If you have other vendor’ network dump (Eg: Nokia, Huawei, Alcatel Lucent, etc) in
their raw format, please email to me for the sole purpose of incorporating these into
NePA.
Introduction:
NePA is able to parse both Nokia & Ericsson network “dump”
Fast parsing of network dump
Easy viewing of results in the “Result Area”
Export of results to Text, Excel or Access format
Parameters audit of various parameters
Parameters audit possible on individual levels eg: for UtranCell Scramblingcode, Cpich & etc
Files Comparison (i.e. Diff) between 2 files
Able to parse Nokia & Ericsson
• XML format for Nokia & Ericsson [ie: for Ericsson, xml format is exported from OSS]
• Kget format for Ericsson [Wcdma & LTE] [ie: Kget exported from MoShell/Amos]
• Doesn’t require any import files for Nokia or Ericsson XML formats. It will read the XML
files format automatically. Hence, it takes a little bit more time
For how to use this tool, may just read the sections below. If you like this tool, may also want to take a
look at SiCE which does plotting of site database in MapInfo and Google Earth.
Tested on Vista & WinXP. Tested on Wcdma & LTE Kgets.
Requires Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 or upwards
History:
V2.3 (Nov09): First public version [7RNCs, > 10mins]
V2.8 (Feb10): Second public version [10RNCs, 1min5secs]. New layout, parse more efficient &
corrected many bugs
V2.9 (Mar10): Third public version. Allows user to import new parameter baseline file with no
restrictions on filenames
V3.0 (July10): Changed how layouts and looks of NePA. Added in more features like “Restart NePA”.
Improves processing time. Time taken for 280 RBS Kgets post processing: ~1min, export: ~2mins
V3.1 (Jan11):
1. Solved some minor bugs.
2. Allows users to save network dump into a compressed file which gives smaller filesize (as
small as 20% of original file) and faster loading of network dump during next round (up to
50% time savings)
3. Allows users to carry out simple query on the database
V3.2 (Mar11):
1. Allows users to execute NePA from command line. This means users can create batch file to
run NePA at certain time without user interventions
2. Parameter comparison. Improved comparison criteria to allow users to choose either ‘Relaxed’
or ‘Strict’ comparison
V3.3 (May11):
1. Allows users to parse extremely large network dump. Previously, tool may just hanged or stop
parsing if the size of the network dump is extremely large (ie: > 1GB in file size)
2. Solved when users export to Access database under certain condition and tool will just
hanged
3. Solved when users open tool and may encounter .Net Framework error
4. Solved many other minor bugs
5. Slight change in the MO Class Explorer (Option to change is available in ‘Advance Settings’)
V3.4 (May11):
1. As the previous version involved major rewriting, accidentally left out some checks that
caused some users to experience difficulties in parsing the require MO Class. These had been
corrected
V3.5 (June11):
1. Solved storing of network dump to database (extension dbz) where too large file will cause
memory leakage
2. Solved parsing of parameters where it is a Struct (eg: hcsSib11Config). Previously, it was not
able to parse these kind of parameters
V3.6 (August11):
1. Solved ‘Out of memory’ problem when parsing large network dump. Performance
improvement when parsing large network dump files. Very slight improvement for small
network dump. Example: For large network dump (eg: > 1GB), saved approximately 50% of
time
2. Solved parsing of partial Kget dump files. Previously the tool will stop parsing when the Kget
dump file is not the full dump of the node (ie: RBS or RNC)
3. Solved a minor bug (previously open files are re-parsed while the tool is running)
4. Allows users to right click on the ‘Explorer’ to choose between ‘Flat View (Default)’ or
‘Hierarchy View’ on the fly. Previously, it was not possible
5. Included LTE eNodeB Parameter Baseline (L11B)
V3.7 (September11):
1. Finally got the time to look at the ‘Out of memory’ problem when saving large network dump
to database which is solved in this version. ‘Out of memory’ during parsing is solved in
previous version
2. Solved a seldom seen bug where Kget dump doesn’t contains SubNetwork information and
this will cause the tool to stop parsing (eg: dump from test network)
3. Improved time taken to load from database. On my laptop, took approximately 30secs to load
13 RNC of information. Please note it’s from database, not from dump
For usage of this tool, please refer to Page 4 onwards
Found any bugs: Alvin.Ng@ericsson.com
Time Taken:
10 RNC Kgets:
Intial Process
Full Export
Parameter Check
NePA
1min 55secs
3min 18secs
0min 16secs
Nexplorer 5.2
2min 42secs
15min 24secs
3min 37secs
280 RBS Kgets:
NePA
Nexplorer 5.2
Intial Process
2min 04secs
2min 44secs
Full Export
3min 15secs
Not possible *
Parameter Check
0min 16secs
NA
* Not sure why Nexplorer wasn’t able to export RBS kgets
2 Bulk CM [consists of RNC + RBSs]:
NePA
Nexplorer 5.2
Intial Process
0min 45secs
0min 28secs**
** Nexplorer can only select and thus import 1 Bulk CM at any time
Exporting of 1 RNC into different formats:
Access
Excel
Text
NePA
0min 15secs
0min 48secs
0min 1secs
If exporting many tables, Access is preferred. A fair balance between speed & organization of files.
If exporting a few tables, may choose either Excel or Text.
The time taken to export more RNC is almost proportional to the time above.
Nokia (1 complete network dump)
Intial Process
Full Export
Parameter Check
NePA
2min 14secs
4min 24secs
NA
Above timings were tested on Vista, 2GB RAM, Intel dual core 1.66GHZ
Usage:
Step 1: To load & parse input files
Choose either Nokia or Ericcsson network dump
If Ericsson is choosen, it allows you to choose either Kget format from MoShell Or Bulk CM format
from OSS.
Step 2: Display Results
Allows one to display individual result or many resuls at one time
If Display Multiple is choosen, then a second dialog box will appear as below which allows Users to
check the tables interested in.
Step 3: Export results to Access, Excel or Text format
If exporting many tables or whole network, Access is most preferred. Export fast & more organized
If exporting a few tables, may choose either Text, Excel or Access
Generally, Text format is always the fastest regardless of the number of tables exported.
Note: Due to Microsoft office limitations on the number of rows/columns and etc, the tool will
automatically export tables to Text format if not able to fit into Access or Excel format. This limitations
happens for Office 2003/Office 2007 or before.
If Export Current is choosen, then only the current displayed result is exported
If Export Multi is choosen, then a second dialog box will appear as below which allows Users to choose
the tables interested in.
Misc
Param Checks: Is to do a parameter audit against the baseline. The Parameters_Baseline.txt must be
present to do this.
Note: It allows parameter checks on cell levels. Example for UtranCells in RNC, different cells have
different primaryScramblingCode. Or for Sectors in RBS, different sectors may have different
maxNumHsPdschCodes values.
To do a parameter check on individual level, below is an example where “MO” column is filled which
can uniquely identify the cells or sectors. If “MO” column is not filled, then it will be a network level.
It is possible in the “MO” column to use either
“MeContext=JLRNC01,ManagedElement=1,RncFunction=1,UtranCell=JLW10K0A04957B” or just
“JLW10K0A04957B”. In most cases, the shorter format will suffice however for RBS node, may require
the longer format.
All keywords like MOC_Name, MO, Param_Name & Baseline_Value are CASE SENSITIVE (eg:
primaryCpichPower is not same as primarycpichpower)
It is possible to carry out both network level and individual level changes concurrently. Example below
is for “primaryCpichPower” for UtranCell MoClass. Thus, example below will print out all utrancells that
are not 300 and the 3 cells that are also not 270.
Files Comparison: Do a difference between 2 files. A common usage is doing a comparison between
network dump from different days. Example: A network wide parameters changes were done and
wants to get all the changes made, Or a network upgrade was done and wants to check parameters
values Before vs After the upgrade.
Note: Possibly for network ugprade, new parameters are created or existing parameters are removed.
This will also print out these parameters.
‘MO’ must exists in both files to carry out the files comparison. Example below is from RBS
Files:
Input Files:
2 additional files are accompanying the tool. They are entirely optional and do not affect the
performance of the tool.
Parameters_Baseline.txt: Required to do a audit against the baseline
Attributes.txt: Required if you are parsing for the Ericsson Bulk CM format. The reason is Ericsson OSS
uses different parameters name in the OSS. Hence this is a mapping table between OSS naming and
the ones that we are used to seeing. If this file is not present, the tool will try as much as possible to
parse the files. So far in testings, no faults seems to have occurred.
Note for Nokia: No input files are required.
Output Files:
These files may be generated into the same folder of the network dump
• Parameter Check: ParamCheck_Multi__XXYYYY (.txt)
• Export: Export_MultiTable__XXYYYY (.txt, .xls, .mdb)
• Comparison: CompOutput__XXYYYY (.txt)
Command Line
-i: input Ericsson file. Extension '.log' for Kget format and '.xml' for BCG format
-in: input Nokia files. Any extension are accepted
-e: export file. Options: -e access, -e excel, -e text
Example to execute from command line, in command prompt (‘cmd.exe’) type :
1. 'NePA -i Rnc09.log -e access' to parse Ericsson Kget file Rnc09 and export everything into
access
2. ‘NePA –i Rnc10.xml -e text’ to parse Ericsson XML file Rnc10 and export everything into text
Shortcut Keys:
Many shortcut keys are available
Below shortcuts are displayed when users “Right Click” in the
• “Tab Toolbar” OR
• “Display Results” area