Design Paper: Spectrum Planning in GSM/GPRS/EDGE

Spectrum Planning in
GSM/GPRS/EDGE

1. SCOPE

This document treats the subject of “frequency planning” in GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks during the
preliminary design stage. At that stage, a real frequency plan is not needed, but instead what
spectrum efficiency is achievable, i.e. what is the maximum number of TRXs per cell for the
allocated spectrum.

A good spectrum plan improves the usage of the spectrum, which is crucial, as the bandwidth available
to an operator is limited. A given spectrum planning is acceptable if the speech Grade of Service (CS
GoS) is acceptable, i.e. if the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) is above a given threshold.
Sometimes operators may be willing to mandate a specific GoS for packet switched (PS) services - e.g.
a minimum throughput to be achieved over a given percentage of the cell area - distinguishing EDGE
and GPRS GoS.

Spectrum planning consists in finding the maximum number of TRXs per cell for a given
spectrum. This depends on the target GoS for Circuit-Switched and Packet-Switched services.
This can be translated into requirements in terms of SINR distribution

2. PARAMETERS IMPACTING THE SINR

2.1 Cluster size, Frequency reuse

Each operator got together with its license a spectrum bandwidth in uplink and in downlink. From this
spectrum and the channel bandwidth of 200 kHz, the number of available channels is deduced. The
basic idea of frequency planning is to assign a set of channels to each cell. Distinct groups of channels
are usually assigned to neighboring cells in order to reduce interference.

The smallest set of cells using the First tear co-channel

whole spectrum is called a cluster. N cells distance D
No channels are reused within a in cluster
cluster. We call interferers two
transmitters using the same
frequency channel at the same
time. The set of nearest interferers
around a cell is called the first tier
of interferers. This set of interferers is the biggest
contributor to the global interference in Figure 1 - Cluster size, Frequency reuse.
a given cell. Cells of same color use the same set of
frequencies

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 Design Paper: Spectrum Planning in GSM/GPRS/EDGE

2.2 Interferer activity and traffic type

Co-channel interferers are in reality potential interferers. Indeed, no traffic means also no
interference. Thus, the activity of the interferers is a key parameter for the computation of the SINR
distribution. Since BCCH frequency is emitted full time at maximum power, interferer activity is
maximal on this frequency.

The traffic type of the interferers is also a critical factor:

- If traffic is “speech”, there is the possibility to apply power control and so to reduce interference.
Moreover, the Voice Activity Detection and Discontinuous Transmission (VAD / DTX) feature
enables to switch off the transmission when there is no Voice Activity.
- If traffic is “GPRS” or “EDGE”, there is no power control.
- If traffic is “EDGE” and 8-PSK is used, power back-off is likely to be applied and so interference to
be reduced.

Interferences mainly depend on the first tier interferers localizations, activities and traffic
types.

3. FEATURES IMPACTING THE SINR

3.1 Power Control

Adaptive Power Control for voice service modifies the transmit power according to signal quality and
signal level and is a powerful feature for voice channels to reduce the interference level in the
network. In the Alcatel solution, this is a basic feature, based on radio measurements reported by the
MS (downlink) or error rate on the SACCH (uplink). For Spectrum Planning, Power Control has to be
simulated since it dramatically affects the SINR distribution.

3.2 Discontinuous Transmission and Voice Activity Detection

Another interesting feature to reduce interference is the Discontinuous Transmission and the Voice
Activity Detection (DTX/VAD) for voice users. During a talk, each speaker alternates between talk
spurts and silence periods. Typical average values are 60% of silence and 40% of talk spurt. Note that
during silence periods, silence descriptors are sent time to time to reproduce the noise environment.

3.3 Directed Retry and Fast Traffic Hand-Over

The Directed retry feature enables to assign at call establishment a TCH in an overlapping neighbor
cell in case of lack of traffic resource in the serving cell (if the Mobile Station is in the overlapping
area). The Fast Traffic Hand-over feature enables to push out of a cell a MS (located in the overlapping
area) in dedicated mode to allow an incoming call to be served in the serving cell. Both features
increase the efficiency of the TRX since the same number of timeslots can carry a higher amount of
traffic without increasing the blocking probability. The reason is the possible “exchange” of traffic
peaks between cells for overlapping areas. The Erlang B formula is therefore no longer valid to
describe the relation between the average number of active timeslots to the total number of timeslots
required for traffic peaks. Indeed, for a given number of TRXs , traffic that would have been blocked

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 Design Paper: Spectrum Planning in GSM/GPRS/EDGE

without the feature is taken over by the neighboring cell. So, the global load and activity in the
network increases and therefore interference is increased.

3.4 Frequency Hopping

Frequency hopping introduces diversity by changing frequency from burst to burst, thereby leading to
spreading errors in time. Because GSM coding is able to correct some errors, frequency hopping usually
improves the frame erasure rate (as long as there are less errors than can be corrected).

The TRXs within one cell are hopping on several frequencies. Each voice channel will therefore be
distributed over the spectrum allocated to one cell. As not all timeslots are used all the time, the
probability of a voice channel to collide with others in several successive timeslots is rather low.

There are two different types of possible frequency hoppings in Alcatel networks: the Base-Band
frequency Hopping (BBH) for which the number of hopping frequencies equals the number of TRXs, and
the Synthesized Frequency Hopping (SFH) for which TRXs can hop on any set of frequencies (up to 64).
SFH is also referred to Fractional reuse. With Fractional reuse 1x1, all the cells use the available
frequencies (except frequencies reserved for BCCH : only one is used per cell). With Fractional reuse
1x3, the band (left after the BCCH planning) is split into three sub-bands and clusters of size 3 are
deployed.

3.5 Concentric and Multi-band cells

Concentric cells define certain TRXs to be in an outer zone (corresponding to the normal coverage
planning) and another set of TRXs to form an inner zone. The TRXs of the inner zone transmit with a
lower power and produce therefore less interference to neighbor cells. Inner and outer zones are part
of a single cell, thus only one BCCH frequency is needed.

A similar scenario arises when the operator has two bands: e.g. the inner zone is covered on 1800 MHz
frequency band, while 900 MHz covers outer zone. If the multi-band cell feature is activated, a single
BCCH carrier is required (in the outer zone), otherwise two BCCH channels are required.

3.6 Hierarchical networks and AIMS

Several techniques exist to meet the challenge of traffic increase and to provide capacity in hot spots.
One of them is the densification of the network with the introduction of a hierarchical network
structure, or micro-cellular network. A micro-cell layer is installed under an umbrella layer. Alcatel
offers a comprehensive range of micro-cellular products including micro-BTS.

A better spectrum usage can be achieved by 1 3

using a common band for non-BCCH carriers for
1+2
both micro and macro cells. Using frequency 2+3
hopping, frequencies used in one macro cell can
be reused in micro-cells under the neighboring 2
macro-cell. This is allowed by the Alcatel 1+3
Integrated Multi-layer Solution (AIMS).

Figure 2 – AIMS Network

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 Design Paper: Spectrum Planning in GSM/GPRS/EDGE

The hopping TRXs of the micro-cells reuse all hopping frequencies of the macro layer, except the ones
of the direct umbrella cell. Due to the majority of traffic being captured by the micro-cells, the traffic
in the macro layer is reduced and so there is less interference between macro cells.

Several features offered by Alcatel enable to significantly reduce network interferences and
therefore to increase the number of TRXs.

4. SINR DISTRIBUTION
We have seen that the GoS depends on the SINR and the Throughput distributions. Since the
Throughput distributions are themselves function of the SINR distribution, this latest appears as the key
element to be determined in order to perform the Spectrum Planning. For various reasons - the main
one being the difficulty to determine the probability distribution of a sum of lognormal random
variables – analytical approaches fail to model precisely a GSM/GPRS/EDGE network, therefore Monte
Carlo simulations are needed to properly assess the SINR distribution in a cell. It consists in:
- randomly throwing mobiles in a cell
- computing interferers localizations (interfering BTS in downlink, other mobiles randomly
generated in interfering cells in uplink), activities (according to random values) and emitting
power
- determining the corresponding path-losses and finally the resulting SINR

For the path-loss calculation, the following elements may be used :

- Hata propagation model, which enables to take into account the distance between the transmitter
and the receiver
- antenna pattern attenuations which enables to take into account the positions and directions of
the transmitter/receivers.
- shadowing effect, which is randomly generated for each used sample
- various margins including penetration and body losses, which are constant in the studied area

When frequency hopping is used, interferences may differ a lot between several consecutive
timeslots. Consequently, global interferences are computed on several consecutive timeslots and then
averaged.

Examples :

On those figures, we can see

that with classical cluster size
of 7, 30% (resp. 20%) of the
mobiles have a S/I (resp.
S/(I+N)) greater than 25dB,
and with Fractional 1x1, those
figures becomes 40% (resp.
25%)

Classical reuse of 7 in 900 MHz SFH activated, reuse = 1

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 Design Paper: Spectrum Planning in GSM/GPRS/EDGE

SINR distribution is computed through a Monte Carlo simulation

5. SPECTRUM PLANNING METHODS

5.1 BCCH Planning

To correctly work, a network needs very good radio conditions on the BCCH carriers. This is easily
achieved if we can assure that, for each cell, there is no close BCCH interferer (neither co-channel nor
adjacent). Consequently, the BCCH frequency plan is considered apart, with potentially a guard band
separating it from the rest of the frequency plan used for other carriers (reduction of adjacent channel
interferences) and a fixed high cluster size (reduction of the co-channel interferences). Typical values
for BCCH frequency reuse range from 14 to 18.

5.2 TCH Planning

Numerical values indicated below are gained from experience.

Traditional Concentric Hierarchical traditional

cluster size : fixed for
BCCH TRX (between 14
and 18), adjusted for
non-BCCH TRX (mini = 6
(lower band) or 4 (higher
band), maxi = 27)

Base Band Hopping :
managed

cluster size : fixed for BCCH TRX :
(between 14 and 18), fixed for non-
BCCH TRX in inner zone (typically
between 4 and 8, depending on the
overlap with the outer zone), adjusted
for non-BCCH TRX in outer zone (mini
= 6, maxi = 27)

Base Band Hopping : managed

Micro layer :
 own set of BCCH frequencies.
 cluster size : fixed for BCCH TRX (between
7 and 9), fixed for non-BCCH TRX (between
5 and 7)
 fixed number of non-BCCH TRXs per cell,
typically 1 or 2

Macro layer :
 cluster size : fixed for BCCH TRX (between
14 and 18), adjusted for non-BCCH TRX
(mini = 6, maxi = 27)

Base Band Hopping : managed

Fractional Hierarchical AIMS

cluster size : fixed for BCCH TRX (between
14 and 18, fixed for non-BCCH TRX (1 if
Fractional 1x1, 3 if Fractional 1x3)

RF load is defined as : Average number of
active TS per cell / (number of freq.
assigned to cell * 8). Depending on the
expected service quality, a target real RF
load has to be reached. The maximum
value is between 50% and 55% for
Fractional 1x3, and between 16% and 20%
for Fractional 1x1

Micro layer :
 cluster size : fixed for BCCH TRX (between 7 and 9), 1 for non-BCCH
TRX
 fixed number of non-BCCH TRXs per cell, typically 1 or 2
 available frequencies for non-BCCH TRXs : 1/3 of non-BCCH frequencies

Macro layer :
 cluster size : fixed BCCH TRX (between 14 and 18), 3 for non-BCCH TRX
 available frequencies for non-BCCH TRXs : 2/3 of non-BCCH frequencies

Spectrum planning is then performed as for a Fractional case

In case of Multi-band cells, calculations are performed separately for each band (with same
fixed BCCH cluster size for both bands if multiband_cell feature not activated)

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 Design Paper: Spectrum Planning in GSM/GPRS/EDGE

BCCH Planning is managed apart. TCH Planning is performed by recursively decreasing the
cluster size or increasing the number of TRXs per cell (for Networks with fixed cluster size) as
long as the obtained SINR distribution enables to reach the requested GoS.

6. SIMPLE CALCULATIONS
This chapter present simple methods [and example] to quickly estimate the maximum number of TRXs
per cell for a given frequency bandwidth.

6.1 Non Fractional reuse system

1 - Compute number of available frequencies and remove 1 frequency band for the guard band
[bandwidth = 8 MHz ; (8 * 10^6) / (200 * 10^3) = 40 ; 40 - 1 = 39]
2 – Remove BCCH cluster size (between 14 and 18) to get non-BCCH carrier left [39 – 14 = 25]
3 - Divide by the target frequency reuse for non-BCCH TRXs (Typically 9) [25/9 = 2.78]
4 - Add the BCCH carrier to get the total number of TRXs per cell [2.78+1 = 3.78]

6.2 Fractional reuse system

1 - Compute number of available frequencies and remove 1 frequency band for the guard band
[bandwidth = 8 MHz; (8 * 10^6) / (200 * 10^3) = 40 ; 40 - 1 = 39]
2 – Remove BCCH cluster size (between 14 and 18) to get non-BCCH carrier left [39 – 14 = 25]
3 - Divide by the target non-BCCH cluster size to get the number of available carriers for the hopping sequence
[Fractional 1x3 ; E(25/3) = 8 carriers per cell]
4 - Multiple by 8 to get the number of available timeslots [8 * 8 = 64]
5 - Multiple by max. target real RF load to get max. average number of active timeslots [64 * 50% = 32]
6 - Add the BCCH carrier timeslots (remove BCCH and SDCCH timeslots) to get the Erlang load supported per cell [32+8 –2 = 38]
7 - Apply Erlang B low for the target blocking rate (typically 2%) to get the maximum overall number of timeslots which can be
installed on average per cell [ErlangB(2%, 38) = 48]
8 - Remove the timeslots coming from the BCCH carrier and divide by 8 [(48 – 6) / 8 = 5.25]
9 - Add the BCCH carrier to get the maximum total number of TRXs per cell [5.25 + 1 = 6.25]

7. CONCLUSION
Spectrum Planning enables to optimize the operator spectrum usage while meeting some Grades of
Service. Methods developed by Alcatel enable to find the allowed maximum number of TRXs per cell.
The cornerstone of the Alcatel approach is the calculation of the SINR distribution through Monte
Carlo simulations.

Several features offered by Alcatel enable to reduce the network interference and then have a
positive impact on the Spectrum Planning (enable to increase the number of TRXs per cell).

BCCH planning is managed apart to assure very good radio conditions on BCCH carriers.

TCH planning method depends on the Frequency Hopping technique and on the targeted number of
layers. If necessary, spectrum available for traffic is split in several parts and recursive computations
are performed on global, on outer or on macro parts till finding the optimized spectrum usage.

End of DOCUMENT

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