VIII TELEKOMUNIKACIONI FORUM TELFOR'2000, Beograd, 21-23.11.2000.god.
DUAL-BAND 900/1800 NETWORK AS A SOLUTION FOR THE PROBLEM
OF LACK OF FREQUENCIES FOR GSM 900 NETWORK
Igor Tomic
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade
I INTRODUCTION
GSM 900 system uses 124 carriers in 890-915 MHz band
for uplink and 935-960 MHz band for downlink (200 kHz for
each carrier). After several years of functioning, and
increased number of subscribers and growing traffic, this
number of carriers was insufficient. Operators encountered a
problem of lack of frequencies, especially in big cities, or
border areas. DCS 1800 system as an addition to GSM 900 –
dual band network, was found as solution. Author of this
paper met dual-band network during profesionall practice in
Globtel GSM a.s., operator of mobile telephony in Slovakia,
where he was a member of the network optimization team.
This paper will present experiences with dual-band network
gained during practice.
II DUAL-BAND NETWORK
DCS 1800 uses frequency band 1710-1785 MHz for uplink
and 1805-1880 MHz band for downlink, with 374 carriers.
This system can be used as an additional system to GSM 900,
but it can work as independent one, in case a new operator is
founded and all the frequencies from 900 layer are already
used. The idea of using DCS 1800 system as an extension to
GSM 900, is to transfer part of the traffic to 1800 layer.
Frequencies from 1800 layer are cleaner, since they are rarely
used, and we have many of them. So, from frequency
management point of view, it is not a problem to find
frequencies for new sites. Operators must be very careful
when making strategy for transfering traffic to 1800 layer and
with positioning 900/1800 cells, because only new
generation mobile phones (dual-band) can communicate in
1800 layer and a lot of phones without this possibility are still
in use.
The question is how to define DCS 1800 cells, their
relation to GSM 900 cells, terms for handover between two
layers, and provide optimum work of network ? GSM system
offers a lot of ways for defining cells, through many different
parameters which can, but not necessarily need to, be
defined for every single cell. We will mention some
parameters with descriptions. These parameters are defined
by Nortel, manufacturer of equipment used by Globtel GSM
a.s. Other manufacturers defined similar parameters, with
different names, but the point is the same.
parameter: CAPTURE THRESHOLD
description: this parameter is used for defining micro-cells. It
is expressed in dBm and the value is usually around –85dBm.
That means, that communication will pass to micro-cell
whenever the level of electrical field from micro-cell is
stronger than this value. Handover back to umbrella-cell is
possible only as a rescue-handover.
It's interesting to mention one problem from practice
connected to this parameter. Before setting this parameter, it
is necessary to check the level of signal on some critical
places, as the traffic-light. Why ? It is well known, that
micro-cells are dedicated to slow-moving subscribers. Some
algorithms exist to prevent fast-moving subscribers to select
micro-cells. But, for example, the car which stopped on a
traffic-light is acting as a slow-moving subscriber. But, in
case of selection of micro-cell, we will have drop-call after
green light, because of insufficient time for handover. So, we
must set this parameter on the way which will prevent
selection of micro-cell from fast-moving subscribers.
parameter: HANDOVER MARGIN
description: value of this parameter is expressed in dB and it
can be positive or negative. In case that difference between
level of electrical field from the cell for which this parameter
is defined and level of electrical field from current serving
cell is lower than this value, handover will occur. This
parameter is usually used for preventing the ping-pong effect,
but it can also be used for dual-band network management, as
we will see.
parameter: CELL RESELECT OFFSET
description: this parameter is expressed in dB and it's value is
added when C2 parameter is calculated. C2 parameter is used
for cell selection, and with setting CELL RESELECT
OFFSET we can increase or decrease probability of selection
for particular cell.
The parameters described above were used or are used at
the moment for defining DCS 1800 cells in Globtel GSM a.s.
In the next chapter we will present problem of lack of
frequencies in Slovakia and experiences os Globtel GSM a.s.
with optimization of dual-band network as solution for
problem .
III EXPERIENCES OF GLOBTEL GSM A.S. WITH
DUAL BAND NETWORK
After the start of mobile telephony services and increased
number of subsribers and traffic, Globtel GSM a.s. faced the
problem of lack of frequencies. Problem was especially
serious in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, because of several
reasons. First, Bratislava is, with 500 000 citizens, a city with
high population - subscriber density. Second, Bratislava is
very close to the border with Austria, Hungary and Czech
republic, and there is an agreement between these states
about sharing frequencies in border area. Third, Slovak army
use some frequencies dedicated to GSM. As a result, Globtel
can use only around 20 carriers from 900 layer in Bratislava!
It was very hard to provide proper work of network, and dual
band was the solution. Dual-band network is succesfuly used
in big cities: Bratislava and Kosice.
First attempt was to define 1800 cells as micro-cells, with
900 cells as umbrella-cells. CAPTURE THRESHOLD
parameter was set to –85 dBm. We can notice that this level
was quite low, comparing to the level of electrical field of
900 cells during communication, which is between –60 and
–80 dBm. This is because the radiation power of 1800 cells
antennas is lower comparing to 900 cells antennas, since
1800 layer frequencies are cleaner, so communication is
possible on weaker level of electrical field. After a while, we
noticed that network had worked propertly, but the transfer
of traffic could be more intensive.
The next step was to define DCS 1800 cells as normal cells,
but to set HANDOVER MARGIN parameter to –24 dB for
these cells. It means that whenever the signal level from DCS
1800 cell was not weaker than 24 dB comparing to GSM 900
cell, handover to DCS 1800 cell occured. This condition was
more often satisfied, so transfer of traffic to 1800 layer was
increased. But we noticed too large a number of handovers
between two layers. Since each handover is a potential break
of communications and needs a lot of operations in the
network, we decided to try to decrease it.
The final attempt, currently active, was to set CELL
RESELECT OFFSET to 20 dB for DCS 1800 cells
(HANDOVER MARGIN is zero). Before these settings,
communication started in 900 layer, and it was transfered to
1800 layer in case that some criteria were satisfied. With
these settings communications start in 1800 layer (for dual
band mobile phones). C2 parameter has no influence on
handover, so only recsue-handover back to 900 layer is
possible. With these settings we managed to decrease the
number of unnecessary handovers between two layers. It can
be seen on the following figure 1.
number of handover commands
1200000
1000000
800000
600000
400000
200000
0
figure 1. number of handovers in Bratislava
We can see that number of handovers on last maximum (peak
hours) is significantly decreased. In future we can expect the
changing of ratio between dual-band and non-dual-band
mobile phones, which will have impact on setting of
parameters for optimal work of network.
IV CONCLUSION
In case of growing traffic and lack of frequencies, standard
optimization techniques can help, but they are limited. Dual-
band network is the necessary and satisfactory solution.
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.tdap.com/tdap/wireless/wireless (Eric_GSM).
html
[2]http://www.nortelnetworks.com/products/01/gsm/d_b.html
[3] Asha Mehrotra, GSM System Engineering, Artech House,
Boston 1997.
Gratitude: I would like to thank to all people from Globtel
GSM a.s. for being kind, helpful and patient with me during
all time of my training. Especially thanks to mr.Vladislav
Ciernik,
Ciernik manager of optimization team, who was my official
supervisor and whose help was immeasurable. I would like to
thank to IAESTE YUGOSLAVIA organization, which
succesfully organized my training in Slovakia.
Abstract: Dual-band 900/1800 network is a good answer for
the problem of lack of frequencies in 900 MHz layer in case
of growing traffic. In this paper are desribed the expierences
of Globtel GSM a.s. in problems of setting parameters and
optimization of dual-band 900/1800 network.
DUAL-BAND 900/1800 NETWORK AS A SOLUTION
FOR THE PROBLEM OF LACK OF FREQUENCIES
FOR GSM 900 NETWORK,
Igor Tomic.