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Represents a measure of UMTS technology: the total level of noise within

the UMTS frequency band of any cell.


RTWP is related to uplink interference, and its monitoring helps control the
call drops - mainly CS. It also has importance in the capacity management,
as it provides information for the Congestion Control regarding Uplink
Interference.
In UMTS, the uplink interference may vary due to several factors, such as
the number of users in the cell, the Service, Connection Types and
Conditions of Radio, etc..
As our goal is to always be as simple as possible, we will not delve in
terms of formulas or concepts involved. We will then know the typical
values, and know what must be done in case of problems.

Typical Values
Ok, we know that RTWP can help us in checking the uplink interference,
then we need to know its typical values.
In a network is not loaded, normal, acceptable RTWP Average value is
generally around -104.5 and -105.5 dBm.

Values around -95 dBm indicate that the cell has some uplink interferers.
If the value is around -85 dBm, the situation is ugly, with strong uplink
interferers.
Usually we have High, Low and Medium measures of RTWP. However, the
maximum and minimum values are recommended only as auxiliary or
reference, since they may have been caused by a peak of access, or even
been forced to have a momentary value due to some algorithm i.e..
Thus, the value that helps us, and has the most accurate information is the
same Mean RTWP!
For cases in which cell has two carriers, the difference between them
RTWP should not exceed 6 dB.

Based on these typical values, most vendors have an alarm: RTWP "Very
High".

What to do in case of problems?


We have seen that RTWP can cause performance degradation, mainly CS
Call Drops. Note: Actually, it's not RTWP that causes performance
degradation. What happens is that when its value is 'bad', it's actually
indicating the presence of interference - the latter being responsible for
degradation.
But what can we do when we find bad values?
If RTWP is not at acceptable levels, some actions should be taken.

The first thing to do is check if there is a configuration issue with the


RNC or NodeB. This is the most common case, especially in cases of
new activations.

Once verified the parameter settings, the next step is the physical
examination, especially jumpers and cables, often partially reversed.
It also should be checked if there is faulty transmitters, or any other
problem that could generate intermodulation between the NodeB
and the antenna.

If the parameter settings and hardware are ok, the chance is very
high that we have external interference, such as a Interferer
Repeater.

In cases where there may be external interference, we must begin to act


after such a prioritization based on how much this is affecting the cell KPI's
across the network, if it carry high traffic, major subscribers, etc..
Note: There are many forms of interference in the uplink, both internal and
external. Only a few are listed above. The deepening of all possibilities is

beyond the goal of being simple to teach the concepts, but this is a
suggestion for whoever wants to deepen the study, identification and
elimination of interference.

In practice
to find - and eliminate - problems of interference is one of the biggest
challenges in our area. For being such a complex problem, we recommend
that be collected enough data for each investigation. Insufficient data
collected can lead to erroneous conclusions, further worsening the
problem.
The uplink interference may appear only in specific periods. Thus, it is
recommended that data be collected from at least one week (7 days) for
every 24 hours. Usually this amount of data is sufficient. In the figure
below, we see different days and times - colorful - a fictional example
where the interference occurred.

Data should be collected for the suspicious cell, but also for its adjacent
cells, allowing it to make a triangulation increasing the chances of locating
the source of interference.
Another way to locate the source of interference is to do a test in field. An
antenna guy must gradually change the azimuth of the antenna, while
another professional do RTWP measurements. That is, through the
information directing the antenna and the respective values of RTWP, you
can draw conclusions very good.
It is obvious that changing the online system may not be a good practice,
and tests can be made with a Yagi antenna and a Spectrum Analyzer.
Vendors offer several ways to measure RTWP, using the OSS, performance
counters and logs.

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