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Neighbor Management Tool
Neighbor Management Tool
2006-01-31
Introduction
Good neighbor and cell parameter management is crucial for the network quality of any cellular network. With the introduction of CDMA technology in the 3G networks, neighbor management becomes even more crucial. Missing neighbor definitions no longer means the risk of dropping the current call, but will introduce massive interference to other connections as well, resulting in decreased quality and/or lost connections for multiple users. At the same time network rollout speed is faster than ever before, with tens of sites being put on air every week, each being rescheduled for lack of building permissions, delays in electricity or transmission. Site integration order is subject to constant change, meaning need for re-planning of neighbor relations is constant. With the size of the current network rollout, responsibilities are split over a multitude of different people. While this probably is good for the rollout speed, it is disastrous for neighbor planning, since this easily falls between chairs. As if this was not enough, 3G networks are built by consortiums in different forms. This means neighbor relations must be managed not only within one 3G network, but also between partner networks, and even to roaming partners 2G networks. To facilitate management of neighbor relations, Canaima introduces its neighbor and cell parameter management concept.
Key Benefits
an automatic algorithm that produces useful neighbor relations which does not need immediate manual corrections and additions o based on signal strength predictions o unlimited area size o unlimited number of sites Prioritization of neighbor relations Deletion redundant neighbors Compares generated neighbors with actual, deletes redundant Automatic operation on scheduled basis User GGUI (GeoGraphic User Interface) for visualization and manual edits Scrambling code conflict visualization Scrambling code planner Interfaces to popular radio planning tools, such as Planet, Aircom Asset, Nokia NetAct and Ericsson EET Proven NMC interfaces via XML files (Nokia NetAct, Ericsson RANOS) Text file interface for bulk manual updates or interface to other system Full change history in database, i.e. who did what change when High performance multi-user database (SQL server or Oracle) 1 (18)
System Overview
Radio Planning Tool NMT Service NMC Cellular Network
GIS
Database
The Neighbor Management Tool consist of two applications; a client program installed on each radio planners pc where neighbor relations are visualized and manually edited, and a server program on a central server where scheduled calculations and import / exports are handled. The server program can be installed on the central database server, or on a standalone machine in high performance configurations
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12 Calc
Import Site Data Rehosting Site Integra tion Import NW dump Manual Edits Import Predict ions Neighb ors Import NW dump
On-site Edits in NW
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Manual Edits
Import NW dump Manual Edits Export Delta Import NW dump Manual Edits
6 Other jobs can also be scheduled such as regular import and export of data from other sources, automatic reports sent to subscribers by e-mail, consistency checks, e-mail logging. In the picture above a fresh NMC dump is imported into NMT in the morning. When the radioplanners arrive at work they can examine what the network looks like and manually add or delete neighbors. NMT also shows the suggested new neighbors calculated during the night. A radioplanner might be on the road measuring cells and neighbors and directly make some changes in the network on-site. These changes will appear in NMT after a new NMC dump is imported shortly after. Late in the afternoon all manual and automatic edits are loaded into the network by exporting a delta between the current state of the planned network and a fresh import of a NMC dump. Consistency checks are run to validate the data before exporting.
PLANNED NETWORK
ACTUAL NETWORK
FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION
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PLANNED NETW0RK
ACTUAL NETW0RK
DELTA
The delta is stored in the database and can be exported to XML files. The export files are sent to the actual network either manually or automatically using e.g. FTP.
External OMCs
It is possible to import a live image from an external network. This is done by defining a system area for the external actual network and importing network dumps
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into this area. The actual import is done in the same way as the actual area is updated from an Ericsson 3GPP or Nokia RAML file.
Normal NW Dump
Network Areas
In NMT network changes are done using areas. There are two reserved system areas called PLANNED and ACTUAL. The actual area shows what the actual network looks like at a certain time. The actual area is built from a network dump from the NMC which is imported into NMT. The network dump is an XML file generated by RANOS, OSS-RC or NetAct. The planned area shows what the network will look like in a near future. All approved planned changes are stored in the planned area.
PLANNED
AREA
ACTUAL AREA
INHERITANCE
INHERITANCE
REHOSTING SUBAREA
TEST SUBAREA
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A system area cannot be edited directly. Instead a subarea is created which inherits from the system area or from another area which already inherits from a system area. Subareas are often used to prepare future changes in the network. When the changes in the subarea have been verified and approved they are committed into its parent area which contains the planned network. Before commit is completed consistency checks can be run to validate the subarea. Example: A new site has been created and neighbors must be defined. A subarea is created which inherits from the planned area. All incoming and outgoing neighbor relations for the site are created. A number of consistency checks are run before the changes are committed into the parent area (planned). Some of the checks ensure that there are no scrambling code conflicts. The subarea is committed and the planned network is updated with the new neighbors. It is also possible to create a subarea to the actual network (area) and make some quick parameter changes which are later sent to the NMC for implementation. Example: A radio planner wants to test a new parameter configuration for a certain cell. The radio planner creates a subarea which inherits from the actual area. All parameter values are changed in the subarea for the specific cell according to the new parameter configuration. In order to load the changes into the live network the changed subarea is exported and saved as a 3GPP file which is imported into OSSRC.
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Workflow
1. Sites are defined in a radio planning tool 2. NMT imports site data from the radio planning tool automatically 3. (optional) NMT calculates neighbors automatically 4. Neighbors are edited manually in a Geographical User Interface 5. Radio parameters are configured manually and/or automatically 6. NMT imports NMC XML dump files automatically 7. NMT generates a delta between planned and actual network automatically 8. NMT runs consistency checks automatically 9. NMT exports delta files to the NMC automatically 10. NMT imports NMC XML dump files automatically 11. The implemented changes can be examined in a Geographical User Interface
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Neighbors can be visualized by color coding sector symbols or circle representing cell, line connecting source and target cells or by color coding service area of source and neighbor cells.
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Network Statistics
NMTGIS incorporates a very flexible query module that allows cells and neighbor relations to be associated with data from virtually any database. Typically this would be used to display and analyze network performance statistics, but can also be used to plug in data from network planning tools, rollout tools, equipment inventory database, alarm handling system, problem ticketing systems or even NMTs own database.
Cell Statistics
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Prioritisation
Early implementations of 3G networks have limitations to the number of neighbor relations they can handle. In case of 2G-3G handovers, or handovers between partnering networks, the number of desirable neighbor relations quickly increase to the maximum limit of what the system support. During Soft Handover in 3G networks, the neighbor list sent to the mobile is a compilation of the neighbor definitions of each of the source cells. Exactly how the compilation is put together is vendor specific, but at least in some instances the priority of each neighbor definition is used. All this raises a need for ranking of neighbor relations. The Canaima algorithm automatically calculates a ranking value, and prioritises the neighbors accordingly. Co-Site neighbors are always given the highest ranking value are ranked. Calculated neighbors are given a ranking value based on delta and absolute signal, resulting in cells with similar signal strength at high absolute power (small cells typically in city environment) will be given higher priority than larger delta signal and lower absolute signal strength (fringe coverage).
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System Requirement
The system runs on a PC platform using a workstation or server version of Windows and SQL Server.
Product Roadmap
Further development of the Neighbor Management Tool concept is planned. Feature Inter frequency handover algorithm Availability Spring 2006
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