UMTS Network Radio

Dimensioning & Planning

Dr. Hatem MOKHTARI

UMTS Senior RF Engineer
Presentation plan
• Introduction
• Radio design consideration and assumptions
— Differences between GSM and UMTS design, UMTS concepts
— Services, traffic forecast , areas to be covered, quality of
coverage

• Radio dimensioning
— Link budget, cell count

• Radio planning
— Radio planning tool
— Coverage analyses, Monte Carlo simulations
— Maps & Statistics
— RF design optimisation

• Conclusions
1
Introduction
• Designing a UMTS radio network needs to take into
account the UMTS features:
— UMTS is a Wideband CDMA system
– Coverage and capacity are closely correlated
— UMTS is a multi-service system
– Voice and different data services share the same radio
resource

• Before starting the UMTS network design, the design

objectives should be clearly stated:
— Services to be offered
— Multi-service network capacity
— Multi-service coverage areas
— Quality of coverage of each service
2
UMTS Design considerations
GSM Service Types
• GSM
— Voice
— SMS
— Circuit switched data (9.6kbps/14.4kbps)
— Packet switched data (GPRS/E-GPRS)

• GSM is principally designed for voice traffic

today.
• There is a need to revisit GSM network designs
to quantify performance of data services i.e.
GPRS and EDGE

3
UMTS Design considerations (cont.)
UMTS Service Types
• UMTS
— Voice
— SMS
— Circuit switched data (nominally to 2 Mbps)
— Packet switched data (nominally to 2 Mbps)

• UMTS networks will be designed primarily for a

mix of data services
• It is forecasted that there will be 12 million
subscribers to 384kbps data services by 2005
(UMTS Forum Report #5)

4
UMTS Design considerations (cont.)
What’s the Difference?
• GSM
— Shared radio resource: channels can be
dimensioned separately
– e.g. partitioned voice, GPRS data resources

— Primarily voice service based design, with planned

terminal capabilities to support only moderate rate
data services.

— Quality of channels impacted by inter-cell

interference.

5
UMTS Design considerations (cont.)
What’s the Difference? (cont.)
• UMTS
— Shared radio resource:- channels must
be jointly dimensioned
– i.e. mutual interference impacts capacity

Signal — Quality and capacity impacted by intra-

SNR cell and inter-cell effects
— True wireless data system with terminals
expected to offer multiple services up to
typically 384kbps.
– Packet switched services to dominate

Signal after de-spreading

Noise includes every other channel
on carrier

6
UMTS Design considerations (cont.)
Radio design
• GSM
— Linear process
– Coverage, Capacity and
Parameter planning largely
independent and
sequential
— Static modeling adequate for
both initial and detailed
planning
• UMTS/WCDMA/CDMA
— Nonlinear process
– Coverage, Capacity and
Parameter Planning highly
interrelated
— Static modeling for ‘first pass’
initial design for new entrants
— Dynamic modeling for detailed
design
7
UMTS Design considerations (cont.)
UMTS/CDMA concepts
• Cell range & cell capacity are limited by
— interference in uplink
— power in downlink

• Cell breathing

8
UMTS Design considerations (cont.)
UMTS/CDMA concepts (cont.)
• Interference limited system
• Ec/Io determines the coverage performance, NOT signal strength

P
P INTERFERENCE

USEFUL SIGNAL
f
f
Before spreading After spreading

9
UMTS Design considerations (cont.)
UMTS/CDMA concepts (cont.)
P P

f f
After de-spreading After band pass filter

SIR_after_de-spreading (Eb/No) = SIR_before_de-spreading * Processing_Gain

- Eb/No is the main factor that determines call performance such as FER
- Handoff parameters are based on Ec/Io value

10
UMTS design process

• Iterative
Design — considering multiple service
Targets usage across region
• Nonlinear
— Coverage planning
– Geographical service
availability
Coverage Capacity
Planning Planning — Capacity planning
– Ensuring sufficient capacity
in network
Parameter — Parameter planning
Planning – Network optimization

11
PlaNet Tool and Database

• PlaNet tool:
Planet version 2.8 with W-CDMA module from MSI
• PlaNet database
20m resolution clutter and terrain database
Hardware platforms (used by Nortel):
UNIX environment:
Sun UltraSparc1 with 256 MB RAM, 4 GB hard drive, and Solaris 2.5.1. Operating
System

PC environment:
Dell Precision 410 with 366+ MHz processor, 1 GB RAM, 9 GB hard drive, and
Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4

• Over 10 years of experience (GSM, TDMA, CDMA…)

12
UMTS Design
• Suggested UMTS Application with Planet 2.8:
• UMTS Coverage design is based on PCCPCH, it is
handled by Planet as a regular Pilot Channel
• Overall power required by UMTS overhead channels
is added together under a single Planet defined
overhead channel
• Forward link power range for traffic channel is set
for highest desired data rate at the cell edge
• Cell count design has to be based on this data rate
i.e. most constraining service

13
 LINK BUDGET Macro cell Macro cell
UMTS Link Budget General
Indoor
Suburban
Indoor Urban
(Generic) S 3 111 S 3 111
• One link budget Spreading bandwidth (kHz) 3840 3840
Thermal noise (kTB) (dBm) -108.2 -108.2
- per morphology Data rate (kbps) 60.8 60.8
Bearer rate (kbps) 256 256
- environment Processing gain UPLINK 63.2 63.2
Processing gain (dB) 18.0 18.0
- coverage type UPLINK Characteristics
User Equipment Transmitter
- per service Maximum UE TX power (dBm) / MEAN 21.0 21.0
UE TX antenna gain (dBi) 0.0 0.0
• Only the most constra- Total UE TX EIRP (dBm) 21.0 21.0
Base Station Receiver
-ining service in each BS RX noise figure (dB) 3.3 3.3
Baseline RX Eb/No (dB) (from SMG Marseilles 2.2 1.7
morphology was used BS RX Eb/No (dB) 1.4 0.9
for link budget calculation BS RX sensitivity (dBm)
BS RX antenna gain (dBi)
-121.5
18.0
-122.0
18.0
BS RX cable & connector losses (dB) 3.0 3.0
Maximum Reverse Path Loss
• Important parameters: Maximum allowable isotropic path loss (dB) 157.5 158.0
DOWNLINK Characteristics
Base station noise figure Base Station Transmitter
Reverse Eb/No BS TX antenna gain (dBi) 18.0 18.0
BS TX cable & connector losses (dB) 4.1 4.1
Building penetration loss User Equipement Receiver
UE RX noise figure (dB) 5.0 5.0
Area and cell edge reliability Baseline UE RX Eb/No (dB) with Tx Div
Fade margin Baseline UE RX Eb/No (dB) (from SMG Marseilles 1.6 1.1
UE RX Eb/No (dB) 0.8 0.3
Handoff gain UE RX sensitivity (dBm) -120.4 -120.9
UE RX antenna gain (dBi) 0.0 0.0

14
UMTS site database

• Important parameters:
- Location
- Antenna azimuth
- Antenna downtilt
- Antenna EIRP
- Antenna height
- Antenna type
- Prediction model

15
Coverage objective and clutter database (Barcelona)

16
Terrain database Example (Barcelona)

17
Design assumptions
• Services
— Required services:
– Speech,
– LCD64, 144, 384, 2048
– UDD64, 144, 384, 2048
— Environments - geographical regions
– Dense urban
– Urban
– Sub-urban
– Rural

• Service areas of coverage

— Accurate geographical definition of each service
– Service area polygons

18
Design assumptions
• Quality of coverage
— Coverage types
– Outdoor
– Indoor (indoor penetration factor)
– In-car or in-train (in-car or in-train penetration factor)
— Quality of coverage
– Cell area reliability (Percentage of cell area being covered)

Speech LCD64 UDD64 UDD 144 UDD 384

Urban Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor
Suburban Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor
Rural Indoor Indoor Indoor Outdoor -
Roads Incar - - - -
19
Design assumptions
• Capacities
— Per service
— Per area
— Both Uplink & Downlink
— Geographical distribution (traffic maps)

• Traffic models
— Busy hour speech traffic : Erlang
— Busy second data traffic: Mbit/s
P e a k h o u r tra ffi c S p e e ch UDD 144 UDD 144 UD D384 U DD384
(m Erl) U p l in k Do w n lin k Up lin k D o w n l in k
M b it/ s M b i t/ s (M b i t./ s) (M b it. /s)
U rb a n 345763 1,67 10,43 9,6 19,2
S u b u rb a n 172881 0,84 5,22 4,8 9 ,6
R u ra l 115254 0 0 0 0
O th e r 12678 0 0 0 0

20
Design assumptions
• All of the design assumptions are correlated
— Services
Design targets
— Coverage types
— Service areas of coverage
— Capacities
— Quality of coverage

• Radio network design results are highly dependant of

the design assumptions
— Any change of one of the assumptions requires to re-do the
design work
— Design assumptions => Number of sites=>M$ to be invested

21
Radio dimensioning - Link Budget
• Per service
• Per morphology
— Environment
— Coverage type

• Quality of coverage
— Cell area reliability

• Capacity & Traffic load

— Uplink N-Pole capacity
— Uplink interference margin vs. traffic load
— Downlink interference margin vs. traffic load
— Frequency reuse factor

22
Radio dimensioning - Link Budget
• Link budget balance
— cell radius based on UL pathloss
— determine BS output power per
user, assuming:
– DL pathloss = UL pathloss

• Performance -Quality of service

— BS & MS Eb/No targets per service including diversity gain

• Cell sites
— Antenna height, gain
— Cable loss
— BTS power and Configuration
— Uplink power: mobile TX power
23
Radio dimensioning - Cell count
LB @ X% load
Design assumptions

Cell size Cell capacity adjust

load

# sites for coverage # sites for traffic

Comparison
Decision

Final number of sites

24
Radio dimensioning - Multi-service
• Multi-services are supported by the same system
— LB per service

Current Load

Link Budget 1 Link Budget 2 Link Budget n

Radius 1 Radius 2 Radius n Cap 1 Cap 2 Cap n

25
Radio dimensioning - Paris Example

5 ma
cro-z
ones

26
Radio dimensioning - Paris Example
• Service areas and surfaces

Service Area PlaNet polygones Design criteria * Size

Zone A Zone1 UDD 384 Indoor
Zone B Zone2 UDD 384 Indoor
Zone C Zone2 UDD 384 Indoor
Zone D Zone3 LCD 64 Indoor
Zone E Zone4 UDD144 Outdoor

27
Radio dimensioning - Paris Example

• A service area is defined by:

— Environment (urban, suburban,
rural…)
— Indoor penetration factor
— QOC & QOS

P é n é tra tio n QoC

Zone A 21 dB 90%
Zone B 18 dB 90%
Zone C 15 dB 90%
Zone D 12 dB 90%
Zone E - 90%
28
Radio dimensioning - Paris Example

• A service area is defined by:

— Required services
— Coverage type (indoor, outdoor,
in car …)

Speech UDD 64 UDD 144 UDD 384 LCD 64 LCD 144

Zone A Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor
Zone B Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor
Zone C Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor
Zone D Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor
Zone E Outdoor Outdoor Outdoor
29
Radio dimensioning -Paris example
1st Cell Count 2nd Cell Count 3rd Cell Count 4th Cell Count 5th Cell Count

Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 Zone 5

First Seco third fourt fifth s

se nd se hs e
of LB t of LB set of LB t of LB et of LB t

N1 sites N2 sites N3 sites N4 sites N5 sites

Total # of sites

Number of sites is evaluated

on the basis of a coverage and a traffic study
30
Radio planning - Planning tool

• W-CDMA technology
UMTS
• Multi-service Cell Quality
Coverage
Planning of
Maps
— Speech ToolService

— Data:
– LCD64, 144, 384, 2048 UMTS Cell
– UDD64, 144, 384, 2048 Planning Tool

• Multi-carriers
• Different user types

31
Radio planning - Prediction & Simulation

BTS MS Site

PA
Cable loss

Tx/Rx link losses
PA
Antenna pattern

Noise figure
Noise figure
sites configuration

Eb/No
Eb/No
sites constraints
Service
Processing Gain

Processing Gain (reuse of existing

...
... sites)

Terrain
Terrain Data
Data Base
Base
Propagation
Propagation Model
Model
Monte-Carlo
Monte-Carlo Simulations
Simulations
Statistics
dropped calls Maps
hand-offs sites Pilot Ec/Io
UL noise rise Location & configuration UL Required MS EIRP
Cell loading… Soft HO
32
Radio planning - Planning tool
Cell Planning

• Coverage prediction Tool

— Pathloss calculations
— Coverage based on design thresholds

Coverage Maps Quality of Service

• QOS simulations- Monte Carlo simulations

— UL/DL Eb/N0 targets
Call drops
— Power allocation Uplink noise rise
— Power control HO regions and
— Soft HO statistics

33
Radio planning
Coverage analysis User input
BS radiated power
Height Clutter antenna pattern
database database frequency

Received power at each bin

• Design Threshold
— based on maximum allowable path loss for the most constraining
service.
— The required mobile received signal is calculated based on BS EIRP
and on Maximum Path Loss.
Design threshold=BS EIRP-Maximum Path Loss

34
Radio planning -Monte Carlo simulations

•Users are randomly

generated based on
•Poisson law
•Traffic maps
•Successive shots
35
Radio planning - Pilot Ec/Io

36
Radio planning - UL Required Mobile EIRP

37
Radio planning - RF Design Optimisation

• Standard optimisation:
— Antenna re-orientation
— antenna downtilt
— site re-location

• Site densification
Continuos process
— increase capacity
— increase the level of interference

• carrier overlay

38
Conclusions
• Optimum network radio design requires accurate design
assumptions in terms of services, coverage, capacity, and
quality of service

• Capacity and coverage strongly correlated

• Multi service
— voice and data over the same radio resource

39