Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Explanation of Symbols
Throughout this guide, where appropriate, some symbols are used to highlight
particular pieces of text. Three different symbols are in use, and are explained as
follows:
Symbol Brief Description Full Description
Note Signifies text that should be noted or carefully considered.
Tip Signifies text that may help you do something in an easier or quicker
way.
Warning or Important Signifies text that is intended as a warning or something important.
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 11
About ADVANTAGE 12
About the ADVANTAGE Operational Environment 13
About the ADVANTAGE Optimisation Framework 14
What are the Benefits of Using ADVANTAGE? 15
Obtaining User Assistance 15
Who is This User Reference Guide For? 16
About the ENTERPRISE User Reference Guides 17
Can You Improve Our User Assistance? 18
Obtaining Support 18
Obtaining Further Information and Services 20
Index 221
Introduction
ADVANTAGE is an automatic network planning and optimisation tool. It provides
an advanced, integrated framework that is composed of:
Automatic cell planning and optimisation
Consideration of design issues and constraints
Network analysis and evaluation
Problem identification
Network modelling and fine tuning
ADVANTAGE is part of AIRCOM International's ENTERPRISE suite. ENTERPRISE
is the fully integrated, PC-based, network engineering solution for network operators,
cellular equipment manufacturers and system integrators.
The technologies explicitly supported by ADVANTAGE are:
GSM
UMTS FDD
Fixed WiMAX
Mobile WiMAX
CDMA2000
EV-DO
LTE
Occasionally in this guide, for simplicity, the term WiMAX is used to represent
Fixed or Mobile WiMAX, and the term CDMA/EV-DO is used to represent
CDMA2000 or EV-DO.
To optimise any of these networks, you need to have the appropriate licence.
If required, multiple technologies can be used within the same project.
An overall optimisation cost value can be generated from all these components, based
on scenario-specific relative degrees of importance.
In summary, the optimisation depends on:
A series of actions that can be considered in order to improve a network, including
the monetary cost associated with each of these actions.
A set of constraints that restrict which/how specific network parameters can be
altered during optimisation.
A set of radio parameters and targets that characterise the expected performance
for the metrics that can be affected by the optimisation.
A set of financial parameters and associated targets that characterise the financial
value of a plan and can be affected by the optimisation.
(This is licence-dependent. For more information see the Financial Analysis User
Reference Guide.)
An analysis engine that estimates the cost values for the metrics used in the
optimisation every time a network plan is evaluated.
A sophisticated, proprietary algorithm that can identify the best solution in an
efficient manner.
If you are using ENTERPRISE within a CITRIX environment, to ensure that the
Help graphics are displayed, set your display settings to support more than 256
colours.
If you have a customer web account, you can also download the latest User
Reference Guides from our website.
Online Questionnaire
You can help us by completing our brief online questionnaire
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=RIRKLcrdvaCzRnUBNx5tcQ_3d_3d).
Alternatively, you can contact us directly at docs@aircominternational.com.
Obtaining Support
If you have a difficulty you cannot resolve yourself using the online Help or
Reference Guides, or you have found a possible fault in the software, you can log a
support request. You may also wish to contact us if you want to:
Register for a customer web account to access the Support area
Obtain further documentation, such as application notes and extra reference
information
Power Tools
If you register for a customer web account, you can download from a selection of
useful power tools, such as file conversion utilities.
Consultancy Services
AIRCOM also provide full radio consultancy services in Network Audits, Business
Planning Support, Licence Applications, Radio Network Planning,
Telecommunications Research and System Modelling and Propagation Analysis and
Modelling.
Training
There is a wide variety of courses run by AIRCOM. These courses range from tool
training to technology training. For details, contact Competence Development
Solutions (training@aircominternational.com).
Overview of ADVANTAGE
Before you begin to use ADVANTAGE, you should ensure you understand the basic
concepts described in this section.
You must have the appropriate user permissions (these are specified in
ENTERPRISE Administrator) in order to use ADVANTAGE-specific functionality or
to change ADVANTAGE settings. For more information, see the Installation and
Administration User Reference Guide.
The ADVANTAGE User Reference Guide describes all the steps and processes in
the tool. However, some of these steps, in particular the ones related to the radio
environment setup, will not be relevant to the general user, provided the
administrator (or super-user) has already completed them. This is also true for
optimisation scenarios that have been set up by one user that can be shared with other
users who access the same project.
You should always make sure that the ENTERPRISE project setup is up-to-date and
complete before proceeding. For more information, see the ENTERPRISE and ASSET
User Reference Guides.
Planning Mechanisms
You can set up and start the automatic optimisation of a network configuration
according to various targets, costs, actions and constraints, using any or all of the
following planning mechanisms:
Antenna
Power
Grid
For example, you might want to run an optimisation that considers the following
network changes:
Antenna azimuth changes, or electrical tilt changes
- and/or -
Changes in maximum transmit power
- and/or -
Site location, site selection or site configuration
For more information on using these planning mechanisms, see About Action-
Constraints on page 38 and Using the Action-Constraints Dialog Box on page 127.
Cost Mechanisms
The optimisation process offers a choice of two cost mechanisms with which to guide
the optimisation:
Array-based
Service-based
Each cost mechanism has its own set of metrics.
The Array-based mechanism relies on pixel-based values calculated during array
generation. The arrays can be related to signal strength, signal quality or dominance,
as appropriate. For example, in order to maximise the signal coverage/quality in your
network, you might run an array-based optimisation that uses one or more of the
planning mechanisms.
The Service-based mechanism relies on averaged values for successful connections
based on a series of simulation snapshots, and therefore requires one or more traffic
rasters. For example, in order to maximise the mean number of served users in your
network, you might run a service-based optimisation that uses one or more of the
planning mechanisms.
Analysis
The analysis functionality in ADVANTAGE enables you to analyse your network
plan against your chosen optimisation strategy, including the metrics and targets that
you have specified.
More specifically, it enables you to:
Analyse and evaluate a current plan configuration or an optimised delta plan
configuration
Compare any two plan configurations, whether current or optimised
Access the Ranking functionality, in order to assess and sequence the potential
network changes
You can evaluate a single plan, or compare two plans, in terms of their performance.
The performance achieved for each configuration is compared with the user-specified
performance targets and presented (in terms of absolute and/or relative values) on a
traffic and area basis. Depending on your licences, the performance can be based on
RF thresholds, and/or on financial or budgetary considerations.
The Analysis report generated can include:
Actions
Statistics
Costs
Financial Metrics (if licensed)
You can use the produced reports and/or graphical information to determine how
good a plan is, or the number/cost of the required optimisation actions.
Within the Analysis functionality, you can perform ranking on the potential network
changes, and create partial plans.
For more information, see Analysing and Evaluating Plans on page 165.
Services Define services, and then allocate the services to terminal types, to account for the
different services offered to the subscriber.
For example, services might have different data rates and other requirements such as
quality of service.
Clutter Parameters Set up clutter parameters, such as different shadow fading standard deviations and
indoor losses for each clutter type. These fades and losses are considered when you run
a simulation of network performance. For some technologies, you can set additional
clutter-specific adjustments that influence, for example, AAS Support.
For more information on any of these menu items, see the ASSET User Reference
Guide.
For more information on the four items listed under Network Data, see Using
Measurement Data on page 193.
For more information on the other items, see the ASSET User Reference Guide.
The options vary according to the technology that you are using.
You cannot create a new item with the same name as an item in the
ADVANTAGE Wastebasket, even if the items were placed in the
You can also use the button on the Wastebasket by another user. Therefore, to keep these problems to a
toolbar. minimum you may want to delete an item permanently.
The Optimiser Workflow dialog box (the main user interface in ADVANTAGE)
has been specially designed to help you use the tool.
This diagram summarises the ADVANTAGE process:
Setup
During this phase, you need to follow these steps (where applicable):
Import/use planning environment data.
Choose which status field you want to use to differentiate between new network
elements and existing network elements, if applicable.
Define the traffic-related configuration parameters (such as terminal types,
services), if applicable.
Create a new plan or plans for optimisation.
Specify the vectors, drive test routes, terminal types, if applicable.
Define the RF Array Thresholds for Clutter and/or Vectors.
Configure the Action-Constraints for the optimisation.
Specify the RF Metric Targets.
Define the Strategy for the optimisation, which includes the selection of which
Metrics are to be used.
Define the Settings, that is, key additional parameters and options.
Create/load traffic arrays, if applicable.
Optionally, you can also follow these steps:
Specify constraints in the Site Database.
Define the Object/Action Costs and other cost-associated options (for example,
Budget).
Specify the Problem Area and/or Cell Thresholds.
Optimisation
During this phase, you can use the Plan Manager in the Optimiser Workflow to
perform a number of plan-related operations, including the starting/running of the
Optimiser. You can check the feedback from the Optimiser in terms of:
Cost Details and Graphs - information about the costs related to the optimisation.
Statistics Details and Graphs - information about the statistics
(metrics/thresholds) related to the optimisation.
Optimisation Report - comprehensive details of the generated optimisation plans.
Overall cost improvement; time taken; accepted iterations.
Analysis
During this phase, you can repeat the appropriate steps as described in the previous
Analysis section.
The tab names and options within the Optimiser Workflow vary slightly
according to the technology that you are using.
For more detailed information about the options in this dialog box, see:
Setting Up Thresholds, Targets and Parameters on page 59
Using and Managing Plans on page 107
Optimising a Network on page 155
Each time you run this feature, new sites/nodes will be added to the Site
Database.
(This is a general ENTERPRISE feature that can be particularly useful in
ADVANTAGE.)
To do this:
1 Click on the Utilities tab.
2 From the Tools menu, click Auto-Generate Sites/Nodes.
3 In the dialog box that appears, select the (Property-based) filter that you want to
use.
4 Select the site or node template that you want to apply to the filter.
5 Click OK (remember to click back on the ADVANTAGE tab afterwards).
You have now applied an instance of the template (that is, a new site or node) to
every Property in the filter.
The new sites/nodes will be placed in the Site Database as follows:
For GSM: under the MSC/BSC
For UMTS, CDMA2000, EV-DO, WiMAX or LTE: under the PLMN
Setting Action-Constraints
in ADVANTAGE
The purpose of action-constraints in ADVANTAGE is to allow certain network
parameter changes to be considered in a network optimisation, but at the same time
impose meaningful limitations and restrictions on those changes, in order to
accurately represent the real-world environment.
Why the term 'action-constraint'?
An example of an 'action' may be that you want to allow the antenna azimuths for a
group of cells to be changed, but, at the same time, you might want to specify a
'constraint' for one of those cells, which could be a forbidden azimuth range due to to
a nearby school.
Action-constraints that are set in the Site Database are always auto-populated
into the Action-Constraints dialog box when you create a plan. You then have the
freedom to modify those action-constraints at that stage, if required. When you run an
optimisation, the Optimiser reads the action-constraints exclusively from the Action-
Constraints dialog box, regardless of their original 'source'.
When you run an optimisation, there are three planning mechanisms you can use:
Antenna
Power
Grid (site location/selection/configuration)
ADVANTAGE provides the flexibility to run optimisations based on any single
mechanism, or any combination of them.
So, for example, this flexibility enables you to:
1 Set specific action-constraints in the Site Database.
2 Edit these action-constraints (if required) and set up further action-constraints (if
required) in the Action-Constraints dialog box.
- or -
Set up action-constraints exclusively in the Action-Constraints dialog box.
3 Select one or more of the planning mechanisms, according to your optimisation
strategy.
The action-constraints of any plans which already have delta plans are always in
Read-Only format.
For more detailed information about the action-constraints within the Optimiser
Workflow, see About the Action-Constraints Dialog Box on page 124 and Using the
Action-Constraints Dialog Box on page 127.
If you do set any of the above action-constraints in the Site Database, when you next
create a plan, you will be able to view them in the Action-Constraints dialog box, in a
read-only state. Whether they are used in an optimisation depends on whether you
choose to use the Grid planning mechanism.
You can also edit a number of constraints in the Site Database simultaneously, as
described in Configuring Constraints in the Site Database Global Editor on page 55.
(The co-ordinate values are auto-populated after you press the Enter key.)
- or -
Click in the appropriate column and type co-ordinate values (in GRID, DLL, or
LL as appropriate).
If you need to delete a candidate location, select the location and click Delete.
If you have specified any Property IDs, the Optimisation Status on the Grid
Constraints tab of the specified candidate Property is auto-updated to 'candidate'.
3 In the Antenna Height Rules pane, enter the minimum and maximum height
values that you wish to use as a basis for the antenna constraints defined on this
tab.
To manually define a series of allowable antenna height values within the
minimum-maximum range:
Select the Manual option, and then select the Constrain checkbox.
In the value box above the Add button, type the first value in metres.
Click Add.
Add further values as required - to delete a value, select it and click Remove.
To edit a value, select it, change the value and then click Update.
If this is not selected, all antennas on the same cell layer (GSM) or on all
carriers (UMTS) at this Property must be at the same height. However, GSM cells
for different cell layers, or cells of different technologies (for example, GSM and
UMTS) can still have antennas with heights different from each other.
5 In the Antennas at Same Height pane, you can specify a minimum azimuth
difference. This is the minimum separation (in degrees) that you are willing to
accept between antennas of the same height on this Property. To do this, select the
Constrain checkbox and type a value.
6 In the Antenna Co-location pane, select the Enable Co-location checkbox if you
want to enable antenna devices to be able to share co-location parameters
(identical location co-ordinates, height and azimuth, and on the same Property).
Masts
To configure equipment-specific constraints for masts:
1 From the Equipment menu, select Masts.
2 In the dialog box that appears, select the mast that you want to constrain.
3 Click the Dimensions tab, and:
Specify the structure height
Select the required mount option - if you select Rooftop, the building height of
the Property will be added to the mast height to give the antenna height.
4 Click the Constraints tab, and specify the mast heights that you want to make
available:
In the Available Masts Height pane, type in a height value and click Add
To change a value, select it and enter a new value in the box and click Update
To remove a value, select it and click Remove
5 Click Apply to save the changes, and Commit if appropriate.
These constraints are only used if these equipment types are assigned to the
relevant network elements in the Site Database. For example, masts are assigned to
Properties (all technologies), and BTS equipment types are assigned to GSM sites.
In most cases, there will only be one antenna slot per cell, but it is possible that
multiple slots have been configured.
4 In the Wall or Other Bearing Constraints pane, select to use a Forbidden Azimuth
Range. This enables you to define an orientation region (or range) which the
automatic optimisation cannot consider for azimuth changes.
5 To set the range, type a clockwise wall bearing angle (in other words, the starting
azimuth for the forbidden range) and an anti-clockwise wall bearing angle (in
other words, the final azimuth for the forbidden range).
This picture shows an example for an original antenna azimuth of 100 degrees.
The clockwise bearing angle is set to 120 degrees and the anti-clockwise bearing
angle to 80 degrees, meaning that, depending on the considered antenna
actions/constraints, the antenna may be able to move plus or minus 20 degrees
during the optimisation:
These numbers correspond to the antennas listed on the Antennas tab. The
constraints are always antenna-specific.
4 In the Wall or Other Bearing Constraints pane, select to use a Forbidden Azimuth
Range. This enables you to define an orientation region (or range) which the
automatic optimisation cannot consider for antenna azimuth changes.
5 To set the range, type a clockwise wall bearing angle (in other words, the starting
azimuth for the forbidden range) and an anti-clockwise wall bearing angle (in
other words, the final azimuth for the forbidden range).
This picture shows an example for an azimuth of 100 degrees. The clockwise
bearing angle is set to 120 degrees and the anti-clockwise bearing angle to 80
degrees, meaning that the antenna is able to move plus or minus 20 degrees
during the optimisation:
These constraints are applicable to both Fixed WiMAX and Mobile WiMAX.
To configure WiMAX cell power constraints:
1 From the Database menu, click Sites.
2 Select a cell, and click the WiMAX Params tab.
3 In the ACP Constraints pane, select the Fix TX Power checkbox.
4 Click Apply to save the changes, and Commit if appropriate.
The Global Editor is used on a per filter basis - you cannot specify a different filter
for different tabs.
To use the Global Editor:
1 From the Database menu, click Sites.
2 In the Site Database window, click Global Edit.
3 Select the appropriate filter.
4 Select the items that you want to change for the network elements in this filter. For
a list of the ADVANTAGE-specific constraints, see ADVANTAGE-specific
Constraints in the Global Editor on page 57.
Where a parameter has two checkboxes, ensure you select both if you want to
set the relevant constraint. However, if you want to disable (previously set)
constraints, you can select the first checkbox, and clear the second checkbox. In
simple terms, the first checkbox determines whether the change is to be made, and
the second checkbox determines what is to be changed. For example:
To set the constraint To unset the constraint (if previously set)
Setting Up Thresholds,
Targets and Parameters
The Optimiser Workflow enables you to perform the vast majority of tasks within
ADVANTAGE from a single dialog box. This incorporates the setting up of
parameters, costs, constraints and targets, and generation of optimisation Plans.
It comprises a number of main options in the left hand pane, and each of these
enables you to access a range of specific options that are displayed in the right-hand
pane.
This chapter focuses on the thresholds, parameters and settings, which are crucial to
the optimisation engine. In addition to setting the thresholds and metric targets, it is
here that you specify which strategy you will use for your optimisations and analyses.
These steps, in particular the ones related to the radio environment setup, are
probably not relevant to the general user, assuming that the administrator (or super-
user) has already completed them. This is also true for optimisation scenarios that
have been set up by one user that can be shared with other users who access the same
project.
To start the Optimiser Workflow:
From the Optimiser menu, click Workflow
- or -
The RF (radio frequency) array thresholds in the Optimiser Workflow enable you to
specify:
RF array thresholds for clutter
RF array thresholds for vectors
These thresholds determine the required RF performance for your optimisations and
analyses.
These thresholds are used by the array-based optimisation cost mechanism (they
are not used by the service-based cost mechanism).
In the RF Array Thresholds, you can configure clutter-specific thresholds that define
the current or required performance of your network. This enables you to specify and
use minimum signal strength, signal quality, and dominance thresholds for chosen
clutter types.
These thresholds are evaluated when running optimisations and performing an
analysis.
This picture shows an example of the Clutter Thresholds:
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, double-click RF Array Thresholds, and then double-click
Clutter.
All changes that you make on this page are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this page to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this page with all other users of the
project, click Commit
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, double-click RF Array Thresholds, then double-click Clutter,
and then click General.
3 On the General Clutter Parameters tab, specify the parameters as required in the
columns for the appropriate clutter types. The following table describes the
parameters:
Parameter Description
Sample Determines whether cost function sampling is applied to the clutter type. This
sampling is a calculation process using only a subset of the total pixels during
Used only for optimisations optimisation. The process 'removes' neighbouring pixels of the same clutter type,
and analysis. and therefore makes the optimisation faster.
Sampling is only recommended if your mapping resolution is high (under 50m) and
you want to optimise a large area.
Importance The importance of the corresponding clutter in terms of traffic density. The higher
the importance of the clutter, the higher the traffic density levels for this clutter type,
Used only for spreading and vice versa.
network data. For more information, see About the Spreading Mechanisms in ADVANTAGE on
page 197. and About the Optimisation-Based Spreading Algorithms on page 213 in
the appendix.
If required, you can change all values in a column by editing one row and then
double-clicking on the column heading.
In the RF Array Thresholds, you can configure vector-specific thresholds that define
the current or required performance of your network. This enables you to specify and
use minimum signal strength, signal quality, and dominance thresholds for chosen
vectors.
These thresholds are evaluated when running optimisations and when performing an
analysis.
The Override checkbox not only enables you to edit the values, but also activates
the vector thresholds. Conversely, if unselected, the vector thresholds are not active.
Therefore, you should always bear this in mind before you run an optimisation or
perform an analysis.
When selected, vector thresholds will always have a higher priority than clutter
thresholds (in the pixels that are intersected by your chosen vectors).
This picture shows an example of the Vector Thresholds:
All changes that you make on this page are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this page to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this page with all other users of the
project, click Commit
The metric targets may vary according to the technology that you are using.
If you have multiple cell layers (GSM) or multiple carriers (all other
technologies), you can evaluate your network at a 'per layer' or 'per carrier' level
(rather than 'per technology'). There is a Per Layer Calculation option in the Settings
(Options tab) which enables you to activate the 'per layer/carrier' tabs.
Quality
The required array-based quality (target, minimum and multiplier) for the
clutter type.
Quality target calculations are based on either the quality level alone (such as
CINR) or on both quality level AND signal strength (for example, CINR and
RSS together), depending on your preferred basis for this metric. For more
information, see Specifying the Settings on page 90.
Dominance
The number of servers (target, minimum and multiplier) for the clutter type.
Dominance target calculations are based on the appropriate dominance or
pilot polluters array.
The following table describes the targets that can be defined for each technology.
They can be separately defined for traffic and area:
Technology Target Metrics
Coverage Quality Dominance
GSM RSS CINR Polluters
UMTS RSCP Pilot Ec/Io Pilot Polluters
CDMA2000/EV-DO RSCP Pilot Ec/Io Pilot Polluters
LTE RSRP RSRQ Dominance Interferers
Fixed WiMAX DL RSS DL CINR - not applicable -
Mobile WiMAX Preamble RSS Preamble CINR - not applicable -
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, double-click RF Metric Targets, and then double-click
Array-based.
All changes that you make on this page are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
The available metric targets may vary according to the technology that you are
using. For example, for GSM or WiMAX, the Handover metrics are not applicable.
For each metric target, you can use:
Averaged Cost Calculation - This averages the sum of calculated costs (considered
in the optimisation) for all the groups for the appropriate metric, based on the
total number of groups assigned to it.
Weighted Cost Calculation - This weights the calculated cost (considered in the
optimisation) for each group for the appropriate metric, based on the group-
specific terminal attempts or served terminals or targeted throughput (as
applicable).
In terms of the optimisation, the only time the Averaged/Weighted options will
make a difference to the results is when you have multiple groups assigned to a
metric. If that is not the case, they can be considered to be exactly the same.
2 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
3 In the left-hand pane, double-click RF Metric Targets, and then double-click
Service-based.
7 Click the right-arrow button. The service (and its associated carriers or cell layers)
is shown in the right pane. In this example only one service has been selected, but
you can select more if required:
Target values are specified per group. Therefore, if you want to specify target
values independently for each service, you should keep them in separate groups.
8 When you have finished editing the group, you can continue adding or editing
any other groups according to your requirements.
9 If you want to share specific group changes with all other users of the project, click
Commit, or to share all group changes, Commit All.
10 Click Close to close the dialog box.
You can now assign the target group(s) to the required metrics.
If a group has already been assigned to one of the metrics, you can quickly copy
that same group to another metric by selecting it, and then dragging and dropping it
onto another metric.
You can now specify the target values.
If the target group is assigned to more than one metric, ensure you select the
correct one, because the target values are independent between the metrics.
The target group values appear:
2 Depending on the target group, you can edit some or all of the following values:
Value Description
Min Minimum value required
Target Target value
Max Maximum value required (if applicable to the metric)
Multiplier Multiplier factor (cost penalty) if the value is:
- Less than the min value
or
- More than the max value
The Commit All and Restore All buttons are useful if you have edited a large
number of targets.
Specifying Costs/Limits
The costs and limits may vary according to the technology that you are using.
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Costs/Limits.
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users of the project,
click Commit
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Costs/Limits.
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users of the project,
click Commit
If you also have the Financial Analysis module installed, when you run an
analysis or optimisation, these costs are included in the 'Expenditure' metric, in
addition to any specified financial (CAPEX/OPEX) costs. For more information, see
the Financial Analysis User Reference Guide.
To define costs for objects and actions:
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Costs/Limits.
To expand or shrink any of the trees, select an object and press the * or - key, or
if you are using a laptop computer, press the Fn and * or - keys.
5 In the appropriate Values column, double-click a value and edit the Cost, as
required.
This picture shows an example:
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users of the project,
click Commit
For Antennas
This Parameter Refers to the Costs of
Azimuth Changes to the antenna azimuth.
Mechanical Downtilt Changes to the antenna mechanical downtilt.
Height Changes to the antenna height.
Pattern (remote adjustable electrical Changes to the electrical downtilt of the antenna, where the adjustment can be
downtilt) performed remotely.
In the Cellular Antennas dialog box, on the Info tab, you can specify how the
pattern can be adjusted. If an antenna used on a cell is set to 'Remote', the
Optimiser considers this action as a remote adjustment.
Pattern (site adjustable electrical Changes to the electrical downtilt of the antenna, where the adjustment requires a
downtilt) site visit.
In the Cellular Antennas dialog box, on the Info tab, you can specify how the
pattern can be adjusted. If an antenna used on a cell is set to 'Swap' or 'Switch', the
Optimiser considers this action as an onsite adjustment.
Device Changes to the antenna device. This specifically relates to the addition,
replacement or removal of an antenna.
For Power
This Parameter Refers to the Costs of
PA Output Changes to the PA output power of a GSM cell.
BTS Type Replacing a BTS type (GSM only).
UMTS Max TX Power Changes to the maximum TX power of a UMTS cell.
UMTS Pilot Power Changes to the pilot power of a UMTS cell.
HSDPA Power Changes to the HSDPA power of a UMTS cell.
For Grid
This Parameter Refers to the Costs of
For Property Unit, Site Unit and Cell Unit, this represents the (generic) financial
burden that may be imposed by changes to the respective total numbers of
Properties/sites/cells in an optimised plan.
For Combined
This Parameter Refers to the Costs of
Location Combined changes (such as the antenna device or azimuth) to the network objects
in a location.
Property Combined changes (such as the antenna device or azimuth) to the network objects
on a Property.
Site Combined changes (such as the antenna device or azimuth) to the network objects
on a site.
Cell Combined changes (such as the antenna device or azimuth) to the network objects
on a cell.
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Costs/Limits.
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users of the project,
click Commit
The strategy options may vary according to the technology that you are using.
If you have multiple cell layers (GSM) or multiple carriers (all other technologies)
in your network, you can select and weight the Performance components at a 'per
layer' or 'per carrier' level. The Per Layer Calculation option in the Settings (Options
tab) enables you to activate these levels. See About the Options Tab on page 91.
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Strategy.
When you do this for the first time, the weight automatically defaults to a
value of 1. If you subsequently deselect it, no value is shown and the weight is
zero.
The weightings always total 100% for items that share the same hierarchical
level, are parented to the same item, and are selected.
7 In the case of Coverage, Quality or Dominance, specify Outdoor or Indoor
(representing which array to use).
8 Select the mapping resolution to be used in the optimisation.
9 Specify a Reference Terminal Type (required to generate the arrays).
10 In the Pixel Weighting pane, specify whether the calculation of the optimisation
costs should consider area only, traffic only or both combined. To do this, type a
value in the % Traffic box to define the weighted importance of traffic-specific
calculations for the optimisation; the % Area value is then automatically updated.
The pixel weightings affect the array-based cost mechanism only (in other
words, the service-based cost mechanism is always only traffic-based).
11 In the Mechanism Technologies pane, select the technologies for which you want
the metrics/weightings to be used. You can also specify, as appropriate:
Maximum number of servers (GSM only) - the number of cells that are
considered as covering cells and interferers.
Number of covering cells (all other technologies) - the number of cells that are
considered as primary covering cells, handover cells (if appropriate) and
interferers.
If you have multiple cell layers (GSM) or multiple carriers (all other technologies)
in your network, you can specify the Performance degradation thresholds at a 'per
layer' or 'per carrier' level. The Per Layer Calculation option in the Settings (Options
tab) enables you to activate these levels. See About the Options Tab on page 91.
All the options are independent. For example, you could choose to select 'Array-
based' without also selecting 'RF', and you could select 'Coverage' without also having
to select 'Array-based'. Alternatively, you could choose to prevent the 'Array-based'
category degrading too much without specifying thresholds on any individual sub-
categories (such as Coverage or Quality). Each selected option would have an
influence on the optimisation process.
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Strategy.
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users of the project,
click Commit
You can turn this plan rejection method On/Off by using the 'Reject Plans Based
On Metric Degradation' checkbox (the individual selections and thresholds are still
stored).
Metric Multipliers
These enable you to normalise the units used for the different metric categories, so
that the respective units can be considered in the optimisation on a common basis (the
RF cost category does not really refer to a specific measurable unit; it is an abstract
number or percentage).
The multiplier values indicate the scale used to represent the following parameters:
Budget, which is defined in a single currency
Financial (if licensed), which is defined in a single currency
RF, based on the array-based and service-based cost mechanisms
The way that you define the multipliers will have a significant impact on the
optimisation. You should ensure that all of the values are correct before proceeding.
For example, suppose you are using the Budget and RF metrics in an optimisation,
where the budget has been defined in Euros. If you know or assume that 10,000 Euros
of expenditure is equivalent to an RF cost of 1 unit, then the multiplier values should
be 1 for Budget, and 10,000 for RF.
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Strategy.
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users of the project,
click Commit
Even if you do not consider traffic, you still need to specify a Reference Terminal
type. You can do this on the Metrics Selection/Weights tab of the Strategy page.
This is not required for an area-based analysis/optimisation, nor for network data
spreading.
To do this:
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Traffic.
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users of the project,
click Commit
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Traffic.
Select the Use Cell Traffic Offset Values checkbox if you want to use these
values in optimisations, analyses and problem cell identification.
5 Right-click the required traffic array and select Load Ticked Traffic Arrays.
The selected arrays are loaded into memory.
To delete a cached array:
Right-click the required cached traffic array and select Delete Array. This is only
available if the array is not selected.
The settings options may vary according to the technology that you are using.
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Settings.
Modification Strategy Only modify problem cells and Set the optimisation to only modify problem cells and their
their neighbours with plan status neighbours (if their status is set to 'plan'). For more
information, see Identifying Problems in a Network on page
179.
The settings options vary according to the technology that you are using.
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Settings.
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users of the project,
click Commit
To edit the parameters, double-click the appropriate item in the Values column.
Parameter Description
Number of Snapshots A snapshot represents an individual component within the simulation process. For each
snapshot, specified densities of user terminals are positioned in statistically determined
locations. The ability of each terminal to make its connection to the network is calculated
through an iterative process. The performance of the network is then analysed from the
averaged results.
Max Power Change (%) Set the Max. Power Change (%) convergence parameter to set the 'stabilisation' target for
each snapshot. This limits the number of iterations per snapshot.
If the percentage change in total uplink and total downlink interference (summed over all
cells) changes by an amount smaller than this target value for 15 consecutive iterations, then
the iterations are deemed to have converged.
Only Scan Where Traffic Exists If you want to only scan pixels where traffic exists (a valid traffic raster must be in memory),
select YES.
GSM Dominance Threshold The simulation can calculate the average number of 'polluting cells' at any location, as
determined by the threshold that you set here (xdB).
This threshold determines the relative margin below the best server within which a cell
qualifies as a polluter.
The exact definition of polluting cells for GSM in ASSET is:
The number of cells (from any cell layer) providing an RSS level within xdB of the best RSS.
The threshold is relative. The default value is 40dB.
Best Server: If you want to consider any priorities that have been set in the Cell Layers dialog box, and the
Use Priorities and Offsets signal offsets, when determining the better serving sub-cells, select YES.
If this is set to NO, the best server results are based on signal strength alone.
Best Server: If you want to use generic values for Minimum Service Level and Maximum Timing Advance,
Override Sub-Cell specific select YES, and then specify the two generic values.
values
If this is set to NO, the best server results are based on Signal Threshold and TA Threshold
set specifically for each sub-cell on the General tab of the Site Database.
Cell Traffic Calculation Method Select 'Snapshots' if you want the traffic-loading of the cells to be calculated by the Simulator
by running snapshots.
Select '100% Load' if you want to model a fully loaded network (without running snapshots).
Per Carrier Analysis: If you want to restrict the serving sub-cells to those that have been assigned a specific
Carrier Number carrier, select YES in the Per Carrier Analysis parameter, and then specify a number in the
Carrier Number.
Channel Selection Method You can select what type of interference you want to be considered for the interference
arrays, in terms of Co- and/or Adjacent channels.
Adjacent Channel Offset You can set the value for adjacent channel offset which is used to calculate interference.
Use Frequency Hopping If you want to scale the interference levels by the Fractional Load of the interferer when
generating interference arrays, select YES.
Use Frequency Diversity If you want to add a gain to the serving cell signal to simulate the diversity improvement in C/I
(related to the number of hopping frequencies), select YES.
Use DTX If you want to use DTX factors when creating interference arrays, select YES.
Use Antenna Hopping If you want to scale the interference levels by the Antenna Hopping gain, (where enabled on
the cells), select YES.
To edit the parameters, double-click the appropriate item in the Values column.
Parameter Description
Number of Snapshots A snapshot represents an individual component within the simulation process. For each
snapshot, specified densities of user terminals are positioned in statistically determined
locations. The ability of each terminal to make its connection to the network is calculated
through an iterative process. The performance of the network is then analysed from the
averaged results.
Intra-Site Correlation Coefficient The correlation between fades (for a terminal) to cells on the same node.
Inter-Site Correlation Coefficient The correlation between fades (for a terminal) to cells on different nodes.
Max Power Change (%) Set the Max. Power Change (%) convergence parameter to set the 'stabilisation' target for
each snapshot. This limits the number of iterations per snapshot.
If the percentage change in total uplink and total downlink interference (summed over all cells)
changes by an amount smaller than this target value for 15 consecutive iterations, then the
iterations are deemed to have converged.
Only Scan Where Traffic Exists If you want to only scan pixels where traffic exists (a valid traffic raster must be in memory),
select YES.
Pilot Pollution Threshold The simulation can output an array that shows the average number of pilot polluters at any
location, as determined by the threshold that you set here (xdB).
This threshold determines the relative margin below the best Ec/Io within which a cell qualifies
as a pilot polluter.
The exact definition of pilot polluters for UMTS in ASSET is:
The number of cells not in the active set, but providing an Ec/Io level within xdB of the best
Ec/Io in the active set. The threshold is relative. The default value is 6dB.
Power Control Standard The error due to imperfect power control in dB, which can be used to influence the simulation
Deviation results. It is recommended that this parameter is set to zero.
In a real network, imperfect power control produces a (log-normal) distribution of achieved
Eb/No values for successfully served terminals. One consequence might be a higher uplink
noise rise. If a non-zero value is entered here, the simulation models this effect by including
uncorrelated log-normal errors on the UL and DL transmit powers. Errors are applied only after
all other handover gains and margins have been considered.
Chip Rate The chip rate of the system to be simulated. This value is used in combination with the service
bit rate to calculate the processing gain for a service.
Orthogonality Factor per Clutter If you have specified values for orthogonality per clutter type in the Clutter Parameters dialog
Type box, you have the option here to enable them to be used in the simulation. To do this, select
YES.
If this is set to NO, the orthogonality factor used by the Simulator is the generic value on the
Cell Params tab in the Site Database.
HSDPA Scheduling You can select one of the scheduling strategies: Round Robin, Max Ec/Io, or Proportionally
Fair.
Only the terminals that support HSDPA will be sorted, even if they do not end up using an
HSDPA bearer.
The HSDPA power for a cell is specified on the Cell Params tab in the Site Database.
If you use Non-Dynamic, an HSDPA user (or a number of users if code multiplexing is
enabled) will be served with the HSDPA Power value, regardless of their location relative
to the cell.
If you use Dynamic, HSDPA users will be served either with the HSDPA power value, or
(if it is lower) the available power on the cell. Therefore, with this method, you should
ensure that the HSDPA power value is set accurately.
Use Neighbour Lists If you want to restrict handovers to your defined neighbours, select YES.
If this is set to NO, handovers can potentially occur between any cells.
To edit the parameters, double-click the appropriate item in the Values column.
Parameter Description
Number of Snapshots A snapshot represents an individual component within the simulation process. For each
snapshot, specified densities of user terminals are positioned in statistically determined
locations. The ability of each terminal to make its connection to the network is calculated
through an iterative process. The performance of the network is then analysed from the
averaged results.
Intra-Site Correlation Coefficient The correlation between fades (for a terminal) to sectors on the same site.
Inter-Site Correlation Coefficient The correlation between fades (for a terminal) to sectors on different sites.
Max Power Change (%) Set the Max. Power Change (%) convergence parameter to set the 'stabilisation' target for
each snapshot. This limits the number of iterations per snapshot.
If the percentage change in total uplink and total downlink interference (summed over all
sectors) changes by an amount smaller than this target value for 15 consecutive iterations,
then the iterations are deemed to have converged.
Only Scan Where Traffic Exists If you want to only scan pixels where traffic exists (a valid traffic raster must be in memory),
select YES.
Pilot Pollution Threshold The simulation can output an array that shows the average number of pilot polluters at any
location, as determined by the threshold that you set here (xdB).
This threshold determines the relative margin below the best Ec/Io within which a cell qualifies
as a pilot polluter.
The exact definition of pilot polluters for CDMA2000 or EV-DO in ASSET is:
The number of sectors not in the active set, but providing an Ec/Io level higher than xdB. The
threshold is absolute. The default value is -15dB.
Power Control Standard The error due to imperfect power control in dB, which can be used to influence the simulation
Deviation results. It is recommended that this parameter is set to zero.
In a real network, imperfect power control produces a (log-normal) distribution of achieved
Eb/Nt values for successfully served terminals. One consequence might be a higher uplink
noise rise. If a non-zero value is entered here, the simulation models this effect by including
uncorrelated log-normal errors on the UL and DL transmit powers. Errors are applied only after
all other handover gains and margins have been considered.
Orthogonality Factor per Clutter If you have specified values for orthogonality per clutter type in the Clutter Parameters dialog
Type box, you have the option here to enable them to be used in the simulation. To do this, select
YES.
To edit the parameters, double-click the appropriate item in the Values column.
Parameter Description
Number of Snapshots A snapshot represents an individual component within the simulation process. For each
snapshot, specified densities of user terminals are positioned in statistically determined
locations. The ability of each terminal to make its connection to the network is calculated
through an iterative process. The performance of the network is then analysed from the
averaged results.
Intra-Site Correlation Coefficient The correlation between fades (for a terminal) to cells on the same node.
Inter-Site Correlation Coefficient The correlation between fades (for a terminal) to cells on different nodes.
Max Power Change (%) Set the Max. Power Change (%) convergence parameter to set the 'stabilisation' target for
each snapshot. This limits the number of iterations per snapshot.
If the percentage change in total uplink and total downlink interference (summed over all
cells) changes by an amount smaller than this target value for 15 consecutive iterations, then
the iterations are deemed to have converged.
Only Scan Where Traffic Exists If you want to only scan pixels where traffic exists (a valid traffic raster must be in memory),
select YES.
To edit the parameters, double-click the appropriate item in the Values column.
Parameter Description
Number of Snapshots A snapshot represents an individual component within the simulation process. For each
snapshot, specified densities of user terminals are positioned in statistically determined
locations. The ability of each terminal to make its connection to the network is calculated
through an iterative process. The performance of the network is then analysed from the
averaged results.
Intra-Site Correlation Coefficient The correlation between fades (for a terminal) to cells on the same node.
Inter-Site Correlation Coefficient The correlation between fades (for a terminal) to cells on different nodes.
Max Power Change (%) Set the Max. Power Change (%) convergence parameter to set the 'stabilisation' target for
each snapshot. This limits the number of iterations per snapshot.
If the percentage change in total uplink and total downlink interference (summed over all cells)
changes by an amount smaller than this target value for 15 consecutive iterations, then the
iterations are deemed to have converged.
Only Scan Where Traffic Exists If you want to only scan pixels where traffic exists (a valid traffic raster must be in memory),
select YES.
The options may vary according to the technology that you are using.
To define the options:
1 Within the left-hand pane of the Optimiser Workflow, click Settings.
2 On the Auto Plan Setup tab, set the required options for the appropriate
technology, as described in the following topic.
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in
the Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow
dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state
(if such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users of the project,
click Commit
The options may vary according to the technology that you are using.
Parameters Description
Handover Hysteresis Margin This margin is used to determine which cells interact with other cells in each pixel.
For example, if the margin is set to 3dB, an interacting cell can be defined as 'a cell
whose signal strength is within 3dB of the Best Serving signal at that pixel'.
For each pixel, the threshold parameter/s (in next row) must also be satisfied.
Signal Threshold (GSM) Only pixels containing values (signal strengths or quality, as appropriate) equal to
or higher than the threshold will be included, providing the Search Area Margin is
Signal & Quality Thresholds (all other also satisfied.
technologies)
All pixels below the threshold will be excluded.
In the case of UMTS, CDMA/EV-DO, WiMAX and LTE, the signal and the
quality thresholds must both be satisfied.
Neighbour Planning margin (dB) Within the search area, on a pixel-by-pixel basis, the wizard finds potential target
cells. The difference between the power of the source cell and target cell is
calculated. This value is then compared to the margin, and the difference is
converted into an interaction probability factor (based on a normal distribution
formula). These factors are summed to find the net interaction probability for each
target cell on the whole search area. Based on the qualifying criteria (in the next
rows), the wizard creates a list of valid target cells for each source cell.
Maximum number of covering cells The maximum number of target cells that are considered at each pixel during the
calculations. On a pixel-by-pixel basis, this parameter determines how many 'sets'
of covering cell data is to be evaluated for potential interacting cells.
Maximum distance In order to qualify as a valid target cell, a target cell must be within this specified
distance.
Maximum number of neighbouring cells The maximum number of target cells that can qualify as valid interacting cells for
the source cell. (The overlapping percentage ranking determines which cells
qualify).
In the case of LTE, this value comes from the cell-specific values defined on
the Neighbours tab in the Site Database.
Minimum number of neighbouring cells This option can be used to ensure a minimum number of interacting cells for each
source cell, even if the percentage (in next row) is not attained. This parameter is
activated by the associated checkbox.
If you do not use this differentiation, all your network elements will be
considered as existing.
Status fields represent a very crucial part of ENTERPRISE, and can be used for a
variety of reasons, for example to track the network deployment phase of network
elements. It is probable that your project administrator has already set up most of the
fields for your project.
If you want to use this functionality, you should request that your administrator sets
up a special field dedicated for this purpose (unless your organisation has already
decided to use one of the existing fields for this).
A simple example would be a field named 'State (Existing or New)' with Pick-list
options of 'Existing' and 'New'.
For information on how to set up fields, see the ENTERPRISE Installation and
Administration Guide.
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, click Settings.
5 In the State pane, select the field state(s) that you want to indicate a new element.
Here is an example:
6 Select the respective checkbox(es) if you want your new and/or existing network
elements to be initially considered as OFF when creating a new plan.
A plan can include both new and existing network elements; the purpose of these
options is to enable you to specify one or both categories as OFF.
If you do not select either option, the created plan will initially consider all
elements as ON (in effect, it makes no distinction between new and existing
elements).
All changes that you make on this tab are automatically saved to the database in the
Applied state, and the changes will persist when you close the Workflow dialog box.
However, if appropriate, you can carry out one of the following actions:
If you want to restore the options on this tab to the previous committed state (if
such a state exists), click Restore
If you want to share the changes on this tab with all other users, click Commit
This action will also Commit all the Applied changes in the ASSET tool, not only
in the Site Database, but also in all other dialog boxes.
To do this:
From the Database menu, click Global Commit All:
If other people are logged into the same database as you, it is possible that they have
Committed changes to network element(s) that you are now trying to commit. If this
happens, you are prompted either to cancel the Commit or to continue, overriding
their Committed data with your own changes.
A default set of formats already exists in any new project. These formats are
already mapped to each report type, so if you are satisfied with the default reports,
you do not need to do anything (neither in ENTERPRISE Administrator nor in
ADVANTAGE).
If you need to view or modify the mapping relationships, you can use the ACP &
Financial Analysis Reports Assignment dialog box.
To open this dialog box:
From the Reports menu, click ACP & Financial Analysis Reports Assignment.
There is also a context menu, which you can access by right-clicking on the
icon of the appropriate Plan. This provides quick access to the same options as most
of the main buttons, but also provides extra options. For more information, see Using
the Context Menu on page 119.
Plans are categorised by the icon. Delta plans are categorised by the icon.
These options are visual 'filters' that help you to distinguish which plan(s) you are
working with.
The 'Created By Me' option always lists the plans that you (the logged in User ID)
have created.
The 'All Plans' option always lists all existing plans, regardless of who created them.
The 'Used' option requires a more detailed description:
The concept behind the 'Used' option is that, generally speaking, only one individual
would be working with a particular plan at any one time. This would avoid 'multi-
user' problems if you are intending to work iteratively with a plan, making
progressive changes toward a new plan which has the potential to improve the
quality of your network.
However, it is possible, if required, for a plan to be 'used' by more than one person.
When this is the situation, the Action-Constraints are viewable but not editable, and
the plan cannot be deleted.
When you create a plan, it automatically becomes 'used' by you. However, it is
possible to turn this status on/off, using the Toggle option in the context menu. In a
similar way, any user who did not create the plan, can use the Toggle option to
activate his/her 'used' status for that plan. The option can therefore be used to hand
over the 'use' of the plan to a different single user, or (if explicitly required) it can be
used to share the 'use' of the plan amongst multiple users.
In situations where you may want multiple users to work on the same plan, but have
the freedom to edit the Action-Constraints for that plan, you can utilise the Duplicate
option. This enables different users to 'branch off' from the same original plan into
potentially different proposed network plans. It also enables you to work on a copy of
an existing plan, so that you can experiment with different Action-Constraints, while
still retaining the original plan.
Important :
When creating a plan, two of the steps are crucial in determining which cells will
be included: (i) specifying the region and (ii) selecting the site/cell filter(s).
A further (optional) step enables you to select specific vectors and/or drive test
routes, which can be useful if you want to precisely define the pixels that will be
included in the metrics evaluation. This is an important way of focusing the
optimisation calculations, but it does not (for example, in the case of a polygon)
determine which cells are included.
4 Click the Plan Setup button, then click the Plan Setup option.
5 In the Plan Wizard that appears, type a name for the plan.
If required, you can select an existing plan as a template. For information on this,
see the following section.
Click Next.
Click Next.
7 Select one or more filters to determine which sites/nodes and cells are to be
considered in the plan.
Click Next.
8 The next step of the wizard enables you to select the appropriate Action-
Constraints templates on a filter basis.
Anything you edit here can be modified after creating the plan, using the
Action-Constraints dialog box. In fact, if preferred, you can skip this step now, and
do it later, as described in Using the Action-Constraints Dialog Box on page 127.
Use the Add button to specify each filter-template combination. (You can delete a
row by clicking .) Here is an example:
Where appropriate, you can use the up and down arrows to set the filter
priorities. Only one template (per mechanism) can be assigned to a filter.
Therefore, in cases where an object exists in more than one filter in this dialog box,
the filter priority number is important in determining which template is assigned.
If required, you can check the contents of the relevant filter by clicking .
If you want to restrict the optimisation to particular vectors, select the Use Vectors
checkbox and then specify the vectors under the System or User folders, as
appropriate.
- and/or -
If you want to restrict the optimisation and/or analysis to a drive test route, select
the appropriate vectors from the Measurements folder.
You can subsequently modify the restriction selections at any time, by right-
clicking on the plan in the Plan Manager of the Workflow, and selecting Edit
Vectors.
10 Click the Finish button.
There is also a button on the main ADVANTAGE toolbar which enables you to
create a 'Quick Plan' based on an open Map View, enabling you to short-cut some of
the processes. For more information on this, see Creating a Quick Plan from a Map
View on page 114.
Any cells that were in the original 'template' plan, but not captured by the region
and filters for the new plan, are always excluded from the new plan. Conversely, if
there are cells in the new plan that did not exist in the original 'template' plan, they
would need their action-constraints to be edited in the Action-Constraints dialog box
(in the usual way).
2 In the horizontal toolbar of the Map View, click the 'Plan Setup' button
(alternatively, click on the View and press Ctrl-U).
3 The Action-Constraints dialog box appears, so that you can edit the actions and
constraints for the new plan. For more information, see About the Action-
Constraints Dialog Box on page 124.
4 In the Workflow dialog box, the new plan appears in the Plan Manager list. The
plan name is automatically set, but you can right-click on it and rename it, if
required.
When using this 'Quick Plan' method, any vectors that are visible within the
relevant Map View will automatically be added to the resulting plan definition, but
these vector selections can then be amended.
Furthermore, the Auto Plan Setup can then automatically determine the geographic
area that should be taken into consideration during analysis and optimisation of the
resultant plan. The algorithm builds a list of all cells contained within the plan that
have any 'non-Read-Only' Action-Constraints Templates associated with them. It then
finds all pixels where any of these cells provides a signal strength above the relevant
signal threshold defined on the Auto Plan Setup tab of the Settings page in the
Workflow. An enclosed vector (polygon) is then created around all these pixels.
In summary, the main benefits of this method are:
The 'tiered' filters are recommended automatically (and they are independent of
currently existing filters). These tiered filters can be considered as a form of cell
'hierarchy' in terms of what can happen in the optimisation.
This is based on a cell identification algorithm that uses the settings under the
Auto Plan Setup tab in the Settings page of the Workflow. For more information,
see Configuring the Settings for Auto Plan Setup on page 98.
The templates in the Action-Constraints dialog box are assigned based on the
previous sequence of assignments in this dialog box, which creates consistency for
iterative use of the Auto Plan Setup.
You can manually override these recommendations (if you have the relevant
permissions).
The geographic area for the eventual evaluation of the plan can be automatically
determined.
You can edit any of the filter selections and/or template assignments by clicking
in the Filter column or in any of the planning mechanism columns. You can also
edit any of the Action-Constraints Templates (in the normal way) by clicking the
Manage Templates button.
You can use the button if you need to specify more filter-template
combination rows, and you can delete rows by clicking .
Where appropriate, you can use the up and down arrows to set the filter
priorities. Only one template (per mechanism) can be assigned to a filter.
Therefore, in cases where an object might exist in more than one filter in this
dialog box, the filter priority order is important in determining which template is
assigned.
You can only do this if a valid Reference Terminal Type has been specified on
the Strategy page of the Optimiser Workflow.
If you select this option, the Auto Plan Setup will run the restriction polygon
algorithm and store the associated vector.
The new vector subsequently appears in the ACP folder in the Vector Manager
and in the Map View data types list (where it can be visualised).
Click Next.
8 If required, you can restrict optimisation calculations to vectors to make
calculations faster and more focused, by concentrating on the improvement of
specific areas and/or drive test routes.
If you want to restrict the optimisation to particular vectors, select the Use Vectors
checkbox and then specify the vectors under the System or User folders, as
appropriate.
- and/or -
If you selected the 'Create Restriction Polygon' in the previous step, the 'Use
Restriction Polygon' checkbox will be already selected, but you have the option to
deselect it.
- and/or -
If you want to restrict the optimisation and/or analysis to a drive test route, select
the appropriate vectors from the Measurements folder.
You can subsequently modify any of the restriction selections at any time, by
right-clicking on the plan in the Plan Manager of the Workflow, and selecting Edit
Vectors.
There is also an option to launch the Auto Plan Setup by clicking the Plan Setup
button (and then the Auto Plan Setup option) on the Workflow dialog box. If you do
this, you need to confirm (or specify) the region and select the site/cell filters. The key
difference is that you can select filters not currently displayed on the Map View.
If you use Selection Planning and/or you use Object/Action Costs, the Element
Status tab is very important, because it enables you to choose which status field you
want to use to differentiate between new network elements and existing network
elements. This provides two benefits in plan creation:
Improved Selection Planning: The Optimiser can start from a realistic snapshot of
the existing network, because new elements will not be initially switched 'ON'.
Improved Cost Modelling: The Optimiser only considers action costs (for actions
such as azimuth changes) for elements that already exist.
If you do not use this differentiation, all your network elements will be considered
as existing.
For more information, see Specifying a Field to Differentiate New/Existing Elements
on page 100.
This not only provides quick access to the same options as most of the main buttons,
but also provides extra options:
Option Available for Description/Comments
Action-Constraints Plans See Using the Action-Constraints Dialog Box on page 127.
Edit Vectors Plans and delta plans Enables you to modify the vector selection for a plan.
Summary Plans Shows the included cells, the planning region (size, location,
resolution).
The other items displayed (including the nodes or sites) depend on which other
items are selected in the Data Types (this may also depend whether a Favourite View
has been initially displayed). This plan viewing option does not discriminate in terms
of nodes/sites; it simply visualises the planning region.
3 If you have modified one of the visual options (Apply Sampling, Properties), you
need to click the Redraw button to refresh the Map View.
The user interface of the Action-Constraints dialog box is designed to help you. The
two main guiding factors are the colour distinctions and the checking facility:
Checking Facility
The Check button is extremely useful for automatically verifying that the plan's
action-constraints are valid, and ready for the optimisation to run.
For example, it can show you:
How many 'Degrees of Freedom' are in the plan, according to the current state of
the Action-Constraints. This value emanates from the amount of variables in the
plan. This picture represents a plan where fifteen of the antennas can each
undergo a possible azimuth change:
If there are no degrees of freedom, then the optimisation will not be allowed to
run.
The feedback may display an error or a warning, for example:
Errors will not allow the optimisation to run; warnings will allow it to run, but the
message is aimed at making you aware of the situation.
It is recommended that you make full use of all these guiding factors in this
section to ensure everything is set up correctly before optimising any plan.
In one of the rows, the Fixed checkbox for the Azimuth action-constraint is
selected. Therefore, when the optimisation is run, no azimuth changes will be
considered for that particular antenna in that row.
The above principles are true whether the Action-Constraints dialog box is edited
manually or by using Template Assignments. With specific regard to changes
made to the Action-Constraints values by assignment from Templates, you should
note the following:
For each planning mechanism (Antenna/Power/Grid), there is a Read Only
template available. When this is assigned to a filter, all the 'Fixed' checkboxes
(for the objects in the associated filter, and independently for each mechanism)
become automatically selected in the Action-Constraints dialog box.
When you create a template, it is likely that you will not have selected all the
potential action-constraints in that template. When you assign that template to
a filter, the 'Fixed' checkboxes for the action-constraints that were unselected in
the template become automatically selected in the Action-Constraints dialog
box (for the objects in the associated filter and independently for each
mechanism).
The action-constraints of any Plans which already have Delta Plans are always in
Read-Only format.
If you are only intending to analyse a Plan, you may not need to edit the action-
constraints.
You can edit the Action-Constraints for an optimisation Plan. To do this:
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, select Plan Manager.
When you have finished making changes in the Action-Constraints dialog box,
you must always click 'Apply', in order to save the changes.
For the Section headings, when you click , you can perform this viewing option:
Show/hide columns (within the section)
For the Column headings, when you click , you can perform these viewing options:
Show/hide column
Sort ascending
Sort descending
Show all rows
Filter (gives option to show only the rows containing a chosen value in column)
Show/Hide button
Whichever method(s) you use, you must always click 'Apply' in the Action-
Constraints dialog box, when you have finished, in order to save the changes.
Important :
These filters only display the cells included in the plan when it was created.
Therefore, they are intrinsically 'subsets' of the corresponding filters that you
would view in the Site Database.
Different filters can be selected for each planning mechanism.
Each time you open a project, the filters in this dialog box will always default
to the filter specified on the Filters tab of the Preferences dialog box, under the
File menu.
You can employ functionality similar to that in Microsoft® Excel®, such as:
Copying and pasting single/multiple values within the dialog box
Copying and Pasting values directly to and from Excel
Pressing the Ctrl-Shift-DownArrow/UpArrow keys (as a quick method of
highlighting an active column)
Height Variation
If you want to use height variation, select the checkbox. This defines whether the
heights for individual antennas may differ at a specific Property (for GSM, this option
is cell layer-specific).
If height variation is not selected, all antennas on the same cell layer (GSM) or all
carriers at this Property (all other technologies) must be at the same height. However,
GSM cells for different cell layers, or cells of different technologies (for example, GSM
and UMTS) can still have antennas with heights different from each other.
If this is enabled, the respective initial power values for the associated cells must
be the same in order for changes to be considered by the Optimiser. If the initial
power values are not the same, then this constraint will not be applicable and will be
ignored.
The selection planning options can also be set up using the Grid Planning Action-
Constraints Template, as described in Configuring Action-Constraints for Grid
Planning on page 144.
None No effect.
List Sites can be moved to specified locations (corresponding to the Candidate Properties and/or 'co-
ordinate only' locations defined in the Site Database).
Search Step Sites can be moved to locations determined by globally generated grid co-ordinates, as defined in the
Grid Planning Action-Constraints Template.
Both Both of the above can be considered.
You should make full use of these templates so that you avoid duplication of
constraints that may be generic to all plans. In other words, you should avoid
spending time setting many constraints directly in the Action-Constraints dialog box,
if there is a high chance that you will be using those action-constraints for other plans.
Example of the options available within the Actions Constraints Template Editor
1 Open the Optimiser Workflow by clicking the shortcut button on the main
ADVANTAGE toolbar.
2 In the left-hand pane, select Plan Manager.
For details on the different planning actions and constraints that you can
configure, see one of the following sections:
Configuring Action-Constraints Templates for Antenna Planning on page 136
Configuring Action-Constraints Templates for Power Planning on page 139
Configuring Action-Constraints Templates for Grid Planning on page 144
4 Click the next action or constraint that you want to configure, and in the right
hand pane edit the values as appropriate.
You can configure any combination of actions or constraints in the same template.
For example, a template can contain both Antenna Planning and Power Planning
actions or constraints.
5 When you have configured all of the actions and constraints that you require, click
OK, and then, in the Action-Constraints dialog box, click Close.
6 You can now assign this (or any other) template to objects on a 'filter-specific' basis
in the Action-Constraints dialog box, as described in Assigning Action-Constraints
Templates to Objects on page 147.
To locate a particular antenna device or pattern, type the name in the Find pane, and click
Find.
To restrict what is displayed to just the selected items, click Show Selected. To undo this, click
Show All.
Electrical Downtilt Enable the electrical downtilt of the antenna to be changed:
Change Step indicates the allowed step of change (in degrees).
Max Change defines the maximum permitted change from the respective original value in the
Site Database (in degrees).
Total Downtilt must also be selected, unless Mechanical Downtilt is considered and the Total
Downtilt is to remain unchanged.
For an optimisation to consider electrical downtilt changes, the appropriate antenna patterns
(for each antenna device) need to be set up in the Cellular Antennas dialog box.
Mechanical Downtilt Enable the mechanical downtilt of the antenna to be changed:
Min Value sets the minimum mechanical downtilt that is permitted (in degrees). Any downtilts
below the minimum will not be modified in the optimisation.
Max Value sets the maximum mechanical downtilt that is permitted (in degrees). Any
downtilts above the maximum will not be modified in the optimisation.
Change Step indicates the allowed step of change (in degrees).
Max Change defines the maximum permitted change from the respective original value in the
Site Database.
Total Downtilt must also be selected, unless Electrical Downtilt is considered and the Total
Downtilt is to remain unchanged.
Total Downtilt Enable the total downtilt (electrical plus mechanical) of the antenna to be changed:
Min Value sets the minimum total downtilt that is permitted (in degrees). Any downtilts below
the minimum will not be modified in the optimisation.
Max Value sets the maximum total downtilt that is permitted (in degrees). Any downtilts
above the maximum will not be modified in the optimisation.
Azimuth Enable the azimuth of the antenna to be changed:
Change Step indicates the allowed step of change (in degrees).
Max Change defines the maximum permitted change (in degrees).
Min Diff at Same Height specifies the minimum permitted angular distance (in degrees) that
has to be maintained if antennas for the same technology and cell layer (if applicable) are
positioned at the same height.
Height Enable the height of the antenna to be changed:
Min Value sets the minimum antenna height that is permitted (in m). Any antennas below the
minimum will not be modified in the optimisation.
Max Value sets the maximum antenna height that is permitted (in m). Any antennas above
the maximum will not be modified in the optimisation.
Change Step indicates the allowed step of change (in m).
Max Change defines the maximum permitted change from the respective original value in the
Site Database (in m).
If you want the Optimiser to consider a network configuration that allows antenna
sharing (implicit or explicit), you must ensure the option is enabled
on the Antenna Constraints tab for the relevant Properties in the Site Database. For
more information, see Configuring Property Antenna Constraints on page 42. There
are also options related to antenna sharing within the Settings. For more information,
see Specifying the Settings on page 90.
Whenever antennas are shared, the number of actions and respective action costs
are considered appropriately, and are only counted once for the same physical
antenna object. For example, a mechanical tilt change to an antenna shared between
two cells would only be counted once.
If you have selected PA Output Power, the constraints described in this table become
active:
This Constraint Enables You To
Min Value (dBm) Set the minimum power that is permitted (in dBm).
Max Value (dBm) Set the maximum power that is permitted (in dBm).
Change Step (dB) Set the permitted step of power change (in dB).
Max Change (dB) Set the maximum permitted change from the current value in the cell (in dB).
Changes Allowed Define how the current value will be allowed to change within the set ranges:
'Any' allows both higher and lower values to be examined during the optimisation.
'Only decreases' just allows lower power settings to be examined.
'Only increases' just allows higher power settings to be examined.
ff
When defining GSM power planning actions and constraints, you should
remember the following:
The original parameter settings (for example, BTS equipment types) are always
included in the optimisation.
Any power parameters with values outside the {min, max} range set in the
respective constraints will not be changed during the optimisation.
Certain actions/constraints depend on specified performance metrics and/or cost
mechanisms. For example, the BTS Type action and constraint may have an effect
on the performance costs, providing that the PA Output Power option is also
considered.
When this is selected, the Change Step and the Changes Allowed become read-only,
and the values that you set for the Max TX Power are used instead.
Changes Allowed Define how the current value will be allowed to change within the set ranges:
'Any' allows both higher and lower values to be examined during the optimisation.
'Only decreases' just allows lower power settings to be examined.
'Only increases' just allows higher power settings to be examined.
When configuring UMTS power planning actions and constraints, you should
remember the following:
The original parameter settings (for example, Node equipment types) are always
included in the optimisation.
Any power parameters with values outside the {min, max} range set in the
respective constraints will not be changed during the optimisation.
Certain actions/constraints depend on specified performance metrics and/or cost
mechanisms. For example, the Max Power per User or the Node Type option may
have an effect on the performance costs, if you choose to use the service-based cost
mechanism in the optimisation.
When you are using the Fixed % of Max TX Power checkbox (for Pilot Power,
HSDPA Power or Max Power Per User):
You should ensure that all the values you set for the Max TX Power planning
action are compatible with your overall objectives
If optimising HSDPA Powers, cells will be considered for HSDPA power
optimisation only if they are enabled for HSDPA (and have a Node Type that
supports HSDPA) and you choose to use the service-based cost mechanism in
the optimisation
If the Fixed Ratio and/or Uniform Power constraint has been enabled, the
Optimiser will not change the Node Type from one that supports HSDPA to one
that does not, and vice versa.
If a cell considered by the Optimiser cannot support HSDPA (in other words, none
of its available Node Types support HSDPA or it is not supported on the cell), the
Optimiser will not allow any changes to the HSDPA Power and will not consider
the HSDPA-specific Fixed Ratio and Uniform Power constraints for this cell.
If you have selected any of the above power planning actions, the constraints
described in this table become active:
This Constraint Enables You To
Min Value (dBm) Set the minimum power that is permitted (in dBm).
Max Value (dBm) Set the maximum power that is permitted (in dBm).
Change Step (dB) Set the permitted step of power change (in dB).
Max Change (dB) Set the maximum permitted change from the current value in the cell (in dB).
Changes Allowed Define how the current value will be allowed to change within the set ranges:
'Any' allows both higher and lower values to be examined during the optimisation.
'Only decreases' just allows lower power settings to be examined.
'Only increases' just allows higher power settings to be examined.
If you have selected the above power planning action, the constraints described in this
table become active:
This Constraint Enables You To
Min Value (dBm) Set the minimum power that is permitted (in dBm).
Max Value (dBm) Set the maximum power that is permitted (in dBm).
Change Step (dB) Set the permitted step of power change (in dB).
Max Change (dB) Set the maximum permitted change from the current value in the cell (in dB).
Changes Allowed Define how the current value will be allowed to change within the set ranges:
'Any' allows both higher and lower values to be examined during the optimisation.
'Only decreases' just allows lower power settings to be examined.
'Only increases' just allows higher power settings to be examined.
When configuring LTE power planning actions and constraints, you should
remember the following:
The original parameter settings are always included in the optimisation.
Any power parameters with values outside the {min, max} range set in the
respective constraints will not be changed during the optimisation.
In order for the Optimiser to start, the initial locations for the sites associated with
a Grid template must satisfy the Min/Max Inter-site Distance or the Forbidden Areas
option if selected (unless the ignore options are chosen).
Min and Max Inter-site Distance Specify the minimum and maximum acceptable distance (in m) between any Property-
Property pairs that are first-order neighbour pairs (in other words, nominal-nominal,
nominal-candidate or candidate-candidate) considered in a plan.
You can then choose to modify the way that nominal-nominal first-order neighbour pairs
are considered, by selecting to:
Ignore the minimum and maximum distances during optimisation
Ignore the minimum and maximum distances during the first optimisation iteration
only
Candidate Locations Enable candidate locations to be examined in the optimisation. These candidate
locations can be those:
Specified in the Site Database Grid Constraints tab for each considered nominal
Property
Generated by an algorithm that takes into account either the Property-specific
value (as defined in the search area for a Property), or a global radius distance
and a step distance (as defined in the template)
If the number of globally generated locations exceeds 100 per Property, a warning
message is produced so that the step value is then adjusted (either automatically or
manually).
Forbidden Areas Define areas that should not be considered as potential site locations, including the
original (Site Database) nominal Properties.
Ignore forbidden areas for nominal Ignore forbidden locations for nominal Properties during optimisation.
Properties
If required, the option to set a site as 'Site Always Active' can be used in Site Planning, but it means
that the site would, in effect, be 'read-only'.
Sector Sector can be switched ON or OFF individually, according to the sector configurations on the Grid
Constraints tab for the site in the Site Database.
Sector planning cannot be used unless allowable configurations have been generated on the Grid
Constraints tab.
The option to set a site as 'Site Always Active' can be used to ensure that at least one sector of that
site always remains active.
Property All sites of a Property can be switched ON or OFF (= all its sites and their cells ON, or all its sites and their
cells OFF).
This option only has an effect where there are two or more sites co-located on the same Property
(otherwise site selection should be used).
Whenever you select or de-select this option, all the sites co-located on that Property are always updated
consistently. This is so that the Property option can never be inconsistently selected for co-located sites.
All the other network level options behave independently between co-located sites.
Any site set as 'Site Always Active' can be used in Property planning. However, if all of a Property's
sites are set as always active, the Optimiser would have no flexibility for that Property.
Site Always Active Sites that are assigned with this option are always used in every solution the Optimiser generates. This
means that the site will never be 'switched off' during optimisations.
The way that this option may affect Selection Planning (Site, Sector, Property) is described in each of the
rows above.
Where appropriate, you can use the up and down arrows to set the filter
priorities. Only one template can be assigned to an object. Therefore, in cases
where an object might exist in more than one filter in this dialog box, the filter
priority number is important in determining which template is assigned.
When you have finished, you can close the Action-Constraints dialog box.
There are three points you should note regarding template assignments. Two of
these points relate to default templates that are always available to you (these are in
addition to the templates that are user-defined):
Read Only template - when this is assigned to a filter, all the 'Fixed' checkboxes (for
the objects in the associated filter) become automatically selected in the Action-
Constraints dialog box.
Unchanged template - when this is assigned to a filter, nothing is changed (for the
objects in the associated filter) in the Action-Constraints dialog box. This option is
necessary because you may want, for example, to assign a template for just one or
two planning mechanisms, and leave the other(s) unchanged.
All templates (read only, leave unchanged and user-defined) are assigned
separately to each individual planning mechanism. Therefore, the above points are
valid independently for each mechanism.
For more specific information about the 'Fixed' columns, see About the Fixed
Columns for the Action-Constraints on page 126.
If you want to reassign some of your currently assigned templates, but not all, you
can change the template selection in the Action-Constraints dialog box to 'Custom' on
the objects that you don't want to modify, before pressing the above button.
There are some key differences between the Temp Apply/UnApply and the Apply
to Database options. For more information, see Key Differences between Temp Apply
and DB Apply on page 152.
In the normal way, if required, you can use the Restore All option after using
Apply to Database, but please note that this will restore the database back to the last
Committed configuration, which may lead to:
Any previously Applied changes in the Site Database being lost (in the normal
way)
A configuration in the Site Database that is different from the plan that you
created to start with (because the plan, once created in the Plan Manager, is
independent of subsequent database changes)
To apply a plan:
1 Within the left-hand pane of the Workflow, select Plan Manager.
There are some key differences between the Temp Apply/UnApply and the Apply
to Database options. For more information, see the following section.
To temporarily apply a plan:
1 In the left-hand pane of the Workflow, select Plan Manager.
You will see the appropriate cell parameters temporarily modified in the Site
Database window, but the whole Site Database is in a read-only state.
The read-only state will remain in place until you decide to revert to the previous
configuration in the database. To do this:
1 Select the appropriate plan.
2 Click the Temp UnApply button.
The database is now reverted to its previous configuration, and the Site Database
window is active again.
You cannot delete a plan if it is 'in use' by more than one user.
Optimising a Network
The Optimiser Workflow enables you to perform the vast majority of tasks within
ADVANTAGE from a single dialog box. This incorporates the setting up of
parameters, costs, constraints and targets, and generation of optimisation Plans.
It comprises a number of main options in the left hand pane, and each of these
enables you to access a range of specific options that are displayed in the right-hand
pane.
This chapter focuses on how to run an optimisation, and how to interpret the
feedback.
To start the Optimiser Workflow:
From the Optimiser menu, click Workflow
- or -
For a problem cell related optimisation, you must run Problem Cell Identification
and/or define cell-specific weights.
This then enables you to start an optimisation.
3 Select the appropriate plan, and click the Optimise button. The Optimiser dialog
box appears:
4 Set the minimum time interval for the 'best cost value' plan to be saved (at each
time interval, a new delta plan is saved only if the best cost value is less than the
previous saved value). To do this, in the Delta Plan Writing Interval edit box, type
the number of minutes and click Set.
At the point where you stop the optimisation, an additional delta plan is saved
(according to the same criteria above), as if the next time interval had been
reached.
5 If you want to view statistics information using the Statistics Graph, Statistics
Details or Report buttons, ensure that the Calculate Statistics checkbox is selected.
6 To start the Optimiser, click Start.
The Optimiser starts running, and can be monitored.
After stopping the Optimiser, you can still view the data it displays and the
feedback graphs. This data and the graphs are available until you close the Optimiser
dialog box. The data in the Optimisation Report, on the other hand, is still available
until you start another optimisation.
You can use this feedback to assess whether a satisfactory cost value has been
achieved, and also to see the pattern of values generated by the Optimiser.
To select what information is shown on the graph, click Series, and in the dialog box
that appears, select the required categories of information. Then click OK.
To zoom in on a particular section of the graph:
1 Click and hold down the left mouse button on the graph where one corner of the
required section will be and drag the mouse to create a box.
2 Release the mouse button.
To zoom back out, right-click.
To create another graph, click New Graph.
If you are starting from a delta plan, you can view statistics from the previous
optimisation by clicking Show History.
To get details of different cost values besides the current ones, ensure that the Log
states option is selected.
This picture shows an example:
You can also use this information to check the entire optimisation setup after an
optimisation has started. For example, you can ensure that the weights and multiplier
coefficients are correctly configured and that the optimisation targets are realistic and
can be met.
If appropriate, you can choose to optimise a delta plan. If you begin a new
optimisation, the statistics information for the previous one will be deleted. However,
if you continue optimisation from the last generated delta plan, the statistics
information for the last optimisation will still be available.
The optimisation report provides details of the actions, statistics and costs for the
starting plan and each subsequent best plan. This picture shows an example:
You can produce a similar report (for a specific delta plan) after you have stopped
the Optimiser, by selecting the appropriate plan in the Plan Manager section of the
Workflow, and clicking the Analysis button.
You may be able to choose which customised report format you want to use for
this report type. For more information, see Selecting Report Formats on page 104.
You can evaluate a single plan, or compare two plans, in terms of their performance
(with respect to measurements and optimisation metrics).
As part of the network evaluation, statistics similar to those available in ASSET can
also be generated. The statistics include array-based metrics such as coverage and
interference (presented per clutter type and/or per vector) and, if applicable, service-
based metrics. In addition, feedback based on the specified optimisation metrics can
be provided.
The performance achieved for each configuration is compared with the user-specified
targets and presented (in terms of absolute and/or relative values) on a traffic and
area basis.
As an ADVANTAGE user, you can use parts of the related ENTERPRISE analysis
functionality in addition to the ADVANTAGE-specific options. With specific regard
to measurements, please see Using Measurement Data on page 193.
If you have a Financial Analysis licence, you can also analyse financial metrics
such as Revenue, Expenditure, Net Income and Return On Investment (ROI). For
more information see the Financial Analysis User Reference Guide.
The above step is optional. If you do this, you must also specify the
performance targets of interest.
Created (or have access to) a plan. For more information, see Using and Managing
Plans on page 107.
Created/loaded traffic arrays, if applicable. For traffic-based optimisations, an
ENTERPRISE traffic array or a technology-specific ADVANTAGE traffic array
(using Spread Network Data or Loaded Cached Traffic) must be available.
(If you want to select a different plan, you can do this by clicking the browse
button .)
5 Select the reporting level you require (Property, Site or Cell).
6 Click Analyse to perform the analysis.
When the analysis has finished running, the Report button will become active.
7 To generate the report, click the Report button, then select the format for your
report, and click OK.
This report is similar to the Optimisation report (available from the Optimiser).
The difference is that this report focuses on a specific plan or delta plan.
8 When you have finished, in the Analysis dialog box, you can either click Reset to
analyse or compare other plans, or you can click Close.
You may be able to choose which customised report format you want to use for
this report type. For more information, see Selecting Report Formats on page 104.
3 Select one of the two plans you want to compare, and click the Analysis button.
4 In the Analysis dialog box, the selected plan appears as the Base Plan.
(If you want to select a different plan, you can do this by clicking the browse
button .)
5 In the Analysis dialog box, for the Compare Plan, click the browse button,
and select the other required plan.
2 On the Map View toolbar, click the Show Data Types button , or click the Map
Information & Control button and then click the Data Types tab.
3 To display plan comparison results (which show the coverage/interference arrays
for the chosen plans), expand the Delta Plan Analysis heading, and then expand
the required plan (or the 'Diff' category).
4 From the list that appears, select the array type that you want to view and click
Redraw to view the related analysis results:
5 To define how the array is displayed, double-click the required array and edit the
display properties in the dialog box that appears. You can set the following
display options:
Which layers are displayed
The colour used for the level of improvement
The level of improvement you want to display
There are three principles to note about which elements are listed in the Element
Ranking dialog box:
1 All new network elements of a plan (plan, delta plan or partial plan) always appear
in the Ranking list.
2 The existing network elements of a delta plan (or partial plan from a delta plan)
appear in the Ranking list only if they have been changed by the Optimiser.
3 The existing network elements of a plan (or partial plan from a plan) all appear in
the Ranking list if there are not any new elements in the plan.
You can:
List the elements by their Ranking level: Property, Site or Cell
Show the columns for Absolute Values and/or Additional Improvement in the
dialog box (this has no impact on the report, which always includes both types
of information).
Sort the rows by clicking on any of the column headings
Promote or demote any elements by selectively highlighting the row(s) and
using the Up/Down arrow buttons
4 To generate a fresh analysis of your changes (taking the new sequence into
account), click Analyse.
When the analysis has finished running, the Report button will become active.
5 Select the reporting level you require.
This example report has been simplified (rows have been removed) for clarity.
In this example, the 'partial plan' values in the columns (when read left to right)
illustrate how the overall coverage value increases as each additional site/node in
the sequence is considered for inclusion in the plan. Obviously, at the same time as
the summed value increases, the individual coverage value for each site/node
tends to diminish.
A separate report will be generated for each of the metrics that you specified
when setting up the analysis. For example, if you selected Coverage and Quality,
two separate reports would be presented.
7 In the Rollout Planning dialog box, if you want to change the element sequence
and re-analyse, you can now click the Reset button.
Identifying Problems in a
Network
ADVANTAGE enables you to focus the optimisation process, either automatically or
manually, on the areas or cells of the network that are underperforming. The focus is
on the identification of:
Problem areas in the network
Problem cells in the network
The problem area and/or cell identification analysis allows you to define the expected
performance both in terms of design targets for offered services, and also in terms of
area served or traffic captured, or both. This identifies the areas of poor performance
that are critical to network efficiency. By correlating the performance achieved and
the area and/or traffic served, ADVANTAGE can quickly improve the achieved
revenue from the network.
To identify these last two options, the respective network data must have been
imported, as described in Spreading Network Data on page 202.
For problem cell identification, the imported (rather than spread) data is used.
For information on defining problem criteria for cells, see Configuring Problem Cell
Thresholds on page 183.
After you have set the necessary area/cell problem criteria, you can identify
problematic areas or cells by using Problem Area and Cell Identification. For
information, see Identifying Problem Areas and Cells on page 185.
You can also specify (or produce automatically) cell-specific weights that can be
considered during optimisation. The problem cells can subsequently be targeted by
the automatic optimisation algorithm. This ensures that increased priority is given to
these cells, enabling more efficient automatic optimisation. For information, see
Configuring Problem Cell Weights on page 190.
The above criteria also depend on whether at least one of the associated
traffic/area thresholds is also exceeded, as described below.
3 On each of the three tabs, you can also set associated threshold values as follows:
Category Threshold Classification of Problem Area
Low Coverage Min Traffic (E - but this can Anything more than this value (for a contiguous
Low Quality represent any unit) area)
Low Dominance
Low Coverage Min Area (km²) Anything more than this value (for a contiguous
Low Quality area)
Low Dominance
If either of the above values is exceeded, the area may qualify as problematic,
depending on the associated value for Low Coverage, Low Quality or Low
Dominance.
4 When you have completed your changes, click Apply, and then click Close.
In this example, on the Low Coverage problem area category, the criteria for a
contiguous low coverage (that is, problematic) area have been set to any urban area:
with at least 10 Erlangs* of traffic OR of at least 1 km² in area
AND
Notes :
Within the Problem Cell categories that contain a pair of thresholds, the two
thresholds operate on an OR basis. Within the Low Coverage and Low Quality
categories, the first pair of thresholds operate on an OR basis, but each one also
operates on an AND basis with its respective Min Traffic OR Min Area
threshold.
Dropped Call and Handover problem cells will only be identified if you have
corresponding network data. Furthermore, if you have more than one type of
data for these (for example, DroppedCallsLev and DroppedCallsQual),
ADVANTAGE combines the respective data into a single value per cell for
problem cell identification purposes.
4 In the Values column, double-click a value and type the new one.
5 When you have completed your changes, click Apply, and then click Close.
Problem area and cell identification is only available for GSM and UMTS.
Prerequisites
Before performing problem area and cell identification, ensure that you (or your
administrator) have:
Set up a project with the necessary planning data, including traffic (if applicable).
For more information, see the ENTERPRISE and ASSET User Reference Guides.
Defined the RF Thresholds in the Optimiser Workflow.
Created a plan (defining the area, cell filters, and, optionally, vectors), using the
Plan Manager. For more information, see Using and Managing Plans on page 107.
Defined the appropriate parameters or options on the Strategy, Traffic and
Settings tabs (such as terminal types, array settings). For more information, see
About the Optimiser Workflow on page 32.
Defined the Problem Area and/or Cell Thresholds, as appropriate. For more
information, see:
Configuring Problem Area Thresholds on page 181
Configuring Problem Cell Thresholds on page 183
To identify problem areas and cells:
1 Ensure you have performed the required prerequisites, as described in Identifying
Problems in a Network on page 179.
2 From the Tools menu, point to Problem Identification, then click Problem Area
and Cell Identification.
3 Select the appropriate plan, and click OK. This is necessary to focus on the
relevant area and cells.
4 In the dialog box that appears, on the Problem Area Cell Identification tab, select
the checkboxes next to the parameters that you wish to be considered when
identifying problem areas and cells.
If you select one of the problem cell types that relate to a similar problem area
type (Low Coverage, Low Quality, Low Dominance), then the corresponding
problem area type is also selected. In these cases, you cannot identify problem
cells independent of the area they are associated with.
5 Click Start.
Problem areas and cells are identified.
The report details the number of problem areas, the amount of affected traffic (given
in E, but this can represent any unit) and the size of the affected area (in km²).
To quickly identify the most or least problematic area, use the Sort
Ascending/Descending function in Excel.
2 On the Map View toolbar, click the Show Data Types button , or click the Map
Information & Control button and then click the Data Types tab.
3 Select the appropriate problem areas from the Problem Areas folder.
4 Click Redraw.
The problem area data will be displayed.
This picture shows UMTS Coverage Problem Areas in the Map View window:
3 Click OK.
If you want to define colour profiles for different problem areas, double-click on
the problem area in the Map Information and Control dialog box. In the dialog box
that appears, on the Problem Area tab select a colour to represent the starting value,
and on the Selected Areas tab choose which problem areas to show on the Map View
window.
As well as the summary, each report has a separate page for each problem type
ADVANTAGE has identified. In the example above, the problem of Low Coverage is
identified. This picture shows the Low Coverage tab:
You can choose to manually edit the automatically produced weight values, and
also select/deselect any of the cells.
To configure the problem cell weights manually:
1 From the Tools menu, point to Problem Identification, then click Problem Area
and Cell Identification.
2 Select the appropriate plan, and click OK. This is necessary to focus on the
relevant area and cells.
3 In the In the Problem Area and Cell Identification dialog box, on the Problem Cell
Weights tab, double-click the required cell's Cost Multiplier value and type the
new value. The default weight is 1.0000 (no priority) and higher values indicate a
more problematic cell and therefore a greater priority for the optimisation.
For example, a cost multiplier of 2.0000 would give that cell a weight twice that of
the other cells. You can also use lower values if you require. You can even use 0, in
which case the cell will be included in the optimisation but will not contribute to
the cost calculations.
Network data spreading is available for GSM and UMTS only. However, the use
of measurement data functionality is available for all technologies.
For details about how other data types can be imported, see Configuring the
Format for Additional Data on page 200.
The following picture shows an example of different types of network data being
imported into ADVANTAGE:
In the first example, the areas of green represent low traffic density. In the second
example, the areas of red represent a high number of dropped calls due to reasons
other than signal strength or interference.
The way that traffic is spread by ADVANTAGE alleviates the above problems,
because the traffic spreading process acknowledges the likelihood that a pixel may be
covered by any of the predicted servers/cells. The calculated coverage probability
and the traffic per cell (from the imported network data) are used to generate a
system of equations, which are solved so that the predicted and measured data are
consistent. The two end products of traffic spreading are a technology-specific traffic
array and a set of cell-specific traffic modifiers.
For more information on the RF Thresholds and Settings, see About the Optimiser
Workflow on page 32.
For more information on configuring networks, see the ASSET User Reference Guide.
Handover data can be defined between a GSM and a UMTS cell. But
ADVANTAGE will only (at present) consider handover data for cells of the same
technology. Also, ADVANTAGE will ignore handover data defined for the same cell
(for example, Site3A GSM-900 -> Site3A GSM-900).
Data starts on the fifth row. The format is the same as for network data, with the
addition of entries for the handover source and the destination cells.
If you are using OPTIMA, the import file format could match the (optional) report
generated by the Data Array Wizard. This enables you to import from an OPTIMA
database, generate a report, and import the data from the report whenever the
database is not accessible.
If an OPTIMA database is used, only the table and view for the consideration of
network data should be appropriately defined. If you require assistance in setting this
up, please contact the support team at the address described in Obtaining Support on
page 18.
The values shown in these pictures are only for representative purposes.
This picture shows an example of the first sheet (Per Cell) of an Excel spreadsheet
used to import network data:
Example of the first sheet (Per Cell) of an Excel spreadsheet used to import network data
Example of the second sheet (Handovers) of an Excel spreadsheet used to import network data
For details about how other data types can be imported, see Configuring the
Format for Importing Network Data on page 199.
4 To specify the folder where the cached traffic arrays will be saved, click the
button in the Cached Array Path pane, browse to the folder where you want to
save the arrays, and click OK.
5 Specify the minimum signal strength for GSM and/or UMTS as appropriate.
Network data will only spread to areas where the signal strength is above this
threshold.
6 Click Next.
7 Select the data you want to import:
To import from a file, select Import from file and click the Browse button.
Locate the file, click Open and then click Next.
To import directly from an OPTIMA database, select Import from Database
and choose an application and data source. Type in your user ID and
password and then click Next.
If you are importing from an OPTIMA database, you can choose to filter the
data, by selecting a start date and an end date and a time. (Currently, the most
recent data matching these conditions is loaded).
9 To generate a report about the spreading of network data:
Select the Generate Report box.
Click Next.
In the dialog box that appears, select the format for your report. If you choose
a text file, select a program to open it with.
Click OK.
The results are displayed in your chosen format. You can save the report if
required.
10 Click Finish. The network data is spread, and a summary list is displayed:
11 Click Done.
After you have spread network data, you can then display it, in either:
The Map View window
- or -
The Network Data Values dialog box
2 On the Map View toolbar, click the Show Data Types button , or click the Map
Information & Control button and then click the Data Types tab.
3 From the list of Data Types, expand Processed Performance Data, then the
required technology (GSM or UMTS), and then select the data you want to
display.
4 Click Redraw.
The chosen network data array is displayed.
If you want to change how the data is displayed, double-click on the data you
want to display in the list of Data Types. Select the start colour, the Start value
(this is the minimum value to be displayed), the Interval value (this is the step
value), as well as the Units (for example, Erlangs). Click OK and then click OK and
Redraw.
5 If you want to view the value per pixel for this array, ensure Show Map View
Gadgets is selected from the View menu on the Map View window.
10 In the dialog box that appears, select the array for which you want to display
information, and click OK.
If handover data has been considered, information on the estimated traffic in handover
(denoted as Traffic Affected) is also displayed.
Clutter Thresholds The estimated threshold values per clutter type for the used Spreading Mechanisms that involve
an optimisation; these thresholds are the traffic density for Traffic and the minimum signal
strength and interference thresholds for Signal Strength and Interference (if applicable) spread
data.
You need to have displayed clutter data on the Map View for this to be applicable.
Cell Modifiers The estimated modifier values per best server cell (pilot for UMTS) for the used Spreading
Mechanisms that involve an optimisation. These modifiers may be required for all the considered
cells and traffic, signal strength and interference (if applicable) spread data to ensure that the
respectively imported (measured) and estimated network data information is identical.
The Coverage Probability is actually calculated during the traffic spreading process; the
non-signal strength-based Quality Probability is not, and will return zero values, unless a Quality-
based Spreading Mechanism is considered, or the Problem Cell Identification Quality criterion is
used. See Identifying Problem Areas and Cells on page 185 for more information.
To re-spread network data, you should have already spread network data. This is
because re-spreading is based on the initially spread data, as well as the Site Database
information for the appropriate cells.
You cannot re-spread network traffic data, so if there is no other type of network data,
the Re-Spread Data option will not be applicable.
To re-spread data:
1 From the Arrays menu, point to Network Data, and click Re-Spread Data.
2 In the dialog box that appears, select the appropriate plan. This contains the
required information in terms of cells and region.
3 Click OK.
Once the network data is re-spread, you can view the estimated network data in the
Map View window in the same way as you view spread network data. For more
information, see Displaying Spread Data on the Map View on page 204.
4 Select the second array, and in the Array Combining pane, click the lower .
The two arrays must be of the same resolution and same area.
5 To add, subtract, or multiply the two arrays, select the appropriate button. A new
combined array is created.
6 If you want to change the name of the new combined array, type the new name.
The array can only be used for editing and visualisation purposes.
For full information on loading the measurement data, and all the above
processes, please see the Using Measurement Data chapter in the ASSET User
Reference Guide.
After they have been generated, measurement-based pathloss files contain the co-
ordinates of the measurement-based pathloss data, and the measurement-based
pathloss values. They are automatically saved into the directories already designated
for the project's normal pathloss prediction files.
For full information on loading the original measurement data, and generating
measurement-based pathloss files, please see the Using Measurement Data chapter in
the ASSET User Reference Guide.
Technical Reference
This appendix provides more in-depth technical information about how
ADVANTAGE works.
Antenna planning also considers antenna unit costs, while Grid Planning also
considers Property, site and cell unit costs. Strictly speaking, these differ from the
rest of action costs and are only budget-related. Furthermore, it is possible to
consider a number of actions and their respective costs as a single combined action
and cost on a location, Property, site or cell basis.
2 Performance costs.
These are understood as costs generated for a network based on various
performance metrics such as coverage probability. Contrary to action costs,
performance costs depend on the state of the network, not on the changes
themselves. However, the considered actions influence network performance
indirectly. Performance costs are calculated in percentages based on various
normalisation schemes that ensure their objectivity with respect to networks of
arbitrary sizes.
These costs are broken down into various sub-components so that every sub-
component can be modelled individually and then added to the other sub-
components to produce the overall cost. The synthesis bias is controlled through a set
of multi-stage weights.
Where:
This picture shows a three-dimensional convex hull, whose projection constitutes the
two-dimensional Voronoi diagram for the displayed set of points on the plane:
Constraints can be incorporated into the domain of the cost function, but for
practical reasons they are normally treated separately.
The notion of optimisation is then understood as follows:
Find any parameter configuration within the domain of the cost function that satisfies
the parameter constraints and minimises the cost function.
Here are a few remarks on possible optimisation scenarios, which highlight some key
aspects of an optimisation problem:
An optimisation problem may have many local minima, and this can produce
problems for optimisation algorithms that are not capable of escaping them.
Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA) is designed to overcome local minima
trapping.
These are different from the global minimum of the cost function, and should
not be confused.
An optimisation problem may not have a global minimum at all. If this is the case,
any sufficiently small cost function value will be appropriate for a parameter
configuration to be regarded as optimum.
Any change to the cost function or parameter constraints results in a different
optimisation problem, whose solutions may be completely different from those of
the original problem.
With most network optimisation problems involving a large number of variables (as
many as 500), the algorithm that can identify the best possible solution within a
reasonable amount of time must be very sophisticated. The current ADVANTAGE
optimisation algorithm is based on a proprietary adaptation of ASA, specifically
tuned to mobile communications problems. The algorithm combines the reliability of
ASA in identifying the best solution with a sophisticated 'greedy' algorithm designed
to rapidly target the largest immediate gains. A comprehensive research program has
identified major speed benefits (as much as 300% difference in some cases) over the
standard ASA implementation.
P
Partial plans • 173
Per Layer calculations • 60, 64, 91
Plan Manager, using • 107
Plans
concept • 108
creating • 110
rejecting • 75, 84
Traffic Options • 88
using the Plan Manager • 107
viewing and using • 109
Problem areas, identifying • 185
Problem cell weights, configuring • 190
Problem cells, identifying • 185
R
Rejecting plans
based on max units/actions • 75
based on metric degradation • 84
Reports
problem area • 186
problem cell • 189
Re-spreading, network data • 206
RF Thresholds • 60
Rollout planning • 173
S
Sampling, for clutter • 60
Shared antennas
how considered • 138
optimisation settings • 90