Huawei Chapter 5 of GSM RNP&RNO - GSM Radio Network Planning

GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization
Chapter 5 GSM Radio Network Planning Confideniality level
Table of Contents
Chapter 5 GSM Radio Network Planning..................................................................................3
5.1 Overview...................................................................................................................... 3
5.2 Planning Foundation.................................................................................................... 5
5.2.1 Coverage and Capacity Target Confirmation....................................................5
5.2.2 Performance Target Confirmation.....................................................................6
5.3 Coverage Analysis....................................................................................................... 7
5.3.1 Area Division..................................................................................................... 7
5.3.2 Radio Environment Survey.............................................................................10
5.4 Network Structure Analysis........................................................................................ 11
5.4.1 Middle-Layer Station.......................................................................................11
5.4.2 High-Layer Station..........................................................................................12
5.4.3 Low-Layer Station...........................................................................................13
5.5 Traffic Analysis.......................................................................................................... 14
5.5.1 Traffic Prediction and Cell Splitting.................................................................14
5.5.2 Voice Channel Allocation................................................................................17
5.5.3 Control Channel Allocation..............................................................................20
5.6 Base Station Number Decision..................................................................................23
5.6.1 Characteristics of 3-sector base stations in urban areas.................................23
5.6.2 References for Design of Base Station Parameters........................................25
5.6.3 Uplink and Downlink Balance..........................................................................27
5.6.4 Cell Coverage Estimation................................................................................34
5.6.5 Base Station Address Planning.......................................................................37
5.6.6 Coverage Prediction........................................................................................39
5.7 Design of Base Station Address................................................................................39
5.7.1 Address design...............................................................................................39
5.7.2 Project Parameter Decision............................................................................42
5.8 Location Area Design................................................................................................58
5.8.1 Definition of Location Area..............................................................................58
5.8.2 Division of location areas................................................................................58
5.8.3 Others............................................................................................................. 63
5.9 Dual-Band Network Design.......................................................................................64
5.9.1 Necessity for Constructing Dual-Band Network..............................................64
5.9.2 GSM 1800MHz Coverage Solutions...............................................................65
5.9.3 Location Area Division for Dual-Band Network...............................................67
5.9.4 Traffic Guidance and Control Strategies of Dual-Band Network.....................69
5.9.5 Dual-Band Networking Engineering Implementation.......................................71
5.10 Design of Indoor Coverage System.........................................................................75
5.10.1 Characteristics of Indoor coverage................................................................75
5.10.2 Indoor Antenna System Design.....................................................................76
2012-02-02 All rights reserved Page 1 of 124

5.10.3 Capacity Analysis and Design.......................................................................83

5.10.4 Frequency Planning......................................................................................85
5.10.5 Traffic Control................................................................................................ 85
5.11 Tunnel Coverage..................................................................................................... 86
5.11.1 Characteristic of Tunnel Coverage................................................................86
5.11.2 Tunnel Coverage Solution.............................................................................87
5.11.3 Tunnel Coverage Based on Coaxial distributed antenna system..................89
5.11.4 Tunnel Coverage Based on Leaky Cable System.........................................92
5.11.5 Coverage Solutions to Tunnels in Different Length.......................................99
5.12 Repeater Planning.................................................................................................101
5.12.1 Application Background..............................................................................101
5.12.2 Working Principles of Repeater...................................................................106
5.12.3 Repeater Network Planning........................................................................108
5.13 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 120

Chapter 5 GSM Radio Network Planning
5.1 Overview
The design of radio network planning (RNP) is the basis of the construction of a
wireless mobile network. The design level of network planning decides the future
layout of a network.
During network planning, the documents concerning base station distribution,
channel assignment, and cell data must be outputted. And the major tasks
involved are as follows:
1) Analyze carriers’ requirements on network coverage, capacity and quality.
2) Analyze the coverage and capacity features of the candidate mobile
communication systems and bands, and then analyze the investment
feasibility through estimating the network scale.
3) Decide the network structure and base station type based on further
analysis.
First analyze whether to construct a layering network according to user
distribution, propagation conditions, city development plan and existed
network conditions, and then analyze the sites within this area to decide
whether to use omni antennas or directional antennas to meet the
requirements on coverage and capacity.
4) Estimate the number of base stations
Before estimating the number of base stations, estimate the coverage
distance of base stations of various types in various coverage areas. The
factors deciding the effective coverage area of a base station include:
 Valid transmit power of the base station
 Working bands to be used (900 MHz or 1800 MHz)
 Antenna type and installation position
 Power budget
 Radio propagation environment
 Carriers’ indexes on coverage
Then through calculating the coverage distance and dividing the coverage
areas, you can obtain a rough number of base stations for various coverage
areas.
5) Plan an ideal base station address according to cellular structures.
According to geographic maps or administrative maps and with the help of
on-the-spot surveys, you can have a full understanding of the areas to be
planed, and then mark the area where the number of users is large as a

target address. After that, mark the addresses of other base stations
according to the ideal cellular structure and the result of link budget.
6) Calculate the number of channels of the cells of each base station
 Estimate the traffic of a base station according to its ideal location, and then
obtain the number of carriers and channels needed by each base station by
checking Erl table according to the indexes of call loss rate.
 Decide the frequency reuse mode according to band width, network quality
requirement, and equipment supportability.
 Estimate the maximum base station configuration type according to the
frequency bandwidth and reuse mode provided by the construction carriers.
If the system capacity in some areas cannot be met, you need to add more
base stations or cells to the system according to cell splitting principles and
actual conditions. After that, reselect an ideal base station address on the
map and re-estimate the number of channels required by the base station.
7) Predict the coverage area and decide the project data, namely, perform the
preliminary emulation. The specific tasks are as follows:
 Select the design indexes
Select the minimum received power and the penetration ratio index at the
coverage area edge.
 Select the design parameters, which includes:
Antenna height (above the ground), antenna azimuth angle, antenna gain,
antenna tilt angle, base station height above sea level, base station type,
feeder length, antenna feeder system loss, combining and distribution
modes, transmitter output power, receiver sensitivity, base station diversity
reception, and diversity gains.
 Predict the coverage area of each cell according to the propagation models
in different areas, and then give the opinions on adjusting the base station
address, antenna direction, antenna tilt angle, and antenna height in the
areas where dead zones may be present and signals are poor. Finally,
provide the project data.
8) Select actual base station address and decide base station type:
Perform filed examination according to the ideal base station addresses,
and then record the possible addresses according to various construction
conditions (including power supply, transmission, electromagnetic
background, and land taken over). Finally, recommend a suitable address
based on integrated consideration of the deviation from the ideal base
station address, the effect on future cell splitting, economic benefits, and
coverage prediction.
After the base station address is selected, decide the actual base station
type according to the number of base station channels.

After the base station type is decided, you need to make a scheme for
antenna configuration. For moving a network, if you intend to provide a best
combination scheme for the antenna feeders, you must fully investigate the
combination of the antenna feeders of the original carriers, plan the future
expansion of the base station, and design the combination of the antenna
feeders supported by current equipments.
9) Plan frequency and adjacent cell
Decide the frequency and adjacent planning according to the actual base
station distribution and type.
10) Make cell data
To ensure that the network runs stably, you must design the parameters
relative to performance for each cell. These parameters include system
information parameters, handover parameters, power control algorithm
parameters, and so on.
 Note:
For the selection of handover bands, the handover algorithms to be enabled,
and whether to use frequency hopping, power control, and DTX, they must
be decided in coverage prediction and frequency planning, because the
related parameters will be used in emulation.
In addition, sections 5.9 and that later introduce the solutions to the planning of
dual-band network and the planning in special occasions.
5.2 Planning Foundation

5.2.1 Coverage and Capacity Target Confirmation
Before planning a network, you must confirm the network coverage and capacity
target and relative specifications from carriers. They are specified as follows:
 Definition of coverage areas
 Specific division of the service quality in coverage areas
 Grade of service (GoS) at Um interface
 Prediction of network capacity and subscriber growth rate
 Available bands and restrictions on using bands
 Restrictions on base station address and the number of carriers
 Penetration loss in cars or indoor environment
 Performance and sensitivity of base stations
 Rules on base station naming and numbering
 Information of the base stations in the existing network
Engineers perform the network planning and guide the subsequent construction
work according to the previous technical specifications. Because any change of

these specifications will affect network construction, you must discuss these
specifications with carriers and get their confirmation.
5.2.2 Performance Target Confirmation
Carriers emphasize much on the future network quality. Therefore, network

planning engineers must judge the indexes concerning network performance
according to construction difficulty and experience, and then cooperate with
carriers to design a reasonable solution.
Generally, the performance of voice services can be judged according to KPI
indexes, which are specified in Table 5-1
Table 5-1 Descriptions of KPI indexes

Reference
Number KPI index Meaning Test method
value
TCH seizure
TCH congestion
1 failures/attempted OMC < 2%
ratio
TCH seizures × 100%
SDCCH seizures and
SDCCH congestion all busy
2 OMC < 1%
ratio times/SDCCH seizure
requests × 100%
TCH call drop
times/TCH
3 Call drop ratio OMC < 2%
occupation success
times × 100%
Handover success
Handover success times/handover
4 OMC > 92%
ratio attempted times ×
100%
Average call setup
5 Call setup time Drive test < 10s
times
The percentage of the
Coverage
6 received level greater Drive test > 90%
probability
than -90 dBm
FTP average
7 download rate Applied to GPRS Drive test ≥ 16
(kbps)
FTP average
8 Applied to GPRS Drive test ≥ 3.2
upload rate (kbps)
Forward/reverse
9 Applied to GPRS Drive test < 20s
transmission delay

10 Ping success ratio Applied to GPRS Drive test ≥ 90%

11 Ping average delay Applied to GPRS Drive test < 3.5s
The voice quality is
Mean opinion score divided into fiver
12 Drive test ≥3
(MOS) levels from excellent
to bad.
Note:
The KPI indexes vary slightly with carriers.
The mean opinion score (MOS) in the previous table is divided into five levels,
which are specified in Table 5-2.
Table 5-2 Mean opinion score (MOS)
Quality level Quality evaluation standard
5 Excellent
4 Good
3 Fair
2 Poor
1 Bad
Note:
 The call whose quality is above level 3 can access the mobile
communication network.
 The call whose quality is above level 4 can access the public network.
5.3 Coverage Analysis

5.3.1 Area Division
I. Types of coverage area
The signal propagation models are applied in accordance with the propagation
environments in areas of different types. The signal propagation models decide
the design principles, network structures, grade of services and frequency reuse
modes for the radio networks in coverage areas. In order to decide the cell
coverage area, you can divide the radio coverage areas into the following four
types:
 Big city

 Middle-sized city
 Small town
 Countryside
Error: Reference source not found lists the divisions.
Table 5-3 Coverage area division
Area type Description
 Dense population
 Developed economy
 Large traffic
Big city
 Dense high buildings and mansions distributed in
center areas
 Flourishing shopping centers
 Relatively dense population
 Relatively developed economy
Middle-sized city  Relatively large traffic
 Dense buildings distributed in center areas
 Active and promising shopping centers
 Relative large population
 Promising economic development
 Moderate traffic
Small town
 Relative dense buildings distributed in center areas
 A certain scale of shopping centers but with great
potentiality
 Scattered population
Countryside  Developing economy
 Low traffic
In addition, you must consider the coverage of the areas at the intersections and
various transport arteries, including:
 Express way
 National high way
 Provincial highway
 Railway
 Sea-route
 Roads in mountain areas
Generally, it is recommended to apply Omni base stations in the countries plains
and the areas with restricted landforms. In big cities, middle-sized cities, and
along expressways, it is recommended to apply directional base stations.

II. Define the field strength at coverage area edges
When defining the field strength of the uplink edges of a service area, you must
consider the factors listed in Table 5-4.
Table 5-4 Typical factors concerning the definition for the filed strength at
coverage area edges
Factor Value
Mobile station sensitivity -102 dBm
Fast fading protection 4 dB (3 dB for countryside)
Slow fading protection 8 dB (6 dB for countryside)
Noise (environmental noise and

5 dB
interfering noise) protection
Remark:
 To ensure the indoor coverage in big and middle-sized cities, you can
consider 15dB for the average penetration loss between buildings and
consider adding 5dB to the protection margin.
 Generally, the propagation loss of GSM 1800MHz signals is 8 dB greater
than that of the GSM 900MHz signals in average.
 Radio links have two directions, namely, uplink direction and downlink
direction, and the coverage area is defined by the direction in which the
signals are poor, so you must consider the uplink and downlink balance.
Therefore, if you intend to plan an ideal network, you must make a good
power control budget so that the uplink and downlink can be as balance as
possible.
III. Define coverage probability
The definition of coverage probability varies with the coverage areas, and the
coverage probability is gradually improved along with the construction of the
network.
In China, the coverage probability can be defined according to Table 5-5.
Table 5-5 Definition of coverage probability at different stages and in different

areas
Construction
Areas Coverage target
stage

Significant national tourism areas,

expressways, national highways, Full coverage.
and the areas along busy railways.
Early stage
The coverage probability
Other major roads, railways and
must be greater than
sea-routes
90%.
With the development of

the network
Key areas, such as government
construction, the number
offices, press centers, airport
of users grows larger
lounges, waiting rooms of train
Development and they require
stations, subways, and commercial
stage services of higher grade,
office buildings of high ranks,
so the quality of indoor
entertainment centers, and large
coverage of the areas in
shopping malls.
the left column must be
greatly enhanced.
Remarks:
Generally, a call must be ensured to access the network at 90% of the places
and 99% of the time within the coverage area.
 For the outdoor environment in big cities, the two ratios must be greater.
 For the areas in countryside, the two ratios can be lower.
 For transport arteries, different standards are applied, and the coverage
probability can be defined in accordance with the types of the arteries.
5.3.2 Radio Environment Survey
Through surveying radio propagation environments, you can get familiar with the
overall landforms, estimate the rough antenna height, and select the proper radio
propagation model, among which the radio propagation model helps you
estimate the number of base station when predicting the coverage. If necessary,
you must adjust the propagation model.
For GSM 900MHz, the formulas estimating radio path loss in different areas are
simplified in Table 5-6.
Table 5-6 Formulas estimating radio path loss in different areas
Formula Application Propagation model Example

area adopted

PLDU = 147.2 + 8d Densely Walfish-Ikegami If carrier frequency = 925

+ 40.5lgd populated MHz, hBTS < hobstacle, and d <
urban areas 0.5km, hBTS = 25mhobstacle =
30m, street width = 25m,
building width = 50m
PLU = 128.73 + Common Walfish-Ikegami If carrier frequency =

38lgd urban areas 925MHz and hBTS > hobstacle,
hBTS = 25m, hobstacle = 20m,
street width = 25m, building
width = 50m
PLSU = 126 + 35lgd Suburban Okumura-Hata If carrier frequency =

areas 925MHz, hBTS = 30m
PLRU = 116 + 35lgd Countryside Okumura-Hata If carrier frequency =

areas 925MHz, hBTS = 30m
 Note:
The four formulas provided in this section are applicable to simple estimation
during project survey only. For later planning, you must adopt the precise
propagation models. If necessary, you must further adjust the propagation
models through CW measurement.
5.4 Network Structure Analysis

When considering the layout of base stations, you must deeply analyze network
structure. Generally, according to network layers, a network can be divided into
middle-layer, high-layer, and low-layer. The base stations at the middle-layer
bear the greatest traffic in a network
5.4.1 Middle-Layer Station
I. Definition and application
A middle-layer station in big and middle-sized cities is defined as follows:

 The antenna is installed on building tops.
 The antenna height ranges from 25 to 30 meters, which is greater than the
average height of the buildings.
 It covers several blocks.

In small towns and countryside areas, except the high-layer stations are
designed for controlling traffic flow or for landform reasons, most of the base
stations are middle-layer stations.
II. Advantages
Compared with high-layer stations, middle-layer stations can utilize frequency

resources more efficiently. Compared with low-layer stations, middle-layer
stations can absorb traffic more efficiently. Therefore, the middle-layer stations
bear the greatest traffic in a network.
III. Distance between stations
The average distance between most middle-layer stations range from 0.6 to 5
km except in countryside areas. In big cities, the distance between some middle-
layer stations is shorter than 0.6 km. However, it is suggested that the distance
between middle-layer stations in big cities cannot be shorter than 0.4 km. If this
distance is too short, the buildings will produce strong interference against the
signals of the base stations. In this case, to control the coverage area is quite
demanding.
IV. Challenges
Because no suitable ground objective is available, to ensure the quality of

service of a network is quite demanding. According to the experience on project
construction and maintenance, great challenge is present in the selection of base
station address, station design, project construction, network maintenance, and
network quality.
5.4.2 High-Layer Station
A high-layer station in big and middle-sized cities is defined as follows:

 The antenna height ranges from 10 to 50 meters, which is far greater than
the average height of the buildings.
 Its coverage areas contain the areas covered by multiple middle-layer
stations.
Because the high-layer stations make poor use of the frequency resources, they
are mainly applied to the traffic networks where people move fast in big and
middle-sized cities.
In addition, to control construction cost and meet coverage requirements, you
can install some high-layer stations in suburban areas, highroads, small towns,
and countryside areas.

II. Functions
The high-layer stations must be as fewer as possible but be as effective as

possible. They mainly provide services to the fast-moving subscribers in cities.
 Note:
The coverage of high buildings is realized by indoor distribution systems.
5.4.3 Low-Layer Station
A low-layer station is defined as follows:

 The antenna height is shorter than 20 meters, which is shorter than the
average height of the buildings.
 The antenna can be installed on the outer walls of the lower floors of a
building, on the top of lower roofs, or in the rooms of a building.
Generally, at the early stage of the network construction, signal network design
is applied, so most of the base stations are middle-layer stations. After the basic
network is established, you must adjust the base stations and add new base
stations according to traffic and coverage requirements.
For populated commercial areas where the traffic is heavy, you can use low-
layer stations, which are constructed with micro cell layer and distributed
antenna system. In this case, not only the requirements on indoor coverage are
met, but also the interference and difficulties of base station selection caused by
short distance between stations are avoided. With the development of the
network, the low-layer stations will develop into the layering network structure.
II. Other considerations
The coverage area of a low-layer station is small, so it can fully use frequency
resources but cannot absorb the traffic efficiently. As a result, ideal traffic cannot
be ensured if the base station deviates far away from the areas where the traffic
is heavy.
Therefore, when constructing a low-layer station, you must consider whether the
base station is used to make up coverage or solve the problem of heavy traffic,
because the construction purpose is directly related to the selection of the
address and type of the base station.
 Note:
A layering network cost much frequency resource, so it is not recommended for
the networks where the frequency resource is inadequate.

5.5 Traffic Analysis

5.5.1 Traffic Prediction and Cell Splitting
I. Traffic prediction
The network construction requires the consideration of economic feasibility and

rationality. Therefore, a reasonable investment decision must be based on the
prediction of the network capacity of the early and late stage.
When predicting network capacity, you must consider the following factors:
 Population distribution
 Family income
 Subscription ratio of fixed telephone
 Development of national economy
 City construction
 Consumption policy
After predicting the total network capacity, you must predict the density of
subscriber distribution. Generally, base stations are constructed in urban areas,
suburban areas, and transport arteries. Therefore, you can use the percentage
of prediction method.
At the early stage of construction, the subscribers in cities account for a larger
percentage of the total predicted subscribers. With the development of the
network construction, the percentage of the subscribers in suburban areas and
transport arteries grows. The traffic of each subscriber is 0.025 Erl in urban areas
and 0.020 Erl in suburban areas.
The formula calculating traffic is:
A = (n × T) / 3600
Here,
 “n” is the call times in busy hour
 “T” is the duration of each call, in the unit of second.
In this way, the number of voice channels needed for a base station can be
obtained through predicting the traffic.
 Note:
When estimating the number of voice channels needed for a base station in the
future, you must consider the effect caused by cell splitting.

In a GSM system, you can use Erl model to calculate the traffic density that the
network can bear. The call loss can be 2% or 5% depending on actual
conditions.
Because restrictions on cell coverage area and the width of the available
frequencies are present, you must plan the cell capacity reasonably. If good
voice quality is ensured, you must enhance the channel utilization ratio as much
as possible.
In actual networking, if the network quality is ensured at a certain level, two
capacity solutions are available, namely, a few stations with high-level
configuration and multiple stations with low-level configuration. Both the
advantages and disadvantages of the two solutions are apparent, so which one
should be used depending on the actual conditions of an area.
For network construction, you can expand the capacity either through adding
base stations or through expanding the base station capacity. The expansion
strategies adopted must be in accordance with the traffic density in an area. For
example, the strategies such as adding 1800 MHz base stations, expanding
sector capacity, adding micro cells, or improving indoor coverage can be used to
expand network capacity.
II. Cell splitting
Cell splitting is quite effective for the expansion of network capacity. An omni
base station can split into multiple sectors, and a sector can split into multiple
smaller cells. In other word, you must plan cell radius in accordance with the
traffic density of an area.
Cell splitting means more base station and greater cost are needed. Therefore,
when planning a network, you must consider the following factors:
 The rules and diagrams of frequency reuse are repeatable.
 The original base stations can still work.
 The transition cells must be reduced or avoided.
 The cell can split without effect.
Cell splitting is quite important in a network. The followings further describe the
cell splitting based on 1-to-4 splitting.
Cell splitting is used to split a congested cell into multiple smaller cells. Through
setting the new cells whose radiuses are smaller than the original cells and
placing them among the original cells, you can increase the number of channels
in a unit area, thus increasing channel reuse times. In this case, system capacity
is expanded.
Through adjusting the project parameters relative to antenna feeders and
reducing transmitter power, you can narrow the coverage area of a cell. Error:

Reference source not found shows that a cell splits into four smaller cells by half
of its radius.
Figure 5-2 Schematic diagram of cell splitting (1-to-4)
As shown in Figure 5-2, smaller cells are added without changing the frequency
reuse mode. They are split proportional to the shape of the original cell clusters.
In this case, the coverage of a service area depends on the smaller cells, which
are 4 times outnumber of the original cells. To be more specifically, you can take
a circle with the radius R as an example, the coverage area of the circle with the
radius R is 4 times that of a circle with the radius R/2.
According to Figure 5-2, after cell splitting, the number of cell clusters in the
coverage area increases. Thus the number of channels in this coverage area
increases and the system capacity is expanded accordingly.
You can adjust the coverage area of the new cells through reducing the transmit
power. For the transmit power of the new cells whose radiuses are half of that of
the original cell, you can check the power “Pr” received at the new cell edge and
at the original cell edge, and make them equal. However, you must ensure that
the frequency reuse scheme of the new micro cells is the same as that of the
original cell. As for Figure 5-2,
 Pr [at the edge of the original cell] = Pt1R-n, and,
 Pr [at the edge of the new cell] = Pt2 (R/2)-n
Here,
Pt1 and Pt2 are the transmit power of the base stations of the original cell and the
new cell, and n is path fading exponent. If make n = 4, make the received power at

the edge of the new and original cell equal, the following equation can be
obtained:
Pt2 = Pt1/16
That is to say, if the micro cells are used to cover the original coverage area and
the requirement of S/I is met, the transmit power must be reduced by 12 dB.
Not all cells need splitting. In fact, it is quite demanding for carriers to find out a
perfect cell splitting scheme. Therefore, many cells of different scales exist in a
network simultaneously. As a result, the minimum distance among intra-
frequency cells must be maintained, which further complicate frequency
allocation.
In addition, you must pay attention to the handover because success handover
ensure the all subscribers to enjoy good quality of service regardless of moving
speed.
As shown in Figure 5-2, when two layers of cells are present within an area but
their coverage scale is different, according to the formula Pt2 = Pt1/16, neither all
new cells can simply apply the original transmit power, nor all original cells can
simply apply the new transmit power.
If all cells apply great transmit power, the channels used by smaller cells cannot
be separated from the intra-frequency cells. If all cells apply lower transmit
power, however, some big cells will be exclusive from the service areas.
For the previous reason, the channels in the original cells can be divided into two
groups. One group meets the reuse requirement of the smaller cells, and the
other group meets the reuse requirement of the bigger cells. The bigger cells are
applied to the communication of fast-moving subscribers, which requires a fewer
handover times.
The power of the two channel groups decides the progress of cell splitting. At the
early stage of cell splitting, the channels in the low-power group are fewer. As
the requirement grows, more channels are needed in low-power group. The cell
splitting does not stop until all channels within this area are applied in the low-
power group. In this case, all cells in this area have split into multiple smaller
cells, and the radius of each cell is quite small.
 Note:
Commonly, you can restrict cell coverage area through adjusting the project
parameters of the base station.

5.5.2 Voice Channel Allocation
I. Voice channel decision
The base station capacity refers to the number of channels that must be
configured for a base station or a cell. The calculation of the base station
capacity is divided into the calculation of the number of radio voice channels and
the calculation of the number of radio control channels.
According to the information of base stations and cells and the density
distribution of subscribers, you can calculate the total number of the subscribers.
Then according to the radio channel call loss ratio and traffic, you can obtain the
number of voice channels that must be configured by checking Erl B table.
Generally, you can decide the number of voice channels as follows:
11) According to the bandwidth and the reuse mode allowed by current GSM
networks within the areas to be planned, you can obtain the maximum
number of carriers that can be configured for a base station.
12) Each carrier has 8 channels. You can obtain the maximum number of voice
channel numbers that can be configured for a base station by detracting the
control channels from the 8 channels.
13) According to the number of voice channels and call loss ratio (generally 2%
dense traffic areas and 5% for other areas), you can obtain the maximum
traffic (Erl number) that the base station can bear through checking Erl B
table.
14) Through dividing the Erl number by the average busy-hour traffic of
subscribers, you can obtain the maximum number of subscribers that the
base station can accommodate.
15) According to the data of subscriber density, you can obtain the coverage
area of the base station.
16) After the areas are specified based on the subscriber density, according to
the area of an area and the actual coverage area of the base station, you
can calculate the number of needed base stations.
17) For important areas, you must consider back up stations and the
cooperation between carriers. For example, an important county needs at
least two base stations and three important carriers.
18) For the areas where burst traffic is possible, such as the play ground and
seasonal tourism spots, you must prepare the equipments (such as carriers
and micro cells) and frequency resources for future use.
19) The dynamic factors, such as roaming ratio, subscriber mobility, service
development, industry competition, charging rate change, one-way charge,
and economic growth, must be considered.

20) To configure a base station, you must consider the transmission at the Abis
interface so that the capacity can be met while saving transmission. For
example, the application and concatenation of the Abis interface 15:1 and
12:1 should be considered.
21) For indoor coverage and capacity, you can use micro cells and distributed
antenna systems. For the coverage in countryside areas and highroads, you
can use economical micro base stations. For the transmission in
countryside areas and highroads, you can use HDSL because it is cost
effective.
22) Prepare the some carriers, micro cells, and micro base stations for new
coverage areas and future optimization.
23) In some special areas, you can use the base stations consisting of omni and
directional cells, but you must consider the isolation between omni antennas
and directional antennas. For traffic control, you can use the algorithm in
terms of network layers.
24) For some highroads which require a little traffic by large coverage, you can
use the two networking modes. They are:
 (A micro base station with single carrier) + (0.5 + 0.5 cell with two set of
directional antennas)
 A micro base station with single carrier + 8-shaped antenna
II. Relationship between carrier number and bearable traffic
Erl traffic model can calculate the traffic that a network can bear. The call loss
ratio can be 2% or 5% according to actual conditions. Table 5-1 describes the
relationship between the number of carriers and the traffic that a network can
bear according to Erl B table.
Table 5-1 Relationship between the number of carriers and the traffic that a
network can bear
Number of carriers in Number of

Traffic (Erl)
each cell TCHs
– – 2% 5%
1 6 2.27 2.96
2 14 8.2 9.73
3 21 14.03 16.18
4 29 21.03 23.82
5 36 27.33 30.65

6 44 34.68 38.55
7 52 42.1 46.53
8 59 48.7 53.55
9 67 56.25 61.63
10 75 63.9 69.73
According to this table, the larger the number of carriers and the call loss ratio
are, the greater the traffic that each TCH bear, and the greater the TCH
utilization ratio is (the channel utilization ratio is an important indicator of the
quality of network planning and design). If the number of subscribers of a base
station is small, you can consider delaying the construction.
Because restrictions on the coverage area of a cell and the bandwidth of the
available frequencies, you must plan a reasonable capacity for the cell. If good
voice quality is ensured, you must take measures to enhance the channel
utilization ratio as much as possible.
For the construction of the dual-band network, you can use the frequencies with
wider bands to enhance channel utilization ratio, which is helpful for traffic
sharing.
In actual applications, when the traffic on each TCH accounts for 80-90% of total
given by Erl B table (the call loss ratio is 2%), the congestion ratio in this cell rise
greatly. Therefore, we generally calculate the traffic that a network can bear by
taking the 85% of the traffic given by Erl B table as a reference.
III. Example
The capacity of a local network needs to be expanded. According to the service

development, population growth and mobile popularity, the subscribers in this
area are expected to reach 100,000 in 2 years.
If only the followings are considered:
 Roaming factor (according to the development trend of traffic statistics) =
10%.
 Mobile factor (the subscriber moves slightly within the local network instead
of roaming) = 10%.
 Dynamic factor (with burst traffic considered) = 15%.
The network capacity = 100000 * (1 + 10% + 10% + 15%) = 135,000.
However, because the congestion is present, we generally calculate the traffic
that a network can bear by taking the 85% of the traffic given by Erl B table as a
reference. As a result, the network capacity must be designed as follows:

The network capacity = 135, 000/85% = 158,800, about 160,000.
5.5.3 Control Channel Allocation
I. SDCCH allocation
Stand-alone dedicated channel (SDCCH) is an important channel in a GSM

network. Mobile station activities, such as location update, attach and detach,
call setup and short message, are performed on SDCCH. The SDCCH is used to
transmit signaling and data.
Table 5-2 describes SDCCH configuration.
Table 5-2 SDCCH configuration principles
No cell broadcast channel (CBCH)
TRX SDCCH configuration

number General cell Internal cell Edge cell
1 SDCCH/4 SDCCH/4 SDCCH/4
3 SDCCH/4+SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+SDCCH/8
4 2*SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+SDCCH/8 2*SDCCH/8
5 2*SDCCH/8 2*SDCCH/8 2*SDCCH/8
6 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8 2*SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8
7 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8 3*SDCCH/8
Cell broadcast channel (CBCH) is present
TRX SDCCH configuration

number General cell Internal cell Edge cell
2 SDCCH/8 SDCCH/8 SDCCH/8+SDCCH/4
3 SDCCH/4+SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+SDCCH/8
5 2*SDCCH/8 2*SDCCH/8 2*SDCCH/8+SDCCH/4

6 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8
7 3*SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8 3*SDCCH/8
8 3*SDCCH/8 3*SDCCH/8 3*SDCCH/8+SDCCH/4
It is difficult to induce a traffic model for the SDCCH; especially it even becomes
impossible after the large-scale application of layering networks and short
messages. Moreover, the equipments of some carriers support SDCCH dynamic
allocation function. As a result, the traffic model for SDCCH must be adjusted
according to actual conditions.
The advantages of the SDCCH dynamic function are as follows:
 Adjusting SDCCH capacity dynamically
 Reducing SDCCH congestion ratio
 Reducing the effect of initial SDCCH configuration against system
performance
 Making SDCCH and TCH configuration more adaptive to the characteristics
of cell traffic
 Optimizing the performance of the systems under the same carrier
configuration.
In conclusion, the SDCCH dynamic allocation function is divided into two types,
namely,
 Dynamic allocation from SDCCH to TCH
 Dynamic recovery from SDCCH to TCH
II. CCCH allocation
Common control channels (CCCH) contain access grant channel (AGCH),

paging channel (PCH) and random access channel (RACH). The function of a
CCCH is sending access grant message (immediate assignment message) and
paging message.
All traffic channels in each cell share the CCCH. The CCC can share a physical
channel (a timeslot) with SDCCH, or it can solely occupy a physical channel. The
parameters relative to the CCCH include CCCH Configure, BS AG BLKS PES,
and BS PA MFRMS.
Here,
 CCCH Configure designates the type of CCCH configuration, namely,
whether the CCCH shares one physical channel with the SDCCH. If there
are 1 or 2 TRX in a cell, it is recommended that the CCCH occupies a
physical channel and share it with the SDCCH. If there are 3 or 4 TRXs, it is
recommended that the CCCH solely occupies a physical channel. If there

are more than 4 TRX, it is recommended to calculate the capacity of the

paging channels in the CCCH according to actual conditions first, and then
you can perform the configuration.
 BS AG BLKS PES indicates that the number of CCCH message blocks
reserved to the AGCH. After CCCH configuration is done, this parameter, in
fact, decides allocates the ratio of AGCH and PCH in CCCH. Some carriers
can set sending priority for the “access grant message and “paging
message”. When the former message set to be prior to the later one, the BS
AG BLKS PES can be set to 0.
 BS PA MFRMS indicates the number of multi-frames that can be taken as a
cycle of paging sub-channels. In fact, this parameter decides the number of
paging sub-channels that a cell can be divided into.
 Note:
In CCCH configuration, the location area planning, paging modes and system
flow control must be considered.
5.6 Base Station Number Decision

After traffic and coverage analysis, according to the selected base station
equipments and parameters, you can obtain the coverage areas of various base
stations through link budget. The coverage area helps you calculate the number
of base stations required by each area. Then you decide the base station
configuration according to traffic distribution. Finally, you must perform emulation
using relative planning software so that coverage, capacity, carrier-to-
interference ratio can be assured and interference can be avoided.
5.6.1 Characteristics of 3-sector base stations in urban areas
Cellular communication is named because the coverage areas of base stations

are extruded through small cellular-shaped blocks. In urban areas, for the
purpose of capacity expansion and radio frequency optimization, mainly 3-sector
base stations are used. This section explains some basic concepts of a 3-sector
base station.
For the concept of the cell radius, see Figure 5-2.

Figure 5-2 3-sector cellular layout
This is a standard 3-sector cellular layout. According to Figure 5-2, the distance
between two 3-sector base stations is R + r, here R = 2r. However, “R” is mainly
used in cell radius estimation because the direction along “R” is the direction of
the major lobe of the directional antenna. In the design for cellular layout,
however, “r” indicates the cell radius.
In a cellular cell, if the included angle between a direction and the direction of the
major lobe of the antenna, the coverage distance along this direction is r = R/2,
and the path loss along this direction is about 10dB less than that along the
direction of the major lobe of the antenna (for the deduction, it is introduced in
the following), namely, the equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) along this
direction can be about 10dB less than that along the major lobe.
According to this feature, in the cellular layout of this kind, you can adopt the
directional antenna whose azimuth beam width ranges from 60 to 65 degrees
because their horizontal lobe gain diagram also meets this feature.
If “R” is the cell radius, the cell area is S = 0.6495 × R × R. Sometimes the “r” is
used as cell radius, so the cell area is S = 2 5981×r×r. Therefore, when
calculating the cell area, you must make clear whether “r” or “R” is used.
Figure 5-3 shows the relationship between “R” and “r”.

Figure 5-3 Relationship between “R” and “r”
The followings deduce the EIRP required along “R” direction and “r” direction.
As shown in Figure 5-3, the coverage distance along “r” direction is half of that
along “R” direction, namely, r = R/2. To keep even coverage, you must make the
field intensity at the edges of the cell equal, namely, RxlvelB = RxlevelC.
Suppose that the EIPR transmitted from cell A is EIRP R and EIRPr along “R”
direction and “r” direction respectively, and the city HATA mode is used for path
loss, the path loss from point A and B is expressed as equation (1) :
 EIRPR – RXLEVB = 69.55 + 21.66lgf - 13.82lgh1 + (44.9 - 6.55lgh1) lgR (1)
And the path loss from pint A to point C is expressed as equation (2):
 EIRPr- RXLEVc = 69.55 + 21.66lgf - 13.82lgh1 = (44.9 - 6.55lgh1) lgr (2)
Subtract (2) from (1), the equation (3) is expressed as follows:
 EIRPR - EIRPr =(44.9 - 6.55lgh1)×(lgR – lgr) =(44.9 - 6.55lgh1) × lg (R/r) (3)
Introduce R = 2r, the equation (4) is obtained as follows:
 EIRPR - EIRPr = 0.3 × (44.9 - 6.55lgh1) (4)
Figure 5-4 shows the relationship between antenna height and values of (EIRPR
- EIRPr).
Figure 5-4 Relationship between antenna height and values of (EIRP R - EIRPr)
As shown in Figure 5-4, when the antenna height “h1” increases from 5m to
100m, the values of (EIRPR - EIRPr) decrease from 12 to 9.5, which can be
roughly treated as 10dB.
5.6.2 References for Design of Base Station Parameters
When estimating the number of base stations, you must perform uplink and
downlink budget. Based on the coverage division and propagation environment
survey, you can obtain some project parameters and apply them to link budget.
Table 5-1 lists some recommended base station parameters

Table 5-1 References for base station parameters
Coverage target
Big and middle-sized

Small cities Highroads
cities
Network type GSM 900MHz GSM 900MHz GSM 900MHz
Antenna gain (dBi) 15 17 18
Coverage target
Big and middle-sized

Small cities Highroads
cities
Network type GSM 900MHz GSM 900MHz GSM 900MHz
Densely
populated
25 – –
urban
areas
Antenna Other urban

30 30 –
height areas
Suburban
35 35 35
areas
Countryside
45 45 45
areas
Densely
populated
4 – –
urban
areas
Antenna Other urban

diversity gain 4 4 –
areas
(dB)
Suburban
3 3 3
areas
Countryside
3 3 3
areas

Densely
populated
25 – –
urban
areas
Building Other urban

penetration 20 20 –
areas
loss (dB)
Suburban
15 15 –
areas
Countryside
15 15 –
areas
Car penetration loss (dB) 10 10 10
Densely
populated
8 – –
Slow fading urban
margin (dB) areas
Other urban
8 8 –
areas
Suburban
8 8 8
areas
Countryside
8 8 8
areas
Note:
 The more densely the base station addresses, the lower the antenna height is.
 The building penetration loss in northern cities is greater than that in southern cities.
5.6.3 Uplink and Downlink Balance
After base station parameters are specified, you can perform link budget to
estimate the coverage area of the base station. In addition, you must consider
the sensitivity of the base station equipments at this time.
In a mobile communication system, radio links are divided into two directions,
namely, uplink and downlink. For an excellent system, you must perform a good
power budget so that the balance is present between uplink signals and downlink
signals. Otherwise, the conversation quality is good for one party but bad for the

other party at the edges of the cell. If uplink signals are too bad, the mobile
station cannot start a call even if signals are present.
However, the because the fading for uplink channels and downlink channels is
not totally the same and the other factors such as the difference of the
performances of receivers are present, the calculated uplink and downlink are
not absolute, but the there a fluctuation of 2 to 3 dB.
The measurement report on uplinks and downlinks at the Abis interface can tell
whether the uplink and downlink reach a balance. In addition, dialing tests in
actual network can also tell whether the balance between uplinks and downlinks
are reached. If the conversation quality on downlinks uplinks becomes poor
simultaneously, it means that the downlinks and uplinks are balance.
 Note:
Some carriers provide the traffic statistics on uplink and downlink measurement,
which can also tell whether the balance between uplinks and downlinks are
reached.
I. Link budget model
Figure 5-5 shows the link budget model.
Figure 5-5 Link budget model
When calculating uplink and downlink balance, you must consider the functions
of the tower amplifier first. In a base station receiving system, the thermal
movement of the active parts and radio frequency (RF) conductors cause
thermal noise, which reduces the signal-to-noise ratio of the receiving system. In
this case, the receiving sensitivity of the base station is restricted and the

conversation quality is reduced. To improve the receiving performance of the

base station, you can add a low-noise amplifier under the receiving antenna. And
this is the principle of the tower amplifier.
The contributions of the tower amplifier to uplinks and downlinks are judged
according to the performance of its low-noise amplifier and gain. In fact, it is the
tower amplifier that reduces the noise coefficient of the base station receiving
system. The power amplifier can improve the coefficients for the uplink receiving
system (start from the output end of the receiving antenna). However, if the
functions of the tower amplifier are quantified by this, the uplink improved value
can be represented by the NFDelta (it is the reduced value of the noise coefficient
of the receiving system) after a tower amplifier is added to the system.
(1) No tower amplifier
When there is no tower amplifier, the sensitivity of the equipments at the
duplexer input interface at the top of the base station cabinet are taken as a
reference.
For downlink signals, if,
 Mobile station receiver output power = Poutm
 Base station diversity received gain = Gdb
 Base station receiving level = Pinb
 Base station side noise deterioration = Pbn
 Antenna receiving gain = antenna transmitting gain (according to reciprocity
theorem)
The following equation can be obtained:
 Pinb + Mf = Poutm + Gam – Ld + Gab + Gdb – Lfb – Pbn
Generally, Pmn is almost equal to Pbn, so the following equation can be
obtained:
 Poutb = Poutm + Gdb + (Pinm – Pinb) + Lcb
(2) With tower amplifier
If a tower amplifier is present, the improved value of the noise coefficients of the
uplink receiving system can be represented by NFDelta, so the equation Poutb =
Poutm + Gdb + (Pinm – Pinb) + Lcb can be developed into the following
equation:
 Poutb = Poutm + Gdb + (Pinm - Pinb) + Lcb + NFDelta
The two equations, Poutb = Poutm + Gdb + (Pinm – Pinb) + Lcb and Poutb =
Poutm + Gdb + (Pinm - Pinb) + Lcb + NF Delta are used to calculate base station
transmit power when the uplinks and downlinks are balance. Here,
 Pinb is the base station receiving sensitivity
 Pinm is the mobile station receiving sensitivity

 Gdb (antenna diversity receiving gain) is 3.5dB

According to the requirements in protocols GSM05.05, the mobile station
transmit power and the reference receiving sensitivity of the mobile station and
base station are specified in Table 5-1. At present, however, the sensitivities in
actual systems are greater than the reference values listed in the following table.
Table 5-1 Base station transmit power and reference receiving sensitivity of
mobile station and base station
Network type Mobile station Reference Reference receiving

transmit power receiving sensitivity sensitivity of base
of mobile station station (dBm)
(dBm)
GSM 900MHz 2W (33dBm) -102 -104
GSM 1W (30dBm) -100 -104

1800MHz
Note:
From September, 1999 on, the reference receiving sensitivity of mobile station
is -102 dBm as required in GSM protocols. Considering the compatibility of the
previous mobile stations, we adopt -100dBm as the receiving sensibility of the
1800 MHz mobile stations.
II. Bass station sensitivity
This section further introduces the base station sensitivity and the functions of
the tower amplifier.
Receiver sensitivity refers to the minimum signal level needed to by the input end
of the receiver when the certain bit error rate (BER) is met. The receiver
sensitivity detects the performances of the following components:
 Receiver analog RF circuit
 Intermediate frequency circuit and demodulation
 Decoder circuit
Three parameters are used to measure the receiver bit error performance. They
are frame expurgation rate (FER), residual bit error rate (RBER), and bit error
rate (BER). When a fault is detected in a frame, this frame is defined as deleted
one.
Here,
 FER indicates the ratio of the deleted frames to the total received frames.
For full rate voice channels, the FER is present when the 3-bit cyclic

redundancy check (CRC) detects errors or bad error indication (BFI) is

caused. For signaling channels, the FER is present when the fire code
(FIRE) or other packet codes detect errors. The FER is not defined in data
services.
 FBER indicates the BER that are not announced as deleted frames, namely,
it is the ratio of the bit errors in the frame detected as “good” to the total
number of bits transmitted in “good” frames.
 BER indicates the ratio of the received error bits to all transmitted bits.
Because BER occurs at random, the statistical measurement is mainly applied to
measure receiver error rate. That is, sample multiple measuring points on each
channel and when the number of measuring points is certain, if the BER of each
measurement is within the required limit, the BER of this channel meets the BER
as required.
However, the number of sampled measured points and the limit value of the BER
must meet the following conditions:
 For each independent sampled measuring point, the times for it to pass a
“bad” unit must be as fewer as possible, that is, the probability must be
smaller than 2%.
 For each independent sampled measuring point, the times for it to pass a
“good” unit must be as more as possible, that is, the probability must be
greater than 99.7%.
 The measurement has vivid statistical features.
 The measuring time must be reduced to the minimum.
As a result, you can measure the receiver sensitivity through measuring whether
the receiver BER has reached the requirement while entering sensitivity level to
the receiver.
Enter the reference sensitivity level to the receiver according to Table 5-1 in
various propagation environments. For the data produced after receiver
demodulation and channel decoding, the indexes for FER, RBER, and BER are
more favorable that that defined in Table 5-2.
Table 5-2 Requirements on static and multi-path reference sensitivity
Requirement on receiver Propagation condition

sensitivity Static TU50 TU50 RA250 HT100
No No Frequency No No
Channel type Parameter frequency frequency hopping is frequency frequency
hopping hopping present hopping hopping
FACCH/H (FER) 0.1% 6.9% 6.9% 5.7% 10.0%
FACCH/F (FER) 0.1% 8.0% 3.8% 3.4% 6.3%

SDCCH (FER) 0.1% 13% 8% 8% 12%
RACH (FER) 0.5% 13% 13% 12% 13%
SCH (FER) 1% 16% 16% 15% 16%
TCH/F9.6&H4.8 (BER) 10–5 0.5% 0.4% 0.1% 0.7%
TCH/F4.8 (BER) – 10–4 10–4 10–4 10–4
TCH/F2.4 (BER) – 2 10–4 10–5 10–5 10–5
TCH/H2.4 (BER) – 2 10–4 10–4 10–4 10–4
TCH/FS (FER) 0.1/a% 6a% 3a% 3a% 7a%
Class Ib.
0.4/a% 0.4/a% 0.3/a% 0.2/a% 0.5/a%
(RBER)
Class II
2% 8% 8% 7% 9%
(RBER)
Note:
 The requirements on BCCH, AGCH, PCH, and SACCH are the same as that on
SDCCH.
 The value of “a” in this table depends on the channels. It is 1 for base stations, and 1 to
1.6 for mobile stations.
III. Contributions of tower amplifier to base staiton sensitivity
In terms of technical principles, the tower amplifier reduces the noise coefficients
of the base station receiving system, which is helpful for improving the sensitivity
of the base station receiving system.
In an actual system, to improve the receiving performance of the base station,
you can add a low-noise amplifier near the feeder of the receiving antenna.
In a mobile communication system, the receiver sensitivity = noise spectrum
intensity (dBm/Hz) + bandwidth (dBHz) + noise coefficient (dB) + C/I (dB).
Here the noise spectrum intensity, bandwidth, and noise coefficient are system
thermal noise. C/I is the signal-to-noise ratio required at the Um interface. In a
narrow band system, C/I indicates the modulation performance required by the
receiver baseband, and it is a positive number.
In a spreading communication system, because spread spectrum gain is
present, the value of C/I is far beyond the requirement of the modulation
performance of the receiver baseband, and it is a negative number.

When there are n* cascaded receivers, the equivalent noise coefficient is as

follows:
Here,
 Gn indicates the receivers gain at each level (including the loss at each
level).
 Fn indicates the noise coefficient of the receivers at each level.
The noise coefficient of the passive device is equal to its loss, and the gain of the
passive device is the reciprocal of the loss.
According to the previous equation, the noise coefficient of the cascading system
is determined by the receivers at the first level.
It must be pointed out that the linear values of the parameters must be applied in
the previous equation, so the “F” is a linear value, which must be converted into
a logarithm. Moreover, according to this equation, the noise the cascaded
receivers are determined by the noise coefficient (F1) of the receivers at the first
level.
However, when the tower amplifier stops working, because the loss is present on
duplexer and bypass connectors, about 2dB of redundant loss is introduced on
reverse link.
According to the equation , the

following two assumptions conclude the regularity of the effect of tower amplifier
on the base station system.
(1) Assumption 1
Hereunder is a series of assumptions:
 F1 = 2.5 dB (1.7783), noise coefficient of the tower amplifier
 F2 = 4.5 dB (2.8184), noise coefficient of the base station
 G = 2 (15.849) dB, tower amplifier gain
 Loss of the feeder and other passive devices = 3 dB (2)
 Gain of the feeder and other passive devices G0 = –3 dB (1/2)
 Noise coefficient of the feeder and other passive devices F0 = 1/G0
When the tower amplifier is not added, the noise coefficient of the base station
receiving system with the antenna output end as reference point is as follows:
F = F0 + (F2–1)/G0 = 10*log (2 + (2.8184–1)/0.5) =7.5dB

When the tower amplifier is added, the noise coefficient of the base station
F = F1 + (F0 – 1)/G + (F2 – 1)/(G*G0) = 10*log(1.7783 + (2 – 1)/15.849 +
(2.8184 – 1)/(15.849 × 0.5) = 3.2dB
At this time, the added tower amplifier improves the noise coefficient, and F Delta is
4.3dB, that is, the uplink is improved by 4.3 dB.
(2) Assumption 2
 F1 = 2.2 dB (1.6596), noise coefficient of the tower amplifier
 F2 =2.3 dB (1.6982), noise coefficient of the base station
 G = 12 (15.849) dB, tower amplifier gain
 Loss of the feeder and other passive devices = 3 dB (2)
 Gain of the feeder and other passive devices G0 = –3 dB (1/2)
 Noise coefficient of the feeder and other passive devices F0 = 1/G0
When the tower amplifier is not added, the noise coefficient of the base station
F = F0 + (F2 – 1)/G0 = 10*log (2 + (1.6982 – 1)/0.5) = 5.3dB
When the tower amplifier is added, the noise coefficient of the base station
F = F1 + (F0 – 1)/G + (F2 – 1)/(G*G0) = 10*log(1.6596+(2 – 1)/15.849 + (1.6982
– 1)/(15.849 × 0.5)) = 2.6dB
At this time, the added tower amplifier improves the noise coefficient, and FDelta is
2.7 dB, that is, the uplink is improved by 2.7 dB.
According to the previous calculation, the following conclusions can be obtained:
 The tower amplifier improves the noise coefficient of the base station
receiving system, thus improving the receiving sensitivity of the base
station.
 The tower amplifier improves uplink signals effectively, which is also helpful
for improving the receiving sensitivity of the base station.
 The gain of the antenna amplifier reduces the effect of the components
installed behind the tower amplifier against noise coefficient.
 When the feeder is long and the loss of the feeder is great, if the tower
amplifier is added, the noise coefficient of the base station receiving system
and the uplink signals will be greatly improved.
 The smaller the noise coefficient of the tower amplifier is, if the tower
amplifier is added, the greater the noise coefficient of the base station
receiving system is improved. However, if the noise coefficient of the tower

amplifier is too great, it may cause the noise coefficient of the base station
receiving system to deteriorate.
 When the receiving sensitivity of the base station is great and the feeder is
short, the tower amplifier makes a little improvement on the noise coefficient
of the base station.
 If the tower amplifier improves the base station sensitivity, the base station
is more sensitive to outside interference.
5.6.4 Cell Coverage Estimation
In actual project planning, the effective coverage area of a base station largely
depends on the following factors:
 Effective base station transmit power
 Working band (900MHz or 1800MHz) to be used
 Antenna type and location
 Power budget
 Radio propagation environment
 Carriers; coverage requirements
Based on the indexes of QoS for the mobile network and the actual applications,
this section introduces the coverage area of the base station in different
environments theoretically.
Table 5-3 lists the assumptions of the minimum received level required in various
environments.
Table 5-3 Assumptions of the minimum received level required in various

environments
Minimum
Application
received level Other indexes
environments
(dBm)
 Mobile station sensitivity: -102 dBm

 Fast fading protection: 3dB
 The mobile
 Slow fading protection (indoor): 7dB
station works as
(the standard deviation is 7dB for
the receiver.
-70 indoors and 8dB for outdoors, the
 The first floor of
pass ratio is 90% in coverage areas)
the high buildings
 Penetration loss: 18dB
in big cities
 Interference noise: 2dB
 Environment noise protection: 2dB

 The mobile  Mobile station sensitivity: -102 dBm

station is the  Fast fading protection: 3dB
receiver.  Slow fading protection (indoor): 5dB
 In cars.  Penetration loss: 10dB
-80
 The first floor of  Interference noise: 2dB
the general  Environment noise protection: 2dB
buildings in urban
areas.
 Mobile station sensitivity: -102 dBm
 Fast fading protection: 3dB
 Outdoors. -90  Slow fading protection (indoor): 5dB
 Interference noise: 2dB
 Environment noise protection: 2dB
If the following assumptions are present:

 The antenna height of GSM 900MHz and GSM 1800MHz base stations are
30 meters.
 The sensitivities of the GSM900 MHz 2W (33 dBm) mobile station and GSM
1800MHz 1W (30 dBm) mobile station are -102 dBm and -100 dBm
respectively.
 The mobile station height is 1.5 meters and the gain is 0 dB.
 When the combiner and divider unit (CDU) is used, the sensitivities of the
900MHz base station and 1800MHz base station are -110dBm and -
108dBm respectively.
 The CDU loss is 5.5dB, and the SCU loss is 6.8dB.
 The gain of the 65-degree directional antenna is 13dBd for the 900 MHz
mobile station and 16dBd for the 1800MHz mobile station.
 The feeder is 50m in length. For 900MHz signals, the feeder loss is
4.03dBm/100m. For 1800MHz signals, the feeder loss is 5.87dB/100m.
 In general cities, select Okumura propagation model.
 No tower amplifier and the downlinks are restricted according to the
calculation of the uplink and downlink balance.
According to the previous assumptions, the calculated results are as follows:
(1) Outdoor coverage radius of the 900 MHz base station in urban areas
The minimum received level of the mobile station P mr min  90 dBm. The
coverage radius is calculated according to the maximum TRX transmit power.
The maximum TRX transmit power for the 900 MHz base station Pbt  40 W (46
dBm).
The EIRP of the base station antenna is:
EIRP  Pbt  L com  L bf  Ga b  46  5.5  2.01  13  2.15  53.65 (dBm)

Here,
 LCOM indicates the combiner loss
 Lbf indicates the feeder loss
 Gab indicates the antenna gain of the base station
And the allowed maximum propagation loss is:
L p  EIRP  Pmr min  53.65  (90 )  143.65 (dB)
According to the Okumura propagation model introduces earlier,

L p  69.55  26.16 lg f  13.82 lg h b  (44.90  6.55 lg h b ) lg d  A h m
Here,
 h b indicates the antenna height of the base station.
 h m indicates the antenna height of the mobile station.

 “f” = 900 MHz.
 A h m  (1.1 lg f  0.7 )h m  (1.56 lg f  0.8 )  0.01 (dB)
According to the previous known number, the outdoor coverage radius of the 900
MHz base station in urban areas can be obtained, that is, d = 2.8km.
(2) Coverage radius of the 900 MHz base station in urban buildings
The minimum received level of the mobile station Pmr min  70 (dBm).
L p  EIRP  Pmr min  53.65  (70 )  123.65 (dB)
Therefore, the coverage radius of the 900 MHz base station in urban buildings
can be obtained, that is, d = 0.75km.
If the previous assumptions are present, this indicates that the 900 MHz base
station can cover the outdoor areas 2.8 km away, but for the subscribers on the
first floor of the buildings 750 m away, the quality of the received signals is not
satisfying.
(3) Coverage radius of the 900 MHz base station in suburban areas
The minimum received level of the mobile station Pmr min  90 (dBm).
L p  EIRP  Pmr min  53.65  (90 )  143.65 (dB)
The Okumura propagation model in suburban areas must be modified as follows:
L p  69.55  26.16 lg f  13.82 lg h b  (44.90  6.55 lg h b ) lg d

 A h m  2[lg(f/28 )] 2  5.4
Therefore, the coverage radius of the 900 MHz base station in urban areas can
be obtained, that is, d = 5.4km, so it is obvious that the coverage radius of the
base station with the same configuration is larger in suburban areas that in urban
areas.

(4) Outdoor coverage radius of the 1800 MHz base station in urban areas
The minimum received level of the mobile station Pmr min  90 (dBm). Because the
maximum transmit power of the 1800 MHz TRX is 40W (46dBm), the coverage
radius is calculated based on this maximum transit power.
EIRP  Pbt  L com  L bf  Ga b  46  5.5  2.93  16  2.15  55.73 (dBm)
L p  EIRP  Pmr min  145.73 (dB)
For the 1800 MHz base station, the Okumura propagation model is:
L p  46.3  33.9 lg f  13.82 lg h b  (44.90  6.55 lg h b ) lg d  A h m
In addition, f = 1800 MHz and A h m  (1.1 lg f  0.7 )h m  (1.56 lg f  0.8 )  0.04 (dB).
According to the previous known number, the outdoor coverage radius of the
1800 MHz base station in urban areas can be obtained, that is, d = 1.7km.
(5) Coverage radius of the 1800 MHz base stations in urban buildings
The minimum received level of the mobile station P mr min  70 (dBm).
L p  EIRP  Pmr min  55.73  (70 )  125.73 (dB)
If the previous assumptions are present, this indicates that the 1800 MHz base
station can cover the outdoor areas 1.7km away, but for the subscribers on the
first floor of the buildings 500m away, the quality of the received signals is not
satisfying.
5.6.5 Base Station Address Planning
I. Overview
When planning base station addresses, first you must estimate the number of
the base stations needed in various coverage areas according to the coverage
distance and the divisions of the coverage areas. For the convenience of
prediction and emulation, you must plan an initial layout the base station
addresses with the help of maps and the estimated results.
II. Planning methods
The base station address can be planned based on standard girds, or it can be
planned from a specific area.
(1) Plan base station address based on standard grids
First you set the base stations in the coverage areas according to the distance of
the standard grids, and then adjust the address layout and project parameters
according to the estimated coverage results to meet the coverage requirement.
After that, continue the planning according to the following instructions:
 If a satisfying address layout is obtained, you must analyze the capacity of
the base stations to be planned according to this layout, and determine the

reasonable number of base stations. When designing the capacity, you

must calculate the number of TRXs needs to be configured for each base
station, and then analyze and adjust the configuration of the base station
according to the number of the configured TRXs.
 The adjustment of the configuration of the base station is determined by
subscriber distribution. If the number of base stations in some areas does
not meet capacity requirement, another base stations must be added.
(2) Plan base station address based on a specific area
According to this method, you are required to start the planning from the areas
where the subscribers are most densely distributed or the planning work is quite
hard to be performed. As a result, you must fully survey the subscriber
distribution, landforms, and ground objectives within the coverage area to
position the key coverage area where the center base stations should be
planned. And these center base stations function as ensuring the coverage and
capacity in important areas.
After the layout of these center base stations is determined, you can plan other
base station addresses according to coverage and capacity target. And this is
how the final layout of the base station addresses come from. After the overall
solution is determined, the subsequent steps are performed according to the first
planning method.
 Note:
 The difference of the traffic intensity and the abnormality of the landforms
and ground objectives result in irregularity of the radio coverage. Therefore,
the distance between base stations varies. Generally, this distance is
smaller in the areas where traffic intensity is great. In some hot areas, you
can ensure the system capacity by using micro cells and distributed
antennas to provide multi-layer coverage.
 For restrictions from frequency resources are present, you must consider
avoiding interference while ensuring system capacity.
 There is no standard available for the layout of the base station addresses.
A good planning solution is selected based on the integrated performance of
the network.
5.6.6 Coverage Prediction
The coverage prediction is to predict the coverage of the network to be

constructed according to the selected base station addresses, designed base

station types, suitable electronic maps, and network planning tools to judge
whether the coverage meet the requirements of the subscribers.
The coverage of a base station is determined by the following factors:
 Indexes of QoS
 Output power of transmitters
 Available sensitivity of receivers
 Direction and gain of antennas
 Working bands
 Propagation environment (such as landforms, city constructions)
 Application of diversity reception
If the predicted results of the network coverage fail to meet the requirements,
you can take the following adjusting measures:
 When there are subscribers distributing beyond the cell coverage area, but
it is not economical for you to install a base station, you can use a repeater
to ensure the requirement of those subscriber.
 When the signals are weak or blind zones are present within the coverage
area, you can consider whether to use micro cells according to actual
conditions.
 If a large blank area is present between neighbor cells, you can increase the
antenna height and add base stations according to the principles of cell
splitting.
 When the cell coverage area fails to meet the co-channel interference index,
you can adjust the frequency configuration of the cell, adjust base station
addresses, or adjust design of the parameters, such as antenna
specification, antenna height, azimuth angle, tilt angle, and transmit power.
 Note:
When taking these adjusting measures, you must consider the mutual effect
between base stations.
5.7 Design of Base Station Address

5.7.1 Address design
Generally, in GSM radio network planning, the base station address is designed
according to the following requirements:
 The address must serve to the reasonable cell structure.

Based on the comprehensive analysis of the electronic maps and paper

maps, you can select several candidate addresses from the perspective of
coverage, anti-interference, and traffic balance.
In actual conditions, carriers are required to discuss the selected addresses
with owners. Generally, the addresses must be located within the area 1/4
radius of the cellular base station.
During the early construction stage when only a few base stations are
installed, the base stations must be located in the center of the areas
where subscribers are densely populated.
For the selection of the base station addresses, the priority must be given
to the important areas, such as government offices, airports, train stations,
news center, and great hotels so that good conversation quality can be
assured. Furthermore, overlapped coverage must be avoided in these
areas.
For other coverage areas, the base station addresses are designed
according to standard cellular structures. For the suburban areas,
highroads, and countryside areas, the design of base station addresses
has little relation with cellular structures.
 Without affecting the layout of base stations, you can select the
telecommunication buildings and post offices as the base station addresses
so that the facilities, such as the equipment room, power supplier, and iron
tower can be fully utilized.
 The direction of antenna major lobe must be in accordance with the area
where the traffic intensity is great. In this case, the signal strength of the
area can be enhanced, so does the conversation quality. Meanwhile, the
direction of the antenna major lobe must be deviated from intra-frequency
cells so that the interference can be controlled efficiently.
In urban areas, it is recommended that the overlapped depth of the
antennas in adjacent sectors cannot excel 10%. In suburban areas and
small towns, the overlapped depth between coverage areas cannot be too
great, and the included angle between sectors must be equal to or higher
than 90°.
In addition, for actual design, you must consider the mapping relationship
between carrier number and cells. Generally, more carriers are configured
for the cells with high intensity.
 The azimuth angle must be designed according to not only the traffic
distribution in the areas around the base stations, but also the performance
of the overall network.
Generally, it is recommended to adopt the same azimuth angle for the 3-
sector base stations in urban areas so that the complicated network

planning can be avoided after cell splitting in the future. Moreover, the
antenna major lobe cannot directly point to the straight streets in populated
urban areas, because it can cause cross-coverage.
In the areas connecting urban and suburban areas, and along transport
arteries, you must adjust the azimuth angle according to coverage target.
 Generally, the base station address is not considered on the high mountains
in urban and suburban areas. To be more specifically, the high mountains
are those over 200 to 300 meters higher than above the sea-level).
Otherwise, not only strong interference and weak signals may be present
within the coverage area, but also the base stations are hard to be installed
and maintained on high mountains.
 New base stations must be installed at the spots where the traffic is
convenient, the power supply is available, and the environment is secure. In
contrast, new base stations must not be installed at the spots near the radio
transmit stations with high power, radar stations, and other equipments
which produces great interference, because the interference-field intensity
cannot be greater than that defined by the base station.
 The base station addresses must be far away from forests or woods to keep
the receiving signals from fading.
 The transmission between base station controllers must be considered in
the design of the base station address.
 When selecting a base station address from high buildings in urban areas,
you can divide the network into several layers with the help of the building
height. The antenna height of major base stations must be a little higher
than the average height of buildings. Generally, the antenna height of the
base stations in populated urban areas ranges from 25 to 30 meters. In
suburban areas (or the antenna points to suburban areas), the antenna
height ranges from 40 to 50 meters.
 Along highroads or in mountain areas, the base station address is selected
based on full survey of the landforms. For example, the address can be
determined in an open area or at the turns of the highroads.
 When selecting a base station address from the cities characterized by
mountains and hills and from the areas where high buildings are
constructed with metals, you must consider the effect of time dispersion. In
this case, the base station address must near reflected objectives. When
the base station is far away from reflected objectives, you must adjust the
directional antenna to the reverse direction of the reflected objectives.

Caution:
Time dispersion mainly refers to the intra-frequency interference arising from the
time difference between the master signal and other multipath signal arriving at
the receiver in terms of space transmission. According to the requirements in
GSM protocols, the equalizer of the receiver must carry the time window with
16μs (equivalent to 4.8 km). The multipath signal with time difference greater
than 16 μs is regarded as intra-interference signal. In this case, you must
consider whether the level difference between the master signal and multipath
signal meet the carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I), namely, the master signal is 12
dB greater than the multipath signal at least.
5.7.2 Project Parameter Decision
After finishing designing a base station address, you must decide the project
parameters needed for the base station installation. These parameters include:
 Latitude and longitude of the location of base station antenna
 Antenna height
 Directions of the antenna
 Antenna gain
 Azimuth angle
 Tilt angle
 Feeder specifications
 Transmit power for each cell of the base station
And the previous parameters are decided through field survey.
Before beginning field survey, you must familiarize yourself with the overall
project and collect the materials and tools relative to the project. They are:
 All types of project documents
 Background information
 Information about the existing network
 Local map
 Configuration lists required in contracts
 Relative tools (including digital camera, GPS, compass, ruler, and laptop
computer)
 Note:
Make sure that all the materials and tools are usable before setting out.

The following items must be emphasized before field survey:

 The GPS must be placed in an open land to position the latitude and
longitude of a base station
 Make a detailed record of the surroundings around the base station, such as
the distribution of the buildings, facilities with strong interference, and the
equipments sharing the same base station address.
 It is better to record the previous information with a camera.
 Prevent the compass from magnetizing, because the magnetization will
cause great deviation during the measurement.
Field survey determines the layout of the base station addresses ultimately. The
field survey for the base station includes optical measurement, spectrum
measurement, and base station address survey. They are specified as follows:
 Optical measurement
Measure if a barrier that may reflect electrical waves around the base
station, such as high buildings.
 Spectrum measurement
Check if the electromagnetic environments around the base stations are
normal at present or in recent days.
 Base station address survey
Check the installation conditions of antenna and equipments, power supply,
and natural environment.
The following sections introduce the design for antenna installation.
I. Environment for antenna installation
The environment for antenna installation can be divided into the environment
near the antenna and the base station. For the environment near the antenna,
you must consider the isolation between antennas and the effect of iron tower
and buildings against the antenna. For the environment near the base station,
you must consider the effect the high buildings within 500 meters against the
base station. However, if the height of the buildings is properly used, you can
obtain the intended coverage area.
If a directional antenna is installed on the wall, the radiation direction of the
antenna is perfectly perpendicular to the wall. If its azimuth angle must be
adjusted, the included angle between the radiation direction and the wall is
required to be greater than 75°. In this case, if the front-to-back ratio of the
antenna is greater than 20 dB, the effect of the signals reflected by the wall in
reverse direction against the signals in the radiation direction is quite slight, as
shown in Figure 5-6.

Figure 5-6 Included angle between antenna and wall
When installing an antenna, you must consider whether large shadows will be
present within the coverage area of the antenna. The shadows are produced
mainly because the base station is surrounded by some huge barriers, such as
high buildings and great mountains. Therefore, the antenna must be installed in
the areas with no such barriers.
When a directional antenna is installed on building roofs, you must prevent the
building edges from barring the radiation of antenna beams. Therefore, to reduce
or ease the shadow, you can install the antenna near building edges.
Because the building roofs are diversified and complicated, if an antenna must
be installed far away from building edges, the antenna must be installed higher
than the roof. In this case, the wind load of the antenna must be considered.
Table 5-1 and Table 5-2 lists the recommended height between antenna and roof
for GSM 900 MHz and GSM 1800 MHz without the consideration of the effect of
the antenna tilt angle.
Table 5-1 Recommended height between antenna and roof for GSM 900 MHz
Distance between antenna and building

Height between antenna and roof (m)
edge (m)
0–1 0.5
1 – 10 2
10 – 30 3
> 30 3.5
Table 5-2 Recommended height between antenna and roof for GSM 1800 MHz
Distance between antenna and building

Height between antenna and roof (m)
edge (m)

0–2 0.5
2 – 10 1
> 10 2
II. Antenna isolation in GSM system
To avoid inter-modulation interference, you must leave certain isolation between

the receiver and transmitter of the GSM base station, namely, Tx - Rx: 30 dB and
Tx -Tx: 30 dB. They are applicable to the situation that a GSM 900MHz base
station and a GSM 1800MHz base station share the same address.
The antenna isolation depends on the radiation diagram, space distance, and
gain of the antenna. Generally, the attenuation introduced by the voltage
standing wave ratio (VSWR) is not considered. The antenna isolation is
calculated as follows:
 For vertical arrangement, Lv = 28 + 40lg (k/λ) (dB)
 For horizontal arrangement, Lv =22 + 20lg (d/λ) – (G1+G2) – (S1 + S2) (dB)
Here,
 Lv indicates the required isolation.
 λ indicates the length of carrier waves.
 k indicates the vertical isolation distance.
 d indicates the horizontal isolation distance.
 G1 indicates the gains of the transmitter antenna in the maximum radiation
direction, in the unit of dBi.
 G2 indicates the gains of the receiver antenna in the maximum radiation
direction, in the unit of dBi.
 S1 indicates the levels of the side lobes of the transmitter antenna in the 90°
direction, in the unit of dBp, and it is a negative value relative to the main
beam.
 S2 indicates the levels of the side lobes of the receiver antenna in the 90°
direction, in the unit of dBp, and it is a negative value relative to the main
beam.
Table 5-3 lists the values of S for antennas of different types.
Table 5-3 Values of S for various antennas
Antenna type Value of S (dBp)
65°fan-beam antenna -18

Note:
The value of S can be determined according to the directional diagram of the
antenna. When the omni antenna is used, the S is 0.
The followings introduce the requirements on the antenna mount in GSM

900MHz and GSM 1800MHz.
(1) Directional antenna
In one system, the following requirements must be met in terms of isolation:
 The horizontal distance between two antennas in the same sector must be
equal to or greater than 0.4m.
 The horizontal distance between two antennas in different sectors must be
equal to or greater than 0.5m.
In different systems, the following requirements must be met when two antennas
are in the same sector and direction:
 The horizontal distance between the two antennas must be equal to or
greater than 1m.
 The vertical distance between the two antennas must be equal to or greater
than 0.5m.
 The distance between the bottom of the antennas and the enclosing wall of
building roof must be equal to or greater than 0.5m.
 The included angle between the line connecting the bottom of the antenna
to the antenna-facing roof and the horizontal direction must be greater than
15°.
In addition, the included angle between the line connecting the two antenna
mounts and the antenna direction are required in Table 5-4.
Table 5-4 Range of the included angle between the line connecting two antenna
mounts and antenna direction
Antenna lobe width in horizontal plane (degree) 60-70 90 90
Included angle between mount-connecting line

> 40-50 > 55 > 70
and antenna direction (degree)
(2) Omni antenna

The antenna separation for omni antennas is required as follows:
 The horizontal distance between antennas must be equal to or greater than
10m or the vertical distance between antennas.

 The vertical distance between the antennas must be equal to or greater

than 0.5m.
 The distance between the bottom of the antennas and the enclosing wall of
building roof must be equal to or greater than 0.5m.
III. Anrenna isolation of GSM and CDMA base station
The analysis of the interference in CDMA and GSM systems must be based on
the frequency relationship and the transmitting and receiving features of the two
systems. Three types of interference are present, namely, spurious interference,
congestion interference and cross-modulation interference, among which the
spurious interference affects the system most. Therefore, the spurious
interference is a key concern in network design. Compared with the spurious
interference, the cross-modulation interference and congestion interference has
little effect on the network, so they are not introduced hereunder.
The followings describe the spurious interference of the CDMA2000 1X against
the GSM 900MHz.
Currently, bands of China Unicom’s CDMA2000 1X and that of the GSM
900MHz are listed in Table 5-5
Table 5-5 Bands of China Unicom’s CDMA2000 1X and that of GSM 900MHz
System BTS transmitting band (MHz) BTS receiving band (MHz)
GSM 900MHz 945-960 890-915
CDMA 870-880 835-835
As listed in Table 5-5, the bands of the two systems are close to each other, the
interference against each other will easily occur. Mostly, the transmission of
CDMA2000 1X base station will interfere with the reception of GSM 900MHz
base station.
The disclosure signals of the CDMA band falling into the channels of the GSM
base station receivers will enhance the noise level of the GSM receivers. In this
case, the GSM uplinks become weak, which will reduce the coverage area of the
base station and worsen the quality of the network.
If there is not enough isolation between base stations or the transmitting filter
interfering base stations does not provide enough out-of-band attenuation, the
signals falling into the band of the interfered base station receiver may strong,
which will increase the noise level of the receiver.
The deterioration of the system performance is closely related to the strength of
interference signals, and the strength of interference signals is determined by the

factors, such as the performance of the transmitting elements of the interfering

base stations, the performance of the receiving elements of the interfered base
stations, the distance between bands, and the distance between antennas.
Figure 5-7 shows an interference model.
Figure 5-7 Interference model diagram
According to Figure 5-7, the signal from the amplifier of the interfering base
station is first sent to the transmitting filter, and then it attenuate due to the
isolation between the two base stations. Finally, it is received by the receiver of
the interfered base station. The power of the spurious interference arriving at the
antenna end of the interfered base station can be expressed by the following
equation:
WB int erf ered
I b ＝P TXAMP －P attenuation －I isolation ＋10 lg WB int erf ering
Here,
 Ib indicates the interference level received at the antenna receiving end of
the interfered base station, in the unit of dBm.
 PTX-AMP indicates the output power at the amplifier of the interfering base
station, in the unit of dBm.
 Pattenuation indicates the out-of-band suppression attenuation at the
transmitting filer.
 Iisolation indicates the isolation between the antennas of the two base stations,
in the unit of dB.
 WBinterfered indicates the bandwidth of the signals at the interfered base
station.
 WBinterfering indicates the measurable bandwidth of the interfering signals, or it
can be understood as the bandwidth defined by spurious radiation.
Regulate the previous equation and the following equation can be obtained:

WB int erf ered

I isolation ＝PTXAMP －Pattenuation －I b ＋10 lg WB int erf ering
Suppose the transmit channel number of CDMA2000 1X is the last one on its
working band, that is, 878.49MHz, the spurious signal level on the band of 890-
915MHz must be equal to or lower than -13dBm/100kHz. If you intend to put this
assumption into practice, you can filter and combine each transmitted channel
number by using band-limited filter with a bandwidth of only 1.23MHz. The band-
limited filter of this type has great out-of-band attenuation, which can reach 56 dB at 890
MHz and 80 dB at 909 MHz. Here you must consider the worst situation, that is,
the frequencies at the highest end of the CDMA system interfere with the
frequencies at the lowest end of the GSM system.
In this case, Iisolation = (-13dBm/100kHz) - 56 - Ib + 10lg (200kHz/100kHz)
Here Ib indicates the highest interference level (dBm) allowed by the receiving
end of the interfered base station. If the receiving sensitivity of the interfered
base station is ensured, the outside interference level are required to be 10 dB
lower than the back noise of the receiver. In this case, the sensitivity affected
only accounts to about 0.5 dB.
The back noise of the GSM receiver is the sum of the noise intensity, bandwidth,
and noise coefficient. If the noise coefficient is 8 dB, the back noise is -
174+noise coefficient+10lg (200000) = -174+8+53 = -113 (dBm). Therefore, the
maximum spurious interference allowed is -113-10 = -123 (dBm/200kHz).
As a result, the spurious interferences from other systems falling at the GSM
receivers are required to be smaller than -123 (dBm/200kHz); otherwise, the
spurious interferences will seriously affect the GSM system.
Therefore, Iisolation = (-13dBm/100kHz) – 56 - Ib + 10lg (200kHz/100kHz) = -13- 56-
(-123dBm/200kHz) + 10lg (200kHz/100kHz) = 57 dBm/200kHz.
That is, according to the assumption, the isolation between a CDMA antenna and
GSM 900MHz antenna must be at least 57dB regardless whether they share the
address or not.
Many ways can be used to reduce the interference. For example, you can adopt
the following ways:
 Design enough distance between antennas
 Filter the out-of-band interference of the transmitter
 Add different equipments to the filter, such as receiver, duplexer, and
divider.
According to the requirements in TIA/EIA-97 protocols, the spurious interference
from the CDMA antenna interface falling within the GSM 900MHz receiving
bands must be less than -13 dBm/100kHz. Therefore, the problems, such as
mutual interference and co-address construction must be considered in the initial
design.

To be specific, you can filter and combine each transmitted channel number
using a limited-band filter with the bandwidth of only 1.23 MHz. The band-limited
filter of this type has great out-of-band attenuation, thus the space distance
between the antennas of the CDMA system and GSM system must be
shortened.
In addition, to minimize the interference, you must keep suitable isolation
between the antennas of the CDMA system and GSM system.
The antenna isolation is calculated according to the following two formulas,
which has been introduced earlier:
 For vertical arrangement, Lv = 28 + 40lg (k/λ) (dB)
 For horizontal arrangement, Lv =22 + 20lg (d/λ) – (G1+G2) – (S1 + S2) (dB)
According to the two formulas, the requirements on the isolation between the
antennas of CDMA system and GSM 900 MHz system are specified in the
following three circumstances.
 The antennas of the CDAM system and GSM 900MHz system do not share
the same address, with the antennas horizontally opposite to each other, or
the antennas of the two systems share the same address, with the antenna
type of omni antenna.
Suppose the effective gains of the antennas of the two systems in the
maximum radiation direction are 10 dBi (with the feeder loss considered),
and the interference signals are 890MHz, according to previous analysis,
the isolation between the CDMA system and GSM system is required at
least 57dB.
Therefore, the following equation can be obtained according to the previous
formula:
57 = 22 + 20lg (Dh/λ) – (10 + 10)
And the horizontal distance between the two antennas is d = 190m.
Table 5-1 lists the isolation requirements between omni antennas of the two
systems.
Table 5-1 Isolation requirements between omni antennas of CDMA system

and GSM 900MHz system
Effective antenna gain in Antenna isolation Antenna distance

radiation direction (dBi) requirement (Db) requirement (m)
10 57 190
10 57 599

 The antennas of the CDMA and GSM 900 MHz system share the same
address (the antennas are installed on the same platform and horizontally
separated), with the antenna type of directional antenna.
Suppose that the two antennas are horizontally placed, and their tilt angle is
65°, and that the effective gains of the two antennas in the radiation
direction are 15dBi.
And if the side lobe of the 65°antenna is -18dB in the horizontal plane, the
effective gain of the antenna in this direction is (15 – 18) dBi = -3 dBi.
Therefore, 57=222+0lg (Dh/λ) - {(15+15) + [(-18) + (-18)]}.
According to the previous equation, the horizontal distance between the two
antennas are d = 9.5m.
Table 5-2 lists the isolation requirements between directional antennas of
CDMA and GSM 900 MHz systems.
Table 5-2 Isolation requirements between directional antennas of CDMA

and GSM 900 MHz systems
Effective antenna gain in Antenna isolation Antenna distance

radiation direction (dBi) requirement (Db) requirement (m)
10 57 190
15 57 599
 The antennas of the CDMA and GSM 900 MHz antennas share the same
address (the antennas are not installed on the same platforms of the iron
tower and vertically separated), with the antenna types of directional
antenna and omni antenna.
In this case, the equation 57=28 + 40 lg (k/λ) is present.
According to this equation, the vertical distance between the two antennas is
d = 1.8m.
 Note:
The previous descriptions are just theoretical detections. In actual networking,
other types of antennas may be installed at the same address. In this case,
some equipment indexes must be considered, among which the important ones
are spurious radiation, the interference power of the interfering signals to
interfered signals, and the antenna isolation.

IV. Installation distance between antennas
Diversity technology is the most anti-fading effective. When two signals are
irrelevant to each other, the horizontal distance between the diversity antennas
must be 0.11 times that of the valid antenna height. The higher place the
antenna is installed, the larger the horizontal distance between diversity
antennas is. When the distance between diversity antennas is equal to or greater
than 6m, however, the antenna is hard to be installed on an iron tower.
In addition, the distance required by vertical diversity antennas is 5 to 6 times
that of the horizontal diversity antennas when the same coverage is ensured.
Therefore, the vertical diversity antenna is seldom used in actual projects, but
antennas are often vertically installed to meet isolation requirement, especially
omni antennas are vertically installed.
In addition, for highroad coverage, the line connecting two receiving antennas
must be perpendicular to the highroad. If space diversity is used, the diversity
distance is the perpendicular, as shown in Figure 5-8.
Figure 5-8 Space diversity distance of directional antennas
Table 5-1 and Table 5-2 lists the required distance between GSM antennas
(suppose no barrier is present between the antennas)
Table 5-1 Required diversity distance between omni antennas
Isolation requirement: Tx-Tx, Tx - Rx: 30 dB
Vertical distance
Horizontal distance Remarks
(recommended)
Distance between
GSM 900MHz:
≥ 0.5m Gain = 10 dBi: 8m antenna and tower:
Tx-Tx, Tx - Rx
2m
GSM Distance between

1800MHz: Tx- ≥ 0.25m Gain = 10 dBi: 4m antenna and tower:
Tx, Tx - Rx 2m

GSM 900MHz
Distance between
+ GSM
≥ 0.5m Gain = 10 dBi: 1m antenna and tower:
1800MHZ: Tx-
2m
Tx, Tx - Rx
Diversity requirement
Distance between
GSM 900MHz: ≥ 4m (recommend
– antenna and tower:
Tx-Tx, Tx - Rx 6m)
2m
GSM Distance between

≥ 2m (recommend
1800MHz: Tx- – antenna and tower:
3m)
Tx, Tx - Rx 2m
Table 5-2 Required diversity distance between directional antennas
Isolation requirement: Tx-Tx, Tx - Rx: 30 dB
Same sector Vertical distance

Horizontal distance Remarks
antennas (recommended)
No effect from
For 65 antennas,
GSM 900MHz: tower structure in
≥ 0.5m antenna gain: 15
Tx-Tx, Tx - Rx forward direction
dBi: 0.4m
of the antenna
No effect from
GSM For 65 antennas,
tower structure in
1800MHz: Tx- ≥ 0.25m antenna gain: 15
forward direction
Tx, Tx - Rx dBi: 0.2m
of the antenna
Adjacent-sector
antennas (on
Vertical distance Horizontal distance Remarks
the same
platform)
GSM 900MHz:
– ≥ 0.5m –
Tx-Tx, Tx - Rx
GSM
1800MHz: Tx- – ≥ 0.5m –
Tx, Tx - Rx
Diversity requirement

No effect from
GSM 900MHz: ≥ 4m (recommend tower structure in
–
Tx-Tx, Tx - Rx 6m) forward direction
of the antenna
No effect from
GSM
≥ 2m (recommend tower structure in
1800MHz: Tx- –
3m) forward direction
Tx, Tx - Rx
of the antenna
 Note:
The installation for GSM 900MHz and GSM 1800MHz antennas is flexible, but
no matter what specifications are used, they must meet the requirements on
isolation and distance. In addition, in actual projects, barriers are present
between antennas. For example, a tower is always present between two omni
antennas, so you must shorten the horizontal distance between them.
V. Design of base station parameters in residential areas
A large number of residential areas are distributed in urban areas, so this section
introduces the design of base station parameters in these areas.
(1) Features of residential areas
Residential areas in urban areas are characterized by regular arrangement of
buildings, and they can be divided into the following types as listed in Table 5-3.
Table 5-3 Division of residential areas
In terms of Description
High-building residential areas: above 10 floors (30 meters)
Building height Multi-floor residential areas: 5 to 8 floors (15 -30 meters)
Villas and low residential areas: less than 4 floors (12 meters)
Great-intensity residential areas: the distance between
buildings is within 10 meters.
Building Middle-intensity residential areas: the distance between
intensity buildings ranges from 10 to 20 meters.
Low-intensity residential areas: the distance between
buildings is larger than 20 meters.
Construction The walls of the residential areas are constructed with
material concretes.

The walls of the residential areas are constructed with bricks

and concretes.
The walls of the residential areas are constructed with hollow
blocks.
Notes:
The thickness of the buildings varies with the regions and
climates. Three specifications are available, namely, 24m,
47m, and 49m. Generally, the walls are thicker in southern
parts and thinner in northern parts.
(2) Antenna installation in residential areas

The address where the antenna should be installed in residential areas is hard to
be determined. Generally, when adopting micro cells, you can install the antenna
within a residential area near to the target coverage area.
In this case, the antenna can be installed in the following spots:
 On outer walls (not roofs) of a building
 On pillars
 Install a micro cell in underground garages
For the residential areas large in size and regular in arrangement, the antenna
can be installed as shown in Figure 5-9.
Figure 5-9 Installed position of micro cell antennas
To realize better stereo coverage, you can install the antenna at wall corners
with enough height, namely, 1/2H building  H antenna  3/4H building . In this case, the
azimuth angle of the antenna must be designed as shown in Figure 5-10.

If the antenna is installed at a wall corner, the major lobe of the antenna can
radiate the space between buildings. Generally, the major lobe of the antenna
cannot face the walls of the buildings nearby directly.
If frequencies are reusable among these micro cells, the directions of antennas
must be consistent with each other. In addition, you can also use the cell splitter
to enable a cell to coverage the areas in two directions, as shown in Figure 5-11.
In this case, however, the frequency utilization ratio may decrease and extra
power splitter will introduce loss of 3 dB.
For the residential areas with regular arrangement, the directional antennas
whose horizontal beam width is 90° to 120° and vertical beam width is greater
than 30° are recommended.
Under certain conditions, the micro cell antenna can be installed on the pillars
within a residential area, as shown in Figure 5-11.
For the residential areas with irregular arrangement, the antenna can be installed
on the walls of a building, so the reflected waves can coverage the walls of
opposite buildings, as shown in Figure 5-12. In this case, the antennas whose
horizontal beam width is greater than 120°and vertical beam width is greater
than 30°are recommended.

(3) Antenna selection

When the walls of a building is selected as an installed position, you can use the
build-in antenna of the micro cell directly, or other antennas with small size.
According to coverage features of residential areas, when selecting the
specifications for the micro cell antennas to be used, you must consider the
following factors:
 Antenna gain
 Horizontal beam width
 Vertical beam width
 Polarization mode
 Visual effect (antenna size, shape, and weight)
The antenna gain is recommended less than 9 dBi for micro cell antennas.
Because the coverage area of a micro cell antenna is small and the installed
position is near to the coverage area, the antenna gain can be adjusted to a
smaller value, especially if the gain of an antenna is greater than 10dBi, its size
is large, which may cause opposition from residents.
The selection of the horizontal and vertical beam width for an antenna is related
to radio environment. If a micro cell antenna is installed on a wall, the antenna
height is lower than the average height of surrounded buildings. In this case, if
both the indoor coverage of lower floors and higher floors can be assured, you
must select the antennas with greater vertical beam width. According to the
height of buildings, you can select the directional antennas whose vertical beam
width ranges from 35°to 80°.
The selection of the horizontal beam width of the micro cell antenna and the
installed position of the antenna are related to coverage target. In this case, you
can select the directional antennas whose beam width ranges from 60° to 150°,
or you can choose omni antennas or bi-directional antennas (8-shaped
antennas).
Both vertical polarization antennas and dual polarization antennas can be
selected for a micro cell. The coverage area of a micro cell in urban areas is
small, so the diversity reception is unnecessary. In this case, a vertical
polarization antenna can meet the coverage requirements in residential areas.
As for the dual polarization antenna, however, it is expensive and large in size,
so it is not recommended.
The visual effect must be emphasized for the micro cell antennas installed in
residential areas. They must be small and moderate. In addition, they must be
light for installation convenience. If the contract between the color of the antenna

and that of the surrounded buildings is great, you must color the antenna with the
same color of the buildings.
 Note:
In some cases, you should consider adopting dual-band antennas. When
selecting a small-sized antenna, you should consider whether its maximum
output power can bear the micro cell output power. When adopting short jumpers
instead of 7/8 feeders, you should consider whether the antenna connector (N-
shaped male/female, 7/16 DIN header) matches the jumper connector.
5.8 Location Area Design

5.8.1 Definition of Location Area
In GSM protocols, a mobile communication network is divided into multiple

service areas according to the codes of location areas. Thus the network pages
a mobile subscriber through paging its location area.
Location area is the basic unit of paging areas in a GSM system. That is, the
paging message of a subscriber is sent in all cells of a location area. A location
area contains one or more BSCs, but it belongs to one MSC only.
Figure 5-13 shows the division of service areas.
Figure 5-13 Division of service areas
5.8.2 Division of location areas
The coverage area of each GSM PLMN is divided into multiple location areas, in
which an MS is positioned. The size of a location area, namely, the area covered

by a location area code (LAC), plays a key role in a GSM system. Therefore, this
section mainly introduces the principle for planning location areas.
I. Dividing the location area according to the distribution and behaviour

of mobile subscribers
The distribution of location areas in cities and suburbs is different. Generally,

suburban areas or counties occupy independent location areas. In cities, the
distribution of location areas is similar to a concentric circle. (The areas in the
internal circle can be divided into several location areas due to the requirements
on capacity. The concentric circle can be divided into several fragments.)
Practice has proved that if the location areas are divided according to the
previous methods, as shown in Figure 5-14, both coverage and call-connected
ration can be improved.
Figure 5-14 Division of LAs
In addition, if two or more location areas are present simultaneously in a big city
of great traffic, the landforms, such as mountains and rivers within this city can
be used as edges of the location areas. In this case, the overlapped depth
between the cells of the two location areas can be reduced. If no such landforms
available within this city, the areas (such as streets and shopping centers) with
great traffic cannot be used as edges of the location areas.
Generally, the edge of a location area is oblique instead of parallel or
perpendicular to streets. In the intersected areas of urban areas and suburban
areas, to avoid frequent location update, you must design the edges of location
areas near the outer base stations instead of the base stations just installed at
the intersections.
II. Calculating coverage area and capacity of a location area
If the coverage area of a location area is too small, the mobile station will
perform frequent location update. In this case, the signaling flow in the system

will increase. If the coverage of a location area is too larger, however, the
network will send a paging message in multiple cells until the mobile station is
paged. In this case, the PCH will be overloaded and the signaling flow at the Abis
interface will increase.
The calculation of location areas varies with the paging strategies designed by
different carriers. During early network construction stage, the traffic is not great,
so a location area can accommodate more TRXs. However, it is still necessary
for you to monitor the PCH load and traffic growth. When the traffic grows great,
you can enhance the PCH capacity by adding a BCCH to the system, but the
number of voice channels can be added is reduced by one accordingly.
Generally, the capacity of a location area is calculated as follows:
The number of paging blocks sent in each second × the number of paging
messages sent in each paging block = the maximum paging times in each
second. As a result, the number of paging times in each hour, the traffic allowed
in each location area, and the number of carriers supported in each location area
can be deducted.
The followings introduce the items present in the previous paragraph
respectively.
(1) The number of paging blocks sent in each second
1 frame = 4.61ms, 1 multiframe = 51 frames = 0.2354s; suppose the number of
access grant blocks is AGB, the number of blocks, the number of paging blocks
sent in each second is calculated by the following formulas:
 For non-combined BCCH, the number of paging blocks sent in each second
= (9 – AGB)/0.2345 (paging block/second).
 For combined BCCH, the number of paging blocks sent in each second = (3
– AGB)/0.2345 (paging block/second).
For non-combined BCCH, the AGB is 2 according to Huawei BSC. Therefore, the
number of paging blocks sent in each second is 29.7 (paging block/second);
when AGB is 0, it is 38.2 (paging block/second).
For combined-BCCH, the AGB is 1, so the number of paging blocks sent in each
second is 8.5 (paging blocks/second); when the AGB is 0, it is 12.7 (paging
block/second).
According to the previous analysis, the larger the number of AGB, the smaller the
number of the paging blocks sent in each second and the smaller the paging
capacity is. Moreover, the paging capacity of the combined BCCH is far less than
that of the non-combined BCCH.

 Note:
Generally, a combined-BCCH cell and a non-combined-BCCH cell are not
configured simultaneously within a LAC, and the number of AGB must be
consistent with a location area; otherwise the paging capacity of the location
area will decrease (now the paging capacity of the cell with the least paging
capacity is the paging capacity of the location area).
However, if the capacity of a location area is small and the LAC resource is
scarce, you can configure the combined-BCCH cell and non-combined-BCCH
cell within a LAC to enlarge the number of traffic channels for O1 and S111 base
stations.
(2) The number of paging messages sent in each paging block (X)
According to section 9.1.22 of GSM0408 protocols, each paging block has 23
bytes, and can send 2 IMSI pages, or 2 TMSI and 1 IMSI pages, or 4 TMSI
pages.
According to the paging strategies of Huawei MSC, if the IMSI paging
mechanism is adopted, the number of paging messages sent in each paging
blocks is 2 (paging times/paging block); if the TMSI paging mechanism is
adopted, it is 4 (paging times/paging block)
(3) The maximum paging times in each second (P)
The maximum paging times in each second is calculated by the following two
formulas:
 For non-combined BCCH, P = (9 – AGB)/0.2345 (paging block/second) ×
(paging times/paging block).
 For combined BCCH, P = (3 – AGB)/0.2345 (paging block/second) ×
(paging times/paging blocks).
If the IMSI paging mechanism is adopted, for non-combined BCCH, when AGB =
2, P = 59.47 (paging times/second); when AGB = 0, P = 76.47 (paging
times/second). For combined-BCCH, when AGB = 1, P = 16.99 (paging
times/second); when AGB = 0, P = 25.49 (paging times/second).
If the TMSI paging mechanism is adopted, for non combined BCCH, when AGB
= 2, P = 118.95 (paging times/second); when AGB = 0, P = 152.93 (paging
times/second). For combined BCCH, when AGB = 1, P = 33.98 (paging
times/second); when AGB = 0, P = 50.98 (paging times/second).
According to the previous analysis, the paging capacity under IMSI paging
mechanism is half of that under TMSI paging mechanism.
(4) The traffic allowed in each location area (T)

When designing the capacity for a location area, you must be attention that the
paging capacity of a location area cannot break its limit. For network expansion,
you can collect the times of the busy-hour paging orders delivered by BSC from
OMC, and then convert the times into the number of paging orders sent in each
second.
If no traffic measurement data is available, such as in the case of new network
construction, you can calculate the traffic allowed in each location area by
assuming a traffic model.
For example, if the average conversation duration is 60s and the ratio of the
times for the mobile station to be successfully paged to the times of total pages
is 30%, the 60s of conversation duration matches 1/60 calls (in the unit of
second. Erl), and 30% of calls is generated by the called parties. Therefore, the
successful calls of the 30% mobile stations are 0.05 times (that is, 1/60*30% =
0.005), in the unit of second. Erl.
If the 75% of the mobile stations respond to the first page and 25% respond to
the second page, the mobile stations responding to the third page can be
neglected. (It is just an assumption, which may be different from actual
conditions.). Therefore, 1.25 pages are needed if a mobile station is successfully
called each time (25% of the pages must be resent). In this case, the following
equation is present:
Y = 0.005*(1+25%) = 0.00625 paging times/(second. Erl)
Suppose the congestion on paging channels will occur when the paging capacity
is 50% greater than maximum theoretical paging capacity, the original paging
messages are still present even the paging queue is full in the BTS. In this case,
the paging capacity in one second is P*50%.
Therefore, the traffic allowed in each location area can be calculated according
to the formula T = P*50%/Y, and the specific values are listed in Table 5-1.
Table 5-1 Traffic allowed in each location area
Paging BCCH
T (Erl) AGB (block)
mechanism combination mode
Non-combined
4757.86 2
BCCH
Non-combined
IMSI 6117.25 0
BCCH
1359.39 1 Combined BCCH

Non-combined
9515.72 2
BCCH
Non-combined
TMSI 12234 .49 0
BCCH
(5) The number of carriers supported by each location area (NTRX)

Each TRX had 7.2 TCHs in average, so the maximum traffic of each TRX in each
hour is 7.2.
Therefore, the number of carriers supported in each location area can be
calculated according to NTRX = T/7.2 and the specific values are listed in
Table 5-2 Number of carriers supported in each location area (TRX/LA)
Paging BCCH
NTRX (TRX/LA) AGB (block)
mechanism combination mode
Non-combined
660 2
BCCH
Non-combined
IMSI 849 0
BCCH
188 1 Combined BCCH
283 0 Combined BCCH
Non-combined
1321 2
BCCH
Non-combined
TMSI 1699 0
BCCH
377 1 Combined BCCH
566 0 Combined BCCH

 Note:
All the previous assumptions do not include the effect of the point-to-point short
messages against on paging capacity. If the conversation times of a subscriber
are equal to the number of the short messages to be sent, and if the sent ratio
and received ratio are consistent with each other, the paging times/second. Erl
will double in busy hour and the capacity of the location area will reduce by half.
Therefore, some common short messages must be sent on CBCH.
5.8.3 Others
This section introduces some other information about location area design.
 The capacity of a location area is closely related to paging mechanism, and
is directly related to the combinations of AGB and BCCH. When the
combinations of AGB and BCCH are inconsistent with each other in a
location area, the capacity of the location area is determined by the cell with
the smallest capacity. Therefore, the combinations of AGB and BCCH must
be designed to be consistent in location area planning.
 If the number of point-to-point messages grows large immediately, the
number of paging messages will increase, but the number of supported
subscribers will decrease. In this case, you must control and protect the
flows in the system.
 Because the traffic density varies with location areas, it is recommended
that the combined-BCCH cells, non-combined-BCCH cells, and multi-BCCH
cells form a location area respectively. When a cell with BCCH/SDCCH
combination, the location area can be as large as possible when the paging
capacity of the BTS does not reach the limit. However, because all paging
messages will be broadcasted in all cells within a location area, the cell with
BCCH/SDCCH combination is the bottleneck of the location area.
 The LAC is a kind of number resource. Therefore, you must cooperate with
carries to plan location areas.
5.9 Dual-Band Network Design

5.9.1 Necessity for Constructing Dual-Band Network
The earlier GSM mobile communication network is constructed on the 900 MHz
band. With rapid growth of subscribers, the network capacity also grows rapidly.
Therefore, the lack of frequency resources and radio channels is a major
concern for mobile telecommunications.

Many methods can be used to expand the capacity of a GSM system, including:
 Adding macro cell base stations to the system
 Reducing distance between base stations
 Adopting aggressive frequency reuse technologies (such as MRP and 1×3)
 Adding micro cells to the system
 Applying half rate to the system
However, all these methods cannot thoroughly solve the problems concerning
network capacity. As a result, the GSM 1800MHz network is introduced (uplink:
1805–1880 MHz; downlink: 1710–1785 MHz). And the network integrating GSM
900MHz and GSM 1800MHz can meet the growth of network capacity.
The application of GSM 1800MHz can bring the following advantages:
 It does not occupy the bands of GSM 900MHz and has a communication
bandwidth of 75M. Therefore, it breaks the bottleneck of GSM 900MHz in
terms of frequency resources.
 The system networking, project implementation, network planning, and
network maintenance of a GSM 1800MHz network are almost the same with
that of a GSM 900MHz network.
 The GSM 1800MHz and GSM 900 MHz can share a base station, so a
GSM 1800MHz network can be finished in a short time, which is quite
helpful for network expansion.
 Dual-band mobile phones now accounts for a major part of the total, so a
GSM 1800MHz network can provide services to the dual-band subscribers.
In this case, the capacity pressure on GSM 900MHz can be greatly eased.
5.9.2 GSM 1800MHz Coverage Solutions
I. Propagaiton features of GSM 1800MHz
The propagation features of the electromagnetic waves of 900 MHz and 1800
MHz are different in the following aspects:
 The propagation loss in free space
The propagation loss of the 1800 MHz signals is 6 dB greater than that of
the 900 MHz signals in free space.
 Penetration loss
The penetration loss of the 900 MHz signals is greater than that of the 1800
MHz signals, but their difference is slight.
 Diffraction loss
The longer the waves, the smaller the diffraction loss is. The diffraction
ability of the 1800 MHz signals is poorer than that of the 900 MHz signals.

II. Dual-Band Networking Mode
There are three dual-band networking modes, namely, independent MSC

networking, co-MSC/independent BSC networking, and co-BSC networking,
among which the former two are called independent networking, and the later is
called hybrid networking.
III. Coverage requirements on GSM 1800 MHz
 Outdoor coverage
The outdoor coverage can be easily realized when the distance between
base stations are not large. In necessary cases, you can add a GSM
1800MHz base station at the address of the original GSM base station. And
in some places, you should consider add a new base station.
 Indoor coverage
To ensure that the indoor coverage of GSM 1800MHz is good, you must
control the distance between the base stations installed in urban areas
within 1000 meters. In China, however, the buildings in most cities are
constructed by concretes and metals, so the penetration loss is great. As
result, the distance between base stations in urban areas of China ranges
from 500 to 800 meters.
IV. Coverage mode of GSM 1800MHz
(1) Scattered coverage in hotspot areas

At the early network construction stage, the GSM 1800MHz base stations are
scattered in hotspot areas. When the capacity configured for a GSM 1800 MHz
base station is small, you must solve the problems, such as SDCCH congestion,
TCH congestion, and frequent update between GSM 1800MHz and GSM
900MHz. The cost in early construction stage is small.
Figure 5-15 shows the scattered coverage of GSM 1800MHz in hotspot areas.
Figure 5-15 Scattered coverage of GSM 1800MHz in hotspot areas

The coverage of the dual-band network of this mode is based on the original
GSM 900MHz network. The GSM 1800MHz base station is constructed in some
hotspot areas, so the seamless coverage of GSM 1800MHz is not available in
this case.
If a dual-band mobile phone starts conversation in an area covered by GSM
1800MHz, after leaving this coverage area, it hands over to the GSM 900MHz
cell where it originally was. And the handover of this type is called the inter-band
handover caused by coverage.
If a dual-band mobile phone starts the conversation in an area covered by GSM
900MHz, but because the traffic in this area is great, the mobile phone will hand
over to an area covered by GSM 1800MHz. And the handover of this type is
called the inter-band handover caused by capacity.
The scattered coverage in hotspot areas only relieves capacity problems in a
short term. Moreover, frequent inter-band frequency handover increase the
signaling load, which results in the loss of system capacity.
(2) Seamless coverage in hotspot areas
If the coverage of this mode is available; the GSM 1800 MHz network can share
greater traffic for GSM 900MHz network and expand the system capacity. In
addition, it is cost-effective.
(3) Perfect seamless coverage
If a GSM 1800MHz network adopts the coverage of this type, the advantages are
as follows:
 The seamless coverage area within a city can be realized.
 The GSM 1800MHz network can share the traffic load for GSM 900MHz
network as much as possible.
 The system capacity can be greatly expanded.
 The ratio of the handover between layers is small.
 The quality of the network is quite satisfying.
 The frequencies can be planned by patch.
 The carriers can be expanded step by step.
However, there are still disadvantages. They are as follows:
 The number of base stations is large.
 The work load of network planning and optimization is huge.
 The investment is large.
 The base station addresses cannot be decided once.
Figure 5-16 shows the perfect seamless coverage of GSM 1800MHz in hotspot
areas.

Figure 5-16 Perfect coverage of GSM 1800MHz in hotspot areas
If a GSM 1800MHz network adopts this coverage mode, it can be easily

expanded to meet future coverage.
Compared with the scattered coverage in hotspot areas, the perfect seamless
coverage is characterized by great intensity and large area. Therefore, the ratio
of inter-band handover under this coverage mode is far smaller than that under
scattered coverage mode. As a result, the signaling load is reduced greatly.
Therefore, this coverage mode is an ideal coverage solution. If a GSM 1800MHz
network adopts this coverage mode, it does not necessarily attach to the GSM
900MHz network, instead, it can form an independent network.
5.9.3 Location Area Division for Dual-Band Network
The location area division for dual-band network is suggested as follows:

 If 1800 MHz cells and 900 MHz cells are under the control of two MSCs
respectively, their location areas are different. Therefore, you must set
related parameters to maintain the mobile stations stay in the 1800 MHz
cells where the traffic is absorbed. In this case, the times for the mobile
station to handover between the two bands and reselect cells will decrease.
Meanwhile, when designing signaling channels, you must fully consider the
load resulted from location update.
 If 1800 MHz cells and 900 MHz cells share a MSC, at the early network
construction stage, they are suggested to use the same location area
without affecting the network capacity. If the restriction on paging capacity is
present, two location areas must be divided for them either in terms of band
or geographic location, as shown in Figure 5-17 and Figure 5-18.

Figure 5-17 Location area division based on band
Figure 5-18 Location area division based on geographic location
If the location area is divided in terms of band, because frequent location

updates are resulted from inter-band handover and cell reselection, you must set
related parameters to maintain the mobile stations stay in the 1800 MHz cells
where the traffic is absorbed. In this case, the times for the mobile station to
handover between the two bands and reselect cells will decrease. Meanwhile,
when designing signaling channels, you must fully consider the load resulted
from location update.
If the location is divided in terms of geographic location, the frequent location
updates resulted from inter-band handover and cell reselection can be avoided.
However, you need to modify the related data of the original 900 MHz network. In
addition, at the edges of the location areas, because the location updates
caused by intra-band and inter-band handover and cell reselection is present
simultaneously, the signaling flow is huge at these edges. As a result, you must
carefully design the edges of the location areas.

5.9.4 Traffic Guidance and Control Strategies of Dual-Band Network
I. Traffic guide of Dual-Band Network
At early construction stage of a dual-band network, traffic control concerns how

to use the new GSM 1800MHz network to share the traffic flow for the GSM
900MHz network. According to the original intension of the GSM 1800MHz
network, the traffic can be guided according to the following principles:
25) At the early construction stage of a dual-band network, the GSM 1800MHz
network is mainly applied to absorb the traffic of the dual-band subscribers
so that the load of the GSM 900MHz network can be eased.
26) When the number of dual-band subscriber grows large, each band must
share the traffic so that the inter-band handover times can be reduced.
Figure 5-1 shows the process of traffic guide and control strategies.
Figure 5-1 Process of traffic guide and control strategies
The various traffic control strategies can be realized through adjusting parameter
settings as follows:
1) In idle mode, when the mobile station is selecting cells after it is switched on
and reselecting cells when it is in standby state, you can set higher priorities
for the 1800 MHz cells by designing the system parameters, including CBQ,
CBA, CRO, TO, and PT. In this case, subscribers are more likely to stay in
the 1800 MHz cells. As a result, their calls are established on the 1800 MHz
cells.
2) If traffic congestion is present in the service cell when a mobile station is
setting up a call, the system applies directed retry function to assign the
mobile station to a TCH in the neighbor cells of the service cell and adjust
the traffic allocation.
3) In conversation state, the traffic must be guided to the 1800 MHz cells in
lower layers and levels according to the hierarchy cell structure. In addition,

you can use Huawei dual-band handover algorithms so that the traffic load
can be allocated more properly.
II. Hierarchical Cell Structure
According to the hierarchy cell structure of the dual-band network, a GSM

system covering an area can be divided into four layers, as listed in Table 5-1.
Table 5-1 Four layers of a GSM system
Layer Description
This layer consists of umbrella cells, namely, GSM 900MHz macro

4 cells. They provide upper coverage and connect the fasting moving
mobile stations.
This layer consists of GSM 900 micro cells, and most of the
3
subscribers are gathering in this layer.
This layer consists of the GSM 1800MHz cells whose coverage area
is similar to that of the GSM 900 MHz cell. It is designed in case of
2
frequency resource emergency. In the future, most of the dual-band
subscribers will gather in this layer.
This layer consists of the mini cells of GSM 1800 MHz and GSM
1 900MHz. They are designed for covering hotspot areas and dead
zones.
Figure 5-2 shows the hierarchy cell structure of a dual-band network.
Figure 5-2 Hierarchical cell structure of a dual-band network
To enable the network to develop smoothly and flexibly, you can divide each of
the four layers into multiple levels, and then you can set multiple priority classes
(for example, 16 classes) for the levels in each layer. This method is not only

helpful for adjusting the traffic load in part of the areas. Therefore, the
hierarchical cell structure enhances the cooperation of the current network
equipments and meets the devolvement of the future network.
In terms of traffic priority, the cells in lower layers and levels has higher priorities,
namely, the cells in lower layers has the priority to absorb the traffic.
The handover algorithms of a dual-band network are listed in Table 5-1.
Table 5-1 Handover algorithms of a dual-band network
Name Description
Inter-layer and inter-level handover The network support to control the cells
algorithm according to their priority classes.
It manages the emergent cases, such as

Emergency handover algorithm
TA, BQ, and fast level fall.
It enables cells to share load with each

Load sharing handover algorithm
other.
Handover algorithms based on It helps fast-moving mobile phones to

speed and sensibility perform handover flexibly.
It helps reduce interference and enhance

Interference handover algorithm
voice quality.
It provides mobile phones with better

Edge handover algorithm
levels and service qualities.
PBGT handover algorithm based It supports mobile phones to hand over to

on path loss a better cell.
Co-MSC/BSC handover control

–
algorithms
5.9.5 Dual-Band Networking Engineering Implementation
During network construction and optimization, a dual-band network is debugged

and commissioned step by step, which facilitates debugging the new GSM 1800
MHz networks and the original GSM 900MHz networks that has been expanded
respectively. After each signal network is perfectly adjusted, you must debug
each base station in the dual-band network. And you cannot stop the debugging
until the whole dual-band network is finished.

The construction of a whole dual-band network can be divided into three stages,
namely, deployment preparation, signal 1800 MHz network debugging, and
900/1800 MHz dual-band network debugging.
I. Deployment perparation
The coordination of dual-band technologies and network planning must be

finished in this stage. The coordination of dual-band network technologies is a
prerequisite for the cooperation of different carriers’ networks. Network planning
is the first step in network construction and involves many tasks, including base
station address survey, channel number planning, electromagnetic background
test, coverage test, and so on.
The followings must be emphasized in dual-band cooperation:
 The customers, the third party (the designing institute or the original
equipment supplier), and the new equipment supplier must be cooperate
with each other well.
 If one party meets a tough problem during the debugging of the dual-band
network, the engineers from a third party must be present in site and help
position the problem.
 The 900 MHz BSC and 1800 MHz BSC must synchronize their clocks with
the same source clock. Meanwhile, the clock of each base station in the
existing GSM 900 MHz network can lock the clock of the BSC, and the clock
of the BSC can lock the clock of the MSC.
 When modifying the parameters related to dual-band handover (such as
modifying the parameters at the BSC side or MSC side), you must notify
that to other two parties.
 If the some problems concerning the cooperation of dual-band network
arise, a meeting must be organized, in which each party discuss with each
other on how to solve the problems.
 Both the designing institute or the original equipment supplier and the new
equipment supplier must provide the project implementation plan, cutover
plan, and precise cell information.
II. Signal 1800 MHz network debugging
At this stage, you need not modify any data of the original GSM 900 MHz
network, but it is still the GSM 900MHz network provides services to subscribers.
The GSM 1800MHz network does not absorb traffic.
When debugging the GSM 1800MHz network, you must adjust the following
parameter so that the existing subscribers can be least affected.
In the system message data list, set the parameter “CBA” to “NO” to prevent
general subscribers from selecting and reselecting the 1800 MHz network.

Theoretically, general subscribers can hand over to the 1800 MHz network, but
in fact, the handover relationship is not configured with the dual-band network,
so the general subscribers cannot enter the 1800 MHz network.
After that, you use the testing mobile phone which can access the network by
force to perform dialing test in each cell. If all goes normal, you can test
coverage, handover, power control, interference, downlink and uplink balance,
power adjustment, the coverage of the GSM 900MHz network, and the coverage
of the GSM 1800MHz network.
Through these tests, you can not only discover the problems present in the
networks, but also adjust the channel number, power, tilt angle, and parameter
setting and optimize the parameter configuration for the GSM 1800MHz cell. In
this case, the coverage and operation of the single GSM 1800MHz network can
be ensured.
III. 900/1800 MHz dual-band network debugging
After finishing the single GSM 1800MHz network debugging, you must change
back the parameter “CBA” to “YES” and configure the data for dual-band
handover. The tests involved into the dual-band network debugging include:
 Cell reselection and location update
 Traffic load control
 Continuous conversation mode
 Automatic dialing and scan
 Dual-band network handover
 Calls and handovers initiated on major streets
 Calls and handovers initiated on edge areas
 Dialing tests in poor coverage areas and indoor environment
 Dialing tests in outdoor and indoor environments in key areas
Table 5-2 lists the test items during cell selection and handover
Table 5-2 Test items during cell reselection and handover
Test state Test time
When a mobile phone When the mobile phone performs cell selection
performs cell selection in from a 900MHz cell to an 1800MHz cell.
idle mode (CRO, C1, When the mobile phone performs cell selection
and C2.) from an 1800MHz cell to a 900MHz cell.
When a mobile phone The mobile phone first establishes the conversation
performs handover in in a 900MHz cell, and then hands over to an
conversation state 1800MHz cell.

The mobile phone first establishes the conversation

in an 1800MHz cell, and then hands over to a
900MHz cell.

in a 900MHz cell, and then hands over to an
1800MHz cell, and finally hands over back to a 900
MHz cell controlled by the same MSC.

in an 1800MHz cell, and then hands over to a
900MHz cell, and finally hands over back to an
1800 MHz cell controlled by the same MSC.
At this stage, you must configure the dual-band data for the GSM 900MHz and
1800MHz cells. The data includes neighbor cell relationship, layer and level
setting, handover type, and handover threshold. In this case, when a mobile
phone is in idle mode, it can reselect an 1800MHz cell, the GSM 1800MHz
network can absorb the traffic of dual-band subscribers, and the subscribers can
perform handover between 1800MHz cells and 900MHz cells.
At the beginning, you can control the GSM 1800MHz network to absorb only a
small part of the traffic of subscribers through adjusting the setting of CRO and
handover threshold. When good cell reselection and dual-band handover are
ensured, you can take measures to enable the GSM 1800MHz network to
absorb more traffic, with the prerequisites that no congestion is present among
cells and the network quality is ensured.
At this stage, the following parameters must be configured:
 The parameters related to cell selection and reselection, including CBA,
CBQ, ACCMIN, CRH, and CRO.
 The parameters related to neighbor cell relationship, layer and level setting,
and handover.
The configuration of the previous parameters must be based on the prerequisite
that the cooperation of the GSM 1800MHz cells and GSM 900MHz cells is
normal.
After the GSM 900MHz and 1800MHz dual-band network is enabled, you must
do the followings:
1) Find out the problems present in the network through multiple means, such
as drive test.
2) Adjust and optimize the network according to the problems so that the dual-
band network can run stably.

3) Check if the dual-band network runs stably, analyze all the traffic statistic
data, and check the network operation indexes.
4) Make sure the problems and take effective measures according to the
analysis of the drive test and traffic statistics.
5) Adjust the related parameters and retest the network till the network indexes
meet the design requirements.
Thus, a dual-band network is constructed and optimized according to the three
stages as introduced in this section.
5.10 Design of Indoor Coverage System

5.10.1 Characteristics of Indoor coverage
With the rapid development of economy, hotels, commercial centers, large-scale

flats, underground railways, and underground parking areas are arising by batch.
As a result, mobile stations are more frequently used in indoor environment.
Thus, they require better indoor mobile communication services.
Generally, the following problems are present in indoor mobile communication
systems:
 From the perspective of coverage, the complex indoor structure and the
shielding and absorbing effect of the buildings cause great radio wave
transmission loss. As a result, the signals in some areas may be weak,
especially the signals in the first and second floors in the underground are
quite weak, or even there are dead zones. In this case, mobile stations
cannot necessarily access the network, there is no paging response, or
subscribers are not in service areas.
 From the perspective of network quality, the factors interfering radio
frequencies are probably present in upper floors of high buildings. In this
case, the signals in service areas are not stable, so “ping pong effect” may
occur and conversation quality cannot be ensured.
 From the perspective of network capacity, if mobile stations are frequently
used in buildings, such as large-scale shopping centers, conference halls,
some areas in the network cannot meet the requirements of subscribers. In
this case, congestion may occur on radio channels.
If the indoor coverage is realized by a repeater, an outdoor high-power base
station, or a great-height outdoor antenna, the following problems may arise:
 The penetration loss is great, so the indoor coverage is not satisfying. In this
case, a large number of dead zones are present, so subscribers cannot
keep conversation.

 If a repeater is adopted, the level of original signals must be high. In

addition, the cross-modulation and intra-frequency interference is great, so
the conversation quality is weak and call drop ratio is high.
 The network capacity is limited and the call connected ratio is low.
 The frequency planning is hard to be performed for the network and the
network capacity is hard to be expanded.
 The “detached island effect” is great.
 The value-added services are restricted for group subscribers due to
network quality and capacity.
To enhance the grade of service, we must improve indoor coverage immediately.
When designing an indoor coverage system, we must make the following
considerations:
 A new indoor coverage system cannot affect the existing network.
 Enough capacity of an indoor system must be ensured.
 An indoor system must support new services and functions.
The chapter analyzes the design of indoor coverage system from the following
aspects:
 Indoor Antenna System Design
 Capacity Analysis and Design
 Frequency Planning
 Traffic Control
5.10.2 Indoor Antenna System Design
I. RF design
(1) Link budget

In an indoor coverage system, the link budget formula is as follows:
Pant  MS sens  RF m arg  IFm arg  BL  LNFm arg  L path  G ant
Here,
 Pant = antenna input interface power
 RFmarg = Raleigh fading margin
 IFmarg = access margin (depends on environment)
 LNFmarg = design margin (generally, it is 5 dB)
 BL = body loss (900MHz: 5 dB; 1800/1900MHz: 3 dB)
 MSsens = mobile station sensitivity
 Lpath = path loss
Here, Lpath = 20logd (m) + 30logf (MHz) - 28 dB + α. When there no barrier loss,
Lp = 20logd (m) + 30logf (MHz) - 28 dB. The “α” indicates the loss caused by othe
r bariers.

Table 5-1 lists the penetration loss caused by some typical barriers.
Table 5-1 Penetration loss caused by some typical barriers
Barrier Penetration loss (dB)
Partition wall 5–20 dB
Floor > 20 dB
Furniture 2–15 dB
Thick glass 6–10 dB
Train carriage 15–30 dB
Elevator Around 30 dB
Tunnel curve 10–40 dB/km (for the signals from fixed sigal sources)
Rectangle tunnel 10–15 dB/km
Cylindrical tunnel 35–40 dB/km
Note:
Because the penetration in cylindrical tunnels is great, leaky cables are applied
in cylindrical tunnels.
When performing link budget, you must consider the followings:

 In an indoor multi-antenna system, the link budget for test points must be in
accordance with the link with the minimum loss.
 Under the same converge area, the EIRP at each antenna interface must be
consistent, and the error must be controlled within 10 dB.
 The uplink signal must be designed to a high value, so antenna diversity is
unnecessary.
 To reduce uplink interference, you must properly set the maximum transit
power of the mobile station and enable the power control function of the
mobile station.
 A certain margin must be leaved for error correction and future system
expansion.
 The estimation and design for interference margin vary with the distance
from the outer wall. The smaller the distance, the larger the interference
margin is designed.
(2) Service quality design (interference degree)
Table 5-2 describes the interference degrees of indoor cells in different
situations.

Table 5-2 Interference degree of indoor cells
Situations Interference degree
 The indoor cell and the surrounded buildings are

of the same height, and frequency reuse degree
is greater than 12.
 The outdoor coverage system has little effect on Little interference
the indoor cells.
 The indoor system has dedicated frequencies
and frequency reuse seldom exists.
The situation and frequency reuse are intervenient

General interference
between the two.
 The buildings within the indoor cell are higher

than surrounded buildings. Great interference
 The frequency reuse degree is smaller than 9.
Note:
The actual interference level changes with network layout and frequency re-
planning, and it can be tested according to actual situations.
(3) Service quality design (interference margin design)

The greater the interference in an area, the greater the interference margin
(IFmarg) is designed, and the higher the level the mobile station needs to receive,
as listed in Table 5-3.
Table 5-3 Relationship between interference and mobile station receiving level
Actual level interference degree Mobile station receiving level (dBm)
Great -65
General -75
Little -85
Note:
When a dual-band system is adopted in the indoor environment, the indexes of
mobile station receiving level are designed according to the 1800 MHz system
standard.

II. Antenna system design
When designing an indoor distribution system, you must first survey the building
type, structure, interference environment, customers, and then analyze the path
loss. Finally, decide the antenna type, number, and installation location
according to the requirements of an area.
This section introduces the antenna design guidelines in some typical cases.
(1) Single cell
If the indoor coverage is realized by a signal cell, each antenna must be
designed to ensure that signals are evenly distributed in the coverage area.
Generally, it is recommended to install the antenna in a zigzag way, as shown in
Figure 5-2.
Figure 5-2 Antenna design guideline in signal cell
(2) Multi-cells
If the indoor coverage is realized by multiple cells, a certain distance must be
leaved between intra-frequency reuse cells. Each antenna must also be
designed to ensure that signals are evenly distributed in the coverage area of
each cell. If the frequencies are reused frequently, it is recommended to install
the antennas on different layers at the same position of the layer, as shown in
Figure 5-3.

Figure 5-3 Antenna design guidelines in multi-cells
(3) Closed building

A closed building has the characteristics, such as thick outer wall, great signal
attenuation, and little leakage. In addition, it is little affected by outdoor intra-
frequency cells. Therefore, the frequency between floors is easily to be planned.
For the antenna design guideline in a closed environment, see Figure 5-4.
Figure 5-4 Antenna design guideline in closed environment
(4) Half-open environment

For a half-open building, the outer wall is made of glasses, so the signal
attenuation is small. Within the building are the open conference halls, which are
greatly affected by outdoor intra-frequency cells, so you must plan dedicated
frequencies or adopt the multi-antenna system with low output power to limit the
edges of the indoor cells within the building, as shown in Figure 5-5.
Figure 5-5 Antenna design guideline in half-closed environment
(5) Frame-structure building

For a frame-structure building, the number of internal walls is large and they are
thick. Therefore, if the antenna is installed at the corridors, the antenna output
power must be high so that good coverage can be ensured. In this case, signals
will leak at the windows near the corridor, so you must plan dedicated
frequencies for the building. The distance of the intra-frequency cells between
floors is larger than that in other environments. For the antenna design guideline
in frame-structure building, see Figure 5-6.

Figure 5-6 Antenna design guideline in frame-structure building
(6) Office building

The indoor environment of office buildings requires high grade of services, so its
coverage is realized by several directional and omni antennas. You can control
the coverage area easily through properly designing the effective radiation power
in the cell. For design guideline, see Figure 5-7.
Figure 5-7 Antenna design guideline in office building
(7) Parking area

Parking area has no special requirement on capacity and mobile station
receiving level (-90 dBm). For a parking area, the elevator, escalator, entrance
and exit are key coverage areas, as shown in Figure 5-8.

Figure 5-8 Antenna design guideline in parking area
(8) Supermarket
Supermarkets have certain requirements on coverage and capacity. The
antennas can be designed according to actual structure of the buildings. For the
antenna design guideline, see Figure 5-9.
Figure 5-9 Antenna design guideline in supermarket
III. Survey
The antenna design and installation is finally decided according to the survey,
which includes the following aspects:
 Detailed coverage area and signal quality and converge requirements
 Distribution of the signals in coverage areas
 Composition of buildings in coverage areas
 Signal access location and mode
 Installation position

According to the survey, you must output the final topological structure diagram,
antenna cabling scheme, and list of materials. Generally, the omni antenna is
installed at the ceiling center. The small directional antenna is hung on the inner
side of the outer wall, with the radiation directed to indoor part. In this case, the
effect of the antenna against the outdoor system can be reduced to the
minimum, so the C/I requirement of the outdoor system can be met.
If possible, you can test the coverage and adjust the antenna design according
to the test result, or re-plan the frequency to ensure the voice quality. Generally,
if the radiation power at the antenna interface is 10 dBm, the 2 dBi small indoor
omni antenna is used. In this case, if the walls are densely distributed in the
areas within 30 meters from the antenna, the coverage level can reach -70 dBm.
5.10.3 Capacity Analysis and Design
Before analyzing the capacity, you must define the type of the indoor service
area. For details, see Table 5-1.
Table 5-1 Definition of indoor service area type
Indoor
service area Characteristic Example
type
 The traffic is hard to be predicted.

 The population number varies with day
and night.
 The capacity characteristics, such as Airport, shopping
Public
uneven distribution and bursting must center, and play
service area
be considered. ground.
 The grade of service and the traffic of

each subscriber are similar to that for
outdoor cells.
 The existed fixed networks are

frequently used.
 The traffic is relatively fixed and easy to Office building
Commercial be calculated. and commercial
service area  High service quality is required. hotels of high
ranks.
 Generally, the grade of service (GoS) is
1%, the traffic of each subscriber can
reach 0.1 Erl.

For the cell organization mode of distributed antenna system, see Figure 5-10.
Figure 5-10 Cell organization mode of distributed antenna system
As shown in Figure 5-10, there are two cell organization modes of distributed
antenna system, namely, single cell and multiple vertical split cells. The single
cell is applied to the indoor environment which requires smell coverage area.
The multiple vertical split cells are applied to the indoor environment with dense
traffic.
Likewise, a single cell will split when the capacity does not meet the requirement,
with vertical splitting the splitting mode. Generally, a cell will vertically split into at
least three cells so that frequency reuse can be ensured. Four layers must be
present between two intra-frequency cells, as shown in Figure 5-11. To avoid
interference between frequencies, you must take measures to prevent a cell from
horizontally splitting.
Figure 5-11 Vertical cell splitting

5.10.4 Frequency Planning
If the dedicated frequency is adopted in indoors, the frequency planning is

relatively simple. Generally, the frequency reuse mode in business service areas
is almost the same as that in pubic service areas. If the frequency resource is
adequate, you must try best to use dedicated band for indoor coverage. If not,
you can search the available channel numbers with relatively small interference
through scanning the channel numbers. If the frequency resources of the 900
MHz cannot meet requirements, you can introduce the 1800 MHz frequency;
namely, use a dual-band system.
If you steal frequency resource for indoor system due to no available dedicated
frequency, you must pay attention to the followings:
 Do not select the frequencies of the neighbor cells.
 Ensure that the BCCH frequencies are not interfered.
 The interference on the TCH frequencies can be reduced with the help of
radio frequency hopping.
 Search the available uplink frequencies through using BTS equipments to
scanning the uplink channel numbers.
 Search the available downlink frequencies through using drive test
equipment to scanning the downlink channel numbers.
 If the hierarchical cell structure is not used, the cell with the strongest signal
level is the service cell, and the interference from neighbor frequencies can
be neglected.
 If the hierarchical cell structure is used, the cell with the strongest signal
level cannot necessarily be the service cell, so you must take measures to
reduce the interference from neighbor frequencies.
Because the environment is urban areas is quite complicated, especially the
effect of the antenna back lobe is present, the service areas for high buildings
are greatly interfered, so you must carefully plan the frequencies for the indoor
coverage of high buildings. Generally, for the lower floors, you can plan the
frequencies according to general method. For the higher floors where the
interference is strong, you can use dedicated channel numbers. However, the
final frequency planning must be based on practical tests.
5.10.5 Traffic Control
The indoor coverage system for high buildings can be taken as a system
independent of outdoor systems if the coverage of the indoor system is good.
Theoretically, you can only consider the cell selection and reselection, handover
relationship, and the compact on outdoor networks at the entrances and exits of
the building.

However, the actual conditions are quite complicated. For example, the signals
outside of the building may be strong. In this case, if a mobile station is powered
off, it may camp on an outside cell. Therefore, when optimizing the network, you
must set the one-way adjacent cell and two-way adjacent cell according to actual
conditions and set the parameters, such as CRO and TO to a proper value
according to the regularity of cell selection and reselection. In addition, you can
set the indoor cells to a high priority so as to reserve more traffic. And the inter-
layer handover threshold and hysteresis are defined and adjusted according to
actual conditions.
5.11 Tunnel Coverage

5.11.1 Characteristic of Tunnel Coverage
At present, most of the tunnels are dead zones, so you must make out special
solutions for tunnel coverage. The tunnel types include railway tunnel, highroad
tunnel, and underground railway tunnel. Each tunnel has its characteristics, and
they are specified as follows.
For the highroad tunnel, it is wide. The coverage in the highroad tunnels is
relatively stable. When there are vehicles passing by, you can select the
antennas with a larger size to obtain a higher gain, so the coverage distance is
larger.
For the railway tunnel, it is narrow, especially when there is a train passing by;
only a little room is left in the tunnel, so the radio propagation is greatly affected.
Moreover, the train has great effect on radio signals. Since the antenna
installation room is quite limited, the antenna size and gain are greatly restricted.
In addition, because general cars cannot be driven to such tunnels, the tunnel
coverage is hard to be tested. Therefore, the planning for highroad coverage is
different from that of the railway coverage.
The length of tunnels ranges from several hundred meters to several kilometers.
For short tunnels, you can adopt flexible and economical means to realize the
coverage. For example, you can install a general antenna near one end of the
tunnel, with the radiation directed to the inside. For long tunnels, however, you
must adopt other means. Actually, the coverage solution varies with tunnels, so it
is designed according to actual conditions.
Figure 5-12 and Figure 5-13 show the cross section of the single-track railway
tunnel and multi-track railway tunnel. The smaller the area of the cross section,
the greater the loss when a train passes through the tunnel. The related
calculation and analysis are based on the multi-track railway tunnels and
highroad tunnels. For the calculation and analysis for single-track tunnels, the
protection margin can be 5 dB greater than that of multi-track railway tunnels.

Figure 5-12 Cross section of single-track railway
Figure 5-13 Cross section of multi-track railways
Before planning tunnel coverage, you must prepare for the following data:
 Length of the tunnel
 Width of the tunnel
 Number of tunnel holes (1 or 2)
 Needed coverage probability (50%, 90%, 98% or 99%)
 Structure of the tunnel (it is constructed with metals or concretes)
 Number of needed carriers (1–30)
 Minimum receiving level in the tunnel (generally, it ranges from -85 dBm to -
102 dBm)
 Distance between tunnel holes
 Whether AC/DC is available
 Whether the hole can be punched in the tunnel wall
 Signal level at the tunnel entrance
 Existed signal level in the tunnel
5.11.2 Tunnel Coverage Solution
I. Link budget
Indoor radio link loss is mainly decided by path loss medium value and shadow
fading. A tunnel can be taken as a tube. The signals are transmitted through the
reflection of walls and straight transmission, with straight transmission the major

form. ITU-R suggests an indoor propagation model on page 1238, which is also
effective for tunnel coverage. The formula is as follows:
Lpath = 20 lg f + 30 lg d + Lf (n) - 28 dB
Here,
 “f” indicates frequency (MHz)
 “d” indicates distance (m)
 “Lf” indicates penetration loss factors between floors (dB)
 “n” indicates the number of floors lying between the mobile station and
antenna.
The Lf (n) can be neglected in tunnel coverage, so the following equation can be
applied in the calculation of the radio propagation in tunnels. That is:
Lpath = 20 lgf + 30 lg d - 28 dB
Table 5-1 lists the path loss in different tunnels.
Table 5-1 Path loss in different tunnels
Distance (m) GSM 900MHz (dB) GSM 1800MHz (dB)
50 82.0 88.1
100 91.0 97.0
150 86.3 102.1
200 100.1 106.1
300 105.3 111.4
II. GSM signal source selection
A GSM signal source and a set of distributed antenna system are a must for
tunnel coverage. For tunnel coverage, the GSM signal source is selected
according to the radio coverage, transmission, traffic, and the existing network
equipments near the tunnel. A macro cell base station, a micro cell base station,
or a repeater can work as a GSM signal source for the tunnel coverage.
For the coverage of railway tunnels and highroad tunnels, the indoor macro cell
base station is seldom used as signal source, but it can be used for an
underground railway which requires the coverage of platforms and entrances. In
this case, the capacity of the signal source must be great. In most cases,
however, the tunnel coverage is realized by micro cell signals.
For the areas to be covered, if the nearby network capacity is adequate, the
capacity expansion is unnecessary. And if there are good GSM signals available,

namely, the donor signal level meets the requirements of a repeater (for
example, -70 dBm); a repeater can work as the signal source for the tunnel
coverage. With the increase of traffic, however, you must use GSM base stations
to replace the repeaters.
Adequate isolation must left between donor antenna and retransmission
antenna, though it will cause difficulty in antenna installation. Generally, the log-
periodical antenna with great front-to-back ratio is used as the retransmission
antenna.
The general antenna (wireless repeater), coaxial cable, and optical fiber (optical
repeater) can connect a repeater to a donor cell.
For tunnel coverage, the installation space and auxiliary equipments are quite
limited, so micro cell base stations and repeaters instead of macro cell base
stations are often applied in tunnel coverage.
In mountain areas, repeaters are more likely used because strong signal level
often exists at the mountain tops near the tunnel. In this case, the antenna
isolation requirement can be easily met. If the signal level of the existed network
near the tunnel is not strong enough, you can use a micro cell for the tunnel
coverage.
III. Antenna feeder system selection
After deciding the GSM signal source, you must configure the antenna feeder
system for the tunnel coverage according to actual conditions. Three types of
configuration are available, namely, coaxial feeder passive distributed antenna,
optical fiber feeder active distributed antenna, and leaky cable. Hereunder
introduces the tunnel coverage based on coaxial feeder passive distributed
antenna and leaky cable.
5.11.3 Tunnel Coverage Based on Coaxial distributed antenna system
In a coaxial distributed antenna system, the following RF components are used:

 Feeder (3/8", 1/2", or 7/8") and jumper
 Power splitter
 Power splitter
 Antenna
This section introduces three tunnel coverage solutions based on the coaxial
distributed antenna system.
I. Solution 1
Figure 5-14 shows the tunnel coverage solution based on the bi-directional
passive distributed antenna system.

Figure 5-14 Tunnel coverage solution based on bi-directional passive distributed

antenna system
According to this solution, if the needed minimum signal level is -85dBm (the
location probability is 50%), you must add a margin of 8 dB if the want to
enhance the location probability to 90%.
If the gain of the bi-directional antenna is 5 dBi, the loss of the equal probability
power splitter and the jumper is 2 dB, and the feeder with the specification of
7/8" is used, the path loss in 100 meters is 4 dB and the output power of the
equipment is 39 dBm.
Suppose that the level of the signals transmitted by the first bi-directional
antenna is -85 dBm at the tunnel entrance, you can calculate the distance
between the antenna and the tunnel entrance using the following equation:
Pout- Lpath (d) – Lcable (d) – Ljumper + Gant = -85dBm + 8dB90%_loc.Prob
Here,
 Pout indicates the output power (39dBm).
 Lpath (d) indicates the path loss from the first bi-directional antenna to the
tunnel entrance.
 Lcable (d) indicates the cable loss.
 Ljumper indicates the jumper loss (2 × 2 dB).
 Gant indicates the antenna gain (5 dBi).
If introducing the previous data to the equation, you can obtain the sum of the
Lpath (d) and Lcable (d), that is, 117 dB.
For the relationship between distance “d” and Lpath (d) and Lcable (d), see
Figure 5-15, in which the curve indicates Lpath (d) and the slant line indicates
Lcable (d).

Figure 5-15 Relationship of path loss and 7/8” cable loss
According to Figure 5-15, you can obtain that d = 301m through estimation.
If a power splitter is adopted for the first antenna, a loss of 3dB must be added.
In this case, the sum of Lpath (d) and Lcable (d) is 114 dB.
According to Figure 5-15, you can also obtain that d = 261m through estimation.
For railway tunnels, train filling will affect signal propagation, so a protection
margin of 5dB must be considered when the antenna is installed in the tunnel. In
this case, d = 240m. That is, if a bi-directional antenna is installed in the tunnel, it
can coverage a distance of 480m.
If a power splitter is adopted for the second antenna, the coverage distance
between the first antenna and the second antenna will be shortened unless an
amplifier is used.
The followings analyze the coverage when no amplifier is adopted for the second
antenna.
The total power output by the first power splitter (it is installed at the first
antenna) Pout1 is expressed as follows:
Pout1 = Pout – Lcable (d) - Ljumper - Lsplitter = 39dBm –Lcable (261m) - 2dB -
3dB= 23.56 dBm. (The cable loss in 261m is about 10.44 dB, jumper loss is 2
dB, and the power splitter intersection loss is 3dB).
Suppose the overlapping level between the two antennas is -85 dBm, the
distance between the second antenna and the first antenna is: d2 = d + x. Here,
“d” indicates the coverage distance of the first antenna (261m), and “x” indicates
the coverage distance of the second antenna in the single direction.
According to the previous analysis, the following two equations can be obtained:

 Pout1 – Lcable (261m) – Lcable (x) – Ljumper + Gant – Lpath (x) = - 85dBm
+ 8dB90%_loc.Prob
 Lpath (x) + Lcable (x) = 108.56dB
Plus the two equations, you can obtain the value of x, that is, 100m. This means
that when no amplifier is adopted, two antennas can coverage a tunnel distance
of 722m, namely, 2*(261 + 100) m = 722m.
If you adopt cascaded antennas, the transmit power is relative low due to the
coaxial cable loss. In this case, you can use the amplifier to amplify the power.
II. Solution 2
If a tunnel is not long, you can adopt a simpler coverage mode, as shown in
Figure 5-16.
Figure 5-16 Tunnel coverage solution based on a single antenna
According to this solution, a directional antenna is installed at the tunnel

entrance, with the radiation directed to the inside. The following analyze this
coverage solution.
In this solution, Pout = 39 dBm (suppose that the output power of the GSM
signal source is 8W).
If the Lpath (d) indicates propagation loss, the sum of Lcable (d) and Ljumper is
5dB, the antenna gain Gant is 8 dBi, and the needed received level is -77dBm,
the Lpath (d) is expressed as follows:
Lpath (d) = 39dBm - 5dB + 8dBi – (-77dBm) = 119 dB
According to the equation Lpath (d) = 20 lg10f + 30 lg10d - 28 dB, the value of
“d” can be obtained, that is, 858m.
The previous analysis is applicable to highroad tunnels. For railway tunnels, you
can consider a margin of 10 dB due to the effect of train filling, but the coverage
distance of the antenna in railway tunnels is calculated the same as that in
highroad tunnels. According to the calculation, d = 398m.

5.11.4 Tunnel Coverage Based on Leaky Cable System
If adopting leaky cables to realize the tunnel coverage, you must find the
specifications of the leaky cables and complete the leaky cable design according
to the following steps:
6) Decide coverage factor
7) Calculate the gain of the bi-directional amplifier
8) Estimate the length of the leaky cable between the feeder source and the
first amplifier
9) Estimate the length of the leaky cable between the amplifiers
10) Decide the number of needed amplifiers
The followings describe these steps in details.
I. Decide coverage factor
The following information is needed for deciding the coverage factor:

 Coupler loss
 Number of carriers
 Coverage probability
Coverage factor indicates the loss in the areas 2 meters beyond the leaky cable
(along the vertical direction). This loss includes the coupler loss of the leaky
cable and protection margin required by the coverage probability. If 90% of
coverage probability is required, you must add 8dB to the medium level. Some
leaky cables specify the relationship between the coverage probability and
coupler loss.
The coverage factor is determined by the parameters, such as coupler loss, RF
carrier number, coverage probability, and tunnel type. For the decision of
coverage factor in concreter tunnels, see Figure 5-1. For the decision of
coverage factor in metal tunnels, see Figure 5-2. When deciding the coverage
factor, you can fix a point in the graph and mark a horizontal line through this
point, and this line intersects required coverage probability. This intersection
point is the coverage factor.

Figure 5-1 Coverage factor in concrete tunnels
Figure 5-2 Coverage factor in metal tunnels
For example, if the leaky cable with a coupler loss of 71 (900 MHz) is used, the
RF carrier number is 18, and the coverage probability is 90, the coverage factor
in a concrete tunnel is -77 according to Figure 5-1.
II. Decide cable length between GSM signal source and the first amplifier
Before deciding cable length between GSM source and the first amplifier, you
must obtain the following information:
 Transmit power of the signal source (dBm)

 Jumper loss: 1 dB
 Connector loss: 1 dB
 Leaky cable loss: 2 dB
 Transmit power at the feeder source (dBm)
When calculating the power at a point of the feeder, you must subtract the feeder
propagation loss from the GSM signal source. If a wireless repeater with an
output power of 18 dBm (18 carriers) is used as the GSM signal source, and the
attenuation from the jumper to feeder, and from the feeder to the leaky cable is 7
dB (That is, the power from the repeater is transmitted from a jumper to a feeder,
and then from the jumper to a leaky cable, so four connectors are needed.
Generally, the attenuation is 2 dB for each jumper, 1 dB for each feeder, and 0.5
dB for each connector, so the total attenuation is 7 dB.), the transmit power at
this point is 11 dB. For the connection of leaky cable, see Figure 5-3.
Figure 5-3 Connection scheme of leaky cable
Suppose the needed signal level in a tunnel is -85 dBm, the signal level at the
first amplifier must be equal to or greater than -85 dBm. The coupler loss and
longitudinal propagation loss of the leaky cable are present between the signal
feeder point and the first amplifier. They are calculated according to the following
equation:
LossLong = 11dBm – (-85dBm) + Losscoup. Here, Losscoup indicates the coverage
factor, and it is -77dB when 90% coverage is ensured. Therefore, the LossLong is
19 dB (that is, 11dBm + 85dBm -77dB = 19dB).
The cable length between the signal feeder source and the first amplifier can be
obtained according to Figure 5-4 and Figure 5-5. For example, suppose that the

attenuation is 4.3dB/100 for the leaky cable, you can mark a plumb line at the
point indicating 4.3dB. This plumb line will intersect the curve indicating 19 dB at
a point, and then you mark a horizontal line starting from this point. The
horizontal line will intersect the right vertical axis at a point. And this point shows
the cable length. According to this example, the distance between the signal
source and the first amplifier is 440m (that is, 19/4.3 = 440m).
Figure 5-4 Cable length between amplifiers in metal tunnels
Figure 5-5 Cable length between amplifiers in concrete cables
According to the previous figures, the left vertical axis indicates “Required
RADIAMP Gain”, which can be replaced by the radial loss of the leaky cable, but
it makes no difference.

III. Needed amplifier gain
Before calculating the maximum amplifier gain, you must collect the following
information:
 The minimum acceptable signal level (dBm)
 Coverage factor (dB)
 The maximum output loss allowed by a single carrier (dBm)
If the amplifier is not added, the signal level output by the leaky cable for the
longest transmission distance is equal to the difference of the minimum
acceptable signal level and the coverage factor.
The signal level at the leaky cable beyond the longest transmission distance may
be lower the minimum acceptable level, so an amplifier must be added to amplify
the signals to the maximum output power allowed by a single carrier. The
amplification of this power is related to the specifications of the amplifier and the
number of carriers. If the maximum output power allowed by a single carrier is
known, the amplifier gain can be calculated as follows:
Needed amplifier gain = the maximum output power allowed by a single carrier
(it depends on the number of carriers) – (the minimum acceptable signal level –
coverage factor)
Along the leaky cable, the maximum output power allowed by each carrier of a
bi-directional amplifier is related to the number of carriers that have been
amplified. This is considered mainly for the intermodulation interference is
present, because the intermodulation interference will increase with the total
number of carriers that have been amplified, as shown in Figure 5-6.
Figure 5-6 Relationship between the maximum output power allowed by a single
carrier and the number of carriers that have been amplified

Needed amplifier gain = the minimum acceptable signal level – coverage factor +
the maximum output power allowed by a single carrier.
According to the previous equation, if the minimum acceptable signal level is -85
dBm, the coverage factor is -77, and the maximum output power allowed by a
single carrier is 5 dBm, the needed amplifier gain is 13 dB.
IV. Decide cable length between amplifiers
Before deciding the cable length between amplifiers, you must know the needed
amplifier gain and the cable loss (dB/100m). Figure 5-4 and Figure 5-5 help you
decide the cable length between amplifiers. For example, in a concrete tunnel, if
the amplifier gain is 13 dB and the cable attenuation is 4.3dB/100m, the cable
length between two amplifiers is 300m.
V. Decide the number of needed amplifiers
Before deciding the number of needed amplifiers, you must know the following
information:
 The cable length between the feeder source and the first amplifier
 The cable length between amplifiers
 The tunnel length
If the previous information is known, the following formula can be used to
calculate the number of needed amplifiers. That is:
The number of amplifiers ≥ (the tunnel length – the cable length between the
feeder source and the first amplifier)/(the cable length between amplifiers),
rounding up to the nearest integer.
According to the formula, if the tunnel length is 1000m, the cable length between
amplifiers is 300m, and the cable length between the feeder source and the first
amplifier is 420m, 2 amplifies are needed. That is, (1000 – 420)/300 = 1.93, so
the nearest integer is 2.
After deciding the number of needed amplifiers, you can optimize the distance
between amplifiers. That is, you can obtain the distance between the two
amplifiers by dividing the remaining distance by the number of needed amplifier.
According to the previous example, it is 580/2 = 290m, namely, the distance
between the two amplifiers is 290m, as shown in Figure 5-7.
Figure 5-7 Distance between amplifiers

VI. Remarks on leaky cable installation
The leaky cable must not touch any metal. Generally, a leaky cable must be
installed at a spot 5m away from concrete walls and at least 10m away from
metal walls. In addition, a leaky cable must be installed near to the coverage
area. You cannot necessarily consider the line-of-sight propagation, because the
signals leaking from the cable will fill the space nearby.
5.11.5 Coverage Solutions to Tunnels in Different Length
This section introduces the coverage solutions to tunnels in different length. In

actual networking, the following coverage solutions may be used:
 Micro base station (or repeater) + a single antenna
 Micro base station (or repeater) + distributed antenna system
 Micro base station (or repeater) + leaky cable
Before deciding which coverage solution should be adopted, you must consider
the followings:
 Is the GSM signal near the tunnel entrance strong enough?
 Is there any available transmission link near the tunnel?
Generally, if the existed signal level near the tunnel entrance (including nearby
mountains) is lower than -80 dBm, the micro base station is recommended. If it is
greater than -80 dBm, the micro base station or the repeater is recommended. If
problems concerning transmission are present, the repeater is recommended.
When using the repeater, you must consider that certain isolation is required
between repeaters.
I. Coverage solution to short tunnels
Generally, the tunnels shorter than 100m are defined as short tunnels. When
planning the coverage for these tunnels, you must consider the coverage areas
near the tunnels. If several tunnels are close to each other, you can install a base
station or a repeater between the tunnels. If adopting a micro base station, you
must adopt the bi-directional antenna. If the antenna gain is 5 dBi, you should
install the antenna at the tunnel entrance so as to ensure coverage.
When designing tunnel coverage solutions, you must fully consider that fact that
cars and trains move at a high speed, so how to ensure normal handover after
the cars or trains steering into the tunnels is of vital importance.
If the repeater is used as the GSM signal source and the signals outside the
tunnel and the signals within the tunnel belong to the same cell, no handover
problem will occur. If the micro cell is used as the GSM signal source and the
signals outside the tunnels and the signals within the tunnel belong to different
cells, the signals in the outside cell will drop dramatically when the train steers

into the tunnel. In this case, handover failure may occur and call drop will be
resulted in.
To solve this problem, you can consider adopting the following methods:
 Adopt the bi-directional antenna for the tunnel coverage, because it can
provide enough overlapping area for handover.
 Enable special handover algorithms, such as fast level fall handover
algorithm. In this case, a mobile station can hand over to another cell when
the signal level falls fast.
 Select the directional antenna with small front-to-back ratio.
II. Coverage solution to middle-length tunnels
This section introduces several typical coverage solutions to railway tunnels.

The followings are a series of assumptions:
 The Huawei BTS3001C (the maximum output power is 8W) is used as the
GSM signal source.
 The repeater with 1 amplified carrier and a maximum output power of 2W is
considered.
 The lowest receiving level is designed to -85 dBm, and the coverage
probability is 90% (with a protection margin of 8 dB).
 For railway tunnel coverage, because the train will affect signal
transmission, if the antenna is installed at the tunnel entrance, the protection
margin must be increased by 10 dB. If the antenna is installed in the tunnel,
the protection margin must be increased by 5dB.
 The dedicated directional antenna with the specification of DB771S50NSY,
the horizontal half power angle of 60°, and the antenna gain of 8 dBi is used
at the tunnel entrance.
 The bi-directional antenna with the specification of K738446 and antenna
gain of 5 dBi is used within the tunnel.
According to these assumptions, if a micro base station (39 dBm) is used as the
GSM signal source, the coverage distance is 400m when the antenna with a gain
of 8 dBi is installed at the tunnel entrance, and the coverage distance is 480m
when the bi-directional antenna with a gain of 5 dBi is installed in the tunnel.
If a repeater (33 dBm) is used as the GSM signal source, the coverage distance
is 250m when the antenna with a gain of 8 dBi is installed at the tunnel entrance,
and the coverage distance is 360m when the bi-directional antenna with a gain of
5 dBi is installed in the tunnel.
Therefore, for the tunnels shorter than 500m, you can use the combination of a
micro base station and a single antenna (or a repeater) for the tunnel coverage.
For curve tunnels, you can install a bi-directional antaean in the tunnel.

According to on-site survey on the cross-section, the available antenna size, and
the tunnel length, you can use the antenna with a higher gain to coverage the
tunnels a little longer than 500m.
III. Coverage solution to long tunnels
For the tunnels longer than 500m, you need to use the distributed antenna
system or the leaky cable for the coverage. The followings introduce the
coverage realized by the combination of a micro base station and a leaky cable
(or a repeater).
 The Huawei BTS3001C (the maximum output power is 8W) is used as the
GSM signal source.
 The repeater with 1 amplified carrier and a maximum output power of 2W is
considered.
 The lowest receiving level is designed to -85 dBm, and the coverage
probability is 90% (with a protection margin of 8 dB).
 The leaky cable with the specification of SLWY-50-22 and the radial loss of
5dB/100 m is used.
 The coupler loss may be 77 dB when the 90% of signals are received.
According to these assumptions, if a micro base station (39 dBm) is used as the
GSM signal source, the coverage distance is 800m when only the leaky cable
but no amplifier is used. If a repeater (33 dBm) is used as the GSM signal
source, the coverage distance is 680m when only the leaky cable but no
amplifier is used. The coverage distance will be larger if leaky cables with
smaller loss are used.
For the coverage of still longer tunnels, you must use amplifiers to amplify
signals. That is, you can use either the distributed antenna system or the leaky
cable for the coverage solution. In terms of technical indexes and installation
space, coverage solution based on leaky cable is recommended. In terms of
cost, you must select a suitable coverage solution base on actual conditions.
5.12 Repeater Planning

5.12.1 Application Background
With rapid development of mobile communication networks, people have higher

requirements on service quality. They hope to enjoy mobile services anywhere
and anytime. As for telecommunication carriers, they cannot enable a base
station in some dead zones due to the reasons such as cost and transmission
conditions. In this case, a repeater can provide an auxiliary and economical
means to coverage the dead zones.

I. Repeater types
For the division of repeater types, see Table 5-1.

Table 5-1 Division of repeater types
Division
Type Remark
standard
A wireless repeater adopts a set of donor

antenna to receive the signals from the base
station. After amplifying the signals, it adopts
Wireless repeater a set of retransmission antenna to forward the
signals in another direction. Generally, a
Transmission wireless repeater has only one receiving path,
mode so the diversity antenna is unnecessary.
An optical repeater transmits signals using

optical fibers, so the repeater side and base
Optical repeater
station side must have the optical
transmission capability.
Bandwidth selection A bandwidth selection repeater is also called

repeater wideband repeater, and it can select a
frequency (for example, the frequency with a
bandwidth of 6M, 19M, or 25M) and amplify it.
Channel
bandwidth A channel selection repeater is also called
narrow band repeater or frequency selection
Channel selection
repeater. It amplifies the selected channel
repeater
numbers only. It is a narrow band repeater
and amplifies a limited channel numbers.
A solar energy repeater is of the wideband

Solar energy
New style type. It is similar to a general wideband
repeater
repeater except that its power is solar energy.
Wireless frequency
selection repeater
Optical frequency
Product type
selection repeater Currently, the types of the repeaters listed in
Wireless wideband the left column are in commercial use.
repeater
Optical wideband
repeater

II. Comparison between repeater and micro cell
For the comparison between the repeater and micro cell, see Table 5-2.
Table 5-2 Comparison between repeater and micro cell
Micro cell Repeater
A repeater is installed in a flexible way

Many equipments and a long period
and the base station equipments and
are needed for constructing a micro
transmission equipments are
cell.
unnecessary.
A repeater can absorb traffic. When a

A micro cell can expand the system cell is idle, it brings the traffic to this
capacity. When the cells near a base cell, thus enhancing the utilization
station are busy, a micro cell can be ratio of the equipments. A repeater
used to ease the congestion. does not expand the capacity for a
system.
The system needs to allocate channel The system does not need to allocate
numbers to a micro cell, but this is channel numbers to a repeater, but it
hard to be realized in the areas where must prevent the repeater from
the frequency resource is scarce. interfering with other cells.
Note:
The filter of an intra-frequency repeater will produce a delay of about 5μs.
Theoretically, the maximum effective coverage distance of a GSM cell will be
smaller than 35km in this case.
A GSM system must enable the dynamic power control function, which is
transparent to a repeater. Generally, you must adopt the automatic level control
technologies (ALC) for a repeater.
 Note:
When the ALC technology is applied to a repeater, if a mobile station is too near
to the repeater, the repeater will reduce the gains for all the mobile stations
within its service area. In this case, the conversation quality of some mobile
stations will become poor, or even call drop may occur; especially the mobile
stations far away from the repeater are greatly affected.

III. Application characteristics
Repeaters are mainly used to cover the dead zones in vast open land, and they
are the extension of the base stations. A repeater improves the coverage but
does add up to the traffic capacity of a network. However, because it enlarges
the coverage of the base station, the total traffic volume increases.
A wireless repeater applies the radio transmission mode, with short construction
period and effective cost. An optical repeater adopts optical fiber as transmission
medium, so the transmission loss is small and transmission distance is large, but
construction cost is greater than that of the wireless repeater.
The application advantage of the wireless repeater lies in low transmission
requirement. If you plant the optical fiber, there is no price advantage against the
construction of a micro cell base station. In this case, considering the network
quality, you are recommended to select the micro cell base station.
Compared with wideband repeater, a narrow band repeater has better
performance and provides better signal quality. However, the following problems
are still present in application:
 The carriers of a narrow band repeater must outnumber the carriers
configured for the source base station; otherwise the repeater cannot
capture a channel.
 The number of paths of many repeaters is set to 4, so the base stations
outnumber 4 carriers cannot work as the signal source.
 For the base stations with radio frequency and frequency hopping, if the
frequencies in the frequency hopping set outnumber the paths selected by
the repeater, the conversation cannot be maintained.
 When the channel number of the donor cell of the repeater changes, you
must adjust the channel number, otherwise the problems such as channel
assignment failure, call drop, and interference will occur.
The wideband repeater allows the base station to adopt frequency hopping, and
you do not have to adjust the channel number of the repeater after the channel
number of the donor cell changes if the channel number is within the bandwidth
of the repeater. However, the wideband repeater will amplify all the signals within
the band, so it causes great interference against other cells.
No matter whether the optical fiber or wireless repeater is applied, the sum of the
radius of the service area of the repeater and the distance between the repeater
and base station cannot break the TA limitation. For general base stations, the
distance between a repeater and the base station must be shorter than 35
kilometers.
The optical repeater can be used in the areas where the GSM radio signals
cannot reach and no space is left for a repeater. Because the transmission loss

of optical fiber is small and its bandwidth is wide, the optical repeater is quite
helpful for transmitting RF signals.
Either an omni antenna or a directional antenna can be selected for an optical
repeater according to the actual landforms. For an optical repeater, its
transmission does not have to be isolated from the reception. In addition, the
address of an optical repeater is easy to be decided. Generally, an optical
repeater is applied in the dead zones within countryside, highroads, touring
areas, factories, and urban areas.
In remote mountain areas and along highroads, you can also consider using a
solar energy repeater.
In conclusion, the repeater is used for the following purposes:
 Enlarge coverage area and eliminate dead zones.
 Strength the field strength and enlarge converge of the base stations in
urban areas.
 Ensure the coverage along the highroads and tunnels.
 Realize indoor coverage.
For the application of the wireless repeater and optical repeater, see Figure 5-8
and Figure 5-9.
Figure 5-8 Application of wireless repeater

Figure 5-9 Application of optical repeater
5.12.2 Working Principles of Repeater
I. Wireless frequency selection repeater
Figure 5-10 shows the working principles of a wireless frequency selection

repeater. The repeater receives the RF signals from the selected base station
(donor antenna) and amplifies and forwards the signals. The antenna receiving
the signals from the base station is called donor antenna, the other antenna is
called retransmission antenna.
Figure 5-10 Working principle of wireless frequency selection repeater

According to Figure 5-10, the working principles of a wireless frequency selection

repeater are as follows:
1) The low-noise power amplifier processes the signals (received by the donor
antenna) from downlink carriers.
2) The signals (900 MHz RF signals) are down converted into 71 MHz
intermediate frequency (IF) signals.
3) The IF filter (with a bandwidth of 200 KHz) amplifies the 71 MHz IF signals
and up converts the signals into the 900 MHz RF signals.
4) The retransmission antenna (service antenna) transmits the signals to the
coverage areas.
The uplink signals are also processed according to the previous procedures.
II. Wireless wideband repeater
Figure 5-1 shows the working principles of a wireless wideband repeater.
Figure 5-1 Working principle of wireless wideband repeater
The wireless wideband repeater works as the same way as the wireless
frequency selection repeater except the filter part. The bandwidth of the filter of
the wireless wideband repeater is fixed. Generally, it is 6M, 19M, or 25M.
III. Optical repeater
Figure 5-2 shows the working principles of an optical repeater.

Figure 5-2 Working principle of optical repeater
The difference between the optical frequency selection repeater and the optical
wideband repeater lies in the coverage end. The former adopts the frequency
selection components, but the later adopts the variable bandwidth options.
Compared with the wireless repeater, the optical repeater does require isolation
between donor antenna and retransmission antenna.
5.12.3 Repeater Network Planning
I. Repeater address selection
There is no special requirement on the repeater address selection except the

following items:
 A repeater address must lie between the donor base station and the dead
zone, and the azimuth angle between the donor antenna and the
retransmission antenna cannot be smaller than 90°, as shown in the
following figure.
 If the service antenna is a directional antenna, the repeater must be

installed about 200 to 500 meters beyond the dead zone. If the repeater is
installed within the dead zone, the coverage quality cannot reach the best,
as shown in the following figure.

 When the repeater is used to coverage the dense residential areas at the
edges of the urban area, it cannot face the buildings, because great
penetration loss will be caused. In this case, the repeater must be installed
at the one side of the building, as shown in the following figure.
 The areas to be covered must meet the requirement of line-of-sight

transmission.
 The repeater address must ensure the received signal level required by the
repeater. Generally, the received signal level ranges from -50 dBm to -80
dBm.
 No strong carrier whose channel number is the same as that of the donor
base station is present at near the repeater address.
 The landforms, buildings, or towers where the donor antenna and
retransmission antenna can be installed. (The donor antenna must be
directed to the base station and the retransmission antenna must be
directed to the service area of the repeater. In addition, the isolation
between the two antennas must be greater than 170 dBc.)
II. Antenna selection
When selecting the antenna for a repeater, you must consider the followings:
 Select the proper antenna gain according to the signals and coverage
condition

 Do not adopt the omni antenna because the wireless repeater is affiliated to
the intra-frequency relay system, otherwise the system will perform self-
excitation.
 The communication between the donor antenna and the donor base station
antenna is point-to-point communication, so you must select the antenna
with high gain or narrow horizontal beam width. For example, to reduce
interference, you can select the reflector antenna or the log-periodical
antenna.
 Select retransmission antenna according to the characteristics of a
coverage area. For a large coverage area, you can select the general
directional antenna with high gain. For tunnel coverage, you can select the
Yagi antenna or the spiral antenna. For indoor coverage, you must select
the antenna specially designed for indoor use. No matter in what occasions,
you must control the transmit direction of the retransmission antenna to
prevent the retransmitted signals from feeding in the donor antenna.
 The front-to-back ratio of the antenna must be as great as possible (it is
better to be greater than 30 dB) so that a better isolation between the donor
antenna and retransmission antenna can be ensured.
III. Requirements on antenna isolation
The isolation between repeater antennas depends on the host gain, but the host
gain cannot excel the isolation coefficient for self-excitation. According to the
requirements in GSM protocols 03.30, the isolation must be at least 15 dB
greater than the host gain. In actual project design, you can judge whether the
installation position meets the requirements on antenna isolation according to
on-site measurement.
According to the formulas calculating the antenna horizontal isolation introduced
in II. , the following formula can be deducted:
 AH = 31.6 + 20 lgd – (Gt + Gr) dB (900 MHz)
 AH = 37.6 + 20 lgd – (Gt + Gr) dB (1800 MHz)
Here, “d” indicates the distance between the donor antenna and retransmission
antenna, in the unit of meter. Gt and Gr indicate the antenna gain relative to the
major lobe in the direction of the two antennas. If the two antennas are back-to-
back installed, Gt and Gr indicate the front-to-back ratio of the antenna, as
shown in Figure 5-3.

Figure 5-3 Horizontal isolation of repeater antennas
The formula calculating the vertical isolation of repeater antennas is as follows:

 Av = 47.3 + 40 logd dB (900 MHz)
 Av = 59.3 + 40 logd dB (1800 MHz)
Figure 5-4 shows the vertical isolation.
Figure 5-4 Vertical isolation of repeater antennas
If the horizontal isolation and vertical isolation are present simultaneously, the
total isolation can be calculated by the following formula:
AS = (AV - AH) a/90 + AH, here AV indicates the vertical isolation; AH indicates the
horizontal isolation; and “a” indicates the antenna included angle.
Figure 5-5 shows the combination of vertical isolation and horizontal isolation.

Figure 5-5 Combination of vertical isolation and horizontal isolation
Figure 5-6 shows the antenna isolation when the donor antenna and
retransmission antenna are horizontally installed.
Figure 5-6 Antenna isolation when donor antenna and retransmission antenna
are horizontally installed
As shown in Figure 5-6, the donor antenna and retransmission antenna are
installed on the top of the building. Suppose the host gain is 100 dB, the isolation
between the two antennas can be 120 dB. If the front-to-back ratio of the donor
antenna and the retransmission antenna is 30 dB, when no barriers are present
between the two antennas, the requirement on the isolation can be met.
If the space loss of the signals between the two antennas is 60 dB, the horizontal
isolation distance can be obtained, that is, d = 26m.

During project implementation, you must select the antenna installation position
according to on-site measurement. You can use a signal source and a receiver
for the repeater. If the signal attenuation between the signal source and the
receiver reaches 60 dB, it means that the antenna installation position meets the
requirement on antenna isolation.
When installing the antenna for a repeater, you must pay attention to the
following items:
 If the antennas are horizontally installed, the host of the repeater must be
installed between the donor antenna and the retransmission antenna (it
must be nearer to the donor antenna.)
 A good isolation must be ensured regardless that the antennas are
horizontally or vertically installed. When they are horizontally installed, it is
better that there are some barriers lying between the donor antenna and the
retransmission antenna, because you do not have to particularly design a
large installation space to ensure antenna isolation in this case.
IV. Uplink and downlink balancce calculation
For a GSM repeater, the link balance is realized by four links, namely, the uplink
and downlink between the donor base station and repeater, and the uplink and
downlink between the repeater and mobile station.
This section employs the wireless repeater applied in outdoors as an example to
calculate the link balance. To simplify the calculation, we introduce the effective
donor path loss (EDoPL), which includes all the loss and gain from the output
end of the base station combiner or the input end of the multi-path coupler to the
input end of the repeater, as shown in Figure 5-7.
Figure 5-7 Link balance of repeater
The link balance is calculated according to the following two formulas:

 For downlinks, Pbout - EDoPL + GRD - LRF + GRA - Lpass - Pmn = Pmin.

 For uplinks, Pmout - Lpass + GRA - LRF + GRU - EDoPL - Pbn = Pbin.
Here,
 Pbout indicates the output power of the base station.
 Pmout indicates the output power of the mobile station.
 GRD indicates the downlink gain of the repeater.
 GRU indicates the uplink gain of the repeater.
 LRF indicates the feeder loss of the retransmission antenna.
 GRA indicates the gain of the retransmission antenna.
 Lpass indicates the path loss the mobile stations from the repeater to the
service area.
 Pbn indicates the attenuation margin of the mobile station.
 Pbin indicates the receiving level of the base station.
 Pmin indicates the receiving level of the mobile station.
 BTSsens indicates the base station sensitivity.
 MSsens indicates the mobile station sensitivity.
If the uplink EDoPL and downlink EDoPL are equal to the uplink path loss and
the downlink path loss from the repeater and mobile station, the attenuation
margin of the base station is equal to that of the mobile station. Therefore, if you
subtract the formula calculating uplink balance from the formula calculating
downlink balance, you can get Pbout - Pmout + GRD - GRU = Pmin - Pbin.
If the links are balance, the equation Pmin - Pbin = Dsens = MSsens- BTSsens is present.
In this case, the formula calculating link balance is Pbout - Pmout + GRD - GRU = Dsens.
Therefore, the Dsens is fixed after the base station equipments are selected.
Moreover, the output power of the base station and mobile station may be
decided in GSM system planning. As a result, to achieve the balance of the
whole links, you need to adjust the uplink gain and downlink gain of the repeater
only.
The followings employ the repeater system installed in outdoors as an example
to calculate the whole link balance.
For downlink budget of the outdoor repeater , output power of the transmitter
(+43dBm) – loss of the combiner (4dB) – EdoPL (90dB) = input power of the
repeater (-51dBm) + downlink gain of the repeater (80dB) = downlink output
power of the repeater (+29dBm) – feeder loss of the retransmission antenna
(3dB) + gain of the retransmission antenna (18dBi) – path loss of the repeater in
the coverage area (127dB) = input level of the mobile station (-83dBm) –
attenuation margin (20dBm) = the mobile station sensitivity (-103dBm).
 Note:
To obtain the value of EDoPL, you can measure the input level of the donor
repeater and output level of the base station combiner first, and then obtain the

difference between the two, and the difference is the value of EDoPL. In addition,
the gain of the mobile antenna must be converted to 0 dBi.
For uplink budget of the outdoor repeater, output power of the mobile station
transmitter (+33dBm) – path loss of the repeater in the coverage area (127dB) +
gain of the retransmission antenna (18dBi) – feeder loss of the retransmission
antenna (3dB) = input power of the repeater (-79dBm) + uplink gain of the
repeater (80dB) = output power of the repeater (+1dBm) –EdoPL (90dB) = input
level of the base station (-89dBm) – attenuation margin (20dBm) = base station
sensitivity (-109dBm).
 Note:
Because you do not have to consider the diversity function, the attenuation
margin on uplinks is the same as that on downlinks. According to the previous
link budget, the downlinks are restricted by the output power of the repeater, the
uplinks are restricted by the output power of the mobile station, and the noise
restricts the maximum gain (EDoPL-10 dB), so the link balance is present.
However, this is the most common situation. Actually, you must calculate the
margin for all links when installing or optimizing the repeater system. The latest
repeater supports the uplink gain and downlink gain to be set respectively.
Hereunder is an example.
 There is a base station covering parts of a highroad. Its coverage radius is
about 20 km.
 The measured signal strength at the edges of the base station cells is -
93dBm.
 The microwave link tower on the top of the hill near the base station is
selected as the address of the repeater.
 In the areas (including mountains) 350m below the top of the tower, the
received level of the mobile station is -71 dBm.
 The log-periodical antenna with a gain of 18dBi and an azimuth angle of
35°is used as the donor antenna.
 The antenna is installed at 15 meters under the tower top and faces the
base station.
If the previous conditions are present, the signals output by the repeater are -54
dBm. If a plane antenna with a gain of 17 dBi and a horizontal azimuth angle of
60 degrees is installed at the top of the tower and the antenna radiates to the
reverse direction of the donor antenna, the requirements on antenna isolation
can be met even if the gain of the repeater reaches 85 dB. In this case, the
output power of the repeater is 30 dBm. And the level of the signals in the areas

along the highroad which are 20 km beyond the tower can reach -90 dBm.
Therefore, the radius of the cell along the highroad is enlarged by 50%.
 Note:
If a retransmission antenna is installed at the top of the tower, you must ensure
that the received signal level in the zero point filling areas near the tower.
V. Repeater output power control
When adopting a repeater, you must pay special attention to the effect of the
intermodulation products against the system. The intermodulation products of the
repeater depend on the number of the amplified carriers, the output power of
each carrier, and the linearity of the amplifier. For the linearity of the amplifier,
see Figure 5-8.
Figure 5-8 Linearity of the amplifier
Third order intermodulation will increase with output power due to the
nonlinearity of the amplifier. Therefore, you must control the output to a certain
degree to ensure that that the indexes on third order intermodulation meet the
requirements. The following formula shows the relationship between the output
power of each carrier of the repeater and the requirements on third order
intermodulation.
Po = IP3 + (PIMP/2) +10 lg (N/2)
Here,
 Po indicates the output power of each carrier (dBm)

 IP3 indicates the third order section of the amplifier (dBm)

 PIMP indicates the level of the third order intermodulation (dBc)
 N indicates the number of carriers
If the third order section of the amplifier of a typical repeater is 50 dBm, and the
intermodulation level must be lower than -45 dBc according to the requirement of
the wireless communication institutes in Britain, the relationship of the output
power of each carrier and the number of carriers is listed in Table 5-1.
Table 5-1 Relationship of output power of each carrier and the number of
carriers of a repeater
The number of carriers The output power of each carrier (dBm)
2 +24.5
4 +21.5
10 +20.5
20 +17.5
VI. Repeater gain setting
The gain of the early repeaters must be set manually, but the latest gain of the
latest repeaters can be automatically set. For the repeaters whose gain is set
manually, the sum of the repeater gain and the protection margin must be equal
to or smaller than the repeater isolation; otherwise, the self-excitation of the
repeater will be caused. Here the repeater isolation indicates the isolation
between the donor antenna and the retransmission antenna of the repeater.
Generally, the protection margin ranges from 10 dB to 15 dB.
VII. Repeater adjacent cell planning
The coverage areas of a repeater may overlap other donor cells, so you must
configure the corresponding adjacent cell relationship for the repeater to ensure
normal handover. In addition, you must pay attention that the frequencies in the
coverage areas of the repeater and that in the donor cells cannot be the same
frequency and neighbor frequency.
VIII. Effect of delay processing against repeater planning
If only one repeater cannot fully cover an area (such as a narrow and long
tunnel), you can use several cascaded repeaters to provide the coverage. The
selection of the address and antenna for the repeater of each level is the same
as that for a single repeater.

However, the repeater will amplify the same frequency and it takes some time for
the repeater to process the signal, so there is a delay for each signal segment. If
the delay is greater than the time for the GSM system to identify the time
window, the intra-frequency interference will occur. Therefore, you must consider
the effect of the delay when adopting cascaded repeaters, because the delay will
also accelerate the time dispersion and shorten the coverage distance.
If adopting the optical repeater, you must consider that the transmission speed of
the signals in optical fibers is 2/3 that of in free space, namely, if the extension
cell technology is not used, the maximum transmission distance of the signals in
optical fiber is 35 km multiplies 2/3 (about 23.3 km) due to the restriction on
transmission delay.
In addition, if one of three synchronous cells adopting the optical repeater, the TA
of two cells will be different due to the difference of transmission mode and rate.
In this case, the synchronous handover failure will occur. Therefore, you must
adopt the asynchronous handover to obtain the TA of a new cell, which works as
the handover target cell.
The delay processing varies with repeater types. Some take 2 to 3 μs and some
takes 5 to 6μs. In a GSM system, the delay of two signals cannot be greater than
16μs. For the effect of repeater delay processing against time dispersion, see
Figure 5-9.
Figure 5-9 Effect of repeater delay processing against time dispersion
In Figure 5-9, the distance between point A and the repeater “d” is 2.1km. The
delay for the mobile station at point A to receive the signals from the repeater
and the cell is as follows:
(2.1km + 2.1km)/c (light speed) + 3μs = 14μs + 3μs = 17μs > 16μs.
In this case, the intra-frequency interference may be present. If the difference of
the levels of the two signals is equal to or lower than 12 dB, the conversation
quality will be affected.
The time dispersion will cause intra-frequency interference, and the time
dispersion is caused by the overlap of the signal source cell and the repeater

coverage area. Therefore, you must select the signal of the secondary cells in
the coverage areas of the repeater instead of the signals of the major service cell
as the source signal of the repeater. In this case, the time dispersion caused by
overlap can be avoided.
IX. Effect of background noise against repeater planning
Suppose that the maximum received noise level allowed by the base station is
DN, if the uplink background noise level of the repeater host is too great, the base
station channels will be congested when the noise level at the base station is
greater than DN. However, how to set the repeater without affecting the base
station? They are introduces as follows.
If the following assumptions are present:
 The transmitted signal strength of the base station is Tb.
 The received signal strength of the base station is Rb.
 The received downlink signal strength of the base station host is Dr.
 The transmitted uplink signal strength of the base station host is Ut.
In this case, the path loss between the base station and the repeater is Tb-Dr, so
Rb = Ut – (Tb-Dr). As a result, if the repeater does not affect the base station, Rb <
DN, so the following two inequities are present:
 Ut – (Tb - Dr) < DN
 Ut < Tb-Dr + DN
According to the previous analysis, the repeater does not affect the base station
if the uplink background noise level output by the repeater host is lower than (Tb-
Dr+DN). From this perspective of review, the background noise must be
particularly emphasized in repeater planning because it is easier to bring
interference than other types of base stations.
X. Specifications of wireless repeaters
For the specifications of some repeaters in commercial use, see Table 5-1.
Table 5-1 Specifications of parts of repeaters in commercial use
Source & Type/band Power (W) Gain (dB) Noise 3rd order No. of Size
Reference /channel Downlink Downlink Figure intercept channels (mm)
(dB) (dBm)
selective (Uplink) (Uplink)
Downlink Downlink
(Uplink) (Uplink)
AFL

GSM Band 1, 5, 10, 30, 50, 80, 4.5 (4.5) 40, 47, N/A 460x
900MHz 20, 25 95 (30, 50, 50, 54 550x
80, 95) (40, 47,
220
50, 54)
(10W)
GSM Band 1, 5, 10, 30, 50, 80 < 4.5 40, 47, N/A 460x
1800MHz 20,25 (30, 50, (<4.5) 50, 54 550x
80) (40, 47,
220
50, 54)
(10W)
GSM Channel 1, 5, 10, 30, 50, 80 6.0 (6.0) 40, 47, 1, 2, 4, 8 460x
20,25 95, (30, 50, 50, 54 550x
80, 95) (40, 47,
220
50, 54)
(10W)
GSM Channel 1, 5, 10, 30, 50, 80 < 6.0 40, 47, 1, 2, 4, 8 460x
1800MHz 20,25 95, (30, 50, (< 6.0) 50, 54 550x
80, 95) (40, 47,
220
50, 54)
(10W)
Allgon
AR 1200 Band 50-90 5 52 N/A 440(W)

GSM 530(H)
900MHz 174(D)
AR 120 Channel 24 dBm 40-60 < 6.0 2 230(W)

GSM (20) dBm 285(H)
900MHz 120(D)
AR 2100 Channel 33 dBm 50-90 5 1-4, 5-8 440(W)

GSM (2-channel) 530(H)
1800MHz 30 dBm 174 or
(4-channel) 240(D)
Mikom

MR 340 Channel 32 dBm 85-89 6-8 2-channel 425(W)

(2-channel) (2-channel) modules 255(H)
per
28 dBm 82-86 110(D)
cabinet
(4-channel) (4-channel) [2]
5.13 Conclusion
Network planning is the foundation of a mobile communication network,
especially the wireless parts in a mobile communication network costs great and
is of vital importance to network quality, so you must make a good planning at
earlier stage, which is helpful for network expansion and service update in the
future.
Network planning requires engineers to analyze coverage, decide network
layers, and analyze traffic based on relative technologies and parameters, and
finally output the results of RF planning, including base station layout and scale.
RF planning, as well as the application of cell parameters, determines the cell
coverage. The cell coverage must be properly designed so that the mobile
station can always enjoy the best service at the best cells. In addition, the cell
coverage must be designed in a way conducive to network capacity expansion.
This chapter also introduces the solutions to dual-band network, indoor
coverage, tunnel coverage, and so on. Last, this chapter introduces the repeater
application.

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GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization

Chapter 5 GSM Radio Network Planning Confideniality level

2012-02-02 All rights reserved Page 1 of 124

5.10.3 Capacity Analysis and Design.......................................................................83

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Chapter 5 GSM Radio Network Planning

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5.2 Planning Foundation

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5.2.2 Performance Target Confirmation

Carriers emphasize much on the future network quality. Therefore, network

Table 5-1 Descriptions of KPI indexes

2012-02-02 All rights reserved Page 6 of 124

10 Ping success ratio Applied to GPRS Drive test ≥ 90%

Table 5-2 Mean opinion score (MOS)

Quality level Quality evaluation standard

5.3 Coverage Analysis

I. Types of coverage area

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Table 5-3 Coverage area division

Area type Description

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II. Define the field strength at coverage area edges

Mobile station sensitivity -102 dBm

Fast fading protection 4 dB (3 dB for countryside)

Slow fading protection 8 dB (6 dB for countryside)

Noise (environmental noise and

III. Define coverage probability

Table 5-5 Definition of coverage probability at different stages and in different

2012-02-02 All rights reserved Page 9 of 124

Significant national tourism areas,

With the development of

5.3.2 Radio Environment Survey

Table 5-6 Formulas estimating radio path loss in different areas

Formula Application Propagation model Example

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PLDU = 147.2 + 8d Densely Walfish-Ikegami If carrier frequency = 925

PLU = 128.73 + Common Walfish-Ikegami If carrier frequency =

PLSU = 126 + 35lgd Suburban Okumura-Hata If carrier frequency =

PLRU = 116 + 35lgd Countryside Okumura-Hata If carrier frequency =

5.4 Network Structure Analysis

5.4.1 Middle-Layer Station

I. Definition and application

A middle-layer station in big and middle-sized cities is defined as follows:

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Compared with high-layer stations, middle-layer stations can utilize frequency

III. Distance between stations

Because no suitable ground objective is available, to ensure the quality of

5.4.2 High-Layer Station

I. Definition and application

A high-layer station in big and middle-sized cities is defined as follows:

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The high-layer stations must be as fewer as possible but be as effective as

5.4.3 Low-Layer Station

I. Definition and application

A low-layer station is defined as follows:

II. Other considerations

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5.5 Traffic Analysis

The network construction requires the consideration of economic feasibility and

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II. Cell splitting

4 2SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+SDCCH/8 2SDCCH/8

5 2SDCCH/8 2SDCCH/8 2*SDCCH/8

6 SDCCH/4+2SDCCH/8 2SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8

7 SDCCH/4+2SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2SDCCH/8 3*SDCCH/8

8 3SDCCH/8 3SDCCH/8 3*SDCCH/8

4 2SDCCH/8 2SDCCH/8 2*SDCCH/8

5 2SDCCH/8 2SDCCH/8 2*SDCCH/8+SDCCH/4

6 SDCCH/4+2SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2*SDCCH/8

7 3SDCCH/8 SDCCH/4+2SDCCH/8 3*SDCCH/8

8 3SDCCH/8 3SDCCH/8 3*SDCCH/8+SDCCH/4