Nominal Planning Guidelines

Document Revision HistoryRevDateAuthorReason for Change

1.0Hamid AkhrifInitial Draft

Document History2Contents31.Scope62.Overview73.Nominal Plan Overview84. PROCESS OVERVIEW... .9 4.1Input data collection.........................................10 4.2Tool Configuration......................10 4.3Area Planning...................10 4.3.1 Directory Structure and Nominal Plan Area Creation ..........................11

4.3.2 Site Analysis..11 4.3.3 Nominal Site Creation.....11 4.3.4 Nominal Plan Area review ....11 4.3.5 Deliverables Creation...11 4.3.6 Nominal Plan Acceptance .....115. Nominal Planning Tracking Spreadsheet..... 116. Nominal Plan Areas..137.NominaL Plan Area report.1747.1Nominal Plan Folders..15 7.2 Nominal Planing Stages...1768. Nominal Planning Inputs....17

8.1 Environements and Coverage Criteria.17

8.1.1 Dense Urban...17 8.1.2 Urban ..17 8.1.3 Rural. 18 8.1.3.1 Default Site Configuration....188.2 ANTENNAS .198.3COVERAGE CRITERIA ACROSS THE NOMINAL CELL PLAN ENVIRONEMENTS....208.4 Site Numbering Plan.................21 8.4.1Nominal Site Numbering .....21

8.4.2Candidate Numbering........................21 8.4.3Sector Numbering..228.5Demographics. 23 8.5.1 Population.23 8.5.2 Traffic24

9. Nominal Plan Tool configuration.2449.1 Flags and Filters....2549.2Propagation Modelling..................................................................................................................................................254 9.2.1Propagation Models......24 9.2.2Import of Sites.....24

9.2.3 Site Templates....24 10. Nominal Planning Process.2510.1 Before Starting to Plan an Area...265 10.1.1Creating an area plan265 10.1.2Creating a Coverage Schedule.265 10.1.3Critical coverage areas.275 10.1.4Contiguous Coverage......................287 10.2Adding new sites in an area27 10.2.1General Planning Guidelines27

10.3Static Analysis Guidelines28 10.3.1Single Cell/Site Analysis..298 10.3.2Composite Coverage Analysis30 10.3.3Best Server Area...30 10.3.4Nth Best Server Analysis.30 10.3.5Traffic Analysis.2910.4FREQUENCY PLANNING GUIDELINES30 10.4.1Concepts.....30

10.4.2ILSA's Inputs and Outputs...30 10.4.3Limitations of ILSA....32

10.4.4ILSA process and data Plan.......3210.5Review of Plan...31510.6Deliverables...35 10.6.1 National Site Database..35 10.7.2 Plots...35 10.7.3 Coverage statistics..376 10.7.4 Nominal Planning Report37611.Nominal Plan Acceptance Criteria.37Appendix A:

1 Scope

This document describes the processes and guidelines for carrying out the nominal cell plan for the new areas of the network.Nominal Planning in the context of this project includes:

Nominal cell site creation

Initial pre-evaluation of BTS sites

Nominal cell plan analysis

Nominal cell plan deliverable creation

Nominal plan acceptance

The document will be amended following agreement with .

2Overview

Nominal Planning is focused at a number of objectives:

Increasing the confidence in site numbers over the initial network dimensioning

Providing nominal site locations as an input to detailed planning and acquisition activities.Providing a basis of agreement between all parties on the strategy for the future network design.

Nominal Planning will be carried out by the joint AIRCOM International and team. The results will be provided to for approval as a basis for detailed planning.

The outputs of nominal planning will be:

A site database of nominal site locations

Coverage plots and statistical analysis of the performance of the nominal plan

Nominal Planning Report

Nominal Plan approval by

3Nominal Plan Overview

Geographical Extent of Network and Zones

The areas to be covered by Network should be specified.

Coverage Criteria

To be specified by .(The percentage of the population to be covered in urban and rural areasetc)4 Process Overview

The above diagram defines the general nominal planning process. The following sections give a brief overview of the various stages in nominal planning.

4.1Input data collection

Key information required for nominal planning includes:

Propagation modeling results

Demographics and traffic assumptions

Default site configurations and link budgets

Mapping data

A majority of the information will be collected either as part of the process of writing this document and included here, or in parallel with document creation.

4.2Tool Configuration

Prior to nominal planning initiation the planning tools must be configured with:

Planner permissions and information

sites list

Mapping data

Propagation models

Site Templates

Cities Locations

Coverage Polygon Creation

4.3Area Planning

The nominal planning will be carried out on a 'per area' basis. Each area will be planned by a single planner, and the results for each area will be separate. The area planning can be broken down into a series of subtasks.

4.3.1Directory Structure and Nominal Plan Area Creation

Each area planned requires directories to be configured on the server to contain reports, deliverables and other relevant information.

4.3.2 Sites Analysis

Before other nominal sites are added to the plan the existing sites should be analysed to understand their impact on the nominal plan. This is only appropriate in certain areas.

4.3.3 Nominal Site Creation

After sites have been analysed new sites need to be added to the plan to enable the plan to meet the acceptance criteria.

4.3.4 Nominal Plan Area Review

Each area will be reviewed by a second planner to ensure that a consistent standard is met by the plan, and that the area will pass nominal plan acceptance

4.3.5 Deliverables Creation

Once planning is completed the deliverables will be created for the nominal plan against which acceptance will be judged.

4.3.6 Nominal Plan Acceptance

The nominal plan will be accepted by as having met the network planning criteria.

5 Nominal Planning Tracking Spreadsheet

The overall results of the nominal planning will be tracked and documented in a Nominal Plan Tracking Spreadsheet (NPTS). This will contain:

Area Name

Area Population

Area km2 Planner Details

Coverage Areas

- Polygon Areas

Dimensioned Site Numbers

Site Details

Total

Used

Rejected

Total Nominal Sites Used

Headline Coverage Percentage

Review Details

Reviewer

Date Reviewed

The NPTS will be a working document updated over the course of the nominal planning, and giving indication of the current status of the nominal plan.

6Nominal Plan Areas

The rate of nominal planning will be tracked according to the areas planned. The areas should be classified based on its population density and priority.(major cities and towns, rural areas.)7Nominal Plan Area Report

The main document detailing the nominal plan results for an area will be the Nominal Plan Area Report (NPAR). This will be a working Excel spreadsheet that will be modified as work progresses over the area.

The NPAR will contain:

Area Name

Area Code (where applicable) Area Population

Area km2 Planner Details

Coverage Areas

Polygons

Cities Lists

Road Lists

Critical Coverage Areas

Site Details

Total

Used

Rejected (breakdown of why)

Total Nominals Used

Headline Coverage statistics

Review Details

Reviewer

Date Reviewed

The NPAR will be named:

NPAR[Area Code] 7.1Nominal Plan Folders

The outputs of the nominal plan for an area will be stored in a fixed folder structure in the network, Show the folder under which the work is to be saved.7.2Nominal Planning Stages

The nominal planning will be divided into Stages. These stages will be agreed with .

8NominaL Planning Inputs

8.1 Environments and Coverage Criteria

The following will be clarified in line with coverage expectation and mapping data definitions.

8.1.1 Dense Urban

Penetration Loss XXdB

Indoor Slow Fading Standard Deviation XXdB

XXXdB

Maximum Uplink Load

8.1.2 Urban

Penetration Loss XXdB

Indoor Slow Fading Standard Deviation XXXXdB

Outdoor Standard Deviation XXXdB

Maximum Uplink Load XXX

8.1.3 Rural

8.1.4 Default Site Configurations

The following table details the default site configurations to be used in the nominal planning:

ParameterSemi Dense UrbanUrbanSuburbanRural

Antenna Height* (m)XXXXXXXXXX

Number of Sectors

Carriers Per SectorTBCTBC TBCTBC

LNAsTBCTBCTBC

AntennaTBCTBCTBC

Tilt TBD

Azimuths

Generally 0,120,240

Propagation Model

To be added following Model tuning campaign

Site Hexagon Radius (m)

Default Tx Power (dBm)

8.2 Antennas

Subject to supplied information.8.3 Coverage Criteria Across the Nominal Cell Plan Environments

The following dBm design criteria assume a XdBm EiRP for the cell, with an XXdBi(TBC) antenna. The path losses have been calculated from the link budgets in Appendix 1(to be added when known). Note: for configurations with a different antenna gain, keeping a fixed transmit power will suffice to modify the path loss thresholds with the SAME design threshold.

SuggestedDense UrbanUrbanSuburbanRural

ALP

max PL (dB)----

design threshold (dB)----

PL (dB)

design threshold (dB)

VALUES WILL BE ADDED ONCE THELINK BUDGET CALCULATIONS ARE DONE.8.4 Site Numbering Plan

Subject to

8.4.1 Nominal Site Numbering

AIRCOM International to propose or subject to 8.4.2 Candidate Numbering

AIRCOM International to propose or subject to

8.4.3 Sector Numbering

Sectors will be numbered numerically from [1::n].

Sector 1 is the first sector clockwise from grid North (0 degrees). Sector 2 is the second sector clockwise from 0 degrees. In case of an omni site, number 1 will be used.

For example:

8.5 Demographics

8.5.1 Population

The following table details the population of major cities in Iran. This material is sourced from XXX and created from surveys carried out in 19XX.

CitiesTotal

TOTAL

8.5.2 Traffic

The following information details traffic forecasts for 20xx for each of the service offerings. Traffic is spread in the planning tool according to clutter categories and the weighting factors listed.

Traffic

VoiceSMS

TEHRAN

Clutter Weights

Multi StoreyOpen in UrbanIndustrialSingle/SummerUrbanRural (Forests)Open LandRock Snow IceWater/Wetland

TBDTBDTBDTBDTBDTBDTBD10

9 Nominal Plan Tool configuration

9.1 Flags and Filters

Flags and Filters will be determined to clearly identify Nominal sites. These will be discussed as part of the nominal plan definition and this document will be amended to show these requirements.9.2Propagation Modelling

9.2.1 Propagation Models

To be added following the model tuning effort.

9.2.2 Import of Sites

All existing sites will be imported into the tool at the beginning of nominal planning. The sites will be imported and their flag settings modified to requirements.

9.2.3 Site Templates

The following Site Templates will be created:

Dense Urban Site ( In line with requirements) Urban Site

Suburban Site

Rural Site10Nominal Planning Process

10.1 Before Starting to Plan an Area

10.1.1 Creating an area plan

Upon initiation of the project each planner will be allocated a number of areas to plan. These areas will be designated according to the expected number of sites in each area. Note that the designation may be subject to change over the course of the project due to possible inaccuracies in the initial dimensioning and other project management related issues. It should be assured that 2 planners are not planning bordering regions simultaneously, so that border issues do not arise.

When a planner starts a new area he will create the directories to contain all the information about the area to be created. This should be taken from the template directory structure setup.

10.1.2 Creating a Coverage Schedule

For each area a coverage schedule will exist.

Area TypeCoverage Description

City Semi Dense Urban Map data

Urban Map data

Suburban Map data


XXXXX Population Centre List

Road List


Coverage polygons will be pre-created at the initiation of the nominal planning project.

Cities will be planned according to clutter, unless the general urban class is used in which case the cities will be planned according to map backdrop. The coverage criteria may be described:

SuggestedCoverage LevelIndication

Major Cities TBD Map clutter categories

TBD

Minor Cities with multiple clutter categories

TBD

Minor Cities with general urban categories

TBD

Minor Cities with general urban category and no green map underlay

TBD

Rural Areas

TBD

RoadsTBD

10.1.3 Critical coverage areas

Before starting to nominal plan an area the planner should satisfy himself that he is aware of as many critical coverage areas to be targeted as possible. During nominal planning the planner will attempt to provide high quality coverage to these areas:

Highly dominant coverage i.e. main lobe of an antenna

Protection of the area from neighbouring cells interference

Planning will be carried out to minimise handover in the critical coverage area. If this is not possible to cover the critical coverage area in the area using a single cell the planner should attempt to make the handover zone a softer handover zone, i.e. the border between 2 cells of the same BTS.Critical coverage areas include:

Major Transport Hubs (Airports, Rail, Ports)

Points of Entry (Airports, Border Crossings,)

Business Complexes (High Tech Business Parks, Conference Centres)

Tourist Attractions (Ski Resorts, Holiday Dwellings)

10.1.4 Contiguous Coverage

Contiguous coverage will be provided within the boundaries of those areas to be covered unless dictated by .

10.2 Adding New Sites in an Area

10.2.1 General Planning Guidelines

If the coverage targets cannot be met over the area being planned, using only sites, then additional sites need to be planned around the sites.

To add new sites the planner should select the default site for that environment as the site template to use. The planner should choose to display hexagon radii so that the maximum radii of the site are displayed.

Sites should be placed so as to be spectrally efficient:

Sites should be positioned in such a way that coverage is constrained to the maximum radius of a site in that environment

Further coverage will not increase the range of the site, but rather reduce the capacity of neighbouring sites due to downlink interference

Rural sites should not have clear LoS to large urban areas

High rural sites with a clear LoS will inflict pilot pollution on the capacity critical urban areas. They will also receive uplink interference from the traffic source reducing their range

Good standard cell planning practice should be maintained e.g.

Sites should be planned in such a way that the heights of antennas vary only within a small band over a town to be planned.

Sectors on adjacent sites should not directly face each other, the planner should 'attempt' to keep regular sector azimuths

Sectors should not point across water

Inter-site distances should be maintained

Before analysing the coverage of all the sites in an area, the coverage from the individual site to be added should be investigated. The planner should ascertain that the site:

Coverage does not over-exceed the target area.

Covers the target area at which it is aimed to the defined design threshold.

In urban areas the default settings for the site should be largely maintained in the nominal plan. The planner has flexibility to modify azimuths, but should attempt to maintain a regular set of azimuths within a city.

To provide coverage to targeted roads, if the planner is satisfied that there are no dwellings in the area then high gain/narrow beam width antenna 2 sector sites may be used.

After the planner is confident that the site will cover the target area a composite coverage array of the region should be investigated to ensure that contiguous coverage is provided.Once the area has been planned the planner should investigate the Nth best server array to gain an indication of the level of interference in the network. One aim of the planning is to maximise the spectral efficiency of the network. Ideally no more than 3 cells should cover the area to the design level.Finally traffic captured by cells should be analysed to ensure that sites are not overloaded and breaking their link budget coverage criteria.

Once planning has been completed then the site database for that region should be exported, and the coverage plot printed to file and analysed.

10.3 Static Analysis Guidelines

10.3.1 Single Cell/Site Analysis

For details of how to carry out a single cell/site analysis see the XXX Planning Tool Guidelines.

When carrying out this analysis the planner is attempting to ascertain:

a) That the intended target is covered to the design level

b) That the cell range is not significantly less than expected from the documented cell ranges

c) That the cell is not creating too much interference in adjacent cells i.e. that the coverage is constrained

10.3.2 Composite Coverage Analysis

For details of how to carry out a composite coverage analysis see the Planning Tool Guidelines.


a) That contiguous coverage is provided between sites in the desired area

b) The percentage coverage to the design target achieved. The planner should be aiming to satisfy the criteria to at least 95% of the area

10.3.3 Best Server Area

For details of how to carry out a best server analysis see the Planning Tool Guidelines.


a) That coverage is provided in critical areas by a single dominant serving cell

b) That handover boundaries are not situated in likely traffic hotspots (if possible)

10.3.4 Nth Best Server Analysis

For details of how to carry out an Nth Best Server analysis see the Planning Tool Guidelines.


a) That the area is not 'overplanned'

b) That base sites are not polluting distant sites

The planner should attempt to limit the number of sectors covering an area to the planning design threshold to less than 4, over at least 90% of the area. This can be ascertained using the coverage statistics capability of XXXXXXX.

10.3.5 Traffic Analysis

To carry out this analysis the planner must:

1. Spread terminals into a traffic array.

2. Create a composite coverage array

3. Carry out a Traffic Analysis to capture terminals to a site

4. Ensure that the required number of carriers is no greater than:

X carriers in dense urban areas

XX carriers in all other areas

If the number of carriers required IS greater than the capacity criteria then either the planner should:

1. Attempt to re-plan the area to reduce the congestion on the indicated cells

2. If it is not possible to re-plan the area, record that the area is likely to be congested, the reason for congestion and how this might be remedied with a special coverage solution.


a) That cells are not planned in such a way as to be immediately overloaded due to capture of traffic outside their intended target area.

b) To ensure that the site spacing proposed is sufficient to provide capacity over the area.

The spreadsheet used attempts to replicate the dimensioning algorithms used to calculate cell loading within ENTERPRISE while inputting traffic captured from a realistic network plan.

10.4 Frequency Planning Guidelines 10.4.1 Concepts

Frequencies must be allocated to provide sufficient capacity for the system planners whilst minimising interference caused by sites reusing the same frequency and observing any constraints caused by the equipment in use.

The performance of the network is heavily dependent on the allocation of frequencies. Even in a relatively small network there are a staggering number of different frequency allocations possible.

10.4.2 ILSAs inputs and outputs

The many inputs to ILSA are shown in Figure 1. Some of the inputs are mandatory and others are optional but recommended (shown with an asterisk).

Some of these inputs such as the Interference Table and Cost Matrix should be created specifically for the planning task that is underway.

Most of the other inputs are taken directly from the ENTERPRISE database and need minimal planner input.

The output is a frequency allocation, which can be viewed as a report.

If this frequency allocation is applied to the database, it can be analysed further using either the frequency plan reporter or the interference arrays.

Figure 1 Flow of Data within the ILSA Planning Process (Neglecting Neighbour Generation)

10.4.3 Limitations of ILSA

ILSA will always make a frequency allocation, which it will constantly try to improve within the constraints that have been set by the planner. However it is important to realise that if ILSA is set unrealistic constraints, it will produce an unrealistic frequency plan.

( Note: The planner should always check that the constraints are necessary and realistic.

If ILSA does not come up with a workable frequency allocation then the planner should consider relaxing the constraints in some way or expanding the scope of the problem by increasing the number of cells (e.g. cell splitting) and frequencies involved. (See ILSA manual for details)10.4.4 ILSA Process and data flow

The secrets of generating a good frequency plan with ILSA can be summarised as:

- Understanding how to perform the procedural steps involved

- Understanding what inputs are required and whether they are mandatory or optional.- Understanding what outputs you can expect and how to interpret them

10.4.5 Using ILSA the basic steps

The flowchart in Figure 2 depicts at a high level the planning process when using ILSA. Later sessions in this course will provide more details of the sub tasks involved. Before commencing the planning process the planner needs to consider two factors: I. Defining the scope of the frequency plan.

II. Choosing the array area.

Figure 2 High level Flow Chart of ILSA Planning Process

Defining the scope of the frequency plan

Before a planner starts planning, it is necessary to consider the extent of the frequency plan that ILSA is required to produce. Is it a single frequency to be added to an existing cell, is it a new site to be integrated or is it a re-tune of a large number of sites? Whatever the task is, the planner will have to produce site lists detailing which sites are to be planned and which sites are to remain unchanged (but should be taken into consideration into the plan). When this is known, the planner must create filters identifying these two categories of sites.

Choosing the array area

When the scope of the frequency plan has been identified, the planner should decide on what size of array is required for the task in hand. The array should be large enough to show the coverage area of any site affected by new or different frequency allocations. If the array is too small then the interference table might not contain all the information required to avoid bad allocations and this would result in bad quality in the radio network. If the array is unnecessarily large then ASSET will take much longer to create the interference table and in extreme cases the table will not be able to be created due to memory limitations on the hardware.

10.5 Review of Plan

Each area planned should be reviewed by a planner who was not involved with planning the area. The reviewer should ensure that the plan matches the acceptance criteria and is consistent with the other areas being planned.

Anywhere that does not appear to meet the acceptance criteria should be documented. If there is good reason why the area should not or cannot be covered then this should be documented for 's information.

If in consultation with the responsible planner the reviewer determines that rework is required work on the area will continue until the plan is acceptable.

When the plan is accepted then the reviewer should accordingly fill in the NPAR and NPTS.

10.6 Deliverables

10.6.1 National Site Database

The site database will be provided in ASSET format. The minimum information required for the site database is:

Site ID

Existing Site ID

Site Co-ordinates

Antenna Heights

Sector Azimuths

Sector Antennas

Sector Tilts

Sector Propagation Models

10.6.2 Plots

A composite coverage plot of each area should be created.

The plots will be produced to the highest scales possible that are consistent with appropriate maps of the areas:

The plots should contain:

In the Comment field, the name of the planner and the area code.

In the Title field, the name of the area, type of area and information displayed (Sites composite coverage, all sites composite coverage etc)

A Key field showing the signal strengths, vectors, polygons and site logos

In the map area of the plot sites will be displayed as sectors, with the site ID indicated. The coverage will be displayed with the following coverage colours:

SuggestedColour

Dense UrbanRed

UrbanOrange

SuburbanYellow

Rural Green

Should there be areas without coverage a scanned map/clutter in greyscale will be displayed as a backdrop. Should it be appropriate names will be displayed.

10.6.3 Coverage statistics

The following coverage statistics of each area should be created, based on the coverage polygons. For each coverage polygon:

Percentage area within the polygon covered to the design level

Percentage area at 4th best server covered to the design level

Subscribers captured per cell

10.6.4 Nominal Planning Report

The Nominal Planning Report will detail the following results of the nominal planning.

Site Quantities and distribution

Key Area Coverage Statistics

Zone extents

Number of Sites

Critical Areas identified in nominal planning

Planning Issues encountered in Nominal Planning i.e. areas for further investigation

Revisions to Site Numbering Scheme

11 Nominal Plan Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance of the nominal plan is based on a number of key criteria:

Spectral Efficiency

Nominal sites within an area should all be at a similar height and adhere to the agreed height guidelines for the environment in which they are in

No sectors should be placed face to face, a uniform 120 degree spacing should be generally maintained for three sector sites

Re-use of existing sites

Existing sites should be reused except where they meet one of the agreed rejection criteria

Coverage

Coverage calculated by static calculation should meet the coverage targets over 95% of the major named cities Coverage calculated by static calculation should meet the coverage target over 90% of other urban areas

Rural Coverage should be targeted at identified habitations within SCB squares as supplied by Any coverage 'holes' should predominantly be in areas of clutter not requiring the identified signal level

Coverage should not be overplanned, flooding the area with interference four or more sectors should cover the area to the design level over no more than 10% of the area.

Areas identified as special coverage areas must be covered.

Site Locations

No sites should be planned in where acquisition can clearly not be achieved. Military areas, nature reserves

Cell naming convention

The agreed site and cell naming convention should be strictly adhered to, as documented in the cell naming convention section.

Deliverables

Deliverables will be provided in the agreed format documented in the deliverables section.

AppendixRADIO ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS

EMBED Word.Picture.8

GSM Network

BSS Nominal Planning Guidelines

P-0239-0802

Rev: 1.0

Date: 31 May 2001

EMBED Word.Picture.8

Area Planning

Server Area and NPAR Creation

Existing Sites Analysis

Nominal Site Creation

Nominal Plan Area Review

End RF Nominal Plan

Server Area and NPAR Creation




Start RF Nominal Plan

Tool Configuration

Directory Structure and NPAR Creation




Deliverables Creation

Nominal Plan Acceptance

Input Data Collection

0deg

90deg

180deg

270deg

Sector 1

Sector 2

Sector 3

0deg

90deg

180deg

270deg

Sector 1

Sector 2

Sector 3

Commercial in Confidence

Page 2 of 41

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Site

Database

Cost Matrix

Wizard

ILSA

Neighbours *

Exceptions *

Forbidden

Carriers *

Fixed Carriers*

Carrier Costs

Interference

Table

Wizard

Interference

Costs *

Coverage

Predictor

RF Parameters

Predictions

Array

Creation

Best Server

Array

Frequency

Plan

Traffic

Raster

Wizard

Traffic Raster *

Propagation

Model Editor

Terminal

Types

Propagation

Model

Traffic Spread

Separation

Costs

Required

Carriers

FH Settings

DTX Settings

Current Freq

Plan *

Carrier Layers

Cell List

_969345661.doc

_980171110.doc

Documents

Nominal Planning Guidelines