¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria;

²Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Kwara State University, Malete, P.M.B. 1530, Ilorin, Nigeria; 

*Correspondence: twhid2001@yahoo.com;

Received: 15/4/2022, First revision: 23/5/2022, Accepted: 5/6/2022, Published: 11/6/2022

DOI: 10.54616/ijeps/20220601

1. Introduction

The Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is currently the most extensive coverage, and with highest reliability, maximum capacity, confidentiality and strong public wireless digital transmission system [1-3] in Nigeria. The introduction of GSM mobile communication network system has no doubt played significant and meaningful roles in people’s lives [4-5]. Aside voice call, an important service from the GSM, other value addition services such as Short Message Service (SMS) and internet services have allowed for and enhanced a number of applications ranging from e-mail, e-learning, e-banking, to social networking. The revolutionary tempo has further been raised by the internet and the web especially through the enhancement of e-learning. E-learning encompasses a wide set of applications and processes, such as web-based and computer-based learning, virtual classrooms, and digital collaboration. It involves the delivery of contents through the internet and intranet, audio and video tape, interactive TV, and satellite broadcast [6].

Over time, the GSM services have witnessed transformation from 1G to 4G and recently to 5G. It is obvious that the reasons for this transformation are qualitative voice calls, high speed data and internet connections. Mobile voice communication was achieved by the first generation (1G), while the second generation (2G) also added coverage and capacity. This was followed by the third generation (3G), which is searching for higher-speed data to open the gates to a truly "mobile broadband" experience that the fourth generation (4G) further established. The 4G offers access to a wide range of telecommunications services, including advanced mobile services, enabled by increasingly packet-based mobile and fixed networks, as well as support for applications with low to high mobility and a wide range of data rates, in line with the requirements of multi-user services [7]. The evolution of wireless access technology is at its fifth generation (5G) and will interconnect the entire planet.

The telecommunication industry is faced with both rapid growth and challenges associated with Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)-based cellular mobile networks. As the number of services and subscribers of GSM in Nigeria increases, the demand for good Quality of Service (QoS) has become an issue in the country [8]. More users are connected to the existing networks on daily basis; hence the need to continuously monitor the QoS delivered by service providers. High QoS in this environment is a huge benefit for service providers. With the growth of mobile services, it has become very important for an operator to measure the QoS and Quality of enduser Experience (QoE) of its network accurately, effectively and cost-efficiently to achieve customer loyalty and maintain competitive edge [9]. Since GSM services are locally provided by Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), it is pertinent to carry out performance analysis of a number of cells (BTSs) covering a community or a particular location.

Service providers are increasing immensely and these networks provide different QoS. An efficient and effective telecommunication sector is very important in the economic growth of a country. QoS is simply the description or measurement of the overall performance of a service.

As the number of staff, students, civil servants and villagers increase in Malate, Kwara State, due to the growth and progress of the university, inability to set up calls, abrupt calls drops, occasional service outages, cross-talks and network congestions among others became imminent and subscribers do not receive satisfaction due to the poor nature of the services available on these networks. Surfing the internet has been a major issue for staff and students. Thus, the lack of adequate amount of base stations, poor network and overall QoS performance in the area of study form the major reasons why this study was carried out.

This paper investigated the performance of network in Malete, Kwara State, analyzed the data collected through Test Mobile System (TEMS) software and TEMS Discovery, and then evaluated the performance of the work. The research was organized into three phases namely: the data collection phase, data analysis phase and the proposals for improvements. The outcome of the research will assist network operators to measure effectiveness against their long-term corporate objectives. It will also help the regulatory body, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), to establish a more comprehensive structure for rapid growth in telecommunications. QoS and performance analysis of GSM services ususally form the bases of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by both the regulatory authorities and service providers. The KPIs are parameters measured and obtained directly from network infrastructures such as Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and Base Station Controllers (BSC) [1, 4-5].

This article has been structured and presented in such a way that Introduction which include review of related works was given in section one, Research Method was discussed in Section Two, the Results and Discussion were presented in Section Three and Conclusion was given in Section Four.