To visualize real-time 4G/LTE and 5G/NR RAN KPIs with up-to-the-minute level resolutions use the Explore page on the Uhana by VMware platform. The KPIs can be pre-defined in the system or composed by the user. These KPIs can be visualized for a user-specified group of LTE and NR cells or for the entire network.
Access the Explore page by clicking the Explore menu on the main window.
The following topics describe how to use the Explore page.
Use the selection panel
You can apply a specific group of cells and a time period to focus KPI visualizations using the selection panel on the far left of the Explore page.
Range selection
Use the Range Selection drop-down menu to select cells of interest.
- All - Select all cells in the network
- Cell - Select one or more cells using their global IDs or operator defined IDs
- eNodeB - Select cells belonging to one or more eNodeBs using their eNodeB ID or site IDs
- Preset - Select cells that have been defined as a preset (under System/Presets) using their preset ID
If you select the Cell, eNodeB, or Preset menu item, a second drop-down menu displays so you can enter and search corresponding IDs.
Time window and resolution
Use the Time Window and Resolution drop-down menu to select the time period and resolution for your KPI visualization.
A variety of time window menu items are supported including time frames between Last 5 minutes to Last 2 weeks and an option to select a custom time window.
The Resolution drop-down menu items depend on the width of the selected time window. This limits the number of data points displayed in KPI charts.
- For time windows up to 3 hours long, minute and 15 minute resolutions are supported
- For time windows longer than 3 hours but smaller than 2 days, 15 minute and hourly resolutions are supported
- For time windows longer than 2 days but smaller than a week, hourly and daily resolutions are supported
- For time windows longer than a week but smaller than 2 weeks, daily and weekly resolutions are supported
Live update
Click the Live update toggle button to refresh the KPIs for the given selection periodically. This applies to time windows that include the latest timestamp, for example, Last 3 hours.
Share|Clear selection
Use the Share button to share your current view of the Explore page with another user. Options include
- Link - Copy the URL for the current view to share
- Snapshot - Take a snapshot of the current view and save it as a PNG image
Use the Clear Selection button to reset the selection panel to the default values. The default value for Range Selection is All and for Time Window it is Last 1 hour.
Use the map
The map displays the location of cells in the network. Cell colors change depending on the KPI selected in the KPI drop-down menu above the map. When you zoom out, the map displays numbered clusters of cells. The number on the cluster indicates the number of cells in that cluster. When you zoom into a view, you can also see individual cells.
You can perform the following interactions on the map.
- Quickly identify clusters of cells that exhibit unexpected behavior for the selected KPI by clicking on a cluster to zoom in and identify individual cells where additional analysis is needed.
- Select a specific cell or a cluster of cells instead of using Range Selection in the selection panel.
- Zoom in and click an individual cell to visualize KPIs for that cell.
- Click Draw and draw a polygon on the map to visualize KPIs aggregated for a cluster of cells within that polygon. You can draw a polygon in up to seven zoom levels from the maximum zoom level. This limits the number of eNodeBs in the selection.
- At a zoom level where individual cells can be seen, hover over an individual cell to view configuration information including cell ID, site ID, band, Tracking Area Code (TAC), EARFCN for the downlink and uplink, maximum transmission power and antenna name.
Visualize pre-defined KPIs
This topic describes the system and composed KPIs.
These five KPI sets are available in the Explore page under different tabs. Use these tabs to select system or user-defined KPIs for viewing.
Cell, Sector, Interference, and QCI KPI sets contain system-defined KPIs. Composed KPI contains user-defined KPIs.
Cell
The KPIs included in the cell set provide an overall view of the user experience and load carried by a selected set of cells and time period. Use this tab to get a quick summary of performance and help determine what other KPIs to use for triage if user problems or excessive load is observed.
- Active UEs - Number of active users in downlink and uplink
- Accessibility & Retainability - Rate of session setup failures and abnormal session releases
- Agg Spectral Efficiency - Effective number of bits per symbol transmitted
- Avg Cell Throughput - Downlink volume carried by all users normalized over time
- Avg User Throughput - Average downlink throughput of users
- Bad VoLTE Speech Quality Rate - Percentage of VoLTE sessions reporting bad uplink quality
- Cell Utilization - Percentage of downlink and uplink Physical Resource Blocks (PRB) and Control Channel Elements (CCE) used
Sector
The KPIs included in the sector set help compare performance, load, and radio conditions between different cells in a given sector of a macro eNodeB. You can access this view when a single cell is selected.
- Active UEs (Downlink) - Number of active users in downlink per cell in the sector
- Active UEs (Uplink) - Number of active users in uplink per cell in the sector
- A5 Handover Count - Number of handovers based on A5 events between different pairs of cells in the sector
- Avg CCE Agg Level - Average number of Control Channel Elements used per cell in the sector
- Cell Utilization - Percentage of Control Channel Elements (CCE) used per cell in the sector
- DL PRB Utilization - Percentage of downlink Physical Resource Blocks (PRB) used per cell in the sector
- LB Handover Count - Number of handovers based on load balancing events between different pairs of cells in the sector
- Median CQI - Median CQI observed at different Timing Advance values per cell in the sector
- Path Loss Distribution - Distribution of path loss for users per cell in the sector
- TA Distribution - Distribution of Timing Advance (TA) for users per cell in the sector
- UE DL Throughput - Average downlink throughput of users per cell in the sector
Interference
The KPIs included in the interference set provide various views of uplink interference experienced in a cell and the impact on subscriber experience. You can access this view when a single cell is selected.
- Agg Throughput - Average user throughput on the uplink and downlink
- Avg Interference - Time series chart of uplink interference per antenna branch averaged over all PRBs
- Avg PUSCH/PUCCH Interference - Average uplink interference on the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) and the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH)
- Bad VoLTE Speech Quality Rate - Percentage of VoLTE sessions reporting bad uplink quality
- DL MAC BLER - The MAC layer BLER on the downlink including the total NACK rate and the DTX rate
- UL MAC BLER - The MAC layer Block Error Rate (BLER) on the uplink including the total NACK rate and the DTX rate
- Uplink Interference PRB Heatmap - Heatmap of average uplink interference per minute per uplink Physical Resource Block (PRB)
- Uplink Interference Spectrogram - Average uplink interference per PRB per antenna branch over the selected time period
- Uplink SINR - Average Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR) on the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) and the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)
QCI
With the KPIs included in the QCI set you can compare user experience and load between different LTE Quality of Service (QoS) Class Indicators (QCI). This helps visualize whether users expecting a high QoS are getting that experience. This also helps you to determine if there is sufficient capacity available to add high value subscribers in the selected location.
- Active UEs DL - Number of active users in downlink per QCI
- Avg User Throughput - Average downlink throughput of users per QCI
- DL PRB Utilization - Percentage of downlink Physical Resource Blocks (PRB) used per QCI
- ERAB Accessibility - Percentage of session setup failures per QCI
- ERAB Retainability - Percentage of sessions with abnormal releases per QCI
- PDCCH CCE Utilization - Percentage of Control Channel Elements (CCE) used per QCI
Visualize composed KPIs
KPI composer is a powerful tool that helps create complex user-defined KPIs that are not available to obtain using performance management counters. For details on creating a user-defined KPI, see the KPI Composer topic. Use the Composed KPI tab in the Explore page to visualize these KPIs in real-time.
