Drivetest training znix team

Please all exercises should be done with MS Word. Zapgrabber or Snippping tool (Win 7) can be used for taking the screenshots.

Tosin Adeniyi Adekunle [email protected]

DRIVETEST, DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING

WHAT DRIVETEST IS AND WHAT IT’S NOT

Drivetest is a data collection tool on a radio network basically used during and for tuning and

optimization. It is a tool for collecting network performance data depending on the radio access

technology and such data is used during the tuning process or optimization.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TUNING AND OPTIMISATION

You must have been wondering from the definition above about tuning and optimization. Lets

consider the following scenerios:

You just purchased a new mobile phone. What are the things you need to do before you start

using it?

1. Update your contact by getting it from a backup location you have created from your

previous mobile phone

2. You need to update your photos, music files, videos, etc

3. You want to setup your email exchange server for you to receive emails

4. You have started using the phone but you need to protect the body of the phone by

purchasing a phone pouch or a purse.

5. The phone is infected by a virus, you need to purchase an antivirus online.

6. You need to recharge often so that you are not barred by the mobile operator.

Tuning encompasses listing 1 – 3. It is the process whereby all planning parameters (that were

considered before installing a site) are achieved before the site is open to the subscribers. It is a

stage which is accompanied by after a site has been installed but not yet available for subscriber

(traffic) to use. It involves making sure the following is achieved:

Proper handover (intra and inter)

Planning parameters (coverage, transmission, frequency, etc)

Physical properties of the cells including coordinate, azimuths, tilts etc.

Optimization is the process which comes after a site has been opened to subscriber traffic. It is

the technical term for maintenance as described in listing 4 – 6 above. Tuning can still be done

during optimization whenever there is need for re-planning.

PURPOSES OF DRIVETEST

DT is carried out for various reasons which are stated below.

Coverage: To check if there is coverage or not in a particular location. This is checked

with Voice Long call and idle mode (one mobile for long call and another for idle mode)

Retainability: This is the ability of the mobile network in allowing subscribers to make a

phone call over a long period of time. The subscriber can be in one place or travelling in

a car (a moving subscriber will cause handover to occur on at the instance of the call).

This is tested with long calls.



Accessibility: This is the ability of the subscriber to dial a call and gets connected. The

inability of the network to provide this capability may mean it has access problem. This

is tested with short calls.

TYPES OF DRIVETEST

DT is divided into the various kinds of test or data that can be collected over the radio network.

We shall discuss the common once shortly.

Voice calls(Long and short calls, Idle calls)

Data calls (FTP, HTTP, PING, EMAILS)

SMS

Roaming (With International sim cards)

IRAT (Inter Radio Access Technology Handover ie 2G and 3G handover and vice versa)

Benchmark (This is done to compare the performance of different network operators in

other to improve the Quality of Service of the operator conducting the test)

Walktest (Indoor test)

Hand over analysis

Site verification and commissioning.

TOOLS FOR DRIVETEST

Drivetest tools vary due to vendors. For instance, Ericsson uses Tems Investigation and Route

Analysis (presently changed to Discovery), MapInfo, MCom and so on while vendors like

Nokia/Semens uses Nemo Analyzer, Nemo outdoor, actix analyzer, agilent , Huawei uses GeneX

Probe and so on and so forth. Apart from the software, there are a list of DT hardware which

must be in place. See list below.

A car/jeep/truck

An inverter to power the laptop and other hardware

Drivetest kit(Software with its respective dongle or license, test phones, GPS units, RF

Scanners, portfolio – for benchmark)

A GPS unit for taking coordinates

Microsoft office word, excel and PowerPoint (for reporting).

BEST DRIVETEST PRACTICES

Before and during a DT, there are certain things that must be available and that must be done to

aid the success of the job. They are categorized below:

Logistics

Make sure you are provided with enough petrol or diesel in your car. This would save you the

embarrassment and disappointment of having to stop in the middle of nowhere and in the

middle of a job. Also, always check to make sure that your inverter is off while your car engine is

not running. It will save the battery life.



Job Wise

Make sure you get the details of the task you have been provided in your place of work. Do not

assume the type of DT you are to do, do not assume the RAT(radio access technology – 2G, 3G,

CDMA, LTE, WiMax, IS 95 etc) you are testing, ask when you do not understand a concept or a

task, be a contributing and good member if you are in a team, be goal oriented, plan your time

very well else if you are married you will be divorced and if you are single you will keep

changing partners, aspire to learn more about your area of specialization and in the RF field not

just DT and you will successfully complete a job and get lots of recommendations from

professionals in the field who will want you to work for them.

Take notes of radio problem while you do DT. You will work your way into analyzing logfiles or

possibly on bigger positions.

Equipment Handling

DT equipment are very expensive. Some are intellectual property (Software and dongle or

license) while some are hardware. Please handle them with care. Do not fold the GPS cables and

neither should you fold the scanner cables. You cannot find them in the market for free neither

for a token. DO NOT BREAK YOUR DT SOFTWARE DONGLE – YOU WILL KEEP YOUR

EMPLOYER/EMPLOYEE OUT OF BUSINESS!!!

LABS

MAKE IT A TASK TO SETUP A DRIVETEST EQUIPMENT PROVIDED BELOW:

A car/jeep/truck

An inverter to power the laptop and other hardware

Drivetest kit(Software with its respective dongle or license, test phones, GPS units, RF

Scanners, portfolio – for benchmark)

EXPECTED TASK

Make sure you properly connect the inverter in the right order to the battery and cover

all bear wires.

Install the DT software you are provided and the driver software of the tools including

the Test phones, GPS, Scanners and so on.



DRIVETEST TOOLS 1: TEMS INVESTIGATION

TEMS INVESTIGATION is a collection of bundle network management packages: Data collection

and Route Analysis (version 10 and below) or Discovery (version 11 onward). It is a common

and widely accepted tool for drivetest because of its simplicity (yes, I have Ericsson background

and I am biased… ) and capabilities.

For a detailed description of the product, please visit documentation folder provided in the

software installation disc or visit ascom website.

The scope of this session include the following.

Workspace and tabs

Setting up tems for DT (2G and 3G)

Event logging (event window and event counters)

Setting up equipment for basic needs(locking on RATs, Bands, Frequencies etc)

Report generation(Report generator tool and RAN tuning report)

TEMS INVESTIGATION DATA COLLECTION INTERFACE

Every engineering work requires a workshop or laboratory and so is TEMS Investigation Data

Collection. We are going to describe the basic interfaces (TABS) and workspace in this section.

Menu Bar

Tab

s

Status Bar

WORKSPACE

All connected equipment appear

here

Standard Bar



TABS

Overview Tab (a. 2G, b. 3G)

a. All the tables you find in this workspace can be opened from Presentation GSM

click the appropriate window as you can find in the pictures below. They apply to 2G

drivetest as they display the appropriate radio parameters and radio behavior.

b. All the tables you find in this workspace can be opened from Presentation WCDMA click the appropriate window as you can find in the pictures below. They apply to 3G drivetest as they display the appropriate radio parameters and radio behavior.



SIGNALING

Signaling information is displayed in this tab. Basic understanding of the OSI/TCP network

models is required and understanding of the layer 2 and 3 messages.

The tables (layer 3, layer 2, events, mode reports) can all be opened one after another by using

Presentation Signaling Appropriate table.

DATA

This tab displays PS information obtained from the data card or modem used during a drivetest.

You can open each chat displayed here by using the presentation WCDMA/GSM Data

Service The chart/table in this picture.



MAP

One of the purposes of having one map in overview and here is that you can erase one of them

while the other is used as a control to know where you have covered and where you need to

cover during a DT.

Maps are loaded here by using the Layer control add locate map and/or site data (in

tab format) edit (display and label) where necessary click the OK button.

SCANNER

Scanner information (BSIC, interfering BCCH (2G), Scrambling codes (3G) are collected in this

mode.

You can setup the scanner to scan and what to scan by connecting the scanner, using the

equipment dropdown to select the scanner and selecting the scan properties to change scanner

frequencies/channels/behaviours as appropriate.



EXERCISE: Provided you have a scanner, setup a CPICH scan, use an operator frequency in

your resident country and provide the screenshot of the process.

CTRL & CONFIG

This is the control centre of all connected equipment. All equipment connected and supported

by TEMS appear on the Equipment configuration table while command sequence is used for

automatic calls (voice, sms and data). We shall talk about setting up command sequence later in

this presentation.



Equipment dropdown is active

whenever UEs are connected. Equipment property is active

whenever UEs are connected.

REQUIREMENT FOR A SUCCESSFUL DRIVETEST

Create/save a workspace: This is necessary because it is necessary you create a custom

workspace which contain all the tables you need on each interfaces(TABS) discussed above.

Any table you do not need, please do not open and if it is open, close it. After you must have

opened all the tables required for each interfaces (TABS), goto File Save As name your

new workspace click save.

A celref file (celfile) must be provided and if not provided. It is the duty of the DT Engineer

to ask for it. It is either in .xml or .cel format and once it is loaded on TEMS, it will remain in

the workspace. A replacement to the .cel or .xml is the .tab which can only be opened on the

map. Celfile can be loaded into tems by using Configuration General Celfile Load

Add Locate Celfile on your computer OK

Drive Route And/Or Site list: You need a drive route prepared by the optimization engineer.

Drive routes are prepared based on requirements and if you have the ability to create

routes, you must follow appropriate instructions regarding it. Follow the presentation on

MapInfo® on how to prepare the routes.

Configure the User Equipment (UEs). All test UEs must be connected using the equipment

Configuration on the CTRL & COMFIG tab and using the appropriate connect all green

button on the standard bar. When you are done with the DT, use the red disconnect all

button on the standard bar before unplugging the UEs from the computer.

EXERCISE 2.1: Provide the screenshots of how you carry out the lists above.

Locking On Bands, Scrambling Codes, BCCH and RATs

In other to lock to the appropriate modes, the icons in the above image are necessary only if the

equipment have been connected on TEMS.

When you click on the Equipment property, a multi-tab dialog box appears. So follow the list

below as it applies to each mode described above.

For bands: Select BAND CONTROL and Choose which band applies to your

country and task requirement. You will find 800, 900, 1800, 1900 bands under

GSM BAND CONTROL.

For RATs: Select RAT CONTROL or CAS SYSTEM CONTROL and select the

technology under testing. You will find Normal, GSM and WCDMA. Normal mode is

used for Inter Radio Access Technology HandOver test so that the MS can switch

between GSM and WCDMA modes based on provisions on the radio network.



For SCRAMBLING CODES: Select WCDMA Cell Reselection and click on lock in

the dropdown, select the appropriate operator frequency band, select the

appropriate scrambling code(s) and click on APPLY and then the OK button.

For BCCH: Select GSM Cell Reselection and click on lock , select the appropriate

BCCH(s) then click APPLY and then the OK button.

EXERCISE 2.2: Provide the screenshots of how you carry out the lists above.

Configure the command sequence. The command sequence saves the test engineer the

stress of manually dialing voice or data calls and also to ensure uniformity in the call

process. The table below shows what must be considered in the appropriate order when

you are creating command sequence. Note that one command sequence, one MS as a

beginner.

Whenever you are setting up the FTP DL, note the following.

The filename must match a particular file on the FTP server and you can confirm that by

opening the server using an ftp client such as FileZilla, Limewire and many more.

The location must contain a file that has the same file name as the one in the download.

So create a folder and insert a file in it, name the file the same name of the file to be

downloaded from the server.

Insert the appropriate EQ, IP address, User name and password.

EXERCISE 2.3: Create two sample command sequences, one for voice calls and the other for

FTP DL. Use the table provided above and make sure you save your command sequences.

Call type/settings

Voice calls Data calls Setup a dialup connection and use it in

the phonebook

entry setting

Dial number

Loop yes no no yes

Wait yes no no yes

Dial yes no no yes

FTP DL/UL No yes yes No

HTTP No yes yes No

ping No yes yes No



EVENT LOGGING

It is a good practice to note events that occur during a DT. One of the ways of doing this is by

using the EVENT window. You can open it from Presentation Signaling Events. Any radio

problem that is observed should be written down by noting the actual cell (not site please and if

cell id is not available, use bcch or scrambling code). This helps in the optimization process as it

enhances it and helps develop the DT engineer into acceptable forms.

Also, the EVENT COUNTER which documents the call and KPIs statistics can also be used to

provide a report (per logfile) on call statistics correlation and KPIs. This can be opened using

Presentation Analysis Event Counters.

EXERCISE 2.4: Open both Event Counter and Events windows as described above and

provide their screenshots.



REPORT GENERATION AND RAN TUNING REPORT.

EXPORTING LOGFILES

Exported logfiles are used in the analysis process. Logfiles can be exported to different formats

based on the available tools. Due to the scope of this course, we shall focus on text file and

MapInfo tab file.

Text files can be opened with text editor or a spreadshit program while the MapInfo tab file can

be opened on TEMS, MapInfo and other supported software for the purpose of creating pictorial

representation of the radio environment and decision making.

Logfiles can be exported using Logfiles Export logfiles Add export order (What to look

for)

What to lookout for:

Format and settings which include what RAT is under testing, the parameters which

must include longitude and latitude, cell characteristics (cell id, cell name, interference

measurement) etc.

Add logfiles .

Merge output for more than one logfile.

Select the location for storing the exported results.

EXERCISE 2.5: Provide the screenshots of how you carry out the activities above.

REPORT GENERATOR

The report generator tool is used for generating reports for multiple logs and proper

understanding of parameters, KPIs, call statistics, MS behavior all of which are represented

with chats and graphs. This report helps in the optimization process as it provides the necessary

information needed for such purpose. We can use the Report Generator tool by using Logfiles

Report Generator.

You will be requested to do the following.

Add logfiles

Edit properties (choose technology, events, parameters, messages)

Select where report is to be stored and the OK button.

The report takes longer depending on the size of logfiles and configuration of the computer

hardware and it is displayed on a web browser.

EXERCISE 2.6: Use a sample logfile, generate this report and create a screenshot of the

process as it applies.



RAN TUNING REPORT

RAN TUNING REPORT is a decision support system report generated from the TEMS

Investigation Route Analysis Application. It provides parameters, KPIs, call statistics, MS

behavior all of which are represented with pictures, chat and graphs. This report can only be

generated only and only if the software dongle is available on the computer and understanding

of radio parameters, radio problems, thresholds, database, file types and so on is required.

We can use Logfiles RAN tuning report to generate and follow the appropriate instructions to

generate a RAN tuning report. The following must be considered.

If you don’t have a standard database, you need to create new and the option is available

in the first stage.

You must have a valid celfile for the cluster under investigation.

You must understand the appropriate threshold for the parameters under investigation.

You must know the appropriate file types you are creating. MIF files will open on

MapInfo and can be used to create screenshots for manually generated reports.

You must also have the patience to wait or use the wait time to do other things. There is

no time.

The use of computer with high RAM size and virtual memory is adviced to speed up the

processing time.

EXERCISE 2.7: Use a sample logfile, generate this report and create a screenshot of the

process as it applies.



SUMMARY OF HOW TO CARRYOUT A SUCCESSFUL DT

You need all the necessary tools.

Setup the tools.

Load the celfile.

Load the road maps and route/cluster maps.

Prepare/modify your command sequence to suit the appropriate test.

Lock the MS(s) to the appropriate mode.

Setup the scanner for scanning if available.

Go to the starting point, click the start recording button on the standard bar, select a location to

save the logfiles, start sequences for each MS(s).

For a cluster or route drivetest, export logfiles on regular bases (at close of business) to know

which area has to be covered. The export should be opened in MapInfo.

Please note that a MS in idle mode need not make any call or be used for data services.

Drivetest training znix team

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Transcript of Drivetest training znix team