Network Acceptance

Optimization is Critical to the Success of Technology Rollouts.

Before new Radio Access Network (RAN) technology infrastructure can go live, a range of physical and soft parameters need to be optimized to ensure capacity and performance objectives, called network acceptance metrics, will be met at launch. Network acceptance metrics must be measured to assess network launch readiness and then optimization is performed to resolve any below target metrics. Once all metrics are met, the RAN technology may go live. In the period after launch, another round of analysis is performed to assess performance under live network conditions. Again, optimization is iteratively performed to ensure all acceptance metrics are met.

Acceptance testing is particularly critical for RAN technologies which introduce completely new radio bearers, such as LTE, and for wholesale equipment swap-outs such as upgrading legacy equipment to software-defined "single RAN" base stations. Underscoring the importance of acceptance, the metrics are often written into network equipment contracts.

During the pre-launch phase of acceptance, there is no traffic on the network and the only source of data to assess performance and capacity is drive survey data. During the post-launch phase of acceptance, live network OSS data may be used to assess performance and capacity.

Two key challenges emerge across acceptance activities:

  1. Automation – performing acceptance analytics and optimization as quickly as possible, to accelerate launch.
  2. Quality assurance – implementing a uniform, best-practice optimization approach across all resources, to ensure a consistent quality across the network.

Automate and Standardize Network Acceptance with Actix.

To address these challenges, Actix provides our Network Acceptance solution which automates acceptance reporting to verify capacity and performance KPIs, before and after launch, and automates troubleshooting and optimization to resolve KPI violations. The Network Acceptance solution is delivered in two form factors:

  • Desktop – Based on our Analyzer desktop post-processing software
  • Platform – Based on our ActixOne Optimization Platform

Actix offers the following Network Acceptance capabilities:

  • Acceptance KPIs – Actix has developed a set of best-practice acceptance KPIs, based on 20 years of experience deploying new infrastructure. Acceptance KPIs may be used to quickly validate new sites and new carriers or may be used for more complex upgrades to radio technology or for infrastructure swap-outs. In addition, acceptance metrics may apply to both pre-launch and post-launch periods, using both drive survey and network OSS data sources. Acceptance metrics are commonly implemented using a centralized approach with ActixOne. Analyzer may be used for de-centralized pre-launch acceptance, but does not support network OSS data.
  • Automated Reporting – Both Analyzer and ActixOne automate many key aspects of data processing and report generation. ActixOne is specifically designed to centrally manage large volumes of data including centralized control and administration of reporting KPIs.
  • Seamless Drilling to Optimization – When acceptance KPIs are not met, Actix enables seamless drill through to analytics for diagnosing root causes of failures and recommending solutions to resolve the issues. For more information see solutions in our "Optimize" category.

A Network Acceptance Report for new UMTS and HSPA sites and carriers

In real-world deployments, Actix software analytics have been proven to accelerate Acceptance reporting and troubleshooting tasks by 20 times, while enabling best-practice KPIs to be used to ensure every site will meet its performance and capacity objectives at launch.
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