NETWORK PLANNING

AND
OPTIMISATION
 RADIO CHANNEL

 Multipath propogation

 Shadowing

 Terrain structures

 Reflections

 Inerferences
 PROPOGATION LOSS

• Basic loss formula

Lo++log(d)
LL==Lo log(d) Losses are exponential with distance

Loss at reference point (e.g. 1km) EIRP level

Coupling loss
• Clutter loss factors = Lo

• Land usage classes reference

distance
• Usually stated in dB/decade
• e.g. : 20 dB/dec

Free space 20 dB/dec 40 dB/dec

30 dB/dec
Open country side 25 dB/dec
Suburban areas 30 dB/dec 0.1km 1km 10km
Urban areas 40 dB/dec
Historic city centre >45 dB/dec
 SIGNAL ATTENUATION
• Mixed land usage types on propagation path

25 dB/dec

30 dB/dec 20 dB/dec
Path loss

40..50 dB/dec
 MIXED PATH LOSS
• Path loss

Open : 25 dB/dec Urban : 40..50 dB/dec Open : 25 dB/dec

Signal
level

actual
signal level
Open area curve

Urban curve

distance
 DIVERSITY TECHNIQUES
=> USED TO COMBAT LOSSES
Diversity techniques are used for improving coverage. Diversity gain
depends on environment
t
• Time diversity interleaving

f
• Frequency diversity frequency hopping

• Space diversity multiple antennas

• Polarisation diversity crosspolar antennas

• Multipath diversity equaliser,

rake receiver
 PROPOGATION MODELS

Propagation models that are being used in planning tools:

• Okumara – Hata
The most commonly used statistical model

• Walfish - Ikegami
Statistical model especially for urban environments

• Juul - Nyholm
Same kind of a prediction tool as Hata, this model has different
equation for predictions beyond radio horizon (~20 km)

• Ray - tracing
Deterministic prediction tool for micro cellular environments
ANTENNA SYSTEMS
 ANTENNA CHARACTERISTICS
• Directional antennas

• Lobes
• main lobes
• side / back lobes
• front-to-back ratio H-plane : 65°-90° E-plane : 6°-13°

• Half power beam-width

Typical
Typical characteristics
characteristics
(3 dB- beam width)
• • VSWR
VSWR : : <<1.31.3
• Polarisation • • Impedance
Impedance : : 50
50ohm
ohm
• Antenna impedance • • Front-to-back-ratio
Front-to-back-ratio : : >25
>25dB
dB
• • Max.
Max.power
power : : 500
500W W
• Mechanical size (wind load) • • Gain
Gain : : 2…21
2…21dBidBi
• Antenna down tilting
• Mechanical / Electrical tilt (Electrical tilt is preferred due to good
backlobe suppression and dispersion control capability)
• improves spot coverage and reduces interference
 INSTALLATION EXAMPLES
• Flat panel antennas
• sectorised sites
• Three-sector cell with RX
diversity
• Horizontal / vertical separation

• Horizontal Separation
• needs approx. 5-15 lambda (2..4 m) separation for sufficient decoupling
and to avoid superimposing of antenna patterns
• Horizontal decoupling distance depends on antenna gain and horizontal
radiation pattern

• Vertical Separation
• needs approx. 1 lambda separation for sufficient decoupling
• good for RX / TX decoupling
 ANTENNA CABLES

• Cable types
Jumper
• Coaxial cables : 1/2”, 7/8”, 1 5/8” (2
m)
• Losses approx. 10..4 dB/ 100m
power dissipiation is exponential with
cable length !!

40..70 m
• Connector losses approx. 1 dB per connection
(jumper cables etc..)
• Thick antenna cables
lower losses per length
Jumper
large bending radii (2
much more expensive m)

Keep
Keepantenna
antennacables
cablesshort
short
 ANTENNA CABLES

• Typical values for antenna cables

diameter 900 MHz 1800 MHz

Type
(mm) dB/100m
dB/100m
1/2” 12.5 7 10

5/8” 17 5 8

7/8” 25 4 6
1 5/8” 47 2 3
NETWORK PLANNING
 OBJECTIVES OF NETWORK PLANNING

MAXIMUM RADIO COVERAGE

MINIMIZE
NETWORK BETTER QoS,
ELEMENTS, OBJECTIVES OF NETWORK MINIMUM
REDUCE PLANNING INTERFERENCE
COST & CALL DROPS

MAXIMIZE CAPACITY(Erl/Km2) WITH

LIMITED FREQUENCY BAND
CELLULAR PLANNING PRINCIPLE
marketing
Initial NW
5 steps of Network Planning dimensioning
1. NW Dimensioning Business
plan
2. Coverage / Capacity
Planning
3. Transmission Planning Coverage /
Transmission
4. Frequency Planning capacity plan Traffic
plan
assumptions
5. Parameter Planning

Freq & inte-

rference plan
Parameter
planning

Final NW
topology
FACTORS GOVERNING NETWORK PLANNING

 TOPOLOGY OF THE AREA

 MORPHOLOGY OF THE AREA

 DEMOGRAPHY OF THE AREA

While Morphology and Topology of an area play an

important role in coverage planning, Demography
plays an important role in capacity planning
 SITE SELECTION / LOCATION

• Proper site location determines usefulness

of its cell
• Sites are expensive
• Sites are long-term investments
• Site acquisition is a slow process
• Hundreds of sites needed per network

Base station site is a valuable long-term

asset for the operator and accounts for
majority of the network cost
 SITE LOCATION CRITERIA
Wanted cell Uncontrolled, strong
BAD SITE LOCATION boundary interferences

• Avoid hill-top locations for BS Sites

• Uncontrolled interferences
• Interleaved coverage
• Awkward HO behaviours
Interleaved coverage areas:
• But : good location for Weak own signal, strong foreign signal
microwave links!

Wanted cell GOOD SITE LOCATION

boundary
• Prefer sites off hill-tops
• Use hills to separate cells
• Contiguous coverage area
• Needs only low antenna heights if
sites are slightly elevated above
valley bottom
 COVERAGE PLANNING
External inputs
(traffic, subs. Forecast, Covg. Preliminary Coverage
/ capacity grid using search circles
requirements..)
Initial NW dimensioning Preliminary exercise
Site locations
TRX, cells, sites
Cell parameters
bandwidth needed
Link Budgeting
NW topology

Coverage simulation
using planning tool
Signal strength
Area of coverage

Go to Create Site N
frequency cell data pre-validation
planning for BSC Cell size determination
using Tx-Rx. equipment
Site inspection
Field measurements real cellplan
Planning Site N
criteria fulfilled? accepted ?
N
 CELL SIZES

Achievable cell sizes depend on

• Frequency band used(450, 900,1800 MHz)
• Surroundings, environment
• Link budget figures
• Antenna types
• Antenna positioning
• Minimum required signal levels
LINK BUDGET PLANNING
 LINK BUDGET LOSS FACTORS

• At base station
• connectors
~~3..5
3..5dB
dBlosses
losses
• cables
50..70%of
50..70% ofsignal
signalenergy
energy
• isolator isislost
lostbefore
beforeeven
even
• combiner reaching
reachingthethetransmit
transmit
antenna
antenna
• filter

• At mobile station
• body loss
• polarisation of antenna
 LINK BUDGET GAIN FACTORS

• Antenna gain
• Half-power beam width
• Mechanical size
• Antenna types

• Diversity gain
• Diversity can be implemented in many ways
• Frequency hopping
• Improves average link quality, but is not typically
taken into account in link budget calculations
 POWER BUDGET : DOWNLINK

Antenna
36 dBm Gain = 16 dBi

52 dBm
Feeder
loss = 4 dB Path loss = 154 dB

40 dBm -102 dBm

Rx sensitivity
Combiner -102 dBm
loss = 3 dB
Tx Power
43dBm(20W)
 POWER BUDGET : UPLINK
Antenna
Gain = 16dBi Diversity
Gain = 4 dB
-101 dBm

-121 dBm
Feeder
loss = 4 dB Path loss = 154 dB

-105 dBm 33 dBm

Tx Power
33 dBm
Rx Sensitivity (2W)
-105 dB
 POWER CONTROL, PC

• GSM : 15 power steps (2 dB each)

• BSC in command
• Level or quality-driven or both

• Use power control in both uplink & downlink

• Doesn’t affect the Link Balance
• Minimise interference in network
• Save battery life-time Signal
level Target level
e.g. –85
dBm
PC not allowed
on BCCH carrier
CAPACITY PLANNING
 WHAT IS ERLANG ?

• Erlang is the name of a Danish researcher.

• Erlang is the unit of traffic
• 1 Erlang is the max.traffic on one line.
• The traffic is calculated using a simple formula:
Erlangs =(calls per hour) x (average conversation time)
3600sec
• There are two tables
• Erlang B - for system that support no queuing
• Erlang C - for system that support queuing
 CELL CAPACITY
• Cell capacity depends on No. of Traffic Channels
No. of Traffic Channels is based on:
Traffic in Cell = No. of Subscribers x Traffic per subscriber

• Using this Traffic figure, targeted GOS and Erlang B Table,

No. of Traffic Channels in a Cell can be calculated

TCH 7 15 22 30 37 45 53

Traffi 2.94 9.01 15 22 28 35.5 43

c
 TRAFFIC PATTERNS

• Traffic is not evenly spread across the day (or week)

• Dimensioning must be able to cope with peak loads
• “busy hour” is typically twice the “average hour” load

100 OFF-PEAK TIME PEAK TIME

80
60
40
20
0

2:00 PM

4:00 PM

6:00 PM

8:00 PM
4:00 AM

8:00 AM
2:00 AM

6:00 AM

12:00 PM

10:00 PM
12:00 AM

10:00 AM
 FLEXIBLE NETWORK EVOLUTION TO MEET
THE CAPACITY DEMAND
CAPACITY

BAND
DUAL

H
LLS)

WT
E
O R ( PICO C
INDO
G RO
ER
IB

L AR
CELLU
CR

M I CR O
BS
SU

SOFT CAPACITY ( FH + UO )

ADDING TRX, CELL SPLITING

COVERAGE BUILDING TIME

 BASE BAND HOPPING (BB HOPPING)

RTSL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
TRX-1 B f1

TRX-2 f2
B = BCCH timeslot. It does not hop

Time slots 1…7 of all TRXs

TRX-3 f3 hop over (f1,f2,f3,f4).

TRX-4 f4

Time slot 0 of TRX-2,3,4 hop over f2,f3,f4.

BB hopping on 4 TRXs. The BCCH TRX is hopping except on RTSL-0.

 RF HOPPING (SYNTHESIZED HOPPING)

f0
TRX-1 B f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0
TRX-2

f1, f1,
f2, f2, B = BCCH timeslot. TRX1 does not hop
f3, . . . .
f3,
fn fn

TRX-3

Non-BCCH TRXs are hopping over

the MA-list (f1,f2,f3,….fn) attached to the cell.

RF hopping in 3-TRX cell

 CONCEPT OF UNDERLAY-OVERLAY

REGULAR SUPER
BCCH

SUPER REGULAR
BCCH

REGULAR SUPER
BCCH

 Co-channel and Adjacent channel interference is monitored continuously

 Handover based on C/I Measurements
 BENCHMARKING THE QUALITY OF SERVICE
CALL DROP RATE <2%

HANDOVER SUCCESS RATE

CALL SET-UP RATE > 95 %

95 TO 100 % CALL
< 6 SEC
WITHOUT
CONGESTION
QoS BLOCKED CALL
INTERFERENCE
MARGIN 2% GRADE OF
SERVICE
CO-CHANNEL 9 dB
& ADJACENT
CHANNEL -9dB

UPLINK INTERFERENCE
QUALITY OF CALL < 3% IN BAND- 0 ( -110 TO -105 dBm).
97% OF CALL WITH IN QUALITY BAND-5
 PROCESS OF NETWORK OPTIMISATION

POWER
ANTENNA TILTS CONTROL

INTERFERENCE
FREQUENCY HOPPING
REDUCTION

DISCONTINUOUS TX

FREQUENCY
REALLOCATION
 A Pole Mounted BTS Site

Microwave
antennas

GSM antennas
monuted on poles

Cable tray /
ladder

Shelter
(equipment)
room
A Tower mounted BTS Site

Shelter with Security Guard