TE 484: Network Planning

Lecture 2: Radio Network Planning

 Introduction
• The radio network
– includes the base station (BTS) and the mobile station (MS) and
the interface between them
– is directly connected to the mobile user
• The aim
– of the radio network planning is to provide a cost-effective
solution for the radio network in terms of
• Coverage, capacity and quality
– is to maximize coverage, capacity and quality of service
 GSM
• The scope of radio network planning and optimization
 Network Planning Project Orgaization

• In network planning project organization

– teams are organised based on the network roll-out processsteps
 Network Planning Project Orgaization

• Network Planning Team

• Assisted by Field Test/Measurement Team
– Responsible for network preplanning and actual
network planning
– Output of their work
• Site proposals
 Network Planning Project Orgaization

• Site Acquisition Team

– Responsible for
• finding actual site
• making technical site surveys
– Input to their work
• Site proposals
– Output of their work
• Lease agreements for possible site locations
 Network Planning Project Orgaization
• Construction Team
– Responsible for
• carrying out actual construction works
• preparing site for actual telecom implementation
• Telecom Implementation Team
– Responsible for
• Installation - setting up base station equipment, antennas and
feeders
• Commisioning - functional testing of standalone network entities
– includes verifying that the site data agrees with network plan
• Integration - verifies site is ready as part of a network
– site is ready for commercial use after this stage
 Network Planning Project Orgaization

• Network Planning or Pre-Launch Optimisation

Team
• Assisted by Field Test/Measurement Team
– Responsible for verifying settings are correct and
that planning targets can be met
 Factors Affecting Network Planning
• Market analysis
– Competitor analysis
– Potential customers
– User profiles: services required and usage
• Customer requirements
– Coverage requirements
– Capacity requirements
– Quality targets (call setup &handover success, call drop rate)
• Environmental factors and other boundary conditions
– area topography
– hotspots location
– available frequency bands
– Recommended base transceiver station (BTS) locations
 Network Planning Process
• The network planning process
– complicated
– consists of several phases
• Final target
– To define the network design
• The design includes the following deliverables
– final BTS configurations and site locations
– final coverage predictions
– Power budgets for all the configurations
– allocated frequencies and interference analysis
 Network Planning Process
• The design can be
– an extension of the existing network or
– a completely new network
• Final target
– To define the network design
• The difficulty in the network planning process
– how to combine all requirements in an optimal
way to design a cost effective network
 Radio Network Planning Process
• The process of radio network planning starts with
– collection of the input parameters
• such as the network requirements of capacity, coverage, and network quality.
• These inputs are then utilized to make the theoretical coverage and
capacity plans.
• The coverage definition would include defining
– the coverage areas, service probability and related signal strength.
• The capacity definition would include
– the subscriber and traffic profile in the region and whole area,
– availability of the frequency bands
– frequency planning methods (sectorization, cell splitting, frequency reuse)
– other information such as guard band and frequency band division.
• The radio planner also needs information on the radio access system
and the antenna system performance associated with it.
 Radio Network Planning Process

• Preplanning Phase
– results in preparation of
• the theoretical coverage and capacity plans.
• The objective of coverage planning is
– to find the minimum number of sites to produce the required
coverage (in coverage-driven areas)
• Radio planners often experiment with both coverage and
capacity.
– Because, the capacity requirements may have to increase the
number of sites.
• Planning coverage and capacity together results in a more
effective frequency usage and minimal interference
 Radio Network Planning Process
• After pre-planning, site candidates are then
sought and one of these candidates is then
selected based on the inputs from the
transmission planning and installation
engineers.
• Civil engineers are also needed to do a
feasibility study of constructing the base
station at that site.
 Radio Network Planning Process
• After site selection, the assignment of the
frequency channel for each cell is done in a
manner that causes minimal interference as
well as maintaining the desired quality.
• The frequency allocation is based on the cell‐to‐
cell channel to interference (C/I) ratio.
• The frequency plans need to be fine‐tuned
based on the drive test results and the network
management statistics.
 Radio Network Planning Process
• Parameter plans are made for each of the cell sites.
• Parameter plans constitute a set of parameter for
each cell that is used for network launch and
expansion.
• This set may include
– cell service area definitions
– channel configurations
– handover and power control
– adjacency definitions
– and network‐specific parameters.
 Radio Network Planning Process
• The final radio plan would consist of
– the coverage plans
– capacity estimations
– interference plans
– power budget calculations
– parameter set plans
– frequency plans, etc.
Radio Network Planning Process
 Reading Assignment
• Read Section 2.2.1, 2.2.2
 Network Planning Requirements:
Dimensioning
• Dimensioning constitutes a very important component of network planning.
• The more accurate the dimensioning is, the more efficient will be network
rollout.
• The output of the dimensioning exercise is to identify the equipment and
the network type (i.e. technology employed) required in order to cater for
the requirements of
– coverage
– quality
– capacity
• Dimensioning ensures that the coverage, capacity and quality needs are
fulfilled for the next few years (generally three to five years).
• The accuracy of the immediate traffic requirements and the forecasted
traffic requirements would lead to more accurate configuration prediction
of the network in terms of capacity and coverage (by each cell site).
 Network Planning Requirements:
Dimensioning
• Dimensioning takes the following as input
– Geographical area to be covered and estimated traffic in each
region
– Minimum requirements of power in each region and blocking
criteria
– Path loss
– Frequency band to be used and frequency re‐use.
• The above parameters would enable the planner predict
– the number of base stations that would be required for coverage in
the specified area to meet the individual quality targets
– the number of base stations that would be required to meet the
expected increase in traffic in the next few years
 Radio Network Detailed Planning
• Detailed radio network plan can be divided
into three sub-plans
– Link budget calculation
– Coverage, capacity planning and spectrum
efficiency
– Parameter planning
 Radio Network Planning Process

– Coverage includes
• The coverage areas
• Service probability
• Related signal strength
– Capacity includes
• Subscriber and traffic profile in the
region/network
• Availability of frequency bands
 Link budget calculations
• Link budget calculations
– help in coverage planning
– give the loss in the signal strength on the path between the
mobile station antenna and base station antenna
– help in defining the cell ranges along with the coverage
thresholds
• Coverage threshold is a downlink power budget that gives the signal
strength at the cell edge for a given location probability
– are done for both the uplink and the downlink
• The uplink more critical as the power transmitted by the MS is less
than the power transmitted by the BTS
– BTS sensitivity and MS transmitter power are critical in uplink
– Transmitted power, antenna gain and the sensitivity of the MS
are critical in the downlink
Link budget parameters
Link Budget
 Parameters Used

• EIRP:
– Defines the maximum transmit power
• Effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) is the power radiated relative to a
perfect isotropic antenna
– it is obtained by adding available transmit power and antenna gain in dBi,
and removing any loss
– Beginning with Friis equation

– In dB:

– EIRP - effective isotropic radiated power

– Lc - cable loss: Sometimes left out since it is negligible
 Parameters Used
• SNR or Eb/No:
– A minimum signal to noise ratio (SNR) is required to achieve at
the receiver a certain error probability given a signal modulation.
• SNR increases with transmitted power and antenna gains
• SNR decreases with bandwidth, noise figure and path loss
– Eb/No
• Related to SNR and is more convenient for determining
digital data rates and error rates
• energy per bit over noise power spectral density
noted Eb/N0 
 Parameters Used
• Receiver sensitivity:
– is the lowest power level at which the received signal may be
decoded,
• it is usually expressed in terms of a signal to noise ratio required
above a certain noise floor
– it is usually defined as a power level above ambient noise and
interferences, and depends on several parameters such as
• bit rate, coding, error rate
 Parameters Used
– MS sensitivity
• dependent on the receiver noise figure and minimum level of Eb/N0
(output signal to noise ratio) needed
• Recommended values
– GSM900 is -102 dBm
– GSM1800 is -100 dBm
– BTS sensitivity
• dependent on the receiver noise figure and minimum level of Eb/N0
(output signal to noise ratio) needed
• Recommended value is -106 dBm
– However, when doing link budget calculations, the value given by the
manufacturer is used
 Parameters Used
• Receiver sensitivity (Si):
– It uses the following parameters:
• Boltzmann's constant: k = 1.38 ⋅ 10-23 J/K,
• Detection bandwidth in Hz
• Temperature of receiver input T0 = 290 K, (63∘F, 17∘C),
• Thermal noise is the noise caused by components in the receiving chain
- Ni = kT0W (where W is bandwidth):
 
• Noise figure (figure of merit for receiver),

Therefore,

In dBm:
 Parameters Used
• Fade margin:
– Included to take care of signal fading
– It is the difference between the received signal and receiver threshold
 Other parameters
• Antenna gains
• Diversity gain
• Cable and connector losses
• Other equipment loss factors
– isolator, combiner and filter losses
• Two other gain factors
– Mast head amplifier (MHA)
– booster
 Example
• Given the following values;
– receiver noise figure = 10dB
– minimum Eb /N0 = 8dB
– Bandwidth = 271kHz
• Find receiver sensitivity in dBm
Solution
Spread spectrum
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
DSSS example
 Mcps
• Megachips per second (Mcps) is a
– measure of the speed with which encoding elements, called chips are
generated in Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) signals
– it is the number of bits per second (chips per second) used in the
spreading signal
• Typical chipping rates in 3G systems are on the order of
several million chips per second.
• For example
– in Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) systems, the
standard rate is 3.84 Mcps.
 Process Gain
• In a spread spectrum system, the process gain
– is the ratio of the spread (or RF) bandwidth to the unspread (or
baseband) bandwidth. It is usually expressed in decibels (dB)
• For example
– if a 1 kHz signal is spread to 100 kHz, the process gain expressed as a
numerical ratio would be 100,000/1,000 = 100
– Or in decibels, 10log10(100) = 20 dB
 Transmitter Side (uplink)

• Transmitter (mobile)
Given
–Mobile TX power (dBm):
–Antenna gain (dBi):
–Body loss (dB):

Calculated
EIRP (dBm) = Mobile TX power + antenna gain – body loss
 Receiver side

Receiver (base station)

Given
• Thermal noise density (dBm/Hz):
• Receiver noise figure (dB)
• Interference margin (dB)
• Required Eb/N0
 Receiver (base station)
Calculated
1.Receiver noise power (dBm)
= thermal noise + receiver noise figure + 10log (Mcps)

2.Total noise interference (dBm) =

receiver noise + interference margin

3. Processing gain (dB) = 10log (Mcps/Rs)

4. Effective receiver sensitivity
= 10 log (N) + total noise interference – processing gain +
required Eb/N0
N = number of users

Rs= rate of original signal

 Gain, losses and margins

•Base station antenna gain (dBi)

•Base station feeder and connector losses (dB)
•Fast fading margin
•Log-normal fade margin (dB)
•Building penetration loss (dB)
•Soft handover gain (dB)
 Coverage radius estimation
1. Maximum allowable path loss =
Mobile EIRP – effective Rx sensitivity + Gains – losses - margins
 
2. The cell radius (R) can be calculated from
– Using Okumura – Hata model for
• Urban

• suburban
 Problem
• Link budget for speech, outdoor pedestrian service

Transmitter (mobile)
Given
Mobile TX power (dBm): 21
Antenna gain (dBi): 0
Body loss (dB): 3
Calculated
Mobile EIRP (dBm) = Mobile TX power + antenna gain – body
loss = 18
 3G
Receiver (base station)
Given
Thermal noise density (dBm/Hz): -174

Receiver noise figure (dB): 5

Interference margin (dB): 4
Required Eb/N0 4
 3G
Receiver (base station)
Calculated
Receiver noise power (dBm) = thermal noise + receiver noise figure + 10log (Mcps)
= -174 + 5 + 10log10(3.84 x 106) = - 103.2
Total noise interference (dBm) = receiver noise power+ interference margin
= -103.2 + 4 = - 99.2
Processing gain (dB) = 10log (Mcps/Rs)
= 10log10 (3.84 x 106/12.2 x 103) = 25
Effective receiver sensitivity =
total noise interference – processing gain + required E b/N0
= -99.2 -25 + 4
= - 120.2
Where from 12.2 x 103? – Adaptive Multirate (AMR) speech codec: 4.75 to 12.2 kbit/s 
Where from 3.84 x 106? – Chip rate
 3G

Gain, losses and margins

Base station antenna gain (dBi): 18
Base station feeder and connector losses (dB): 2
Fast fading margin: 4
Log-normal fade margin (dB): 7.5
Building penetration loss (dB): 0
Soft handover gain (dB): 2
 3G
Maximum allowable path loss =
Mobile EIRP – effective Rx sensitivity + Gains – losses – margins
= 18 – (-120.2) + 2 + 18 – 2 – 4 – 7.5
= 144. 7
Cell radius for speech service is calculated using

144.7 = 137.4 + 35.2 log10 (R)

Log10(R) = 0.1875
The cell radius for speech service is 1.540 km
 3G
• Link budget for 384-kbps data, indoor services
Transmitter (mobile)
Given
Mobile TX power (dBm): 21
Antenna gain (dBi): 2
Body loss (dB): 0
Calculated
Mobile EIRP (dBm) =
Mobile TX power + antenna gain – body loss
= 23
 3G
Receiver (base station)
Given
Thermal noise density (dBm/Hz): -174

Receiver noise figure (dB): 5

Interference margin (dB): 4
Required Eb/N0 1
 3G
Receiver (base station)
Calculated
Receiver noise power (dBm) = thermal noise + receiver noise figure + 10log
(Mcps)
= -174 + 5 + 10log10(3.84 x 106) = -103.2
Total noise interference (dBm) = receiver noise power+ interference margin
= -103 + 4 = - 99.2
Processing gain (dB) = 10log (Mcps/R)
= 10log10 (3.84 x 106/384 x 103)
= 10
Effective receiver sensitivity =
total noise interference – processing gain + required Eb/N0
 3G
Gain, losses and margins
Base station antenna gain (dBi): 18
Base station feeder and connector losses (dB): 2
Fast fading margin: 4
Log-normal fade margin (dB): 7.5
Building penetration loss (dB): 15
Soft handover gain (dB): 2
 3G
Maximum allowable path loss =
Mobile EIRP – effective Rx sensitivity + Gains – losses – margins

= 23 – (-108.2) + 2 + 18 – 2 -15– 4 – 7.5

= 122. 7
Cell radius for 384-kbps data service is calculated using

122.7 = 137.4 + 35.2 log10 (R)

Log10(R) = -0.4176
The cell radius for 384-kbps data service is 382 m
 Relative cell footprints for user data rates
The maximum allowed path loss decreases as the required data
rate increases and the cell coverage reduces as the data rate
increases. The relative cell footprint is shown in the figure below.
 Problem
• As part of a UMTS system design, the following parameters are given to you to perform a
link budget analysis for 128-kbps indoor data services
•  
• Mobile TX power (dBm): 24
• Antenna gain (dBi): 0
• Body loss (dB): 0
• Thermal noise density (dBm/Hz): -174
• Receiver noise figure (dB): 5
• Interference margin (dB): 4
• Required Eb/N0 2
• Base station antenna gain (dBi): 18
• Base station feeder and connector losses (dB): 2
• Fast fading margin: 4
• Log-normal fade margin (dB): 7.5
• Building penetration loss (dB): 15
• Soft handover gain (dB): 2
• Mcps 3.84 x 106
 Problem
• What’s the maximum allowable path loss for a 128 kbps
laptop with indoor coverage? Show the link budget for uplink
direction. Assume there are 20 users operating in the system
• What is the coverage radius of the base station
 Power budget Calculation-2G
• Consider
– a BTS and MS with the parameters as shown in the figure below
 Power budget Calculation
• Uplink Calculations
PLu = EIRPm(Peak EIRP of mobile) – Prb(power receive by BTS)

EIRPm = Ptm(power transmitted by the MS) – losses + Gm

Losses = Lcm( cable loss at MS) + Lom ( any other loss)
Prb = -Gb(antenna gain) – losses + Bs(BTS sensitivity)
Losses = Lcb( cable loss at BTS) + Lob(any other loss)
PLu = EIRPm – Prb
= [ Ptm – Lcm – Lom + Gm] – [ -Gb +Lcb +Lob+ Bs]
= [ 32 – 0 + 0+ 0] – [-18 + 2 + 0 + (-108)]
= 32 +124 = 156 dB
 Power budget Calculation
• Downlink Calculations
PLd = EIRPb(Peak EIRP of BTS) – Prm(power receive by MS)

EIRPb = Ptb(power transmitted by BTS) – losses + Gb

Losses = Lcb( cable loss at BTS) + Lccb ( combiner other loss at BTS)
Prm = Ms(MS sensitivity) + losses- Gm(MS antenna gain)
Losses = Lcm( cable loss at MS) + Lom(any other loss)
PLd = EIRPb – Prm
= [ Ptb – Lcb– Lccb + Gtb] – [ MS +Lcm +Lom - Gm]
= [ 42 – 2 – 2 + 18] – [-106 - 0 - 0 – 0]
= 56 +106 = 162 dB
 Power budget Calculation
• The cell range for an urban area can be called as
 Power budget Calculation
• Output and effect of link budget calculations
– Path loss and received power
• are the main output
– Path loss
• The losses in the signal strength that occur during transmission from
the TX antenna to the RX antenna
– The received power is the result of the path loss phenomenon
– Cell range
• If the path loss is lessened, the signal from the transmitter(BTS)
antenna will cover more distance, so increasing the area covered by
one BTS
– Thus the power budget calculations play a direct role in
» determining the coverage area so deciding the number of
base stations that will be required in a network
– Coverage threshold
• Computed from link budget calculations
 Cell and Network Coverage
• The cell and network
• coverage depend mainly on the following factors
• Natural: geographical aspect/ propagation conditions
• Human: landscape (urban, suburban, rural)
• Subscriber behavior
• The ultimate quality of the coverage area in a mobile network is
• measured in terms of location probability
• Location probability can be defined as the probability of the field
strength being above the sensitive level in the target area (the signal
level is higher than the receiver sensitivity)
• i.e. the probability of the receiver being able to capture the signal
• In reality there can never be 100% location probability because it is
impractical with only a reasonable amount of resources.
 Cell and Network Coverage
• Propagation models
• are used for more accurate calculation of the cell range and
coverage area