Study on RSCP coverage plot

differences between AriesoGeo and

ActixOne
Introduction
• Concerns have been raised
by the Customer about the
differences between
Arieso’s and ActixOne’s Best
Server RSCP and Cell
Footprint plots.
• It was raised that
ActixOne’s plotted signal
strength values look too low
and do not follow the
expected, ‘planning tool-
like’ pattern
• This is all compared to
AriesoGEO plots which look
more ‘as expected’
 Initial investigation
• Actix’ first step has been to
simply change the RSCP
legend (which can be changed
by admin users) to give more
granularity to the value
distribution.
• This has shown a big
difference and provided plots
that are more in line with the
expectations
• However, question remains on
the difference in absolute
values and the steeper
coverage fading curve in
Arieso GEO plots
• This has prompted Actix to
carry a full investigation on
RSCP plot generation
methodologies
RSCP Plot generation
methodologies

Detailed investigation
 RSCP Plot generation steps
• There are primarily two steps involved in the
presentation of the RSCP plots
– Geolocation of data
– Aggregation of RSCP values
• Geolocation has already been evaluated in this
trial.
• This study focuses on the aggregation
mechanism used by ActixOne and the potential
differences with AriesoGEO’s strategy.

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 Data aggregation
• In the aggregation process there are also two
steps involved
– Decision on which data is going to be aggregated
– Technique to aggregate the values that are going to
be included
• The choice of technique for each step will have a
huge impact on the plot results

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Data Selection Methodologies
 Cell Footprint plot: what data to
aggregate
• In the cell footprint plots only the data
corresponding to the cell being studied can be
used.
• It is unlikely that there are any differences
between AriesoGEO and ActixOne
• The difference must come from the aggregation
itself

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Best server plot. What data to aggregate

• There are two options

– ActixOne’s approach for best server plots is to take the
best server RSCP measurements in each bin, from all
servers within that bin, and aggregate their values.
– Another approach could be to first calculate which sector
is the best server on each bin, then aggregate the RSCP
values on that bin ONLY for that sector
• The second approach will invariably produce stronger
signal levels.
• It is possible that Arieso uses the second approach
(to be confirmed)

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 ActixOne’s choice explained
• The first option for best server plot (i.e.
including measurements from all sectors) is used
in ActixOne as it shows the user experience of all
the users.
• The second approach only reflects the
experience a subset of users that happen to be
served by the most common best server.

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Aggregation Methodologies
 Aggregation
• There are basically two options to aggregate
RSCP values:
– Arithmetic (or Linear) Mean
• RSCP values are converted to Watts, averaged and
the result is converted back to dBm
– Geometric Mean
• RSCP values are averaged in dBm without any
previous conversion to Watts
• ActixOne uses Geometric Mean while results
suggest that AriesoGEO uses the Arithmetic Mean

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 Actix’s choice explained
• Geometric Mean is what handsets use
– (see GSM spec 05.08 Section 6.1): "The MS is
required to maintain an average of received signal
levels for all monitored frequencies. These
quantities termed the ‘received level averages’
(RLA_C), shall be un-weighted averages of the
received signal levels measured in dBm."
• Arithmetic Mean results are often too optimistic
– For example, the arithmetic mean of -90,-90,-90
and -75 is -75.89 while the geometric average
returns -85

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Geometric vs Arithmetic
Mean

Comparison
Mathematical
Simulation: StDev of
sample values vs
Difference in results
• A simulation has been done to
calculate the difference
between the results produced
by Arithmetic and Geometric
Means on a set of random
RSCP values
• The test samples have
different value ranges to
simulate a real situation were
some bins have
measurements that are of
similar value and others have
a higher standard deviation
• The chart shows the
correlation between the
standard deviation of values
in each bin and the difference
between Arithmetic and
Geometric mean
 Simulation results
• The Arithmetic Mean ALWAYS produces values
greater than those from the Geometric mean
• This correlation could explain the greater signal
fading slope shown in the AriesoGEO plots, since the
signals levels are more scattered closed to a sector
than they are far away from it.
• This means that in areas with poor dominance, with a
large range of values, the Arithmetic Mean will show
an over-optimistic view.
• Also, in call trace, with the mixture of indoor and
outdoor measurements, the results of the Arithmetic
Mean are heavily biased by the outdoor (stronger)
measurements

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 Confirmation of results using
Call Trace Data
• Actix Analyzer has been used to compare the
result of using both averaging techniques on the
same set of data.
• Note that the sample selection mechanism is the
same for both plots. Only the averaging
techniques is being compared

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 Distance raw sample distribution
• The RSCP vs Distance distribution of raw samples (not averaged)
shows the expected behavior
• At closer distances the spread of RSCP values is high due to a mix
of indoor and outdoor measurements. It gets smaller as the
distance increases

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 Best Server RSCPplot

Geometric Mean Arithmetic Mean

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Distribution of
RSCP Values
• In this chart we can see
that the Arithmetic Mean
provides a much more
optimistic distribution of
RSCP values
• The Geometric Mean results
distribution is closer to a
logNormal distribution,
which is expected in such a
large area.
• The average value produced
by the Arithmetic Mean is
artificially high for an area
that includes the majority Average
of its traffic at indoor Geometric -91.7845
locations
Arithmetic -80.4644
Difference
distribution
• Chart shows the distribution
of the difference between
the two averaging methods
• One can see the high
standard deviation of the
difference
• The mean difference is of
13.8 dBs
• This could explain the much
stronger signal strength
shown by AriesoGEO

Data selection method
Find best server, then plot RSCP
Plot best RSCP for all servers
Averaging Method
Arithmetic mean
Geometric Mean
Summary
Advantages
Produces nicer-looking, planning-
tool like plots
True representation of the average
coverage as perceived by all users
Advantages
Produces nicer-looking, planning-
tool like plots, with more
pronounced signal strength drop
True representation of the user
experience as it treats all
measurements equally
Drawback
Not representative of user
experience as it leaves out users
not served by the dominant cell
Produces less attractive plots as
real coverage does not look like
what engineers are used to
Drawback
Not representative of user
experience as it is heavily biased
towards outdoors users (stronger
signal) and does not work well in
non-dominance environments
Produces less attractive plots as
real coverage does not look like
what engineers are used to
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 Conclusions
• The methodology used by ActixOne is compliant with the
standards! It is also geared towards representing the true
user experience of ALL users.
• Other methodologies, geared to producing more
attractive plots, fail to be a true representation of the
customer experience.
• If a solution first calculates which sector is the best
server on each bin, then aggregates the RSCP values on
that bin only for that sector and/or Arithmetic Mean is
used, it would be reasonable to question the accuracy of
its representation of the user experience, not only for
coverage but for many other metrics that are produced in
the same way.
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