PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF MOBILE NETWORK SERVICES IN SHIRORO POWER STATION, NIGERIA

Abstract

In this work, performance of four mobile network operators (MNOs) was measured, analysed, and evaluated in Shiroro Power Station and recommendation were made to improve the quality of their voice and data services. Drive test was performed using transmission environment monitoring softwares (TEMs) and statistical analysis was done for performance evaluation. The results shows that the received signal strength level was between the ranges of -50 dBm to -110 dBm as against the standard range values of -30 dBm to -70 dBm, recommended by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and the received quality for Mobile Network A , Mobile Network B and Mobile Network C were observed to be Excellent. This implies that MNO A, B and C met the NCC recommendation in terms of received quality level. Received quality level of Mobile Network D was observed to be poor. MNO C offered the best quality of service in term of call setup time (CST), Call setup success rate (CSSR), Call completion success rate (CCSR) whereas in term of dropped call rate (DCR) MNO A and MNO B were the best. Mobile Internet service of MNO B with latency of 2.75 ms and throughput of 6731.8 kbps was observed to be the best in term of Latency and Throughput follow by MNO C with Latency of 121 ms and throughput of 153kbps but in term of data rate, MNO A with data rate of 38.85 kbps was observed to be the best followed by MNO C 10.55 kbps data rate. Technical issues that were observed to be responsible for poor performances are; Terrain problem, low transmit power, absence of booster amplifiers at the base stations, Insufficient coverage and absence of 4G wireless technology