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Explanation of Symbols
Throughout this guide, where appropriate, some symbols are used to highlight
particular pieces of text. Three different symbols are in use, and are explained as
follows:
Symbol Brief Description Full Description
Note Signifies text that should be noted or carefully considered.
Tip Signifies text that may help you do something in an easier or quicker way.
Index 49
If you are using ENTERPRISE within a CITRIX environment, to ensure that the
Help graphics are displayed, set your display settings to support more than 256
colours.
If you have a customer web account, you can download the latest User Reference
Guides (PDFs) from our website. If you do this, please check for additions or
corrections in the 'Change History' section near the start of the guide.
Obtaining Support
If you have a difficulty you cannot resolve yourself using the online Help or
Reference Guides, or you have found a possible fault in the software, you can log a
support request. You may also wish to contact us if you want to:
Register for a customer web account to access the Support area
Obtain further documentation, such as application notes and extra reference
information
Power Tools
If you register for a customer web account, you can download from a selection of
useful power tools, such as file conversion utilities.
Consultancy Services
AIRCOM also provides full radio consultancy services in Network Audits, Business
Planning Support, Licence Applications, Radio Network Planning,
Telecommunications Research and System Modelling and Propagation Analysis and
Modelling.
Training
There is a wide variety of courses run by AIRCOM. These courses range from tool
training to technology training. For details, contact Competence Development
Solutions (training@aircominternational.com).
Introduction to ILSA
ILSA is ASSET's automatic frequency planning tool. It enables you to carry out the
frequency planning of your 2g network, and analyse the resulting plans.
ILSA can be used with GSM or PMR/TETRA/iDEN.
Automatic Frequency
Planning with ILSA
ILSA (Intelligent Local Search Algorithm) is ASSET's frequency planning and analysis
tool for 2g networks. Using an advanced heuristic algorithm, incorporating the latest
techniques in combinatorial mathematics, ILSA searches for improvements based on
user-specified criteria, and greatly speeds up the frequency planning process.
Search algorithms specialise in looking for solutions to problems that have too many
possible solutions to allow a simple solution. Advanced heuristic search algorithms
use the algorithmic equivalent of taking the path that looks like the best one. These
algorithms use a 'cost' function to determine the most desirable next state, which
typically will be the state with the lowest cost.
ILSA initialises with a random frequency plan (unless the option is chosen to load the
current plan from the database). This means that for any two runs of ILSA, the results
may not be the same. Moreover, certain starting frequency plans can allow ILSA to
make either more rapid initial improvement or allow a much better plan to be found
within a reasonable period of time.
ILSA (as its 'Local Search' name implies) reduces the number of options it has for new
states derived from a current state. ILSA can give special attention to areas of high
cost within the network (analogous to areas of high interference), temporarily
ignoring lower cost areas. This allows ILSA to make very rapid initial progress. For
example, if ILSA is attempting to plan for a network requiring 60 carrier allocations,
with 20 available carriers, and identifies a subset of 10 high cost carrier allocations,
then the maximum number of new states that ILSA needs to consider has been
reduced from 3.8*1025 to 6.1*1012.
Random changes can be made by ILSA if only low improvement rates are being
achieved, or if a dead end is reached. The algorithm monitors its own progress and
will behave differently depending on how quickly the cost is decreasing at a given
time. This intelligent behaviour enables it to continue finding improvements over
long periods of time.
The principle behind ILSA's algorithm is that a single number (the cost) measures the
effectiveness of any particular frequency plan. The algorithm then tries to minimise
the cost over the set of all possible plans. The cost function measures how much
interference exists in the network, and what separations have been broken, while
taking account of any user-specified 'importance' weightings for different sub-cells.
Where:
a ij = The adjacent channel interference caused on allocation i by allocation j (Units: 200*mE or 20,000*km)
s ij = The separation costs (from equipment, neighbours, exceptions or close separations) between
allocations i and j
hi = The handover count and intermodulation interference costs associated with allocation i
Start
Run ILSA
Acceptable
Improvement? No
Yes
Finish
Mandatory Prerequisites
Frequency allocation strategy
Site Database with Carrier Layers allocated, and Carriers Required values set for
each cell
Cost Matrix, with specified carrier separation costs (intra-cell, intra-site)
INPUTS to ILSA
ILSA
Frequency Plan
You can also do this for multiple cells using the Global Editor, or you can pre-
set the values in the Templates dialog box. For information on this, see the
ENTERPRISE User Reference Guide.
2 Automatically, by using the Static Traffic Analysis tool. For more information, see
the ASSET User Reference Guide.
You can create several different cost matrices, and load them at various times for
comparison purposes.
For more information on defining a Cost Matrix, see Creating and Editing a Cost
Matrix on page 31.
Neighbours
When ILSA is experimenting with different frequency allocations, it can take into
account the neighbour relationships defined in the network. This should help to
produce a better quality frequency plan.
You can import the neighbour relationships from your real network into the Site
Database, or generate neighbour lists automatically using the Neighbour wizard, or
manually add or remove neighbours.
Predictions Required for array creation, Predictions have to be made for of all the sites that will be
including the Best Server array included in the plan. They must be at an appropriate map data
pixel resolution and radius.
Use the Best Server array (and Service Area array) to check
the coverage pattern. This may indicate any problems which
need to be corrected in the Site Database.
Best Server array Needed for the generation of some The array should be generated at the same resolution as the
of the optional inputs to ILSA, predictions, over an area that covers all of the service areas of
including: the cells being planned.
Neighbours It is therefore important that the Filter used to create the array
Traffic rasters includes all the sites to be planned.
Interference Tables
This method only uses carrier separation constraints to produce a frequency plan,
and totally ignores any of the coverage or interference functionality in ASSET.
It is wise to perform a Commit All on the Site Database before you initialise ILSA. If
you later choose to Apply the Carriers from the new plan, this would enable you to
perform a Restore All to return to the previous situation, if necessary.
1 From the Tools menu, point to GSM Planners and click ILSA Frequency Planner.
The following dialog box appears:
If you change the planning data that you want to include in the frequency
plan, any existing data in ILSA is overwritten.
3 If you selected the Data From Memory option in the Network pane, select the
filters that you want to use by clicking Import Filters then:
In the Import Filters wizard that appears, select the folder(s) that contains the
filters that are to be considered in your plan, then click Next.
Select the checkboxes for the filters that are to be considered.
When you plan, the simplest situation is that you use one or more filters, and
plan all the included sites. However, you can also use multiple filters so that
you assign some of the sites with Plan status and some with Read-Only status.
These options are described in Defining Groups of Cells as Plan or Read-Only
on page 30. In this case, you may need to use the arrows to reorder the filters
in terms of priority.
Select the cell layers you want to consider from the list shown, then click Next.
Fine tune the cell layer and filter combination you want to import then click
Finish.
4 In the Interference pane, you can select to use the Interference Table in memory
(this is not compulsory), or use data from a saved file.
5 In the Handover Counts pane, if you want to use handover counts in the plan, you
can select the File option and browse to your file. You can either create this file or
import it from AIRCOM OPTIMA. For information on the file format, see the
ENTERPRISE Technical Reference Guide.
6 Click the Initialise button. The data you have specified is then loaded into ILSA, a
default cost matrix is created and the ILSA Frequency Planning dialog box
appears.
The cost matrix which initially gets loaded when you initialise your plan is
always the original default matrix, therefore if you wish to load a saved matrix (or
create a new one), you must do so at this stage.
Menu Option Enables you
Load To load a Cost Matrix from a saved .cmf file.
Save To save the Cost Matrix to a .cmf file format.
Edit To edit the Cost Matrix (or to create a new one).
Saved Cost Matrices can only be loaded into the same project from which they
were produced.
For a full description of these options, see Creating and Editing a Cost Matrix on page
31.
Using this option will therefore overwrite any existing ILSA settings.
Apply to Database To Apply the latest Carrier Assignments (made by ILSA) to the Site Database. This will
update the Carriers tab on the Sub-cells with the new Frequency Plan (depending on the
options set up in the Plan List), allowing you to analyse the plan by producing arrays and
reports.
For more information, see Applying an ILSA Frequency Plan to the Site Database on page
44.
It is a good idea to perform a Commit All on the Site Database before you Apply the
Carriers from ILSA. This would enable you to perform a Restore All to return to the previous
situation, if necessary.
Options To set up specific options. The ILSA Options dialog box comprises two tabs: one with
general options such as Auto Save and Refresh Rate; the other with various planning
options such as weighting Interference by Area and/or by Traffic.
For a full description, see Setting the Planning Options for ILSA on page 37.
You can also use the F1 key from any window to obtain context-sensitive Help.
See Example of Using ILSA for a Localised Re-plan on page 41 for an example of
how the flexibility of the Plan List can be useful.
To do this:
1 Ensure you have initialised ILSA, and from the ILSA View menu, click Plan List.
The Plan List dialog box appears. Here is an example:
2 In the Plan List dialog box, in the Status column for each combination:
Select If you want ILSA to
Plan Plan the carriers required within sites satisfying the filter/cell layer/carrier layer criteria.
The carrier allocations can be modified and are considered by other carrier allocations as interferers.
Read Only Not plan the carrier allocations required within sites satisfying the filter/cell layer/carrier layer criteria.
The current carrier allocations can still be considered as interferers by ILSA when planning other carrier
allocations.
For example, it may be important to take into account frequency allocations in neighbouring regions. In this
case, the filter/cell layer/carrier layer combinations describing the neighbouring regions should be
assigned Read Only.
Ignore Ignore sites satisfying the filter/cell layer/carrier layer criteria.
Click here for a tip on when the ignore option may be useful.
ll
Only a single planning status (plan, read-only, ignore) can be assigned to a site.
Therefore, in cases where a site might exist in more than one filter, the filter
priority is important in deciding which status applies to such a site. If this is the
case, ensure you have ordered the filters in terms of priority, as described in
Initialising the ILSA Frequency Plan on page 26.
You can create several different cost matrices, and load them at various times for
comparison purposes.
To edit an existing saved cost matrix, follow the steps described in Loading a Cost
Matrix on page 36.
To create a new cost matrix:
1 From the ILSA Cost Matrix menu, click Edit to open the original default cost
matrix.
2 Follow the options for each of the folders in the Cost Matrix Editor, as described in
the following sections.
After you have created or edited a customised cost matrix, ensure that you save it
for future use.
It is possible to set negative values in the Cost Matrix. ILSA correctly interprets the
negative values (in accordance with the algorithm's cost function), and this may be a
useful option in particular planning cases.
Carrier Costs
You can set the penalty costs associated with any carriers of particular cells which
have been set as Forbidden or Fixed in the Site Database. Only such cells will appear
in this window.
This picture shows an example:
Then the associated penalty costs for any intra-cell allocations made by ILSA's plan
would be:
Actual Separation achieved by ILSA Penalty Cost
4 + (preferred) 0
3 100
2 (minimum) 200
1 1000
0 2000
As can be seen, the penalty cost values are summed for each reduction in separation.
If only the preferred separation is broken, only the preferred cost is summed. If the
minimum and preferred separations are broken, only the minimum cost is summed.
Cell Equipment
You can also set intra-cell separation constraints and costs on the basis of the types of
Cell Equipment used on each cell.
If a cell has cell equipment assigned to it, the separation costs defined for that cell
equipment will take precedence over the intra-cell separation costs (defined against
the 'Cell' entry). If, on the other hand, no cell equipment is assigned to a cell, the intra-
cell separation costs will be applied.
For more information about adding cell equipment, see the ENTERPRISE User
Reference Guide.
Neighbour Costs
You can set the penalty costs associated with the minimum separations or preferred
separations for cells which are neighbours, and also 2nd order neighbours. These will
be listed for every combination of Cell Layers and Carrier Layers in your network that
are to be included in your plan.
Exception Costs
You can set the penalty costs associated with the minimum separations or preferred
separations for cells which have been defined as Exceptions in the Site Database. Only
such cells will appear in this window.
For full information on setting the above options in the Site Database, see the ASSET
User Reference Guide.
Filter Priorities
You can view the filters and priorities that you have already set up when initialising
the frequency plan (for information, see Initialising the ILSA Frequency Plan on page
26).
The first column shows the filters, and the second column shows the priority number.
Priority numbers are only significant if you are using multiple filters. Number 1 is the
highest priority, 2 the next highest, and so on. If required, you can edit the priorities
column here.
A planning status (plan, read-only, ignore) is assigned to each filter (for more
information, see About the ILSA View Menu and Setting Up a Plan List on page 28).
Only a single planning status can be assigned to a cell. Therefore, in cases where a cell
might exist in more than one filter, the filter priority is important in deciding which
status applies to such a cell. For example, if a cell happens to exist in two filters, one
set as Read-Only and the other as Plan, and the former filter is set with a higher
priority, then the cell will be considered as read-only for the plan.
In order to take intermodulation into account, ILSA needs to know the absolute
frequencies represented by the carriers. For more information on this, see the ASSET
User Reference Guide.
When ILSA runs, any Separation Costs set in the grid will always be additional to
any of the other costs set up in the cost matrix.
For all costs and separations you can simply copy and paste data by selecting with
the mouse, and using the normal keyboard methods to copy and paste the data
elsewhere.
If you use the Reset to Default button to reset all the values to the defaults, this
will remove any changed values you may have inserted in the grid.
Saved Cost Matrices can only be loaded into the same project from which they
were produced.
Aggregate carriers required For Site hopping, you wish ILSA to aggregate the carrier requirement of each sub-cell
under Site hopping across all sub-cells on the site (for example, if requirements for a 3-cell site are 3, 4, 3,
ILSA would allocate 10 carriers for each cell). This is typically used in nominal planning
when Traffic Analysis has been used to set carrier requirements.
If you do not select this, ILSA presumes that the Site hopping sub-cells have already had
their carrier requirements set. This is typically used when ASSET is populated with data
from a live network.
Use Antenna Hopping Gain Antenna hopping is enabled on your sub-cells and you want ILSA to consider this during
the plan optimisation.
Use DTX Load Factors as set You want to reduce the interference caused by sub-cells with DTX enabled. The
in the Site Database interference weighting of such cells is multiplied by the Voice Activity Factor set on the
Cell Config tab in the Site Database. This means ILSA plans allocations more carefully
for non-DTX cells.
Frequency Bands must have been enabled on the General tab of the Preferences
dialog box, found under the File menu option.
ILSA can only maintain group planning patterns on a cell basis, not on a site basis.
For example, at the cell level, all planned carriers will belong to a single group such as A1
or B1, but one of these groups may also be allocated to another cell on the same site.
Exclude Forbidden Carriers You want to completely prohibit the allocation of forbidden carriers.
ILSA normally assigns forbidden carriers a very high cost, meaning they are very unlikely
to be used within its output frequency plan. But, by selecting this checkbox, you can
ensure that ILSA totally prohibits their allocation.
3 If you have created an interference table as an input to ILSA, you can also choose
how ILSA should minimise the interference during its optimisation plan, as
explained in the following section.
These options are only relevant if you have created or loaded an Interference
Table. An Interference Table is not a mandatory input into ILSA, but it is
recommended if you have some confidence in your coverage and/or traffic arrays.
This table describes the options available if you want ILSA to also minimise by
interference during its frequency planning.
Option Description
Minimise Interference by This will be the amount of traffic (mE) affected between any two cells due to co- or adjacent carrier
Traffic allocation.
Use this option if you have reasonable or high confidence in the traffic statistics that you used to
generate the interference table. ILSA will pay more attention to reducing interference in the high traffic
areas as it formulates the frequency plan.
For this option, the interference table must have included a traffic raster.
Minimise Interference by This will be the amount of coverage area (km) affected between any two cells due to co- or adjacent
Area carrier allocation.
Use this option if you have little or no confidence in the traffic statistics that you used to generate the
interference table.
Minimise Interference by This can be a combination of traffic and coverage area affected between any two cells due to co- or
Combination (both traffic adjacent carrier allocation. The percentage ratio that you specify will determine which factor is
and area) dominant.
Use this option if you have only partial confidence in the traffic statistics, or you wish to bias the plan
towards the urban areas (which should contain more traffic) while maintaining reasonable quality
across the network
For this option, the interference table must have included a traffic raster.
Running ILSA
To start running ILSA:
1 Ensure you have:
Initialised ILSA
Set up the options
Defined the filter/cell layer/carrier layer combinations to be considered
Edited the cost matrix
2 In the ILSA Frequency Planning dialog box, select:
Use Current Plan to load the initial carrier assignments of the current plan, for
example, when adding a small number of new sites to an existing network.
This may retain a larger number of the original channel allocations.
or
Create New Plan to start ILSA planning with an entirely random frequency
plan, for example, when planning for a new network or implementing a new
technique, such as frequency hopping.
3 Start planning by clicking the Start button.
If you have a large cost matrix, leave ILSA running for several hours at a time.
However, remember that the rate of improvement decreases with time so large
improvements are made within a relatively short period of time and only modest
(but potentially beneficial) improvements are made over many hours.
4 When you decide to stop ILSA running - that is, when a considerable period of
time has elapsed without much improvement - click the Stop button.
ILSA will only stop itself when the cost of the plan reaches zero. This is really
only possible when the planning constraints were very easy to satisfy and is
unlikely in a real network. An example might be planning a small network of 10
sites with a full GSM band of carriers!
5 Now you can analyse the results.
The cell layer/carrier layer combinations for the RestofPlan filter are not
present because you are not planning for it.
The statistics are very useful to assess the plan generally, but it is crucial that you
use the normal methods in ASSET to analyse and judge the effectiveness of the
frequency plan, using the Interference Arrays and Reports. To do this, you must first
Apply the Plan to the Database.
This action is immediate, with no warning message. That is why the 'Commit
All' mentioned above is important.
This will update the Carriers tab on the Sub-cells with the new Frequency Plan
(depending on the options set up in the Plan List), allowing you to analyse the plan
using arrays and reports.
You can also Apply the plan then restart planning. This can improve the quality of the
plan, due to a random element within the ILSA algorithm.
When you have Applied a plan to the database, perform the plan analysis using the
normal methods to verify that an improvement has been made. For information on
this, see Analysing a Frequency Plan on page 46.
You can also use ILSA's Import Assignments to Apply other plans to the database
(using the same procedure as above), in order to carry out comparative analyses
between plans.
If you have the BCCH prerequisite rule activated, after you Apply the changes, the
following message will be displayed:
"BCCH allocation prerequisite may have been violated. Use Site/Node Reporter to
check for any violations."
For more information, see the ASSET User Reference Guide.
You may also want to analyse the carrier assignments that ILSA has made in other
software programs.
Importing Assignments
You can import carrier assignments from previous frequency plans.
To import carrier assignments:
1 From the File menu on the ILSA Frequency Planning dialog box, click Import
Assignments.
2 Browse to the XML file you wish to import.
3 Click OK.
You can then view the imported Carrier Assignments in ILSA, and then either:
Run ILSA using the imported plan as a starting point
- or -
Apply the imported plan to the Site Database for Analysis purposes
If you are using a frequency hopping network, choose a connection type array,
since these are designed to consider hopping carriers.
5 Display the array(s) on the Map View.
6 After analysing the array(s) visually (and plotting the resulting view, if desired),
you can now analyse the plan statistically, by producing an Interference Statistics
report. The report gives details of the proportion of interference better and worse
than the chosen interference threshold, as well as a breakdown by clutter type and
by cell.
The Total Covered Area in the report is the area of the Best Server array down
to the chosen coverage level.
It is also possible to confine the statistics within specified user polygons, for
example enclosing urban areas only.
7 Use the Interactive Frequency Analysis to generate a comprehensive report which
can analyse and fine-tune the frequency plan based on the Interference Table,
Neighbours, Site/Cell Separations and Exceptions.
8 Use the Frequency Plan Reporter to generate a simple report which lists
allocations which do not meet specified carrier separation constraints.
9 Display the Frequency Re-use on the Map view, using the Cell Info option under
the Data Types list.
For more detailed information on the above processes and features, see the ASSET
User Reference Guide.
Index S
Support
obtaining 12
A
Algorithms
ILSA cost function 18
Analysis
frequency plans 42, 43, 44, 45, 46
Assignments, carriers 17, 42, 43, 45
Assistance
obtaining 9
C
Carriers
assignments 17, 42, 43, 45
Cost Matrix for ILSA 19, 23, 29, 31, 36
F
Frequency Planning
analysing plans 42, 43, 44, 45, 46
automatically using ILSA 17
Cost Matrix for ILSA 19, 23, 29, 31, 36
importing and exporting plans 44, 45
prerequisites for ILSA 21
H
Handover counts used in ILSA 34
I
ILSA
about 17, 19, 21
analysing plans 42, 43, 44, 45, 46
cost function 18
Cost Matrix 19, 29, 31, 36
interference tables 21, 26
prerequisites 21
running 39
viewing results 42
Intermodulation
frequency bands 34, 37
in ILSA 34, 37
P
Planning
frequency 17, 45, 46