The Influence of Propagation Environment in a Live GSM Network

Abstract

This paper discusses the influence of propagation environment to the GSM cellular mobile network. Based on the propagation dependent environment, the mobile station suffered from the interference anytime and anywhere. This paper shows the measurement and analysis results for a special case in a live GSM network. The measurement-processing data from the field-strength driving test shows the enormous variances about 28% of the measured RXLEV >= -75dBm (received signal strength) between the short call case (105 seconds for conversation and 15 seconds for idle, cycling) and the long call case (1800 seconds for conversation and 15 seconds for idle, cycling). Our investigation for the GSM network is based on the GSM metrics RXLEV, RXQUAL, DTX, slow frequency hopping and handover characteristics. The problems caused by measurement instruments are not the scope of this paper.