UMTS Nominal Planning and Propagation Model Calibration

Planning the roll out of a new UMTS network is a key undertaking for each operator with a UMTS licence. Designing and validating a nominal plan that ensures a future proof network is vital. Maximising your investment to generate and secure customers and revenue is essential at this stage.

Planning the roll out of a UMTS network following the award or purchase of a UMTS licence is a complex task for operators. The UMTS nominal plan must protect your exiting investments while securing future revenue from the latest venture. Building out your network according to future demand, and ensuring the right level of quality of service is attainable and sustainable will protect your investment and ensure that you are making the best decisions, strategically and financially. Over a number of years Commsquare has worked with mobile operators to assist and advise on nominal planning for UMTS networks. Whether your UMTS network is new and about to launch commercial service or you are operating a successful 3G network already, Commsquare can provide you with the expertise and experience to help you maximise your investment, increase your revenue per user and enhance the user experience.

Our team will work on site with your engineers to evaluate your service requirements before producing a link budget calculation. In the calculations of link budget Commsquare engineers will make calculations for different services (e.g. voice, PS-data 384), different environments (e.g. urban, indoor vs. outdoor) and different usage types (e.g. static vs. fast-moving users). This will result in a number of link budgets that meet your mix of service requirements.

Propagation Model Tuning

A calibrated propagation model is crucial before using any planning tool. An unreliable propagation model will result in a poor nominal plan, with too many sites (i.e. investing too much) or too few sites (i.e. not meeting the service requirements and a huge cost to rectify the situation). Propagation model calibration includes defining the clutter classes, CW measurements of those different clutter classes, statistical analysis of the measurements, tuning of the planning tool propagation models and parameters and final selection of propagation models, clutter classes and tuned parameters. Tuning the propagation model is an iterative process which requires defining new clutter classes to obtain better results.

Producing a Nominal Plan

In order to produce a nominal plan or to validate an existing plan, Commsquare engineers must undertake several tasks: Calculate the link budget Optionally, calibrate the propagation model Design or validate the nominal plan Define the engineering guidelines for planning

The Nominal Plan

Nominal planning produces a nominal or master plan for a geographical area in the form of a site grid. Effective nominal planning, with a minimal number of sites will enable you to fulfil the requirements of your marketing and business plans in the most cost effective way. For generating a nominal plan, Commsquare engineers use your planning tool and Monte Carlo simulations. Commsquare recommends a phased approach to nominal planning, with short-term and long-term plans. In a first planning phase, the nominal planning is undertaken for services up to five years from now, to maximise your current investment and to minimise unnecessary cost today. In a subsequent planning phase, in addition to this long term nominal plan, Commsquare recommends the production of plans for the short term. The short term plans detail your requirements today and for the immediate future. The short-term plans contain a subset of sites from the longterm plan.

Our team will work on site with your engineers to ensure the nominal plan meets your specific marketing, business and service requirements. We will use your planning tool and work closely with your engineers. This approach ensures your engineers will better understand the process of nominal planning, the trade-offs and choices made and the final result.

Link Budget Calculations

Each link budget is unique to the operator. It takes into account the operators environment and particular infrastructure. Link budget calculations produce results for: Maximum allowable path loss Minimum required inter-site distance Required coverage thresholds

By completing short-term and longer term plans, you are protecting your investment for today and the future and making the best decisions for your business both strategically and financially. As part of your roll out, you may have opted to re-use your existing network infrastructure to increase speed to market and to capitalise your existing infrastructure investments. Commsquare will validate that your existing sites are being re-used efficiently and without risk to the future UMTS network. In this way, you are spreading the cost of your infrastructure outlay over a longer period for a lower-cost initial roll-out.

Ongoing Support
As your technology partner, Commsquare offers you the ability to evaluate your network, and then, continuously evaluate its performance on an ongoing basis. We work with your engineers to ensure that they have the tools and know-how to make the necessary changes to the network for increased performance.

Knowledge Transfer
Working with your engineers, we aim to ensure that our experience of your network is transferred to your teams and that your engineers are given on-the-job coaching and finally that you have a clear understanding of the process and results obtained.

Engineering Guidelines
Engineering guidelines are typically drafted during the first nominal planning production, but reviewed during the early roll-out and pilot network testing. The engineering guidelines will form the basis for a uniform approach to cell planning. The engineering guidelines will include rules on: Antenna height and locations Preferred antenna configurations Rules for antenna tilting and azimuth The use of tower mounted amplifiers, boosters, feeders and diplexers Co-siting with existing cells.

Next Steps
Do you need to meet stringent license requirements with minimal investment? Are you going for an aggressive UMTS roll-out to ensure market leadership? Is UMTS the network your corporate data customers have been waiting for? Do you need to ensure your UMTS nominal plan is future proof? Are you delivering on the promise of UMTS? To learn more about Commsquare or to speak with one of our team, please call Belgium: +32 15 528 874

Results
Our team will deliver a set of nominal plans meeting your evolving service, marketing and business requirements. This includes supporting link budgets and engineering guidelines for effective cell planning. Alternatively, in case of validation of your nominal plan, our results will enable a comparison of the original nominal plan by your engineering team. Where necessary, Commsquare will deliver recommendations for improvement or corrective actions to your nominal plan. Our deliverables also include an in depth review of the results of the project, a technical workshop and presentation of all results to your team. Or, alternatively, email info@commsquare.com .