Nominal Planning for UMTS

Nominal Planning for UMTS

Commercial-in-Confidence

Nominal Planning for UMTS

Contents

The site rollout process

The nominal plan
Using the nominal plan

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Session Aims

This session answers the following questions:

!

What is a nominal plan?

How does the nominal plan fit into the network rollout process?

How is a nominal plan created?

How is a nominal plan used?

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What is a nominal plan?

A nominal plan is initially a

hypothetical wireless network.

The nominal plan is the

starting point for the cell rollout
process and will evolve into
the final network design.

As physical sites are identified

and acquired, the nominal plan
is amended.

Nominal Plan
Rollout
process

Final
Network
Design

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Simplified Network Planning Flowchart

Initial network dimensioning
Create nominal plan
Define search areas
Identify site options
Site selection
Site acquisition
Detailed site design
Site construction

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Initial Network Dimensioning

Spreadsheet based analysis.
Used in the license application.
Identifies the approximate
number of sites required.

Identifies the approximate site

radii required for:

Typical cell radii estimates

Voice
64 kb/s
384 kb/s

Urban
1.8 km
1.6 km
1.4 km

Suburban
3.1 km
2.7 km
2.4 km

Rural
4.0 km
3.5 km
3.2 km

Service supported

Urban/Suburban/Rural areas

Maximum range to support all services

Voice/Data services

Service not supported in this environment

Used as a major input to the

nominal plan.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Create Nominal Plan

Position a hexagonal grid of
sites over the desired coverage
area.

The radius of each hexagon can

be determined from the
previous slide.

The capacity of the network can

then be analyzed to detect:
!
!

Hot spots that require cell splits.

Under used cells that could be
removed from the plan.

Example nominal plan for Jersey

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Define Search Areas

The sites in a nominal plan are only imaginary.

To become a real network, physical sites are required.
A suitable physical site must be found for each nominal site.
A suitable physical site must amongst other things:
!

Give adequate radio coverage.

Have connectivity into the transmission network.

Be aesthetically and politically acceptable to the local community.

Have power nearby, good access and a co-operative owner.

A survey of each nominal site is normally carried out to identify

possible site options which meet the above criteria.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Define Search Areas

Guidelines have to be given to the surveyor so the options give
appropriate radio coverage.

The guideline is given in the form of a search area. Could be:

!

Radius from the nominal site.

One or more polygons following height contours.

Or

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Identify Site Options

Surveyor visits each search area and identifies potential site options.
The first sites to be considered should be
!

Existing radio sites.

Sites offered from major site owners (MSO) E.g. Utilities & Railways.

All options should meet certain criteria to ensure that they are
!

Technically acceptable.

Buildable

A good idea to consult with the planning/zoning authority during the

survey.

Good training of surveyors will save time later in the build process.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Identify Site Options

The surveyor will prepare a
report listing the options.

Report will include:

!
!

!
!

Accurate grid reference.

Accurate height of structures
or available antenna windows.
Photographs of the site.

D
C

360 panoramic photos from

site or if obstructed from
nearby location/structure.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Site Selection
Normally a desk study.
Evaluate radio coverage and
transmission.
!

Quickly eliminate unsuitable

options.
Rank the remaining sites in
order of preference.

Nominate a preferred option

A3rd
D1st
C2nd

B - Unsuitable

and possibly a backup option.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Site Acquisition

Run more than one site simultaneously.

Negotiate with site owners.
Prepare drawings.
Draw up leases.
Apply for planning permissions.
Apply for power wayleaves.
As soon as one option is ready to proceed
!

Sign the lease

Abandon the alternative

Enter site into building program.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Detailed Site Design

Prior to commencement of

300

construction work, a detailed

site design is required.

Includes
!

!
!

Antenna and feeder

requirements.
Antenna azimuths and tilts.
Equipment capacity
requirements

Cant be completed in isolation.

Ant 6

60
Ant 1

300

60

Ant 5

Ant 2
Ant 4
180

Ant 3
180

Must take into account other

sites.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Creating a Nominal Plan

At the start of the cell rollout program, the nominal plan is

only a rough outline of the network.

Static calculations will give adequate results at this stage.

It is more appropriate to analyze the nominal plan with

ASSET rather than 3G at this stage.

Static simulations could be used, but the time taken to

analyze the entire network would be prohibitive.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Setting up ASSET for Nominal Planning

Create a UMTS
propagation model
Import suitable antenna
patterns
Create UMTS cell layer
Create UMTS site
templates

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Create a UMTS Propagation Model

In a real network rollout one of
the first tasks of the radio
engineers would be to calibrate
a UMTS propagation model.

For the purposes of the

following sections we will
assume that this has been
completed.

Parameter
Model Type
Frequency
Mobile Rx Height
Effective Earth Radius
K1
K2
K3
K4
K5
K6
K7
Eff. Ant. Height
Diffraction
Merge knife edges

Setting
Standard Macrocell
2.2
1.5
8491
143
42
-2.55
0
-13.82
-6.55
0.8
Relative
Bullington
0

Clutter Type
Unclassified
Urban
Suburban Residential
Village
Isolated Dwellings
Open Rural
Woodland Forest
Park Recreational
Industry
Water
Airport
Open in urban
Agricultural land
Pylons
Sea
Rivers

Offset
0
10
5
3
2
1
7
2
5
0
1
5
1
1
0
0

Set up a propagation model with

the parameters described here.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Import Antenna Pattern

Import the antenna patterns
supplied by the manufacturers.

For the purpose of this exercise

several antenna patterns have
been supplied.
!

An Omni

An 85 Sector

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Create Coverage Schema & Cell Layer

The only parameters that are
necessary to set on the cell layer
are the signal thresholds and the
coverage schema.

These are derived from the link

budgets used in the network
dimensioning.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Create Site Templates

Create default nominal sites
!

either an omni site.

and/or a sector site.

3 sector parameters listed here.

Level
Site
Cell
Cell
Cell
Cell
Cell
UMTS cell layer
#1
#2

Tab
General
General
Cell Config
Cell Config
Cell Config
Cell Config
Antenna/TRX

Field
Hex Radius
Model
Antenna
Downtilt
Height
Azimuth
PA output

Setting
#1
UMTS
85 XP
4
20
#2
33

Will depend on area type eg

Urban/Suburban/Rural
Typically either 0, 120, 240
or 60, 180, 300.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Creating a Nominal Plan

From the link budgets, identify
the cell radius for each
environment to be planned.

Create a UMTS site template

For each environment, position
a hexagonal grid of sites with
the appropriate cell radii over
the target coverage area.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Locating Urban Nominal Sites

Define mid hexagon radius as
1400m and select in the site
template.

Position a grid of sufficient sites

to cover the urban areas.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Locating Rural Nominal Sites

Define mid hexagon radius as
4000m and select in the site
template.

Position a grid of sufficient sites

to cover the rural areas.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Evaluate Nominal Network Coverage

Run a coverage array for the
nominal network.

Check that the coverage is in

line with your expectations.
!

The coverage will never exactly

match your hexagon radii.
If coverage is significantly better
or worse than anticipated
review cell radius calculations
and hexagon radii.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Evaluate Nominal Network Capacity

Create a traffic raster for each
service.
!

Create a terminal type for each

service.
Spread traffic for each terminal
type to simulate users.

Analyze how much traffic each

cell will pick up (capture).

Create Traffic Raster

Capture Traffic

Evaluate Each Cells

Required Capacity

Evaluate if each cell has

sufficient capacity.

Re-Engineer
Network (if required)

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Create Terminal Types

Create a circuit switched
terminal type for each service.

Allocate traffic to simulate

users.
!
!

Voice = 200 Erlangs

384 kb/s = 100 Erlangs
(simulating 100 terminals)

Clutter Type
Unclassified
Urban
Suburban Residential
Village
Isolated Dwellings
Open Rural
Woodland Forest
Park Recreational
Industry
Water
Airport
Open in urban
Agricultural land
Pylons
Sea
Rivers

Weight
0
500
20
10
1
1
2
5
10
0
5
30
1
1
0
0

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Spread Voice Traffic

Spread the traffic on the voice
terminal type over the island.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Create Coverage Array (Voice)

Set the minimum service level
in the Array Settings window
to match the minimum
threshold for speech services.
!

i.e. -114dBm

Create coverage array as

usual.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Analyze Voice Traffic

Use the traffic analysis tool to
estimate the voice traffic per
cell.

Cell:
CS Traffic(E)
Site0A:
1.27874
Site0B:
18.989
Site0C:
2.64128
Site1A:
18.1042
Site1B:
0.099755
Site1C:
1.71587
Site2A:
2.13376
Site2B:
1.58312
Site2C:
105.062
Site3A:
11.8475
Site3B:
2.43671
Site3C:
12.1231
Site4A:
2.06883
Site4B:
1.76368
Site4C:
1.87409
Site5A:
1.58884
Site5B:
3.31571
Site5C:
3.13637
Site6A:
1.81907
Site6B:
3.5485

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Spread Data Traffic

Spread the traffic on the data
terminal type over the island.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Create Coverage Array (Data)

Set the minimum service level
in the Array Settings window
to match the minimum
threshold for data services.
!

i.e. -96dBm

Create coverage array as

usual.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Analyze Data Traffic

Use the traffic analysis tool to
estimate the voice traffic per
cell.

Cell:
Site0A:
Site0B:
Site0C:
Site1A:
Site1B:
Site1C:
Site2A:
Site2B:
Site2C:
Site3A:
Site3B:
Site3C:
Site4A:
Site4B:
Site4C:
Site5A:
Site5B:
Site5C:
Site6A:
Site6B:
Site6C:

Packet users
0.617848
9.13428
1.23677
9.05208
0.0498775
0.769083
0.732088
0.687448
52.4403
5.71852
0.963885
5.90523
0.496473
0.396895
0.889275
0.337783
0.733785
0.781533
0.754625
1.74732
1.42162

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Evaluating Traffic Requirements (1)

Load

Spare capacity for which

can be allocated to non
real time applications

Peak
traffic
Average circuit
switched traffic

Real time non-controllable load

Time

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Evaluating Traffic Requirements (2)

To evaluate the cell capacity
!

First assume that the packet data can be scheduled to fill the spare real
time capacity.
When all the spare real time capacity has been exhausted we must
convert the remaining capacity to 12.2kb/s voice equivalent circuits.
It is now possible to estimate whether the cells capacity has been
exceeded.

Assume that a cell with a capacity of 60 12.2kb/s voice circuits

captures:
!

1.58 Erlangs of voice traffic.

0.69 384kb/s data users.

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Evaluating Traffic Requirements (3)

Captured circuit
switched Traffic
= 1.58 Erlangs

Average capacity available for packet data

Erlang B Formula
(2% GOS)

5 circuits
required

= 5 - 1.58 = 3.42 Erlangs

or 3.42 x 12.2 = 41.69 kb/s
Offered packet data

5 Erlangs
3.42 Erlangs
1.58
Erlangs

= 0.69 x 384 = 263.98 kb/s

Extra capacity required for packet data
= 263.98 - 41.69 = 222.29 kb/s
or 222.29 = 19 voice equivalent circuits
12.2
Total voice equivalent circuits required
= 5 + 19 = 24

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Nominal Planning for UMTS

Evaluating Traffic Requirements (4)

Voice
(erlangs
offered)

Site0A:
Site0B:
Site0C:
Site1A:
Site1B:
Site1C:
Site2A:
Site2B:
Site2C:
Site3A:
Site3B:
Site3C:
Site4A:
Site4B:
Site4C:
Site5A:
Site5B:
Site5C:
Site6A:
Site6B:
Site6C:

1.27874
18.989
2.64128
18.1042
0.099755
1.71587
2.13376
1.58312
105.062
11.8475
2.43671
12.1231
2.06883
1.76368
1.87409
1.58884
3.31571
3.13637
1.81907
3.5485
2.84358

Extra
Extra
Voice
Total
voice
Data rate No of 384 Data rate
capacity
equivalent
voice
equivalent
required
kb/s
available
Voice
required
circuits
circuits equivalent
for packet packet for packet
(circuits
for packet
available
circuits
required
data
data
data
required)
data
for packet
for packet required
(kb/s)
users
(kb/s)
(kb/s)
data
data
5
3.72
45.40
0.62
237.25
191.85
16
21
27
8.01
97.73
9.13
3507.56 3409.83
280
307
7
4.36
53.18
1.24
474.92
421.74
35
42
26
7.90
96.33
9.05
3476.00 3379.67
278
304
2
1.90
23.18
0.05
19.15
0.00
0
2
6
4.28
52.27
0.77
295.33
243.06
20
26
6
3.87
47.17
0.73
281.12
233.95
20
26
5
3.42
41.69
0.69
263.98
222.29
19
24
118
12.94
157.84
52.44
20137.08 19979.23
1638
1756
19
7.15
87.26
5.72
2195.91 2108.65
173
192
7
4.56
55.67
0.96
370.13
314.46
26
33
19
6.88
83.90
5.91
2267.61 2183.71
179
198
6
3.93
47.96
0.50
190.65
142.69
12
18
6
4.24
51.68
0.40
152.41
100.72
9
15
6
4.13
50.34
0.89
341.48
291.15
24
30
5
3.41
41.62
0.34
129.71
88.09
8
13
8
4.68
57.15
0.73
281.77
224.63
19
27
8
4.86
59.34
0.78
300.11
240.77
20
28
6
4.18
51.01
0.75
289.78
238.77
20
26
8
4.45
54.31
1.75
670.97
616.66
51
59
7
4.16
50.71
1.42
545.90
495.19
41
48

OVERLOAD
STATUS

OK
OVERLOAD
OK
OVERLOAD
OK
OK
OK
OK
OVERLOAD
OVERLOAD
OK
OVERLOAD
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK

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Evaluating Traffic Requirements (5)

From the previous slide

!

Five cells are predicted as being overloaded.

One cell if close to being overloaded.

All six cells need to be split for zero congestion.

!

Any congested omni sites should be sectored.

Sectored sites need to be offloaded onto new cells.

After modifying the nominal plan, repeat the capacity

analysis to ensure that the network is properly
dimensioned.

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