You are on page 1of 8

OPERATION GUIDELINE

SCAN MODE DRIVE TEST

MERIT TELECOM (NIG.) LTD

Page 1

Written by Reviewed by Approved by Date Document No.

Muhammad Ameen Tadeola O. Atalabi 07-May-2009 MRTL-RF-GDL-001

MERIT TELECOM (NIG.) LTD

Page 2

Executive Summary
The purpose of this document is to give guidelines to engineers carrying out drive tests in Scan Mode using TEMS Investigation tool. The document briefly explains how to configure TEMS Investigation for scan mode drive testing, how to select channel groups for special frequencies and how to export data to Mapinfo and other tools. The document briefly discusses the post processing analysis as well.

MERIT TELECOM (NIG.) LTD

Page 3

TEMS Investigation supports scanning of GSM Radio Frequency carriers with SONY ERICSSON Phones including K790i which Merittel is using extensively for its RF Activities. However, the phone cannot act as an ordinary phone while it is scanning. In particular, it cannot engage in voice calls or data transfer.

1.1 How to setup for Frequency Scanning Mode?


The scanning tasks are setup/configured from Equipment Control Bar shown below. The buttons and combo box will be active once Phone and Dongle are connected to the system.

After connecting the devices, the above shown equipment control bar will become active. Select MS1 from the Device Combo Box. Select [GSM] Frequency Scanning from the scanning task combo box. Since Sony Ericsson K790i is only GSM/DCS capable phone so the TEMS Investigation will not show any other options like WCDMA Frequency Scanning etc. Click the Scanning Properties button. The Measurement Settings dialog box will show up as shown below. The options in the dialog box might differ slightly depending upon the capabilities of the scanning devices.

MERIT TELECOM (NIG.) LTD

Page 4

The options on the dialog box are; Manual Selection: Clicking will open a new dialog box where we can select the frequencies whose scanning is intended. See section 1.1.1. The check box should be checked as BSIC decoding is the requirement of ZAIN Nigeria. The check box should be checked for better post test analysis.

Decode BSIC:

Decode SI on Strongest Cell:

1.1.1 Channel Selection


On the following dialog box you can either configure the channel groups or can manually select frequencies on your own accord. ZAIN Nigeria is using the following frequencies in their network. GSM [900 Band] : 101 116 DCS [1800 Band] : 736 - 763

The simplest way is to write the frequencies manually in the Select Channels box. The syntax for writing ZAIN frequencies is;

101-116,736-763[1800]
MERIT TELECOM (NIG.) LTD Page 5

You can also define your own channel groups by clicking on the Define button on the Select Channels Manually dialog box. Select Ok and return to Equipment Control Bar.

1.2 Performing a Scan


On the Equipment Control Bar, choose the device to scan with in the combo box Select GSM Frequency Scanning. Click connect. Start recording the log file as per normal procedure. Click the Start Scanning button. Once you have finished traversing the intended drive test route, click the stop scan button. Please note that during Scan Mode Drive Test, you will not be able to see any footprint in the map inside TEMS investigation however, Scan Bar chart will keep showing changing signal levels of various scanned frequencies.

1.3 Presenting the Data


There are multiple ways to present and analyze the scanned data.

1.3.1 Scan Bar Chart


TEMS Investigation has a built in chart for showing scanned data. To open a scanned bar chart, Open the Navigation Pane and then click in the following order, Navigation Pane Presentation GSMScanningScan Bar Chart

MERIT TELECOM (NIG.) LTD

Page 6

Once the Scan Bar Chart is displayed as shown below, the two separate charts could be interpreted as; The top chart by default shows the strongest scanned frequencies/channels sorted by decreasing signal strength. The bottom chart by default shows all scanned frequencies/channels in order of ascending ARFCN.

1.3.2 Exporting the log file to Mapinfo


The log file could be exported in the same manner as being done for normal drive test log files except that different Information Elements need to be selected for the export to MapInfo tab format. On the menu bar, click in the following order to make the necessary selection for Information elements. LogfileExport LogfileAdd order(on the Add Export Order dialong box, click)Setup, the following window will show up;

MERIT TELECOM (NIG.) LTD

Page 7

Select the information elements as indicated. You may add extra ones depending on your requirement for analysis. The map could be drawn indicating signal level of one frequency on the entire route. For example see frequency scan of Site ANA025 sector A with ARFCN 743 on the entire route.

MERIT TELECOM (NIG.) LTD

Page 8

You might also like