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UMTS Radio Interface

System Planning and Optimization


Esmael Dinan
ehdinan@bechtel.com
Aleksey Kurochkin
aakuroch@bechtel.com
Sam Kettani
oekettan@bechtel.com

Issue Date: December 2002

INTRODUCTION agement functionalities, while the UTRAN (UMTS terres-


trial radio access network) manages the radio packet

T he goal of the UMTS (universal mobile telecommuni-


cations system) is to deliver multimedia services to
the user in the mobile domain. UMTS and multimedia
transmission and resource management.
Packet routing and transfer within the core network
are supported by definition of new logical network nodes
services have a significant impact not only on the RF called GGSN (gateway GPRS [general packet radio sys-
(radio frequency) network, but also on the core network tem] support node) and SGSN (serving GPRS support
architecture. Care must be taken to allow current GSM node). The GGSN is basically a packet router with addi-
(global system mobile) operators to protect their infra- tional mobility management features, and it connects
structure investments when their networks are upgraded with various network elements through standardized
to support UMTS. interfaces. The GGSN acts as a physical interface to the
The UMTS network architecture is depicted in Figure 1. external packet data networks (e.g., the Internet). The
The core network handles call control and mobility man- SGSN handles packet delivery to and from mobile termi-

To PSTN Gi
AUC
GMSC H Gc GGSN To IP Network
C
Core D
HLR Gr
Gn
Network
Gp
VLR F EIR Gf
SGSN
Other PLMN
MSC Gs
Iu-CS Iu-PS
Iu-CS Iu-PS
RNS Iur RNS
UTRAN RNC RNC
Iub Iub

Node Node
B B
Node Node
B B

AUC: Authentication Center GGSN: Gat eway GPRS Sup port Node PLMN: Public Land Mobile Network SGSN: S ervice GP RS Su ppo rt Node
EIR: E quipment I dentity Register HLR: Home Location Register RNC: Radio Network Controller UTRAN: UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network
MSC: Mobile Switching Cen ter RNS: Radio Network S ubsystem VLR: Visited Loca tion Register

Figure 1. UMTS Network Architecture

December 2002 • Volume 1, Number 1 1


nals. Each SGSN is responsible for delivering packets to This paper outlines the challenges and solutions for
the terminals within its service area. GGSN and SGSN are planning and optimizing UMTS networks with respect to
capable of supporting terminal data rates up to 2 Mbps. radio interface. WCDMA air interface specifications and
A UTRAN consists of one or more RNSs (radio network their implications on transmission channel behavior and
subsystems), which in turn consist of base stations modeling are described first. Next, solutions are provided
(Node Bs) and RNCs (radio network controllers). The RNS for system design, including coverage, capacity, code,
performs all of the radio resource and air interface man- and frequency planning. The analysis captures both
agement functionalities. The UMTS network architecture design processes and engineering calculations. The criti-
inherits most of its structure from the GSM model in the cal optimization and monitoring of WCDMA network per-
UTRAN. formance are then discussed. Finally, the paper con-
This paper focuses on the differences between GSM cludes by summarizing the results and presenting the
radio system planning and UMTS radio system planning. future roadmap.
UMTS uses WCDMA (wideband code division multiple
access) as the radio transmission technology. It is
claimed that TDMA (time division multiple access) RF UMTS RADIO INTERFACE
planning is much more difficult than CDMA-based sys-
tems. This is true, in part, because of the interference
issues. However, UMTS serves users with various W CDMA has been selected as the radio interface
technology of UMTS networks for much of the world.
It is totally different from the technology used in GSM or
demands, and many aspects of planning are more close-
ly interrelated to each other in UMTS planning than they TDMA. The basic radio system planning philosophy used
are in GSM planning. in GSM or TDMA does not change, but almost all of the
The major differences in the UMTS radio system plan- detailed planning items concerned (e.g., the link budget)
ning process occur in coverage and capacity planning. In have to be checked and adjusted to be suitable for
GSM, coverage is planned separately after the network is WCDMA technology. In addition, the radio system plan-
dimensioned (based on the market study), and capacity ning process has to be modified slightly from the tradi-
and frequency are planned in tandem. In UMTS, coverage tional model because the traffic can vary from 8 kbps
and capacity are planned at the same time, because voice to 2 Mbps data and can be either circuit switched
capacity requirements and traffic distribution influence or packet switched.
coverage. Frequency and code can be planned separate-
ly. On the other hand, the wideband nature of WCDMA WCDMA Air Interface Specifications
technology (5 MHz) compared with GSM (200 kHz) It is important to understand the basic UMTS air inter-
imposes new criteria in modeling the propagation envi- face features to plan radio interface of the network. The
ronments. WCDMA specification has certain key features, which are
listed in Table 1.

Carrier 1 Carrier 2
0

-10
Normalized Power, dB

-20

-30

-40
2150 2155 (MHz)

Figure 2. Spectrum of Two WCDMA Carriers with 5 MHz Channel Spacing


(Unlike GSM and TDMA, the same carriers can be used in all of the cells. Thus, the reuse factor for this
system is N = 1, while the GSM reuse factor is typically N = 4.)

2 Bechtel Telecommunications Technical Journal


Table 1. WCDMA Air Interface Specifications gation environments. The macrocellular type of environ-
ment can contain different building densities (e.g., urban,
Parameter Value suburban, or rural). Each of these propagation environ-
Modulation DS-CDMA with QPSK ments has special radio propagation channel character-
istics. When considering the differences among GSM,
Chip Rate 3.84 Mchip/s
TDMA, and UMTS radio interface performances, the key
Duplexing FDD and TDD modes channel property is the delay spread, which describes
Channel Bandwidth 5 MHz with center frequency the amount of multipath propagation in the propagation
raster of 200 KHz environment of the radio link. The delay spread can be
calculated from the typical (estimated or measured)
Service Multi-rate and multi-service power delay profile, which describes the signal power as
Frame Length 10 ms frame with a function of the delay.
15 time slots The effect of multipath on the radio channel can also
be described by the frequency domain properties of the
radio channel. In the frequency domain, multipath caus-
WCDMA air interface is based on DS-CDMA (direct es frequency selective fading, i.e., signals at different fre-
sequence CDMA) technology. The user data sequence is quencies have different fading (amplitude and phase).
multiplied with a so-called spreading sequence, whose One frequency domain property of the channel is coher-
symbol or chip rate is much higher than the user data ence bandwidth, Dfc. It can be calculated from the time
rate. This spreads the user data signal to a wider fre- domain property of delay spread. Coherence bandwidth
quency band. The relation between user data rate and is the minimum frequency separation of the two carriers
chip rate is called a spreading factor (SPF = Rchip/Rbit). that have significantly uncorrelated fading. Table 2
The chip rate in WCDMA is 3.84 Mchip/s, and spreading shows the calculated coherence bandwidths typical for
factors are in the range of 4 to 512; therefore, the user different radio propagation environments. The system is
net bit rates supported by one code channel are in the NB (narrowband) when the radio signal bandwidth is
range of 1 to 936 kbps in the downlink. Up to three par- much smaller than the coherence bandwidth of the radio
allel codes can be used for one user, giving bit rates up channel and WB (wideband) when it is much larger.
to 2.3 Mbps. In the uplink, data rates are half of these fig- Therefore, that system property is dependent on the typ-
ures, because of modulation differences. ical propagation environment in which the system is used
The WCDMA standard includes two modes of opera- and could differ in different environments.
tion: WCDMA/TDD (time division duplexing) and
WCDMA/FDD (frequency division duplexing). In WCDMA/ Table 2. Characteristics of GSM versus UMTS for
FDD, the uplink and downlink signals are at different fre- Different Radio Propagation Environments
quency bands. In WCDMA/TDD, the uplink and downlink
Delay, µs ∆fc, MHz WCDMA GSM
signals are at the same frequency but are separated to
different time periods. WCDMA/FDD will probably be the Bandwidth BW = 5 BW = 0.2
air interface deployed and used first. MHz MHz
The nominal channel bandwidth of the WCDMA signal
Urban 0.5 0.32 WB NB/WB
is 5 MHz. The specification provides the flexibility to
define the exact channel center frequency of 200 KHz Rural 0.1 1.6 WB NB
raster, so the actual channel separation might be small-
Hilly 3 0.053 WB WB
er than the nominal 5 MHz, down to the specified mini-
mum of 4.4 MHz. This has to be noted carefully because Microcellular < 0.1 > 1.6 NB/WB NB
it might cause interference in the network. An example of Indoor < 0.01 > 16 NB NB
the spectrum of WCDMA for two carrier frequencies is
shown in Figure 2.
The WCDMA transmission is split into 10 ms radio The coherence bandwidth is related to the correlation
frames, each of which consists of 15 pieces of 666 ms of fading over the transmission bandwidth. In a propaga-
(2560 chips) time slots. The bit rate and, for example, tion environment where a system is narrowband, fading
channel coding can be changed in every 10-ms frame, is frequency nonselective or flat. In the wideband envi-
offering very flexible control of the user data rate. Every ronment, fading for signal frequencies is uncorrelated
time slot has bits reserved for pilot signal, power control and the fading is called frequency selective. Comparing
(TPC bits), transport format indication (TFCI bits), and, if the chip duration (0.26 ms) of WCDMA to the typical
necessary, closed loop transmit diversity (FBI bits). The urban channel delay spread, it can be seen that the delay
exact signal format and multiplexing are quite different in spread is larger than the chip duration. A WCDMA receiv-
uplink and downlink signaling. Also, the dedicated and er achieves optimum performance by using all of the mul-
shared channels have several differences in signal format. tipath components via a Rake receiver. The Rake receiv-
er receives and combines different multipath delayed
UMTS Propagation Environment elements of the received signal. This combining method
The radio propagation channel environment is divided is an advantage of WCDMA compared with GSM and
into outdoor and indoor classes. The outdoor class is fur- TDMA signals and increases the received signal power.
ther divided into macrocellular and microcellular propa-

December 2002 • Volume 1, Number 1 3


UMTS RADIO SYSTEM PLANNING The distribution of the traffic levels between voice and
different data calls at each base station coverage area

T he implementation strategy must be planned careful-


ly because UMTS is a totally new system. UMTS oper-
ates in the frequency band of 2100 MHz, which is much
should be determined as accurately as possible. Also, the
location of the different mobile users (or actually the link
budget of each mobile user) should be known as exactly
higher than the 900 MHz and 1900 MHz typically used in as possible. It is, of course, impossible to know the
GSM and TDMA systems. Also, the higher data rates for mobile user locations exactly; however, the more accu-
UMTS require better signal strength, Eb/No. These oper- rately they can be forecast, the better the radio network
ating frequency differences, plus the higher data rates, can be designed.
mean that the radio propagation will not be equivalent. Another key issue in WCDMA radio coverage and
As a result, the old base station coverage areas are not capacity planning is the regional traffic distribution, or
necessarily valid in UMTS. Although reusing the old base the existence of traffic hot spots in the radio network cov-
station sites would be very cost-effective, they are not erage area. Base station locations should be selected so
necessarily the most optimum locations for UMTS cover- that they are always placed on the traffic hot spots, since
age. The decision to reuse the base station sites this offers the best link budget for the mobile users
depends heavily on the implementation strategy and on served by those base stations. As the users move away
the traffic forecasts. from the base station, WCDMA throughput decreases. As
shown in Figure 4, placing base stations on traffic hot
UMTS Radio System Planning Process spots significantly reduces power levels in the radio net-
The UMTS radio system planning process is similar to work, which reduces interference and increases capacity.
the GSM planning process. The phases of the planning In the initial dimensioning phase, a fixed load is
process are: assumed for all base stations within the targeted area.
The value for the load can be the maximum acceptable
• Dimensioning
load for the cells or it can be the predicted load during
• Configuration planning
the busy hour. If the highest acceptable load is used, the
• Coverage and capacity planning
dimensioning is done according to the worst-case sce-
• Code and frequency planning
nario, which may lead to an unnecessarily high number of
• Parameter planning
sites. It is better to use the predicted load, because it will
• Optimization and monitoring
give more realistic results.
The overall planning goal in any wireless system is to In the detailed planning phase, the traffic distribution
maximize coverage and capacity while meeting the KPIs is used to allocate the predicted traffic to the planned
(key performance indicators) and QoS (quality of service). cells. This may lead to situations in which the load
Figure 3 shows the UMTS planning process. In particular, between the cells can vary remarkably. Some cells may
the figure shows the one key issue in UMTS coverage and have a load very close to the maximum acceptable load,
capacity planning, namely that the traffic level has to be and some cells may have a fairly low load. Coverage tar-
considered continuously in UMTS radio planning. gets must also be checked during this planning phase.

• Dimensioning • Detailed Planning • Optimization and


- Traffic - Traffic Monitoring
- Area - Site configuration - Traffic
- Coverage threshold - Coverage thresholds & - Coverage verification
capacity requirements - Capacity availability

Figure 3. UMTS System Planning Process

4 Bechtel Telecommunications Technical Journal


Although, in dimensioning, the traffic is assumed to be as the maximum expected path loss between the receiv-
evenly distributed across a particular area, in reality, er and transmitter.
each area may have a different traffic density. Also, in
dimensioning, propagation is assumed to be similar for WCDMA Coverage and Capacity Planning
all cells and all cells are assumed to be identical. During Coverage and capacity planning in WCDMA are inter-
detailed planning, coverage predictions can be quite dif- related. In low traffic areas, WCDMA planning is quite
ferent among the cells due to propagation environment similar to GSM planning, because the load does not have
and traffic distribution. Typically, Monte-Carlo distribution a great impact on coverage. Of course, many details dif-
of the mobile stations is used to predict instant traffic fer between the systems, but the main principles can be
demand in the area of interest. applied to both. In high traffic areas, unlike for GSM,
there is no clear split between coverage, interference,
WCDMA Transmitter, Receiver, and capacity planning of WCDMA.
and Channel Parameters
WCDMA coverage planning begins from the link budg- Coverage Planning
et calculation. The link budget in WCDMA, as in GSM, The propagation predictions for WCDMA require the
takes into account the base station equipment configu- same planning phases as in GSM. First, the base station
ration and the base station antenna line configuration. configuration and the link budget have to be defined.
The WCDMA link budget also contains some new param- Also, the coverage threshold has to be well defined to
eters that are not used in the GSM link budget. A typical exceed the required quality criteria but avoid unneces-
link budget for WCDMA is presented in Table 3. The link sary additional investments for the radio network ele-
budget is calculated based on the following assumptions: ments. Moreover, the capacity targets and forecasts have
to be well known at this phase because they have a
• Uplink bit rate is 64 kbps and downlink bit rate is
strong effect on the base station coverage area. When
144 kbps.
the base station antenna height, coverage threshold, and
• Predicted load in uplink is 30 percent and in down-
capacity requirements are defined and the base station
link, 50 percent.
configuration is clarified in the link budget calculations,
• 1 W output power at the BTS is reserved for a con-
the actual propagation predictions process can start.
nection.
Propagation measurements can be performed to fine-
The link budget in Table 3 is divided into five parts. In tune the propagation prediction model. When the predic-
general information, the frequency band, chip rate, tem- tion model is tuned, the final base station parameters
perature and Boltzman's constant are given. In service can be used to make the propagation predictions.
information, the bit rates and loads for uplink and down- Optimized base station parameters can be evaluated
link are defined. Receiving end and transmitting end when the planning criteria are defined. This planning
define the radio links in the uplink and downlink direc- threshold means that agreement must be reached on the
tions, respectively. Finally, isotropic path loss is defined reasonable QoS level required for the different geograph-

Hot Hot
Spot Spot

a) Lower coverage and capacity (inefficient design)

Hot Spot Hot Spot

b) Higher coverage and capacity (optimum design)

Figure 4. Correct UMTS Base Station Placement Impacts System Capacity

December 2002 • Volume 1, Number 1 5


Table 3. Typical Link Budget for WCDMA Cell

General Information Units Value


Frequency MHz 2100
Chip rate Mcps 3.84
Temperature K 293
Boltzman's constant J/K 1.38E-23

Service Information Units Urban


Uplink Downlink
Load % 30 50
Bit rate Kbps 64.0 144.0

Receiving End Units Uplink Downlink


Thermal noise density dBm/Hz -173.93 -173.93
Receiver noise figure dB 3.00 6.00
Receiver noise density dBm/Hz -170.93 -167.93
Noise power dBm -105.09 -102.09
Interference margin dB 1.55 3.01
Receiver interference power dBm -108.77 -102.09
Total noise (thermal + interference) dBm -103.54 -99.08
Processing gain dB 17.78 14.26
Required Eb/No dB 5.00 4.00
Receiver sensitivity dBm -116.32 -109.34
RX antenna gain dBi 18.00 0.00
Cable loss dB 4.00 0.00
LNA gain dB 0.00 0.00
Antenna diversity gain dB 0.00 0.00
Soft handover diversity gain dB 3.00 3.00
Power control headroom dB 0.00 0.00
Required signal power dBm -133.32 -112.34
Field strength dBµV/m 10.32 31.31
Z = 77.2 + 20*log(freq[MHz])

Transmitting End Units Uplink Downlink


TX power per connection W 0.126 1.00
TX power dBm 21.00 30.00
Cable loss dB 0.00 4.00
TX antenna gain dBi 0.00 18.00
Peak EIRP dBm 21.00 44.00
Isotropic path loss dB 154.32 156.34

ical locations. The threshold also depends on whether possible to have any type of service between the voice
the service has to be extended inside vehicles and build- calls and 2 Mbps data traffic in the WCDMA base station.
ings in different areas. The planning threshold is defined This means that the base station coverage area is differ-
in GSM by starting from the mobile station sensitivity (for ent for different users. (See Figure 5.) Basically, the ques-
the forward link) and by adding the required clutter plan- tion is about the spreading factor, SPF, which varies sig-
ning margins to the sensitivity value in each particular nificantly when comparing the 12.2 kbps voice call
planning terrain bin. (SPF = 25 dB) and 2 Mbps data transmission (PG = 2.8 dB)
connections.
Capacity Planning In the uplink direction, the main objective in capacity
WCDMA capacity planning is directly related to the link planning is to limit interference from the other cells to an
budget and, thus, to the base station coverage area. In acceptable level. Network planning can increase the
the link budget in Table 3, only one type of service uplink load by reducing other cell interference. This can
(64/144 kbps data transmission) was introduced, and be achieved by using buildings, hills, etc., as obstacles to
the base station coverage was fixed for this service. It is block the interfering cells. Also, down-tilting is a very use-

6 Bechtel Telecommunications Technical Journal


ful tool in limiting interference. In the downlink direction, • Which carrier(s) is used for macro cells?
two aspects should be considered: the interference from • Which carrier(s) is used for micro cells?
other cells and the power of the base station. The load • Is any carrier(s) reserved for indoor solutions?
equation for the downlink is similar to the equation for
When making these decisions, the interference
the uplink. However, in the downlink there is a new
aspects should be considered. Carrier selection may
parameter called orthogonality. Orthogonality is a meas-
affect intra-operator and inter-operator interference. For
ure of how much the users in the same cell do not inter-
example, micro cells can cause high local interference for
fere with each other. In the downlink, users are much
the operator's macro cells or another operator's macro or
more orthogonal compared with uplink, because the
micro cells. Many potential problems can be solved by
base station is transmitting to all the mobiles with very
proper network planning, and one of the techniques for
accurate timing of the spreading codes.
solving these problems is to properly select the frequencies.
WCDMA Code and Frequency Planning
In WCDMA, code and frequency planning are simple
WCDMA OPTIMIZATION AND MONITORING
tasks from a network planning point of view. The system

T
takes care of most of the code allocation. The main task he WCDMA system, like the GSM system, needs con-
for network planning is the allocation of scrambling tinuous optimization and monitoring because the
codes for the downlink (Ref. 4). There are 512 sets of mobile users' locations and traffic behavior vary con-
scrambling codes available, so the code reuse for down- stantly. This monitoring requirement is emphasized in
link is 512. This means that code allocation is a relative- WCDMA, as in all CDMA systems, because the traffic
ly simple task, even though code capacity does differ for demand can vary widely and this variation directly influ-
every user demand type. With more bandwidth user ences the radio network quality. The better and more
requests, a higher-level scrambling code is needed from accurately the traffic amount and locations can be mod-
the hierarchy of codes, and more code resources are eled, the better and more efficiently (cost, quality, etc.)
drawn on. the radio network can be designed and implemented.
It is recommended that the allocation be done with the The indicators that should be optimized and moni-
help of a planning system to avoid the possibility for an tored are, for example:
error in the manual allocation. The number of codes used
in the early stages should be limited to allow for easier • Traffic
expansion of the network. • Traffic deviation
Frequency planning has minor importance compared • Traffic mixture
with GSM. At most, UMTS operators have two or three • Soft handover percentage
carriers, so there is not much to plan. However, the oper- • Average TX power
ators have to make a few decisions: • Average RX power
• Drop calls

100

90
Relative Cell Range/Area (percent)

80

70

60 Relativ e Cell Range


Relativ e Cell Area
50

40

30

20

10

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Bit Rate [Kbps]

Figure 5. Relative Cell Range and Cell Area versus User Bit Rate Using WCDMA
(Cell ranges calculated by using Okumura-Hata propagation formula [Ref. 3] and antenna height of 25 meters)

December 2002 • Volume 1, Number 1 7


Sector C

Sector A Sector A
Sector C
Sector B

Sector B

a) Unbalanced load b) Balanced load using smart antenna

Figure 6. Balancing Traffic Load and Boosting Capacity Using Smart Antenna

• Interference with two or more cells or sectors at any given time, as in


• Handovers per cell areas A and B in Figure 7, soft/softer handoff implies a
• Inter-system handovers significant cost in capacity. After measuring the pilot
• Throughput strength in the area, the size of handoff zones within the
• Bit error rate and frame error rate cell footprint should be decreased. Handoff zones should
be shifted from high-traffic areas to low-traffic areas.
Many of the listed indicators should be collected on a
Interference directly limits capacity of CDMA cell sites.
cell and service basis, because the data may give hints
One of the biggest interference problems in WCDMA net-
on how to optimize the parameters to enhance the per-
works is pilot pollution. Pilot pollution is often caused due
formance of the network. A detailed discussion of the
to high-elevation sites with RF coverage footprints much
WCDMA system is out of the scope of this paper.
larger than normal. The solution is to reduce the size of
However, three particularly important optimization chal-
the coverage footprint. This can be accomplished by
lenges for WCDMA cell sites are examined: traffic load
reducing the elevation of offending antennas, introducing
balancing, handoff overhead management, and interfer-
downtilt, or reducing the transmitted power.
ence control.
The fundamental problem of traffic loading is that cel-
lular traffic is distributed unevenly among different geo-
graphical areas of the network. In fact, even within cells
traffic tends to be distributed unevenly among the sec-
tors. Such imbalance has the effect of locking up network
capacity in underutilized sectors while causing blocking
problems in the most heavily used sectors. Balancing the A
traffic load among the sectors of a cell alleviates the
blocking and creates headroom for traffic growth. And by
creating headroom at network hot spots, a targeted traf-
fic load-balancing strategy allows more traffic growth and
more efficient use of infrastructure and spectrum across
the entire network.
One way of achieving load balancing is to modify the B
antenna orientation and angular beamwidth of each sec-
tor to unify the traffic. This is possible using smart array
antennas, as shown in Figure 6.
Another aspect of WCDMA optimization that directly
affects cell site capacity is the management of handoff
overhead. The soft/softer handoff feature of the CDMA Figure 7.
air interface improves the quality and reliability of CDMA Example of Inefficient Design, Where a Large Area is
calls. However, because a given mobile may be in contact Covered by Soft/Softer Handoff

8 Bechtel Telecommunications Technical Journal


Table 4. UMTS Radio Interface System Planning and Optimization

Subject Finding
WCDMA radio propagation channel • Channel delay spread is larger than chip duration; therefore,
channel is wideband (frequency selective fading).
• Rake receiver takes into account multipath.
WCDMA coverage and • Coverage and capacity planning are related.
capacity planning process
• Code planning is unique to WCDMA systems, while channel
planning is unique to GSM.
• Traffic information and forecasting are necessary in coverage planning.
WCDMA link budget • Planning covers the same basics as GSM, but uses different parameters.
The WCDMA link budget depends on changes in bit rate and
spreading factor.
Capacity planning • Service depends on the distance from base station.
Frequency planning • A simple process: The same frequency can be used for all the cells.
Code planning • Allocation of scrambling codes is required for downlink.
Optimization and monitoring • These factors are of greater importance than with GSM.

CONCLUSIONS BIOGRAPHY

T he UMTS radio interface system planning has the


same basic philosophy as GSM but varies in the detail
mainly because of two reasons: the change of radio
As a senior RF engi-
neer with Bechtel Tele-
communications,
propagation channel that is a wideband type, and the Esmael Dinan has been
change of modulation and transmission mechanism that instrumental in many
is DS-CDMA. The major subjects and findings are again aspects of the AWS
gathered in Table 4 to summarize the major challenges Liberty RF engineering
concerning radio interface system planning in UMTS. project and Bechtel GBU
(Global Business Unit)
REFERENCES research activities. His
activities include design
1. T. Ojanpera and R. Prasad, "An Overview of Air Interface of the RF engineering
Multiple Access for IMT-2000/UMTS," IEEE Esmael Dinan data management sys-
Communications Magazine, September 1998, pp 82-95. tem, development of the
2. European Telecommunications Standards Institute, Liberty project RF engineering processes and proce-
GPRS, GSM, EDGE, and UMTS Standard Documents, dures, Star21 Network auditing, and Dupont Cryogenic
(http://www.etsi.org/getastandard/home.htm). TMA performance verification and testing.
3. M. Hata, "Empirical Formula for Propagation Loss in Before joining Bechtel, Esmael was product manager
Land Mobile Radio Services," IEEE Transactions on for GMPLS control plane of the RAYStar DWDM optical
Vehicular Technology, Vol VT-29, No. 3, August 1980, pp switch at Movaz Networks, and lead network architect at
317-325. Worldcom.
4. E. Dinan and B. Jabbari, "Spreading Codes in Direct Esmael has conducted research on access methods
Sequence CDMA and Wideband CDMA," IEEE and performance modeling of 3G wireless communica-
Communications Magazine, September 1998, pp 48-54. tions and high-speed optical networks. He has authored
5. T. Ojanpera and R. Prasad, WCDMA: Towards IP more than 20 conference papers and journal articles and
Mobility and Mobile Internet, Artech House has filed a patent on a novel signaling mechanism devel-
Publishers, 2000. oped for 3G cellular networks.
Esmael received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering
from George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

December 2002 • Volume 1, Number 1 9


Aleksey Kurochkin is
currently director, Wire-
less Planning, in the
Bechtel Telecommunica-
tions Technology group,
a group that he originat-
ed. Aleksey has experi-
ence in international
te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s
business management
and network implemen-
tation. Between engi-
Aleksey Kurochkin neering and marketing
positions, he has both
theoretical and hands-on experience with most wireless
technologies. Aleksey came to Bechtel from Hughes
Network Systems, where he built an efficient multi-product
team focused on RF planning and system engineering.
Aleksey is an electrical engineer, specializing in
telecommunications and information systems, with an
MSEE/CS degree from Moscow Technology University.

Sam Kettani is a sen-


ior RF engineer at
Bechtel Telecommuni-
cations. Currently, he is
responsible for network
design of mobile and
fixed wireless networks.
He has hands-on experi-
ence with wireless tech-
nologies and applica-
tions such as PCS and
TDMA/CDMA and network
Sam Kettani performance analysis,
microwave design, and
engineering of fixed wireless networks using PTP (point-
to-point) and PMP (point-to-multipoint) technologies. In
previous positions, he was responsible for network plan-
ning and integration of various systems. Sam was also
responsible for guidelines and processes, coordinating
and managing numerous projects.
Sam has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical
Engineering in Telecommunications from George Mason
University.

10 Bechtel Telecommunications Technical Journal

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