Background Noise Floor Measurements and Cells Planning for WCDMA

System
Hsin-Piao Lin1, Rong-Terng Juang1, Ding-Bing Lin1, Cheng-Yi Ko2, Yi Wang2

Institute of Computer, Communication and Control, National Taipei University of Technology.

No. 1, Sec. 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Road Taipei, Taiwan, +886-2-27712171 ext. 2271.
hplin@en.ntut.edu.tw, s9418009@ntut.edu.tw, dblin@en.ntut.edu.tw,

Taiwan Cellular Co., 4Fl.-2, No. 10, Lane 609, Sec. 5, Chung-Shin Rd., San-Chung, Taipei, Taiwan.
Bill_Ko@tcc.net.tw, yiwang@tcc.net.tw

AbstractThe third generation mobile communication

systems brought up many attentions in this few years.
WCDMA system is an interference limited system and
the coverage and data throughput are sensitive to
background noise floor. In this paper, we present the
background noise floor measurements in urban Taipei
city. The FDD mode uplink and downlink frequency
bands of 3G licenses issued in Taiwan are measured on
building top and at street level respectively. We compile
the statistics of the measurement data and analyze the
impact of background noise power levels on coverage
and data throughputs for WCDMA system. Besides,
based on the noise power level measurements we
proposed a better solution for the cells planning of
WCDMA system. In this paper, we used simple genetic
algorithm with the help of accurate prediction model and
digitized building information to achieve the
optimization of cell planning for WCDMA system. In our
proposed method, the required coverage can be achieved
with the optimum solution for base station numbers,
locations, antennas heights, and transmitting power.
Thus, the system would suffer from less impact of
background noise power and achieve maximum
performance with minimum cost.
Keywords WCDMA, Cells planning, Genetic Algorithm.

I.

INTRODICTION

In Taiwan, the third generation mobile

communication services frequency bands are divided
into five licenses and each one has FDD mode uplink
frequency band, FDD mode downlink frequency band
and TDD mode frequency band. Because WCDMA
system is interference-limited system, the system
performance such as coverage and capacity are
impacted by interference directly. Due to the problem
of cost and system performance, it is necessary to
evaluate the quality of those licenses before
investment for a system operator. A direct solution is
carrying out background noise floor measurements
and then analyzing the measurement data. In order to
process large number of measurement data, some
statistic methods would be feasible to evaluate the

quality of those license bands. Furthermore, these

measurement data could be used for cell planning in
the initial stage of system development.
Cell planning is a complex and important issue in a
wireless communication system. The planning quality
directly effects on the system performance and
economy efficiency. A properly designed system
achieves the maximum coverage and capacity with
minimum economy cost. For system optimization,
there are much parameters need to be considered such
as coverage, traffic density, rms(root mean square)
delay spread, and interference scenario. Coverage and
capacity are basic issues in cell planning for
second-generation system, such as GSM system.
However, in WCDMA system, rms delay is an
important issue as well. Propagation with excessive
rms delay spread results in serious inter-symbol
interference (ISI) which degrades the communication
performance or even makes a link failed. Besides, the
coverage and capacity are sensitive to background
noise power level in WCDMA system. Higher noise
power will reduce the cell range and system
throughputs.
Dealing with cell planning problem, an accurate
propagation prediction model is required. Though
there are a lot of prediction models for mobile
propagation
channel,
the
Walfisch-Ikegami
propagation model [1, 2] has been verified for better
prediction in an urban area with smaller cells. It is a
hybrid model which is combined with diffraction
down to street level and some empirical correction
factors. It has been specifically adapted to short range
cellular applications. With the help of this accurate
prediction model, cell planner still need an
optimization algorithm. Though there are several
algorithms for optimization problems, genetic
algorithm [3,4,5] is suitable for complex problem such
as cell planning. GA is a nature-inspired algorithmic
technique based on the principles of natural evolution.
It is widely used to solve optimization problem. Thus,
adopting an optimum algorithm and with the help of
the accurate prediction model and digitized building
information, cell planning would become easier.
In this paper, we will present the results of noise
power level measurements conducted in urban Taipei
city. The spectrum quality of each license band are

evaluated. Based on the measurement data, we use

simple genetic algorithm with the help of
Walfisch-Ikegami model and digitized building
information to achieve the optimization of cell
planning for WCDMA system. The proposed method
can reduce the impact of background noise power and
use minimum base station number to achieve the
maximum coverage and data throughputs.
II. BACKGROUND NOISE FLOOR
MEASUREMENTS IN URBAN TAIPEI CITY
For a system operator, it is necessary to evaluate the
spectrum quality before investing on 3G licenses.
During the summer of 2001, we carried out lots of
noise measurements on building top and at street level
for FDD mode uplink bands and FDD mode downlink
bands respectively in urban Taipei city. In the
measurements on building top, we use spectrum
analyzer, ADVENTEST U3641, to measure the noise
power level at selected locations. The WCDMA uplink
bands, including licenses A, B, C and D, are measured.
At each location, the measurement is carried out at
four directions, east, west, south and north. At street
level, we use Agilent E7476A for noise measurements.
It is a drive test solution for cdma2000 and WCDMA.
The WCDMA downlink bands, including license A, B,
C and D, are measured. And during the measurements,
the frequency, power level and GPS coordinates are
recorded in a notebook.
In order to analyzing large number of measurement
data, several statistic parameters are calculated. The
first one is the cumulative distribution function (CDF)
of noise power level. We calculate the percentage of
interference power level under a certain power
threshold. For a cleaner spectrum, the CDF curve rises
rapider. The second parameter is the statistics of
power level crossing rate (LCR) [6]. We calculate the
rate that the noise power envelope crosses a specified
power level in a positive-going direction. However,
the parameters of CDF and LCR are not enough for
spectrum quality evaluation. In CDMA system, noise
bandwidth is more important for communication
quality. Therefore, the third parameter is the average
of noise bandwidth. We calculate the average noise
bandwidth in which the power levels are above
specified power thresholds. Considering the LCR and
average noise bandwidth at the same time, one can
estimate the noise bandwidth and crossing times per
unit bandwidth at different power thresholds, and then
the spectrum quality can be evaluated.
Fig. is one of the interference power statistics,
PDF, of license C. For uplink frequency band, the
mean value is 109.4dBm as shown in Table. The
maximum value, the minimum value, and the variance
are 75.5dBm, 137.5 dBm and 18.7dB, respectively.
For downlink frequency band, the mean value,
maximum value, minimum value, and variance
are 109.6dBm, 72.6dBm, 135.6dBm, and 15.7 dB.

We also analyze the impact of interference levels on

system coverage and data throughputs for WCDMA
system. For uplink coverage analysis, the signal to
noise ratio(SNR) can be expressed as(1):
SNR =

W
MSTxPwr PathLoss

(1)
v j R j NoiseFloor + I CoChannel

where W is the chip rate of WCDMA system, vj is

activity factor at physical layer, Rj is bit rate of usr j,
MsTxPwr is mobile station transmitting power and
ICoChannel is interference power coming from other
users. The required path loss will be reduced when
noise floor arise due to the fixed SNR requirement,
mobile station transmitting power and system capacity.
Fig. shows the relationship between noise floor
and the required system path loss at different system
loading. It is obvious that the system coverage range
will be larger at lower noise floor.
For down link capacity analysis, we used (2):
SNR =

W
BSTxPwr PathLoss

( 2)
v j R j NoiseFloor + I CoChannel

where BsTxPwr is base station transmitting power.

The ICoChannel must be reduced when noise floor rise
higher at fixed SNR requirement, mobile station
transmitting power and system coverage range. Fig.
shows the relationship between noise floor and
system capacity at different coverage ranges. It is
obvious that the system coverage and capacity will be
higher at lower noise floor.
Table shows the system performance evaluation
from measurement data for license A, B, C and D with
uplink and down link bands. License D is the license
with lowest mean value of noise power and results in
maximum coverage for uplink band, and license A
suffers from heavier impacts of background noise. For
downlink, license D is the license with lower mean
value of noise power, and license C suffers from
heavier impacts of background noise.
III.

CELL PLANNING USING SIMPLE GENETIC

ALGORITHM

Genetic algorithm is a nature-inspired algorithmic

techniques based on the principles of natural evolution.
The individuals with better gene, which lead to fitter
to the environment, will survive in evolution process.
But individuals with worse gene will be eliminated in
evolution process. After the elimination of natural
environment, the survival with better gene will mate
with each other and bear their children. The children
will inherit parents gene. By iterating the previous
operation, the best gene will be obtained in an ideal
case.
The genetic algorithm used here is much likely as in
[5]. Based on standard operations as selection,
crossover and mutation, GA will solve optimization

problem easily. In the following, we briefly describe

the main parameters used in the algorithm:
1) Gene Encoding: This operation will encode the
gene as string with N-ary alphabet according to the
characteristics of an individual and then facilitates the
operations after. For example, if some kind of insect
with 8 types of wings then the gene would be encoded
as binary string { 000 , 001 , 010, , 110 , 111 }.
2) Fitness Function: It is a predefined linear or
nonlinear function which is used to evaluate the
fitness quantity in the environment for every
individual. For the example above, the fitness function
evaluates the fitness quantity in the environment by
considering about insects wing type and other
characteristics such as head shape and feet length.
3) Crossover: This operation will recombine the
gene of parents for children. There are three basic
crossover methods, One-point Crossover, Multi-point
Crossover and Uniform Crossover. For the first
method, it randomly chooses one crossover point but
the second method chooses two. The third method
uses a fixed mask for every crossover process and the
process is shown as (4) for binary operation:
Offspring 1 = Parents1 Mask + Parents 2 Mask
Offspring 2 = Parents1 Mask + Parents 2 Mask (4)

4) Mutation: The mutation operation is used to

avoid the erroneous searching for global extreme
value. For binary operation, the mutation process will
invert some 1s to 0s or 0s to 1s in gene string.
The mentioned genetic algorithm above is used in
our work to find out the optimized solution for cell
planning. This proposed method is intended to find a
solution that is impacted by less background noise and
used minimum number of base stations to achieve
specified coverage rate and maximum data
throughputs. At the beginning, we select the possible
locations for setting base station according to the
digitized building information. In gene encoding
process, base station location, height and transmitting
power are encoded. There are 4 kinds of transmitting
power available, 1W, 1.5W, 2W and 2.5W. The fitness
function is designed as following:
if ( CoverageR ate j CoverageTh reshold )
Fitne ss j = 0.3CoverageRa te j + 0.3
+ 0.3

(Number of UnUsed

AvgThrough put j
Throughput ref

BSs ) j

TotalPossi bleBSs

+ 0.01(1 Overlappin g j )

Fitne ss j = (CoverageTh reshold CoverageRa te j )

(Number of UnUsed

BSs ) j

TotalPossi bleBSs

IV.

SIMULATION RESULTS

We use simple genetic algorithm with the help of

Walfisch-Ikegami model and digitized building
database to solve the optimization problem of cell
planning. The selected area for simulation and
validation is in the vicinity of NTUT campus. As is
shown in Fig. , it is an area of 1.5kms by 1.6kms
square digitized building map. Those blocks with
different color represent different building height. The
brighter ones represent higher buildings and darker
ones represent lower buildings. The average building
height is 17 meters and the standard deviation is 14
meters. In our simulation, we assume a compound
traffic pattern with a mixed of 80% speech users
(12.2kpbs user data rate), 15% of 144kpbs and 5% of
384kpbs data users. The different traffic pattern would
result in different system performance. Then we
evaluate each base stations performance, such as
coverage and throughputs [7], which are impacted by
noise power. Finally, the characteristics of these
possible base stations are encoded as gene strings and
started evolution.
A selected result is shown in Fig. . There are 3
base stations needed for serving this area with mean
transmitting power, 1W, and standard deviation, 0.5W.
The dotted points are the area covered by the designed
WCDMA system. The coverage rate is 92.4% and
total data throughput is 7.9 Mbps.
V.

else

by the selected base stations, AvgThrouphputj is the

average data throughputs of the base stations,
Throuphputref is the throughputs with respect to the
measured minimum noise power level, Overlapping is
the percentage of area covered by 2 base stations or
more, and CoverageThreshold is the desired coverage
rate. In our method, the number of used base stations,
coverage rate and data throughputs are concerned for
optimum solution. If the selected individual achieves
the specified coverage threshold, fitness function will
optimized the fitness quantity by reducing base station
number and increasing average data throughput. If the
selected individual doesnt achieve the specified
coverage threshold, fitness function will evaluate the
fitness quantity by increasing coverage rate. The
fitness quantity of every individual could be evaluated
and sorted in order, and then, the operation decides
which individual to be survived or eliminated. The
survival rate is set as 50%. For crossover, uniform
crossover method is used. The mutation rate is 0.2.
The algorithm iterates 2000 generations and then stops
for outputting the solution.

AvgThrough put j
1

Throughput ref

where CovergeRatej is the percentage of area covered

CONCLUSIONS

For third generation mobile communication systems,

the performance, such as coverage rate and data
throughputs, are sensitive to noise power level. We
have presented the results of noise power
measurements in urban Taipei city for WCDMA

systems. The measurements include FDD mode uplink

and downlink frequency bands of 3G licenses issued
in Taiwan. We compile the statistics of the
measurement data and analyze the impact of
background noise power levels on coverage and data
throughputs for WCDMA system. The spectrum
quality evaluation using measurement data for uplink
and downlink bands of license A, B, C and D are
presented. Also, a cell planning method based on
simple genetic algorithm with the help of
Walfisch-Ikegami model and digitized building
information is developed. A selected example is
examined to show that our proposed method can
reduce the impact of background noise power and use
minimum base station number to achieve the
maximum coverage and data throughputs. Thus, an
easy and efficient cell planning and system
enhancement method for WCDMA systems can be
delivered. Furthermore, the deployed system would
suffer from less impact of background noise power
and achieve maximum performance with minimum
cost.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research is sponsored by Taiwan Cellular Co.,
Taiwan, under Contract R90004.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]

[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]

S.R. Saunders, Antennas and propagation for wireless

communication systems, John Wiley & Sons, pp.170-171,
1999.
D.Har, A.M. Watson, and A.G. Chadeny, Comment on
diffraction loss of rooftop-to-street in cost 231
Walfisch-Ikegami model, IEEE Trans. Veh. Tech., vol. 48, pp.
1451-1452, 1999.
K. F. Man, K. S. Tang and S. Kwong, Genetic Algorithms,
Springer, 1999.
R. L. Haupt, and S. E. Haupt, Practical Genetic Algorigth,
John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
Calegari P., Guidec F., Kuonen P., and Wagner D., Genetic
Approach to Radio Network Optimization for Mobile
Systems, IEEE Veh. Tech. Conf.,vol. 2, pp. 755 759, 1997.
T. S. Rappaport, Wireless communication principles and
practice, Prentice Hall PRT, 1999.
Harry Holma and Antti Toskala, WCDMA for
UMTSRadio Access for Third Generation Mobile
Communications, John Wiley & Sons.

Fig. . PDF of noise power level of 3G spectrum for license C.

TABLE
BACKGROUND NOISE POWER STATISTICS OF 3G
LICENCES
Mean
Max.
Min.
Variance
Value
Value
Value
(dB)
(dBm) (dBm) (dBm)
FDD
-108.1
-66.7
-141.8
24.4
Uplink
License
A
FDD
-110.5
-76.7
-138.6
14.4
Downlink
FDD
-108.8
-77.8
-134.5
19.9
Uplink
License
B
FDD
-110.2
-82.5
-135.8
14.2
Downlink
FDD
-109.4
-75.5
-137.5
18.7
Uplink
License
C
FDD
-109.6
-72.6
-135.6
15.7
Downlink
FDD
-109.6
-75.5
-135.8
17.1
Uplink
License
D
FDD
-111.2
-85.2
-141.5
14.2
Downlink

Fig. . Maximum path loss vs. noise floor for uplink

TABLE
PERFORMANCE OF 3G LICENCES
License A License B License C License D
FDD FDD FDD FDD FDD FDD FDD FDD
UL DL UL DL UL DL UL DL

Fig. . Throughputs vs. noise floor for downlink

Max. 50%
Path- system
Loss loading
60%
system
loading
70%
system
loading
ThroL =
ughput max
130
(Mbps)

149. 151. 150. 151. 150. 150. 150. 152.

4
8
1
5
7
9
9
5
148. 150. 149. 150. 149. 149. 149. 151.
4
8
1
5
7
9
9
5
147. 149. 147. 149. 148. 148. 148. 150.
1
5
8
2
4
6
6
2
2.72 2.73 2.72 2.73 2.72 2.72 2.72 2.73

Lmax=
2.71 2.72 2.71 2.71 2.71 2.71 2.71 2.72
134
Lmax=
2.65 2.69 2.66 2.68 2.67 2.67 2.67 2.69
140
Lmax=
2.48 2.59 2.52 2.58 2.55 2.55 2.55 2.61
145
UL:Uplink DL:Downlink

Fig. . A cell planning example