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LTE Small Cell Selection

considering geo-located traffic, backhaul availability and street furniture

Executive summary
Planning a small cell network is far from a simple exercise. A robust methodology is required to cost-effectively address capacity and throughput demands while keeping network interference and costs in check. There are many variables to be considered, but two key factors that will determine the best approach are: site locations - are there pre-defined candidate site locations or is a greenfield approach required? and traffic data: what type of information is available and at what resolution? The availability of street furniture databases (lamp posts, traffic lights etc.) is becoming more popular. These provide fixed site locations, which somewhat limit design flexibility, but significantly simplify and speed up site acquisition and the site build process. Geo-located trace data is also becoming increasingly prevalent and is, at present, probably the most commonly available traffic modelling option which provides sufficient accuracy for small cell planning. This paper looks at a small cell planning methodology where a street furniture database and geo-located traffic data exists, a case which will be applicable to many operators looking to deploy small cells. It proposes a 5 step process, using the most commonly available tools, for operators to design the best possible LTE small cell network within budgetary and technical constraints.

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Introduction
With wireless data predicted to exceed wired data in the next few years and network capacity demands to increase 10-15 fold over the next 5 years1, mobile operators are under pressure to dramatically increase their network capacity and maintain data throughput rates, in a cost effective manner. To cope with the insatiable demand for data from customers and the difficulty of building additional macro sites in dense urban environments, mobile network operators will look to small cells to ensure their LTE networks have sufficient capacity and coverage to meet customer demand. This paper looks at a small cell planning methodology where a street furniture database and geo-located traffic data exists, a case which will be applicable to many operators looking to deploy small cells. It proposes a 5 step process, using the most commonly available tools, for operators to design the best possible LTE small cell network within budgetary and technical constraints. The process consists of 5 key steps: 1. Traffic forecast 2. Candidate locations 3. Site ranking 4. Automatic site selection 5. Design verification

Traffic forecast
The first step in the design of a small cell network is to determine the capacity required and more specifically where the traffic hotspots are. Due to the short inter site distance between small cells it is critical to know the location of your traffic to a high degree of accuracy. Geolocated traffic data, while not as accurate as desired (50m accuracy at best) is the preferred option given its relative prevalence and ease of data acquisition. More accurate methods exist but they are significantly more costly in terms of effort for a relatively small gain in accuracy. Another challenge to overcome is the current status of the LTE macro network into which the small cell network needs to be integrated. It is quite possible that the LTE macro network has not yet launched or is newly launched with a very low penetration of users. In these cases it is not feasible to use geo-located macrocell LTE traffic as a basis for a small cell network plan. Our experience has shown that the best compromise is to use geo-located traffic from the mature UMTS network as a solid starting point. This data then needs to be adapted to the
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Cisco VNI 2012-2017 link to report

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expected usage profile of an LTE user, while still respecting the traffic hotspot information from the UMTS network. In 2012 an LTE connection generated 19 times more traffic than a non LTE one but LTE penetration was less than 1% 2 so this number is likely skewed by early adopters and the heaviest users migrating first. An operator needs to consider all available forecast data to improve the LTE traffic model to be used for dimensioning. Depending on the planned usage of the LTE network it may also be necessary to consider voice traffic (if a VoLTE strategy is planned). Once the geo-located traffic forecast is obtained it can be used throughout the rest of the process: To visualise the traffic distribution in the map view of a radio planning tool. To load the simulated network into the radio planning tool. For RSRP & RSRQ array statistic reports in the radio planning tool. For the weighting of RSRP & RSRQ targets in an ACP tool. For the calculation of captured traffic in an ACP tool and the corresponding traffic offloading due to captured traffic limits.

Candidate locations
For many LTE network deployments the first step will be to co-locate an LTE macro site with all UMTS macro sites for areas where contiguous LTE coverage is required, such as city centres and business districts. In many cases however, it is unlikely that this strategy will create good indoor coverage with sufficient capacity, especially if the LTE frequency band is higher than the existing UMTS one. The screenshots below show the coverage and quality of a typical LTE macro cell layer in central London. A similar scenario would likely be encountered in most city centres. The many indoor locations with Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) less than -110dBm and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) less than -14dB highlight that the LTE macro network will not provide the coverage or quality expected by customers.

Cisco VNI 2012-2017 link to report

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Figure 1: LTE macro layer coverage (RSRP)

Figure 2: LTE macro layer quality (RSRQ)

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Figure 3: LTE macro layer simulation reveals a large number of failures due to signal strength and capacity

To create a network with sufficient coverage, quality and capacity, only a small cell layer will provide a long term solution to the problem. It is expected that radio technologies like LTE advanced and Wi-Fi offloading will help, but will not be sufficient and are either not readily available or present bigger challenges than small cell deployments. Loading a vector file of all available street furniture (i.e. traffic lights, lamp posts etc.) obtained from the city planning department or other sources into a planning tool provides a list of potential locations. By configuring a site template in the radio planning tool with all the attributes of a typical small cell, a nominal design can be quickly created. To maximise the candidate locations considered by the ACP tool, a candidate small cell is placed at every possible street furniture location. This nominal design is just the first step in the process - a starting point and does not consider specific clutter or capacity requirements. These aspects will be addressed in subsequent steps.

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Site ranking
Backhaul is a much more critical consideration for small cell planning than it generally is for macro cells. The two reasons for this are that backhaul makes up significantly more of the total site costs in small cells, and with most small cell deployments happening in dense urban surroundings backhaul planning is much trickier than it is for macro layers. By performing LOS (Line-of-Sight) analysis between potential transmission hub and small cell locations as well as small cell to small cell locations in a microwave planning tool, the best available backhaul transmission option can be determined using a methodology similar to the below. Backhaul links are selected from this list in descending order of preference: For connections between to existing macrocell locations where LOS exists, point-to-point microwave links are used. If there is LOS to the point-to-multipoint LOS hub then point-to-multipoint LOS links are preferred. If there is limited LOS to one of the point-to-multipoint non-LOS hubs then point-tomultipoint non-LOS links are preferred. If there is LOS between two small cell locations then point-to-point E-band microwave links are preferred. If none of the above options are possible then fibre optic links are required.

To ensure an optimal design from a performance and cost point of view it is important to rank all potential site locations according to the most cost effective backhaul which is feasible for that site location. The options for backhaul to be considered in ascending order of total costs (CAPEX and OPEX) are as follows: Point-to-point microwave link Point-to-point E-band microwave link Point-to-multipoint LOS microwave links Point-to-multipoint non-LOS microwave link Fibre optic

Once the most feasible backhaul technology is determined for each site that site can be given a weighting according to the cost (CAPEX and OPEX) of the transmission. This helps the ACP tool determine the most optimal site locations by considering not only RF performance, but backhaul feasibility and cost too.

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Figure 4: Candidate site backhaul requirements

Automatic site selection


By considering the nominal site plan, the backhaul weighting factors, suitably scaled geo-located traffic data and appropriate optimisation targets the ACP can optimise the design. To obtain a high performance, yet cost effective design it is important to specify realistic optimisation targets. Recommended targets should be in the region of -100dBm for RSRP and 10dB for RSRQ. It is also recommended that the optimisation targets should be met in 95% of the optimisation area while minimising costs to provide a good performance/cost trade-off.

Figure 5: Candidate site locations

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Figure 6: Optimised network design

Design verification
Once the ACP completes the design optimisation, the final step is to transfer the new site settings back into the radio and transmission planning tools and do a final design validation. This could include small changes to fine tune the design which may be obvious to an engineers eye but were not catered for in the targets and constraints when setting up the ACP. For example, if a link meets the projected traffic growth with only a few per cent headroom it might be more cost effective in the long run to install a slightly higher capacity link option and save additional field work costs should actual traffic turn out to be marginally higher than forecast.

Figure 7: Coverage without (left) and with (right) the small cell network

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Figure 8: Call failures without (left) and with (right) the small cell network

With the design verification, the final step in the process, complete an optimised small cell network design now exists. The site acquisition team can now secure the confirmed locations and the rest of the network build process can take place.

Conclusion
This document has outlined AIRCOMs proposed 5 step process for designing the best possible LTE small cell network, where a street furniture database and geo-located traffic data exist: 1. Traffic forecast gather geo-located traffic data to understand with a high degree of accuracy where the traffic is. 2. Candidate locations determine candidate locations based on the availability of street furniture for antenna mounting. 3. Site ranking weight potential site locations based on the availability and cost of backhaul to the location. 4. Automatic site selection using an ACP tool optimise the small cell design to performance and cost targets. 5. Design verification validate and fine-tune the ACP generated plan.

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Products used
Successful planning of small cell networks requires a number of tools which work seamlessly together. The following AIRCOM products play an integral role in the small cell planning methodology proposed in this paper:

ASSET
ASSET is a multi-technology radio network design tool aimed at providing mobile network planners with comprehensive and powerful capability in planning all the key mobile radio networks. This includes the main radio design functions such as propagation modelling, measurement data analysis, coverage analysis, traffic planning and static simulation as well as more advanced processes including frequency planning and neighbour planning.

MYRIAD
Myriad is a universal propagation model. Following several years of research into propagation, modelling, optimisation and algorithms, the MYRIAD propagation model is able to automatically adapt itself to all cell types (micro, mini, small, and macro cells), environments (dense urban, urban, suburban, mountainous, maritime, and open), and technologies (GSM, UMTS, LTE etc.) in a frequency range from 200MHz to 5GHz. For small cell planning the MYRIAD model is configured to utilise building vector data to provide more realistic pathloss calculations in dense urban environments.

CONNECT
CONNECT is a microwave and backhaul transmission planning tool. It provides a complete backhaul network planning solution covering microwave, optical, satellite and copper technologies. It enables you to design and evaluate microwave networks across a variety of architectures such as branch connections, multiple hops, loops or point to multi-point. It merges powerful link engineering capabilities with a graphical map view to fulfil all microwave transmission planning requirements.

Capesso
Capesso is the market leading automatic cell planning tool. It combines data about the radio network with planning objectives like coverage, capacity, quality and cost to automatically find the best network design based on that information. Capesso is complementary to existing planning and propagation software. It builds on investment in that software by automating the multiple network processes for a faster more optimised design. Capesso is tightly integrated with ASSET and delivers great value across the full spectrum of mobile radio standards and their high performance extensions including GSM, UMTS and LTE.

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About AIRCOM International


AIRCOM is an independent provider of network planning, optimisation and management software and consultancy for mobile networks. Our products, all of which are now LTE capable, enable operators to regain visibility and control of their network, which in turn drives efficiency and profitability. The market leader in the provision and deployment of network engineering tools, AIRCOM products are in use across 155+ countries by over half the worlds mobile operators. Every day, the 20 top global operators depend on AIRCOMs tools and consultants to improve network coverage and quality for more than 2 billion subscribers worldwide. Established in 1995, we have built our reputation on creating and releasing additional value from within mobile networks. As a provider of independent, multi-vendor, multi-technology consulting services, with over four million hours working on 3G networks alone, our expertise translates into direct and measurable cost savings for mobile operators. From initial advisory, through planning, optimisation and operation, we are dedicated to maximising the performance of your network, and therefore your business. With offices in 14 countries, we provide regional viewpoints and resource, as well as ensuring that our operator customers benefit from our global knowledge and expertise. By looking ahead of the market, we develop the skills and tools, such as our small cell and SON offerings, that network operators need to remain competitive.

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