ActixOneVersion_6_0_0_GA_UserGuide_Edn1.pdf

Version 6.0.0

ActixOne

User Guide

The content of this manual is provided for information only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Actix. Actix assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that appear in this documentation. Copyright © Actix 2012. All rights reserved. All trademarks are hereby acknowledged.

ActixOne Version 6.0.0 GA

User Guide edition 1

2

Contents About this User Guide ..................................................................................... 6 Using the help ..................................................................................................... 6 Table of contents ................................................................................................................. 7 Search ................................................................................................................................ 7 Browse sequences................................................................................................................ 7 Favorites ............................................................................................................................ 7 Toolbar ............................................................................................................................... 7

About ActixOne .............................................................................................. 8 How ActixOne works with data ................................................................................ 8 Predictive data ..................................................................................................... 9

Getting started............................................................................................. 10 Logging in to ActixOne ........................................................................................ 10 Log in ............................................................................................................................... 10 Login errors ...................................................................................................................... 11

The user interface .............................................................................................. 11 The navigation menu .......................................................................................................... 12 The network configuration display ........................................................................................ 14 Time filters........................................................................................................................ 16 Copying data ..................................................................................................................... 17 Deep linking ...................................................................................................................... 18 Panel docking .................................................................................................................... 19 The About screen ............................................................................................................... 20 Accessing Administration .................................................................................................... 20 Keyboard shortcuts ............................................................................................................ 20

Map controls ...................................................................................................... 21 Map zooming ..................................................................................................................... 22 Selecting sectors................................................................................................................ 23 Map layers ........................................................................................................................ 23 Background maps .............................................................................................................. 41 Location finder................................................................................................................... 42 Printing and exporting ........................................................................................................ 44 View in Google Earth .......................................................................................................... 44 Home location ................................................................................................................... 45 Creating a Custom Area polygon .......................................................................................... 45 Legend ............................................................................................................................. 47 Map scaling ....................................................................................................................... 49 Distance and azimuth measuring ......................................................................................... 50 Altitude profiling ................................................................................................................ 50

Visualizing the customer experience ............................................................... 52 The Customer Experience summary dashboard ...................................................................... 52 Visualizing data trends ....................................................................................................... 54 Using the summary table .................................................................................................... 55

Optimizing the network ................................................................................. 57 Network optimization concepts ............................................................................. 59 Tasks ............................................................................................................................... 59 Maps ................................................................................................................................ 60 Charts .............................................................................................................................. 60 Areas ............................................................................................................................... 60 Attributes ......................................................................................................................... 60 Key performance indicators ................................................................................................. 61

Tasks ............................................................................................................... 61 About tasks ....................................................................................................................... 61 The Task List ..................................................................................................................... 64 Viewing task details ........................................................................................................... 65 Auditing tasks ................................................................................................................... 69 Contributing events ............................................................................................................ 70 Task properties .................................................................................................................. 71



3

Creating tasks ................................................................................................................... 71 Server-side reports ............................................................................................................ 73 Defining filters ................................................................................................................... 79 Views ............................................................................................................................... 82 Filtering tasks by Scope ...................................................................................................... 84

Spotlight tasks ................................................................................................... 85 Removing survey data from a Spotlight task ......................................................................... 85

Select Survey Data Source to analyze .................................................................... 87 Date/Time scope ................................................................................................................ 88 Filters ............................................................................................................................... 88 Download Attribute Report .................................................................................................. 89

Exploring call events ........................................................................................... 90 Copy to Clipboard .............................................................................................................. 91 Events Piechart .................................................................................................................. 91 Call flow analyses .............................................................................................................. 91 Color Events by Diagnosis ................................................................................................... 92 Color Events by Sector ....................................................................................................... 92 Drilldown .......................................................................................................................... 93 Event Filters ...................................................................................................................... 94 Pivot Table ........................................................................................................................ 94 Layer 3 visualization using Drilldown .................................................................................... 97 Data Service Analysis examples ......................................................................................... 100

Radio network analysis ...................................................................................... 103 Cell coverage .................................................................................................................. Pilot pollution .................................................................................................................. Missing neighbors ............................................................................................................ Export Sector Plots........................................................................................................... Antenna Visualization .......................................................................................................

105 107 109 113 114

Uploading survey files ....................................................................................... 119 Create Spotlight Task ....................................................................................................... 121 Upload Survey File Results dialog ....................................................................................... 121

Using charts .................................................................................................... 122 Chart features ................................................................................................................. Chart options .................................................................................................................. Create a chart ................................................................................................................. Customize a chart ............................................................................................................

122 124 124 125

Using mini charts ............................................................................................. 126 Using tables .................................................................................................... 127 Table options................................................................................................................... 127 Configuring tables ............................................................................................................ 128

Selecting devices.............................................................................................. 130 Viewing network events ..................................................................................... 131 Group events .................................................................................................................. 132

Displaying bin attributes .................................................................................... 133 Filtering map elements ...................................................................................... 134 Apply an attribute filter..................................................................................................... 135 Perform co-channel filtering .............................................................................................. 135 Apply a custom filter ........................................................................................................ 136

Network optimization tools ................................................................................. 136 Survey layer.................................................................................................................... Attribute Picker ................................................................................................................ Event options .................................................................................................................. Time Picker ..................................................................................................................... Lock ............................................................................................................................... Templates ....................................................................................................................... System date .................................................................................................................... Element search ................................................................................................................ Channel analysis .............................................................................................................. Points of interest.............................................................................................................. Sector Footprints ............................................................................................................. Transient data .................................................................................................................

137 139 144 144 145 145 147 148 154 156 161 162

Customer Experience in Network Optimization ....................................................... 164



4

Viewing Customer Experience attributes on the map ............................................................ Viewing Customer Experience attributes on charts ............................................................... Viewing Customer Experience attributes in tables ................................................................ Example use cases for Customer Experience .......................................................................

164 170 172 172

Benchmarking............................................................................................ 176 Benchmarking concepts ..................................................................................... 177 Campaigns ...................................................................................................................... Analyses ......................................................................................................................... Periods ........................................................................................................................... Areas .............................................................................................................................

178 178 178 178

Performing a benchmarking analysis .................................................................... 179

Dashboard................................................................................................. 180 Examining the survey file status ................................................................... 181 Filtering files.................................................................................................... 183 Performing actions on selected files ..................................................................... 184 Reprocess files ................................................................................................................ Ignore files ..................................................................................................................... Make a file valid............................................................................................................... Download files ................................................................................................................. Download cell refs ............................................................................................................ View and manage properties ............................................................................................. View surveys ................................................................................................................... Delete data ..................................................................................................................... Delete files ...................................................................................................................... Purge records ..................................................................................................................

184 184 185 185 185 185 186 186 186 186

Comparing networks ................................................................................... 187 Comparing by area ........................................................................................... 188 Comparing by location....................................................................................... 189 Delta comparisons ............................................................................................ 190

Investigating problems................................................................................ 191 Network event investigations.............................................................................. 191 Investigation plots ............................................................................................ 194 Plot by area .................................................................................................................... 194 Plot by location ................................................................................................................ 195

Managing survey data ................................................................................. 196 Browsing surveys ............................................................................................. 197 Browsing Browsing Browsing Browsing Browsing Browsing

surveys by location............................................................................................. surveys by Area ................................................................................................. surveys by device .............................................................................................. surveys by property ........................................................................................... by source path ................................................................................................... surveys by sector/site .........................................................................................

197 198 198 199 200 200

Survey action options........................................................................................ 201 Managing file and device properties ..................................................................... 202 Downloading survey files ................................................................................... 203 Viewing event details ........................................................................................ 204 Creating a Spotlight investigation task ................................................................. 205 Adding surveys to a Spotlight investigation task .................................................... 206 Adding surveys to a benchmarking campaign ........................................................ 207

Configuring custom applications ................................................................... 208 Index ........................................................................................................ 209



5

About this User Guide The ActixOne system comprises several components, one of which is the Client interface. This purpose of this user guide is to describe the functionality, the user interface, and the features of that client, which will be described here simply as 'ActixOne'. Note that this means the other components that form the back end of the system, such as the web services, are not covered by this guide. For information about installing ActixOne, refer to the ActixOne Installation Manual, the ActixOne Call Trace Manual and the ActixOne Upgrade Manual. For information about operating and administering the system, refer to the ActixOne Administration Manual and the ActixOne Benchmarking Manual. These documents are available in .pdf format. This guide introduces you to the role that ActixOne plays in network optimization and survey management by describing the most important key terms and concepts and by familiarizing you with the features of the system. This guide shows you how to use ActixOne to do various tasks, including the following:



optimizing networks – see Visualizing the customer experience, p52.



managing files – see Examining the survey file status, p181



managing surveys and call traces – see Managing survey data, p196



viewing the performance of networks – see Comparing networks, p187



investigating problems – see Investigating problems, p191

To learn more about how to make the most of this guide, refer to the Using the help topic below.

Using the help This WebHelp version of the ActixOne User Guide employs a two-pane approach: the left-hand pane contains a table of contents, a search tool, a browse sequence and a list of any favorite searches and topics; and the right-hand pane displays the selected topic as a web page. In the area above the topic is the help toolbar, which has icons that enable you to perform various actions, for instance showing or hiding the table of contents and printing a topic.

The User Guide's web interface



6

Table of contents This contains the complete list of topics in the guide, arranged in a hierarchical and navigable structure. Items that have a book icon contain subtopics and can be expanded and collapsed. To hide the left-hand pane from view, click the Hide navigation button on the toolbar.

Search This enables you to query the User Guide for topics that meet the search criteria that you provide. The results are ranked. If you want to reuse a search term after closing the User Guide, click the Add search string to favorites button . The term can then be found in the Favorite Searches section of your favorites.

Browse sequences This is a list of selected topics that provides an introduction to each of the main features, or modules, of ActixOne. It is suggested that you start at the top of the list and work down through each topic to get an overview of the product. Click the Browse sequence of topics icon on the toolbar to open the list when the navigation pane is hidden.

Favorites This option displays any searches and topics that have been added as favorites, using the Add topic to favorites button on the toolbar. You can use these to locate quickly those subjects that you often search for and to store topics that you want to bookmark. To remove a search subject or a topic, select its check box and click the Delete selected favorites button .

Toolbar This helps you move through previously-viewed topics and to manage topics. Here you can open the browse sequence, show or hide the navigation pane, and add topics to your list of favorites. You can return to the User Guide's front page by clicking the Go to home page button and you can print the currently visible topic by clicking the Print this topic button .



7

About ActixOne ActixOne is a Web-based solution for the automatic reporting and geographical visualization of network performance on maps. It provides an efficient way for engineers to analyze and optimize networks, and for network operators to compare the performance of a home network with competing networks. In order to enable operators to perform these tasks, ActixOne uses a single, centralized environment that features several different modules, displayed in the left-hand navigation menu (see p12), and each providing different 'views' of the network data so that engineers can compare multiple KPIs rapidly across an entire network. For more information, see The user interface section on p11.

How ActixOne works with data ActixOne uses survey data, predictive data (see the next topic), and call trace data (see the ActixOne Call Trace Manual for information on configuration and usage). Typically, the information displayed is derived from survey data – test or measurement data, such as drive test, benchmarking, autonomous collection and agent-based collection systems, and from network configuration data. Essentially these consist of one or more mobile devices coupled with mechanisms for logging the messaging between the device and the network and for recording the geographical position. Pipelines use queries and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure whether a network performs successfully. In addition, quality performance indicators (or QPIs) are KPIs that are used in benchmarking (see p176), and are KPIs aggregated for an area over time to provide a historical comparison of network performance. ActixOne collects data from a number of sources. One of these is benchmarking data, which is drive test data that has been collected from multiple technologies or networks to compare the KPIs from various technologies and networks (see the ActixOne Benchmarking Guide for configuration information). Another form of data is autonomous data, which is drive test data that has been collected using equipment installed on thirdparty fleet vehicles, such as taxis, buses, or delivery trucks. The equipment runs unattended and receives instructions from and sends data back to the operations center over a radio link. There are physical elements that provide ActixOne with data. Called network elements, these are all the elements in the physical network, such as an Operations and Maintenance Center (OMC), switch, controller, site, or sector. As part of the physical network, sectors are defined as a frequency that is served by a base station at a particular location. This base station, called a site, represents the physical address of one or more transmitting and receiving stations. For example, a site might represent a tower block on top of which there is both a GSM BTS and a WCDMA Node B, each of which might be subdivided into several sectors. The precise location of each of the sectors is recorded independently. In ActixOne, a site's visualization can be customized depending on the needs of the organization. By default, a site appears as a dot with its



8

associated sectors radiating from it. However, if the systems engineers modify the context.ini configuration file, the sites on the map may use different icons. Note In addition to these types of persistent data, ActixOne also supports transient data, cell data that is loaded into the system for a short period of time.

Predictive data Data management helps to lessen the burden caused by increased network complexity and aims to integrate support into the network's operations. Using predictive data (which are projections about the future state of the network based on its actual state), it is possible to create more accurate predictions over a period of time. Predictive data files are loaded into the ActixOne database so that it is possible to analyze a network by comparing it against a model. Analyzing predictive data also means that you can investigate the current model for either existing or for potential problems. Note that predictive data files are not the same as survey data files - they cannot be viewed or searched for in the Survey Management module. However, they are listed in the File Status module. Predictive data files listed here have the following properties:



In the Survey column, they are marked with 'No' to indicated that the file is not a survey file



When a predictive data file is selected, the View Survey button is unavailable



It is possible to download a predictive data file, to get the cell refs, and to view its properties

In ActixOne, predictive data can be analyzed on its own through the Problem Investigation module (see p191). This enables users to view individual predictive data files that relate to a particular area and period of time. In addition, the data can be analyzed by comparison through the Network Comparison module (see p187). Here, predictive data can be compared against drive test data or even against another predictive data model for a particular area and period of time.



9

Getting started ActixOne has been designed with ease-of-use and system usability as a priority. This section of the User Guide describes the user interface and the features of the ActixOne client, which here is called simply 'ActixOne'. It introduces users to the key common features of the interface as well as how to use them.

Logging in to ActixOne To start ActixOne, open a Web browser and then enter the URL of the ActixOne server in the browser's address field. The browsers supported by ActixOne include Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 8 onwards) as well as Mozilla Firefox.

Log in 1

Depending on the security setup determined by the administrator, you may need to log in before you can begin using ActixOne. If so, you are presented with a login screen, as shown below.

Logging in to ActixOne 2

You can click the Advanced View button to display the Remember Username check box. Select this option to have ActixOne show the specified name in the User Name field each time you log on.

Remembering the user name 3

Enter a valid username and password and then click the Log In button.



10

Login errors Note that if your network password changes, you may find that you are unable to log in due to a 403 HTTP error. This is as a result of the web browser using your cached (but now different) password. You can solve this by clearing your browser's cache. To do this in Internet Explorer, for example, perform the following steps: 1

Select Tools > Internet Options.

2

In the Browsing history section of the General tabbed page click the Delete button.

3

Clear the temporary Internet files and the cookie files and then click Close.

4

You may need to close and then reopen the browser before trying to log in again.

The user interface The user interface for ActixOne has been designed for simplicity and ease of use. Each module is different, but there are broad similarities. For the Network Optimization module, the interface comprises these areas:

The ActixOne client interface displaying Customer Experience data 1

Navigation menu Contains the list of modules available to users and administrators in the current installation—for example, Network Optimization, Benchmarking, Custom Applications, Customer Experience, Dashboard, File Status, Network Comparison, Problem Investigation, and Survey Management.



11

2

The Survey Data Source filter pane Allows you to narrow the data included in the various ActixOne analyses.

3

The map pane Used for plotting information on a map. The context date for the plotted information is shown at the top center of the map. You can select various information layers to be displayed, for example Surveys, Networks, Customer Experience, Indoor etc.

4

The mini chart pane Used for plotting information for a selected sector or mesh square on a set of mini charts. Double click on a mini chart to display it in a full-size chart window. See p126.

5

A display pane Used for configuring ActixOne and for working with data, or modifying the system, depending on the module that has been selected. For example, Network Optimization provides the tabs Task Management, Call Event Explorer, and Radio Network Analysis.

You can expand and contract the viewing area in any module either by clicking and dragging the dividers on the panes to the required size. Alternatively, you can click the dividers (called the 'accordion') to completely collapse the panes or to expand them to the last specified size. To make it easier to keep important information visible while working, you can dock and maximize panels, such as charts and tables. To find out specific information about the navigation menu and the modules it contains, refer to the navigation menu topic below. If you want to learn more about the controls that are available on the map, refer to p21. Note that some of the map controls are only available in the Network Optimization module, and for this reason the controls that are specific to this module are covered on p136.

The navigation menu The navigation menu, located on the left hand side of the ActixOne interface, enables users to choose the type of information to view. The menu items – called modules – are arranged in groups that are focused around particular tasks or user activities, such as performing system administration or investigating or managing network problems. Depending on the configurations made by the administrator after the installation of ActixOne, the modules available in the navigation menu can include the following:



Customer Experience This summary dashboard allows network managers to visualize data relating to how customers perceive the network. If any issues are identified, the Network Optimization module provides a Customer Experience layer that allows for deeper investigation.



Network Optimization (p52) This enables engineers to make effective decisions about the network based on tasks that have been opened and events that have occurred in an area. Here the tasks are managed, the reasons for problems investigated or analyzed, and corrections recommended.



12



Benchmarking (p176) This enables network operators to perform historical and geographical benchmarking analyses. Automated benchmark reporting helps engineers to diagnose problems and to investigate the results using the underlying data.



Custom Applications (p208) The Custom Applications module allows you to launch user-specific URLs or web links to reports. The module includes a Manage Applications page, where you can define a link name and URL that will appear in the panel under the Custom Applications tab. When you click a link name, the related URL is launched in a new browser window.



Dashboard (p180) This provides a map-centric view of tasks, showing task volumes and the breakdown of tasks by problem, cause, action and who is assigned to the task.



File Status (p181) This displays status information relating to the processing of data survey files.



Network Comparison (p187) This shows comparisons of the performance of two networks over an area and over a period of time in order to standardize the integration of network infrastructure.



Problem Investigation (p191) This provides views of the conditions or attributes of key problems at a cell level, which enables operators to understand and fix them.



Survey Management (p196) This module provides users with access to drive test and measurement data as well as access to tools that maintain a record of notes and comments about each survey. You can search for and find drive survey files.



Reports This module contains links to various custom data reports, developed for different, bespoke ActixOne deployments.



Help This module contains a link to the ActixOne User Guide, an on-line version of this document.



13

The network configuration display Sometimes, ActixOne maps can include a lot of cell site and sector information. To assist users by not crowding the interface with too much information, ActixOne modifies how much is displayed depending on the magnification of the map. When zoomed out, the sites and sectors are rendered as points to distinguish the sites and to make it easier to navigate the map and avoid the neighboring sites overlapping.

Sites and sectors viewed at a high level As the map is zoomed in, the points increase in size and are eventually rendered as sites with wedges for sectors.

Sites and sectors viewed at a moderate level



14

At any zoom level it is possible to see the name and basic properties for a site or sector in a tooltip by placing the mouse pointer over the sectors.

Sites and sectors viewed at a close level To modify the zoom level at which sectors and sites – as well as other network properties – are visible, use the Network settings in the Layers control. See the Map Controls topic on page 21. To view more information about a sector, click its wedge. Sectors are shown as selected by their larger size and a bold outline. Double-clicking the sector opens an information box that displays the characteristics or properties of that sector. Depending on the amount of detailed information available for the sectors, you may need to expand the folders to drill down and find the required information.

A sector's Properties dialog box



15

Time filters The time filter control allows operators to specify the period of time to report against. Only data collected at times falling in the defined period is presented in ActixOne's reports and analyses. The time filters are available in the Network Comparison, Problem Investigation, and Survey Management modules. A specialized version of the filter is available in the Network Optimization module. When you use a page that provides a date range option, the format of the date depends on your system locale. If set to the US locale, the date will be in the format mm-dd-yyyy, while if you are in any non-US locale, the date format will be dd-mm-yyyy. Note The system locale is determined by settings made in the Regional and Language Options section of Windows' Control Panel. The following filter modes can be selected:



Context



Absolute



Relative

Once you have made the appropriate selection, click the Apply Changes button. Context This selects the context date around the task. Absolute Use this filter when you need to provide a specific start date or time and an end date or time for investigation. You can enter a date in the Start Date and End Date fields or you can click the date picker icon to choose a date from the calendar, and click the time picker icon to choose a time from the clock.



16

Selecting a start date from the calendar and an end time from the clock Relative Use this filter when you need to select from a number of options that are relative to the current date.

Selecting a date relative to today You can specify one of the following relative options:



today, yesterday, last week, or last month



the last configurable number of hours, days, weeks, months, or years

Copying data There are times when it may be necessary to extract the contents of or data in tables in ActixOne. For instance, you might want to put the data in a spreadsheet or in a report. The Copy to Clipboard button, which is available in the File Status and Problem Investigation modules, can be used to copy data to the Windows clipboard. From here it can be pasted into another relevant application.



17

The Copy to Clipboard button

Deep linking ActixOne uses deep linking (also called "inline linking") to create a hyperlink that points, or links, to a specific page. This enables users to obtain a shortcut URL for the page or report currently being viewed. This URL contains the results of the report, including the date and time scope, and network, device, and area information.

The deep link icon used to open the Shortcut URL dialog By copying the URL from the Shortcut URL dialog box, you can then paste the link into an e-mail, an instant messenger program, or a web browser and open the page referenced by that URL. In addition to referencing a page, a deep linking URL can include an operation that is executed on that page, such as a lookup operation. For example, you can use the Survey Management page to browse for a sector's survey file and then you can use the deep linking option to copy the resulting URL. If you then run the URL in a browser's window, the map will center on the specified sector and load the data from that lookup operation. Deep linking is available in the Network Optimization, File Status, Survey Management, Problem Investigation, and Network Comparison modules.



18

Accessing the deep link URL for a report

Panel docking When you are working with charts and tables, it may be easier to view the data if the panels are docked, and you can clearly see the map in order to select different sectors. When you dock a panel, the panel is added temporarily to the existing network optimization tabs, as shown below. You can also maximize a panel so that it fills the entire application window.

The docked Chart panel Dock and undock a panel To dock a chart or table, perform the following steps: 1

Open a panel and click the Dock Panel button

2

Once it has been docked, you click the Restore This Tab button to return the tab to the panel format. Alternatively, you can close the tab by clicking the Close This Tab button .



.

19

Maximize a panel To maximize a panel, perform the following steps: 1

Open a panel and click the Maximize Panel button . Alternatively, you can double-click the panel’s title bar.

2

After a panel has been maximized you can restore it to its previous size by clicking the Restore This Tab button. You can dock it by clicking the Dock Panel button. Or you can close it by clicking the Close button.

The About screen For information about the version number of the ActixOne installation, rightclick anywhere on the ActixOne interface and select the About ActixOne option from the shortcut menu.

The About screen In addition to information about ActixOne, the About dialog box also includes useful links to third-party providers, such as to the terms of use for the Microsoft map data and to the designers of the icons used on the interface.

Accessing Administration The Administration area includes numerous tools for creating and managing the ActixOne system, such as configuring nodes, identifying events, creating pipelines, specifying areas, and managing database query tables, and is only available to ActixOne administrators. To access Administration, right click on the interface and select the Admin option. The Administration features are covered in depth in the ActixOne Administration Manual.

Keyboard shortcuts Keys

Effect

Home

Go to the home location

Page Up / Down

Map Zoom in / out

+/-

Map Zoom in / out



20

Keys

Effect

Shift + Click

Select a further element

Shift + Drag

Select elements in a rectangle on the map

Ctrl + Click

Deselect a selected element (or select a further element)

Ctrl + Drag

Map Zoom into a rectangle

Ctrl + Alt + Drag

Map Zoom into a circle

Hold Alt + multiple clicks Draw the corners of a polygon on the map Hold Alt + double click

Draw the last corner of a polygon on the map

Map controls The map contains features that control what is displayed as well as how the map elements are displayed. These features enable you to search for locations and to measure distances, to print areas of the map, to modify what is shown on the map, and to set a home location. The following general controls are available:



map zooming



map layers



location finder



printing



legends



map scale



distance measuring



home location Note There are a number of additional map controls available in the Network Optimization module. Because these tools are unique to this module, more information about them can be found in the Network optimization tools topic on page 136.



21

Map zooming The map zoom control The map zoom control is located at the top left-hand corner of the map display. Hover the cursor over the control to expose the zoom tool and then click the pin icon to keep it open.

The map zoom control You can zoom in or out using the following actions:



clicking the



sliding the bar of the control towards the



using the mouse scroll wheel (scroll up to zoom in and down to zoom out)



double-clicking the map view to center and zoom to the selected point



using the Page Up and Page Down keys on the keyboard

and

symbols on the control and

symbols

Zoom in to an area There are two ways for you to zoom to a selected area of a map. First, by pressing the Ctrl key and then dragging the mouse pointer, you can draw box area to which ActixOne will zoom when you release the Ctrl key.

Zooming to a box area



22

Secondly, by pressing the Ctrl and Alt keys and dragging the pointer, you can draw a circle to which ActixOne will zoom when you release the keys.

Zooming to a circular area

Selecting sectors If you want to select multiple sectors from the map at one time you can do this either by pressing the Ctrl key and selecting each sector individually or by pressing the Alt key and clicking on the map to draw an area. Doubleclick at the last point to complete the area. All sectors within the area are then selected. Sectors that are selected have a glowing halo around them.

Drawing a polygon to select sectors

Map layers The map view is built up from a number of layers that are stacked on top of one another, each layer displaying a specific set of information. The final map view is equivalent to looking down from above onto the top of the stacked layers. By default, all coverage-related layers are arranged at the bottom, with the Background Map layer always the bottom layer. If you rearrange the layer order, this new ordering will be saved. The control can be accessed by clicking on the Layers icon located in the left-hand corner of the map, as indicated in the image below. The map layer control enables users to customize the look and feel of a map by controlling what layers are displayed and how they are presented.



23

The map layers control Depending on the configuration of the system, the layer options may enable you to modify action balloons, events, survey markers, networks, survey trails, and the type of map. The layer control for the Network Optimization module contains options that are not available in other modules in ActixOne. More information about some of these unique elements can be found in the Network optimization tools topic on page 136.

Some options for controlling map layers Click the pin icon in the top right-hand corner of the control to keep it open. The control displays a list of layers and map views. For each one of these, the layer control displays the following:



a checkbox that indicates whether or not that layer is to be displayed on the map



a slider to adjust the transparency of the layer

To show a layer on the map, select its checkbox. Select it again to hide it. Some layer options are configurable and as such can be clicked in the control (they are identified by their blue-colored text). The attributes layer is available when you are performing network analyses in the Problem Investigation module. Some layers are specific to Spotlight investigation tasks in the Network Optimization module, including the following:



cell coverage bin lines



pollution bin lines



cell coverage



pollution sector lines



cell coverage footprint



pilot pollution

The list of layers contains a series of default layers, however there may be others listed because it is possible to create custom WMS layers . Once created, you can modify one of these layers by clicking its name in the list. You can also delete it by dragging the layer to the recycle bin .



24

Network layers You can adjust the properties of the network layer on the map in order to change the size of displayed sites and sectors, to modify their transparency, and to show or hide labels. In addition, you can create attribute filters or perform co-channel filtering. These options are available by clicking the Networks option in the Layers control to open the Network Layer Properties dialog. The buttons at the top left of the dialog allow you to use templates for the network layer settings.

Select a network type from the hierarchical left-hand list and use the sliders to adjust the properties of the sites and sectors. These include their size, the zoom level at which the sites or sectors appear on the map as well as their degree of transparency, and information in the form of labels and coloring. A sector label or how that sector is colored or filtered can all be based on an attribute, such as its BCCH value, or some transient data. You can determine the attributes to show for these features. To do this, click the Select Attribute button . See below for more information.



25

Using Filters, you can change how sectors on the map are displayed depending on how they match certain criteria, for instance to easily see all the sectors that share the same LAC value. For more information, refer to the topic on Filtering map elements on p134.

Use network data for network layer properties Clicking the Select Attribute button opens the Attribute Picker dialog, which allows you to select particular attributes to show for the current feature. 1

Click the Network Data tab. Search the list of attributes by entering text in the search field at the top left.

2

You can also change how the attributes are presented - either as a list or in a tree structure - by clicking the Toggle List/Tree Attribute Display button .

3

Click the Selected n of 5 dropdown to access the Labels, Color, Scale, Border Color, and Filter check boxes if you want to apply the current settings to these as well.



26

Choosing an attribute with which to label a sector 4

Select the attribute to display and then click Apply.

For more information, see Attribute Picker on p139. Use transient data for network layer properties In the Network Layer Properties dialog, you can adjust how transient data is displayed on the map. The attributes for sector labels, colors, and filters can be modified by clicking the Select Attribute button which opens the Attribute Picker dialog. 1

Click on the Transient Data tab, select the data file from the File drop-down list and then use the Column drop-down list to select a column from the file that is to be used to label the sector. For instance, you can select a column that contains numerical values to display on the map alongside the sector.

2

Format groups enable you to determine how the values in the file will be represented as colors on the map. You can choose a preexisting format group by selecting the Select Format Group option button and then selecting a group from the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can apply a new format group by specifying its properties, including the number of ranges, and the minimum and maximum values. Select the High Values are Better option if you prefer that the higher values are colored green and the lower values red.



27

Choosing transient data with which to label a sector 3

Click the Selected n of 5 dropdown to access the Labels, Color, Scale, Border Color, and Filter check boxes if you want to apply the current settings to these as well.

4

When done, click the Apply button.



28

Displaying overlapping sectors In situations where you use different technologies, or different networks within the same technology, use the Size slider to make the sectors larger for the technology or network lower in the hierarchy shown in the Network Layer Properties dialog. Then both types of sector can clearly be seen, as shown in the examples below:

Example showing a 'higher' technology (WCDMA) with smaller sectors overlapping a 'lower' technology (GSM 1900) with larger sectors

Example showing a 'higher' network (GSM 1900) with smaller sectors overlapping a 'lower' network (GSM 850) with larger sectors Network event layer The Network Event Layer Properties dialog box controls how network events are displayed on the map in the Network Optimization module. To access this dialog box, click the Layers icon and then click the Network Events option. The layer's properties include the zoom level at which events become visible on the map, whether any child events are also visible, and the date and time scope for those events.



29

Setting the properties of the network event layer You can also select each type of event to be displayed or not. When you have made your selection, click the green check button in the bottom right to apply the changes. Network traffic layer You can adjust the properties of the network traffic layer in order to change its visibility, the number of bands and the degree of transparency. This is done by clicking the Network Traffic option in the Layers control. Select the type of technology in the left-hand section of the dialog box and then adjust its properties as required.

Changing the properties of the network traffic layer



30

The top drop-down menu allows you to select from a list of existing Traffic templates. These templates can be created by your administrator from the Admin > Network Data > Templates page. Lines to repeaters It is possible to modify the properties of the lines drawn to repeaters on the map. You can adjust the line's transparency using the slider on the Layers control. Additionally, you can click the Lines to Repeaters link and choose to either hide or display borders on all the lines on the map.

Setting the properties of repeater lines Lines to neighbors ActixOne can help users to know the name and location of the sectors that were the serving sectors and neighbor sectors at the time of an event. This is done by displaying lines on the map, lines that connect the event and the serving cell. These lines can display data from a selected attribute.

The properties of neighbor lines You turn the display on and off by selecting the Lines to Neighbors check box in the Layers control. Each type of source network available is listed in the left-hand pane and you select the type of target network from the Target Network drop-down list. If it is necessary to set different properties for incoming and outgoing lines, select the Use Separate Settings for Inbound check box and click the Inbound tab.



31

Add attributes As with other map layer controls, you can customized the information displayed by the line by adding attribute labels. To add attributes, perform the following steps: 1

Select the Show Labels check box.

2

Click the Select Attribute button

3

Choose an attribute from the list.

4

Click the Apply button.

.

When an attribute has no format group or ranges defined, the neighbor layer automatically generates ranges from the minimum and maximum values used across all selected neighbors. Change line colors To modify the color of the line, perform the following steps: 1

Select the Color option button.

2

Click the color box and choose the line's new color.

Create filters Filtering results ensures that only the preferred lines are shown on the map. To create a filter, perform the following steps: 1

Click the Filter check box. The Filter dialog box opens automatically.

2

The default filter is to filter by distance, for instance where the distance of the neighbor should be more than five kilometers. If you want to filter by attribute, click the Distance option and from the drop-down list select Browse. Choose the attribute from the Select Attribute dialog box and click the Save button.

Browsing for attributes



32

3

Click the Save button to apply the filter.

Lines that do not meet the criteria of the filter can be hidden from the map when you click the Hide Unmatched check box. Otherwise the neighbor lines are drawn on the map at half width without borders and labels. In the example below neighbors that are less than five kilometers from the selected sector have been filtered and are drawn at half width.

Filtering neighbor lines Missing neighbor footprints When analyzing missing neighbor data in the Radio Network Analysis tab of the Network Optimization module, you can adjust the size of the footprints on the map. To do this, open the Layers control and then click the Missing Neighbor Footprint option. Change the size of the points, making them larger or smaller using the slider.

Modify missing neighbor footprints



33

Missing neighbor lines You can modify how missing neighbor lines are displayed on the map when viewing missing neighbor data in the Radio Network Analysis tab. Click the Missing Neighbor Lines option in the Layers control to choose the colors for addition, retention, and removal lines as well as to determine if the lines have borders. You can vary the lines' degree of curvature and their width.

Modifying missing neighbor lines Cell coverage bin lines When performing radio network analyses on Spotlight tasks, you can modify the properties of the cell coverage bin lines. To do this, open the Layers control and click the Cell Coverage Bin Lines option.

Modifying the properties of cell coverage bin lines In the Cell Coverage Bin Lines Settings dialog box you can use the slider to change the line's degree of curvature and you can choose whether it has a border, select the appropriate colors, and determine its width. Cell coverage layer The Network Optimization module's Radio Network Analysis tab displays cell coverage information on the map. You can modify the properties of this information through the Layers control by clicking the Cell Coverage option and using the slider to increase or decrease the size of the points cell coverage points.

Adjusting the cell coverage settings



34

Cell coverage footprint You ca adjust the size of the cell coverage footprints on the map when looking at Spotlight tasks in the Radio Network Analysis tab. (The footprints are the colored dots on the map.) To change the settings, open the Layers control and click the Cell Coverage Footprint option. In the dialog box, use the slider to increase and decrease the size of the footprints.

Modifying the size of cell coverage footprints Pollution bin lines Pollution bin lines are unique to Spotlight tasks and are displayed on the map when you view perform a radio network analysis. To modify the way that the pollution bin lines are displayed on the map, open the Layers control and click the Pollution Bin Line option.

Modifying the properties of pollution bin lines Here you can control how the properties of the lines, including their width and colors, whether they have borders, and the degree of their curvature. Pollution sector lines It is possible to modify the way that ActixOne displays the lines on the map used to depict the connections between sectors involved in pollution. In the Network Optimization module's Radio Network Analysis tab, open the Layers control and click the Pollution Sector Lines option. In the dialog box, use the sliders to adjust their width and curvature and choose whether they have a border.

Modifying the properties of pollution sector lines



35

Pilot pollution layer When investigating Spotlight tasks in the Network Optimization module's Radio Network Analysis tab, you can change the size of the pilot pollution points that are displayed on the map. To do this, open the Layers control and click the Pilot Pollution option. Move the slider to increase or decrease the size of the points.

Adjusting the pilot pollution point size Survey trails It is possible to modify the size of the dots used to indicate the path of a survey trail on a map. To do this, open the Layers control and click the Survey Trail option. Move the slider on the Survey Layer Properties control to either increase or decrease the size of the dots.

Modifying survey trails You can also change the trail's degree of transparency on the map by adjusting the slider on the Layers control. Attributes As with survey trails, you can change the size of the dots used to indicate attributes on a map. From the Layers control, click the Attributes option.

Modifying attributes Move the slider on the Attribute Layer Properties control to either increase or decrease the size of the dots. You can also change the attributes' degree of transparency on the map by adjusting the slider on the Layers control.



36

Pathloss prediction This functionality is only available if the ActixOne prediction engine has been configured for use in your ActixOne system. To view predicted Pathloss on the map, select a sector and check Pathloss from the Layers control:



37

Received Power prediction This functionality is only available if the ActixOne prediction engine has been configured for use in your ActixOne system. To view predicted Received Power on the map, select a sector and check Received Power from the Layers control:



38

WMS layers Map layers are a way to display additional layers of information on the map, information that may be specific to the needs of a particular organization or department. A layer like this, called a web map services (WMS), is an image file that could display coverage prediction overlays, population density patterns over a geographical area, or traffic volume information on certain routes. WMS layers can be added through the Add a WMS Layer icon in the Layers control . In the dialog box, you provide the details for the layer and its properties, such as a label for the layer, one or more URLs where the WMS layers are located, whether the layer is transparent or uses a background color, and any additional parameters needed by the server.

Setting the properties of a WMS layer You can group WMS layers together into folders, specified by Folder Path, as shown in the above example. Once in a folder, the individual WMS layer may not be reordered, only dragged to the waste bin icon at the bottom right of the Layers display. You can add multiple server URLs by clicking the Add button and then entering the relevant address. The SRS option refers to the spatial referencing system (SRS) used as the type of projection by the layer. The server may require you to include a layer name and a style name. To remove a custom WMS layer from the control, you drag the name of the layer onto the recycle bin icon .



39

Indoor layer This layer allows you to control the display of any configured indoor floorplan images. The location of these images is shown by a building icon. The number to the right of the icon shows how many floors are present in the building floorplan.

From the Layers map control, click Indoor to open Layer Properties.

Use the Level slider to set which floor of multi-floor buildings will be shown on the map. Use the Visibility slider to set the zoom level at which the building icons will be replaced by floorplans.



40

Background maps The maps displayed in ActixOne are delivered by map providers. The types of map providers available depends on how ActixOne has been configured in the Administration module. The Background Map option in the Layers control can be used to switch between the map providers as well as the types of maps. Depending on the provider the background maps can include the following:



Road maps with labels



Aerial or satellite images without any additional information



Aerial or satellite images with labels, such as road and place information



Terrain maps showing the altitude of the landscape

Various map types available



41

Map providers You can change which map provider's maps are displayed in the ActixOne client interface. Note that this depends on there being more than one provider configured for the system. To do this, click the Layers control and then click the Background Maps option. From the dialog box select the provider (and, optionally, the type of map).

Selecting map providers

Location finder The map includes a location finder control to search for specific locations or sector names. The icon is located in the top left-hand corner of the map and is indicated in the image below.

The location finder control To find a location, you hover the cursor over the control to expose the location finder and click the pin icon to keep it open. Type a location and press Enter.

Using the location finder



42

The control accepts search requests for the following features:



town names



street addresses



latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates



sectors

If the location, or place name, cannot be found, ActixOne displays the closest matching location. If more than one place with the same name is found, the control displays the best-known place but provides all results in a list from which you can select the most appropriate one. For example, if you search using London, the map centers on London, England and the location finder drop-down list displays four towns in the United States also named London. If you want to search for locations based on their geographical coordinates enter lat: lon:. To search for a sector, enter where that is the name of the sector or the initial letters or numbers of the name. Or use sector:network=; where network_type is the name of the network, e.g. GSM, and sector_name is the name of the sector, e.g. ABC1. This differentiates between sectors with the same name on different networks. Searching by map provider You can search for a location using the maps of different map providers if multiple providers have been configured for ActixOne. To do this enter the search details and then click the map provider's button next to the search field. If you want to choose a different provider, click the down-pointing arrow and select an alternative.

Selecting a map search provider



43

Printing and exporting You can print or export a copy of the map as it is currently seen on the screen, i.e. at the same zoom level and with the same map layers. To do this, click the Tools button and then click the Print Map or Export Map (as a .JPG format file) options, as indicated in the image below.

Printing or exporting a map Note IE 9 or Firefox 7 are required to support exporting the Legend to a JPG file.

View in Google Earth You can view the current map area in 3D in Google Earth, by opening the Tools options and selecting View in Google Earth. You should then see a display similar to this:

The 3D Google Earth view



44

Home location The Home Location option is used to set the map to the current latitude, longitude, and zoom level. To do this click the Tools button on the map and click the Remember Home Location option. After setting the home location you can return to the specified place on the map either by pressing the Home key on the keyboard or by selecting Tools > Go To Home Location.

Creating a Custom Area polygon The Custom Area option from the Tools button menu is used to define an area polygon that can be used in Survey Management, Network Optimization, and within Pipelines, without needing to use MapInfo. Once you select the option, the Custom Areas dialog opens. From here you can select a feature group or a single feature, or define a new group or feature.

The Custom Areas dialog You may want to click the button Add a new feature group if you want to define several related features. To define a feature polygon, click the button Define new feature. Use the left mouse button to select corners of the polygon, specifying the last corner with a double click.



45

Enter a Name for the polygon and click the Save Feature button.

Drawing the polygon The finished polygon is still shown on the map, and can be selected for edit or deletion from the drop-down menu. Select the Save this feature and close button to save the polygon.

The finished polygon added to the group This new custom area—or the entire group—can now be selected in areabased analyses.



46

Legend The Legend tool, which is a feature of all map-based modules in ActixOne, shows you information about the results of searches and survey data and enables you to modify how that information is displayed on the map. In this way, the tool can be used both to help you find network elements as well as to understand and diagnose problems. To open the Legend, place the mouse pointer over the control and click the pin icon to keep it open.

Using the Legend The Legend contains format groups and these can (if ActixOne is so configured) contain multiple subgroups that can be expanded to display and collapsed to hide - the items they contain. For instance, the WCDMA group could contain a format subgroup called "SC" (that contains all the sectors) and another called "Vendor" (that contains the owners of the cell site). To open a group, click the arrow next to its name. Click it again to collapse the group. Each group contains items that relate network features to colors and values, and it is this relationship that enables you to recognize easily the information that is displayed on the map. For instance, if the GSM group contains a BCCH subgroup, this lists the BCCH values and assigns them a color. The check boxes on the right-hand side of the legend show or hide features on the map, depending on the module being used. Select a parent group's check box to hide or show all child items or select each item individually. Customizing format groups By default, each format group assigns a range of colors to the attribute values of the network elements. These are used to color sectors, attribute or survey bins, and so on. However, this relationship can be customized to help you find easily the network elements or the specific values you are looking for, such as when you are looking for BCCH values within a certain range. To customize the format group and its value-color relationship, click the group item in the Legend or, if you are an administrator, using the Format Group Editor option in the Administration module.



47

Customizing format groups Add and remove ranges To add a range to the list, click the Add range button

.

To remove a range from the list, click the Delete range button

.

You can modify the values. Some format groups have a single value while others have minimum and maximum values. You can choose a different color for a value. To do this, click the color associated with the value and choose another. Automatically generate ranges You can generate a set of format group ranges based on a minimum and a maximum value and the number of ranges. Click the Generate ranges button to open the range autogeneration dialog.

The range autogeneration dialog



48

Revert changes Format groups are either specified on a per-user basis (and, as such, are stored as user settings in the database), or are available to all users. If you make changes to a format that you want to undo, you can revert the format group to its default, the global format group. To do this, click the Revert user format group button . Note In order to edit global format groups, you need to be assigned to the FormatGroupAdmin.SuperUser role. Users without this assignment can edit their own user format groups only. To toggle between global and user format groups, click the button. If this button is gray, you are editing your own user format group.

Map scaling A scale indicator is located at the bottom of the map, in the center, as indicated in the images below. You can use this tool to switch between imperial units (miles, yards, and feet) and metric units (kilometers and meters).

Changing the map scale indicator To change between units, click the scale indicator. Click it again to revert to the previous setting.



49

Distance and azimuth measuring To measure the distance between two objects on the map, such as between two sites or from a site to a landscape feature, click the ruler icon on the map (located near the map scale indicator) and then click on the map and draw a line from the one point to the other.

Measuring distances and azimuths on the map The unit of measurement depends on the selection on the map scale indicator. Changing the unit of measurement on the map scale indicator changes the unit used on the line. Note that in addition to the tool displaying the distance between the two points, the indicator also shows the azimuth.

Altitude profiling When investigating network events, it can be useful to understand how the features of the landscape might affect call quality. Using the Altitude Profile tool you can draw a line on the map and see a graphical representation of the changes in altitude along that line. By default, the unit used to describe the height of the landscape features is the same as that which is specified for the map scale.

The Altitude Profile option



50

To do this, click the Altitude Profile button on the map and draw a line on the map. Move the mouse pointer either along the line in the Altitude Profile window or on the map for more information, including the coordinates. Double-click the profile window's title bar to maximize the window and then double-click the title bar again to restore it to its original size. If you need to move the map in any direction after drawing a profile line you can use the direction keys on the keyboard. When you change the map scale (for instance, from feet to meters), the units used for the altitude profile change automatically. Therefore, if the map scale is in meters and you wish to view the altitude profile in feet, you need to change the map scale's units measurement.

Measuring altitude changes between sectors Note The Settings Editor section of the Administration module contains the keys used to enable the profiling service. For more information about these settings, refer to the ActixOne Administration Manual.



51

Visualizing the customer experience The Customer Experience feature uses in a combination of geolocated Call Trace data, and business data from customer data files1 (which includes latitude and longitude information), and presents this data to be visualized. This section describes the Customer Experience summary dashboard, which displays Customer Experience information by selected geographical area. You can examine Customer Experience data in more depth using the Customer Experience layer in the Network Optimization module (see p164).

The Customer Experience summary dashboard The Customer Experience module provides an overview of your network, displaying attributes that provide insights into how customers perceive their network experience. Use the calendar control at the top of the map area to ensure you are looking at appropriate data, and click the appropriate Daily/Weekly/Monthly button at the top left to match the duration of the period of interest. The screen may then look similar to this:

The Customer Experience summary dashboard, showing the California area

1

For details of the customer data file format, see the CE tech pack information in the ActixOne Technology Packs Guide.



52

From the dropdown list, select the Area of interest (CALIFORNIA in the above example). You might start at a higher level view (for example, USA) – in this case, you can double click on a component area to drill down to it. If you need to return to a previous view of the map, click the button on the right of the dropdown list:

At the top right, a summary section displays a set of pie charts relating to all successful calls made during the selected period. To highlight details of a chart, hover the cursor over the area of interest:

On the left, a filter panel allows you to refine the data selection. To apply the changes, click the button at the lower right:

From the lower left, you can select a Customer Experience attribute, and toggle between the Top 10 / Bottom 10 counties. The Legend in the top right of the map display shows exact numeric values for each county.



53

Visualizing data trends You can also see how the data is trending by clicking the button beside the Daily/Weekly/Monthly buttons:

The result is shown in the bar charts on the lower left and on the map. The map shows areas in red where the attribute has increased, in green where the attribute has decreased, and in grey where the attribute has remained unchanged.

The bar charts show how much the value of the attribute has changed. In the example here, the two areas on the left have both increased slightly (the red parts of the column show the increase from the previous grey value), whereas for the area on the right, the attribute value has dropped to zero (the green column shows that the previous value was high but has reduced to zero as there is no grey column visible).



54

Using the summary table At the bottom of the Customer Experience display, a table allows you to explore the numeric values in detail. Initially the table displays the component areas making up the main Area selection (this example shows counties of California). No other information is shown, so we need to configure the table as required.

Click the top left table button to open a selection of Customer Experience attributes. Click on each of these to toggle its use.

Click on the top left button again to close the selection window. Note that the selected attributes are now displayed as columns in the table.



55

Clicking the other button on the left hides all rows without data, making it easier to see the information of interest.

You can also click the column headings to sort the data. The small arrow shows whether the sort direction is increasing or decreasing.



56

Optimizing the network The Network Optimization module is designed to enable engineers to make fast, effective optimization decisions using their detailed local knowledge. It aims to reduce the time and effort spent on radio planning, optimization, and troubleshooting. By streamlining the daily activities of radio optimization engineers, this module promotes communication between and within engineering teams. The different sections of the module interface are described in the section The user interface on p11. The top left panel, Select Survey Data Source to analyze, controls which data will be used to populate the various Network Optimization analyses. You can follow one of two workflows when using the Network Optimization module:



Task-based analysis Work on tasks shown in the Task List to resolve issues. You can use the Task List's Scope and Filter buttons to refine the tasks shown in the list. In the Survey Data Source area, the top button should be selected.



Area-based analysis Start from a geographical area and manually identify and investigate problems. Use the Survey Data Source buttons below the top button to specify the area of investigation. You can drill down to Layer 3 Data Service Analysis directly from call events by double-clicking an event symbol on the map.

The module displays several separate tabbed pages below the map, providing different options on each in order to help engineers view tasks, manage benchmarks and events, and to analyze the network. The available tabs include the following:



Task Management



Call Event Explorer



Radio Network Analysis Note The Call Event Explorer and Radio Network Analysis tabs are unavailable unless a Spotlight-enabled task has been selected from the task list.



57

The Network Optimization module The Task Management tab lists all tasks that belong to, or are logged for, a particular area of the network. Tasks are one of the key features of ActixOne and managing them forms a regular part of the daily activities of users and operators. There are several different types of tasks but in general they are created when performance alerts occur, such as when a check fails or there is no traffic on the cell. Users can then work with the tasks, assigning them a priority and investigating the reasons for the alert. After investigating and then fixing the event, the task can be closed. For more information, see p61. The Call Event Explorer tab is only available when a Spotlight-related task has been selected from the task list. This tab provides operators with a detailed analysis of critical failure events. Based on the drive test data provided for the analysis, ActixOne generates automatically root-cause diagnostics for the most common subscriber problems – for example, dropped calls. For more information, see p87.



58

Direct links are also available to the Call Event Explorer tab from a panel below the Date/Time scope panel on the left:

Opening an event in Call Event Explorer The Radio Network Analysis tab is only available when a Spotlightrelated task has been selected from the task list. This tab can be used to examine the performance of the radio network, including the following:



coverage and overspill analysis (see p105)



pilot pollution (see p107)



neighbor list analyses (see p109)

Network optimization concepts There are a number of concepts and elements that are important to using and the Network Optimization module. These include tasks and their role, maps and charts, areas (sometimes also known as clusters), network attributes, and key performance indicators (KPIs). These are explained in further detail below.

Tasks Tasks are a key feature of ActixOne and the role of managing them typically forms part of the daily activities of users and operators. Displayed in the Task List in the Network Optimization module, tasks are created when performance alerts occur, such as when a check fails or when there is no traffic on the cell. Each task is assigned a priority. After investigating and fixing the event, the task can be closed. For a more detailed description of tasks and their features, refer to the About tasks section on p61.



59

Maps ActixOne uses maps to display sites and sector wedges, event icons, and neighbor relationship lines superimposed over geographic information for the selected area.

Charts Charts display attribute data over a particular period of time for the currently selected sectors. Poorly performing sectors will stand out from the other sectors. Charts can be modified by adding or removing attributes to suit the requirements of the analysis and different levels of granularity can be used to assess the data. You can find out more about charts and how to use them from the Using charts topic on p122.

Areas For the Network Optimization module, areas are a way for network operators to organize networks. In ActixOne, areas are used to group sites and sectors geographically. There are currently two types of areas: reactive and proactive. Typically, reactive areas are defined by the area covered by the base stations that are connected to a switch or OMC in the physical network. Generally, these do not overlap each other and together cover the entire geographical region covered by the network. Proactive areas may be based on administrative areas, such as a counties, or ad hoc geographical areas, and provide an easy way of selecting sites or sectors for proactive optimization. Proactive areas may overlap each other as well as reactive areas. You choose the areas that you want to display from the Task Management tab.

Attributes Network objects such as sectors, sites, and radios can have many different associated attributes and these can be displayed in charts and tables. These attributes can be of several different types:



Configuration attributes are used to store values that are not expected to change often over time – for example, network parameters such as latitude, longitude, azimuth, and beamwidth



Performance attributes are used for data that is expected to have a value for a given point in time. Counter data, for example, would be stored as performance attributes in ActixOne



Discrete attributes store counters (such as the number of dropped calls) and other performance statistics that have been collected by the network. For these attributes, every discrete value has meaning, even when it has the same value for several days in a row

While using ActixOne, you might want to look at particular attributes to identify any unusual data. When you have the opportunity to select the attributes you want to investigate, ActixOne displays only the appropriate



60

attributes. For example, when you look at sector data, you can only select attributes that relate to sectors. Another distinction made in ActixOne is between standard and relational attributes. Each section can show either relational or standard attributes:



Standard attributes only relate to a particular sector – a value for sector A, or a value for sector B, for example 'BCCH'.



Relational attributes are values on sector pairs where the direction or relationship is important – for example, a value for A > B.

Key performance indicators Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to measure the success of a network's performance. ActixOne applies various formulas to performance attributes to form KPIs for a set of selected sectors.

Tasks This section explains Network Optimization module tasks and covers how to create and manage them.

About tasks Tasks are a key feature of ActixOne and the role of managing them typically forms part of the daily activities of users and operators. Tasks are displayed in the task list in the Network Optimization module. Tasks are created when performance alerts occur, such as when a check fails or when there is no traffic on the cell. Tasks are assigned a priority. After investigating and fixing the event, the task can be closed. The tasks listed in the Task Management tab (also called the Task List) and that each task has a unique ID number. Tasks also have a type, description, creation date, assignment, priority, and status. Click a task in the list to view its details in the area to the left of the map. The left-hand pane is used to display detailed information about the selected task as well as any charts that are associated with that task. The pane contains the following four tabs:



The Details tab shows you all the important elements of the selected task – its status, priority, creation and due dates, and a summary of the problem contributing to the task.



The Audit Trail tab helps you see what, if any, changes have been made to the task or its details and who made them.



The Contributing Events tab displays one or more of the events that contributed to the task being raised.



The Properties tab shows the properties of the sector related to the task.



61

Task type There are several task types available for tasks in ActixOne:



Spotlight These tasks concern Spotlight events and data, that is, drive survey or subscriber trace data. They are automatically created when survey files are loaded into the system, or manually using Survey Management > Create Spotlight investigation task.



Call Event These tasks are created for call events and are similar to Spotlight tasks but only contain a single event. They are automatically created when survey files are loaded into the system.



SwitchData Created for each controller to allow analysis of missing neighbors, overshooters and handover failures. These are automatically created when Ericsson NCS, WNCS or MRR files are loaded into the system.



User-defined This type is for tasks that users consider need to be investigated or addressed, and can be created by using the Network Optimization > Create Task button.



Equipment Alarm These are based on cause codes and are automatically created when equipment alarm files are loaded into the system.



Performance Alert These are automatically created if a KPI exceeds a threshold, when performance indicator files are loaded into the system.



Configuration Alert These are automatically created when a configuration parameter has changed, when configuration files are loaded into the system.



Trouble Ticket These are based on manually created trouble tickets, and are automatically created when trouble ticket links or files are loaded into the system.



Benchmarking These tasks are related to benchmarking projects, for a particular period. For internal ActixOne use. They are created automatically when data is added to a benchmarking period.



Drive Survey This task type is no longer used.



62

Task priority The priority of a task specifies how important the task is and how soon the issue should be investigated and fixed. A task can have one of the following priorities:



High



Medium



Low

By default when a task is generated it is assigned a medium priority. (However, rules may be used to change automatically the priority of tasks.) They are displayed in the list by their priority ranking, with high priority tasks listed first and low priority tasks listed last. To reverse the order in which they are listed, click the Priority column header. Note Only administrators are able to change a task's priority. Task status Each task has a specific status to signify the current stage of the task. A task in the list can be in one of the following four states:



Open The task has been created but is not yet assigned to a user.



In progress The open task is assigned to a specific user either by them investigating the task or taking ownership of it.



Closed The task is complete and has been closed, but it can be reopened.

The current state of a task is shown in the Status column. Task assignments Tasks can either be unassigned and available to any operator or they can be assigned to a specific operator. It is possible for you to take ownership of an unassigned task by clicking the Take Ownership button. If you do this, the status of the task changes to In Progress and your name appears in the Assigned To column in the task list. Other engineers working with tasks in this area will not be able to change a task's assignment unless they have sufficient administrative privileges. To release a task and make it available to any other operator, click the Release Ownership button.



63

The Task List The Task Management tab (also referred to as the Task List) in the Network Optimization module displays the list of tasks as well as some information about them and it enables you to perform various actions on them or to create new tasks. Its purpose is to help operators view and monitor tasks and to determine their status.

The Task Management tab The Task List displays all tasks and some information about those tasks, such as the type, when it was created, and to whom it is assigned. All tasks that match the current filter criteria are displayed in the list. When you select a task from the list, the task view for that task becomes available. Using the buttons by the Task List, you can perform the following actions: Refresh the list of tasks Copy task information to the Windows Clipboard create and manage Filters create and manage Views select Scope Create a user-defined Task Run a Report Along the bottom of the Task List, ActixOne displays summary information, including the ID of the selected task and its description, as well as the names of applied filters and views and the area covered. Data housekeeping For tasks created using version 5.1 or later, whenever data is removed from the file repository during scheduled housekeeping, all the file information is no longer visible in the ActixOne client. All the tasks contained in the deleted files are automatically closed with the comment 'Redundant DTFile'. All tasks created before 5.1 will not be closed automatically.



64

Viewing task details In order to help solve (and close) network problems, ActixOne provides as much detail about the task as possible. All this information is displayed on the Details tab when you select a task on the Task Management tab. Depending on the type of task selected, this can include the nature of the event as well as when and how many times the event occurred. Note that when you select a Call Event task additional information related to the task is displayed on the tab. In addition to task information, the Details tab can also display mini charts, which are snapshot views of chart data associated with the task. Note that this does not apply to Spotlight tasks.

Viewing the details of a task Generally the details of a task include the following:



a unique ID number



a task description, which you can edit using the Edit Description button



a task type (if a Spotlight task, you can use the Remove Survey Files button)



the dates and times for the first and last occurrences of the event



the number of times the event was repeated



65



a task priority, which can be changed by administrators to high, medium, or low



a task status, which is open, in progress, pending, or closed and can be closed using the Close Task button



to whom the task is assigned – this can be changed either by selecting a user from the Assigned To drop-down list or by you taking ownership of the task by clicking the Take Ownership button



the type of problem that caused the task – this may be in the form of a code



a possible reason for the problem, which can be modified by selecting an option from the Cause drop-down list



a recommended action for the task, which can be changed using the Action drop-down list



a URL for the task and a button to Copy URL to Clipboard



additional information about the task – click the link to launch a separate browser window that contains a more detailed description of the type of error.



66

Call event details As well as showing the same task information as other task types, call event tasks include additional diagnostic information, including the following:



Cause Provides a summary of the reason the task was created.



Further Explanation Gives more a detailed description of the origins of the task.



Further Analysis Provides some possible reasons for the task and what might be done to close it.



Measurement Information Shows precise measurements before and after the event occurred and enables you to download the log file (.log) for the event. Also, lets you view the call flow analysis for the task and view the properties of the file .

Viewing call event task details



67

Mini charts The Details tab can also display mini charts, which provide you with a snapshot view of the data without needing to open a full chart. The types of mini charts shown on the tab depend on the settings configured by administrators in the chart template groups section of the Administration module.

Viewing mini charts



68

Auditing tasks The Audit Trail tab is one of four tabs in the Network Optimization module's Task Management tab associated with a task. Its function is to enable operators to track changes made to issues and tasks by displaying a list of all the changes made to the selected task over time, including the date the change was made, the name of the user making the change, and any comments about the change. And, it provides a way for operators to add information and comments to existing entries.

Viewing audit trail information A task's audit trail contains the following information:



The date and time the task was modified



The name of the user who made the change



The activity or status of the task



The comments made for each entry

Clicking the Annotate button at the bottom of the Audit Trail tab opens a dialog box where you can enter a comment or information about the task. Any annotations are added to the Audit Trail list. Note that you can order the list by clicking the header for the column you want to sort by.



69

Contributing events The Contributing Events tab is one of four tabs in the Task Management tab associated with a task. It lists all events that have contributed to the task, which enables you to understand more about the background and the reasons for the task.

Viewing events that contribute to the task The event information includes the following:



the date the event occurred



a description of the event



70

Task properties You can see information about the task by clicking the Properties tab for a selected task. This tab summarizes the properties information on the sector depending on the type of task selected, including the dates and times for first and last occurrences of the event and to which cluster the sector belongs, or, in the case of Spotlight tasks, the affected survey files.

Viewing task properties

Creating tasks ActixOne's Network Optimization module enables you to both view existing tasks and to create new tasks for operators to investigate and to fix. You can create a task in the Task Management tab by clicking the Create Task button.

The Create Task button A task always relates to a sector. When multiple sites and sectors are selected, a task is associated with all of them.



71

Create a task To create a task for a specific sector you can first select the sector on the map and then click the Create Task button or you can select an existing task for that sector from the Task List and then click the Create Task button. The Create Task dialog box is used to specify all the details of a task for the specified sector.

Creating a task When creating a task, perform the following steps: 1

Enter a description of the task in the Description field.

2

Verify that the sector specified is correct for the task.

3

Select a queue that the task relates to from the Queue drop-down list.

4

Choose the priority for the task - high, medium, or low.

5

Enter first and last occurrence dates. This helps engineers to know for how long the problem has been occurring.

6

If known, select the type of problem from the Problem drop-down list.

7

If known, select a cause of the problem from the Cause drop-down list.

8

Choose a possible or recommended action from the Action dropdown list.

9

If there is any additional information about the problem, the sector, or the task, it can be included in the Details area.



72

10 Click OK to create the task and add it to the list. Note When you create a task, it is assigned the User Defined task type automatically.

Server-side reports The server-side reporting feature in ActixOne enables users to generate reports from XML-based templates that are stored in the ActixOne database. These reports can then be viewed on the client computer using a web browser or, if required, shared on a network drive for general distribution. Reports are associated with one or more types, such as call events, tasks, or benchmarking tasks. To open the reports console, click the Run a Report button from the left of Network Optimization's Task Management tab. The Manage Reports dialog comprises these tabbed pages:



Reports – lists all the reporting templates available in the system and enables you to add, edit, delete, download, and run reports.



Request Queue – displays all the reports that are in the queue to be generated and enables you to delete jobs from the queue as well as to pause the report queue.



Access Control – shows a list of reports and the role and permissions associated with that report. Note that this tab is not shown in the example screenshot below - it is available only for users who are members of the manage report access control role, a role that is defined by the ActixOne administrator.

Running a report



73

The Reports tab The Reports tab shows all the reporting templates that are currently in the system and enables you to manage those reports. To see the most up to date list, click the Refresh button . Adding a report template 1

To add a report, click the Add a new report button

2

In the Add Report dialog box you can add a file to the list. Click the Select a report file button and browse to the location of the file. Select the file and then click Open.

3

In the Name field enter an identifiable name for the template.

4

Provide a Description for the file.

5

Optionally, click the Report Types drop-down list to do the following:

6

.



Associate the report with a Task type. The report will be included in the list of available reports shown by the Run a Report button in the Task Management tab.



Associate the report with a Benchmarking analysis type. The report will be included in the list of available reports on the right of the Benchmarking tab.



Associate the report with NSM Dashboard. The report will be included in the list of available reports on the right of the NSM Dashboard tab.

Click OK when done.

All the reports added through the dialog box are displayed in the Reports tab. In addition, reports that are associated with a task type can be seen when you click the Run Report button on the Survey Management module's Task List, while reports associated with the benchmarking analysis type are displayed in the reports pane in the bottom right-hand corner of the Benchmarking tab. If you do not associate a report with either a task or benchmarking type, the report is only available on the Reports tab. Updating a report template 1

To update an existing report template (i.e. replace it with a new XML file), select the report you want to modify and then click the Update the selected report design template button .

2

Select the file that is to be used to update the selected report and then click the Open button.

Editing a report To edit an existing Excel report, select it from the list and click the Edit the selected report button to open the Edit Report dialog. See the topic Generating Excel reports on p77.



74

Deleting a report 1

Select a report from the list.

2

Click the Delete the selected report button

.

Running a report 1

Select a report from the list.

2

Click the Run the selected report button Report dialog:

to show the Run

Running a report 3

Select the type of output (including HTML, PDF, Excel, Word, and CSV) from the Format drop-down list. Note that there are limitations on which output types are available for a given report see the Release Notes for details.

4

Specify the destination for the output – either Browser or Network Folder.

5

If you select the Browser option, you can choose the length of time that the report will be available on the ActixOne system. If you select the Network Folder option, you must choose the destination of the output, selecting one of the predefined folders (which are defined by the ActixOne administrator in the settings file).

6

Click the Run button to place the report request in the queue.



75

A sample report If you choose to send the report to a browser, it then is displayed in a new browser window. Note that you can continue to reuse the URL to retrieve the report until the report is removed from the server after the specified amount of time. Download the report The Download the selected report button allows you to save the report to a folder on your client machine. The Request Queue tab No more than three report requests are handled at any one time in order to reduce the load on the database – the rest of the requests are queued. The Request Queue tab displays those reports that are queued to be generated and enables you to delete jobs from the queue as well as to pause the report queue. Note that this tab is available only for users who are members of the report queue monitor role, a role that is defined by the ActixOne administrator. To see the most up to date list of reports, click the Refresh button

.

To manage the queue, use the following options:



Remove Selected Request – Removes the selected report generation request from the queue



Purge All Request – Clears the entire queue of generation requests



Disable and Enable Request Queue – Stops and restarts any report generation activity



76

The Access Control tab This tab lists all the reports that have been associated with a particular role and it displays the permissions on the report, such as whether the role can download the report. Note that this tab is available only for users who are members of the manage report access control role, a role that is defined by the ActixOne administrator. To add a role to a report, perform the following steps: 1

Click the Add a New Role button

.

2

Select the report from the Report drop-down list.

3

Select a role from the Role drop-down list.

4

Select the appropriate permissions check boxes. These are Allow Download, Allow Update, and Allow Run.

5

Click the OK button to apply the change.

Associating a role with a report To delete an association, select the report from the list and then click the Delete Selected Role button . Generating Excel reports You can create Microsoft Excel format reports based on PM data. The report generation is simplified by user-defined attribute templates and element templates. Create Attribute Template 1

From the Map pane, click on the Tables icon to open the Table dialog.

2

From the table, click the Attribute Picker button at the top right.

3

Enter the attribute name that would be used for the report (example: BCCH).

4

Save the attribute template by selecting Save Template As from the dropdown menu.

5

Enter the template name (example: BCCH).



77

6

Select the path to the folder in which to save the template (example: GSM).

7

Click Save.

Create Element Template 1

From the Map pane, click on the Tables icon to open the Table dialog.

2

From the table, click the Element Picker button at the top right.

3

Select elements that would be used for reporting. Elements could be selected from the Map, or from the Search option within the Element Picker (example: select 4 sectors).

4

Save the element template by selecting Save Template As from the dropdown menu within the Element Picker.

5

Enter the template name (example: Sector for Reporting).

6

Click Save.

Create Excel Report Template An element template can be used, or the report template can be configured so that when run, the report will provide a dynamic element picker. 1

Right click on the Map pane and select Reports to open the Manage Reports dialog.

2

Click the Add a new report button. The Add Report dialog opens.

3

Set the Type to Excel.

4

Enter the report Name (example: BCCH Report) and make other selections as appropriate.

5

Click OK. The Edit Report dialog opens at the Report Components tab.

6

Click the Add Component button and select the Network Statistics option.

7

Enter the Component Name (example: BCCH Report).

8

To ensure the header is exported to an Excel report, select the Show header check box.

9

To generate relational attributes for a neighbor report, select the Relational Values to be Outbound, Inbound, or Reciprocal. 'None' is the default.

10 Set Attributes to Template and select the attribute template that was created earlier (example: BCCH). 11 Either set Elements to Template and select the element template that was created earlier (example: Sector for Reporting), or: a) Open the Report Parameters tab.



78

b) Create an input parameter by providing a Parameter Name and selecting the Type to be Network Element. c) Return to the Report Components tab. d) Set Elements to Parameter and select the new input parameter. 12 Enter the Start Date and End Date. 13 Click Save Report. Running an Excel report 1

From the Manage Reports dialog, select BCCH Report.

2

Click the Run the selected report button.

3

From the Run Report dialog, select the Format to be Excel.

4

Click on Run.

The Excel Report is now generated.

Defining filters You can create and manage filters to help you find the most appropriate or relevant tasks in the Network Optimization module's Task List (in the Task Management tab). The filters you create can vary from basic to complex, depending on your needs. To work with filters, use the Filter button. Note that you can also filter the Task List using the Scope button.

The Filter button When you click the Filter button you can choose to view all tasks (that is, the unfiltered list), apply an existing filter, create a new filter, and manage existing filters.



79

Note Filters applied to the task data do not persist across sessions - when you close ActixOne, the Task Management module reverts to its default view. However, you can use deep linking to create a URL link that contains any filters you have applied and using this ensures that you always have the same view of the task list. Create a filter To create a filter, perform the following steps: 1

Click the Filter button.

2

Select the Create Filter option.

3

In the Filter Name field, enter a descriptive title for the filter.

4

Select the properties of the filter, that is the fields you want to filter by as well as their associated values. For instance, in the example below, the filter shows only carrier drop related tasks with a high priority.

Creating a filter 5

To add a row, click the Add Row button. This enables you to select the fields and their values.

6

To remove a row from the list, click the Delete Row button.

7

You can create groups of filters to increase the complexity of your filtering – for example you might want to create two sub-filters where one shows equipment alarm tasks that have a low priority and the other shows real-time tasks that are assigned to you. To do this, you add the filter conditions, select the ones you want to



80

group and then click the Group Selected Rows button. You can ungroup them by clicking the Ungroup Selected Rows button. 8

You can also filter by the properties of the task in the same way, adding and grouping rows as required.

9

When done, click the Save button.

Manage filters To manage filters, perform the following steps: 1

Click the Filter button.

2

Select the Manage Filters option.

3

From the Manage Filters dialog box, select the filter you want to manage. You can either edit a filter's properties or delete it from the list.

Managing filters 4

To edit the selected filter, click the Edit button.

5

To delete the selected filter, click the Delete button.

6

When done, click OK.



81

Views You can use views to modify the information shown in the Task Management tab in the Network Optimization module by selecting which columns are visible and in what order. You do this using the View button.

The View button When you click the View button you can choose to apply the default view, to apply an existing view (if configured), to create a view, and to manage existing views. Create a view To create a view, perform the following steps: 1

Click the View button to show the View options dropdown list. Note that any views previously created will be available for selection here.

2

Select the Create View... option to display the View dialog.

Specifying the elements of a view 3

Type a descriptive name for the view in the View Name field.



82

4

To display a column, select its check box in the Show column. To hide it, deselect it.

5

To add more columns, click on the Browse... dropdown and select the required columns. Items prefixed by tag icons are dynamic properties that can be created to display information catering to your specific business needs.

6

To reorder the columns, select a column and then click the Move Up or the Move Down buttons.

7

Use the checkboxes in the Group column to group together tasks based on the selected column. For instance, if you select the Group check box for the Type column, the tasks are arranged first according to their type, such as daily and real-time, and then by any other order – in the example below the tasks are ordered by their type and then by their status.

Grouping tasks 8.

When done, click Save to close the dialog box. Manage a view To manage views, perform the following steps: 1

Click the View button.

2

Select the Manage Views option.

3

In the Manage Views dialog box, select the configured view. You can choose either to edit the view or delete it.

4

Click OK when done.



83

Filtering tasks by Scope The Scope button in the Task Management tab allows you to filter the list of tasks by a number of options. For finer control, use the Filter button.

The Scope button in the Task Management tab Click on the Scope button to display this window:

The Scope filter options Select from one of the available options and click the green check button to apply the filter. The options are: Entire network – This is the default, and displays all tasks available for the network. This is also used to remove any previous Scope filter setting. Survey Data Source – This uses the settings in the Survey Data Source pane to filter the task list. Geographical Area - This allows you to specify the area from a set of controls identical to the Survey Data Source button Data related to sectors in the geographical area.



84

Network area – This allows you to filter by a selected area, as shown in this example:

Selecting a network area Location – Here you can define a radius around a named area to act as the task list filter. You can search for the named area by typing in a similar string of characters and pressing the Return key or clicking on the Bing/Google button. Map – This takes the current map window as the selection filter. Clicking the padlock button 'locks' the task list selection to that window, regardless of how you subsequently pan the map. If the padlock button shows as 'open', panning the map will change the selection filter for the task list to match the current map window. The coordinates displayed in a locked map view represent the top left and bottom right corners of the map window. Selected Elements – This filters the task list by any previously selected elements on the map.

Spotlight tasks Some tasks that are listed in the Task Management tab are Spotlightrelated tasks and are marked as Spotlight in the Type column in the Task Management tab. Selecting one of these tasks makes available two tabs to work with Spotlight data: the Call Event Explorer tab and the Radio Network Analysis tab. In addition to being able to create a Spotlight investigation task when using the Survey Management module, it is also possible to add survey data to a Spotlight task. The survey data can be removed from an existing task using the Network Optimization module.

Removing survey data from a Spotlight task After adding survey data to a Spotlight investigation task (an operation that can be performed using an option in the Survey Management module), it



85

may be necessary to remove that data from the task. You can do this using the Network Optimization module. To remove survey data, perform the following steps: 1

Open the Network Optimization module.

2

From the list of tasks in the Task Management tab, select a Spotlight task.

3

In the Details tab on the left-hand pane, click the Remove Survey Files button.

Deleting survey data from a task 4

In the Remove Files from Task dialog box you see a list of all survey files associated with that specific task ID. Select the check boxes of the survey files that you want to remove, either individually or using the All check box, and then click the Remove Files button .

5

The files are removed from the survey. Click the Cancel button to close the dialog box.



86

Selecting a file to remove

Select Survey Data Source to analyze This panel is only available in the Network Optimization module (p52), in the top left of the screen. From this panel, you can manage the amount of data displayed on the map using the data option buttons. For example, by selecting the Data near the selected sector option button and then choosing a distance from the dropdown list, you restrict the data displayed to within a specified radius from the selected element. This panel can be collapsed to display only the buttons.

The Select Survey Data Source to analyze panel



87

Data related to selected tasks – The data displayed is contained in the files related to the tasks that have been selected in the Task List. Use this to follow a task-based analysis workflow. The other buttons allow you to follow an area-based analysis workflow. The following selections use Call Trace aggregate data if available*: Data related to sectors in geographical area – The data shown is related to sectors within a selected geographical area. This may also be a custom area (see p45). When you select a large geographical area in excess of a particular threshold of square km, survey data will not be displayed and a notice appears in the lower left of the application window. The default is 2600 square km, but this value may have been changed by your administrator. Data where the selected sector was serving – The data shown is related to the selected sector when it was the serving sector. Data near the selected sector – The data lies within a specified distance from the selected sector. Data near the selected point of interest - The data shown is with a specified distance from a selected point of interest (click on the desired POI triangle on the map – see p156). Data related to sectors in the map – The data displayed is for the current map view. Panning across or zooming within the map changes the area displayed and therefore the data displayed. If you zoom out too far, survey data will not be displayed and a notice appears in the lower left of the application window. This behavior is controlled by the threshold described above. *The Call Trace aggregate data can be selected in the Call Event Explorer (p87) from the Call Events dropdown, or in Radio Network Analysis (p103) from the Analysis dropdown.

Date/Time scope For information on the Date/Time scope, see p16.

Filters There is an additional method for filtering data for analysis, controlled through the Filter dialog. To open this dialog, click on the Edit Filter button.

The Filter dialog



88

Each row in the filter represents one condition for displaying data. To alter a particular entry in a row, click on the cell to show a drop-down list or an entry field. You can add or remove extra rows using the Add Row and Delete Row buttons.

Download Attribute Report Click the Download Attribute Report button to generate a file containing performance information for the selected attributes. Output options are MapInfo .MIF and .TAB, Comma Separated Value .CSV, Grid.GRD, and Google KML. The Run Report button outputs the performance report in all selected formats.

at the bottom

The Download Attribute Report dialog



89

Exploring call events The Call Event Explorer tab in the ActixOne Network Optimization module provides operators with a detailed analysis of critical failure events. Note that this tab is only available for Spotlight-related data.

Exploring call events When using the Call Event Explorer tab, you can work from the data in the top table or from the diagnostics panel on the left. The table has a row for each site and lists the failure rates for that site. Note that the table shows a set of KPIs that correspond to the current category (selected from the Category drop down list). This prevents the table from becoming cluttered by only showing a small set of related KPIs at the same time. Click the column header to sort the table by that particular KPI. The Call Events drop-down list contains the call events that can be plotted on the map. The buttons along the diagnosis panel are as follows:



Copy to Clipboard



Events Piechart



Call Flow Analysis



Color Events by Diagnosis



Color Events by Sector



90



Drilldown



Event Filters



Pivot Table

These are described below. From the Measurement Information panel, you also have access to the View File Properties button.

Copy to Clipboard Click an entry in the table to prompt ActixOne to display the KPIs and events on the map and also to display the diagnostics on the left side panel. The side panel lists all the critical events occurring in the drive and provides a diagnosis for the selected failure event, which you can copy to the Windows Clipboard using the Copy to Clipboard button if you want to export the data to an external application.

Events Piechart Click the Events Piechart button to open a piechart showing the relevant diagnoses. You can also export the piechart as either a JPEG or PNG format file using the controls in the bottom left corner of the piechart display.

The Events Piechart

Call flow analyses Click the Call Flow Analysis button to drill down further to investigate an event at the messaging level. This opens the Call Flow Analysis dialog box, shown below. This is available for both GSM and UMTS data.



91

Viewing a UMTS call flow The Further Explanation section provides details on the causes for the event, the Further Analysis section suggests how to proceed with further analysis, and the Measurement Information section provides RF measurement data around the event.

Color Events by Diagnosis Click on the Color Events by Diagnosis button to show each diagnosis type on the map with its own color.

Color Events by Diagnosis

Color Events by Sector Click on the Color Events by Sector button. Click on the event icon to display the lines to the related sectors. Note the color of the events and the related sectors.



92

Color Events by Sector

Drilldown Click on the Drilldown button to open the Drilldown display. For more information, see the section Layer 3 visualization using Drilldown on p97.

The Drilldown display File properties From the Measurement Information panel, you can click the View File Properties button to view and to modify the properties for the selected data file. To change a property, select the property from the Property



93

drop-down list, change the entry in the Value drop-down list, and then click the Set button.

Viewing a file's properties

Event Filters This allows the filtering of events inside the Call Event Explorer, enabling the quick isolation of drops and blocks of interest. For example, it could allow you to filter subscriber trace call events by IMSI and TAC, allowing you to quickly isolate problem handsets and phone models.

Pivot Table You can rearrange event information as required using the Pivot Table function. Click the Pivot Table button to start the function.

The Pivot Table Click the Select Dimensions button to open the Select Dimensions dialog. From here you can select any statistic available within the query associated with the current call event diagnosis.



94

The Select Dimensions dialog Once you have selected the required statistics, you can pivot on them in the pivot control panel. Once the results have been retrieved, you can apply other sort and TopN filters to the data.

Selecting and filtering the data You can also choose to display the data in pie or bar charts, or in a table.



95

Example showing the Top 10 users (IMSI) based on drops, with their cause code breakdown



96

Layer 3 visualization using Drilldown You can visualize Layer 3 information related to an event by using the Drilldown feature to open the Data Service Analysis display. You may find it useful to examine the examples of Data Service Analysis on p100.



If you are performing a task-centric analysis, this can be accessed from the Call Event Explorer tab in the Network Optimization module, using the Drilldown button.



If you are performing an area-centric analysis, you can drill down to Layer 3 data by double-clicking an event icon on the map.

If there is no Layer 3 data loaded for the selected session, you will be asked if you want to load it.

The Data Service Analysis display Once you have opened the Data Service Analysis display, all the Layer 3 data related to that event is shown using charts, tables and the map. The data requested for a selected event is for the stream containing the event, covering a window from 5 seconds before the call to 30 seconds after the event. If the event does not have the start call information, the window would be from 30 seconds before the event. Messages within the window are displayed in the Stack Browser below the map. When you select a bin on the map or a row in the Stack Browser, its lines to the serving sector and neighbor sectors are colored by the sector format group so they match the sector color. The tab navigator is removed while the DSA display is open, so to return to the previous state, click the End Drilldown button on the right of the Drilldown controls.



97

The Data Service Analysis controls Beneath the map is a set of controls that allows you to play through each binned position in the survey trail and observe the recorded data at each point. The controls here are intentionally similar to those of a video or music player, so you can play forwards or backwards through the survey trail sequence, jump to the start or the end, or stop at a particular point. You can also change the speed at which the display plays the survey.

The Drilldown controls The full set of controls are as follows: Hide/Show invalid rows Select Columns - This lets you select the columns that you want shown in the Stack Browser.

The Select Columns table Copy to Clipboard - This copies the contents of the Stack Browser table to the Windows clipboard. Text search box - Text entered here can be searched for in the contents of the Stack Browser. Search Backwards - Look for the search text in the messages, from the current message back towards the top of the Stack Browser. Search Forwards - Look for the search text in the messages, from the current message towards the bottom of the Stack Browser.

Playback speed slider control



98

Go to start, Play Backwards, Stop, Play Forwards, Go to end Save Text Messages to File End Drilldown The Stack Browser This area beneath the Drilldown controls shows the messaging included within the Drilldown time window. You can sort the Stack Browser table by click on a desired column heading. The Select Columns button above the table allows you to define those columns that will be displayed in the table.

The Stack Browser table and message panel, and a Message Text window Clicking on a Stack Browser row displays the message text in the panel beneath the table. To display the message text in a separate window, double-click the appropriate a row. This message text window is synchronized with the selected row, so if you click on a different row, the window updates the text message. To stop the message text window updating, click the pin icon in the top right corner. If all open message text windows are pinned, clicking on a different row opens a new message text window.



99

Data Service Analysis examples This section contains several examples of Data Service Analysis.



Downlink application throughput is constant on average



Downlink application throughput limited by HSDPA modulation

Downlink application throughput is constant on average In the two following examples, the application throughput experienced by the user is about constant over the whole duration of the task. However when we look in detail at the instantaneous HSDPA radio measurements (HSDPA L1 payload rate, HSDPA frame usage), we can see that in each case the issue preventing higher throughput is different. #1 Erratic instantaneous throughput is limited by the HSDPA frame usage

In this HSPA+ example, we can see that the UE is in HSPA+ mode throughout and that CQI, CPICH EcN0, and CPICH RSCP are all good, whereas HSDPA frame usage and HSDPA throughput are all erratic. Note also that the throughput spikes at ~8Mbps. From these observations we can conclude that:



The radio conditions were good throughout this section of drive, allowing for maximum download data rate. In these conditions the UE could have achieved ~8 Mbps, provided a constant 100% HSDPA frame usage.



Although on average the throughput is about 4 Mbps, instantaneous throughput measurements are erratic, ranging from 1 to 8 Mbps. This behavior is symptomatic of a buffer filling / emptying somewhere along the data transmission chain, for instance in the RAN. It is likely that in this example the system reaches the maximum throughput it can deliver to a user.



100

#2 Flat instantaneous throughput, inverse relationship between HSDPA frame usage and CQI

In this example, there are two periods during which the UE is in HSDPA mode, separated by a period in DCH R99 mode. For these two HSDPA mode periods there is an inverse relationship between CQI and HSDPA frame usage, so that HSDPA frame usage increases when CQI degrades, resulting in the HSDPA throughput being constant. From these observations we can conclude that:



Under these radio conditions, the UE could have achieved a higher throughput. Had the throughput been limited by the radio conditions, there would be a relationship between CQI and throughput.



The throughput does not seem to be limited by the number of HSDPA users on the sector. On some occasions the HSDPA frame usage reached ~100%.



Therefore it is likely that the maximum system capacity is reached in this example, for instance on the Iub or Iu link. The air interface is not the limiting factor.



101

Downlink application throughput limited by HSDPA modulation

In this example there are two periods during the data transfer, where the UE experiences a period of lower throughput (~250 Kbps), and a period of high throughput (~1250 Kbps). However during the whole transfer, the radio conditions are very good (CQI >24), and the HSDPA frame usage is about the same on the two cells. The throughput is higher during the second period because the Node B uses 16QAM modulation most of the time, whereas QPSK modulation is used almost all the time during the first period. Why does the modulation usage change after the handover? In this case a more detailed analysis is required. Adding attribute Uu_Call_State to the chart, we can see that the difference between the two periods is that in the first period, the DCH return channel for HSDPA has a capacity of 16 Kbps, whereas the return channel for the second period has a capacity of 64 Kbps. The limiting factor on the first cell is the DCH return channel. The Node B may be configuring the uplink DCH return channel to 16 Kbps in order to reduce the uplink interference level.



102

Radio network analysis The Radio Network Analysis tab in the Network Optimization module is used to analyze network health, such as cell coverage, missing neighbors, and pilot pollution problems. As a result of this analysis, the issues identified may then point operators to specific problem events that can be examined and diagnosed using the Call Event Explorer tab. You can also perform Radio Network Analysis on switch data. For Call Trace, only areabased Radio Network Analysis is supported. The missing neighbor analysis takes into account inter-cell distance to enable both rural and urban neighbor optimization, and prioritizes additions based on customer impact (i.e. dropped calls). The algorithm also automatically identifies data inconsistencies between defined neighbors and actual measurements. Neighbor recommendations can be exported directly to CSV format files for network update. The Radio Network Analysis tab enables you to choose a type of analysis to perform. From the Analysis drop-down list, you can choose to perform three main types of analysis:



cell coverage



pilot pollution



missing neighbors

The initial Radio Network Analysis screen



103

Once you have selected an Analysis and specified the Device Type (if necessary), click the Run Analysis button on the right. Once you have run an analysis, the table shows a list of the sites and sectors affected by that analysis.

The screen after running a coverage analysis The buttons on the left of the Radio Network Analysis panel are:



Refresh



Copy



Export Sector Plots (p113)



Overview (return to analysis results overview)



Data Settings (settings depend on the analysis type)



Antenna Visualization (p114)



104

Cell coverage First check the data settings that control the cell Coverage analysis algorithm. You do this by clicking the Data Settings button . If you alter a data setting, the analysis updates the results after you close the dialog box. For more information about the options in this dialog box, see the coverage settings section below.

Viewing cell coverage information From the Footprint Attribute drop-down list you can choose an attribute to display on the map. In the example shown above, UMTS Coverage is selected, which displays both Ec/Io and RSCP, using the same colors as the Quality chart on the left. When this is selected, you can also uncheck the boxes on the diagram to filter out these bins on the map. Note that when there is only one attribute available, the drop-down list changes to a bold label displaying the attribute's name. The good/poor coverage attribute is calculated based on the bins, which means that the coverage grid correlates exactly with the coverage attribute on the map. ActixOne calculates the coverage attribute using the thresholds set in the data settings and the average of the best values for all sectors in a bin. When a bin is selected, lines are drawn to the cells and are colored by sector ranking. In addition, measurement information is displayed in the left-hand details pane. Below the map on the right are three mode buttons that display All the bins (the default), bins relating to Cross-feeders or bins relating to Overshooters. The left-hand details pane also shows a distribution chart (also used in the Network Comparison, Network Acceptance, and Problem Investigation modules) that shows data based on the attribute selected from its drop-down list. The table below the map displays summary information. The % > Beam column shows the percentage of bins outside the serving cell's beamwidth. The % > 180 Beam column shows the percentage of bins outside an imaginary beamwidth for the serving cell of 180 degrees (this Cross-feeder angle can be configured using the Data Settings button). Click on a row in the table to display more information about the site in the side panel. In addition, the map shows the coverage wedge for the selected



105

cell, while the circle represents the coverage design boundary (data points outside this circle represent overspill). When you select a site, the side panel shows a histogram of the distances at which the cell was measured. A red line indicates the maximum range for the analysis. Place the mouse pointer over these lines for more information about the distances involved.

Showing information relating to a selected sector Coverage settings Clicking on the Data Settings button displays the Coverage Settings dialog. Best Samples - The number of distinct locations that a sector must be seen as the best server to be included in the analysis. Cross-feeder Angle - Used for Cross Feeders analysis. This defines an imaginary beamwidth angle for the serving cell. Bins outside this angle count as cross feeders, and can be filtered out using the Overshooter button. Cross-feeder % - Used for Cross Feeders analysis. This is the percentage of distinct locations that a sector must be seen to be cross-feeding in (that is, the location appears outside the beamwidth), before the sector is included as a cross-feeder. Maximum Server Distance - Used for Overshooter analysis. This defines a distance from the serving cell. Bins beyond this distance count as overshooters, and can be filtered out using the Cross-feeders button. Minimum Cross-feeder Distance - Used for Cross Feeders analysis. This is the distance (in meters) that a location bin must be from the serving sector before cross-feeding is considered. Poor EcIo/RxQual Threshold - Used for Coverage analysis. A bin that falls below this signal quality threshold counts as having poor EcIo (CDMA/EVDO/UMTS) or RxQual (GSM). Poor Ec/RSCP/RxLev Threshold - Used for Coverage analysis. A bin that falls below this signal level threshold counts as having poor Ec (CDMA/EVDO scanner only), RSCP (UMTS) or RxLev (GSM). Seen Samples - The number of distinct locations that a sector must be seen in to be included in the analysis.



106

Pilot pollution This analysis option enables you to identify quickly the relative degree of pollution for each cell, and prioritize which cells in the network are strong candidates for downtilts and coverage optimization. There are two modes of pollution Analysis available from the Device Type drop-down list: Handset or Scanner. A scanner analysis is more accurate, as it typically collects much more data. To check the data settings that control the pilot pollution analysis algorithm, click the Data Settings button . If you alter a data setting, the analysis updates the results after you close the dialog box. For more information about the options in this dialog box, see the Pollution settings section below. The map plots all bins above the Active Set Size threshold where pollution was detected. Note that when no sectors are selected in the table, a histogram chart is displayed in the left-hand pane. This chart shows the distribution of unique sectors in the bin.

Pilot pollution, showing the unique sectors histogram The bottom table lists the summary information, including the number of pollution bins where a particular cell was involved. Click a column title to sort the table by that value. For this analysis, the most likely column to sort by is Count Pollution. Select a sector in the table. This displays the pilot pollution for the sector in the side panel and draws lines on the map to other sectors involved in the pollution. If the Draw Sector Lines box is checked, when you select a sector from the table or the map, lines to other sectors that share one or more polluted bins are drawn from that site. The thicker the line, the higher the number of bins that are shared by the connected sectors.



107

Viewing pilot pollution for a selected cell, with Draw Sector Lines 'on' The side panel shows the details of the pollution for the selected site. Note that you can sort the side panel, for example by distance, which helps you identify distant sectors that might need downtilting, or if the serving cell needs uptilting for greater coverage. Altitude profiling is also very useful in determining the geography between points on the map, which can help you understand the coverage of a particular sector.

Select a sector in the left hand table to highlight the pollution line. An altitude profile has been drawn alongside. Select individual pollution bins on the map to draw related pollution sector lines. The Legend explains what the line colors mean. Select bins with high pollution counts to explore pollution in a particular area.



108

Select a bin to draw pollution sector lines From the Legend, you can also select the most commonly used attributes to plot. The currently selected attribute is retained when you navigate between analysis pages. Pollution settings Click the Data Settings button

to open the Pollution settings dialog.

Active Set Size - Each location bin will see a number of sectors that match the other criteria in the Pollution Settings dialog. If this number of sectors exceeds the Active Set Size, it is considered pollution and is displayed on the map. Note that in the screen image above, this also automatically clears the appropriate boxes for Pilot Pollution. In the example, the Active Set Size is 4, so bins that only see three or fewer sectors are cleared and are not displayed on the map. EcNo or EcIo Threshold - Filters out any location bins with best server measurements below this signal quality threshold. Ec or RSCP Threshold - Filters out any location bins with best server measurements below this signal level threshold. Ec Threshold is only available for CDMA/EVDO scanner devices. Reporting Range (dB) - Sectors are only considered to be involved in pollution if they are within this value of the strongest signal received in the location bin.

Missing neighbors This analysis option enables you to use scanner data to optimize neighbor lists for sites within a user-defined radius of the selected cell. Where the serving cell cannot carry a call due to interference or poor radio conditions, the call needs to be moved to a better cell. If the cellrefs file contains neighbor information, then the analysis examines the relationship between the existing neighbors and the potential neighbors as seen by the scanner and generates add, remove, and retain recommendations for each site and cell. First check the data settings that control the missing neighbors analysis algorithm, by clicking the Data Settings button . If you alter a data setting, the analysis updates the results after you close the dialog box. For



109

more information about the options in this dialog box, see the Missing neighbors settings section below. The main table shows the list sites and sectors as well as information about the number of neighbor sites to add, remove and retain, together with related site information. Click a row in this table to display the neighbor list for the selected cell in the side panel and to draw lines to the neighbors on the map. The side panel shows each recommendation for a sector individually, sorted by the percentage of data points that meet the recommendation algorithm.

The Missing Neighbors analysis Selecting a particular recommendation in the side panel highlights the recommendation line on the map and dims the other lines. The three buttons above and to the right of the main table allow you to filter by recommended additions, retentions and removals. On the map, by default, recommended additions are shown in green, retentions in blue and removals in red. You can individually select any neighbor relationship to display on the map or to export to clipboard. Note that any unselected neighbor relationships in the left table panel are grayed out.

Selecting a neighbor removal recommendation



110

To copy the data as shown in the bottom table to an external application, such as Microsoft Excel, click the Copy to Clipboard button . The Copy expanded table to clipboard button produces one row in the table for each Addition or Retention (Removals are not included), so if a given sector shows 5 Additions, this would result in 5 rows being copied to the clipboard for that sector's recommended additions. The map's Layers control contains two options that you can use to customize how the missing neighbor data is displayed on the map: the missing neighbor footprint option and the missing neighbor lines option. Missing neighbors settings Click the Data Settings button to open the Missing Neighbors Settings dialog box. Here you can configure the algorithm that ActixOne uses to perform the missing neighbor analysis. This can be used to build lists of suggested neighbor cells to add and remove. All of the options take effect immediately after you close the dialog box.



Reporting Range (dB) - Sectors in a bin are only used in the recommendation counts if they are measured within this range of the strongest sector within that bin.



Minimum Samples – Only sectors that have been measured above the appropriate thresholds at least this many times are included in the analysis. Note that the algorithm works off binned data.



Maximum Size – Enables you to specify the maximum number of recommended neighbors. The more potential neighbors you add, the longer it takes for a handset to find appropriate neighbors, conceivably resulting in a dropped call.



Maximum Intersite Distance – Determines the maximum line-ofsight distance in meters between two cells for one to be considered for inclusion on the other's neighbor list. For rural areas where the average intersite distance is naturally greater than a dense urban environment, use a higher value. To disable this feature, set this value to zero.



Addition Threshold (%) – Defines the percentage of samples that must be reached to trigger a cell being added as a suggested neighbor. This is used to reduce the effect of stray signals.



Removal Threshold (%) – Specifies the minimum percentage of samples that cells in the current neighbor list must achieve in order to be recommended for retention in the list. When the percentages of samples fall below this threshold, cells are recommended for removal from the list.



Angle to Site Threshold – Defines the maximum angle between the edge of a cell's beam width and the data point for that cell to be considered for inclusion in the serving cell's neighbor list. This threshold ensures that missing neighbors are not suggested from reflected signals or back-lobes, and also that only cells angled towards the data point are suggested. To disable this feature, set this value to zero.



111



Include Existing Neighbors - Check this box to show 'retain' recommendations.



Only Process Best Sector – Check this box to analyze the neighbors of the best cell only. If this box is clear, ActixOne analyzes the neighbor list of all of the cells meeting the other criteria.



Ignore White List – Check this box to disable the White List (see below).



Ignore Black List – Check this box to disable the Black List (see below).

Black Lists and White Lists The Black List includes all neighbors that should never be added to the network. The White List includes all neighbors that should never be removed from the network. To access these lists, click the Edit Black and White Lists button to the top right of the left panel. To add a sector to one of the lists, select a sector in the Neighbor List and then, in the Black and White Lists dialog, click the green 'plus' button to add it to the related list.

The Edit Black and White Lists button and the resulting dialog showing each list type.

Radio Network Analysis on switch data You can perform neighbor tuning and analysis on switch data (refer to your Release Notes to see which formats are supported). Neighbor analysis covers:



Handover failure



Missing neighbors



Overshooters

The missing neighbor analysis takes into account inter-cell distance to enable both rural and urban neighbor optimization, and prioritizes additions based on customer impact (i.e. dropped calls). The algorithm also



112

automatically identifies data inconsistencies between defined neighbors and actual measurements. Neighbor recommendations can be exported directly to CSV format files for network update.

Export Sector Plots This feature lets you export images from radio network analysis, displayed on the background map and output as a zipped PNG, JPG or BMP format file. Clicking the Export Sector Plots button

opens the following dialog:

Select the Attribute that you want to display on the output image. The available options will depend on the related technology. Now select the Footprint for the cell in the output image: Where Seen - the image only includes those points where the cell could be seen during the drive(s). Where Best - the image only includes those points where the cell was the best server during the drive(s). Select how you want to Plot the results. This depends on the selected technology; the example shown is for UMTS Handset, and the choice is By SC or By Sector. One image will be exported for each SC, or Sector, depending on this selection. If by SC (or BCCH etc.) is chosen, then all sectors on that SC (and UARFCN if defined in the cellrefs) will be exported in one image. Cells on the same SC but that were not seen during the drive will not be highlighted. Select how you want the Legend information to be plotted: None – No legend is produced. In Map – Legend is embedded in the map top right hand corner.



113

Separate – Legend is created in a separate along with the map. Each image will cover the area of the Union of the bounds of the attributes, plus the highlighted cells, plus a padding zone. Select the Map Image Format: PNG – The default map image format option, as PNG files are small yet remain clear. BMP – This results in much larger graphics files, and is only recommended if you intend to use the images with Microsoft Excel. If you use Insert Object in Excel, you have the ability to link to a graphics file. Only links to BMP files will show the actual image – other formats will only show an image icon. JPG – JPEG compression is used in a number of image file formats. JPEG/Exif is the most common image format used by digital cameras and other photographic image capture devices; along with JPEG/JFIF, it is the most common format for storing and transmitting photographic images on the World Wide Web. Enter the Map Image Size in pixels. Select the Min Sample Count threshold. The number of points for the attribute must be equal to or higher than this value for an image to be exported. To display the coverage wedge and overspill circle, check the Show Coverage Wedge box. The coverage wedge and overspill distance circle are drawn by default Once you are satisfied with your selections, click the Export button. ActixOne will now cycle through the selected sectors on the coverage page table and create an image for each one, wrapped up in a zip file.

Antenna Visualization Provided that you are currently displaying survey data and your ActixOne system has antenna patterns loaded, this feature is available from:



The Radio Network Analysis tab in Network Optimization - click on the Antenna Visualization button.



The Tools button on the map.

Once you have activated Antenna Visualization, you can now see the terrain profile displayed beneath the map, and a corresponding line drawn from the selected sector. If you select a bin, this line is drawn from the sector to the bin, otherwise the visualization line will match the antenna's azimuth.



114

Radio Network Analysis, showing the Settings dialog, antenna pattern, visualization line on the map, Additional Properties, and vertical terrain profile. The terrain profile display shows a cross section of terrain along the visualization line. The width of the profile corresponds to the distance of the line displayed on the map, allowing you to identify terrain features. Note that the map shows a shaded band that extends some small distance away from the visualization line. Any bins displayed on the map within this area will also be displayed in the terrain profile. On the left end of the profile display, three solid lines extend from the antenna icon. These correspond to the main bore of the antenna, and a drop of 3 dB above and below the main bore (these lines are also drawn on the antenna pattern). If a line meets the terrain, this is shown on the map by a short bar across the main bore line. The shading on the map and the profile show the region closest aligned to the main bore of the antenna. You can control the shading of this region by using the Antenna Visualization Settings dialog described below. The Additional Properties section can be expanded or closed as required. To open the antenna pattern window, click the icon beside the Antenna Model dropdown list. Hovering the mouse pointer over the antenna symbol in the vertical antenna profile displays a small window containing antenna information. Double-clicking the antenna symbol opens an antenna properties window which displays the antenna pattern and allows other properties to be altered.



115

Controlling the antenna tilt To control the displayed tilt of the antenna, use the two sliders. The left slider controls mechanical tilt, the right slider controls electrical tilt. Click the button below the slider to enable the slider control. Clicking the electrical tilt button also displays the antenna pattern in an adjacent window. If for some reason, the antenna pattern is not available, a default pattern will be assumed, and only mechanical (not electrical) tilt will be available.

The Antenna Visualization Settings This dialog is displayed by clicking on the Antenna Visualization Settings button

.

The Antenna Visualization Settings dialog The antenna visualization feature shows two shaded regions, starting from where the main bore line meets the terrain, with an end point where the line below the main bore meets the terrain, and another end point where the line above the main bore meets the terrain (or more likely, at the edge of the Default Distance for the visualization). All bins within the Region Width and between the Region Start distance and the Default Distance from the antenna are shown on the terrain profile display. Default Antenna Height – This allows you to change the antenna height value for the purposes of the visualization. Default Distance – This defines the distance in meters to the outer edge of the visualization region, and is shown on the map as a large circle around the selected sector. The terrain profile is scaled to use this distance as the maximum extent of the terrain profile display. Region Start – This defines the distance in meters from the antenna at which bins will start to be displayed in the terrain profile. Region Width – This defines the width in meters of the shaded region. Start/End Alpha – These values define the transparency of the start and end of each shaded region. A value of 1 is solid, and a value of 0 is totally



116

transparent. The shading will grade steadily from the start point to the end point of each shaded region. Start/End Color – These selections define the color at the start and end of each shaded region. The color will change steadily from one color to the other from the start point to the end point of each shaded region. Use Symmetric Scaling – This changes the vertical scale in the terrain profile to match the map scale. The terrain profile display is usually turned off to accentuate the vertical scale. Show Grid Lines – Check this box to display lines on the terrain profile corresponding to each successive 3 dB reduction in antenna power. The following image shows symmetric scaling and grid lines in use.

Symmetric Scaling and Grid Lines are both on in this vertical profile Maximum/Minimum Mech Tilt – This defines the limits of mechanical tilt for the antenna. Mech Tilt Increment – This defines the amount by which you can alter the mechanical tilt. The default is 0.5 degrees, and the minimum is 0.1 degrees. Received Power Layer – This shows which Received Power layer is being used to provide the settings for the Received Power simulation layer. If there is more than one parent Received Power layer available, select the appropriate layer to be used here. See Generating a Received Power prediction below. Additional Properties panel An expandable panel to the left of the vertical antenna profile contains several parameters such as Antenna Height, Antenna Model, Azimuth, Cable Loss DL and Pilot Power. You can experiment with these parameters to optimize the Antenna Visualization profile and Antenna Beam line on the map. The Antenna Visualization profiles will be updated when you change the azimuth of the Antenna Beam line in the map. However, the new azimuth will not be recorded in the Azimuth parameter in the expandable panel. To record the azimuth changes, hold the Ctrl key while dragging the Antenna Beam line to a new azimuth. The value of the parameter is shown in bold if it is a default value. If a parameter is changed, a Reset button appears against it. The Reset All button below the electrical tilt slider returns all parameter changes to their original values.



117

Viewing multiple antenna visualizations You can select more than one antenna on the map for visualization. In this case, a tab is created for each selected antenna. The antenna color matches that of the appropriate sector on the map for easy identification.

Multiple antenna visualization tabs for several selected sectors

Generating a Received Power prediction After any parameter changes, you can generate a new simulated Received Power prediction by clicking the “tick” ("check") icon below the mechanical tilt slider. This renders a new simulated Received Power layer on the map and Antenna Visualization profile. To adjust the layer’s transparency, use the vertical slider at the right side of the Antenna Visualization window. The highlighted bottom row of the Antenna Visualization window shows the value of the loaded Received Power.



118

By hovering the mouse along the contour of the vertical profile, more information is displayed in the tooltip, as shown in the example below.

To view only simulation Received Power on the map, from the Layers panel, deselect the Received Power layer. To view loaded Received Power, move the transparent slider to 0%. You can export all changes to a text file and then copy to a .CSV file using the Copy to Clipboard button at the top right of the vertical profile area.

Uploading survey files The Upload Survey Files option, available from the Tools menu in the Map, allows you to select drive test survey files and load them into ActixOne. Files are uploaded in batches. Multiple files can be uploaded in one batch. Any Analyzer-supported drive test file can be uploaded (including side-files). Zipped (.zip and .gz) files are also supported, and the sub-directory structure in the archive will be preserved. Note that, if the .zip or .gz file contains a compressed file (.zip or .gz), it will not recursively uncompress the files in the archive. The maximum recommended file size is 100MB, although the maximum permitted size is configurable by your administrator.



119

Select Upload Survey Files to open the following dialog:

The Upload Survey Files dialog Pipeline – lets you specify the target pipeline. All pipelines are listed, including inactive ones. If you do not select a pipeline, then either the default pipeline will be used or the pipeline routing rules will be applied. File property controls – these are configurable file properties that can be set by administrators using the Upload and Routing Settings dialog. See the Administration Manual for details. File list – this is a data grid containing the list of selected files to be uploaded. It consists of the following columns: # column – this is the file index number, used to reference an entry on this list.. Note that this is not the same as the DTFiles FileID. File – the file name as it was retrieved from the user’s file system. Size – the file size, in KB, MB, or GB. Status – this upload status indicator is updated based on the upload status of the file. The status becomes a progress bar as the file is being uploaded. After the upload completes, this indicates the number of files that were successfully uploaded: “Uploaded n out of m files”. If the file is not a .zip file, m = 1. The n value indicates the number of successfully uploaded files. In this state, you can click the status to display the upload result details for this file. Add and Remove files buttons allow you to modify the list of files. Upload progress bar – this shows the number of files out of the total that have been successfully uploaded. Cancel Upload – this allows you to abort the file upload process. Upload – this starts the upload process for the listed files. An Upload Survey File Results dialog is now displayed.



120

Shrink dialog – this reduces the dialog to show the bottom line of buttons only, so that you can monitor progress on a long file load.

Create Spotlight Task If you check the Create Spotlight Task box, the following options are displayed:

The Create Spotlight Task options Description – This text will be used in the Task Management table, so enter information that will help other users. Priority – The priority of the task as shown in the Task Management table. Can be set to Low, Medium or High. Take Ownership – Check this box to assign the task to yourself.

Upload Survey File Results dialog In the Upload Survey File Results dialog, an extra option is displayed: View Spotlight tasks after all files are processed – If checked, once all the files in the list have been processed, this will be replaced with a clickable link to open the Spotlight task in the Network Optimization page. This task will still be available even if you do not click on the link. Note The task will be available even if one or more files failed in processing.



121

Using charts Charts display attribute data over a particular period for one or more selected elements. This helps to troubleshoot network problems because poorly performing elements will stand out from the others. ActixOne provides two types of charts – the Chart panel and the mini charts (see p126). To access the Chart panel, click the Charts button on the map. The Chart panel shows a tree menu of chart groups and individual charts. Selecting a chart opens the chart in its own window. The Map Layers group contains charts that are synchronized to map layers, indicated by the chain icons. Any changes to how attributes are displayed on the map will automatically be updated on the chart. The group contains the sub group Customer Experience, which contains the charts Default and Hourly (these can also display data from selected mesh squares). Default shows whichever attribute is currently being displayed on the Customer Experience map layer. The charts Networks and Traffic are populated using Call Trace data. The various features of charts, such as the Attribute Picker, the Element Picker, and so on, are covered in the Network optimization tools section on p136. Note Only after having selected one or more elements from the map, from tables, or from the Task List, will you be able to see information displayed in a chart.

Viewing a chart

Chart features



122

There are a number of features that are unique to charts that can assist operators to understand more about the network. For instance, by placing the mouse pointer over a data point on the chart (or mini chart) you can view a summary description of any event occurring during that period. You can also use the Chart Events Options tool to select the types of events, if any, that you want to see on a chart.

The Events Displayed dialog In the Chart panel, you can create, save, and apply templates. Global chart templates, which are available to all users, are configured by the ActixOne administrator including, among other things, how they are named and identified. You can modify the currently displayed chart to suit your own analysis requirements and then save it as an updated template or as a new chart template. Once saved, the new or modified template can then be selected from the drop-down menu in the Chart panel. For more information about using and configuring templates, refer to the Templates topic on p145. The Attribute Picker tool (p139) is used to add the different types of attributes to the chart. Here you can choose sector, radio, or base station attributes. And by using the configuration pane, you can modify how the chart looks, including the color of the series lines, aspects of the horizontal and vertical axes, and the visibility of individual lines. On the top row, there are two dropdown selectors for automatically displaying values for related elements. The Attribute Picker topic on p139 describes the various hierarchies available.

The Element Picker tool is used to select elements for use in the chart, using anything from simple selection methods to potentially complex queries.



123

Chart options Modifying the axes of the chart changes how much data is visible. For instance, dragging the right-hand horizontal axis slider to the left reduces the amount of time covered by the chart. Suppose that you want to view data the changes occurring over a two-day or 48-hour period. To do this, you can use the Set Axis Limits buttons for the horizontal axis to specify a lower and an upper limit, for example between 01 January and the end of 02 January, and then you can click and drag the range across the axis. To expand a chart to fill the entire panel, double-click anywhere on the panel. To return to partitioned view, double-click anywhere again. If you want to view the data in the chart as a table, click the Show Table button on the panel. This lists each element, which you can expand to see the values for the data points. To exit the table and return to the chart, click the Show Table button again. It is possible to lock a chart by clicking the Lock button . This means that any changes made after the applying lock, such as adding attributes or elements, are not visible. Click the Lock button again to unlock the chart. Click the Histogram button in order to view an aggregate over elements or time. You can histogram attributes if they have a format group with ‘Ranges’ defined. Note that you can also use the Stack Columns box at the bottom of the chart to stack the columns by attribute, colored by element (if aggregated over elements, the columns are colored by attribute). Each stacked column can have its own axis. To save a copy of the chart as an image, click the Save Chart to JPG button. Specify a location for the file and then click Save.

Create a chart To create a chart, perform the following steps: 1

Click the Chart icon on the map to open the chart panel.

2

Select the sectors you want to investigate, using the Element Picker tool or by selecting them from the map.

3

Specify the attributes you want to compare on these sectors, using the Attribute Picker tool .

4

To determine the time period for the data in the chart, use the Time Picker button .

5

Customize the chart as required by changing the characteristics of the series, such as by modifying the chart's timescale, adding and configuring axes, and choosing to display the data as a chart, a table, or a histogram.

6

If you want to prevent any changes to the chart during the current session, click the Lock button .

7

You can select events to display on the chart by clicking the Event Options button and then selecting the check boxes for the relevant events.



124

8

Choose between viewing the data as a chart a histogram .

, as a table

, or as

Customize a chart You can change the characteristics of a chart by performing the following steps: 1

Open the chart legend panel by clicking and dragging the accordion.

2

Select one or more elements from the chart legend (hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard while selecting multiple elements). You can change the following characteristics:



Visibility – Hide or display the selected series on the chart.



Vertical Axis – Choose an existing axis or add a new one for the current series. After adding a new vertical axis, the vertical slider enables you to control the scope of that axis.



Horizontal Axis – Select an existing axis or add a new one for the current series. After adding a new horizontal axis, the horizontal slider enables you to control the scope of that axis.



Series Style – Choose a style for the data points on the chart, including box, circle, diamond, and triangle.



Series Form – Select a form for the series, including step, curve, and segment.



Series Color – Specify from the picker a color for the series. Click the check box to shade the area beneath the series line with the selected color.

3

Use the horizontal and vertical axes to adjust (expand or compress) your view of the chart data.

4

You can save the chart as a template if you want to reuse it.



125

Using mini charts Mini charts are displayed in a panel to the right of the map display, and allow you to view data related to selected sectors in a customizable set of small charts. If the mini chart area is not already open, drag it out using the panel control.

The Map Layers > Customer Experience mini chart group From the dropdown menu at the top, you can select mini chart groups or individual mini charts to populate the mini chart panel. Note that each chart is added at a set size, so that the area might only contain a few mini charts, or there might be so many that you have to scroll off of the screen to see them all. In this case you can click on the first button to the right of the dropdown menu. To remove all the current mini charts, click the middle button. The button on the right

opens the Time Picker dialog (see p144).

You can display the mini chart as a full-size chart by clicking on its display area (not its title area). The Map Layers group contains mini charts that are synchronized to map layers, indicated by the chain icons. Any changes to how attributes are displayed on the map will automatically be updated on the mini chart. The group contains the sub group Customer Experience, which contains the mini charts Default and Hourly (these can also display data from selected mesh squares). Default shows whichever attribute is currently being displayed on the Customer Experience map layer. The mini charts Networks and Traffic are populated using Call Trace data.



126

Using tables Tables are used in ActixOne to display arrange attribute data over a period of time for one or more selected sectors. To access the Table panel, you click the Table button on the map. Note that if you have not selected one or more sectors from the map, the Element Picker , or the Task List, there can be no information to display in the table.

Viewing attribute data for sectors in the Table panel In the Table panel, you can create and apply templates using the controls in the top left of the table window. Global table templates, which are available to all users, are configured by the ActixOne administrator including, among other things, how they are named and identified. You can modify the currently displayed table to suit your own analysis requirements and then save it as an updated template or as a new table template. Once saved, the new or modified template can then be selected from the drop-down menu in the Table panel. For more information about using and configuring templates, refer to the Templates topic on p145. Double-clicking on a row in the PM table displays data for child elements for the selected date. Showing those sectors that have neighbor relations with other sectors (shown in the lower panel) can help engineers identify problems and to understand network issues. You can add neighbor data (incoming and outgoing as well as children and parent sectors) to a table in order to compare them. These neighbor relations can then be visualized and drawn as lines on the map, using the Lines to Neighbors option in the Layers control.

Table options The Grouping dropdown contains the following options: Group by Element shows each element as an expandable folder that contains dates and the values for the chosen attributes. The Group by Time option uses the date and time of the data to create expandable groups, while the No Grouping option displays the data ungrouped and as list that you can order by using the column headers. If you want to export the data to another application, click the Copy to Clipboard button . This copies the current data set to the Windows Clipboard from where you can paste it into a text editor or any other Windows application that supports the cut-and-paste function.



127

In order to get the information you need, it may be necessary to exclude other information from the table. To do this, you can use the filtering options available when you click the Filter button . For specific information on how to create and use filters, refer to the Configuring tables topic on p128. The Time Picker tool determines the period of time for the data you are viewing. For more information about using the Time Picker, refer to the Time Picker topic on p144. If necessary, you can maintain the data and how it is presented in the table by clicking the Lock Table button . This means that if you add other elements or attributes to the Table panel, the current view remains unaffected. Click the button again to unlock the table and apply any changes. The Attribute Picker allows you to select attribute data to display in the table (as shown in the above screen shot). For more information, see the Attribute Picker topic on p139. On the top row, there are two dropdown selectors for automatically displaying values for related elements. The Attribute Picker topic on p139 describes the various hierarchies available.

Configuring tables This topic looks at how to configure tables in the Network Optimization module's Table panel. By configuring tables, you specify how the element data in the Table panel is presented and arranged. This helps you understand the data more easily and helps you solve more quickly existing network problems. In configuring tables, you can select different ways to group the data, add and modify filters, and add neighbor data. Note For general information about tables, such as their features and options, refer to the topic on p126. Add data to a table To add data to the Table panel, perform the following steps: 1

Click the Tables button

2

The Element Picker button enables you to add elements (such as sectors) to the table. After searching for elements, add them to the table by clicking the Move Element to Selected List button.

3

Specify the attributes you want to view by clicking the Attribute Picker button. Select one or more attributes from the panel and click the Move Attributes to Selected List button. The attributes are applied to the selected elements.


on the map.


128

4

Three data grouping options are available: none; by element; and, by time. Select one of these options from the grouping drop-down list to arrange the table's data.

5

When you select relational attributes and then select one or more rows from the table, the additional relationship data is displayed, including the names of the source and target sectors, their distance apart, and the number of incoming and outgoing neighbors.

6

Click the Copy to Clipboard button if you want to copy and paste the element data from the table into another application, such as a spreadsheet.

7

You can save the table as a template if you want to reuse it or you can select an existing template (applying its attributes) from the drop-down list.

Group data To group the data in the Table panel, perform the following steps: 1

2

Click the grouping drop-down list and select one of the following options:



Group by Element – The default table view lists each element with its data values over time.



Group by Time – This option lists the days and times for which there is attribute data for each element.



No Grouping – This option does not group the data but simply lists each element, the time, and an associated value.

If you have grouped by the element name or by time, click the arrow next to a folder to expand it and view the contents of the folder.

Create data filters To create a filter for the table, perform the following steps: 1

Click the Filter button

.

2

In the Filter dialog box, specify the properties of the filter. These properties include the field and its associated value to filter by as well as the type of operator to use.

Creating a filter



129

3

If you have selected multiple attributes from the Attribute Picker for the table, you are able to choose an attribute from the Field drop-down list. Select an operator from the Operator drop-down list and then click in the Value field and enter a value for the attribute.

4

You can refine the filter by adding multiple rows using the Add Row button. To remove a row, click the Delete Row button.

5

If you want to create grouped conditions, select the filter conditions while pressing the Ctrl key on the keyboard and then click the Group Selected Rows button. Click the Ungroup Selected Rows button to undo a grouping.

6

When done, click the Save button. That a filter is applied to the data is indicated by the Filter button . Note Any filters created for the neighbor table only operate on the target sector element and the outgoing neighbor attribute.

Selecting devices The drive test information that is collected can include the names of the devices or equipment used in those drive surveys. You can select devices from within the Survey Layer Properties dialog box as well as from the Devices dialog box. However, you can only select devices from the Device dialog box that are related to the selected task – all devices are displayed though, and those that are not related to the task are unavailable.

Selecting devices You can view the devices using the Devices option on the Call Event Explorer and Radio Network Analysis tabs. This list is synchronized with the selection made in the Survey Layer Properties dialog box. 1

To select one or more devices click the Devices option on the information bar below the Task list.



130

2

Select the check boxes for the required devices.

3

When done click the OK button.

Viewing network events The Network Events panel in the Network Optimization module is designed to enable operators to view events that have occurred on network elements over time. To open the panel, click the Network Events button on the map.

Viewing network events Using this panel, it is possible to perform the following actions:



search for elements, using the Element Picker tool them to a selection set or the global selection set



view the events for each element



select the types of events to display in the panel



choose a period of time during which the events occurred, using the Time Picker tool (check that you have a useful date range selected here)



copy the details of an event to the Windows Clipboard to be pasted into another application



create, apply, and save templates



and add

131

Group events You can group events to make it easier to navigate large lists of events when you investigate problems. To group events, perform the following steps: 1

In the Network Events dialog, click the View button.

2

From the View dialog, select the column by which you want to group the events.

Grouping by 'Type' 3

Click the up and down arrow buttons to order the groupings.

4


In the example below, the events have been grouped by their Type.

Grouping events



132

Displaying bin attributes It can be useful to view attribute information for bins as part of understanding more about network problems or events. ActixOne enables you to configure a set of attributes that are always displayed (along with their values) when you select a bin on the map. The values in the attributes dialog box are dynamic and always reflect the bins selected, so you can click on different bins on the map and see their values automatically. If there are no values for the selected attributes, the display will be empty. To add attributes, perform the following steps: 1

On the map click one or more bins. To select multiple bins, either press the Ctrl key while selecting individual bins or press the Shift key while drawing an area on the map. The Select Attributes dialog box opens automatically.

2

From the list select the relevant attributes.

Selecting attributes to display 3

If you want bin sector lines to be displayed on the map, select the Show Bin Sector Lines check box. The lines are removed when the dialog box is closed or when no bins are selected.

4

Click the Save button.

5

The attributes of the selected bins are shown in the dialog box. Clicking on other bins on the map displays their values in the dialog box.



133

Viewing the selected bin attributes 6

Click the Close button

to exit the dialog box.

7

Whenever you select one or more bins, the Bin Attributes dialog box opens. To change the attributes displayed there, click the Attribute Picker button , make the required changes, and then click the Save button.

Filtering map elements Filtering map elements makes it easier to tell quickly how those elements relate to one another. For instance, you could create a filter for the BSIC attribute in order to highlight all those sectors that share the same attribute value. ActixOne also lets you do co-channel filtering, depending on the technology and if configured during system setup.

The Network Layer Properties dialog The RNA sector filter can be turned on or off for each different technology. When selected, it enlarges sectors involved in the RNA analysis.



134

For the Neighbor filter, the option Reciprocal Nbrs displays on the map all neighbors of the selected sectors. It would be categorized as Reciprocal Nbrs, Outbound only and Inbound only. This helps you easily identify any one-way relation in the network.

Apply an attribute filter If you want to apply an attribute filter, select the attribute's option button to open the Attribute Picker dialog (p139) and then choose an attribute.

Perform co-channel filtering The behavior of the Co-channel filter option in the Network Layer Properties dialog box depends on the network technology as well as configurations made during the setup of ActixOne. The value of co-channel filtering is that it renders sectors on the map according to their properties and you can quickly see how they relate to sectors. This is done by changing the border color of the currently-selected sector using the following rules (the sector tooltip is updated accordingly, too):



Sectors that don't match are faded out



Red – the BCCH/SC values match the BCCH/SC values of the selected sector



Light red – the BCCH value matches the TCH value (or any TCH values match the BCCH of the selected sector)



Orange – the BCCH value is adjacent to the BCCH value for the selected sector (for instance, if the BCCH for sector A is 661, adjacent values are 660 or 662)



Light orange – the BCCH value is adjacent to the selected sector's TCH value (or any TCH value is adjacent to the selected sector's BCCH)



Blue – the TCH value matches the TCH of the selected sector



Light blue – the TCH value is adjacent to the selected sector's TCH

If you select multiple sectors, the filters are applied to each selected sector in order. For instance, sectors with matching BCCH values are colored red and then the remaining filters are applied to those sectors that do not match the BCCH values, and so forth. For cells with matching or adjacent BCCH values, an additional filter is applied to check for matching BSIC. If they match, the sector is scaled to the same size as the selected sector, filled with the border color, and flashes three times. Note Co-channel filtering displays an orange fill when one sector only is selected, not for multiple sectors.



135

Apply a custom filter To do this, perform the following steps: 1

Click the Custom Filter option button

.

2

Specify the conditions of the filter, for example that the sector's BSIC value equals 47.

3

Click the Save button.

Sectors that meet the specified criterion are shown at their normal size, while those that do not have the same value are shown at half their normal size.

Network optimization tools ActixOne's data network optimization tools are part of, and specific to, the Network Optimization module's user interface. Much of the work done in this module is different from the other ActixOne modules and includes the layer, charts, tables, and network event panels that enable you to understand the requirements of tasks as well to close the tasks successfully. The following tools can be used for visualizing network issues:



The Layer map control helps you to determine how you want the network data to be represented on the map.



The Element Picker / Search for Elements tool is used to add elements to charts and tables for analysis, and to find elements on the map.



The Attribute Picker is available on both the Table panel and the Chart panel and is used to select attributes to display on tables or charts.



The Event Options panel helps operators to manage which types of events are displayed on charts and in the Network Events panel.



The Time Picker tool is used to select the time periods for which data is shown on charts and tables and for network events.



The Lock option, which is available for the chart, table, and network event panels, is used to lock those panels temporarily so that if any elements, for example, are added the current view does not change until the panel is unlocked or closed.



Templates enable you to apply a set of pre-configured attributes in order to change the view of the data shown in a chart or table.



The system date option sets the date for the ActixOne system and in doing so determines the tasks visible in the Task List.



136

Survey layer The Survey Layer option, which is specific to the Network Optimization module, enables you to determine how you want the data to be represented on the map. The option is available in the Layers control on the map. To open the dialog box, click the Layers control on the map and then click the Surveys option. The Survey Layer Properties dialog box contains several sections that control how data features on the map.

Adjusting the properties of survey layers Networks, Devices and Attributes You can choose the type of network technology to display, for instance GSM or WCDMA, from the Network drop-down list. You can also select the devices for the network from the Devices drop-down list. The Attribute drop-down list enables you to select multiple attributes to be displayed on the map at the same time. To this, select as many attribute check boxes from the list as required. Note that the selection is persistent across sessions, which means that the same selection is displayed each time you log in to ActixOne. Attributes are grouped into an administratordefined hierarchy. For each of the network types available, you can select the check boxes to display or hide the associated survey data, such as the survey trail or the survey markers:



137



The Attribute Bins check box displays binned attributes on the map



The Offset check box, if checked, displays all selected attributes with a slight offset on the map to allow them to stand out.



The Multiple Symbols check box, if checked, displays each attribute with a randomly selected symbol.



The Call Events check box adds all available event types for the selected network to the map legend. To show the event types on the map, open the legend and selected the appropriate check box



The Survey Trails check box shows the survey points on the map



The Survey Markers check box displays a marker at the start of each displayed survey trail

Attributes Filter This allows you to refine survey layer data displayed on the map. For example, in Call Trace data, you could display locations where EcNo is good but there are drops. You can create a user-specific or global filter template for the survey layer that can be recalled at any time. Select the check box at the top of the section to open up the filter controls:

The Attributes Filter section of the Survey Layer Properties dialog The filter only applies to binned attributes in the survey layer, and does not affect any Radio Network Analysis attributes. Map elements If you need to adjust the size of the elements on the map, you can move the Visibility and Point Size sliders. The Visibility slider controls the zoom level at which survey layer data is displayed, while the Point Size slider controls the size of survey and attribute points. Line Settings You can also alter how lines are displayed on the map for the selected attributes. Sliders control Line Width and Curve Percentage. Line Borders can be toggled on or off.



138

Filters You can create filters to see more precisely the data that is displayed. Depending on how the system has been configured, this could include pipelines, markets, and clusters. To create a filter, click the Set Filter button and then create the filter. To remove the currently applied filter, click the Clear Filter button. For the details on how to create a filter, refer to the Create a filter section of the Defining filters topic on p79.

Attribute Picker The Attribute Picker is available on both the Table panel and the Chart panel and is used to select attributes to display on tables or charts. Depending on the system's configuration and the type of network, you can choose one of several different types of attributes, such as sector, controller, radio, base station, and site attributes. The field at the top left allows you to type in a string. All attributes matching that string will be displayed in the Attribute area.

The Attribute Picker panel You can also browse for attributes in the Attribute area. Attributes can be displayed either in a list or in a tree structure. To change the attribute display, click the Toggle List/Tree Attribute Display button . If using the tree (hierarchy) display, an additional dropdown list on the right lets you specify whether to show the attributes by Tech(nology) (GSM, IDEN, etc.), Group (site, sector, or carrier, etc.), or Type (calculated attributes, property attributes, etc.).



139

You can also select the type of hierarchy to use from the middle dropdown. The next dropdown to the right allows you to select a subdivision of that hierarchy.



The Physical (network) hierarchy subdivides into CONTROLLER, SITE, SECTOR.



The Organisational hierarchy subdivides into REGION, MARKET, CLUSTER.



The Geographical hierarchy subdivides into COUNTRY, STATE, COUNTY.



The Mesh Grid subdivides into MESH, MESH-1, MESH-2, MESH-3. For more information, see p164.

Under the Statistic attribute type, you can find attributes that specify if a particular DataSourceName is loaded into the ActixOne database. These attributes can be used to color sites and sectors on the map, or to be plotted on charts and tables. These attributes appear as follows: LOADED: For example: LOADED:MRR_SECTOR_NONE_1_0 A value of 1 is used for each element on each date that the data is loaded. Adding attributes To add attributes to the list, perform the following steps: 1

Enter the name (or part of the name) of an attribute in the search box, or locate the attribute in the hierarchical list.



140

2

If the attribute has a “sigma” symbol on the same line, you can click that symbol to choose from a set of standard search functions to apply to that attribute.

3

For each attribute you want to add to a chart, you can choose a selection type from the dropdown list (not available when adding attributes to tables):




NORMAL provides the unmediated data series



AVERAGE shows the statistical average of the series



ROLLUP aggregates the attribute across multiple sectors



MINIMUM returns the statistical minimum for the series



MAXIMUM returns the maximum for the series



BEST_FIT is used to show trending - it uses the correlation coefficient. You can extend the date range of the chart into the future, plot a threshold attribute, and use the trend line to predict when the threshold is likely to be exceeded.



BEST_FIT_WTO Working Time Only. This does not take Sat/Sun (for example) into account, and so will not form a smooth line unless you exclude Sat/Sun from the date axis (as shown in the image below). For hourly data, WTO ignores hours outside 9-5 (the actual working hours and working days are set by your administrator).


141

A chart showing an attribute for two antennas showing the Selection Types NORMAL (red), BEST_FIT (green), and BEST_FIT_WTO (blue) For example, suppose you look at the drop call rate for a cluster of cells. The average for this cluster is calculated by dividing the total number of dropped calls by the number of sectors, while the rollup is calculated by dividing the sum of the number of dropped calls in the cluster by the sum of the number of successful calls. Because of this, the rollup calculation can in some cases provide a more accurate representation of dropped calls than an average, which might be distorted by anomalies. 4

To select one or more attributes from the list, hold down the Ctrl key.

5

Click the Move Attributes to Selected List button. Note that you can add an entire container of child attributes using the tree view. To do this, select the relevant branch node and drag the container to the selection list (or click the Move Attributes to Selected List button).

6

To select a particular dimension for an attribute, click its Dimension button and select a dimension from the list.



142

From the above example, the Selected Attributes area is populated with a line for each Device type:

Removing attributes To remove an attribute from the Selected Attributes area, select the relevant attribute and then click the Remove from Selection List button. Alternatively, drag the attribute out from the selection list. To clear the entire Selected Attributes area, click the Remove All from Selection List button.



143

Event options The Events Displayed panel contains several options that enable operators to manage the types of events that are displayed on charts and in the Network Events panel. To view this panel, click the Event Options button .

Selecting events to be displayed From the list of available event types, select those to display or to hide. You can add all events by clicking the Select All Events button or you can clear the entire selection by clicking the Unselect All Events button. When you have finished with your selection, click the Save button to apply the changes.

Time Picker The Time Picker button is used to select the time periods for which data is shown on charts and tables and for network events. Using this option you can customize both over what period data is shown as well as the units of measurement for that data, which help engineers to find and resolve network issues more easily.

The Time Picker panel for charts To specify the time, perform the following steps: 1

Choose how you want to display time on the chart, table, or event.




The Context option button specifies the date in the context of the system date. For tables, charts, and network events offsets (determined during system setup) create a spread of


144

dates on either side of the context date, for instance two days before and two days after. The sliders allow quick control of the start and end dates, based on the selected Frequency.



The Absolute option button is used to select a specific start date or time and an end date or time – for example between 00:00 and 23:00 on December 31 2008, using the time and calendar selectors.



The Relative option button is used when you need to select from a number of options that are relative to the current date – for instance yesterday, last month, or the last three months.

2

From the Frequency drop-down list, you can choose the unit used to display the data on the panel – Days, Hours, and Minutes.

3

The Label drop-down list determines the unit used on labels on a panel – Weeks, Days, Hours, and Minutes.

4

In the Time Picker tool for charts only, you can choose to include or exclude certain days of the week, which can be useful if, for example, you want to exclude data from over a weekend.

5

Click the Save button when done. Alternatively, click the Cancel button to cancel your changes.

Lock It is possible to lock the event list for an element. This means that it does not change when the selection changes. Click the Lock button to maintain the event list and then click it again to remove the lock and toggle it back to the previous selection.

Templates Templates are sets of pre-configured attributes that change the view of the data shown, and are available for tables, charts, and network layers. You can select a template to apply by choosing one from the template dropdown list at the top left of the chart, table, or network layer panels. By saving a template, you define a named set of configurations. For example, a chart can save the attributes plotted and the settings for the axes. A template can be saved by and be available to an individual user, or it can be promoted to a global template that is available to all users. Using the template options, you can perform the following actions:



Select and apply an existing named template from the drop-down list



Create a new template



Change the properties by adding a description about the template and determining whether it is available to all users or to the current user only



145



Save the template under its current name or save it as a new template with a different name



Delete the template



Save the settings as defaults

Template options

For example, you can click the New Template button to create a new template and then select a number of attributes that you frequently apply to the data. After you have saved the template, you can choose it from the drop-down list whenever you need to apply it. Change a template's properties To change the properties of a template, perform the following steps: 1

Select the relevant template from the drop-down list.

2

Click the Template Properties button.

3

Enter a description for the template.

4

For charts, to specify that when the template is selected, the chart opens in compact mode (without any configuration buttons), click the Restore in compact mode button.

5

Choose who can use the template by selecting Save for all users or Save for this user.

6




146

System date The system date reflects a point in time for the configuration of the network in the Network Optimization module. When you select a date from the control, only those elements, such as sectors, that were available or active on that date are shown on the map. To choose a date, click the system date at the top of the map and then select the date you want to use. You can use the arrows to move from one month to the next.

Choosing a system date The date displayed on the map changes depending on tasks selected from the Task List. If you select a task that has a last occurrence date of June 2, the system date on the map (and all elements displayed) changes accordingly. If you then change to another task with a different last occurrence date, the system date reflects this change. You can see the last occurrence date for a task by looking at the Details tab for the selected task. When you select the Context option button in the Time Picker panel, you choose to align the Time Picker with the current system date. Offsets The system date also applies to charts, tables, and network events; however, to help you analyze the information on these charts and tables, ActixOne uses date offsets that bracket the system date and therefore give you more information about the days before leading up to and just after the event. By default, the offsets for charts and tables are -7 days before and +1 day after the selected date. This means that if you view a chart for a task for June 11, you can see information on the chart from June 4 to June 12, giving you a context for the event. For network events, the default offsets are -0 days before and +0 after. Note The offset periods that apply are determined during installation of ActixOne but can be changed by an administrator through the Administration module. For more information on how you do this, refer to the ActixOne Administration Manual.



147

Element search The Elements Picker button in charts and tables and the Search for Elements map icon in the Network Optimization module both allows you to use the Search for Elements dialog. This dialog includes a number of features that enable users to create complex searches. After finding one or more elements, you can then add these elements to custom selection sets to help you manage the results. The dialog has two main panels: the top panel allows you to specify the search parameters, and lists the results. The bottom panel shows a list of selected elements (the selection set), allowing you to perform further tasks with them. At the top of each panel is a template selection dropdown and a template button dropdown, described in the Templates topic on p145.

The Search for Elements dialog The scope of the search is shown at the top of the dialog ('Entire network' in this example). A button on the right allows you to minimize the top panel. Because the Search for Elements dialog uses the context date, the results will be specific to the current context date. Searching for elements 1

Click the Search for Elements icon on the map.

2

Using the Scope filter button, you determine the boundaries of your search using the Network Area drop-down list option. Select this option and then choose an area from the list. Some network areas are containers for other areas (as well as for clusters) and you can expand these containers to drill down.



148

Choosing the scope of the search

3



With the Location option you can enter the name of a location and then specify the element's maximum distance from this location, for instance within 100 miles of New York.



The Map option searches the current view of the map and so the results depend on the zoom level in effect when the search is performed.

Using the two dropdown menus, select the type of element you want to find (sector, controller, etc.), and the relevant technology (GSM, WCDMA, etc.).

Selecting the element type and technology for the search 4

Click the Search button

.

The results of the search are now listed.



149

Viewing the search results 5

From the list, you can select one or more results (to select multiple elements, hold the Ctrl key while making your selection) and then click the Add selected elements to Selected List button.

6

When elements have been added to the selection list, you can add any selected elements in this list to a global list by clicking add elements to this list from the global list, click

7

. To

.

If you want to, you can show incoming or outgoing relationships with a selected element by selecting the check box by that element.



150

Advanced searches 1

Click the Search for Elements icon on the map.

2

Click the Advanced tab.

3

Select the type of search from the dropdown: The Name option enables you to search by the name of a sector, controller, or site. The name you enter can be partial and may start the name, be contained within the name, or end the name. The Fuzzy Logic option enables you to select the percentage of similarity (between 0 and 100) with the specified name, which can be useful if there's a degree of uncertainty about the name. Alternatively, the name can be entered as a regular expression or pattern. You can also determine whether the search is case sensitive. The Attributes option allows you to build up a query consisting of one or more attributes. Click the Add Row button to open the Select Attributes dialog.

Selecting an attribute and adding a related search function You can also apply standard search functions to the attribute by clicking the symbol to the right of the attribute and selecting a function from the pop-up window.



151

A new row has now been added to the search criteria The Top N option is used to select the top number of elements that meet that condition. For example, you could choose to find the top 25 sectors by handover failure. You can modify how the results are returned, for instance in Reverse sort order or to Use dense ranking. With dense ranking, items that have equal scores receive the same ranking number. The item(s) after them receive the immediately following ranking number. For example, if A ranks ahead of B and C (which both have the same result and are ranked ahead of D), then A is ranked 1 ("first"), B is ranked 2 ("joint second") along with C (also "joint second") and D is ranked 3 ("third"). The Analytics option allows you to type in a query based on the NSM analytics available within ActixOne. For advanced users.

Searching by analytics



152

Standard search templates The following search templates are included as standard: Configuration Alerts - Find any elements with configuration alerts on the selected date Configuration Change - Find any elements within the scope that have had any configuration changes within the previous N days Open Tasks - Find any elements with open tasks associated with them (Note: Will only find tasks that have an element assigned) Parameter Change - Find any elements within the scope that have had changes to a specific parameter within the previous N days Performance Alerts - Find any elements with performance alerts on the selected date Real time Alerts Equipment Alarms - Find any elements with equipment alarms on the selected date Threshold Analysis 1 - Find all elements where the average of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) exceeds a given threshold Threshold Analysis 2 - Find all elements where the average of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) is below a given threshold Top N Rlp - Return the top N elements ordered by the rolled up value of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) Top N Avg - Return the top N elements ordered by the average value of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) Top N Max - Return the top N elements ordered by the max value of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) Top N Min - Return the top N elements ordered by the min value of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) Top N % Rlp - Return the top N percent of elements ordered by the rolled up value of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) Top N % Avg - Return the top N percent of elements ordered by the average value of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) Top N % Max - Return the top N percent of elements ordered by the max value of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) Top N % Min - Return the top N percent of elements ordered by the min value of the selected attribute over the previous 7 days (inclusive) Trend Analysis 1 - Find all elements where the average of the selected attribute over the previous 21 days (inclusive) is below a given threshold, but the trend line suggests it will exceed the threshold within the next n days Trend Analysis 2 - Find all elements where the average of the selected attribute over the previous 21 days (inclusive) is above a given threshold, but the trend line suggests it will drop below the threshold within the next n days



153

Channel analysis This feature allows you to simulate on the map the results of changing a sector's channel values, and display any recommended values. To start the feature, from the Map's Tools drop-down menu, select Channel Analysis.

The Channel Analysis dialog Area 1 lets you select from different types of Channel Analysis. Area 2 is an interference analysis table. It shows information for the surrounding sectors, including possible conflicts to the selected planning sector. Area 3 displays all recommendations for a defined area, sorted with the highest recommendations at the top of the list. Area 4 shows the recommendations selected for a particular sector. You can add any additional notes (displayed in the Notes column) to the proposed new SC (UMTS) or BCCH (GSM). During a session, the system can keep the history of changes made to a plan, so that no mistakes are made when you look at other cells in the area for possible retuning. This list can then be exported at the end of the session using buttons in the top right corner of the dialog. Channel Analysis Settings Click on the cog-like icon at the top right of the Channel Analysis dialog to open the Channel Analysis Settings dialog. Distance - Specify the distance from the selected sector to consider in the simulation. If this option is selected, the Neighbors option will be disabled. Neighbors - Specify the number of neighbors of the selected sector to consider in the simulation. If this option is selected, the Distance option will be disabled. Measurements - Use the attribute picker to select an attribute that will be displayed in Area 2 of the Channel Analysis dialog. Exclusions - Type in any specifically excluded channel values a commaseparated list, or a range in the format N-M. For example: 1, 17, 34, 100-



154

200, 355 will exclude the channels 1, 17, 34, 355 and all the channels in the range 100 to 200 (100, 101, 102…200) from the recommendation list. Adjacent Weight / TCH Weight – (GSM) Adjust the sliders to control the weighting of whether that particular channel type should be considered. Left on the slider means the channel type will be considered as an alternative BCCH or SC channel, right means that it will be unlikely to be recommended. Frequency Spacing – (GSM) Specify the minimum spacing between sector frequencies. Reuse existing values only - To only use channel values that are already in use, check this box (if in an area, we are using channels 1,3,5,7, with this box checked only values 1,3,5,7 will be recommended.

The GSM Channel Analysis Settings dialog Calculate recommended channel values Once you have configured the analysis settings as required, select a sector on the map and click the Retrieve new recommendations button.

A timer cursor will be displayed while the simulation results are calculated. The drop down list is then populated with channel values (and related weightings from the simulation calculation, displayed here purely to show the strength of the recommendation compared to the other channel values the larger the number, the lower the recommendation). By default the map shows the simulation using the first value. Examine the map, noting the cochannel filter colorations shown in the map Legend. If you change the value in the drop down (by clicking in an existing value or typing a new one and pressing the Return key) the map shows the new



155

simulation. To permanently use a channel value, click the + button next to the drop down list - this adds the channel value details to the table To delete a value from the table, select it and press the Delete key or click the Delete selected values button (in the lower right). The map will now show the simulation for the original sector channel value. To export the values in the table, you can copy them into the clipboard by clicking on of the Export buttons (in the upper right of Area 4). You can then paste them to another Windows application (ideally Microsoft Excel, because the values are in CSV format). On re-selecting a new sector, the simulation of the previous one, if not saved, will be removed.

Points of interest ActixOne supports the loading of Point of Interest (POI) data, enabling the use of geographic business data to improve decision making. POI can include the location of key mobile customers, retail outlets, and planned base stations. Once imported, POI data simplifies the visualization and analysis of mobile network performance at key business locations. POI data can be imported as .CSV format files. The .CSV files must have Longitude and Latitude columns, and an arbitrary number of data columns. Importing a POI file 1

From the Map pane, click on the Tools button.

2

Select Points of Interest.

3

The Points of Interest dialog opens. Click on the Files tab.

4

Click on the Plus button to open the Add POI File dialog.

5

Select a .CSV File by clicking on the folder icon.

6

Enter a Description.

7

To make the data for this file available for rendering in the map and also for ad-hoc searching, select the Active box .

8

Enter the character set Encoding of the CSV. The default system encoding (from JBoss) will be in the drop-down list. A list of valid encodings can be found here:

http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.3/docs/guide/int l/encoding.doc.html 9

Enter the Source Time Zone of the date/timestamp columns (if applicable). Leaving this blank means the date values in the .CSV are in UTC.

10 Enter the Date Time Format for the columns. The default system format will be in the drop-down list. The format information can be found here:

http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/jav a/text/SimpleDateFormat.html. The format can be tested by pressing the Enter key when the cursor is in the Date Time Format



156

drop-down. The Example label below will update to show the format specified. 11 To initiate the import process, click the Save button. To cancel the import, click the Cancel button. A progress bar at the bottom of the dialog shows when the progress is complete and you can proceed. To monitor the state of the load, select the Files tab of the Points of Interest dialog and then click the Refresh button. The # Invalid column shows if any invalid values have been found. Invalid values are most likely due to date/time values in the wrong format. Details of these invalid values can be retrieved from the JBoss server log. The # Points column shows the total number of rows imported from the file. Configuring the POI attributes 1

Once a POI file is loaded into ActixOne, from the Points of Interest dialog, select the Attributes tab.

2

Click the Plus button to define a new attribute. The Add POI Attribute dialog opens.

3

Enter a Name for this attribute. The name should match the column name from the .CSV file.

4

Select a Data Type for this attribute. The values from the .CSV will be parsed based on the data type.

5

Select a Format Group for this attribute. Format group is required in order for this attribute to be displayed in the map.

6

Select the box and select a Display Priority to assign a default priority for this attribute. Leaving this box unchecked means that the attribute will not be visible in the map (as a color value or tooltip).

7

To save the attribute and close the dialog, click the Save button.

Visualizing POI attributes Once added in the map layer control, the Points of Interest layer can be adjusted like other layers.

POI layer control and POI values rendered as triangles in the map



157

Each triangle is colored based on the format group of the selected POI attribute for that specific location. Selecting which POI attribute to use is based on the display priority by default, but you can also configure it using the POI Layer Properties dialog. Filtering POI values in the map The POI values visible in the map can be filtered by the following POI Layer Properties dialog controls, Attribute Filter and Files To Display:

The POI Layer Properties dialog Attribute Filter The Attribute Filter applies a search filter on the POI values available from the map. To open the POI Filter dialog, click the Edit Filter button.

The top section of the dialog is for template management. This lets you create, edit and save custom filters, which are then available for other users: New template button –creates a new blank template. Template dropdown – lets you select an existing template. Selecting a template will re-populate the filter with the conditions retrieved from that template. Template Properties button – enter/edit textual description for this template. Save Template button – saves the existing filter into the current template. Save Template As button – saves the existing filter into a new template. You will be prompted for a template name.



158

Delete Template button – deletes the currently selected template.

The POI Filter dialog The lower portions contain the buttons for adding/removing conditions and for grouping/ungrouping conditions: Add Row button – adds a new condition row in the grid. Then you need to select the field to use for the condition. The Attribute selection dialog will be displayed to prompt you for an attribute. Once you select an attribute, the Field column of the grid is populated with the selected attribute. grid.

Remove Row button – removes the selected condition row from the

Group Selected Rows button – groups the selected rows into one sub-group linked by either an And or Or operation. Ungroup Selected Rows button – removes the grouping on the selected rows. The middle portion of the dialog displays the current conditions as a grid. Each row in the grid refers to a single condition. The grid consists of the following columns: And/Or – this links two consecutive conditions with a logical And or logical Or operator. Field – specifies the POI Attribute to be used for the row condition. Operator – specifies the relational operator to use for this condition. Value – specifies the value to be used for this condition. Depending on the POI Attribute Data Type, the value will make use of a custom input box: String – any alphanumeric value will be allowed. Integer / Number – numeric values will be allowed (including decimal points).



159

Date/Time – a date time input control will be used. Files to Display This is a check box list control containing all active POI files. This can be used to limit the visible POI values based on files. The ordering of the files is relevant - files at the top list are considered first: Select all files button – enables all active POI files for display Move up button – moves the selected POI file one level up the list. Move down button – moves the selected POI file one level down the list. Checkbox in POI File – select to include the POI File and move it to be the last checked item in the list. Deselecting the POI file will move it to be the last unchecked item. To select a POI file without checking/un-checking, click on the left-most side (before the checkbox) or the right-most side of the file. If the mouse cursor is displayed as the finger-pointing icon, it means it will check or un-check the checkbox if you click it. Searching for points of interest You can search for POI data without using the map via the POI Search tool: 1

From the Map pane, click on the Tools button.

2

Select Points of Interest.

3

The Points of Interest dialog opens. Click on the Search tab.

4

The POI Search tool is similar to the POI Attribute Filter. Template controls are in the top section, a grid in the middle shows any logical conditions, with buttons underneath for adding/removing/grouping/un-grouping conditions.

5

The Max Rows text input field limits the number of rows to be returned by the search (similar to the Max Rows field in the POI Layer Configuration dialog). The number of rows should be between 1 and 9999 (inclusive). The default is 5000 rows.

6

To trigger the search, click the Search button. If one or more values are found, a POI Search Results window opens.

Searching the data around a point of interest To do this, you can use the related filter in the panel Select Survey Data Source to analyze.



160

Sector Footprints The Sector Footprints map layer gives you access to the sector footprint based on data within the system. This layer can be accessed anywhere within the Network Optimization module, including the Layer 3 drilldown page, and is intended for use outside of Radio Network Analysis.

The Sector Footprints layer selected The displayed data is based on the attributes selected in the sector footprint layer dialog box, and is filtered by the devices and data range specified in the Date/Time Scope panel in the Select Survey Data Source panel. Best locations are displayed as solid, where Seen locations are smaller and more transparent by default. The sizes and transparency (alpha) are controlled by the sliders in the Sector Footprints Properties dialog. If you change a value, an Inherit button is shown against it. Clicking this button resets the slider value to inherit the default value of the level above it (as per the hierarchy shown in the left of the dialog). The attributes for the technologies are: CDMA



Handset



Scanner



Coverage



Coverage



EcNo



EcIo



PN



Ec



PN



EcNo



PN

EVDO



Handset

 ActixOne Version 6.0.0 GA

Coverage


161



Scanner



Coverage



EcIo



Ec



PN

LTE





Handset

Scanner



Coverage



Coverage



RSRQ



RSRQ



RSRP



RSRP



PCI



PCI

Transient data ActixOne supports the loading and viewing of temporary data from tab delimited files to display temporarily on the map. For instance, you might want to apply transient data if you have some data for a particular cell that you want to view and then discard. The data last for the current session only so once you close the browser window, the data needs to be reloaded if you want to see it on the map. This means, then, that it differs from persistent data, which is data that is maintained in the database on a more permanent basis. To add transient data, click the Tools control the Transient Data option.

on the map and then select

Note ActixOne requires that version 10 of Adobe Flash be installed to support this feature.

Managing transient data The Manage Transient Data dialog box displays the files that have been loaded as well as the number of rows of data in the file. To add a file, click the Add button and then browse for the required file. The selected file is then displayed in the list in the dialog box.



162

Note To ensure the successful loading of data, the files must be tab delimited, with a header row. One of the columns in the header row must be called SectorName and must contain sector names as values. These values must match with the names of the sectors on the map. The other columns are the data columns that are to be visualized on the map. You can remove an existing file by selecting it from the list and then clicking the Remove button. Click the View button to view the contents of the file.

Viewing the contents of a data file It can be useful to display transient data on the map to make, for example, a comparison with the current data set. This means that you can choose to apply labels to sectors or to modify their colors depending on their values. You make these changes using the Networks option in the Layers control .



163

Customer Experience in Network Optimization Customer Experience data can be displayed on the map, or in mini charts, charts, or tables. For examples of how Customer Experience data might be employed to identify problems, see Example use cases for Customer Experience on p172.

Viewing Customer Experience attributes on the map The Customer Experience map layer allows you to display selected Customer Experience attributes on the map. From the Map, open the Layers control and select Customer Experience. This opens the Customer Experience Display Properties dialog:

The template control and the template picker are on the top line of the dialog, allowing you to select existing pre-generated Customer Experience displays. If configuring a new Customer Experience (CE) display, you must specify whether you want to view the CE attribute data in a Mesh or Area display. You may already have viewed CE data in areas using the Customer Experience dashboard (see p52). The CE “mesh” is a grid of rectangles (usually referred to for simplicity as “squares”), the largest of which measure 1 degree latitude x 1 degree longitude. As you zoom in, successive levels of mesh are displayed, each



164

showing squares one tenth the size of the previous mesh level. The lowest level, Mesh-3, uses squares that measures approximately 111m x 111m at the equator (the horizontal distance narrows for mesh squares as you move away from the equator). Only mesh squares that are populated with data are displayed. The Customer Experience Display Properties dialog Mesh can be Blended or Discrete. The Blended, “hotspot” view can be more useful in gaining a general impression of the data.

Discrete

Blended

Area can be COUNTY, STATE, or an area defined using the Admin > Call Trace Data Processing > Customer Experience page.



165

Show Borders – Check this box to add a white border to each mesh element or specified area. The example here shows borders around the mesh elements and the Scope area (see below). Note that mesh squares are only displayed if they are populated with any CE data (not just the selected attributes). In this example there are a few unpopulated mesh squares at the lower left scope border.

Attribute – Select from a list of attributes configured using the Attribute button. A Customer Experience example is given on p170. For more details of the Attribute Picker control, see p139. Format – This slider controls the weighting of the displayed attribute range. Consider this example, showing the attribute CE_ConnectionOK, with the Format slider in the default central position. In the Legend on the right, the range spacing shown is also default, but there are areas where the value is >= 22, and we might want to explore that.

Moving the slider to the high end on the right expands the range variation at its higher end, and we can see that there are actually hot spots with values much higher than 22. Conversely, moving the slider to the low end on the left expands the range variation at its lower end. Experiment until the Legend distribution suits your needs.



166

Scope – available with Mesh displays, click the green “plus” button to define the perimeter of the display as a specified Geographical Area, a specified radius about a lat/long Location, or the current screen extents of the Map. The slider lets you control the transparency of the data outside the defined scope area. The example below shows a 2 km radius about a specified area, with the slider used to fade the data outside the scope.

Defining a scope for the CE display disables the Lock button (see below). To remove the scope definition, click the red cross button on the right.



167

Filter – Click the green “plus” button to add a filter to the Customer Experience layer. The following dialog is displayed:

This shows the previously selected Attribute. You can now use the green button at the bottom left to add new conditions to the filter. The three Override controls allow you to set specific Aggr, Period and Time settings for a selected condition line, rather than using the settings on the main CE Display Properties dialog. When you have configured the filter appropriately, click the green “check” or “tick” button at the bottom right to close the filter dialog. The Filter slider on the main CE Display Properties dialog lets you control the transparency of the data outside the defined filter range. In the example below, the filter has been set to show CE_ConnectionOK values of 9+, and the slider has been used to fade values outside this range.

To remove the filter, click the red cross button at the right of the Filter control. Aggr lets you define the aggregation method for the data, across a selected area, or a Tier of mesh squares. Tier 0 is the individual mesh square, Tier 1



168

includes all surrounding squares, and Tier 2 includes all squares within 2 of a particular square, and so on.



ROLLUP shows the sum of the attribute values for the area or all aggregated squares.



AVERAGE shows the statistical average of the attribute values for the area or all aggregated squares.



MAXIMUM shows the maximum value for the attribute values for the area or all aggregated squares.



MINIMUM shows the minimum value for the attribute values for the area or all aggregated squares.



COUNT shows the number of values in the database for the area or all aggregated squares.

Period allows you to select a date range for the data, and the adjacent N= control allows you to specify the value for settings such as PAST n DAYS. Note that the NONE setting means “use the system date”. Time – Check the box to use this control, which allows you to set up a time window for the period. Use the sliders to define the start and end points of the window. You can then use the controls on the right of the slider to move forwards, backwards, or “play” the window through the time period.

Lock the display – This button fixes the scope of the Customer Experience data displayed to the extents of the current map view. When you have changed the Customer Experience Display Properties settings as desired, click Refresh the display in the bottom right of the dialog.



169

Viewing Customer Experience attributes on charts This example shows how you can view Customer Experience attributes on a chart. See also the sections on Using charts (p122) and Using mini charts (p126). 1

Select Layers > Customer Experience, and in the Display Properties dialog, select Attributes to open the attribute selector page. In the top left field, type “unique” to display all attributes containing the string.

Select the attribute CE_UniqueSubscribers and click on the first icon to the right of the attribute name to open the Select Dimensions dialog.



170

Set the “Device” dimension to and click the green button, followed by the Back button. In this example, the Scope has also been set to be 2 miles around a specified latitude and longitude. In the bottom right of the Customer Experience Display Properties dialog, click the Refresh button to update the CE map layer.

2

On the map, select a number of sectors (in this example; you could also select CE mesh squares). In this example, the sectors are colored by SC for ease of identification. Note that the more sectors you select, the more system resources are used.

3

From the map’s Charts control, select Map Layers > Customer Experience > Default. This opens a chart that shows the attribute currently displayed in the Customer Experience map layer, in this case CE_UniqueSubscribers.



171

4

From the chart, click the Histogram button at the top. Note that in this example, the CE Display Properties’ Attributes page has been used to delete those CE_UniqueSubscribers dimensions with no results, in order to produce an uncluttered histogram. As the chart type is linked, it updates automatically in response to this change.

Viewing Customer Experience attributes in tables This example shows how you can view Customer Experience attributes on a table. Follow the first two steps as the previous example, but then, from the map’s Table control, select Map Layers > Customer Experience > Default.

Example use cases for Customer Experience Data hotspots From the map, select Layers and enable the Customer Experience layer. Select the Customer Experience layer and select the (predefined) template “Indoor Data Hotspots”. This is then configured to display only indoor users, and a filter used to display the top 5% HS Indoor Usage areas.



172

From the Customer Experience Display Properties dialog, change the Attribute to CE_UniqueSubscribers[*,HS] to show a discrete mesh for the unique subscriber count. Locating and optimizing the red areas will satisfy the greatest number of data-centric indoor subscribers.

Here, filtering by Traffic and Unique Subscribers, we can see a specific HS indoor hotspot, beside a large retail complex. The 3D view is very useful in seeing how local geography could explain the Customer Experience data.



173

In this example, a Customer Experience template “Data Intensive Hotspots” has been selected, which shows the proportion of HS connections compared to total connections in busy areas. These locations are good candidates for Wi-Fi offloading.

Coverage near operator retail stores In this example, a Custom Area called “Retail stores” has been created with several polygons defining the location of some retail stores. From the map, select Tools > Custom Areas > Retail stores.

From the map, select Layers and enable the Customer Experience layer. Select the Customer Experience layer and select the (predefined)



174

template “Coverage near retail stores”, which displays the Attribute CE_Coverage within the Scope of Geographical area = Retail stores. This shows the overall customer experience near the location of the retail stores. The CE_Coverage values should be kept “green” (good EcIo, good RSCP) to ensure customer satisfaction when customers leave the store and use their phones.

Now we will examine the store on the left. Change the Customer Experience Attribute to CE_Best SC. From the map, select Layers > Networks, and color by SC. Examine the Altitude Profile from the serving sector (an overshooter) to the store.



175

Benchmarking The Benchmarking module enables network operators to perform historical and geographical benchmarking analyses and to view reports about them. By automating benchmark reporting within ActixOne, it helps engineers to diagnose problems and to investigate the results using the underlying data. It provides users of ActixOne with the following benefits:



Support for competitive, technology and time based benchmarking



Includes national and regional dashboards with integrated maps that rank networks by measured KPIs



Access to customizable benchmark reports that can be viewed locally or distributed within an organization



Detailed network comparison views that provide a point-by-point comparison

Using the benchmarking tool For network optimization, these mean that a network can use benchmarks internally to evaluate their own performance or in reference to another, external, organization, searching out and studying the best practices that produce superior performance. For instance, you can see the ranked position of all operators in each area or color the areas by the ranking of operators. In Benchmarking, the tool uses the concept of a quality performance indicator (or QPI), where a QPI is a KPI that is aggregated for an area over time – for example, where DCR is calculated for the New York area over



176

week 1. To perform comparisons, ActixOne compares networks by their different QPIs and QPI groups, creating three relative ranks for each operator: an overall rank, a rank for each QPI group, and a rank for each QPI. Data for benchmarking analysis is added through an option in the Survey Management module. The interface for the benchmarking tool comprises a left-hand pane, a results area, and the map:



The left-hand pane contains the details of the analysis, such as the campaign, analysis, period, and area. Beneath the analysis selection, the pane displays summary information about the analysis, including a table of QPI results and ranks as well as historical results for the row selected in the table. Below the summary table, charts display the values of the operators as well as their historic rankings over all periods for the selected QPI, campaign, and analysis.



The bottom panel breaks the results down into child areas, with a table showing the results for each of these areas and a chart displaying the results for the selection made in this table. In the table, one drop-down list determines whether the table displays ranks or values for each operator while the other controls how the map is colored. The two charts next to the table show the operatorspecific values and their historic rankings over all periods for the selected area, campaign, analysis, and QPI.



The information on the map is determined by the selected QPI or rank on the summary panel as well as by what is selected from the results drop-down lists. On the map, colored polygons show the QPI for the areas in the bottom panel table. For example, if the summary is for the USA then the map and bottom panel show the results for the states as the children of the USA area. In the cases where there is no data for an area, the area is not colored but is only outlined in white on the map

If a report has been associated with benchmarking data or has been tagged as being of the benchmarking type, it will be listed in the Reports section.

Benchmarking concepts In general, benchmarking is the process for searching out and studying the best practices that produce superior performance. For network optimization this means that a network can use benchmarks internally to evaluate their own performance or to rank their network in relation to other, external, organizations. To know more about to run a benchmarking analysis and to interpret the results, refer to the Performing a benchmarking analysis topic on p179. Several terms are used with reference to benchmarking in ActixOne. They include the following:



campaigns



periods



analyses



areas



177

Campaigns Operators can run specific dedicated campaigns in order to understand better the different services and areas. Campaigns are an administrative concept, comprising a name, a defined area, one or more analyses, and one or more operators to compare. Note that although multiple campaigns can be defined in ActixOne, only one campaign can be viewed at a time in the Benchmarking tool. To create campaigns you need to use the Campaign Editor in the Administration module – for more information about how to do this, refer to the ActixOne Administration Manual.

Analyses Analyses (also called analysis groups) are the collection of QPI groups, each with a specific weighting and order. Each (In addition, a QPI group is a collection of QPIs with their own weight and order.) Analysis groups and their QPI groups are defined in the Administration module – for more information about how to do this, refer to the ActixOne Administration Manual.

Periods Periods are defined as part of the process of adding survey data to the campaign. This is done using the Survey Management module, by searching for survey files and using the search criteria to filter all the drive surveys. Then you add all matching results or some selected surveys to a benchmarking campaign. The time period defined in the search is the period used by the campaign.

Areas An area is defined for the purposes of a campaign. Depending on the requirements, an area can be a county, a state, or an entire country. An area such as a state may be a child of a parent area (the country, for example). When you double-click a parent area you drill down to its child area. Note that the areas used here are different from the areas used in survey management. Areas are created and managed in ActixOne's Administration module – for more information about how to do this, refer to the ActixOne Administration Manual.



178

Performing a benchmarking analysis To be able to do a benchmarking analysis, survey data must first be added to a benchmarking campaign (which is defined by an administrator through the Administration module). This is done by searching for survey data in the Survey Management module and then selecting the surveys you want to add. For more information about how to do this, refer to the Adding surveys to a benchmarking campaign topic on p207. To perform a benchmarking analysis, perform the following steps: 1

From the left-hand pane, select a campaign to run from the Campaign drop-down list.

2

Select the type of analysis you want to apply from the Analysis drop-down list.

3

From the Period drop-down list, select the period that applies to the analysis. You can run an animation of the period by clicking the Play Period Animation button .

4

From the results summary area, click a result to examine.

5

You can also click on the individual regions to see the results of the analysis. The corresponding row in the Area table in the bottom panel is selected accordingly.

6

Double-click a color-coded area to drill down into this area. The map is updated with its direct children, while the QPI table in the left panel is updated with QPI data for the area and the Area table in the bottom panel is updated with data for the children areas.



179

Dashboard This module provides a map-centric view of tasks, showing task volumes and the breakdown of tasks by problem, cause, action and who is assigned to the task. This view you to see where issues are occurring in the network, who is working on those issues, why the underlying causes are, and what actions are being taken. Reports are also accessible from the right hand section of the lower panel.

The Dashboard page showing Problems and Causes for a selected Area and sub-area



180

Examining the survey file status The File Status module displays detailed information about the status of survey files. Using this module, users can search for files with a particular status, such as those that are invalid or have failed. You can perform various actions on the files listed in the module. The actions that can be performed depend on the status of the file - for instance you can mark an invalid file as valid for processing. Each page in the module has a set of filters that help sort the results of searches and display the most relevant files.

Viewing the status of survey files This File Status module contains the following pages:



Unprocessed Files - The Unprocessed Files page in the File Status module lists those survey files that have not yet been processed and are in one of three states: scanned, waiting, or being processed.



Processed Files - The Processed Files option within the File Status module lists all files that have been processed and displays information about them, for example the time taken to process the file or the date on which the file was scanned. On this page is also displayed a color-coded pie chart that indicates the total percentage of time all files have spent waiting, being transferred, and being processed. This gives a clear graphical representation of how long the survey files spend in each of the processing areas.



Invalid Files - Files that have invalid properties are listed under the Invalid Files option in the File Status module. Invalid files are not



181

necessarily corrupt but rather contain some data that is incorrect, for examples surveys with invalid distance values, survey points that are beyond the drive test bounding box, and serving cells beyond the serving distance threshold. The information displayed about them includes the status, pipeline and path, source, scan, and process dates, and the name of the node.



Failed Files - The Failed Files option in the File Status module displays a list of files that either have failed to load or have invalid properties. These files cannot be processed until the reasons for their failure are corrected and the files are returned for reprocessing.



Deleted Files - The Deleted Files page in the File Status module displays the list of files that have already been deleted or are scheduled to be deleted as well as those that have been marked as ignored.

To populate or update the table, click the Refresh List button. A pie chart provides a graphical representation of the how many files there are that have a particular state. Administrators and operators can use this information to see whether or not file processing is successful and which pipelines may be faulty. Note Pipelines are created and managed through the Administration module. For information about configuring pipelines, refer to the ActixOne Administration Manual. You can create a shortcut to a File Status module page using the deep linking feature. Any of the parameters specified in the filter are also included in the URL that is generated.

Copying a shortcut URL



182

Filtering files The Status column shows the percentage load and the load rate of files being processed. Also, the values indicate whether the cell refs are being retrieved or loaded when KPI operations are being executed or when the results are being submitted back into the middleware. There are a number of ways that you can filter the list in order to find specific files. The Cluster Filter drop-down list shows only those files that belong to the selected cluster. You can also view the failed files associated with a particular pipeline by clicking the Select Pipeline drop-down list and selecting a pipeline from the list. The Status Filter drop-down list filters the list according to the status of the files. The Source Path Filter enables you to filter the files based on any text that is contained in the file's source path (the Exclude check box next to the field excludes those files that do not contain the specified text). Forward- or back slashes in the path will be treated identically. To filter by the properties of a file, click the Property Filter button. This opens the Property Conditions dialog box. Here you can select the relevant properties and then click OK.

Filtering by the properties of a survey file To copy the entire contents of the table, click the Copy to Clipboard icon. From here you can paste the contents into a text editor or a preferred application. The total number of files displayed at any one time can be modified by using the Show drop-down list. From this list, select the number of files to display – 10, 20, 50, or 100. Click the Refresh List button to refresh the files that are displayed or the information about them. To find rows that have nulls/blanks, you need to go to the last page of results.



183

Performing actions on selected files Select more than one file by pressing the Ctrl key on the keyboard while making your selection. The following actions can be performed on selected files (the actions available depend on the current File Status page):



Reprocess – resubmits the selected files for reprocessing



Ignore – (not Deleted Files) excludes the selected file from processing



Make Valid – (Invalid Files only) change the selected file's status to valid



Download – (not Deleted Files) downloads the file from the repository to a specified directory



Get Cell Refs – (not Unprocessed or Deleted Files) downloads the cell references for the selected file



View Properties – (not Deleted Files) view the properties of the selected file



View Survey – (not Unprocessed, Failed, or Deleted Files) view the survey details for the selected file



Delete Data – (Deleted Files only) removes all processed data for the selected files



Delete File - (Deleted Files only) specifies that the selected files are deleted at the next scheduled job run



Purge - (Deleted Files only) removes all records of the selected deleted files

Reprocess files To reprocess a file at the next run, perform the following steps: 1

Select one or more files from the list.

2

Click the Reprocess button.

Ignore files To ignore the file and take no action, perform the following steps. 1

Select the entry to ignore.

2

Click the Ignore button.

3

You are asked to confirm the action – click Yes to continue.



184

Choosing to ignore a survey file

Make a file valid The Make Valid option changes an invalid file's status to valid and moves it to the Processed Files list. This option enables you to accept that there is invalid data in the file but still to include it in the report. (Invalid files are usually only shown in the Survey Management module, but after making them valid, they are shown in the Problem Investigation module, too.) To make a file valid, perform the following steps: 1

Select an invalid file from the list.

2

Click the Make Valid button.

Download files To download a file, performing the following steps. 1

Select an entry.

2

Click the Download button.

3

Choose a location to save the file and then click Save. Note The option to download is available only if the file has been uploaded successfully. If the status of the file is "Scanned/preprocessed", the download file button is unavailable.

Download cell refs To download cell reference files, perform the following steps. 1

Select the relevant survey file from the list.

2

Click the Get Cell Refs button.

3

Specify a location for the cell refs file (which is provided in .txt format).

4

Click Save.

View and manage properties To view and manage the properties of a file, perform the following steps: 1

Select the relevant file.

2

Click the View Properties button.



185

3

Add a new property by typing the name of the property in the Property drop-down list, typing the value in the Value drop-down list, and clicking the Set button.

4

If you wish to modify the properties of the file, select the property from the Properties drop-down list, select an existing value or enter a new one, and then click the Set button.

View surveys Click the View Survey button to launches the result of a survey for the selected file in the Survey Event Details page. This provides a quick way to view the survey results on the map.

Delete data To delete processed data, perform the following steps: 1

Select one or more deleted files from the list.

2

Click the Delete Data button.

3

Confirm that you want to delete the data by clicking the Yes button.

Delete files To delete a file, perform the following steps: 1

Select a file from the list.

2

Click the Delete File button.

3

Confirm that you want to delete the file by clicking Yes.

Purge records To purge records, perform the following steps: 1

Select one or more deleted files from the list.

2

Click the Delete Data button.

3

Confirm that you want to delete the data by clicking the Yes button.

Choosing to purge a deleted file



186

Comparing networks The role of ActixOne's Network Comparison module is to enable operators to make network performance comparisons. There are three main ways to use this module:



Compare the performance of two or more distinct, separate networks over a geographical area and over a period of time



Compare the performance of an element of a single network over a period of time, for instance to see how transmitter power performance in a particular area has changed following engineering improvements



If predicted data is loaded into the ActixOne database, you can compare a predicted model against another predicted model or an existing actual network

The results of these comparisons are shown on the map and it is possible then to drill down and see exactly how the survey data compares. The following two types of network performance comparisons can be performed:



Compare by Area (select an area from a list)



Compare by Location (specify a radius around coordinates or a selected point)

The Compare Networks In Area page You can use the slider control to select the number of networks to compare. Underneath the slider, a tab is shown for each network, showing various filters that you can use to narrow the comparison criteria.



187

You can also perform a delta comparison on either of these two pages. A delta comparison calculates the difference in values between the two networks and displays the results on the map. Note that with more than two networks, you can no longer check the Delta Comparison box.

Comparing the performance of two networks Two graphs show on the left of the page contain the following information:



The scatter chart's x-axis contains the values of the attribute selected, while the y-axis indicates the number of occurrences. A vertical line on the chart indicates the position of the value entered for the comparison. It is possible to use the check boxes to switch the values on or off on the map.



The bar chart has PDF on the left and CDF on the right on the yaxis, whereas the x-axis contains the values of the attribute selected.

Comparing by area The Compare by Area page uses map attributes to compare networks in a defined administrative area, such as a state or county. To compare within an area, perform the following steps. 1

Select the area.

2

Specify the characteristics of Network 1, Network 2 etc. over a certain date and time range, including any optional properties.

3

Click the Compare button.



188

Note It is possible to modify and to customize the names of the networks. To do this, click the name of the network on the pane, type the name you prefer, and press Enter on the keyboard. The Offset option (which is available for both networks) makes it possible to include a value to either network in order to adjust the continuous values before running the analysis. This means that ActixOne can display multiple attributes on the map at once – each attribute offset from another by the amount specified. This option can be used for troubleshooting problems on networks. The Property filter displays results based on a selected file property and value. Only those surveys that are tagged with the chosen file property can generate reports.

Comparing by location The Compare by Location page uses map attributes to compare networks in a defined radius from a specified location, such as a town or a city. To compare from a location, perform the following steps. 1

Select the distance and enter the name of the location.

2

Specify the characteristics of Network 1, Network 2 etc. over a certain date and time range, including any optional properties.

3

Click the Compare button. Note It is possible to modify and to customize the names of the networks. To do this, click the name of the network on the pane, type the name you prefer, and press Enter on the keyboard.

The Offset option (which is available for both networks) makes it possible to include a value to either network in order to adjust the continuous values before running the analysis. This means that ActixOne can display multiple attributes on the map at once – each attribute offset from another by the amount specified. This option can be used for troubleshooting problems on networks. The Property filter displays results based on a selected file property and value. Only those surveys that are tagged with the selected file property can generate reports.



189

Delta comparisons The Delta Comparison check box in the Network Comparison module can be used to plot the delta value between two networks or time periods in a defined area. Select this check box to compare parameters of the two networks and to display the resulting delta distribution chart (note that a scatter plot is not displayed on the map).

The Delta Comparison checkbox Notes A delta comparison needs both network parameters to use the same format group and to use continuous values (i.e. not discrete values). If you run the analysis between parameters with different format groups or using discrete values, an error is displayed. Additionally, note that when a delta comparison is performed the result is always calculated as Network 2 - Network 1.



190

Investigating problems The Problem Investigation module presents an interface for looking into key problem areas and events that have occurred on the network and are stored in the ActixOne database. Operators can see the results of queries down to a cell level, view the attributes of problems, and understand the conditions.

Investigating network problems Using the Problem Investigation module, you can perform the following two types of operations:



Searching for network events, such as handover failures and dropped calls on GSM networks, and viewing detailed information about those events



Investigating defined geographical areas and locations for information about network events that have occurred

Network event investigations The Network Event Overview section is used to run an analysis across a specified network and over a specified date and time range. You can drill down the results – from a high level overview to local, sector-level details. The results of the analysis across various areas are listed in the table below the search options – in this example the results show the voice calls events occurring for the CDMA technology across two areas – west and south.



191

Viewing events for a region As shown above, by double-clicking the name of a particular region you can see a pie chart depicting the type and number of network events that have occurred in that region.

Viewing events at a market level



192

In turn, double-clicking the name of a region in the events table changes the view to the number of events that occurred in the markets in that region. Double-clicking a market name shows all sector events in that market, the relevant sector, the number of failures and successes, and the corresponding failure rate. To view the details of a network event, select an entry in the table. The following example shows that a third of calls have been dropped by a particular sector. It is possible to view a summary of the event below the sector list, including an event time and a diagnosis or explanation of the event.

Viewing events at a sector level More information about the possible reasons for the failures can be found by selecting an attribute from the Attributes drop-down list – for instance choosing the attribute that shows throughput. Attributes are configured by administrators using the Attributes page in the Administration module. Opening the Legends map control shows how each color relates to certain values. (The colors and values used here depend on the information being viewed as well as how ActixOne has been configured by the administrator.) In addition, you can determine what information is shown on the map. For instance, you could choose to show lines from the serving sector to the event in order to see the relationships more clearly. Click the Property Filter checkbox to select the properties you want to include in the filtering of the results. Only surveys tagged with the selected file property generate reports. Therefore, to search for network events, it is necessary to first specify a date and time scope, then to select a network and an event analysis, and, optionally, to select an attribute to display the results with a color coded key. The results can then be filtered using the property filters.



193

For a more detailed view of the event, double-click the event icon on the map to launch the event in the Survey Event Details page. Here you see a fuller description of the event – including information about the sector. Using the legend and the Show drop-down list together, you can get a clear picture of the reasons for the event.

Viewing the details of the event Just under the Event Details section heading is the Drill Down button. Click this button to perform Layer 3 analysis (see p97).

Investigation plots The Investigation Plots section of the ActixOne client is used to view network information across defined geographical areas and export reports. Two types of views can be selected:



Plot by area



Plot by location

Plot by area The Plot by Area page shows available network information across an area defined by local administrative boundaries, such as county and state boundaries.



194

Plotting events by an area

Plot by location The Plot by Location page shows available network information within a radius defined by a specified distance from a named location, such as a town.

Plotting events from a location The Investigation Plots page helps operators to view analyses of networks in one of two ways – how the results for the Plot by Area and the Plot by Location options are displayed is the same in both cases - the result of the analyses shows where network problems occur.



195

Managing survey data The Survey Management module provides access to all the drive test data that is available in the ActixOne database. Operators can use this module to locate test and measurement data quickly and to maintain a record of notes and comments associated with each survey and device in the form of userdefined properties. This can be used, for example, to add extra information about who collected the survey, why the survey was collected as well as information about the configuration of the logging equipment that might be important (for instance, if there was an attenuator used). It can also be used to tag surveys that are of interest, which helps provide convenient searching. There are two main pages: Browse, and Browse by Sector/Site. Both pages allow you to set up a search filter to find the required surveys. At the bottom of the page, select from Files or Devices from the dropdown selector and click Browse to start the search. You can cancel the search at any time by clicking the Cancel button. The results of the search are displayed on the map, listed in a table, and color-coded so that individual surveys can be identified easily. By default, ten results are shown and the remaining results can be accessed using the Next and Previous controls at the bottom of the table. To show more than ten results, select the Show drop-down list at the top-right hand of the table and then select an option, such as 10, 20, 50, or 100 results. Click on a survey marker on the map to display a list of options (see p201).

The results of browsing for surveys You can use these browsing methods for narrowing the search:



Date/Time scope Select the start and end dates and times for the survey (see p88).



Network Select the network technology for the survey.



196



Location Identifies files that pass within a defined distance from a selected geographical location (for example, Seattle). Browse page only. See p197.



Area Shows all surveys and log files that pass through a selected geographical area. Browse page only. See p198.



Device Displays the files collected from a specific collection handset or scanner. Browse page only. See p198.



Property Filter Identifies files that have specific properties associated with them ('Collected by' = 'John Smith' and 'Campaign' = 'Spring Benchmark Drive'). Browse page only. See p199.



Source Path Filter Shows files with source paths matching the sample text. Browse page only. See p200.



Sector/Site Displays files for the 'where best server' sectors or sites on the network. Browse by Sector/Site page only. See p200.

Browsing surveys The Survey Management page Browse lets you locate surveys with specific locations, areas, properties and devices. The Location/Area, Device and Property filter panels can be activated by checking the box on the right of each panel. At the bottom of the page, select from Files or Devices from the dropdown selector and click Browse to start the search. You can cancel the search at any time by clicking the Cancel button.

Browsing surveys by location Using this Browse page option to search for survey data by location, you can locate all data collected within a specified distance of a specified location. To browse by location, perform the following steps. 1

From the Location/Area panel, choose Location.

2

Check the box on the right of the panel.

3

Choose a specified distance from a set of geographical coordinates.

The location of the search result is indicated on the map with a green arrow, as shown below.



197

Browsing by a named location The Location feature automatically updates the display of the coordinates at the center of the map. When you first view the map on the Browse page, the field contains the coordinates currently at the center of the map. Panning across the map updates these coordinates with new values.

Browsing surveys by Area From the Survey Management page Browse, the Area section enables users to locate all survey data that has been collected within one or more selected geographic regions. Various region types can be configured by the ActixOne administrator to be visible. This flexibility means that ActixOne can be customized for the specific requirements of a particular business. For example, an administrator could modify ActixOne so that the Area dropdown list contains zip or postal codes, states, and counties. The box on the right of the panel must be checked for the Location/Area panel to be active. Additional region types are added by the system administrator. To work correctly, region definitions must be provided in the MapInfo tab format. The boundary of the selected geographic regions is displayed on the map as a white line. Depending on the size of the regions, it may be necessary to zoom out to see the regional boundary lines.

Browsing surveys by device From the Survey Management page Browse, the Device panel is used to locate survey data collected by a specific device, and is useful for locating data submitted by a particular person, too. Check the box on the right of the panel and select a device type from a list of handsets to locate all data collected by that device, with the most recent listed first.



198

Device searching If the system administrator has implemented a naming convention (or some other mechanism) for log files and that allows the handset identity (IMEI or IMSI) to be known, the list will display that identity in the list. All other devices will be listed as, for example, "Unknown: Ericsson Handset" or "Unknown: Nemo3GPP".

Browsing surveys by property From the Survey Management page Browse, the Property Filter panel lets you locate surveys and devices with specific properties. Any userdefined properties can be used. Each search criterion consists of a property, operator and value. For example, 'format' = 'Comarco'. Check the box on the right to activate the Property Filter panel. To add and remove search criteria, use the Insert and Delete buttons. Each new criterion can be added as an AND or OR condition: for example, 'format' = 'Comarco' AND 'region' = 'Central'.

Property filter Property Filter - allows you to select and use and previously defined property filter from a drop-down list. Four buttons control what you can do with the property filter definition: Property filter properties - This button opens the Template Properties dialog. This allows you to enter a description for the property filter, and to specify whether the filter is for all users or just the current user. Save property filter... - This button saves the current state of the property filter under the existing name. Save property filter as... - This button opens the Save Template dialog. This allows you to enter a name for the property filter, and to specify whether the filter is for all users or just the current user. Delete property filter - Deletes the current property filter. You will be asked to confirm this choice.



199

Operators The following operators can be used to construct a property search filter:



"=" is equal to



"!=" is not equal



'Contains'









True if the value contains the selected text



For example, all survey results where the region property contains the value "Central" are returned

'!Contain'



True if the value does not contain the selected text



For example, all survey results where the region property does not contain the value "Central" are returned

'Exist'



True if the value exists



For example, all survey results that have a region property (i.e. where the property exists) are returned

'!Exist'



True if the value does not exist



For example, all survey results that do not have a region property (i.e. where the property does not exist) are returned

Browsing by source path From the Survey Management page Browse, the Source Path Filter panel lets you locate surveys and devices with specific properties. Simply type in the filter box some or all of the source path to find the related files. Note that any backslashes '\' and forward slashes '/' will be accepted and treated as identical.

Browsing surveys by sector/site The Survey Management section's Browse by Sector/Site option enables users to search for and to locate network sectors or sites, depending on the button selection. Type the full name of the sector or site or any initial letters, and click the Browse button. Click the down-pointing arrow for more options that match the search entry. Instead of entering the name of a sector, you can left-click on a sector to select it, or left-click on the map to show a pop-up menu of up to 12 of the sectors close to the clicked location and choose from one of those.



200

Survey action options When you click the icon of a specific survey on the map, a number of options are displayed and can be selected from the context menu. The context menu provides actions that relate to the management of survey files and their properties. These options are displayed in the image below.

Available survey action options The following possible actions are available:



View File Properties Enables user-defined properties to be associated with the survey or log (see p201).



Download File Downloads the selected .log file to a specified destination (see p203).



Delete File Removes the log file from the system.



View Event Details Displays detailed information about the event on the Survey Event Details page (see p204).



Remove trail from map or Show trail on map Toggles the display of the survey trial on the map.



Create Spotlight Investigation task If available, enables a task to be created for Actix Spotlight (see p205).



Add All Matching Results to Benchmarking Campaign / Add Selected Surveys to Benchmarking Campaign A Benchmarking campaign must have been configured by your administrator for these options to be available. See p207.

You can select and perform operations on multiple files. To select multiple surveys, press the Ctrl key and then select the surveys from the Surveys



201

table. To perform operations on the selected file or files, click the Actions drop-down list arrow and choose an action from the list.

Managing file and device properties The Properties dialog box enables users to view, add, edit, and remove user-defined notes and comments (properties) associated with the selected survey or device. For example, this option can be used to add extra information about who collected the survey, why the survey was collected, as well as any information about the configuration of the logging equipment that might be important (such as if an attenuator was used). It could also be used to tag surveys of interest for convenient future access. The Properties dialog box displays a list of properties associated with the file or survey and their values.

The Properties dialog box To specify the properties of a single survey file 1

Select an individual survey result from the list or the map.

2

Click the View File Properties option.

3

In the dialog box enter the name of a property in the Property field and its associated value in the Value field.

4

Click the Set button.

To specify a common value for all files that share the same property 1

Select an individual survey result from the list.

2

Click the Action drop-down list arrow and select the Set properties on all matching results option.

3

Either enter the name of a new property or select an existing one from the Property drop-down list and enter a value.

4




202

To specify the properties of multiple files 1

Select more than one result from the list by pressing the Ctrl key on the keyboard while selecting.

2

Click the Action drop-down list arrow and select the Set properties on selected surveys option.

3

Enter the name of a new property or select an existing one from the Property drop-down list and enter a value.

4


To edit an existing property 1

Select it in the dialog box and then modify its Property and Value fields.

2

Click Set to save the changes.

To delete a property



Select it in the dialog box and then click the Delete button.

Downloading survey files You can download a copy of the log file for the event by clicking the name of the log file in the Survey section (or by selecting the Download File option in the context menu for a selected survey). This opens a dialog box that enables you to specify a name and a location for the file, as shown below.

Saving a log file Note that the interface displays a progress bar when large files are downloaded.



203

Viewing event details Selecting the View Event Details option from the context menu opens the specified event in the Survey Event Details page. This page provides more information about an event and lists the details of the survey, including the device name, the date on which the survey was performed, an associated log file, as well as the duration and the distance of the survey.

Viewing the details of an event The Attributes drop-down list contains check box options that display legend information on the map. This information, such as a handover state or the power of a receiver, helps with troubleshooting, with understanding more about the possible causes of an event. By selecting multiple attributes from the list, you see these attributes side by side on the map at the same time. The Events for Survey section lists all events that occurred, the type of event, the time it happened and a possible diagnosis. It is possible to select an event from the event list or by clicking an icon on the map to see the details of that event. In this example, a dropped call event, icon is highlighted on the map, and the complete details of the event are displayed to the left of the map. To return to the Survey Management page, click the Back to previous screen button.



204

Creating a Spotlight investigation task If Spotlight forms part of the system installation, it is possible for you to create Spotlight tasks in ActixOne for drive survey events. This enables Spotlight operators to investigate the events, troubleshoot problems, and to optimize the ActixOne system. Spotlight tasks are also visible in ActixOne's Network Optimization module – here you can see what tasks have been logged, modify some of their properties, and view their audit trail information. Note that you have two options when creating a Spotlight investigation task: you can choose to create a task based on one or more selected surveys or based on all results that match the selected survey. To create a task, perform the following steps: 1

Select one or more surveys from the survey list.

2

Click the Actions button and choose either to create a task based on the selected survey or on those results that match the selected survey.

3

In the Create Spotlight Investigation Task dialog box, enter a new Task Name.

Specifying the details of the Spotlight investigation task 4

Assign a Task Priority.

5

Write a Description of the work that needs to be done.

6

Assign a user to this new task.

7

The User-Defined Fields are custom fields that you can add and populate when creating the investigation task. (Note that these



205

fields need to be defined during the system configuration by administrators.) 8

Click Create Task to complete the process.

You are then asked if you want to view the task:



If you click Yes, the Network Optimization screen opens with the Task Management tab showing the new task.



If you click No, a confirmation message is then displayed that the task has been created.

If Spotlight is not installed, the option is visible in the context menu but it is not available or active. Note For more information about Spotlight and how to use it to manage and fix tasks, refer to the Actix Spotlight User Guide.

Adding surveys to a Spotlight investigation task It is possible to add one or more surveys to a Spotlight investigation task when performing survey management. To add surveys to an existing Spotlight task, perform the following steps: 1

Open the Survey Management module and Browse for drive surveys.

2

Select one or more surveys from the survey list.

3

Click the Actions button and select either Add Selected Surveys To An Existing Spotlight Investigation Task or the Add All Matching Surveys To An Existing Spotlight Investigation Task option.

4

In the Add Files Into An Existing Spotlight Investigation Task dialog box, enter the task's ID number in the Task ID field and then click the Search button to find the task. If the task exists in the system, the task ID and any description are displayed in the dialog box.

Specifying the relevant Spotlight task 5

Click the Add Files button to associate the file(s) with the task.

Once survey data has been added to a Spotlight investigation task, it is possible to remove the survey data from the task using the Network Optimization module.



206

Adding surveys to a benchmarking campaign Benchmarking analyses are done using the Benchmarking tool in the Network Optimization module. To be able to do an analysis, survey data needs to be added to a benchmarking campaign (which must first be defined by an administrator through the Administration module). To add survey data to a campaign, perform the following steps: 1

In the Survey Management module, create a survey search, specifying the properties that you want applied to the campaign. For instance, you could choose to search for surveys in a particular month of the year.

2

Click the Browse button.

3

From the results list, select one or more surveys.

4

Click the Actions button and choose either the Add All Matching Results to Benchmarking Campaign option or the Add Selected Surveys to Benchmarking Campaign option.

5

In the Benchmarking Campaign Data dialog box, provide a name for the period and from the Campaign drop-down list select the campaign to which the surveys belong.

Associating surveys with a period and campaign 6

Click the Add button to add the data to the campaign.



207

Configuring custom applications The Custom Applications module allows you to launch user-specific URLs or web links to reports. When you click a link name, the related URL is launched in the module window.

The module includes a Manage Applications page, where you can define a link Title that will appear under the Custom Applications module and the link URL.

The Accordion Label field allows you to rename how this module appears in the navigation panel on the left. Click on the button to the right of the field – this changes to a Save button once you have entered a new name.



208

Index 3

3D, 44

A

About ActixOne, 20 Access Control tab, 77 add survey data, 207 add surveys to an existing Spotlight task, 206 Admin, 20 Altitude Profile, 51 Antenna Visualization, 114 Settings, 116 antennas Additional Properties, 117 multiple visualizations, 118 Received Power prediction, 118 tilt, 116 area, browse surveys by, 198 areas, 60 Attribute Picker, 139 attributes, 60 Attributes Filter, 138 Audit Trail tab, 69

B

Background Maps, 41 benchmarking analysis concepts, 177 performing, 179 Benchmarking module, 176 bin attributes, 133 Black List, 112 blanks, searching for rows with, 183 browse surveys, 197

C

Call Event Explorer, 90 Call Flow Analysis, 91 Call Trace, 122, 126 Cell Coverage bin lines, 34 footprint, 35 layer, 34 Channel Analysis, 154 charts, 122 creating, 124 customizing, 125 charts, mini, 126 Co-channel filter, 135 Color Events by Diagnosis, 92 Color Events by Sector, 92 Compare by Area, 188 Compare by Location, 189 configure tables, 128 Coverage analysis, 105 create feature group, 45 Create Filter, 80


create polygon, 45 Create Spotlight Task, 121 create Spotlight tasks, 205 Create Task, 71 CSV, 89 Custom Applications module, 208 Custom Area, 45 Customer Experience, 11, 52, 164 charts, 122 dashboard, 52 example use cases, 172 layer, 164 mesh, 164 mini charts, 126 module, 52

D

Dashboard module, 180 data housekeeping, 64 Data Service Analysis examples, 100 Date / Time scope, 16 date offsets, 147 deep linking, 18 Deleted Files, 182 Delta Comparison, 190 Details tab, 68 device, browse surveys by, 198 Devices, selecting, 130 Dock Panel, 19 Download, 185 Download Attribute Report, 89 download survey file, 203 Drilldown, 93 Drilldown Layer 3 data, 97

E

Edit Filter, 88 Elements Picker, 148 Event Options, 144 events displayed, 123 Events Displayed, 144 Events Piechart, 91 Excel reports, 77 Export Map, 44 Export Sector Plots, 113

F

Failed Files, 182 feature group, 45 File Status module, 181 Filter, 79 filtering files, 183 filters, 139 Footprint, 33 Format Group Editor, 47

G

Generate ranges, 48


209

Get Cell Refs, 185 Google Earth, 44 Google KML, 89 GRD, 89 group events, 132

Home Location, 45 hotspot view, 165

network elements, about, 8 Network Event Overview, 191 Network Events, 29, 131 Network Optimization module, 57 tools, 136 Network Traffic, 30 Networks, 25 nulls, searching for rows with, 183

I

O

H

Ignore, 184 Indoor layer, 40 inline linking, 18 Invalid Files, 181 Investigation Plots, 194

offsets, date, 147 OMC, 8 operators for search filters, 200 overlapping sectors, displaying, 29

K

panel docking, 19 Pathloss, 37 Pilot Pollution analysis, 107 Pilot Pollution layer, 36 Pivot Table, 94 Plot by Area, 194 Plot by Location, 195 Points of Interest, 156 configuring POI attributes, 157 files to display, 160 filtering values on the map, 158 importing a POI file, 156 searching for, 160 visualizing POI attributes, 157 Pollution Bin Line, 35 Pollution Sector Lines, 35 polygon, create, 45 predictive data, 9 Print Map, 44 Problem Investigation module, 191 Processed Files, 181 Properties tab, 71 property, browse surveys by, 199 purge records, 186

KML, 89 KPIs, 61

L

Layer 3, 97 Layers, 23 Legend, 47 line colors, changing, 32 Lines to Neighbors, 31 Lines to Repeaters, 31 location finder, 42 location, browse surveys by, 197 Lock, 145 log in, 10 login errors, 11

M

Make Valid, 185 Manage Filters, 81 map controls, 21 map elements, filtering, 134 map layers, 23 map providers, 42, 43 map scaling, 49 map zoom control, 22 MapInfo, 89 maps, 60 Maximize Panel, 20 measure distances, 50 mesh, 12, 122, 126 Customer Experience, 164 tier, 168 Microsoft Excel reports, 77 MIF, 89 mini charts, 68, 126 Missing Neighbor Footprint, 33 Missing Neighbor Lines, 34 Missing Neighbors analysis, 109

N

navigation menu, 12 Neighbor filter, 135 Network Comparison module, 187 network configuration display, 14


P

R

Radio Network Analysis, 103 Received Power, 38 Received Power prediction, 118 records, purging, 186 Reports tab, 74 Reprocess, 184 Request Queue tab, 76 Retrieve new recommendations, 155

S

scaling, 49 Scope, 84 Search for Elements, 148 search templates, 153 Sector Footprints map layer, 161 sector, browse surveys by, 200 sectors, select multiple, 23 Select Attribute, 26, 27 select Custom Area, 45


210

select multiple sectors, 23 select survey data source, 87 server-side reporting, 73 Shortcut URL, 18 source path, browse surveys by, 200 Spotlight investigation task, 85, 205 Stack Browser, 99 survey data source, 87 Survey Event Details page, 186 survey file downloading, 203 Survey Layer, 137 Survey Management module, 196 Survey Trail, 36 surveys, selecting, 201 switch data, 112 system date, 147

T

TAB, 89 tables, 127 adding data, 128 configuring, 128 filtering, 129 group data, 129 grouping elements, 127 Task List, 64 Task Management tab, 64, 70 task types, 62 tasks, filtering by scope, 84


Templates, 145 tier, mesh, 168 tilting the antenna, 116 time filter, 16 Time Picker, 144 Transient Data, 162 transient data, displaying, 27

U

Unprocessed Files, 181 Upload Survey Files, 119 user interface, 11

V

View, 82 View Event Details, 204 View File Properties, 202 View in Google Earth, 44 View Properties, 185 View Survey, 186

W

White List, 112 WMS layers, 39

Z

zoom control, 22 zoom to a selected area, 22


211

ActixOneVersion_6_0_0_GA_UserGuide_Edn1.pdf

Recommend Documents