Actix Cellopt AFP User Guide 3 14

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com
Version 3.14.11
AFP
User Guide

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The content of this manual is provided for information only, is subject to change without
notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Actix. Actix assumes no
responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that appear in this documentation.
Copyright Actix 2012. All rights reserved. All trademarks are hereby acknowledged.

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Contents
1 WELCOME TO CELLOPT AFP ......................................................................... 7
1.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 7
1.2 MODELING ...................................................................................................... 7
1.3 OPTIMIZATION ................................................................................................. 7
1.4 ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................... 7
2 GETTING STARTED WITH CELLOPT AFP ............................................................ 8
2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 8
2.2 USER INTERFACE OVERVIEW ................................................................................. 8
2.3 APPEARANCE AND NAVIGATION .............................................................................. 9
2.4 MODELING AND OPTIMIZATION FLOW .................................................................... 10
2.5 CONTROL PANEL ............................................................................................. 11
3 FILE MODE ........................................................................................... 13
3.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 13
3.2 START ......................................................................................................... 13
3.3 NEW PROJECT ................................................................................................ 14
3.4 OPEN PROJECT ............................................................................................... 18
3.5 IMPORT PROJECT ............................................................................................ 20
3.6 EXPORT PROJECT ............................................................................................ 21
4 IMPORT DATA ....................................................................................... 22
4.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 22
4.2 THE IMPORT DATA TAB ..................................................................................... 22
4.2.1 The Radio Editor tab ............................................................................. 23
5 MODELING ........................................................................................... 24
5.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 24
5.2 OVERVIEW .................................................................................................... 24
5.2.1 Detailed Project Overview...................................................................... 25
5.2.2 Warnings ............................................................................................. 27
5.3 SPECTRUM .................................................................................................... 28
5.3.1 Spectrum GSM .................................................................................. 28
5.3.2 Frequency Hopping Strategy GSM ........................................................ 29
5.3.3 MAL Editor - GSM ................................................................................. 30
5.3.4 MAL length - GSM................................................................................. 31
5.3.5 Maximum Separation (Simple Case) - GSM .............................................. 33
5.3.6 Maximum Separation (GRFU Support) - GSM ........................................... 35
5.3.7 Spectrum TDMA & PDC ....................................................................... 38
5.3.8 Strategy TDMA & PDC ........................................................................ 39
5.3.9 Template ............................................................................................. 40
5.3.10 Spectrum iDEN ................................................................................ 41
5.3.11 Strategy iDEN ................................................................................. 42
5.3.12 Optimize iDEN ................................................................................. 43
5.3.13 Spectrum LMR ................................................................................. 46
5.3.14 Spectrum TETRA .............................................................................. 47
5.4 NETWORK..................................................................................................... 48
5.4.1 View and Edit Properties........................................................................ 48

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5.4.2 Add Site .............................................................................................. 49
5.4.3 Add Sector .......................................................................................... 49
5.4.4 Move Sector ........................................................................................ 51
5.4.5 Add Radio............................................................................................ 51
5.4.6 Multiple Radio Adds .............................................................................. 51
5.4.7 Disable Network Elements ..................................................................... 51
5.4.8 Enable all radios ................................................................................... 52
5.4.9 Edit Relations....................................................................................... 52
5.4.10 Alias Maps ......................................................................................... 52
5.5 LAYERS........................................................................................................ 52
5.5.1 Modeling with the Radio Editor ............................................................... 54
5.5.2 System Categories GSM ..................................................................... 59
5.5.3 System Categories TDMA & PDC .......................................................... 60
5.5.4 System Categories iDEN ..................................................................... 61
5.5.5 System Categories LMR ...................................................................... 61
5.6 LISTS.......................................................................................................... 62
5.6.1 Status ................................................................................................. 62
5.6.2 Manipulation ........................................................................................ 66
5.6.3 Analysis .............................................................................................. 73
5.7 PRIORITIES ................................................................................................... 75
6 FREQUENCIES ....................................................................................... 85
6.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 85
6.2 OPTIONS ...................................................................................................... 85
6.2.1 Spectrum Clearance ............................................................................. 86
6.2.2 Options - iDEN ..................................................................................... 86
6.2.3 Options LMR and TETRA ..................................................................... 87
6.3 ANALYZE FREQUENCIES ..................................................................................... 88
6.3.1 Delta Reports ....................................................................................... 92
6.3.2 LMR and TETRA Detailed Intermodulation Reports ................................. 93
6.4 OPTIMIZE FREQUENCIES .................................................................................... 94
6.4.1 LMR and TETRA Progress Bars................................................................ 95
6.5 RETUNE FREQUENCIES ...................................................................................... 96
6.5.1 Manual retunes .................................................................................... 98
6.5.2 Retuning MAL ...................................................................................... 98
6.5.3 Retuning iDEN QUAD/WiDEN radios ........................................................ 99
6.5.4 Retuning maximum separation groups .................................................... 99
7 HSN AND MAIO .................................................................................. 100
7.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 100
7.2 OPTIONS FOR HSN AND MAIO ......................................................................... 100
7.2.1 Lists ................................................................................................. 101
7.2.2 Synchronization ................................................................................. 101
7.2.3 HSN Options ...................................................................................... 102
7.2.4 MAIO Options .................................................................................... 102
7.2.5 Filter ................................................................................................. 102
7.3 ANALYZE HSN AND MAIO ............................................................................... 102
7.4 OPTIMIZE HSN AND MAIO .............................................................................. 104
7.5 RETUNE HSN AND MAIO ................................................................................ 104
8 COLOR CODES .................................................................................... 105
8.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 105

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8.2 COLOR CODE OPTIONS GSM ......................................................................... 106
8.2.1 Lists GSM ....................................................................................... 106
8.2.2 Rules GSM ...................................................................................... 106
8.2.3 Filter - GSM ....................................................................................... 107
8.2.4 Training Sequence Codes GSM .......................................................... 107
8.3 COLOR CODE OPTIONS TDMA & PDC .............................................................. 108
8.3.1 Lists TDMA & PDC ............................................................................ 108
8.3.2 Rules TDMA & PDC........................................................................... 109
8.3.3 Filter TDMA & PDC ........................................................................... 109
8.3.4 Color Code Grouping TDMA & PDC ..................................................... 109
8.4 COLOR CODE OPTIONS IDEN ......................................................................... 110
8.4.1 Lists iDEN ....................................................................................... 110
8.4.2 Options iDEN................................................................................... 111
8.4.3 Filter - iDEN ....................................................................................... 111
8.5 ANALYZE BSIC ............................................................................................ 111
8.5.1 Color Code Analyze Properties GSM ................................................... 112
8.5.2 Color Code Analyze Properties TDMA & PDC ........................................ 112
8.5.3 Color Code Analyze Properties iDEN ................................................... 112
8.6 OPTIMIZE BSIC ........................................................................................... 113
8.7 RETUNE BSIC ............................................................................................. 113
9 EXPORT PLAN ..................................................................................... 114
9.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 114
9.2 EXPORT PLAN .............................................................................................. 114
9.2.1 Save Radio Editor ............................................................................... 116
10 INPUT AND OUTPUT FORMATS ................................................................. 117
10.1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................... 117
10.2 TAB DELIMITED IMPORT ................................................................................. 117
10.2.1 Overview ......................................................................................... 117
10.2.2 Columns .......................................................................................... 118
10.2.3 Values ............................................................................................. 120
10.2.4 Special data import behavior .............................................................. 121
10.2.5 GSM specific behavior ....................................................................... 122
10.2.6 iDEN-specific behavior ....................................................................... 124
10.3 CELLOPT AFP 2 FORMAT ............................................................................... 126
10.4 CELLOPT AFP 3 FORMAT ............................................................................... 126
10.4.1 Character Encoding ........................................................................... 126
10.4.2 Input Data ....................................................................................... 126
10.4.3 Output Files ..................................................................................... 127
10.4.4 XML Tags......................................................................................... 127
10.5 PLANET 2.8 FORMAT .................................................................................... 139
10.6 ASSET FORMAT ......................................................................................... 139
10.7 PLAN EXPORT TO GSM OSS/BSC FORMATS ........................................................ 140
10.7.1 Nortel Supplementary Data ................................................................ 140
10.7.2 Ericsson Supplementary Data ............................................................. 140
10.7.3 Nokia Supplementary Data ................................................................ 140
10.8 ERICSSON INTERFERENCE LIST FORMAT .............................................................. 141
10.9 NOKIA INTERFERENCE LIST FORMAT .................................................................. 141
10.10 SECTOR ALIAS MAPS .................................................................................. 141

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11 INSTALLATION/LICENSING AND TROUBLESHOOTING ....................................... 143
11.1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................... 143
11.2 HARDWARE / SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS ............................................................ 143
11.3 CELLOPT AFP INSTALLATION ........................................................................... 144
11.4 INSTALLATION ON A CITRIX SERVER .................................................................. 148
11.4.1 Cellopt AFP Licensing Model for Citrix .................................................. 149
11.5 UNINSTALLING CELLOPT AFP .......................................................................... 149
11.6 CELLOPT AFP LICENSING ............................................................................... 149
11.6.1 License models ................................................................................. 149
11.6.2 First activation ................................................................................. 150
11.6.3 Re-activation ................................................................................... 151
11.6.4 Management Tools ............................................................................ 151
11.7 TROUBLESHOOTING ..................................................................................... 152
11.7.1 How to check if you have administrative privileges ............................... 152
11.8 SILENT INSTALL .......................................................................................... 153
11.9 CELLOPT PROJECT DATABASE .......................................................................... 153
11.10 OPTIMIZER PRIORITY .................................................................................. 153
11.11 OPTIMIZER PROGRESS BAR........................................................................... 153
11.12 CLIENT LOGGING ....................................................................................... 154
12 INDEX ............................................................................................ 155
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Welcome to Cellopt AFP 7

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1 Welcome to Cellopt AFP
1.1 Introduction
Cellopt AFP is a powerful tool that automatically optimizes and analyzes the reuse of
frequencies, color codes, frequency sets and frequency-hopping parameters. Cellopt AFP
generates implementation-ready plans that do not need any further manual modifications.
A guaranteed good frequency plan opens the way to better network performance, typically
resulting in more satisfied subscribers, fewer dropped calls, fewer handover problems and
less churn.
There is a trade-off between capacity and quality: a decrease in quality allows the capacity
to increase, and vice-versa. An automatic frequency-planning tool that can guarantee an
improved plan would either maintain existing capacity while permitting better network
quality or maintain quality while increasing capacity. The significant quality improvement
typically made by Cellopt AFP allows for huge savings in network infrastructure
investments.
The potential improvement in operational performance is considerable, given the cost in
time and money of skilled engineers. Any manual adjustment is wasted time, but
cumulatively this can run too lost weeks or even months. At the network planning level,
time saved through automated planning frees planners to work on higher value-added
projects.
1.2 Modeling
Cellopt AFP includes a flexible modeler with many features to project system techniques
and network-specific planning preferences. Cellopt AFP obeys a user-defined rule set to
consider the desired planning preferences, or to reuse restrictions set by the operators
planning strategy or other restrictions such as those applying to equipment reuse.
Extensive support is provided for frequency hopping in GSM networks, as well as for
planning with frequency sets in iDEN, PDC and TDMA networks.
1.3 Optimization
Cellopt AFP uses a proprietary iterative heuristic local-search optimization algorithm to
continually locate improvements to the solution from the previous iteration. This
guarantees fast convergence on a high-quality plan, which is important for performing
consecutive optimizations for what-if scenarios.
1.4 Analysis
Cellopt AFP has extensive support to allow analysis of input data and the resulting
optimized plans. The input data is analyzed automatically in the background; warnings are
displayed if any data is missing or is incorrect. Cellopt AFP provides a drill-down function to
understand the data in the input lists as well as the quality of the optimized plans, which
enables quick access to both summarized and detailed views of the information. Cellopt
AFP also analyses the consequence of retuning any assignment, and supports making any
of these retunes manually.
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Getting Started with Cellopt AFP 8

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2 Getting Started with Cellopt AFP
2.1 Introduction
Cellopt AFP is a client-server application that guides you through the necessary modeling
and optimization steps using a wizard style interface. This section describes the user
interface and how to navigate through it.
2.2 User Interface Overview
The user interface operates in two modes:
- File You enter this mode on starting Cellopt AFP.
In this mode, you can create a new project or open an existing one. You can also
specify and load project input files, and import and export projects in different formats.
For more details, see Section 3.
- Project You enter this mode when you select and open a project.
In this mode, you can:
Model the network as a first step; e.g., specify the available spectrum; view and
undertake consistency checks on the project data.
Group radios with common characteristics using the category and layer concept,
and put reuse constraints on defined groups.
Prioritize the optimization rules to form the desired trade-offs (see Section 5).
Execute and manage the optimization process.
Optimize frequencies, color codes, HSN & MAIO (GSM only) resources.
View and analyze assignments.
Retune the resources to solve limited interference problems, thereby avoiding
major retunes.

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2.3 Appearance and Navigation
Figure 2.1 shows the Network view of the Modeling section in Project mode.

Figure 2.1 The Network view in the Modeling section for a GSM project
The upper left corner shows the name of the project (e.g. Simple Case).
On the left the section list offers choices depending on which application tab is selected
(note that Figure 2.1 shows tabs for the Cellopt AFP and Cellopt MDA applications), and
the current mode. The box highlights the available views for the current section. A red
bullet indicates the current view (e.g. the Network view of the Modeling section) displayed
on the right. To go to a specific section or view, click its name in the section list.
The tab at the top shows the current section (e.g. Modeling) note that next to it the
Radio Editor tab is also available.
Navigation buttons in the bottom right of the page perform the following functions:
- Back Return to the previous section or view in the dialog sequence. If the first
section of the Project mode is currently being viewed, it returns to File mode.
- Next Proceed to the next page or view in the dialog sequence.
- Control panel View and change settings, and access help and support
information.
- Hide button (The button shows two downward-pointing chevrons) Close a dialog
window and show the current section or view.
- Close Close the current project or the application.
Project name
Sections
Navigation

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2.4 Modeling and Optimization Flow
The application interface guides you through all the main steps of the modeling and
optimization process using a predefined workflow.
Figure 2.2 shows the order of sections and their associated views. Some sections may
include several options and views not shown here; these are described elsewhere in this
User Guide.
The process starts in File mode, where you can create a new project, open an existing
project or import/export a project. Upon completing the appropriate project selection, it
will take you to the Project mode, whereupon you are taken through all modeling,
optimization (Frequencies, HSN and MAIO and BSIC) and Export Plan sections in the order
shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2 Overview of the File and Project modes with its modeling and optimization flow.

The HSN and MAIO section is only available if GSM technology is chosen (BSIC is the GSM
notation for color codes).


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2.5 Control Panel
At any time, you can click the Control Panel button at the bottom of the application window
to access the Control Panel (Figure 2.3), which reveals further information and options:
- About Shows copyright details on this product and detailed system information.
- Options In this page, you can set the measurement system. You can also activate
monitoring of user activities. When this feature is activated, a log file called usage.txt
will be created in the log folder in the installation directory on your machine. The file
includes the name of the project used, when it was opened and closed, and the length
of the session. The number of sites, sectors and radios in the project are recorded.
From here, you can deactivate (or activate) all or some of the project warnings. There
is also an option to show/hide projects created by other users, which may be useful if
there are several users sharing a machine. You can also select the default destination
folder for analyses. On this page you can also change the password used by Cellopt
AFP for connecting to the database.

Figure 2.3 The Cellopt AFP Control Panel
- Project Management Contains the available project management options. You can
rename, import, copy, export and delete a project from here.
- Server / Database Displays the server version and build number of the installed
product. From here, you can ping the server to check that it is active and responds.
Furthermore, you can also check the status of the Cellopt database using the verify
and if possible repair projects option. The status check may call for a repair if any
error is found in the database.
Note that this operation may take several minutes until
the process is completed, depending on the size of the
database.

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- Support Displays e-mail addresses and websites from which you can obtain product
support.
- Template Management Contains template management options to view, import,
rename, copy, export, delete and create a template from a project. A template is a
repository of spectrum, project and optimization settings used in Cellopt AFP that are
not network-specific.
For example, information about sites, sectors and radios as well as neighbors is not
part of a template. The available spectrum is, however, part of a template. Priorities
are also included in a template, and for this purpose, empty lists are included. The
empty list may be filled with data by loading a list with the same name.
Note that you cannot create a template from an open
project.
- Users Guide - Open an online version of this User Guide.
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide File mode 13

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3 File mode
3.1 Introduction
This section provides a comprehensive overview of File mode in the Cellopt AFP client. File
mode handles the creation of projects and loading of input files. From here, you can import
projects from different formats as well as export to Cellopt AFP 3 format.
3.2 Start
The Start screen shown in Figure 3.1 appears after the Splash screen.

Figure 3.1 The Start page
Here you can select one of the following main options:
- New Project Creates a new project.
- Open Existing Project Opens a project currently stored in Cellopt AFP database.
- Import Project from File Imports a project (from file in various file formats) to the
Cellopt AFP database.

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- Export Project to File Exports a project to file using the Cellopt AFP 3 file format.
From the Start page, you can also select the Project Management link in the on-screen
text to access other project options.
3.3 New Project
The New Project section will appear if the New project option is selected in the Start
page. To create a new project, you must specify a project name and a template or project
technology. See Figure 3.2.

Figure 3.2 The New Project page
If you dont specify a template, you must specify a project technology. A preview of the
selected template is shown in the bottom of the Select Template page. You can create a
template from the Template Management page available through the Control Panel.
Selecting Next opens the Import files section in the Project mode page, where you specify
input data files that form the basis for the new project.

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The files are imported using a wizard, following these steps:
1 Select file type Specify the type of the file to be loaded (see Figure 3.3).
Examples of file types are radio database, neighbor and interference lists.
You can do a quick import specifying the files (multiple) to import. Unlike the
standard import, this does not let you merge with or replace an existing list when
you import a list.

Figure 3.3 The first step in the Import File Wizard

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2 Select files to import Here you specify the sources files of the desired file type
(see Figure 3.4).

Figure 3.4 The second step in the Import File Wizard
Note that several files can be specified by using the Add
button.
You can also remove a file by selecting the file and click the Remove button.
For interference lists, you can apply a filter function and remove relations where the
co- value is less than or equal to the specified limit. Relations with 0 and negative co-
values are always removed.
A summary of the number of filtered relations is shown in the event log.

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3 View event log When the file or files have been loaded, a log shows the status
(see Figure 3.5).

Figure 3.5 The last step in the Import File Wizard, showing the import event log
Clicking the Import another button returns you to step 1 to load files of another type.
Click Done to finish the file import and enter the Import files section in Project mode.

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3.4 Open Project
The Open Project section, shown in Figure 3.6, will appear if Open existing project is
selected in the Start page.

Figure 3.6 The Open Project section
On the right, a list with the four most Recently Opened Projects is shown on the right of
the page. Under All Projects, a dropdown list shows all of the projects currently stored in
the project database. Any of these can be selected to open a project quickly.
An overview of the selected project is also shown on the left, which includes the following
summary information:
- Name Name of the project.
- Template Name of the project template used, if any.
- Technology The technology used in the project.
- Frequencies The frequencies included in the project.

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- Color codes / NCC; BCC / Color codes; Offsets The available color codes
included in the project. Technology-dependent notation is used.
For GSM, this field is named NCC; BCC and lists all available Network Color Codes
(NCC) and Base Station Color Codes, separated by semicolons.
For iDEN and LMR, this field is named Color codes; Offsets and lists available
color codes and color code offsets, separated by semicolons.
For TDMA and PDC, generic color codes are listed.
- User-defined MAL The number of user-defined Mobile Allocation Lists that are
available in the project (only for GSM).
- Sites Number of sites in the project.
- Sectors Number of sectors in the project.
- Radios Number of radios in the project.
- Lists The available lists and input files in the project.
- Layers The user-defined categories and layers included in the project.
Select Open to open the selected project and enter the Modeling section in the Project
mode.

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3.5 Import Project
The Import Project section, shown in Figure 3.7, will appear if you selected Import
project from the Start page. Here you specify the name and format of the project to
import into the project database as well as the source project file. If you check the box
beside the project name, AFP will use the specified project name; otherwise, AFP will use
the project name specified in the project file. Cellopt AFP 3 and Cellopt AFP 2 formats are
currently supported.
Note that a Cellopt AFP 2 project may have source files in
other formats, such as Planet 2.8 or ASSET.
Click Import to import the project and enter the Modeling section in the Project mode.

Figure 3.7 The Import Project section, where you can import a project into the project database in
Cellopt AFP 2 or 3 file format
For an interference list, you can apply a filter function and remove relations where the co
value is less than or equal to the specified limit. Relations with 0 and negative co values
are always removed.
A summary of the number of filtered relations is shown in the event log.

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3.6 Export Project
The Export Project section, shown in Figure 3.8, will appear if you selected Export
Project from the Start page.

Figure 3.8 The Export Project section: export a project to file in Cellopt AFP 3 format
Here you can export a project stored in the project database to Cellopt AFP 3 file format.
You can choose a project to export from a drop down list. Once you select a project, a
summary of that project is shown.
Selecting Export will export the selected project to file and return to the Start page.
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Import Data 22

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4 Import Data
4.1 Introduction
This section shows an overview of the Import Data section when in Project mode, and
shows the external files forming the project. From here, you can also import additional
files.
For more information on formats, see section 10, Input and Output Formats on page 117.
4.2 The Import Data tab
You always enter this section when a new project is created it shows an overview of the
files imported into the current project. The overview includes file name, file size and source
format. You can load additional files using the Import button, and view the supported file
formats. Figure 4.1 shows an example overview.

Figure 4.1 The Import Data section, where an overview of the loaded project files is shown.
You can also import additional files from here.
Click the Import button to display the Import File Wizard, described in the section starting
on page 14.
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4.2.1 The Radio Editor tab
The Radio Editor is used for modeling purposes (for example by changing categories and
layers, viewing assignments and other radio properties), and also for selecting radios to be
optimized (that is, assigned spectrum resources).
The Radio Editor tab is accessible from the top in all pages in Project mode. There are two
tabs: one for the current page and one for the Radio Editor (see Figure 4.2). The Radio
Editor shows one row for each radio in the project, with the columns representing different
radio properties.

Figure 4.2 The Radio Editor tab
See also section 5.5.1 Modeling with the Radio Editor on page 54.

Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Modeling 24

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5 Modeling
5.1 Introduction
In the Modeling section, you can perform project modeling. Modeling includes for example
setting available spectrum, viewing and making consistency checks on the project data.
You can group radios with common characteristics using the category and layer concept,
and set different requirements on defined groups. You can also define and weight reuse
priorities to form a desired trade-off order for the optimization process.
5.2 Overview
The Overview view shown in Figure 5.1 is the first page in the Modeling section, which
provides an overview of the selected project. You always enter this view when you open an
existing project.

Figure 5.1 The Project Overview page.
Potential errors in the project are indicated by a warning sign.

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Under the General heading, the project overview includes:
- Name The name of the project. The name can be changed by clicking the link.
- Technology The technology used in the project. The technology can be changed by
clicking the link.
- Description This field includes a short description of the project. The description can
be changed by clicking the link.
Under the Properties heading, the project overview includes:
- Based on template The project template used.
- Frequencies The available frequencies included in the project.
- Color codes / NCC; BCC / Color code; Offsets The available color codes included
in the project. Technology dependent notation is used. For GSM, this field is named
NCC; BCC and lists available Network Color Codes (NCC) and Base Station Color
Codes, separated by semicolons. For iDEN and LMR, this field is named Color codes;
Offsets and list available color codes and color code offsets separated by semicolons.
For TDMA and PDC, generic color codes are listed.
- User-defined MAL The number of user-defined Mobile Allocation Lists available in
the project (only present for GSM).
- Sites Number of sites in the project.
- Sectors Number of sectors in the project.
- Radios Number of radios in the project.
- Lists The available lists and input files in the project.
- Layers The user-defined categories and layers included in the project.
5.2.1 Detailed Project Overview
Appearing in the text near the top of the page, this link launches a detailed project
overview, which includes several headings:
- General This heading includes general data such as project name, template,
technology, when the project was created, and description.
- Spectrum This heading includes spectrum data such as available and assigned
frequencies and color codes. Frequency hopping (GSM) information and set strategy
(iDEN, TDMA and PDC) are also listed here. More information about specific details can
be found in the Spectrum section on page 28.
- Network This heading includes network data such as number of sites, sectors and
radios. It also lists number of sites, sectors and radios that have been added
(compared to the source radio database file). See page 41 for details.
- Categories and Layers This heading lists user-defined categories and layers as well
as some system categories (see the Layers section on page 52 for specific details).
Spectrum rules associated to layers may also be listed. The number of radios assigned
to each layer is also displayed.

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- Lists This heading shows the defined spectrum, co-located, neighbor, interference
and other lists in the project. Status and origin for each list is also shown. More
information about specific details can be found in the Lists section on page 62.
- Priorities This heading shows all defined priorities in the project. For each priority,
class and weight are listed as well as if any scaling or threshold option is used. More
information about specific details can be found in the Priorities section on page 75.
- Plans This heading lists the defined plans in the project.
- Files This heading lists the name, size and source format of imported project files.
- Warnings This heading lists the current available project warnings. See below for
more details.
At the upper right, icon buttons let you save and print the overview. Figure 5.2 shows an
example of a detailed overview.

Figure 5.2 The detailed project overview page showing more information about the loaded project

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5.2.2 Warnings
If some information or data is missing, a linked warning sign appears to the right in
the Overview section (see Figure 5.1). Details of the warning are shown by the link.
Cellopt AFP will identify and present a warning if:
- No system technology is associated with the project
- There are no available frequencies
- There are no available color codes
- A list is empty
- A list does not fulfil its list criterion (see the Lists section for more details)
- A layer has no assigned radios (see the Layers section for more details)
- The network has no sites
- One or more sites have no latitude/longitude information
- A sector has no radios
- One or more sectors have no served traffic information
- A sector has more than one donor sector
- A sector has no control radio
- One or more radios have no assigned frequency
- A QUAD/WiDEN has only one or more than four radios (iDEN-specific) (see the Layers
section for more details)
- A combiner has too many radios (see the Layers section for more details)
- There is no spectrum list available (iDEN-specific)
- There is no interference list available
- There is no neighbor list available
- A prioritys weight value is too large.

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5.3 Spectrum
This view is used for defining spectrum resources such as frequencies and color codes. If
any resource is missing, a warning is displayed. In addition, you can set various
technology-dependent planning strategy options.
5.3.1 Spectrum GSM
Figure 5.3 shows the Spectrum page for a GSM project.

Figure 5.3 The GSM Spectrum view with Frequency Hopping options.
This page lets you specify available frequencies and Network Color Codes (NCC). The Base
Station Color Codes (BCC) are fixed to the range 0-7. For further details about GSM color
code options, see the section on Color Codes on page 105. You can import available
frequencies from an ASCII file. The format of the file is the same as used in the client
dialog and it may use the same range tokens.
In addition, you can specify the following Frequency Hopping options:
- Strategy Global frequency hopping planning strategy is specified.
- MAL editor Mobile Allocation Lists (MAL) for synthesizer hopping radios can be
created and edited manually.
- MAL length Options used by Cellopt AFP to determine the MAL length for
synthesizer hopping radios are specified.

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- Separations Options can be specified that control the maximum separations for
some groups of radios.
For synthesizer frequency hopping radios, Cellopt AFP supports two operation modes:
- Customized MAL is the default mode and means that Cellopt AFP generates the MAL to
each radio automatically.
- User-defined MAL is used when a number of predefined MAL are available and Cellopt
AFP assigns radios MAL from the given set. The user-defined MAL mode is activated
from the MAL editor where the MAL are created.
5.3.2 Frequency Hopping Strategy GSM
The Frequency Hopping Strategy option for GSM lets you select a global frequency
hopping strategy to be used by default throughout the network. You can also change this
on the Frequencies page, or select a specific hopping strategy using the Layers option in
the Radio Editor.

Figure 5.4 The Frequency Hopping Strategy dialog in the GSM Spectrum view

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Figure 5.4 shows the dialog where you can select a frequency hopping strategy to include:
- No hopping All radios in the network will be non-hopping.
- Baseband All radios in the network will perform baseband frequency hopping.
- Synthesized, one MAL per sector All radios in the network will be synthesized
frequency hopping with a unique MAL per sector. A question to set control radios to
non-hopping will appear.
- Synthesized, one MAL per site All radios in the network will be synthesized
frequency hopping with a unique MAL per site shared by all sectors at the site. Sectors
at sites must be synchronized to make use of this option. A question to set control
radios to non-hopping will appear.
5.3.3 MAL Editor - GSM
The MAL editor option (shown in Figure 5.3) will launch the editor and, where applicable,
allow mobile allocation lists to be defined and edited. Furthermore, the option to use user-
defined MAL is set here as shown in Figure 5.5.
Note that the MAL editor will only appear if you select the
option to use user-defined MAL for the optimization.

Figure 5.5 - The MAL editor, where you can define and edit MAL as well as specify a user-defined MAL
for optimization
The number of MAL to define is specified on this page. Click a frequency to add and change
frequencies to a MAL. Fill (adds all frequencies to the MAL) and clear (remove all

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frequencies from the MAL) functions are available in the MAL header, as well as a delete
MAL option. The number of radios that are assigned to the MAL is shown at the top right.
5.3.4 MAL length - GSM
The MAL length option accesses the options that Cellopt AFP optimization will use to
determine the length of an individual MAL to be allocated to the group of radios sharing an
MAL. The settings will be effective for both user-defined and customized MAL
optimizations. The length sets a minimum requirement for user-defined MAL (i.e. a longer
MAL may be used), but a strict requirement for customized MAL (i.e. only an MAL with the
exact length will be used). You can apply the MAL options globally or per category and
layer. Each layer can have its own settings, and this is represented by one entry in the
MAL length options table see Figure 5.6. More details about layers are found in the
Layers section below.

Figure 5.6 - The table with global or layer specific MAL length options
The MAL length settings are shown in Figure 5.7 and the options are:
- Min length The minimum length of the MAL to be generated, i.e., the smallest MAL
to be generated.
- Multiple of The common denominator length of the MAL to be generated, e.g.,
specifying 4 will generate MAL with length 4, 8, 12 etc. This can be used to avoid
interference between sectors at a site that are synchronized and still use different MAL
per sector.
- Max length The maximum length of the MAL to be generated, i.e., the largest MAL
to be generated.

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- Max fractional load The maximum utilization of the MAL that is desired, measured
in terms of relative number of radios per frequencies. For example, specifying 50% will
ensure that there are always at least twice as many frequencies in the MAL as there
are number of radios allocated to the MAL. Together with Min length and the actual
number of radios in the hopping group, this sets a minimum length of the MAL. The
maximum value of the three properties is used as the minimum value in a sector.
- The value used for a particular radio would be the worst-case value from the global
settings and the settings from the layer the radio is on. In detail, the highest value of
the specified min lengths and common lengths will be used, and the lowest value of
the max lengths and fractional loads.

Figure 5.7 - The MAL length options used by the Cellopt AFP optimizer to determine the length of
individual MAL

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5.3.5 Maximum Separation (Simple Case) - GSM
You can set a maximum separation on a collection of radios within a sector, so that the
frequencies on those radios will not differ by more than the specified amount. A category is
specified to distinguish these collections, and a table also allows the values to be specified.

Figure 5.8 - The table with global or layer-specific maximum separation options.
The first checkbox enables or disables the whole feature.
Use this category to identify Maximum Separation Groups Layers from this
category distinguish maximum separation groups within a sector. If there is more than one
maximum separation group in a sector, either a different layer must be used for each
group, or the second category that is used to denote different groups should be provided
in the second drop-down box.
Allow separations exactly equal to the maximum separation If checked, the
maximum range is interpreted inclusively. For example, if a maximum separation is set as
10 MHz, that is equivalent to 50 frequencies. Suppose the lowest frequency in the group is
100. If this option is checked, the highest frequency may be 150. If the option is
unchecked, the highest frequency may only be 149.
Category/Layer The layer associated with a maximum separation value. One row
marked GLOBAL indicates the default value that applies when no other layers in the table
are set on a group.
Maximum Separation: Carrier Group The actual value of the maximum separation in
MHz. This separation applies to all radios in a sector that are members of the specified
layer.

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Baseband Hopping Separation, Synth Hopping Separation, Sector Frequency
Limitation These are discussed in the following section as they are required for GRFU
support.
Add Separation Rule You can add extra Separation Rules by clicking on the Add
Separation Rule link.
On the Add Separation Rule page, you can define the Category, Layer and Maximum
Separation Value (in MHz) for the new rule.

Figure 5.9 - Adding a Maximum Separation rule
You can edit or delete the Maximum Separation Rule by clicking on the rule link in the
Category/Layer section.

Figure 5.10 - Rule links in the Max Separation Category/Layer section.

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Figure 5.11 - Editing a Maximum Separation rule
You can set up the Maximum Separation values in two ways:
- The more logical way is to use two different categories. The first category is, for
example, QTRU with layers QTRU1, QTRU2, QTRU3 etc. This category is used to
distinguish different maximum separation groups within each sector.
The second category is then used to indicate the separation values say a category
Separation with layers Sep125, Sep15 and Sep10. This would be set up in the
maximum separation table to have maximum separations 12.5 MHz, 15 MHz and 10
MHz respectively.
You could set QTRU1 for the radios of the first maximum separation group of each
sector, QTRU2 for the second. The separation would be set on each group by also
setting the appropriate layer of the second category.
In this case the separation rules would be set up as below

- You might prefer to simplify this to use a single category both for grouping and for
setting alternative separations. In this case, only use one category say QTRU with
layers QTRU1, QTRU2, QTRUsep10 and QTRUsep15. Here some layers allow for
multiple groups in a sector and other layers allow for unusual separations.
5.3.6 Maximum Separation (GRFU Support) - GSM
There are extensions to the Maximum Separation functionality to support the needs of
GRFU (GSM Radio Frequency Unit) channels. It is recommended that GRFU channels are
set up similarly to the QTRU example above, with separate categories to denote the type
of channel and channel number. This allows multiple channels of the same type to be
configured for a sector without the need to duplicate the separation data.

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A sample configuration is given below:

Figure 5.12 A sample Maximum Separation rule configuration
The first checkbox enables or disables the whole feature.
Use this category to identify Maximum Separation Group types Layers from this
category distinguish maximum separation group types within a sector. This corresponds to
the GRFU Channel Type which determines the separations to be applied.
Use this category to distinguish between Maximum Separation Groups of the
same type Layers from this category allow us to set up multiple Maximum Separation
Groups of the same type in a sector. For example, if the Channel Types are A, B, and C,
and the Channel Numbers are 1, 2, etc. we could set up two channels of the same type as
A/1 and A/2, or two channels of different types as A/1 and B/1.
Allow separations exactly equal to the maximum separation If checked, the
maximum range is interpreted inclusively. For example, if a maximum separation is set as
10 MHz, that is equivalent to 50 frequencies. Suppose the lowest frequency in the group is
100. If this option is checked, the highest frequency may be 150. If the option is
unchecked, the highest frequency may only be 149.
Category/Layer The layer associated with a maximum separation value. One row
marked GLOBAL indicates the default value that applies when no other layers in the table
are set on a group.
Maximum Separation: Carrier Group The actual value of the maximum separation in
MHz. This separation applies to all radios in a sector that are members of the specified
layer. The Maximum Separation Group is defined as all radios within the sector that
belong to the same combination of layers for the categories defined in the two drop-down
boxes.

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Baseband Hopping Separation If a GRFU channel contains a baseband-hopping radio,
then this separation restriction will apply to all radios in channel as well as all other radios
outside the channel that are a member of the same hopping group. This restriction is
applied in addition to both the GRFU channel separation and the Sector Frequency
Limitation.
Synth Hopping Separation If a GRFU channel contains a synth-hopping radio, then
this separation restriction will apply to all radios in channel as well as all other radios
outside the channel that are a member of the same hopping group. This restriction is
applied in addition to both the GRFU channel separation and the Sector Frequency
Limitation.
Sector Frequency Limitation This is an absolute range from which frequencies may be
chosen. This restriction applies not only to radios in the GRFU channel, but to all carriers
in the same sector as the GRFU channel. If two GRFU channel types are present in the
same sector, both frequency ranges will apply. For example if the configuration pictured
above is used and a sector has channels of both Type A and Type B, all radios in the sector
must be assigned frequencies in the range 830 900 MHz, which is the intersection of the
two ranges.

This is an example of how a sector might be set up to work with the configuration show
above. It shows a sector with three GRFU channels: two of Type A and one of Type B.

Figure 5.13 Example of how the example configuration would appear


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5.3.7 Spectrum TDMA & PDC
Figure 5.14 below shows the Spectrum options for a TDMA project (PDC is similar).
Frequencies and generic color codes may be specified here. You can import available
dialog, and it can use the same range tokens.
You can also set some additional Set Planning options:
- Strategy Here you specify the Global set planning strategy.
- Template Here you define and edit the frequency sets.

Figure 5.14 The TDMA Spectrum view with Set planning options

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5.3.8 Strategy TDMA & PDC
The Strategy option for TDMA and PDC (shown in Figure 5.14 above) lets you select a
global set planning strategy to be used throughout the network. You can also change this
locally in the Radio Editor. Figure 5.15 illustrates the available options for selecting the
frequency set planning strategy. These include:
- Sets only Radios of a sector will be assigned frequencies from sets only. Sets are
added until the demand is reached.
- One set and subsets Radios of a sector will be assigned frequencies from one set
and subsets if required. Subsets are added until the demand is reached.
- One set and adhoc Radios of a sector will be assigned frequencies from one set and
additional individual frequencies are added if required.
- Adhoc Radios of a sector will be assigned frequencies from individual frequencies
only.

Figure 5.15 The Set Strategy options dialog in the TDMA Spectrum page
If you select a planning strategy using sets, the Options section provides some additional
options to further specify planning preferences:
- Random assignment of frequencies from sets This option is effective when sets
only and one set and subsets are selected above. It will randomly select frequencies
from a set or subset when the sector demand requires that part of a set or a subset is
additionally assigned. If disabled, frequencies will be selected in order instead (from
top to bottom in the set template).
- Use primary control frequencies for additional sets/subsets This option is only
effective when sets only and one set and subsets are selected above. It will allow
control frequencies (the first frequency in a set) to be reused for traffic radios as well

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when additional sets or subsets are assigned to meet the demand in sectors. When
disabled, control frequencies will only be assigned to control radios (i.e., the first radio
in sectors).
- Use sets where all frequencies are available to a sector See the iDEN spectrum
section on page 42 for information on this option.
Note that Cellopt AFP always considers frequency sets to
be fully utilized (i.e. all frequencies in a set are active and
generating interference) in the set optimization. The actual
frequency assignments to radios are performed after the
optimization has finished.
5.3.9 Template
The Template option (shown in Figure 5.14) will launch the Set Template page, where the
frequency sets can be viewed and edited (see Figure 5.16).

Figure 5.16 The Set Template page, where frequency sets can be viewed and edited
You can set the number of frequency sets and maximum number of frequencies per set
from the links in the bottom-right of the page. You can also specify the number of subsets
in each set via the Subsets button. The subset numbering is shown in the left-most
column in the table. You can add or change frequencies by clicking the table cells.
To mark a frequency as primary control frequency, hold down the Ctrl or Alt key while
clicking on the selected frequency. The cell background color will change; a darker color is
used for the primary control frequency than for the alternative control frequency. You can
have at most one primary control frequency per set, and this frequency is always shown at
the top of a set. The control frequencies are only effective when set planning is used.
Normally you can only assign the control frequencies to control radios to assign the
control frequencies to other radios as well, you must have activated the option use

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primary control frequencies for additional sets/subsets (see Strategy TDMA & PDC
above).
5.3.10 Spectrum iDEN
Figure 5.17 below shows the Spectrum page for an iDEN project.

Figure 5.17 The iDEN Spectrum page, where spectrum can be specified and set planning strategy
along with frequency set optimization can be accessed
Here you can specify available frequencies and band map frequencies (to be used for
control radios) as well as which color code offsets are to be used. A control radio will only
be assigned one of the available band map frequencies. Non-control radios may use any of
the available frequencies. If no band map frequencies are specified, all available
frequencies will be considered for control radios. In the band map frequency dialog, you
can also set the maximum number of band map frequencies that may be used in a
QUAD/WiDEN radio possible values are 0 to 4. A value of 4 means that up to four control
frequencies may be assigned to a QUAD/WiDEN, i.e. 0-4 are allowed. You can also import
available and control frequencies from an ASCII file. The format of the file is the same as
used in the client dialog and it may use the same range tokens. The color code offsets may
be in the 0-5 range. The ordinary color codes are fixed 0-15.
These set planning buttons allow more options to be specified:
- Strategy Here Global set planning strategy is specified.
- Template Here the frequency sets can be defined and edited. The set template is
identical to the one used for TDMA and PDC, see previous section.
- Optimize - The set template can be generated automatically by Cellopt AFP. This task
is managed here.

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5.3.11 Strategy iDEN
The global set planning strategy option (accessed using the Strategy button in Figure 5.17)
is identical to those used for TDMA and PDC see the previous section.

Figure 5.18 The Set Strategy options dialog in the iDEN Spectrum page
There are, however, also some iDEN specific options here (see Figure 5.18):
- Use sets where all frequencies are available to a sector This option will only
assign sets where all frequencies are available (i.e. not forbidden) to sectors. Thus,
sets that have any frequencies forbidden to a sector will be disregarded. If you disable
this option, sets may be considered that have some frequencies forbidden to a sector.
The result is that the forbidden frequencies are just not assigned, and an additional set
may be assigned if needed.
- Plan QUAD adhoc Assigns individual frequencies (i.e. ad hoc) for QUAD/WiDEN
radios. Note that, if assigning ad hoc frequencies, a QUAD/WiDEN radio can be
assigned more than one control frequency by changing an option in the Control Panel
(see the section on the Control Panel). QUAD/WiDEN radios are specified in the Layers
section.
- Plan one QUAD with sets and then adhoc Assigns the first QUAD/WiDEN in each
sector from sets. The additional QUAD/WiDEN radios in sectors with more than one
QUAD/WiDEN will be planned with individual frequencies, i.e. ad hoc.
- Plan QUAD with sets Assigns QUAD/WiDEN radios from sets or subsets.

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5.3.12 Optimize iDEN
Optimize launches the page where the set template can be automatically generated by
Cellopt AFP. A completely new set template will be created from this operation.
The operation creates a set template for radios configured to be planned with sets. If there
are radios configured to be planned with adhoc frequencies, or the global set strategy is
one set and adhoc, the optimizer will maximize and balance the reuse of the set and adhoc
radios (see the two columns in the progress table below).
Note that in the latter case, the number of adhoc radios
will depend on the set size.
Figure 5.19 displays the set template optimization page:

Figure 5.19 The Frequency Set Optimization for iDEN
Balance reuse means that the AFP optimizer will try to find a template so that the set and
adhoc reuse are as small and close to each other (balanced) as possible. This is the default
optimization goal. To optimize only the set template with respect to the radios configured
to be planned with sets, you only enable the minimize set reuse option (see the modeling
options below).
The optimized set template will include frequency assignments that fit QUAD/WiDEN radios
if any QUAD/WiDEN radio is defined in the project (see Layers section) or if specified by
the user (see the options shown below). Cellopt will only consider sectors that are selected
in the Radio Editor (a sector is selected if at least one of its radio is selected) for the
optimization.
In addition, the AFP optimizer will consider frequencies forbidden per sector or in a layer.
As previously mentioned, Cellopt will also consider the set strategy either set globally or on
a per-radio basis, as well as the band map and QUAD/WiDEN planning options set in
Spectrum. Note that the produced set template will have the same set length (number of
frequencies) in all sets.
In the same view, you can Start and Stop the set optimization as well as view the
optimization progress in a table. The optimized sets can also be viewed in the Template
editor. Note that the choice to use the optimized template is made in the template editor.
The optimization progress table reports the following:
- Sets Number of sets currently being optimized (i.e., created).

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- Sets reuse Number of set radios divided by the number of set frequencies (Freqs in
set).
- Adhoc reuse Number of adhoc radios divided by the number of adhoc frequencies
(Freqs for adhoc).
- Freqs in set Number of frequencies in the set template.
- Freqs for adhoc Number of frequencies available for adhoc radios.
- Elapsed Total elapsed time.
- Elapsed Difference of elapsed time compared to previous plan.
- Clock Current time.
- Index Count of solutions.
At the top in the progress table, there are buttons to Save, Print and Clear the table as
well as Start and Stop the set optimization.
To display the available optimization options (as shown in Figure 5.20), click on the
Modeling button:
- Number of sets The range of the number of sets, specified using a min and max
value, used by Cellopt AFP in the search for the best solution. The optimized number of
sets will be in this range. If you only specify one value (min or max), the solution will
have this number of sets.
- Frequency separation in set The desired frequency separation within a set. This is
specified using a min and max separation.
- Band map frequencies per set The desired number of control frequencies to be
assigned to a set. Note that this is a strict requirement.
- Min availability per frequency The option will make it possible to only include
frequencies that have availability (over sectors) larger than the specified percentage
value. For example, 100 means that the only frequencies that can be used in all
sectors are considered in the optimization. Similarly, 0 means that all available
frequencies may be used. In general, a high value may be too restricting on the set of
the available frequencies to produce a usable template. There could be sectors that
have no available set frequencies. You may need to experiment to find an optimum
value for the network.

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Figure 5.20 The Options for Set Template Optimization for iDEN
- Frequencies per set - Specify the exact number of frequencies per set that the
optimizer should assign.
- Minimize set reuse only Check this box to minimize only the set reuse factor. This
setting will not balance reuse between set and adhoc radios.
- Reuse ratio of sets to adhoc Specify the desired relative reuse ratio between sets
and adhoc. A value of 1 would try to give the same reuse for sets and adhoc radios.
This setting is effective only if reuse balance is used.
- Number of Quads per set Specify the number of QUAD assignments that should be
included in each set in the set template. Possible values are 0 (no), 1-2, or any. Any
means that some sets will have QUAD, depending on the QUAD demand in the
network. Specifying 0-2 are strict requirements.
- Quad length Specify the length of the QUAD assignments in the set template. Two
to four frequencies per QUAD assignment may be selected.
- Quad start position in set Specify the position of the QUAD assignment (up to four
adjacent frequencies). The first frequency of a set will always be a control frequency.

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5.3.13 Spectrum LMR
Figure 5.21 below shows the Spectrum page for an LMR project.

Figure 5.21 The LMR Spectrum page, where spectrum and Tx/Rx band split can be specified
Here you can specify available frequencies and band map frequencies (to be used for
control radios) as well as the band split between Tx and Rx radios. A control radio will only
be assigned one of the available band map frequencies. Non-control radios may use any of
the available frequencies. If no band map frequencies are specified, all available
frequencies will be considered for control radios. You can also import available and control
dialog and it may use the same range tokens.

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5.3.14 Spectrum TETRA
Figure 5.22 below shows the Spectrum page for a TETRA project.

Figure 5.22 The TETRA Spectrum page, where channel spacings can be customised
As well as setting the available channels on this page, there are a number of
customisations for TETRA technologies that allow the setting of frequency spacings. These
spacings affect the calculation of intermodulation frequencies.
Rx/Tx frequency separation Assigning a channel number in TETRA allots two separate
frequencies: one for the uplink, one for the downlink. For example, typically channel 3600
corresponds to a Tx frequency of 390 MHz and an Rx frequency of 380 MHz. The default
spacing is 10 MHz, but it can be customised to any value greater than zero.
Rx frequency less than Tx Typically the Tx frequency is higher than the Rx frequency,
and this is the default, but this checkbox can be used to reverse the convention.
Channel separation The default frequency separation between adjacent channels (or
raster) in TETRA is 25 kHz. This option allows the separation to be set to 12.5 kHz, 6.25
kHz, or indeed any value greater than zero if required.


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5.4 Network
In the Network view shown below in Figure 5.23, you can view properties of the network
elements (i.e. sites, sectors and radios) in a tree view. You can also add, edit and disable
sites, sectors and radios, change the properties of sites, sectors and radios, and edit
interference, neighbor and other lists. You can add and remove sector relations in the
available lists.
Note that plan exports might not import properly with
some planning tools when new sites, sectors and radios
have been added to the network.

Figure 5.23 The Network page
5.4.1 View and Edit Properties
The top right of the page (see Figure 5.23) summarizes the number of sites, sectors and
radios present in the network. Cellopt AFP will also warn for a number of potential errors
and present a clickable warning sign (one for each warning). Warnings are listed on page
27.
In the network tree, you can expand sites to view their respective sectors. Similarly, radios
of a given sector can also be displayed by expanding the associated sector. The properties
of sites, sectors and radios are displayed in a properties window to the right if you select
one element in the network tree.

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You can edit the properties by pressing the icon (present in the properties window) or
by right clicking the site, sector or radio name in the network-tree. If some important data
is missing for any element, a small warning sign ( ) is shown beside the site, sector or
radio icon. A Search function is also available if you need to find a specific site, sector or
radio.
5.4.2 Add Site
To add a site to the network, click the Add site button (see Figure 5.23). You can then
specify the site name as well as its latitude and longitude data in a dialog.
5.4.3 Add Sector
To add a new sector to a site in the network, click the icon in the properties table (or
right click the site name in the network-tree) when a site is selected in the network-tree.

Figure 5.24 Add Sector Wizard step 4, specifies neighbors to the new sector

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A wizard is then launched:
- Sector name and properties Here you can specify the name and the properties of
the new sector.
- Undesired & forbidden frequencies and forbidden color codes Here you can
set undesired and forbidden frequencies for the new sector. Forbidden color codes
(BSIC for GSM) may also be specified if desired. See the section on Priorities for
detailed information about spectrum rules.
- Neighbor relations Here you specify the sectors that are expected to be neighbors
to the new sector see Figure 5.24. You can add the new neighbor relations to an
existing neighbor list or create a new list (click the Create button to create the new
list). Neighbor relations are symmetric by default, i.e. handover is assumed to be
performed both to and from the new sector and the selected neighbor. It is possible to
make a relation a one-way handover relation by changing it to an asymmetric relation,
i.e. handover is then assumed to be performed from the new sector to the specified
neighbor only, by selecting the relations and clicking Symmetry.

Figure 5.25 The Add Sector Wizard step 5, specifying interference weights for each neighbor used in
the interference relation calculation

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- Interference relations Cellopt AFP derives estimated interference relations from
the interference relations of the specified neighbors. The new sector is assumed to be
receiving interference by the same sectors as its neighbors and, in the same way, is
assumed to be interfering with the same sectors as its neighbors. Cellopt AFP further
calculates the interference values (the priority if co- or adjacent frequencies are
reused; see the section on Priorities for more information) for each relation. You can
set an importance weight for each neighbor, in both interfered and interfering
directions, to make the interference relations of one neighbor more important than the
others (see Figure 5.25).
Equal weights for all neighbors will mean that the new sector will use an interference
value for a relation that is the average of the neighbor interference values to/from the
same sector. You can add the new relations to an existing interference list or create a
new list (use the Create button to create the new list). If a new list is created, the
source interference list may be selected to the right in the dialog; that is, you may
select to include relations from certain lists only (not shown in Figure 5.25). If the new
relations are added to an existing list, the source relations are taken from the same
list.
- Summary The last view in the Add Sector Wizard shows a summary of the new
sector and its relations. You can return and change any selection. Note that lists
generated from other lists, e.g. distance and 2
nd
order neighbor lists are not updated.
See the section on Lists for detailed information about list manipulation.
5.4.4 Move Sector
In the properties section of each sector it is possible to change the parent site on which
the sector sits on.
Simply change the drop down box to the desired. All relations will be redirected to the new
site but the sector will still be the same.
5.4.5 Add Radio
To add a new radio to a sector in the network, click the icon in the properties table (or
right click the sector name in the network tree) when a sector is selected in the network
tree. You can then specify the radio name as well as some layer settings. You can also
specify that the radio is a control radio and copy layer settings from other radios of the
same sector. See the section on Layers for detailed information.
Note that Edit Radio ( ) should be used in order to
change specific layer assignments of a radio.
5.4.6 Multiple Radio Adds
To add multiple radios to multiple sectors in one step, click the icon. A mini wizard
lets you specify which sectors are to have new radios, and the number of radios to add to
each sector. Note that it is not possible to add control radios using this wizard.
5.4.7 Disable Network Elements
To disable network elements (a site, sector or radio), click the icon in the properties
table (or right click the network element name in the network tree) when it is selected in
the network tree. A disabled network element will not be considered by Cellopt AFP in the
analysis and optimization. There is a button under the network tree to select whether
disabled elements should be shown in network-tree. You can also disable multiple radios
from the Radio Editor by using the assign selected radios to layer option (the Disabled
category exists for this purpose). In the Network section there is also an option to bulk-

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enable network elements from the warning dialog for disabled network elements
presented.
5.4.8 Enable all radios
To enable all radios in the network, click the button at the bottom of the
network tree page. To enable all radios, for a site or a sector, click on the icon on the
respective property page. You will be asked confirm this to avoid inadvertent enabling of
the radios.
5.4.9 Edit Relations
You can edit the relations of a sector by right clicking a selected sector in the network tree.
You can also edit the spectrum, neighbor and other relations of a sector, and create a new
list under this menu.
- Spectrum relations Here you can view and edit the desired undesired and
forbidden frequencies for the selected sector as well as forbidden color codes.
- Neighbor relations Here you can view and edit the defined neighbor relations for
the selected sector per available neighbor list. You can change the symmetry (i.e. if it
is one or two way handover relation) of a neighbor relation by selecting the neighbor
and clicking the Symmetry button.
- Interference relations Here you can view and edit the defined interference
relations for the selected sector per available interference list. You can also disable
interference relations or enable a previously disabled one. The interference values, i.e.
the Co and Adj interference values, may however not be changed. The three right
columns list the sum of Co and Adj interference values if the selected sector and the
interfering/interfered sector are reusing frequencies. Therefore, you can use this list to
identify the potential worst interference relation.
- Other relations Here you can view and edit the defined other relations for the
selected sector per available other list. This is similar to Edit Neighbor Relations above.
This option can be used to manage exception lists directly in Cellopt AFP.
- Create new list Here you can create a new neighbor or other list and include new
relations for the selected sector.
5.4.10 Alias Maps
You can specify alternative sector names (identities). The alias sector name is used to
model the situation where different data sourcessuch as switch and performance
measurement toolsmay use a different cell ID. By specifying the sector aliases, there is
no need to change the sector names in the data source files, and so you can load data
directly into Cellopt.
In the Network section, you can define, view and edit the sector aliases. You can also
create the alias map in a file, and import that file into Cellopt. More details about the alias
loader can be found in the Input and Output Format section, on page 141.
5.5 Layers
The category and layers concept is the flexible modeling means used in Cellopt AFP to
group radios with similar characteristics. A category is owner of one or several layers.
For example, a category could be called Radio Type with two defined layers: Control and
Traffic. This category could be used to distinguish between the radios carrying control and

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traffic channels in the optimization prioritization process, i.e., different reuse restrictions
can be set per layer.
Note that a radio can only be assigned one layer of a
category. The management of both category and layers are
performed in the Layers section.
Assignments of layers as well as spectrum resources are shown in the Radio Editor at the
top of each view in the Modeling section (see Figure 5.26).

Figure 5.26 The Layers section, for creating and managing categories and layers
Buttons allowing you to Add category, Add layer, Edit, Rename and Delete a category
or layer are available here.
To create a category, specify a suitable name in the Add category dialog.
When a category has been created, a wizard will be started to add a layer to the category.
Alternatively, you can add a layer by selecting a category (the layer owner) and pressing
the Add layer button.

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The Add layer dialog shown in Figure 5.27 requires you to specify the name of the layer,
and provides additional options for you to specify undesired and forbidden frequencies,
frequency sets (TDMA, PDC and IDEN only) and MAL (GSM only). Forbidden color codes
are specified in TDMA and PDC. For GSM, forbidden BSIC (NCC/BCC pair) may be
specified. Similarly for iDEN, you can specify forbidden color codes. Links for you to view
and import available frequencies and color codes are present in the form. The Edit layer
option takes you to the same dialog.

Figure 5.27 The Add Layer dialog for GSM
Frequencies you define as undesired will be associated a cost and penalized by the AFP
optimizer if assigned to any radio in the defined layer. You can limit the available resource
spectrum in the layer by defining the resource as forbidden. More details can be found in
the Priorities section.
Categories and layers are also used to model combiners in TDMA, PDC and iDEN. It is
possible to specify maximum number of radios per combiner via the Combiners button in
the bottom right of the page (not shown in Figure 5.26). This information is used for
consistency checks performed by Cellopt AFP.
5.5.1 Modeling with the Radio Editor
The Radio Editor tab (see e.g. Figure 5.28) at the top of each Modeling page is used for
modeling tasks, i.e. assigning radios to layers and changing radio properties as well as
viewing assignments.
Configured as a table, the Editor provides a row for each radio, with columns describing
the user-defined categories and additional system categories (i.e., predefined categories
that are technology specific). The system categories are described in more detail in below.

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There are also some further columns, which are independent of technology, including:
- Site Name of site.
- Sector Name of sector.
- Azimuth The direction in degrees of the centerline of the main sector beam pattern.
- Beamwidth The width in degrees of the main sector beam pattern.
- Tilt The vertical angle from the horizontal that the sectors antenna has been
adjusted by.

Figure 5.28 The Radio Editor, where radios are assigned to layers and system categories can be
changed
- Height
- Antenna type
- Latitude

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- Longitude
- Radio Radio number in the sector.
- Frequency Recently assigned (i.e., optimized) frequency.
- Color code Recently assigned (i.e., optimized) color code. This field is not presented
for GSM.
- Old frequency Previously assigned frequency (defined in the input data). It is
possible to edit this category from the Radio Editor.
- Old color code Previously assigned color code (defined in the input data). This field
is not presented for GSM.
- Donor sector Name of donor sector if the sector is a repeating sector. Note that a
repeating sector should have the same number of radios as the donor sector.
- Control radio Control radio indicator, i.e., if the radio carries control channels.
- Position Position of radio within sector (1
st
, 2
nd
etc.).
- #radio Number of radios in sector.
- Traffic Traffic served by sector.
- Area Serving area of sector.

Note that the frequency columns can include frequencies,
MAL or set numbers depending on the chosen technology
or planning strategy. If MAL or sets are used, the individual
frequencies are listed as well. Furthermore, the color code
columns use a technology-specific notation in some cases.
For iDEN, the color code column includes a color code/color
code offset pair. GSM projects have also a different
appearance; see below.
An additional category will appear if a Cellopt AFP 2 project using the fixed/free concept is
imported:
- CellOptIIFree Indicates radios that were flagged as free to plan in Cellopt AFP 2.
This can be used to select which radios Cellopt AFP 3 will work with.
An autofilter in each column header can be used to select radios to apply changes in the
table. Consecutive selections from different columns can be made.
The first two options allow you to sort the column in ascending or descending order. Note
that numbers will be sorted in an alphabetic rather than numeric order (i.e. 1, 10, 2 rather
than 1, 2, 10).

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Figure 5.29 The column autofilter
You can filter by checking boxes for individual items, or use the Select All box to check
each one, or use the Invert Selection option which switches whether each box is checked
or unchecked. The Custom option displays this dialog (Figure 5.30):

Figure 5.30 The Custom column filter
You can use the first drop-down menu to select an expression, then enter the value to be
operated on. Alternatively, check the Use regular expressions box (Figure 5.31) and enter

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your own criteria (for example, using wildcards * and ?, and operators >, <, +, _ etc.).
The Internet contains many definitions of regular expressions.

Figure 5.31 Using regular expressions in the column autofilter
In the Radio Editor table toolbar, there are options to:
- Save the table to file in TAB delimited, html or PDF formats. You can save the
entire report or just a selection from the report. Only a subset of the columns in the
radio editor will be included when saving the table to a file in PDF format. However, all
columns are included when saving to html or TAB format.
- Store frequency plan Saves the current assignments of frequencies, color
codes and HSN & MAIO (GSM) as a plan with a selected name. This can be used to
save a plan and compare it at a later stage.
- Export to Excel Opens a Save As dialog for saving the Radio Editor table in a
file. The supported file formats are Microsoft Excel 2007 workbook (Office Open XML
with extension .xlsx), Microsoft Excel binary format (.xls), and tab-delimited text files
(.txt).
- Refresh the Radio Editor Updates the Radio Editor display.
- Show or hide columns Choose which columns to show or hide in the Radio
Editor, as shown in Figure 5.32. Check or uncheck the possible columns, then click OK
to apply.
- Select all radios Selects all radios in the table.
- Extend selection to related radios Used to select additional radios relating to
a first selection of radios (presented in the table). It is possible to select radios that
are for example, interfering with, or neighbors to, the first selection. The result as well
as the first selection is stored in a category Selection using a layer In selection. It is
possible to make consecutive selections, and all selections will be stored in the
category using the same layer.
- Select by file Import a selection of radios specified in a text file including sites,
sectors and possibly radios (TAB delimited) or frequency numbers. There should be
one site, sector, radio/frequency per row in the file. Format: <site
name><tab><sector name><tab><radio name/frequency number>. Also, the
user then selects the category and layer (both user-defined and system categories
may be chosen) to be assigned to the radios defined by the file.

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- Select radios that recently generated warnings Displays all the radios which
are contributing to one or more warnings. Displayed radios would be associated to any
optimization or any of the following network warnings

Sectors with No Control Radio
Sectors with Multiple Control Radio
Sectors with Too Many Radios In Combiner
Sectors with Too Few Radios In Quad
Sectors with Too Many Radios In Quad
Sectors with Too Few Radios In Widen
Sectors with Too Many Radios In Widen
Sectors with Multiple Donors

- Store selection as new category Creates a new category and the selected
radios are assigned to layer In selection.
- Assign selected radios to layer Use this to assign selected radios to a certain
layer. It includes a category and layer selector.

Figure 5.32 Selecting which Radio Editor columns to display
5.5.2 System Categories GSM
Some additional columns will appear in the Radio Editor for GSM projects. The GSM system
categories are:
- BSIC Recently assigned Base Station Identity Code (BSIC) including a NCC/BCC pair
(defined in the input data).
- Old BSIC Previously assigned Base Station Identity Code (BSIC) including a
NCC/BCC pair (defined in the input data).
- HSN Recently assigned (i.e., optimized) hopping sequence number.
- MAIO Recently assigned (i.e., optimized) mobile allocation index offset.

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- Old HSN Previously assigned hopping sequence number (defined in the input data).
- Old MAIO Previously assigned mobile allocation index offset (defined in the input
data).
- MAL length Length of MAL assigned to this radio.
- BSC type Base station controller and radio equipment supplier of this radio. Possible
layers of this category are Ericsson, Nokia, Nortel or Unassigned. All radios of a
sector should be assigned to the same layer, i.e. only one supplier per sector. This
information is used for creating plan exports in vendor specific switch (OSS/BSC)
formats. Supplementary data is required to complete the formats and this category is
only present if this data is available in the project. More details about the
supplementary data can be found in the section about Input and Output Formats
below.
- Hopping Strategy Frequency hopping strategy used for this radio. The following
values are accepted: Default, Non hopping, Baseband hopping, Synth sector or
Synth site.

Default is used to derive the frequency hopping strategy for this radio from the global
specification, set in the Spectrum section, as discussed in the section above.

Non hopping should be used for non-hopping configurations.
Baseband hopping should similarly be used for baseband hopping radios.

For synthesizer hopping radios, two strategies are available: Synth sector and Synth
site where the latter assumes site synchronization, i.e., sectors at a site are
synchronized.

You can have several groups of baseband and synthesizer hopping radios per sector
(or site). Assign radios of the same group with the same number as the selected
hopping mode (e.g. Synth sector).
- Sync group Indicates the synthesizer hopping radio grouping identified by the HSN
and MAIO sync group optimizer. Radios marked as Not allowed may not be
synchronized.
As mentioned, there is an option to specify the frequency hopping strategy on a global
level in the Spectrum section. The Hopping Strategy system category can be used to
specify the frequency hopping strategy at the radio level. This is useful when there is a mix
of hopping strategy in a network and the default option cannot be used.
5.5.3 System Categories TDMA & PDC
For TDMA and PDC, additional system category columns appear in the Radio Editor:
- Combiner Indicates if a combiner is connected to this radio. The Default value is
unassigned. A value of Combiner17 denotes that the radio is connected to
combiner number 1 to 7. The maximum number of radios per combiner is specified in
the Layers definition view. If set planning is used, you can use this category to split a
sector into several groups, in order to assign more than one set to a sector. Then one
set will be assigned to the group of radios assigned to the first combiner, a second set
to the second combiner, and so on.
- Set Strategy Set planning strategy used for this radio, where Default, Sets only,
One set and subsets, One set and adhoc or Ad hoc values can be entered.

Default being the default setting is used to derive the set planning strategy for this

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radio from the global specification, set in the Spectrum section discussed in the
previous section.

Sets only is selected if assignment from sets is desired. In the same way, One set
and subsets should be used to assign frequencies from sets and subsets if more than
one set is required in a sector.

One set and adhoc is used to assign individual frequencies to radios in a sector
where the assigned set cannot fulfill the demand.

Ad hoc should be selected for radios when assignment with individual frequencies only
is desired (i.e. no sets).
As mentioned, there is an option to specify set planning strategy on a global level in the
Spectrum section. You can use the Set Strategy system category to specify set planning
strategy at the radio level. This is useful when the default option cannot be used because
there is a mix of set and ad-hoc planning in a network.
5.5.4 System Categories iDEN
The system categories for iDEN are identical to those of TDMA and PDC, except for the Set
Strategy category, which is somewhat different, and there is one iDEN specific strategy:
- Set Strategy The set planning strategy used for this radio if part of a QUAD or
WiDEN radio. Default, Sets only, One set and subsets, One set and adhoc or Ad
hoc values can be entered similar to TDMA. Additional possible values are QUAD-
1
st
...8
th
that denote that a radio is connected to QUAD number 1 to 8. Similarly,
WiDEN-1
st
8
th
can be used to identify WiDEN radios. There must be two to four radios
connected to a QUAD/WiDEN. The planning strategy for QUAD/WiDEN radios is set in
the Spectrum section (the default is adhoc). WiDEN radios are currently planned as
QUAD radios, i.e. Cellopt assigns up to four adjacent frequencies to a WiDEN.

MCRB-1st-8th can be used to identify radios that are grouped in an MCRB. Each MCRB
group may contain from one to six radios, and the assigned frequencies must have a
separation of (at most) 1.25 Mhz, equivalent to a 50-frequency difference. The radios
within an MCRB are always planned as adhoc. MCRBs may contain a mixture of
control and non-control radios, but the radios must have identical priorities. So if a
layer is assigned to an MCRB radio and a priority is specific to that layer, then the layer
must be assigned to all radios in the MCRB.
- Intermod This category is used for grouping/marking radios in sectors that are to
be assigned adjacent frequencies or tightly packed frequencies. Tightly packed
assignments will minimize the impact of intermodulation products in the system.
Radios should be marked as Adjacent if this is desired. Adjacent is not a strict
requirement, there may be holes in the spectrum assigned to a sector due to e.g.
forbidden frequencies. Note that Set Strategy will not be considered for adjacent
radios, only QUAD/WiDEN.
5.5.5 System Categories LMR
- Combiner Indicates if a combiner is connected to this radio. The Default value is
unassigned. A value of Combiner17 denotes that the radio is connected to
combiner number 1 to 7. The maximum number of radios per combiner is specified in
the Layers definition view. If set planning is used, you can use this category to split a
sector into several groups, in order to assign more than one set to a sector. Then one
set will be assigned to the group of radios assigned to the first combiner, a second set
to the second combiner, and so on.

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- Radio Use This category is required for intermodulation calculations.
Intermodulation interference on Rx radios from harmonics of Tx frequencies can be
calculated for LMR projects, reported upon and automatically minimised, but it is
subject to the following requirements:
o Sites must contain separate sectors for Tx and Rx radios.
o No mixing of Tx and Rx radios within a sector is allowed.
o Radio Use of either Tx or Rx is set by the tool, according to the Band Split
value specified by the user.
o Penalties must be set up for 3
rd
, 5
th
or 7
th
-order intermodulation frequencies,
or a combination thereof (see section 5.7). These penalties must be enabled
on the Options for Frequencies page (see section 6.2).
Any radios for which the Radio Use category is unassigned will be treated as normal
radios, but they will not be considered in intermodulation calculations.
5.6 Lists
In the Lists section, you can analyze, manage and view the status of the lists in the
project. Cellopt AFP uses lists containing optimization rules in the optimization process to
model the planning preferences. These views are available:
- Status Shows the status of each list.
- Manipulation Provides options to perform list manipulation actions.
- Analyze Provides options to view the actual list content.
5.6.1 Status
Figure 5.25 shows the status view of the lists loaded into the project. The view shows if
any sector-to-sector relations defined in the lists violates a user-defined threshold.
The loaded lists are grouped into these types:
- Spectrum lists These lists include forbidden or undesired rules. A forbidden rule is
used to limit the possible assignments of frequencies and / or color codes to a radio
and it is a strict requirement. An undesired rule is a softer version of the forbidden
rule, by which Cellopt AFP will penalize against making certain assignments of
frequencies that are undesired.
- Neighbor lists These lists define neighbors to sectors. Used to impose requirements
on sector neighbors to allow handover to work properly.
- Interference lists These lists specify how much traffic or area would be affected if
two sectors re-used co or adjacent frequencies. The interference lists are often
generated by Cellopt MDA or an external planning tool. This is often referred to as an
interference or permission matrix.
- Other lists These lists are not part of the above categories, e.g., exception, 2
nd

order neighbor and distance lists. See also the section on List Manipulation below.

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Figure 5.33 The List Status view, showing the status of the projects loaded lists
The status is indicated using style and color-coding. Three status levels are defined:
- Red This list has no relations, i.e., it is empty. The list name is shown with bold style
if reported with this status.
- Yellow This list violates the list status criteria in at least one sector. The list name is
shown with italic style if reported with this status.
- Green This list is valid and correct, i.e., it fulfills the list status criteria in all sectors.
The list name is shown with normal style if reported with this status.

For Yellow lists, it is further possible to view the sectors violating the list status criteria by
clicking the list name.
Hovering the cursor over a list name displays a tool tip showing information about that list
for example, if it was copied and from which list, and if it was normalized, the
normalization factor that was used.
Right-click on a list name to display a pop-up menu of available functions. For more
information, see section 5.6.2 Manipulation on page 66. Note that the Join Lists function is
not available from the menu. Neighbor, Interference and Other lists have two additional
options that do not appear in the Manipulation section:
- Change Type This allows you to select a new type for the selected list. For
interference lists, you can additionally specify whether the list is based on measured
data. See Figure 5.34.

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Figure 5.34 The Change List Type option
- Properties This shows the lists origin (and, if the list was normalized, the
normalization factor used). A button displays the lists Status (and, if a neighbor list, a
button to Check Asymmetry). See Figure 5.36.

To edit the list status criteria, click the Criteria button. The List Status Criteria page is
displayed, as show in Figure 5.35.

Figure 5.35 The List Status Criteria dialog: edit and change the criteria per list type

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Criteria are set per list type and a category and layer filter can further be applied if
desired. This means that the criteria are effective on radios defined by the category and
layer only. Sectors with no radios can also be removed in the status reporting.
Selecting the Symmetry button (see Figure 5.33) will launch a view where the
asymmetric handover relations can be viewed per neighbor list. A handover relation
between a sector A and B is considered asymmetric if sector A is defined as a neighbor of
sector B but not vice versa, i.e. sector B is not a neighbor of sector A. There is also an
option to add (create) the missing relations, to make the neighbor relations symmetric.

Figure 5.36 Asymmetric Relations table

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5.6.2 Manipulation
You can manage lists in the Manipulation view (Figure 5.37 below), from where you can
use the list functions Copy, Join, Rename, Delete, Modify Spectrum List, Export and
Normalize. You can export a list to file in Cellopt AFP 3 (XML) and 2 formats as well as
HTML, TAB and Comma delimited formats.
You can also create new lists under List Generation: Create Distance List, Create
Second Order Neighbor List and Create Site Neighbor List.

Figure 5.37 The Lists Manipulation view, where lists management can be performed. It is also
possible to create new lists.
5.6.2.1 Copy List
To create a new list from an existing list, click the Copy List button.

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5.6.2.2 Join Lists
To combine lists, click the Join Lists link from the Lists Manipulation view. Select two or
more lists and specify the Join type and the Statistics operation to be used for the join
operation, as seen in Figure 5.38.

Figure 5.38 The Join Lists dialog.
You can perform these operations:
- No statistics This results in a list with no interference values.
- Sum This results in a list with the sum of the interference values from the source
lists per relation.
- Max This results in a list with the maximum of the interference values from the
source lists per relation.
- Average This results in a list with the average of the interference values from the
- Product This results in a list with the product of the interference values from the
- Preferred In the join, if the same relation exists in more than one list, the join will
take the statistics from the top-most selected list in the Lists window (see Figure
5.38). You can use the arrow buttons to alter this order.
- Range This results in a list with the absolute (positive) difference of the interference
values from the source lists per relation. A large value indicates a large difference
between the selected lists.

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You must also select the type of join:
- Union The resulting list contains relations that were in either or all source lists.
- Intersection The resulting list contains only relations that were in all source lists.
- Difference The resulting list has only those relations from the source list that are
not in any other source list.
5.6.2.3 Modify Spectrum List
To modify particular frequencies or ranges of frequencies that are forbidden or undesired,
click the Modify Spectrum List link from the Lists Manipulation view, as seen in Figure
5.39 below. Use Choose spectrum list to specify whether you wish to remove frequencies
from the Forbidden Frequencies list, the Undesired Frequencies list, or another specified
spectrum list. You can then enter frequency numbers individually, separated by commas,
or as inclusive ranges, specified by a hyphen. So for example, you might type:
1-5, 8, 10
to specify the frequencies 1 to 5, 8 and 10 to be removed from the selected spectrum list.
You can also modify all sectors of the selected list, or the sectors as defined by a category
and layer. A sector is selected if at least one of its radios is selected.

Figure 5.39 The Modify Spectrum List dialog, used to specify the removal of frequencies from the
forbidden and undesired frequencies lists

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5.6.2.4 Export Lists
To write a list to file, click the Export List link from the Files Manipulation view. From
here, you can export spectrum, neighbor and interference lists to a file using these export
formats: Cellopt 2, Cellopt 3, TAB and CSV (comma separated). Spectrum lists may only
be exported in Cellopt 2 and TAB formats.
5.6.2.5 Normalize List
To normalize interference lists (lists with co and adj values), click the Normalize List link
from the Files Manipulation view. You can normalize the original list (i.e. overwrite the co
and adj values) or create a new list. Select both the list to be normalized as well as the
normalize option. Three options can be used stand-alone or together (see Figure 5.40):

Figure 5.40 The Normalize List dialog, used where interference lists are normalized. Several
normalize operations may be selected.
- Per sector This normalizes a list on a sector level so that the sum of sum of all co
interfering relations for each sector is equal to 1 after the normalization. For each
sector, each interfered relation is scaled with the sum of the co interference from all
interfering sectors for the target sector. You can use this option to normalize list with
handover counts, so that low traffic sectors will have equal priority as high traffic
sector with many counts.
- Based on other list The option normalizes the selected list based on another
interference list to be selected. The resulting normalized list will have the same

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average co interference as the selected list. Each relation is scaled by the ratio average
(co interference of another list)/average (co interference of list to be normalized).
- To max value This option normalizes the selected list so that it will have a new
maximum co value (that you select). Each relation is scaled by the ratio value
inserted/max (co interference of list to be normalized).
5.6.2.6 Create Distance List
To create a distance list, click the Create Distance List link from the Lists Manipulation
view. The longitude and latitude coordinates of the sites must be available. Figure 5.41
shows the Create Distance List dialog.

Figure 5.41 The Distance List Wizard. Options to use as basis for the distance list are specified here.
Cellopt AFP will ask for the spatial coordinates of the sites if they are not present. You can
create a distance list even if all sites are not positioned (the sites are simply not included).
The distance list contains distance-based rules, for example, that sectors close to each
other may be given a high priority if reusing frequencies or color codes while a lower
priority is afforded for sectors with a large distance separation. Typically, the distances (of
interest) are only to be calculated for sectors that reuse the same frequencies.
Note that if this is the case, you need to generate the
distance list each time the frequency plan is changed.
You can specify these options:
- Selection Select all sectors or define a category and layer filter. You can base the
distance list on sites defined by radios in a specific category and layer only.

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- Max distance The maximum distance that will be given a priority value. Distances
larger than this are not given any priority. You can disable this maximum distance to
calculate the distance list independent of the sector-to-sector distance, i.e. for all
sector-pairs.
- Separation The maximum frequency separation that will be considered in the
distance list generation. You can select Co to only consider sectors that are reusing
frequencies in the distance list. The current plan is considered. Selecting Adj-1 will
consider both co- and first-order adjacent frequencies, and so on. You can disable
separation to calculate the distance list independent of the frequency plan (thus
between all sectors).
- Scale with number of radios within separation This option will scale the priority
values if there are multiple radios having frequency reuse (within a separation)
between two sectors. Separation must have been specified to be effective. For
example, if you enable this option, and if the Co priority between two sectors is 1000,
and there are two radios within the desired separation, a Co priority of 2000 will be
used.
- Co max The maximum priority that will be given to a relation in the list.
- Co function The function of the distance used to derive the co frequency or color
code priority value. These functions are available:
Absolute value is a step function where sectors closer than the maximum
distance are given the maximum importance (others are given no priority).
Linear drop-off implies that the priority function is an inverse linear function of
the distance.
Quadratic, Cubic and Quadruple drop-off are used to specify that the function
is inversely proportional to the power of 2, 3 and 4 of the distance respectively.
Checking the and box allows a further co function to be
defined. This means that you can use different functions for
different range bands.
The co value is calculated as follows: co
0
is the co value and d
0
is the distance at the
start of the distance segment. The co
0
value for a given segment is calculated from the
formula for the previous segment.
dropoff
d
d d
co co
|
|
.
|
\
|
=
max
0
0
1
In the first segment, co
0
= co
max
and d
0
= 0. The co
0
value for each subsequent
segment is defined to be the co value at the end of the previous segment.
- Adjacent function The function of the distance used to derive the adjacent
frequency priority value. The same functions described above are available.
- Adjacent scaling The calculated adjacent priority is multiplied by this percentage
value. The default values are 0% for iDEN and 100% for non-iDEN.

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5.6.2.7 Create Second Order Neighbor List
To create a 2
nd
order neighbor list, click the Create Second Order Neighbor List from
the Lists Manipulation view. This function needs to refer to a neighbor list that must
already be loaded. A 2
nd
order neighbor list includes relations between sectors and the
neighbors to the neighbors of the sectors (see Figure 5.42).

Figure 5.42 An example of a second-order neighbor relation between two sectors
If a 2
nd
order neighbor to a sector is also defined as handover neighbor, it is not included
in the list. When the list is created, you must assign a priority to the list (see the Priorities
section on page 75 for more details).
5.6.2.8 Create Site Neighbor List
To create a site neighbor list, click the Create Site Neighbor List from the Lists
Manipulation view. This function needs to refer to a neighbor list that must already be
loaded. A site neighbor list includes relations between sectors and all other sectors of the
same sites as the neighbors of the sectors (see Figure 5.43). If a sector on the same site
as the neighbor to a sector is also defined as handover neighbor, it is however excluded in
the list. When the list is created, you must assign a priority to the list (see the Priorities
section on page 75 for more details).

Figure 5.43 An example of a site neighbor relation between two sectors
Second order neighbors
Neighbors
Neighbors
Neighbors
Co sited
Site neighbors

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5.6.3 Analysis
The Analysis view allows the actual list content to be displayed as a report. The report can
be shown in two ways:
- On the screen in a table. You then have the option of viewing a Detailed Report for one
or more rows in the table.
- Output to a tab-delimited text file. This can then be examined in detail in Microsoft
Excel. Use this for very large reports which can be difficult to view on screen.
You can create interactive summaries using a pivot function. The data from the lists are
presented by means of subtotals defined by the pivot function. The subtotal columns
presented in the table are selected by the pivot. You are still able to view the raw content
of each file. Figure 5.44 shows the Analysis view with the pivot field selector. Note that you
can select multiple fields by checking the and box next to each Field.

Figure 5.44 The Analysis Lists view with the pivot field selector.
The following properties can be used as a pivot:
- List Used to report per list.
- Site/SiteR Used to report per site (serving/interfering).
- Sector/SectorR Reports per sector (serving/interfering).
- Radio/RadioR Reports per radio (serving/interfering).
- System category/System categoryR Report per system category
(serving/interfering). The system category is Hopping Strategy for GSM and Set
Strategy for TDMA, iDEN or PDC (see Layers above).
- Control radio/Control radioR Report per control radio (serving/interfering).
- Donor sector/Donor sectorR Report per donor sector (serving/interfering).

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- Defined categories/Defined categoriesR Report per category defined by the user
(serving/interfering). All defined ones are present.
If you have a Cellopt MDA license, you can also use the Interference Analysis options:
- Analyze Interference List Click this link to open the MDA Interference List Analysis
Summary page. See the Cellopt MDA User Guide: Interference List Analysis section for
more information.
- Compare Interference List Click this link to open the MDA Interference List
Comparison Summary page. See the Cellopt MDA User Guide: List Comparison section
for more information.
- Analyze Neighbors Click this link to open the MDA Neighbor Analysis Status page.
See the Cellopt MDA User Guide: Neighbor Analysis section for more information.
Depending on the analysis selected, it may be several minutes until the process is
completed if the files are large.
The list analysis report will be presented in a table which includes four properties apart
from the pivot fields. These include:
- Count This represents the number of relations in the selected pivot.
- Co Int This represents the sum of the co frequency interference values in the
selected pivot.
- Adj Int This represents the sum of the adjacent frequency interference values in the
selected pivot.
An example is shown in Figure 5.45, where the List function has been used as pivot (that
is, the subtotal per list is desired).

Figure 5.45 The List Analysis table, where the List entry has been used a pivot.
The number of relations, sum of interference and maximum separation is reported per list
for each case.

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Selecting one or several rows in the summary table and then clicking on Detailed Report
will show the raw data; that is, the actual list content for the selection. This will be
presented in a new table view.
5.7 Priorities
Cellopt AFP uses planning rules to consider desired planning preferences or reuse
restrictions set by the operators planning strategy as well as other restrictions such as
equipment limitations (for example, combiner spacing, and so on). You can set up and
manage a number of different rules in the Priorities section shown in Figure 5.46.

Figure 5.46 The Priorities view.

Here you also define the order of prioritization between the defined rules. To the right of
the Priorities view, the available lists are shown, grouped using the following types:
- Spectrum Lists
- Co Located Lists
- Neighbor Lists
- Interference Lists
- Intermodulation Lists (LMR only)

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- Other Lists
5.7.1.1 Spectrum Lists
Four types of rules are part of the spectrum list category:
- Forbidden A forbidden rule is used to limit the possible assignments of frequencies
or color codes to a radio. This is a strict requirement and the AFP optimizer will always
fulfill this requirement. This rule can be used, for example, to achieve a band split
scenario where some radios may be assigned frequencies in a certain spectrum part.
Control radios are sometimes allocated a dedicated part of the spectrum band that
may not be used by the traffic radios. Thus, the traffic radios may be forbidden to use
the control radio spectrum. This rule is only available if forbidden frequencies or color
codes are defined.
- Undesired An undesired rule is a softer version of the forbidden rule, by which
Cellopt AFP will penalize against making certain assignments of frequencies that are
undesired but not necessarily strict. For example, the undesired rule may project a
preferred band split for control and traffic radios in problem areas where it may be
accepted that the band split is violated to fulfill the capacity requirements. It may also
be used at country borders where operators have agreed to limit the assignment of
certain frequencies as much as possible but not in the strictest sense. For example, it
is undesired that Operator A uses some frequencies mostly used by Operator B to
minimize interference over the border. However, Operator A may use the undesired
frequencies if no other better can be found.
- Desired A desired rule is used to ensure predefined assignments are kept. However,
it allows Cellopt AFP to reassign a radio if an improvement can be found which is better
than the level defined by the desired rule. For example, the desired rule may be used
at the borders of retune areas, where it is desired that the sectors bordering on the
retune areas not be changed if no major improvement can be found.
- Spare A spare rule is used to allow radios to remain unassigned if the sum of the
incurred violations (for a radio) is larger than a specified value. It however allows
Cellopt AFP to assign a radio if the interference (priority) increase by assigning a radio
is below the level defined by the spare rule. This rule may be used to plan a network
for additional (spare) radios to cope with an expected traffic growth if the interference
is below a limit. Note that the spare rule can only be associated to radios that are
configured as non-hopping/baseband hopping (GSM) or adhoc (TDMA, PDC and iDEN).
5.7.1.2 Co Located Lists
Co Located rules define separation requirements between radio pairs that are co-located.
Three types of rules are central to the co located list category:
- Co Combiner Specifies separation requirements between two radios of the same
combiner in a sector. This can be used to fulfill required combiner spacing. The radios
that are combined together are specified in the Layers section using the Combiner
category. This rule is only available for TDMA, PDC, LMR and iDEN technologies.
- Co Sector Specifies separation requirements between two radios of the same sector
or between combiners of the same sector. For example, you can use this to avoid co,
adjacent or higher order adjacent frequencies being assigned to the same sector.
- Co Site The Co Site rule is used to specify separation requirements between two
radios of the same site (independent of sector). For example, this can be used if you
want to avoid having co, adjacent or higher order adjacent frequencies within sites.

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The Co Located lists are internal lists created by Cellopt AFP and cannot be loaded into a
project. The Co Combiner list is created by the special category Combiner that allows the
grouping of radios into combiners. See the Layers section on page 52.
5.7.1.3 Neighbor Lists
The neighbor list includes the neighbor relations in the network. A neighbor rule is used to
impose restrictions between sectors that are defined as handover neighbors. For example,
an operator may want to protect neighbor relations to make sure that the handover works
properly. It is also possible to specify that co and adjacent frequencies may not be used at
two neighbors.
5.7.1.4 Interference Lists
The interference lists specify how much traffic or area would be affected (i.e., interfered) if
two sectors reuse co or adjacent frequencies. The interference lists are often generated by
Cellopt MDA, or an external planning tool which will often refer to the list as an
interference or permission matrix. The interference lists are often generated with the
assumption that the interference is constant and at full power. An interference rule is used
to consider the interference due to radio propagation between sectors in the network. An
interference list is hence always required to minimize the radio interference.
5.7.1.5 Intermodulation Lists
These lists are only applicable for LMR and TETRA projects.
There are five lists 3
rd
Order Intermodulation, 5
th
Order Intermodulation, 7
th
Order
Intermodulation, 9
th
Order Intermodulation and 11
th
Order Intermodulation.
These lists exist to enable the user to set up separate penalties for each order of
intermodulation product. Only orders that have penalties enabled will be considered in
intermodulation reports or during optimisation. Separate penalties can also be set up for
Co and Adj frequencies for the same order; this is achieved by setting up multiple
penalties for the same order as shown in the example below.

5.7.1.5.1 Intermodulation Complexity
It should be noted that the complexity of the intermodulation calculations increases more
than exponentially with each order of intermodulation. Whilst penalties as high as 11
th
-
order are available, if performance becomes an issue, consider restricting the higher
orders. This can be achieved either by removing the penalties on this page, or more easily
by temporarily disabling them on the Frequency Options page (see section 6.2).

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5.7.1.5.2 Customising Intermodulation Penalties on a Site-by-Site basis
To set different penalties for different sites, create a user category and assign the sites to
separate layers, then expand the list trees and select the relevant layer as normal.

5.7.1.5.3 Intermodulation product bandwidth
When setting up the intermodulation penalties, the user may want to consider the different
bandwidths that each intermodulation product will have, and this can be reflected in the
Adj rules that are set up for each product. As an example, if the transmission signal has a
bandwidth equal to that of the channel separation, then the 3
rd
-order products will have a
bandwidth of 3 channels (Adj-1), the 5
th
-order products will be 5 channels wide (Adj-2),
and so on. The figure below illustrates an example of how this project might be set up.

5.7.1.6 Other Lists
The other lists category includes rules that are not part of those defined above. Examples
of these rules include:
- Exception An exception rule contains separation requirements between sector pairs.
It can be used for including planners local knowledge about reuse restrictions between
sector pairs.
- Distance This is similar to an interference rule, except that the sector relations
describe priorities based on distance between sector pairs, instead of actual
interference. See Lists for more details.
- 2
nd
order neighbor This is also an interference rule. It includes only interference
relations between sectors and the neighbors to the neighbors of the sectors (2
nd
order
neighbors).
- Site neighbors This is also an interference rule. It includes only interference
relations between sectors and all sectors of the same sites as the neighbors of the
sectors.

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5.7.1.7 Prioritization Structure
The rule prioritization order is presented as a table to the left of this page, as shown in
Figure 5.46. The prioritization falls into three classes:
- Strict Rules of this class should be used for rules that may not be violated.
Forbidden rules can only be strict. Strict has the highest priority. Red color-coding is
used for this class.
- Important Rules of this class may be violated by Cellopt AFP under some
circumstances. Important has lower priority than strict. Yellow color-coding is used for
this class.
- Interference Rules of this class are considered tradable by Cellopt AFP. Interference
lists are typical of this category and Interference has the lowest priority. Green color-
coding is used for this class.
A rule can only be assigned to one priority class. The rules of the Important and
Interference classes are further differentiated using an additional weight factor. No
weights are used for Strict rules.
The prioritization table includes columns detailing list name, category and layer,
separation, priority (class and weight) and advanced settings. An interference list is always
marked with a sign. For interference lists, the column with advanced settings may
include an S, T or FH. This indicates that the scaling, threshold or frequency hopping
options respectively differ from the default values for a particular list. More details on
these options are found in sections below. It is further possible to sort the table with
respect to list name, separation and priority by clicking on the heading. A rule may be
deleted by right clicking the name of the rule.
The relative importance between the classes may be changed by selecting Classes, as
shown in Figure 5.47. Upon selection the following dialog will appear:

Figure 5.47 The Classes dialog, where the relative importance between the priority classes are set

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In this dialog you set the relative importance between Strict and Important as well as
between Important and Interference. These values should not be changed frequently.
Instead, the class and weight of rules should be changed during the planning process to
find a trade off according to the desired planning preferences.
The (classes) settings will determine the final priority (weighted priority) that will be seen
by the optimizer, i.e. after weighting and scaling etc. The defaults in Figure 5.46 imply that
an important rule with weight 1 (the multiplier) has priority 10000 times higher than an
interference rule. Further, a strict rule will be 10000 x 10000 = 100,000,000 times more
important than an interference rule. The default also implies that an interference rule could
be considered as an important rule if the value in the interference list exceeds 10000 after
weighting and scaling.
The maximum priority considered by the optimizer corresponds to the strict level, i.e. red
class * yellow class (10000*10000 in the example above). A priority can never exceed this
value.
Note, if a Cellopt AFP 2 project is imported, the defined
planning rules and associated penalties will automatically
be translated into corresponding priority classes and
weights using the default class settings.
5.7.1.8 Add Priority
To add a rule, select the list name that appears in the list to the right of the Priorities view.

Figure 5.48 The Add Priority dialog for GSM projects, where separation, class and weight can be
specified to form a rule
The following must be specified (see Figure 5.48):
- Separation That applies to the rule. Separation is expressed as: Co (co frequency),
Adj-1 (first-order adjacent frequency), Adj-2 (second-order adjacent frequency) etc.
Higher orders than Adj-1 are only possible for Co located and neighbor lists. The rule

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may also be effective on smaller separations if no such rule exists (for the same list).
For example, a neighbor Adj-1 rule will be applied for neighbor Co with the same class
and weight if no such rule is defined. If a different class and weight are required, for
example for Co and Adj-1 of a list, two rules must be defined.
- Priority Priority of the rule in terms of class and weight (Important and
Interference only). Co located lists with Adj-2 separation or higher can only be set to
Strict or Important. An interference list can only be set to class Interference.
Note, the weight factor applies to the interfering direction
only (that is, when a radio is interfering) and can be set for
interference lists under Scaling and Thresholds. These
options are discussed below.
A rule can also be defined that applies to radios of a category and layer. The layer to apply
the rule to is selected by expanding the categories and layer list (marked with a symbol
left of the list name). An additional option is available in the Add Priority dialog:
- Only applicable when interfering and interfered This option applies the rule
between radios of the same layer only, not when radios of the selected layer are
interfered by radios of another layer.
The category and layer name will appear in a column of the prioritization list for the rule
(see Figure 5.46). Note, if a radio has applied to it multiple weights on different layers, the
product of the weights will be used for the radio. Further, there can be no more than two
rules per list, category and layer combination.
5.7.1.9 Scaling and Thresholds
If a rule based on an interference list is created, you can specify some advanced
properties, as shown in Figure 5.49.

Figure 5.49 Scaling and Threshold properties that can be specified for interference lists

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The advanced properties consist of scaling options:
- Divide by number of radios This default option uniformly distributes the
interference of a sector to each radio. For example, if a sector with 4 radios is
interfered with 2 Erlang (interfered traffic given from the interference list) from
another sector, each radio will get 0.5 Erlang of interference. This option is effective
for a radio if it is on on list level and all layers to which the radio belongs. Further, it
is possible to protect radios of a sector by turning this option off on a layer level (the
radios are part of this layer). In this case, the radios in the layer would get 2 Erlang
interference each, using the above example. This can be used for control radio
protection.
- Include Weight for other radios in sector (Available when a rule is based on
an Interference / Category / Layer) This option lets you increase the penalty for
carriers that interfere with the BCCH carrier of a serving cell. The amount by which the
penalty is increased depends on the number of carriers present in the serving cell. This
setting increases the relative important of control radios of sectors with many radios.
Higher values increase this factor by a greater extent than lower values. When set on a
control radio layer, it will add (other radios factor)*(#radios -1) to the weight of the
control radio. When combined with the Divide by number of radios checkbox, higher
values mitigate the effect of checking the Divide box. The weight of the radio will be:
1/#radios + (other radios factor)*(#radios-1)/#radios
This is equal to (other radios factor) + (1-other radio factor)/#radios. A minimum
setting of 0 has no effect, while a maximum setting of 1 completely cancels out the
Divide by number of radios checkbox.
- Relative amount of traffic This option implies that some radios, defined by a layer,
carry relatively more traffic than the other radios of the sector, and therefore should
get more protection. The relative protection value must therefore be specified. Use this
option to project a preferential channel assignment scheme. To be effective, the option
can only be set on a layer, and the Divide by number of radios option must also be
applied on the list level. If a radio has this option set for several of its layers, Cellopt
AFP will use the product of the relative values.
- Relative amount of interference This option implies that some radios, defined by
a layer, experience relatively more interference than the other radios of the sector.
The value of relative interference must be specified. This option should be used to
project an overlaid/underlaid subcells feature. It can only be set on a layer and the
Divide by number of radios option must also be applied on the list level for this option
to be effective. If a radio has this option set for several of its layers, the product of the
relative values will be used.
- Multiply with traffic (not shown in Figure 5.49) This option is for converting an
interference list with relations expressed in percentage interfered traffic or area to
interfered traffic in Erlang. This is achieved by multiplying each relation with its
sectors served traffic. Cellopt AFP will warn if no sector traffic is available. Sectors
with no traffic will be multiplied with zero. This option appears only on the list level, so
it cannot be set on a layer.
- Multiply with weight when <Layer> radios are interfering This option will
change the interference in the interfering direction (i.e., from one sector to another
sector) by the specified value. The interfered direction is unchanged. If a radio has this
option set for several of its layers, Cellopt AFP will use the product of the weights.
The threshold options are:
- Threshold Imposes an additional priority weighting if the weighted interference
(scaled) is greater than or equal to the specified threshold level. If a radio is assigned
multiple thresholds on different layers, all individual thresholds will be applied.

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- Absolute The threshold value. The unit of the threshold is the same as used in the
list.
- Class The priority class (strict/important/interference).
- Weight The additional weighting factor to be imposed.
5.7.1.10 Frequency Hopping GSM
Some additional options are available for an interference list in a GSM project. Various
GSM radio network features can be projected by means of scaling, as shown in Figure
5.50. Note that these options (except traffic load per sector) are only applied on radios
with baseband or synthesizer hopping. Non-hopping and control radios are unaffected.

Figure 5.50 The Frequency Hopping options available for interference lists in a GSM project
The options include:
- Traffic load per sector This option is used to consider the interference probability
from a sector instead of 100% activity. The average interference probability depends
on the sector served traffic and number of radios in the sector. Sector traffic values
are required for this option. However, you can specify a global value (dB or %) to be
used in sectors that are missing traffic values. If a radio has this option set for several
of its layers, the minimum gain value will be used. Note that this option is effective for
non-hopping radios as well.
- DTX This option is used to model the interference reduction that will appear if
discontinuous transmission is used. The voice activity is specified in terms of dB or
%. If a radio has this option set for several of its layers, the minimum gain value will
be used.
- DPC This option is used to model the interference reduction that will appear if
dynamic power control is used in the base station. The power control gain is measured

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at the cell border and it can be specified in terms of dB or %. If a radio has this
option set for several of its layers, the minimum gain value will be used.
- Frequency diversity gain This option is used to enable the fast fading diversity
gain present for slow moving mobiles when frequency hopping is used, which will make
the GSM receiver more resistant to interference and will improve the sensitivity. The
diversity gain is dependent on the number of hopping frequencies. It is specified in dB
and the column to the right shows the resulting scaling value in %. Linear
interpolation is used for hopping lengths between two specified values. There can only
be one setting per list. The Frequency Diversity Gain option is a Global rule so adding
or removing this option on one interference list will add or remove it on other
interference list rules.
- AMR (not shown in Error! Reference source not found.9) This option is used to
model the gain achieved when Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) vocoders are used in the
network. The gain with AMR over the conventional vocoder is specified in terms of dB
or %. In addition, the population of AMR mobiles is specified in %. There can only be
one setting per list.
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Frequencies 85

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6 Frequencies
6.1 Introduction
This section provides a comprehensive overview of the Frequencies section. The
Optimize section is where you can optimize and analyze frequency plans. An interactive
retune report lets you view implications from possible reassignments, and perform actual
frequency retunes. The views are:
- Analyze Analysis of a frequency plan can be performed in this view.
- Optimize The frequency optimization is managed in this view.
- Retune Frequency retunes can be performed in this view.

Note that for iDEN projects, Cellopt AFP supports the
frequency numbering scheme where the 800 MHz band
uses numbers 1-720 and 2001-2720. Co and adjacent
frequency interference between non co- or adjacent
frequency numbers are detected for example between
frequency numbers 1 and 2002.
6.2 Options
The first view in this section is the (optimization) Options for Frequencies view.

Figure 6.1 The Options for Frequencies view.
For iDEN, an additional option Consider color code reuse is available.

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The following optimization properties may be specified:
- Priorities Here you select the Lists (or rules) to consider in the frequency
optimization. Priorities defined from a list are enabled by selecting the list. By disabling
a list, you can disregard priorities without deleting the rules here. Co Sector rules are
automatically enabled and cannot be disabled here. Note that rules are created and
managed in the Priorities section.
- Options Here the global planning strategy (hopping for GSM or set strategy for
TDMA, PDC or iDEN) is displayed. You can change the strategy by clicking the link or
by returning to the Spectrum section.
- Filter Here you can apply a temporary filtering function on interference lists. Cellopt
AFP excludes relations from analysis and optimization where the co value is below or
equal to the specified value.
6.2.1 Spectrum Clearance
Support for clearing the spectrum (removing frequencies from the network) is presented
here as well. The technique is to define temporary forbidden frequency rules for the
frequencies to be removed. Part of this process is also to create a desired rule that is used
for striving to keep the existing frequency assignments for the selected radios assigned to
frequencies that are not to be cleared. To simplify this, follow the three-step wizard:
- Forbidden frequencies Here you specify which frequencies are to be removed, as
well as the categories and layers of the radios to which the forbidden rule should
apply. The forbidden frequencies are retrieved and filled in from the selected category
and layer.
- Priority for selected radios Here you specify the Priority (class and weight) of the
desired rule used for striving to keep the frequencies of the selected radios not subject
to clearance.
- Ready to optimize Here you start the frequency optimization. Note that the desired
priority created in step 2 is effective only if the optimization is started from here. It will
not appear in the lists under Priorities. The forbidden priorities defined above are
retained.
6.2.2 Options - iDEN
For iDEN projects, an additional option is available:
- Consider color code reuse This option allows considering both co-frequency and
co-color code reuse (not the color code offset reuse) from unselected/fixed radios
during the frequency optimization. The priority for this is given by the scaling factor.
Interference relations from fixed radios with co-frequency and co-color code are scaled
with the applied factor.
This feature lets you avoid color code re-planning after a
frequency optimization.

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6.2.3 Options LMR and TETRA
Any penalties that have been set up for intermodulation calculations will be shown here
with a check box. This is an easy place to turn on and off various degrees of
intermodulation without having to alter the project priorities. In the example below, this
setting will cause only 3
rd
and 5
th
-order products to be considered in analyses,
optimisations and retunes.


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6.3 Analyze Frequencies
You can examine a frequency plan in more detail from the Analyze Frequencies view. You
can also view frequency assignments, violated rules as well as interfering sectors or radios.
The analysis report can be shown in two ways:
- On the screen in a table. You can then view a Detailed Report for one or more rows in
the table.
- Output to a tab-delimited text file. You can then examine the file in detail in Microsoft
Excel. Use this for very large reports which can be difficult to view on screen.

Before the Analyze report is generated, select the radios to analyze in the Radio Editor in
the top of the view. In a similar way to the List Analyze function discussed on page 73, you
can create interactive summaries using a pivot function. The frequency plan data is
presented by means of subtotals that are defined by the pivot function. The subtotal
columns presented in the table are selected by the pivot.
Figure 6.2 shows the Analyze view with a plan selector and the pivot field selector. First,
select a plan for analysis with the plan selector. Current denotes the currently optimized
frequency plan, i.e. frequencies in the Frequency column in the Radio Editor. Old denotes
the frequencies in the Old frequency column (the plan included in the loaded radio
database). The plan selector may also include plans saved under names using the option in
the Radio Editor. There is also a Compare with plan selector used for comparing plans;
see the section on Delta reports on page 92.

Figure 6.2 The Analyze Frequencies view with the pivot function selector used to examine a
frequency plan in more detail

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Rather than defining all the fields in the analysis, you may want to use a previously saved
configuration. All such configurations are listed in a box to the right simply click the
required configuration once to populate the fields, or double-click to perform the analysis
directly. To delete an existing configuration, right click on the configuration name and
select the Delete option. Once you have defined the fields that you want to use, you can
click on Save current configuration to store the configuration for future use with the
current project.
Now select the pivot. Note that you can select multiple fields by checking the and box
after each Field. These properties can be used in pivot mode:
- List Used to report per list.
- Site/SiteR Used to report per site (serving/interfering).
- Sector/SectorR Used to report per sector (serving/interfering).
- Radio/RadioR Used to report per radio (serving/interfering).
- Old frequency/Old frequencyR Used to report per original frequency, MAL or
frequency set (serving/interfering).
- Frequency/FrequencyR Used to report per optimized frequency, MAL or frequency
set (serving/interfering).
- Position/Position R Used to report per position of radio in sector
(serving/interfering).
- System categories/System categoriesR Used to report per system categories
(serving/interfering). For GSM, the system category Hopping Strategy is available.
For TDMA, iDEN or PDC, Set Strategy and Combiner will be available (see Layers
above).
- Defined categories/Defined categoriesR Used to report per user-defined
category (serving/interfering). All defined categories are present.
If the summary report is being set to the screen, there is also an option to display all user-
defined layers for each radio displayed in the detail reports. This option is only available
for on-screen summary reports since detailed reports cannot be generated from file-based
summary reports.
The analysis report will be presented in a Summary table and it will include these analyze
properties:
- Count The number of violations in the selected pivot.
- Priority The weighted sum of all priorities from the violated rules in the selected
pivot.
- Imp Co The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Important co
frequency rules in the selected pivot.
- Imp Adj The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Important first order
adjacent frequency rules in the selected pivot.
- Imp Adj+ The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Important second
order and higher adjacent frequency rules in the selected pivot.
- Int Co The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Interference co

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- Int Adj The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Interference adjacent
An example is shown in Figure 6.3 where the List option has been used as the pivot (that
is, the subtotal per list is desired). The number of violated rules, sum of importance and
interference are reported per list in this case.

Figure 6.3 The Analyze Frequencies table, where the List entry has been used as a pivot
To sort rows with respect to certain columns, double-click the column header. The
following analysis properties are shown:
- Priority The weighted priority of the violation.
- List The name of the violated list.
- Site The id of the site that is serving (target).
- Sector The id of the sector that is serving (target).
- Radio The id of the radio that is serving (target).
- Frequency The frequency, MAL or frequency set assigned to the serving radio
above.
- SiteR The id of the site that is interfering.
- SectorR The id of the sector that is interfering.

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To show all violated rules (i.e., one per row), select one row in the summary table and
then click the Detailed Report button. The result is as shown in Figure 6.4.

Figure 6.4 The Detailed Report view, where the properties are shown per radio
- RadioR The id of the radio that is interfering.
- FrequencyR The frequency, MAL or frequency set assigned to the interfering radio
above.
- Imp Co The weighted co frequency priority from an Important rule if any.
- Imp Adj The weighted first- and higher-order adjacent frequency priority from an
Important rule if any.
- Int Co The weighted co frequency priority from an Interference rule if any.
- Int Adj The weighted first-order adjacent frequency priority from an Interference
rule if any.
You can enter the summary view again by clicking the Summary button in the top right.
You can also use the icon buttons in the top left of the table to save, export to Excel, or
print the table contents.
During the set optimization, Cellopt AFP always considers frequency sets to be fully utilized
(all frequencies in a set are active and generating interference). The actual frequency
assignments to radios are performed after the optimization has finished. As a result, the
total priority shown in the Optimization Progress and in the analysis report may differ.
The analysis report shows the priority for the actual assignments.

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Cellopt will consider and report adjacent frequency violations that occur between non-
adjacent frequency numbers in the E-GSM 900 and R-GSM 900 band, e.g., between
frequency numbers 0 and 1023, as well as in the AMPS/IS-136 (TDMA) A and A bands, in
this case e.g. between frequency numbers 1 and 1023.
For iDEN projects, Cellopt AFP supports the frequency numbering scheme where the
800MHz band uses numbers 1-720 and 2001-2720. Co and adjacent frequency
interference between non co- or adjacent frequency numbers are detected, for example
between frequency numbers 1 and 2002.
6.3.1 Delta Reports
To compare two plans, you can create a delta report from the Analyze Frequencies view
(plans can be created using the Save Plan option in the Radio Editor header; see the
section on Layers on page 52 for more information). Select the first plan using Plan, and
the second plan using Compare with (see Figure 6.2). If you cannot see these options,
click the More link.
The delta report can be generated in a number of ways using the pivot selector, similar to
the analysis report. An example is shown in Figure 6.5 where per List is the selected
pivot.

Figure 6.5 The Delta report, where frequency plans can be compared in terms of number of
violations and priorities
The delta report shows the change between the first plan and the second plan. A negative
value means that the priority or number of counts has decreased for the second plan
compared to the first plan. In the same way, a positive value means that the second plan
has a higher value than the first plan in a given cell of the report.

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You can also display a detailed delta report similar to the detailed report. In this case, the
frequency columns include the assignments of both plans.
6.3.2 LMR and TETRA Detailed Intermodulation Reports
Intermodulation penalties are in the summary and detailed analysis reports as shown here.

Figure 6.6 The Detailed Intermodulation report
However, more detail on the intermodulation products is available by selecting the
Intermod button at the top right of this screen, or from the summary report screen. This
option is only available from the standard analysis report. If pivots are used to
sum rows, the option will not be present. This will yield a report as follows:

Figure 6.7 More intermodulation information

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For each radio and each order of intermodulation product that generates a penalty, a line
will be present in the report. It will identify the Site/Sector and Rx radio, the channel to
which it is currently assigned, the channel which has the intermodulation product (in the
case of Adj penalties), the penalty imposed and details of how the product was calculated.
The first line in this example shows a 7
th
order product made up of 4 x Channel A
Channel B 2 x Channel C (4 x 697 1 x 849 2 x 780 = 379).
For a given penalty on an Rx radio, there may be multiple combinations of Tx frequencies
that generate the same penalty (e.g. 2 x 200 1 x 100 = 300, but also 2 x 250 1 x 200
= 300). AFP applies one penalty per priority rule per channel, so in this example channel
300 would attract one 3
rd
-order Co penalty not two. In order for the total penalties to
match, the Intermodulation Report accordingly only shows the first combination it finds.
The generated report can be saved, printed or exported to an Excel spreadsheet using the
buttons at the top left of the report in exactly the same way as the other analysis reports.
6.4 Optimize Frequencies
You can perform frequency optimization in this view, shown in Figure 6.8. Select the radios
to be assigned frequencies (i.e., to be optimized) in the Radio Editor at the top of the
page using autofilter functions. The AFP optimizer will assign frequencies only to the
selected radios. The unselected radios will be unchanged but their assignments will be
considered by the optimizer, i.e., interference from the unselected radios will be taken into
account.
The optimization is controlled via the Start and Stop buttons; there is a progress table to
the left. The progress is expressed using the following columns:
- Class The class of rule with highest priority currently violated in the optimized plan.
Imp class means that at least one Important rule is violated in the plan etc. Int
means only Interference rules are violated.

Figure 6.8 The Optimize Frequencies view, where the frequency optimization is started or stopped
and the optimization progress can be viewed.

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- Importance The weighted sum of the violated Important rules in the optimized
plan.
- A Importance The Importance delta compared to the previous plan.
- Interference The weighted sum of the violated Interference rules in the optimized
plan.
- A Interference The Interference delta compared to the previous plan.
- Assigned The count of reassigned frequencies.
- A Assigned The delta between reassigned frequencies compared to the previous
plan.
- Elapsed The total elapsed time.
- A Elapsed The elapsed time difference compared to the previous plan.
- Clock The current time.
- Index The count of generated plans.
You can also show the optimization progress by means of a graph. A button in the top of
the table lets you switch to graph mode. In the table, there are also options to save, print
and clear the table, as well as start and stop the optimization see Figure 6.6. The
optimized plan can be viewed in the Radio Editor when the optimization is stopped.
6.4.1 LMR and TETRA Progress Bars
Because the LMR and TETRA technologies often require complex and time-consuming
intermodulation calculations, on occasion it can take significantly longer than usual for the
first iteration to appear. As a visual aid in this case, progress bars will appear in the
bottom left of the screen to provide the user with some feedback on the progress of the
optimization. After the first iteration, progress bars will continue to be used for slow
iterations, and it should be noted that if the progress bars disappear but no further results
are displayed, this does not signify that the optimization has stopped, merely that the
optimization iterations are proceeding rapidly but no improvements to the current plan
have been found.
As the optimisation progresses, it tries deeper and deeper searches, so a period without
plan improvements does not mean that the optimizer will not eventually find further
improvements.

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6.5 Retune Frequencies
In the Retune Frequencies view shown in Figure 6.9, you can generate reports showing the
implications of possible frequency reassignments.

Figure 6.9 The Retune Frequencies view
From this view you can also perform a manual retune, i.e., change frequency assignments
for radios.
Select the appropriate radios in the Radio Editor (Figure 6.9) before you click the
Generate button to produce the report. Note that it may be several minutes until the
retuning process is completed, depending on the size of the selection and number of
available frequencies. Note also that if you change the radio selection, you will need to
regenerate the Retune report.
The Retune report is available in two views: Priority and Best Choice. To switch between
the two reports, use the buttons P, BC in the report header. You can hide the four
summary columns by pressing the arrow in the report header.
- Priority This view shows the (weighted) priority for all available frequencies per
radio. The priority value for a given frequency represents the incurred priority if a radio
is reassigned to this frequency. The available frequencies are listed as columns with
the priority values given in the rows below, as shown in Figure 6.10.

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Figure 6.10 The Priorities view of the Retune report showing the priority per available frequency for
each radio. Click the BC at the top to move to the Best Choice view.
The current frequency assigned to each radio is highlighted in the table. The priority
value for each available frequency is also color-coded (yellow or green) to show the
class of the worst violated rule.
Note that the radios of a sector that have the same layer
settings are grouped into the same row. Further, forbidden
frequencies are indicated with blanks in the report.
Frequencies that will break a strict rule (except forbidden)
if reassigned are indicated with a red X.

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- Best Choice This view shows the available frequencies sorted in best choice in
increasing priority order per radio (Figure 6.11). The current frequency assigned to
each radio is also highlighted. Frequency numbers are colored red, yellow or green to
show the class of the worst violated rule if reassigned to this frequency.

Figure 6.11 The Best Choice view of the Retune report showing the best frequencies for each radio
in order. Click the P at the top to move to the Priorities view.
6.5.1 Manual retunes
A manual retune can be performed in both views in two steps. First, unassign the
frequency to be changed by double-clicking that frequency (i.e. the cell in the table). Next,
assign the new frequency by double-clicking it. Click the Retune button to complete the
retune operation; Cellopt AFP will then update the report views accordingly.
Two columns help identify obvious improvements (for non-optimal plans):
- Potential This column reports the priority difference that can be achieved with a
single retune. More exactly, the difference is the priority delta between the worst
assignment and the best reassignment for this radio or group of radios. An optimal
assignment (i.e. no improvement or potential) has a blank in this column.
- Retune This column shows the recommended frequency reassignment (listed as
before to after) for achieving the priority improvement reported in the Potential column
for this radio or group of radios. To perform a retune, double-click a cell.
6.5.2 Retuning MAL
If user-defined MAL are optimized in a GSM project, MAL, not frequencies, are listed in the
retune report. A complete MAL must be retuned, not individual frequencies of the MAL. If
frequency sets are used for assignment (TDMA, PDC or iDEN), you can change individual
frequencies in sectors.

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6.5.3 Retuning iDEN QUAD/WiDEN radios
iDEN QUAD/WiDEN radios have a slightly different appearance, since they may be assigned
up to four adjacent frequencies. A Q/W is treated as a group of radios where the assigned
frequencies are shown with a gray background in the Priority view. The priority value for
a particular frequency refers to the impact of being assigned to the range of frequencies
starting at this particular frequency. For example, for a Q/W assigned three frequencies,
the frequency 5 column indicates the priority if the Q/W is assigned to frequencies 5, 6 and
7. In the Best Choice view, only the first frequency in the range is highlighted. A Q/W
may be unassigned by clicking any of the highlighted frequencies. A Q/W is assigned by
clicking on the first frequency in the range.
6.5.4 Retuning maximum separation groups
Maximum separation groups (including MCRB groups) are indicated by an "M" in the
Demand column before the number of radios. So for example, a 6-radio maximum
separation group will be indicated as "M6". Maximum separation groups may cover more
than one row of the retune report when different rules apply to different radios, shown by
row numbers in brackets in the Demand column. For example, the control radio may be
indicated as "M1(1)" on the first row, with 5 non-control radios indicated as "M5(2)" on the
second row.
The Retune column for a maximum separation group suggests a complete set of
replacement frequencies that satisfy the separation requirement. The old frequencies are
not shown in the Retune column for maximum separation groups. If a maximum
separation group is split between more than one row, the Retune column will suggest an
assignment in each row within the appropriate range. Clicking on the Retune column in any
row will perform the retune for that row and for other rows of the same maximum
separation group.
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide HSN and MAIO 100

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7 HSN and MAIO
7.1 Introduction
The section is only available for GSM projects. Here, you can optimize the Hopping
Sequence Number (HSN) and Mobile Allocation Index Offset (MAIO) if a frequency plan or
Mobile Allocation List (MAL) plan is available. HSN and MAIO are only allocated to
frequency hopping radios in GSM systems. Cellopt AFP will always use HSN from 1-63 for
the assignment. For HSN and MAIO optimization, three views are available, as shown in
Figure 7.1, namely:
- Analyze HSN and MAIO plan analysis can be performed in this view.
- Optimize The HSN and MAIO optimization are managed in this view.
- Retune The HSN and MAIO retunes can be performed in this view.

Figure 7.1 The Options for HSN and MAIO optimization view
7.2 Options for HSN and MAIO
The first view in this section shows the HSN and MAIO options seen in Figure 7.1. You can
specify the following HSN optimization properties:
- Lists Check each list (or rule) that you want to consider in the HSN optimization,
i.e., optimization priorities are derived from the specified lists as discussed below.
- Synchronization Click the Optimize Sync Groups link to optimize the sync group
assignments.
- HSN Options Select an option for the desired HSN planning strategy.
- MAIO Options Check the box to allow regular MAIO steps in sectors for consistency
with Nokia methodology.

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- Filter Check the box and enter a co-value to apply a filtering function on
interference lists.
7.2.1 Lists
From here, you select the lists that define the optimization priorities. Neighbor,
Interference and Other Lists loaded into the project may be chosen as well as Co-located
lists (i.e., Co-Site and Co-Sector), if any such rule is defined.
Note that rules are created and managed in the Priorities
section.
The Co part of a list will be applied since the optimization only considers co frequency
reuse and not any adjacent frequency reuse. For the MAIO optimization, Co-located rules
will only be considered if they are of a strict priority class. Cellopt AFP always avoids co-
MAIO within hopping groups even when not stated explicitly.
7.2.2 Synchronization
You can identify synthesizer-hopping groups that may be synchronized and planned within
the same HSN to avoid interference between the synchronized hopping groups (similar to
site synchronization), using the selected lists and priorities from the frequency
optimization as inputs. The result of the hopping radio grouping is written in a new system
category, Sync group.
Click the Optimize Sync Groups link to optimize the sync group assignments. Sync
groups are only used if inter-site is selected from the HSN Options below.

Figure 7.2 The HSN and MAIO Optimize Sync Groups view.

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7.2.3 HSN Options
Select an HSN planning strategy:
- Assign HSN for hopping groups The HSN is assigned per hopping group (i.e.,
group of radios sharing hopping frequencies).
- Synchronize hopping per site if possible If possible (without reusing a MAIO),
HSN is assigned per site, with the same HSN assigned to all hopping groups in the site.
At sites where this is not possible, HSN will be planned per hopping group. Radios
assigned to layer Synth sector (of category Strategy) will be synchronized at sites, if
possible.
- Synchronize hopping per site The HSN is strictly assigned per site and one MAIO
will be reused within the site if there are more radios than number of hopping
frequencies for the site (i.e., lack of MAIO). The MAIO is reused between the sectors
with the least traffic. Note that this does not affect non-hopping or baseband radios.
- Synchronize hopping inter-site if possible If possible (without reusing a MAIO),
the same HSN is assigned to all synthesizer-hopping groups.
- Synchronize hopping inter-site The same HSN is assigned to all synthesizer-
hopping groups.
7.2.4 MAIO Options
- Regular MAIO steps (Nokia) For consistency with Nokia methodology, checking
this box allows regular MAIO steps in sectors (for example 0, 2, 4, etc.). Irregular
MAIO steps in a sector (e.g. 1, 3, 4) will not be allowed if this option is enabled.
7.2.5 Filter
- Filter Here you can apply a temporary filtering function on interference lists.
Relations where the co value is below or equal to the specified value is not considered
by the AFP optimizer in the analysis and optimization.
7.3 Analyze HSN and MAIO
Similar to the Analyze Frequencies option, you can examine an HSN and MAIO plan by
using a pivot table as its view. Select the radios to be analyzed in the Radio Editor. More
details about the use of the pivot and analyze report features can be found in the Analyze
Frequencies section on page 88.
The pivot function for HSN and MAIO analysis is the same as the one used for Analyze
Frequencies (see page 88) except that there are some additional fields:
- Old HSN Used to report per original HSN (serving).
- Old MAIO Used to report per original MAIO (serving).
- HSN/HSNR Used to report per optimized HSN (serving/interfering).
- MAIO/MAIOR Used to report per optimized MAIO (serving/interfering).
The analysis report is tabular and includes these analysis properties:

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pivot.
- HSN Imp The weighted priority sum from the violated Important co-HSN rules
(i.e., when it is co-HSN and co-frequency simultaneously) in the selected pivot.
- HSN Int The weighted priority sum from the violated Interference co-HSN rules
(i.e., when it is co-HSN and co-frequency simultaneously) in the selected pivot.
- # MAIO Co The number of assignments in the pivot with co-HSN and co-MAIO.
- # MAIO Adj The number of assignments in the pivot with co-HSN and adjacent-
MAIO.
- Details will show all violated rules, one per row of the selected summary row. The
detailed analysis properties are the same as used in the detailed frequency analysis
view, except that the frequency specific fields are excluded and some new ones are
added. The HSN specific properties are:
- HSN The HSN assigned to the serving radio.
- MAIO The MAIO assigned to the serving radio.
- HSNR The HSN assigned to the interfering radio.
- MAIOR The MAIO assigned to the interfering radio.
- HSN Imp The weighted priority from a violated Important co-HSN rule (i.e., when
it is co-HSN and co-frequency simultaneously) if any.
- HSN Int The weighted priority from a violated Interference co HSN rule (i.e., when
it is co-HSN and co-frequency simultaneously) if any.
- # MAIO Co The number of assignments with co-HSN and co-MAIO.
- # MAIO Adj The number of assignments with co-HSN and adjacent-MAIO.

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7.4 Optimize HSN and MAIO
The HSN and MAIO optimization is performed and managed in this view (see Figure 7.3).

Figure 7.3 The Optimize HSN and MAIO view
Select the radios to be optimized for HSN and MAIO in the Radio Editor. The optimization
progress is identical to that described for frequencies above.
7.5 Retune HSN and MAIO
Similar to Retune Frequencies, an interactive retune report for HSN assignments is
available in this view. The function is the same as in Retune Frequencies except that HSN
are shown instead of the frequencies. The implications of HSN reassignments are shown
and HSN retunes may be performed similarly.
More details about the retune report features can be found under Retune Frequencies on
page 96.
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Color Codes 105

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8 Color Codes
8.1 Introduction
In this section, you can assign color codes to radios. Optimizing color codes requires that
frequencies have already been assigned to the selected radios. In general, color codes are
used by receivers to distinguish between separate serving traffic channels and co-traffic
channels, i.e., frequency reuse cases. The color code properties differ between system
technologies and appearance of this section is highly dependent on the chosen technology.
For example, color codes are referred to as BSIC, NCC, BCC and TSC in GSM. Similar to
Frequencies, three views are available, as shown in Figure 8.1:
- Optimize Here you can optimize color codes.
- Analyze Analysis of a color code plan can be performed in this view.
- Retune Color code retunes can be performed in this view.

Figure 8.1 The GSM color code optimization options

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8.2 Color Code Options GSM
In GSM, Base Station Identity Codes (BSIC) and Training Sequence Codes (TSC) are
assigned to radios. The BSIC is associated to control radios only and it consists of a
Network Color Code (NCC) and a Base station Color Code (BCC).
Cellopt AFP will optimize both BSIC and TSC to selected radios if desired. It is possible to
allocate one BSIC and one TSC per sector. Available BCC and TSC are always 0-7
respectively and available NCC is specified in the Spectrum (Project) section discussed
previously.
The following GSM color-code optimization properties, shown in Figure 8.1 may be
specified (more details are found below):
- Lists The Lists (or rules) to consider in the color code optimization are specified
here.
- Rules Two options are set to achieve a desired color code planning strategy.
- Training sequence codes TSC reuse options are set here.
8.2.1 Lists GSM
Here you can select lists (or rules) to consider in the color code optimization; the
optimization priorities are derived from the specified lists. Neighbor, Interference and other
Lists loaded into the project may be chosen as well as Co-located lists (i.e., Co-Site and
Co-Sector) if any such rule is defined. The Co part of a list will be applied since the
optimization considers only co frequency reuse and not any adjacent frequency reuse.
Select the lists to be used to derive color code reuse priorities under the Priorities
column. Lists to be used as neighbor definitions (for Server and interferer option below)
are selected under the Neighbors column.
8.2.2 Rules GSM
You can use these options to set a desired color code planning strategy:
- Server and interferer This option is used to give preference for avoiding the same
BSIC, BCC or TSC on co-frequencies, i.e., reuse of BSIC, BCC or TSC, between a
server and interferer.
- Neighbor and interferer This option is used to give higher priority for avoiding the
same BSIC on a neighbor to a serving sector and interfering sectors to the same
server. This will improve handover performance since it is easier for the system to
distinguish between a handover candidate and an interferer to the same sector that
may cause a handover failure if selected. A neighbor list must be specified for this
feature to be active.
Specify a preference value for each alternative, indicating the respective importance.
Setting the same value for both options means they have equal importance, and setting
zero for an option means no importance (i.e., it is not considered at all).
You can also consider only co frequency reuse or both co and first order adjacent
frequency reuse when optimizing the BSIC. The latter option will result in an incurred
priority if two radios are assigned adjacent frequencies and co BSIC (if an adjacent priority
is defined between the sector pair).

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8.2.3 Filter - GSM
An interference list filer function is also available:
- Filter This applies a temporary filtering function on interference lists. Relations
where the co value is below or equal to the specified value is not considered by the
AFP optimizer in the analysis and optimization.
8.2.4 Training Sequence Codes GSM
There are two options to manage the planning of TSC, namely:
- Co-BSIC over co-TSC This gives a higher priority to consider co-BSIC, i.e., co-NCC
and co-BCC simultaneously, rather than co-BCC only on co-frequencies. BSIC is used
for handover purposes and the TSC is used by the GSM receiver for correcting bit
errors introduced by the radio environment.
It is thus possible to set preferences for BSIC over TSC. Specifying the value one
means equal importance (zero is not allowed here).
- Use another TSC than BSIC Use this to assign two TSC per sector. You must
specify a category with at least two layers. The sector radios in the layer (or layers)
excluding the control channel are assigned a separate TSC. The sector radios part of
the layer that includes the control radio will be assigned the TSC defined by BSIC.
For example, if you choose the category Radio Type having two layers, BCCH and
TCH, TCH radios may get a different TSC than the one defined by the BSIC (that will
be used for the BCCH radio).
Note: the BCC is always used as TSC on common control
channels.
- Ignore co-TSC between synchronized radios This is used to reflect that no TSC
(co-sequence) interference will occur between synchronized radios.

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8.3 Color Code Options TDMA & PDC
In TDMA and PDC mode, color code is the notation used and one color code is associated
to each radio. The following TDMA and PDC color-code optimization properties (see Figure
8.2) may be specified:
- Lists Here you specify the Lists (or rules) to consider in the color code optimization.
- Rules Set two options to achieve a desired color code planning strategy.
- Filter Lets you disable relations with low co values.
- Color code grouping Here you set options to control the assignment of color codes
per sector.
8.3.1 Lists TDMA & PDC
Lists (or rules) to consider in the color code optimization that is, optimization priorities
are derived from the specified lists are selected here. Neighbor, Interference and other
Lists loaded into the project may be chosen as well as possibly Co-located lists (Co-Site
and Co-Sector) if any such rule is defined. This is similar to the Lists selection for GSM
above.

Figure 8.2 The TDMA and PDC color-code optimization options

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8.3.2 Rules TDMA & PDC
Set the desired planning strategy by specifying a preference value for each alternative,
indicating its relative importance. The same value for both options means equal
importance and zero means no importance (it is not considered).
- Server and interferer Use this option to give a preference value for avoiding the
same color code on co-frequencies, i.e., reuse of color code, between a server and
interferer.
- Neighbor and interferer Use this option to give higher priority for avoiding the
same color code on a neighbor to a serving sector and interfering sectors to the same
server. A neighbor list must be specified for this feature to be active.
You can also consider only co-frequency reuse or both co- and first-order adjacent
frequency re-use when optimizing the color codes. The latter option results in an incurred
priority if two radios are assigned adjacent frequencies and co color code (if an adjacent
priority is defined between the sector pair).
8.3.3 Filter TDMA & PDC
An interference list filter function is available:
- Filter Check this box to apply a temporary filtering function on interference lists.
by the optimizer in the analysis and optimization.
8.3.4 Color Code Grouping TDMA & PDC
This option allows you detailed control over how the color codes should be assigned per
sector. Plan color codes per includes two predefined fields, Sector and Radio, as well
as any user-defined categories.
- Sector Used to assign a single color code per sector (assigned to all radios in the
sector). This should typically be used for a pure IS-136 digital network.
- Radio Used to plan color code per radio in sectors, i.e. each radio may be assigned a
unique color code. This is typically used for a pure analogue AMPS network.
If you select a user-defined category, its Layers will define groups that share color code
per sector. For example, a category with three layers will assign three groups of color
codes per sector, where all radios in each layer share the same color code that is, three
different color codes per sector are assigned. If you select a category, you can also assign
color codes per radios for layers of the selected category by using the Assign color codes
per radio for option and selecting one or more layers (hold down the Ctrl key and click on
an option to deselect a layer).

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8.4 Color Code Options iDEN
In iDEN, two color code entities, referred to as color code offsets and color codes, are
assigned to radios. One of each is associated with each sector. The color codes are
considered for all radios while the color code offsets are considered for control radios only.
The following iDEN color-code optimization properties may be specified (see Figure 8.3):
- Lists The Lists (or rules) to consider in the color code optimization are specified
here.
- Options Two options are set to achieve a desired color code planning strategy.
- Filter Allows you to disable relations with low co values.

Figure 8.3 The iDEN color code optimization options
8.4.1 Lists iDEN
The color code optimization priorities are derived from the lists that you select under the
Priorities column. Interference and other Lists loaded into the project may be chosen, as
well as Co-located lists (Co-Site and Co-Sector) if any such rules are defined.

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8.4.2 Options iDEN
There are two color code options:
- Co-color code and offset over co-color code This is used to give higher priority
to consider co-color code (DCC) and co-color code offset (PCCH) simultaneously rather
than co-color code only. Specifying the value 1 (one) means equal importance.
Specifying values smaller than 1 indicates lower importance. This factor scaling may be
specified between control radios and other radios. Other radios means that at least
one of the serving or interfering radios is a non-control radio. So it is possible to
associate the color code offset (PCCH) to either the control radio only or to all radios.
- Use priorities defined by adjacent column in permissions matrix Cellopt AFP
will use the interference values from the adjacent column in the interference matrix as
the color-code interference values, if enabled.
- Optimize color code offsets only This option is used if it desired to optimize the
color code offsets only. The color codes will then be unchanged, i.e. fixed.
8.4.3 Filter - iDEN
A function is also available to filter interference lists:
- Filter Here you can apply a temporary filtering function on interference lists.
by the AFP optimizer.
8.5 Analyze BSIC
Similar to Analyze Frequencies, in this view a color code plan can be examined in more
detail using a pivot table. More details about the use of the pivot and analyze report
features can be found in the Analyze (Frequencies) section on page 88.
The pivot function for color code analysis is the same as the one used for Analyze
Frequencies, except the Old frequency field is excluded.
In addition, the function includes:
- Old color code Used to report per original color code/BSIC (serving).
- Old BSIC Used to report per original BSIC (serving). For GSM projects only.
- Color code/Color codeR Used to report per optimized color code
(serving/interfering).
- BSIC/BSICR Used to report per optimized BSIC (serving/interfering). For GSM
projects only.
- Sector via Used to report sectors that have a neighbor with an interferer reusing
color code (both have the same color code or BSIC). This field in not used in iDEN.
Note, a GSM BSIC is specified as a NCC/BCC (TSC) pair. For iDEN, a color code includes
similarly a color code/color code offset pair.
The Summary analysis report will be presented in a table and it will include the analyze
properties below (apart from the selected pivot fields):
pivot.

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There are some additional analyze properties that are technology specific; see below.
8.5.1 Color Code Analyze Properties GSM
- Imp BSIC The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Important co-BSIC
rules (when it is simultaneously co-BSIC and co-frequency) in the selected pivot.
- Imp TSC The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Important co-TSC
rules (when it is simultaneously co-TSC and co-frequency) in the selected pivot.
- Int BSIC The weighted priority sum of the priorities from the violated Interference
co-BSIC rules in the selected pivot.
- Int TSC The weighted priority sum of the priorities from the violated Interference
co-TSC rules in the selected pivot.
If both co-BSIC and co-TSC violations occur between a sector pair, the incurred priority is
reported in the co-BSIC column only. For example, the Int BSIC column will include
interference priority from both the co-BSIC and co-TSC violations.
8.5.2 Color Code Analyze Properties TDMA & PDC
- Imp Co-CC The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Important co-color
code rules (when it is co-color code and co-frequency simultaneously) in the selected
pivot.
- Int Co-CC The weighted priority sum of the priorities from the violated Interference
co-color code rules in the selected pivot.
8.5.3 Color Code Analyze Properties iDEN
- Imp CC&CCO The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Important co-
color code and color code offset rules (when it is simultaneously co-color code, co-color
code offset and co-frequency) in the selected pivot.
- Imp CC The weighted sum of the priorities from the violated Important co-color
code rules (when it is simultaneously co-color code and co-frequency) in the selected
pivot.
- Int CC&CCO The weighted priority sum of the priorities from the violated
Interference co-color code and color code offset rules in the selected pivot.
- Int CC The weighted priority sum of the priorities from the violated Interference co-
color code rules in the selected pivot.
- Details shows all violated rules (one per row) of the selected summary row. The
detailed analysis properties are the same as in the detailed frequency analysis view. In
addition, the following properties are added:
Color code The color code assigned to the serving radio.
BSIC The BSIC assigned to the serving radio. For GSM projects only.
Color codeR The color code assigned to the interfering radio.
BSICR The BSIC assigned to the interfering radio. For GSM projects only.
The violations of the color code assignments are reported using the same technology-
specific analyze properties, as defined above.

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8.6 Optimize BSIC
The color code optimization is performed and managed in this view, and is similar to
Optimize Frequencies (see the previous section). Figure 8.4 shows an example of the
Optimize view. The radios to be assigned color codes (that is, to be optimized) are selected
in the Radio Editor similarly. The optimization progress is also identical to the Optimize
Frequencies progress.

Figure 8.4 The color code optimization view for GSM BSIC
8.7 Retune BSIC
Similar to Retune Frequencies, an interactive retune report for color code assignments is
available in this view. The function is the same as in Retune Frequencies, except that color
codes are shown instead of frequencies. The implication of color code reassignments are
shown, and color code retunes may be performed.
More details about the retune report features can be found under Retune Frequencies on
page 96.
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Export Plan 114

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9 Export Plan
9.1 Introduction
This section allows you to export optimized plans (frequencies, HSN & MAIO and color code
plans) to different formats. You can also save the contents of the radio editor to a file (see
page 116).
9.2 Export Plan
This is the last section in the Project mode, and is shown in Figure 9.1 below. The purpose
is to export frequency, HSN and MAIO, and color code plans to a file. Options to export,
delete or create a plan are available here.

Figure 9.1 The Export Plan view, where frequency, HSN & MAIO and color code plans may be
exported to file

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To export a plan, you need to specify the plan as well as the file name and format. Drop-
down list boxes display lists of the available plans and the supported file formats. RANX 3,
Cellopt AFP 3, Cellopt AFP 2, Planet 2.8 and ASSET XML are supported. Ericsson, Nokia and
Nortel BSC/OSS formats may also be available if the supplementary data required to
complete these formats is available.
Depending on the format, there may be a check-box for including disabled sites, sectors
and radios in the export; see the Network section above for more details. Also, for iDEN
projects you can include color code offsets in the export if Cellopt AFP 2 format is selected.
The iDEN Cellopt AFP 2 export only includes the color codes by default.
There is also a check box to export only those sectors or radios (depending on the selected
export format) selected in the Radio Editor.
An extended color code has been added to the plan export when the Cellopt AFP 2 format
is selected for iDEN. The extended color code is exported together with the color code
(DCC) and color code offset (PCCH), and it is always set to the same value as the color
code offset (PCCH) of a sector. In the export, a dot is used to separate the color codes in
the color code field. So, for example, 1.0 becomes 1.0.0.
For Cellopt 2 format, you can export the Optimi Wizard category and layers. A separate file
will be created with the text _CatsLayers added to the selected file name. The layers of
categories W:Technology and W:Channel Type are included in the export, as well as the
QUAD/WiDEN layers of the system category Set Strategy (TDMA and iDEN technologies
only).
The RANX export includes the entire network structure, all categories and layers, all
neighbor and interference lists, as well as the selected plan. No rules are exported. Only
GSM projects are supported at the moment.
The file formats are described in the Input and Outputs chapter of this User Guide (see
page 117).

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9.2.1 Save Radio Editor
Note that the link at the bottom of the Export Plan page displays the Save Radio Editor
page (Figure 9.2), which allows you to save the contents of the radio editor to file of type:
PDF, tab-delimited text, or HTML format.

Figure 9.2 The Save Radio Editor page
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Input and Output Formats 117

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10 Input and Output Formats
10.1 Introduction
This section gives an overview of the supported Cellopt AFP input and output formats:
- Tab delimited (for import only)
- Cellopt AFP 2
- Cellopt AFP 3
- Planet 2.8
- ASSET
- Nokia interference matrix
- Ericsson interference matrix
Explicit details on the Planet and ASSET formats can be found in their respective User
Guides. A document describing the Cellopt AFP 2 format comes with the installation, and it
can be found in the doc folder under the installation folder on your PC. The Cellopt AFP 3
format is described in more detail on page 126. The RANX 3 format can be used for data
exchange between Actix applications please contact Actix Support for further
information.
10.2 Tab delimited import
10.2.1 Overview
This feature is divided up into GSM and iDEN support.
10.2.1.1 Ease of import
The idea behind this format is to ease the import process from file, since XML or Cellopt2
messages are not straightforward. This also means that some configurations cannot be
achieved with this format. However, in most cases, using this format will save time.
For example, category and layers will be created automatically upon import of the BCCH
and TCH frequencies. Another example is that one row defines one sector instead of one
radio. Radio specific assignments are still possible to do.
10.2.1.2 Two files
The format consists of two files, one for sectors and one for all relations from all lists. But
the files are not dependent on each other so they can be imported separately. Both files
include one header line and the rest are data lines.
(You could also store relations in one file for each relation list. This would make file
creation easier but you would need to keep track of more files.)
The files are referred to as the sector file and the relation file.

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10.2.2 Columns
10.2.2.1 General
Each file consists of a header line that defines the available columns in the file. Column
names are not case sensitive and they should not include any spaces.
The rest of the file contains data lines.
10.2.2.2 Mandatory and optional columns
There are mandatory columns and optional columns. Some columns become mandatory
based on the content or availability of another column.
10.2.2.3 Technology differences
In the sector file, some columns differ between the GSM and iDEN technology. The relation
file is technology-independent.
10.2.2.4 Sector File Columns
The table below shows all the available columns. All columns with a green background are
mandatory. For Color codes like BSIC vs. NCC and BCC, one or the other must exist. This
is specified in the Mandatory columns below with a number that shows what columns in
the file can be used instead of the other: 1a instead of 1b (so for example, either BSIC
must be defined, or NCC and BCC must be defined). For more information about the Type,
see page 120.
GSM/TETRA iDEN/LMR Type
Mandatory
GSM/iDEN/LMR TETRA
Action Action Enum No No
Enabled Enabled Boolean No No
BSC BSC String No No
Site Site String Yes Yes
Sector Sector String Yes Yes
Radios Radios Integer Yes Yes
MCC MCC Integer No No
MNC MNC Integer No No
LAC LAC Integer No No
CI CI Integer No No
BCCH - Integer Yes No
BSIC - Integer Yes/No 1a No
NCC - Integer Yes/No 1b No
BCC - Integer Yes/No 1b No
TCH - CSV of Integer No Yes
MAL - CSV of Integer No No
HSN - Integer No No
MAIO - CSV of Integer No No
HoppingType -
Enum or CSV of
Yes No

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GSM/TETRA iDEN/LMR Type
Mandatory
GSM/iDEN/LMR TETRA
Enum
- BandMap Integer Yes No
- Colorcode Integer Yes/No 2a No
- DCC Integer Yes/No 2b No
- PCCH Integer Yes/No 2b No
- Channel Integer No No
- SET
CSV of Integer
and pipe used to
define SubSets No No
- SubSET CSV of Integer No No
- SetStrategy
Enum or CSV of
Enum Yes No
- Combiner Integer No No
-
Concentric
Parent
Enum or sector
name No No
Donorsector Donor sector
Enum or sector
name No No
Vendor - String No No
HCL HCL
String or CSV of
String No No
Band Band
String or CSV of
String No No
Latitude Latitude Float No No
Longitude Longitude Float No No
Azimuth Azimuth Float No No
Height Height Float No No
Tilt Tilt Float No No
BeamWidth BeamWidth Float No No
AntennaType AntennaType String No No
Area Area Float No No
Traffic Traffic Float No No
Alias[name] Alias[name] String No No
Category[name] Category[name]
String or CSV of
String No No

10.2.2.5 Relation File Columns
GSM / iDEN/LMR/TETRA Type Mandatory
Action Enum No
Site String Yes

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GSM / iDEN/LMR/TETRA Type Mandatory
Sector String Yes
SiteR String Yes
SectorR String Yes
PenaltyCo[name] Float No
PenaltyAdj[name] Float No
Relation[name] Boolean No

10.2.2.6 Aliases and Categories
Both aliases and categories are specified in a special way. Multiple alias and category
definitions may exist.
An alias always refers to a sector, while a category layer can refer to a sector or radio.
Alias must start with the name Alias[ followed by the category name followed by ] For
example the alias AliasName would be specified like this:
Alias[SwitchName]
Categories are specified in the same way; for example, the category Border would be
specified like this:
Category[Border]
10.2.3 Values
10.2.3.1 Data types
Values are not strict. This means, for example, that a float column could be assigned an
integer, and enumerations are not case sensitive, and the reader will still understand what
it means.
The file format is also not sensitive to commas or dots in float it works with both.
Enumerations are comma-separated but always contain strings or integers. Strings in
enumerations are not case-sensitive.
Boolean values are not case-sensitive.
Below are some examples of the data types available:
Data type Example
Integer 0, 1, 2,
Float 7.1 or 7,1 etc
String Abcd
Boolean True: true, 1, y, t
False: false, 0, n, f
10.2.3.2 CSV
CSV stands for Comma Separated Values, and is used to define more than one value at a
time. In the tab-delimited format, this is used to define different values for different
radios.

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10.2.3.3 Enumerations
In some columns, only enumerations can be used. Here are all the enumerations that are
common to GSM and iDEN specified. Technology specific enumerations are defined under
each technology section.
Action Enumerations
There is an action column that if exists specifies what to do with the data. The action
column is not mandatory so there is also default behaviour in case it is missing.
Available Actions (enumeration values):
Value
Alternative
values Explanation
Create C Creates a sector or relation
Modify M Modifies sector or relation
Delete D Deletes a relation (not for sector file)
Ignore I
Default. Value can be empty or I or Ignore.
The data reader ignores the data line

The default behavior when action column is not specified or the value is empty is either
Modify or Create. This is depending on if the sector specified is found or not. The table
below specifies this.

No action specified

Sector/Relation found not found

- Create

Modify -

When an action is specified, this is the behavior of the data reader.
Action specified

Sector/Relation
found not found
Create - Create
Modify Modify -
Delete Delete (Relation only) -
Ignore - -

Donor sector Enumerations
This column refers to the system category with the same name. It can contain
not_repeater or any sector name (site-sector). Site and Sector names are separated with
a -.

10.2.4 Special data import behavior
There are some special data import behaviours to make the main stream import as smooth
as possible. Below are all these specified.

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CellGLID In order to create CellGLID alias map, all the columns (MCC, MNC, LAC and
CI) must be specified. If populated, the sector will have an instance in this alias map. In all
other cases, the alias map for the sector will be empty.
LAC-CI This is a subset of the CellGLID map, used to remove the single-value fields MCC
and MNC.
If LAC and CI columns exists, then the alias map LAC-CI will be created. . If populated,
the sector will have an instance in this alias map. In all other cases, the alias map for the
sector will be empty.

BSC The BSC column creates a Category BSC with Layers. This acts as a shortcut for
column Category[BSC]. Technically these could accept a CSV of strings but actually one
value would always be used.
HCL HCL if specified: Category[HCL]. It can take one String value or CSV of String to
specify radio level assignments.
10.2.5 GSM specific behavior
HoppingType
The HoppingType column is mandatory, but the columns TCH, MAL, HSN and MAIO are
not. Depending on the hopping type, the different columns mentioned become mandatory.

Value Alternative values Explanation Mandatory
Default, d
Mandatory columns are not
determined here -
Non hopping nonhop, non, no
An empty column also
means non hop TCH
Baseband base, bb, b
MAL, HSN,
MAIO
Synth sector 1 synth, sfh, s
MAL, HSN,
MAIO
Synth site 1 ssfh
MAL, HSN,
MAIO

The hopping type column is either a single value or a CSV of strings to indicate the
different hopping types on the radio level.
When specifying one value, the whole sector is of this hopping type, except for the
control radio.
Note however, that if the hopping is specified on the radio level, then this also includes the
control radio.
Some examples of sector hopping configuration:
Not hopping case
Sector Radios HoppingType BCCH TCH
A 4 no 122 98, 100, 102
This assigns all radios in sector A to non hopping; the first radio will be control and have
the BCCH=122 assigned; the rest of frequencies will be taken from TCH.


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Baseband case
Sector Radios HoppingType BCCH MAL HSN MAIO
B 4 base 122 98, 100, 102 7 0,1,2
This assigns all radios in sector A to baseband hopping; the first radio will be control and
have the BCCH=122 assigned; the rest of frequencies will be taken from MAL. The HSN will
be assigned to all radios, and MAIO 0, 1 and 2 will be assigned to the TCH radios.

Synth hopping
case
Sector Radios HoppingType BCCH MAL HSN MAIO
B 4 n,s,s,s 122 98, 100, 102 7 0,1,2
This will assign the first radio to non hopping; the rest will be synth sector hopping. BCCH
will be assigned to the first radio, and the customized MAL will be created (98, 100, 102).
The HSN will be assigned to all radios, and MAIO 0, 1 and 2 will be assigned to the TCH
radios.

Non hopping plus synth case
Sector Radios HoppingType BCCH TCH MAL HSN MAIO
B 4 n,,s,s 122 98
100, 102, 104, 106,
109 7 0,2
This will assign the first radio to non-hopping, the second to default (non-hopping in this
case) and the last two will be synth-sector hopping. BCCH will be assigned to the first
radio, the second will be assigned 98 from TCH. The last two radios will hop over the
customized MAL defined by the MAL column. The HSN will be assigned to all radios and
MAIO 0, 1 and 2 will be assigned to the TCH radios.

BSIC and NCC, BCC
You have an option to specify the BSIC with NCC + BCC or with BSIC. One of (NCC+BCC)
or BSIC must exist.
In case all three columns are specified, the NCC and BCC will override any inconsistent
values.

Vendor
Vendor if specified: Category[Vendor]. Technically these could accept a CSV of strings but
actually one value would always be used.

Band
Band is doing the same thing: Category[Band]. It can take one String value or CSV of
String to specify radio-level assignments.

BCCH, TCH, MAL
These columns may be mandatory based on the Hopping Type and specify the following:
The BCCH frequency is assigned to the first radio in every sector.

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The TCH frequencies are specified as CSV values excluding the BCCH frequency. These are
assigned to the radios in the sector in the specified order. So radio 2 gets the first value, 3
the second etc., in case these radios are specified to be non-hopping.
The MAL will be created as (customized MAL) and assigned to the radios that are specified
as being either baseband or synth-hopping.
The first radio will be assigned to the system Category-Layer (Control radio - control). The
rest of the radios are assigned to (Control radio not_control)
The first radio will be assigned to the user-defined Category-Layer (Channel Type - BCCH).
The rest of the radios are assigned to (Channel Type TCH).
As a final step, after all rows have been imported, the data reader will check for a band
split between BCCH and TCH by keeping a list of all BCCH and TCH frequencies used. If a
band split is found, then this is stored as forbidden frequencies in the Channel Type
categories BCCH and TCH.
If the project is empty, you will be asked if a band split should be applied listing the
used/forbidden frequencies for both.
If the project is not empty from the start, the forbidden frequencies setup is checked for
BCCH and TCH. In case this is violated in the file, you will be asked to ignore it or change
the forbidden frequency list.
10.2.6 iDEN-specific behavior
SetStrategy
The SetStrategy column is the equivalent to the hoppingtype column in GSM. It defines if a
radio contains an adhoc frequency or some sort of frequency group.
Depending of the SetStrategy column, some columns become mandatory. See the table
below.

SetStrategy Value
Alternative
values
Mandatory
columns
freq_grp
defined in
Default, d
Mandatory columns
not determined
here -
ADHOC ad, a Channel -
SETS_ONLY sets, set, s SET SET
SETS_AND_SUBSETS sub, subsets, ss SET, SubSET SET and SubSET
SETS_AND_INDIVIDUAL ind, i SET, Channel SET
QUAD_X q_x, qx Channel -
WIDEN_X w_x, wx Channel -
MCRB_X m_x, mx Channel -

For QUAD, WIDEN and MCRB the X must be a digit between (and including) 1 to 8.

The SET column defines the set of frequencies in a csv format.
If the SetStrategy is SETS_AND_SUBSETS, then the format is a little different in order to
allow definition of the subsets as well. This is done with the pipe | character.


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Example of a SET column defining both the set and the SubSETs:
1,2,3|4,5,6,7|8,9,10

Where
- SubSET = 1 is 1,2,3
- SubSET = 2 is 4,5,6,7
- SubSET = 3 is 8,9,10

Furthermore, the SubSET column will contain one of 4 options:
- empty value = the whole set is used
- 1 = SubSET 1 is used

See also where the frequency group is defined in each case.

If the SET column is specified and populated it overrides any conflicting values specified in
the Channel column.

QUAD / WIDEN
This format does not support SET planning with QUADs and WIDEN radios.

Colorcode and DCC, PCCH
You have an option to specify the Colorcode with DCC + PCCH or simply the Colorcode.
One of (DCC + PCCH) or Colorcode must exist.
In case all three columns are specified, the DCC + PCCH will override any inconsistent
values.

BandMap, Channel, SET, SubSET
These columns may be mandatory based on the SetStrategy and specify the following:
The BandMap frequency is assigned to the first radio in every sector
The Channel frequencies are specified as CSV values excluding the Channel frequency.
These are assigned to the radios in the sector in the specified order. So radio 2 gets the
first value, 3 the second etc. This is in case these radios are specified to be adHoc,
sets_and_individual, quad_x, widen_x or mcrb_x.
If some radios are adhoc and some use SET or in a combination such that a CSV of integer
does not work, then those values in the CSV may be empty. For example, radio 1 to 3 uses
set and the rest uses adhoc. This would be presented as ,,,33,34,35. The first three would
be defined in the SET column.
The SETs will be created as frequency groups and assigned to the radios that are specified
as being either SETS_ONLY, SETS_AND_SUBSETS or SETS_AND_INDIVIDUAL.

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The first radio will be assigned to the system Category-Layer (Control radio - control). The
rest of the radios are assigned to (Control radio not_control)

Concentric Parent and Combiner
These columns refer to the system categories with the same names. Combiner has the
values 1 to 7 or unassigned.
Concentric Parent can have the value not inner or any sector name (site-sector). Site
and Sector names are separated with a -.
10.3 Cellopt AFP 2 Format
Cellopt AFP 2 format is a message-based, tab-delimited format. Each message specifies
something; for example, one radio or one attribute on a sector.
For a detailed description of the Cellopt2 messages, please refer to the
CellOpt2fileinterface document that is available in the doc folder under the Cellopt AFP
installation directory.
10.4 Cellopt AFP 3 Format
Cellopt AFP 3 is an XML-based format. XML makes use of tags (i.e., words bracketed by '<'
and '>') to delimit data. Furthermore, attributes (of the form name="value") are used to
describe and provide additional information about data elements. It is a text-based format
and it can be viewed within a text editor or an XML-enabled browser.
10.4.1 Character Encoding
Cellopt AFP allows international character sets to be used wherever possible. The character
sets used depend on the context, described below:
- The Unicode encoding UTF-8 is used in the Cellopt AFP database.
- XML and HTML files exported from Cellopt AFP will usually specify and use UTF-8. UTF-
16 is also supported.
- Import formats that are based on XML will be imported in the character encoding
specified in the XML file.
- Plain text formats will be detected during import and are exported using the default
Microsoft Windows character encoding, which will depend on the language of the
Windows installation.
10.4.2 Input Data
A number of data are generally required to build a project. The following external data
sources are generally needed:
- Radio database This contains information on all the sites, sectors and radios in the
network to be considered. It contains, for example, sector names, which site the sector
is on, numbers of radios required and existing frequencies, HSN and MAIO and color
codes allocated. The radio database is stored under XML tag <network> using tags
<site> and <sector>, <radio>, <frequency>, <colorcode>, <frequencygroup>,
<frequencygroupentry>, <plans>, <plan>, <groupplanentry>, and
<frequencyplanentry>.
- Spectrum lists A list of sectors and their undesired or forbidden frequencies and
color codes. Undesired or forbidden frequencies and color codes are stored per sector

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in XML tag <sector>,<undesired_frequency>, <forbidden_frequency>,
<undesired_group>, <forbidden_group> and <forbidden_colorcode>.
- Neighbor lists A list of the neighbor relations in the network. A neighbor list is also
described by XML tag <list> including <rel>, see below for more details. Note that for
a list to be defined completely, each site and sector must have been described by tags
<site> and <sector> as well.
- Interference lists A list specifying how much traffic or area will be interfered if two
radios in two particular sectors are allocated to the same or adjacent frequencies. An
interference list is also described by XML tag <list> including <rel>. Note, for a list to
be defined completely, each site and sector must have been described by tags <site>
and <sector>.
- Other lists Exception, 2
nd
order neighbor, site neighbor and distance lists are
included in this category. The exception list is a list of the exceptions in the network,
e.g., separation requirements for different sector relations. 2
nd
order neighbor, site
neighbor and distance lists are similar to Interference lists and contain interference
relations between sector pairs based on different properties. Other lists are also
described by tag XML <list> including <rel>. Note, for a list to be defined completely,
each site and sector must have been described by tags <site> and <sector>.
10.4.3 Output Files
Cellopt AFP 3 may generate several outputs. These output types may be exported to file:
- Project A file container of an exported project. A project is described by XML tag
<cellopt_afp> or <project>.
- Template A file that contains all Cellopt AFP 3 project settings. The settings could
be, for example, optimization options and export format used. Apart from frequency
and color code spectrum, network specific data (e.g., such as lists and rules associated
with them) are not included in a template. A template is described by XML tag
<cellopt_afp>.
- Plan A file that includes frequency and color code assignments for all radios in the
network. The network is described by tag <network> and spectrum is described by tag
<spectrum>. The actual assignments are stored in tag <plan>. Altogether, a number
of tags are required to describe a plan.
- The attributes of the tags described above are detailed below.
10.4.4 XML Tags
A Cellopt AFP 3 project is described using a number of XML tags and attributes, in the
tables below. Attributes in italic are optional. In the description field of tags and attributes,
the following legend is used:
Token Type
[i] Integer
[s] String
[f] Floating precision
[d] Double precision
[it] Integer given as PCDATA
[st] String given as PCDATA

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Token Type
[ft] Float given as PCDATA
[dt] Double given as PCDATA

Furthermore, a range format consists of comma-separated range tokens. The range tokens
can consist of a single integer or a range of integers separated by a - character. For
example, 1,3-4,7-12 expands to the integers 1,3,4,7,8,9,10,11,12 respectively.
10.4.4.1 <cellopt_afp>
<cellopt_afp> is the root node and the container of a Cellopt AFP project and of the
selection of radios to be optimized.
Attribute Description
Type Type of export. The accepted values are: PLAN, TEMPLATE, LIST
or MODEL. [s]

Tag Multiplicity Description
<model> 1 Cellopt AFP project.
<selection> 0..1 Selection of sites, sectors and radios to be
optimized.
10.4.4.2 <Model>
<Model> is the project container.
id Project id. [i]
name Project name. [s]

<network> 1 Network contained within the project.
<spectrum> 1 The spectrums defined in this project.
<plans> 1 Frequency plans.
<categories> 0..1 Category and layer roots.
<rules> 1 Planning rules.
<model_settings> 0..1 Project settings.
10.4.4.3 <selection>
<selection> contains the radios selected to be assigned a resource, i.e., to be optimized.
<selected_site> 0.. * Radios of site selected.
<selected_sector> 0.. * Radios of sector selected.
<selected_radio> 0.. * Individual radios selected.

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10.4.4.4 <selected_site>
<selected_site> represents a selection of all radios belonging to a specific site.
id Site id, unique within the project. This id is the same as inside the
<network> tag, when defining a site. [i]
10.4.4.5 <selected_sector>
<selected_sector> represents a selection of all radios belonging to a specific sector.
id Sector id, unique within the project. This id is the same as inside the
<network> tag, when defining a sector. [i]
10.4.4.6 <selected_radio>
<selected_radio> represents a selection of a specific radio.
id Radio id, unique within the project. This id is the same as inside the
<network> tag, when defining a radio. [i]
10.4.4.7 <network>
<network> is the root node of a Cellopt AFP network.
<site> 0..* Sites in the network.
<list> 0..* Lists.
<sector_alias_maps> 0..* Sector alias maps
10.4.4.8 <site>
<site> represents a site in the network.
id Site id, unique within the project. [i]
name Site name. [s]
latitude Sites latitude in decimal degrees. [d]
longitude Sites longitude in decimal degrees. [d]
disabled Specifies if the site is disabled or not. no or yes. [s]

<layer_id> 0..* Id of layers related to this site. The attribute id is
the id of the layer referred to.
<sector> 0..* Sectors within this site.

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10.4.4.9 <sector>
<sector> represents a sector in the network.
id Sector id, unique within the project. [i]
name Sector name. [s]
azimuth Sectors azimuth. If a sector does not have an azimuth value,
a default value is used instead. [f]
height Sectors height. [f]
tilt Sectors tilt. [f]
beamwidth Sectors beam width. Cellopt MDA only. [f]
antennatype Description of sectors antenna type. [s]
servedtraffic Sectors served traffic. [f]
servedarea Sectors served area. [f]
donor_id The ID of the donor sector (sector_id). When specifying
another sector as a donor sector, all radio information will be
ignored (because of repeater characteristics). [i]
disabled Specifies if the sector is disabled or not. no or yes. [s]

<layer_id> 0..* ID of layers related to this sector. The attribute
id is the id of the layer referred to.
<undesired_frequency> 0..* Undesired frequencies for this sector. The
attribute id is the id of the frequency referred
to.
<undesired_group> 0..* Undesired frequency group for this sector. The
attribute id is the id of the frequency group
referred to.
<forbidden_frequency> 0..* Forbidden frequencies for this sector. The
to.
<forbidden_colorcode> 0..* Forbidden color codes for this sector. The
attribute id is the id of the color code referred
to. For GSM, these are BSIC. For iDEN, these
are color codes (not color code offsets)
<forbidden_group> 0..* Forbidden frequency group for this sector. The
referred to.
<radio> 0..* Radios on this sector.
10.4.4.10 <radio>
<radio> represents a radio in the network.
id Radio id, unique within the project. [i]

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name Radio name, unique within the sector. [s]
pos Radio position within this sector. [i]
control_id no = no control, yes = primary control. [s]
group The type of radio group that this radio belongs to. The
accepted values are: GLOBAL, ADHOC, BASEBAND,
SYNTH_SECTOR_1,
SYNTH_SECTOR_2, SYNTH_SECTOR_3,
SYNTH_SECTOR_4,
SYNTH_SITE_1, SYNTH_SITE_2,
SYNTH_SITE_3, SYNTH_SITE_4, SETS_ONLY,
SETS_AND_SUBSETS, SETS_AND_INDIVIDUAL, QUAD_1,
WiDEN_1, QUAD_2, WiDEN_2, etc. up to
QUAD_8/WiDEN_8
and MCRB_1 up to MRCB_8. [s]
disabled Specifies if the radio is disabled or not. no or yes. [s]
selected Specifies if the radio is selected or not (only included for plan
exports). no or yes. [s]
intermod Specified if the radio should be assigned adjacent frequencies.
ADJACENT. [s]

<layer_id> 0..* Id of layers related to this radio. The
attribute id is the id of the layer referred to.

10.4.4.11 <list>
<list> represents a sector relation list used by the optimizer.
id List id, unique within the project. [i]
name Lists name. [s]
type Type of list. Valid values are NEIGHBOR, INTERFERENCE,
DISTANCE and OTHER. [s]

<rel> 0..* Sector-sector relations.

10.4.4.12 <rel>
<rel> represents a sector to sector relation.
s1 Id of sector 1 (interfered). [i]
s2 Id of sector 2 (interfering). [i]

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co Optional, only for interference lists, co interference value. A
dot is used to separate decimal values. [f]
adj Optional, only for interference lists, adjacent interference
value. A dot is used to separate decimal values [f]
10.4.4.13 <spectrum>
<spectrum> represents the frequency and color code spectrum. There can be multiple
spectrum tags within a project, each representing a different technology.
id Spectrum id, unique within the project. It is optional in
projects with only one spectrum. [i]
technology Technology associated with this spectrum. This is always
optional, as it might not be known at all times. Allowed values
are GSM, IDEN, TDMA, PDC and GENERIC. [s]

<frequency> 0..* Available frequencies. [it]
<frequency_range> 0..* Available frequencies expressed in the range
format. [st]
<colorcode> 0..* Available color code. [i]
<colorcode_range> 0..* Available color codes expressed in the range
format. [st]
<frequencygroup> 0..* Frequency groups in the set template.
10.4.4.14 <frequency>
<frequency> defines a specific individual frequency within the spectrum. All frequencies
are expressed as channel numbers.
id Frequency value, unique for all frequencies within a spectrum.
This value expresses frequencies as channel numbers. [i]
available This attribute marks if this frequency is a frequency available
for the optimization. No value is associated to this attribute,
just .
control This attribute marks if this frequency is a control frequency
(iDEN only). No value is associated to this attribute, just .
10.4.4.15 <colorcode>
<colorcode> defines a specific individual color code within the spectrum. The nature of
these data types depends a lot on the technology used. In GSM, they represent BSIC
values (a combination of NCC and BCC). In TDMA and PDC, the color code value is a
generic color code. In iDEN, Color Code Offsets (CCO) and Color Codes (CC) are specified.
The color code value is then CCO*100+CC. The value specified by the id attribute is in the
native format appropriate for the technology.

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id Color code value, unique for all color codes within a spectrum.
[i]
10.4.4.16 <frequencygroup>
<frequencygroup> represents a frequency group within the spectrum.
id Frequency group id, unique within the spectrum. This does
not need to be unique against ordinary frequencies. For
example, frequency 1 and group 1 can both exist in the same
spectrum, but MAL1 cannot co-exist with Set1, as they are
both groups. [i]
type Type of frequency group. MAL, CMAL or SET. [s]

<frequencygroupentry> 0..* Frequencies in this group.
10.4.4.17 <frequencygroupentry>
<frequencygroupentry> represents a frequency and its role in the frequency group.
freq Frequency as declared in spectrum [i]
pos The position of the frequency within this group [i]
type Frequencys role in this group. CONTROL or
ALTERNATIVE_CONTROL [s]
10.4.4.18 <plans>
Under <plans>, all frequency plans in the system are stored.
<plan> 0..* Plans in the system.
10.4.4.19 <plan>
<plan> represents a frequency plan within the project.
id Plan id, unique within the project. [i]
name Plan name. [s]
type Plans role in this project. ORIGINAL, CURRENT or MDA.
[s]

<frequencyplanentry> 0..* Single frequency assignments in this plan.
<groupplanentry> 0..* Frequency group assignments in this plan.

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10.4.4.20 <groupplanentry>
<groupentry> represents a frequency group assignment to a number of radios.
group_id Frequency group id. [i]
colorcode Color code value. [i]
hsn HSN value. [i]
sync Sync group identifier. [i]

<radio_id> 1..* Radio id of radios that have the same
frequency group assignment. The attribute
id is the id of the radio referred to. [i].The
optional attribute maio specifies the maio
setting for this radio. [i]
10.4.4.21 <frequencyplanentry>
<frequencyplanentry> represents a frequency assignment to a single radio.
radio_id Id of radio that has the frequency assignment. [i]
frequency Id of assigned frequency. [i]
group_id Frequency group id. [i]
color code Color code value. [i]
hsn HSN value. [i]
maio MAIO value. [i]
Sync Sync group identifier. [i]
10.4.4.22 <categories>
Under <categories>, all categories in the system are stored.
<category> 0..* Categories in the system.
10.4.4.23 <category>
<category> represents a category in the network.
id Category id, unique within the network. [i]
name Category name. [s]

<layer> 0* Layers within this category.

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10.4.4.24 <layer>
<layer> represents a layer in the network.
id Layer id, unique within the network. [i]
name Layer name. [s]

<undesired_frequency> 0..* Undesired frequencies for this layer. The
to.
<forbidden_frequency> 0..* Forbidden frequencies for this layer. The
to.
<forbidden_colorcode> 0..* Forbidden color codes for this layer. The
attribute id is the id of the color code referred
to.
<undesired_group> 0..* Undesired frequency group for this layer. The
referred to.
<forbidden_group> 0..* Forbidden frequency group for this layer. The
referred to.
10.4.4.25 <rules>
Under <rules>, all planning rules in the system are stored.
red_over_yellow The classes value for strict priorities compared with important
priorities. [i]
yellow_over_green The classes value for important priorities compared with
interference priorities. [i]
10.4.4.26 <rule>
<rule> represents a rule in the network.
id Rule id, unique within the project. [i]
list_id Id of list that this rule applies to. [i]
layer_id Id of layer that this rule applies to. If the rule is being
defined on the list level, then this attribute is left out.
[i]
apply_interfered_interfering Apply rule when layer is both interfered and interfering.
Valid values are yes and no. Only for rules on the
category/layer level. Common for all rules with the
same list/category/layer combination. [s]
separation The separation. Values are 0, 1, 2, [i]

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priority The priority of the rule. Valid values are red, yellow,
and green. [s]
weight The weight of the rule. Must be a non-negative float. [f]

<advanced_rule_properties> 01 Properties that only apply to
interference lists.
10.4.4.27 <advanced_rule_properties>
<advanced_rule_properties> represents the rule settings for an interference list.
<scaling> 1 Container element for the scaling
properties.
<thresholds> 0..1 Container element for the threshold
property.
<frequency_hopping> 0..1 Container element for the frequency
hopping properties. Only include this
section if using frequency hopping.
Common for all rules with the same list /
category / layer combination.
10.4.4.28 <scaling>
<scaling> represents the rule settings for the scaling.
normalize_number_radios Normalized by number of radios in the interfered sector.
Common for all rules with the same list / category / layer
combination. [s]
multiply_sector_traffic Multiply with the traffic in the interfered sector. Accepted
values: yes or no. Common for all rules with the same
list / category / layer combination. [s]
interfering_weight Weight if radios from this layer are interfering. [f]
relative_traffic Relative amount of traffic a radio from this layer carries in
the interfered sector. Common for all rules with the same
list / category / layer combination. [f]
relative_interference Relative amount of interference a radio from this layer
experiences in the interfered sector. Common for all rules
with the same list / category / layer combination. [f]
10.4.4.29 <threshold>
<threshold> represents the rule settings for the thresholds.
absolute The absolute threshold. The attribute active can be yes
or no. [f]

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priority The priority used. The value is red, yellow, or green.
[f]
weight The weight of the threshold rule. [f]
10.4.4.30 <frequency_hopping>
<frequency_hopping> represents the rule settings for the frequency hopping.
traffic_load Traffic load per sector. The value is given as a percentage
value. [f]
dtx DTX voice activity. The value is given as a percentage
value. [f]
dpc Downlink power control gain at cell border. The value is
given as a percentage value. [f]
amr AMR. The value is the value of this element The value is
given as a percentage value [f]
amr_subscribers Percentage subscribers. Must be present if the attribute
amr is present. [f]
10.4.4.31 <Model settings_settings>
<model_settings> represents project specific settings.
technology Technology of project. Recognized technologies are:
GENERIC, GSM, TDMA, IDEN and PDC. [s]

<mal_setting> 0..* MAL settings for this project. GSM
specific.
<option> 0..* Options for this project.
<frequency_hopping_gains> 0..1 Frequency hopping gains.
10.4.4.32 <mal_setting>
<mal_setting> specifies the lengths of the legal MAL in different parts of the network.
layer_id Layer id that this particular setting applies to. If left out, the settings
apply to global level. [i]
min_length Minimum MAL length. [i]
max_length Maximum MAL length. [i]
common_length Common denominator of the resulting calculated MAL. [i]
fractional_load Percentage value of the preferred fractional load. [i]

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10.4.4.33 <option>
<option> indicates settings set by the user in the user interface for a project.
params Optional, for compatibility with earlier versions of Cellopt
AFP.
type The type of option being set. Mandatory unless params is
set.

<param> 0..* An individual setting.
10.4.4.34 <param>
<param> indicates an individual setting within an <option>.
name The name of a setting.
value The current value of the setting.
10.4.4.35 <frequency_hopping_gains>
<frequency_hopping_gains> specifies the interference reduction expressed as scaling
values.
gain_2 Scaling value that should be applied to interfered side of relations
that hop over two frequencies. [i]
that hop over four frequencies. [i]
that hop over eight frequencies. [i]
that hop over 16 frequencies. [i]
that hop over 32 frequencies. [i]
10.4.4.36 <sector_alias_maps>
<sector_alias_maps> stores the sector alias maps.
<alias_maps> 0..* Alias map for this project.

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10.4.4.37 <alias_map>
<alias_map> represents a sector alias map.
id Id of alias map, unique within the project. [i]
name Name of alias map. [s]

<alias> 0..* Sector aliases for this alias map.
10.4.4.38 <alias>
<alias> represents a sector alias (i.e. alternative name for a sector).
Sector_id Sector id. [i]
name Sector alias name (alternative name). [s]
10.5 Planet 2.8 Format
Cellopt AFP supports import from Planet format, up to version 2.8. The required
information about the network, i.e., radio database (e.g., sector names, numbers of radios
required and existing frequencies allocated), are extracted from the Planet carrier and site
files. Note that these files include some information that are not imported or stored in the
Cellopt AFP database. Cellopt AFP imports only the required properties. You can also
import Planet exceptions, interference and neighbor files (i.e., lists) as well as export
optimized plans to a carrier file. More information about the Planet 2.8 format can be
found in the Planet 2.8 User and Technical Reference Guides.
10.6 ASSET Format
The ASSET v4.2, v5.0, v5.1, v5.2 and v6.0 XML formats are supported. You can load the
following files into Cellopt AFP (note that the files must be loaded in this order):
- Cell-Site-List
- GSM-Cell-List
- Neighbour-List
- Car-Layer-List
- Asset AIT (interference table)
- Property-List
- Antenna-List
Site, sector, radio and layer information as well as parameter assignments are imported.
Cellopt AFP does not read all information in the above files; only data useful for Cellopt is
imported. The order of load is important. The neighbor data must be loaded after the site
and sector data. If Overlaid/Underlaid layers are defined in the interference table, separate
lists will be created (for each layer respectively).
Frequency, HSN & MAIO and BSIC assignments may also be exported from the Export
section to a GSM-CELL-LIST file for importing back into ASSET.

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Choose the appropriate export format, either 4.2, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2 or 6.0.
10.7 Plan Export to GSM OSS/BSC Formats
In GSM projects, you can export plans to Ericsson, Nortel or Nokia OSS/BSC formats. The
supplier of the radios (and sectors) in the network are identified using the BSC type
category see the Layers section on page 52. To complete the OSS/BSC formats,
supplementary data must be available in the project. In general, the supplementary data
includes a mapping between the sector (cell) identity used in the OSS/BSC and name used
in Cellopt. The format of the files including the supplementary data is tab-separated
columns where the first column consists of a command which is the name of supplier and
the OSS/BSC version information. The next two columns are the site name and the sector
name used in Cellopt AFP 3. Any additional columns are specific for each supplier, see
below. Note that the supplementary data is not included in a project export and must thus
be reloaded when the project is imported.
For Ericsson, the generated export fulfils CNA interface format for GSM OSS R9.1. For
Nokia, the generated export fulfils the XML format for Nokia CM Plan Manager RAM 2.0.
10.7.1 Nortel Supplementary Data
Syntax:
Nortel<tab><site><tab><sector><tab><omc><tab><id><tab><lac><tab><mcc><tab
><mnc><tab><bsc>
Example:
Nortel CentralStation North omc1 111 11000 206 10 1
bsc1
Note, a separate plan-configuration file will be created for
each BSC. The name of the file is given by both the OMC
and the BSC.
10.7.2 Ericsson Supplementary Data
Syntax:
EricssonGSMOSSR9.1<tab><site><tab><sector><tab><nw><tab><msc><tab><bsc><t
ab><cell>
Example:
EricssonGSMOSSR9.1 CentralStation North nw1 msc7 b9 910
10.7.3 Nokia Supplementary Data
Syntax:
NokiaRAMCM2.0<tab><site><tab><sector><tab><bsc><tab><bcf><tab><bts><tab><
version><tab><btsid><tab><trx><tab><trxids>
Where the <trx> syntax is as follows:
<trx><space><trx><space><trx>
Where the <trxids> syntax is as follows:
<trxid><space><trxid><space><trxid>
Example:
NokiaRAMCM2.0 CentralStation North bsc1 bcf1 bts1 version1
btsid1 trx1 trx2 trx3 trx4 trx5 trx6 trxid1 trxid2 trxid3 trxid4
trxid5 trxid6

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Note that Cellopt AFP assumes that the position for the
given trx IDs matches the position for the trx presented in
the bts. i.e. TRX1 with position 1 under the BTS would be
trx1 and trxid1, the second radio in the BTS would be trx2
and trxid2 etc. (all separated with spaces).
For Nokia as well, information is required on the used MAL identities per BSC. The format
shown below is used to load this information.
Syntax:
NokiaMALIDs<tab><bsc><tab><malids><tab><malINTids>
Where the <malids> syntax is as follows:
<malid><space><malid><space><malid>
Where the <malINTids> syntax is as follows:
<malINTid><space><malINTid><space><malINTid>
Example:
NokiaMALIDs bsc1 malid1 malid2 malid7 malINTid 1 malINTid 2
malINTid 7
Load the Nokia MAL information after the sector information described by NokiaRAMCM2.0
shown above.
10.8 Ericsson Interference List Format
Cellopt AFP supports the import of the Ericsson OSS generated interference lists (R8
FAS/FOX feature) in GSM projects. The Ericsson Supplementary data, described above,
may be required to map the OSS sector identity to Cellopt sector names (if they are
different). The imported list will include the percentage counts that violate the co and
adjacent frequency interference thresholds, i.e. the ICDM-C and ICDM-A values. The
Multiply with traffic scaling option should be applied to convert the interference list unit to
interfered traffic in e.g. Erlang; see the Priorities section above.
10.9 Nokia Interference List Format
Cellopt AFP supports the import of the interference lists described in the Nokia OSS 3.1
XML format in GSM projects. The Nokia Supplementary data, described above, is required
to map the OSS sector identity to Cellopt sector names. The imported list will include the
downlink carrier over interference probability in percentage for co and adjacent relations,
i.e. the coDLCIP and adjDLCIP values. The Multiply with traffic scaling option should be
applied to convert the interference list unit to interfered traffic in e.g. Erlang, see Priorities
section above.
Cellopt AFP will create one interference list per radio layer (BCCH, REGULAR or SUPER) if
data for the layer is available in the source file.
10.10 Sector Alias Maps
Multiple sector names are supported to simplify importing data from different sources such
as OSS and other performance tool applications. A sector alias map file (TAB separated
file) can be created and loaded into Cellopt AFP. This map creates a relation between the
AFP sector name and the sector alias for a data source. The sector alias name may include
TAB characters. Up to three different alias names per sector may be available.
The alias map file format syntax is:
Alias_name<tab><Site><tab><sector><tab><cell name>

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The file must start with a header CELLOPT SECTOR MAP.
Example:
CELLOPT SECTOR MAP
OSS Downtown2 A 20310
In the above example, sector Downtown2-A has an alias 20310 (the alternative sector
name) for an OSS application.
The aliases for a sector may be viewed and edited from the tree in the Network section. In
addition, you can create a new alias directly from the client. Note that the aliases are
included in a project export.
The sector aliases are best used to import data such as neighbor, exception, interference
and handover statistics lists. A simple text format is included to support this process. It is
simply a TAB separated file that describes sector relations.
Serving sector alias<tab><Interfering sector alias><tab><Co
interference><tab><Adjacent interference>
The file must start with a header CELLOPT ALIAS LIST, and the second row should include
the list name. The Co and Adjacent interference columns are optional and may be left out.
Here is an example of a neighbor list alias:
CELLOPT ALIAS LIST
HANDOVER
Cell19 Cell102
In the above example, the neighbor list HANDOVER contains a neighbor relation between
Cell19 and Cell102 (Cell102 is a neighbor to Cell19).
Here is an example of an interference list alias:
CELLOPT ALIAS LIST
IM
20238 20239 0.09 0.02
In the above example, the interference list IM contains a relation where sector 20238 is
interfered by sector 20239. Co interference is 0.09, and adjacent interference is 0.02.
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Installation/Licensing and Troubleshooting 143

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11 Installation/Licensing and Troubleshooting
11.1 Introduction
This section describes the hardware requirements, needed third party packages, the
contents of the CD, the two minutes install of the software, the licensing and some trouble
shooting.
11.2 Hardware / Software Requirements
The minimum Windows hardware requirements for Cellopt AFP are:
- 400 MHz PC
- 512 MB RAM
- 500 MB hard disk space

Cellopt AFP will run on the following platforms:
- Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3
Windows XP comes with all the required packages, except for the packages below.
- Windows Vista Service Pack 2
Windows Vista comes with all the required packages, except for the packages below.
- Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1
Windows 7 comes with all the required packages, except for the Microsoft XML package
described below.
- Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2 comes with all the required packages, except for the
Microsoft XML package described below.
- Citrix Server
Server platform comes with all the required packages, except for the packages below.
Windows XP Home Edition is not supported.
In addition, the following packages are needed for all the above platforms:
- Microsoft XML (MSXML v6 SP1)
Download MS XML v6 SP1 from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d21c292c-368b-
4ce1-9dab-3e9827b70604&displaylang=en

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- Microsoft Office Web Components (v11, v10 or v9)
Version 9 is typically installed on machines with Microsoft Office 2000, or can be
installed from the MS Office 2000 distribution CD. Version 10 is typically installed with
the Microsoft Office XP, or can be installed from the MS Office XP distribution CD. If
neither MS Office 2000 nor XP is installed, then Office Web Components v10 can be
downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=982b0359-0a86-
4fb2-a7ee-5f3a499515dd&DisplayLang=en
If Microsoft Office 2007 is installed, Office Web Component version must be used.
Version 11 can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7287252C-402E-
4F72-97A5-E0FD290D4B76
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package
A redistributable package can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=766a6af7-ec73-
40ff-b072-9112bab119c2&DisplayLang=en
11.3 Cellopt AFP Installation
The Windows installation is typically a seven-step installation, and if all the required
software packages above have been installed already then the installation should take
about two minutes or so. Note that the user does not have to uninstall any previous
Cellopt AFP installation that might reside on the machine. However, administrative
privileges are needed to perform the installation (details of how to achieve this are shown
below).
During the installation, a database configuration file is edited, and this action may present
a warning from programs like Norton AntiVirus, see e.g. Figure 11.1. For a successful
installation, the action must be permitted.

Figure 11.1 This specific warning may be shown during the installation if Norton AntiVirus is
available. To successfully install, you must allow the script to execute.

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The installation steps are:
- The main dialog which is the first screen in the installation procedure (see Figure
11.2).

Figure 11.2 The main dialog.
- The License Agreement dialog. Please read the agreement before continuing (Figure
11.3).

Figure 11.3 The End User License Agreement dialog.

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- The missing third party products dialog, where it is possible to install additional
required software products (Figure 11.4).

Figure 11.4 The Install 3rd Party Products dialog.
Note After downloading and installing any of the 3rd Party
Components, select the Recheck button so that the AFP
installer can verify the application was installed correctly. If
no problems were detected, select Next to proceed with the
installation
- The Choose installation folder dialog, where the user may select Complete or Custom
Install (Figure 11.5).

Figure 11.5 The Choose installation folder dialog.

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- The Ready to install dialog, where the user starts the installation (Figure 11.6).

Figure 11.6 The Ready to install dialog.
- The Installing files progress view showing the progress of the installation using a bar
(Figure 11.7).

Figure 11.7 The Installing dialog.

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- The Installation Complete dialog, which is the last screen in the installation process
(Figure 11.8).

Figure 11.8 The Installation Complete dialog.
11.4 Installation on a Citrix Server
Installation of Cellopt AFP is similar to the installation steps listed above. The primary
difference is that for use with the Citrix Web Client, the AFP application must be published
under Citrixeither as an installed application, or by publishing the desktop.
Note Specific instructions for publishing applications are
not covered here. They can be found in the Citrix
documentation / instructions from the Citrix Administrator.
Applicable information needed for publishing the application would be the application
properties > location. The command line executable for AFP is:
"c:\program files\actix\cellopt afp\3.12\bin\cellopt.exe"
Which can be entered by browsing to the installation directory, selecting all files, and
selecting the Cellopt.exe file.
Select the Cellopt.exe and not AFP.exe in the command line. Selecting AFP.exe in the
Command line instead of Cellopt.exe will produce a warning when starting the application,
as shown in Figure 11.9. Clicking the OK button will allow Cellopt AFP to start though.

Figure 11.9 Warning shown when incorrect Working Directory is selected

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The working directory may be automatically populated, depending on the Citrix Access
Management Console used. However, this working directory for AFP should be the
installation BIN folder:
c:\program files\actix\cellopt afp\3.12\
Note The working directory for Cellopt AFP is not the BIN
folder which may be the default selected by the Citrix
Management Console.
Instead, select one level upthe Cellopt AFP\3.x directory, as shown in Figure 11.10.

Figure 11.10 The Citrix Application Properties Location
11.4.1 Cellopt AFP Licensing Model for Citrix
Concurrent Licensing must be used for Cellopt AFP in a Citrix environment. Please contact
Actix Support for instructions on setting up and using Concurrent Licensing.
11.5 Uninstalling Cellopt AFP
The Windows uninstaller for Cellopt AFP can be found under Add / Remove Programs in
the Windows Control Panel. The uninstaller will only remove the files installed by the
Cellopt AFP installer.
Note To save projects, export the projects to file before
starting the uninstaller; see Export Project on page 20 for
more information.
11.6 Cellopt AFP Licensing
11.6.1 License models
Different licensing models are available:
- Desktop license
Cellopt can run on one computer for each license.
- Activation Server
Desktop installations pick their licenses from a server located at Actix. For applications
installed on Citrix, server licenses need to be Citrix-enabled and terminal server-
enabled.

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- Local Activation Server
Desktop installations pick their licenses from a local server. If using for application
installed on Citrix server licenses need to be Citrix enabled.
The desktop license is the most common licensing model and is explained in this user
guide. On Citrix, server licenses can be activated using remote desktop or Citrix. The client
activation process is similar to the desktop license activation process.
For information about the other licensing models, please contact Actix Support.
11.6.2 First activation
After installation, the computer must be activated with a product ID. You can obtain this ID
from Actix Support.
1 When no license is present and you start Cellopt AFP, the following dialog appears.
Select the first option: I want to activate this computer, and click Next.

Figure 11.11 Select activation of computer.
2 In the activation form, fill in the product ID circled in red and click Next.

Figure 11.12 Enter Product ID
3 Activation is complete.

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Figure 11.13 Activation is complete.
11.6.3 Re-activation
It is possible that your software will become de-activated and require re-activation. This
can happen if:
- The name of the computer changes
- The hardware configuration is significantly changed
- The 'Activation.xml' file is deleted or corrupted

Re-activation is the same process as activation except that your Machine ID is already
registered by the Actix activation server.
To re-activate, start the Activation Wizard from the Start Menu. If the Activation.xml file is
present, the correct details will be automatically entered in the wizard. Simply follow the
steps to re-activate without changing any of the details.
If the Activation.xml file has been lost, enter your Machine ID, rather than the original
Product ID. If the Machine ID has been lost, you will need to contact Actix support in order
to restore your license. Your user reference will assist Actix Support in restoring your
license.
Note: Do not attempt to reactivate using the original
Product ID as this could result in an additional license
being issued to your computer.
Note Do not attempt to reactivate using the original
11.6.4 Management Tools
Licenses can be activated and problems diagnosed with the available management tools
that come with the installation. These are placed under the bin folder.
Navigate to the install directory of Cellopt AFP and open the bin folder.

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Figure 11.14 The bin folder
There are two executable files that you can run:
- Activation Wizard
This is the same license activation that runs automatically when you start the
application without a license.
- Diagnostics
You can use this tool to help Actix Support in resolving general licensing issues.
11.7 Troubleshooting
11.7.1 How to check if you have administrative privileges
11.7.1.1 Microsoft Windows 2000
Click the Start button > Programs > Administrative Tools > Computer
Management:
- Expand Local users and groups node.
- Open users folder.
- Find your login name and double click on it.
- Look in the members of tab.
- If the group called Administrators is shown, then you have administrative rights and
can install Cellopt AFP 3.x.
11.7.1.2 Microsoft Windows XP
- Click the Start button and select Control Panel.
- Double click on User accounts.

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- On the Users tab, under Users for this computer, click the user account name, and
then click Properties.
- On the Group Membership tab, check to see if the other button is selected and
administrators is currently showing in the drop-down box. If this is true, then the user
will be an administrator and can install Cellopt AFP 3.x.
11.8 Silent Install
It is possible to install the package in a silent mode, i.e. without a user interface, if
desired. To launch the silent install, do the following in a console (CMD):
C:\temp\AFPSetupFile.exe /s /v/q
and to uninstall:
C:\temp\AFPSetupFile.exe /x /s /v/q
11.9 Cellopt Project Database
The Cellopt AFP projects are stored in a database and for secure database operation, there
needs to be twice as much free space on the hard disk compared to the size of the largest
project. Each project is stored as a separate folder in the data folder of the db directory.
This is usually found in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Actix\Cellopt AFP\3.12\db, if the default installation folder was selected.
The database temporarily uses a large amount of disk space during its operation, and if
there is no or little disk space left, the database can corrupt. If there is less than 300 MB
of free space, a warning is displayed when importing any file. You can change this
threshold value by editing the settings.xml file; see below for details.
Note that the performance of the database will decrease
with the size of the database. It is strongly recommended
to regularly perform verify and if possible repair the
database by using the option under the Cellopt AFP control
panel to trim the database. See the section about the
control panel for details.
11.10 Optimizer Priority
You can run the Cellopt AFP optimizer with a lower priority compared to the client and
server processes. The default operation is to have the same priority (normal) for all
processes. However, you can change this for the AFP optimizer process by editing the
settings.xml file found in the conf folder under the installation folder. If the default
installation folder was selected, this is found in C:\Program Files\Actix\Cellopt
AFP\3.12\conf. Change the value normal to low in the line:

<jvmarg line="-Doptimizer.priority=normal"/>.
11.11 Optimizer Progress Bar
Cellopt AFP shows progress bar by default during optimisations for LMR and TETRA
technologies. This progress bar can be disabled by modifying following setting in
settings.xml file

<ProgressBar optimizer="true"></ProgressBar>

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11.12 Client logging
In order to provide more information for troubleshooting logging levels can be configured
in Cellopt AFP to provide logs at desired level. Logging levels can be changed by changing
level setting in settings.xml file.

<logging path="C:\ProgramData\Actix\Cellopt AFP\3.14\logs\" maxsize="1048576"
minsize="102400" level="1"></logging>
Actix Cellopt AFP Version 3.14.11 User Guide Index 155

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12 Index
<
<advanced_rule_properties>, 136
<categories>, 134
<category>, 134
<cellopt_afp>, 128
<colorcode>, 132
<frequency_hopping_gains>, 138
<frequency_hopping>, 137
<frequency>, 132
<frequencygroup>, 133
<frequencygroupentry>, 133
<frequencyplanentry>, 134
<groupentry>, 134
<layer>, 135
<list>, 131
<mal_setting>, 137
<model_settings>, 137, 138, 139
<Model>, 128
<network>, 129
<option>, 138
<param>, 138
<plan>, 133
<plans>, 133
<radio>, 130
<rel>, 131
<rule>, 135
<rules>, 135
<scaling>, 136
<sector>, 130
<selected_radio>, 129
<selected_sector>, 129
<selected_site>, 129
<selection>, 128
<site>, 129
<spectrum>, 132
<threshold>, 136
A
Adaptive Multi Rate, 84
Add MAL Length Rule, 32
Add Sector Wizard, 50
adding radios to a sector, 51
adding sectors to the network, 49
adding sites to the network, 49
AMR, 84
analysis report, 89
Analysis view, 73
Analyze Frequencies table, 90
Analyze view, 88
ASSET format, 139
assigning radios to layers, 59
asymmetric handover relations, viewing, 65
autofilter, 56
B
Best Choice view, 98
BSIC color codes section
Optimize, 113
C
change frequency assignments for radios, 96
Citrix, 143, 148, 149, 150
clearing the spectrum, 86
Color Codes section
Analyze, 111
Optimize, 113
Retune, 113
color codes, optimizing, 105
Control Panel, 11
copying a template, 12
Create Distance List dialog, 70
Create Second Order Neighbor List, 72
Create Site Neighbor List, 72
creating a new project, 14
creating a template from a project, 12
creating new lists, 66
creating plans, 92
D
deleting a template, 12
deleting rules, 79
delta report, 92
detailed project overview, 25
Detailed Report view, 91
disabling network elements, 51, 52
distance list generation, 71
diversity gain, 84
DPC, 83
DTX, 83
E
editing the relations of sector, 52
Ericsson interference list, 141
Ericsson OSS/BSC formats, 140
event log, viewing the, 17
Export Plan view, 114
Export Project section, 21
exporting a template, 12
exporting to Excel, 58
F
fast fading diversity gain, 84
File mode, 8, 13

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final priority, 80
forbidden frequencies, 86
Frequencies section, 85
Analyze, 88
Optimize, 94
Retune, 96
frequency diversity gain, 84
frequency optimization, 94
frequency plan, storing, 58
G
generating a Retune report, 96
generating lists, 66
global set planning strategy, selecting, 39
grouping radios with similar characteristics,
52
GSM color code options, 106
GSM system categories, 59
H
hide projects, 11
hiding columns, 58
hopping radio groupings, 101
Hopping Sequence Number, 100
hopping strategy, 60
HSN, 100
HSN and MAIO section
Analyze, 102
Optimize, 104
Retune, 104
HSN planning strategies, 102
I
iDEN color code options, 110
Import Data section, 22
Import File Wizard, 15
Import Project from File, 13
Import Project section, 20
importing a template, 12
input formats, 117
interference lists, 62
interference rules class, 79
L
list analysis report, 74
list functions, 66
List Generation, 66
list status color codes, 63
list status criteria, editing, 64
lists, creating new, 66
Lists, managing, 66
log file, 11
M
MAIO, 100
MAL editor, 30
MAL length, 31
Manipulation view, 66
manual retune, 98
Maximum Separation (GSM), 33
Mobile Allocation Index Offset, 100
Mobile Allocation Lists editor, 30
Modeling
detailed project overview, 25
Priorities, 75
modeling and optimization flow, 10
Modeling section, 19, 20
Layers, 52
Lists, 62
Network, 48
Project Overview, 24
Spectrum, 28
monitoring user activities, 11
multiply with traffic, 82
multiply with weight, 82
N
navigation buttons, 9
neighbor lists, 62
Network view, 48
new lists, creating, 66
New Project section, 14
Nokia interference list format, 141
Nokia OSS/BSC formats, 140
Nortel OSS/BSC formats, 140
O
Open Project section, 18
Optimize Frequencies view, 94
Optimize Sync Groups view, 101
optimizing color codes, 105
Options, 11
Options for Frequencies view, 85
Options for HSN and MAIO optimization view,
100
OSS/BSC formats, 140
other lists, 62
output formats, 117
P
pivot function, 88
Planet 2.8 format, 139
Priorities view, 75, 97
prioritization table, 79
Project Management
link, 14
Project mode, 8, 19, 20, 22
project warnings, activating and deactivating,
11
projects, showing/hiding, 11
Q
QUAD/WiDEN radios, 99
quick import, 15

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R
radio database, 16
Radio Editor, 23, 54, 88
additional GSM columns, 59
additional iDEN columns, 61
additional TDMA and PDC columns, 60
Radio Editor data, saving, 116
related radios, selecting, 58
relative amount of interference, 82
relative amount of traffic, 82
relative importance between rules classes,
changing, 79
renaming a template, 12
Retune Frequencies view, 96
rule prioritization order, 79
S
Save Radio Editor page, 116
saving the radio editor table, 58
Second Order Neighbor List, creating, 72
selecting all radios, 58
selecting radios by file, 58
selecting related radios, 58
Server / Database, 11
Set Template Optimization, 43
setting the measurement system, 11
show projects, 11
showing columns, 58
Site Neighbor List, creating, 72
source files, specifying, 16
source radio database file, 25
Spectrum
page for a GSM project, 28
page for a TDMA or PDC project, 38
Set Template, 40
spectrum clearance, 86
spectrum lists, 62
Start screen, 13
starting AFP, 10
storing radios as a new category, 59
storing the frequency plan, 58
synchronized hopping groups, 101
T
TDMA and PDC color code options, 108
Template editor, 43
Template Management, 12
traffic load per sector, 83
training sequence codes, 107
U
usage.txt log file, 11
user activities, monitoring, 11
V
viewing a template, 12
viewing network properties, 48
vocoder, 84
W
warnings, 27
weighted priority, 80
X
XML tags, 127
XML-based format, 126


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