ABSTRACT
he thesis involves the evaluation and selection of appropriate Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) to improve network performance. This thesis studies the key
performance indicators of M-tel Network, (Area VI Kaduna), the Base Station
Controller (BSC) is considered with particular emphasis on peak period by
processing and analyzing the Network KPIs recorded. In network improvement it
is exceptionally important to determine what the critical system metrics are or key
factors that need to be monitored to determine what is simply the quality to meet
or if possible exceed the expectations of the subscribers. The data on the network
has been analyzed which revealed that, the network was found to be prone to
down time as a result of over reliance on Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL)
transmission. The implication of the results show gradual decline in subscriber
base, frequent call drops and handover failure as a result of frequent power
outage. Appropriate suggestions necessary to improve the Network for optimal
performance were discussed and recommendation made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE………………….…………………………………….
CERTIFICATION ……………………………………………… i
DECLARATION………………………………………………… ii
DEDICATION…………………………………………………… iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………… iv
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………… v
TABLE OF CONTENT…………………………………………… vi
LIST OF FIGURE…………………………………………………….. x
LIST OF TABLE………………………………………………………. xi
LIST OF ABBREVATION……………………………………………. xii
LIST OF APPENDICES …………………………………………….. xiii
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………… 1
1.2 Thesis Motivation………………………………………………… 2
1.3 Literature Review……………………………………………..… 2
1.4 Problem definition and Methodology……………………..……. 5
1.5 Thesis Outline……………………………………………………. 5
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CHAPTER TWO
M-TEL NETWORK STRUCTURE
2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………… 6
2.2 Transit Mobile Switch Centre (TMC/STP connection……………… 7
2.3 Home Location Register (HLR)…………………………………… 8
2.4 Short Message Centre (SMS)…………………………………….… 8
2.5 Voice Mail Service (VMS)………………………………………… 9
2.6 Transmission Link…………….. …………………………………. 10
2.7 GSM Network Components and Functions…………………….… 11
2.7.1 The Network and Switching Sub system (NSS)………………… 11
2.7.2 The Mobile Switching Centre (MSC)…………………………… 11
2.7.3 The Gateway Mobile Service Centre (GMSC) ………………… 12
2.7.4 The Visitor Location Register (VLR)….……………………… 12
2.7.5 The Authentication Centre (AuC) …………………………… 12
2.7.6 The Equipment Identity register (EiR) …………………… 12
2.7.7 The GSM Interworking Unit (GIWU) ……………………… 13
2.7.8 The Operation and Support Subsystem (OSS) ………………… 13
2.7.9 The Base Station Subsystem (BSS) …………………………. 13
2.7.10 The Base Transceiver station (BTS) …………………………. 13
2.7.11 The Base Station Controller (BSC) …………………………… 14
2.7.12 The Mobile Station (MS) ……………………………………… 14
2.7.13 The Terminal…………………………………………………… 14
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2.7.14 The Sim …………………………………………………… 15
CHAPTER THREE
QUALITY OF SERVICE IMPROVEMENT
3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………. 16
3.2 Process of Network improvement ……………………………… 16
3.3 Tools Used in Network improvement …………………………. 18
3.3.1 Advance network tester………………………………………. 18
3.3.2 Geological Positioning System (GPS)………………………… 18
3.3.3 Signaling Analyzer …………………………………………… 18
3.3.4 Traffic Statistical data………………………………………… 19
3.4 Coverage……………………………………………………… 19
3.4.1 Blind zone for signal ………………………………………… 19
3.4.2 Traffic Congestion …………………………………………… 20
3.4.3 Traffic Balance ……………………………………………… 20
3.5 Interference ………………………………………………… 21
3.6 Operation and Maintenance Centre and Radio (OMCR) …….. 21
3.6.1 Configuration management ………………………………… 21
3.6.2 Performance management ……………………………………. 21
3.6.3 Performance management objective ……………………….. 22
3.6.4 Fault Management ………………………………………….. 23
3.6.5 Main Features of fault management ………………………… 24
3.6.6 Security management …………………………………… 24
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3.6.7 System Features ………………………………………..…… 25
CHAPTER FOUR
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPI)
4.1 Introduction ……………………………………………….. 26
4.2 Call Statistical Index …………………………….…………… 26
4.3 Call Drop …………………………………………………… 27
4.3.1 Factors leading to call drop ……………………………………… 28
4.3.2 Call drop due to handover ……………………………………… 29
4.3.3 Call drop due to Transmission Fault ………………………….. 29
4.4 TCH Congestion rate ……………………………………………. 29
4.5 SDCCH in service rate …………………………………………. 30
4.6 Handover Success rate …………………………………………. 30
4.7 Busy hour traffic ……………………………………………… 30
4.8 Grade of service ……………………………………………….. 30
4.9 Traffic ………………………………………………………… 31
CHAPTER FIVE
DATA ANALYSIS
5.0 Introduction ………………………………………………… …. 32
5.1 M-tel Area VI Kaduna …………………………………………… 32
5.2 Frequency used …………………………………………………… 32
5.3.1 Traffic channel …………………………………………….….. 33
5.3.2 Control channel ………………………………………………. 33
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5.3.3 Common Control channel …………………………………….. 34
5.3.4 Dedicated Control channel ……………………………………… 34
5.4 Channel combination ……………………………………………. 34
5.4.1 Arrangement of channel in the cell ……………………………… 35
5.4.2 Data processing and reliability ………………………………… 36
5.4.3 Presentation of results …………………………………………… 37
5.5.1 SDCCH in service rate (March- August 2006) …………….…… 37
5.5.2 SDCCH in congestion rate (March – August 2006) ……………. 38
5.5.3 Handover Success rate (March- August 2006) ………………… 39
5.5.4 Call Success rate (March- August 2006) …………………… 40
5.5.5 Call drop rate (March – August 2006 ……………………… 40
5.5.6 Traffic in Erlang (March – August 2006) ……………………. 40
5.6 Comment on the Data obtained …………………………..…….. 50
CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUTION
6.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………… 52
6.2 Summary of result… ………………………………………………. 52
6.3 Significance of Work……….……………………………………….. 53
6.4 Limitations…………………………………………………………… 53
6.5 Conclusion……… ………………………………………………… 54
6.6 Recommendations …………………………………………………… 55
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REFERENCES ……………………………………………………… 56
APPENDIX A KPIs FOR MARCH…………………………………… 59
APPENDIX B KPIS FOR APRIL …………………………………….. 60
APPENDIX C KPIs FOR MAY ……………………………………… 61
APPENDIX D KPIs FOR JUNE ……………………………………… 62
APPENDIX E KPIS FOR JULY ………………………………………. 63
APPENDIX F KPIS FOR AUGUST ………………………………….. 64
APPENDIX G SDCCH INSERVICE RATE DATA…………………… 65
APPENDIX H SDCCH CONGESTION DATA ……………………… 66
APPENDIX I HANDOVER SUCCESS RATE DATA……………….. 67
APPENDIX J DUAL BAND HANDOVER DATA …………………. 68
APPENDIX K CALL SUCCESS RATE DATA ……………………… 69
APPENDIX L RADIO SWITCH RATE DATA ……………………… 70
APPENDIX M CALL DROP RATE DATA ………………………….. 71
APPENDIX N TCH IN SERVICE RATE DATA …………………….. 72
APPENDIX O TRAFFIC IN ERLANG DATA ……………………… 73
APPENDIX P KPIs BENCH MARKS………………………………… 74
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
When Nigeria gained her independence in 1960, there were only 18,724 functional
telephone lines for an estimated population of 45 million which was a teledensity ratio
of 0.04 telephones per 100 people. According to the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU), by 1966, Nigeria teledensity ratio was a mere 0.36 and 0.4 by (1999).
According to the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Nigeria’s teledensity is
a far cry from the African average of 1.67. However, with the liberalization of the
telecommunication industry in Nigeria the story changed dramatically with the
teledensity ratio tripling within just one year of Global System for Mobile
Telecommunication (GSM) operation. By May 2005 Nigeria with an estimated
population of over 120 million had more than 9 million Global System for Mobile
Communication (GSM) subscribers, making the country one of the fastest growing
GSM market, in the World. At the moment, there are about 40 million subscribers with
just four fully functional GSM operators in Nigeria; Mobile Telecommunication
Network (MTN), Celtel, Glo mobile telecommunication and Mobile
Telecommunication (M-tel) while others like Mubaddalah and Alheri have recently
been given licenses to start operations. Four years after the start of the GSM era in
Nigeria, the focus is gradually shifting from providing coverage to providing quality
service. The euphoria of owning a phone set is gradually giving way to complaints of
dropped calls and congestion. The operators are fast realizing that they are in a highly
competitive environment, where dissatisfaction by subscribers may give rise to high rate
of subscriber reduction and low revenue for the operator. The performance of the
network has a direct impact on the revenue. The Nigerian Communication Commission
(NCC) is bringing pressure on the operators to step up the quality of service offered to
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Nigerians and had even gone a step further to award contracts to a private company to
conduct comparative analysis of the quality of service of each operator. To attract,
maintain and move subscribers to high- value services, while providing quality service
will require monitoring and quality assurance with a view to improving the Network.
The network statistics captured in the Operation and Maintenance Centre (OMC) in the
M-tel (Area VI Kaduna) are monitored and analyzed. This thesis is aimed at describing
how M-tel network performs taking the key performance indicators of the Base Station
Controller (BSC), by analyzing the network and finding where and why the network is
having low quality service, and suggests ways to help overcome the problems.
1.2 THESIS MOTIVATION
The Mobile Telecommunication (M-tel) is considered the least among the mobile
operators in terms of service quality and coverage. This fact has given the challenge as a
subscriber and telecommunication industry practitioner to carry out this study, The
project work is aimed at dealing with the M-tel network malfunction, network data
analysis and suggest appropriate corrective measures to be taken in order to improve the
performance of the network.
1.3 LITERATURE REVIEW
Data communication began with Samuel Morse, who in 1844 invented and pioneered
the telegraph, which uses Morse code consisting of interweaving dots and dashes as its
method for delivering communication over vast distances. A very condensed time line
of major milestone for communication industry is provided below even though there are
numerous other milestone of equal importance for communication but this list represent
shifts in thinking,
1844 – Samuel Morse invents the Telegraph
1876 – Alexander Bell invents the Telephone
1901 – Guglielmo Marconi sends Morse code using a radio
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1931 – First United State (U.S.) Television Transmission takes place
1946 – AT & T offers mobile phone services
1953 – First Microwave network installed
1977 – Bell Lab transmits TV signals on optical fibers
1983 – Cellular Communication fosters another communication revolution [1].
The first generation mobile communication: Analog cellular mobile communication
which features:
1) Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
2) Analog Signal
3) Narrow band
The second generation mobile communication: Digital cellular mobile communication
which features:
• Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
• Digital Signal
• Narrow band
The third generation mobile communication: IMT 2000 (3G)
1) Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
2) Digital Signal
3) Broad band where 2000 means frequency is 2000MHz
Mobile communication has been the foremost fast growing technology of 21st Century;
it has been only 25 years that full duplex analog mobile service was introduced while
commercial launch of digital mobile service is not more than 14 years. After the
success of analog cellular system, many incompatible mobile systems were developed
in Europe, Japan and North America. because in the beginning of cellular systems, each
country developed its own system, which was an undesirable situation for the following
reasons:
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• The equipment was limited to operate only within the boundaries of each country.
• The market for each mobile equipment was limited.
In order to overcome these problems, the Conference of European Posts and
Telecommunications (CEPT) formed, in 1982, the Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSM) in
order to develop a pan-European mobile cellular radio system (the GSM acronym
became later the acronym for Global System for Mobile communications). The
standardized system had to meet certain criteria [1].
• Spectrum efficiency
• International roaming
• Low mobile and base stations costs
• Good subjective voice quality
• Compatibility with other systems such as (Integrated Services Digital Network)
ISDN.
• Ability to support new services, unlike the existing cellular systems, which were
developed using analog technology, the GSM system was developed using digital
technology [2].
In 1989 the responsibility for the GSM specifications passed from the CEPT to the
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The aim of the GSM
specifications is to describe the functionality and the interface for each component of
the system, and to provide guidance on the design of the system. These specifications
will then standardize the system in order to guarantee the proper interworking between
the different elements of the GSM system. Network quality depends upon a number of
factors such as radio resources, radio networking planning, network equipments,
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transmission links, network congestion, landscape, equipment environment, and fault
clearance period. Some of these factors such as radio resources and landscape are
limited and natural that they can not be altered by any methods while others can be
maintained by better network management. Radio performance improvement plays a
vital role in GSM network quality [1].
1.4 PROBLEM DEFINITION AND METHODOLOGY
It is to examine the various key performance indices (KPIs), obtained from the
operation and maintenance centre and radio and other base station subsystem, as they
affect the quality and delivery of services in the MTEL network.
The following improvement procedure is involved in the study; Network data collection
via Operation and Maintenance Centre for radio resources (OMCR), Network
parameters evaluation, Network adjustment solution, suggestion and recommendations
1.5 THESIS OUTLINE
Chapter one is the Introduction, thesis motivation, methodology and literature review.
Chapter two is the description of M-tel network structure. Chapter three is the
theoretical background describing the basic concept of Quality of service improvement.
Chapter four describes the Operation and maintenance Centre (OMC) in the Kaduna Mtel
network. Chapter five is the analysis of the key performance indicators (KPIs)
parameters; while Chapter six is the conclusion, limitation, significance of the work
and recommendation.
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