UMTS Performance Measurement – A Practical Guide to KPIs for the UTRAN Environment

UMTS Performance Measurement is a practical guide that explains how to identify and measure the main problems seen in today's UMTS live networks and will make performance measurement results gathered in the UTRAN environment understandable for the reader. It provides a fundamental background for daily work in the field or lab, covering a wide range of performance measurements that help to troubleshoot and optimize the UTRAN environment. The content goes far beyond what has been defined by international standard bodies like 3GPP and closes the gap between international standards and definitions of network equipment manufacturers (NEM) and network operators. The emphasis is on definition of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and measurements that are not described in 3GPP standard documents, such as throughput measurements and the success/failure analysis of all possible handover types.* Includes clear coverage of the fundamentals of performance measurement software architecture and ways to collect and present statistical data* Contains numerous call flow diagrams, conversion tables, protocol message examples and sample measurement results that can be used as reference for daily work in the field or lab* Explains measurement limitations and how tolerances provide valuable information for validation and evaluation of measurement results* Provides an overview of how performance measurement software works as well as information on how data streams are captured and analyzed, and how analysis results are aggregated and presented in graphic user interfaces and reports Providing a gateway into the world of UMTS-specific measurement scenarios and a general overview of what can be defined and measured at an in-depth technical level, this book will appeal to those involved in network operation, planning, configuration and deployment, as well as consulting and training companies, students, technical journalists and measurement equipment manufacturers.

Table of Contents:
Preface. Acknowledgements. 1 Basics of Performance Measurement in UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). 1.1 General Ideas of Performance Measurement. 1.2 Basic Architectural Concept of Performance Measurement Equipment Based on Protocol Analysis. 1.3 Aggregation Levels/Dimensions. 1.4 Statistics Calculation and Presentation. 2 Selected UMTS Key Performance Parameters. 2.1 Block Error Rate (BLER) Measurements. 2.2 Radio-Related Measurements. 2.3 Throughput Measurements. 2.4 Transport Channel Usage Ratio. 2.5 Primary and Secondary Traffic. 2.6 Active Set Size Distribution. 2.7 Soft Handover Success and Failure Analysis. 2.8 Inter-Frequency Hard Handover Success and Failure Rates. 2.9 Core Network Hard Handover Success and Failure Rates. 2.10 State Transitions and Channel Type Switching. 2.11 Call Establish Success and Failure Rates. 2.12 Call Drop Rates. 2.13 NBAP Radio Link Failure Analysis and RRC Re-Establishment Success Rate. 2.14 Cell Matrices. 2.15 Miscellaneous Protocol Procedures and Events that Indicate Abnormal Behaviour of Protocol Entities on Different Layers. 3 Call Establishment and Handover Procedures of PS Calls using HSDPA. 3.1 HSDPA Cell Set Up. 3.2 HSDPA Basic Call. 3.3 Mobility Management and Handover Procedures in HSDPA. Glossary. Reference. Index.