A Traffic Monitor And Network Quality Analysis Tool For LTE Core Network

With the development of mobile communication technology, people’s demand of mobile communications is becoming increasingly great. As an indispensable part of people’s daily life, mobilephone has already evolved from a communication tool into an important information carrier, which can provide the Internet, E-mail, multimedia service and so on. After Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE) has gradually become the mainstream of world’s mobile communication technology. LTE was proposed by3GPP in the end of the year2004. After nearly10years of development, LTE has gradually mature and Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) has been widely deployed in most of cities and regions all over the world. Mobile users have greater expectations on the quality of mobile communication network, and want to enjoy higher-speed communications services, which makes the market more and more competitive. The signaling network monitoring comes to show its advantages on resource planning and optimization, drawing more and more attention of carriers in recent years. Nowadays, signaling networks not only controls the signaling for telephone network and service, but also is widely used in mobile network, from which the high load of signaling results. Therefore the stability, safety, high efficiency of signaling network directly affects the quality of service and operating income of carriers.Signaling monitoring system is an effective tool for real-time monitoring of signaling network and an important support for maintenance of mobile communication network. With the issuance of4G licenses and E-UTRAN widely deployed all around the nation, signaling monitoring system for LTE network is desperately desiderated. This essay implements an LTE core network signaling traffic monitoring system (LCTS), which is deployed at S1-MME and S6a interface in LTE core network. According to the signaling records produced by LCTS, we can achieve precise mining of signaling data. Then we can achieve the real-time monitoring of network problems, network optimization and the enhancement of user experience.Firstly, this essay introduces the evolution of mobile communication systems and the characteristics of LTE network. Then we provides an overview of LTE core network with network elements and signaling interface. Secondly, we introduce the architecture and key technologies of LTE core network signaling traffic monitoring system (LCTS). Then, the implements of processing signaling protocols in the system are introduced in detail. Besides, we introduce the deployment of LCTS in the core network and the output format of LCTS. According to the signaling records produced by LCTS, we make use of statistical analysis method to calculate the network key performance indicators (KPI) to locate the network quality problems. Finally, signaling monitoring on mobile network is summarized and prospected.