Network dimensioning

• Trunk – a group of channels used for carrying a traffic e.g. user traffic,
signalling traffic,
• Depending on the technology used a trunk might be:
• A group of frequencies (in case of FDMA),
• A group of time slots (in case of TDMA),
• A combination of both (frequencies and time slots) in case of
FDMA/TDMA
• The rule for creating FDMA trunk – a trunk for a given cell concists of
frequancy channles that are as far away from each other as possible (in
order to minimize the impact of interferences)

frequency
f3 f4 f5 f6 f9
 Network dimensioning
• Network dimensioning – it is a process of determining the amount of neccesary network
resources in order to carry the assumed traffic while assuring the required quality
parameters,
• The goal: the answer to the question regarding the minimum number of channels that
assure the required channel (service) availability i.e. Grade of Service e.g. 99%.
• In order to obtain the answer a mathematical models are used,
• Erlang's model – assumptions:
• Infinite user population (in reality very large); the number of served users doesn't lower the
intensity of new user arrivals,
• The time intervals between consecutive users arriving at the system are given by random variable
with exponential distribution (Poisson procecess),
• The service times (business of the service station) are given by random variable with exponential
distribution,
• Users that arrive to the system and see all the service stations busy are lost (there is no waiting
place in the system; „loss system”)
• The name „Erlang” describes also a unit of traffic intensity (to memorize Erlang's merits
in the field of telecommunication traffic measurements and modelling)
• 1 Erl = 1 channel being busy for the whole time of observation (busy hour)
 Network dimensioning
• The parameters of Erlang's model:
• User arrivals intensity – the inverse of the mean time between consecutive arriving users
(clients),
• The service intensity – the inverse of the mean user service time,
• n – the number of channels,
• The required availability level (Grade of Service; GoS)
 Network dimensioning
• The solution of Erlang's model:
• Blocking probability - a user arriving at the system sees all service stations
(channels) busy,
• First Erlang's formula (blocking system, loss system); Erlang’s B formula

a – traffic volume in Erl

n – number of channels
• Second Erlang's formula (system with waiting space; Erlang’s C-
formula)
 Network dimensioning
⚫ Creating trunks (trunking) – improves the resource utilization. It means that with same
amount of resources and quality requirements we are able to carry more traffic.
⚫ The larger the trunk the better resource utilization

Blocking probability=1%, 2x5channels -> 2x1.36=2.72 Erl but 10 channels -> 4.46Erl
 Network dimensioning
• Erlang's tables. Blocking probability
 Designing the network – an example (1/3)
• Assumptions:
• A city with 25,000 inhabitants
• The operator has a 40% market share (10 000 potential subscribers)
• The subscriber generates 0.025 Erl traffic (total 250 Erl traffic)
• FDMA-TDMA system:
• The operator has 48 frequency channels
• There are 8 time slots on each frequency channel
• Service availability 99%
• Signal to noise ratio SIR> 14dB required
• Goal:
• Determine the cluster size
• Determine the number of channels in the cell
• Determine the number of cells to cover the city
 Designing the network – an example (2/3)
• Planning - defining the cluster size
• Correct transmission quality requires SIR> 14dB
• The exponent of the propagation coefficient is n = 3, i.e.

• Hence: N> 9.44 i.e. taking into account the discretion of the value of N = 12
• The cluster size is N = 12, so each cell can be allocated a maximum of 48/12 =
4 frequency channels
 Designing the network – an example (3/3)
• Dimensioning - determining the required number of channels for a
given traffic or max traffic for a given number of channels
• 4 frequency channels, 8 slots each, i.e. 32 channels for customers (2 channels
reserved for signaling)
• 30 channels can transfer 20.34 traffic with a required blocking probability of
less than 1%
• Hence, 250Erl / 20.34 Erl / cell = 12.3 cells (13 rounded)
 Network dimensioning–Erlang’s C formula
• System with waiting space – an arriving connection that sees all the serving stations
busy can wait in a queue
• Probability that an arriving connection must wait :

a – traffic volume in [Erl ]

c – numer of channels (serving stations)

• The relationship with Erlang’s B formula:

 Network dimensioning–Erlang’s C formula
• System with waiting space – probability distribution function of the waiting time:

a – traffic volume in [Erl ]

c – numer of channels (serving stations)
ρ – system load (a/c)
µ - mean serving intensity

• Percentile of p queue waiting time, i.e. the value of time tp spent in the queue that:
Pr {wq <tp} ≤p. Intuitively speaking, the percentile is a value below which the set
percentage of samples falls.
 Network dimensioning–Erlang’s C formula
• System with waiting space – probability distribution function of the waiting time:

a – traffic volume in [Erl ]

c – numer of channels (serving stations)
ρ – system load (a/c)
µ - mean serving intensity

• Percentile of p queue waiting time, i.e. the value of time tp spent in the queue that:
Pr {wq <tp} ≤p. Intuitively speaking, the percentile is a value below which the set
percentage of samples falls.
 Network dimensioning – an example
• Second Erlang’s formula (C-formula)

• We are considering a cluster with N = 7, 30 MHz band and 200kHz frequency channels. We
assume a system model with a waiting space and a probability value of 1%. Each user
makes a 10-minute connection every 3 hours. (a) What is the maximum number of users
of this system? (b) What is the probability value P [delay> 10 seconds]? (c) What if this
system was changed into a system with rejection of blocked connections with GOS equal
to 1%?
• Solution: 30 MHz / 200 kHz = 150 channels, separated between 7 cells, gives about 20
channels per cell (10 additional channels are designated for signaling):
• (a) With 20 channels in the cell and a delay probability of 1%, the transferred A traffic is 11.
The traffic generated by one user is Au = 10 / (3 × 60) = 1/18, therefore the number of users is
U = A / Au = 11/1/18 = 198 (in one cell). There can be 7 * 198 = 1386 users in the cluster.
• (b) in each cell there is: C = 20, A = 11, H = 10min = 600 sec. So P [delay> t] =
(0.01) exp [- (20 - 11) (10) / 600] = 0.01 exp (−0.15) = 0.0086.
• (c) In the system with the same conditions the maximum offered traffic A = 12, so the number
of users in one cel is U=A/Au 12/1/18=216 so 1512 in total (in cluster).
 Analysis of a queueing system
• Kendal’s notation

A – type of the probability distribution of connection interarrival times

B – type of the probability distribution of connection serving times
c – the number of serving stations
K – the maximum number of connections in the system
h – the number of connection sources
Z – queueing discipline

• Symbols for the probability distributions (either connection interarrival times or

connection serving times):
• M – Memoryless (exponential)
• G – general (any)
• D – deterministic (constant)
 Analysis of a queueing system
• Loss system M/M/C/C

• Solution – balance equations

 Analysis of a queueing system
• System with waiting space M/M/C

• Solution – balance equations

 Network design - example
• Extending the range and coverage.
• We previously considered omni-directional antennas.
• 60o or 120o sector antennas:
• The number of i0 base stations that interfere with our base station is decreasing (allows
reducing N, i.e. increasing the system capacity),
• The beam capacity decreases because the channel group from the cell is divided between
sectors
 Network design - example
• Example: Reducing beam efficiency at constant N.
• Let N = 7, each cell has 100 channels and users make connections with an
intensity of 0.01 per minute and their average duration of 3 minutes. In the
rejected model with a 2% block probability, what is the maximum number of
users in a cell? Then using sector antennas (120o) in the same system as the
maximum number of users.
• What reduction (percentage) of capacity do we get with sector antennas for
constant N?
• Solution: For C = 100 and GOS = 0.02, we read A = 99 from Erlang tables. At Au =
0.01x3 = 0.03 we can allow a maximum of U = 99 / 0.03 = 3300 users.
• For sector antennas we have C = 33.3 for each sector. We read A = 24 from Erlang
tables. Therefore, the maximum number of users is U = 24 / 0.03 = 800 per sector
or 2400 in a cell. In this case, the maximum number of users allowed in a cell
decreased by (3300-2400) / 3300 = 27%.
 Network design - example
• Example: Reducing N when using sector antennas
• We are considering the same system as in the previous example (120o sector
antennas). It is possible to reduce N from 7 to 4. What is the maximum number of
users allowed?
• Solution: The number of channels in the cell is C = 100 * 7/4 = 175. Therefore,
each sector has 175/3 = 58 channels. For GOS = 2%, we read A = 48 from Erlang
tables, so the number of users in the sector is U = 1600 and U = 4800 in the cell.
This means a 45% increase in system capacity compared to configurations with
omni-directional antennas and clusters of N = 7 cells.
 Network design - example
• Consider the profit of using sector antennas.
• Why is the value of the i0 component reduced
when using sector antennas?
• Consider a mobile station located on the cell
border. Which of the base stations (first
neighborhood) affect the interference received
at this station?
• The figure shows that only 2 of the 6 base
stations interfere.
 Network design - example
• What gain in terms of improving the S / I ratio do we get from the use of sector
antennas compared to omnidirectional antennas (i0 = 6)?

• Just to remind:

• In decibel measure:

• For i0 = 6, the last component is 7.8 dB. For i0 = 1, 2, or 3, the same component is 0,
3.0, or 4.8 dB. Therefore, the improvement is 3, 4.8, or 7.8 dB.
• We can present i0 as a function of N and information on a range of sectors (60 or 120
degrees). For the determined SIR value and the attenuation exponent n, the influence
of the i0 value on the N value is as follows:
 Network design - example
• Determining the value of i0
• Question: What is the value of the i0 parameter for 60 or 120 degree sector
antennas.
• Answer: it depends on the value of N. The visual check consists in determining
how many sectors of the base stations "look" at the considered sector (serving
sector).
• If i ≠ j, then i0 = 2 for 120o antennas and i0 = 1 for 60o antennas.
• When i = j, then i0 = 3 for 120o antennas and i0 = 2 for 60o antennas.
• The case i = j appears for N = 3 and N = 12 (generally for N = 3i2).
 Network design - example
• Example: Assume we have S = 533 full-duplex channels. Assume blocked-calls cleared
with a GOS of 2%, and per user offered traffic of 0.015 Erlang. Further assume we’re
using modulation with minimum required SIR(dB) of 19.5 dB and we’ve measured for our
deployment area that n = 3.3. Find the total number of users possible per cell assuming
(a) omni-directional antennas and (b) 120o sector antennas.
• Solution: Note linear SIR = 1019.5/10 = 89.1. Case (a) For omni antennas, i0 = 6 so

• Since the given SIR is a minimum, we need at least N =15. Since there is no 15-cell reuse,
we need to increase to N = 16, which is possible with i = 4 and j = 0. Thus there are
533/16 = 33 channels per cell available. With a GOS of 2%, from the Erlang B table, we
find that A =25 Erl. With Au = 0.015 Erl, this means U = A/Au = 25/0.015 = 1667 users per
cell.
 Network design - example
• Case (b) For 120o antennas, we need to guess at N since i0 is a function of N. For larger N,
i0 = 2 when using 120o antennas. So let’s plug in i0 = 2 and see what N we get:

• So N = 9 would work. (Checking, sure enough, i0 = 2 for N = 9.) Thus there are 533/9 =
59.22 channels per cell or 533/(9 · 3) = 19.7 channels per sector available. With a GOS of
2%, from the Erlang B chart, A =14 per sector. With Au = 0.015, this means U = A/Au =
14/0.015 = 933 users per sector, or 2800 per cell. This is a (2800 − 1667)/1667 = 68%
improvement over the omni-antenna case.
 Network design - example
• For areas with high population density, the cell size is a limit
• Solution - reducing the size of the cell (area) and, as a result, the value of the offered
traffic volume (A).
• The introduction of microcells increases the frequency of hand-over procedures.

53 macrocells and
57 microcells
68 macrocells
 Designing the network – summary
• Cell size:
• Flexible and depending on the needs
• In the GSM system the maximum cell size can reach 36km
• It depends on the generated traffic: in rural areas larger cells in urban areas
smaller (up to several hundred meters and smaller)
• Advantages of reducing cell size
• Sources of power requiring less capacity
• Smaller phone sizes (batteries)
• Less impact on the human body
• Disadvantages of reducing cell size
• Higher number of base stations (raising the cost of an infrastructure)
• More frequent position update procedures (more signalling traffic)