Title: Mobile Network Performance- Salalah- Detailed ... · Key Performance Indicators Measured:* ... KPI Definition and Formula* ... (2G+3G) To check network accessibility, retain-

Title: Mobile Network Performance- Salalah- Detailed Benchmarking Field Test Report

(August 2014) Reference: 02/2014 Issue: 1.0 Date: 01/09/2014

Copyright 2014 Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA)

Reference: 02/2014 Issue: 1.0 Date: 01/09/2014 Page: 2

Issue Revision Control:

Issue Number Issued Date Reason of Revision

1.0 01/09/2014

[ X ] For Publication

[ ] For Internal Use


Contents

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 5

2. Methodology (Test Configuration) ............................................................................................. 5

3. Key Performance Indicators Measured: ................................................................................... 6

5. Coverage ....................................................................................................................................... 6

6. Results Summary & Analysis ..................................................................................................... 7

6.1 Mobile Voice Coverage ............................................................................................................. 7

6.2 Mobile Voice Performance ....................................................................................................... 8

6.3 Broadband Performance ........................................................................................................... 9

7. Salalah East (Sa’adah, Sahalnoot, Dahariz) .......................................................................... 10

7.1 Mobile Voice ............................................................................................................................. 10

Call Statistics .............................................................................................................................. 10

7.2 Mobile Broadband .................................................................................................................... 11

Data Session Statistics ............................................................................................................. 11

7.3 Coverage ................................................................................................................................... 12

Received Signal Level Statistics .............................................................................................. 12

8. Salalah West (Auqad, Industrial Area, Raysut, Festival Area) ............................................ 13

8.1 Mobile Voice ............................................................................................................................. 13

Call Statistics .............................................................................................................................. 13



8.3 Coverage ................................................................................................................................... 15


9. Salalah Center (Haffa, Al Wadi, Al Qauf, Haseela, City Center) ......................................... 16

9.1 Mobile Voice ............................................................................................................................. 16

Call Statistics .............................................................................................................................. 16



9.3 Coverage ................................................................................................................................... 18


10. Static Broadband Test Results ................................................................................................ 19

10.1 3G Tests ................................................................................................................................. 19

10.2 LTE Tests ............................................................................................................................... 20


Annex 1- Mobile Voice Coverage - Salalah ............................................................................... 21

Annex 2: KPI Definition and Formula .......................................................................................... 22


1. Introduction This report is based on a field test exercise conducted in Salalah City for benchmarking service provider’s mobile voice and data network’s coverage and performance during Khareef season 2014. The tests were conducted in mobile for voice & mobile and static modes for broadband networks of Omantel and Nawras throughout Salalah City from 8th August 2014 to 11th August 2014, the tests were conducted between 7:30 A.M to 10:00 P.M to capture the overall network performance over the course of the day. The data was collected by taking network measurements in two rounds on the pre-planned drive test routes, initially for mobile voice which was more intense in terms of the distance covered and then for mobile broadband which constituted a relatively shorter route. A total of around 1000 km was driven throughout Salalah during the exercise.

2. Methodology (Test Configuration) The following configuration was used for measurements:

Also, the following basis were taken into account:

• The coverage summary is based on the geographical drive test route used during the

measurement exercise. • The exercise has been conducted independently by the Authority without sharing any prior

information with the service providers about the type of tests being performed or location.

Service Tested

Technology Mode

Objective Test sequence KPIs measured

Omantel-Mobile voice

Dual (2G+3G)

To check network accessibility, retain-ability, mobility, service integrity and coverage

Calls of 90 sec duration with a 20 sec idle wait time between them to allow for cell reselection from 2G to 3G mode.

CSSR, CDR, CSR, RxLev, RSCP.

Omantel-Mobile & Static broadband

Mobile: 3G Static: 3G+LTE

To check data network performance and 3G coverage

HTTP file download from the service providers network and ping test.

Latency, Packet loss, Avg downlink throughput, RSCP.

Nawras-Mobile voice

Dual (2G+3G)

To check network accessibility, retain-ability, mobility service integrity and coverage

Calls of 90 sec duration with a 20 sec idle wait time between them to allow for cell reselection from 2G to 3G mode

CSSR, CDR, CSR, RxLev, RSCP.

Nawras- Mobile & Static broadband

Mobile: 3G Static: 3G+LTE

To check data network performance and 3G coverage

HTTP file download from the service providers network and ping test.

Latency, Packet loss, Avg downlink throughput, RSCP.


• The results of the exercise are based on the data collected from the field at a certain instance of time and day; network behaviour may vary with traffic variations over time.

• Industry standard tools and work best practices have been used during the whole exercise. • The broadband performance for LTE is measured using standard modems available commercially

by running tests on service provider’s ‘Speedtest’ servers in the core network.

3. Key Performance Indicators Measured: Mobile voice performance was measured based on the following set of KPIs:

Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR)– This indicator is used to measure the percentage of calls successfully established without facing blockage in the network as ratio of the total number of call attempts made to access and establish a voice call. Call Drop Rate (CDR) – This indicator is used to measure the percentage of calls dropped due to technical problems or coverage gaps in the service provider’s network as a ratio of the total number of calls successfully established.

Call Success Rate (CSR) – This indicator is used to measure the percentage of calls successfully established without facing blockage in the network as a ratio of the total number of call attempts made to access and establish a voice call and then successfully terminated from the user-end without being dropped or disconnected from the network side due to a technical irregularity.

Mobile broadband performance was measured based on the following set of KPIs:

• Packet Latency - Packet delay, which represents the time taken for data packets to pass through the GPRS bearer in a round-trip time from the mobile to the server in the service provider’s core network and back to the mobile.

• Packet Loss is the percentage of packets lost between designed routs in the network. It is used to indicate the loss of data packets during transmission over a telecommunications network.

• Average downlink throughput - This is the average downlink throughput (rate at which data/bits are transferred to the user) experienced by a user while downloading content from the Internet.

The detailed formula for the above mentioned KPI is explained in Annex 2.

5. Coverage Coverage was assessed based on the following radio parameters:

• Received Signal Code Power (RSCP) – This indicator measures the received signal code power of the pilot channel in the downlink during the drive test (to check 3G coverage).

• Received Signal Level (RxLevSub) - This indicator measures the received signal strength in downlink during the drive tests (to check 2G coverage).


The above two radio parameters are used to take the measurements, which is then translated into penetration levels for the coverage bar charts and illustrated in color coding on the mobile voice coverage maps (annex 1) for making it easier to understand.

The following drive test conventions are used for the graphs and coverage plots.

3G CPICH RSCP (dBm)

2G RxLevSub (dBm)

Range Range Classification Penetration

>= -80 >= -75 Excellent Indoor

>=-87 and <-80 >=-82 and <-75 Good

>=-100 and <-87 >=-95 and <-82

Fair In-Car

<-100 <-95 Weak Outdoor Only

The above mentioned penetration range is based on the assumption of -7 dBm for in-car and -20 dBm for in-building penetration loss. However, in reality this may vary slightly from case to case depending on a number of factors like area profile, construction material, thickness of walls etc.

6. Results Summary & Analysis

6.1 Mobile Voice Coverage

• Omantel exhibits excellent in-door voice and broadband coverage. • Nawras exhibits excellent in-door voice coverage. • Both service providers exhibit excellent In-Car voice coverage throughout Salalah City. • Nawras Indoor broadband coverage is significantly less than Omantel. • During the field test measurements it was observed that in Nawras 3G broadband network the

serving active cell is not always the strongest one available. • In General, Omantel exhibits better mobile voice and broadband coverage.

99.59 99.95 98.24 99.98 98.05 99.46 83.62 92.01

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

City Indoor Roads In-‐Car City Indoor Roads In-‐Car

Mobile Voice (Dual) Mobile Broadband (3G)

Coverage Summary

Omantel Nawras


6.2 Mobile Voice Performance

• In Salalah City, Omantel exhibits excellent performance in voice call accessibility. • Nawras also exhibits good performance in voice call accessibility. • Call retain-ability is good for Omantel • Nawras call retain-ability is slightly on the lower side. • Overall Omantel exhibits better end to end voice call performance.

99.11

1.80

97.32 97.88

3.46

94.49

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

CSSR CDR CSR

Value (%

)

KPIs

Mobile Voice

Omantel Nawras


6.3 Broadband Performance

• Both service providers exhibit similar performance in mobile and static broadband (3G) with respect to the average downlink throughput.

• Omantel broadband network (3G) exhibits lower average packet latency than Nawras in mobile and static tests.

• The average packet latency for Omantel (3G) is higher in the static mode than mobile because of high latency rates experienced in some specific locations; refer to the details in section 10.

• Packet latency in Nawras 3G network is higher than Omantel for mobile and static broadband. • Bother service provider’s exhibit excellent broadband performances in LTE network with

Nawras having higher downlink throughput rates on average. • Omantel 3G broadband network performed very poorly in Mughsayl and Wadi Darbat and

very few samples were collected.

1.29 1.49

32.92

1.17 1.47

39.63

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

35.00

40.00

45.00

Mobile Broadband (3G) StaUc Broadband (3G) StaUc Broadband (LTE) Pa

cket Laten

cy (m

s)

Avg. Dow

nlink Th

roughp

ut (M

bps)

Broadband Performance

Avg. Downlink Throughput (Mbps) Omantel Avg. Downlink Throughput (Mbps) Nawras

Avg. Packet Latency (ms) Omantel Avg. Packet Latency (ms) Nawras


7. Salalah East (Sa’adah, Sahalnoot, Dahariz)

7.1 Mobile Voice

Call Statistics Omantel Nawras Dual (2G+3G) Mobile Originating Call

Attempts 57 64 Attempts Succeeded 57 61 Attempts Failed 0 3 Completed 57 59 Dropped 0 2 CSSR 100 95.31 CDR 0 3.28 CSR 100 92.19

CSSR: Call Setup Success Rate (Higher is better) CDR: Call Drop Rate (Lower is better) CSR: Call Success Rate (Higher is better)

100

0

100 95.31

3.28

92.19

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

CSSR CDR CSR

Value (%

)

KPI

Voice KPIs

Omantel Nawras


7.2 Mobile Broadband

Data Session Statistics Omantel Nawras 3G Ping Sent 670 800

Received 670 800 Lost 0 0 Packet Loss 0% 0% Packet Latency (ms) 108.23 193.95

HTTP DL Avg. App Throughput (kbps)

1116.39 1213.59

108.23

193.95

0.00%

0.00%

0.20%

0.40%

0.60%

0.80%

1.00%

0

50

100

150

200

250

1

Packet Loss (%)

Packet Laten

cy (m

s)

Mobile Broadband

Packet Latency Omantel Packet Latency Nawras Packet Loss Omantel Packet Loss Nawras

0

400

2000

5000

1116.39

Avg. Downlink Throughput (kbps)

0

400

2000

5000

1213.59

Avg. Downlink Throughput (kbps)

Nawras

7.3 Coverage

Received Signal Level Statistics Mobile Voice (Dual)

Omantel Nawras Omantel Nawras Penetration Level Count PDF(%)

INDOOR Excellent 5875 5459 94.91 90.32 Good 283 524 4.57 8.67

IN CAR Fair 32 60 0.52 0.99 OUTDOOR only Weak 0 1 0 0.02 Mobile Broadband (3G)



IN CAR Fair 188 702 2.55 10.25 OUTDOOR only Weak 2 20 0.03 0.29

0

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100

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

Excellent Good Fair Weak PD

F (%

)

Coun

t

Mobile Voice (Dual)

Omantel Count Nawras Count Omantel PDF Nawras PDF

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

Excellent Good Fair Weak

PDF (%

)

Coun

t

Mobile Broadband (3G)



8. Salalah West (Auqad, Industrial Area, Raysut, Festival Area)

8.1 Mobile Voice


Attempts 55 55 Attempts Succeeded 54 55 Attempts Failed 1 0 Completed 52 52 Dropped 2 3 CSSR 98.18 100 CDR 3.70 5.45 CSR 94.55 94.55


98.18

3.70

94.55 100.00

5.45

94.55

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

CSSR CDR CSR

Value (%

)

KPI

Voice KPIs

Omantel Nawras




Received 520 470 Lost 0 0 Packet Loss 0% 0% Packet Latency(ms) 91.43 175.75


1287.82 1041.25

91.43

175.75

0.00%

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

0

50

100

150

200

Packet Loss (%)

Packet Laten

cy (m

s)

Mobile Broadband


0

400

2000

5000

1287.82 Avg. Downlink Throughput (kbps)

0

400

2000

5000


Nawras


8.3 Coverage




IN CAR Fair 19 227 0.36 4.14 OUTDOOR only Weak 1 1 0.02 0.02 Mobile Broadband (3G)




0

20

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80

100

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000


F (%

)

Coun

t

Mobile Voice (Dual)


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PDF (%

)

Coun

t




9. Salalah Center (Haffa, Al Wadi, Al Qauf, Haseela, City Center)

9.1 Mobile Voice


Attempts 112 118 Attempts Succeeded 111 116 Attempts Failed 1 2 Completed 109 113 Dropped 2 3 CSSR 99.11 98.31 CDR 1.80 2.59 CSR 97.32 95.76


99.11

1.80

97.32 98.31

2.59

95.76

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

CSSR CDR CSR

Value (%

)

KPI

Voice KPIs

Omantel Nawras




Received 1560 1458 Lost 0 2 Packet Loss 0% 0.14% Packet Latency(ms) 86.81 175.32


1383.68 1183.42

0.00%

0.14 %

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

0 20 40 60 80

100 120 140 160 180 200

Packet Loss (%)

Packet Laten

cy (m

s)

Mobile Broadband


0

400

2000

5000


0

400

2000

5000


Nawras


9.3 Coverage




IN CAR Fair 33 44 0.28 0.37 OUTDOOR only Weak 10 0 0.08 0.00 Mobile Broadband (3G)




0

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0 2000 4000 6000 8000

10000 12000 14000


F (%

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Coun

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Mobile Voice (Dual)


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PDF (%

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10. Static Broadband Test Results

10.1 3G Tests

S.No. Test Location

Coordinates Avg. Packet Latency (ms)

Avg. Downlink throughput (Mbps)

Lat. Long. Omantel Nawras Omantel Nawras 1 Airport 17.0380 54.1065 74.14 59.33 2.42715 2.12744 2 Awqad 17.0044 54.0397 111.83 82.13 1.58992 1.72278 3 Dahariz 17.0220 54.1651 243.87 74.28 0.61834 1.95468

4 Festival Area 17.0367 54.0595 100.42 60.85 2.03684 1.47465

5 Gardens Mall 17.0223 54.0657 75.12 56.16 2.0255 1.92555

6 Gold Souq 17.0122 54.0930 75.49 138.12 2.00884 1.06081 7 Haffa Souq 17.0005 54.1025 98.64 131.92 1.39498 1.01356

8 Al Wadi (Opp. Lulu) 17.0186 54.0608 69.54 62.74 2.49008 2.34149

9 Wali Office 17.0223 54.0839 76.48 317.68 1.74763 1.8775 10 Mughsayl 16.8781 53.7678 138.1 333.5 0.11569 0.27489

11 Sa’adah Center 17.0517 54.1533 147.58 65.56 1.82119 1.55837

12 Salam

Commercial Center

17.0109 54.0871 92.66 66.73 1.62469 1.08026

13 Sultan Qaboos Mosque

17.0160 54.0941 298.53 520.57 0.71033 1.72297

14 Wadi Darbat 17.1026 54.4517 221.70 616.13 0.18147 0.41607

Avg. Downlink Throughput: Higher is better Packet Latency: Lower is better

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

0 0.5 1

1.5 2

2.5 3

Packet Laten

cy (m

s)

Avg. Dow

nlink Th

roughp

ut (M

bps)

LocaUon

StaUc 3G

Avg. Downlink throughput (Mbps) Omantel Avg. Downlink throughput (Mbps) Nawras

Avg. Packet Latency (ms) Omantel Avg. Packet Latency (ms) Nawras


10.2 LTE Tests

S.No. Test Location Coordinates Avg. Packet Latency

(ms) Avg. Downlink throughput

(Mbps)

Lat. Long. Omantel Nawras Omantel Nawras 1 Airport 17.0380 54.1065 31 37.33 63.28 44.06 2 Awqad 17.0044 54.0397 31 38.33 18.96 37.67 3 Dahariz 17.0220 54.1651 54.33 45 5.51 58.71 4 Festival Area 17.0367 54.0595 36 37.67 56.09 20.34 5 Gardens Mall 17.0223 54.0657 46.33 35 25.62 10.07 6 Gold Souq 17.0122 54.0930 36 40 42.91 29.54 7 Haffa Souq 17.0005 54.1025 31 39.67 42.49 57.40

8 Al Wadi (Opp. Lulu) 17.0186 54.0608 36 39.67 25.44 47.49

9 Wali Office 17.0223 54.0839 31 39.5 45.21 28.55 10 Mughsayl 16.8781 53.7678 No LTE network

11 Sa’adah Center 17.0517 54.1533 42 38.33 23.50 54.27

12 Salam

Commercial Center

17.0109 54.0871 31 37 30.51 55.45

13 Sultan Qaboos Mosque

17.0160 54.0941 40 39.67 15.55 45.55

14 Wadi Darbat 17.1026 54.4517 No LTE network 48.33 No LTE

network 26.08

Avg. Downlink Throughput: Higher is better Packet Latency: Lower is better

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Packet Laten

cy (m

s)

Avg. Dow

nlink Th

roughp

ut (M

bps)

LocaUon

StaUc LTE

Avg. Downlink throughput (Mbps) Omantel

Avg. Downlink throughput (Mbps) Nawras

Avg. Packet Latency (ms) Omantel

Avg. Packet Latency (ms) Nawras


Annex 1- Mobile Voice Coverage - Salalah Received Signal Level - Omantel

Received Signal Level - Nawras


Annex 2: KPI Definition and Formula

1- Mobile voice:

The Mobile Voice performance was based on the following set of KPIs: Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR)– This indicator is used to measure the percentage of calls successfully established without facing blockage in the network as ratio of the total number of call attempts made to access and establish a voice call.

𝐶𝑆𝑆𝑅 =𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑆𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑝 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠

𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐴𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑠∗ 100

Call Drop Rate (CDR) – This indicator is used to measure the percentage of calls dropped due to technical problems or coverage gaps in the service provider’s network as a ratio of the total number of calls successfully established.

𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑆𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑝 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠

∗ 100

Call Success Rate (CSR) – This indicator is used to measure the percentage of calls successfully established without facing blockage in the network as a ratio of the total number of call attempts made to access and establish a voice call and then successfully terminated from the user-end without being dropped or disconnected from the network side due to a technical irregularity.

𝐶𝑆𝑅 = 𝐶𝑆𝑆𝑅 ∗ (1 − 𝐶𝐷𝑅)

2- Mobile Broadband

The mobile broadband performance was judged based on the following set of KPIs: Packet Latency - Packet delay, which represents the time taken for data packets to pass through the GPRS bearer in a round-trip time from the mobile to the server in the service provider’s core network and back to the mobile. Packet Loss

𝑃𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 1 −𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑃𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑

𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑃𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑡∗ 100

Average downlink throughput - This is the average downlink throughput (rate at which data/bits are transferred to the user) experienced by a user while downloading content from the Internet.

Documents

Title: Mobile Network Performance- Salalah- Detailed ... · Key Performance Indicators Measured:* ... KPI Definition and Formula* ... (2G+3G) To check network accessibility, retain-