Mentum Planet 5.

0 LTE Analysis Layers

Common LTE Network Analysis Layers
Common layers are layers calculated for single-carrier LTE network and provide a view of the overall system performance rather than a specific
per-carrier performance. The common layers are the layers most commonly used during the network design phases while the per-carrier layers
are truly focused on CINR network optimization and ongoing access network performance management.
Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Best Server

Description: This layer provides the downlink coverage area for the
sector which provides either the best reference signal strength or the
best reference signal CNIR as per the selection made in the network
analysis options.
Utilization: This very common layer is used to get the geographical area
where each sector is the dominant server. This layer is particularly useful
for the determination of statistical performance per sector, the
calculation of traffic and/or coverage per cell or simply for visualization
purpose.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? The calculation of this layer is done by
computing the full CNIR for each possible server on both the downlink
and uplink, allowing for a finer determination of the best server in case of
complex interference scenarios.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Best Server Signal Strength

Description: This is the downlink signal strength expressed in dBm of the

best serving cell for the subscriber equipment. The best server is
determined either from the best signal strength or the best signal CNIR of
the reference signal.
Utilization: This very common layer is utilized to understand the
propagation characteristics of the coverage area. This layer is also
commonly used for initial network design based on a target RSSI design
target (e.g. -75 dBm as a design target for urban areas).
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? The propagation models available in
Mentum Planet are best-of-breed and have been validated and improved
over more than 20 years of R&D efforts in radio propagation.

Best Server Reference Signal Strength

Description: This layer provides the signal strength expressed in dBm of

the reference signal for the best server on the downlink.
Utilization: This layer is quite useful as many types of equipment do
provide a reference signal boost which therefore makes the reference
signal RSSI different from the traffic channel RSSI.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the LTE
reference signal symbols in Mentum Planet 5 allows for a fine analysis of
the coverage conditions and network performance.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Nth Best Server

Description: This layer provides the downlink coverage area for the
sector which provides either the Nth best reference signal strength or the
Nth best reference signal CNIR as per the selection made in the network
analysis options.
Utilization: This very common layer is used to get the geographical area
where each sector (or cell) is the Nth dominant server. This layer is
particularly useful for the determination of dominant sources of inter-cell
interference and for optimization purposes.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? The propagation models available in
Mentum Planet are best-of-breed and have been validated and improved
over more than 20 years of R&D efforts in radio propagation.

Nth Best Server Reference Signal Strength

Description: This layer provides the signal strength expressed in dBm of

the reference signal for the Nth best server on the downlink.
Utilization: This layer is quite useful as many types of equipment do
provide a reference signal boost which therefore makes the reference
signal RSSI different from the traffic channel RSSI. This layer is particularly
useful for the determination of overlapping between sectors and signal
strength difference between the best server sector and the Nth best
server sectors.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the LTE
reference signal symbols in Mentum Planet 5 allows for a fine analysis of
the coverage conditions and network performance.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

Best Server Carrier

Downlink Best Carrier

What is it and how is it used?

Description: This layer provides information on the carrier name on
which the Reference Signal C/(N+I) or Reference Signal strength is the
greatest. It can slightly differ from the downlink best carrier.
Utilization: This layer is rarely used as it merely differs from the Downlink
Best Carrier layer.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet fully supports multicarrier LTE as well as mobile, nomadic and fixed LTE deployments.

Description: This layer provides information on the carrier name whose

downlink C/(N+I) is the greatest
Utilization: This layer can be useful to visualize the carrier allocation
pattern and to have a global view of carrier re-utilization within a
network and to perform manual carrier allocation when adding a site.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet performs complete
downlink and uplink interference analysis, allowing for a proper
determination of the potential interference problems.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Uplink Best Carrier

Description: This layer provides information on the carrier name whose

uplink C/(N+I) is the greatest.
Utilization: This layer can be useful to visualize the carrier allocation
pattern and to have a global view of carrier re-utilization within a
network and to perform manual carrier allocation when adding a site.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet performs complete
downlink and uplink interference analysis, allowing for a proper
determination of the potential interference problems.

Reference C/(N+I)

Description: This layer provides the C/(N+I) or CINR of the Reference

Signal.
Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design
targets are defined as a function of the Reference Signal CINR.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Reference Coverage Probability

Description: This layer provides the coverage probability of the Reference

Signal given the environment fading conditions.
Utilization: This layer provides a detailed perspective on the ability for
the mobile to properly detect the Reference Signal.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 provides a
detailed modelling of the radio environments and the subscribers
equipment, making it possible to analyse the network performance in
various conditions for various end-users.

Reference Coverage

Description: This layer is used to determine whether or not the Reference

coverage probability is above the coverage design target (cell edge
coverage probability) defined by the user.
Utilization: This layer is used to have a simplified yes/no view of the
Reference signal coverage.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Downlink C/I

Description: This layer provides the downlink C/I value of the best carrier
where C is the useful signal strength of the best server and I is the sum of
co-channel and adjacent channel interference generated by all sectors
and other system interferences.
Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design
targets are defined as a function of downlink C/I.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 includes
interference coordination effects as well as type of LTE schedulers
allowing you to simulate more accurately the interference experienced by
users. Moreover, external interference such as other system can be
taken into account.

Downlink C/(N+I)

Description: This layer provides the downlink C/(N+I) value of the best
carrier.
Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design
targets are defined as a function of the downlink C/(N+I).
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 includes
interference coordination effects as well as type of LTE schedulers
allowing you to simulate more accurately the interference experienced by
users. Moreover, external interference such as other system can be
taken into account.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Downlink Overall Maximum Achievable Data Rate

Description: This layer provides the sum of downlink maximum

achievable data rate layers over all available carriers.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the maximum sustained
performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the
performance within the best server area to calculate the guaranteed total
downlink cell throughput over all carriers.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the downlink
data rate can be used to determine overall system capacity, one of the
key performance indicators of interest for LTE design.

Downlink Overall Average Data Rate

Description: This layer provides the sum of downlink average achievable

data rate layers over all available carriers.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the average performance
of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance
within the best server area to calculate the average downlink cell
throughput over all carriers.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall
network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what
Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Downlink Coverage

Description: This layer is a binary (yes/no) layer that provides information

on whether or not the downlink coverage is fulfilled with the condition
that at least one downlink modulation and one coding scheme is available
for the best carrier.
Utilization: This layer provides an easy visualization of the ability to cover
at a specific reliability target no matter what data rate is achieved.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 GIS capabilities
with the embedded MapInfo make it possible to turn this into a smooth
coverage output which is ready to be provided to any GIS enabled
coverage web-portal.

Downlink Best Available Modulation

Description: This layer provides information of the downlink modulation

that can be achieved at each location such that the modulation coverage
probability is above the target cell edge coverage probability defined by
the user.
Utilization: This important layer provides information on how spectrally
efficient the network is on the downlink. Using statistical analyses, it is
possible to get per-sector modulation distribution.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet allows network and
user equipment to support all or a subset of the available LTE downlink
modulations, making it possible to model the network performance
accurately.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Downlink Margin

Description: This layer provides the extra headroom (on the downlink)
available above what is required to achieve the best possible modulation.
Since LTE uses adaptive modulation, this tends to be close to zero where
the modulation is not the one with the highest CINR requirement. A
negative margin indicates no service.
Utilization: This layer is commonly utilized to analyze over/under design
in the network.

Downlink Coverage Probability per modulation

Description: These layers (one per modulation) show the downlink

coverage probability for a given downlink modulation.
Utilization: This layer can be used to produce layer-specific coverage
plots

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Downlink Maximum Achievable Data Rate

Description: This layer provides maximum possible downlink throughput

that could be achieved at any given location, with a downlink modulation
scheme whose coverage probability is above the cell edge coverage
probability defined by the user. This layer is calculated for the best
carrier.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the maximum sustained
performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the
performance within the best server area to calculate the guaranteed total
downlink cell throughput.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall
network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what
Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.

Downlink Average Data Rate

Description: This layer provides the downlink average data rate that
could be achieved at any given location, where the average data rate is
the sum of the maximum data rate for all downlink modulations weighted
with their coverage probability.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the average
performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the
performance within the best server area to calculate the average
downlink cell throughput.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall
network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what
Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Uplink Overall Maximum Achievable Data Rate

Description: This layer provides the sum of uplink maximum achievable

data rate layers over all available carriers.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the maximum sustained
performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the
performance within the best server area to calculate the guaranteed total
uplink cell throughput over all carriers.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall
network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what
Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.

Uplink Overall Average Data Rate

Description: This layer provides the sum of uplink average achievable

data rate layers over all available carriers.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the average performance
of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance
within the best server area to calculate the average uplink cell
throughput over all carriers.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the uplink data
rate can be used to determine overall system capacity, one of the key
performance indicators of interest for LTE design.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Uplink C/I

Description: This layer provides the uplink C/I value of the best carrier
where C is the useful signal strength of the best server and I is the sum of
co-channel and adjacent channel interference generated by all user
equipments and other system interferences.
Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design
targets are defined as a function of uplink C/I.

Uplink C/(N+I)

Description: This layer provides the uplink C/(N+I) value of the best
carrier.
Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design
targets are defined as a function of the uplink C/(N+I).

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Uplink Coverage

Description: This layer is a binary (yes/no) layer that provides information

on whether or not the uplink coverage is fulfilled with the condition that
at least one uplink modulation and one coding scheme is available for the
best carrier.
Utilization: This layer provides an easy visualization of the ability to cover
at a specific reliability target no matter what data rate is achieved.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 GIS capabilities
with the embedded MapInfo make it possible to turn this into a smooth
coverage output which is ready to be provided to any GIS enabled
coverage web-portal.

Uplink Best Available Modulation

Description: This layer provides information of the uplink modulation

that can be achieved at each location such that the modulation coverage
probability is above the target cell edge coverage probability defined by
the user.
Utilization: This important layer provides information on how spectrally
efficient the network is on the uplink. Using statistical analyses, it is
possible to get per-sector modulation distribution.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet allows network and
user equipment to support all or a subset of the available LTE uplink
modulations, making it possible to model the network performance
accurately.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Uplink Margin

Description: This layer provides the extra headroom (on the uplink)
available above what is required to achieve the best possible modulation.
Since LTE uses adaptive modulation, this tends to be close to zero where
the modulation is not the one with the highest CINR requirement. A
negative margin indicates no service.
Utilization: This layer is commonly utilized to analyze over/under design
in the network.

Uplink Coverage Probability per modulation

Description: These coverage layers (one per modulation) show the uplink
coverage probability for a given uplink modulation.
Utilization: This layer can be used to produce layer-specific coverage
plots

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Uplink Maximum Achievable Data Rate

Description: This layer provides maximum possible uplink throughput

that could be achieved at any given location, with a uplink modulation
scheme whose coverage probability is above the cell edge coverage
probability defined by the user.
It assumes 100% of the capacity is available. This is the total of all
available channels.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the maximum sustained
performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the
performance within the best server area to calculate the guaranteed total
uplink cell throughput.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall
network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what
Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.

Uplink Average Data Rate

Description: This layer provides the average uplink data rate that could
be achieved at any given location, where the average data rate is the sum
of the maximum data rate for all downlink modulations weighted with
their coverage probability.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the average performance
of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance
within the best server area to calculate the average uplink cell
throughput.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall
network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what
Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Interference Coordination

Description: This layer provides information on the inner and outer cell
areas when interference coordination / FFR option is enabled.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine whether the FFR
parameters are well configured to reduce overall interference and to
adjust them accordingly to achieve good balance between data rate and
cell capacity.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 includes
interference coordination effects as well as type of LTE schedulers
allowing you to simulate more accurately the interference experienced by
users.

Composite Coverage

Description: This layer provides in a single view the coverage extent and
where there is no coverage, it indicates which of the downlink or the
uplink is the limiting factor.
Utilization: This very commonly used layer can be used to get the LTE
network coverage and to understand how balanced is the link budget
throughout a network.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Worst Margin

Description: This layer provides the worst margin between the uplink and
the downlink. The worst margin is defined as the minimum value
between the downlink and uplink margins.
Utilization: This layer can be used to evaluate areas of over and under
design.

Worst Co-Channel Interfering Sector

Description: This layer provides for each pixel information on which cochannel interfering sector is having the most negative impact on the
CINR.
Utilization: This layer is very useful to find offenders and to optimize a
network design to minimize inter-cell interference. Using statistical
analyses with a breakdown per sector, it is possible to get analyse with
more details which are the worst interferers per sector.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

MIMO Type

Description: This layer provides the regions where Diversity or Spatial

multiplexing is used in the downlink when using Automatic MIMO
Switching (AMS).
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine whether the AMS
switching point is well configured and to understand the areas where
Diversity or Spatial multiplexing are improving your downlink network
performance.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 allows for a
detailed modelling of various Advanced Antenna Systems (spatial
diversity, spatial multiplexing, beam forming) which can be implemented
with LTE.

Diversity Gain

Description: This layer provides the downlink CINR improvement

(expressed in dB) associated with the use of spatial diversity.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the areas where the
downlink diversity gain is the highest and lowest such that you can adjust
your design accordingly.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 allows for a
detailed modelling of various Advanced Antenna Systems which can be
implemented with LTE. It provides a detailed modelling of the
performance improvement associated with the use of various diversity
configurations and in various radio/CINR conditions.

Analysis Layer Name and Example

What is it and how is it used?

Spatial Multiplexing Gain

Description: This layer provides the downlink throughput improvement

(expressed in % of improvement) associated with the use of spatial
multiplexing.
Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the areas where the
downlink spatial multiplexing gain is the highest and lowest such that you
can adjust your design accordingly.
Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 allows for a
detailed modelling of various Advanced Antenna Systems which can be
implemented with LTE. It models the spatial multiplexing gain as a
function of the channel condition (CINR), the radio environment and
indeed the multiplexing configuration.