breaks although there were no cell reselections

Bad EDGE Performance

Gb link measurement Link Size 128 kbit/s

Bad EDGE Performance

Answer
High Gb utilization was limiting traffic and causing bad performance
90% Gb link load = Gb link used 90% of time with CIR 128 kbit/s
Data through Gb link during one hour = 0.9*128Kbit/s*3600s - 400 Mbit

In the worst case high Gb link utilization was causing real user blocking

Solution
1. to increase Gb link size based on traffic needs
2. Increase radio interface capacity

Unstable and Low EDGE Throughput

During EDGE trial throughput problems were seen in laboratory
environment
Laboratory environment
RxLevel ~ 50-55 dBm
No capacity problem
Dedicated BSS
Own test server not in commercial use

Tested application was FTP, file size 2 Mb

4 RTSL MS average throughput 120 - 160 kbit/s
Several downloads

What could be the problem?

Unstable and Low EDGE Throughput Configuration Data

Unstable and Low EDGE Throughput Configuration Data

Low EDGE Throughput Measurement FTP

Throughput Example

Low EDGE Throughput Measurement

Answer PRFILE parameter problems
BSSGP parameters were not optimal for 4 RTSL MS
Polling intervals were not frequent enough

Exercise
Please list all factors which can affect to EDGE throughput and which
do not relate to BSS/packet core network
Network capacity (all elements and interfaces) and all network parameters
are assumed to be optimal
No congestion
No blocking etc

RF environment is good

Answer to Exercise
Laptop
PC speed
Client TCP/IP settings
MSS, TCP window size

Modem settings
Modem settings can limit maximum throughput

Simultaneous other programs

disable automatic updates, minimize background processes, disable firewalls and anti-virus
programs

Used method for throughput verification

RLC, LLC or application throughput
Program used for measurement - MSDOS or throughput application how throughput will be
calculated?

Mobile terminal
Multislot class (RTSL support)
MS connection infrared, cable or Bluetooth

Tested file size should be large enough (>2 MB)

HLR parameters (CS core)
Server type (Unix/Windows)