GSM Capacity Planning PDF

Capacity Planning P-1
Capacity Planning
www.huawei.com
Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Foreword
Capacity planning is very important of network QoS.
Good planning reduce further RNO work and capacity
expansion.
Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page2

Contents
1. Traffic Prediction
2. TCH Capacity Planning
3. SDCCH Capacity Planning
4. Capacity Enhancement Technology

Traffic and Erlang

A is offered traffic, BHC is busy hour call times, tm is user
mean hold time, T is 1Hr (3600s).
BHC * tm
A=
T
200 users call in busy hr, average holding time 180s, the
traffic is:
200 *180 s
A= = 10 Erl
3600 s

Traffic Prediction
In traffic prediction, we should consider many factors:
Population
Family income
Subscription ratio of fixed phone
National economy development
City construction
Future policy of fee
The network construction requires the consideration of economic feasibility and

rationality. Therefore, a reasonable investment decision must be based on the prediction
of the network capacity of the early and late stage.

TCH Traffic Model Example

Traffic Model
Item
Shenyang Dalian Anshan Others
Busy Hr Average Traffic per User 0.028 0.026 0.022 0.02
Average Holding Time (s) 61 57 48 43
Busy Hr Call Times 1.64 1.64 1.64 1.64
Successful First Paging Ratio 80% 80% 80% 80%
Busy Hr Location Update Times 1.21 2.61 1.91 1.01
Second Paging Ratio 20% 20% 20% 20%
Average Handovers per Call 1.4 1.7 1.7 1.4
Busy Hr Short Message Receiving per User 4.6 3.2 2.0 1.5
Busy Hr Short Message Sending per User 4.2 3 1.5 1.4
Roaming User In/Out Ratio 10%/ 10% 10%/ 10% 10%/ 10% 10%/ 10%
Subscriber Active Ratio 100% 100% 100% 100%
Mobile-Mobile 40% 40% 40% 30%
Call Proportion Fix-Mobile 36% 36% 36% 38%
Mobile-Fix 24% 24% 24% 32%

Traffic Prediction
After predicting the total network traffic, then predict the
subscriber distribution.
Generally, base stations are constructed in urban areas,

suburban areas, and transport arteries.
At first, the subscribers in cities contribute most traffic. With

the development, the subscribers in suburban areas grows
fast.
In busy hr, the traffic of each subscriber is 0.025 Erl in urban areas and 0.020 Erl in
suburban areas.

Considerations
For important areas, consider back up stations and TRX.
The dynamic factors, such as roaming ratio, subscriber
mobility should be considered.
For the areas of burst traffic, such as the play ground and
seasonal tourism spots, you must prepare backup
equipments (such as carriers and micro cells).
Prepare the some carriers, micro base stations for

emergency and future optimization.

Contents

Overview
According to different situation, we have two method for
planning: Fixed Site Location and Fixed Frequency Reuse.
By Frequency Reuse:
The type of frequency reuse is given.
By Max Coverage:
The max coverage of cell is given.
By Frequency Reuse: The type of frequency reuse is given. It decides max TRX
number of every cell. By traffic prediction, calculate max user number per cell. According
to the total traffic and user number, Obtain site and cell number.
By Max Coverage: By coverage planning, obtain the max coverage of one cell. By the
total area of whole network, calculate the required cell number. By traffic prediction,
obtain the traffic of every cell, then calculate the TRX number.

Basic Flow - By Frequency Reuse

Frequency Reuse Pattern
Max TRX Number of Cell
Max Channel Number of Cell

Erlang B Table
Max Traffic (Erl) of Cell
Traffic Distribution
Max User No. and Coverage by One Cell
Total user No. and traffic
Site, Cell Number

By Frequency Reuse (Cont.)

According to the bandwidth and allowed interference level,
get the acceptable reuse mode.
Obtain the max number of TRX in one cell, then one Site.
For example, there are 4.8MHZ: 7.2/0.2=36 frequency
If reuse density is 4X3: 36/(4*3)= 3 frequency, in other

word, each cell has 3 TRX


Each TRX has 8 channels. Obtain the voice channel
numbers by detracting the SDCCH required. Typically each
two TRX need a SDCCH.
For example, each cell 3 TRX, 2 SDCCH channels should

be configured. So total TCH are: 3X8=24 channels
24-1(BCCH)-2(SDCCH)=21 TCH channels


By number of voice channels and call loss ratio (generally
2% dense traffic areas), you can obtain the maximum traffic
of one cell by Erlang B table.
For example, 21TCH according 2% block rate, each cell can

support 14.04 erl.

Erlang B Table
Erlang B table give the relationship between Channel
Number , Call Block Rate (QoS) and Traffic.
Channel Block Rate

Number 0.5 1.0 2 5 10
6 1.622 1.909 2.276 2.960 3.758
7 2.158 2.501 2.935 3.738 4.666
14 6.663 7.532 8.200 9.730 11.47
21 11.86 12.84 14.04 16.19 18.65
29 18.22 19.49 21.04 23.83 27.05
36 24.01 25.51 27.34 30.66 34.50

By Frequency Reuse
If there are 1 million MS, and each MS traffic is 0.025erl
during the busy hour. So the whole traffic is 25000 erl
25000/14.04=1780.6 cells =1781 cells

Basic Flow – By Max Coverage

Coverage Planning
Max Coverage per Cell
Total Coverage of The Network

Cell Number
Traffic Distribution
Traffic and User No. per Cell
Erlang B Table
Channel Number of Cell
TRX Number of Cell

By Max Coverage
By Coverage Planning, obtain the maximum coverage range
per cell.
By total area of the whole network, calculate cell number.
According to Traffic Prediction, decide how many user and

traffic in each cell.
With Erlang B table, decide the channel number required in

each cell.
Calculate the TRX number required in each cell.
Interference

Calculate the Coverage

3 – Sectors site Omni site
Site Coverage Radius: R Site Coverage Radius: R

Site distance: D=1.5R Site distance: D=1.732R
Site Coverage Area=1.949R2 Coverage Area=2.598R2

Erlang B Table
Erlang B table give the relationship between Channel
Number , Call Block Rate (QoS) and Traffic.
Channel Block Rate

Number 0.5 1.0 2 5 10
6 1.622 1.909 2.276 2.960 3.758
7 2.158 2.501 2.935 3.738 4.666
14 6.663 7.532 8.200 9.730 11.47
21 11.86 12.84 14.04 16.19 18.65
29 18.22 19.49 21.04 23.83 27.05
36 24.01 25.51 27.34 30.66 34.50

Practice
Suppose 100000 subscriber in city, 80% urban, 20%
suburban. Busy Hr traffic is 25/20mErl per user.
Frequency 10-50 is available.
Use3-sector site.
If by Frequency Reuse, BCCH use 4*3, TCH use 2*3. How

many TRX, cell, site is needed?
If by Max Coverage, max radius 1 km, total 300km2. How


Practice
Suppose 100000 subscriber in city, 80% urban, 20%
suburban. Busy Hr traffic is 25/20mErl per user.
Frequency 10-50 is available.
Use3-sector site.
If by Frequency Reuse, BCCH use 4*3, TCH use 1*3. HR is

used here.1X3 and all the TRX can work in HR mode. How

Contents

SDCCH Traffic Source

Location Update
Normal/Periodical 3.5 s/ times
Power Off/On
IMSI Detach/Attach 2.9/3.5 s/times

Call
Original/Destination 2.7/2.9 s/times
Short Message
Sending/Receiving 6.2 s/times

SDCCH Traffic Model (Cont.)

Times in busy hour
Event Normal Cell Internal Boundary Unit
Times/
Normal Location Update 0.4 0 1.2 Busy Hr
Periodic Location Update 2 2 2 /
IMSI Attach/Detach 0.2 0.2 0.2 /
Call Establish (O/D) 0.8/0.8 0.8/0.8 0.8/0.8 /

Point to Point Short
Message (O/D) 2/2 2/2 2/2 /

SDCCH Traffic Model

Event Normal Cell Internal Boundary Unit
Normal Location Update 0.4 0 1.2 mErl/user
Periodic Location Update 1.8 1.8 1.8 mErl/user
IMSI Attach/Detach 0.16 0.16 0.16 mErl/user
Call Establish 1.24 1.24 1.24 mErl/user
Point to Point Short Message 6.9 6.9 6.9 mErl/user
Sum 10.5 10.1 11.3 mErl/user
Redundancy 20% 12.6 12.1 13.6 mErl/user
SDCCH/TCH 50% 48% 52%
Consider TCH Traffic 25mErl/user

Other Considerations
The following steps is similar to TCH planning.
The traffic analysis of SDCCH is very difficult, normally

not accurate.
Commonly used configuration is 1SDCCH per 2TRX, a

value by experience.
Now we use the Dynamic SDCCH, which largely

expand the flexibility of SDCCH configuration.

TCH to SDCCH Conversion

Conversion Trigger:
Idle SDCCH < Idle SD Thrsh.
SD Dynamic
Allowed Yes/No
Yes Resource Check
Ongoing?
No SDCCH + 8 <
Cell SD Maximum?
No
Yes Yes
System Busy?
No IS
Idle TCH/F + idle (TCH/H)/2 4
No SDCCH conversion Yes AND
allowed? Idle TCH/F + idle (TCH/H)/2 No of TRX?
Yes
Yes Other SDCCH
conversion ongoing?
No No
Stop Select suitable TCH/F
After the SDCCH dynamic adjustment process is triggered, dynamic

adjustment can be started under the following conditions:
There should not be a resource check ongoing (usually at night during low traffic hour).
The BSC internal flow control level should be less than 0 (i.e. the BSC is not in overload).
Dynamic adjustment of other SDCCH in the cell should not be in progress (one
conversion at a time).
“SD Dynamic Allocation Allowed” should be “Yes” (feature enabled).
The number of the SDCCHs +8 should be less than “Cell SD Maximum”.
IF the number of the cell idle TCH/F + (the number of the cell idle TCH/H)/2 4 AND
the number of the TRXs in the cell THEN the dynamic SDCCH adjustment is not allowed.
ELSE allowed.
Then a suitable TCH/F should be selected for conversion.
Parameter: Cell SD Maximum
Range:0~255
Default: Configured SDCCHs + 8 (i.e single dynamic)
Description: The maximum number of SDCCHs in the cell.
Parameter: SD Dynamic Allocation Allowed
Range: Yes, No
Default: Yes
Description: Indicates whether SDCCH dynamic allocation is allowed.

Contents

Tight Frequency Reuse (Cont.)

2*3 or 1*3 or 1*1
With the same frequency band, Tight Frequency Reuse

increase the TRX number per cell, which decides the
capacity of the cell.

Half Rate
Half rate voice coding uses new coding algorithm to reduce
the coding rate to half that of full rate. Thus, one physical
channel that can only support one call now can support two
calls by half rate.
If the half rate service is used, the voice capacity expands
twice without adding TRX.

The Function of HR
T T T T T T S T T T T T T
T T T T T T T T T T T T S T T T T T T T T T T T T I
T T T T T T T T T T T T S

Estimation of the Number TCHF

Some situations, need to estimate the number of TCHFs
and TCHHs available in a cell.
With the estimated proportion between the TCHFs and

TCHHs you can set the TCH Traffic Busy Threshold more
accurately.
The estimation of the number of TCHFs and TCHHs in a cell paves the way for the
proper configuration of the TCHFs and TCHHs in the cell. Also, with the estimated
proportion between the TCHFs and TCHHs you can set the TCH Traffic Busy
Threshold more accurately.

Estimation of the Number TCHF

Providing the traffic volume (1 Erl) and the allowed call loss
rate (B%), the number of channels required in the cell (n)
can be calculated according to the Erlang B table.
Suppose that a cell has two TRXs and the cell is configured
with one BCCH and two SDCCHs.

Examples
According to the Erlang B table, when the traffic volume is X
the number of channels required in the cell is 10.
The number of channels that can be configured as TCHs in

the cell is 13 (2 x 8 - 3).
Because 13 > 10, all the channels in the cell can be

configured as TCHFs. TCH Traffic Busy Threshold can be
set to 100.

Examples
According to the Erlang B table, when the traffic volume in
the cell is Y the number of channels required in the cell is 17
and the number of TCHs required is 13.
Because 13 x 2 > 17 > 13, the number of TCHFs to be
configured in the cell is 9 (2 x 13 - 17) and other channels
should be configured as TCHHs.
TCH Traffic Busy Threshold is set to 70 (100 x [2 x 13 -

17]/13)

Examples
Based on ERLANG B, if the traffic volume in the cell is Z,
the number of configured channels is 28 and the number of
channels that can be used as TCHs in the cell is 13.
Because 28 > 13 x2, all the channels in the cell should be

configured as TCHHs. At the same time, Huawei
recommends that a user should perform an expansion.
The TCH Traffic Busy Threshold is set to 0.

Exercise
If cell A has 12 TCHs, traffic volume is 8.3 erl, the required
block rate is 1% ,so the TCH Traffic Busy Threshold is set
to ( ? )
If cell B has 10 TCHs, traffic volume is 16.2 erl, the required
block rate is 2% ,so the TCH Traffic Busy Threshold is set
to ( ? )

Concentric Cell (Co-BCCH)

What is Co-BCCH cell
In the same cell there are 900M carriers and
1800M carriers, just one BCCH channel, only a CGI.
Co-BCCH cell should be configured as concentric
cell
Overlaid subcell
Underlaid subcell
Co-BCCH cell, also has some other names:

1 Co-Cell
2 Multiband Cell
3 900/1800 mix cell

Concentric Cell (Co-BCCH)

Dual BCCH cell: S3+S3 CoBCCH cell: S3+3
900M
1800M
BCC SDCC Available Total Trunking

TRX PDCH Erl
Dual 900M: 3 H
1 H
2 1 TCH
20 13.2 Erl Gain
1800M:
BCCH 1 2 1 20 13.2 26.4
CoBCC 3
UL: 3 1 4 2 17 10.7
H OL: 3 0 0 0 24 16.6 27.3 3.4%
41 31.9 20.08%

Assignment
GSM900M/DCS1800M Co-cell assignment must conform to the policies of
concentric cell. As the MS may be a non-dual-band one, the band supporting
capability of the MS must be judged before the channel assignment.
Type Not get the MS ability or MS

MS supports dual band
Assignment just support single band
Imm-assignment Underlaid Underlaid
Depend on “assign
Assignment Underlaid
optimum layer”
Depend on “Prefer subcell

Intra-BSC HO Underlaid
in HO of intra BSC”
Incoming-to-BSC HO Underlaid Underlaid
When the MS supports the frequencies of both the overlay and underlay cells,
assign the channel according to the channel assignment policy of the concentric
cell. Otherwise, assign the channel in the overlay cell only.

Configuration
When adding a new cell it should be

configured as GMS900&DCS1800

Configuration

Configuration

Others
Dual Band Network
900MHz -> 900MHz/1800MHz
DTX (Discontinuous Transmission)
Frequency hopping

Summary
In this course, we have learned:
Traffic analysis and prediction
How to do TCH channel dimensioning
How to do SDCCH channel dimensioning
Capacity Enhancement Technology

Erl Table


Thank you
www.huawei.com

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Capacity Planning P-1

Copyright © 2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

2. TCH Capacity Planning

3. SDCCH Capacity Planning

4. Capacity Enhancement Technology

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Traffic and Erlang

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Subscription ratio of fixed phone

National economy development

Future policy of fee

The network construction requires the consideration of economic feasibility and

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

TCH Traffic Model Example

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Generally, base stations are constructed in urban areas,

At first, the subscribers in cities contribute most traffic. With

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Prepare the some carriers, micro base stations for

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

2. TCH Capacity Planning

3. SDCCH Capacity Planning

4. Capacity Enhancement Technology

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

Basic Flow - By Frequency Reuse

Max TRX Number of Cell

Max Channel Number of Cell

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By Frequency Reuse (Cont.)

For example, there are 4.8MHZ: 7.2/0.2=36 frequency

If reuse density is 4X3: 36/(4*3)= 3 frequency, in other

Confidential Information of Huawei. No Spreading Without Permission

By Frequency Reuse (Cont.)

For example, each cell 3 TRX, 2 SDCCH channels should

24-1(BCCH)-2(SDCCH)=21 TCH channels

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By Frequency Reuse (Cont.)

For example, 21TCH according 2% block rate, each cell can

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Channel Block Rate

6 1.622 1.909 2.276 2.960 3.758

7 2.158 2.501 2.935 3.738 4.666

14 6.663 7.532 8.200 9.730 11.47

21 11.86 12.84 14.04 16.19 18.65

29 18.22 19.49 21.04 23.83 27.05

36 24.01 25.51 27.34 30.66 34.50

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25000/14.04=1780.6 cells =1781 cells

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Basic Flow – By Max Coverage

Total Coverage of The Network

TRX Number of Cell

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By total area of the whole network, calculate cell number.

According to Traffic Prediction, decide how many user and

With Erlang B table, decide the channel number required in

Calculate the TRX number required in each cell.

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Calculate the Coverage

Site Coverage Radius: R Site Coverage Radius: R

If by Frequency Reuse, BCCH use 43, TCH use 23. How

If by Frequency Reuse, BCCH use 43, TCH use 13. HR is