BSS Network Doctor Formulas

2.10.2 Problems with the SDCCH drop counters

Phantoms affect SDCCH_abis_fail_*

SDCCH drop ratio counts the ratio of all SDCCH failures to SDCCH seizures.
Normally most of the seizures are caused because of phantoms which are counted
as SDCCH_abis_fail_call and SDCCH_abis_fail_old. In practice, the
latter case does not practically occur because SDCCH handovers are usually not
used and particularly because phantoms do not perform handover.

The percentage of SDCCH_abis_fail_call used to be very high in a low traffic

network (even tens of per cent) whereas in a high traffic network the percentage
settled down to around 18-20 per cent. In BTS B9, BTS RACH detection was
improved, and figures well under 10 per cent are now typical.

A interface blocking not shown

SDCCH failures do not include A interface blocking. In A interface blocking, an

MSC clears the call without a request from a BSC. The failure is not in the BSC
where the principle has been that MSC failures are not counted. Yet from an MS
user’s point of view, A interface blocking ends up in a failed call attempt. You
can detect A interface blocking from the NSS statistics for circuit groups.

2.11 SDCCH drop ratio (sdr)

SDCCH drop %, S3 (sdr_1a)
Use: To follow up the performance of SDCCH from a technical
point of view.
Experiences on use: 1) High SDCCH drop rates usually result from ghost
accesses. A BTS decodes them from environmental or
background noise and filters out most of them. However, all
of them cannot be filtered out and the RACH request is passed
on to the BSC for processing and for the allocation of a
SDCCH channel.
The counter ghost_ccch_res (3030) is updated each time a
channel required is rejected because of an invalid
establishment cause. In GSM ph.1 there exist altogether eight
establishment causes, three of which are undefined as invalid,
for example,resulting in that this counter shows only 3/8 of all
the ghost accesses the BTS has decoded. For the rest, a
SDCCH is allocated and this will result in
sdcch_abis_fail_call failure. Because of ghost attempts
the SDCCH drop ratio is high with low traffic. As the amount
of call attempts increases, the influence of ghosts becomes
smaller and the drop ratio approaches its real value.
2) The rate of ghosts coming to SDCCH dropped when BTS
B9 with improved ghost filtering was taken into use.

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 BSS counter formulas

Known problems: In SDCCH failure counters it is not possible to separate LU

and call seizures.
sum(sdcch_radio_fail+sdcch_rf_old_ho+sdcch_user_act+sdcch_bcsu_reset+
sdcch_netw_act+sdcch_abis_fail_call+sdcch_abis_fail_old+sdcch_bts_fail+
sdcch_lapd_fail+sdcch_a_if_fail_call+sdcch_a_if_fail_old)
100 * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ %
sum(sdcch_assign+sdcch_ho_seiz)
Counters from table(s):
p_nbsc_traffic

Figure 195. SDCCH drop %, S3 (sdr_1a)

SDCCH drop %, abis fail excluded, S3 (sdr_2)

Known problems: SDCCH_ABIS_CALL does not necessarily refer to ghosts but
also, for example, to failing location updates.
sum(sdcch_radio_fail+sdcch_rf_old_ho+sdcch_user_act+sdcch_bcsu_reset+
sdcch_netw_act +sdcch_bts_fail+
sdcch_lapd_fail+sdcch_a_if_fail_call+sdcch_a_if_fail_old)
100 * ------------------------------------------------------------------- %
sum(sdcch_assign+sdcch_ho_seiz)
- sum(sdcch_abis_fail_call+sdcch_abis_fail_old)
Counters from table(s):
p_nbsc_traffic

Figure 196. SDCCH drop %, abis fail excluded, S3 (sdr_2)

Illegal establishment cause % (sdr_3b)

Use: This PI gives you the number of ghost accesses which try to
seize SDCCH but are rejected before seizing SDCCH due to
an illegal establishment cause.
sum(a.ghost_CCCH_res-a.rej_seiz_att_due_dist)
100 * ------------------------------------------------- %
sum(b.sdcch_assign+b.sdcch_ho_seiz)%
Counters from table(s):
a = p_nbsc_res_access
b = p_nbsc_traffic

Figure 197. Illegal establishment cause % (sdr_3b)

SDCCH drop ratio without timer T3101 expiry % (sdr_4)

Use: This PI shows the ratio of dropped SDCCH without
considering the drops caused by timer T3101. See sdr_1a.
Known problems: See sdr_1a.

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 BSS Network Doctor Formulas

sum(a.sdcch_radio_fail
+ a.sdcch_rf_old_ho
+ a.sdcch_user_act
+ a.sdcch_bcsu_reset+
+ a.sdcch_netw_act
+ a.sdcch_abis_fail_call
+ a.sdcch_abis_fail_old
+ a.sdcch_bts_fail
+ a.sdcch_lapd_fail
+ a.sdcch_a_if_fail_call
+ a.sdcch_a_if_fail_old
- b. T3101_EXPIRED)
100 * -------------------------------- %
sum(sdcch_assign+sdcch_ho_seiz)

a = p_nbsc_traffic
b = p_nbsc_service
Counters from table(s):
p_nbsc_traffic
p_nbsc_service

Figure 198. SDCCH drop ratio without timer T3101 expiry % (sdr_4)

2.12 Setup success ratio (cssr)

SDCCH, TCH setup success %, S4 (cssr_2)
Use: This PI shows the setup success ratio, including SDCCH and
TCH. It works also in the case of DR.
Possible fault cases:
- faulty DSP in BTS TRX
Experiences on use: Fits for general quality monitoring. Values between 2.5 and
4%, for example.
Known problems: ’B no answer’ is also counted as a successful call.
Includes also SMSs and LUs which do not use TCH at all.
This causes problems in special cases when there are many
LUs but few calls. The problems in calls are hidden by a great
number of LUs which receive SDCCH successfully.
Troubleshooting: You can use SDCCH and TCH observations to see which one
is failing. However, note that this is a time-consuming task.
sum(call_setup_failure)
100* ( 1 - ----------------------------------------) %
sum(setup_succ+call_setup_failure)
Counters from table(s):
p_nbsc_service

Figure 199. SDCCH, TCH setup success %, S4 (cssr_2)

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