WCDMA Radio Network Planning Principles and Workflow

Contents
WCDMA Radio Network Planning Principles WCDMA Radio Network Planning Workflow WCDMA Radio Network Planning Strategy and Guidelines WCDMA Radio Network Planning Solution for Typical Scenarios

Multiple Access Technology

FDMA FDMA
Traffic channels allocated to different users in different frequency band, e.g, TACS, AMPS.
Power
Tim
ue req F y nc

TDMA
Traffic channels allocated to different users in different time, e.g, GSM, DAMPS.

TDMA
Power
Tim e
Fre e qu nc y

CDMA
All users access the traffic channels at the same time and frequency, using different channel code, e.g.,WCDMA, CDMA.

CDMA
Power
Tim e
c en qu Fre y

 Self-interference of WCDMA System

WCDMA system is selfinterfered

WCDMA

Source of self-interference Sharing frequency spectrum, multipath transmission spreading code and scrambling code not ideally orthogonal, not ideal planning Self-interference phenomenon Power rise, soft capacity Solution Power control, admission control, load control, fine planning

f1

f1 f1 f1 f1

f1 f1 f1 f1 f1

f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f f1 1 f1 f1

f1 f1

FDMA / TDMA

f2
The target of WCDMA network planning is to minimize the system interference through a reasonable method

f2 f1 f3 f2

f1 f3 f2 f1 f3

f2 f1 f f2 1 f3 f3 f1 f2 f3

f1 f3

3x3 reuse of cell

Power Rise
RTWP of NodeB
UL noise rise increase with user number nonlinearly

46

User #
Tx Power (dBm)

44 42 40 38 36 34 32

. . .
DL PWR
3 users 2 users 1 user Common CH.

DL Node B power increase with user number non-linearly

46

48

50

52

54 56 user num ber

58

60

62

64

WCDMA Soft Capacity

WCDMA Soft Capacity Breathe effect of WCDMA cells

interference

WCDMA system capacity decided by not only hardware configuration, but also the system interference level In WCDMA system, capacity coverage quality are coupled, need a trade off during the planning Cell breathe embodies the influence of cell load to cell coverage

WCDMA System DL /UL Coverage and Capacity

160
Bette r cover age

155 150 145 140 135

DL load

Normally, Coverage is UL limited Capacity is DL limited

Max. allowed path loss [dB]

UL load 1002003004005006007008009001000 100200 300 1 1 1 Load per sector [kbps]

Capacity couples with coverage DL /UL coverage relationship decided by system load

Power Control

Signal for one user is noise for others. Power should be controlled at a reasonable level to keep good quality but not cause interference to others. Near far problem Signal from UEs near Node B can easily drown the signal of UEs at the edge of cell. Received power for all UE should be kept at same level, the noise in cell be optimized. Power control period is 0.66 ms (1500 Hz)

Near far effdct

De-spread

Node B

Power control De-spread

Node B

TPC is basis

Tx Pwr Minimized

Enhance system capacity

Soft Handover

UE at cell edge can receive signals from multiple cells Under control of RNC, UE can receive information from several cells, each DL use different scrambling code Softer handover Communication with two cells of same Node B Soft handover Communication with two or more Node Bs Hard handover (inter frequency) UE switch to different frequency

Various of WCDMA Services

Multiple services supported High speed data service Asymmetric service Bearer service with high capacity and flexibility Mixed services

Challenges from Mixed Service

Different services with Different services with different data rate, and different data rate, and also different coverage also different coverage and capacity and capacity
UMTS LCD: 64 kb/s Radius = 0.73R UMTS UDD: 64 kb/s Radius = 0.78R UMTS UDD: 144 kb/s Radius = 0.64R UMTS LCD: 144 kb/s Radius = 0.60R

UMTS Voice: 12.2 kb/s Radius = 0.87R

UMTS UDD: 384 kb/s Radius = 0.56R UMTS LCD: 384 kb/s Radius = 0.49R

UMTS Voice: 8 kb/s Radius = R

Different proportion and Different proportion and mixture of services lead to mixture of services lead to different system capacity. different system capacity. For WCDMA system, coverage, capacity, quality are tightly coupled

Tasks

Tasks and Target for Network Planning

To satisfy the requirements from operator on coverage, capacity demand, and service quality, by performing the network dimensioning, design and simulation, so that the maximized benefits can be gained from the network. Network planning should have a prediction of future development, and be ready for future construction.

Target
Achieves the good coverage to the most extent in terms of time and location. Minimize system self-interference to the most extent so as to get the desired quality. Optimize radio parameters to get the best of system performance. With the precondition that capacity and quality requirements are met, reduce the hardware expenditure and system total cost.

Contents
WCDMA Radio Network Planning Principles WCDMA Radio Network Planning Workflow WCDMA Radio Network Planning Strategy and Guidelines WCDMA Radio Network Planning Solution for Typical Scenarios

WCDMA network planning Flow

Requirement analysis Propagation model test dimensioning

Propagation model tuning

Pre-planning simulation

Site survey

Site evaluation

Topology design simulation

Parameter planning

Requirements satisfied

Output planning report

Flow Requirements Analysis

Planning requirements Coverage, capacity, QoS Clutter of planning area population and average income of planning area Existing mobile network in planning area

 Flow Requirements Analysis

Area classification Aim accurate network design and layout Different area has different geographical environment, plant distribution, building density, etc. Different area needs different number of base stations to provide desired coverage
Area type Dense urban Features Buildings are densely distributed with narrow distance, much of them are high buildings. Average height and density is higher than other area obviously. Distance between buildings are wider, street or green land can be clearly seen between buildings. Standalone high buildings may appear. Towns with developed economy and much buildings are also treated as mean urban. Open environment, clear layout of streets, plants and standalone houses are easy to be found, sparse distribution of buildings, often low ones. Very sparse distribution of buildings, with large area of open land.

Mean urban

Suburban Rural

 Flow Requirements Analysis

Coverage requirements
Different area with different coverage and service requirements Different coverage and service requirements result in different number of base stations

64 k CS

144k PS data

384k PS data

 Flow Requirements Analysis

Capacity requirements Subscriber prediction, distribution, traffic model

Data user proportion High end user middle end user Low end user Total

Dense urban

Mean urban suburban

 Flow Requirements Analysis

Cell load Increased cell load leads to shrunk cell coverage and instable system.
12
ste m

10

Noise Rise

t Jus 2 em syst le Stab 0

le tab s

e yst s

0 10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

Loading

Un

s ta

bl e

sy

 Flow Requirements Analysis

Other information Important buildings in planning area Important street and transportation in planning area Important towns in planning area

Flow Propagation Model Tuning

Received power

Principles Addition of fast and slow fading Tune the model using middle value of received filed strength Lee theorem: 36 50samples/40 Using limited test samples to predict the propagation model of the whole planning area. Radio Environment Classification According to 3GPP suggestion, propagation environment can be classified as dense urban, mean urban, suburban and rural

Fast fading Slow fading

Flow Propagation Model Tuning

Site selection for propagation model test Test site should be in typical propagation environment Use three or more sites for each typical environment Try to cover as much clutter as possible No obstacle nearby is allowed. Test antenna height should be approximate to real sites. Appropriate test route around test site.
receiver

antenna transmitt er

laptop

Flow Propagation Model Tuning

Route selection Test data in different distance and direction At least 4~5 test data in each distance Pass through as much clutter as possible Try not to drive on special streets like highway or viaduct Avoid street effect

8style or spiral test route

Grid of street

Flow Propagation Model Tuning

Data collection Lon/lat collected accords with digital map Avoid street effect Enough samples for each clutter type Test radius should as large as possible, while keep the weakest CPICH Ec at less than -120dBm middle speed, stable drive Meets Lee theorem requirement Avoid repeat route as much as possible When car stopped, data record should be paused

Ensure the effective and even weight of collected data

Test data pre-process Filter by distance Filter by strength Filter out street effect Filter out apparently abnormal data GPS correction

Flow Propagation Model Tuning

Propagation model choice

PathLoss = K1 + K 2 log( d ) + K 3Hms + K 4 log( Hms ) + K 5 log( Heff ) + K 6 log( Heff ) log( d ) + K 7( diffractio nloss ) + Clutterlos s

K1 K2 K3, K4 K5, K6

factor

attenuation constant distance attenuation constant mobile antenna height correction base station antenna height correction factor Diffraction correction factor clutter attenuation correction value distance of mobile and station (km) mobile antenna effective height (m) station antenna effective height (m)

K7 Clutter loss d Hms Heff

Propagation model tuning

Set default K1 K7 for test frequency, or values for similar clutter Iterative tuning of model parameters according to bias between DT data and predicted data using the tuning software When mean and standard error of predicted data and DT data is minimized, the tuning is finished

Flow Dimensioning

Dimensioning Coverage estimation Capacity estimation Get number of base stations that satisfy requirements on coverage, capacity, quality

Flow Dimensioning
Input:: system load and coverage requirement UL coverage estimate # of NodeB DL coverage estimate # of NodeB UL capacity estimate # of NodeB

Pick bigger one

Based on traffic Required channel # A model

Based on power

Provided channel # B

A<B Y

N Add NodeB

Finish

Flow Dimensioning
Scale estimation case Step 1: Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Flow pre-planning simulation

purpose Verify scale of estimation Guideline for the topology design Guideline for site survey and selection

Existing site info. propagation model traffic model

Flow site survey

site survey Get input for planning & simulation Know about geographic and radio environment of site Know about conditions of civil work Traffic distribution in planning area Provide candidate sites in planning area

Flow site survey

Site selection principles Coverage, civil work, cost Transportation, power supply, anti-lightning and grounding, floor load, environment, room occupancy At initial stage of rollout, not too much sites constructed, VIP user area and dense traffic area should be covered first Using existing sites as much as possible, equipment room, power, and tower, etc., can be reused Sites near radar station should be avoided, if must, interference and safety should be considered Sites on high mountain or jungles should be avoided If site coverage is possible to be affected by future building, better consider change another one

Flow site survey

Required data Site info: site name, site address, longitude, latitude, building height, tower height Radio parameters: azimuth, down tilt, antenna height, polarization, isolation Propagation environment description Interference source Suggested site configuration

Flow site survey

Small capacity Middle capacity Big capacity

Mean urban Hotspot Suburban and rural street

Dense urban Mean urban

Indoor coverage

Indoor coverage Suburban and rural street

Sites with no equipment room

Different Node B has different performance, coverage capacity cost, deploy scenario and installation condition, need composite planning

Flow simulation filtering

simulation
Comparison of multiple plan by simulation

Simulation result gives a preferred planning scheme

Flow simulation filtering

coverage

Best server

Flow simulation filtering

CPICH_Ec/Io

Flow simulation filtering

CPICH_Ec

Flow simulation filtering

The number of pilot polluters

Flow simulation filtering

Service coverage rate

Voice service coverage rate

Flow simulation filtering

capacity

Uplink Load

Flow simulation filtering

simulation statistics

Flow parameter planning

Power allocation for DL channels scrambling code planning Handover parameter planning Frequency allocation

Outline
WCDMA Radio Network Planning Principles WCDMA Radio Network Planning Workflow WCDMA Radio Network Planning Strategy and Guidelines WCDMA Radio Network Planning Solution for Typical Scenarios

Planning Strategy
Holistic planning
Ensure the global target of network planning

Coverage Service Cost

Holistic planning can reduce influence of expansion to running system Reduce complexity, easy to construct and maintain Implementation by stages For consideration of cost, its not feasible to provide full coverage in one step Firstly, coverage in important area is provided, later coverage depends on traffic expansion and operation policy.
Non-important area, Non-important area, gradual coverage gradual coverage

Important area, Important area, One step coverage One step coverage

Good Coverage: Key to Success

NTT DoCoMo FOMA
Resident coverage rate

2004/3 99.9% resident covered 2003/9 97% resident covered 2001/10 3G launched in Tokyo

Node1 2003/9 sub. Beyond 1000k

Node2 2004/2 sub. Beyond 2000k

3G launched in Japan

NTT DoCoMo fulfilled coverage for 98% of national residents in 2 years 3G subscriber increased rapidly since 2004, at end of 2005/9, 15,878k registered subscribers for FOMA service. Good coverage including indoor coverage is important reason for the increase

Indoor Coverage
60 80% 3G subscriber indoor 3G indoor coverage disadvantage: compared with 2G system, more than 6.6dB loss due to frequency Indoor/outdoor influence: DL power increase up to 12% capacity decrease down to 13% Outdoor coverage first at initial stage, indoor system for only important buildings

 Good, Effective Coverage

Effective Coverage Principle Driven by traffic, classify target coverage area Classify plan area type according to propagation model and traffic density Different plan area has different target of coverage Make clear traffic coverage requirement for different coverage area

Good Coverage Principle Continuous coverage for basic service Important area provide with high speed service coverage Certain level of indoor coverage Certain level of pilot strength and quality for coverage area Flexible usage of series of NodeB and coverage enhancing technology

Voice 12.2 kbps

Data 64 kbps

Data 384 kbps

BTS

Reasonable Traffic Prediction and Capacity Design

Capacity design principle
Traffic map from statistics of current network, know about hotspot distribution According to design goal, predict traffic model Differentiated system load design normally UL load 50 DL load 75 for suburban and rural, load can be low down Design combined with capacity expansion scheme

 Site Construction

Site selection
Similar height for sites in same area, high site avoided Avoid circular layout of sites, reduce pilot pollution Near hotspot Re-use of old sites

Configuration design principle

Indoor macro 3 cell site to provide coverage framework When hard to get indoor resource, may use outdoor, micro cell, RRU, etc Special coverage scenario uses series of NodeB Suburban and rural area, OTSR, omni site also can be used Usage of coverage enhancing technology

In urban area, suggested antenna with 2 6 degree fixed electrical down tilt or electrical adjustable antenna. 65 degree beam width to control interference In open area like suburban rural, mechanical down tilt antenna For special coverage demand, may use zero-filled antenna or beam-formed antenna For highway coverage, may use narrow beam width antenna with high gain

Antenna selection principle

 Cost Control

WCDMA model

Cost control principle Key re-use current resource According to traffic requirements, determine coverage area and coverage level, implement prioritized

Service platform 5% ansmission 15%

CN 10%

Facilities 30%

RNS 40%

coverage Implement by stages Flexible usage of series of NodeB Coverage and capacity enhancing

RNS, equipment and facilities, transmission contributes 85% of investigation Reduce RNS related cost is key to cost control

technology

 Tool Support simulation test Analysis of test data Omc data analysis

Contents
WCDMA Radio Network Planning Principles WCDMA Radio Network Planning Workflow WCDMA Radio Network Planning Strategy and Guidelines WCDMA Radio Network Planning Solution for Typical Scenarios

Case Study
Typical propagation environment includes:
Dense commercial area Dense residential area Coastal area viaduct Main road tunnel Scenic spot others

 Environment feature

Dense Commercial Area

High buildings all around, dense distribution of hotels and malls

Narrow street, surround with high buildings, obstacle to signal propagation, may cause street effect and forms overshoot of coverage Concentrated traffic, high demand to capacity

coverage solution
Using macro site along street to provide coverage antenna main lobe has an angle with street direction to avoid street effect. High building acts as obstacle to avoid overshoot. Using small power micro NodeB or RRU to provide coverage for blind area or hotspot

 Dense Residential Area

Environment feature
Not so high building (mainly 5-6 floor residential building), but very densely distributed. Some streets belongs to trading area, large number of tradesman and local residents Propagation environment very poor, big penetration loss, easy to appear coverage blind area

Coverage solution
Penetration loss and shadow fading margin values differs from other environments When doing site survey, may use denser sites, and use coverage enhancing technology like TMA For small poor coverage area, using micro station or RRU as complementary technology

High Building Coverage

Environment feature
Height oddly distributed High buildings are commonly malls or hotels, have certain traffic demands

Coverage solution
Indoor distribution system Using hierarchical cell structure, use different outdoor antenna to provide coverage for higher and lower part of building

River Coverage
Environment feature open area ideal propagation environment for radio wave, easy to have pilot pollution.
Subscriber sparsely distributed, and has mobility property

Coverage Solution Sites deployed along river, may use high gain antenna or TMA
When necessary, use RRU along river to provide belt area coverage

Lake or Sea Coverage

Environment feature
Open area ideal propagation environment, easy to form pilot pollution Little traffic, coverage is main demand

Coverage solution
High outdoor site at shore, using high power and high gain antenna configuration Use coverage enhancing technology like TMA

Subway or Tunnel Coverage

Environment feature
Enclosed room, long distance, continuous coverage needed

Coverage solution
May use solution as B09/ BBUA B03R distributed antenna Distributed antenna system may use co-axis distributed antenna system or leakage cable Tunnel has less capacity demand, using B03R + repeater to provide coverage with low cost

Viaduct Coverage
Environment feature
Long and narrow environment, with corners Propagation environment above and below bridge differs a lot, easy to have blind coverage Cars and subscribers distributed as belt, middle traffic demand, with high mobility

Coverage solution
Coverage with low antenna down tilt to avoid pilot pollution to other area Use RRU or micro cell to compensate blind and weak coverage area

Arterial Road Coverage

Environment feature
Arterial includes railway and highway Bending corner constrained by geographical factors Small propagation loss, open land

Coverage solution
Comprehensive consideration of economy and feasibility, flexibly use macro, micro, repeater or OTSR Mainly use outdoor site and tower to construct faster and save cost.

Large Scenic Spot Coverage

Environment feature
High demand for coverage, traffic varies with seasons, low revenue with high cost Hard to find sites

Coverage solution
Use B09/B09A at scenic area edge to provide wide coverage Use B06C, B03R which are easy to be installed and has little room requirement, to avoid affection to scene