Technical Report on Radio Network

Planning and Optimization

Table of Contents
Radio Network Planning.............................................................................................. 2
RNP Introduction..................................................................................................... 2
TCPU........................................................................................................................ 2
Site Design.............................................................................................................. 2
Map Information...................................................................................................... 2
Capacity Report....................................................................................................... 2
Capacity Table...................................................................................................... 2
Frequency planning................................................................................................. 5
Data Transcript........................................................................................................ 6
Internal Work Order................................................................................................. 7
Site Surveys............................................................................................................ 7
Radio Network Optimization....................................................................................... 8
Concept of RN Optimization.................................................................................... 8
Processes and procedures of RN Optimization........................................................8
Key Performance Indicator of Radio Network..................................................................8
Parameter Adjustment Principles............................................................................8
Common Problems of RN Optimization....................................................................9
Coverage.............................................................................................................. 9
Capacity............................................................................................................... 9
Interference.......................................................................................................... 9
Handover.............................................................................................................. 9
TCH call drop........................................................................................................ 9
RN Optimization Reports....................................................................................... 10
CBD Customer Complaint Report.......................................................................10
Enterprise Road Drive Test Report.........................................................................10
Enterprise Road Drive Test Report Follow up.........................................................11

Radio Network Planning

RNP Introduction
The role of radio planning is to provide cost effective solutions to the radio network in terms of
coverage, capacity and quality. Whereby coverage includes coverage areas, service probability
and related signal strength. Capacity includes subscribers, traffic profile in the whole area,
availability of frequency bands and frequency planning methods.

TCPU
TEMS Cell Planner Universal (TCPU) its software that can easily and faster helps in planning
GSM and WCDMA networks. It improves accuracy of the network plan and reduces the
expenses of the network. Moreover TCPU helps in frequency planning, interference analysis and
coverage plots.
Site design

Site Design
In site design the RNP team look for ways and plans of coming up with an optimistic network.
The team looks for Inputs from customer care, sales, marketing, business development, statistic
and drive tests.
Customer care, come up with the complaints from the subscribers, therefore the type of
complains can help the RNP team to design a site basing themselves on the complain, for
instance, if subscribers complain about data then RNP team can design a 3G site.
Sales, the sales department is in charge of sold and unsold lines, if there are more lines that are
needed, then a site can be designed in such a way that it is a capacity site with many TRXs.
Marketing department can help the RNP team to design a coverage site, because they are the
one who can come with areas where people need to use the network.
Business development can come up with new services. Hence, a site would be designed in such

a way that it caters the new services.

Data obtained from statistics and drive test can help in planning a site.

Map Information
Map information shows the view of the whole network on the map and the commonly used
software is Google Earth. The main concern here of Google Earth is to study the map of the
country where the network operates. With Map information it is cost effective and simple to plan
where the new sites can be placed looking at the terrain. Map information can also help to
analyze the geographical coverage of the sites.

Capacity Report
Capacity Reports shows the performance of the network in terms of capacity.
Capacity Table

The figure above shows the capacity table of the network. Starting from left, the first column is
the configuration column which shows the arrangement of the sectors in a cell. For instance,
configuration of 1:2:1 means that the cell has three sectors where sector A have one Transceiver
Unit (TRU), sector B has two TRU and sector C have one TRU. TRU is a device that contains
both the transmitter and the receiver sharing the same circuitry. One TRU is made up of 8 time
slots. The configuration of 2:2:2 + 6:6:6 means dual band configuration. Dual band configuration
is the combination of GSM 900 and GSM 1800 respectively.

Looking at first raw of configuration 1:0:0. The number of Transceiver (TRX) or TRU per cell is
one. The number of SDCCH per cell is also one. SDCCH is the logical channel that is used for
call setup. A cell with one TRU uses one SDCCH for call setup while a cell with two TRUs uses
two SDCCH that means number of SDCCH used is determined by the number of TRUs in a cell.
A cell with 1, 2, 3 and 4 TRUs uses 2 Packet Data Channels (PDCH) while a cell with 6 and 8
TRUs uses four PDCH. PDCH is the physical channel that carries data. Each cell use 1
Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH). BCCH is used to carry system parameters that are used to
identify the network, synchronize frequency and time.
Frequency is divided up into 8 timeslots and logical channels are transmitted only on certain
frames in a certain timeslot. Configuration of 2:0:0 have a total of 16 timeslots each containing a
logical channel or frequency. SDDCH is transmitted in 2 timeslots, PDCH is transmitted in 2
timeslots and BCCH is transmitted in 1 timeslot and there is a total of 11 free timeslots, these
free timeslots are then used to transmit Traffic Channels (TCH). TCH carries two types of
information, encoded speech and data.
Half Rate (HR) is the speech coding for GSM and it operates at 5.6 kb/s meaning it needs half
the bandwidth of Full Rate (FR) which operate at 13 kb/s. When using HR the network capacity
is doubled at the expense of the audio or voice quality. FR has good voice quality but the
capacity of the network is limited. In raw 2 and column 7 shows the number of TCH at 25% per
cell and it is calculate like this:
No of TCH at 25% per cell =
=

25
No TCH per cell
+ NoTCH per cell
100
25
100

*11+11

=13.75
Grade of Service (GoS) is the amount of congestion in a particular cell or coverage area,
normally given by TCH congestion rate in that area assuming the congestion on the SDCCH or
any other channels used before TCH are negligible. Using GoS of 2%, traffic per cell is 8
Elarngs. Elarng is the measurement of traffic in one hour. If 10 subscribers makes a call and each
call last for 3 minutes then minutes of traffic in 1 hour is
10 * 3 = 30
Hours of traffic in 1 hour is
30
60
Then hours of traffic = 0.5 Elarngs

= 0.5

Elarng has three models which are Elarng B, Extended Elarng B and Elarng C. Elarng B works
out how many lines are needed if the traffic figure for the busiest hour is known and it assumes
that all blocked calls are cleared. To calculate the traffic per cell at 2% GoS, Elarng B table is
used. The figure below is the Elarng B table showing how 8 Elarngs were found from 13.75 TCH

13.75 is between 13 and 14 hence traffic would be 8 Elarngs not (7.402 or 8.2) Elarngs when
using the exact algorithm for calculating Elarngs, taking into consideration the decimal points.
Total traffic per site would be the sum of all traffic in each sector, since the configuration was
2:0:0. The total traffic per site equals traffic per cell. At EWZ traffic per subscriber is assigned to
be 0.016 Elarngs. Therefore calculating the number of subscribers in 8 Elarngs is
8 Elarngs
0.016 Elarngs

= 500 subscribers

The number of TRX per site can be determined from the configuration and 2:0:0 tells that there
is 2 TRX and the number of cells is 1. For configuration of 1:1:2, the number of TRX is 4 and
the number of cells is 3. From the configuration it is easily seen that cells are separated by colons
and a value within each colon represent a TRX.

Frequency planning
Frequency planning is done in order to provide with needed capacity and coverage within a
given frequency band because frequency band is a limited resource that is shared among
different mobile networks operators in a country. Frequency band of GSM 900 is 890MHz-

915MHz (Uplink) and 935MHz - 960 MHz (downlink) and for GSM 1800 is 1710MHz1785MHz (uplink) and 1805MHz-1880MHz (downlink). Econet Wireless Zimbabwe (EWZ) is
given a frequency band of 906.6MHz-914.4MHz (Uplink) and 951.6MHz-959.4MHz (downlink)
for GSM 900. For GSM 1800 it is allocated a frequency band of 1725.4MHz - 1740.2MHz
(uplink) and1820.4MHz-1827.2MHz (downlink). Equivalent spectrum allocation of GSM 900 is
that, it has Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (ARFCN) starting from 83 to 122, giving
a total of 40 channels. GSM 1800 have 75 channels and the ARFCN starts from 588 to 662
Frequency channels are limited, hence it is wise to use them efficiently. To effectively use the
available frequency channels the mechanism called frequency hopping is deployed. Frequency
hopping is the transmission of radio signals by rapidly switching the carrier between frequency
channels, using pseudorandom sequence that is known to both the transmitter and the receiver.
The channels involved in frequency hopping are Traffic Channels only. In BCCH there is no
frequency hopping instead a mobile is assigned a single BCCH. ARFCN is a number that is
uniquely assigned to the frequency channel.
To avoid interference from the cell that uses the same frequency as the current cell. Frequency
hopping uses the algorithm called Hopping Sequence Number (HSN), which is from 1 to 63. If
the two mobile transmit using the same frequency channel at least they must have different HSN
and in that way they would not interfere with one another. In case where the network is
congested or during busy hour, it can happen that two or more mobile can share the same
frequency channel and HSN. Therefore to overcome interference frequency hopping also uses
the algorithm called Mobile Allocation Index Offset (MAIO). MAIO acts like a starting point
having a numeral from 0 to 31, therefore two or more mobiles using the same frequency channel
and same HSN will start at different point and they would not interfere.

Data Transcript
Data Transcript (DT) is a script that contains set of commands that have their own functions.
The script can be loaded into any node through Winfiol and Operation Support System (OSS)
only if that node is the one which the script is intended for. Common or important properties of
the script are exclamation mark (!), comments, semi colon (;), colon (:) and comma (,) and equal
sign (=). Exclamation mark is used to write comments. Any phrase that follows the exclamation
mark will not be executed as a command by the system. Comments are used to make the script
understandable and easy to edit, colon separate the command from its parameters, an equal sign
assigns a value to a parameter, a comer separate the parameters and at the end of a complete
command is a semicolon which shows the end of a command.
Command is usually a prefix with five letters and the first two letters represent the node of the
network where the command is applicable and the last letters can either be C (which means
change), P (Print), E (End) and I (Initiate). That shows the easiest way of interpreting a command
without using Active Library Explore (ALEX). The figure below shows an example of DT.

Internal Work Order

Internal Work Order (IWO) is a form of a formal letter that is issued before any change can be
done to the network node. It is issued prior to the DT, because for a DT to be implemented into
the system there has to be information provided showing what changes are to be made to the
network. Features of IWO are destination (where it is forwarded), date, reference number, job
Description, responsibilities, site Installation, service status and schedule. The IWO may differ
with the department. The properties of the IWO above are mainly for the IWO that is issued by
the Radio Network planning and optimization.

Site Surveys
When RNP team is through with site design, then they come to what is site survey. Site survey
means going to the actual site and look for the following important aspects, accessibility, power,
terrain and security. In accessibility, the team checks if there is a road that can lead to the site and
if there is no road, they check the cost of constructing a road and the cost of ownership. If it is
expensive then it is favorable to change the coordinates and shift to accessible place. The same
thing applies with terrain.
The involved teams or departments in site surveys are RNP department which would provide
with the dimensioning of the site, Civil Engineering department which would be the one
responsible for the construction of the site, Acquisition department which would be the one that
would negotiate the land to the landlord and Transmission department which would determine if
there is a line of sight between the new site and its neighboring site.

Radio Network Optimization

Concept of RN Optimization
The role of Radio Network optimization is to utilize the existence of network resources and
upgrade the overall performance of the network by improving existing network coverage and
capacity, and also offered service quality to fulfill customer demands.

Processes and procedures of RN Optimization

When optimizing the network the following steps are taken into consideration
Customer Complaints
Status
Drive Test
Recommendations
Implementation
Status After
Conclusion
Customer Care department would come with the complaints from the subscribers about the
performance of the network. The RN optimization department would check the network statistics
basing themselves on the issue addressed by customer complaints to see the status of the
network. If the status of the network is not in a reliable condition or do not meet Key
Performance Indicators (KPI), then drive test would be taken to an area where there is a problem.
After set of information is collected from the drive test, the information is analyzed and the
recommendations (ways that shows how to overcome the problem) are made. After the
recommendations, then implementation is carried out. After implementation the network status is
checked to see if the recommendations have solved the problem and then the conclusion is made
about the new performance of the network.
Key Performance Indicator of Radio Network
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is referred to a data that is obtained from drive test and traffic
statistic. Key Performance indicators are used to judge the network performance and evaluate the
quality of service. They are also used to monitor network trends and anticipate future problems.
The following KPI parameters:
Call Drop Rate, shows the number of failed calls over total of made calls,
Handover Success Rate, shows the percentage of successful handovers of all handover
attempts.
Call Setup Success Rate, measures successful TCH assignments of total number of TCH
assignment attempts.
Call Setup TCH Congestion Rate Statistic, provides the percentage of attempts to allocate
a TCH call setup that were blocked in a cell.
Busy Hour Traffic, shows the total traffic in Elarngs during busy hour.

Parameter Adjustment Principles

In Parameter Adjustment Principle the procedure is to identify the problem, make changes and
monitor the effect of the changes. Parameter types are Radio parameters and Engineering

parameters. Radio parameters include handover parameters where neighbor relation between
cells has to be correctly defined. Engineering parameters includes antenna parameters whereby
antenna parameters involve height, orientation, down -tilt, up-tilt, gain and beam width.

Common Problems of RN Optimization

Problems found in RN optimization are coverage, capacity, interference, handover, TCH call
drop and dual band network traffic distribution.
Coverage

In coverage these problems are usually found, coverage hole which occurs when coverage areas
of two BTS do not overlap or there are some big obstacles in the coverage area and over shooting
occurs when BTS antenna propagate signal far away along a road and serves areas which it does
not suppose to serve. The problems of coverage can be defeated or solved by adjusting antenna
parameters, radio parameters, adding a new site and also using power mounted amplifiers and
low loss combiner.
Capacity

Common problems in capacity are TCH congestion and traffic imbalance. TCH congestion may
result into TCH queuing. During call setup the mobile performs SDCCH signaling and if there
are no free TCH, a mobile would wait for a free TCH in a queue which is called TCH queuing
that may result in an unsuccessful call setup. The best way to get rid of TCH congestion is
adding more Transceiver Units (TRUs) or building a new site. Traffic imbalance can be solved
by Adjusting parameters for cell selection, cell reselection and changing the transmission power
of BTS and MS.
Interference

Interference can be solved by increasing the frequency reuse distance between the co frequency
and the adjacent frequencies. Frequency reuse distance is the shortest distance between the
centers of the two cells that use the same frequency in different clusters. Interference can also be
minimized by decreasing the power of the BTS, adjusting the antenna parameters (down tilt,
azimuth and antenna height) and using anti-interference technologies such as frequency hopping.
Handover

Unsuccessful handover is caused by congestion in adjacent cells and undefined neighbor relation
or undefined adjacent cell relationship. Unsuccessful handover leads to bad voice quality or call
drop. Frequent handover decreases the conversation quality and increases system signaling load.
Unreasonable proportion of outgoing inter cell handover to incoming inter cell handover results
in traffic imbalance. For instance, if the current cell is congested outgoing inter cell handover
would be positive and neighboring cells would not be able to make handover to the congested
cell, hence there would be more