ILSA User Reference Guide

ILSA
User Reference Guide
Software Version 7.0

Reference Guide Edition 1
Copyright 2010 AIRCOM International

All rights reserved
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warranty or representation, either expressed or implied, about this documentation, its
quality or fitness for particular customer purpose. Users are solely responsible for the
proper use of ENTERPRISE software and the application of the results obtained.
An electronic version of this document exists.
This User Reference Guide finalised on 13 September 2010.
Refer to the Online Help for more information.
This User Reference Guide prepared by:
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Support Hotline:
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About This Manual

Change History
This table shows the change history (if any) of this guide:
Edition
Date
Reason
13 September 2010
First Official Publish.
Explanation of Symbols
Throughout this guide, where appropriate, some symbols are used to highlight
particular pieces of text. Three different symbols are in use, and are explained as
follows:
Symbol
Brief Description
Full Description
Note
Signifies text that should be noted or carefully considered.
Tip
Signifies text that may help you do something in an easier or quicker

way.
Warning or Important
Signifies text that is intended as a warning or something important.
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction to ILSA
Obtaining User Assistance ................................................................................. 9

Who is This User Reference Guide For? ................................................................... 10
About the ENTERPRISE User Reference Guides .................................................... 11
Can You Improve Our User Assistance? ................................................................... 12
Obtaining Support ...................................................................................................... 12
Obtaining Further Information and Services .............................................................. 14
Chapter 2 Automatic Frequency Planning for GSM
15
Automatic Frequency Planning (ILSA) ............................................................. 15

The Cost Function of the ILSA Algorithm .................................................................. 16
How ILSA Works........................................................................................................ 17
The ILSA Process ...................................................................................................... 17
Creating the Prerequisites for a Frequency Plan ...................................................... 19
How ILSA Works with an Existing Frequency Plan ................................................... 24
Initialising the ILSA Frequency Plan .......................................................................... 24
About the ILSA Frequency Planner Dialog Box ........................................................ 26
Creating and Editing a Cost Matrix ............................................................................ 29
Saving a Cost Matrix .................................................................................................. 34
Loading a Cost Matrix ................................................................................................ 34
Setting the Display Options for ILSA ......................................................................... 34
Setting the Planning Options for ILSA ....................................................................... 35
Running ILSA ............................................................................................................. 37
Example of Using ILSA for a Localised Re-plan ....................................................... 39
Reviewing ILSAs Results .......................................................................................... 40
Applying an ILSA Frequency Plan to the Site Database ........................................... 42
Exporting Assignments .............................................................................................. 43
Importing Assignments .............................................................................................. 43
Importing Frequency Plans .............................................................................. 44

Analysing a Frequency Plan ............................................................................ 44
How to Analyse a Frequency Plan ............................................................................ 45
Index
47
ILSA 7.0 User Reference Guide

Contents
Page 7
Page 8

Contents
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to ILSA
ILSA is ASSET's automatic frequency planning tool. It enables you to carry out the
frequency planning of your 2g network, and analyse the resulting plans.
As an optional add-on to ASSET, ILSA is licensed separately.
Obtaining User Assistance

Using Online Help
ENTERPRISE products come with a complete system of online Help which you can
access in three ways:
From the Help menu, click Help Contents. Scroll through the table of contents and
choose a relevant topic to display.
To search for something particular, from the Help menu, click Help Contents and
using the Index tab or Search tab, type in a letter or word to start searching for
relevant topics.
Press F1 in a dialog box to view context-sensitive help (available for most dialog
boxes).
If you are using ENTERPRISE within a CITRIX environment, to ensure that the
Help graphics are displayed, set your display settings to support more than 256
colours.

Page 9
Using ENTERPRISE User Reference Guides

If you prefer to read printed content, we also provide User Reference Guides. To view
or print these as PDFs (Adobe Acrobat portable document format):
1
Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC. If you do not
have this, you can install it from the ENTERPRISE CD, or get it from the Adobe
website.
Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems, Incorporated.
Click Start on the taskbar, point to Programs, then AIRCOM International, then
ENTERPRISE, then Docs.
- or Navigate to the Docs folder in the location where you installed the product.
If neither of these exists, please contact your administrator.
Double-click the PDF file that you want to view.
If you have a customer web account, you can also download the latest User
Reference Guides from our website.
Checking Release Notes
Each release of the ENTERPRISE software is accompanied by Release Notes, giving
important information on system requirements, installation, known issues, upgrades
and so on. These notes are included in the ENTERPRISE CD, or you can download
them from our website.
For any further documentation, such as application notes and extra reference
information, please email the support team at the address described in Obtaining
Support on page 12.
Who is This User Reference Guide For?

The ENTERPRISE User Reference Guides are intended for different audiences,
depending on the particular product. Typical prerequisites include a good
understanding of the following:
The appropriate telecoms technologies and the associated network planning
methods (for planning software)
Relational database management, and in particular Oracle database creation and
administration procedures (for administrative software)
The various parameters utilised for monitoring and optimising networks (for OSS
software)
Irrespective of the particular product, the following basic knowledge is required:
Microsoft Windows concepts
The functions of the Microsoft Office suite of tools, in particular Excel
Page 10

About the ENTERPRISE User Reference Guides

This table describes our range of User Reference Guides:
This Guide
Contains Information On
What's New
The main difference between the latest versions of the ENTERPRISE

suite.
ENTERPRISE Installation and Administration
Installing and configuring ENTERPRISE, your network, and Oracle

databases. Using Administrator to create users and groups, and set
permissions.
Also contains information on software licensing.
ENTERPRISE Database Reference
The relationships between tables in the database and the contents of each
table.
ENTERPRISE User Reference
Functionality that is common to most of the products in the ENTERPRISE

suite, including how to access, view, edit and store data.
ENTERPRISE Technical Reference
File formats, as well as antenna and diffraction calculations.
ASSET ACP User Reference
Using ASSET ACP to plan and optimise networks automatically, consider

measured data in analysis/optimisation, analyse network performance,
identify problematic areas/cells, and related tasks.
ARRAYWIZARD User Reference
Using ARRAYWIZARD to automatically generate pathloss predictions and

best server arrays, which gives you instantaneous display of coverage and
interference information for pre-selected filters when loaded into ASSET.
ASSET User Reference
Using ASSET, the network planning and analysis tool, to design a range of
cellular networks.
Includes information on hierarchical network planning, propagation
modelling, service and bearer definition, coverage analysis, traffic planning,
neighbour planning, measurement data analysis, detailed reporting,
analysis arrays and simulation of network performance.
ASSET Technical Reference
Array descriptions and information on some of the algorithms used in

ASSET.
ASSET ACP User Reference Guide
Using ASSET ACP to plan and optimise networks automatically, designed

as an aid for day-to-day planning.
(Optional add-on to ASSET.)
CONNECT User Reference
Using CONNECT, the network transmission and microwave link planning

software for full network physical link design and logical link design.
Also contains CONNECT-specific reference information.
DATASAFE User Reference
Using DATASAFE, our network configuration tool to implement both small

and large scale changes to networks
DIRECT User Reference
Using DIRECT to design telecommunications networks of different network

layers. Explains how to plan cellular, PSTN and data networks at a both
general and strategic level.
Also contains DIRECT-specific reference information.
Financial Analysis User Reference Guide
Using the Financial Analysis module to evaluate and plan for the revenue
potential of your network.
(Optional add-on to ASSET and ASSET ACP.)
ILSA User Reference Guide
Using ILSA, ASSET's automatic 2g frequency planning tool.
AIRCOM OPTIMA User Reference
Using AIRCOM OPTIMA to view performance data and statistics both with
ENTERPRISE and standalone.
RANOPT User Reference
Using RANOPT to efficiently find faults in your network, optimise and

validate its performance prior to commercial launch.

Page 11
This Guide
Contains Information On
WEBWIZARD User Reference
Using WEBWIZARD to display GIS and report information of network data,

including creating layers, regions, nodes, layer types, administering and
configuring the system and using the GIS view, explorer and report
viewers.
Can You Improve Our User Assistance?

We are always trying to improve the online Help and User Reference Guides.
If you cannot find the Help you were looking for, need more information, or have any
suggestions for improvements, we would be grateful for your feedback.
Also, if you are generally satisfied with these resources, we would appreciate any
positive feedback.
Online Questionnaire
You can help us by completing our brief online questionnaire
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=RIRKLcrdvaCzRnUBNx5tcQ_3d_3d).
Alternatively, you can contact us directly at docs@aircominternational.com.
Obtaining Support
If you have a difficulty you cannot resolve yourself using the online Help or
Reference Guides, or you have found a possible fault in the software, you can log a
support request. You may also wish to contact us if you want to:
Register for a customer web account to access the Support area
Obtain further documentation, such as application notes and extra reference
information
Logging Support Requests Online
To log a support request online:
Page 12
Go to the AIRCOM website, at www.aircominternational.com.
Click the link for Product Support Login.
Log in, using your customer web account username and password.
In the Technical Support pane, click Online Helpdesk.
Click Log New UTS Call.
Type the details of your request, and then click Submit.

Contacting us via Telephone or Email

If you wish to contact us directly, here are the contact details of our regional offices:
Location
Regional Office
Contact Details
Europe
United Kingdom
Tel : +44 1932 442000

Fax :+44 1932 442005
support@aircominternational.com
Middle East, Africa and Central Asia
Belgium
support@aircominternational.be
France
support@aircominternational.fr
Germany
support@aircominternational.de
Italy
support@aircominternational.it
Sweden
support@aircominternational.se
United Arab Emirates
Tel : +971 4 391 2642

Fax :+971 4 391 8141
support@aircominternational.ae
South Africa
Tel : +27 11 745 1475

Fax : +27 11 465 1517
support@aircominternational.com
Americas
Mexico
support@aircominternational.com.mx
USA
Tel : +1 214 576 2700

Fax : +1 214 576 2794
support@aircominternational.us
Asia and Oceania
Brazil
support@aircominternational.com.br
Singapore
Tel: +65 6372 0548

Fax: +65 6372 0350
supportsg@aircominternational.com
China
Tel: +86 2162792779

Fax: +86 2162792855
supportsg@aircominternational.com
India
Tel: +91 124 4848200

Fax: +91 124 4517878
supportindia@aircominternational.com
When contacting us with a support query, it would help us if you:

Give us as much information as possible about the problem and the context in
which it occurred
State the version and build you are using
Have all the details of your query to hand
Are logged into the ENTERPRISE application
Can send extracts of your data sets if we need them to reproduce your problem

Page 13
Obtaining Further Information and Services

As well as comprehensive online Help and User Reference Guides and dedicated
Product Support, AIRCOM provides:
Online Knowledgebase of Articles
If you register for a customer web account, you can view our searchable technical
database in the Product Support section of the AIRCOM website. This
Knowledgebase contains articles created by our support professionals who have
resolved issues for our customers, and is constantly updated, expanded, and refined
to ensure that you have access to the very latest information and frequently asked
questions.
Power Tools
If you register for a customer web account, you can download from a selection of
useful power tools, such as file conversion utilities.
Latest Copies of the User Reference Guides
If you register for a customer web account, you can download the latest User
Reference Guides (PDFs) from our website. If you do this, please check the back of the
reference guides for any additions or corrections.
Consultancy Services
AIRCOM also provide full radio consultancy services in Network Audits, Business
Planning Support, Licence Applications, Radio Network Planning,
Telecommunications Research and System Modelling and Propagation Analysis and
Modelling.
Training
There is a wide variety of courses run by AIRCOM. These courses range from tool
training to technology training. For details, contact Competence Development
Solutions (training@aircominternational.com).
Page 14

CHAPTER 2
Automatic Frequency
Planning for GSM
ILSA is ASSET's automatic frequency planning tool. It enables you to carry out the
frequency planning of your 2g network, and analyse the resulting plans.
In addition to GSM, ILSA can be used with AMPS, TDMA, PMR, TETRA or iDEN.
As an optional add-on to ASSET, ILSA is licensed separately.
Automatic Frequency Planning (ILSA)

ILSA (Intelligent Local Search Algorithm) is ASSET's frequency planning tool. Using
an advanced heuristic algorithm, incorporating the latest techniques in combinatorial
mathematics, ILSA searches for improvements based on user-specified criteria, and
greatly speeds up the frequency planning process.
Search algorithms specialise in looking for solutions to problems that have too many
possible solutions to allow a simple solution. Advanced heuristic search algorithms
use the algorithmic equivalent of taking the path that looks like the best one. These
algorithms use a 'cost' function to determine the most desirable next state, which
typically will be the state with the lowest cost.
ILSA initialises with a random frequency plan (unless the option is chosen to load the
current plan from the database). This means that for any two runs of ILSA, the results
may not be the same. Moreover, certain starting frequency plans can allow ILSA to
make either more rapid initial improvement or allow a much better plan to be found
within a reasonable period of time.
ILSA (as its 'Local Search' name implies) reduces the number of options it has for new
states derived from a current state. ILSA can give special attention to areas of high
cost within the network (analogous to areas of high interference), temporarily
ignoring lower cost areas. This allows ILSA to make very rapid initial progress. For
example, if ILSA is attempting to plan for a network requiring 60 carrier allocations,
with 20 available carriers, and identifies a subset of 10 high cost carrier allocations,
then the maximum number of new states that ILSA needs to consider has been
reduced from 3.8*1025 to 6.1*1012.

Automatic Frequency Planning for GSM
Page 15
Random changes can be made by ILSA if only low improvement rates are being
achieved, or if a dead end is reached. The algorithm monitors its own progress and
will behave differently depending on how quickly the cost is decreasing at a given
time. This intelligent behaviour enables it to continue finding improvements over
long periods of time.
The principle behind ILSA's algorithm is that a single number (the cost) measures the
effectiveness of any particular frequency plan. The algorithm then tries to minimise
the cost over the set of all possible plans. The cost function measures how much
interference exists in the network, and what separations have been broken, while
taking account of any user-specified 'importance' weightings for different sub-cells.
The Cost Function of the ILSA Algorithm

The principle behind the algorithm used in the frequency planning tool is that the
effectiveness of any particular frequency plan is measured by a single number (the
cost). The algorithm then tries to minimise the cost over the set of all possible
frequency plans. The cost function measures how much interference there is in the
network, and also allows for the different weights that you may have imposed.
For a given frequency plan the value of the cost function is given by the formula:
Where:
Page 16
The adjacent channel interference caused on allocation i by allocation j (Units: 200*mE or 20,000*km)
The co-channel interference caused on allocation i by allocation j (Units: 200*mE or 20,000*km)
The frequency allocated at allocation i
Members of the set of all frequency allocations
The retune cost associated with allocation i
The fixed or forbidden carrier cost associated with allocation i
The separation costs (from equipment, neighbours, exceptions or close separations) between
allocations i and j
The handover count and intermodulation interference costs associated with allocation i
The weighting factor applicable to carrier allocation i

How ILSA Works

ILSA (Intelligent Local Search Algorithm) is ASSET's optional frequency planning
tool. ILSA uses an extremely advanced heuristic search algorithm, where the latest
techniques in combinatorial mathematics evaluate the "penalty cost" of a particular
frequency plan and change the frequency allocations to minimise the cost.
The algorithm is based on a user-specified Cost Matrix, which associates a set of
constraints with variable penalty costs. Constraints with higher associated costs are less
likely to be broken, therefore the importance of each constraint should be
proportional to its penalty cost.
The primary constraints (but not the only ones) in the cost matrix are concerned with
a minimum separation between frequencies on:
The same cell (intra-cell)
The same site but different cell (intra-site)
The cell and its neighbours
The key objective of ILSA is to minimise the overall 'penalty cost' of the frequency
plan. When ILSA is running, it initially concentrates on the high cost areas and
therefore makes rapid improvements to the plan. When the rate of progress is
reduced, it will try more radical steps to move forward. ILSA constantly searches for
improvements and changes are incremental, driven by the penalties you associate
with the changes the algorithm can make. By choosing the penalties carefully, you can
achieve an effective frequency plan.
The ILSA Process

There is a specialist document containing examples of the ILSA process. If you are
registered for a customer web account, you can download this document (ILSA2
Application Note) from the Support website.
Before starting the ILSA frequency planning process, you may need to verify that
improvement is necessary. It may be that the level of improvement needed may not
be sufficient to justify a retune, or that the current frequency allocation is close to
optimal. In these cases, you may want to employ other optimisation techniques.
In any case, if you do choose to use ILSA, it is useful to analyse your existing
frequency plan to compare the results with the plan that ILSA produces. To do this,
see Analysing a Frequency Plan on page 44.
These are the steps you should take when you use ILSA:
1
Analyse any existing plan.
Ensure you have the prerequisites for the automatic frequency plan.
Set up the filters and other options for ILSA.
Load and edit a cost matrix.
Run ILSA.
Analyse the results to decide whether the plan is acceptable, or an improvement.

Page 17
This flow chart shows the process needed to create a good frequency plan with ILSA:
Overview of the ILSA Planning Process
Page 18

Creating the Prerequisites for a Frequency Plan

There are various inputs to ILSA, some mandatory, and some optional. However,
assuming the optional inputs can be produced on a reliable basis, they are
recommended in order to provide a realistic frequency plan.
You must correctly set up and check the prerequisites before starting to plan using
ILSA, because if the inputs are unreliable, then the outputs cannot offer an
improvement in network performance. The integrity and accuracy of the information
in the Site Database is crucial to an effective plan.
The prerequisites for the frequency planning process are:
Mandatory Prerequisites
Frequency allocation strategy
Site Database with Carrier Layers allocated, and Carriers Required values set for
each cell
Cost Matrix, with specified carrier separation costs (intra-cell, intra-site)
Optional (but recommended) Prerequisites
Interference Table, containing weighted data from a Best Server coverage array
and/or Traffic array(s)
Neighbours and Exceptions (if appropriate) defined in Site Database
You can control the inputs to ILSA through the use of filters, and you can set different
filters, cell layers and carrier layers to be considered on a 'plan' or 'read-only' basis,
which is useful for a localised re-plan. For example, if you have some newly rolledout sites which need to be planned (amongst existing sites whose frequency
allocations need to remain unchanged), you can create filters so that ILSA plans
carriers only for the new sites while taking the existing site allocations into account.
You can also choose to either create a completely new frequency plan, or use an
existing frequency plan as an initial input, and allow ILSA to try to improve it.

Page 19
The following sections describe these prerequisites. When you have ensured you have
these prerequisites, the next step is to set up ILSA.
Simplified illustration of the inputs into ILSA
About the Frequency Allocation Strategy for ILSA

An essential prerequisite for ILSA is that you have correctly defined the appropriate
carriers, carrier layers and cell layers to represent your frequency allocation strategy.
To check this, ensure that you have already:
Page 20
Entered the relevant range of frequencies (carriers) into the System Carriers list.
For more information, see the ASSET User Reference Guide.
Defined the Carriers Layers and Cell Layers you need to represent you network
configuration.
Assigned the appropriate carriers to the carrier layers (such as BCCH, TCH).
Made the relevant associations between the carrier layers and the cell layer(s).
Identified frequencies that should not be allocated in areas of the network, on an

individual site (using forbidden carriers in the site database) or regional basis
(using additional carrier layers with appropriate carriers removed). These might
be caused by cross border separation agreements or geographical considerations.

Enabled Frequency Hopping and/or DTX in the Site Database, if these are going
to be considered by ILSA:
Frequency Hopping: Follow the steps described in the Configuring Frequency

Hopping section in the ASSET User Reference Guide.
DTX can be enabled (with an appropriate Voice Activity Factor) on the Cell
Config tab in the Site Database
You now need to define the Number of Carriers Required on each cell to be planned.
About the Carriers Required Values Needed for ILSA

After you have set up all the necessary carriers, carrier layers, and cell layers for your
Frequency Allocation Strategy, you must decide your network capacity configuration.
In order to allocate the correct number of carriers in the network, ILSA needs to know
the exact carrier requirements for each cell to be planned. Therefore you must ensure
that the 'Carriers Required' values in the Site Database are set, otherwise ILSA will not
run.
There are two ways to set up this essential information for ILSA:
1
Manually for individual cells, by defining the Carriers Required values for each
Carrier Layer allocated to the sub-cells, using the Carriers tab in the Site Database.
You can also do this for multiple cells using the Global Editor, or you can preset the values in the Templates dialog box. For information on this, see the
ENTERPRISE User Reference Guide.
Automatically, by using the Static Traffic Analysis tool. For more information, see
the ASSET User Reference Guide.
About the Cost Matrix for ILSA

ILSA works by finding carrier allocations which minimise the overall cost of the
frequency plan. This cost is not a monetary value, but a number that indicates the
degree of importance associated with different constraints. The overall 'cost' can
consist of:
The sum of the cost penalties associated with broken carrier separation constraints
(as defined in the Cost Matrix)
The amount of interference (area and/or traffic) in the network which will remain
with the new plan (as derived from the Interference Table)
Using penalty costs helps you determine when you can stop iterating the frequency
plan that is, when your costs have become stable.
A Cost Matrix defines the constraints within which ILSA will work and the penalties
associated with breaking those constraints.

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This picture shows an example:
Example Cost Matrix
You can create several different cost matrices, and load them at various times for
comparison purposes.
For more information on defining a Cost Matrix, see Creating and Editing a Cost
Matrix on page 29.
About the Interference Table for ILSA

An interference table (sometimes known as an interference matrix) can calculate the
interference for any cell-pair combination for which there are overlapping predictions.
ASSET provides an Interference Table Wizard that can generate its results from either:
Coverage area data and (optionally) traffic data
- or Measurement data (traffic data only)
- or A combination of both
For information on creating, loading, saving and viewing interference tables, see
About the Interference Table for GSM in the ASSET User Reference Guide.
About the Neighbour Lists and Exceptions for ILSA

Neighbours
When ILSA is experimenting with different frequency allocations, it can take into
account the neighbour relationships defined in the network. This should help to
produce a better quality frequency plan.
You can import the neighbour relationships from your real network into the Site
Database, or generate neighbour lists automatically using the Neighbour wizard, or
manually add or remove neighbours.
Page 22

Exceptions
ILSA uses an interference table to assess whether a particular frequency re-use
between two cells is good or bad. However, the interference table is created from
predictions that may not always match reality. To prevent ILSA using a certain
frequency re-use, you can use exceptions to forbid a particular frequency re-use
between two cells.
Exception relationships between cells can be set manually on the Exceptions tab of the
Site Database.
For full information on setting the above options in the Site Database, see the ASSET
User Reference Guide.
About the Propagation Model, Predictions and Best Server Array for ILSA
After you have defined or checked the other prerequisites for ILSA, you may wish to
consider and check the following optional (but recommended) inputs:
Item
Purpose
Prerequisite
Propagation model
Predicts the coverage of cells,

taking into account the RF
parameters stored in the site
database and the mapping data
The propagation model should be accurate.
Required for array creation,

including the Best Server array
Predictions have to be made for of all the sites that will be

included in the plan. They must be at an appropriate map data
pixel resolution and radius.
Predictions
However, see the next section if you want to use ILSA but are
unsure of your model's accuracy.
Use the Best Server array (and Service Area array) to check
the coverage pattern. This may indicate any problems which
need to be corrected in the Site Database.
Best Server array
Needed for the generation of some The array should be generated at the same resolution as the
of the optional inputs to ILSA,
predictions, over an area that covers all of the service areas of
including:
the cells being planned.
Neighbours
Traffic rasters
Interference Tables
It is therefore important that the Filter used to create the array

includes all the sites to be planned.
Using ILSA with an Inaccurate Propagation Model

If you have little or no confidence in your propagation model, for example because
model tuning is still being performed, you can still use ILSA to develop a frequency
plan by:
Manually entering the carriers required in the Site Database (you can also use
Global Editor or pre-set in Template)
Manually entering the neighbour lists (by importing directly into the Site
Database)
Not using the interference table, and allowing ILSA to work solely on separation
constraints that you have entered into the cost matrix
This method only uses carrier separation constraints to produce a frequency plan,
and totally ignores any of the coverage or interference functionality in ASSET.
Page 23
How ILSA Works with an Existing Frequency Plan

You can use an existing frequency plan as a major input into ILSA. Such a plan can
either exist in the Site Database, or can be imported separately when setting up ILSA.
In the case of an existing plan, ILSA can adopt the currently allocated carriers as the
initial state of the frequency plan. The ways in which ILSA will arrive at an updated
frequency plan will depend on:
The planning option chosen in the ILSA Frequency Planner dialog box
Which Filters and Cell Layers are used
How the Plan or Read-Only options for Filters and Cell Layers are defined
How the Cost Matrix is set up, including how it deals with any carriers defined as
Fixed or Forbidden
Initialising the ILSA Frequency Plan

When you have checked or generated all the prerequisites, you are ready to initialise
your ILSA frequency plan. To do this:
It is wise to perform a Commit All on the Site Database before you initialise ILSA.
If you later choose to Apply the Carriers from the new plan, this would enable you to
perform a Restore All to return to the previous situation, if necessary.
1
From the Tools menu, point to GSM Planners and click ILSA Frequency Planner.
The following dialog box appears:
If you change the planning data that you want to include in the frequency
plan, any existing data in ILSA is overwritten.
Page 24

In the dialog box that appears, select which planning data you want to use. In the
Network pane:
Choose
To
Then
Data from memory
Select existing data
Follow steps 3 - 6
File, then browse for a file
Use information from a file that you have

previously exported from ENTERPRISE
Follow steps 4 - 6
You can only use ASSET XML

network files.
If you selected the Data From Memory option in the Network pane, select the
filters that you want to use by clicking Import Filters then:
In the Import Filters wizard that appears, select the folder(s) that contains the
filters that are to be considered in your plan, then click Next.
Select the checkboxes for the filters that are to be considered.

When you plan, the simplest situation is that you use one or more filters, and
plan all the included sites. However, you can also use multiple filters so that
you assign some of the sites with Plan status and some with Read-Only status.
These options are described in Defining Groups of Cells as Plan or Read-Only
on page 28. In this case, you may need to use the arrows to reorder the filters
in terms of priority.
Only a single planning status (plan, read-only, ignore) can be assigned to a
cell. Therefore, in cases where a cell might exist in more than one filter, the
filter priority is important in deciding which status applies to such a cell. For
example, if a cell happens to exist in two filters, one set as Read-Only and the
other as Plan, and the former filter is set with a higher priority, then the cell
will be considered as read-only for the plan.
Click Next.
Select the cell layers you want to consider from the list shown, then click Next.
Fine tune the cell layer and filter combination you want to import then click
Finish.
In the Interference pane, you can select to use the Interference Table in memory
(this is not compulsory), or use data from a saved file.
In the Handover Counts pane, if you want to use handover counts in the plan, you
can select the File option and browse to your file. You can either create this file or
import it from AIRCOM OPTIMA. For information on the file format, see the
ENTERPRISE Technical Reference Guide.
Click the Initialise button. The data you have specified is then loaded into ILSA, a
default cost matrix is created and the ILSA Frequency Planning dialog box
appears.

Page 25
About the ILSA Frequency Planner Dialog Box

The ILSA Frequency Planner dialog box comprises a set of menu options which
enable you to customise various parameters and constraints for your frequency plan.
It also allows you to view the progress of the plan. The following table describes the
three panes which appear on the dialog box:
Pane
Description
Plan
ILSA can be used to create a completely new frequency plan, or it can take into account an existing plan
and try to improve it. The options are:
Use Current Plan loads the carrier assignments of the current plan that exists in the Site Database. This
may retain a larger number of the original channel allocations and will minimise the number of changes
that the frequency planner makes. Choose this option when adding a small number of new sites to an
existing network.
or
Create New Plan starts ILSA planning with an entirely random frequency plan. This is an easy way to
remove the constraints of a frequency plan but will take slightly longer to reach an initial acceptable
result. Choose this option when:
Creating a frequency plan for a new network
Carrying out a complete regional retune
Implementing a new technique, such as frequency hopping
Plan Status
When ILSA is running, this pane will display various information about the plan, its status, time started,
what carriers to plan, the initial cost of the plan, the current cost and the iteration.
Interference
When ILSA is running, this pane indicates the average and worst interference in the plan, in terms of
coverage area and/or traffic.
About the ILSA File Menu

These options are useful so that you can export and import different frequency plans
to the project, enabling you to easily compare old and new plans.
Menu Option
Enables you
Save Network
To save the complete network. This is equivalent to a normal XML export of the project,
except that Templates are not exported.
Export Assignments
To export the current carrier assignments to an XML file.
Import Assignments
To import a previous frequency plan from a saved plan (XML).
Close
To close the ILSA Frequency Planner dialog box. If ILSA has been run, you will receive a
warning that any unsaved planning will be lost.
About the ILSA View Menu

These options enable you to set up a Plan List for the frequency plan, as well as
viewing the latest assignments and progress graph.
ILSA must be paused to enable these options.
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Menu Option
Enables you
Plan List
To edit and view the Filter/Cell Layer/Carrier Layer Plan Status (e.g. Plan or Read-Only).
For a full description, see Defining Groups of Cells as Plan or Read-Only on page 28.
Assignments
To view the current Carrier Assignments.
Graph
To view the ILSA Cost/Interference progress graph.

About the ILSA Cost Matrix Menu

These options enable you to Load, Save or Edit a Cost Matrix. This allows you to have
more than one to choose from.
The cost matrix which initially gets loaded when you initialise your plan is
always the original default matrix, therefore if you wish to load a saved matrix (or
create a new one), you must do so at this stage.
Menu Option
Enables you
Load
To load a Cost Matrix from a saved .cmf file.
Save
To save the Cost Matrix to a .cmf file format.
Edit
To edit the Cost Matrix (or to create a new one).
Saved Cost Matrices can only be loaded into the same project from which they
were produced.
For a full description of these options, see Creating and Editing a Cost Matrix on page
29.
About the ILSA Tools Menu

These options enable you to Re-Initialise ILSA, Apply the frequency plan to the
database, or define customised options.
Menu Option
Enables you
Initialise
To Re-Initialise the inputs to ILSA (such as which Filters to include and which Interference
Table to use). For a full description, see Initialising the ILSA Frequency Plan on page 24.
It performs the same function as closing ILSA and re-starting it through the Tools/GSM
Planners menu.
Using this option will therefore overwrite any existing ILSA settings.
Apply to Database
To Apply the latest Carrier Assignments (made by ILSA) to the Site Database. This will
update the Carriers tab on the Sub-cells with the new Frequency Plan (depending on the
options set up in the Plan List), allowing you to analyse the plan by producing arrays and
reports.
For more information, see Applying an ILSA Frequency Plan to the Site Database on page
42.
It is a good idea to perform a Commit All on the Site Database before you Apply the
Carriers from ILSA. This would enable you to perform a Restore All to return to the previous
situation, if necessary.
Options
To set up specific options. The ILSA Options dialog box comprises two tabs: one with
general options such as Auto Save and Refresh Rate; the other with various planning
options such as weighting Interference by Area and/or by Traffic.
For a full description, see Setting the Planning Options for ILSA on page 35.
About the ILSA Help Menu

This gives direct access to the Help topics for ILSA.
You can also use the F1 key from any window to obtain context-sensitive Help.
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Defining Groups of Cells as Plan or Read-Only

When you are setting up an ILSA plan, you may need to define different groups of
cells in the network to be planned, read-only or ignored. You can achieve this by
specifying how filter, cell layer and carrier layer combinations are to be considered
within the frequency plan.
See Example of Using ILSA for a Localised Re-plan on page 39 for an example of
how the flexibility of the Plan List can be useful.
To do this:
1
Ensure you have initialised ILSA, and from the ILSA View menu, click Plan List.
The Plan List dialog box appears. Here is an example:
In the Plan List dialog box, in the Status column for each combination:
Select
If you want ILSA to
Plan
Plan the carriers required within sites satisfying the filter/cell layer/carrier layer criteria.
The carrier allocations can be modified and are considered by other carrier allocations as interferers.
Read Only
Not plan the carrier allocations required within sites satisfying the filter/cell layer/carrier layer criteria.
The current carrier allocations can still be considered as interferers by ILSA when planning other carrier
allocations.
For example, it may be important to take into account frequency allocations in neighbouring regions. In this
case, the filter/cell layer/carrier layer combinations describing the neighbouring regions should be assigned
Read Only.
Ignore
Ignore sites satisfying the filter/cell layer/carrier layer criteria.

Click here for a tip on when the ignore option may be useful.
ll
Only a single planning status (plan, read-only, ignore) can be assigned to a site.
Therefore, in cases where a site might exist in more than one filter, the filter
priority is important in deciding which status applies to such a site. If this is the
case, ensure you have ordered the filters in terms of priority, as described in
Initialising the ILSA Frequency Plan on page 24.
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When planning, the complexity of the filter/cell layer combinations can

severely impact the speed at which a solution is reached. If due to the nature of the
frequency banding technique chosen, you can disregard a particular cell layer
since it has no possible impact on the others, it is advisable to ignore the layer
completely. This would happen when considering a dual band network and only
planning the 900MHz layer. In this case the 900MHz layer and 1800MHz layer can
be considered independent of one another.
3
Now you are ready to edit the cost matrix.
Creating and Editing a Cost Matrix

For a definition of the cost matrix, see About the Cost Matrix for ILSA on page 21.
As part of the ILSA initialisation process, the default cost matrix is automatically
loaded. This is always the original default matrix, therefore if you wish to create and
save your own customised matrix (or load a saved matrix), you must do so at this
stage.
You can create several different cost matrices, and load them at various times for
comparison purposes.
To edit an existing saved cost matrix, follow the steps described in Loading a Cost
Matrix on page 34.
To create a new cost matrix:
1
From the ILSA Cost Matrix menu, click Edit to open the original default cost
matrix.
Follow the options for each of the folders in the Cost Matrix Editor, as described in
the following sections.
After you have created or edited a customised cost matrix, ensure that you save it
for future use.
Tips for Setting Penalty Costs

In most cases, you will need to modify the default values in the Cost Matrix for ILSA,
in order to customise the penalty cost weightings to derive a frequency plan suitable
for your network. The values that you choose should depend on:
Frequency re-use availability
Separation constraint values
Number of neighbours in the plan
Interference base (area, traffic or combination)
Amount of traffic (if interference minimisation is traffic based)
Cell sizes
Interference table size (depends on prediction radius and used interference table
creation method)

Page 29
Usually when running ILSA, the first priority is to remove the separation constraints.
To achieve this, the separation costs must be adequately high. If equipment and
neighbour separation costs are not high enough compared with the interference costs,
the separations are not completely removed during the frequency planning process.
Frequency planning is an iterative process and it is recommended that you study the
effect of different cost settings in order to determine the optimal cost values for your
purposes.
Carrier Costs and Carrier Layer Costs

When you are adding or editing a cost matrix, you can edit the Carrier Costs and
Carrier Layer Costs, by clicking the appropriate folder.
Carrier Costs
You can set the penalty costs associated with any carriers of particular cells which
have been set as Forbidden or Fixed in the Site Database. Only such cells will appear
in this window.
This picture shows an example:
Example Cost Matrix
Theoretically, Fixed or Forbidden carriers can still be affected (changed) by ILSA.

These relate to the penalty costs of ILSA either de-allocating a Fixed carrier or
allocating a Forbidden carrier. They should therefore be high values. However, if you
wish to explicitly prohibit their allocation, you can select the option described in
Setting the Planning Options for ILSA on page 35.
Carrier Layer Costs
You can assign a weighting to any of the cell layer/carrier layer combinations (for
example you may wish to set a weight of 2 for the BCCH layer, compared to 1 for
TCH). Weightings can be used to deter ILSA from breaking constraints on higher
weighted layers.
To prevent ILSA from retuning allocated (whether fixed or otherwise) carriers on a
carrier layer, in the Allow Retune column, deselect the checkbox.
To allow ILSA to retune any allocated carriers, in the Allow Retune column select the
checkbox and enter a cost. If you enter a high cost, ILSA will be deterred from
changing the allocated carriers unless it must do so to obtain a plan with low
interference.
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Equipment Costs
When you are adding or editing a cost matrix, you can edit the Equipment Costs, by
clicking the appropriate folder. These costs relate to Intra-Site, Intra-Cell and Cell
Equipment carrier separation constraints.
You can set generic separation constraints and associated penalty costs for the sites,
cells and equipment in your network. These will be listed for every combination of
Cell Layers and Carrier Layers in your network that are to be included in your plan.
Under the Equipment column, there are rows stating Site or Cell. For each one,
respectively, you can set:
A minimum separation constraint (and associated penalty cost) between carriers
on the same SITE
A minimum separation constraint (and associated penalty cost) between carriers
on the same CELL
Optionally, you can also set preferred separation constraints, in order to 'fine-tune' the
cost matrix (if you do not wish to do this, set the preferred constraints to the same
value as the minimum).
Example of Separation Constraints:
If the intra-cell separation constraints and associated costs (minimum and preferred)
are set as:
Min Separation
Min Cost
Pref Separation
Pref Cost
1000
100
Then the associated penalty costs for any intra-cell allocations made by ILSA's plan
would be:
Actual Separation achieved by ILSA
Penalty Cost
4 + (preferred)
100
(minimum)
200
1000
2000
As can be seen, the penalty cost values are summed for each reduction in separation.
If only the preferred separation is broken, only the preferred cost is summed. If the
minimum and preferred separations are broken, only the minimum cost is summed.
Cell Equipment
You can also set intra-cell separation constraints and costs on the basis of the types of
Cell Equipment used on each cell.
If a cell has cell equipment assigned to it, the separation costs defined for that cell
equipment will take precedence over the intra-cell separation costs (defined against
the 'Cell' entry). If, on the other hand, no cell equipment is assigned to a cell, the intracell separation costs will be applied.
Page 31
For more information about adding cell equipment, see the ENTERPRISE User
Reference Guide.
Neighbour Costs and Exception Costs

When you are adding or editing a cost matrix, you can edit the Neighbour Costs or
Exception Costs, by clicking the appropriate folder.
Neighbour Costs
You can set the penalty costs associated with the minimum separations or preferred
separations for cells which are neighbours, and also 2nd order neighbours. These will
be listed for every combination of Cell Layers and Carrier Layers in your network that
are to be included in your plan.
Exception Costs
You can set the penalty costs associated with the minimum separations or preferred
separations for cells which have been defined as Exceptions in the Site Database. Only
such cells will appear in this window.
For full information on setting the above options in the Site Database, see the ASSET
Filter Priorities, Handover Counts and Intermodulation Costs

When you are adding or editing a cost matrix, you can edit the Filter Priorities or
Handover Count or Intermodulation Costs, by clicking the appropriate folder.
Filter Priorities
You can view the filter(s) that you are planning for. When using multiple filters, edit
the priority column so that if a site is present in more than one filter, the settings are
taken from the filter with the highest priority value.
Handover Count Costs
A handover counts contain the number of times a handover occurs between any two
cells. For information on the input file, see Initialising the ILSA Frequency Plan on
page 24.
If you wish to Use Handover Counts, select the checkbox and then either:
Select Auto Scale to set the scale factor to normalise the handover count to a
similar level to all the other costs
Enter the Scale factor manually. For example, a factor of 2 will cause ILSA to make
the handover count costs twice as important as other costs.
Page 32

Intermodulation Interference Costs

You can set costs for 2nd order and 3rd order intermodulations. You can also enter an
uplink weighting to be applied to intermodulations that involve uplink frequencies
(which cause less significant interference than downlink frequencies).
In order to take intermodulation into account, ILSA needs to know the absolute
frequencies represented by the carriers. For more information on this, see the ASSET
Separation Costs (grid)

When you are adding or editing a cost matrix, you can edit the Separation Costs, by
clicking the appropriate folder. This will display a movable grid which lists every
sub-cell for every combination of Cell Layers and Carrier Layers in your network that
are to be included in your plan.
You can use this grid to set specific separation costs between sub-cells or between
separate carrier layers within a sub-cell. This enables you to allow for known troublespots in the network. Separation Costs work in a similar way to the Exception costs,
except that the latter must already be set in the Site Database, whereas the former can
be set up in the Cost Matrix independently.
There are 3 tabs available at the bottom of the pane: Separation 0 (co-channel), 1
(adjacent channel) and 2. You can set default costs for each of these tabs, which can be
overridden in the main grid. There is also a Search button which enables you to find
any cell relationship combination in the plan.
Costs should change according to the importance that you have assigned to different
separations in the network, and to the constraints that you have chosen. The cost of a
cell co-channel separation should be greater than the cost of a site co-channel
separation, which in turn, is greater than the cost of a neighbour co-channel
separation, and so on.
When ILSA runs, any Separation Costs set in the grid will always be additional to
any of the other costs set up in the cost matrix.
Editing Multiple Separation Costs
To enter common cost values for multiple cell relationship combinations:
Click and drag the mouse over the required values in the grid, then simply enter
the new value.
To edit, copy or reset cost values for multiple cell relationship combinations:
Click and drag the mouse over the required values in the grid, then right-click,
and from the menu that appears, click Set to Default or Copy. If you chose Copy,
you can then paste the data onto new combinations.
For all costs and separations you can simply copy and paste data by selecting with
the mouse, and using the normal keyboard methods to copy and paste the data
elsewhere.

Page 33
If you use the Reset to Default button to reset all the values to the defaults, this
will remove any changed values you may have inserted in the grid.
Saving a Cost Matrix

To save a cost matrix
1
From the ILSA Cost Matrix menu, click Save.
Browse to the folder where you want to save the plan and enter a name for the
plan.
Click OK. The plan is saved as a .cmf file.
Saved Cost Matrices can only be loaded into the same project from which they
were produced.
Loading a Cost Matrix

To load a saved cost matrix
1
From the ILSA Cost Matrix menu, click Load.
Browse to the folder where you have saved the plan and select the appropriate
.cmf file.
Click Open.
The cost matrix is now loaded, and can be viewed and edited, and, if necessary,
subsequently saved as the same or a different file.
Setting the Display Options for ILSA

To set the options for ILSA's progress display :
1
From the ILSA Tools menu, click Options.
On the General tab, you can select:
Graph X-Axis.
Panel Refresh Rate.

The refresh rate simply determines how quickly the Plan Status panel updates
while the plan is running. A fast rate updates the cost of the plan for every
improvement (cost reduction) made, a slower rate updates after a series of
improvements. 5 is the normal default.
Page 34
Log results in Message Log every minute.
Auto Save the plan periodically (with updated carrier assignments) as an XML
file, setting a time interval and path name.

Setting the Planning Options for ILSA

To set the special options for ILSA's planning features:
1
From the ILSA Tools menu, click Options.
On the Planning Features tab, you can set the following options:
Select
When
Use Frequency Hopping Diversity

Gain
Frequency hopping is enabled on your sub-cells and you want ILSA to apply a gain
to the interference costs incurred by carrier assignments to these sub-cells during
the plan optimisation.
Aggregate carriers required under

Site hopping
For Site hopping, you wish ILSA to aggregate the carrier requirement of each subcell across all sub-cells on the site (e.g. if requirements for a 3-cell site are 3, 4, 3,
ILSA would allocate 10 carriers for each cell). This is typically used in nominal
planning when Traffic Analysis has been used to set carrier requirements.
If you do not select this, ILSA presumes that the Site hopping sub-cells have
already had their carrier requirements set. This is typically used when ASSET is
populated with data from a live network.
Use Antenna Hopping Gain
Antenna hopping is enabled on your sub-cells and you want ILSA to consider this
during the plan optimisation.
Use DTX Load Factors as set in the

Site Database
You want to reduce the interference caused by sub-cells with DTX enabled. The
interference weighting of such cells is multiplied by the Voice Activity Factor set on
the Cell Config tab in the Site Database. This means ILSA plans allocations more
carefully for non-DTX cells.
BCCH carrier allocations are always considered as non-DTX.
Consider Intermodulation
Interference
You want ILSA to take intermodulation interference between carriers into account
during the plan optimisation.
You can specify tolerance values in order to determine the levels of interference
that can be ignored.
Frequency Bands must have been enabled on the General tab of the
Preferences dialog box, found under the File menu option.
Use Group Planning
You want ILSA to allocate frequencies according to a frequency re-use pattern,

when group planning has been enabled on the carrier layer.
ILSA can only maintain group planning patterns on a cell basis, not on a site
basis. For example, at the cell level, all planned carriers will belong to a single
group such as A1 or B1, but one of these groups may also be allocated to another
cell on the same site.
Exclude Forbidden Carriers
You want to completely prohibit the allocation of forbidden carriers.

ILSA normally assigns forbidden carriers a very high cost, meaning they are very
unlikely to be used within its output frequency plan. But, by selecting this checkbox,
you can ensure that ILSA totally prohibits their allocation.
If you have created an interference table as an input to ILSA, you can also choose
how ILSA should minimise the interference during its optimisation plan, as
explained in the following section.

Page 35
Choosing ILSA's Interference Minimisation Criteria (Area or Traffic)

In relation to the general planning options for ILSA, you can also set interference
minimisation criteria.
These options are only relevant if you have created or loaded an Interference
Table. An Interference Table is not a mandatory input into ILSA, but it is
recommended if you have some confidence in your coverage and/or traffic arrays.
This table describes the options available if you want ILSA to also minimise by
interference during its frequency planning.
Option
Description
Minimise Interference by Traffic
This will be the amount of traffic (mE) affected between any two cells due to co- or adjacent
carrier allocation.
Use this option if you have reasonable or high confidence in the traffic statistics that you
used to generate the interference table. ILSA will pay more attention to reducing interference
in the high traffic areas as it formulates the frequency plan.
For this option, the interference table must have included a traffic raster.
Minimise Interference by Area
This will be the amount of coverage area (km) affected between any two cells due to co- or
adjacent carrier allocation.
Use this option if you have little or no confidence in the traffic statistics that you used to
generate the interference table.
Minimise Interference by
Combination (both traffic and
area)
This can be a combination of traffic and coverage area affected between any two cells due to
co- or adjacent carrier allocation. The percentage ratio that you specify will determine which
factor is dominant.
Use this option if you have only partial confidence in the traffic statistics, or you wish to bias
the plan towards the urban areas (which should contain more traffic) while maintaining
reasonable quality across the network
For this option, the interference table must have included a traffic raster.
For the purposes of normalisation, ILSA multiplies any area (km) values by a
factor of 100, to bring make them compatible with any traffic (mE) values, and
subsequently multiplies both area and traffic values by a factor of 200, to bring make
them compatible with Carrier Separation Costs set up by the user in the Cost Matrix.
This enables ILSA to minimise costs on a like-for-like basis, but also allows the user to
customise the Cost Matrix to determine the overall weightings for the frequency plan.
Page 36

Running ILSA
To start running ILSA:
1
Ensure you have:
Initialised ILSA
Set up the options
Defined the filter/cell layer/carrier layer combinations to be considered
Edited the cost matrix
In the ILSA Frequency Planning dialog box, select:
Use Current Plan to load the initial carrier assignments of the current plan, for
example, when adding a small number of new sites to an existing network.
This may retain a larger number of the original channel allocations.
or
Create New Plan to start ILSA planning with an entirely random frequency
plan, for example, when planning for a new network or implementing a new
technique, such as frequency hopping.
Start planning by clicking the Start button.

If you have a large cost matrix, leave ILSA running for several hours at a time.
However, remember that the rate of improvement decreases with time so large
improvements are made within a relatively short period of time and only modest
(but potentially beneficial) improvements are made over many hours.
When you decide to stop ILSA running - that is, when a considerable period of
time has elapsed without much improvement - click the Stop button.
ILSA will only stop itself when the cost of the plan reaches zero. This is really
only possible when the planning constraints were very easy to satisfy and is
unlikely in a real network. An example might be planning a small network of 10
sites with a full GSM band of carriers!
Now you can analyse the results.

The Online Help for ASSET contains a Troubleshooting ILSA section.

Page 37
What Happens When ILSA Is Running?

When you click Start to begin planning, ILSA:
Begins initialising, making first-pass frequency allocations to all sub-cells
Tries to meet all the rules that have been created in the cost matrix, and
simultaneously tries to reduce the average level of interference per carrier
Eventually displays Finished with Zero Cost in the Status box indicating that a
cost of 0 has been achieved with the current plan
Shows the start time, plan ID and number of carriers to plan, initial cost of the
plan, cost of the current best plan, the number of completed iterations (screen
refreshes not algorithm loops), the average interference per TRX and the worst
case interference for a carrier.
The Frequency Planning dialog box
Page 38

Example of Using ILSA for a Localised Re-plan

If you want to plan frequency allocations for a new site within an existing network,
you would:
Expect to have to re-plan the immediate cells surrounding the new site
Be reluctant to re-plan cells more than a neighbour relationship away, but if the
plan was significantly better, then you would accept minor changes
Want the majority of the existing network design to be read-only
To achieve this localised re-plan using ILSA, you would do the following:
1
Create three dynamic filters based on polygons with meaningful names, such as
AreaForNewSite, BorderAroundNewSite and RestOfPlan.
In the ILSA Import Filters wizard, choose to import these three filters and, on the
second page of the wizard, order the priority of the filters so AreaForNewSite is at
the top and RestOfPlan is at the bottom.
From the ILSA View menu, click Plan List and set the cell layer/carrier layer
combinations AreaForNewSite and BorderAroundNewSite filters to Plan, and for
the RestOfPlan filter to Read Only.
In the Carrier Layer Costs folder, select the Allow Retune checkbox for the
BorderAroundNewSite filter and add an associated cost of performing the retune.
The cost should be high enough to ensure that carriers are re-planned in the
border region only if a significant improvement is made - the value really depends
on how critical it is to you that the number of changes should be minimised the
more important, the higher the cost. It may take a couple of iterations (without
Applying the changes to the database) before the optimal retune cost is found.
The cell layer/carrier layer combinations for the RestofPlan filter are not
present because you are not planning for it.

Page 39
Reviewing ILSAs Results

You can review the latest results of the ILSA frequency plan by:
Viewing a graph of cost and interference you can do this while ILSA is running
Viewing the latest carrier assignments and statistics - to do this you need to pause
ILSA
Viewing, Saving and Printing the ILSA Graph

To view the ILSA Cost/Interference graph while ILSA is running:
From the View menu, click Graph.
The graph appears showing the cost of the current best plan (in red), the average
interference (in green) and the worst interference (in blue). For example:
To save a copy of the graph while the plan is running:

1
In the ILSA graph, click the Snapshot button.
Browse to a folder where you want to save the snapshot graph.
Choose the type of file (*.bmp or *.jpg).
Enter a filename.
Click Save.
To print the ILSA Cost/Interference graph:
Page 40
In the ILSA graph, click the Print button.
In the dialog box that appears, choose the position of the graph on the page or set
up any margins, and choose the size required.
Click OK.
In the dialog box that appears next, select the appropriate printer then click OK to
print the graph.

Viewing ILSA's Carrier Assignments and Statistics

When ILSA has been stopped, you can view the allocations that have been made in
the current best plan.
From the ILSA View menu, click Assignments.
This dialog box appears:
The Carrier Assignments dialog box displays the:
Carrier statistics, that is, the number of times each frequency is allocated, and
the minimum re-use distance between each site using that frequency
Cell statistics, in terms of the interference on each allocation that is made.
What are Acceptable Statistics in an ILSA Plan?

When you view the carrier assignments made by ILSA's frequency plan, carrier
statistics and cell statistics are displayed. These tips may help you decide whether the
statistics are acceptable:
If only alternate carriers have been assigned even though you have a contiguous
band of carriers, this indicates that the adjacent interference is more dominant
than co-channel, which is incorrect. The most common reason for this is that the
C/I adjacent offset in the Array Settings dialog box may have the wrong sign. It
should be negative (the default for this is 18db).
You should not expect a fixed carrier allocation strategy, due to the heuristic
algorithm, but, typically, ILSA should produce a fairly uniform distribution of
carrier assignments.
Clicking the interference column heading enables you to order the assignments to
show which caused the most and least cost to the plan. The interference value is
the summation of all the associated costs of making that assignment. If this value
is less than the minimum separation/retune cost then this is purely an interference
cost. If a large number of assignments have high costs then the constraints are
proving difficult for ILSA to satisfy. For example, it may have a small range of
carriers to choose from, or the separation requirements for the sites, cells or
neighbours may be too strict.
Page 41
For multiple second order neighbour paths, a set of the second order
neighbours is maintained so that the cost is not experienced more than once.
If the resultant cost of the plan is less than the minimum separation cost, that
indicates that all the separation constraints were satisfied and therefore the
remaining costs of the plan are only based on interference. If this is the case, the
assignments might produce a good frequency plan.
The statistics are very useful to assess the plan generally, but it is crucial that you
use the normal methods in ASSET to analyse and judge the effectiveness of the
frequency plan, using the Interference Arrays and Reports. To do this, you must first
Apply the Plan to the Database.
Applying an ILSA Frequency Plan to the Site Database

It is wise to perform a Commit All on the Site Database before you Apply the
Carriers from ILSA. This would enable you to perform a Restore All to return to the
previous situation, if necessary.
When you view the carrier assignments in the Carrier Assignments dialog box, you
can judge whether the results and statistics of ILSA's frequency plan are acceptable or
not:
If the results are unacceptable to you, for example if BCCH carriers are
experiencing worse interference than TCH carriers, then continue planning.
If the results are acceptable to you, you can close the dialog box and Apply the
frequency plan to the database. To do this:
From the ILSA Tools menu, click Apply to Database.
This action is immediate, with no warning message. That is why the 'Commit
All' mentioned above is important.
This will update the Carriers tab on the Sub-cells with the new Frequency Plan
(depending on the options set up in the Plan List), allowing you to analyse the plan
using arrays and reports.
You can also Apply the plan then restart planning. This can improve the quality of the
plan, due to a random element within the ILSA algorithm.
When you have Applied a plan to the database, perform the plan analysis using the
normal methods to verify that an improvement has been made. For information on
this, see Analysing a Frequency Plan on page 44.
You can also use ILSA's Import Assignments to Apply other plans to the database
(using the same procedure as above), in order to carry out comparative analyses
between plans.
If you have the BCCH prerequisite rule activated, after you Apply the changes, the
following message will be displayed:
"BCCH allocation prerequisite may have been violated. Use Site/Node Reporter to
check for any violations."
Page 42

For more information, see the ASSET User Reference Guide.
Exporting Assignments
You can export carrier assignments from ILSA to an XML file, even without Applying
the plan to the database.
You may also want to analyse the carrier assignments that ILSA has made in other
software programs.
Only data that is applicable to the frequency plan will be exported.
To export carrier assignments:
1
From the File menu on the ILSA Frequency Planning dialog box, click Export
Assignments.
Enter a filename and click OK.
The carrier assignments determined by ILSA are exported to an XML file, enabling
you to import them at a later stage, or analyse them in other tools.
Importing Assignments
You can import carrier assignments from previous frequency plans.
To import carrier assignments:
1
From the File menu on the ILSA Frequency Planning dialog box, click Import
Assignments.
Browse to the XML file you wish to import.
Click OK.
You can then view the imported Carrier Assignments in ILSA, and then either:
Run ILSA using the imported plan as a starting point
- or Apply the imported plan to the Site Database for Analysis purposes

Page 43
Importing Frequency Plans

There are various ways to import frequency allocations into the Site Database. For
information on this, see the ENTERPRISE User Reference Guide.
Analysing a Frequency Plan

You can use ASSET to analyse an existing frequency plan, or to analyse any nominal
plan. You can analyse a variety of plans by importing each one into the Site Database.
You can also export plans generated by ILSA, and then save them for future analysis
and comparisons.
Example of Worst Interferer array including pixel-specific information
Page 44

How to Analyse a Frequency Plan

Here are the main steps for analysing an existing or nominal frequency plan:
1
Ensure the current or nominal frequency allocations have been set up or imported
in the Site Database.
From the Arrays menu, click Array Settings. On the Coverage/Interference tab,
choose Co-channel or Adjacent channel or both.
Open the Map View window at the desired location.
Create one or more interference array(s). You can choose from:
Worst Interferer
Total Interference
Worst Connection
Average Connection
Descriptions of these array types are given in the ASSET Technical Reference
Guide.
If you are using a frequency hopping network, choose a connection type array,
since these are designed to consider hopping carriers.
5
Display the array(s) on the Map View.
After analysing the array(s) visually (and plotting the resulting view, if desired),
you can now analyse the plan statistically, by producing an Interference Statistics
report. The report gives details of the proportion of interference better and worse
than the chosen interference threshold, as well as a breakdown by clutter type and
by cell.
The Total Covered Area in the report is the area of the Best Server array down
to the chosen coverage level.
It is also possible to confine the statistics within specified user polygons, for
example enclosing urban areas only.
Use the Interactive Frequency Analysis to generate a comprehensive report which

can analyse and fine-tune the frequency plan based on the Interference Table,
Neighbours, Site/Cell Separations and Exceptions.
Use the Frequency Plan Reporter to generate a simple report which lists
allocations which do not meet specified carrier separation constraints.
Display the Frequency Re-use on the Map view, using the Cell Info option under
the Data Types list.
It is always necessary to create an Interference Array before generating an

Interference Report. This is because the reports always extract their data from the
interference array currently in memory. Therefore, after making any changes in the
network, you should always carry out both steps consecutively.
For more detailed information on the above processes and features, see the ASSET
Page 45
Page 46

Index
A
Algorithms
ILSA cost function 16
Analysis
frequency plans 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
Assignments, carriers 15, 40, 41, 43, 44
C
Carriers
assignments 15, 40, 41, 43, 44
Cost Matrix for ILSA 17, 21, 27, 29, 34
F
Frequency Planning
analysing plans 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
automatically using ILSA 15
Cost Matrix for ILSA 17, 21, 27, 29, 34
importing and exporting plans 42, 43, 44
prerequisites for ILSA 19
H
Handover counts used in ILSA 32
I
ILSA
about 15, 17, 19
analysing plans 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
cost function 16
Cost Matrix 17, 27, 29, 34
interference tables 19, 24
prerequisites 19
running 37
viewing results 40
Intermodulation
frequency bands 32, 35
in ILSA 32, 35
P
Planning
frequency 15, 44

Index
Page 47
Page 48

Index

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ILSA

User Reference Guide

Software Version 7.0

Copyright 2010 AIRCOM International

+44 (0) 1932 442000

About This Manual

First Official Publish.

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Obtaining User Assistance ................................................................................. 9

Chapter 2 Automatic Frequency Planning for GSM

Automatic Frequency Planning (ILSA) ............................................................. 15

Importing Frequency Plans .............................................................................. 44

ILSA 7.0 User Reference Guide

ILSA 7.0 User Reference Guide

Obtaining User Assistance

ILSA 7.0 User Reference Guide

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