Scan Mode Drive Test Guide

MERIT TELECOM (NIG.) LTD

OPERATION GUIDELINE

SCAN MODE DRIVE

TEST


Written by Muhammad Ameen Reviewed by Tadeola O. Atalabi

Approved by Date 07-May-2009

Document No. MRTL-RF-GDL-001


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.


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.


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.

Decode BSIC: The check box should be checked as BSIC decoding is the requirement of

ZAIN Nigeria.

Decode SI on The check box should be checked for better post test analysis. 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]


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


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;


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.

Scan Mode Drive Test Guide

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