LTE433: Cell Trace

Aug 2021
 Table of Contents

1 LTE433: Cell Trace ............................................................................................ 3

1.1 Benefits ..................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Functional description ....................................................................................... 3
1.3 System impact ................................................................................................... 7
 LTE433: Cell Trace

1 LTE433: Cell Trace

Introduction to the feature
With this feature it is possible to follow the connections ongoing in a cell and verify the intended
functionalities within a cell. It can be used for a deeper analysis if problems occur and when various
performance measurements do not give a clear indication of the problem.

1.1 Benefits
End-user benefits
This feature does not affect the end-user experience.

Operator benefits
The cell trace data can be used to check the radio coverage in a particular network area and to get
feedback on the network quality and capacity after optimization operations (like parameter fine-
tuning). Thus, it brings OPEX savings as the operator can enhance the troubleshooting capabilities
and reduce expensive drive tests.

1.2 Functional description

Functional overview
With the cell trace, all the UEs in a target cell that are in the connected state are traced
simultaneously.
For each traced connection the eNB supports the trace of the following interfaces and protocols (they
can be traced simultaneously):

• S1 Interface: S1AP
The following items are traced:
– context management (for example: context setup, release, and modification messages)
– handover signaling (for example: handover and path switch messages)
– S1 CDMA2000 tunneling
– UE capability info indication
– E-RAB management (for example: E-RAB setup, modify, and release messages)
– NAS transport
– location reporting
LTE433: Cell Trace

– error indication

• X2 Interface: X2AP
The following items are traced:
– basic X2 mobility (for example: handover and UE context messages)
– error indication

• Uu Interface: RRC
The following items are traced:
– RRC connection establishment/re-establishment
– RRC connection reconfiguration
– RRC connection release
– counter check
– initial security activation
– inter-RAT mobility
– measurements
– UE capability enquiry
– UL/DL information transfer
– paging

Note: The user plane is not traced.

The operator configures which cell should be traced and selects the traced interfaces.
Additionally, via the vendor-specific extension,TA (Timing Advance) information can be selected
to be traced (if it is activated in the eNB). With the cell trace, the IMSI information of the traced
connections is not supported, but the NetAct TraceViewer application delivers the identifiers (for
example, X2AP-ID or S1AP-ID) of the traced connections so that operator can follow each
traced connection.
Only the maximum trace depth is supported. It means that all L3 signaling and control
messages and measurement reports related to each traced cell on S1AP/X2AP/RRC protocols
are traced.

Cell trace administration

For the cell traffic trace, the management-based approach is used for trace session activation
and deactivation. The cell traffic trace feature is optional (license-based) and the Activate
cell trace parameter is introduced to control the relevant license.
NetAct TraceViewer application is used for activating/deactivating the cell traces and collecting
the trace data. The activation/deactivation commands are transferred to eNB as a Configuration
Management (CM) parameter plan using the generic plan management operations.

Note: If the actCellTrace parameter value is set to false during an active trace session, all
the cell/interface trace sessions will be stopped and MTRACE objects are not deleted. In this
case, the TraceViewer might not show the correct status of the trace session that has been
stopped. Therefore, it is recommended to delete first the MTRACE objects before setting the
actCellTrace parameter value to false.
 LTE433: Cell Trace

Figure 1 Cell trace architecture

One Trace Control (CTRLTS) object is introduced to control the subscriber and equipment
trace and the cell traffic trace. Different cell trace session objects are introduced to manage
the cell trace sessions.
The Trace Control object is used to configure central aspects of the feature. It is enabled when the
license for subscriber and equipment trace feature or for cell traffic trace is available. Each Cell
Trace Session (MTRACE) object instance represents a running cell traffic trace session. NetAct
TraceViewer is responsible for creating and deleting Cell Trace Session object instances and
hence, activating and deactivating trace sessions within the NE.
The cell trace session starts when the trace session instance (containing the trace parameters) is
created. For each traced cell one trace session instance is created.
Cell trace session details:
• The trace session starts only if the control object is created and the license for this feature is
enabled.
• Active connections within a cell are traced until the maximum number of traced connections
(defined with the cellMaxActiveUEsTraced parameter and introduced with LTE644: Configurable
cell trace content) is reached. For each traced
LTE433: Cell Trace

connection, one trace recording session is started. When the connection is stopped or when the
maximum number of traced connections is reached, the eNB starts tracing other active
connections until the trace sessions is stopped.
• The maximum number of simultaneous cell trace sessions in the eNB is 1212. It is possible, for
example, to start a cell trace session for NetAct and a trace session for L3 Data Collector
simultaneously in one traced cell (trace reports are generated for each trace reference).
• The trace session starts when the trace session instance is created.

Cell trace session instances are not deleted in the eNB after the eNB restart, but the traces
are not restarted automatically.

Trace session management during eNB restart

The active cell trace sessions are restarted automatically after the eNB restart.
Planned restart
When the operator performs a planned eNB restart, the running trace sessions are deactivated
in the TraceViewer. The trace parameters are stored in the TraceViewer so that when the
operator restarts the previously deactivated sessions, the same trace settings are applied.

Trace data transfer

Online trace reporting and file-based reporting are supported:

• online reporting: the iOMS receives trace reports from the eNB via a socket connection as a
TCP stream. Trace reports are sent to the iOMS periodically. The trace report contains all the
trace records of the same trace session collected since the last trace report creation.
• file-based reporting: the iOMS receives trace reports from the eNB via a socket connection as a
TCP stream. Trace reports are uploaded to NetAct when iOMS informs about finalized log files.
The trace log contains trace reports of the same trace session collected since the last log file
upload. For cell traffic trace, one trace log file is generated for each traced cell and each trace
session. All trace records of all traced connection within the same trace session are stored in
the same trace log file. To avoid sending large trace log files, a maximum file size is defined. If
the maximum file size is reached, the OMS closes the trace log file and generates a new one for
trace records storage. At the end of a trace session or in case the maximum file size is reached,
the OMS triggers the NetAct TraceViewer (using the NWI3 FilesReadyEvent message) to
upload the trace log files.

Note: The number of trace collection entities (TCEs) connected to a single eNB must not
exceed 30.

NetAct trace data handling

The NetAct TraceViewer decodes the received messages to a readable format (for example,
XML) and stores the converted messages to trace log files.
In case of file-based reporting, the iOMS notifies NetAct about available trace data files using the
FilesReadyEvent NWI3 notification and then NetAct transfers these files. The same file
notification and transfer mechanism is used for basic measurements.
 LTE433: Cell Trace

Figure 2 Trace files transfer between NetAct and iOMS

NetAct

NWI3 FilesReadyEvent

HTTPS GET

File transfer

NWI3 PIFILETransferred

the disk

NetAct TraceViewer is the application for trace data presentation and it supports the following
functionalities:

• sorting the received messages per connection (for example, using X2AP ID or S1AP ID)
• presenting the message flow for each connection (the operator is able to select a single
message to see the message details)
• presenting the call processing procedures (for example, setup, release, HO, and so on)
• presenting abnormal behaviors (for example, drops, NACKs, and so on)
LTE433: Cell Trace

1.3 System impact

Interdependencies between features
There are no interdependencies between this and any other feature.

Impact on network and network element management tools

The NetAct TraceViewer application is used for managing the trace reports.

Impact on system performance and capacity

If all the available interfaces are traced, the MCU processor load can increase by 20%.
NetAct TraceViewer supports the maximum of 1.5 Mbit/s trace data throughput which in practice
means:

• maximum two cell trace sessions per NetAct region with a high load scenario and maximum
trace depth, or
• approximately eight cell trace sessions per NetAct region with a 50% load scenario and the trace
content reduced to 50%