UMTS - Types of congestion

UMTS cells can have below congestion types:

1. CE (Channel Elements) Congestion:  This happens when resources on the hardware are fully utilized. One solution is to add extra cards/boards in the Node B to increase capacity. For example, ZTE has BPK1 and BPKd cards that comprises of 384 and 768 CE respectively. CE congestion is always monitored by observing UL CE (since UL CE consumption is always greater than that in the DL)
2. Code Congestion:  High number of users could result in code congestion. Parameters such as minHSDPA users can be decreased to make room for cell DCH users. Carrier expansion can be done to accommodate larger  number of users.
3. TCP Congestion:  This represents that Total Carrier Power limit has been reached. Addition of Power Amplifier, new nodes/sites, decreasing CPICH power, or increasing cell transmission power are some of the remedial steps for rectification. 
4. Iub Congestion:  Congestion results due to fully utilized transmission media which can be increased to resolve the issue. 

GSM TCH Channel Allocation Priorities - Zero Traffic Analysis

Zero traffic means the hardware is not carrying traffic even if there is blocking on the cell. Below are the steps to check for this issue:

1- Filter out TRXs having zero attempts/traffic
2- Check those cells TCH availability - if there is low TCH, then resolve low TCH first
3- Examine TCH blocking on these cells - if there is zero blocking, then the traffic is not high enough
4- Inspect the below TCH channel allocation priorities to finalize the zero traffic TRXs and recommend for health check

Note: TRXs can have zero or low assignments with normal ranges of availability if there is no blocking.

UMTS CE Consumption - Uplink and Downlink

Uplink CE consumption is more than that of downlink. The reason is that CEs are not utilized  by HSDPA being a shared channel. HSUPA and R99, on the other hand, consume dedicated CS resources for their respective sessions.