A Hybrid Deep Learning-Based (HYDRA) Framework for Multifault Diagnosis Using Sparse MDT Reports

Diminishing viability of manual fault diagnosis in the increasingly complex emerging cellular network has motivated research towards artificial intelligence (AI)-based fault diagnosis using the minimization of drive test (MDT) reports. However, existing AI solutions in the literature remain limited to either diagnosis of faults in a single base station only or the diagnosis of a single fault in a multiple BS scenario. Moreover, lack of robustness to MDT reports spatial sparsity renders these solutions unsuitable for practical deployment. To address this problem, in this paper we present a novel framework named Hybrid Deep Learning-based Root Cause Analysis (HYDRA) that uses a hybrid of convolutional neural networks, extreme gradient boosting, and the MDT data enrichment techniques to diagnose multiple faults in a multiple base station network. Performance evaluation under realistic and extreme settings shows that HYDRA yields an accuracy of 93% and compared to the state-of-the-art fault diagnosis solutions, HYDRA is far more robust to MDT report sparsity.