The present document is part of a TS-family covering the 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Telecommunication management, as identified below: Subscriber and MS Trace provide very detailed information at call level on one or more specific mobile(s). This data is an additional source of information to Performance Measurements and allows going further in monitoring and optimisation operations. Contrary to Performance Measurements, which are a permanent source of information, Trace is activated on user demand for a limited period of time for specific analysis purpose Trace plays a major role in activities such as determination of the root cause of a malfunctioning mobile, advanced troubleshooting, optimisation of resource usage and quality, RF coverage control and capacity improvement, dropped call analysis, Core Network and TRAN end to end procedure validation. The capability to log data on any interface at call level for a specific user (e.g. IMSI or SUPI) or mobile type (e.g. IMEI or IMEISV) allows getting information which cannot be deduced from Performance Measurements such as perception of end-user QoS during his call (e.g. requested QoS vs. provided QoS), correlation between protocol messages and RF measurements, or interoperability with specific mobile vendors. Moreover, Performance Measurements provide values aggregated on an observation period, Subscriber and Equipment Trace give instantaneous values for a specific event (e.g. call, location update, etc.). If Performance Measurements are mandatory for daily operations, future network planning and primary trouble shooting, Subscriber and MS Trace is the easy way to go deeper into investigation and network optimisation. In order to produce this data, Subscriber and MS trace are carried out in the NEs, which comprise the network. The data can then be transferred to an external system (e.g. an Operations System (OS) in TMN terminology, for further evaluation).

The present document describes Trace data definition and management. It covers the trace records content, their format and transfer across UMTS networks, EPS networks or 5GS networks. GSM Trace is outside of the scope of this specification.. The present document also describes the data definition for Minimization of Drive Tests (MDT) and 5GC UE level measurements across 3GPP networks. The objectives of the present document are:

• To provide the descriptions for a standard set of Trace and MDT data;
• To define the common format of trace, MDT records and 5GC UE level measurements; and
• To define a method for the reporting of Trace, MDT and 5GC UE level measurements results across the management interfaces.

Clause 4 details the various Trace records content, Clause 5 defines GPB trace format for NR, Annex A provides Trace, MDT and 5GC UE level measurements report file format, Annex B provides the trace report file conventions and transfer procedure, Annex C provides the trace reporting functional architecture and Annex D provides some trace,MDT and 5GC UE level measurements files examples, Annex G provides normative GPB trace record schema and examples. Trace and MDT concepts and requirements are covered in TS 32.421 . The 5GC UE level measurements definitions and use cases are covered in TS 28.558. TheTrace control and configuration management for trace, MDT and 5GC UE level measurements collection are described in TS 32.422. The definition of Trace, MDT data and 5GC UE level measurements is intended to result in comparability of Trace, MDT data and 5GC UE level measurements produced in a multi-vendor wireless 3GPP networks. The following is beyond the scope of the present document, and therefore the present document does not describe:

• Any notification mechanisms or IRPs for trace. Only file transfer mechanism is specified for trace data transfer;
• Any data compression mechanisms for trace data transfer;
• Any Trace capability limitations (e.g. maximum number of simultaneous traced mobiles for a given NE).

The following documents contain provisions, which, through reference in this text, constitute provisions of the present document.

• References are either specific (identified by date of publication, edition number, version number, etc.) or non-specific.
• For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.
• For a non-specific reference, the latest version applies. In the case of a reference to a 3GPP document (including a GSM document), a non-specific reference implicitly refers to the latest version of that document in the same Release as the present document.