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PLANNING OF A GSM RADIO NETWORK USING

MAPINFO
Dataset April 2014

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Amity University
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PLANNING OF A GSM RADIO NETWORK

USING MAPINFO
1

Rahul Raj
M.Tech- TSE, AITEM, Amity University
1
Noida, India
1
rahulraj13@live.in
1

Abstract- Radio network planning is possibly the

most significant branch of the GS M system design
process due to its immediacy to mobile users. This
paper present, a fundamental approach to radio
network planning that provides effective solution in
terms of coverage and quality. The aim of this
paper, which is coverage-driven, is to map the
number of sites required providing enough coverage
for an area covered with urban and sub-urban
terrains. Noida city in India. The different sites are
planned under different BS Cs in the In this paper,
we are planning a network using a mapping tool
MAPINFO.
Index terms BTS, RNP, MAPINFO, TEMS-TOOL.

Neha Arora
Assistant Professor, AITEM, Amity University
2
Noida, India
2
narora2@amity.edu
2

Before planning a network, you must validate the

network coverage and capacity target and relative
specifications from carriers. They are specified as
follows:

INTRODUCTION

The plan of radio network planning (RNP) is the

basis of the construction of a wireless mob ile
network. The plan level of network planning
decides the future layout of a network. During
network planning, the documents concerning base
station distribution, channel assignment, and cell
data must be outputted. And the main tasks
involved are as follows:
Investigate carrier requirements on
network coverage, capacity and quality.
Decide the network structure and base
station type based on further analysis.
Estimate the number of base stations.
Plan an ideal base station address
according to cellular structures.
In this paper, a radio network is planned by means
of mapping software MAP-INFO 11.5. The data
was taken fro m industry and with the help of
many resources, also mentioned in previous
publication [1].

COVERA GE
AND
CAPA CITY
TARGET CONFIRMATION

Definition of coverage areas

Specific division of the service quality in
coverage areas
Grade of service (Go S) at Um interface
Prediction of network capacity and
subscriber growth rate
Available bands and restrictions on using
bands
Restrictions on base station address and
the number of carriers
Penetration loss in cars or indoor
environment
Performance and sensitivity of base
stations
Rules on base station naming and
numbering
Information of the base stations in the
existing network

A. Coverage Analysis
Area Partit ion
1. Types of coverage area
The signal transmission models are applied in
accordance with the transmission environments in
areas of different types. The s ignal transmission
models decide the design principle, network
structures, grade of services and frequency reuse
modes for the radio networks in coverage areas
[2]. In order to decide the cell coverage area, you
can the radio coverage areas into the following
four types:

2.

Big city
Middle-sized city
Small town
Countryside

Define the field strength at coverage area

edges
When defining the field strength of the uplink
edges of a service area, you must consider the
factors listed in II.
Table 2: Typical factors concerning the definition
for the filed strength at coverage area edges

Table 1: Coverage area d ivision [2]

Are a type
Big city

Description

Middle-sized
city

Small town

Countryside

Dense population
Developed economy
Large traffic
Dense high buildings and mansions
distributed in center areas
Flourishing shopping centers
Relatively dense population
Relatively developed economy
Relatively large traffic
Dense buildings distributed in center
areas
Active and promising shopping centers
Relative large population
Promising economic development
Moderate traffic
Relative dense buildings distributed in
center areas
A certain scale of shopping centers but
with great potentiality

Factor

Value

Mobile station sensitivity

-102 dBm

Fast fading protection

Slow fading protection

4 dB (3 dB for countryside)
8 dB (6 dB for countryside)

Noise (environmental noise

and
interfering noise) protection

5 dB

3. Define coverage probability

The definition of coverage probability varies with
the coverage areas, and the coverage probability is
gradually improved along with the construction of
the network.
Table 3: Characterization of coverage probability
at different stages and in different Areas
Construction stage

Areas

Cove rage target

Early stage

Significant national
tourism
areas,
national highways,
and the areas along
busy railways.
Other major roads,
railways and searoutes.

Full coverage.

Key areas, such as

government offices,
press centers etc.

With the growth of the

network
creation,the
number of users grows
larger and they require Qos
of higher grade, so the
quality of indoor coverage
of the areas.

Scattered population
Developing economy
Low traffic

In addition, you must consider the coverage of the

areas at the nodes and various vehicle arteries,
including:
Exp ress way
National h igh way
District h ighway
Railway
Sea-route
Roads in mountain areas
Generally, it is recommended to apply Omni-base
stations in the countries plains and the areas with
restricted landforms. In big cit ies, middle -sized
cities, and along superhighways, it is
recommended to apply directional base stations.

Development
Stage

The coverage probability

must be greater than 90%.

B. Radio Environment Survey

Through
surveying
radio
propagation
environments, you can get familiar with the
overall landforms, estimate the rough antenna
height, and select the proper radio propagation
model, among which the radio propagation model
helps you estimate the number o f base station
when predicting the coverage. If necessary, you
must adjust the propagation model [3].
For GSM 900MHz, the formu las estimating radio
path loss in different areas are simplified.

Table 4: Formu las estimating radio path loss in

different areas [4][5]
Formula

Applicatio
n area

Propagation
model adopted

Example

PLDU = 147.2
+8d + 40.5lgd

Densely
populated
urban
areas

WalfishIkegami

PLU =128.73
+
38lgd

Common
urban
areas

WalfishIkegami

If
carrier
frequency
=
925MHz, hBT S
< hobstacle, and
d <0.5km, hBT S
= 25mhobstacle
=30m,streetwidth
=25m,building
width = 50m
If
carrier
frequency =
925MHz
and
hBT S
>
hobstacle,
hBT S = 25m,
hobstacle = 20m,
street width =
25m, building
width = 50m

Figure 1: MAPINFO tab file

Open the .xls file in MAPINFO, it will

automatically create a .tab file of the
same name in the directory as shown in
the figure 1 and figure 2.

And then, open the table menu and create

site boundaries using Sitesee

NETWORK
PLA NNING
AND
MAPINFO
We had planned a network using MAPINFO 11.5
tool. Some other tools are also available in market
such as ATOL, ASSET, and Arc-GIS etc. They
are licensed version tools but this MAPINFO
access was quite easier and simp le. The data was
collected by means of certain activ ities wh ile
working on live pro ject with an industry. We store
our database in .xls file format and the files in
MAPINFO stores in .tab format.

Figure 2: MAPINFO tab file.

Search the location for Latitude and

Longitude, Site radius, Beam width and
Azimuth.

Figure 5: MAP with thematic d ifferentiation

Figure 3: Virtual MAPPED network

Plot this map over the Google earth as

supported by MAPINFO 11.5 and the
network site is ready.

The latitude and longitude locations were

arranged by the RF survey process.

The map can be customize according to

the user and distinguish the sites as
defined.
CONCLUSION

By means of MAPINFO a radio network had been

planned/ designed and steps are mentioned how
we done it. The process had been gone through
fro m data collect ion to plotting. There will be
always a future in any field; here the very next
step is the post processing drive test and the
optimization of the radio network. In GSM or in
the 2G network is the basic telecom network
which is continuous upgrade from 2G to 3G and
to 4G. Industrial movements are going with full
action and after the resettlement of spectrum and
settlement of more spectrums, co mpanies are
running their planning process with full move and
researchers are working to implement and device
more efficient processes for planning and
optimization.

Figure 4: ROA D location

REFERENCE
[1] Tushar Saxena and Rahul Raj RF survey and
Drive test: the very first step towards network
planning, conference proceedings, ICRTC-2013.
[2] GSM Radio Network
Optimization HUAWEI.

Planning

and

[3] Radio Network Planning and Optimization,

a document by Kerala Police.
[4] Purnima K. Sharma, R. K. Singh, Cell
Coverage Area and Link Budget Calculations in
GSM System, International Journal o f Modern
Engineering Research (IJMER) Vol.2, Issue.2,
Mar-Apr 2012 pp-170-176.
[5] A. Mishra, Fundamentals of cellular network
planning and optimization: 2G / 2.5G / 3G...
Evolution to 4G. Wiley-Inter-science, 2004.

AUTHOR
Rahul Raj is student with the Amity University,
Noida, India (Email: yuvvraaj.rahul@g mail.co m).
GUIDE
Neha Arora is assistant professor with A mity
University, Noida, India
(Email:narora2@amity.edu).