Actix Switch Adaptor User Guide 3_1_6

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Version 3.1.6

Switch Adaptor User Guide

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The content of this manual is provided for information only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Actix. Actix assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that appear in this documentation.

Copyright © Actix 2009. All rights reserved. All trademarks are hereby acknowledged.

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Contents

1 SWITCH ADAPTOR ....................................................................................... 6

1.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 6 1.2 PROCESSES..................................................................................................... 6

1.2.1 Actix Switch Adaptor ............................................................................... 6 1.2.2 Inside Cellopt AFP .................................................................................. 6

2 THE USER INTERFACE ................................................................................... 7

2.1 ABOUT THE USER INTERFACE ................................................................................ 7

3 CREATING A PROJECT AND IMPORTING OMC DATA ................................................. 9

3.1 ABOUT IMPORTING OMC DATA.............................................................................. 9 3.2 IMPORT NETWORK DATA ..................................................................................... 9 3.3 STEP 1 – CREATE PROJECT ................................................................................ 10

3.3.1 Scope of Network data .......................................................................... 13 3.3.2 Unsupported vendors and versions ......................................................... 14

3.4 STEP 2 – IMPORT ADDITIONAL DATA ..................................................................... 15 3.4.1 Sector Mapping .................................................................................... 15 3.4.2 Site location data ................................................................................. 16 3.4.3 Sector configuration data ...................................................................... 16 3.4.4 Sector traffic data ................................................................................ 17 3.4.5 Handover data ..................................................................................... 17

3.5 CREATE THE PROJECT ....................................................................................... 17 3.6 MULTI VENDOR AND MULTI OMC PROJECT ............................................................... 18

4 OPEN, CLOSE AND DELETE PROJECTS ............................................................... 19

4.1 OPENING A PROJECT ........................................................................................ 19 4.2 CLOSING A PROJECT ......................................................................................... 19 4.3 DELETING A PROJECT ....................................................................................... 19

5 THE MODEL SECTION ................................................................................. 20

5.1 ABOUT THE MODEL SECTION ............................................................................... 20 5.1.1 Information panel ................................................................................. 21 5.1.2 Action panel ........................................................................................ 22

5.2 STEP 1 – SELECT SECTORS ................................................................................ 23 5.2.1 Sectors tab .......................................................................................... 23 5.2.2 OMCs tab ............................................................................................ 27 5.2.3 BSCs tab ............................................................................................. 29 5.2.4 Neighbors tab ...................................................................................... 29

5.3 STEP 2 – DEFINE TIME ..................................................................................... 30 5.4 STEP 3 – MODEL NEIGHBORS ............................................................................. 32

5.4.1 Neighbor Refinement ............................................................................ 33 5.4.2 More about Neighbor rotation ................................................................ 34

5.5 STEP 4 – MODEL INTERFERERS ........................................................................... 35 5.5.1 Settings .............................................................................................. 36 5.5.2 Common distance ................................................................................. 39 5.5.3 Common time slot – Autoset Distances ................................................... 39 5.5.4 Results of the Autoset function ............................................................... 41

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6 THE EXPORT SECTION ................................................................................ 43

6.1 ABOUT THE EXPORT SECTION .............................................................................. 43 6.2 EXPORT PROJECT ............................................................................................ 44 6.3 EXPORT SCHEDULE .......................................................................................... 45 6.4 EXPORT CELLOPT AFP PROJECT ........................................................................... 46 6.5 EXPORT NETWORK .......................................................................................... 47

7 PROCESSING RESULTS ................................................................................ 48

7.1 IMPORTING MEASUREMENT DATA ......................................................................... 48 7.1.1 Select Measurement Data Type .............................................................. 49 7.1.2 Resolve signal sources .......................................................................... 49 7.1.3 Filter ................................................................................................... 49 7.1.4 Find Signal Sources .............................................................................. 50 7.1.5 Resolve Signal Sources ......................................................................... 50 7.1.6 Select files to import ............................................................................. 52 7.1.7 Measurement Packages Summary .......................................................... 53 7.1.8 View Log and Summary ........................................................................ 54

7.2 REVISING THE SCHEDULE ................................................................................... 55 7.3 IMPORTING FREQUENCY PLANS ............................................................................ 55 7.4 EXPORTING FREQUENCY PLANS ............................................................................ 56

8 VENDOR-SPECIFIC OMC DATA ...................................................................... 57

8.1 ALCATEL OMC DATA ........................................................................................ 57 8.1.1 How to get OMC data ............................................................................ 57 8.1.2 File formats ......................................................................................... 57 8.1.3 Neighbor rotation technique................................................................... 58 8.1.4 Disabling real neighbors ........................................................................ 59 8.1.5 Schedule output and the result .............................................................. 59 8.1.6 Enabling RMS measurements ................................................................. 60

8.2 ERICSSON OMC DATA ...................................................................................... 60 8.2.1 The OMC data ...................................................................................... 60 8.2.2 Neighbor rotation technique................................................................... 60 8.2.3 Disabling real neighbors ........................................................................ 60 8.2.4 Schedule output and the result .............................................................. 60 8.2.5 Enabling BAR measurements ................................................................. 61 8.2.6 Enabling NCS measurements ................................................................. 61

8.3 HUAWEI OMC DATA ........................................................................................ 61 8.4 MOTOROLA OMC DATA ..................................................................................... 61

8.4.1 How to get OMC data ............................................................................ 61 8.4.2 File formats ......................................................................................... 62 8.4.3 Neighbor rotation technique................................................................... 62 8.4.4 Setting up and storing measurements ..................................................... 62 8.4.5 Disabling real neighbors ........................................................................ 64 8.4.6 Schedule output and the result .............................................................. 65

8.5 NOKIA OMC DATA .......................................................................................... 65 8.5.1 How to get OMC data ............................................................................ 65 8.5.2 File formats ......................................................................................... 66 8.5.3 Neighbor rotation technique................................................................... 66 8.5.4 Disabling real neighbors ........................................................................ 68 8.5.5 Schedule output and the result .............................................................. 68

8.6 NORTEL OMC DATA ......................................................................................... 69 8.6.1 How to get OMC data ............................................................................ 69

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8.6.2 File formats ......................................................................................... 69 8.6.3 Process overview .................................................................................. 70 8.6.4 Neighbor rotation technique................................................................... 72 8.6.5 Schedule output and the result .............................................................. 73

8.7 SIEMENS OMC DATA ........................................................................................ 75 8.7.1 How to get OMC data ............................................................................ 75 8.7.2 File formats ......................................................................................... 75 8.7.3 Neighbor rotation technique................................................................... 75 8.7.4 Disabling real neighbors ........................................................................ 77 8.7.5 Schedule output and the result .............................................................. 78

8.8 ZTE OMC DATA ............................................................................................. 79

9 SUPPORTED VENDOR FORMATS ..................................................................... 80

9.1 OMC INPUT FORMATS ...................................................................................... 80

10 CELLOPT ACTIX SWITCH ADAPTER INSTALLATION .............................................. 81

10.1 INSTALLATION ON A CITRIX SERVER .................................................................... 85 10.1.1 Cellopt AFP Licensing Model for Citrix .................................................... 86

10.2 UNINSTALLING CELLOPT ASA ............................................................................ 86

11 CELLOPT LICENSING ................................................................................. 87

11.1 LICENSE MODELS .......................................................................................... 87 11.2 FIRST ACTIVATION ......................................................................................... 87 11.3 RE-ACTIVATION ............................................................................................ 88 11.4 MANAGEMENT TOOLS ..................................................................................... 89

12 INDEX ................................................................................................. 90

User Guide Switch Adaptor 6

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1 Switch Adaptor

1.1 Introduction Actix Switch Adaptor is an application that allows you to collect measured data and to create Cellopt AFP projects. The application uses OMC data files as input and from this returns data collection scripts and a Cellopt AFP project.

1.2 Processes There are two separate processes within Cellopt measured data analysis (MDA). The first, Actix Switch Adaptor, helps in the collection of measured data from OMCs and in producing

Cellopt AFP projects. This is a standalone application and can be run independently of

Cellopt AFP. The second is an integrated application within Cellopt AFP that can produce interference matrices from existing measured data and various pre- and post-analysis tools. Below, both processes are given a high-level overview.

1.2.1 Actix Switch Adaptor

Actix Switch Adaptor is an application designed to allow measured data collection from OMCs and to reuse this data to create Cellopt AFP projects. Measured data collection from OMCs is often a complex process, where the right commands must be run on the OMC in order to receive the measurements. Actix Switch Adaptor creates a data collection schedule that does this. In addition, the accurate network information from the OMC is

used to create an equally accurate Cellopt AFP project.

The first step is to select the OMC dump files that are used to create an Actix Switch Adaptor project. Only when you have selected files that contain all the required data does the application allow you to create the project.

The next step is to select which sectors will be measured, and how extensively. This can be increased or reduced by an interference distance threshold that controls which potential interferers will be included in the data collection. Full or long neighbor lists can be

temporarily reduced to speed up the data collection. Each sector has an active BCCH list (BA list) that defines the frequencies that will be measured in the sector‘s serving area. Actix Switch Adaptor modifies this BA list by adding to the sector ‗dummy‘ neighbors (which have associated dummy frequencies). If the neighbor list is long, then only a few non-neighbor frequencies can be measured, and the measurement time will be long.

The last step is to export the data schedule, which is now ready to be run on the OMC. The schedule normally spans a few days, so a set of OMC scripts are prepared for each day.

The Cellopt AFP project can be exported at any time, so Actix Switch Adaptor can be used for both data collection and project creation.

1.2.2 Inside Cellopt AFP

This part of Cellopt MDA is embedded in the Cellopt AFP process, to allow measured data

to be used easily in the frequency planning process.

For more information, see the Cellopt MDA User Guide.

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide The User Interface 7

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2 The User Interface

2.1 About the User Interface The Actix Switch Adaptor user interface contains a display section that takes up the upper half of the application screen. This section, the information panel, uses several tabs to display the current information.

Figure 2.1 - Actix Switch Adaptor

The left hand panel displays the main types of actions that can be performed in the

application: for example Import, Model and Export.

The main sections of the application also have a number of subsections. Each subsection listed on the left under the main heading has a different action panel and a default tab that is shown in the information panel.

Note that changing a tab in the information panel does not

change the current section.

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide The User Interface 8

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The sections in the left panel of Actix Switch Adaptor can be grouped into the following categories:

Start – This is the only visible option before a project is created or opened. When

creating a new project, a set of required data needs to be available in order to create the project. Actix Switch Adaptor automatically checks if this prerequisite is fulfilled, and tells you what is missing.

Import – Allows additional network data and measurement data to be imported into the project.

Model - Gives an overview of the project and allows the user to define the data collection times and what sectors will be measured.

Action – Here is the data collection updated based on the current settings.

Export – This section allows you to export the data schedule, frequency plans, network data and to create a Cellopt AFP project.

Right clicking on the left hand panel displays a popup menu, allowing you to display information about the application, display licensing information, close the current project

or exit the application.

Figure 2.2 – Right click on the left panel to show a popup menu

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide Creating a project and importing OMC data 9

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3 Creating a project and importing OMC data

3.1 About Importing OMC Data Actix Switch Adaptor is an application that needs file dumps from the OMC in order to work. It is possible to complement the information given from the OMC, but there is always a set of required data that needs to exist before a project can be created and used.

The actual files required will vary depending on the OMC vendor or vendors used.

When a project is created, it is stored so that it can be reopened next time. At any time, it is possible to import complementary information to a project.

3.2 Import Network Data The Import Data section is designed so it is always easy to see what data is available, and which files have been imported into the project. A file list at the top of the screen shows which files will be imported, and a simple data chart shows the data that is available in the selected files.

Some files contain data that require the presence of other data before they can be

imported. Actix Switch Adaptor makes it easy to see the required data by displaying actions for each added file. The action indicates what needs to be done, and in some cases can try to perform the action automatically if preferred by the user.

Figure 3.1 - Actix Switch Adaptor shows how a specified file matches the project data requirements


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3.3 Step 1 – Create Project The first step when using Actix Switch Adaptor is to create a new project.

Figure 3.2 - Actix Switch Adaptor – initial page

Click the New Project button to go to the Import section, where the project is created.


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Figure 3.3 - Loading data for a new project

Use the Add button to specify files for use with this project. Depending on the OMC

vendor, you will need to add a particular set of files:

OMC Vendor Files Purpose

Alcatel Adjacency.csv Contains neighbor information for all included BSCs.

Cell.csv Contains cell site information for all included BSCs.

ExternalOMCCell.csv Contains information on sectors outside the OMC.

RnlBasebandTransceiver.csv Contains radio and MAIO (hopping) information for all

included BSCs.

RnlFrequencyHoppingSystem.csv Contains mobile allocation (MAL) information for hopping on the

network.


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Table 3.1 – OMC vendor files

When a file is added, Actix Switch Adaptor does not import it directly, instead it checks if all the required data is available for the import. When some required data is missing then

the affected file is marked red.

For each set the application asks the user for the OMC name or number (depends on the users preference) for that data set.

As files are added, they are shown in the top list and the contained data is shown in the bottom section.

Ericsson CNA Contains all internal and external cell definitions as well as neighbor definitions.

Huawei Please refer to section 8.3 Huawei

OMC data.

Nokia ZEAO_* Contains neighbor information for a particular BSC.

ZEQO_* Contains network information for a particular BSC.

Nortel anetwork_bts.*, format_bts.* Contains network information for a particular OMC.

anetwork_adjcho.*, format_adjcho.*

Contains neighbor information for a particular OMC.

Motorola general.out Contains cell information.

neigh.out Contains neighbor list.

Siemens *.dba Contains all neighbor and network information for a particular BSC.

ZTE Please refer to section 8.8 ZTE OMC data.

Generic Cellopt 3 XML file generated by other Actix desktop software.

Contains additional data including site location, antenna configuration, handover statistics,

etc.

Cellopt 2 tab delimited text files.

See the document CellOpt2FileInterface_rev#.pdf in the doc subfolder underneath the installation directory.

Contains additional data including

site location, antenna configuration, handover statistics, etc.


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Figure 3.4 - Unsupported data files or incomplete data sets are shown in red

In the example above, data from several OMC-s and several vendors have been added. Some files are recognized but the data set is not complete and therefore marked red. The OMC names are a user input and it is possible to set the BSC names by hand if not recognized by Actix Switch Adaptor.

Click Remove to remove a file from the list.

When all required data is available, the Create button becomes enabled, and it is now possible to create a project.

3.3.1 Scope of Network data

When imploring measured data it is important to have a complete network in ASA. The network should not only include the measured area but also a quite large buffer area.

This can be achieved by importing the surrounding BSC or OMC information.


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Figure 3.5 – Showing a retune area (BSC 1) and surrounding area (BSC 2, 3 and 4)

If the entire BSC 1 is to be retuned in the picture above then it is important to also include the surrounding BSC-s as well into the ASA project. In this case, this is BSC 2, BSC 3 and BSC 4.

3.3.2 Unsupported vendors and versions

Although ASA is supporting multi vendors, the situation can arise when the current version or vendor is not supported or licensed. In this case it is still possible to create the surrounding network in ASA.

This is supported by Cellopt3 xml format, a project can be created in Cellopt AFP manually and then exported in Cellopt3 xml format. When this file is selected in the ASA import the

user must tell ASA explicitly that this file is a Cellopt AFP 3 project.

Figure 3.6 – Selecting AFP 3 Project in order to manually create sectors in ASA

The picture above shows how the format is selected.

This import will create sectors if they do not exist in ASA. Of course the CellOpt AFP project does not contain all the needed information for collecting data on these sectors.

However the existence of them will make the signal source resolution more reliable when importing measured data.


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3.4 Step 2 – Import additional data If you are not already in the Import section or in project creation, click Network Data under the Import section. This uses the same view as project creation.

Add the additional Cellopt 2 or Cellopt 3 format data, using the method described in Step 1. In the example below, Cellopt 2 format files have been added to a list of Alcatel OMC data:

Figure 3.7 – Additional data

Note that all required data is now available and the Create button is now enabled.

Data can be updated in the project by importing a file with the updated information. If this information was not available earlier in the project, then it is stored. If it was available, then the data is updated.

Note that if importing additional data separately after a project is created, any dump files that have already been imported must be reloaded. This is handled automatically by the

process. The reason for reloading the dumps is that Actix Switch Adaptor maps everything together but does not keep track of what could not be mapped previously. As new data

becomes available, the process must remap to the dump files again.

3.4.1 Sector Mapping

Because sector names in the OMC normally do not match the sector names used by the engineers (Nokia does include this information in its OMC data files), an important link is to the Sector Display Name information. This is simply an alias map file between the Cell Global Identity and the preferred sector name that should be displayed.


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The file format syntax is:

CELLGLID<tab><Site><tab><sector><tab><cell name>

The file must start with a header ‗CELLOPT SECTOR MAP‘.

Figure 3.8 - Display name mapping to Cell Global Identity

The Cell Global identity is used for this mapping purpose because it resides in all OMC systems. Any other additional data that is imported will need this mapping to be present

since the data will refer to the mapped names.

3.4.2 Site location data

Site location data is used in Actix Switch Adaptor to determine which BCCH frequencies should be measured for a sector. All specified BCCH frequencies within the distance

threshold for the sector will be measured. However, this information is not required, so whenever a distance between two sectors cannot be determined due to missing location data, the two are considered to be co-located.

The format for used for this is Cellopt 2 format with the iSITE message or the Cellopt 3 format. For more information, see the Cellopt 2 format document in the <installation dir>/doc directory.

We strongly recommend that all sectors imported into Actix Switch Adaptor should also be

complemented with site locations. There are three reasons for this:

The data collection schedule time will be shorter because there will be no co-located sectors. Hence, the only measured BCCH frequencies will be those that are truly within the distance threshold specified.

Actix Switch Adaptor will be able to import measured data, as it can then correctly determine signal sources during import.

When exporting the project into Cellopt AFP format the site data will follow, so the Cellopt AFP project will be more complete.

3.4.3 Sector configuration data

This data refers to sector azimuth, sector beamwidth, sector height, sector tilt and antenna type. The most important parameters here are the sector azimuth and beamwidth. Actix

Switch Adaptor uses these parameters in the Autoset function to determine for which sectors BCCH frequency should be measured. In this case, not only the distance is taken

into account but also the azimuth and beamwidth, to see where a particular sector has its coverage area. Sometimes a sector will be located further away than other sectors not included in the measurement, but which points towards the measured sector, so it is located within the beamwidth. This foreign sector will be included in the measurement despite the long distance. However, no sectors will be included that are located further away than the specified distance threshold for the sector.


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The format used for this is Cellopt 2 format with the iANTN message or the Cellopt 3 format. For more information, see the Cellopt 2 format document in the <installation dir>/doc directory.

In cases where only azimuth is available, Actix Switch Adaptor will set a default value on

the beamwidth in order to perform the above calculations. This value is 360 divided by the number of sectors on the site.

3.4.4 Sector traffic data

Traffic information is stored on a per-sector basis in Actix Switch Adaptor, as in Cellopt

AFP. This information is used to help determine which neighboring sectors can be disabled during the data collection. This decision should be performed based on traffic and handover data. The lower the traffic, handover attempts or success rate the neighbor has, the lower the effect on the network if it is disabled.

The format used for this is Cellopt 2 format with the iSECT message or the Cellopt 3

format. For more information, see the Cellopt 2 format document in the <installation dir>/doc directory.

We strongly recommend that all sectors imported into Actix Switch Adaptor should also be complemented with traffic, as this information is required for neighbor disabling in Actix Switch Adaptor and later on inside Cellopt AFP to create a new frequency plan.

3.4.5 Handover data

Handover data is used by Actix Switch Adaptor to determine which neighbors can be disabled during data collection. This decision should be performed based on traffic and handover data. The lower the traffic, handover attempts or success rate the neighbor has, the lower the effect on the network if it is disabled.

The format used for this is a special form of Cellopt 2 format with aLIST and iCONC messages or the Cellopt 3 format. The data required is the Success rate (range 0.0 to 1.0)

and the total number of handover attempts. This data is stored in iCONC messages that are interpreted by Actix Switch Adaptor, so that the Co value is the success rate and the

Adj value is the number of handover attempts. For more information on the Co and Adj fields, see the Cellopt 2 format document in the <installation dir>/doc directory. The file must start with an aLIST message to indicate this is a neighbor list with statistics, otherwise it will be seen as an interference list and ignored. The format for the aLIST messages is as follows:

aLIST<tab>list_desc<tab>1<tab>5

For a description of the iCONC message, see the Cellopt 2 format document in the <installation dir>/doc directory.

Figure 3.9 - Example of a Handover statistics file

Note that the list name in aLIST and iCONC must be the same.

We recommend that you import this information unless there are no neighbors that will be disabled.

3.5 Create the project Click the Create button in the bottom right of the screen to create the project.

If you have already created the project, click Model to move to the Model section.


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3.6 Multi vendor and multi OMC project Actix Switch Adaptor supports multi OMC and multi vendors. This means that the project becomes aware of the surrounding OMC or vendor, which is needed when sectors at the OMC border are measured. These sectors (as any other) need to know what BCCH the surrounding sectors have in order to know what to measure. This problem is solved within

the operator‘s own network with the multi vendor and multi OMC support. The problem might still exist however at places like country borders. In such cases, this can be dealt with by increasing the distance limit or simply by not importing any location information for those sectors. The latter approach forces Actix Switch Adaptor to measure all control frequencies.

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide Open, close and delete projects 19

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4 Open, close and delete projects

4.1 Opening a project Actix Switch Adaptor remembers the details for all created projects so that it is possible to reopen them. The project information that is stored is the reference to all imported files and all settings made inside the tool. In other words, for a project to be reopened

correctly, all the files it was created with must reside in the same locations as when the project was created.

Click to select a project in the list of available projects when the application starts. Click Open project to open the project.

4.2 Closing a project To close a project right click anywhere in the left side menu and select Close Project.

4.3 Deleting a project Actix Switch Adaptor does not delete projects itself. To delete any of the projects displayed when starting the application, you must use the file management system outside the tool.

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide The Model section 20

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5 The Model section

5.1 About the Model section The Model section is the user input part of the application. It is here the user performs most of the activities, selecting which sectors to measure, when to do the measurements and temporarily reduce large neighbor lists.

The user interface comprises an information panel at the top of the screen with an action panel underneath.

Figure 5.1 – Actix Switch Adaptor – Model section, Sectors tab

When no subsection is selected from the left hand panel, the action panel for the Model section shows the Project Overview (as shown in the above example).

The sub sections consist of the measurement time setup for each OMC and vendor dataset in the project. Therefore, in a project with multiple OMCs or vendors, you will need to set up the measurement times more than once.

Each subsection listed on the left under the main heading has a different action panel and a default tab that is shown in the information panel. Model has the following subsections:

Times, one for each OMC.


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5.1.1 Information panel

The information panel is the tab view section in the application.

Figure 5.2 – Model section, Information panel highlighted

This view is divided into a number of tabs showing different data:

OMCs – Shows the different OMC-s and vendors in the project. Settings for each dataset are defined here.

BSCs – Shows all the different BSC-s in the project

Sectors – Shows all the sectors available in the OMC.

Neighbors – Shows the neighbors for selected sectors together with handover

information if available.

Times – This tab is shown once for each OMC imported. Shows the time slots that define when measurements will be performed.

Schedule – Shows the measurement schedule for each time slot.

Temporary information – Tabs such as Statistics and Model > Important Issues data. These tabs can be closed by clicking on the tab‘s drop down arrow and selecting Close tab.


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Figure 5.3 – Closing a tab

By default, the information panel shows a set of columns in the Sectors and Neighbors tabs. This can be modified to show any combination of columns. Click on the header on any column and select Hide/show columns. The action pane will show all possible columns together with a checkbox. Mark a checkbox to show that column.

5.1.2 Action panel

The action panel is closely coupled to the existing subsections under Model and is divided into two tabs, one for the actions, and one console log window. Whenever an action is made that gives an error or a warning, the action panel automatically switches to the console view.

Figure 5.4 – Model section, Action panel highlighted


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5.2 Step 1 – Select Sectors

5.2.1 Sectors tab

When entering the Model section, the information panel shows all the sectors available from the OMC dumps.

Figure 5.5 – Model section, Sectors tab

By default, all sectors are selected (enabled). A sector is selected if the background color of the sector row is white. If grayed out, it is not selected (disabled).

Some sectors are disabled within the OMC itself or they are off-air. These sectors cannot be turned on and are marked black. The main difference on an off-air sector and a ―disabled in the tool‖ one is that the off-air sector will not be causing any interference to surrounding sectors while a disabled only means that Actix Switch Adaptor will not measure it.


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A right click on any sector row will show a popup menu allowing the sector to be enabled / disabled, all sectors to be enabled / disabled, or the modeling of the sector‘s neighbors. You can also enable or disable multiple sectors by selecting the desired sectors and right clicking on the multiple selection.

Figure 5.6 – Right clicking on a sector row to display a popup menu

If you don‘t have a sector row selected when you right click, the first two options on the popup menu are not present.

On top of each column is a column header with a small filled arrow pointing down, which shows the direction in which the column is currently sorted. You can right click on the arrow to display a popup menu that allows you to change the sort direction or to select or deselect sectors. An active filter is indicated by a hollow arrow (in the example below, the

hollow arrow by the BSC column shows that it has already been filtered).

Figure 5.7 – Filtering a column and selecting columns


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Right clicking on a column heading displays a popup menu that allows you to select (enable) or de-select (disable) all sectors (and also reset any current filters); to hide or show columns; to hide the column that you right clicked on; or export the currently selected information to a specified text file.

Figure 5.8 – Right click on a column heading to show a popup menu

If you select the Hide/show columns option, the bottom panel displays a list of all available columns, which you can select or deselect using the checkboxes.

Figure 5.9 – Select columns to be displayed


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The table below shows all the columns that can be displayed in the Sectors tab. This is slightly different for each vendor.

Column name Description

BSC The BSC this sector belongs to

Site Site name (BSC number 'underscore' site number)

Sector Sector name

Switch name The name of the sector according to the switch

CellGLID Cell Global Identifier (MCC-MNC-LAC-CI)

BCCH The control channel frequency (BCCH)

BSIC The color-code (BSIC)

Hopping The hopping mode of the TCH radios (non-hopping, base-band or synth-hopping)

Radios The number of radios (not necessarily the same as the number of TCH's if synth-hopping)

TCH The traffic channel frequencies (TCH)

MAL The mobile allocation list used if frequency hopping (MAL)

HSN The hopping sequence number used if frequency hopping (HSN)

MAIO The mobile allocation index offsets used if frequency hopping (MAIO)

Location The location of the sector

Antenna The antenna type of the sector

Azimuth The antenna azimuth of the sector

Beamwidth The antenna beamwidth of the sector

Height The antenna height of the sector

Tilt The antenna tilt of the sector

Traffic The traffic served by this sector

#Neighbors The number of active neighbors (format:= total neighbors/active neighbors/unique active frequencies)

#Nbrs2del The number of neighbors suggested for removal based on rules on 'Model->neighbors' form

Distance Distance limit for filtering interferers

#freq-CC The total number of BCCH frequencies to consider (tooltip includes list of BCCHs)

#fc-nbr BCCH frequencies from active neighbors only (tooltip includes list of BCCHs)

#freq-non-nbr BCCH frequencies from interferers (non-neighbors) (tooltip includes list of BCCHs)

#CMDSET Number of dummy neighbor frequency change commands required to cover all required combinations

Vendor Vendor name


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Column name Description

#SCA

Number of frequency/color-code change commands required to cover all required BCCH/BSIC combinations. This is only needed for Siemens, in which case this rather than #CMDSET is the total number of rotations required for the sector.

#ADJC Slots The maximum number of ADJC slots to use for this sector for dummy neighbors

OMC State

The OMCs administrative state of the sector. This is only supported for some vendors. If it is not supported the value will always be "Active" and greyed-out

User Label

Label of this sector. This column contains vendor specific additional information as below

Alcatel Ericsson

Alternative user label to identify sector N/A

Huawei BSC32 Id of Module

Huawei BSC6000 Cell Id

Motorola N/A

Nokia N/A

Nortel N/A

Siemens Extended switch name including switch

ZTE N/A

Table 5.1 – Columns in the sector table

5.2.2 OMCs tab

The OMCs tab allows the user to change settings for each OMC for the Refine Neighbor and Refine Interferers functions. It is also possible to exclude an entire OMC from measurement or refinement if necessary. The table below describes the settings for this

tab.

Name Function

OMC Name Shows the name of the OMC.

Vendor Shows the vendor name.

Target Commands

This is an input to the Refine Neighbors and Refine Interferers functions. Both algorithms will - upon user request - run the algorithm

trying to reduce the number of measurement rounds to the set value. For example, a value of 5 will try to reduce the measurement rounds to 5.

Min Neighbors This is an input to the Refine Neighbors function and defines one exit criteria when the algorithm should stop deleting neighbors. The algorithm will never reduce the neighbor list below this value on any

sector.

Max Handovers

This is an input for the Refine Neighbors function. It defines the maximum handover counts that a neighbor can have and that the algorithm is allowed to delete. Refine Neighbors will not delete any neighbors that have more handover counts than this value.


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Name Function

Keep

Neighbors

This is an input for the Refine Neighbors function for neighbors

without any handover counts. If a neighbor is missing handover counts, then this option tells the algorithm is it should be kept or can be deleted.

Max distance This is an input for the Refine Interferers function that will either set the distance radius on each sector to this value or (with the Autoset Distance option set) try to reduce the number of measurement rounds

by reducing the distance radius on each sector with more measurement rounds then Target commands.

Auto set Distances

This is an input for the Refine Interferers function. If checked, it reduces the distance radius on each sector separately so that the measurement rounds for each sector reaches Target commands. If

unchecked, it simply sets the distance radius for all sectors to the same value.

Min Distance This is an input for the Refine Interferers function and with the Auto set distances checked. The algorithm will not reduce the distance below this value.

Azimuth Threshold

This is an input for the Refine Interferers function, and if greater than 0 it will make use of the azimuth and beamwidth for each sector (in addition to distance) to determine which ones to measure.

Enabled Enables or disables the whole OMC for measurement or refinement.

Table 5.2 – Settings on the OMCs tab

For more information on the above options, please refer to the Model Interferers and Model Neighbors sections.


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5.2.3 BSCs tab

This view shows all available BSCs in each imported OMC and allows for BSC setting changes for a few vendors where applicable.

5.2.4 Neighbors tab

You can also examine the neighbor information by selecting the Neighbors tab:

Figure 5.10 – The Neighbors tab

There are two ways of examine the neighbors:

When double clicking on one sector, the view will automatically switch over to the Neighbors tab showing only that sector‘s neighbors. It is still possible to see all the neighbors for all selected (enabled) sectors at once by right clicking on the Neighbors table and selecting Show all neighbors.

Click on the Neighbors link on the left to see all neighbors for all selected (enabled) sectors.

The Neighbors tab has the same show-and-hide functionality as the sectors tab. Right click on any header and select Hide/show columns. The possible columns to show in the

Neighbors tab are described below.

Neighbor Table Explanation


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Neighbor Table Explanation

Sector The serving sector

BCCH The sector‘s BCCH

BSIC The sector‘s BSIC

Neighbor The neighbor sector

Nbr BCCH The BCCH of the neighbor

Nbr BSIC The BSIC of the neighbor

%Success Success rate of handovers to this neighbor

%Handover Handover rate to this neighbor

HO Attempts Total attempted handovers to this neighbor

Traffic Traffic seen by this neighbor

Location Location of the neighbor

Distance Distance in km between server and neighbor

ADJCN The index of a neighbor to a server

Used Is this neighbor to be used?

Table 5.2 - The columns in the neighbor table

5.3 Step 2 – Define Time Click on the Times subsection under Model for the desired OMC. This subsection allows you to define a preliminary measurement schedule.

When a project has multiple OMC-s or vendors then the time definition must be repeated for each OMC and vendor that need to be measured. Also, note that all OMCs must be enabled in the OMCs tab; this is done by default. Defining times for several OMCs often

result in that the measurements finish at different dates. It is advisable to let the OMC with

the longest time required to define the measurement period for the rest of the OMC-s as well. This will make sure that only necessary neighbor or interference refinements will be performed, and the measurements will be of high quality.

There are two slightly different scenarios:

Multiple OMC of the same vendor

Here the times definition for all OMCs should be set to the same value. Because all

the basic limitations are the same in both OMCs, this approach should result in similar measurement durations.

1 Define the same starting time for all OMCs.

2 Once this is done, work on the OMC with the longest time trying to reduce the measurement time.

3 Compare the time requirement for the rest of the other OMCs to see if these

also need some refinements. If the first OMC is still the longest, then nothing need be done.

Multiple vendors

Use the same approach to multiple vendors as described above. There are however

different limitations on different vendors which result in different time requirements. Below are all the vendors listed giving a hint on which normally takes the longest time to measure.


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Vendor Typical time needed

Motorola, Nortel 2-4 weeks or longer

Siemens 1-3 weeks

Alcatel 1-2 weeks

Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, ZTE 1 week

Table 5.4 – Time comparison between vendors

Note that the above table is only a comparison between different

vendors and not a maximum needed time promise.

It is advisable to load the desired OMCs into Actix Switch Adaptor well in advance to see

the requirements for that network.

Figure 5.11 – The Model section, showing the Times action panel and tab for OMCs

In the action panel at the bottom of the screen, you can add the start date, time and end

date.

Select which weekdays to include into the measurement schedule - the default value is Monday through Friday.

Next, add the time duration and date duration. You can also remove specific dates by adding a date exclusion.


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For some vendors there is also a Settings section where parameters impacting the scheduling algorithm for the OMC can be adjusted.

If the Days of the Week or Settings have been changed, click Apply under each section and update the schedule under Action > Update Schedule.

The application will now make a preliminary schedule based on this time setting. The times required will be shown under the times section.

Note that sometimes the defined times are longer than the actual measurement times needed. This can be seen in the information panel, showing dates with a grey background. It is not necessary to delete these unused dates manually because Actix Switch Adaptor will not make use of these.

5.4 Step 3 – Model Neighbors This section allows the user to reduce the neighbor list temporarily during the data collection in order to fasten up the process.

It is possible to see how many neighbors each sector has in the Sectors tab. Sectors with a full neighbor list are shown in red indicating that no additional frequencies can be measured for these sectors.

Click on the Refine Neighbors under Action to display the neighbor list for all selected sectors.

Figure 5.12 – The Model section, showing the Neighbors action panel and tab

Some sectors may have a very large or full neighbor list that does not allow enough space

for dummy neighbors. A dummy neighbor is defined in the OMC by creating an external


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sector that does not exist in reality with the frequency we want to measure, and simply adding this to the neighbor list for the sector. In this way, the BA recording for that sector will include the frequency of the dummy neighbor, so that all interferers with that frequency will be measured.

The information panel also allows you to disable real neighbors during the measurement period by right clicking on the row in question and selecting the Disable option. Once all measurements have been performed, this neighbor will be added back to the neighbor list.

5.4.1 Neighbor Refinement

Sometimes you need to disable neighbors for many sectors, in order to free up neighbor slots for these cells and shorten the total measurement time. Here Actix Switch Adaptor can help with its Neighbor Refinement feature.

This feature works with the handover data available in the information panel. If no handover data has been imported, this needs to be done first. Please refer to section 3.4.5

Handover data for more information. Actix Switch Adaptor will then try to reduce the number of neighbors based on the Threshold settings for the OMC. This is done for each

selected cell, one by one.

Go to the OMCs tab in the information panel to modify settings below. If multiple OMCs are available then each will have its own settings.

Target Commands This is an exit criterion; set the desired number of commands here. Eventually as Actix Switch Adaptor disables neighbors, the measurement time or # Commands will go down. If it reaches this number, Actix Switch Adaptor will not disable any

more neighbors but exit the process for the sector.

Min Neighbors This is another exit criterion. Actix Switch Adaptor will only try to disable neighbors if there are more neighbors then this value. Any time before or during the neighbor refinement process, if there are less than or the same amount of neighbors, then

the process will stop.

Max Handovers This value decides which neighbors to consider disabling. Only neighbors with less

handover attempts than this value will be considered. Actix Switch Adaptor will always first disable the neighbor with the least number of handover attempts followed by neighbors with higher values. Also note that if two neighbors have the same number of handover attempts, Actix Switch Adaptor will disable the one with the lower success rate.

Keep Neighbors (without Handover Statistics) This checkbox tells Actix Switch Adaptor how to treat neighbors that are missing handover data. If missing data means no handover was made, then this checkbox

should be unchecked.

5.4.1.1 Executing Neighbor Refinement

When all the thresholds are set up, it is possible to perform the neighbor refinement. Select Action > Refine Neighbors and click the Refine Neighbors… button. Actix

Switch Adaptor will now process all sectors one by one. The result will be seen in the information panel displaying all enabled and disabled neighbors.


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5.4.1.2 Rollback Neighbor Refinement

After a neighbor refinement, a large number of neighbors might be disabled and sometimes there are reasons for discarding the suggested neighbor disabling. This can be

done by a right click inside the neighbors table and select Enable All.

Also when a new neighbor refinement is run with a parameter set that would not disable some already disabled neighbors then all neighbors should be enabled first. The reason for this is that the algorithm only decides if an enabled neighbor is subject to a disable, not vice versa.

5.4.2 More about Neighbor rotation

The technique used in Actix Switch Adaptor to measure interferers that are not defined as neighbors is called neighbor rotation.

There are two approaches. It depends on the vendor which approach is used.

BA list modification – This approach modifies the BA list directly without the need of creating external sectors.

Dummy neighbors – This approach creates external sectors with the desired BCCH, which is added as a neighbor. As a result, the BA list is updated for the sector.

The dummy neighbors approach is explained further below.

Non-existing external neighbors called dummy neighbors are created and assigned the desired frequencies. Each sector will have a few dummy neighbors added, depending on how many real neighbors the sector has. For example, if the sector has 31 real neighbors defined, then only one dummy neighbor can be created without disabling any real

neighbors.

When the sector has had a number of dummy neighbors added, it is time to start the measurement collection. For each measurement round, the dummy neighbors will be assigned a new set of frequencies until all the desired frequencies have been measured.

This is illustrated below with an artificial sector that can only have 8 neighbors defined. Just 8 sectors have been used here to allow this to be visualized in a easy understandable way - the real limitation is vendor specific, but used to be 30-32. See the vendor-specific

chapters for more information.

All BCCH

freq 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 600 601 602 603 604

Neighbors

(BA-list) R Y R R R R R

Round 1 B B B B B B B B




Round 5 B B B B B B B

Figure 5.13 – Illustrating the neighbor rotation with 2 dummy neighbors. This is done on a sector that can only have a maximum of 8 neighbors.

The defined neighbors here are colored dark red (R). The measured frequencies are in blue (B). This sector‘s BCCH frequency is ‗2‘ and is colored yellow (Y) - this frequency cannot be measured. With the 6 existing neighbors, two more are added for neighbor rotation. Because this sector uses the GSM 900 band, Actix Switch Adaptor will only measure this


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band. To measure the whole relevant spectrum (which is 1, 3-14), 5 measurement rounds are needed.

If the measurement time is too long, then some real neighbors must be deleted in order to speed up the data collection. In the example below, one real neighbor has been disabled,

so only four measurement rounds are needed to complete the data collection.

All BCCH

freq 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 600 601 602 603 604

Neighbors

(BA-list) R Y R R R R




Round 4 B B B B B B

Figure 5.14 – Illustrating the neighbor rotation with 3 dummy neighbors after one real neighbor has been disabled. This is done on a sector that can only have a maximum of 8 neighbors.

5.4.2.1 Dual band systems

On a dual band system, the sectors will often have frequencies on only one band at a time.

Because of this, Actix Switch Adaptor measures only the relevant band for each sector. This means that a GSM 900 sector will only consider GSM 900 frequencies since these are the ones that can cause interference. Similarly, GSM 1800 will only consider GSM 1800 and so on. Keep this in mind when disabling neighbors, in order to minimize the measurement time. In the above example, the neighbor with frequency ‗12‘ has been disabled. This has reduced the data collection time by one measurement round. However, if a neighbor from the other band would be deleted, this would be even faster because this

band is not measured.

All BCCH

freq 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 600 601 602 603 604

Neighbors

(BA-list) R Y R R R R




Figure 5.15 - The neighbor rotation with 3 dummy neighbors after one real neighbor has been disabled from the GSM 1800 band (done on a sector that can only have a maximum of 8 neighbors).

5.5 Step 4 – Model Interferers This section allows the user to reduce the number of interferers by only measuring BCCH

frequencies that exist near by the sector. Before proceeding, ensure that the location,

azimuth and beamwidth data is available and has been loaded into Actix Switch Adaptor. Refer to section 3.4.2 and 3.4.3 for more information.

Click on the Refine Interferers subsection under Action. You should aim to minimize the measurement time as the network must be frozen during this time. To change the distances double click in the Distance cell for a sector and enter a new distance. By default these cells contain ―(100)‖ indicating that the default distance of 100 km is used. If the

field is empty then no location data is available for that sector. The default distance can be changed on the OMCs tab -> Max distance.


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The Interferers subsection helps to reduce the interferers that will be measured for each sector. There are two options for doing this:

Common distance (5.5.2)

Autoset (5.5.3)

Both methods make use of the settings on the OMCs tab. The settings are described below, followed by the two methods Common distance and Autoset.

Figure 5.16 – The Model section, showing the Interferers action panel and Sectors tab entering a distance manually.

5.5.1 Settings

Go to the OMCs tab. The following settings can be set for each OMC:

Max Distance

This value allows you to ignore interferers further away than the specific distance (in kilometers) from the server. For example, a setting of ‗50‘ means that any sectors in the network further than 50km from the server will not have their frequency and color codes measured in the schedule produced (unless, of course, the same frequency and color code also exist closer than that distance on another sector).


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Autoset distances This checkbox determines if the Autoset function (checked) or Common Distance (unchecked) will be used by the algorithm.

Min Distance This value only affects the common timeslot calculation procedure and any

distance set manually. It allows you to set a minimum distance (in kilometers) so that all closer sectors will always be included. Note that this does not ignore interferers closer than the specified threshold.

Azimuth threshold This percentage value allows you to ignore interferers that do not point towards the server, and because of that, does not interfere with the server. Based on a simple calculation that says that the interferer can be ignored if the server is distant enough from its beam, this calculation has two components: one based

purely on distance from the server, and another based on angular distance from

the center of the beam, and relating to the beamwidth. So a value of 0.0 includes every interferer inside the Maximum Distance threshold, and a value of 50.0 would include every interferer with a combined value of 0.5 or higher. A value of 0.1 is probably effective. The higher the value, the fewer the number of interferers that will be measured.

The distance calculation drops off as (T-D)2/T

2, where T is the Maximum Distance threshold

defined above. This formula ensures that the inclusion factor is zero at the threshold distance.

Figure 5.17 – How the inclusion factor is modified by distance from the server

The angular calculation provides a factor that is near 1.0 anywhere inside the beam (as defined by the azimuth and the beamwidth) for the interferer, and then drops off either

side of the beam to zero with a sigma curve shape, such that the inclusion factor is 0.5 at the edge of the defined beamwidth.


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Figure 5.18 – How the inclusion factor is modified by angular distance from the azimuth of the server, for a beamwidth of 120 degrees

Figure 5.19 – The combined factor for distance and angle


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5.5.2 Common distance

This option will schedule to measure the potential interferers within a given common distance for all sectors. Sectors outside this distance will not be included in the measurements.

The advantage of this method is that all selected sectors will be equally well measured. The disadvantage is that different sectors need different numbers of time slots in order to measure all sectors inside the distance threshold.

Use the Max Distance in the OMCs tab to define the distance parameters.

5.5.3 Common time slot – Autoset Distances

This option will ensure that each sector will use the same maximum number of timeslots. Hence each sector will be given a distance threshold that corresponds to the common timeslot. Check the Autoset Distances box on the OMCs tab and complete the maximum

commands field to use this option. Also, check the settings for Minimum and Maximum Distance, and Azimuth thresholds.

Autoset Distances Check this box (on the OMC tab) to automatically calculate a distance threshold for each sector, such that the sector will not require scheduling commands over more than the specified number of days (or time-slots). This is achieved by iterating over all sectors, and mapping for each the possible distance thresholds to numbers

of potential interferers to be included in the schedule. The highest distance possible that has still limited the number of interferers enough to meet the schedule deadline is then installed in the sector and is used for all further scheduling calculations.

The advantage of this method is that the given common time slots will be used to the maximum. The disadvantage is that some sectors may result in a too-small distance threshold due to dense network traffic in that area.


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Figure 5.20 – Using the Autoset function provides feedback

This function is strongly dependent on the availability of sector location data in the project.

If there is no location data available for one interfering sector, then it will not be possible to remove that sector‘s frequency from the measurement regardless of the distance that has been set. To get a good result from this function, make sure that location data is available on all sectors.

Note that each sector has a minimum number of time slots

that cannot be reduced by changing the distance. This is a combined effect of: the number of dummy neighbors that Actix Switch Adaptor can create; the number of nearby sectors frequencies that need to be measured within the set distance; and the number of sectors without location.

Note also that the Autoset function makes use of the

settings in the Settings panel and will never return a distance lower than the minimum distance specified.

Similarly, the maximum distance defines a cutoff for the algorithm; hence nothing will be measured outside this threshold. The azimuth percentage value is used to remove interferers that are closer than the maximum distance but whose beam is pointing away from the sector we are

measuring. The higher value here, the fewer interferers that will be measured.


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5.5.4 Results of the Autoset function

The Result section for the Autoset function is divided into six different categories, with only those categories relevant to the run being displayed. Solutions are only calculated for sectors with a defined location, and the number of such sectors is equivalent to the sum of the sectors shown in the result categories. All six result categories are described below.

5.5.4.1 New solutions for: ... sectors

This section shows the number of successfully calculated solutions, together with the

average, minimum and maximum distance of this set of sectors. The Autoset algorithm fills all free neighbor slots (for Siemens the slots will be filled as much as possible), thus producing the optimum solution. There is one exception: if two dummy frequency sectors are co-located and the optimum target solution would be found by using only one of these sectors, the distance cannot be set to the distance to these sectors, since this would produce a solution with too many commands (with both sectors included). Instead, the sector distance is set to the distance to the two dummy sectors minus 10 meters; or if the

next dummy sectors is less than 10 meters away, minus half the distance to the next dummy sector.

5.5.4.2 All dummy frequencies measured for: … sectors

If you are using all dummy frequencies within the maximum distance defined at the project level (in the Settings box), and the Autoset function results in a number of commands less than or equal to the target number of commands, the sector distance will

be set to the project maximum distance. All dummy frequencies within the project maximum distance will now be measured.

5.5.4.3 No ADJ slots available for: … sectors

If the neighbor frequencies take up all free neighbor slots, leaving no slots for dummy frequencies, the sector distance will not be altered. No dummy frequencies will be

measured.

5.5.4.4 No dummy frequencies found for: … sectors

If no dummy frequencies exist within the maximum distance defined at the project level, the sector distance will not be altered.

5.5.4.5 No/Higher solution because of missing interferer locations for:

… sectors

If a dummy sector has no location data, the Autoset algorithm assumes that the sector is located at a distance of zero from the sector to be calculated. This ensures that the dummy sector is considered a close interferer, which results in a safe solution. If many dummy sectors lack location data and thus are set to be co-located with the sector to be calculated, and if the target number of commands would be reached by using only some of

them, the same problem appears as in the ‗New solutions…‘ results category described above. The answer is to find the next upper solution where all free neighbor slots are filled. The result will be optimal except for these cases:

sectors being actually co-located, as in the ‗New solutions…‘ category (which will be treated as above)

the resulting sector distance being beneath the minimum distance defined at the project level, as in ‗Higher solution…‘ below (which will be treated as below).

For Siemens though, the next, optimum upper solution is not calculated, and the sector distance is therefore set to the project‘s defined maximum distance.


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5.5.4.6 Higher solution because of min. dist. for: … sectors

When the resulting sector distance that has been found is beneath the minimum distance defined at the project level, the next, optimum upper solution will be calculated until the

sector distance reaches the defined minimum distance value. The result will be optimal with the exception of two sectors being co-located, as in ‗New solutions…‘ above (which will be treated as above). For Siemens the next, optimum upper solution is not calculated. Instead, the sector distance is set to the project minimum distance.

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide The Export section 43

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6 The Export section

6.1 About the Export section The export functions are very simple in Actix Switch Adaptor - the available export options are:

Export Project

Export Schedule

Export AFP Project

Export Network

Export Frequency Plan

These options are described on the following pages, except Export Frequency Plan, which is described in the following chapter Processing results.

Figure 6.1 – The Export section, showing the Alcatel actions in the Schedule tree and the action panel below for exporting the project


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6.2 Export Project This option allows you to export the project that is currently open. This is the same as saving a project.

From the left hand panel, click Project under the Export section.

Click the Export… button. A browse dialog allows you to specify where to save the exported project.

The project will be stored in xml format and contains the current settings and references to the imported files. Reopening a project will reload all the files according to the references in the xml file.

Figure 6.2 – The Export Project option


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6.3 Export Schedule When the right balance has been found between short time and extensive measurement, you can export the schedule so that it can be executed on the OMC.

From the left hand panel, click Schedule under the Export section. The schedule can be examined in the information panel showing each time slot‘s actions. A tree view shows each script and the content of the script.

Click the Export… button to open a browse dialog, which specifies where to export the schedule.

Figure 6.3 – The Export Schedule option, exporting the data collection scripts

The exported files are vendor-specific and are designed to be run directly on the OMC. It is a set of OMC scripts that need to be executed in the right order and time and are therefore stored in a directory structure that specifies dates, times and order (depending on the vendor).


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6.4 Export Cellopt AFP Project This action will export the whole project Cellopt 3 format for import into Cellopt AFP.

From the left hand panel, click AFP Project under the Export section.

Figure 6.4 – Exporting the Cellopt AFP project

Click the Export… button to open a browse dialog, which will specify where to make the export.


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6.5 Export Network This action will export the project in an Actix One format or Cellopt 2 format so that it can be imported into other Actix tools. Only those sectors that have been selected (enabled) will be exported.

Figure 6.5 – Exporting the network data in other formats

To specify where to make the export, click the Export… button.

A dialog will be displayed to choose whether to export the network data in the Actix One Desktop format as CellRefs (e.g. for Analyzer or Spotlight running stand-alone) or the Actix One Enterprise format as CellRefs (e.g. for Spotlight Workgroup Server or Viewpoint)

or in Cellopt 2 format (see the document CellOpt2FileInterface_rev#.pdf in the doc subfolder underneath the installation directory).

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide Processing results 48

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7 Processing results

After a schedule has been exported it should be executed. Once the process of generating measurements has been started, the measurements can be imported in Actix Switch

Adaptor for processing.

After measurements have been imported the schedule can be revised if necessary. Once the measurements have been used to create a new frequency plan in AFP, it can be imported into Actix Switch Adaptor and exported as vendor specific switch data or commands to be implemented at the switch.

7.1 Importing Measurement Data

To import measurements click Measured Data under the Import section. In order to manage the large volume of measurement data it is divided into packages. Data for

different OMCs is put into different packages. Normally data for different BSCs and different dates is put into different packages, so the recommendation is to have a package for each day of measurements for each switch.

Each package is created and imported in turn using the Measured Data Import section.

Figure 7.1 Creating and importing a package


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7.1.1 Select Measurement Data Type

The first step is to select the measured data type. Actix Switch Adaptor supports the following data types:

Siemens

Alcatel

Ericsson

Huawei BSC6000 (Contact Cellopt Support for information regarding this data type)

Nortel MMR

Motorola Call Trace

Nokia (CF & DAC)

Huawei BSC32

ZTE Count (Contact Cellopt Support for information regarding this data type)

Only one type can be imported at a time. The list of data types only offers those options

compatible with the network data imported into the project.

7.1.2 Resolve signal sources

This step resolves signal sources to a specific sector, and allows you to set how you want to resolve the signal sources. Note that the exact appearance of this page depends on the

previously selected Measurement Type. For claRiFy data, the measurements are already

mapped.

Defining how to resolve signal sources includes these main sections:

Filter

Find Signal Sources

Resolve Signal Sources

7.1.3 Filter

The purpose of this section is to remove measurements that are weaker or equal to the user-defined Signal strength. Sectors that are too far away based on the entered Distance value will also not be considered in the Find signal source section (see below). The distance will be taken to be the distance between the serving sector and the interfering sector.

Figure 7.1.3 – Filter settings


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Signal Strength - Only measurements higher than the defined threshold will be imported.

Distance – For switch-based measurements, the distances are between the serving sector and the interfering sector.

7.1.4 Find Signal Sources

This section uses the Frequency and Color code combination as decoded in the measurement. Actix Switch Adaptor performs a lookup on all sectors using this combination that are within the specified Distance.

Figure 7.1.4 – Find Signal Sources settings

Frequency - All sectors that are using the measured frequency will be added as candidates.

Color Code - If the color code is already decoded in the measurement, check this box. Actix Switch Adaptor will delete all frequency candidates that are not using the decoded color code.

7.1.5 Resolve Signal Sources

In cases where more then one sector is using the combination, the last step of the process

is to select one sector.

Figure 7.1.5 – Resolve Signal Sources settings

Actix Switch Adaptor has a library of available methods (algorithms) that you can select. More than one method can be selected at the same time. Since Actix Switch Adaptor works with both Count and MMR data some of the algorithms are specialized.

Count data comes with serving cell, channel, color code

MMR data comes with serving cell, channel, color code, signal strength

For MMR Count Data, the signal source resolution can be switched off.

When signals are processed by the algorithms, they are attached a list of possible signal

sources (candidates). This list is filtered by each algorithm as the signal is passed through until there is only one candidate left or the signal has been passed through all algorithms. Some algorithms also put a weighting on each candidate. The whole process is logged and can be seen in detail after data has been imported in Actix Switch Adaptor.

Algorithms that perform weighting will take the candidate with the highest weight and then exit. Algorithms that perform weighting are:

Pathloss


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Azimuth and Beamwidth (and distance)

Distance

Algorithms that do not perform weighting are:

Channel

Color code

Algorithms are run in the following order:

1 Channel is always run first.

2 Color Code is run second if checked.

3 Last is always either Pathloss, Distance or Azimuth and Beamwidth. Pathloss

is the default algorithm, and takes precedence over Azimuth and beamwidth (which takes precedence over Distance, if more than one algorithm is selected).

Those algorithms that do not perform any weighting only exit when they have only one

source candidate left.

Here is the complete list of algorithms:

Azimuth and Beamwidth - Same as Distance but also uses azimuth and beam width to do the candidate weighting. In other words, one candidate that is far away can still have a higher weight than one that‘s close but is aiming to the wrong direction.

Channel – Just looks at control channel frequency.

Color Code - Looks at both control channel and color code.

Distance - Looks at the distance between the serving sector and the candidate.

A distance threshold can be set so that candidates outside the threshold are

removed. The remaining candidates are weighted on distance.

Pathloss –The default algorithm selected. It works much the same way as the azimuth-beam width algorithm by looking at both distance and antenna direction.

However one key difference is that the algorithm uses more scientific rooted formulas.

As a result the new algorithm is more sensitive to distance than the azimuth

values. Unlike the old azimuth-beam width algorithm it does no longer pick very distant sectors over a close by one.


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Figure 7.1.6 Pathloss combining distance and antenna pattern for beamwidth of 60o

7.1.6 Select files to import

Figure 7.1.7 – Add files

Before selecting measurement files for import, you must

select an OMC

select a BSC or ―Auto-Detect‖ if supported for the vendor

set a measurement package name


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set the date of the measurements

Then select the files or directories to be added to the package. Several measurements can be imported at the same time, but the measurement files need to be of the same type and format.

Once all measurement files have been selected, click Add.

7.1.7 Measurement Packages Summary

This section is a summary of all the settings and selections for each package. To view or

edit the detail of a package click View/Edit.

You may correct any of the package settings and then click Update. It is also possible to delete a package by clicking Remove. Once you are satisfied that everything is ready click

Import to import all the measured data files selected, based on the various package settings.

Figure 7.1.8 – Summary of the measurement packages

The measurements are not stored inside the Actix Switch Adaptor. Instead the packages are stored as histogram files on disk in a staging area in the Cellopt 3 format. The histograms are loaded from the staging area by the Cellopt MDA during IM creation. The


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pathname of each package in the staging area is displayed in the Output File field while the package is created.

7.1.8 View Log and Summary

Any problems that occurred and information about the import process is displayed in the Log.

A summary of the results of the import is displayed in the Project Overview, which is displayed by clicking Model.

Figure 7.1.9 – Measured Data Import summary

Note that the options to update and remove packages only exist before a package is imported. After a package has been imported incorrectly, the solution would be to delete

the resulting histogram file.

Always save the Actix Switch Adaptor project after importing measurements, to keep a

record of what has been imported.


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7.2 Revising the schedule Operational decisions and technical issues can disrupt the implementation of the measurement schedule. When this happens, follow the procedure below to revise the schedule:

Import all remaining collected measurements. The frequencies that have already been measured for each sector will not be scheduled again for that sector.

Create new entries in the Times section under Model. At minimum, create a new dates pool that is entirely in the future.

Click Update Schedule under Action to create a revised schedule.

Analyze any undesirable durations by looking at the information in the Sectors tab and if necessary use neighbor refinement and interferer refinement to improve the

revised schedule, before updating the schedule again. All the functionality in chapter 5 is available for the revised schedule.

Export the Actix Switch Adaptor project and the revised schedule as normal.

7.3 Importing Frequency Plans Frequency plans are imported into Actix Switch Adaptor so that they can be exported in vendor specific format to be implemented. The procedure for importing a frequency plan is as follows:

Save the frequency plan in AFP and give it a suitable name. Note that plans with the same name are overwritten in Actix Switch Adaptor, so save the plan with a new name unless that is what you want.

Export the frequency plan from AFP in Cellopt 3 format.

Create a new project in Actix Switch Adaptor using up to date switch data. This is necessary to ensure that there are no unintended changes or unexpected errors when you implement the new plan.

Click Network Data under Import and import the new frequency plan in Cellopt 3 format in the same way as any other additional network data.

The new plan can be viewed in the Sector tab. The values of BCCH, BSIC, TCH, MAL, HSN and MAIO columns from imported plans are displayed in brackets after the original value.


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Figure 7.3: Imported Frequency Plan

7.4 Exporting Frequency Plans To export a frequency plan that has been imported, click Frequency Plan under Export.

Click Export…. If there is more than one plan available to export a list will be presented to choose from.

Select a directory for the vendor specific frequency plan to be stored in using the displayed file chooser dialog.

The progress of the export and any warnings or errors detected are displayed in the Log tab.

The frequency plan is either exported as modified switch dump data to be loaded into the switch or MML commands to be executed.

The following formats are supported.

Vendor Format

Siemens Modified switch dump

Alcatel Set of csv files

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide Vendor-specific OMC data 57

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8 Vendor-specific OMC data

8.1 Alcatel OMC data

8.1.1 How to get OMC data

In order to get the files needed by Actix Switch Adaptor, follow these steps for the OMC required in the project:

Never start the export if a new bss attach is ongoing.

1 In the RNUSM Application, select Menu Configuration/Export (RNUSM:SC:SupervisedConfiguration).

2 Select directory number from 2 to 10 and press the ‗Export‘ button. If you cannot see the ‗Export‘ button then first press the ‗Free‘ button then ‗Export‘ button.

3 When the progress bar ends, copy all .csv files via FTP from OMC-R master

server folder /ACIE/ACIE_NLexport_DirX, where X - is a selected directory number in step 2 to the desired location. The default ftp user in OMC-R is omc3ftp. If you have OMC-R B7 or older the folder where the *.csv files can be found is /alcatel/var/share/AFTR/ACIE/ACIE_NLexport_DirX, where X - is a selected directory number in step 2.

Actix Switch Adaptor does not require any naming conventions or OMC names in the file

names where the data is stored. However, we recommend that you name the files so that they include the OMC name that they refer to. This is to prevent any easily made mistakes with unclear file naming.

8.1.2 File formats

The OMC files are text-based files that stores network configurations and parameters for several BSCs. These files are semicolon separated starting with an information row followed by a header row. After the header row, the data is presented line by line. Because of the large amount of data and separations used in these files, it is difficult to read manually. The different modes for each line, however, are relatively easy to understand. The first column in each line starts with a capital letter that defines whether the line is an export, delete, create or modify message.

Letter Mode

C Create

D Delete

M Modify

E Export

Table 8.1 - The different command modes in Alcatel

Actix Switch Adaptor can read one set of OMC files into one project. Normally this is enough because one OMC system can contain many BSCs and thousands of sectors. If there are two or more OMCs that need to be measured at the same time, then two


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separate projects must be created, and scripts for each OMC should be executed simultaneously.

The following files are required in an import:

Adjacency.csv - This file contains neighbor information for all included BSCs.

Cell.csv - This file contains cell site information for all included BSCs.

ExternalOMCCell.csv - This file contains information on sectors outside the OMC.

SubNetwork.csv –This file contains general network information for the OMC and is needed to verify that a correct set of files are imported.

In addition to these, Actix Switch Adaptor uses the following files for hopping networks:

RnlBasebandTransceiver.csv - This file contains radio and MAIO (hopping) information for all included BSCs.

RnlFrequencyHoppingSystem.csv - This file contains mobile allocation (MAL) information for hopping on the network.

8.1.3 Neighbor rotation technique

Alcatel RMS 31 measures the BA frequencies for each sector. This means that the frequencies measured will be those that are transmitted from the neighbors plus any other sectors that happens to transmit on these frequencies. Hence the RMS files may contain

one or several different BSIC for each frequency measured.

To measure other frequencies that are not defined for any neighbor, the BA list must be changed: create a set of sectors that are external to the OMC and assign them as neighbors to the sector that is measured. In this way, each measured sector will get an

additional set of ‗dummy‘, non-existent neighbors. Because a neighbor relationship now exists with the non-existent external sectors, their BCCH frequencies will be added to the BA list, which forces the served mobile stations to measure these wherever they come

from. The resulting RMS file now contains other frequencies in addition to the neighbors.

The maximum BA list length is 32, but it is still possible to create more than 32 neighbor relations as long as the maximum BA list length is maintained. However, Actix Switch Adaptor never extends the neighbor list to more than 32.

To prevent handovers to a non-existing sector, the handover margin is set to its maximum value when the relation is created. This will prevent any handover to the non-existing

sectors.

To know what frequencies to measure, Actix Switch Adaptor checks which frequencies exist inside the distance threshold specified for that sector. This threshold is specified in the user interface either manually, or by the auto set function. These frequencies are the ones that are not defined on any real neighbor but exist within the threshold. Hence they will be scheduled for measurement for this sector. Each sector will have a different set of frequencies to measure. An easier technique would be to specify a frequency set globally

and use that for every sector. However, this would require a longer measurement time period and would remove the possibility to ignore frequencies far away on a sector basis.

The neighbor rotation itself is done by maintaining the neighbor relations to the non-existing cells and for each measurement round change the frequencies until all desired frequencies are covered.


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8.1.4 Disabling real neighbors

There are times when the BA list is full or the sector has 32 or more neighbors. To measure other frequencies in these situations, some of the real neighbors must first be deleted. This can be done in Actix Switch Adaptor by disabling a neighbor. When a neighbor is disabled, it is removed at the beginning of the data collection and added back again at the end. In this way, the original neighbor list remains the same once the data collection is completed.

8.1.5 Schedule output and the result

Actix Switch Adaptor creates OMC scripts to help with the neighbor rotation. These scripts are stored in directories, are named as steps, and date when each step should be executed. Below is an example of how such a script might look:

Figure 8.2 – Possible output for Alcatel OMC scripts that are stored in directories, one directory for

each step.

The first directory ‗Step 1 – Open neighbor positions‘ contains scripts that will disable real

neighbors for the time span of the data collection.

The second directory ‗Step 2…‘ contains the creation of non-existing external sectors and assigning these as neighbors.

All subsequent (except the two last) directories will contain scripts to change the frequencies on these non-existing external sectors.

The last two directories will first clean up the OMC from the external cells that were

created earlier (‗Step 24 – Cleanup dummies‘) and then add back the neighbors deleted in Step 1 (‗Step 25 – Recover neighbor positions‘).


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The content of all these files are in the same format as described in the File Formats section above.

The RMS 31 measurements should be enabled separately to measure the BSCs and output measurement files in between the neighbor rotations. One RMS file is created for each BSC

every time a neighbor rotation is done.

8.1.6 Enabling RMS measurements

The RMS measurement is configured independently of the neighbor rotation commands that Actix Switch Adaptor creates. Details for the specific BSS version used are given in the

BSS Configuration Handbook and BSS Surveillance Handbook documents provided by Alcatel, but the basic procedure is shown below:

1 Create PRC with RMS for the required BSC. Define the parameters for a template.

▫ Create PRC (see the BSS Configuration Handbook for details).

▫ Copy BSC to PRC (see the BSS Configuration Handbook for details).

▫ Edit RMS BSC Template (see the BSS Surveillance Handbook for details).

2 Check PRC for errors.

▫ Check PRC (without forcing) (see the BSS Configuration Handbook for details), and correct any errors.

▫ Activate PRC (without forcing) (see the BSS Configuration Handbook for details)

3 Define the RMS data collection period.

4 Define the PMC List (see the BSS Surveillance Handbook for details).

8.2 Ericsson OMC data

8.2.1 The OMC data

The CNA transport file is an export from the OMC. It should include MCS- and BSC-level data for valid (on air) area, not planned.

For information on how to export this data, refer to the Ericsson documentation on CNA export.


In Ericsson equipment, the switch automatically performs neighbor rotation. Therefore there is no need for periodic measurements and MML scripts in between, as for other vendors.


Although Ericsson automatically executes neighbor rotation internally, there are times

when the BA list is full or the sector has 32 or more neighbors. To measure other frequencies in these situations, some of the real neighbors must first be deleted. This can

be done in Actix Switch Adaptor by disabling a neighbor. When a neighbor is disabled, it is removed at the beginning of the data collection and added back again at the end. In this way, the original neighbor list remains the same once the data collection is completed.


Because scheduling is not required on Ericsson switches, this is not supported.


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8.2.5 Enabling BAR measurements

In order to enable BAR measurements, please refer to the MML command documentation for the commands RABII and RABRP.

The following command set is an example that enables BAR recordings:

RABII; RABRP: RID=BARID00;

RABDC: RID=BARID00, CELL=1511&1512&1513; RABDC: RID=BARID00, TMBCCHNO=712&&721; RABDC: RID=BARID00, NUMFREQ=20; RABDC: RID=BARID00,RELSS2N=12;

RABDC: RID=BARID00,RELSSP=0;

RABDC: RID=BARID00, ABSS=75; RABDP: RID=BARID00; RABRI: RID=BARID00, DTIME=30; RABTI: RID=BARID00, IO=FILE;

This example will record RAB for cells 1511, 1512 and 1513 including BCCH numbers 712 to 721 using thresholds 0 and 12.

8.2.6 Enabling NCS measurements

NCS an application part of the GSM OSS, and is started from the RNO main window that

holds several other applications. For detailed information, refer to the Ericsson NCS documentation.

8.3 Huawei OMC data Actix provides support for data collection from Huawei equipment. This support is provided as a combination of software and services. Contact Actix for more information.

8.4 Motorola OMC data


In order to get the files needed by Actix Switch Adaptor, follow these steps:

1 Telnet to Motorola OMCR /usr/gsm/ne_data/rf_db_exp/output to download

switchdump files.

2 Collect Traffic, Ho statistics and configuration files.

3 Convert data into AFP2 format.


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8.4.2 File formats

The OMC files are text-based files that store network configurations and parameters. These files contain verbose outputs for each sector and neighbor relationship. One export contains information for multiple BSCs.


general.out

neigh.out


Actix Switch Adaptor uses the Motorola Call Trace feature to measure the BA frequencies for each sector. This means that measurements will be collected for a subset of all calls

during any point in time in each BTS. The BA frequencies are the collected set of frequencies that are specified for the neighbors for one sector. They are measured by the mobile stations in order to know when and to which sector to handover.

In order to measure other frequencies that are not defined on any neighbor, the BA list

must be changed. To do this, create a set of test neighbors to the cells that will be measured with the required BCCH frequencies. In this way, each measured sector will get an additional set of frequencies to measure.

The maximum BA list length is 32, and in Motorola the maximum number of neighbors is also 32.

To know what BCCH frequencies to measure, Actix Switch Adaptor checks which BCCH

exist inside the distance threshold specified for that sector. This threshold is specified in the user interface, either manually or through the Autoset function. All BCCH frequencies inside the threshold will be scheduled for measurement for this sector. Each sector will have a different set of combinations to measure.

The neighbor rotation itself is performed by adding and removing test neighbors with

different set of BCCH frequencies between the measurement timeslots. Because there is a limitation in Motorola that only 16 call trace instances can exist on each BSC, the neighbor

rotation must remove old trace calls and create new ones in each time slot.

The commands in the script often take several seconds to execute. Actix Switch Adaptor takes this time into account when the neighbor rotation scripts are created, so that a trace call is only set up on sectors that are not in a mode where adding or deleting test neighbors can occur. Note that, because of this, the scripts can become very difficult to follow manually. The command execution time used by Actix Switch Adaptor can be modified in the Times section.

8.4.4 Setting up and storing measurements

Actix Switch Adaptor uses the Call Trace feature in Motorola to capture MMR reports from the calls. There are a few limitations:

Only 16 cells can be measured at once on one BSC.

Each MML command normally takes 10 to 20 seconds to execute, which is a long time if many commands are on a queue.

A connection to Call Trace must exist during measurement collection. This will occupy one OMC connection on the system.

Because of these limitations, Motorola measurements take longer to perform.


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In a Call Trace, it is possible to measure more than one call on each trace call. This is controlled by the following parameters:

MMR interval 1 means every single MMR, 2 means every second MMR, etc.

Nth call 1 means every single call, 2 means every second call, etc.

Simultaneous The number of simultaneous calls that can be measured per LCF.

These values are set to 5,4,1. The last parameter is per LCF, and on average there are 5 LCFs on each BTS. This means that even if the value is 1, the trace call will be able to measure several calls simultaneously.

Because of the limitation of Motorola only allowing 16 cells to be measured at once in one BSC, Actix Switch Adaptor gives some extra options in the Times setup section.

Figure 8.3 – Motorola Times setup.

Min Gap

This determines how many minutes there should be between measurement rounds.

Command Time Tells Actix Switch Adaptor the average time it takes to execute one MML command.


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Command Timeout Tells Actix Switch Adaptor the time it takes for a command to timeout. This is needed when the system is performing other tasks with higher priority and the MML command issued is executed but no response is returned before it times out.

Timeout factor

This is the percentage of MMLs that will time out. Used for a worst-case scenario.

Maximum concurrent BSC This is the number of Call traces that can be run at one time. Since each call trace occupies one OMC connection, this must be known by Actix Switch Adaptor when multiple BSCs are to be measured.

Maximum concurrent sectors This is the limitation of 16 cells per BSC. The number can be lowered to reduce the load on the network.

Maximum size of BA list The default value is 32, but a lower value can be entered to reduce the load on the network.

To execute all the MML scripts, set up a cron job or an at job on the OMC terminal . This cron job will systematically move all files into a safer location where more disk space is available. Actix Switch Adaptor provides a template for this cron job. Set this job up and test it before measurement collection begins.


There are times when the neighbor list is full, and in order to measure other frequencies, some of the real neighbors must first be deleted. You can do this in Actix Switch Adaptor by disabling a neighbor. When a neighbor is disabled, it is deleted in the beginning of the

data collection and added back again at the end. In this way, the original neighbor list remains the same when the data collection is performed.

The maximum neighbor list size is 32.


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The output from Actix Switch Adaptor is a set of scripts that must be executed in a given order on the OMC. These scripts are stored in directories, with one directory for each execution day. Each directory contains several scripts.

Figure 8.4 – Data collection scripts are stored in directories, one for each collection day.

Also, there is one set of scripts for each BSC. Each command can take several seconds to execute, depending the current loading of BSC.

8.5 Nokia OMC data


In order to get the files needed by Actix Switch Adaptor, follow these steps for each BSC required in the project:

1 Log into the Nokia OMC and ensure that the user has rights to execute the ZEQO and ZEAO commands.

2 Execute the ZEQO command (Output BTS Parameters) and store the result into a file. The syntax is ‗ZEQO:BTS=1&&248:ALL;‘ where 1 and 248 represents the minimum and maximum permitted BTS values. This range depends on the BSC hardware configuration and corresponding options. Please check this range before the command is executed. The command will output all parameters for

all sectors.

3 Execute the ZEAO command (Output Adjacent Cell Parameters) and store the result into a file. The syntax is ‗ZEAO;‘. This will output all adjacent cell parameters for all sectors.

Actix Switch Adaptor does not require any naming conventions or BSC names in the file names where the data is stored. However, we recommend that you name the files so that

they include the command and BSC names that they refer to. This is to prevent any easily made mistakes with unclear file naming.


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8.5.2 File formats

The OMC files are text-based files that store network configurations and parameters. These files contain verbose outputs for each sector and neighbor relation in an easily readable format. For each BSC, one set of OMC files will be imported, and in this way, Actix Switch Adaptor can build large networks consisting of multiple BSCs.


ZEAO_* files contain neighbor information for a particular BSC.

ZEQO_* files contain network information for a particular BSC.


Actix Switch Adaptor uses the Nokia Channel Finder (CF) and Defined Adjacent Cell (DAC) features to measure the BA frequencies for each sector. This means that the frequencies

measured will be those that are transmitted from the neighbors plus any other sectors that happen to transmit on these frequencies. Hence the DAC files will contain only the BCCH and BSIC combinations that are transmitted by defined neighbors. The CF files will contain

those BCCH frequencies and corresponding BSIC that do not belong to defined neighbors but where the frequency is defined in the sector‘s BA list.

In order to measure other frequencies that are not defined on any neighbor, the BA list must be changed. For Nokia this can be done directly without affecting the neighbor relations making use of the double BA list feature. This is done by creating an idle BA list for the sector that is normally used by the mobile to measure in idle mode. However, since

the relevant measurements are made in active mode, Actix Switch Adaptor will set the idle list to be used in active mode during measurement collection. During this time, Actix Switch Adaptor will maintain the original BA list but also extend it with other frequencies so that these are also being measured.

The maximum possible BA list length is 32, but there are cases when the maximum allowed value is smaller. If the Common BCCH feature is used, the maximum value is 31. If the option ISHO_SUPPORT_IN_BSC is turned on, the maximum value is 31. If the

Common BCCH feature is used together with the ISHO_SUPPORT_IN_BSC option, the maximum value is 30. This information cannot be read from either the ZEAO or ZEQO files, so it must be set by the user, on the BSC tab. The default value is 30 so that the data collection will work on all configurations, but we recommend that you set this to the appropriate value.


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Figure 8.5 – The BSCs tab

To know what frequencies to measure, Actix Switch Adaptor checks which frequencies exist inside the distance threshold specified for that sector. This threshold is specified in the user interface either manually or by the Autoset function. These frequencies are the ones that are not defined on any real neighbor but exist within the threshold. Hence they

will be scheduled for measurement for this sector. Each sector will have a different set of frequencies to measure. An easier technique is to specify a frequency set globally and use that for every sector. However, this would require a longer measurement time period and would remove the possibility to ignore distant frequencies on a sector basis.

The neighbor rotation itself is performed by copying the original BA list into the idle list and maintaining that during the whole data collection. In addition, the desired frequencies are added so that they fill the BA list up to its maximum value. For each subsequent

measurement round, the additional frequencies are changed until all desired frequencies have been covered. At the end the idle list is discarded and replaced with the original BA list. This is very important, because if the idle BA list remains on a sector after a frequency retune, it will measure a completely different set of frequencies than that demanded by the neighbors, causing a massive number of dropped calls for that sector. To minimize the risk

of this phenomenon, Actix Switch Adaptor re-enables the original BA list as soon as a sector completes its measurement. The last script will therefore re-enable only those

sectors that took longest to measure. You should ensure that this script is also executed before a frequency retune.


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There are times when the BA list is full and in order to measure other frequencies some of the existing frequencies should be deleted. This can be done in Actix Switch Adaptor by disabling a neighbor. Even though it is referring to neighbors in the tool, no neighbor relations will be affected. Instead, only the neighbor frequency that belongs to the disabled neighbor will not be maintained during the data collection as it would for other neighbors. Note however that because the neighbor‘s BCCH frequency is removed from the BA list no mobile station will be able to handover to this defined neighbor since it will not be

measured. When the data collection is done for the sector, Actix Switch Adaptor re-enables the original BA list.

The maximum possible BA list length is 32, but there are cases when the maximum allowed value is smaller. This value can be 32, 31 or 30 depending on the network. See the Neighbor rotation technique section above for more details.


Actix Switch Adaptor creates different OMC scripts as follows:

Activation of the CF and DAC features that should be executed on each BSC that will be measured.

Neighbor rotation commands that change the frequencies in the BA lists.

SQL script to download the measurements for CF and DAC.

All scripts will reside in directories that specify the date and time when the measurement should be done. Because of this, the scripts inside the directories should be executed

before the start time in the directory name. Below is an example of how this might look:

Figure 8.6 – Data collection scripts are stored in directories, one for each collection day

The first directory contains the ‗Activation.txt‘ file and the first neighbor rotation scripts. Inside the directory will be neighbor rotation scripts for every measured BSC. Both the

activation and all neighbor rotation scripts for the first day should be executed before 08.00 in the example above.

The subsequent directories contain neighbor rotation scripts that all should be executed in a similar fashion before 08.00 each day on each BSC in the example. The CF and DAC features will automatically measure during the given time periods and will need no extra user input.

The last day contains the cleanup scripts for each BSC but also deactivation of CF and

DAC, plus the download SQL script. These must be executed after the cleanup scripts. The ‗Deactivation.txt‘ script is executed on each BSC, and the ‗Download measurement.txt‘ is executed only once.

Note that the activation script for the CF and DAC features is created based on the times setting in Actix Switch Adaptor. For some systems, this feature might already be active but we recommend that you first disable the feature and enable it again with the scripts from

Actix Switch Adaptor. This will make sure that the times specified will be followed so that CF and DAC will be measured during the desired time period and output results in the correct interval.


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The result of the script execution is two text files, one for CF and one for DAC. The SQL script combines all measurements into these two files when downloading data from the OMC‘s database.

8.6 Nortel OMC data


As input data, you should provide Nortel network configuration files. These files contain different network objects parameters (for BSCs, cells, neighbors, etc.). The application needs only cells list and neighbors list (―anetwork_bts*‖) (―anetwork_adjcho*‖) files as well as corresponding files with format description (―format_bts*‖ and ―format_adjcho*‖).

anetwork_bts* files contain the cells list information for a particular OMC-R.

format_bts* format file for the anetwork_bts* above. The files should have the

same name at the *.

anetwork_adjcho* files contain neighbor information for a particular OMC-R.

format_adjcho* format file for the anetwork_adjcho* above. The files should have the same name at the *.

These files are usually located in a single directory on the OMC-R server. You can copy them from OMC-R to your local disk using FTP or some other method before importing into Actix Switch Adaptor.

8.6.2 File formats

The OMC files are text-based files that store network configurations and parameters. These files together with the format files contain verbose outputs for each sector and neighbor relation. For each OMC, one set of files will be imported,

and in this way Actix Switch Adaptor can build large networks consisting of multiple BSCs.

8.6.2.1 OMC name

When the files are imported into Actix Switch Adaptor, the tool asks for the OMC name. With Nortel, it is possible run command files automatically but to do so the OMC name must be set to the workstation name of the OMC-R machine.


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You may find this name in OMC-R Browser Administration/Session Information menu:

Figure 8.7 Getting the correct OMC name for auto execution

For more information, see section 8.5.5.

8.6.3 Process overview

Nortel has a feature called Call Path Tracing which includes MMR data collecting.

In order to start a process of MMR collection for some cells, a Call-Path-Trace object should be created via the OMC-R interface for every BSC holding these cells. After completing this

step, there should be one Call-Path-Trace object (CPT) per every measured BSC.

Then for every Call-Path-Trace object a CPT area should be specified. A CPT area is a set of

cells belonging to corresponding BSC, from which MMRs should be collected. When the CPT area is set, we can start the MMR collection process through unlocking the corresponding CPT object. To stop the process, lock the CPT object. This period between unlocking and locking is called CPT session.

To see Call-Path-Trace Id for every BSC in Nortel OMC-R, select this BSC, open its Object Monitor and in the Selection menu you will find all associated objects, in particular,

callPathTrace object with its Id.


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Figure 8.8 – Looking up Call Path Trace ID-s in Nortel OMC-R interface


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Figure 8.9 – After Call Path Trace ID-s are known, they are entered into Actix Switch Adaptor

Nortel has an important constraint regarding the CPT area – it can hold six cells maximum, i.e. MMRs from no more then six cells of one BSC can be collected simultaneously.

In order to have enough representative measurements statistics (and consequently have an interference matrix that reflects all main tendencies of traffic spatial distribution and will result in a good frequency plan) it is better to have all CPT collections at those hours of a day when the traffic load is high enough (e.g. close to the load of busy hour). It is also important to collect MMRs for the same frequencies set during enough long periods of time to have a representative number of calls from the area.

For example, we may have all MMR collections every day from 11:00 to 23:00, and each CPT session (on some cells set with some dummy neighbors set) during 3 hours. In total, we will be able to perform four CPT sessions during a day using this scheme.

Note that for different BSCs, we could run CPT sessions simultaneously (independently), so in order to evaluate

overall MMR collection duration we may take into account

only those BSCs with the longest evaluated duration.


It is not possible to modify BA lists directly in Nortel, so because of this the neighbor rotation is performed using dummy neighbors.

It is only possible to have 32 neighbors for any Nortel cell. This means that for every Nortel cell we cannot add all dummy neighbors at once, as there may be not enough free


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places for them. We have to separate them into several groups, each containing as many neighbors as a cell has free places in its neighbor list. By sequentially rotating dummy neighbor groups through neighbor lists of corresponding cells, we can have almost the same effect as measuring all required frequencies at once.

Note that if some cells in the optimization zone have 32 neighbors, you will have to delete several neighbors to make room for the dummy neighbor rotation. All disabled neighbors (disabled in Actix Switch Adaptor) will be re-

enabled after the data collection is performed.


Actix Switch Adaptor performs auto-scheduling of generated command files to avoid manually starting them at the required times. This is especially useful when you do not

have constant access to OMC-R. An additional command file, cpt_job_scheduler.cmd, is generated. You will only need to run this file on OMC-R to create OMC-R Jobs for other command files.

In order to create valid jobs, the scheduler command file must be provided with an OMC-R server path where all other command files will be placed. You can specify this in the Times

> Settings section.

Note, that during import of files into Actix Switch Adaptor the correct OMC-R name must be provided as well. See 8.5.2.1 for more information.


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Figure 8.10 Setting the server path name

All command files should be executed in ‗on error continue‘ mode, i.e. the execution should not stop when an error occurs. This is required in order to delete dummy neighbors because the script does not know which AdjCellHOId were assigned to them when they were created. It just tries to delete all neighbors with AdjCellHoId from 0 to 31 which do not belong to any real non-dummy neighbors.

As a result, Actix Switch Adaptor creates OMC scripts as follows:

Figure 8.11 – Data collection scripts


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8.7 Siemens OMC data


In order to get the files needed by Actix Switch Adaptor, follow these steps for each BSC required in the project:

1 Upload the BSC database. Specify the BSC number and the destination location. Syntax is: Uploaddb ‗RC_TOOLS:RC:0/RC_TOOLS:0,BSSID=[0..47],TGTDIR=[destination location];‘

2 The uploaded file is in binary format named dbfile.txt by the system and it needs to be converted into text. This is done with the following command: ‗RC_TOOLS:RC:0/RC_TOOLS:0,SRCF=[destination

location]/dbfile.dba,TGTF=[destination location]/dbfile.txt;‘

Actix Switch Adaptor does not require any naming conventions or BSC names in the file

names where the data is stored. However, we recommend that you name the files so that they include the command and BSC names and numbers that they refer to. This is to prevent any easily made mistakes with unclear file naming.

8.7.2 File formats

The OMC files are text-based files that store network configurations and parameters. These files contain verbose outputs for each sector and neighbor relationship. For each BSC, one file will be imported, and in this way, Actix Switch Adaptor can build large networks consisting of multiple BSCs.


*.dba files contain all neighbor and network information for a particular BSC.


Actix Switch Adaptor uses the Siemens Smart Carrier Allocation (SCA) feature to measure the BA frequencies for each sector. The BA frequencies are the collected set of frequencies that are specified for the neighbors for one sector. They are measured by the mobile

stations in order to know when and to what sector to handover. In addition, Siemens SCA has a limitation. In one SCA measurement, each desired BCCH-BSIC combination must be specified. Also, one B7 SCA object can only contain a maximum of 32 BCCH-BSIC combinations, while one B8 SCA can contain 64 BCCH-BSIC combinations. The user should set the Max BA List value in the BSC tab accordingly. This means that the mobile stations will measure the frequencies specified in the BA list together with whichever BSIC is reported, but in order to record these measurements, they must be specified in the SCA as

BCCH-BSIC combinations. This limitation puts a huge requirement on Actix Switch Adaptor and the end user in order to keep the measurement time down to a reasonable level.

In order to measure other frequencies that are not defined on any neighbor, the BA list must be changed. This is done by creating a set of sectors that are external to the BSC (TGTBTS) and assign them as neighbors to the sector that is measured. Each measured sector will get an additional set of neighbors that does not exist in reality. Because the

neighbor relationship now exists to the non-existing external sectors, their BCCH

frequencies will be added to the BA list.

A revised schedule will only contain those BCCH-BSIC combinations that have not previously been measured, however this means that an external sector (TGTBTS) will still be created and included in neighbor rotation, unless all the relevant BSIC have been measured for that BCCH. B8 has a new ―INACTIVE‖ option when defining the neighbor relationship, which Actix Switch Adaptor uses to minimize the impact of the TGTBTS on the

network. In B7 each sector can only have 32 neighbors, however in B8 each sector can have 64 neighbors. However in both cases the neighbors can only have a maximum of 32 unique BCCH frequencies, since that is the limit of the BA list. The served mobile stations


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measure all the frequencies in the BA list, wherever they come from. The result is that the SCA file will now contain other frequencies in addition to the real neighbors (if these are specified as BCCH-BSIC combinations). Each sector that needs to be measured must have an SCA object in order to record the measurements.

There is also a limitation on how many TGTBTS can be created on each BSC. This is dependant on the hardware. With the use of MPCCV7 boards or old BSC rack types, a maximum of 650 TGTBTS can be created in the BSC. If this is not the case, then the maximum is 1500. It is important to know that this limitation can heavily impact the data collection time. If only 650 TGTBTS can be created in the BSC and all sectors are measured in a BSC, then the number of TGTBTS per sector can be very small. So even if a sector has many free neighbor slots (ADJCN) that can be used by non-existing external

sectors (created TGTBTS), there might not be enough TGTBTS to speed up the data collection time. For example, the BSC contains 100 TGTBTS for existing external sectors. This means we can create 550 and use them to measure all sectors in the BSC (120). Now each sector can only use a maximum of 5 TGTBTS, even if there would be room for more neighbors. Because this limitation is determined by the used hardware, Actix Switch

Adaptor cannot know the right TGTBTS limit. This value can be set on the BSC tab. The

default value is 650 so that it will work on all Siemens BSCs without any modifications, but we recommend that you set this value to the actual limit.

Figure 8.12 – Set the Max TGTBTS limit for every BSC

To prevent handovers to a non-existing sector, the handover margin is set to its maximum value when the relation is created. This will prevent any handover to non-existing sectors.

To know what BCCH-BSIC combinations to measure, Actix Switch Adaptor checks what combinations exist inside the distance threshold specified for that sector. This threshold is specified in the user interface either manually or by the Autoset function. All BCCH-BSIC


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combinations inside the threshold will be scheduled for measurement for this sector. Each sector will have a different set of combinations to measure.

The ‗neighbor rotation‘ itself is done by maintaining the neighbor relations to the non-existing cells, and for each measurement round, specifying BCCH-BSIC combinations.

When a new set of frequencies are needed, the non-existing external sectors will be set to these frequencies, so that a new set of BCCH-BSIC combinations can be specified in subsequent measurement rounds. This process continues until all desired BCCH-BSIC combinations have been measured. In between the neighbor rotation, the SCA files for each measured sector are downloaded from the BSC onto the OMC system.

Inside the user interface, the neighbor rotation can be displayed by right-clicking on a sector and selecting ‗Sector details for …‘. This display shows two views: the left view

contains all the BCCH-BSIC combinations for the selected sector that will be measured; the right view shows how the BCCH-BSIC combinations are distributed in the different time slots or days.

Figure 8.13 – Sector details displayed for a measured sector


There are times when the neighbor list is full, and in order to measure other frequencies, some of the real neighbors must first be deleted. This can be done in Actix Switch Adaptor by disabling a neighbor. When a neighbor is disabled, it is deleted in the beginning of the data collection and added back again at the end. In this way, the original neighbor list remains the same when the data collection is done.

The maximum neighbor list size is 32 for B7. For B8 the maximum neighbor list size is 64,

however the maximum number of unique frequencies in the BA list is still 32, so this is


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normally the limiting factor. This means that for B8 it normally makes sense to delete neighbors that do not have the same frequency as any other neighbor.


The output from Actix Switch Adaptor is a set of scripts that needs to be executed in a given order on the OMC. These scripts are stored in directories where there is one directory for each execution day and each directory contains several scripts.

Figure 8.14 – Data collection scripts are stored in directories, one for each collection day.

Also, there is one set of scripts for each BSC. This is because one script can contain several hundred commands, and on the OMC system each command can take about 0.5-2 second to execute depending on how heavily loaded the OMC is. By dividing the commands

at the BSC level, they can be run in parallel from multiple consoles for all BSCs, saving execution time.

The scripts are named after the BSC number followed by a step indicator telling the execution order and then the date and time for when this script must be executed (before or after). For the first day of data collection, this can appear as shown below:

Figure 8.15 – The first day of measurement for 2 BSC-s 21 and 22. Execution should be done in the step order specified and before/after the time specified in the script names.

The ‗activation‘ script is the first script in a data collection. This contains deletion of the neighbors that were disabled in Actix Switch Adaptor and creation of all the TGTBTS.

The ‗start measurement‘ script specifies the creation of all the SCA objects with the first set of BCCH-BSIC combinations. The very first Start measurement script also contains all the neighbor creations for non-existing external sectors. All the subsequent scripts may contain frequency changes for these.

The ‗upload measurement‘ script contains upload and unzip commands for the measured files and deletion of the SCA objects. This is so it will be possible to make frequency

changes on the non-existing external sectors.

The collected SCA files are stored on the OMC system in directories with the BSC number in hexadecimal that stores all SCA measurement files for a particular date. This is stored for each date measured. There will be many SCA files in total, so it is important that all the files are archived so that no directory or file overwrites another with the same name. This can happen if there are two measurements scheduled per day; this will halve the total measurement time but increase the work needed from the engineer executing the scripts.


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8.8 ZTE OMC data Actix provides support for data collection from ZTE equipment. This support is provided as a combination of software and services, please contact Actix for more information.

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide Supported Vendor Formats 80

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9 Supported Vendor Formats

9.1 OMC Input Formats The table below shows all the supported formats for network configuration and measured data.

Vendor Switch feature required for data selection Version

Ericsson CNA, NCS, BAR NCS R7-R11, BAR R7-R12

Siemens SCA BR6-BR9

Alcatel RMS Type 31 B7-B10

Nokia CF, DAC S10, S11, S11.5

Nortel CPT V13, V15

Motorola Call Trace GSR7, GSR8

Huawei UAC, DAC BSC32

Huawei FOPM BSC6000

ZTE Actix Specific V3

Frequency plan export in native format is currently supported only for Siemens BR6 to BR9.

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide Cellopt Actix Switch Adapter Installation 81

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10 Cellopt Actix Switch Adapter Installation

The Windows installation is typically a seven-step installation, and if all the required software packages above have been installed already then the installation should take

about two minutes or so.

Note: The user does have to uninstall any previous Cellopt ASA installation that might reside on the machine.

Administrative privileges are needed to perform the installation.

During the installation, these actions may present a warning from programs like Norton AntiVirus, see e.g. Figure 10.1. For a successful installation, the action(s) must be permitted.

Figure 10.1 – This specific warning may be shown during the installation if Norton AntiVirus is available. To successfully install, you must allow the script to execute.


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The installation steps are:

The main dialog which is the first screen in the installation procedure (see Figure 10.2).

Figure 10.2 – The main dialog.

The License Agreement dialog. Please read the agreement before continuing (Figure 10.3).

Figure 10.3 – The End User License Agreement dialog.


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The missing third party products dialog, where it is possible to install additional required software products (Figure 10.4).

Figure 10.4 – The Install 3rd Party Products dialog.

Note After downloading and installing any of the 3rd Party Components, select the Recheck button so that the Cellopt

ASA installer can verify the application was installed correctly. If no problems were detected, select Next to proceed with the installation

The Choose installation folder dialog, where the user may select the default folder or Browse to a different location. (Figure 10.5).

Figure 10.5 – The Choose installation folder dialog.


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The Ready to install dialog, where the user starts the installation (Figure 10.6).

Figure 10.6 – The Ready to install dialog.

The Installing files progress view showing the progress of the installation using a bar (Figure 10.7).

Figure 10.7 – The Installing dialog.


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The Installation Complete dialog, which is the last screen in the installation process (Figure 10.8).

Figure 10.8 – The Installation Complete dialog.

10.1 Installation on a Citrix Server Installation of Cellopt Actix Switch Adapter is similar to the installation steps listed above. The primary difference is that for use with the Citrix Web Client the ASA application must

be published under Citrix—either as an installed application or by publishing the desktop.

Note: Specific instructions for publishing applications are not covered here. They can be

found in the Citrix documentation / instructions from the Citrix Administrator.

Applicable information needed for publishing the application would be the application properties > location. The command line executable for ASA is—

"c:\program files\actix\actix switch adaptor\3.1\bin\Cellopt.bat"

Which can be entered by browsing to the installation directory, selecting all files, and selecting the Cellopt.bat file.

The working directory may be automatically populated depending on the Citrix Access Management Console used. However, this working directory for ASA should be the installation BIN folder:

c:\program files\actix\actix switch adaptor\3.1\bin

Figure 10.9 – The Citrix Application Properties Location


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10.1.1 Cellopt AFP Licensing Model for Citrix

Concurrent Licensing must be used for Cellopt AFP in a Citrix environment. Please contact Actix Support for instructions on setting up and using Concurrent Licensing.

10.2 Uninstalling Cellopt ASA The Windows uninstaller for Cellopt ASA can be found under Add / Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel. Alternately, there is an uninstall link in the Start > All Programs > Actix Switch Adapter dialog box.

The uninstaller will only remove the files installed by the Cellopt ASA installer.

All program files are removed from the installation directory: C:\Program Files\Actix

Histograms are not removed from this folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Actix\Histograms

License / Activation files are not removed from this folder: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Actix\Switch Adaptor

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide Cellopt Licensing 87

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11 Cellopt Licensing

11.1 License models Different licensing models are available:

Desktop license Cellopt can run on one computer for each license.

Activation Server Desktop installations pick their licenses from a server located at Actix.

Local Activation Server

Desktop installations pick their licenses from a local server.

The desktop license is the most common licensing model and is explained in this user guide. On Citrix servers licenses can be activated using remote desktop or Citrix client and activation process is similar to desktop license activation process.

For information about the other licensing models, please contact Actix Support.

11.2 First activation After installation, the computer must be activated with a product ID. You can obtain this ID from Actix Support.

1 When no license is present and you start Cellopt AFP, the following dialog appears.

Select the first option: I want to activate this computer, and click Next.

Figure 11.1 – Select activation of computer.


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2 In the activation form, fill in the product ID circled in red and click Next.

Figure 11.2 – Enter Product ID

3 Activation is complete.

Figure 11.3 – Activation is complete.

11.3 Re-activation It is possible that your software will become de-activated and require re-activation. This can happen if:

The name of the computer changes

The hardware configuration is significantly changed

The 'Activation.xml' file is deleted or corrupted

Re-activation is the same process as activation except that your Machine ID is already registered by the Actix activation server.

To re-activate, start the Activation Wizard from the Start Menu. If the Activation.xml file is present, the correct details will be automatically entered in the wizard. Simply follow the steps to re-activate without changing any of the details.


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If the Activation.xml file has been lost, enter your Machine ID, rather than the original Product ID. If the Machine ID has been lost, you will need to contact Actix support in order to restore your license. Your user reference will assist Actix Support in restoring your license.

Note: Do not attempt to reactivate using the original Product ID as this could result in an additional license being issued to your computer.

Note Do not attempt to reactivate using the original

11.4 Management Tools Licenses can be activated and problems diagnosed with the available management tools that come with the installation. These are placed under the bin folder.

Navigate to the install directory of Cellopt AFP and open the bin folder.

Figure 11.4 – The bin folder

There are two executable files that you can run:

Activation Wizard This is the same license activation that runs automatically when you start the application without a license.

Diagnostics You can use this tool to help Actix Support in resolving general licensing issues.

Switch Adaptor Version 3.1.6 User Guide Index 90

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12 Index

A action panel, 7, 20, 22 active BCCH list, 6 Add Date Exclusion, 31 Additional data, 15 Alcatel OMC data, 57

Alcatel OMC vendor, 11 Alcatel RMS 31, 58 aLIST message, 17 All dummy frequencies result, 41

angular calculation, 37 Autoset, 16, 36, 39, 41, 62, 76 Azimuth threshold, 37

B BA list, 6, 58

C Cell Global Identity, 16 Cellopt 2 format, 15 Cellopt AFP, 6 Cellopt AFP 2 format, 46 Cellopt MDA Scheduler, 6

Color code, 50 columns

filtering, 24 sorting, 24

Common distance, 36, 39 common time slot, 39 create the project, 17

D disable sectors, 24 disabling real neighbors, 59, 60, 64, 68, 77 distance calculation, 37

double BA list, 66 Dual band system, 35 dummy neighbors, 6, 32, 58, 75 dump files, 6

E enable sectors, 24 Export Cellopt AFP Project, 46 Export Project, 44 Export Schedule, 45

F Filter, 49 filtering columns, 24 Find Signal Source, 50

Frequency, 50 frequency planning process, 6

H handover data, 17 Hide columns, 22, 25 Higher solution result, 42

Huawei OMC vendor, 12

I iANTN message, 17 iCARF message, 17

iCONC message, 17 Import Data

resolving signal sources, 50 Settings, 49 summary, 53

Import section, 9 information panel, 7, 20, 21

Interference List resolving signal sources, 49

Interferers subsection, 35 iSECT message, 17 iSITE message, 16

L left hand panel, 7

M Maximum Distance threshold, 36, 37 Minimum Distance threshold, 37 Model section, 20 Motorola OMC data, 62 Motorola OMC vendor, 12

N neighbor rotation technique, 58, 60 Neighbor rotation technique, 34 Neighbors tab, 29 New Project, 10 No ADJ slots result, 41

No dummy frequencies result, 41

No/Higher solution result, 41 Nokia, 66 Nokia CF & DAC, 49 Nokia OMC data, 65 Nokia OMC vendor, 12

Non existing externa sectors, 58, 75 Nortel OMC vendor, 12


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O OMC dump files, 6, 9, 57, 61, 62, 65, 66, 69,

70, 75

P popup menu, column heading, 25

popup menu, left hand panel, 8 popup menu, sector row, 24 Project Overview, 20

R real neighbors, disabling, 33

S sector configuration, 16

sector mapping, 15 sector traffic data, 17

Sectors tab, 23 selecting sectors, 23 Show columns, 22, 25 Siemens OMC data, 75

Siemens OMC vendor, 12 signal sources, resolution, 50 Signal Strength, 50 site location data, 16 Smart Carrier Allocation (SCA), 75 sorting columns, 24

T TGTBTS, 75 Times subsection and tab, 30 traffic information, 17

U user interface, 7


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