This document provides definitions and explanations of various parameters that can be observed during drive testing of a mobile network, including: - Current Channel parameters like cell identity, frequency bands, channel type, and ciphering algorithm. - Radio Parameters like signal strength, quality, error rates, timing advance, and power control levels. - Serving and Neighbor cell parameters like frequencies, identities, signal levels, and cell selection criteria for idle and packet modes. The document defines each parameter in detail to clarify what they represent and how they impact network performance and quality. It aims to help readers understand the important parameters observed during drive testing and network optimization.

1. TEMS PARAMETERS
(Speech)
SABYASACHI JENA
RF Engineer
MobileComm, Gorgaon

2.  On completion of the module one should be clear about the
parameters required during drive test what does it mean and
how much it is important.
 Parameters regarding in windows like :
 a) Current Channel
b) Radio parameters
c) Serving + Neighbors
Module ObjectivesModule Objectives

3. Current Channel
 Definitions:
1. Time: It is system time of computer.
2. Cell name: It displays the name of
the sector which is serving according
to the cellfile that is loaded in TEMS.
3. CGI : It stands for the Cell Global
Identity which is unique for every
sector of the site. It consists of
MCC,MNC,LAC,CI.
MCC: Mobile Country Code 0 – 999
(e.g. 404 in India), MNC: Mobile
Network Code 0 – 99 (e.g. 98 for
Airtel in Gujarat) LAC : Location
Area Code 0 -65535 (e.g. 5101 in
Gujarat) CI: Cell Identity 0 – 65535
(e.g. 11001)

4. Current Channel
• Cell GPRS Support: Tells sector is
having GPRS or not. Values are Yes or No
.
• Band : It tells in which Freq. Band mobile
is operating e.g. GSM 900/ 1800.
• BCCH ARFCN: It tells by which BCCH
is the mobile station getting served.
• TCH ARFCN: On which Traffic Freq. call
is going on.
• BSIC (Base Station Identity Code) : It is
combination of Network Color Code
(NCC) (0 – 7) & Base Station Color Code
(BCC) (0 – 7). e.g. 62. It is decoded by
mobile on every Sync. Channel Message.
• Mode: It is shows in which state is mobile
operating, Idle, Dedicated & Packet.
• Time slot: On which time slot of current
TCH call is going on. Viz. time slot no. of
TRX.

5. Current Channel
• Channel Type: Type of channel mobile is
getting now. Like BCCH / SDCCH/8 +
SACCH/C8 or CBCH / TCH/F
+FACCH/F +SACCH/F.
• Channel Mode : Shows mode of coding
like Speech Full Rate of Half Rate.
• Speech Codec: It shows FR for Full Rate,
HR for Half Rate & EFR for Enhanced
Full Rate.
• Ciphering Algorithm : It shows ciphering
algorithm used by the system to protect
data for privacy. E.g. Cipher by A5/2.
• Sub Channel Number: It is displayed at
a time when mobile is on dedicated mode
at time of call setup when it is getting
SDCCH at that time it shows which
SDCCH it is getting out of 8 available.
E.g. 2.

6. Current Channel
• Hopping Channel : It shows that current
sector is having hopping feature or not.
Values are Yes or No.
• Hopping Frequencies : It displays no. of
freq. on which mobile is allowed to hop.
viz. MA List for hopping of that sector.
• Mobile Allocation Index Offset (MAIO):
It is the number which tells from which
freq. from given MA list for sector
hopping has to be started. E.g. 0 means
sector will start from first freq. to hop.
• Hopping Sequence Number (HSN) :
Indicates sequence in which frequencies
are allowed to hop from the MA List. 0-
63. 0 for Cyclic Hopping, 1 – 63 random
hopping sequences.

7. Intentionally Blank

8. Radio Parameters
• RxLev : Receiving level in terms of dBm
that mobile is receiving from the site.
Range of -30 dBm to -110dBm.
• RxQual : Quality of voice which is
measured on basis of BER. Range of
RxQual 0 -7.
• FER : Frame Erasure Rate it represents the
percentage of frames being dropped due to
high number of non-corrected bit errors in
the frame. It is indication of voice quality
in network.
• BER Actual : Ratio of the number of bit
errors to the total number of bits
transmitted in a given time interval. BER
is a measure for the voice quality in
network.. Depending on BER RxQual is
measured. E,g, BER 0 to 0.2 %
corresponds to RxQual 0. Max. BER
countable and useful is up to 12.8 % which
corresponds to RxQual of max. 7.

9. Radio Parameters
• SQI : SQI is a more sophisticated measure
which is dedicated to reflecting the quality
of the speech (as opposed to radio
environment conditions). This means that
when optimizing the speech quality in
your network, SQI is the best criterion to
use. SQI is updated at 0.5 s intervals. It is
computed on basis of BER and FER. For
EFR 30, FR – 21 & HR – 17 are
respectively ideal values.
• C/I : The carrier-over-interference ratio is
the ratio between the signal strength of the
current serving cell and the signal strength
of undesired (interfering) signal
components. It should be at least > 9 .
• MS Power Control Level : Displays
range of power control from 0 to 8
depending upon network design. E.g. 0
means no power control and 1 means level
that is defined by operator viz. 2 dBm less
acc.

10. Radio Parameters
• DTX : Discontinuous transmission (DTX)
is a mechanism allowing the radio
transmitter to be switched off during
speech pauses. This feature reduces the
power consumption of the transmitter,
which is important for MSs, and decreases
the overall interference level on the radio
channels affecting the capacity of the
network..
• TA : Value that the base station calculates
from access bursts and sends to the mobile
station (MS) enabling the MS to advance
the timing of its transmissions to the BS so
as to compensate for propagation delay.
Value of 0 means MS in radius of 550mt.
From BS.

11. Radio Parameters
• RL Timeout Counter (Cur) : This
parameter define the maximum value of
the radio link counter expressed in
SACCH blocks. Range of 4 – 64 in step
size of 4. it shows current value of RLT.
Decrease by 1 but increase by 2. When it
reaches zero it results in normal DROP
Call.
• RL Timeout Counter (MAX) : This
parameter define the maximum value of
the radio link counter expressed in
SACCH blocks. Range of 4 – 64 in step
size of 4. it shows current value of RLT.
Normally 16, 20, 24.
• MS Behavior Modified : This window
shows current settings for the mobile
station, for instance whether handover is
disabled or multiband reporting enabled.

12. Intentionally Blank

13. Serving + Neighbor
 Cell Name : Name that describes the neighboring cell as per the cell file.
 ARFCN : Channel number mobile receives as neighbor.
 BSIC : BSIC of the neighboring cell.
 RxLev : Receiving Level in dBm of neighboring cell.
 C1 & C2 : These are the cell path loss criterion and cell reselection criteria. Valid during idle mode
of mobile station.
 C31 & C32 : GPRS signal strength threshold criterion C31 and GPRS cell ranking criterion C32.
Valid both in packet idle and packet dedicated mode.

14. Example

15. Example showing every window