Throughput Issue Troubleshooting

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Content
E2E Data Transmission In LTE
Key Factor For LTE Throughput
LTE KPI Counter Definition Of Traffic Issue
Approach For Throughput Issue
Theoretical Peak Rate
Traffic Troubleshooting
Basic Analysis- Radio Network Parameter
Radio Network Design Issue
Case Study

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E2E Data Transmission In LTE

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Content

E2E Data Transmission In LTE

Key Factor For LTE Throughput
LTE KPI Counter Definition Of Traffic Issue
Approach For Throughput Issue
Theoretical Peak Rate
Traffic Troubleshooting
Basic Analysis- Radio Network Parameter
Radio Network Design Issue
Case Study

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Key Factors For LTE Throughput
[Key factors]: cell bandwidth, modulation & coding scheme (MCS), MIMO mode, and
UE capabilities.
MCS Index Modulation Order TBS Index
0 2 0
1 2 1
2 2 2
.. .. ..
Cell bandwidth Available RBs MCS UE capabilities .. .. ..
.. .. ..
19 6 17
20 6 18
21 6 19
22 6 20
Number of Transport block size MIMO mode 23 6 21
scheduling (TBS) 24 6 22
BLER
operations 25 6 23
26 6 24
27 6 25
28 6 26
Throughput (Mbit/s) 29 2
30 4 reserved
31 6

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Key Factors For LTE Throughput (Cont_1)
MIMO mode: determines the transmission mode (one-codeword for TM2 and dual-codeword
for TM3.
N PRB
I TBS 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
0 2536 2536 2600 2600 2664 2664 2728 2728 2728 2792
1 3368 3368 3368 3496 3496 3496 3496 3624 3624 3624
2 4136 4136 4136 4264 4264 4264 4392 4392 4392 4584
3 5352 5352 5352 5544 5544 5544 5736 5736 5736 5736
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
19 39232 39232 40576 40576 40576 40576 42368 42368 42368 43816
20 42368 42368 43816 43816 43816 45352 45352 45352 46888 46888
21 45352 46888 46888 46888 46888 48936 48936 48936 48936 51024
22 48936 48936 51024 51024 51024 51024 52752 52752 52752 55056
23 52752 52752 52752 55056 55056 55056 55056 57336 57336 57336
24 55056 57336 57336 57336 57336 59256 59256 59256 61664 61664
25 57336 59256 59256 59256 61664 61664 61664 61664 63776 63776
26 66592 68808 68808 68808 71112 71112 71112 73712 73712 75376

3GPP TS 36.213: Mapping between the PRB and TBS index for the one-codeword case

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 Key Factors For LTE Throughput (Cont_2)
UE capabilities: The single-UE peak rate is limited by the UE capabilities.
Maximum number of DL- Maximum number of bits of a Maximum number of
Total number of soft channel
UE Category SCH transport block bits DL-SCH transport block supported layers for spatial
bits
received within a TTI received within a TTI multiplexing in DL
Category 1 10296 10296 250368 1
Category 2 51024 51024 1237248 2
Category 3 102048 75376 1237248 2
Category 4 150752 75376 1827072 2
Category 5 299552 149776 3667200 4

3GPP TS 36.306: Physical parameters of different downlink UE capabilities

Maximum number of bits of an UL-SCH transport block

UE Category Support for 64QAM in UL
transmitted within a TTI
Category 1 5160 No
Category 2 25456 No
Category 3 51024 No
Category 4 51024 No
Category 5 75376 Yes
3GPP TS 36.306: Physical parameters of different uplink UE capabilities

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Content
E2E Data Transmission in LTE
Key Factor for LTE Throughput
LTE KPI Counter Definition of Traffic Issue
Approach for Throughput Issue
Theoretical Peak Rate
Traffic Troubleshooting
Basic Analysis- Radio Network Parameter
Radio Network Design Issue
Case Study

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 LTE KPI Counter Definition Of Traffic Issue
KPI Name Cell DL Throughput KPI Name Cell UL Throughput

Measurement Network Level Measurement Network Level

Scope Scope

Measurement Network Busy Hour Measurement Network Busy Hour

Period Period

Formula L.Thrp.bits.DL / Formula L.Thrp.bits.UL /

L.Thrp.Time.Cell.DL.HighPrecision / 1000 L.Thrp.Time.Cell.UL.HighPrecision / 1000

Associated L.Thrp.bits.DL Associated L.Thrp.bits.UL

Counters L.Thrp.Time.Cell.DL.HighPrecision Counters L.Thrp.Time.Cell.UL.HighPrecision

Unit mbps Unit mbps

Target Monitoring Target Monitoring

KPI2.23 KPI2.23
Remark Remark
Monitoring KPI Monitoring KPI

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 LTE KPI Counter Definition Of Traffic Issue
KPI Name User DL Throughput (mbps) KPI Name User UL Throughput (mbps)

Measurement Network Level Measurement

Scope Scope Network Level

Measurement Network Busy Hour Measurement

Period Period Network Busy Hour

(L.Thrp.bits.DL- (L.Thrp.bits.UL-
Formula L.Thrp.bits.DL.LastTTI)/L.Thrp.Time.DL.RmvL Formula L.Thrp.bits.UE.UL.LastTTI)/L.Thrp.Time.UE.U
astTTI/1000 L.RmvLastTTI/1000
L.Thrp.bits.DL L.Thrp.bits.UL
Associated Associated
L.Thrp.bits.DL.LastTTI L.Thrp.bits.UE.UL.LastTTI
Counters Counters
L.Thrp.Time.DL.RmvLastTTI L.Thrp.Time.UE.UL.RmvLastTTI

Unit mbps Unit mbps

Target Monitoring Target Monitoring

KPI2.34 KPI2.35
Remark Remark
Monitoring KPI Monitoring KPI

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Content

E2E Data Transmission in LTE

Key Factor for LTE Throughput
LTE KPI Counter Definition of Traffic Issue
Approach for Throughput Issue
Theoretical Peak Rate
Traffic Troubleshooting
Basic Analysis- Radio Network Parameter
Radio Network Design Issue
Case Study

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 Approach For Throughput Issue
S6a
HSS
MME
S1-MME S11

FTP Server

eNB IP Backbone S-GW P-GW Internet

UE S1-U S5/S8
S1
Uu

FTP Client FTP Serv.

IP SGi
IP IP
Relay Relay
PDCP PDCP GTP-U GTP-U GTP-U GTP-U
UDP UDP UDP UDP
RLC RLC
IP IP IP IP
MAC MAC Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link
Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical
Uu S1-U S5/S8

Radio Domain Transport Domain

Radio I/F(Uu)
L1/L2 Protocol e2e Domain

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 Approach For Throughput Issue Factor Root cause
Factor Root cause Bearer network pipe
1. Bandwidth
1. Parameter settings
restrictions
2. Capacity or capability restrictions
1. Hardware 2. Long delay and jitter
1. Terminal capability 3. Transmission quality issues
performance 3. Packet loss and
2. PC performance disorder
2. Parameter Setting
3. TCP setting
3. software
4. Firewalls S6a
Restrictions
HSS
MME
S1-MME S11

FTP Server

eNB IP Backbone S-GW P-GW Internet

S1-U S5/S8
S1
UE Uu

Factor Root cause Factor Root cause

Air pipe 1. eNodeB rate
1. Air interface 1. Incorrect Parameter settings restrictions 1. Parameter settings
coding(MCS/MIMO/IBLER) 2. Limited Traffic capacity 2. eNodeB processing 2. Incorrect engineering configuration
2. Air interface 3. Poor Coverage capability 3. Abnormal eNodeB
resources(Grant/RB) 4. External interference 3. eNodeB feature 4. Quality Issues
3. Air interface delay 5. Abnormal handovers restrictions
4. QOS configuration(AMBR) 6. Version issue
5. RSRP/SINR

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Content

E2E Data Transmission In LTE

Key Factor For LTE Throughput
LTE KPI Counter Definition Of Traffic Issue
Approach For Throughput Issue
Theoretical Peak Rate
Traffic Troubleshooting
Basic Analysis- Radio Network Parameter
Radio Network Design Issue
Case Study

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Theoretical Peak Rates Of Cell And UE Under Different
Cell Bandwidth
Cell Theoretical Peak Throughput
Bandwidth Category Downlink Theoretical Peak Throughput Uplink Theoretical Peak Throughput
1.4M Cat3 8.784 3.24
3M Cat3 22.128 7.992
5M Cat3 36.672 13.536
10M Cat3 73.392 27.376
15M Cat3 110.112 40.576
20M Cat3 150.752 51.024

Single User Theoretical Peak Throughput

Bandwidth Category Downlink Theoretical Peak Throughput Uplink Theoretical Peak Throughput
1.4M Cat3 8.784 3.24
3M Cat3 22.128 7.992
5M Cat3 36.672 13.536
10M Cat3 73.392 27.376
15M Cat3 102.048 40.576
20M Cat3 102.048 51.024

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Content

E2E Data Transmission in LTE

Key Factor for LTE Throughput
LTE KPI Counter Definition of Traffic Issue
Approach for Throughput Issue
Theoretical Peak Rate
Traffic Troubleshooting
Basic Analysis- Radio Network Parameter
Radio Network Design Issue
Case Study

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Radio Channel Quality

Radio channel quality is the most evident factor affecting the data transmission traffic and can
be adjusted by using the reference signal received power (RSRP), signal to interference plus
noise ratio (SINR), and block error rate (BLER).

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Radio Channel Quality

Checking the BLER of the Uu interface

If the BLER is high, some RBs are used for retransmission, affecting the throughput. Use the
BLER monitoring function on the M2000 to observe the BLER (Signaling trace management)

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Radio Channel Quality

Checking the BLER of the Uu interface

BLER monitoring result on the M2000 (in units of 1%)

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Radio Channel Quality

Check the RSRP and SINR

In a peak throughput test, if you want the actual peak throughput to approximate the theoretical
peak throughput, ensure that the cell RSRP is larger than –85 dBm and the SINR is larger than
26 dBm.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Radio Channel Quality

Check CQIs

CQI is indicated by the SINR; the MCS for downlink scheduling depends on the CQI. Use the
user performance monitoring function on the M2000 to monitor the CQI and observe the
5bitCQI value mapped from the CQI value, which can be regarded as the MCS order.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Radio Channel Quality

Viewing the real-time SINR and CQI

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Checking UE Antenna Imbalance

If the RX power of the two RX antennas of the UE is imbalanced, the downlink SINR is
seriously affected, resulting in abnormal MCS order selection and affecting the traffic.
Although there are two antennas in UE, but only the main set of the antenna can be used to
transmit power. Also the path loss information calculated by the main set and the RSRP
information calculated from the two antennas. So the actual uplink channel quality will be a
little worse than expected.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Co-frequency interference

If signals of GSM and UMTS exist in an intra-frequency neighboring cell or in the same
frequency band, signals of the neighboring cell may cause interference to the serving cell. In
case of serious interference, the throughput for downlink data transmission is affected. Even
if no UE accesses a neighboring cell, reference signals of the neighboring cell also impose
interference to the serving cell.

A typical symptom of this type of problem is that, the receive quality is adjusted to reach a
large RSRP value by adjusting the UE location, the downlink SINR remains low.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Downlink intra-frequency interference

Example:
The RSRP of the serving cell is –77 dBm, indicating good signals. However, the SINR of rank 2
is only 1. 64 dB, excessively low. At the same time, the RSRP of the neighboring cell is –83
dBm, approximating that of the serving cell, That it to say, strong interference results in a low
MCS order.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Uplink interference

Interference for uplink and downlink is not the same. Affect of adjacent frequency interference
for uplink traffic is much greater than downlink traffic.
RSSI of each RB is around -119dBm if no users in the cell. If the RSSI is 3 or 5 dBm above
than -119dBm, there are interferences in the uplink. You should to troubleshoot the source of
interference.
Start the cell performance monitoring by M2000 and select the interference detect monitoring.
Fill in the correct cell ID.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Uplink interference

Start the cell performance monitoring by M2000 and select the interference detect
monitoring. Fill in the correct cell ID.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Uplink interference

Start the cell performance monitoring by M2000 and select the interference detect monitoring. Fill
in the correct cell ID.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Checking the Number of Online UEs

If other UEs also access a cell, factors including the service priority and scheduling fairness may
cause traffic restrictions on the current UE.

Use the cell performance monitoring function on the M2000 to monitor the number of online UEs
in the cell.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Checking the Number of Online UEs

Use the cell performance monitoring function on the M2000 to monitor the number of online UEs in
the cell.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
eNodeB License Check

eNodeB license may restrict the total cell throughput. If the total cell throughput is low, run
the following command to check whether the license is expired or the throughput capability
is sufficient.

DSP LICENSE:;

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Traffic Troubleshooting
License-controlled items for Cat 2/3/4 Ues

DSP LICENSE:;

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Traffic Troubleshooting
The Impact of Account Information
Check the AMBR and QCI. To check the access signaling, log in to the LMT and start the
Uu and S1 interface trace. The UE accesses the cell again.

Observe the S1AP_INITIAL_CONTEXT_SETUP_REQ message over the S1 interface. If the

message shows that the AMBR is incorrect, contact the EPC maintenance colleagues to raise
the AMBR.
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Traffic Troubleshooting
The Impact of Account Information
Check the AMBR and QCI. To check the access signaling, log in to the LMT and start the
Uu and S1 interface trace. The UE accesses the cell again

QCI

This message contains the QCI. The QCI must be non-GBR. QCI 6, 8, or 9 is
recommended. The QCI cannot be 5. QCI 5 is for IMS signaling and requires QPSK
modulation, in which case the rate cannot reach the peak value. QCI 7 is UM mode and is
not recommended.
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Traffic Troubleshooting
UE Capability

view the RRC_UE_CAP_INFO message traced over the Uu interface to check the UE
capability to confirm whether the max throughput supported by the UE meet the expected.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Trouble Shooting procedure:

Step 1- check UE subscription information

If the aggregate maximum bit rate (AMBR) is set to 0, the UE can access the network but
fails in data transmission. In this case, check the AMBR value in the access message.
View the AMBR in the S1AP_INITIAL_CONTEXT_SETUP_REQ message traced over the
S1 interface. If the AMBR value is 0, contact evolved packet core (EPC) personnel to modify
the AMBR.

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Traffic Troubleshooting
Trouble Shooting procedure:

Step 2- Check the capability of a commercial UE to support the Robust Header Compression (ROHC).
Check whether ROHC is enabled or not
<LST PDCPPOHCPARA>
At the same time, view the RRC_UE_CAP_INFO message traced over the Uu interface to check the
ROCH format supported by the UE
If a commercial UE does not support the ROHC and the ROCH is enabled on the eNodeB, data
transmission will fail. In this case, run the following command to disable the ROHC on the eNodeB.
<MOD PDCPROHCPARA:ROHCSWITCH=OFF>

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Traffic Troubleshooting

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Traffic Troubleshooting
• User throughput can be limited by the available/installed licenses

• The following features directly impact end user throughput

› Downlink/Uplink Baseband Capacity
› Channel Bandwidth (5, 10, 15 and 20) MHz
› 64-QAM DL / 16-QAM UL (support by default)
› Dual Antenna DL Performance Package

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Content

E2E Data Transmission in LTE

Key Factor for LTE Throughput
LTE KPI Counter Definition of Traffic Issue
Approach for Throughput Issue
Theoretical Peak Rate
Traffic Troubleshooting
Basic Analysis- Radio Network Parameter
Radio Network Design Issue
Case Study

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Basic Analysis – Radio Network Parameter
• RN MO parameters:
› EUtranCellFDD
» dlChannelBandwidth / dlChannelBandwidth
» (nrOfSymbolsPdcch) (Control Region Size)
» noOfUsedTxAntennas  controls whether OLSM MIMO is used (2) or not.
» partOfRadioPower  NOTE: this is the % part of RU capability independent of
» pZeroNominalPucch  some UEs need this to be increased or ACK/NACKs are not received successfully on
PUCCH.
» pZeroNominalPusch  some UEs need this to be increased from default or lots of errors seen on PUSCH
› DataRadioBearer
» Various parameters for RLC status reporting and retransmission. Should be set to recommended values.
› MACConfiguration
» xxMaxHARQTx – enable (>1) or disable (1) HARQ. Recommended to use 4 HARQTx.
» tPeriodicBSRTimer – seen in UE testing to have some impact, recommend to set to 5ms.
» tTimeAlignmentTimer – seen in UE testing to have some impact, recommend to set to 5120ms

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Content

E2E Data Transmission in LTE

Key Factor for LTE Throughput
LTE KPI Counter Definition of Traffic Issue
Approach for Throughput Issue
Theoretical Peak Rate
Traffic Troubleshooting
Basic Analysis- Radio Network Parameter
Radio Network Design Issue
Case Study

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Radio Network Design Issue
• Low throughput due to Ping pong handover, check handover threshold and hysteresis
value, Cell overlap and overshooting issue.
• S1/X2 handover, low throughput during handover.

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Content
E2E Data Transmission in LTE
Key Factor for LTE Throughput
LTE KPI Counter Definition of Traffic Issue
Approach for Throughput Issue
Theoretical Peak Rate
Traffic Troubleshooting
Basic Analysis- Radio Network Parameter
Radio Network Design Issue
Case Study

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 Case 1: Throughput is low due to overlapping

0
No. Ping DL UL
1 26 32.99 17.27
2 26 32.08 15.18
3 23 39.85 16.62
Avg. 24.5 32.08 16.36

True LTE Speed test (iPhone5)

Cell PCI Average SINR Average RSRP

58 9.15 dB -68.24 dBm
173 13.22 dB -72.84 dBm

Test Location

RF Coverage is very good, but the test location is at the overlapping area
between two sectors, the coverage of these two sectors are quite close.
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 Case 2: Poor Throughput due to Transmission

Ping Test has “Time out”

Speed Test Result

• Speedtest throughput is quite low;
• Packet Loss during Ping FTP Server;
• Wireshark packets capture shows lots of NA
CK (packet loss).
“NACK” of TCP/IP Packet

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Case 3- Throughput due to Interim Transmission
• Throughput of interim transmission is much less than normal transmis
sion.

S1 Throughput (mbps) S2 Throughput (mbps) S3 Throughput (mbps)

Transmission
Average Peak Average Peak Average Peak
Interim 39.2 46.9 38.1 48.6 39.8 47.3

Normal 48.8 57 67.2 70.7 66.4 70.3

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 Thank You

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