Sector Swap Issue in a Cellular Network

Sector Swap issue refers to the situation when cables of connected to wrong antennas, for example, sector 2 cables are connected with the sector 1 antenna and sector 1 cables are connected to sector 2 antenna. This issue can cause degraded quality, call drop, illogical hand over etc.

Power Control RxLev for GSM and DCS

The upper and lower bounds of Power Control RxLev for Downlink should be set such as signal strength is maintained slightly above the threshold of noise floor. This would provide for enough signal strength to maintain a good voice quality and keeping the interference level to the minimum. Thus, these values are kept more aggressive for DCS, being a clearer band than GSM, for instance, the upper and lower bounds for DCS are generally set to -80dBm and -90dBm as compared to GSM values of -75 dBm and -85 dBm.

GPRS and EGPRS

As per The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), GPRS has 4 coding schemes namely CS-1, CS-2, CS-3 and CS-4. CS-1 offers lowest data rate with highest data protection whereas CS-4 has highest data rates with minimal protection of data. E-GPRS uses 8-PSK modulation (transmits 3 bits per symbol) scheme and consequently has 9 coding schemes MCS-1 to MCS-9 in order of highest to lowest data protection and lowest to highest data speeds.

Antenna Tilts

There are two types of antenna tilts used in telecom networks:

1. Electrical Tilt
2. Mechanical Tilt

Electrical Tilt has a uniform affect on the main lobe whereas Mechanical Tilt causes side lobe effect when it is given a down tilt. The effect can be demonstrated easily on Coverage Planning tools.

SMS Transfer during a Call

SACCH is also used for SMS delivery when a call is in progress.

Handover Optimization in GSM

Optimizing Handover procedures in a telecom network helps a great deal in decreasing call drop rate, increasing HSR and thus improving mobility and quality of the network. Handover parameters like RxQual thresholds at which handover should be triggered, timers that control the repetition of Handover requests to neighbour cells, penalty on source cells to curb the handover requests on congested cells are some of the areas that create a significantly positive impact on network KPIs.

3G Auction in Pakistan - Get Ready

Reliable sources from the PTA have confirmed that preparations for the long-awaited 3G spectrum has once again started with a hope to complete the entire process within 6 months from now, a report on the back page of today's Express Urdu edition said. A similar report was published on Express Tribune on 18 Aug 2012 (http://tribune.com.pk/story/423595/3g-auction-process-to-be-completed-by-december/) that quoted Farooq Awan, Chairman PTA, as saying that he was quite optimistic about the introduction of 3G/4G services by December 2012.

The government should realize the importance of this technology, that would serve as catalyst for the nation's economy and employment in all sectors of the industry, not just the technical sector. A plethora of business activities is sure to start after the auction that on one hand would give a strong boost to the economy and on the other hand would be introducing an altogether new customer experience with stronger data speeds. With Android phones already in the market, online shopping, navigation services and social networking applications are expected to be the upcoming market that universities, students, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Pakistan should start preparing for!