Xenicom and Odyssey

Xenicom presents Odyssey, the radio planning system that sets the standard for network design and optimisation.

Odyssey is a powerful and comprehensive network planning system that facilitates efficient and accurate network planning for operators and manufacturers around the world. Xenicom develops Odyssey to answer the needs of network operators. Whether working to maximise revenue from existing infrastructure or pushing the envelope with the development of new technology, Xenicom provides the tools that turn a potential profit into tangible results.

The ability to plan for multiple 2G/2.5G/3G technologies is an important element in 3G roll-out strategy. Odyssey combines essential elements of 2G network planning with an integrated and evolutionary approach to 2.5G and 3G network planning. Odyssey can provide a business solution that will ensure operators can implement 3G networks more precisely, cost effectively and quickly.

Xenicom recognises that a radio designer's remit often extends well beyond the standard cellular coverage analysis. Odyssey is packed with features that offer

valuable assistance in all areas of a radio design. Whether managing traffic expectations, deploying location based services or investigating any other ancillary service, customers can be certain that Xenicom will help them achieve their objectives.

Features at a glanceIn eight years of development, Odyssey has risen to become the premier radio planning solution in terms of functionality, and capability. The following give some idea of the features offered by Odyssey:

Core productOdyssey is the only major cross-platform planning tool. It can be set up to run natively on both

Windows NT and Sun’s Solaris UNIX platforms. Operators can log on to a UNIX or PC workstation and see the same user interface and have access to their own personal settings and preferences. UNIX and NT systems can be mixed to share the same database so that changes in Odyssey on one platform are immediately available to users of Odyssey on the other platform. In all respects Odyssey performs on whichever platform is preferred by the operator.

Odyssey is also unique in offering a distributed computing environment (DCE). This function allows processing resources around the network to be shared to speed up complex calculations

and processes. The DCE manages the tasks required by operators.

Xenicom has invested substantially to develop a new user interface for Odyssey. Odyssey presents a flexible and easy to use environment without compromising the capabilities that users have come to expect. The interface ensures a consistency between the UNIX and Windows NT versions such that operators can mix and match environments without the need to relearn skills. It also ensures that operating practices learned from common software tools are preserved in Odyssey, thus reducing the burden of training.

All radio planning tools are limited by the accuracy of the predictions they produce. However, the conventional algorithms used in prediction share a common limitation in precision. Xenicom is pleased to announce that, for Odyssey, this

limitation has been broken. In measurement based predictions (MbP), Odyssey offers the most accurate and sophisticated prediction mechanism of any planning tool on the market. MbP improves the detail and accuracy of coverage prediction far above that which can be achieved using any other prediction algorithm. By

using real-world measurement data, MbP can reflect details in propagation that simply cannot be reproduced by prediction alone. The figures opposite show the impact MbP can have on the predicted coverage of a cell site.

TechnologiesOdyssey is not constrained to select technologies. Xenicom has worked to ensure that each operator can perform the best possible design and analysis work using Odyssey regardless of the radio technology they are employing.

Odyssey has been utilised extensively in the design and implementation of networks based on GSM. It has been used at all stages, from bid submission through to the performance optimisation of networks operating near capacity. Operators used Odyssey in the successful implementation of dual-band networks, of hierarchically

layered networks and of specialist variants of GSM such as GSM-R for railways.

GSM is not the only TDMA technology supported by Odyssey. Many TETRA operators around the world use Odyssey to deploy and manage their networks, enjoying the same level of sophisticated control as their GSM counterparts. Similarly, Odyssey is used by several operators to deploy IS-136 systems. Xenicom even has AMPS, TACS and paging operators successfully managing their networks with Odyssey.

CDMA systems are supported equally well by Odyssey. IS-95 and 1xRTT operators in North and South America are gaining great benefit from the analysis and simulation features offered within Odyssey. Similarly, Odyssey has played a great part in the development of UMTS networks -

in fact, to date, Odyssey was the first tool to be UMTS field-proven, having successfully managed the optimisation of the world’s first two live and operational UMTS networks.

Planning toolsThe advanced frequency planning capabilities offered in Odyssey have proven benefit to operators, particularly in areas where demand threatens to outstrip available capacity. Frequency allocations may be managed and analysed based on observations of

potential interference with respect to affected area and affected traffic. The affected traffic method in particular has proven to be of great benefit to users of Odyssey - for example one UK operator switched to this method of analysis for their network across

London. They reported that the method contributed to a 25 per cent improvement in their key performance indicator.

Odyssey assists with the

assignment of neighbour lists through its neighbour planning tool. This tool can determine neighbour relations automatically based on cell boundaries, overlapping coverage and traffic

requirements. The tool also supports cross-technology neighbour planning, allowing the creation and management of handover criteria between 2G and 3G systems.

Network resources can be managed through the various traffic planning tools Odyssey offers. Traffic distribution maps can be created through various means to represent different forms of traffic demand. These may then be used to establish channel element resources appropriate to the technology of the network and the services required by the users.

Odyssey’s powerful simulation facility assists with the design and deployment of 3G networks based on CDMA. It provides a tremendous variety of methods for representing distributions of

‘Switching to a new Odyssey analysis feature contributed to a 25 per cent improvement in KPI’

‘Odyssey was the first planning tool to be field-proven on live and commercial UMTS networks’

users and services across a network and manages the prediction of interference and interaction between users and the network.

Odyssey is unique among planning tools in providing comprehensive support for the planning of location-based services. Location-based services are expected to become a major contributory factor in the future growth of cellular networks. Odyssey provides tools to design and deploy the necessary supporting infrastructure for such services and offers various methods for displaying and analysing the accuracy and availability of the resultant service.

Supporting toolsA network planning system is more than the sum of its various RF functions. A tool's usability is often defined by the provision of supporting functions and the care

with which its features are integrated. Xenicom believes that Odyssey is the most fully featured and usable tool on the market.

Odyssey has been developed to be scalable and flexible over a wide range of uses. The inherent multiple-user, multiple-region structure of the tool has been of

great benefit to customers whether they required a single user seat or seats for several hundred users spread over different regional offices. Similarly, the Oracle database has proved to be scalable and equally suitable for networks from a handful of cells up to tens of thousands of cells.

Predicted data is only useful if the operator has a means to present and communicate the results to others. Odyssey offers a variety of reporting and data exchange functions to assist with this communication. The Plot Design Tool, for example, is recognised as the most flexible map printing and plotting function offered by any planning tool. It supports multiple map views and legends within a single plot and allows plots to be annotated and arranged as required. Layouts may be used as templates to maintain a common plotting style. In a similar manner, the Import/Export Tool uses templates to control the layout of

external data files to or from which Odyssey may export or import data. With this tool the operator may exchange any fields of data arranged in any required layout or format.

This brochure describes only a fraction of the features and functions in Odyssey. It would not be possible to do justice to Odyssey’s capabilities even in twice the space. Xenicom

welcomes and encourages you to contact us and find out how Odyssey may be of benefit to your operation.