TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.
2.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
MODEL DISCRIPTION

3.
4.

METHODOLOGY
CLUTTER TUNNING

5.

MODEL TUNING PROCESS

POST TUNING CORRELATION & RESULTS

7.

CLUTTER CLASSES & DISTRIBUTION

DT ROUTES
SECTOR SELECTION
SITE HEIGHT DISTRIBUTION
SITE CONFIGURATION
CORRELATION ACTIVITY
ANALYSIS

MODEL TUNNING

6.

ASSET GENERAL CONFIGURATION MODEL

PRE-TUNNING PREDICTION PLOT & COMPARISON WITH DT RESULTS.

POST-TUNNING PREDICTION PLOT & COMPARISON WITH DT RESULTS.

CONCLUSION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report describes the scope of work carried out by CMPAK RF Planning in fulfilment of the requirements to
calibrate the wireless propagation model. Field trials have been conducted on outdoor measurements at the
street level in a varying clutter classes. A generic terrain and clutter based propagation model has been
formulated using AIRCOM radio network planning tool Asset. Following workflow was used in carrying out this
activity.
The use of calibrated model gives a realistic indication of cell site count and assists in estimating the capital
outlay and time scales required to provide the desired coverage and roll-out. Furthermore the use of
calibrated model provides some assurance in the choice of transmitting sites and expected signal coverage,
which would result in better frequency plan and better knowledge and better representation of C/I in the
network.
This report describes the procedures adopted and result obtained from the measurements and modeling work.

Idle mode drive test of the Islamabad city by the QOS team.
Analysis/comparison of the drive test & prediction results to obtain calibrated model.
Iteration/tuning of model on bases of comparison results.
Provision of technical report of above mentioned activities.

MODEL DESCRIPTION

The Model used for simulations is Hata-Okumura which is a Empirical model.

The height of Rx antenna is 1.5m.
Rx gain is 17dBi.
Simulation radius is .
Frequency is 900 MHz
Diffraction geometry is modeled by Epstein-Peterson Diffraction Loss technique.
Rain attenuation is 22 mm/h for Islamabad, Rawalpindi & Lahore and 42 mm/h for Karachi.

Below are the clutter parameter used before tuning.

S.N
CLUTER NAME
o
0
Unclassified
1
Open
2
Sea
3
Inlandwater
4
Residential
5
MeanUrban
6
DenseUrban
7
Building
8
Village
9
Industrial
10
OpeninUrban
11
Forest
12
Parks
13
Agriculture
14 DenseUrbanHigh
15 Blockbuildings
Denseblockbuildi
16
ng
17
Rural
18
Residhigh
19
dbbhigh
20
bbhigh
21 DenseUrbanlow
22 Semiopenarea
23
Openwetarea
24
Forestspars

CLUTTER
OFFSET

CLUTTER
SEPERATION

AVG.CLUTTER
HEIGHT

0
0
0
0
0
1.14
-3.5
0
0
0.73
-0.48
0
-0.77
0
0
-3.12

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
1.15
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

Below are the clutter parameter after tuning.

S.No

CLUTER NAME

CLUTTER
OFFSET

CLUTTER
SEPERATION

AVG.CLUTTER
HEIGHT

Unclassified

Open

Sea

Inlandwater

Residential

MeanUrban

1.5

DenseUrban

Building

Village

Industrial

3.95

12

20

10

OpeninUrban

11

Forest

0.2

12

Parks

13

Agriculture

14

DenseUrbanHigh

15

Blockbuildings

10

10

16

Denseblockbuilding

17

Rural

18

Residhigh

3.97

10

19

dbbhigh

20

bbhigh

21

DenseUrbanlow

22

Semiopenarea

23

Openwetarea

24

Forestsparse

ASSET GENERAL
CONFIGURATION

The standard macro cell model in Asset 3G is based upon the Okumura-Hata empirical model.
The basis equation in path loss calculation is given as follows :
L(p) = K1+K2log(d)+K3(Hms)+K4log(Hms)+K5log(Heff)+K6log(Heff)log(d)+K7.Ldiff+Lclutter
Where:
Lp , Ldiff and Lclutter are in dB and d,Hms and Heff are in meters .
In addition to the basic pathloss calculation the following refinements are available with in the model

Four different algorithms for calculating effective height of base station

Four different algorithms for calculating total diffraction loss (Ldiff) due to multiple knife edges along a profile
from base station to mobile.

The facility to set end point clutter loss offsets for each clutter type.

The facility to set clutter and/or mobile heights for each clutter type which are then added to terrain height
(and hence influence the diffraction calculation) when calculating propagation loss from base station to
mobile.

METHODOLOGY

A thorough DT was conducted by QoS team for the of Islamabad.

Sample sectors were selected which were covering most of the DT routes. Consideration while selecting sectors
was that they be representative of the major clutter types residing in the city. This implies that their physical
parameters conformed to the prevalent trend in network.
The sectors were selected such that their presence in all the clutter classes for a particular city was uniform
since more percentage of target sectors in any particular clutter class would not give accurate results
For City Level Correlation, best server and RSSI simulations were generated Asset3G.
A detailed comparison b/w RSSI samples in simulation (by Asset)and Drive test logs was carried out.
The strategy adopted to improve the results is given below:
Identify the areas where mean error was greater/less than +/- 6dB.
Analyze areas with +/- 6dB errors and evaluate the causes for this error.
Mark those areas and find out a way to minimize this error. This could include loss adjustment or
area/clutter profiling etc.
Adjust the gathered information from above 2 steps, in tool and simulate.
Perform correlation to see if there has been maximum improvement, otherwise the steps 2-4

CLUTER CLASSES & DISTRIBUTION

Clutter classes residing in the city of Islamabad are shown in this snap.
Legends of the color scheme displayed are also shown on the right .

DT ROUTS

Above snap shows the covered DT routs in the city of Islamabad, on the bases of
which, model/clutter tuning activity is carried out.

SECTOR SELECTION

Sample sectors, which were covering most of the DT routes in most of the clutter classes within a Islamabad, were selected.
The sectors were selected such that their presence in all the clutter classes was uniform. More percentage of target sectors in any particular clutter class
would not give accurate results.
For overlapping areas, the best server was considered.
Following are the sectors selected residing in Islamabad in their corresponding clutter type.
Only 4 major clutter classes were found in Islamabad.
Corresponding sectors of sites mentioned in table below were selected for the activity.

CLUTTER
TYPE
Industrial

Mean Urban
Residential
High
Block
Building

SITE ID
8866
8125
8187
8321
8166
8005
9548
8034
9088
8042

In order to have tuned clutter offsets, Islamabad and Rawalpindi were to be tuned in parallel as they are twin city and have well
distributed clutter classes.
Following are the sectors across clutter classes selected in Rawalpindi.
Model/clutter tuning for following clutter type shall be carried out as the DT logs for Rawalpindi is available.

CLUTTER TYPE
Dense Urban
Low
Dense Block
Building
Open In Urban
Dense Urban

Residential

SITE ID
9129
8806
8011
8088
9007
9543
8866
8125
8187
8795
8167
8138

 SITE HEIGHT DISTRIBUTION

All the sectors selected for a clutter type needs to have same hard parameters like antenna height, transmit
power, antenna tilts etc. So the sites were selected in such a manner that the selected sectors in a specific
clutter type were same.

SITE CONFIGURATION

CORRELATION ACTIVITY

Correlation activity was done on above mentioned selected sector, using planning tool (Asset). Below are the
correlation plots for Islamabad city.
The values below are calculated by taking difference between field (measured) data and simulation data.
Positive values indicate that measured data is better than simulated data and vice versa.
Over 1000 drive test RSSI samples for each clutter type were compared with prediction.
Clutter wise correlation stats are as follows before clutter tuning:
Clutter
Type
Mean
Urban
Industrial
Forests
Blockbuild
ings
Residhigh

Mean
Error

Standard
Deviation

Correlati
on

<1db
Error

<2db
Error

<6db
Error

Abs Mean
Error

7.2
8.9
4.9

8.5
11
6.8

0.45
0.38
0.75

22.00%
18.00%
67.00%

46.00%
32.00%
71.00%

65.00%
60.00%
85.00%

7.2
8.9
4.9

10.2
9.8

19
21

0.33
0.28

16.00%
17.38%

16.70%
17.95%

43.00%
42.43%

10.20
9.8

The Clutter Wise Correlation results deviate due to the de correlation of points outside the main beam and the
offset of clutter data compared to the drive test data.
Since it can be seen that correlation between the predicted RSSI and drive test observed RSSI is well below 1.
This value has to be closer to 1 in order to have maximized correlation between observed and predicted
values.

Clutter offset values were changed(increased/decreased) and comparison was carried out with drive test logs.
Mean error, standard deviation, correlation and absolute errors were recalculated until following values were observed.

Clutter
Mean
Standard
Correlati <1db
<2db
<6db
Abs Mean
Type
Error
Deviation
on
Error
Error
Error
Error
Mean
Urban
2.9
4.2
0.81
39.00% 61.00% 91.00%
5.3
Industrial
1.8
6.6
0.87
43.00% 57.00% 87.00%
6.9
Forests
3.1
5.86
0.84
65.00% 7.93% 92.00%
6.12
Blockbuild
The comparison
between2.65
pre & post analysis
new clutter
offset values
mean error,
ings
5.2 shows that
0.91with 43.00%
66.00%
92.36%
5.25 standard deviation and
absolute mean
error
has
reduced
where
as
correlation
between
observed
and
predicted
values
are raised closer to 1.
Residhigh
2.34
3.5
0.93
35.00% 72.40% 90.00%
3.9

Below graph elaborate the improved correlation and reduced mean error and standard deviation.

MEAN ERROR

STANDARD DEVIATION:

CORRELATION:

Model Tuning
The overall objective of model tuning is to minimize error between the propagation model and drive test
results. The metrics used to quantify the error are the mean ,rms and standard deviation of the error.

ITERATION PROCESS
The generic iterative calibration process is as follows :

Performing an analysis in Asset 3G to quantify the error between the predicted and actual.

Perform appropriate filtering on survey data in order to concentrate on those points relevant to setting a
particular parameter.

Alter the model parameter in question and re-analyze against the measure data.

If the change was beneficial ( i.e. it has reduced the standard deviation between the propagation model and
CW data ) than keep it and move on to the next parameter. If not make another adjustment to the model.

Repeat the above steps until the standard deviation cannot be reduced any further.

Calculating K Values

K1 & K2 (Intercept and Slope) :

The log file data can be analyzed in two ways

1.
2.
3.
4.

Graphing the data using the Asset3G graph feature within the CW measurement tool.
Exporting the data and analyzing in spreadsheet application. Using this method it is possible to set the slope
and intercept values manually.
The next figure shows the graph between received signal level vs. distance.A best fit line is drawn through the
points using a manual iterative process of manually setting K1 and K2.
The mean error is than calculated and the process is repeated until the error is no more reduced.

K7 (Diffraction Parameter)
Since diffraction occurs only in NLOS environment , so in order to determine the K7 parameter the survey data
needs to be filtered to exclude the LOS data. After the data is filtered the height and separation of the clutters
is entered. Now the value of K7 was changed to further reduce the standard deviation. Adjusting K7 resulted in
a change in the mean error due to which the values of k1 is again adjusted.

Clutter Offset Calibration :

Finally clutter offsets are adjusted to further reduce the mean error. If clutter offsets do not produce
sufficient results , clutter and mobile heights are added to the terrain based on clutter type.

POST TUNING
CORRELATION & RESULTS

Comparison between DT mapinfo

plots & predictions was also
carried out to observe
improvement after clutter
tuning.
In order to closely monitor these
improvements, city of Islamabad
was divided into 4 parts.
DT logs and prediction
comparison of these 4 parts is
shown in below slide and
improvements are highlighted by
RED circles.
Improvement is basically
observed in prediction results
which became much matching
with the DT logs after tuning the
clutter offset values.

The red circles are the areas where prediction has

become more realistic and correlative with drive test
results after clutter tuning.
The snap on right shows the prediction and DT logs
comparison before clutter offset tuning.
The snap below shows the prediction and DT logs
comparison after clutter offset tuning.

PRE-TUNING COMPARISON

POST-TUNING COMPARISON

The red circles are the areas where prediction has

become more realistic and correlative with drive test
results after clutter tuning.
The snap on right shows the prediction and DT logs
comparison before clutter offset tuning.
The snap below shows the prediction and DT logs
comparison after clutter offset tuning.
PRE-TUNING COMPARISON

POST-TUNING COMPARISON

The red circles are the areas where prediction has

become more realistic and correlative with drive test
results after clutter tuning.
The snap on right shows the prediction and DT logs
comparison before clutter offset tuning.
The snap below shows the prediction and DT logs
comparison after clutter offset tuning.

PRE-TUNING COMPARISON

POST-TUNING COMPARISON

CONCLUSION

Clutter tuning for the city of Islamabad has been successfully performed and the results show a better
comparison between predicted and field values.
Values of K1 and K2 are yet to be finalized as the appropriate tool(RANOPT) is unavailable.
For manual calculations(as shown in presentation), over 1000 samples needs to be compared via graphical point
of intercept and slope method.
Working is under way for these calculations.
Main decisive or differentiating factor for any model are the constants that create signal propagation variation
over clutter types.
In Asset3G, we have clutter offset values which makes signal propagation differential over varying clutter.
Values of K1 K7 are effective for overall efficiency of the model and have a slightly weaker effect over
varying clutter as compared to clutter offset.
After availability of detailed DT logs of Rawalpindi, clutter tuning for Rawalpindi shall also be carried out
which would complete the clutter & model tuning activity for the twin city.