Radio Network Dimensioning for GSM/GPRS

Supporting Circuit- and Packet-Switched Services

Peter Stuckmann
www.comnets.rwth-aachen.de/~pst

Peter Stuckmann

Structure

the problem
coexisting circuit-switched traffic
dimensioning rules for fixed PDCH configurations
dimensioning rules for on-demand PDCH configurations
configurations with fixed and on-demand PDCHs

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

Motivation
radio network dimensioning demands the relationship between
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offered traffic predicted by operator

QoS desired by operator for his clients

radio resources needed (number of PDCHs and TRX)

analytical complexity caused by

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radio channel attributes

bursty traffic (no Erlang-B-formula like in CS)

system complexity no test bench or field trials with complete protocol

software and hardware components available
solution: computer simulation of the system that models
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system components and their protocols

traffic sources

radio channel
Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

Capacity planning and radio network dimensioning

relationship between
?

offered traffic

QoS desired

radio resources needed

Traffic

QoS
Simulation model

Analytical model

Capacity model

Erlang table

Erlang Formula

Radio network dimensioning

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

Measures and methodology

term
traffic

circuit-switched
offered traffic in Erlang

QoS parameter

blocking probability (GoS) throughput, delay,...

resources

traffic channels

packet data channels

tool

simple formula or table

dimensioning graphs or
tables

methodology

Erlang-B formula

simulation results,
analytical / algorithmic
techniques

Peter Stuckmann

packet-switched
offered amount of data per
time in kbit/s

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

Simulation Environment (E)GPRSim

Circuit
Switched
Generator

Packet
Generator

Internet Load Generator (SDL)

Funet

TeleHTTP FTP SMTP WAP RT

matic

Mobitex

TCP/UDP
IP

Session
Arrival
Process

Railway

Generator

CAC
(session
management)

Channel
Management

SNDCP

SNDCP
LLC
Relay

LLC
(SDL)

LLC
(SDL)

(SDL)

(SDL)

Transceiver

BSSGP

RLC/MAC

RLC/MAC

Channel/Error
Model

G b Uplink

Frame
Relay

BSSGP
Frame
Relay

G b Downlink
Transceiver

SGSN

BS

MS
Um

Web Interface

Statistical Evaluation
Throughput (S)

1
0.9
0.8
Funet
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
Railway
0.2
Mobitex
0.1
00 0.20.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.61.8 2
Offered Load (G)

Peter Stuckmann

1
0.9
24 RA Slots
0.8
56 RA
RA Slots
Slots
88
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
00 1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
Offered Load [byte/s]

Blocking Rate

GIST

Gb

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

Dimensioning rules for fixed-PDCH scenarios (I)

Dimensioning Graph

downlink IP throughput over offered traffic

25

25
4 fixed PDCH
5 fixed PDCH
6 fixed PDCH

Downlink IP throughput [kbit/s]

Downlink IP throughput [kbit/s]

3 fixed PDCH
4 fixed PDCH
5 fixed PDCH
6 fixed PDCH
20

15

10

20

15

10

0
5

10

15

20

Offered IP traffic [kbit/s]

Peter Stuckmann

25

30

Offered IP traffic / PDCH [kbit/s]

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

Dimensioning rules for fixed-PDCH scenarios (II)

define the desired QoS
estimate the number of users per cell
estimate the offered traffic per user
calculate the total offered traffic per cell
determine the acceptable traffic per PDCH with the desired QoS from
the dimensioning graph
calculate the needed number of PDCHs
PDCH = estimated offered traffic / acceptable traffic per PDCH

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

Example
define the desired QoS
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example value: 12.5 kbit/s is desired

estimate the number of users per cell

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example value: 10 users with 540 kbyte/h per user

calculate the offered traffic per user and the offered traffic per cell
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offered traffic per user = 540 kbyte/h = 1.2 kbit/s

total offered traffic per cell = 12 kbit/s

take the acceptable traffic per PDCH from the reference graph
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acceptable traffic per PDCH = 3.5 kbit/s/PDCH

PDCH = 3.4

4 PDCHs have to be allocated for GPRS

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

Radio resource management

on-demand assignment of PDCHs for GPRS
voice connections are prioritized
TCH release
TCH shift
X

maximum number
of on-demand PDCHs
TCHs allocated for CS

maximum number
of fixed PDCHs
Transition

TCHs allocated
for GPRS

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

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Circuit switched traffic

radio network dimensioned for voice services with blocking probability
of e.g. 1 % (blocking probability = Grade of Service (GoS))
unutilized resources can be used for GPRS
State probability vs no. of TCHs for 1TRX
0.3

State probability vs no. of PDCHs

0.8
0.7

0.25
0.2

Probability

Probability

0.6

0.15

0.5
0.4
0.3

0.1

0.2
0.05
0

0.1
0

Number of channels
Peter Stuckmann

Number of channels

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

11

GPRS performance with coexisting CS traffic (I)

downlink IP packet delay

downlink IP throughput per user

2

30

0 fixed PDCH
1 fixed PDCH
2 fixed PDCH

0 fixed PDCH
1 fixed PDCH
2 fixed PDCH

1.5

Downlink IP delay [s]

Downlink IP throughput [kbit/s]

25

20

15

10

0.5
5

0
0

Offered IP traffic [kbit/s]

Peter Stuckmann

10

12

10

12

Offered IP traffic [kbit/s]

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

12

GPRS performance with coexisting CS traffic (II)

downlink PDCHs assigned (average)
100

0 fixed PDCH
1 fixed PDCH
2 fixed PDCH

Downlink PDCH utilization [percent]

Downlink PDCHs assigned (average)

downlink PDCH utilization

6
5
4

3
2

0 fixed PDCH
1 fixed PDCH
2 fixed PDCH

80

60

40

20

1
0

Offered IP traffic [kbit/s]

Peter Stuckmann

10

12

10

12

Offered IP traffic offer [kbit/s]

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

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Dimensioning rules for on-demand-PDCH scenarios

simulation results show that the shared use of GSM physical channels
both for CS and GPRS makes sense
dimensioning rules for on-demand-PDCH scenarios are needed
the aim is to take an existing TRX scenario as the basis and find the
acceptable CS traffic so that the desired GPRS performance can be
achieved
if the predicted offered traffic is exceeded a new TRX module should
be added to the base station
in the following an example is given for a 3 TRX scenario

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

14

Example: 3 TRX scenario (I)

downlink IP throughput per user
25

Downlink IP throughput [kbit/s]

0.5% GoS
2% GoS
10% GoS

Example values

20

15

10

offered CS traffic with 1.5 % GoS

10 GPRS users per cell

540 kbyte/h offered per user

desired QoS of 12.5 kbit/s

0
5

10

15

20

25

30

Offered IP traffic [kbit/s]

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

15

Example: 3 TRX scenario (II)

calculate the offered traffic per cell
?

total offered traffic per cell = 10 * 540 byte/h = 12 kbit/s

regard the operating point p defined by the desired user performance

on the y-axis and the offered traffic per cell on the x-axis and choose
the adequate GoS curve as the next that lies above the operating point
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p = (x = 12 kbit/s, y = 12.5 kbit/s)

if the offered CS traffic corresponding to the GoS is predicted to be

exceeded, a new TRX should be added
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the operating point p lies just below the 2 % GoS curve

coexisting CS traffic up to 2 % GoS is acceptable

since 1.5 % GoS was assumed an additional TRX is not necessary in this cell

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

16

Mixed configurations
to be able to guarantee the availability of GPRS, operators might
provide fixed PDCHs and the rest as on-demand PDCHs
in this case simple estimations can be done:
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scenarios with 1,2 or 3 fixed PDCHs: take pure on-demand configurations for
dimensioning (probability that the first PDCHs are used by CS is low)

scenarios with more than 3 fixed PDCHs: take a pure fixed PDCH configuration for
dimensioning (probability that the on-demand PDCHs are used by CS is high)

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

17

Conclusions
fixed PDCH configurations can be dimensioned with one simple
dimensioning graph
on-demand PDCH configurations are recommended, since not all
physical channels are highly utilized by CS
dimensioning of on-demand PDCHs can be done by taking
dimensioning graphs for the regarded TRX scenario as the basis
for mixed scenarios with both fixed and on-demand PDCHs simple
estimations can be done and pure fixed or pure on-demand
dimensioning rules can be applied

Peter Stuckmann

2nd Wrzburg-Workshop on IP

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