Synchronized Radio Networks

When synchronization is done between cells of more than one site, i.e. synchronizing
partly or all of the network, MAIO management can be used to decrease the co- and
adjacent channel interference even further. For further information on synchronizing the
network, see Reference [6].and Reference [7] The general approach of the Ericsson
methodology is to view all cells within a group of Synchronized cells in the same way as a
normal site but with more than three sectors.

However there are some standard related technical issues to consider gaining the most of
such planning. If the difference of FNOFFSET is 0 or 51, e.g. FNOFFSET is the same in
all cells, there is a big risk of prolonged duration time of the measurement procedure of
neighbour cells due to the length of the multiframe. Therefore FNOFFSET planning also
has to be performed to avoid this. (E.g. Do no use FNOFFSET = 8 everywhere or
combine the value 0 with 51 in all cells in the network.) The measurement duration may
not be harmful if there are just a few neighbours, e.g. an indoor system or a very well
planned outdoor system with few neighbours.

There is also a feature that supports the operator with planning of the parameters that
control the frequency hopping for Synchronized cells in order to minimize the
interference in the network. For more information see Reference [1].

Example:

Consider a 1/1 reuse network with site synchronization. The operator has access to 20
frequencies, and three TRXs are installed in each cell. MAIO management within each site
is used to avoid co-channel interference within the site. Since only nine TRXs are
installed at each site, it is even possible to avoid adjacent channel interference within the
synchronized site, by using only even MAIO values.

To improve the network performance, the operator decides to synchronize the network. A
simple way to improve the quality and capacity in the network is to combine the sites
pairwise. The sites are combined so that the cells in each site-pair interfere strongly. The
six cells in each site-pair are assigned the same HSN and FNOFFSET. Since these six
cells includes only 18 TRXs, co-channel interference can be removed between all cells in
the site-pairs by assigning different MAIO values to different TRXs. It is also possible to
remove adjacent channel interference within a site. This can be achieved by assigning
only even MAIO values to one site and only odd MAIO values to the other site in each
site-pair.

Different site-pairs are assigned different values of FNOFFSET while the same HSN is
reused. This will lead to interference averaging, i.e., the interference from one
transmitter will be evenly distributed among a number of receivers, hopefully leading to
acceptable performance for all connections. The example is illustrated in the figure
below:
Figure 4 An example of how HSN, FNOFFSET and MAIO values can be assigned for cells
in a network with 1/1 reuse, 20 frequencies in the hopping channel group and 3 TRX per
cell.

Preferably, only FNOFFSET values that are multiples of four should be used. In case of
loss of synchronization, this will ensure that it will take some time before the TDMA
frames are aligned. Using different FNOFFSET values for different cells will also improve
locating performance, since the SCH in neighbouring cells can be decoded more
frequently.