Professional Documents
Culture Documents
March/2009
CONTENT
1.
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 3
1.1.
OBJECT ......................................................................................................................... 3
1.2.
1.3.
2.
3.
5.
Resource utilization........................................................................................... 12
Traffic mix management ................................................................................... 13
New approach for capacity assessment ........................................................... 13
4.2.
CONCLUSIONS .........................................................................................................19
Page 2/19
1.
INTRODUCTION
1.1.
OBJECT
This white paper describes Triangulum's network capacity boosting solution.
1.2.
1.3.
Page 3/19
2.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The strong pressure on revenue margins has forced mobile network to reexamine their approach to mobile network infrastructure investment. Many
advanced operators worldwide are examining different capacity extensions
techniques in order to drive a much lower cost of network ownership.
Designed to cope with the new challenges mobile operator currently facing,
Triangulum has come with a unique capacity extension solution, allowing
mobile operators to benefit from significant operational costs reduction,
while still maintaining a very high Quality of Service for end users and without
investing further money in new infrastructure for capacity extension.
This white paper describes the benefits of implementing Triangulum's
network capacity extension solution and describes case study based on real
implementation on very complicate GSM network.
This white paper is intended for global system for mobile communications
(GSM) operators interested in understanding on how capacity extension
solution can help to increase network efficiency and save investments for
GSM radio network expansion.
This white paper contains theoretical background, case studies and field
results for network capacity extension solution implementation.
Page 4/19
3.
NETWORK CAPACITY
The network capacity is a keyword for efficient network and operator profit.
But there is a very heavy tradeoff that should be solved in order to achieve
those profit targets from one hand this is a traffic losses and customer
satisfaction due to Quality of Service and from other hand there are
investments for network infrastructure expansion (Capital Expenses CapEx)
and deployment limitations.
Correctly designed network capacity will prevent traffic losses, will provide
high Quality of Service for end users and will minimize investments into
network expansion once network will grow.
There are few different techniques that providing an ability to estimate
network capacity. But prior to network capacity calculation some important
criteria should be defined in order to provide correct results.
3.1.
Page 5/19
3.1.1
3.1.2
The following graph shows dependency of different data services from two
major KPIs that affecting end user experience:
Page 6/19
3.1.3
NETWORK UTILIZATION
In order to provide a short cycle for Return of Investments (ROI), each
operator should closely evaluate the efficiency of each network element. It is
very important that already deployed infrastructure will be fully utilized for
revenue generating services.
For cell efficiency evaluation the cell utilization KPIs should be monitored.
The definition of utilization KPI is pretty simple and described as ratio
between amount of served traffic and available cells' resources (timeslots).
3.2.
CLASSICAL APPROACH
The most commonly used technique is an Erlang B, which calculates cell
capacity under given Grade of Service value.
The Erlang B calculation allows to get a possible amount of traffic that can be
served by specific cell without exceeding a predefined blocking level. The
Erlang B calculation is assuming a certain model of voice traffic behavior,
which is applicable for on-going network dimensioning process. The
dimensioning calculation performed periodically per cell basis and as results
new
requirements
for
hardware
(TRXs)
Page 7/19
installation
released
for
3.2.1
SIGNALING CAPACITY
The signaling processes in GSM network are responsible for the following
activities:
Mobility Management
SMS sending
Call Setups
Page 8/19
3.2.2
Grade of Service
Lines
0.01
0.02
14
7.35
8.20
22
13.65
14.85
30
20.30
21.90
37
26.35
28.25
45
33.40
35.60
52
39.70
42.10
Page 9/19
The following graph shows an instant traffic behavior on specific cell, average
traffic volume (erlangs) and available number of timeslots for traffic serving:
35
Congestion
30
25
Erlangs
20
15
10
Time
Offered Traffic
Average Busy TS
Max Available TS
3.2.3
Page 10/19
No PS resources
30
25
Timeslots
20
15
10
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
21
23
25
27
29
31
33
35
37
39
41
43
45
47
49
51
53
55
57
59
61
63
65
67
69
71
73
75
77
79
81
83
85
87
89
91
93
95
97
99
Time
Busy Voice TS
Available PS TS
Average Busy TS
1 Dedicated
3 Dedicated
4 Dedicated
Expansion
PS TS
PS TSs
PS TSs
301
668
1442
2156
Total cells
5493
5493
5493
5493
Cells to be expanded,(%)
5.48%
12.16%
26.25%
39.25%
Page 11/19
3.3.
RESOURCE UTILIZATION
The most important effect from implementation of advanced traffic
management approach is a change of instant traffic behavior. The following
graph shows effect of advance traffic management implementation on cell
instant traffic behavior:
35
30
25
20
Erlangs
15
10
0
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
21
23
25
27
29
31
33
35
37
39
41
43
45
47
49
51
53
55
57
59
61
63
65
67
69
71
73
75
77
79
81
83
85
87
89
91
93
95
97
99
3.3.1
Time
Offered Traffic
Average Busy TS
Max Available TS
As it clearly shown above, the cell utilization become much higher than in
classical approach, while congestion management technique allows to
improve an end user perceived experience.
Page 12/19
3.3.2
25
Timeslots
20
15
10
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
21
23
25
27
29
31
33
35
37
39
41
43
45
47
49
51
53
55
57
59
61
63
65
67
69
71
73
75
77
79
81
83
85
87
89
91
93
95
97
99
Time
Busy Voice TS
3.3.3
On-Demand PS TS
Dedicated PS TS
Average Busy TS
Page 14/19
4.
CASE STUDY
Our advanced traffic management strategy was implemented in few
complicated mobile networks. Each implementation shows dramatic increase
of network capacity. Typical capacity extension measured values are between
15% and 30%, while in some cases it was even 40%. A network capacity
increase without new hardware is leading to significant reduction in new
infrastructure requirements together with significant reduction of daily
network operation costs due to better network performance and better user
experience.
This case study is based on recent project performed by Triangulum on one of
the most busiest and complicated network around the world. The overall
project timeframe was 4 weeks only.
4.1.
NETWORK DESCRIPTION
The performance improvement solution had been implemented on network
with following specification:
Environment
Dense Urban
1800 Cells
250
900 Cells
300
80 ARFCNs
72 ARFCNs
4.2.
IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS
The following table shows the network performance benchmark prior to
capacity boosting solution implementation (before) and after:
Page 15/19
KPI
Before
After
Delta,%
0.93
0.40
56.99
SDCCH Drop
0.87
0.76
12.64
0.74
0.65
12.16
TCH Drop
0.73
0.63
13.70
930.87
847.81
8.92
4044.54 4769.85
17.93
SDCCH Traffic
TCH Traffic
SDCCH Cong
0.52
0.34
34.62
Call Congestion
2.82
0.07
97.52
TCH HR Traffic %
8.30
4.83
41.87
Bad Quality UL
2.40
2.00
16.65
Bad Quality DL
2.43
1.87
23.07
33.37
66.04
97.9
66.65
33.96
-49.05
GPRS Traffic
2069.93 2845.15
37.45
EDGE Traffic
878.89 1222.35
39.08
TBF CONGESTION
0.32
0.03
90.63
The following graph shows the major project implementation stages and
results in network capacity extension, where dependency of traffic growth
(more than 20%) and Call Congestion disappears and network is able to
accumulate more traffic without losses:
5000.00
3.50
3.00
2.50
2.00
4400.00
1.50
Call Congestion, %
4600.00
4200.00
1.00
4000.00
0.50
3800.00
TCH Traffic
04/03
03/03
02/03
01/03
28/02
27/02
26/02
25/02
24/02
23/02
22/02
21/02
20/02
19/02
18/02
17/02
16/02
15/02
14/02
13/02
12/02
11/02
10/02
0.00
09/02
4800.00
Call Congestion
Page 16/19
The same behavior pattern is recognizable for packet switched traffic, where
overall traffic growth was more than 35% for GPRS and EDGE traffic. The
following graph shows dependency of GPRS/EDGE traffic volume versus TBF
congestion:
3500.00
0.40
0.35
3000.00
0.30
0.25
2000.00
0.20
1500.00
TBF Congestion, %
GPRS/EDGE Erlangs
2500.00
0.15
1000.00
0.10
500.00
0.05
EDGE_TRAFFIC_ERLANG
GPRS_TRAFFIC_ERLANG
04/04
03/03
02/03
01/03
28/02
27/02
26/02
25/02
24/02
23/02
22/02
21/02
20/02
19/02
18/02
17/02
16/02
15/02
14/02
13/02
12/02
11/02
10/02
09/02
08/02
0.00
07/02
0.00
TBF_CONGESTION
The half rate vocoder utilization is significantly reduced, while traffic volume
growth was more than 20%:
10.00
9.00
8.00
7.00
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
04/04
03/03
02/03
01/03
28/02
27/02
26/02
25/02
24/02
23/02
22/02
21/02
20/02
19/02
18/02
17/02
16/02
15/02
14/02
13/02
12/02
11/02
10/02
09/02
0.00
HR Traffic %
Page 17/19
70.00
60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
04/04
03/03
02/03
01/03
28/02
27/02
26/02
25/02
24/02
23/02
22/02
21/02
20/02
19/02
18/02
17/02
16/02
15/02
14/02
13/02
12/02
11/02
10/02
09/02
0.00
20%
4%
31%
10%
45%
Page 18/19
5.
CONCLUSIONS
The advanced traffic management approach, proposed by Triangulum, can
help mobile network to achieve a double benefit, first by helping to extend
the current network capacity without investing in new infrastructure and
decrease operational costs while maintaining the quality targets, and second
by implementing new techniques and methods that will help the mobile
operator to maintain and operate his network with less efforts and with
higher quality level.
For further discussion on how advanced traffic management approach could
extend a network capacity, please, contact Triangulum PTE Ltd.
Page 19/19