Investigation of Call Drop in a Cognitive GSM Network

Abstract

Investigation of call drop is categorized as network monitoring and evaluation, whose focus is to evaluate the performance of the quality of service (QOS) of a radio network in terms of call drop rate. The data used for this work was retrieved from a recording and monitoring customized software called FACTS integrated in the MTN network life node Base station controller (BSC) located along BeninAsaba Expressway with over 70 Base station transceivers (BTSs) connected to it. The data was measured on a daily, weekly and Monthly interval for clear understanding of the analysis. This network experienced its highest call drop rate between 3pm and 4pm with about 44% calls dropped in a day, 25.2% calls dropped on Monday within a week and 24.156% calls dropped in December in a six Months period. This excessive call drop was a result of insufficient BTSs, unavailability of Spares to replace defective ones, longer response time for handoff request and improper matching of BTSs and even Master switching centre (MSC) leading to poor or delay handshaking among BTSs and BSCs. KeywordsCall performance index, Call drop rate, Node, Handover success rate and FACTS.