LTE Network Planning using ASSET V6.

2
Future Roadmap (subject to change)
AIRCOM Product Engineering
September 2008 Copyright 2008 AIRCOM International

Long Term Evolution

• LTE is the name given to the 3GPP release 8 standards designed to replace HSPA.
It introduces:
• Two new air interfaces: OFDMA in the downlink and SC-OFDMA in the uplink
• Flexible bandwidth allocation with extensive Support for MIMO architecture
• Cost effective roll-out through the use of 2G/3G spectrum
• An architecture designed for network sharing between operators
• LTE is expected to be commercially available by 2010

4G Spectrum
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

3G Spectrum
LTE
•Higher Capacity/Data rates

•Reduced Delay
WCDMA HSDPA Enhanced UL
•Improved Services

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Key Performance Targets
• Peak data rates (20 MHz spectrum)
• Downlink: 100 Mbps
• Uplink: 50 Mbps

• Mobility Support
• Up to 50 kmph
• Optimised for low speeds (0 to 15 kmph)
• Reduced latency with quick response time
• <100 ms control plane
• <5 ms user plane
• Coverage (Cell Size)
• 5 to 100 km with slight degradation after 30 km
• Multipath Resilience
• Multicarrier (OFDM¥OFDMA) based Air interface
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System Architecture
• Evolved UTRAN • Network Sharing
• Introduction of eNodeBs • Service providers may have separate CN
while jointly sharing E-UTRAN(eNodeBs)
• X2 interface for communication
between eNodeBs • Achieved by S1-flex-mechanism
• S1 interface for communication
between eNodeBs and EPC
• MME/UPE
• Responsible for idle mode UE
tracking and paging procedure
• S-GW
• Routing and forwarding user data
packets
• Mobility anchoring during inter eNB
handover
• Mobility anchoring between LTE and
other 3GPP technologies

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ASSET LTE Support-Headline Features
• Support for TDD/FDD/H-FDD mode of operation
• Definition of LTE specific (3GPP Standard)
• Frequency Bands¥EARFCN and Frame structures
• Carriers, Bearers, Services and Terminal Types

• Modelling of OFDMA in the downlink and SC-OFDMA in the uplink

• Adaptive Modulation and Coding
• Advanced Antenna Systems¥MIMO support
• Coverage and Capacity planning using the Monte Carlo simulator
• Detailed outputs and reports
• Joint GSM/UMTS/LTE Planning and Monte-Carlo Simulator support
• Automatic Frequency, Cell ID, Neighbour Planning and Analysis

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E-UTRA Bands and EARFCN

• LTE will operate in wide range of spectrum with
• flexible transmission bandwidths
• simultaneous deployment in different E-UTRA bands

• ASSET provides all E-UTRA Frequency Bands

• Following LTE modes of operation are supported
• Frequency Division Duplex (FDD)
• Half Duplex FDD (H-FDD)
• Time Division Duplex (TDD)

• Also, the flexibility to define customized frequency

bands¥ EARFCN is available
• Network Planners will be able to model all possible
Co- and Adjacent Carriers (Channel bandwidths)
interference scenarios
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Carriers
• In ASSET, each LTE Carrier represents a Channel
Bandwidth with specific # of Resource Blocks
(Transmission Bandwidth Configuration)
• Support for all LTE specific
• channel Bandwidths (1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20MHz)
• respective # of Resource Blocks (6, 15, 25, 50, 75
and 100)
• Flexibility to define users’ specific Channel Channel Bandwidth [MHz]

Bandwidths and # Resource Blocks Transmission Bandwidth Configuration [RB]

Transmission
Bandwidth [RB]

Channel edge

Channel edge
• Ability to associate each carrier to an

Resource block
• E-UTRA band and its
• Low¥Start and High¥End frequencies
Active Resource Blocks DC carrier (downlink only)

• Low¥Start and High¥End Low and EARFCN

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Physical Channels
• Modelling of all Physical Channels is supported. These channels are
• Downlink
• Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH): Carriers cell-specific information
• Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH): Carriers the MCH transport channel
• Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH): For scheduling, ACK/NACK
• Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH): Payload
• Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH): Defines # OFDMA symbols/frame
• Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH): Carries HARQ ACK/NACK
• Uplink
• Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH): For Call setup
• Physical Uplink Control Channel (PDCCH): For scheduling, ACK/NACK
• Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PDSCH): Payload

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Physical Signals
• Modelling of all Physical Signals is also supported. These signals are employed for
system synchronization, cell identification and radio channel estimation
• Downlink
• Primary Synchronization Channel (P-SCH): for cell search and identification by the UE.
Carries part of the cell ID (one of 3 orthogonal sequences)
• Secondary Synchronization Channel (S-SCH): for cell search and identification by the UE.
Carries the remainder of the cell ID (one of 170 binary sequences)
• Reference Signal/Pilot (RS): for DL channel estimation. Exact sequence derived for cell ID
(one of 3 x 168 = 504 pseudo random sequences)
• Uplink
• Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS): for synchronization to the UE and UL channel
estimation
• Sounding Reference Signal (S-RS): to monitor propagation conditions with UE

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Multiple Access
• LTE employs OFDM as the basic modulation scheme
and multiple access is achieved through:
• OFDMA in the Downlink
• Most attractive multiple access scheme for future
broadband systems

• SC-OFDMA in the Uplink

• Basic architecture is nearly identical to OFDMA
• Offers the same degree of multipath protection
• Reduces the PAPR as the underlying waveform is
essentially single-carrier

• ASSET support OFDMA (downlink) and SC-OFDMA

(Uplink) for Capacity and Interference Analysis

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Frame Structure-FDD
• ASSET provides a generic interface to define
TDD and FDD Frame structures
• LTE frames are of 10 ms duration; each frame
consists of 20 slots of 0.5ms
• Two consecutive slots are referred to as a
subframe. In each FDD frame, 10 subframes
are available for both UL and DL transmission
• Normal¥Extended Cyclic prefixes influence the
# of OFDMA symbols per slot (Resource Block)
• Variable Subcarrier Spacing allows the users
to define # of subcarriers per slot (Resource
Block)
• Control Channels¥Signals modelled through
Fixed and variable overheads per frame
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Frame Structure-TDD
• Type 2-TDD frame consists of two 5 ms half
frames; each half frame consists of 8 slots and 3
special fields (DwPTS, GP, UpPTS)
• ASSET models DwPTS, GP, UpPTS with the Fixed
Overhead per frame
• All six TDD frame Configurations which define the
# of UL/DL subframes, are also supported
Table 1: TDD Frame Configurations
• Subframe 1 (S) in all configurations and subframe
6 (S) in configurations 0, 1, 2 and 6 consists of
DwPTS, GP and UpPTS as shown in the Table 1.

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Bearers
• In ASSET, each LTE Bearer represent a single
Modulation format and Channel coding rate
• All LTE specific Modulation formats (BPSK,
QPSK, 16QAM and 64 QAM) and Channel
coding Rates are supported
• Adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) is
supported by defining multiple bearers
• AMC allows the network to adjust the
modulation and coding scheme based on
channel quality indicators (CQIs)
• Users can define multiple LTE bearers¥CQI
tables and their corresponding SINR
requirements
• Mobility is modelled by defining different
SINR adjustments for various speed ranges
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Services
• All Service types, e.g. Voice and data (VoIP,
audio¥video streaming, etc.) can be
modelled
• Each service is associated with a QoS Class
Identifier (QCI) defining the service priority
and influencing radio resource management
• Network capacity analysis is performed by
the user defined service rate and
corresponding activity factors
• Service can be supported over one or
multiple carriers
• Each carrier can support its specific bearers
• Bearers can be automatically prioritised so
that the ‘best’ bearer is attempted first
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 Terminals
• Terminal types define the geographical
distribution of the terminal over different
clutters, vectors and polygons
• LTE RF parameters are also defined on the
terminal type, e.g.
• TX power, Received Reference Signal Strength
• Antenna gain, Noise figure, Body loss
• Modulation schemes, CQIs
• MIMO Settings
• Users can also model directional antennas by
associating antenna patterns to each terminal
type

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Summary-Traffic Modelling

• ASSET’s generic LTE traffic model is based on a hierarchical structure of Carriers,

Bearers, Services and Terminals. This can be summarized as
• Carrier represents a Channel Bandwidth with specific # of Resource Blocks
• Bearers represent a specific modulation & coding scheme
• Services defined by the rate of the service and the QoS Class Indicator
• Service can be supported over one or more carriers (Channel Bandwidth) using multiple
bearers
• Terminal able to subscribe to multiple services

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Site Configuration (1/2)
• ASSET’s principle strength is the Site Database which
can present multiple (Logical, Physical, Location and
Network) views of the same network site data
• Logical view organises the data by PLMN, enabling to
differentiate between the “Shared” and “Unshared”
networks of multi-operators
• Multiple Technology networks can be created by
Operators and all major network elements can be
added into the site database (e.g. MME, S-GW , eNodeB,
WMSC, RNC, NodeB, MSC, BSC, Sites)
• In addition to CN¥EPC shared networks, ASSET provides
the flexibility to share simply at the Site level (eNodeB,
NodeB, etc.) or even the antenna sharing

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Site Configuration (2/2)

• In ASSET, each eNodeB (site) supports multiple
sectors
• Each sector supports a single carrier (Channel
Bandwidth) and a single frame structure
(FDD¥TDD)
• Key parameters for each sector will include:
• Transmit power for reference signal (Pilot),
shared channel (traffic) and other channels
• Receiver noise figure and sensitivity
• Cell identity schemas and actual IDs
• Static analysis parameters-DL Traffic Load and
Mean UL Noise Rise
• TDD frame configurations defining the UL/DL
frame ratio
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MIMO and Beamforming Support
• LTE Physical Layer is designed to employ
Beamforming, MIMO (Diversity and Spatial
Multiplexing) techniques for optimum
performance improvements
• Precoding¥Cyclic Delay Diversity in concatenation
with the above mentioned techniques provide
enhanced spectral efficiency and coverage
benefits
• ASSET supports all Multi User (MU) and Single
User (SU) MIMO configurations and Beamforming
• Adaptive MIMO switching can also be modelled
• Clutter dependent SINR adjustment¥rate gains can
accurately predict network performance

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Network Analysis (1/5)

Traffic Maps
• ASSET supports traffic density maps based on:
• Clutters, vectors, points and polygons
• Live traffic from the network
• Population data in vector format (such as Mapinfo format)
• Combination of live data, population data and traffic data generated from within the tool

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Network Analysis (2/5)
Propagation Models
• Empirical models
• Standard propagation model (calibrated
for the frequency band used)
• Stanford University interim model
• SLR model
• Ray tracing models

• Ray tracing models

• Siradel volcano
• Wavesight
• Winprop

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Network Analysis(3/5)
Monte Carlo Simulator

• Coverage and capacity of the LTE network can be analyzed by using the Monte
Carlo Simulator
• Simulator generates a number of network snapshots and results are averaged
across all snapshots. Each snapshot represents
• a time averaged picture of the network and a specific spatial distribution of the terminals

• Snapshots actually provide a measure of the system load for the given distribution
of terminals, i.e.
• Total DL TX Power and Total UL interfering power of each sector
• Total DL and UL throughput on each sector

• Coordinated and un co-ordinated GSM, UMTS and LTE network simulations are
supported

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Network Analysis(4/5)
Monte Carlo Simulator-Output Arrays

• Simulator generates a number of different outputs

in the form of reports and arrays to analyse the
performance and validity of network
• Output arrays include
• UL¥DL coverage and interference arrays
• UL ¥DL bearer coverage arrays
• UL ¥DL throughput coverage arrays

• Arrays are available for each combination of

terminals, carriers, services and bearers
• Users can generate statistic for each of these
arrays
• Compound array functionality allow the users to
create and analyse customized arrays based on
simulator output existing arrays
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Network Analysis(5/5)
Monte Carlo Simulator-Output Reports

• Output reports provide an overview of the

performance of the network and indicate any
coverage or capacity constraints
• Individual reports are generated for each
service, e.g.
• Composite report
• Failure report
• Throughput report
• UL¥DL performance reports
• Reports can be saved in different file formats

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LTE Frequency Reuse Schemes (1/2)
• Following frequency reuse schemes will be supported in
ASSET
• Frequency Reuse 1
• Whole Channel Bandwidth is available for transmission in all
sectors

• Frequency Reuse-1 with Prioritization

• Each sector divides the available Channel Bandwidth into
prioritized (one third) and non-prioritized (two third)
sections
• Prioritized spectrum is used more often than non-prioritized
by each sector in order to concentrate the interference that
it causes to other sectors

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LTE Frequency Reuse Schemes (2/2)

• Soft Frequency Reuse
• Introduction of Power difference (between the prioritized and non-prioritized
spectrum) in to the Frequency Reuse-1 with Prioritization scheme which divides the
sector into an inner and an outer region
• User in the inner region can be reached with reduced power, i.e. Cell Centre Users
(CCU) than the users in the outer region i.e. Cell Edge Users (CEU)
• CCU are assigned frequency Reuse-1 while CEU employ Reuse-3

• Reuse Partitioning
• Similar to Soft Frequency Reuse however it also divides the Channel Bandwidth into
two part; one part using high power than the other
• Low-power part is the same in all sectors while the high-power part is divided
between sectors so that each sector gets one third of the high-power spectrum
• Hence, low-power part employs frequency Reuse-1 while high-power part is
configured with a frequency Reuse-3

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Cell ID Planner
• LTE Cell Identities (ID) are grouped into 168
unique ID groups (0-167), each group
containing 3 unique ID codes (0-2)
• ASSET allows the user to automatic plan Cell
IDs with a sophisticated (fixed¥automatic)
reuse distance algorithm; using multiple
filters¥schemas and Neighbour relations
• Each filter can be assigned a different Cell ID
schema
• Neighbour relations (till 4th order) can be
considered during Cell ID planning
• In addition to fixed reuse distance method,
user can employ automatic distance criteria
which is ideally suited for areas containing
different site densities
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Automatic Frequency Planning

• ASSET incorporates an Automatic Frequency Planner (AFP) for the optimum
assignment of carriers (Channel Bandwidths) to LTE sectors
• In addition to a simple distance based algorithm, AFP uses the Interference matrix
for minimizing inter cell interference
• Carrier assignments and conflicts can be visualized and further analyzed in an
enhanced reporting engine to determine the quality of produced frequency plan

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Neighbour planning
• ASSET incorporates an Automatic
Neighbour Planning (ANP) tool which
allows planner to create intra and inter
technology neighbours for GSM, UMTS,
WiMAX and LTE
• ANP algorithm is well proven and being
used by numerous Network Operators
• Manual Neighbour relationships can be
created through the site database or the
2D-View

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Thank You

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