Mosharaka International Conference on Communications, Signals and Coding

IMPACT OF INTERFERENCE AND LOW SIGNAL POWER ON THE RADIO PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN OF GSM NETWORK IN HIGH BUILDINGS
Amer Tanjo1, Vlatko Lipovac2 and Mesud Hadzialic3 1: Bosnian Telecom, 2: University of Dubrovnik, 3: University of Sarajevo interference at the same time. Most of available technical solutions for this task in fact are based on the distributed-antenna-system (DAS) [3], where radiating elements are put in carefully selected positions, so achieving optimal coverage and capacity performance. Distributing signal power through different elements in DAS, affects the coverage by attenuating the signal through inner walls and floors, which results with power attenuation, so helping the system to remain in safety boundaries, as well as to minimize the leakage signal to outside the building. In Section II, we describe our measurement system and present the exemplar measurement results, while in Section III, provide the analysis of the measurements results. Synergy between the measurements campaign and the design of the indoor GSM system is presented in Section IV, while the final conclusions are given in Section V.

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of our experimental investigations of the impact that the radio interference and low signal power exhibit on the global-system-for-mobile-communication (GSM) network radio performance degradation in exceptionally high buildings, which are exposed to line-of-sights towards as many as hundreds of base stations and so to as many high-power signals and, consequently, excessive handovers and failed call attempts. During our measurement campaign and the succeeding analyses, we identified and qualified these impairments and the degradation of the quality of service, particularly focusing a dominant, 150meters-high and only about 50-meters-wide twist tower of 38 floors, situated in the city of Sarajevo. The significance of the well accomplished measurements campaign is the prerequisite for successful design of the indoor GSM system that needs to be accordingly applied in such an environment, as we proposed.

II. MEASUREMENTS
Particularly, we centered our series of measurements and analyses around the "Avaz Twist Tower", a dominant, 150-meters-high and only about 50meters-wide tower of 38 floors, Figure 1, situated in the city of Sarajevo and exposed to line-of-sight (LoS) towards nearly 100 base-stations (BS), so being a very good example for analyzing the influence of the radio interference on the quality-ofservice (QoS) parameters that we accomplished according to European-TelecommunicationsStandards-Institute (ETSI) recommendation TS 102 250-2 [4]. The test equipment that was used for the measurements and analysis that we performed throughout the period from June 24 to July 8, 2008, included the Nemo-Anites Nemo Handy 2.50 and Nemo Analyze 5.11 [5], where the former provides a possibility to import indoor maps, in addition to the measuring parameters on radio interface (Um interface). Test-drive/walk measurements have been performed in active mode using predefined script, with repeating endless calls. We measured the GSM network radio parameters starting from 20th floor to the top one, as the lower floors are effectively shadowed (more than 200 degrees) by the neighboring hill, and so have LoS towards only a few base stations. Actually, the measurements and analysis were undertaken as a prerequisite for planning of the new indoor cell(s) within the tower, providing the

I. INTRODUCTION
GSM radio network operational problems in high buildings are mainly caused by GSM radio signal propagation specifics coming out from the radio interference from outdoor co-channel cells that can appear on the floors that are placed on a higher level than the other surrounding objects and manifests itself as high level of interference close to external walls of buildings and low signal power in inner parts [1]. As GSM network incorporates frequency reuse concept, especially in dense urban areas with large number of subscribers, where high business buildings are common, the interference problem is even more emphasized in cities with hilly surrounding, such as e.g. Sarajevo. Moreover, in addition to the interference, large buildings also suffer from low received signal power, because of many internal walls, stairs, elevators, etc. [2] On the other hand, many active subscribers generate enormous traffic that can also degrade GSM network radio performance. One of the straightforward ways to overcome the above mentioned problems is installing an indoor GSM system, dedicated just to the specific building in question. The challenge of optimal planning indoor cells, much as it is the case with traditional cell planning, is to achieve good coverage and capacity, and as little as possible

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Mosharaka International Conference on Communications, Signals and Coding

parameters that are necessary to determine positions and number of antennas for each floor, as well as the necessary level of effective-isotropic-radiated-power (EIRP) on the antennas.

done on reachable floors. The investor provided the floor maps in electronic form (for each floor), which we, after some adapting, imported in Nemo Handy, which eased very much condensing the exact knowledge about GSM radio parameters conditions, for each part of the floor in question. The received level values (Rxlev_sub for the serving cell) on 25th floor, graphically presented at Figure 2, show that, according with the above considerations, the signal level is high in the outer parts of the building, while being low in inner parts, which, expectedly, has been repeatedly identified, with only slight differences, on each floor towards the top of the building.

Figure 2: Measured values of Rxlev_sub on 25th floor

Figure 1: "Avaz Twist Tower"

During the measurement campaign, the tower was still under construction, so the measurements were

Combined graphical and numerical view of measured values of the parameters: Rxlev_sub (serving cell), Rx level_full (eight strongest neighbors), Rx qual_sub and Channel C/I on 25th floor in the building, is shown on Figure 3. The analysis of measured radio parameters on this floor strongly indicates that the radio conditions and the level of degradation of the basic radio parameters are such to provide for normal operation of GSM radio network.

MIC-MAP 2009

Mosharaka International Conference on Communications, Signals and Coding

Table 2: Call attempts failure analysis Troubleshooting Unknown reason Call was released before conn. Dropped during handover SDCCH blocking Service not available DL interference Missing handover Qty 10 73 2 5 1 2 10 Drilldown parameter

Bad coverage: Rx level -95 dBm;

Table 3: Call drop analysis Troubleshooting Bad DL coverage Dropped during handover DL interference Missing handover Qty 1 1 1 2 Drilldown parameter Bad coverage: Rx level -95 dBm;

Figure 3: Measured values for parameters: Rxlev_sub, Rxlevel_full, Rxqual_sub and Channel C/I on 25th floor Fi

III. ANALYSIS
Based on the obtained measurements results, we conducted the appropriate statistical analyses, such as the one related to voice calls, according to ETSI recommendation [4] referencing quality of service parameters, as presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Voice call statistics

From the performed analysis we realize that the statistics of voice calls that are established during the measurement period was significantly affected. The analysis of call attempt failures (the number of released calls before connection was established) shows significant influence of interference.
Table 4: Key radio parameters (cumulation) Rx level sub (dBm) Minimum Maximum Average Threshold ( -95 dBm) Qty
-107 -53 -81.9 7.1 Qty 0 7 3.674 56.7% Qty - 4.2 25.4 15.36 22.38% Qty 0 100 12.259 82.853

Rx quality sub (0-7)

Minimum Maximum Average Threshold ( 3.0)

Mobile originated (MO)

MO call attempt MO call attempt failure MO call connected MO call disconnected MO call dropped ETSI service accessibility ETSI call completion rate

Qty
69 54 15 10 5 21,74 % 66,67 %

Voice call setup time (s)

Min = 4.0 Max = 13.0 Avg = 6.1 Thr ( 2.0) = 0% Total sample count = 15

Channel C/I (dBm)

Minimum Maximum Average Threshold ( 12.0 dBm)

FER sub
Minimum Maximum Average Threshold ( 1.0)

The classification of causes for call attempts failure is given in Table 2, while the breakout of dropped calls, according to their cause, is presented in Table 3.

With this respect, the Table 4 presents the statistical analysis of some of the key radio parameters that are necessary for normal operation of GSM radio network, while the handover analysis is shown in Table 5.

MIC-MAP 2009

Mosharaka International Conference on Communications, Signals and Coding

Table 5: Handover analysis

Handover basic counters

Attempts Success Failure Success ratio
113 99 12 87.6 %

Finally, summarizing our observations after the performed analysis, we can conclude as it follows: - The signal power was quite high on the outstanding floors in question (the 20th to the 37th) due to LOS towards most base stations situated in Sarajevo (Table 4), providing a many signals with high power and so too many handovers with quite big percentage of failed attempts. (Table 5). - As with all other such buildings, emergency stairs are set inside the object, and the power of GSM signal is quite low on them, because of a large number of walls and their considerable thickness. - On some floors (e.g. 21st), the problem with the interference was so obvious that it prevented voice calls during most of the measuring period. - As a consequence of low carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I) value and signal power level, the measured values of Rx quality parameter was far above the threshold (Table 4). - Service accessibility was quite low (Table 1). - The problems on radio interface led to high frameerror-rate (FER) values (Table 4).

The first thing to consider is what capacity of the indoor cell is required. During the capacity dimensioning, the tower in question was considered a business center, and so in need for much of capacity. Therefore, in this particular case, for the first phase of exploitation, the radio-base-station RBS2206 [6] was selected, with a configuration combining-anddistributing-unit (CDU) Gc 2/4 on 1800 MHz, and the option for capacity extension. Based on the experienced level of interference, the design power level and the link budget can be determined. To be able to establish a call in a real-life situation some margins have to be added to the mobile-station (MS) sensitivity level to compensate for Rayleigh fading, interference and body loss. This obtained signalstrength (SS) will be referred to as SSreq and can be expressed as [7]:

SSreq MSsens RFmarg IFmarg BL

(1)

IV. PLANNING A NEW INDOOR SYSTEM

As it has been already mentioned in the introductory considerations, a common way to overcome the above considered problems of GSM radio network operation in high building environment is by creating a dedicated indoor system, whose planning phases are presented Figure 5.

where: MSsens is the MS sensitivity (-104 dBm), RFmarg denotes the Rayleigh fading margin (3 dB without frequency hopping, 0 dB with frequency hopping), IFmarg is the interference margin and BL is the body loss (5 dB at 900 MHz, 3 dB at 1800/1900 MHz). In the design phase, extra margin must be added to SSreq to handle the log-normal-fading (LNF) [8]. The obtained signal strength is what should be used when planning the system according to the Keenan-Motley model [7] and will be referred to as the design level, SSdes.

SSdes SSreq LNFm arg

(2)

where LNFmarg is the indoor log normal fading (5 dB can be used as an estimate). In Table 7, the proposed values of SSdes are given for each of the mentioned interference levels.
Table 7: Design and required levels Level of interference Low Medium High SSdes -85 dBm -75 dBm -65 dBm SSreq -90 dBm -80 dBm -70 dBm

Considering high interference, the selected design value for our tower was SSreq = -70 dBm. The required base-transceiver-station (BTS) output-power (Pout) can then be calculated by adding the losses in the antenna network to the design level, that is:

PoutBTS SSdes Lp Ga Lf Lps Lc

Figure 5: Work flow of a dedicated indoor system planning

(3)

where PoutBTS is the BTS output power at antenna connector,

MIC-MAP 2009

Mosharaka International Conference on Communications, Signals and Coding

Lp denotes the path loss from antenna to MS at the cell border, Ga is the BTS antenna gain, while MS antenna gain is assumed to be 0 dB, Lf, Lp and Lc denote losses of the feeder, power splitter and external combiners, duplexers, diplexers etc., respectively. By studying the floor plan and predicting the path loss, nominal antenna positions, feeder lengths and number of splitters can be determined. To verify the selected nominal antenna positions, we accomplished the path loss measurements. The histogram in Figure 5, presents the statistical analysis for the test measurement that has been performed initially, to verify nominal antenna positions providing sufficient coverage. We can see that the nominal plan was correct, and that over 90% samples of signal power level were higher than -75 dBm. Allocation of frequencies to the cell is normally independent of all other activities and can be made at any stage during the cell planning process. For extra safety of the indoor system against interference, the working frequency was chosen to be 1800 MHz, simultaneously using hierarchical-cell-structure (HCS) threshold access control to indoor system (disabling the subscribers outside the building to use the system).

V. CONCLUSION
We presented the results of our practical testing of the GSM network radio performance on top floors of a high city tower that is subject to exceptional radio-interference. We identified most of the network impairments expected in such environments, as well as the degradation of the quality of service excessive handovers and failed call attempts in particular. Finally, we demonstrated that the appropriate planning of the dedicated indoor GSM system (that solved the identified problems) is strongly conditioned by previously having a solid base of test measurement results.

REFERENCES
[1] Roger L. Freeman, Radio System Design for Telecommunications, IEEE, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 3rd Edition, 2008 [2] J. Lempiinen, M. Manninen, Radio Interface System Planning for GSM/GPRS/UMTS, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002 [3] Morten Tolstrup; Indoor Radio Planning, A practical guide for GSM, DCS, UMTS and HSPA, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2008 [4] ETSI TS 102 250-2 V1.1.1, Speech Processing, Transmission and Quality Aspects (STQ); QoS aspects for popular services in GSM and 3G networks; Part 2: Definition of Quality of Service parameters and their computation, ETSI Technical specification, 10.2003 [5] Anite-Nemo, Nemo Handy and Nemo Analyze Product Description, Anite-Finland, 10.2008. [6] Ericsson Radio Systems AB; Cell Planning of GSM indoor systems, LV/R-96:247, Rev C, September 1998, [7] J.M. Keenan, A.J. Motley; Radio coverage in buildings, British Telecom Techno, 8(1) 1999, [8] 3GPP TR 25.942, V4.2.0 (2002-06); Technical Specification Group Radio Access Networks; RF System Scenarios (Release 4), 3rd Generation Partnership Project, 06.2002 [9] Nokia Networks; GSM Air Interface & Network Planning, TC Finland, Issue Jan 2002

Figure 5: Histogram of the measured values of Rxlevel_full parameter obtained for the performed test measurements

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