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Getting Started-UMTS
Version 3.1.0
Forsk China
May 2011
Version 3.1
GSM/GPRS/EDGE
UMTS/HSPA
LTE
CDMA2000 1xRTT/EV-DO
TD-SCDMA
WiMAX/BWA
Microwave Links
Atoll Getting Started UMTS Version 3.1.0
Table of Contents
1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 4
2 Installation ................................................................................................................ 5
1 Introduction
This document explains the entire process from the import of network data in Atoll to the
production of prediction studies. The purpose of this document is to give an overall
understanding for radio engineers, who never use Atoll.
This document does not explain the algorithm and dont give detailed explanation. The
user may find in the Technical Reference Guide and User Manual the concrete
algorithm and the detailed explanation of parameters.
The user may find all projects and map data in the CDROM, which was provided with this
document.
This document describes how to get started using the Atoll version 3.1.0.
2 Installation
2) Before starting the installation of Atoll, the dongle has to be plugged out.
4) In the appeared dialog box, click on the Next button and choose the installation
directory (the default path is C:\Program File\Forsk\Atoll). The minimum requirement
for the installation of Atoll is a disk space of 111.9 MB.
5) In the 3rd window the user may choose Full installation, Compact installation or
Custom installation and select the modules. The recommendation for a first
installation of Atoll is Full installation, including Atoll, Add-ins (Export to Google
Earth and Best Signal Export), Driver for Fixed License Keys, Distributed Calculation
Server and Atoll Management Console.
Later update of Atoll, models can be chosen to install. Please note, if Atoll has been
uninstalled once, Driver for Fixed License Keys model should be installed again.
6) In the 4th window, fill in the Domain, Username and Password fields. If the user
doesnt choose previously Distributed Calculation Server, then he doesnt need to
fill in any information.
7) Click on the Next button to start the installation of Atoll. After the installation, the
computer needs to be restarted.
3 Sequence of operations
This following document presents how to establish an Atoll UMTS project and to carry out
coverage predictions, simulations and production of reports:
(1) Start a new project
(2) Import of 3D maps
(3) Setting the coordinate system
(4) Import of network data
(5) Propagation model selection and calibration
(6) Best Server and Signal Level coverage predictions
(7) Traffic Modeling
(8) Monte-Carlo simulation
(9) Calculation of other prediction studies
(10) Production of reports
The operation flow chart is represented in the following figure (dashed line frames may be
chosen or not).
Start
Import of 3D maps
SPM model
selected?
Choice of coordinate system N
Y
Import of antenna patterns
CW drive test
Setting of BTS Equipments
and Channel Elements
Site table
Adjustment of
special parameters
Transmitter
equipments (TMA,
feeder, BTS)
Transmitter table
Model calibration
Cells table
Best server
coverage
prediction
Traffic model
adjustment
Traffic modeling
Environment
User profiles
Mobility
N
Does the traffic
model satisfy?
Neighbour allocation
Calculation
N
Do the calculation
results satisfy?
The project templates dialog box will appear. Choose UMTS HSPA template.
Atoll opens a blank UMTS project. The new project already includes the default antenna
database.
The Atoll main window contains an Explorer Window and a Map Window, as seen in the
figure above.
In the appeared Open dialog box browse the geographical map folder.
Generally the following data maps need to be imported in Atoll: heights (map of the
altitude above sea level), clutter classes (type of land used) and vector (vector maps). The
order of import is not important, but, for this document, the following order will be used:
heights->clutter->vectors.
2) In the appeared Data Type dialog box, click on the Altitudes button and click OK.
3) After the map import, the following figure appears. The heights map is automatically
put on the left side in the explorer window under the Geo tab named Digital Terrain
Model
1) Select again File->Import in the main toolbar. In the Open dialog box, select the
Geo_Data\Brussels\Clutterr folder. Select the index document and click on Open
2) In the appeared Data Type dialog box, click on the Clutter Classes button and
click on OK
3) After the map is imported, the following figure appears. The clutter classes map is
automatically put on the left side in the explorer window under the Geo tab named
Clutter Classes
4) Double clicking on the Clutter Classes folder, open the Clutter Classes properties
dialog box for the setting of clutter parameters. Select the Description tab and click
on the bottom right Refresh button. Atoll will filter the clutter classes, which are not
included into the clutter map. The following figure shows the filtered tab of clutter
classes.
The following parameters can be defined in the dialog box: Model Standard Deviation,
EC/Io Standard Deviation, DL and UL Eb/Nt Standard Deviation, Indoor Loss,
Orthogonality Factor, Indoor Loss, % Pilot Finger, Spatial Multiplexing Gain Factor
and Additional Transmit Diversity Gain.
Note: An additional indoor loss can now be defined per frequency band.
5) These values have to be set according to the customer network, if Use only default
values is chosen, Atoll will use default values for each clutter standard deviation.
6) In the Display tab, adjust the display color of each clutter type. Pay attention to the
Display type and the Field. The following figure is the suggested setting of
Display tab. Click on the color frame to change the color for each clutter type.
Select Add to legend to display information in the legend window. Use the
Transparency function to adjust the transparency of the map. The display of each clutter
may be disabling by unchecking the check-box.
7) After setting the Clutter Classes properties, the clutter map will be displayed as
below:
1) Select again File->Import in the main toolbar. In the Open dialog box, select the
Geo_Data\Brussels\Vector folder. Select the index document and click on Open.
2) In the appeared Data Type dialog box, click on the Vectors button and click OK
3) In the appeared Vector import dialog box, use the default settings and click on the
Import button to import the map.
4) After the map import, the following figure appears. The vector map is automatically
put on the left side in the explorer window under the Geo tab named Vectors.
5) Dragging the Vectors folder with the mouse to the top of the explorer window, the
Vector map will be placed as the uppermost layer, as seen in the following figure.
6) Double clicking on Airport in the Vectors folder, open the airport properties dialog
box, and select the Display tab, as seen in the following figure.
7) Clicking on the vector line to open the Display dialog box to set the color and style
of the vector line.
8) As shown in the following figure, the color of the vector line is changed.
9) You may modify other vector files with the same operations as for the airport vector
file.
The following figure shows all the imported digital maps.
In the appeared Properties dialog box, the Projection and Display can be defined in
the Coordinate systems frame.
1) First set the projection system (it can be known by reading the file projection.txt in
the heights folder). For the demo project the projection system is WGS 84 UTM
zone 31N.
Click on the right side of the Projection field on , open Coordinate systems
dialog box and choose WGS84 UTM zones in the Find in box.
Click on the right side of the Display field on the button and open the Coordinate
Systems dialog box. Select WGS84 UTM zones and choose the WGS 84 system (with
an ellipsoidal symbol).
6) After having set the Coordinate system, the Map Window displays the longitude and
latitude, default value is xxxxxx.xxS (degreed, minute and second, S means
southern hemisphere), as shown in the following figure.
7) The user can choose the Degree Format among the xxxx'xx.xx, xxdxxmxx.xxsS
format (d is degree, m is minute and s is second, S means southern
hemisphere), the xx.xxxxx format (decimal base) or the -xx.xxxxx format (decimal
base and southern hemisphere expressed with the minus sign), as shown in the
following figure.
Note: If the user wants to use another projection system and wants to display the
longitude and latitude coordinates, then the display system has to be chosen
according to the projection system name. Moreover there is an ellipsoid symbol in
front of the display system.
All data have to be prepared in Excel, before importing them. Atoll needs an Excel
document with network data including sites, antennas, transmitters and cells.
All necessary data for the setup of the Brussels project are in the
UMTS_Brussels_Network.xls document in the Reference_Data\Network_Data folder.
The import of the network data must be done by a certain order. In Atoll, the order follows
the explorer window order. The following figure shows the order for the introduction of the
network data:
Sites->Antennas->Transmitters->Cells.
2) Copy the columns Name, Longitude and Latitude (except the title line).
3) In the Network window, double click on the Sites folder (or right click on the Sites
folder and select Open Table) will open the Sites table, as shown in the following
figure.
4) In the Sites table, select the first cell and paste the data. Except for the columns
Name, X and Y, the others are automatically filled in with default value. Atoll will
transform automatically the longitude and latitude form decimal format to minutes
and seconds system.
The imported sites will be put in the Sites folder of the Network window with an
alphabetic order, as shown in the following figure.
5) If the user wants to delete one or several sites, he can delete them in the Sites table
or directly in the Network window.
In the Sites table, click on the left grey cell of the line, which contains the site you
want to delete, select the entire line, and push the keyboard delete button.
In the Network window, right click on the site you want to delete and select delete
in the menu, as shown in the following figure.
6) After the input of Sites data, the Map Window is automatically updated with the new
sites. In the following figure, a black circle represents a site.
7) Open the Sites properties dialog box (right click on the Sites folder and select
properties) to change the display attributes, as shown in the following figure.
Choosing Unique allows only a unique color for the display of sites. Choosing Discrete
values or Value intervals allows colors selection according to certain characteristics. By
default, a site is represented by a black circle.
If necessary, the symbol and color of sites can be changed, by selecting Properties in
the Actions dialog box. The appeared Display window allows the selection of color and
symbol.
8) Site Equipment Setting. Open the Site Equipment Table on Network Settings ->
Radio Resource Management on Parameters Window to define site equipment.
Atoll needs the following antennas data: antenna name, antenna gain, antenna horizontal
and vertical patterns. Beamwidth, Fmin and Fmax are reference parameters and they are
not used for calculation. Atoll calculates and displays the electrical down tilt from the
vertical pattern. The calculated electrical down tilt is only given for information.
1) Select the UMTS network - Antennas sheet in the UMTS_Brussels_Network.xls
document. As seen in the following figure, the horizontal and vertical patterns are
provided.
Right click on the Antennas folder in the Explorer Window and select New in the
context menu, as shown in the following figure.
3) In the Antennas New element properties dialog box, the following tabs are available:
General, Horizontal patternVertical pattern and Other properties.
4) In the General tab, the antenna gain and the electrical tilt can be defined.
Note: The electrical tilt value is only a reference information for the user and this
parameter has no impact on the calculation. Antenna gain unit may be dBi or dBd.
The unit can be selected in the DocumentPropertiesUnits dialog box.
Note: Atoll allows you to enter antenna pattern attenuations for as many as 720
angles. Therefore, attenuation values can also be defined for angles other than
integer values from 0 to 359. For example: 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 359, 359.5.
7) Other parameters can be set in the Other properties tab, but it is only reference
information and it has no impact on the calculation.
2) Double click on the Transmitters folder in Network window (or right click on
Transmitters and select Open Table) to open the Transmitters tab, as shown in
the following figure.
3) After opening the Transmitters table in Atoll, you will discover that the number of
fields is larger than in the Excel file. It is because some of the parameters in Atoll
dont need the input from the user but Atoll will automatically fill in default values. The
fields listed in the Excel document are those necessary parameters for the
transmitters.
Before copy/paste the Excel table in Atoll, the unnecessary columns have to be hidden. If
the user try to paste the data and that dont match with the Transmitters tab, an error
message will be displayed. The following figure shows that the Columns to be Displayed
tab can be accessed under Display Columns.
In the Columns to be Displayed tab, the unnecessary fields has to be unchecked for
hiding the corresponding column, as shown in the following chart. Finally the
Transmitters tab and the Excel tab have exactly the same columns.
4) Copy the transmitters data of the UMTS network - Transmitters sheet of the Excel
document (except the title line) and paste it in the Transmitters table in Atoll, as
shown in the following figure.
5) After the import of data in the Transmitters table, the Map Window will be
automatically updated, without refresh or saving the document.
6) The toolbars button may zoom in or zoom out the Map Window (left click will
zoom in and right click will zoom out). The toolbars button allows the user to
choose one region to be zoomed in.
7 Pushing the toolbars button assigns automatically different colors for each
transmitter in order to differentiate them, as shown in the following figure.
Handoff: define the parameters used to model soft handoff on the uplink.
Default UL Macro-Diversity Gain: set a default value for the uplink gain due to
macro-diversity on soft and soft-soft handovers. If you clear the Shadowing taken
into account check box on the Condition tab when defining a coverage prediction
or during a point analysis, Atoll uses this value. If you select the Shadowing taken
into account check box on the Condition tab, Atoll calculates the UL
macro-diversity gain, based on the standard deviation value of EbNt on the
uplink defined per clutter class.
+MRC in Softer/Soft: Atoll selects the serving cell during a softer/soft handover
by recombining the signal of co-site transmitters and multiplying the resulting
signal by the rake efficiency factor and then comparing this value to the signal
received at transmitters located on the other sites of the active set. Atoll chooses
the greatest value and multiplies it by the macro-diversity gain.
Compressed Mode: define the parameters related to compressed mode.
Compressed mode is used when a mobile supporting compressed mode is
connected to a cell located on a site with a compressed-mode-capable equipment
and either the pilot RSCP, or the received EcI0, or both of them are lower than the
defined activation thresholds.
RSCP Activation Threshold: select the RSCP Active check box and enter a
RSCP Activation Threshold.
EcI0 Activation Threshold: select the EcI0 Active check box and enter a EcI0
Activation Threshold.
EbNt UL and DL Target Increase: When compressed mode is activated, EbNt
requirements in UL and DL are increased. In order to take this into account, Atoll
adds UL and DL EbNt target increase values to the UL and DL EbNt
requirements set for each radio bearer.
HSDPA: define how total noise is calculated and how the CQI (Channel Quality
Indicator) is evaluated for HSDPA.
Nt: select "Total noise" and Atoll will calculate Nt as the noise generated by all
transmitters plus thermal noise or select "Without useful signal" and Atoll will
calculate Nt as the total noise less the signal of the studied cell.
CQI: select Based on CPICH quality and Atoll will measure the CQI based on
the pilot EcNt or select Based on HS-PDSCH quality and Atoll will measure the
CQI based on the HS-PDSCH EcNt. Depending on the option selected, you will
have to define either a CQI=f(CPICH Ec/Nt) graph, or a CQI=f(HSPDSCH Ec/Nt)
graph in the Properties dialogue of the terminal equipment. The calculated CQI
will be used to determine the best bearer.
2) After importing transmitters, Atoll will create cells automatically. Generally, we need to
delete all of the cells on Cells table to fix for UMTS network - Cells sheet. Right click
Transmitters ->Cells->Open Table on Network window to open Cells table, select all
of the cells and click Delete, as seen in the following figure.
After deleting the cells, Cells table is empty, as seen in the following figure.
3) Adjust the Cells table fields according to the Excel fields, copy the data of the
UMTS network - Cells sheet and paste it the Cells table of Atoll, as shown in the
following figure.
Note: Atoll supports transmitters with more than one cell (carrier), as shown in the
following figure.
4) The Name field in the Cells table may be set according to the user preference. In
Atoll, the default name is set as: Transmitter_name (0, where 0 is the carrier
number.
5) Frequency Bands:
To open the Frequency Bands dialogue, select Network Settings->Frequencies->
Bands on Network window.
Open the Frequency Band dialogue. Define the central frequency, the first carrier, the
last carrier and the bandwidth. By default the first carrier is 0 and the last carrier is 2, so
there are 3 carriers. The frequency of the carrier 0 is the central frequency. This frequency
is use for the calculation of the pathloss matrices. The frequency of the carrier 1 is the
central frequency + 5MHz. Atoll UMTS supports multi-frequency band, by adding a new
frequency band in the last line of the Frequency Band dialog box.
Define TMA, Feeders, Transmitter Equipment and Repeater Equipment under Radio
Network Equipment folder on Parameters window.
The stand alone mode does not need to connect any external database, but it can be
convenient to import/export network data from/to a database.
4) After clicking on Open, Atoll automatically import all network data from the database
to the Atoll project.
5) Using Centre in the Map Window to lets the sites appear in the center of the
window.
Note: The database does not include the map data, therefore the map data has to be
imported separately.
The steps for importing the network data into Atoll have been introduced above. Atoll
provides also another method to add new sites directly in the Map Window.
Clicking on the Atoll toolbar button , turn the mouse into a honeycombs shape, as
shown in the following figure.
In the Map Window, a new site (including 3 transmitters) can be added directly with a click
on the appropriate position. Simultaneously, Atoll adds the corresponding information into
the data sheets.
Press the Ctrl key to lay continuously sites in the Map Window. When the laying of sites
is finished, press the Esc key to withdraw from the current status.
It is possible to add new transmitters to an existing base station, as shown in the following
figure.
Do not select Hexagonal Design in the Network tab, will hide the honeycomb shape of
the new sites.
Click on the Atoll toolbar button , then a polygonal symbol will be added behind the
cursor.
Then draw a polygon in the Map Window to add a new group of sites inside the selected
region. Sites will be automatically layed inside the region according to a certain inter-site
distance, as seen in the following figure.
Similarly, Atoll will add the corresponding information to the new sites into the data sheets.
If the user wants to delete a group of sites, it can be done in the Site table as explain
above or more quickly through the following operations:
Right click on a group of the Hexagonal Design folder and select Delete, then the entire
group of sites will be deleted.
Select Station Tamplates under Network Settings folder on Parameters window to manage
station tamplates.
The user can edit the templates parameters by clicking on Properties button. The user
may also add a new template or delete an existing one.
In the appeared dialog box, the templates properties can be edited (for example, the
number of sectors, the antenna model, the azimuth, the tilt, the height and so on).
SPM (Standard Propagation Model) is a model originating from Planet and using K
parameters. The SPM model has also a relation with the Hata model. The SPM model
may be calibrated with CW measurements.
(2) In Atoll, right click on the CW Measurements folder in the Network window, and
(3) In New CW Measurement Path dialog box, fill in the file name, the corresponding
transmitter, the receiver height. Then paste the Excel table data into the table, as
shown in the following figure.
Note: Set the coordinate system with WGS84 corresponding to the projection
system use in the Excel tab.
After clicking on OK, the test data are immediately displayed on the Map Window. Each
point represents a measurement sampling.
2) Import method
(1) Atoll supports the formats .dat, .txt, .csv and .hd (PlaNET).
(2) Please find 3 .txt documents inside the Reference_Data folder of the CDROM.
(3) In Atoll, right click on CW measurements in the Network window and select
Import as shown in the following figure.
(4) In the appeared Open dialog box, browse for the document to be imported. Atoll
supports the multi selection of files. Several measurements corresponding to the
same transmitter can be imported at the same time, but if the measurements
belong to different transmitters, then each measurement has to be imported
separately.
Provided test data corresponding to different transmitters, the measurements have to be
imported one by one.
(5) The appeared dialog box contains two tabs, General and Setup. In the
General tab, define the corresponding reference transmitter, the frequency and
receiver height, as shown in the following figure.
(6) In the Setup tab, fill in the 1st Measurement Row field with 2 (because the drive
test document has a title line and the data start at the second line). Then click on
the Setup button.
(7) After clicking on the Setup button, the CW Measurement Setup dialog box
appears, as shown in the following figure. Define X-Coordinates and
Y-Coordinates fields with respectively the longitude and latitude.
(8) Click on the Import button in the import main window and then the measurement
data will be imported into the project. After the import, the measurement data will
be automatically put in the CW Measurements folder of the Network Window.
Use Centre in the Map Window function to display the imported measurements in
the center of the map.
The SPM automatic calibration may help the user to find the best K parameters, the
Effective antenna height method, the Diffraction method and the clutter losses.
(1) Duplicate the existing standard propagation model and make the calibration for the
duplicated model. This method has the advantage to preserve the existing model
and to allow a calibration of the SPM for each kind of environments.
(2) Right click on the Copy of Standard Propagation Model and select Calibration....
Select the CW measurement(s) and click on the Next button.
(3) In the appeared dialog box, select the K parameters that will be used for the
calibration. It is recommended not to select the K6 parameter.
Double click on a K parameter or select a K parameter and click on Define Range, will
open the Define Domain dialog box, where the range of the K parameter can be defined,
as shown in the following figure. But generally it is recommended to keep the default
values defined above.
(4) According to the selected CW measurements and the tuning parameters, Atoll
calibrates automatically the SPM propagation model.
(5) After the computation, Atoll provides in the same dialog box the results and the
statistics concerning the model, as the average error and the standard deviation.
According to the results, the user may choose to commit the K parameters list by
clicking on the Commit button.
(6) If the results are not satisfactory and the K parameters have been already
committed, the propagation model can be deleted by right clicking on it and
selecting Delete (or by pressing the Delete key on the keyboard).
(7) If after the calibration, the model has to be used in other projects, copy it by with
CTRL+C and paste it with CTRL+V in the Modules tab of another project.
Another method is using the analysis tool to compare each measurement point to the
associated prediction.
2) On the appeared properties dialog box, select the calibrated propagation model and
click on OK.
5) So the selected propagation model will be used. Right click on the CW measurement
and select Display Statistics. Atoll will display the statistics report and the standard
deviation of the measurement is available.
6) Right click on the CW measurement and select Open the Analysis Tool.
Note: For the document with the detailed model calibration operations, please
contact Atoll support team.
If all transmitters use the same propagation model, then the quickest way is to define the
model in the Transmitters properties dialog box. In the Propagation tab, select the
propagation model and choose the radius and the resolution (Normally the resolution is
the same as the digital map).
Okuruma-Hata and Cost-Hata use both the standard Hata formula. The Okuruma-Hata is
suitable for a frequency smaller than 1500MHz and Cost-Hata is suitable for a frequency
bigger than 1500MHz. So Cost-Hata will be used for a CDMA network.
Both Okuruma-Hata and Cost-Hata can be calibrated. The following paragraph introduces
only the calibration of the Cost-Hata model, but the calibration of the Okuruma-Hata model
is similar.
Firstly, the CW measurements must be in a sufficient number and of good quality, in order
to calibrate accurately the Cost-Hata model.
The Cost-Hata calibration tool might help the user to find the best A1, B1, Diffraction
Factor and Formula Correction for each type of clutter.
1) Right click the Cost-Hata model and select Duplicate will duplicate the Cost-Hata
model. So, the calibration will not affect the parameters of the existing Cost-Hata
model.
2) Double click on the folder Copy of Cost-Hata will open the properties dialogue. The
Cost-Hata propagation model can use an environment formula appropriate to each
clutter class when calculating. Furthermore, Cost-Hata propagation model can add
diffraction loss and take into account limitation to free space loss.
Add diffraction loss: The Cost-Hata propagation model can take into account
losses due to diffraction, using a 1-knife-edge Deygout method, and using the ground
altitude given in the DTM. The diffraction can be weighted for each Hata environment
formula.
Limitation to free space loss: When using a Hata-based propagation model, it is
possible to calculate a theoretical path loss that ends up being lower than the free
space loss. In Atoll, you can define any Hata-based propagation model to never
calculate a path loss that is lower than the calculated free space loss per pixel.
3) Right click on the folder Copy of Cost-Hata and select Calibration will open the
calibration wizard. Select one or several CW measurement(s) and click Next, as
shown in the following figure.
4) In the appeared dialogue select the parameters that Atoll will calibrate and click
Next, as shown in the following figure.
5) Atoll automatically calibrates the Cost-Hata model and displays the parameters
before and after the calibration. Atoll provides also the root mean square, the
average and the standard deviation before and after the calibration. According to the
results the user can choose to commit the result by clicking on the Commit button.
6) If a propagation model is not useful, its easy to delete it by right clicking on the
Cost-Hata model and select Delete or use the Delete key on the keyboard.
7) If the user wants to use the propagation model in another Atoll project, just copy the
existing propagation model with CTRL+C and then paste it in the new project with
CTRL+V.
2) In the Copy of Cost-Hata properties dialog box, the propagation formula has to be
set for each kind of clutter. Click on the Formulas button on the bottom left for
checking Copy of Cost-Hata formulas and default values. The propagation
parameters have to be set according to the user experience.
3) Set the appropriate formula for each kind of clutter in the Copy of Cost-Hata
properties dialog box. The following figure is an example of the Copy of Cost-Hata
properties setting (the properties dialog box has to be set according to the users
network environment).
4) The next step is to set up the Copy of Cost-Hata model for all transmitters.
Right click on the Transmitter folder on Network window, select Properties, and
open the Transmitters properties dialog box. In the appeared dialog box, select the
Propagation tab and select Copy of Cost-Hata for the propagation model, as
shown in the following figure.
Before launching the calculation of the pathloss matrices, the following preliminary work
has to be done.
3.6.1.1 Resolution of predictions and receiver altitude
The user needs also to set the resolution for coverage studies. This resolution may be
equal or lower than the maps accuracy. The higher the resolution is the longer the
processing time is.
1) Right click on the Predictions folder of the Network window and select Properties
(or double click directly on the Prediction folder).
2) In the Predictions properties dialog box, set the Default resolution value to 20m
(this will be the resolution for the following prediction studies). Clicking on Private
Directory allows the user to select the path loss document, which will be used to
store the pathloss matrices. The user can either select the Embedded option to
store the pathloss matrices in the current Atoll project, or select the .\xxxxx.losses
option to store the pathloss matrices in the external .losses folder which in the same
directory of the ATL file, or use the Browse option to select a folder to store the
pathloss matrices externally.
(2) Then draw a polygon with the mouse to delimitate the region, for which the
propagation will be calculated.
(3) After opening the document, the Vector Import dialog box will appear, as shown in
the following figure. Press the Import button to import the computation zone.
(4) After the import, the computation zone will appear in red, as seen in the following
figure.
(5) Right click on Computation Zone in the Geo tab and select Export. Then
export the computation zone with .MIF, .agd (Atoll map format) or .shp format. This
computation zone can be imported in other projects.
The calculations in Atoll are divided in two parts, pathloss matrices calculation and
prediction study calculations.
Propagation calculation:
Calculation of the propagation loss of the link between each transmitter and
each pixel. The calculation results will be saved in the path loss matrices. The
pixel size is the transmitter calculation resolution.
Coverage study prediction
Atoll reads the data from the pathloss matrices, which was calculated
previously, and make a post processing to calculate and display the coverage
study.
If the pathloss matrices have been calculated and there is no modification on the RF
parameters (e.g. the site location, the antenna model, the azimuth and so on), Atoll does
not automatically recalculate the pathloss matrices. If some of the RF parameters of some
transmitters are changed, Atoll will recalculate the pathloss matrices for these
transmitters.
Right click on the folder Predictions in the Network tab and select New, as shown in
the following figure.
In the appeared Prediction Types dialog box, Atoll provides by default 14 types of
predictions. The first 5 predictions are concerning the DL pilot power without knowing the
load conditions, so the predictions can be done before the Monte Carlo simulation.
2) In the Condition tab, set the Signal level threshold (for example -120dBm) and
select Best Signal Level in the Servers field.
The default value for the Cell Edge Coverage Probability is 75%. If the standard deviation
is set in the Clutter Classes properties, Atoll will use this value to calculate the Shadowing
Margin. Atoll supports Cell Edge Coverage Probability lower than 50%.
3) In the Display tab, define the display attributes, such as coverage transparency and
so one.
4) Click on the OK button to close the dialog box. Clicking on the toolbar button
(or F7 on the keyboard), Atoll starts the computation and open automatically the
Event viewer window, which shows the prediction calculation progress.
If the Propagation calculation is already calculated, Atoll will start the computation of the
coverage study.
Each prediction study is stored automatically in the Prediction folder of the Network
window, as shown in the following figure.
The generated prediction study is locked automatically. So if any parameters are changed
this prediction study result will not be changed.
If the prediction study has to be recomputed, right click on this prediction study and unlock
the study before starting the computation.
2) In the Condition tab, fill in -120dBm for the signal level threshold and select All for
the Servers field.
3) In the Display tab, the user can set the display attributes, such as the intervals for
the predicted values, the color and so one. The Min and Max values and the colors
can be set by clicking on Actions->Shading.
4) After defining the properties, similarly as for the Best Server prediction, click on the
Note: Previously Atoll already calculated the pathloss matrices with the Coverage
by transmitters prediction. For the Signal Level prediction, there is no change of
RF parameters, so this time Atoll calculates only the prediction.
5) The prediction of the coverage by signal level is represented in the following figure.
7) Tip text
For most object types, such as sites, transmitters, prediction maps, information about
each object can be displayed on the map window in the form of a tool tip that is only visible
when the pointer is over the object.
To activate the tool tip function, click the Display Tips button on the toolbar.
Note: If more than one coverage prediction is displayed on the map, the tool tips
display the tip text for all the coverage predictions available.
2) In the Condition tab, set the signal level threshold to -120dBm, select Best Signal
Level for the server field and set the Margin to 5dB.
Number of servers >=2 represents the region where the received signal level from
Click on the toolbar button to force the recalculation of all path loss matrices.
2) A Save as dialogue window will prompt up. Define the name and the path of the
XML file you would like to save, as shown in below the figure. By default, the storage
path is the installation folder of Atoll. All the customized prediction studies are saved
in this Studies.XML file.
3) The prediction template will be added in the Prediction Types dialog box.
4) If you want to delete this template, select it and click delete button.
3.7 Simulation
The UMTS traffic model depends of the UMTS Parameters of the Parameters window:
Environments, User Profiles, Terminals, Mobility Types and Services.
3.7.1.1 Services
1) By default, Atoll provides 7 kinds of service types. Double clicking on the Voice type
will open the Voice properties dialog box.
2) Set the Uplink and Downlink Activity Factors/Average requested throughput in the
General tab.
3) On UMTS tab to define other parameters of the service. For more information,
please refer to User Manual.
4) R99 Radio Bearer. Click on the button on the right of the field R99 Radio
Bearer. In the appeared dialog box LCD12 properties define the Nominal Rate, the
Coding Factor, the Spreading Factor, the DPCCH/DPCH Power Ratio, the Min
Allowed Downlink Traffic Channel Power and the Max Allowed Downlink Traffic
Channel Power.
5) The user can specify a new type of Service Right click on the Services folder,
select New and set up all the parameters in the appeared dialog box.
3) In the UMTS tab define the Ec/Io Threshold and the HS-SCCH Ec/Nt Threshold
according to the mobility.
4) The user can specify a new type of Mobility Right click on the Mobility Types
folder, select New and set up all the parameters in the appeared dialog box.
3.7.1.3 Terminals
1) Atoll provides 4 kinds of Terminals by default. Double click on Mobile phone and
open the Mobile phone properties dialog box.
3) In the UMTS tab define the UMTS Equipment, the Noise Figure, the Min and Max
Power, the Gain, the Losses, the Active Set Size. And whether the Terminal supports
HSDPA and HSUPA. For more information, please refer to User Manual.
4) The user can specify a new type of terminal Right click on the Terminals
folder, select New and set up all the parameters in the appeared dialog box.
2) Various parameters can be set up in the General tab. For CS services, fill in the
Terminal, Calls/hour and Duration fields. For PS services, fill in the Terminal,
Calls/hour, UL Volume (Kbytes) and DL Volume (Kbytes) fields.
3) The user can specify a new type of User Profile. Right click on the User profiles
folder, select New and set the parameters in the appeared dialog box.
3.7.1.5 Environments
1) Atoll provides by default 4 kinds of Environments (classify by clutter name). Double
click on Dense Urban and open the Dense Urban properties dialog box.
2) Various parameters can be set up in the General tab. For each kind of User Profile,
fill in the corresponding Mobility and Density fields.
3) In the Clutter Weighting tab, the user can specify a weight and an indoor
percentage for each clutter class. The higher the weight is, the higher the user
density is. If the weight is 0 for a specific clutter, then no user will be distributed on
this clutter.
Right click on Traffic in the Geo tab and select New map, as seen in the following
figure.
In the appeared New traffic Map dialog box, the above 3 methods for traffic map creation
can be selected, as shown in the following figure.
In the following paragraphs, 3 methods for traffic map creation will be introduced with the
reference data from the CDROM.
(2) Atoll will display the Environment map editor on the top of the Map Window. In the
Environment map editor, the user can choose one kind of environment, like
Suburban
(3) Then click on the button to draw a polygon in the desired area corresponding
to a Suburban environment, as shown in the following figure.
(4) With the same method draw the Dense Urban zone.
(5) If the drawing polygon is not good, it can be deleted with the button.
(2) In the appeared dialog box, select the Reference data\ Traffic\ Raster_Traffic\
(3) Atoll will automatically open the User profile environment based traffic map
properties dialog box where the user can define the display color, the legend and
the code for each environment.
3) After clicking Open button, define the coordinate system and click Import in the
Vector Import dialog box.
4) In the appeared dialog box, select the Traffic tab to define the indoor percentage
and the weight for each clutter.
5) Import with the same method the other vector traffic maps located in the
Reference_Data\Traffic\Vector_Traffic folder.
(2) Select Sector traffic map in the New traffic Map dialog box, select Uplink and
Downlink Throughputs and click on the Create button.
(3) In the appeared Sector traffic map dialog box, select an existing Coverage by
Transmitter prediction and paste the traffic values, as shown in the following figure.
(4) After clicking the OK button, Atoll appears a Sector traffic map properties dialog
box. In the Traffic tab, fill in the percentage of each type of Terminal, the
percentage of each type of Mobility, the clutter weightings and indoor weightings.
(5) After clicking on the OK button, the traffic map will be loaded on the Map Window.
Each best server zone defined by the selected Coverage by Transmitter prediction
will have a distributed traffic, as shown in the following figure.
(2) In the appeared dialog box, select Reference data\Traffic\Cell_Traffic\ Cell traffic
map (throughput) - R99 traffic.agd from the CDROM and import it.
(3) After clicking Open button, define the coordinate system and click Import in the
Vector Import dialog box.
(4) In the appeared dialog box, fill in the percentage of each type of Terminal, the
percentage of each type of Mobility, the clutter weightings and indoor weightings in
the Traffic tab.
(5) After clicking on the OK button, the traffic map will be loaded on the Map Window.
Each best server zone defined by the selected Coverage by Transmitter prediction
will have a distributed traffic, as shown in the following figure.
(6) Import with the same method the other sector traffic maps located in the
Reference_Data\Traffic\Cell_Traffic folder.
3.7.2.4 Sector traffic map - Total number of users (All activity statuses)
Sector traffic map can be either generated by input data manually or imported from
external files.
The input parameters for each serving cell and each service are the total number of users.
The method of creating and importing this map is the same as Sector traffic map
-Throughputs in uplink and downlink refer above, its not necessary to redo again.
(2) The Density map properties window will appear. Then define the distributions for
Terminals, Mobilities, Services and Clutter in the Traffic tab. In the Display tab,
the color of the traffic map can be defined. as shown in the following figure.
(3) Right click on User density traffic map 1 in the Traffic folder and select Edit.
(4) The vector editor function will be activated and then the "New Polygon/New
Rectangle feature can be used for drawing a new Traffic region in the Map
Window.
(5) Click Esc button to quit of editing. Double click on the Traffic region and in the
appeared dialog box define the corresponding Traffic Density.
(2) In the appeared Save As dialog box enter a file name and click on the Save
button.
(3) Then in the appeared Export dialog box, define the area to export, the terminal,
the mobility type, the service, the traffic maps to consider and the direction, as
seen in the following figure.
The export of cumulated traffic map can be done with the following parameters and
options:
Region
Entire Project Area: export the cumulated traffic over the entire project.
Computation Zone: export the cumulated traffic contained by a rectangle
encompassing the computation zone, whether or not the computation zone is
visible.
Note: The exported density map will be a rectangle whatever the original map is
a polygon or rectangle, the area of the Computation Zone will be 0.
Resolution in meter
Density map resolution
Data to be exported in the cumulated traffic
Terminal: type of terminal that will be exported.
Service: service that will be exported.
Mobility: mobility type that will be exported.
Note: A density map can not include CS and PS service, because the
(2) Then define the distributions for Terminals, Mobilities, Services and Clutter. In the
Display tab, the color of the traffic map can be defined.
(3) The Traffic Density map is put automatically in User density traffic map # in the
Traffic folder.
3.7.3 Simulation
After the establishment of traffic map, the Monte Carlo simulation can be calculated.
1) Cell capacity limits
Open the Cells table and define the upper limits for downlink and uplink traffic loads for
cells.
Note: Using these limits, it is possible to model additional constraints in Monte
Carlo simulations, i.e., resource saturation can occur when the user-defined cell
capacity limit is achieved.
2) Right click on the Simulations folder in the Network window and select New.
3) In the appeared dialog box, in the General tab, set the Number of Simulations, the
Information to retain (the level of detail in the output), the Cell Load constraints and
Bearer Downgrading.
If downgrading is selected, when a constraint is not respected, user radio bearers with
services supporting bearer downgrading are downgraded. If the constraint is still not
satisfied after downgrading, users are rejected. If downgrading is not selected, users will
be rejected immediately, starting with users with the lowest service priority, if a constraint
can not be respected.
4) In the Traffic tab, select the traffic map which will be used for the simulation and the
Global Scaling Factor. For example select User density traffic map 1, as shown in
the following figure.
5) In the Advanced tab choose the Generator initialisation and the conditions of
convergence.
the simulation will start when the user clicks on the Calculate button on the
toolbar (or press F7 on the keyboard).
The simulation process will be displayed in the Event viewer window.
7) The simulation results are available in the simulation folder. Double clicking on a
simulation opens the simulation properties dialog box with the simulation report.
The simulation report is composed with 5 tabs, Statistics (statistical results), Sites,
Cells (cells results), Mobiles (Mobiles results) and Initial Conditions, as shown in
the following figure.
9) Simulation replay
A simulation can be replayed (right click on one simulation and select Replay).
Clicking on the toolbar icon or selecting View->Point analysis, opens the analysis
window. The cursor turns into a circle representing the receiver. Put the receiver on the
Map Window, as shown in the following figure.
3.8.1 Profile
In the Profile tab, the user may analyze the terrain profile between the transmitter and
the receiver, the received signal level, the link budget and other information.
The desired transmitter (for the profile analysis) can be selected in the Profile window or
directly on the map. Atoll automatically displays the terrain profile between the selected
transmitter and the receiver.
In the Profile tab, the point to point signal power is real-time calculated.
Click on the Link budget button to open the Link Budget window, with the
information about the link budget between the transmitter and the receiver.
3.8.2 Reception
In the Reception tab, the received signal level values for the strongest transmitters are
given with bars. The received power values are calculated according with the stored path
loss matrices.
3.8.3 AS Analysis
In the AS Analysis tab, the received Ec/Io for the best server, the active set and the
others transmitters are given with bars.
The availability ( means not available) for the pilot and the service in UL and DL are
calculated according to the selection of the receiver position, the Carrier, the Terminal, the
Service, the Mobility, the DL rate and UL rate.
Double click on a Transmitter to open the Analysis Detail window corresponding to this
transmitter.
3.8.4 SC Collisions
In the following example, the sites Site76_U2 and Site7_U2 have the same Scrambling
Code and therefore produce Scrambling Code interferences.
3.8.5 Details
The Details tab gives the receiving power for all cells, as seen in the following figure.
1) In the Prediction Types dialog box, select Pilot Reception Analysis (Ec/Io).
2) In the appeared dialog box, select the Condition tab and define:
Using simulation result (it is recommended to select a group to use average
result of the group)
the Terminal
the Service
the Mobility
4) Clicking on the OK button to close the dialog box. Clicking on the toolbar button
(or F7 on the keyboard), start the computation.
Atoll provides 14 kinds of prediction study. Through the display setting the number of
prediction types provided by Atoll may reach several dozen to one hundred.
3.9.3 HSDPA
Atoll supports HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) since the version 2.4. The
following paragraph introduces HSDPA parameters and predictions.
Note : If the network needs to use MIMO, not only select the Transmit Diversity or
Spatial Multiplexing on Cells table, but also select 2 ports in the Number of
Transmission Antenna Port on Transmitters table.
If HSDPA or HSPA has been chosen, define the HSDPA parameters: HSDPA Dynamic
Power Allocation, Available HSDPA Power (dBm), Power Headroom (dB), HS-SCCH
Dynamic Power Allocation, HS-SCCH Power (dBm), Number of HS-SCCH Channels, Min
number of HS-PDSCH codes, Max number of HS-PDSCH codes, Max number of HSDPA
users, Number of HSDPA users, and HSDPA scheduler algorithm, as shown in the
following figure.
2) Right click the Network Settings folder on Parameters window select properties. In
the Global Parameters tab define the methods for the calculation of Nt and CQI.
Nt: You can select "Total noise" and Atoll will calculate Nt as the noise generated by
all transmitters plus thermal noise or you can select "Without useful signal" and Atoll
will calculate Nt as the total noise less the signal of thestudied cell.
CQI: You can select Based on CPICH quality and Atoll will measure the CQI based
on the pilot EcNt or you can select Based on HS-PDSCH quality and Atoll will
measure the CQI based on the HS-PDSCH EcNt. Depending on the option selected,
you will have to define either a CQI=f(CPICH Ec/Nt) graph, or a CQI=f(HS-PDSCH
Ec/Nt) graph in the Properties dialogue of the terminal equipment. The calculated CQI
will be used to determine the best bearer.
If network supports MIMO, double click Standard in the Network Settings -> Reception
Equipment on Parameters window to define MIMO table. As shown in the following
figure.
7) HSDPA Prediction
Right click on the Predictions folder and select New. In the appeared dialogue select
HSDPA Quality and Throughput Analysis, as shown in the following figure.
In the Condition tab define the HSPDA terminal, the HSDPA service and select a
simulation for the cell load conditions, as shown in the following figure.
In the Display tab, select Value Intervals for the display type and for example select RLC
Peak Rate among the 15 supported predictions.
Atoll will display the calculated HSDPA RLC Peak Rate in the map window, as shown in
the following figure.
3.9.4 HSUPA
Atoll supports HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) since the version 2.6. The
following paragraph introduces HSUPA parameters and predictions.
Double click HSUPA UE Categories in the Network Settings -> UE Categories on the
Parameters window to define HSUPA User Categories. In the appeared dialogue,
define for each HSUPA category, the max number of E-DPDCH, Min spreading factor,
Max block size for TTI 2ms and 10ms, the highest modulation and whether TTI 2ms is
supported. As shown in the following figure.
5) HSUPA Prediction
Right click on the Predictions folder and select New. In the appeared dialogue select
HSUPA Quality and Throughput Analysis, as shown in the following figure.
In the Condition tab define the HSUPA terminal, the HSUPA service and select a
simulation group for the cell load conditions, as shown in the following figure.
On HSUPA Resources, Atoll can calculate the HSUPA coverage prediction in one of two
ways:
- For a single user: After allocating capacity to all R99 users, the entire remaining load
will be allocated to a single HSUPA bearer user.
- Shared by HSUPA users defined or calculated per cell: After allocating capacity to all
R99 users, the remaining load of the cell will be shared equally between all the HSUPA
bearer users. When the coverage prediction is not based on a simulation, the number of
HSUPA bearer users is taken from the cell properties. The displayed results of the
coverage prediction will be for one user.
In the Display tab, select Value Intervals for the display type and for example select RLC
Peak Rate among the 8 supported predictions.
Atoll will display the calculated HSUPA RLC Peak Rate in the map window, as shown in
Atoll supports Dual-Cell HSDPA since the version 3.1. Transmitters can be defined to
support dual-cell HSDPA. HSDPA scheduling is carried out per transmitter. The capacities
and resources of two HSDPA cells are combined in order to serve HSDPA users. Dual-cell
HSDPA users can connect to two cells simultaneously on the HS-DSCH. Coverage
predictions and Monte Carlo simulations provide results for dual-cell HSDPA.
Note: The MUG graph is only available if you have set the peak HSDPA throughput
option in the atoll.ini file. For more information, see the Administrator Manual.
3) After simulation, select Detail Display by clicking the Action button on the Moblies
tab, then you can see one HSDPA user is connecting two HSDPA cells at the same
time.
2) In the appeared dialog box, define neighbor allocation conditions, click Calculate to
start allocation.
3) After calculation, the allocation result will display on the appeared dialog box. Click
commit button to commit the result to the Cells table.
4) Click on the toolbar icon , and then select one transmitter on the Map Window.
The neighbour relations will be displayed graphically, as shown in the following
figure.
Select the best server plot (Coverage by transmitter) and the neighbour areas are
automatically shown in the Map Window.
2) In the Domain properties dialog box, define for each Scrambling Code Group Min,
Max and Step.
3) In the Cells table define the Scrambling code domain for each cell.
5) In the Primary Scrambling Codes dialog box define the automatic allocation
properties parameters, as the Default Reuse Distance and the allocation strategy.
6) After defining the automatic allocation parameters, click on the Calculate button.
The result will be displayed in the same dialogue, as seen in the following figure.
7) According to the results, the user may choose to commit the automatic Scrambling
Code allocation list by clicking on the Commit button.
8) Preview the automatic allocation result on the Distribution Histogram. Right click on
the Transmitters folder and select Primary Scrambling Codes-> Code Distribution,
as shown in the following figure.
9) After allocation, verify whether the allocated scrambling codes respect the specified
constraints by performing an audit of the plan. Right click on the Transmitters folder
and select Primary Scrambling Codes-> Audit, the result will be exported to a .txt
file.
10) Scrambling Codes Search Tool. Click Edit on the menu bar, then select Find on
The user configuration function allows the user to save the configuration of Geographic
Data Set, Computation and Focus Zones, Folder Configuration, Automatic Neighbour
Allocation Parameters and Prediction List into external file. This configuration file can be
used in the same project or other similar Atoll project in order to avoid redundant settings.
2) Select the information to be exported and click on the OK button. The project
configuration will be saved in a .cfg file.
3) Import a user configuration: The configuration files are stored in the folder Reference
data\ User configuration from the CDROM. Select Tools->User
Configuration->Load, as shown in the following figure.
4) In the Open dialog box select a .cfg file located in the CDROM, for example the
User_Configuration.cfg. This configuration file contains all prediction studies
produced in the Demo project.
5) In the appeared dialog box, select the information to be imported and click on the
OK button. The user configuration is loaded into your current document.
If the project is not saved, Atoll calculates the pathloss matrices and save them in the
RAM memory. When the project is saved and the embedded function has been chosen,
the path loss matrices are stored in the ATL file. This can probably impact the size of the
ATL file (according to the calculation resolution and the size of the computation zone) and
the project will need longer time for opening and saving.
The user may choose to store the propagation matrices in an external folder, to reduce the
project document size. Moreover this folder can also be shared with other users.
Double clicking on the Predictions folder, opens the Prediction properties dialog box.
Click on the right side of the Private directory field on the button and select a
directory.
The path loss matrices will be stored in the selected directory with the following name
project name.losses.
Note: when the project document is moved, the corresponding .losses folder has to
be moved in the same directory. Otherwise Atoll will recalculate the path loss
matrices.
How to delete all sites and their transmitters in one shot (or a set of sites and
transmitters)?
The right way to delete all sites and their transmitters is to open the Sites table, select the
first one and the last one holding the Shift button and use Suppr keyboard button. It is
recommended to close the Sites and Transmitters folders before deleting a large number
of sites and transmitters; otherwise the refresh of the explorer could take a long time.
The easiest way is to perform directly filters within the tables (popup menu available by
right-clicking in the table). OR and AND criteria can be easily handled:
Selecting cells in several columns and the option Filtering by selection in the popup
menu performs a AND filtering criterion
Selecting cells in several rows and the option Filtering by selection in the popup
menu performs a OR filtering criterion
To check which kind of dynamic criterion has been used by ATOLL, you can open
Transmitters/Properties/General tab and look at the advanced filter.
the path, specify measurement unit, transmitter and receiver properties and finally
click on the Paste button. Then, click on OK to validate the path creation.
Open the path properties window. Choose a propagation model, click on Actions and
choose Calculate predictions. The signal level calculated on the path is displayed in a
related table (P(dBm) column). You may use the Measurements window to visualize
the signal level received from the selected transmitter on the path.
How is it possible to display city points and their names on the map?
With a vector format providing for each point an attribute containing the name.
Import the vector file within ATOLL and choose the field name as label (you can use any
field or list of fields in the same way).
Where can you define the default server for distributed computing?
In the Atoll.ini file:
[RemoteCalculation]
Servers=Workstation_1; Workstation_2
If the list is empty, computations are run locally.
You can display different areas or view different scales of the same document at the same
time thanks to the Window->New command. When selecting this command, a new Map
Window is created with exactly the same view as the current one. You can then modify
area and scale of both windows independently. For instance, with this feature you can
zoom in very close on two faraway sites without having to display everything between
them. You can also display an overview of the whole network and a small part of it with two
different scales.
Note: Items displayed in all map views depend on the explorer settings and are the
same in all windows, except if you have different scales for the windows and some
visibility settings according to scales.
~ Head Office
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