Wideband CDMA

Radio Network Planning

Radio Network Planning
A radio network planning consists of three phases:

1. Network Dimensioning (using link budgets)

2. Detailed capacity and coverage planning (using planning tools)

3. Network optimisation (using optimisation tool)


Phase 1 :Network Dimensioning

Dimensioning the WCDMA radio network includes :
radio link budget and coverage analysis,
capacity estimation and
estimation of the amount of network equipment (such
as number of BSs and RNCs)

These estimations will be based on the operators
requirements on coverage, capacity and quality of
service.

WCDMA-specific parameters in the link budget
compared to those parameters used in a TDMA-based
radio systems are:

1. Interference margin
The value of the interference margin used in the link
budget depends on the loading of the cell.
Higher is the value of the interference margin in the
uplink, the smaller is the coverage area. Typical values
are 1.0-3.0 dB in the coverage-limited cases,
corresponding to 20-50% loading.


2.Fast fading margin
For slow-moving mobiles, to take care of fast fading
effect, a fast fading margin in the range of 2.0-5.0 dB
should be included in the link budget.

3.Soft handover gain
Due to uncorrelated channels from the MS to the BSs,
handover gives a gain against slow fading. Also, soft
handover gives an additional macro diversity gain
against fast fading. The total handover gain can be
assumed to be in the range of 2.0-3.0 dB.

Link budget approach
Coverage requirement for a specific data rate with uniform load
Derive Link Budget
Coverage satisfied?
Input existing 2G sites that can be
Upgraded to 3G
Refine design, put new sites using
Planners individual judgment
End
No
Yes
Uplink Link Budget Example

3.84 Mchip/s Chip rate
H
-169 dBm/Hz Receiver noise density (E+F)
G
5 dB Base station receiver noise figure
F
-174 dBm/Hz Thermal noise density
E
18 dBm Mobile EIRP (A+B-C)
D
3 dB Body loss
C
0 dBi Mobile antenna gain
B
21 dBm Mobile transmit power (125 mW)
A
14 dBi Base station antenna gain
P
-120.2 dBm Base station receiver sensitivity (K-M+N)
O
5 dB Required E
b
/N
o

N
25 dB Processing gain (10 log (H/L) )
M
12.2 Kb/s Data rate
L
-100.2 dBm Total effective noise & interference (I+J)
K
3 dB Interference Margin (noise rise)
J
-103.2 dBm Receiver noise power (G + 10log H)
I
137.2 dB Maximum path loss for cell range
(D-O+P-Q-R-S+T)
U
4 dB Soft handover gain
T
8 dB In-car loss
S
9 dB Lognormal shadowing margin
R
2 dB Cable losses in the base station
Q
Cell range
From the link budget, the cell range R can be easily calculated
using a known propagation model, for example the Okumura-Hata
model. The Okumura-Hata propagation model for an urban
macro-cell with base station antenna height of 30m, mobile antenna
Height of 1.5m and carrier frequency of 1950 MHz is given by:

L = 137.4 + 35.2
where L is the path loss in dB and R is the cell range in Km.

For suburban areas we assume an additional area correction factor
of 8 dB and therefore the path loss is:

L = 129.4 + 35.2


) ( log
10
R
) ( log
10
R
Some Definitions
Ratio of other cell to own cell interference



In the uplink, it is calculated for the BS, therefore i is similar for all
connections within one cell.
However in the downlink, it is calculated for each MS and therefore
depends on the MS location.

i ranges from 0.15 (very well isolated microcells) to 1.2 ( poor radio
network planning.)


own
other
I
I
i =

For the downlink, i is defined as:

i =

where is the power received from other BSs and p
j
is the power
received from the serving BS.


Noise rise

noise rise =

j
other
P
I
N
N other own j
N
total
P
P I I P
P
I
+ + +
=
other
I
Capacity estimation

The second part of dimensining is to estimate the capacity per cell i.e.,
supported traffic per BS. The capacity per cell depends on the amount
of interference per cell, hence it can be calculated from the load equations.
- Uplink load factor equation

(1)


where W is the chiprate, p
r,j
is the received signal power for mobile user

j,
is the activity factor of user j, R
j
is the bit rate of user j and

the
total received wideband power including thermal noise power in the BS.
total
I
j r total
j r
j j
P I
P
R
W
j
o
b
N
E
,
,

=
(

u
j
u
Equation (1) can be rewritten as:

(2)


we define

where is the load factor of one connection.

Using this equation and equation (2), one can obtain as:

(3)


total
I
j j
R
j
o
N
b
E
w
j r
P
u
+
=
|
|
.
|

\
|
1
1
,
total j j r
I L P =
,
j
L
j
L
j j
R
j
o
N
b
E
w
j
L
u
+
=
|
|
.
|

\
|
1
1
The total received interference, excluding the thermal noise ,can
be written as:

(4)



The noise rise is defined as:

Noise rise (5)

and using (4), we can obtain



N
P
N
P
total
I
=

=
=

=
=
N
j
total
I
j
L
N
j
j r
P
N
P
total
I
1 1
,

Noise rise (6)


where is defined as the uplink load factor and equals to:

(7)

when becomes close to 1, the corresponding noise rise approaches
to infinity and system has reached its pole capacity.

If the interference from the other cells is taken into account, then one
can write

=
=
N
j
j
L
UL
1
q
UL
q
UL
N
j
j
N
total
L
P
I
q

= = =

=
1
1
1
1
1
UL
q

(9)


where i is the ratio of other cells to own cell interference.
The interference margin used in the link budget must be equal to the
maximum planned noise rise i.e., -10 log(1- ).

For an all voice service network, where all N users in the cell have
a low bit rate of R, we can write





1 ))

|
.
|

\
|
u R
N
E
W
o
b
UL
q

=

+

=
+ = + =
|
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
N
j
j j
R
o
N
b
E
W
N
j
i L i
j
j UL
1
1
1
1
) 1 ( ) 1 (
u
q


and hence equation (9) is simplified to






) 1 ( i N
R
W
o
N
b
E
UL
+
|
|
.
|

\
|
= u q


- Downlink load factor

In the absence of intra- and inter- cell interferences, one can write






In the absence of interferences, we defined
and hence,


N
P
j r
P
j
R
j
W
j
o
N
b
E
,
u
= |
.
|

\
|
N
P
j
L
j r
P =
,





when we take into account both intra- and inter- cell interferences,
we have




where is the orthogonality of the channel of mobile user j.
Its value depends on the channel multipath fading ; where = 1
means no multipath fading. is the ratio of other cell to own
cell base station power, received by the mobile user j.

|
|
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|

|
.
|

\
|
+ |
.
|

\
|
=
j
R
W
j
o
N
b
E
j j
i
j j
L
1
1 u o
j
o
j
o
j
i
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|
= =
j
R
W
j
j
o
N
b
E
P
j r
P
j
L
N
1 ,
u
The downlink load factor is defined as:










since, in the uplink, i and depends on the location of the mobile
user and they should ; therefore, be approximated by their average
values across the cell, and .


j
o
j
i
|
.
|

\
|
+ |
.
|

\
|

=
=
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
j
i
j
j
R
W
j
o
N
b
E
N
j
j
o u 1
1

=
=
N
j
j
L
DL
1
q
j
o
The average value of the downlink load can then be approximated as:






the noise rise is given by:

noise rise Interference margin

when 1 noise rise

the system approaches its pole capacity.

( ) ( ) i
j
R
W
j
o
N
b
E
N
j
j
DL
+

=
=
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
o u q 1
1
( )= =
DL
q 1 log 10
DL
q

Total BS transmission power

The total BS transmission power can be written as:




where is the average attennation between the BS and mobile
receiver (6 dB less than the maximum path loss)
since

DL
N
j
j r
P L
total
P
q

=
=
1
1
,
L
N j r
P
j
R
W
j
o
N
b
E
j
P
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
=u
,
and

then






where is the power spectral density of the mobile receiver and is
given by:

where F is the noise figure of the mobile receiver with typical values
of 5-9 dB.
W N P
o N
=
DL
N
j
j
R
W
j
o
N
b
E
j
L W
o
N
total
P
q
u

=
=
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
1
1
o
N
F KT N
o o
=
Throughput per cell



where N is the number of users per cell, R is the bit rate and
is the block error rate.


( ) BLER R N Throughout = 1
BLER

Link budget approach

Pros
- Enables fast planning of coverage for a pre-specified uniform load
- Skilled 3G staff not a requirement

Cons
- Too simplistic for WCDMA where coverage/capacity/QoS are
closely related
- The final performance of the network cannot be derived based on
this method
- Mix of traffic cannot be taken into account
Phase2 :Detailed capacity and coverge planning

In this phase, real propagation data from the planned area and the
estimated user density and user traffic are used.

The output of this phase are the base station locations, configuration and
network parameters.

Static simulation approach
Coverage/traffic/QoS requirements
Input existing 2G sites which can be
upgraded to 3G
Refine design, put new sites using
Planners individual judgment
WCDMA static simulator
Coverage/capacity/QoS
Satisfied?
End.
No
Yes
Static simulation approach
Pros
- Average QoS, capacity and coverage may be assessed for a mix
of traffic

Cons
- Can only be run on a limited area, typical figures for running time
for a 3 Km x 3 Km area is ~5-8 hours on a Unix work station
- Manual judgment must be exercised in interpreting the results and
making decisions to improve the plan.
- Plans may need to be iterated several times (on average 5 times)
before the desired capacity/QoS/ coverage is achieved. This takes
total planning time for a 3 Km x 3 Km to ~1 to 2 working days at best!
- Skilled 3G a prerequisite


Phase 3 : Optimisation Phase

Network optimiser

Optimises WCDMA FDD network plan minimising the number of sites
required to achieved the coverage/traffic/QoS targets set by the user.

An Optimiser also automatically selects the most appropriate antenna
tilt, direction and sectorisation in order to achieve the required
coverage/traffic/QoS.
Network optimiser


Feed in your site portfolio
Set optimisation criteria
Run Optimiser algorithms
End
Optimisation phase
Coverage information
WCDMA FDD
parameters
Traffic information
Site locations
Optimisation criteria
Optimiser
Optimised site
locations
Coverage,
Capacity/QOS
statistics
Reference

WCDMA for UMTS, Edited by Harri Holma and Antti Toskala,
Second edition, John Wiley & Son Ltd, ISBN 0-470-84467-1.