Which tool can give Timing Advance data for Ericsson RAN?

4G LTE
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1

Hello Ericsson Experts.
Which tool can give us Timing Advance data for Ericsson RAN?
Will it be ENIQ?
Or something else?
If we would like get a dump of TA data from multiple sites can we use the same tool?

2

For UMTS there is counter available from ENIQ.

For LTE also there is counter available however you need to activate a feature in nodeb and need to do some configuration in ENIQ.
But for LTE it’s better to check TA from CTR in Ericsson Internal TA event.

3

CTR…
Can you please clarify what that is?

4

Cell Traffic Recording file - trace log files.

5

Thanks!
So, for LTE ENIQ can also be used if we know the Counter ids, correct?

6

No. For LTE you only have activated relevant feature and you need to do some configuration in ENIQ.

It is possible to extract ta values counter. After activating the feature in RBS, if counter values are not available in ENIQ, talk to Ericsson OSS team.

Feature name is Enhanced Cell id in traces.
Internal Event name in CTR - internal_per_radio_ue_measurement_ta
counter name - pmtimingadvance(but I think this counter is deprecated in latest release of Ericsson RAN).

1 Like
7

For E///, a new server is needed besides OSS to support the Timing advance counters as they generate huge data unlike tue propagation delay in 3G or Timing advance in 2G.
Periodic CTR trace for couple of hours can be sufficient

9

This conversation is a bit old, but it doesn’t hurt to leave this note for anyone who needs to know about this.

There are some counters that do not require activating cell traces to know the TA, but it is an approximation and the precision is lower, these counters are:

  • pmTaInit2Distr: Initial distance distribution of LTE capable UEs camping on a cell, where UEs are not BL/CE or NB-IoT. Distance is estimated from TA index. Each bin keeps number of UEs attached at given distance.

  • pmTaInitDistr: Distribution of distance of attaching UEs from cell, estimated from Timing Advance (TA) index value. Each bin keeps number of UEs attached at given distance. Deprecated: Since 19.Q3. Planned to be removed.

Both counters are available in the EutrancellFDD Vector tables (DC_E_ERBS_EUTRANCELLFDD_V_RAW, DC_E_ERBS_EUTRANCELLFDD_V_DAY), and are activated as a normal PMIC statistical subscription.

Cell Trace / EBS-L Subscription

For higher precision counters, they are activated as an event-based subscription (EBS-L Subscription/Cell Trace), and the counters are:

pmTaDistr:
The granularity of TA counter pmTaDistr shall be generated according to below granularity conditions.

  • 100m granularity for 0 km to 5km (one-way)
  • 250m granularity for 5km to 15km (one-way)
  • 1km granularity for 15km to 20km (one-way)
  • 5km granularity for 20km to 100km (one-way)
    One-way Distance (m) = Nta x c x Ts /2, Ts = (1/(15,000 x 2048)) (sec), c = 3 x 10^8 (m/sec)
    Nta = (Distance x 2 x (15,000 x 2048))/ (3 x 10^8),
    For example, if Distance is 100, the Nta is about 21. The ranges of PDF map are the Nta values. The Timing Advance values are specified in TA.

pmTimingAdvance:
This measurement shall provide a distribution of the Timing Advance values for the UEs connected to a Cell. The values map directly to round-trip UE-Cell core distances in km. The Timing Advance values are specified in units of Ts ( = 1 / (2048*15000) sec = 32.55ns ).

Both counters are available in the tables: DC_E_ERBS_EVENTS_EUTRANCELLTDD_V_RAW and DC_E_ERBS_EVENTS_EUTRANCELLTDD_V_DAY.

Personally, for a quick study, I prefer to use pmTaInit2Distr, as it uses fewer platform and node resources. But for greater precision, I definitely prefer pmTaDistr.

Each counter has its own particular calculation method (one-way, round trip) and its level of precision, so choosing the one that best suits you will depend on your specific case study.