OptiMon is a suite of SW tools that allows mobile network operators to drastically reduce their cost for Radio Network Optimization and Troubleshooting.

OptiMon can be the key success factor for a mobile network operator to achieve the contrasting goals of reducing operating costs while improving the network quality.

OptiMon’s unique feature set is targeted at making Radio Network Optimization and Troubleshooting of mobile networks more efficient. At the same time, it provides measurements and analysis results that are not provided by other test tools.

One major source of cost reduction comes from OptiMon’s ability to substitute drive test. Based on its unique feature set, OptiMon allows for a reduction of overall drive test activities by 60 to 80%. Especially in a 3G network, drive test proves to be particularly inefficient and very costly. OptiMon will allow network engineers to achieve better results within a dramatically reduced time.

Additional potential for significant cost reductions lies in the efficiency that network engineers gain when using OptiMon instead of other tools. Because of OptiMon’s advanced network optimization tools and unique analysis features, the average time of trouble ticket resolution is drastically reduced.

OptiMon’s ability to provide traffic and quality analysis on geographic maps allows network planning engineers to determine more precisely where additional sites or equipment upgrades need to be performed. This network planning support by OptiMon can translate into significant savings of capital expenditures while improving network quality.

The cumulated cost savings enabled by OptiMon provide network operators who utilize this solution a positive ROI in less than one year.

OptiMon®

Advanced RAN Performance Monitoring and Optimization Suite

Increase Effectiveness and Efficiency of Network Optimization

• Improve the overall efficiency of the organization for Performance Monitoring and Troubleshooting

• Improve the Quality of Experience as perceived by subscribers

• Increase network capacity and control costs of upgrades

• Reduce the use of Drive Test to only those cases that really have an impact and cut the overall operating expenses

• Reduce the time to trouble resolution with actionable information extracted from all critical network interfaces

Product Datasheet - OptiMon | May 2012 | www.tekcomms.com

Datasheet | OptiMon

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Key Benefits

• Increase QoE performance: OptiMon® can be used to increase the perceived quality of service by the users, independently of the underlying technology. The Tektronix’ system qualifies the service performance at the application layer and is delivered with a high number of predefined and flexible KPIs giving the flexibility to monitor and classify all the services delivered in their network

• Dramatically reduce the need for drive testing: The OptiMon® system makes every user of the Mobile Network a virtual test device, which significantly reduces the need for drive testing. The geolocation capabilities of OptiMon® system provides the opportunity to redirect drive test for specific purposes.

• Save time with the OptiMon® “drill down or drill up” system capabilities: OptiMon® is not just a network monitoring and optimization system based on KPIs - the system flexibility allows for the fastest root cause analysis of problems.

• Automatic Audit Generation: Provides user-configurable network performance reports that can be used by management, optimization, planning and operations teams to greatly improve the efficiency of work procedures and time to problem resolution.

• Automated alarming functionalities: Warn the network operations and optimization teams when user defined RAN KPI thresholds are exceeded

• Geo-location of problems: OptiMon® incorporates a GIS system that geographically locates detected problems. Operations and optimization specialists can quickly focus on rapid issue resolution and verification

• Automatic Configuration: The OptiMon® AutoConfig function

will automatically configure itself from the signaling of the monitored links. This unique patented feature allows for the automatic discovery of all elements in the monitored area of the network.

• Future proof: Tektronix Communications is fully dedicated to enabling current and future mobile network technologies. Our technology leadership manifests itself through intimate and strategic relationships with Mobile Network Operators and Network Equipment Manufacturers.

Solution features

OptiMon provides a variety of automated tools that provide specific information that is vital to Radio Optimization engineers. It will enable them to:

• More efficiently perform their daily tasks• Focus on the most important issues• Save time and makes optimization tasks easier

OptiMon enables efficient Radio Optimization and Tier II/III troubleshooting within a 3G network with use of KPI trend analysis, radio charts, and detailed handover analysis.

Network KPIs and Dashboards

OptiMon Dashboards display the trend of specific KPIs over time. In contrast to KPIs from OMC/OSS and network monitoring systems (which are usually based on attempt/success event counters), OptiMon KPIs are based on counting dedicated failure events that allow a classification of problems and point to the root cause much faster.

The selection of one particular KPI on the main Dashboard screen allows drill down to the distribution of that KPI over time, and with the list of top infected cells. The user can also directly access various detail-analysis modules:

• Radio charts: essential to understand the interaction between radio parameters and the performance of the services

• Message sequence chart: allows the analysis of the message flow across all the interfaces

• Call Details window: decodes the content of every protocol message and the content of every valuable field in the message

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Geolocation Functions

OptiMon includes two Geolocation functions as optional add-on applications:

• OptiMon built-in geolocation - indicates failure events on geographic maps, including call drops, failed RRC procedures and failed handover attempts

• CovMo – superior geolocation accuracy with a very rich feature set

Direct Drill-down capabilities from the geographic maps to call details greatly simplifies the root cause analysis process.

Network Benchmark Report

The Network Benchmark Report is highly customizable, allowing specific KPIs to be displayed. KPI threshold violations are color highlighted, enabling “at a glance” assessments. For easy trend comparison, KPI values of the previous day are also provided.

User efficiency is enabled by allowing direct drill-down to the appropriate dashboard and detailed reports.

3G Delay Measurements

OptiMon provides a number of delay measurements that have been recognized as important network quality indicators. These delay KPIs include:

• Paging Response Time Iu• CS RAB Setup time• PS RAB Setup time• CS Call Setup Time • PS Service Setup Time• RRC Conn Setup Time

The KPI results are provided through an innovative interactive application:

• The delay KPI values are grouped in bins, each bin representing a delay range

• Automatic Cell ranking • The bin distribution of delay values is shown at a glance

Datasheet | Optimon

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Soft-Handover Cell Matrix Analysis

OptiMon Cell Matrix is a specific analysis tool for assessing inter-cell relationships - it provides comprehensive statistical analysis functions for 3G Soft-handover relationships.

• Each line in the Cell Matrix represents a cell neighbour relationship between two cells

• For this relationship, a wealth of analysis information is provided, including:

- cell configuration data (names, distance from each other, azimuth, frequency)

- radio information of source and neighbour cells - handover attempts, interference, and KPI information - information on how often a neighbour cell was in active, monitored

or detected set & what the respective radio conditions were

From the Cell Matrix, a direct drill-down to a geographic representation is possible for any given cell neighbor relationship.

Cell Radio Analysis

It can often be important for the optimization engineer to understand the radio conditions of a certain cell and its neighbours.

The OptiMon Cell Radio Analysis is targeted at such use cases. It provides direct access to a large variety of cell radio parameters. “Ranking” can be used to identify “top-offenders”, or specific cells can be picked directly from a list, supported with search & sort functions.

Inter-RAT 3G/2G Handover Analysis

Interworking between 3G and 2G is a significant aspect for today’s mobile networks. In many cases, the 2G network is utilized as coverage back-up and capacity off-load to the 3G network. Therefore, it is essential for the network and optimization engineers to understand existing interworking situations between 3G and 2G cells.

OptiMon provides a Cell Matrix analysis tool that is dedicated to 3G/2G Interworking performance analysis.

Each line in this tool represents a neighbor relationship between a 3G and a 2G neighbor cell. Each 3G/2G neighbor pair can be analyzed comprehensively with respect to their handover performances and involved Inter-RAT radio qualities.

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Handset Performance Analysis

The Tektronix OptiMon application provides refined handset benchmarking and analysis capabilities. A rich set of handset-related KPIs supports comparison of handset performance related to Accessibility, Retainability, and QoS KPIs.

Handsets are very commonly the root cause for service problems. Those root causes include software and chip problems that manifest themselves only under specific conditions, but also issues with radio receiver capabilities (including built-in antennas).

The OptiMon handset benchmark report in combination with OptiMon’s root cause analysis capabilities provides a powerful application, with handset KPI aggregation up to network level being supported.

Troubleshooting and Root Cause Analysis

Tektronix Communications has a proven track record of providing market-leading troubleshooting and root cause analysis solutions for mobile network technologies, thus enabling the technology development of all major NEM vendors, and supporting a seamless workflow for activities in operations, optimization and customer service departments towards root cause analysis.

The Tektronix Communications solution provides this seamless workflow throughout its user applications:

• Tier 1 RAN performance monitoring & troubleshooting provided by GeoProbe

• Tier 2/3 advance RAN performance monitoring and optimization provided by Optimon.

RAN Sharing Analysis Support

RAN sharing is rapidly gaining importance for various mobile network operators around the world. OptiMon’s RAN-sharing related analysis functions can add substantial value to the management of such shared network assets. OptiMon has a track record of being successfully deployed in multiple RAN-sharing environments.

Multi-RAB analysis

Experience has shown that Multi-RAB calls are more prone to call drops and other quality problems than calls with single RABs. OptiMon has a number of built-in features targeted specifically at analyzing Multi-RAB calls for accessibility, retention, and Quality of Service/Experience issues.

Interoperability Analysis

The OptiMon solution provides KPIs that allow users to directly assess potential interoperability issues. Combined with OptiMon’s comprehensive root cause analysis capabilities, these KPIs provide mobile network operators with the tool-capabilities to effectively manage their vendors’ interworking.

OptiMon provides the ability to save relevant call data (in the de-facto industry-standard format RF5), allowing other involved vendors (i.e. NEMs and handset vendors) to perform their root cause analysis.

HSDPA Cell Traffic Analysis

The OptiMon HSDPA Cell Traffic Analysis allows rapid identification of which cells have the most HSDPA users and the most traffic:

• How HSDPA resources (i.e. HS-DSCH bandwidth) are distributed amongst users

• How much bandwidth is allocated to users relative to their UE category max bandwidth

This not only allows assessing HSDPA performance and cell utilization, but also to approximate the quality of experience (QoE) for network users.

Datasheet | Optimon

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OptiMon UMTS KPI Dashboards & Reports

OptiMon features 22 Dashboards with more than 130 Radio Network KPIs.The table below lists all 22 available dashboards:

Paging Efficiency Session Management AnalysisCS Registration Analysis NBAP/ALCAP AccessibilityPS Registration Analysis NBAP Retainability and MobilityCall Release and Detach Analysis NBAP Service DistributionSecurity Functions Analysis RNSAP/ALCAP AccessibilitySMS and Supplementary Services Analysis RNSAP Retainability and MobilityCS Accessibility (Call Setup Analysis) RNSAP Service DistributionPS Accessibility (Call Setup Analysis) RRC AccessibilityCS Retainability (Call Drop Analysis) RRC RetainabilityPS Retainability (Call Drop Analysis) RRC RetainabilityMobility (Handover) Analysis RRC HSPA Accessibility

KPI and quality reports for UMTS

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The OptiMon solution is designed to monitor and analyze the RNC interfaces (Iub, Iur, IuCS, and IuPS). The data processing is performed in the following main steps:

1. GeoProbe or K18 / High.Link probes capture Iub, Iur, and Iu traffic on the specified RNC interfaces and forward the signaling to the Network and Service Analyzer (NSA).

2. The data is processed by the the NSA, which is the signaling analysis engine of OptiMon.

3. The KPIs from NSA are then aggregated by the TrendNavigate Server. Results are stored in a data base for access by user client applications.

The Stream–Store–Analyze Architecture of NSA

The performance-optimized processing concept of NSA is based on the separation of data acquisition, data processing and data analysis. This architecture is called Stream-Store-Analyze architecture.

The separation of the data acquisition and data processing steps into two independent activities allows data capturing to be sustained at a much higher rates compared with data processing. If traffic peaks occur, which exceed the processing rate of NSA, they will be captured and stored to disk. The processing will continue at maximum rate during the traffic peak; a so-called “back-log” will occur. In such cases, the availability of results will be delayed until the backlog has been processed off. However, no data is lost and traffic peaks can thus be buffered and are “averaged” out.

Data Acquisition

The Iub, Iur, and Iu data capturing from the RNC interfaces is performed by either GeoProbe or K18 / High.Link probes. Additional functions performed by the probes include filtering, time-stamping and reassembly.

Pre-processed data is streamed to the NSA-Server where the analysis of the data (i.e. deciphering, call tracing and KPI processing) is performed.

OPTIMON SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Copyright © Tektronix. All rights reserved. Tektronix products are covered by U.S. and foreign patents, issued and pending. Information in this publication supersedes that in all previously published material. Specification and price change privileges reserved. TEKTRONIX and TEK are registered trademarks of Tektronix, Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

About Tektronix Communications:Tektronix Communications provides network operators and equipment manufacturers around the world an unparalleled suite of network diagnostics and management solutions for fixed, mobile, IP and converged multi-service networks. This comprehensive set of solutions support a range of architectures and applications such as LTE, fixed mobile convergence, IMS, broadband wireless access, WiMAX, VoIP and triple play, including IPTV. Tektronix Communications is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

Learn more about the company’s test, measurement and network monitoring solutions by visiting www.tekcommss.com.

For Further Information:

Tektronix Communications maintains a comprehensive, constantly expanding collection of application notes, technical briefs and other resources to help engineers working on the cutting edge of technology.Please visit www.tekcomms.com

Contact Tektronix Communications:Please visit www.tekcomms.comPhone:1-800-833-9200 option 1

+1-469-330-4000

About this Document:

The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice and does not carry any contractual obligation for Tektronix Communications. Tektronix Communications reserves the right to make changes to any products or services described in this document at any time without notice. Tektronix Communications shall not be held responsible for the direct or indirect consequences of the use of the information contained in this document.

Processing

The first step in the data processing chain is call tracing: i.e. all messages for a call/session are correlated together from all monitored interfaces. This includes message reassembly, macro-diversity combining (Iub) and deciphering (Iub, Gb). Call tracing result are stored in the NSA server data base as extended CDRs. Message and frame details will be stored in the industry-standard RF5 format on the server HDDs.

A second step in the data processing chain is the calculation of KPIs. All KPIs along with their dimensions are stored in the NSA server database.

Aggregation and Data Enrichment

The OptiMon™ architecture comprises an aggregation and data management server - the TrendNavigate Server (TN Server) – with the following functionality:

• Aggregate data from one or multiple NSA processing servers• Enrich data during the aggregation process (e.g. correlate with GIS data, calculate optimization

reports, correlation with handset mapping, etc.)• Store aggregated data in a local database• Manage stored data over time

OptiMon Management & Administration Center

OptiMon is a distributed multi-user system that performs correlation of data from multiple sources. The OptiMon Management & Administration Center (OMAC) is a central web-based application that enables OptiMon system administrators to manage OptiMon users and various supplementary information sources in one place.

OMAC provides the following functions:

• Network-wide Cell & Network Configuration File Management • System-wide Handset Mapping Information Management• System-wide Roamer Information Management• System-wide OptiMon User Administration• System-wide OptiMon User Activity Logging• Network-wide aggregation of selected performance KPIs