TNG CNG TY VIN THNG MOBIFONE

TRUNG TM O KIM V SA CHA THIT B VIN THNG MOBIFONE

1800 MHZ SPECTRUM REFARMING

KEY TO LTE IN MOBIFONE

Nguyen Xuan Nghia
Director of TMC Mobifone Corp

Hanoi, 08/2016

CONTENT
01

SPECTRUM RE-FARMING
OVERVIEW

SPECTRUM RE-FARMING
IN MOBIFONE

03

STUDY CASES IN
MOBIFONE

02

CONTENT
01

SPECTRUM RE-FARMING
OVERVIEW

02

03

WHAT IS SPECTRUM RE-FARMING?

Spectrum Re-farming is strategic for dealing with 2G, 3G & LTE in Parallel
Spectrum Re-farming enables operators to evolve their networks and achieve
technology and network performance targets
Spectrum Re-farming for GSM Networks is a service that allows an existing GSM
Network to operate with a tighter spectrum, ensuring maintenance of best possible
performance levels

When voice service is the

majority
More BW for GSM
Less BW for LTE

When LTE bears both

voice/data service

When data service is the

majority

All BW for LTE

LTE

Less BW for GSM

More BW for LTE

frequency

LTE
frequency
GSM
frequency

WHY LTE 1800 MHZ?

High
Performance

Lower TCO
(Total cost

of ownership)

Eco-system
Ready

LTE offers higher performance than HSPA+

Significant coverage improvement with 1800 MHz vs 2600 MHz

Spectrum available & technology neutral

Re-use of existing infrastructure
Re-use of 2G/3G equipment

Abundant spectrum in 1800 MHz band.

LTE 1800 Infrastructure is ready

LTE 1800 Terminal ecosystem is ready

WHY LTE 1800 MHZ?

18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Average throughput
in 10MHz

ms

Latency

Coverage Gain with Low

Frequency

80
17Mbps

60
40

13Mbps

800MHz

1800MHz

20
200kbps
EDGE

2.6GHz

10
HSPA+ R8

LTE

4dB
10dB

HSPA+

LTE

Urban

Wide Coverage

Distance

Source of data: G/L 1800M Refarming Solution A Promising Option for MBB Market (Huawei)

LTE1800 Provides Better Coverage & User Experience

CONTENT
01
SPECTRUM RE-FARMING
IN MOBIFONE

03

02

MOBIFONES CHALLENGE

The massive growth

in mobile data traffic

Extremely increasing
number of Smartphones
High requirements of
Customer for the
quality of Data service

Technology trends: Operators

commercially launched
LTE network

GSM

Limited spectrum available

for LTE, and the price for
LTE spectrum is high

f1

f2

f1

f2
LTE

GSM

Other
GSM

MOBIFONE - REFARMING STRATEGY

1800MHz: GSM

1800MHz: GSM+LTE

Lightly used

frequency
frequency

Phase 1: Refarming
10 MHZ

Re-farming in 1800M maximizes

the spectrum potential
Mobifone has the license to use
20Mhz bandwidth in 1800Mhz
spectrum (UL: 1730.1 1750.1/ DL:
1825.1 1845.1 Mhz).

Phase 3: using 20MHZ

for LTE

Phase 2:
enhance to 15
MHZ

MOBIFONE - SPECTRUM PLANNING

GSM

f
1
f
1

f
2

Other
GSM

GSM

f
2
LTE

LTE central frequency

EARFCN 1501 (UL/DL 1740.1/1835.1 Mhz

IBC & BCCH TCH

LTE

TCH

TCH channels are allocated at beginning and ending

of LTE channel. BW for TCH is 5 MHZ
BCCH
1800Mhz band

LTE 10 Mhz
GSM 5Mhz

Using sandwich Allocation Mode

To avoid interference for the LTE1800 and
other operators system
To save more GSM frequencies when using
non-standard separation
Center Frequency for LTE is 1501

GSM 5Mhz

BCCH channels are allocated at beginning and

ending of 1800Mhz spectrum. BW for BCCH is 5
MHZ

MOBIFONE REFARMING DEPLOYMENT

Spectrum
allocation
Capacity &
Coverage
consideration

Interference
Mitigation

Efficiency
Improvement

Sandwich frequency
allocation

Flexible spectrum
sharing

G/L Co-site
deployment
Compact bandwidth
Guard Band

Service migration
consideration

Refarming Buffer
Zone

Retain GSM capacity

(TFR, VAMOS)

MOBIFONE REFARMING DEPLOYMENT

Evaluating 2G 1800Mhz traffic to design the network configuration
after re-farming. Using the load balancing, load sharing strategy
between GSM900/1800 and UMTS2100

Collecting measurement report from subscribers on network.

Building interference matrix for planning/optimizing to describe
the interaction between any cells.
2
Planning the LTEs deployment area, as well as buffer zone to
eliminate interference of frequency

3
Planning the frequency based on Interference Matrix

CONTENT
01
02

03

STUDY CASES IN
MOBIFONE

MOBIFONE REFARMING IN HCM CITY

HCM City is the biggest market of
Mobifone. The number of site, subscribers,
traffic is extremely high to compare
other provinces.
Re-farming in HCM City is a tough
challenge for engineer, not only for
Mobifone but also for other vendors.
Frequency pattern applied:
- BCCH reuse pattern: 4/12
- TCH hopping type: Synthesize 1:1; 24
channels.
- Max configuration: 4/4/4

MOBIFONE REFARMING IN HCM CITY

Mobifone did the refaming 1800Mhz for
LTE in HCM City in the
end of March and early
April
Total
impacts
on
network: 92% of total
sites were reduced the
TCH channel; 30% of
total sites were reduced
the BCCH channel.
KPI after re-farming
are stable

MOBIFONE REFARMING IN HCM CITY

Checking the frequency clearance for LTE after re-farming 1800Mhz in HCM city
After re-farming, some
areas still have high
interference from GSM
system.
To avoid these problems
above, some issues need to
be checked carefully in
designing phase:
- Size of the buffer zone
- Optimize the 2G site
physical design (antenna
high, tilt, azimuth)

CONTENT
01

SPECTRUM RE-FARMING
OVERVIEW

SPECTRUM RE-FARMING
IN MOBIFONE

03

STUDY CASES IN
MOBIFONE

02

THANK YOU!