In-network evaluation of mobile handset performance

This paper investigates the use of the measurement reports transmitted on the Abis interface of the GSM network for evaluating handset performance. The most important advantage of this method, is the relatively easy access to a large number of calls made by many different users in the environments where handsets are expected to work. A measurement campaign was carried out where controlled calls were made by 12 users in two different environments and with 4 different commercially available handsets. The calls were made to a normal GSM network where data logging equipment was connected to the Abis. Large differences were found in the performance of the handsets. For example, the link loss was found to vary 14 dB from user to user for one handset, while for another it only varied about 5 dB under the same conditions