RF Planning Bible PDF

RF Planning Bible: TP RF - Central
RF Planning Bible
The Few, The Proud
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Chapter 1: CELL SITE PLANNING............................................... 8
Chapter 2: SITE DATABASE CREATION ................................. 24
Chapter 3: RF ROLLOUT ............................................................. 34
Chapter 4: PRE-LAUNCH OPTIMIZATION .............................. 52
Chapter 5: INDOOR SOLUTIONS ............................................... 60
Chapter 6: PROPAGATION MODEL TUNING ......................... 86
Chapter 7: FREQUENCY PLANNING ........................................ 99
Chapter 8: FREQUENCY RETUNING / REDESIGN ............... 116
ATTACHEMENTS ..................................................................... 122
LNKS: .......................................................................................... 124
ABBREVIATIONS: .................................................................... 125
REFRENCES: .............................................................................. 127
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List of Figures:
Fig 1.1 Cell Site Planning Process ....................................................................................8

Fig 1.2: Coverage Prediction before planning coverage cell site ...................................10
Fig 1.3: Coverage Prediction after planning coverage cell site ......................................11
Fig 1.4: Google view showing coverage cell site............................................................11
Fig 1.5: MapInfo view of Capacity planned sites ...........................................................13
Fig 1.6: Google Earth View of Capacity Planned Sites ...................................................14
Fig 1.7: Coverage Where I am Template sheet ...............................................................16
Fig 1.8: MapInfo View of DCS only Site .......................................................................17
Fig 1.9: Google Earth View of DCS only Site ................................................................18
Fig 1.10: MapInfo view for Site Design Finalization .....................................................21
Fig 1.11: Google Earth view for Site Design Finalization .............................................21
Fig 2.1: Telenor Frequency band ......................................................................................25
Fig 2.2: Hexagonal Structure .............................................................................................26
Fig 2.3: Cells in practice ....................................................................................................26
Fig 2.4: Cell Pattern ...........................................................................................................27
Fig 2.5: interference ...........................................................................................................28
Fig 2.7 C/A .........................................................................................................................29
Fig 2.8: GSM specifications for C/I and C/A ...................................................................29
Fig 2.9: Frequency Re-use Pattern ....................................................................................30
Fig 3.1: View of SAR validation Candidates .................................................................36
Fig 3.2: Google Earth View of SAR validation Candidates ............................................37
Fig 3.3: Urban area Coverage ............................................................................................41
Fig 3.4: Urban Map Info View ..........................................................................................42
Fig 3.5: Urban Google Earth View ...................................................................................42
Fig 3.6: Sub-Urban area Coverage ....................................................................................43
Fig 3.7: Suburban Map Info View ....................................................................................44
Fig 3.8: Suburban Google Earth View ..............................................................................44
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Fig 3.9: Rural area Coverage .............................................................................................45

Fig 3.10: Rural Map Info View .........................................................................................45
Fig 3.11: Rural Google Earth View ..................................................................................46
Fig 3.13: Roads Map Info View ........................................................................................47
Fig 3.14: Roads Google Earth View .................................................................................47
Fig 3.15: Map Info view ....................................................................................................48
Fig 3.16: Google Earth view ..............................................................................................49
Fig 4.1: Pre-Launch Optimization Process Flow .............................................................54
Fig 5.1: Omni Directional Antennas .................................................................................64
Fig 5.2: Directional Antennas ............................................................................................64
Fig 5.4: Splitters Specifications .........................................................................................66
Fig 5.5: Power Couplers ....................................................................................................67
Fig 5.6: Couplers Specifications ......................................................................................68
Fig 5.8: Active solution layout ..........................................................................................69
Fig 5.9: Base station Master Unit ......................................................................................70
Fig 5.10: VAM ...................................................................................................................70
Fig 5.11: RF Combiner Module ........................................................................................71
Fig 5.12: RSSI of different servers with floor plans ........................................................72
Fig 5.13: Priority area marking for an indoor site location .............................................73
Fig 5.14: Improvement in indoor coverage .....................................................................74
Fig 5.15: Link Budget Calculations ..................................................................................78
Fig 5.16: RF indoor Plan for a floor ..................................................................................79
Fig 5.17: Measurements for Cable lengths .......................................................................79
Fig 5.18: Antenna Tree diagram........................................................................................80
Fig 5.19: Indoor Equipment List .......................................................................................81
Fig 5.20: Rx-Level Idle mode............................................................................................83
Fig 5.21: Rx-Qual Dedicated mode...................................................................................83
Fig 5.22: Spillage ...............................................................................................................84
Fig 6.1: Propagation Model parameters values ................................................................88
Fig 6.2: Propagation Model parameters ............................................................................89
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Fig 6.3: Site Selection ........................................................................................................91

Fig 6.4: CW Measurement process ...................................................................................92
Fig 6.5: Equipment used ....................................................................................................93
Fig 6.6: Model tuning process ...........................................................................................95
Fig 6.7: Analysis.................................................................................................................96
Fig 6.8: Error vs Log Graph (Before) ...............................................................................97
Fig 6.9: Error vs. Log Graph (After) ................................................................................97
Fig 6.10: RxLev vs. Log (distance)-Before ......................................................................97
Fig 6.11: RxLev vs. Log (distance)-After.........................................................................98
Fig 7.1: Frequency Planning ........................................................................................... 100
Fig 7.2: Cost Matrix Weight-age .................................................................................... 102
Fig 7.3: ILSA diagram .................................................................................................... 103
Fig 7.4: ILSA Setup ........................................................................................................ 103
Fig 7.5: Assigning carriers .............................................................................................. 104
Fig 7.6: Neighbour Plan in Site Database ...................................................................... 105
Fig 7.7: Neighbours in Map Window ............................................................................ 106
Fig 7.8: ILSA Frequency Planner................................................................................... 107
Fig7.9: ILSA Frequency Planner & Plan List Window ............................................... 107
Fig 7.10: ILSA Plan Status ............................................................................................ 108
Fig 7.11: Plan Cost Summary ........................................................................................ 108
Fig 7.12: ILSA FP Result .............................................................................................. 109
Fig 7.13: Creating Arrays ............................................................................................... 110
Fig 7.14: Worst Interferer ............................................................................................... 111
Fig 7.15: ILSA Cost/Interference Graph ....................................................................... 112
Fig 8.1: Pre- & Post-Activity City Coverage and Rx Level ......................................... 120
Fig 8.2: RxQual Plot of the Gujranwala city before and after the activity .................. 121
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Dedicated to:
RF Planning Central
The Few The

Proud.pdf
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Chapter 1: CELL SITE PLANNING
Every cellular network needs cell site planning in order to ensure coverage
requirements, to maximize capacity requirements and to avoid interference. The cell
planning process consists of many different tasks, all together making it possible to
achieve a well working network. The major activities involved in the cell planning
process are represented below:
Fig 1.1 Cell Site Planning Process
Why Cell Site Planning?
A cell may be defined as an area of radio coverage from one BTS antenna system. It is
the smallest building block in a mobile network and is the reason why mobile networks
are often referred to as cellular networks. Cell site planning can briefly be described as
all the activities involved in determining which sites should be used for the radio
equipment, which equipment should be used, and how the equipment should be
configured. To ensure coverage, to cater the capacity requirements and to avoid
interference, each cellular network needs Cell Site Planning.
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Nominal Survey Point Identification
The cell site planning process is started by a coverage analysis, capacity analysis and
customer feedback. Coverage analysis identifies the poor coverage locations and
capacity analysis provides the high traffic cells in the cellular network. Sales and
Distribution team also plays a major role in analyzing the coverage and capacity issues
by providing the subscriber forecast of low coverage areas and growth rate distribution
of populated areas. Coverage holes and poor coverage areas are identified with the help
of ‘’ASSET’’ predictions (AIRCOM based tool used for coverage analysis) and a suitable
nominal survey point (longitude, latitude) is chosen for detailed area profiling visit
(Nominal Survey) to provide coverage to all the customers. Nominal Survey points are
also identified after monitoring the timing advance (TA) stats of the high traffic cells to
address the capacity issues. Also, the customer feed back is an important parameter to
determine the network quality in a certain region. Customer feedback is analyzed prior
to coverage or capacity issue and then addressed as discussed above.
All these analysis performed by RF Planner and feedback from the commercial form the
basis of new nominal survey plan. A new nominal survey plan consists of nominal
geographic coordinates for which detailed area profiling visits are required to evaluate
the feasibility of new cell sites.
Coverage Planning
In order to provide the coverage solutions in the cellular network, radio frequency
planning team extracts the latest coverage prediction from the AIRCOM based tool
‘’ASSET’’. This prediction is helpful in identifying the poor coverage areas in the cellular
network.
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Fig 1.2: Coverage Prediction before planning coverage cell site
RF Planning Team updates the Asset database with the latest On Air and Planned sites.
Then, Path Loss Predictor is defined according to the requirements like filters,(On Air or
Planned), radius, area and resolution of the map to be used. All these requirements can
be defined with the help of Asset. The legend of the coverage for the selected ranges
can also be defined. Path Loss predictor is then run and the best server coverage is
displayed. The best server coverage prediction is then exported in .mif or .tab format
and can be viewed in MapInfo Professional. The feasibility of the new site is then
evaluated from coverage holes or poor coverage areas and nominal surveys (detailed
area profiling visits) are carried out to know the geographical terrain and expected
capacity (traffic load).Fig 1.2 shows the coverage hole in the cellular network while fig
1.3 shows the coverage prediction after planning new cell site.
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Fig 1.3: Coverage Prediction after planning coverage cell site
Fig 1.4: Google view showing coverage cell site
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Capacity Planning
One of the basis for cell site planning is the traffic demand, i.e. how many subscribers
use the network and how much traffic they generate. The Erlang (E) is a unit of
measurement of traffic intensity.
To meet the capacity requirements, RF Planning Team monitors the traffic stats of the
network on weekly basis (averaged for one week) and identifies the
high traffic cells. The traffic stats are extracted for both Nokia and Siemens regions
separately depending upon the equipment installed vendor in that region. For Nokia and
Siemens region, traffic stats are extracted from the ‘’Nokia Optima Harmonized Tool’’
and ‘’Stat Mon Tool’’ respectively. Both these tools contain all the network parameters
data and are used for network planning and optimization. For capacity planning, GSM
Traffic, DCS Traffic, Call Setup Block Rate, Traffic Channel Utilization and Erlang/Trx are
our main area of interest.
For Nokia region, segment level busy hour stats are extracted from query ‘’Segment BH
Traffic’’ within the ‘’Nokia Optima Harmonized Tool’’ for the selective dates. Clutter
classification and Trx count for GSM and DCS in each segment are provided by
Optimization team. Site name, Azimuths, Longitude, Latitude, On-Air Date, Status are
taken from MapInfo weekly files.
For Siemens region, BH stat sheets of the days required are added into ‘’Stat Mon Tool’.
These stat sheets are available at the centralized server. Segment per Busy Hour (SPBH)
is run from trender tab within the tool by putting in the dates of the sheets added
earlier to get the GSM and DCS traffic. The other parameters are calculated as follows.
Parameter Formulae
GSM Traffic Erl_C_F+Erl_C_H
DCS Traffic Erl_I_F+Erl_I_H
Call Setup Block Rate TASSFAIL_NoRadio/(TASSATT_F+TASSATT_H)
Total Time Slots(TS) NRDEFTCH_C + NRDEFTCH_I
GSM Trxs IF(ROUND(NRDEFTCH_C /8,0)- NRDEFTCH_C /8>=0,
ROUND(NRDEFTCH_C /8,0),ROUND(NRDEFTCH_C /8,0)+1)
DCS Trxs IF(ROUND(NRDEFTCH_I/8,0)- NRDEFTCH_I
/8>=0,ROUND(NRDEFTCH_I/8,0),ROUND(NRDEFTCH_I/8,0)+1
Segment Trxs IF(ROUND(Total_TS/8,0)- Total_TS /8>=0,ROUND(Total_TS
/8,0),ROUND(Total_TS /8,0)+1)
Offered Traffic* (Total TS Erlang B Poison Prediction)*1.5
Carried Traffic GSM Traffic+DCS Traffic
TCH Utilization Carried Traffic/Offered Traffic*100
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Using Total_TS and Grade of Service(2%) , Erlang B Poisson traffic prediction will
give the Offered traffic and multiplying it by 1.5(assuming the half rate HR is
enabled on every segment) to give total Offered traffic.
Final Excel sheet of traffic stats and MapInfo tab file are then filtered for high traffic
areas. The cells having CS block rate > 5% and TCH utilization > 100 % are then evaluated
for the Trx expansions or new cell sites through Google Earth and MapInfo. Nominal
surveys are planned after monitoring the TA stats from where the maximum traffic is
generated for knowing the geographical terrain and the expected capacity (traffic load).
Fig 1.5: MapInfo view of Capacity planned sites
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Fig 1.6: Google Earth View of Capacity Planned Sites
The cell site MSG018 and MSG021 are planned as a capacity sites to share the traffic of
neighboring cells MSG0142 and MSG0162 having TCH utilizations greater than 100%.
The nominal locations of these planned sites are decided by monitoring their TA stats
from the ’’Stat Mon Tool’’.
Erlang B Table.pdf
Feed Back & Complaints
A feedback or complaint is usually raised by Network user; a special team by the name
of Customer Liaison Team (CLT) is monitoring the track of all the customer complaints
and is in constant coordination with technical teams. The complaint is analyzed whether
it is related to RF Planning team or optimization team. If it is related to planning team, it
is then analyzed for coverage issue or capacity issue. The coverage related issues are
generally raised by network users, the area is then identified on MapInfo, and then by
using Coverage predictions RF planning team confirms of any coverage hole or poor
coverage. Once the coverage issue is confirmed, the RF Planning team analyzes the
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neighbor site design to check if the area can be served by existing site, if not it is
surveyed with market sales team or corporate relation team for a feasibility of new site.
If the area is feasible, new site is planned and placed in buffer so that it is re released
when new sites are to be planned. For capacity issue, cell utilization is checked, if the
utilization is 100% then, the configuration is taken into account. If there is no room for
an additional TRX, i.e. six radios in the cell, a new site is planned by using TA stats, and if
not, expansion is performed by incrementing the number of radio by 1, until the issue is
resolved. The team makes sure that the problem is resolved and also re-confirms the
status with the complainer. Capacity complaints can be raised from network user or
other departments specially RF Optimization.
Coverage Where am I?
Coverage where am I is a joint tool for Commercial and Technical teams to identify
important locations nationwide and monitor progress made against providing coverage
at these locations on monthly basis. Commercial team puts forward their feedback or
complaints of the coverage issues in the network and wants to know the RF comments
over these issues. RF team then provides the coverage status of those areas and
evaluates the feasibility of new site. All this feedback is maintained in the form of an
Excel sheet. RF team comments are required in Coverage Status, Priority, Site Status,
Site Name, New Site Count, Type, Timeliness and Comments fields of the Excel sheet,
i) The 'Coverage Status' field should only have following values: Covered,
Partially Covered & Not Covered. If a location like Motorway M1 requires
several sites, it will be considered 'Partially Covered' until all the
planned sites are on-air. The status will change to 'Covered' when no
more new sites are needed.
ii) The 'Site Status' field should only have following values: Planned, On-Air,
On-Hold Not Planned. The reasons for 'On-Hold' sites should be
mentioned in 'Comments' field. Also, the details about the planned sites
stages (TSS done, SARF released, etc) can be mentioned in 'Comments'
field.
iii) The ‘Priority’ field should only have following values: P0, P1 & P2. The
definitions of these are as follows.
P0 = Highest priority. Site needed most urgently. Infrastructure is

complete or near completion and people / traffic is present.
P1 = Site needed. Infrastructure is complete or near completion and
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people / traffic is present.

P2 = Infrastructure will take 1-2 years in completion & traffic is not
present.
iv) The ‘Site Name’ field contains the name of the serving sites in that area.
v) The ‘New Site Count ’field contains the number of planned sites in that
area.
vi) The ‘Type’ field contains the type of the On Air sites or the type of the
sites to be installed.
vii) The ‘Timeliness’ field shows the completion period to provide coverage
in that area.
Fig 1.7: Coverage Where I am Template sheet
TD team will update the "Coverage Where I am" sheet identifying the status of sites in
the identified locations. This sheet will be updated every (2) months for all regions.
Monthly meeting will be held among all stake holders to review progress status. The
'Comments' in the sheet will specify updated site status obtained from Real Estate team,
in case if it is facing any acquisition related issues. Task force from Site Acquisition will
push for early resolution of issues on stuck sites. Commercial team will also identify
resources from their side to facilitate release of stuck sites.
Special Case: 1800 MHz Only Sites
RF Planning Team uses the Coverage Predictions, Traffic Stats Analysis and corporate
complaints feedback to mark probable locations (capacity/quality) on a monthly basis.
In case of a capacity site, RF planning team identifies the cells carrying high traffic from
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latest traffic stats and subscriber forecast provided by S&D. For design, the Inter Site
distance (from all the Sectors) must not be more than 600m & GOS < 0.5% in Dense
Urban & Urban environment. In case of a quality site, RF planning analyzes the statistical
reports and / or the forecasted yearly subscriber-base by S&D. RF planning team uses
coverage predictions to identify poor coverage locations which should not be more than
200m in the existing network in Dense Urban and Urban environment to provide deep
indoor coverage. Nominal surveys of all these locations are also carried out by RF team.
Fig 1.8: MapInfo View of DCS only Site
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Fig 1.9: Google Earth View of DCS only Site
Fig 1.9 shows the DCS only site MOK010 in dense urban area to share the high traffic of
its neighboring cells. Google Earth view of the same area is showing the dense area and
the site azimuths for meeting the capacity requirements.
RF SURVEY REPORTING
A radio frequency (RF) site survey is the first step in the deployment of a Wireless
network and the most important step to ensure desired operation. A site survey is a
task-by-task process by which the surveyor studies the facility to understand the RF
behavior, discovers RF coverage areas, estimates for RF capacity requirements, checks
for RF interference and determines the appropriate placement of Wireless equipment.
In a Wireless network, many issues can arise which can prevent the radio frequency (RF)
signal from reaching all parts of the facility. Examples of RF issues include multipath
distortion, shadowing effect, time dispersion and time alignment issues. In order to
address these, you need to find the regions where these issues occur. A site survey
helps you to do this. A site survey helps define the contours of RF coverage in a
particular facility. It helps to discover regions where multipath distortion can occur,
areas where RF interference is high and find solutions to eliminate such issues. A site
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survey that determines the RF coverage area in a facility also helps to choose the
number of Wireless devices that a firm needs to meet its business requirements. A site
survey should also determine the expected subscribers forecast. A proper site survey
provides detailed information that addresses coverage, interference sources, equipment
placement, power considerations and wiring requirements.
RF Planning team makes a consolidated excel sheet of nominal RF survey points
(geographical coordinates) on the basis of the coverage, capacity and feedback issues in
the network. Afterwards, the nominal site surveys are split according to the
geographical vicinity among RF resources. Based on the quantity of coordinates,
geographic terrain and distance from base, RF Survey schedule is made.
Performing Survey
A radio frequency planner should be equipped with a laptop, MapInfo, Google Earth,
Global Positioning System Equipment (GPS), Compass, Digital Camera, Binoculars, Map
Source and Global Mapper (optional) for performing the RF survey. Before going out for
the RF survey, latest coverage prediction should be analyzed for a coverage survey and
Traffic stats and TA trend for the neighboring sites should be analyzed for a capacity
survey and Google earth should be used for rough estimations and directions. Track
Mode of GPS should be in ON state.
Coverage Surveys are carried out in the areas where there is poor coverage and in these
kinds of surveys it is all about exploring the area to the maximum and finding out good
populations. Capacity surveys are carried out for the cells where there is high TCH
utilization or high CS blocking. Capacity surveys are all about to identify the high traffic
generating areas. The cells which are highly utilized or in which there are high blocking
that cells foot print (coverage area) should be surveyed for potential populations, which
are the candidates for capacity sites.
Following Observations should necessarily be made on nominal RF survey.
Any town, Village or city visited should be profiled with name, population and
available mobile operators in the area.
Snaps should be taken from the center of the village from average building
height taking true north as a reference with the help of magnetic compass and 8
snaps should be taken with Digital Camera that are separated apart with 45
degree angle.
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Snaps of the roads leading towards major towns or highways of the area should
be taken.
Average Building height should be noted.
All the villages of the area should be profiled with above mentioned details.
After performing the nominal RF surveys, *.DXF file of marked waypoints and tracks is
extracted from GPS with the help of Map Source and is imported to MapInfo. Then,
*.TAB file of MapInfo is made with the help of collected data and *.DXF file.
Reporting Survey including .Tab file
All RF Planners prepare their individual survey Tab file after performing the surveys.
Preparation of Tab file includes the tracks, polygons, location names and its
approximate population along with other useful information and landmarks.
Unnecessary points, lines and/or text should be avoided while preparing Survey Tabs as
this will increase the file size. If it contains any unwanted points, lines and any
overlapping entities, the Tab file should be cleaned to simplify the geometry. The basic
file set for viewing the MapInfo Tab file consists of a minimum of four files, the *.DAT,
*.TAB, *.ID and *.MAP. If any one of these is missing, the Tab file will fail to open in
MapInfo.
Site Design Finalization
All RF Planners report and discuss their RF survey findings with the senior team
members. The senior team member analyzes their findings, *.TAB files and snaps of the
villages and make decisions for planning new sites of the performed surveys. The best
location for new site is then selected for providing the good coverage and balancing the
traffic load of neighboring cells. Antenna type, Site type, Antenna azimuths, Antenna
heights and Antenna tilts are then decided with the mutual discussion of RF surveyor
and senior team member depending upon the clutter type and population spread of the
area under consideration.
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Fig 1.10: MapInfo view for Site Design Finalization
Fig 1.11: Google Earth view for Site Design Finalization
Fig 1.11 shows the detailed area profiling visit (Nominal Survey) of a certain region and
the proposed design for a new cell site to cater the maximum traffic. The site should
always be planned in the middle of populated area to distribute the traffic equally on all
cells. The azimuths are planned in such a way that all the cells carry good traffic from
the neighboring populated area. Fig. 10 shows the Google Earth view to verify the
nominal cell site plan.
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RF Master Plan Release
A nominal cell site plan in the form of an excel sheet is produced after the site design
finalization process. Then, the unique site names are added in nominal plan sheet and
consolidated nominal sheet is floated which form the basis for new master plan.
Nominal cell plans are the first cell plans produced and these form the basis of further
planning.
Ph5 Master RF Plan V

3.1 (30-10-2008)(Central).xls
Site Name Identification
The nominal cell site plan contains all the site data without site IDs. A cell site name
consists of seven letters and unique throughout the network. The 1 st letter indicates the
planning phase of the site and the 2nd letter indicates the planning region of the site. For
3rd, 4th and 5th letters for site name, universal site naming sheet with all the site names
in the network is filtered out in ascending order to find the unique site name. The 6 th
and 7th letter of the site name should be digits. The selected Site IDs and Segment
names are then added in the nominal cell site plan sheet. The finalized nominal cell site
plan sheet contains the Site Name, Segment Name, Phase, Longitude, Latitude, Search
Ring, City Name, Azimuth, Tilt, Antenna Height, Antenna Type, Site Type, Date Released,
Category, Tower Type and Cells to be relieved fields in it. All these fields are then
appended in the last release master plan. The feeder cable length, and number of
antennas required for one site are also added in master plan sheet. Finally, the site
priorities are added in master plan sheet and the new version of the master plan is
floated to the concerned departments.
Nominal Sites Database
Nominal Site Database is created from Master Plan sheet. The following fields are taken
from the master plan sheet. Site Name, Longitude, Latitude, Antenna Height, Antenna
Tilt, Antenna Azimuth, Tower Height, Date Released, Trx configuration, Site Type
(Coverage/Capacity) and Search ring. Site names of new sites should be rechecked from
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Nominal Database record and update in Nominal Record. Consolidated Nominal Sites
Database is also floated within the department.
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Chapter 2: SITE DATABASE CREATION
Introduction
Site Database creation for new Sites
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Introduction:
Site database is process of creating frequency parameters of new sites which are required
as by GSM architecture.
In GSM Frequency planning is important to minimize the interference which improves the
quality while giving the coverage and capacity. Objective is to use the allocated frequency
spectrum efficiently. There are limited frequencies available to Telenor Pakistan (24 ARFCN
for 900 band and 44 ARFCN for 1800 band) and the number of calls that the network can
support is limited by the amount of radio frequencies allocated to that network However, a
cellular network can overcome this constraint and maximize the number of subscribers that
it can service by using frequency re-use.
Frequency re-use means that two radio channels within the same network can use exactly
the same pair of frequencies provided that there is a sufficient geographical distance (the
frequency reuse distance) between them so they will not interfere with each other. The
tighter frequency re-use plan, the greater the capacity potential of the network.
Telenor Frequency band
Fig 2.1: Telenor Frequency band
Why Frequency Planning is Important

In theory, hexagons are used to represent cell (Coverage area), sites can be planned
Omni or directional (2, 3, 4 Sectors) antennas.
Why Hexagons:
The border between the coverage area of two cells is the set of points at which the
signal strength from both antennas is the same. In reality, the environment will
determine this line, but for simplicity, it is represented as a straight line. If six BTS’s are
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placed around an original BTS, the coverage area – that is, the cell – takes on a
hexagonal shape.
Fig 2.2: Hexagonal Structure
Omni directional cell: An Omni-directional cell (or Omni cell) is served by a BTS with an
antenna which transmits equally in all directions (360 degrees).
Sector cell: A sector cell is the area of coverage from an antenna, which transmits, in a
given direction only. For example, this may be equal to 120 degrees or 180 degrees of
an equivalent Omni- directional cell. One BTS can serve one of these sector cells with a
collection of BTS’s at a site serving more than one, leading to terms such as two-
sectored sites and more commonly, three-sectored sites.
Fig 2.3: Cells in practice
In reality, hexagons are extremely simplified models of radio coverage patterns because
radio propagation is highly dependent on terrain and other factors. The problems of
path loss,
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Shadowing and multipath fading all affect the coverage of an area. For example, time
dispersion is a problem caused by the reception of radio signals, which are reflected off
far away objects. The carrier-to-reflection (C/R) ratio is defined as the ratio between the
direct signal (C) and the reflected signal (R).
Also, due to the problem of time alignment the maximum distance an MS can be from a
BTS is 35 km. This is the maximum radius of a GSM cell. In areas where large coverage
with small capacity is required, it is possible to allocate two consecutive TDMA time
slots to one subscriber on a call. This enables a maximum distance from the BTS of
70km.
Cell size mainly depends on the amount of traffic they are expected to carry so for cell
patterns the major contributing factor is the population density.
Fig 2.4: Cell Pattern
Interference
Frequency re-use is essential not only because of providing capacity but also for providing
quality.
If there are two carriers within the same cell coverage area it will lead to cause inter symbol
interference (ISI). Interference can be avoided by considering the following factors.
Careful frequency allocation to new cell site
Proper choice for site location
Antenna installation planning
Frequency hopping
Power control
DTX
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Fig 2.5: interference
There are two major types of interference which are explained below:
Co-Channel Interference C/I

Co-channel interference is caused by the use of a frequency close to the exact same
frequency. The former will interfere with the latter, leading to the terms interfering
frequency (I) and carrier frequency (C).
This C/I ratio is influenced by the following factors:

The location of the MS
Local geography and type of local scatters
BTS antenna type, site elevation and position
Fig 2.6 C/I
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Adjacent-Channel Interference C/A:

Adjacent frequencies (A), that is frequencies shifted 200 kHz from the carrier frequency (C),
must be avoided in the same cell and preferably in neighboring cells also. Although adjacent
frequencies are at different frequencies to the carrier frequency they can still cause
interference and quality problems.
Fig 2.7 C/A
GSM Specification for C/I and A/I:

The GSM specification recommends that the carrier-to interference (C/I) ratio is greater
than 9 decibels (dB).
The GSM specification states that the carrier-to-adjacent ratio (C/A) must be larger than
-9dB.
Fig 2.8: GSM specifications for C/I and C/A
Frequency Re-use
The re-use patterns recommended for GSM are the 4/12 and the 3/9 pattern. 4/12
means that there are four three-sector sites supporting twelve cells using twelve
frequency groups.
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Affected by interference between cells

Type of geographic terrain (radio propagation conditions)
Antenna height / tilting
Antenna types
 Omni directional antenna
 120 deg Directional
 60 deg Directional
Transmission output power
Radio Link Control features
 Frequency Hopping
 Dynamic Power Control
 DTX / VAD
Fig 2.9: Frequency Re-use Pattern
Site Database Creation for New Sites:
Site database creation for new sites is initiated by creating cell ids for new cells.
Current Cell IDs for different region are maintained in separate files for reference.
30
The last character of Cell ID represents the sector – it should be 1, 2, 3, or 4 for sectors
1, 2, 3 & 4 respectively on 900. For 1800, the last character should be 5, 6, 7 & 8 for
sectors 1, 2, 3 & 4 respectively. Append respective digit to new site code to make Cell ID
for sectors.
Check for newly assigned Cell ID to be unique, if it is not; re-assign Cell ID to make it
unique.
Frequency Parameters (i.e. BCCH, BSIC and HSN) are planned for target sites by RF
planning team.
RF planning teams carry out the Audit once a month to check the carrier data of all On-
Air sites within RF department.
Start with BCCH planning first:
TP_Freq(Nokia+Siem
ens).xls
Use the BCCH separation of at least 2 when plan BCCH of the cell on the same site
For the surrounding site try to avoid co and adjacent channel, sometimes a retune of
existing site is required in order to get the suitable BCCH for the new site. Keep record of
the existing site change in order to create the change request along with new site DB.
Height and tilt data of the cell antenna is essential for BCCH allocation.
Once BCCH allocation is finished the next step is to plan BSIC
The available range of BSIC of Telenor is 30 – 37 and 40 – 47
Do assign BSIC to the new site in the way that there's no co BCCH and co BSIC in the
surrounding area, otherwise it will cause the problem when doing neighbor cell planning.
31
Don't forget to check the BSIC of the retuned existing site too. The new BSIC allocation
may be needed in order to avoid co BCCH and co BSIC.
The next step is to plan HSN for new site.
The available range of HSN is 0 – 63, 0 is for cyclic hopping pattern and 1 – 63 is for
random hopping pattern (normally 1 – 31 and 33-63 is used for SFH).
For all cell in the same site the same HSN is used. The only different is the MAIO offset
(the starting frequency to do hopping)
For the surrounding site plan the HSN in the way that there's no co HSN in the nearby
area (Try to use same HSN in the as far away site as possible)
The MAL and MAIO offset is as followed
MAL 11 is used for Nokia GSM900 site and MAL 105 is used for Nokia GSM1800
site all cells
MAIO offset 0, 2, 4 is used for Nokia GSM900 intra site different cell and MAIO
offset 0, 8, 16 is used for GSM1800 Nokia intra site different cell.
MAL 41 is used for Siemens GSM900 site all cells and MAL 51, 52, 53 is used for
Siemens GSM1800 intra site different cell.
MAIO offset 1, 3, 5 is used for Siemens GSM900 intra site different cell and MAIO
offset 0, 1, 2 is used for Siemens GSM1800 intra site different cell
Neighbours for target sites are planned by RF planning team
First assign all intra-site cells as the neighbor cell of the new cell.
Assign the surrounding cell that point to the same area as the new cell as the neighbor
cell. Note that maximum number of neighbor cell is 31 for Nokia site and 32 for Siemens
site.
Add the new cell as the neighbor cell of all those existing cells that we add as the
neighbor of the new cell to make a two way relationship. Check existing number of neighbor
cell of those existing cells in order to not exceed the limit too. If exceeding the limit ask the
optimization team to delete the unwanted neighbor cells in order to be able to add the new
neighbor cell.
32
After making neighbor site list for all cells, the next step is to check if there's co BCCH
and co BSIC among them or not.
For Siemens site the condition is

No co BCCH between Source cell and neighbor cell is allowed
No co BCCH and co BSIC among the neighbor list of the same source cell is allowed
For Nokia site the condition is

No co BCCH and co BSIC between source cell and neighbor cell is allowed
No co BCCH and co BSIC among the neighbor list of the same source cell is allowed
If we can't fulfill the condition mentioned above, the new BCCH or BSIC allocation is
needed.
33
Chapter 3: RF ROLLOUT
Introduction
SAR Validation
Technical Site Survey Scheduling
Performing TSS
RF Database Update
Work Package Verification
34
Introduction:
The rollout process is to make BTS sites come On-Air with timeliness and meeting all the
quality requirements. It ensures clean process flow between different stakeholders such
as Real Estate, Project Control and Implementation Teams. The BTS sites are selected
and constructed in such a manner that they fulfill all the capacity and coverage
requirements. After the release of RF Master Plan, the sites are distributed among
different sub-contractors (Site Acquisition and Construction Vendors) based upon their
quality of work and their previous performance. This distribution is done by RE
department.
SAR Validation:
SAR (Site Acquisition Report) is a document submitted by the Sub-con to the Project
Control team after hunting of different candidates for a particular cell site. The PC team
then submits this document to the RF Planning team for validation.
SAR validation is a carried out to check the details of various candidates hunted for a
site, prioritizing and evaluating these candidates so as to select the most appropriate
location for a cell site.
SAR validation process starts with Project Reporting team providing SAR for review. Site
is evaluated whether it is a Normal site or a difficult one. Normal sites are those which
are without any issue while difficult site may have either of many issues like
Border/Ranger site, Documentation issue, no electricity, Access/foundation issue,
government land, etc.
If the site is a Normal site, the candidates are plotted in MapInfo and Google Earth. The
coordinates are taken from SAR report and the entries in SAR Comment Sheet are
verified along with Distance from Nominal. Miscellaneous information of the SAR is also
verified, from the Nominal Plan Sheet such as:
Site Name
Candidate Name
Phase Number
Obstacle Diagram
Tower height, Site Type, planned azimuths.
Site Layout Diagram
Panoramic pictures
Sector Azimuth Pictures etc.
35
Once these are verified, the RF Comment Sheet is filled. If a candidate meets RF
requirement, it is 'Accepted'. In case more than one candidates are acceptable, the
preferred one is marked 'Accepted and preferred'. If decision could not be made using
MapInfo, Google Earth and panoramic pictures, then 'Decision to be made at time of
TSS' while 'Conditionally accepted for TSS' indicates that a candidate is acceptable if
certain conditions are met. This is depicted very clearly in the below pictures of Map
Info and Google Earth views. The Green color asterisk is for 'Accepted and preferred',
Blue is for 'Accepted', Yellow is for 'Conditionally accepted for TSS' and Red is for
‘Rejected’:
Fig 3.1: View of SAR validation Candidates
36
Fig 3.2: Google Earth View of SAR validation Candidates
Record of the SAR candidate is updated in the SAR Tracking Sheet. After evaluation,
response is sent back to Project Reporting Team for further intimation to Sub-Con.
In case of difficult site: Difficult site is a term used to identify a site where candidate
cannot be easily finalized. This may be due to a number of reasons like Airport or
Cantonment area, no proper ownership documents, stay or court case exists, no
electricity available, normal civil works not possible or border/Rangers area. Upon SAR
submission, check the previous record of any candidate submitted for this particular site
in the SAR Tracking Sheet. If previous candidates are found, check the reason of
rejection. Different situations are possible. Some of the cases are discussed below:
Cantonment / Airport Funnel Area:
Check whether the candidate falls exactly in front of funnel area or in area of limited
height. If it is in front of the Funnel, the candidate is useless. New Nominal is to be
provided to the Subcon. A meeting with concerned authority should be scheduled to
discuss appropriate candidates and finalize acceptable one.
37
No Ownership Documents:
If ownership documents are not available for a particular candidate, SAR for another
candidate within the Search Radius with proper ownership documents is to be
submitted. If it falls in the Government land, the probability is that no one will have
ownership documents. In such case check the options at the edges of the Government
land.
Stay/Court Case:
If there is a stay or court case against the land, Subcon should ensure whether it will be
settled shortly or is it a prolonged stay. If the stay is long-term, other alternatives need
to be considered.
No Power Supply:
Sometimes electricity is not available in the vicinity or it cannot be extended to the site
due to congested population or other legal issues. In such a situation the site has to be
moved to within 2km of the nearest location where electricity is available.
Rangers/Border Area:
In situations where a candidate falls in Rangers area or near Border, the final location is
to be decided in a joint visit with the Rangers or Border Security Force.
According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) rules and regularities:
You cannot install a site within the 10Km distance from international border.
The Signal should not penetrate in the 02 Km radius of the International border.
Civil Works Issue:
In congested population, there is a chance that proper access is not possible or plot
sizes are not adequate within Search Radius. In such situation, the civil team has to
check whether Compact design is possible. If not possible, Subcon is to be directed to
hunt new candidate. If normal foundation is not possible due to higher water level
under the land, pile foundation is required, but it should be avoided to its maximum as
it’s a costly solution.
The remaining procedure is as for the Normal site. However, if any SAR is incomplete
38
the Real Estate Team is asked, via the Project Control team, to re-submit a correct
version and if any candidate is rejected, they are informed of the reason of rejection. In
this case, Subcon has to hunt for new candidate and submit its SAR. SAR response must
be sent within 48 hours. After receiving SAR response, the Project Control team
prepares TSS tentative dates.
Technical Site Survey Scheduling:

TSS (Technical Site Survey) scheduling is a process to streamline the efficient use of
available man power as well as other resources like pool vehicles.
TSS Scheduling is done after the intimation of possible TSS candidates from Project
Control team. TSS of only those sites can be scheduled for which SAR has already been
approved. If PC team requests the scheduling of that TSS for which SAR is not approved,
it is immediately rejected by the RF Planning team. Provided TSS Candidates are then
analyzed according to their regions i.e. their position and importance. TSS is then
planned by keeping in view that minimal of two sites should be surveyed by one team in
a day. But special cases like difficult site, political site, urgent requirement etc. can be
compensated. Pairing of same site acquisition contractor sites is preferred. The Normal
candidates which could not be paired are sent back to project control team so that they
can be paired with future coming TSS candidates.
After checking for availability, RF resource is allocated. Once the TSS is planned, its
schedule is floated to the Project Control Team, which intimates the concerned regional
RF representatives, Vendor representatives and RF Planning AM.
Some sites are categorized as difficult because these are facing issues like clear
documentation issue, court stay, WAPDA availability, Cantonment area, airport funnel
area, etc. For these sites, the RE department is also involved while performing the TSS,
so they must also be asked while scheduling. The RE representative resolves all the legal
issues at the time of TSS.
In case of Sharing Sites with other operators, Project Control team has to coordinate
with that operator’s concerns first so that their resources are aligned timely. Then, the
tentative plan is floated to RF Planning team. After receiving TSS schedule from RF
Planning team, the PC team has to float this schedule to the host operator’s concerns as
well along with the mentioned earlier for normal sites.
The whole process of scheduling TSS shall be completed within 48 hours time. It is
preferred to schedule the sites for the coming week on Friday of each week.
39
Performing TSS:
TSS is a process to select the best suited candidate for the construction of planned cell
site from RF as well as civil and implementation perspective.
Before going to the TSS visit, RF Planning engineer notes down all the Nominal Plan
details of the sites to be visited. He must evaluate all the candidates of all the sites on
Google Earth. He feeds the Site coordinates in the GPS. While leaving for the TSS, one
should adopt the best possible route via Map Info.
On reaching the site, RF planner receives the SAR’s of all the candidates in Hard Copy
form. He verifies the Candidates and Site coordinates submitted in the SAR and being
shown at the time of TSS. These noted coordinates are also verified with other teams on
the TSS. The Planning guy also notes down DFN, HASL and the Coordinates. He then
takes the Panoramic of all candidates(from some nearby high-rise building) every 45
degree(i.e. total 8 in number) by keeping North as 0 degree reference, then takes the
snaps of 3 or 4 Azimuths, Tower location, HT line and Road access. If it is an Urban or
Suburban site, RF planner selects the candidate which is very much near to the nominal
point so that the intended population can be best served with the site. In case of rural
site, the selected location should be in the center of population or which is most suited.
Also, the RF Planner should decide the Sector orientation at the time of TSS along with
the Site Type (whether it should be type 2, type 3, type 4 etc depending upon
population trend). The dense population has probability of generating more traffic, so
the site should be type 3 or 4. The site should type 2 for less dense, scattered and rural
population as well as for roads. The coverage requirements in urban, suburban, rural
areas and on roads are different. In urban areas sites are very much close to each other,
so heights of antennas are kept low (usually between 20m-30m). In sub-urban areas
population is bit scattered, hence sites are a distance and also antenna heights are more
as well (usually between 25m-35m). In rural areas and on roads populations is quite
scattered, so sites are at considerable distance an antenna heights are also high (usually
between 30m-45m). The coverage in all these different categories can be distributed as
shown I figures below:
Urban Areas
Sub Urban Areas
Rural Areas
Roads & Highways
40
Urban Area:
Fig 3.3: Urban area Coverage
Site Sharing:
Please see the attachment for the Site Sharing process & the SSRF for shared Sites
below:
Site Sharing - Site Sharing - Zong SSRF

Operators as Host.vsd Telenor as Host.vsd LLR143_C-LHR-6356.xls
SSRF for shared Sites
41
Fig 3.4: Urban Map Info View
Fig 3.5: Urban Google Earth View
42
Sub Urban area
Fig 3.6: Sub-Urban area Coverage
43
Fig 3.7: Suburban Map Info View
Fig 3.8: Suburban Google Earth View
44
Rural Area:
Fig 3.9: Rural area Coverage
Fig 3.10: Rural Map Info View
45
Fig 3.11: Rural Google Earth View
Roads & Highways:
Fig 3.12: Roads Coverage
46
Fig 3.13: Roads Map Info View
Fig 3.14: Roads Google Earth View
47
The candidate is selected such that cell site should meet all RF objectives like being
within the radius etc. If there is an obstacle present near the hunted candidate then its
information like coordinates, height should be carefully measured. If the obstacle is far
than double the distance of tower height, then it wouldn’t cause any problems. If it is
within that distance and in front of any of planned azimuths, it will cause severe
blocking. Hence, that candidate is rejected and the vendor is asked to hunt the new one.
Candidate ID should be verified with RE before being recorded to avoid confusion in
future.

Returning from TSS visit, the Planning guy checks the purpose of site as coverage or
capacity site. Decides the desired distance of coverage and check whether the planned
heights/antenna types are suitable for desired coverage. Heights should be such that
interference is minimized. Also, check whether the planned azimuths are suitable to
provide coverage and cater the nulls or high utilized areas while avoiding unnecessary
overlaps. For example, while planning a new site MDG004, the sector S1 is planned to
cover the population in null of MDG003, sector S2 covers null of MDG005 and sector S3
for catering MDG012 null population. This can be seen from pictures below:
Fig 3.15: Map Info view
48
Fig 3.16: Google Earth view
Similarly, antenna tilts are used in urban areas to prevent overshoot. Tilts are adjusted if
required. All these evaluations and adjustments are made using ASSET (the RF Planning
Tool). If changes were made in the design, then update the Design Changes column in
TSS Update Sheet.
RF Planning team then sends the TSS Acceptance/Rejection status by noon the next day
and the filled TSSR (after discussion with Design Finalization Responsible person) within
2 working days of the TSS performed to The Project Control Team. The PC team
forwards the TSSR of the accepted sites to the Implementation department for Site
construction.
The final Site design is compared with the BTS site type before filling the details in the
Master plan.
SiteTypes
Template.xls
49
RF Database Update:
RF planning team member fills the DB Sheet for the site data and segment data of newly
validated sites. The format of such sheets can be seen from the template.
D:\Planning\
Database\Sample DB Sheet.xls
Inputs like Tower height, Phase, Site Type and Configuration re gathered from the latest
central nominal sheet. Whereas, Site co-ordinates, Acceptance status, Date of TSS, TP
and Vendor representatives, Candidate accepted etc are taken from the TSS update
sheet. The segment Data information is filled after discussion with the person who went
on the TSS or from the filled TSSR. For antenna Power, we are currently using only 2
values i.e. 41 dB for GSM-900 and 38.5 for DCS-1800. Clutter and cabinet type is defined
on the basis of area profile and design being used. Mostly cabinet type used is Outdoor,
whereas, MapInfo/Google Earth/TSS Information is used for clutter definition. It is
important to note that for Dual band sites (having both GSM-900 and DCS-1800
Antennas); segment data information for sectors 5, 6, 7 has to be entered as well. If site
is only DCS band, it will have segment data information for only sectors 5, 6, 7 and 8,
whereas, no information for sectors 1, 2, 3, and 4 will be edited.
Once the RF DB update is completed it is floated to RF DB administrator for weekly file

updation.
Work Package Verification:
Work package Verification is a procedure for evaluation of the finalized RF design for a
particular site before implementation. The teams involved in this process are RF
Planning, Project Control, Site Design and Implementation. This process is to ensure on
time implementation of the planned sites hence avoiding any unnecessary delays in the
overall rollout.
The RF Planning team sends the TSSR to Project Control team. The PC team forwards the
TSSR to Subcon who prepares the work package containing the complete design of that
particular site and sends it to the PC team. The PC team then sends the work package to
the Site Design for design verifications. After verification, Site design team provides the
50
work package of the accepted candidate for final review to RF team. The RF TSS report is
extracted from the work package for verification. The RF Planning team verifies the site
name and candidate name with latest MapInfo weekly files. In case, any concerned site
is not present in weekly files, consult the latest RF data base.
The longitude and latitude present on TSSR and on MapInfo weekly files are carefully
verified. All other RF parameters like site type, tower height, antenna type, antenna
azimuths, antenna heights, antenna tilts, TSS date, TP and vendor representative and
vendor are also verified. In case, if certain fields are not verified, consult the latest TSS
update sheet for the original values and make the corrections in the RF data base or in
the TSSR.
The response of the accepted work packages are provided to the site design team for
implementation and rejected response for non-verified work packages will be sent to
site design team for resubmission of work package. If there is a need to change certain
parameters like Antenna azimuth, height or tilt then that particular work package is
rejected and Site Design team is asked to send the modified one. Flowing back, RF
Planning has to send the modified TSSR to Project Control Team which then sends the
updated version to Site Design team and afterwards the work package reaches RF
Planning team for verification. Corrections made should also be updated in the data
base as well as in the next weekly MapInfo files.
The record of the work package verification is also maintained. The template used for
this can be seen in template. Fill in the Site ID, Candidate name, Vendor, Work Package
receiving date, Response and Response sending date and comments(if any) columns in
this sheet.
D:\Planning\
Database\Work Package Template\WP template.xls
51
Chapter 4: PRE-LAUNCH OPTIMIZATION
Pre-Launch Optimization
Internal Interfaces
External Interfaces
KPI Commitment
Description of Field Audit / Testing
Site Drive Test Analysis Table description
52
Pre-Launch Optimization
Pre-Launch Optimization is done for the newly integrated sites that come on-air in
the cluster of already on-air sites.
The main responsibilities of the Pre-Launch Optimization include:

Conducting the Pre-Launch Drive Test completely which involves a thorough
checking of the site elapsing for more than four hours.
Complete testing of hardware is done so as to ensure that the upcoming site
does not create any trouble for the existing customers in the vicinity.
On-site Resolution of any issues that are encountered on a newly RCO site
with the help of implementation team.
Optimization of the Site after Drive testing the site and putting it in Soft
Launch.
The Pre-Launch process involves both internal and external interfaces which are:
INTERNAL INTERFACES:
Frequency Planning team (Internal RF-Interface)

Planning team is responsible for frequency planning, neighbor creation and
necessary database creation request at both NSS & BSS ends, for new sites.
Post Launch Optimization team (Internal RF-Interface)

Post launch optimization is only involved in the acceptance of the new sites
from the pre-launch team based on the KPIs and justifications.
Project Control Office (Internal Implementation Interface)

Project control team is involved in timely intimation of new sites ready for DT.
Project control will make sure that the sites sent for DT have the permanent power or for
that matter enough fuel for the DT activity. This team is also responsible for harmonizing
the site status throughout the network.
Pre Launch Optimization team (Internal RF-Interface)

Pre-Launch team is responsible for conducting the DT, design analysis,
recommendation & responsible for pre-launch KPIs for new sites.
EXTERNAL INTERFACES: NSN Implementation team (External Implementation-

Interface)
NSN Implementation team is responsible for making sites available for DT, provide
the adequate resources for activity, and resolve any hardware issues.
53
Pre-launch Optimization Procedure
Project Control Team RF Planning Implementation Team RF Optimization Team

RF Traffic and Redesign
(Regional Interface) (Pre – Launch Interface) (Implementation-Interface) (Post Launch Interface)
START
Sites with Pre-Launch
DAY-0
Civil Works Redesign
Complete Activity
Prepare
Resource
Intimation for sites comprehensive
DAY-2
allocation and get

ready for DT DT plan and verify
sites ready for DT
DB from Dumps
WO generation for
DB updates at
DB Ok? No
both NSS & BSS
end
Yes
Conduct
Comprehensive
DT in coordination
with TI Teams
Hardware Rectify the issue

Issues Yes on Site and inform
DT engineer
No
Comprehensive
Log file analysis &
Soft Launch
Report Generation No
Yes
Change the status TI handovers the

of the site to either Site Ok for Soft
Launch site to Operations
Soft launch (SL) (after 3 days of
DAY-07
SL)
Yes
Stat analysis of 5 day

for expansion
Expansion Plan evaluation
Yes
Expansion
required?
Expansion
Acknowledgement
(3 Weeks)
No
Stat analysis for 5 days
Site offered for

KPIs meet? Yes
Acceptance
No
Site Analyzed
Soft Optimzation and
Site sent for Responded
commercially (48 hrs)
on-air Yes
Site Accepted
END
DAY-40
PL Sheet
Updated
* This time is variable on case to case basis, here only the worst case has been projected. Moreover this time
may delay even more as per the requirement of the implementation team.
Fig 4.1: Pre-Launch Optimization Process Flow
54
Intimation
Soon after the sites are received from the project control office, their DT plan would be
made and floated to all the concerned team (NSN implementation, Project Control) by
pre-launch optimization team.
Resource Allocation and comprehensive DT

Once the sites are confirmed ready for DT by NSN implementation, comprehensive DT
would be conducted. The lead time is variable from case to case basis, however the worst
case should be drive tested till the 14 th Day from the intimation. All the hardware issues
found during the DT would be resolved from the implementation teams on spot. If
however any issue is not escalated at the point of DT, this would be done within two days
based on comprehensive log file analysis.
Soft Launch
Two days after the DT, site would be put either in soft launch or locked for NWOP. The site
would remain in locked NWOP status till such time the pending hardware/TI issues are
resolved. At the time of soft-launch a comprehensive and detailed field testing report will
be generated. This report will primarily focus on the field tests and field KPIs. The KPIs are
discussed in the later part of this document.
Stats monitoring & Optimization

Stats would be monitored for seven days once a site is put in soft launch. Comprehensive
optimization activities would be performed in coordination with post launch optimization
teams to meet the pre launch KPIs. If the KPIs are met after seven days, the said site
would be offered for acceptance to the post launch optimization team. If however the
KPIs are not met, then pre-launch team would require another seven days for optimization
activity. If Even after the additional seven days pre-launch team is unable to meet the KPIs
then the site would be offered for acceptance to post launch optimization team with
recommendations and justifications.
Acceptance
A comprehensive pre-launch report would be generated at the time of acceptance. Once
the site is accepted by the post launch optimization team the site status would be
changed to commercial launch by project control team.
55
KPI Commitment
Following are the KPI thresholds for field testing:

The HOSR (Handover success rate) with first & second tier neighbors shall be
better than 97% (degradation caused by TCH blocking will not be considered).
Also this target threshold will be only considered in cases where there is
acceptable overlapping coverage between sites.
RxQual samples: 95% of samples will be within range of 0 to 4 and there is no

external interference and frequency spectrum is clean in that particular area
(provided that there is a coverage overlap between the new site and its existing
neighbors).
The Call Setup Success rate (CSSR BSS) shall be better than 97% ( Blocked calls
due to circuit unavailability are excluded)
The Dropped Call Rate (DCR) shall be less than 1% (provided that there is a
coverage overlap in the DT area).
NOTE: All measurements / statistics shall be based on drive testing using post
processing tool preferably Actix or equivalent post processing tool.
Following KPI threshold need to be ensure from Stats (Average of one week):
The HOSR (Incoming & outgoing) shall be better than 95% (congestion issues will
be excluded). Also this target threshold will be only considered in cases where
there is acceptable overlapping coverage between sites.
TA samples: Initially 95% of samples will be within foot print of the cells (based
on morphology class & inter site distance) and the target will be to have 98% of
samples within foot print of the cells after a period of 4 weeks from commercial
launch. This to avoid over shooting.
The Call Setup Success rate (CSSR BSS) shall be better than 97% (congestion
issues will be excluded)
The Dropped Call Rate (DCR) shall be less than 1.5% (provided that there is a
coverage overlap between the new site and its existing neighbors).
56
NOTE: All measurements/statistics shall be based on stats provided by regional RF-

Post launch optimization teams
Description of Field Audit/Testing
RF-Design verification
Pre-launch riggers would verify design details for each and every cell of the respective
site. Any discrepancies from the planned configurations would be escalated to
implementation on-site team and rectified on-site.
Site Drive Test Analysis
Drive Route details

DT would be conducted for a cell till the neighboring site. In case neighboring site
cannot be reached by road (Neighboring site lies in rural/ hilly inaccessible terrain)
then the DT would be conducted till maximum point of access in the direction of the
main lobe of the cell.
CS call testing
Following four level CS call testing would be performed at the time of DT namely:
Scan Mode
Full BCCH band Scan mode testing would be done for each cell. The route
for scan mode testing would be the same as for long call testing and
EDGE/GPRS dynamic testing. Rx-Lev would be analyzed from this test.
Long Call
Long Call would be made for an infinite period in each sector of a Site. Rx-
Qual, Dropped calls, blocked calls, HO Analysis would be extracted from this
testing
Short Call
Over the same route of the long call, short call testing would be conducted. 50
or more short call would be made in each cell where each call would be of 10
sec duration with 3 sec interval between the calls. Field level KPIs like CSSR,
blocked calls would be extracted from this test.
57
TRX Test Call

Sufficient number of calls would be made in a cell so as to check each TRX
for two scenarios namely, mute calls, voice distortion.
The field test KPI table in Site Drive test analysis section would be a summation of both
Long call & Short call testing. The results of both the testing would be incorporated in the
table and the comprehensive details for any dropped, blocked call, HO failure found in
any of the tests would be discussed in the last section of comments & reasons.
PS call testing
Two level PS call testing would be perform ed at the time DT namely:
Static mode testing

Uplink & downlink throughput would be verified from this test. Only FTP file
uploading and downloading would be tested. A 1 MB file would first be
uploaded and then downloaded from the server. HTTP would be tested in the
Dynamic mode testing only.
Dynamic mode testing

Similar to the short call, dynamic mode test would be conducted over the same
route as for the long call. This test would be conducted to check downloading
from an HTTP server, more than 10 MB file would be downloaded from an HTTP
server. Moreover DL throughput with the coding scheme usage along with
EDGS/GPRS territory would be analyzed from this test as well.
Site Drive Test Analysis Table Description
Each column in this table is a summation of th e call scenarios from Long Call testing,
short call testing & TRX testing. So in all total number of calls established while testing
one cell would be independent from another cell. Similarly all the Dropped call, blocked
calls, and HO analysis would be a summation of all the call scenarios stated above.
Handover analysis would be a summation of intra cell & inter cell for segment.
Similarly failures would be the summation of intra & inter cell scenarios.
58
Comprehensive description of each failure case would be discussed at the end of the
report.
Field test KPIs would be extracted and reported for all the call scenarios discussed in
the above table. Detailed comments would be provided in case of failure to meeting any
field test KPIs.
Field Testing Plots
Rx-Lev Sub dbm & serving cell plots would be extracted from the scan mode testing,
while Rx-Qual Sub dbm would be extracted from the long call testing. C/I plot along with
all the PS graphs including EDGE/GPRS territory, coding scheme usage and DL
throughput would be reported from the PS dynamic mode testing.
PreLaunch
Report_template.xls
Pre-Launch P r e - La u n c h R e d e s ig n
Optimization Process - Process Map.vsd A c t iv it y . v s d
59
Chapter 5: INDOOR SOLUTIONS
Introduction
Indoor types
Indoor Antennas
Active IBS
Marketing demand
Initial RF Survey & Reporting
Indoor Path loss Models
Site Acceptance
60
Introduction:
Indoor sites are built to cater capacity and coverage issues in indoor compounds where
outdoor macro site can’t be a good solution .In dense urban clutter where buildings
structures and indoor environment losses are quite large for macro site which makes it‘s
an inappropriate solution. Generally floors underground (basements and lower ground)
have poor RSSI. Major part of reflections takes place from ground and because of this
portion below ground have poor signal coverage.
On the other hand floors above third have quality and DCR issues. Due to fewer
obstacles in the LOS path, path losses are less compared to ground floors. There is a
multiservers environment due to less path losses and cells overshooting which leads to
ping pong handovers and interference issues.
In urban areas there are buildings that generate high traffic loads like commercial
buildings, offices; shopping malls may need indoor systems to take care of the traffic
demands. For such areas indoor is the efficient solution regarding cost, coverage and
capacity.
In indoors downlink is the critical link in the air interface. There is no need to use the
uplink diversity in an indoor system or use amplifiers like TMA for improving the uplink
signal .Multi-antenna indoor system is providing diversity as uplink signals received by
several antennas.
Indoor Base station Versus Repeaters:
Repeaters are mainly used for coverage of dead zones, shadows, in building coverage or
other areas with inadequate signal strength. The output power of the repeater is
enough to cover an area which is shadowed or is an indoor environment. Repeaters
used a repeater unit and distributed antenna system which merely amplifies the
outdoor macro site signals. For an indoor site indoor metro BTS along with distributed
antenna system is deployed. Indoor site is used to cater capacity as well coverage
requirements whereas repeater only looks for coverage. Repeaters are cost-effective
solution for small scale coverage issues in small offices and parking etc.
Indoor Types:
Micro Cells:
Micro cells constitute most of the indoors deployed for BTS coverage. They are more
costly and also on large scale with respect to Femto or Pico cells. They consist of indoor
61
micro /metro BTS and distributed antenna system for signal propagation in indoor
environment .Usually they have passive components but where large di stance to be
required amplifiers especially optical amplifiers are deployed.
Pico cells:
A Pico cell is wireless communication system typically covering a small area, such as in-
building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, etc.), or more recently in-aircraft. A Pico
cell is analogous to a WIFI access point. In cellular wireless networks, such as GSM, the
Pico cell base station is typically a low cost, small (typically the size of a sheet of A4
paper and about 2-3cm thick), reasonably simple unit that connects to a Base Station
Controller (BSC). Multiple Pico cell 'heads' connect to each BSC: the BSC performs radio
resource management and hand-over functions, and aggregates data to be passed to
the Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) and/or the GPRS Support Node (GSN).
Femto Cells:
In telecommunications, a Femto cell—originally known as an Access Point Base

Station—is a small cellular base station, typically designed for use in residential or small
business environments. It connects to the service provider’s network via broadband
(such as DSL or cable); current designs typically support 5 to 100 mobile phones in a
residential setting. A Femto cell allows service providers to extend service coverage
indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable. The Femto
cell incorporates the functionality of a typical base station but extends it to allow a
simpler, self contained deployment; an example is a UMTS Femto cell containing a Node
B, RNC and GPRS Support Node (SGSN) with Ethernet for backhaul. Although much
attention is focused on UMTS, the concept is applicable to all standards, including GSM,
CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA and WiMax solutions.
Equipment Based:
Passive IBS
Mostly passive IBS is deployed as an indoor solution. Passive IBS contains splitters,
couplers, attenuators, combiners, coaxial cable, DAS but there is no active element
involved.
62
Active IBS
Active IBS is generally used when the EIRP required is more than the available. Usually
this happen when distance involve are large and antenna elements are more as well.
Active IBS is actually a hybrid IBS as it contains an active component (repeater) and
passive IBS.
Indoor Antennas:
Primary Antenna types in IBS design are:
Omni directional antenna

Directional antenna
Leaky cable
Omni Directional Antennas
 Transmits signal in all directions

 Low gain
 Horizontal direction patter n all over the place but vertical direction
concentrated so gain provided.
General specifications of Omni Antenna:
 Gain 2-3 dbi

 Beam width 360
 Polarized Vertical
 VSWR <1.8
63
Fig 5.1: Omni Directional Antennas
Directional Antennas:
 Transmits signal in a specified direction

 High gain
Gain 5 dB. Gain 5 dB.

Horizontal BW 90 deg. Horizontal BW 90 deg.
VSWR < 2 VSWR< 1.5
Polarized- Vertical Polarized- Vertical
Fig 5.2: Directional Antennas
Leaky Coaxial Cable
 Transmits signal along path of the coaxial cable

 Contains closely spaced slots in the outer conductor of the cable to
transmit/Receive signals
64
Losses in leaky cable:
Two types of losses are there in leaky cable.
• Feeder loss- cable attenuation loss

• Coupling loss-Average signal level difference between the cable and dipole
antenna at distance of 6m approx.
Fig 5.3: Losses in cables
Power Splitters
• Splitters are used to split antenna feeder network power equally over the output
ports.
• Two way, three way and four way splitters are generally used.
Splitters Loss:
2-Way Splitter Loss – around 3 db

3-Way Splitter Loss- around 5db
4-Way Splitter Loss- around 6db
Insertion loss for these splitters is 0 .2db.
65
Fig 5.4: Splitters Specifications
Power Couplers:
• Couplers are used to split antenna feeder power unequally among output ports.
• Couplers have tap/coupling loss and through loss e.g 10/0.5 coupler means its
coupling loss is 10 while through loss is 5.
• Couplers generally are available in ratings of 3, 6, 7, 10, 15 & 20 db.
66
Fig 5.5: Power Couplers
67
Fig 5.6: Couplers Specifications
Attenuators:
Attenuators are used to reduce EIRP at antennas where less EIRP required
but the other antennas required high EIRP.
Attenuators are of values 3, 5, 7, 10 etc.
Fig 5.7: Attenuators
68
Active IBS:
Coverage systems for active IBS consists of following
• Base station Master Unit (BMU)

• Fiber optics distributions
• Remote units (RU)
(The solution discussed is a vendor specific and component name/specification may vary,
however function of main component remains the same)
Fig 5.8: Active solution layout
Base Station Master Unit:
• Interface between BTS and Remote units

• Combines RF signals and converts them to optical Signals to be used by remote
units.
69
Fig 5.9: Base station Master Unit
BMU consist of following parts:
• Variable Attenuator Module (VAM)

• RF Combiner Module (RCM)
• Optical Converter Module (OCM)
• Fiber Optics Node (FON)
Variable Attenuator Module
• VAM used in Multi-operator system.

• VAM adjusts all incoming signals to same signal levels. Variable gain is used to
bring signals from different operators/BTS to same level.
Fig 5.10: VAM
70
RF Combiner Module
• Passive RF combining part of BMU.

• Equalizes, combines and filter signal from each BTS for uplink/downlink
Per FON.
Fig 5.11: RF Combiner Module
Marketing Demand:
Indoor site visit demand comes from the marketing in the “Coverage where I am “sheet or
during the bimonthly meetings.
Initial RF Survey:
Following are the things which are taken under consideration during initial RF Survey:
Site(Indoor Building) coordinates
Site Rough Layout sketch
RSSI and C/I of strong servers in different location of indoor site using TEMS
pocket view mode.
No. of subscribers’ estimation/ floor or as the building architectural division.
Marking of the different areas what they are specified for.
Snaps of different floors
Building structure observation.
Initial RF survey report:

After the survey report is made in which all the above inputs are put.
71
Indoor Site Evaluation:
After the survey it is checkout if any modifications (Hard / Soft Changes) can be done to
the existing neighboring site to improve the condition at the affected area. Otherwise
Site is evaluated as to be an indoor Micro or wall mounted metro according to the
location, requirements and conditions.
RF Survey with floor Plan:
Once the indoor site is finalized, floor Architectural Plans are requested from
building Authorities.
RF survey with Floor Plans is carried, RSSI is checked & recorded at each and
every part of the indoor environment and C/I is checked at worst.
TEMS idle mode log files for different floors are made using floor plans provided.
During the RF survey Detailed Analysis/Observations of the
building/environment is carried out as well as what is the ceiling thickness, floor
heights, thickness of the walls in between floors, thin walls and their thickness.
Antenna locations are finalized using traditional Ray tracing techniques(By simply
analyzing how reflections and propagation going to occur)
Fig 5.12: RSSI of different servers with floor plans
72
Marking of Priority Area:
In indoor areas like offices and meeting rooms etc have usually high priority. On the
other hand areas like mosques, gyms etc have low priorities. Similarly area in which
outdoor macro coverage and quality is satisfactory should not be included in intended
coverage area for indoor site. For high priority area coverage should be around -75 dbm
at each point while for low priority area levels should be around -85 dbm.
Fig 5.13: Priority area marking for an indoor site location
Indoor Antenna Placement:
Antenna placement is the most crucial step in indoor planning. Following observations
should be considered during antenna placement:
Antennas especially Omni directional antennas should be placed at centralized
locations.
Panels should be placed in the corners of corridors or where design demands
while keeping in view the spillage of indoor signals.
Antennas should be placed at high elevations where people can’t touch them as
it will affect the performance.
Obstacle free path should be provided for antennas otherwise coverage in
indoor will suffer a lot.
73
Antennas should be placed away from conductive objects.

Exposure levels of the indoor RF signals are below RF safety standard of WHO,
IRPA, IEEE and FCC. However discretely placed antenna will reduce the
unnecessary public concerns about RF exposure.
If the building with low traffic capacity is to be planned antennas should be
placed in zigzag manner such to get an even distribution of signals as depicted in
fig. below
Fig 5.14: Improvement in indoor coverage
Indoor Capacity Calculations:
Total TCH Total Final Capacity

Subscribers Traffic/sub Traffic BCCH SDCCH GPRS Timeslots Trx Planned
400 18 m E 7.2 Erlang 1 1 1 13 2 9.0096 Erlang
Following are required for indoor capacity calculations:
74
Capacity to be catered (No. of subscribers)

Traffic/subscribers is generally considered as 15, 18, 25, 30, 40 m E depending
upon the subscriber requirements.
Standard value for Erlang/subscriber is considered to be 18 m E.
TCH Timeslots against required capacity is calculated from Erlang B table using
2% GOS.
SDCCH and GPRS timeslots are planned accordingly to predicted subscriber
usage.
Capacity dimensioning, coverage and quality standards for offices etc should be
higher than indoor cells at public location e.g shopping malls etc.
INDOOR PATH LOSS MODELS:
Keenan-Motley Model:
Like Okamura-Hata model is developed as a statistical model for outdoor macro sites,
Keenan-Motley model is commonly used for indoor path loss calculations.
L= path loss (d B)
f= frequency (MHz)
K= number of floors traversed
d= transmitter to receiver separation
F= Floor attenuation factor
P= number of walls traversed by direct wave
W= wall attenuation factor (d B)
D= Linear attenuation factor (.2 db/m after indoor breakpoint)
Db= indoor breakpoint usually 65m
(Floor attenuation factor is generally not considered .It is considered that the antenna on
one floor will serve that floor, so usually Keenan-motley simplified form used)
75
Keenan-Motley simplified form:
Mostly this formula is used for path loss calculations
L (db) = 20log (4 π f/c) + 20logd + Nw.W
L= path loss (d B)
f= frequency (MHz)
c= speed of light (3*10^8 m/s)
Nw= number of walls traversed by direct wave
W= wall attenuation factor (d B) (10 db for GSM & 12 db for DCS)
Distance Power Law:
Keenan-motley model is mostly used for indoor; however distance power law is used as
well for indoor.
Power = distancen
According to this law path loss equation can be given as,
PL 20 log 4πd0 f c 10n log d d 0
Where:
Pl is the average path loss at a distance, d, from the antenna
d is the distance expressed in meters
d0 is usually taken as 1 m for indoor.
f is the operating frequency in Hz
c is the speed of light in a vacuum ( 3 108 m/s)

n is the path loss exponent that depends on the indoor
environment (clutter).
76
The path loss exponent n may range from about 2 (in corridors) to 6 (for cluttered and
obstructed paths). For frequencies between 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz, COST 231 reports the
following values for the path loss exponent n
Environment Exponent n Propagation

Corridors 1.4 - 1.9 Wave guidance
Large open
rooms 2 Free space loss
Furnished Free space loss
rooms 3 + multipath
Densely Non-LOS,
furnished diffraction,
rooms 4 scattering
Between Losses during
different floor / wall
floors 5 traverses
Table 5.1: For path loss exponent
EIRP Required:
ERP= EIRP +L (db) Or EIRP= ERP - L (db)
Where ERP= -75 dbm

L (db) = path loss
From above equation theoretical EIRP required for each antenna element is calculated.
To achieve these EIRP values passive elements are arranged accordingly and through
link budget EIRP are recalculated.
Link Budget:
Link Budget calculations are used to calculate the output power (db) at each antenna
element. Passive component (coupler, splitter and attenuator losses) and feeder cable
losses are subtracted from BTS output power. Link budget calculations are made for
band to be used for indoor GSM/DCS/UMTS.
EIRP= Pout BTS + Ga – Lf - Lc- Ls – La
Pout BTS= BTS output power at antenna connector
77
Ga= Antenna gain (db)

Lf= Feeder loss
Lc= Coupler loss
Ls= Splitter loss
La= Attenuator loss
Fig 5.15: Link Budget Calculations
RF Indoor Plan:
After the path loss and link budget calculations RF plan is made floor by floor on the
autocad layout of the building. Care should be taken while adjusting the AutoCAD scale.
Also antenna, cable lengths and passive elements should be drawn accurately according
to the plan.
78
Fig 5.16: RF indoor Plan for a floor
Fig 5.17: Measurements for Cable lengths
79
Antenna tree diagram:
Antenna tree diagram is made to have a quick overview of the IBS design. Care should be
taken while calculating the lengths .
Fig 5.18: Antenna Tree diagram
80
Indoor Equipment List:
Fig 5.19: Indoor Equipment List
Indoor Site frequency planning:
Frequency planning is performed manually selecting suitable frequencies by carefully

analyzing the neighboring frequencies.
Exclude the co-channel and adjacent frequencies which will likely to interfere.
From the remaining set choose the frequency that most likely to cause interference.
BCCH frequency should be the least disturbed. Hopping on several frequencies will
smooth out the interference.
Following need to be considered if two much clean frequency options exist:
81
Increase signal strength of indoor cell.

Allocate dedicated 3-5 frequencies for indoor cells.
Redesign the frequency plan.
(Indoor sites in our network are single cell; single band sites, so no frequency reuse is
done in indoor)
Site Acceptance:
Once the indoor site is implemented site acceptance request is made by vendors/sub
cons. Implementation team will take care of VSWR calculations, antenna grounding etc.
Following is required from RF Team for acceptance of the indoor site:
On site Audit
Walk test
Spillage check
On Site Audit:
On site verification of the indoor is performed to check the antenna location as well as
the equipment count.
WALK TEST:
Idle Mode:
Walk test in idle mode for the indoor site is performed to check the RSSI and C/I of
indoor site. Logfiles are made on the floor plans provided. (In case of vendor planning
walk test report is to be provided by them).
82
Fig 5.20: Rx-Level Idle mode
Dedicated mode:
Dedicated mode walk test is performed to check the quality and RSSI of indoor after
call setup. Qualities of different TRX are also checked at RF end by locking the call on
different TRX’s. Also handovers with other neighboring sites is tested.
Fig 5.21: Rx-Qual Dedicated mode
Spillage Check:
Spillage is spill of indoor signal outside the indoor location. Spillage is generally
checked 20m away from the periphery of indoor compound. Generally -85dbm is set
83
as a threshold and levels below it are problematic as they will cause unnecessary
handovers on the indoor site. However using Cell Reselection Offset parameters and
handover control parameters, the unnecessary reselections and handovers can be
avoided.
Fig 5.22: Spillage
Coverage:
Coverage is checked at each part of the indoor compound and should be within the
range .
84
VSWR:
To be checked by implementation.
Parameters fine tuning:
Once the site is accepted by the planning team it is handed over to optimization team.
Fine tuning of parameters is performed to achieve the below mentioned KPI’s.
85
Chapter 6: PROPAGATION MODEL TUNING
Introduction
Propagation Model
Importance of Calibration
Site selection & Audits
Measurement & Data Collection
CW measurement
Model Calibration terminology
The Model Tuning process
Calibration in ASSETT 3G
Conclusion
86
Introduction
In designing any radio system, a fundamental task is to predict the coverage of a

proposed system and to determine whether the intended service objectives are met.
Over the years a wide variety of approaches have been developed to predict coverage
using what are known as propagation models.
Propagation in this context simply means the transfer or transmission of signals from
the transmitter to the receiver. Propagation modeling is an effort to predict what
happens to signals en route from the transmitter to the receiver. Obviously the signal
gets weaker, and everyone has experienced other signal impairments such as multipath
fading.
If network planning is carried out with the help of a network planning system then
coverage planning, frequency planning, capacity planning, interference analysis,
dominance analysis, handover analysis, etc. rely on the propagation predictions. It is
thus vital that radio propagation predictions are as accurate as possible taking into
account the practical limitations.
Propagation Model
The traditional approaches to propagation modeling, which have been developed for
analog systems, were intended only to predict signal attenuation, or path loss, as the
signal traveled from the transmitter to the receiver. While these approaches have been
adequate for most analog systems, digital systems need new techniques to produce
other information in addition to path loss. This information may actually be the
controlling factor on system performance or coverage, even when the signal-to-noise
ratio is well above the value otherwise necessary to achieve perfect reception.
The propagation model which is commonly used for macro cells is Okumura–Hata
Model. These models are developed by combining propagation theory and extensive
measurement campaigns. The model takes several parameters into account like
effective antenna height, terrain type (morphology), and terrain height (topography),
frequency, EIRP, etc.
The Okumura–Hata model is selected for analysis which is based on the empirical
Okumura-Hata (OH) loss formula. The Okumura–Hata loss depends on the distance,
frequency and effective antenna height. The formula assumes Urban / Suburban areas.
87
A generalized form of the Hata statistical prediction model is usually used in the
following form:
PRx = PTx + K1 + K2 log (d) + K3 log (Heff) + K4D +K5 log (Heff) log (d) + K6 log (hmeff) + Kclutter
K1, K2, K3, K4, K5 and K6 are coefficients that are also present in the original Hata formula,
but are left here unspecified for further tuning for the area. But their values should not
be changed much from the original values in the Hata formula to keep the model
structure reliable.
Fig 6.1: Propagation Model parameters values
The coefficient K 4 which multiplies a diffraction loss D is included to adjust diffraction

losses that are caused by building or terrain irregularities in the line-of-sight of the
receiver. The effective antenna heights for the base station and mobiles, H eff and hmeff
are calculated by considering the terrain profile and the area to be covered. A clutter
correction parameter K clutter is included to adapt the equation to each morphological
class.
88
Fig 6.2: Propagation Model parameters
Before the digital maps and advanced propagation prediction tools can be used, the
propagation model should be tuned. Propagation model tuning is a time consuming and
iterative process. Automatic model tuning based on a radio planning tool is therefore of
utmost importance.
Importance of Calibration
Most propagation models are suitable for either particular areas (Urban, Suburban,
Rural, etc.), or specific cell radius (Macro cell, Micro cell, Pico cell). To overcome this
drawback, the empirical models’ parameters can be adjusted or tuned according to a
targeted environment. The propagation model tuning must optimize the model
parameters in order to achieve minimal error between predicted and measured signal
strength. This will make the model more accurate for received wireless signal
predictions.
Several measurements need to be carried out in order to obtain data that can be used in
propagation model tuning. Usually propagation measurements are only carried out
when starting to plan a new network, or if there is an area with changes in the
propagation environment, due to new buildings or roads or if a new frequency band is
taken into a use.
89
Model tuning measurements require a good measurement system, a well-prepared

measurement plan, and a lot of experience. The amount of measurements depends on
the resolution of the digital map and the size of the target area.
Test CW sites locations need to be carefully selected for both 900MHz and 1800MHz for
each clutter type. The clutter types should be as follows:
Dense Urban
Urban
Suburban
Rural & Roads
CW Drive Test route should be identified prior to the DT and arrangements should be
made for the access to all test sites. Map data such as heights, clutter and vectors for
the area of interest must be of acceptable resolution
Site Selection & Audits
Sites are selected per clutter type based upon the certain criteria. Some of these are:
Similar heights for the antennas

Similar antenna types and tilts
Serving the same clutter (Rural/Road was in this case)
Site should not fall in Security risk areas
90
Fig 6.3: Site Selection
1800 1800 1800 1800 Site Tower

SiteID BSC Major City LAT LONG AZIMUTH Cell HBA Antenna Elect Tilt Type Height
INP004 IIB213_BSC7 Nurpur 32.70851 72.65870 90 INP0045 43 742213 1 Type-3 45
IDMI01 IIB213_BSC6 Chakwal 33.0967 72.8829 60 IDMI015 43 742213 2 Type-3 45
ITLG05 IIB213_BSC7 Bharpur 32.8575 72.5695 120 ITLG055 43 742215 2 Type-3 45
IAWL01 IIB103_BSC3 Fateh Jang 33.4279 72.4051 60 IAWL015 43 742213 1 Type-3 45
ICHK05 IIB213_BSC7 Chakwal 32.9595 72.952 0 ICHK055 43 742215 2 Type-3 45
Table 6.1: Selected Sites Data
Thorough Site Audits were performed to cross check information such as antenna
heights, azimuths, antenna types and tilts along with verification of the clutter.
91
Measurement and Data Collection
After site selection is finalized, a drive test is performed in scan mode. Only the three
allotted BCCHs are scanned. Drive Test is carried out to the area until -120dB level is
reached. After DT the sites are reverted back to their original settings.
Pre-requisites for Data Collection
The following considerations were observed for data collection:
• Dual BCCH was created one site at a time.

• The reason for creating Dual BCCH was to collect data for the 1800 band.
• The three (3) 1800 segments were equipped with the BCCHs allocated for Metro
sites (i.e. 621, 623, 625 on the 1 st, 2nd and 3rd Sectors respectively).
• Implementation of the above mentioned BCCHs was done considering the fact
that they are not in the 1800 MA list.
• This was done in order to have a non-overlapping service area of every single
cell/BCCH.
• Each site was reverted back to its original settings once its DT was completed.
This process was followed for all sites.
CW Measurement
A CW drive test is performed for the propagation model tuning and assessment of the
suitability of candidate sites from both coverage and interference aspect. A CW drive
test process can be broken down to:
Fig 6.4: CW Measurement process
92
The test equipment required for CW Drive Testing include a CW Transmitter, a Receiver
with fast scanner, a Base Station Test Antenna and accessories like flexible coaxial cable,
power cord, GPS, compass and power meter etc.
Test site should be selected for propagation model tuning so that they are distributed
within the clutter under study and the height of the test site should be representative of
the specific clutter. Care should be taken not to select site in hilly area. Transmit power
setting is set to maximum transmit power.
The drive route of the data collection is planned prior to the drive test with the help of a
detailed road map. Careful route planning is required to reduce the testing time. Each
clutter is tested individually and the drive route for each test site is planned to map the
clutter under-study for the respective sites. It is important to collect a statistically
significant amount of data, typically a minimum of 300 to 400 data points are required
for each clutter category.
The data should be evenly distributed with respect to distance from the Transmitter. In
practice, the actual drive route will be modified according to the latest development
which was not shown on the map. The actual drive route taken should be marked on a
map for record purposes.
Once necessary preparation is completed, a test antenna location is selected for
propagation test. It should be free from any nearby obstacle to ensure free propagation
in both vertical and horizontal direction. A complete set of 360 0 photographs of the
location at the test height and antenna setup should be taken for record.
Fig 6.5: Equipment used
93
Model Calibration Terminology
Mean Error:
The RMS (Root-Mean-Square) error is a statistical measure of the spread of the error
around the mean value calculated by examining the difference between the predicted
and measured values. This process is often done manually, and then adjustment made
by computerized tools. The mean error should be driven to as close to zero as possible.
The RMS error results range typically from 7.4-10.0dB for the dense urban environment,
with a value of 8dB commonly achieved in good tuning.
K Parameters:
K-values K 1 to K6 are prediction steering parameters. These are generalized coefficients

for tuning the propagation model according to real environment. These are also present
in Hata model but are left unspecified in the general formula for further tuning of the
area. It should be kept in mind that these values should not be changed very much so as
to keep the original model structure reliable.
Standard Deviation:
Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of data about a mean value. A low
standard deviation indicates that the data is clustered around the mean, whereas a high
standard deviation indicates that the data is widely spread with significantly
higher/lower figures than the mean.
The Model Tuning Process
Model Tuning is a highly iterative and empirical process used to obtain the value of the
model coefficients to minimize the mean and RMS errors. Data processing and filtering
is an important step in using measurement to tune model coefficients.
It is important to consider that the measurements collected are not necessarily all
informative for the model predictions. For example, data that appear exceptionally
different from the rest and are not characteristics of the clutter and morphology should
be excluded and filtered out. Such data would include for instance measurements that
show exceptionally weak signal strength from blocking by bridges or collected under
tunnels, which would not be representative of the typical environment for which the
model is intended.
94
Fig 6.6: Model tuning process
Calibration in Asset3G
Path-loss model parameters tuning process is highly time consuming and iterative. It
requires change of one variable at the time in small steps and then does an analysis for
each setting. There are several iterations to perform, in order to find the smallest RMS
error and standard deviations.
Scanned DT logs are converted into Signia format to make it compatible for Asset. The
converted log file is imported into Asset, a complete analysis is carried out using the CW
measurement tool in Asset to quantify the error between predicted and actual values.
For this analysis, the tool uses two inputs i.e. CW/TEMS Scan data and the prediction
model.
When appropriate filtering is applied on the log data, the model parameters are altered
and then re-analyzed against the measured data. The effect of change is noted and if
the change is beneficial, in other words, the standard deviation between propagation
model and the CW data is reduced then the change is documented and accepted. If the
result is unsatisfactory adjustment to the model is made and analyzed.
Once the result is satisfactory, the next parameter of the model is taken into account.
This procedure is repeated until the standard deviation cannot be reduced further. This
95
way, all the K-values are obtained. The effective antenna height is decided according to
the clutter type of target area. Clutter Offset should also be refined to further improve
the model and match the realistic environment.
Analyzing Results
To verify the radio propagation model tuning, RF field measurements are taken at
various locations. By using the log data of the measurement points in the Asset 3G, the
tuned parameters are obtained and compared with the original parameter.
Fig 6.7: Analysis
The comparison results show a high degree of reduction in prediction error.
96
Fig 6.8: Error vs Log Graph (Before)
Fig 6.9: Error vs. Log Graph (After)
Fig 6.10: RxLev vs. Log (distance)-Before
97
Fig 6.11: RxLev vs. Log (distance)-After
The Table below shows the results from the Signia files after filtration and calculation of
K-values. As can be seen in the table, the mean prediction error and the prediction
error’s standard deviation are reduced to -0.01 and 8.77 respectively for the tuned
model.
Model Num. Bin Mean Error Std.Dev. Error

TP-1800 41484 -0.01 8.77
Clutter Num. Bins Mean Error Std.Dev. Error

open 34249 0.2 8.9
dense_forest 4073 -0.1 8.7
inlandwater 2 -0.3 4.5
village 3160 -0.9 9
It should be noted that the prediction error of the tuned model can be reduced further
if the tuned parameters are obtained based on the comprehensive measurements for
different transmitter-receiver locations in the area of propagation zone.
Conclusion
It has been observed that the model tuning process was successful and a standard
deviation of 8.77 was achieved. The model was first tuned for GSM 1800 for rural area
which will help in planning, optimization and T&R for 1800 traffic analysis. As a next
step, the same activity may be carried out for GSM 900 propagation models for different
clutter types. It is advised that all changes made should be properly documented and
only adjustments to only one parameter should be made per iteration.
-- Tuning is performed one clutter at a time
98
Chapter 7: FREQUENCY PLANNING
Introduction
ILSA (Intelligent Local Search Algorithm)
Frequency Planning in ILSA
Analyzing ILSA FP Result
ILSA Procedure Summary
Conclusion
99
Introduction
Frequency planning a GSM network is an important but tedious process that can take
planners a lengthy time to perfect. Frequency Planning is necessary to avoid the same
frequency being used in nearby (neighbour) cells, which would cause unwanted
interference. One of the important terms in the frequency planning procedure is the
‘reuse factor’. Lower reuse factor means that more frequencies can be used in each cell,
for a given number of total frequencies but also means a larger interference between
the cells.
Fig 7.1: Frequency Planning
Frequency Planning
There are two methods of frequency planning. These are:
a) Manual Frequency Planning:
The frequencies are assigned manually to the cells in the network while keeping
co-channel and adjacent channel interference to a minimum.
100
b) Automatic Frequency Planning
Modern cellular radio systems typically employ several thousands of

transceivers simultaneously. An appropriate assignment of frequencies to
cells can, in such a case, significantly suppress the intra-system
interference. However, the process of frequency planning is a very
complex and difficult task due to the fact that a great number of
sometimes mutually opposing requirements must be satisfied. In
automatic frequency planning, the optimization of a nonlinear,
multivariate and multicriterion interference function is realized in such a
way as to provide a very good frequency planning solution in an
acceptably short time.
What is ILSA?
ILSA is an acronym for Intelligent Local Search Algorithm. It is a very powerful

Automatic Frequency Planning (AFP) tool from AIRCOM International. It works by
evaluating the cost of a particular Frequency Plan and trying to minimize it. ILSA tries to
improve frequency allocation within user-set constraints. Therefore, accurate planning
requires accurate input parameters because if unrealistic constraints are input into ILSA,
unrealistic results will be obtained.
Cost Matrix
A cost matrix is assigned to ILSA which defines the priorities for the frequencies to be
assigned. For example, it can be specified whether neighbor cell can use adjacent
frequencies or not. Separation Cost among cells, Equipment Cost, Neighbor Cost,
Exception Cost, Filter Priorities, Handover Counts & Inter modulation Costs are also
defined along Carrier and Carrier Layer Costs.
To set up a Cost Matrix, the weight factor for carrier level is edited as follows:
• BCCH (4)
• TCH1 (3)
• TCH2 (2)
• TCH3 (1)
101
Weighting is a cost multiplication factor which has the effect of prioritizing the carrier
layers. ILSA will try to avoid allocating interference to carrier layers with a higher
weighting factor.
Fig 7.2: Cost Matrix Weight-age
How ILSA Works?
For ILSA to plan frequencies, it needs to know the Best Server, which is the coverage of
each cell on pixel level. This helps ILSA in doing two things; Neighbour Planning and
Interference Analysis.
ILSA will add up all these costs and tries to reduce them in order to meet the required
criterion for frequencies. The algorithms in ILSA allow it to do different things, for
example, if ILSA no longer reduces cost of a plan for a long period of time then it assigns
some random frequencies or continue iterations to reduce cost dramatically.
It assigns a set of allocated BCCH to cells, and then calculates the C/I for every cell. It
then reassigns the frequencies to all cells, the frequencies are same, but mutual
assignment is changed. It recalculates the accumulative C/I. So on so forth, it repeats the
same. Once it has checked most combinations, it checks out which combination is giving
least C/I.
ILSA uses the heuristic search algorithm to speed up the process of frequency
assignment.
Frequency Planning in ILSA
The work flow of Frequency Planning consists of a number of parameters, inputs and
steps.
102
Fig 7.3: ILSA diagram
1. Add or import the target sites for which frequency plan is required into Asset
Database.
2. Make a new filter (New Sites) for new sites. All previous sites should be in filter
called Old Sites [Database >Filters>Add]
Fig 7.4: ILSA Setup
103
3. We will need to create sector wise filter so that ILSA can assign frequencies
according to the groups we will specify. Carrier layers for each sector will be
created. Make 3 filters for GSM900 (Sector A, Sector B, Sector C) and 3 for
DCS1800(Sector A, Sector B, Sector C)
4. Create Carrier layer. A carrier layer is a sub-set of the total list of available
carriers, grouped together under a common name. For example, carrier to be
used as control channels could be grouped into a carrier layer called BCCH900.
The maximum allocation per cell should be 1. Carriers to be used as Traffic
channels could be grouped into TCH900 layer. For this, the maximum allocation
per cell would be set to ‘greater than 1’
Fig 7.5: Assigning carriers
5. Cell layers define logical group of transceivers on a cell. Using cell layers means
you can distinguish between micro and macro cells or between carriers of
different frequency bands. Cell layer usually have at least one carrier layer
associated with them. As carriers are associated with carrier layers and carrier
layers with the cell layers, it is possible to determine the available control and
traffic carriers for a particular cell layer. [Configuration > Layers > Cell Layers]
6. Best Server Plot is produced so that the coverage of each sector can be
calculated at pixel level. Select filter (Old Sites + New Site) > go to Server.
7. Next step is to create neighbours. This is created by using Best Server of
Overlapping Areas. Normally 3dB HO margin is used. Other parameters can be
set to determine the number of neighbours to create, neighbor planning margin
104
etc. [Tools > Neighbours > Neighbour Wizard]. Select filters, then Technology (we
will use GSM to GSM as we are planning for GSM network). Also select Use Best
server array to avoid extra unnecessary neighbor list. For neighbour plan,
propagation model must be tuned. In case of any problems, neighbours can be
manually planned using Add Neighbour Cell button and clicking the serving cell in
2D window, then select the neighbor cells one by one.
Fig 7.6: Neighbour Plan in Site Database
105
Fig 7.7: Neighbours in Map Window
8. Although Interference Matrix is optional in ILSA but it is highly recommended.

[Create Array > Worst Interferer and Total Interference. This will calculate
Interference per carrier.
9. ILSA tool: Tools > Frequency Planning > Frequency Hopping Process Selector.
Check GSM900 check box and then: Tools > Frequency Planner > ILSA Frequency
Planner. Specify the filters [Data from memory, check Import filters button and
select the filters per sector for GSM900], interference [Data from memory i.e.
interference matrix values will be taken from the previously predictor array] and
handover counts [none, as we are planning without handover count] from the
new window ‘Initialize ILSA Automatic Frequency Planner’ that appears next.
Now press Initialize button.
106
Fig 7.8: ILSA Frequency Planner
10. ILSA Frequency Planning window: Go to View > Plan List…
Fig7.9: ILSA Frequency Planner & Plan List Window
107
11. Output of ILSA: Plan Status
Fig 7.10: ILSA Plan Status
12. Plan Cost Summary…
Fig 7.11: Plan Cost Summary
108
Fig 7.12: ILSA FP Result
Analyzing ILSA FP Result
Once a frequency plan has been created and saved to the database, it is necessary to
view the resulting interference graphically in the Map View window. For this it is
necessary to first set up some initial parameters such as interference options and
cell/carrier layer to examine. From Array sub-menu, selecting ‘Array Settings…’ will
result in Array Settings window. In the ‘Interference’ tab co-channel, adjacent channel or
sum of the two can be selected within the ‘Channel Selection’ pane.
The plan can be analyzed in a number of ways. Reports such as Frequency Plan Reporter
and Cell Information Reporter generate a detail report including separation constraints
and cells with co-channels or adjacent channels to the target cell.
Interference arrays are generated using the ‘Create Array’ dialog box in Asset. There are
several options for interference analysis within the window such as ‘Worst Interferer’,
which calculates interference between the serving carrier at the pixel and the strongest
interfering carrier, and ‘Total Interference’, which calculates interference between the
109
serving carrier at pixel location and the summed interference from all cells using the
interfering carrier. Worst or Average Connection Arrays gives the total or average level
of interference on worst connection. It is used to analyze Frequency Hopping Networks.
Fig 7.13: Creating Arrays
As with other arrays ‘Coverage Statistics’ tool can be used to generate area-based
statistics report on interference performance of the network. This report is an Excel file.
110
Fig 7.14: Worst Interferer
111
Fig 7.15: ILSA Cost/Interference Graph
Implementing the results into Network
Implementation of the frequency plan is done via OMC-R through the PRC.
112
Limitations of ILSA based FP
Although ILSA may not be 100% accurate but it is capable to produce frequency plan
quickly and efficiently, if properly set up. There are a few considerations which if
properly taken care of will result in an efficient and acceptable frequency plan. Some of
these are:
ILSA computes frequency allocations by minimizing carrier cost. There are too
many possible carrier permutations and clearly checking every possible
frequency plan for a reasonable size network would take a prohibitive amount of
time, even if the period of time taken to check a plan were only of the order of
1milli-second. This is why ILSA take so much time to produce acceptable results.
ILSA is an Automatic Frequency Planning tool and as such it depends entirely
upon the inputs and parameters. Therefore for best results, proper and accurate
inputs are required. For example Site Database etc should be error-free.
ILSA plans the frequencies on the basis of Best Server Plot. This dictates the need
of an accurate propagation model. If the propagation model is not properly
tuned, then ILSA may not produce best results.
The costs should be defined properly in Cost Matrix and interference should be
calculated in such a way that it reflects the real network statistics.
Neighbours are very important input for frequency planning in ILSA. Even when
using Neighbour Wizard, there is still a chance that it may not produce the best
results. In such a case, the neighbor list may require some fine tuning so that
there is no missing or unnecessary extra neighbor.
ILSA, no matter how efficient, requires lots of processor speed and time. It
breaks when used for planning a huge network. To avoid this situation, it is
recommended to scale down the network to small regions and after the plan
select the next region taking the border sites of previous region as having
changeable BCCH. In this way, the whole network can be planned quickly,
efficiently and with much better results.
If Frequency allocation is not workable, the following should be considered:

• Consider relaxing the constraints
• Increase number of cells in the network
• Increase number of frequencies involved
113
ILSA Procedure Summary:

Asset Project is updated with audited database, redesign recommendations,
area polygons, site filters, propagation model
Calculated predictions of all the sites that will be planned
Best server array is generated to create:
Neighbours, if using the neighbour wizard option.

Traffic raster, if using the spread live traffic option.
Carriers required, if using the Traffic Analysis Tool
Interference table using the interference table wizard
Setting up of ILSA :
Import filters
Import interference table
Import handover count if applicable
Initialize ILSA
Set up cost matrix and give appropriate inputs like
Filter priorities
Carrier costs
Carrier layer cost etc…
Starting planning and viewing progress, we can select any of the option
between:
Use current plan

Create new plan
ILSA should be left running until there has been a considerable period of time
with no improvement. The time that ILSA takes to find the optimum plan will
114
depend upon the number of allocations that are required and the number of
frequencies available. Rate of improvement decreases with time.
Analyze the results using carrier statistics and cell statistics
Further this plan is applied to DB for analysis and creating of interference

plots for comparison with initial on-air FP.
Re-run ILSA with better cost matrix setup if required.
ILSA
Presentation.ppt
115
Chapter 8: FREQUENCY RETUNING / REDESIGN
Introduction
Importance of frequency retuning
Case Study: Gujranwala City Redesign process
Execution phase
Post Activity Benchmarking
Conclusion
116
Introduction
Frequency Retuning is an important and integral part in the redesign process. Network
Frequency retunes are required regularly in parallel with the traffic growth. As a
network mature and so does the traffic growth. Existing frequency plan most of the time
becomes outdated with the addition of new sites and traffic increase. In order to
maintain network quality and efficiency, frequency retune is regularly implemented
every couple of months.
Importance of Frequency Retuning
The purpose of Frequency Retune process is to achieve an improvement in KPIs. The

retuning aims to oversee potential problems with proactive approach long before the
concern becomes a major issue. The main challenge is to limit any customer impact so
they do not experience any degradation of voice quality or an increase in dropped calls.
Key challenges may include tight timeframe, ensuring the activity does not impact on
the high performance of the existing mobile network, clarifying the objectives of the
redesign activity, specifying design constraints and ensuring that design meets the
objectives. Using these tools, the retune was implemented successfully, with drive test
data and statistics indicating that call quality and dropped call rates had actually
improved in keeping with our objective of not degrading service but actually enhancing
experience on our GSM network.
Using the statistics from this trial and reviewing traffic analysis from the base stations,
the impact of retuning is observed. If successful, the re-farming of frequency results in
modified tune frequency plan which ensure efficient planning and smooth optimization.
Frequency Retuning Process
The city-level redesign and frequency retuning activity is divided into 3 stages:
Physical Redesigning
Frequency Retuning
Post-Activity Optimization
117
Case Study: Gujranwala City Redesign Process
For the process of Redesign, the Gujranwala City Redesign is taken as a case study.
Gujranwala is currently operational with 46 On-Air sites which cater for an overall traffic
of 2750 Erl during Busy Hour.
Pre-Activity DT, Site Audits & Recommendations:
The redesign activity is usually carried out in groups of sites called Clusters. The first step
is to carry out a comprehensive scanned mode DT within the agreed boundaries and
perform site audit for current on-ground situation. The DT Team gives the results within
three (3) working days to the Redesign team which updates the site audit database and
reports the percentage of erroneous data. Redesign along with Optimization team
makes a tentative plan for reduction in antenna heights, wherever necessary.
Analysis of Recommendations:
RF Planning team performs Model Tuning from the scan mode DT data and produces
Best Server, Coverage Prediction & C/I plots in Asset3G. On the basis of these inputs
from planning team, the Optimization team carries out the analysis of major KPIs.
Mutually agreed Redesign recommendations such as Antenna Heights,
Electrical/Mechanical Tilts, Azimuths and RF Plan by Planning, Redesign and
Optimization teams are suggested to improve the coverage stats. The resulting traffic is
analyzed in Asset and from traffic stats.
Neighbour & Frequency Retuning:
Depending upon the above activities, the Planning team then retunes the Neighbour List
in Asset and Frequency using ILSA. The Frequency and Neighbour retuning process takes
Four (04) working days.
Execution Phase:
When an acceptable Frequency Plan is generated in ILSA, the result is useless until it is
implemented into real world network. Telenor has developed a set of procedures to
carry out this activity.
118
In the execution phase Work Orders, Site Outage requests are generated via Service
Desk (SD) regarding the redesign activity and upon approval, all the RF
recommendations, retuned Frequency and Neighbour plans are implemented.
RF Planning and NSN Configuration Management (CM) teams coordinate about the
activity such as its starting date and the duration of each activity. The result from ILSA
based frequency planning is converted into an agreed-upon excel format between TP RF
Planning & NSN CM team. The format of this Excel file is as follows:
The NSN CM converts the received data into xml format. Time required for this activity
depends upon the number of segments to be converted. As per TP-NSN understanding,
this is 100 segments per day. For example, if 155 segment will require 2 days for
conversion.
The initial dump is shared with NSN CM team which verifies the dump with original FP.
The Dump is rectified if necessary. In case there is any issue, these are reported to TP RF
Planning team which completes it rectification within one (1) working day time.
After the verification is completed and necessary rectification performed, it is ready for
implementation. Request to operations team is sent for the outage from TP RF team and
NSN CM team requests for the freeze. Night time is preferred on mutually agreed dates
for this activity so that QoS is least affected.
Once these requests are granted by the concerned departments, NSN CM team starts
implementing the Frequency Plan. Prior to this NSN maintains a backup of the
Frequency Plan of already on-air sites. The dump is shared again with RF Planning team
for verification.
A drive test is performed in the area of observation after the verification of dump from
RF Planning team and the log is analyzed from frequency point of view. In case of any
issue, RF Planning team asks NSN CM team for rectification if necessary.
Post Activity Benchmarking:
Whenever any changes are made to the Network, it is mandatory to carry out a
comprehensive post activity DT to monitor the effect of fine tuning and redesigning by
Planning, Redesign and Optimization teams. The major KPIs and traffic stats are
monitored for Four (04) days and a Benchmarking Report of the activity is generated.
119
Conclusion
Optimization and redesigning take place continuously on a network in order to improve

quality performance with increased traffic loading provide additional capacity (new
channel additions or network-wide frequency retunes) and resolve specific problems
that arise. Both these optimization functions need a disciplined approach to network
implementation, operation and quality, and require well controlled and documented
procedures.
The redesign activity in Gujranwala city was successful and improvement in overall city
level KPIs including DCR, CSSR, HOSR and MPD was observed while maintaining the
traffic trend. Redesigning and retuning of the frequency plan resulted in better RxLev.
Slight improvement was also noticed in overall RxQual on city level as is evident from
the attached figures:
Fig 8.1: Pre- & Post-Activity City Coverage and Rx Level
120
Fig 8.2: RxQual Plot of the Gujranwala city before and after the activity
Further improvement can be obtained if new planned sites are commissioned and minor
parameter changes are performed.
Redesign report for Sialkot city is being attached for reference.
Sialkot_CITY_REDESI
GN.ppt
121
ATTACHEMENTS
Katherine Antenna Telenor Link

Manual 2009.pdf Budget.pdf
ASSET Training.ppt MapInfo to

ASSET.ppt
122
5MUSF20-TSSR.pdf Zong SSRF Site Sharing -

LLR143_C-LHR-6356.xls Operators as Host.vsd
Site Sharing -
Telenor as Host.vsd
123
LINKS:
For RF Planning departments weekly records & up to date information please follow the
links mentioned below:
\\10.132.31.8\RF Planning and Network Efficiency
\\10.132.31.8\AssetShared
\\10.132.31.8\Planning Inputs
\\10.132.31.8\Shared Folder
\\10.132.31.53\ Shared DATA Folder
\\10.132.31.8\Pre-Launch
124
ABBREVIATIONS:
RF: Radio Frequency

GOS: Grade of Service
mE/Sub: mili Erlang per subscriber
TXN: Transmission
RE: Real State
SD: Site Design
CD: Commercial Division
CLT: Customer Liaison Team
TA: Timing Advance
GPS: Global Positioning System
TSS: Technical Site Survey
TSSR: Technical Site Survey Report
KPI: Key Performance Indicators
Erl: Erlang
SA: Site Acquisition
Sub-Con: Sub Contractor
SAR: Site Acquisition Report
SARF: Site Acquisition Request Form
BTS: Base Transceiver Station
LOS: Line of Sight
DFN: Distance from Nominal
HASL: Height above Sea Level
DB: Data Base
WP: Work Package
BCCH: Broadcast Control Channel
BSIC: Base Station Identity Code
125
HSN: Hopping Sequence Number

MAL: Mobile Allocation List
MAIO: Mobile Allocation Index Offset
TCH: Traffic Channel
CS: Call Setup
TD: Technical Division
TRX: Transceivers
NOC: Network Operations and Control
O&M: Operations and Maintenance
NSS: Network switching subsystem
CM: Configuration Management
RSSI: Received Signal Strength Intensity
ERP: Effective Radiated Power
EIRP: Effective Isotropic Radiated Power
BSS: Base Station Subsystem
COW: Cell on Wheels
DT: Drive Test
MS: Mobile Station
SSRF: Site Sharing Request Form
SIR: Site Integration Report
CW: Continuous Wave
DTM: Digital Terrain Model
Signia: CW format for asset import
FBP: File Based Provisioning
FP: Frequency Plan
CM: Configuration Management
ILSA: Intelligent Local Search Algorithm
NSN: Nokia Siemens Networks
QoS: Quality of Service
126
REFRENCES:
1. Asset User Manual v5.1, Aircom International
2. GSM Advanced Cell Planning,©1999 by Ericsson Radio Systems AB
3. MapInfo User Guide v8.5, Pitney Bowes MapInfo Corporation, 2007
4. GPSMAP 76CSx owner’s manual, © 2005 Garmin Ltd.
5. Map Source user’s manual, © 2005 Garmin Ltd.
6. Global Mapper user’s manual.
7. Basic Antenna Principles for Mobile Communications, Peter Scholz, ©
Kathrein.
8. 790-6000 Base Station Antennas for Mobile Communications, catalogue
2007, © Kathrein.
9. Telenor Link Budget © Nokia 2003.
10. K. Paran and N. Noori, Tuning Of The Propagation Model ITU-R P.1546
Recommendation, Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 8, (2008)
11. Simi} I., Stani} I., Zrni} B. Minimax LS Algorithm for Automatic Propagation
Model Tuning, Technical Paper.
12. CW Measurement in the 900MHz ISM Band v1.1, LCC International, Inc. (June
2006)
13. Moe Rahnema, UMTS Network Planning, Optimization and Inter-Operation
with GSM, Wiley-IEEE Publishers (2008)
14. Frequency Retune Procedure v1, TP TL9000 Document, © Telenor Pakistan
127
15. Benchmarking Report: Gujranwala City Redesign, T&R Central Team, ©
Telenor Pakistan
16. Asset User Manual v5.1, Aircom International
17. ILSA Application Notes, Aircom International
18. ILSA 2 Presentation, AIRCOM International
19. GSM Radio Network Tuning, Ericsson, April 2000
20. FAP web (2000) | A website about Frequency Assignment Problems.
Eisenbl•atter A., Koster A. URL http://fap.zib.de/.
128

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RF Planning Bible: TP RF - Central

The Few, The Proud

Chapter 1: CELL SITE PLANNING............................................... 8

Chapter 2: SITE DATABASE CREATION ................................. 24

Chapter 3: RF ROLLOUT ............................................................. 34

Chapter 4: PRE-LAUNCH OPTIMIZATION .............................. 52

Chapter 5: INDOOR SOLUTIONS ............................................... 60

Chapter 6: PROPAGATION MODEL TUNING ......................... 86

Chapter 7: FREQUENCY PLANNING ........................................ 99

Chapter 8: FREQUENCY RETUNING / REDESIGN ............... 116

ATTACHEMENTS ..................................................................... 122

LNKS: .......................................................................................... 124

ABBREVIATIONS: .................................................................... 125

REFRENCES: .............................................................................. 127

Fig 1.1 Cell Site Planning Process ....................................................................................8

Fig 3.9: Rural area Coverage .............................................................................................45

Fig 6.3: Site Selection ........................................................................................................91

The Few The

Chapter 1: CELL SITE PLANNING

Fig 1.1 Cell Site Planning Process

Why Cell Site Planning?

Nominal Survey Point Identification

Fig 1.2: Coverage Prediction before planning coverage cell site

Fig 1.3: Coverage Prediction after planning coverage cell site

Fig 1.4: Google view showing coverage cell site

Fig 1.5: MapInfo view of Capacity planned sites

Fig 1.6: Google Earth View of Capacity Planned Sites

Feed Back & Complaints

P0 = Highest priority. Site needed most urgently. Infrastructure is

people / traffic is present.

Fig 1.7: Coverage Where I am Template sheet

Special Case: 1800 MHz Only Sites

Fig 1.8: MapInfo View of DCS only Site

Fig 1.9: Google Earth View of DCS only Site

Following Observations should necessarily be made on nominal RF survey.

Average Building height should be noted.

Reporting Survey including .Tab file

Site Design Finalization

Fig 1.10: MapInfo view for Site Design Finalization

Fig 1.11: Google Earth view for Site Design Finalization

RF Master Plan Release

Ph5 Master RF Plan V

Site Name Identification

Nominal Sites Database

Chapter 2: SITE DATABASE CREATION

Site Database creation for new Sites

Telenor Frequency band

Fig 2.1: Telenor Frequency band

Why Frequency Planning is Important

Fig 2.2: Hexagonal Structure

Fig 2.3: Cells in practice

Fig 2.4: Cell Pattern

Fig 2.5: interference

Co-Channel Interference C/I

This C/I ratio is influenced by the following factors:

Fig 2.6 C/I

Adjacent-Channel Interference C/A:

Fig 2.7 C/A

GSM Specification for C/I and A/I:

Fig 2.8: GSM specifications for C/I and C/A

Affected by interference between cells

Fig 2.9: Frequency Re-use Pattern

Site Database Creation for New Sites: