The Multi-RAB (Multiple Radio Access Bearer) Dropped Call Problem

With the proliferation of smart phones, the numbers and percentages of multi-Radio Access Bearer calls on your
network continue to grow. In fact, youve probably experienced issues that have been born out of Multi-RAB capable
handsets. It is actually quite common for multi-RAB calls with circuit switched (CS) and packet switched (PS)
services running in parallel to drop more often than calls with a single instance of CS or PS Radio Access Bearer.
These types of problems can be quite challenging, because they can go undetected until customers start to
complain. And then they take on a new level of challenge as they are assigned to you or your support teams to
troubleshoot.

About the Case Study

This is a case study of a mobile carrier that experienced dropped call complaints for seven months. The RF
engineers assigned to the problem were highly skilled, but were not armed with the proper tools to effectively
troubleshoot. Tekcomms was enlisted to assist in finding the root causes. This article describes the methodology
and tools used troubleshoot the problem.

Tools and Tool Operators

The are many ways to discover a problem ranging from customer complaints, to analyzing key performance
indicators, to testing. But you cant fix a problem until you know the root cause. Finding the source of an issue is the
real artwork.
The radio environment is an extremely complex ecosystem. The right set of monitoring and troubleshooting tools,
coupled with RF Engineering expertise, will take you beyond the symptoms to the source of the problem. Even
though the tools are smart and can draw geographical, pictoral and tabular views of network conditions, RF
engineering expertise is frequently needed to arrive at the root cause. Arriving at a root cause may require following
a series of paths, many of which will end with performing as expected, thus forcing you to pursue alternate routes.
Tools coupled with RF expertise will help you negotiate these paths.

The Journey to the Root Cause

After reviewing the symptoms of the problem with the carriers RF Engineering staff, we looked at the Radio Network
Drop Call reports using the Iris Performance Intelligence tool to identify the causes of the dropped calls starting
with the Top N Worst Performing eNodeB for Detach Attempts and Failures.

- See more at: http://www.tekcomms.com/troubleshooting-multi-rab-droppedcalls#sthash.koG5Xrz3.dpuf