SINR, RSRP, RSSI and RSRQ Measurements in Long Term Evolution Networks

Abstract

The four basic Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements in Long Term Evolution (LTE) system are Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), and Carrier Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI). A measurement of channel quality represented by Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) is used for link adaptation along with packet scheduling, whereas RSRP and RSRQ are needed for making handover decision during intra-eUTRAN (evolved Universal Terrestrial Random Access Network) handover in LTE. In this paper, some practical measurement results recorded from a live LTE network of Australia using a commercial measurement tool namely NEMO Handy are analysed to verify the possible relationships among SINR, RSRP, RSSI and RSRQ as well as to evaluate the effects of SNR on throughput. In addition, the intra- eUTRAN handover events occurred during the test period within the test area are studied. The analysis yields some useful information such as: if the SINR is good for a measurement slot, higher throughput is achieved; RSRP and SNR are proportional to each other on average; and lesser is the difference between RSSI and RSRP, better is the RSRQ - each of which is consistent with theory. All the measurement results are evaluated using computer programs built on MATLAB platform.